Rarity stared at the door ahead of her anxiously. She had been inside the Seaborne Boutique a dozen times before without hesitation, but that was before she had discovered that the proprietress was her native counterpart; this world's very own version of 'Rarity'.

In a way, Rarity was excited to meet Tabitha again, especially since they hadn't really spoken much when they had first met, but at the same time the prospect of speaking to her was absolutely terrifying. Tabitha was a successful businesswoman, a professional designer, a skilled fighter and a member of a secret organisation to boot. Not to mention the fact that she and her sister, this world's Sweetie Belle, had been affected by magic due to an accident that was partially Rarity's fault. All in all, there was a high chance that the coming conversation could get decidedly awkward.

Deciding that she couldn't stall any longer, Rarity sighed and knocked on the door using the little heart-shaped knocker.

"Just a minute!" Someone called from inside. A few seconds later the door opened. "Welcome to the Seaborne Boutique! Where every garment is chic, unique and- Rarity!" Tabitha stopped in the middle of her welcoming speech and stepped back to let Rarity enter. "Please, come in!"

Rarity allowed herself to be swept inside, surreptitiously eyeing her counterpart as she closed the door. In place of an armored overcoat Tabitha was wearing a charming blue swing dress, and her silky black hair was pulled back into an elegant French plait. Rarity looked away as Tabitha turned back to face her, not wanting to be caught staring, and it was then that she noticed something unusual. "Where are Coco and Claire?"

"Coco is out to lunch, Tabitha replied. "As for Claire she's doing some work for Bannon, helping with customers and such." She smiled and gestured for Rarity to follow her. "Let's sit and chat, shall we?"

Rarity just nodded and followed her quietly into the back room. It was a wide space with a pair of battered old sofas on either side of a round coffee table. A series of worktops, household appliances and wardrobes lined the walls.

"I see that you've got yourself some armor, a smart choice for traveling through the wastes," Tabitha said as she stepped over to the refrigerator. "Take it off if you want, I know that stuff can be heavy. Just pop it on the rack over there."

Rarity eagerly took the opportunity to remove her armor. By the time she had taken it all off and hung it on the rack, Tabitha was just placing a couple of mugs filled with ice-cold Nuka-Cola onto the table.

"Here we are! I'm afraid I'm out of wine, but this is the next best thing you can get out here in the Capital Wasteland," Tabitha said brightly.

Rarity looked at her mug uneasily. "Er, I hate to sound ungrateful, but is that, um… irradiated?"

"Huh?" Tabitha blinked and stared blankly at the mugs. "Probably a little, I mean it is Nuka-Cola, but that tiny amount won't hurt, will it?"

"I'd rather not increase my chances of getting cancer," Rarity said slowly. "Goodness knows we're risking it every time we go outside."

"Cancer?" Tabitha tilted her head in confusion. "But radiation-induced cancers are incredibly rare these days! Most people are genetically resistant to it after so many generations of living in… the… ah." Her eyes widened as the pieces fell into place. "And you aren't from the wastes. Oh my God, I'm so sorry! I should have realized sooner!"

"I-it's alright," Rarity put in as Tabitha hurried back to the fridge. "Really, I feel dreadfully rude for refusing your hospitality."

Tabitha shook her head. "Don't be ridiculous. It's not rude to refuse something that might actually kill you!" She returned to place another mug on the table. "Here, pure clean water with ice cubes."

"Ooo, I haven't seen ice cubes in a drink since the Vault," Rarity cooed, though privately she wondered just how much the wasteland had changed her if such a simple little thing made her day.

"I heard something on the radio about you being in a Vault," Tabitha said with interest.

Rarity nodded. "Yes, Vault 101. The Overseer was a brute and some of the people were horrid but after what's happened since we left I almost wish I was back down there."

"What was it like, living down there?" Tabitha asked eagerly.

With the initial awkwardness out of the way, the two slipped into casual conversation with the ease of old friends, much to Rarity's delight. Predictably, the topic soon shifted to fashion. Rarity was more than a little self-conscious of her current outfit; her top and skirt were so patched and stained that she would never dream of wearing them back home, but Tabitha was enthralled by what she called its 'otherworldly chic'.

Rarity and Tabitha spent hours swapping ideas and techniques, working together on whatever garments took their fancy and holding an impromptu fashion show to see how it all looked on a real person.

Tabitha proved to be no less generous than her counterpart, and Rarity's pack was soon bulging with a pretty red swing dress, a set of formal office clothes, several new sets of well-fitted underwear, and a couple of sets of what Tabitha called 'battle undergarments', though they were clearly designed for a very different activity to fighting. Rarity had blushed furiously at being presented with them, and even more so when told to actually try them on, but she couldn't bring herself to refuse them.

"Well? What do you think of them?" Tabitha asked as Rarity stepped out of the changing room, her new underwear dangling from one hand.

"They're exquisite, if a little more daring than anything I've worn before," Rarity replied. "I, er, don't think I'll have any reason to wear them anytime soon, though."

"It always pays to be prepared, darling." Tabitha smiled slyly. "Besides, I can think of at least one person who would love to see you in them."

"Wh-what?!" Rarity spluttered.

Tabitha hummed and tapped a finger on her chin theatrically. "I suppose I could be wrong, but she seemed awfully protective of you when we were on our way to the Citadel after rescuing you."

"She?" Rarity thought back to their escape from Project Exodus. She hadn't been paying much attention at the time, the sudden appearance of her own alternate self had occupied most of her thoughts, but there had been someone keeping close to her, going out of their way to keep an eye on her just in case…

"It looks like you know who I'm talking about." Tabitha giggled at the look on Rarity's face. "It looks like you're not against their interest, either."

Rarity turned away to hide her blush, nervously fidgeting with her hair. "W-well, I don't, I mean it's not like, well there was that business at the theme park, but she never pressed her case so I didn't think-"

"Did you want her to press her case?" Tabitha asked pointedly. Rarity suddenly felt like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. "I'll take that as a yes." Tabitha sighed and sipped her cola. "Let me give you some advice. I don't know how you do things in your world, but here in the wastes; if there's something you want, you take it. Don't wait for her to come to you, get out there and make her yours." She set the mug down and stepped over to a nearby wardrobe. "While you're reeling from that little bombshell, perhaps we should get on to the main reason I asked you to come."

"And what's that?" Rarity asked weakly.

Tabitha opened the wardrobe and reached in to fiddle with something in the back. "I assume you already know that Claire and I work for a secret organisation called-"

"Ooo, yes, the Railroad! Sunset told me all about it" Rarity said eagerly, perking up instantly at the thought of clandestine operations.

"Yes, well, I heard from Victoria about how your friends got rid of Zimmer for us, and I wanted to give you all a token of my appreciation." There a loud clunk from inside the wardrobe and Tabitha pulled out a large plank of wood, followed by several rolled up sheets of paper.

Rarity gasped excitedly. "Is that a secret compartment?"

"Naturally. A secret agent requires secret compartments." Tabitha placed the sheets on the table and waved Rarity over. "First of all is this." She unrolled a sheet that had six symbols drawn on it; each with a single word written underneath. "These are Railsigns. They're secret markings used by the Railroad to designate safehouses, weapons caches, and the like."

"Like the one on your door?" Rarity asked.

Tabitha nodded. "Exactly. The mark on the door lets other members of the Railroad know that they can find an ally here; moi. Commit these to memory. They're not used all that much down here in the Capital Wasteland, but they might just come in handy someday." She patted the rest of the sheets. "Once you're sure that you've memorized those, we'll go through these maps. They show a list of locations used by the Railroad regularly, as well as some of the Capital Wasteland's major landmarks."

---

Sunset yawned as she walked up the stairs towards the flight deck. After handing Chandra back over to her babysitter, she, Applejack and Pia had spent the last few hours traipsing all over the ship, checking off the list of magical disturbances and alterations that Harkness had given them. Thankfully, the group didn't find any sign of dark magic, and most of the disturbances were an inconvenience at worst, and some of the magic would be actively beneficial if only they could convince the people of Rivet City that it wasn't dangerous.

Possibly one of the most useful things they found was a room in the upper deck whose walls were covered in a thick layer of purple magical slurry. Whoever entered the room was teleported to a random location on the ship in a bright flash of light. Security had cordoned it off, but they allowed Sunset and Applejack to enter in the interests of finding out if they could control the teleportation.

Through a little trial and error, a whole lot of walking back to the room after being teleported, and a particularly uncomfortable incident where Pia and Sunset had been forced to explain to a furious wife that they had not intended to join her incredibly confused husband in the shower, they finally managed to figure out how to select the destination of the teleport.

To Pia's immense annoyance, the answer proved to be surprisingly simple. One simply had to throw on some gloves, scoop some of the excess slurry into a container and smear it onto the wall of the room you wanted to teleport to. Then, all one had to do was keep the destination in mind when they entered the teleporter room, and they appeared in the correct room a moment later. Best of all, the slurry didn't disappear after use, so the same destination could be used repeatedly without any issue. The girls quickly came up with a list of potential destinations to put before the Council, and Pia made a note to experiment with the slurry to see if she could facilitate two-way teleportation, creating a means of rapid transportation through the ship.

Once they were done with the ship's interior, all that remained was the flight deck.

"How much magic is up here?" Applejack asked. "Ah saw the trees and the floating stuff, but is there anythin' else we should know about?"

Pia let out a humourless chuckle. "Aside from the magic lightning? Not much, really."

"Has the lightning hurt anyone?" Sunset asked.

"Not seriously, thankfully," Pia replied. "Access has been restricted until we can get it under control, to make sure it stays that way."

When they finally reached the door to the flight deck, a pair of security guards opened the door for them. Sunset let out an awestruck gasp as she stepped onto the flight deck.

The whole deck was covered with a network of interwoven roots. The trees that the roots came from towered over the one side of the ship, providing shade and a truly dizzying variety of apples in every conceivable color. Even the old warplanes hadn't escaped the growth; with thin roots creeping up over the fuselage. Dozens of little crystal obelisks, ranging from around two to four feet in height, poked out of the floor in random places, and the lower branches of the trees were swarming with tiny pink butterflies. Floating several meters above it all were hundreds of hunks of metal; from tiny fist-sized panels to detached warplane wings, all shrouded in a sparkling purple aura.

"It's beautiful," Applejack whispered. She flinched as a bolt of turquoise lightning flashed out from the top of a tree with a loud crack. "Whoa! It's scary, too!"

"You're not wrong." Pia sighed and carefully picked her way across the roots towards the trees, gesturing for the girls to follow. "Most of the time the lightning sticks to the upper branches, but sometimes it comes out of the lower ones, too, so be careful."

Sunset stared at her as if she were crazy. "If there's a chance of getting hit by lightning, then why the heck are you going towards the trees?!"

"Don't worry, the trees always show some sign before the lightning comes," Pia replied. "It gives you plenty of time to get out of the way."

"If you say so," Applejack muttered.

The two girls looked around curiously as they cautiously followed Pia, both trying to ignore the loud crack of lightning coming from the command tower and the treetops. Sunset inspected the little obelisks as she passed. They all glowed with a faint inner light, but beyond that they didn't seem to do anything. Bereft of ideas, Sunset asked, "What exactly are we doing up here?"

Pia stopped a good six feet away from the base of the nearest tree. Without looking back, she replied, "The lightning is the main issue. Ideally we'd like to know what the crystals are, but since they don't actually do anything it hasn't been listed as a high priority. What do you girls think?"

Applejack shrugged. "Ah got nothin'. Sunset?"

"I'm not sure." Sunset knelt and gently tapped the nearest obelisk. The light flared a little brighter for a second, but nothing else happened. "If I had to guess, I'd say they're probably just crystallized magic. As long as you don't do anything to them, then they should be perfectly safe."

Pia nodded. "That should be easy enough to arrange. What about the lightning?"

"That, I couldn't tell you," Sunset replied, standing and looking up at the trees. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"Hang on a second, how long has the lightnin' been going on for?" Applejack asked suddenly.

Pia frowned as she thought. "Not long. I think it started a few hours after the second wave of magic hit."

Applejack nodded as if that confirmed a suspicion. "And would that be around the time the roots started reaching the river, below?"

"I think so?" Pia risked a sideways glance at her. "Why?"

"The river with the radioactive water?" Applejack asked pointedly.

"That's it!" Sunset exclaimed. "The roots are sucking up the water, the radiation is mixing with the magic, and the trees are releasing the energy generated by the reaction by emitting the blasts of lightning! Applejack, you're a genius!"

Applejack grinned and lowered her hat to cover her eyes. "Shucks, it ain't that big of a deal."

Pia crossed her arms and hummed thoughtfully. "So, if we want to stop the lightning, we need to figure out a way to siphon off the excess energy from the trees."

"Harvestin' them apples ought to help," Applejack suggested.

"It'll boost our food supplies, too." Pia smiled and turned to Sunset. "Would you mind going down to the lab and bringing Isaac up here for me? In the meantime Applejack and I can start figuring out how to go about harvesting the apples."

Sunset nodded. "Sure thing. I'll be back as quick as I can." Leaving the other two behind, she carefully headed across the roots and back inside.

As she made her way through Rivet City's corridors, Sunset wondered whether or not the Council would agree to aid the Brotherhood of Steel now. The Rainbooms had held up their end of the bargain; all of the magic in Rivet City was either dealt with or in the process of being brought under control, so she hoped that Harkness could spare some people to help distribute fresh water across the wastes. If not, then Sunset planned to suggest asking Three Dog to put the word out. Surely someone in the wastes would be interested in helping.

Lost in thought, it was a little while before Sunset realized that she was also just plain lost. She still wasn't used to the ship yet, and what she had thought was a shortcut to the labs was turning out to be anything but.

Great. This is just what I needed. Sunset sighed heavily and looked around, hoping to see something that she recognized. There weren't any signposts in sight, but there were tools and toolboxes all over the place, with little symbols painted on the floor and walls. It looked like the area was being prepped for maintenance and repairs. Just as Sunset was about to turn and retrace her steps, she heard a loud bang come from further down the corridor.

"What the…?" Listening carefully, Sunset could just make out an indistinct voice talking, each few words interspersed with muffled thumps.

Assuming that it was a maintenance worker struggling with something, Sunset decided to go and help them. As she got closer, the swearing and sounds of impacts getting louder with every step, her mind slowly registered that something didn't seem right, but it wasn't until she turned a corner and saw what was causing the sound that she realized that something was very, very, wrong.

A strange man was in the corridor, standing aggressively over another person laying curled up on the floor. Sunset barely had time to process what she was seeing before the man kicked the other person hard in the ribs, eliciting a disturbingly faint groan from his victim. "You like that, Sister? Fucking traitor."

"What the hell are you doing?!" Sunset snapped before she could stop herself.

The man whipped around to face her, his eyes widening as he spotted who it was. "You! You're one of those Rainbooms." He jabbed a finger down at Sister. "Stay out of this, bitch, this is slaver business."

"Slaver?" Sunset half-whispered.

"That's right," the man spat. "This little fucker's a traitor, and I've been sent to deal with him, so stay the fuck out of it unless you want a whole world of trouble."

Sunset was shocked at the sheer venom in the slaver's voice, but she stepped forward as he stamped hard on Sister. "Leave him alone!"

The slaver snarled as he rounded on her. "Or what? Huh? What the fuck are you gonna do about it?"

Sunset suddenly found herself frozen, a wave of terror holding her in place as the man advanced on her. She flinched as he raised a hand as if to slap her. Seeing her reaction, the slaver paused and grinned. "Aw, looks like someone's scared." He clapped the hand to her shoulder, still grinning widely. "Hey, it's okay. This asshole? He's done some bad shit, now I'm here to do bad shit to him, it's just karma. Now run along and leave us to it, okay?"

He clasped the back of Sunset's head and pulled her in close enough that she could feel his reeking breath on her cheek. "And don't go telling no security officer what we're up to, cos if I get in trouble, I'll make sure that Eulogy brings the boys and we'll run a fucking train on your ass. Is that clear?" Sunset couldn't bring herself to answer, or even to move, but the slaver took it as assent. "Good." He spun her around, slapped her backside hard enough to make her yelp and shoved her away. "Now get the fuck out of here, before I change my mind."

Consumed with fear, Sunset was barely able to put one foot in front of the other, but somehow she managed to keep going until she turned the corner and was out of sight, trembling uncontrollably. It wasn't until the sounds of heavy impacts started back up that she stopped. Sunset desperately wanted to go back, to rescue Sister and out the slaver in his place, but her body just wouldn't listen. Fear and shame roiled inside her as she listened to Sister getting beaten to death.

Biting back a sob, Sunset's eyes fell on a heavy pipe wrench, poking out of a nearby toolbox. She stared at it for an eternity, conflicting emotions warring within her, but finally she reached down and picked it up. The wrench was surprisingly heavy. Weighing it in her hands, Sunset clutched the handle with both hands and turned back to face her enemy, her fear fuelling a desperate, white-hot wrath.

The slaver looked up as Sunset stormed around the corner again, but this time he didn't have time to react as she swung the wrench with all the strength she could muster, smashing it into the side of his head. The impact knocked the slaver against the wall. Sunset didn't give him a chance to recover, striking him with the wrench again. The slaver's skull gave way with a horrific crunch and he slumped to the ground, but fear and fury made Sunset hit him one last time, bringing the wrench down in a wide arc to bury it in the remains of his head.

An awful silence filled the air, broken only by Sunset's heavy breathing. She slowly straightened up, blood dripping from the wrench as she pulled it free, and stared blankly down at the slaver's corpse. All of a sudden Sunset's strength drained from her body, as if a switch had been flipped, and she sagged against the wall, letting the wrench drop from nerveless fingers. She glanced down at the corpse again, then retched and twisted to the side just in time to avoid puking all over herself.

Sunset gasped for air as she hunched over. Her head was spinning, but she couldn't afford to stop yet. She still had to get Sister to a doctor. Wiping her mouth, Sunset carefully avoided both the dead body and the pool of vomit as she stepped over to Sister and dropped to all fours next to him. Her hands were shaking too much to properly check for a pulse, but she could see that he was still breathing, if only just. "S-stay here. I'll go get help."

Pushing herself to her feet, Sunset staggered and almost fell as she tried to run back the way she had come. Her legs felt like they were made of jelly. Realizing that tripping and injuring herself probably wasn't the best idea, Sunset took a deep breath in a vain attempt to steady herself and set off at as fast a walk as she could manage, reeling like a drunkard the whole time.

Any semblance of a sense of direction had completely left Sunset's head; she just headed down whichever corridor was well-lit and hoped that she would run into someone who could fetch a security officer.

"Sunset?! What's wrong?!" Sunset looked up to see Harkness hurrying towards her. She almost wept with relief at the sight of him. "Hey, hey, it's okay," he said as he reached her. "Tell me what happened."

"S-sister," Sunset said quietly.

"Sister? What's that bastard done to you?" Harkness growled.

Sunset shook her head, then immediately wished she hadn't as it made her vision swim even more. "No…slaver... hurt…" It took her a few tries, but eventually Sunset managed to convey the fact that Sister was seriously injured.

To his credit, Harkness didn't waste time asking for details, instead he immediately grabbed his radio and called for all available security officers to sweep the rough area that Sunset had appeared from until they found something. Harkness let Sunset rest against the wall until, less than ten minutes later, word came through that the officers had found Sister and were taking him to the doctor.

"He's badly hurt, but he should pull through," Harkness said. Sunset heaved a sigh of relief and slid down the wall to sit on the floor, so Harkness squatted and sat next to her. "Are you okay?"

"I…" Sunset didn't know how to respond. She felt like her brain had been fried and thrown in a blender.

Harkness shifted slightly to look at her properly. "I know this might be difficult, but I have to ask you a few questions. My team found another man around there. Was he the one who hurt Sister?" Sunset managed a single nod. "Okay. Do you know why he was attacking Sister?"

"Slaver," Sunset whispered.

"I see." Harkness nodded before asking in a soft voice, "You defended Sister, didn't you?" Sunset nodded slowly, choking back a sob as she did so. "Hey, it's okay, you did the right thing," Harkness told her. He diplomatically looked away to speak into his radio as Sunset cried quietly. "Feeling any better?" He asked when she was done.

Sunset sniffed and wiped her face with her arm. "I hate this world," she said quietly.

"It's not an easy place to live," Harkness admitted. "Look, why don't you stay here in Rivet City for a while? I'll make sure you get your own room, and I'll have a security guard escort you twenty four hours a day to keep trouble away from you. That way you'll be safe, you'll have plenty of food and clean water, and you'll be able to speak to me or Doctor Preston on a daily basis if you need to. What do you think?"

Sunset felt almost ashamed that she was actually tempted to accept Harkness' offer. The prospect of being safe and looked after, not to mention the chance of something approaching actual therapy, was too good to simply brush aside out of turn. Still, in the end there was only one answer she could give. "No."

"Why not?" Harkness asked.

"My friends," Sunset replied simply. Harkness opened his mouth to respond, but she cut him off, "I know, you'd probably do the same for them, too, but that's not going to get us home. To do that, we're going to have to search the wastes for the tools we need. I can't do that if I'm cowering under a blanket here, and there's no way I'm letting my friends do something so dangerous without my help." She swallowed hard and ran a hand through her hair, noticing for the first time that she was soaked in a cold sweat. "I need training." Sunset looked up at Harkness, fixing him with a serious look. Her heart was pounding, but her mind was set, and her voice was firm. "Teach me how to fight."

Next Chapter: Chapter 75 - Regrouping Estimated time remaining: 28 Hours, 58 Minutes