Tales From The Commonwealth

While exploring downtown Boston one late afternoon, Nora accidently wandered into raider territory. She was much more prepared to fight back when compared to when she got cornered in the Corvega assembly plant those few weeks prior, but she was also more familiar with armed combat; engaging those raiders in an open area that they were more familiar with than her was not only an open invitation for an ambush but also a perfect position to be sniped from, so she holstered her 10mm pistol, turned tail and ran.

A small group unsurprisingly gave chase, shooting at her without bothering to aim. It was a short chase, as they gave up and turned around as soon as she entered the Boston Common, shouting things she couldn’t quite understand, except for the word “swan” being uttered several times by different raiders.

Boston Common was surprisingly quiet, not even a radroach nibbling on a corpse to be seen. Knowing that silence in the Commonwealth usually meant something bad would soon follow, Nora didn’t stop to admire the scenery and simply kept walking, hoping to find a way out of the Common that wasn’t through raider territory.

Nora spotted a red line on the ground as she walked alongside the Boston Common fence, hoping to avoid whatever evil lurked in there that scared off even raiders; as she walked past the main gate while looking around to make sure she would not be ambushed, Nora saw a wooden sign propped against the old fountain with a message written on it:

At Journey’s End Follow Freedom’s Lantern.

She looked around for said lantern, spotting one next to a line on the ground made of red bricks.

“The Freedom Trail.” Nora noted to herself, while her eyes followed the red line back to the gate, where it connected to a round bronze seal on the ground right in front of the sign with the words “Boston – The Freedom Trail” written in a circle around it. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the symbol in the middle of the seal had a number 7 painted on it, as well as an arrow pointing at the letter A on the word “Trail”. Her interest piqued, Nora decided to follow the red bricks, hoping that it contained more clues like the one she found. After writing a note on her Pip-Boy, Nora kept walking.

Sure enough, after walking for a few moments she came across another bronze seal, this one with the number 4 and pointing at the letter L. Nora followed the Freedom Trail as best as she could; some sections were covered in rubble, but someone had drawn lines on the ground with red paint that led her straight to the next clues, which only raised her level of interest even more.

The post-war Freedom Trail led her straight into dangerous territories in the ruins of Boston, but thankfully it didn’t take long for the sun to set, allowing her to sneak past the ghouls, super mutants and mutated wild animals that lived in the area – of course, that also meant that locating the clues was a lot harder without the sunlight to help her.

The final clue located at the end of the trail of red bricks was located right outside the ruins of the Old North Church, which had a lit lantern on the ground to the right of the entrance. The message written on the sign back at the Boston Common mentioned “Freedom’s Lantern”, so Nora believed it to be in the right place. The vault dweller looked down at the clues she wrote down on her Pip-Boy: 7A-4L-2A-6O-3I-5R-8D-1R.

Hoping they would make sense once going inside, she walked through the door. The interior of the building was a wreck, and it housed a number of ghouls that Nora easily dispatched with her 10mm pistol. After looking around and not finding any more clues, she walked downstairs to the basement of the church, which contained a couple more ghouls that she killed effortlessly. She inspected the underground tunnels for a few minutes until coming across another bronze seal like the ones she found along the Freedom Trail, except this one was much larger and located on a wall.

The symbol in the middle of the seal had an arrow pointing up, which was painted the same shade of red as the sections of the trail that were covered in rubble. She inspected the wall, eventually figuring out that she could spin the ring containing the words “Boston – The Freedom Trail” both clockwise and counter clockwise, and push the circle in the middle like a button.

Nora brought up her Pip-Boy one more time, looked at the clues one more time and decided to rearrange them in numerical order: 1R-2A-3I-4L-5R-6O-7A-8D. She spun the outer ring until the red arrow on the symbol was pointing at a letter R, pressed the button and was rewarded with a click, meaning that something happened. She kept going and, after spelling the word “railroad” on the device, the wall to the left opened up, revealing a secret passage.

“I hope it’s worth the trouble…” Nora mumbled to herself, imagining what kind of loot would require such needlessly complicated security measure to keep people out. “Most people would use a safe or a vault, something like—” Somebody suddenly flashed a bright light on her, forcing Nora to cover her eyes with her left arm, while holding her gun with her right hand and pointing it at whatever was in front of her.

“Stop right there.” An unfamiliar voice belonging to a woman spoke up. After her eyes got used to the sudden brightness, Nora lowered her left arm but keeping her right one in place.

Standing across from here were three women: the one on her left was dark-skinned with bleached half-shaved white hair, wearing a weathered brown coat covered in metal plates and was pointing a minigun at her; the one on the right looked slightly younger, had light amber skin, long wavy hair with both red and yellow streaks, wore an olive green jumpsuit with two breast pockets and was pointing a silenced sniper rifle at Nora; the one in the middle looked older than the other two, was fair-skinned, had shoulder-length wavy red hair and wore fatigues with a vest and scarf – among the three, she was the only one unarmed.

“You went through a lot of effort to arrange this meeting.” The one in the middle, the same woman who spoke before, continued. “But before we go any further, answer my questions: who the hell are you?”

“A scavenger, I guess?” Nora replied. “I was hoping to find hidden treasure, but I can see something else is going on here.”

“A scavenger who just happened to guess the password to the secret door? Doubtful.”

“You wrote it down on the Freedom Trail. A creative way to remember your password in case you forget it, but you shouldn’t be surprised when anyone with two brain cells to rub together comes a-knocking.”

“Literacy isn’t a common trait among scavengers, nor the skills to survive a trip straight through the middle of the Trail.” The blonde-redhead to the right spoke up before turning to the apparent leader. “I don’t know about this, Dez, we should just—”

“I’m handling it, Sunrise.” She interrupted her subordinate. “Just don’t lower your guard and we’ll be fine.” The young woman named Sunrise tightened her grip on her sniper rifle. “Are you sure you just stumbled across this place? Nobody told you how to contact us? Heard any rumors?”

Nora simply shook her head.

“You’re having a party, what gives with my invitation?” A man asked, emerging from the tunnel behind the three women interrogating the vault dweller.

“You’re late, Deacon.” Sunrise said. “As usual.”

“Fashionably late.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re spending too much time around—”

“I need intel. Who is this?” The leader asked the man named Deacon, interrupting Sunrise once more.

“Well, if it isn’t the General of the Minutemen.” The man, apparently around the same age as the woman talking to him, said as he laid eyes on Nora – he wore a tattered white shirt with damaged blue jeans, sunglasses and had his black hair styled in a pompadour. “News flash, boss, this lady is kind of a big deal out there. You’re rebuilding the Minutemen out of Sanctuary, right?”

Nora was taken by surprise. “Yes, I… How do you know that, exactly? We helped a few settlements here and there, but the return of the Minutemen isn’t exactly a conversation opener across the Commonwealth.”

Deacon shrugged with a grin on his face. “Knowing things is kind of my job.”

“So you’re vouching for her?”

“Yes. Trust me, she’s someone we want on our side.” He turned to look at the young woman. “Sunrise.”

“Until I’m sure of her intentions, my rifle stays aimed at her forehead. We are not having another Switchboard on my watch!”

Deacon looked back at Nora. “Don’t worry about her, she’s still shaken up about… recent events.”

“Hell, we all are!” The woman with bleached hair finally spoke up. “We’re just better at hiding how we feel.”

Sunrise grumbled. “I’m sorry if I feel bad for all the people that died and I couldn’t do anything to save them.”

“I feel bad too, but you can’t let it get to you like that. You’re getting sloppy and doing rookie mistakes, that’s why you’re being—”

“Enough, both of you.” The leader said, stopping the argument in its tracks. “Before you reveal sensitive information in front of a stranger.” She faced Nora once again. “First things first, I need to make sure we’re on the same page. You know what a synth is, right?”

“I heard that name being tossed around enough times to get an idea, but you seem to know more about it than your average scav, so why don’t you give me the long version?”

“They are synthetic humans created by the Institute, designed to look, feel and sound just like us. And the Institute treats synths as property. As tools. You… do know who the Institute is, right?”

“I know enough, and I can tell they’re bad news.”

“And you’re right to feel that way. Kidnappings, unexplained virus outbreaks, wiped out settlements… They’ve done all that and more.”

“Just ask around Diamond City about the Broken Mask incident or the CPG massacre.” Sunrise commented. “Dig deep enough into any tragedy in the Commonwealth, and 9 times out of 10 the Institute is involved. They either send chrome domes to wipe a place clean and take any technology they find valuable, or replace a loved one with one of their Gen 3’s to spy on you or pull strings without raising suspicion.”

“Always from the shadows.” Deacon added. “To this day, nobody knows where they’re hiding.”

“How close to human-like are we talking about?” Nora asked.

“About this close.” The dark-skinned woman wielding a minigun said while patting herself on the chest.

“Whoa…”

“Exactly.”

“So they manufacture slaves, kill people for their own benefit and don’t even show their face while committing those atrocities. I thought they were bad, but they are somehow even worse than what I imagined. They need to be stopped, how can I help?”

“Before we make that decision, I have one last question for you. The only question that matters.” The redhead woman said. “Would you risk your life for you fellow man, even if that man is a synth?”

“Protect the people at a minute’s notice.” Nora explained. “That’s what being a Minuteman is about. And as their General, I enforce that code every day. Doesn’t matter if they’re human or synth, I already risk my life for people all the time.”

A hint of a smile appeared on their leader’s face for the first time. “Well said.” She raised her hand. The synth woman nodded and lowered her minigun. Sunrise bit her lip and hesitated for a moment, but eventually lowered her rifle.

“We’re giving you the benefit of the doubt.” Shunrise warned. “If you make us regret that decision, I’ll make you regret your decision.”

“Under normal circumstances, we would take our time getting to know you and train you, but we suffered a great loss not that long ago. We don’t have time, resources or agents to deal with that, but there are other ways you can contribute. Deacon can fill you in on the details. Now that that’s out of the way, we haven’t been formally introduced. My name is Desdemona, leader of the Railroad. These are Deacon, Sunrise and Glory. And you are…?”

“General Nora of the Commonwealth Minutemen. It’s a pleasure.”

“The pleasure is all mine.”

Desdemona turned around and went back the way Deacon came. Glory, on the other hand, went back the way Nora came.

“I’ll check the perimeter, make sure nothing slipped through the cracks while we were monitoring her. Deacon, she’s all yours.”

“Wait, I was being monitored?” Glory left without giving an answer. Deacon and Sunrise stayed behind, the former approaching Nora once the armored synth left through the secret entrance.

“That went better than expected. And nobody got shot!” Deacon said. “Not for lack of trying by some, but all’s well that ends well.”

“Don’t try me, Deacon.” Sunrise threatened, crossing her arms and glaring at the man.

“Is she always that grumpy?” Nora asked.

“Didn’t used to be.” He explained. “But ever since our last HQ got hit she’s been a little on edge. Like Glory said, making rookie mistakes; nothing too serious, nobody got hurt and we haven’t been compromised… yet.”

“I’m right here, you know!”

“So she was grounded by Dez, can’t leave HQ on missions until she gets her head back in the game. Now she works on weapon modifications, maintenance and repairs. She’s good at it; leave Sunrise alone with a workbench and a box of scraps and she works miracles, but…”

“But if I have to listen to one more of Tinker Tom’s outlandish theories about the Institute while I work, I’ll sneak out of here in the middle of the night and go jogging near Lynn Woods completely naked and covered in steak sauce!”

“Here’s the deal: Dez wants me to make you a ‘tourist’. That’s what we call someone who helps out with the odd job here and there, but I think that’s a waste of time and resources for someone as talented as you. Instead, I got something else in mind. Something big. Too big for me, just perfect for the three of us.”

Sunrise raised an eyebrow. “Three of us?”

Deacon smiled at her. “I asked Dez to keep it a secret so I could surprise you. She thinks you’re in good enough shape for a trial run, see how you handle things now that you had some time to clear your head. Interested?”

Sunrise smiled back as she picked up the sniper rifle she previously put down. “Does mirelurk meat taste like ass?”

“If this op goes well Sunrise gets the leash taken off, Dez invites the General into the fold and everyone is happy. You on board?”

“Sign me up!” Nora replied.

“Perfecto! Meet me up at the old freeway outside Lexington, we’ll talk more there. I’ll go first. Nora, you leave five minutes after I’m gone. Sunny, you give Nora ten minutes and leave after her. See you there.” With that said, Deacon left through the secret doorway.

Sunrise sat down on the stone floor and proceeded to inspect every part of her gun, making sure it was in good condition after not seeing any action in a while. Nora sat down beside her.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Mm-hm.” Sunrise mumbled, not looking away from her rifle.

“Are you Sunset Shimmer?”

Before Nora even had the chance to react, Sunrise tackled her to the ground, pulled a combat knife hidden on the shaft of her boot and pressed it against her throat.

“If you want your larynx to remain in one piece, then you better start talking. Who told you that?”

“I-I met one of your friends a while back. You fit the description she gave me.”

“I want a name!”

“Applejack!”

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know. We met in an old pre-war ruin, took care of some raiders then went our separate ways.”

“What was the name of her dog?”

“Her what?”

“Her dog, it follows her everywhere. What’s its name?”

“There was no dog, she was travelling with a super mutant named Strong.”

Sunrise stared into Nora’s eyes for a few more moments before getting off her and placing her knife back in the hidden holster inside her boot.

“It was a trick question, just to be sure. Sorry about that, you can never be too careful with the Institute out there.”

“I guess.”

“How is she? I can’t contact my friends, if the Institute finds out they’ll become targets as well. I was keeping tabs on them, just in case they ran into trouble, but after the Switchboard got hit and I was forbidden from leaving the new HQ I don’t know what’s happening outside.”

“She seems fine. Looks healthy, well-fed, can kick a raider through a steel door, sleeps well…”

Sunrise smiled. “Classic Applejack.”

“Do you have superpowers too?”

“I… Ah, screw it, you know too much already. Yes, I do. But unlike AJ’s, mine is less direct and more… intrusive.”

“How so?”

“I can see the memories of people I touch.”

“For real?”

“Used to, at least.”

“What do you mean?”

“Our powers require a special item, a catalyst of sorts. We need to be in direct contact or at least close enough in order to access our special abilities. Applejack still has hers, but I lost mine when they raided our old HQ. I dropped it in the middle of the confusion, and only realized that after the point of no return. It was a good way to root out Institute spies, but now that it’s gone…”

“I’m sorry about that.” Nora looked down at her Pip-Boy; five minutes had passed. “Looks like my time has come. I’ll see you there.”

“Sure thing. Watch your back out there. And make sure no one is following you. Ever.”

Nora stood underneath the freeway, arms crossed and leaning against one of the columns, waiting for Deacon and Sunrise/Sunset Shimmer. She already expected the blonde-redhead to arrive after she did, but the fact that Deacon, who left first, wasn’t there either, concerned her. Her posture may have indicated that she was relaxed and not thinking too much about her surroundings, but her ears were focused on every little sound she could pick up, her eyes were moving left and right, scanning her surrounding, and her 10mm pistol was already drawn, hidden under her armpit.

The sound of footsteps on concrete coming from above got her attention, and she tightened her grip on her pistol just to make sure. Soon the owners of those footsteps made themselves known: Sunset Shimmer, still dressed the same as before, and another man. It took Nora a moment to identify him:

“Deacon?”

“Hey! Like the disguise?” The man’s new outfit was composed of a dark green shirt, tattered jeans, a trenchcoat, work gloves, a battered fedora and his trademarked sunglasses. He was also covered in dirt and his charming pompadour was gone, his head completely bald. “It’s wastelander camo.”

“Sorry for making you wait.” Sunset Shimmer spoke up. “Deacon and I got here first, so we decided to speed things alone while waiting for you.”

“We met up with a tourist on the highway.” Deacon explained, pointing his thumb at the ramp behind them where they came from. “Our old HQ is nearby; he scouted the place and gave us the full report. The place is crawling with Gen 1’s and 2’s and there’s a minefield by the front entrance with some turrets thrown in there for good measure, so if we just waltz in there guns blazing it’s gonna be either the bravest thing ever done in the wasteland or the last thing we do on this earth.”

“Maybe if we had a bigger group, but just the three of us? I don’t think so.” Nora replied. “Any other options?”

“If we can’t go in through the front, then we go in through the side.” Deacon continued. “We use the secret entrance and pop out from behind, catch the chrome domes with their non-existent pants down.”

“Yeah, but they chased us down that way when we fled, remember?” Sunset Shimmer added. “It’s probably guarded as well. Out here we still have open space, we can find a place to take cover and shoot at them from a distance.” She rested her silenced sniper rifle on her shoulder.

“I see your point, but you are the only one of us equipped for long range combat.” Nora explained. “I have my 10mm, Deacon has… I have no idea what he has, but I doubt he is hiding a rocket launcher in his pocket.”

“I have a grenade.” Deacon chimed in.

“We’ll both be dead weight and you’ll have to fire three times as much, and believe me when I say this, it’s not fun to run out of ammo in the heat of battle without a backup. I’m with Deacon, it’s best to work hard, work together and watch each other’s back than work light, let one of us do all the work and waste a lot of ammo needlessly.”

Sunset Shimmer sighed, lowering her rifle. “Fair point, I guess. I’m sorry, after what happened last time we were here, I… I just want to get the bastards that killed all those people.”

“And we will. I promise you.” Nora placed a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “But we need to be careful, otherwise instead of avenging your fallen friends you’ll end up joining them.”

“Wouldn’t want that. Alright Deacon, lead the way.”

And so Deacon did, taking them to a metal door hidden in a drainpipe next to the remains of a wrecked train. Once inside, Deacon explained that they were after a prototype created by Dr. Carrington, second-in-command of the Railroad, left behind in the confusion caused by the surprise attack. After typing a password on a terminal, he unlocked a door that led to the utility tunnels and they all went inside. In the tunnels of the Switchboard, Nora came across Gen 1 and 2 synths for the first time.

“Is someone present?” A high-pitched monotone voice, clearly belonging to a robot, asked. As soon as it made itself known, Sunset Shimmer raised her rifle and shot at it, not even taking a second to aim. The bullet pierced the robot’s left eye, smashing the component in its artificial skull that allowed it to function, shutting it down permanently.

“Nice shot.” Nora whispered as she approached the synthetic man to take a better look at it: unlike Glory, who looked exactly like a human being, Gen 1 synths looked like walking skeletons made of metal with mechanical parts resembling organs in its torso, exposed wires and sharp metal fingers.

In those tunnels she also came across a few Gen 2 synths, who looked exactly like Gen 1’s on the inside, while on the outside they wore synthetic skin suits made of plastic that made them look more like mannequins than actual human beings. Their voice was low-pitched, unlike the Gen 1’s, but their AI was just as limited. The synths were not much of a threat on their own as long as the three of them remained hidden, striking them down before being spotted, but once located by one synth, all the other synths within a certain radius were alerted of their presence as well, making things much more complicated for Nora and the others, forcing them to get to cover in order to avoid the barrage of blue laser beams that would reduce them to a pile of ash in a matter of seconds.

“Remember when I said I have a grenade?” Deacon pulled out a pulse grenade from one of the pockets of his trenchcoat and tossed it towards the squad of synths that had them pinned down – it emitted an electromagnetic pulse that interfered with the electronic components of the synths and shut them down permanently. “Let’s try to avoid being spotted again, because I don’t have any more of those to bail us out.”

Since that grenade took care of most of the remaining synths patrolling the utility tunnels, infiltrating the former Railroad HQ became slightly easier. After exiting through another pipe, Deacon accessed another terminal, unlocking the door that served as the last obstacle between the Railroad agents and the Switchboard.

The Switchboard was an underground bunker used by the Defense Intelligence Agency, a pre-war agency in service of the United States government. Located on the main hall were a number of desks with terminals; below them, on the ground, was painted the emblem of the DIA. Stairs were located on both sides of the hall, taking them to a room with more terminals and filing cabinets, as well as a door leading deeper into the hideout. After dispatching a few more synths patrolling the hallways, Deacon, Sunset Shimmer and Nora entered a room with a large vault door on one of the walls. Deacon unlocked the door by accessing yet another terminal. The locks were disengaged automatically, meanwhile Nora and Sunset worked together to spin the handle and open the vault, giving access to the safe.

The inside of the vault was mostly empty, save for a few pre-war metal crates, shelves and a body lying on the floor.

“So Tommy Whispers didn’t make it out.” Deacon muttered while kneeling next to the deceased man. “He died protecting our secrets.”

Sunset Shimmer sighed, clearly hurt by the discovery. “I… I was sorta hoping he was lying low, waiting for an opportunity to contact us after making sure he was in the clear.” Deacon got up, making room for Sunrise to kneel next to him. “Thank you for everything, Tommy. Rest in peace.”

“Tommy was her mentor when she first joined up.” Deacon told Nora. “Taught her how to shoot, how to move without being spotted, how to make good use of shadows… He was a stealth pro.” Deacon noticed a handgun on the floor, mere inches away from his feet. He crouched down, picked it up and offered it to the Sole Survivor. “Here, Tommy would want you to have his handcannon.”

“Me?” Nora questioned while inspecting the gun – it was a small, pre-war semi-automatic pistol with a suppressor. “I never met the guy. Sunrise was close to him, wouldn’t it make sense to give it to her instead?”

“Sunny has her own style.” Deacon said, motioning to the sniper rifle she had put down next to Tommy’s corpse. “Sure I could give it to her, but she wouldn’t use it. What’s the point of having a powerful gun if you’re going to put it in a bag and forget about it? And trust me, this gun packs a punch, don’t let its size fool you. You, on the other hand, would make good use of it. It takes 10mm rounds, and you got that angle covered.”

“You’ve got a point.” Nora picked up her 10mm gun with one hand and the new one Deacon offered with the other. It took a moment, but Nora saw reason in Deacon’s words; she handed him her old pistol and kept the new. “Thanks, Deacon.”

After mourning the death of her dear friend and mentor, Sunset Shimmer finally got up, picked up her rifle, then moved to one of the shelves in the vault where she picked up a strange device Nora couldn’t identify at a glance – but if Deacon and Sunrise were willing to risk their lives to retrieve it, it must have been important. Sunrise picked up a satchel from one of the shelves, stuffed Dr. Carrington’s prototype inside it then tossed it to Nora. “Let’s get out of here.”

After dealing with a couple more synths at the end of the complex, the trio managed to power up the elevator that they rode back topside. Given that they were on the side of the minefield that the patrollers didn’t expect fire from, the Railroad agents managed to shut down the turrets and exterminate the remaining synths. Since it was still dark outside and there were no more enemies for them to worry about, they managed to safely get past the minefield by looking for the yellow lights on active fragmentation mines and avoiding going near them. Deacon instructed them to take different paths back to the HQ, and so they went their separate ways.

When Nora made her way back to the Old North Church hideout, she was greeted by the sight of Desdemona angrily scolding Sunset Shimmer, who was looking down at her feet, while Glory watched the entrance.

“I forbade you from leaving the headquarters for a reason. If I can’t trust you to follow an order as simple as that, then how can I trust you with another mission ever again?” Desdemona said. “Following your orders can be a matter of life or death, but if you’re just going to leave and do your own thing whenever you feel like it then you’re not only putting yourself at risk but all of us as well. Is this what you want? For the Institute to catch us off-guard again because we were too busy trying to figure out where you ran off to, then come and finish what they started back in the Switchboard?”

“N-No, ma’am. But—”

“Ah geez.” Deacon muttered, startling Nora after suddenly appearing behind her without warning. “I was hoping to arrive first to avoid this.” Nora stepped aside so that Deacon could go in. “Hey boss!”

“Not now, Deacon. I’m—”

“Dishing out discipline, I noticed. Well, unwarranted discipline.”

“Explain yourself.”

“Well, you see, I kinda-sorta told Sunny that you gave her the all-clear to accompany me and the new gal in this new op, as a field test to see if she was good to go.”

Desdemona’s frown deepened as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “In other words, you lied. Again.”

“But it was for a good cause. And I can say with total confidence that she handled things like a pro, Sunny is definitely ready to get back outside. God knows we could use more field agents.”

“We’ll discuss that later. And you…” The leader of the Railroad turned her gaze back to the young woman. “You should know better than to take Deacon’s claims that seem too good to be true at face value.”

“Yes, ma’am…”

“Um, excuse me, Desdemona.” Nora spoke up, taking the prototype out of the satchel and presenting it to her. “We got the, uh… the thing.”

“And so you did. I was expecting Deacon to grab a full team, including Glory, to secure that prototype. But instead just the three of you cleared out the entire Switchboard.”

“You’d be insane not to sign her up, Dez.” Deacon commented.

“I see no reason to dispute that, you certainly got results. Welcome to the Railroad, agent. We’ll talk more inside.” Desdemona turned around and went into the tunnel, Glory following closely behind.

“We’ll be there in a second.” Deacon announced before turning back to face his two companions. “That—”

The senior Railroad agent was interrupted by a punch to the cheek; he didn’t fall down, but it disoriented him for a moment and sent his sunglasses flying.

“You slimy bastard!” Sunset angrily yelled, still clenching the fist she used to punch him. “I got in trouble because you lied to me!”

“But I also bailed you out.” He rationalized while massaging his punched cheek.

“You think that makes up for it?”

“Well, no. But I anticipated that happening, so I brought you a gift.”

Deacon extended his hand, in which he held a golden necklace with a circular red gemstone hanging from it – on top of the gemstone there was a golden sun. Sunset Shimmer’s expression of anger morphed into a mixture of surprise and relief.

“Is… Is that my…?”

“Yep, your magical mind-reading thingamajig. Found it while we under fire and taking cover. I was waiting for things to quiet down before giving it to you, but they never did. And then we found Tommy.”

“I’m still mad at you.” Sunset Shimmer slipped the necklace around her neck. “But thank you.”

Quick as a flash, Sunset Shimmer grabbed Nora’s wrist – it was very faint and it lasted less than a second, but the vault dweller could have sworn she saw the magical girl’s eyes flash.

“Sorry, just had to make sure. You are who you say you are.” Sunset said, letting go of Nora’s wrist. “I’m sorry about your husband, and I hope you find your son.”

“Thank you.” Nora said under her breath.

Sunset Shimmer turned around and tried to grab Deacon’s wrist, but he quickly dodged by taking a step backwards. She tried touching him several times, but he managed to avoid every single one of her attempts.

“One of these days I’m going to find out your secrets, Deacon.”

“You wouldn’t be the first who failed. The fact that you can read my mind only makes the challenge more fun.”

Sunrise eventually gave up and turned back to Nora. “Can I take Deliverer for a second? That’s what Tommy called the gun Deacon gave you, by the way.” Nora nodded and gave her the gun. “I’ll be done with it by the time you and Desdemona finish talking. It will be twice as efficient, you’ll see!”

Sunset Shimmer disappeared into the tunnel Glory and Desdemona went into not long before.

“She was just being humble, that gun will be at least ten times more efficient.” Deacon commented. “I wasn’t exaggerating when I said she is a miracle-worker on a workbench, she really is that good.”