Twilight relaxed back into the soggy bus bench. The wind whistled by the windows as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy pulled The Fastest Brick through the sky. Twilight wasn’t sure what to think of the name of the bus-turned-air-carriage, but it was easier to go with the flow with the heavy breeze working to dry everything and everyone inside the bus.

Clover bounced up from her seat what must have been the umpteenth time. She had napped off the alcohol earlier while the group waited for Rainbow Dash and Electrum to retrieve supplies from Adams Air Force Base. It gave her a restless energy that made Twilight happy for her. It was very Pinkie Pie of Clover, never staying still or drumming her fingers with a humming tune. She stopped her erratic movements long enough to turn towards Twilight.

There was so much glee in her. Twilight enjoyed seeing Clover happy over her scowls or sadistic grins.

“I can’t wait to see her,” Clover said. “It's been years. Do you think Hope remembers me?”

As if voicing the thought deflated her like a popped balloon, Clover’s smile melted and her shoulders sagged. The Pinkie Pie comparison was a little too on point. It wasn’t lost on Pinkie Pie herself, sitting across from them with Electrum and watching the conversation with her heart worn on her sleeve.

“I’m sure she does, Clover,” Twilight reassured.

From Twilight’s other side, Daniel added in a low tone. “You’re kind of hard to forget.”

Twilight gently elbowed his side and shot him a glance.

“What?” he asked defensively. His tone lacked the nervousness he had prior to takeoff. Twilight guessed that The Fastest Brick was enclosed enough to not trigger his agoraphobia and fear of flying. Another win for Rainbow Dash’s ‘stupid idea’.

Her name for the bus would have to stick…

“I’m positive she’ll remember you,” Twilight said, wrenching her thoughts back on track and away from the horrible realization. She playfully bumped Clover’s shoulder. “And when she does, Pinkie Pie can throw you two a reunion party to celebrate.”

It was a long shot, but having other people and old friends around could help Clover adjust into a normal, non-slave life. It was worth a try, at the very least. Friendships always made things better.

“Yep, yep!” Pinkie Pie giggled. Pinkie Pie pulled out a pair of party horns and a bottle of Equestrian alcohol from her poofy mane. “And I always carry a stash of happy reunion supplies on me.”

Electrum stared at Pinkie Pie and scratched her head in confusion, muttering ineligible curses into the wind. The mare had Twilight’s sympathies. Trying to understand how Pinkie Pie worked was a recipe for disaster and flower pot rain.

“I'm lucky to have friends like all of you,” Clover said as she resumed tapping her legs, her mood brightening by the second. “Hope will like you all, trust me.” Then, as impatient as a filly on a long train ride, Clover shouted to the front of the bus. “Are we there yet!?”

“We should see it soon!” Rainbow Dash called back. “Look out the windows.”

Twilight twisted around to look outside. There were miles upon miles of empty wasteland far below. The barren dirt was interspersed with rocky hills and the occasional ruin leftover from the old world. Then she spotted a familiar cluster of buildings.

Paradise Falls is that close to Big Town? Twilight thought.

“I think that’s it!” Clover shouted, pointing. Twilight followed it to what once was a pre-war suburb. Clover’s guess was spot on as The Fastest Brick started to descend.

They circled around the front, closing in on the town, and the closer they got, the more Twilight believed Big Town was the biggest misnomer in the history of misnomers.

A rickety barricade constructed from scrap wood, sandbags, tin roofing, and a few old cars surrounded a town of less than a dozen houses. The houses were all of pre-war construction, and many of them were boarded over or collapsing in on themselves. There were maybe three or four habitable buildings if Twilight was correct.

The fence might as well be made of toothpicks, only good enough to keep pests out. All Twilight could see in the way of real defenses for the town was a lightly fortified entrance, but Twilight still had problems with it.

While the sandbag guard post overlooking the short rope-bridge was nice, the rope bridge itself spanned a moat that was too shallow and small. It didn’t wrap around the town, it was only about the width of a wagon, at most. That wasn’t even getting into the fact that the carpet of moss floating on top of the stagnant water gave Twilight the impression it doubled as an open sewer.

At least there were guards on duty. There were only three, watching The Fastest Brick coming in for a landing, but two of them had Enclave power armor repainted military green—Applejack’s color of choice to replace the Enclave black. The third guard wore an old combat helmet and leather armor. He must have been a local, but Twilight didn’t have long to take in any more details than that before The Fastest Brick touched down.

The bus landed on bare metal rims and rocked its occupants with a shuddering screech. Twilight threw her hands over her ears and ducked as showers of sparks large enough to bathe a teenage dragon shot out in every direction from the wheel wells.

The bus bled off speed and ground to a halt in front of the rope bridge.

The silence rang in Twilight’s ears as she stood up. After a quick check to make sure everything was still in the right place despite Rainbow Dash’s clear attempt to kill all of them, she checked the town out the nearest window. Several townsfolk had emerged to see what the commotion was, and the guards had their plasma rifles at the ready, but didn’t aim at them.

Yet.

Twilight reminded herself that her track record with reunions wasn't the best. Taking a deep breath, Twilight checked on Clover, who was watching the town with a smile.

“You gotta admit it, Shy!” Rainbow Dash cheered from up front as she pumped both fists into the air. Then she bear-hugged her. “For a brick, she flew pretty good.”

Twilight reflexively groaned in time with everyone on the bus but Clover, who laughed at the joke and bolted for the bus door.

“Whoa now,” Twilight warned as she wrapped Clover in a sheath of purple magic and lifted the former slave off her feet. Clover kicked in the air and squirmed like a young foal. “Don’t rush out and spook everyone.”

Clover groaned in a petulant, child-like way. She crossed her arms, letting out an impatient huff as Twilight exited the bus before setting Clover down onto the asphalt road stretching in front of Big Town.

Twilight’s warning wasn’t unfounded. More townsfolk had cautiously emerged. They muttered to each other, creating a din of worry that Twilight couldn't parse. She counted around ten or so civilians gaping at them from over the bridge. They were dressed in dirty, ripped, and ragged clothing. The weaponry they carried wasn’t anything special, either. One of them only had an air-powered BB gun. A child’s toy in this crazy world.

“I don’t see Hope,” Clover whispered as the rest of Twilight’s friends emerged from the bus and joined them. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were still at the front. They struggled to get out of their harnesses.

Twilight chose to wait on them, and after about a minute, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy finally extricated themselves and hurried over to everyone at the side of the bus.

One of the Enclave soldiers called out. “Agent Dash, is that you?”

“It is,” Rainbow called back. “You’re Staff-Sergeant Andrews, right? Sergeant Dornan and I met you last night.”

“Affirmative,” He replied. “I thought you were boasting when you told me pegasi could haul more than a small wagon.” He gestured for them to approach. “Anyways, welcome to Big Town. I’d cross over to meet you, but rope bridges don’t like power armor. Mind the gaps”

One look at the frayed ropes and gray hunks of two-century-old wood and Twilight agreed with the Staff-Sergeant’s assessment. She didn’t want to cross over the stagnant water, and she was underweight.

Spreading her wings, Twilight took flight before she closed her eyes and focused. With tendrils of magic, she reached out and wrapped Clover, Pinkie Pie, Daniel, and Electrum in telekinetic fields.

There was a mild pain in her horn despite her horn medicine, so rather than risk stressing the injury, she set Daniel down. He didn’t like flying, anyways. Dropping one individual was enough to stop the pain, so she flew the rest of the ground-bound party to the other side.

Daniel didn’t wait for her to come back and pick him up. He crossed the bridge on his own, watching every step, with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flying on either side of him over the moat.

The tension in the air smoothed out with everyone gathered, and the Staff-Sergeant approached Twilight, extending a gloved hand.

“Hello, Princess Sparkle,” He said as Twilight shook his hand. The smaller Enclave power armor lacked the robotic hands of the Brotherhood of Steel suits or the older Enclave models, but his grip was just as firm as a hydraulic vice. “I’m Staff-Sergeant Andrews. Welcome to Big Town, USA.”

“Thank you for the formal introduction,” Twilight said, breaking the handshake and adding a courteous bow as their hands parted. “Is everything going well here in town?”

“It could be better,” The Staff-Sergeant said, turning to point over the bridge and up a hill. “Over that ridge there are the fuck-ugly frankensteins. I’ve been requesting backup to help deal with the mutants, but I’ve got nothing yet. I only have Corporal Dixon here to help me protect and garrison this town. It’s nowhere near enough to make a push. When I heard that the vertibird fleet was down for emergency maintenance, I felt like I was stranded here.” He chuckled and nodded to The Flying Brick. “At least until I saw that flying bus show up. If Agent Dash is here, I assume the rest of you are the special forces group that took down Paradise Falls?”

Special forces? Twilight took a moment to look over her friends to try and see how the Enclave officer could make such a silly mistake.

Electrum had her trenchcoat and Enclave uniform underneath, Rainbow Dash had her Secret Service uniform, Fluttershy was wearing a set of pre-war olive drab army fatigues, Daniel was in combat armor, and Twilight wore modified and camouflage painted Equestrian royal guard armor. The only outliers were Clover, who wore her dress, and Pinkie Pie, who was wearing a set of leather armor.

With all of the weapons, visible injuries, and scars scattered among them, their group looked the part of grizzled veterans.

“I can see how someone could assume that,” Twilight said, turning back to the Staff-Sergeant. “But we’re not officially a military unit.”

“Ah, so you’re contractors,” the Staff-Sergeant said with a confident nod. Before Twilight could correct him, he sighed. “Well, I can’t guarantee I can pay you anything if you help us. I’ll have to clear everything with command.”

“Payment won’t be necessary,” Twilight said, not bothering to correct his assumption that she was a mercenary. “We’ll be happy to help. But before we get to that, I have to get to why I came here in the first place. We’re looking for a townsperson. Goes by the name of Hope. Bright amber eyes, red hair, should be twenty-three or so by now.”

Staff-Sergeant Andrews turned and pointed into town. “She’s inside—”

“CLOVER!” A gleeful female voice yelled as a red streak sailed past Twilight and the Staff-Sergeant. The woman moved almost as fast as Rainbow Dash. Twilight tracked her path all the way to the point where she tackled Clover to the ground in a flying hug.

“Nevermind,” Twilight said with a wry grin. “Looks like she found us. Excuse me for a moment, please.”

Twilight stepped away from the Staff-Sergeant. Clover and Hope tried to untangle from each other, tripping each other up as they tried to stand before the other and pull the other up with them, only succeeding in causing the other to misstep and fall to the ground in a laughing, twisted, tangled heap of limbs and smiles.

Twilight decided not to interrupt and leave them to their happy reunion as Pinkie Pie jumped in to help the pair to their feet.

If we’re going to fight super mutants, I think I can leave Pinkie behind to watch Clover. Twilight thought.

“So, Staff-Sergeant,” Twilight said, returning her attention to him. “About that mutant problem.”

“Just go north.” The Staff-Sergeant said. “I did some scouting and located a camp about a klick away. It’s in a chapel in the middle of a cemetery. As far as I can tell, that’s their auxiliary camp. North of that and a long way up a hill is their main camp in Germantown. The Big Town locals told me that the police headquarters building survived the bombs, and it's now a super mutant fortress.”

Using the controls on her Pip Boy, Twilight set a map marker. Daniel did the same. A small icon appeared on the compass that had shown up in her vision when her Pip Boy was upgraded.

“Anything else you can give me?” Twilight asked. “I would ask for you and Corporal Dixon to join us, but I’m afraid that if you do, something might attack the town while we’re gone. Why are there so few Enclave members here?”

“I can answer that,” Rainbow Dash interjected. “Big Town has such a small population that AJ didn’t want to put more than a few people here.”

“Exactly,” Staff-Sergeant Andrews said, taking back the conversation. “We’re here to garrison and help defend, not to occupy and use it as a base. An entire platoon here would mean more Enclave soldiers than townsfolk.” He shook his head, as if silently disagreeing with the decision. “Either way, back to your suggestion to leave Corporal Dixon and myself here. It’s probably a good call to not leave this place defenseless. Your contracting team is already used to operating with each other as a small team. Dixon and I would just get in the way or slow you down since about half of you can fly. And you have your own transport.”

“About that,” Rainbow Dash said. “If we’re doing this, I think we should leave the bus behind. It took too long for me and Shy to get out of our harnesses. I’d rather not be tied to a brick when the bullets start flying.”

“Good point,” Twilight agreed. A plan formed in her head as she bid farewell to the Staff-Sergeant and gathered all of her friends’ attention.

“Okay, everyone, I have a plan,” Twilight declared once all attention was on her. She turned to Clover, Hope, and Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie Pie, are you okay staying here with Clover?”

Pinkie Pie gave a thumbs up, but Clover shook her head.

“I—” Clover started. She clenched her fists into tight balls and bit her lip, looking away before she managed to spit out her thoughts. “I’d like to help you, sugar. We can clean up those mutants and keep Big Town safe.”

Twilight wanted to grant Clover her request, but she just had a pink dress for protection. One stray bullet was all that was needed to kill her. Instead, Twilight opened her backpack and brought out Clover’s shotgun in its leg-strap holster and levitated it to Clover.

“I’m not leaving you behind to do nothing,” Twilight half-lied. “I want you, Pinkie Pie, and the Enclave soldiers here to guard the town. There’s no telling what’ll happen while the rest of us are gone.”

Clover took the shotgun, caressing the holster and the wooden grip almost reverentially. Twilight hoped the gravity of the message came across. She was trusted with her weapon again, without Daniel or Twilight around.

“I don’t know what to say,” Clover said, hugging the shotgun to her chest. “Thank you, Ma—Twilight.”

Twilight gave her friend a respectful nod, then turned her attention back to the rest of her friends.

“Okay, so, for the rest of us, my current plan is for Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and myself to attack the smaller camp from the air. We’re faster while flying, so we can hopefully get it cleared as everyone else walks. If we run into any issues, we can wait for everyone else to catch up.”

Everyone was nodding along, following the plan without objection.

“Once Fluttershy, Rainbow, and I clear the chapel, we can regroup there and use it to get a clearer view of Germantown. We plan our next move for dealing with the main camp there. Sounds good?”

The simple, straightforward plan got another round of nods.

“Alright,” Twilight said. “Then we have a plan.” She nodded to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. “Are you gals ready?”

“Right on,” Rainbow Dash said, grinning as she reached into her coat and pulled out a higher-tech plasma pistol than those Twilight had seen other Enclave personnel with. The shape of it looked closer to her 10mm, rather than the hodge-podge collection of tubes and green lights.

As Rainbow Dash spread her wings and launched a few feet into the air, Twilight followed. Fluttershy unslung her sniper rifle into her hands and racked the slide, before flying up to join them.

“Reporting for duty, ma’am,” Fluttershy said in the flatter tone Twilight had heard her use when she was part of the Brotherhood of Steel. Her aggressive soldier persona was back. Twilight wasn’t sure if she approved, but she’d already seen Fluttershy’s prowess with a sniper rifle.

Twilight led them upwards, asking Fluttershy as they ascended. “Are you okay with fighting?”

“As I said, super mutants leave no option but to fight,” Fluttershy said, burying herself deeper into her soldier facade. “Your plan seems tactically sound. The manuals I read didn’t cover pegasi-based movements, but suppressing and flanking the enemy with our improved movement should work.”

“How many manuals did you read, Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You were only officially part of the Brotherhood of Steel for like, what, two weeks?”

Twilight kept an ear on the conversation as she slowed their group ascent, they were high enough now that she could get a good view of the landscape.

“You have no idea how many nights of sleep I skipped reading manuals,” Fluttershy said with a dry chuckle. “I think I crammed more studying in than Twilight before an exam. Between that, and how new recruits like Initiate Redding and myself were getting first-hand frontline experience, I learned fast.”

Twilight spotted the white church building Staff-Sergeant Andrews had mentioned. It was almost directly north of the town, and it was most definitely a super mutant camp.

Even at their distance, Twilight spotted several bags of meat that were strung up. Her stomach churned as the thought that they looked like overripe tomatoes crossed her mind. Red and wrinkly. She forced herself to look away and study other details.

Most of the church’s roof was gone, and part of one of the walls had collapsed, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the church.

Around the structure, the super mutants had driven I-beams cut into spikes into the ground. More bags of gore hung from them, and skeletons were impaled on rebar welded to the beams.

There was certainly more to super mutants than dumb brutes if they could erect fortifications and operate welding equipment.

Tearing her eyes away from the sight and gazing farther north, the ruins of Germantown loomed atop a hill like the crumbling remains of the Castle of the Two Sisters.

Back at the edge of Big Town, Twilight spotted Daniel and the others crossing the bridge.

“Alright, let’s do this,” Twilight said, launching herself in the direction of the hilltop chapel. “Time to clear the way for our friends.”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both voiced their acknowledgement and followed closely behind Twilight. The wasteland passed under them in a smear of brown occasionally broken up by black asphalt or an elevated highway cutting across the broken landscape.

As Twilight closed the distance to the chapel, she could make out the remains of a picket fence forming a perimeter around the cemetery which surrounded the chapel.

Then she spotted a super mutant. It stood in the empty frame where the chapel’s front doors once stood.

“Permission to engage?” Fluttershy asked behind her. Twilight glanced over her shoulder. Fluttershy was already lining up her sniper rifle.

“Uhm… sure, I gue—”

BANG

The muzzle flash hit Twilight’s side like a slap. Not enough to hurt, but enough to feel. The microsecond of intense heat was similar. Enough to feel, but not burn.

Jerking her head to look at the church, the super mutant had collapsed, his legs kicking in violent spasms as he clutched at his throat.

“Damn, Shy, nice shot,” Rainbow Dash complimented. “Save some for us.”

Twilight grimaced, but didn’t voice her opinion, choosing to let Rainbow Dash enjoy her joke. At least, Twilight hoped it was a joke and not an actual desire to score more kills like it was some sort of sick game.

“I’ll try,” Fluttershy said solemnly.

Twilight shook off the thought like it was rain sliding off an umbrella. She had too much on her plate to read too much into a simple joke. Diving for the building, Twilight searched for targets.

She was about a hundred feet away before a purple friendly bar appeared on her compass towards the back of the church, and the mutant on the ground at the front still appeared as red.

Slowing down, Twilight flew through the gaping hole in the wall and landed next to a human man sitting on his knees. He wore dirty clothes that looked so moth-eaten they must have been made pre-war. His hands were bound behind his back, then tied to his ankles, preventing him from rising on his own.

“Hey, what gives?” Rainbow Dash groaned as she, too, landed inside the old chapel. “Only one mutie guarding a captive?”

“Yeah,” The man grunted and shook his head as Twilight telekinetically undid the ropes holding him. He stood up, rubbed his sore joints, and dusted off his clothes before continuing. “I heard the freak mention something about his brothers, the police station, and something about ‘humans’, but I was too busy trying not to shit myself everytime his guard dog came shuffling around.”

“Other captives?” Twilight asked. “And what was that about a guard dog?”

“I don’t know how to describe it, but I nearly pissed myself when I first saw it. I think it might be from your world. Certainly ugly enough to be.”

Wow, rude much.

“I see,” Twilight said, forcing a smile. “If you’re looking for safety, head south. Big Town is close by. We’re going to deal with the super mutant camp in Germantown soon.”

“Well, good luck with that,” the man said dismissively. He ran over to one of the pews and picked up a bolt-action rifle, checked the ammo, then ran out the door past the still gurgling mutant.

Twilight held a straight face long enough until the man was out of sight.

“What a rude motherfucker.”

Rainbow Dash let out a snot.

“Oh my gosh, Twi,” Rainbow cried out, slapping her knee and doubling over, laughing. “Please, ha-ha, n-never cuss like that again, I might die of l-laughter.”

Rainbow Dash was cut short as the mutant at the front of the church let out a loud gurgle, then finally died, leaving nothing but deafening silence in its wake. Rainbow Dash shook her head and took off her sunglasses.

“Either those things are tough, or Shy’s shot wasn’t as clean as I thought,” Rainbow Dash said, walking towards the dead mutant.

“Could be both. Fluttershy said that the Brotherhood of Steel’s been fighting them for years, and they’re tough enough to compete with power armor,” Twilight said, following Rainbow Dash and glancing around at the stockpile of loot scattered around the church. There were several ammo cans, along with a few milk crates and bookshelves stocked with goods. “We should raid this place before we hit Germantown.” Twilight pointed to a milk crate sitting on a pew she and Rainbow Dash were about to pass. It was full of frag grenades. “I’m already seeing good stuff here.”

She was surprised the human that they had rescued hadn’t looted for more than basic protection. But then again, he seemed to hold Equestrians with the same disdain as super mutants, and wanted out of Twilight’s presence as soon as possible.

“Good idea,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked around, then flapped her wings to rise a few feet into the air. “Hey… where’s Shy? I haven’t heard her shoot anything else.”

Twilight spun in place until she found two purple bars.

“Looks like she’s found another survivor,” Twilight said.

“How’d you—”

Twilight cut her off by holding up her Pip Boy and tapping the case.

“Ah, fancy tech,” Rainbow said with a sheepish grin. She put her glasses back on. “Let’s go get Shy.”

Leaving the chapel, it wasn’t long before they spotted Fluttershy. She stood in part of the cemetery off to the side of the chapel. Then Twilight and Rainbow Dash both balked and instinctively aimed their weapons at what Fluttershy spoke to at nearly the same moment.

The… thing… whatever it was… looked like a flayed human torso with no arms connected at the waist to a slug-like body of reddish-pink skin. Bones jutted out of the creature at random. Rather than moving on feet or hooves, the mutant creature shuffled by dragging its horrendous mass using the hands on the four arms protruding from the slug-like body. They were where the legs on a normal creature should be.

Twilight stalked closer, her 10mm pistol raised as she eyed the three tentacle-like tongues drooping from its mouth with gut-churning repulsion. Despite the tentacles, it still had a too-human face.

“I’m going to have to invent new curse words to describe my thoughts,” Twilight said, trying to add some brevity to the situation.

Rainbow Dash was too busy holding a hand over her mouth and making gagging noises. She lasted two more seconds before she flapped her wings and zipped behind the church to wretch.

At that point, Twilight was close enough to hear Fluttershy talking to the thing.

“I know, but it can’t all be bad, can it?” Fluttershy asked the creature in the soft tone she used with animals all the time. The tentacles quivered, and the creature let out a series of wet, tumorous noises that sounded like the unholy blend of vomiting and diarrhea coming out the same hole.

Fluttershy shook her head.

“Is there anything else I can do?”

More noises.

Fluttershy let out a resigned sigh before she raised her weapon and pressed the barrel to its temple.

With no hesitation, Fluttershy blew its brains out onto a gravestone.

Twilight gawked as the fresh corpse collapsed to the dirt, bleeding from the hole blasted into its skull. She shook her head from seeing Fluttershy execute something before locking eyes with her friend, who had faced her with a sad sigh.

“It’s called a centaur,” Fluttershy said. “But it’s more of a chimera made from mixing up humans and animals in a soup of Forced Evolutionary Virus. And if what the Brotherhood of Steel told me is true, the ones out West are even uglier than these ones, with animal features like a dog’s head coming out the human’s shoulder blade.” She shook her head. “There’s enough animal left in them that I can understand what they say. That’s the second one that I’ve talked to, and both wanted the same thing.”

Twilight caught the sadness in Fluttershy’s voice.

“Are you—”

“No,” Fluttershy interrupted with a clipped and cold voice. “I’m not fine, but I’ve learned to cope.” Then her expression softened. “Sorry, Twi, I know you're worried about me, but I learned my lesson with Philomena. I can't fix every problem a creature has my way. I would rather them go out as painlessly as I can offer them, instead of forcing them into a life of suffering.”

Twilight could understand that.

“I would have done the same if they’d asked me to do it,” Twilight said, nodding to the corpse. She turned away, back towards the chapel, unsure how to continue their conversation, so she changed topics. “Let’s stock up on supplies while we wait for the others.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Fluttershy agreed.

The two trudged to the chapel, refusing to glance back.

<>~<>~<>

Geared up with all the grenades, medical supplies, and ammunition that they could reasonably fly with, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy left the rest of the group behind at the chapel to scout out Germantown.

They flew high over their target, hopefully far enough out of sight. Twilight peered down using a pair of binoculars and frowned.

Humans in black combat armor patrolled the ruins, along with the hulking forms of super mutants.

When the captive that they had rescued mentioned something about humans, Twilight assumed the super mutants had taken captives. Not for the super mutants to be working with Talon Company mercenaries.

“Why are they here?” Fluttershy asked.

Rainbow Dash grunted. “Because someone paid them to. Agent Grey.”

“Who?” Twilight asked. The name didn’t ring any bells.

“Some SOCOM guy who didn’t get the memo they’re supposed to be back on the Enclave’s side,” Rainbow Dash said, shaking her head. “He’s following his own agenda now, it seems.”

“So,” Twilight said, shaking her head, “do you think this Agent Grey guy is down there?”

“Could be,” Rainbow Dash replied with a small shrug. “If he is, that’ll be one less loose end left to bite us in the tail later. What’s the plan now? I count something like fifteen super mutants and at least ten talon company guys. And that’s before we go inside.”

‘Inside’ being the remaining two stories of what had once been a multistory behemoth of a police headquarters building. Half of the building had fully collapsed, but that still left a lot of interior space. Tight quarters where they wouldn’t be able to use the advantage of flight, or risk using grenades.

“For now, I say we go back to the chapel and tell the others,” Twilight said. “Talon company being here changes things.”

Author's Note

Happy (late) new years!