“Want one?” Anne asked, holding out a slightly crumpled packet of cigarettes, one of them already in the corner of her mouth. The two were in the inside the gift shop, Anne sitting of the counter while Twilight was trying to pick a locked safe built into the floor.
“No thank you, I don’t smoke.” Twilight answered nervously.
“You sure? They’re meant to calm you down after something that gets your heart pumping.” Anne asked, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small scratched up silver lighter.
“I’m fine.”
“Your loss.” Anne said, flicking the flint wheel and making a small orange flame come smoothly out of the top, holding it up to the end of the cigarette.
Anne flicked the top of the lighter back down, killing the flame before replacing it back into her pocket along with the cigarette packet. Anne held the filter between two of her fingers as she took a drag, exhaling a small plume of smoke. Mere moments later she hunched over and started coughing like mad, making gagging sounds.
“Anne? You alright?” Twilight asked worriedly.
“God, this tastes like shit. Who thought that these things were a smart idea?” She asked to no one in particular.
After a few moments Anne brought the cigarette back to her mouth and took another drag, slower this time but that didn’t stop her from coughing.
“Are you sure that you should keep doing that?” Twilight asked unsurely.
“Nope.” Anne said, trying her hardest not to cough again.
With a hoarse sigh Anne threw down the half used cigarette and ground the butt with the heel of her boot. “Now, how much longer is this going to take?” Anne asked, hopping off the table and walking behind Twilight.
“I don’t know, this one is harder than the other one.” Twilight said, trying her hardest with her magic to move around the pins inside the safe but she was having no luck in the matter.
“I’ll just do shit with the loot we found.” Anne said with a bored sigh. “Now, hand me your gun so I can clean it and stuff.” Anne finished, holding out her hand.
Twilight pulled out her 9mm pistol out and floated it into Anne’s waiting hand. “Would you be able to give me the things you used when you did this?” Twilight asked.
“Sure, here ya go.” Anne said, reaching into one of the pockets on her person before pulling out three bobby pins in a small box and a screwdriver and handing them to Twilight. “Be careful not to poke an eye out.” She joked.
“I’ll be careful.”
Anne turned her attention to the 9mm pistol in her hands, small scratches on it showing its use over the years. Twilight meanwhile was trying to remember how Anne did it, putting the screwdriver at the bottom and pins at the top. Using her magic Twilight began fiddling around the pins, feeling things give inside the locks while others took a little force to do.
‘Snap’
“Damn.” Twilight said under her breath as she pulled the two broken pieces of the bobby pin out from the lock, before replacing it with a new one.
“How’s your head Anne?” Twilight asked, not looking up from her work.
“It’s scabbing, it stopped bleeding. It also burns but the painkillers flowing through my blood are still lingering after the fight with the convict’s hot head leader.” She said, pulling out the worn firing pin for the gun in her hands before flicking it away and replacing it with one off a gun of one of the dead convicts.
“So those needles you used were painkillers?” Twilight asked, the lock starting to twist stiffly.
“Yea, so if you find any more of them just tell me so I can put them with the rest of our chems.” Anne replied, picking little bits of hardened dirt off of the inside of a slide.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Twilight heard a small metallic click come from the safe’s lock as the door became ajar slightly. Letting out a relieved sigh and relaxing her tense back as she slowly opened the lid. Inside the safe was a vast array of different items. There were a lot of needles inside. Stimpaks, Stimpaks that are attached to a small leather belt, a small metal tin with the word Mentats on the top, an orange inhaler, two of the multi-chamber injectors. And finally a .357 magnum revolver, with a white handle with a black three leafed clover on it, the barrel and cylinder were black with gold decorations, and to finish it off was a small silver plaque with the word ‘Lucky’ in curved writing.
Anne let out a whistle as she looked over at Twilight, putting the half disassembled 9mm pistol and walking over to the opened safe and peering in. “Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle, you found something of value.” She said.
Twilight looked at her questioningly, turning her head to look at Anne. “Aren’t you female? How can you be an uncle?”
“It’s a figure of speech.” Anne said. “Now, are you going to take that piece out of there? I wanna have a closer look.”
“Piece of what?”
Anne gave Twilight a deadpan stare. “The gun, hand me the gun.”
Twilight levitated the decorated revolver to Anne, grinning sheepishly with a small blush on her face. Anne gripped the handle, looking over the golden trims around the gun and the marble white grip. With a quick flick of her thumb a small flap at the back of the gun popped open, exposing the tubes which the bullets were placed into. “This, my royal friend, is a point three-five-seven magnum revolver, and from the looks of it, in extremely good condition.” She said as she spun it in her hands. “Do you want me to show you how to use it?”
“Umm, sure, can’t be much different than my one right?”
Anne let out a small chuckle. “First off, this gun is special, it has a name and everything.” She said, indicating to the plaque on the gun’s barrel. “This type of gun is referred to as a revolver, it has a revolving ammo cylinder, hence the name.”
“Now, it uses a different type of ammo than your old gun, it fires point three-five-seven magnum rounds, it hold six shots before you have to reload so it’ll need to be done more often than your old one. Hand over the box of ammo.” Anne said, sticking out her empty hand.
Once the box was floated into her hand she opened it and looked in, seeing that it was half full Anne noted to herself she’d need to buy more bullets for the new firearm. Taking six rounds out she slipped one into the still exposed bullet chamber before spinning it and adding another bullet, doing it till the gun was fully loaded. “Now, with this type of gun would be able to get through much more than your nine mil.” She said, flicking the cover back over the chamber and cocking back the hammer.
Pointing the gun at the roof she pulled the trigger. Unlike the ‘bang’ Twilight’s 9mm pistol or Anne’s 10mm pistol the .357 revolver made a ‘crack’ instead, causing Twilight to jump backwards in surprise. “Every time you shoot you’ll need to cock the hammer back otherwise it won’t fire so it’ll shoot a little slower than a nine mil unless you know how to use it.” She continued.
Anne held out the pistol and in quick succession brought back the hammer with her left hand, looking like she was rubbing the top of the gun before pulling the trigger and letting a bullet impact the wall across the room from the two, doing this till the gun ran out of bullets.
“It will shoot as fast as you can cock it.” Anne said calmly, picking another six bullets from the box and popping open the small latch, exposing the bullet’s camber.
“To reload the gun flick this open and tilt it back, just let the spent cases fall out and put a new one in.” She continued as she reloaded the weapon before holding it out for Twilight to take. “Have a go, and just to give you a word of wisdom, it’ll have a harder kick so you might need to hold it a little harder.”
Giving Anne a stiff nod she floated the gun over to herself. Twilight hovered the gun in front of her muzzle she took a deep breath and slowly pulled the trigger. After a few awkward moments she pulled back the hammer, a soft click sounds as she gave Anne a sheepish grin and chuckle. Again, taking a deep breath she slowly squeezed the trigger.
‘CRACK’
‘THUD’
“GAH!” Twilight exclaimed as the recoil caused the gun to kick into her muzzle.
Dropping the gun Twilight brought both her hooves to nose and pressed onto the forming bruise, letting out little whimpers. Meanwhile Anne was busy clutching her sides as she rolled on the ground laughing.
Once she managed to get her breathing under control she whipped a tear out of her eye and looked at the glaring Twilight. “I don’t even know what to say, I can’t think straight.”
“Meh nuze iz harting an your laffing!?” Twilight exclaimed, still clutching her nose as a small trickle of blood worked its way out.
“You sound like an idiot.” Anne chortle out, starting to laugh again.
Twilight tried her hardest to glare at Anne but the woman was rolling around again. With a frustrated grunt she kicked Anne in the side of the ribs, causing the woman to let out a small yelp of pain. “Hey! What was that for?”
“Far laffing at meh wile I bleding!” Twilight exclaimed.
“But I didn’t do it!”
“Ba you still laffed!”
“What do you want me to do about it? I don’t have any tissues so you’ll just have to bleed out.” Anne said with a shrug. “Now stop complaining so I can strap the new holster to your leg.” She continued, reaching into the opened safe and pulling out the black leather harness.
While Twilight was slowly getting the bleeding Anne was tightening all the straps needed to attach Lucky’s holster onto Twilight’s leg which didn’t have the 9mm pistol holster on it.
“I think it stopped.” Twilight said unsurely, softly tapping at her nose to see if there was still any wet blood left.
“Good, that means we can leave now.” Anne said, picking up the dropped Lucky and putting it into Twilight’s new holster.
_________________________________________________________________________
Even though the two were in the Vikki and Vance casino before they didn’t really take time to absorb the sights. The insides of the building were built around a large hall room, an old blue car sat on display in the center, totally covered in bullet holes and with a skylight above it, shining it in natural light.
Looking around Anne caught sight of the leather armor wearing deputy sat at an empty Roulette table. Approaching him Beagle lifted up his head and gave them a light smile.
“Well, that was quite an adventure. We taught those convicts a thing or two didn’t we?” He said. “Breaking myself out of a hostage situation – not to diminish your role in it, of cause – but it was quite thrilling.” He continued, getting a flat expression by Twilight and Anne. “Problem is, there’s still no law in Primm. What're we to do the next time ruffians menace us and hold us hostage?”
Anne looked to Twilight then back to the deputy. “What are you talking about? You’re the sheriff now!” Anne exclaimed.
“Oh no! I'm just the deputy, and I can't be a deputy without a sheriff. It's called chain of command.” He said.
Anne let out a sigh. “What are the qualifications for a sheriff?” She asked.
“It should be someone brave like you, but more of a homebody, someone who'll settle down and watch over us.” He said. “I heard the Powder Gangers talking about someone in the prison named Meyers who has some experience as a sheriff, he may be a good choice. Also with the NCR so close by, you may be able to get them to take over the town, not sure why they haven't helped out already.”
“We’ll help bring law and Back.” Twilight blurted.
Anne looked down to Twilight, an amused smile on her face. “Sure, that sounds like fun.”
“You will? That's just marvelous, I'll start thinking up questions for the interview. The sheriff that was incarcerated up at NCRCF may be a good choice. You also may be able to convince that NCR guy across the road to take the town under his wing, although martial law doesn't sound so fun.” He said excitedly.
“Now, can you tell us about the man in the checkered suit who came through here?” Anne asked.
“Ahh yes, my memory is much clearer now that I am free from my bondage.” He said. “I was sku... er, performing recon, gathering information on some of the Powder Gangers, when some great Khans arrived with your friend in the suit.” He continued, trying to cover up his blunder. “They were talking about some delivery they took from a courier, I assume that was you. They said they'd be heading through Nipton to Novac to meet a contact there.” He said, getting up from the table, giving the two a small nod before walking off somewhere else in the building.
“What do we do now Anne?” Twilight asked.
“Now, my royal friend, we go on a road trip.”