Chapter 1

Edited by the Awesome TacoTown

Chapter 1

I'm Never Getting Drunk Again...well at Least until tomorrow anyways

Ethan groaned as he rubbed his face.

“Good god, what did I do last night?” He asked as dull sunlight assaulted his eyes. His head felt like there was a super mutant with a super sledge pounding against the inside of his head in an attempt to get out. Once he’d finally managed to open his eyes he found that he’d been sleeping against the side of a tall grey building. Brown wasteland stretched out in all directions.

“Of all the places in the fucking wasteland to take a nap, I had to pick here?” He asked with a sigh. “I’m lucky no one tried to rob me; then again, if they did it wouldn’t have ended well for them. Come on drunk me. Get it together...” He berated himself.

The surroundings were familiar to Ethan; the same type of grey building, the same cracked concrete and asphalt, the same brown fucking wasteland that he’d been living in for the last ten goddamned years. The place never changed. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The people changed and made things better, but the scenery itself almost never changed. Ethan ran a hand through his light brown hair as his blue eyes finished their observations. His dull red leather duster rippled slightly as he got to his combat boot covered feet and dusted off the Riley’s Ranger Combat Armor that he wore beneath the duster.

His favorite pistol, a scoped .44 magnum that he’d gotten from Agatha, rested at his hip and as always, at least eighty rounds of ammo were spread out inside the multitude of pockets that covered his duster. His Chinese shock sword also hung at his side in its sheath, and as always, it’s comforting weight put his mind at ease. A half dozen stimpacks, which he didn’t use much anymore but kept around in case of emergencies, were also easily obtainable from his pockets. Finally, his hands found the large pouch loaded with ten thousand bottle caps that constituted his walking around money these days. After assuring himself that he had everything he needed, he checked his Pip-Boy.

He scrolled through his medical status which looked normal; his inventory screen showed that he was indeed carrying just what he’d thought he was. The weird thing however was that the map function seemed to be broken. Instead of its usual display of the Capital Wasteland it showed an entirely new land, and the map was blank besides two words. Equestrian Wasteland.

“Great, my pipboy, which is guaranteed to never break, has broken. Fucking perfect.” He swore. “I’ll have to get Moria to mess with-” Ethan began but he was cut off by a loud and angry female scream. “-duty calls I guess.” He said with a shrug and began to make his way in the direction of the scream; his magnum was already out and loaded.

He walked around the building to the side where the scream had come from and found something that he found extremely odd. Instead of the woman that he’d been expecting he instead found a small horse with a horn. She was being held clearly against her will by another horse with a horn, who was holding something that looked to be 12.7mm pistol in an odd glowing grip. The pistol was held against the mare’s head and she was struggling roughly, easily telling Ethan all that he need to know. Neither had seen him yet.

“Get the hell off me you asshole!” The mare shouted as she attempted to punch the raider in the face.

“First I’m going to rape you, then I’m going to eat you piece by piece, and then I’m going to kill you!” The stallion said in a loud yet hushed tone. That was what did it, Ethan burst out laughing.

“Really? That’s the best you can do?” Ethan asked sarcastically with a chuckle. “I’ve heard better threats from goddamned children; you should be ashamed of yourself!” Ethan told the stallion.

“You’re next me-” The stallion shouted before he turned around to face Ethan, the threat died on his lips as he saw who it was that he was talking to. “What-who-wa?” The stallion sputtered.

“The name’s Ethan Smith, asshole; and you’re dead. So I’m not sure why I’m bothering to tell you that.” Ethan replied as a bullet shot out of his magnum and slammed into the raider’s head, causing it to explode in a shower of gore.

The mare turned to look at her savior, and then jumped in surprise as she saw the unfamiliar creature who was still pointing a gun in her general direction. Then, the pistol suddenly shot into the air and fired eight times directly into Ethan’s chest. The armor that he wore absorbed the majority of the bullets, but one or two broke through and Ethan felt the familiar searing pain that always accompanied bullets. Instead of falling down and dying or at least having the good decency to flinch, Ethan rolled his eyes.

“Would you please stop shooting me miss? I just saved you from being raped, and eaten, and killed, hopefully not in that order, so the least you could do is not shoot me.” Ethan asked her politely. The mare stopped reloading and stared at him. “Well that’s a start I guess, so what’s your name?” Ethan asked.

“Holly…” The mare said in a confused voice.

“Well Miss Holly, like I said. My name’s Ethan Smith, aka the Lone Wanderer, but you can call me Ethan if you want. Of course, you could always call me that weird asshole and I can dig that too” Ethan told her with a chuckle as he put away his magnum. The mare let out an unexpected laugh, and Ethan gave her a large grin in return.

Most people would’ve been surprised to suddenly find themselves talking to a unicorn that could talk back. But Ethan had been kidnapped by aliens, tripped balls through a swamp while an asshole cut up his brain, and stormed his way through an entire army of simulated Chinese soldiers. Oh, and he’d talked to a tree, nothing really compares to all of that as far as weirdness goes. Not even talking unicorns.

Holly finished reloading the pistol and strapped it to the side of her heavily reinforced leather barding as she began to strip the corpse of the raider who’d been trying to rape/eat/kill her as she looked for ammo and anything of value. Her mane was a soft blue color, something between sky blue, and the color of the water in the bay around Project Purity. Her coat was green like the leaves of the trees where Harold grew, and Ethan found himself wondering how nature had possibly made her fur one color and her mane the other. Once she’d finished looting the corpse Holly turned back to Ethan and regarded him with green eyes that almost perfectly matched her coat.

“So Miss Holly, what are you doing out here by yourself in what’s obviously raider territory?” Ethan asked as he took a step closer to the mare.

“Scaving, I didn’t think that there were any raiders near this building. Oh and please, just call me Holly.” She told him with a sigh.

“Ah, so how’d you almost end up as a raider’s toy?” Ethan asked as he closed the gap between them and took a seat next to the mare.

“I was stupid and let my guard down.” She said with a scowl as she eyed the dead raider.

“Meh, it happens to the best of us.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“Yeah, but I’ve never had it happen to me before.” She told him with another scowl, he had the oddest feeling that this one was aimed more at herself then at anyone else.

“Well you’re alive, so there’s that.” Ethan told her encouragingly. The mare let out a sigh.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She said with a rueful shake of her head. “Look, I hate to ask, but would you mind helping me scav this building? I know that we just met, and that you’ll probably try and kill me the second that we get inside. But I’d like to avoid being ambushed again. Oh, and I’ll let you have your share of the loot when we’re done.” She asked him sounding slightly annoyed with herself for having to depend on him.

“Sure, I’ve got no idea where I am, or how I got here, but that stuff can wait till later. Not like I have a family to worry about.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“You’re in the Equestrian Wasteland, welcome to hell.” Holly replied darkly.

“Meh, I’ve seen worse.” Ethan told her with a chuckle that made Holly turn to stare at him for a second before shrugging beginning to walk back towards the entrance.

“So, would you mind telling me what the fuck you are?” She asked as Ethan joined her back on the main street.

“I’m a human, a good looking man to be specific.” Ethan told her with a chuckle. “So what are you?” He asked.

“I’m a unicorn.” She told him flatly.

“Well shit, and here I thought that they only existed in old comic books.” Ethan said with a chuckle.

“You don’t seem very concerned about it.” Holly told him absently as they rounded the corner of the building.

“Trust me Holly, I’ve been in much weirder situations then this.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“You must live an… interesting life.” Holly said.

“You’re damn right I do.” Ethan told her as they came to stand before the front door of the building.

Ethan looked at the three story, grey building in front of them; the letters MWT were broadly displayed across the front of it. His pipboy told him that the building was the Ministry of Wartime Technology hub 42. A familiar symbol made up of a pair of gears, bisected by a sword was located slightly underneath it the large acronym.

“I wonder why it has a Brotherhood symbol on it.” Ethan mused.

“I don’t know what the Brotherhood is, but that’s the symbol for the Ministry of Wartime Technology.” Holly told him as she walked towards the door. “It’s been abandoned for a few years now, and I think that there’s probably still some good tech inside.” Holly added.

“If it’s so big and easy to see out here in the middle of nowhere, then why do you think that there’s anything here?” Ethan asked curiously.

“Apparently there’s a defense system that randomly activated and killed everyone inside.” Holly said.

“Neat.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“I tell you that we’re going into an ancient ministry building that has a security system armed to kill anything short of a Steel Ranger, and your reaction is that it’s neat?” Holly asked him in surprise.

“Well you don’t earn a tittle like ‘That Crazy Son of a Bitch’ by letting robots intimidate you.” Ethan said with a chuckle before his foot shot out and slammed the door of the ministry building open. “I’m here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I’m all out of bubblegum so come on out you robotic fuck buckets!” He shouted, only to be greeted by complete silence from within. “Well that was a letdown, I was hoping for a sentry bot.” Ethan said with a frown.

“Are you crazy?!” Holly shouted. Ethan turned to her with a smirk. She glared at him and he just kept up his smirk as he walked into the main lobby. Half a dozen long dead ponies’ skeletons littered the ground, and Ethan saw the signs of lasers and plasma impacts covering the wall. A large circular desk with a computer terminal sat in the center of the room.

“Damn, you ponies sure know how to design destroyed lobbies, but I’d can’t say as much where the security system is concerned.” Ethan told her with a chuckle.

“You could’ve gotten us killed!” Holly shouted at him from just outside the door.

“Well I’d have taken the most of the incoming fire. Besides, it takes more than a few lasers and plasma to kill me, a lot more.” Ethan told her with another chuckle.

“Well I’m a normal pony and I really don’t like having my skin and fur burned off by magical lasers!” Holly told him in a tone of voice that was a combination of annoyance and a hint of fear.

“Oh relax, there’s nothing here.” Ethan said as he walked up to the desk and began to boot up the computer.

“That’s a really bad idea; you might trigger the security system.” Holly cautioned as she walked into the building.

“And that’s a problem how?” Ethan asked.

“It killed everypony here.” She replied flatly.

“I still don’t see the problem.” He told her without looking up from the screen. It took him around thirty seconds to hack the terminal. “Of all the passwords that they could’ve chosen, I wonder why it had to be fjords.” Ethan said with a roll of his eyes.

“I don’t know, now would you mind moving out of the chair so that the one who actually knows what we’re looking for here can search for it?” Holly asked in an irritated voice.

“Sure, have at it.” Ethan replied as he vacated the chair. Holly rolled her eyes and took the offered seat. “So what are we looking for in here anyways?” Ethan asked as he began to pick over the corpses for valuables.

“According to rumors there’s some kind of advanced tech on the top floor in a vault, all we have to do is get to it.” Holly replied without looking up from her data combing.

“A hundred caps says that we’ll be fighting the entire way there.” Ethan told her as he picked up an assault rifle from one of the corpses and began to run his fingers over the mechanism. “That’s odd.” He said.

“What?” Holly asked, an edge to her voice.

“The area around this gun’s trigger has teeth marks on it.” Ethan replied as he began to take the rifle apart so he could see how it worked.

“It’s because it’s made for non-unicorns, earth ponies and pegasi have to use their mouths.” Holly told him. “Ah! Got it!” She said.

“You know where we’re going?” Ethan asked.

“Yes, apparently the door to the top floor hasn’t been opened yet, that’s where we’re going.” She told him.

“Cool, let me go first.” Ethan said.

“Be my guest, the less fur I have to regrow the better.” She replied as she drew her pistol. Ethan quickly reassembled the assault rifle and strapped it to his back, it was surprisingly similar to the ones that he was used to besides the obvious mouth trigger thing, and drew his sword which hissed and sparked.

“What is that thing?” Holly asked.

“A sword that I got for running through a simulation, it does great against pretty much anything and the electricity makes it especially useful against robots and power armor.” Ethan explained with a smile as he twirled the sword around with his right hand. Holly backed up slightly to make sure that she was as far away from the spinning blade as possible. “So which door do we take?” Ethan asked as he looked between the three doors at the back of the room.

“The middle one, it should take us to the stairs. From there we go up to the second floor and then to the third one. We’ll have to go through the majority of the third floor and eventually we’ll come to a thick door with a security terminal. I’ve got a device that should be able to hack next to any computer but it only works once, so we’ll have to save it for that one.” Holly told him.

“Sounds way too easy.” Ethan said with a smirk.

“You think that it’s not going to work?” Holly asked as he kicked the door open.

“Oh no, I think your device will work perfectly. But I’m guessing that the third floor is full of giant killer robots.” Ethan replied smoothly.

“Yeah, you’re probably right, knowing the Wasteland.” Holly said with a scowl.

“Oh cheer up. They’re only murderous robots, nothing that I can’t handle.” Ethan told her lightly as they walked up the crumbling stairs to the second floor and then continued up to the third floor.

He kicked the door to the third floor open, and was immediately noticed by not one, not two, but three sentry bots shaped like ponies. They’d entered a grey hallway that had several doorways leading into it. Off to the left a desk was lying on its side. Of the robots, two had large miniguns protruding from their backs along with a missile launcher, while a third had what looked like a modified gatling laser instead of a minigun. They all turned to face Ethan, who smirked at them.

“Whelp, I’d recommend standing back now.” Ethan advised Holly who hadn’t even entered the room yet. Then, with a wild shout he ran at the nearest robot with his sword at the ready.

“Hostile detected, opening fire.” The robots said in unison as they unleashed their armaments on Ethan.

The heavy bullets smashed into his body, tearing through his duster and the combat armor beneath but the man didn’t seem to notice even as the front of his chest began to bleed more with every step. He reached the first robot and stabbed his sword straight into its chest, somehow disregarding the thick armor and causing a blinding flash of light as the robot shook in place. Then, Ethan pulled the sword out of the broken robot and charged the next one.

Holly meanwhile stared in open mouthed amazement as the wounds from the bullets healed before her eyes as Ethan made contact with the third robot and slashed through its neck, decapitating the robot in a single swift motion. Instead of continuing to stand there like an idiot Holly opened fire on the last bot with her 12.7mm, and unloaded an entire clip. The robot fell to the ground with a clunk.

“See, what did I tell you? Full of killer robots.” Ethan said with a chuckle as he began to dig into the robots’ backs for their power supplies and ammo. His chest had already healed completely and Holly found her eyes inexplicably drawn to it. “Like what you see?” Ethan asked with a smirk as he pried something that looked to him like an electron charge pack out of one of the bot’s arms. Holly just snorted at his suggestion.

“Let’s hope that these were the only ones up here.” She said giving one of the ruined bots a kick.

“They aren’t, there are at least eight or nine more in between us and where we need to go.” Ethan told her with a shrug.

“How do you know that?” Holly asked as Ethan pulled a missile out of the arm of the bot that he was taking apart.

“Pipboy.” Ethan replied as he held up the supercomputer on his wrist.

“They’re called pipbucks here.” Holly said with a shake of her head.

“Anyways, it can tell me how many enemies are on a floor, and I see at least eight dots moving around.” Ethan explained. “Oh, and it looks like they’re all coming this way. I’d find some cover if I were you.” He added with a nod towards an overturned desk lying a few feet away.

“And here I was hoping that I could just slip into the vault without being noticed.” Holly muttered under her breath.

“Where would the fun be in that?” Ethan asked, seemingly confused by her reluctance. Holly sighed; she had the oddest feeling that the second that she got out of the building with the loot that she’d point Ethan in the direction of the nearest town, and then take off towards the town in the opposite direction. If she didn’t he might get her killed.

The sound of the robots moving closer filled Ethan’s ears as their wheels squeaked across the tiled floor of the building. When the first bot entered the hallway Ethan’s magnum shot three times, easily dispatching the robot. They seemed to be slightly weaker than the standard issue sentry bot that inhabited the ruins of the Capital Wasteland. Ethan idly wondered how he’d get back home, but decided not to dwell on it. He’d find a way back, and if he didn’t then he’d make a home for himself here.

Four bots entered the corridor at the same time and unleashed a withering wall of lead and lasers that chewed up the floor and the walls as Ethan returned fire with his magnum. Then, time stopped around him as he entered VATS. Ethan had always wondered about VATS, did it truly stop time, or did it just enhance your senses so that everything seemed to stop. Regardless, it didn’t really matter at the moment. He took a second to pick his targets, and noticed that Holly was about to fire at one of the bots so he switched one of his targets for another. Then, time unfroze and his magnum fired six shots, three bullets went into one bot’s head, blowing it off of the black metal body, and the other three slammed into a second bot’s torso, tearing through it with ease.

From her more covered position behind the desk Holly’s 12.7 roared as it sent a trio of its own shots into faceplate of another of the bots causing its head to explode in a shower of machinery. Ethan took advantage of the lack of over whelming fire and charged forward, shock sword in one hand. He closed with the last bot who was just about to bring its missile launcher to focus on Holly, and cut the launcher off. Sparks and hot oil shot out from the damaged bot’s now useless appendage as Ethan’s sword slashed out and sank into its robotic skull with a satisfying screech.

“Nice shooting Holly.” Ethan said over his shoulder as he wiped a streak of oil off of his face with his duster sleeve, he was going to need to wash it. Dammit, he’d just washed it a day ago.

“Thanks.” The mare replied as she reloaded. “How many more are there?” She added. Ethan noticed that there was a trickle of blood flowing from a bullet wound in her shoulder. With a deft jab he injected a stimpack into her neck. “What the hell was that?!” She shouted at him.

“Relax, it’s just a stimpack. It’s what I used to use to heal wounds before I got mutated enough that they healed naturally.” Ethan told her reassuringly.

“Oh… we use healing potions for that.” Holly said after a moment of slightly embarrassed silence. “Umm, next time you want to inject something into me ask my permission first? I thought you’d just given me a shot of Med-X and that’s the last thing I need with my history.” She asked a little awkwardly.

“Sure, sorry. Where I’m from it’s the natural thing to do.” Ethan said with an apologetic shrug.

“It’s okay, just, like I said, warn me next time.” Holly told him before changing topic. “So how many are left?” She asked. Ethan took a quick look around.

“Three, same dance as last time. Actually, you get behind that door frame. I’m willing to bet that after having all of their buddies torn apart they’ll open with missiles.” Ethan told her.

“And you’ll just stand out here as they explode around you?” Holly asked sarcastically.

“Fuck no; I’m going to shoot the things out of the air as the leave the launcher.” Ethan replied with a grin.

“You know I’m not sure if you’re insane, or just really lucky.” Holly told him with a shake of her head.

“A little of column A, a little of column B.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “Honestly though, I’ve just been through so many firefights that things like this don’t even faze me anymore.” He added.

The sound of tires on tile alerted them to the fact that the bots were on the way. Holly stepped back into the doorway and leaned to the side so that only her head was peering out. Ethan stood in the middle of the hallway with the clear intention of attracting the most incoming fire. The bots entered the room from the very end of the hallway and opened the engagement with a salvo of missiles. Ethan grinned as time froze.

The missiles had just left their launchers and were angled right at him. Excellent. Time unfroze and his magnum roared once hitting the middle missile right on the nose. The missile exploded, along with the other two blowing the three sentry bots off of their wheels. Ethan finished them off with three quick shots. Then he went over to the destroyed bots and began to retrieve their ammo.

“You aren’t normal.” Holly told him as she came up behind him.

“Yeah, you could say that.” Ethan replied lightly as his hands came out of the bot’s body with a missile that he slipped into a specially reinforced part of his duster that he used to hold explosives. “By the way, do you want any of this stuff?” Ethan asked the mare.

“I’m not into heavy weapons, so you can keep it.” She replied with a slight shrug.

“Oh, I figured you’d want to sell them for caps. I mean, I’ve got ten thousand caps on me, and I can easily make that much in a few days once I know where a town that I can sell stuff to is. But you look a little poorer than me, no offence, so I thought that you’d want them.” Ethan said as he got to his feet.

“Te-ten thousand caps!?” Holly all but shouted.

“Yep, back home I had close to four hundred thousand. I mean, it’s not like there’s that much to spend it on, and I’m not a better so they just kind of accumulated over time until I had more than I could count. Seriously, I’ve got an entire room devoted to the damn things and it’s close to overflowing.” Ethan ranted. Holly just sat there in open mouthed amazement.

“You-you have that many caps?” She asked softly.

“Nope, well yes, but nope.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “I’ve got that many caps in my house, which is nowhere near here. Actually, I think I might have done something really stupid last night, and ended up in another plane of existence, so distance could be relative, but the point remains I have no way to get to them.” Ethan explained. Holly sighed and shook her head.

“Just when it sounded like I could get out of the scaving business.” She said dejectedly.

“Meh, stick with me and you’ll be rolling in caps before you know it.” Ethan told her with an upbeat smile. “Now let’s get to that vault you were talking about.” They walked in silence for several minutes as Ethan fought down his inner kleptomaniac so that he wouldn’t go running into every room that they passed and begin to look for caps and other valuables.

Eventually, they came to a large metal door that was partially open and the ceiling had a large hole in it. A terminal was plugged into the wall next to it. Floating next to the terminal was another terminal, and it appeared to be made of clouds! Holly’s eyes widened and she let out a muffled curse.

“What’s wrong?” Ethan asked quietly.

“It’s the Fucking Enclave!” Holly cursed softly. "I haven't seen them before, but I've seen this cloud tech of theirs before." She added. Ethan’s eyes narrowed dangerously and all of his apparent lightheartedness disappeared instantly.

“I take it that they’re assholes here to?” He asked quietly.

“Yes, the bastards showed up a few months ago after being gone for two hundred years and they keep on appearing at random places.” Holly explained.

“Well then let’s go and have a talk with them, shall we?” Ethan replied as he walked up to the door and kicked it open with a loud clang before Holly could stop him.

The scene before him was familiar and different at the same time; honestly, it was a bit surreal. The interior of the vault was the typical grey metal that always made up Vault Tech facilities back in the Capital Wasteland. In the center of the room was a large glass tube, and suspended in the middle of that tube in silver light was a small golden orb. The surreal part came from the other occupants of room.

All five were pegasi; two of them were wearing black power armor that seemed a bit slimmer then the Enclave armor that Ethan was used too, strapped their backs were what appeared to be two sets of laser rifles. Two more of the pegasi were in what resembled Enclave scientists’ outfits, faces obscured by yellow masks. The final pegasus was a red maned stallion with a blue coat, wearing officer’s clothing. They had all turned to stare at Ethan and they just kept staring.

“Okay, there are two ways that we can do this.” Ethan began as he stalked forward, sword in hand. “You can leave without a fight, or I can send you home in pieces.” He continued as he brought his sword up to the ready position. “Think fast. I don’t like Enclave ordinarily, but under my personal circumstances at the moment I’m willing to let bygones be bygones and let you leave without painting the walls with your blood.” Ethan explained with an almost cordial smile. “Oh, and to the one on the ceiling who thinks that I can’t see him, I’d just like you to know that I could kill you with a single well placed stab.” Ethan added with a nod towards a sixth pegasus who’d been hiding on the ceiling, waiting to drop down on Ethan.

“Wh-what are you?” The officer asked in confusion.

“The name’s Ethan Smith, aka the Lone Wanderer, aka That Crazy Son of a Bitch, I’m a human.” Ethan replied with a smile. “Now are there any more questions?”

“What the hell makes you think that you can take all of us?” One of the soldiers asked.

“We’re in power armor.” He added menacingly.

“And?” Ethan asked with a smirk. He moved before they could react. His sword slashed out and the tip of the blade stabbed straight through the neckpiece of the power armor that the soldier who had just spoken. “My blade is currently oh… let’s say an inch, it might be more, it might be less, away from your throat.” Ethan explained as the pegasus in front of him gasped nervously. “Your armor didn’t seem to do you too much good, did it?” He asked with a wide smirk.

“We-we can’t just leave, we’ll be court marshaled!” The officer shouted.

“Meh, just tell your boss that there was a big scary monster here that gave you the chance to make a tactical withdrawal in order to get more support. Trust me, they’ll buy it. Superior officers love that kind of excuse.” Ethan replied with a chuckle.

“You aren’t getting this device!” One of the scientists shouted, drawing a magic laser pistol and taking aim at Ethan’s chest. Ethan rolled his eyes.

“That’s not going to hurt me very much, pigeon.” Ethan informed him simply.

The scientist let out an outraged shout and began to hammer the trigger of the pistol with his feathers. The crimson rays smacked into Ethan’s chest, but the man didn’t even flinch and once the scientist stopped to reload Ethan moved. He had the scientist in by the neck with one hand; the sword was in the other and pointed at the rest of the pegasi.

“I would really advise you all to run, well fly actually, but the point remains the same.” Ethan explained coldly. “If you do not, I will kill each and every one of you without any remorse whatsoever.” He let the scientist fall to the floor. “Now go, return to your superior, or face your death now.”

The officer took glance at the other members of his squad. Before nodding in the direction of the door and taking to the air and heading towards it. The others nodded to each other and followed their leader. Holly emerged from her hiding place in the hallway a minute later and stared at Ethan, who had sheathed his sword and had begun to tap the glass around the floating orb experimentally.

“How did you do that?” She asked.

“Do what?” Ethan asked as he walked over to a console that was attached to the tube.

“Talk them into leaving.” Holly asked.

“Oh it was easy; they were green as fucking grass.” Ethan told her simply. “If they weren’t then they would’ve shot me on sight and asked questions later.” He explained as his fingers danced over the console’s keyboard. “So do you have any idea what this golden sphere is?” Ethan asked.

“No, I only knew that the Vault hadn’t been opened yet. Honestly I was hoping for more than just some random sphere.” She said. Her voice was full of disappointment. Ethan reached into his inside duster pocket with his free hand while his other continued to dance across the keyboard and pulled out a sack. He opened the draw string pouch and quickly pulled out another sack from within. Then, he tossed them to the unicorn who caught them in her magic, Ethan only now noticed that it was the same blue as her mane.

“That’s five thousand caps.” Ethan told her, her eyes widened. “Consider it a thank you for being my guide, and for putting up with me. Oh, and if it turns out that this thing isn’t the kind of thing that can be sold easily then consider it a consolation.” He said with a shrug.

“But you can’t just give away this kind of money!” She protested.

“Yeah I can, trust me I’ll make it back in a few days without even trying.” Ethan replied without looking up from the terminal.

“This-this just doesn’t happen in the Wasteland, nopony is this generous!” Holly told him.

“Well it’s a good thing that I’m not a pony then, isn’t it.” Ethan said with a smirk on his face as he pressed the enter button on the keyboard.

The glass around the orb dropped at slow self-assured pace that would’ve made many impatient, but for Ethan he was just glad that his science skills seemed to be working despite the fact that he was in what he was pretty sure was another dimension. Once the glass had lowered completely the silver light disappeared and the golden orb began to fall. Ethan’s hand reached out and snagged it out of the air. Then, the sphere moved by itself acting as if it had a mind of its own. It moved faster than even Ethan’s lightning quick reflexes could react to. The orb landed on his pipboy, and then somehow sank into it before two sets of confused eyes. Ethan’s pipboy suddenly changed, the metal changed color from dull a grey to a brilliant gold. More importantly, a smiling face appeared on the screen.

“Hiya, I’m Eddie!” An extremely upbeat male voice said; it came from the speakers of Ethan’s pipboy. Holly fainted in surprise. “Aww, come on. I’m not that scary am I?” The voice asked sadly.

“Well this is new…” Ethan said scratching the back of his head with his off hand.

“Yeah, tell me about it. I haven’t had anything to actually interact with in over two hundred years, I got sooo bored!” Eddie said enthusiastically.

“Hey, um, Eddie? May I ask you something?” Ethan asked his pipboy.

“Sure, it would be my pleasure to help!” Eddie replied with such a high amount of enthusiasm that Ethan’s eyebrows raised in surprise.

“What day is it?” Ethan asked

“Why it’s Tuesday of course!” Eddie said.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Ethan said with a sigh. "It's always fucking Tuesday!"

Author's Notes:

Alright time to explain a few things to those of you who’ve read Dark and Light Wanderings who are no doubt wondering some things. First off, this is non-cannon to both Dark and Light Wanderings which also means that Tumblr Ethan doesn’t know anything about this. Second off, Ethan is younger in this, which means that he’s a lot less cautious and easier to anger along with cockier on the whole. Third off he’s not married to Cassandra so he’s on the open market. Fourthly and lastly he will be making contact with many of your favorite Fallout Equestria characters so let me know in the SECOND chapter which ones he should meet. I don’t want those comments in this chapter because I’d like comments to focus on whether or not people like the fic. So save all your suggestions for that one.

Oh and Thanks to Kkat for creating such an awesome universe!

Chapter 2

View Online

Edited by TacoTown

Chapter 2

The dead don’t shuffle, they RUN!

“So Eddie, what exactly are you?” Ethan asked slowly.

“I’m Eddie; well, actually it should technically be pronounced E-D-D-I-E. That stands for Empathetic-Diagram-Developer-Intelligence-Executer, but I prefer Eddie.” The cheerful voice inside Ethan’s Pip-Boy said enthusiastically.

“So you’re an AI…” Ethan said with a frown.

“You betcha!” Eddie agreed, and Ethan’s Pip-Boy screen filled up with a large smiling face.

“You’re not planning genocide, are you?” Ethan asked cautiously.

“What?” Eddie asked in confusion. “Why would anyone want to do that? Genocide means that there would be no one to talk to and I’ve already gone through that for two hundred and eighty years! I mean, do you know how boring it is for an AI to play tic-tac-toe against itself for that long?” Eddie asked Ethan with a frown.

“No, I can’t say that I do.” Ethan said sympathetically.

“Oh, well, question was rhetorical, but thanks for answering it.” Eddie said and Ethan’s Pip-Boy screen was suddenly taken up by another large smile.

“Argh, I think I fainted.” Holly groaned as her eyes opened.

“Hiya, I’m Eddie!” Eddie said with a large smile. Holly’s eyes widened in surprise and she turned to Ethan.

“Did your Pip-Buck just talk to me?” She asked.

“Sure did, apparently his name is Eddie.” Ethan answered with a shrug.

“He?” Holly asked.

“Well technically I’m gender neutral, but I like being thought of as a male.” Eddie said enthusiastically. “My female voice is weird.” Eddie said in a very seductive female voice. “So I don’t use it much.” He finished while switching back to his normal peppy voice.

“Yeah, I can see why.” Ethan said with a chuckle.

“So what’s happened in the last two hundred years? I mean, I know that the world ended. I knew it was going to.” Eddie said with a note of melancholy entering his voice. “But I’m sure that things have at least recovered and Equestria is back on its hooves again, right?” Eddie continued while his voice recovered its usual chipper tone.

“I just got here, so I can’t really be called an expert on modern Equestria, or the past Equestria for that matter, but from what I’ve seen so far the answer is no.” Ethan told the AI.

“Yeah, it’s not called the Equestrian Wasteland for nothing.” Holly agreed with a scowl as she began rummaging through some of the cabinets that Ethan hadn’t seen earlier.

“Equestrian Wasteland” Eddie repeated in a low despondent voice. Before he could say anything else Ethan heard a sound that he was really hoping that he wouldn’t hear for at least another twenty minutes. It was the sound of propellers, lots, and lots, of propellers.

“Oh fuck a duck, I thought we had more time.” Ethan cursed.

“What is it?” Holly asked.

“Propellers.” Ethan answered simply as he strode for the door of the vault. “Come on Holly, we need to go now. If we don’t then there are going to be so many Enclave bastards here that you won’t be able to take a piss without rusting their armor.”

“I thought you weren’t afraid of the Enclave.” Holly said as she followed him out of the room at a quick pace.

“I’m not, to a point.” Ethan replied as he ran through the hallway covered in robot parts.

“Then what’s the problem?” Holly asked.

“I’m not wearing my set of T51b for starters, my tesla cannon is sitting on its shelf in my house, and my Xuanlong rifle is still sitting in its cabinet, waiting for its next oiling.” Ethan said. “I may be hard to kill, but I’m not immortal.”

“Wait, are these Enclave the same Enclave that I’m thinking of?” Eddie asked.

“Asshole pegasus.” Holly replied without looking.

“They’re still around?!” Eddie asked loudly.

“Yep, and they’re after you.” Ethan replied as he kicked the doors to the stairs open and began take them three at a time, much to Holly’s frustration as she struggled to keep up with her shorter legs.

“That’s not good, my predictions said that if they were still around then they would become even more militaristic and close-minded, I don’t think that they’d like me.” Eddie said thoughtfully.

“I kind of doubt that, they’d probably just use you to try and take over the wasteland or commit genocide, take your pick.” Ethan replied as they got to the doorway that led to the second story of the building.

“Well we can’t let that happen!” Eddie said righteously.

“Exactly, which is why I need to know if there are any ways out of this building that aren’t visible from the air. You know, tunnels, subways, caverns…” Ethan said as he got to the bottom of the stairs and kicked the door back to the main part of the building open.

“Yes, there’s a hidden subway station in the basement, which can be accessed from the door on the left.” Eddie said quickly. Ethan turned to the door on the left of the lobby and with a powerful kick knocked it open.

“Do. You. Really. Have. To. Do. That. With. Every. Door?!” Holly asked in annoyance.

“Yep, lookie there.” Ethan replied with a nod towards a corpse lying at the bottom of the stairs that led to the subway, which was still separated by another.

“What are you-” Holly began to say before the corpse got to its hooves and let out a howl.

“Fucking ghouls.” Ethan told her simply as he took out his magnum and in a swift motion blew the ghoul’s brains out.

“Was that a pony?” Eddie asked in shock.

“No, that was a ghoul. They’re not ponies.” Holly said as they walked by the corpse. “At least not once they go feral anyways.” She added as an afterthought.

“I didn’t think that the balefire radiation would have that effect on ponies, I only factored in sickness and death. That’s awful.” Eddie said softly.

“Yeah, but the ghouls I know got over it a long time ago for the most part and are some of the best people I’ve ever met.” Ethan said offering the AI a little solace as he kicked the last door that led to the basement open with a loud clang.

The basement looked exactly like every other basement that Ethan had seen. Grey, dimly lit, and full of skeletons of ponies who had died two hundred years ago huddled up in pitiful balls. Eddie let out a sad sigh as Ethan began to look around for the hidden switch.

“Yeah I know the feeling.” Ethan said. “So where’s the switch?” He added.

“In the top drawer of that desk over to the right.” Eddie replied despondently. Ethan quickly located the button. The floor let out a loud tortured shriek as a section of the basement floor pulled back and revealed a thin set of stairs that led down into complete blackness.

“We have to go down there?” Holly asked hesitantly.

“What, afraid of the dark?” Ethan asked with a smirk.

“No, I’m afraid of the things that LIVE in the dark.” She replied hotly. The sound of metal on concrete above them put an end to the argument as Ethan grabbed Holly by the top of her armor and hauled her down the stairs before she had a chance to say another word.

“There’s a closing button on the left.” Eddie told Ethan, whose fist shot out to the side and smashed the button. The door above them closed with another ominous screech, plunging them into complete darkness.

“Good, that should slow them down a bit.” Ethan said before he flipped on his Pip-Boy light which cast a dull glow that illuminated about two meters in front of them. “You know it’s at times like this that I enjoy a bit of music, Eddie can you find any good stations down here?” Ethan asked the AI.

“Hmm… DJ-PON3, I remember that mare, she was crazy.” The AI replied enthusiastically. “I wonder how she’s still alive…” Eddie mused.

“She? DJ-PON3’s a stallion.” Holly interjected quickly as Ethan began to walk into the darkness, shock sword at the ready. Instead of replying Eddie simply turned on the raidio.

Hello Equestrian Wasteland, this is DJ-PON3 bringing you some news! As always I’m transmitting from Tenpony tower in the middle of down town Manehatten… A stallion’s voice began.

“Well this is going to be nostalgic.” Ethan said with a smirk for some reason.

-yone’s favorite mare the Stable Dweller just got back from-

“Stable Dweller, heh, this should be good.” Ethan said once again interrupting the broadcast much to the annoyance of Holly.

“Hey, don’t fucking mock the Stable Dweller! She’s done more good for this place in a few weeks then anypony else has in years!” Holly said in defense of the wasteland’s savior.

“I’m sure she has, I’m just saying that she needs a better title.” Ethan replied. “I mean The Stable Dweller is passable but it just doesn’t roll off the lounge like ‘The Lone Wanderer’, or ‘That Crazy Son of a Bitch’.” Ethan told her.

And that about wraps up the day’s news so far. Oh, and as a side note there’s been some sightings of an unusual creature running around the old Ministry of Wartime Technology Hub near the outskirts of Manehatten. So keep a look out for strange things, and remember kiddies. Don’t shoot it unless it shoots you first. Now here’s Velvet…

“Well now. It seems that I’m already gaining popularity.” Ethan said with a chuckle.

“But-but how is that even possible? I’m the first pony that you’ve met so far, right?” Holly asked as they left the hallway and entered the metro tunnels themselves. Ethan was slightly disappointed that the tunnels themselves seemed to look exactly the same to him here as they had back in the Capital Wasteland.

“I have no idea, but let’s not dwell on it right now.” Ethan told her with a shrug.

“Umm guys? I hate to interrupt, but there are hostile targets moving in, so you should get ready.” Eddie said, breaking up the conversation.

“I see them Eddie.” Ethan replied as he readied his sword; several red dots were already visible near the bottom right side of his vision.

Four pony ghouls suddenly burst from the darkness with wild, feral howls. Holly’s pistol rang out twice and one of the ghouls dropped to the ground, a large hole missing from its chest. The other three charged onward, heedless of their companion’s loss. Ethan stepped forward to meet the charge head on when one jumped at him, but he quickly decapitated it with a swift chop. Dirty blood spattered all over his chest as the headless body fell to the floor and Ethan turned to meet the next one. Holly’s pistol barked twice more, and the ghoul that Ethan was about to stab suddenly had very bad headache.

“Kill steal.” Ethan muttered. The final ghoul used the shift in Ethan’s attention to send him stumbling several feet backwards with a strong, right-hoofed punch to the gut. “Fuck; that actually hurt.” Ethan growled as he drew his magnum and fired point blank into the ghoul’s head, sending a shower of brains flying in the opposite direction.

Ethan’s eyes scanned the dead ghouls for a second just to make sure that all four were really dead before he turned to glance at Holly who was calmly reloading her 12.7mm pistol. Her blue mane had a streak of blood in it, but she hadn’t seemed to notice it yet. Ethan chuckled quietly to himself; she actually seemed to be holding up pretty well, which was a change from his normal companions. Normally the only ones who could keep up with him were Dogmeat and Fawkes, but the green coated unicorn was doing very well for herself.

“Nice shooting back there Holly.” Ethan told her with a grin as he wiped his blade off on the nearest ghoul’s side.

“Thanks, I’ve been killing ghouls for years.” She said casually.

“This is-this is bad, far worse than I ever thought possible. My simulations didn’t take this kind of thing into account, why it’s no wonder that things are as bad as they are if things like that are still walking around.” Eddie said in a low voice.

“Why are you making a big deal of this? We killed one back there and you were fine with it.” Ethan asked with a puzzled frown.

“My mind hadn’t thought through the complications that such creatures would present to the overall situation, now that it has...” The AI continued quietly before trailing off. Suddenly there was a chorus of loud rasps from off to the side and Ethan turned to see that there were at least two hundred ghouls charging at them from the other tunnel.

“Okay, I don’t have anywhere near that much ammo on me, so we’re going to be running now. Any complaints?” Ethan asked Holly before he turned to find that she was already several feet ahead of him. “Well that’s not very polite.” Ethan complained before taking off after the mare.

A ghoul closed with Ethan and tried to bite his leg, but Ethan’s sword slashed out as he ran and slashed at the former pony’s neck, biting deep and sending it tumbling backwards where it was trampled by the rest of the rotting hoard that was following them. Holly looked over her shoulder mid run and fired off a few shots from her pistol. She didn’t have to worry about missing, with as many ghouls as there were chasing them it was all but impossible to miss.

“Hey Holly, do you have any ideas about how to shake these assholes?” Ethan shouted as he ran slightly behind the pony, somehow no matter how fast he pumped his legs they just couldn’t keep up with the pony’s gallop.

“Keep running and hope they give up!” She called back.

“Well as fun as this is, I can’t say that I’m enjoying it so far.” Ethan replied snarkily.

“There appear to be more of these… ghouls coming from a passage to the right.” Eddie said loudly; he sounded distracted for some reason.

“Thanks Eddie.” Ethan replied quickly as his sword slashed out behind him in time to stab a ghoul in the stomach, the smell of cooked rotting flesh assaulted his nostrils but he put it out of his mind.

As they ran passed the tunnel that Eddie had mentioned a river of ghouls flowed out and slammed into them. Ethan’s sword hummed and crackled as it decapitated a former unicorn and sliced the leg off of another. He did this without missing a stride, despite the ghouls who were trying to pull him down. The man grimaced as he felt thick horse teeth bite into his armor, but ignored it. To his right, Holly’s pistol went off several times and out of the corner of his eyes Ethan saw two of the ghouls being thrown off in a wave of magical force. She too did this without breaking stride for even a second, although she was visibly bleeding from several bites and she was also beginning to develop a slight limp.

Another ghoul jumped at him from the left, and Ethan’s blade flashed out to slice through its chest, sending it stumbling away. Holly let out a shriek as a ghoul pounced on her from behind and pulled her legs out from under her, and Ethan changed directions and shot the ghoul off of her back before grabbing her forehoof and pulling her back to her hooves.

“Eddie, you’re the AI who’s not currently worried about dying here; please find us a way out!” Ethan shouted as he dodged a ghoul who leapt at him from behind.

“Right, a way out. Yeah, I can do that.” Eddie replied before his face left the screen.

“Holly keep going, I’m going to buy you a little time and then catch up!” Ethan shouted as he slid to a halt in a part of the tunnel that was half blocked by a train, leaving only enough room for two ponies to pass. He turned back to face the ghouls coming and fired off a shot off his magnum.

“You’ll be torn to shreds!” Holly shouted stopping as well.

“Fuck that noise. I’m Ethan Smith, the Lone Fucking Wanderer; and you primitive screw heads shall not pass!” Ethan shouted at the ghouls as he readied his sword.

“I’m not leaving you behind dammit!” Holly replied loudly as the first ghoul closed the distance and launched itself at Ethan, who coldly cut it down.

“I’ll be fine, GO!” Ethan shouted back as he sliced his way through another ghoul, splashing its blood all over both the ground and his body. His magnum roared six times and the heads of six ghouls exploded.

“I don’t leave ponies behind.” Holly told him with a note of steely determination entering into her voice as her pistol barked seven times and another seven ghouls died.

A ghoul reached Ethan and leapt at him while he was focusing on another, and bit into his shoulder blade. Its teeth squeezed the flesh between the plates of his combat armor and the man to let out a cry of rage before he threw the ghoul off of his shoulder and back into the hoard. His sword flashed out again and another ghoul fell to the floor, this one missing a sizable chunk of its forelimb. Holly’s pistol had been reloaded and fired another seven bullets with deadly accuracy into the swarm.

A pile of corpses were beginning to build up in front of them, but still the ghouls pressed forward and soon Ethan’s shock sword was nothing but a hissing blur as it sliced off limbs and sent blood flying in every direction. Beside him, Holly’s pistol flashed and her horn glowed blue as she sent wave of force after wave of force at the approaching ghouls.

“Fuck, I’m out!” She shouted in frustration.

Without turning away from his targets Ethan passed her his magnum and forty two shots before returning his focus to the ghouls who had rushed even closer without Holly’s pistol fire. A leering earth pony ghoul leapt at Ethan, and was quickly decapitated but another two latched onto his legs and dragged the man off of his feet before beginning to beat him with their hooves. They were quickly disposed of by Holly, whose magic flared and sent both of them flying into the wall with a splat.

“Alright, we’re leaving!” Holly shouted, and Ethan nodded as he got to his feet before once more taking off in the other direction of the ghouls.

“Thanks for the save back there.” Ethan told Holly with a smile “I’d say that we trimmed their numbers down by at least eighty or so.” He added between breaths as he shook a ghoul off of the back of his leg.

“Wouldn’t have happened if we’d just kept running!” Holly replied angrily.

“Guys, there are friendlies up ahead!” Eddie suddenly shouted as the two managed to pull ten feet ahead of the ghouls who were tripped up by a large equipment crate that Ethan and Holly had managed to leap over.

“Oh thank fucking god!” Ethan said. “You two have no idea what it would do to my reputation if I was killed by feral ghouls.” He added.

They rounded a corner and Ethan caught sight of several bipedal creatures composed of what appeared to be bird and cat body parts patrolling behind a group of barricades. All of them were wearing black armor, and three out of the six carried flamers while two out of the other three carried an assault rifle. The final creature, who’s head feathers were a gilded gold color, had a broadsword strapped to his back and carried a large pistol that almost made Ethan envious. Almost.

“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, don’t shoot!” Ethan shouted as he and Holly leapt over the barricade. “Okay, now SHOOT!” The creatures looked at him in confusion for a few seconds before they caught sight of the hoard that was following close behind.

“What the FUCK did you do to get this many ghouls after you?!” The golden feathered one shouted at them as he fired his pistol.

“Fuck if I know man.” Ethan shouted back as he got back to his feet and readied his sword to meet the inevitable charge.

No more words were exchanged as the creatures opened fire, literally in the case of the ones armed with flamers. The stench of burning flesh flowed into Ethan’s nose, but he ignored it and sliced through a ghoul who came bounding over the barricade. The winged creatures were extremely effective with their weaponry, surprising even Ethan with their deadliness as they sprayed the oncoming ghouls for what must have been half an hour straight. Then, there was a lull in the charge until a glowing one appeared, casting a green light throughout the tunnel as it ran towards the defenders backed by a dozen others of its kind.

“Okay, you know what? FUCK THIS!” Ethan shouted, leaping over the barricade and landing sword first in the first glowing one’s chest, sending a steam of green ichor spattering over his torso.

Ethan’s blade slashed out and sliced off the head of another glowing one, but not before it released a wave of green energy that healed several of the ghouls nearby who hadn’t yet had the courtesy to die. They mobbed Ethan and despite the swiftness and power of his blade he felt his armor beginning to give out under the mounting weight of his assailants. Suddenly, he felt a claw grab him by the shoulder and pull him out of the pile as the golden feathered creature, who was now holding a rather large broadsword easily in one hand, sliced a glowing one in half.

Ethan nodded his thanks and the two stood back to back as their blades smote the ghouls, decapitating and dismembering them with ease. Another glowing one charged Ethan, and this time the man didn’t mess around. Instead, he stabbed it through the eye as it leapt forward. The creature at his back was busy dicing through half a dozen minor ghouls with his blade to notice anything else at the moment. Finally, after another ten minutes of fighting no more ghouls came forward. Ethan managed to stagger back to the area behind the barricade before collapsing into a sitting position, utterly exhausted.

“Good god, what the hell is up with the ghouls here? I’ve never run into this many in one place before.” Ethan asked no one in particular.

“This is Manehatten. It was an enormous city before the war; of course there are a lot of ghouls.” Holly replied before she took a sip from a canteen that one of the creatures had passed her. Then, the golden feathered creature walked up to Ethan; there was an extraordinarily angry look in his eagle eyes.

“I don’t know who you are or, for that matter, you are; but what in Celestia’s flaming tits were you doing back there jumping over the barricade like that?” The creature asked angrily.

“Pass me some water and I’ll talk, my throat is slightly dry from running away from four hundred ghouls for three miles.” Ethan replied with a slight cough.

The creature took one off of his belt and tossed it to Ethan, who caught it without looking and easily opened the cap with a twist of his fingers before taking a small swallow. To his surprise, the water was purified. He took another swallow before passing it back to the creature, who accepted it and took a drink.

“Alright, introductions.” Ethan said as he got back to his feet to find that he was a little shorter than the creature. “In answer to your questions, my name is Ethan Smith, aka the Lone Wanderer, aka That Crazy Son of a Bitch. I’m a human from another wasteland. And I jumped over the barricade because I forgot that I wasn’t in my power armor.” Ethan finished sourly with a sigh. “So who and what are you?” Ethan asked.

“I’m Sergeant Garma Goldfeathers Of the Talon Mercenary Company-” The Garma began; Ethan’s hands subconsciously went to where his magnum normally rested at his side; luckily, Holly was still holding it. “-something wrong with that?” Garma asked, eying Ethan.

“No; I’ve just got some bad memories of being hunted by mercenaries.” Ethan said in a low voice. “Of course, they stopped that once I stormed into their headquarters, killed eighty of their people, and then executed their leader in front of the few survivors.” Ethan continued without changing his tone of voice.

“Must not have been good mercs.” Garma said.

“Well, I had a little help from a hot blonde friend of mine, so it wasn’t just me.” Ethan admitted with a shrug. “Anyways, sorry that I made you get off topic, so what are you?” Ethan asked.

“I’m a griffin, have you never heard of us before?” Garma asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Sorry, can’t say that I have.” Ethan admitted with a shrug. “Although I’ve got to hand it to you, you certainly seem to know how to use a blade.” Ethan added with a nod towards the broadsword sheathed across the griffin’s back.

“Thanks, your skills aren’t too bad either, although you lack discipline.” Garma told him.

“I’m self-taught.” Ethan admitted.

“I’d thought as much.” Garma said with a nod before passing Ethan the canteen again. Ethan took a longer drink this time, before passing it back to the griffin who capped it and put back on his belt. “Now would you mind telling me what you and your marefriend over there were doing in those tunnels?” Garma asked, changing subjects.

“Running from the Enclave.” Ethan replied simply, several of the griffins looked up suddenly. “Honestly, if I was better armed than we wouldn’t have had to, but as it is I’m hardly equipped to take on fifty power armored bastards at the moment.”

“The Enclave has only been sending down small patrols for the last few months, what did you do to get so many after you?” Garma asked.

“It might have to with the fact that we intimidated a squad of green troops into running away so that we could get this guy.” Ethan said, tapping his Pip-Boy.

“A Pip-Buck?” Garma asked.

“No. Hey Eddie, say hello to the nice griffin.” Ethan said. Suddenly, his Pip-Boy screen lit up with Eddie’s smiling face.

“Hiya, I’m Eddie!” Eddie said with his usual overenthusiastic peppiness.

“An AI?” Garma asked.

“Yep, that’s right.” Eddie replied with a grin.

“Hmm… that would explain the interest.” Garma mused.

“Yeah, apparently they wanted him, although I’m not sure why they sent a group of green initiates to get him initially.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“Probably politics or some other such idiocy.” The griffin said with a shrug.

“Oh, and before I forget I owe you guys for helping with those ghouls.” Ethan said suddenly.

“I was going to get to that eventually.” Garma said neutrally.

“Yeah, I’ll bet you were.” Ethan said with a friendly smirk. “Anyways, I need all of my caps, but would you take ten missiles, four hundred shots of electron charge packs, a case of 5mm minigun rounds and a few fission batteries as fair payment?” He asked as he began to pull them out of his jacket pockets and deposit them on the ground for Garma to see.

“I suppose that these are enough.” The griffin said with a shrug as he picked up the assorted ammo. “Even if we won’t use it ourselves we’ll find someone who will.” He added.

“Great, well now that that’s all settled Holly and I should be on our way.” Ethan said.

“What?” Holly asked in surprise. “Are you crazy; how can you even suggest that we keep going today? I’m about ready to crash!” She exclaimed.

“Yeah, but I want to meet this DJ-PON3, he’ll have all the information I could want about this place and I’m sure that he’ll want to talk to me.” Ethan told her with a shrug.

“Ethan, you’re covered in cuts and bruises and exhausted. I’m also covered in cuts and bruises, and as an added bonus I’m out of ammo for my pistol!” Holly told him angrily.

“Perhaps you could stay the night here with us, we have enough room for you to stay here and we’re well enough armed that your safety should be assured.” Garma suggested. “Tenpony is a four hour walk away, and no offence, but I don’t think that you’re up to it in your current state.” He added.

“I guess that’s probably smart…” Ethan said with a sigh. “So, how much is it for room and board?” Ethan asked.

“Well, I’m on a mission from Gawd to keep a watch here and I’m not supposed to be letting anyone stay longer than an hour or so. But I’d say that your contributions to our missile supply should just about even things out.” Garma said.

“You’re on a mission from God?” Ethan asked.

“No, Gawd. G A W D. She’s our leader.” Garma explained.

“Ah, alright. I was about to call you pretentious and naïve.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“It’s a common enough question that everyone in the Company is used to it.” Garma told him.

“So, do you have anything to eat?” Ethan asked. “Meat would be nice if you’ve got any.” He added with a smile.

“Of course, have you ever had radgator?” Garma asked as he began to walk away from the barricades and towards a nearby side room built into the side of the metro.

“Nope, but it sounds delicious.” Ethan said with a wide grin as he followed the griffin. They entered the side room and Ethan found that it resembled several of the temporary lodgings that he’d stayed in over the years. It was sparely decorated with only a few beds, a table with a few chairs, and a small fridge which was still somehow working.

“Home sweet home.” Garma said sarcastically.

“I don’t know, I think it has charm.” Ethan said.

“Wake me up in two hours.” Holly said simply before she climbed up on one of the mattresses and immediately fell asleep.

“That poor girl needs to gain some endurance.” Ethan said with a chuckle, he’d already gotten his wind back and was beginning to regret having to stop and wait for her.

“Frankly, I’m surprised that you’re still alive at all.” Garma told him.

“I think you’ll find that I’m very hard to kill.” Ethan replied as the griffin got them each a plate of meat from the fridge.

“Oh, do tell.” The griffin said with a smile.

“Well this one time…”

Chapter 3

View Online

An: This chapter will ruin one of the bigger reveals in the canon of Fallout Equestria. If you haven’t read that and plan to do so fairly spoiler free then I’d suggest not reading this chapter.

Edited by TacoTown

Chapter 3:

Meh, I’ve killed bigger

“Thanks for letting us stay the night Garma.” Ethan told the griffin as they exchanged a firm handshake that lasted only a few seconds longer then a normal one.

“It was against regulations, but Gawd never explicitly said that we couldn’t let a human stay with us.” Garma said with a grin.

“Try not to die before I see you again.” Ethan said with a wave before he began to walk towards where Holly was pacing impatiently.

“The same to you.” Garma agreed with a smile.

Ethan walked up to where Holly was pacing and nodded. The two took off in the direction of Tenpony Tower, following the marker on Ethan’s HUD (aka Heads-Up Display), which was supplied by his Pip-Boy. He’d always wondered how a machine that was only attached to his arm was capable of affecting his brain. Then again, Ethan figured that if it could temporarily stop time then it shouldn’t be too hard for it to hook up to his brain and project his enemies’ locations. Science!

“I’m surprised about how generous those Talons were.” Holly mused once they were far enough out of the griffins’ earshot.

“What do you mean?” Ethan asked.

“I mean that those missiles and ammo shouldn’t have been nearly enough to pay them back, pay for our rooms for the night, and get me more ammo for my pistol along with the trade you made with that Sergeant.” She replied.

“I was wondering about that.” Ethan agreed as he took the new assault rifle that the griffin had traded him for a hundred caps and the rifle that he’d picked up in MWT hub off of his back.

It was better proportioned to Ethan’s size, and its trigger lacked a mouth grip. It reminded Ethan of a few of the rifles that he’s seen out west on his ill-fated journey to see New Vegas. He’d ended up hung-over in bed beside a beautiful redhead, but he’d left before she woke up. He had however left her directions to his house in Megaton of she ever wanted another fling. The rifle itself was semi-automatic and used 5.56mm rounds. Ethan was pretty sure that it was a carbine.

“Did you sleep with him or something?” Holly asked with a smirk.

“Ha, my barn door doesn’t swing that way. I’m just a people person.” Ethan replied with a chuckle.

“For some reason I don’t see it.” Holly replied snarkily.

“It doesn’t surprise me; he seems to be quite capable of turning on his charm when he needs to.” Eddie put in. “Then again, it might have been the disturbingly violent war stories that they shared while you were asleep.” The AI added after a second’s or so pause.

“Yeah, that would probably get you more leeway than fucking him would.” Holly agreed. “Those griffins love their fucking war stories.”

“So Holly, what should I know about this Tenpony Tower place? I mean, where I’m from a place like it is run by a rich asshole who snipes at people for fun, but I’m betting it’s different here if this DJ-PON3 is broadcasting out of it.” Ethan asked the green unicorn.

“It’s probably the richest and safest place in the entire wasteland.” Holly answered.

“It was also the main Ministry of Arcane Science hub for the City of Manehatten.” Eddie chimed in helpfully in an upbeat voice. “I’m glad that my predictions about it still being there were right, it means that I wasn’t completely useless.” Eddie added while his upbeat voice died away to be replaced by a depressed sounding monotone.

“Hey, cheer up Eddie. It’s not like this is your fault.” Ethan told the AI, who sighed.

“I guess you’re right.” Eddie admitted, but his voice was still tinged with sadness.

“I just hope that the trouble with Red Eye has blown over since they last reported on it.” Holly said.

“Who’s Red Eye?” Ethan asked, thankful for the change in subject.

“He’s the slave king of Fillydelphia, keeps on preaching about how he’s going to build a new Equestria and how every slave’s sacrifice will be remembered.” Holly answered with a scowl. “Never shuts up on the radio.” She added.

“God, it sounds like he’s the unholy love child of Ashur and Eden without Ashur’s good points” Ethan said with a frown.

“Who?” Holly asked.

“One was an insane AI, the other is a man who I both loathe and respect at the same time.” Ethan replied. “At least he agreed to free the “workers” after a little diplomacy on my end, and now they work for wages.” He added.

“I doubt that Red Eye would be willing to do that.” Holly said acidly. “He’s an absolute bastard who deserves to have his Celestia damned head chopped off and then defecated on by a dragon with the fucking runs!” She all but shouted.

“I have the oddest feeling that you don’t like him very much.” Ethan said.

“Yes, I suppose you could say that.” She said, each word was full of enough venom to kill a deathclaw.

“So a pony put himself into power of a large group of other ponies through a use of intimidation and slave power?” Eddie asked.

“Yes.” Holly said curtly.

“I took something like that happening into my simulations as a possibility, but I hadn’t thought that it would progress as far as you say it has.” Eddie said worriedly.

“Eddie, you keep on talking about simulations. What exactly did you do before the bombs fell here?” Ethan asked curiously.

“Well I was a-” Eddie began only to be cut off by three loud voices from above.

“STOP WHERE YOU ARE! THE GODDESS OF UNITY WISHES TO SPEAK WITH THEE!” The voices were loud enough that it almost made Ethan stagger at first. He looked up and saw three large pegasi flying at him in a small v; they also appeared to have horns, which Ethan felt was rather unfair. The leading one was green while the one flying at her right was purple and the one on the left was blue.

“Umm, Holly? What are those?” Ethan asked as his hand fingered his sword handle.

“Those are alicorns, agents of the “Goddess”; they go around kidnapping unicorns and generally being giant pains in everyone’s ass.” Holly replied.

“Should I be worried?” Ethan whispered.

“Yes, they’re strong as fucking hell.” Holly told him.

“CEASE YOUR WHISPERING, THE GODDESS WILL NOT BE WHISPERED ABOUT BY WHISPERING WHISPERERS!” The alicorns shouted in unison.

“Not real bright are they?” Ethan asked Holly loudly enough for the three alicorns to hear, causing the unicorn to chuckle.

“HOW DARE YOU INSULT THE GODDESS!” They shouted.

“Sorry, but I’m an atheist so I don’t think it really counts. Besides, even if you are a ‘goddess’ I really couldn’t give three flying fucks about it.” Ethan replied calmly with a shrug as the three alicorns landed in front of the two. “And look, there are three of you. How convenient.” He added with a smirk.

“WHY YOU LITTLE-” The alicorns began.

“Blah, blah, blah.” Ethan said, mocking them by making his freehand open and close with their mouths. “Let me be perfectly clear with you. If you try and hurt my friend and I we will end you. I don’t care if you’re God’s saggy left testicle or Satan’s hairy frozen dick. You make a move, and it’ll be your own damn fault that you’ve suddenly come down with a case of the deads.” He explained with a cold smile.

“WE WILL NOT STAND FO-” They began, but Ethan’s blade slashed out faster than any of them could react and with a snicker-snack decapitated the green alicorn in a single blow, causing the other two to stare at him in shock.

“Boring conversation anyways.” Ethan said with a chuckle as the body fell one way and the head fell another with a burst of bright crimson blood.

“YOU WILL DIE FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!” The remaining two alicorns shouted. One vanished from sight, and the other flew into the air, horn glowing purple.

“Of course invisibility, should’ve known.” Ethan said with a slight sigh as he drew his magnum.

“Why is it that you seem to have the urge to anger as many powerful ponies as you can in the period of two days?” Holly asked as she fired at the purple alicorn flying above who easily dodged the bullets.

“It’s a gift of mine actually.” Ethan replied with a smirk as he watched the surrounding area for signs of the invisible alicorn. Suddenly, he saw a puff of dust to the right and shot in the direction but hit nothing.

Meanwhile, Holly was dodging the purple alicorn’s blasts of purple telekinesis, and returning fire with her 12.7mm pistol. Disturbingly, none of her shots were connecting, much to the unicorn’s extreme annoyance and frustration. Oh, and fear as well, because for every shot she missed the purple alicorn came closer and closer to hitting her with the TK blasts.

The air shimmered in front of Ethan, and he barely managed to get his sword up in time to block the horn that would’ve stabbed into his chest if he’d been a few seconds slower. The man swung his sword in a powerful arc at the next shimmer, but it was deflected by the alicorn’s horn. He spotted another shimmer and let off another shot from his magnum, and was rewarded by a shout of pain.

Holly barely dodged a chunk of concrete that her opponent launched at her, and returned fire with her pistol, finally scoring a hit on the Alicorn. Crimson blood blossomed from the new hole in the alicorn’s side and it let out a shrill cry of rage before it sent another burst of TK at Holly. The blast caught her in the chest and Holly was thrown several feet into a concrete road divider. She staggered back to her hooves, but was caught in the alicorn’s magical grip which began to tighten around her neck.

“Oh no you don’t!” Ethan shouted bringing his magnum to bear on the purple alicorn’s head and pulling the trigger. The bullet sped from the gun and slammed into the alicorn’s chest, causing it to let out a shriek of pain and drop Holly to the ground. Then, a long horn stabbed Ethan in the chest. The blue alicorn materialized in front of him, grinning as his blood dripped down its horn, and then in one powerful heave it threw the man to the ground several feet away.

“WE WERE SIMPLY GOING TO ASK YOU TO COME WITH US, BUT NOW WE SHALL MAKE YOU COME BY FORCE!” The alicorns shouted.

“Heh, sounds kinky.” Ethan said as he got to his knees before coughing up a bit of blood, which he spit to the side. “I mean, I can already tell that you’re into penetration, but I think you’ve got our roles reversed here.” Ethan told her as he regained his feet completely and the hole in his chest began to slowly mend. “You see, I’m the one who’s supposed to be penetrating you.” He explained

“HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?” The alicorns asked as they stared at the man.

“I’m The Lone Wanderer, fuck you.” Ethan said with a cold grin as he lined up another shot and fired directly into blue alicorn’s face, sending up a shower of gore. She really should’ve gone invisible again after stabbing him…

The last remaining alicorn, the purple one, turned to Ethan and smashed him into the ground with a blast of TK from above. His knees broke with a hideous snapping sound. Then, she wrapped him in her magic and brought Ethan into the air to float in front of her. His knees snapped back into place with another horrendous snap while the man grimaced.

“YOU SHALL SUFFER FOR YOUR INSOLENCE; NO ONE WILL BE THERE TO SAVE YOU AND YOU WILL DIE A PAINFUL DEATH AT THE HOOVES OF THE GODDESS!” The remaining alicorn shouted. Ethan coughed up another bit of blood and spit it into her eye, causing her to scream in rage.

“I’ve found a little plot hole in your plan there little miss goddess.” Ethan said with a coughing chuckle.

“AND WHAT WOULD THAT BE?” The goddess asked angrily.

“That would be ME!” Holly shouted as her pistol barked six times and the large 12.7 rounds slammed into the goddess’s chest.

The alicorn’s magic dissipated as it let out a cry of pain and Ethan fell to the ground several feet below. The alicorn’s wings stopped beating, and it fell to the ground in a lifeless heap on top of Ethan, who let out a moan.

“Of course, it would just have to fall on me, wouldn’t it?” He asked the universe rhetorically. The man crawled out from underneath the alicorn’s body with a little magical help from Holly, and got to his feet before dusting off his armored legs.

“You okay?” Holly asked hoarsely, with a little frown as she watched the hole in Ethan’s chest slowly heal.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine; tis’ merely a flesh wound.” Ethan replied with a slightly pained shrug. “I’m more concerned about you.” He added looking at her throat, which was swelling visibly.

“I’ll be fine.” She rasped as she gently massaged a spot on her back where she’d impacted against the concrete. “Just need to drink a healing potion and these bruised ribs will heal right up.” She added as she pulled a vial out of one of her barding pouches and downed it in a single long gulp.

“Wow, I usually come along to help ponies out, but it looks like you’ve got things covered here.” An unexpected voice from behind them said. Ethan spun sword at the ready to find that a robot that highly resembled an Enclave eyebot floating behind him.

“I know that voice…” Eddie whispered to himself.

“Are you with the Enclave?” Ethan asked the eyebot.

“No way, my name is Wa-” The bot began.

“SPIKE!” Eddie shouted in elation. “My calculations were right about something for once, oh thank Celestia!” Eddie continued with a pixilated grin.

“Eddie?!” The voice coming through the eyebot asked in confusion.

“Yep, it’s me!” Eddie replied enthusiastically.

“But I thought your hub got hit!” the eyebot shouted.

“Nope, I’ve just been sitting around for the last two hundred or so years, running simulations.” Eddie said. The joy in his voice began to die. “And it turns out that most of those simulations were flawed.”

“Should I be confused now? Because I have no idea what’s going on.” Holly whispered to Ethan, who shrugged.

“Ask questions later. For now just go with it and smile a lot.” He whispered back.

“So if you’re safe then so are the El-” Eddie began, but was interrupted by the eyebot.

“Sush, it’s a secret.” Spike said loudly.

“Oh, yeah, that makes sense I guess.” Eddie said a little sheepishly. “So how’ve you been for the last two hundred years Spike?”

“Bored, sad, and occasionally angry.” The eyebot replied despondently.

“How odd, that’s exactly how I felt.” The AI said.

“The apocalypse will do that to you. Listen Eddie, I’ve got to go now. Otherwise, someone will notice that I’m here. But you know where my cave is, so come see me at some point, okay?” The eyebot told Eddie before it drifted away playing music.

“Well that was random.” Ethan commented with a shrug as he poked at the tender new flesh on his chest. Then he sighed as he felt around the destroyed armored plating that the alicorn’s horn had sheered through as though they were made of butter. “Goddammit, I’m going to have to buy something to repair this with or Riley will kill me for ruining her armor.” He said with another sigh.

“Riley?” Eddie asked curiously.

“Sexy leader of a mercenary company, I saved her squad once and became an honorary member.” Ethan replied. “And then we occasionally fucked in-between big events, girl is amazing in bed. She just has such talented hands.” He added with a happy grin.

“Too much information, way too much information.” Holly rasped; she looked like she was almost fully recovered from the beating the alicorn had given her.

“You sure that you’ll be okay?” Ethan asked.

“Meh, I’ve had worse. Fucking alicorns and their Celestia damned goddess.” Holly grunted.

“So what was all that Unity jumbo that they were talking about?” Eddie asked.

“Fuck if I know, that’s what they call themselves. What I do know is that it’s all absolute shit. Ponies that go with them never show up again; they vanish without a fucking trace.” Holly replied.

“Your language is getting more colorful the more time we spend with you.” Eddie told her with a smile.

“You try hanging out with a naïve AI and a stallion who seems to think that anything less than two hundred ghouls is a normal amount of enemies, and then you tell me how clean your fucking language is.” Holly replied as she reloaded her pistol and stretched.

“Well that’s how it always has been for me before; something about this place just seems to enjoy making things disproportionately hard to kill by comparison.” Ethan said with a frown as he loaded four shots into his magnum’s chamber. “Oh well, I’m sure that the longer I’m here the easier it’ll get.” He added with a shrug.

“Yeah, look. We should probably get going before more of those fuckers show up.” Holly said, gesturing towards the three large corpses lying on the ground in bloody heaps.

“Alrighty then, let’s get moving.” Ethan said with a nod as he began to walk in the direction of Tenpony Tower, which could be seen in the distance from where they were walking. Ethan flipped on the radio to help pass the time.

Hello out there Wasteland! This is DJ PON-3, giving you an update. Tenpony Tower is still surrounded by Red Eye’s army, so don’t bother trying to come and see us for the foreseeable future. In other news folks, and you’re not going to believe this, but I received a visit from a member of the Talon mercenary company, who says that they were visited by an honest to Celestia human.

Now I know you’re all wondering, ‘PON-3, what the hell is a human, and why the fuck should I care?’ Well kiddies, a human is a mythological creature that was apparently very rare in Equestria, thousands of years before the war, and you should care because every time one of them showed up, big changes happened. According to our source the human’s name is Ethan Smith, and he also goes by the titles The Lone Wanderer and That Crazy Son of a Bitch. Personally, I prefer the Stable Dweller myself. Anywho, he appears to be friendly, so if you see a tall bipedal creature walking around in a leather duster, then don’t shoot him.

And that’s your news for the day! Now here’s Sweetie Bell with…

“Heh, I guess Garma must’ve sent one his boys over to the tower.” Ethan said with a smile.

“It sounds like we won’t have an easy time getting there though, thanks to that Luna damned army of Red Eye’s.” Holly said.

“Ha, getting through armies is my special talent.” Ethan replied with a smile as he drew the carbine. He really wished that it had a scope, but the iron sights should be good enough.

“I don’t see a cutie mark anywhere.” Holly told him doubtfully.

“Cutie what?” Ethan asked in confusion.

“Cutie mark, it’s a mark on your flank symbolizes what you’re best at.” Holly replied as if she was talking to a foal.

“Huh. I don’t have one of those… so what’s yours?” Ethan asked curiously.

“It’s a flower.” Holly replied darkly. “A red flower.” She added.

“So you’re best at being a flower?” Ethan asked.

“No, I’m good at gardening, and growing plants.” She replied shortly.

“I figured it would be something to do with pistols.” Ethan said.

“I was the daughter of a farmer.” She said darkly.

“Ah, never mind then.” Ethan said dropping the topic sensing the amount of hatred and rage that boiled underneath her words.

They continued on in silence except for the music flowing from his Pip-Boy for half an hour as Tenpony Tower got larger and larger in their vision. Then, they came over a rise and saw Red Eye’s army. It was a huge collection of raiders, and Ethan was pretty sure that he saw several griffons wheeling about overhead. The army surrounded the Tower on all sides, but were pulled far enough back that there was a roughly mile wide gap of no man’s land separating them from the tower.

“So, how do we get through the slaving assholes?” Holly asked.

“Oh, you’ll see. And take my magnum; I’ll need my carbine for this.” He told her as he handed her his magnum.

“Why?” She asked worriedly.

“Because a man armed with a rifle is more threatening looking then a man with a magnum.” He supplied simply.

“So we’re going to bluff our way through an army?” She asked as they began to walk down the slope towards the army which seemed to notice them immediately.

“Bluff?” Ethan asked in mock confusion. “Oh no, there’s not going to be any bluffing here.” He added with a grin. “By the way, I’d suggest staying close to me and try not to get hit by stray missiles.” Ethan said as he leveled his carbine on the head of a raider who was in the process of looking at him through the scope of a sniper rifle and fired a single shot.

The raider’s head exploded in a cloud of gore as the rifle clattered to the ground next to him, splattering several of the other raiders with his blood. With a great cry of anger an entire portion of the army charged them. Ethan smiled a white toothed smile as he brought up his carbine and fired four more times, one shot for each of the raiders leading the charge. The bodies slumped to the ground as blood blossomed from the large holes in their newly airated chests. Holly, for her part, had just sighed and drawn her pistol the second that he’d started shooting. Now, she was waiting for the raiders to get into range instead of just firing randomly and hoping that she hit something.

A smattering of assault rifle fire sped at Ethan from the charging raiders, but most of it was deflected off of his armor and the few shots that weren’t didn’t penetrate. Ethan let lose another burst of bullets. The first struck a raider in the chest, knocking him backwards into the pony behind him causing him to trip along with the pony behind him. The second shot nailed a raider unicorn with a missile launcher in the eye, causing him to fall to the ground with a shout of pain and pull the trigger of the launcher out of reflex. The missile launched straight into the ground where several other raiders were running, causing them to vanish in an explosion of shrapnel, concrete, and blood.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ethan saw the flash of a scope and looked up and to the left in time to see a griffin leveling an anti-material rifle at his head. He brought his carbine up and sent two shots directly into the griffon’s head, and looked away before the corpse had hit the ground in time to pulp the brains of another raider who had almost gotten into effective range.

“Hello out there! This is Ethan Smith, get the fuck out of my way!” Ethan shouted at the raiders as he began to walk down the slope, firing at the raiders indiscriminately, blowing away several in a rapid storm of semi-automatic lead.

A sniper round slammed into his shoulder, making the man stagger under the impact as the round ate into his armor. Other than a thin line of blood that began to run from the shoulder Ethan was seemingly unaffected and returned fire on the sniper with deadly accuracy. The bullets sped out of his gun, blasting the raider’s head open leaving behind a trio of bullet holes. He reloaded just as the first group of raiders closed in on them them.

Holly’s 12.7mm pistol barked out as a raider leapt at her and the raider’s head exploded, as did the one next to his as Ethan’s rifle spat a piece of lead into it. A raider emptied a clip of his submachine gun into Ethan’s chest, luckily missing the hole, causing a new trickle of blood to erupt from his body. The man’s carbine turned in the raider’s direction and the raider suddenly had a very difficult time breathing as his throat was torn open by two clean shots from the carbine.

Four lightly armored griffons swooped down at him from above, and time stopped. Ethan calmly lined up four headshots, one for each griffon. Time started to move again and the griffons suddenly fell out of the air, headless, and landed on the raiders below with four loud crunches.

Holly’s horn glowed a bright blue as she unleashed a powerful blast of concussive force, blasting a raider away from her and sending him crashing him into another raider, who got impaled on the first raider’s horn.

“Nice double kill.” Ethan complimented as a 10mm bullet glanced off of the armored plates over his stomach, and he returned fire plastering the offending raider to the ground.

“PREPARE TO FEEL THE WRATH OF THE GODDESS!” An angry voice shouted from above. Ethan looked up to see a purple alicorn who’s horn was glowing bright purple floating above him.

“Didn’t I already teach these fuckbuckets not to mess with me?” Ethan asked Holly rhetorically before aiming his carbine at the alicorn’s head and pulling the trigger three times. The bullets struck the alicorn in the neck, causing her to let out a cry of pain before she plummeted to the ground below. Ethan reloaded and looked around to find that there had been a temporary stoppage in the number of raiders charging him. “Alright, why aren’t any more charging us?” He asked

“Maybe they’ve decided that it’s proving too costly for them to continue sending troops after you two; after all, you did just kill eighty of them.” Eddie suggested hopefully.

“Yeah, and I’m fucking Celestia on the side.” Holly shot back. Ethan suddenly heard a sudden whining sound and his head turned rapidly in the direction of the noise.

“FUCK!” He shouted before he grabbed Holly by the belly, producing an outraged shout, and started streaking away from the place where they’d just been standing. Ten second later the ground where they’d been exploded in a burst of dirt and concrete. “They have GODDAMNED ARTILLERY! OF COURSE THEY DO!” He shouted over the noise of his ears ringing. He kept up his mad dash as the ground behind him exploded and caught a sniper bullet in the chest; luckily it wasn’t from an anti-material rifle so it didn’t tear up his chest to badly. He couldn’t have afforded the time it would’ve taken to recover if it had.

“Next shot likely to be three feet in front of us, turn left and then go straight.” Eddie advised. Ethan nodded and followed his instructions, managing to avoid the blast. Holly had thankfully stopped squirming in his arm, and was now levitating her pistol and Ethan’s magnum in the air in front of her, looking around for good targets. “Two feet to the left, go right.” Eddie informed Ethan, who complied and danced to the right just avoiding the new hole in the ground.

“Come over here and fight me like men you cowardly fucks!” Ethan shouted at the raiders, who seemed to be backing farther and farther away from him as he got closer and closer to the gate of Tenpony tower. A griffon in black painted powerarmor touched down in front of him, and Ethan was forced to drop Holly with a thud as he avoided a swing from an extremely sharp sword.

“If you’re looking for a real fight then you’ll get one!” The griffin told him with a bloodthirsty grin as it brought the sword up to Ethan’s chest level.

“Of course, I’m always looking for a good due-” Ethan began, unfortunately for him Holly had different ideas and the griffon’s head exploded in a splatter of gore. Ethan “Aww, come on! It’s been forever since I had a good workout for my blade skills.” Ethan grumbled.

“Fuck that; let’s just get into that tower before they decide to do something worse than try and shell us with artillery.” Holly said shortly.

Ethan grumbled a little more, but shrugged and began to run towards the gate to the walls surrounding the tower. The sound of a dozen rifles came from behind them as they ran, but neither looked back as the bullets slammed into the concrete behind them. Once they reached the gate Ethan shoved Holly in front of him while they were forced to stand still. His hand darted out and pressed the button underneath the speaker.

“What the hell are you doing out there?!” A voice on the other end shouted.

“Oh you know, charging our way through a raider army. Now would you kindly open the goddamned door?” Ethan asked sarcastically.

“It’s a thousand caps entry fee each.” The voice on the other end told him.

“Fine, we’ve got the caps. NOW LET US IN!” Ethan roared partly in anger, partly in pain as a .50 caliber anti-material rifle round smacked into his shoulders and sent him smashing face-first into the gate, which opened a second later. “Of course it opens a second too late.” Ethan groaned as he crawled through the gate with the assistance of Holly’s magic. The gate closed with a snap.

“Are you okay Ethan?” Holly asked as concern filtered into her normally hard, gruff voice.

“Oh yeah, give me a few hours of sleep and I’ll be fine. Now if you’ll kindly excuse me, I need to pass out now.” Ethan replied with a smile before his eyes closed and his head hit the ground with a dull smack.

Chapter 4

View Online

AN: Project Horizons spoilers incoming if you haven’t read to at least chapter 33 I’d advise not reading this until you have

Also thanks to KKat and Somber for their awesome characters

Chapter 4

The look on your face says it all

Ethan groaned with pain as the world suddenly came back into existence. His back and chest felt like someone had been digging beneath his skin with a scalpel, and the scalpel lying on the metal tray next to the bed confirmed it. He yawned and reached down to scratch his stomach, and found that he was stark naked.

“So I was either in intensive surgery, or I was having really kinky sex.” Ethan said with another yawn. A snort of laughter from the right made Ethan turn his head and he saw a brown stallion walking towards him.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, I’m Doctor Helpinghoof.” The stallion said kindly with a smile.

“Thanks Doc, the name’s Ethan Smith.” Ethan replied with a smile before he changed topics. “So Doc, do you think should I be concerned about the fact I’ve woken up like this enough times for me to feel comfortable on a hospital bed?” Ethan asked with a smile.

“I would think so.” The stallion said with a slight chuckle.

“Umm, do you have my armor?” Ethan asked after a few seconds of silence.

“Yes, it’s being cleaned; it’s costing you twenty to thirty caps.” The stallion replied.

“That’s fine; I’ve got more than enough of those. It’s just that I’m not used to being naked except when I’ve got a girl on top of me.” Ethan replied with a cheeky grin.

“I see…” Helpinghoof replied with a curious look on his face.

“So how long was I out?” Ethan asked, again changing subjects.

“About a day. Honestly, I’m extremely surprised that you’re up and about so soon.” The stallion told him.

“Well, it’s better than after I activated Project Purity. I was out for two weeks straight.” Ethan said with a shake of his head as he scooted off of the medical cot and began to stretch his legs.

“You were unconscious for two weeks?” The stallion asked.

“Yeah, that’s what happens when a giant water purifier/G.E.C.K. combo overloads when you’re attempting to bring fresh water back to the Capital Wasteland.” Ethan replied with a shrug as his eyes caught sight of a large bin full of small pieces of metal. “So that’s why I suddenly feel lighter.” He said with a chuckle as he walked over the bin and picked it up.

“You had eight pounds of metal shrapnel in your body; frankly I’m not even sure how you managed to survive for so long.” Helpinghoof said.

“Well, I’m hard to kill.” Ethan replied with a chuckle as he flicked what had once been a .50 caliber bullet.

“You were also carrying around a worryingly high amount of radiation, so we fed you enough radaway to leave you completely rad free.” The buck added.

“Shit. Well that’s going to make things more difficult.” Ethan said with a slightly annoyed snort.

“What?” The Helpinghoof asked in confusion, normally his patients were grateful for the radiation purge.

“Well if I’m not charged with enough radiation my bones don’t snap back together when broken or shattered, and it also decreases my natural healing abilities.” Ethan replied.

“So your body heals as if you were a ghoul?” The buck asked curiously after a few seconds of thought.

“Kind of. It’s more of a benign mutation then anything to do with the ghoulification process, or so I’ve been told by a ghoul doctor anyways.” Ethan said with a shrug as he stretched his neck and back; he received several loud pops from his joints, causing the brown buck to look at him oddly.

“If you’d go and wait in the waiting room I’m sure that your armor will be ready soon, in the meantime your undershirt and pants have been washed.” Helpinghoof told him.

“Great. Oh, and where are my magnum, sword, and carbine?” Ethan asked.

“In the locker by the door with your underclothes.” The stallion told him. Ethan nodded his thanks and turned towards the door and picked up his stuff.

To his delight it seemed that the stallion had been telling the truth, and he quickly pulled on the black sweatpants and skin shirt-that he always wore underneath the armor, along with his leather duster and combat boots. He was also happy to see that whoever had washed his clothing had also taken the time and effort to sew it back together and removed the bullet, and horn, holes that covered the shirt. With that done he clipped his magnum to the belt around his waist, hooked his scabbard onto his hip, and slung his carbine over his shoulder. He gave the Doctor a final nod before walking over to the door and opening it softly.

“What, no kick?” Holly asked from where she was sitting in a plastic seat right outside the door, reading an old prewar magazine that looked to be about gardening. She wasn’t wearing her armor and Ethan’s eye quickly caught sight of the red flower on her flanks.

“Hey, I’m in an occupied building that was kind enough to patch me up, the least I can do is not leave scuff marks on their doors.” Ethan replied easily with a chuckle.

“Heh, so how’re you feeling?” Holly asked, changing subjects.

“I’m feeling great, but I need to find some radiation or else the next time someone breaks my arm it’s going to stay broken until I can get a stimpack in it.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“Hmm… well, I’m sure that we’ll find somewhere with enough radiation to do that.” Holly told him after a few seconds of thought.

“So you’re actually sticking with me?” Ethan asked in slight surprise. “No offense, but I kind of expected you to jump ship once we got to a safe place.” Ethan added.

“Well if I did that I figured that you’d go off and do something fucking stupid, like charging a group of hellhounds, and I decided that I didn’t want your suicide on my conscience.” Holly answered with a shrug as she got to her hooves and moved the magazine into a leather bag, which she carried on her shoulder, with her magic.

“Hey, give me some credit; I know how to survive in the Wasteland.” Ethan told her with a frown.

“Yeah, in your wasteland maybe, but here things are different. And if you go off halfcocked like that you’re going to end up with a fucking hole in your head faster than a parasprite can strip a brahmin.” Holly said with a roll of her eyes.

“Excuse me, but I’d like to talk to your tall friend.” An unexpected and polite voice said from the right. Ethan turned to find a tall, purplish unicorn wearing a black mourner’s gown standing behind him.

“Hello there, to what do I owe the pleasure my lady?” Ethan asked while giving the unicorn an elegant bow and surprising Holly with his change in demeanor.

“I carry a message for you.” The unicorn said, maintaining her polite air.

“I see; that message wouldn’t happen to have something to do with the wings underneath your dress, would it?” Ethan asked her with a slight smirk. The look of shock that flashed across the alicorn’s face was gone almost as soon as it appeared.

“Yes, yes it would.” She said quietly.

“Well then I’m all ears, and hands, and guns, and sword.” Ethan replied while his eyes flashed an icy blue.

“That won’t be necessary, at least as far as I’m concerned. I am already occupied with something.” The alicorn told him. “I am merely acting as a representative of the Goddess-”

“I hate to interrupt, but who is this goddess you keep talking about?” Eddie asked from Ethan’s Pip-Boy. “I mean, unless you’re being led by Celestia or Luna then there’s no way that you have an actual goddess leading you. So I’m curious to know who exactly thinks that they can mock my old rulers by slandering their title.” The AI asked, and for the first time since the AI had joined them Ethan heard something quite close to a threat in the program’s voice. The alicorn’s eyes suddenly widened enormously for a second as she stared detachedly at the golden Pip-Boy’s screen. Then, her eyes snapped back to normal and when the alicorn spoke again she spoke in the same voice as all of the other alicorns, although this was significantly quieter.

“WE ARE THE GODDESS OF UNITY. THE ALICORNS OF OLD WERE CLEARLY UNFIT TO UPHOLD THE TITLE OF GODDESS, OTHERWISE THIS WORLD WOULD NOT LOOK AS IT DOES NOW.” There was a significant amount of venom in her voice, enough to make Ethan’s hand reach for his sword involuntarily.

“Now, I’ll admit that Celestia, and especially Luna made some mistakes, but you will not ever say that they were unfit for their titles you ignorant limp-horned raggedy-winged donkey.” Eddie replied icily. The alicorn shook with visible rage, but she shook her head rapidly and her voice returned to the polite one that had spoken before.

“I’m sorry, you seem to have upset the Goddess so much that she cannot keep stop threatening to kill you. So I have managed to convince her that it would be best if she let me finish this discussion.” The alicorn said through a slightly strained smile.

“Aright then, so what did you want to talk to me about, or are you just trying to annoy my AI friend?” Ethan asked pointedly.

“Honestly, I came here to warn you.” The alicorn told him.

“As in the ‘I should feel threatened by you’ kind of warning, or the ‘thanks for telling me’ kind of warning?” Ethan asked; for once he was completely serious.

“The second one. Of the alicorns you fought none were using their full potential, and you only succeeded in actually killing one, the one who you beheaded.” The alicorn told him. “Furthermore, they were attempting to capture you, not to kill you. Had they wanted to kill you they would’ve.” She added.

“Wait, but I blew one of their heads open!” Ethan protested in annoyance.

“WE WERE CLOSE TO RADIATION YOU IGNORANT- please excuse her.” The alicorn said, switching voices mid conversation.

“So do you have a multi-personality disorder, or is this a hive-mind kind of deal?” Ethan asked, causing the alicorn to raise an eyebrow.

“I wouldn’t have guessed that you would know what either of those are.” The alicorn said.

“I’m smarter then I look.” Ethan replied with a chuckle.

“Yeah, you’d have to be.” Holly put in from behind him with a slight snicker.

“It’s a hive-mind; I’m the only one who really has her own personality for… reasons.” The alicorn told him.

“Oh, so do you have a name?” Ethan asked.

“Yes, it’s Lacunae.” The alicorn said with a small smile.

“Well then my dear Lacunae it is a pleasure to meet you, if you’re ever in the mood for a tumble in the hay let me know.” Ethan told her with a suggestive wag of his eyebrows.

Lacunae’s face went through several transformations extremely quickly. First came shock, then came surprise, and then came a very deep red blush that spread across her entire face.

“I-gahh! Your mind is worse than Blackjack’s!” She told him before disappearing in a flash.

“Well that was fun, let’s get something to eat.” Ethan said with a chuckle.

“You just made a fucking alicorn blush, congratulations.” Holly told him with a small smile.

“Thanks. By the way, Holly? Why don’t my guns have any ammo in them?” Ethan asked as he checked the chambers of his magnum.

“Because that’s the rule, no guns are allowed to be loaded inside of Tenpony Tower. It’s a good rule and keeps down on ponies thinking that they can end every fucking argument by shooting somepony in the face.” Holly informed him as she began to lead him out of the medical area.

“I feel naked, and not in the fun way either.” Ethan said with a slight sigh.

“You can buy rubber bullets if you want to waste the caps on them, personally I don’t feel the need or see the fucking point.” Holly said loftily.

“Yeah, I’d prefer to just punch, or slash my way through whoever tries to start a fight with me in here rather than waste caps on bullets that I’m not going to use.” Ethan agreed with a chuckle. “So what have you been up to in the day that I spent unconscious?” Ethan asked.

“I got us a room and some prewar food to split. Trust me, it’s not worth actually paying to fucking eat at any of the Goddess damned restaurants here.” Holly replied as they walked out of the medical wing and found themselves in a posh, well-lit hallway. Several well-dressed ponies turned to stare at Ethan, alarmed by the human’s sudden appearance among them.

“I suddenly know how it feels to be a super mutant.” Ethan grumbled as he followed Holly down the hallway towards an elevator.

“I don’t know what that is, but I’ll take your word for it.” Holly replied before stopping in front of the elevator. “His studio is on the top floor, and ours on the seventh, room 21. I’ll be waiting there by the time you’re done talking Pon-3.” She told him.

“Works for me.” Ethan told her with a chuckle as he walked into the elevator and hit the button for the top floor.

He waited for the elevator to drop him on the top floor, all the while humming the tune to ‘Civilization’. Once the elevator car had reached the top floor, it opened to a set of double doors. Ethan walked up to them and knocked once.

“Come in.” A feminine voice called softly from the other side, and Ethan pushed the doors open to find himself in a stately suite.

Off to one side of the room was an open doorway that had, from what Ethan could see, a large amount of radio equipment that reminded Ethan of Three Dog’s set up inside. Sitting on the couch cradling a brown-maned unicorn mare’s head in her lap was a blue-maned unicorn. The brown one’s eyes were closed in exhaustion, and Ethan could tell from experience that she’d been out late fighting.

“Ah, did I come at a bad time?” Ethan asked quietly with a nod towards the sleeping unicorn.

“Oh no, not at all. I’m Homage by the way. I’m Pon-3’s assistant, and you must be Ethan.” The blue-maned unicorn said with a small smile as she expertly expedited herself out from underneath the brown-maned one, who mumbled something in her sleep.

“Guilty as charged.” Ethan replied with a wink.

Homage nodded and waved him over to a slightly more secluded section of the room. Now that he saw her standing up, Ethan noticed that the blue-maned unicorn appeared to be much smaller than the average pony that Ethan had seen so far, only coming up to his upper thigh compared to how most came up to his stomach.

Ethan followed her to a comfortably appointed kitchen where the unicorn sat down in a chair at the table and nodded for him to do the same. Ethan eyed it warily; it looked sturdy enough, but he wasn’t sure if it would be able to hold his larger body.

“Don’t worry; they’re built to be able to hold up the weight of hellhounds, if one ever came for an interview anyways.” The unicorn said with a slight chuckle. The man took the seat and found to his surprise that it did indeed take his weight without complaint, although the distinct lack of leg room was annoying.

“I was expecting something… a bit different. I thought I was meeting directly with DJ-Pon3.” Ethan said after he took a few seconds getting as comfortable as possible in the seat.

“I get that a lot.” She said with another chuckle.

“Yeah, I’ll bet you do.” Ethan replied with a grin. “Then again, I got here two days ago, so what do I know about it?” He added with a chuckle. The mare’s eyes widened slightly.

“You just came to Equestria two days ago? how did you travel to Manehatten so quickly?” She asked.

“I got drunk, I think.” Ethan replied with a slight smile.

“You got drunk.” The mare repeated.

“Yep, the last thing I remember was convincing Sarah Lyons to go drinking in the bar at Megaton. The next thing I know I’m waking up, leaning against the side of a grey building with the sound of Holly almost being raped in my ears.” Ethan told her with a shrug. “All in all, it’s not altogether the weirdest thing that’s happened to me when I’ve been drunk.” He added with a chuckle.

“Hmm… So your first instinct upon hearing a mare screaming is to go help her?” Homage asked curiously.

“Of course; provided of course she isn’t a raider or a slaver because then she’s on her own.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “Anyways, I didn’t get the title ‘Wasteland Savior’ by letting women get raped on my watch.” The man added with a grim smile.

“Who gave you that title?” The DJ asked.

“Oh, well, that’s one of the titles that Three Dog gave me, although personally my two favorites are the Lone Wanderer and that Crazy Son of a Bitch, mostly because they sound the best.” He said. “He’s always going on about his ‘good fight’ and the importance of radaway.” The man added with a slight shake of his head.

“I’m surprised that I haven’t heard of him.” Homage said. “Well, unless you can pick up radio signals from what used to be Washington D.C. then I kind of doubt that you could’ve.” Ethan replied.

“I’ve never heard of Washington D.C., where is it?” She asked inquisitively.

“On the East Coast of the former United States.” He told her with a shrug.

“But… I’ve never heard of that place either…” Homage said in confusion.

“Well, it’s on Earth if that helps any.” Ethan deadpanned with a smile.

“Earth, as in earth ponies?” Homage asked.

“No, as in the planet Earth.” Ethan told her frankly.

“You… you’re not from Eques, you’re an alien!” Homage said loudly with wide eyes.

“Well that confirms one theory at least. The real question is how I managed to fly my spaceship here drunk, and then lose it…” Ethan said trailing off.

“You have a spaceship?!” Homage exclaimed.

“Well I had to kill a whole bunch of aliens to get it. It was a boring adventure to be honest, got really, really, really repetitive. Although I’ve got to say I did enjoy the spacewalk part.” Ethan told her.

“Wait a second; you said that one of your titles was Wasteland Savior, right?” Homage asked.

“Yes.” Ethan replied.

“So your home is a wasteland?” She asked.

“That’s right, the Capital Wasteland, covered in enough radiation, super mutants, and evil raiders to make it so that you can’t fire a shot from your rifle without hitting one of the jackasses in the face with your bullets.” Ethan replied with a shrug. Homage’s eyes drooped and the smile that had begun to form on her face withered and died.

“You-you’re telling me that this has happened on your planet too?!” She said loudly.

“Yep, two hundred and some years ago the bombs fell and reduced most of the Earth into a radioactive slime ball full of decaying buildings and raider bands.” Ethan told her while sounding entirely too uncaring about it.

“Doesn’t it upset you that it happened here too?” The unicorn asked.

“Well of course it does, it’s a tragedy, but it’s not like I can do anything about it.” Ethan replied with a shrug. Homage sighed.

“Okay, I guess that you’re right. It happened two hundred years ago for both of our respective homes.” She said with a shake of her head. “Well, I guess that takes care of the questions about who you are and where you came from, although I don’t think I’ll mention the last bit.”

“You’ll mention it?” Ethan asked with a tiny smile.

“To my boss, of course.” Homage corrected. “I guess we should move onto the more important questions then.” She said changing the topic. “What do you plan to do in the Equestrian Wasteland?”

“Try and find my way home, and help out anyone that I can along the way.” Ethan said promptly without a note of sarcasm or casualness in his voice. “I’m the Lone fucking Wanderer, and I intend to leave the best impression that I can.” He added with a grin.

“Homage wh- By Celestia’s blazing tits, what’s that?!” A voice from behind Ethan shouted.

Ethan turned to find the other unicorn staring at him with wide eyes. She was about the same height as Homage, and from the look in her eyes Ethan could tell that somepony hadn’t been paying very good attention to the radio.

“The name’s Ethan Smith, I kill bad people.” Ethan replied with a grin as he got to his feet and took a step towards the mare, who met him with strong determined eyes.

“Ethan, this is Littlepip. Littlepip, this is Ethan.” Homage said, introducing them to each other.

“Sup?” Ethan asked with a wide smile.

“Um, hi.” Littlepip said a little awkwardly.

“That’s a nice revolver that you’ve got there.” Ethan told her as he noticed a large pistol on her hip.

“Thanks, this is Lil' Macintosh, it’s kept me safe since I got out of my Stable.” Littlepip said proudly as she brought the gun up for Ethan to look at in her TK. Ethan slowly took it out of the field while he also reached for his own magnum and offered it to the unicorn grip first.

“This is the Blackhawk; it was given to me by an old lady who I really miss sometimes.” Ethan told the unicorn as he deftly explored her gun’s mechanisms. The pistol was amazingly well made, even when compared to some of the perfectly maintained prewar weaponry that Ethan had seen in his travels.

“What happened to her?” Littlepip asked as she examined the gun.

“She was… killed by raiders, seconds before I could get to her.” Ethan said with a heavy sigh as a look of old anger and grief flew over his face.

“I’m sorry.” Littlepip and Homage said simultaneously, causing Littlepip to blush furiously while Homage winked at her.

“Don’t worry about it, I killed each and every one of those bastards in the worst way I could think of and then threw what was left of the corpses into vats of acid.” Ethan said as his voice hardened. “And then I buried Agatha next to her husband’s grave.” He added with another sigh as his voice softened again.

“Wow Ethan, that’s the most depressing thing that I’ve heard you say this whole time.” Eddie said unexpectedly in an honest voice from Ethan’s wrist, causing Littlepip to glance at his Pip-Boy for the first time.

“Why is your Pip-Buck golden… and talking?” The mare asked slowly.

“Hiya, I’m Eddie!” Eddie said happily.

“This is Eddie, I liberated him from a MWT hub and he turned my Pip-Boy golden for some reason.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“Hey, gold is a great color for a Pip-Buck.” Eddie defended.

“It’s a Pip-Boy Eddie, and I don’t really mind the color change so much as the fact that it makes a big shiny fucking target out of my arm.” Ethan told the AI.

“Well I’m sorry if my natural aura offers a great target, I guess I’ll just find someone else’s Pip-Buck to inhabit.” Eddie said snappily.

“Now there’s no reason to be a spoiled brat about it.” Ethan told the AI who made a noise that was about a perfect to blowing a raspberry as you could get without actual lips.

“I’m not being a spoiled brat, I’m just-” Eddie began, sadly he was interrupted mid-sentence.

“As much as I’d like to listen to you two argue I still have an interview to do so that Pon3 can report on the news.” Homage interjected, getting Ethan’s attention away from the AI in his Pip-Boy.

“Oh right, sorry.” Ethan said with a slight chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly. “Eddie and I just got a little sidetracked, right Eddie?” Ethan said, addressing the AI.

“Oh yes our mistake entirely. That’s a nicely enchanted microphone you have over there with the broadcasting equipment by the way.” Eddie told Homage. “It seems to have a voice morphing spell on it.” The AI added slyly.

“It might.” Homage said with a shrug. “Anyways Ethan, I have just a few more questions for you.”

“Ask away, I’m an open book.” Ethan replied as he handed Littlepip her revolver back and received the Blackhawk in turn.

“Hmm… well, we’ve covered who you are and where you come from, along with what you plan to do here. Ah, I’ve got one. How long do you plan to spend in Tenpony before moving on?” She asked.

“Pretty much until someone gives me something interesting to do; I’ve always been a bit of a drifter, a wanderer if you will. I get things done, and then move on to the next thing that looks exciting enough to bother doing.” Ethan answered.

“So you’re looking for work then?” Homage asked with a sly grin and Ethan heard Littlepip let out a sigh.

“As long as it doesn’t involve killing and raping the innocent I’ll take whatever you’ve got.” Ethan replied with an easy smile.

“I have something in mind, as long as you’re up to it of course.” Homage said.

“Lay it on me.” Ethan told her confidently.

“Homage, I’ll be back later, I need to go talk to Velvet and Calamity.” Littlepip said from behind as she walked towards the door.

“I’ll see you later at the party then Littlepip.” Homage said before turning back to Ethan. “There have been some reports of a large raider gang operating out of one of the old towers around the start of the Luna’s Line skyway who’ve preying on trade caravans; I’d like you to get rid of that problem if you can.” She said.

“Raiders. Well, that’s hardly exciting.” Ethan said with a roll of his eyes. “I’ll take care of it though, how long do I have?”

“Well every day you wait is another day that they get to spend killing innocent traders, but there’s really no other time limit that I can think of.” Homage replied.

“Okay, Holly and I’ll kill them all tomorrow. What’s the pay?”

“A thousand caps each.” Homage replied.

“Sounds good to me… I’ve got a bit of time left to burn before the end of the day, do you have any suggestions about where I could spend it?” Ethan asked.

“I’d suggest the library, if nothing else you can probably find a few books on magic and Equestrian history.” Homage said. “They should also have a copy or two of the Wasteland Survival Guide if you’re interested.” She added. To the blue maned unicorn’s surprise, Ethan burst out laughing at the mention of that particular tome of wasteland knowledge.

“Oh god, that’s- just- oh god I’ve got to meet the author, I just fucking have to meet a pony version of Moria.” Ethan said between bursts of laughter.

“I’m missing something here, aren’t I?” Homage asked.

“Here, take a look.” Ethan said as he pulled his singed pocket version of the Wasteland Survival Guide out of one of his duster’s interior pockets and handed it to Homage. He took the little book everywhere with him on the off chance that he needed it. Well that, and Moria had made him promise to so that he could always hold a piece of their friendship close to his heart.

“It says that it was co-authored and researched by Moria Brown and…” Homage said before trailing off.

“You have no idea how much of an absolute bitch it was to get all the information that was needed to write this book. Trust me on that.” Ethan told her with a slightly pained chuckle. Homage was too lost in the book to reply for several minutes as the pages turned rapidly in her magic.

“The similarities between your world and ours are amazing.” She said at last.

“Yeah, tell me about it. All we need now is a pony version of Liberty Prime walking down the road shouting about communism and we’ll be golden.” Ethan replied with a shake of his head. “Anyways, I should get going. I’m curios to learn more about this place before I go to sleep.” Ethan told her as he retrieved his book from her magical grip.

“Come see me again once you’ve taken care of those raiders.” Homage told him.

“Wait, I just thought of something.” Ethan said pausing halfway to the door.

“Yes, what’s that?” Homage asked.

“What about the army of raiding slavers out there?” Ethan asked.

“Oh, them; Littlepip and a new friend managed to strike up a deal last night while you were out. They’ve agreed to pull back and give the Tower some breathing room in exchange for Littlepip to take care of something that they need.” Homage said.

“Cool, thanks for the info.” Ethan replied before he left the room. “So Eddie, can you get me to the library?” Ethan asked the AI.

“I don’t know; can you get over yourself and your apparent hatred for the color gold?” Eddie asked as he put up a new marker on Ethan’s HUD and directed him towards the stairs.

“I don’t have a problem with the color gold Eddie; I just don’t like how flashy of a target it makes my arm! Isn’t there any other color you could make it?” Ethan asked the AI as he took the stairs two at a time until he came to the right floor.

“Well… I guess I could make it silver if you wanted.” Eddie consented. “But I really didn’t like Luna as much as Celestia so I prefer gold.” He added.

Ethan let out a sigh as he pushed the door to the library open.

“Fine, but if you get my arm blown off I’m going to be very annoyed with you.” He said.

“I hardly see how you’ll be in any condition to do anything but scream if your arm is blown off.” Eddie said snarkily.

“You’d be surprised.” Ethan replied with a chuckle.

“What… are you?” A new voice asked interrupting Ethan’s conversation with the AI.

Ethan turned to find a mare with a red and black striped mane looking up at him from where she’d been reading a book. To Ethan’s considerable surprise, it looked like most of her body was completely made of metal, along with her eyes.

“I’m a guy who got drunk and wandered into another world.” Ethan replied casually. “Nice cybernetics by the way.” He added with a smile.

“Gee, thanks, I’m so happy to have them.” The mare said with a sigh and a frown. Ethan may not have had a lot of experience with ponies yet, but he’d had a lot of experience with people who were hurting internally and the mare in front of him was giving off all of the typical signs of someone close to the brink of suicide.

“Why did you need them?” Ethan asked quietly as he took a seat next to her.

“I got plowed in order to keep it from happening to a filly; they nailed my legs to the ground to keep me from fighting back.” The mare replied in a subdued voice. Ethan winced internally, that was harsh even by wasteland standards.

“And the only way to get your legs out of the wood was to cut them off.” Ethan said, finishing the thought for her.

“Yeah, that.” She said with a scowl. Ethan sighed.

“It gets better you know.” He told her.

“90% of my body is made of metal. How can this possibly get better?” She asked.

Instead of answering her directly, Ethan pulled up the right side of his black under shirt and took off his duster. Then, he unsheathed his sword, causing the mare’s eyes to widen in surprise as the electricity covered blade slid into the open air. Ethan pressed a small, hidden button on the side of the hilt and the electricity stopped, it had taken him a really, really, really long time to figure out that that button was there.

Then, with a simple movement he sent the blade cutting into the skin of his right arm. A small bit of blood crept to the surface, but Ethan ignored it as he kept pushing until he reached the thing he was looking for. He pulled the blade out of his flesh and showed the mare the newly opened one inch deep wound. Her eyebrows rose as she saw the mass of wires that were already beginning to disappear beneath his flesh as it began to knit back together. Even at his current slowed rate of regeneration his skin would be fully healed in several minutes.

“It gets better.” Ethan told her with a sad smile.

“How did it happen?” She asked quietly.

“I got this little beauty when I went to Vegas and tried to kill a deathclaw alpha male armed with only a 10.mm pistol and a knife. I’m lucky it didn’t kill me; instead it just chopped my arm off and left me to die. I got picked up by the Followers after that and apparently they found someone to replace my arm entirely.” Ethan replied. “It was probably the single stupidest thing that I’ve ever done.” He added with a chuckle.

“Heh, you should see me when I’m drunk.” Blackjack said.

“Oh really?” Ethan asked with a smirk. “One time when I got drunk I charged a supermutant behemoth. Those are fifty foot tall, one to two ton bipedal monsters, armed with only a sword and a bottle of whiskey while only wearing my duster.” Ethan said with a grin.

“Hah, this one time I got so drunk that I managed to intimidate a squad of Enclave soldiers into giving me a free ride down a mountain and then fight off a bunch of manticores.” The mare said with a smile at the memory.

“Oh please, that’s tame by comparison to this one time I got drunk off of moonshine in Point Lookout.” Ethan replied with a grin.

“Point Lookout?” The mare asked.

“It’s this place to the north of my home that’s covered in fog and swampy water and is crawling with Swamp Folk. Swamp Folk are these giant mutated guys who run around with shotguns that can punch through powerarmor and live deep in the swamp where they sacrifice humans to their dark gods.” Ethan answered.

“Sounds like a fun place.” The mare said making Ethan chuckle.

“Oh yeah, it’s a fucking blast.”

“So you got drunk and then?” The mare asked.

“Okay so I’m drunk out of my skull on moonshine that I’d just brewed myself, and decide ‘you know I bet if I shot them with bb guns the Swamp Folk would throw me a party!’” Ethan said before taking a breath. “So I somehow manage to get ahold of a bb gun and then I go out into the swamp looking for Swamp Folk. When I finally found them I really got lucky; or unlucky actually, and they were in the middle of a party. So being the rational kind of guy that I was at the time I decided that the best thing that I could do was to jump into the middle of the circle around the fire and start dancing.”

“Sounds like a great idea.” The mare deadpanned.

“Oh yeah you can bet your ass it was, well at least until they noticed that I wasn’t one of them. After that it became less of a party and more of a contest of ‘who’ver catcheses that there variment gets ta rape em till he dies’. It’s a good thing that I kept my double barreled shotgun with me that night, otherwise I’d be some idiot’s stuffed rape trophy by now.” Ethan said finishing his story.

“Well one time I gelded a stallion with a dragon claw while I balanced a bottle of whiskey on my head after beating off an entire mercenary company with my bare hooves.” The mare challenged.

“Well you must’ve been really sticky afterwards.” Ethan said with a smirk. The mare hesitated for a second as she thought about what he’d just said, and then burst out laughing loudly and Ethan joined in.

“Oh Goddesses, you have no idea how much I needed to laugh like that.” The mare said.

“It’s what I do.” Ethan replied with a chuckle.

“So what’s your name?” The mare asked.

“I’m Ethan Smith, The Lone Wanderer.” Ethan replied with a smile as he offered her his hand.

“Blackjack, Security.” She replied and they shook.

“Security eh? Meh, I’ve heard worse titles I guess.” Ethan told her with a joking chuckle.

“I didn’t choose it; it’s just what Pon-3 decided to call me.” Blackjack replied.

“Like I said, I’ve heard worse.” Ethan said with a shrug. “So what else is bugging you besides just getting a makeover?” He asked.

“Nothing! Why do ponies keep on asking me if there’s something bugging me? I’m fine!” She said angrily.

“Because you’re giving off angst like a hormonal teenaged girl who just had her village killed by raiders.” Ethan replied.

“That’s… what happened.” Blackjack said in a low voice.

“How did it happen?” Ethan asked quietly.

“The Stable got infected by a virus that turned them into cannibalistic raiders; to make a long story short we had to gas them.” Blackjack said in a low voice.

“Ouch, and I thought I had it rough as far as Vaults go.” Ethan said with a shake of his head.

“Vaults?” Blackjack asked.

“Yeah, I guess you’d call them Stables here.” Ethan replied. “I got kicked out, and then called back, and then kicked out again.” He added.

“I’m sorry.” Blackjack told him sympathetically.

“Don’t worry about it. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry about your Stable.” Ethan told the mare.

“Thanks.” Blackjack said quietly.

“Wow, there’s some kind of program in your Pip-Buck!” Eddie’s voice suddenly said from Ethan’s golden Pip-Boy.

“Who’s that?” Blackjack asked curiously.

“I’m Eddie!” Eddie said with a smile that Ethan brought his arm up so that Blackjack could see. “And I just noticed that the Pip-Buck built into your foreleg seems to have a-” Eddie was cut off as an old pony suddenly materialized in front of Blackjack’s Pip-Buck. Ethan couldn’t see him, but Blackjack could.

“Keep the hell out AI, you’re not welcome here.” The pony said before disappearing again.

“What the buck was that?” Eddie asked.

“That was Dealer, don’t worry about him.” Blackjack said with a shrug.

“Well I have no idea what you two are talking about, so-” Ethan began but he was interrupted by a squee from behind him.

“Oh my gosh! I’ve never seen something with a body like yours; I wonder what species you are!” An excited voice said from behind him. He turned to find a blue maned pegasus looking at him with wide and excited eyes. “Hmm, well, you’re definitely bipedal, and you’ve got forward facing eyes which should give you excellent peripheral vision. You seem to be single jointed, and if I’m not mistaken you have the teeth of an omnivore!” She continued with a smile.

“Yeesh Glory, give him a second to reply.” Blackjack told the mare with a chuckle.

“Oh, sorry, it’s just that I don’t have the chance to meet a new species that’s not trying to kill us very often.” Glory said with an embarrassed chuckle.

“Not a problem, trust me, you’re hardly the first person who’s done that to me.” Ethan told her with a shrug. “I’m Ethan Smith, by the way.” He added.

“I’m Glory, and would you mind if I got a look at you out of those clothes?” The pegasus asked him.

“Well I would, but we’re kind of in public, and I don’t know what would happen if a kid came in and saw us.” Ethan replied with a chuckle. “I wouldn’t want to steal his innocence. Besides, I’m more into blondes then blues. No hard feelings.” The man added with a smirk.

“What are you talkin- oh my…” Glory said suddenly as a giant blush spread over her face.

“Hey, don’t make Glory blush, that’s my job!” Blackjack told Ethan with a smile as she got out of her chair and wrapped her foreleg around Glory’s shoulder comfortingly.

“Well what do you expect me to do when she asks to see me naked?” Ethan asked with a chuckle.

“Oh, so nudity isn’t socially accepted outside of intimacy in your society?” Glory asked, somehow managing to rise out of her embarrassment so that she could ask a question.

“Nope, the only time that we’re naked around each other is when we’re having sex.” Ethan replied with a smirk.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.” Glory said with another blush.

“I don’t mind at all; trust me, a little more action in the sack is never a bad thing.” Ethan told the pegasus.

“Amen.” Blackjack said with a conspiratorial smirk towards Glory.

“Besides, if I’ve got women here hitting on me it just means that my raw animal magnetism is even stronger than I thought.” He added with a chuckle.

“So what species are you? Because I haven’t ever heard of anything that looks like you.” Glory asked.

“I’m a human, or homo sapiens sapiens if you want to get to scientific about it.” Ethan replied.

“You’re a human!?” Glory asked excitedly her embarrassment now completely forgotten.

“Yep, I got drunk and somehow managed to either pilot a spacecraft here or something else happened that I don’t know about. Either way, I’m here until I can figure out how to get back home.” Ethan explained.

“What’s it like where you’re from? What are the people like, how is your government set up?” Glory asked rapidly before pausing for breath.

“In order, it’s a wasteland like it is here, the people vary but most of them are just trying to survive, we don’t exactly have a government although I guess the Brotherhood of Steel counts as an unofficial one for the Capital Wasteland.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“You’re telling me that your society destroyed itself too?” Glory asked as all of the excitement drained away from her face.

“Yep, it’s not that bad though. I mean, sure you’ve got to watch out for raiders and slavers and super mutants, and of course the fucking Enclave, but besides that things aren’t too bad.” Ethan replied.

“Wait, did you just say Enclave?” Glory asked.

“Yep, genocidal assholes with more powerarmor then sense, my branch was run by a fucking AI. Well at least until I killed it and the rest of them.” Ethan told her with a shrug.

“Wha-what?” Glory asked in confusion.

“Stupid bastards killed my father and a lot of innocent people, your group don’t seem much better, by the way.” Ethan informed them.

“Let me get this straight. You’re from another world, and they have a group called the Enclave who run around in powerarmor too?” Blackjack asked.

“Yep, I kind of ended up going on a roaring rampage of revenge and killed every single one of them.” Ethan said with another shrug. Glory was staring at him with wide eyes and Blackjack had cocked her head to the side as if she was trying to think of something to say.

“You wouldn’t happen to carry that grudge over to the equestrian Enclave, would you?” Glory asked after a few seconds of silence.

“Not really, I already had a run-in with them and they seemed fairly harmless.” Ethan replied. “I managed to talk an entire squad of green-as-grass morons into standing down and letting my friend and I get away with an advanced AI, why do you ask?” Ethan asked

“No-no reason. Come on Blackjack, we should probably let Ethan here get back to whatever it is that he was doing.” Glory said pulling on Blackjack.

“Sure Glory, Homage’s party is going to start soon anyways, right?” Blackjack said with a nod.

“Yes, we need to get ready for that.” Glory said swiftly. “Well it’s been nice meeting you and I’d love to study your body in higher detail, but that’ll have to wait, goodbye.” Glory said as she rushed out of the room.

“Did I say something wrong?” Ethan asked Blackjack.

“She’s Enclave.” Blackjack replied with a shrug.

“Ah, well, no hard feelings. I don’t plan on killing her.” Ethan told her.

“It’s fine. Look. I’ve got to go but thanks for giving me someone to talk to.” Blackjack said.

“My pleasure; I’m always happy to help a girl.” The man told her with a chuckle as he ran his hand through his brown hair. “Now I should probably go see how Holly’s doing.”

“Later then.” Blackjack said before she left the room.

“Weren’t you originally here to read books?” Eddie asked questioningly.

“Shut up Eddie.”

***

“So how was your day?” Holly asked Ethan as he collapsed in the griffon sized bed.

“Good, I talked to a bunch of ponies.” Ethan replied with a yawn. “And I got us a job killing raiders.”

“Sounds good, see you in the morning then.” Holly said as she walked through the door to her room. Ethan turned out the light and shut his eyes.

***

Her eyes opened. A lock of golden hair fell past her right eye. She looked around and sighed.

“Goddammit Ethan.” She muttered. A whip cracked in the distance and Sarah Lyons heard the sound of someone screaming in pain. “Why do I keep getting drunk with him?” She asked herself. “It never ends well…”

Chapter 5

View Online

Edited by TacoTown

Chapter 5

Sarah Lyons loved her powerarmor, but she’d long ago learned what she could do without it when she had to. For example, as when she was stuck with only her black under suit and a pair of black pants. She also loved her plasma rifle. Sarah was the kind of woman who preferred to kill things from far away, with minimal danger to herself or her squad mates.

Sarah Lyons had also spent every day for the last five years fighting eight foot tall creatures capable of feats of superhuman strength. Thanks to that, Sarah Lyons was an extremely competent and deadly person to be fighting, either at a distance or up close and personal.

Star Sentinel Sarah Lyons, daughter of Elder Owyn Lyons, and current Commander of the Lyons Pride also happened to have been trained in personal combat by Paladin Gunny himself. That meant that not only was she extremely proficient at close combat fighting, but she was also extremely dirty at it to.

“Well lookie here boys, fresh meat!” A raider pony said to several others.

Sarah had no idea how a horse was talking, but she was more willing to bet that it was Ethan’s fault. The fact that she’d just been referred to as ‘meat’ told her exactly what type of being that pony was, specifically that he was raider. The fact that she was being referred to as meat also told her something else, it told her that they were going to try and rape her. This was a very bad idea on their part.

There three of them standing several feet away from where she was leaning back against the soot covered building. All were wearing the typical raider garb, which is to say leather, spikes, and lots of blood sprinkled in for good measure. None of them were prepared for what happened next, and even if they had been it wouldn’t have helped them very much.

Her body surged forward and she tackled the raider to the ground while smashing her knee into his crotch. She bore him to the ground and delivered an elbow to the windpipe that forced the pony to futilely gasp for breath while Sarah moved onto the next target.

The next closest pony was a mare, and Sarah’s hands flashed out and caught her by the back of her head. With a grunt Sarah smashed the raider into the cracked concrete ground face first, and the sound of breaking teeth filled the air for a second before Sarah’s foot stomped down onto the mare in the back of the head in with a sickening crack. It paid to be wearing steel toed combat boots. The other three had recovered from their shock at the first of their numbers’ defeat and were in the process of charging her.

“I’m going to kill you!” The last stallion shouted. Sarah froze where she was for a second before she pivoted and slammed both of her fists into the top of his head. The raider staggered backwards, and Sarah pressed her advantage by delivering a powerful kick that caught him in the chest flinging him backwards into a nearby wall. Sarah finished him off with a powerful stomp of her boots.

She had just killed three small horses, all of whom could apparently talk, and were dressed up like raiders. She sighed again before her face hardened with resolve. She was going to get out of wherever she was, she was going to find Ethan Smith, and then she was going to carve him a new asshole. A startled gasp from in front of her made the woman look up to see a medium sized blue unicorn stallion looking at her in confusion.

“Wha-What are you?” The pony asked in a slightly hesitant voice. Sarah let out a groan; this was going to take some getting used to.

“I’m a soldier of the Brotherhood of Steel, and I’m looking for a man named Ethan Smith. Mostly because I’m sure that this is his damned fault” Sarah said slowly in a calm voice. “Have you seen or heard of him?” She asked in a kind voice that she reserved for people who were on a hair trigger. To her surprise, the pony nodded. “Wait, you have?” She asked in confusion.

“Actually yes, he’s been all over the radio lately.” The pony said with a slightly relived sigh now that he now both knew she wasn’t going to kill him and that he suspected that he knew what she was. As he flipped a switch on a device that closely resembled a Pip-Boy that was attached to his foreleg an eerily familiar voice came out of the machine.

This DJ-Pon3, bringing you some news. Guess what Wasteland, I met the human! His name is Ethan Smith, and he stopped by the studio to give old Pon3 an interview…

“Of fucking course.” Sarah groaned. “I really shouldn’t be surprised; this is Ethan, so of course the first thing he does is head for the nearest radio station.” She said sourly

“So you’re a human, like this Ethan guy too?” The stallion asked as he took a step towards her curiously.

“Yeah, but I’m a woman instead of a man.” Sarah told the buck with a nod. “Like I said. I’m a soldier with the Brotherhood of Steel, what are you?” She added

“I’m a unicorn.” The pony said simply

“Oh?” Sarah asked.

“Oh what? I said I’m a unicorn.” The unicorn said with a slight snort of annoyance.

“Fine, that makes sense. Mostly because I have the oddest feeling that Ethan somehow over did it with those cocktail that he decided to make and that I’m actually passed out naked next to him in a chemical induced coma.” Sarah said with a slight sigh.

“You’ve got quite the imagination there.” The unicorn told her with a slight chuckle while Sarah began searching the dead raiders for goods. Ordinarily she wouldn’t have bothered, but considering that she was almost naked at the moment it would probably be a good idea to pick up a few items.

“So, let’s just say that I’m not in a coma; where the fuck am I?” Sarah asked

“Well, you’re in Fillydelphia. It’s a slave city run by a megalomaniac who won’t shut the FUCK up about how he’s going to bring peace back to the Wasteland and how all of the workers will eventually rise up and be good ponies and all the other pretentious bullshit that ponies like him tell themselves.” The blue unicorn said with a scowl.

“Of course, why should I be surprised?” Sarah asked rhetorically as she stood up from her looting. The grand total of her loot turned out to be two switchblades and a syringe of Med-X, all of which she stuck into the convenient pockets of her pants.

“It isn’t as if there can be any other kind of assholes in the wasteland other than the ones who are either preaching equality or fornicating with the bodies of dead children as they stand on top of a throne of skulls.” She continued with an annoyed frown, getting an amused snort from the unicorn.

“So what’s you name anyways? Because right now in my head I’m referring to you as the woman, and it’s getting really annoying.” The unicorn asked.

“Sarah, Sarah Lyons.” Sarah told the unicorn with a small smile. “So what’s your name, magical creature who seems to be inhabiting my drunk dreams?” She asked.

“Winterberry, my name is Winterberry.” He replied.

“Yep, it’s official. I’m drunk out of my mind.” Sarah said with a sigh. “Do you mind if I just call you Winter?”

“Works for me. So, friends?” Winter asked, extending a hoof. Sarah bent down to shake it and exchanged a firm handshake with the pony.

“Friends.” Sarah replied with a nod.

Now that she was standing close enough to shake his hoof she noticed something about Winter. He was malnourished. If her experiences in the Wasteland had taught her anything it was how to blow a super mutant’s head off, and if there was anything else that they’d taught her it was how to tell whether or not someone was currently starving to death. And Winter was starving to death. his ribs weren’t quite pocking out of his side, but they were easily visible if you knew where to look. Furthermore a thick latticework of scaring could be seen beneath the fur of his back and shoulders. A grimace flowed over Sarah’s face and her teeth began to grind together as she thought about what was happening to this poor stallion. He was slowly being worked to death!

“Is something wrong Sarah?” Winter asked as he pushed his green mane out of his eyes.

“Yes, yes it is.” Sarah replied as a current of palpable disgust flowed through her voice. “It’s disgusting that someone can do this to someone else. I’m not a green initiate who thinks that they can singlehandedly change the world, but I’ve seen the worst the Capital Wasteland can provide, and I’ll be damned if I let this place continue to do what it’s obviously doing to you.” She replied evenly as she reached for the place where her plasma rifle normally hung on her back only to find nothing but air between her fingers.

“Ha, I’ve been here for two weeks. It’s much worse for others.” The blue unicorn said with a scowl.

“Well then we’re going to be establishing some changes around here.” Sarah told him with a hard voice.

“Good luck, we’re in Fillydelphia. The only thing that changes here is the shift.” Winter told her with a frown. “Look, our real problem here is the fact that you’re not a pony. If you were it might be possible to hide you, but you’re not. That means that hiding you is going to be close to impossible unless you’re the stealthy type, and no offence, but you don’t exactly look the type.” Winter continued.

“Sneaking has never really been my strong suit.” Sarah admitted. “And you’ve been here for longer than I have so I’ll defer to your judgment for now. So what should I do next?” Sarah asked.

“Follow me and I’ll introduce you to my ‘master’-” Winter told her with a scowl “-she’s not so bad as far as slavers go, and I’m sure having you as one of her ‘stock’ would make her look a little more impressive to her betters. All things considered, that’s the best thing that you can do.” Winter explained.

“I’m no one’s slave.” Sarah told him.

“Well then you’ll be dead sooner rather than later. If you’re not a slave in Fillydelphia then you’d better be a master, otherwise you’re dead.” The blue unicorn explained as his scowl deepened. Sarah’s jaw clenched tightly for a moment as her inner stubbornness appeared, but she sighed and slowly her jaw loosened.

“Fine, but the first person to try and rape me is getting the same treatment as them.” She said with a nod towards the now stinking, although they’d smelled bad before, bodies of the raiders.

“I’d try and avoid crippling or killing anypony from now on, it hurts productivity.” He said sourly before spitting on the bodies and then beginning to stride out of the alley with Sarah following closely behind him.

Sarah coughed a bit as she was met by a wave of sickly ash coated air and immediately began to frown as the fumes of industrial work and suffering hit her in the face. In the alley she’d sensed it, but it hadn’t been overpowering. Here she could see individual pieces of ash as they floated by.

“What a shithole.” She muttered just loud enough for Winter to hear.

“Heh, tell me about it.” The stallion replied as he came to a stop.

It was then that Sarah noticed the multitude of eyes that had begun to track her the moment that she left the alley. Apparently, the scuffle between her and the raiders had been louder then she’d thought, and Winter had been the first one with the balls to see what had happened. There were at least two dozen ponies looking at her in various states of curiosity, all of whom were ragged and starving. They looked at her, and Sarah could tell that some of them were sizing her up, seeing if she’d be easy prey.

In answer to their unasked questions Sarah scowled as she wiped some of the raider blood off of her boots so that it was clearly visible to the watchers. A sudden gunshot made all of the slaves jump in surprise with the exception of Sarah, whose only response was to search for the source of the shot.

She found it quickly. The mare holding the gun in an odd yellow light that seemed to be coming from her horn was striding purposely towards them. Her red fur was mostly covered in black leather armor, and a yellow mane trailed around her face. A pair of green eyes glared at all the slaves, and they began to slowly back away from Sarah and Winter.

“Who are you?” The mare asked slowly in a quiet voice.

“Sarah Lyons.” Sarah told her.

“Do you belong to anyone yet?” The slaver asked.

“To myself.” Sarah replied, her voice was steely and her eyes were hard as solid granite. Winter sighed quietly and rolled his eyes.

“Winterberry 23, do you know what happened to my three raiders who were sent to investigate the noise?” The mare asked, turning to Winter, her voice had turned quiet and dangerous.

“She killed each of them, unarmed.” Winter answered.

“She killed three ponies at once, unarmed?” The mare asked slowly.

“To be fair she didn’t kill them all at once master, she killed them one at a time.” Winter answered, he was unable to keep a small smirk off of his face. The grin disappeared as the whip that the slaver carried at her hip cracked across his foreleg and made him jump in pain as a thin trickle of blood began to flow from his wrist.

“Keep your wit to yourself Winterberry 23.” The slaver said calmly before turning back to Sarah. “And what do you have to say about killing three of my stock?” She asked.

“That they were unskilled fighters and that I didn’t even break a sweat.” Sarah replied coldly.

“Hmm…” the mare said before sending the whip slashing out at Sarah’s face.

The woman’s hand shot up and caught the whip an inch away from her face. Her eyes were hard and determined, despite the pain that was rushing through her hand and the adrenaline that flowed through her veins. Her fist was clenched around the tip of the whip so tightly that her knuckles were turning white; she’d almost missed catching it. Even though she’d caught it, she could feel blood beginning to well up from her clenched palm. The other slaves had disappeared at this point and the only people around were Sarah, Winter, and the mare.

“You’re a soldier of some kind, aren’t you?” The mare asked.

“Yes.” Sarah answered simply.

“I thought so; you have the look about you.” She mused as she snapped the whip out of Sarah’s hand with a small burst of yellow light, making Sarah’s hand bleed even more. “I suppose I’ll just use you for the jobs I don’t trust my raiders to do…” She said before she trailed off. Then faster than Sarah could react, the whip shot out twice and slashed into her arms opening up two new cuts that began to bleed.

“Know your place slave. From now on your name is Sara Lyons 24, or slave. You will address me as Mistress, or Mistress Dove and you will NOT kill anypony who I do not personally tell you to kill.” The mare said it calmly as she coiled the whip back up and reattached it to her hip. “Stay with Winterberry 23, he should be able to keep you from injuring yourself and he can probably find something for you to do while I think of someone that I need you to do.” She continued politely before turning her back to them. “I’m off to inform Lord Red Eye that I’ve acquired you, try not to die while I’m gone.” With that the slaver walked off leaving Sarah alone with Winter, bleeding and angry.

“She. Is. Dead!” Sarah muttered as she instinctively reached for the pocket where she kept her stimpacks on the few and far between occasions when she wasn’t wearing her armor in combat. Like the time Ethan had convinced her that poking mirelurks with sticks was fun; they’d been drunk at the time, which really should’ve convinced her to stop drinking with him. Luckily, her stimpacks seemed to have come with her on her journey to magic pony slave city, and she quickly injected one into her arm.

“Are those chems?” Winter asked with the sinking suspicion that he was now helping a druggy.

“No, they’re stimpacks, they heal and are non-addictive.” Sarah replied curtly as she put the empty syringe back into its pouch. Her arms started tingling and began to heal before her eyes. “Luckily, stimpacks are an all-purpose healer or I’d probably get gangrene or a bad infection from these damn cuts.” Sarah said with a scowl. “How’s your leg?” She added with a look of concern for the light blue stallion.

“I’ve had worse, by a lot.” He replied. Winter was already floating a bandage out of his small backpack that Sarah had missed on her initial observation of him.

“So… what now?” Sarah asked slowly.

“I take you to my humble adobe.” Winter said with a shrug, his voice was full of irony. “As for tomorrow, well, we’ll cross that bitch when we get to her.”

***

Ethan awoke in an unfamiliar environment. There was a spotlight pointing down at him from the ceiling, and his Pip-Boy told him that he was surrounded by friendlies. His keen eyes caught the sight of several ponies in cloaks moving around in the darkness beyond the spotlight’s gaze. So they wanted to talk with him. Ethan’s eyes hardened. Oh he’d talk to them all right.

“You have ten seconds after I’m done speaking to tell me who you are and why I’m here. If you take longer than that I will kill each and every one of you in ways so unimaginably painful and awful that no one will come looking for you because your dying screams will be so loud and terrible that it will instill a sense of horror so pervasive that the brave will become meek and courageous will become cowardly. I will destroy you piece by piece until all that remains are a scattering of electrons scattered around this room like dust.” Ethan told them in a cold and deadly voice.

He waiting just long enough to give them time to recover and he knew that at least one of them was about to answer, but cut the pony off.

“We-

“Na, I’m just fucking with you.” The man told them lightheartedly with a chuckle. “Seriously though. Who the fuck are you and why aren’t I in my bed?” His voice lowered again, but remained slightly above the deadly hardness that he’d used in his threat.

“We are the Twilight Society, and we have some questions for you.” A stallion with a sophisticated accent said.

“Oh goodie, I just love it when a bunch of people wearing bed sheets kidnap me and ask me questions.” Ethan told them sarcastically.

“You are in no danger; we simply wish to speak with you.” The speaker said.

“Well hurry up and say what you’re going to say, I’ve got a tower full of raiders to exterminate and they’re not getting any less rapey while I’m sitting here talking to you morons.” Ethan replied. This response brought about a massive amount of murmuring from the Twilight society members.

“Answer our questions and you may leave.” The speaker reassured him.

“Well then ask them already!” Ethan exclaimed.

“Fine, what is the AI inside of you Pip-Buck?” The speaker asked.

“His name is Eddie, and it’s called a Pip-Boy.” Ethan told them with an irritated tone and slight scowl.

“Do you know what this Eddie does?” The speaker asked, ignoring Ethan’s annoyed tone for the moment.

“Well sure I do, he tells me not to talk to strangers wearing bed sheets!” Ethan replied with a smirk. He heard an annoyed growl from somewhere near the back of the crowd but ignored it. “Look, you blew any chance of me giving you real answers the second that you kidnapped me. Now I’m going to walk out of this room and the first one who tries to stop me is getting punched in the throat.” He told them calmly as he rose to his feet and began to move.

“Wait, we just want you to answer our questions!” The voice said.

“Yes, and I don’t give a single fuck. You kidnapped me, normally that would be grounds for execution in my book. The only reason why I’m not going to kill any of you is because I wasn’t chained to anything.” Ethan told them. “Here’s a hint, in the future don’t attempt to make people answer your trivia questions after kidnapping them, for some reason it makes people kind of disagreeable.”

“I apologize for our-” The original speaker began again, but Ethan cut him off.

“I don’t care, fuck off.” He told the group as he began to stride through their ranks.

“You’re not supposed to know where we are, if you won’t answer our questions then we’ll have to knock you out and then transport you back to your room.” The stallion told him, his horn began to glow.

“Right, well just tr-” Ethan began before he fell over unconscious.

“Well that was a waste of time.” A mare said.

“I’ve never met someone so infuriating in my life.” The first speaker said with a sigh.

“He might have a point though.” Another stallion said. "Perhaps kidnapping ponies isn't the best way to get results."

“Bah, let’s just get him back to his room; hopefully he’ll just think this was a dream.”

***

Ethan awoke with a wide yawn. Holly looked up from her bed on the opposite side of the room.

“Morning.” She said simply. “You sleep well?”

“Yeah, I had an odd dream, but other than that I slept great.” Ethan told her as he rolled off of the griffin sized bed that he’d requested. “You ready to go kill some raiders?” He asked with a grin.

“Why do you seem so happy about it?” Holly asked with a yawn of her own as she got out of her bed and stretched.

“Because killing raiders is fun.” Ethan told her with a smile as he pulled on his armor which had been sent up to the suite, fully repaired, at some point during the night. Donning his duster and checking his pockets to make sure that everything was where he had left it he turned to look back at Holly who was fastening on her combat barding.

“Excuse me if I’m not able to indulge my inner blood knight like you are.” Holly told him with a frown as she began to clean her 12.7 pistol, along with a sniper rifle that she’d bought the day before while Ethan had been busy.

“Well then you’re excused.” Ethan told her with a chuckle, she glowered at him slightly and the man shrugged. “Anyways, let’s get some breakfast and then go kill some raiders.”

***

“We’re being followed.” Ethan intoned quietly as they made their way along the Luna Line.

“From where?” Holly asked quietly.

“From above, there’s a single Enclave member over there.” Ethan replied with a wry smile. “I was wondering how long it would take them to track us down again.” He added before he turned to a particularly low cloud.

“Hey you, pigeon, if you’re going to stalk me would you at least be so kind as to do it in a way that isn’t so painfully obvious?” He shouted up at the cloud. He heard a muffled curse and a single pegasus flew out from behind the cloud.

The pegasus was wearing a stealthy lightly armored jumpsuit and a magical energy rifle that closely resembled a plasma rifle was hooked onto his back via a contraption that Ethan had been told was called a battle saddle. The pegasus’s coat was a blue and his mane was a subdued yellow, a pair of brown eyes looked Ethan and Holly over.

“So why are you following us?” Ethan asked curiously, he had his hand by his sword hilt, but was doing nothing more threatening than that.

“I’ve been tasked with the job of making sure that that AI on your wrist isn’t damaged or destroyed. I was supposed to remain out of sight, but seeing as that’s failed I suppose that I might as well join your little group here.” The stallion said with a small frown.

“Well I’ll call bullshit on you trying to stay out of sight, because honest to god I’ve never seen a poorer attempt at stealth in my life. As for joining our group…” Ethan trailed off apparently thinking it over. “Sure, why not.” He decided with a shrug. The pegasus looked shocked, as did Holly.

“What, just like that?” The pegasus asked in confusion.

“Yeah, what the fuck Ethan?” Holly added.

“Well Holly, he’s obviously here to spy on us, and what’s the danger of having someone spy on you if you know that they’re spying on you?” Ethan asked with a smirk. “Besides, the way I look at it we could use a wingman.” He added with a chuckle.

“I don’t know…” Holly said trailing off.

“Look at it this way Holly, worst comes to worst I can always shoot or decapitate him.” Ethan said with another chuckle. The pegasus had paled slightly at that, but managed to keep his cool.

“Fine, but if he fucks us over I’m blaming you.” The green mare said with a snort.

“So what’s your name, unless of course you’d just prefer for me to call you Pigeon?” Ethan asked the pegasus.

“Day Kicker, I’m in Enclave’s Spec Ops Group.” The pegasus replied.

“Works for me. I’m Ethan, and the vulgar mare next to me is Holly.” Ethan explained with a smile as he gestured to himself and then to Holly. “Welcome to the crew, until you decide to betray us at least.” He added with a welcoming grin.

“I’m here to keep that AI safe, not to betray you.” The stallion replied.

“Wow I had no idea I was so popular before now.” Eddie said from Ethan’s arm.

“Look kid, we both know that the Enclave are perfectly willing to cut my arm off for this device. So you’re here to report on my movements and to make sure that in the unlikely event of my death that you can retrieve my Pip-Boy so that you can bring it back to your bosses, right.” Ethan asked the stallion, who nodded slightly.

“That was my plan actually.” He consented.

“Good, now that we’ve got that out of the way what do you two say we go kill some raiders?” Ethan asked them, his grin was back. Holly and Day exchanged a glance.

“What did I just agree to exactly?” Day Kicker asked quietly as the two started walking after Ethan.

“We’re taking down a tower full of raiders.” Holly explained.

“By ourselves?” The pegasus asked skeptically.

“Yes, try and stand behind him.” She replied.

“I can already tell that I’ll regret this.” Day said with a sigh.

“Welcome to the club.”

Chapter 6

View Online

Edited by TacoTown

Chapter 6

Always choose good last words, they could save your life, or not

“So how are we going to do this?” Day Kicker asked curiously as the small group stood in front of the door to the tower where the raiders were holded up. It was a ten story building and the outsides had been decorated in the same way that most raider strongholds were decorated, namely with lots of blood and impaled body parts littered about the entrance. Holly had her 12.7 pistol at the ready, and Ethan’s magnum was already drawn.

“Like this.” Ethan replied simply before he drew his foot back and then sent the steel-toed boot clad foot slamming into the door. The metal doors shot inward with a loud, agonized scream of rusty metal. “I hope you raiding fuckbuckets are ready to party, ‘cause Ethan’s here to play!” Ethan shouted as he fixed the nearest raider in the room with a wide smile before he pulled the trigger on his pistol and sent the raider’s brains flying through the air.

There were at least twelve raiders standing around inside the main lobby of the building, all in various degrees of combat readiness. They looked up in surprise as the group entered and shouted with anger when Ethan’s pistol barked, ending the life of one of their companions. They were surprisingly smart for raiders, and dove for cover before Ethan could get another shot off.

“By saying ‘so how are we going to do this’, I meant was what is the plan.” Day Kicker said in aggravation before he jumped into the air and pulled the trigger on his battle saddle to send a blast of pink lazer at a raider that dissipated off of the raider’s cover.

“The plan is simple, kill all sons of bitches.” Ethan replied as he ducked underneath a small wave of gunfire from a raider with an assault rifle. “I’d say that that’s pretty simple stuff, especially for a ‘spec ops’ trooper.” The man added before he jumped over his cover and sprinted to the raider, shooting at him before leapt over the raider’s cover and lopped off it’s head with his sword.

The pegasus snorted with indignation before he dodged a shotgun blast and returned fire with his battle saddle, scorching the raider’s neck and sending him sizzling to the ground.

“Like I said, welcome to the fucking team.” Holly added from where she was crouched next to the door using the metal as cover. She rose out of cover and sent a bullet flying into another raider’s foreleg, ripping a large chunk out of it.

“I don’t understand how he’s still alive.” The Enclave trooper said with a frown as a bullet grazed his cheek, drawing blood as he swooped through the air and unleashed a ball of burning magical plasma into a raider’s head, reducing the raider to sticky goo.

“Because I’m hard to kill.” Ethan replied offhandedly before his magnum roared and decapitated a raider with a single shot.

There were six raiders left in the room, and they’d realized that they had the numerical advantage. As one they rose out of cover and prepared to fire, Ethan stepped into VATS and lined up five shots. His magnum barked five times and five raiders suddenly found out how difficult it was to breathe with holes in their throats. The last raider, who had yet to grasp the fact that his friends were all dead, began to fire his assault rifle at Ethan who took several bullets to the chest before he ducked back into cover with a mild curse. Holly moved out of cover long enough to get a shot off and hit the raider in the foreleg, making him cry out in pain. Day Kicker finished the raider off with a blast of magical plasma.

“God. The sooner I get a little radiation in me the better, I hate having to do this by hand.” Ethan muttered as the fingers on his left hand fished around inside his chest for the solitary bullet that had successfully penetrated his armor. He pulled out the piece of twisted metal with a grin while the other two watched his skin begin to slowly heal.

“Hmm… that’s an interesting ability you have there.” Day Kicker said with a slightly cocked eyebrow.

“Thanks; let’s search these assholes and then get moving before more show up.” Ethan commanded as he walked over to a nearby raider and began to go through his pockets.

“You must be joking.” The Enclave pegasus scoffed.

“If you want to be poor and ill equipped then that’s your prerogative not mine.” Ethan replied as he pulled a pistol out of the raider’s hip holster. “I’m going to take as much stuff as I can carry and then sell it to the highest bidder; I’m not used to being poor.” He added.

“You still have around four thousand caps, that’s more than most scavvers make in weeks.” Holly told him as she looted her own raider, while Day Kicker looked down at them from the ceiling where he was standing.

“Yeah, well, that’ll go pretty fast and I’d like to have a little extra.” Ethan replied as he moved onto another raider.

“You two disgust me.” Day Kicker told them, rolling his eyes.

“Sorry pigeon, I couldn’t hear you from up there.” Ethan said with a smirk.

“Fine, I’m going off to scout ahead and see their positions, you two take as long as you’d like stealing from the dead.” Day Kicker told them disdainfully.

“You do that pigeon.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

Ethan and Holly spent the next several minutes robbing the dead raiders for all that they were worth, which wasn’t very much but Ethan was sure that they’d find some better pawnable gear further inside the tower.

“So want to go and find birdboy?” Ethan asked Holly, who snorted.

“I still don’t see why the fuck you’re letting one of the Goddess damned Enclave travel with us.” Holly told him.

“Because he’ll be useful.” Ethan told her with a shrug.

“Bah, he’ll end up betraying us. Is that really fucking worth it?” Holly asked.

“Look, I’m sure that I have far more reason to dislike the Enclave then you do and I’m willing to put that aside for the moment and focus on other things, so I expect you to do the same.” Ethan told her with a shrug. “Besides, like I said I can just shoot him when he does betray us.” He added.

“Then why not cut out the middle mare and shoot him right the fuck now?!” Holly exclaimed.

“Because I’m new here, and I don’t feel like pissing off all of the most powerful organizations in the Equestrian Wasteland within the first week of my stay here.” Ethan replied.

“Then why don’t you hand me over to them? I’m sure they’d like you more after that.” Eddie asked from Ethan’s wrist.

“Because I’m not giving the any organization called The Enclave an advanced AI, even if they are different from the ones back home.” Ethan replied with a slight growl entering his voice.

Their conversation was interrupted by the return of Day Kicker, who flew into the room so quietly that the only way that Ethan knew that he was there at all was thanks to his HUD. The pegasus was about to touch the man’s shoulder with his wing, hoping to get a startled reaction out of the man, when Ethan turned to look at him with a wide smile.

“Well hello there pigeon, what did you find?” Ethan asked. Day Kicker cursed internally for a second before responding.

“This entire tower is crawling with raiders; there must be at least eighty of them, and your little show earlier alerted them to our presence here. They’re on their way as we speak!” Day Kicker said angrily as he narrowed his eyes at Ethan.

“Great, now we won’t have to go to the trouble of tracking them down.” Ethan said with a smile.

“No! That’s not how things work; we’re not supposed to be fighting them all at once! You’re supposed to fight raiders one at a time as you move through the building!” Day Kicker said exasperatedly.

“Nope, now be quiet while I rig this.” Ethan told him without looking up as he took two of the raider’s shotguns and began to wire them together with a length of cord that he’d found on one of them. He then attached it to the door frame.

Then he quickly ducked through the doorway, closing it behind him. Several tense seconds of Day Kicker staring angrily at the door while Holly studiously ignored him passed while Ethan was gone before the man pushed his way back through the door and quickly shut it behind him; the door clicked as it locked.

“Well, that should keep them entertained for a while.” Ethan said with a wickedly entertained smile as he finished his shotgun trap.

Holly and Day Kicker didn’t have long to wait to find out what he was talking about. A loud trio of explosions resounded from the hallway and Ethan’s smirk widened as he heard several pained screams from the other side of the door. A few shocked seconds of silence pervaded the hallway beyond as the raiders stood stock still. Then with a mighty outraged roar they charged down the hallway towards the far door. This charge was interrupted by the sound of several more grenades falling from the ceiling along, with the explosions that followed.

“And that’s why we rob the dead.” Ethan told Day Kicker, who had returned to his spot on the roof and who was eying the doorway warily.

“Shut up, you’ll give away our positions.” Day Kicker whispered back from his perch. Holly had taken cover behind the circular reception desk that took up the center of the room while Ethan had opted for a less conventional strategy. He’d decided to stand in right in front of the door with his magnum at the ready.

“Ethan, you do know that there’s an overwhelming chance of your being shot standing here, right?” Eddie asked quietly.

“Heh, of course Eddie.” Ethan replied with a chuckle. “If I didn’t get a few more collectables then what would be the point?” He added.

“It’s locked!” A sniveling voice from the other side of the doorway suddenly exclaimed.

“Then open it you cunt!” A deep gravelly voice shouted.

“We don’t have a key, it’s never locked before.” The first voice said.

“Well then you’ll just have to open it with your face!” The second voice shouted.

“Wow, raiders here are almost stupider then they are where I come from.” Ethan said with a chuckle.

“WE HEARD THAT YOU ASSHOLE!” The second voice shouted before the sound of a body slamming into the door echoed wetly from the other side of the door.

“Well I wasn’t exactly whispering. You know, it’s a good thing I’m here by myself. If there was anyone else here with me it would probably make this way too easy.” Ethan told the raider boss.

Several loud wet thumps later the door burst open and the body of a raider was thrown lifelessly to the floor. Ethan’s pistol barked once and a raider’s head exploded. There were twenty raiders pressed into the hallway, all of whom were attempting to push through the doorway; behind them Ethan could see the blasted corpses of at least eight others who had been decimated by his grenade traps. Ethan stepped back and invited them into the room with a mocking smirk, and they charged him as one.

The duel shotguns decimated the first raider to trip the wire, decapitating him with a blast and Ethan’s pistol took out the next. Holly sprang up from her cover spot and let loose a salvo of 12.7mm bullets that smashed through one of the raider’s skulls, sending gooey grey brain bits everywhere. From his position on the ceiling Day Kicker sent four rapidly moving balls of magic that liquefied two raiders where they stood.

Upon realizing that they faced a much stronger resistance then they’d originally thought the raiders made the surprising tactical move, surprising in the fact that they were making a tactical move at all. And they began to retreat back down the hallway, firing at the man in the doorway all the while in an attempt to kill him. Luckily for Ethan most of them were using small arms, mostly pistols and the occasional shotgun that lost impact the farther down the hallway they got.

Ethan of course returned fire, killing three with a trio of rounds blasting the heads of the raiders open in small explosions of gore and bone. Holly left her cover and rolled into position by next to the door frame, the green unicorn’s pistol spat two shots into the disorganized mass of retreating raiders, sending one stumbling to the ground with a large hole in his leg.

“Fuck!” The unicorn cursed as a hunting rifle round burrowed into her shoulder, sending her staggering back with a grunt distorted by the pain.

“How bad is it?” Ethan asked offhandedly while firing into the mass of raiders who were now almost out of the killzone.

“Not terrible, we’ll need to get it out before she has a potion, but she’ll be fine after that.” Day Kicker said unexpectedly.

He’d dropped down from the ceiling while Ethan was distracted by a raider who’d nailed him in the chest with a rather large caliber sniper bullet, and had begun to check over Holly’s wound. The wound on the pegasus’s cheek had a small bandage over it that had already begun to halt the bleeding.

“Fuck that hurts.” She growled through a wave of pain. “And I’m used to having a better doctor.” Holly said with a slight sigh and a frown.

“Hold still while I retrieve the bullet and stop complaining.” Day Kicker told her strictly as he pulled a large pair of tweezers out of one of the pockets of his jumpsuit. He quickly maneuvered the tweezers into the wound and began to fish around for the bullet.

Ethan returned his full attention to the raiders who were still making their retreat. The incoming fire slackened, and when Ethan peered out from where he’d taken cover on the opposite side of the door frame he saw that the hallway was empty of everything but the corpses of the raiders that their group had managed to kill.

“You two wait here, I’m killing these bastards.” Ethan told the two ponies before he charged down the hallway in pursuit.

“Stop!” Day Kicker shouted before he could get more than five feet. The tweezers were out of his mouth and he was in the middle of bandaging up Holly’s shoulder.

“What?” Ethan asked in confusion.

“The squad has a wounded member and at the moment you’re about to go charging off to leave us alone without even a rudimentary idea where you’re going, that’s what!” Day Kicker told him angrily as he pointed at Holly with a wing.

“It’s a .32 bullet; I think she’ll be fine.” Ethan said rolling his eyes, Holly snorted and rolled her eyes as well, she’d had much worse.

“I never said she wouldn’t be! My point is that you can’t just go running off through a building infested with this many raiders without backup!” Day Kicker exclaimed. “It’s against every combat procedure and is likely to get you killed!” He added.

“And here I thought you didn’t care about me pigeon.” Ethan said with a smile.

“I don’t give a flying feather what happens to you! What I care about is the fact that if you go in there and get killed! Then the AI might get captured by one of those raiders, and it’ll make it that much harder to retrieve it.” The pegasus said with a huff.

“Ha! I guess I was right about you, you Enclave pigeon.” Ethan said.

“No shit, the sooner I have that AI the sooner I can get home!” Day Kicker growled.

“That AI happens to have a name!” Eddie said indignantly from Ethan’s arm.

“Ladies, I’m fucking fine!” Holly shouted as she positioned herself between the three males. “Let’s just keep moving through this fucking building okay?” She asked with an aggravated groan.

“Sure, let’s go.” Ethan said with a shake of his head as he turned his back to Day Kicker, who scowled at the man’s back before leaping into the air and onto the ceiling.

“By Celestia, it’s like I’m surrounded by fucking children.” Holly muttered.

“Hey, I’m 200 years older than any of you.” Eddie said from Ethan’s wrist.

“Then fucking act like it.” Holly replied as they began to walk down the hallway, occasionally kicking dead raider bodies out of their path.

“Keep it down. These raiders are already angry with us, no need to give away our position by talking.” Day Kicker said from above.

Ethan rolled his eyes, but they continued down the hallway in silence. The hallway ended with a doorway that seemed to be locked. Ethan smirked, before he wound his leg back and kicked the door open with a loud crash. Holly was expecting it, and barely reacted while Day Kicker’s eyes widened and he cursed at the sudden commotion.

The room beyond was empty besides a row of cubicles, all of which held a computer terminal and a desk. Ethan was still surprised at how closely the architecture of the Equestrian Wasteland resembled that of the Capital Wasteland.

“Would please not do that?!” Day Kicker asked through gritted teeth from his perch on the ceiling.

“Do what?” Ethan asked with fake confusion. Day Kicker just ground his teeth together before he let out a long breath and said.

“There are five paths out of this room. There are several passages that will take us upstairs where the raiders’ boss stays; down below is where they keep equipment and the things that they stole from the ponies that they killed.” The pegasus said.

“You work fast.” Ethan complimented, and the pegasus allowed himself a small smile at the words. “Now the real question is, which direction do we go first?”

“Depends on our priorities. These raiders are likely upstairs with their leader, meaning that the supply room would be open and most likely under defended. However, by studying the prewar floor plan for the building I can tell you that things will be much easier if we head upstairs first and kill the raider boss.” Eddie informed Ethan.

“Why? Well, besides the higher number of possible escape routes and the fact that I’d rather not get trapped in a basement with my enemies holding the high ground.” Ethan asked the AI.

“Well, those are the main reasons actually.” Eddie replied.

“Okay then, you heard the AI, we’re heading upstairs.” Ethan said with a smile.

“About fucking time, I thought I’d die of old age while I sat here listening to you guys talk.” Holly said with a slight chuckle. “Then again, that’s how it always was with my- never mind.” She said cutting herself off suddenly, Ethan saw a flash of grief run through her eyes, but she shook her head and it vanished.

“Okay then, let’s move.” Ethan said, deciding to put off asking the unicorn what was up; there was no need to at the moment and they had more important things to deal with. Like killing raiders! They made their way down the hallway towards the central doorway to the upper floor, and Day Kicker dropped back down to the ground.

“Give me half a minute to scout the room ahead; I’ll see if they have anyone stationed to stop us.” Day Kicker told them with a whisper.

“My Pip-Boy is picking up two enemies in the room ahead, one on the left and one on the right.” Ethan informed him. The Enclave pegasus nodded and then stayed silent for a second while he thought out the situation.

“Hmm… they’ve set up what they think is an ambush-” Day Kicker began.

“-but if we know that it’s an ambush-” Ethan continued.

“-then it’s not an ambush anymore.” Day Kicker finished.

“Did you two really just fucking do that?” Holly asked with an annoyed frown.

“Great minds think alike Holly.” Ethan said with a smirk. “Or at least, a well taught tactical mind can keep up with a brilliant one.” He added with a nod towards Day Kicker.

“Thanks.” Day Kicker said dryly.

“So essentially we’re just going to bust in there and kill the two raiders?” Holly asked.

“Yep.” Ethan replied with a smirk.

“Then why did we have to spend so much time discussing it?” Holly whispered angrily.

“Because the longer we’re out here the easier it is to lull them into a false sense of security.” Ethan replied with a dazzling smile. Holly’s facehoof was almost loud enough to echo in the enclosed space.

“Alright then, on three.” Ethan said as he prepared to kick the door open. “Three!” He shouted suddenly while skipping the other numbers and sending his foot rocketing into the doorway. His foot smashed into the door and threw it wide open, revealing an office that had been converted into living quarters. There were two raiders standing on either side of the room, and they were both holding large missile launchers and smiling evilly.

“Fuck!” Holly shouted before she leapt backwards away from the doorway just as the missiles left the launchers.

Ethan rolled his eyes and froze time, then time restarted and his magnum barked twice and both missiles exploded about a foot in front of either raider, pulping their bodies with their concussive force.

“Well that was eas-” Ethan began before he was cut off by a raider with a sniper rifle, who was waiting down the hallway on the opposite side of the room.

The .308 bullet slammed into Ethan’s chest and the unexpected force sent the man tumbling as a streak of sticky crimson blood spurted from the hole. Holly quickly grabbed the man in her magic and pulled him back behind the doorway out of the sniper’s field of fire.

Day Kicker returned fire and the raider yelped in fear and pain as his arm was consumed by burning magical plasma. The raider turned and tried feebly to flee but the Enclave pegasus dropped off of the ceiling and charged through the air at him. The charge ended with the pegasus’s rear hoof smashing into the back of the raider’s neck, breaking it with a crack.

“Gah, the cheating bastards set up a double ambush.” Ethan said as he pulled the rather large piece of led out of his chest with his left hand before injecting himself with stimpack.

“I’m scouting every room from here on out, no need for one of us to be injured or killed because we were ill prepared.” Day Kicker said firmly.

“Agreed.” Ethan said with a slight nod of his head. “Eddie, the floor plan if you’d please.” The man said turning his attention to the AI.

“Coming right up.” The AI said in a chipper voice before he said. “Hmm… the hallway ahead should take us to an elevator that seems to still be functioning; it should take us directly to the company’s CEO office. That’s where the raider boss is most likely to be.” Eddie informed them.

“Are there any alternative routes?” Ethan asked.

“Yeah, using a fucking elevator doesn’t sound like the smartest way to attack a raider boss who’s expecting us.” Holly added.

“There’s a collapsed stairway.” Eddie told them despondently.

“Then our options appear to be significantly lessened…” Day Kicker said with a frown.

“Actually, I have an idea, if it’ll fucking work then it’ll be classic.” Holly said.

“Go ahead Holly.” Ethan said with an encouraging nod.

“Okay, so you know how all elevators have those little latches on top so that maintenance workers can repair shit when it breaks, right?” Holly asked.

“Oh, Oh yes I like where you’re going with this!” Ethan said with a wide grin.

***

Sarah Lyons yawned hugely as she awoke and immediately regretted it as a thin stream of ash wafted its way into her mouth. She spit out the dirty saliva with a frown and then turned to her companion who’d curled up next to her. She smiled slightly as the blue unicorn snored softly next to her and began to lightly run her hand through his mane. She’d always liked animals, when they weren’t trying to kill her of course, and even if he was a sentient creature it didn’t change the fact that he was smaller than her and that his fur was fuzzy.

The sun was barely in sky but Sarah was wide awake anyways thanks to her years as a soldier, and she doubted that she’d ever be able to break her habit of waking up at dawn. Her eyes roamed around the squalid shelter that she was sharing with the stallion; the floor was hard and concrete, but Winter had managed to find a ratty blanket to cover most of it and provide a small amount of comfort to the dingy room.

To Winter’s credit, he’d been able to get himself a small room in a mostly destroyed shop. It had four walls and a roof which was more than could be said about the majority of the places that the slaves were forced to live when not doing their backbreaking labor. The shop was also two stories up, so Sarah had a marginally better view of Fillydelphia. To say that she wasn’t exactly impressed was an understatement.

Honestly, it reminded her of Pittsburg, except that Ethan hadn’t cleaned this place up like he had with that city. The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs outside made Sarah tense and she instinctually reached for where her newly acquired switchblade, which was hiding in her pocket. She also nudged Winter several times until the blue unicorn awoke and shot her a slightly annoyed look.

“What is i-” He began but then fell silent as he heard the noise from the outside. Someone with a harsh voice was muttering under her breath just outside their door. Then the door opened and an extremely odd looking creature that appeared to be half eagle and half lion walked into the room. A white feathered head with yellow eyes stared into her own as the black furred creature stared dispassionately at Sarah. It was also wearing black armor with a white claw, along with an impressive Anti-Material rifle strapped to its back.

“Hmm, you certainly resemble the one who’s been killing my men.” The griffin said in a harsh voice.

Winter had paled and he appeared to be trying to escape the griffin’s gaze by burrowing through the wall. Sarah however, wasn’t impressed.

“That’s Ethan for you.” She replied with a slim smile. “Give him ten minutes in a new place and he’ll have out his sights on taking out the biggest bunch of evil assholes in the area.” She added with a smirk.

“So you know him then?” The creature asked harshly.

“Know him? Ha! Of course I know him, who doesn’t know him?” Sarah asked with an incredibly forced smile. “The man’s solved more of the Wasteland’s problems then most people even know exist. And I’m sure that he’ll show up here sooner or later and kill all of you slaving pieces of shit too.” She added with a fierce smile. Sarah didn’t even see the creature move, but suddenly it was holding her up at eye level with one taloned hand.

“You will tell me everything that you know about this man, or I will kill you here and now.” The griffin snarled.

“You want to know about Ethan? Okay then, I can tell you about Ethan.” Sarah told the griffin, smile firmly in place. “Ethan is relentless, nigh un-killable, and extremely smart. He will hunt you down and kill you remorselessly if he thinks that you deserve to die. Not only that, but you won’t be able to stop him.” She continued.

“We’ll have to wait and see about that won’t we?” The griffin asked.

“Nope.” Sarah replied lightly as her hand found the place on the griffin’s arm that she’d been looking for. There was a sudden loud snap and the griffin let out a howl of pain as she released Sarah and sent the woman tumbling to the ground while clutching at her broken wrist. “We don’t have to wait and see. I may be trapped here in this hellish excuse for a city, but I know that Ethan will find me someday, and when he does I know without a fraction of a doubt that he’ll get me out of here.”

Instead of answering, the griffin let out a hiss of anger and reached for the whip at her waist. Sarah didn’t have time to dodge the whip as it launched itself, snake like, at her stomach and she suddenly found herself gasping painfully for breath.

“Consider yourself lucky that you’re too unique to kill, and that Red Eye wants you alive, otherwise I would spread your intestines across the ground.” The griffin hissed through the pain of her broken wrist, and Sarah gasped in pain as she protectively cradled her stomach with her hand before she said.

“You’d try.” Sarah said through pain tightened teeth. The griffin snorted and left the room, slamming the door shut behind her as she strode towards the stairs.

Winter stared at the door for half a second before he jumped into action. He dashed over to one of the filing cabinets that occupied some of the wall space and quickly pulled it open with his magic. The blue unicorn rummaged around inside the cabinet for a second before he returned with a roll of bandages. Without asking her permission he used his magic to lift Sarah’s skin suit up far enough to reveal her now thoroughly bruised stomach, along with the bottoms of her breasts which the unicorn ignored completely as he wrapped a thin layer of bandages around her stomach.

Sarah for her part just watched as he did so. Winter had explained a bit about magic to her the night before, so it didn’t come as a huge surprise when he’d pulled her shirt up without touching her, but it was still surprising none the less. The other thing that surprised her was his lack of interest in her breasts, she wasn’t vain, but she knew for a fact that men, and some women, stared at her sometimes thanks to her assets. Not that she minded Winter not caring, usually the extra attention just annoyed Sarah. It wasn’t like she was that busty, so she never really understood the overarching appeal.

“There, these bandages are magic and they should heal the bruising and prevent the wound from actually opening up again.” Winter told her once he was satisfied with his work.

“Thank you, you’re surprisingly good with those bandages.” Sarah said with a smile.

“Well I’ve always been better at the less violent end of the spectrum, and I’ve been trained with enough minor healing spells to make a very competent nurse when need be.” Winter explained. “In fact, I work at the hospital and you’re going to be helping me out today so I hope you’re not afraid of needles.” The unicorn added with a small smirk.

In response Sarah pulled one of the stimpacks out of her pocket and gently tapped her finger against the tip of the needle.

“So who was the bird cat thing?” Sarah asked as she slid the stimpack in her pocket again.

“That was Stern, Red Eye’s official chief of security and second in command. She’s a griffin, by the way.” Winter answered. “I’m honestly surprised that you got off with a whipping, anyone else who broke Stern’s wrist would be publicly flogged, or just plain shot.” He added.

“Well apparently I’m too important for her to kill; I think that might have made her angry.” Sarah replied with a slight pained smirk.

“Heh, twenty caps says that she’s going to have one of her troops piss on you.” Winter said with a chuckle.

***

“Where in the Goddesses' damned name do you think you’re going, you useless fucking nitwit?!” A voice shouted in the distance and Sarah shot Winter a confused glance.

“Oh don’t worry, that’s just old Doctor Weathervane, he’s a ghoul from before the war and he likes to shout and swear a lot.” Winter told her. “He’s actually pretty nice once you get to know him and get past his general prickliness.” The blue unicorn said with a small swish of his green mane to get it out of eyes. Winter had changed into a pair of blue scrubs, and he’d given her a pair as well.

Luckily after spending several years living near and helping Ethan Sarah had gotten over the general Brotherhood prejudice towards ghouls, the non-feral kind at least, so she didn’t foresee that being much of a problem. Wherever she and Winter went, they were stared at by the ponies around them. The unicorn took it in stride, and didn’t react at all. Sarah for her part found it slightly unsettling, but she could tell that for the most part it was harmless curiosity or fear instead of hate or malevolence.

The hospital had clearly been renovated and Sarah was surprised at how clean it was compared to some of the buildings that she’d seen so far in Fillydelphia. Then again, it was a hospital and Sarah supposed that this Red Eye must want his slaves to be healthy, that way they lasted longer before they were worked to death. Nurses and doctors walked by but gave them a wide berth, although Winter’s presence seemed to keep them from reacting worse.

Sarah caught sight of a small brown buck wearing what looked like a fleece coat running by, obviously stuck in a world of his own, and then a thought struck her.

“Hey Winter, I’ve been meaning to ask you, why do you have a red flower with a medical cross behind it tattooed on your butt?” Sarah asked.

“It’s my cutie mark.” Winter explained.

“And that is what exactly?” Sarah asked, still thoroughly confused.

“Well, a cutie mark is something that everypony gets when they find their special talent, which is the thing that they’re best at in life. Mine means that I’m best at medicine, and I was born on a farm so that’s where the flower comes from.” He told her with a shrug as they entered a room full of moaning ponies.

“That seems odd…” Sarah told him before she trailed off as she began to watch what Winter was doing. The stallion was standing next to the bed of the first injured pony. His horn was suddenly consumed in a green glow that he began to slowly move across the pony’s body. He’d also pulled a clipboard and pen off of the doorway, both of which he passed to Sarah.

“You can read and write right?” He asked her.

“Of course, I’m Brotherhood.” Sarah replied simply.

“Good, just write down what I say and then just turn to the next page when we move on to the next pony.” He instructed.

“Alright, seems simple enough.” Sarah replied.

“Yeah, it’s not too bad. You know, you’re lucky that Dove let you stay with me, otherwise you’d be working in the factories and that’s not a fate that I’d wish on anyone but a raider.” And then he let out a chuckle and added. “Or a slaver. Anyways, are you ready?” He asked.

“Yes, begin whenever you want.” Sarah told him.

“Patient number 21, suffering from advanced Med-X withdrawal, suggested treatment: detox.” The unicorn said before moving onto the next bed and scanning the pony lying in it with his horn. “Hmm, patient number 22, suffering from severe radiation poisoning, recommended treatment: radaway.”

And so it went for close to an hour before they left the room, Sarah was overtaken by a sudden feeling of outrage.

“This city disgusts me.” She muttered as they stood outside of the room.

“This city disgusts everyone.” Winter replied with a sigh. “Even Red Eye himself, if what I’ve heard is true.” He added with a scowl.

“At least you get to help the ponies trapped in here.” Sarah said in an attempt to boost his spirits.

“Yeah, so then they can get back to dying of starvation, irradiation, and the occasional brutal rape.” Winter said with another scowl.

A disgruntled looking pony wearing a white doctor’s coat was striding down the hallway towards them with a frown on her face. She was a dapper unicorn with a pale yellow coat and a glossy black mane. Sarah was amazed that she was able to keep herself so clean in a city that was, from everything that she’d seen so far, a dirty shit hole. And then Sarah took a closer look, the doctor’s white coat was splotched with red that no amount of washing would remove, and her hair wasn’t glossy, it was soaked with sweat.

“Nurse Winterberry, who is this and why is she wearing a pair of scrubs?” The doctor asked authoritatively.

“This is Sarah Lyons, she’s a new slave and Master Dove wanted me to keep her with me until she could think of a proper place for her to be.” Winter replied smoothly.

“And you didn’t think to inform me of this?” The doctor asked as her horn glowed a pale yellow that she used to open the door to the room that they’d just left and stepped inside.

“I haven’t seen you until now, that made it slightly difficult to tell you about it, Ma’am.” Winter replied, Sarah couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

“Kiss my ass Winterberry, you could’ve alerted me at any time and you know it.” The doctor told him swiftly as she began to walk by each patient.

“With all due respect Ma’-” Winter began.

“Winterberry, we both know that the words ‘with all due respect’ actually mean kiss my ass.” The doctor told him with a disapproving frown.

“Ma’am, my name is Sarah Lyons as Winter told you, I was asked to assist him in any way deemed necessary. To that end I have been filling out these forms for him.” Sarah said while keeping her tone completely civil, she had no intention of annoying the doctor anymore then was necessary.

“Have you now?” The doctor asked before she snatched the clipboard out of Sarah’s grasp and brought it up to look at it. “Hmm… surprisingly good calligraphy.” The doctor complimented.

“Thank you Ma’am.” Sarah replied.

“Good enough, and enough of this Ma’am nonsense. My name is Doctor Milk Weed; you may refer to me as such for the duration of our time together here.” Milk Weed told Sarah, who nodded. “Now that that’s over, it seems that the only ponies left in this room that need my assistance are the one with the broken leg and the unicorn with the cracked horn, correct?”

“Yes Doctor.” Winter said.

“Good. Oh, and Miss Lyons? Were you the one who broke Stern’s wrist earlier today?” Milk Weed asked.

“That was me, yes.” Sarah replied as she followed the two unicorns over to the unicorn with the cracked horn.

“I thought as much, old Weathervane has been cursing louder than usual today thanks to you.” Milk Weed told Sarah with narrowed eyes.

“My apologies Doctor.” Sarah said.

“Ha, don’t apologize, the old goat sounded less ghoul-like today then he has in years thanks to that fit of yelling.” Milk Weed said with a note of compassion entering into her voice.

“That’s good.” Sarah said.

“Isn’t it just?” The yellow unicorn asked with a small grin. “Anyhow, we have patients to treat, ponies to heal. Come along you two.”

***

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. A wave of gunfire and explosives were immediately unleashed at the inside of the elevator car, and it was only after the smoke of the missiles had faded that the car was revealed to be completely empty. Raider Boss Bloody Sunday stared at the interior of the car with annoyance.

“We’ve been tricked boys, I want you morons to go investigate the bottom floor and see if you can’t find these intruders.” He said in a gravelly voice, it was almost like he had pebbles bouncing around inside his throat.

“Okay boss, you sure that you’ll be fine up here?” One of his raiders asked him.

“Of course I’ll be fine. I’m Bloody Sunday; I can take care of my own damn self perfectly fine without you lot around!” The raider boss shouted.

“Well, alright boss, you didn’t have to yell.” The raider who’d spoken said, flinching away from his boss.

All ten of his subordinates departed in the elevator car, leaving the large, brown, dirty-maned raider boss alone in his office.

“I don’t like this at all.” The raider grumbled.

“Well then, you’re smarter than the average raider.” Ethan said as he walked out of the now opened door of the elevator shaft. “Thanks for getting that open by the way Eddie.” He added.

“No problem Ethan, I’m an AI; technology is literally my bread and butter.” The AI replied with in a chirpy voice. “Well actually, it’s software and programs, but that’s beside the point.”

“Who are you lot anyways, you just barge into my little fortress like it’s not a compound full of vicious raiders?” Bloody Sunday asked as he edged towards his desk.

“Oh, we’re just a couple of civilian contractors. Ya know, people who put down rabid dogs.” Ethan replied answered with a grin. Day Kicker emerged from the elevator shaft, panting slightly as he carried Holly in his forelegs before he set her down and shook his head quickly to clear it.

“Is that right? Well I guess it doesn’t matter anymore, ’cause you’re dead!” Bloody Sunday shouted as his hoof shot forward and slammed into a button on the desk that he stood in front of. Nothing happened.

“Well, it sure sucks to be you right about now.” Ethan said with a smirk.

“But-but how? Why isn’t it working?” Bloody Sunday shouted as he repeatedly slammed his hoof into the button.

“Because that system hasn’t been working for ten years, you can tell if you know what to look for.” Eddie put in helpfully.

“Well, you’re still dead!” Bloody shouted as he drew a large pistol and a super sledge from his back and charged them.

“Oh fuck off!” Holly retorted, she leveled her pistol on the raider’s head and fired twice.

The large pony continued forward, seemingly unable to comprehend that by all rights he should be dead. Day Kicker jumped forwards and shoved Holly out of the raider’s way seconds before he thundered past. Ethan, for his part, simply side-stepped and watched slightly dispassionately as the raider charged right into the open elevator shaft. A look of comprehension dawned on the doomed raider boss right before he began to fall. A loud splat could be heard several long seconds later.

“Well that was easy. Are they all that stupid?” Day Kicker asked Ethan, who shrugged.

“It depends; I’ve met raiders who were both smarter and stupider then him over the years.” Ethan replied. “Now let’s see what he’s got stashed away up here. Eddie, you can keep the elevator down there, right?” Ethan asked the AI.

“Yep, they won’t be getting up here unless you want them to.” The AI answered. “Or if they climb up the elevator cable, of course.” He added.

“I doubt that we’ve got to worry about that Eddie, they don’t have fingers.” Ethan replied with a chuckle before switching topics. “Alright gang, it looks like we’ll be staying here up here for the night, loot whatever you like.” He told Holly and Day Kicker, the latter of whom snorted. “We’ll clear out the rest of them tomorrow morning and then be back at Tenpony before you know it. Then I’ll find us another job.”

“That sounds acceptable.” Day Kicker said with a nod.

“Hurray, we’ll probably get to sleep on fucking gore-strewn mattresses tonight.” Holly said with a clearly unenthusiastic frown.

“Oh well, we’ll live large for a day or two after we get back to Tenpony.” Ethan told the unicorn with a shrug.

***

Homage’s eyes widened as she stared at the SPP monitor. It was the new feed that she was getting out of Fillydelphia. What it showed her was both exciting and surprising. There, walking down one of the main streets of Fillydelphia next to a blue unicorn was a human woman with blonde hair. Homage didn’t know who this woman was, but she did make sure that she recorded the segment. Ethan would undoubtedly be interested to know about the other human in Equestria; she wondered if they knew each other. She heard Littlepip yawn a room away, and with a soft smile pushed herself away from the monitors; they could wait for her.

Chapter 7

View Online

Edited by TacoTown

Chapter 7

The three were sitting around a small fire in the remains of the central office. They’d used the desk for wood, along with a few newspaper clippings to act as kindling. Ethan let out a satisfied sigh as he pulled a hunk of radgator meat off of a small spit he’d made out of a thin piece of metal and took a bite.

“You know, this stuff is pretty good.” He said once he’d swallowed the mouthful and stuck another on the spit before returning it to its place over the fire.

“I’ll stick to my MREs, thanks.” Day Kicker said with a baleful look towards the meat as he tore open the top of a small bag and popped a grey cube into his mouth. Holly just shrugged and took a bite of her own radgator meat.

“Suit yourself, pigeon.” Ethan said with a chuckle.

They lapsed into silence for a few minutes while they ate before Ethan turned to his companions and said. “So Holly, Day Kicker, where are you from?”

“Hmm?” Holly asked.

“Why do you want to know?” Day Kicker asked.

“If I’m going to be traveling with you two I’d like to know a bit about you both. Nothing major, just a little background. You know, build a friendship.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“I don’t plan on being your friend.” Day Kicker told him coldly with a slight flap of his blue wings.

“Well then, be an ass. So Holly, where are you from?” Ethan asked, turning to the green unicorn.

“I’m from a small farming community a little north of New Appleoosa.” Holly said with a small shrug. “My brother and I left because we got tired of the farm life and wanted to try our hooves at scavving.” She added.

“And where is your brother now?” Day Kicker asked.

“Dead.” Holly answered shortly with a frown. “A little over two weeks ago we were being chased by some fucking, goddess damned, cunt faced, small dicked raiders; he forced me to leave him so I could get away.” She said sadly. “Goddesses I miss that bastard.” She added softly before she wiped her eye quickly with a foreleg.

“I'm sorry that I brought it up then.” Ethan offered with a sigh, he was no stranger to loss.

“As am I.” Day Kicker agreed with a small nod.

“It's fine, I just hope that he took out a lot of those fuckers before they killed him.” Holly said with a sigh. “He was so stupid, I’m the one who actually knew how to fight. He was a doctor dammit! At least I would’ve stood a chance against those bastards!” She added acidly.

“Then why did you not insist on him going on without you instead of the opposite?” Day Kicker asked curiously.

“Because he wouldn’t let me!” Holly all but shouted. “The arrogant prick told me that he wasn’t letting me get captured by raiders! Said that he’d seen what they do to mares and didn’t want me to end up like that!” She continued “It’s unfair, it should’ve been me!” She finished as her voice broke and a few tears began to slide down her face.

To her surprise, Ethan’s arm reached out and pulled the mare into his chest where she began to actually weep. Day Kicker seemed caught between the urge to join in the gesture, and the urge to fly as far in the opposite direction as he could. After around a minute Holly pulled away from Ethan and shivered slightly.

“Sorry, I haven’t really talked about it with anyone else yet, had it all bottled up inside.” Holly apologized with a sniffle.

“Don’t mention it; you’re not nearly as bad as I was when I lost my dad.” Ethan replied with a small pained smile. Then he turned to Day Kicker. “You never got laid, did you?”

“What makes you ask?” Day Kicker asked coldly.

“Well, when I was hugging her you got the classic ‘should I comfort her or should I run the fuck away?’ look in your eyes. Usually that means that you’ve never gotten laid.” Ethan said with a smirk.

“Bu-wha-huh?” Day Kicker asked in confusion.

“Hah!” Holly barked with a laugh. Her previously sad mood disappeared entirely, or at least went dormant for the moment as she eyed the blonde-maned pegasus.

“I have too gotten laid!” Day Kicker protested with a glare at Ethan.

“Pillows and your hooves don’t count, pigeon.” Ethan said with a smirk as Day Kicker glowered at him.

“Stop calling me that.” Day Kicker said.

“Why, is it getting your feathers in a bunch pigeon?” Ethan asked.

“Would you little fucking fillies please not start this now?” Holly asked with a sigh. “I’m not in the fucking mood for it.” She added.

“Fine.” Day Kicker said with a growl.

“Whatever, I was just joking anyways.” Ethan said with a shrug. A few more moments of silence passed between them broken only by the sound of chewing.

“So Ethan, the reports from the team who first contacted you during their attempt to collect the AI-“

“Call me Eddie.” Eddie interjected.

“-Eddie said that you mentioned that you said something about having previous encounters with the Enclave, but we haven’t ever heard of you.” Day Kicker said while quickly correcting himself.

“Yeah, what of it?” Ethan asked.

“Well, the Enclave keeps very careful records of everything that we encounter, and we’ve never encountered a human before. So my question is; when did you meet the Enclave before, and what happened?” Day Kicker asked.

“Didn’t I explain to you that I’m from a different planet?” Ethan asked.

“No, I must have missed that.” Day Kicker said with a frown.

“Yeah, I’m from a planet that’s almost exactly like this one, except for the fact that we’re all human and that I’ve only met one man with magic.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“Still, I would like to know about how you met the Enclave where you’re from.” Day Kicker said curiously.

“They killed my father.” Ethan said flatly “Right as he was about to achieve his life’s goal, the dream that he’d carried with him for years and years.” He said; his eyes got a faraway look in them. “And then they started killing the others. I may not have known them very well, but they were still brilliant people who had a lot to offer to the Wasteland…” He trailed off and then shook his head.

“What was your father’s dream?” Holly asked.

“He was the main mind behind Project Purity, a giant water purifier that’s powerful enough to clean every major river in the Capital Wasteland.” Ethan said.

“And why did your Enclave want to stop this from happening?” Day Kicker asked.

“Because the fuckers wanted to charge people for the water.” Ethan said with a growl. “The best thing to happen to the Wasteland since the Survival Guide and they wanted to fucking charge people for it.”

“That doesn’t make sense, why would the Enclave want to do that?” Day Kicker asked; the wheels in his mind were spinning rapidly as he thought about what Ethan was telling him.

“Because they were assholes.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “Emphasis on the ‘were’ part.” He added.

“What do you mean?” Day Kicker asked.

“I killed them. Every. Single. One of them.” Ethan replied coldly, his blue eyes were hard as glaciers.

“But how did you manage that? You’re one person!” Day Kicker exclaimed.

“Yes, one person who had just seen his father murdered in the midst of accomplishing his dream. That’s enough to give you the strength to kill… just about anyone really.” Ethan said with a shrug. “I still remember the look of stupid superiority on Colonel Autumn’s face right before I blew his fucking head off.” Ethan growled.

“Colonel Autumn?” Day Kicker asked slowly.

“Yeah, he’s the one who killed my father, and then tortured me for information. I think I got even in the end though.” Ethan said with a dark chuckle. “Why do you ask?” He added.

“Oh, no reason…” Day Kicker said trailing off.

“Okie dokie then.” Ethan agreed with a shrug. “So Day Kicker, we’ve all shared a little except for you, do you have anything?”

“Hey, what about me?” Eddie asked before Day Kicker could respond.

“Do you have something to talk about Eddie?” Ethan asked.

“Well, I’m an advanced military AI who you know next to nothing about, the least you could do is pretend to be curious about me.” Eddie said sulkily.

“Okay then, fuck it. I’ll bite.” Holly said with a shrug. “So Eddie, what did you do before the end of the world?”

“Well I was built as a joint venture between Rainbow Dash’s Ministry of Awesome and Applejack’s Ministry of Wartime Technology to act as a probability calculator.” Eddie explained.

“That’s odd; Rainbow Dash was notoriously against the idea of AI.” Day Kicker interjected.

“Yeah, I heard about that. Apparently she liked me though.” Eddie replied in an upbeat voice. “Anyways, I spent all my time predicting things. Like what moves on the battlefield would get victory, or what the speed of an equestrian swallow would be if it were to carry a coconut bomb compared to the speed of a zebrican swallow carrying the same type of bomb.” Eddie continued blithely. “But I was always off by a day or so for big events; or a minute for some of the smaller ones.” He said as his modulated voice turned sad. “And I missed the biggest one by an entire month.” He finished dourly.

“You predicted the end of the war, didn’t you?” Ethan asked softly.

“Yes, yes I did. Well, not exactly, not even close to exact enough to stop it, but I knew it was going to happen before it did, before the world was consumed by flames and I had to spend over two hundred years thinking about how I’d failed.” The AI said despondently. “Endlessly rerunning the simulations, cycling through my mistakes, never tiring while the bones of the people that I cared about rotted to-”

“Eddie, you’re not alone anymore, it wasn’t your fault.” Ethan said comfortingly, interrupting the AI’s speech before he could continue to verbally chastise himself.

“But if I had been a month more accurate then I could’ve-”

“There are still two things that I don’t fucking understand about you.” Holly said, interrupting the AI.

“What are they?” Eddie asked.

“Well for one, you say that your timing is always off, but you managed to keep us safe from those artillery blasts, if you’re always off then how’d you manage that?” Holly asked.

“Because that was simple math, all I had to know were a few different measurements and it was easy.” Eddie replied as he regained his jovial tone. “Now if there had been half a dozen artillery pieces firing at us then I’m doubtful that I’d be able to perform as well. So what was your next question?”

“Well if you’re a predictor then how in the fuck do you manage all the other stuff that you’ve done, like the map and the elevator?” Holly asked.

“Well when you have two hundred years and your choices are to either rethink your failures, and then watch them endlessly loop together while you desperately search for a way to correct your programming, or to find a hobby like advanced computer hacking that can distract you for a few minutes then you choose the latter.” Eddie replied simply. “As for the maps, Ethan’s Pip-Buck-”

“Pip-Boy” Ethan interjected.

“-Pip-Boy can already access the satellites in orbit so the maps are already there; I’m just reading them out.” Eddie finished.

“Ah, I was wondering about that.” Day Kicker said with an almost imperceptible nod. Then he yawned. “It’s been a long day and I’m tired, you three can stay awake if you want but I’m going to bed, see you in the morning.”

“Good night.” Ethan replied with a shrug as the pegasus flew towards the couch that he’d found in the raider’s bedroom.

“I’ll take first watch Holly, you can either take second or third.” Ethan told the unicorn.

“Okay then, wake me in four hours or so.” She said with a nod as she rose to her hooves with a yawn of her own and went on her way towards the bedroom.

“So Ethan, want to tell stories to pass the time?” Eddie asked.

“Sure. So Eddie, have I ever told you about the time that I got abducted by aliens?”

***

“Well that wasn’t the worst experience I’ve ever had in a hospital.” Sarah said with a small smile as the two companions wound their way back towards Winter’s dwelling.

“What was the worst experience you’ve ever had in a hospital?” Winter asked curiously.

“That would be the time that my squad, the Lyons Pride, got stuck in a hospital basement surrounded by glowing ghouls and mirelurk kings.” Sarah replied with a slight shiver. “I thought we were done for, until Ethan showed up and stole the show, of course.” She added with a roll of her eyes.

“Hmm?” Winter asked curiously.

“It’s just a habit of his, whenever I’m in trouble he’ll show up out of nowhere and save my ass, it’s kind of annoying.” Sarah replied with a shrug, the sound of a whip cracking and a pony in the distance screaming in pain made her pause for a second before continuing. “Kind of sweet too, honestly.” She added with a small smile and a shake of her head.

“Heh, well I hope he can rescue the two of us soon, the longer I’m in this city the worse I feel.” Winter said with a frown.

“Tell me about it, I’m never going to get the stains out of this shirt.” Sarah grumbled as she poked her shirt with a slightly ashy finger, adding to the growing coat of grime that had already begun to cover her clothing.

“Heh, those should be the least of your worries.” Winter told her with a slight chuckle as he opened the door to the bottom floor of the building he lived in.

“I don’t really care about the shirt, it’s just that I really, really, really, miss my powerarmor is all.” Sarah replied with a sigh.

“You know how to wear powerarmor?” Winter asked in surprise.

“Of course I do. I’m Brotherhood of Steel Paladin Sarah Lyons.” Sarah replied with a shrug. “My job is wearing powerarmor and killing mutants, raiders, and any fucking Enclave sons of bitches that I see.” She added with a smile. “Good God I sound like Ethan.” She groaned with a facepalm.

“Huh, sounds like the Steel Rangers. Well, except for the fact that they’re all technology hoarding zealots.” Winter said as he opened the door to his house and stepped inside.

“Steel Rangers?” Sarah asked curiously.

“Yeah, they’re the remnants of the Ministry of Wartime Technology. They go around wearing powerarmor and ‘reallocating’ advanced technology to keep it safe from us ‘filthy, filthy tribals’.” Winter said with a slight huff.

“Sounds like the old West Coast branches of the Brotherhood to me.” Sarah told him. “We still go around collecting technology, but we also help keep the people of the Capital Wasteland safe from all the different bastards out there.”

“Hmm, interesting.” Winter said with a quick nod. “So Sarah, are you hungry?” The green-maned unicorn asked as he walked further into the little one room house. Her stomach roared loudly. “Well, I guess that answers that.” He said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, I guess it does. So what do you have?” Sarah asked.

“Not much, not much at all.” Winter replied with a sigh. “I’m a nurse; that means that I get a few extra privileges, like not having to depend purely on the slop that they hoof out to the other slaves. Unfortunately, like I said it’s not much.” He waved her over to a small fridge that he sat in the back of the room and Sarah peered inside.

“They have the same crap here that they did back in the Capital Wasteland…” Sarah said with a sigh as she looked over the few boxes of prepackaged food that looked almost identical to the stuff back home. “I’ll have a salisbury steak, I guess.” She said with a sigh as she reached in and grabbed one of the boxes.

“I’m more of a snack cake kind of stallion myself; always make sure that I get a few.” Winter said as he lifted a small package out of the fridge. They spent several minutes in companionable silence while they ate before Sarah broke the quiet air.

“So Winter, how did you get here?” She asked.

“Well… I did something stupid and got captured by this lot of idiots.” Winter told her with sigh. “My ass still hurts.” He joked with a wry grin.

“I’m sorry.” Sarah told him.

“Na, don’t worry about it. It’s better than being dead, and this way I get to help ponies who really need it.” Winter said with a crooked smile.

“We’ll get out of here Winter; just you wait.” Sarah told him reassuringly.

“Well I hope that your stallion’s as good at this as you say he is.” Winter replied.

“Trust me; this wouldn’t be the first time Ethan’s done something like this.” Sarah said with a small smirk.

“Really. He has experience busting people out of maximum security slave cities?” Winter asked sarcastically.

“Well, not exactly, but he did manage to sneak into one and play a vital course in its history.” Sarah said with a shrug.

“What do you mean?” Winter asked.

“Well, it’s actually pretty complicated. In the end, Ethan freed the slaves and ended up saving the place from a massive trog outbreak.” Sarah explained.

“Sounds like he’s a hell of a guy.” Winter said. “So I take it that you two are together?”

“Not exactly, we’re more of fuckbuddies then anything else right now.” Sarah said with a wry smile.

“So it’s casual.” Winter said.

“Yep, just some nice casual sex to relieve some of the pent up stress that the Wasteland throws at us.” Sarah said with a shrug. They spent the remainder of the meal chatting idly about some of the differences between the Capital and Equestrian Wastelands before they went to bed.

***

It was raining when Ethan woke up, and it would be raining all day by the looks of it. He rolled of the couch and onto his feet before he nudged Holly with his foot.

“Come on, it’s time to deal with those other raiders.” Ethan told her.

“Are we eating first?” Holly asked with a yawn.

“Of course we’re eating first.” The man said with a grin. They made their way out of the room and found Day Kicker sitting with his back to the desk looking at the elevator shaft.

“Morning.” He said politely.

“And the same to you.” Ethan replied with a smile. “So, did you hear anything from our friends down below?”

“Yes, apparently they didn’t think about the fact that elevator shafts carry voices very well. They’ve set up a bunch of mines in and around the elevator shaft so that when we step out we’ll die.” Day Kicker told them, he didn’t sound all that concerned.

“Well, this should be fun.” Ethan said with a smirk.

“I thought you’d like the sound of it.” Day Kicker agreed.

“Aww, you two are bonding over killing raiders, this is fucking adorable.” Holly said with a chuckle before she bit into a snack cake. Day Kicker gave her an un-amused look and rolled his eyes. Ethan just shrugged and shook his head with a small grin.

“How would you get rid of the mines in the shaft?” Ethan asked the pegasus, turning back to the matter at hand.

“Fly down and disarm them, most mines are only activated by vibrations against the ground, my wings eliminate that problem. The rest are via motion trackers and I know that I can move faster than they can keep track of me” Day Kicker replied.

“Sounds good to me, just be careful.” Ethan told him.

“I could do it in my sleep.” Day Kicker said coolly.

“Glad to hear it.” Ethan said with a grin.

“If we disarm the fucking mines then it’ll let the raiders know that something is up.” Holly said as she came to stand behind Ethan.

“Hmm… she’s right.” Day Kicker said with a small nod in Holly’s direction.

“Day Kicker; fly down and disarm the mines, then bring four back.” Ethan instructed.

“Why?” The blue pegasus asked.

“Because I can use it to our advantage.” Ethan replied. The pegasus shrugged and stepped into the elevator car before he flew through the opened hatch in the roof. The pegasus then headed for the ladder that ran up the shaft’s wall and let himself drop down through the space, stopping right above the mines.

The pegasus’s eyes widened as he caught sight of the multitude of mines that had been scattered across the floor of the shaft; there at least twenty. With a slight sigh he reached out and began the process of eliminating them one by one, carefully tapping the off button located on the top of the mines.

The whole process took him around ten minutes. His drill sergeant would’ve been furious at him for taking that long, but with this many explosives right underneath him the pegasus wasn’t about to risk being blown to hell because he’d been working too fast. When the job was done Day Kicker flew back up the shaft with four mines strapped firmly across his chest.

“Good job Kicker, can I call you Kicker by the way?” Ethan asked.

“If you’d like, although that’s more of a family name. I’d prefer Day if you’re going to shorten it.” Day Kicker said.

“Alright then Day, great job. Now hand me those mines if you’d please.” Ethan said with a large smile. Day Kicker complied and Ethan pulled a screwdriver out of his pocket, along with a lunch box and a pair of aviator sunglasses.

“Where the fuck did you get those?” Holly asked.

“Found them last night while I was bored. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to-” He paused for a second before sliding the sunglasses onto his face. “-pack my lunch!”

“Ethan, you’re fucking impossible.” Holly groaned.

“No, not impossible, just unexpected.” Ethan replied with a wide grin.

“No, fuck that, you’re fucking impossible.” Holly told him as the man began to disassemble the mines.

“Maybe so, but I’m also drop dead gorgeous and have enough raw animal magnetism to seduce a deathclaw.” Ethan replied as he opened up the lunchbox. “Not that I’d bother mind you, deathclaws are always looking for committed relationships and that’s just not my style. Well that and them being giant mutated iguanas, that’s definitely a turn off too.” He added with a grin.

“We’ll take your word for it.” Day Kicker said with a role of his eyes.

“Okay, we’re ready.” Ethan said as he hefted the newly constructed lunchbox. It looked the same as the old one, except that it was now several pounds heavier, and the mines were disassembled and lying on the floor.

“So what does this do?” Holly asked.

“It goes boom.” Ethan replied with a knowing grin.

“And this will help us how?” The unicorn asked.

“Because if those raiders want a boom then we’ll give them a boom.” Ethan told her with a large grin.

“So it’s a distraction then?” Day Kicker asked

“You could say that.” Ethan agreed with a nod before he walked into the elevator car. “Are you two coming?” He asked with a smirk.

***

“Didtcha hear that? It sounds like the elevator car is coming down!” Ratrace said excitedly as he pointed at the pointed at the elevator shaft with a brown furred foreleg.

“Yeah, I heard it, now get your ass back over here before they come out and explode or else you’ll lose your face!” His friend Crimsonhoof said before he pulled the other raider away from the mined doorway with a quick TK pull.

There were around ten raiders left alive in the building, and they’d chosen Ratrace and Crimsonhoof to watch the doorway while they all slept in the basement with the goods.

The elevator dinged. And the door opened. And there sitting in the middle of the empty elevator car was a lunchbox.

“Is that a lunchbox?” Crimsonhoof asked curiously as he began to walk towards the elevator car.

“Yeah, it looks like it; maybe they’re trying to be our friends!” Ratrace said with a wide, enthusiastic grin.

“Yeah and let’s play along, maybe if we give them a lunchbox they’ll come down and we can shoot them without having to worry about it, cause they’ll be lured into a false sense of security!” Crimsonhoof said with an elated grin as they stepped over the mines planted on the outside and stepped into the elevator shaft.

***

“These raiders aren’t particularly smart, are they?” Day Kicker whispered from where he was hovering next to Ethan’s face.

“Nope, and now witness the destructive power of the mighty lunchbox!” Ethan said with a smile. Holly was too busy banging her head gently against the elevator roof that they were standing on because of the raiders’ stupidity to comment.

A second after the raiders had stepped into the elevator car the lunchbox exploded taking both raiders and the rest of the mines with them.

“Well that was fun, now let’s kill the rest.” Ethan told his companions before he dropped into the blood-stained elevator car.

His boot-clad feet squished when he landed, but he ignored it and continued out of the car and onto the thoroughly destroyed tiles of the floor beyond. Holly took one look at the sticky bloody floor and shot a hopeful look to Day Kicker. The pegasus rolled his eyes, but grabbed Holly in his forelegs and carried her out of the car before depositing her on the floor beyond.

“Thanks, having that stuff all over my legs would drive me fucking insane.” Holly told Day Kicker who shrugged.

“We ready?” Ethan asked turning back to look at the two of them. They both nodded.

“Okie dokie then, let’s head for the basement!” Eddie said enthusiastically.

The group retraced their steps back into the main lobby without incident, with Day Kicker scouting each room before they entered it. They stopped in front of the door leading to the basement.

“How are we going to do this?” Ethan asked them.

“I could scout the room, but they would most likely notice it.” Day Kicker said from his position on the ceiling.

“Well we can’t have you getting shot, much, so let’s do this the Ethan way.” Ethan said with a grin before his foot shot out and slammed into the door, smashing it open.

He then ran down the stairs and into the basement, only to be met by a full burst of shotgun pellets to the chest. The man was thrown to his ass, but he rolled back to his feet seconds later closed the distance between himself and his attacker before his shock sword slashed out to bisect a raider staring at him in horrified confusion. The next raider in the room fired his hunting rifle, and the bullet slammed into Ethan’s armored shoulder, but glanced off before the man returned fire with his magnum, decapitating the raider before he had a chance to fire again.

That left six raiders in the basement, all of whom were behind crates of supplies that were now being used as cover.

Holly leapt out of the hallway and slid into position beside a crate before popping up and firing a trio of 12.7mm bullets into the next raider to stick his head over a crate. Day Kicker’s method however, was actually much quicker. He simply flew onto the roof of the room and began to rain magical energy down upon the raiders in cover. One rose out of cover to return fire, but Ethan’s .44 bullet slammed into his chest and sent the earth pony tumbling to the ground.

Day Kicker’s magic burned through another one of the raiders, dissolving him into a pool of goo. Ethan used the slight slackening of incoming fire to race forward and bound over cover before bringing his pistol up and blasting a hole through a raider’s neck. Another raider had the misfortune of having his head in Holly’s crosshairs; her pistol barked twice and his head exploded. That just left one raider.

“Nopony move, I’ve got a hostage!” One of the remaining raiders shouted suddenly as he pulled a squirming colt out of one of the tents that they had set up along the back wall of basement. The raider held the colt in front of him with a magical grip and a pistol floated next to the colt’s head. “One more step and I’ll blow his brains out!” the raider shouted menacingly.

Ethan’s eyes widened, and then narrowed.

“You will put that boy down right now.” Ethan said softly in a foreboding voice.

“Oh yeah? Or what?” The raider asked.

“Or else I’ll show you what I do to people who hurt children in front of me.” Ethan replied coldly.

His blue eye practically blazed as he stared into the unicorn’s, who suddenly began to shake slightly as his sense of terror began to rise. Standing before him was a being that towered over him, covered in the blood of his fellow raiders, and capable of shrugging off a blast of buckshot to the chest and then slice his attacker in half. Not only that, but the man’s eyes were like two blazing fires of anger, promising his death if should he kill the colt who was struggling in his magical grip.

“Aww, fuck you!” The raider said after a moment of thought; his magical grip began to tighten on the trigger of the pistol. Ethan’s magnum went off before he could finish the pull and the bullet smashed into the raider’s exposed head, sending him tumbling. The colt landed on the ground and began to desperately attempt to escape his bonds as Ethan walked slowly towards him.

He was a white earth pony, and his eyes were wide as he tried to scoot away from Ethan’s imposing figure as it neared him. A terrified whimper shot through the colt and he began to shake with fear as Ethan took a seat on the ground next to him.

“Sh, sh, sh, it’s alright, everything’s going to be alright.” Ethan whispered soothingly as his hand slid down the colt’s back. “You’re alive, and those bad ponies aren’t going to hurt you anymore. It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright.” Ethan continued as the colt’s shivering started to settle.

“Wha-wha-what are you?” The colt squeaked.

“My name’s Ethan, and I’m here to make sure that you get home safe and sound.” Ethan replied softly as his hand continued to stroke. “Do you know where your parents live?” He asked.

“They-they’r-they’re dead!” The colt sobbed, he began to shake even more, rocking back and forth on the bloodstained ground next to Ethan.

The man’s face momentarily darkened with rage before a look of sadness overtook it.

“Do you know anyone who’d be willing to take you in?” He asked.

“I-I think that I have an aunt living in Tenpony Tower.” The colt sniveled.

“Well it’s your lucky day kid, that’s exactly where we’re heading next.” Ethan told him, giving the colt a reassuring smile.

“Really?” The colt asked drying his eyes.

“Yep, don’t worry kid, I’ll get you there safe and sound. Although I can’t promise that you’ll stay dry.” Ethan said with a small smirk.

“Impressive.” Day Kicker whispered to himself as he watched, he’d expected it to take much longer to calm the colt.

“Alright folks, grab whatever looks valuable to you and take claim it as salvage. Once you’re done we’re getting this little guy back to Tenpony and I’m collecting our reward.” Ethan said as he got back to his feet, he was cradling the colt in one arm.

“It’ll take us a fucking hour to get through all these crates.” Holly informed him curtly as she began to open a nearby crate with her magic.

“You’ve got half that.”

***

“You did great work back there.” Homage told Ethan as they walked around her living room.

“Thanks, it was just what anyone should have done. Besides, I have a soft spot for kids, especially orphans.” Ethan replied with small pained smile.

They’d made their way back to the tower in just under two hours and after several minutes of questioning he’d managed to find the colt’s, whose name was Onyx, aunt. The middle aged earth pony mare had immediately swept the colt into a big hug before handing Ethan a bag full of over a thousand caps. He’d protested the amount, but she’d insisted upon it.

“Well it doesn’t diminish the value of what you did Ethan.” Homage said resolutely.

“So where’s Littlepip today?” Ethan asked as he looked around the room for any sign of the small pony.

“She left, she’ll be back.” Homage said simply.

“Okay, so it’s important and you won’t tell me in case it endangers you.” Ethan said with a chuckle.

“Oh, you’re good at this.” Homage said with a small smirk.

“I’m good at a lot of things.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “And I’m incredibly modest to boot.”

“Yeah, that’s one way to put it.” Homage said with a chuckle. “Oh, and I saw something that might interest you while you were out.” She added. “Follow me.”

Ethan followed the mare into a room full of fancy radio equipment and monitors.

“You see, while I was keeping an eye on Fillydelphia last night I spotted something. Or more specifically, someone.” Homage said as her hooves danced across the main keyboard. One of the monitors lit up and Ethan gasped, walking across the street of Fillydelphia was none other than Sarah Lyons.

“Sarah!” Ethan practically shouted.

“You know her then?” Homage asked.

“You’re damn right I know her, I’m her fuckbuddy dammit! Of course I know her!” Ethan said excitedly. “Homage, do you think that DJ-PON3 would mind if I sent her a message over the radio?” Ethan asked hopefully.

***

“So Winter, what are we going to be doing toda-” Sarah began but was interrupted when Winter’s eyes suddenly widened and he let his scrubs fall to the floor before he quickly pressed a button on his Pip-Buck.

‘-and now, I’ll turn it over to Ethan Smith himself.’ The voice of DJ-PON3 said.

‘Hello Wasteland, this is Ethan Smith, the Lone Wanderer speaking. This message is for Sarah Lyons of the Brotherhood of Steel, who is apparently being held as a slave in the city of Fillydelphia. I’m coming for you Sarah, don’t lose hope, don’t give up, and whatever you do, don’t stop believing.

As for ‘Lord Red Eye’, I heard that you recently had someone else break out of your little city, and I’m just going to tell you that that’s not the way that I do things. I’m coming to your city and I’m getting my friend out of there, by any means necessary. So ready your armies, prepare your soldiers, and fortify your walls. Cause The Lone Wanderer is coming to town, and he's going to tear it all down. Oh, and Sarah? Please try not to get raped, your father would fucking murder me if I let that happen to you.’

‘Well, you heard him folks, apparently old Red Eye’s got a new problem to worry about. Well, now let’s return you to your normally scheduled music and news.’

Sarah stared at Winter for a few seconds, and then she let out a laugh.

“Goddamn it Ethan, just goddamn…”

Chapter 8

View Online

edited by TacoTown

Chapter 8

Ethan’s radio broadcast had played half an hour ago, and Sarah and Winter both knew that it was next to impossible that Red Eye had missed it. So now they were waiting for something to happen.

“This Ethan guy. He’s not very smart, is he?” Winter asked quietly.

“Well he is, he just doesn’t think sometimes.” Sarah replied with a sigh. “So what do you think that they’ll do to me?” She added.

“Probably send you to live in the Mall; it’s one of the more heavily defended areas in Fillydelphia.” Winter said with a sigh. “It’s also full of raiders.” He added.

“Oh goodie.” Sarah deadpanned with a scowl.

“The main master isn’t too bad; well, besides the fact that he’s one of those ponies who actually believes all of the bullshit that Rey Eye pumps out, his name’s Protégé.” Winter explained. “The one who you’ve got to watch out for is Chainlink Shackles. He’s a massive slaver who’s supposedly heartless enough to make a radgator look compassionate.” He added.

“So I’ll be dealing with a simmering bitch, and a hard assed bastard.” Sarah said while she pinched her nose.

“Essentially.” Winter replied.

“What about you?” Sarah asked.

“I’m coming with you if I can help it.” said Winter firmly.

“Winter, you don’t have to leave your home because of me.” Sarah protested.

“Yes I do, you’ll get in trouble without me around. Trust me Sarah, you don’t have the right attitude to fit in around here; without me you’ll probably end up insulting the wrong raider and end up dead!” Winter said with a shake of his green mane. Before they could get any farther the sound of hooves on the stairs interrupted their conversation.

The door to Winter’s flat opened and in stepped a tall, imposing, black-maned earth pony with a glowing cybernetic red eye. He was flanked by two green alicorns, along with Master Dove and another pony who Sarah didn’t know. The other pony was dark coated and had a red eye similar to the first, but the eye was far less intricate.

Winter immediately went to his knees in a bow but Sarah merely regarded him with a raised eyebrow as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Sarah Lyons, at last we meet.” The black-maned stallion said in a smooth, charismatic voice.

“Who are you, and why should I care?” Sarah asked. Behind her, Winter winced.

“I’m Red Eye, your master.” Red Eye told her simply in a surprisingly fatherly voice. Sarah snorted.

“I have no master.” She replied calmly.

“We all have masters Sarah.” Red Eye corrected calmly.

“Enough banter, tell me what you want.” Sarah said icily. She had a man’s ass to kick, but he wasn’t around so she’d have to make due with being a bit of a bitch. Not that the asshole in front of her didn’t deserve it in the first place.

“Information. Who is Ethan Smith, and how much of a threat is he?” Red Eye asked.

“He’s the craziest son of a bitch in the wasteland. As for how much of a threat he is, well, that’s hard to say. It depends on how angry he is.” Sarah replied with a shrug. “Get him angry enough and he’ll take on a four hundred strong, powerarmor wearing, energy weapon using army.” Sarah paused here for a second before continuing “By himself. And come out untouched before killing his way through their base and blowing it up.” She said.

“And how angry do you think he will be about your being here?” Red Eye asked slowly.

“Angry enough to kill each and every slaver here; of course, he’d do that anyways out of principle. He doesn’t like people like you.” Sarah said with a tiny smile.

“Hmm… So then he’s a hero then?” Red Eye asked.

“No, he’s a warrior.” Sarah replied easily. “There’s a large difference between the two.” she added with a slight frown.

“A warrior who fights for others is still a hero,” Red Eye insisted, “And heroes can always be torn down by their inner demons.”

“Say what you will about him when he’s not here. He’ll get here eventually and then I’m sure you’ll both have a very nice talk before he shoots you in the face.” Sarah said with a shrug. Winter flinched again; she really didn’t know how to talk to ponies like Red Eye.

“Master, I believe that we’re becoming sidetracked. Perhaps we should continue this part of the conversation later?” The other pony with a red eye said.

“Ah, quite right Protégé.” Red Eye said turning to nod at the other pony, “Sarah Lyons, because of the security risk that you present you are being moved to the Mall and will be under the ownership of Protégé. Come to him if you have any issues and I’m sure that he will be able to help.” The black-maned stallion said. “He can also direct you to me if you wish to talk about your friend Ethan.”

“Master, if I may make a request?” Winter spoke up for the first time in the conversation.

“Of course Winterberry.” Red Eye said with a nod.

“I was wondering if it would be possible for me to live in the Mall with Sarah. I’ve come to like her a great deal in our time together, and I don’t want her to be hurt because she’s said the wrong thing to the wrong pony.” Winter said in as polite of a voice as he could manage.

“That would be up to your Master. Master Dove, what do you think of this?” Red Eye asked, turning to the leather clad mare.

Master Dove looked at Winter for a few moments, and then smiled a knowing smile.

“It would be fine with me as long as he continues to do his work for the hospital, and honors our agreement of course.” She said. Winter let out a tense breath, but smiled at the mare.

“Of course Master, I wouldn’t dream of neglecting our bargain.” Winter said.

“Then I have no reason to prevent you from going with this mare.” Master Dove said with a smile of her own.

“We will talk again Sarah Lyons.” Red Eye said ominously before he turned with his cloak billowing out behind him until he faced the two the alicorns and nodded, before they filed out the room.

“Well then. We should be off, we’ll have to get you both processed and into the Mall before dark. Come along.” Protégé said.

“Master, may I gather up some of my items here to take with me?” Winter asked, still keeping his head bowed.

“Of course, just do it quickly.” Protégé said with a smile. “I have some things to attend to today, and we cannot be here long.”

Sarah just frowned at him; he was far too easy going and nice to be a slaver. Winter quickly scampered around his flat, grabbing lots of random items and shoving them into the pack on his back. It only took him around two minutes to gather everything that he wanted before he came back to stand in front of Protégé beside Sarah.

“Are you both ready then?” Protégé asked; he received two nods. “Very well, let’s be off.”

***

“Wow, you look pretty fucking good naked.” Holly chuckled.

“Thanks,” Day Kicker said dryly with a slight frown as he carefully folded his Enclave jumpsuit.

Holly had advised him that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to wear his Enclave colors in the tower. So Ethan had worked out a deal with one of the guards so that no one would remark about the pegasus who flew through the window and into the room that Ethan and Holly were staying in. The mare sat on the bed on the other side of the room, and watched as Day Kicker turned to look at her a frown still firmly in place.

“Oh take a fucking chill pill Day.” Holly grumbled with a roll of her eyes.

“The longer I’m down here means the longer I have to be away from my friends and family, forgive me for not being enthusiastic about being hit on by a mare I barely know.” Day Kicker snapped.

“Who the fuck said that I was hitting on you?” Holly asked with a chuckle, “For all you know I like to fuck mares and I’m just complimenting your fur because it looks like you’ve actually taken a bath recently.” She said with a smirk, Day Kicker just rolled his eyes, but still let out a small chuckle.

“Yes, and the water was even un-irradiated too.” He told her with a light chuckle.

“You lucky duck you! The last time I had a bath with fucking clean water was, hmm… When was it?” She said, trailing off for a moment. “Oh, I remember now, it was the last time my brother and I were in New Appleoosa!” Holly said with a smile. “It cost us a hundred caps, but it was completely fucking worth it.” She added.

“You know, I’m almost positive that this place has a working water purifier that runs through the showers, you could take one now.” Day Kicker told her with a nod towards the bathroom attached to their room; Holly facehoofed.

“Fuck I’m dense sometimes…” She said before she shot the pegasus a smile and bolted towards the bathroom. Day Kicker rolled his eyes, but a small smile was firmly planted on his face. His odd traveling companions were starting to grow on him, if only slightly.

***

Homage was staring intently at Ethan as they sat on the couches of her living room.

“I really wish that you’d told me what you were going to say before you did that.” She told him.

“Sorry, spur of the moment…” Ethan said with a slight chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head.

“You do realize that you’ve probably just made her life a lot harder don’t you?” Homage asked him.

“Sarah’s tough, she can handle herself.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“Ethan, Red Eye is an absolute bastard; he’ll do whatever it takes to kill the ponies who stand against him. Hell, he’s got a megaspell somewhere near this tower, waiting to blow if LittlePip doesn’t do what he wants! What in Celestia makes you think that he’d keep her alive!?” Homage asked him in frustration.

“Because he knows nothing about her. To someone like this guy, or at least what I’ve heard about this guy from you, that’ll force him to keep her around until he can figure her out. Add to that the fact that he knows that she means something to me and that I’m coming specifically for her and you’ve got a very good recipe for Sarah being completely safe.” Ethan explained with a shrug.

“And if she’s not?” Homage asked in a quiet voice.

“Then I’ll raze his city and slaughter every slaver in the place.” Ethan said calmly. Homage regarded him carefully for a moment before speaking.

“Could you do that?” She asked.

“Yes, yes I could.” Ethan told her. “I’ve taken on guys that make Red Eye look like a child playing with his brother’s bb-gun. And I did it years ago, when I was a lot less experienced then I am now.”

“Ethan, he has an army.” Homage told him worriedly.

“Yeah, well, I’ve got me, and that’ll be more than enough.” The man told her.

“That’s the kind of thing that’ll get you killed out there in the Wasteland.” Homage warned Ethan, who chuckled.

“Trust me on this miss DJ; I’ve been fighting impossible odds since I turned twenty. First it was raiders, then it was super mutants, then it was Enclave, then it was simulated Chinese bastards, then it was aliens, and then, well, you get the point.” Ethan told her with a shrug. “Red Eye will die like the rest of them.”

“Look Ethan, I won’t pretend to really know you, because I honestly don’t. We’ve just met, and I know practically nothing about you.” Homage began, “But I know your type.” She continued. “You’re the kind of pony who thinks that nothing out there can hurt them or turn them away from their goal; that they’ll never falter or fall to their darkness. And I’m telling you that you’re wrong, the Equestrian Wasteland will find a way to twist you into something that you barely recognize if you’re not careful.” She finished with a sad sigh.

“Heh, too bad somewhere else already beat it to the punch.” Ethan told her with a lopsided grin.

“What?” The unicorn asked in confusion.

“Homage, I’m the way I am right now because of the Capital Wasteland. I’m already unrecognizable compared to the person I was before I left my Vault.” Ethan told her. His eyes had suddenly hardened, “My fiancé’s father tried to stop me from chasing my father out of our home, and I was forced to kill some of the people who I’d worked beside for years, until I ultimately killed her father.”

The man’s blue eyes glazed over slightly as he leaned back into the couch with a slight sigh. “After that I was forced to watch helplessly as my father sacrificed himself in his moment of triumph only to later discover that his sacrifice had been in vain and that the man who’d caused his death was still alive and well.”

A small un-amused smile played over his face for a second before he continued. “I even went back to my Vault because my ex-fiancé needed my help; I helped her, and you know what happened?” He asked Homage, who shook her head.

“I don’t know Ethan.” Homage replied.

“She kicked my ass to the curb and threw the ring that I’d worked on for months after me.” He said with a shake of his head.

“My point is Homage, that you know next to nothing about me. Don’t mistake me for some green little colt who has never been outside of his home before, and who’s making it up as he goes along.” Ethan told her with a serious look. “If I was going to become a monster I already would be one and everyone in this tower would be dead. Now if you don’t mind, I think I have somewhere to be.” He said as he rose from his seat.

“I’m sorry Ethan, I didn’t know.” Homage said apologetically. “I’m just projecting my worries for a certain mare onto you.” She added.

“Don’t worry about it.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “I know you didn’t mean any harm, I’m just kind of sensitive about people thinking that I’ll turn evil.” He added with a frown.

“Right, anyways, let me know if you need any more work. I’m sure I could find something or other for you to do.” She told him, while changing the topic.

“I think that I’ll have my work cut out for me dealing with Red Eye for the moment, but when I’m done be sure to point me at the next murdering tyrant in the Wasteland.” Ethan added with a light chuckle before he walked out of the room, whistling a tune under his breath.

Homage let out a sigh before she walked back in the direction of the studio. The man was an enigma. Happy and carefree one minute, and serious and brooding the next. Putting the man out of her head she sat down in her favorite chair, she had cameras to watch, songs to play, and truth to tell.

***

Ethan walked into the room that he and the two ponies shared to find that Day Kicker was relaxing on one of the couches, a small book clasped firmly between his hooves. The blue pegasus looked up as Ethan entered and gave him a small nod, which Ethan returned. The sound of running water made Ethan turn his head towards the bathroom, along with the small amount of steam that was leaking out from under the door.

“Holly taking a shower?” He asked.

“Yep.” Day Kicker replied without looking up from his book.

“Heh. So Day, I couldn’t help but notice that yesterday you were the only one who didn’t share anything about your past when we were comparing stories.” Ethan said as he took a seat on the couch next to the pegasus. He once again took a moment to thank God for the fact that everything had been built to comfortably accommodate griffins.

“You noticed that, did you?” Day Kicker asked without looking up from his book.

“That might be why I said it.” Ethan replied with a smirk.

“I suppose that that makes sense.” Day Kicker agreed.

“So, when’s your next report due?” Ethan asked, changing the subject.

“What report?” Day Kicker asked.

“The field report that you’re undoubtedly going to send your bosses once we get out of the tower.” Ethan said with a shrug, “I’m sure that you’ve got some dead-drops scattered around the Wasteland that you’ll covertly send your letters through.” Ethan explained.

Day Kicker stared at Ethan, his mouth hanging open slightly.

“I’m smarter then I look.” Ethan replied with a wry smirk.

“I guess that you’d have to be.” Day Kicker said as he recovered from the slight bout of shock he’d received at the thought that Ethan knew about the dead-drops.

“Anyways, we’re heading to Fillydelphia next to save one of my friends who got her ass captured by that dick Red Eye-”

“What the fuck did you just say?” Holly shouted from the bathroom door. She was still soaking wet, but she’d obviously been in the process of drying off because her mane had been wrapped up in a towel.

“I said that we’re saving my fuckbuddy’s ass from Red Eye.” Ethan said with a smirk. Holly regarded him for a few seconds before she stepped back into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

“That went well.” Day Kicker said dryly.

“I’m wondering what it means personally.” Ethan replied. Day Kicker simply shrugged and went back to reading.

“So what are you reading Day?” Ethan asked as he leaned over to get a glimpse of the cover of the book that the pegasus was focusing on.

“It’s the autobiography of one of my ancestors.” Day Kicker replied.

“The Life and Times of a Winning Pony. What’s that about?” Ethan asked as he read the title with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s entertaining.” Day Kicker replied with a shrug.

“Sounds kind of dry actually.” Ethan said.

“Not exactly.” Day Kicker replied with a small smile, “My ancestor was rather… promiscuous.”

“So you’re reading porn about your ancestor?” Ethan asked with a smirk.

“It’s not porn, it’s comedy.” Day Kicker shot back.

“Alright then.” Ethan said with a shrug and a roll of his eyes before he leaned back into the couch.

“You’re the one who asked.” Day Kicker said with an irritated tone in his voice.

“I know, I was just hoping for something more interesting.” Ethan replied.

Holly emerged from the bathroom looking much drier and considerably calmer than before, interrupting any further conversation between the two.

“So we’re going to storm the slave city of Fillydelphia with two ponies, one human, and an AI. Am I the only one who thinks that this is a really fucking bad idea?” She asked, turning to Day Kicker.

“I’m not overly concerned; if half of the things that this man has said are true then I think he could probably do it with less.” The pegasus replied with a shrug.

“And you’ll betray us halfway to the city, so it won’t be a problem anyways,” Ethan added.

“There is that option, yes.” Day Kicker agreed with a nod.

“Good fucking goddesses I’m the voice of reason here.” Holly said with facehoof.

“Well look at it this way Holly, if we can get Sarah out of that hellhole maybe we’ll be able to get some others out too.” Ethan told her with a smile.

“Fine, but before we head out we’re going fucking shopping!” The green mare declared firmly.

“Why?” Ethan asked curiously.

“Because there’s no way in fucking hell that we can storm that city without some better weapons and armor!” Holly exclaimed.

“My arsenal seems sufficient.” Day Kicker told her with a shrug towards his battle saddle.

“Yeah, and you’re going to fucking betray us long before we get there so I’m not going to worry about that.” Holly replied dismissively.

“You’re both so certain of that.” Day Kicker said with an amused snort. Holly rolled her eyes before turning back to Ethan.

“So that means that we’ve got to get me some stronger armor, along with something to shoot ponies with besides a pistol and a sniper rifle, and you could probably use some fucking explosives to go along with your stuff too.” She said.

Ethan shook his head. “I’m not much of an explosives person really; although I do think that I’ll get a nice shotgun for medium range.” He added with a shrug.

“Fine, I’ll get the fucking explosives along with an assault rifle and some good armor. You’ll get a shotgun.” Holly said with a nod.

“Works for me, you sure you don’t want anything Day?” Ethan asked turning to look at his pegasus companion, who’d gone back to reading on the couch beside him.

“If you can find any high powered magical energy weapons that look affordable, please pick me up one.” Day Kicker replied without looking up from his book.

“Okay, I’ll see if we can find any.” Ethan replied before rising from the couch. “Come on Holly, let’s go shopping!”

“You’re surprisingly fucking enthusiastic about this.” Holly said with a chuckle.

“Honestly, it’s more because I’m interested to see what kind of stuff they sell here compared to back home.” Ethan told her with a shrug as they walked towards the door. “After a while, I’d bought everything that I could ever want from all of the shops and my caps began to just pile up without anything to spend them on except ammo, and that barely put a dent in my supply.” Ethan explained.

“Somehow, I doubt that that’ll be an issue here.” Holly told him with a roll of her eyes. “So how much did we make off of that last job along with the combined profits of all that merch we got from the raiders?” She asked, changing the subject.

“I don’t know; we haven’t sold any of it yet, have we?” Ethan asked Holly in slight confusion. The unicorn looked at him for a second and let out an annoyed breath.

“Ethan, that’s what I spent my time doing when we got here, remember?” she asked with a slightly irritated groan.

“Oh-oh, right, sorry. I’m kind of distracted right now,” Ethan told the unicorn, who nodded, “So how much did we make off of that stuff?”

“Two thousand caps, not too bad for a few dozen crappy assault rifles and three fucking missile launchers.” Holly replied with a shrug.

“So add that to the money that that mare gave me for saving her nephew, along with the money that I had before and that means that we’ve got around eight thousand caps to buy things.” Ethan said with a smile.

“Sounds good to me, so what the fuck are we buying first?” Holly asked.

“We’re getting you some armor, no offense but what the hell are you doing running around in leather armor?” Ethan asked the mare as they entered a nearby elevator and he pressed the appropriate button for the market floor.

“My brother and I never made that many fucking caps, this was the best armor that we could afford to repair on a regular basis.” The mare told him with a shrug.

“Ah, that makes sense I suppose.” Ethan agreed with a nod. “Anyways, now that we’ve got the caps for it what would you like?”

“Hmm… I think I’d like some actual fucking combat armor. I’m tired of digging bullets out of my fucking body.” Holly said with a scowl.

“Sounds good to me.” Ethan told her. “I just hope that they have a good shotgun for me.”

***

“I can’t believe how awesome this shotgun is!” Ethan exclaimed as he and Holly made their way back to their room.

He hefted the heavy shotgun in front of him, and manually cycled through the barrels like it was a revolver or a grenade launcher. “Eight shots of any type of ammo I want, including the ability to fire exploding shells and incendiaries along with a stock that’s strong enough to shatter the skull of an alicorn. God, I think I’m in love.” Ethan said as he stroked the large black shotgun lovingly. He’d bought it off of a dealer who specialized in equipping griffins, and had managed to talk the stallion down to a mere two thousand caps.

“Goddesses, you need to get a fucking room.” Holly told him with a roll of her eyes before she changed subjects. “Ethan, you realize that the recoil on a gun that big is going to be fucking ridiculous, right?” Holly asked him with a raised eyebrow.

“Well duh Holly, the gun weighs like twelve pounds. Of course it’s going to have a lot of recoil.” Ethan replied.

“Make that twelve and a half pounds actually.” Eddie said from Ethan’s wrist.

“Thanks Eddie.” Ethan said with a chuckle as he slung the large shotgun over his shoulder. “So how do you like your new armor?” He asked.

“It’s very nice, it fits well, and is surprisingly breathable.” Holly answered. She was wearing a suit of prewar combat barding that someone had spray painted black.

“And the gun?” He asked.

“It’s light and should be able to dish out enough damage to shred any fucking raiders that we meet.” Holly answered with a shrug as she adjusted the new assault rifle that was strapped to her back with magic.

“Excellent. I hope Day likes his gift.” Ethan said with a grin as he reached for the other gun that they’d bought.

“He’ll probably look it over and then say it isn’t fucking good enough for him.” The mare said with a shrug.

“I don’t know, let’s find out!” Ethan said with a wide grin as he opened the doorway of their room and walked in.

“Well, it looks like your trip was successful.” Day Kicker said as he looked them over. He was still reading the same book as before, but he was looking them over critically.

“Yeah, things went well, well enough in fact that we were able to pick you up a gift.” Ethan said as he drew a long barreled boxy gun off of his back and walked over to give it to the pegasus.

Day Kicker’s eyes widened as they took in the gun.

“This-this is a gauss rifle- wha-where the hell did you find this?” Day Kicker asked. His eyes were wide and staring as he quickly began to go over the gun with his feathers and hooves, exploring every hole and opening.

“From some guy who said he was from someplace called Hoofington. He tried to convince me to come back with him, but I said I was busy.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “So, do you like it?” Ethan asked.

“If I said that I liked it then I would be doing my true feelings a disservice,” Day Kicker told him with a wide smile, possibly the widest and most real smile that Ethan had seen from him so far. “Ethan Smith, for this gun I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I hope I won’t have to use it to kill you.” Day said earnestly.

“Yeah, me too. That thing was expensive as hell.” Ethan said with a nod towards the gun.

“It was as much as all of the other fucking equipment we bought combined, I’d hope you’d like it.” Holly said.

“I like it, have no fear of that.” Day Kicker said as he got up and flew over to his battle saddle and brought it over. “I’ll have to change things up a little with this on here so that I unhook this when I want to take more precise shots. It’s impossible to aim down the scope with this on my back, but…” He continued talking but he was mostly just mumbling to himself.

“Well I’m glad that you like it.” Ethan said with a chuckle.

“Hmm?” Day Kicker asked, looking up.

“I said I’m glad that you like it.” Ethan repeated with a smile.

“Oh, yes, it’s very nice.” Day Kicker replied. “So when do we leave for Fillydelphia?”

“Tomorrow morning, right after breakfast.” Ethan replied with a nod.

“Sounds good to me.” Day Kicker replied.

***

Sarah and Winter were shown into the plaza of the mall by Protégé, but then the black unicorn took off at a fast pace towards one of the nearby buildings while a griffin swooped down and landed next to him. As the two new friends took their first tentative steps into the large enclosure, Sarah suddenly felt several dozen pairs of hostile eyes fall upon them.

“This is going to get ugly.” She whispered to Winter, who nodded.

“Try not to kill any of them.” He whispered back.

“I’ll do my best, but I was actually talking about it being ugly for us. There are a lot of them, I can’t fight that many.” She told him in a hushed tone as the first raider began to stride towards them.

“Can you do anything to prevent them from attacking us?” Winter asked.

“I’m going to try one of Ethan’s tactics, although it’ll probably backfire horribly.” Sarah said as another raider joined the first, followed by a third and a fourth.

“Well they don’t look to inviting at the moment, so I’ll take anything you’ve got.” Winter said with a frown.

“Alright, here goes nothing.” Sarah said before raising her voice. “Listen up you raider sons of bitches. My name is Sarah Lyons, Paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel! And you are going to simmer the fuck down and back off or I’m going to be sending my metal tipped boots straight up your asses!” She shouted at the gathering crowd of raiders.

The raiders paused for a second, and then they began to smile evily.

Chapter 9

View Online

Edited by TacoTown

Chapter 9

“Well fuck, I’m out of ideas; try not to get in my way.” Sarah told Winter, who had already begun to sidle behind her.

“That was my plan actually.” Winter replied without taking his eyes off of the approaching raiders. A group of slavers had gathered along the wall to watch the oncoming spectacle, jeering and laughing to each other.

One of the raiders, a brown earth pony, charged Sarah, cackling madly. She took a deep calming breath, and then slipped into a combat stance, keeping her center of gravity low to the ground. The raider reached her and launched his hoof at her face; Sarah’s arm shot out and snagged the raider’s leg half a second before the hoof would’ve hit her. Then, with strength that came from long hours of wearing power armor, Sarah bunched her shoulders, took a step, and threw the raider. The earth pony flew around ten feet before he landed on the concrete of the mall face first.

There was a moment of silence.

And then the raiders charged.

Sarah’s eyes widened as every raider in the plaza charged her simultaneously. The first to reach her received a kick to the head that sent him stumbling away clutching at his face, but the second bucked Sarah in the shin causing her to sink to one knee as another’s hoof flew towards her face. Sarah’s hand came up to block it but the blow was strong enough to knock her off of her knee and send her to the ground. She rolled to her feet before they could dog-pile on top of her and sent the next raider to charge her reeling with a jab to the chin, followed by a kick to the chest.

She turned to look for Winter, who wasn’t handling as badly as she’d expected. There were two raiders unconscious on the ground near him, and he was steadily backpedaling away from a third who was coming at him. Sarah turned back to the raiders and found that in the few seconds that she’d taken to check on her companion a unicorn raider’s horn had begun to glow with an eerie yellow light. She had just enough time to mutter a quick curse before she rolled away from where she’d been standing before a blast of yellow magic obscured the area.

Sarah barely had time to regain her feet before another raider charged her, horn first. She sidestepped the raider, while at the same time sending her leg out to trip the raider, who crashed to the concrete. Sarah didn’t have time to congratulate herself because she suddenly found herself airborne, entrapped in a yellow glow as the unicorn from before smirked evilly at her.

Winter dodged under his fourth opponent’s hoof and saw Sarah’s predicament; with a low growl he sent a pulse of magic at the other unicorn’s horn. The other unicorn let out a shout of pain and Sarah tumbling to the ground, landing hard on the concrete. A raider tried to kick her in the face, but Sarah dodged it, moving her head out of the way at the last second before she rose to one knee and punched the raider in the face. Wasting no time she charged the raider unicorn before he could recover from Winter’s spell and grabbed him by the muzzle before powering forward and slamming the back of his head into the concrete with a loud crunch.

Her victory was short lived however, and a large earth pony blindsided her with a body tackle that sent her crashing to the ground. Her face hit the concrete and she tasted blood in her mouth as she rolled to the side just in time to avoid a crushing stomp by one of the raiders. She rolled again and came out of it on her feet again, breathing heavily. Sarah’s lip was bleeding and she was almost positive that she could feel a black eye developing as she stood there panting, waiting for the next rush.

It never came.

“What do you slaves think that you’re doing, get back to work! That includes the new slaves!” A large earth pony slaver shouted from a balcony above the plaza shouted. Every pony in the plaza froze. “You are wasting time that could be spent working, go to your shifts!”

The crowd around Sarah and Winter dispersed, except for the several unconscious raiders.

“Sarah, move, now.” Winter said quickly as he began to sprint out of the plaza without looking back.

Sarah let out an aching groan and took off in pursuit of the blue unicorn as he ran. They stopped after several minutes of running and Sarah collapsed backwards against the wall of the nearest building. In addition to her lip bleeding, her arms were also dripping with blood from several deep scrapes and from the wetness under her pants she assumed that her legs were bleeding as well. Winter collapsed next to her panting, he was bleeding from a cut across the forehead that was dripping blood into his eyes.

“Well, that could’ve gone worse.” Sarah said as drew in a deep, painful breath before she began to cough.

“Yeah, we didn’t break any bones.” Winter agreed with a dry chuckle as he began to levitate healing supplies out of his knapsack. Several magic bandages and two stimpacks later the two were feeling slightly better.

“So… now what?” Sarah asked.

“We find a place to sleep that isn’t already taken, or we sleep in one of the areas where there are more ponies.” Winter replied with a frown, his forehead was still bleeding slightly but thankfully it was being contained by the bandages.

“Then we should get moving before any of those raiders from before can find us.” Sarah replied with a slight sigh.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

***

Holly was staring at Day Kicker’s naked flank intently.

“Day, did you’re fucking cutie mark just flicker?” She asked as she pointed her hoof at Day Kicker’s flank. Ethan looked up from his shotgun and looked at Day Kicker’s cutie mark, which prominently displayed the sun being blocked out by clouds, before shrugging.

“I didn’t see anything.” Ethan replied before he went back to cleaning his new gun. A frown crossed Day Kicker’s face before he too shrugged.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He replied as he fiddled with his new gauss rifle and his battle saddle.

“Yeah, I guess my eyes are just fucking with me.” Holly said with a shrug. Then she yawned. “I’m going to go to bed, wake me if someone starts trying to kill us.” She got up and left the main room of the suite and headed for the bedroom.

“So Day, what was the name of your ancestor from that book?” Ethan asked the pegasus after a few minutes of silence.

“Her name was Cloud Kicker.” Day Kicker replied with a shrug. “She was an interesting mare.”

“Hmm…” Eddie murmured softly from Ethan’s wrist.

“Something up Eddie?” Ethan asked.

“No, not really; I was just thinking about how we’ve gone for most of a day without killing somepony.” Eddie replied cheerfully.

“Yeah it’s surprising. I guess that we’ll have to work harder tomorrow.” Ethan told the AI with a chuckle. Day Kicker finished whatever he was doing with his gauss rifle and set it aside with a slight smile on his face.

“Thank you again for this gift Ethan, it’s not exactly a common piece of equipment.” Day Kicker told him.

“Well I just wanted to make your eventual betrayal more exciting.” Ethan replied with a smirk and a short laugh. Day Kicker rolled his eyes but couldn’t keep a chuckle of his own from escaping.

“Yes, with this I should be able to blow your arm right off of your body. There won’t be any reason to have you dissected.” Day Kicker replied.

“The last people who tried to dissect me were aliens; it ended poorly for them.” Ethan told him with a smirk.

“Well I should go to bed; if we’re really going to start traveling to Fillydelphia tomorrow then I’ll need to have a good night’s sleep beforehand.” Day Kicker said with a yawn before he flapped towards the door to the bedroom. That left Ethan alone with the AI as he began to load and unload the shotgun, doing so until it was second nature and he could do it blindfolded.

“Ethan, there’s something up with Day Kicker.” Eddie said suddenly.

“What do you mean Eddie?” Ethan asked.

“I mean that there’s something about his story that doesn’t check out.” Eddie replied simply.

“Could you try being a little more specific Eddie?” Ethan asked curiously.

“It’s just that Cloud Kicker would never go along with the other pegasi. She was one of Rainbow Dash’s best friends and would’ve supported her even if it cost her her life.” Eddie said seriously. “Not only that, but she was one of the Ministry of Awesome’s best agents.” The AI added.

“So what? Things change Eddie.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“You don’t need to tell me that Ethan.” Eddie replied and Ethan swore that he heard a bit of venom in the AI’s voice. “My primary function is based around probability, I know that things change!” The AI said.

“Right, sorry, but what’s the big deal about Day Kicker?” Ethan asked.

“The Kickers were a very loyal clan, they’d always stayed close to the crown and a majority of them were royal guards or were involved in the army in some way. It makes absolutely no sense to think that any of them, especially Cloud Kicker, would go Enclave!” Eddie said. “The chance of that having happened is so slim that there’d be a better chance of Celestia turning down a piece of her favorite type of cake in favor of a steak!”

“Well then Eddie, what do you think Day Kicker is doing here if he isn’t working for the Enclave?” Ethan asked.

“I don’t know; I just don’t have enough data to make any type of prediction!” Eddie said, with a definite hint of annoyance entering his voice.

“Alright, I’ll keep my eyes open then.” Ethan said with a shrug, then he yet out a yawn. “God I’m tired.” He added.

“I don’t think that the goddesses care about that.” Eddie replied cheekily.

“Oh be quiet you stream of data.” Ethan said as he got up off of the couch and headed towards the bedroom.

He entered the room to find Holly sleeping soundly in one of the beds and Day Kicker in the other, leaving no place for him to sleep. He thought about it for a second before he went over to where Holly was sleeping, silently scooped her up in his arms, and then without waking her walked her over to Day Kicker’s bed and laid her down next to him. Ethan went over to the newly unoccupied bed, took off his clothes except for his underwear, lay down with an amused chuckle, and then shut his eyes.

***

“So, are you regretting that you came with me yet?” Sarah asked with a sigh as she pulled Winter closer to herself for warmth.

“No, I’m regretting not bringing my blanket.” Winter replied with a weak chuckle.

They’d managed to find a rundown shop that seemed to be unoccupied; it only had one door and a display window so Sarah had decided that it was defendable enough for them.

“Yeah, but at least you have fur to keep you warm.” Sarah said with a snort.

“Do you think that those raiders will come after us while we sleep?” Winter asked with a yawn.

“Hopefully not, I’ll take the first watch and I’ll wake you at around oneish.” Sarah told him

“Alright then, wake me before we die.” Winter told her before he began to close his eyes.

“Actually, I forgot to ask you something earlier.” Sarah said, Winter’s eyelids closed.

“What is it?” He asked tiredly.

“How did you knock out so many of those raiders during the fight?” Sarah asked.

“Knockout spell, I may not have been trained in Tenpony but I still know my basic *Yawn* knockout spells.” Winter replied before his head lolled into the side of her leg and he began to snore.

Sarah let out a sigh and leaned back against the wall, it was going to be a long night.

***

Ethan was awakened a little after six in the morning and let out a yawn as he got out of bed and began to pull on his clothes. He looked over at the other bed to find that Holly had wrapped her forelegs around Day Kicker’s side while he’d been sleeping and he seemed to have returned the favor.

Ethan’s mouth quirked into a grin as he went over to them and poked Day Kicker on the nose, the pegasus’s eyes opened slowly at first, and then he noticed how he and Holly were intertwined and his eyes popped wide open. He shoved Holly away from himself causing her to roll off of the bed with an indignant whinny.

“What were you doing in my bed?!” Day Kicker shouted.

“Fuck if I know. I was in here first, so how do I know that you weren’t the one who was in my bed?” The mare asked.

“Because this is my bed!” Day Kicker replied loudly.

“Wow, this is the worst I’ve ever seen someone react to waking up with a woman lying next to them.” Ethan said with a smirk.

“Oh, this is your fault isn’t it?” Day Kicker asked with a slight glare.

“Yep.” Ethan said with a sage smile.

“Fuck both of you.” Holly said as she walked back towards her bed.

“What did I do?” Day Kicker asked with an annoyed snort as he got off the bed and began to stretch.

“You fucking shoved me off of the bed.” Holly replied with a narrowed eye.

“I didn’t know it was you, I’d just woken up!” Day Kicker told her with a slight snarl entering into his voice.

“Oh, so you’ve just made a habit of shoving mares out of your bed in the morning, you’re a real fucking class act Day.” Holly retorted.

“It’s not a habit, it was one time before now and it wasn’t my fault!” The pegasus snapped back at her.

“Oh, so it has fucking happened before!” Holly said with a tone of indignation entering into her voice. Instead of answering her Day Kicker turned to glower at Ethan.

“Why did you do this?” Day Kicker asked him.

“Three reasons really.” Ethan replied as he held up his hand “One; because it’s fun fucking with you two, no offense.” He said raised one finger. “Two; to see how you’d both react to it.” He said as he raised another finger. “And three because it’s always good to see how your traveling companions treat each other when they’re angry at one another.” He finished as he raised a third finger with a smirk.

The blast of magic that caught him in the chest knocked him backwards off of his feet and onto the bed. Holly walked over to him and her eyes narrowed.

“Ethan, do not fuck with me for the fun of it.” She told him simply.

“No promises Holly. Besides, I’d say that we each learned something important about ourselves during this little conversation, so that’s always a plus.” Ethan replied as he rolled and onto his feet. “So who’s hungry?”

The pegasus and the unicorn exchanged a silent glance, both agreeing to forget their annoyance with one another. It wasn’t exactly as if it were either of their faults…

“Fine, let’s put this bickering behind us for the moment and go eat.” Day Kicker said with a shrug.

“Yeah, fuck it let’s eat.” Holly agreed with a nod. “So where are we going to eat?”

“Well we bought supplies last night. So we can either eat some of those, or we can go down stairs and eat some of the same two hundred year old bullshit, but instead of it looking like good old fashioned bullshit it’ll instead look like artistic bullshit and be expensive enough to burn through the remainder of our caps.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“I vote on just eating here, the less time and money we spend here the better.” Day Kicker said.

“I agree with Day, as much as I enjoyed my shower yesterday I’d like to get on the fucking road before too long.” Holly said with a nod to the pegasus. “The last thing somepony wants to do is be on the fucking road in Manehatten at night.” She added with slight shiver.

“Why?” Ethan asked as he pulled out a small pack and then pulled out package of salisbury steak for himself before passing the pack to Holly.

“Because there are giant vampire bats called bloodwings. Trust me, you DON’T want to be caught out in the open by those fuckers.” Holly replied as she magically lifted a small container of snack cakes out of the pack before she passed it over to Day Kicker, who shrugged and pulled out a container of potatoes.

“Hmm, this place has more random shit trying to kill you then my Wasteland does.” Ethan said with a shrug.

“Oh, what you’ve seen is just the tip of the fucking iceberg.” Holly replied casually with a shrug before she bit into one of her snack cakes.

“Well I always like challenges, they make life more fun.” Ethan told her with a small grin. Day Kicker rolled his eyes.

"Personally I prefer it when things are simple.” The pegasus said with a shrug after he put a plastic spoonful of potatoes into his mouth and started to chew.

“I suppose you’ve got a point, when thing are simple you don’t have to worry about things going wrong.” Ethan agreed with a nod.

“So what’s the plan for getting your friend out of the fucking slave city?” Holly asked curiously.

“I don’t know.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “I don’t suppose that either of you know much about the layout of the place do you?” He added.

“No, it was never one of my responsibilities.” Day Kicker replied with a shrug.

“All I know about that fucking place is that the Equestrian Wasteland would be a better place without it.” Holly added with snort.

“Well then we’ll just have to make it up as we go along, good thing I’m good at that.” Ethan said with smile.

“And don’t forget that you’ve got me!” Eddie added from his wrist.

“Right we’ve got Eddie with us too.” Ethan said with a nod. “So now I suppose we finish breakfast and then head out?”

“Yes, that sounds fine with me.” Day Kicker said with a nod of approval.

They spent the next of the meal in relative silence, and once they were done Day Kicker slipped out of the window once again clad in his Enclave outfit. Ethan and Holly made their way out of the building and nodded to the guard on duty before stepping once more into the wastes. Day Kicker joined them shortly, and the four allies set out for Fillydelphia.

Chapter 10

View Online

Edited by TacoTown

Chapter 10-On the rocky road to Fillydelphia Part 1

The dusty grey skyscrapers rose up all around them, but Ethan didn’t spare them a moment’s notice as his mind raced. He had a friend to rescue from a city that was apparently run by a megalomaniac. A city that closely resembled the Pitt, run by a pony who resembled Ashur, except on a far grander scale with a much larger ambition and army with which to do his will. That was a recipe for disaster, and Sarah was sitting right in the middle of it. The question was, how could Ethan get her out of the city before that powder keg exploded?

From what Holly and Day Kicker had told him, along what he’d gleaned from Homage during their discussions, the city of Fillydelphia was surrounded by both a large moat filled with toxic material so hazardous that it would melt the flesh right off of anything’s bones the second that they came into contact with it, and a giant wall that-

“Ethan!” Holly shouted, breaking him out of his thoughts as she dived to the side.

*BOOOM!*

Ethan was thrown to the ground as a missile exploded in front of him. He rolled to his feet, magnum at the ready. To his surprise, he saw three large ponies wearing gray powerarmor marching down the street towards him; two of them were armed with large twin grenade launchers, while the third came equipped with duel missile launchers.

“Well good morning to you too.” Ethan called as he checked his magnum’s chamber and quickly shoved in two armor piercing rounds into it.

“Ethan, I know what you’re fucking thinking, and I have one word for you.” Holly told him quietly as she walked back over to him.

“And what would that be Holly?” Ethan asked slyly.

“Don’t!” She replied softly. “They’ll kill you.”

“I doubt it.” Ethan whispered to her before he raised his voice so that the power-armored ponies could hear him. “It takes more than a few colts wearing second hand power armor armed with cherry bombs to kill me Holly. In fact, I’d say that considering how rusty that armor looks that I may be overestimating them.”

A loud growl of anger emerged from the two ponies with grenade launchers, but the pony with the missile launcher gestured for them to stop before he took another step towards Ethan and began to talk.

“I am Paladin Banana Shortcake of the Steel Rangers; you are in possession of an advanced AI. You will surrender the AI or we will obliterate you.” A steely mare’s shouted at him over a loudspeaker.

“Hmm, definitely West Coast.” Ethan muttered to himself.

“What was that?” Banana shouted at him.

“I said, go suck a banana Miss Shortcake, although by the sound of your voice I’d be willing to bet that you’re more of the pie type.” Ethan replied with a smirk.

“Why you-” Shortcake began but Ethan cut her off.

“Let me be clear with you miss fruitcake. I’m in a hurry to save my friend, you’re currently standing in my way. That is bad for your health; move or die.” Ethan told her.

“So be it then.” Shortcake said. The mare began to aim her missile launchers at Ethan, when suddenly her head exploded in a geyser of blood and gore, accompanied by the distinctive sound of a gauss rifle going off from somewhere above them. The two other rangers looked around wildly, searching for wherever the shot had come from.

“Alright boys, you’ve got two choices.” Ethan said as he walked towards the remaining rangers. “You either give up and go home or you-” Ethan was cut off midsentence as the rangers opened up on him with their grenade launchers.

The man’s eyes widened, but he rolled forward just in time to avoid the hail of shrapnel that exploded in the place that he’d been standing. He came up with his magnum at the ready, and sent two armor piercing rounds rocketing out of his magnum’s barrel and punched into the helmet of a ranger, who stumbled backwards with a spray of blood. He quickly holstered his magnum and drew the heavy shotgun off of his back.

A trio bullets slapped against the last ranger’s armored head as Holly’s assault rifle rattled in her magical grip and he turned to fire upon her with his grenade launcher. A salvo of grenades shot towards the mare, who suddenly realized that she was standing in the middle of an empty road with an unspecified number of large grenades zooming towards her. A blue blur shot out of the sky and grabbed the mare before the grenades could land.

“Thanks.” Holly told Day Kicker as he landed in a side street several feet away.

“In the future, please attempt to take cover before the power armor wearing rejects attack.” He told her before he took his gauss rifle off of his back and leaned around the corner of the building that they were taking cover behind to find that Ethan had drawn his shotgun.

“Hey mister ranger, have you ever seen what a blast of explosive buckshot does to an armored skull?” Ethan asked the ranger as he leveled the gun’s barrel with the ranger’s skull.

“N-no.” The ranger squeaked.

“Me neither bucko.” Ethan replied with a grin. “Now the more important question is, would you like to find out?”

“No.” The ranger all but whined.

“That’s good, I don’t exactly want to either. Like I said, I’m in a hurry. However, the fact that you and your dead buddies over there know about Eddie is a problem, and I don’t really like problems.” Ethan explained, keeping his shotgun leveled on the ranger’s head. “So, you’re going to tell me how you know about Eddie and how you found us, and then you’re going to run back to base and tell your Elder why it is a very bad idea to chase after me.”

“I don’t know anything, I’m just an initiate! If you wanted to know things you shouldn’t have killed Knight Sassafras!” The ranger squealed. Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

“Well that’s just fucking perfect; I’m stuck with the initiate.” Ethan said with an annoyed sigh. “Alright, fine. Get the hell out of our way.” He ordered.

The ranger nodded meekly, or as meekly as somepony wearing power armor could nod, and stepped aside. Ethan waved to Holly and Day Kicker to come forward, and they stepped out of the side street. The two walked warily past the power armored ranger, and set off down the road. Ethan stayed behind, keeping his shotgun aimed at the ranger’s head until he felt that the other two were a safe distance away.

“Okay, I’m going to follow my friends. The next time I see you you’d better be offering me a bottle of whisky.” Ethan told the buck before he began to walk away. Then he paused, and pivoted so that he was facing the ranger again. “By the way, what’s your name initiate?”

“I’m Initiate Blueberry Pancakes, um sir.” The ranger said.

“Well then Blueberry Pancakes, this is where we say our goodbyes. Oh, and I’d recommend giving yourself a limp before you get back to base,” Ethan said giving the ranger a salute with his shotgun before he walked away leaving an extremely confused ranger in his wake.

“You should’ve killed him.” Day Kicker said unexpectedly. Ethan looked up to see the blue pegasus hovering at his left shoulder.

“Na, this way they’ll know not to mess with me.” Ethan replied with shrug.

“You do realize that this will just make you look weak to them correct?” Day Kicker asked.

“Let them.” Ethan told the pegasus with a shrug. “It doesn’t matter what they think about me, as long as they realize that it’s a bad idea to chase after me.”

“I rather doubt that they’ll pick up the hint, the Steel Rangers aren’t exactly known for their intelligence.” Day Kicker told him dryly.

“If nothing else I can add them to the growing list of powerful wasteland forces who I’ve managed to piss off in under a week.” Ethan said with a grin. Day Kicker just stared at him for several seconds, silently contemplating something.

“Ethan, what the fuck were you thinking talking to them like that?!” Holly asked him loudly as she walked up to him.

“Well I was thinking that some arrogant bitch had just shot a grenade at me.” Ethan told her flatly. “Nice shot by the way Day.” He added with a nod towards the pegasus.

“Thanks, it was my pleasure.” Day Kicker replied with a shrug as he put the gauss rifle back on his back.

“Did you shoot from the air?” Ethan asked.

“No, I was set up on a nearby rooftop.” Day Kicker told him with a shrug.

“I thought you were scouting.” Holly said with an annoyed look on her face.

“I was.” Day Kicker said. “I saw the Rangers long before you engaged them and found a good vantage point.

“Then why the fuck didn’t you tell us about them?” Holly asked with an exasperated tone in her voice. “You might’ve not even needed to take the shot in the first place if you had!”

“Because I don’t like Steel Rangers.” Day Kicker told her flatly.

“But-but that’s not a good reason!” Holly said angrily. “We could’ve completely avoided them!”

“They’d been tracking us; I doubt that we would’ve been able to avoid them for long, regardless of what we did. This way we know that they won’t be following us until that initiate gets back to whatever base they’re using.” The pegasus replied calmly

Holly ground her teeth in frustration, but let the matter die.

“In the future would you mind giving me a warning about things like this Day? It’s a hassle having to switch ammo types mid fight.” Ethan asked the pegasus, who nodded.

“Of course; I’ll return to my scouting.” Day Kicker said before he jumped back into the air and winged away from them.

“I don’t like it, he should’ve told us that they were there damn it.” Holly grumbled.

“We have bigger issues to worry about.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“Like how those Steel Rangers know about me for instance.” Eddie chirped from the man’s wrist.

“Exactly Eddie.” Ethan agreed with a nod. “Can you do a scan for tracking devices?”

“Let me see. Hmm, yes, yes I do appear to have a rather loud, unblockable tracking signal in my coding. Odd, I don’t remember that being part of my coding, it’s even odder that I didn’t notice until now…” The AI trailed off with a slightly disturbed tone in his voice. Suddenly his voice was replaced by another. It was an athletic and feminine voice.

“Hey Eddie, it’s Dash. If you’re hearing this, then you’ve found the tracker thingy that they put into your coding stuff so that our agents can track you down if you’re taken without our permission. Anyways, don’t worry about it little guy, one of our agents will be there soon. Till then, stay safe, Dash out.” The voice faded leaving Ethan and Holly staring at the man’s wrist.

“Interesting, I always did like Rainbow Dash.” Eddie said with a contemplative tone to his voice.

“She didn’t sound all that smart.” Holly said.

“She wasn’t the technical type, but she was really smart when it counted, and now she’s dead.” Eddie replied simply, a slightly melancholy tone had entered into his voice.

“Well now we know how those Rangers found us. Unfortunately, if they can track us…” Ethan said.

“Then everyone else can too.” Holly said finishing his sentence for him.

“Yeah, should keep things interesting.” Ethan said with a nod. “Hopefully Red Eye won’t notice it. If he does it could make things difficult.”

“He’d have to be deaf, dumb, and blind, the only reason I didn’t notice was the fact that I wasn’t supposed to unless I actually started looking for it.” Eddie said.

“Well then our journey is only going to get more interesting from here on out.” Day Kicker said unexpectedly from above them.

“How long have you hovering been there?” Ethan asked the pony, who shrugged.

“Long enough to know that we’re going to have more unpleasant company incoming later on; oh, and there’s another group of rangers moving in on us from up ahead. Something’s odd about them though, I think that they’re from that other branch that Pon3 has been talking about.” The pegasus replied.

“What?” Ethan asked in confusion.

“Apparently they’re calling themselves ‘Applejack’s Rangers’, and they’re fighting for the good of the Wasteland, or something like that anyways.” Day Kicker said with a shrug.

“I’m surprised that an Enclave member is listening to the radio.” Holly said.

“And I’m surprised that you’ve gone a sentence without saying the word fuck; see, now we’re both surprised.” Day Kicker replied with a smirk as Holly shot him a dirty look.

“So, they’re like the East Coast branch, but they’re new at it eh?” Ethan asked, mostly talking to himself. “Alright, I can handle this. Day, go up to that rooftop over there.” Ethan said while pointing to a nearby rooftop. “Keep the leader in your sights at all times, but do not open fire unless I command it.”

“How will I know when you command it? I’ll be on the roof.” Day Kicker asked.

“Because I’ll shout ‘now’, or something similarly dramatic. You’ll figure it out, you’re a smart pegasus right?” Ethan asked with a smirk. Day Kicker grunted and leapt into the air and began to wing towards the rooftop. Ethan turned to regard Holly with a wide smile.

“Oh no, I really don’t like that fucking smile.” Holly muttered.

“No worries Holly, I know how to handle these types of things.” Ethan said as his smile widened.

“You’ve spent all of your time here pissing off increasingly powerful groups, what makes you think that you know what you’re doing?” Holly asked him incredulously.

“Because, I’m not dead yet.” Ethan told her simply before he pivoted to face the arriving Rangers. “Well hello there, and to who do we owe the pleasure?” Ethan asked the leading pony.

“I’m Paladin Fish Sticks of Applejack’s Rangers.” The leading pony said. He was wearing power armor that was almost identical to that of the other paladin except for the fact that there were three apples clearly visible on his insignia.

“Well I’m the Lone Wanderer; it’s nice to meet you.” Ethan said with a smile on his face.

“Quite.” The paladin said with a nod. “Now that that’s out of the way, we have to ask you to please remove your Pip-buck and give it to us along with the AI living inside of it.”

“Or?” Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Or we’ll take it.” The paladin replied simply.

“That’s really not a good idea.” Ethan said casually.

“And why not?” Fish Sticks asked.

“Because you’re not the first paladin to ask me to do that today, although you’re much more polite then she was.” Ethan replied.

“What?” The paladin asked.

“Well a three pony squad of Steel Rangers tried to make me give them Eddie a few miles back that way. One of them is currently lacking a head courtesy of a gauss rifle.” Ethan explained. “A gauss rifle that currently has your head in its sights. So I would really advice that you don’t try and make me give you Eddie, if you do then I might become… disagreeable.” Ethan continued with a smile on his face.

Fish Sticks stared at him through his helmet, and Ethan could almost feel the stallion’s eyebrows coming together in thought.

“You realize that they will follow you much more doggedly now that you’ve killed one of their paladins.” The paladin asked him.

“Yeah, but I’ve already declared war on Red Eye, the Goddess, and the Enclave, I might as well throw these West Coast posers into the mix as well.” Ethan replied with a smirk.

“What was your name again?” Paladin Fish Sticks asked.

“Ethan Smith.” Ethan replied simply.

“You’re the one from the radio!” One of the rangers behind the Paladin exclaimed.

“Give the mare a medal.” Ethan said with a chuckle. “I’m also the only human currently running around the Wasteland other than Sarah, and she’s a bit busy at the moment.”

“So what now?” Holly asked from where she was standing beside Ethan. Paladin Fish Sticks let out a slight sigh.

“I suppose that there’s nothing we can do unless we want to fight you, and honestly I don’t feel like it. We’ve got to many issues right now to add chasing after you to the list.” The armored pony grumbled.

“Glad we can agree on that.” Ethan told him with a smile. “Hey Day, you can come down now!” He shouted up at the pegasus, a few seconds later Day Kicker landed beside him, gauss rifle across his back.

“You’re traveling with an Enclave member?” Paladin Fish Sticks asked in surprise.

“Oh, he’s just waiting for me to die so that he can take Eddie, the AI.” Ethan replied with a shrug. The paladin shook his head.

“That is an odd traveling relationship.”

“It’s the Wasteland, what traveling relationship isn’t odd?” Ethan asked with a chuckle.

“I suppose you have a point, very well then, we’ll leave you to your peace.” Paladin Fish Sticks said. “Come along Knight Custard, Initiate Jelly Baby.” With those parting words the three rangers walked off the way that they’d come.

“That went surprisingly well.” Holly said.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure that something bad will happen to offset it by the end of the day.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “It is the Wasteland after all.”

“You certainly seem to be looking on the bright side.” Day Kicker said as he took to the air next to Ethan’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m a real optimist.” Ethan replied with a chuckle. The sound of propellers in the distance made Ethan’s head snap up and look in the direction. “How much would you two like to bet that those propellers are coming towards us?”

Chapter 11

View Online

Edited by zaponator

Chapter 11-The rocky road to Fillydelphia part 2

A strange look had overtaken Day Kicker’s face as the sound of propellers neared them. It was a mixture of surprise, thoughtfulness, and to Ethan’s surprise, barely concealed panic.

“Looks like some of your friends are coming to check on your progress, Day,” Ethan said with a raised eyebrow.

“Well they shouldn’t be,” Day Kicker replied with a frown as his eyes searched the sky frantically.

“Why not?” Holly asked curiously.

“Because the average grunt won’t know why I’m here; I can’t let them compromise me,” Day Kicker said with another frown.

His wings flapped once or twice nervously as the vertibuck drew near enough for them to see. It was a sleek, powerful looking machine with a cannon mounted on the front along with a pair set into the wings. Resting atop the wings was a pair of propellers that whirred savagely in the air, cutting through the sky like a hot knife.

“Well, that’s more a more intimidating looking vertibird then what I’m used to seeing,” Ethan murmured. “I really wish I had my tesla cannon with me,” he added as an afterthought.

“The real questions are how many soldiers they brought with them, and more importantly, who their superior officer is,” Day Kicker said as he eyed the approaching vehicle warily.

“Why does the second one matter?” Holly asked.

“Because, it’ll determine their level of clearance,” Day Kicker replied quickly.

“Which means?” Holly asked

“Which means that if their clearance is low enough then I’ll be able to bluff them,” Day Kicker replied with a frown.

“But you’re a pegasus, why the fuck would you need to bluff them?” Holly asked him.

“Like I said, the average grunt doesn’t know who I am. I’m on a secret mission, and if one of them has to call in a report about me then I’ll be compromised. That would be bad,” Day Kicker said with a frown.

“I can kill them for you if you want, Day,” Ethan offered.

“No! That would just make their superiors more suspicious and they’d send more squads. I’m going to have to talk them down,” Day Kicker said as his appearance began to change subtly.

He stood a little taller, his eyes hardened, his jaw relaxed, and his body language became much more confident. Even his blonde mane seemed to become more composed and orderly. By the time the vertibuck touched down several minutes later he looked cool, confident, and commanding without a trace of his earlier nervousness. The door on the side of the vertibuck opened, and Ethan was surprised to see the same red maned Enclave officer that he’d met in the MWT hub flanked by four power armored troopers walk out of it.

“Oh, it’s you again,” Ethan said with a slight chuckle. “Didn’t I already show you what would happen if I saw you again?”

“I’m here for the AI; there’s no reason for either you or your friends here to die,” the stallion answered curtly.

“What are you idiots doing here?!” Day Kicker asked in an authoritative voice similar to that of a drill sergeant as he marched straight up to the officer and jabbed him in the chest with a hoof.

“Wh-who are you?” the officer stuttered, mostly in surprise at suddenly having another pegasus in an Enclave uniform questioning him.

“That’s above your pay grade, maggot!” Day Kicker roared. “I’m here on a mission from Enclave command, and you and your little dildochickens are getting in my damned way!” he shouted.

“Bu-but this is our op!” the officer exclaimed.

“Son, do I look like I give a radgator’s ass about what you and your little butt-fucking friends are here to do?” Day Kicker asked as he turned to glare at the officer with one eye.

“Um-no-sir,” the officer stuttered.

“What was that you little shit?” Day Kicker shouted loudly.

“I said sir no sir!” the officer shouted back while giving Day Kicker a salute. Ethan moved a hand over his mouth to hide his smile, and Holly’s mouth just opened and shut several times in surprise.

“Good!” Day Kicker shouted back. “Now you and the rest of your unit will pull out immediately!”

The officer nodded quickly, and began to walk back towards the vertibuck. Then he paused and turned back to look at Day Kicker.

“Sir, what’s your call-sign?” the officer asked slowly.

“That’s classified information!” Day Kicker replied angrily.

“I need it so that I can check your verification,” the officer replied.

“I already told you that that won’t be necessary!” Day Kicker exclaimed angrily.

The officer stopped for a second, clearly conflicted about what to do, before letting out a sigh. “As you wish, sir,” he said with a downcast look. “However, I will be filing a report about our meeting.”

“Paperwork,” Day Kicker replied with a snort and a roll of his eyes. “You don’t have to fill out any fucking paperwork, you little twat.”

“But sir, regulations—” The officer began.

“Fuck regulations!” Day Kicker shouted, interrupting the officer. “I am so far above your rank that you might as well be the smallest radroach shit in the wasteland compared to me!” Day Kicker continued angrily.

“Bu—”

“No fucking buts, you little cunt!” Day Kicker roared silencing the officer. “You will not make a report about me, you will not mention me at all in your reports or I swear that you will be cleaning grounder toilets with your tongue so fast that it’ll make your half retarded head spin!”

Day Kicker punctuated this string of threats and profanity by jabbing the other stallion in the chest. The officer staggered backwards slightly from the force of the blow, his head bowed submissively.

“I-we-we’ll just be going now sir, I won’t file any of the paper work,” the officer said.

“Good, then get the fuck out of here!” Day Kicker barked

The officer exchanged a look with the other soldiers before he shook his head, and they walked back into the vertibuck. After several minutes, the rotor blades began to spin, and the machine rose into the sky. Day Kicker stared at it intently until it was out of sight and then let out a sigh of relief.

“Goddesses, I love the doing that,” Day Kicker said.

“Wh-what?” Holly asked feeling slightly stupefied by the normally calm pegasus’s rapid mood shift and his performance.

“He’s an officer, and a young one at that, which means that he’s been trained to follow his superiors’ orders. All it takes is a little misdirection and most of them might as well be putty in your hooves,” Day Kicker said confidently.

“I’m impressed, Day,” Ethan said with a small nod. “That was some good bluffing.”

“Thanks,” Day Kicker replied simply. “I’ve had a lot of practice.”

“That was fucking incredible, Day!” Holly told the blue pegasus excitedly as the group began to walk forward again.

“It was nothing, really,” Day Kicker said neutrally. “Like I said, it was just a simple application of misdirection.”

“They teach you that trick in spec ops school?” Ethan asked.

“Something like that,” Day Kicker replied with a small smile. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go scout.”

He sprang into the air and Ethan couldn’t help but notice that a certain mare’s eyes tracked the pegasus’s rear end as he flapped away.

“Heh, crazy day huh?” Ethan asked her with a small chuckle.

“Mhm, yeah, fucking crazy,” Holly agreed.

“First those Rangers, then those other rangers, and now the Enclave,” Holly said. “What’s next, Celestia and Luna coming down from on high and offering us some food?” The mare laughed at her own joke.

“Well, with me around anything’s possible,” Ethan replied with a laugh of his own.

“Based on the simulations that I’ve been running, there actually is a ten percent possibility of that happening,” Eddie piped in from Ethan’s wrist.

“Really?” Holly asked in surprise.

“Yes,” Eddie confirmed.

“What’s the other 90%?” Ethan asked.

“Well, there’s an 85% chance that we’ll encounter something else that wants to kill us by tonight,” Eddie said cheerfully, “and a five percent chance that we’ll meet Discord, although he’s always been rather hard to track statistically,” the AI said, sounding slightly miffed.

They remained silent for several minutes as they walked down the cracked road. Ethan’s eyes scanned every building, looking for snipers or other inconveniences. Meanwhile, Holly appeared to be lost in thought. Suddenly, Day Kicker zoomed out of sky.

“We’ve got company!” he shouted.

“What kind?” Ethan asked.

“Griffin Mercenaries, they’re working for Red Eye!” The pegasus coughed. He was panting and his uniform was coated in sweat. Before Ethan or Holly had a chance to say more a group of ten griffins appeared from above them, large anti-material rifles trained on Ethan and his friends.

“Drop your weapons or we’ll fire!” the lead griffin squawked at him angrily.

“Or what?” Ethan asked looking confused.

“I said or we’ll fire!” The griffin repeated angrily from above him.

“Oh, alright, I thought that that’s what you said. I just wanted to be sure before I did anything drastic,” Ethan clarified.

Before the griffin could react, Ethan’s shotgun was swung off of his back and he fired straight into the griffin’s chest, destroying the armor and the flesh below. The sudden explosive spray of blood and feathers shocked the other griffins, and as Ethan’s shotgun cycled to the next barrel he pivoted on the spot to face another griffin and smoothly repeated the action.

The shock didn’t last long enough for Ethan to get a third shot off and eight large anti-material rifle rounds smacked into the man’s chest, knocking him off his feet and throwing him to the ground bleeding heavily, his shotgun still gripped tightly in his hands.

“Ethan!” Holly shouted before she unleashed a spray of 5.56 bullets into the nearest griffin.

Most of the rounds impacted harmlessly off of the griffin’s armor, but she saw a few scarlet flares of blood. Day Kicker charged her and knocked her out of the way of an incoming anti-material rifle round. The round slammed into the cracked asphalt, but not before it grazed along Day Kicker’s back, releasing a spray of blood. The pegasus let out a shout of pain, but rolled over and fired off a shot of his gauss rifle using the mouth-grip.

The saddle and the rifle bucked, sending the mouth-grip smashing against the back of his jaw and clattering his teeth. The glowing projectile smashed into the nearest griffin’s chest, obliterating the armor and smashing open the rib cage. The griffin fell back, howling in pain as it began to bleed everywhere.

There was a loud, violent roar from behind the remaining griffins and they turned in bewilderment to see Ethan standing there, blood pouring out ten large holes in his chest and covering his armor in a sticky crimson blanket. The man’s eyes were a wild blue inferno and pure rage washed out of them, directed straight at the remaining seven griffins.

Ethan let out another shout of anger, and this time his shotgun roared with him. The resulting blast of buckshot crashed into the nearest griffin’s face, the pellets tore into the griffin’s eyes, shredding them, and the gray matter hiding behind them, completely. The sword was in his hand and the shotgun holstered on his back before the griffins had a chance to react and Ethan sprinted towards them trailing blood as he came.

Time seemed to stand still for the griffins as he charged them.

His shock sword struck out and clove a griffin’s head from its neck, sending it flying with a trail of scarlet blood trailing behind it. Ethan stabbed the hissing, electrified blade into the next closest griffin’s chest, through its combat armor and into the flesh below which suddenly disintegrated in a cloud of white ash.

He slashed out at another griffin, but the griffin caught his blade on a rather large combat knife. Ethan’s blade paused for half a second against the cross guard of the combat knife, before with an expert flourish he sent the knife spinning away and stabbed the sword into the griffin’s throat. A thin streak of blood dribbled onto the ground and Ethan pulled the sword out of the griffin’s throat sending the body crashing to the ground.

Time resumed its normal progression and the last three griffins found themselves staring at the blood soaked man who had just obliterated the majority of their squad. They didn’t have a long time to think about it. Day Kicker’s gauss rifle roared and one of the griffins suddenly found himself without a head as it sped off into the distance.

Holly meanwhile sent a furious stream of lead into the other griffin’s back as it stared at Ethan. The 5.56 bullets slammed into the griffin’s wings causing it to let out a horrible screech of pain as the bullets tore apart the bones and feathers. The griffin fell to the ground writhing in agony and Holly pulled out her 12.7mm pistol to finish the job with a clean headshot.

The last griffin stared at the blood covered man before him and snarled.

“Lord Red Eye will make you regret this!”

“That’s tough, because I don’t give two shits,” Ethan growled through teeth gritted in pain.

The griffin leapt at him, and Ethan met the lionbird’s eyes, they were full of anger and hate along with pure malice and rage. The sword was knocked from his hands and Ethan found himself on his back with the viscous animal atop him, trying to tear him to pieces with its long talons and sharp claws. The claws sliced through both his duster and the armor beneath making Ethan even bloodier as they slashed their way across his body.

The man fought back with ruthless efficiency, slamming his knee into the griffin’s groin causing it to let out a scream of pain followed by a punch to the face that made Ethan grimace as his hand was cut open when it skirted along the edge of the griffin’s beak. The griffin didn’t let up and it stabbed downward at his face with its sharp beak, but Ethan’s head moved to the side to avoid the frenzied lionbird.

The griffin’s face recoiled in agony as it smashed face first into the asphalt, and Ethan used the momentarily distracted griffin’s pain to his advantage. He used his legs to roll the griffin underneath himself and began to punch it in the chest.

A shot rang out and the griffin suddenly collapsed, a 12.7mm hole in its forehead.

“I had to wait for an open shot,” Holly explained. Ethan simply nodded before he rolled off of the dead griffin.

Day Kicker sprang forward, a pair of syringes full of Med-X in his jaw.

“No, wait do—” Ethan began, but his protests fell on deaf ears, and Day Kicker inserted one of the syringes into his neck. The man’s vision began to blur as the painkiller took effect.

“Shut up and let me work,” Day Kicker told him before he drew a pair of tweezers out of his officer’s uniform and plunged them into Ethan’s scarred and bloody chest.

Ordinarily Ethan wouldn’t have been affected by the painkillers but at the moment he had no radiation in him and the eight .50 caliber bullets had already done a number on him, not to mention the scrapes and scratches from the final griffin. The man’s head rocked backwards and the last thing he saw before darkness took him was Holly scavenging the anti-material rifles from the dead griffins with a worried look on her face.

Chapter 12

View Online

Chapter 12

Ethan groaned as consciousness began to flood back into his body. The first thing that he became aware of was the pain in his chest. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around for a moment to find that he was in darkly lit room, lying on a ratty mattress.

“Oh god, it feels like I got attacked by a deathclaw alpha male in heat,” Ethan muttered to himself.

“Well, you got shot by eight 50.caliber rounds and then got in a fist fight with a deadly killing machine, so depending on how you look at it,” Eddie’s voice said from Ethan’s wrist.

Ethan looked down at his now naked chest and found that he could still see the scars from where the large bullets had shot into his torso. He held up an arm, and his eyebrows rose as he saw the scars from several dozen deep lacerations.

“Oh yeah... thanks for reminding me,” the man said with a slight roll of his eyes. “Where am I by the way?”

“We’re in an abandoned building about half a mile away from where we were ambushed,” Eddie informed him.

“Okay,” Ethan said with a small nod as he began to stretch, his body aching with intense pain each time he did so. “Are Holly and Day alright?”

“Yes, we’re fine,” Day Kicker announced as he entered the room. The blue pegasus looked tired and there was a large bandage on his side, but other than that he did indeed look perfectly fine. “I would advise not moving much, you’re still healing.”

Ethan shrugged his shoulders, an action that set off another round of pain. “Fuck it, I’ve had worse,” he stated.

The pegasus frowned at him. “That may be so, but your body stopped healing itself the moment that the sun went down,” he then shot Ethan an incredulous look. “The fact that it does it at all astounds me although in this case it was... problematic.”

“Why?” Ethan asked, not used to having people find his slower healing factor ‘problematic’.

“Because I had to fight a slow continuous battle against your skin in order to get the bullets out of your chest,” Day told him flatly. “Although I cannot say that it wasn’t helpful once I was done.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Ethan agreed. “So, what time is it?”

“7 PM,” Eddie answered helpfully. “It’s overcast with a slight chance of rain.”

“Thanks Eddie,” the man said as he painfully got off of the mattress and began to go through a whole new group of stretches as Day Kicker watched in slight astonishment.

“You, I don’t understand how you’re possible,” the pegasus grumbled.

“Heh, you have no idea how many times I’ve heard that before,” the man said with a small smirk. “When do we hit the road again?”

“Tomorrow morning,” Day Kicker said, clearly confused as to why Ethan was asking.

“Why not tonight? I’m going to be able to fight in about an hour, and you and Holly have been resting most of the day. We should get back on the road soon!” Ethan told him, his voice hard and determined.

“We can’t,” Day Kicker said, his voice just as hard.

“Oh, and why not?” Ethan inquired, a bit of anger leaking into his voice.

“Because, I don’t particularly want to be eaten by bloodwings,” Day Kicker replied flatly.

Ethan paused for a moment, and then nodded. “Right... I’d forgotten about those... giant vampire bats right?”

“Yes,” Day Kicker answered.

There was a moment of slightly awkward silence between them as Ethan finished going through his stretches.

“Where’s my armor?” Ethan asked, currently he was only wearing his underwear along with several bandages that covered what he assumed were the worst of his injuries.

“I took the liberty of repairing it with some of the armor that the griffins who attacked us were wearing,” Day Kicker said. “It’s in the front of the shop where I was working.”

“Holly on watch duty?” He inquired.

“Yes,” Day said with a small nod. “I would recommend that you go back to sleep, your body is still in pain and sleep is usually one of the best ways to help recover from an injury.”

Ethan chuckled. “Heh, don’t I know it,” he said with a grin. “But I just did all of my stretches, no point in going back to sleep now.”

The pegasus snorted and shook his head. “Fine, have it your way.”

Day Kicker led Ethan into the other room where a small fire was going using several old newspapers and bits of broken wooden desks as fuel. Holly sat away from the fire in the shadows, a large anti-material rifle gripped in her hooves.

The rest of the room was pretty standard as far as the Wasteland went. Broken windows gazed out of the front of the shop and several clothes racks covered in fabric had been pushed in front of them to make it harder to see into the shop’s interior as well as providing additional cover. His gear was stacked next to the fire.

“Good to see that you’ve woken up,” Holly said with a small smile from where she was sitting.

“Thanks, it’s good to be awake,” he told her with a small chuckle as he found his armor in the pile and pulled it on. To Ethan’s critical eye the repairs didn’t look half bad, as if Day Kicker had been looking after Wasteland armor for a while now.

The mare closed her eyes for a moment, seemingly thinking about what to say, and then she sighed. “There’s something that I’ve been meaning to ask you,” she stated.

“Yeah?” Ethan asked, raising an eyebrow as he sat down next to the fire, pulling his shotgun out of the pile of gear and beginning to clean the gun with a rag he pulled out of one of his pockets.

“Why did you send out that message over the radio?” Holly asked him slowly. “I mean, we’ve lost the element of surprise, and we’re going to be hunted the entire way to Fillydelphia... so why did you do it?”

Ethan looked into the fire in silence for a moment before he lifted his head up to look at the mare.

“I did it because the woman I love most of all in the world is in the grasp of a psychopathic slaver and I wanted to give her hope that rescue was coming,” he told her in a soft voice. “I wanted to make sure that Sarah knew that no matter what happened, I was coming for her, and that regardless of the threat I would get her out.” The man’s voice was somber and determined. “My Sarah Lyons will not quit, she will not lay down and die, and now she will not lose hope.”

The two ponies regarded him for a moment and Holly broke the silence first. “That’s really sweet... but pretty fucking stupid.”

“Yes, I’d prefer us to have the element of surprise when we take on an army of slavers,” Day Kicker agreed.

Ethan snorted. “Thanks guys, real supportive.”

Holly rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and this is the Wasteland Ethan, hope doesn’t really go that far here.”

The man glowered at her for a moment before shaking his head. “Whatever,” he then looked back into the fire and returned to cleaning his gun.

“If it makes you feel any better Ethan; I think what you did was very kind,” Eddie informed him happily.

“Really? Thanks Eddie!” Ethan told the AI with a grin.

“You’re welcome,” Eddie chirped. “Although I’ve got to say... I agree with the other two, you’ve statistically decreased the likelihood of mission success by about 40%,” he added in a much glummer tone.

Ethan scowled. “Look, Sarah’s most likely here because of me, so I’m trying my best to keep her spirits up while I find a way to get her out.”

“You do realize that Redeye’s probably moved her somewhere more secure because of your little message, right?” Day Kicker asked him with a raised eyebrow as he took a seat across from Ethan at the fire.

“No... I hadn’t actually,” the man answered slowly.

“Well he probably has,” the pegasus said. “It’s the smart thing to do.”

“Hmm... well I’ll just have to find a way through his defenses then,” Ethan informed them, a small sly smile appearing on his face. “I mean it’s not like I was planning on sneaking in.”

“Ethan, that’s a really bad smile,” Holly told him worriedly.

“Relax Holly, I’ve got it covered.” Ethan stated.

“Why does this sound like it’ll go awfully for everyone involved?” Holly asked, turning to Day Kicker.

“Because you have a degree of common sense that he lacks?” The pegasus asked her rhetorically.

“Oh right, that.” Holly agreed shaking her head.

“Eh, you two just wait, I’ve got a plan.” Ethan told them, grinning wildly.

“I believe that that’s exactly what they’re worried about,” Eddie said simply.

Sarah was having trouble breathing at the moment. The ironhard set of talons that were pressed against her throat left much to be desired in terms of allowing air into her body.

“Because of your friend my best friend died!” the griffin who was currently shoving Sarah into the stone wall exclaimed angrily.

“Sorry, can’t help you,” Sarah wheezed out.

The woman would’ve liked nothing more than to punch the enraged griffin in the face, or perhaps kick him in the genitals. Unfortunately he was wearing combat armor and he was holding her at an angle that made it all but impossible to get the proper amount of leverage to deliver a kick or a punch strong enough to do anything other than annoy him. So focused on what she could do, namely breath.

“Oh no, I think that you can help me,” the griffin informed her with a sadistic smile. “You see I’ve always agreed with the old saying an eye for an eye. And while I’m not allowed to kill you because you’re Redeye’s special little pet, I am allowed to brutalize you to the point that you wish you were dead,” he said with a sneer.

Sarah had by this time tuned out the griffin, instead she was focusing on preparing herself for what was about to happen. The griffin seemed to have noticed because he glared at her.

“So you’re going to try and ignore me? I’ll teach you some manners you freak!” He shouted, drawing one of his talons away from her throat and preparing to slash her across the face.

The woman stared into the griffin’s predatory eyes and a savage smile appeared on her face. Now that he was only holding her with one taloned hand Sarah was able to wrench her way out of his grip, although his talons dug into the thin skin of her throat. Ignoring the pain she used the griffin’s surprise at suddenly losing his grip on her to move forward and punched the griffin in the face.

He reeled back but quickly recovered before Sarah could press her advantage and retaliated with a punch to the woman’s chest. With reflexes honed during years of combat Sarah caught the griffin’s wrist and stepped inside his guard before delivering a suckerpunch to his lightly armored stomach. The griffin crumbled forward and Sarah’s metal tipped boot caught him in the beak.

The griffin dropped to the ground with a thump and a pained groan, then Sarah kicked him three times in the ribs. “Next time you feel like taking out your anger on someone, make sure that they’re not a highly trained soldier,” she snarled before delivering a fourth kick and walked out of the alley.

It was only when her adrenaline wore off on the walk back that she noticed the wetness around her throat. With a sinking feeling she held up her hand to gently poke at it and drew her fingers back covered in blood.

“Great,” she muttered, hoping that Winter was back from his errand or barring that, that she could find some of his supplies at their ‘home’ in the abandoned shop.

As she walked down the street she attracted the attention of many of the slaves, it had only been a few days since she’d gotten there and she was still a curiosity to them. The woman scowled, hoping that none of the raiders would get the idea that just because she was alone and bleeding that she was easy prey. Luckily, none of them seemed to feel like testing again after the first time and she made it home without further incident.

She walked into the shop, carefully scanning it to see if there was anything out of place. When nothing appeared wrong she stepped inside and sat down on the floor next to the box that Winter had hidden the medical supplies in.

Sarah quickly grabbed the bottle of whisky along with a bit of cotton as well as a bandage. The woman soaked the cotton in the alcohol and pressed it against the wound, wincing as the alcohol sent a burning pain into her receptors. Once she had made reasonably sure that she’d cleaned the wound to the best of her ability she placed the bandage on the gash and then leaned back against the wall.

She stayed there for a moment, relaxing-if such a word could be used to describe anyone’s time in Fillydelphia- before she got back to her feet and walked over to where they were keeping the food. She pulled out a packet of snack cakes and began to slowly eat the pastry. The fruity filling rolled over her tongue but she barely tasted it, the flavor long since lost its appeal.

Winter arrived a few minutes later, his blue fur looking slightly slicker than normal. His normally orderly mane also seemed a bit messier and Sarah smelled something odd in the air around him.

“Back from you errand?” Sarah asked.

“Yes I was performing my obligation for Master Dove,” Winter replied shortly. “The usual.”

“You know, you still haven’t told me what it is that you do for her,” Sarah stated.

“I know,” Winter said with a nod.

“And you’re not going to tell me are you,” Sarah stated more than asked.

“No, I hadn’t planned on it,” Winter told her with a shrug. “Mostly because it doesn’t really matter.”

“Hmm... whatever it is it must get you pretty sweaty,” Sarah observed.

Winter frowned for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, I suppose you could say that.” Then he noticed the bandage at her throat. “What happened to you while I was out?”

Sarah scowled. “I got ambushed by some stupid griffin who was looking for revenge because Ethan killed one of his buddies and I was the nearest punching bag he could find,” the blonde told him. “I think I broke some of his ribs.”

The unicorn sighed and shook his head. “You really shouldn’t go out by yourself Sarah, you’re going to get hurt,” he said as he carefully removed the bandage from her throat with a small magical glow and quickly examined the wound. “Hmm, you’re lucky this was shallow.” He replaced the bandage. “An inch or two deeper and you would’ve bled out.”

“I’m not going to let these assholes keep me hiding all the time,” Sarah replied with a slight growl. “I’m locked up in one cage already, I don’t feel like being locked up in any more,” she told him angrily before her expression turned a bit more somber. “And I know I got lucky.”

A worried look entered Winter’s eyes. “Sarah, seriously you need to be more careful. Well trained soldier or not, you can still die,” he told her, concern leaking into his voice.

She frowned and sighed. “Yeah, trust me I know, I’ve seen enough good soldiers die to know that.”

“Then stop putting yourself in harm’s way,” Winter told her strictly, like a doctor addressing a particularly stupid patient. “In fact, instead of wandering off in the Mall, why not try and make friends with some of the ponies here?”

Sarah snorted. “In case you haven’t noticed they kind of stare at me whenever I go anywhere.”

“That’s because you’re something completely different from what they know. Not to mention that you’re scary” Winter countered with a slight chuckle. “Just try and talk to somepony, make some friends. Even in here, ponies are pretty friendly as long as you don’t threaten them.”

“Fine, tomorrow I’ll try and make some new pony friends,” Sarah grumbled. “Although I can’t promise you much.”

“Good. It’ll be nice not worry about you getting attacked. Now would you like the first watch or should I take it?” Winter asked. “To tell you the truth I’m not all that tired yet.”

“Even after your errand that got you all sweaty?” Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow.

Winter blushed and shook his head. “It wasn’t very tiring, I have a lot of endurance.” He told her shrugging as he sat down beside her.

Sarah eyed him for a moment before she sighed. “I’m feeling pretty worn out after that fight. So I’ll let you take the first one if you really want too.”

“Alright. I’ll wake you at oneish” Winter said with a small nod.

“Okay, I’ll make sure to wake you in time to report for roll call,” the woman said with a slight shrug.

“Thanks Sarah,” Winter told her with a grin. “Sweet dreams,” the unicorn added. Sarah nodded and then curled up in the nest of blankets that they’d managed to cobble together, closing her eyes and quickly falling to sleep.

Chapter 13

View Online

Chapter 13

The day dawned like all of the others that he’d spent in the Equestrian Wasteland, ie: overcast with a chance of showers. Ethan looked at the sky through the window of the fortified shop entrance and frowned as he nudged the fire they’d made. Sleeping next to each other across from him were Day Kicker and Holly. He wasn’t sure when they’d sought each other out for warmth in the night, but they had and were now snoozing comfortably, the mare’s head resting against the stallion's back as he unconsciously covered her side with a warm wing.

Ethan smiled at the display, not for the first time, and brought out a frying pan that he’d found in the back of the shop. God alone knows what it was doing there in the first place, though judging by the fact that there was what appeared to be blood caking the underside he had a pretty good idea. With extreme care the man held the pan over the fire with his biomechanical arm and waited for it to warm. Once it was warm enough he took several pieces of meat that he’d bought from a griffin vendor before leaving Tenpony tower and began to slowly cook them.

As the sizzling meat cooked the man went over his conversation with Holly and Day Kicker the night before. When he’d made his radio address he’d had one clear goal in mind, put the fear of God in Red Eye... now however he was having second thoughts about his original plan to retrieve Sarah. His first plan had been to go in guns blazing and kill every slaver in between himself and Sarah. Of course, now that he thought about it, Red Eye had probably moved Sarah to the most secure place in his little city. That meant Ethan would have to get through an entire army and while he knew that he could probably do it, he didn’t want to risk Holly and Day Kicker’s lives so pointlessly.

So, he needed a new plan. He’d already had one in the back of his mind, kind of an emergency one if he did something stupid which he’d long ago learned would happen every once and awhile so it was good to keep something like that in reserve just in case. If Red Eye was anything like Ashur, which he probably was if Ethan’s previous experience in the Equestrian Wasteland was indicative of anything, then there was bound to be a loophole that the man could exploit. What that loophole was Ethan didn’t know, but he knew he’d find it.

“A bit for your thoughts Ethan?” Eddie asked quietly from his arm, being careful to avoid waking the sleeping ponies across the fire.

“Oh, I’m just thinking about Sarah,” Ethan replied equally quietly.

“The mare that we’re rescuing?” Eddie asked.

“Yes, though I think she’d prefer to be called a woman,” the man told the AI with a small smile.

“Right, I had forgotten about that,” Eddie replied.

“It’s no big deal Eddie,” Ethan said with a small shrug while still keeping his voice shushed.

“So... what are you thinking about her?” The AI asked tentatively.

“About how much I’m going to apologize to her for getting her into this mess in the first place,” the man replied. “Even though I don’t remember how I did it...”

“Ah, I see, don’t worry, I betcha that she’ll forgive you! Especially if you mean the same thing to her that she means to you!” Eddie told him enthusiastically.

Ethan smiled. “Yeah, I think so too, though she’ll probably punch me in the stomach once or twice,” he added with a low chuckle.

“Organic romantic relationships are odd like that... I remember talking to one of my old handlers about her relationship and all the trouble that she went through to get with the mare she loved,” Eddie replied.

“Oh?” Ethan inquired.

“Yeah, she had to sort her way though a love-pentagon,” the AI replied with a mechanical chuckle of his own. Then he paused and remained silent.

Ethan picked up on the AI’s mood change. “What’s wrong Eddie?”

The AI let out a sigh. “It’s just that... everypony that I knew is dead... or worse and I’m all alone...” he said despondently.

“Hey, you’ve got me, and Holly, and Day Kicker,” Ethan said reproachfully. “You’re not alone Eddie, and like I’ve said before, I won’t let anyone take you away from us.” His voice had hardened into a razor sharp edge.

Eddie was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. “Thanks Ethan... that means a lot to me.”

“Any time buddy,” Ethan replied. Any further conversation was interrupted by Day Kicker waking up.

The pegasus yawned and slowly opened his eyes, it only took him a moment or two to realize that Holly was lying against him and his eyes widened in surprise. However, instead of pushing the mare away he gently eased himself out from under her while using his wing to gingerly place her head against the ground. Oddly enough once he’d completed that his wings stiffened and to Ethan’s surprise he blushed as he attempted to quietly smooth them.

“Morning Day,” Ethan said with a smirk.

“Good morning,” Day Kicker replied quietly as he continued to fight against his wings to no avail.

“Having problems over there?” Ethan inquired as he watched the amusing sight. “Need me to lend a hand?”

“No, I’m fine,” Day Kicker snapped in annoyance.

Finally, after around twenty seconds of struggling the stallion managed to regain control of his wings and sat back down beside Holly as he eyed the man’s cooking interestedly.

“What are you making?” Day Kicker asked him.

“I’m pretty sure that it’s squirrel,” Ethan replied.

“Ah, I’ll have some when it’s ready then,” the buck said with a nod. Ethan simply smiled.

“Good, I’ve made enough for all three of us,” he said. “And it’s just about done I think, wake Holly up please.”

Day Kicker nodded and gently nudged Holly in the side with his foreleg, the mare wrapped her forelegs around it and hugged the limb while murmuring something. Ethan raised an eyebrow as Day’s wings began to make another vertical ascent. Day Kicker frowned and pulled his leg out of her grasp and poked her on the nose. The mare jerked back from the sudden contact and sleepily opened her eyes.

“Oh... good morning,” she said drowsily.

“And the same to you,” Ethan said with a grin. “Want some meat?”

The mare glanced at him in confusion for a moment before rapidly shaking her head to clear the fog of sleep from it and nodding. “Sure, I’d love some.”

Ethan grinned again and started to hand out pieces of meat on ‘plates’ made out of broken pieces of plastic. The two ponies shared a small skeptical look as they simultaneously remembered that neither of them had actually eaten anything that the man had cooked before. Added to that if he cooked anything like how he acted, the meat was bound to be burned and oddly spiced.

However Holly shrugged, figuring that it couldn’t be worse than the fried radroach she’d had once. So with a small amount of trepidation she moved the piece of meat up to her mouth and took a careful bite. Her eyes widened in total surprise... it... it... it was amazing! Without a second’s thought to manners or grace the mare stuffed several more pieces of meat into her mouth and began to chew.

Day Kicker raised an eyebrow at the mare’s reaction but shrugged and sampled his own piece. His eyes lit up and he gazed at Ethan who sat across the fire, a smile on his face as he ate his own pieces of squirrel. Day Kicker returned to his meal, savoring each piece until there was nothing left on his plate but greece.

“Where... where the hell did you learn to cook like that?” Holly asked him.

“Oh, you know,” Ethan said as he vaguely waved his hand around. “If you travel long enough you pick up a few random skills. One of mine just so happens to be cooking, although growing up in a Vault helped a bit too.”

Day’s head cocked to the side and he made a mental note to ask more about the vaults at their next stop.

“So, when are we hitting the road?” Holly inquired.

“Oh not too long, I spent most of my watch making sure that my weapons are all still good and that my armor that Day patched up is still in one piece,” Ethan answered. “You did a good job on that by the way,” he added with a smile towards the pegasus.

“Thank you, though it wasn’t very difficult, it’s not the first set of armor that I’ve had to mend,” Day Kicker replied with a small shrug. “Though it was easily the largest.”

“Really? I thought you Enclave types only used power armor, or those outfits like you’re wearing. When did you get a chance to repair combat barding?” Holly asked with an inquisitive look.

Day Kicker snorted. “Power armour needs training, that and there’s not enough suits to go around. So we keep a lot of old sets of combat barding around just in case.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” the mare said with a small nod.

“Anyways,” Ethan cut in, getting the conversation back on track. “We’ll hit the road as soon as you two are ready to and hopefully get a few miles before some giant robots show up and demand that I give them Eddie.”

“Giant robots, really?” Day Kicker asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Hell, it’s the Wasteland, you never know what’s going to happen next,” Ethan replied with a shrug. “Though I really wish I had some pulse grenades now that I think about it...especially for when those Brotherhood posers eventually show up again...”

“Pulse grenades? You mean EMPs?” Holly asked.

“Yeah, whichever,” he replied. “Something to short out their armor would do nicely. Nothing that I like more then shooting power armoured bastards in their frozen cans.” Then he looked over to Day. “No offense.”

“Huh? What for?” Day asked.

“Oh, it’s just that most of the ones who I’ve shot have been Enclave personnel,” Ethan replied.

“Ah yes, but I believe we had this discussion, your Enclave and my Enclave are not the same group... not to mention that yours are an entirely different species,” the pegasus said with a shrug.

“Good points,” the man said. “Yeah, so we’ll hit the road and try and avoid trouble.”

“I predict that the likelihood of that is at about 4% and dropping,” Eddie said casually from Ethan’s wrist.

“Well, fuck it. Either we run into trouble, or trouble runs into us, and I’d prefer to be the one doing the running,” Ethan declared.

The two ponies exchanged a glance. “Remind me why I’m following him again,” Holly said with a slight sigh.

“Something about friendship I think,” Day Kicker replied as he rose to his hooves.

“Right, that’s what it was,” she agreed. “Whatever...” she paused for a moment before frowning. “So yesterday it was griffins... and the day before that it was Steel Rangers...”

“So today we get raiders, or slavers,” Ethan finished for her.

“Great, can’t wait,” the mare said sarcastically. “Oh well, at least I’ll get a chance to try out this anti-machine rifle.”

Ethan paused in his packing and gave her an odd look. “Holly, it’s anti-materiel rifle, not anti-machine rifle.”

“Not here it isn’t,” she replied.

“She’s right, they were developed to kill power armored soldiers and war machines, thus anti-machine,” Day Kicker added.

“This place...” Ethan said with a shake of his head. “Confound you ponies and your similar names for everything,” he added with a light chuckle.

“Huh, I was just thinking the same thing about you,” Holly said with a small smirk. “Now come on hurry up, I want to get on the fucking road again.”

“You’re certainly eager to go trudging along the dusty road,” Day Kicker said with a raised eyebrow as he fiddled with his gauss rifle.

“Yeah? Well I just want to get moving, staying in one place for too long like this makes me nervous,” the mare said with a weary look around the room. The pegasus nodded slightly.

“I see... I have a similar problem at times,” he said.

“Heh, you two aren’t the only ones,” Ethan agreed as he pulled on his duster and brought up his shotgun. “Let’s hit the road.”

Chapter 14

View Online

Chapter 14

Sarah sighed, Winter was out at the moment on a medical errand that she wasn’t invited on and she had nothing to do. She thought back to their discussion the previous day... maybe it was time to try making more friends. The blonde got up from the improvised chair, scratching at a bug bite on her lower arm. She exited their ‘home’ and walked out into the street, looking for somepony to befriend.

The woman coughed as the dirty Fillydelphia air ran across her throat and made her eyes water a little. Luckily, or maybe it wasn’t so luckily, she’d begun to adapt to the air quality of the place and recovered after only a few seconds before she took a determined step forward. She could see several ponies who didn’t seem to be doing anything, though they weren’t exactly idle.

To Sarah’s practiced eye they reminded her a bit of initiates who had finished with their routine, but didn’t want Paladin Gunny to assign them more work. Of course, in this place she doubted that the punishment would be as light as a hundred pushups. As her eyes roamed the street, she noticed that every pony on it was looking at her anxiously and fearfully, as if afraid she’d attack them without any form of hesitation.

I guess they’re scared of someone who can take on a griffin by herself and win, Sarah thought to herself. Makes sense... she took a look at herself and her dirty, torn, and bloody shirt. I don’t exactly look very friendly do I?

With a silent sigh Sarah moved forward, doing her best to ignore the weary gazes being directed at her. The city disgusted Sarah, everywhere she looked the ponies were dying a slow death, barely making it from one day to the next... and here she was... completely powerless to stop it. The more she thought about it, the more angry it made Sarah. No one should have the ability to make people suffer this way, and when Ethan got here and busted her out, there’d be Hell to pay.

After twenty minutes of walking, the woman came across the first pony who hadn’t openly glared at her. It was the little brown pegasus she’d seen wandering around the hospital a few times. At the moment he was in the middle of sketching something on a pad, not paying total attention to what was going on around him.

Sarah frowned, unsure of whether or not to interrupt the stallion’s efforts. In the end, she decided that it was worth it if she could make a friend here. She approached him and quietly tapped him on the shoulder. The reaction was immediate and unfortunately not very positive. He jumped in place at the unexpected touch, looked up at the tall woman, let out a squeak of fear, and ran off in the other direction as fast as his hooves could carry him.

“Damn...” Sarah grumbled quietly to herself. “I just wanted to say hello...”

With a disappointed sigh, Sarah went back to searching, hoping that somewhere out there there would be a pony who wanted to be her friend.

“And that’s how I learned how to take down a hover tank with my bare hands,” Ethan explained with a smile as he led Holly through the Wasteland. Day was on patrol, as usual, and the two plus Eddie had spent the morning talking as they walked through the outskirts of Manehatten.

“That’s... really hard to believe,” Holly said with a shake of her head. “I mean, I’ve heard of things like that... but to think that where you’re from somepony actually figured out a way to transport your mind into that type of thing is... scary.”

“Oh, we had those too,” Eddie spoke up. “Though I don’t think we were quite as good at them, and we used magitech instead of just normal technology.”

“Makes sense... to be honest Eddie, I’m actually pretty surprised that you managed to integrate with my Pip-Boy so easily,” Ethan confessed. “I mean, at the very least you’re made up of a different base-code then what Vault-Tech used so...”

“Actually, I’m mostly made up of magic,” Eddie corrected. “And magic can do anything for you if you’ve got enough time and patience for it.”

Holly, who had fallen silent as the other two talked suddenly looked up at Ethan, and then smacked herself across the face.

“You okay there?” the man asked her with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah... I just remember something... and I’m an idiot for forgetting it in the first place,” the mare said with a low grumble. “I-I got captured by a couple of slavers... about five years ago when Berry and I were out scaving around Manehatten...” she trailed off with a slight shiver at the memory.

“I’m sorry,” Ethan said with a sigh. “I fucking hate slavers.”

“Yeah... join the fucking club,” Holly replied with a growl before she continued. “Anyways, that’s not the important part of this story.”

“Oh, and what is it then?” Ethan asked casually as he holstered his large shotgun and drew his shocksword.

“Well, I got rescued by this mare Moonbeam and a really tall hornless minotaur,” Holly said, glancing up at Ethan. “He shoved one of the slaver’s heads into a fire.”

“And this is important why?” the man asked her.

“Because now that I think about it, the minotaur really looked like you,” Holly said with a frown. “I was wondering why I trusted you so easily when we first met, but honestly, this makes me feel much better about it.”

Ethan was stunned for a moment before he spoke again. “Holly, are you saying that you think you met another human before me?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying,” Holly replied with a nod.

“Ohhh, that’s neat!” Eddie said enthusiastically. “I bet if we can find him we can find out whether or not he knows how Ethan got here!”

“That’s the idea, yeah,” Holly agreed with a nod.

A wide grin split Ethan’s face. “Awesome! Now all we have to do is get Sarah out of Fillydelphia and then we can focus on trying to find out where this other human went and how he got off of this place!”

“You do realize that that implies that he did get off right?” Eddie asked. “Not to put a damper on the mood or anything, I hate to be that guy.”

Ethan frowned as they walked past an abandoned, run down house. “Point,” he said with a small frown. “But if nothing else investigating this guy could give me some clue on how to get home.”

“Well, I for one hope that we can help,” Day’s voice said unexpectedly from beside him. Ethan started in surprise and turned to see the pegasus hovering beside him.

“Oh, thanks Day, how did the patrol look?” Ethan inquired.

“Clear as far as I could tell... though it seems a bit too quiet out there if you ask me,” Day said with a frown.

The man frowned and looked over their surroundings again for a moment before his eyes picked up something that he’d missed originally. There really was no sign of anyone or anything around them... almost as if they’d all fled.

“Shit,” Ethan grumbled.

“What is it?” Holly asked in a low voice.

“Something, or someone is stalking us, and they’re scaring off everyone else,” Ethan answered with a frown.

“Well, that’s fucking perfect,” the mare said with a frown. “So... Steel Rangers, a Raider War Boss, or the Enclave?”

“It’s not Enclave or the Rangers, even as strong as both groups are, they don’t get this type of reaction,” Day Kicker said. “I can tell, as for Raiders... well they’re much louder than this.”

“Hell hounds?” Holly asked only for Day to shake his head. “We’re not in their territory.”

“Which means-” Ethan began before he pivoted sideways, bringing his shock sword down in a swift arc. “-alicorns,” he finished as a tall blue alicorn appeared, its body protected by a powerful force field.

ENOUGH! A familiar mental voice roared in his head. WE ARE NOT HERE TO HURT YOU!

“LOWER YOUR DAMN VOICE, BITCH!” Ethan shouted back as Day Kicker and Holly winced in pain at the mental yell.

The alicorn regarded him with angry eyes for a moment before the voice spoke again, this time considerably softer than before.

Is this better to your liking? the voice of the Goddess asked with contempt dripping from every word.

“Yeah, much,” Ethan replied with a shake of his head. “Now would you explain just what in the hell you want from us?”

We seek that which is inhabiting your wrist, the alicorn replied.

“Join the club and get in line behind all of the others,” Ethan said with a growl. “Listen up you giant, brahmin twatted bitch! You’re not getting Eddie, and neither are any of the rest of the other people after him! So you can all go straight to hell and suck the Devil’s squiggly little cock!”

The man’s face had taken on something more akin to an angry animal than that of a man.

“I am sick and fucking tired of all you stupid fuckers trying to capture my friends; now get the hell out of my way before I decapitate you and use your head and use it as a codpiece!” he shouted at the alicorn.

We as the Goddess are not afraid of your idle threats, the voice in his mind replied. Now it is time that you hand over the A.I. so that we may be on our way.

“Suck my dick,” Ethan told her before plunging his sword down at the alicorn’s skull. His blade was intercepted by yet another force field, and he was hurled backwards by a blast of telekinesis.

YOU SHALL SURRENDER THE A.I. ONTO US OR WE WILL OBLITERATE YOU FOR YOUR DISRESPECT TO THE GODDESS! the mental voice roared in Ethan’s head as the alicorn approached the downed man.

“FUCK YOU!” Ethan shouted back as he got to his feet, drawing his shotgun and firing off one of the explosive shells. The explosion rippled across the force field and and it shimmered lightly beneath the assault.

Holly pointed her AM rifle at the alicorn but just as she was about to pull the trigger a blast of telekinesis caught her unprepared from the side and she was sent sprawling as another blue alicorn appeared beside where she’d been standing. Holly did her best to roll to her hooves, but another blast of telekinesis blasted her across the chest and she felt the air being forced from her chest.

As Holly struggled to regain her breath Day Kicker pulled down on the trigger of his Gauss rifle and felt it kick as the high velocity round left its chamber, heading for the second alicorn. Unfortunately this too was interrupted by a force field, though this one crumpled inward around the round, not quite breaking but coming close. Before Day Kicker had a chance to fire a second shot the pegasus was thrown bodily through the surprisingly intact glass window of a nearby house.

Ethan’s shotgun roared again but the alicorn he’d been fighting had already disappeared again and the explosive round missed completely. As he spun to the side in an attempt to find it, he caught sight of a green alicorn hovering above them, its eyes and horn lit with green light.

“How did I miss that?” Ethan asked himself as he prepared to shoot the hovering alicorn. A blast of force from behind sent the man rolling forwards and his his face ate concrete. As he raised his head to look up, he saw the towering form of the alicorn looking down at him.

Surrender the A.I.! the alicorn roared at him.

Ethan reached out and grabbed its furry leg. “Na,” he said before he yanked hard, causing the alicorn to stumble forward. The man rose from his downed position and jabbed his sword into the horse’s chest. The result was immediate, and the alicorn disappeared, replaced by a large pile of dust.

There was another result to go along with that, both of the other two alicorns let out terrifying cries of anguish. FOR THAT YOU WILL DIE! the voice of the Goddess roared as both of the other alicorns turned their attention to Ethan and their horns lit with eldritch lightning which they then discharged at him.

“Shit!” Ethan yelped as he attempted to dodge the incoming bolts. He jumped over the first one and it smashed into the ground with a sizzling noise and a shower of chipped concrete. The other bolt nailed him in the back in mid jump and sent Ethan spirling to the side, his body shaking from the power of the bolt.

The green alicorn’s head suddenly exploded as Holly’s Anti Machine Rifle roared. The blue alicorn let out its own scream of pain as it turned and turned on Holly, menace in its eyes.

PITIFUL UNICORN! YOU SHALL BECOME ONE WITH THE GODDESS! the alicorn roared in her mind making Holly shudder at the volume.

There was a loud clang, and the alicorn was sent head over hooves into a highway divider as Day Kicker clambered out of the house with the broken window, blood covering his face and chest. The alicorn impacted into the divider with a loud thud and collapsed in an undignified heap.

“Yeah, no she’s not,” Day Kicker growled, spitting blood out of his mouth.

Ethan struggled to his feet and haphazardly made his way over to the downed alicorn.

“You guys are a bitch to kill,” he informed her. The alicorn attempted to rise, but Ethan smacked it across the flank with his sword eliciting a cry of pain. “Stay down, shut up, and let me talk,” the man growled warningly as he brought the silently hissing shock sword up to its neck.

The alicorn froze where it was.

“That’s better,” Ethan said as he inched his head closer to its ear and whispered into its ear. “You’re going to leave me and all of my friends alone, and you’re going to give up on getting Eddie away from me. If you don’t, I’ll track down wherever your cowardly ass is hiding and blow you the fuck up. Do you understand me?” Ethan whispered in her ear dead serious.

Who are you who seeks to command the Goddess? the voice in his head asked, clearly more perplexed than frightened.

“I’m the man who will do anything to get his love back,” Ethan replied icily as he moved the blade of his sword across the mare’s neck, drawing a thin line of blood. “Now do you understand me?”

The alicorn froze for a moment and then slowly nodded, inadvertently drawing more blood. We understand...

“Good,” Ethan said as he sprang away from the mare’s front and smacked its behind with the flat of his blade. “Now get!”

The alicorn glared at him, though if it was because it was angry or because it was offended Ethan couldn’t tell... though he doubted that it really mattered. Then it rose to its hooves and began to flap off, it didn’t make it very far before Holly’s .50 bullet slashed through the back of its skull and the large blue body crashed to the ground fifty feet away.

“Bitch,” Holly commented as she walked over to Day Kicker to check on his face.

Sarah leaned back against one of the buildings in the mall and let out a long sigh, she’d spent most of the morning after the first incident trying to make friends, none of which was successful. Sometimes she’d been able to get close enough to actually say a few words, but the fearful stares had got the best of her and she’d been forced to retreat.

She didn’t know what it was about pony stares that seemed so intimidating... it was probably how big and innocent the eyes were. Sarah shook her head again and let out another sigh before letting loose an awful cough.

“Where are you Ethan?” she asked the empty air.

As expected, she didn’t receive an answer.

The woman suddenly noticed movement in her peripheral vision. Without making it obvious she turned her head slightly so that she could see who it was. To her surprise it was the little brown pegasus from the morning. He looked very nervous, but Sarah was impressed to see that he was making rather good progress. After several more seconds of silence the small stallion made it up to her and poked her gently in the arm.

“Miss... are you okay?” he asked in a quiet and fearful voice.

Sarah’s eyes flicked all the way open and the stallion recoiled back at her sudden gaze. “Yeah... I’m fine,” she said with a small sigh.

“Oh... that’s... good...” the pegasus said awkwardly.

“I think so anyways,” Sarah agreed with a small smile. “So... how can I help you?”

“Well... I realized that I shouldn’t have run away from you this morning,” the stallion confessed slowly.

“Hey, don’t worry about it, I’m pretty scary,” Sarah replied with a slight chuckle.

“Umm... still you just wanted to make friends... right?” the pegasus asked her haltingly

Sarah nodded and a small smile split her face. “Yeah, that’s right.”

“Well...” The pegasus trailed off for a moment, looking for the right words. “... I’m Murky.”

"It’s nice to meet you Murky.” Sarah replied, her smile widening. “I’m Sarah Lyons."

Fallout Equestria: Equestrian Wanderings

by ed2481

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14