Luck and Ponies

by SoothingCoffee

Prologue [Rick's story]

The trio walked in the middle of the Mojave wasteland, the sun shimmers on top of them. They walked in silence only for the occasional barking from Rex, the cyber dog. It wasn’t an awkward kind of silence; it was more like a needed silence; where noises are less important.

“So…” The Scribe started, breaking the hot silence; the courier glance at her for second with a raised eyebrow before looking back at the road, “you said he was a lucky charm how?”

“Oh, I forgot” The courier grinned although it was only visible for the wasteland to see, “well, for some reason unknown; when I’m with him, I got really lucky,”

“What do you mean?” The scribe asked

“Hmm…”, she tapped her chin with her leather-gloved right hand, “like for example I used a plasma gun around him, 7 shot out of 10, they melt; or this time I use my V.A.T.S on a stray raider from 2 kilometers away with a 10mm pistol and it hit on the head,” She shrugged and glance at the scribe’s face, revealing a very shocked and disbelieved look.

“How...”

The courier just shrugged, “like I said, ‘for some reason unknown’.”, a grin on her face. He is indeed a lucky charm.

“So, what’s his past?” The scribe asked, her tone ranged from bewilderment to curiosity, to be honest, she didn’t knew anything about the guy; The courier just came back from her journey after the liberation of new Vegas and when she came back (give or take 2 years), the man was already following her.

The courier’s grin dropped into a frown, “I dunno if he would like that…” she trailed off, but with a sigh she continued, “let’s just say that he has a very tragic past,”

“All of us had tragic past, Cass, and I don’t mean to pry if he don’t want you to tell me or the others; but we all had a very tragic past.” The scribe said, somewhat becoming ticked off

The courier sighed again and came to a halt before turning back to Veronica, while she looked at the courier with a surprised look, “Yes, I know, Veronica. But he is different, he had gone so much pain that I would break first if I was in his place,” The frowning courier looked at her companion’s eyes.

Veronica exhaled the air that she didn’t know was holding, she nodded at the courier before nodding, “Sorry…” she said, an apologetic look on her complexion as she looked at the ground.

The courier turned back to the road and continued on walking to the appointed waypoint, “I know, Ver, it’s okay,” she chuckled, “besides, I could tell you how I met him.”

--

It was almost dark; the usual brown skies had turned into dark orange skies. The courier walked on the road; heading to the Capital Wasteland, she had heard of the Lone Wanderer, the messiah. She had heard many interesting stories and things about him.
How he had saved an entire wasteland by purifying the water, how he was abducted by aliens and came back alive with new alien technology, how he saved many wastelander by doing good deeds for them and how he killed the super-mutants by helping the Capital’s brotherhood.

And from the many stories, she could say that this ‘Lone wanderer’ is an interesting man; and she was seeking for adventure, so why not?

Her thought was ended as she heard screamings and shoutings nearby, she pulled out Li'l Devil out from her holster as she cautiously following the sound. And as she got closer to the source, the screamings had become more apparent; it was the screamings of a male.

She hid on one of the big rock for hiding and cover; she peeked out with her gun on her right hand, ready to shoot. The scene she seen would send shivers to normal people (or in this case, wastelanders); the courier wasn’t one of those people. It was five legionnaires forming a circle and what it seemed to be a bloodied, beaten and dying male sitting in the middle with a rope on its body, restraining every move. The scene was enough to make the courier angry, this kind of thing was one of the reason why she hate and destroyed them all, while torturing Legate Lanius in the end (who gives fucks for honorable death?).

Without further notice, she entered her V.A.T.S and began to point at each of their legs. She would make them suffer first before giving them death, the only thing that would be proper for them. And as she’s out of her V.A.T.S, her hand and fingers moved naturally with precision and speed. And for each bullet left the chamber, it was followed by screams of pain and agony. The scum dropped like flies, but still alive.

She walked closer to the scene and looked at the man while she reloaded her gun, which looked at her both surprise and joy. The courier cut the restrains of the male with her bowie knife, and gave the dying man with a few stimpacks and a medX.

The man stood and smiled in gratitude, tears moistening his golden and red eyes as it flow to her chest and mixing with the blood, “Oh, thank you, thank you!” The man said, as he rubbed his eyes, trying to stop the tears from coming out, to no avail.

“No, it’s okay,” The courier said, a grin on her face before turning back to the five legionnaires who laid on the drop, still conscious and in pain. The grin changed into an angry frown, “now, what to do with you guys?”

“FUCK YOU!” one of the downed legionnaires spat, and screamed in pain as the courier stabbed her bowie knife into his wound on the leg, he screamed more as she twisted the blade and twisted it more.

“Sorry, I like my men strong and cute.” She replied with a smirk

Much to her surprise, the man she had saved stopped her from doing any far, “Please ma’am, stop.”

Still frowning, but now with a slight annoyance, she yanked the knife and looked at the man, eyebrow raised, “Stop? You want me to stop torturing the one who tortured you?”

A smirk on his face as he shook his head, “No ma’am, think you misunderstand me. Let me do the torturing, please.” The courier smiled, before giving him the ‘are you sure’ look, and he replied with a nod, “Please give me some stimpacks and borrow me your knife.”

The courier nodded, giving her 7 stimpacks, and borrowed her knife to him, “Don’t break the knife, ‘kay?”, the man nodded with a grin as the courier walked away before coming to a halt, “I’m going to camp there!” She shouted, pointing at the nearby ground.

“Okay!” the man replied with a shout, before looking at the terrified looking legionnaires, 3 of them begun to pray whatever Gods they worshipped.

And as the courier set up her bonfire, she sat on one of the makeshift bed, the sun had already set down and replaced by the moon. The chilly wind whistled and the fire cracking around. Slowly but surely, a new sound joined the surroundings.

Howling and screaming of pain and agony, she could even hear some begging to be killed but soon replaced by another howling of pain. The sound came in like a symphony to her ears, nothing is more soothing than the screaming and howling of pain by the legions. Whatever that man did, she already liked him.

--

“Wow…” The scribe started in awe, “so what happened next? Or rather, what did he do to the legionnaires?” she asked.

“Well, soon, the sound died and he walked to the camp, he gave me back my knife, already cleaned; although he was covered in gore and blood. Then he slept on one of the makeshift bed I offered. The next morning he was gone,” This prompted an eyebrow of the scribe, the courier noticed, “let me finish, so the next day I began walking again and found one abandoned supermarket, when I got closer, he sat in front the building with a sniper on his hand, and a new clothes; he said he was kidnapped by a cult of raiders that worshipped an imaginary gun-god.”

The scribe and the courier shared a hearty laugh, “For the second question, he cut their dick off and shoved them in the anus and gave ‘em another stimpack, enough to stop the building and then he shoved the dick to their mouth with each different dick and then he opened the stump with the knife and also extracted a few balls while keeping the legionnaires conscious.” The courier laughed again, but the scribe didn’t.

A look of disgust on her face as her face turned pale and sick green, she was ready to puke but decided not to as they continued to walk.

“Oh hey, here we are!” The courier exclaimed, pointing at the abandoned supermarket, “Talk about de ja vu, ain’t I right?”

Author's Note:

Okay, this was supposed to be merged with the first chapter, but I figured that you don't want to read it again. So... yeah. Sorry.