Now that Twilight was walking the wasteland without a task that requires her immediate and full attention, Twilight let her mind consider her situation. She quickly became uncomfortable at the prospect of being alone. Of course, she had been alone for an indeterminate amount of time now, but she had at least had her attention occupied throughout the entire duration. She had been missing John's presence ever since he had left the Brotherhood bunker, but now, she realized that if she were attacked, she had nobody watching over her. Not only this, but she was also unarmed. Of course, now that she seemed to have recovered her magic, she would not be defenseless, but she was far from invulnerable, particularly if she were to be assaulted by multiple foes.

Twilight had been exercising her magic as she was thinking. At the moment, she was trying to see how many pebbles she could levitate individually at a time, as a way of testing her ability to sustain multiple spells at once without worrying about using much power. She grimaced as she realized that she would probably be required to use magic violently, and more directly than just levitating a machine that did the killing for you. Twilight had never formally studied such uses for magic. There were several spells that could be adapted for the purpose, such as levitation and fire lighting, but spells built for the specific purpose of destruction of life were forbidden to almost all ponies except for a special division of the royal guard, whom were trained to use such skills when peaceful solutions were not an option and the regular guard was unable to handle it. Such cases were very rare. Twilight herself did have access to such knowledge when she was in Canterlot, but she had avoided it.

Twilight tried to think of ways that she could use magic to kill. As she did so, a pit formed in her stomach. The moment she directly killed anything with magic alone, her magic power itself would be responsible for the spilling of blood, innocent or not. However, if she did not, she might not live to see the next day at all. She pushed her doubts aside and tried to concentrate.

The most direct way of killing an animal would be to telekinetically constrict a specific area in their brain. This could easily be preformed non-lethally as well, as it depended on how long she kept it up. It would take several seconds to cause the victim to faint, but it would also leave the brain starved for nutrients, which, if they did not react very quickly, would render the victim unable to resist. If she did not release her grip after they had fainted, they would quickly die. Hopefully, leaving her assailants unconscious would always be an acceptable solution.

Unfortunately, the problem with telekinetic spells was that the effort involved would go up exponentially with distance, much like a human holding a jug of water straight out with their hands. If their arms were able to stretch out very far, they would quickly lose the ability to hold the jug up at all. She would have to be fairly close to the target for this method of attack to not leave her exhausted. Additionally, physical obstructions between Twilight and the target would also increase the effort required. Twilight estimated that, for her to be able to effectively attack a super mutant's brain, she would have to be within arm swinging distance.

Lighting fires was a relatively basic skill, but, again, effort would increase exponentially with distance. In theory, it should be possible to create a ball of magic and have the fire feed off of it, which would be more efficient at carrying the spell across a distance, but she would have to create a new spell to preform this.

Maybe I will try to figure that one out later, she thought.

Twilight did however know how to cast a spell that would carry force through the air. Creating a shockwave that would be strong enough to kill anything without being too unstable to control would be very difficult however, and also highly inefficient, as it would apply force across the entire surface of the target and not focus it in a very small area the way that bullets did. However, she felt sure that she could easily use the spell to knock the target to the ground, without actually hurting them. This pleased Twilight, as it was another non-lethal solution.

Twilight was satisfied that she would be able to deal with any threats that presented themselves, and she was also quickly growing weary of such violent thoughts. She turned her thoughts toward her unusual experience with the Master.

Richard Grey. Before it had even come to an end, Twilight had deduced two options: that the scene that she had witnessed was from the Master's own memories, or that the Master could see the mind of the man. This seemed unlikely, as the Master should not have control over the minds of humans. However, Twilight also could not help but feel that the whole scene was already familiar to her. It had something to do with the other man, Harold.

It did not take Twilight long to make the connection. The reason that she was familiar with the incident was that she had heard the story told by the 'man' himself. "Harold?" she whispered incredulously.

That broken down creature was the same as the man who had fought his way into the core of a military base crawling with super mutants? That is unbelievable! I could pull on his arm and it would fall off!

And yet, as she recalled, this did actually make sense. Although it was not in Richard Grey's memories, Harold had claimed that something inside the base had forced him to transform into a miserable living corpse. Twilight had seen several machines of unknown purpose inside the core room, but the only thing that she could think of that was suspect for causing Harold to change like that was the green slime.

Richard should not have been able to survive falling into that stuff. If it had been acid, it would have killed him within seconds. It had to have been some sort of mutagen, which meant it must have been highly radioactive. After all, how else would it have effected Harold if he didn't even touch it? But if that's the case...

Would actually falling into the pool itself cause a stronger effect?

The Master was definitely something more than Richard Grey had been, as was evident by his telepathic abilities. However, Twilight was also certain that the amount of radiation required to produce such a severe mutation would have been many magnitudes higher than any living thing could survive. It was possible that the Master engineered the ability himself somehow afterward. One thing was certain however: if Twilight's theory was correct, the Master was at least as far from human as Harold was.

It also meant that Harold himself might be able to provide some information about the Master. Unfortunately, finding out would have to wait.

"Hey, you guys, come look at this."

The speaker was a Khan with a mohawk haircut. He was standing near the edge of the Great Khan base, studying a strange purple thing that had appeared in the distance. Two nearby Khans approached him and squinted their eyes.

"What the fuck is that?" asked one.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" replied the Khan with the mohawk.

"Whatever it is, it's heading this was," said the last Khan.

"What. The. Fuck."

Twilight rolled her eyes and said "As much as I-"

"What. The. Fuck!" The Khan with the mohawk pulled out a pistol, but did not aim it at Twilight. Upon seeing this, his companions did the same.

"As much as I enjoy you referring to me with profanity, I am in quite a hurry. I must speak to your leader!"

"Listen freak," replied the Khan, "I don't know what the hell you are, but you don't just come walking into the base of the Great Khans and ask to see the boss."

"I don't have time to argue with you. I'm moving on." Twilight started to move around the Khan, but he raised his pistol and pointed it at her head.

"Didn'tcha hear me, you animal? You'll see the boss over my dead body."

POW

Twilight screamed as she felt the impact, but the bullet had been completely stopped by her hood. An expression of rage flashed onto her face.

The Khan suddenly dropped his gun and clutched his head with both hands. "UARGH!" In moments, he was laying on his side, motionless.

"Damn..." said one of the other Khans, neither of which had taken action. "She sure showed you." The Khan turned to his remaining companion and said "I don't know about you, but I think that anybody who can kill you just by looking at you has every right to see the boss, right?"

"Yeah..." was all that the other Khan could manage.

"For your information," said Twilight in frustration, "He's not dead. He will be awake before long, but he'll probably have a big headache."

"You have shown him mercy?" asked the Khan that was willing to speak. "I suppose that is your right, no matter how unusual."

"I need to speak with your leader," Twilight reminded them urgently.

"Garl? He's over that way. Look for the really big building."

"What is this?" demanded Garl to nobody in particular upon seeing Twilight enter his room. "Somebody has ten seconds to explain what the hell this is all about!"

"Please," answered Twilight fearfully. Garl appeared to be even more frightening due to a strange metal hat that he was wearing. It did not cover his face at all, but in the back it stretched down to protect even his neck, and there was a strange symbol on the forehead. "You are all in great danger, but you must give me time to explain!"

Garl stared at Twilight unbelievingly. Finally, he said, "Okay... you have thirty seconds."

"Do you know what a super mutant is?" asked Twilight quickly. She didn't bother to wait for an answer. "There is a hoard of them heading this way, and they want to kill or kidnap every single human they find! They look like this!"

Twilight magically conjured up the same image of a super mutant that she had shown to Aradesh. She waited for about ten seconds, and then blurted out, "Are you still timing me?"

Garl hesitated before answering, but did answer "No." He put a hand on his goatee thoughtfully. Out of nowhere, he shouted "GWEN!"

Twilight tensed up, but Garl did nothing. A moment later, a female Khan with long black hair entered the room. She did a double take upon seeing the image of the mutant, but answered Garl with "Yes, Garl, what do you need?"

"Fetch Petrox," he commanded. Gwen raised an eyebrow, but left the room.

"You," said Garl to Twilight sharply, pointing at her. Twilight tensed up again.

"Keep that hologram thing going. When Gwen returns with Petrox, you are not to say a word."

Twilight was confused, but she nodded quickly.

About two minutes later, a male Khan came running through the door with Gwen following after. "Petrox!" shouted Garl.

The other man stood stiff and carefully replied with "Yes?"

Without a word, Garl pointing in Twilight's direction. Petrox slowly turned his head to follow, and when he saw the image of the super mutant, his face was immediately drained of all color. He did not move an inch for several seconds.

"Oh," he said in relief. "Fake." The color did not return to his face. He turned back to Garl.

"These are what you saw?" Garl demanded.

"Yes," replied Petrox quickly.

"You swear it?"

"If those things aren't what I saw, I'll shoot myself in the foot," said Petrox confidently, yet weakly.

"Would you go as far as to say that you would shoot yourself in the head?" demanded Garl.

Petrox looked at the other occupants of the room, then back at Garl.

"No."

"HA!" exclaimed Garl in a roaring voice. "Smart."

Garl turned to Twilight and said "Petrox goes out further from our base than most. Recently, he insisted that he happened upon a whole army of giant green men. If not for this, I would have dismissed you for a lunatic, probably killed you."

"You saw them?" Twilight asked Petrox in astonishment, ignoring Garl's last phrase. "Where were they? How many were there?"

"He said that they were south east of the camp quite a ways and heading east," answered Garl. "They were clearly not heading in our direction. And that brings up a great question. How do you know that there is another group heading our way?"

Twilight hesitated before answering, but she could feel Garl's impatient gaze burning into her skull.

"I saw them myself," she lied. The room was silent for several moments. Twilight decided that she needed to say more. "Actually, I must tell you. The army is certainly coming to your camp, but they will be wiping out Shady Sands along the way." She stopped with that, her hearth thumping against her ribs painfully. She would have to come up with a very good reason for the Khans to make their defense at Shady Sands, and quickly.

Garl stroked his beard. Nobody else dared to speak. Finally, Garl said, "You know, I actually believe you." He turned around to face the human occupants of the room and held his arms out. "And it would not do to allow somebody else to raid our little town, would it? Petrox, how many mutants were there in the group you saw?"

"At least a hundred," replied Petrox.

He turned back to Twilight. "If I find out that you are wrong about this, you will personally pay for wasting my time. And that town too, for wasting our time."

Tears began to appear in Twilight's eyes. She was about to give Garl a heart-felt stream of thanks, but she thought better of it and instead said "I understand."

"Everyone!" shouted Garl, turning toward the Khans, who all stood at attention. "Leave me and..."

Garl turned toward Twilight. "Here we are, running to aid that town for your benefit, and I don't even have a clue what your name is."

"My name is Twilight Sparkle," said Twilight quickly.

"Hrmm." Garl turned back to the Khans. "Twilight and I have some things to discuss. I want everybody else out of this room. Gwen!"

"Yes?" asked Gwen.

"Spread the word. I want every damn Khan ready to move by nightfall. We're going to have ourselves a little vacation."

"Wait!" shouted Twilight, who then recoiled as she realized what she had just done.

Garl was looking at her impatiently. "You see the thick skin on that thing?" Twilight asked, indicating the mutant. "It's as tough as a metal sheet. I know from personal experience."

Garl raised his eyebrows at Twilight, then turned back to Gwen. "Tell the men to leave their pistols and SMGs behind and to bring their best rifles instead, along with every ounce of AP shot they've got. Bring all the explosives, traps, whatever the hell! The heavy stuff, don't hold back! Go!"

The Khans quickly vacated the room, leaving Garl alone with Twilight.

"Twilight Sparkle," he said, drawing her attention.

"You do not know what it is like to have been born a raider. Raiding is what we do, and sometimes it turns us into animals. If a Khan were to desire to be anything else, they would not know how. They can hardly go waltzing up to civilized people and be like "Teach me your way!" That would be an incredibly stupid way to be shot. Ever since I claimed power from my father, I have tried to teach the Khans the true value of fighting with honor, but sometimes, I suspect that I make no progress. If this is... for real, if they are bringing the fight to us, then the Great Khans have never had a worthier fight. Hell, we'll probably lose most of our people really," Garl snorted. "But we will have our honor."

"Um..." replied Twilight.

"Oh, and there is also a small matter of some prisoners from Shady Sands. We won't be leaving anybody here, so they are free to go."

"Prisoners?" asked Twilight, surprised.

"Slaves, really," answered Garl. "But not any more. They had better be grateful, lucky bastards. Huh."

"I think," said Twilight, "that the whole town will be grateful for what you are doing for them."

"So what? We aren't doing this for them!" Twilight did not reply for fear of how Garl would react. Garl began to stroke his beard. "But, you are right, they will probably be plenty happy about that, won't they? The Great Khans, defenders of the weak and helpless!"

Twilight stared at Garl, not knowing what to say.

"Nah, that doesn't roll of the tongue right, but maybe I'll come up with something."

Twilight did not like traveling with the Khan hoard in the least. There were about six hundred Great Khans, they made entirely too much noise, and were usually unpleasant to listen to. She had wanted to keep to herself, but Garl had insisted that she travel with him.

Fortunately, the trip to Shady Sands was only one day. As the hoard approached the town's wall, Twilight could see some commotion in front of the entrance. Eventually, as they were drawing near, a large white sheet was raised up onto a pole that stood outside the entrance. Garl grinned.

The front section of the army of Khans grew thinner as the Khans began to line up at the entrance. Twilight could see inside the town. The streets were completely abandoned. She felt sorry for the guards who were stuck at the entrance.

When they had reached the middle of town, Aradesh burst out of his home. He hesitated, but then ran toward Twilight, trying his best to ignore the Khans.

"What have you done?" he asked Twilight in shock. "The entirety of the Great Khans are here! You have brought ruin to us all!"

Before Twilight could think of anything to reply with, there was a shout from behind her. "Father!"

Twilight turned around in shock as she watched one of the former slave women force her way through the crowd of surprised Khans. Aradesh's eyes went wide.

"Tandi? This cannot be!"

Tandi finally pushed through the last of the crowed and embraced her shocked father.

"What are the Khans doing here, my sweet daughter?" asked Aradesh.

"Well," replied Tandi uncertainly. "They said that they are here to fight, but nobody would tell me why. What is going on?"

Aradesh did not get an opportunity to respond, as Garl pointed toward him and shouted, "You! With the accent! What's for dinner?"

Author's Note

Fun fact, this is not consistent with the canon story of Fallout 1. In canon, the Khans are simply known as Khans, not as Great Khans. The Vault Dweller completely wipes out the original Khan gang, except for one survivor, who founds the New Khans, aka the Great Khans. In my story, the Khans do survive, so I decided to call them Great Khans from the very start and created my own explanation for their future. In order to facilitate this, my Khans are something of a hybrid of the raiders that they were in Fallout 1 and the tribe of "honor" that they are in New Vegas. In the game, Garl is downright brutal, but that would not work for what I wanted, so I gave Garl's personality to his dead father and turned him into a more reasonable person.