AN: If anyone wants to communicate with me quickly, my cell number is 678-221-8467. TEXTING ONLY! I also have room for one more companion OC but it must be sent in by 6/20/12. NO EXCEPTIONS! Anyone who has speculations that are correct about the story gets a shout out.

We just defeated the Powder Gangers at the NCRCF and are now camped out in the guard Tower that is over the main entrance.

"Well, it looks like the security cameras did pick up video of my killer. And he was heading in the direction of Prim, with 5 Iron Wills in tow." I say

"Well I know where we're headed. It's also a perfect opportunity to take out some more Raiders." Says Hawkens.

"Indeed. Well, since it seems that all of us but you got out unscathed, let me heal your wounds before we set off, OK Hawkens." Twilight comments

"Fine, but only if we can set off for Prim within the hour. I mean, I can see the dang town from here."

"Trust me, it shouldn't take too long to do this, you only have a concussion from all of that recoil from your freaking two gauge shotguns and a few scratches."

"Yeah yeah whatever. Hey, Flare, how about your new zebra friend tells a bit about herself."

"OK, but she likes to rhyme everything she says so don't say I didn't warn you. Shiara, take it away."

"Where to begin with my story? Maybe with something a bit gory? When I was a filly, I was certainly not frilly. Growing up with very effective assassins, I was taught to handle any circumstances. When I was old enough to be considered a mare, I set out to get some fresh air. I joined the zebra tribe of the rainbow, and protected them from any trouble that they brought in tow. Until recently, there was no trouble, but then the Powder Gangers threatened to turn the village to rubble. I gave myself to them as a peace offering. I was hoping to prevent any violence that was oncoming. Turns out the Gangers had something worse planned for me. Something that would ruin my delightful personality. Luckily Flare here came and got me freed, otherwise that may have well been the end of my creed."

"Sorry I asked. Hey Flare, could I take a look at that new rifle of yours?" Hawkens asks

"No offense to your expertise with the inner workings of machines, but when it comes to advanced technologies and things of the like, I am better than you. Speaking of the new gun, I was wondering, do you know what it would take to make this kind of clip attachment?" I ask him as I show him the schematics that are on my Pip-Buck.

"Well, you would need a Pyremagic Canister or two, a micro pump, some rubber tubing, some scrap metal for the fasteners, and of course, some Pyremagic. You could also get a nozzle that you would put over the front of the weapon if you wanted to increase the range of the thing by forcing the Pyremagic out faster. If you wanted to make it a burst weapon, you would have to get a timer or a delay of some sort and an electric valve. Now if you're asking me if I can make it, you obviously don't know me that well because it is quite obvious that I could. "

"Sweet, I will be on the lookout for said items. I already have plenty of Pyremagic and a pair of Pyremagic canisters, both reinforced so if they get shot, they won't explode. So now I just need the rest of the parts."

"Actually, I managed to get my hands on some larger than normal surgical tubing, maybe that could work." Twilight says.

"Perfectly."

"Well, I will be on the lookout for the remaining parts." I say

"OK Hawkens, you're all better. Please do not fire that blasted shotgun duo in close quarters. Not until Flare gets the chance to modify it with enchanted gems to reduce the recoil. That does seem to be a part of his area of expertise."

"Indeed, I had to get some training in magic gems when I got my wings, since they run on gem power and sunlight. If you ever find 4 black gems, I can make it so your shotguns have no recoil." I say to Hawkens.

"Well, I'll keep an eye out. How about we set out for Prim? We still have an hour till nightfall and hopefully we can get a room for the night and a real night's sleep. Anyone else with me?" Hawkens asks the group.

"How about tomorrow? I haven't gotten a night's sleep since I was shot in the head." I say

" Fine. I wouldn't think that we would need a guard detail considering everypony thinks this is still Ganger territory."

"I would say that that's a safe assumption, but better safe than sorry considering the world's state of corruption."

"I have to agree with Shiara. I'll get the first watch." I say. "If anything that looks like trouble and turns out to be trouble get's to close, headshot."

With five of us, we all did about an hour and a half of night watch each. There was a Centaur or two during my watch but nothing serious. The next day, we set off for Prim and in an hour we were there.

"Halt. The city of Prim is off limits." A dark purple NCR officer mare tells us. The NCR officer had on a roughly made leather armor that had a piece of plate metal over the front chest area that had a two headed Ursa Major on it.

"What's going on? Why can't we go to Prim?"

"Haven't you heard? The dang place has been taken over by convicts who escaped from the NCRCF. It's too dangerous to go alone. I would offer your some form of protection but it seems that you are not alone."

"OK then. Well, there is a pony in there that I have to meet in there who is part of the Equestria Couriers." I say to her.

"Well then you're looking for Johnson. He's in the Vicki and Vance Casino. Good luck getting to him though, because the place is surrounded by escaped convicts."

"Even though you say this place will bring misfortune, we can handle ourselves, of this I am certain."

"Well howdy folks. My name's Johnson. How can I help you?" an old dark brown haired stallion with an even darker close cut mane asks us as we entered the Vicki and Vance Casino.

"I am looking for the pony who killed me. He was wearing a fancy pre-war suit and was probably with some Iron Wills. I need to find him because he stole an Item that I was supposed to deliver to Mr. Stable." I tell him.

"Quite the entourage you've got there. You wouldn't happen to be a courier would you?"

"Yes I am. "

"OK. Yeah, I saw the pony when he passed through a few days ago. Definitely from New Pegasus, he was headed there to his Casino after all. If you want to know more, you will want to ask our Deputy."

"Well, where is this deputy?" Hawkens asks him.

"He got himself captured while 'scouting' out the Buffalo Bill hotel and casino. I assure you that the town would be much obliged if you could free him. Get some law back in this place."

"Thank you kindly sir. That is very helpful." I tell him.

"One more thing young 'in, do you know who you're messing with?"

"The real question is, did the stallion who killed me now who he was messing with."

We leave the casino and head over to the hotel across the street. The door is unlocked so we just walk in. There are two convicts on both sides of the door. When they hear the door open, they raise both of their double barrel shotguns at us and are about to pull the triggers when, I stab though their necks with one of my grapples for each, instantly killing them.

"Effective." Hawkens compliments.

Now that we are effectively inside, we split up. I go with Twilight on the main floor and Hawkens goes with Shiara on the top.

"Twilight, link our thoughts again, would you kindly." I say to her.

'Already done.' She thinks to me.

'Hawkens, notify me if you find the deputy, I'll do the same if I find him.'

'Will do. Call me if you get into trouble. You will know if I am.'

'I don't doubt it, but this is going to be extremely close range, your claws should be good enough. Besides, you have our resident ninja to get your six.'

'That you do, my feathered friend. I will protect your back, since I do not want this comradery to end.'

Since Hawkens and Shiara both use weapons of the silent variety, I couldn't hear a thing that they were doing except the occasional thump of a dead ponies body that they felled. The lower level was pretty uneventful, except for the lobby room. There were a 10 ponies and one of them had a Pyre-cannon. I signaled at him to Twilight and she took him out with a headshot. I then managed to pull off 4 shots in rapid succession. Now that there were only 5 left, Twilight zapped 3 of them with her magic lightning leaving two. They both managed to get enough shots of to cripple my back legs, but I managed to cripple their necks with my grapples.

"What is with you Flare, it seems that you never get hit in fights, but when you do, it's always somewhere vital to wasteland survival. I mean, right now, both of your hind legs are broken. If I wasn't here, you would have to crawl out all on your own. Let me take care of those legs for you. Should only take a few minutes and a stimpack to get you walking again. I am going to have to take a look at you later on though to make sure that your legs are completely healed before we get into any more fights."

"Yeah yeah whatever." I say as she stabs my each of my legs with a stimpack after using her healing magic to set my leg bones.

"Now you should be able to walk. How's that feel?" She asks me.

"Much better now that they are usable."

"HEY, ANYPONY OUT THERE? I COULD USE SOME HELP." Somepony with a real southern drawl yells.

We walk towards the voice and see a stallion with a white coat and a shaggy dirty blond mane. His cutiemark was a sheriff's star that had the top point broken off.

"Well hello. You wouldn't happen to be the Deputy for this town, would you?" I ask

"Well you've come to the right pony. Would you mind setting me free?"

'Hey, Hawkens, we found him. We are on the main floor near the lobby. We'll meet you outside, k.'

'Yeah, no problem. I found some more memory orbs. Some seem to be pre-war and others from vaults.'

"Twilight, Hawkens found some spheres." I tell her. "I'll let you free, if you tell me about the stallion in the checkered jacket and was surrounded by Iron Wills." I say to the Deputy

"Well now, I do recollect the ponies of which you speak. But I cannot remember much of anything else, now, considering the stress of being ponynapped and all, my mind would probably be more giving of information if I were in a less stressful location."

"Uuuuh, say what now?" I ask

"He said that he will tell us what he knows if we let him go and meet him outside." Twilight tells me.

"OOOH." I respond kind of embarrassed.

Twilight facehooves.

" Fine, I'll let you go, but just take this into account, I have a ninja zebra and a griffin with f*ck*ng two gauge shotguns and diamond claws, so if you try to bail, they will just take you back up to the roof and my three horned unicorn friend here will have your mind all to her own."

"Alright alright I get your point. I'll wait for you outside the Vicki and Vance, K?"

"That's good with me." I tell him

'Hawkens, Shiara, the deputy fellow is leaving the building, make sure he doesn't run anywhere but to the Vicki and Vance. He has the information we need to find out where the pony who killed me is running off to next.'

'Will do Flare.' Hawkens replies

With that, I cut his ropes and set him free, and he dashes out of there in a blur.

'Were you really going to have me mind-rape him if he fled?' Twilights thinks to me in a concerned tone

'No, but when I have a team like this and we are dealing with a semi-corrupt officer of the law, it's nice to be able to do this. Trust me, you're not going to mind-rape anyone unless you want to and it is necessary.'

I see her make a sigh of relief.

"Let's just get outside so we can get the information." She says

"My thoughts almost exactly, I just want to scavenge some parts from the Pyre-cannon."

"No problem, I will wait for you outside."

We both walk out of the room where they were holding the deputy and while Twilight leaves, I search the main room for the Pyre-cannon but can't find it. Then I notice a neutral tick on my E.F.S. towards the back of the room where there is no light except for the flicker of a Sunset Sarsaparilla machine. I now hear a subtle wing beat but I also hear some occasional sparks. I look to my wings and see that they are fine. As I get closer, my eyes get used to the darkness and I can see a Sprite-Bot hovering in the air. This was different than the normal Sprite-Bots because this one had a camera in the center of its "face" and a pair of multipronged claws. In those claws was the Pyre-cannon, except it was dismantled. The Sprite-Bot handed me some of the parts from the weapon. It hands me the nozzle, the Pyremagic, the burst regulator, and the micro pump. It then proceeds to turn the rest of the weapon into scrap metal and gives that to me.

"Have you been following us?" I ask the robot.

"Yes."

I am practically hanging on to the ceiling.

"I didn't know that you things could talk."

"Well, I am not this thing. I am simply controlling it from a remote location." It says in a monotone voice.

"Well, who are you then?"

"I am adventurer like you, but I am elder to you. I am personal friends with DJ Pon-3 and am one of her primary informants when I am not doing my job. Yes, we go way back, from before she came out here. I also help out the occasional pony from this custom Sprite-Bot made for me by one of my dear friends. I am also in charge of the construction of the new SPP tower in New Pegasus. You can call me Overwatch. I assure you, you will come to see my real face in the future, but only when you are ready. I believe that these are the parts that you need for the Pyremagic alternate ammo system for that gun."

"Yes, thank you very much. Will you be offering any more assistance in the future?" I ask the voice behind the bot.

"Most defiantly, and don't worry, I will tell DJ Pon-3 what you and your friends are doing." It says before it teleports to who knows where.

'Well that was mostly unexpected.' I think to myself.

'HEY FLARE, GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE!' Hawkens think/yells at me. 'This Deputy is about to piss himself if you don't get out here and tell him that we are not going to carry him to the roof and mind-rape him.'

'On my way.'

Right as I am about to exit the place, a random swarm of bloat-sprites attacks me. I dash into a room and close the door, but not before I lob a few sticks of dynamite in there. BOOOOOOM! When I open the door, the ground is covered in their blood.

'DAMNIT, more taintblood. How the hell did Bloatsprites get in here?'

Then I notice the gaping hole in the ceiling. I then try to leave without stepping in taintblood but find that impossible. When I finally get outside, I see the Deputy, surrounded by my amigos, quaking in fear. I can't help but chuckle.

"Lo-look. I-I'll tell you everything. Just make order them not to hurt me." He says as he hides his head under his hooves.

"OK, guys, step away a bit, would you kindly."

The move away about a ponylength each and the deputy just opens up like a book.

"They were headed towards Nelliton. Said something about a contact there. I also overheard that they were going towards Novac after that's all I know, I swear."

"OK thanks. Have a nice day."

LEVEL UP- LV.9

Perk Added – Flare's Taint Rank 2

You now take 15% less damage from Pyremagic and deal 15% more damage with Pyremagic. When you have 200 rads or more, you regain 2 health per second.

Perk Added – Taintbane

You have deal 20% more damage to all tainted creatures or ponies.