Fallout: Lavender Wastelander

Twilight stepped through the bulkhead door and onto one of the balconies which overlooked Rivet City’s cavernous market. All of the sights and smells she remembered from her last visit greeted her as she led Spike into the repurposed aircraft hangar.

Stalls and stands were selling anything under the sun that could be sold in the wasteland. Guns out in the open on display tables, food cooking on grills or in pots, and even an entire stall just for chems. The only change Twilight could make out was the addition of a few more of Rarity’s soda-bottle lights. It gave the space a far more inviting glow.

“Whoa,” Spike said as he rushed to the balcony railing. “This place is awesome. Pinkie and I only had Madame Panada to trade with.”

Twilight caught up with her overeager friend. She craned her neck as she looked over the milling crowds. She frowned when she didn’t see any hot pink hair. Though, the smile returned as Twilight noticed a few Equestrians dressed in wastelander garb.

“Looks like a few ponies heard Fluttershy’s broadcast,” Twilight said, tension fleeing her shoulders as she sighed. She started down the steps off the balcony to enter the market properly. “Come on, Rarity’s store is back on the far wall.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Spike asked behind her. He quickly rushed past her, but her horn flared and she pulled him backwards by his draconic tail.

“Hey, Casanova,” Twilight scolded as she caught up with Spike’s side. “We need to stick together. There’s no telling who we’ll run—”

Twilight cut herself off as the biggest, whitest skull she had ever seen peeked around the corner of a stall. It wasn’t a human skull, it was far too big to be one, with large ram-like horns that curved forwards, and giant meat-ripping teeth.

“D-dragon?” Spike stuttered as he stumbled backwards.

The skull was soon followed by the rest of the giant who wore it. They were fully engulfed in a cloak of dark blackish-brown, leathery scales that resembled alligator or dragon hide.

“Heh,” the newcomer chuckled with the sound of rolling thunder. His voice was as deep as he was tall, which Twilight could only guess was over seven feet. His physique wasn’t that far from a supermutant’s, and Twilight had to force herself to not turn away. The eyeless gaze of the skull bore down on her like a predator to prey. Her slightly emaciated frame reinforced that in her head. “You’re smaller than the one-eyed Princess.”

Jammed through a hole drilled into the massive draconic skull was a large, spiraling gray horn.

Twilight’s fear didn’t vanish but receded slightly as she recalled a name Fluttershy had given her all the way back in her cottage, when she had met Fluttershy’s reformed raiders.

“Deathclaw Joe?” Twilight asked. Her shocked tone was a shallow puddle in comparison to the depths of his voice.

Why are raiders here, and why is no one panicking?

Her eyes darted around as she looked for weapons on him. He carried none. Instead, his horn flared as he levitated an entire open metal crate in electric blue magic out of the stall he had just been inside. It was full of yellowish-brown teardrop-shaped fruit. Their skins were rough and resembled cracked leather.

Spike had described them as a fruit native Point Lookout called punga.

“Thou assumes correct,” Deathclaw Joe said in a mockery of Luna’s accent. “I am Deathclaw Joe. King of the Metro Gangs, undefeated champion who hails from The Pitt, and the slayer and tamer of great beasts.”

A black-haired woman came around the same corner as Deathclaw Joe to join the giant’s side.

She was almost as tall as Deathclaw Joe, but six inches of her height came from her knee-high black leather platform boots. The rest of her outfit was equally outlandish. She wore a leather skirt that only covered one hip, underneath that was a black leather bikini. Covering her large breasts was a bra made of equally black and shiny material. She also had a harness whose only purpose seemed to be to hold her spiked shoulderpads and the scabbard for the sword across her back.

Twilight snapped to the sword. It was closer to a slab of metal with a handle. The pommel was in the shape of a skull made from polished brass. The sword would need two hands to use, however, the woman occupied her arms with baskets instead. One was full of bottles of alcohol, and the other was filled with meat powdered with a ridiculous amount of salt to preserve it.

The black-haired woman didn’t speak as she tossed her shoulder-length hair out of her face with a jerk of her neck. She then slowly looked over Twilight with a sultry grin.

Twilight knew from experience in Equestria when a mare was checking her out.

“H-hello to you as well,” Twilight said with a nervous chuckle as she politely bowed to both Deathclaw Joe and the newcomer. Someone being taller than her had never bothered Twilight. She was used to spending vast amounts of time around Celestia and the larger races of Equestria. Rather, her nervousness came from the fact they were raiders.

The only two people she had killed so far who hadn’t been feral ghouls were raiders. And the one wearing a skull was talking to her.

“It is an honor to meet another princess of your world on this side,” Deathclaw Joe said as he slowly levitated the deathclaw skull off his head.

How does he know that I’m a princess? Twilight managed to think before her brain processed Deathclaw Joe’s face. She nearly shut down as a hundred emotions and other thoughts raced through her at once.

His face belonged on a statue with how chiseled his features were. An almost square chin with sharply angled cheeks. The stormcloud gray fur of his face was broken in several spots by jagged scars, though unlike Glenn, they were clearly from battle rather than self-inflicted, and his nose pointed at a slight angle from being reset improperly.

His electric blue eyes were narrowed with focus as he stared down at Twilight, all the while his clean white hair flowed like silk out of his skull helmet to fall perfectly over his shoulders.

Oh, sweet Celestia, he’s hot…

The giant stallion’s thick leather cloak parted as he held out a muscular arm. His forearm was as big as Twilight’s biceps. Both of them. Yet despite his apparent overwhelming strength, he showed surprising gentleness as his hand clasped her fingertips.

Even with the tender gesture, it was like being brushed by sandpaper-covered leather. He lifted Twilight’s hand and leaned down to kiss the top of it before letting go.

“U-uhhhm, is this some sort of human custom?” Twilight nervously stuttered as she yanked her hand away from the so-far-gentle giant. There were things she wanted him to do far-from-gently. Twilight shook her head. “Right, uhh, I’m here on other business. Can we take a raincheck on our meeting for later?”

Please don’t be offended. I can’t deal with another enemy in my way at the moment. I need to get back to Daniel and apologize for whatever the fuck is going through my head right now.

“Of course,” Deathclaw Joe said as the deathclaw skull helmet slipped back over his head. “I am hosting a great feast tomorrow in celebration of my visit to your world. You and any other Equestrians are invited to attend, Princess.”

The giant stallion returned his arm under his massive deathclaw skin cloak and walked towards another stall, the box of fruit following him effortlessly.

Twilight stared at the back of his cloak before the unintroduced woman’s low cough dragged her attention away from the massive stallion.

“So, is there any way you can turn me into a pony, Princess?” The woman asked. “Maybe into a winged one? Being able to fly would be useful.”

“That’s a bit out of my league, sorry,” Twilight muttered on autopilot as she processed the series of events that had just occurred. “Why are raiders here in the city?”

“Well, darn, guess I’ll just have to wait until a portal opens up,” the woman said with a put-off sigh. She shook her head. “And to answer your question, The Deathclaw King and The New Horde like to keep things civil. We keep the other gangs in line so they don’t piss off places like Rivet City to the point they send The Regulators into the tunnels to clear us out. Us bein’ so diplomatic also means we’re the ones who can go into town and buy the booze and chems for the other raider gangs. Helps keep us on top and everyone happy. It also helps that we’re the baddest motherfuckers in those tunnels. King Joe twisted the head off one of your world’s giant flying cat-radscorpions like a bottle cap.”

After seeing just one of his arms, Twilight could believe it.

“Anyways,” the unintroduced woman said as she turned in the direction Deathclaw Joe had gone, “I hope to see you at the Knock, hot stuff.”

That was a very ‘interesting’ encounter. So the metro raider gangs have a hierarchy, with the New Horde gang at the very top. I wonder if different gangs have different cultures and traditions. Humans, like Equestrians, are social pack creatures who crave like-minded groups, so theoretically—

“Did we accidentally step into a heavy metal album cover or something?” Spike quipped as he nudged Twilight in the side with an elbow, interrupting her thoughts. “Do you think those two would either be Metalicolt or Black Stable fans?”

“Uhhh, I don’t know,” Twilight muttered lamely as her thoughts were still a disoriented mess. “I was never a metalhead.”

“You can’t lie to me,” Spike said. “I grew up through your goth phase.”

Twilight almost swallowed her tongue.

It only lasted two months when I was sixteen…

“Black Stable,” Twilight muttered with a shake of her head. She took hold of his wrist and continued through the market before he could rub it in.

<>~<>~<>

The patchwork armor and scarred, unwashed bodies of the raiders marked them out from the normal residents of Rivet City as Twilight passed by them on the way to Rarity’s shop. That, and the fact several of them had Equestrian features. Most of them were clustered around stalls selling chems and liquor.

There were far more Rivet City security personnel out on patrol to match the influx of raiders.

“I wonder how many people from Equestria have ended up here,” Spike said as they passed by a produce stand selling the raw produce grown in the hydroponics bay. Several non-raider ponies were trying to barter using their bits in place of caps.

One from the group, a chocolate-brown skinned pegasi mare, was missing her right wing.

It reminded her how battered and scarred she and her friends had gotten over the weeks. Trying to recall all the scars she had seen on herself and her friends had only caused things to blend together.

Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy each carried some scar or another. Even Rainbow Dash had a bionic spine. Life in the Wasteland was hostile and short for the unprepared. How many unprepared ponies hadn’t even been lucky enough to just lose a limb? Like the stallion back in Dunwich…

Their arrival at Rarity’s tent saved Twilight from dwelling on that thought for too long.

Rarity’s Renewed Relics was almost exactly how Twilight had last seen it. Although, the small chalkboard on the easel beside the entrance had a new addition.

“All ponies from Equestria are guaranteed a free set of clothes –Rarity Belle”

At least Rarity was safe, and remained just as generous as ever.

Spurred on by the coming reunion, with her friend, Twilight slipped through the curtain that acted as an entrance into the well lit interior of the circular tent. The multiple shelves, desks, and display cases still ringed the outer band of the tent, and the circle of tables in the middle had new products.

There were no customers that Twilight could see at a glance, and it wasn’t Rarity sitting behind the desk near the entrance.

Instead, it was a zebra, if her black and white hair pattern was anything to go by. Too young to be Zecora. It took Twilight a second to realize who it was since she was far and away different from her raider appearance.

“‘Sup,” Kerri Jones said as she waved. The former raider was in a red sequin dress with white elbow-length gloves. Her black-and-white hair had been let down from its mohawk to rest over one side of her face. She had the same light brown, nearly caucasian skin tone as Sergeant Dornan, Twilight realized. She was also clean, unlike the last time where Twilight had seen her as a zebra in Fluttershy’s cottage. The former raider turned her attention to Spike and her eyes went wide. “Oh, who’s the stud that walked in with you?”

“This is Spike,” Twilight blurted as she pushed the thought of Kerri and Spike together as far away from her imagination as possible. “Where’s Rarity and Fluttershy?”

“Twilight and Spike are here!?” Rarity called from behind the privacy dividers in the back of the store. “Oh heavens, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to rush the rest of your cleaning Mr. Dukov.”

“Ey, we go at whatever speed you like, Sweet Cheeks,” a thickly accented male quickly answered. “I need to run home to Cherry and Fantasia anyways. They get lonely when I’m not there to party. Why don’t you come over sometime, eh?”

Twilight wondered if Cherry or Fantasia were Equestrians. The names were fitting.

“As you can hear, Twilight,” Rarity called from behind the divider, completely ignoring Dukov’s offer, “I’m giving a customer a cleaning. I’ll be done in a moment. If you’re looking for Fluttershy, well, heaven knows where she is at the moment. She should be somewhere in Rivet City unless she didn’t tell me goodbye when she left.”

“I can wait a little,” Twilight called out as she checked the time on her Pip-Boy. It was eight-fifteen A.M. “I wanted to tell you that Spike and Pinkie Pie are safe before you send anyone to Point Lookout. It’s a long story how they ended up with us.”

“And I will be all ears when you tell it, Darling,” Rarity replied. “I have some things I need to tell you, too. Some Equestrians have made it here to Rivet City, and I’m not just talking about the raiders who got kicked back to Earth.”

“I passed by some, but didn’t speak to them,” Twilight said. “I wanted to get here as fast as I could without distractions.”

“She seemed pretty distracted by the giant wearing the deathclaw skull,” Spike snorted off to the side of Twilight… just out of slapping range. “Do any of you know what his deal is?”

“Deathclaw Joe?” Kerri asked. “Well, he’s huge, he’s strong, and he looks and fights like he’s Grognak the Barbarian… just don’t tell him the Grognak comic books aren’t the legends of his ancestor.”

“But Grognak is just a comic book, right?” Twilight asked.

“Can I buy some comics while we’re here?” Spike asked.

Kerri ignored Spike and answered Twilight’s question with a wide, cocky grin that was missing a few teeth. “Are you really gonna tell the seven foot tall guy who fist-fights supermutants when he’s bored that he’s delusional?”

Very valid point.

“Alright,” Rarity said loudly. “We’re done here, Mr. Dukov. Please turn the sign to ‘Closed’ on your way out. I do not wish for my reunion with some friends to be interrupted.”

“Whatever you say, Sweet Cheeks,” Dukov said as he came around the dividers. He was a middle-aged bald man, dressed in bright red pajama bottoms, an equally red button-up pajama shirt, and simple black dress shoes.

Twilight stepped out of his way as he passed by without a word. Rarity came out from behind the divider, telekinetically pulled over a nearby fainting couch, then flopped across it with a disgusted grunt.

“Ugh, Dukov somehow has less charm than Zephyr Breeze. I don’t see how Cherry and Fantasia could stand to live with that… that brute.” Rarity threw her head back with a hand against her temple as she levitated over a metal pail. “Excuse me, darling, but I’m going to be violently ill into this bucket after what I saw.”

Twilight turned away from Rarity, hoping that she wasn’t actually ill and was just being a drama queen.

“Are Cherry and Fantasia ponies?” Twilight asked. “And why would they stay with what I can only guess is a lecherous creep?”

“They’re humans,” Kerri said. “And Dukov is one rich bastard who is a good shot. Any time the crew that lives literally right next to him tries to make any moves, they end up run off by a hail of bullets.”

So protection in exchange for discomfort.

“Okay, I think I’m fine,” Rarity said, tossing the still-empty bucket away as she sat upright on the couch. “How are you, darling? And Spikey Wikey, oh my. You’re so tall and—”

“Wide at the shoulders and narrow at the waist,” Kerri interrupted as she leaned partially over the desk. “Dude’s built like a fuckin’ triangle.”

Twilight facepalmed.

Now both of them were fawning over Spike.

“Can we please talk about the other Equestrians in this world?” Twilight cried out. “Maybe over some breakfast?”

She looked at her arms with a frown. They were still skinny and thin. Of course, she wouldn’t regain a healthy body weight after just a few days. Daniel and Pinkie could wait a little while as she spent some time eating a second breakfast.

<>~<>~<>

Twilight sat across from Rarity in the cafeteria of the Weatherly Hotel, her second breakfast in front of her. A nice steaming hot bowl of squirrel stew, just like her first real meal after Daniel had rescued her.

Spike was seated next to her with his own bowl of stew, and across the table from him was Kerri, who wasn’t allowed to stay in the shop on her own.

It was nice being back in the same cafeteria where she’d had her date with Daniel. She wished he could be with her as Rarity finished explaining what had happened to the Equestrians.

She could use his support.

“Do you know how far away Paradise Falls is?” Twilight asked with gritted teeth. Slavery was unfortunately very alive and well in the Capital Wasteland.

The New Horde had ambushed a slaver caravan and freed several captured Equestrians. Unfortunately, the caravan the New Horde had liberated wasn’t the only group. Deathclaw Joe had housed the ones he had freed with his gang until he had heard Fluttershy’s broadcast.

According to Kerri, Deathclaw Joe was from The Pitt. Nobody who escaped The Pitt had a positive view of slavers, or slavery.

“Far to the North,” Rarity said bitterly. The older mare turned and spat in disgust. Twilight understood the other mare’s contempt. Rarity had been briefly enslaved by Diamond Dogs until she escaped.

“Do any of you know anything about Paradise Falls?” Spike asked. “If it's anything like the Turtledove Detention Camp, I want to help free the slaves.”

“The what?” Twilight asked. She hadn’t heard of the camp in Spike’s retelling of his adventures in Point Lookout.

“Part of that old Chinese Spy mission Pinkie and I completed involved us fighting our way into a pre-war prison camp for Chinese detainees of the Defense Intelligence Agency,” Spike said. “We had to open up the drawers in the morgue to find Agent Yang’s body.”

Twilight’s ears flicked at the name. The DIA’d had their grubby fingers in Equestria two centuries prior, according to Celestia. Her counter-intelligence advisor had been a DIA agent who changed sides because of what he knew the American government was planning.

“I know about Paradise falls,” Kerri said with a heavy sigh. “I was an… ‘involuntary resident’ for a few years. It’s not a happy place. They put you in a cage with a dozen or so other people, and all of you are wearing a bomb collar around your neck. If you run past the invisible fence, your head pops like a virgin’s cherry.”

That’s insane. They can’t be pre-war inventions, can they? Of course they are, it’s a remotely detonated collar. The skills and materials needed to make one would only really exist before the war.

“That kind of barbarity is why I’ve sent almost all of my mercenaries with supplies to go assist the Temple of the Union. A runaway, who I shall not name, asked me for my help in protecting themself from a slaver named Sister.”

“Sister?” Twilight asked. When did so many humans start using Equestrian names?

“A funny name doesn’t make him any less of a threat,” Rarity said. “I offered my help to this anonymous runaway, and they let me know about an abolitionist group called the Temple of the Union. Show me your little wrist-map and I can point out where Paradise Falls is, and the Temple of the Union, too.”

Twilight quickly held out her Pip-Boy. She was going to check out the Temple of the Union later. They would be necessary to free the rest of the Equestrians, as they would likely know how to defuse the explosive collars.

“Have you thought about buying the Equestrians from Paradise Falls?” Spike asked. “You have your own shop, right?”

“My pockets are deep but the well has to run dry eventually,” Rarity said softly. “I’m close to running into the red as is, otherwise I would have already been on my way to Point Lookout to get you, Spikey Wikey. And I don’t want to support the slavers, even if it means freeing Equestrians.”

Twilight bit her tongue.

If Rarity wasn’t buying the Equestrians, then who would? But Rarity was also right. Purchasing them would only put caps into the pockets of slavers. Which took her right back to the Temple of the Union being the only good option available at the moment.

But that would be after chasing down the lead on Daniel’s father. Rarity and Fluttershy could handle making contact with the abolitionists. She didn’t have to do everything.

“I need to hurry up and get back to Daniel,” Twilight said, not pressing the issue on the Equestrian slaves. She slid out of the booth and stood up. “You coming, Spike?”

“I think I’d like to stay here with Rarity and Flutteshy,” Spike said quickly. He then added just as fast, “If that’s okay with you, that is.”

Twilight smiled. It was his choice to stay or not. That was why she had asked if he was coming instead of telling him that it was time to go.

<>~<>~<>

Twilight blinked several times as her sight adjusted to the new surroundings. She was back at camp, Daniel and Pinkie Pie busily chatting away with each other by the smoldering remains of the cooking fire.

The latter had her cannon across her lap, a panel open on the side as she busied herself with working over the internals with a screwdriver. Twilight had bought nearly a dozen grenades for her friend.

She quickly checked the time, followed by the map. Nine-oh-six A.M. By her best guess, it would take several hours to walk to Smith Casey’s Garage.

With the heavy books and bags of seeds dropped off to Dr. Madison Li, the lighter backpack wouldn’t pin her wings. And her horn was now able to reliably levitate things. Twilight was sure she could fly everyone to Smith Casey’s garage in less than thirty minutes.

Or fly there by herself, teleport back to camp, grab Pinkie and Daniel, then teleport again to Smith Casey’s Garage.

Ohhhh yeah, our days of slow travel are over.

With all the time she would save by flying and teleporting, she knew it wouldn’t take long before they found Daniel’s father, or picked up his trail again at the very least. Then she would be off to liberate the Equestrians from Paradise Falls, and if she had time after that, pay a visit to Deathclaw Joe with Fluttershy.

I should write out an itinerary for myself to maximize my efficiency.

<>~<>~<>

“You wanted to meet in private, why?” General Beckett sneered as he aggressively jabbed a fingertip onto his desk for emphasis with enough force that Colonel Michael Hoffman swore it was going to break.

He tensed as his eyes drifted to the bloodstain on the carpet in front of the General’s desk. The price of stepping out of line was clear for him to see.

“Colonel,” General Becket said irritably, “my eyes are up here. Answer the question or get out of my office and do your job.”

“Sir,” Colonel Hoffman replied, saluting. “The three tactical nukes have been dismounted ahead of schedule. My engineers are installing the remote controlled fusion pulse charges, which will take several hours. I’m merely here to suggest that we might be overdoing it by using three weapons at once. The plan was capitulation, not annihilation.”

The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were firecrackers compared to these tactical nukes. Fifteen and twenty-five kilotons versus a hundred-and-seventy kilotons.

“Do you know what we’re up against?” General Beckett asked with a tone as sharp as an assassin’s blade. “What we’re really up against?”

Colonel Hoffman pinched the bridge of his nose.

“A formerly non-expansionist group of mutants who posed little existential threat to us until we shook the hornet's nest,” Colonel Hoffman replied. He was too exhausted with the General’s insanity to care that he was calling the General out on his bullshit. Colonel Hoffman knew breaking it gently wouldn’t work on a man who had shot his own daughter. “Their pacifist nature is fading as they militarize under the existential threat that we pose to them.”

Every new report from the SOCOM agents within Equestria had been a grim one. The window for an easy occupation was closing as more and more Equestrians took up arms.

Hoffman turned his attention back to the General, and swore the older man was going to crack molars with the strength of his clenched jaw. The General took several long seconds to breathe through his flaring nostrils.

“Et tu, Brute?” General Beckett asked as he slowly pushed his chair back, the feet grinding heavily on the floor. He stood up, and Hoffman’s heart stopped…

But the General didn’t draw his pistol. He turned around to face the shelves full of American memorabilia.

“You don’t see what they’ve done,” General Beckett said, his voice low, almost whisper-like. “There are times I feel like I’m a bystander watching a train crash as their rot slowly infects those around me. Their corrupt ideals and impure genes. How many SOCOM members have chosen to stay in their non-human forms despite the lab churning out Serum 9 by the crate-full?”

Colonel Hoffman didn’t care enough about genetic purity to keep a track on who kept their wings or whatever else a trip to the other world gave them. Lieutenant Colonel Tuckett’s new pegasi ears were cute and scratchable.

In a professional, platonic way, of course.

“I don’t know, sir,” Colonel Hoffman replied, scratching the back of his head. He was glad the General had his back turned.

“Eighteen, not counting Electrum,” General Beckett said in a tone as if he had just chewed on a lemon. He still stayed facing the shelves, idly reaching for one object or another to look over. “With the murder of our rightful president and Colonel Autumn’s defection, us true Americans are a dying breed. We can’t allow ourselves to be replaced by these… mutants. How long will it be before their ideals infect us?”

General Beckett finally turned around. He held a folder in one hand which he tossed onto the table. The manilla file was stamped TOP SECRET in bold red letters.

“What is this?” Colonel Hoffman asked, cautiously reaching for the folder as if it were a snarling dog threatening to bite.

“Everything the DIA learned about Princess Celestia two centuries ago,” General Beckett said. “We face an enemy with time on her side, and now she has a sibling with her that can enter and influence our dreams. We have the exhausting task of holding the line against an enemy that can peacefully wait us out for an eternity as moral decay claims us.”

Colonel Hoffman opened the folder. The first page was dedicated to a massive black and white photograph.

A crowd stood in front of a large mirror. He recognized Dr. Steineslaus Braun standing beside the hero of Alaska, General Constantine Chase. The general was shaking hands with…

“She visited Virtual Strategic Solutions!?”

<>~<>~<>

Twilight yelled profanity as she flew high into the sky, dragging Pinkie Pie and Daniel upwards with her magic.

The yao guai’s paw just missed Pinkie Pie, who aimed her grenade launching party cannon downwards.

“Take this, ya oversized teddy!” Pinkie yelled as her cannon spat two grenades before the panel on the side flew off the cannon, trailed by springs and gears.

The two fragmentation grenades that had managed to fire landed by the yao guai’s paws, bounced, then detonated into clouds of shrapnel that ripped bloody holes into the mutated bear’s mottled hide. The massive, lumbering beast stumbled, swiped ineffectively at the air one more time, then fell over, dead.

“I swear that wasn’t there before I got you guys!” Twilight cried out as she circled the small, single story building from the air.

She could see the tall, white spire of Tenpenny Tower miles away, and to the east of the garage was a giant quarry that had been renovated to house a massive factory complex.

Twilight could see the corpses of both a hydra and a supermutant behemoth splayed out between train cars.

Humans in patchwork armor busied themselves with hacking off meat from the hydra’s body.

“So that’s Evergreen Mills,” Twilight said, recalling the radio broadcast.

“So, um, can you set us down now, hun?” Daniel asked. “Please.”

“Right, afraid of heights,” Twilight said as she descended towards the front of the garage, which was dominated by two rusting roll-up garage doors. Piled up in front of them was a small hill of rotting tires in the middle of time-worn vehicles.

Above the roll-up doors were a series of bold black letters. ‘Smith Caseys’ they proclaimed. They were hard to make out at a distance against the dark brown cinder blocks that made up the walls of the small, almost unassuming garage.

The most distinct feature of the building that Twilight could see was the Red Rocket gas station next to the garage, and its large, red, rocket-shaped awning over the pumps. The rest of the building was a mix of brown and black.

They landed in front of a solid blue metal door.

“So why would my dad come here?” Daniel asked once his hooves had touched the ground. “I mean, it doesn’t look very important. Do you remember if he told Rarity why he was coming here?”

Twilight shook her head as she reached for the handle of the door. “I can’t recall if she said anything. Only that he showed her that he was coming here before leaving Rivet City.”

“Maybe he’s salvaging parts for Project Purity?” Pinkie Pie asked with an explosive sigh. She knelt down and turned her party cannon on its side, exposing the now missing panel. “I knew I should have used the one-inch screws instead of the half-inch. Guess the egg is on me. My cannon’s busted beyond anything I can do in the field, Twi.”

It had lasted long enough to get the job done.

“Well, we are about to head into a garage,” Twilight said. “Maybe there will be tools and salvage inside you can fix it with.”

Pinkie Pie sprang upright with an audible ‘sproing’ and a wide grin. “Well, what are we waiting for!?”

Twilight turned the handle to the door and pulled it open.

<>~<>~<>

BANG

Twilight winced in pain as her ears rang, temporarily deafened as she killed the second of three cockroaches. Each one was the size of a chihuahua with a temperament to match.

Daniel picked the third up with his magic and threw it out the window.

“Gah!” Twilight yelled, barely able to hear herself. “Why are guns so much louder indoors!?”

“What, you want to mow the lawn!?” Pinkie Pie called into her ear beside her. “I don’t see how that helps us find Daniel’s father.”

Twilight facepalmed. “I said—”

“Why are guns so much louder indoors,” Pinkie Pie interrupted her with a giggling snort. “I heard you the first time, silly. I just wanted to have a laugh.”

Pinkie Pie hopped past Twilight and deeper into the garage, her lever-action rifle in her hands.

“Ughh, Pinkie, you are so random,” Twilight muttered as she followed her friend behind the front counter. She stopped next to Pinkie Pie, the two of them staring down at a stained mattress on the floor, and the skeleton that was on it.

“D-daniel, don’t come arou—” Twilight started to say, but Daniel quickly leapt over the counter, knocking over an old coffee pot and several empty Nuka~Cola bottles which shattered on the floor.

“Oh,” Daniel gasped, clutching his chest. “You nearly gave me a heart attack… that person’s been here a long time.”

He took a deep breath, before he looked Twilight in the eyes. “Please, Twi, if we do find him, like, well, like…” Daniel glanced at the skeleton and back to her. “Please don’t try to break it to me slowly. I can take it.”

“I will,” Twilight said after a momentary pause. She levitated the copy of Tumblers Today out of the open safe at the head of the mattress and shoved it into her backpack before she turned towards the empty door frame. Beyond it was the garage portion of the building.

Stepping through the arch, Twilight slowly craned her neck to scan the room. No other bugs or critters to attack them. As a matter of fact, the garage area was largely empty.

A rusted car and motorcycle were both crammed into one of the two bays. The shelves and toolboxes which lined the walls around the garage had long been picked clean in the two centuries since the apocalypse.

There was a large rectangular metal plate on the left-hand side of the otherwise concrete floor. A seam bisected the plate in half lengthwise. The plates butted up against the same wall as a large junction box with a lever-switch.

Twilight reached out with her magic, clasping the lever.

Old habits die hard, she thought as she pulled the lever down with a click that was loud enough to register in her recovering hearing.

The two plates lifted upwards, revealing a set of stairs going down.

“Whowzers!” Pinkie exclaimed. “A secret passage.”

“My dad could be down there!” Daniel exclaimed. He took several steps forwards, but Twilight reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder. He stopped, turned, and looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“I know you’re eager to find your father, but let me go first, please,” Twilight said. She tapped her knee brace. “I know what rushing ahead can get you.”

Daniel nodded slowly.

“I trust you,” Daniel said, his voice quivering with nervousness and excitement.

The trail to find Daniel’s father wouldn’t grow cold. Not if Twilight could help it.

<>~<>~<>

112

That was the number painted in yellow on the absolutely Ursa-Minor sized gear-shaped metal door in front of them.

“A vault,” Daniel said in a breathless whisper.

Twilight approached a large yellow console off to the side of the door.

“How do we open it?” Twilight asked, staring at the strange yellow panel full of buttons and dials.

Daniel joined her side. He looked over the panel for several moments before he unplugged a cable from his Pip-Boy and inserted the end into a circular hole in the panel. His Pip-Boy screen flashed ‘ready’ as a glass screen covering a large orange and red button opened.

Shakily, he reached towards the button, his hand trembling.

“H-help,” Daniel pleaded.

Twilight laced her fingers with Daniel and guided his hand so they pressed the button. Together.

A klaxon sounded, and rotating orange caution lights lit up on either side of the door.

Twilight folded her ears down, pressing against her helmet.

Her hearing still wasn’t up to par yet, but the large gear-shaped door sliding back was like an orchestra of nails sliding down a chalkboard all at once. She felt the vibration through her teeth as the great gear was wrenched backwards slowly.

It stopped in place, but only for a moment before there was a series of loud clicks, and the great gear rolled sideways, revealing a cramped, low room.

Twilight walked inside, flanked by Daniel and Pinkie Pie, and nearly hit her horn on the overhead machinery which had moved the vault door backwards.

“Oh my god, this is just like home,” Daniel said, his voice wavering between amazement and worry. He added with a touch of desperate hope. “Dad’s got to be in here.”

“Hopefully he doesn't mind that you’re a pony now,” Twilight said as she wrapped a wing around Daniel. They walked down a narrow corridor that was barely wide enough for two people at once. A low set of stairs rested at the end which would allow them up onto the railed platforms which made the corridor.

To the right was an empty security room, but to the left was an armored bulkhead door on thick hinges.

Twilight tugged the handle of the door with her magic, and internal mechanisms hissed as the door unlocked and swung inwards, assisted by hydraulics.

Beyond the door was a short hallway with an arched roof and another door at the opposite end. There was nothing in the hall except three large yellow shipping containers stacked on top of each other and pushed to the right hand side of the hall.

“Okay, not exactly like home,” Daniel said as the three of them entered the hall. “But I didn't get to see much of this part of my vault. I’m surprised vault security hasn’t swarmed us yet. This place is too clean to be in disrepair.”

Twilight had to agree. The armored doors were spotless and clean. There was no trace of dust in the hall, and the air smelled pure, rather than having the staleness of a long-sealed room.

They reached the end of the hall, side by side.

“You ready, Daniel?” Twilight asked.

He took a deep breath.

“Maybe… maybe Pinkie Pie should lead us in. She looks the most human out of us,” Daniel said.

Twilight could feel Daniel’s thundering heart.

“Good idea,” Twilight said. She backed away from the door with Daniel, and pulled the handle with her magic.

Like the first door, the internal mechanisms hissed as it unlocked, then swung away from them and into the vault.

Pinkie Pie stepped through the door, and a feminine synthesized voice greeted her.

“Hello, potential Vault residents. According to my sensors, you and the others accompanying you beyond the door are Equestrians.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide.

What!?