Even disappointments could be useful.

Fresh, wet sinew for thread, a needle made from a sliver of his tibia, and a foolhardy heart full of misplaced courage.

Glenn was lucky Hel hadn’t eaten it.

To the south-west he had felt the pulse of dark magic. Another tome calling out to be read.

Hel followed in his footsteps, his steel maw coated in gore.

<>~<>~<>

Daniel hadn’t even left the church and there was already another obstacle between him and finding his father. Twilight and Reverend Smith were busy talking about the black books and Scribe Glenn. The most he could offer was a comment here and there as he waited by Twilight’s side.

A small salve to his growing annoyance was the fact that he had felt the clawing, wet, foul energy radiating off the book. Pointless distractions didn’t hit him like a mini-nuke; this book was pure evil. He wasn’t a Christain, not for a long time, but feeling something that messed up pushed him closer to believing. God or not, there was magic on Earth already, and it wasn’t as friendly as Equestrian magic. If the book ended up in the hands of the wrong people… Daniel pushed the idea away. Fluttershy’s description of what she’d seen during the failed Brotherhood raid was enough. As much as it pained him, the book had to take priority over his father.

“So where can we destroy the books?” Twilight asked Reverend Smith as they stood across from each other over a brazier crackling with fire. The conversation seemed to be growing to a close.

Daniel tapped his hoof impatiently as he ran his tongue over the backside of his teeth. He could still taste copper, like he was sucking on a pre-war penny.

“A place called the Dunwich Building,” Reverend Smith replied. He turned and picked up the lead-lined briefcase off the counter with a grunt before he faced Daniel. “The missionary from the Abbey of the Road gave me a map.”

“We have our own maps,” Daniel replied. He held up his left arm and waved his Pip-Boy. “We can transfer the information so you can keep your own copy.”

“Great thinking!” Twilight beamed from beside him, smiling her bright, wonderful smile. His impatience and worry melted away with Twilight’s compliment. “I’m going to repack our bags so someone doesn’t have to lug everything around.”

Twilight bumped him with her hip before she departed in the direction of the spare bedroom.

“You two are a cute couple,” Reverend Smith said with a chuckle, approaching Daniel and holding out the briefcase. “I’ve already apologized to Twilight, but I’d like to apologize to you about how forced the wedding was.”

“It’s fine,” Daniel said, accepting the briefcase. He was indeed fine with it. Twilight was an intelligent, caring, supportive friend who he enjoyed spending time with. It had started out rough with a couple arguments, but overall things were heading in the right direction. “We’ll have a proper wedding with all our friends and family when we’re ready. Or at least renew our vows.”

Daniel’s smile slowly faded as he worked his jaw in thought. Sure, Twilight was amazing, but the wedding had been too fast and so sudden. He had to improvise something for the ring. Was their relationship strong enough to last? Then there was what had happened last night.

“I think I need to apologize to you,” Daniel’s voice was low, and he turned his head away from the reverend in shame. “I messed up.”

“What do you mean, Daniel?” Reverend Smith’s voice was calm and radiated with understanding. Like a father, or how Daniel expected a preacher should have been. Not the lackey of the Overseer he had dealt with for seven years back in the Vault, who twisted the lessons of the Bible into parody to suit the Overseer’s desire for control.

Daniel rubbed the back of his neck and looked down to his hooves, like a child caught with their hand in a cookie jar. He knew that the wedding wasn’t as legitimate as it should have been to actually mean something.

“I gave in to lust,” Daniel said, shaking his head slowly. A goodnight kiss turned into another, then a few more. Next thing Daniel knew, he was the one reaching for the zipper of Twilight’s vault suit and things escalated from there. “In the guest room of this church.”

Daniel winced as the preacher placed a rough, calloused hand on his shoulder. It was the hand of a man who worked a hard life every day. Unlike his hand, though, his voice was as soft as silk. “You are a married man.”

“But a shotgun wedding isn’t a real wedding,” Daniel replied, stepping back and looking the preacher in the eyes. He had been so caught up in the moment the night before, he had quickly jumped to saying ‘I do’ without a second thought. After a night of sleep and a cursed book in the briefcase he carried, Daniel was having second thoughts. “We both know that it was just to get around the rules, even if I love her, it’s too early.”

“Perhaps,” Reverend Smith said with a shrug. “But the Lord made Heaven and Earth in six days. Great things can happen in a short time. The fact that you care enough to feel ashamed is proof enough that, even if I didn’t think the wedding had merit—which I believe it does—you deserve forgiveness. Mine and the Lord’s.” The older black man chuckled mirthfully. “And don’t worry if there was a mess. Jackson was right, we were going to burn the mattress and the sheets anyways just to put the townsfolks’ minds at ease. Twilight told me the mutation doesn’t spread easily, but a little show to make them feel safe won’t hurt.”

Daniel didn’t know what to make of Reverend Smith. He was a holy man who was both firm with the rules, yet willing to bend them. A hypocrite was too harsh a word to describe the Reverend, even if it fit. Daniel decided that ‘Christian’ fit perfectly. God himself was polar opposites between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Sodom and Gomorrah one moment, Jesus on a cross for humanity’s sins the next.

“Thank you for the hospitality, Reverend,” Daniel said. “I’m going to go help Twilight pack. Do you have that map handy?”

“I do,” Reverend Smith said, reaching into the breast pocket of his vestments. “God’s blessing be with you, and your wife. Safe travels.”

<>~<>~<>

The hot afternoon sun of early September baked the mud into clay to the point that it cracked under Daniel’s hooves with every step, revealing fresh mud underneath. The baked layer hid deceptively deep pockets of wet earth beneath. Crack the top layer, and his hooves would sink, sometimes to the ankle, but more often than not it was to the shins.

Daniel should have known from how few trees and rocks were standing in the valley that it looked too easy to cross. The nearby rocky hills had all drained down into the almost barren valley, turning the entire area for miles in every direction into a literal sea of mud.

Twilight, with her wings pinned under her bulky backpack, was struggling just as much as him. At the moment she was walking over the trunk of one of the tipped-over trees, her Pip-Boy playing static at max volume. She had tuned it to Galaxy News Radio before leaving Drifter’s Rest, which was a few hours behind them.

The rough travel had kept their conversations to a minimum. Just getting through the valley was proving to be difficult, but turning back and taking a different direction was out of the picture. Following the ancient roads would take them around the rocky hills, but it would take them days out of range from the Dunwich Building.

A straight shot north from Drifter’s Rest had been their best option. After the Dunwich Building, they could keep heading north to hit Girdershade, or north-west for Smith Casey’s Garage, where his father had last been heading.

Movement from Twilight caught Daniel’s attention. She stared at her static-playing radio with worry again. She had been looking at the radio off and on for the last thirty minutes. Daniel knew she was anxious about Fluttershy. He was just as anxious.

“I’m sure–” Daniel was cut off with a grunt as his hooves broke through a thicker layer of clay he had thought would hold him, only to end up waist deep in a mud puddle. He scrabbled for the handle of the lead-lined briefcase in the muck, and thankfully found it. “Sure she’s fine.” He finished as he forced his way through the soupy earth towards the log Twilight walked on.

“She’s with raiders, Daniel,” Twilight fretted. She brought a hand to her mouth and bit one of her nails as she waited for him on the log. “You heard what Slim Joe said he’s done. What if he wasn’t telling the whole story? Fluttershy kept Discord from forcing the truth out of them.”

“I know you’re worried, Twi,” Daniel said, his Pip-Boy occasionally clicking as he encountered a minor patch of radioactive mud here and there. He reached the log and clambered up, his arms straining to pull his doctor’s physique out of the sucking soup. He sat on his knees, panting. “I’m sure she’s fine. She’ll have Three Dog’s new transmitter up and running in no time.” He wiped sweat from his brow. An odd sensation when the moisture was coming off his furry head. “Take five?”

“Yeah,” Twilight sighed, plopping down onto her butt beside him. She carefully slung her backpack around to her side, opening the flap and retrieving a small jar.

“That food?” Daniel asked, adjusting himself to sit on his butt as well. In his new position, the jar’s large white RX label was clear. It was prescription medicine.

“No,” Twilight replied, breathing exhausted pants as she set the jar between her legs. Daniel smelled mint as she opened the jar and used two fingers on her right hand to scoop out a large glob of snot-green gel filled with blue sparkles. She rubbed it on her horn, starting at the base and working up towards the broken end about two-thirds up. “It’s something to numb pain and help me regrow my horn.”

Daniel’s heart leapt into his throat at the thought of his wife hurting. “Is the break causing you constant pain?”

“No,” Twilight said, her response short as she focused on working her fingers up and down her horn.

Daniel smiled, brushing his worry away with a funny thought.

“Ya know, with you moving your hand up and down like that, it almost looks—”

Daniel’s lips were forced closed, purple light springing up in front of his face in time with Twilight’s horn glowing.

“It also keeps my head from turning into a sparkler,” Twilight said, giggling with glee as she clapped her hands and kicked her hooves. “Oh my goodness, it feels so good to do magic again without a headache.”

She slammed the jar lid closed and tossed it back into her pack, quickly pulling out several sheets of paper. Not paper, Daniel realized from the title, but a plain white pamphlet with a large bold title and a few black-and-white pictures. All of the pictures were of unicorns missing all or part of their horns. The title explained why. “Therapy Exercises After the Loss of the Horn”. It was a medical pamphlet, much like the ones he would give to a patient after a sprain or broken bone.

He had given a similar pamphlet to Miss Beatrice after she had dislocated her shoulder in a fall.

“Hey Twilight,” Daniel asked, though it was more of a ‘Hmm Hi-hmmph’ with his mouth still closed by her magic. Twilight released his mouth with an apologetic grin.

“Ah,” Daniel sighed, working his now free jaw before continuing. “If those exercises are simple ones, could they help me learn magic?”

Magic. Just the thought of being able to do something as simple as float tools around had spawned so many ideas for implementation. Daniel’s eyes drifted to Twilight’s leg. Her braced leg. If he had magic, maybe the operation wouldn’t have been such a hack-job.

“Theoretically?” Twilight answered, drawing his attention back to her beautiful and exotic purple furred face. She was frowning. “I see your expression. Don’t blame yourself for my bum leg. I ran off on you.”

Daniel hadn’t realized he had been frowning.

“Sorry,” Daniel apologized, feeling his ears flex back without his input. Having new flexible body parts was strange. “Just thinking of what I could do with magic. I could have helped so many people back in the Vault, or maybe saved the full use of your leg. I know I’m connected to magic now because I felt that.” He nodded to the mud-encrusted metal briefcase.

“Well,” Twilight said, smiling widely as she placed a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s put the theoretical to the test.”

Twilight pulled the hand away before she levitated out a pencil from her backpack, then handed him the pamphlet.

Daniel opened the first page and read the instructions aloud.

“Step one; Take relaxing breaths, focus on channeling your magic and attempt to lift an object no heavier than half a pound. There may be some pain from your injury, but your prescription horn gel should help with the pain and prevent magical flare ups. If magical flare ups or extreme horn or head pain is present, stop the exercise immediately and seek medical attention. Your injury may be worse than first diagnosed.”

Daniel smiled, this was like going step-by-step with a patient. Twilight had step one already completed. Now it was his turn.

Taking a long breath in, then slowly letting it out, Daniel tried to keep his nerves in check. But he was about to do the impossible. How could he not be anxious? He was about to do magic. Or maybe not. What if he couldn’t? Anxiety and excitement contended for first place in his mind, overriding any sense of calm he felt.

Biting his lower lip, Daniel tensed. He didn’t know the first thing about magic. What if he blew himself up by accident?

Twilight set the pencil down onto the log, releasing it from her magic, before she leaned forwards and kissed Daniel on the lips.

“You got this, hun,” Twilight said with a bright, reassuring, comforting smile as she pulled away. “Just relax, take it slow, envision your horn atop your head. Feel the energy flowing through it. Let it reach out like a third hand.”

Staring at the pencil, Daniel breathed slowly. The lingering warmth of the kiss and Twilight’s gentle words steeled his resolve. He could do this.

Squinting, Daniel envisioned his horn, envisioned it thrumming with energy, envisioned that energy forming a hand to reach out. He felt… something… a tingle.

A tiny flash of silver, the same color as his eyes, flashed above his head and wrapped the pencil in a sheath.

Daniel jerked in surprise, and the aura collapsed like a soap bubble.

“W-what!?” Daniel called out, blinking several times.

“You did it!” Twilight brought him into a hug. “You just did magic!”

Daniel broke from the hug as he leapt up with joy.

His joy didn’t last as his muddy hooves refused to agree with the concept of friction, and he tumbled off the log into the mud with a wet splash.

“Oh my gosh!” Twilight yelled, leaning over the log to stare down at him. “Daniel, are you okay?”

“Never better!” Daniel called up at her in pure joy. He was neck-deep in the mud as he lay on his back, his hooves deeper than his head.

“Whew, I’m glad you’re oka—”

“Hellooooooo, Capital Wasteland!” Three Dog shouted at max volume. Twilight jumped, slipping on the mud Daniel had left behind. She ended up falling right onto Daniel, her radio still blaring. “I’m back, baby, and the signal is stronger than evah, courtesy of a nifty gift from a fellow DJ who I assure you is out of this world.”

Twilight was the first to stand. She reached a hand down to him, which he accepted. They both stood there, panting and listening to the broadcast.

“In other news, I’m sure many of you have heard that Eden’s off the airwaves, replaced by the Ghost of Bullshit’s Past. I hate to say it, but I prefer the old programming over someone reading a phone book. Moving on, I have it on very good authority that those lights that have started showing up more frequently, and as far out as Girdershade, are portals to another world. Now, a quick PSA… do NOT seek them out. Most portals are showing up in raider territory, for some reason. And where you end up is random, as in, you don’t know where they’ll spit you out. If that wasn’t enough to discourage you, coming back from the other side leads to some interesting mutations if all the feathers on my ex-raider friend are any hint. I’ll give out some more information later, but first, something new for your ears courtesy of Octavia and DJ-Pon3. That’s right, Wasteland, I have more than twenty songs now!”

“Told you Fluttershy was fine,” Daniel said with a laugh, he turned to start the rest of the trek.

Twilight spun him around and shut up his laughter with a kiss.

Author's Note

Sorry this one's a bit late and on the shorter side, had a nasty ear infection.
Also, who would like a second fic focusing on what Pinkie Pie's been up to? I've been keeping her perspective out of F:LW since she's off doing her own thing which won't loop back into the main plot, and since it is its own isolated thing, I think her having her own side story would be for the best.