Fallout Equestria

Chapter 8.

She rolled her eyes at me. "Oh come now. I'm not the locksmith you are, and I certainly do not have the level of telekinetic mastery that you showed -- most impressive, I should add -- but I am a unicorn! I can do basic levitation. Between your missiles and the mines, I was able to... bypass the need for lockpicks or keys."

The train rumbled around us. Glancing out my window, I saw that we had already traversed the desert and were clearly well on our way up the mountain. The pace of the train ponies was slowing; we were getting close to the peak-point of the mountain track. My conversation with Velvet had lulled, and now Calamity disrupted it completely.

"Our shadow's back."

I pulled myself into a sitting position, testing my mended leg. "Shadow?"

The colt who spoke up earlier declared, "Mister Calamity thinks something is following us." I noticed Calamity was crouched to the window, looking upwards through it... towards the sky?

"Another..." I kept myself from saying 'goddess' in reference to the winged unicorn slaver I had battled. "...one of those... like at the sheriff's?"

'Ah don't think so. But there's a'somethin' up there. Keepin' just out of sight."

"If it's out of sight, how do you know there is anything there?" Velvet countered. But at Calamity's look, she relented. "Another pegasus, perhaps?"

Calamity grimaced. "Ah... really don't think so." He returned his gaze to the window, quieting.

"At least it has stopped raining," Velvet Remedy announced, looking out the window. "That storm lasted for days."

I turned and looked out at the thick grey cloud cover. The water had indeed stopped falling from the sky, and the clouds were a much lighter color, turning the sunlight a drab grey.

"Velvet..." I started.

She smiled at me, and my heart soared, her previous grating remark instantly forgotten. "Thank you, Littlepip. Your bandages saved my life."

I looked at her, knowing that there was no way those poor excuses for medical aid, magically treated or not, could have brought her to health. I started to say as much but she lifted a hoof to interrupt. "No, but you managed just well enough that I regained consciousness, and from there I could take care of myself," She cast a sidelong look towards Calamity. "Not to mention you and that interesting friend of yours."

Calamity nickered in her direction.

I stared at my leg, surprised. Grinning, Velvet reminded me, "I did tell you I'd always wanted to be a medical pony. I studied for it and even apprenticed."

I looked at the beautiful mare, many years my elder, curiously. "If that's what you wanted, why didn't you?"

"Because my cutie mark showed up. One day, I sang a song for an ailing gentlepony, and it appeared. A songbird, a nightingale to be precise. And when your cutie mark appears, your place in the Stable is decided." There was a sad matter-of-factness in her voice. It was a truth I knew too well.

"I even begged the Overmare. But clearly it was to be my destiny to be an entertainer, my fate was written on my flanks. My voice was the most beautiful in the Stable, and I could not deny that I could sing. Or that I even enjoyed it a fair bit. The Overmare even showed me my geneology, proving that I was the many-times-great granddaughter of Stable Two's first Overmare, who herself was also a legendary singer."

I nodded, having heard the heartwrenching music myself while in Turnpike Tavern.

"How could I fight the weight of all of that? The Overmare... she graciously allowed me to indulge my hobby in the small times when it wouldn't interfere with my new duties of uplifting the Stable's flagging morale. But my dreams, I was told, were not for me."