Fallout: Equestria - Purity

A Fo:E side story by StormbadgerXIII

Chapter 5 - It's Not The Fall That Kills You

"Gravity? Who gives a crap about gravity?"

The world exploded. Twice, by my count.

The first, about 200 years ago, the whole of Equestria burned under the necromantic fire of the balefire bombs.

The second, just now, this room saw fit to be consumed in a ball of flame and shrapnel. And promptly send me flying.

I would have let my instincts kick into action and stabilise myself, but tiny shards of metal tore through the front part of my body, an immense wave of pressure rattled my teeth and threw me off my hooves. My wings snapped out to save me from tumbling, but the force of the blast knocked me onto something thin and very solid, and I heard something break and a horrible pain through my feathered appendages.

The next thing I knew, I was sent spinning down, once again in the grip of gravity. My ears were ringing, I had tiny infernos all throughout my forehooves and face, and I could barely breathe.

I barely saw the statue of the unicorn come into sight, my body falling towards the pointiest part, before I felt a weight lift from my shoulders as my body sent me into a unconsciousness.

"Daddy, look!"

I was standing on the roof of my house in a body that was familiar to me, but smaller than I remembered. I gave a glance to my sides, seeing my small wings standing proud. I peeked over the edge of the roof, looking at the ground below; it looked soft but I knew it was as solid as stone... whatever stone felt like. It was a thing ponies said.

My daddy, as requested, looked up from where he was sitting at the roof, looking back down before snapping his head up again, eyes popped open wide. "Nimbus! What are you doing up there?!"

"I can fly, daddy! Look!" I said, as I took a step forward to the ledge.

As fast as Daddy was, I was faster. Older ponies always seemed slower. Squeezing my eyes shut, I jumped off the edges and flapped my wings as hard as I could, feeling my body fall faster than I wanted.

I swear I was almost hovering, when I landed in a pair of light green hooves. I opened my eyes and looked up at the big stallion holding me, his face all funny and angry.

"Nimbus, what were you thinking?!"

"I almost flew, daddy! Did you see me?"

"I saw you nearly hit the ground and break something," he snapped. I recoiled, taken back by his fury. "Nimbus, you know your wings need to be a bit bigger before you can fly, right?"

"B-but they are bigger!" I squeaked, opening my wings, trying to show him. "See?"

Daddy frowned. "They've still got a little bit to go."

"When can I fly?"

He was silent for a moment. "Well... I couldn't fly until I was a few years older than you."

A few years...? But that was forever away! I might as well not be able to fly! "B-but F-Final can f-fly!"

This time, his quiet lasted a little longer. I sniffled a little. "Son... some ponies learn to fly faster than other ponies. Final's one of them."

"But it's not fair! I wanna fly!" I wailed before wrapping my hooves around his chest, sobbing and repeating my words until they became nothing but mumbling. Daddy hugged me, and I could almost feel his sympathy, not that I knew that word yet.

"Remember, Nimbus. You may be missing out on what a lot of ponies take for granted, but there's one thing we both have that almost nopony else has."

I looked up at him, puffy eyed. "W-what?"

He placed a hoof on my small chest, and smiled back at me. "A good and caring heart. Not everypony cares about more than themselves." Holding me close again, he whispered softly in my ear.

"When you grow up, remember that some ponies will want to harm you, some will want to help you, but most just look out for their own."

He pulled back, and we both looked at each other. Smiling, he placed me down on my rump. "Still, at least you didn't fall very fast, so your wings are getting bigger."

I squealed in delight. Doubly so when he offered to buy me some delicious ice cream.

I can't decide what left a bigger imprint on me that day - that my daddy gave me ice cream after I nearly killed myself, or his whispered words.

Until I joined the Enclave, it was probably the former.

There a number of ways to die.

There's the eternally desired one, old age. Where your body, having run its full course, slowly starts shutting down. It's a good death, because in a lot of cases, you feel like you've fulfilled your destiny and you can fade into the light. Sadly, not many ponies get that luxury these days.

There's death by disease, a foreign organism entering your body and multiplying rapidly, tearing you apart from the inside. Not a very happy death, really. Sometimes, the disease won't kill you, but will leave you scarred and calloused, resistant to its next attack.

There's accidental death. Falling onto something dangerous, falling off something, getting hit by falling objects, something sent flying your way, dropping electrical appliances into water... unpredictable, deadly, sneaky, but it happens. Tragic, but you can't stop accidents happening.

There's suicide. Less said about that, the better.

There's death in battle, which in itself can differ - were you just shot by the other guy, or did you take more of them out through your death? It can be unpleasant, but it can also be purposeful, depending on circumstances.

Then there's the sort of death that you can't put into any category, such as being hurled off a 100-storey building by three dozen mines and falling onto the horn of a statue of Twilight Sparkle. Which, I might add, is a very very very fucking rare occurrence.

As it stands, it didn't happen.

I slowly peeled an eye open, then another. I found myself lying on a bed, amourless, unarmed, tired, thirsty and in an amount of pain I really didn't think possible. A tray to my right had several shards of metal, red-tinted, laying on it in a pool of blood along side a medical tool set.

I tried to say "why aren't I dead?" or "where am I?" (one of the two, I'm sure), but instead it ended up sounding like "uuuurgh..."

"Ah, good afternoon," a mare to my right said cheerily. "How are we today?"

"Uuugh... awful..."

"At least you're alive," the mare chimed, trotting over. Her mane was annoyingly pink, her coat a light lavender, and she wore a smile across her muzzle. "Thanks to your little friend."

"Final." I smiled. Then, after a moment. "What happened anyway...?"

"As far as I recall, you were about three metres away from a mine with a 5 meter blast radius, and several of them if the explosion I heard earlier is any indication; they exploded, you were sent flying into a railing, wings first, then fell down and lost consciousness. Your friend caught you before you were impaled on a statue."

"She's always been a better flyer," I muttered.

"Not to mention the other injuries from laser weapons and bruises, the radiation exposure, the exposure to raw magic..." She smiled. "Honestly, I'm surprised you've survived this much."

"Me too..." I added, then tried to move. My legs felt like they were burning, my wings lay limp by my side. I fell back down to the bed, panting from the effort.

"You need to rest," the doctor added. "You've been through some pretty serious trauma."

Why did I get the feeling that this wasn't the worst I'd encounter...?

The doctor left my side for a few minutes, returning with Final in tow.

"Nimbus!" Final shrieked. I winced at the volume - my ears were really sore. Guess being close to three dozen explosions can kinda make you a little more sensitive to noise. "Are you ok?"

"Never better," I coughed, probably looking a pretty nasty sight. My torso was already cocooned in bandages, and from what I could see there were several blood-stained ones off to the side.

"Your friend will need a day's bed-rest before he can move again. More if he wants to function properly."

"We can manage a day or two, right?" Final said, looking at me. I nodded.

"Excellent. I'm sorry, Nimbus, but we need to move you to another bed. There are likely to be a few others who will need attention in the next few days and I need room."

"That's ok, I understand," I croaked. The mare pointed a horn at me, and it started glowing. I felt a strange tingling over my body, and soon I was hovering above the bed. My body wanted to flail to get out of this unnatural circumstance, but I was too sore to do so.

Instead, I just whimpered.

I really didn't want Final to see me like this, half-mummified, unable to move, and groaning from a horrible pain across my entire body. But I knew I had little choice in the matter - I couldn't stop being like this, no amount of healing potions could fix it. Final was trotting beside me, smiling warmly, almost as if that would heal me. I couldn't quite look back at her, so I tried my best and smiled to her.

Soon, I was lowered onto a bed in a separate room and left there. The doctor told Final that if anything was happening to me, she was to come and grab her and fix me up. And, once again complimenting my survivability, she left the room.

And then there was silence.

The bed was nice and soft, which didn't seem very common. A lot better than lying on the floor like last night. The room itself was dimly lit, a few shafts of orange light poking through the boarded-up windows, and it all made me feel drowsy. The room was dead silent, except for the two ponies breathing in the room and some voices from outside. The bed turned out to be double-sized, too - plenty of room to move, not that I really could anyway.

Final was the first to speak. "Nimbus... I'm sorry..."

"For what?" I managed to say, twisting my neck to face her.

"For... well... getting you into this mess." She turned away from me, some of her orange-gold mane falling across her eye.

"Hey... don't worry; it's not your fault," I said comfortingly, smiling while I looked over to her. "I'm pretty damn sure I was the one who took the job."

"No no no..." she said, shaking her head. "I mean, I was the one who convinced you to go down here... so, technically all of this is because of me."

I balked at that. She was right; she was the one who had told me to go down and help the ponies down here, and that hadn't gone quite to plan yet. But I knew I would have come here by myself without her help.

Or would I? Truth be told, without Final's support, I would have spent a long time, weeks even, thinking about whether I should come down here or not. And if I did, I'd probably go looking for my father directly. And, ultimately, no matter what we do, we'd probably end up lying in a pool of our own blood. But, at least I could feel... useful down here. Like I actually meant something. Soldiers in the Enclave got perks, yes, but we weren't really involved in any fighting. But down here... what I could do could make a pony's life better. If I did one job for a struggling town, then they could move forward. Start setting up better defences, gain access to more resources. Hell, if I decided to take out a camp of raiders, then that was at least a service to them.

I finally found my voice. "Yes, Final. This is your fault." At her confused and hurt expression, I continued. "But I can help down here. I can't help up there. I'd rather be dead and do something useful than be alive and doing nothing."

Despite my body flaring up in protest, she wrapped me up in a hug I so desperately wished I could return.

I told Final, despite her wanting to do otherwise, that there was a whole other side to the bed she could sleep on so she didn't have to sleep on the floor. As a result, she was now curled up under a blanket, snoring softly and adorably. She had said, before going to sleep, that the mayor had provided our payment while I was out of it, of which I was instantly thankful for.

Damn, she's cute... I found myself thinking. I couldn't see her very well on account of my neck not being able to bend that far, but from what I could see, her mane had splayed out onto the bed, her eyes were shut and her mouth just open. If I wasn't so immobile, I'd probably hug her.

I knew I needed to sleep. My mind and body both wanted it. Yet... I couldn't sleep. Something was keeping me awake, and I had no idea what. I had listened to all the holotapes. I couldn't actually move more than my neck, now that I thought about it. Or, more accurately, I could, but my body would protest like hell and I didn't want to wake Final up with me screaming in pain.

Why wasn't I given any painkillers?

I found a dose of Med-X lying on the bedside table. A leg's reach away.

I was so close to temporary salvation, and yet I couldn't get it.

Fuck.

I groaned and looked back up at the ceiling. I felt tired, but I couldn't sleep. I so desperately wanted to sleep, but... there was no way.

Instead, I decided to amuse myself, and think.

Who was that moving corpse? I asked myself. Was he a mindless zombie? Well, ok, not mindless, but a sentient, insane zombie. If so, who was he? Was he somepony famous? Was he somepony normal? Why did he have so many mines? How'd he hack the robots? How'd I even manage to hack the robots? I'm terrible when it comes to computers. Seriously, there must be something he messed up.

I spent about two hours asking myself too many questions (at one point one was about toast), before I finally fell into sleep.

"Nimbus."

I opened my eyes. This time, I was lying on a cloud in the middle of the sky. How'd I even get here? I'm sure there was some way I got here. I looked at my limbs - I could move them, for one, and all my bandages had gone. I looked around, rising to my hooves. All around were a number of clouds, all forming to form a line in front of me. I swear I heard some tinkling music somewhere, but that might have just been my imagination.

"Nimbus."

A soft, gentle voice. Like silk. Or chocolate. Either way, it soothed my sore ears. And it was coming from down the path of clouds. I found my hooves walking forward, and I stopped myself. What if this was a trap? What if this was some form of ambush set up by the Enclave to capture me, or worse, raiders with some magic up their sleeves? I didn't fancy on becoming dinner.

"Don't be afraid, Nimbus."

"Why not?" I replied, in a softer tone than I had expected.

"Nothing can harm you here."

I blinked. As I trotted down the path, I hoped she was right. More clouds kept forming a straight line as I kept trotting forwards. A glance backward told me they were simply the same clouds from the very back of the line.

In a brilliant flash of light, something coalesced on the other end of the cloud path. The form was that of a pony. It was at least my height, and had a pair of resplendent wings. The light faded, and in its place stood a tall, proud mare with wings... and a horn.

That was new.

"Who are you?" I asked ('what are you' would have been rude.)

"I am your dream mare," she said. After my confused glance, she continued. "I am the mare that represents your dreams. Your wishes. Your desires."

"Oh," I dumbly added. Who knew my dreams were so... pretty?

The spectre of the alicorn mare looked away, a long lock of golden mane falling over her blue eyes. That seemed familiar... "It pains me to know you will most likely forget this encounter soon. But I am but a dream."

"If this is a dream... and I know it's a dream..." I thought out loud, though mostly directly to her. "Then why haven't I woken up?"

"Because the dream hasn't finished," she replied with a voice that could melt the coldest hearts. "There is something I need to tell you..."

I'm talking to a damn pretty mare who just so happens to be my dreams. What the actual fuck. was the thought that popped into my head at that moment.

The dream mare trotted up to me. "Your exposure to the raw magic has allowed me to become more than a collection of afterthoughts. However, this will not last long, and there is much to say."

"Very well," I said coolly.

She sighed, probably utterly underwhelmed by presence. That, or she was readying herself for something really important. Either way, I had to listen to this.

"The wing will steer you right, the horn will shine so bright, the hoof will cast aside doubt, the mask will sense traitors out. When three becomes one and one becomes one million, harmony will force its hand and show the way to a brighter day. A father's son's father will make one, the remnant of the past will make another. The eastern wings will come to you but only if you let them. The eyes above look down with greed, only wishing doom upon us all. The tumult of 2000 years remains in the south, the milk of the breast of disorder a brew so potent. A father's son's hero made the journey the son is on. Stripes of pink and mane of gold will anchor you to the ground, but with chains not of metal but of love. When one million acquire three the hooves of Vanhoover will rise as one and with claw and wing send three crashing down. And, most importantly..." The alicorn poked me in the chest. "A father's words steer the son to a better light, despite him hoping it would not on fear of the opposite."

I blinked. "Can... you say that less cryptically?"

"No."

"No?" I raised an eyebrow.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I cannot."

I rolled my eyes. "Some help that is."

The alicorn frowned at me, and I instantly regretted what I said. "Would you prefer to stumble around in the dark?" I shook my head. "Good. But, if there is one thing I can clarify... trust in all your companions."

"What, all of Final?"

"And the others."

"What others?"

"You will see."

I frowned. "Alright. By the way, could you write all of that down? My memory-"

The alicorn smiled to herself. "I already have. 110347."

I tilted my head.

"Check your PipBuck," the alicorn drawled.

I nodded. "So... is that it?"

"I'm afraid it is." The alicorn sounded... resigned. Almost sad. "I both wish I could talk again with you, and that we don't."

"Huh?"

"Your body being exposed to too much magic was enough to cause my appearance. It is also the magic which allowed me to... sense..." Obviously she couldn't think of a better word. I probably wouldn't be able to either. "...the currents of fate. I fear for your health if you attempt to speak to me again."

"Oh."

The alicorn turned away from me. After a brief thought, I trotted up to her. "Wait!"

"Hm?"

"Do you have a name?"

The alicorn was silent for a long while. Almost to the point that I thought I offended her.

"Dream."

"That's it?"

"That's all I know."

"Oh, ok. Dream it is."

The alicorn giggled. Giggled. I found that both undeniably cute and a little freaky that my dreams were giggling at what I said. This was slowly climbing to the highest point of my 'whatthefuckometer'.

"Do you know where I'm supposed to go next?"

"Head down the path of 113."

"Ambiguous."

"I cannot do much better."

"I know."

She began to walk again, for a full five seconds, then she turned back and trotted up to me. "Actually... there is one last thing I can give you."

"Oh?"

The alicorn placed a hoof on my cheek. "A moon of full rest."

"What-"

My next words were silenced by a kiss. Damn, my dreams were a good kisser.

As I felt myself falling back to normal world, I just realised one thing.

My dreams looked a lot like Final.

What the fuck.

"Nimbus?"

I blinked away my sleep, and found myself in the same room, with a little bit more light. I had no EFS to tell me what time it was, and the PipBuck we found was elsewhere.

Final was also on top of me.

My first thought was "why aren't I in horrible pain yet?"

My second thought was "oh god she's on top of me in a compromising position."

"Final, get off please."

She did so with a flap of her wings. Then it dawned on her too. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I didn't realise-"

"It's fine," I said, sitting up and rubbing my mane wait what? "It happens."

"Are you ok?" she asked. "I mean, I did inject that syringe into you when you were asleep to try and make it better for you and that was a few hours ago you were fast asleep-"

"Final," I said.

"Yes?"

"It's ok. I'm not hurt." I looked at my hooves. "In fact, I feel pretty good."

"Wow." My golden-maned companion smiled. "Awesome."

"I know, ri-” I started, but froze.

Golden mane. Chain of love.

That was... troubling.

"Nimbus?"

"Weird dream. Just remembered something that happened," I half-lied.

"Ok, if ya say so."

I stretched my forehooves, then rolled out of bed and stretched my hindlegs too. I then noticed my saddlebags and armour. A little rummaging later, I pulled out the PipBuck, and I scanned through all the files.

1. I opened it up. Sure enough, Dream's cryptic speech was there. I read through it a few times, just to make sure I got the wording right. Still confusing as hell, but at least I knew some of it.

Some of it seemed to make sense... or, at least, half of some of it. Most of it seemed like nonsense to me.

"Done staring at that tiny screen?" Final asked, a smirk on her face. I slipped the PipBuck back into my saddlebags. "Good. Now, you wanna rest here or do you want to just get going?"

"Let's go," I grinned.

The doctor seemed utterly surprised by my recovery. She also added that we were from a healthy origin, ex-military, and pegasi, so we had a good immune system, trained toughness and perhaps a boosted restorative thingy. I doubted the last one. After checking I was ok, we were sent on our way.

Once we exited the doctor's office, Final immediately asked "where to now?"

"As far as I know, 'the path of 113'."

"Huh?" Final asked, bemused. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

I shrugged. "We can ask around. See what the number 113 means."

"If ya want. Don't let me stop you."

I was about to continue, but something loud and dangerous-sounding rang from above.

It's said that 90% of ponies don't look up unless prompted to. They usually look across one axis, or down. Pegasi live with the ability to move in a three-dimensional environment, so we tend to consider all directions as important.

Regardless, everypony was looking up at where the noise came from.

One of the smaller, white stars on the skyscraper's hub, which had been dangling from a number of cables and a bent chunk of metal support, finally snapped loose and started falling to the ground.

It took a while, but everypony scattered from the centre. All except three - a mare, a stallion, and what seemed like their foal.

Judging quickly, I guessed the star was going to hit them. And it wouldn't be pretty.

Final and I looked at each other, and we instantly rushed in, ponies off to the side calling out the names of the ponies in the centre.

I grabbed the foal as quickly as I could, swooping back to grab the mare. Final had managed to shove the stallion out of the way.

I screamed at the mare to run. She span and began galloping.

Too late.

The star didn't fall flat. It fell point-first. Driving down through the mare's back to the ground like a wedge, the poor green pony was bisected gruesomely. I couldn't stop myself, and I slammed straight into the white star itself, knocking my head and getting stars in my eyes.

When I finally came back properly, I realised my hooves were caked in blood.

I backed away. I had landed on the mare's hind end, which wasn't attached to anything, blood and entrails across the cobblestone ground.

I saw the mare's front half move, crawling a little bit forward, before she finally collapsed, blood flowing from her back and mouth.

I vomited. Or screamed. Or both.

I think it was both.

The barponies were kind enough to give me some free alcohol and a warm blanket to wrap myself in. The painkillers for my headache had just worn off, and while I did feel better I still felt sore. My hooves were washed clean, but I still felt like they were caked in blood. I nestled a glass of whisky in my hooves. I was half-drunk, shaking, and I wasn't even talking to anypony.

I was, however, listening to the barkeeper and Final talking.

"Your buckfriend gonna be ok?" the barkeeper asked. He was a pretty old buck, about sixty, I reckon, with a grey mane and brown coat, and some fairly impressive scars across his face.

"He's not my buckfriend, he's my friend. And I'm sure he'll be ok... maybe."

"Seems like he got hit hard. Hell, I don't think Toffee's buck is as shaken. Nor the kid."

"Really? Even though they lost a family member?"

"Probably has something to do with their daughter dying earlier this month."

"Ouch."

"Tell me about it. But no, seriously, your friend gonna be ok?"

"I think so. He's a strong pony. He has to be."

"If I were where he was, I probably go insane."

"He saw raiders earlier. And, one of their... um... 'art' rooms."

"Fuck... wow, ok.. How long ya been down here anyway?"

"This is our third day."

"Goddesses. Well, hopefully this'll be the worst y'all will see down here."

"I hope so. I think I'm coping fine, but... I worry for Nimbus."

I felt like shit. Not only was I witness to one of the most gruesome, horrific deaths possible, but I was acting like a pathetic pony, curled up in a blanket, shaking like mad, and drinking away my horror.

I hate the Wasteland. I fucking hate it.

"You sure you're ok, miss?"

"I'll be fine. I'll just tough it out."

"Ya sure? It's real bad holding these things in, ya know. One day you're gonna break."

"Eh, that's not likely to happen any time soon."

"If ya say so."

Final leaned over to me. "Nimbus...?"

I slowly turned my own head to face her. "Y-yes...?"

"Are you ok?"

"...no." I whispered.

Final pulled me into a hug again, and thank goodness I could return it.

After a long while, after I had once again sobbed my heart out, Final pulled away. I felt so much better for it, though... I wish I hadn't had done it in front of everyone. I could hear them talk about me. One part of me was sure it wasn't bad, but I really didn't want to show it.

"By the way," Final asked, turning to the barkeeper and folding some of her mane behind her ear. "Does the number '113' mean anything to you?"

The barkeeper thought for a moment. "One-one-three... one-one-three...-one thirte- ah!" He clopped his hoof on the counter. "Stable 113. It's about a day's trot from here, taking the south-east road."

Another Stable? Fuck that. I didn't want to go to another-

"Though, can't see why y'all'd wanna go there. They ain't gonna let anypony in, ya know."

"It's functional?" Final asked.

"Ayep, and thriving. Though they ain't keen on sharin' some of their bounty with us."

"A functioning Stable..." I muttered. "...at least it won't be a nightmare down there."

"Ran into 73 didja?"

I looked up at him.

"Some'a them ponies came here about 10... no... 20? years ago. Told us about what was goin' on. Decided we should keep our guys away from it."

"Most of our loot came from there," Final mentioned.

"You could make a business off sellin' loot from dangerous places, ya know. Mighty tidy profit."

"I suppose. Or we do that off the side when we're not trying to be useful."

"Up to y'all what ya do. Just providin' options."

I finally found the strength to stand up. It was more taxing than it should have been. "We should probably get going, Final."

Final nodded, standing up and hoofing some bottlecaps over to the bartender. "Here. For the help."

The bartender smiled warmly, hoofing the caps down. "Well, I weren't fixing for payment, but I guess if you're offering... thanks. Y'all keep safe now, an' watch yourselves on the roads."

Nodding, I moved to the little colt's room, slipped into my armour, donned my weapons, and, after some asking for directions, we exited out of the city of Vanhoover, down the path to Stable 113...

"...and let me tell you, that was one long trot," Nimbus said, his voice starting to get a little rough from his talking. It was doing him a world of good to get his story out, to finally release much of the emotional toil that had been building up inside of him over the past ten years. He was only 31 but he felt 40.

Of course, considering he was talking to a colt who didn't even have his cutie mark, he had opted out much of the adult content, only providing some when asked. Fortunately, the foal was a good listener and didn't pressure him too much.

"Wooooow..." Happy muttered. "That's awesoooome."

Nimbus smiled, nickering happily to himself.

Now began the questions.

"How'd you get the PipBuck? What happened to your ear? Why is your leg all whirry? What happened to Fi-"

A hoof pressed to his lips stopped him before he could continue. The wizened buck was smiling, though there seemed to be a little bit of sadness in his eyes.

"Don't worry. You'll find out. Excuse me, bartender?"

The bartender, an old buck (a miracle of this day and age) with some scars across his muzzle, looked up. "Ayep?"

"Could I have the usual, please?"

"I ain't never seen ya before, I reckon," the bartender muttered.

"The wings didn't do it?"

The bartender's eyes widened. "Wait, is that... Nimbus, m'boy!"

"Hey Tank."

"Man, been a while since you walked in here last."

"Yeah, about an hour," Nimbus quipped, prompting a number of laughs from the croud.

"Heh heh. Alright, one Nukascotch coming up."

"Thank you." Nimbus nodded. "Oh, and perhaps something for Happy, too?"

"Sunrise Sar... sarsa... that yummy stuff!"

"Alrighty then."

Nimbus smiled. "As a treat."

"Thank you, mister!" Happy chimed. Then, something dawned on him. Something good. It was only 8, and his friends would still be awake. Without warning, he zoomed off.

Nimbus just blinked. "Wow. Speedy little guy, isn't he."

"Ayup. That's my grandson for ya," Tank muttered, floating over two glasses, making dead sure the alcoholic one went to Nimbus. "Cute little guy, ain't he?"

"Mhm."

"Welp, I might close the bar early tonight."

Nimbus raised an eyebrow.

"I wanna see how ya saved Vanhoover."

"You already have, Tank," Nimbus added, smirking.

"From your eyes," Tank added, pointing a hoof at the organs in questions.

The blue pegasus buck chuckled a little. "Ah, alright."

A few minutes later, Happy returned.

And about ten other foals as well.

"He's a talkative pony." Tank smirked.

"I gathered," Nimbus added, a bemused expression on his face.

Happy bounced up to the table. "I told my friends how awesome you were and how they have to hear your story and... and... yeah!"

Nimbus looked to all the foals. One of them looked bored, a few eager, some seemed to be here just for want of entertainment.

The blue buck smiled to himself. "Alright then. I'll keep going then..."

Level Up!

New Perk: Toughness - Your experiences in the Wasteland have toughened you. You gain +10% DR.

Quest Perk Added: Dream Mare - Every time you are exposed to copious amounts of magic or magical energy, in addition to the normal effects, when you sleep you also count as sleeping in an owned bed and thus count as 'Well Rested' upon awakening and heal half your current damage in addition to other natural healing. Note that magic does not include radiation or taint.

Author's Note

Things are only gonna get better after this, I swear/hope. I've got plans for up to chapter 20 or so, so if I get off my arse and write it then things'll go well.

Thanks to Filthma, Tonto and Sigma for pre-reading, Kkat for Fallout Equestria, Somber for Project Horizons, and, of course, you for reading