Day 4 Part 1
“Morning Sparky.” Ethan said with a grin as he poked Twilight in the side gently. She groaned.
“Spike give me a few more minutes.” Twilight rasped (her voice still hadn’t recovered from the bruising that she’d gotten the other day)
“Spike? Well I didn’t want to do this but…” Ethan said hefting a bucket that he’d filled with water.
“Ethan if you dump that on me I swear to Celestia that I’ll throw you all the way to Megaton.” Twilight said opening her eyes. Ethan chuckled and put the water bucket on the ground for Twilight.
“I was joking Sparky, I brought the water in case you were thirsty or in case you wanted to wash the blood off of your face.” Ethan told her passing her a mirror, Twilight yelped in surprise. She hadn’t had the energy to do much last night besides fall into bed and both her face and her mane were covered in dried blood.
“I look like shit.” Twilight rasped as she noticed the large bruises around her throat.
“Well at least you have a nice ass.” Ethan said with a grin as Twilight stared at him incredulously (her face had turned scarlet). “Joking Sparky, I’m married remember.” Ethan told her with a smirk.
“Ethan…” Twilight said absolutely unable to think of something to say.
“Take your time, I’ll meet you in the main area and you can eat. Then we go to the capital building and find out just what the hell is going on.” Ethan told her before waving and walking out of the small bed room.
Twilight quickly began to clean her face and mane with the cold water and she shivered slightly as it rolled down her spine. Then with a surprising amount of deftness she quickly got into her armor. Finally she took apart her plasma rifle and cleaned each individual part the way Ethan had taught her while they were staying in the Citadel. With a satisfied nod she slung the rifle over her shoulder and walked out of the bedroom to find Ethan sitting at a small round table munching on something. The knight from last night and the initiate were with him.
“You look much better Sparky.” Ethan said with a grin. “Oh yeah Sparky I want you to meet Knight Lance and Initiate Tony.” Ethan said gesturing to the two Brotherhood members.
“Hi.” Twilight said taking the seat next to Ethan.
“Morning Ma’am.” Knight Lance said giving her a small smile before turning back to some manual he was reading.
“Yo.” Initiate Tony said with a grin which got him a slightly dirty look from the Knight.
“Here Twilight have a carrot.” Ethan said tossing her one. Twilight eyed it in shock; she’d been under the impression that she’d be eating century old (or mutated) food for the duration of her stay in the Wasteland.
“Is this fresh?” Twilight asked looking at the carrot uncertainly.
“Is the space pope reptilian?” Initiate Tony asked with a grin.
“No but he’s ugly as hell.” Ethan replied with a chuckle. “Don’t worry Twilight that carrot’s from the hydroponics lab in Rivet City, one hundred percent unmutated and fresh.” Ethan added. Twilight sniffed the carrot, and upon finding nothing amiss she bit into it. Twilight’s eyes widened as the taste of fresh carrot washed across her taste buds before she quickly demolished the carrot.
“And here I thought you were a lesbian.” Ethan joked.
“Please tell me there’s more.” Twilight rasped.
“Sorry Sparky they’re expensive and I can’t drain this outpost of all its best food.” Ethan told her with a shrug. Twilight pouted but gave up with a sigh.
“Can I have something else to eat then?” She asked.
“Have some two century old apple cakes.” Ethan replied and handed her a box of Dandy Boys Apples. Twilight looked at the small red things in front of her in annoyance for a second before popping on into her mouth.
“So Ethan what’s our plan for the day?” She asked around a mouthful of cakes (for some reason the longer she was in the wasteland the less things like that mattered to her).
“Well we’re traveling across the broken and half destroyed trenches heading towards the capital building, all the while killing whatever mutants decide to try and stop us.” Ethan told her with a smile.
“Oh is that all?” Twilight asked dryly.
“Yeah, the normal stuff.” Ethan replied then he turned to Knight Lance. “By the way can I have a copy of the recording from last night?”
“Sure, I’ll go get you one.” Lance replied with a shrug as he went over to the computer and began to hit a few buttons, he returned a few seconds later with a white tape which he handed to Ethan.
“Thanks, alright Sparky are you ready to go?” Ethan asked, Twilight nodded and got out of her chair. “Well boys thanks for letting us crash with you; I’d recommend keeping the door locked.” Ethan said swinging to his feet and heading towards the door, Twilight followed. Once the doors behind them had closed Ethan pulled out an unfamiliar gun. It was long and had a scope on it but it was oddly boxy and had a small crank attached to the side.
“What’s that Ethan?” Twilight asked as she looked at the rifle.
“Good question Sparky. This is my modified gauss rifle.” Ethan told her.
“Gauss rifle?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah it uses magnets.” Ethan told her.
“How?” She asked.
“They’re magnets who the fuck knows? Na I’m kidding, it uses magnets to propel pieces of metal down the barrel at extreme speed that travel until they impact against something.” Ethan told her with a grin. Twilight’s eyes lit up with questions but Ethan shushed her quickly. “Here’s the plan. I’m going to clear our way with this baby, and you’re going to watch my back while I look down scope.”
“Alright I can do that, what about when we make it to the capital building?” Twilight asked.
“We kick in the doors and kill everything we meet.” Ethan replied with a smirk.
“Really, that’s your plan?” Twilight asked sarcastically.
“You’d be surprised at how good that plan works.” Ethan told her with another smirk. Twilight rolled her eyes and Ethan sighed. “Fine have it your way. We kick in the doors lay down surprising fire, clear each section of the building room by room, then once we’re done we plant explosives in front of the doors and walk away as they explode dramatically.” Ethan said with a large smile.
“That sounds better, except for the last part.” Twilight replied as they stepped forward.
“Alright fine, no explosions; kill joy.” Ethan told her as he brought the scope of his rifle up to eyelevel and sank into a crouch.
There was a thunderous boom and a supermutant’s head exploded in a shower of gore. The mutants around it looked about in confusion as they began to explode. Twilight turned away from the show and began to scan the trenches around them for any approaching mutants. She was in luck (or maybe lacking in it depending on how you look at it) and a supermutant came running out of the trench next to her screaming holding a sledgehammer high.
Twilight’s plasma rifle flash twice and the mutant stumbled backwards clutching at its chest. Then it charged again and Twilight sent another two blasts into it. The mutant turned into a slightly luminescent pile of green goo a few feet away from her. Twilight sighed with relief and reloaded the rifle (she didn’t need to, but to her OCD centric mind you couldn’t just leave the one quarter spent cell inside).
Another mutant charged out of the trench this one holding an assault rifle. Twilight activated the still unfamiliar VATS function on the pipboy and lined up four head shots (they were 85%) then she released the tech and watched as in slow motion as her plasma rifle shots barreled into the mutant’s face. The mutant’s face exploded as the second ball hit it with a small burst of blood (the blood of course managed to find its way into Twilight’s mane).
“You almost done Ethan?” Twilight asked not turning to look.
“Almost, it looks like Talon Company is making another attempt to take the place. It should make things more interesting.” He replied as the rifle roared again.
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked as her rifle blasted another supermutant. Much to her chagrin four out of her eight shots missed completely as her TK field wavered slightly but she still turned the mutant to a pile of goo.
“Well Talon Company is always trying to regain control of the capital building, but this time the majority of their force is outfitted with miniguns and a few assault rifles from out west. In other words they’re actually putting up a fight, which unusual.” He said before reducing a very confused supermutant to a fine red paste. Behind him Twilight killed another mutant and suddenly a little light began to glow on her pipboy.
“Ethan what does this little light mean?” Twilight asked, Ethan took a second to turn away from the scope and looked at Twilight’s pipboy before turning back to the scope.
“That means you’re ready to level up Sparky.” Ethan told her. “Every time you kill something you get theoretical experience. The pipboy tracks that experience and once you’ve killed enough things it tells you that you can level up. Then using its tech (please don’t ask me how I haven’t a clue) it lets you distribute the experience into different parts of your brain to make you better at those things. Oh and it lets you pick a perk that subconsciously unlocks a part of your brain that slowly mutates your body in the way you desire.” Ethan told her, Twilight stared at him, his back was turned but from her silence he guessed the expression. “I’d close your mouth or else an eyebot will fly in.” He told her before sending a supermutant’s torso flying away from its lower body.
“That’s impossible!” Twilight said (well shouted really).
“Like I said I don’t know how they do it, all I know is that it’s awesome.” Ethan told her. Twilight turned away from Ethan and pressed the button.
Her world was suddenly alight with numbers. She scanned the list and found that she could influence the list by applying thought to making the numbers move up and down. Twilight realized that time had stopped so she took a few minutes exploring the list; her science was already at 100, as was her repair. Her energy weapons was only at 25 so she spent the bulk of her points raising it up to 40, then she delegated the rest of her points to medicine which she raised to 32. She mentally said that she was done and the scene in front of her was filled with a list of perks, she noticed that she was level ten. After a few minutes of silent indecision she chose the Nerd Rage perk, it seemed useful. Then time returned to normal and she was standing next to Ethan.
“You all set Sparky?” Ethan asked her and Twilight nodded.
“I’m level ten, whatever that means.” Twilight replied with a shrug.
“Cool, I had to start at level one. Then again I bet you actually did something with your life before you got here.” Ethan told her with a chuckle
“Yeah cool…the perk won’t hurt me will it?” Twilight asked slowly.
“I’ve got a few hundred at this point and I haven’t noticed anything wrong, well except for that eye tentacle penis…” Ethan told her with a thoughtful expression before turning back to the scope.
***
Azarath Metrion Zinthos, Azarath Metrion Zinthos. Celestia chanted quietly inside her head as she listened to the noble who was currently engaged in the dance that she and Luna had over the years decided to call the ‘even if you’re immortal I’m smarter then you dance. The chant helped her keep from incinerating them; it also helped focus her magic in case she decided to actually incinerate them…
“…so as you can see Princess Celestia I’m obviously entitled to more land.” The noble finished with smirk. Azarath Metrion Zinthos, Azarath Metrion Zinthos. “So what you’re saying is that instead of giving the land to the ponies who want to start a new farming town, I should instead give it to you someone who already holds over 500 acres.” Celestia said slowly.
“That is correct your Majesty, I’ll still allow them to farm there, but they will have to pay me a fee for every crop that they produce.” The noble told her. Azarath Metrion Zinthos.“You are of course aware that we do not allow serfdom in the kingdom?” Celestia asked the noble who coughed politely into his hoof.
“Of course, and I surly know more about the law then most ponies I know.” The noble replied in the tone implying that Celestia was in fact one of those ponies. Azarath Metrion Zinthos, Azarath Metrion Zinthos, Azarath Metrion Zinthos, Azarath Metrion Zinthos! “Are you also aware that what you are proposing is illegal under subsection four page 42 line seven paragraph five of the royal law book designation number 69?” Celestia asked the noble (she smirked inwardly at the shocked expression on his face) “Oh you weren’t? Well I’m terribly sorry but what you propose is simply impossible and as such I’m afraid that the town will be established in the normal order of things.” Celestia told him, she did her best to sound sympathetic (judging by the way that the noble’s eye twitched she was pretty sure that she’d succeeded, after all she’d had a few thousand years of faking sincerity)
“I was unaware of that subsection, your Majesty.” The noble simpered.
“Oh it’s quite alright, I don’t expect my subjects to memorize ever law book like I’m forced to.” Celestia told him sympathetically.
“I’ll just be going then.” The noble said before turning around and practically running out of the room.
“Nicely done Ma’am, he actually believed he had you for a few seconds there.” Artos said from her right with a gentle flap of his white wings.
“Thank you Artos, I wondered for a second if he saw through me.” Celestia replied with a quiet chuckle.
“Shall I send in the next one?” Rudy asked from where he stood at the door.
“Why not, we’ve still got all day.” Celestia replied with a shrug.
“Announcing Princess Gilda of the Griffins, come to seek advice.” Rudy shouted as a young white feathered griffin entered the room. Celestia’s ears perked up in surprise and interest. Griffins were proud creatures and didn’t normally ask for help dealing with their problems, she also knew a bit about this particular griffin thanks in part to one of Twilight’s friendship reports.
“Is this room private?” The griffin asked Celestia who nodded.
“Yes there is no one here besides my guards both of whom have taken magical oaths to prevent them from speaking of anything that goes on in this chamber.” Celestia replied, Gilda nodded and suddenly she looked very awkward.
“Look, normally I wouldn’t ask someone for advice, but I’m out of options here.” Gilda said rubbing the back of her neck self-
consciously with a talon.
“I understand my dear; it is my job to help ponies through troubles that they wouldn’t ordinarily be able to handle. And although you may not be a pony I will certainly not deny you the right to ask for my help.” Celestia said as she stepped down from her throne and walked towards the young griffin.
“Okay, well, um, you know how griffins bond for life?” Gilda asked and Celestia nodded sagely, she’d learned that the hard way several centuries ago…
“Of course it’s one of the defining features of griffins.” Celestia replied.
“You know Rainbow Dash the Element of Loyalty right?” Gilda asked. Celestia groaned inwardly, she knew exactly where this was going.
“I may have forgotten to mention that to her…” Gilda said awkwardly. “… And then I made a bad impression on her friends because I was being stupid… and then she dumped me…” Gilda said looking more and more awkward with every sentence, she also looked close to tears.
“How long ago was this?” Celestia asked.
“Maybe four years ago.” Gilda said with a slight shudder. That’s when Celestia noticed the dark circles around her eyes and the way that her feathers hadn’t been preened in weeks.
“And what have you done to correct this mistake?” Celestia asked with a sigh, she already knew the answer.
“Nothing, I’ve been too nervous.” Gilda replied quietly, Celestia sighed and wrapped a foreleg around Gilda’s shoulder.
“You’re going to have to do something soon; frankly I’m surprised you’ve made it four years.” Celestia told the griffin who shuddered slightly.
“I know, but what if she hates me?” Gilda asked with a slight sob.
“Then you explain what happened from your point of view, and then you ask her if she’d rather you die from lack of contact.” Celestia told her calmly.
“Do you really think that’ll work?” Gilda asked.
“Yes, but don’t ask it like that. If you ask it like that it’ll sound like blackmail. Sit her down and tell her about the life bond, if you don’t she won’t understand.” Celestia replied.
“Thanks Princess…” Gilda said. “I think I’m going to go do that, I just hope that none of those la- I mean, nice friends of hers aren’t around…” Gilda said trailing off.
“Go on then dear, and tell Rainbow Dash to talk to me if she doesn’t understand what you’ve told her.” Celestia told the griffin who nodded and made her way out of the room.
“Well that’s something you don’t see every day.”Artos said with a low whistle.
“Another Ma’am?” Rudy asked.
“No I’m done for the day.”