Pinned down by enemy fire, there was not much Nora could do besides take shelter behind a knocked over metal desk near the storage area in the lower level of the Corvega assembly plant. She checked every pocket of her leather chest piece for the third time, but there was no denying the truth: she had emptied the last magazine of her 10mm pistol on the machine gun turret that formerly guarded the room she was in. Without any bullets left, the only weapon Nora had in her arsenal was a baton that she was pretty sure wasn’t going to be enough to take down half a dozen bloodthirsty raiders armed to the teeth. All she could do was lie low and hope that they ran out of ammo, so they would be forced to get close to her to finish her off, in which case she could use the baton to take them down – or at least go down fighting and take one or two with her.

“I bet you 20 caps that I can put a bullet in her eye from up here!” Said one of the male raiders while shooting at Nora’s hiding spot with a pipe rifle.

“No you can’t, stupid.” A female raider shooting with a pipe pistol replied. “She’s hiding, you’ll never get a clean shot.”

“Shit, you’re right.” The male raider raised his voice: “Hey bitch! Stick your fucking head out so I can win 20 caps!”

All the confidence she had in her when she offered to help that couple in Tenpines Bluff by wiping out the group of raiders that had been giving them trouble fled her body the moment she pulled the trigger but only heard the click of a gun that had run out of ammo. Holding the baton on her shaky hands, Nora closed her eyes and hoped for a miracle.

“Yo, what the fuck was that?” Another male raider asked while looking around for the source of the noise he heard.

“Gunfire, dipshit! Right in front of you.” The same male from before chastised him while still firing at Nora’s hiding spot.

“No, shut up, shut up! I heard something. Sounded like—”

“STRONG SMASH PUNY HUMANS!”

“WHAT THE FU—”

Suddenly all the gunfire ceased at the same time, replaced by screaming, the sound of flesh ripping, bones crushing and a few odd gunshots here and there, but nowhere near the amount from before. The sound and vibration of bullets hitting the desk also stopped, which prompted Nora’s curiosity to overwhelm her common sense. She slowly raised her head to look at what caused an entire gang of raiders to lose interest in her, only to come face to face with the barrel of a pipe revolver.

“Surprise, bitch!” The raider holding the gun said with a wicked smile on her soot-covered face; unbeknownst to Nora, while the other raiders kept her pinned in place with suppressing fire, one of them detached from the group in order to sneak up on her – and succeeded.

Nora was caught by surprise, one of the most common causes of death in the wasteland. She was pretty fast, but she couldn’t possibly strike the raider woman faster than she could pull the trigger. She tried to attack her anyway – if she was going down, she would at least try and take her attacker with her.

Nora expected two things to happen in the next second: the first was the burning pain of a bullet piercing her body, and the second was the impact of her baton with the raider’s forehead, but neither happened; in the blink of an eye the raider was sent flying to the side, crashing through the steel door of the storage area and into the wooden boxes once locked inside. With nothing else for Nora’s baton to connect with, the momentum kept her arm going, causing her to lose her balance and fall down on the metal floor.

“Well, I’ll be darned!” An unfamiliar voice with a very distinct southern accent said. “Y’all look nuthin’ like one of ‘em raiders. Well, ain’t dressed like one of ‘em, at least.”

While still down on the metal floor, Nora looked ahead; the first thing she saw was a pair of brown leather boots that had definitely seen better days, the person wearing them standing only a couple of feet away from her. The next thing was a hand, offering to help her up, which Nora took.

“Thank you.” Nora said while dusting herself. “For helping me up and saving my life.”

“Aw shucks, think nuthin’ of it! Helpin’ folks in need is sumthin’ any decent person should do.”

After standing up, Nora could finally take a better look at her savior: a young woman, probably early 20s, freckled fair skin with a gentle tan, golden blonde hair tied up in a ponytail and emerald green eyes. Aside from the boots she also wore damaged blue jeans, a white crewneck t-shirt and a light brown stetson hat with a few bullet holes on it.

“Howdy! Name’s Applejack.” Nora’s savior said while extending her hand.

“I’m Nora.” She replied as she shook Applejack’s hand.

“Vault dweller, huh?” Applejack inquired while eyeing Nora’s blue jumpsuit with a golden “111” on the back. “Fresh out the vault, I reckon? Folks with experience walkin’ the wastes usually avoid pre-war ruins like this one – always filled with raiders, ferals or muties.”

“Sorta, yeah. These raiders have been harassing a settlement up north for a while now, so I decided to help them deal with the problem.”

“By yerself?” Applejack chuckled. “Well, yer heart was in the right place, can’t fault ya for that. Yer noggin, on the other hand…”

“In my defense, things were going pretty well until I ran out of bullets. Besides, aren’t you doing exactly that? Taking on a bunch of raiders by yourself? With your bare hands, even! Not even a knife on a belt or something.”

“Well, in my defense, I come with a few advantages that regular folk don’t have.”

The sound of heavy footsteps approaching reminded Nora of where she was and what she was doing. She instinctively reached for her 10mm pistol, despite the fact that she had no bullets left, and pointed it at the door.

As the sound of footsteps grew louder, something walked into Nora’s line of sight: something tall, buff and green – something she had never seen before.

“Strong crushed all humans in the place, but Strong thinks there are more hiding upstairs.” The big green humanoid creature said, its voice deep and menacing. “Is apple human done talking?”

“Also, I’m not by myself!” Applejack continued as she moved closer to the green giant and patted him on the large arm. “Nora, meet my buddy Strong. Strong, this is Nora.”

“Strong no smash blue human then?” He asked while scratching his head.

The young woman shook her head. “No, Strong. Nora is a friend.”

“Okay.” He said before walking to the back of the room, not acknowledging Nora more than needed.

“Wh-Wh-What is he?” Nora asked as she lowered her empty gun.

“Never seen a super mutant before?” Applejack whistled. “Wow, yer even fresher outta the vault than I thought! Well, what you see is what you get when it comes to super mutants; big, tough, nasty, not too bright, can just shrug off bullets unless you fire a whole heck lotta them, shoot first and ask questions never…”

“If super mutants are so bad, then why are you hanging out with one?”

“Strong is—”

Before she could finish that sentence, Strong walked past them once more, this time carrying on his shoulder the corpse of the raider Applejack had sent flying moments before.

“Strong hungry.” He said. “Apple human call Strong when apple human and blue human done talking.”

“…mostly civilized. Muties have a… unique diet, let’s say. At least I managed to convince him to eat where I can’t see it happenin’.”

“Apple human have strong body, but weak stomach.” Strong commented before leaving the room.

“And you just… let it happen?”

“Trust me, I tried. But it’s easier to convince a thirsty scavver to not drink water than it is to convince Strong to not eat human flesh. At least with me around I can make sure he ain’t eatin’ innocent people.”

After a brief moment of awkward silence, Nora spoke up:

“If you are travelling with him to make sure he doesn’t cause trouble, then why is he travelling with you?”

“It’s a long story. I know yer new to the wastes, but have you heard of Trinity Tower?”

“More or less…” Nora said, thinking back to the Boston she knew 210 years prior, before the bombs fell and before she was cryogenically frozen in Vault 111 alongside her husband Nate, her son Shaun and her neighbors from Sanctuary Hills.

“Some folks from a place called WRVR broadcast station asked me to help their friend bein’ held hostage by muties there. Whole place crawlin’ with ‘em, top to bottom!”

“What did you do?”

Applejack flexed her muscles. “Punched my way through, o’ course!”

“You punched your way through a skyscraper overflowing with mutants nearly twice our size?” Nora asked with a raised eyebrow. “You’re not… embellishing that story in any way, are you?”

“Nope! It’s the honest truth. If you don’t believe me just ask Strong, he was there too.”

“Let’s say I believe you. How did you punch your way through a skyscraper overflowing with mutants nearly twice our size?”

“I can see that” Applejack pointed at the crushed metal door she had kicked a raider through. “wasn’t enough to convince you, so let’s try this.”

The southern gal cracked her knuckles before picking up the metal desk Nora was using as cover when under fire and lifting it over their heads with a single hand.

“W-Whoa…” The speechless vault dweller managed to let out.

Applejack wasn’t done: she then tossed the desk out the door, smashing it against the wall on the far end of the building.

“Like I said, folks don’t come with some advantages I have.”

“Did apple human smash blue human?” Strong asked.

“No, Strong.” Applejack replied. “Don’t worry about it, buddy, just finish yer… snack.”

“Who— Did you— How—” Nora had many questions, but couldn’t figure out how to turn them into words.

“It’s an even longer story, but I reckon you now believe I’m fully capable of takin’ on a whole lotta muties by myself, right?” With a push of her index finger, Applejack closed Nora’s open mouth.

Still speechless, Nora simply nodded.

“As I was sayin’, I found the guy in a cage on the top floor of Trinity Tower, locked in there with Strong. He went in there thinkin’ he could ‘educate’” she did air quotes while saying that “super mutants by teachin’ ‘em Shakespeare. Ya know Shakespeare, right? Not many people in the Commonwealth know Shakespeare.”

“Yes, I… I know Shakespeare.”

“Yeah, I reckoned people down in the vaults have better education than the people up here in the wastes. I’ve only seen one legit school ‘round these parts, and they only teach kids how to read, how to write and basic math. Anyway, back to the story, the WRVR guy read Macbeth to ‘em. I don’t know much ‘bout it myself, I slept through most literature classes, but there was sumthin’ in there about ‘the milk of human kindness’.”

“Mack Beth says milk of human kindness is secret to human strength.” Strong commented, standing by the door and wiping the blood on his lips with the back of his hand. “Strong will find milk. Strong will drink milk. And Strong will be strong like apple human.”

“Oh! Done already, Strong?”

“Strong bored. Want to smash things. Humans still talking?”

“Ya said there are more raiders upstairs, right? Why don’tcha go ahead and smash them? I’ll be with ya in a minute.”

“Okay. Strong will.” The super mutant left the room once more.

“That about sums it up.” Applejack finished. “I told Strong I don’t know where to find this milk, but he won’t believe me – he thinks I gained my strength after drinkin’ it. But I do know somebody who know sumthin’ or other ‘bout kindness, so now we’re lookin’ for her, hopin’ she can convince Strong that this milk ain’t real.”

“Who’s ‘her’?”

“One of my friends is the human embodiment of kindness. I mean, where would one even find that kinda milk? Maybe if she—” Applejack suddenly stopped talking, and simply blinked as realization hit her. Her face slowly turned into a shade of crimson as her thoughts became more detailed. She violently shook her head and walked out of the room. “I-I’m gonna join Strong now and not think ‘bout what I was just thinkin’ about anymore.”

And just like that, Nora was alone once again. She decided to inspect the storage area behind the broken metal door and smiled when she found ammunition boxes with 10mm rounds for her 10mm pistol.

“I need a backup gun…”

By the time Nora, Applejack and Strong were done wiping out the raiders in the Corvega assembly plant it was already dark outside, so they decided to spend the night there. The leader of that gang had turned the control room of the assembly area into a bedroom with two mattresses laid down on the metal floor, which the two of them decided to put to use. Strong stayed downstairs with the machinery, car parts and half-assembled vehicles while the women got ready to go to sleep, in case more raiders showed up in the middle of the night.

Applejack laid down on her back with her arms crossed behind her head, while Nora laid down on her side with one arm underneath her head, facing Applejack.

“So, Applejack, tell me more about yourself.” Nora requested.

“Whaddya wanna know?”

“Oh, you know, basic stuff: things you like, things you dislike, how you are able to kick people through steel doors and toss metal desks like they’re made of paper, what boy from the football team you have a crush on…”

Applejack laughed. “Well, let’s see… I love my family and my friends more than anythin’ in this and the other world. I also like to go campin’ – or used to, at least. Kickin’ raiders in the teeth ain’t really sumthin’ I enjoy doin’, but knowin’ that they won’t be attackin’ any more farms, shootin’ at any more caravans or kidnappin’ any more settlers… well, that makes it a tolerable activity.”

“What, that’s it? Isn’t something missing from this short list of yours, APPLEjack?”

“I know what yer doin’ there, but contrary to what the rumors say, I enjoy other fruits just as much as I do apples. Just ‘cause I was born and raised in an apple farm it don’t mean I’m obsessed with the thing.” Applejack stopped to think for a moment. “I do enjoy apple juice more than other types of juice, though.

“As for things I dislike, there’s obviously raiders but also Gunners, super mutants that ain’t my buddy Strong, feral ghouls, deathclaws, yao guai, synths, mirelurks, radiation… Basically everythin’ that kills honest folk tryin’ to make a livin’ in this hellhole of a world.

“And sorry to disappoint ya but datin’ ain’t really my thing, so the football team will have to find another girl to crush on ‘em.” Nora and Applejack shared a smile before the younger woman sighed. “Ya really wanna know about my super strength, don’tcha?”

“If it’s no trouble…”

“Ain’t no trouble, just… yer gonna think I’m lyin’, crazy or both.”

“AJ. Can I call you AJ?”

“Sure can.”

“AJ, let me you a secret: one week ago I was sitting on the couch in my living room watching the news with my baby Shaun on my lap and my husband Nate with his arm wrapped around my shoulders. Then suddenly everything goes crazy as bombs start dropping from the sky and we are rushed to the vault, only to be boxed up into pods that kept us frozen for over 200 years. The first post-war living beings that I was introduced to after stepping out of the cryo-pod were roaches the size of a small dog that wanted to literally eat me alive! What I’m trying to say is, I’m still getting used to this new world and its new rules, so if you were to tell me that the planet is actually flat and we’re cruising through space on the back of a giant turtle, I would at least consider it.”

“I’m an alien.”

Nora stared at Applejack for what felt like hours, until she finally rolled on her mattress to look the other way.

“Goodnight, Applejack.”

“I’m serious!”

Nora sat up, once again looking at her companion. “First things first, let’s make sure we’re on the same page of the dictionary; when you use the word ‘alien’, you mean someone from a different country or, like, a Zetan?”

“Beg yer pardon?”

“You know, little green men from outer space.”

“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. My friends Twilight and Sunset were the brains of the team, they prob’ly know the answer. We all came from America, just like this one, except not really. The year was 2016, we were messin’ with sumthin’ we didn’t rightly understand, next thing we know we’re gettin’ sucked through a portal and when I open my eyes, I’m face down in a crater in the middle of a wasteland in the year 2285, all by myself.”

“So you’re from the past? Like me?”

“See that’s what I thought too, but that ain’t right either. Technology in our 2010s was a smidge more advanced than what you have in your 2280s, but at the same time you have things we didn’t have; fer example, yer robots are a lot more advanced than the robots we had, but your technology is a lot bulkier. Heck, the phone I used to carry in my pocket was more advanced than computers bigger than our heads! Even more advanced than that doohickey you carry on your arm.”

Nora looked down at the Pip-Boy 3000 Mark IV latched to her left wrist, the wearable portable computer created by RobCo. Industries and considered one of the most advanced pieces of technology by the time it was made available to the public; something not only smaller but also more advanced than that was difficult for her to picture.

“So you’re from a different dimension?” The vault dweller asked.

“Seems like it. Leavin’ the comfort of my home against my will, only to be abandoned in a post-nuclear war wasteland by myself, with nuthin’ but the clothes on my back and a lot of questions with no answers sure was overwhelming, but I eventually learned how to make do.” The blonde girl smiled at her companion. “Guess you can relate, huh?”

“More or less, except instead of the strength of one hundred bodybuilders, I have a law degree. I’m still waiting for that explanation, by the way.”

“Magic.”

“…Magic?”

“Magic.”

“You’re just fucking with me, aren’t you?”

“Yer not my type, sugarcube.”

“No, I mean… Magic? Really?”

“Magic was a thing in my world. Well, not really in my world, but the other world that was connected to our world that wasn’t this world, so a little bit of magic leaked through an’ now we have magic!”

Nora lay back down once again, mimicking Applejack’s pose. “If I hadn’t seen what you’re capable of with my own eyes I would assume that you’re insane and a risk to my safety, wait for you to go to sleep and strangle you.”

Applejack smirked. “Yer welcome to try.”

“From what I gathered, you’ve been wandering the wastes for about two years, right?”

“Two years and one month, enterin’ the second.”

“Did you find your friends? They came through the portal with you, right?”

“Found some, but not all. One of ‘em settled down in a place called Bunker Hill, opened a store there. The other is like me, wanderin’ around the Commonwealth tryin’ to help folks in her own way. We thought about joinin’ forces but the folks she’s hangin’ out with don’t exactly have the highest opinion of super mutants, so Strong and I do our thing and she does hers. We still cross paths from time to time, but that’s about it. You’d think rumors of people with our skin colors would spread like wildfire, but you’d be wrong.”

“You skin colors? What do you mean?”

“The skin colors of the people in this world are mostly shades of pink or shades of brown, so I can blend in pretty well. I guess my friend Sunset can as well, even though her skin is closer to orange than anythin’. Pinkie Pie is pink, but just a little too pink. My friend Rarity is white as marble, Rainbow Dash is blue like the sky, Twilight is purple as a mutfruit and Fluttershy is a pale yellow that kinda looks like butter.

“I guess the same could be said for hair color, but since hair dye is a thing I don’t think it would turn too many heads. My natural hair is good for blending in. More or less for Sunset, since she is both blonde and redheaded at the same time. Pinkie’s hair is even pinker than her skin, Fluttershy’s hair is also pink, just not as pink as Pinkie’s, Rarity’s hair is very purple, Twilight’s hair is dark blue with a pink and purple streak and Rainbow Dash’s—”

“Let me guess.” Nora interrupted. “Rainbow Dash’s hair is black and white!”

Applejack chuckled. “Anywho, that’s about it. If ya come across any of ‘em in yer travels, tell ‘em Applejack said ‘howdy’.”

After conversing for a few more minutes, both of them turned in for the night and went to sleep.

Author's Note

I thought about releasing one chapter a week like my last story, but I get so impatient! I want to release a new chapter immediately after the next, but that doesn't give it enough time to build up an audience, and I really want people to read the things I spend months carefully crafting.

So I decided to compromise: expect a new chapter every Sunday and Wednesday. It's only 8 chapters, so it won't take long.