Brandis felt his stomach twist in knots, flip flop, and spin. It would be easy to assume that about him because he was on the back of a flying pegasus, but it certainly didn't help settle his stomach any. The thought of returning to the Brotherhood of Steel shook him enough from his core inside out to vomit. The feeling of bile never reached his throat though, it just sat there in the pit of his stomach like a ball of sour candy and refused to stay calm no matter how much he relented the subject.

As Thunderstruck's speed tapered off, and they descended in elevation towards Cambridge, Brandis tried admiring the sight of the Commonwealth Institute of Technology and College square from above. This entire time, his sight was mostly aimed at the ground, picking out settlements, or the scant number of people roaming around.

Thunderstruck was taking note of which roads were blocked, and how the buildings were spread out between streets, which areas were absolutely clear and devoid of life, other parts of town where there seemed to be life crawling out of the woodwork. They finally came into view of the Cambridge Police station, and came into land in the courtyard perimeter out front.

Brandis untied himself, patting Thunderstruck along the mane, thanking her for the ride and inspiring him to come back. Then he swung his leg over and stepped out of the makeshift saddle onto solid ground, wavering for a moment as he reacquainted himself with gravity, then turned to look up the steps.

Jules, Rhys, Haylen, and Paladin Danse were all assembled outside, the metal door was still swinging shut behind them and clinked shut.

He met all their eyes for a few moments, then Paladin Danse saluted him, everyone else quickly followed in their leaders actions and saluted the returning soldier.

"Paladin Brandis of the Recon Squad Artemis?" He asked, Brandis nodded in return. "It's an honor and great privilege tp know that you're alive after all this time."

Paladin Brandis stood there for a moment, then did a quick salute in return. "I'm not you superior officer, so get those hands down. If it weren't for this Miss tracking me down, and explaining what happened, I wouldn't be standing here. I understand you're in great need of assistance, Paladin and company. Who am I addressing?"

"Recon Squad Gladius, I'm Paladin Danse and this is my team. Knight Rhys, Scribe Haylen, and Advance Scout Jules Verne."

Paladin Brandis nodded to each of them, then turned his attention to the departing mare.

"Quite the view, coming in. Miss Thunderstruck, what do you intend to do now?"

"People are waiting for me," Thunderstruck said, "I'll be near Goodneighbor, then a group of us are heading towards Concord for the time being with a small caravan. If the roads are clear, we may swing up through this way. Otherwise I might do a fly-by on our way back. Let me know how things go, I'm glad I could bring you back safely."

"Please tell me when you decide to go to Nuka-World to free your friends," he said.

"I will."

Paladin Brandis watched as Thunderstruck readjusted her pack, stretched her back out for a moment, then flapped her wings to embark back into the sky again. As Thunderstruck left, the Paladin turned around and thought of the contents of his pack, the papers and bits of tech and scrap he felt were valuable, even if he couldn't offer much else.

"I suppose...It's been a while since I spoke with anyone from the Brotherhood...Shall I debrief?" Brandis asked, forgetting protocol.

"Let's go inside and we'll get properly acquainted." Paladin Danse said, allowing Brandis to enter the building.

\111/

Paladin Brandis spoke with the other Brotherhood of Steel members for one of the longest conversations he could remember in a long time. The days seemed so condensed for the returned Paladin, so much of it seemed to pass by with hardly a thought.

He told his fated story of how things ended up for the Recon Squad Artemis team, they were hoping to follow in the successful footsteps of Recon Squad Vagus.

From Revere all the way to a suburb in Winchester, Paladin Brandis was wearing power armor that same day Faris died, until his fusion core ran dry and was forced to strip the power armor. The suit was stashed in a withered shed behind a house. Covering it with a plastic tarp, one push made the whole structure collapse, and the suit was hidden in plain sight.

Avoiding the marauders, eventually shaking them from his trail, although they came close to finding him again. Paladin Brandis was forced to scavenge and find supplies in the Commonwealth, spending weeks coming up with plans to return South, or even get in contact with the Brotherhood, but was met with the same issue Paladin Danse and his team were facing now.

Paladin Brandis pointed out a large number of locations he scouted and rooted through on the Northern edges of the Commonwealth, from Wakefield, Lynnfield, Melrose, Woburn, Reading, Burlington, most of the towns were on the verge of collapse, grown over, or some were completely burned to the ground some time ago in the past. Where some towns were picked clean, and all that remained were the shells of buildings with crumbling walls, showing signs of people had come and gone.

Paladins Danse and Brandis left with Verne to go salvage these caches and reclaim the lost power armor.

\111/

Thunderstruck landed on the deck of the USS Constitution, and pulled the deck hatch open. Climbing down the steps and into the Captain's room where Cherry Fizz was recooperating in the changeling pod. There was a pen-knife on the bureau, and Thunderstruck used it to break the seal and pull the pony out. Thunderstruck roused Cherry Fizz, giving the mare a few minutes to wake up as she came to her senses.

"Cherry, time to wake up." Thunderstruck said, rousing her friend.

"We're leaving in the morning in a caravan."

"Caravan? What caravan?" She asked in return.

"We can't all stay here, not enough resources, too many people, it's going to attract the wrong attention so tonight we're packing up, and leaving tomorrow morning. That's the plan, anyway." Thunderstruck explained. "I'll lead you downstairs when your ready."

While it took her a few moments to reorientate herself, she swallowed to clear her throat, coughing up some of the changeling resin in the process. Thunderstruck went below to grab guns and loaded her bags with tools.

While the robots were stationed in the bank outside of Bunker Hill, they spent a vast majority of the time scavenging and preserving old carpentry tools, made before the 19th century to keep the ship period-specific. These tools were thick, large, heavy, but a pony could wrap their hooves or mouth around one and use to build.

Wiping off the green gel, Cherry Fizz was still regrowing patches of her red coat and pink mane, but like Thunderstruck, she underwent a short transformation from a half-starved half-crazed, mangy mare, to a softer version of herself. Cherry eyed her surroundings, shoulders tense, and neck stiff, she asked. "Where are we again?"

"We're on a landlocked ship, Cherry. You're safe, remember? You killed James Wire then passed out from exhaustion. Curie, Nate, Meathead, and Hancock all brought you back up here. You've been out for over two days. Rub the sleep out of your eyes, and the rest of the goop out of your hair, and then follow me. We're leaving on a trip and there's ponies you need to meet."

\111/

The elevator doors parted, sliding open to the Weatherby Executive Suites, where everyone made themselves comfortable for the evening.

"Thunderstruck, how did the lead turn out?" Dart asked.

"Cherry, good to see you up and about. You look great with all the new fur coming in." Golden Grain complimented.

"The detour to find what happened to Paladin Brandis turned out better than expected, he was still alive and I ended up giving him a ride back to Cambridge, so no guns." She said, turning to allow Cherry Fizz to enter the foyer carrying some dried food from the ship above. "I ended up by Lake Quannapowitt, he's got a little shop tucked up in there, pretty far from most of the action. A lot of golf-courses. It could probably be really good farm land in the future. " Thunderstruck said, she emptied her bags, while they weren't full, there was some ammo, leftover grains, a roadmap of Massachusetts, and a laser pistol. "He said he hadn't seen a Deathclaw in over two years until he rode on my back into town."

"How many did you see?" Serin Copper asked.

"Four." Thunderstruck felt her own stomach, her wings were tired from flying all day, so she tucked them in tighter against her side. Hunger pangs struck a chord in her expression which mirrored everyone else's.

They began cooking what they had. When they reached a time during the preparation of the meal, while everything was simmering in the pot, Thunderstruck gathered everyone.

"Tomorrow we're going to be moving out. Our destination is Sanctuary Hills, Concord. That's Northwest of Lexington, Northwest of Boston. We can't all stay here, and speaking with the ponies from Nahant, they got a taste of what it means to be this deep inside the city. Concord is our next best option right now, outside of the city, away from most Mutants and raiders. I say most raiders, because from what Nate told me, is that there would still be one raider group to contend with. However, from what I understand, he's in good standing with their leader, Red.

Their group is spread across a large area of land Nate single handedly opened up for them by slaying two different raider bosses. However much leeway that buys Nate, will be paid in full when we go to deliver a tribute to them. I'd rather keep them stocked up and happy, meet them on their own turf, rather than them coming to us. They may ask us for tribute, they may demand things from us, they may go out of their way to come all the way up to our community we're setting out to build, but we're capable of dealing with them. Make no mistake, these guns we're bringing are for defense, to kill when necessary, but we must not let ourselves be treated like we were ever again. We'll have four goals to accomplish tomorrow, but first, Hollow Point and Curie have something to say."

"While our group went with Curie to Mass Bay Medical, she picked up some valuable information and started pulling raiders in to operate on. The group of raiders who took the Mass Bay Medical from the Gunners were from the station below the hospital. They need numbers, and are willing to meet with the raiders down at Haymarket Mall, less than a block away from the tower here, on the condition that a caravan from Bunker Hill is regularly sent to them. The Giddyup Buttercups, Sugar Cube, Gigi, Giddy, Trotsiana, and Stampede all confirmed that the area from here to Mass Bay Med, along the coastline and a block from the water's edge, is nearly totally devoid of mutant activity. Barring Mirelurks, and a report about some giant creature in the bay, caravans shouldn't have too much trouble with an escort from Haymarket down to Mass Bay."

"Which leads us to our first and second goals. The first being, we finish packing up tonight. Tomorrow, we speak with the Haymarket Mall gang and inform them that there's another gang wanting to negotiate the open territory. By going to Bunker Hill and speaking to the Mayor there, we can speak to them about sending a caravan to Haymarket, then Mass Bay Medical."

"Our third and fourth goals will be harder. Only the humans know which gang we'll be dealing with when we get to Concord. I can't say for certain is this a gang we should fear, or accept their protection?"

"Accept their protection?" Cherry Fizz asked, "Are we really just going to lay down and accept what they might do to us, like the raiders in Nahant?"

"It may not mean much, but Red of the Federal Ration Stockpile gang seems to be one of the lesser unbearable raiders in the Commonwealth, as far as gangs go. Tower Tom kidnapped Red's sister, Nate and Piper killed him, and Red's now in control of everything from Wayland to Watertown. There's a road that leads from Wayland, where the Federal Stockpile is, on a direct route to Concord. Realistically, she has dibs on everything from Lexington, since Jared of the Corvegas' is dead. But, the leader of the gang who attacked them as well is dead too, so until the gang from Bedford reorganizes, they'll be our primary threat between the two gangs. If we can help them force the Bedford gang out, or kill them, then all that land North down to Natick, and maybe even west to Sudbury. That's a lot of ground, most of it is suburbs and farmland. Red's setting herself up to sit on a nice slice of the Commonwealth when we go down this route of paying tribute to her and her gang.

"There is never going to be a place where we're either too small to be bothered, or too big to be taken over, all we can do is build what we can so that more ponies and people can join us. One day even, we may be able to buy the freedoms of our other brothers, sisters, and family who are still trapped at Nuka-World. I want them to know that there is a chance of something better waiting for them,"

"How can we be sure?" Warner asked, "That Concord get rolled over and taken like Nuka-World? Why not go to Lake Cannot-pronounce-it?"

"That's what the guns are for." Thunderstruck immediately replied back. "This time I'm not going down without a fight. They'll have to put a collar on my cold, dead body and drag me into the grave before I let that happen again. And the reason why we don't go to the Lake, is because it's a shed that's waiting there. Paladin Danse's shed the set-up is good for eight people, max. Winter is already here, and we can't be caught without a solid defense, food itinerary, and backup plan. Sanctuary Hills already has most of the supplies we need to start building an entire community immediately, along with it the neighborhood being on an island in the middle of a river where we already have freshwater purifiers to draw water. Then, there's the bunker that we can run to if things get too hectic."

Thunderstruck drew in a breath, filling her chest, she sensed everyone's apprehension about coming together again. The worst feeling was that transition between depression and finding hope in something again. She and the rest of the ponies wouldn't spend the rest of their lives on Earth forsaken by humans. On the exhale, she said, "Food's ready."

"Sitting all alone,
Thinking of you,
And of the wonderful world, we once knew...

Oh Diamond City, come back to me, Baby.
Travis Lonely Miles, Diamond City Radio.

"Thinking of YOOOOOOIIIIIIUUUUUEEEEooooou."