A chariot ride had not been out of the question, and within the hour Rarity found herself bathing alone in a private suite in Canterlot Castle.
“Ohh, this is just splendid,” Rarity moaned as she reclined into the bath. She opened an eye and scrutinized one of her hooves. “Oh my, that is quite hideous.” Her gaze travelled up her leg towards the rest of her body. Her light frown twisted into disgust. “Ugh, never realised just how horrible that place was for my complexion. This is going to take months to fix.”
As the unicorn sat and scrubbed three months of filth from her body, a small group had gathered outside her suite. “Can you really believe Rarity is back?”
“Three months is an awful long time.”
“I hope she’s okay.”
“Where do you think she was, anyway?”
The four friends turned to their fifth. “Well, Pinkie?” Twilight started. “Aren’t you going to say anything?” the purple unicorn asked.
The suitably-named pink earth pony stared at the door with a frown. “I dunno, Twi. AJ’s right, three months is a really long time. What if she doesn’t remember us?”
Twilight chuckled. “Shiny told me she asked about us specifically. Of course she remembers us, Pinkie.”
There was a sigh of relief from the party pony. “Well that’s good. I was really worried about that for a moment.”
Suddenly, a loud screeching was heard. “Out, cursed spot! Out, I say!”
The friends laughed. “Well, that definitely sounds like Rarity!” Applejack exclaimed, turning to look at her friends with a smile.
“FUCK!”
They all cringed at the sudden, incredibly unladylike outburst. “Did... did Rarity just swear?” Rainbow asked, looking at the door in shock.
“I said out, you stupid bloodstain! Out, damn you!” came a second banshee wail.
“B-bloodstain?” Fluttershy stammered, the little pegasus taking a few steps back.
“Why is Deathclaw blood so hard to get out of fur!?” they heard over the sound of intense scrubbing.
“Death... claw?” Pinkie Pie asked hesitantly.
“Still can’t believe I had to stab it in the eye to finish it off.”
“Stabbed it in the eye?” Twilight asked, putting a hoof to her mouth to hold down her lunch.
“Okay, whoever’s in there, it ain’t Rarity,” Applejack said uneasily.
“But Shining Armor said it was,” Twilight replied uneasily.
“No, he said that it looked like her,” the farmer clarified. “And he was hidin’ something,” she added conspiratorially.
“What do you mean?” Rainbow whispered, leaning over.
“I dunno, but Ah know he only told us a half-truth.”
“Maybe wherever she’s been changed her,” Pinkie suggested from the side. The other ponies turned to look at her, eyebrows raised. “It’s been three months. Who knows where she ended up!”
“She did say something about a thing called Deathclaws...” Twilight muttered. “I haven’t read about nothing like that anywhere. Fluttershy? Have you ever heard of one of them?” The pegasus shook her head rapidly.
“So, what? Ya think Rares ended up on another planet or somethin’?” Applejack asked skeptically.
“We don’t know what happened, so we definitely can’t rule it out...”
“What are we waiting for?” Rainbow asked, hoof against the door. “Let’s just find out.”
The door swung open and the five ponies walked in. There was very little out of place, but their eyes were immediately drawn to the strange set of clothing on the floor.
“What the hay is this thing?” Rainbow grabbed the dull-green body armour and held it up for the others to see.
“It looks like armour, but I’ve never seen anything like that.” Twilight stepped closer to inspect it, but then started reversing. “There’s blood. On the inside.”
“You sayin’ that’s Rarity’s blood?” the farmer asked, morbid curiosity drawing her closer.
“I wonder what this thing is?” They turned to Pinkie Pie, who had managed to find a...
“What is that?” Twilight asked, head tilted as she examined the strange metal thing, almost as long as a pony. On one side was a scope, while on the opposite and closer to one of the ends was a trigger mechanism. It reminded the unicorn of a crossbow, but with nowhere to put the bolts she couldn’t be sure that was what it was.
“Never seen anythin’ like that before.”
“It looks... dangerous,” Fluttershy mumbled.
Rarity’s voice came drifting out of the bathroom. “I guess that’ll have to do,” she muttered. Water could be heard sloshing around as she pulled herself out, and the clip-clop of her hooves as she walked around.
“Knowin’ Rarity, she’ll spend hours in their prettyin’ herself up,” Applajack muttered.
“No, actually,” Rarity said, opening the bathroom door. “I won’t be,” she added cheekily.
“Rarity!” the five ponies yelled happily, Pinkie dropping the metal device back on the bed. Their smiles gave way to confusion when they really saw her.
“What...”
“Your mane!” Twilight exclaimed, pointing a hoof at Rarity.
“Are those scars?” Rainbow asked, a mix of awe and worry in her voice.
“What happened to ya?” Applejack was taking in the unicorn’s new form. Rarity had always been a bit on the slim side, true, but now she was all wiry, toned muscle. It was a strange contrast to the body that only a very careful and particular diet could maintain. “Have you been workin’ out?”
“One question at a time, please,” Rarity pleaded, raising a hoof. There was a pregnant pause “Oh, how I’ve missed you all!” she screamed, abandoning all pretense of poise and jumping forwards, grabbing them all in a tight hug that told them what words couldn’t.
“Where did you go?” Pinkie asked, the first to break the silence.
Rarity let them go and wiped away at the happy tears. “Oh, it was dreadful. The most terrifying three months of my life.”
“Where were you?”
“It wasn’t anywhere in Equestria. It wasn’t even Earth! Well, our Earth, anyway,” she added as an afterthought.
“Wait, ‘our’ Earth?” Twilight asked. “What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said, dear. A different Earth.”
“You met aliens!?” Rainbow asked loudly, flying right into Rarity’s face, pushing the other unicorn away roughly.
“Yes, well...” she looked down at her hooves awkwardly, where her fetlocks had grown quite long. “You could say that.”
“Rarity?” Applejack asked softly, worried for her friend. “Just what happened?”
“You must understand, I’ve changed.”
“We kinda gathered that from the swearing,” Rainbow replied flatly.
The unicorn’s ears flattened. “You heard that?” When they nodded, she sighed. “Just one of the bad habits I picked up there.”
“Where is ‘there’, anyway?” Twilight asked, rubbing her head from where her pegasus friend’s hoof had collided with it. “You still haven’t told us.”
Rarity bit her lip, trying to think of the best way to explain. “Well, you may as well take a seat. I get the feeling we’re going to be here awhile.” As her friends sat on the ground, she took a deep breath. “Imagine a world that... no, that doesn’t work,” she muttered. “The place I spent the last three months is called the Capital Wasteland by its inhabitants,” she started. “There aren’t many safe places to live, sadly.”
“Capital... Wasteland?” Twilight asked, sounding very worried about what the name implied. “Why is it called that?”
“Because that’s exactly what it is. The two-hundred year old ruins of a nation’s capital and the area that surrounds it. Some of the monsters there make what you can find in the Everfree look as gentle as Angel.” Rarity then shuddered. “Some of the people there make Sombra look like a saint,” she added.
“Is that even possible?” Rainbow asked loudly, unable to believe that.
“Oh, believe me it is.” The unicorn’s horn glowed and a small amber bottle levitated from a pocket in her armour. “Whiskey?” she asked as she unscrewed the lid.
“Since when did you start drinkin’ whiskey?” Applejack stared at her friend and the bottle in shock.
“Two months ago,” she answered smartly. “No-one?” She shrugged and took a swig. “As I was saying,” she continued as she set the bottle down, “I’d compare the place to Tartarus, but it doesn’t do it justice.”
“How did you survive?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“I had help.”
“Help?”
“Yes, a woman called Megan.”
“Wait, ‘woman’?” Twilight asked, eyes widening at that. “Isn’t that - ”
“A female human? Yes.” Now it was Rarity’s turn to be confused. “How do you know about them?”
“There’s an old book, thousands of years old, that mentions them. It doesn’t really say much, though,” the lavender mare replied.
“What the hay’s a hooman?” Applejack asked.
“A kind of bald ape. But that’s not important,” Rarity replied dismissively. “I should tell you about the first time we met.”
“Get back here, bitch!”
Megan slammed through the old door to the Super-Duper Mart at high speed. Her thin, Armoured Vault-Suit did nothing to dampen the impact. The angry raiders chasing after her were a good reason to not bother with it, though. “Fucking hell, Moira,” she muttered angrily, gripping the edge of the door. “You did not tell me about this.”
She waited for the right moment. She had to time this perfectly or it wouldn’t work. Now! She slammed the door shut and was rewarded with the sound of half a dozen raiders running straight into it.
Megan couldn’t wait for them to extricate themselves, though. This was her chance to get away, and she was not going to waste it. She bolted as fast as she could, her 10mm rattling around in its holster and the old assault rifle on her back bouncing with each step. There was also the small bag of supplies she had managed to scavenge, pre-War food and medicine.
She came to a stop behind the store, easily a three-minute sprint. There was no time to catch her breath, though, and she jumped into one of the dumpsters that had sat there since before the war. As she huddled in a dark corner, breathing heavily, she unholstered her pistol and pointed it at the closed lid, waiting.
Megan spent a whole ten minutes lying in centuries-old trash. When nothing happened, she calmed down and climbed out. “That... was terrifying,” she muttered, brushing her now-filthy blonde hair out of her face. “I gotta bring a shotgun next time.”
She wearily began the half-hour trek from Super-Duper Mart back to Megaton, keeping an eye out for raiders and animals. It was neither of those things that caught her attention, though. It was something that stood out against the browns of the Wasteland clearly, something very... white.