After a spell went wrong, Rainbow Dash is now in the Mojave Wasteland and she meets a very interesting and confused Courier
Rainbow Dash was presumed dead after a spell with Princess Twilight Sparkle went wrong. She wasn't. Now Rainbow's back in Equestria with a little story to tell about her adventures. And Boy does she have one to tell.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crossover with Fallout New Vegas
Alright, I didn't even think of it at the time but this story has nothing to do with Dio's song A Rainbow in the Dark, it was completely unintentional. Also this story is inspired by the Dark Wanderings by ed2481 and On the Wings of an Angel by Gyvon, I highly recommend them.
Home of the Rich, the Nobles, and the Royalty, and at this time five of the Elements of Harmony. While normally the chatting would consist of laughter and joy. This was a time for sorrow and grieving. For today they all gathered to remember their dear friend Rainbow Dash.
“I can’t believe she’s gone.” Fluttershy, Rainbows oldest friend said. One year ago today Rainbow Dash disappeared in a flash of light and smoke, and it was only four weeks ago that she was pronounced dead by the royal guard. The news hit each of them hard, Fluttershy not leaving her house for weeks, Applejack almost working herself into the grave, Rarity closing the boutique for a week, Pinkie Pie going into a state of depression that even now no one has been able to change, and finally Princess Twilight Sparkle who blames herself for the death of her winged friend.
Twilight was testing a new spell that she invented that could teleport a pony from one town to the next with relative ease. Rainbow Dash being the loyal friend that she is agreed to help Twilight with the spell. The spell however did not work as planned. In a bright flash, Rainbow did not make it to her destination, but instead the grave.
“Alright everypony we need to be strong.” The purple princess said “For Rainbow Dash.” She added in a low voice. With a heavy sigh, she began the ceremony that was held just for the five of them. But being a princess, Twilight has a few guards around the room, Princess Celestia’s orders.
“We are here today to remember our dear friend Rainbow Dash.” She told the small crowd, trying her best to choke back tears. “She will always be remembered as the element of loyalty, the fast pony on Equis, but most importantly she will be remembered as the greatest friend in the world.” The levee finally broke and now the purple pony had tears streaming down her face, wiping her face she quickly got back to the matter that was at hand. “She will always be missed by those that she had touched and let into their life.”
All of the ponies in the room started crying, with Applejack being the last to break, trying to stay strong, and only failing when she started to think about all of the good times she spent with her rainbow maned friend. All of the races, competitions, and other forms of sportsmanship would never happen again. Applejack had lost her best friend.
For a short time all five of the ponies in the room where silent.
Suddenly, a bright light and smoke entered the room with a figure wearing a black suit of armor that had a brown cloak with an image of a two headed bear on it, the cloak looked as if it attached to the body of the pony and a black helmet with the letters RD on it along with the numbers 147 on the side. The figure took off their helmet to reveal a rainbow mane, and rose eyes with a cerulean coat. The girls all stood back in shock that Rainbow Dash was both still alive and right in front of them.
“Hey Gir-” Rainbow said with a smile. Now traveling through a different dimension and space she did the only reasonable thing. She threw up on the floor. “Oh fuck, I’m going to kill Mark if I ever see him again.” She said wiping he mouth on the sleeve of her armor. The armored mare took a quick look of her surroundings before turning to her shocked and slightly disgusted friends. “What the fucks going on here, somepony die?” She said with a curious glance.
“R-R-Rainbow, y-y-you’re supposed to be dead.” Twilight said stumbling on some of her words. How could her friend be alive? What is that weird outfit that she’s wearing? But most importantly, why is Rainbow swearing like a sailor?
“Oh believe me I know I should, somehow I’m not though. Thank Doc Mitchell for that one.” The Pegasus replied with a slightly bored tone. With a bored yawn she reached for the gun that had saved her life more times than once, Lucky as it was simply named. Going over a routine check of the revolver hoping that she could do something to fix up her beloved handgun, but of course like it had always been it was in perfect condition. Almost just like the day that she got it.
“Alright, I guess I must be the one to address the elephant in the room.” Rarity said proudly “Where have you been Rainbow Dash it’s been one full year? What are those, those, things that you have all over you? And what in the name of Celestia are you wearing?” The fashionista said all of her friends giving her a slightly angry look. “What we were all thinking it.” She replied back to the ponies.
“I’ll tell you I promise, but first can I get some fresh food? I’ve been fucking eating over 200 year food for a year.” Dash said to her white coated friend with a chuckle. Life had been hard for Rainbow, and now all she wants to do is sleep on a nice fluffy cloud and nap. Shooting up her wings she revealed to the stunned crowd multiple scars that showed she had been in many fierce battles, and still came out victorious. To the guards at the door they recognized the wounds immediately. They were bullet wounds, and there are a lot of them.
“O-Of course Rainbow.” The stunned princess to her cerulean friend. “But I have to ask, what’s that on your hoof?” The chrome item in question covered the left foreleg of the pony just above the hoof. It had knobs on the left side, three buttons, and a screen in the middle that was blue. The device was currently on a screen that had the tabs ‘Weapons, Apparel, Aid, Misc., and Ammo.’
“Like I said I’ll tell ya, just give me a minute.” The Pegasus said to the pony with a serious. Looking down at the item she smiled immediately as she started to think of the first time she met the strange man. “Alright everyon- everypony sorry gotta get used to saying that again. Anyways gather around and let me tell you the story of the Courier.”
“Alright is everypony here then? I really want to start now.” The Pegasus said as the room was quickly filled with all four of the Princesses and the Elements of Harmony. The Princesses came as quickly as possible when they had heard that Rainbow Dash was not truly dead. Unfortunately for everypony else in the room, the Pegasus was starting to get impatient, and they had to deal with her.
“Yes Rainbow Dash, I believe we can start.” The newly crowned Princess said, quickly being reminded of her friends -at times- brash attitude. She quickly started thinking back to the day she had met the speedster, after all it was the same time that she had both gained friends and defeated Nightmare Moon. Rainbow Dash now seemed a different then when they first met, as if she was much more grown up. While the Rainbow that had disappeared was much jittery, she now seemed much more calm and crazy enough, as if she didn’t mind being on the ground for longer than three minutes.
“Alright i’m going to tell you now, this might get a little bit, how can I say this without lying, dark and all kinds of fucked up.” The pony in black armor said to the Princesses and her friends, as if it was a way of saying ‘Are you sure you want this?’ “This isn’t like anything that we’ve ever faced. Take the worst thing that we’ve beaten, and then multiply that by about 1,000.”
“Rainbow we can handle it.” The purple princess said with a nervous tone.
“Alright don’t say I didn’t warn ya…” The armored Element bearer said, trying to figure out what to say next. “...So if you all remember I was helping Twilight with a new kind of transportation spell that would be able to send a normal pony to a completely different town and possibly another country, as long as they had help from a unicorn. I knew of all the dangers, and I still agreed to help so don’t think sending me to, more or less hell was your fault. Um actually that sounds kind of mean, heh sorry.” The rainbow mare said rubbing the back of her head with a hoof.
“It’s alright Rainbow, please continue.”
“Are you sure, ‘cause I really don’t want to sound like a bitter bitch. God only knows how many of them i’ve had to deal with.”
“It’s fine really, please we want to know what happened.”
“Alright, I guess i’ll just start when I got over to the library to help…”
***
“Rainbow are you sure that you’re ready for this? It’s incredibly dangerous and I really don’t know what’s going to happen if it fails.” The purple alicorn said to me as I clearly wasn’t listening. When I heard that Twilight was trying to improve the teleportation spell I basically had jumped at the chance to be the test subject. Sadly Twi didn’t know if it would work, so I got the whole ‘Oh I don’t want to put you in danger’ talk.
“Come on Twi, I said I would help, so i’m gonna help and there’s nothing you can say that’ll stop me.” I said to her with a cocky grin. “Element of loyalty remember?” The pegasus knew that all she had to do was keep on asking until the princess finally broke. I’ll make that Wonderbolt show in Canterlot as long as this doesn’t take to long.
Twilight face hoofed as hard as she could nearly breaking her own nose. “Alright fine, no point in arguing. Please come in.” I had a feeling Twilight knew that I was here for more reasons than just one. For once I used the front door and there was no new Daring Do books out yet.
With look of glee Rainbow Dash took a step into the library. It was at that time that she forgot that Twilight added way more books than necessary. Seriously, you could build the great fucking wall of china with this many books.
***
“What’s the Great Wall of China?” The pink party pony asked
“Some pre-war wall that the Chinese made to keep out some people. Failed in the end most likely, never really asked about the history of the place.” The athlete said with a shrug. She paused for a second waiting for any more questions or comments for a good minute before she figured that there were none.
“What do you mean by ‘pre-war’? The goddess of the night asked the scarred pony.
“I’ll get to that. Trust me I won’t leave out anything that I think you might want to know. Well besides maybe that time we met with that girl on the East coast, but thats a story for another time.” This made the apple farmers ears perk up with interest.
Could she mean… no she can’t. She couldn’t of got sent there.
“Anyways, I think it would be for the best that we get on with the story, right? Ok good, because i’m moving on anyways.” The rainbow maned pony said before anyone could say anything. “So where was I? Right great wall of books.”
***
“Please ignore the mess, I haven’t been able to shelve them yet. They kind of just came in a few minutes ago.” This idea in itself was shocking. The Twilight Sparkle not shelving books immediately? Yeah something’s definitely up.
“Heh, you must be busy then.” She said with a slightly worried look. “Just remember what Princess Celestia said Twi, don’t go overboard with this princess thing. You’re starting to act Applejack- ironically -she thinks you’re being too hard on yourself.”
“I know, I just don’t want to fail the Princess. I don’t want her to think this was a bad idea, making me an alicorn and all.” It’s become a known fact that Twi thinks' that Celestia messed up with making her a princess. Of course she’s wrong, it’s one of the best things to happen since we found the Elements of Harmony
“Don’t worry about it, lets just get this done. I got a show to get to!” I said back to her with a squee. I might even be able to meet with them early! “Oh and uh, I get to help with the spell.” I quickly added after seeing the unicorn give a slightly angry look.
“Alright fine, just follow me to the basement.” Alright not going to lie, just saying that sounds kind of creepy. It’s like ‘Hey Rainbow Dash, follow me to my basement so I can sell ya to some legion shit heads.’
***
“I would never do that!” The alicorn said defensively.
“Yeah I know, just bustin ya balls,” The mare said with a laugh “well maybe, it’s happened before.” Alright maybe that was a little harsh though The pony thought to herself “Just forget about it, it was only a joke.”
“Well it wasn’t very funny Rainbow! What kind of sick humor do you have?” Twilight practically yelled at the mare.
“Well first off, the kind that gets you through basic, and the kind that gets you through Hoover Dam.” The girl said with a slight shrug. “Can I just get on with this? I really don’t want to forget my spot and have to start over.”
“Hmph, fine!” The mare said sitting back down after realizing that she stood up after shouting.
***
As the we descended down the staircase that seemed to take a lifetime, a little thought popped in my head. Why is it so dark down here Then I saw it, THE biggest mess ever, scattered books and tomes. It quite frankly looked impossible to walk through, yet there was still a small path of cleared space that was small enough for one pony to get through. Alright, single file it is. I thought to myself as I got behind Twilight.
“Alright Rainbow just stand still and make no sudden movements, the tiniest thing could make this spell go wrong.” Twilight warned her friend as she went over to an open book. To say the spell was dangerous would be an understatement, literally anything could happen from not going anywhere to making it to the desired destination without any limbs. So this was a major risk that would have major reward, if it worked correctly.
“Fine I won’t, can we just get this done already? I’m getting angsty!” I replied with a slightly annoyed tone, but really could you blame me I was getting sick of all of the warnings. It can’t really be that bad. I thought to myself rolling her eyes and felt a little sneeze come on, quickly I made sure to stop it from happening. Just in case.
“Alright just hold still.” The princess said as her horn was quickly charged with a purple glow. I kept on feeling a sneeze come one and kept on suppressing it the best that I could. Time seemed to slow down for one moment and then speed up faster than a Deathclaw on jet.
I really couldn’t take it anymore, just as the spell was casted I let out a giant sneeze. Next thing I see is a bright light and what smelled like something burning, I tried to scream but nothing would come out.
***
“Not going to lie, I really thought that I was dead then and there. Until…”
***
When I first woke up the very first thing that I could see was sand. Lots and lots of sand. The sound of a medium size fire and movement was nearby so I did what anypony else would have done. Acted like I was asleep. Worked to, until I heard what sounded like perfect Equish.
“So can we eat it boss?” A voice to my right said, it was strange it had some kind of Mexicolt accent, and also sounded like a stallion. When I finally saw what it was all I could do was stare.
It was some kind of skinless monkey zombie thing! It looked completely horrifying with it’s peeling skin, bald head, and tiny snout. Somehow it had a black mustache on top of what looks like a pair of lips. Something that she did note is that he was wearing some kind of jumpsuit with the name ‘Miguel’ on the top right and that he had some kind of revolver on its side.
“Raul I swear to all that is holy, if you ask that one more time, I will shove my foot up your ass!” Another voice left of who she guesses is Raul said with an extremely annoyed tone.
When she saw this one, it was much less intimidating than the last one. It had smoother skin, blue eyes, and a messy black mane. He really looked only a few years older than a high school graduate, but was wearing some kind of brown and black suit with some metal plates at what looked to be random places and had a revolver on his side that looked smaller than the zombie and some kind of wooden and metal rifle on his back
“It’s awake.” A low voice said as it noticed that she was up. The last voice had a red hat, with a pair of sunglasses, and clothing where the top half was a tanish color and the bottom half was brown. It had what looked like a giant rifle that had some kind of scope on it’s back.
“W-what are you!” I said to the group stammering.
“Oh my god it can talk!” The black maned man yelled at the top of his lungs as he jumped back. “Hold me Boone!” Then the man quickly tried jumping into the arms of his companion, only to get sidestepped.
“Don’t touch me.” Boone said with a low and stern tone. After giving the man on the ground a look of disappointment he quickly changed his glance to the pony on the ground. “What is your name?” He asked her with a curious tone “You do have a name don’t you?”
“Y-yeah, m-my name is Rainbow Dash” I as I was scared out of my mind replied back to the man in a tone in a voice that would make Fluttershy sound like she was screaming
“Wait, what did you just say?” The now standing man said as he was brushing himself off.
“I said my name was Rainbow Dash.” I said louder, trying to gain a little bit of my self respect back.
“Oh my fucking god, that is the greatest name ever.” The strange man said looking like a foal in a candy store. He then proceeded to get into my face keeping his big smile the whole time. “Boone look at her, she’s like a horse with wings!” He said looking over at Boone who could only be heard saying something on the lines of ‘What the hell is a horse?’ to Raul.
I could only stare at him with a mixture of fear and confusion. The strange creature who originally had struck unholy amounts of fear into me, is now acting a lot like Pinkie Pie. No matter how hard I tried to be scared I couldn’t really help but feel safe around this group of individuals. It was like I just knew that they wouldn’t try to hurt me. Well maybe Raul, but you know. Zombie thing.
“Anywho, Now that i’m going to guess you know most of our names- yes I saw your eyes moving around as we spoke -I might as well introduce myself.” The man said putting out his hand “Hi. My name’s Mark Brown, and i’m the motherfucking Courier.
“Now I was freaking right the fuck out, weird looking ape things, a zombie, and all of them had guns. But I kind of learned later that they would become amazing friends. Though they never held a candle to any of you.” Rainbow Dash said to all of the ponies around her. Telling this story at times was going to get hard for her, all the things she would have to keep from everypony just so they wouldn’t see her as a monster, all the times she didn’t think twice about killing someone, or something. I already knew it would be hard. I just never thought it would be this hard. The rainbow mare thought to herself, trying to stay calm on the outside like she had done so many times before.
“Rainbow, I'm going to be honest with you. If it was anypony else I would of already thrown them into a psychiatric hospital to get help. Though I have a feeling you’re not lying.” The purple princess said with a bit of hesitation. I also have a feeling you’re not going to tell the whole truth. While she did trust her blue friend in every way possible, the way she was just saying everything seemed like she was picking her words carefully. She may have been through a traumatic experience and might try to repress those memories. More or less, Twilight Sparkle was ready to become a shoulder to cry on for the broken pegasus.
“Now I don’t rightly know what happened to ya, but I do think I have a feeling. Dash….did you get sent to the wasteland?” The apple farmer said with a memory of her own experiences with the girl that had saved her life from becoming a group of raiders midnight snack. “Girls, you know how I said that the spell worked but at the same time didn’t? I’m guessing that the same thing happend to Dash, she just got sent to a different place.” She added, trying to explain that the same spell mishap happened to her friend. While her time in the ruins of D.C. was short, it had a lasting impact on her. Making her sleep with her trusty shotgun next her for every night since returning. The thoughts of what happened came back to her in an instant. From her meeting Alyssa, to her first encounter with a Deathclaw, and even when they defeated the Enclave. To say she knew what Rainbow Dash went through would be an understatement.
“Yup guilty as charged, what spend a little time in the beautiful irradiated wasteland?” The winged soldier said back to her friend with a curious tone in her voice, her interest now being fully peaked. Yeah, AJ in the Mojave, that would be crazy….right? She thought to herself trying to make sense of what her friend knew. Once is a coincidence, but twice? Now there’s something. The blue mare thought to herself as her friends tried to get her attention, Pondering maybe it wasn’t so much of a coincidence that she was sent to the wasteland. Ugh, Magic makes my head hurt.
“Well, I was in the capital. Washington D.C. I met a girl there who helped me out when I needed her.” The apple farmer replied back to her friend with a slight hesitation, after being thrown off by the response that she got. Her saying this got Rainbow Dashes attention fast, all she could do was sit and think about everything that she knows about her simple friend. I doubt that she’s gonna believe me. Applejack silently thought to herself as she watched Rainbow’s reality conflict with itself.
AJ? In the wasteland? How? I doubt that Twi would get the same results as she did with me, so it just doesn’t make sense. The armored pony thought to herself , trying to figure the whole situation out. “H-how?” She finally managed to ask her friend after a few moments of silence, hoping that she would get some kind of response that didn’t make her head hurt.
“Same way you did Dash, we tried that spell.” The farmer replied to the mare, hesitating slightly. And would ya know it, the spell works. Applejack silently thought to herself, letting her friend take in everything thats happening.
“So let me get this straight,” Dash started “You used a spell that could have possibly killed you and for all we know of blown the entire town sky high, you didn’t use something simple like an apple or a feather, and oh right endangered yourself and those around you? She said her voice quickly rising in tone.
“We-well um, yes?” Twilight said stuttering on her words, noticing how intimidating Rainbow could be when she needed to be.
“Are you fucking retarded!?” Dash all but yelled at the ponies. “You have ponies who fucking care about you, you have duties that you need to attend to, you have a family who cares about you, and you do this shit!?” Dash screamed at the two in front of her, her blood boiling with rage. How could they be so stupid? She thought to herself as her friends tried to recover from what was just said to them.
“Well Rainbow Dash we needed to know for sure if it would work on ponies. You might not of been through a lot but don’t even think that you can judge those around you especially your friends.” Princess Celestia said with a cool and calm voice, trying to maintain balance before a war between the elements started.
“Oh I don’t want to hear a peep out of you!” Dash said to the princess much to the shock of those around her. “You’re supposed to stop your subordinates when they may step out of line or endanger civilians,” She said her attention focused on Celestia. “And the way I see it, they did both.” She finished her rant to the princess with a look of disgust. While she may of not seen it, there was a look of shock on the faces of her friends all around her.
A deathly silence went around the whole room as everyone tried to comprehend what Dash had just said. She would never say something like that to The Princess, she supposed to be the element of loyalty. Twilight Sparkle thought to herself. What happened?
“Rainbow Dash, I must ask you to sit down.” The Princess of the sun told the blue mare, with a calm tone. She quickly motioned for the guards surrounding the room to stand down, as she tried to maintain order.
“Look, I’m sorry alright, it’s just…..” The mare started to say trailing off mid sentence “It’s just, I don’t want any of you getting hurt. You girls mean the world to me, you have have families who want to see you come home every day. I….I don’t. I’ve spent my entire life trying to impress my parents by becoming a Wonderbolt so they would finally be proud of me, but all I could never make it. I’ve been stuck at that same fuckin weatherjob since I was in high school and they just recently put me in charge. I know that I’m going to go no where in life. But all you. No you girls can do just about anything. Rarity’s a big time pony in the fashion business. AJ runs a successful farm and has family that goes all the way back to the founding of Ponyville. Twilight is a princess. Pinkie Pie is one of the best party planners in Equestria, and Fluttershy reformed the god of Chaos. And I’m still stuck as a fucking weather worker.” She finished with a drop of her head, now wishing that she was back in the Wasteland. At least there I was somepony but here, I’m a no one.
The room went silent after that no one wanting to even move, everypony was just thinking about what was said. “Dash,” Applejack started to say “We care about you. All of us, we spent the whole time you were gone searching for you. I know what you mean about what you said, because I thought the same thing about myself when I first came back. It was the girls who just helped me remember how wrong I was, and damn it all to hell if I’m going to let you think of yourself like that.” She said getting into Rainbow Dashs’ face tears starting to well up in both of their eyes.
Rainbow Dash jumped into the apple farmer surrounding her with a hug and letting the tears flow out. They really do care about me? She thought to herself. After all the shit that I just said to them, they still care.
“Now stop crying, what do you think all of your fans would think if they saw the Rainbow Dash crying?” Applejack said trying to wipe tears out of her own eyes.
Silence once again was the victor in the atmosphere of the room, between what had just happened and how fast things were going. Alright, Dash thought. let’s try to keep the story going.
“We went to the Outpost.” She said breaking the silence.
“W-What?” Twilight managed to say, thrown off with how fast she went back to telling her story.
“You wanted to know what happened right? We went to the Mojave Outpost, where I learned how crazy things will get.”
