Bits of grit and tarmac were blasted all over the place, but thankfully none of it landed near the girls. Sunset looked up warily, wondering how they had been spared. A large ring of gemstone stood glittering around the girls. So much for hiding our magic.

Rarity shot Sunset an apologetic look. “Sorry darling, I panicked.”

“It’s fine, you did the right thing.” Sunset replied, hauling herself to her feet and dusting herself off. She looked around at the others as they picked themselves up off the floor. Thankfully none of them had been hurt. Rarity let out a breath and lowered her arms, the gemstones fading into nothingness.

Their attacker was still crouched by the sandbags, a look of blank shock on his face. A battered old assault rifle dangled from his hands. “How….?”

“Twilight grab that gun, before he recovers!” Sunset hissed.

“R-right!”

The man yelped as a purple aura surrounded the gun and yanked it out of his hands. He tried to snatch it back but Twilight held it out of reach above his head.

“Nice work.” Sunset said as she started towards the sandbags, leveling a glare at the stranger. As she got closer she noticed his face was heavily wrinkled and lined with dust, he must be older than she’d thought.

The man tried to back away as the girls approached, but tripped and landed sprawling on his back. He cowered as they advanced on him. “No… stay back… get away from me!”

“We hadn’t planned on it before but ah sure as sugar am now.” Applejack growled.

“Stupid shoulder…” Rainbow muttered as she knocked back more painkillers, “As soon as these kick in he’s getting socked right in the mouth.”

“No… please… don’t hurt me…”

Fluttershy shifted awkwardly on her feet. “I think we should all calm down and, um, maybe stop threatening him?”

“You do realize he just tried to kill us, don’t you dear?” Rarity asked.

“Well… yes, but… maybe we should ask why?”

“Hey that’s a great idea!” Pinkie cried as she hopped over the sandbags. He flinched as she crouched next to him. “Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie! Mind telling me and my friends why you tried to blow us all to smithereens?”

“I was protecting our town!” The man said quickly, his voice shaking. “Please, we don’t have anything of value, you’ve already killed all our Brahmin!”

The girls shared a confused look at that.

Applejack tilted her hat back and raised an eyebrow, “Uh, beg pardon, but what’s a Brahmin?”

“I think he means those mutated cows we saw.” Twilight replied.

“Whoa, hold on a second, those things were dead before we even got here!” Rainbow cried.

The man slowly looked around at each of them. “You… you’re not with the Family?”

“Whose family?” Pinkie asked.

The old man reached up and pulled off his goggles, glancing warily at Pinkie. “If you’re not from them, then what do you want with us?”

Sunset frowned. “I’m guessing you’re Evan?” He nodded cautiously. “A girl named Lucy sent us, from Megaton.” Sunset pulled Lucy’s letter out of her pocket and held it up. “She asked us to give this to her family.”

Evan just stared blankly at it. Sunset waited impatiently for him to say something as the seconds ticked by.

“Uhhhh… I think you broke him.” Pinkie said as he just continued to stare at the letter. She tilted her head to the side as she watched him, then licked the tip of her finger and jammed it into his ear.

Evan gave a disgusted yelp, rubbing his ear vigorously as Pinkie casually wiped her finger on his sleeve. “All right all right!”

“So? Can we deliver this now?” Sunset snapped, waving the letter for emphasis.

Evan sighed and clambered to his feet. “All right, I’ll get someone to fetch Davis for you now.” He glanced up at his gun, still gripped by Twilight’s magic. His eyes flicked between it and Twilight.

Sunset folded her arms and glared at him. “No way.”

“I’m not stupid enough to try anything.” Evan said quickly. “Please, if the Family comes back how am I supposed to defend this place without a gun?”

Sunset glared at him for a moment longer. “Fine, but if you try to hurt us again it’ll be the last thing you do.”

“I won’t, I swear.” Evan reached out tentatively as Twilight floated the gun back down towards him. The girls tensed as he gingerly took it from the purple aura, but he simply slung it over his shoulder and turned away. “Wait here a moment.” He strode to the nearest building and hammered on the door. “Ken? It’s me, Evan. Get your ass out here a minute!”

The door creaked open and a young man poked his head out. His eyes widened as he saw the girls, “What’s going on? And who the fuck are they?”

“Charming.” Rarity muttered, folding her arms and glowering at him.

“It’s okay, they’re friendly… sort of.” Evan shot a wary glance back at the girls. “They’ve got a letter from Lucy, mind fetching Davis for me?”

Ken’s face twisted with anger. “A fucking letter? You‘re supposed to be doing something about the Family, not being a gopher for some fucking mutants!”

“Oh for crying out loud, ah‘ve had enough of all this gosh darn mutant nonsense!” Applejack snapped as she stomped over to the nearest car.

Evan and Ken both gaped as Applejack bent down and gripped the car, lifting and maneuvering until she had it hefted above her head. With a grunt she launched the car over the side of the bridge. It sailed through the air and slammed down onto some rocks in the distance. The engine exploded with a colossal boom, the blast smashing the rocks underneath to dust as a great mushroom cloud bloomed overhead.

Way to go overboard AJ. Still, if it gets the job done…

Applejack turned slowly to Sunset, her eyes wide. “Ah’m, uh, ah’m mighty sorry about that. Didn’t think it would blow up like that.”

“If it ran off gasoline it wouldn’t have,” Twilight said quietly, “But in this world they use miniature nuclear reactors to power their cars.”

Applejack’s jaw dropped open. “Nuclear reactors. In cars?!” She shook her head in disbelief. “Land’s sake, the people in this world are nuttier than a porta potty at a peanut festival!”

Rarity put a hand to her mouth at that, retching slightly as her cheeks turned a pale green.

“This world?” Evan asked. Sunset winced as she realized what Applejack had said. He looked fearfully around at each of the girls again. “You mean… you’re not mutants, you’re aliens?”

Sunset shook her head vehemently. “No! No we’re not.”

“I suppose if you think about it, technically we are.” Twilight supplied.

Sunset smacked a palm to her face. “Look, can we please just deliver this letter?”

Ken was still gaping, his eyes darting between Applejack and the smoldering remains of the car in the distance. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, before he finally regained the capacity for speech. “Space aliens… letter for Davis… right. I‘ll got fetch him.”

Sunset massaged her temples as he marched away, trying to stave off the headache she could feel coming.

Evan walked slowly back to the sandbags and looked out down the ramp. “So… you girls really are aliens?” he asked quietly.

Twilight glanced at Sunset, who just shrugged. “He’s already seen our magic, he may as well know the truth.”

“Magic? That was magic?!” he asked incredulously, his head whipping around to stare at Twilight.. “I thought you said you were aliens!”

“Not exactly.” Twilight replied, “I mean technically we are, in that we’re from another world, but we didn’t come down from another planet. It’s more like we’re from another… dimension? Reality?” She shook her head slowly, “Sorry, I’m not really sure how to explain this.”

Sunset sighed and stepped forward. “The short version is, we got sucked into a portal in our world and dumped in a Vault in this world.”

Evan frowned and scratched his head. “If that’s the case, what are you doing deliveri-”

“Evan!”

Everyone turned at Ken’s shout. His face was white with fear as he ran towards the group. As he skidded to a halt next to the sherif, he leaned over and planted his hands on his knees, breathing hard.

“Easy there sonny, what‘s wrong?” Evan asked quickly.

“It’s Davis and Matilda.” Ken gasped, “They’re dead!”

Evan’s mouth fell as the girls made noises of shock and horror. “The Family must have got to them in the last attack! Sons of bitches!” he spat. He thumped the top of the sandbags, shaking his head. “Damn it! If only we had more men we could stand up to them. I’m sick of them terrorizing this town. Wait a minute…” He bent and grabbed Ken‘s shoulders. “What about Ian, is Ian okay?”

Ken shook his head desperately, “He wasn’t there, I don’t know where he is!”

“The Family must have taken him! I’ve caught that weirdo leader of theirs talking to Ian down by the river.”

Sunset felt a familiar sinking feeling in her stomach. Nothing wanted to go right in this stupid wasteland. This had turned from being a simple delivery job into something much more sinister, and she suspected it was about to get a lot worse. “Who exactly are the Family?” she asked reluctantly.

Evan straightened and heaved a sigh. “They’re a local gang. They’ve been around for a while, breaking stuff and making lots of noise, but recently things have started to get worse. First they killed all of our Brahmin, and now the West’s are dead too?!” He shook his head, slumping against the sandbags. "Damn it, I can't take much more of this!"

Fluttershy stepped over and placed a comforting hand on Evan’s shoulder. When he didn't throw it off, she nodded and turned to Sunset, “Isn’t there anything we can do to help?”

Sunset bit her lip. Much as she felt for this little community, there was no way she was going to lead her friends into another violent confrontation.

Rainbow nudged her elbow when she didn’t reply. “Come on Sunset, we can’t just leave them like this.”

Sunset shared an anxious look with the others. This was only supposed to be a delivery job, and Evan had tried to kill them all with a grenade. Still, Rainbow was right. Reluctant as she was to put her friends in such danger again, it didn’t feel right to just leave this settlement in trouble when they could do something to help. The looks on her friends faces told her they felt the same way. “Alright fine, but this time we play it safe.” she grumbled.

Evan looked hopefully at her. “You mean it, you’ll help us?”

Sunset nodded slowly. “We‘ll do what we can to reason with them. Hopefully we can convince them to leave the town alone. If things start to look dangerous though-”

“-Then we use our magic and hightail it out of there.” Applejack interrupted. “That sound about right?”

Sunset looked around at each of her friends. “Are you sure about this? This could turn out like Burke all over again?”

She couldn’t help but smile a little as each of her friends nodded and agreed, despite the danger.

Evan sagged as he let out a breath. “Thank you. Really, I can’t thank you enough for this.”

Applejack nodded and tilted her hat back. “Alright, so where do we find the Family?”

Evan shook his head slowly. “I’m not sure, I think they live somewhere east or northeast of here. Problem is, they always travel in the dark so I can’t see exactly where they go.”

“Surely you have an idea darling?” Rarity asked.

Evan folded his arms as he thought. “Maybe the old Moonbeam Cinema? You might have seen it on your way here, it’s not far from that baseball pitch down there.” He pointed back down the ramp, along the way the girls had came. “Then there’s Hamilton‘s Hideaway, that’s a bit further north from there.”

“Isn’t that the direction those mean raiders we scared off earlier went?” Pinkie asked, raising an eyebrow. “Were they part of the Family?”

Evan shook his head. “No, I would’ve recognized those dipshits if they turned up alongside the Family.”

“Maybe they’ve got buddies over in that direction?” Applejack wondered aloud.

“Want me to go check it out?” Rainbow offered.

Sunset glanced at Rainbow‘s arm, still in its sling. “No. We don’t want to risk running into anymore raiders if we don’t have to.”

Evan turned and looked off to the north, over the river. “In that case… you see those buildings over there?” The girls all looked in the direction he pointed. There were a few tall old buildings that didn’t seem to be very badly damaged. A covered subway entrance poked up out of the ground in the middle of them. “That’s Northwest Seneca Station right there. It would be a good place for them to hide out, and if you want to avoid any raiders hanging around this side of the river then that might be your safest place to start.”

Sunset nodded. “Sounds like a plan, how do we cross the river?”

“The river has mostly dried up on the west side. Just head right at the bottom of the ramp and you’ll find a dry patch you can cross on. Just keep an eye out for any mirelurks roaming around.”

“Mirelurks?” Rarity asked.

Evan made a face. “Big crab-like things. Real dangerous bastards. Normally I‘d tell you to stay the hell out of sight if you see one, but I reckon you girls can handle it.”

“Thanks for the warning.” Sunset adjusted her pack on her shoulders. “Come on girls, let’s get this over with.”

Ken squatted back down by the sandbags as Evan snapped his goggles back into place. “You girls watch yourselves out there.” He squatted down next to Ken and pulled his assault rifle around. “Next time I see the Family there’s gonna be hell to pay.” he muttered darkly.

The girls left Evan to his mutterings and headed back down the ramp, turning right at the bottom as he had suggested. They didn’t have to walk far before they came to patch of dry riverbed. A rusted old boat was grounded on it, the one end of it submerged in what was left of the river. After climbing up the other side of the riverbed the ground dropped into a smaller tributary riverbed. This was dry too, but full of rubble from the broken overpass.

“Wouldn’t it be easier if I just searched using my super-speed?” Rainbow asked as the girls picked their way carefully across the debris.

“Maybe, but I don’t think it’s worth the risk.” Sunset said frankly.

“Sunset has a point Rainbow.” Fluttershy piped up as Rainbow opened her mouth to respond. “You’re already injured and if anything else were to happen to you there wouldn’t be anything we could do to help. We wouldn’t even know you were in trouble.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Rainbow grumbled.

Hauling themselves up the other side of the tributary, the girls found themselves at the end of a crumbling road that led straight to the buildings Evan had pointed out. Up close they looked like old residential blocks, with a grocers standing at the end of one of the rows. There was a bus stop and an intact map board in front of the subway entrance, and even a motorcycle that looked in good working order.

Once they were sure no-one was around, Sunset eagerly checked over the bike. It was covered in dirt and dust, but apart from that it was in fairly good condition. The tank even seemed to have fuel in it, but the keys were nowhere to be found.

“Do you think we should check the grocers first?” Pinkie asked suddenly.

“Good idea Pinkie.” Twilight called, looking over from the map board. “There might still be some salvageable supplies in there. I just hope it doesn’t belong to anyone.”

Applejack peeked in through the window. “It looks deserted to me.”

Sunset nodded, giving up on the bike. “Just be careful, we don’t want to run into any more trouble than we have to.”

“Don’t worry.” Applejack smiled nastily, cracking her knuckles. “If anything tries to get the drop on us they’re getting more than they bargained for.”

Applejack nudged the door open gently. She peeked in, then suddenly lunged forward and stomped down on something. “It’s alright.” she chuckled as the girls all darted forward. “Just a darned radroach.”

Sighing with relief, the group followed Applejack into the shop. The inside was dark and dingy. The store had clearly been ransacked before, empty bottles and tins littered the floor and shelves. A door at the back had been blocked by a ceiling collapse, preventing anyone from going upstairs.

As the others spread out to search, Sunset and Fluttershy took a look behind the counter. Fluttershy immediately checked the first aid box hanging on the wall, while Sunset was drawn by a computer terminal that still apparently had power. She booted it up, but was stymied by a password screen popping up.

Sunset had a go at trying to hack her way into the system, but after a couple of attempts was forced to admit defeat and call Twilight over. She tried not to feel too bad as Twilight breezed past the security measures, after all Twilight had had more practice with the computers of this world.

Once they were logged in they found that the system controlled the lock on a safe. A safe that was still currently locked. “That could be interesting.” Sunset mused.

Twilight frowned, looking around. “But where is it? I don’t see a safe down here, it must be upstairs.”

“If the safe was upstairs why would they put the system that controls the lock down here in such an easy to reach place?” Sunset countered. “Unlock it, maybe we’ll hear it.”

Twilight tapped a button and both of the girls started as they felt a clunk under their feet. Looking down, they realised the safe had been built into the floor. They had been standing on it’s door the whole time. Twilight stepped out of the way to let Sunset reach down and yank the door open. All that was inside was a handful of caps, some old dollar bills and an old flash camera.

“Well that was a let down.” Sunset grumbled as Twilight checked the camera over. She looked up as the others gathered around again. “Have you found anything useful?”

Fluttershy held up her medical kit with a smile. “There was a stimpak and some rad-x in here.”

Applejack was helping Pinkie stuff some things into her pack. “We found some food that looks edible and some more of that Nuka Cola.”

Pinkie held a bottle up to inspect it. “If this has been sat around for a couple of hundred years, how come it’s still fizzy?”

“Honestly I’m not sure I want to know.” Sunset stuffed the caps and bills from the safe into her pack. “Alright, I think that’s everything from in here. Let‘s get moving.”

The girls piled back out of the grocers. A chill had crept into the air and dark clouds were gathering overhead, the threat of rain looming over the wastes. The group hurried to the subway entrance. Concrete steps led down to a set of chain gates that were closed, but not locked. There was an odd, flickering light coming from somewhere inside. It was not an inviting sight.

Looking up at the clouds, Twilight spoke softly. “I’ve made a note of the subway map on my Pip-Boy, so at least we shouldn’t get lost.”

“That’s one less thing to worry about I suppose.” Rarity replied, nervously looking up too.

Sunset laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Let’s just take this slowly. Hopefully we can straighten things out without any trouble.”

“Chill out guys, we got this.” Rainbow grinned.

Sunset breathed in deeply, then let it out again slowly. “You’re right. Come on, let’s do this.” She squared her shoulders and led the way down the steps, pushing the gate open at the bottom.

Inside was dark and dusty, the light flickering off the walls didn’t illuminate much. The girls moved forward slowly, carefully treading past piles of dirt and debris that looked like it had been blown in from outside. Rounding a small corner the girls came to a ticket barrier. The tunnel beyond had caved in entirely, but just past the barrier was a side door flanked by two steel drums, fire blazing in each of them.

Surprised by the sight of the burning drums, it took the girls a moment to notice the corpse lying on it’s side in front of the ticket barrier. Taking care not to make any noise, Fluttershy checked the body. Shaking her head sadly, she whispered that whoever it was had been dead for a while.

A sudden skittering noise had the girls whirling around. A mole rat had wandered out of a door that the girls hadn’t noticed, distracted as they were. Fluttershy hurried over to speak to it. The other girls waited quietly as two more mole rats trotted out of the door to join the conversation.

“What’re they saying?” Rainbow whispered.

“They don’t know anything about the Family but…” Fluttershy looked around, her brow furrowed. “They say there are two dead things living in the room with the burning barrels?”

Pinkie raised an eyebrow at that. “Dead things? You mean like zombies?”

“Maybe they means ghouls, like Gob?” Twilight suggested.

“You reckon they’re part of the Family?” Applejack asked.

Sunset shook her head. “I doubt it, Evan probably would have mentioned something if he thought the Family were ghouls.”

Fluttershy was listening to the mole rats as they started chattering again. “Oh that’s ever so kind of you.” The mole rats suddenly turned and scampered back through the door. Fluttershy called over her shoulder as she went in after them. “They say that poor fellow there left some things in here before he died. They’re going to show us where he hid everything.”

The girls quickly followed Fluttershy and the mole rats into a waiting room of sorts. A large portion of the ceiling had collapsed on one side of the room, a broken pipe poking through and dripping foul green liquid. An eerie glow suffused the air around the rubble, illuminating a blackened skeleton sprawled on top of the pile.

The mole rats separated and headed through two different doors, a men’s toilet and a ladies’. Rainbow and Applejack followed one into the men’s room while Rarity and Fluttershy hurried after the other into the ladies. Sunset stayed behind with the others to keep watch. A couple of minutes later the girls all returned.

“What did you find?” Sunset asked.

“Just some more medical supplies.” Rarity grimaced, brushing dust out of her hair as Fluttershy thanked the mole rats.

“Good to have. I just hope we won’t need them.”

“You and me both darling.” Rarity gave up on the dirt and turned to the others. “What about you two?”

Applejack and Rainbow shared a look. AJ chuckled nervously. “Well… you see. We found… well…”

“We found some grenades.” Rainbow said bluntly.

Rainbow held her pack out as the others gasped and exclaimed in surprise. Nestled inside were five apple-sized hand grenades. “Also we found this in a toilet tank.” Rainbow held up another cylindrical object, about the same size as the grenades but with three little rods sticking out of each end. “Not really sure what it is.”

Sunset took it from her gently. “It reminds me of the plasma inductors they use in Vault 101. But it doesn’t have any sort of emitter…”

Pinkie peeked over Sunset’s shoulder. “Maybe it’s a plasma grenade?”

“Don’t be ridiculous it’s not a plasma…..” Sunset stiffened as she realized that was exactly what it was. “Rainbow? How about you keep this?” she said shakily.

“Awesome!” Rainbow gingerly took the grenade back from Sunset, slipping it carefully into one of her pack’s side pockets.

“Do you really think we should be bringing those with us?” Rarity called as she backed slowly away.

Sunset flinched as Applejack helped Rainbow sling her pack back over her shoulder. “They might come in useful as a distraction or something. At the very least we could sell them when we get back to Megaton.”

“The mole rats say that’s everything.” Fluttershy called as the mole rats scampered off. “What are we going to do now?”

Sunset folded her arms, thinking. “Right now I think we should try asking whoever lives back there-” She pointed through the door back towards the ticket barrier, “-if they know anything about the Family.”

“And hope that they’re friendly.” Applejack muttered.

Rarity tossed her hair over her shoulder and sauntered to the door. “Not to worry darling. If they do turn out to be uncivilized brutes I shall just have to block the doorway with a gemstone while we make our escape.”

Applejack shrugged and followed after her. “Works for me.”

The others followed them back through the door and towards the door between the burning drums. As they passed the corpse Sunset privately wondered whether he had been killed by the mole rats or by the ghouls.

Shaking her head to clear the morbid thoughts, Sunset vaulted over the ticket barrier and followed Rarity to the door. The heat from the flames brought welcome relief from the chill air in the tunnel. Rarity clasped her Geode tightly and clenched her other fist, ready in case anything went wrong. She nodded tightly to Sunset, who reached up and knocked sharply on the door.

Footsteps echoed behind the door before it was tugged open slowly. A ghoul was standing there, a pair of spectacles balanced precariously on his face. A second ghoul was seated at a table in the room, clad in heavy-looking combat armor and glaring at the girls.

The bespectacled ghoul blinked in surprise as he took in the group. “What the… who are… you‘re not hallucinations are you?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow quizzically. “Uh… no?”

“Oh that’s good, thought I’d accidentally breathed in some of the Ultrajet, that stuff packs a…” His eyes widened and he glanced shiftily around at the girls. “I…uh… I mean, I don’t have any, it’s not like I’m making it or anything… uh…”

Sunset raised a hand to stop him. “Don’t worry, we’re not here because of what you’re making, or not making. We’re looking for a group called the Family.”

The ghoul sagged with relief. “Good. I was afraid I was gonna have to abandon my lab here. So what do you want with the Family?”

“You’ve heard of them?”

The ghoul nodded. “Sure I've heard of them, they live somewhere east of here. I stay away from them and they don’t bother me. It’s a good relationship. If you’re feeling foolish, I think there’s an underground way to their hideout just through my lab here.” He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder.

“And why exactly would taking that way be foolish?” Rarity asked warily.

“Mirelurks.” was the blunt reply.

“I think we can handle those.” Sunset glanced at Fluttershy, who nodded faintly. “Do you mind if we use the underground way?”

The ghoul just shrugged and opened the door wide. Sunset stepped through, closely followed by the other girls. “I didn’t catch your name, I’m Sunset.”

“Murphy, and that’s Barrett.” Murphy indicated the ghoul sat at the table, who just nodded. “It’s through this way.” He led the girls through his lab, which consisted of little more than what used to be a small office space. “So what’s with the freaky colors? You some kind of new mutant?”

“We were born like it.” Sunset replied gruffly.

Murphy snorted. “Hey I ain’t judging, I’m a ghoul for Christ’s sake.” He stopped just before a door at the end of a side corridor. “I’d prefer it if you’d keep quiet about my lab here, since I’m doing you this little favour and all.”

“Fair enough.” Sunset sighed. That explained why he was being so nice to them, she thought. Frankly she wasn’t sure who she would tell that would possibly care anyway.

Murphy shoved the door open and immediately the Geiger counter on each girl’s Pip-Boy started ticking gently. Inside was an old storage room. A manhole sat in the middle of the room, but right next to it were several steel drums leaking brightly glowing fluid.

“Down there?” Sunset asked reluctantly, she didn’t want to get any closer to that fluid than she had to.

Murphy just nodded. “Yep, don’t worry the radiation dies down once you’re down the ladder.”

Applejack took one look at the drums and recoiled. “Do you reckon we should take some of that rad-x stuff first?”

Fluttershy shook her head slowly. “We’ve only got one dose, whoever took it would be going down there alone. We’d be better off just getting out of the radiation as quickly as possible.”

Sunset looked back at the manhole cover. She was about to step forward when Murphy pushed past. “Hold up, the rads spike like crazy when you get close to this gunk.” He wrenched the manhole cover off and stood aside. “Us ghouls are immune to radiation, I don’t know about you smoothskins though. Funny colors or not, I probably wouldn’t risk it too much. Good luck down there.”

Sunset nodded but didn’t reply. Gritting her teeth, she darted to the manhole, the ticking from her Pip-Boy getting louder and faster the closer she got. Crouching next to the manhole she could see a ladder descending a short distance into a rocky area. Luckily it didn’t seem that dark down there.

Dropping onto the ladder, Sunset clambered down as quickly and carefully as she could, backing away as soon as she hit the bottom until the ticking from her Pip-Boy stopped entirely. As the others climbed down after her and Murphy resealed the cover, Sunset took the opportunity to get a good look at her surroundings.

They were in a large cavern, a path of sorts winding its way between huge boulders and stalagmites. The floor was littered with bones and the rotting remains of unidentifiable animals. An awful reek of fish and decay filled the air.

Applejack stepped up next to Sunset, wafting her face with her hat. “Well something smells bad enough to knock a dog off a gut wagon.”

“Indeed!” Rarity gagged. “Can we please find a way out of here quickly!”

“This way.” Sunset started off down the path, trying not to retch.

The path twisted and turned as it wound through the cave. Patches of spindly mushrooms glowed faintly in the dim light. Odd clicking sounds came at irregular intervals, echoing weirdly off the walls. Turning a corner the girls suddenly came across the source of the sounds.

Two large creatures squatted in the middle of the path. Their bodies were covered by a thick, whitish-grey shell with only their crab-like faces unprotected. Segmented arms and legs poked out in some mockery of the human form, their arms ending in vicious crab-like pincers. The moment they saw the group the creatures lurched upright, easily as tall as any of the girls, and started lumbering towards them.

“Those must be them mirelurks we’ve been hearing about.” Applejack muttered as she and the others backed away slowly. “They don’t look too friendly.”

Sunset took a step back as the mirelurks moved closer. “Alright Fluttershy, you’re up.”

Fluttershy nodded and stepped forwards, holding up her hands. “It’s okay! We aren’t here to hurt you!” The mirelurks stopped in their tracks. “Me and my friends here were just hoping we could pass through this tunnel, there’s something very important we have to do on the other side.”

The mirelurks stared blankly at her for a moment, then their mandibles started clicking furiously as they replied.

“I’m very sorry, we didn’t know this was your territory.” Fluttershy said quickly, “We didn’t mean any harm. Um, maybe you could just let us past, and we’ll leave you in peace?” She backed away a step as the mirelurks started advancing again. “Okay well if you’re so against it I’m sure we can find another way around… no… no you don’t have to… no… wait!”

Sunset grabbed the back of Fluttershy‘s dress and yanked her backwards as one of the mirelurks lunged forwards, it‘s pincer snapping shut where her neck had been a split-second before. Sunset dragged her back as the creature swiped at them again with a claw.

A purple glow suddenly surrounded the mirelurk, lifting it into the air as a large gemstone smacked into the other, shoving it backwards.

Rarity gritted her teeth as the mirelurk struggled to shove her gem aside. “Why are they attacking us?!”

“They won’t let us go, they want to eat us!” Fluttershy cried.

“Well that ain’t happening!” Applejack snarled.

Sunset looked around wildly, trying to think of something. They could leave and try another way,, but she wanted to be done with this as quickly as possible. A dark idea suddenly crossed her mind.

Sunset threw down her backpack and wrenched it open. Burke’s pistol sat there, gleaming ominously in the dark. Her hands shook as she pulled it out, it was heavier than she expected. Sunset took and deep breath to calm herself, then carefully aimed at the Mirelurk clutched in Twilight‘s magic. Steadying herself, she pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

“Try taking the safety off!” Rainbow called.

“Oh, right.” Sunset spotted a little button on the side of the gun and pressed it.

The magazine fell out and clattered to the floor.

“Please. Hurry.” Twilight said through gritted teeth as the Mirelurk thrashed in her magical grip.

Sunset grabbed the magazine and crammed it back into the gun. Taking another look, she noticed a little catch next to her thumb. Thumbing it, she prayed she was right and pulled the trigger again.

The gun kicked as she heard a single, low, phut.

The bullet missed the creature’s face as it flailed around and lodged in it’s shell instead, not doing any damage whatsoever. Sunset’s temper flared and she fired several more times, each shot as ineffective as the first.

“Right! That does it! Stand back y‘all!” Applejack stepped forward and raised her fists. “Rarity, let it go!”

The gemstone holding her mirelurk back disappeared and the creature stumbled forwards, off balance. Before it could regain its footing Applejack stepped forward and threw a mighty right hook. The force of the punch shattered the mirelurk’s shell and launched it back down the tunnel to slam into the far wall.

As Applejack turned Twilight dropped the second mirelurk, sending it crashing to the floor. It didn’t have a chance to stand before Applejack was upon it. Her fist smashed down through the mirelurk’s shell like it was glass, burying her arm up to the elbow inside it’s body.

The others gaped as Applejack wrenched her arm out of the mirelurk. She was spattered with foul ichors and her arm dripped with reeking gore. The farm girl gagged and held her arm out away from her body. “Uh, can someone hand me a towel?”

As Rarity hurried forward to help Applejack clean up, Sunset clicked the gun’s safety on, stuffed it back into her pack and slung it over her shoulder. She looked around as she felt a hand on her back.

“Um, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked.

Sunset nodded, sighing heavily. “I’m fine, just a little freaked out I guess. I didn’t exactly handle myself very well there.”
Rainbow thumped her playfully on the arm. “Don’t worry about it Sunshim, that was the first time any of us have ever used a gun. At least you didn’t shoot any of us with it.”

“Good point.” Sunset chuckled, “I think I should probably practice my aiming though. I can‘t believe the gun didn’t do anything to it.”

“Those were some really angry crabs.” Pinkie said as she skipped over to the mirelurk’s corpse. “How come they didn’t listen to Fluttershy?”

Twilight grimaced as she peered down at it. “The radiation must have increased their aggression. They almost look like horseshoe crabs, which aren’t exactly known for their violent tendencies.”

“Well they’re certainly violent now.” Applejack called, wiping the last of the gunk off her arm. She threw an apologetic look at Fluttershy. She opened her mouth to speak but Flutters raised a hand, cutting her off.

“I know what you’re going to say, and it’s okay. They weren’t going to let us leave. You did what you had to do.” she said sadly.

Applejack nodded. “Well, alright then, ah still feel kinda bad about it though. That’s the first time I’ve ever used my strength against a living creature before.”

“Are you kidding me? That was awesome!” Rainbow cried. She smiled awkwardly at the looks on the others’ faces, “I mean yeah, it’s a shame it had to be done, and it was really gross, but come on! She totally whooped their sorry butts!”

“Ah did at that,” Applejack admitted, cracking a small smile. “Ah just hope ah don’t have to do something like that again.”

“You have been losing your temper quite a bit today darling, are you sure you’re all right?” Rarity asked, wrinkling her nose at the towel Applejack had used.

“Ah’m fine, just restless ah guess.” She sighed and fanned herself with her hat. “Ah think this world is starting to get to me.”

“You’re not the only one.” Sunset said with a shiver. “Come on, let’s get out of here, and hope we don’t run into any more of those things.”

The girls continued down the tunnel, treading carefully past the broken bodies of the mirelurks. Sunset listened carefully as they advanced, but there were no more clicking sounds. All she could hear were their own footsteps and the occasional drip of water.

Following a bend in the tunnel, the girls came to a steep incline. Looking up, Sunset could see the twisted end of what looked like train tracks, poking out over the lip of the rocky ramp. Not paying attention, Sunset yelped in surprise as something caught her leg.

“Whoa, you okay?!” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah, I just-” Sunset’s breath caught as she saw the broken tripwire at her feet. She whipped her head around at the sound of something clattering down the ramp, but was yanked backwards before she could see what it was.

Pinkie let go of Sunset and grabbed Rainbow, throwing her away from the ramp. “EVERYONE LOOK O-”

BOOM

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