//------------------------------//
// A buck in the head 
// Story: Fallout: Harmony 
// by Foreverking0 
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The contrast from night to day was apparent even from inside the pre-war riot helmet, with night vision still active from its wearer's excursion outside to pee. While the self-taught ranger was no stranger to being teleported or abducted, He had learnt first-hand to avoid both while he was intoxicated. Moving from his feet to his ass was not the most dignified of acts, but it was the one that ended up happening. Thankfully, upon looking around, He found himself alone in an abandoned town. It looked much like every other place in the Mojave, except for the fact it looked new. Instead of dried cracked paint and old rotten wood, the buildings were pristine beyond anything he had seen. 

The sound of glass breaking broke the moment, there was someone nearby. Scrambling to his feet, the slow walk towards the commotion began. One foot in front of the other, He had a mastery of his alcohol tolerance. Before reaching the location of the sounds of destruction, he stopped to notice a pie on a window sill. 





Braeburn Had never been more terrified in his life, he was currently hiding in the 'Salt Block' Saloon in the cupboard under the stairs with the saloon owner Morton Shaker. After the attack that had happened last week, all of Applelossa found that the easiest way to survive was to stay out of the way of the violent attackers. The sound of shattering glass and wood was followed by loud roaring voices coming from outside the cupboard. 

"There's nothing here, just fucking salt!" One screamed out, smashing another chair against the wall.

"It's a bar, they must have something here, keep searching" another responded loudly.

"We have searched this entire place, there's nothing here except this shit" the first one replied.

"Check under the stairs, maybe there's a basement or something, If we don't find something, Parker will have our collective ass" The second voice warned

"Parker better watch his back, he ain't got his big brother to back him up no more" the first voice was getting clearer as it was getting closer. suddenly the light was blinding as the door was opened. The two ponies froze in fear as the two-legged horror was looking at them through goggles.

"I found two live ones." He called back to the others before grabbing both ponies by the mane and dragging them into the middle of the saloon. 

One of the attackers was wearing a hat much like Braeburn's own. It smiled like a predator looking at a meal before walking over in front of Morton Shaker and kneeling. "Maybe one of you knows where the booze is."

"We, we don't that here, this is just a salt saloon, please, let us go" Shaker begged, cowering before the towering individual.

Shaking his head, the Creature stood back up and with his head motioned to one of the others. A lackey nearby walked over, pulled something out of his coat and aimed it at Shaker. 

Braeburn knew death, his pappy had died a few years back, but this was something few ponies had ever seen. With a flash and bang like thunder and lightning coming from the object, the pony next to him dropped to the floor.

A hole was bleeding blood over Shaker's dark grey coat, the pony limp. Braeburn may have wet himself if he hadn't gone before the attack. His eyes shrunk as he continued to stare at the body beside him, his brain trying to find a way out of this situation. He only looked away when the creature in front of him bent down again, this time looking straight at him.

"Let's try that again" The body next to Braeburn was dragged away, "Unless you want to end up like your friend" The nearby window shattered as Shaker was thrown out of it, "You're going to tell me where the strong stuff is".

Braeburn tried to say something, anything, but the paralysis caused by watching somepony die right next to him was still gripping his system. 

The monster in front of him stood back up and continued speaking. 
"I'll give you to the count of three, one." The object in the killer's hand clicked, and Braeburn felt it against the side of his head.

"Two", before the monster in the hat could finish his counting, the doors to the saloon slammed open.

Another one of the Monsters stumbled into the saloon, carrying a pie. It slowly walked in a wonky fashion over to a table and sat down, putting the pie on it. The four other Monsters were all watching the scene, Braeburn didn't try anything but noticed that all attention was on the newcomer. 

The Newcomer was wearing a large Duster, covering some kind of black armour, and on his head was a Helmet with some sort of mask on it. The Helmet was removed to show a short dirty blond mane and 5 o'clock shadow. He then rubbed his claws together, wearing some sort of black material over them. 

"Oi, who the fuck are you?" One of the other Monsters yelled out

The stranger looked up to see the others of his kind and Braeburn, looking down at the pie and up again. 

"I swear it was just sitting there" he responded.

One of the Monsters that was leaning on a wall walked up to the sitting stranger, he then slammed his hands on the table.

"Do you have a fucking death wish?"  the Lackey Roared at the stranger.

"The stranger then lifted his hands defensively. "Look, you can have the pie, no hard feelings." The stranger offered, looking around the room at all the others.

"Just waste his ass already" shouted the Monster wearing a hat just in front of him.

The lackey pulled an object from his pocket that was similar to the one from before, but before he could use it, the stranger went into action.

Slamming the pie into the Attacker in front of him, the Stranger threw the table aside and grabbed the now-blinded assailant. Using him as a shield, the stranger pulled out a weapon of his own and aimed back at the front of the store. Before the two guarding the door could pull out their own weapons, Each was dropped by Precise headshots one after another. The Monster in the hat and the one surviving lackey slowly walk back behind the bar for cover while firing into the wounded goon being used as a shield. The saloon was in chaos as the sounds of the weapons made it sound like a thunderstorm was happening all around Braeburn, who was keeping himself low to the floor to avoid being hurt. From there he watched as the stranger ran to the side of the saloon towards the jukebox, throwing his wounded shield out a side window in the process as he dived behind the machine now being pelted with shots. As the records in the machine began to scatter from the machine, the stranger leaned out and picked up two, he calculated the best angle to throw from low to the ground and threw them like frisbees.

One made its mark, knocking down the Monster who had interrogated Braeburn moments before. The other one went wide and missed, The stranger leaned back behind the ruined music machine as the last standing thug returned to firing. The last standing thug fired repeatedly at the now destroyed music machine in a panic until his weapon stopped working, making clicking noises. The stranger, noticing the lack of sound shot up and shot the final foe. The Sound of movement came from the floor above as two of the surviving attackers raced to join the fight. The stranger, hearing the noise, left his cover, shot straight past Braeburn to the side of the stairs and waited next to the bannister. As soon as one of them began to screen the room, the Stranger grabbed the exposed weapon and fired two times into the Enemy's exposed chest, then aimed up and fired once more up the stairs. The sounds of a body falling down the stairs were followed by said body rolling past the stranger and onto the floor. 

Suddenly, it was silent. Braeburn slowly lifted himself off the ground and watched the stranger look around before going to grab his helmet and went behind the bar. A weak voice came from behind the bar "What are you?", The stranger put his helmet on and the muffled, synthesised voice said "I'm the goddamn mailman" Before executing the last one.

The Battle over, the Victorious man sat down, mourning the loss of a good pie. Putting Maria on the table, the gun that changed his life served as both a reminder of his past and a well-concealed weapon for such moments as now. After taking a minute's rest, He noticed something was off, looking to the side and slightly down was a weird... thingy? It was some sort of animal, but it was not aggressive, it was also looking at him. 

The creature spoke. "You saved my life, thank you." 

The Man looked at the creature for a moment before reaching out with his hand. The talking animal winced as the hand came close until a finger touched it. 

"Huh, your real, that's new." The man said from behind the helmet.

Taken back by the response, Braeburn shook away the confusion and continued.
"My name is Braeburn, may I know your name?"

The Man put his legs up on the table in front of him and leaned back "Most people know me as the courier since I was the sixth courier, You can call me six."

Braeburn found that to be a strange name, but decided now was not the time to ask questions about his hero's past.

"Well, Mr Six, You sure know how to handle yourself, these here villains have been attacking our town for a week now."

Six cut off Braeburn before he could finish. "Fucking raiders, too many guns, not enough brains. They're only good for target practice"

Braeburn continued where he left off. "There are a whole lot of them held up somewhere nearby, they already took Sheriff Silverstar. Were defenceless, please, can you help?" 

Six leaned back even further on the chair, and after a moment he gave his reply. "On one condition, can I get a new pie?"

Six fell backwards as a result of losing balance as the now ecstatic Braeburn shouted out in joy.





The Creature Braeburn, which Six found out was called a pony, had managed to talk the town out of hiding, and got the local baker to work with what she could to bake a pie as Braeburn left town with Six to locate the raider base. Six had tried to tell the pony to stay behind and continued to do so all the way there.

"No how, no way, I ain't gonna let you go by yourself, you saved my life, I owe you this much," Braeburn Stated with resolve.

"I told you you don't owe me anything but a pie, now stop talking" Six ordered, The courier having lost his buzz and now forming a headache. The man went low to the ground, looking for something. Then he saw it, some spent brass casings were partially buried in the dry earth, they must have been stepped on as the earth was bone dry. Following the last point, they were heading in the right direction. 

"How did you learn to track like that?" Braeburn inquired.

"Used to hang with a bunch of rangers, also learnt some tricks from tribals out near Zion." Replied Six, Braeburn Didn't know what a ranger was or what Zion was, but he decided it was something to ask another time.

Six stopped, looking around, then spoke up. "They must have found shelter out here, Know of anywhere nearby?"

Braeburn Thought about his location and responded. "There used to be a mine around here, but they never found enough ore to be worth the effort." 

Six took off his helmet and climbed a nearby mound, and looked to the distance. Eventually, a small glint in the distance had promise. Putting his helmet back on, the continued towards the reflective source in the distance.

As they came closer to the source, they could see a Mine entrance with a clean lamp hanging from a beam holding up the roof. Sitting on a wooden crate was a raider who had dozed off under the shade. Next to him was a pickaxe leaning on a bunch of smaller wooden crates and rope hanging off a nail.

Not wanting to waste what 9mm rounds he had been able to find on the dead raiders back in town, Six snuck
up to the slumbering guard. Grabbing one of the boxes, He threw it down as hard as he could on the guard's head.
The Sleeping Guard went limp as timber dropped all over him. Picking up the pick, Six raised it above his head to bring it down on the guard's head. "Wait!" Cried Braeburn, rushing over to the entrance. "Don't kill him".

Six looked at Braeburn, and with disbelief asked, "Your kidding right?"

Braeburn shook his head adamantly "He's defenceless, you can't just kill somepony like that." Braeburn stated.

"Why not?" Retorted Six, but getting a dirty look for Braeburn, threw the pick behind him "Fine"

Six grabbed the rope and knelt next to the sprawled-out unconscious guard, binding his arms and legs. Giving the Guard one last kick for good measure, "Happy" Six asked.

Braeburn nodded firmly, six then proceeded into the mine while Braeburn followed. 





Braeburn was prepared for many things when he followed Six through the mine, but there was one thing he never could have been prepared for, the smell. He didn't know how Six handled the smell, Either the mask stopped it, or he had dealt with it before. The latter slightly scared Braeburn, where exactly had all of these beings come from? 

When they reached a large chamber, A campfire was evident from the light moving on the walls and roof. From the shadows, Six pointed out eight raiders. Braeburn noticed a crude cage off to the side, hidden from the raiders by some built-up earth. Braeburn quietly rushed to see what was inside, Six was whispering for him to stop but stopped partway through. Inside, Braeburn saw three captives, two he knew straight away. "Sherif, Strongheart" He whispered. The pony and buffalo looked horrible, filthy conditions and a lack of sleep or food had taken their toll.

"Braeburn, what are you doing here," Sherif Silverstar asked in bafflement. 

"Getting you all out of here, is he ok, are there any others?" Braeburn asked while studying the cage, it was a simple latch kept out of reach from its occupants.

The sheriff looked back at the pony lying in the back of the cage, "He's dead, no food or water, been here longer than we have. There were others, buffalo that were with Little Stronheart." 

Little Stronheart look as if she was about to break into tears, "We were coming to the town to talk about water rights when we were ambushed by those things, they... they ate them, Those monsters ate them" 

Both The sheriff and the chief's daughter froze as they looked behind Braeburn, their iris shrinking and ears going down.

Braeburn felt something on his back, he spun around to see Six with a digit against his mask's mouthpiece, shushing him.
"New plan, I make a diversion and you grab whoever and run." 

"What are you gonna do?" Braeburn asked

Six held up a red stick and said. "Make a distraction"

When Six walked away, Braeburn looked back to see the two prisoners very confused.
"It's ok, he's helping, Let's get you two out of there"





Six loved dynamite, It was practical. Light it, throw it, and Boom. All these years he still had Benny's lighter, and this was one of the many reasons why. He waited behind a stalagmite for an opportunity to attack the raiders down below. With a practised aim, he tossed it right into the middle of the campfire, The chaos was perfect. Most of the raiders Weren't armed as they didn't expect to be attacked in their own hideout, They were easy pickings. A few sticks of dynamite took care of the ones behind the cover, Then it was down to a few. A shot pinged off Six's helmet, small calibre rounds tended to do that. Well, aimed headshots with Maria dropped the few standing raiders, but the sound of automatic fire dropped Six into cover quickly. The ringleader had brought out an assault rifle and was firing at Six's cover. Using one of the last sticks of dynamite he had grabbed, the threw it over the top from behind cover, after a second, his legendary luck paid off as the gunfire ended.

Looking back up, the Chamber was quiet. Six climbed down towards and past where the campfire had been, now just ash and scorch marks, to the other side of the chamber. Going up to where the ringleader had come from, he saw the remains of his foe's arm, the rifle nearby. Picking it up, he noted it was still functional but was empty. Putting it on his back with the intact strap, Six went into the small room the Raider leader had come from. Inside was a bed, a desk, a safe and a book on the desk. Picking up the book, Six opened it to a marked page, it was a journal entry.

"With L.T. left behind, I'm now running the Bullpits. Nothing is stopping us from taking this place, little freaks are easy pickings." 

Most of the page was worthless until Six read the last line. 

"Crews getting restless, no chems, no booze, nothing around here except that small ass town, they must have something. I'm keeping my personal stache, in case I need some pull with the crew. If things don't change, they're gonna throw me on a spit next."

Six closed the book and looked to the safe, the only secure location he had seen. The lock was simple enough, thankfully a screwdriver and a handful of hairpins were standard procedure when going anywhere in the wasteland. Six put the screwdriver in the lock and... it was already open. Taking a minute to process how dumb he was, he opened the safe to find a bottle of scotch and a stimpack. Grabbing both and searching the rest of the camp for rounds, Six left for the surface. 

The sound of commotion near the entrance caused Six's brisk march to turn into a sprint. The first thing he saw was the guard they had incapacitated free and holding a switchblade. Six tackled the Raider to the earth and tried to get the blade off him, Only to end up with it in his side. Six managed to get on top of the raider and pulled out his gun, putting two shots in his head. the third pull of the trigger announced that Maria was empty. Falling off the dead raider, he collapsed to the side to see Braeburn on the ground, with a deep cut on his side. The pony and pony-like creatures hovering over him wondering what to do. Getting to his feet, he walked over to the three, pulling out the stim pack on the slow walk. 

The two uninjured escapes quickly moved out of his way in caution but said nothing. Falling to his knees, he stabbed the stimpack into Braeburn. The injured pony's leg kicked, the cut in his midriff sealing within seconds. 

"The pain, it's gone. " Braeburn muttered, slowly being to move.

Six Got back to his feet "Yeah well, don't expect that again, Damn things only work once" At the statement, he threw the empty stimpack over his shoulder. 

"You saved my life, again" Braeburn stated, looking at Six, then down at the blood seeping through his duster. 

"Your bleeding!" Little Strongheart pointed out, All attention now on Six. 

"Yeah, give it a minute" Six replied. Slowly the wound healed on its own. 

Braeburn was amazed, "Can all of your folk do that?" 

Six looked down at Braeburn, "Nope, I'm something of a special case." 

Sherif Silverstar walked up to Braeburn "How did you both even find us?"

Braeburn enthusiastically motioned to Six "Our friend here is a tracker, he found the raider's hideout and took them out himself."

Sherif Silverstar then walked up to Six "Then I must state my gratitude, you saved our lives and the whole town. Thank you, Mr?"

Six motioned for everyone to follow him as he began to walk back towards town. "Courier, And don't thank me just yet, I still want my pie."

The sheriff stared blank-faced as the Courier began to leave. "Your what?"





Appleoosa was celebrating as best as it could under the circumstances. The deaths of the raiders had freed them of the attacks, and the return of the sheriff meant the town leadership was returned. However, the destruction and murder of multiple settlers and natives had soured the mood slightly and it would take a long time for the trauma to heal.
Still, the Settler ponies Celebrated, The buffalo joining them. It turned out that Strongheart's absence had worried the buffalo who sent parties out to find her, only for the raiders to hunt them when they split off into smaller groups. The chief was relieved to find his daughter, but the buffalo had suffered greatly even compared to the settlers.

The Courier, Celebrated his own way, with half the bottle of scotch he had recovered from the mine. Mixed with his blood loss, it had the desired effect at only half a bottle. The other half had been drunk by Braeburn, who along with Six had been hailed a hero. Hoping to take the edge off of the whole situation, Six had offered the stallion the rest of the scotch. Six had in fact never received his pie, as by the time it was ready, no one could find him or Braeburn.





A hangover was a good sign for Courier 6, It meant he was alive. Every day he woke up with a headache was a quick reminder of the fact he was still there to feel it. What was new was the sensation of waking up in a proper bed, Normally he woke up in a bar, outside, on a mattress, but not a normal bed. He was in a bed with proper sheets and pillows, A luxury rarely found in the wasteland. What was more concerning was the fact he was wearing nothing, A fact that was reinforced by the fact that something furry was lying next to him. Turning his head, he saw the pony Braeburn sleeping peacefully next to him. After taking a few minutes to regret his life choices, he stealthily got out of bed, put on his gear and left the pony's house. 





Rainbow Dash waited as Applejack left the train by the station, whereas she had simply flown out the window. As Applejack walked off the platform, Rainbow Dash asked the question she had on her mind since the conductor announced they were reaching their destination.

"So how are we going to find this guy? Do I need to fly over and look?" 

Applejack responded to the unnecessary question. "No Rainbow, I told you, Cousin Braeburn can help us."

Rainbow countered with annoyance, "I don't see why, it's a human, it's not like it won't stick out."

Applejack argued back with irritation as they walked up to her cousin's home, "Braeburn knows everypony in Appleloosa, besides, it's not like it's going to pop out in front of us"

In front of them was a human quietly closing the down to Braeburn's home. His helmet was under his arm. Turning to walk away, The human stopped dead in his tracks to look at the two now confused ponies. 

Rainbow broke the silence "Are you the human we're looking for?"

Applejack quickly told Rainbow Dash off "Rainbow!" then looked to the human, "I'm sorry about my friend here, I'm Applejack, and this here pony is Rainbow Dash. We're looking for a non-local who may have appeared recently, and as someone who has been here before, You fit the bill." 

The human seemed taken aback by the statement "What am I wanted for?" 

Applejack tried to put it best she could "Well, the princesses have a problem, that they think you can help with. We were sent to find you and bring you back so they can tell you themselves."

The man looked behind him at the door and answered, "Sure, fine, let's go, how are we getting there?"

"By train, come on let's go." Rainbow Dash demanded impatiently

As they proceeded towards the train station, Applejack piped up "What were you doing in mah cousin's house, and why do you smell of him?"

Most of the town stopped what they were doing at Applejack shouting loudly "WHAT!?!"