Thunder rumbled in the distance, the sign of a bad omen. The Gods of old were pounding their drums to the beat of a nearby battle, while the angels cried from behind the dark clouds at the death of their wayward children. Claws, bright, blinding even, would stretch over the Wasteland in the blink of the eye. Sometimes, the fingertips of the claws would touch the ground and scorch the earth, leaving behind a scarred kiss on the dead surface of the forgotten world.

I haven't seen the sky so violent as it is now.

"Talk about a storm, eh? Makes a man wonder what the old gods are up too," coughed an older man. His name was Kayle, a little into his late forties. He stood an average five-foot-eight, with wrinkling tan skin. An old straw hat adorned his head with a feather from a Wyvern tied to the cap. He wore a very aged jacket, made from brahmin hide strained brown with a pair of denim jeans keeping his legs warm.

"Yeah, makes a man wonder. Think we'll get hit by it?" I asked, reaching to my canteen tied to my waist. Bringing it up to my parched lips, the taste lukewarm taste from the waters of life trickled down my throat.

"Might, might not, who's to say?" Kayle replied with a shrug. "The storm will pass long before we reach the old Fort to make our second camp. The ground might be a little damp, but 'tis won't be a problem. Why? You worried about something?"

I let out a sigh. "I don't know, but something about that storm rubs me the wrong way. Like we are marching to our deaths to the drums from the heavens."

Kayle patted my shoulder with a chuckle. "'Tis nothing boy. We'll be fine."

The sound of Kayle's footsteps trotting back to camp didn't resonate in my mind as well as the explosions in the sky. There was just something off about it that I couldn't place my mind too. For now, though, I could only wonder if there was someone walking through that darkness and hope that they were alright.

A man could only wonder...

Lights flickered to life, the soft hum of the illuminating bars radiated with lifeless warmth. To Twilight, the light signaled that it was time to start the day and her new job as a Vault-tec technician.

For most, waking up before 6 am to work was Tartarus on earth, but not for Twilight. She was ecstatic to begin learning how the many machines worked in the underground bunker! All the robots that patrol the halls, all the computers will endless amounts of information held within was a dream come true! She spent all of her time after her check-up with Doctor Sarah Rogers exploring the Vault and studying all the books recorded on the computers.

'How did they put the books on them in the first place?' she wondered with glee. The advancement of the Human civilization baffled her at ever turn. They had no magic, only science. Machines did all the work while they watched, and their hands! The ligaments were stronger than Griffin's claws and ten times more dexterous. Even if they were thin and slender, they could do so much!

Taking her thoughts away for a moment, she sat up, shirt loosely draped over her new anatomy. Her purple hair was a mess of fiber in a tangled mess. With a warm smile, she swung her slender legs over the side and placed them in cold water.

"Gah!" Twilight gasped, the sudden coldness of the wet floor jolting her awake. Throwing her legs under the covers to dry them off, she looked over the side to see what she stepped in, thinking that her water fell, but when the sight of dark, viscous crimson flowing around her—She gulped.

"S-Sarah?" Twilight quivered, hoping for a reply. She backed into the wall, the cold steel an unwelcomed feel to her back. Her eyes moved back and forth from the closed door and the window that opened up to the hall outside her room, thinking that she would need to make a run for help.

"T-This isn't funny—" She froze, eyes locked on the pool of blood an inch think over her floor. It was there, in the center of the room where the red and blue quilted rug should be, a lump began to form.

"Somepony? Anypony!" Twilight begged her back pressed firmly against the wall. She watched fearfully as the blood-lump formed into the rough shape of a body. First came the mangled shapes of human hands pulling the form from the ground. Next came its legs, it's six, fleshy, mutilated legs. Twilight wanted to scream, she wanted to run, but she was frozen in place as the monster crawled to the edge of her bed.

"Someone...Help..." she sobbed, heart racing faster than a speeding train, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. She closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable. She could feel its hands crawl closer on the bed. She could feel the ice-cold breath wrapping around her like a blanket of ice. Time slowed to a crawl, then it happened.

"No! Please! Someone, help!" Twilight screamed, as its hands grabbed her shoulders and threw her onto her back. She thrashed, kicked, screamed until her throat burned, and her limbs were bruised, but the creature held her firm. It wrapped its body around Twilight, wanting to drown her with its bloody carcass. Weak from her failed last attempt for safety, Twilight thought she was done for, that was until she felt something warm, something that filled her with a sense of safety from the demon drowning her with its body.

She reached out, searching for the warmth with her only free limb as her face submerged into the thundering chest of the blood monster. In her desperate struggle, her hand grabbed hold of something, but it was too late.

With the last of her life leaving her body, she had no flashbacks of her life in Ponyvile. She didn't see her friends faces awaiting her at the light. Instead, endless darkness waited for her eternal embrace. Twilight wasted her final breath on a scream, instead of a dream. Her last tear she shed was out of fear and not of love. Her outstretched hand was going to be the last thing to be devoured by the monster when she was so close to safety.

Then, as her vision turned black, she was pulled free.

Slowly and painfully, Twilight opened her eyes. Her breathing was ragged, body covered in sweat. No longer was she being smothered by the blood monster, that horrific beast that has been plaguing her dreams for the past few days. Always there, waiting to drown her, but something happened. Something different happened at the end of the nightmare. She knew she felt it, the warmth of another reaching out to save her, but she can't remember why,

Lifting the hand that touched the stranger to her face, she could feel the lingering sensations of another hand. The soft, gentle, slender hand, like Mrs. Johnsons, the Archivist of Vault 86 before she... died. A part of her wants to think that it was the Goddess of Books, as she was called—Mostly because she was the most beautiful girl of the Vault, and that she loved books more than anything—Reaching out to save her.

'I bet Mrs. Johnson would look like my twin back in Equestria, but she is no longer with us. At least the Slavers killed her instantly so that she didn't have to suffer what they did to the others,' she choked, tears threatening to return.

'No pony deserves what...what they did to the survivors.'

Twilight's blurry eyes closed shut, the hand she was staring at draped lazily over them like a protective blanket. She wanted to forget everything that happened, how the Slavers raped and tortured those who were unfit for enslavement before killing them in the slowest possible way, but no matter how hard she tried to forget. They were there, the faces warped in a mixture of pain and pleasure. Writhing bodies screaming bloody murder as the Slavers force themselves onto whoever they wanted all the while she watched with the "lucky" ones that were "off-limits" from the Slavers.

She was sure that some were allowed to stay alive after the Slavers took over. They wouldn't have wasted their toys when they were making the Vault into their new base. Those that were unlucky enough to be spared for the Slavers sick enjoyment, she will save. It was only a matter of time before Sarah free them from the bomb collars and run to safety. Then once she and the others have a plan and preparation, they will free those that were left behind.

'I promise that we'll come back for all of you once we are free, it's why I'm here...To help.' Taking a moment to collect her emotions, Twilight realized that something was off.

Her body was warm and comfortable albeit a little swampy from walking in the rain. The only sound was soft drip-dropping of water somewhere close by. It wasn't annoying just odd, then again, she figured that it was just leftover rainwater leaking into the ceiling. Another thing that was off to her was the familiar scent of gunpowder, paper, and whiskey, and it was close. Really close.

Before she could investigate further, her bed moved and a slender arm wrapped around her waist followed by a disgruntled "Go back to bed, sexy. It's too early."

Twilight's body froze in place, fear and fear alone stopped her from screaming or doing anything rash that would earn her a beating. Thoughts ran at the speed of light, trying to figure out who was sharing a bed with her and what happened to her while she was asleep.

'Was...Was I taken advantage of?' she silently sobbed, but when she carefully checked her groin, she found that it was still untouched, relatively speaking and that the room she was in was pitch black.

'Who is in my bed and where are the others?!' Twilight gasped, fearing that she was sold by the Slavers to some sick, perverted person that wanted her "pure."

'No no no, this can't be happening. This can't be happening. Sarah, Susan, Scarlet, I'm so sorry.'

"Hey, hey, don't cry, I'm not going to hurt you," spoke the person holding her in a strangely regal yet tomboyish feminine voice. "I know this may seem bad, but I did this to keep you from getting hypothermia. We were in the rain for a long time."

'What? That's not right?' Twilight thought in shock, her mind pausing in disbelief. Even as she felt the woman holding her sit up, Twilight couldn't believe what was happening. To her, it was a trick, a lie. She knew that her friends were gone and she was sold while she was asleep. How else did she get where she was? The woman beside her was just another monster and she had to escape and find her friends!

"Sorry about the lights, you can never be too careful," the strange woman said as she fumbled in the darkness, but Twilight didn't listen. Instead, she backed against the wall, waiting for the lights to come on so that she could find a weapon and save herself, but when the lights came on with a dull "Thunk!" All she could do was stare.

There, standing in front of a rust-covered door beside a round box embedded in the wall with two glowing, buttons, was the woman holding her captive. Her long jet-black hair drank all the light in the room. Her silver eyes looked as sharp as a razor's edge. Her face was young, playful, and vaguely like Rainbow Dash and Princess Luna if they were both Human.

She had the same body as Scarlet; a stunning hourglass built for war, but unlike Scarlet, she sported a D-cupped bust—From what she could remember from Susan's lessons anyways. The woman easily stood a head taller than her, but what stopped her from doing anything was the fact that she knew her breast size.

She was naked.

Blood quickly rushed to Twilight's cheeks as she struggled to peel her eyes away from her captor, but the way she rested her hips out only emphasized her curves more. The curse that the plank of a girl Twilight didn't have.

"Like what you see? Cause this might be the only chance you get, so soak it all in," the woman, no, the Black Maiden chuckled.

"Umm, can you p-put s-something on?" Twilight meekly spluttered, her hands frozen in fear for the need of a weapon, and embarrassment of the nude lady.

Rolling her eyes, the woman walked over to the bed, swaying her hips as she did so. Twilight squeaked in response and tried to back away from her. The woman placed her delicate hand on the end of the worn metal bedframe next to Twilight's feet, leaning over as she did so, and winked.

"My name is Raven. What's your name?"

Mind completely absent from the stress over the recent days, Twilight uttered only one word before exhaustion finally caught up, and pull her back to sleep.

"T-Twilight."

Author's Note

Level Up!