//------------------------------// // Chapter 24 // Story: Light Wanderings // by ed2481 //------------------------------// FUCK WRITER'S BLOCK THE NEXT CHAPTER IS FINALLY DONE! Edited by TacoTown Chapter 24 Ethan and Twilight stalked down the hallway silent as jaguars, and at least twenty times a deadly. “We make this quick Twilight. We get the info that we need, and then we head out. We rescue the Prince, and kill whatever it is that’s holding him hostage. Then we bring him back to Canterlot and kill anything that gets in our goddamned way.” Ethan said. His voice was as hard and cold as a mighty glacier, and Twilight almost pitied the Nightmare, almost. “Sounds good Ethan.” Twilight replied with a nod. “Good, now let’s do this.” Ethan said as they reached the door to his room. Then, he jumped into his bed fully dressed, and shut his eyes. Twilight’s horn glowed, and she grunted slightly as the sleeping spell raced through her horn and then on into the man’s body. Ethan’s body was engulfed in a purple light that vanished seconds later. Twilight let out a sigh and got into the bed and lay beside her friend, her head resting against his chest. She wished that there was another way, but there wasn’t. Now their only option was to use Ethan’s mind as bait with no real way of defending it outside of the man’s determination and Twilight brain, which had thought up this little scheme. *** Ethan’s dreamscape flowed and twisted around him; he didn’t know why but there seemed to be an awful lot of floating islands around. The man shook his head, this neither the time nor the place to be distracted by the scenery. He absentmindedly kicked a rock, and watched it as morphed into a radroach which was then squashed under the feet of a rather large deathclaw that wandered by. The deathclaw was then pounded into paste by Liberty Prime. “Death to all communist reptiles!” The giant robot said in an echoing voice before it saluted Ethan and wandered ponderously away. “Yep, it’s my mind alright.” Ethan muttered. “Now I’ve got to get there.” Twilight had designed the spell so that the Nightmare wouldn’t be aware of his presence in the dreamscape until he wanted it to. Which left the real question as where would it hide, Twilight had said that it would probably pick the place that terrified him the most in an attempt to keep his subconscious from noticing it. That was bad; there were very few places that scared Ethan these days and he could only think of one that would attract something like the Nightmare. Ethan gulped and started down the cracked concrete road that materialized in front of his feet. A fey wind rippled through his duster and set the leather coat’s tail fluttering, and a small trail of dust whipped down the road and engulfed the man before passing him by like a piece of detritus, not important enough to know its mission. The rest of the landscape solidified and he was walking along any other ruined highway in the Capital Wasteland, his destination closing in. It was a squat, two-story building made out of black metal and dusty stained glass. Ethan suppressed a reflexive shudder as a feeling of absolute dread settled upon him, almost overriding his courage. But no, they needed the information that the Nightmare held, and this old horrible place was the only place that it could be found. During his musing Ethan had closed the distance with the door and his hand was gently toying with the knob. Then, with a smile of firm determination he gently pushed the door open. *** Cassandra’s eyes gazed across the varied faces before her. She sat at the head of a long conference table, mahogany of course. Boone stood behind her imposingly, first recon beret firmly in place on his head along with his aviators. They were both wearing their reinforced riot gear, although Cassandra was also wearing a small, but visible, necklace with a copy of the Lucky 38 on it. Every major player who had a foothold in New Vegas was sitting at the table looking at her. The King himself sat at her immediate right, with Pacer standing behind him. The man’s eyes flicked back and forth taking in the diverse mix of people in the room. As always, a small smile was tugging at his lips and he looked like he could burst into song at any second if given the opportunity. Pacer just looked nervous and uncomfortable and his hands occasionally went down to the holster on his waist. General Susan Murphy was next with two NCR Ranger Vets standing silently at attention behind her. The blonde woman wore a slight frown as she looked around her, but her eyes were firm and hard. She was the NCR’s representative and she would uphold the Republic’s good name. The two guards for their part just stared out of their helmets; their gazes were drawn to Boone who cracked a slight smile and nodded to them. Julie Farkas sat next to him, befit of a bodyguard which surprised no one. The Followers made up a good chunk of Cassandra’s more competent people throughout the Mojave and she’d made sure to keep up a good relationship with the mohawked woman. Paladin Hardin sat silently next to her; he was filling in for Elder McNamara, who had come down with a bout of the flu. That worried Cassandra slightly; she didn’t exactly trust Paladin Hardin. He was more in line with the older Brotherhood mantra of hoarding technology and ignoring everyone else. On the other hand, he was an excellent leader in the field and his Paladins and Knights would prove extremely helpful against the Tunnelers. Marcus sat directly on Sarah’s left, a placement that caused several of the other members of the little gathering to glower at the mutant, who ignored it. Marcus had been a large help in making sure that Cassandra understood exactly what she was getting into when she’d crowned herself Queen of New Vegas and it was only thanks to his suggestions that she’d managed to keep all the factions in check. Mother Pearl sat next to the mutant and occasionally eyed him with a look that was stuck halfway between interest and disgust. The old woman who spoke for the Boomers folded her arms over her chest, clearly impatient and more than ready for the meeting to finally start. A young Boomer armed with a grenade launcher stood behind her. A look of apprehension made its way across his face as he took in the other, far more impressively armed bodyguards, and Cassandra saw him gulp nervously. Benny sat next to the old woman, representing the Tops. His checkered suit clashing with absolutely everything, as always. He’d earned his way back to the top of the Tops’ leadership after helping stop Cassandra’s assassination. She still didn’t like him, or trust him all that much to be honest, but he was still a good manager to have on hand. Sitting next to Benny was Cachino, who was busy tugging at the neck of his prewar business suit. He was still a two-bit gangster, but Cassandra knew that he wasn’t stupid enough to defy her or to plot against her. The fact that she’d helped give him his position helped her in that regard. At his back stood two large men in trench coats, and the stocks of their silenced .22 SMGs stood out imposingly from between their shoulder blades. Marjorie, the acting leader of the White Glove Society, sat beside the man. She was wearing a spotless white dress, and her eyes were busy flicking between Cassandra and the other casino heads. She was flanked by a single White Glove, although what threat a man armed with a cane could hope to do Cassandra didn’t know. The only powers that weren’t represented in the room were the former Great Khans and Caesar's Legion. That was because Cassandra had killed them. All of them. Painfully. And slowly. “Alright, it looks like everyone’s here, so let’s get started.” Cassandra said; her voice cutting through the nervous silence that had overtaken the room. All eyes turned to the red head as she rose to her feet. “I’m sure that you’re all wondering why you’re here.” Cassandra said as she scanned the group before her, making a point to look into each of their eyes. “So I’ll cut to the chase.” She said before she gestured towards the center of the conference table. “Yes Man, if you’d please activate the hologram.” She said. “Coming right up Boss.” A peppy voice said from the ceiling before a section of the table split open to reveal a small holodisplay. A full color image of a tunneler appeared floating above the table; it was crouching and its glowing eyes stared balefully at the assembled men and women. “What is that?” Paladin Hardin asked as his eyes looked over the image. “That my friends, is a tunneler.” Cassandra said with a nod towards the image. “They’re originally from The Divide.” She stopped to let that sink in. The silence in the room was deafening. The King was the first person to regain his voice. “But Cassandra, nothing lives in the Divide.” He said uncertainly. “Unfortunately, that’s incorrect.” Cassandra said with a scowl. “Several things live in the divide, none of them good.” She continued. “Such as what?” Paladin Hardin asked as he tapped his powerarmored fingers on the table. “Marked Men for one, they’re ghoulified remnants of the NCR and Legion who’re only alive because of their hate for everything that still lives.” Cassandra said, she tapped a small previously unseen button on the table and an image of a marked man carrying a red glare appeared on screen. “Giant irradiated deathclaws; I don’t think I really need to put up a hologram of those.” She said dryly, which got a few chuckles out of some of the assembled leaders. “Unfortunately, we’re not fighting either of those. Instead, we’re fighting tunnelers.” The woman’s face darkened at the mention of their true foe, and the image above the table returned to that of a tunneler. “So what are these tunnelers, and what threat do they pose us?” Marcus asked curiously. “My research leads me to believe that they were once the people who tried to wait out the apocalypse underground in the area that we now know of as the Divide.” Cassandra told the mutant, who nodded slowly. “They remained underground, breeding and growing more powerful until the device that activated the bombs in the Divide went off, creating immense chasms and alerting the creatures to existence of the outside world.” She continued. “Are they intelligent?” Julie Farkas asked curiously. “To a certain degree.” Cassandra replied with a shrug. “I didn’t exactly have time to stop and chat with them, but from what I could tell they’re organized enough and they have a queen. And by that I mean a queen like ants, having a central mother who makes babies, not a monarchy.” She clarified. “Okay, so why should we give a damn about these things? You said they only live in the Divide, why should it matter to us?” Cachino asked, speaking for the first time. “Because they’re in the Mojave.” General Murphy said, all eyes turned to regard the general. “What are you talking about child?” Mother Pearl asked. “You’ve all heard about the NCR fort that Cassandra graciously allowed us to build, correct?” She asked. Every head in the room nodded. “A little over two weeks ago the animals around the fort began to disappear. Within a few days even the local cazador population had vanished without a trace, except for some rather large tunnels going into and out of their nesting grounds.” “Something managed to drive cazadors out of their nesting grounds?” Paladin Hardin asked with a raised eyebrow. “Yes, and that’s when things began to get strange… four nights ago I sent a dispatchment of my best veteran rangers out to investigate it and they disappeared. I haven’t heard from them since.” The general answered before she moved a strand of her blonde hair out of her eyes. “Nothing in the Mojave can kill that many of my men without them at least getting a radio broadcast out.” “Boone and I went out looking around where they vanished a few days later and I found these.” Cassandra said as she reached into her duster pocket and pulled out several large green scales. “Here, pass these around and feel them, they’re hard as stone.” Cassandra told them as she handed out the scales so that they could be passed along. “So, what does this mean for us?” The King asked. “Good question.” Cassandra replied with a smile. “It means that-” “It means that you’re going to have a lot of trouble, very soon.” An unexpected voice said from the door to the conference room. Cassandra’s eyes flicked up to take in the leather clad, dreadlocked man standing in the doorway. “You’re a very hard woman to track down, Six.” The man added as he took an open seat at the end of the table. “Yeah, you’d know, wouldn’t you?” Cassandra asked with a wry grin. “Who the hell is this guy?” Cachino asked with a look of annoyance on his face. “This is Ulysses, don’t fuck with him.” Cassandra answered with a slight shrug. “Yes Man informed me that you were in the area looking for me, sorry that I couldn’t have waited anywhere for you.” The Courier added, turning to the man. “Don’t concern yourself with it, you have larger concerns.” Ulysses said with a shrug. “Yes, yes I do. Do you know what’s going out in the Divide?” Cassandra asked him. “Nothing that you don’t already know, the Tunnelers are moving into the Mojave and have already set up several nests in and around the region. Other than that I can’t tell you anything else.” Ulysses replied. “There’s more than one nest?!” Cassandra asked in surprise. “Yes, from what I have managed to discover there are at least ten nests in the Mojave, most are small, but they most certainly exist.” Ulysses said. “Well then our problem is much bigger than I thought…” *** Ethan pondered what he had learned inside his head on the way to Rarity’s room. Information had been easy to find, it was in the first terminal that he’d come to. That meant one of two things. Either the thousand year old god entity was getting sloppy, or it was a complete and total trap. Ethan supposed that the first one might be possible, but he was betting that it wasn’t. And so was Sparky. Apparently the Nightmare and an unnamed accomplice had coltnapped Prince Shining Star for some unknown purpose and they were hiding out in the north beyond some place called the Crystal Empire. “Rarity, I need something from you.” Ethan told Rarity as he came into her room, once more without knocking. Rarity responded with surprising ease without looking up from a sketch pad. “What is it darling; do you need an accessory for- what is that?” She asked as she saw the T51-B winterized powerarmor that the man was wearing. The helmet was slung under his arm, and his anti-material rifle was strapped to his back, along with his new sword and his heavy machinegun. “It’s powerarmor. Look, I need to create a cloak of some kind that will match it.” Ethan told her. “I could do that, do you have any preference on color?” She asked as she began to circle his armored form. “It needs to blend in with the snow and it needs to be extremely warm. Oh, and matching winter coat for Sparky too.” Ethan explained; there was something off with him. It was something darker and more serious than Rarity had seen before. “Yes, I can do that, a speckled grey and white cloak would go dashingly with that armor.” Rarity mused as she finished her little circle; she decided to put his troubled look out of her mind for the moment. “As for Twilight, well, I have been meaning to use a design of mine for a while now but haven’t had the chance yet; this will be the perfect time to test it!” Rarity said with a large smile. “That’s good; we need these things by sunset.” Ethan told her. Rarity’s eyes widened. “I take it that you’re going out then.” She said. “Yes, you could say that.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “So do you think that you can have this stuff done by then?” He asked. “It should be no problem darling, although I simply must ask what happened to that absolutely divine armored duster that I made you. I haven’t seen you wearing since your little adventure with that nasty dragon.” She said as she pulled out a pen and a pad of paper off of a nearby table and began to sketch. “Umm… The dragon burned it. As in, all of it.” Ethan said with a slightly ashamed look, he didn’t like wasting things as handsome as that duster. “Well I didn’t spend too much time on it; in fact, I could probably have a better one made for you in a week.” She replied simply. “Did it at least keep you from becoming too injured?” She asked. “Yes, it did a wonderful job actually.” Ethan told her, she noticed the slight twitch of his eye that told Rarity that he was lying to protect her feelings but decided to ignore it. The intent behind the words was enough. “Then I’m glad that it served you well, and I’ll make you a better one if you give me a chance to.” She added with a smile. “Thanks Rarity.” Ethan said with a smile. “Well I’d better go, make sure that Sunny and Sparky don’t get too distracted by each other while they’re saying their goodbyes.” He said, cracking his first real smile during the entire conversation at the thought. “But I thought that you said you didn’t need them before tonight, why would they be saying their goodbyes now?” Rarity asked in slight confusion. “By that I mean I’m giving them some time alone for cuddling, and maybe a little sex. I don’t know how fast they work, but not enough time to really get into the swing of things.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “Oh, I see.” Rarity said, her face had turned slightly green. “What’s the matter Rarity? It’s just sex.” Ethan asked curiously. “Oh I’m not sick, I’m just a little jealous.” Rarity pouted with a slight giggle. “To be able to share the most intimate parts of her life with Princess Celestia and vice versa, I’m sure.” “So you just want to have sex with Sunny?” Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow. “Well, I’ve always wanted a taste of royalty.” Rarity told him with a ladylike chuckle. “Have you tried Luna? Because from what I hear she’s an open door.” Ethan asked with a shrug. “No, actually, that sounds like a better path now that you mention it…” Rarity said before she trailed off. “I’ll put some thought into it after a finish these things that you need.” The white mare added with a smile. “Thanks Rarity. I know that we haven’t gotten along that well since I came here, but I’m glad that Twilight has a friend like you. And it’s been nice getting to know you a little.” Ethan told her. “Oh, I’m sure you’ll get a chance to really know me later, after all you haven’t really spent much time talking with me, or anyone really except for Twilight, Celestia, and Luna this entire trip.” Rarity reminded him. “Right, I’ll put that on my ‘to do’ list.” Ethan said. “Anyways, I’ve got to go, see you later Rarity.” He said. “And the same to you darling.” She replied cordially as he left the room, before she rapidly flipped through her sketchpad until she found the right page. Then, she began to hum as needles took to the air. *** “Twilight, there’s something that I’ve been meaning to ask you about.” Celestia told the purple mare, who was currently resting contentedly beside her. “What is it Tia?” Twilight asked curiously. “Well I’ve noticed that when you talk about us being together, you use the word forever. Now, with any other pony that I know then I’d think that they weren’t being literal. But with you being who you are, I suspect that you’re being very literal.” Celestia said, keeping her tone neutral. “Tia, where are you going with this?” Twilight asked uncertainly. “Twilight, you realize that you’re mortal correct?” Celestia asked sternly. “That means that you and I will not be together forever. One day you will die, and on that day I will be very very sad, but I’ve come to accept that.” She said, and then she sighed. “Look Twilight, I just want to make sure that you know that we cannot be together forever.” “Err… Well, about that…” Twilight said as she began to sweat. “Twilight, what did you do?” Celestia asked in a tone that reminded Twilight that her lover was ages older then her. “Technically, I didn’t do anything. But I may have had an encounter with a goddess, who kind of linked us together forever, unless I die of unnatural causes.” Twilight said with a blush. Celestia stared at her for a moment. And then another moment. And then another. And yet another. “Twilight, who did this to you?” Celestia asked. “Um, she’s apparently a Wasteland goddess named W.” Twilight said nervously. “Stay here for a moment dear.” Celestia said before she vanished. *** W, also known as Wanda by those who matter, sat contentedly behind her mahogany desk with a freshly opened bottle of Nuka Cola on her right. A stack of freshly completed and sorted paperwork sat to her left, and she was contemplating what she’d do with the rest of the current cycle. Being a minor god implied a lot of things; unfortunately one of those things was lots and lots of paperwork, and little actual free time to use your powers in the ways that you wanted to. But now things were good, the tunnelers would be fighting Cassandra and her allies for a while and wouldn’t need her secret guidance. Ethan was in Equestria, out of her metaphysical reach at the moment and neither of her other two chosen champions were really up to doing much considering how old they were. To top it off, she’d also managed to get an angel and a demon to act as her personal secretaries. Thanks to their help, she’d managed to cut down on pointless interruptions. The real question was, what would she do with her free time? She was feeling a little hungry, so she supposed that she could always go to Milliways and watch all of existence die, but that got boring after the first five times. She briefly considered taking a trip to look around the Equestrian Wasteland, but decided against it. Faust had thrown a fit last time she’d been there, something about contaminating the time stream, and the last thing that W needed was a major goddess angry at her. W was shaken out of her thoughts by the sudden beep of her intercom. She pressed the red button and the demon’s cool voice filtered through the small speaker. “Ma’am, we have an alicorn in here demanding that she see you immediately.” The demon told her. “Please Miss, calm down. There’s no reason to snort flames near my bible, it’s the rare Buggre Alle This Bible version!” She heard the angel say worriedly. “Tell her I’m busy.” W replied airily. “Hey, stop that! There’s no need to bully the angel like that!” The demon suddenly shouted. “Tell her that Princess Celestia is here to see her, and if that doesn’t work then tell her that I’m here about her giving Twilight Sparkle immortality!” An extremely angry mare’s voice shouted. “Oh, she’s that alicorn…” W said before trailing off. Celestia was early. She wasn’t supposed to find out about Twilight’s immortality for a few hundred more years when even the most extraordinarily magically powerful unicorn would’ve died. “Send her in please.” She added. Celestia entered the room; her mane was on fire and flickering rainbow colored flames. Her eyes were angry, and vengeful fire lurked beneath them as they looked over W. “I don’t suppose that I could offer you a glass of water?” W asked with a small smile. “No. I think that that would be an extraordinarily unwise decision on your part.” Celestia said. A small puff of fire came out of her mouth in-between every word. “Of course, you seem have already made one of those, so who’s to say that you’re smart enough not to make another?” “You’re slightly ahead of schedule for this meeting you know.” W grumbled as her hand darted into one of the drawers of her desk. “And you’ve guaranteed that my love is both eternal and insane for the rest of existence unless I or someone else kill her!” Celestia raged back at her. “What?” W asked in confusion. “Every god knows that those who suddenly have immortality thrust upon them eventually go insane; by the multiverse it’s in the GUIDE, damn it!” Celestia shouted. “Of course I know that. However, you seem to be forgetting about a certain loophole.” W replied with a smirk. “Oh, and what would that be?” Celestia asked. “Cut the flames and I’ll tell you.” W said with a chuckle that seemed out of place in a meeting that Celestia was taking so seriously. Celestia snorted in annoyance, but complied and her mane went back to its normal ethereal state and the fire in her words died. “So, what loophole did you abuse?” Celestia asked. “Simple, I lied to her.” W said with a smirk. “You’re not linked. Well, that’s not strictly true, but you’re not linked in the way I told her.” The goddess said with a smile as she brushed on of her blonde bangs out of her eyes. “No, instead I simply started the process for her to become an alicorn, like you were going to do in a month or so anyways.” “That would explain it…” Celestia said with a small frown as she thought. “Twilight has been far too casual about the amount of power that she’s throwing around lately, not to mention the fact that not every pony can walk around with a clear conscience after doing things like she’s done with that man…” Celestia mused. “The process will be slow, and won’t be fully complete for the next four hundred years or so, but I think the wings will come in in around ten. As for the moment she can still die, painfully and fully, but she’ll have more access to advanced magic without having to strain herself too much, and her body should be a bit more resistant to damage, along with having a boosted endurance.” W explained. “That would explain how she can keep up with me in bed, nopony has ever managed that except Luna, and that was a long, long, long, long, long time ago when we both young, drunk, and very, very stupid.” Celestia said with a blush. “Don’t worry about it; your secrets are safe with me.” W said with a snicker. “So, we good?” She asked, holding out her hand for the alicorn to shake. “I suppose, I need to get back to Twilight now. Please tell the angel that I’m sorry about scorching that bible of his.” Celestia said with a small smile before she vanished. W leaned back in her chair with a sigh, disaster averted. Now all she had to do was finish her Nuka Cola and then get back to work thinking about what she could do with her off time. She reached for her soda and came to the shocking discovery that it had vanished along with the alicorn. “Trolling bitch.” She muttered. *** Celestia flashed back into existence next to Twilight while holding W's cola bottle next to her in her magic. Twilight looked up at her questioningly. “Did you talk to W?” She asked. “Yes, and everything is going to be perfectly fine my dear.” Celestia said with a smile before she took a sip of the soda. “It seems that miss W has a very unique sense of humor that revolves around not being funny.” She added with a scowl. “Oh, okay then.” Twilight said with a shrug. Celestia smiled down at Twilight, gently leaning in to give her a soft kiss on the lips before pulling away. “I’m going to have you with me forever Twilight.” Celestia said with a happy, almost blissful sigh. “You’re damn right you will Tia, I’m hard to get rid of.” Twilight said with a chuckle. “You just ruined the moment Twilight.” Celestia said with a roll of her eyes. “Yeah, I picked that up from Ethan.” Twilight said with a small smile. “I’m somehow not surprised in the least.”