Lost Souls

“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.