Twilight was not having a good day so far. It started out with her falling out of bed, causing a bruise to form in the process. Then she was embarrassed in front of everyone by Spike who decided it would be a great idea to tell them about her less than appealing sleeping habits. And to top it all off she was made to clean up a puddle of her own drool in front of them all while riding back to New Vegas. By this point the poor mare was grumbling to herself in the seat opposite to Arcade and Spike while they constantly came up with horrifyingly bad jokes and puns.

“Are you trying to say something Twilight?” Arcade asked, “Why don’t you just spit it out already?” Both he and Spike were laughing at her sour expression.

“Knock it off guys.” Veronica scolded from where she sat next to Twilight. “You are at the point where we’ve heard all of them at least once already.”

“She’s right, I counted.” Came the voice of Boone from the top bunk.

“Okay, okay we’ll stop.” Arcade said with a faint smile on his face. “We shouldn’t be mean to a fellow survivor unless they shoot at us.” Arcade then winked at Spike who grinned wickedly.

“Or in Twilights case… a fellow saliva.” He said with an almost cheshire smile on his face which was mimicked by Arcade. Both of their smiles fell almost immediately when they caught sight of Twilight.

Her mane was smoking and her irises were flickering between shades of purple and red, all the while, a low guttural growl was making its way up from deep inside her lungs.

“I will make both of your testicals into my own personal ping pong balls if you do not shut the FUCK UP RIGHT NOW!” She fumed, her voice rising until she was shouting. She then turned to Spike who was expectedly shaking. “And there will be no more comments from you either mister, unless you would like to find out what it feels like to be a potted plant. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Yes Mom.”

“That brings back memories.” Boone said as he climbed down from the bunk and made his way over to the reloading bench/worktable.

“Yeah, reminds me of the drill instructor in the bunker back when I was a kid.” Veronica said wistfully. “Even though I was originally a scribe before being assigned to the role of ‘procurement specialist’, I will never forget the members who are now paladins being treated like worms while I sat on the side-lines reading. Good times.”

“You were lucky, I was on the receiving end of the shouting.” Boone said. “Drill Instructor Stone was one of the scariest men I had the pleasure of knowing. He could turn even the most unruly bunch of fools into a force to be reckoned with.”

“Sounds like he could show Red a thing or two about discipline.” Twilight muttered from her seat, her hooves folded over her arms. “That mare needs a lesson in how to not be a fool. As well as maybe a hint of compassion.” After a few seconds of grumbling to herself, Twilight noticed the silence in the truck and looked up to see almost everyone staring at her with expressions varying from woeful to angry. The only exception being Spike who was looking between all the other faces in the room worriedly.

“Twilight.” Arcade said sternly. “Red is far from a fool.”

“She is also one of the most disciplined people I know when she needs to be.” Boone almost growled out.

“And she is by far a rarity in how compassionate she actually is, past the jokes and everything.” Veronica finished.

“Just because what you’ve seen of her so far has been the personality of a reckless fool, doesn’t mean she is one.” Arcade then pulled up his sleeve to show a scar that ran right round his entire arm. “She managed to reattach my arm during of one of the largest battles we have ever been in. As well as that, she brought my old family together for one last hoorah at hoover dam and helped me decide to fight alongside them.”

“She has helped make the lives of so many people so much better. She stopped the Great Khans from being betrayed by the legion and gave them a chance to start again, building an entire new community with the Followers.” Veronica then smiled and pulled out a battered power glove. “She also helped me find where I belong and who I am.”

“Red has taken on armies with nothing but her words and smarts.” Boone said as he came back over to the table. “She managed to persuade arguably the most dangerous man in America to simply walk away instead of fighting her, even when the only reason he came here was to fight. Everyone in the Mojave owes her their lives.”

Twilight looked ashamedly at her hooves as she twiddled them. She hadn’t expected them to back Red up the way they did but now looking back on it, she realised that of course they would, with the way that she had been described by Arcade when they were looking through the memory book, it would have been surprising if they did anything different. Twilight thought back and realised that she would have done the same if someone was questioning her friends without getting to know them.

“I… I’m sorry.” She mumbled, looking up at the others. “It was uncalled of me to say that about her, especially considering she took me and Spike in.”

“It’s fine, just remember that this world’s kindness has a far lower expectation than yours.” Arcade chided. “Red can be considered one of the kindest people in the wasteland and the meanest at the same time, it just depends on whether or not she believes you deserve it… wait that came out wrong.”

“I understand what you mean.” Twilight sighed, “I have been doing nothing but complaining about how flippant she is about violence without properly looking at the world around me. I realise that this world is not my own and I cannot expect the power of friendship to win against everything else, and sometimes you need to get down and dirty.” She finished her little speech by placing her hooves down on the table and schooling her features. The look turned into a frown soon after though. “I’m not going to enjoy killing though, it goes against my morals, but I do understand that my morals will not be enough.”

Veronica smiled down at twilight with a smile and placed a hand on her back, causing the mare to look up at her. “Don’t worry Twilight, no-one is expecting you to enjoy killing. Although I think we might let you off if you decide to indulge in a bit of Fiend killing.”

As much as she would not admit it to anyone back home, she couldn’t help but feel a slight hint of trepidation for when she could get back at the people who had caused her so much pain. According to what she had read on them in the survival guide, they weren’t exactly the type of people that would be missed if someone decided to kill a few of them. Not only that, but they were also considered by most to be worse than wild animals, so if that was the case then, she would putting them down for the betterment of everyone.

As soon as that though went across her mind, Twilight almost retched. *How could I think like that about another living being!?* She mentally screamed to herself. *Every life is sacred no matter how bad they may be.* Then Twilight thought back to all the arguments she had heard over the years being spoken by griffon generals and even a few pony veterans who spoke of needing to take the lives of the a few bad ponies to save far more. Back then, Twilight had just assumed that they were all heartless and that they were only looking for the simplest ways of resolving a conflict instead of trying to work out a peaceful accord with the enemy. She had vehemently fought against anyone who believed in those ways with her friends, and as a result, a large scale war was stopped.

*This world isn’t Equestria though, is It.* She thought, allowing her head to rest on the table while all the others continued talking. *The peaceful approach didn’t work here, and as a result, violence became the next option.* Twilight remembered some of the things that the fiends talked about while they were walking past Rampant’s room in Vault 3. They were all talking about doing such horrifying things to innocent people just because they wanted to, it was beyond sickening. No-one seemed to notice as her face shifted into a snarl. *Those Fiends think that they have the right to do anything they want and not face the repercussions? Well they have another thing coming.* Her line of thought was broken when the truck came to a halt and the engine turned off.

“Alright people.” Red said loudly as she climbed out of the cab and stood up straight. “Anyone who wants to grab something is more than welcome to come with, and those of you who don’t can stay here.” She then turned to the gun rack opposite the table and picked up the gun that she had told Twilight to use back in the armoury. At Twilights puzzled expression she elaborated, “I saw you using this and realized that it doesn’t really fit your method of combat so I decide to grab you a new one, Okay?”

“That’s fine, whatever you think would suit me better.” Twilight answered.

Red then turned to Boone, “You’re staying back at the Lucky 38, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, someone’s got to keep an eye on things back here while you’re away.” Boone said as he placed his rifle on his backpack and hung it over his shoulder.

Red finished packing her things and faced the others. “We’re not in a rush so any of you who has something they need to do can go do it as long as you’re back by 5 o’clock.”

Twilight and Spike stayed seated while everyone else got up and started filing out of the truck. Arcade said something along the lines of visiting the followers and Julie to see how they were doing. Veronica and Willow chatted about going shopping in some of the new stores that had opened up in Freeside thanks to the renovation work going on there. Once the others had left, the only other person in the truck was Red.

“I’ll probably be the first person to get back here but even then I will probably take a good hour doing so.” She then walked over to the kitchen and opened up the fridge. “We’ve got some leftover omelette in here if you want to have that for lunch and there are some Nuka Colas in here as well as a couple of blood bags for little miss vampire over here.” Both her and Spike chuckled at Twilights pout at the nickname.

“I’m not a vampire.” She huffed, folding her hooves over her chest and increasing the level of her pout.

“Whatever you say Vampire Sparkle.” Red teased. Her teasing suddenly stopped when she noticed that Twilight had a look of sheer horror on her face and Spike was crying with laughter. Twilight then ran to the toilet in the corner of the room and proceeded to start retching while Spike continued to laugh uncontrollably. “What did I say?” Red questioned.

Twilight came back over to the table and sat down, her face displaying complete and utter disgust. “Please do not call me that name, in fact, don’t ever put the word Vampire next to any of my names.”

“Why not?” Red asked, her confusion clear.

“Because that turns my name into an abomination of literature.” Twilight said as she suppressed a shudder.

“I’m missing something, aren’t I?” Red said with a sigh, only to be stopped by Twilights tired expression.

“Trust me, you’re not missing anything.” Twilights comment only redoubled Spikes laughter as he fell off of his seat and proceeded to roll on the floor, clutching his sides in hysterics.

Red watched all of this and slowly backed up towards the exit of the van before climbing out and shutting the door, all the while Twilight sat with her face in her hooves. When Spikes laughter finally died down and he had managed to stand up again, Twilight hopped down from her seat and walked over to the fridge and pulled out the plate that had the leftover omelettes on it. She turned on the stove and lit it with a spark of magic before holding the food over the flame with telekinesis.

“Are you sure you should be the one cooking/” Spike asked as he climbed up Twilights back to get onto the counter.

“All I’m doing is heating it up, there’s not much that can really go wrong with that is there?” She argued as Spike gave her a flat look, which soon shifted into a smirk.

“Okay, okay, I’ll leave it to you and your Cullen-ary skills.” He quipped, earning a scowl from his mother.

“I will put you in the fridge.”

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait, I had troubles with updating to Windows 10 and had to do quite a bit of work to get it fixed. The whole thing is sorted now though so chapters should hopefully get published sooner.

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