//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Fallout New Vegas: Unexpected Friends // by Sleepyted //------------------------------// Twilight was starting to get annoyed. She had been talking to her new companion for the last few hours and though it all she felt like Anne was acting rather rude for something that could perform medical aid. But this ‘human’ was rather dirty like the other ‘humans’ she saw and Twilight was starting to wonder if she’ll get an infection later down the line in her aching back and legs. She has wanted to ask what Anne did but wasn’t able to ask her own questions with the amount thrown her way. After trying to convince Anne about Equestria she knew she didn’t believe her but that didn’t stop her from asking questions though, and half of them made little to no sense to Twilight. ‘Do you use fossil fuel or atomic energy?’ or ‘What types of mutants are there where you’re from?’ and even ‘Have you ever had an Atomic cocktail?’ She managed to get down the muddy water Anne gave her with a lot of charm, as Anne would like to say, but was probably because there wasn’t any water that wasn’t just H2O. Anne gave Twilight a tip to make the ‘water’ go down easier, to mix it with the Insta-Mash to give it a better flavor, or as good a two-hundred year old box of powdered potato product. Now, instead of a disgusting powder, she now had a less disgusting lump of mush. Twilight managed to get it down and keep it down, but it required a lot of effort to do so, but that didn’t stop her from gagging. Now, Twilight was starting to feel fatigue grip her mind, and she still wanted to ask Anne questions. She felt like she explained everything about Equestria, and yet more questions were thrown at her. “How many cities do you have?” Anne asked. “In Equestria, there are about sixteen major cities and towns,” Twilight replied in a deadpan tone. “How many days do you have in a year?” “Three-hundred and sixty five,” Twilight said with a yawn. “Oh, you tired?” Anne asked with a raised eyebrow. “No, I’m fine; I’ve just had a busy couple of days,” Twilight said, trying to hold back another yawn. “Well if you want any chance of surviving out there you need rest, and lots of it,” Anne said standing up. “No really, I’m fine,” Twilight tried to reassure. “I know I’m charming as all hell, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay awake if you’re obviously struggling to stay awake,” Anne said with a small smile. “Fine,” Twilight said with a drawn out sigh. “Now, get closer to the fire; I ain’t got anything to cover you up, so it’ll be your only source of warmth here,” Anne said, using her hand to gesture to the old ammo box. Twilight wiggled herself over to the fire and got in a more comfortable position on her stomach with her forehooves in front of her, and her head rested on them. “Anne?” “Yea?” Anne asked, turning from a book she pulled from her bag. “Thank you,” Twilight said weakly, her eyes slowly closing. “Don’t mention it,” Anne said with a faint smile on her face. Twilight turned her head back to the fire and let herself relax at its sight. Not five minutes later, Twilight was fast asleep. _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Anne slowly regained consciousness. She had fallen asleep slumped over in the small, metal chair, with her face flattened on the book’s pages she was reading. With a sigh, she dropped the book to the ground and let out a content sigh as she stretched. Her back ached from the poor posture she slept in, but that didn’t hinder her for long. She went out the front door and set something up for Twilight before she woke up. Once she was happy she had done enough she let herself get nostalgic. ‘It seems that everyone does this for injured people they find’ Anne thought, letting out a small chuckle. With a quick eye over she made her way back into the shack. Anne picked up her bag and strapped it onto her back before placing her longer guns over the bag, pistols in their holsters. Adjusting to the familiar weight she walked over to the old ammo box and the sleeping Twilight. With an evil smile she closed the box with the now dwindling fire and placed the bottom of her boot on to Twilight’s back before giving Twilight a rough shake. “Wake up your highness,” Anne said with a cheery tone. Twilight let out a small groan and rolled over to look at Anne. “W-what time is it?” Anne brought up her Pip-Boy and check the time “It’s currently…. seven thirty,” Anne said, bringing her arm back down. “Seven thirty? Why did you wake me up so early?” Twilight asked, slowly standing up to her shaky legs. “Cause Imma gonna teach you how to shoot before I leave for New Vegas,” Anne said, motioning to the door. “Yo-you’re going to leave?” Twilight asked sadly. “Yea, I have stuff to do,” Anne said with a shrug. Twilight looked down. “O-okay,” She said softly. “Hey, cheer up,” Anne said dropping to a knee and putting a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “I’ll be out of your hair or whatever you call it soon.” “It’s called a mane,” Twilight said faintly. “Now, get up, we’re burning daylight,” Anne said standing up. Anne led Twilight outside, the latter wincing at the harsh morning sun light, lifting up a hoof to try and block it, but with little result. Once her eyes adjusted, Twilight was able to make out much more of the surrounding area of the shack and even buildings in the distance. Every so often, Twilight could see a large sign and strange deformed pillars coming from the ground in the far distance. To the right of the shack Twilight could make out what looked like a rollercoaster and a small town. Right next to the door was a strange box like metal contraption slightly buried into the dirt. Not that far away from the shack was a few broken brick walls, and like the large rusted contraption it too was slightly buried in the rough dirt. The road in front of the shack was a broken black stone with some white lines on it and some dead weeds growing through the cracks. “So do you know anything about firearms?” Anne asked walking down some rotted wooden stairs. “I don’t even what they are to be honest,” Twilight said meekly. “Don’t sweat it kid, Imma teach you how to shoot like a boss,” Anne said walking to a spot she marked out with a long stick she found nearby. One of five sticks she used, each spread about five feet from the next, meant to be markers, all leading in a straight line to the buried plane which had a few Sunset Sarsaparilla bottles stood up on it with a few on the ground next to it. Anne walked to the stick closest to the plane and pulled out a 9mm pistol which Twilight eyed uncertainly. “Kay, so this is a nine millimeter pistol, as the name says it fires nine mil bullets at a speed of around a thousand feet a second with enough force to penetrate flesh,” Anne said pulling back the slide and letting an unused bullet pop out before removing the clip. “This is a nine mil bullet, it can fit into many guns but the one we’ll be using hold thirteen per magazine,” Anne said holding up the removed magazine before putting the bullet back into it. Anne flicked the empty gun’s slide forward before holding out like she is going to fire it at the bottles. “When shooting, you need to stay relaxed and keep your muscles loose, otherwise you’d flinch a lot more and the gun would feel like it has more of a kick,” Anne said, slightly bending her arms and slowly inhaling and exhaling. “On the part of the gun closest to you is what’s called a foresight and the one on the end of the barrel is called the far sight. What you want to do is try and get the far sight in between the foresight to make sure that you’re aiming in the right direction, then all you need to do then is pull the trigger,” Anne said, dry firing the gun. She pulled back the hammer and held it out to Twilight. “Here, you have a try,” She said with a reassuring smile. Twilight’s horn lit up and she unsurely grabbed the gun in her magic, and slowly brought it over to her. “Okay, that’s fucking cool,” Anne said, gesturing to the floating pistol. Anne walked held out an arm and gave the pistol a small poke, causing it to move around in midair. “Can you lift me?” Anne said like a small child. With an annoyed sigh Twilight trained her magic in on Anne and lifter her up about a foot into the air. “This is fucking awesome!” Anne yelled, arms swinging and legs kicking as she floated. After levitating her for a few more moments Twilight put Anne down much to her dismay. “Awwwwwww, that was fun,” Anne said, slumping over. “Weren’t you going to teach me how to use this ‘pistol’?” Twilight said, levitating up the 9mm pistol. “Aw yea, I almost forgot,” Anne said dusting herself off. Twilight facehoofed, letting out a frustrated groan. “Can we please move on?” “Kay, now, as I said just look down the sights then pull the trigger,” Twilight brought up the gun to her right eye and closed her left as she was trying to aim at the far right bottle on the wing of the plane. She start to slowly breath in and out like Anne showed her then pulled the trigger with a bit of concentrated magic, making the gun let out a small ‘click’. “Okay, when I put round in it you want to have the gun a bit farther from your eyes or you’ll lose it,” Anne said, grabbing the floating gun before cocking the hammer back again then handing it back to Twilight. Twilight eyes widened. “It can do that?” she asked. “Yea, when you fire it when it has a round in the chamber, that’s the area when it fires, it produces recoil which causes the gun to kick back on you and if you have it too close to your eye it’ll take it out,” Anne explained. Twilight’s ears drooped and she let out a small whimper at the thought. “Ay, it’s better I tell you now than you find out later,” She stated. “I suppose that’s right,” “It’s because it is right,” With a sigh Twilight did it again, this time with the gun farther away from her face. The gun again went off with a small ‘click’. “Better, but now I’m going to push back on the gun with around the same amount of force the gun would have and try to hold it steady, but remember don’t try and stop the recoil altogether because it hurts like a bitch and is as hard as hell, but because you’re not even touching it, I don’t really think that’s as big of a problem,” Anne said, placing her hand under the barrel of the gun. “Now, aim and shoot like before but when you do Imma going to push it back at you,” Anne said, readying herself. Twilight looked down the sight of the gun and start to breath in and out slowly again before pulling the trigger. But this time when she did Anne pushed back on the gun with lightning quick reflexes. Twilight didn’t think Anne would push back so hard and didn’t grip the gun hard enough, causing her to lose her grip and the gun going shooting at her face. Before the gun hit her face Anne stopped her arm, the gun doing the same. “Now, if you were firing a live round the gun would have punted your face or whatever you have,” Anne said with a dismissive hand wave of the hand. “Muzzle,” Twilight corrected, cocking back the hammer like she saw Anne do. “Okay, try again,” Anne said, liking how fast Twilight was learning. Twilight got ready again and took aim at the bottle again, breathing slowly in and out before pulling the trigger. Like last time, Anne pushed back onto the gun, but this time, Twilight was able to hold the gun in her grasp. “Good, again,” Anne instructed. After a few more dry fires, Anne thought she could move Twilight to the next level. “Okay, now we’re going to move to live rounds,” Anne said taking the bullets out of the magazine, leaving only one. Anne grabbed the floating gun loaded the near empty magazine into it before pulling back the slide and chambering the round. “With this, it has become a hella lot more dangerous than before. Only point this thing at another thing if you don’t mind putting a bullet in it,” Anne said. “Now, aim at one of the bottle and pull the trigger,” Anne instructed. Twilight went to pull back the hammer, but found it already cocked. She did her slow breathing before pulling the trigger. ‘BANG’ Twilight let out a startled ‘eep’ before dropping the pistol. A small blush on her face as she realized what she did. The main cabin of the plane now had a new small hole near the wing the bottles were rested on. “Okay, that’s not quite what I expected,” Anne said loading another single bullet into the gun before pulling back the slide. Twilight aimed up the shot and did all her breathing then pulled the trigger. ‘BANG’ This time Twilight kept the gun in her magical grasp and hit a bottle… just not the one she was aiming at. “Nice shot; this time I’m loading in a full magazine, meaning I won’t have to load a new bullet every shot, and instead every thirteen shots. Just pull the trigger whenever you want to shoot,” Anne said, putting up another bottle and loading a full mag into the 9mm pistol. Twilight aimed the gun and pulled the trigger. ‘BANG’ Like last time, the gun stayed in her grasp but she didn’t hit any of the bottle or even the plane at all. Twilight let out a breath and tried again. ‘BANG’ Again, it didn’t hit any of the bottles. ‘BANG’ Again, nothing got hit. Twilight was starting to get annoyed but still kept on trying, but this time she pulled the trigger more than once. ‘BANG’ ‘BANG’ ‘BANG’ Still, nothing was hit. “Anne I think this thing is broken,” Twilight said eyeing the annoying object. “Nothing wrong with the gun; you’ve just got shit aim,” Anne shrugged. With a frustrated grunt she fired the gun again. ‘BANG’ ‘BANG’ ‘BANG’ ‘BANG’ ‘BANG’ ‘BANG’ ‘BANG’ ‘click’ ‘click’ All the yellow glass bottles stood in all their glory, not one any worse for wear. With a groan, Twilight dropped to her stomach, letting the gun drop to the ground. “The stupid things won’t go down,” She grunted. “Well as they say, practice makes perfect,” Anne said with a shrug. “I think they’re just impossible to hit,” Twilight said with a wave of the hoof. “Then watch how I do it,” Anne said, unholstering her 10mm pistol. Twilight looked up from her prone position to see had stepped back to the farthest stick marker with her gun pointed at the bottles. ‘BANG’ ‘BANG’ ‘BANG’ All three of the bottles on the wing blew up into shards of glass that went everywhere. “Now princess, if I can hit em so can you,” Anne said with a cocky grin. With a sigh, Twilight got up, knowing this was going to be a long morning.