Fallout: Lavender Wastelander

Twilight’s mind filled with questions as she stared at Fluttershy. They piled up one after another until there was no more room, and her brain figuratively burst at the seams. A stream of half-formed words dribbled from Twilight’s mouth like a newborn foal.

Locked in a dumbfounded trance, Twilight only half-watched as Fluttershy hefted the spent weapon off her armor-clad shoulder like it weighed nothing. She gently returned that—thing—back to whom she had retrieved it from, lingering over their corpse only long enough to retrieve two metal tags on a length of beaded chain from them.

Fluttershy sharply turned Twilight’s direction, then approached. Her metal armor clanked and hissed the entire way until she stood in front of Daniel and Twilight who still hid inside the school.

“What happened, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked quickly, concern lacing her words.

“Landmine,” Twilight responded, looking up at the impassive helmet staring down at her, “I’m glad you’re safe, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy’s helmet tilted a few degrees to the side as Fluttershy cocked her head.

“Safe is questionable when it comes to the DC ruins. Which is why I want to know, why the fuck are you in raider gear?” Fluttershy asked. She gestured frustratedly up and down with her hands at the spiked thigh pads and leather jacket, “It’s as protective as wishful thinking and a great way to attract friendly fire.”

“It was all we could afford on a budget,” Daniel replied without hesitation.

Twilight blinked as she did a double take of what Fluttershy had said. It had to be the blood loss making her hear things. Fluttershy hadn’t cussed, did she?

“Does the Brotherhood have any qualified doctors?” Daniel asked, continuing the conversation. “I’m only a doctor’s assistant.”

“Yes and no,” Fluttershy said with a rough shrug that rattled her suit. “You’re from a vault so you may have more experience than many of our medics. Back home, I let professional veterinarians take care of anything serious with my animals.”

“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked. “Did you just curse?”

“Did I curse?” Fluttershy asked as her entire posture changed. She roughly turned on her heels to face Twilight with a sharp snap. She shoved an outstretched hand in the direction of the mutilated torso on the ground.

“That was Knight Henry. Was,” Fluttershy punctuated with a shake of her arm. The tags she had collected rattled like broken windchimes in her fingers. “You saw me in the alley with Jennings after the fact. You completely missed where I held his throat together just long enough for him to have enough time to realize he was a dead man. ‘Did I curse’? This isn’t Equestria, Twilight.”

Fluttershy peaked the microphone in her helmet with an exasperated sigh that sent Twilight’s ears folding against her head. Fluttershy, meanwhile, didn’t stop as an unfiltered stream of pent up anger escaped her.

“I’m sick, Twilight, so fucking sick of this diet of shit sandwiches.” She waved a hand at the body again, the metal tags swinging like a pendulum. They clinked against her gauntlet. “Half of the people I’ve trained with are dead. A quarter of them ended up buried in rubble, or muties stole the body. I’m a medic, so it’s my job to tell people that the chunk of dead person on the ground used to be somebody they liked more than this mutant.”

An exhale through clenched teeth escaped the helmet as Fluttershy choked back a sob. Twilight could see her friend was fighting a losing battle to keep from breaking down. Fluttershy had been through so much in so little time.

Twilight was watching one of her best, most kindest friends have a mental breakdown right in front of her.

Twilight limped forward, pulling Daniel with her. Closing the gap between Flutterhsy and them, Twilight wrapped her left arm around the cold suit of armor as much as she could. Daniel joined in the hug.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight apologized, pressing herself against the suit. The cold, sharp edges of the armor dug into her.

There was a short pause, as if Fluttershy was collecting herself or considering what to say next. She resolved to slump her shoulders with another, less explosive sigh.

“It’s okay,” Fluttershy said, her voice much calmer but still raw with trapped emotion. “We can deal with my shit later. Let’s get you inside and fixed up.”

<>~<>~<>

Twilight stared down at the wooden plank her leg was belted to. According to Daniel it was necessary to keep the leg straight for what was coming. However, despite all the assurances and soothing words he offered, Twilight’s mouth felt dry.

No anesthetic meant she was going to have to be awake as the metal was pulled out her knee.

Even though Twilight was sitting up on a gurney adjusted to let her do so, she felt faint. The pounding drum of her heartbeat drowned out the radio sitting on an end table by the door.

A side room of the GNR station had been taken over for use by Brotherhood of Steel medics. Currently Twilight was the only one occupying one of the many gurneys in the room, though she hadn’t been the only patient. The three knights that Fluttershy had caught with the shockwave of the small nuclear bomb had already left.

Fluttershy had given them a half-bag of RadAway each while Daniel had immobilized her leg. Fluttershy had stepped out afterwards to go get the last few things Daniel needed.

Ten minutes had passed and she was still gone. Twilight wondered what Fluttershy was doing, but that came second to the building dread. Daniel’s request for ‘pliers and something for her to bite down on’ had sent the hairs on the back of her neck on-end.

Just thinking about it sent another wave of nausea and vertigo racing through Twilight. Her head bobbed a split second before she recovered consciousness.

“Still numb from med-x?” Daniel asked from her bedside. He adjusted the belts keeping Twilight’s leg strapped down so they were just tight enough to keep her leg restrained, but not act like a tourniquet

“Yes.” Twilight answered, out of breath from worry. “Are you sure there isn’t any way I can be asleep for this?”

“You’ll be fine,” Daniel said gently. “I’ve asked every wasteland doctor I’ve met so far for their insights and experiences. According to them, many people do just fine with med-x and alcohol for pain as they get bullets dug out of them.”

“Don’t stimpaks clear the wound, though?” Twilight asked. “Like with the shrapnel?”

Daniel nodded, paused, then held up a hand and shook it side to side.

“Ehhhh, ninety-nine percent of the time.” He then nodded to the spear of metal in her knee, “It’s that last percent that gets you.”

“Right, I’m sitting here with a prime example right under my nose,” Twilight said. All the medical talk thankfully pushed her mind to other topics, like, what exactly were stimpaks? They healed as powerfully as a healing spell or potion, but Daniel had scoffed before at the thought of magic. Yet Twilight had encountered things that made her think magic existed in this word.

Twilight grit her teeth. If only her horn worked. Things would be so much easier if she could just wave her horn and do something as simple as scan things.

“So, what exactly are the muties?” Twilight asked, quickly trying to think of something else once it drifted to her broken horn.

“Evil,” Fluttershy said from the doorway, catching both Daniel and Twilight’s look. “Sorry I took so long. Had to park my armor.”

Fluttershy rounded the opening door and Twilight’s mind exploded for a second time with questions. Without the bulky armor, Fluttershy moved silently. She gently closed the door behind her with a booted foot.

Fluttershy looked closer to a human than Twilight. In fact, it would be easier to say Fluttershy was a human with some pony traits rather than the other way around. Her pink mane had been buzzcut until nothing remained but short stubble atop her head. Her skin was caucasian, trending pale white from being sealed inside her armor. Her ears were yellow-furred and shaped like her old Equestrian self, but lower on her head to match where human ears went. Her wings were folded behind her, yellow feathers poking over the shoulders of the white tank-top she wore.

She was also wearing an olive green and black jumpsuit up to her waist. The arms were tied around her like a belt.

Fluttershy wasn’t smiling. More striking than seeing Fluttershy’s sullen scowl was the multitude of scars.

The skin on her face was pockmarked with small scars starting at the top of her head. Fluttershy’s high-and-tight manecut allowed Twilight to track the ring of evenly-spaced wounds that encircled her head just above her eyebrows. It looked like Fluttershy was wearing a crown.

The next scar Twilight saw disfigured the bridge of Fluttershy’s nose. Next, the center of her right cheek.

With growing horror Twilight’s gaze lingered at the next spiral of evenly spaced wounds encircling Fluttershy’s neck like a collar.

“I decided to go ahead and get this over with,” Fluttershy said. “You would have begged to see me out my armor eventually.”

Fluttershy took a breath.

“Muties tied me to a pole with barbed wire.”

The delivery dropped on Twilight like a falling anvil. Fluttershy said it so easily, like what happened to her was just another weekday in the wasteland. Twilight wished she could get off the bed to hug her friend again, now that she didn’t have her armor on.

Fluttershy had been put through even more than Twilight had ever imagined. The physical pain Fluttershy must have gone through. Not to mention all the stress she was under.

Barbed wire by itself was absolutely barbaric. But to be wrapped in it?

“I’m so sorry I broke the portal and sent us here,” Twilight said. If the wasteland had decided to treat Fluttershy, the kindest, most innocent pony Twilight knew, to an encounter with things that would wrap her in barbed wire, then what had happened to her other friends? Where were they now? Were they even alive?

A dozen imagined scenarios, all grisly scenes involving Twilight’s friends, sent a chill through her core.

She was broken from the dark thoughts by Fluttershy shaking her head.

“On one hoof, I want to be angry at you,” Fluttershy admitted just as casually as she had admitted to being tortured. “But I’ve had enough time to consider that if we hadn’t been sent here, I wouldn’t have broken free and flown into a Brotherhood patrol. And if I hadn’t given them directions back to the mutant camp, a lot more people would have died.”

“How’d you escape?” Daniel asked, shock clear in his voice.

“The rusted wire they wrapped me with snapped,” Fluttershy explained, handing Daniel the supplies she had fetched. “They tossed the pole onto some frames to make a rotisserie.”

Things were getting a bit too bleak. It was time to change the subject. Twilight forced a smile.

“Well now that we’re all inside and together, Fluttershy, this is Daniel. He’s my new friend,” Twilight introduced. “Daniel, this is Fluttershy. She’s one of my friends from back home. She worked with animals, and had even opened an entire animal sanctuary.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Daniel said with a pleasant smile. He extended a hand which Fluttershy shook.

“So now that we’ve all been introduced to one another,” Twilight said, widening her smile and attempting to sound as jolly as she could, “the sooner this is out my knee, the sooner I don’t have to dread what you’re going to do to get it out.”

Fluttershy shook her head, covering her mouth with a hand as she hid a smile and chuckled at the joke.

Seeing Fluttershy smiling again was like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy winter day.

“Let’s do this,” Fluttershy said, taking the sheet of leather from Daniel. She rolled it up before offering it to Twilight. “Get your tongue out of the way and bite this. Hard.”

Twilight took the leather. She didn’t question the source as she stuck the thick roll sideways in her mouth, like a bridle bit or a dog carrying a stick.

Fluttershy left Twilight’s view for a second and came back with a tourniquet. She wrapped it around Twilight’s thigh and cinched it closed above her wounded knee.

“Ready,” Fluttershy said to Daniel as she took hold of Twilight’s leg, applying pressure to keep her from thrashing the board around.

Daniel sidled up to Fluttershy. He used one hand to clamp the pliers onto the end of the metal shard in Twilight’s knee.

“Three,” He started, “Two—”

Twilight tensed. Closing her eyes she looked away, heart racing.

“One,” Daniel said.

Twilight felt a tug, then pain exploded through her knee as the bone shifted under her skin and fur. The four letter human curse word summed up the experience. A single, prolonged ‘fuuuuck’ escaped her clenched jaw as she clamped down hard onto the leather roll and screamed.

She gripped the mattress with both hands as her other leg kicked and thrashed. Her eyes flew open, but the haze of pain was too much to see through.

The mind-destroying pain lingered for several moments, then mercifully slackened. To Twilight’s surprise it dulled past what it had been, changing from a throb to a minor ache.

After a few shaky breaths Twilight looked to see Daniel holding the pliers and a bloody chunk of metal.

“Huh, that was easy…” Daniel said. “I might have been able to pull that out myself. Must have not snagged the bone too hard.”

Seeing the metal was out of her leg sent a tsunami of relief crashing over Twilight. It was too much. Twilight fainted into dreamless unconsciousness.

<>~<>~<>

Twilight slowly opened her eyes. She felt weak, but the pain in her knee was mostly gone. Only a lingering ache remained inside the joint itself.

She was still sitting up in the gurney. Twilight would have preferred to be lying down, but the gurney was two-hundred years old and likely didn’t adjust anymore.

The board and tourniquet were gone. A pillow had been placed behind her head and a bed sheet covered her from the neck-down. Her arms rested above the covers, allowing her to see that someone, probably Fluttershy, had dressed her in an olive green and black jumpsuit.

Twilight could feel there were wing-holes in the back. It must have been one of Fluttershy’s spares.

Twilight could also feel there was something encompassing her leg.

Throwing the sheet aside to take a look, Twilight stared at the black leather straps and metal wrapping her leg around the knee. It was just a medical brace.

Seeing that her knee was in a brace, Twilight checked on her left hand and sighed, seeing her pinky was back. A jagged ring of scar tissue devoid of fur encircled her finger below the knuckle.

A quick comparison with her right hand revealed her reattached pinky was slightly shorter.

“You’re lucky,” Fluttershy said nearby. Twilight looked up from her hands to see Fluttershy sitting in a chair near the door. She was reading a magazine titled ‘Future Weapons Today’.

“What?” Twilight asked, a little confused. The last remnants of the med-x fog were fading, but enough of it lingered in her system to make Twilight feel sluggish and stupid.

Fluttershy turned the page of the magazine, not looking Twilight’s way.

“Between Daniel and I, we were able to pull out all the fibers from your pant’s leg before rearranging the jigsaw puzzle of bone back into something resembling a kneecap. He also saved your finger.”

Twilight blinked. Something was on Fluttershy’s nerves. Twilight couldn’t place what it might be. Was Fluttershy mad at her? Twilight remembered Fluttershy’s breakdown in the plaza.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy closed the magazine. She lazily tossed it onto a nearby table before steepling her fingers.

She took a long, slow breath, leaning her head until her fingertips touched the space between her eyes. Her fingertips lingered there for several seconds before Fluttershy let out a loud sigh and looked up.

“He told me what happened. Was it true you lost your shit and ran off on him?”

Twilight’s ears stung from Fluttershy’s foul language, and the truth Fluttershy was saying with it.

“I may have overreacted a bit,” Twilight admitted, gaze dropping to the brace on her leg.

“Then I’ll say it again, you’re lucky,” Fluttershy said. While her words were level, there was an edge to them. “He risked his life to drag you here. He also told me you have a history of losing your shit with him. First was because he gave you a steak, the next was the schoolhouse, and then in the metro after the ghouls attacked you.”

Twilight nodded each time. She looked back up to her friend. Fluttershy’s cold fury turned Twilight’s blood into ice.

“Twilight, he’s trying to help,” Fluttershy said, standing slowly and approaching the bed. “You have to let go of thinking like an Equestrian. You’re lucky he’s not a three strike type of person, or you’d be dead, or worse. This world is fucked up, Twilight.”

Twilight winced. Hearing Fluttershy curse was just wrong. As wrong as her being a soldier.

“You’re doing a lot of swearing,” Twilight said, trying to deflect and change the subject. It was foalish, Twilight admitted to herself, but Fluttershy had a way of telling people off that could send anyone crying. Even a fully grown dragon. Being on the receiving end wasn’t a pleasant experience.

“You pick up a lot of bad habits when you try to prove you can fit in with soldiers that hate mutants,” Fluttershy said. “But I said we would deal with my shit later. You have your own issues to sort out. Issues that have nearly gotten you killed, more than once, if Daniel was telling the truth. Was he?”

“Yes,” Twilight admitted. “I’ve messed up nearly every day I’ve been with Daniel. Everything is just so scary and alien. It’s not the type of scary we can just laugh away like those trees in the Everfree Forest. What am I supposed to do?”

“Swallow your pride and admit you’re not as smart when it comes to this stuff and learn from people who are, even if their methods are a bit fucked,” Fluttershy said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “With as many adventures and lessons we’ve been through, you should know that sometimes you have to accept people don’t always teach lessons in a way you like.”

“Yes, but… isn’t it a little beyond fucked, as you put it, to throw me into the thick of it like he did? Daniel told you he took me to a raider nest, right?” Twilight asked with a shake of her head. The human curse word rolled too easily off the tongue.

“A cleared raider nest,” Fluttershy countered, then pointed at the door. “The real thick of it is going out and clearing it yourself and explaining to the nine year old girl you just rescued from a cage why her belly is swelling up.”

Twilight froze.

“W-what?” She sputtered

“Things are fucked up out there, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, reaching a hand down towards her friend. “Now, we can ruin our friendship playing ‘my day sucks more than yours’, or we can get you something to eat and clear our heads.”

Twilight took Fluttershy’s hand, gladly accepting her friend’s help. And her advice. She would work to patch things up with Daniel and learn from him.

<>~<>~<>

Twilight followed beside Fluttershy through the halls of the radio station. Walking was difficult. Every other step was a limp as the spring-assisted brace resisted her movement. The range of motion was limited, but it was the only thing allowing Twilight to safely walk while her knee healed. It would take some getting used to.

When Twilight had asked Fluttershy about how long she would need to wear the brace, Fluttershy responded with a shrug and what Daniel had relayed to her. Stimpaks threw traditional healing time and outpatient procedure out the window. It was why Twilight could walk after knee surgery without crutches.

It helped that the damage to her knee was less severe than Fluttershy had made it out to be. It was still bad, but Daniel had said to Fluttershy that bodies reacted to trauma differently. Twilight may need the brace for a month or two, or the rest of her life. Time would tell.

As they walked beside one another, Twilight decided to strike up a conversation.

“So I heard on the radio that Rarity was in someplace called Rivet City,” Twilight stated. She hoped the conversation would clear the air between her and Fluttershy.

“Right!” Fluttershy gasped. “With you being so injured, I completely forgot to say that Rarity is doing well for herself.” Fluttershy smiled. “She’s safe and sound. Looks more like you than me.”

“She does?” Twilight asked. Relief flooded through Twilight. If Rarity was safe, that meant one less friend was in danger.

“Yes. Maybe it has something to do with you both being unicorns? Either way, she’s helping a man named Bannon manage a clothing store. I flew there last week when I had some leave time.”

“Didn’t Three Dog only report about Rarity yesterday?” Twilight asked. The pair entered a room filled with several two and four person tables set with chairs. There was an old cafe booth shoved into the back corner next to a Nuka~Cola vending machine.

Only a few people were occupying the room. No one Twilight recognized. Most were sitting at the tables. The sole standing person was in one corner of the room using a shopping cart tilted on its side over a burn barrel as a grill. Familiar looking cuts of meat occupied the grill, and the smell wafting through the room made Twilight’s mouth water and stomach grumble despite her thoughts about eating brahmin meat again.

“Yes, but you see when Three Dog gets a rumor, it takes time to confirm it, then report it,” Fluttershy said, leading both of them towards the booth. “I think Applejack would appreciate his dedication to honesty.”

“Speaking of, does Three Dog have any other leads on the rest of our friends?” Twilight asked, hope growing in her as they sat down. Twilight was surprised to see Daniel was already sitting in the seat next to her. The high back of the booth seat had hidden him from view.

“I already asked. He doesn’t,” Fluttershy said, crushing that little seed of hope with a hammer. She nodded to Daniel and smiled, her expression conveying surprise at running into him by accident.

“Nothing is ever that simple, is it?” Twilight asked with a groan. She gave Daniel a small wave with a hand.

“Tell me about it,” Daniel said, digging out a bite of cram straight from the can with his fork. “Three Dog wants me to go get a dish for him from the Museum of Technology.”

“Why?” Twilight and Fluttershy asked in unison. Though Fluttershy sounded more worried whereas Twilight was just curious. Twilight glanced to Fluttershy with a raised brow.

“He knows where my dad went,” Daniel explained. He popped the next chunk of cram into his mouth and chewed with a scowl.

“That museum is in the Mall,” Fluttershy said, shaking her head. “If you’re going, Twilight isn’t.”

“Excuse me but why?” Twilight asked, her brow still raised.

“We just fixed your leg,” Fluttershy said with a groan. “The Mall is more of a meat grinder than other places. I’ve never been, but it has a reputation for being hell’s basement. The place where Tartarus sends its prisoners.”

Fluttershy wildly gestured with her hands. “Fighting with the muties has turned into trench warfare. Several Brotherhood knights still have unrecovered remains there.”

“Alright, I get it,” Daniel said, waving his fork around with his next bite of cram on the end. “Very bad place, don’t bring anyone who’s injured. I’ll go by myself then, since I don’t have a choice. Three Dog knows where my dad went, and I need that information.”

“No,” Fluttershy said with a shake of her head. “I’m going to talk to Sarah after all of us get some food. I’ll see if I can help you. The Brotherhood wants Three Dog’s transmitter back up and running so I could spin it as some sort of special assignment for myself.”

“Sounds like a plan, so what will I do?” Twilight asked.

“You’re going to stay here and rest that leg and body,” Fluttershy said with a tisk. “Even with stimpaks being amazing, you’ve lost a lot of blood and are underweight. Your body needs calories to burn to recover properly.”

“Okay, just no meat, please,” Twilight pleaded.

“No,” Fluttershy said sternly. “You’re getting meat.”

“What?” Twilight asked, a bit louder than she had anticipated.

“We’re human enough to have their dietary needs, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, quickly switching to a soft, almost teacherly tone. It was a pleasant change from the scolding from earlier. “We’re omnivores while in this world. If you think I’ll judge you for eating meat, I won’t. Nature is brutal. Just don’t be wasteful, they gave their life to feed you.”

“Right,” Twilight said, “I should have guessed you wouldn’t judge for doing what’s natural as a human. But what about brahmin? They look like cows from back home.”

“They’re actually less intelligent than some of the other animals in this world,” Fluttershy said. She smiled a little. “I’ve had more coherent conversations with the cutie-pie mole rats than the brahmin. I tried to talk to a few, but it’s like trying to talk to two brick walls at once.”

Twilight could see Daniel’s raised brow out the corner of her vision. Seeing his confusion put a smile on Twilight’s face. Of course he wouldn’t know.

“She can talk to animals,” Twilight said to Daniel.

“Really?” Daniel asked. He glanced towards Fluttershy who simply nodded and slipped out of the booth.

“Yes, now I’d love to chat more, but first I’m going to get us some food,” she said. “And yes, Twilight, there will be veggies too, but I want you to eat everything. Daniel told me you’ve barely eaten since he’s met you, and it shows.”

“Yes, Mom,” Twilight joked.

“Good,” Fluttershy said with a grin. She turned and marched over to the man grilling with the fire barrel.

As Twilight watched Fluttershy order food, Twilight caught sight of something she had missed several times over.

On Fluttershy’s right upper arm, just below the shoulder, was a black tattoo.

A winged straight sword plunging point-down into a mutant skull until the tip emerged out its lower jaw. Above the sword was a halo of barbed wire hovering over the crossguard and hilt.

Encircling it all was a border of bold black words linked together by more barbed wire.

The Angel of Death and Mercy.