//------------------------------// // The Fallout // Story: The Stupendous Gallivanters of Starlight Glimmer // by Dawn Flower //------------------------------// With a flash of light, Starlight suddenly found herself standing on solid ground; a sensation that she hadn’t felt since she left the Friendship Castle. It’s felt like forever since then. Opening her eyes, the familiar sight of her soundly beating Fuck Box Geoff at Golden Axe, was replaced with a sight that she had recently come to associate with pure, unadulterated terror and the associated image of her greatest mistake. A sight that she never thought she would ever actually see again: a big, grey, puffy face, which was right in front of her own, taking up her whole view, with those plain, unblinking eyes that felt like they were staring into her very soul. “Aaaaggghhhh!” She screamed as she stumbled back a few steps, in shock. “D-Dumplin?” She stuttered out. Taking the time to look around at where she was more closely, she seemed to be in some sort of futuristic city, with what looked like an impossibly long dragon looping around it. Still confused, she asked, “Where am I? What’s going on? How did I get her?” “Meh,” the Demon God said, with a shrug of his shoulders. “I was bored, and Xenoverse 2 isn’t out for another month. Say, you got any techniques that I could learn from you?” “Uhhmm, I’m not… sure.” She didn’t quite know how to respond to that. However, before she could finish, the entire area suddenly started shaking, like there was an earthquake was going on. “Huh, that’s weird,” Dumplin spoke up, not looking concerned in the least. “Is my cousin Bork visiting?” “Dumplin!” The two of them suddenly heard Trunks’ voice. Looking over in the direction that they heard him, noticing several Time Patrollers running around in a panic, they saw Trunks running towards them, waving at Dumplin with one hand to get his attention, through the sea of panicking (and useless) Time Patrollers, with a scroll in his other hand, which was currently emanating wisps of dark energy. “You need to take a look at this,” Trunks said upon reaching him, urgency in his voice, holding the scroll out towards him to take a look. Simply taking the scroll in hand, Dumplin unfurled it to see what was going on, and his eyes immediately widened at what he saw. --- The scroll’s vision showed a bombed-out wasteland, where everything was a dead-looking brown and grey, with no green in sight. There were two figures standing across from each other. The first was an umber skinned man, with a bleached, twisty moustache and beard combo. He wore a loincloth around his waist, with two pieces of metal welded on to his shoulders. He also had a pair of wraparound goggles covering his eyes, a tricorn hat on his head, and what looked like the claw of a ferocious animal on his right hand. The one standing across from him was a female, dressed in a black suit and matching hat. At her side, she held a small, black firearm in her right hand. She was also radiating a dark aura, and her eyes were glowing red. For several seconds, the two of them simply stared back at each other in silence until the woman’s stoic expression turned into a sadistic smile. The man seemed confused at this sudden change, and in that split second of confusion, the cloaked female suddenly disappeared from where she stood and reappeared behind him. She quickly raised her firearm up and fired, but the man had just enough time to spin around and knock against her with his claw weapon. The collision caused the gun to dip slightly, and the bullet merely grazed his cheek. However, the woman didn’t waste any time as she then quickly grabbed him with her other arm, and with a surprising amount of strength for her size, threw him over her shoulder. Spinning around quickly, she then shot a single bullet at him, and before it impacted, she teleported again. The barbarian man landed on his two feet, and before the bullet hit him, he supposedly cut it out of the air with a claw attack at high speed. However, the second he did this, the shrouded woman appeared behind him once again, grabbed his right arm to hold him back, and then placed her gun squarely against his back and fired point blank. The bullet ripped right through his chest, and the force of the attack knocked him forward. As he was sent flying, several weapons fell out of him, including a small handgun, a sword, and even a large missile launcher. Jumping forward quickly after him, the woman grabbed the handgun out of the air, replacing the gun that she was already using. She then planted a hard kick against his back, which knocked him even further forward, on to his face. “Hey Blue,” she said, before she again teleported and appeared right in front of him. As the man picked his head up, he only had enough time to see the woman place the gun to his forehead. “Consider this a divorce.” She then pulled the trigger. The large calibre of the bullet going off so close to its target caused the man’s head to explode into viscera, and with the missing weight at the top, his body collapsed on to the ground, dead. With her opponent dead, the woman, through the dark aura and glowing red eyes, simply smirked to herself. --- Seeing the events in the scroll take place, Dumplin’s mouth hung open as he couldn’t believe what he just saw. “That’s impossible. The Captain’s not supposed to die yet.” Quickly, his shock started to dissipate, being replaced with anger, as he gripped the edges of the scroll tightly. “That’s it; somebody’s taking a trip to the Fuck Box, and I…” However, before he could finish speaking, he suddenly felt a tingling sensation, starting in his hands and quickly spread all over his body. The next thing he noticed was that the scroll had slipped from his grasp, falling to the floor with a loud clang. “What the…” was all he managed to get out before he realised that his hand – and entire body – had become see-through. “What’s going on?” He said quietly, with Starlight and Trunks simply staring back him, just as confused, although Trunks seemed to notice something familiar about how he looked right now. “What the…” Dumplin screamed out, but before he could finish, he suddenly disappeared in a flash of light. “Dumplin!” Trunks called, with his hand outstretched towards the spot the Demon God had stood just a moment ago. With his mouth hanging open in confusion, he slowly lowered it again. Starlight stared at the spot where Dumplin had disappeared also, just as confused. She wasn’t exactly sure how to feel about it, though, since Dumplin was the one who ruined her plans, though with everything that was happening and judging by their reactions and what was going on at the moment, this could possibly be much worse than she thought. Turning towards Trunks, she asked, “What just happened?” Trunks turned to face her after he kneeled down and picked up the Scroll of Eternity, with a worried look on his face. Glancing at the scroll in his hand for a moment, which was still emanating dark wisps, he tried to organise his jumbled thoughts into a proper response. “This is bad.” He started. “Really bad. Captain Ravager is the progenitor of the Dumple Legacy, of which Dumplin is the last and greatest.” He explained. He then tightened his hand into a fist. “But if someone messed with time and killed him before he could start it, then Dumplin would never exist.” He swallowed a lump in his throat before he continued. “… and if Dumplin never existed, and never joined the Time Patrol and helped us out so much, then…” The rumbling around them suddenly intensified, though Trunks barely seemed to notice, apparently thinking about something much worse. He then looked up. “Time itself would collapse.” He exclaimed. Starlight suddenly took a step back, though she didn’t know if it was because of the rumbling or in shock. Looking down, Trunks grit his teeth in irritation. “But I don’t understand. Who would be capable of doing…” However, his thoughts were cut off by the sound of a soft, maniacal laughter coming from directly above him. His eyes suddenly snapped open as he recognised the laugh. Slowly turning his head around and looking up, his pupil’s shrank at the sight of the pale white, blue clothed, red haired, familiar figure above him, with an eerily calm laughter, which continued to rise in volume. “Surprise, bitch. Bet you thought you’d seen the last of me!” The figure announced. “D-Demigra?” Trunks uttered in shock, unconsciously taking a step backwards. “T-that’s impossible. Dumplin destroyed you,” he tried to reason. Demigra held a completely calm expression on his face as he responded. “Yes, you’re right. It’s strange,” he continued as he lifted his left hand up to his face as he spoke, while his right held his staff. “As a God, up until the moment where I was destroyed, I never even considered the possibility that I would be defeated. In that split second, however, I sent time energy back in time to interfere with history.” He then grinned even more maliciously as he tightened his free hand into a fist. “If I could kill Captain Richard Ravager III before he began the Dumple Legacy, then it would erase Dumplin from history, and he wouldn’t be around to interfere with my plans.” He then threw his arms out at his sides. “There can be only one Demon God – and it is Demigra!” Trunks bit down hard and tightened his grip in response. When he did so, his attention was brought back to the scroll in his grasp. Looking back at it now, the dark wisps emanating from it showing a distortion in history that shouldn’t be, he knew what he had to do; there was no other option. Quickly putting on a look of determination, he turned towards Starlight Glimmer and held it out towards her. “Take the scroll; go back in time and save the Captain! I’ll stay here and hold off Demigra!” Starlight was a bit taken aback by his request. From what she gathered from what was going on, it was certainly asking a lot. If she went back and saved this guy from the cloaked woman, then that would mean that Dumplin would come back. If she didn’t, however, and she did nothing, then Dumplin would never exist and wouldn’t around to interfere with her plans… but would also cause the end of time itself. She didn’t want that. For her last plan, she only wanted to get back at Twilight; she didn’t want to destroy the world. Accepting what she needed to do, she matched Trunks’ expression of determination with one of her own, and held out her hoof to grasp the scroll. As soon as she did, and the scroll passed from Trunks to her, she was engulfed in a bright light as she was transported through time. When she was gone, Trunks smiled, but then quickly shifted expression yet again when he turned back to face Demigra. The once-again Demon God simply sneered down at the meddlesome Saiyan. “You still think that you can defeat me?” He asked. Without saying anything, Trunks just turned Super Saiyan and charged straight at Demigra. --- The Captain worked at his weapon workshop at the Red Rocket Station, modifying one of his guns. The Captain was more of a savant than a gun nut, so there wasn’t much that he could do to weapons that weren’t melee. As he was adding a modification to make the gun a bit more powerful, he reached over to the side with one hand, grabbed a severed arm and took a small bite out of it, like it was a turkey leg, and then threw it away again. When he was finished with the modification, he stepped back to admire his handiwork. After looking over the pipe pistol for a few seconds, he suddenly decided that this was pointless and just threw it away. With that done, the Captain didn’t have anything else to do right now, since Horatio had left to go scavenging in Concord and would be gone for a while, so he decided to walk outside and inspect his base, to make sure that everything was running ‘ship shape’ as his friend Ironsides would say. However, while he was surveying the truck stop that served as his home, he suddenly did a double take when he noticed that all of the turrets had been destroyed. Confused, he made his way over to the destroyed turrets and knelt down beside them to investigate, but he was then cut off from properly investigating when he heard a voice behind him. “Blue, we need to talk.” The Captain recognised the voice immediately. Standing back up but not turning around, he simply smiled. “It’s been a long time, Piper.” This caused her to suddenly step forward. “That name no longer has any meaning for me.” “It is the name of your true self. You’ve only forgotten.” He said, turning around to face her. “I know there is good in you. The Shroud hasn’t driven it from you fully.” He tried appealing to her, holding his hand out towards her. He was really just quoting Star Wars at her, but she didn’t know that. “You mean the good to massacre an entire vault over a kickball?” She responded sarcastically. Another moment later, she simply scoffed. “Forget it, Blue. Piper Wright no longer exists. I’ve seen what I need to become to stop people like you… and I’ve long since made my choice.” She seemed to look away after saying that, almost looking introspective. After a moment, however, she simply smiled. “I figured that it was time for our final battle.” She then withdrew a small, black gun from inside her cloak. Seeing the gun that she took out, the Captain also smiled. “That’s my old crippling 10mm pistol, isn’t it? That gun’s legendary.” Piper The Silver Shroud responded with a playful smile of her own, as she lifted the gun up as if to inspect it. “Yes, well I figured it was the perfect weapon to use against a guy who fights with melee weapons.” She then held the gun out, pointing it right at him. “You’re pointing a gun at me, Shroud?” The Captain asked rhetorically, with an eyebrow raised. “Have you not heard the legend? Everyone who points a gun at me dies.” At that, the Shroud’s smile disappeared and she became completely serious. “I’m not afraid of you, Blue. Not anymore. I’m going to kill you… and your little dog too.” *Snap* (That was the Captain’s patience.) “Bitch, what’d you just say about Horatio?!” The Captain exclaimed, raising his claw up to meet her challenge. After matching her serious expression with his own for about five seconds, the Captain then suddenly started smiling again. “Well then, Shroud,” he began as he slowly reached behind his back. “I think that it’s time for you…” He then quickly pulled out a strange, futuristic weapon. “…to get dildo’d!” He then pulled the trigger, but nothing happened, as he had run out of ammo for it a while ago. The Shroud’s only response to that was simply to lower her outstretched weapon, as well as her serious expression. All she could say was, “…really?” Dropping the Standard Dildo+ since it was useless to him now, the Captain instead raised his right arm again, which housed the legendary Fisters sister claw or jus. “Then get ready, my arch nemesis. SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” The Raptor screeched as he launched himself forward, towards her. --- In Hell, Kellogg watched the battle unfolding from a portal. “Seriously? She’s his arch nemesis?” He said to no one in particular. “Oh, I swear, once I get out of here, I am going to…” However, he suddenly stopped his soliloquy when his ears perked up and he heard something behind him. Turning to see what it was, he spotted an armored marine running this way. “Oh, crap, it’s Doomguy” he said. “Well, unlike the rest of these mindless demons, I know when I’m beat.” Closing the portal that he was watching the fight through with a wave of his hand, he turned back around and jumped away to avoid the demon slayer coming this way. Let’s just hope that that bitch does her job soon. I need to get out of here. He thought to himself as he jumped away. After punching a Possessed to death, Doomguy suddenly noticed a demon in the distance that seemed to be retreating from him. He simply shook his head in response. “Fucking Imps,” the armored soldier said before continuing on. --- As the Captain was coming towards her at the speed of Blitz, the Shroud was prepared for him, being familiar with his tactics by now, and teleported out of the way just in time. She immediately reappeared ten feet behind him and fired at him, aiming for his right arm, so as to disable the Fisters sister claw or jus. The Captain, however, also being familiar with the Shroud’s teleportation powers, spun around in time so that she was in his sights, quickly slid into V.A.T.S, targeted the incoming bullet, and quickly slashed it out of the air. He then targeted the Shroud as his second target and instantly closed the gap between them. The Shroud was able to pull back just in time to avoid having her entire head ripped off and instead suffered only a small scratch. The Captain then tried a third follow-up attack, but when he raised the Fisters sister claw or jus, the Shroud positioned her 10mm pistol to intercept the attack, and then used the slight distraction to teleport to the other side of the fighting area. When she reappeared, she fell down on one knee, panting hard. It seems that she had underestimated the Captain, as even with her Shroud powers, he was still just too good for her. When the Captain turned back around to look at her, the Shroud simply met his look with a stare of her own, which told him that she would not back down, and she stood back up on two legs again. “I won’t back down, Blue. You’re a monster and you need to be stopped.” All of a sudden, the Silver Shroud became surrounded in a dark, purple aura, and her eyes turned a bright, glowing red. All emotion vanished from her face, turning her expression into one of cold emptiness. This sudden change caught the Captain off guard for a second, and that second was all that the Shroud needed in order to teleport behind him and shoot him right in the head. The Captain managed to turn around just in time for the bullet to hit off of his wraparound goggles, knocking them off, but saving his life. Staggering back a step, the Captain reacted blindly by swinging out with his clauntlet; however, in a surprising bout of sudden strength, the Shroud was able to block it with her bare hand. She then immediately kneed him in the stomach to knock him even further off balance, and then one final kick to send him flying backwards. The Captain landed on the ground, not understanding how the Shroud was hitting this hard. In the distant past, back when they were allies, he was the brawn to her brains. Even after acquiring her Shroud powers, she wasn’t this strong; so what was going on? Raising his head up to look at her, she was already in position to shoot him again. Without stopping to make a quip or enjoy her soon-to-be-victory, she simply pulled the trigger and fired. The Captain was in no position to move out of the way in time, and just before the bullet impacted with his forehead, suddenly his whole life flashed before his eyes. … … No, wait, that’s not what happened. While there was indeed a flash, instead of his life appearing before his eyes, a small, purple unicorn suddenly appeared, standing between him and the Shroud, with a shield conjured in front of her to deflect the bullet. When the unicorn turned her head around to look at him, it was now the Captain’s turn to be completely dumbfounded. The only thing that he could say to this was, “What… the fuck?” “Don’t worry, I’m here to help you,” Starlight said in response, to reassure him. While the Captain was slowly getting back up on to his feet, the Shroud was similarly confused by this unicorn’s arrival and didn’t move to attack immediately, giving him the time he needed. Looking down at Starlight himself for a moment, then up at the Shroud again, the Captain merely said, “Alright, just one thing first.” He then reach behind him, pulled out a syringe and stuck himself with it. “FUCKING KILL!” He shouted out suddenly, causing Starlight to step back in shock. Taking the syringe out and tossing it aside, he then faced forward and raised the Fisters sister claw or jus. “Okay, I’m ready.” With the Captain ready for the battle, Starlight also faced forward, ready for another fight. She was still a bit nervous and unsure, but considering the stakes of this battle, she couldn’t afford to lose. “SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” The Raptor screamed as he launched himself forward, wanting to claim the first attack. The Shroud, however, didn’t even blink, as she simply teleported out of the way when the tip of the claw was only inches from her face. Appearing right behind him, she then shot him in the back of the head; however, it just did a bit of damage instead of killing him. With her back exposed and focusing completely on the Captain, Starlight took the initiative and fired a beam of magic at the Silver Shroud and knocked her back. She then quickly wrapped her entire body in her levitation magic, making herself weightless, and used that to launch herself forward. When she was just behind the cloaked woman, she cancelled her magic and dropped on to her two front hooves, quickly spun around and bucked at the woman with her two back hooves, knocking her back even further. Regaining his balance after being shot, the Captain turned back around and noticed his arch enemy currently knocked off balance as well, courtesy of this weird horse-thing. Not wasting the opportunity, he lashed out with his clawed weapon and slashed her, knocking her back again. Starlight then quickly fired off another beam attack from her horn, knocking her back towards the Captain again. Getting tired of this improvised game of ping pong, with herself as the ball, the Silver Shroud teleported again, to the other side of the fighting area. When she reappeared, she quickly took aim and fired once, before teleporting once again, just a few feet away, and repeating. She did this several times, both to hit her opponents easily, as well as to keep them knocked off balance and making it harder for them to target her, knowing how dangerous the Captain could be in close range, and this unicorn was an unknown variable. Starlight, as the one who had her back to the Shroud at the time, took a bullet to the back from her first attack, while the Captain was able to use his agility and V.A.T.S. to dodge, and his endurance to withstand most of the attacks, though he was still taking damage himself. Once Starlight took that that first hit, she reflexively jumped to the side in order to avoid a follow-up attack, and quickly turned around to face their opponent. When she had her in her sights, seeing her queue up several more attacks, Starlight quickly put up another small shield to protect herself. The two heroes were both doing alright, but at the moment, it was all they could do just to hold off the Shroud’s relentless attacks, and they couldn’t find an opening to attack back. The Captain was dodging pretty well and avoiding most of the damage, but he was still getting tired and couldn’t keep it up for much longer, while the Shroud didn’t look like she was slowing down at all. Starlight’s shield meanwhile was blocking all incoming attacks, (it did hold off a Last Blast, after all) but after a while, cracks were starting to form from each bullet that struck it. They wouldn’t last much longer at this rate, and she knew what the consequences for losing this battle were. They needed a solution and they needed one now. A larger crack appeared in her shield, but it still deflected the small projectile. It then ricocheted across the street, striking a ruined car, causing it to explode on impact, in a miniature explosion. The Shroud paid no attention to it and simply continued in her pattern of teleport, shoot and repeat. Starlight, however, took note of it and began quickly formulating a plan of how to use it. The Shroud fired off another shot, impacting the shield, causing it to shatter like glass. However, instead of being worried that she was now vulnerable, Starlight immediately turned to face her ally. “Captain, move to the left and attack on my mark. I have an idea.” She announced. Captain Ravager was usually the one to give orders instead of taking them, (it’s how he became a Captain in the first place) but at the moment, his body was mostly moving on instinct in order to avoid dying. With him at the ready, Starlight turned back to face the Shroud again, and like her opponent, she teleported over to her to give her no time to react. As soon as she reappeared, inches from the cloaked female, Starlight immediately fired a beam of magic from her horn, right at her. However, the Shroud, while apparently confused that she could teleport as well, still managed to react in time and teleport out of the way. When the woman reappeared, she wore a slightly sly smirk on her face, from having evaded her opponent’s apparent plan. However, her smirk disappeared just as quickly as it had formed when she noticed that the unicorn was smirking also. A second later, she also noticed that her horn was glowing a turquoise aura, and the same colour aura was also slowing encompassing the ruined car behind her. “Captain, now!” Starlight called out, and the Shroud barely had enough time to turn around and see her arch nemesis coming right her. “SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” The Raptor again yelled as he rushed towards her, swinging his claw. However, the Shroud was still fast enough and teleported behind him before the attack connected. She then raised her crippling 10mm again and aimed at his exposed head, ready to take the shot when she suddenly noticed that the Sun above her had suddenly been blocked out. Looking up, her eyes widened for the first time in the fight when she saw a car flying right at her. Instead of teleporting, she instead reacted on instinct and jumped backwards, landing just out of reach of the car’s trajectory, with it plunging into the ground, bumper first, sticking up in the air. At the second stage of the plan also apparently failing, she smirked again and looked over at the purple unicorn, but again, she was confused as the she was still smirking herself. “Captain, again!” She called out. “SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” The Raptor again screamed out. The Shroud quickly turned around, expecting the Captain to attack from behind, but when she did, she saw nothing but the wasteland beyond the Red Rocket Station, and when she instead heard the sound of claw scraping against metal, she realised in that split second what the unicorn’s plan had actually been all along, before the nuclear engine in the car exploded right in her face. Being at the epicentre of a small, nuclear explosion was a lot of damage to take, even in her enhanced state, and it also left her open enough for the Captain to quickly grab her by her cloak so that she couldn’t teleport away, and slashed her squarely across the chest with the Fisters sister claw or jus. He let go of her after the attack connected, and the momentum of the strike sent her flying backwards. Her mind full of pain and unable to think clearly at the moment, the dark aura surrounding her also thinning just a bit, the Silver Shroud reacted on pure instinct and teleported to the roof of the Red Rocket Station. Reappearing again, she clutched at the wound across her chest, as she looked down at the battlefield below, with her two opponents looking up at her from opposite ends of the battlefield. With the red of her eyes returning, she smirked again and said, “You can’t beat me now, Blue. I have the high grou…” However, before she could finish, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and when she turned around, she saw the Captain standing right behind her. “Fucking Blitz,” she deadpanned, as the red glow disappeared from her eyes once again. The next moment, the Captain slashed at her again, knocking her off the roof of the Red Rocket, her body rolling as it hit the ground. The fall aggravated her now-two chest wounds, so she gripped her chest tightly as she struggled to stand back up. “Blue, you turned Nick against me,” she said through gritted teeth, her anger starting to break through her previous cold indifference, over having lost control of the situation. She looked back up to face him again, however, her eyes immediately widened and things went from bad to worse for her when she saw him with a loaded Fat Man in his grasp. The sight made her wince. With an uncharacteristically stoic expression on his face, and not even taking the time to make a quip, the Captain simply pulled the trigger, launching the football sized nuke hurtling towards her. The Shroud attempted to teleport out of the way, but when she did, she suddenly found herself still tangible. Quickly examining her body, wondering why she couldn’t teleport, she saw that her whole body was surrounding by a turquoise aura. In the span of just a split second, she looked over at Starlight, whose horn was glowing in the same colour aura once again. “Sorry, but you’re not going anywhere,” Starlight snapped back, using her own teleportation magic to cancel out the Shroud’s. After hearing what she had just said, along with the fact that they could both teleport but now she couldn’t, the Silver Shroud had only a split second to realise what was going on before the Captain’s nuke finally hit her. When the nuke went off, with the Silver Shroud as the epicentre, Starlight had just enough time to teleport up to the Captain. The explosion kicked up a lot of dust and released its signature mushroom cloud into the air, but the two of them were safe from the blast up on the roof of the Red Rocket Station. When the blast finally subsided, Starlight looked back down at where it had gone off, expecting to see nothing but a scorch mark after witnessing the destructive power of the mini nuke, and was surprised to see the Silver Shroud still in one piece. However, despite that, she could see that the woman had still taken a lot of damage from the blast. She was now kneeling down on one knee, with several deep cuts and bruises, and most clearly, the dark aura surrounding her had completely vanished. Craning her neck upwards, to stare up at the Captain, standing on high, now showing much more emotion now that she was free of the dark corruption, the Silver Shroud simply sneered at him through the pain. “This isn’t over, Blue.” She said before she disappeared in a flash. Starlight was about to comment on how she had gotten away, but before she could, there was suddenly another flash – this a bright one – on the roof next to her. “…Hell!” Dumplin suddenly shouted out upon reappearing. As soon as he had, he quickly noticed that he wasn’t in the Time Nest, like he had been just a moment ago. Seeing Starlight first, he focused on her. “Alright, just what’s going on…” He suddenly trailed off when he noticed the person standing next to her. In a rare occurrence for the once-again Demon God, his eyes widened in awe, for he was currently in the presence of one of the few entities in existence that he could respect. “It’s… It’s you.” He started, his lips forming into a smile. “Mr. Mrs. Sir Knight Lord Lady Fairy-Prince Kentucky-Fried Flying Rocket Rocketeering Ravishing Beastmaster Monk Super Silver One-Punch President Mayor Doctor Chef Parkour Master Champion Coach Professor General Honorary Lieutenant Bachelor Barbarian Pirate Ex-Husband and Former Father Captain Richard “Raptor” Ravager III Stilskin.” Starlight meanwhile was starting to feel dizzy from all the titles that he had listed off. The Captain, in response, smiled back. “Well, I’m not sure where the ‘Stilskin’ part came from, but yeah, that’s me. It’s always good to run into people who respect my many titles. I worked hard for them, dammit!” Crouching down so that he was at eye level with the Demon God, he then asked, “So what are you supposed to be? Some sort of deformed Super Mutant?” Raising his hand, with his index finger extended, Dumplin was about to retort, but quickly cut himself off. “You know, given who you are, I’m gonna give you a pass this time.” After that, the three of them simply stood around silently for several seconds, not knowing what to say next. “So…” Dumplin was the first to speak up again. “What’s next for you?” He asked the Captain. In response, the Captain merely shrugged. “Eh, I don’t know. I’ve pretty much done everything there is to do in the Commonwealth by now, and I am starting to get old. To be honest, my battles with the Silver Shroud are about the only things that I really look forward to now, but I’m not sure how much longer I can keep it up. It may be my imagination, but I don’t think she’s aging like I am. I don’t really have anything else to do in my life to focus on anymore.” “Really?” Starlight asked him, honestly sounding concerned at how he had said that. “Well, I do have plans for a cloning program to create a successor to replace my son, but to be honest, I’m not really sure if I can actually do it. I’m a savant, not genius.” “Don’t say that,” Dumplin cut in. “Of course you can do it. You’re the Captain Richard Ravager III.” He then held his arms out wide. “You’re like a brilliant scientist.” At that, the Captain brought a hand to his chin, in thought. “Well I did build a teleporter all by myself.” A moment later, a smile started forming on his lips. “You’re right. I can’t just give up now.” Suddenly, he turned around towards the edge of the Red Rocket, squatted down, and jumped off the roof. “Horatio!” He yelled out as he fell. When he touched the ground, a German Shepard, wearing a suit of dog armor and welding goggles appeared, running up to the Captain, happy to see him. “Horatio, bring me a military grade circuit board, a biometric scanner, the synth Shaun, five shots of Psycho and a kickball, and meet me at the USS Constitution. We’re going to need Ironsides’ help with this one.” “Ruff, ruff,” Horatio responded. The two of them then headed off, around the Red Rocket Station, into the wilds of the wasteland. “Well, looks like history’s back on track.” Dumplin remarked, as he watched the man and his dog disappeared into the distance. “Yeah,” Starlight responded, though a moment later, she looked down. “Although, the Silver Shroud managed to get away, so…” “Don’t worry about it.” Dumplin interrupted her. “According to history, the Silver Shroud is the one who eventually kills the Captain, but not now. Years from now, after he completes his cloning project and sends his true son off to another world; when he’s an old man, has done everything there is, and has nothing left to live for. Even so, he still went out fighting – as good as any Dumple.” Dumplin’s usual perpetual smile had morphed into a more sincere one as he spoke, and Starlight couldn’t help but follow suit listening to him. She and Dumplin were now all alone, with the timeline restored, and it was technically because of her. Since she had now helped save the timeline after inadvertently harming it, this was probably as good a time as any to ask Dumplin if he would let her go now. “By the way, Dumplin. I wanted to ask if…” “Oh, that reminds me.” Dumplin suddenly spoke up, snapping his fingers as he did. “Oh, yeah. “What’s th…” Faster than she could finish speaking, however, Dumplin quickly spun around, with a ball of yellow energy building between his hands. “Get in the Fuck Box!” He yelled as he released a Last Blast right in her face. Meanwhile, over at Sanctuary, Nick Valentine noticed a strange light distortion to the south. “Huh, circuits must be getting a little finicky. What do you think?” He asked his friend: an alpha deathclaw, standing next to him, simply staring down at the dirty synth, breathing heavily. --- With a flash of light, Dumplin reappeared in the Time Nest. “I’m back, bitches!” He announced. Noticing that he wasn’t being swarmed by said bitches, he looked around and saw that the only one in the area was Trunks, in his base form once again, with his hands on his knees, panting hard. Hearing his friend’s voice, Trunks looked up and saw Dumplin across from him. “Dumplin, you’re back.” Trunks said, standing back up straight and facing him, with a relieved smile on his face. “I’m glad. I should have known everything must have turned out fine when Demigra disappeared.” Suddenly noticing that someone seemed to be missing, he looked around for a second before asking, “Hey, where’s that Starlight Glimmer pony?” Looking up to meet Trunks’ gaze, the Demon God Dumplin responded with only two words: “Fuck. Box.” Trunks merely blinked a few times in response. “Of course,” he deadpanned. “Still, I’m glad to see that everything turned out alright.” However, a moment later, Trunks put his hand to his chin in contemplation. “Although, there is something that troubles me.” He said in a worried tone, which got Dumplin to stop and really look at him. “Demigra managed to set this all up in just a split second, but how would he have already known about your connection to the Captain?” Equally confused, Dumplin’s eyes widened for a moment, and he also put his hand to his chin in thought. Dumplin’s legacy was known only to a select few, so how did Demigra know about it too? It was a tough question and unfortunately, one he did not have the answer for. --- With a flash, a familiar feeling of weightless overcame Starlight and the solid ground beneath her hooves disappeared once again. Without opening her eyes, she already knew where she was. “Hey Starlight, you’re back,” she recognised Geoff’s voice. “So, you ready for another game of Golden Axe?” He asked, holding a controller out towards her. “Fuck Box. Fuck Box Banana,” a shiny, black-chrome banana, with arms and legs spoke at Geoff, in what sounded like a whining tone. “No, Fuck Box Banana. You had your go. Besides, she’s the Golden Axe champion around here; she gets priority. So, you up for another game?” He said, focusing on Starlight again. Turning to face Geoff again, after just a moment’s hesitation, Starlight simply smirked at him. “I don’t know, are you ready to lose again?”