Fallout: Harmony and Steel

Chapter Four: New Town, New People

May 30th, 2279

Journal of Knight Isaac Ward

Turns out my initial thoughts of Ponyville were correct. This town was nothing anything I had seen before. This community appeared to have everything that the Wasteland lacked. It had a market, a schoolhouse, a town square, hell, it even had a spa. The residents (who looked even more garish in color than the town itself) eyed me warily. I suspect they did not outright question or even attack me due to Fluttershy's presence. Maybe finding her was a stoke of good fortune. If I had found this place by myself, the townsfolk would more than likely either panic or attack me. From what I saw, most of the town was female. This was odd to me at first but I concluded that all the men must be working, as it was still the middle of the day. Fluttershy is taking me to the local library to introduce me to her friends. I found myself eager to follow her and meet them.

"Oh, that's the towns spa, me and my friend Rarity got there all the time" Fluttershy said as she pointed out the building in question.

"I see" I responded, still perplexed by this towns very existence.

The question of 'how is this place even possible?' still buzzed around my head. How had this place not been subjected to raiders, especially if they only lied within the forest? It made no sense whatsoever to me, but they must have managed it somehow, as the evidence was all around me. Fluttershy made sure to point out any landmarks in the town to me, a sort of improvised tour as we made our way to the library. The fact that the town had a library interested me. Who knows what sort of pre war knowledge was stored away there.

We continued our walk through the town to our destination for about fifteen minutes. The townsfolk seemed edgy at my presence. I couldn't say I blamed them though, if the roles were reversed, I would have similar feelings towards my presence. I also noticed that no one in town seemed to be carrying any guns or any sort of weapon in fact. This was strange to me at first, as the people of the Wasteland always carried a weapon on them as the Wasteland was a dangerous place and safe havens were very rare.

"Here we are," Fluttershy announced, breaking my chain of thought, "Golden Oaks library."

I looked at the building in front of me. Only it wasn't a building at all. It was a large tree that seemed to have been made into a home. That impressed me. I would have to find out how making a tree a home was possible without killing the tree itself. Fluttershy made towards the door. I fell in behind her, if her friends were anything like she said they were, we wouldn't be having any problems. Still, it never hurt to be cautious and I felt that it should be her they saw first. We made our way to the heavy wooden door and Fluttershy gingerly knocked on it.

"Coming!" I heard a voice behind the door say.

The door opened and a teenage boy with emerald, spiky hair answered. His eyes lit up as he saw Fluttershy.

"Oh my gosh, Fluttershy!" He exclaimed "We were so worried about you, we were just about to start searching for you. Where have you been? What happened to your face? Who di-"

The boy cut his sentence short as his eyes fell on me. His eyes went wide and he looked like he was about pass out. Fluttershy saw this and quickly acted.

"Don't worry Spike, this is my new friend Isaac," She said warmly, as she turned to me, "He saved my life in the forest."

Friend? I thought She warmed up quickly

Spike swallowed and turned his head indoors.

"Hey Twilight! Fluttershy's back!" He shouted indoors. He then looked back at me before turning back inside. "And she bought a friend!"

Spike beckoned us indoors and we made our way inside.

As soon as i entered the building I felt multiple gazes fall upon me. They belonged to five other young women, all of about the same age, but each of them varying wildly in hair color and attire.

The first one was a strangely well dressed woman, the strange part being her regal, purple hair which curled around her head. Her pristine clothing made me think she must be an important member of the town, I'd have to ask about her about it later. The one directly next to her looked the complete opposite with dirty blonde hair in a pony tail with a stetson hat on top of it. She wore a dirty flannel shirt and a pair of jeans with multiple holes in them. Another one really caught my eye with the explosion of colour on top of her head. Her hair was messy but it was coloured with all the colours of the rainbow in a striped pattern. I had never seen a rainbow in my life, I had seen pictures in pre war books but to see something that resembled it so well was jarring. The one next to her was an wild shade of pink. Every item of clothing she wore matched the colour of her messy, curly, hair. She also had an cheery grin on her face that frankly made me uneasy. The final one was dressed in a purple sweater vest with purple bangs that had streaks of pink and lilac in them. She studied me carefully over her glasses.

It took me a moment to remember that we were all just staring at each other, uneasily. Fluttershy saved me by stepping out behind me and all concern regarding me was gone within an instant and replaced with all five of them crowding Fluttershy, asking questions or stating there concern.

As Fluttershy spoke to them, I took a moment to observe the inside of the hollow tree and I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. Books. Rows and rows of perfectly good books. Books that aren't burned are rare in the capital wasteland and the Brotherhood even offers rewards to scavengers that bring us any books with useful information. As most scavengers and wastelanders can't even read, I would call it a fair trade. To see this many books in one place was almost surreal. I was drawn out of my musings as I was approached by the group. The one with the hat spoke to me first.

"So you're the fella who helped our Fluttershy out of that forest?" She said with a bright smile.

Her country accent caught me off guard, but it was her eyes that had my attention. They seemed to be trying to stare through my helmet into my soul, trying to detect anything bad. Something inside me told me for some reason, that lying about anything would be a bad idea right now.

"I am, I stumbled across her predicament while I was making my way through the forest." I said back to her.

She seemed satisfied with the answer and spoke back to me.

"Well it's a good thing that you did, who knows what them nasty fellas would have done to her if you didn't find her. Ah'm Applejack by the way." She said in her distinctively country accent.

The rest of them stepped forward to introduce themselves.

"I'm Rarity, and what on earth are you wearing, darling?" She questioned me in a refined accent.

It took me a moment to think if the question was rhetorical or not, but she stared at me expectantly so I spoke up.

"My armor is a T-45d model of power armor, de-" I was saying before she cut me off.

"No, no darling, why do you wear it? I hope I'm not offending but it's simply hideous, so blocky." She said as she looked at me up and down analysing the design of my armor. Her rainbow haired one stepped forward.

"Geez Rarity, the guys only just got here and you're all ready asking him about his clothes," she playfully chided her friend before turning to me, "I'm Rainbow Dash. That's Twilight and that's-" She was saying before a pink blur whizzed up to me and interrupted her.

"Thank you for saving Fluttershy! I'm Pinkie Pie and it's awesome to have someone new in town! Even if they do look like a robot. Are you a robot? Because if you are then that's awesome! How do you work? Do you want us to take you to our leader? Are you looking for Sarah Conner? Because if you are-" She said at a million words a second before the one identified as Twilight stepped in.

"Sorry about Pinkie, she gets excited about new people, I'm Twilight." She said, though she still eyed me warily.

They all slightly flinched when they heard the mechanical voice come from my helmet.

"Don't worry yourselves. Had it not been for Fluttershy, I would still be in those woods. I am Knight Isaac Ward of the Brotherhood of Steel." I said to them.

They shared a confused look when I finished.

"The Brotherhood of Steel? Who are they?" Twilight asked quizzically.

I rolled my eyes beneath my helmet. I had a feeling I was going to have to explain this a lot.

"They are the order I belong to. We safeguard technology so it cannot destroy us again." I said to her, hoping I wouldn't have to go into anymore detail than that.

This did not really help the confused looks but Applejack changed the subject.

"How did ya save Fluttershy?" She asked.

"I despatched her captors and she lead me her." I said simply.

Her eyes widened a tiny bit as she figured out what I meant by 'dispatched'.

"What do you mean by her 'captors'?" Twilight questioned.

"She was being held prisoner in a raider encampment inside the forest. I was able to eliminate them and Flutterdhy brought me here." I thought, trying to leave out the fact that I was only here because I was under orders to see how advanced this place was.

Applejack looked at me briefly, as if analysing what I said, before speaking up.

"Well that was mighty kind of ya to help her out like that, why Ah'm sure if it wasn't for, you we wouldn't see Fluttershy again." She said with a small smile.

I was surprised that she thanked me. She must be very good at reading character or she's just naive. I glanced at the mission clock on my HUD. It would be sundown in a couple of hours so, and I would need time to get through the forest and back to the ruined house which I had dubbed my base of operations.

"There is no need to thank me. I only did what I judged to be right. I am sorry to be brief but I have to leave. I have a long walk through the forest if I am to get back to my base." I said to them, hoping it sounded apologetic.

"My word, you don't intend to go back through the forest do you? That would be no way to treat Fluttershy's saviour. I would rather give you my boutique before it came to that." Rarity said and the group murmured their agreement.

I thought about this for a second. It wouldn't hurt and it would give me more time tomorrow to truly explore this place. Plus I hadn't slept in an actual bed for a good month now.

"I appreciate your generosity, I assume I'll be staying with you then?" I asked Rarity.

Rarity was about to respond when, surprisingly, Fluttershy cut in.

"Y-you can stay at my house tonight, if you want to." She said with a small smile.

"As you wish. Thank you for your kindness." I said, hoping I didn't sound too starchy.

"That's no problem, I'll take you there now, it's getting late." She said to me, as she glanced outside.

"Lead the way." I said, as I followed her as she made towards the door.