Fallout Equestria: The Wake of Discord

It had been a few weeks since Lily and Twisted had their conversation, and Twisted hadn't expected to have stayed as long as she had. Of course, she didn't stick around for free. She pulled what weight she could, and she had knowledge and experience that allowed her to bring the settlement to a better quality of living than they had been before. Mostly, she spent the majority of her days scouting around for anything of interest. The town a little ways away had been looked over plenty, but there was a city a couple miles away that she would look at and scout around.

Otherwise, she spent a vast majority of her free time, improving the little settlement. She spent her time teaching the ponies, young and old, how to read, how to write, and as much as she could on how to build some form of infrastructure. Many nights she sat, writing out lesson plans for the coming days, to give her some structure to the chaos the town brought her. She was tired, sore, stressed, but strangely enough, she was enjoying herself greatly. She had, after a very long time, found a place where she could do what she had originally set out to do. Try to make the wasteland a better place, and help the ponies who needed it. Teaching these ponies how to make their situation better was just the beginning of that.

Though, strangely, but partly to be expected, Lily was right at her hooves, close enough to actually trip the mare up on a couple occasions. Twisted always managed to laugh it off, even with the filly apologizing all over herself each time it had happened. Gave the priestess some excitement. A surprise. Something she could almost look forward too, despite looking a fool given how her long legs always seemed to get tangled up in one thing or another. Once, she actually needed one of the gardeners to untie her from a particularly stubborn bunch of ropes. How she got so tangled, was beyond her, but leave it up to a child to cause such a thing.

Today, she was on a patrol, Lily keeping pace as they scanned the horizon. It was something of a project, and by the grace of the town, she had been given a small, portable radio they could listen too. Twisted was quite thoroughly shocked that radio towers were even operational. While it took some learning on her part to use it, given she had never had one, or seen one operational before, she quite enjoyed the music that was played, if not a touch repetitive.

Hello hello hello, ponies of Prince John's! It's your DJ Talon Scratch! I hope you're all having, a glorious, day. Just a typical day in the wasteland, staying out of trouble. News has been scarce, but there have been some whispers about a band of raiders you should look out for. Said to have taken residence on Bell Island, how they got there I don't know, but if they can get there, they can get back. Be sure to keep an eye out on the region, and stay safe. Up next, Mare, I feel like a Stallion, Ow!

"That griffon has quite the talent for showmanship, doesn't he?" Twisted asked as they walked, keeping her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary.

"How do you know he's a griffon Priestess Visions?" Lily asked. Twisted didn't notice when Lily had started calling her that, but she wasn't against it. She looked down at the purple filly, admiring for a moment her golden hair. She never really took the time to appreciate the colours of the girl. Her dagger was fastened to her side in a similar fashion as Twisted's sword, some string doing the trick just fine for the time being.

"Talon Scratch? I would imagine they were either a Griffon or a Diamond Dog. Though, this far north? More likely a griffon. Diamond dogs, even before the war, were particularly uncommon in this region of Equestria, so given that information, I can safely assume that in all likelihood, it's a Griffon." Twisted explained, seeing buildings in the distance.

"And, if you're wrong?" Lily asked.

"Then I am wrong. I reflect on my mistake, and if I cause insult with it, I apologize. Being wrong is nothing to be ashamed of, and without making mistakes, you don't really learn very much," Twisted said, as she stopped walking. Ponygal Cove, was apparently not far from here. It was likely the town she was looking at.

"Something wrong Priestess?" Lily asked, stopping next to Twisted, looking at the town ahead.

"I am contemplating, currently, whether we should keep going, or stay here and listen for anything that could be worrysome. I don't want to get you hurt, after all, and having some distance from the town gives me the ability to slow down anything that might attack us so that you can get away," Twisted said, looking down. "I do have a responsibility to keep you safe, and if I fail at that in any way, you won't be able to come with me on these trips," She added.

"What if we stayed on the outskirts? If anyone is in there, they are probably near the center of the town, and we wouldn't have to worry about being surrounded," Lily said, giving Twisted a moment of pause. She remembered giving the guard a something of a lecture on how to avoid being surrounded on a scouting mission, among other things, but she didn't actually think Lily was paying attention.

"You are correct Lily. Having an idea of where the enemy is, gives you a better chance of keeping an open line of escape, but it could prove to put you in a bad position. We don't know much about this place," Twisted said, looking back at the town.

"What if we only checked out those couple of buildings. The ones closest to us? We'll be closer at least, can better hear what's going on around us, and know if we need to come back with more ponies to scavenge," Lily retorted.

"Look at you. You're proving to be a very smart filly, but something tells me you might be too smart for your own good. Fine, we will check out only those buildings, but remember what I told you. If I tell you to run, you-"

"Run and run and run until I get back home. No matter what I hear, what I see, or what happens to you. I'm not a hero, I'm a filly, and the last place a filly needs to be is in a fight," Lily Grove finished, her tone annoyed. "I know! You told me a million times!"

"Well, a million and one times won't hurt nothing then," Twisted smiled. "Come on, and keep your eyes open. Nothing is too small to tell me about," She ordered, starting to walk. She was uncomfortable with the idea, but she wasn't going to let that make her paranoid. Cooler heads prevailed, and a bit of discomfort in situations like this made her cautious, which in the right amounts was always a good thing.

It only took them a few minutes to get to the buildings. Worn and in ruins, they didn't look usable as shelter. Twisted was beginning to think this was going to be an easy trip, when Lily pulled on her saddle bag. "Uhm, Priestess, it looks like there is a cellar door over there." Of course, there was.

"Alright, we'll check it out, but once we do we are heading home, alright?" Twisted said, starting to walk towards the door. The filly nodded, staying close. The door opened and down below was darkness. Twisted took a breath and stepped down, her horn lighting up with magic to illuminate the place. It looked like an old cold cellar, with all sorts of jars and cans. In the middle, there was a dusty table set with two chairs, but in general, it didn't look like anyone had been down here in years.

"Alright, Lily. Remember what I told you. Keep an ear out, but let's check what we can and keep moving. If you're unsure if something is worth taking, leave it and move on, the next group we send out will do a better job searching," Twisted said as the two of them started looking at the various cans. The next few minutes were quiet, aside from the occasional clang of Lily kicking or dropping a can by accident. The longer they were there, the more worried Twisted became.

"Seriously Slash, you think you saw an Alicorn?!" A gruff, angered voice asked from outside, freezing the two unicorns in the cellar.

"Would you shut the fuck up Bone? You know what the boss said. We see any other Alicorns, we need to get into contact with them!" Another voice responded

"Yeah, and what if this Alicorn turns us to paste? We already got six ponies, if there's an alicorn out here we can get a larger party out here that's better equipped for dealing with them!"

"Yeah, and let someone else take all the glory? Look, they guys got a handle on the others, let's just check it out."

This was very bad. Twisted used her rear hoof to push Lily towards the back wall, gripping her sword in her magic. The second the first person up there showed their face, Twisted would act. It was the longest few moments of her life, and Twisted could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Not for herself. She wasn't worried about that. She was worried about Lily, and what would happen to her if she failed.

A taloned leg stepped down into the Cellar, pushing Twisted into action. With a yelp, the Griffons leg was yanked down the flight of stairs, sprawling out at the bottom. He was ragged, covered in scrap leathers and spiked metal, rusted and covered in dry blood. Twisted's blood boiled. A raider...

Whatever the second raider said, Twisted didn't hear it as she drew her sword, sticking the griffon in the chest with it. Up the steps, and in the face of a pony carrying a pipe gun similar to Planks. Her horn flared as he levelled it, bullets spraying off in all directions as it came into contact with her magic, she cut him down just as quickly. Then she heard shouting in the distance.

"Lily! Run!" Twisted shouted, bullets slamming into the wood around the mare as she tried to keep the filly safe from the gunfire coming their direction. She saw Lily scurry past her, and immediately bolted forward. It was a group, and she could see they weren't all raiders. That wasn't important. She couldn't outrun bullets, and Lily certainly couldn't. Twisted needed to give her time to get far away from here. The raiders were all at the far end of the street the building they had checked out were, and already taking positions. So, Twisted bounded across the street, slipping between two more buildings.

The lack of fences was both a blessing and a curse as she ran up the back of the buildings. She needed to get as close as possible to them, given her sword, and even her magic wasn't very effective at range. Seeing a rifle start to come around the bend, she quickly shifted directions, between another two houses to the street, running even closer, until she came to the house she saw the Rifle from. She was behind them. She got a better look at the captive ponies, but that wasn't her concern. She ran back down between the third pair of houses, coming up behind the group of raiders, and that was when her magic flared once again.

The maroon light, laced with specks of greens, browns, and yellows burst as she tore the gun out of one ponies teeth, bringing it around and slamming it into his muzzle. She didn't count how many there were, but that didn't matter. She stepped up, jamming her sword down under the first raiders collarbone, leveraging it out as she walked to engage the second one. He turned, raising a bat in magic of his own, blocking the mares next strike to the side, bringing it around and hitting her in the side hard enough to rock her off balance.

She barely maintained her balance as she stumbled to the side, her shoulder protesting as she continued to use it. She was fast enough to her shield up as gunfire rained down on her, scattering as usual. Then it stopped, and she saw the raiders start to reload. As hard as she could, she pushed her body forward, bowling past the raider with the bat. She reared up, hitting one raider in the face, landing, then shooting a hind leg out, connecting with the bat raiders jaw.

A sharp pain blinded her for a second, causing her to scream. She looked, only to see a third raider had stabbed her in the side with a knife, and a vicious scowl took her features. A flash, bang, and suddenly the raider who stabbed her's leg blew off, twirling herself and using all her strength to hit another in the chest with her sword, drawing the slash as it connected, spraying blood across the ground and her. She turned back around to see Bat raider levelling himself out and getting ready for another attack. Twisted focused, and he stopped dead as the glow of magic encompassed his head.

Twisted's teeth were set in a firm scowl, grinding as she dumped more and more magic into her attack, watching blood start to pour from the ponies ears and nose, trails tricking from his eyes. His gurgling brought a slight grin to her face, as she stepped up to him. He was struggling, and she watched him. "Do you repent? Do you seek forgiveness?" She sneered, looking the raider in the eye. She waited a moment, then chuckled darkly. "I didn't think so," She said, snapping the raiders neck and letting his body fall to the ground.

Twisted panted, looking at the bodies of the four raiders. The one who she blew the leg off of was already in shock, murmuring about his arm, trying to reach for it with the ruined stump it was once connected too. She walked over to him, sticking her sword into him without flair. She then turned to make sure no one else was around, just to find her looking at a purple filly, with golden hair. "Lily..."

The filly looked at Twisted, then at the bodies. Twisted took a step but the filly matched it. She had no idea how long Lily was watching, or what she saw, but it clearly had an effect. "Lily... I... You..." Twisted started before the filly ran off. She ran to the street, but Lily was gone. This wasn't good, but she couldn't have gotten far. She was about to go looking for her when the mare heard a voice behind her.

"Uhm... Miss?" A pony asked, shaking the chains that had bound them all together. Twisted turned and looked at them. She could see even now they had witnessed what she had done, through the spaces of the buildings. Various degrees of judgement that she was going to have to deal with.

"Of course, a moment please," She responded finally, walking towards them slowly. As she got closer, she was painfully aware of every speck of blood that covered her body. She had forgotten the knife, the pain nothing compared to her concern. Though she could feel it and knew she would have to deal with it, that realization was far from her mind, as she took the chains in her magic, breaking the locks and removing the inhibitors from around the horns of the unicorns.

"Do you want help with that knife? I think some of the raiders had some stimpacks," One of the ponies asked once they were free, approaching Twisted. Twisted gave an absent "Hmm" in response as she looked around for any sign of Lily. Then she felt someone press up against her side, startling her into taking a sharp step to the side. A step, her body apparently didn't like, as her legs buckled from underneath her.

"I have to find Lily..." She slurred, head starting to droop. The knife was starting to take its toll as her body lost the adrenaline it was functioning off previously.

"Yeah, she needs some serious help. Hey guys, come on! We'd still be in shackles if it wasn't for her!" Twisted could hear one of the ponies shout, but everything else was muffled. It wasn't long until all she knew was darkness.

The sound of a fire crackling in the background was what brought Twisted back to consciousness. Her eyes opened slowly, and she lifted her head to look around. It was dark, but she couldn't tell where the moon was. She had a moment of confusion before she jerked up. "Lily!"

"Woah! Okay, you need to relax a little," She heard a mildly familiar voice say from behind her, to which she turned around. A white pony with a grey mane was looking at her, keeping his distance. It was then Twisted noticed her apparent lack of armour, or anything for that matter. She looked at herself, wincing at her body.

"You must have been through a lot. You only see things like that on raiders and their victims," The white pony said, remarking on her scarred body. They were deliberate, carvings of various kinds. Most notable was the heavy scarring over what was once her cutie mark. "It also explains why you had so much on. That armour, then barding, then a body suit under that. I'm sorry I couldn't put you back in it, but I made sure no one else came in here," He added, holding out a hoof. "The name is Band-aid. As you can probably tell, I'm something of a medicine pony."

Twisted nodded. "Where is Lily Grove? A purple filly with golden hair, about this tall," She asked, holding up a hoof to show off the height.

Band-aid nodded his head. "She came out of hiding when she saw we were carrying you off. She grilled us pretty hard to make sure we weren't going to hurt you, that is for sure," He chuckled, putting his hoof down. "She's downstairs with the others, probably eating. She's safe, don't worry about that." He explained.

A wave of relief washed over Twisted as she let out a sigh. "Oh thank the Lord..." She huffed, looking down. "I was worried she might get lost."

"I was about to send some people out to look for her. We saw her run to where you were fighting, tried to stop her but she wasn't listening. Figured she got spooked by what she saw..." Band-aid said, giving a bit of a frown. "You may have given her a fright with that display of yours, but, if I can be honest with you, I'm just glad you were there. Who knows what they would have done with us."

"Admittedly, it was unintentional," Twisted mentioned, looking around the room. "Though, I suppose most of the happenings in the wasteland are. Not that I wouldn't have tried were the situation different."

"I understand, as do the rest of us. So... I suppose you want your clothes and armour back, yeah?" He asked. Twisted just nodded, looking at the door. "It's all over in the corner. I tried to lay it out as neatly as possible. I've gotta say, I'm surprised that knife managed to even scratch you, but I think it slipped between some of the plates. A lucky blow?" Band-aid wondered aimlessly.

"Armour isn't perfect. I was careless, things like that happen in combat," Twisted replied softly, taking up the body suit in her magic and slipping it on.

"I'll leave you too it then, come downstairs when you're ready," Band-aid said, before opening the door and leaving Twisted alone. She stood still for quite a while, left in the dark and the relative silence of the room. She thought about the coming conversation she was likely going to have with Lily. The possible questions, the accusations, even the loss of trust between the two. She didn't doubt the relationship they had been building over the past few weeks was damaged, but Twisted was prepared to do what it took to mend it how she could. The filly looked up to her, and while Twisted wasn't particularly prideful quite in that regard, the fact the filly did so was important.

When she had finally donned all her armour, she took a moment to realize exactly how heavy the set was. The boots, the greaves, the steel barding. It all felt so heavy. Sometimes she wondered why she became a warrior, but every time she remembered why. Because despite all her effort, she was a violent pony. So she steeled herself, standing upright. If not for herself, then for her position, her order, and for Lily Grove.

Walking down the stairs of the house, she saw the glow the fire in what was the living room, and she walked in to see the six ponies, plus Lily grove sitting around a small fire. They all looked at her, the contrast between the supposed Paladin, and these wasteland ponies horrendiously stark. Lily turned back to the fire, which made Twisted's chest clench up, but Band-aid stepped in to end the silence.

"So, Twisted Visions? I hear you are a... Ahem... Paladin of sorts?" He asked, starting up conversation.

"Of sorts. I've never called myself a Paladin until recently, but I am a warrior guided by faith. So, if that is what you wish to call me. Officially, I am a warrior priestess, tasked with being a missionary to the wasteland. I'm here to do what I can to make things better," She said, getting a laugh from one of the ponies.

"Well, keep killing raiders like that, and maybe you'll stand a chance," He said, poking at the fire.

"If that is what I must do, then so be it, but I have been focusing my attention on teaching people how better to survive. The Followers have a sanctuary high up in the north mountains that was untouched by the war. We couldn't intervene, as asked by the princesses, and after the megaspells were dropped, we just didn't have the resources to make an actual aid effort. Even now, a few Missionaries, such as myself, have been all we could afford what with our own battles to fight," Twisted responded. She didn't quite realize how flat and dead her voice sounded, until it killed the conversation. She laid down at the side of the room, looking between the floor and the fire.

Time passed, and slowly all the ponies drifted off to sleep. Having gotten the most rest, Twisted told them she would keep watch, leaving her alone with her thoughts. She thought about her life, everything that had lead her to being right here in this predicament. Her life as a cultist, then when the Followers took her in and worked to rehabilitate her. She knew she wasn't fixed. She would never be fixed. Her thoughts would have continued, were it not for someone wrapping their hooves around her neck. Lily had woken up.

"I forgive you..." She whispered, hugging Twisted a little tighter. "You are a good pony, and you try your best. I shouldn't hold that against you..." She added, nuzzling into the taller mares neck.

The words hit her hard, and she bit her lip. "I shouldn't have gone as far as I did... I shouldn't have let you... See..." Twisted started, before her voice failed her. She hung her head, her mane falling around her face as a silent sob rocked her body. Lily didn't move, she just held her.

"We all make mistakes... You told me that. Making mistakes isn't wrong, it's how we learn, remember?" Lily asked, looking up at Twisted.

The mare shook her head. "Some mistakes can't be fixed Lily... Sometimes, mistakes aren't mistakes. They are just things that are, and sometimes ponies do bad things, and they can't stop themselves. No matter how wrong it is, no matter how aware of it they are, they still do it."

Lily frowned, letting go of Twisted and walking around to stand in front of her. "Twisted Visions, do you regret what you did? Would you accept forgiveness for it? If you were forgiven, would you strive to be a better pony?" She asked. Twisted gave a huff of a laugh, rubbing her eyes with a hoof.

"What if I said no?" Twisted asked, smiling weakly at the filly.

"Well, I guess I would just have to hit you really hard, wouldn't I?" She answered, giving a smile in return.

"For a young filly, you sure are wise," Twisted laughed.

"I guess you're rubbing off on me. Are you going to answer the question, or do I have to start hitting?"

Twisted sighed, nodded her head. "Yes Lily, I regret what I did, and I will always strive to be a better pony. If not for myself, then for you, at least," She said softly, looking the filly in the eye.

"Awe, I was hoping to hit you," Lily joked, before embracing Twisted once again. "But I'm glad you said yes."