Scattered Harmony

Doc Church stared at Marcus with a raised eyebrow. He said nothing, but Marcus knew he wanted an explanation, which was completely understandable, given the circumstances.

"Doc, all I can tell you is that I found it in a crater, and it was badly injured. That's all I know. I came straight here after I found it." Marcus put his sunglasses in his pocket and placed his desperado hat on the chair next to his. Marcus was honest, and Doc knew it, but this was a bit too much for the cynical doctor. Doc Church shook his head and glanced at their guest lying on a clinic bed. Several tubes were attached to him/her and a breathing mask sat on its face. By the hair and the general appearance, it seemed to be female, although the gender of an undiscovered species tended to be unpredictable.

"Its vital signs are alright, and minor injuries were easily fixed with some stimpaks and a med-x. And although I'd just love to be satisfied with saving what could be the only unicorn on earth, I have a clinic to run."

Marcus quickly got out a sack filled with jingly objects. "How much?"

"120 bottle caps," Doc Church said before sliding a sheet of paper and a pencil towards Marcus. "and fill out some paperwork."

"Aw c'mon Doc, you've known me for how long?"

"Four years."

"Four years, Doc. We're on first name basis and everything. Do I really need to fill out paperwork so you can remember my name? You're not gettin' that old."

Doc Church gave a snicker, but pushed the paper further towards Marcus. Marcus rolled his eyes and picked up the pencil.

"Fine. I'll fill out the paperwork," Marcus caved, but he was still going to give Doc Church crap about it. "and here, I'll even read it aloud for you, just in case your old eyes can't read my young whipper-snapper handwriting."

With a smirk, Marcus began filling in the spaces on his paperwork.

"Name, Marcus Freeman. Age, twenty-three." Marcus let his smirk grow wider as Doc Church rolled his eyes. Marcus went further, and raised his voice. "Race, African-American. Sex, male. Amount owed, 120 bottle caps. Signature..."

Marcus drew a messy, squiggly line where his signature was supposed to be.

"That good enough, Doc?"

Doc Church looked over the paper. "You forgot to answer where it asks if you're a raider or a slaver."

Doc knew well that Marcus was no slaver, but Marcus took the paperwork and wrote his answer in large letters. He said loudly, "No Doc, I am not a raider. Thank you for asking, though."

Marcus and Doc Church chuckled, but stopped immediately when groaning came from the the patient room. They were staring at the bed occupied by their unicorn guest, neither of them moving or breathing. The purple thing (whose appearance had improved without the burns that covered it before) slowly opened its eyes, prompting Doc Church to approach it slowly. He didn't want it to go into shock on the off chance it was sapient. The creature's eyes finally opened, and after a look around, the unmistakable look of panic was quick to follow.

The purple creature jerked its legs and head roughly, trying to free itself from the tubes and straps that bound it to the bed. Both humans ran over to her, trying to calm her down, but it was to even less avail when she got a good look at them. After a short pause, a panicked attempt at screaming could be heard from under the breath mask, muffling the words. She struggled even harder again against her constraints, but it only served to wear her out. Finally, with a whimper, she gave up the struggle. Marcus and Doc Church stood over her, shushing her and trying to get her to calm down.

The unicorn, as Doc Church called her, looked up at her captors with sorrowful eyes, which quickly turned to an expression of dignified defeat. She must have believed herself to be completely at the mercy of the two humans standing above her, and for all intents and purposes, she was. Marcus tried his hand first at communicating.

"Hey there... friend. Do you understand me?"

The unicorn's dignified expression became a look of shock. Her eyes trailed away from the gentle brown eyes of the man, and looked over at the other man, dressed in doctor's clothes and sporting a kempt white beard. She directed her gaze back at Marcus and nodded her head.

"Wow. God damn." Marcus scratched his chin and gave a small laugh. "She actually understands us."

Marcus tried to think of his next question. What would one even ask a member of a newly-discovered species?

"Hey Doc, what should I ask her next?"

"You should probably make sure she's okay." Church replied as if it was obvious.

"Do you feel okay?" Marcus asked her.

The unicorn did nothing but point to the breathing mask on her muzzle with a hoof.

"Your mouth hurts?"

The unicorn raised an eyebrow and tapped the mask.

"The breathing mask hurts? Is that even possible?"

She rolled her eyes in an admittedly comical way. Doc Church facepalmed and spoke up.

"She wants you to take off her breathing mask, dumbass."

"Oh?" Marcus looked at the unicorn, who nodded her head. "Will that be bad for her health, doc?"

"No, it should be fine. She wont be up and about anytime soon anyway, and so far, she hasn't proved to be a danger to this clinic or the town of Megaton."

"Alright then, let me just get that off for you." Marcus began removing the mask, allowing the unicorn to get a breath of the outside air. To her, it tasted... off.

"Okay, since you can understand us, can you talk to us? I heard you say 'help' when you were in that crater, so I know you know at least one word."

"Yes, I can speak." she said exhaustedly.

Marcus turned his head towards Doc Church and playfully mouthed the words 'holy fuck, she can speak'. Doc rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, intently listening to what their guest had to say.

"Do you have a name... Or better yet, what are you and where are you from?"

"I'm--" the unicorn stopped, as if thinking of how much she should tell them. "I'm a pony. A pony from a country called Equestria. Are you a diamond dog?"

Marcus raised an eyebrow. "A what now?"

"No, you're too well spoken to be diamond dogs. My question for you is: who are you, and why have you kidnapped me?"

"I'm Marcus Freeman and this is Doc Church. We didn't kidnap you. I found you in a crater. You were in pretty bad condition, so I brought you here to be treated."

The unicorn looked past Marcus towards the doctor, who gave a single nod. "Pleased to have you in my clinic."

"Yeah, he's a big softy when you get to know him." Marcus said, earning a small scowl from Doc.

"Thank you for having me, Mr Church, but what exactly are you? I've never seen anything like you two before."

"Well, he's a doctor, and I'm a wandering problem-solver. If you're asking what species we are, we're humans, and you're currently on the nuclear paradise called Earth. Enjoy your stay." Marcus said with a hearty smile.

The unicorn lightened up at the goateed man's humorous nature, but frowned shortly after.

"So, you don't know what Equestria is... or who ponies are?" she asked with saddened eyes.

"No, I'm afraid not."

"And therefore, you have no idea how to get me back there." she already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it confirmed.

"No. I'm sorry."

"I-- I want to get some sleep." she said with a deadpan expression.

"Alright Marcus, you can go home now. She'll rest here for the night." Doc Church started leading Marcus towards the door. Before they exited the clinic, the unicorn called out, "wait, I almost forgot".

The two men turned back to her.

"To answer your question, my name is Twilight Sparkle."

They nodded and walked out of the clinic. Twilight let her head fall heavily on the pillow.

Doc Church closed the door behind him.

"Twilight Sparkle? A unicorn named Twilight Sparkle shows up in my clinic. Simms is never going to let me live this down."

"Doc, I'll take her in."

"I'm glad to see you taking some responsibility, but she should stay in the clinic for a while longer before we figure out what to do with her."

"I know what we'll do with her. We'll get her home." Marcus replied, staring at the clinic door. It was around midnight now, and the town of Megaton was silent, apart from a couple talking night guards near the local eatery.

"How do you plan on doing that? We don't know where Equestria is, and I'm pretty sure you have it in your head that she's from another planet. Otherwise, you wouldn't have mentioned that she was on Earth."

Marcus had to admit it. The idea of an alien was unusual, but his close friend had once been abducted by aliens, and apparently, he took over their spaceship and shot down another ship with a death ray. The truth of that story had to have been twisted more than a pretzel, but still, the idea that an alien would be on Earth isn't too strange. Besides, supermutants look like aliens, but--

Uh-oh.

"Doc, what if she's a product of the FEV virus?"

"You mean, like a supermutant?"

"Kinda, what if she was just a more successful and sane experiment?"

"Hmm. It could be, but nothing that goes into the FEV ever comes out looking like her."

"A modified FEV maybe?" Marcus stroked his black goatee in thought.

"Well, I guess we'll figure it out in the morning, won't we?" Doc stretched his legs.

"Yeah, I guess we will. I'll try to see if anyone around town knows anything about this tomorrow, maybe get her some armor." Marcus stroked his goatee again. Getting armor for a unicorn would be a challenge.

"I'll make sure she stays healthy. Be back here by 10 in the morning." Doc Church opened the clinic door and stepped in, giving a farewell to Marcus.

Marcus returned the farewell and walked towards his house. It was only a thirty-second walk from Doc Church's clinic, just past the undetonated atomic bomb in the center. His house used to be owned by a man named Mister Burke, who worked for Alistair Tenpenny, and was not a respectable man in the moral sense. After his attempt at bribing the Lone Wanderer, Jonathan Marks, into blowing up Megaton, it wasn't long before an angry mob chased Mister Burke outta town. Marcus was away when it happened, but man, how he wished he could have been there to see the bastard run.

He entered his house and closed the door behind him. After a moment of rubbing his temples, he lied down on the bed and closed his eyes. It had been quite a day.

"Sir, the specimen isn't here." a metallic male voice spoke from under the helmet he wore. "The crater is still warm, sir. She may be close by."

A dozen men in heavy power armor patrolled the area immediately around the gaping hole in the ground where the unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle was rescued. The soldiers' armor seemed almost inhuman, much like many perceived their actions as inhuman. A molerat looked curiously up from his meal at the soldiers. One of the men spotted it and fired a bolt of plasma at it, melting it into a viscous green goo.

The officer, dressed in a dust-brown uniform and a black hat, bore a silver insignia on his uniform resembling an oak leaf. Beside the insignia on the front of his uniform were many vibrant-colored ribbons. There was a patch on his uniform with letters that read 'Colonel Redding'. He looked around and turned back to the soldier addressing him.

"There's no way the specimen made it out of here on its own. Not without help."

"What are our orders, sir?"

"We report back to General Autumn that we need more men to capture the specimen. There's a town, just South of here. That's where we'll look first. Get everything packed into the vertibirds. We leave in 0200 hours."

"Yes sir." the soldier saluted and began picking up ammo boxes to be loaded onto the vertibirds.

"Good. General Autumn will be pleased with our progress." The officer looked towards the South, where, far in the distance, Project Purity awaited its masters.

"Autumn's dream for America is nearing fruition. With the specimens, the Enclave will have its redemption. The Brotherhood of Steel will be destroyed, along with their foolish vision of mutants living alongside the pure."

The officer stared at the crater. "And to think the weapon to defeat them with literally fell from the sky."