Chaos Rules in the Wasteland

"Hey! You!"

Twilight almost bolted upon hearing the mutant's voice. She hesitated and looked to John.

John watched the mutant carefully. He could see that the mutant was continuing to struggle in vain.

I can't believe I'm about to do this, he thought. He got down onto one knee (although it was in a position ready to run if need be) and peered at the mutant's face. The mutant temporarily stopped it's attempt to free itself to look back.

"Where are the others?" the mutant asked.

"Dead," said John coldly.

"Oh," said the mutant, sounding disappointed. It started to struggle again.

I should just kill this thing and hurry back to the vault, thought John. To his surprise, his feelings didn't like the thought very much. Eventually he rationalized that any attempted violence toward the mutant might enrage it sufficiently to break free. Better to just leave it here to starve to death.

"I suppose you want me to help you?" asked John viciously.

The sarcasm was lost on the mutant. It stopped struggling again and looked at John. "No. There is no chance that you can move this when even I cannot."

"You're trapped here," said John. "You're going to die."

"No. Master will send help."

Ah, thought John. Time to get to the bottom of this.

"Who is Master?" he asked.

"He tells us what to do. He makes the world a better place for everyone."

"But who is he?" asked John.

The mutant's face scrunched up in confused thought.

"Master told Lou Tenant what to do, and Lou told us."

"What is the master's name?"

"Master is his name. No other name is appropriate."

"Ugh," sighed John to himself. "Can you tell us where he is?"

"No. I have never seen Master. I don't know where he is."

"How can you follow his orders he doesn't tell them to you directly?" asked John incredulously.

"Master? Talk to me?" the mutant asked in astonishment. "No, Master too busy to give us orders himself. There are too many of us."

"How many?"

"I do not know. When I am with the rest of our kin, I could not count us all.

"Can you tell us where this Lou Tenant is then?" asked John.

"Base to the north and west. It will take you weeks to get there."

John became lost in thought and didn't speak any further. Suddenly, Twilight stepped forward.

"How did the master convince your kind to carry out his orders?"

John looked back at the mutant, as he was also interested in the answer.

"It's..." The mutant trailed off. "It's what we are for. Our purpose is to serve master. There is no other."

"But how can you know that?" asked Twilight.

"Uhh..." The mutant thought some more. Suddenly it came to a realization and began again, its tone one of petty triumph. "The nightkin! They are the most faithful to the master. As a reward, the master does speak to them directly. Each one hears the master speak in their mind."

"Every single one of these nightkin hears the same voice?" asked Twilight in a tone somewhere between suspicion and horror. "And it tells them to do the same things?"

"Every single one" assured the mutant.

There were no more words for a while. The mutant had given up on trying to free itself, and with nothing else to do, continued to look up at it's audience expectantly.

"Your master wants humans," began John. "Why?"

"Don't know. We do what we're told. Harry got mad when the ghouls told us that they were the humans from the vault here. Harry made us stay here to make sure they would co-orp... cor-oper..."

"Co-operate," finished Twilight. "You seem to be a bit... better versed than the other mutants we've seen. Why was Harry leading the group and not you?"

"Better versed..." said the mutant in thought.

"You're smarter than the others," explained Twilight bluntly.

"Oh. Lou put him in charge."

"And who," asked John, pausing for only a moment as he fully realized what he was asking, "are you?"

"What?" asked the mutant.

"You called your kin 'Harry'. Who are you?"

"Oh. They call me Sally."

"Sally?" said John, not believing it. "Are you a woman?"

The mutant gave John a look. "Womans are humans. I'm not a woman, I'm a mutant." It's voice made it clear that it thought that this was obvious.

Twilight had also noticed the feminine name, but had said nothing because of her general lack of knowledge about humans. However, she now asked the mutant, "But why do they call you Sally? Who gave you that name?"

"I don't remember." said the Mutant. "No, wait..." it said immediately after. "I do remember. Was human once. Don't remember why. Doesn't matter. Only Master matters now. I like it like this."

John stood up and looked away from the mutant. He looked at Twilight.

"We're leaving," he announced. He began to run away at a jog.

Twilight looked back to the mutant, who looked only slightly disappointed.

"Good luck," she whispered to it in a low voice, afraid that John might somehow hear. In fact, it was so low that the mutant probably didn't hear it either, but somehow, just saying the words relieved a knot that had been building in her stomach.

She started to ran after John, but she stopped to look at Harry's body. She noticed that the strange rifle was on the ground next to it. She picked it up and examined it. Laser Rifle, she thought.

She took the gun and lingered no longer. She ran after John, who had now slowed to a walk. When she was next to him, she slowed to walk beside him.

"Why?" asked John as soon as she had stopped at his side. He didn't wait for her to ask him 'what'. "Why did I talk to that thing?"

Twilight didn't answer him. John turned his head at her and repeated more sharply, "Why?"

"You wanted information," said Twilight hurriedly. "And you got it. And you got a little more."

John sighed. "They're turning us into them." He shoot his head to indicate that he didn't want to discuss the topic further. "Let's go."

John pressed onward across the wasteland relentlessly. Twilight was barely keeping up.

"John!" he heard her cry. He stopped and turned to her with an eyebrow raised, but he quickly lowered it when Twilight let herself fall to the ground."

"I can't keep up with you like this forever!" she moaned.

"Argh," muttered John to himself. Unfortunately, Twilight noticed and gave him a hurt look.

"I'm sorry!" said John quickly, but sincerely. "Sorry, It's just that we've got to get back to the vault as soon as we possibly can. Who knows if we'll wind up hitting a detour or something."

"I know, better safe than sorry," said Twilight.

"Open up your pack. Drop anything that you don't need."

"Everything?" asked Twilight.

"Keep one weapon and some stimpacks. And you're bottle caps I suppose. I can't believe how light those things are."
A minute later, a small pile of guns and ammo was on the ground. In her magical grip was the Laser Rifle, which she was considering carefully.

"Impressive," commented John at the Laser Rifle. "I forgot about checking the bodies. Can you handle it?"

Twilight fired the rifle once into a nearby rock the size of her own head, which split at the point where the beam hit it and left the inside glowing red for just a moment.

"It seems sufficient," said Twilight. "If we run into more mutants, I'll be glad I brought it. Bullets just don't seem to hurt them."

"So you're all good then?"

"I guess, but can't we take a short rest first?"

Twilight yelped as John scooped her up off of the ground and began running.

"This is not necessary!" shouted Twilight. "It's an insult to my dignity."

As quickly as he had started, John dropped Twilight to the ground.

"Alright," said Twilight, annoyed. "I get it." Without further warning, she bolted ahead of John. It didn't take long for him to catch up.

"I will never run another marathon," said Twilight, "for as long as I shall live!"

"Are you sure about that?" asked John. "You did better than I thought you would. I think it did you some good."

Twilight ignored him. "So, this is where your vault is?" she asked, looking for some kind of a landmark. It was difficult to see much, as it was almost midnight.

Twilight and John managed to make it all the way to Vault 13 in less than two weeks without incident, thanks to Twilight's inexplicable ability to sense trouble and steer clear of it. To John's amusement, she was still completely incapable of perceiving the thousands of people living underground nearby.

"The entrance is in a cave in that direction," said John, pointing. He hesitated.

"Twilight?"

"Yes?"

"I had better go alone. They won't like it if I come in with a stranger without them knowing."

"I understand," Twilight assured him. "I'll wait out here. After you explain everything to your overseer, we can figure out what to do with me then."

Relieved John put the reasons for her to remain outside out of his head. "I'll be back soon," he assured. "Even if they won't let you in, I'll come back, and we'll figure it out."

Twilight only nodded in answer.

John turned away from her. He closed his eyes and exhaled strongly. Finally, he opened his eyes again and walked to the cave.

John was quickly swarmed with security as soon as he entered the passcode into the console and the giant door opened. They checked him over with some strange devices, and one pulled away his sledgehammer. John let him. The security guard looked it over and then raised his eyebrows at John, but he handed it back. "He's clean," announced the security guard.

"It's good to see you too, Miles," said John sarcastically.

The security guard laughed. "Yes, yes, glad you are back, I really am. I just hope that you've got good news."

Miles walked away before John had a chance to answer him. For a moment, John was confused, but then he realized that it was best that the first person that should find out about success as well as failure should be the overseer. He walked to the elevator and stepped in, thankful that it would bypass the area where most of the residents lived. He didn't want to be swarmed with friends demanding news about the water chip.

When the elevator door opened, to his dismay, it revealed the last person he wanted to see.

"Carlos?"

Suddenly he realized that something was wrong.

"Whoa, nobody told me you were back!" said the other man nervously.

"What the hell are you doing up here in the middle of the night Carlos?" asked John. "This is administration."

John suddenly caught sight of the metal canteen in the other man's hands which he had failed to even try to conceal.

Carlos saw this and his eyes went wide.

John broke into a grin. "Oh, this is perfect!" he said happily. "The Overseer will hear about this. I was just on my way to speak with him. Payback's a bitch."

The other man screamed in rage and ran into the elevator and slammed his hand down on the button that would take him to the second floor.

Where the hell does he think he's going? John said to himself, amused.

"Twilight!"

Twilight's head spun around in the direction of the voice, which could not have been John's. It sounded nothing like him, and it was coming from away from the cave. It was also rather quiet, and after a moment, she doubted she had heard it at all.

"Twilight! Are you there?"

Twilight felt her own eyes bug out. "Discord?"

She took off running toward the voice.

She came to a stop in front of a black cloud, which had features in it much the same as the cloud that had brought her into the wasteland in the first place.

She didn't stop to think. She shouted out, "Discord!"

"Twilight! Is it you?" she heard Discord's voice reply from within the cloud.

"Yes! I can't tell you how happy I am that you've found me!"

"We're all happy. You're friends and I have been working very hard to find a way for you to come back!"

"Does that mean..."

Twilight hesitated. She considered the consequences of returning. She would see her friends again. She would be free from the grasps of the wasteland. But she would leave John forever, without ever getting the chance to say goodbye.

"Yes Twilight! Let us waste not another moment! The cloud won't last long. Try touching the cloud, just as you did when you were whisked away!"

Twilight was conflicted, but she also knew that she had to hurry. Who knew if there would be a chance to escape again.

She closed her eyes and jumped into the cloud.

And landed. There was silence. She opened her eyes again and took in her surroundings.

The wasteland. The cloud was behind her now. It had not worked.

"Discord, I can't! It won't pull me in!" she cried in despair.

"It won't? Oh no. Then it must be my fault! We must find a way to make the connection stronger!"

"Does this mean the cloud will evaporate away and I'll be left here again?" asked Twilight.

"I'm... I'm afraid it does," said Discord. "Hey!" he shouted from within the cloud in surprise.

"Twilight!" shouted Rainbow Dash's voice.

"Rainbow?" said Twilight, surprised. "I didn't know that you were here too!"

"We're all here, Twilight. We've all been working with Discord for three days to try to get this portal to open! We were this close!"

"Three days?" said Twilight in surprise. "But, I've been gone for weeks and weeks!"

"Um, no Twi, You disappeared five days ago."

Uh oh, thought Twilight.

"Twilight?" said Rarities voice.

Twilight threw her worries aside to answer her friend. "Yes?"

"I don't know what kind of terrible things are happening to you in there, but remember, we're here for you." Rarity paused. "Even if we're a whole world away." she finished firmly.

"Um, I want to say something too."

Twilight was surprised that Fluttershy had voluntarily spoke before every pony else had. "Yes?"

The cloud remained silent for a moment. Finally, Twilight barely heard the words "Be safe," come out in a whisper.

"I will, Fluttershy," Twilight assured her.

"Twilight," said Pinkie Pie, but not in a way that implied that she was waiting for an answer. "when we get you back, I'm throwing you the biggest 'welcome back' party ever. Because you are going to come back. Soon. I promise."

"Thank you Pinkie."

"Ah agree with Pinkie," said Applejack's voice. "We'll get you back soon, and when you do Ah'll make sure to give you the best grub you've ever had. I can't imagine you've found anything decent to eat... wherever you are."

"Well, not exactly," agreed Twilight. "Some of it is pretty good, but it's slowly making me sick."

There was a collective gasp from the cloud.

Twilight rolled her eyes, then realized that she was grateful that her friends didn't see the gesture. "That's not the worst of it by far. Much of this place is pretty terrible. But it's not all bad. I have another good friend to take care of me. Everything will be fine." She tried to convince herself of her own last words.

"Twilight," said Discord urgently. "The cloud is fading! If you have anything you need, you must say it now!"

Twilight frantically tried to think of anything that she could. "Make sure to tell everypony that I'm alright!" she said hurriedly. "And, I've missed all of you. This means so much to me, even if I can't see you just yet."

Twilight realized that the cloud had finally disappeared. She wondered exactly how much they had heard.

For the first time in three weeks, she started to cry.