(Crystal Empire)

Princess Celestia was in the Royal Archive with the elements of harmony all looking for the location of King Sombra's lab, but he hid the information well. There are still secret rooms that have not been found by anypony. While they were there Spike noticed the journal they were using to talk to Sunset was vibrating and he said, "Hey, everypony Sunset wrote back."

Everypony came rushing over and waited to hear what Sunset had to say Luna grabbed the book and opened it and started to read out loud, "Dear Princess, I am writing to tell you I am still alive and that we have found one of Rowe's friends currently staying at a outpost...."

"Well it good to know that she is still alive." said Fluttershy.

"I would have to agree with you darling, and I do hope that she will remain so." said Rarity

"Well what else did she write or was that it?" asked Rainbow

Luna then looked back to the book and started to read, "I also had to...take my first life today after a man tried to slit my throat. I will write you again soon." she put her hand over her mouth and started to tear up and looked at the other and they were all at different levels of disbelief and shock. Celestia couldn't believe that her former student had killed somepony, Twilight couldn't wrap her head around as to why, Spike couldn't believe it, Fluttershy and Rarity were starting to tear up, Rainbow and Applejack were looking furious, Shining and Cadence were very confused as to why this has happened.

"I bet it was that Rowe fella had something to do with it an then force her to say she did it in self defense." said Applejack

"Yeah, he's probably teaching her to kill others for him because he is such a coward to do it himself." said Rainbow Dash

"But the question is why would he do that?" asked Twilight.

"He doesn't need a reason to all he needs to do is put a gun to her head tell her if she didn't do like he said he would kill her." said Rainbow and soon they where starting to argue with each other while Cadence tried to console Fluttershy and Rarity.

"QUIET" Celestia yelled in the Royal Canterlot voice and everypony stopped arguing and they all looked at her and she they said, "Why don't we use the book to send a mirror spell through the book and talk to her that way."

"Can we do that sister, I didn't think that was possible?" asked Luna.

"We can and we will later, right now we need to find anything leading to find Sombra's lab so we can bring her home." she pulled a book and a click was heard and a bookshelf on the opposite wall opened to a dark tunnel. Celestia and the others went down the tunnel flanked by Crystal royal guards, as they made their way down the tunnel opened up to a wide room. When they got in the room it was a lab of sorts and near the far wall was a table next to a frame similar to that of the mirror's. On the table was a book that looked like a journal Celestia walked to the table and opened the book and then gasped, "This is Sombra's lab and this is his journal we found it !" everypony was looking surprised at first and then it turned into determination to bring Sunset home.

(Mojave Wasteland)

Sunset woke up alone in the bed she crawled into with Rowe last night, at the foot of the bed was the woman from yesterday leaning against the metal bedpost. She looked over at Sunset when she heard her getting out of bed and said, "Hey, good to see you awake your friend is outside sobering up his friend."

"Thanks, miss..." the woman then realized that she didn't give her name.

"Cass, my name is Cass and just Cass. saying 'Miss' makes me feel old." Cass said and motioned for Sunset to follow her.

"Well thank you Cass. My name is Sunset Shimmer." said Sunset as she followed the woman outside where she saw Rowe repeatedly dunking the man she saw yesterday in a trough with a bunch of two-headed cows like the one that she saw with the caravan yesterday.watching and munching on dead grass that managed to crop up.

"blurbbbbbbbbbbbb, *gasp*. Ok, I think I am good." breathing heavily as Rowe let go of him and he sat against the trough looking over at Cass and Sunset.

"Well at least you are sober again, now allow me to introduce you to Sunset Shimmer I found her two days ago when she just got captured by some legion slavers." said Rowe "Sunset may I introduce you to one of my oldest friends Crow he is deadly when it comes to long range."

Crow nodded and looked back at Rowe and said, "The woman next to her is Cass of Cassidy caravan, I kind of helped her with a problem concerning her caravan so yesterday was us celebrating her getting to travel freely again I guess we over did a little."

"Yeah a little, so I got your Anti-Material Rifle and for it, your welcome. Now where is my Medicine Stick?"

"Oh, uh I gave it to the bar keep for safe keeping." Rowe then handed him a few boxes and the Rifle off his back and walked back inside and came out a few moments later he came out with a lever action rifle with a silver finish on the action of the rifle, and on the butt stock was a leather face guard with a target reticle made out of beads with feathers of a Raven hanging off of it. He walked up to them and looked over to Cass and said, "So what will you do now that you are free to walk around? Go back to California and keep your Caravan moving or what?"

She looked at him and then said, "No I think I can travel with you guys for now, I feel like I will a lot more action following you guys around so I think I'll stick with you guys."

"Welcome to the crew, now ," He looked over to Crow, "where is Wolf? Last I saw of him he was with you."

While putting his pack on and said, "We separated when he heard of some reports of troops being pulled from the prison to the dam, last I heard he was in Primm."

"Well then I guess that's where heading." he turned to Sunset and motioned for her to follow, they went a little bit away and turned back to her and removed his helmet so she could see his eyes and said, "Are you alright Sunset, you were pretty shaken up yesterday?"

Sunset looks at him and then down at the ground and starts to rub her arm and said, "It was scary I wasn't even thinking and the next moment I was pulling the trigger and the man was falling backwards with a hole in his chest and I just lost it." her eyes started to tear up, "The worst part is that I saw my friend looking at me with an accusing gaze like I killed him because I wanted to!" she then started to cry. Rowe pulled her into a hug and let her cry.

After a few minutes he said, "Your friends will always be caring and understanding of things like this. You have to do what is needed to survive and if your friends don't understand that then I would hardly count them as friends." he pulled back and looked her in the eye to show that he is one hundred firm in what he said.
Sunset and Rowe then became lost in each eyes and then he looked away and said, "Well...I'll go and see if they are ready to go." He walked over back to the others leaving Sunset standing there for a while with her thoughts and they were squealing in delight and wondering why he walked away with a sad look in his eye at the same time.

They set out for Primm a little before noon with a Caravan heading for Sloan on a resupply run. Their was no talking for a while the only sounds made came from the pack on the Brahmin, the sounds of boots on the cracked asphalt, the clopping of Sunset's hooves and the occasional distant Gunfire. That was until they were passing a building with black and white cars out front of it she heard what sounded the cocking of a gun and before she could say anything a explosion landed next to the front mercenary and blew him a good four feet away from where he was standing. The next thing to happen was people were coming out from behind and from the inside of the building rushing out with 9mm and 10mm pistols and sub-machine guns, except one that was hanging back with a weird tube looking weapon. Rowe was the first to start firing back he managed to kill two of them with head shots. Cass was next as they got closer to Rowe she let them have to round of twenty gauge buck-shot to the face. Crow managed two whip out his 10mm sub-machine gun and let out five round burst to the chest of the ones trying to flank Cass and Rowe. Sunset and merchant and mercenaries were firing as well, she looked and saw the one in the back raise the tube and aimed at Rowe, Cass, and Crow and pulled the trigger without even thinking her magic flared and she caught and threw the object the came out of the tube back at the woman in the back and it landed right next to her right leg blowing it off of her and sending her flying towards the wall of the building. After the last of the attackers were killed the mercs went about collecting ammo and what ever else that might be useful from the ones they killed, Cass and Crow were doing the same Rowe was treating the injured merc. Sunset went over to were the woman was standing and found the tube like weapon she was using, it was broken but she thought it might have some value later so she stuffed it in her pack. She then walked over to were the woman was on the wall and was surprised to find her still alive and barely breathing she looked up at Sunset and said, "Kill me....put....me out of....my misery."

Sunset looked at her for a while and then pulled her .45 up and leveled it with the injured woman's head and mumbled, "I'm sorry." then she pulled the trigger, bits of brain and skull spattered on to the wall and the woman's body slumped against it. Sunset stared for a while before she grabbed the pack that was on her back and went back to the others. Nobody talked for a while and they soon had the town of Primm came into view and they were going to make a stop in it.

Primm is a small town with two big buildings in it one said 'Bison Steve's Hotel and Casino' and the other was 'The Vick and Vance casino' and another building across the street of 'The Vick and Vance' was a post office called 'The Mojave Express'. But they were heading for a big long shack that served as the local Sheriff's office. Inside was one man, the man was in his late thirties-early forties and he was currently asleep at his desk until Rowe knocked on the door even though it was wide open. The man woke with a start and fell out of his chair and on his face after about a minute of silent cursing he got up and looked over to the door and saw the group but his eyes stay a little to long on Sunset. He regained his composer and said, "Howdy, I'm Deputy Beagle. Sheriff McLain is currently in the Vick and Vance Casino across the way, how can I help you?"

Crow answered, "We are looking for a friend of ours. He's wearing some salvaged power armor much like the ones the NCR heavy infantry wears but no NCR symbols on it but a Black Wolf instead."

"Hmmm. Now that you mention it someone wearing power armor like that came by here a few days ago. But he left and went towards Goodsprings up north. If ya leave now I think you can get there 'fore night fall."

"Thanks for the information Deputy Beagle." Rowe said and we all started walking north after they got back on the highway as they walked Crow would run off for ten minutes at a time and would return talk to Rowe and run off again. After abut the third time Crow ran off he came back in just one minute and said, "Hey guys Goodsprings is just over this hill." they al were about to start walking a little faster when a shot rang out and Rowe fell forward with a yell. Cass grabbed him and pulled him behind a rock and hide behind as well, Sunset was almost shot a few times when she made a run for the rock as well and Crow was behind a rock a little further up the hill and pulled his Anti-Material rifle. He took aim and saw the flash from a .308 sniper rifle being held by a Cesar's Legions assassin, He could also see four other assassins with close range and medium range weapons. Crow took the shot on the assassin with sniper rifle the .50 cal round blowing his head off his shoulders, Cass was charger by one wielding a hand-held saw and she blasted him in the face with both barrels. The next two ran at Sunset and Rowe, both in Centurion armor, one wielding a 12.7mm sub-machine gun and the other a Super sledge, Sunset managed to hit the one with the super sledge in the face with a .45 round. The other took aim at her and shot she closed her eyes and waited for the pain to come from the bullets but none came when she opened her eyes she saw that Rowe was standing in front of her, while the assassin was about to let lose another burst, he blew up. Sunset caught Rowe when he began to sway and fell, she then saw that most of his armor had blocked five of the six rounds that the assassin fired the sixth buried itself in his in the lower left of his torso and he was now bleeding from two holes in his body one in his right shoulder and then the one in his lower left of his torso both had not gone through either. Sunset then saw a armored hand lift Rowe up and she saw mask that motioned for her to follow. she and the others did but also picked up weapons and ammo from the dead assassins as well as a note. They arrived at a off-white house on a hill, they followed the armored figure to the door where he knocked and a elderly man answered took one look at Rowe and let them inside.

"Put him over on the bed in the other room, as for the rest of you." he turned towards the other standing by the door while the armored figure takes Rowe into the other room and said, "My name is Doc Mitchell, Welcome to Goodsprings. Why don't ya'll head on down the hall to the living room and wait for me to be done with your friend?" they all nodded and he disappeared in to the next room, the group continued down the hall into the living room and the armored figure was sitting on the couch working on what looked like a similar tube like weapon but it looked like the one Sunset picked up earlier. He stopped what he was doing and looked back at them and Crow went over to him and hugged him.

"it's good to see you again Wolf. Now take off that helmet and meet these nice women?" said Crow as he stepped back and Wolf pulled his helmet off and he has a scar running down his left cheek to his the bottom of his neck, his hair is buzz-cut, his eyes are forest green and he has a goatee and a tattoo wrapping around from the bottom of his eye to the top and it looked like a wolf.

" Well it is nice to meet you, My name is Wolf." He looked at Cass and Sunset and said, "Any of you have a 40mm grenade launcher on you by any chance, broken or otherwise." Sunset was about to shake her head when she remembered the tube weapon the she picked up from the woman. she pulled it out of her pack and handed it to him and he said, "Well thank you.....I'm sorry I never caught your name?"

"I'm Sunset and this is Cass, Rowe found me a few days ago and saved me from Legion slavers." Sunset said and bowed her head with the idea of being breed and the foal being taken away to become a slave to didn't sit well with her.

"Well if I know Rowe he will pull out of this, you might as well get comfortable Doc's going to be a while." they nodded and spread out among all the furniture, Sunset watched as Wolf went to work on his grenade launcher. She eventually fell asleep, and when she woke up Doc Mitchell came into the room followed by Rowe without his armor on.

Sunset jumped up ad hugged him as tight as possible and failed to notice the wince that Rowe had on his face. After the embrace Doc Mitchell then said, "Well it was a pretty standard procedure and the wounds will heal in a couple of hours, but it's late so you all better stay here for the night. I have some makeshift cots that I have for more than one patient and you can use the bed in the other room."

"Thanks doc for everything" said Rowe

"Hey it's no problem any friend of Wolf's is a friend of mine." with a nod he left the room and came back with two cots.

Sunset was going to take one when Rowe put his hand on her shoulder and said, "If you want you can sleep with me tonight." Sunset nodded and they both went into the other room were Rowe's armor laid on a gurney with a missing wheel. Rowe laid down on the mattress and Sunset followed, after about ten minutes Rowe heard quiet sobbing. He looked over to find Sunset trying not to make it obvious but it was failing, Rowe placed his arm around her and said in a hushed voice, "What is wrong Sunset?"

"I ...came so close .... to losing you that I didn't realize it until now." she said while sobbing, "And now I know why I was so worried about you is because I love you."

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since you saved me I have felt this draw to you and I can't ignore it any more." she was about to cry again when she felt a pair of lips meet hers and she opened her eyes to find Rowe kissing her.

After a while the kiss ended and Rowe said, "I feel the same way, I never made a move because I felt it wasn't my place to do so." They looked into each others eyes again kissed each other to sleep.

Author's Note

Skills and Perks:
Rowe: Survival 100, medicine 100, Guns 100, Lock pick 100, science 60, sneak 15
Cowboy perk (do more damage with Lever-action Rifles, Revolvers and Machetes)
Rapid reload (Reload your weapon faster)
Quick Draw
Hunter
Strong Back

Crow: Guns 100, Barter 100, Medicine 50, Sneak 100, science 75, Survival 60
Unshakeable tracker
Silent Running
Ninja
Explorer
Fortune Finder
Sniper
Commando

Wolf: Explosives 100, Guns 56, Survival 60, Repair 100, Barter 70, Speech 100
Hit the deck
Jury rigging
Weapon Handling
Heave Ho!
Demolition expert
Commando