Edited by TacoTown
Chapter 7
The three were sitting around a small fire in the remains of the central office. They’d used the desk for wood, along with a few newspaper clippings to act as kindling. Ethan let out a satisfied sigh as he pulled a hunk of radgator meat off of a small spit he’d made out of a thin piece of metal and took a bite.
“You know, this stuff is pretty good.” He said once he’d swallowed the mouthful and stuck another on the spit before returning it to its place over the fire.
“I’ll stick to my MREs, thanks.” Day Kicker said with a baleful look towards the meat as he tore open the top of a small bag and popped a grey cube into his mouth. Holly just shrugged and took a bite of her own radgator meat.
“Suit yourself, pigeon.” Ethan said with a chuckle.
They lapsed into silence for a few minutes while they ate before Ethan turned to his companions and said. “So Holly, Day Kicker, where are you from?”
“Hmm?” Holly asked.
“Why do you want to know?” Day Kicker asked.
“If I’m going to be traveling with you two I’d like to know a bit about you both. Nothing major, just a little background. You know, build a friendship.” Ethan replied with a shrug.
“I don’t plan on being your friend.” Day Kicker told him coldly with a slight flap of his blue wings.
“Well then, be an ass. So Holly, where are you from?” Ethan asked, turning to the green unicorn.
“I’m from a small farming community a little north of New Appleoosa.” Holly said with a small shrug. “My brother and I left because we got tired of the farm life and wanted to try our hooves at scavving.” She added.
“And where is your brother now?” Day Kicker asked.
“Dead.” Holly answered shortly with a frown. “A little over two weeks ago we were being chased by some fucking, goddess damned, cunt faced, small dicked raiders; he forced me to leave him so I could get away.” She said sadly. “Goddesses I miss that bastard.” She added softly before she wiped her eye quickly with a foreleg.
“I'm sorry that I brought it up then.” Ethan offered with a sigh, he was no stranger to loss.
“As am I.” Day Kicker agreed with a small nod.
“It's fine, I just hope that he took out a lot of those fuckers before they killed him.” Holly said with a sigh. “He was so stupid, I’m the one who actually knew how to fight. He was a doctor dammit! At least I would’ve stood a chance against those bastards!” She added acidly.
“Then why did you not insist on him going on without you instead of the opposite?” Day Kicker asked curiously.
“Because he wouldn’t let me!” Holly all but shouted. “The arrogant prick told me that he wasn’t letting me get captured by raiders! Said that he’d seen what they do to mares and didn’t want me to end up like that!” She continued “It’s unfair, it should’ve been me!” She finished as her voice broke and a few tears began to slide down her face.
To her surprise, Ethan’s arm reached out and pulled the mare into his chest where she began to actually weep. Day Kicker seemed caught between the urge to join in the gesture, and the urge to fly as far in the opposite direction as he could. After around a minute Holly pulled away from Ethan and shivered slightly.
“Sorry, I haven’t really talked about it with anyone else yet, had it all bottled up inside.” Holly apologized with a sniffle.
“Don’t mention it; you’re not nearly as bad as I was when I lost my dad.” Ethan replied with a small pained smile. Then he turned to Day Kicker. “You never got laid, did you?”
“What makes you ask?” Day Kicker asked coldly.
“Well, when I was hugging her you got the classic ‘should I comfort her or should I run the fuck away?’ look in your eyes. Usually that means that you’ve never gotten laid.” Ethan said with a smirk.
“Bu-wha-huh?” Day Kicker asked in confusion.
“Hah!” Holly barked with a laugh. Her previously sad mood disappeared entirely, or at least went dormant for the moment as she eyed the blonde-maned pegasus.
“I have too gotten laid!” Day Kicker protested with a glare at Ethan.
“Pillows and your hooves don’t count, pigeon.” Ethan said with a smirk as Day Kicker glowered at him.
“Stop calling me that.” Day Kicker said.
“Why, is it getting your feathers in a bunch pigeon?” Ethan asked.
“Would you little fucking fillies please not start this now?” Holly asked with a sigh. “I’m not in the fucking mood for it.” She added.
“Fine.” Day Kicker said with a growl.
“Whatever, I was just joking anyways.” Ethan said with a shrug. A few more moments of silence passed between them broken only by the sound of chewing.
“So Ethan, the reports from the team who first contacted you during their attempt to collect the AI-“
“Call me Eddie.” Eddie interjected.
“-Eddie said that you mentioned that you said something about having previous encounters with the Enclave, but we haven’t ever heard of you.” Day Kicker said while quickly correcting himself.
“Yeah, what of it?” Ethan asked.
“Well, the Enclave keeps very careful records of everything that we encounter, and we’ve never encountered a human before. So my question is; when did you meet the Enclave before, and what happened?” Day Kicker asked.
“Didn’t I explain to you that I’m from a different planet?” Ethan asked.
“No, I must have missed that.” Day Kicker said with a frown.
“Yeah, I’m from a planet that’s almost exactly like this one, except for the fact that we’re all human and that I’ve only met one man with magic.” Ethan replied with a shrug.
“Still, I would like to know about how you met the Enclave where you’re from.” Day Kicker said curiously.
“They killed my father.” Ethan said flatly “Right as he was about to achieve his life’s goal, the dream that he’d carried with him for years and years.” He said; his eyes got a faraway look in them. “And then they started killing the others. I may not have known them very well, but they were still brilliant people who had a lot to offer to the Wasteland…” He trailed off and then shook his head.
“What was your father’s dream?” Holly asked.
“He was the main mind behind Project Purity, a giant water purifier that’s powerful enough to clean every major river in the Capital Wasteland.” Ethan said.
“And why did your Enclave want to stop this from happening?” Day Kicker asked.
“Because the fuckers wanted to charge people for the water.” Ethan said with a growl. “The best thing to happen to the Wasteland since the Survival Guide and they wanted to fucking charge people for it.”
“That doesn’t make sense, why would the Enclave want to do that?” Day Kicker asked; the wheels in his mind were spinning rapidly as he thought about what Ethan was telling him.
“Because they were assholes.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “Emphasis on the ‘were’ part.” He added.
“What do you mean?” Day Kicker asked.
“I killed them. Every. Single. One of them.” Ethan replied coldly, his blue eyes were hard as glaciers.
“But how did you manage that? You’re one person!” Day Kicker exclaimed.
“Yes, one person who had just seen his father murdered in the midst of accomplishing his dream. That’s enough to give you the strength to kill… just about anyone really.” Ethan said with a shrug. “I still remember the look of stupid superiority on Colonel Autumn’s face right before I blew his fucking head off.” Ethan growled.
“Colonel Autumn?” Day Kicker asked slowly.
“Yeah, he’s the one who killed my father, and then tortured me for information. I think I got even in the end though.” Ethan said with a dark chuckle. “Why do you ask?” He added.
“Oh, no reason…” Day Kicker said trailing off.
“Okie dokie then.” Ethan agreed with a shrug. “So Day Kicker, we’ve all shared a little except for you, do you have anything?”
“Hey, what about me?” Eddie asked before Day Kicker could respond.
“Do you have something to talk about Eddie?” Ethan asked.
“Well, I’m an advanced military AI who you know next to nothing about, the least you could do is pretend to be curious about me.” Eddie said sulkily.
“Okay then, fuck it. I’ll bite.” Holly said with a shrug. “So Eddie, what did you do before the end of the world?”
“Well I was built as a joint venture between Rainbow Dash’s Ministry of Awesome and Applejack’s Ministry of Wartime Technology to act as a probability calculator.” Eddie explained.
“That’s odd; Rainbow Dash was notoriously against the idea of AI.” Day Kicker interjected.
“Yeah, I heard about that. Apparently she liked me though.” Eddie replied in an upbeat voice. “Anyways, I spent all my time predicting things. Like what moves on the battlefield would get victory, or what the speed of an equestrian swallow would be if it were to carry a coconut bomb compared to the speed of a zebrican swallow carrying the same type of bomb.” Eddie continued blithely. “But I was always off by a day or so for big events; or a minute for some of the smaller ones.” He said as his modulated voice turned sad. “And I missed the biggest one by an entire month.” He finished dourly.
“You predicted the end of the war, didn’t you?” Ethan asked softly.
“Yes, yes I did. Well, not exactly, not even close to exact enough to stop it, but I knew it was going to happen before it did, before the world was consumed by flames and I had to spend over two hundred years thinking about how I’d failed.” The AI said despondently. “Endlessly rerunning the simulations, cycling through my mistakes, never tiring while the bones of the people that I cared about rotted to-”
“Eddie, you’re not alone anymore, it wasn’t your fault.” Ethan said comfortingly, interrupting the AI’s speech before he could continue to verbally chastise himself.
“But if I had been a month more accurate then I could’ve-”
“There are still two things that I don’t fucking understand about you.” Holly said, interrupting the AI.
“What are they?” Eddie asked.
“Well for one, you say that your timing is always off, but you managed to keep us safe from those artillery blasts, if you’re always off then how’d you manage that?” Holly asked.
“Because that was simple math, all I had to know were a few different measurements and it was easy.” Eddie replied as he regained his jovial tone. “Now if there had been half a dozen artillery pieces firing at us then I’m doubtful that I’d be able to perform as well. So what was your next question?”
“Well if you’re a predictor then how in the fuck do you manage all the other stuff that you’ve done, like the map and the elevator?” Holly asked.
“Well when you have two hundred years and your choices are to either rethink your failures, and then watch them endlessly loop together while you desperately search for a way to correct your programming, or to find a hobby like advanced computer hacking that can distract you for a few minutes then you choose the latter.” Eddie replied simply. “As for the maps, Ethan’s Pip-Buck-”
“Pip-Boy” Ethan interjected.
“-Pip-Boy can already access the satellites in orbit so the maps are already there; I’m just reading them out.” Eddie finished.
“Ah, I was wondering about that.” Day Kicker said with an almost imperceptible nod. Then he yawned. “It’s been a long day and I’m tired, you three can stay awake if you want but I’m going to bed, see you in the morning.”
“Good night.” Ethan replied with a shrug as the pegasus flew towards the couch that he’d found in the raider’s bedroom.
“I’ll take first watch Holly, you can either take second or third.” Ethan told the unicorn.
“Okay then, wake me in four hours or so.” She said with a nod as she rose to her hooves with a yawn of her own and went on her way towards the bedroom.
“So Ethan, want to tell stories to pass the time?” Eddie asked.
“Sure. So Eddie, have I ever told you about the time that I got abducted by aliens?”
***
“Well that wasn’t the worst experience I’ve ever had in a hospital.” Sarah said with a small smile as the two companions wound their way back towards Winter’s dwelling.
“What was the worst experience you’ve ever had in a hospital?” Winter asked curiously.
“That would be the time that my squad, the Lyons Pride, got stuck in a hospital basement surrounded by glowing ghouls and mirelurk kings.” Sarah replied with a slight shiver. “I thought we were done for, until Ethan showed up and stole the show, of course.” She added with a roll of her eyes.
“Hmm?” Winter asked curiously.
“It’s just a habit of his, whenever I’m in trouble he’ll show up out of nowhere and save my ass, it’s kind of annoying.” Sarah replied with a shrug, the sound of a whip cracking and a pony in the distance screaming in pain made her pause for a second before continuing. “Kind of sweet too, honestly.” She added with a small smile and a shake of her head.
“Heh, well I hope he can rescue the two of us soon, the longer I’m in this city the worse I feel.” Winter said with a frown.
“Tell me about it, I’m never going to get the stains out of this shirt.” Sarah grumbled as she poked her shirt with a slightly ashy finger, adding to the growing coat of grime that had already begun to cover her clothing.
“Heh, those should be the least of your worries.” Winter told her with a slight chuckle as he opened the door to the bottom floor of the building he lived in.
“I don’t really care about the shirt, it’s just that I really, really, really, miss my powerarmor is all.” Sarah replied with a sigh.
“You know how to wear powerarmor?” Winter asked in surprise.
“Of course I do. I’m Brotherhood of Steel Paladin Sarah Lyons.” Sarah replied with a shrug. “My job is wearing powerarmor and killing mutants, raiders, and any fucking Enclave sons of bitches that I see.” She added with a smile. “Good God I sound like Ethan.” She groaned with a facepalm.
“Huh, sounds like the Steel Rangers. Well, except for the fact that they’re all technology hoarding zealots.” Winter said as he opened the door to his house and stepped inside.
“Steel Rangers?” Sarah asked curiously.
“Yeah, they’re the remnants of the Ministry of Wartime Technology. They go around wearing powerarmor and ‘reallocating’ advanced technology to keep it safe from us ‘filthy, filthy tribals’.” Winter said with a slight huff.
“Sounds like the old West Coast branches of the Brotherhood to me.” Sarah told him. “We still go around collecting technology, but we also help keep the people of the Capital Wasteland safe from all the different bastards out there.”
“Hmm, interesting.” Winter said with a quick nod. “So Sarah, are you hungry?” The green-maned unicorn asked as he walked further into the little one room house. Her stomach roared loudly. “Well, I guess that answers that.” He said with a chuckle.
“Yeah, I guess it does. So what do you have?” Sarah asked.
“Not much, not much at all.” Winter replied with a sigh. “I’m a nurse; that means that I get a few extra privileges, like not having to depend purely on the slop that they hoof out to the other slaves. Unfortunately, like I said it’s not much.” He waved her over to a small fridge that he sat in the back of the room and Sarah peered inside.
“They have the same crap here that they did back in the Capital Wasteland…” Sarah said with a sigh as she looked over the few boxes of prepackaged food that looked almost identical to the stuff back home. “I’ll have a salisbury steak, I guess.” She said with a sigh as she reached in and grabbed one of the boxes.
“I’m more of a snack cake kind of stallion myself; always make sure that I get a few.” Winter said as he lifted a small package out of the fridge. They spent several minutes in companionable silence while they ate before Sarah broke the quiet air.
“So Winter, how did you get here?” She asked.
“Well… I did something stupid and got captured by this lot of idiots.” Winter told her with sigh. “My ass still hurts.” He joked with a wry grin.
“I’m sorry.” Sarah told him.
“Na, don’t worry about it. It’s better than being dead, and this way I get to help ponies who really need it.” Winter said with a crooked smile.
“We’ll get out of here Winter; just you wait.” Sarah told him reassuringly.
“Well I hope that your stallion’s as good at this as you say he is.” Winter replied.
“Trust me; this wouldn’t be the first time Ethan’s done something like this.” Sarah said with a small smirk.
“Really. He has experience busting people out of maximum security slave cities?” Winter asked sarcastically.
“Well, not exactly, but he did manage to sneak into one and play a vital course in its history.” Sarah said with a shrug.
“What do you mean?” Winter asked.
“Well, it’s actually pretty complicated. In the end, Ethan freed the slaves and ended up saving the place from a massive trog outbreak.” Sarah explained.
“Sounds like he’s a hell of a guy.” Winter said. “So I take it that you two are together?”
“Not exactly, we’re more of fuckbuddies then anything else right now.” Sarah said with a wry smile.
“So it’s casual.” Winter said.
“Yep, just some nice casual sex to relieve some of the pent up stress that the Wasteland throws at us.” Sarah said with a shrug. They spent the remainder of the meal chatting idly about some of the differences between the Capital and Equestrian Wastelands before they went to bed.
***
It was raining when Ethan woke up, and it would be raining all day by the looks of it. He rolled of the couch and onto his feet before he nudged Holly with his foot.
“Come on, it’s time to deal with those other raiders.” Ethan told her.
“Are we eating first?” Holly asked with a yawn.
“Of course we’re eating first.” The man said with a grin. They made their way out of the room and found Day Kicker sitting with his back to the desk looking at the elevator shaft.
“Morning.” He said politely.
“And the same to you.” Ethan replied with a smile. “So, did you hear anything from our friends down below?”
“Yes, apparently they didn’t think about the fact that elevator shafts carry voices very well. They’ve set up a bunch of mines in and around the elevator shaft so that when we step out we’ll die.” Day Kicker told them, he didn’t sound all that concerned.
“Well, this should be fun.” Ethan said with a smirk.
“I thought you’d like the sound of it.” Day Kicker agreed.
“Aww, you two are bonding over killing raiders, this is fucking adorable.” Holly said with a chuckle before she bit into a snack cake. Day Kicker gave her an un-amused look and rolled his eyes. Ethan just shrugged and shook his head with a small grin.
“How would you get rid of the mines in the shaft?” Ethan asked the pegasus, turning back to the matter at hand.
“Fly down and disarm them, most mines are only activated by vibrations against the ground, my wings eliminate that problem. The rest are via motion trackers and I know that I can move faster than they can keep track of me” Day Kicker replied.
“Sounds good to me, just be careful.” Ethan told him.
“I could do it in my sleep.” Day Kicker said coolly.
“Glad to hear it.” Ethan said with a grin.
“If we disarm the fucking mines then it’ll let the raiders know that something is up.” Holly said as she came to stand behind Ethan.
“Hmm… she’s right.” Day Kicker said with a small nod in Holly’s direction.
“Day Kicker; fly down and disarm the mines, then bring four back.” Ethan instructed.
“Why?” The blue pegasus asked.
“Because I can use it to our advantage.” Ethan replied. The pegasus shrugged and stepped into the elevator car before he flew through the opened hatch in the roof. The pegasus then headed for the ladder that ran up the shaft’s wall and let himself drop down through the space, stopping right above the mines.
The pegasus’s eyes widened as he caught sight of the multitude of mines that had been scattered across the floor of the shaft; there at least twenty. With a slight sigh he reached out and began the process of eliminating them one by one, carefully tapping the off button located on the top of the mines.
The whole process took him around ten minutes. His drill sergeant would’ve been furious at him for taking that long, but with this many explosives right underneath him the pegasus wasn’t about to risk being blown to hell because he’d been working too fast. When the job was done Day Kicker flew back up the shaft with four mines strapped firmly across his chest.
“Good job Kicker, can I call you Kicker by the way?” Ethan asked.
“If you’d like, although that’s more of a family name. I’d prefer Day if you’re going to shorten it.” Day Kicker said.
“Alright then Day, great job. Now hand me those mines if you’d please.” Ethan said with a large smile. Day Kicker complied and Ethan pulled a screwdriver out of his pocket, along with a lunch box and a pair of aviator sunglasses.
“Where the fuck did you get those?” Holly asked.
“Found them last night while I was bored. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to-” He paused for a second before sliding the sunglasses onto his face. “-pack my lunch!”
“Ethan, you’re fucking impossible.” Holly groaned.
“No, not impossible, just unexpected.” Ethan replied with a wide grin.
“No, fuck that, you’re fucking impossible.” Holly told him as the man began to disassemble the mines.
“Maybe so, but I’m also drop dead gorgeous and have enough raw animal magnetism to seduce a deathclaw.” Ethan replied as he opened up the lunchbox. “Not that I’d bother mind you, deathclaws are always looking for committed relationships and that’s just not my style. Well that and them being giant mutated iguanas, that’s definitely a turn off too.” He added with a grin.
“We’ll take your word for it.” Day Kicker said with a role of his eyes.
“Okay, we’re ready.” Ethan said as he hefted the newly constructed lunchbox. It looked the same as the old one, except that it was now several pounds heavier, and the mines were disassembled and lying on the floor.
“So what does this do?” Holly asked.
“It goes boom.” Ethan replied with a knowing grin.
“And this will help us how?” The unicorn asked.
“Because if those raiders want a boom then we’ll give them a boom.” Ethan told her with a large grin.
“So it’s a distraction then?” Day Kicker asked
“You could say that.” Ethan agreed with a nod before he walked into the elevator car. “Are you two coming?” He asked with a smirk.
***
“Didtcha hear that? It sounds like the elevator car is coming down!” Ratrace said excitedly as he pointed at the pointed at the elevator shaft with a brown furred foreleg.
“Yeah, I heard it, now get your ass back over here before they come out and explode or else you’ll lose your face!” His friend Crimsonhoof said before he pulled the other raider away from the mined doorway with a quick TK pull.
There were around ten raiders left alive in the building, and they’d chosen Ratrace and Crimsonhoof to watch the doorway while they all slept in the basement with the goods.
The elevator dinged. And the door opened. And there sitting in the middle of the empty elevator car was a lunchbox.
“Is that a lunchbox?” Crimsonhoof asked curiously as he began to walk towards the elevator car.
“Yeah, it looks like it; maybe they’re trying to be our friends!” Ratrace said with a wide, enthusiastic grin.
“Yeah and let’s play along, maybe if we give them a lunchbox they’ll come down and we can shoot them without having to worry about it, cause they’ll be lured into a false sense of security!” Crimsonhoof said with an elated grin as they stepped over the mines planted on the outside and stepped into the elevator shaft.
***
“These raiders aren’t particularly smart, are they?” Day Kicker whispered from where he was hovering next to Ethan’s face.
“Nope, and now witness the destructive power of the mighty lunchbox!” Ethan said with a smile. Holly was too busy banging her head gently against the elevator roof that they were standing on because of the raiders’ stupidity to comment.
A second after the raiders had stepped into the elevator car the lunchbox exploded taking both raiders and the rest of the mines with them.
“Well that was fun, now let’s kill the rest.” Ethan told his companions before he dropped into the blood-stained elevator car.
His boot-clad feet squished when he landed, but he ignored it and continued out of the car and onto the thoroughly destroyed tiles of the floor beyond. Holly took one look at the sticky bloody floor and shot a hopeful look to Day Kicker. The pegasus rolled his eyes, but grabbed Holly in his forelegs and carried her out of the car before depositing her on the floor beyond.
“Thanks, having that stuff all over my legs would drive me fucking insane.” Holly told Day Kicker who shrugged.
“We ready?” Ethan asked turning back to look at the two of them. They both nodded.
“Okie dokie then, let’s head for the basement!” Eddie said enthusiastically.
The group retraced their steps back into the main lobby without incident, with Day Kicker scouting each room before they entered it. They stopped in front of the door leading to the basement.
“How are we going to do this?” Ethan asked them.
“I could scout the room, but they would most likely notice it.” Day Kicker said from his position on the ceiling.
“Well we can’t have you getting shot, much, so let’s do this the Ethan way.” Ethan said with a grin before his foot shot out and slammed into the door, smashing it open.
He then ran down the stairs and into the basement, only to be met by a full burst of shotgun pellets to the chest. The man was thrown to his ass, but he rolled back to his feet seconds later closed the distance between himself and his attacker before his shock sword slashed out to bisect a raider staring at him in horrified confusion. The next raider in the room fired his hunting rifle, and the bullet slammed into Ethan’s armored shoulder, but glanced off before the man returned fire with his magnum, decapitating the raider before he had a chance to fire again.
That left six raiders in the basement, all of whom were behind crates of supplies that were now being used as cover.
Holly leapt out of the hallway and slid into position beside a crate before popping up and firing a trio of 12.7mm bullets into the next raider to stick his head over a crate. Day Kicker’s method however, was actually much quicker. He simply flew onto the roof of the room and began to rain magical energy down upon the raiders in cover. One rose out of cover to return fire, but Ethan’s .44 bullet slammed into his chest and sent the earth pony tumbling to the ground.
Day Kicker’s magic burned through another one of the raiders, dissolving him into a pool of goo. Ethan used the slight slackening of incoming fire to race forward and bound over cover before bringing his pistol up and blasting a hole through a raider’s neck. Another raider had the misfortune of having his head in Holly’s crosshairs; her pistol barked twice and his head exploded. That just left one raider.
“Nopony move, I’ve got a hostage!” One of the remaining raiders shouted suddenly as he pulled a squirming colt out of one of the tents that they had set up along the back wall of basement. The raider held the colt in front of him with a magical grip and a pistol floated next to the colt’s head. “One more step and I’ll blow his brains out!” the raider shouted menacingly.
Ethan’s eyes widened, and then narrowed.
“You will put that boy down right now.” Ethan said softly in a foreboding voice.
“Oh yeah? Or what?” The raider asked.
“Or else I’ll show you what I do to people who hurt children in front of me.” Ethan replied coldly.
His blue eye practically blazed as he stared into the unicorn’s, who suddenly began to shake slightly as his sense of terror began to rise. Standing before him was a being that towered over him, covered in the blood of his fellow raiders, and capable of shrugging off a blast of buckshot to the chest and then slice his attacker in half. Not only that, but the man’s eyes were like two blazing fires of anger, promising his death if should he kill the colt who was struggling in his magical grip.
“Aww, fuck you!” The raider said after a moment of thought; his magical grip began to tighten on the trigger of the pistol. Ethan’s magnum went off before he could finish the pull and the bullet smashed into the raider’s exposed head, sending him tumbling. The colt landed on the ground and began to desperately attempt to escape his bonds as Ethan walked slowly towards him.
He was a white earth pony, and his eyes were wide as he tried to scoot away from Ethan’s imposing figure as it neared him. A terrified whimper shot through the colt and he began to shake with fear as Ethan took a seat on the ground next to him.
“Sh, sh, sh, it’s alright, everything’s going to be alright.” Ethan whispered soothingly as his hand slid down the colt’s back. “You’re alive, and those bad ponies aren’t going to hurt you anymore. It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright.” Ethan continued as the colt’s shivering started to settle.
“Wha-wha-what are you?” The colt squeaked.
“My name’s Ethan, and I’m here to make sure that you get home safe and sound.” Ethan replied softly as his hand continued to stroke. “Do you know where your parents live?” He asked.
“They-they’r-they’re dead!” The colt sobbed, he began to shake even more, rocking back and forth on the bloodstained ground next to Ethan.
The man’s face momentarily darkened with rage before a look of sadness overtook it.
“Do you know anyone who’d be willing to take you in?” He asked.
“I-I think that I have an aunt living in Tenpony Tower.” The colt sniveled.
“Well it’s your lucky day kid, that’s exactly where we’re heading next.” Ethan told him, giving the colt a reassuring smile.
“Really?” The colt asked drying his eyes.
“Yep, don’t worry kid, I’ll get you there safe and sound. Although I can’t promise that you’ll stay dry.” Ethan said with a small smirk.
“Impressive.” Day Kicker whispered to himself as he watched, he’d expected it to take much longer to calm the colt.
“Alright folks, grab whatever looks valuable to you and take claim it as salvage. Once you’re done we’re getting this little guy back to Tenpony and I’m collecting our reward.” Ethan said as he got back to his feet, he was cradling the colt in one arm.
“It’ll take us a fucking hour to get through all these crates.” Holly informed him curtly as she began to open a nearby crate with her magic.
“You’ve got half that.”
***
“You did great work back there.” Homage told Ethan as they walked around her living room.
“Thanks, it was just what anyone should have done. Besides, I have a soft spot for kids, especially orphans.” Ethan replied with small pained smile.
They’d made their way back to the tower in just under two hours and after several minutes of questioning he’d managed to find the colt’s, whose name was Onyx, aunt. The middle aged earth pony mare had immediately swept the colt into a big hug before handing Ethan a bag full of over a thousand caps. He’d protested the amount, but she’d insisted upon it.
“Well it doesn’t diminish the value of what you did Ethan.” Homage said resolutely.
“So where’s Littlepip today?” Ethan asked as he looked around the room for any sign of the small pony.
“She left, she’ll be back.” Homage said simply.
“Okay, so it’s important and you won’t tell me in case it endangers you.” Ethan said with a chuckle.
“Oh, you’re good at this.” Homage said with a small smirk.
“I’m good at a lot of things.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “And I’m incredibly modest to boot.”
“Yeah, that’s one way to put it.” Homage said with a chuckle. “Oh, and I saw something that might interest you while you were out.” She added. “Follow me.”
Ethan followed the mare into a room full of fancy radio equipment and monitors.
“You see, while I was keeping an eye on Fillydelphia last night I spotted something. Or more specifically, someone.” Homage said as her hooves danced across the main keyboard. One of the monitors lit up and Ethan gasped, walking across the street of Fillydelphia was none other than Sarah Lyons.
“Sarah!” Ethan practically shouted.
“You know her then?” Homage asked.
“You’re damn right I know her, I’m her fuckbuddy dammit! Of course I know her!” Ethan said excitedly. “Homage, do you think that DJ-PON3 would mind if I sent her a message over the radio?” Ethan asked hopefully.
***
“So Winter, what are we going to be doing toda-” Sarah began but was interrupted when Winter’s eyes suddenly widened and he let his scrubs fall to the floor before he quickly pressed a button on his Pip-Buck.
‘-and now, I’ll turn it over to Ethan Smith himself.’ The voice of DJ-PON3 said.
‘Hello Wasteland, this is Ethan Smith, the Lone Wanderer speaking. This message is for Sarah Lyons of the Brotherhood of Steel, who is apparently being held as a slave in the city of Fillydelphia. I’m coming for you Sarah, don’t lose hope, don’t give up, and whatever you do, don’t stop believing.
As for ‘Lord Red Eye’, I heard that you recently had someone else break out of your little city, and I’m just going to tell you that that’s not the way that I do things. I’m coming to your city and I’m getting my friend out of there, by any means necessary. So ready your armies, prepare your soldiers, and fortify your walls. Cause The Lone Wanderer is coming to town, and he's going to tear it all down. Oh, and Sarah? Please try not to get raped, your father would fucking murder me if I let that happen to you.’
‘Well, you heard him folks, apparently old Red Eye’s got a new problem to worry about. Well, now let’s return you to your normally scheduled music and news.’
Sarah stared at Winter for a few seconds, and then she let out a laugh.
“Goddamn it Ethan, just goddamn…”