Fallout Equestria: Sisterly Love

“Can you please move?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Cause I don't wanna. Moving requires effort, and effort is something I do not have right now.”

Nai raised her eyebrow at her older sister, who was currently sprawled out on top of a pile of books with her legs in the air. Nei raised her own eyebrows in return.
“You're so lazy.”

Nei sniffed. “I am practical. If you want me to move, then you must feed me. Moving requires energy, and thus I require food.” She flopped her head back down and began flicking at dust motes in the sunlight.

“I think I have some old twizzlers in my bag.”

“I don't want stinky old twizzlers.” Nei waved a hoof at imaginary bugs. “I'm pretty sure I want cake.”

She heard her little sister sigh. “I'm sure we can find some if we go scavenging. Or we can ask Vortex to make us some.”

“Cool. Maybe he can teleport us somewhere amazing.” Vortex could create tiny portals in cake batter, but they couldn't travel through them just yet.

“Doubtful. Look, are you gonna move or what?”

“Do you have cake?”

“No?”

“Then no.”

Nei rolled around on the books, content that she had successfully outsmarted her sister. She heard Nai stand up, and a grumpy grey face appeared in her vision.

“If you don’t move, I’ll poison you later.”

Nei made a show of considering this, tapping her chin with a hoof. Nai would probably poison her later anyway, she knew that her sister had been brewing a new batch and probably needed a guinea pig. It was worth the risk.
“Today is a day for relaxing. I don't feel like moving.” She nestled deeper into the book pile, scooping one of them to her chest like a teddy bear.

“You say that, but what if Lime comes to visit you?”

“Well, if the tower pony comes and challenges me to a fight, then I will fight. That’s kind of a given.” Nei batted at her sister’s looming face with a hoof. “I don’t think she will, though.”

“I think you need to get your fat butt off my books. I don’t want nasty sister butt prints all over my sacred texts.” Nai began to shove the book pile in an effort to topple her stubborn sister. Nei relaxed her body, instantly getting heavier. Nai scowled at her.

“Sacred texts? These are romance novels!” Picking one up, Nei dramatically read out the cover slogan. “Let Captain Witherhooves sweep you off your feet into a pirate filled fantasy...What is this garbage?”

Nai grunted with effort, still trying to shove her sister off. “They’re sacred to me,” her horn lit up as she tried to lift the books with magic. “And therefore they should be sacred to you.”

Lifting a book in her own grey magic, Nei booped her sister on the horn, shorting out her magic. Grinning with glee, she settled back onto her book throne.
“I'm not moving.”

Nai sat back in a huff, flipping her fringe out of her eyes. Nei ignored Nai’s glare, getting extra comfortable in the book pile, making sure to wiggle her butt over as many books as she could. Blessed silence, if only for a few seconds.

“You know there’s a manticore nest off fifth and seventh avenue.”

Nei sat bolt upright, staring at Nai. “You’re kidding.”

“Am not. Vortex saw it when he came to visit last time. Scared him out of his wits but I figured you'd want to know.”

Nei looked at Nai suspiciously. “Why didn't you tell me before?”

“Probably because I didn't need your fat butt out of the apartment before.”

Nei continued to glare suspiciously at her sister. It wouldn't be the first time she’d lied to her in order to get her to go away. Nai rolled her eyes. “You can ask Limey too. A doctor went to the tower last week looking for it. He was talking about using them for an experiment and the future of the wasteland or something.” Nai began to push at the books again. “Get off my books and then you can go ride a manticore.”

“This is true.” Nei hauled herself off the books, landing on her hooves in a haphazard way. Limey was a trustworthy pony, even if her sister wasn't. “You make a compelling argument, my dear sister.” Tying her mane into its trademark braid, she struck a ridiculous pose. The cloud filtered sunlight streamed through a hole in the roof of their Manehattan apartment, illuminating the soft shades of pink in her mane. It had once belonged to some fancy pony, their bones now acted as a doorstop. “To the Manticore nest!”

Nei wandered down the dilapidated streets of Manehattan, listening to the crackling music of faded and broken sprite-bots in the distance. She kicked a few stones along before breaking into an old ballad from prewar times. Her off key voice warbled and reflected off the buildings, sending radroaches scurrying.
“You can go your own wayyyyy, go your own way...” Something moved down the road, a something that wasn't a radroach or a manticore. Nei dropped down low, pulling her body close to the ground. She wasn't sure what it was, but hopefully it would be fun. The rough ground scraped against her chest as she edged closer, sneaking up behind a yellow and grey rump. Inhaling, Nei took a deep breath and let out an enormous roar, being rewarded with a scream and the pony scrabbling to get away from her.
“You aren't a manticore!” Nei was full of disappointment. “What are you doing in my city?”

The pony had her hoof on her chest and she was staring at Nei with wide eyed terror. “Wh-What? Your city? This city is the property of Tenpony Tower!”

Oh great, Nei thought. Another puffed up tower pony who had wandered too far away. This one didn't seem as fun as Limey, all quivering and squeaking. “This is my territory. You're trespassing.”

The pony was attempting to regain some of her lost dignity, adjusting her mane and dusting off her bags. There was a rip in one, through which Nei could see some books. “I don’t think so. All of Manehattan is under the protection of Tenpony Tower.”

“Perhaps you misheard me. You’re on my turf.” Nei slid a blade out from her braid, holding it steady in her magic. “Trespassers will be punished.” The pony squeaked and started trying to scramble over the rubble away from her, but she slid down and landed right at Nei’s hooves. It was almost comical. Getting up again, she turned to Nei and held a rock awkwardly in her magic like she was going to swat her with it. It was obvious that she had never fought for her life before. It wasn't easy facing someone who could obviously tear you limb from limb, and for that Nei had to give her bravery some credit. Knocking the rock away, Nei slammed her body against the pony with a sickening thud, who went down with an agonised yelp. Standing over the whimpering unicorn, Nei held her own rock over her head, ready to bring it down. She pointed at the tower in the distance. “In case you hadn't realised, Tower jurisdiction ends at the Celestia rail line. Beyond that is ghoul territory, and beyond that is manticores. Then it’s me and mine.” She leaned close to her, breathing in the smell of fear, pampered pony and peppermint. “You’re a long way from home, little dove.”

The unicorn trembled, Nei could feel the shakes in her hooves. She frowned. “That’s also a very long way to walk. How did you even get out here?”

“I can-” The yellow unicorn swallowed, her eyes never leaving the rock above her head. “I can teleport short distances. I didn’t realise how far I'd gone. Are you going to kill me?”

Nei snorted, throwing the rock off to the side of the road. “You’d be no fun to kill, all shaking and screaming and gross. What are you doing out here?” She flopped down on the road next to the pony and began using her knife to pull gunk out from under her hooves.

The pony remained tense, her eyes on the knife, but she answered steadily. “Looking for books, actually. I'm a bit of an astronomer and I want to know more about the sky.”

Nei paused in her cleaning, glancing up at the overhead clouds. The sky had been cloudy since the bombs fell, everyone knew that. The clouds were put there to protect them. “Why do you want to know more about the sky? It's just cloud.”

The pony rolled to her hooves, apparently content that Nei wasn't going to start filleting her. “Its not the clouds that interest me, its whats beyond them.”

“More clouds, obviously.” Nei tucked her knife away and joined the pony, who was now picking her way through the rubble towards what used to be a library. It was now the lair of mutated star spiders but Nei didn't see any point in telling that to a trespasser.

“Not necessarily. I want to know more about the stars. I have a constellation as my cutie mark but Ive never even seen a single star.”

“There aren't stars any more!” Nei scoffed. “Everypony knows that the clouds are there to keep ponies from falling upwards after the pegasi destroyed everything.” She shook her head at the stupidity of the yellow mare. “You tower ponies really don't know anything.”

The other mare stopped, staring at Nei with her mouth agape. “You… You don't really believe that do you?”

“Don't look at me like that. It's obvious if you think about it. We fall off the planet and the clouds will catch us.” Nei had reached the library and was beginning to poke a fat star spider sleeping near the door.

“No one is that stupid.” The pony was looking at her with suspicion.

“You sound like my sister.” Nei brightened and flipped over the star spider which started shrieking in anger. “Actually, she's a nerd like you, we should go see her!”

The pony backed away a few steps. “I don't think i want to go anywhere with you.”

Nei looked at the pony casually. “I don't think I was giving you a choice, honestly.” The star spider screamed in rage as Nei grabbed its web in her magic and threw it at the hooves of the pony, gluing her to the ground. The unicorn mare tripped over her own hooves as they stuck fast, and began weakly pelting Nei with stones. Ignoring the sharp missiles, Nei grabbed the web again, carefully avoiding the sticky parts and wrapped it firmly around the hooves of the mare. Tying a pony up made her feel positively villainous, and the feeling was elating. She let out a cackle, just like a real villain would, and began to drag the visiting unicorn back to her lair.

The whole way home the pony struggled against her bonds, but her magic was ineffective against Nei’s superior strength and sheer willpower. At some point Nei had started monologuing, detailing all manners of terrible things that she would do to the pony once they had returned to her lair. None of it was true but it was fun to monologue, she could see why the villains in Nai’s books enjoyed it so much.

Kicking open their front door with a hind leg, she hauled her prize inside and propped her against the bones of the previous tenant. Her victim began to scream, only to be cut off by the appearance of another grey pony.

“Nei! What is that and why is it in our house?” Nai trotted towards them.

“A trespasser!” Nei proudly stated, patting the unicorn.

“I am so sorry, miss. I’ll get a solvent for those webs. You're going to lose some fur, I'm afraid. Once they are stuck on you, they are very hard to get off.” Nai cantered back into their home, heading for her lab. “Nei! Bring that poor girl in here!”

Nei sighed. She could tell from her sister’s voice that she was going to get a lecture later. Pulling the whimpering pony roughly by the tail, she hauled her into the lab.

“What’s your name?” Nai asked kindly as she searched around for her solvent.

“Milky Script.” Milky had stopped struggling, and was now watching Nei chew on a cold piece of bacon that she had pulled from somewhere. Nei politely offered her the chewed monstrosity but Milky shook her head, paling at the sight.

“Im Nai, and that's my older sister Nei.” Nai shook the solvent out onto Milky’s hooves, where it began to sizzle and dissolve the web. Turning to Nei, Nai put on a stern face. “Nei, we do not kidnap ponies just because they happen to be nearby. Is that clear?”

Nei grinned through a mouthful of greasy bacon. “Not even when they wanted to go in your precious library?”

Surprised, Nai turned back to Milky, who was now tugging the web painfully off her hooves. “You wanted to go to the library? Why?”

“Because I wanted to check if they had any astronomy books.”

Nai exchanged glances with Nei. “You didn't tell her, did you?” Nei just shook her head.

“What?” Milky looked between them. “Don't tell me that you believe the clouds are there to stop us falling off the earth too?”

“What?” Nai snorted. “That's stupid. No, I've just got most of the library stored here. Star spiders took over the library ages ago, I had to rescue all the books.” She waved a hoof in the direction of a hallway. “Including the astronomy section.”

Milky gaped. Nei grinned, picking at the bacon between her teeth. “I'd have told you if you'd asked, you know.”