• Published 13th Sep 2012
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Bear, Scribe and Paladin - Speven Dillberg



The Courier takes the Lone Wanderer and a former Brotherhood Scribe to Equestria

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02: Introductions

Project Purity, late 2277

Dominica breathed heavily as she looked at what was left of Colonel Augustus Autumn, the man responsible for the death of her father. She kicked the pile of ash he had been reduced to, not sure how to feel. She had expected to feel some joy, some vindication, anything, but there was nothing.

She was shaken from her thoughts by Sentinel Lyons tapping her on the shoulder. “There’ll be time for that later. Let’s secure the room.” Not that there was much left to secure. Apart from Autumn, there had only been two Enclave soldiers with him, and one had been decapitated by her Metal Blaster. The other was still smouldering from Sergeant RL-3’s Flamer, his leg in Dogmeat’s mouth.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Dom asked, looking into the purifier’s control room.

“One of us is going to have to go in there and turn the damned thing on. And whoever does it isn’t coming back out.” The Sentinel said that in such a way that it was clear that she hated it.

Dom paused before shoving the rifle towards the power armoured woman. “Hold onto this for me.”

“Dom, are you sure? You won’t have much time.”

“This is my father’s work. It’s only right that I finish what he started.” She kneeled and grabbed Dogmeat’s head with her hands. "I think it's time for us to say goodbye, old buddy. Take care of yourself, okay?" she said, ruffling his ears gently. Her companion, the one true constant since running into him in the Scrapyard, whined sadly and licked her. She turned to the Mister Gutsy, his green paint scratched and scorched. “Sergeant, I guess this is goodbye.”

“It’s been an honour serving with you, ma’am,” the robot replied.

With those words, Dominica took a deep breath and stepped inside the chamber.

She ignored the ticking of her Pip-Boy and the sound of the airlock closing. She passed by the Auxiliary Filtration Input system and stood in front of the number pad that would activate the purifier.

She stared at it blankly for a few precious moments before realising she still didn’t know what the code to start it was. “Fuck!” she yelled as she thought hard.

The purpose of Project Purity was to give clean, fresh water to the Wasteland, a fountain of new life that would - she smiled. Of course, she thought. It’s so obvious.

“I am Alpha and Omega,” she said as she pushed the ‘2’, “the beginning and the end.” She pressed the ‘1’. “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” She pressed the ‘6’ and watched as the water within began to clear, revealing a statue. She breathed a sigh of relief before doubling over.

She made her way shakily to the airlock, leaning against it as her sense of balance abandoned her. She looked through it to see Sentinel Lyons, looking at her sadly. Dominica gave her a shaky smile and a thumbs-up before slumping against the glass. The Sentinel could only watch as the red-haired girl from Vault 101, wearing nothing more than a set of combat armour given to her as a gift, began to die.


Veronica looked at Thomas. “I’m betting he did something to deserve that.”

Dom rolled her eyes. “One-night stand,” she answered, kicking the man for good measure. “You’re an idiot.”

“Wait, a one-night stand?” the power armoured woman asked. “But that means...” She looked between the man who had given her somewhere to stay for the past seven months, and the winged horse that had just smacked him in the face. “Ewww! What is wrong with you, Thomas?”

Luna and Thomas ignored them. “Two months! Two whole months it has been! And now, you have the gall to just show up and act as though nothing happened!”

“Luna, I’b sorry, okay?” Thomas pleaded. “I’b terrible at ebotional stuff. I - ”

“That is not what I am upset about!” she yelled. She stomped closer and glared at him with the intensity of a nuclear blast. “You know what this is about, Thomas.” As she spoke clouds seemed to gather and the sky darkened.

“Anyone else notice that?” Veronica asked as she slowly backed away, eyeing the black clouds uneasily.

“They definitely weren’t there a second ago...” Dom muttered, taking a few steps back.

“Laying with me and leaving without even talking about it I can deal with, but returning with a number of females - ”

“Wait, what?” Thomas stood up, still clutching his face.

“You think I slept with him?” Veronica asked, pointing a finger at the man. “No! Just... no!”

“How does she know we’re women?” Dom whispered. “I mean, you’re in that armour, and, well...”

“It’s in the way you carry yourself.” Luna replied, turning to the pair. She hastily stepped back when she caught sight of Dom’s face, eyes wide from shock.

“What’s the matter, never seen a ghoul before?” she asked.

“Obviously,” Luna replied curtly. “Thomas did tell me, but I still wasn’t sure what to expect.”

Their conversation was cut off by the sound of thundering hooves, signalling the arrival of the guard. Three ponies, their coats completely obscured by the golden metal of their full-body armour, skidded to a halt five feet from the group. “Your highness, we saw - you!” the leader exclaimed, looking at Thomas, still clutching his nose.

“Hello Shining,” he muttered, pulling his hand away from his face.

“Who are - ARGH!” he exclaimed, levelling his horn at Dom. “What is that!?”

“If you call me a zombie, a shuffler, a brain-muncher, a walking corpse, or anything else that alludes to me being undead, I will hit you,” she declared, hefting up the Auto-Axe threateningly and pulling the ripcord, making the piece of machinery emit a sound somewhere between a growl and a whine. “Hard.”

“Holy crap!” Veronica exclaimed. “Are those unicorns in power armour?”

“Technically, it’s not power armour,” Thomas explained, wiping his bloody hands on his pants. “So, back on duty?”

“How can you make small-talk with that... thing standing there?” Shining asked. Behind him, the other Knights were backing away slowly.

“Firstly, I am Dominica Esposito, Paladin of the East Coast Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel,” she exclaimed angrily, her voice gravelly and yet carrying a feminine lilt. “Secondly, I will not take any shit about me being a ghoul, I get enough of that back home.”

“Dom, put that thing down,” Thomas said, waving his hand at the Auto-Axe. “Shining, point that somewhere else.”

“Stand down, Knight-Commander,” Luna said. “I’m sure she means no harm, and I am sure I can handle myself should she turn hostile.”

Shining Armor took a more relaxed posture, though his gaze remained fixed on the ghoul. Dom set down the Auto-Axe, and began to roll her shoulders. “What are you?” he asked, trying and failing to keep his voice civil.

“A ghoul,” she answered, leaning down to turn off the machine. “It’s what happens when a human absorbs an ungodly amount of radiation and doesn’t have the good fortune to die.” She paused, bringing her hand to her chin and rubbing it. “Or is it the good fortune to not die? Either way.”

Shining took of his helmet to show just rightly shocked he was. He gawked at Thomas. “That’s what we nearly did to you?”

“A fate worse than death,” he replied, ignoring the glare Dom shot at him. His expression became a puzzled one when he looked at Shining’s face. “Where’d that scar come from?”


Knight-Commander Shining Armor led the three humans through the castle to the dining room. Through some good fortune they had managed to appear close to breakfast, and Celestia had been alerted of their coming.

“Geez, I knew you were friends with royalty, but this...” Veronica said, waving her hand around. She had taken her helmet off and was looking around in awe. “This is amazing.” She had been relegated to ‘pack mule’, carrying the large, heavy duffle bag Dominica had brought with her.

“You got that right,” Dom replied, flipping the oversized pauldron on her left shoulder up. “It’s like something from a storybook.”

Members of the Guard, from both the Day and Night regiments, backed away cautiously from the group. Part of it was their impressive armaments, part of it was the imposing form of the T-51b, but most of it was Dominica. Given that she looked like a walking armoured corpse, their response was justified, if not particularly welcome.

Dominica pulled a microfusion cell out of the pauldron and tapped Veronica on the shoulder with it. “Gimme another MF cell, would ya?”

“Hm? Oh, sure.” She opened the duffle bag as they walked and gawked when she saw the contents. “Holy crap, how much stuff do you have in here?”

“Just give me the MF cell,” Dominica repeated impatiently. Her left arm had gone limp, and she seemed to have some trouble balancing. Veronica passed one of the bright yellow batteries to her, which was quickly inserted into the pauldron. It went back down, and a small whining that quickly left audible range sounded. “Thanks.”

“At least you didn’t tear out the servos,” Veronica said. “How long does one of those cells last, anyway?”

“About two weeks.” The ghoul clipped it on properly and wriggled her arm. “And it powers more than just a few servos.”

Before Veronica could ask what she meant, Shining brought the small procession a halt. “Before we enter the dining room, I have to ask that you leave your weapons here. After your last visit, the princess wants no possible incidents.”

Dom set down the Auto-Axe and pulled her Metal Blaster off her back. As she unstrapped the holster that housed the plasma pistol, she turned to the unicorn. “And just what kind of ‘incidents’ are we talking about here?”

“Well, Princess Luna nearly injured herself with one of Thomas’ weapons.”

“She was pointing it at her face, she would have died,” Thomas retorted.

“If you really think the princesses can be killed that easily, then think again,” Shining snorted. “It’ll take a lot more than a bit of lead to bring one of them down permanently.” With those words, the doors were opened that the small procession entered.

Sitting at the head of the table was Princess Celestia, looking as resplendent as she always had. She smiled serenely at them, though her expression quickly became one of horror and revulsion when she laid eyes on Dominica. She responded with a roll of her eyes and a huff. “Great, a bigot,” she muttered

“Commander, explain why you’ve brought that - ” That was all that could be said before Dominica interrupted.

“I don’t care that you run a country. I don’t care that you have ungodly power. I will not sit here and listen to you insult me based on my appearance!” she yelled, taking steps forward. “I did not lose my father, my innocence and my humanity to take any kind of shit from a talking god horse!”

The silence that followed was one that could be felt. Shining Armor, along with every other guard, noble and servant in the room, just stared dumbly at Dominica. Not all of them had understood what she had said, but the general tone was more than enough to convey the message. In the background Thomas facepalmed while Veronica just stood there, jaw hanging open in shock.

Most shocked of them all was Celestia. The only ones who had ever talked to her like that had been her parents and her sister. To have someone just... But they had been right. To judge one on nothing more than appearance was impolite, to say the least. “Forgive me,” Celestia said, bowing her head. “You are right, it is not right of me base my reactions on appearances.”

Dominica blinked. “Wait, really?”

As if at the behest of some cosmic puppeteer, every single noble in the room stood up at almost the same time and made for the exit. This meant getting uncomfortably close to the group of dusty cross-dimensional travellers, which only made them speed up. Thirty seconds after Celestia’s apology, there was only her, a number of servants, the guard and the three humans.

“Would you like some tea?” the princess asked, not seeming to care about the behaviour she had just witnessed.


Author’s Notes:

That’s my explanation for the absurd amount of ammo you can carry around in Fallout 3.

Anything to do with Season 3 is to be completely ignored for the sake of this story. That includes any and all things to do with the Crystal Empire. Just consider this a separate universe.

Also, fuck adding the colours. Takes too much fucking effort.

Why Dominica? Blame Urdeth, he gave me a male name and the Wanderer was ended up female.