Queen Of The Wasteland

by Jest


All Fired Up! Pt2

Plodding silently through the old casino, Twilight wondered what it would have looked like in its heyday. The rotten, and mostly destroyed carpet likely would have looked nice, though in Twilight’s opinion was still probably pretty garish. The general palate of the place was a bit dark as well, and what few minor decorations she saw screamed fake at the top of their non-existent lungs.

The entire thing felt like a tourist trap more than anything, which made sense given what she had gathered about Vegas and its relation to Primm.

Janey peeked into the small gift shop, leveling her weapon briefly before quickly relaxing once more. A nod was exchanged between the pair and Twilight quickly followed after her human companion had entered the room. Upon passing through the small door, Twilight looked around and couldn't help but smile at all the nick nacks that were still there.

Given the life or death nature of the wasteland it made sense that no one had touched the silly things, but had cleaned out the food. Sifting through the mess revealed a small cache of caps hidden behind a wall of seemingly normal nick nacks. Twilight tucked the bag into her coat, and continued to look around, pocketing a few more items she found curious.

Janey meanwhile, had gone straight for the cash register, clearing it out of old world money before rooting around in the cabinets beneath. She then picked the lock on a floor safe, and retreived several items before hastily shutting it and approaching Twilight.

“That's everything here,” Janey whispered.

Twilight blinked, and put the stuffed bear back on the shelf before gesturing to the register curiously.

“Old money. Worthless in most places but some folk still take it,” Janey replied simply.

Twilight nodded.

“Just wait by the entrance. I’ll see about finding our man,” Janey whispered.

Together they set off once more, this time with Janey taking a larger lead so as to make sure Twilight didn't accidentally alert anyone to their presence. Thankfully there was no one around, leaving Twilight with little to do but listen for any sound of this party supposedly happening nearby. It wasn't long before Twilight found the evidence she was searching for, as the wide hallway she had just entered was filled with the sound of music and animated discussion.

Ignoring the obviously locked door to her left, and the small secondary hallway to her right, Twilight focused on the noise. The deathclaw picked out the sound of laughter easily enough, as well as the clank of an occasional bottle. There were also a few more prominent voices she could hear, but there were few words she could actually pick out.

Janey stopped at the door, and quickly picked it using a bobby pin and screwdriver. Upon the entrance clicking open, the human gave Twilight one last look before slipping away. Twilight watched her friend depart through the small window on the top half of the door before quickly losing sight of her.

Now left with little to do but sit and wait, Twilight began to wonder if this had all been a good idea. Janey wasn't the most trustworthy individual ever, and she had a violent streak a mile wide. Neither were personality traits Twilight liked to see in her friends, but compared to the other people the deathclaw had met, werent even that bad, all things considered.

As she wondered about her companion Twilight inspected the area directly in front of her. The entrance was narrow for her, though a human would be fine, and thankfully it quickly opened up. Into a much wider hallway coated in aged advertisements which split off both left and right. At either end of this second hallway were two ancient, and mostly rotten doors that led to the casino floor where the raiders presumably were.

There Twilight remained, waiting patiently between the two entrances as she ruminated on her situation.

I’ll stick with her for now. But if push comes to shove I’ll return to Goodsprings and see if I can't get that nice lady with the dog to help me out. At least until I figure out a better method of conversation anyway. Twilight reasoned.

Her train of thought was interrupted when the music unexpectedly turned off, and the overall hubbub died down. Twilight still couldn't quite hear what was being said, but she could tell that two people were talking. A quick listen revealed that one was Janey, while the other was a raider, presumably.

Twilight slowly inched forward while cursing the weirdly insulated walls and the way they seemed to muffle all sound. With claws extended, and her muscles tense, Twilight was ready to jump at a moment’s notice. Yet even she wasn't ready for the sudden explosion of violence that erupted a second later.

The pop of gunfire was punctuated by the clatter of bottles, and a strange thwomp woosh sound. Either way it was loud, startling Twilight out of her confusion and into action.

“Alright Twilight. You can do this,” Twilight muttered to herself.

Running forward, Twilight put her shoulder down, barreling right through the door and into the space beyond. Twilight had a split second to look around the area, and quickly noted that there were nearly a dozen raiders in the room with her. To the left there was a small kitchen area that had likely served as a bar at one point, but was now Janey and another human’s only saving grace.

Twilight glanced in their direction just long enough to note that they seemed fine, at least for the moment anyway. She then glanced back to her attackers and looked over their various weapons curiously, trying to recall what she knew of them. Most had low caliber pistols, knives, or makeshift weaponry of some kind, that would likely do little to the deathclaw. All save for a man and a woman who had a shotgun, and what looked like a black box of some kind.

This box had a long tube jutting from the front, attached to which was an odd nozzle of some kind. The sides of which sported several long tubes, and the entire thing was held at the user’s waist, with one hand holding as well as aiming while the other fired the thing. Or at least that's what Twilight assumed, for the second she burst into the room everyone stopped and turned to her.

“Holy fuck its a deathclaw!” shouted one of the raiders.

“Shoot the fucking thing!” someone else yelled.

Just like that all attention turned to her, and before Twilight could even reach for a board to tap out a question, she was pelted with bullets. Each hit stung, and irritated the deathclaw, but did next to no actual harm, with even the shotgun’s pellets doing little but annoy her. Twilight raised a hand to defend her face, the former pony overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught launched her way.

“Wait, I wanted to-” Twilight began, only for something white hot to slam into the side of her face.

Fire briefly covered her vision, and she released a startled yelp of surprise as several more of the flaming orbs followed the first one. In mere milliseconds her coat was on fire, and her entire body stung as the flames bit into her leathery hide with more efficiency then any bullet.

Her instincts immediately came flaring back, urging Twilight to not stumble away and leave herself open but instead attack. Her mind demanded that they go on the offence, but Twilight was too confused and scared to do anything but frantically backpedal. That was until she felt something crash against her shoulder, the glass bottle fracturing and spilling burning liquid across her body.

Then the walls came tumbling down, and Twilight left this world.


“Come on fight!” Janey shouted as she popped a raider in the knee before putting a bullet in his brain.

“I thought you said that thing was supposed to help us!” shouted Beagle.

“She is, but I think she's overwhelmed!” Janey replied, ducking behind cover when one of the raiders unloaded several shots in her direction. “We need to get the attention away from her long enough to-”

The courier never finished the response, as a guttural roar filled the room and buried all other sound. The cry was punctuated by a very human scream, as well as the sound of pounding, angry feet.

Figuring that the heat was now off her, Janey peeked over the side to find her deathclaw ally was nearly completely covered in fire. Not only that but she was also swinging wildly while sprinting blindly through the middle of the room.

One unfortunate raider caught a clawed hand to the face and went down in a screaming heap while a second couldn't get out of the way fast enough. He was crushed beneath the deathclaw’s feet, while a third was batted aside by her tail, the human’s femur snapping audibly.

Janey quickly lined up a shot on the incinerator wielding raider, only for her shots to glance harmlessly off his metal armor. The click of her weapon prompted Janey to duck back down and frantically begin reloading while Beagle took down another raider with several well aimed shots from his own pistol. When Janey next peeked over the counter she noticed that her friend had lost her coat, the material having burnt away to cinders.

Her already dark skin had been made even darker still by the flames, though thankfully the damage seemed mostly superficial. What did worry Janey was the wild, bestial look in Twilight’s eyes and the feral growl that continued to spill from her lipless mouth.

The deathclaw spun towards the closest enemy and raked its claws down the knife-wielding raider’s chest. Flesh parted and blood gushed, joining the small ocean of red which was quickly covering the ground. The damage was massive, and the human quickly toppled to the ground, likely already dead before his head bounced off the ground.

The great beast wasn't done though, and charged the raider's ally while weathering a small hail of bullets. One slash took off the man’s pistol wielding arm at the shoulder, and the second removed his head from his body. A head which landed several feet from Janey, giving her a clear view as it looked around in confusion, its mouth moving as if trying to speak.

Tearing her eyes away from the gruesome sight, Janey watched as the deathclaw rapidly cleared the room. Throughout it all, the creature seemed oblivious to the damage done to it, accepting knife blows, and pistol rounds without complaint. Even the pounding orbs of fire launched from the raider’s incinerator didn't seem to slow it down.

In fact it only made things worse, as the deathclaw sped its way across the room towards the metal armored man. Ignoring the other enemies, the beast focused completely on the raider launching fireballs at her, and accepting several more hits in the process.

“Why won't you die?” bellowed the raider.

The deathclaw didn't answer, at least verbally anyway, as its response came in a powerful backhand that knocked the fire weapon from its owner’s hands. The human hadn't lost all of his wits though, and he swiftly moved to pull out a pistol, only to get kicked clear across the room. Where he slammed into the wall with enough force to leave a small indent, and cause an eruption of blood to shoot from his mouth.

Janey watched as the raiders not already dead or seconds from death, took flight, sprinting out the exit like their lives depended on it. The courier was tempted to shoot them while they ran, but couldn't tear her eyes away from the unfortunate soul who had awakened the beast in the first place.

Lying broken on the floor, he reached towards his fallen weapon, only to have his hand stomped flat by a scaly foot.

“Aaaagh,” cried the raider, who clutched at his shattered appendage, cradling it against his chest.

The deathclaw snorted, and leaned down until it could glare into its opponent’s eyes.

“W-what the fuck do you want?” he muttered.

The deathclaw spoke what sounded like a single word before lurching forward and biting the head clean off the raider’s neck. It then rose back its full enormous height and chomped several times, shattering the man’s skull and pulping his brain. The sight was grim, and Janey was dully aware of the former deputy emptying his lunch into a nearby garbage bin.

Janey however, merely watched, one hand clutching her revolver close while the other held tight a grenade.

“Hey Twilight, are you in there?” Janey shouted, her voice wavering slightly.

The deathclaw didn't seem to hear here however, and continued to chew its meal before swallowing it all in a single large gulp. With that done, it looked around, and upon noticing that none of its enemies were alive, jerked its head back to Janey. Upon locking eyes with the deathclaw, the courier felt her heart leap into her chest, and she nearly pulled the trigger.

But the fear didn't last, as a flicker of recognition could be seen behind its gaze and a second later its stance relaxed. It then blinked several times before looking around in confusion, seemingly unaware of what had just happened.

“What in the hell?” Janey murmured.


Twilight grit her teeth as pain washed over her body, the dozens of burns she had suffered as well as the many many bullet wounds nearly overwhelming her. That didn't last long, as the agony slowly slipped out of focus, remaining present but not distracting her. Though one thing that did distract her was the taste of blood that clung to her tongue as well as the inside of her mouth.

Spitting and hacking, Twilight tried to get rid of it, but was largely unsuccessful in the effort. That was until she was handed a brownish bottle by Janey, who looked at her with a mix of fear and awe.

Twilight didn't care, and quickly took it before pounding back the foul tasting liquid. Which did the trick, only to replace the unpleasant taste with something that was almost as bad.

She was distracted from the weirdly oaky flavor when a needle was produced and jabbed into her side. The deathclaw’s first reaction was to demand an explanation, though the soothing sensation that spread out through her body quickly answered her question. Only for more questions to arise when her wounds began to rapidly close one by one, leaving only a few scars, and several lingering burns.

“What was that?” Twilight asked, tapping out her question on the casino floor.

“Stimpack,” Janey replied. “It should fix you up.”

Twilight nodded meekly as she looked around, only now realizing just how much blood and gore surrounded her. The sight was grisly, and made her stomach churn, though it didn't elicit quite the same level of visceral horror Twilight would have expected.

“We should go,” Janey remarked.

Twilight nodded, and looked over to the cowering human who quickly ducked out of sight. “And what about him?”

Janey glanced over to where the town deputy was silently shitting his drawers and muttering some kind of prayer. “Give me a second to talk to him. You just go wait outside and try to clean yourself up a little,” Janey encouraged.

Twilight frowned as she gazed down on her body with disgust, a raw feeling of wrongness shooting up her spine. The sight of something so unponylike bothered her immensely, though thankfully that feeling was growing duller by the second. Twilight wondered if that was truly a good thing before shaking her head and moving towards the exit.

She would consider that all later. Right now she had more pressing concerns. Namely cleaning herself up, and trying to recall what had happened to her after she had entered the room.

She remembered pain, heat, rage, and then finally darkness, but that was it.

Trudging through the now silent casino, Twilight mentally began to file away the events of the last few minutes. The carnage she had witnessed couldn't have been caused by her after all. She was a pony, and ponies didn't do that kind of thing.

Monsters on the other hand, they could do things like that when pushed, but she wasn't a monster.

“I’m not a monster,” Twilight softly declared.