Chapter 45
“H-hopefully Anne is having a b-better time…”
Anne was in the middle of what she was doing when she and Twilight were at the NCR run Mojave Outpost, drugged out of her mind as she sat in a corner. It probably wasn’t a wise idea for her to go to the Great Khans, a gang known for its development of drugs when she herself had gotten addicted to Med-X with the amount of time she had used it.
She dropped another used needle to the ground next to her, dropping her head back against the rusty wall of the caravan she was sat in as she felt the pain killer work its magic on her body.
Without knowing the low her friend had gotten herself into, sitting in the dirt as she slowly gasped for air, her whole body aching so much. Weakly she reached into one of her pockets, fumbling with the needles inside. She didn’t bother what she grabbed, just dropping it all to the ground as she looked for a Stimpak needle. After finding one she carefully took hold of her shattered hoof, whimpering in agony as she made sure the bone wasn’t too bent out of shape.
Twilight groaned as she felt her hoof mend itself back together, along with the feeling of some of the rest of her body mending. She reached up to her brow, trying to wipe away the blood that had been leaking over her eye, but no matter how hard she tried to get rid of it she was only rewarded with pain. ‘Feels swollen shut’ she thought to herself as she grabbed another Stimpak and jammed it against her side, groaning again as she felt her back fix itself back up.
Slowly she stumbled herself to her hooves, wincing as she still felt sore. She looked over herself with her clear eye, making sure she had most of her things, although she wouldn’t have gone back out there to get herself blown up again if someone would pay her a million bits to do it again.
“Okay, I have pistols… Still have my horn…” She said to herself as she reached up to her head to feel the protrusion. “My wings…” She said looking over her shoulder at her wings. Her breath hitched in her throat when she saw her back.
She still had her left wing, although it was missing quite a few of the feathers. But her right wing was another story. For once she wished she could say it was horribly mangled but she couldn’t, mainly because it wasn’t there anymore, just a raw looking stump on her back next to her other wing. Her rump fell to the ground as she looked in shock at her back, her one good wing slowly stretching and retracting, as if she were trying to process what she was seeing.
“Hey!” A woman’s voice yelled out, drawing Twilight’s attention from her back. She was wearing a suit of combat armor with a helmet on her head. Strapped to her back was a large pack, something that reminded Twilight of that fire launcher that Anne had earlier, pointed right at the shocked pony. “Where’s the Sentry?” She asks looking around, gun not moving from the pony. She spots the unconscious man slumped in his tower, snoring softly.
“I'm Raquel, Master-At-Arms for the Nellis homeland. Mother Pearl, our Eldest, wishes to speak to you.” She said with a sigh, going over to the nearby fence, unlocking it and opening it wide. “Come one.”
Twilight stumbled slowly into the cabin she had been led into by the heavily armed woman, greeted by the barely lit interior except for the beams of light that came through the cracks in the boards that covered the broken windows. Inside was an old woman sat in a chair, old white hair short to her head. She was wearing a blue jump suit with the same leather jacket as the Sentry and a necklace of empty bullet cases.
The armed woman stood by the door, Twilight slowly approaching, still dazed at what was going on. “You took your sweet time getting here child.” The old woman said in a motherly voice, like one a grandparent would use to talk to a child. “I’ve been waiting five long years for an outsider to come along and visit.”
Twilight’s eye twitched slightly, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. “You didn’t exactly roll out the red carpet.” Twilight almost growled, she had her ability to fly stolen away from her. She hadn’t been flying for that long and now she had a chunk of her torn away. She was trying her hardest to stay civilized, she felt tempted to just leave and ask Yes Man if there was any way to wipe this place off the map.
“Those howitzers of ours aren't just for entertainment, child! Explosive ordnance is what keeps the savages at a distance.” Mother Pearl said standing up with a small groan from her old bones. “Except you! There's something special about you, child, and I’m not talking about you being a talking colorful horse, if I didn’t know better I would say my age is catching up to me.”
“You could have always… I don’t know, come out and said hi?” Twilight said gritting her teeth before taking a deep breath to calm herself down. “But I’m here because I’m going around looking at the different groups around New Vegas…” She stated.
“Well you couldn’t have come at a better time, my people need help.” The elderly woman said as she waddled her way towards a small box that was by a rundown looking kitchen in the cabin. Opening the box she pulls out two bottles of Nuka-Cola, walking back and holding one out for the pony.
Twilight took the bottle in her magic, popping the cap off before sliding it into her pocket. She took a deep drink of the beverage, enjoying the sugar filling her mouth and down to her belly, although she would have preferred it to be cold instead of room temperature.
“I’m willing to listen to what you have to say, although I’m still really upset about nearly blowing me up.” Twilight grumbled before she took another swig of her drink.
Mother Pearl sat herself back into the sofa, popping the cap of her drink before taking a small sip from the bottle. “Well Raquel could use help with the bug problem, Doc Argyll has wounded he's tending to, and Loyal and Jack might be looking for help with some repairs. Or you could just go see Pete at the museum and hear the story of our people. All you have to do there is listen.” She said before shrugging. “Come and go as you like, help or don't help, I leave it up to you. But I hope you'll show my youngers that not every outsider needs to be blown up.”
Twilight was kind of intrigued about the history of these people, what has made them so hostile to outsiders that they won’t even do so much as say hello before trying their hardest to kill them with massive explosions. “I’ll see what I can do…”
“You're the outsider! Mother Pearl sent word that you'd be stopping by. You must be eager to hear the story of our people!” The young boy said excitedly as Twilight entered the cylinder shaped building, looking around at the rusty metal walls.
But on one wall was a large mural painted on the metal, showing different images that Twilight could guess was about the history of the Boomers.
“Who are you?” Twilight asked as she looked along the painting.
“Me? I'm Pete, Keeper of the Story.” The boy said before adding. “I know I seem kind of young. I was the apprentice Keeper of the Story until a couple months ago, but ol' Keeper Don, well...” He hesitated. “Whiskey and land mines don't go together. So it's up to me. I bet you want to know everything about us!”
“Well I guess that’s true.” Twilight said looking back over to Pete.
“Wonderful! I'm sure you've noticed the mural on the wall of this hut. I’ll tell you what it’s all about!” He said before clearing his throat, going over to the far left of the painting to which there was a mountain with what looked like a large metal gear built into it with the number 34 painted in yellow on it. People were leaving the door and could be seen shooting fire at black figures around them.
“Ages ago, long before I was born, we lived underground. Everyone had guns but the overseer wouldn't let us explode anything, not even a hand grenade.” He said slightly disappointed. “We left and wandered the wastes. There were savages with knives. We blew them up with frag mines and grenades, burned them with flamethrowers. It was neat, but there was a downside. For every 43.6 savages we killed, we lost one of our own. We needed a new home. We needed Nellis.”
Moving further down the image Twilight saw what could only be the Nellis Air Force base, large pile in the middle which Twilight could only guess was weaponry. There were dozens of green figures within the walls of the base, safe from the outside where more black figures were being blown to chunks by firing artillery. “Nellis, glittering like shrapnel in the desert sun. Nellis, bursting with missiles, warheads, and bombs. Nellis had waited. Just for us. Here, we have prospered and multiplied. Here, our mighty guns destroy any savages who might try to harm us before they can even reach our gates!” He said before looking warily at Twilight. “Well, until... but... not saying you want to harm us or you're a savage, but... anyways…” He said before continuing.
Next part was a number of capsules in a circle, dream cloud above them with an image of the large winged carriages that Twilight had first seen when she had arrived in the Mojave. “Nellis has revealed many secrets. It has taught us how to fly the bombers once based here. And it has taught us where to find one!” He said before looking at Twilight. “And that is our story so far, for this last image is our future.”
The last image on the wall was one of a much large plane, this time not in a dream, it was dropping large black pellets down below at more black figures, almost hidden behind the massive explosions they were blowing them apart. “To restore the bomber, to fly the open skies in armored safety, raining high-explosive ordnance upon ignorant savages, this is our destiny!” He said with a pleased smile.
“I'm glad that you listened to the entire story! Perhaps there are details you'd like to know more about? Let me know.”
Twilight in fact had a fair few questions about the story she had just been told. “If you were safe underground why would you even want to leave to out here? It’s not really a nice place.”
“We lived inside a vault, ours was numbered 34. In our vault, everyone had guns, but the overseer wouldn't let you fire off any of the really fun ones. I guess all the little pops and bangs at the firing ranges just got boring after a while.” The boy said with a shrug.
“Those big guns seem like they wouldn’t have been here in the first place if this place is all about flying.” Twilight stated.
“They weren't here when we discovered Nellis. We found the guns at a huge weapon depot called Area 2, many miles from here. It took many weeks to drag the guns and their ammunition back to Nellis, and it was the last time any of us set foot beyond our homeland.”
“It’s kind of amazing that you were able to drag those things all that way out here.” Twilight stated. “You said you found out where this ‘bomber’ was located, how did you find out about that?” Twilight added pointing to the last picture in the painting along the wall.
“Loyal found a file somewhere on the base, with magazine articles, photographs, a map, even. It seems that a bomber, apparently the 29th of its kind, crashed in Lake Mead on July 21st, 1948. Just imagine, that's over 300 years ago. The photographs showed that it was basically intact, and the map tells us exactly where to find it. Except we haven't left Nellis in decades.”
“If it was at the bottom of a lake you could probably raise it with some ballasts attached to the sides. It would pretty much be like if you were doing it to a boat…” She said rubbing her chin in thought.
“Exactly!” The boy said with a large grin on his face. “Loyal was thinking of doing the exact same thing!”
“One last thing I want to ask is if you’re fully cut off from the outside world how have you been properly functioning all this time?” Twilight asked.
“Nellis is a completely self-sufficient community. We draw water from Lake Mead, solar arrays provide power, and we grow our own crops.” Pete explained.
“What about proteins? You’d need to cultivate soy or legumes for protein, in addition to grains to remain healthy without getting sick from malnutrition…”
“I didn’t expect a horse to be this interested in how our lives work…”
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Those goddamned cannibals always got away because I couldn't pass that check. But I know your tricks, you can't fool the luckiest man in Vegas. I may not have been the smartest, nor the most good lookin', but I could trip over a rock and kill someone doing it.
POOR TWI i hope shee gets a cybernetic prosthetic wing from the clinic outside vegas the author could make it a custom quest and make the story really uniqe
7974789 wat
Right then is Twlight's wing gone for good or will she be growing it back, because that kind of loss needs a lot more meaning and attention than a (Oh,my legs gone, whatever I'll be just fine hopping on the remaining one.) if the loss of a limb is more permanent in Twilight's case. Without the proper emotion and pain behind it's loss, the scene has no meaning other than to point out the news that hay flying is cheating, so I'm taking a wing so you can't fly. It literally has no point over than taking away a characters normal ability, and it doesn't really add much to the character arc overall.
It would be like replacing Twilight with Rainbow Dash and taking one of her wings, then having her shrug the loss off as if her wings didn't mean the world to her, that flying is everything to the speedster Pegasus. atleast Twilight still has her horn for as long as you let her keep it, I mean a lucky shot from a raider could remove Twilight's remaining survival tool in an instant. I still love the story, I'm just a bit worried about the sudden decision to remove something so vital, it makes me question what else you'll be removing from your characters, maybe have abby OD leaving Twi alone with the yes man and her motley crew of missfits, or will you remove one of abby's hands as a combat loss against a furimantarri? it just makes me really wonder. also being able to get back on topic a minute after realizing you've just lost a limb is extremely unrealistic if your going by battle logic. it would take at least 15 minutes for her to get over the shock of loosing a limb, let alone the extra thirty minutes added in before she could add a modicum of restraint so she doesn't attempt to wipe out the boomers on her own.
in the end what you put in is your choice, I'm just saying that it doesn't really make much sense the way you've explained the loss at this point.
7974839 I think in the worst case she could simply clone herself a new wing when she visits the Big MT.
Severed limb? Nooooo problem nothing a little Hydra can't cure
7974865 or you know swiming in lake mead getting those rads up and regrowing it
7974989 you do realize that lake Mead is clean from radiation right?
7975002 huh nuuuuu now i have to go back and replay it to find out
7974859 In new Vegas I looked all over the facility, don't remember them hving the facilities, I might be wrong though, but I do remember the Enclave having extensive practice using vats to grow what the needed, I imagine they would also have the facilities to grow replacement limbs and organs
Mechanical replacement would be practically useless for flight without first having both a method of sending sensory data back to the nerves system, and a material within that is just as conductive to Twilight's magic field as the original limb, Big MT has the fist but I doubt they have any of the second,
I was having a very bad day until I came home to found a new chapter in read this
thanks for brightening my day Sleepyted
7975304 http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Cloning
Ok nothing in Big MT but Vault City isn't so far away.
seriously they blew off a wing, I know the bombers are strict but hell man they can't even freaken apologize?
7974833 Don't you look at me like that, you're one of 'em, I can feel it. Have a hankerin' for the meat on my bones? Well I'll never give it to ya, it's mine!
7977551 Crazy fool
7977551
mmmmmm music meat
7979302 I'm surrounded by cannibals! Well guess what? None of ya can get any if I eat myself first!
7979380 ummmmm haggis
Once twilight is able to go back you should make a sequel to where anne goes to equestria. .....if that DOES happen.....weeeeeeellll. Equestrias screwed
7985777 She's already screwing up the Mojave, I don't think Equestria is ready for BlackJack and Hookers on every street corner
7975994 Agreed!!
7986056 Just because they're not ready, doesn't mean it can't/shouldn't happen. Please make it happen!
Woo hook finally cot up on this story here. Need more.@
Kinda follows to closely to the storyline, specifically with the dialogues.
Also I'd be pretty pissed too, I'm surprised twilight stayed at all. Is there no way twilight can get make her wings?
Maybe get some metal ones? That be COOL!!!
This is so stupid.
Ripping her wing of and still expecting help.
Exceptionally bad writing.
Damn... imagine if Twilight had dealt with the Families instead of the Boomers.