“Come on!”
“No.”
“Please!”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Apple Bloom, leave her alone!”
Dominica was doing an incredible job being patient around the Crusaders. She couldn’t help but smile as they were pulled away by their siblings, and in Scootaloo’s case Rainbow Dash. “Fine, you want a story?” The fillies’ faces brightened at her words. “You have to be quiet, though. Can you do that?” When all nodded, she went on. “Well...”
As the ghoul told a suitable tale to the children, Twilight went over to Thomas. In addition to his ruined eyesight, he was now nursing a bruised shin and a punch to the stomach. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”
“I am,” he grunted. “Who knew Rarity could kick like that?”
“She once kicked a manticore in the face,” Twilight commented. “And she was willing to beat up a group of teenage dragons for Spike.”
The Courier looked over at the white unicorn. “Well I have more respect for her now.”
“And you didn’t before?” Rarity asked the question innocently, but Thomas knew what her game was.
“I said more respect. Besides, shouldn’t you be keeping an eye on your sister?” he asked back, thinking it would distract her.
“As much as I find your friend’s appearance disturbing, I think I can trust her to not say anything too bad.” Despite her words, it was easy for him to catch the worry in her words.
“And that’s how I learned how to make explosives using cola,” they heard Dom say.
“What?” Everyone turned to look at her.
“Why would anyone do that!?” Pinkie Pie was the first to break the silence. “Cola’s for drinking, not for exploding!”
“Normally, I’d agree,” The ghoul responded. “But a sip of Nuka-Cola Quantum is like swallowing a whole bag of sugar. Trust me, I’ve tried.”
“Why would ya tell them that?” Applejack asked angrily. “Now they’re gonna try and make it themselves!”
“No we won’t!” Scootaloo answered sweetly.
“Yeah, because if they do I’ll smack them so hard their grandchildren will feel it.” Despite the ghoul’s smile, there was cold steel in her voice. “And that’s a promise,” she added redundantly.
“You’d hurt them?” Veronica asked, not liking what she was hearing.
“No, I’d discipline them,” she corrected. “There’s a difference between hitting someone and hitting someone who did something to deserve it.”
“Can’t believe Ah’m sayin’ this, but she’s right. Though I’d like it if you let me take care of punshin’ mah kin,” Applejack told the ghoul.
“Go for it. You hear that girls?” Dom asked, turning to the frightened fillies. “Don’t try doing that. Ever.”
“Okay Miss Dominica,” Sweetie Belle said timidly.
“Hey, you’re the sensible one. Just keep those two in check,” Dom said with a chuckle, ruffling her mane with her left hand.
“Hey, I can be sensible!” Scootaloo replied angrily.
“Whose idea was it to bungee-jump, hang-glide, cliff-climb and get shot out of a cannon for our cutie marks?” the little unicorn asked. “All your suggestions are dangerous.”
“What was that?” a new voice asked, the sound booming through the room.
“Uh-oh,” Scootaloo muttered, making herself as small as possible.
“Scootaloo, is that true?” the sweet motherly voice asked.
They all turned to see a large-ish pegasus mare at the door, a worried expression disturbing her features. She was wearing a simple jacket, and her coat was the same shade of orange as Scootaloo’s. The only thing that made them sure that it wasn’t a magically aged-up Scootaloo was that her mane and tail were quite a few shade lighter than the fillies.
“H-hey, mom,” the pegasus filly said nervously, looking around for a way to escape. Unfortunately, her friends had the sense to get themselves clear of the area, and had taken to hiding behind their sisters.
“Don’t you ‘hey mom’ me, young lady!” she said harshly, crossing the room to her daughter. “If you keep this up I’m going to quit the Guard just to keep an eye on you!” Her angry expression and her harsh tone evaporated as she pulled the filly into a tight hug. “I don’t want you getting hurt!”
“Can’t... breathe... mom!” Scootaloo croaked. “Lemme go!”
As she let the filly regain her breath, she turned to the others. “Sorry, I never introduced myself. I’m Staff Sergeant Roller Derby. Nice to meet you.”
The humans and other ponies introduced themselves, Rarity and Applejack apologising profusely about their failed attempts at keeping her daughter and her friends in check. The older mare waved her hoof at them.
“No, no, I guess I’m to blame. She’s just doing it for attention, what with me and her father away all the time.” Derby looked at her daughter, who was again sitting at Dom’s feet. “The last time we were together as a family was Nightmare Night,” she said with a sigh. “We visit, or my sister brings her up here, but it’s not enough.”
“I can’t imagine what it’s like for a filly that young,” Rarity muttered.
“Seeing Apple Bloom ain’t never known our folks...” Applejack mumbled sadly. At that point, the conversation quickly ended, having taken a turn for the depressing..
“No! I will not show you them!”
The Staff Sergeant turned slowly to the ghoul. “You have highly dangerous materials on your person?” she asked coldly. “Around foals?”
“No, they’re in my room and they’re currently inert. Give me ten seconds, though, and I could rig up enough IEDs to level half a town,” the Paladin replied proudly. She froze for a second. “Crap. No-one’s keeping an eye on my stuff.” She stood up and marched out of the room. “Be right back.”
“IED?” Twilight asked, looking at the closing door.
“Improvised Explosive Device,” Thomas explained. “And speaking of highly dangerous materials, I brought something for Veronica.”
“Did you?” The Scribe turned to the man, her eyes shining with excitement.
“Yeah.” He reached into his duster and pulled out two small pieces of machinery. “Catch,” he said, throwing one then the other.
Veronica caught them both before gasping. “Greased Lightning and Two-Step Goodbye!? Thomas, I could kiss you!”
“So that’s all it takes, weapons? Didn’t know you were so easy,” Thomas smirked.
“Don’t make me test these on you,” she threatened.
“Oh, like you’d do that.”
There was the sound of a scuffle outside and Dom walked in, dragging a bruised pony in by the tail. “This bastard has some explaining to do,” she growled.
When Dom got to her room, it was to find the door ajar. Her suspicions were verified when she heard the sound of someone in there. Quietly, she pulled her combat knife from its sheath and walked in quietly.
The stallion failed to noticed her entrance, too engrossed in digging through her duffel bag. “What is half of this stuff anyway?” he muttered. “There has to be something here.”
Dom padded her way across the room, dropped her knife on the bed and picked up her rifle. She pointed it at the pony and tapped her foot on the ground, getting his attention. As the stallion turned slowly, she spoke. “Tell me what you’re doing, and I won’t turn you into a job for the cleaners,” she stated.
“Y-you think you can scare me?” he stammered.
“Oh, I know I do.” She took a step closer, the stallion backing away. “Why are you here?”
“I-I won’t tell you!
“Wrong answer,” Dom said through gritted teeth. She aimed the Metal Blaster up a few inches and pulled the trigger. The stallion let out a very unmasculine squeal as he ducked, the nine lasers burning away a good portion of his mane. “That was a warning shot. The next one’s going through you. If you’re lucky, it’ll just kill you,” the angry ghoul said.
“You assaulted him?” Roller Derby asked angrily.
“Yeah. I even left him alive, I don’t do that often.” Dom gave his tail another tug. “He was going through my stuff, that’s justification enough.” When the pegasus refused to stop glaring, she leant down closer. “Wasteland justice demands that I string up his corpse in front of my home as a warning. And I’m quite tempted to do that,” she explained. “But I’d rather not start some national outcry, so I brought him here.”
To her credit, the mare didn’t even seem surprised, instead just sighing angrily. “I’m off-duty, so you’ll have to take him elsewhere.”
Shining Armor tapped something on his breastplate and whispered into it. “Somepony should be here shortly,” he stated.
“I thought you said you were off-duty,” Twilight said unhappily.
“That’s why I’m staying here. Not entirely sure that just worked,” he muttered uncomfortably.
A flash of light and a pop sounded from the middle of the room, and when they could see again a stallion in Knight armour was there. “You called for me, sir?”
“Blink, take him to the holding cells and prep him for interrogation. We found him rifling through an ambassador’s belongings,” Shining ordered.
The stallion hissed uneasily. “That’s big. You think he was paid?”
“Not around civvies, soldier.”
“Sir.” Blink saluted and went over to the stallion that Dom had dragged in. “Hold on, and try not to throw up.” With another flash he disappeared.
“I’m an ambassador now?” the ghoul asked, shooting the Commander a look.
“Technically, yes. You have diplomatic immunity and any crime committed against you will be considered an act of treason,” he explained.
“Will he get turned over to my custody?” she asked eagerly.
“I’m considering it,” Shining replied. “I’ll wait until my Knights have interrogated him first, though. If we fail to get anything out of him - ”
“Shiny!” Twilight Sparkle had had enough. “This is meant to be a party.”
“A small party,” Pinkie added unhappily.
The pink mare was ignored. “Could you not talk about work? Especially something like that?”
Shining Armor sighed. “Sorry Twily. This whole war is stretching me thin. And with Cadance busy helping her aunt, we haven’t really had much time to - ”
Twilight clapped her hooves over her ears and turned away. “I don’t want to hear this!”
Thomas leaned forwards. “Go on...”