Honest Hearts

by YuCheng Huang

Chapter 11 - Treasure Hunters Pt.3

After a few minutes, Applejack and Fluttershy had calmed down, Tom handed over Applejack's hat, "You both ready?" he asked.

Applejack patted the dust dirt of her hat, "Yeah, ah'm ready." she turned to Fluttershy. "Ya ready sugarcube?" she asked as she put on her hat .

Fluttershy wiped out the rest of her tears, "I'm ready." she turned to Tom. "What's the plan?"

"We need to find a shelter for all of you first." Tom started to ponder. Moments later, he came out of something, "The rats must be familiar to this area, maybe ask... umm..." Tom didn't know how to call the rat, and didn't want to do anything embarrassing.

"Her." Fluttershy chuckled.

Tom let out a relief sigh, "Thank you. Asked her is there any shelter around here."

Fluttershy sit next to the rats, "Mrs.Rat, is there any shelter around here?" she asked.

"Yes, you can come to our place if you want. And dear, you can call me Pixie." the rat replied. "And this is my husband, Chip."

"Nice to meet you Pixie." Fluttershy smiled warmly, "Oh! I haven't introduce ourselve yet. I'm Fluttershy." she pointed at Applejack, "That's Applejack." and pointed at Tom, "And that's Tom."

"Can you help me carry my husband home?" Pixie asked.

"Of course." Fluttershy tried to put Mike on her back, but unlike the rats back in Equestria that were easy to carry around. But Chip was quite heavy for her.

Applejack and Tom noticed the problem, and Tom didn't think twice to lend her his hands, "Please, let me help." and he picked Chip up. "It's heavier than I thought." he thought, for this is the first time he carried a rad rat like this.

"Thank you so much. It's not far from here. Please, follow me." Pixie went up the hill, with the trio followed behind.

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Up the hill, everyone noticed that there's a wooden structure no far away. When they reach the front porch, Tom noticed that this was the General Store, where there were supposed to be.

"Well here we are. Our lovely home." Pixie said.

Noticed that the rats weren't suppose to open the door by themselves, "I'll open the door." Tom said, turned the door knob with his one free hand. "How did they enter these places?"

Upon opening the door, the trio noticed that there were not only two smaller rats in there, but also a giant mole rat, and a giant mantis corpse in the corner. The mole rat was as big as the ponies, and it had a scar on its back. The radiated critters saw the strangers, they all hid behind the giant mole rat, shivering with fear.

"Great, first the giant green bugs, and now we got a human?" the giant mole rat muttered, not noticing that Pixie was with them. "We do not welcome strangers here!"

Tom raised his hands in front of his chest, "Woah, woah! I mean no harm to you." he said, before he realized he was trying to communicate with a aggroed mole rat.

"Don't worry, Chump." Pixie moved towards the giant mole rat, "Chip was horribly injured, but this human and his friends helped him."

"Ok, but why do you bring them here?" Chump was frustrated.

"They're looking for shelter, Chump. Can't you just let them stay for a while, they're still trying to heal my husband." Pixie pleaded.

"We have already encounter one big trouble, we can't afford another trouble." Chump scolded Pixie.

Fluttershy heard their little argument, and she wanted to figure it out, "Excuse me, but what kind of trouble are you talking about?" she asked Chump.

"Why do you care?" Chump replied.

Pixie pushed Chump away, "My apologies, Miss Fluttershy. Chump is a bit mean outside, but he is a giant softie inside. He just wanted to protect us. You know what I mean?"

"I understood, Ms.Pixie." Fluttershy gave Chump a sympathy look. "But do you happen to know what the trouble is?" she asked.

"We used to live in another place up this hill, but one day. Bark scorpions invaded, and we were forced to escape our old home." Pixie explained.

"Those Damn Scorpions!" Chump angrily stomped on the floor, after that, tears came out of his eye sockets.

Pixie sighed, "Chump's wife didn't make it." and shook her head.

Fluttershy gasped. "I'm so sorry Mr.Chump, I don't m-"

"Please, just let leave me alone right now..." Chump interrupted.

Pixie decided to continue the story, "And when we came here, we don't know that we got a giant green bug right here." she pointed at the giant mantis corpse in the corner. "So, Chump and Chip fought the giant bug and managed to beat it, he got that scar during the fight."

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Meanwhile, Tom asked Applejack if she could find three more Li'l Scout Lunch Boxes for him, he already found two of them on the counter, he picked up the silenced .22 pistol next to them and stored it in his inventory.He walked behind the counter, he found the store key in the cash register, then spotted a Zion themed snow globe on the shelf behind the counter, he picked it up even though no one else was going to purchase it after the death of Mr.House. Suddenly, he had a feeling that his inventory just got a bit heavier for some reason, despite hadn't store the snow globe, so he just shrugged it off. He showed the lunch boxes to AJ, and asked her if she could find three more for him.

"Alright, ah'll try to find these lunch boxes..."

"Fluttershy, can you come here for a moment?" Tom waved at her. "We three need to discuss two things..."

"I'll be right back." Fluttershy said to the rodents, and trotted towards Tom.

"Before I go out and find Chalk, we need to establish something. First of all, are you two able to unlock this door?" Tom said as he locked the store's front door.

Both ponies watched how Tom locked the door, looked at their front hooves, looked at each other with a awkward face, then back looking at Tom, showing their front hooves to Tom.

Tom sighed, "Well, I'll leave it locked anyway. I have the key of the store." he showed the ponies the key. "Fluttershy?"

"Yes?"

"When I left, if any emergency happens, the rats must know some way out of here."

"O...ok..." Fluttershy didn't like what kind of emergency was going to happen.

"Now, we need a safety code, any suggestions?"

"Apple Bloom..." Applejack answered in a instant.

"Hmm, not a common word, and it's not that hard to memorize." Tom then saw sorrow on AJ's face. "What's the matter?"

"My little sis, her name is Apple Bloom." AJ covered her face with her stetson. "I... I miss her. I miss everypony."

"I know..." Fluttershy embraced Applejack, and started sobbing. "I miss them too."

Tom noticed that and even though he knew time was at essence, but he still knelt down next to them, and embraced both of them.

Half of a minute had passed, and the ponies have calmed down. Tom put his hand on Flutter's cheeks, then played a little with Applejack's hat.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure to come back with Chalk in one piece. And I'll do my best to send you home." he then stood up and turned to the exit. "I'll be on my way looking for Chalk then, stay low before I return."

Both ponies blushed, Fluttershy hid herself behind her mane, and Applejack gave a light chuckle.

"And Tom..." Tom turned to AJ. "Be safe out there."

"And you too." Tom tipped his hat, and left the store.

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Tom returned to the spot where they found the rats, and followed the direction where the rat gave them. Not far away, he found tons of bullet casings on the ground, bullet holes on some trees, and a trail of blood. Couldn't tell if it's the leftover from the fight between Chalk and the White Legs, since it happened probably hours ago. Just a few meters away, he found a dead White Leg mongrel. The body was cold, but still fresh, and he noticed something. The mongrel's teeth were bloody, this could mean that Chalk might be bitten by this mutt, and was killed afterward. He was getting closer, he could feel it, so he started sneaking forward. And he was correct, he spotted a figure walking back and forth at a specific location, probably guarding something. Tom hid behind a rock, took out his binocular, and confirmed that it's a White Legs tribal.

"Something is not right..." he thought but didn't bother to check, didn't notice that someone had snuck beside him and looked at the same direction as his.

"What are you looking at?"

"Gahhhh!!!" Tom screamed and jumped, this got the White Legs attention, and started firing his machine gun at his location.

Tom and the stranger took cover, Tom unholstered his revolver (Mysterious Stranger jingle) while looking at the person that caused this problem. A caucasian male wearing a suit of combat armor, a park ranger hat. "Who the fuck are you!?" he asked.

"I'm Park Ranger Zach." he said with a silly tone."Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Tom. We can chat later." Tom said, and the firing suddenly stopped. He assumed that the tribal's mag had ran out, so he leapt, channeled VATS, time seemed to slow down. Head shot chance was lower than 30%, so decided to go for two torso shots and one head shot, the first two shots landed right on the tribal's stomach, even it was not vital, but the impact still made him lost balance. Then Tom did a unnecessary roll, and he let out the third shot.

It missed... This gave the tribal a chance to have a last stand.

"Fuck!" Tom whispered.

In a blink moment, before the tribal could fire, a combat knife dashed across the air, and stabbed into the tribal's skull, an instant kill.

Tom was amazed and turned back to see Zach still in his throwing stance. He might be an idiot, but he sure was a good fighter. "Much oblige, Zach." he retrieved the knife for Zach. "Here."

"I've never seen you before. You're not from here, aren't you?" Zach asked, still have that idiotic tone. Tom was pondering whether he was pretending to be like this.

"Yeah, I came with a caravan from the Mojave." Tom answered, started feeling nervous. "I really have to go now..."

Before Tom could leave, Zach grabbed his wrist, "I find you guilty on intruding this national park." Zach said angrily. "The punishment is to be lock with Park Ranger Zach for four hours!"

"Wait WHAT!?" Tom couldn't believe what was happening. This guy was not just an idiot, but also insane. "I don't have time for this!" and started trying to get rid of Zach.

"Stop resisting!" Zach was strong enough to get Tom into position that he could suffocate him.

Tom couldn't believe it, one of his friend's life was at stake, and the other two couldn't survive in this God forsakken wasteland without his help, but he was gonna get choke to death by an idiot as strong as a Super Mutant. Vision began to blur, and it was getting hard to breath.

Before fallen into unconsciousness, again, Tom merely saw another figure ran towards him.

"Zach, STOP!!!"

Author's Note:

Let's see how much people recognize this Zach and the other figure were. They're from "Mikeburnfire". And I have to apologize, this is not the end of the Treasure Hunters. I really want to finish this story, but I haven't been able to find balance between College, writing this story and other leisures. Everytime I have inspirations, it's already late, and I can't sleep with all these thoughts in my head. Still, constructive criticisms are welcomed.

Comments

[Speedy Silverstreak]

I IMMEDIATELY recognize Ranger Zach and the mysterious figure.

My only question is if they join Tom will he get the special perk that comes with them?

(Hint: 150)

[YuCheng Huang]

11207892
Maybe, there's only one reference for their perk though, so I'm still planning on it.

[Crystonian]

hmm yes, Park Ranger Zach. This is gonna be fun!

[Speedy Silverstreak]

11207916
Yayyy

[YuCheng Huang]

11329351
I appreciate the corrections/critisms, I will try not to make these mistakes in the future.