Sleeping in Rivet City was much more comfortable now that the ship was stable. The metal superstructure didn’t groan as often or as loudly as it had before, and the increased wealth flowing into the city was clear from how much the quality of the furnishings had improved; even in the rooms assigned for visiting guests in the lower decks. Sunset had to wonder just how impressive the upper deck rooms and the hotel suites were in comparison.

Unfortunately, one thing the lower deck rooms lacked was en-suite bathrooms, so Sunset and Applejack had to hunt down one of the communal areas to perform their morning ablutions. Having a shower while trying to ignore the people who were not-so-subtly staring was an unpleasant experience, but the girls were too grimy to consider going without.

Once they were clean, the two hurried back to the room they were sharing. The Rainbooms had been paired off into rooms until other arrangements could be made, with Rainbow Dash instead spending the night in the clinic to recover from her surgery. Sunset had been more than a little surprised when Applejack had asked to bunk with her instead of Rarity, but she knew better than to question it.

Finally, clean, dry, wearing freshly washed and repaired uniforms and after a quick breakfast of Brotherhood rations, Sunset and Applejack fixed each other with determined looks.

“You ready to get this over with?” Applejack asked.

“We’ve got to deal with it at some point,” Sunset replied. She sighed heavily and went to fetch her Nova Pistol. “Let’s get going.”

Together, the two reluctantly left their room and made their way down to one of the lowest decks of the ship, just on the water line. The corridors down here were deserted. Every surface was a gnarled mass of roots and branches, with only some flickering gemstones set in the walls and a handful of glowing butterflies providing any light. As if that wasn’t ominous enough, most of the open doors that the pair passed were half-flooded and filled with the distinctive odour of mirelurks.

“There’s cracks to the outside down here, Ah learned about ‘em back when Ah helped out with maintenance,” Applejack muttered, her voice strangely magnified in the silent corridors. “They’re too small for any mirelurks to get in, but the maintenance teams still have to check on them every few hours, just in case.”

“I just want to know why these weirdos thought that setting up shop down here was a good idea,” Sunset grumbled, narrowly avoiding smacking her head on a low-hanging branch.

Applejack snorted. “Ah guess we can ask them now.” She pointed ahead to a closed metal door. Her Cutie Mark was painted on the door, glowing faintly in the dim light.

“It looks like you’ve got some fans,” Sunset noted flatly.

“Pretty sure we all do at this point. Besides, they probably have everyone else’s marks somewhere around here,” Applejack countered, though she sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone. “Alright, here goes nothin’.” She took a deep breath and, with just a moment’s hesitation, knocked on the door.

The door squealed as it was hauled open, revealing a young Disciple who bowed deeply to the girls. “Welcome to our new temple, friends. How may we help-” The young man straightened up and froze in shock when he realized who he was actually speaking to. “Y-your Graces?! We weren’t ex- P-please, come on in.” He stepped back and held the door open for the two.

Inside, the temple was small, but surprisingly cozy, with dozens of softly glowing gemstones in the metallic canopy above providing a gentle illumination. The floor was covered by ankle-high grass, and a few tree trunks grew out of the floor and reached up to the ceiling like supporting pillars. The girls were surprised to see that there were lots of iguanas running loose in the temple, basking on branches or scampering through the grass. Apples were growing everywhere.

About a dozen Disciples were pottering about inside the temple, all of whom looked up as the two Rainbooms entered.

“Don’t mind us, we don’t want to cause a fuss, we just want to speak to whoever is in charge here,” Sunset said immediately, hoping to head off the worst of the groveling the Disciples were so fond of. To her surprise, most of them actually did as they were told, simply offering a bow to herself and Applejack before getting back to whatever they were doing. Only one split off from the others and approached the pair.

“Hey, you’re the guy Ah spoke to yesterday!” Applejack said brightly. “Said your name was Malus or somethin’, right?”

Malus smiled and gave a respectful nod. “I am honored that you remember, and it is an equal honor to meet you as well, Lady Shimmer.” He noted Sunset’s raised eyebrow and, apparently misjudging her expression, began to explain, “I realize that my chosen epithet may seem rather… ominous, but it is-”

“The name of the genus that includes domesticated orchard apples. Yeah, I know,” Sunset cut in, having learned that particular factoid back when she and AJ had first become friends. She had also already recognized the man from the description Applejack had given the night before, and she wasn’t about to let him mansplain anything to her right off the bat.

Malus at least had the good grace to look embarrassed. “My apologies. I assumed that knowledge of life’s bounties was the domain of Lady Applejack.”

“Never assume anything when it comes to us,” Sunset told him firmly. “Anyway, there’s a couple of things we wanted to talk to you about, starting with how things are run here.”

“Of course,” Malus replied quickly. “We call this temple the Orchard Temple. Overall, we operate much as the First Temple in Megaton, and consider ourselves subordinate to them. The Orchard Temple is, of course, far smaller, though the number of believers here in Rivet City has been growing rapidly since the magic of harmony has spread throughout the ship...” He cleared his throat and gave Sunset a somewhat sheepish look. “I hesitate to admit this, but the Orchard Temple is primarily dedicated to Lady Applejack.”

Sunset snorted in amusement. “I gathered that from the name and the Cutie Mark on the door. I’m not bothered by it in the slightest, so don’t worry,” she added quickly. “Just make sure that you and your Disciples behave yourselves, don’t break the law, and no forced conversion or trying to use government to enforce your faith on others. The same rules as the temple in Megaton.”

“Of course,” Malus replied immediately.

“Good. In that case, there’s only one more thing I urgently need to discuss with you.” Sunset took a deep breath before speaking again, “I’m pretty sure you’ve all heard about the three new arrivals from our world.”

Malus nodded gravely. “The arrival of three more Goddesses caused an incredible stir among the Disciples, but my associates and I convinced the more zealous of our followers to grant them some space until, or if, they choose to come to us.”

“I appreciate it,” Sunset said, surprised but grateful that he had already taken care of one of her biggest concerns.

“Alright, now that all the heavy stuff’s out of the way, I’ve got a request,” Applejack cut in. “Ah know that the Council is hammerin’ out the details of the new relationship between Rivet City and the Brotherhood, but once that’s sorted, Ah was hopin’ Ah could get a look at that armorweave y’all have been workin’ on.”

Fluttershy listened intently as she hurried through the corridors of Rivet City’s upper decks. There tended to be only a few people abroad in this area, even during the busy mornings and evenings, but she was hoping to avoid everyone that she could right at that moment.

Luckily for Fluttershy, all of the people who were most likely to ask what she was up to were occupied elsewhere. Sunset and Applejack were investigating the new temple. Rainbow Dash was still recuperating in the clinic, struggling to shrug off the effects of the anesthetic. Rarity had dragged Fawkes to the Seaborne Boutique. Twilight was helping some Knights and power-armored Enclave workers to clear away snow and debris on the riverbank in preparation for Rivet City’s expansion, and Pinkie Pie was apparently scouring the marketplace for useful trinkets. Even Luna, Trixie and Sonata were busy, enduring a crash course in Rivet City law from the security officers.

All of that only left one person unaccounted for.

Of course, tracking someone down was child’s play for Fluttershy’s enhanced senses, even in a place like Rivet City that was packed full of hundreds of overlapping scents and sounds. This time, however, something wasn’t right. The scent was different. Fluttershy closed her eyes and breathed in deeply through her nose.

Warm water, soap that was fragrant yet slightly metallic, and the faint salty tang of sweat that lacked the sourness of bacterial growth. He had just gotten out of a hot shower. Underneath that was the coppery bite of fresh blood, probably a shaving accident, the subtle ozone tinge that separated wasteland-born humans from Vault dwellers or the Enclave, and something else. Something burnt and earthy, that had never been present before, yet was somehow strangely familiar.

Frowning, Fluttershy hurried through the last corridor until she reached one of the upper deck residential rooms. She knocked gently and pushed the door open as quietly as she could.

“Fluttershy!” Before she could react, Fluttershy found herself swept off her feet and crushed against a solid chest by powerful arms, the scent she had been following overpowering everything else. She blushed as she realized that she was being pressed against bare skin. “I was just about to get ready to come and find you!”

“On your own? We would have had to send out a search party,” Fluttershy joked.

Adam chuckled and put her down. “Fair point.” He closed the bedroom door before turning to fix her with a concerned look. “I heard about what happened with Unity, are you alright? Were you hurt?”

“I-I’m fine,” Fluttershy stammered. She had seen her boyfriend without a shirt on before, in almost entirely chaste situations, but she’d never been pressed up against him in a state of undress like that before.

Adam clearly didn’t notice that she was flustered as he asked blithely, “Are you sure? I don’t want to overstep, I just…”

“It’s okay. Things have been… difficult, but I swear I’ll be-” Fluttershy’s eyes almost popped out of her skull as she saw a large dark bruise over Adam’s breastbone, along with several smaller ones spread uniformly over his entire rib cage like a deliberate pattern. “W-what the?!” Fluttershy stepped in close, no longer bothered by his lack of covering, and gently inspected the biggest bruise with her fingertips. She gasped in surprise as she realized that they weren’t bruises, but bony growths pushing out from his skeleton. “What is this?”

Adam let out an awkward laugh. “So, uh, funny story, I may have done something a little, uh… reckless.”

“You do reckless things all the time and get cuts and bruises, not things like… are these mutations?!” Fluttershy hissed.

Adam raised an eyebrow. “I mean, I did get mutated getting irradiated for Moira’s survival guide, remember? But, yeah. These are mutations,” he admitted with a sigh.

Fluttershy instinctively reached for her nursing kit. “How much radiation were you exposed to? Have you taken any Radaway?”

“It’s not from radiation this time,” Adam cut in, holding a hand up to stop her. “After we dealt with the problem at Canterbury Commons, we heard on the radio that a settlement called Grayditch had suddenly dropped out of contact with the rest of the Wasteland, so me and Fawkes went to take a look. Turns out there was some wacko mad scientist who was trying to genetically engineer giant ants so successive generations would get smaller and smaller until they were back at normal pre-war sizes.”

“That’s… weird,” Fluttershy noted. “I know ants reproduce quickly, but any selective breeding or genetic tampering like that should still take decades before it shows any real reduction in size.”

Adam nodded in agreement. “Right, which is why the scientist tried to speed things up using FEV and a splash of Equestrian magic, but instead of making them smaller he ended up making them tougher and gave them the ability to spit fire.” Fluttershy repressed a groan as the ‘mad scientist’ moniker suddenly made a lot more sense. “Yeah, that’s pretty much the reaction I had,” Adam said. “The ants ended up eating or driving out most of the residents except for a little kid. Me and Fawkes helped the scientist get the ants under control again, then brought the kid here to live with a relative.”

Helping a child in distress was obviously a noble thing to do, but there was a key part missing from Adam’s story. “That doesn’t explain how you ended up mutating again,” Fluttershy pointed out.

He cleared his throat and looked away as she fixed him with a suspicious look. “Well, uh, you see, the scientist has actually figured out a way to give humans some of the same attributes as the ants, and as thanks for getting the ants under control, the scientist kinda, maybe, offered to-”

“You let a mad scientist play around with your genetic structure by injecting you with an untested mix of FEV, mutant ant DNA, magic, and any number of other chemicals?” Fluttershy asked flatly.

“Technically it’s not the first time, if you count Moira,” Adam insisted. “Also, it was actually two mixtures. One to make me stronger, and one to improve my senses.”

Fluttershy frowned as she tried to figure out how any of that would even work, given that an ant’s strength was tied to their size and surface area, and their sensory organs bore only the most passing resemblance to a human’s, but she gave up when she remembered that this world operated on different physical laws than her home. And that was before you counted the bizarre effects that magic had on everything. With a sigh, Fluttershy shook her head and decided to just be thankful that Adam hadn’t been given an ant’s respiratory system and asphyxiated. This world wasn’t often that forgiving with that sort of thing. “How can you be so smart and at the same time be such a dumbass?”

“I’m a nineteen year old male, that’s pretty much the dictionary definition.” Adam smirked and puffed his chest out a little. “Besides, I think black looks good in me.”

“You should probably rephrase that,” Fluttershy said coyly.

Adam huffed a laugh. “Yeah, Rainbow would have a field day with a joke like that.”

“It does look good though.” Fluttershy fell silent and bit her lip as she realized what she had said. The atmosphere in the room changed almost instantly, filled with more tension and charge than she had ever felt before. A strange scent wafted through the air, a hormonal reaction that she had encountered several times when walking through a settlement.

“I… uh…” Adam coughed and stepped away, blushing furiously. “I should probably get dressed.” He took a deep breath and walked back to the bed. “You wanna go up to the top deck? Should be a, uh, y’know, cold breeze or something. Should be nice.”

Fluttershy didn’t respond. She had time, privacy, and she was done with restraint. This world was too dangerous to care about that anymore. She hesitated for just a moment, then reached up and flicked the room’s light off. (Spicy scene)

“Uh, Flutters?” Adam said warily as the room was plunged into darkness.

Fluttershy glanced anxiously at him. To her eyes, every detail of the room was etched out in shades of gray, but it was clear that Adam couldn’t see anything at all in the pitch darkness. That was enough to boost her confidence just a little. With her heart pounding in her chest, Fluttershy kicked off her shoes, then slowly pulled her top off and let it fall to the floor. Her bra followed a moment later.

Adam turned his head at the sound of rustling fabric. Despite knowing that he couldn’t see her, Fluttershy had to fight the urge to cover her chest and squeal. Steeling her nerve, she silently padded over to him. Adam flinched at her touch, fingers caressing his chest, but he quickly recovered and brought his hands up to her sides. Fluttershy shivered as he touched bare flesh. He settled his hands around her waist and made to pull her closer, only to stop and run his hands up to her lower ribs. He sucked in a breath as he registered the lack of cloth. “Flu-”

“Shh.” Fluttershy pressed a finger to his lips, then leaned in to replace it with a kiss. She pressed her body against his and he slipped his hand into her hair as the kiss deepened, only for Fluttershy to pull away suddenly. Confusion flickered across Adam’s face, but Fluttershy laid down on his bed and scooted over so he could fit.

The creak of the bed must have been enough to get her point across, as Adam quickly laid down next to her and reached out. Fluttershy eagerly shifted into his arms and kissed him. The two were soon completely intertwined, Adam’s hand running up and down her back and sides, but never quite going anywhere exciting.

Fluttershy waited patiently for him to make a move, savoring the embrace as he worked up the nerve to push things a little further, but his hands never roamed any lower than the waistband of her pants, or any further up her front than her bottom ribs. Eventually, her patience ran out. As his hand slid up her back once more, she shifted position just enough that her breast brushed against his arm. Adam paused at the contact, and for a moment Fluttershy thought that he might pull away, but then, finally getting the hint, his fingers traced their way under her arm until he gently cupped her breast.

The touch was electric. Fluttershy’s heart pounded as Adam caressed her, tentatively at first, but soon growing bolder and firmly gripping her as he kissed her hungrily. His confidence must have grown quickly, as he suddenly let go and plunged his hand down the seat of her pants to squeeze her backside.

Fluttershy loved every second of it. Every touch excited her more, stoking the heat in her core until she was silently begging things to go further.

Acting on impulse, Fluttershy reached down and placed a hand between Adam’s legs. His breath hitched the moment she touched him. He felt utterly solid beneath her palm and, though she didn’t have any real frame of reference for how large a man could get, it was enough to push her excitement even higher. Stunned by her own audacity, Fluttershy gave him a gentle squeeze, then started running her hand up and down his length.

Adam made an appreciative noise in his throat and pulled her closer, his kissing becoming slower and less focused. At first, Fluttershy thought that he was just distracted by what she was doing, but then he slipped his hand out of her pants and tugged at her waistband in the front instead.

Fluttershy’s heart pounded so hard it was almost painful. She knew what Adam was hinting at, but she didn’t know how far he would take things if she did it. A line was about to be crossed. The thought should have terrified her, but all she felt was a dizzying rush of arousal, anticipation, and a reckless desire to take anything he offered and pay it back double.

Shivering with excitement, Fluttershy removed her hand from Adam and shifted so she could undo her pants. She heard Adam breath in sharply at the sound of the button and zipper coming undone, and fought back a grin as she pushed her pants down and kicked them off, leaving herself in nothing but her underwear and socks.

Adam was immediately all over her, kissing her passionately and pawing at her bare thigh. Fluttershy gleefully let him toy with her body as he pleased. Her excitement only grew as Adam suddenly pushed himself up onto his knees and propped himself up with an elbow, not once breaking off the kiss as he did so. His hand came up to her chest again before slowly, torturously, trailing down her torso and slipping into her underwear.

Fluttershy twitched as Adam brushed her most sensitive area. He ran his fingers up and down her lips, exploring her with almost lazy strokes. Fluttershy purred at his touch. Her thoughts idly turned to Vault 101’s pleasure manual, written in an attempt to improve their flagging birth rates, but just as she wondered whether or not Adam had read through it, his fingers found her nub, and all other thoughts flew out of her head.

He gently flicked his finger from side to side, making her twitch with every motion, then used two fingers to stroke it in soft, steady circles.

Fluttershy melted as he settled into a rhythm. She writhed beneath him, moaning even as she kissed him. As she squirmed, Fluttershy reached down to his groin again and, with a little difficulty, undid his belt and pants. She tried to reach down inside, but the angle and the lack of stretch in the cloth made it almost impossible to get in. Thankfully, Adam got the hint. With a groan that sounded torn between eagerness and reluctance, he removed his hand from Fluttershy’s underwear, scrambled off the bed, practically tore off the last of his clothes and clambered back on the bed as quickly as he possibly could.

Neither hesitated as they reached for the other; Adam slipping his hand down Fluttershy’s underwear and getting back to work, while she wrapped a hand around his shaft and began running her hand up and down his length. Soon the two of them were breathing heavily, each working in concert to pleasure the other.

Fluttershy had no idea how much time the two spent together. She tried to focus on her hands, on what she was doing to Adam, but his persistent rhythm kept dragging her attention back to a single point between her legs, and the mounting pressure building deep within her core. The rising heat made her shudder and gasp uncontrollably until, finally, something gave way. Fluttershy curled up in a ball and cried out as waves of ecstasy slammed through her body, each more intense than the last.

Finally, after seconds that felt like hours, the pleasure subsided, leaving her mind blank and her body pleasantly tingling. Awareness slowly returned to Fluttershy. It took several seconds for her to realize that she was drawing shuddering breaths, as if she had run a marathon, and several more to realize that she was soaked with sweat. Adam’s hand was still between her legs, his fingers stilled.

“Are you-” Adam’s question was cut off as Fluttershy thrust her tongue into his mouth. Filled with determination, she clasped the back of his head with one hand, while the other firmly took hold of his member and started stroking. Her technique was amateurish and inexperienced, but she paid close attention to his breathing and his thundering heartbeat, trying different things and seeing what made him groan and shiver, until she settled on crudely pumping her fist up and down.

Adam tried to speak, but Fluttershy cut him off by kissing him with renewed passion. Suddenly he growled and shifted, placing his arms on either side of her and propping himself up as he rocked his hips in time with the movements of her hand. Soon, his breathing turned ragged, and his arms started to shiver and shake until, with a deep groan, his whole body went rigid and his member pulsed in Fluttershy’s hand. Something warm and wet splattered over her torso. She stopped moving and just held him, each spasm leaving more droplets over her body and hand.

Sated and spent, Adam sagged, his head dropping to Fluttershy’s shoulder as the tension left his body. She watched him in the dark, admiring the way his chest heaved and his arm muscles shifted so he didn’t collapse on top of her entirely. Releasing him from her grip, Fluttershy let out a satisfied sigh and, glad that he couldn’t see her face, allowed herself a proud, gleeful grin. (Spice over)

Next Chapter: Chapter 159 - Initiate Scoots Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 59 Minutes