//------------------------------// // The end part 1 // Story: Dark Wanderings // by ed2481 //------------------------------// The end part 1 “There’s the famous Legion subtly for you.” Arcade said dryly as they surveyed Tenpenny tower from the hill. The early morning sunrise was painting the land around them in typical wasteland brown, but the walls around Tenpenny glinted crimson. Lined up in a near line around the top of the wall were at least eighty five people nailed to crosses through their arms and thighs, they were rather large nails… Shining and Twilight had both paled, the blood rushing away from their faces and somehow making their fur less vibrant. During her time in the wasteland Twilight had thought she’d seen every imaginable horror and faced it down, but this, this was a whole new kind of horror. Her knees buckled and she lost her breakfast on the ground in front of her. Shining immediately went to comfort her, and he wrapped his little sister in a tight brotherly embrace while he turned her head away from the agonized forms upon the wall. “Who could do this?” Twilight asked softly. “Monsters; and I kill monsters.” Cassandra answered just as softly but her voice was so full of venom and malice that she might as well have been shouting. “And you say Burke is behind this?” Ethan asked Dashwood, who was lying on his stomach with the rest of them. “Yes, the bastard opened up the gate with an override switch of some kind. The guards put up a hell of a fight, but those Legion boys are tough as nails.” Dashwood replied with a scowl. “They also had this really big guy in a different kind of armor, they all seemed really afraid of him.” He added. “A legate.” Cassandra said darkly, she’d had experience with legates before. In the Legion you only got to the rank of legate by being brutal, effective, and hard as hell to kill. “Damn. I always knew that Burke was a snake, but I never thought that he’d have it in him to be a member of the Legion.” Ethan said, his face dark and broody. “He was going to blow up a town.” Cassandra retorted. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean that he’d torture people to death. I’m going to put a bullet through his head.” Ethan said, his voice was deadlier then Twilight had ever heard before, even more so than when he’d talked about killing Supertramp. “So how are you youngsters planning on doing this?” Dashwood asked. “Simply.” Ethan said with a bloodthirsty grin. “Move forward under the cover of Shining and Twilight’s magical shields. Blow our way through the gate. Kill every one of the small fry legionaries who try and stop us. Then we find Burke and this legate and eviscerate them.” Cassandra elaborated. “I’m in.” Twilight said swiftly, she’d taken the few minutes to pull herself together again and now her eyes were filled with hatred. She’d never known these people, but no one deserved this kind of punishment. *** Mister Burke was looking at the Wasteland from the balcony of his suite, looking over the horizon when suddenly he noticed something. There was a light, almost pink light coming from one of the hills near the tower. Thinking quickly he grabbed his old silenced sniper rifle from where it was lying on the old red chair that Tenpenny had always sat in before his recent burning and brought it up to his eye. His eyes widened as he took in the group heading straight for the tower. His eyes widened even farther when he saw Ethan at the head of the group, standing next to a tall redheaded woman who matched the description of Cassandra Smith Queen of New Vegas. Ethan looked up as the light of the scope caught him in the eye. To Burks’s horror, the man shot him a smirk and winked before he pointed his forefinger straight at Burke and mimed as is it was a pistol. A wave of force suddenly hit Burke in the chest and threw him off his feet into the wall behind him. *** “Nice shot Sparky; now let’s kick some ass!” Ethan shouted loud enough to alert every legion soldier at the front gate who had yet to notice the group. Predictably, the Legion opened up with a mix of trail carbines and cowboy repeaters. The outer shield provided by Twilight deflected most of the shots, but several broke through, only to be stopped dead in their tracks by Shining’s. When they were fifteen feet in front of the gate, Ethan turned to Cassandra and almost conversationally asked. “Would you be a dear and blow up their gate?” “I think it’s time we introduce the Legion to Mercy, apparently it’s an unknown concept to them.” Cassandra said with a chuckle as she reached into her pack and began to quickly assemble the second most frightening weapon that Twilight had ever seen in the wasteland. It was a large cylindrical object with another cylinder jutting out of it. The entire thing was covered in century old rust, but it still made Twilight uncomfortable to be around. With a roar like thunder Cassandra pulled down the trigger and a stream of 40mm grenades shot out the grenade machinegun straight towards the gate, blasting them off of its rails. Eight legionaries who were standing directly behind the gate were instantly reduced to bloody chunks by both the door and the force of the explosions. They entered the courtyard and were greeted by the astonished stares of several dozen legionaries. It wasn’t every day that two incredibly frightening looking people in leather dusters, flanked by a man in old Enclave and T51B powerarmor, along with two bloodthirsty unicorns breaks down your door with a grenade machinegun. All things considered they took it rather well. With a wild shout one of the centurions in the yard charged, swinging a thermic lance straight at Cassandra. “I’m going to kill all of you, and you just volunteered to be first.” Cassandra said coldly before she sidestepped the lance’s tip. With a swift and precise motion Cassandra yanked the lance out of the centurion’s grasp before shoving the tip straight through his neck. As blood from the wound spurted wildly, Cassandra closed the distance to the centurion, a ballistic fist appearing on her hand as she smashed it into the centurion’s chest, sending him flying into the doors of the tower. “Who’s next?” She asked the Legion members who looked at each other for a second before they charged as one. Ethan surged forward, his shock sword in one hand and his 12.7mm submachine gun in the other. The first legionary was filled with more than enough bullets to kill him before Ethan sliced his head off and moved onto the next target and repeated the process with similar bloody results. In simpler words, Twilight realized that Ethan fought wildly, almost like an animal. He was unrefined and wasteful, but at the same time he was frightening to behold. He met a charging vexillarius head on while absorbing a sniper rifle shot through the chest. His submachine gun rounds tore through the vexillarius’s head before he had a chance to switch to a melee weapon. A group of legionaries decided to swarm him, but Ethan cut right through them; he was a wild hurricane of death and destruction that killed dozens in bloody explosions as he went. Cassandra, on the other hand, had opted to equip her hunting shotgun (the Diner Bell) and was coolly and methodically blowing legion head after legion head off of their body with an incredibly detached manner. When one legion member managed to get through her waves of lead, Cassandra simply smashed his face in with the camouflaged butt of her rifle without missing a beat. A group of legion members charged her at once. Cassandra pulled out her sequoia and shot a hole through the first one’s head, the second received a blow blast of buckshot to the chest, which tore him to bloody ribbons. The third opened up with his repeater, but the bullets bounced off of Cassandra’s duster, and she calmly shot him through the nose, blowing out the back of his head. Twilight had engaged the enemy as well, splitting her mind into three separate pieces, each of which was directing a different part of her performance in battle. She shot out a dozen magical tentacles which wrapped themselves around legion members and sent jolts of electricity through their body. At the same time her body was surrounded by two dozen purple mini shields. Each shield worked individually of the others to block each and every projectile that was sent her way, and redirect it at the surrounding legionaries. A centurion charged her a super sledge held in his grasp, but one of her magical tentacles met him half way. It picked him up in its electrifying grasp, and threw him into a group of Legion recruits, all of whom suddenly fell to their knees as they lost all control of their bodies and the electricity flowed through their systems, contorting their bones and destroying cooking their flesh. “God, I hate being so outclassed.” Veronica told Arcade who was standing at her back, and Shining who was next to Arcade as she smashed a legion’s chest to mush. “Honestly, I’ve gotten used to it.” Arcade replied with a shrug as the plasma rifle went off in his arms, reducing a legionary to glowing green goo. “What the hell happened to my sister?!” Shining shouted as Twilight came running by, a legionary held aloft while her horn glowed bright purple. “Wasteland Shiny.” Twilight replied over her shoulder before she sent the legionary in her grasp rocketing towards a cluster of legionnaires who were advancing on Ethan from behind. The group practically exploded in a fine mist of blood. “Why did they just explode?” Shining asked Twilight, who had decided to take a break and lean against her brother for support, while he covered them with a thin protective shield. “I honestly have no idea, it just happens.” Twilight replied with a shrug, and then she winced. “Something wrong Twily?” Shining asked worriedly as he sliced a legionary’s head off with his enchanted blade. “It’s nothing, my minds are just arguing about how long we have until we fall unconscious from the strain of all the magic. The best guestimate is an hour.” Twilight answered. “You split your mind?!” Shining asked in surprise. “That spell is incredibly dangerous and difficult, not to mention impossible to almost anypony besides the Princesses!” Shining almost shouted. “Yeah, but I’m Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight replied with a smirk, as a streak of blood shot into her face out of nowhere. “And now I’m covered in blood, simply amazing…” she said, rolling her eyes before she shot a pillar of fire at a nearby legion member, who fell to the ground in pain as his armor melted to his skin. Ethan sprinted towards a veteran legionary, who raised a 12.7 mm submachine gun at his chest, and Ethan felt the impacts as the large bullets impacted against his chest plate. The feeling passed quickly as Ethan closed the distance and drove his sword into the legionary’s right eye. He pivoted and sliced through another legionary’s chest with a sideways swing that cleanly bisected him. Cassandra made her way to her husband, all the while placing perfectly accurate shots from her marksmen’s carbine (the All American) as she went. When she reached him they exchanged a glance and a smile of understanding before they moved so that they were standing back to back. “Just like old times.” Ethan said with a chuckle as the 12.7 submachine gun went off in his hands (he’d sheathed his sword for the moment). “Ethan, we’re not old enough to become nostalgic.” Cassandra told him as she blasted a legionary’s head into oblivion. “Weren’t you the one talking about it being time to have children earlier?” Ethan shot back with a chuckle before he blew away a charging centurion with a hail of lead. “That’s different, we can reminisce about the old days when we’re brains floating in jars.” Cassandra replied as another member of the legion fell before her expert marksmanship, now missing the top half of his torso. “Is that what we’re doing?” Ethan asked while drawing his novasurge and reducing several of the legionaries shooting at them from a distance into gelatinous puddles of glowing green goop. “Oh right, I forgot to tell you. The way I see it we can get the Tanks to do it, I mean they’ve already done it to me once… Anyways I just don’t see Vegas surviving the way it is without me there to guide it, and there’s no way in hell I’m going with the House option.” Cassandra replied, before she switched over to her anti-material rifle and shot a sniper through the scope of his rifle. “That shot was literally impossible.” Arcade shouted from where he, Veronica, and Shining were clustered together. “Yeah, and that makes how many?” Cassandra shouted back, causing Ethan to chuckle before he sent a legionary reeling with a punch to the stomach followed by a plasma bolt to the head. “So how long till we take on the bigger fish?” Ethan asked her. “I was thinking that we’d thin their numbers out a little more before we got down to business.” Cassandra replied with a shrug as her shotgun spouted a fifty foot blast of flame, which promptly ate several legionaries, leaving nothing behind but ash. Twilight Sparkle was beginning to feel the strain of casting so many spells, so instead she switched to using her tri-beam laser rifle. A legionary charged her and Twilight’s rifle spat three beams of ruby colored light that struck the legionary in the chest, gouging out three gaping holes. Another legionary sent out a spray of bullets at Twilight, but she blocked them with a simple shield spell that sent the bullets spiraling back towards the shooter, where they buried themselves in his neck. “Alright let’s go, I want to end this.” Cassandra said (she somehow managed to speak loud enough for everyone in the courtyard to hear her without having to resort to yelling.). The legionaries grew desperate and charged her, but she cut them down with several blasts of fire from her shotgun while Ethan supported her with the occasional shot from his novasurge. Four centurions charged them, but Twilight intervened. Her horn lit up and she tossed a small green sphere to the side, making sure that it traveled through each centurion’s gaze. To the surprise of Cassandra, Arcade, Veronica, and Shining, the four centurions (along with almost every other legionary in the courtyard) took off in pursuit of the orb. “Wait for it.” Twilight said with a smirk. Suddenly, the magic infused plasma grenade exploded in a giant sphere of swirling green and purple light that turned the legionary members into motes of dust and goo. “Well, that spell seems to have paid off well.” Twilight added with a chuckle. “Twily, did you weaponize the want it need it spell?” Shining asked in surprise. “Yep.” Twilight replied with a grin. “Okay, that’s it. The first thing I’m doing when we get home is having sex with Cadence, and the second thing is I’m going to therapy, because now I’m officially crazy!” Shining exclaimed. “Oh this is nothing; try having your brain and spine removed while your mind is still inside your body, that’s when you should start to consider therapy.” Cassandra told him with a tiny smirk. “Okay now, let’s get inside and kill the legate and Burke so that we can go home.” Cassandra made them all step a few feet back before she took a missile launcher off of her back and pointed it at the door. *** “My lord, we must leave at once!” Burke told Octavian who scowled at him. “Your plan to kill the Wanderer seems to have failed Frumentarii, I did warn you of the consequences.” Octavian told Burke while he placed a restraining hand on the other man’s shoulder. “My lord, another chance. That’s all I need!” Burke protested while he desperately tried to remove the much larger man’s hand. “Face your death with some honor Frumentarii; after I’m done with the woman I’ll make sure to finish your job too. Then the Legion will reign supreme over this place, now that the Brotherhood’s numbers have been depleted by your supermutant allies. At least you were able to do that right.” Octavian said with a chuckle as he led Burke towards the elevator. “They failed to do as much damage as I would’ve liked.” Burke said quietly with a frown. “Then the slaughter shall be more enjoyable.” *** “Do you really think this was necessary?” Twilight asked as the six of them stood together in the main lobby. “Not really, but it looks cool.” Ethan replied conversationally. Ethan had gotten bored waiting for Burke and the legate to come down to the bottom floor so he had artfully arranged several legion corpses so that it looked like they were crawling hopelessly towards the door. “It’s a bit disturbing…” Arcade said with a raised eyebrow. “That’s the point.” Ethan replied with a chuckle. “I gathered.” Arcade said dryly. The ding of the elevator door opening interrupted their banter. Burke was forcibly kicked out of the elevator and was sent sprawling across the bloody ground, ruining his suit. The man following behind him who had delivered the kick was wearing full legate armor and had dark brown eyes. The man also possessed a rather imposing super sledge that appeared to be around twice as big as any that Ethan had ever seen. “Salve, I am Legate Octavian. Dispose of this trash for me and then I shall fight Cassandra.” The legate said simply with a gesture towards Burke who had regained his feet. “You know I could just kill you both in a few seconds and save time.” Ethan said conversationally. “You would not; your honor would not allow it.” Octavian replied with a shrug. “Says who? For all you know I could be planning to shoot both of you evil assholes the second that we’re done talking.” Ethan said with a smirk. “Yes, but that would be highly anticlimactic, and I know how much your type enjoy their theatrics.” The Legate said. “Fine. Burke, I hate you and I’m sorry that I didn’t do this a long time ago.” Ethan said, pulling out his novasurge and pointing it at Burke’s head. “Wait, can’t we talk exchange pleasantries first?” Burke asked desperately. “Okay, you get sixty seconds. Start talking.” Ethan said with a sigh. “Everything that you stand for is a lie, your precious wasteland is nothing but a flawed and backwards ins-” Burke cut himself off mid-sentence as his hand pulled a silenced 12.7 mm pistol and shot Ethan almost point blank in the head. Or at least, that’s what he tried to do. Twilight caught the bullet half a second after it had left the barrel of the gun and brought it to hover in front of Burke’s eyes, which widened. “Thanks Sparky; that would’ve been inconvenient, brain doesn’t grow back quite right.” Ethan told Twilight with a grin. “Alright, now it’s my turn.” Ethan began with a grin. “Mister Burke, as compensation for the people of Megaton, along with the people who you killed and tortured here in Tenpenny Tower (along with anything else that I’m not privy to) I sentence you to death.” Ethan told the man while pointing the barrel at the man’s head. They were only separated by a matter of feet and Ethan knew he couldn’t miss. Even so he entered VATS. His pistol shot twice, the first shot blowing apart the snakelike man’s head, and the second reducing his body to a puddle of goo. “A fitting end for such a man, now let us commence the final melee Courier.” Octavian said drawing his massive super sledge “Fuck that.” Cassandra said simply, before she shot a blast of dragon’s breath straight at the large man. Legate Octavian stood in the exact same place, apparently untouched by the flames, although his hair did seem to be slightly singed. “So you would prefer to fight me with the aid of your technology. Very well, it will make this more enjoyable.” Octavian replied before cracking his neck. “Do you need help dear?” Ethan asked but Cassandra shook her head. “No, I’d just forgotten how hard legates are to kill.” She replied as she shot another stream of dragon’s breath at the legate as he charged her. The gout of fire had a similar effect as it had had before, doing absolutely nothing. “Well fuck.” Cassandra said with a sigh as she rolled out of the way of the Legate’s swing. What she hadn’t expected was that the Legate would anticipate this move and compensate for it by smashing his fist downward where she was going to roll. Cassandra was sent tumbling to the side and groaned slightly as she rolled back to her feet, mumbling something about giant hammers. The Legate barely gave her time to rise to her feet again before he was on top of her again, swinging his sledge left and right forcing the Courier onto the defensive. Suddenly Ethan shouted. “STOP, hammertime!” Cassandra and Octavian turned to regard Ethan quizzically. “Was that really necessary?” Cassandra asked. “I thought so.” Ethan told her with a smirk. “Ethan, when we get home I’m going to have a long conversation with you about destroying dramatic tension with stupid remarks from before the war.” Cassandra told him with a scowl before turning back to Octavian. “Now, where were we?” Octavian shrugged and sent his hammer whistling toward Cassandra’s head. To his surprise she caught it by the shaft. Cassandra’s ballistic fist had somehow appeared on her hand, and its shotgun barrels where now pointed directly at the Legate’s face. “Nighty night.” Cassandra said with a grim smile. The Legate’s newly headless body fell to the ground with a thud. Cassandra quickly looted his corpse of any and all valuables, including his armor and massive Super sledge, which she handed to Arcade to carry. The Ex-Enclave rolled his eyes but accepted the burden without comment; he had the strongest powerarmor and thus had to carry the heaviest loot. “Now let’s let the people in the basement free and get the hell out of this place, I’m hungry!” Cassandra exclaimed with a grin before she strode over to the basement door and punched it open. “You’re all free; and you owe us twenty-five thousand caps.” “Isn’t that kind of extreme?” Veronica asked as they strode out of the tower. “Na, they had to pay ten thousand each in order to get a room in that place, I’m sure twenty-five thousand is pocket change to these people.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “Finally, all this other crap is done and you can work out a way to get me home.” Twilight said with a sigh of relief. “And here I thought you enjoyed my company.” Ethan told her, sounding rather miffed. “Yeah, but I still want to have sweaty lesbian sex with Celestia before I die and being here is kind of preventing that from happening.” Twilight replied. “Fair enough.” Ethan told her. Shining groaned and looked around desperately for something to smash his head against to relive the images of two of the mares that he respected (and loved) the most bumping uglies. *** Luna’s eyes suddenly widened, whatever had been blocking the realm where Shining Armor and Twilight from her was suddenly down. She would’ve traveled there immediately, but she had pressing matters to attend to (specifically what to do about the thing pressing into her from behind). So instead she simply grabbed a piece of paper from a nearby desk and wrote a few words before magically sending it to Shining. *** They were all sitting in Ethan’s living room when a scroll suddenly out of a portal made from inky blackness. It fell onto Shining’s head before he caught it in his magic. “Dear Shining Armor. Whatever was keeping you there is now allowing you and Twilight Sparkle to pass back. I suggest doing so rapidly before whatever god is in control of this realm changes its mind.” Shining read aloud to the rest. “Wait, so we don’t have to do anything else?” Ethan asked, looking slightly disappointed. “Apparently not.” Cassandra replied with a chuckle. “YES!” Twilight exclaimed with a happy shout, her horn started to glow as she began to cast the spell that had brought her to the wasteland in the first place. “Hold on Sparky, I can’t let you leave without a goody-bag, it’s what a host should do.” Ethan told her with a grin. “Alright, but please do it fast!” Twilight told him excitedly. Ethan went upstairs and got one of the large adventure’s satchels that Cassandra had given him and began to fill it up with random things from around the house. “Here you go Sparky, it’s got a picture of me and Cassie to help you remember us, every one of the weapons that you’ve used while you’ve been here plus a few hundred shots for each, twelve deathclaw eggs that won’t hatch anytime soon, a recipe for baking them, twenty five Nuka Colas, and fifty stimpacks.” Ethan told her as he offered Twilight the bag. “Good luck getting home, and please write Sparky.” Ethan added as he whipped a small tear away from his eye. “Thanks Ethan, try and stay alive for me, alright?” Twilight told him before she leapt forward and he wrapped her in a fierce hug. “Of course Sparky, I’m hard to kill, remember?” Ethan said with a chuckle. “Just remember not to throw grenades uphill.” She added. “Or else the Wasteland will bitchslap you.” Ethan finished with a grin before he set her down. “Alright Shiny, let’s go home.” Twilight said with a grin. They both vanished in a flash of green light. *** Much to her surprise, when she regained the ability to see Twilight found herself sitting in a chair outside a plain looking office door. Upon the door were the words ‘War, war never changes’ and underneath that in much small script it said ‘unless you change the people’. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” She sighed. A woman’s laughter echoed from behind the doorway. “You might as well come in, this shouldn’t take too long.” The voice behind the doorway said. The voice reminded Twilight slightly of Cassandra’s, but much older. With a sigh, Twilight pushed open the door and her mouth fell open in surprise. Sitting behind a perfectly ordinary looking desk in a nice leather swivel chair was the blonde woman who had set up the hit on Twilight nine days ago. “Sorry about the décor, but they were out of magical cloud pedestals.”