Canterlot, Equestria: 1 Hour after arrival

“Now I was freaking right the fuck out, weird looking ape things, a zombie, and all of them had guns. But I kind of learned later that they would become amazing friends. Though they never held a candle to any of you.” Rainbow Dash said to all of the ponies around her. Telling this story at times was going to get hard for her, all the things she would have to keep from everypony just so they wouldn’t see her as a monster, all the times she didn’t think twice about killing someone, or something. I already knew it would be hard. I just never thought it would be this hard. The rainbow mare thought to herself, trying to stay calm on the outside like she had done so many times before.

“Rainbow, I'm going to be honest with you. If it was anypony else I would of already thrown them into a psychiatric hospital to get help. Though I have a feeling you’re not lying.” The purple princess said with a bit of hesitation. I also have a feeling you’re not going to tell the whole truth. While she did trust her blue friend in every way possible, the way she was just saying everything seemed like she was picking her words carefully. She may have been through a traumatic experience and might try to repress those memories. More or less, Twilight Sparkle was ready to become a shoulder to cry on for the broken pegasus.

“Now I don’t rightly know what happened to ya, but I do think I have a feeling. Dash….did you get sent to the wasteland?” The apple farmer said with a memory of her own experiences with the girl that had saved her life from becoming a group of raiders midnight snack. “Girls, you know how I said that the spell worked but at the same time didn’t? I’m guessing that the same thing happend to Dash, she just got sent to a different place.” She added, trying to explain that the same spell mishap happened to her friend. While her time in the ruins of D.C. was short, it had a lasting impact on her. Making her sleep with her trusty shotgun next her for every night since returning. The thoughts of what happened came back to her in an instant. From her meeting Alyssa, to her first encounter with a Deathclaw, and even when they defeated the Enclave. To say she knew what Rainbow Dash went through would be an understatement.

“Yup guilty as charged, what spend a little time in the beautiful irradiated wasteland?” The winged soldier said back to her friend with a curious tone in her voice, her interest now being fully peaked. Yeah, AJ in the Mojave, that would be crazy….right? She thought to herself trying to make sense of what her friend knew. Once is a coincidence, but twice? Now there’s something. The blue mare thought to herself as her friends tried to get her attention, Pondering maybe it wasn’t so much of a coincidence that she was sent to the wasteland. Ugh, Magic makes my head hurt.

“Well, I was in the capital. Washington D.C. I met a girl there who helped me out when I needed her.” The apple farmer replied back to her friend with a slight hesitation, after being thrown off by the response that she got. Her saying this got Rainbow Dashes attention fast, all she could do was sit and think about everything that she knows about her simple friend. I doubt that she’s gonna believe me. Applejack silently thought to herself as she watched Rainbow’s reality conflict with itself.

AJ? In the wasteland? How? I doubt that Twi would get the same results as she did with me, so it just doesn’t make sense. The armored pony thought to herself , trying to figure the whole situation out. “H-how?” She finally managed to ask her friend after a few moments of silence, hoping that she would get some kind of response that didn’t make her head hurt.

“Same way you did Dash, we tried that spell.” The farmer replied to the mare, hesitating slightly. And would ya know it, the spell works. Applejack silently thought to herself, letting her friend take in everything thats happening.

“So let me get this straight,” Dash started “You used a spell that could have possibly killed you and for all we know of blown the entire town sky high, you didn’t use something simple like an apple or a feather, and oh right endangered yourself and those around you? She said her voice quickly rising in tone.

“We-well um, yes?” Twilight said stuttering on her words, noticing how intimidating Rainbow could be when she needed to be.

“Are you fucking retarded!?” Dash all but yelled at the ponies. “You have ponies who fucking care about you, you have duties that you need to attend to, you have a family who cares about you, and you do this shit!?” Dash screamed at the two in front of her, her blood boiling with rage. How could they be so stupid? She thought to herself as her friends tried to recover from what was just said to them.

“Well Rainbow Dash we needed to know for sure if it would work on ponies. You might not of been through a lot but don’t even think that you can judge those around you especially your friends.” Princess Celestia said with a cool and calm voice, trying to maintain balance before a war between the elements started.

“Oh I don’t want to hear a peep out of you!” Dash said to the princess much to the shock of those around her. “You’re supposed to stop your subordinates when they may step out of line or endanger civilians,” She said her attention focused on Celestia. “And the way I see it, they did both.” She finished her rant to the princess with a look of disgust. While she may of not seen it, there was a look of shock on the faces of her friends all around her.

A deathly silence went around the whole room as everyone tried to comprehend what Dash had just said. She would never say something like that to The Princess, she supposed to be the element of loyalty. Twilight Sparkle thought to herself. What happened?

“Rainbow Dash, I must ask you to sit down.” The Princess of the sun told the blue mare, with a calm tone. She quickly motioned for the guards surrounding the room to stand down, as she tried to maintain order.

“Look, I’m sorry alright, it’s just…..” The mare started to say trailing off mid sentence “It’s just, I don’t want any of you getting hurt. You girls mean the world to me, you have have families who want to see you come home every day. I….I don’t. I’ve spent my entire life trying to impress my parents by becoming a Wonderbolt so they would finally be proud of me, but all I could never make it. I’ve been stuck at that same fuckin weatherjob since I was in high school and they just recently put me in charge. I know that I’m going to go no where in life. But all you. No you girls can do just about anything. Rarity’s a big time pony in the fashion business. AJ runs a successful farm and has family that goes all the way back to the founding of Ponyville. Twilight is a princess. Pinkie Pie is one of the best party planners in Equestria, and Fluttershy reformed the god of Chaos. And I’m still stuck as a fucking weather worker.” She finished with a drop of her head, now wishing that she was back in the Wasteland. At least there I was somepony but here, I’m a no one.

The room went silent after that no one wanting to even move, everypony was just thinking about what was said. “Dash,” Applejack started to say “We care about you. All of us, we spent the whole time you were gone searching for you. I know what you mean about what you said, because I thought the same thing about myself when I first came back. It was the girls who just helped me remember how wrong I was, and damn it all to hell if I’m going to let you think of yourself like that.” She said getting into Rainbow Dashs’ face tears starting to well up in both of their eyes.

Rainbow Dash jumped into the apple farmer surrounding her with a hug and letting the tears flow out. They really do care about me? She thought to herself. After all the shit that I just said to them, they still care.

“Now stop crying, what do you think all of your fans would think if they saw the Rainbow Dash crying?” Applejack said trying to wipe tears out of her own eyes.

Silence once again was the victor in the atmosphere of the room, between what had just happened and how fast things were going. Alright, Dash thought. let’s try to keep the story going.

“We went to the Outpost.” She said breaking the silence.

“W-What?” Twilight managed to say, thrown off with how fast she went back to telling her story.

“You wanted to know what happened right? We went to the Mojave Outpost, where I learned how crazy things will get.”

Author's Note

Heyo, the story lives! This is supposed to be me trying to add some depth into the story, sorry if I fail at it!