Honest Hearts

by YuCheng Huang

Chapter 10 - Treasure Hunters Pt.2

When the team was about to leave the fishing lodge, Tom thought of something, "Do you think it was strange that we haven't met any White Legs' ambush?" he commented. This made the pony a bit nervous.

"Ah don't know, but ah still think we need to keep cautious. This is quite serious." Applejack said. Fluttershy nodded in agreement.

"Alright. You guys stay here. I'll scout ahead." Follows-Chalk whispered. The others nodded in response, and hid behind a car wreck. Chalk slowly sneaked forward, scouting for any possible White Legs' ambush and wild life threats. Despite what Joshua said about him, he was still quite a good scout in Tom's opinion.

Chalk hid behind a rock, and looked around his surroundings, nothing so far. He motioned his friends to come quietly, then he heard something, some people were talking, but not in his languages. Three White Legs' scout appeared from South West, where they came from, and they seemed to have not spotted them.

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"What do you think the chief will award us, if we bring the head of the outsider and his pets? A promotion?" one of the White Legs said.

"Probably one woman for each of us, I really want to get laid." the second White Legs said, and started laughing out loud.

The first White Legs began to laugh, "You only care about sex, you big pervert." he joked.

"I don't know man, I heard that outsider slaughtered our entire raiding team." the third White Legs said quietly.

The other two laughed even harder, "What are you, a chicken?, bah bah bah bah bahhhh~"

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are~"

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you ar-"

And they felt the ground shaking, suddenly one giant beast emerged from the ground, and dragged one of the White Legs into the ground. Tom immediately recognized that it was a Radscorpion. The other scouts panicked, they started screaming, then took out their machine guns and started firing at the ground. After a moment, the White Legs thought they were safe, but they were horribly mistaken. Two other scorpions emerged from the ground and overwhelmed one of the White Legs. The remaining one tried to flee but he was blocked by a Giant Radscorpion, at least two times bigger than an ordinary radscorpion. It stung the through his chest with his giant tail, it wasn't enough to kill him though, he was still screaming in agony. But injected with radscorpion poison, the scream became weaker and weaker, and only last no longer than ten seconds. Then the Giant Radscorpion burrowed into the ground with its meal. The others had finished feasting on the second one, leaving nothing but blood stains on the ground, and back to the ground they did. The air was filled with silence all over again.

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Few moments after the small massacre, the ponies just sat there with their jaw dropped, motionless, too much cruel images to process. They tended to throw up, but at least there wasn't any remains to gross them.

"Is it safe now?" Tom asked.

"I think it's safe." Chalk said.

Tom stood up, patted the dust off his hands, "Well, that was brutal. Ladies, those there, were Radscorpions." he said. "Are you girls gonna be okay?"

"Ah'm fine... Just give us a moment..." Applejack said, still panting.

"What about you, Fluttershy?" Tom asked.

"Ye...Yes..." Fluttershy said, still a bit frightened.

Tom sighed, "Here, drink some water, you may feel better." he handed out two bottles of purified water.

"Thanks..." said both Applejack and Fluttershy.

Applejack took a sip, "To be honest, we have tone of dangerous creatures back in the Equestria, like the Manticores, Timberwolves, the Hydra, and even that Bugbear we fought during Cranky and Matilda's wedding. But to think about it, we never ended up like that..." she said.

"This is just the circle of life, we are just have to get used to it." Fluttershy said.

"Well, let's hope if we see enough of these here, we won't need to see them back home, am ah right?" Applejack joked.

Fluttershy gave a little nervous chuckle, "Yeah, you're right."

"Woah, you two are learning fast..."Tom was glad that the ponies could learn something from his world, despite it was based on rather unpleasant experiences, "Happy to see you two smiling again. Ready to move on?" he asked.

"Oh! Oh! Can you tell me what you know about the creatures in your world?" Chalk said excitedly.

"I am also curious, but we REALLY have to go now, it's getting dark." Tom said.

"Tom's right, let's go."

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The sky had darkened when they arrived at the North Fork Campground, and they sheltered inside a trailer, where there were a few human skeletons, two suitcases, and a sleeping bag inside.

"I'm sorry." Tom said before he cleaned the trailer by taking out the skeletons. He then looted the suitcases only to find a few scraps metals, bottle caps, and a pre-war suit.

"Who the hay put scrap metals inside their suitcases?" Applejack asked as she put down her saddlebag in the trailer corner.

"I don't know. Maybe this guy was a mechanic." Tom answered. "Still, I can make some bullets with these things."

A cold breeze blew inside the crowded trailer, it made Fluttershy shivered, "It's quite dark, and breezy outside. Why not start a campfire?" she asked as she put her bags next to Applejack's.

"Can't risk getting spotted by any White Legs' scouts. They knew about you guys, and those scouts from earlier was probably finding you." Chalk said.

"Yeah, that make sense to me." Applejack said, taking off her beloved stetson.

Tom was checking whether he had enough ammunition, "Me and Chalk will take turn staying on guard for tonight, I'll go first, you three better go to sleep now." he looked at Chalk. "I'll wake you up, when the time's up."

"So, uhhh...What about the sleeping bag? Who is gonna use it?" Applejack asked.

Follows-Chalk took a look at the sleeping bag, "It looks big enough to fit both of you."

"But, what about you?" Fluttershy asked.

"Don't worry about me, I can sleep on the ground." Chalk sat down on the trailer floor. Unfortunately, since he was used to sleep on bed sheets made of fur, and the floor was too cold for his upper-exposed body, "Ahhh!" he jumped up immediately. "Too cold for me... "

Fluttershy and Applejack looked at each other, they both knew they have the same idea. Applejack gave her a firm look, and nodded her head. Fluttershy gave back a warm smile and nodded back. "Well, we decided to let you use the sleeping bag, Chalk."

Chalk was surprised by what he just heard, "What!? But what about you?" he asked.

"Ah think our fur can keep us warm enough." Applejack rubbed the fur on her chest. "We don't want ya to catch a cold, ya know."

Fluttershy nodded, "You are our friend, and friends take care of each other." and gave Chalk a hug.

Chalk felt the warm embrace from the pegasus, "It's so warm..." he thought. And he returned a hug, "Thank...thank you." and gave the ponies a pleasant grin, and so did them.

Tom watched the whole event outside, it was too pure, too innocent, "It's been so long since I feel this heartwarming in this wasteland." he thought, and couldn't help but felt a little jealous at Chalk for he just got hugged by one of the cutest thing he ever met.

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It was twelve in the night, the ponies and Chalk have fell into a deep sleep. And for Tom, he was sitting at the trailer entrance, having some deep thought.

"Why did I have so many fragmental flashbacks for all of a sudden... I simply can't recall a lot of things before Benny." Tom then looked inside the trailer, at the cuddling ponies. "Applejack did reminded me of ma, and Fluttershy..." Tom had a blurry image in his head, an image of a woman, her blonde long hair, her beautiful face.

"Jane..."

They were a happy family living a small village in California, NCR territory, they do farming for a living. They worked from day to night, whenever there's trouble, they will be with each other. The only thing that was making their life challenging, was the NCR. Things were fine for a while, but in one unfortunate year, the drought struck the region, so the residents there won't able to pay any taxes to the NCR. The officials said it was okay, they could pay it when they could.

Beside being a farmer, Tom still had to do some hunting for his people, before he went hunting, as usual, Jane took him aside, "Be safe out there." and gave him a hug and a kiss.

"Well, I am not dead yet, am I?" Tom replied, giving her a little chuckle. Jane gave back a sunny smile, and waved goodbye to her beloved husband.

After a long day of hunting, he returned to his village with pride for he hunted a few radrabbits and a fully-grown radstag. When his village was insight, he dropped the radstag and everything he got for he was stunned by what he saw. His village was a total wreck, then he heard someone crying, he went to investigate with a hunting rifle in his grip, only to find one of his female neighbor crying over her dead husband who was severely injured. "What happened!" Tom asked.

"Deathclaws..." the woman cried. "The NCR soldiers were no where to be found, none of us could stop them, so those monsters slaughtered anyone they found."

Tom dropped his rifle, and rushed to his home, on his way, he saw the aftermath of the slaughter, survivors cried over their deceased comrades, when he reached his home, the door was ripped of from the frame, "No... no... Jane!!!"

Tom ran toward Jane, who laid in a pool of blood. Blood flowed out from the three big holes, pierced by the Deathclaw. There was nothing he could do, she was already gone. He knelt down next to her, despite knowing her fate, "Jane! Jane!" he shouted. He felt weak, fell onto her body, and started crying his eyes out.

"Don't leave me like this..."

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Back to reality, by the time Tom was in his middle of his flashback, he started sobbing, and this woke up the others. When Chalk was about to tap on Tom's shoulder to ask him what's wrong, only to be stopped by a hoof, and looked confused at the source of action, Applejack. Applejack simply shook her head, put her hoof next to her ear, telling Chalk to listen. Chalk was still confused, but he complied.

"Jane..."

The trio was surprised when they heard the word, "Is that a name? Jane?" Applejack thought. "Who may that name belong to?"

Tom suddenly stood up, "No... no..." he weakly walked forward.

The trio began to worry about Tom, especially Fluttershy. She somehow felt his pain, and was heartbroken. She couldn't watch any longer. She gave Applejack an empathy look, hoping to gain approval from Applejack. Applejack sighed, and nodded her head. Fluttershy stood up and walked towards Tom, but when she was about to tap her hoof on Tom, he fell down to his knees, and then to the ground.

"Don't leave me like this..."

Chalk rushed towards Tom, and carried him to the sleeping bag. He noticed he was still breathing, then let out a relieving sigh. "He just fell unconscious, let him rest."

"Phew, that's good ta hear." Applejack said.

"We should have just waken him before that... I felt awful..." Fluttershy sat beside Tom, gently petting his head.

"Ah know... But it will be hard to get him to talk about his problem, that was our key, Fluttershy." Applejack tried to explain her intention.

"You girls go to sleep now, I will make sure you're safe." Chalk said and left the trailer.

"Be safe out there, Chalk." Applejack said and sat down next to Fluttershy.

Applejack looked at the unconscious Tom and towards Fluttershy, a sense of regret struck her, "Ah'm sorry, Flutters, ah just-" Applejack tried to apologize, but was stopped by a hoof on her mouth.

"I understand... Let's just keep this to ourselves for now. You know what I mean?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah, you're right... Goodnight, Flutters."

"Goodnight, AJ."

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Tom woke up from his slumber, it was still pretty early in the morning, his head aching like hell, "God... What happened last night?" he thought. Then he recalled the whole event, he once again felt heartbroken. "Jane..." He then noticed the sleeping ponies besides him, the cuteness made Tom cracked a smile, he couldn't help himself but petted the ponies' head. Both ponies looked comfortable enough to give out a pleasant smile.

Moments later, Applejack was the first to open her eyes, and let out a yawn, "Morning, partner." she said tiding up her mane.

"Morning, Applejack. And morning to you too, Fluttershy." Tom stood up and stretched his back. "You girls seen Chalk?"

"Nope, he went on patrol last night, after...ugh..." Applejack found it hard to finish this.

"I fainted..." Tom said with a depressed tone. "I assume that you saw everything?" he said. Applejack and Fluttershy looked rather concerned, nervous.

"It's alright..." Tom tried not to worry them too much. "Since the day I met you, I started having flashbacks back before Benny put a lead in my head."

"Do ya mind telling us about those flashbacks?" Applejack asked.

"You don't need to if that makes you uncomfortable..." Fluttershy added.

"Let's just say, you both reminded me two important people of my life, we'll talk about more more of this later." Tom reached into his backpack and grabbed a can of cram. "Let's have some breakfast while waiting for Chalk."

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Tom looked at his Pip-boy, an hour has passed, but Chalk still hadn't show up. The trio started to worry.

"Something ain't right..." Tom walked out the trailer with his revolver in his hand, "I'm going to find Chalk, you in?"

"Of course," - Applejack put her hoof on her chest - "Chalk's our friend, and friends always look out for each other!"

Fluttershy nodded, trying to look confident, but both Tom and Applejack could still noticed her nervousness from her expression.

Applejack gave Fluttershy a small hug, "Don't worry, sugarcube. It will be alright." she comforted Fluttershy.

With that comfort, Fluttershy let out a small smile, "Let's go find our friend."

Tom couldn't help himself but let out a smile, "Time's off the essence, let's go!" he said.

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When the trio crossed the wooden bridge, pointed out that the General Store and Ranger Station were not far to the right, but Fluttershy appeared to hear something. Something was crying, and she pointed out to the other, despite they didn't heard anything.

Fluttershy slowly approached the source of the sound, the view made the three gasped. it was two rad rats, and one of them was severely wounded.

Fluttershy ran towards the wounded rat, took out her medical supplies, "Let me help you." trying to stop the bleeding .

"Who are you, and what are you doing to my husband?" the other rat asked.

"We're here to help." Fluttershy answered and kept adding pressure on the wound.

"[Guns] Bad news, a 12.7mm bullet wounds." Tom analyzed and took out a syringe and injected something into the wounded rat. "And the good news is that the bullet didn't seem to hurt his vital organs. One advantage of being irradiated creature, you're more resistant than anyone else."

"So, can it be saved?" asked Applejack.

"[Medicine] I eased its pain with some Med-X. After Fluttershy stops the bleeding, we still need to take out the bullets if we want it to recover." Tom replied. "Unfortunately, I don't know how to operate a surgery."

"I know a bit of medical skills, but I don't know anything surgical, either." Fluttershy said, wrapping bandages around the rat's body, covering the wound. She turned towards the female rat, "He's gonna be okay, for now..."

"Oh... thank you so much." the female rat said, holding Fluttershy's hoof.

"So... do you know what happened?" Fluttershy asked.

"I don't really know... My husband went out to find food for our family. And then I heard a loud and scary noise, when I went out to investigate... I saw three humans, one with strange objects on its head, like your friends there. And it seemed like it was being chased by the other two humans that didn't have strange object on their heads." Upon hearing this, Fluttershy's face turned pale, "They ran over that way..."she pointed towards the direction where the cave was, "And then, my husband..." the female rat couldn't help but start crying.

"It's alright, your husband can be saved, but we have to find someone who can help." Fluttershy comforted her with a few pat on her head, despite feeling terrified by the info. "Do you know what we can find there?"

"There is a cave over there." the rat answered.

Fluttershy told Tom and Applejack what the rat witnessed from head to toe, "I think the one with a hat might be Chalk!" she said.

"He was probably chased by the White Legs. We have to help him!" Applejack said.

"Indeed, but first, I have to find somewhere safe for you two and the rats to stay." Tom said calmly.

"What!?" Applejack was shocked, "Chalk is 'OUR' friend, and 'WE' are going to save him!"

"I know... but no." Tom replied. "This rescue mission is too risky, and I can't put you two in danger."

"Ah don't mind any danger, if ah am saving my friend!" Applejack refuted.

"You're being to stubborn..." Tom started getting irritated.

"Yes, ah'm being stubborn, but ah don't care! I will come with ya no m-"

Fluttershy put her hoof one Applejack's shoulder, "Applejack, please. Calm down..." she tried to intervene.

"Calm down?" Applejack pushed Fluttershy away , "Our friend is in great danger, Fluttershy. And you're telling me to calm down!?" Applejack had lost her mind.

Fluttershy fell to the ground and couldn't help but started sobbing.

Tom finally lost his patience."That's enough!" he shouted. "Can't you see what you've done?" he pointed at the crying Fluttershy.

Applejack looked at the crying Fluttershy, realized what she had done, she then looked at her hooves, a sense of guilt struck her hard. She felt weak, tears started to drop, "What have...what have ah done..."

Tom sighed, and knelt beside Applejack, "I know you care about Chalk. But, you're suppose to protect Fluttershy. Not throwing yourself into danger, and expose your other friend to danger."

"But..."

"Chalk got into danger because of me, and I'm going to fix it." Tom wiped the tears off Applejack's cheek, "You just have to trust me, okay?"

Applejack nodded.

"Now," Tom stood up. "I'm going to find you two a shelter. And Applejack..." Tom stopped.

Applejack just stared at him.

"You know what you have to do..."

Applejack stood up and ran toward Fluttershy, not caring that her hat had fallen off, and gave her a big hug, "Fluttershy! Ah... ah'm so sorry..." she couldn't hold her tears anymore.

Fluttershy simply hugged back, still crying.

Tom looked at the scene and feel sorry, but also happy for them. They weren't suppose to be here, good friends didn't deserve this. But, this proofed that their friendship...

Was real, and strong.

Author's Note:

Finally, after a year,I finished this chapter. Sorry to keep you guys waiting. My deepest apology. Constructive criticisms are welcomed.

Next chapter, I hope it will be the end of the Treasure Hunt. I don't know when will it be published, but I will do my best.