Equestria Meets Wastelandby Cobolt SoundwaveChaptersUnexpected Guests & A Badass WondererTime To Go Out And ExploreOn The Road Again...or Not Mister NamelessUnexpected Guests & A Badass WondererJason walked in front of the group of guards that the three Princesses' had amassed in the center of town, along with the guard of someone called Chrysalis, who was a queen of a race known as changelings. Now those bunch were an interesting lot; they could shape shift. Upon asking one do demonstrate, said changeling turned itself into a pony, then a griffon, then a perfect copy of Spike just to make sure that Jason understood, which he did. "Okay, so...I'm not sure I'll be able to teach anyone of them how to use a weapon, seeing as how I don't have enough guns to train them with." Said Jason, and he was right, he just didn't have the amount of weapons that they needed. There were just so many guards; Twilight's, Celestia's day guards, Luna's night guard, and Chrysalis' own guard. There was just too many of them. He was thinking on a way to get more weapons, when his thinking was broken by the sounds of hooves clopping on asphalt. Jason turned a saw a total of three caravan merchants walking with guards and a pack Brahmin; each with a boatload of weapons. If only a light bulb could appear above his head right now from a brilliant idea before he jogged his way over to them. "Excuse me, I'd like to buy all of your weapons." To say the three merchants looked completely baffled, would be an understatement. After Jason paid them all, he called over a total of about six or seven stallions as he found out they were classified for their gender; which was the same as saying male or guy. Jason and the seven stallions brought back cases of ammunition and weapons to the town center and distributed them evenly among the guards. Once they all had a weapon of some sorts, including a new weapon for Jason; a fully decked out cowboy repeater, equipped with a scope, extended magazine and custom lever action to reduce friction and decrease the amount of time it required to re-chamber a new round. After Jason got himself acquainted with his newly acquired weapon he began teaching the other guards the proper use of firearms. It was fairly simple; aim, steady yourself, and then pull the trigger, that simple. Then of course the obvious, "Don't look down the barrel." treatment. "So, does everyone understand the basics in firearm use!?" He shouted to all of the stallions holding weapons. To which he got a chorus of "Yes's" and "Understood" from the group in front of him. "Okay them. Oh! One more thing, don't let anyone you don't know into the town without first making sure that they aren't going to come in and blow it up or steal anything; I also advise you all to hide anything valuable somewhere safe!" He shouted out to them. "Alright, I need some targets put up for practice shooting; unicorns can you make targets?" "I can do it." Said one of the guards from Twilight's group. "Alright then, go ahead." Jason shifted his attention farther down the to see a goof fifteen orange tinted targets spring up. "Nicely down, what's your name?" Jason put a hand in the guard's shoulder. "It's Flash sir, Flash Sentry." The guard beamed at him. Jason nodded and motioned for him to re-group with the others. "Can I get another unicorn that can strengthen the durability in the targets; don't want them to break from one shot ya'know." Another guard walked up and cast another spell on the targets, making them glow blue-ish. "Nicely down, and your name?" "Silver Shield sir." "Alright, well I'll be having you and Flash Sentry up here to practice on the targets, since you have a rifle and he has a revolver; gotta show the others the difference and at the same time you get some practice in yourselves." The guard nodded and called over Flash who walked up to Jason once more. "Okay I need you on my left Flash and you Silver, on my right. Take up a stance and aim at the targets." Immediately he noticed a flaw in both of them as they took aim. Flash had his arms locked and rigid as all hell, while Silver looked like a board standing straight up just waiting to be knocked over. Jason walked over to Flash and grabbed his elbows and un-bent them to a more stable position. "If you keep your elbows locked you can hurt yourself like that; had someone have their forearms bend upwards while the rest of their arms didn't move, the result was the sound of bone snapping and a man writhing in pain. You don't want that." Flash nodded his head and kept his arms slightly bent as he said. "One more thing, keep your dominant side's leg back for support and your non-dominant out, otherwise you're going to get knocked down by the recoil of firearm when you do fire it." Jason then made his way over to Silver Shield. "What hand you write with?" Silver looked to his left slightly. "My right." "Then put your right foot back and your left foot forward, and keep the butt of the rifle firmly planting on you shoulder unless you want it to slam into it full force and shatter your shoulder; trust me, it ain't fun." Silver did as he had instructed and repositioned himself as well as put the stock of the rifle against his shoulder. Once Jason saw that thy had better stances he once more walked in-between them. "Alright, Flash make sure you're looking down the little bit at the end of the barrel so you aim on target, and the same goes for you too Silver. Steady your aim before you fire," Both guards stared down their individual sights. "and fire." Both guards fired their weapons, Flash's shot hitting somewhere around the middle of the shield, while Silver's hit dead center; though they were both rubbing the ear closest to the gun when it fired. "Yeah, they tend to be very loud." "Yeah, you can say that again." Said Flash as he lowered his arms. "Yeah, hey do you mind if...what the fuu-oh hell! Everyone get your weapons ready, we got company! Ants!" The guards looks confused at first until they saw what looked like gigantic ants crawling their way over a hall off in the distance, most likely they heard the gunshots and came crawling over. Jason kept on shouting at them to get ready and just do as Flash and Silver had done with their weapons. "Remember everyone! Stance, aim and fire! Ready!? On my mark!" A few more seconds passed by as the ants kept getting closer and closer until, "FIRE!" All at once a total of maybe about fifteen guns in total went off, Jason's carbine being one of them. Their shots were a bit off, considering that they had never fired a gun before, but they were catching on quick. One by one the ants started falling except one of them. This one was much bigger then the rest and was closing in on Flash as he was reloading his revolver. When he looked up he froze in a state of fear, until the ant that was about to bite down on him and end his life suddenly writhing around in pain as bullets tore through it's head a fell lifeless on the ground, no more than 5 feet away from his feet. When Flash looked behind him, he saw a very calm yet determined looking Jason holding a smoking Assault carbine in his hands. "You alright?" Flash simply nodded. "You have to be careful of your surroundings, because out here, your life can end without you even know it. One minute you're sitting talking with a friend, next thing you know, you're wearing his brains all over you freshly cleaned armor." Flash and some of the other guards looked uneasy when he said that, though it was the truth, you can't just let your guard down. Jason pulled out the spent clip and popped in a full one, then making the empty one disappear into his pip-boy for re-loading later. No one really bothered to ask how he did that since they were more concerned now for the safety of the towns residents. "Alright, if not for that little scuffle with those ants we would have most likely would have been here for the rest of the afternoon teaching you all to shoot, but thanks to that, and the fact that none of you wanted to die; you all learned fairly quickly." He said to the guards as he turned around and began walking to the tree house again. "Well I advise that the ones who do know how to shoot, teach the others now. I have to go have a chat with your respective leaders." Jason said with his back turned to the guards. When he arrived at the great tree he could hear a discussion going on in the background; that is until he knocked, causing it to stop abruptly. Soon he heard footfalls coming closer to the door until it opened to reveal a very disheveled Twilight. "Hi." "Hello." "Can I come in?" Twilight moved to the side tell allow him entry. "Oh, of course, come in." Jason walked over to an empty chair in the corner of the room. "I'm sorry if the room is a bit of a mess, I wasn't really worried about that right now, we were just-" "More worried about getting home...right?" Jason finished for her. "I...yes, but how'd you know?" "Just a hunch." The equines simply looked at each other but said nothing. After a few silent seconds Celestia spoke up. "You wouldn't know how to-" "Get you back home?" "Yes." Jason sighed farther back into his chair. "No...I don't - I'm sorry." Everyone in the room deflated visibly, until another voice called out from elsewhere. "So...we can't get back then? How will I get home? Back to my ponies that need?" The voice that said that seemed like it had no business in the wasteland. A few second more and another Alicorn appeared in the door's threshold wearing a very sad expression on her face. Jason stood up walked a bit closer to her. "Now, that ain't what I said, I said I had no idea how to get you back, that don't mean I can't try my damned'st to find a way to get you back home." Jason thought for a moment before speaking again. "Do you have someone special?" Cadence looked up with teary eyes. "Y-Yes, why?" "Who is he?" "It's Shining, Shining Armor." Jason stepped closer to her. "Think about him." "Wha-" "Think about him, think about everything that's important to you, and you'll get through this." "Cadence looked at Jason for a moment before looking down with a smile on her face. "Thank you..." "Jason, Jason North, at your service." He said in a fairly decent British accent causing the mares to let out a few giggles which turned into laughter. Eventually it died done enough that Cadence spoke again. "I really needed that, thank you Jason." "Hey, no problem, helping people's what I do, wither it be physical or emotional, though that last part is still iffy at times." Jason said with a toothy grin. It was either coincidence or he might have been waiting by the door, but Shining Armor walked through the door at that moment. "Cadence, are you alright?" Said princess walked up to him and wrapped him in a hug. "I'm fine now love, I'm fine now." Shining hugged her back. "I promise we'll find a way to get back." Jason knew when to leave people alone, especially during times like this. "Hey, Twilight, you got a place where we can go and finish this discussion, you know, so we can give them some time alone?" Twilight thought for a couple of seconds before speaking again. "We can use my bedroom upstairs." Jason nodded and looked to the others, to which they nodded as well and followed Jason and Twilight to her room. "Nice room you got. You living with anyone? It' be kind of lonely living alone." "Yes, I live with Spike; he gets the spare bedroom downstairs." "You two together?" Twilight stumbled, which entail caused the rest of them to crash into her thus making her fall onto her hands and knees. Jason noticed this and kneeled down to help her up. "Sorry 'bout that, I was just curious, didn't mean to make you get flustered." "N-No, it's alright, and no, me and Spike are not together, we just live in the same home. He's lived with me for since I moved to Ponyville." Jason nodded his head and walked further into the room, sort of taking it in; it was a nice room. Jason looked up and saw a poster stuck onto the ceiling. It had a of five stallions all dressed up in what looked like metal band attire. "So I take it you like these guys?" Jason said pointing up towards above Twilight's bed, making everyone else in the room look upwards and making Twilight squeak in embarrassment. "Ummmm, hehe, m-maybe?" She said with a embarrassed smile, a faint blush touching her cheeks. Celestia and Luna giggled in the most adorable way along with Chrysalis' own laughter in the mix until she turned to look at the sun and moon princesses. "Oh why are you laughing, I saw both you and your sister Luna 'rocking out' in her bedroom to them once. I remember it now, I believe I was looking for you because I needed to discuss something regarding immigration between my changelings and your towns?" Celestia and Luna both immediately stopped giggling and went straight to resembling bright red tomatoes. it was now Twilight's turn to giggle at her old mentor's expense. "Oh it's okay to like them Celestia, after all plenty of other's like them and I'm sure it couldn't have been that bad." Chrysalis tentatively raised a hand. "Actually thy were both wearing some very interesting clothing. Spiked wristbands, some very interesting pants and some very showy tops. I'd think that they were into something else." If the two sisters could get any more red, they're heads would have been engulfed in flames. This only caused Twilight, Chrysalis and Jason to giggle and chuckle all the more. Cadence decided to come through the door at that moment. "Twilight, your friends are downstairs and want to talk to you and Jason." The purple Alicorn stopped giggling at the mention of her friends. "Oh, I'll be right down. You coming Jason? I'm sure they'll have questions for you mostly." "Yeah, sure, why not. Let's go meet your friends properly." Author's Note Yeah, weapons training, fighting ants, Flash almost getting beheaded by an ant, and Jason coming in to save his sorry butt. Not bad Jason, not bad at all, though, Flash better get his shit together or he's going to become ant food next time. So I gave the story a bit more body this chapter since last chapter was more of a get it started sort of thing. I haven't given a reason to Jason disdain for raiders yet, but that doesn't mean I'll leave you all hanging on that. I believe the next chapter will have his reason so stay tuned fellow wastelanders. Some deep stuff will be shared next chapter, so be ready for the feels. Hope you enjoy, and this has been Cobolt Soundwave, with a wasteland update. Goodbye, and until next time, keep you guns clean and loaded, your head down, and remember only you can prevent stupid deaths. Time To Go Out And ExploreJason and Twilight made there way downstairs and into the main room of the library. "Hi girls." Her friends responded back with their own greetings. "Hey, Twilight." "Hello Darling." Until her Pegasus friend chimed in. "What's whatshisface doing here?" Dash spat out. "Rainbow! He's here because he wants to help, so don't go starting a fight for nothing. Got it!?" Twilight light reprimanded her rainbow haired friend. "Tch, whatever. If he does anything stupid, though, I'm not gonna' hesitate to put him in the ground." She said, not holding back any disdain for the man. "Whatever skittles, but it ain't gonna' be me when I have to tell your friends why you got killed by some raider or some other dangerous thing outside in the wastes because you didn't listen to me." Jason quickly retaliated back. Rainbow, not understanding that he was just trying to prove a point, just took it as a insult. "What did you say asshole!?" Jason quickly jumped to his feet and took a stance that of a drill sergeant. "I HAVE HAD TO BURY TO MANY OF MY FRIENDS ALREADY! I AM NOT GOING TO BURY SOMEONE ELSE'S BECAUSE THEY WOULDN'T HEED MY WARNING!" He belted out at her. Rainbow Dash and the other's got deathly quiet, and if the princesses heard him upstairs, which they most likely heard him, they said nothing. Rainbow ever so slowly floated back down to the ground, her ears pinned against her head. "I don't want to see anymore innocent lives lost." Jason said in a more somber voice as he stared down at the floor, his messy brown hair covering his eyes from anything that might look at him. "I just don't want to see my friends get hurt, that's all. I'm sorry I got so edgy with you, I just...I just, hate this place already. One fricken day, no, not even one day and somepony's tried to attack us. I mean what the fuck!" Dash said before she slumped down against the wall she had backed herself up to and onto the floor. Jason walked over to the hunched over form of Rainbow and kneeled down and put a hand on her shoulder, making her look up at him and into his deep blue eyes. "Hey, I made a promise and I'm going to keep it. I'll do everything I can to make sure you girls and the rest of the town get back to wherever it is you came from, okay?" Dash nodded her head gingerly as she continued to look at him, never braking eye contact, and Jason doing the same - until he stood up and gave Dash his hand to help her up. "Okay so you girls had questions?" The girls either responded or said "Yes" or something of the like. "Okay then, I guess we'll start wiiiiiiiith, you." Jason said, pointing to Rarity. "Oh, uhh, alright then darling. Where are we?" "You're in the wasteland." Jason answered back like a smart-ass. Rarity gave him a look that said "Are you kidding me?". "Dear, I meant where are me exactly? You know as in a place." Rarity asked again. "Alright, alright, I won't kid around. You're just a ways away from the old REPCONN Headquarters. The big building you see just over the house's to your right when you step out of here." Rarity nodded and Applejack stepped up. "All right then I guess it's my turn. Now, are you in some sort of military? Cause' yur' wearin' some weird lookin' armor there partner." "Well to answer your question, no. I'm not in the military, I was working for someone who had this armor on and...well, let's just say that on a little mission we were on a raider caught him off guard, which is very rare for a ranger of his status to happen to, and he got killed. I took his armor and painting on this little symbol here on the shoulder pads to signify myself in the wasteland. Don't want anyone thinking that I work for these guys if they dislike them, ya'know?" "Alright then sugarcube." Applejack said backing up too, letting Rainbow Dash take lead for her question. "Hey, I heard you saved some poor guard's life before with that gun of yours. I want a crack at it." She said confidently, to which Jason responded with a deadpan look and a shake of his head. "No can do Rainbow." To say that Dash was disappointed was an understatement. "What!? Why not?" "Well first of all, none of you have any weapons training. The only reason I had the guards use them was because, duh, they're guards. That's their job, to protect you, and they did a damn good job too taking out a bunch of ants." "Pfft, ants, they're tiny." Rainbow scoffed. Jason looked right at Rainbow until she opened her eyes again and uncrossed her arms from her defiant pose. "What?" "Dash, the wasteland has changed many a thing, and the animals and bugs are one of them. Those 'tiny' ants as you put it, can easily gore and or cut a man my size in half with it's jaws. They stand at just knee height if not bigger and can come at you fast if you aren't paying attention." Jason said with his own arms crossed. "Fine." Dash mumbled as she walked back to her friends, where Pinkie took her turn. "Hiya, I'm Pinkie, do you like parties? OH! Maybe you like chocolate or strawberry, maybe vanilla?" Jason cut Pinkie off with a question that left her dumbfounded. "What's a strawberry?" Everypony in the room gasped and Twilight asked him. "You don't know what a strawberry is?" Jason shook his head. "Nope, not a clue." Pinkie walked back with a determined face, most likely thinking of a plan to throw a party for Jason. Next up was Twilight. "What kind of technology does your world have?" "You mean before the war or after when it pretty much got all blown to kingdom come?" Jason asked back. Twilight blanched at the thought of so much tech. that she never had the chance to study just...gone. "What? But, what about the thing on your wrist?" Jason lifted his arm up. "Oh this? Well these were standard for people living in vaults...I never lived in one. I always lived outside here." Twilight looked confused, as did the rest of the mares in the room with him. "But if you only get one of those in a...vault thing, then why do you have one?" "Well you see I was out scavenging one day and I found someone with a vault outfit. He was hurt pretty bad too. I tried to help him but in the end he took out a tool and removed the darn thing from his wrist and gave it to me and told me, "Don't lose your way kid." and that's the last thing he said before he died there. I buried him and then I put the thing on. Funny thing is, I never had a clue as to what it would do, what with me being a different person. I guess it recognized that it was a new person since it displayed the words 'new user' on the screen. I panicked a bit when the thing pricked me with a needle to get a sample of my blood, but here's the crazier part. After it did that, it displayed my vitals, it told me if I was hurt or if I broke a bone or even if I was suffering from radiation poisoning. This thing has saved me so many times, it ain't even funny...sorry 'bout that I kind of what of on a tangent there." Twilight was busy scribbling everything that he had said to her on a piece of paper. "Hmm? Oh no trouble, I was just wrote the parts about the device...not about you now the guy." She finished off with a sheepish smile. "Ahhh, someone who's into research I presume?" Dash stepped up. "Yeah, a real egghead." She said giggling to herself. Twilight pouted and was about to retaliate when Jason spoke up. "And what's wrong with being smart? You know if not for the fact that we had some pretty smart people, we wouldn't have doctor's or even the people who built the vaults to help save what's left of the people on this world." Dash opened her mouth but then closed it for a second, and then opened it again. "I...guess that makes sense." Jason shrugged and leaned back into his seat. "Anyone else?" Fluttershy stepped up, although a rather meekly. "Umm, are there more than just bugs around here? Plants, animals?" Jason breathing deeply and releases a big sigh. "Well, I guess there are animals...but, they aren't really what you'd call friendly. They are not like the old animals that they use to be before the war. They're changed, mutated, and they would sooner attack you then want to get to know you. Hell even the dogs are a bit aggressive now...well actually there is one dog I know of that isn't aggressive and he's half robot." Fluttershy was saddened that all the animals weren't as friendly as she'd hoped they were, but she perked up at hearing that there was at least one animal that might be friendly. "Do you know where he is? I'd like to meet him." Fluttershy asked with her hands clasped together under her chin. "Well I-" Jason was cut off by the sounds of scratching on the door. Jason instantly knew who it was and walked to the door and opened it, where he was promptly tossed to the ground by a half-robot. half-dog...dog. "Hahaha, cut it out Rexy, come on hahaha." Jason chuckled as the robot dog licked his face with a happy vigor. When Rex finished licking him he got off and sat on his haunches and stared a the six mares in the room with his head tilted sideways in wonder. "Everyone, meet Rex, this is the dog I was talking about Fluttershy," Jason knelt down and rubbed the dome that held Rex's brain, making him pant and kick his legs a bit. "go on boy say hi to her, she's nice." Rex stood up and strutted slowly towards Fluttershy as said mare got onto her knees to greet the dog. "Hello there little guy." She got no warning as Rex jumped on her too and began licking her face as well, all the while Fluttershy was giggling from the affection that she was receiving from the dog. "Come on Rexy, I'm sure she's happy to see you too, now come on." Jason said playfully to his companion. Rex Climbed off of Fluttershy as she stood up and dusted herself off. "He's very cute." "And awesome, dude where'd he get all awesome-fied?" Jason started petting his little furry friend. "Well his legs got blown off, his skull was damaged, his body was half crushed and most of his vital organs were damaged...that's how he got 'awesome-fied' as you put it Dash." To say that was slightly mortified was an understatement. "How could something like that happen to him!?" "Well it's a dangerous place out there in the wastes, and poor old Rexy was just unlucky, he stepped on a land mine - that's how he lost his two legs. They were too badly mangled form the shrapnel to simply patch him up, so they removed the legs at the base of his body and then replaces them with neuron receptors and the robotic legs you see before you to let him walk again. as for the rest, I have no clue. What I can tell you, though, is that he is one hell of a strong dog to go through all this and still make it this far. Also he's at least older than, hmmm oh I'd say 30 dog years? Maybe more. The brain in his brain casing is new, somehow they managed to move his memory's over to this new brain. I don't question how they did it, I'm just glad they did." Jason finished off with a loving ruffle of the dog's ears. Fluttershy ran up to the dog and gave him a big hug, which Rex didn't seem to mind all that much. "Oh you poor thing," She said to the dog as she continued to hug him. "that's horrible that he went through so much." She said to Jason. "Yes, it's bad, but look at him," He said pointing to Rex. "he's still happy, and I'm happy about that." Fluttershy let go of Rex and fluttered her way back to her friends. "Now if that's all, I'd like to go check on the guards outside. You can tag along if you want to." Jason said as he and Rex made there way outside and back to where the guards were last left. Jason saw that they all seemed to know how to handle a weapon until he saw one of the Changling guards look down the barrel his rifle, as he tried to un-jam his gun. Jason was no more than a few feet away when he saw the gun finally un-jam and his finger pressed the trigger by accident. Jason surged forward and pushed the barrel of the rifle upwards as it unloaded straight into the air, and not into the guards' head. Said guard was damn close to soiling himself. "Wha-what?" "You almost bloody shot yourself you twit," He said to the stallion with a stern stare. "listen up everyone, these things are not toys, they kill, so if your gun jams," He looked back to the still slightly shaken guard. "you should never try and un-jam it and look down the barrel, lest you want to re-arrange your face with a bullet." Jason turned to look at the rest of the guards when he got an idea. "Okay, everyone I have a little proposition for you all!" He shouted out loud enough for the ponies in the area to hear him. "I'm going to be going out to scavenge in a bit, my little friend here," He patted Rex on the head. "Will stay behind with you all. Now, I say that, ohh, no more than five of you can come with me, as bigger groups are very risky and cause you to gain some unwanted attention. So...who wants to come and see what this place looks like outside of here?" Very quickly a voice sounded from behind him.. "I'll go with you!" Jason turned to see Shining Armor with his cowboy repeater pointed downwards walking towards him. "Very well then, and I se you know how to walk with your weapon drawn as well - very good. Never have you gun pointed at yourself or at anything you don't intend to shoot and or kill." Jason turned back to look for anymore takers and he saw a taloned hand go up. "I'll go with you!" Said a gruff voice. The owner of the voice was a griffon who looked like she could handle herself in a close quarters fight. "Well then, miss, what's your name?" The griffon smirked and jabbed a talon at herself. "Names Gilda, Gilda Stryker." "Well if Gilda's going then so am I," Dash said from behind Jason. "and don't you dare tell me I can't go either buster." she said pointing a finger at Jason. "Well them if Dash's goin' then so am ah'." Said a confident Applejack. Jason nodded his head and made a mental note to make sure that they all got some armor before they headed out. "Well that's four. Anyone else?" "I'm coming with you too!" Shouted a voice from the guards this time. It was a changeling guard with a red mane and tail with some black stripes running through it here and there. She had eyes like that of a pony's as well, which Jason thought interesting. "Okay then, that's all five." Jason turned to look at his impromptu scavenging group he had put together. "Well, looks like we're going to have to get you all suited up. Come on then, follow me, maybe Rarity can fix up some of the extra armor I have." ~~~~ About an hour later the three ponies, one griffon and one changeling, all gathered just at the edge of town where the four princesses were there to see them off. "Take care my love." "I will, and don't worry Cadence I'll be fine." Shining said to his wife as he kissed one last time before he re-joined the group again. "Bye, Shiny, be careful please, and you two girls, be careful!" Twilight shouted to her brother and two friends as they made there way out of town and into the wastes. "Don'tchu' worry Twi, we'll be fine." Applejack said, tipping her hat. "Don't worry Twilight, we'll be alright, and if we aren't you can kick this guys ass for us." Dash grinned as she joked and pointed to Jason. "Stick with me and you'll be fine, and we might be out for a while so if we don't return we'll be back tomorrow okay?" "Alright then, I trust that you'll keep our ponies safe," Celestia said. "And the griffon as well, sister." Luna added. "yes and the griffon as well, they fall under our rule so please take care of them." "And my guard as well." Said Chrysalis, as she appeared from behind the princesses. They all nodded in agreement. "Don't worry, they'll be safe with me!" Jason shouted out one last time before he turned back around continued out into the barren land before them. Jason lead his group down the highway in silence but soon broke it. "So," he turned to look at the changeling in the group. "what's your name, cause' I don't you ever told us." Said changeling stumbled a bit at being called on like that. "Ohh, uhh, my name is Vexan, Vexan Nora." "Are you a newbie in your guard unit Vexan?" "Uhh, yeah, you can tell?" She asked, slightly embarrassed. "Yeah, a bit. The way you stumbled when I called you, the way you answered me back when you told me your name. The little things." "Oh." Vexan said, sounding a bit saddened by the fact that he could tell that she wasn't exactly a veteran guard yet. "Hey, cheer up, now that you're here I guess you can get some practice in protecting, huh?' Jason said to her. "I, uhh, I guess so...thanks." Vexan said getting back some of her resolve. "So, Shining, the armor fit fine? I had Rarity fix it up a bit, and I even had her keep some of the armor from your old suit on this one too." What Jason said was true. The Leather armor Shining had on was reinforced with some of his old metal armor. He kept the breastplate and the shoulder pads; even the knee guards stayed, along with the boots, though those had to be taken apart to fit over the boots he was wearing. "It fits fine, thanks by the way, for keeping some of the armor I mean," Shining said as he touched the breastplate. "let's me know I'm not going to just completely change with this place, I'd like to at least keep something the same, after all, this chest piece has been with my family for years." Jason nodded his head and looked at the others. Gilda had on some regular reinforced leather armor and was toting a point forty-four on her hip along with a hunting rifle that Jason had pulled from his pip-boy. Dash and Applejack had some reinforced armor of their own as well. Applejack had a lever-action shotgun while Dash had a snub nose revolver and a service rifle. Shining, though, had something a bit more heavy hitting. he had a light machine gun with a point forty-five pistol on his hip. Vexan had a sniper rifle with a silencer on it for being deadly silent; she did say she was more keen to silent methods of attack. She also had ten millimeter SMG on her person. Vexan was also wearing a set of merc. armor. Jason still had on his personalized NCR combat ranger duster and he had his customized cowboy repeater with him still but now he also had a ranger sequoia on his right hip and a sawed-off on his left hip. Gilda finally spoke after staying quiet this whole time. "Where exactly are we going anyway?" "Well I thought we'd go to the 188 trading post and then after that we're going down to a small town south of there called Novac. Maybe you guys can find some stuff on the way there so you can sell it for caps." "And that's another thing. what do you guys use for money anyway?" Jason pulled out a half rusted bottle cap. "We use these. All other money is useless paper to us." Gilda motioned for him to toss it over so she could take a look at it. "Heehee, now I got one cap, thanks." Gilda slid it into one of her pockets on her armor as Jason chuckled to himself. "Shoulda' seen that coming. Well, anyway we should-" A gun shot cut Jason off as it hit just in front of his foot, just barely missing hitting him. "Fuck! Viper's! Get down, find cover!" Jason ended up behind a rock with Gilda as Dash ended up with Applejack behind her own. Shining armor was behind a wrecked car with Vexan as she was scoping out where they were. She saw one popping his head out and without a second glance pulled the trigger, blasting brain matter and bits of skull out the other end of the raiders head, dropping him instantly. Although it was done without much thought the fact that she had her first kill quickly caught up with her as she hid behind the car for cover again. "Dang-it! I got somethin' close range, this ain't gonna' work! Dash you got the rifle, you think ya' can get one o' them." Applejack yelled over the sounds of bullets hitting and whizzing past their rock hiding spot. "Can do AJ!" Dash shouted back as she hefted her rifle up and looked down the sights to see another of the bastards that were shooting at them. She leveled the sights on his leg and pulled the trigger, landing a hit right in his thigh sending his down to the ground, clutching his now bleeding leg. For her first time using a gun it wasn't too bad a shot. Jason and Gilda on the other hand had their work cut out for them. They were stuck behind their spot, completely unable to fire at them unless they wanted to risk getting hit. Gilda finally got fed up with not being able to right back so she popped out of cover enough to hoist her gun up and take aim. She squeezed off two rounds before she let out a shriek of pain as blood shot out of her shoulder and she slumped back against the rock. "S-Sonava...fucker got me." She painfully groaned out. "Don't move, stay right here, I'll deal with the rest," Jason said as he made a mad dash to the car that Shining was at, narrowly avoiding the gunfire aimed directly at him. When he got to the car, he flung himself to the ground next the him. "hey, you need to lay down some fire on the cars over there, got it. Just lean into the shot and let her rip, I'll handle the rest." Jason barked out. Shining nodded and they both prepared to end this little confrontation. A few seconds past until, "NOW!" Jason shouted as he jumped up out of over and took aim while Shining did as he was told and began hosing down the area with bullets, making it impossible for the raiders to pop out of cover lest they get shot. Too bad for them Jason was sporting A.P. rounds in his rifle at the moment. With three loud bangs from his repeater, all three raiders dropped, as the A.P. rounds tore through the hulls of the car doors, each on of them finding a new home within each of their chests. With that done Jason jogged back to his previous hiding spot to where an injured Gilda was, still holding her shoulder as she continued to bleed. "Hey, lemme' see," Jason nudged her hand aside to see the wound. It didn't look nearly as bad as it probably felt, but he had to make sure that is was a clean shot. Sure enough it had made it all the way through, since there was an entrance and an exit wound. With that information acquired he went to his pip-boy and pulled out a Stim-pak and a med-x for the soreness afterwards. "here, this'll fix you up right quick." He said as she inserted the needle into her shoulder causing her to let out a squawk of pain and then a groan as the medicine started to go to work re-knitting her skin and making it seem like there was no wound at all, save for the small bald spot where there was no feather hiding her peach colored skin underneath. "What's the other one for?" Gilda asked. "This one's for the pain, it does hurt right?" "A little bit." She said with a wince and a slight grimace as Jason injected her once again, only this time a look of relief washed over her face and she let out a sigh. "Better?" "Better." Gilda responded as she got up and rolled her shoulder a bit and picked up her hunting rifle she dropped upon getting shot. Jason passed his hand through his hair and sighed. "Well so much for making sure you guys stay safe huh?" When no one answered he looked around and saw Vexan still on the ground giving that thousand yard stare while still clutching her rifle. The thing that passed through his head was, 'Great, first kill guilt.' and then he made his way over to her and knelt down. "She's been like that since after she killed that one raider." Said Shining as he crouched down as well. "Hey?" Jason said, trying to get Vexan's attention. WHen that didn't work, he put his hand on her shoulder and shook her gently. "Hey!?" "Huh!? Wha?" She said, snapping out of her thoughts with a start. "You okay, I saw you blast a raiders brains out. That was your first actual kill, right?" "Y-Yeah, I just, I didn't really think, I just aimed and pulled the trigger...just like we were thought to do with a bow; It just never crossed my mind how I was taking someone's life, even if he was shooting at us." Vexan said with a somber tone. "Hey, listen," Jason said standing back up. "if you hadn't of shot him, who's to know that he wouldn't have shot you or shining or the others for the matter, heck even me. Just because I know how to protect myself, doesn't mean that I still can't get hurt. So, I should be thanking you." "But-" "No, no buts, that guy would have sooner come over here and killed you, or worse, he might have dragged you off to some god-forsaken slaver camp and tortured you, so at least know that you killed him, but by no means, do not feel to bad for him or her." Jason said, trying to reassure her and it seemed to work. With a sigh and a grunt, Vexan stood up and nodded her head. "Alright, good," Jason looked in the direction of the raider, which was where they needed to go. "we should get a move on." He said before he started back down the road with the others in tow. "Hey you guys actually did good today...you know, for a bunch of civvies." He said chuckling. "Yeah, well, if you want to get with the best of the best flyers back home, you can't have hesitation." Said Rainbow, though , he could hear a slight tremble in her voice. He thought he'd leave her be for now. As they passed by the other set of cars they heard groaning, when they got closer they saw the raider that dash shot in the leg trying to crawl away, that is before Jason shot in in the back, straight thru his heart, finally killing him. Jason sighed and shook his head. "Damn animals is what these guys are. Fuckers don't care for anything else but their own sick and twisted pleasures." "Why do they do it?" Asked Shining. "I don't know man, sometimes they think it's the only way to get by in this world. They're just making it harder for the rest of us to live peacefully...or as peaceful as we can try to live." Shining nodded and they continued on their way down the road. "Next Stop, the one eighty-eight trading post." With that, the group began their trek anew thru this desolate wasteland. Author's Note Damn Gilda took that bullet like a champ, and poor Vexan got a bit shaken up from her first kill. Oh well, it's a good thing Jason was there to make her feel better. What surprises await for our wasteland adventurers next time? Find out next time on 'Equestria Meets Wasteland'. So, I decided to cut this in half since it was going to be pretty big. That and I wanted to get an update out for you guys too since it's been a while since the last update. Anyway hope you enjoy and remember to like and fav. and comment if you like the story, or if you just want to chat with me, that's fine, I love talking to my readers. ~ This is, Cobolt, soundin' out On The Road Again...or NotAfter the small run in with those raiders--it took Jason and company about fifteen or so minutes to reach the one eighty-eight trading post for some much needed rest. “Finally...some rest.” Said Vexan as she walked over to a piece of still intact concrete road partition and slumped to the ground against it. “Well after today, I think we earned it.” Said Jason as he tossed a bottle of clean water over to her, which she took and drank immediately. “Thanks.” She said after she downed little more than half the bottle. “Don’t mention it. Enjoy it now though--clean water is very hard to come by in the wastes.” Jason responded back. “Exactly how hard?” Asked Shining as he sat in the stool next to Jason. “Harder than trying to get laid after a long dry spell my friend.” Jason says, making Gilda, Rainbow and Applejack laugh. “Good one.” Rainbow said with a hint of giggle in her voice. Jason got off his stool and left shining to walk over to Gilda who was just setting her rifle down against the wall. “How’s your arm Gilda?” Gilda looked at where she got shot before and ran that moment over again in her head. If she had been a little more to the left, she would have been dead for sure. “It;s doing fine. The feathers will regrow, don’t you worry about me, I’m fine.” She said with smirk on her face. Though Jason could tell she was hiding something. “You know, the first time I got shot...I thought I was gonna die for sure.” Gilda looked at him with a confused look across her face. “Why are you telling me this now?” Jason looked at her arm and then at her face. “Because--where I got shot was in the head.” Everyone in the camp went silent as Jason took a glove off his hand and passed it through his hair, exposing the scar above his right eye where two nine-millimeter bullets collided, but didn’t pass through his skull. “You’d think that someone who got shot in the head would die from that--but, lemme’ tell you something,” He looked up at her so she could see his face. “I’m one stubborn sonova’bitch ta’ kill.” He said with steeled look in his eyes. “I can see that. most people who take an arrow to the face, or in this case a bullet, would surely die.” Said Shining. “Yeah,” Jason pulled out a bottle of whiskey from his duster and took a few gulps--he shook his head and coughed once before screwing the cap back on and putting it away. “most do, though I didn’t. I ain’t just gonna lay down and die like that.” “From a bullet tah’ the head? Sugarcube, now I know this ain’t the time tah’ get morbid like this, but I’d die from a bullet tah’ the head.” Applejack added. “Are yah’ stubborn as a rock?” Asked Jason. Applejack nodded her head. “Sometimes.” “Then you’re fine.” He said back. Applejack turned looked away with a smile on her face before she zipped her head back in Jason’s direction. “Hey!” Everyone got a good laugh out of that as even Shining armor was laughing up a storm at the bar. “Hardy har har. Very funny.” Applejack said as she crossed her arms across her chest and snorted. “Awww lighten up There AJ--it was just a joke.” Rainbow said as she nudged AJ’s shoulder. “Awwwww, whatever. Fine, I’ll let it slide.” “Hey, so, why did you get shot in the head for?” Rainbow asked bluntly. “Rainbow, that’s probably not something you should just ask like that.” Shining said. “Don’t worry, I don’t mind it.” Jason turned to look at Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “Well, the reason I got shot in the head was because of what I had on me. See, I was a courier before I was shot--but I digress. I was in the middle of transporting said item across the wastes to that very big tower in the distance. Before I could get there however, I was knocked out and woke up tied up and on my knees surrounded by a bunch of really bad looking people and a guy in a suit with the item that I was transporting in his hand. I was gonna’ say something, until he pulled out a silver and gold nine millimeter and pointed at my head telling me, “The game was rigged from the start.” and he pulled the trigger twice I guess--I was only conscious for the first shot. After that, I woke up in a small town in a doctor's office with very little memory of I was before. All I had on me when I was given my stuff back was a small name tag with the name “Jason” on it, a gun and some bullets, some food and water, and some bottle caps.” Jason looked up to see his companions all looking at him with a somber look on his face. meanwhile he just pulled out the bottle whiskey again and took a few more gulps. “Now I’m here. So I’d say that fucker is gonna get what’s coming to him when I see him soon.” “How can you say something like that without even flinching? I’m sure you mean to get revenge on him for trying to kill you in the first place, but you don’t even sound the least bit remorseful.” Said Vexan. “That’s because I don’t feel remorse for anyone trying to kill me...or for someone who half succeeded in doing so. I’ll gladly find him and put a bullet right in between his fucking eyes and give him a taste of what he gave me. Think of it of…...returning the favour.” “I can see why you’d want to go and get your payback on him, but are you sure that killing him will fix anything?” Asked Shining. “Nope.” Jason said casually back. “But I’ll get my revenge on his sorry ass. That’s how the world works right now.” Jason said. “Someone fucks with you and you live, you find them and return the favour.” No one said anything for a bit before Gilda spoke. “Makes sense. Someone fucks with me, I’ll put’em in the ground.” “Ditto, sister. Nobody fucks with me and expects to not get theirs.” Jason said back. Rainbow Dash got up and walked over to one of the tents and stretched her back. “Well, I think I’m going to hit the sack.” “Sleep? Now? It’s only just hit mid-day--we’re nowhere near where we need to be yet--we’re just resting.” Rainbow and Vexan shot around and looked at Jason. “WHAT!?” They both shouted. “Yeah, we’re going to a town called Novac to get some more supplies, ammo and see an old friend of mine.” “Uggggghhhhh.” “Oh come on Rainbow, don’t’ be like that. We’ve barely even gone anywhere.” AJ said as she poked Dash in the head. “Maybe we should call it a day?” Asked Vexan. “No can do. We’ve burned enough daylight as is--we need to keep moving so when can get to town before the sun starts to go down. Bad shit comes out at that time.” Jason said grabbing his rifle and standing up. Rainbow and Vexan both reluctantly grabbed their things and joined the rest of the group as they made their way past the bar area and onto the road past it.Just as they made it below Rainbow spoke again. “So where is this No-vac...yeah, Novac. What direction is it in?” “Well if we cut through the dry lake bed we could make it to there in less time, but-” “Perfect, then I guess we’re going through there.” Rainbow said as she split off and started walking towards the lake bed. “Rainbow, I don’t think it would be a good idea to go off the road. A lot of really bad mutated animals could be wandering around there.That or other people who want nothing more than to do really bad things to us. You saw those kind of people earlier.” Jason said with some force behind his voice. Rainbow cringed a bit and her ears flopped against her head--something Jason noticed. Rainbow quickly got her bravado back and just shrugged it off. “Awwwww, they get creamed anyway. If more come after us again, we can so take them.” Jason watched as she just kept walking off towards the lake bed. “Damn it Rainbow!” Jason looked back and forth between the road and the lake bed before taking off after Rainbow. “Rainbow, I just said it’s really bad to deviate from the roads because there could be something bad out there.Plus, there is a slight sandstorm right now--our visibility is gonna be crap.” Jason kept walking since he wasn’t just going to leave her to split off from them like that. “This can only end bad.” Rainbow scoffed at him. “Quit being a baby. What’s the worst that can happen?” Jason facepalmed. “And you just signed our death warrant.” Jason pulled his rifle out and had it ready. The other did the same, though Vexan did it more out of fear. Jason and Shining moved to the outside of the group to watch the sides. Just as Rainbow was going to say something, a big pair of jaws and a head of a creature poked through the sand with it’s jaws wide open and ready to bite through her. Jason whipped his rifle to it and fired without a second to spare. Rainbow looked back in time to see the giant worker ant about to crush her head like a mutfruit--and then watch it’s head splatter in a shower of it’s blood and gore. She barely had time to react as more ants came out of the sand crawling towards them. One of the ants, Jason knew was different and put on his helmet. Shining had already tore through two of the smaller ones and Vexan shaily shot and killed a bigger one. Applejack was just finishing putting down another giant worker ant when the last small one crawled up to here and looked like it was about to spit something--only for it to spit fire out of it’s mouth. Applejack froze on the spot and watch as it crawled close to her. Shining yelled at her to move, but she was stuck in place from the shock that an ant was spitting fire at her. The ant shook it’s head and was about to spew more of its fire at her when she was shoved out of the way by Jason--who was now engulfed in flames. “JASON!” Shining and surprisingly Vexan start tearing into the ant with the remainder of their clips until their empty. They all look to where Jason was and saw him standing there--still engulfed in the fire from the ant, though it was starting to die down due to the sand storm. Jason turned his head to the side to look at them. “This is why we don’t go off the path when I tell you not to.” He patted out the last of the flames on his duster and picked off a few more of the ants before continuing to cross the lake bed--now devoid of ants, it was safe to cross it. The group crossed the lake bed without any further problems until the came up on the road there were on before again. “This time let’s stay on the road please.” “Yeah, yeah, alright. So, anyway, I suppose you guys are wondering about my past, and if not, now you are.” Jason ran a gloved hand through his hair and ruffled it a bit. “I don’t remember where I was born or exactly how old I am, nor do I really remember much of my past. So I suppose I can tell you about everything that happened after I woke up from getting my head carefully, and I mean very carefully, operated on.” Jason breathed deeply and let out a long sigh before continuing. “I woke up and immediately left the small doctors house I was in--nice guy, patched me up for free. I did a few things around there to help them out--helped them clear out some vermin, fixed a radio, killed a few people that were causing a ‘ahem’ disturbance in the town. They were no good anyway, so if you think I killed people that were innocent, you’re wrong. They were all in jail for something.” Jason looked back and made eye contact with Shining. “As long as you did it to protect, nothing else matters Jason.” “Right, so, anyway--after that I left the town in search of the guy who shot me in the brain socket. So, I eventually made it to Novac, which is where we’re headed right now--and I helped someone else with a problem. Poor guys wife was taken away with his unborn child in her womb still and sold as a slave. She was dead already according to him, so all he told me was to, and I quote, “Find the son of a bitch who sold her to the legion bastards.” and bring them to him. Suffice to say, the bitch who sold her to them is now just a stain on the dirt in front of the town. Huh...wonder if the body is still there, maybe I can put one more round in her just to do it.” Gilda cut in. “Some bitch sold another one of her town's members over to some group called...the legion? What...for money? Power? I don’t get it. either way, doesn’t matter--she’s dead now and she can’t do that to any other peo-” Gilda got cut off when a grenade from a grenade rifle came whistling through the air and struck right in front of her--launching her in the air and into a heap on the ground behind the group. “MOTHERFUCKER!” Jason shouted before taking a bullet to the side and the thigh--dropping him quick. “Fucking hell, I need to get some fucking armour for my legs damn it! You’d think I’d learn by now!” He raised his rifle with a grimace as the bullet wound in his side burned like a red hot fire poker in his side. “FUCKING DROP’EM!” Shining began unloading a full clip from his LMG into the three raider members. The raiders didn’t even flinch--they were too hopped up on chems to even care about the pony with the big gun aimed and unloading on them. They kept advancing and firing on them until the one with the grenade launcher took a round to the face that blew out the back of her head and dropped her. After the one got dropped, the other two started running at them with knives and screaming at the top of there lungs. “VIIIIPEEEEERS!” The one screamed--right before his head was reduced to blood and gore by Applejack’s shotgun. “FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT! YOU’LL PAY FOR THAT!” She screamed as she put another shell into the other guy, making him double over clutching his stomach. Rainbow then took her snub nose and put it against his head and pulled the trigger; blowing his brains out the back of his head. “THAT’S FOR GILDA YOU SORRY FUCKFACE!” “Guys...up to...the gas station up there...we can check on her...and I can patch us both up……...if she’s still breathing.” Jason said with pained groans in between words. Applejack helped Shining to carefully move Gilda up to the gas station and Rainbow dragged Jason by the back of his armour while Vexan watched with her rifle for any more raiders in hiding--all the while her hands were a trembling mess. Upon getting to the door, Shining kicked the door open and they carefully set her down on the floor. Gilda was a bloody mess. Blood seeped through her armour in multiple places and she had bits of shrapnel sticking out of her legs and arms and even her chest in a few places. Blood was coming out of her mouth but she was still faintly breathing from what Shining could tell. Jason reached into his duster and pulled out a stimpack and jabbed his side and pressed the plunger on the top, then did the same with his leg. Jason started getting up before his skin and was close to finished re-knitting itself back together and dropped to his knees in front of Gilda’s unconscious body. “Okay, I need to get her armour off and remove the larger pieces of shrapnel first--then I need to use something to pull all the smaller bits of metal out of her. I need Applejack and you Vexan, to search this place for anything alcohol and maybe if we’re lucky, some healing items.” Jason started to undo the straps on her armour and remove the pieces slowly. Once he got to the chest piece however, it got tricky--he had to cut the chest piece down the middle and peel it to the sides. Shining and Rainbow help to lift her carefully while Jason slipped the piece off of her and past her wings.as for the legs, he had to remove the pieces of shrapnel first. Using a knife that was attached to his leg, he carefully slipped it into one of the wounds and lifted the flesh and slowly and carefully removed the metal bit--Gilda whimpered softly as he did so. “Shit, forgot to give her the injection.” Jason pulled out a med-x syringe as he said that and gave her the shot, numbing the pain immediately. Jason went on to so the same with the other leg and around the rest of her body, while also closing up any large wounds caused by the bigger pieces of shrapnel. The whole process of removing and stitching up took a whole hour or so. The armour had blocked most of the smaller pieces of the the grenade’s shrapnel, so it was more closing up wounds properly since they didn’t have any stimpacks on hand anymore--Jason had used the last one on her chest to heal her lung and other wounds on her chest. “Okay...that should be it now.” Jason said before falling back on his ass and leaning up against the wall behind him. While he was performing wasteland surgery, the others were moving shelves and making more room inside the place--they moved the four metal shelves up against the wall near the cabinet that was across from the door. Just as the last shelf was propped up against the wall is when Gilda decided to wake up with a groan. “Where...what happened?” Gilda asked very confused. “We’re inside a gas station while you recover.” Jason pulled out an old bottle with a bunch of metal pieces in it and shook it. “You got blow the fuck up by a grenade, but your armour took most of it--that said, you’re armour is fucked now. Also,” Jason shook the bottle again and Gilda looked at it as he brought it closer. “all this was sticking either out of you or in you. Took a good hour to remove all the bits of metal outta’ ya’.” “How am I alive?” Gilda asked with a groan. “Because Jason saved your life. He was the only one that was able to work on you and make sure you pulled through. Neither one of us were trained in something like that, so he took it on himself to do everything--he didn’t stop for a full hour or so until you were completely ‘fixed’ as he said.” Vexan finally spoke for the first time after they came in there. “And how are you holding up--and don’t lie, I saw you shaking when we came in here and you hid yourself away in the corner behind the counter.” Vexan blushed with embarrassment. “Well, I was...losing it I suppose--oh, also, I found this.” SHe pulled out two more stimpacks and handed them to Jason. “This’ll be handy to have again. I really need to buy more, or make more.” Jason said before putting them into his duster. “Still though,” Jason looked up when Vexan started talking again. “I just shut down, I couldn’t do anything after that first kill. I’m fucking useless.” With every word she shrunk deeper into herself until she was a crying ball. Jason walked up to her and kneeled down to look her in the eyes. “Vexan.” Jason lifted her head so she looked at him back. Vexan looked up at him with tearful eyes. “Wh-what?” “I want you to remember that you are part of your Queen’s guard. That there may be a point in time that you may have to kill to protect.” Jason stood up and Vexan looked up at him. “You need to understand, and I’ve told you before, you need to shoot them first before they shoot you. You need to realize that this world will chew you up and mangle you. destroy you if you do not say “Fuck you” and kick it in the fucking nuts back.” Jason puts out his hand to Vexan and she took it. lifting herself up. “I want you to know, it’s fucking difficult. It hurts when you have to turn your back on some people. and it definitely hurts when you get shot by a bullet ,” Jason looks back at Gilda and then back at Vexan. “or blown up by a grenade, a lot more than you being too scared to fire back and kill the guy trying to kill you. They don’t give a shit about you. They’d much rather kill you, rape you and then loot your body. Yes, in the order.” Vexan looked down and hid her eyes with her mane. Jason just backed up and leaned against the wall. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a pussy lately.” Jason looked up at her. “Hmm? You finally growing a pair sweetheart?” Jason chuckled before he got a fist to the gut and he clutched his stomach as he doubled over. “No, I just think you reminded me why I enlisted to the guard in the first place. Also,” Vexan got in his face with her muzzle almost touching his. “pussies can take more of a beating than what you got downstairs Jason.” Vexan walked over to the other side of the room and began looking in one of the crates for anything useful. Jason looked around at everyone in the room and got nothing but surprised stares. “So...besides me, who else thought that was hot?” “Awwwww shut it and give me a fucking stim…thing, whatever you called them.” Gilda said. “I hurt like a bitch all over.” Author's Note Hey guys...and girls. Finally got an update out for one of my stories. Took me long enough XD Anyway, I don't really have much to put in this section...sooooooo...ENJOY THE CHAPTER BYE! Mister NamelessAuthor's Note Okay, so before you read this, I just thought I should tell you guys, and gals(because I know there are more than just guys out there on this site.), that this will be my first fic. that will have some more of a violent and gritty feel to it. I first wanted to do a fic. like this when I finished reading the original Fallout Equestria by Kkat for the second time. After reading a few other spin-offs, some good and some bad, I thought, "I've seen Black Jack, I've seen Little Pip, and hell I even see mane 6 in the wasteland, I decided that I really wanted to create something new (unless someone has already done something like this, it's original.) and possibly make it fresh again. So, with that out of the way, all I have to say is, I hope you enjoy my story, and if you do be sure to leave a comment below, a like and a fav., and I'll see you around next time. ~This has been Cobolt Soundwave, mesmerizing ya' with my small horse words. P.S. Right, before I forget, there will be instances where it goes to a first person view on some of the characters. Mister Nameless War...war never changes. Man has fought since the day it was born. From rocks and sticks, to swords, to weapons of mass destruction. Over the years man had fought for anything. They fought for religion, they fought for survival, and there were times they fought for something so trivial. When America got itself into war with China, they bathed the world in nuclear fire. The two countries fought until -Bzzzt- "Goddamn it!" Said a man listening to his Pip-boy, as the audio disk's sound cut out with a very angry sounding audio glitch. "Well - I guess I ain't listening to that anymore." He muttered to himself as he ejected the damaged disk, put it back into his knap-sack, and fished around for his binoculars. When he finally got them out, he decided to scope out the area around the rock ledge he was on. He was near the REPCONN Headquarters so he expected to see nothing really out of the ordinary. That wasn't the case today. While looking through his binoculars he saw what looked like a town. A town that seemed to have sprung up out of nowhere. This really peaked his curiosity, what with him knowing that there was nothing much of any interest whatsoever in any direction of the building; other than old decrepit houses, and broken mailboxes. "What...the...fuck?" His brain seemed to have just completely gotten fried as he looked at what seemed to be bipedal horses walking around the town, they themselves looking very confused. "You know what - fuck it, I'm going to go and check it out - what's the worst that could happen...you know other than them being very aggressive people that will most likely kill me or steal all my stuff and leave me defenseless...yeah, totally safe." With that He started walking towards the currently lively town with his cowboy repeater in hand just in case anything bad happened so he could defend himself should the need arise. ~~~~ After a few minutes our friend was just on the edge of town when he heard banging on a door. Swinging around a corner he saw a man just hammering on a door, yelling at the occupants on the inside, most likely frightened out of their minds. Without thinking twice he fired his gun just a bit before his feet which made the man jump back a few feet and stare at his attacker. Upon seeing his face the man paled slightly and began running away, only to be dropped to the ground with a .357 magnum round to the leg. With the man on the ground our nameless wonderer sauntered up to the groaning man who was clutching his bleeding leg. "You know...it's impolite to try and intrude on other's homes like that." Without so much as another word he pointed the guns' barrel at the grounded man's head, and pulled the trigger, painting the ground red. "Raider's aren't welcome in any town...I make damn sure of that." He spoke down to the now limp and lifeless corpse of said raider. He was kneeled down searching his body for anything like ammo of a gun that he could sell when he heard a door creak open. He froze and slowly turned to look at whoever it was that was coming out and saw a very scared looking azure unicorn who was looking slightly downward at his hand which was still holding the gun that killed the raider at his feet. On noticing where she was staring he very calmly holstered his weapon, the mare, though, still looked slightly scared of him, after all who wouldn't be afraid of someone in NCR Ranger combat armor, minus the helmet as he preferred to wear 1st recon beret instead, and had just killed someone right in front of them. Very few would be the answer. "Don't worry, I was just making sure he wasn't going to hurt you - they're bad people, definitely not someone you want to mess with." He finally spoke to the mysterious creature that was staring back at him. "W-Why?" The still scared creature stuttered back, although he was pretty sure it looked to be some sort of horse, or pony, he wasn't too sure. That didn't matter right now though, she had asked him something. "To put it simple, if he would have run off he most likely would have ran back to where his little friends are and then come back later to burn you homes down and take hurt you all...badly." He decided to leave out the part of rape and death for obvious reasons. After telling her that the door opened up again and this time out walked a lizard looking creature who had a serious expression on his face. "Hey!" Said the new creature to the mystery man. To which said man switched over his attention to the newcomer. "Hi...sorry you had to see all that...please understand I mean you no ill will - I simply came down to check out this place, since, well, I've never seen it 'till today and I wanted to see if it was deserted...clearly you can see I was wrong in my assumptions." He said back to the scaly one. "Hmmm," The scaly creature folded his arms and closed his eyes in thought. After a few seconds passed he re-opened them, but kept his serious expression. "Okay, I believe you - but let me make it perfectly clear - you hurt anypony in this town and I. Will. Break you - got it?" Although his use of the word 'pony' kind of confused him slightly when he said it, he mentally noted that the female did look like a horse-like thing so he must have been right in his other assumption. "Crystal clear. You have my word as a protector of the innocent, I won't even harm a single living person in this town." "Good, now...come with me." He said turning and starting to the door to what looked like a big tree with windows and a door in it. Our nameless wonderer, obviously stunned at seeing a living tree that massive, gawked at it for a second before starting to follow the two of them, the unicorn in front of the lizard looking one. Upon reaching the giant tree the lizard looking one knocked on the door and asked for entry. "Is he safe?" Said from the other side of the door. "Yeah, he's fine - so long as he keeps his promise that is." The spikey one answered back. "Okay I'm opening the door now." Said the voice again, and upon opening the door the voice was revealed to be yet another unicorn, though, this one was of a lavender color. "Spike! Trixie! I'm so glad you two are safe. What happened? Why didn't you come back after checking the outskirts of town?" Asked a very worried unicorn. 'Well now I know the two people's names of who I just saved are.' Our nameless friend thought. "Well to answer your question, me and Trixie got trapped inside an empty house after some guy started yelling at us and asking us "Where's everybody in this place!"." "And he uhhh, he ummm," Trixie as the lavender unicorn had called her, tried to say, but just couldn't seem to say before locking up again. Sighing, mister nameless decided to finish what she started. "I killed him," He said, making everyone in the room go wide-eyed. Upon noticing the many looks of horror and fear he quickly regretted his blunt answer. "b-but, he was trying to brake into the house and get to them, listen that guy is a raider, what a raider is, is someone who doesn't care for morals of being just, he just wants what he wants and what he wants is to kill others and take their things for his own. That's why I did what I did, but don't even for a second think that I would do that to anyone of ya', I ain't a heartless fuck!" He shouted out the last part; being a little angry at just thinking about what the guy could have done to the two that he rescued. After breathing deeply a couple of times he spoke again. "Sorry, I...kind of got a bit angry there...as you can tell I Hate raiders and everything that they do." He said with a very downtrodden voice. His re-affirmation as to him not hurting anyone in the room or in town for that matter seemed to work, even though now it made them curious as to why he seemed to sad all of a sudden, though, they said nothing about it and let it go. "Sorry 'bout that again...just...never mind," He raised his hand to stop anyone wanting to ask a question as to why he got that way, and it seemed to do the trick. "Okay then, at least I know that you won't harm my little ponies, that is good." Said a very regal sounding voice, and upon looking back up he saw a winged unicorn, or was it a horned Pegasus? He didn't really know, nor did it really matter at this time, since he had yet to acknowledge that he heard her. "Ohh, uhh, yeah, no I won't, you have my word." He said back Then proceeded the questions as to where they were, why it looked so desolate, why people like the guy who was banging on the door do what they do, and some other questions about the area to which he answered to the best of his abilities. "And that's all she wrote." Said the nameless wonderer. "Hmmm, this is most distressful to hear. So there is no magic here...at all?" Asked a visibly concerned Princess. "Nope, sorry, although you seem to be able to still levitate things around as miss purple over there is doing so at this very moment." Upon hearing him call her purple for what seemed like the fifteenth time, she turned and looked at him and crossed her arms at him. "My name is Twilight, and you could have asked me what my name was instead of calling me Purple all the time." She said somewhat crossly at him. "Ohh, well......okay then." He said as he went back to looking at his wrist-computer. "Hey bub! We told you our names, now why don't we know yours huh!?" Said a grumpy rainbow maned Pegasus. "Well since you asked so nicely," He said back sarcastically. "the names Jason - Jason North, you may call me as you wish." He said as he reclined into the chair he was sitting in as he made a bottle of soda materialize out of thin air and into his hand, baffling everypony in the room except for a pink mare in the back of the room who just 'oooooh'ed' at the feet preformed in front of them. Of course Twilight was the first one to ask how he did that, to which he said. "Dunno, I just can and I don't really ask why or how. My life seems better off that way." "But...but that makes no sense!" "Twilight, honey, out here in the wasteland," Jason said putting his arms out for emphasis. "nothing makes sense anymore." Twilight sighed and crossed her arms. "Fine - but you are going to give me a better explanation later, mister." "Haha, okay mom" He chuckled at her pout which he found adorable. Twilight didn't think it was funny since she turned and walked over to another chair and plopped herself down into it. "Awww don't get your feathers in a bunch 'princess', I didn't mean to offend you. We good?" He said to her, extending out his hand, which she took in her own and stood up. "Yeah, and by the way I was just teasing, if you don't know that's disappointing, but if you do be sure to let me know, got it?" "Sure thing, Sparky." He said with a slight chuckle. "Alright then, I promise," He said as he sat back down in the chair which he had decided was his. He looked up and saw the other Princess, Luna. "Hey do you have men that can guard this place?" "Yes, they are protecting the others in their homes - why?" Asked the lunar Princess. Jason got up off the chair with a one-sided grin and a raised eye-brow. "Time to gather the cavalry."
Unexpected Guests & A Badass WondererJason walked in front of the group of guards that the three Princesses' had amassed in the center of town, along with the guard of someone called Chrysalis, who was a queen of a race known as changelings. Now those bunch were an interesting lot; they could shape shift. Upon asking one do demonstrate, said changeling turned itself into a pony, then a griffon, then a perfect copy of Spike just to make sure that Jason understood, which he did. "Okay, so...I'm not sure I'll be able to teach anyone of them how to use a weapon, seeing as how I don't have enough guns to train them with." Said Jason, and he was right, he just didn't have the amount of weapons that they needed. There were just so many guards; Twilight's, Celestia's day guards, Luna's night guard, and Chrysalis' own guard. There was just too many of them. He was thinking on a way to get more weapons, when his thinking was broken by the sounds of hooves clopping on asphalt. Jason turned a saw a total of three caravan merchants walking with guards and a pack Brahmin; each with a boatload of weapons. If only a light bulb could appear above his head right now from a brilliant idea before he jogged his way over to them. "Excuse me, I'd like to buy all of your weapons." To say the three merchants looked completely baffled, would be an understatement. After Jason paid them all, he called over a total of about six or seven stallions as he found out they were classified for their gender; which was the same as saying male or guy. Jason and the seven stallions brought back cases of ammunition and weapons to the town center and distributed them evenly among the guards. Once they all had a weapon of some sorts, including a new weapon for Jason; a fully decked out cowboy repeater, equipped with a scope, extended magazine and custom lever action to reduce friction and decrease the amount of time it required to re-chamber a new round. After Jason got himself acquainted with his newly acquired weapon he began teaching the other guards the proper use of firearms. It was fairly simple; aim, steady yourself, and then pull the trigger, that simple. Then of course the obvious, "Don't look down the barrel." treatment. "So, does everyone understand the basics in firearm use!?" He shouted to all of the stallions holding weapons. To which he got a chorus of "Yes's" and "Understood" from the group in front of him. "Okay them. Oh! One more thing, don't let anyone you don't know into the town without first making sure that they aren't going to come in and blow it up or steal anything; I also advise you all to hide anything valuable somewhere safe!" He shouted out to them. "Alright, I need some targets put up for practice shooting; unicorns can you make targets?" "I can do it." Said one of the guards from Twilight's group. "Alright then, go ahead." Jason shifted his attention farther down the to see a goof fifteen orange tinted targets spring up. "Nicely down, what's your name?" Jason put a hand in the guard's shoulder. "It's Flash sir, Flash Sentry." The guard beamed at him. Jason nodded and motioned for him to re-group with the others. "Can I get another unicorn that can strengthen the durability in the targets; don't want them to break from one shot ya'know." Another guard walked up and cast another spell on the targets, making them glow blue-ish. "Nicely down, and your name?" "Silver Shield sir." "Alright, well I'll be having you and Flash Sentry up here to practice on the targets, since you have a rifle and he has a revolver; gotta show the others the difference and at the same time you get some practice in yourselves." The guard nodded and called over Flash who walked up to Jason once more. "Okay I need you on my left Flash and you Silver, on my right. Take up a stance and aim at the targets." Immediately he noticed a flaw in both of them as they took aim. Flash had his arms locked and rigid as all hell, while Silver looked like a board standing straight up just waiting to be knocked over. Jason walked over to Flash and grabbed his elbows and un-bent them to a more stable position. "If you keep your elbows locked you can hurt yourself like that; had someone have their forearms bend upwards while the rest of their arms didn't move, the result was the sound of bone snapping and a man writhing in pain. You don't want that." Flash nodded his head and kept his arms slightly bent as he said. "One more thing, keep your dominant side's leg back for support and your non-dominant out, otherwise you're going to get knocked down by the recoil of firearm when you do fire it." Jason then made his way over to Silver Shield. "What hand you write with?" Silver looked to his left slightly. "My right." "Then put your right foot back and your left foot forward, and keep the butt of the rifle firmly planting on you shoulder unless you want it to slam into it full force and shatter your shoulder; trust me, it ain't fun." Silver did as he had instructed and repositioned himself as well as put the stock of the rifle against his shoulder. Once Jason saw that thy had better stances he once more walked in-between them. "Alright, Flash make sure you're looking down the little bit at the end of the barrel so you aim on target, and the same goes for you too Silver. Steady your aim before you fire," Both guards stared down their individual sights. "and fire." Both guards fired their weapons, Flash's shot hitting somewhere around the middle of the shield, while Silver's hit dead center; though they were both rubbing the ear closest to the gun when it fired. "Yeah, they tend to be very loud." "Yeah, you can say that again." Said Flash as he lowered his arms. "Yeah, hey do you mind if...what the fuu-oh hell! Everyone get your weapons ready, we got company! Ants!" The guards looks confused at first until they saw what looked like gigantic ants crawling their way over a hall off in the distance, most likely they heard the gunshots and came crawling over. Jason kept on shouting at them to get ready and just do as Flash and Silver had done with their weapons. "Remember everyone! Stance, aim and fire! Ready!? On my mark!" A few more seconds passed by as the ants kept getting closer and closer until, "FIRE!" All at once a total of maybe about fifteen guns in total went off, Jason's carbine being one of them. Their shots were a bit off, considering that they had never fired a gun before, but they were catching on quick. One by one the ants started falling except one of them. This one was much bigger then the rest and was closing in on Flash as he was reloading his revolver. When he looked up he froze in a state of fear, until the ant that was about to bite down on him and end his life suddenly writhing around in pain as bullets tore through it's head a fell lifeless on the ground, no more than 5 feet away from his feet. When Flash looked behind him, he saw a very calm yet determined looking Jason holding a smoking Assault carbine in his hands. "You alright?" Flash simply nodded. "You have to be careful of your surroundings, because out here, your life can end without you even know it. One minute you're sitting talking with a friend, next thing you know, you're wearing his brains all over you freshly cleaned armor." Flash and some of the other guards looked uneasy when he said that, though it was the truth, you can't just let your guard down. Jason pulled out the spent clip and popped in a full one, then making the empty one disappear into his pip-boy for re-loading later. No one really bothered to ask how he did that since they were more concerned now for the safety of the towns residents. "Alright, if not for that little scuffle with those ants we would have most likely would have been here for the rest of the afternoon teaching you all to shoot, but thanks to that, and the fact that none of you wanted to die; you all learned fairly quickly." He said to the guards as he turned around and began walking to the tree house again. "Well I advise that the ones who do know how to shoot, teach the others now. I have to go have a chat with your respective leaders." Jason said with his back turned to the guards. When he arrived at the great tree he could hear a discussion going on in the background; that is until he knocked, causing it to stop abruptly. Soon he heard footfalls coming closer to the door until it opened to reveal a very disheveled Twilight. "Hi." "Hello." "Can I come in?" Twilight moved to the side tell allow him entry. "Oh, of course, come in." Jason walked over to an empty chair in the corner of the room. "I'm sorry if the room is a bit of a mess, I wasn't really worried about that right now, we were just-" "More worried about getting home...right?" Jason finished for her. "I...yes, but how'd you know?" "Just a hunch." The equines simply looked at each other but said nothing. After a few silent seconds Celestia spoke up. "You wouldn't know how to-" "Get you back home?" "Yes." Jason sighed farther back into his chair. "No...I don't - I'm sorry." Everyone in the room deflated visibly, until another voice called out from elsewhere. "So...we can't get back then? How will I get home? Back to my ponies that need?" The voice that said that seemed like it had no business in the wasteland. A few second more and another Alicorn appeared in the door's threshold wearing a very sad expression on her face. Jason stood up walked a bit closer to her. "Now, that ain't what I said, I said I had no idea how to get you back, that don't mean I can't try my damned'st to find a way to get you back home." Jason thought for a moment before speaking again. "Do you have someone special?" Cadence looked up with teary eyes. "Y-Yes, why?" "Who is he?" "It's Shining, Shining Armor." Jason stepped closer to her. "Think about him." "Wha-" "Think about him, think about everything that's important to you, and you'll get through this." "Cadence looked at Jason for a moment before looking down with a smile on her face. "Thank you..." "Jason, Jason North, at your service." He said in a fairly decent British accent causing the mares to let out a few giggles which turned into laughter. Eventually it died done enough that Cadence spoke again. "I really needed that, thank you Jason." "Hey, no problem, helping people's what I do, wither it be physical or emotional, though that last part is still iffy at times." Jason said with a toothy grin. It was either coincidence or he might have been waiting by the door, but Shining Armor walked through the door at that moment. "Cadence, are you alright?" Said princess walked up to him and wrapped him in a hug. "I'm fine now love, I'm fine now." Shining hugged her back. "I promise we'll find a way to get back." Jason knew when to leave people alone, especially during times like this. "Hey, Twilight, you got a place where we can go and finish this discussion, you know, so we can give them some time alone?" Twilight thought for a couple of seconds before speaking again. "We can use my bedroom upstairs." Jason nodded and looked to the others, to which they nodded as well and followed Jason and Twilight to her room. "Nice room you got. You living with anyone? It' be kind of lonely living alone." "Yes, I live with Spike; he gets the spare bedroom downstairs." "You two together?" Twilight stumbled, which entail caused the rest of them to crash into her thus making her fall onto her hands and knees. Jason noticed this and kneeled down to help her up. "Sorry 'bout that, I was just curious, didn't mean to make you get flustered." "N-No, it's alright, and no, me and Spike are not together, we just live in the same home. He's lived with me for since I moved to Ponyville." Jason nodded his head and walked further into the room, sort of taking it in; it was a nice room. Jason looked up and saw a poster stuck onto the ceiling. It had a of five stallions all dressed up in what looked like metal band attire. "So I take it you like these guys?" Jason said pointing up towards above Twilight's bed, making everyone else in the room look upwards and making Twilight squeak in embarrassment. "Ummmm, hehe, m-maybe?" She said with a embarrassed smile, a faint blush touching her cheeks. Celestia and Luna giggled in the most adorable way along with Chrysalis' own laughter in the mix until she turned to look at the sun and moon princesses. "Oh why are you laughing, I saw both you and your sister Luna 'rocking out' in her bedroom to them once. I remember it now, I believe I was looking for you because I needed to discuss something regarding immigration between my changelings and your towns?" Celestia and Luna both immediately stopped giggling and went straight to resembling bright red tomatoes. it was now Twilight's turn to giggle at her old mentor's expense. "Oh it's okay to like them Celestia, after all plenty of other's like them and I'm sure it couldn't have been that bad." Chrysalis tentatively raised a hand. "Actually thy were both wearing some very interesting clothing. Spiked wristbands, some very interesting pants and some very showy tops. I'd think that they were into something else." If the two sisters could get any more red, they're heads would have been engulfed in flames. This only caused Twilight, Chrysalis and Jason to giggle and chuckle all the more. Cadence decided to come through the door at that moment. "Twilight, your friends are downstairs and want to talk to you and Jason." The purple Alicorn stopped giggling at the mention of her friends. "Oh, I'll be right down. You coming Jason? I'm sure they'll have questions for you mostly." "Yeah, sure, why not. Let's go meet your friends properly." Author's Note Yeah, weapons training, fighting ants, Flash almost getting beheaded by an ant, and Jason coming in to save his sorry butt. Not bad Jason, not bad at all, though, Flash better get his shit together or he's going to become ant food next time. So I gave the story a bit more body this chapter since last chapter was more of a get it started sort of thing. I haven't given a reason to Jason disdain for raiders yet, but that doesn't mean I'll leave you all hanging on that. I believe the next chapter will have his reason so stay tuned fellow wastelanders. Some deep stuff will be shared next chapter, so be ready for the feels. Hope you enjoy, and this has been Cobolt Soundwave, with a wasteland update. Goodbye, and until next time, keep you guns clean and loaded, your head down, and remember only you can prevent stupid deaths.
Time To Go Out And ExploreJason and Twilight made there way downstairs and into the main room of the library. "Hi girls." Her friends responded back with their own greetings. "Hey, Twilight." "Hello Darling." Until her Pegasus friend chimed in. "What's whatshisface doing here?" Dash spat out. "Rainbow! He's here because he wants to help, so don't go starting a fight for nothing. Got it!?" Twilight light reprimanded her rainbow haired friend. "Tch, whatever. If he does anything stupid, though, I'm not gonna' hesitate to put him in the ground." She said, not holding back any disdain for the man. "Whatever skittles, but it ain't gonna' be me when I have to tell your friends why you got killed by some raider or some other dangerous thing outside in the wastes because you didn't listen to me." Jason quickly retaliated back. Rainbow, not understanding that he was just trying to prove a point, just took it as a insult. "What did you say asshole!?" Jason quickly jumped to his feet and took a stance that of a drill sergeant. "I HAVE HAD TO BURY TO MANY OF MY FRIENDS ALREADY! I AM NOT GOING TO BURY SOMEONE ELSE'S BECAUSE THEY WOULDN'T HEED MY WARNING!" He belted out at her. Rainbow Dash and the other's got deathly quiet, and if the princesses heard him upstairs, which they most likely heard him, they said nothing. Rainbow ever so slowly floated back down to the ground, her ears pinned against her head. "I don't want to see anymore innocent lives lost." Jason said in a more somber voice as he stared down at the floor, his messy brown hair covering his eyes from anything that might look at him. "I just don't want to see my friends get hurt, that's all. I'm sorry I got so edgy with you, I just...I just, hate this place already. One fricken day, no, not even one day and somepony's tried to attack us. I mean what the fuck!" Dash said before she slumped down against the wall she had backed herself up to and onto the floor. Jason walked over to the hunched over form of Rainbow and kneeled down and put a hand on her shoulder, making her look up at him and into his deep blue eyes. "Hey, I made a promise and I'm going to keep it. I'll do everything I can to make sure you girls and the rest of the town get back to wherever it is you came from, okay?" Dash nodded her head gingerly as she continued to look at him, never braking eye contact, and Jason doing the same - until he stood up and gave Dash his hand to help her up. "Okay so you girls had questions?" The girls either responded or said "Yes" or something of the like. "Okay then, I guess we'll start wiiiiiiiith, you." Jason said, pointing to Rarity. "Oh, uhh, alright then darling. Where are we?" "You're in the wasteland." Jason answered back like a smart-ass. Rarity gave him a look that said "Are you kidding me?". "Dear, I meant where are me exactly? You know as in a place." Rarity asked again. "Alright, alright, I won't kid around. You're just a ways away from the old REPCONN Headquarters. The big building you see just over the house's to your right when you step out of here." Rarity nodded and Applejack stepped up. "All right then I guess it's my turn. Now, are you in some sort of military? Cause' yur' wearin' some weird lookin' armor there partner." "Well to answer your question, no. I'm not in the military, I was working for someone who had this armor on and...well, let's just say that on a little mission we were on a raider caught him off guard, which is very rare for a ranger of his status to happen to, and he got killed. I took his armor and painting on this little symbol here on the shoulder pads to signify myself in the wasteland. Don't want anyone thinking that I work for these guys if they dislike them, ya'know?" "Alright then sugarcube." Applejack said backing up too, letting Rainbow Dash take lead for her question. "Hey, I heard you saved some poor guard's life before with that gun of yours. I want a crack at it." She said confidently, to which Jason responded with a deadpan look and a shake of his head. "No can do Rainbow." To say that Dash was disappointed was an understatement. "What!? Why not?" "Well first of all, none of you have any weapons training. The only reason I had the guards use them was because, duh, they're guards. That's their job, to protect you, and they did a damn good job too taking out a bunch of ants." "Pfft, ants, they're tiny." Rainbow scoffed. Jason looked right at Rainbow until she opened her eyes again and uncrossed her arms from her defiant pose. "What?" "Dash, the wasteland has changed many a thing, and the animals and bugs are one of them. Those 'tiny' ants as you put it, can easily gore and or cut a man my size in half with it's jaws. They stand at just knee height if not bigger and can come at you fast if you aren't paying attention." Jason said with his own arms crossed. "Fine." Dash mumbled as she walked back to her friends, where Pinkie took her turn. "Hiya, I'm Pinkie, do you like parties? OH! Maybe you like chocolate or strawberry, maybe vanilla?" Jason cut Pinkie off with a question that left her dumbfounded. "What's a strawberry?" Everypony in the room gasped and Twilight asked him. "You don't know what a strawberry is?" Jason shook his head. "Nope, not a clue." Pinkie walked back with a determined face, most likely thinking of a plan to throw a party for Jason. Next up was Twilight. "What kind of technology does your world have?" "You mean before the war or after when it pretty much got all blown to kingdom come?" Jason asked back. Twilight blanched at the thought of so much tech. that she never had the chance to study just...gone. "What? But, what about the thing on your wrist?" Jason lifted his arm up. "Oh this? Well these were standard for people living in vaults...I never lived in one. I always lived outside here." Twilight looked confused, as did the rest of the mares in the room with him. "But if you only get one of those in a...vault thing, then why do you have one?" "Well you see I was out scavenging one day and I found someone with a vault outfit. He was hurt pretty bad too. I tried to help him but in the end he took out a tool and removed the darn thing from his wrist and gave it to me and told me, "Don't lose your way kid." and that's the last thing he said before he died there. I buried him and then I put the thing on. Funny thing is, I never had a clue as to what it would do, what with me being a different person. I guess it recognized that it was a new person since it displayed the words 'new user' on the screen. I panicked a bit when the thing pricked me with a needle to get a sample of my blood, but here's the crazier part. After it did that, it displayed my vitals, it told me if I was hurt or if I broke a bone or even if I was suffering from radiation poisoning. This thing has saved me so many times, it ain't even funny...sorry 'bout that I kind of what of on a tangent there." Twilight was busy scribbling everything that he had said to her on a piece of paper. "Hmm? Oh no trouble, I was just wrote the parts about the device...not about you now the guy." She finished off with a sheepish smile. "Ahhh, someone who's into research I presume?" Dash stepped up. "Yeah, a real egghead." She said giggling to herself. Twilight pouted and was about to retaliate when Jason spoke up. "And what's wrong with being smart? You know if not for the fact that we had some pretty smart people, we wouldn't have doctor's or even the people who built the vaults to help save what's left of the people on this world." Dash opened her mouth but then closed it for a second, and then opened it again. "I...guess that makes sense." Jason shrugged and leaned back into his seat. "Anyone else?" Fluttershy stepped up, although a rather meekly. "Umm, are there more than just bugs around here? Plants, animals?" Jason breathing deeply and releases a big sigh. "Well, I guess there are animals...but, they aren't really what you'd call friendly. They are not like the old animals that they use to be before the war. They're changed, mutated, and they would sooner attack you then want to get to know you. Hell even the dogs are a bit aggressive now...well actually there is one dog I know of that isn't aggressive and he's half robot." Fluttershy was saddened that all the animals weren't as friendly as she'd hoped they were, but she perked up at hearing that there was at least one animal that might be friendly. "Do you know where he is? I'd like to meet him." Fluttershy asked with her hands clasped together under her chin. "Well I-" Jason was cut off by the sounds of scratching on the door. Jason instantly knew who it was and walked to the door and opened it, where he was promptly tossed to the ground by a half-robot. half-dog...dog. "Hahaha, cut it out Rexy, come on hahaha." Jason chuckled as the robot dog licked his face with a happy vigor. When Rex finished licking him he got off and sat on his haunches and stared a the six mares in the room with his head tilted sideways in wonder. "Everyone, meet Rex, this is the dog I was talking about Fluttershy," Jason knelt down and rubbed the dome that held Rex's brain, making him pant and kick his legs a bit. "go on boy say hi to her, she's nice." Rex stood up and strutted slowly towards Fluttershy as said mare got onto her knees to greet the dog. "Hello there little guy." She got no warning as Rex jumped on her too and began licking her face as well, all the while Fluttershy was giggling from the affection that she was receiving from the dog. "Come on Rexy, I'm sure she's happy to see you too, now come on." Jason said playfully to his companion. Rex Climbed off of Fluttershy as she stood up and dusted herself off. "He's very cute." "And awesome, dude where'd he get all awesome-fied?" Jason started petting his little furry friend. "Well his legs got blown off, his skull was damaged, his body was half crushed and most of his vital organs were damaged...that's how he got 'awesome-fied' as you put it Dash." To say that was slightly mortified was an understatement. "How could something like that happen to him!?" "Well it's a dangerous place out there in the wastes, and poor old Rexy was just unlucky, he stepped on a land mine - that's how he lost his two legs. They were too badly mangled form the shrapnel to simply patch him up, so they removed the legs at the base of his body and then replaces them with neuron receptors and the robotic legs you see before you to let him walk again. as for the rest, I have no clue. What I can tell you, though, is that he is one hell of a strong dog to go through all this and still make it this far. Also he's at least older than, hmmm oh I'd say 30 dog years? Maybe more. The brain in his brain casing is new, somehow they managed to move his memory's over to this new brain. I don't question how they did it, I'm just glad they did." Jason finished off with a loving ruffle of the dog's ears. Fluttershy ran up to the dog and gave him a big hug, which Rex didn't seem to mind all that much. "Oh you poor thing," She said to the dog as she continued to hug him. "that's horrible that he went through so much." She said to Jason. "Yes, it's bad, but look at him," He said pointing to Rex. "he's still happy, and I'm happy about that." Fluttershy let go of Rex and fluttered her way back to her friends. "Now if that's all, I'd like to go check on the guards outside. You can tag along if you want to." Jason said as he and Rex made there way outside and back to where the guards were last left. Jason saw that they all seemed to know how to handle a weapon until he saw one of the Changling guards look down the barrel his rifle, as he tried to un-jam his gun. Jason was no more than a few feet away when he saw the gun finally un-jam and his finger pressed the trigger by accident. Jason surged forward and pushed the barrel of the rifle upwards as it unloaded straight into the air, and not into the guards' head. Said guard was damn close to soiling himself. "Wha-what?" "You almost bloody shot yourself you twit," He said to the stallion with a stern stare. "listen up everyone, these things are not toys, they kill, so if your gun jams," He looked back to the still slightly shaken guard. "you should never try and un-jam it and look down the barrel, lest you want to re-arrange your face with a bullet." Jason turned to look at the rest of the guards when he got an idea. "Okay, everyone I have a little proposition for you all!" He shouted out loud enough for the ponies in the area to hear him. "I'm going to be going out to scavenge in a bit, my little friend here," He patted Rex on the head. "Will stay behind with you all. Now, I say that, ohh, no more than five of you can come with me, as bigger groups are very risky and cause you to gain some unwanted attention. So...who wants to come and see what this place looks like outside of here?" Very quickly a voice sounded from behind him.. "I'll go with you!" Jason turned to see Shining Armor with his cowboy repeater pointed downwards walking towards him. "Very well then, and I se you know how to walk with your weapon drawn as well - very good. Never have you gun pointed at yourself or at anything you don't intend to shoot and or kill." Jason turned back to look for anymore takers and he saw a taloned hand go up. "I'll go with you!" Said a gruff voice. The owner of the voice was a griffon who looked like she could handle herself in a close quarters fight. "Well then, miss, what's your name?" The griffon smirked and jabbed a talon at herself. "Names Gilda, Gilda Stryker." "Well if Gilda's going then so am I," Dash said from behind Jason. "and don't you dare tell me I can't go either buster." she said pointing a finger at Jason. "Well them if Dash's goin' then so am ah'." Said a confident Applejack. Jason nodded his head and made a mental note to make sure that they all got some armor before they headed out. "Well that's four. Anyone else?" "I'm coming with you too!" Shouted a voice from the guards this time. It was a changeling guard with a red mane and tail with some black stripes running through it here and there. She had eyes like that of a pony's as well, which Jason thought interesting. "Okay then, that's all five." Jason turned to look at his impromptu scavenging group he had put together. "Well, looks like we're going to have to get you all suited up. Come on then, follow me, maybe Rarity can fix up some of the extra armor I have." ~~~~ About an hour later the three ponies, one griffon and one changeling, all gathered just at the edge of town where the four princesses were there to see them off. "Take care my love." "I will, and don't worry Cadence I'll be fine." Shining said to his wife as he kissed one last time before he re-joined the group again. "Bye, Shiny, be careful please, and you two girls, be careful!" Twilight shouted to her brother and two friends as they made there way out of town and into the wastes. "Don'tchu' worry Twi, we'll be fine." Applejack said, tipping her hat. "Don't worry Twilight, we'll be alright, and if we aren't you can kick this guys ass for us." Dash grinned as she joked and pointed to Jason. "Stick with me and you'll be fine, and we might be out for a while so if we don't return we'll be back tomorrow okay?" "Alright then, I trust that you'll keep our ponies safe," Celestia said. "And the griffon as well, sister." Luna added. "yes and the griffon as well, they fall under our rule so please take care of them." "And my guard as well." Said Chrysalis, as she appeared from behind the princesses. They all nodded in agreement. "Don't worry, they'll be safe with me!" Jason shouted out one last time before he turned back around continued out into the barren land before them. Jason lead his group down the highway in silence but soon broke it. "So," he turned to look at the changeling in the group. "what's your name, cause' I don't you ever told us." Said changeling stumbled a bit at being called on like that. "Ohh, uhh, my name is Vexan, Vexan Nora." "Are you a newbie in your guard unit Vexan?" "Uhh, yeah, you can tell?" She asked, slightly embarrassed. "Yeah, a bit. The way you stumbled when I called you, the way you answered me back when you told me your name. The little things." "Oh." Vexan said, sounding a bit saddened by the fact that he could tell that she wasn't exactly a veteran guard yet. "Hey, cheer up, now that you're here I guess you can get some practice in protecting, huh?' Jason said to her. "I, uhh, I guess so...thanks." Vexan said getting back some of her resolve. "So, Shining, the armor fit fine? I had Rarity fix it up a bit, and I even had her keep some of the armor from your old suit on this one too." What Jason said was true. The Leather armor Shining had on was reinforced with some of his old metal armor. He kept the breastplate and the shoulder pads; even the knee guards stayed, along with the boots, though those had to be taken apart to fit over the boots he was wearing. "It fits fine, thanks by the way, for keeping some of the armor I mean," Shining said as he touched the breastplate. "let's me know I'm not going to just completely change with this place, I'd like to at least keep something the same, after all, this chest piece has been with my family for years." Jason nodded his head and looked at the others. Gilda had on some regular reinforced leather armor and was toting a point forty-four on her hip along with a hunting rifle that Jason had pulled from his pip-boy. Dash and Applejack had some reinforced armor of their own as well. Applejack had a lever-action shotgun while Dash had a snub nose revolver and a service rifle. Shining, though, had something a bit more heavy hitting. he had a light machine gun with a point forty-five pistol on his hip. Vexan had a sniper rifle with a silencer on it for being deadly silent; she did say she was more keen to silent methods of attack. She also had ten millimeter SMG on her person. Vexan was also wearing a set of merc. armor. Jason still had on his personalized NCR combat ranger duster and he had his customized cowboy repeater with him still but now he also had a ranger sequoia on his right hip and a sawed-off on his left hip. Gilda finally spoke after staying quiet this whole time. "Where exactly are we going anyway?" "Well I thought we'd go to the 188 trading post and then after that we're going down to a small town south of there called Novac. Maybe you guys can find some stuff on the way there so you can sell it for caps." "And that's another thing. what do you guys use for money anyway?" Jason pulled out a half rusted bottle cap. "We use these. All other money is useless paper to us." Gilda motioned for him to toss it over so she could take a look at it. "Heehee, now I got one cap, thanks." Gilda slid it into one of her pockets on her armor as Jason chuckled to himself. "Shoulda' seen that coming. Well, anyway we should-" A gun shot cut Jason off as it hit just in front of his foot, just barely missing hitting him. "Fuck! Viper's! Get down, find cover!" Jason ended up behind a rock with Gilda as Dash ended up with Applejack behind her own. Shining armor was behind a wrecked car with Vexan as she was scoping out where they were. She saw one popping his head out and without a second glance pulled the trigger, blasting brain matter and bits of skull out the other end of the raiders head, dropping him instantly. Although it was done without much thought the fact that she had her first kill quickly caught up with her as she hid behind the car for cover again. "Dang-it! I got somethin' close range, this ain't gonna' work! Dash you got the rifle, you think ya' can get one o' them." Applejack yelled over the sounds of bullets hitting and whizzing past their rock hiding spot. "Can do AJ!" Dash shouted back as she hefted her rifle up and looked down the sights to see another of the bastards that were shooting at them. She leveled the sights on his leg and pulled the trigger, landing a hit right in his thigh sending his down to the ground, clutching his now bleeding leg. For her first time using a gun it wasn't too bad a shot. Jason and Gilda on the other hand had their work cut out for them. They were stuck behind their spot, completely unable to fire at them unless they wanted to risk getting hit. Gilda finally got fed up with not being able to right back so she popped out of cover enough to hoist her gun up and take aim. She squeezed off two rounds before she let out a shriek of pain as blood shot out of her shoulder and she slumped back against the rock. "S-Sonava...fucker got me." She painfully groaned out. "Don't move, stay right here, I'll deal with the rest," Jason said as he made a mad dash to the car that Shining was at, narrowly avoiding the gunfire aimed directly at him. When he got to the car, he flung himself to the ground next the him. "hey, you need to lay down some fire on the cars over there, got it. Just lean into the shot and let her rip, I'll handle the rest." Jason barked out. Shining nodded and they both prepared to end this little confrontation. A few seconds past until, "NOW!" Jason shouted as he jumped up out of over and took aim while Shining did as he was told and began hosing down the area with bullets, making it impossible for the raiders to pop out of cover lest they get shot. Too bad for them Jason was sporting A.P. rounds in his rifle at the moment. With three loud bangs from his repeater, all three raiders dropped, as the A.P. rounds tore through the hulls of the car doors, each on of them finding a new home within each of their chests. With that done Jason jogged back to his previous hiding spot to where an injured Gilda was, still holding her shoulder as she continued to bleed. "Hey, lemme' see," Jason nudged her hand aside to see the wound. It didn't look nearly as bad as it probably felt, but he had to make sure that is was a clean shot. Sure enough it had made it all the way through, since there was an entrance and an exit wound. With that information acquired he went to his pip-boy and pulled out a Stim-pak and a med-x for the soreness afterwards. "here, this'll fix you up right quick." He said as she inserted the needle into her shoulder causing her to let out a squawk of pain and then a groan as the medicine started to go to work re-knitting her skin and making it seem like there was no wound at all, save for the small bald spot where there was no feather hiding her peach colored skin underneath. "What's the other one for?" Gilda asked. "This one's for the pain, it does hurt right?" "A little bit." She said with a wince and a slight grimace as Jason injected her once again, only this time a look of relief washed over her face and she let out a sigh. "Better?" "Better." Gilda responded as she got up and rolled her shoulder a bit and picked up her hunting rifle she dropped upon getting shot. Jason passed his hand through his hair and sighed. "Well so much for making sure you guys stay safe huh?" When no one answered he looked around and saw Vexan still on the ground giving that thousand yard stare while still clutching her rifle. The thing that passed through his head was, 'Great, first kill guilt.' and then he made his way over to her and knelt down. "She's been like that since after she killed that one raider." Said Shining as he crouched down as well. "Hey?" Jason said, trying to get Vexan's attention. WHen that didn't work, he put his hand on her shoulder and shook her gently. "Hey!?" "Huh!? Wha?" She said, snapping out of her thoughts with a start. "You okay, I saw you blast a raiders brains out. That was your first actual kill, right?" "Y-Yeah, I just, I didn't really think, I just aimed and pulled the trigger...just like we were thought to do with a bow; It just never crossed my mind how I was taking someone's life, even if he was shooting at us." Vexan said with a somber tone. "Hey, listen," Jason said standing back up. "if you hadn't of shot him, who's to know that he wouldn't have shot you or shining or the others for the matter, heck even me. Just because I know how to protect myself, doesn't mean that I still can't get hurt. So, I should be thanking you." "But-" "No, no buts, that guy would have sooner come over here and killed you, or worse, he might have dragged you off to some god-forsaken slaver camp and tortured you, so at least know that you killed him, but by no means, do not feel to bad for him or her." Jason said, trying to reassure her and it seemed to work. With a sigh and a grunt, Vexan stood up and nodded her head. "Alright, good," Jason looked in the direction of the raider, which was where they needed to go. "we should get a move on." He said before he started back down the road with the others in tow. "Hey you guys actually did good today...you know, for a bunch of civvies." He said chuckling. "Yeah, well, if you want to get with the best of the best flyers back home, you can't have hesitation." Said Rainbow, though , he could hear a slight tremble in her voice. He thought he'd leave her be for now. As they passed by the other set of cars they heard groaning, when they got closer they saw the raider that dash shot in the leg trying to crawl away, that is before Jason shot in in the back, straight thru his heart, finally killing him. Jason sighed and shook his head. "Damn animals is what these guys are. Fuckers don't care for anything else but their own sick and twisted pleasures." "Why do they do it?" Asked Shining. "I don't know man, sometimes they think it's the only way to get by in this world. They're just making it harder for the rest of us to live peacefully...or as peaceful as we can try to live." Shining nodded and they continued on their way down the road. "Next Stop, the one eighty-eight trading post." With that, the group began their trek anew thru this desolate wasteland. Author's Note Damn Gilda took that bullet like a champ, and poor Vexan got a bit shaken up from her first kill. Oh well, it's a good thing Jason was there to make her feel better. What surprises await for our wasteland adventurers next time? Find out next time on 'Equestria Meets Wasteland'. So, I decided to cut this in half since it was going to be pretty big. That and I wanted to get an update out for you guys too since it's been a while since the last update. Anyway hope you enjoy and remember to like and fav. and comment if you like the story, or if you just want to chat with me, that's fine, I love talking to my readers. ~ This is, Cobolt, soundin' out
On The Road Again...or NotAfter the small run in with those raiders--it took Jason and company about fifteen or so minutes to reach the one eighty-eight trading post for some much needed rest. “Finally...some rest.” Said Vexan as she walked over to a piece of still intact concrete road partition and slumped to the ground against it. “Well after today, I think we earned it.” Said Jason as he tossed a bottle of clean water over to her, which she took and drank immediately. “Thanks.” She said after she downed little more than half the bottle. “Don’t mention it. Enjoy it now though--clean water is very hard to come by in the wastes.” Jason responded back. “Exactly how hard?” Asked Shining as he sat in the stool next to Jason. “Harder than trying to get laid after a long dry spell my friend.” Jason says, making Gilda, Rainbow and Applejack laugh. “Good one.” Rainbow said with a hint of giggle in her voice. Jason got off his stool and left shining to walk over to Gilda who was just setting her rifle down against the wall. “How’s your arm Gilda?” Gilda looked at where she got shot before and ran that moment over again in her head. If she had been a little more to the left, she would have been dead for sure. “It;s doing fine. The feathers will regrow, don’t you worry about me, I’m fine.” She said with smirk on her face. Though Jason could tell she was hiding something. “You know, the first time I got shot...I thought I was gonna die for sure.” Gilda looked at him with a confused look across her face. “Why are you telling me this now?” Jason looked at her arm and then at her face. “Because--where I got shot was in the head.” Everyone in the camp went silent as Jason took a glove off his hand and passed it through his hair, exposing the scar above his right eye where two nine-millimeter bullets collided, but didn’t pass through his skull. “You’d think that someone who got shot in the head would die from that--but, lemme’ tell you something,” He looked up at her so she could see his face. “I’m one stubborn sonova’bitch ta’ kill.” He said with steeled look in his eyes. “I can see that. most people who take an arrow to the face, or in this case a bullet, would surely die.” Said Shining. “Yeah,” Jason pulled out a bottle of whiskey from his duster and took a few gulps--he shook his head and coughed once before screwing the cap back on and putting it away. “most do, though I didn’t. I ain’t just gonna lay down and die like that.” “From a bullet tah’ the head? Sugarcube, now I know this ain’t the time tah’ get morbid like this, but I’d die from a bullet tah’ the head.” Applejack added. “Are yah’ stubborn as a rock?” Asked Jason. Applejack nodded her head. “Sometimes.” “Then you’re fine.” He said back. Applejack turned looked away with a smile on her face before she zipped her head back in Jason’s direction. “Hey!” Everyone got a good laugh out of that as even Shining armor was laughing up a storm at the bar. “Hardy har har. Very funny.” Applejack said as she crossed her arms across her chest and snorted. “Awww lighten up There AJ--it was just a joke.” Rainbow said as she nudged AJ’s shoulder. “Awwwww, whatever. Fine, I’ll let it slide.” “Hey, so, why did you get shot in the head for?” Rainbow asked bluntly. “Rainbow, that’s probably not something you should just ask like that.” Shining said. “Don’t worry, I don’t mind it.” Jason turned to look at Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “Well, the reason I got shot in the head was because of what I had on me. See, I was a courier before I was shot--but I digress. I was in the middle of transporting said item across the wastes to that very big tower in the distance. Before I could get there however, I was knocked out and woke up tied up and on my knees surrounded by a bunch of really bad looking people and a guy in a suit with the item that I was transporting in his hand. I was gonna’ say something, until he pulled out a silver and gold nine millimeter and pointed at my head telling me, “The game was rigged from the start.” and he pulled the trigger twice I guess--I was only conscious for the first shot. After that, I woke up in a small town in a doctor's office with very little memory of I was before. All I had on me when I was given my stuff back was a small name tag with the name “Jason” on it, a gun and some bullets, some food and water, and some bottle caps.” Jason looked up to see his companions all looking at him with a somber look on his face. meanwhile he just pulled out the bottle whiskey again and took a few more gulps. “Now I’m here. So I’d say that fucker is gonna get what’s coming to him when I see him soon.” “How can you say something like that without even flinching? I’m sure you mean to get revenge on him for trying to kill you in the first place, but you don’t even sound the least bit remorseful.” Said Vexan. “That’s because I don’t feel remorse for anyone trying to kill me...or for someone who half succeeded in doing so. I’ll gladly find him and put a bullet right in between his fucking eyes and give him a taste of what he gave me. Think of it of…...returning the favour.” “I can see why you’d want to go and get your payback on him, but are you sure that killing him will fix anything?” Asked Shining. “Nope.” Jason said casually back. “But I’ll get my revenge on his sorry ass. That’s how the world works right now.” Jason said. “Someone fucks with you and you live, you find them and return the favour.” No one said anything for a bit before Gilda spoke. “Makes sense. Someone fucks with me, I’ll put’em in the ground.” “Ditto, sister. Nobody fucks with me and expects to not get theirs.” Jason said back. Rainbow Dash got up and walked over to one of the tents and stretched her back. “Well, I think I’m going to hit the sack.” “Sleep? Now? It’s only just hit mid-day--we’re nowhere near where we need to be yet--we’re just resting.” Rainbow and Vexan shot around and looked at Jason. “WHAT!?” They both shouted. “Yeah, we’re going to a town called Novac to get some more supplies, ammo and see an old friend of mine.” “Uggggghhhhh.” “Oh come on Rainbow, don’t’ be like that. We’ve barely even gone anywhere.” AJ said as she poked Dash in the head. “Maybe we should call it a day?” Asked Vexan. “No can do. We’ve burned enough daylight as is--we need to keep moving so when can get to town before the sun starts to go down. Bad shit comes out at that time.” Jason said grabbing his rifle and standing up. Rainbow and Vexan both reluctantly grabbed their things and joined the rest of the group as they made their way past the bar area and onto the road past it.Just as they made it below Rainbow spoke again. “So where is this No-vac...yeah, Novac. What direction is it in?” “Well if we cut through the dry lake bed we could make it to there in less time, but-” “Perfect, then I guess we’re going through there.” Rainbow said as she split off and started walking towards the lake bed. “Rainbow, I don’t think it would be a good idea to go off the road. A lot of really bad mutated animals could be wandering around there.That or other people who want nothing more than to do really bad things to us. You saw those kind of people earlier.” Jason said with some force behind his voice. Rainbow cringed a bit and her ears flopped against her head--something Jason noticed. Rainbow quickly got her bravado back and just shrugged it off. “Awwwww, they get creamed anyway. If more come after us again, we can so take them.” Jason watched as she just kept walking off towards the lake bed. “Damn it Rainbow!” Jason looked back and forth between the road and the lake bed before taking off after Rainbow. “Rainbow, I just said it’s really bad to deviate from the roads because there could be something bad out there.Plus, there is a slight sandstorm right now--our visibility is gonna be crap.” Jason kept walking since he wasn’t just going to leave her to split off from them like that. “This can only end bad.” Rainbow scoffed at him. “Quit being a baby. What’s the worst that can happen?” Jason facepalmed. “And you just signed our death warrant.” Jason pulled his rifle out and had it ready. The other did the same, though Vexan did it more out of fear. Jason and Shining moved to the outside of the group to watch the sides. Just as Rainbow was going to say something, a big pair of jaws and a head of a creature poked through the sand with it’s jaws wide open and ready to bite through her. Jason whipped his rifle to it and fired without a second to spare. Rainbow looked back in time to see the giant worker ant about to crush her head like a mutfruit--and then watch it’s head splatter in a shower of it’s blood and gore. She barely had time to react as more ants came out of the sand crawling towards them. One of the ants, Jason knew was different and put on his helmet. Shining had already tore through two of the smaller ones and Vexan shaily shot and killed a bigger one. Applejack was just finishing putting down another giant worker ant when the last small one crawled up to here and looked like it was about to spit something--only for it to spit fire out of it’s mouth. Applejack froze on the spot and watch as it crawled close to her. Shining yelled at her to move, but she was stuck in place from the shock that an ant was spitting fire at her. The ant shook it’s head and was about to spew more of its fire at her when she was shoved out of the way by Jason--who was now engulfed in flames. “JASON!” Shining and surprisingly Vexan start tearing into the ant with the remainder of their clips until their empty. They all look to where Jason was and saw him standing there--still engulfed in the fire from the ant, though it was starting to die down due to the sand storm. Jason turned his head to the side to look at them. “This is why we don’t go off the path when I tell you not to.” He patted out the last of the flames on his duster and picked off a few more of the ants before continuing to cross the lake bed--now devoid of ants, it was safe to cross it. The group crossed the lake bed without any further problems until the came up on the road there were on before again. “This time let’s stay on the road please.” “Yeah, yeah, alright. So, anyway, I suppose you guys are wondering about my past, and if not, now you are.” Jason ran a gloved hand through his hair and ruffled it a bit. “I don’t remember where I was born or exactly how old I am, nor do I really remember much of my past. So I suppose I can tell you about everything that happened after I woke up from getting my head carefully, and I mean very carefully, operated on.” Jason breathed deeply and let out a long sigh before continuing. “I woke up and immediately left the small doctors house I was in--nice guy, patched me up for free. I did a few things around there to help them out--helped them clear out some vermin, fixed a radio, killed a few people that were causing a ‘ahem’ disturbance in the town. They were no good anyway, so if you think I killed people that were innocent, you’re wrong. They were all in jail for something.” Jason looked back and made eye contact with Shining. “As long as you did it to protect, nothing else matters Jason.” “Right, so, anyway--after that I left the town in search of the guy who shot me in the brain socket. So, I eventually made it to Novac, which is where we’re headed right now--and I helped someone else with a problem. Poor guys wife was taken away with his unborn child in her womb still and sold as a slave. She was dead already according to him, so all he told me was to, and I quote, “Find the son of a bitch who sold her to the legion bastards.” and bring them to him. Suffice to say, the bitch who sold her to them is now just a stain on the dirt in front of the town. Huh...wonder if the body is still there, maybe I can put one more round in her just to do it.” Gilda cut in. “Some bitch sold another one of her town's members over to some group called...the legion? What...for money? Power? I don’t get it. either way, doesn’t matter--she’s dead now and she can’t do that to any other peo-” Gilda got cut off when a grenade from a grenade rifle came whistling through the air and struck right in front of her--launching her in the air and into a heap on the ground behind the group. “MOTHERFUCKER!” Jason shouted before taking a bullet to the side and the thigh--dropping him quick. “Fucking hell, I need to get some fucking armour for my legs damn it! You’d think I’d learn by now!” He raised his rifle with a grimace as the bullet wound in his side burned like a red hot fire poker in his side. “FUCKING DROP’EM!” Shining began unloading a full clip from his LMG into the three raider members. The raiders didn’t even flinch--they were too hopped up on chems to even care about the pony with the big gun aimed and unloading on them. They kept advancing and firing on them until the one with the grenade launcher took a round to the face that blew out the back of her head and dropped her. After the one got dropped, the other two started running at them with knives and screaming at the top of there lungs. “VIIIIPEEEEERS!” The one screamed--right before his head was reduced to blood and gore by Applejack’s shotgun. “FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT! YOU’LL PAY FOR THAT!” She screamed as she put another shell into the other guy, making him double over clutching his stomach. Rainbow then took her snub nose and put it against his head and pulled the trigger; blowing his brains out the back of his head. “THAT’S FOR GILDA YOU SORRY FUCKFACE!” “Guys...up to...the gas station up there...we can check on her...and I can patch us both up……...if she’s still breathing.” Jason said with pained groans in between words. Applejack helped Shining to carefully move Gilda up to the gas station and Rainbow dragged Jason by the back of his armour while Vexan watched with her rifle for any more raiders in hiding--all the while her hands were a trembling mess. Upon getting to the door, Shining kicked the door open and they carefully set her down on the floor. Gilda was a bloody mess. Blood seeped through her armour in multiple places and she had bits of shrapnel sticking out of her legs and arms and even her chest in a few places. Blood was coming out of her mouth but she was still faintly breathing from what Shining could tell. Jason reached into his duster and pulled out a stimpack and jabbed his side and pressed the plunger on the top, then did the same with his leg. Jason started getting up before his skin and was close to finished re-knitting itself back together and dropped to his knees in front of Gilda’s unconscious body. “Okay, I need to get her armour off and remove the larger pieces of shrapnel first--then I need to use something to pull all the smaller bits of metal out of her. I need Applejack and you Vexan, to search this place for anything alcohol and maybe if we’re lucky, some healing items.” Jason started to undo the straps on her armour and remove the pieces slowly. Once he got to the chest piece however, it got tricky--he had to cut the chest piece down the middle and peel it to the sides. Shining and Rainbow help to lift her carefully while Jason slipped the piece off of her and past her wings.as for the legs, he had to remove the pieces of shrapnel first. Using a knife that was attached to his leg, he carefully slipped it into one of the wounds and lifted the flesh and slowly and carefully removed the metal bit--Gilda whimpered softly as he did so. “Shit, forgot to give her the injection.” Jason pulled out a med-x syringe as he said that and gave her the shot, numbing the pain immediately. Jason went on to so the same with the other leg and around the rest of her body, while also closing up any large wounds caused by the bigger pieces of shrapnel. The whole process of removing and stitching up took a whole hour or so. The armour had blocked most of the smaller pieces of the the grenade’s shrapnel, so it was more closing up wounds properly since they didn’t have any stimpacks on hand anymore--Jason had used the last one on her chest to heal her lung and other wounds on her chest. “Okay...that should be it now.” Jason said before falling back on his ass and leaning up against the wall behind him. While he was performing wasteland surgery, the others were moving shelves and making more room inside the place--they moved the four metal shelves up against the wall near the cabinet that was across from the door. Just as the last shelf was propped up against the wall is when Gilda decided to wake up with a groan. “Where...what happened?” Gilda asked very confused. “We’re inside a gas station while you recover.” Jason pulled out an old bottle with a bunch of metal pieces in it and shook it. “You got blow the fuck up by a grenade, but your armour took most of it--that said, you’re armour is fucked now. Also,” Jason shook the bottle again and Gilda looked at it as he brought it closer. “all this was sticking either out of you or in you. Took a good hour to remove all the bits of metal outta’ ya’.” “How am I alive?” Gilda asked with a groan. “Because Jason saved your life. He was the only one that was able to work on you and make sure you pulled through. Neither one of us were trained in something like that, so he took it on himself to do everything--he didn’t stop for a full hour or so until you were completely ‘fixed’ as he said.” Vexan finally spoke for the first time after they came in there. “And how are you holding up--and don’t lie, I saw you shaking when we came in here and you hid yourself away in the corner behind the counter.” Vexan blushed with embarrassment. “Well, I was...losing it I suppose--oh, also, I found this.” SHe pulled out two more stimpacks and handed them to Jason. “This’ll be handy to have again. I really need to buy more, or make more.” Jason said before putting them into his duster. “Still though,” Jason looked up when Vexan started talking again. “I just shut down, I couldn’t do anything after that first kill. I’m fucking useless.” With every word she shrunk deeper into herself until she was a crying ball. Jason walked up to her and kneeled down to look her in the eyes. “Vexan.” Jason lifted her head so she looked at him back. Vexan looked up at him with tearful eyes. “Wh-what?” “I want you to remember that you are part of your Queen’s guard. That there may be a point in time that you may have to kill to protect.” Jason stood up and Vexan looked up at him. “You need to understand, and I’ve told you before, you need to shoot them first before they shoot you. You need to realize that this world will chew you up and mangle you. destroy you if you do not say “Fuck you” and kick it in the fucking nuts back.” Jason puts out his hand to Vexan and she took it. lifting herself up. “I want you to know, it’s fucking difficult. It hurts when you have to turn your back on some people. and it definitely hurts when you get shot by a bullet ,” Jason looks back at Gilda and then back at Vexan. “or blown up by a grenade, a lot more than you being too scared to fire back and kill the guy trying to kill you. They don’t give a shit about you. They’d much rather kill you, rape you and then loot your body. Yes, in the order.” Vexan looked down and hid her eyes with her mane. Jason just backed up and leaned against the wall. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a pussy lately.” Jason looked up at her. “Hmm? You finally growing a pair sweetheart?” Jason chuckled before he got a fist to the gut and he clutched his stomach as he doubled over. “No, I just think you reminded me why I enlisted to the guard in the first place. Also,” Vexan got in his face with her muzzle almost touching his. “pussies can take more of a beating than what you got downstairs Jason.” Vexan walked over to the other side of the room and began looking in one of the crates for anything useful. Jason looked around at everyone in the room and got nothing but surprised stares. “So...besides me, who else thought that was hot?” “Awwwww shut it and give me a fucking stim…thing, whatever you called them.” Gilda said. “I hurt like a bitch all over.” Author's Note Hey guys...and girls. Finally got an update out for one of my stories. Took me long enough XD Anyway, I don't really have much to put in this section...sooooooo...ENJOY THE CHAPTER BYE!
Mister NamelessAuthor's Note Okay, so before you read this, I just thought I should tell you guys, and gals(because I know there are more than just guys out there on this site.), that this will be my first fic. that will have some more of a violent and gritty feel to it. I first wanted to do a fic. like this when I finished reading the original Fallout Equestria by Kkat for the second time. After reading a few other spin-offs, some good and some bad, I thought, "I've seen Black Jack, I've seen Little Pip, and hell I even see mane 6 in the wasteland, I decided that I really wanted to create something new (unless someone has already done something like this, it's original.) and possibly make it fresh again. So, with that out of the way, all I have to say is, I hope you enjoy my story, and if you do be sure to leave a comment below, a like and a fav., and I'll see you around next time. ~This has been Cobolt Soundwave, mesmerizing ya' with my small horse words. P.S. Right, before I forget, there will be instances where it goes to a first person view on some of the characters. Mister Nameless War...war never changes. Man has fought since the day it was born. From rocks and sticks, to swords, to weapons of mass destruction. Over the years man had fought for anything. They fought for religion, they fought for survival, and there were times they fought for something so trivial. When America got itself into war with China, they bathed the world in nuclear fire. The two countries fought until -Bzzzt- "Goddamn it!" Said a man listening to his Pip-boy, as the audio disk's sound cut out with a very angry sounding audio glitch. "Well - I guess I ain't listening to that anymore." He muttered to himself as he ejected the damaged disk, put it back into his knap-sack, and fished around for his binoculars. When he finally got them out, he decided to scope out the area around the rock ledge he was on. He was near the REPCONN Headquarters so he expected to see nothing really out of the ordinary. That wasn't the case today. While looking through his binoculars he saw what looked like a town. A town that seemed to have sprung up out of nowhere. This really peaked his curiosity, what with him knowing that there was nothing much of any interest whatsoever in any direction of the building; other than old decrepit houses, and broken mailboxes. "What...the...fuck?" His brain seemed to have just completely gotten fried as he looked at what seemed to be bipedal horses walking around the town, they themselves looking very confused. "You know what - fuck it, I'm going to go and check it out - what's the worst that could happen...you know other than them being very aggressive people that will most likely kill me or steal all my stuff and leave me defenseless...yeah, totally safe." With that He started walking towards the currently lively town with his cowboy repeater in hand just in case anything bad happened so he could defend himself should the need arise. ~~~~ After a few minutes our friend was just on the edge of town when he heard banging on a door. Swinging around a corner he saw a man just hammering on a door, yelling at the occupants on the inside, most likely frightened out of their minds. Without thinking twice he fired his gun just a bit before his feet which made the man jump back a few feet and stare at his attacker. Upon seeing his face the man paled slightly and began running away, only to be dropped to the ground with a .357 magnum round to the leg. With the man on the ground our nameless wonderer sauntered up to the groaning man who was clutching his bleeding leg. "You know...it's impolite to try and intrude on other's homes like that." Without so much as another word he pointed the guns' barrel at the grounded man's head, and pulled the trigger, painting the ground red. "Raider's aren't welcome in any town...I make damn sure of that." He spoke down to the now limp and lifeless corpse of said raider. He was kneeled down searching his body for anything like ammo of a gun that he could sell when he heard a door creak open. He froze and slowly turned to look at whoever it was that was coming out and saw a very scared looking azure unicorn who was looking slightly downward at his hand which was still holding the gun that killed the raider at his feet. On noticing where she was staring he very calmly holstered his weapon, the mare, though, still looked slightly scared of him, after all who wouldn't be afraid of someone in NCR Ranger combat armor, minus the helmet as he preferred to wear 1st recon beret instead, and had just killed someone right in front of them. Very few would be the answer. "Don't worry, I was just making sure he wasn't going to hurt you - they're bad people, definitely not someone you want to mess with." He finally spoke to the mysterious creature that was staring back at him. "W-Why?" The still scared creature stuttered back, although he was pretty sure it looked to be some sort of horse, or pony, he wasn't too sure. That didn't matter right now though, she had asked him something. "To put it simple, if he would have run off he most likely would have ran back to where his little friends are and then come back later to burn you homes down and take hurt you all...badly." He decided to leave out the part of rape and death for obvious reasons. After telling her that the door opened up again and this time out walked a lizard looking creature who had a serious expression on his face. "Hey!" Said the new creature to the mystery man. To which said man switched over his attention to the newcomer. "Hi...sorry you had to see all that...please understand I mean you no ill will - I simply came down to check out this place, since, well, I've never seen it 'till today and I wanted to see if it was deserted...clearly you can see I was wrong in my assumptions." He said back to the scaly one. "Hmmm," The scaly creature folded his arms and closed his eyes in thought. After a few seconds passed he re-opened them, but kept his serious expression. "Okay, I believe you - but let me make it perfectly clear - you hurt anypony in this town and I. Will. Break you - got it?" Although his use of the word 'pony' kind of confused him slightly when he said it, he mentally noted that the female did look like a horse-like thing so he must have been right in his other assumption. "Crystal clear. You have my word as a protector of the innocent, I won't even harm a single living person in this town." "Good, now...come with me." He said turning and starting to the door to what looked like a big tree with windows and a door in it. Our nameless wonderer, obviously stunned at seeing a living tree that massive, gawked at it for a second before starting to follow the two of them, the unicorn in front of the lizard looking one. Upon reaching the giant tree the lizard looking one knocked on the door and asked for entry. "Is he safe?" Said from the other side of the door. "Yeah, he's fine - so long as he keeps his promise that is." The spikey one answered back. "Okay I'm opening the door now." Said the voice again, and upon opening the door the voice was revealed to be yet another unicorn, though, this one was of a lavender color. "Spike! Trixie! I'm so glad you two are safe. What happened? Why didn't you come back after checking the outskirts of town?" Asked a very worried unicorn. 'Well now I know the two people's names of who I just saved are.' Our nameless friend thought. "Well to answer your question, me and Trixie got trapped inside an empty house after some guy started yelling at us and asking us "Where's everybody in this place!"." "And he uhhh, he ummm," Trixie as the lavender unicorn had called her, tried to say, but just couldn't seem to say before locking up again. Sighing, mister nameless decided to finish what she started. "I killed him," He said, making everyone in the room go wide-eyed. Upon noticing the many looks of horror and fear he quickly regretted his blunt answer. "b-but, he was trying to brake into the house and get to them, listen that guy is a raider, what a raider is, is someone who doesn't care for morals of being just, he just wants what he wants and what he wants is to kill others and take their things for his own. That's why I did what I did, but don't even for a second think that I would do that to anyone of ya', I ain't a heartless fuck!" He shouted out the last part; being a little angry at just thinking about what the guy could have done to the two that he rescued. After breathing deeply a couple of times he spoke again. "Sorry, I...kind of got a bit angry there...as you can tell I Hate raiders and everything that they do." He said with a very downtrodden voice. His re-affirmation as to him not hurting anyone in the room or in town for that matter seemed to work, even though now it made them curious as to why he seemed to sad all of a sudden, though, they said nothing about it and let it go. "Sorry 'bout that again...just...never mind," He raised his hand to stop anyone wanting to ask a question as to why he got that way, and it seemed to do the trick. "Okay then, at least I know that you won't harm my little ponies, that is good." Said a very regal sounding voice, and upon looking back up he saw a winged unicorn, or was it a horned Pegasus? He didn't really know, nor did it really matter at this time, since he had yet to acknowledge that he heard her. "Ohh, uhh, yeah, no I won't, you have my word." He said back Then proceeded the questions as to where they were, why it looked so desolate, why people like the guy who was banging on the door do what they do, and some other questions about the area to which he answered to the best of his abilities. "And that's all she wrote." Said the nameless wonderer. "Hmmm, this is most distressful to hear. So there is no magic here...at all?" Asked a visibly concerned Princess. "Nope, sorry, although you seem to be able to still levitate things around as miss purple over there is doing so at this very moment." Upon hearing him call her purple for what seemed like the fifteenth time, she turned and looked at him and crossed her arms at him. "My name is Twilight, and you could have asked me what my name was instead of calling me Purple all the time." She said somewhat crossly at him. "Ohh, well......okay then." He said as he went back to looking at his wrist-computer. "Hey bub! We told you our names, now why don't we know yours huh!?" Said a grumpy rainbow maned Pegasus. "Well since you asked so nicely," He said back sarcastically. "the names Jason - Jason North, you may call me as you wish." He said as he reclined into the chair he was sitting in as he made a bottle of soda materialize out of thin air and into his hand, baffling everypony in the room except for a pink mare in the back of the room who just 'oooooh'ed' at the feet preformed in front of them. Of course Twilight was the first one to ask how he did that, to which he said. "Dunno, I just can and I don't really ask why or how. My life seems better off that way." "But...but that makes no sense!" "Twilight, honey, out here in the wasteland," Jason said putting his arms out for emphasis. "nothing makes sense anymore." Twilight sighed and crossed her arms. "Fine - but you are going to give me a better explanation later, mister." "Haha, okay mom" He chuckled at her pout which he found adorable. Twilight didn't think it was funny since she turned and walked over to another chair and plopped herself down into it. "Awww don't get your feathers in a bunch 'princess', I didn't mean to offend you. We good?" He said to her, extending out his hand, which she took in her own and stood up. "Yeah, and by the way I was just teasing, if you don't know that's disappointing, but if you do be sure to let me know, got it?" "Sure thing, Sparky." He said with a slight chuckle. "Alright then, I promise," He said as he sat back down in the chair which he had decided was his. He looked up and saw the other Princess, Luna. "Hey do you have men that can guard this place?" "Yes, they are protecting the others in their homes - why?" Asked the lunar Princess. Jason got up off the chair with a one-sided grin and a raised eye-brow. "Time to gather the cavalry."
