Fallout New Vegas: A New Road

The Courier leaned back against the soft fabric of the train’s interior. He had a small saddlebag’s worth of mail in his lap. After thumbing through everything to quadruple check it was in place, he nodded silently and looked around.

Not many passengers on the ride. Then again, guess not too many ponies wanted to visit Seaquestria given there were only half a dozen letters in the pouch. Most of them were fan mail addressed to one… Queen Novo? Yeah. It was paltry, even including Silverstream’s letter.

There were a couple tourists with cameras and sunglasses and beach gear a few seats behind the human. Not really much to note about them; guess they were brave enough to go to another country for a day of fun in the sun. Heard them occasionally talk about him, ignored it. Not really worth listening to.

Damn, he wished there was some Robbins or Cash to enjoy. Without any music or anything in particular to focus on, his mind partly buzzed with thoughts of Cherry Berry having access to numerous firearms and many, many rounds of ammunition. Again, it should be fine. The earth ponies didn’t have the magic of a unicorn or the weird flexibility of a pegasus’ wings.

“Why me?” she had asked.

“Why not you?” had been the reply. “Would you rather me trust Lyra or Scootaloo with this stuff?”

And then there was a back and forth, and he’d cooked her dinner (steamed veggies) and she finally agreed to it, pretending to hate his cooking, (it was an act; besides, it’s EXTREMELY difficult to fuck up steamed veggies) and now here he was. Sitting alone… And being a bit bored.

Thankfully, the human had a wood-finish, lever-action rifle sitting beside him, though. Couldn’t give Cherry all of the goodies, especially when the rifle he had was the classic Trail Carbine, complete with a durable leather strap. A cowboy’s weapon. Fitting. The .44 firearm just sat there. He’d checked the scope’s sights on it, adjusted when needed. It was calibrated nicely and equally chambered as nicely.

Unfortunately, there was little else for the mailman to do except to occasionally strum his fingers along the firearm. The other passengers (and even the hostess who’d occasionally come out and offer complimentary peanuts to the other creatures) all seemed to ignore him. One or two would sneak stares at him, as if he wouldn’t notice. Didn’t matter.

It was time for him to just sit and wait… and wait… and wait.

He remained in place like a statue the entire time, only occasionally moving to take a sip from his canteen. Otherwise, he remained frozen solid for the next several hours. The sun outside was much further along in the sky now. The voyage was supposed to take quite a while. A good few more hours, overnight even.

Maybe he could close his eyes for a couple of seconds; minutes tops!…

Yeah. That wouldn’t hurt.

Just for a couple of minu-

He stood on a hill, amongst an endless sea of green, rolling fields. He was small, and insignificant in the grand scheme of it all. No trees were in sight, aside from the single, picture-perfect old oak that rose above him. It gave him shade, protecting him from the sun’s harmful rays.

As he looked over the wide, open grassland, something… felt off. A chill rushed up his spine. Felt like a damn animal being hunted. Something was watching him; however, he couldn’t even begin to spot it in the never-ending landscape surrounding him. The grass, which had once seemed nice, not too tall nor too wild was now growing, as if the blades were reaching up to grab at him.

“Goddamn it!” he grunted, pulling out his Ranger Sequoia.

The second he pulled the trigger, from the weapon came a stream of fire. The pistol was now a miniature Flamer in his dreamscape. He was trying to blink away the dream, force himself back to being awake or being in the dull box the brain had kept him in.

The grass continued advancing at him, having morphed into gigantic vines now. Many of them had large Venus flytrap-like mouths which were similar to those acid-spitting plant bastards he’d dealt with in the past. One rushed behind him, going in to chomp onto his shoulder, only for the Courier to turn, pulling a machete out of nowhere and slicing the monster’s head off.

More tendrils came at him, unabated as they hissed and snarled and whipped. They descended on him at once, however he used the flames to push them back, making them squeal as they were turned to ash. He then leapt into the fray, his blade at the ready.

There was a distant feeling about it all, as if he was disconnected from the dream, looking at it through a distorted camera or something. The sensation was fuzzy, as if being poked and prodded by needles while under anesthetic. The carnage seemed almost like background noise.

Soon enough though after burning down more and more hills worth of grass, everything faded. The bright greenness ceased to be, and the mailman was left alone in darkness, no longer having any weapons.

“Sorry about the delay, it’s a mess to navigate these days,” a familiar voice rang out.

The human grunted in annoyance, turning to see the Brain once again. “You gonna tell me what the fuck that was?”

“It wasn’t me if that’s what you were thinking,” the Brain replied.

“Then what was it?” he spat, sounding partly manic.

He looked around a few moments later, as if readying himself for something else to jump out at him. Thankfully it never seemed to come, leaving him and the floating organ alone in silence and darkness.

As he managed to calm himself, his Brain raised its long stem up, scratching the underside of the Courier’s frontal lobe as if it were a chin, “I’ll have to try to look into this a bit further… Everything’s been a bit strange recently.”

“Yeah? Like the time dream-Benny pulled the 'I have sentience' shit?” Six questioned.

“Don’t be alarmed, I remember that too… unfortunately,” the Brain shivered, obviously not enjoying the memories of being shot. “Regardless, it will take a bit more time for me to figure up any type of explanation for this. It’s all, well—fractured feeling lately; distant, you know?”

“Better than I’d like to,” the body of the duo sighed back.

“I will say our dreams have been getting stranger, at least from what I can latch onto… and I don’t simply mean Benny coming back to shoot us again,” the Brain said, his tone one of (fittingly enough) deep thought.

“Dreams?” Six perked up. “What dreams? This is the only one I’ve had in a few days!”

“Ah, you don’t remember.” the Brain stated matter-of-factly. “I will try to explain more later. Whenever I’ve collected more data; can’t go out on limbs when we’re discussing scientific facts, after all.”

“Alright you know as well as I do, we hate this cryptic crap, so cut it out!” the human growled.

“I’m not trying to be cryptic, I am gathering data, as any good brain should!” boasted the brain.

Beneath the mask, the human rolled his eyes, soon crossing his arms in annoyance, “So now what?”

“Well, you have roughly…” the Brain paused, soon pulling a wristwatch out of nowhere; it was wrapped around the organ’s stem as if it had always been there, “...five seconds until arrival.”

The body merely stared blankly.

“And we’re likely about to be awoken by the horn,” the Brain replied.

“What—”

Choooooo—

—CHOOOOOOOOO!!!

His eyes snapped open and he sat up straight. The short dream had obviously been interrupted. A headache pounded inside of his skull, making him feel like he’d taken a blow from a hammer and directly to the brain. After a few seconds, he managed to force it down to manageable level; took a few sips from the canteen, got a bit of water in him. Always helped.

With the pain subsiding, he blinked the sleep from his eyes as he stared out the window. It was the next morning, evident by Twilight’s sun battling away the darkness of the night. As he stared out the train window, all he saw was nothing but a deep sea of blueness. He took a glance over towards the other side of the train and saw the ocean there too. The waters weren’t like anything off the coast of California. No. This was brighter, more vibrant and clear and… alive.

He popped his neck, sitting up straighter as he forced his body back into its waking state. His foot was partly asleep, so he applied some pressure on it, managing to get to his feet as the ponies and griffs began to gather up their luggage. The Courier himself grabbed the carbine immediately, flinging it over his shoulder. After a few moments of patting and checking himself, he nodded before checking back out the window.

The train was fast approaching a behemoth of a mountain, as expected, given he vaguely recalled something about a Mount Aris. Regardless, he was still utterly surprised at just how impressive it looked. It wasn’t anything like back at Zion or even the plateaus one could find in the great desert of the Mojave. This was different. Much different.

A pair of utterly gigantic stone-carved wings cradled the steep cliffs, with a sea of green and the faint specs. Said specs were no doubt houses dotting the rising hillside of the titanic earthen peak. It was a strange sight. Almost ethereal in a way. Sorta like Canterlot in its own right—guess all four-legged creatures thought cliffs were the best spots to park their capitals.

The snark in him subsided after that thought though and he took it in. Took it in right up until the train doors opened and the passengers exited out, pouring into the wooden floorboards which made up the seaside town’s train station. As the sun began to rise even further, its brilliant rays bounced off the water.

Cherry had been here before; told him it’d make a great spot to retire and raise a family.

He remembered he’d made a joke about centaurs or something, but she didn’t get it. Explained it, and all the fun was sucked right out of it since she only gave him a cocked smile and a pity chuckle. Didn’t matter though. What did was he’d made it, and he was here to dish out some mail.

After stepping down some stairs which were cut into the natural stone at the base of the mountain, the human began to examine his surroundings properly. He noticed the eyes of some of the griffs were on him. They had uncertain looks on their faces.

He checked the Pip-Boy one last time, looking over his notes.

“Letter for… Terra—terra—terrafin? Terramar!” he looked up from the RobCo “junk” and spoke, his gaze swept over them. The griffs looked between each other with the same unsure looks. “Or how about uh… Sky Beak? Ocean Flow?... Familiar to anyone?”

A deep pink femgriff spoke up, pointing a foreclaw out to the sea as she did, “I don’t think you’d be able to make it to Ocean Flow, sir, she lives in Seaquestria.”

He followed her pointer claw, staring out towards the ocean. After a few seconds of silence, the Courier blinked.

“You guys live out on a raft?” he asked.

“N-no sir,” chuckled a pale white malegriff as he stepped up beside the female. “Some hippogriffs decided to keep their seapony forms and live under the waves.”

The human continued staring out at the swirling blue water for a moment, “You know, with a name like ‘Ocean Flow,’ I guess I should’ve expected it… but then there’s ‘Sea Swirl!’ What does that even mean?”

The griffs merely looked at him in confusion, staring between each other and then resetting their gaze back at the biped.

“Are you alright, sir?” the male called.

“Yeah, just forget it,” the human shrugged, turning his attention back to the hippogriffs. “You two know Terramar or Sky Beakface or whatever his name is?”

“They live up in the village,” the female answered, now pointing her index claw upwards.

The Courier turned, looking up the winding trail which led to the summit of the gigantic cliff. The path was splayed out before him, as if it were challenging the human to make the trek.

He just balled his fists and took a small breath, “Alright… let’s rock.”

The Courier took a moment to catch his breath as he leaned against the exterior wall of the hippogriff village. He stared down the mountain at the landscape below. The rolling hills below stretched out into the distance. Most of the land remained untouched, though a few small burgeoning villages were off in the distance. Damn, could see half of Equestria from up here.

Or would it be Seaquestria? Or would the ocean be Seaquestria? Was all of the ocean Seaquestria, or just this specific section of water? Where would the borders end and begin? Why—

…was he overthinking this?

He shrugged it off, blinking a few times before he turned and peered beyond the gates, into the village proper. The architecture was immediately striking, being a totally different one from the medieval village style Ponyville had, the rickety wooden builds of Dodge, or the fancy, ballroom-like decor he remembered from Canterlot.

The trees themselves were utterly gigantic, much broader and more impressive than most of the ones he’d seen in the Everfree. The large branches were big, strong enough to support entire room-sized huts of their own. Each of them had several large, open windows that were several feet wide, no doubt to both look over the village and allow for ease of access to the interior while flying. The man—er griffmade structures blended with the nature surrounding it more than most of the pony-crafted towns he’d seen thus far.

The human rolled his shoulder a bit, finally turning and properly entering into the village. His duster billowed as the wind picked up a bit, with the human looking around, his deep red lenses reflecting the sun. Numerous hippogriffs were already staring at him by this point. The armored guards were especially paying close attention to him.

Only thing of note that immediately caught his eye was a small kiosk a few dozen meters ahead. It looked as if it was made from a large, hollowed out stump. A wooden sign hung down from it, displaying the image of a fish with two X's for eyes. After a second of contemplating, the human went for it, advancing towards the fishy food stand and taking a seat at a padded wooden stool sitting out front of it. A small bell was sitting on the countertop.

The human peered over and inside of the kiosk itself. In the corner was a wood burning stove, along with a rack of dried seasonings and spices. As he scanned over the inside a bit longer, he spotted a small hatch. Moments after he found it, the small square door flung open, and griff poked her head out. She paused the second her head craned out of the underground entrance, with her flinching back upon seeing his deep red lenses staring back at her. She remained silent, and the human didn’t speak at first either, as if contemplating on what to say…

Finally, he broke the silence, “You sell fish?”

“Y-yeah?” she nodded, confused. He could see she was partly shivering now. She held a small bundle of fish in her foreclaw, with the deceased picines wiggling about due to her nervous movements

“You take bits?” he asked, offering a small handful of the little golden coins. Hopefully it’d ease the tension.

“You’re from Equestria?” she squeaked; her fear being slightly replaced by excitement. He could see a sparkling glow in her eyes as her wings spread out a bit, failing to fully open due to the cramped space she was currently in. “That’s so cool!”

“Right…” the human said, his tone unsure as he sat the bits down onto a counter. “Can I have some fish now?”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” she squawked, quickly jumping up, shutting the cellar door with her back claw and causing it to shut with a small slam! “It’s just—well, everytime we get visitors from other countries, they don’t really come to me!”

As she spoke, at a near-hypersonic pace, she pulled out a large cleaver and began to filet the fish, quickly deboning it and removing the scales with a few flicks of her nimble wrist. The human raised a brow as he watched her work, “You’re pretty goo—”

“I mean, why would you?” she cut him off, making the Courier lean onto the counter, placing his left palm under his chin. “This is just a little out of the way fish stand and there’s like dozens and dozens of other places which are way, waaaayyy more interesting to experience than my little restaurant.”

“I’m shocked as to why no one wants to visi—”

“But now you show up and you’re a… well, I don’t really know what you are but you’re super cool looking!” she continued, pulling out a skillet and throwing a small stick of butter into it. She rambled on as she instinctively seasoned the fish and threw it into the pan. “You have those deep red eyes and you walk on two legs! Are you a dragon? Do you know any dragons? Were you abandoned by your parents and raised by dragons—”

“Are you related to Silverstream?” the human belted out, raising his tone and causing the griff to stop right in the middle of expertly flipping her fish, with it landing in the pan with a small, sizzling splap!

“Huh?” she asked, blinking, before a smile immediately crossed her beak. “Silverstr—Bwahahah good one Mister Dragon! No! Pffft. If I was related to royalty, I’d probably be down in the palace dancing with Queen Novo or something.”

“Do you know about any officials or anything then? A post office maybe?” the human questioned.

She looked at him with a quizzical gaze. “Post office… ooh is that some type of Equestrian thing? That is so totally awesome!”

The human wished he could rub his temples at the moment, but instead he settled for a simple exhale, “Alright, let me start over; I am a courier—”

The griff blinked.

“—I am a guy who delivers messages written on paper to peo—er griffs and ponies and such.” he corrected, his tone slow and precise. “Do you know any official I can talk to or somewhere with documentation of the hippogriffs living here?”

He pulled out his bag of mail and the femgriff “ooh’d” at it as he flicked through it.

“I have a message to one Terramar, Sky Beak, Ocean Fl—it’s from Silverstream to her family!” he grunted, looking through the papers. “And then there’s another note here to one Updraft and then a uh… Down Stream. And then a Nimbus… Jetstream. Luminescent Abyss—”

“I’m Jetstream!” she squeaked, with her sitting down her frying pan onto the countertop. The Courier looked down at it, but before he could tell her it’d likely damage the wood, she grabbed the letter out of his bag, holding it up like her firstborn and giving a mesmerized, “Woooaaaah!”

The human looked around for a second, before sighing and grabbing the frying pan, holding it up in a gloved hand as he then pulled a small metal fork from within his jacket, “Can I get some lemon?”

She was half paying attention as she pulled out a whole lemon and penetrated it with her claw, squeezing the entire juice contents of the citrus fruit right into the still-hot pan, causing it to sizzle as it mixed with the fish.

“Great, now the acidity’s gonna overpow—ah fuck it,” he shrugged, adjusting his mask and taking a forkful of fish and horking it right into his mouth.

He ate and watched on as the griff quickly (yet shockingly delicately) peeled open the letter with a sharp talon. She quickly tossed down the letter’s exterior and looked at the invaluable contents. The femgriff gasped with utter shock, almost to the point it sounded like her lungs were about to burst!

“Golly!” she exhaled finally, “Flim and Flam’s Used Carriages have offered me a coupon to get half off of my next purchase! Oh my gosh this is so exciting!”

“Riiight…” the human said, biting down another mouthful of fish.

“Uhm… what’s a carriage… or a coupon?” the griff asked, her excitement falling into confusion.

His tongue probed around the inside of his mouth, gliding over his teeth to remove anything stuck in them. He then fully closed his jaw, a small, metallic clink coming from within his mouth, “You know, I think they were trying to scam Silverstream with that one; figured they’d mooch off her wealth given you said she was royalty and all…. It’d explain why it wound up in Ponyville in the first place and didn't ship directly here.”

“Ooohhh I’ve never been ‘scammed’ before!” the griff said with curiosity. “What’s it like?”

“I tell you what… how about I explain what a ‘scam’ is and in return, you let me know the whereabouts of anyone you know on my list here?” he offered, pulling out a small clipboard and pen.

She stared at him in excited awe.

The human adjusted his jacket as he continued through the village. He had the aftertaste of fried fish and lemon on his tongue. Honestly, not a bad taste, all things considered. He ran his tongue over his teeth inside the mask one final time, as he didn’t have a toothpick at the moment. With the deed done, he continued on through the small yet vertical town.

As he approached the center, more and more of the griffs were taking notice of him. They cocked their brows and occasionally averted their gazes as they examined the bipedal being. The human himself was paying little mind to them, as he was currently looking upwards at one of the large tree branch-mounted houses.

“Alright so Nimbus should be right—ah fuck!” immediately he was interrupted by the sound of trumpets directly behind him.

The human turned, watching as half a dozen hippogriffs were blowing on large seashells. Somehow this action sounded exactly like an actual proper instrument… right, magic. Regardless, the human continued to stare on as the griffs raised a flag. He heard the flapping of wings and looked skyward. A golden armored, blue figure slowly flew downwards, landing softly as he stood up straight, looking around at his fellow brothers and sisters.

Blue? Check. Armor? Check. Leadership role? Check. Yep…

Definitely Sky Beakface.

“And now everygriff, I once more open the Glad to be a Hippo—”

The mix-matched creature was cut off by a loud whistle. His proud face immediately became one of surprise as the human quickly jogged over, waving the letter around in his right hand. “Hey, hey, Sky Beak—”

He was himself cut off whenever two more armored hippogriffs suddenly surged forwards, a pair of spears in their foreclaws. They pointed the sharp tips at the bipedal creature, who skidded to a stop, kicking up dust under him.

“Woah what the hell’s with this?” the Courier growled in annoyance, raising both of his arms, though he kept the letter in hand. “Do you assholes treat all your guests this way or do you just hate mailmen in particular?”

“Stand down you two!” Sky Beak ordered rushed over, gently shoving his guards aside. They got the hint, backing off and lowering their spears back to a resting position as they stepped aside. The older griff himself gave the human a sheepish grin at the actions of his colleagues. “Sorry, stranger! Everygriff around here’s been a bit… jumpier than usual recently.”

The human stared at him for a moment, looking the feathered father over for a second, “Wanna go ahead and explain why?”

“Oh it’s nothing—really! We’ve simply been having a problem with a kraken recently, but our navy is on the case!” he replied proudly; almost reminded the Courier of the patriotism one would occasionally see for the NCR. “We’ll show that beast what for before it can interfere with another festival!”

“...Right,” the human nodded, before offering the hippogriff the letter. “Well uh, Silverstream said to give you this. It’s for you or your wife or son or whatever else.”

Immediately the bird-dad grabbed the letter from the Courier’s hand. It marked only the second time today where one of the beakfaces did such an action. Sky Beak’s excitement even matched Jetstream’s! “My dear sweet baby wrote to me again! This is fantastic!”

The human shrugged, pulling out an old mint from his jacket and popping it into his mouth, “Yeah yeah, always happy to help a family and all that. Now just give me a few minutes to deliver the rest of my mail and I’ll be out of your hair—uh, feathers.”

“Please stranger, let us repay you; perhaps you could join us in the festival?” Sky Beak offered enthusiastically, a bright smile on his beak. “I’m sure you’ll find our culture just as wonderful if not more so than Equestria’s!”

“Eh… I would but I’ve got plenty of other mail to deliver once I’m done here. Tomorrow I’ll head back an—”

The griff’s face dropped into one of uncertainty and he interrupted the human mid-sentence, “Wait, you intend to return to Equestria tomorrow?”

“...Yeah?” the human replied, raising an eyebrow under his mask.

“Did your train station not tell you?” Sky Beak asked, his face still dripping (metaphorically) with uncertainty.

The human merely sighed. Knew that face. Knew it well. Sort of annoyed him by this point, enough to sigh at least, “Tell me what?”

“The train only runs to and from Seaquestria thrice a week…” the griff explained. “The next one won’t be in for another three or four days I take it.”

“Well fuck.”