Daring Do & Argyle
The sun is high up in the air, shining brightly and heating up the ground of the barren wasteland. The bright light has taken its toll and has woken up Argyle, who wished for an extra few hours of sleep after the previous day. He knew he wasn't going to get any more shuteye unless he finds shelter from the sun. As he tried to get up from the slide, his whole body was aching, sore from the hard "bed" as well as yesterday's rescue operation and ambush escape. Eventually he got up, stretching a little to try and ease the muscles; his bones crackled a little in the process. Still a bit groggy, he moved towards the space rocket to wake up his new companion.
Argyle looked through one of the holes and saw that she was still fast asleep, unaffected by the brightness because she's "inside" the space rocket. He knew that she was also most likely still somewhat beat from the capture, yet he had no choice but to wake her and continue onwards to Rivet City, since he only has that much food and water left. As he tried waking her by gently nudging, he said with a calm voice: "Wake up, we have to get going."
But no matter what kind of voice he tried to make, they all sounded the same: raspy, intimidating and scary. As soon as he said "wake up", she woke up in an instant and fled from the space rocket into the sunlight, which instantly stopped her in her tracks and blinded the unaware mare momentarily.
"My eyes! It's too bright!" said the mare while covering her eyes.
She tried to slowly get used to it by first only looking at the ground and getting used to it from there. But even the soil seemed too bright for her eyes. Nevertheless she had to get her pupils back to normal from the resting period..
Argyle was startled by the sudden reaction the mare gave. I've always enjoyed surprising unsuspecting humans by saying a few words before knocking them unconscious, but this the one time I wish that hadn't happened... He noticed Daring Do having some trouble with the sun, but before he could suggest anything she had found a solution of her own; she positioned her wings so that they blocked out the sunlight that was reaching out for her pupils. Wow. I don't think even birds realize they could use their wings like that... Not only is she a sharp one, she's smart! Smarter than Boss by a long shot! I wonder how he's doing right now...
In his enlightenment his sharp hearing caught a recognizable sound; the sound of an empty stomach rumbling for food. But his stomach had long before stopped doing that. He figured it had to belong to the horse in front of him and, judging from the body language she was giving, he was spot on. He remembered he had a couple of Mirelurk Cakes still in his pockets and he made one appear into his hand while he was walking closer to Daring Do. The sounds his footsteps made caused her to turn around. He was not sure how she would react this time, since he didn't know if she could recognize him yet with the sun blinding her a moment ago. When he thought about it for a moment longer, he realized that she had most likely not seen his appearance yet, since she was blindfolded during the rescue and they were taken off when it was too dark to see anything. Before he could say anything to clarify to her who he was, he already noticed the fear in her eyes.
She looked at the figure before her, shocked by the appearance. It looked like no other animal she had ever seen in any book she had read or seen. It seemed to have some of its skin missing so that the flesh was exposed, no hair in anywhere on its body and she could swear she saw a maggot crawling out of the tall figure's body. She tried to scream, but as she inhaled breath for it she recognized it; that horrible stench she smelt after she was set free from the cage she was put in. Though it felt strange, she no longer felt like screaming or doing anything of that sort. Instead, the first thing that came to her mind was: He... was the one who rescued me last night? He's Argyle? I can see what he meant by "condition", but this is a little bit too extreme...
"Hey Daring. Do you... Do you recognize me? It's me, Argyle, who saved you from the Raiders yesterday. I know my appearance must be a shock to you, but believe me when I say I'm not a zombie. I'm as much human as any other human!"
"A human?! Is that what you are? I've read books about humans, but all of them said that they are only mythological creatures..." said Daring Do, surprised by the discovery.
"Mythological, you say, but I could say the same thing to you. I don't think you ever answered my question yesterday."
"Question?"
"I do believe I asked you "What are you?" last night."
Daring Do closed her eyes and thought back. She does remember him asking her that, but it slipped her mind in the end.
"Yes... You did ask me that. I'm a pony.
"No, no.... I mean what kind of a pony are you. I've never seen a pony have wings, let alone use them to fly and as portable shades."
"Oh... I'm a Pegasus."
"A Pegasus, eh...? Those things exist here only in the books that cover mythological creatures... And by books, I mean the ones that haven't burned away."
Daring Do took a pause before continuing the conversation, processing what she has learned and trying to come up with a logical explanation. Ever since she made that wish on a whim she hasn't been able to find explanations to almost anything that has occurred around her.
When she first discovered her cutie-mark back when she was a filly, she was eager to go onto an adventure. But she got lost on her first one, as she went on an adventure into the Evergreen Forest when her class from Canterlot went onto a field trip to Ponyville to see how the Earthponie's lifestyle differs from that of Unicorns'. For one, she didn't bring a compass with her to help navigate back out of the forest. And secondly, even if she had one she didn't know how to use one. The Unicorn teachers eventually found her from the forest using magic to locate her and got her to safety. Ever since that incident Daring Do feared of going onto adventures alone, exploring the unexplored by herself. She then began reading adventure books a lot and figured that she was destined to be with the books more than with priceless artifacts. Her time around adventure books eventually led her to other books containing valuable information, like math, geometry and even dictionaries. She was inspired by all the text she had read. While she was still in school she started to write her fist book, which turned out to sell quite well. This is how she ended up becoming a renown writer, despite bearing the cutie mark of an excellent adventurer.
Argyle heard the sound of rumbling once again, and saw Daring Do's change of expression from a serious one to embarrassed. He look at his hand and saw the Mirelurk Cake which he intended to give to her before the chit-chat. Embarrassed himself for forgetting, he said: "Oh, right... Sorry. I was going to give you this Mirelurk Cake, but I forgot in the midst of talking. Here you go."
He handed the cake to Daring Do, who thanked for the offer and began eating. She took the first bit and almost immediately gave out a massive grin. In over 170 years has Argyle not seen someone eat something so... happy. He has helped people who've been famished for days by giving them food, but even their joy from finally getting nutrients seemed nothing compared to how Daring Do's enjoying the cake right now.
Even though he's a ghoul, Argyle has to eat something as well to survive. Inspired to enjoy his as much as she did, he took another Mirelurk Cake out of his inventory and began eating it. But before he knew it he had already finished the whole thing, with only the taste of radiation left in his somewhat-rotten mouth.
Disappointed from his high expectations after speculating a fantastic enjoyment, Argyle said after giving out a sigh: "So... How did it taste? Was it good?"
"Good? It was delicious! The way the meat is in synch with the other ingredient's is amazing! I've never tasted anything like it before. It's out of this world!" replied Daring Do.
Argyle gave out a chuckle and repeated the last sentence as if it was the pun of a funny joke.
Daring Do was confused, and annoyed, from Argyle's reaction. She asked with an annoyed tone: "Hey! What's so funny about it?"
"I'm sorry. It's just that... By "out of this world", are you possibly referring to Equestria or this world?"
Though Argyle didn't see anything wrong in what he just said, he realized that it was not the best thing to say right at that moment; Daring Do might've not wanted to hear about Equestria right now due to suddenly getting thrown into a completely uncharted world.
He stayed silent, judging whether or not he made a bad move. The silence was broken by laughter. Only this time it wasn't Argyle who let it out; it was Daring Do, who was laughing a bit uncontrollably and smacking her front-right hoof against the ground while gasping for air.
Argyle was not sure why she was laughing. She began calming down and finally said: "Ha-ha-ha-ha! That's a good one! Out of this world... I'm not quite sure! Maybe I do meant out of Equestria."
The reaction was not the kind Argyle was expecting after witnessing her reactions from last night. Nevertheless he gave out a smile and took a bottle of Purified Water from his inventory, drinking it half-way before passing it on to Daring Do.
"All that laughing must've gotten you thirsty. Drink this. After you're done, we have to move onwards to Rivet City. It's still a bit far away; it might take us the whole day to get there, so we'd better do it before it gets as dark as it did last night."
Daring Do nodded and finished the bottle, which disappeared as soon as it was completely emptied. This didn't startle her, however, as she knows now that what is logical in Equestria might not be as logical in this alien world. The two of them then head towards South to get to Rivet City.
Herbert & Rainbow Dash
Despite wanting to sleep longer, Rainbow Dash was awoken by the loud noises being made outside the house. She got up from the bed and walked towards the bedroom door. When she went for the handle, she noticed something. Something very peculiar; the door handle seemed to have shrunk in size. When she thought about it for a bit more, after looking around the room she was given for the night, everything seemed to be smaller: the bed, the nightstand and even the space that the room once had. She shrugged it off, as she thought it was because of what happened last night. She opened the door and looked down at the stairs. Even the stairs seemed to be smaller now. She was inclined to ask Herbert about if it was something common in this place, but his room's door was wide open and no one seemed to be inside. Instead of using the stairs she jumped down to the first floor and flapped her wings so that there would be no impact on landing. But even on the first floor it seemed to be the same; everything seemed to be smaller. Her wings were flapping so hard the cutlery and dishes on the dining table flew straight off and onto the floor. Luckily there were no glasses left on the table and the dishes were made out of metal. Embarrassed from the mess she had made and confused by the sudden changes in size, she dashed out of the door.
The first thing she noticed was the sun, burning brightly and warming her cyan coat. She did some streches to help herself feel refreshed. The commotion hadn't stopped and it seemed to be coming from the center of the settlement. She flew there to see what was it all about, as well as try to find Herbert.
She figured she needn't to go all the way there, she could see well from where she likes it best: high up, away from the ground. Just after going over Lucas' home she could see just about any part of the settlement: the nuke at the center of the crater and Moriarty's Bar just straight ahead. There was also what appeared to be an airplane on the top of Lucas' house. It seemed to be in bad shape and non-flyable.
The people of Megaton had most gathered near the nuke, seemingly asking either Moriarty or Lucas questions about something. Rainbow Dash tried to find Herbert among the big group, but to no avail. She slowly started to descend down to ask Lucas. She also saw no sight of the preacher that tricked her into drinking water from the puddle. She was a bit upset, as she was curious to learning more about Atom, despite being loyal to Princess Celestia and last night's occurrence.
Down at the crater Lucas was talking loud enough for even Rainbow Dash to hear: "Settlers! Those Radscorpions and the Raider controlling them all have been bothering us for long enough! We still need to scavenge more metal for the water pipe maintenance, not to mention other materials like nails for the loosening boards and such, yet we've been unable to safely go find any because of the Radscorpions! Even a few of our own have fallen seriously ill because of the white one! There's nothing we can do about it, but last night Herbert arrived to Megaton and has agreed to helping us with the matter at hand! Today, while he's dealing with the problem, we will have two groups head towards the Springfield Elementary school and scavenge anything, and I mean anything, useful that we can use to improve our safe haven! The rest will have to stay and guard Megaton from any other threats that appear when its most vulnerable! Start doing all necessary preparations now, as we cannot let Herbert's lending hand go to waste!
As soon as he finished the speech, the settlers gave out a loud roar. Rainbow Dash was amazed to how someone so small compared to the others was so moving with words. From what she just heard, she guessed what he just gave out was a rally speech. And a successful one too, as as soon as the other man she didn't recognize, Moriarty, said "Dismissed!", most of the settles began running towards the same house that was near Moriarty's Bar. In just a moment, the only people remaining near the nuke was Moriarty and Lucas.
She found the timing impeccable, since being around so many humans at the same time might have been too much for her, especially since she only just discovered them being real last night. She started swooping down towards Lucas to ask him if he has seen Herbert.
Just after the settlers ran back to their homes to make necessary preparations, Moriarty told Lucas: "Oy, lad... Don't ye be going stealing my spot as the leader o' 'tis settlement! What if they start listening to ye more that to me?"
Lucas said, "Listen, Moriarty... A leader has to be able think for everyone and not for just oneself. You tend to first think about how you could gain the most of a decision and then you just give orders without even thinking about the others' benefits or losses. A group with a selfish leader quickly goes downhill and before long everyone is most likely going to scatter and become unable to work with each other for a long time, if not forever. Why don't you try thinking outside the box sometimes?"
Moriarty was infuriated. Not because of how all he just said made sense, but how he said he was supposedly selfish.
"That's enough lies coming out of yer-"
Suddenly they noticed something flying towards them. Both of them went for their weapons, Lucas for his Chinese Assault Rifle and Moriarty for his Combat Shotgun. But before either of then could draw their weapons completely, an amazing gust of wind with lots of dust flied onto their face and inevitably into their eyes, which in turn caused them to let go of their weapons which fell into the pond of irradiated water. In addition to that, Lucas was almost sent flying and was struggling somewhat to keep his feet on the ground.. Neither of them caught even a glimpse of their assaulter.
Rainbow Dash had arrived down and flapped her wings hard because of the deep dive. As she was near the ground, the hard flapping caused a large amount of dust to fly towards the two men in front of her. Because of the dust, she didn't notice that they had mistaken her as a threat and were going for their weapons.
"Sorry! I didn't realise how fast I was diving! Are you two okay?" she said, scratching the back of her head with her right-front hoof while folding her wings back into their resting position. She immediately covered her mouth, as something was definitely off; her voice had changed noticably. Was it because of the radiation? Or has it something to do with everything being smaller than last night? In any case, her mind was somewhat racing to find the cause of her lower-toned voice.
While the dust was still blocking the view, Lucas and Moriarty were going for their sidearms, ready to fire at the first sight of the hostile. But after hearing the assaulter, Lucas understood that it was only Rainbow Dash. He was, also, astonished by how much dust she managed to lift up, taking her small-build into consideration. Moriarty, however, had not heard her voice yet, and was still considering her as an enemy who had nothing else in mind but to rob him of his recently acquired fortune; the ownership of all his father's belongings, including the Moriarty's Bar.
He whispered to Lucas: "Listen! As soon as I get some visual, I will unload the whole clip onto 'tis bastard who dared to come an' steal from me. Get ready! The dust is settling!" He readied his 10mm Pistol, the smokescreen getting thinner and thinner and soon revealing the hostile target.
The words he whispered caused Lucas' body to move on an impulse, his hands moving so that Moriarty's aim would be off by a long shot, the bullets flying high towards the sky. And he wasn't late by one second, as he barely managed to do so in time. The first few bullets were yet aimed towards the sky, but they were aiming higher than Rainbow Dash, one connecting with the ground and the other two towards the house that was behind her. The last 9 bullets of his 10mm Pistol were fired up into the sky, no longer potential of causing harm to her. Like the first three bullets, the rest were emptied quickly. No one came outside to check who was shooting what, as everyone were too busy preparing for what's ahead of them today.
Moriarty was focused only on firing his weapon, and it took him until the pistol fired no more to realise that his gun was set off course, with none of the bullets really hitting anything. He looked down at Lucas, first confused and eventually infuriated. He grabbed him from his duster's collar and flung him into the irradiated pond, right next to both the Chinese Assault Rifle and Combat Shotgun under each arm.
While reaching out for another magazine, he shouted at Lucas: "What the hell do ye think yer doing?! Trying to get us killed?!"
He reloaded his firearm and took aim at the target he hadn't actually seen yet. He took aim, but didn't fire a single round right off the bat. He look at the blue creature who was just about his size. What's this? Herbert's little friend suddenly became large after only a single night? What an odd creature you are... not to mention annoying! Rainbow Dash was petrified, and the first memories that came to her were those from last night, when she and Herbert were just about to enter Megaton, how the fired bullet hit the ground only millimeters away from her face and how frightening that was then. She tried to get the wings in front of her in a desperate attempt to block any shots Moriarty shoots at her, yet her wings were stiffened hard behind her back, almost as tightly as how one time Applejack tied them to her back with rope when they were competing in the yearly Leaf Run, when ponies race a lap through the same route every year to cause the leaves from the trees to drop down due to the trembling of the dozens of hooves hitting the ground at nearly the same time. Cold sweat began to form on her face.
His firing arm slowly lowered, which was so much of a relief to Rainbow Dash that she stumbled to the ground, still uncertain about what happened just now, even though it really quite simple. But soon it was pointing at Lucas, who was still in the irradiated pond, eyes widened and looking panicky most likely because of Rainbow Dash's reaction to the pointing gun and how he was expecting Moriarty to kill her. When Moriarty pointed his gun towards him, he was, surprisingly, calm again, for he knew he wouldn't dare to kill him even when he would easily get away with it.
Moriarty spoke once again: "So... Ye knocked me aim a little jus' cuz you didn't want me to shoot 'er? Or rather... Ye knew it was 'er, yet ye didn't have the heart to tell me?" He lowered his gun once again and walked slowly at the edge of the pond, giving out a sarcastically-sounding, slight chuckle. Then he, once again, pointed his 10mm Pistol at him, this time with a sharp feeling to it and an angered poise. "Ever since I got me Pa's bar, you've been nothing but a snobby brat! Always inspecting my inventory, constantly giving me warnings and complaints! "Colin, these glasses haven't been cleaned.", "Colin, you can't treat women like some sort of money-making machines, they're humans too, you know.", "Colin, will you stop pissing there.... You do realize that your customers get their beer from that still."... For two years, it's always been "Colin this" and "Colin that"! And what are ye going to tell me now?! "Colin..."" he was so angry, he couldn't really think straight and his rambling a bit incomprehensible. He himself could barely keep up with what he was saying. "Colin... You can't shoot that. I wanna ride it all day long. It looks real pretty and I want to take good care of it."
Lucas was unaffected by Moriarty's taunts and kept his cool, as a certain "law" made by the settlers of Megaton is on his side; "All for one and one for all, disobey this and it's one against all." Moriarty would never find the guts to pull the trigger and kill him, since that would mean him losing his place in Megaton as a "voice of reason" among the dozen, not to mention the ownership of his own bar inherited from his father.
"I can't shoot ye... That would cause me more trouble than worth... But I don't suppose anyone else would have a problem with me shooting that monster over there." He pointed his gun back at Rainbow Dash, who was still petrified from the gunshots, her heart beating like she'd been running for her life for a while now and still ongoing.
In an instant, Lucas rose from the puddle with the two guns at his hands, both now aiming at Moriarty. But he only gave Lucas a glance and then continued focusing his gun at the utterly confused creature.
"'Jes' like me pointing me gun at ye, do ye really think pointing guns at me is frightening? I can't kill ye, but ye can't stop me from killin' this outsider that's come to rob me of all that I own."
Still holding the heavy guns unsteadily towards him, Lucas said: "Is that it? Do you really think she's here to just steal your father's bar?!"
"...Not really. But it's good enough of a excuse to help the others see that me act was justified," replied Moriarty. "But enough is enough, you two have wasted too much of me time already. I don't know where Herbert found ye, ya blue menace, but I'm quite sure this bullet will return ye where ye came from; to the depths of Hell!"
*BANG*
A shot was fired, and the sound of a bullet exiting the bullet chamber echoed through the once-again-silent settlement, the air seemingly instantly becoming chilling even in the warming rays of the sun, as if the already thick clouds became more thicker and were blocking out the remaining sun rays. Moriarty was in front of his vision, so Lucas couldn't tell what had happened. And, for the moment, he did not want to see. He felt like he had lost his sense of hearing, as he could not hear anything else but his breathing and heart beating. The guns became too heavy to hold one handed, slowly slipping out of his grips. But his legs gave out on him, falling to his knees before the guns touched the ground. He closed his eyes in the sense of defeat; he was unable to protect a friend of Herbert's when he and Argyle had done so on a wider scale before.
Sadness overwhelmed him, but his sorrow was interrupted by Moriarty's voice: "Who ta hell did that?! You'd better show yeself! Ye won't get away with shooting me hand unscathed, mark me words! No one does! Damn, that stings!"
He immediately opened his eyes to see what was happening. In front of him, Moriarty was yelling out loud, scouting the upper platform, trying to locate someone. He no longer had his gun in his right hand; the hand that was now in the palm of his left hand. Due to Moriarty swaying and constant moving, he was no longer blocking the view to Rainbow Dash. Lucas saw that she was still alive, breathing without any bullet wounds visible on her body. She wasn't looking at Moriarty, nor the gun now lying on the ground, but up to the second level, towards the Craterside Supply store.
Lucas looked to the same direction, seeing the one who was able to do what he wasn't; it was Herbert, with his own Magnum that was clearly different from the rest. Herbert's personal gun was very strange the first time he saw it, back when he saved Megaton from the raiders. The scope was not like the others; it was a little bigger than the rest, allowing it better precision at a farther distance. And the schematic must've been different from the others, because the gun's able to shoot two magnum bullets with a single trigger. In addition, the bullets leave and fill the bullet-chamber noticeably quicker, which was why he saw him reloading more often than usual.
Herbert... Just how do you do it, he asked himself while following the still-unaware Moriarty's movements with his eyes. Then he looked back up to look at Herbert, but he had already vanished. He closed his eyes, this time out of relief, rather than averting very bitter loss.
He heard in a familiar, yet loud voice.: "Sorry, Colin! I was just trying to aim at your gun, but this thing is so unreliable that it might shoot another bullet at a whim!" The unexpected shouts startled him. He quickly opened his eyes to find Herbert next to Rainbow Dash, who finally stood on her legs once again.
"It was ye who shot me?! The nerve! I'll have the whole settlement after ye head for this! It's against the rules o' ta settlement to shoot 'nother settler, inside the walls or out! Just ye wait," responded Moriarty to Herbert's apology. "And now that I have yer head, may I add that I never like ye or yer rott'n friend. Both of ye are detrimental to me business. Neither of ye drink me beer and when ye take one of me gals for a ride, ye pay discount! Well, no more! As soon as the other's are done with their preparations and come out here to see this mess, ye's gonna get it!"
All four of them stood in silence for a while, with Moriarty's face red from the anger burst and breathing heavily, eye's looking deep down to Herbert's. The silence was ended with a chuckle that came from Lucas, who had picked up both the guns he dropped and had them vanish. Hearing the chuckle, Moriarty slowly turned his gaze towards Lucas, a blood vessel filling to its brim on his forehead.
"Aren't you forgetting something, Colin? Back when we asked him and Argyle to become a settler here, both of them refused. Right now, they're here..." He cut his sentence in the middle and looked around, as if looking for something. But he eventually continued: "Right now, he's here as a guest, so that rule doesn't apply to him. At worst, he'll have to pay you for causing pain, but even that decision comes from all of the settler's decisions. And I wonder whose side would they take if they hear the story from the beginning."
All of Moriarty's anger faded away in an instant and quickly became replaced with fear. Everyone but Moriarty considers Herbert a hero of Megaton, and they'd most likely side with him.
"And besides, what's the big idea, pointing a gun at Dashie. Look at her, she's completely harmless," added Herbert. "I had no choice but to shoot your gun away. Knowing you, you'd really pulled the trigger had I not intervened."
Rainbow Dash had fled behind him, still a little shaky. Like yesterday, he had helped her from a sticky situation she did not volunteer to be in to begin with. Breathing started to become easier for her, with her not feeling like the next inhale would be her last, and her heart rate started to escalate down back to normal.
The new argument was an open and close case, with Moriarty eventually snapping out of it and deciding to fall back to his sanctuary, still supressing the blood spill from his right index finger. But before he went up to the higher level, he turned around and yelled: "'Tis be not over yet, ye mangy lads! Ye'll be gettin' yers eventually!"
Now the crater was filled with silence once more. No one said anything, still trying to process what had happened. In the silence, Herbert grabbed his revolver from his inventory and examined thoroughly, trying to see what caused it to fire off that additional bullet. He checked the chambers, took it to pieces and checked that the pieces were not too used up, as finding pristine parts was rare since none were manufactured anymore.
In the end, someone had to say something to break the awkward atmosphere. Lucas was the one to do it, saying: "Thank you, Herber... You've been of assistance to me more than I've probably been to you and the citizens combined... Had you not taken the initiative," he paused, hesitating to even think what would have the outcome been.
"Don't mention it. I did promise her that I'd protect her, no matter what, until we find a way to get her back to the place where she belongs. However, Colin's behaviour was not what I had taken into consideration," he replied, finally assembling the parts back together, reloading the gun and giving it a good spin before holstering.
"Thanks for saving..."
"Again, don't mention it. Speaking of her, how are you doing, Dashie?" He turned around and looked into Rainbow Dash's giant eyes and saw that she was mentally fine, as if she'd already managed to cope with the suddenly-changed environment.
"I'm fine-" she answered, quickly remembering that her voice had become deeper-sounding.
"Hmm... I am by no means a doctor, but I can assume that you growing in size might have caused your vocal cords to grow as well, which might be the reason you sound so... So..."
"So...?"
"...Never mind, I forgot already!" You sound so boyish, but if I say that I might be missing a head soon, he thank while unintentionally now averting eyesight.
"Ok... Hey! How come you were not surprised by me being bigger? I'm almost as tall as you are now!"
Now he was acting as if he was caught off-guard, stuttering and at a loss of words: "W-why? Well, you see, uh... Because..." He was not making any progress with his sentence, which caused Rainbow Dash to give him a mean stare, with one of her her brow up compared to the other. "I- it's not like I knew it before you were even awake," he accidentally blurted out.
""Before I was even awake?" What's that supposed to mean?!" Rainbow Dash felt violated, from what she's been able to understand.
"Okay! I admit it... I... I tried to come and wake you up," answered Herbert, who then immediately placed his hands on his head to protect it from any upcoming attacks and closed his eyes so he wouldn't see it coming.
He waited, waited and waited some more. But nothing happened. He carefully opened one of his eyes to see what she was doing. And he saw she had a mean look on her face.
"You tried to wake me up? Why would you do that, after I specifically told you I don't like being woke up?!"
"There is a very good reason for it. Since we are going against a Raider, one so dangerous that he has even tamed Radscorpions to serve him, from what I've understood, we're going to need to get you something to cover that smooth coat of yours," he paused, thinking about something. "Smooth... I wonder how Argyle's doing." Despite knowing that he will be able to take care of himself even without him, he couldn't help but wonder.
The sudden transaction to a completely irrelevant topic and then to complete silence did not amuse Rainbow Dash. She had already planned to forgive him for doing the opposite what she said, but leaving the explanation half-explained and then dozing off to la-la land made her change her mind. Yet she was curious, as it seems that he had actually planned something important for her.
"You were saying," she asked with a mildly-annoyed tone, trying to hide her frustration as best as she could at least until he had finished explaining.
"Oh, sorry about that," he said as he came to his senses. "We're going to need to get you something that will protect you from bullets and possible scorpion stingers. I doubt we'll be able to just purchase one for you, since there are not any models suited for horses, so I will have to craft some for you."
Hearing about crafting from Herbert fascinated Lucas, as he has already witnessed one of his creations. He felt like he had to join the conversation now: "Speaking of crafting, did you make that gun of yours by yourself? I do remember seeing it a long time ago, during the Raiders' raid on Megaton, yet I never got the chance to ask you about it. Just how did you do it?"
"Oh, this weapon," asked Herbert, drawing the scoped revolver he used just now. "This isn't handcrafted by me. Good ol' Argyle's girlfriend gave it to me, said it belonged to Argyle."
"Oh... Well, at any rate, the two of you are in luck because today a caravan should be stopping by Megaton for supply trading. Maybe he has found something that will suit Dash- uh, Rainbow Dash.
She smiled, as she found his manners quite appealing. "That's okay, you can call me Dashie as well. And Herbert, I don't need any weapons or clothing. I can fly and approach that way, right?"
"That may be true, Dashie, but I don't think that's the best idea."
"Why not?!"
"You see... Well... You might have grown bigger, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you've grown in muscle strenght as well."
"Oh yeah? You want to test it?"
"Well, sure! Let's see... The last time you kicked me in the head, my neck almost dislocated. So, if you've gotten any stronger then you should be able to send me flying backwards just from kicking me in the chest or the back."
Without warning or even giving Herbert a chance to prepare himself, she dashed close enough to kick him with her hind legs, quickly turned around while keeping her balance with her wings and then gave him her strongest buck, maneuvering her wings to give extra kick to the kick. He was not only pushed back, but he lost his footing from the ground and ended up airborne, flying horizontally slightly above the ground until hitting the clinic. He fell down, twitching a little.
"Herbert! Are you okay," asked Lucas, who was amazed from the force of the kick.
He coughed a bit and was taking short breaths, but answered after taking a Stimpack: "I... I think well be... needing more... Stimpacks for our... trip, Lucas. I thought I was going... to die for a.... second there. Dashie, you win... You don't need any weapons."
"See? Told you," she responded and flew a short lap mid-air.
The two of them gather all the supplies they need for their upcoming adventure, with Herbert focusing on plenty of Stimpacks, just in case he makes Rainbow Dash mad again by accident. They head to the front gates, while the crater started to fill with prepared settlers once again. They left Megaton and headed onwards to Bethesda Ruins.
Even though they had gathered all they needed and checked that nothing was missing, Rainbow Dash felt like she had forgotten to do something. She thought about it while they were disembarking from Megaton and getting farther and farther. Then she remembered it: she was curious about what had happened yesterday, about Atom and his beliefs. She wanted to meet the preacher once again to ask him more about Atom. She is still faithful and loyal to Celestia, yet her gut's telling her that she'll need to do it once they return to Megaton.