Fallout New Vegas: A New Road

Her eyes bolted open, and she leaned up out of bed with a smile. An excited demeanor befell her as she hopped up, with her gray, feathered wings springing her body into action. She landed on all fours like some sort of spry cat.

Her pale blonde mane hung down over her face. A stray hair covered her right eye, which was looking in a slightly different direction than her left one.

She blew the bang back with a quick puff of air from her mouth and smiled. She always hated bed-mane, but she enjoyed sleeping so much! What a conundrum!

“Dinky, time for school!” she shouted, trotting from her small bedroom and down the hall towards her daughter’s.

“Five more minutes!” came the muffled, childish voice.

“Come on now, mom’s gotta get ready for work, Dinky!” responded the cross-eyed pegasus, before she opened the door.

“Ugh, fiiiine,” said the filly as she hopped out of bed, revealing herself as a small pale violet unicorn, with a similar colored mane to her mother.

“Oh don’t be like that,” Derpy said, reaching a wing over to pat her daughter on the back.

“Why can’t I call out sick just this once, mom?” she asked. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders did for the past three days for their trip!”

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders have sisters who have the time to stay by their side,” pointed out Derpy. “Doctor Whooves couldn’t babysit you this week, so you gotta go.”

“I guess,” huffed the filly.

“What’s the matter, muffin?” asked the mare. “Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon aren’t teasing you are they?”

“Mom, those two stopped being bullies like, two years ago, remember?” said the little unicorn with a deadpan look.

“Oh right,” the crosseyed mare snickered out of embarrassment, “sorry!”

“I just wanted to get some relaxation in today, mom,” admitted the filly. “Maybe go on a hike, have some fun. I mean, I’m gonna be late in a few minutes anyways.”

“Don’t worry my little muffin, I’ll make extra sure to take you on a nice vacation this weekend,” Derpy said, before pausing in realization of what her daughter said.

Her crossed eyes suddenly straightened in surprise as she looked at the clock on Dinky’s nightstand. It was almost eight thirty! She slept in! Her shift started in fifteen minutes!

“I need to finish my deliveries! I’m gonna be late if I don’t go right now!” added the pegasus, a surge of energy filling her body.

Dinky watched as her mother hopped up, flapping her wings as she began to hover.

“Mommy will be back soon! Dinner’s in the fridge! Love you, bye!” Derpy said with a blistering pace, heading towards the window at shockingly fast speeds.

The window that just so happened to be unopened.

“Mom, wait!” Dinky shouted, before thinking quickly.

Her horn lit up and the window unlatched before opening her magic opened it wide, letting her mother safely fly outside without issue. Derpy stopped, hovering in place for a moment, before she sheepishly turned back to her daughter.

“Thanks, Dinky,” she said, rubbing the back of her head out of embarrassment.

“It’s fine, mom,” Dinky assured with a flat tone.

“I don’t mean to embarra-” Derpy began, before her daughter paused her by raising a forehoof.

“You’re gonna be late,” the little unicorn pointed out, motioning to her forehoof as if she were wearing a watch.

Derpy’s crossed eyes widened, and she shot off towards the post office, leaving her daughter in a cloud of dust.

Dinky, for her part, just rolled her eyes and sighed. After a bit though, she smiled faintly at her mother, watching her as she flew off.

Ms. Hooves for her part was quite the quick pegasus. She was blitzing her way over Ponyville, dodging this way and that as she attempted to avoid any air traffic. Other pegasi wisely got out of her path as she flew towards her job.

“Ohmigosh! Ohmigosh! Ohmigosh!” she managed, approaching the post office.

Almost there!

Just as she zoomed in, the front doors opened, and a light aquamarine unicorn began to walk out with a package enveloped in her golden magic.

“In coming!” shouted the pegasus, and the unicorn’s eyes widened before-

BAM!

Derpy slammed her backwards through the door by accident, her outstretched hooves carrying the other mare until she tried flapping her wings again to right herself.

This caused the duo to break off, with the poor unicorn being slammed to the ground, and Derpy herself doing a faceplant that turned into a roll. She tumbled forwards several feet and miraculously landed in a sitting position. Both of her eyes cartoonishly rolled around in their sockets as she did as she sat unsteadily.

“Did anypony get the plate of that carriage?” groaned the unicorn, lying flat on her back behind the mailmare.

“Oh gosh Lyra, I’m so sorry!” Derpy offered, jumping up and unsteadily walking over to the downed mare. “I just don’t know what went wrong!”

The pegasus tried her best to help Lyra back up to her hooves, but given she was currently seeing doubles, she wound up doing little more than rolling her onto her stomach. The unicorn huffed and managed to get back to her hooves, groaning as she gave Derpy the side-eye.

“All these years and you still can’t fly right,” growled the annoyed Mrs. Heartstrings.

“I’m sorry,” Derpy looked hurt, giving a sad frown at the fact her friend was mad at her. “I really, really am!”

Lyra could almost see the tears welling up in the mailmare’s eyes. Must’ve been a busy and no doubt stressful day of deliveries ahead. She always got a bit more emotional when she was on delivery duty.

“Now don’t do that,” sighed the aquamarine unicorn, her tone softening. “Look, Derpy, I don’t want you to cry, alright?”

“I know,” admitted the gray mare. “But I don’t like messing things up either. It just keeps happening no matter what I do!”

“Look, Derpy, you’re a great mare,” Lyra began, putting a forehoof on Derpy’s shoulder, “but you need somepony to help keep you straight, alright?”

“I know, but the Doc’s been awfully busy lately,” said the sheepish pegasus. “He’s always the one who helps me with that kind of thing.”

“One day somepony will come along to help ya out on that, I know they will,” Lyra offered, giving a quick pep-talk as she finally re-collected her dropped package. “I’d do it, but I’ve really gotta get back home and tend to my business.”

“Alright,” Derpy said with a nod, perking up a bit, “tell Bon Bon I said hi!”

“I will,” nodded Lyra, walking towards the door.

“And we’re still having that double dinner date thing next weekend, right?” Derpy asked.

“As long as you don’t forget it,” teased Lyra with a smirk.

“I might have some mix ups, but I’m not wasting you, Bon Bon, and the Doc’s time!” Derpy said with a blush.

“You might wanna clock in, Derpy!” reminded Lyra as she left.

That snapped the mailmare out of it, and she quickly rushed back into the employee’s only section of the post office to start her shift.

She just hoped it’d be an easy route today.

The Courier nearly slipped on a loose patch of moss as he waddled through the forest, with his left foot nearly giving way underneath him.

His massive, bulky duffle bags, suitcase, and backpack weighed him down once more, causing him to nearly tumble over. However, after a few moments of holding his arms out and trying to finagle his way back into being balanced, he steadied himself. The human remained still for a moment, and then slowly advanced on ahead with a huff.

Fucking damn moss.

The desert never had that shit.

Typically, he never had to worry about such things, but his added weight made his movements a bit clunkier, allowing for more potential slips.

Nevertheless, he continued onwards, taking in the forest around him and trying his best to mentally log it. He was decent at that, but lacking a map meant he couldn’t get down the finer details. Not to mention his true expertise laying with the aforementioned deserts and dunes.

He’d been walking for about… a day and a half now. This was all without any breaks, other than to stop and slurp down a can of Pork and Beans. Kept the can too, just in case.

He wasn’t lacking in food now that he had his proper stash, but he still would only be able to manage for another week with his supplies. He mentally went over what he had for about the tenth time as he walked on. Wasn't anything else to do, anyways.

At least it was quiet.

He hadn’t encountered any other asshole wildlife since he’d killed those wooden wolf bastards a few nights back. That was a plus at least. The Courier nearly yawned to himself as he crested a small hill and leaned against a nearby tree for some support. He sucked it back down and continued on, pushing himself off of the trunk to move forwards.

He had some Coyote Tobacco in his bag. Maybe boil it into some coffee soon?

Still, that would only do so much against about three days without sleep now.

He needed it though; could tell his senses were dulling a bit. Still, could last a bit longer despite that.

Could still get to the town at least. From there, all the sleep he needed.

Sun was getting a bit low now. Day turning to evening; evening created a beautiful series of red hues along the sky.

Looked pretty. Still walked though. Can’t admire it for long and all that.

Needed to reach Ponyville. Needed shelter. Needed a Sunset Sarsaparilla. Needed a bath. Needed sleep.

All in that order, specifically.

He yawned again, fully this time.

“Fucking hell,” he growled, forcing it off.

Could manage about twelve more hours. Maybe thirteen. After that, body’s gonna go into microsleeps.

That wouldn’t be great. Not out here at least.

Soon enough though, the forest was breaking up. There were far more clearings and far fewer trees. They were a bit smaller too.

He nodded to himself. Alright, that was definitely a sign of civilization, and because of that, he began to lay low.

Needed to lose the excess weight though. Hmmm.

After a bit of searching, he found a small burrow in the side of a hill a few dozen paces away.

He leaned down and looked inside of it.

A snake responded by rattling and hissing at him for daring to threaten its den.

The Courier himself responded by reaching in, grabbing the slithery fucker and tugging it out of its hidey hole in one fluid motion.

With his prey in hand, the human adjusted his mask all the while the reptile wriggled around in his grip. He revealed his teeth to the creature, which bared its fangs back in response.

Six then lurched forwards and snapped down his jaws on the animal’s head.

CRUNCH!

It went limp in his grasp, and the rattling stopped.

The human then tugged his hand back, fully separating the snake’s skull from its spine. He spat the head aside, sending it to the ground before he shoved the bleeding stump into his mouth, letting it hang there, gripped in his teeth tightly.

The Courier sucked down its flowing blood as he began to unlatch all of his bags. He leaned back in to see if anything else was in the burrow.

No eggs. Damn. Definitely wasn’t a mommy then.

Anything else?

…

Nice, a worm!

He grabbed it with a gloved hand and pried it out of the dirt it had been attempting to burrow back into. He moved his bloodied mouth away from the snake’s body to snap his teeth around the wriggling creature.

Six masticated the annelid for a few moments, crunching it up and soon swallowing its chunks into his stomach. As he did, he felt a slight, sharp pain on his tongue and then realized it had to have been the snake’s doing.

Fucker bit him before it died.

Oh well, venom didn’t matter to him anymore anyways.

Besides, the reptile made for a good meal. Least he could do was give it a free shot.

The Courier shoved the snake’s bloodied stump back into his mouth. He continued sucking on it as if it were candy while he carefully placed his gear into what was now his burrow.

After a bit, he was finished, with it all being tightly packed down in the dirt hovel. This time even the All-American joined the bags. The firepower was nice, but he didn’t need it rattling around on him and drawing attention from any keen-eared ponies.

Once everything was in place, he soon covered it with a few leaf-covered tree branches, rocks, and dirt. He made sure the burrow was nearly invisible for someone who wasn’t looking for it.

With his new stash in place, he nodded to himself, enjoying the sensation of blood leaking down his throat. The coppery taste would’ve disgusted others.

To him, however, it was nourishing. It was survival.

He considered cooking the rest of the creature, but soon decided against it. Too risky to draw attention with a fire.

So, he just continued on, taking a large bite from the animal’s corpse as he did. He chewed as thoroughly as he could, and then swallowed as he trekked through the thinning woods.

Derpy flew forwards, her blonde mane billowing about as she looked down at her clipboard. She was in full delivery uniform now, hat and all. The pegasus smiled to herself as she crossed ‘Roseluck’ off her list.

“Alright, just a few more,” said the mailmare with an expression of relief.

Next up was Cranky. Hmm, unusual. He typically didn’t get much mail. Well, that’s alright!

She attempted to remember exactly where he lived. The mare knew it was outside of Ponyville proper, but the exact whereabouts slipped her mind at the moment.

Oh well, she could totally wing it!

With a determined expression, she readied herself, and continued along, flying over Ponyville and towards the more forested outskirts of the town.

The sun had lowered significantly, and while typically that wouldn’t be an issue, the more rural location made keeping track of everything a bit harder. For the time being, the mailmare continued ahead doggedly, a saddlebag of mail dangling off her back as she did.

“Let’s see,” she said to herself, trying her best to make her eyes straighten out as she scanned the horizons.

Her speed was a bit quicker than it likely should’ve been, no doubt in an attempt to keep pace to finish up her other deliveries. Regardless, she kept an eye out for any familiar looking trails below, to see if they could jog her memory.

As she searched for Cranky’s house, she flew over a large lake, and a flock of geese looked up at the mare as she sailed by. This action disturbed some of the creatures, causing them to fly upwards out of instinct.

Now normally, this situation would’ve been perfectly fine. Most other pegasi would’ve just dodged out of the way or let the geese fly by, however, a combination of the darkness that was settling over the lands and Derpy’s own lack of depth perception led to an unfortunate series of events.

The mailmare didn’t see a goose flying right at her until it was too late.

Her eyes widened, in surprise.

The goose himself honked, equally as shocked.

She barreled a hard turn to the left to avoid slamming into the avian...

Of course, this hard left led her face first into a tree.

Now thankfully, she wasn’t going that fast, so whenever her body passed through the leaves and branches and slammed into the trunk, instead of feeling anything break, she just felt a minor pain in her muzzle and chest area. However, this impact caused her saddlebags to get caught on and ripped up by some of the particularly sharp bramble.

Derpy groaned as she leaned back a bit, regaining control over herself to flap her wings. Moments later, she looked down and her eyes widened as her letters began to fall all over the forest floor, spilling out of her ripped up bags. Not only that, but the winds picked up, sending the mail she did have in sight billowing deeper into the woods.

“Oh no!” she managed sadly, before rushing down, grabbing every parcel she could find.

However, the darkness had only grown by this point, and for every letter the mailmare grabbed, another flew away from her grasp.

“Oh jeez! Oh jeez!” she shouted, landing now and getting a closer view of her letters.

One of her wings held her saddle bags shut, keeping the holes in them from spilling out any more precious mail. However, this only made her situation worse as she couldn’t remain airborne.

Nevertheless, the mailmare continued her duty of collecting the mail she’d dropped, keeping as best a pace she could despite the darkness. Oh, how she wished she were a unicorn at times like these!

Still, she continued on, and as she collected the lost mail, she made a mental note to log not only how many she had left to grab, but who they belonged to.

One laying in a bush? It was white and had blue cursive written on the exterior, meaning it was Bulk Bicep’s! Nabbed.

One stuck on a rock? Envelope had a faint green hue; it was definitely Berry Punch's! Got it!

One in the death grip of a goose’s beak? After bonking him away, she realized it was a faint yellow, Carrot Top’s! Can’t touch that mail now, goose!

As she picked up another letter from the dirt, one other billowed by above her head in the breeze, just out of her reach. She examined it for a moment as it fluttered by.

Brown envelope, red stamp on the exterior...

Cranky’s!

Her eyes focused in as she rushed after it, with the wind sadly picking up, sending it further away!

“Aw come on mister letter, I gotta get you so I can go back to my daughter!” Derpy shouted, as if the billowing mail would take pity on her.

She bobbed and weaved through bushes and around tree trunks, keeping her wings securely around her bags the entire time. Derpy soon picked up the pace, huffing all the while. If only she’d ran track in high school, she’d have kept a better pace!

Come on! Just a little closer!

She groaned, speeding up.

A few feet now!

Her teeth gnashed together; she was at her top speed!

Almost…

Wait.

What were those red dots?

The letter slammed into something solid.

And then Derpy did too, hitting face first into something for the second time tonight.

Wait, she heard a masculine voice groan as she impacted. Make that somepony!

“What the fuck!” he growled, as Derpy and him fell back into a heap.

A very angry stallion at that!

The mailmare pushed back, stumbling into a seated position as her eyes rolled around in her head for the second time today.

“Oh I’m sorry mister…” she trailed off as her vision came back to her.

Two red eyes stared back at her. A strange, horrifying face glared back at the pegasus. As it rose to its feet, she realized it was tall and bulky. Not only that, but Cranky's letter was now scrunched up in one of its fists!

She stared at him in confusion.

He stared back.

Her crossed eyes examined him.

He just looked at her, probably examining the mailmare as she did him.

“Mister m-m-monster,” she gulped. “Now don’t take this the wrong way… but you don’t eat ponies, do you?”

“What? No,” he growled, before elaborating. “I eat uh… rats, bugs, and stuff.”

Suddenly she sighed in relief.

“Thank goodness!” she said with relief, wiping her brow underneath her hat. “I thought you were a pony eating monster.”

He just looked on, confused.

“But if you just eat all that icky stuff, we’re perfectly fine!” she said with a thankful gaze.

“You’re… not scared?” he asked, still surprised.

“Well, you don’t eat ponies, right?” she asked, a faint trace of fear creeping back into her voice.

“No!” he huffed with finality.

“Then nope!” Derpy answered, going right back to her normal, jovial self.

“But, the glowing eyes, all that,” he said back. “That typically scares you guys.”

“I’m not gonna just judge you because you look a bit different!” said the gray pegasus with an honest tone, before frowning. “Stuff like that can hurt a pony’s feelings.”

He pondered at her deeper, only now fully noticing her crossed eyes.

“Are you lost?” he asked simply.

“Well…” she trailed off, looking around, “...a little?”

He was silent for a moment, as if thinking internally to himself.

He gave an annoyed sigh a few moments later.

“Do you need help?” he offered, sounding like he hoped she’d say ‘no.’

“Oh boy do I!” responded the mare with a smile.

“Great,” he rolled his eyes, his tone flat. “What do you need?”

“I lost some of my letters when my bag here ripped,” she elaborated.

“Let me look at it,” he huffed, handing her the letter he had before he crouched down and examined the ripped saddlebags.

“Thank you, mister monster!” she squeaked after taking the letter.

“I’m Six. Courier Six. Or the Courier. Or whatever the hell,” he elaborated.

“Oh, well thank you mister Whatever The Hell!” she said happily.

He stopped for a few seconds, looking at her.

Derpy just smiled back, a faint sheepishness in her grin, as if she knew she said something silly.

“Just stick to the first three,” he said flatly, before looking back at her bags.

“Whatever you say!” she responded.

He carefully examined the cuts, nodding to himself for a moment before he pulled a sewing needle, string, and some cloth from one of his satchels.

“Do you sew?” she asked excitedly.

“A bit,” he said truthfully, before he got to patching up her bags.

A stray bit of dirty cloth and boom, she was good to go within less than five minutes.

“Wow, thank you so much!” she squeaked, looking at his patchwork job.

“It should hold for a good while, but you might wanna get new bags soon,” he said, putting away his sewing supplies.

“I will mister Six,” she assured, “but first, would you like to come along my mail route, just for a bit?”

“Why would I do that?” he asked.

“Well, you seem like you’re out here all by yourself,” said Derpy, almost matronly. “Someone as nice as you all alone, that isn’t right! You need a friend!”

“Wouldn't I slow you down? Don’t you have to be quick about running the route?” he just asked.

“I do, but I can slow down just a little, at least until I get back to Ponyville,” she explained. “These woods are a bit harder to fly through!”

“Well… I guess I have nothing better to do,” he nodded. “Just do me a favor and show me the way to Sweet Apple Acres, alright?”

“Ohhh, sure thing!” Derpy said with determination, before she began walking through the woods, much safer than flying!

She was careful so as to not rip the bags he’d just patched up this time, and he moved alongside her.

“Can I ask you a few questions, Six?” Derpy asked as they walked along.

“I guess,” he said flatly.

“Well, first question is, do you have the ability to turn ponies into solid stone?” she asked, her tone a bit serious.

“No- I… what?” he managed, looking at her.

“That's great!” she said with a wide smile, speaking jovially as she continued on. “I had a really, really bad experience with another monster who walked on two legs one time. He turned me to stone and tried to take over Equestria! I still have nightmares about it sometimes!”

He just stared down at her for a few moments as they walked along.

“Don’t worry, the Doc helps me with therapy sometimes!” she assured.

“Doctor who?” asked the Courier, partly surprised at the prospect of doctors existing here.

“Whooves, actually!” she corrected.

He stared in silence once more.