"Discord. I assume you are making progress?"

"Perhaps not as much as you would like, Celestia. I'll give you the good news first. I have pinpointed the signature of the world that our dear Twilight has been banished to."

"Discord," said Celestia warningly, "she has not been banished. This is no fault of hers." She paused. "You say that you have found her?"

"Yes. It is definitely a world of much chaos, but a truly distasteful kind if you ask me. What fun is it when everypony is dying when they could have been such delightful entertainment instead?"

Celestia glared at Discord.

"Ahem. And then comes the bad news. The borders between worlds is most uncooperative with my attempts to force it open. I am, after all, only one draconequus versus only an entire world!"

Discord snapped his fingers and a glass bottle with a cork appeared in his hand.

"It's like trying to pull the cork out of a bottle that has no air in it at all!" he said as he tugged on the cork.

"I see. Allow me to offer you some assistance then."

"I don't think that even you-"

"I do not refer to myself, although if ever I can be of assistance in this endeavor, I will gladly do whatever you require of me. But no, I refer to Twilight's closest friends, and yours too, I believe. The populous is largely ignorant of the absence of their princess, but naturally, her closest friends have been made well aware. They worry for Twilight terribly, and each one stands ready to do their part in bringing Twilight back. I believe that their friendship is the only thing with the power to return her home."

Discord looked at Celestia incredulously.

"I really should have expected you to say something like that. I don't see how this will help move Twilight between dimensions-" Discord paused. "-but I've been wrong before. Have them meet me in Twilight's room, where the wormhole appeared, at, lets say noon."

"Why don't you invite them in person?"

"Oh," said Discord in surprise. "Yes, yes of course."

"Good heavens, man! What happened this time?" asked Killian moments after John burst into his shop.

"Don't worry about me, the problem is already taken care of," said John quickly. "But you need to come see this. It seems that Doctor Morbid was more evil than even Gizmo was."

"What?" asked Killian unbelievingly. "Gizmo tried to have me killed!"

"Ah, well..." John trailed off uncomfortably and looked at Twilight, who looked back in confusion. "Doctor Morbid... was not satisfied with just killing you. There is a ladder in there that leads to a basement where... he's been hacking people up," said John, suddenly very upset. "He was running a butcher shop, a damn human bu..." John left the sentence unfinished and fell to the floor, crying.

"Damn it!" shouted Killian. "I've visited the man myself a couple of times and left fit as a fiddle! You two!" he shouted to the two guards in the shop. "Come with me."

Killian and the guards stormed out of the shop, leaving John and a shocked Twilight behind.

Twilight slowly approached John and sat down next to him. He abruptly stopped sobbing as hard, determined to not let Twilight see weakness.

He did however reach out to her and begin stroking her mane. "You were right, Twilight," he whispered. "If it could be worse, it is."

"What... could possibly be worse than this?"

"Don't say that," whispered John seriously. "Now we'll find worse for sure."

There was a pause. "When I first left the vault," said John, "I thought the worst thing a man could do to another man was kill him. But that is not the case at all. But there are some men who need to be killed." There was another pause.

"What do you think it will be next time?" John continued. "A whole town destroyed by raiders? Something worse?"

"I can't even think of anything worse," said Twilight sternly. "Nor should we. It won't do to think like that. Maybe this is an anomaly and it is the worst thing that we will see."

"Yeah, and maybe not."

There was another pause. Finally, Twilight offered up a reply. "Then we should appreciate the peace while it lasts, let the future take care of itself."

John didn't get a chance to reply because Killian burst back into the store.

"What a day..." he said wearily. "I don't know how you keep getting roped into these things," he said to John, not noticing the distressed state he was in, "but once again you have not only my gratitude, but the gratitude of the whole town as well. It seemed that Doctor Morbid has been pulling people that nobody would miss off the streets for some time now, probably since he first arrived in town. I really do not envy the man who has to clean this up. I'll have to pay him five times the usual to make it up to him."

Killian finally heard the other man sobbing. He paused to think. "I think it might be best for you to simply get as far away from this town as possible my friend. Don't take it the wrong way, I just think it would be best to put this incident behind you."

"We're not leaving tonight," answered John. "Not now. But you're right, I'm not staying in town. We'll be camping out in front of the town gate until morning if you need us."

Killian opened his mouth to argue, but then decided to instead say, "No need to worry about that. You won't be having any more trouble while you're here."

Twilight was standing in front of the hospital. She did not remember how she got there, but she was not wondering why, or thinking about anything else for that matter. Suddenly she noticed Killian and John standing in front of the building. She was sure they had not been there before. Upon close inspection, John was bruised all over and was hunched over.

Twilight tried to call out to him, but found that she could not, as she was rooted to the spot and unable to speak.

"You should see Doctor Morbid," said Killian in monotone. "It will be cheaper than using a stimpack."

Without a word John walked into the hospital. Twilight desperately tried to free herself from her frozen state and warn him, but she could not.

There was shouting and gunfire. Twilight finally managed to break free and charge toward the hospital. "JOHN!" She ran through the front door and was astonished to discover that the room was completely empty. Her eye was drawn to a ladder in the corner. She climbed down.

When she turned around, her eyes fell upon a bloody heap of flesh. She screamed and looked away. She came face to face with John's severed head.

She screamed bloody murder and flew into the air.

"You... Shot... Me..." said John's voice from the head.

The scene around her shifted and it became much darker. With sudden clarity, Twilight thought to herself frantically, I'm having a nightmare. None of this is real. But Princess Luna can't help me here! This realization threw Twilight back into panic.

As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she discovered that John's now in tact body was laying face first on the floor of Vault 15. Twilight realized that she was holding the 10mm pistol.

"YOU... SHOT... ME!"

Radscorpions suddenly appeared to be crawling out of the vault wall. They were approaching John.

"AHHHH!" shouted Twilight, springing off of the ground.

"Whoa there! Don't worry, you're safe," someone directly in front of her said. After a moment she realized it was Killian. She looked around and discovered that John was sleeping soundlessly on the ground a few feet away, despite her outburst.

"Killian," she whispered uneasily. "What are you doing out here?"

"Well, I know a bad dream when I see one, so I shook you awake."

"No, I mean- Oh, thank you. But, what are you doing outside of Junktown?"

"Ah. Well you see, I owe you and John both far more than just caps. So I'll be damned if I don't get this to you before you head out."

Killian turned around and picked up a piece of leather armor off of the ground. Twilight gasped when she realized that it had been modified for her.

"You did this for me?"

"Of course. I'll admit, we tore up more than we used to make that thing. It took three whole sets of armor. I didn't think we could do it, but after you and John helped our fair town out so much, I was determined to get you the one thing that you specifically asked for."

Twilight hesitated. "What do we owe you?"

"Not a thing, Miss Twilight. We owe you for everything that you've done already."

Twilight hesitated again. "You don't owe me, you owe John. He was the one who took out Gizmo, and he was the one who... took care of Doctor Morbid."

"Now wait just a minute," said Killian. "Don't sell yourself short. I don't think he would have been able to get to Gizmo like that without your help. So the whole town adores John and not you. But they don't understand him like you do. You watch his back, and he watches yours. I would give him a gift too, but we already gave him everything he asked for."

Twilight smiled to herself. "I guess you're right. I used to be the center of attention all of the time back at home, and it drove me crazy. Now that I'm not, I should be pleased, not offended. Thank you so very much for this."

"It's nothing, really it is. But I need to get going now, it's almost time for me to be opening my shop." Suddenly he let out a yawn. "Time for me to pay for staying up all night..."

"Goodbye Killian. I'll make sure to pass your kind words on to John."

"Keep him safe, Twilight."

Twilight heard John yawn and looked up at him. He opened his eyes and focused on Twilight in surprise.

"Twilight? Where'd you get the outfit?"

"It's a gift from Killian. He said the entire town is grateful to us for everything that we've done for them."

John groggily got to his feet. "I guess that makes sense. We only saved their asses from two madmen."

Twilight looked at John in surprise.

"Anyway, we shouldn't be hanging around here. The sooner we find the water chip, the sooner I can get back home and leave this place far behind."

But what about me? Twilight wondered to herself uneasily.

"So, next stop, The Hub," John continued. "They had better have answers for me."

Twilight awoke at the sound of loud deep voices. She moaned in annoyance at having her sleep interrupted for the second time in as many nights. She opened her eyes and scanned the horizon.

She froze when she saw several huge figures gaiting across the wasteland some distance away. They had now fallen silent. They didn't appear to have noticed Twilight or John.

Twilight rushed to John's side and pushed on his side urgently. John sprang awake and had his sledgehammer at the ready in an instant. He looked at Twilight in confusion. She quickly motioned for him to remain silent and then indicated the giant creatures.

John stared at them unbelievingly. Suddenly Twilight whispered to him, "Are those things human?"

"No. There's no way they are," he whispered back uneasily. "Human's don't grow to be eight feet tall and six hundred pounds. And they don't have green skin."

Twilight took another look at the giants and saw that they did in fact have green skin. At first, she had subconsciously assumed that it was a trick of the moonlight.

"Is there a chance that they are friendly?" she asked.

"Not a chance. So far, everything out here that isn't human out here has tried to kill us. And, just look at them. Would you really expect something that could rip your legs off to be friendly?"

"But what are they?"

"If I had to guess... Mutants," finished John in a stern tone. "That must be what happened to the people who weren't in a vault when the nukes hit."

"Where did they get those weapons? Look at the size of that one!"

John looked and saw that one of the giants in fact was carrying a giant gun that was the size of a child. "We need to get out of here," he said urgently. "Something tells me that they won't take the time to ask questions first."

"Do you think they're still intelligent?"

"A HUMAN!" bellowed one of the distant figures. His companions turned to look.

"DAMN, RUN!" shouted John. They both sprang to their feet and started running as hard as they could.

The mutant with the giant gun let out a roar as his gun rumbled to life. It started spraying bullets at John, but, fortunately, the weapon was not intended for such long range use. The weapon rumbled around in the mutant's unskilled hands and the bullets scattered so severely that they all missed the intended target. However, they did not miss two of the mutant's companions in front of him, who both seemingly immediately had blood erupt from their backs and fell face forward into the ground, with the bullets tearing into flesh further up their bodies as they fell. When John had disappeared out of sight, the roar of the giant gun died.

"STUPID!" shouted one of the other mutants. "HE GET AWAY!"

"IT ALL YOUR FAULT," accused the mutant with the huge weapon, annoyed.

Author's Note

Sorry that this chapter is a little short. The next chapter will have more exposition.