//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Luck and Ponies 
// by SoothingCoffee 
//------------------------------//

Rick Brassen stood there in the middle of the Mojave Wasteland, he wore a fine padded leather brown duster-- reminiscent to the color of the wasteland—with an ash-black undershirt,  a pair of dusty black jeans and a pair of brown leather boots, and all of them were armored. And needless to say, he is tired… mentally. His physical conditions are fine and dandy, but how could he not be mentally tired?

He had been kidnapped in 7 consecutive rows by each different cults, now, he knew that cults had a thing for him, but never this far. Mostly it would happen for 3 consecutive rows and if he’s lucky (Praise the sun if he is), it would mostly petty cults that wanted him for sacrifices and whatnot. 

But he’s not lucky, not this time. On those 7 cults that kidnapped him, 4 of them were petty cults, mostly the remainder of the legion (he made them regret of doing so with painful death) that his boss destroyed and some raiders stuff that worships, either their leader or other weird fake god and 3 of those cults were bizarre.

The first one was a cult that worshipped an alien, he had seen an alien cult before, but it was still taxing and he doesn’t like alien technology like laser or plasma, (which they were full of) he likes gun with REAL bullets.

The second bizarre cult that kidnapped him were a group of nightkins that worshipped some kind of sex god, and their objectives on kidnapping him were to rape him… the one who ALMOST raped him got its genitalia ripped off, because apparently, they thought humans are weak. So, they didn’t do anything to restrain him.

The third, the final and the most bizarre and taxing one were a group that worshipped an evil god, not an imaginary evil god, but a REAL evil god. And he were kidnapped to be one of the many sacrifices for the waking ritual, they failed. Rick destroyed the cult even before the ritual had begun, simply by killing the host.

It was tiring, but at least he got a new magnum, replacing his old one. Though he said it’s a magnum revolver, it was more of a hand-cannon or a mini-sniper rifle, using .308 rounds instead of .357, though he still doesn’t know how it was possible. But however crafted it, he must be genius. Sure enough, it has a recoil equivalent of a shotgun, but for a man who uses a heavily modified sniper rifle while standing; it wasn’t that much. 

And not counting the raiders, legions and monsters he met and killed on the road to New Vegas where he would meet his boss or formerly known as The Courier. Meeting her was, perhaps, the most luckiest day he ever had… granted, it was the first day he got lucky, and then he took a double luck implant (Courtesy of his boss), granted, it wasn’t enough to keep him from getting unlucky but enough to not burden him while fighting. 


He took a look at his pip-boy (Courtesy of his boss too), and opened the world map. He still doesn’t know how he got this far-away from New Vegas, last he remembered, he was standing in front of Lucky 38, and then he’s in a vault… somehow. And he was held captive by a few remainders of the legions that survived their own destruction… how they got in the city or how he got there, he still doesn’t know. Perhaps he should tell her about it after he got back to New Vegas. And after 6 kidnappings later, now, he’s a couple miles from New Vegas. At least he would meet his boss soon.

He is definitely not overly attached to his boss, or savior.

He sighed, mostly out of stress. He needs a way to vent the stress away. He looked around the wasteland, hoping for at least some kind of a bandit camp to obliterate from far away with his sniper rifle or at least…

His gaze locked onto one building he found near the horizon, a supermarket. He looked at his world map, the direction that the supermarket lay, were also in his way to the New Vegas. 

Well, there’s a new place to loot and raiders to kill… 

Maybe today would be an exception, a good day without the boss were rare. Perhaps this would be that ‘rare’ day.


Today is not that ‘rare’ day.

Today is just like every day. The moment he entered the supermarket, he seen something out of ordinary, albeit, he had seen crazier shit with his boss. This is rather unexpected. The interiors of the building were unlike any abandoned supermarket should be. 

The walls were covered with various and colorful wallpapers, and on the wallpapers were drawings of animated… ponies? He wasn’t sure. And on the floor are piles of pre-war toys, similar to the one on the wallpapers… this kind of pre-war toys would be expensive for the pre-war collectors. He still couldn’t understand why or how the kids in pre-war era plays with toys like that. He decided to pick them up after he killed or talk with whoever owns this place, he hoped he could kill them… he needed it.

He advances to the cashier booth while crouching and with his hand cannon in his right hand; he had decided to call it ‘Kenny’, so that ‘Sheila’, his heavily modified sniper-rifle wouldn’t be lonely. He took cover behind the booth when he heard footsteps approaching the room from the other side; about six of them and as they began to talk, he cautiously listened.

“Loyalty, are you sure this would work?” a female voice asked, the voice reminded Rick of those snobby brats that he and his boss decided to kill; something about a request from the bar to hunt him down; revenge and stuffs.

“Of course! Magic says so, and shouldn’t you be excited? We’ll go to ‘Equestria’! and we’ll meet many ponies to befriend with! We will escape from this wasteland and live in there!” a raspy female voice answered

“Yes, well I understand dear, I am to is excited, I just don’t want this to fail…” the snobby voice sighed

“Come on, Generousity, cheer up! We’ll go there and we will have parties together with the princesses and our counterparts!” another female voice said, a cheery and bubbly voice.

“Ah reckon it will go well, an’ even if it would fail, we could try again,” another female voice added with a southern thick accent.

‘Goddamnit…’ Rick cursed mentally, ‘can’t I have a single day without cults? At least there are only six of them or so. They’re females but they are not the boss.’

“I agree with Honesty,” Another new female voice said, “if this won’t work, we could try again and again… I am sure we are there, we just need the right timing and I think today is that time.”

“Well, if you say so magic,” the snobby voice replied, “now, what do we do next?”

“We’ll do our favorite part,” ‘Magic’ answered, “singing!” 


Sheperd took a double take on what he heard, he slowly took a small little peek, enough for his red and golden eyes to see the six females in the middle of the room, the shelves were cleared and on where the six females stood, was a pentagon circle and each points were a drawing of pictures; a cloud with rainbow, colorful balloons, purple stars, apples, butterfly and diamonds, the drawings were similar with the drawings of horses on the wallpapers, each of the horses had the same symbols on the pentagon.

His gaze turned onto the six females who were talking earlier, he quickly scanned them, and they were wearing a normal –almost similar with pre-war— clothes. The one that took his interests were the one who wore a brown Stetson. He had decided to take it after killing them all, Rex wouldn’t be too happy about it, but it would worth it.

As the six females began to sing a song that Rick could described as cheery and catchy but before they could finish the song, he immediately stood from his impromptu cover, grabbing the attention of the six females and all of them were looking at him with surprise and some of them were with fear.

Perhaps it was the grin that was on sheperd’s face and the revolver/hand cannon on his right hand and without waiting for the female to break out from their stupor. He quickly aimed at females and quickly pulled the trigger. 

Five of them had their heads exploded in gooey and gorey, which was almost comical, way. Except for the Stetson wearing female, he only shot her at the chest, leaving a big hole on her and chunks of her tits were on the ground. 

It wasn’t much of a challenge… well, it was his fault for shooting them too quickly, but he did not want to tempt his bad luck anymore. And blame his natural high agility, strength (via intense training) and more-than-average perception for being too good. If they were his boss, or maybe 7 brotherhoods, he would probably be dead by the moment he pulled out of his cover though.

He reloaded ‘Kenny’ before holstering (Thank the life-time worth supply of .308 rounds that he had bought from every merchant he had met that sells them) and vaulted over the counter, he approached onto one of the dead body wearing Stetson and took it and wore it. He looked at the dead expression of the dead female, her eyes still opened, and revealing dead green pupils.

He looted the body, hoping for some kind of useful things… nothing, well, except for a SMG and a deathclaw’s claw glove… 
‘Yep, they’re evil’ he won’t even bother how she got the claw.

He stood up and began to take a few of those toys and left the building, unbeknownst to him, the pentagon circle began to glow and for a moment, the building was covered with bright and almost blinding light. Then, slowly but surely, the light faded away; leaving dead silence and six dead bodies in the building.

Rick was nowhere to be seen.

~~~

“Yes man, where is Rick?” the female; the courier asked “It had been three days ever since he is gone, go search for him.” as she stood in front of the Lucky 38, looks and stares of respect and fear from each passerby that passed the Casino.

The robot in question saluted, “Yes ma’am” he answered as he left the vicinity to the Casino

“Shouldn’t you be glad that he’s away?” a woman wearing a coat besides her asked, The courier turned her head to look at her, eyebrow raised, “I mean, he’s always standing in front of here, heck, he even sleep here,” pointing at the ground in front of the Lucky 38 for the emphasis, “isn’t he a little bit too… enthusiastic?” 

The courier shrugged, “Well, Rex were always waiting here,” pointing her hand at the mechanical dog beside her, and before Veronica could retort, The courier cut her first, “and no offense, he is a better shot than you by far, and almost as good as Craig,”

“None taken” Veronica shrugged

The courier sighed, “I had an idea on why he’s not here, but that’s not the point, this mission I took will need a good sniper and Craig will be out of question, considering he’s off from the action.” She sighed in frustration and waving her hand to dismiss it

“What’s the mission anyways?” The hooded woman asked

“Killing the surviving legionary soldiers that were still alive, recent information were saying that they were regrouping and beginning to hunt me down,” she shrugged, “though I doubt that would work since I’m going to strike their camps first,” 

“And you need him because???” 

The courier huffed, “Well, I’m going to strike them close while he will cover me, not that I couldn’t go alone, but he got this Vendetta against the legion, a good company and he’s a walking lucky charm.” She shrugged

“Wait I thought—“

“I’ll explain later,” she looked at the approaching robot that had the face of yes man, “how is he?”

“Yes, I couldn’t seem to find him, he’s gone” the robot replied, giving a brief salute

“What do you mean gone? Is he dead?” a twinge of worry on the courier’s tone, she’s not one to feel such emotions but things like this, but he is a loyal and a good friend among her other good friends (which is rare in the wasteland). 

“Uhm… not something I would normally say, but, no ma’am! He is well and alive, just gone.” The robot chirped

The courier sighed, the twinge of worry were washed over with wave of relieve “Good, give me the last location he went,” the courier commanded

Yes man replied with a salute, “Aye aye ma’am” he said, soon followed by a ‘ping’ sound coming from her pip-boy, the courier dismissed the robot as she checked her pip-boy. The robot’s digital face soon changed from a smiling face into an animated soldier and rolled away to its post.

The courier soon closed her pip-boy and grinned at her companion, “Come on then, we got some investigations to do!” she said, as she walked away before coming to a halt and turned to Rex, “and you too boy!” before continuing her walk to outside of New Vegas.

Veronica nodded with a smile and followed her friend, as well as Rex who responded with a happy bark, but before they walked out of the town, the courier stopped at one of the securitrons.

“Yes man,” she called, the screen of the robot turned once more into those smiling face, “while I am gone, I want you to kill any legionaries nearing the city, and if you can, take one of them; strip them and dissect them for something in his body but keep him alive then put him in to a cell until I get back for a couple of ‘interrogations’, and also apply protocol 45: don’t let anyone speak to him and protocol 34: keep him alive, but don’t let him escape. Apply 24/7 security on him or her if you catch one. Higher ranks are much more preferable for easy information,” she let it sunk for a bit, Yes man nodded, “good, you’re dismissed!”

Veronica looked at her in awe; she still couldn’t get used by her professional commanding voice. The courier glanced at her and her dog before signaling them to follow her. Which they obliged quite nicely.

~~~

Luna sat there, alone… well not alone, there are a few guards but they’re good as a breathing statue. The night court had been rather uneventful, only few would come, and all of them were all trivial matter. She let out a heavy sigh. It had been a few years since her return, but she just couldn’t help herself but to feel that she’s being scared, and most of the ones who would actually appreciate her are only a few (lunar guards don’t count). It also doesn’t help when nothing interesting would happen. When Discord’s broke out, she was in the bat-pony’s place where she was reforming the lunar guards.

And then there’s the whole Canterlot Wedding fiasco, and she wasn’t there to help and she was there right AFTER the wedding ended.

The event soon followed by Sombra’s return, whom she couldn’t even do anything… politic and stuffs, so instead they sent six fillies to battle a creature of pure hatred. Sometimes she would ask her sister about what the hell is she thinking… mentally of course. Granted, they did succeed.

She let out another heavy sigh, “Night court has been dismissed.” She said in a regal tone and loud enough for the guards to listen as they leave the post they’re guarding. Leaving the Night princess alone in the middle of the court room, maybe a little bit of walk in the garden would help in venting this stress? 

As she moved her way to the door, she jerked to a halt instantly as the ground in front of her were glowing and leaving sparks of magic in its wake. The sparks quickly became larger and filled the room with an instantaneous flash of blinding light. The princess yelp in surprise inside the blinding light, and as soon as the light faded from existence; the room was filled with silence, in there, the princess of the night stood frozen and stoic, her complexion were those of surprise. Such complexion would be enough to make Discord to squeal like a filly.

Her eyes were focused at the new ‘thing’ or rather ‘creature’ laying unconscious in front of her, it had four limbs and on each limb were digits of five. The creature wore various sets clothing, which if her experience as an immortal alicorn could tell, made of leather. Its skin was like the color of peach if not a little bit darker. The most noticeable thing was the familiar brown Stetson on its head, which a certain mare usually wears and the cropped ash-black mane on its head, a side-burns on each side and a goatee. Then there’s the thing on the creature’s hand, it was a long black stick of some sort (she figured that it was some sort of weapon), and for what it seems a satchel on its waist; she also noticed something shiny on its waist but obscured by the satchel. 

Luna, understandably was shocked, it’s not every day that she would meet a random creature that came out of nowhere to in front of her. Though, on the back of her mind, there’s something that were saying to her.

‘Ask and ye shall be given’ the back of her mind whispered

Luna couldn’t help but smile as she turned into a royal canterlot voice mode and called the guards and probably waking up all ponies (her sister included) that were sleeping in the castle and some outside of the castle. But she didn’t care enough to care. 

At least it won’t be boring anymore…