//------------------------------// // Chapter 24 // Story: Fallout New Vegas: Unexpected Friends // by Sleepyted //------------------------------// “Are you sure we should be doing this? What if Jeannie sees us, I don’t want to upset her, she seems so nice.” Twilight protested softly, watching as Anne tapped her food, stood right next to the floor-safe in the front office, the human waiting for the pony to sue her magic to open the safe. “Yes, we need to check in here and we won’t even be taking anything, we’re looking if there’s a note in here mentioning Boone’s wife, if not we close it and leave, we’ll just look somewhere else, no harm done.” Anne says. Twilight lets out a tired sigh. “It’s late, can’t we just go to sleep and come back in the morning?” Twilight ask, making herself let out a yawn to show she was tired though Anne waved a hand dismissively. “Ain’t no rest for the wicked princess, I don’t want to stay here longer than we need to and if we want to do this it’ll have to be at night when Boone’s working and in the day Jeannie will be sat about two feet from where we are now so if we’re going to do this then we’re doing it tonight.” Anne states crossing her arms. With another sigh Twilight’s horn starts to glow and after a few moments a soft click sound came from the lock on the safe, the door popping ajar slightly. “There, it’s open, if we get caught I’m not taking the blame.” Twilight muttered, taking a few steps back. Anne nods once before crouching down and rummaging through the opened safe. “Alright, some old pre-war money, a bottle of wine, one of sarsaparilla, some bottle caps I’m forcing myself not to take and here we are, a dirty piece of paper with writing on it, do you want me to read it all out for you?” Anne asked. “Sure, what does it say?” Twilight answers. “Alright, We, the representatives of the Consul Officiorum have this day bargained and purchased from Jeannie May Crawford of the township of Novac the exclusive rights to the ownership and sale of the slave Carla Boone for the sum of a thousand bottle caps.” Anne said, a grin breaking out on her face. “See, I told you Jeannie had something bad with her.” Anne stated. Twilight looked heartbroken, one of the only people she had met who were as friendly as the ponies she knew back in Equestria turned out to be a monster. “B-but how could she do that? She seemed so nice, why did she do it?” “Wait, there’s more, so the sale of the slave Carla Boone and those of…” The small smile she had on her face from proving herself right about Jeannie falling. “And those of her unborn child for the sum of five hundred bottle caps…” She said, reading though the rest of it quickly. “That fucker, if Boone didn’t want to do it I would kill her, the rest of it is all about how the ‘fetus’, depends on how good it is or not will net her a little bit of extra money.” Anne growled, pulling her lighter out of her pocket and burning the paper, letting it fall to the ground and burn away to ash. “H-he was a father? No wonder he was so upset about it…” Twilight said softly. “Oh, if I were him there wouldn’t be anything left of that bitch, come on.” Anne stated, using her foot to close door of the safe. “Let’s go find her an-“ She was saying before the door to the office opened up, Jeannie walking in. Upon seeing the two her eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, I’m sorry, I must have gotten to tell you that I leave to go back home at nine, I just came back because I left my reading glasses here.” She said softly, a smile on her old face at seeing two of the newest arrivals at her town. “What were you two needing, I’ll do anything I can to help.” “Well as my friend and I were going for a walk around this lovely town we saw something in front of the dinosaur and were wondering if you could take a look at it to see if you might know what it is.” Anne said simply, trying to keep her face pleasant even after she read the note while Twilight was still slightly shell shocked at the news, trying to wrap her head around it. She let out a tired sigh. “Okay, if that’s what you think…” She said, opening the door before heading out. Anne started to go after her until she relised that her friend wasn’t following along with her, with a sigh of her own she grabbed the collar of Twilight’s new clothing and tugged on it a few times. “Come on, we need to go.” Anne said. “H-how could she do something like that?” Twilight asked weakly, looking at the floor in a state of shock. Kneeling down in front of her friend Anne knew that Twilight was having a hard time right now so she wasn’t going to make it any harder for her. “Hey, it’s okay Twilight, I know this must be a lot to take in right now but that’s just how some people are out here.” She said. “That’s why I want to find a way to get you home, so you don’t have to think about any of this, I like the sound of pony land, with how friendly it is and all the friends you have…” Twilight stayed silent a few more moments before saying. “Equestria, not pony land.” She stated softly. “Equestria, yes, sorry, my memory hasn’t been the best after a head injury I had a while just before meeting you.” Anne said, smiling. “But we need to hurry now or Boone won’t know that it’s Jeannie.” Anne said standing back up. Pulling Boone’s beret out of one of her pockets she flattened it back out and put it on her head, heading for the door. Twilight now started to follow the woman, still in her depressed state. Seeing that Anne was a fair ways ahead with Jeannie she ran up to catch up, not wanting to be left behind. “Nice night isn’t it? I can see why you two decided to go for a lovely walk.” The older woman said with a faint smile. “Yeah, it is.” Anne agrees, looking up at the large dino, almost out the front of it. Once out the front Jeannie looked around for what she was brought out to see. “Okay, wha-“ She started but was never able to finish. With a loud crack from just above them Jeannie’s head all but was blow away, chunks of brain and skull flying in all directions. Her body just collapsed to the ground, not a sound more out of her besides the wet splats of her head chunks landing on the ground. Anne doesn’t even move in the slightest as a small bit of blood splashes across her face, making a line thing go from jaw to forehead. “Alright, we’re done here.” Anne states flatly, turning around to leave. Twilight nodded, already facing the other direction, not even seeing what happened but from the sounds she knew already. “O-okay, let’s go back to Boone and tell him…” Twilight says. Back up in the mouth when they got there Boone was busy reloading his gun slowly, in no hurry to get it done. Turning around to face the two he gave them a solemn look. “That it then, how did you know?” “We found a bill of sale.” Anne stated sadly, taking the beret off her head and holding it out to Boone who took it and put it back onto his extremely shortly cut hair. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, it’d be like them to keep paperwork.” He said before reaching into one of the pockets on his cargo pants and pulling a small sack out. “Here, this is all I can give, I think our dealings are done here.” He states as he hands Anne the bag, a hundred caps inside. “What will you do now?” Twilight asks softly. “I don’t know, I won’t be staying I know that, don’t see much point in anything right now, except hunting legionaries.” He said. “Maybe I’ll wander, like you two…” “Come with us then, we don’t like the Legion either.” Anne said. “You don’t want to do that.” He stated. “I thought snipers worked in teams.” Anne said crossing her arms. He lets out a thoughtful sigh before saying. “Yeah, working on your own you’re a lot less effective, I’ve been there and paid for it. But this isn’t going to end well.” He stated before sighing again. “Fine, let’s get out of here.” Anne nods. “The princess and I were going to head off to bed now, we’ll be leaving first thing in the morning.” She said. Boone looked blankly at them. “Alright, I’ll be waiting down by the dinosaur tail at nine in the morning, don’t leave me waiting too long.” He said walking past the two and making his way down to the hotel room he had so he could rest up for the traveling he was going to do. “Alright Princess, we can finally go get some rest so you can stop your complaining, let’s go.” Anne said, going through the door as well to the exit of the dinosaur. Twilight lingered a few more moments, looking out of the view of the brown and gray landscape of the Mojave, lifeless and desolate, if she didn’t know any better she would have said that no one had ever been here with how still everything was. With a tired sigh Twilight started to make her way down along with her friend, moving along quite slowly back towards the hotel room. Upon entering she found Anne laying on the bed, the under padding of her armor folded neatly on a couch with all the metal plates for her armor along with the holsters and guns, only wearing a grey tank top and worn navy blue underwear. In the woman’s hand was a cigarette, a thin line of grey smoke coming out. “Want to know something that I hate? Even though that woman deserved to die for what she did I should be having nightmares for what happened to her but the thing I hate is I’ll sleep as soundly as a babe, I don’t want to be heartless to other’s lives but after a while death just becomes something in a part of life.” The woman said, taking a drag of her cigarette. Twilight just lets out a tired sigh, using her magic to undo her clothing and folding it up neatly, putting it down next to Anne’s stuff along with her weapons and holsters for them. “How long do you think it’ll take for me to get home Anne?” Twilight asks softly as she climbs onto the bed next to her friend. “To be honest, I don’t know, we’d need a lot of caps to pay for anything we’d make and we’d also need something like a lab to do it in, I hear that there’s an old casino from before the war that was never touched by the warheads of the war and no one has looted yet because of a cloud of fog that has swept through there, we might someday go there for the money and there are rumors of a science facility called the Big Empty. There hopefully will be something there that can help you get back to your friends and family, I promise that as long as I’m alive I’ll help you.” The woman stated, turning to look at her friend and giving her a smile. “Thanks Anne, that means a lot to me to know that you’re there for me…” Twilight says, feeling her chest heat up and a small blush appear on her face, Anne had been rather kind to her so far besides the friendly banter, did she like her? “Don’t mention it, now let’s get some sleep, we have a big day tomorrow and I don’t want you dropping from fatigue on me.” Anne said. “Fine, let’s get some sleep.” Twilight said with a yawn, using her magic to float her actual toy bear into her waiting hooves. “Hey Twilight?” “Yes Anne?” “Want to spoon now?” ‘THUD’ “No!”