The Vault

         The Sun rose in the horizon, announcing a new day. The Wanderer woke up even earlier than before, feeling determined to find his father. His morale was high again. He felt that he would find his dad, finally. "C'mon, let's go, let's go!" He said, almost jumping in excitement. "Ohh, Jason. Can't we sleep for 5 minutes more?" Rainbow asked him, completely lazy. "The Wasteland doesn't wait. Let's go now." Jason replied while scanning his surroundings.

         They walked through the morning, being warmed by the Sun's heat. 'Jesus, I haven't thought about this. There is no way they're going back to their land or dimensional plane, whatever that thing Twilight told me. Hell, they are stuck with me.' Jason thought deeply and sighed. The girls were good companions, but it looked like that they were slowing him down. Jason just put this thought aside and kept walking. He had a Vault to find.

Jason looked at his Pipboy. In the 'notes' section, he found a holodisk named "Better Days" that he hadn't heard last day. Pressing play, The Wanderer heard a voice that he wanted (since he was a child) to hear: his mother, Catherine. The audio log wasn't interesting at all, as she said about the project progress and was eventually interrupted by James. The Wanderer, however, felt happy and sad at the same time. He always wanted to see his mom. But her death destroyed the possibilities.

"Was she your mother?" Rainbow said from behind. "Yes, but let's not talk about it okay?" She understood almost immediately. They kept walking in the sun-baked sands of the Wasteland for many minutes without any problems. The girls were starting to sweat from the Sun's heat. But things became more interesting when they crossed a road with a turned bus.

"Lookie here, if isn't that little saint from the Vault? We've been searching for you!" A voice called from behind; Talon Company Mercs.

"Man, go mess with someone else." Jason replied while looking at them over his shoulder.

"No,no my friend. Someone put quite a price on your head." Another mercenary said, before aiming at Jason' head.

"Don't even dare to shoot me." Jason said calmly, and took his rifle off his back.

"Hahah, You're noth..." The mercenary was shot in the head before he could take action. "Go, behind that bus! NOW!" The Wanderer shouted, before yelling in pain as a bullet hit his leg. Jason got as fast as he could behind cover, just to see that Twilight was shot in he arm. The girl was screaming while a crimson-red liquid dripped from the wound. 'Wow, those guys like to hurt her.' Jason thought quickly and shot at the mercs. But they were better armed and armored even for Jason's deadly accuracy.

"Rainbow, Applejack, throw those things at them!" He gave the girls grenades. "Just take the pin off and throw!"

         The Wanderer took a chinese assault rifle off his pipboy. "Eat this now, you motherfuckers!" He got out of his cover, emptying his clip on two mercs, ripping of one's arm and decapitating the other. The other two were launched off the ground by the grenade explosion, flying legless through the air, blood following their leg's remains. A survivor tried to crawl away cursing Jason, but was bitten in the neck by Dogmeat. "Good job everyone. Let me help Twilight now." Jason rushed to the wounded girl, that was slowly fainting from the blood loss. "Twilight, stay with me!" Her response was a painful glance. The Wanderer took a medicinal forceps and tried to remove the bullet from her arm. "Look, Fluttershy, when I take the bullet of her arm, apply pressure to the wound right away! Understood?" She replied with a timid nod. Jason removed the bullet, while Fluttershy placed her two hands at her wound. "AJ, Rainbow, Rarity! Loot the mercs and try to find a stimpak! FAST!"

"And a stimpak looks like what, darling?" Rarity answered, confused.

"A fucking syringe with a watch over it. C'mon!" The Wanderer shouted angrily at them. "Stay strong, Twilight. You're getting out of this."

"JASON! I think I found it!" Rainbow shouted from a distance, holding a stimpak in her hand.

"Yes! Now bring it to me!." She threw the stimpak at him. Jason injected it on her wound, that closed miraculously. "You'll be better now."

"And what about you, Jason? Are you okay?" Rarity asked him while pointing at his wound. "Don't worry, I will bandage it and, well, pray to find a stimpak." Jason answered, removing the 5.56 bullet of his leg. He whined in pain, and took a bandage off a dead merc arm. "I don't know if I am going to survive this, but let's get there as fast as we can. There should be some meds in the Vault." Jason looted their bodies, and found 5.56 clips, shotgun shells and even microfusion cells. In the body of the merc that looked like their leader, was a letter. He read it, and sighed frustrated. "What is it, darling?" Rarity asked him.

"Read it by yourself." He threw the paper at her hands. Rarity read the letter out loud:

"Hello, again, ladies and gentlemen. We now have this new holier than-thou white-knight who needs some putting down. Details go on here: Jason Miller, Caucasian, Male, 19 years old, and accompanied by a dog. Some recent reports say that he is now with 6 girls. The bounty is now 1000 caps and, for a change of pace, they want the head this time. Good hunting!"

"You're being hunted for money? That is horrible!" Rarity said at Jason, who replied with a short nod. "Rarity, I'm hunted by a thousand things in this wonderful place."

Their trip was slower than Jason thought. Twilight was still recovering from her blood loss, and he was limping due to the wound. Twilight talked to him:

"Thanks again Jason, for saving my life. I owe you."

"Twilight, you don't owe me nothing. I'm just trying to keep you girls safe." Jason got nearer and whispered in her ear. "And you should really tell your friends about the truth."

Minute after minute, The Wanderer felt weaker and weaker. Believing that he would faint due to blood loss, he gave Fluttershy a syringe. "Wh-what is this?" She asked, before hiding her face behind her light pink hair. "An adrenaline shot. If I faint, inject it on my chest." Jason's prediction about his faint were right. While crossing a rocky area, he almost fell flat on his face. If Applejack didn't catch him in time...

       Finally, Jason fainted due to the blood loss. He fell lifelessly on the sand, and didn't move. Rarity asked, almost in panic:

"I-Is he dead?"

"Let's hope not!" Rainbow put her ear at Jason's chest, hearing a weak heartbeat. "C'mon Fluttershy! Use that syringe on him!" The timid girl injected the syringe's liquid in The Wanderer chest. He got up almost immediately, breathing heavily, and held Fluttershy's hand strongly. Recognizing the girl, he quickly got up due to the adrenaline flowing through his body. "We need to hurry up."

        At last, they found the garage. They opened the door, and found radroaches. "Uhh, what are those things?" Twilight asked at the nasty insects. "Cockroaches that mutated, simply. Dogmeat, help me here." Jason crushed a radroach while Dogmeat threw another through the air. The Wanderer then proceeded, looking behind the balcony, looking for any clue that a Vault was in fact hidden in there. He opened a safe that contained 10mm ammo and nothing more. When he turned back, a mole rat jumped on Dogmeat, and tried to bite the dog, that fought without any success. Applejack was fast enough and shot the rat in the head, making it fall at the dog's side. "Thanks, AJ. You're really getting better at shooting." Jason thanked her for saving his dog. "It was nothin', Jas."

        Jason went further in the garage. Finding nothing more than a rusty Corvega, The Wanderer sighed in frustration. His wound began to hurt again. For his luck, he found a stimpak inside a first aid box, finally getting rid of his bleeding. "Girls, please look for a switch or something. There must be a hidden door or underground hatch. Maybe over..." He was interrupted by a hatch that opened from the ground. "Is it that what you wanted, Jay?" Pinkie asked, looking happily at The Wanderer. "Yes, Pinkie! Good One!" The underground resembled some maintenance tunnels that Jason used to go to the D.C ruins. At the end of the tunnel, was a vault door with '112' written on it. This made Jason remember his escape from Vault 101, an event that he didn't like to relive.

        As the door opened slowly, alarms gone off, disturbing even more Jason's mind. Inside, they walked in the dimly lit halls, meeting with a Robobrain. It turned around and 'welcomed' the visitors:

"Welcome to Vault 112, sir. At our calculations, you arrived 202.3 years behind schedule. Please, take your Jumpsuit and sit on a unoccupied Tranquility Lounger. Enjoy your stay." Jason received the jumpsuit, and after passing by the robobrain, threw it on the ground. "I already have one, so why use another?" He whispered, and went downstairs, where the Loungers were. Jason neared one, but was interrupted by Twilight:

"Jason, I know that this is strange, but do you have something to read? Because it looks like that you're going to pass some time inside this thing." The Wanderer looked up, and removed a book entitled 'World's HIstory: From The Pre-historic Era To The Space Age'. "Oh, Thanks!" Twilight removed the book from his hand. and comically darted herself to the ground, nearly burying her head in the book. "Jesus Christ."

"Jay! How are we going to eat?" Pinkie called him from a distance.

"Ask the robot. They got tons of food in here." He replied and climbed the machine. After sitting down, it's chamber closed, and a monitor came to his face, showing a black-and-white image of a small town. It then showed for half a second a image of a girl, and returned to the original image. Jason's world turned white...

         Tranquility Lane Simulation, 2277.

        The Wanderer opened his eyes, to find himself in a black-and-white, Pre-war-like neighborhood. "What the hell is this?" He muttered to himself. He immediately checked his left arm, but only saw a wristwatch. "Great, no Pipboy, weapons and..." Jason looked down and realized how short he was."... I'm a child. Just fucking great." He neared a girl that was watering the flowers in the playground. "Oh, hello! Finally a new friend to play! I'm Betty! What's your name?" Jason glanced weirdly and replied:

"Name's Jason. And I don't think I would like to play a game."

"Oh but, that is totally a different game." The girl replied, and stopped watering the flowers for a second. The Wanderer let out a bored sigh and asked her:

"What game is it then?"

"Make Timmy Neusbaum cry. Simple isn't it?" Betty stared at him with her wicked eyes. Jason couldn't keep eye contact with such diabolical stare. "So, you want me to make a kid cry? You gotta be kidding me..."

"Hey, you need held, don't you? So help me, and I'll help you." He had no choice but to help her. "Okay, who is this boy?" She replied pointing at a child that was selling lemonade mere meters of the playground. 'Jason, in what did you got yourself into?'

          Near the lemonade stand, Jason stopped for a second. 'How I am supposed to make a child cry?' His face lighten up as an idea came to his mind.

"Hello, Timmy." He greeted the little boy.

"Oh, hello. You're new here, aren't you? What's your name?"

"Jason." He replied coldly.

"Want to play a game, Jason?" Timmy asked happily, as if he stood there all day.

"Maybe later. I have some bad news to tell you."

"What is it?" The innocent boy felt frightened.

"I overheard your parent's conversation. They said that they're breaking up because of you." Jason said as truly as he could.

"Wh-what?? It can't be... NO!" Timmy began to sob. Eventually, his sobs turned into tears, and he screamed loudly. 'God, I think I broke poor boy's heart.' Guilty flooded Jason's chest, but this feeling was carried away when he saw Timmy actually turn into a garden gnome. "What the fuck?!?" Jason said, confused, before walking towards Betty.

         Meanwhile, in reality...

         Twilight was totally concentrated on the book that Jason gave her, but suddenly, she started to feel homesick. She wanted to see Spike again, her house, Ponyville. And that wasn't the worst. Twilight was the one that made the girls be teleported to the human world. She was the one to feel guilty. However, she kept that thought aside, and continued to read the book. At the other side, Fluttershy was stroking Dogmeat's head, having already befriended with the dog. It was piece of cake for her to befriend animals, but the Wasteland was proving this wrong.

         Wandering through the Vault halls were Applejack, Rainbow and Pinkie (That was looking for food).

"So, what do ya think about Jason?" Applejack asked something overly strange for Rainbow's ears:

"He's somepony trying to survive in this desert full of crazies, that's what I think of him. What about you, AJ?"

"The same thing, Dash. It's bad that the other girls don't think the same."

          Without leaving a word, Pinkie disappeared, and comically appeared in the room that the robobrain was. "Could you please tell me where I can find food here, mister robot?" She blinked fastly at the machine, who just pointed where the food storage was. Pinkie literally bounced in the hallways, calling her friends for 'lunch' (If 200-year old canned food can be called lunch.) The storage room resembled a military mess hall. While they ate things like Yum Yum Delivered Eggs and Stalisbury steaks, Twilight was in her own world, meditating about what she had done, and even about her feelings for Jason last night. It didn't feel normal. She was a pony, so she liked stallions. But humans are totally different beings.But she had to admit that she found him handsome. One question echoed in her head: 'How can I show feelings for a human?" And other thing was bothering her: Tell or not tell the girls the truth. If she doesn't tell them, they will live their entire lives searching for a way back. But if she told them, God knows what reaction she would get from her friends. Twilight then encouraged herself and told her friends the truth.

         After she told them the truth, the girls reactions were lighter than Twilight thought that it would be. They only looked down, trying to hold their tears. That was an announcement meaning that they would never see their homes, family or other friends. Applejack and Rainbow were incredibly calm, Pinkie's hair deflated, Fluttershy was in verge of tears and Rarity glanced down. Nothing was said for minutes, and they returned to the lounger area.

         Tranquility Lane Simulation, 2277

"Great work, Jason!" A male voice with a german accent congratulated The Wanderer.

"WHAT THE HELL?!? Are you a demon?" Jason took 2 steps back.

"No, my little friend. I'm Stanislaus Braun. I control this simulation. So I have control over you." The Wanderer was still trying to understand what he was saying.

"Umm... could you help me find my father?"

"Of course. If you help me..." Jason was getting irritated.

"Okay, what do you want now?"

"To ruin the Rockwell's marriage. Go now please. Don't make me wait."

         Jason walked in the round street that Tranquility Lane was. 'Jesus, now I'm stuck in a simulation that is controled by a crazy old man.' While looking for the Rockwells, Jason met a old lady:

"Hey! You! You're not from here! We're not from here! We are sleeping, this is just a dream..." Firstly, the lady's words sounded like babbles, but Jason realized that she got a point.

"Finally, someone sane in this madness. Is there a way to get out?"

"Yes,there's a way to get out of this thing. Just go to that abandoned house, and use this combination to activate the fail safe. Go now! And don't let Betty see you!" The old lady immediately distance herself from Jason, leaving him with a paper in hands. "At last, a way out."

          The Wanderer neared the abandoned house door, and when Betty(Or Braun, whatever) looked away, he quickly got in. Inside the house, was some objects in strange places like a cinder block, a Nuka-Cola bottle, a Garden gnome and others. The interior was dark, and a strange silence filled the air. "I don't like this place. It is giving me creeps." He muttered to himself, and saw that the objects had buttons on it. Pressing them in the order written on the paper, Jason heard a sound from behind: The window turned into a giant terminal. "Hehe, so that is going to help me, perhaps." Accessing the computer, he clicked in the option 'Chinese Invasion' and then 'Start Chinese Invasion Failsafe'. "This should make it." Jason said as he got out of the house.

         Outside the house was a group of chinese soldiers armed with assault rifles were slaughtering the residents, with exception of a dog in the playground and Betty. Nearing the girl, she/he said:

"Noo! What did you do?"

"Take this up your ass, you crazy motherfucker! C'mon now! Where is my father?"

"Didn't you realize? It is the dog right there. You idiot, you ruined everything, now I'm all alone..." Suddenly a door appeared out of nowhere. "That's is your getaway! Go now!" Braun shouted angrily at The Wanderer, who opened the door back to reality...

         Meanwhile...

"Oh Celestia, did I do somet..." Twilight was interrupted when she saw Jason's lounger open. "Jason! You're back!" The Wanderer nodded at her, but his eye met with his father, standing there. James, the person Jason was risking his life to find. Jason hugged his father, tears coming down from his eyes. "Dad, finally!"

"My son... what are you doing here?"

"I came after you, dad!"

"Jason, it's been two weeks. Well, thanks for saving me from that simulation, my son. I didn't know that Braun was insane."

"Oh, you're saying that you didn't like being a dog?" Jason asked his father ironically.

"No son. But it's good to be back on two legs. Jason, how did you found me?"

"Your audio logs in Project Purity and Madison Li. Quite a project you had, dad."

"Yes, that's why I need to put it back on track. I'm headed to Rivet City. I'll try to convince Li that there's a way to make it function. Are you coming, my son?" Jason nodded. "And those girls are your friends? Where did you met them?"

"Ah, it's really weird. Let's keep this that way."

         Father and son then left the Vault, followed by the heart-broken girls, in their new journey to Rivet City, hoping to reactivate Project Purity, in order to give the Wasteland the greatest gift of all: Fresh, clean water