Every journey begins with just a single step...
The Courier's rifle thundered over the Mojave wasteland, scattering the oversized geckos that were chasing him, but they would be back with more of their friends if he stayed around for much longer. The Courier grabbed onto his backpack and started spiriting from the geckos, he couldn't go back to any of the town nearby and his Pipboy was telling him that there wasn't much around him but caves, and destroyed Pre-war building, “Oh Come-on, there has to be something around here!” The Courier yelled at his Pipboy map, trying to find a good place to wait out the geckos or the other mutated horrors that emerge when the sun goes down. He was known for being the fearless, adventuring type, but even he knew the stupidity of staying out at night in the middle of the desert.
After a while of running and climbing, a single map marker appeared on his Pipboy called “Abandoned fallout shelter,” The Courier didn't even hesitate as he redirected himself towards the small hill the shelter was buried under. The hatch to enter the shelter had a decayed corpse of someone, likely Pre-war, next to the body was a key and a holotape, probably just he's last words or a message that the Courier wouldn't understand, however the Pipboy decoded the holotape anyway so he might as well look at it. The message was mostly Corrupted, the only thing that was left was the words “Look after them,” just like he thought, he wouldn't understand the message at all. The Couriers curiosity got the best of him, and the Pipboy had a software that could re-create a damaged message, he turned it on. He didn't know how long the message would take to de-code, but he knew the Pipboy wouldn't let him down, plus the Pipboy worked fast with most tasks it was programmed to do.
The hatch was locked, but opened easily after he used the key, he had no idea why all of the hatches in New Vegas used normal keys like you'd use to open the front door to a house, but they did. The Courier climbed down the ladder, it was pitch black and he couldn't see anything around him, even with the Pipboy light the bunker, it was still dark, he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness before continuing on. The hallway broke off into two directions, one was blocked off by rubble. The other way was leading into a room with cots and lockers that were mostly empty, save a few bottle caps and random junk. As he searched the bunker, the Courier could have sworn that he heard voices, including the question, “who's that?” as he sat down on the bed, he decided to ignore them, as they were most likely a figment of his imagination or paranoia, but kept his 9mm pistol at the ready just in case someone tries to sneak up on him while he slept.
A few hours past as he laid in the bed, as he was about to fall to sleep the voices came back again, much clearer now since he was much quieter than before. They sounded harmless, in fact he had check his Pipboy several times just to make sure that the voices weren't just a audio file or radio that was playing, but it wasn't - the voices were in this room – somewhere.
The Courier decided to just lay around, and listen to the voices for a bit before looking for them, as they were talking about him, “Who do you think he is?” one of the voices asked, it was quite high pitch, but also sounded rough and scratchy.
“Maybe we should go and say hi,” the second voice suggested, “After all, he doesn't look too nasty,” the second voice was higher pitch that the first, and talked quicker as well.
“No,” The first voice snapped back, “What if he's one of them? We can't take that chance,” the voice reminded, clearly in charge, and didn't what to risk the second voice's safety.
“Yeah... I know, but we've been in here for sooooo long,” the second voice complained back, apparently fed up with waiting around. “and my legs are hurting from being in this vent forev-” the second voice was quickly silenced.
“Be quite Pinkie, he could be listening,” The first voice reminded 'Pinkie' with her own worry, she was correct about him listening to their conversation, the courier slowly stood up from the bed and walked over to the only air vent in the room, “They can't be in the vent, its too small for anybody to fit in there,” he thought.
The courier raised his pistol at the vent, the voices completely stopping their conversation as soon as he stood up from the bed, “You can come out now you two,” he said , aiming he's gun at the vent, he didn't know anything that could fit in the vent, and could talk English easily, but he wasn't taking any chances with whatever it was. The vent grate slowly slide to the side and the Courier couldn't believe what he saw. A bright pink animal of some kind crawled out of the vent, unlike most of the animals in the wasteland, this one didn't have any sign of mutation or any kind of radioactive glow, it was naturally meant to look like this.
The brightly coloured animal turned it head to look at the courier, its large blue eyes staring in horror at the Courier, the animal tried to stand up on all four legs shakeably, after trying to walk forward it quickly fell to the ground in a crash, tears welling in its eyes, the courier noticed that one of the animals forelegs was broken and twisted to the side slightly, at the sight of the damaged limb the Courier dropped his pistol to the ground and walked towards the pink animal. He assumed that it wasn't any danger, as it was sobbing due to the pain of its leg as well as having no weapons or armour at all. As he moved closer to the injured animal, a flash moved to block him, in a blink the other animal rushed from the vent to stop the Courier from moving any closer, this one was different to the other one, as this one had rainbow coloured hair that was covered in dust and dirt, but the biggest difference was that this one had a pair of feathery wings, like the birds the Courier had seen around the wasteland. With its wings outstretched, and rosy, red eyes that burned with their own kind of fire - stared at him with determination.
The cyan animal snarled at him, “Don't you dare touch her!”, it wasn't very intimidating as she was only about waist hight to him and her colour scheme was the most brightest thing he'd ever seen. The courier ignored her as he tried to get to her injured friend, as he walked towards her, the cyan coated animal jumped into the air and used a powerful flap of her wings to give her a enough momentum to slam into the courier's chest and knocked him to the ground with a loud crash. The couriers chest erupted with pain as her hoof made contact with his torso before being forced to the ground, his Pipboy flashing up warning that his body had been crippled by the impacted. She was a lot more stronger that she looked, that's for sure.
The winged animal landed next to the Courier and stared at him for a few moments, “I told you not to try and touch her,” she mocked, the courier spat out some blood to the his side, and attempted to stand up again, but the animal just pushed him down to the ground, “You ain't going anywhere buddy,” she stared down at him, she sat on the Couriers chest, right where her hoof made contact with him, it was causing him more pain, but he had realised that struggling would only cause him more pain. The animal turned to her injured friend, “You alright pink?” she asked, the pink one stood up again, she was still wobbling, but a least she could stand.
“I'll be fine...” She replied to her friend, clearly lying to her, she was slowly walking over to the Courier and the winged animal, both of them looking at the Courier.
“What should we do with him?” the winged one looked down at the Courier, staring straight into his eyes, looking more closely at her, the Courier saw that she had some serious cuts over her body, and face. A closer look at the pink one also showed that she had some cuts, and bruises over her body, these two have been through a lot recently. The winged one looked at her friend, “No pinkie, we can't trust him, you know what happened last time...” she urged her friend, her Pink friend stared sadly at her in response. “He might hurt you, I can't let that happen again!”
“Dashie, please...” The pink one interrupted her friend, tears still in her eyes from when she fell over, “Can we a least try, he might be nice, he could help us, please Dashie...” the pink one begged.
“Help you with what?” the Courier asked, the two of them quickly turned back to face him. The two of them exchanged glances at each other, the pink one rested her hoof over her friend's, and whispered something in her ear.
“F-fine,” The winged one gave in, looking back over to the Courier that she was sat on, “Can you help us get out of here, we don't have anything to offer you...” the winged one explained.
“What's stopping you from just walking out right now, the door's unlocked and your injuries can't be that bad,” The courier asked, he was still hurting from the kick she gave him, but the pain was dying down now.
“The other ones...” The pink one started to explain, but was silenced by her friend.
“Basically, we had some other guy with us, he went back outside to get us some help, but never came back...” the winged one summarised, slight sadness in her voice, “But a few days ago, more of guys showed up, but they weren't like the first one, they...” the Courier could feel her shaking, the pink one started to tear up again, “They attacked us, they locked us down here, threaten to do – horrible things if we tried to escape...” The winged one tried to continue, but couldn't finish her sentence.
“Can you help us, please, we can't survive without your help...” The pink one begged the Courier, it put a tear into his eye, he'd seen the horrors that raiders had done before, raiders were all soulless, drugged up monsters, and were one of the worst things the wasteland had created. The pink one dropped down to her knees next to the couriers face, “P-please,” she cried, her face only a few inches from his.
The Courier paused for a moment, he had to help them, but a part of him knew that they'd slow him down - get in his way. “Fine, I'll get you out of here,” the Courier replied, giving the Pink one a pat on the head with his hand, the pink one smiled, her eyes still red from the crying, the winged animal was still unconvinced with the Courier, he raised his other hand towards the animal, “I promise,” he added.
The animal hesitated, but meet his hand with her hoof, both shaking hands/hooves, “You better not try anything, or I - will - end – you,” she threaten him again, it sounded a lot more intimidating this time, as she was clearly a lot more stronger that he thought. The winged one hopped off of him, and the Courier tried to stand up again, his Pipboy advising him to use some medical equipment or a stimpak a soon as he could. He walked back over to his backpack, picking up his primary weapon, a cowboy repeater, and put it back into the strap on his back.
The sound of the grate echoed slightly throughout the bunker, indicating that someone has come back inside, both of the animals were frozen, terrified about what was going to happen when one of them sees the Courier. “I'M HOME LITTLE ONES!” The man shouted, the two animals ran away, and hid behind the Courier, he drew his gun and pointed it down the hallway. The courier expected it to be a raider, or a fiend.
The man wasn't in any raider armour, to the Couriers surprise, he was in leather armour like him, his face was covered in dirt, and sand. He was most likely was a member of the gang that called themselves Vipers, or he could have been a jackal; the Courier had meet them both a few times before, they weren't as crazy as raiders or fiends, but were still dangerous, most of them had been killed by the NCR back when they first arrived in the Mojave, now are a bunch of washed-up raiders that prayed upon travelling merchants and passing caravans.
“Ah... who are you?” The man asked, pointing his gun at the Courier, “Are you here to save these lost little ponies?” the man continued, moving slightly forward each second, “Don't worry, I'll let them watch as you die, it will teach them to behave themselves in the future,” the Raider taunted, the Courier gave a warning shot, the bullet hitting the wall next to him and he bounced way from it. The Raider started to laugh, he pupils shrinking into tiny dots, “This is going to be fun - for ME!”.
However, a sound of a gun thundered, stopping the Raider's laugh as his head was blown clean off, the Courier was confused, as he wasn't the one that fire the gun, he looked down to his side. The winged one was holding the 9mm pistol that he dropped in her mouth, she quickly dropped the gun, and fell to the floor, realisation of what she just did flooded her mind.
The Courier dropped down to the floor, she looked at him, tears were pouring down her face, and her body was shaking, “I killed somepony - I KILLED Somepony!” she buried her face in her hooves, “I'm a monster, I'm a murderer,” she cried, murdering had became a everyday thing for the courier, but to her, this was a new thing.
“No, your not a monster...” The Courier tried to comforted her, but it didn't help, she kept her face hidden in her hooves.
“How do you lot live with yourselves, fighting each others, M-murdering each other, you make it look so easy to take someponies life?” she asked, the first time killing is always the worst, but each time you do it, it gets easier, the courier placed both of his hands onto her face, and cupped her head gently, and forcing her to look up at him, looking into her rosy eyes.
“Your not a monster -” He pointed over to the lifeless body on the floor “- he was a monster!” he smiled at her, wiping away some of the tears that fell from her eyes, “You were doing it in defence, he wouldn't even hesitate if he had to kill you,” he added, getting a small, sad smile from her as well.
“Y-yeah – sure - just in defence...” she replied, standing back up, “So...what now?” she asked the Courier, he had no idea as well, but hopeful, the Raider had killed or scared off any geckos that were outside. He looked at his Pipboy map, looking around for any towns that were nearby.
“Hmm... a town called Novac is nearby, we should go their, and get supplies,” the Courier replied, he was in need for supplies anyway, having two extra companies with him only made the need for supplies more dire, “By the way, where did your friend go?” he asked, realising that she wasn't around anymore.
“I'm here...” the pink one crawled out of from the vent, looking over to her crying friend and tears started forming in her own eyes, “D-dashie,” she whimpered, the winged one ran towards her, and they both embraced each other, the Courier smiled at seeing them together, he left them to do their own thing while he did one last look over the bunker, and he poked his head out of the grate to the outside. It was still dark, but the sun was starting to rise in the horizon, the skeleton was to the side of the grate, was this the man those two where talking about, looking closely at the bones, there was some teeth marks, and small bits of flesh still attached to some of the bones, “I'll keep em safe for you, don't worry about them,” he said, knowing full well that the bones weren’t going to reply to him. He went back inside to get the girls, he wanted to get out of here before the sun got out fully.
“Come on you two, we can -” as he walked back inside, the two of them were sharing a kiss, not a kiss on the cheek or something, nope, it was a proper kiss on the lips. When the two of them realised that they weren't alone any more, they quickly broke away from each other awkwardly.
“H-hi, er...” the winged one greeted, her cheeks a bright red, it showing clearly on her cyan fur, “So... What did you want?” she asked, trying to hide her embarrassment.
“Err, we should be able to get out safely now,” he explained to them, he was totally ruining one of the more happier moment for them since they got here, wherever they came from.
“Lets go Dashie, we can continue this when we get somewhere save,” the pink one smiled at her 'friend' and wrapped her tail around the Winged ones head, before limping to the exit, apparently they can control what their tails can do as well, in seamed the more the Courier learned about them, the more confusing they got.
Just before he was about to join her at the exit, his Pipboy reminded him that his torso was still crippled by the winged ones punch, guessing with all of the things happening and adrenaline running through him, it didn't register to him that he was still in pain. He opened the one of the pocket of his backpack and fished out a stimpak, and inject the needle into his stomach. Looking down the hallway, he saw the winged one staring oddly at him.
“What?” The Courier asked, giving the winged one a equally strange look.
“What... was that?” she questioned, looking at the empty stimpak, “Guessing its some kind of medicine?” the courier just nodded in response. “Do you think that could work on ponies?” she asked, 'Ponies, is that what their called?' the courier thought, and he really didn't know if it would work, if 'ponies' had a similar biology to humans, then yes it would work, but asking them about biology might be asking too much.
“Maybe, but I think we should test it later, just to be safe,” was the couriers reply, “Heh, you have a really strong punch by the way,” he joked, she whipped her hair back, and laughed.
“Of course I am, they don't call me the best pegasus in Equestria for nothing,” she boasted, 'She's a pegasus, I thought she was a pony' he thought, she was just confusing him now.
“Alright, we should get out of here,” he walked past the bragging 'pegasus', the pink one was waiting by the grate, the Courier realising that she couldn't get up the ladder, at least the winged one could fly up to the surface, but she'd be stuck in here until someone helped her. “Do you want some help?” he asked the pink one, who just looked a bit embarrassed at her inability to climb the ladder.
“Y-yes please,” she replied, looking down at her hooves, she was a lot more injured that the winged one, deep cuts were spread across her whole body, and under her eyes were dark rings showing that she hasn't slept in a long time – looking closer at her revealed that her ribs were slightly visible, she hasn't eaten in a long time by the looks of it.
“You look hungry, do you want something to eat before we set off?” the courier offered, taking off his backpack to search for some food for the hungry pony, he found a lunch box with some salad in it, he opened the lunch box, and showed it to the pink one, “Is this good?”, she licked her lips in anticipation, he smiled, and placed it in front of her.
“R-really, you're just giving it to me?” she asked, the Courier just nodded, a massive smile formed on her face, “Thank you soooo much,” she quickly muttered before diving her face into the salad. Looking over to the winged one behind him showed that she to was licking her lips as well, her eyes portraying the desire to take the food from her friend. He thought about the way wild dogs acted, in one moment they love each other, and would protect each other fiercely, but the next they are fighting to the death over scrapes of food. He started to panic as she walked other to the other pony, looking at her friend silently.
“Hey, do you want some food too, I have enough for both of you?” he quickly offered, the last thing he wanted was for these two to suddenly start tearing at each others throats, he search though his bag, he found a can of beans, opening the can with a knife and pouring the content out onto a tin plate he scavenged.
“Oh really, thanks dude,” she thanked him, walking over to the plate , she began to lick up the beans, savouring the food she was eating with a smile on her face. He was relieved that they didn't start fighting, as the winner was clearly going to be the Winged one as she was stronger than her, and less injured as well.
When the two ponies finished eating their food, the Courier had to carry the pink one on his back as he climbed up the ladder, the sun had almost rose fully over the horizon. “Alright, we got to get moving, quickly,” the Courier exclaimed, he didn't want to get caught by mutants or raiders with the lack of supplies, he would also have to try and get some armour for the two ponies, it would only take a few lucky hits to kill them - no matter if they were healthy or not.
“But Pinkie's leg is still hurt, she can't move quickly,” The winged one reminded, she was hovering at eye level with the Courier. 'So her name is really Pinkie?, strange name to call someone' the Courier thought, he could see why she was called Pinkie, being entirely the colour pink.
“Well, she can stay on my back until we can fix her leg,” He replied, “Do you like that idea 'Pinkie',” he looked over his shoulder, the pink pony front hooves wrapped around his neck gently.
“That would be nice, thank you,” the pink pony replied, the Courier felt her nuzzle rub against the back of his neck, he just assumed that it was a sigh of affection. “You called me by my name, all of the other humans thought my name was stupid...” Pinkie sniffled.
“Wait, what's your name?” The winged one asked, the Courier had already started walking, but still turned his head to look at the flying pony, no one has every really asked about his name, they just called him 'Courier Six' or whatever they really wanted to called him. “I'll go first - my names Rainbow Dash,” she proclaimed, 'Guessing 'Dashie' is some sort of pet name' the Courier guessed, “And she's called Pinkie Pie,” she continued.
“Well... not many people ask for my name, I guess you can call me Six,” the Courier confessed, “It's nice to meet you both,” he added, smiling - the wasteland was known for destroying any form of happiness, and it was nice to smile every one in a while.
A few hours pasted as the three trekked across the desert, heading towards Novac.
“The New California Republic or just the NCR, have been around for awhile, they came because Hover dam is a valuable asset for them to have, but Caesar's Legion wants it more, dunno why they would want it,” Six explained to the two ponies, both seemed to understand what was being said. The conversation turned to politics after Rainbow asked about how human got so violent.
“What about the town we're going to, what was it called again?” Rainbow puzzled, she had opted to trotting next to the Courier since flying was taking up more energy than she had at the moment.
“Novac, its apparently a nice town, we can hopefully rent a room, and sleep – we also need to try and get you both some armour, and a weapon you can use,” he concluded, he heard Pinkie sigh next to his ear.
“Do we really have to fight, you're much better at it then we'll ever be,” Pinkie argued, she wasn't the fighting type, Six could see that, but if she wanted to survive, then she would have to a least learn to defend herself.
“I'm sorry, but if you don't fight, your as good as dead, I can't be their to protect you at all times,” the Courier responded, getting a sad look from both of them, “But I promise that I'll help you learn, and find something that you can use,” he offered.
Rainbow looked up to him, “Do I have to use a gun, I could n-never get use to firing something like that,” she stuttered, the Courier notice that she wasn't looking at him, but at the 9mm pistol that rested in its holster.
“Nah, you don't have to use a gun, I'm sure you can find a weapon that you'd be comfortable using,” he reassured her, she faked him a small smile.
Pinkie climbed up onto Six's head, her two hooves covered both his eyes, and her hind legs rested on his shoulders, “What's that over there?” Pinkie pointed over to a statue of a dinosaur with her hoof, letting Six see out of one of his eyes
“Its the Novac lizard, we'll be their by mid-day at this rate,” Six responded to her.
“Thank Celestia, I haven't slept in days,” Rainbow moaned, clearly hasn't adjusted to wasteland life at all yet.
“Who's that over there?” Pinkie pointing again, the man was wearing what looked like spray painted sports gear with a head wrap covering all but his eyes. He colours showing that he was a member of Caesar's legion.
“You, stop in the name of Caesar!” the legionary commanded, running towards the group, Six didn't know what Caesar's legion wanted with him, but he was sure that it couldn't be a good thing.
“Stay close to me, no matter what,” Six requested to both of the ponies, Pinkie crawled back down off his head and held Six's neck tightly, while rainbow nodded her head, and leaned closer to his leg.
“You are Courier Six, aren’t you?” the legionary demanded, he looked at both of the ponies for a few seconds, his mind having to process the fact that the infamous Courier was travelling with two multi coloured horse like animals. The courier nodded his head, waiting for something bad to happen. “You will wait here, Vulpes Inculta has requested to speak to you, and you will oblige or face summary execution,” the legionary informed, he raised his hand into the air, and a other legionary ran out of a shrub, and into the distance.
A few minutes past in complete silence, the legionary hardly moved to breath - Caesar's legion were known for teaching their warriors absolute devotion to Caesar and were put though strict, harsh training, but Six never believed they were this seriously trained , it was like they were more like robots then men.
Several more legionaries arrived, accompanying their leader, he worn much heavier armour, and animal skin for headgear, he approached the Courier without any hesitation, “Don't worry, you have nothing to fear, but I am here to simply deliver a message from the mighty Caesar, my name is Vulpes Inculta, I lead all of Caesar's Frumentarii,” he's eyes, that were barely visible behind the goggles he was wearing, spotted both of the Courier's companions, “Who are you two?” he knelt down to get face to face with Rainbow dash, “Aren’t you pretty - truly not of this world,” he commented, seriously creeping Rainbow out.
She just looked at him, face to face with a grin, “I have a question, aren’t you guys meant to look scary, then why are you all wearing dresses, you look seriously stupid,” she taunted, Vulpus just smile sadistically.
“Aren't you a brave one,” Vulpus raised his hand and gabbed her head with one of his hands, stood up slightly, and lifted her onto her hind legs, “Shame I'll only be able to out off your pretty little tongue once,” he raised his other hands, and ran it down her neck, “But a slave collar would look very nice around your neck,” Rainbow started to whimper, fear rises in her as Vulpus's hand started running down her spin.
The Courier couldn't just stand around as Vulpus slowly chocked Rainbow, he moved closer to Vulpus and punched him in the face with his fist, and pushed him away from Rainbow, “That's enough!” Six shouted, standing between the fallen Pegasus, and Vulpus.
Each legionaries drew their blades in near perfect synchronization, and slowly closed in on the Courier, some even shouted “You'll pay for that!”or,“RETRIBUTION!”
“Stop! It doesn't matter!” Vulpus commanded, each legionary back down when their leader shouted. “Caesar ordered me to warn you, that he is watching you closely, and if you continue to help the NCR then he will consider you a enemy of the legion,” he threaten, his anger clearly shown by his red face and large frown. “Legionaries! Follow!” Vulpus raised his hand into the air, and began to walk off without a other word. When all of the legionaries had left, he turned to look at rainbow, who had stood up from her fall.
“Are you alright Rainbow?” Six asked, kneeling down to get a better look at her.
“I'm fine,” Rainbow replied after a short pause, “What a creep,” she snarled, shaking slightly at the thought of him.
“Dashie!” Pinkie jumped off Six's back, he quickly reacted, catching her before she landed but still landed close enough to the ground to kiss Rainbow, shocking both Rainbow and Six.
“Pinkie!” Rainbow dash grunted, her words muffled by Pinkie's mouth. After a few moments, Pinkie broke the kiss, “I'm ok Pinkie,” she reassured her.
“I was worried about you, he was scary wasn't he,” she squeaked, embracing Rainbow again.
“Ha, it would take a lot more t-than him to scary me,” she lied, her bravado quickly dissolving, “So Six, we b-better get going, Novac awaits ya know, and we've got to make up for lost time,” she quickly changed the subject.
“Alright, lets get moving,” the Courier remarked, picking Pinkie back up, but also picked up Rainbow as well, and putting both over his shoulder.
“Hey, put me down!” rainbow complained, Pinkie giggling as he rested her on his shoulder.
“Nah, beside, we got lots of stuff to do when we get to Novac, you two should rest a bit,” Six reasoned, he had to get a lot of things sorted out, and the thought of not having enough caps to buy everything lingered in his mind, looking at his Pipboy showed that he had around 800 caps, buying extra stimpaks will knock that down by a large amount, getting better armour for himself, getting armour for Rainbow, and Pinkie, ammo, weapons, hotel room – he wasn't going to be a rich when he walked out of Novac.
But he'll cross that bridge when he gets to it, after all, he had some things he could sell, and he could easily do some odd jobs to make up the rest of the money he needed. All that mattered was to get these two ponies who were resting on his shoulders to safety.
Meanwhile...
The royal princess of the sun, who rarely got any free time to herself, was enjoying a nice drink of some exotics zebra tea, was interrupted by a letter teleporting to her in a wash of green flames, only her ex student, and now a fellow princess of Equestria could send a letter directly to her, and she only did this in emergencies or special occasions, so she quickly grabbed the letter in her magic aura and opened it. It was different to most of the letter Twilight Sparkle sent her, as it wasn't written very formal, like she sent it in a rush or state of panic.
Dear Celestia...
I'm worried princess - two of my friends, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, have gone missing. Normally this wouldn't worry me too much, those two didn't really ever follow any schedules and most of the time were late or stay away for longer that expected.
But its been two weeks since they left, and nobodies seen them, I asked everypony if they had seen them, but no pony has – I have even sent a letter to the Pie's rock farm, and to rainbow dash's family as well to see if they knew anything, but they didn't.
I don't know what to do, I thought I would tell you, you're normally good with this sort of thing, I doubt it anything too serious, but I worry for them a lot, it not like them to leave everypony who is their friend behind, as Rainbow Dash is the element of loyalty after all.
I hope that you have some idea on what to do, please tell me if you find anything.
Your still faithful student – Twilight Sparkle.
Celestia lowed the letter from her vision, she knew that Twilight wouldn't bother her if she thought that the matter wasn't serious enough, so Celestia decided to take some action into finding her lost subjects.
Ascending the stairs up to Luna's tower was always a hard climb, but Celestia didn't have to play by her Sister's rules, she teleported herself to the top of the stairs, and knock on her Sister's door, after a few moments the door opened with a magical glow around the door handles.
“Ah, sister, what thou wish to speak about?” Luna asked, her sister giving her an annoyed look.
“Please Luna, drop the formalities, I have a favour to ask you,” Celestia retorted, getting a sad look from Luna.
“You never let me use the old Canterlot voice any more,” Luna grumbled, Celestia just frowned at her, “What is this favour you wanted to ask,” She quickly changed the subject, realising that her sister wasn't in the mood for jokes.
“Can you search though two of the elements of harmony dream's please?” Celestia asked, “They have gone missing, and Twilight is worried about it,” she added on.
“Very well, I'll search for any dreams they have had recently, but I advise you take caution with the power to view your subjects dream, I only use it in dire situations,” Luna responded, before noticing that she didn't know what she was searching for, “Err, what are the two ponies names?”
“Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie,” Celestia informed, “And I know not to make dream walking a habit,” she swiftly added. Luna closed her eyes, and a magical aura grew around her body, the stars in her mane glowing brighter and brighter as she search the stars for their dreams.
A few moments past until Luna opened her eyes again, the magical glow around her faded, she looked towards her sister with a face that portrayed only one emotion - fear.
“Their dreams are scattered, and fragmented but all show signs of pain and fear,” Luna explained, Celestia's face growing with a look of horror, “But the most troubling part, is that both of them have dreamed about humans,”
“That's impossible, we sealed that world from ours as soon as we found it,” Celestia exclaimed in disbelief, “You don't think that they fell into that world, do you?” Celestia's concern for her subjects grew incredibility fast. Any portal going one way could swiftly change into going the other. Luna just shook her head.
“I do not know, I'll investigate further, but if it is true, and they fell into the world of humans, then theirs not much we can do about it,” Luna concluded, much to her sister's disbelief.
“No, I will never leave any of my subjects in a hellish world like that, even though the chances of their survival is low, we must try,” Celestia declared, “At the very least, seal it so no more ponies can fall though,” she knew that the chances of a pony surviving in the human world was low, but she'll be damned if she'd leave any of her subjects in that living hell.
“I'll try my best to find the portal Sister, but be ready to assume that one of the worst fate imaginable has fallen over the two lost ponies,” Luna warned, she had seen a few dreams of the humans before, and never wanted to ever have to enter their world nor did she wish anypony else to end up their.
“Thank you Sister,” Celestia leaned over to her sister to give her a muzzle, “its a priority that we find that portal and secure it as soon as possible,” she began to walk away before Luna spoke again
“What of princess Twilight?” Luna asked, “She'd never accept her friend's demise without at least trying to save them,” Celestia paused, she knew that she'd have to tell her ex student that her friends were gone, but if she, did she would want to go and save them.
“We cannot risk any more elements, we have to be careful about when and where we tell her and her friends,” Celestia decided, her sister nodding in agreement.
Luna looked at the stars, her eyes glowing again with the same white light, “May the stars guide you home, lost souls...” she whispered, the warm air from her breath clashing with the cold evening air as it rose into the blackening sky.
“We can afford all we need, we cannot afford all we want”
-President John Henry Eden
The town of Novac was – really quite. It was a new experience for Six, as both of the towns he had been to, have been having problems with escaped convicts and his amnesia prevented him from remembering anywhere else he'd been before he was shot.
His two companions were still resting over his shoulder - Rainbow had fallen asleep and her snores echoed throughout the small canyon. Pinkie had stayed awake, ignoring Six's advice of resting while she could, “I can't fall asleep, you might get lonely with no one to talk to,” was her reasoning, and he didn't have the heart to reject her.
“Look Six!” Pinkie yelled, causing both the Courier and Rainbow to jump.
In a flash Rainbow jumped into the air and waved her hooves around like she was trying trying to fight the air. “Come on, fight me!” Rainbow shouted, still waving her hooves. Six couldn't contain his laughter, nor could Pinkie as both erupted into a fit of giggles. Rainbow cheeks turn to a bright red as she realised what she'd just did, she rubbed the back of her head with her hoof in embarrassment.
After a few moment as some deep breaths, Six managed to recompose himself and started walking again, they could joke around when they get to the safety of the town. Rainbow landed next to him and matched his speed. “Hey Six, is that the town?” Rainbow asked, she sound hopeful, but Six had never been too good with judging people's or 'ponies' emotions.
“Yeah,” Six replied simply, getting a small nod from Rainbow, “I don't know what your towns looked like in... wherever you come from, but that's quite a nice town for the Mojave,” Six explained to them, he couldn't imagine lots of ponies in busy cities, or anywhere really.
“What about that other place, Vegas, was it?” Pinkie inquired, Six had heard of a lot about Vegas, some say “Its great,” and some say “Its like hell,” depending on who he asked, but he'd be going there next, he still had some business to finish off.
“Dunno, I've never seen it up close, but its looks amazing from afar,” he replied, the lights of Vegas fresh in his mind, once - he went up a large hill at night and saw the city in its full glory, it lights shining bright from the darkness that engulfed the rest of the Mojave, like a diamond in the mud. “We'll be visiting it soon, if you decide to stick around with me,” Six added on after.
“Why wouldn't we stick around with you, you're one of the only humans we've met so far that hasn't been mean to us,” Pinkie responded, she was always so nice and happy, even though most of her experiences so far have been horrible.
“I know, just giving you the choice to leave if you ever wanted,” Six offered, he noticed how quite Rainbow had been, after looking at her - he saw that she was looking at Pinkie with sad eyes, Pinkie saw this too, and she stared back with equally sad eyes, giving out a sad sigh. The rest of the journey (their wasn't that long left until they reached Novac) was spend in silence.
One of the first things that caught Six's attention was the food tent, he guessed it was the food tent as the wonderful smell of cooked food was coming from inside. He saw that both Rainbow and Pinkie had also smelt the food, but were taking to the smell differently.
“What's... that smell?” Rainbow asked, Six could smell that it was meat of some kind that was cooking, did they not eat meat?
“Its smells like steak, do you guys not eat meat,” he asked, it would be a useful thing to know, since half of the food in the wasteland is meat, or food from 200 years ago...
Rainbow looked like she was about to vomit, “M-meat?” looking over his shoulder towards Pinkie, he saw that she had the same look as Rainbow did – he assumed that the answer was no, no they didn't eat any other animals.
He noticed that there was a travelling merchant outside the tent, along with two guards, Six walked up to the merchant.
“Howdy, looking to do some trading?” she asked as soon as he got close to her, Six nodded his head, “Well, what are you looking for then, I got ammo, guns, armour and meds available,” she proclaimed, it was until she noticed the small animal that was poking its head over her customer's that she broke her professionalism. “Oh, hello, aren’t you cute,” she was clearly one of those animal people, she raised her hand to pet Pinkie, “Can I?” she asked, clearly expecting for Six to answer her question.
“Sure! I don't mind,” Pinkie squeaked, giggling. The merchant froze, her mind racing to process what just happened, she shock her head.
“Did you just talk?” She asked, Pinkie giggled in response. She knelled down and looked at Rainbow, “Can you talk as well?” she prodded, knocking Rainbow out of her thoughts.
“Whoa, don't try and do that sappy stuff to me too,” Rainbow hissed, causing her to back up slightly.
“W-what? How? Huh?” She uttered, she put her hand on her face and rubbed her eyes, “You know what, never mind, I don't even want to know, lets just get trading,”
After swapping over some bottle caps and other loot that Six had, he managed to get some stimpaks, other medical supplies and some ammo for himself. He still had to get some weapons and armour for the two ponies. He still had around five hundred and fifty caps left, but he had already traded most of his random stuff that he looted.
“Alright, lets go have a look around, maybe will find the town's proper merchant somewhere,” Six spoke, taking both ponies back into the real world, both had been bored senseless by Six trading with the merchant. “Come on, lets have a look around, we might find something cool,” Six tried to entice the two ponies, both didn't seem all that enthusiastic about the idea.
“As long as we are as far away from that tent, then sure, lets go,” Rainbow replied, glancing back over to the tent with disgust.
“Can we go inside the lizard Six – please please please?” Pinkie begged, “Look at it, it's huge,” Pinkie gasped, Pinkie could stay sad for long, it was like nothing could keep her from being happy.
Six chuckled “Alright we'll have a look in a minute, but lets have a sit down on that old car over there,” Six said, he had been walking for a while now, the last time he had properly slept was at Goodsprings, and that was 4 days ago at least.
“Hey Six?” Rainbow interjected, Six turned to look at her, “Can we try one of those injection thing’s on Pinkie's leg?” She looked at her friends leg with a look of sadness.
“Injections?” Pinkie asked, looking between Six and the pegasus, “What kind of injections, I don't like having injections because they hurt,” Pinkie informed, she looked worried, darting her head between the two.
Six picked up the Pink pony off his back and place her on top of the destroyed car, he was sure that the town would be safe and if he needed to get help, he would be able to. “Pinkie, this injection thingy will help your leg heal much quicker,” Rainbow informed, she was still worried about her friend's leg and if Six could fix her leg, he wouldn't have to carry her around all the time which would be a lot safer.
Six slide the backpack off of his back, laying it next to Pinkie, opened it and took out a stimpak. “This is the injection, it's called a stimpak and will help your body repair the damaged leg quickly,” he explained, kneeling down and showing her the stimpak, “I promise that it won't hurt you,”
“Are you sure its safe, human medicine might not work properly on ponies like me,” Pinkie asked, she could only guess what the consequence would be if it when wrong.
[Medicine] “Alright, I can do a basic physical examination on you, just to make sure you are alright and I can use this safely, after all, stimpak were design for dogs and some other animals to use as well,” Six offered, Pinkie gave a little nod of her head, Six put his ear against Pinkie's chest, he heard a soft thumping noise in her chest, he also check over area's such as her leg to assess the damage it had taken, it was likely just a sprain. Pinkie was frozen still, clearly not expecting Six to just start examining her like she was a expensive object that he was about to buy. “ok, now open your mouth wide as you can please,” Six asked, Pinkie did what she was told, curious as to why this was necessary, she was only have one injections, wasn't she?
Apparently Rainbow had the same curiosity, “Six, do you really need to do all of this?” she asked, sharing her own discomfort for Six's unnecessary examination.
“I was just making sure that it was going to be safe, but if your not comfortable then I'll stop,” Six spoke, moving his hands back down to his side, Rainbow frowned at Pinkie for a while, and Pinkie also stared back with sad eyes again. “Ok, are you ready to have this injection now?” Six asked, getting the pink pony to stare back at him.
“S-sure, I guess, but you promise that it won't hurt?” Pinkie said, a shaky smile on her face.
“I promise, and if does it will only be for a second,” Six replied honestly, Rainbow flew up next to her and held her other fore-hoof, Six readied the stimpak and put it close to Pinkie's injured leg, she was flinching, Six quickly jabbed the stimpak into her and emptied the content.
“There we are, all done,” Six said, he patted the pink pony on the head gentle and stood back up.
“Oh, that wasn't that bad,” Pinkie remarked, Rainbow gave her a quick kiss on her cheek.
“You're a big brave pony pinks,” Rainbow declared, smiling at her pink friend, “I bet you can even walk on your own now,”
“Do you think, it feels really weird,” Pinkie informed, but after a short pause, she stood up on all four hooves, crawled off the car backwards, landing on her back hooves. “Ok, here it goes...” Pinkie said, she attempted to walk forward, after applying some pressure on her now healed leg, she realised that it still stung and felt small bursts of pain, it was bearable to walk on her own four legs
“It's not bad, it doesn't hurt much any more!” Pinkie said, smiling with relief that she can move with out any help, she had missed the freedom that movement gave her. “Thank you Six for the injection,” Pinkie thanked, jumping up at Six's legs, he knelt down and she gave him a small nuzzle.
Rainbow gave out a sigh, looking disappointed at the pink pony's affection towards the human.
Six didn't bother asking Rainbow why she was upset with the Pinkie, nor did Pinkie ask Rainbow why - as she already knew. “Lets go and take a look inside the lizard,” Six muttered, walking towards the stairs that led into the lizard statue, Pinkie and Rainbow followed him slowly.
The room that was inside the lizards stomach was actual where the towns local merchant, the room had shelves full of scrap parts and other miscellaneous objects, a small amount of guns were lad out across the table in the centre of the room, the merchant was leaning against the wall behind the counter, as he noticed that he had customers, he moved closer to the counter.
“Welcome to the Dino Bite Gift Shop. My names Cliff, and if your...” the merchant began, until he saw the two brightly coloured horses that accompanied his one human customer, Six sat down at one of the chairs that was against the counter, Pinkie jumped onto the second one as Rainbow flew up onto the counter. “Now I know that I've gone completely mad,” was Cliff's only response.
“Why don't you take a picture, It'll last longer,” Rainbow retorted, causing Cliff to laugh to her surprise, he reach over and patted her on the head.
“Trust me little missy, I would if I could,” Cliff said, turning back to Six, “But I'm sure you only came in here to trade,” He assumed.
“That's right, lets see what you got,” Six said, taking off his backpack and putting it onto the counter...
Several minutes crawled past and Rainbow could entertain herself any longer, she had already sat around when Six was trading outside with the other merchant, and she couldn't sit still for any longer, she began scanning over the counter where some objects were lad out, some she recognized from her own world, some she could only guess what they could be used for, but there was one object that completely phased her, it was like a box, but had a trigger and what she thought was a barrel of some sort, yet it didn't have a place for ammo and the barrel wasn't large enough to have a bullet to go though. She couldn't work it out.
“Hey, what's this thing,” Rainbow asked, catching both Six's and Cliff's attention, she held up the object in her hoof towards them.
“It's a laser pistol, it was sold to me a little while ago, not many people have much of a interest in laser weapons around here,” Cliff explained, Rainbow nodded her head, she was still interested in how it worked, but his explanation would have to do. “You know what, lets do a little bet, if you want of course,” Cliff offered, Rainbow raised a eyebrow, but nodded her head. He pick up a battery of some sort from under the desk, open up a compartment in the side of the pistol, and put it in. He then passed it back to Rainbow. “You see that clock on the wall over there?” Cliff pointed his finger over to the far wall, there was a dusty, colourless clock that hung on the wall, “If you can hit that with the pistol, you can keep the gun, I might even throw in some ammo for you as well, if not well, you don't keep the gun,” he explained, both Six and Pinkie moved out of the way, giving Rainbow a safe firing zone.
“Hmm... deal,” Rainbow responded, she knew her mouth eye coordination was good, but it was be a challenge to even get the gun to fit comfortable in her mouth and to get it to aim straight. However Rainbow wasn't the kind of pony that would back down from a challenge. She picked up the gun in her mouth, it wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be, but getting to the trigger with her tongue was fairly difficult.
A 'pew' sound ran though the air as a single red beam flew across the air and made contact with the clock on the wall, but instead of leaving a burn or a mark, it instead burned away the whole clock into a pile of ashes that fell to the floor.
“Well done Rainbow, you're a good shot,” Six complemented, she whipped back her hair and ran a hoof though it.
“Yeah, I knew I could handle it easily,” She commented after dropping the gun from her mouth, she was then forced into a hug from a pink pony who had climbed up from her stool and onto the counter.
“Go Dashie! you showed that clock who's boss,” Pinkie cheered, she released Rainbow from her powerful grip, smiling at her.
“Well done little missy, the gun is your, and here's some energy cells to keep it powered,” Cliff reached under the counter, and place some energy batteries in front of Rainbow. “Change the batteries every thirty shots and keep the barrel clean, the laser pistol will serve you well if you keep it in good condition,” Cliff said, he showed Rainbow how to open and close quickly – he then went back to trading with Six.
So she had a weapon, a device that could take a person or a pony's life in a few shots, but it could also burn their body down to a pile of ashes, and it was hers and it was also her responsibility if somepony or someone dies from it. Pinkie was looking at her, her wide eyes staring at her, Rainbow held the gun in her mouth, it was like when she held the gun in the bunker, she was angry at her captor for hurting Pinkie, but that was no justification or excuse to murder him. 'You were doing it in defence' Six's words echoed though her mind, it was still not a excuse, but it did help her calm down.
“You're thinking of the bunker again, aren’t you Dashie,” Pinkie asked, she raised her fore hoof to Rainbow's face, resting it on her cheek, “You did it to protect me,” Pinkie reassured her, but she Rainbow pushed her hoof off.
“Maybe I did, but I still killed somepony, and one life is not equal to a other,” Rainbow counted, Pinkie looked sad at her, but understood why she was so scared, “And I now know that you'll be just as doomed as me,” Rainbow grimly reminded her.
“How is she doomed with you?” Six asked, his conversation abruptly stopping with Cliff, as he had walked off into the room off to the side.
“Where we come from, it's believed that when a pony dies, the soul is taken to the eternal fields, where you and all of the ones you loved share a world that's born of all of the things you loved in your life,” Pinkie explained, Six never understood religion that were from the old world, but for all he knew, it was true for ponies to end up in 'the eternal field' when they die.
“But if a pony committees one of the three sins, then they will instead be banished to Tartarus with the one that they loved the most as punishment,” Rainbow growled out, she lowered her head in shame, tears of frustration and fear welled up in her eyes.
“Then you'll have to seek redemption for yourself then?” Six replied, Rainbow turned her head up, on eyebrow raised in confusion, “If one soul isn't worth a other soul, then how many are,” Six added.
“What... kill more to redeem mine?” Rainbow questioned, she shock her head, but realised that Six was also shaking his head.
“No, but if you've saved Pinkie's, that's one soul, if you save more people then you would of save even more souls in the process,” Six explained, his words clicking in her mind, “Maybe you could even saved your own at some point,”
“Maybe... its better than nothing - right Pinkie?” Rainbow responded, Six knew that in order to save someone, then she would have to kill again and that defeated the point of redeeming herself.
Pinkie nodded her head to Rainbow and leaned in close to her ear, “What if this is Tartarus?” she whispered. She had a point, this has been the worst experience in both Rainbow's and Pinkie's life, maybe they truly did fall into hell.
However their thoughts where all interrupted by Cliff re-entering the room, in his arms where several parts of leathered and metal pieces of armour, however their was also a custom made jacket that wasn't designed to be used by a human. “Here you are, this plus all of the other things I'll sell to you for five hundred caps,” Cliff announced, dumping the armour onto the counter.
“Hmm...” Six sounded, scanning over the items on the counter, doing quick mental maths to calculate the price – the price was correct, if not a bit cheaper that what he'd sell it at. “Can I let Rainbow try on the jacket first?” Six countered, he needed to be careful with his money, if he brought this, then he'd be left with a mere fifty caps, not an amount he was comfortable with at all, he still needed to get the hotel room and some food for the three.
“Sure,” Was Cliff's reply, Six pick up the jacket and approached Rainbow, she looked over the jacket, ponies didn't normally wear clothes, but she'd knew that if she wanted to survive and seek her redemption, she'd have to adapt to this world.
The jacket fitted nicely on her, it however lack the holes for her wings to fit and they were currently constricted to her sides, but the tan jacket provided her with a way to attach bits of armour to her without causing too many sores and rubbing's. “I think it'll work...” Rainbow responded, she now had a weapon and armour to protect herself in a fight, but Pinkie still lack any means of protection.
“Yeah... sorry that theirs no holes for your wings, but we can fix that later,” Six promised, the jacket look alright on her, but the most important part was that it was armour that could easily stop a bullet or two with a few modification. Six turned back to Cliff, “Alright, I'll pay you the five hundred caps,” Six said, opening a small satchel by his side and poured the content out of it – he took back fifty of the caps, leaving the rest for Cliff to pick out.
“Thanks for the business, and you look very tough with the laser pistol and jacket now little missy, sorry about the jacket not being that great, it was designed more for dogs than for... whatever you are,” Cliff responded, raking up the caps off the counter and dropped the rest into a tin that rested underneath the counter.
“Any idea where you got it from?” Six asked, Cliff looked at him and paused for a moment in thought – six still needed to get something for Pinkie, as she wasn't even as tough as Rainbow and she still didn't have a weapon that she could use.
“A guy came in and sold it to me, I think he might of said that he got it from the Gibson scrap yard, they keep lots of dogs over their, so I'm sure they have some way of keeping the dogs alive in a fight,” Cliff replied, Six's Pipboy flashed up a location, the Gibson scrap yard, it was only a short walk down the road on the way towards New Vegas so they could easily stop by on the way out of town.
“Alright, thanks, see ya later,” Six said, pushing all of the pieces of armor into his backpack and the rest into his pockets that were around his waist, he mainly brought ammo and replacement parts for his guns so he could repair them later.
“Bye,stop by again soon,” Shouted Cliff, Six walked out of the door, the two ponies followed him eagerly, as the next stop was the motel to get some sleep.
The night time was creeping up quickly, the sun setting off in the distance, the group stood upon the raised platform, “Lets wait a minute,” Six said, looking off into the distance.
“Why, come on, the quicker we get to the hotel room, the quicker we can go to sleep,” Rainbow retorted, Six raised his finger to point across the desert, towards New Vegas, “Wha – woah...”
As the sun faded under the hills, the lights of New Vegas each turned on, even from the distance they were at, the individual signs of Vegas where visible, the massive buildings dwarfing the rest of the structures that surrounded the New Vegas strip, but still lit up the area with its blazing light.
“Its... beautiful...” Pinkie commented, all of the group paused to take a good long look at New Vegas, until they were taken back to reality by a voice.
“It is indeed... shame the people who go there aren’t,” A voice called from the bottom of the stairs, looking over towards the man revealed that the man wore tan colored clothes, a brown cowboy hat and a pair of dark shades, completely concealing his eyes. “Courier Six I assume?” The man raised his hand up.
“You well informed,” Six replied, walking down the stairs and meeting the man with a handshake, “Now its your turn, who are you?” Six asked, the man removed his hand, but instead saluted.
“Ranger Thomas, proud member of the NCR rangers,” The man declared, he lowed his hand, “And I'm here on behalf of the NCR, we need your assistance,” he summarized, both Rainbow and Pinkie approached beside Six. He caught sight of the two ponies, “The mission brief didn't say anything about you two,” he said as he crouched down, rubbing the back of Pinkie's ear.
“What do you want Six to do?” Rainbow asked him, the Ranger didn't seemed that phased unlike when she spoke, everybody else so far was surprised by their ability to speak.
“Huh, you can also talk, nice jacket by the way,” Thomas complemented her, he then stood back up, “To answer your question, the NCR needs your help in taking out a small but troublesome camp of raiders, they operate just down that road,” he informed, pointing a finger down the main road behind the dinosaur going the opposite way to New Vegas.
“Can't the big NCR do it themselves?” Rainbow taunted, most of her energy was completely gone and the Ranger was currently the only thing between her and a comfy bed.
“No miss, the NCR is currently dealing with the constant legion threat and the defense of hoover dam and New Vegas is a much higher concern,” the Ranger admitted, he passed a note to Six, most of it was boring text but it did include the promise of six hundred caps upon completion, plus he got to keep all of the loot that he finds as a bonus.
“Hmm, this says that you will be accompanying me for the duration of the mission,” Six stated, the Ranger nodded in response.
“Yes sir, however I don't believe that now is the best time to do the mission,” the Ranger insisted as he looked over the Courier and his companions, “perhaps the mission would be better if we start it in the morning,” he suggested, turning his head to yawn into his hand unprofessionally.
“I agree with this guy Six,” Rainbow interjected, tapping on his leg to help push her point across to him.
“Don't worry, I wasn't planning on going anywhere at this point,” Six replied to the both of them, they were all so tired, it had been a long day for them all.
“Ok then, I'll be up at the Ranger station until the morning, we can meet there and go over the plan,” the Ranger said, and went off without a other word. The map marker bleeped, showing him where the meeting point was, he still had no idea how the Pip-boy knew where everything was.
“Ok, can we please go to sleep now, I have never been this tired before,” Pinkie pleaded, Six began walking towards the main office part of the motel, he hoped that their was still a room free, he didn't really care for the price unless it was over fifty caps, if it was then they would be sleeping on the floor for the night. A women walked out of the office building and locked the door behind her.
Six ran up to her, startling her slightly, “Hey, I'm guessing you run the place?” Six asked, she nodded her head silently, “Do you have a room free, just for tonight?”
“I have one room free, renting it for the day will be twenty five caps,” she replied, Six reached into his satchel and fished out the caps needed, she took the caps and in return, place the room key in his hand, “Return the key when you're finished using it, if not you will be fined some more caps,” she threaten, but Six wasn't really listening.
“Will do, thanks for the room,” he replied as he walked off, the two ponies where still crawling over the courtyard towards the rooms, waiting for Six to return with the room key. The key said that their room was number twenty one and was on the second floor.
After a short search they had found the room, “Here we are,” Six commented, but his companions were too tired to reply, he opened the door to the room. The room was very worn down and most of the wallpaper had completely peeled off of the wall, but the most important part was the large double bed in the center of the room.
“A bed, a glorious bed!” Rainbow cheered, diving into the room and crashing onto the bed with a thud. “Huh, it ain't no cloud, but it will certainly do,” she commented, moving her head to rest on one of the pillows.
Pinkie quickly joined her friend on the bed, they both curled up on the left side of the bed, leaving the right side for Six, Pinkie helped Rainbow remove the jacket and placed it on the bed side table, Six also removed his damaged armor, reveling to him that it was mostly broken, but he could replace most of it with the part that he had in his backpack that rested next to the bed. Six crawled up the bed and rested his head on the pillow, the room was mostly dark save for his Pipboy light that made the room glow, he quickly turned it off. Six melted into the mattress, he hadn't sleep in days and even then, it wasn't on a proper bed like this, no, this was a special bed that cost him half of his money.
Six felt something move over and rest next to him, “Goodnight Six,” Pinkie said, yawning after - she was resting her head on his chest while Rainbow still held her tightly in her own hooves – Six moved his arm over and both Rainbow and Pinkie lifted up so he could reach under them so they were all cuddling with each other, it was nice for them all to just escape the world that haunted them for ever moment of their lives.
The three of them lad there, each in each others grasp - until the peaceful tide of sleep overcame them and took them away from the horrifying and busy reality that they would soon be forced to return to.
