Fallout: Equestria - Allegiances

Chapter 33 - Clarity
“You must first clearly see a thing in your mind before you can do it.”

“You have got to be kidding me!” Gertie squawked out in disgust.

“Dust, you surely can’t be serious!” Silver gasped.

“We didn’t sign on for no suicide mission,” one of the griffon mercs yelled.

Everypony was yelling at me after I had informed them of my “plan” as it were. All except one.

A shrill whistle shattered the air and caused everyone to quiet down and look at the source. Flower removed her hooves from her mouth and turned to me. “Crazy,” Flower deadpanned. “You really, really are a crazy asshole. So let me make sure I have this straight… we fly up to Neighvarro?”

“Yup,” I answered.

“And we turn ourselves over to Muddy?” she continued.

“Sounds right,” I said.

“And you act like you’re going to cooperate?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“But you’re going to destroy the Pipbuck?”

“Uh huh.”

“And then somehow we escape?”

“Seems to me like you have it,” I confirmed with a smirk.

“You really are crazy,” she repeated, shaking her head this time. “Besides the stunning lack of detail, I have one question… when in this plan do you think about Muddy just snapping and killing you?”

“Well, I can’t entirely rule it out,” I admitted. “I’m counting on him being the only pony in the room who’ll want to kill me at that point. I’m expecting the rank and file to lose a little of their nerve once the objective is no longer possible,” I said, waving the Pipbuck around. “Besides, soldiers still have their code of conduct to abide by… we won’t be a threat, there’s no reason for them to kill us.”

“Or he’ll order your execution right there and then,” Silver argued. “As well as ours. They are trained to follow orders, right?”

“Yes, but they should know a good order from a bad one. And that’s where our griffon friends come into the equation,” I responded. “Once the goal is achieved, or things go to shit, hopefully they can distract everypony long enough for us to make it out.”

“Dust, no offense, but that is a supremely shitty plan,” Gertie said.

“I’m open to other ideas,” I shot back, tinged with more frustration than I intended. “Tell me how else we can get near that access port so I can plug the Pipbuck in? You know that entire area is a military outpost, right?” An awkward silence filled the room as everypony tried to think of an alternate idea. “I thought not.”

A gloom had settled over the ruins of Coltington. A few survivors of the attack who hadn’t left yet began to build a fire for the night. “Look, I figure we leave in the morning. We don’t want them to think we’re trying to sneak in. We want to appear non-threatening. Unless they’ve changed the layout of the encampment outside the tower, we should come in from the north so they can see us coming.

“Lockjaw, you and your buddies figure out the best way to draw an armed contingent away from Neighvarro,” I ordered. “And I don’t expect this to be a suicide mission. Just distract… protect yourselves however you need to, but no unnecessary risks. I’m not looking to fight them and win, I’m just looking to escape.” The stern-faced griffon’s eyes bulged a little at first, but then he nodded in response. The small contingent walked away from the clearing and began talking amongst themselves.

Knowing what we had in front of us, the few Coltington residents who hadn’t left yet volunteered to cover the watch for the night. I spent the first hour or so tossing and turning and just couldn’t fall asleep. I got up and walked to what used to be the edge of town and just walked. The fire in the center of town caused shadows of the ruined buildings to dance along other parts of the ruins. My mind just kept racing about all that could go wrong tomorrow.

“Dust?” a voice softly broke through my reverie. I jumped at the sound, tripping over my own hooves. I faceplanted onto the ground below, forcing dirt into my mouth and nose, causing me to erupt into a coughing fit.

“Oh geez,” Gertie said with a giggle. “You OK, Dust?” She kneeled down to help my back to my hooves.

After a few more coughs full of dirt, I was finally able to breathe again. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” After a short pause, I added, “Couldn’t sleep either?”

“No, not really,” Gertie answered. She shuffled her weight between her paws.

“Are you OK, Gertie?” I asked.

“Y.. yes,” she answered, her voice wavering. “No… Dust, can we talk?”

“Sure, what’s on your mind?” I asked while I sat down.

“I’m.. I’m sorry about before… it’s just that, I have these feelings and I don’t know what else to do,” she explained, her eyes beginning to water.

“Gertie, am I your first…” I began to ask.

“What? No!” she blurted out defensively. “Well, maybe. I mean, I’ve had crushes on some of the mercs before, but I was so much younger... and my dad would have killed them,” she added with a giggle. “But, with you, it’s different. I mean, you saved my life when you didn’t have to risk yours, but you did.”

“Any of the mercs would have,” I argued.

“Yeah, but they sorta had to… I mean, I am the head honcho’s daughter,” she laughed. “You had no such compulsion. You just did it. And standing up for me against my dad... having faith in my abilities… no one, not pony or griffon, has ever done that for me.

“On top of that, you’re funny, and caring… maybe a little too caring… and I don’t know when, but somewhere along the way, I realized I want to be with you,” she added and then paused. Gertie sniffled and then continued, “I know you love Silver, and I don’t know how I’ll handle it, but I want to. Even if I can’t have you, I need you in my life.” She ended with a deep sigh.

“Gertie, I don’t know what to say,” I began. It was my turn to sigh deeply. “At first, I was worried that I cared about you only because you saved me from the bunker. And I didn’t want to lead you on when it wasn’t real.” I saw her shoulders slump. “But, over time, I began to feel how real it was.

“To be honest, I was never much of a mares’ stallion,” I mumbled. “Priorities are… different… up there anyway. I don’t know if it’s common knowledge down here that same sex couples are almost encouraged to keep the overall population down. I felt things for other pegasi, but didn’t really know how to act upon it. And even though I always kinda liked the mares anyway, I could never bring myself to ask. There’s nothing special about me, at least, nothing to put me above the combat flyers. Everypony was out of my league…”

“But, Dust, you’re…” Gertie tried to interject.

I placed a hoof over her mouth. “Gertie, it’s OK. I know I’m just a run of the mill soldier pony. And there’s nothing wrong with that. And to be honest, I know I’m in over my head here. But I’m getting sidetracked.” I took another deep breath. “You are a selfless and brave merc, not to mention loyal. You have put your needs behind others, and not just because of a contract. You do it because it’s the right thing to do. That may not make you the best merc, but it makes you a good griffon.

“And I know how you feel… I have feelings for you too. Very complex and confusing feelings, mostly because of, and I’m sorry for this, Silver. I have feelings for her too, and I just don’t know what to do about it.” I paused, not knowing where to go with this… hoping for Gertie to fill the silence.

Fortunately, she did. “Dust, I know. And I don’t want to make things difficult,” she added. She placed her claw on the side of my face and looked me right in the eyes. “Just promise me I can always have you in my life, and that you will keep me in mind, if, you know…” Gertie punctuated the statement with a nervous exhale.

I couldn’t help but laugh a little. She wrapped her forelegs around me and I did the same for her. “Gertie, while I can’t promise I can give you what you want, I can promise that you will always be special to me.” I couldn’t help but giggle at my next thought. “And I will keep you in mind, if, you know…”

Gertie fought it at first, but even she laughed a little. She leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek. After breaking our embrace, she stepped back. “So, I’ll see you in the morning?”

“You bet…” I answered. “We got a long day in front of us tomorrow.”

She turned away, but hesitated. Then she turned quickly and wrapped me in an embrace. She quickly pressed her beak to my lips and kissed me hardly and deeply. After a moment of shock, I returned the act.

She broke away. “Good night, Dust.” Gertie worked her way back to the fire and curled up into her bedroll. I moved closer to the edge of town, finding a small alcove to sit down and lean against while still being able to gaze at the fire.

“I love you, too,” I muttered, under my breath. Almost as if she could hear me, her head raised and looked over her shoulder right at me. She couldn’t really have heard me, could she? After a few seconds pause, she slumped back down and laid her head down.

My mind began to race thinking about tomorrow. I was thinking of contingency plans, all the possible what ifs, what could go wrong, what would we do… And I even thought about Gertie here and there. And what in Tartarus was I going to do about Gertie and Silver?

“Dust?” Silver called out my name.

“Great, now I’m hearing her voice, too,” I mumbled to myself.

“Dust, what do you mean?” she asked.

I looked away from the fire and saw Silver’s silhouetted by the fire light. “Silver!” I cried out in surprise. “Can’t sleep?”

“No, and I see you can’t either,” she replied. “Mind if I join you?”

“Sure,” I replied, scooting over and letting her sit next to me.

“Cap for your thoughts?” I inquired.

“Well, I had a lot on my mind and I didn’t want to lose this chance to talk about it, in case, well, you know…” she added uneasily. “In case one of us doesn’t make it back.”

“I know the feeling,” I responded, nodding solemnly.

“Things have been, um, complex between us, haven’t they?” she started. Without skipping a beat, she continued. “I mean, you saved me from Muddy in the vault… by Celestia, that feels like ages ago now. And you didn’t need to… you could have just walked away… I was nothing to you… but you’re different than most ponies I know. Tartarus, most ponies would have tried to take advantage of me in that situation…”

Not quite knowing what to say, I just waited for her to resume. “But not only did you not take advantage of it, you risked your own life to save mine. And then you did everything you could to protect me further… and you even rescued me from Manny. I was confused… who was the wasteland pony who acted like no other wasteland pony I knew. And then I began to worry… did I just feel the way I felt since you saved me?”

I snorted while fighting back laughter. Silver looked up at me confused. “Long story,” I stated. “Anyway, keep going.”

“But the more I saw you do, the more I knew it was just who you were. You were even to risk your life for ponies you barely knew, even if it meant pissing all of us off. But that didn’t matter, doing what was right did.” She paused, and I could feel her tense up. “And then you went back up chasing Muddy. And I thought you had died.” I heard her sniffle and began to sob. “I thought you were dead, Dust. We all did. I mean, you were gone for months. And then I moved on to Scrapyard… and then you came back in my life.

“That day… Tartarus, not far from here even, you turned my world upside down. In some ways, it would have been easier if you hadn’t come back. I won’t lie… there were moments I wish you had died. I was angry. Things had just started to settle down for me. It definitely would have made everything easier. But all the old feelings came flooding back. And we never really got a chance to talk about this, we’ve been so busy. Losing Brownie, losing Coltington… and now tomorrow, we take on an entire branch of the Enclave military? This is insane…

“But, it made me realize I needed to lay it all on the line…” she paused, tensing up again.

“Silver, it’s OK if you…” I started to say, but couldn’t. Silver had locked me in an embrace and pressed our lips together. I remember this happening only one other time and that first time was amazing. But this was different. This was just… more, somehow. She wasn’t holding back, and neither was I. I lost myself in the moment and let go, too.

I don’t know how long we were locked in that kiss. But, the sound of something scraping along the ground caught both of our attention.

“What the?” Silver asked.

I scanned the area and couldn’t see anypony. “Maybe it was just the night watch.”

After a pause, she nuzzled up next to me. I finally felt the tension in my body drain and I drifted off to sleep.

I felt myself wake up, but I couldn’t see anything. Everything was black… ah, Tartarus…

“Oh mysterious robed figure! Where are you?” I called out, a slight edge to my voice. Of all the times for another visit…

“My, my, you’re rather impatient,” the gravelly voice called out, still not appearing. “You remind me of, well, me, when I was younger, and alive,” she giggled. “Why the rush?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I have a suicide mission I have to be ready for tomorrow,” I grumbled. “I need my sleep.”

“This won’t affect your sleep… and is this what you call sleep?” she retorted, her robed outline appearing from the murk. She waved one of her legs and a small area lit up slightly, showing Silver and I sleeping against the ruined wall in Coltington.

“Am I not entitled to one night of happiness?” I shot back.

“No.. you are and it’s awesome… what took so long?” she laughed.

“Wh… what?” I stammered. “So long?”

“Oh, c’mon Dust, I’ve known this day was coming for forever!” she added with more laughter. “A turtle moves faster than you do!”

“Well, you know.. Um…” I just couldn’t form a coherent thought.

Eventually, her laughter died down. The robed figure walked next to me and sat down. The view changed and we were sitting on a ledge overlooking the entire Wasteland. Small pinpricks of light identified small settlements here and there. “Amazing, isn’t it?” she asked.

“It’s a shithole,” I glumly answered. “But it is amazing what the ponies down here can do. After what we did to them. It just isn’t right. Which is why I have to make up for it.”

“So, you’re the spokespony for the entire Enclave? I thought that was the Council’s job?” she asked me, sarcasm dripping off each word. “The great Dust Cloud, ambassador of the great Pegasus Enclave! Or is it Updraft.”

“That’s not what I meant,” I growled. “But I have the ability to do this, and I have to do this.”

“Why?” she shot back. “Why is it your job? Your responsibility? You called for the cloud cover? You drive out the sympathizers? And brand them? That’s all your doing?”

“Well, no, but…” I tried to argue.

“Then why? Why is this YOUR job?” she argued back. “There are so many ponies up there,” she said, pointing towards the sky. “Why do YOU have to do this? Why are you doing this?”

“Because it has to be me,” I shot back. “I have this thing,” I nearly shouted, waving the Pipbuck in the air. “I didn’t ask for it, and I didn’t want it! All I wanted was to go home. Back up there! But that was never going to happen. If I don’t do this, then more shit will rain down on the Wasteland.”

“That still doesn’t answer my question,” she shot right back. “Why. Are. You. Doing. This.”

“BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO!” I yelled, the image of the Wasteland shattering into shards and falling away.

After a long pause, the stranger took a deep breath. “See, was that so hard to admit?”

“What do you mean?” I said, nearly whispering.

“It’s easy to make decisions when you think you have no choice,” she said. “I’m the only one, there’s no other choice, what else can be done… But that doesn’t make a judgement on what’s being done. Many ponies have done terrible things without thinking… even me. But we were ‘just following orders’, we told ourselves. Those are the easy decisions. The really hard decisions are the ones where there is no clear answer. The easy choice is so tempting, but the hard choice might extract a high cost. But neither is right or wrong. It’s those decisions that are important… that show who you are.

“You could just stay down in the Wasteland forever. Eventually, the Enclave will tame Muddy down. But they will probably hunt you down, for a while anyway. But you could risk it all to do some good. Or you could have given the Enclave what they want and be a hero. How many ponies wouldn’t want to be the hero and live in comfort. No matter what you choose, some ponies win, some ponies lose, and some ponies pay a huge price.”

Another image formed in the inky darkness. It was Fort Canterbury. The supply depot. A shadow appeared near me and I saw my old self land, drawing a small skywagon behind me. Everything froze.

“Why are you showing me this?” I asked, my voice pained.

“What do you see?”

“It’s me before all of this started… shit, it hasn’t even been a year, has it... “ I paused. “It feels like this was a different lifetime.”

“Well, wasn’t it though?” she retorted. “Tell me, what do you see?”

“It’s me…”

“Look deeper, what do you see?”

“I see a soldier,” I answered.

“Talk to me about him...” she continued.

“He’s content. Likes his job, wants more, but who doesn’t?” I answered. “Always trying to satisfy his superiors, never quite doing so.”

She cut me off. “No… don’t tell me about his career… talk to me about HIM.”

“I don’t understand.” I was seriously confused.

“What kind of pony is he?” she clarified. “Is he a leader? Is he the kind of pony to single-hoofedly take on an entire army?”

“Well, yeah…” I started but my words fell flat in my own ears. My head slumped down. “No… no he’s not.”

“So you’re telling me he can’t lead ponies?” she asked, incredulously. “You’re telling me he’s not a fighter?”

The general’s face appeared from the shadows. “Annual reviews are good, but not excellent. Combat Readiness evaluations are OK. I’ll be honest, though. You are nothing but an average soldier, at best. You really don’t have much of a future in the Enclave if you hang around.” His original words somehow echoed in the void. As quickly as it appeared, it disappeared.

I fell down to the ground and began to sob. “He… he was right…”

“That’s right, private,” his gruff voice echoed out in the darkness. A ghostly image of the general in his dress uniform trotted out in front of me. “A middling soldier. Perhaps not even worth his commission in the Enclave. All you’re good for is pulling around a wagon. And Tartarus, you weren’t even very good at that!” He laughed. “I gave you your only chance to stand out, and you fucked that up too!”

“But,” I tried to argue but he cut me off.

“Please… I’ve heard it from many like you before,” spitting his words at me. “But I’m better than that,” he added, mockingly. “I can do better, I’ll show you. Please. Why do you think I picked you? Easy to control, eager to please, willing to do anything… and easy to disappear. No one misses you, Dust.”

“That’s not true!” I shouted back. “My mom, and there’s Buster! And my other friends!”

“They think you’re dead! No one is looking for you!” he snickered.

“And my other friends. Flower, Silver, Gertie…” I cried out, sinking to the ground.

“What about One and Brownie? You know, the ones you got killed,” he added with an evil grin.

“But they weren’t my fault,” I whimpered, starting to cry.

“How convenient for you,” he jeered. “Well, just remember this for the rest of your life, however short it may be.” he turned and walked away, fading into the black.

A parade of more ghostlike ponies appeared before me. A large brown pony began to fade into view. “Hi, Dust. How are ya?” Brownie’s deep voice echoed into my ears.

“Howdy, Mr. Dust!” One’s playful voice rang out behind him. His ghostly green form trotted past.

RIght behind him was Midnight. “Hey, Updraft. How’s it going?”

The lineup went on and on. Various townsponies from Coltington like Big Boss and Last Stand, Manny, Leafy, the assassin… were there really this many?

“I’m sorry… they are dead because I’m not good enough…” I cried out as my body fell limp.

“No, Dust… they aren’t…” she said, sitting down next to me and placing a hoof on my back.

“But I watched most of them die!” I shouted.

“But you didn’t kill them,” she said softly. “They are dead because of choices they made. Choices you were involved in, but you didn’t force anypony’s hooves. You inspired ponies to act. You showed them there is another way… a better way.”

“No… I can’t get off that easily,” I continued to sob.

“I never said it would be easy,” she said, her hooded head dropping. “You will remember each death for the rest of your life. But it is not your fault.”

The ghosts vanished to be replaced by a new set of ethereal images. I saw Flower, Silver, and Gertie, walk out of the darkness.

“And tell me this…” the stranger said and then paused. “What about this collection of ponies?”

“They’re good ponies… and a griffon,” I answered. “Selfless, fierce…”

“But why are they together?” she interrupted. “First, you have a Wasteland pegasus, not accepted by her own, and not accepted by the wastelanders. Speaking of which, there’s Flower, a Dashite. And finally, there’s the Griffon merc. How in Equestria is this group together?”

“Well, I met…” I started.

“No… I don’t need a history lesson.” I was getting a little frustrated being cut off frequently. “How did this disparate group, who, by all accounts, should not be a group, come together and stay together this long?”

“Because of me…” I started. “They were helping me fix my fuckups…”

“They didn’t have to… they chose to,” the hooded stranger replied. “They did it with you, not because of you or for you.”

“Yeah, but…”

“But nothin’,” she interrupted me again. “You bonded with these ponies. You formed a team. You got their trust. You’ve earned their loyalty.”

“But…” The realization washed over me and floored me. I had spent all this time thinking it was all about me, but in a different way. I thought it was all my fault… that I had guilted these ponies into following me. Persuading them into a fools’ errand for me. But that wasn’t it at all. These ponies are following because they want to, because they agree it is the right thing to do.

“But there is still one problem…” she said.

“And what is…” I started to say, but then I saw the orange colored eye slits of Enclave power armor emerge from the darkness. Attached to their sides, I saw the purple glow of the arcane power cells of the Novasurge rifles. I counted at least a dozen rows or armored soldiers.

A larger pony stepped in front of the group. The helmet actuated and flipped back, revealing Muddy. “That would be me, Dust.” The rifle began to whine as the power up cycle started. “I’d run if I were you.” Before I had a chance to react, the first energy bolt whizzed past my head.

Skittering to my feet, I began to run as fast as I could. But there was nowhere to go, no cover to be found. The magical energy beams whizzed closer and closer to my head.

The robed figure flew next to me and kept pace, her robes flapping behind her. “This is your problem now… figure something out!” She accelerated and flew away into the void in front of me.

The next shot found home. The burning sensation began in my hindquarters and slowly ebbed its way forward. Eventually, my entire body was on fire.

I shot straight up and screamed. The burning feeling began to fade away But I was still screaming between ragged breaths.

Silver wrapped her legs around me. “Shhhhhh… it’s alright.. You were having a nightmare.”

I buried my head into her chest and tried to slow my breathing as best I could. The burning sensation had faded completely. But the fear… that fear was still all too real. How could that be?!?

“Cap for your thoughts?” Silver said with a nudge.

“It was noth…” Why was I hiding this? “What do you think our chances are tomorrow?”

“You want an honest answer?” she asked. After I nodded, she sighed deeply. “Pretty shitty, I think. I mean, it is a pretty ridiculous plan. But then again, it is the right thing to do, isn’t it?”

“Yes, yes it is,” I admitted with a forced grin.

We sat there in an awkward silence for a while. I felt Silver’s breathing start to slow and settle into a pattern. I felt myself begin to drift off again, as well.

“I love you, Dust,” she murmured, just barely audible.

“I love you, too, Silver,” I replied.

She gave a soft moan back and I drifted off to sleep.

Morning came too quickly. Silver’s shuffling eased me awake.

“Morning sunshine,” she whispered sweetly.

“Good morning,” I answered in kind. “Sleep well?”

“No,” she chuckled. “You?”

“No,” I laughed back. I began to get up and Silver tried to grip me tighter. “C’mon, you know we have to do this?”

“Can’t we just sit here for a few more minutes?” she asked, her eyes watering up.

“Silver, we need,” I started but saw the emotion in her eyes. “Sure, we can sit here for a few minutes.”

I have to admit, the warmth of her body against mine was a feeling I would never pass up. She nuzzled her snout into my neck and we sat there for what felt like an eternity.

“Aww, look at you two,” Flower chided as she walked around the corner of the ruin. “Don’t wanna break this up, but we got shit to do.”

Silver let out a groan and made her way to her hooves. I followed suit. Every muscle in my body ached from the awkward sleeping position, but I didn’t mind it. I followed Silver and Flower back into the center of town.

One of the griffon mercs saw me and smirked. “What’s the smile on your face for, eh?” I grumbled. His buddies began to laugh. Shit… I hope Gertie wasn’t hearing this. Scanning the area, I saw her. When I locked gazes with her, she looked away, her shoulders slumping.

Ah, Tartarus.

“Alright everypony,” I announced. “Get your gear together. We’re wings up in fifteen.”

That bull of a grif, Lockjaw, trotted up to me as everyone else broke to attend to their preparation. “Hey, Dust, I need to talk to ya...”

“What’s up, Lockjaw?”

“I know your shell of a plan,” he started. “But me and the griffs are missing some of the details. How do we know when you need our help?”

“I don’t really know for sure,” I answered. His beak nearly hit the floor. “If all goes well, you guys have an incredibly easy mission on your claws. However, if things go bad, I expect you’ll know it. I just expect help with exfil.”

“And you’re sure you don’t want us to come in and help you fight?” he asked, looking at me as if I was crazy.

“Yes, I’m sure. I don’t want you guys at risk,” I said while shaking my head. “If things go that badly, there’ll be no fighting our way out, no matter how many of us there are. Our only hope would be to split their attention. I’ll get us out of the tower, we need you to help us get clear.”

“Alright,” he grunted, clearly not satisfied with the answer, and sauntered away.

I had to get my gear ready faster than anypony else since I was going to be the one pulling the skywagon for Flower and had to get strapped in. I can only imagine the surprise, albeit fleeting, when the soldiers see an “earth pony” walking on the clouds. It was just too bad we couldn’t use that in our favor.

Even though I had been fully trained in self mounting when it came to skywagons, it didn’t mean the job was not a pain in the ass. The eggheads who came up with the belts on the harness system needed to try it out on their own and maybe they would redesign the whole damn thing.

As I was struggling with the straps, I heard hoofsteps approach. Turning to look, I saw Flower walking up.

“Want some help, Dust?” she asked, putting her gear inside the carriage.

“Oh, absolutely, these straps…” I started to say.

“Not with the straps, dumbass,” she laughed moving towards the harness. “I meant with your love triangle problem?”

“Oh.. no… I…” I stuttered, completely floored by her frankness. “I just don’t know what to do… I love them both, and they both love me. I have to choose, but how do I choose? What is the right decision to make?”

“There is no right decision, Dust,” she mumbled, a strap still in her mouth. “You just have to do what feels right. And that just might mean not to choose at all.”

“But, Flower, I don’t want to lose one of them,” I rebutted.

“Nah, you misunderstand me,” she laughed, switching to the other side of the harness. “You can have both,” she added with a wicked smile.

“What? No, you don’t mean…”

“Eeyup, I certainly do,” she added, tightening the strap down.

I didn’t get a chance to answer her since the rest of our rag-tag little group was trotting up. No one said a word, but we all shared grim looks. Everypony knew what our goal was, and what the likely outcome could be. But nopony shied away. Everypony looked strong.

“I won’t get a chance to say this in the air, so let me say this now,” I announced. “This is not your fight, even you, Talons. If you want to step away, I will not think any less of you.” Much to my relief, nopony said a word.

“Alright then, obligatory speech time,” I announced, and everyone chuckled. “We are about to leave on what may be a one way trip for some of us. And it will probably be a mission that no one ever hears about ever again. But this is something that has to be done. This damned thing,” I said while waving the Pipbuck for all to see, “is too large a threat to leave out there to possibly get in the hands of the Enclave and as long as it remains in tact, nothing will stop Muddy, and the rest of the Enclave, too, I imagine.

“If there were another way, I would gladly do it. But the only way to destroy it is in the middle of the SPP tower and that is guarded by whatever forces Muddy has mustered. We have to enter the hornet’s nest. But that can’t stop us… it won’t stop us! What we do, we do for the entire Wasteland!”

As I scanned my small, rag-tag army, I swore I could see the approving faces of One, Brownie and the robed stranger. But when I took a second look, they weren’t there… why would they be?

Flower boarded the sky wagon and we all took off. Looking over my shoulder, I watched as what was left of Coltington grew smaller and smaller, until it finally disappeared.

Fortunately, nopony wanted to chat during the entire flight. It gave me plenty of time with my own thoughts. It was funny to me that I wasn’t thinking about strategy, or contingency plans, or what-ifs. I was thinking about Silver and Gertie.

Both were amazing. I knew I couldn’t live my life without either one in it. But I had to choose one of them, didn’t I? Or was Flower right, could I really choose both? Would they even go for it?

My mind went around and around this point. It felt like a bad record playing in my head, but no one had the decency to bump the machine. Just when I was about to go through the same argument for the hundredth time, a callout broke my train of thought.

“Neighvarro, dead ahead,” Gertie yelled out.

Level up!
Speech +5

Perk Obtained - Rallying Cry! - When followed by three or more companions, gain +1 Charisma. All followers gain +5 in all skills.