Rainbow In The Wastes

Rainbow awoke in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. Tears formed in her eyes, tiny droplets beginning to leak down her cheeks and onto the blanket draped over her body. Wiping her eyes with an angry swipe from her right hoof, she began to calm herself down by leaning her head over her body and rubbing her brow thoughtfully with both hooves. That dream had been so.....real. She shuddered in thought of the creature she saw, charging at her as she fumbled with her revolver, the memory of her imminent death, only thwarted by a quick shot from her revolver. Her friends were there, all of them, even Mac.

Smiling for the first time that day, Rainbow looked down and noticed she was asleep on a comfy looking bed, or as comfy as you can find in the Wasteland. It smelt of mud and gunpowder, but it was the cleanest bed she'd slept in in five weeks. Throwing the blanket off with her teeth, she threw her hindlegs over the side of the bed, and noticed she was still wearing her armored vault suit from yesterday. However, not everything was in its place; her holster and her Pip-Boy were not on her person, or in her case pony, but a quick glance to her right found the latter on a metallic desk next to two filing cabinets. Hopping off the bed and trotting over to the device, she placed her left hoof into it as she saw Moira do it the other day, waiting for the low hiss that marked a comfortable seal on her leg.

It resounded not a moment later, the mare giving it a half-feigned congratulatory smile as the monitor turned on and began to display her statistics once again. Giving a sigh of relief, she turned tail and trotted toward the door, leaning slightly on her hindlegs to reach for the knob, expecting the usual solidness. Instead, she was greeted with the floor of the upper floor as she fell through the door, which had apparently been cracked open just enough for her to not see it.

Dammit Carter, she thought, quickly getting up and looking around to make sure no one had seen her fall. Growling in anger, she brushed the dust that caught on her suit with a huff of annoyance.

As the mare turned to her right, she suddenly felt her nostrils hit with a smell that caused her mouth to involuntarily drool, the aroma of something hitting her like a train. As she almost fell down the stairs, only saved by her wings opening up at the right time in midair, she noticed that the table in the living room was already set; a set of plates, three to be exact, were placed in the middle of the table, their emerald color shimmering in the light above the kitchen. Three plates? There's only two of us, unless that robot eats. I doubt it. Robots don't eat....do they?

The mare trotted into the living room, and with a raised brow, sat down in front of one of two plates on her side, the one nearest the staircase in case she got sick. After all, it can't be guaranteed whether or not food in the Wastes is poisonous, no matter how fresh. The air is filled with the stuff, as it said so in the Guide that Carter had given her the other day. Shrugging to no one in particular, she turned her attention to the area to her right, where a large figure had its back turned to her. Rainbow knew who it was immediately, the very man who pulled her out of the library, Carter. She could tell by the brown-grey hair and the-

Wait, is that a chef's hat?

Narrowing her eyes and sticking her head further in his direction, she couldn't tell whether or not that she was just seeing this. A bucking chef's hat? That is...actually kinda funny. Huh. Giving a snort of approval, she looked around for the best way to get his attention, not finding any until she found a very familiar object sticking out of the table. The combat knife shone brightly with its newly polished handle and blade, in fact, she wondered how exactly she had missed that in the first place. She must just be sleepy. Yeah, there we go. Sleepiness.

Reaching for it, she coiled her hoof around it and brought it to her teeth, where she clenched the handle and began inserting it into her sheath very slowly, until she brought it out very swiftly and threw it as hard as she could in his direction, aiming for the conveniently place box of Sugar Bombs atop the shelf to the mans top left. Instead of hitting her target, the knife flew a mere ten inches and landed on the floor with a shrill clink.

The mare rubbed her newly strained neck, the whiplash of launching the knife with her head now apparent in her mind, the mare cursing her obviously terrible foresight. Rotating her neck slightly, she winced as she felt the muscles inside it strain themselves terribly. Well shit.

Looking back up, Rainbow noticed that the man at the now noticeable table was missing. Raising a brow in confusion, she looked for her knife on the floor in the hope of retrieving it, but also to no avail as it too was missing. Rubbing the back of her head in wonder, she gasped as she saw a blur fly past her vision in close proximity to her face, the object only in her sight for a split second until it was gone. Blinking away her fear from her eyes, she looked left and found her knife stuck firmly within a poster of a man, with the name Colonel Autumn displayed underneath it. The knife was embedded deep within the man's forehead, right in the middle of his brow.

Looking to her right in wonderment, she saw Carter looking at the poster in curiosity. Looking to his left, he raised a brow and said, "Oops, sorry. Didn't see you there. My bad," he gave a shrug of sarcastic apology, forming a perfect w and giving a derpy expression.

"I hate you."

"Whatever ya say, Dashie. Just trying some target practice at the most hated man I've ever known."

Putting her left leg on the table and turning toward the poster, the mare asked, "Who the hell is he anyways?"

She could barely make out a split-second look of anger from the man, who simply replied, "The bastard killed my father, led an army of shitheads to kill me and prohibited my ability to make fresh water in D.C. happen, so I repaid him by firing a railway spike through his chest, followed by a slow death of poison by my dart gun."

"O....kay then. Uhm, about yesterday: what happened to me?"

Walking around the table toward the poster, Carter replied, "You saw Wadsworth, flipped your shit, and passed out. I had to retrieve you from the bottom of the stairway; you rolled down it after you lost consciousness. While you were out," he continued, pulling the knife out with a grunt, "I polished the rest of your stuff, your Pip-Boy, your knife, your magnum, I even polished off a weapon I put away a long time ago, which you'll be using after I serve you your first non-shitty Wasteland breakfast," with that, he walked back toward his earlier location in the food preparation room, and turned back around yet again with a large silver platter in his hand. Steam erupted from its contents, which Rainbow immediately recognized upon its landing on the table.

A fresh batch of vegetables sat upon it, steaming from heat and just sitting there....ready to be eaten by the mare. Licking her lips in a manic manner, she threw herself onto it and began gulping down the delicious food greedily, the man who served it crossing his arms and grinning in a caring manner. Looking up at him, crushed carrots, lettuce and apples sticking out of her clenched mouth, she slowly shrank back in regret. This man gave her food, fresh and new, rarely found in the Wasteland, and she had just eaten all of it. Mentally kicking herself, she looked down and began to say sorry until she heard a ripping sound to the front of her.

Looking at it, she found the man with a now open box of Sugar Bombs, a chipped white bowl in front of him as he poured the contents inside, reaching underneath the table and pulling out an actual jug of milk, also pouring that into his cereal. Screwing the lid back onto it, Carter noticed the mare across the table staring blankly at his meal. Pulling a spoon out from a pouch on his duster, he stuck it into the cereal and announced, "What? Never seen a person eat cereal for breakfast?"

Shaking her head, Rainbow could only reply, "It's...just really weird, okay?"

"Whatever you say, Dashie."

Groaning at her nickname, Rainbow turned back to the small amount that were the remainders of her breakfast. Still feeling a ping of guilt deep within her nevertheless, she slowly gobbled up the rest, satisfied with her meal.