Chaos Rules in the Wasteland

"Well, now where do we go?" asked John. "Do we go back to the Brotherhood? Hunt down any mutants in the area that escaped the explosion?"

"Mariposa might be gone," began Twilight, "but The Master is still out there somewhere. Unless The Master is taken care of, all we have done is delayed our destruction."

"Delayed it?" asked John in surprise. "What do you mean? The vats of that mutagenic green slime are destroyed. No more mutants, right?"

"Perhaps," answered Twilight uncertainly, "But their Master won't take this defeat sitting down. I'm certain that he will find a way to retaliate eventually. Maybe even reproduce the FEV virus that was in the mutagen."

"Hmm," said John. "Come to think of it, I remember a mutant or two talking about a 'Master' of some sort. Are you sure that he wasn't in Mariposa?"

"I'm certain," said Twilight. "While I was imprisoned there, the mutants took orders from a mutant they called 'Loutenant'."

"I met him," remarked John. "He acted smart, but he also thought that it was a good idea to stand near me within swinging distance."

"There is more that I haven't told you though," continued Twilight. "This is going to sound... Well, it's going to sound crazy, but while I was unconscious at the Brotherhood's base in Lost Hills, I was contacted by a voice claiming to be 'The Master'."

John gave Twilight a skeptic look.

"Are you certain that this wasn't just a dream, or something?"

"I am," answered Twilight confidently. "With good reason. While The Master was attempting to brainwash me, he accidently revealed that he was in the process of launching an attack on Shady Sands. Afterward, I managed to escape from The Master by physically teleporting myself to Shady Sands."

"Teleportation!" cried John. "You said that you could only manage to use a teleport spell as a last desperate resort. I guess that is what this was?"

"Not quite," answered Twilight. "But I'll explain that later. The point is that when I teleported to Shady Sands, I informed them that an army of mutants was coming to destroy their town. The very next day, I was proven to be correct."

"Damn," remarked John. "That is pretty strong proof. So, where do you think we should go?"

"We need to go to the Hub. We need to find Harold. Harold is our best chance for a clue as to The Master's location."

"What? Why?" asked John in confusion.

"Because I learned something else when I was communicating with The Master. He used to be a human named Richard Grey. Harold knew Richard. He was there when Richard fell into a vat and presumably transformed into a monster. Harold might know something that can help us figure out where Richard Grey went after that."

"Huh. Imagine that," remarked John. "Very well, to the Hub it is. Are you ready?"

"Yes. The sooner we get there, the sooner this will all be over."

"I don't suppose you could just teleport us there?" asked John hopefully.

"I'm afraid not. Such long distances are beyond my power. I think the only reason that I was able to teleport my body from Lost Hills to Shady sands was because of the fact that my... mind, sort of, was in Shady Sands already? I don't honestly know for sure. I do know, however, that I can't do it again."

"That's a shame. Well, come on then."

John began walking away. For the first time, Twilight realized that the power armor that her friend was clad with was making noises of hydraulic machinery at work with every step. With the addition of the suit, John probably weighed at least half a ton, and made him at least seven feet tall. In fact, nearly equal to the weight and height of an average super mutant. The suit also granted strength similar to a super mutant too, now that she thought about it.

It was nothing short of intimidating. Any raiders they encountered would have to be insane to try to kill him.

Of course, I wouldn't be surprised to find that the raiders ARE that insane, thought Twilight.

"You know," said John, "I know for a fact that your story is true. I went up to Shady Sands myself to warn them of exactly the same thing, only to find that the town already knew about it and had repelled an attack already, with the help of the Khans, of all people. There wern't very many of them left though. Apparently their leader got killed in the attack and the remaining Khans don't know what to do with themselves."

"Garl died?" said Twilight.

Why am I sad about this? she wondered. He admitted that he has murdered dozens of innocent people, and even his own father!

And yet, in some strange, small way, he was something of a comrade to me and to the town of Shady Sands, despite his past. He was arguably the most responsible for the town's very survival.

And now he's dead.

But at least he got his wish. He did die an honorable death.

After some more thought, Twilight realized that she must have been aware of Garl's death at one point, but she was unfortunately unable to remember the final details of the battle thanks to a certain super mutant drugging her. She would not have dared try to leave with Garl's sniper rifle if he was still alive, especially since he had basically threatened her if she didn't return it.

I suppose that the rifle really is permanently mine now.

"Twilight!"

"Hmm?" asked Twilight, snapping out of her thoughts.

"Look, up ahead. Floaters. Six of them. They haven't seen us yet."

Twilight looked. "Ugh. I see them. Disgusting creatures."

"Should we try to avoid them?" asked John. "Or do you feel like taking out the trash?"

Twilight considered.

"Actually," she said, "I'm hoping you'll let me take care of them this time."

John looked at her in surprise. "Really?"

"I want to test a new spell. This is a perfect opportunity."

"A spell?"

"Watch."

Twilight's horn lit up and suddenly a ball of energy grew in front of her and ignited before launching at a floater.

The fire ball collided with the monstrosity and immediately every square inch of its body ignited.

A mere instant later, the thing exploded in a fiery explosion (thanks to its gaseous interior), which engulfed the other floaters and triggered a chain reaction of explosions.

"Holy hell," cried John. "I didn't know you could do that! You sure took care of them!"

And now I've finally done it, thought Twilight in melancholy. I've finally killed something with my magic alone. At least I did so in order to remove six murderous tape worm freaks from existence. If there any kind of creature I hate, it's giant mutant parasites.

"So you just came up with that spell one day?" asked John. "I've never seen you do that before."

"I didn't have the power to do it before," said Twilight. "Let me explain. In Equestria, every living thing produces magic in relatively small quantities. Everything. From the blades of grass to apple trees, from bunny rabbits to gryphons-"

John snorted in mild amusement.

"Yes, I know, your last name is Griffon, but I'm being serious. From rabbits to gryphons to all kinds of ponies, all of them produce magic. When they have an excess of magic, the excess is released into the air, so to say. As a result, the very environment around everypony in Equestria is a giant reservoir of magic. In order to access it, one only needs to provide a mere spark of their own personal power. But because I am not in Equestria, and there is no magic in the air, I was forced to rely on the magic manufactured by my own body for one hundred percent of my power. The fact that I was able to do as much as I did is actually quite astonishing.

"Now, I mentioned something else before. When I used my magic to teleport to Shady Sands, I wasn't drawing on the very last of my magical strength for a desperate escape, as you implied. What actually happened is that I... Let's just say I had, an epiphany, of sorts. Even though this world is very nearly a magical dead-zone, I realized that I've had a way to access magic from Equestria this whole time."

"You're drawing magic from another world?" cried John.

"Well, yes. You see, my five best friends in Equestria share a very special bond with me. A magical bond even. And it can cross any distance without growing any weaker at all. It transcends space itself. Even with me being separated from my friends by an entire dimension, the bond is still as strong as ever. But I didn't realize until recently that I could use that bond to have my friends, who are all in Equestria, send me Equestrian magic."

"They can do that?" said John in astonishment. "Wouldn't something like that leave them exhausted?"

"Negligibly. The fact that there are five of them to spread the load between helps greatly. And also, only the pony casting the magic suffers from the 'burnout', as it is called. Burnout is similar to muscle fatigue, only it applies to the mind and the horn instead. I could cast spells all day long and my friends probably wouldn't notice a thing."

"Remarkable," said John. "Is there some kind of magic bond between you and I too?"

Twilight suddenly looked down in embarrassment. "Probably not," she admitted. "You're not a native of Equestria, and magic is completely foreign to this world. And, even if there is a bond between you and I, you don't have a way of channeling it."

"That's alright, I'm probably too stupid to understand your magic anyway."

Twilight knew that John was just trying to be humorous. It didn't stop her from saying, "John! You're not stupid! Don't even joke about that!"

"Hey, take it easy!" said John. "If I didn't make fun of myself, it would actually hurt when anybody else makes fun of me instead."

"That's a terrible way to think!" cried Twilight.

"Terrible world," countered John. "All things considered, seems pretty appropriate."

Twilight considered.

"Well, I guess at least you aren't succumbing to depression. Very well then, continue with the non-sense!"

"Is that an order?"

"I mean, carry on with the non-sense if you want to. ... Wow, I sound like Fluttershy all of the sudden."

"Relax," said John. "We're together again on another adventure. It will be just like old times!"

"Except now we're a terrifying giant metal man and a pony who can throw fire."

"We can dive into a deathclaw nest if you're feeling lucky."

"No!"

John let out a laugh.

"See? Like I said, just like old times."

"I wish we were at the Hub right now."

"So do I, but the truth of the matter is that the Hub is two weeks away."

"I just hope Harold has some information for us when we get there." said Twilight.

Two weeks later:

"Harold!" cried Twilight. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"Why, if it isn't the purple pony," said Harold. "Um, who's your friend?" he asked nervously, pointing a decrepit finger at John.

John pulled his helmet off. "Name's John Griffin. I believe we've met before?"

"Oooh," cried Harold. "Good grief, boy, you know that you're liable to scare everyone half to death with that getup?"

"Works for me," said John dismissively. "Better than having every other guy sizing you up to decide if you're worth mugging."

"Very true," said Harold sadly. "Can't say I expected to ever see you two again. What can this old mutant do for you two?"

"We were hoping you had some information for us," explained Twilight.

"Ah, I see. This isn't a social call then."

"Well, no..." began Twilight in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, it's just that we're terribly busy trying to stop armies of super mutants and we haven't really had the time to-"

"Super mutants?" said Harold. "I thought that we drove them off already! Some giant men in power armor came and... Huh, one of them was you, wasn't it?" said Harold, turning to John. "You already gathered up the town to drive the mutants off. Don't tell me they're coming at us again!"

"No, nothing like that," assured Twilight. "As a matter of fact, the super mutants are hopefully gone for good. What we need is for you to tell us everything that you know about The Master."

Harold stared back at Twilight with a blank expression.

"The Master?" he said in confusion. "Is he some sort of sex therapist? I could use one of those."

John saw Twilight's horrified expression and decided that she wouldn't be ready for talking any time soon.

"No," said John in frustration. "We're looking for the master of the super mutants! Do you not know anything about him?"

"Didn't know that they had a master," said Harold. "Huh. Wonder who it is? Maybe things would have turned out different for Richard and I if we had known."

"No, I-" John cut himself off and shook his head. "Harold. Do you know what happened to Richard Grey after what happened at Mariposa?"

"That's the name of that old military base!" cried Harold happily. "I tell you, it was drivin' me absolutely crazy not being able to remember!"

Harold frowned.

"Unfortunately, me and my atrocious memory are going to have to disappoint you. The last time I saw Richard was when he fell into that green muck. I asked the fellows who rescued me about what happened to him, but they never saw him, and I never heard anything about him ever again. So, if Richard knew anything about this 'master' of yours, that knowledge died with him. I'm sorry."

John sighed. "Alright, Harold. Thank you for trying to help anyway. We'll find The Master one way or another."

He looked to Twilight, who still appeared to be horrified.

"Come on, Twi, let's get some real food while we're in town and not have that wasteland crap for at least one day. We'll worry about what we're going to do after that."

Twilight silently nodded and followed John out of Harold's house.

"Mister Patterson!"

Commander Patterson sighed and set down his paperwork and looked toward the artificial outdoors enclosure.

Inside was the young purple unicorn that been recovered from Mariposa four years before, and she had spent nearly every moment of her life in the artificial outdoor enclosure ever since. It was designed to make one's pet feel at home in their natural environments. Of course, Patterson had long since realized that the pony was something more than an exotic pet from the moment she started to learn how to speak. Never the less, she seemed to be perfectly content eating the enclave's preserved pre-war grass that grew in her enclosure.

Of course, artificial enclosures like the one in his office were definitely not cheap, but the funding had not been hard to acquire once Patterson proved to his superiors that the pony was at least as intelligent as the sapient deathclaws, which were also held on the base. Several enclave officers had a passive interest in the pony's development. Some even came into Patterson's office just to have a conversation with the purple pony. He wasn't entirely sure that he approved of that, but he never tried to stop them.

According to the computer logs from Mariposa, she was already three years old at the time of her retrieval. That meant that she was seven years old now.

The computer logs had identified her as subject Twilight Sparkle. Commander Patterson had no idea how the super mutants had come up with such a code name for their creation, but he saw no particular reason to change it. Somehow, it seemed appropriate.

"What is it, Sparkle?" he asked. If the pony insisted on calling him by his last name, he would do the same to her.

"Do you want some coffee, Mister Patterson?" asked Sparkle, her voice muffled slightly from the glass separating her from the enclave commander.

"What?" said Patterson in bafflement, a state that the pony put him in too many times for his comfort.

"I said, do you want some coffee, Mister Patterson?" repeated Sparkle.

Suddenly, to the commander's shock, he noticed his coffee mug floating in the air in front of his nose.

He screamed and shoved his feet against his desk, rapidly propelling his rolling chair away from the mug.

"I didn't mean to scare you!" cried Sparkle. "I just wanted to show you that I can really do it! I told you I could do it! You didn't believe me before, but I can do it! I don't know how I can do it but I can really make things fly!"

"You're making this mug fly?!" cried Patterson.

"Yes! Isn't that great!"

"Uh, yes, great, great..." muttered Commander Patterson as he scooted his chair back to his desk, slowly, his eyes not leaving the mug.

"Could you please put my cup back down?" said Patterson. "I don't want it to accidently spill."

"Okay. Sorry for scaring you."

The mug floated back down and settled on the desk. Patterson stared at it for a moment, and then reached out and grabbed it. It didn't resist.

"Sparkle... Did you're horn feel funny again when you did that? Just like the last time you claimed to be 'performing magic'?"

"Yes, it did. Do you know why?"

"No... But I think I might know a way to find out."

"You do?"

"We don't know anything about what this is. It could be dangerous. I think it would be in both of our best interests for me to let the medical boys finally take a good look at you."

"We're going to the doctor again?" cried Sparkle excitedly. It was the only time that she ever got to see the rest of the base, despite her occasional requests.

"Yes, we are."

The door to Patterson's office opened and a man in a white lab suit approached Patterson's desk.

"It's about time," said Patterson. "You realize that I took Sparkle in at nine in the morning. It is now seven in the evening. So what the hell has been the hold up? I see that she's not with you. Is there a problem with her?"

"There is no problem, commander," answered the doctor. "These things just take some time."

"So, what have you learned then?"

"The telekinetic abilities that she exhibits definitely correspond to the energy surges in her horn. Our educated guess is that this ability was engineered by that freak of nature that the first generation mutants refer to as The Master. Mutation alone does not explain how such an ability came to be."

"Fair enough," said Patterson. "but it can't have taken you that long to figure all that out."

"Ah yes..." answered the other man hesitantly. "There is a small... complication."

"Complication?"

"Yes, of sorts. You see, we have been measuring her brain activity and energy patterns as she performs levitations for us. One of our men took a look at the scans and decided... that..."

"Spit it out, decided what!"

"He decided that the effects of young Sparkle's energy surges could be... amplified by... Hooking her up to a tesla coil."

"WHAT?" bellowed Patterson, standing up.

"God dammit you people! Are you insane? Are you trying to kill her?"

"Understand that the greatest possible safety precautions were taken."

"Damn you all, I don't care! That's not what I took her in for, and furthermore, it's downright deadly! There is a reason that tesla armor has so much metal in it, you have to protect against power surges! GOD DAMMIT, you tell me she's alive right now!"

"She is fine, sir!" answered the other man assuredly. "In fact, other than giving her a headache, she suffered no ill effects."

Patterson didn't say anything. He remained standing and glared daggers at the scientist.

"But the interesting thing is, she did somehow manage to launch nothing less than a beam of protovoltic energy from that horn of hers."

Patterson glared at the man incredulously.

"Explain."

"She hit a piece of equipment on the other side of the room," said the scientist. "It was EMP shielded. All the same, it is completely destroyed. Not only is the circuitry fried, but a part of the casing actually melted."

"Don't you go pinning this shit on me!" cried Patterson in anger. "I'm not paying for it! You dumb-asses are the ones who decided to mess with this crap!"

"Sir, you misunderstand! The higher ups were... mostly pleased with the result. They wanted to know if we could crank up the power. And we can."

"You want to build protovoltic energy cannons for the troops, don't you?" he said.

"Negative. We do not have an understanding of how young Sparkle is manipulating energy in the way that she does, nor do we have the ability to find out without performing an autopsy. The higher ups don't want us damaging our only specimen of this species on a risk that might not pay off in the end. They have something else in mind."

Patterson looked the scientist in the eye.

"In order to 'crank up' the power, you'll have to attach her to a nuclear generator, right?"

"Now you're getting the idea, sir."

"And you can't have a mobile nuclear generator hooked up to a person- or a pony, unless that nuclear generator happens to be a full fledged suit of power armor."

"Precisely."

"It would have to be severely modified, of course."

"Naturally."

"You and the superiors want to turn her into a super soldier."

"You have the right of it sir."

"I see... I need to think about this. Can I at least go get the poor thing?"

"Affirmative, sir. Just be aware, somebody will be stopping by tomorrow to... talk about this."

"Right. Whatever," muttered Patterson. He walked toward his office door.

"Oh, sir!" cried the scientist.

Patterson sighed and turned around. "What is it?"

"I neglected to mention one minor detail. The protovoltic discharge had one very unusual side effect. Not an adverse effect, mind you, just very strange. In fact, we have no explanation for it at all. Something about it must have reacted with her body in a most unusual way because the reaction apparently altered the pigments of some of the hair in her... rear."

"Oh, for the love of- Altered in what way?"

"Some of our people insist that the resulting pattern looks premeditated, but they are in the minority. It is far more likely that it is just a series of fractals that she now has etched onto her flanks. The fact that it strongly resembles a cluster of stars is simply coincidence."

Patterson gave the scientist one final look, and then stormed out of the office.