POV Rio
After I woke up, a lot of things happened. The first was Cadenza confessing to me. I was caught very off guard as I was still trying to process what happened. But she gave me time to respond, which, after some thought, I agreed to start dating.
Other than that, I had to deal with the confusion of trying to sort out my dream. Or at least I thought it was a dream, but based on my inventory filled to the brim with Minecraft blocks and various other odd items, made it clear it wasn't a dream. But that left me with even more questions than answers. My best guess was that I was Dream Walking while I was under the curse. But that didn't fit perfectly, as it didn't explain the strange void or the people I saw in it. Or that powerful one that seemed to send me out of the void.
Putting aside the bizarre situation, I learned what I missed, which wasn't too much. Diamond City officially joined the Mintuemen, and those who didn't want to join left for The Island. The final straw for them was the disappearance of the moon. The moon was gone now, which caused some problems for Earth, but given that only a small fraction of the planet is habitable at this time, it didn't really mean much. And when I say the moon was gone, I meant that literally. It seemed that when the Lich blew up, he annihilated the moon. Now, barely a few chunks of debris remain, which, from the reports, are too thin to even create a ring. It was unfortunate, as the moon could have had some interesting items on it or at least been a great bulwark to protect Earth.
Speaking of defending Earth, Guto and his men had discovered a massive spaceship below the surface of Mars. And when I say massive, I mean gigantic. The current estimates indicate it is at the bare minimum of 3 kilometers long. And that was the conservative estimate. With the high-end estimate going as high as 10 km long. Excavations have already gone underway. But even with our fastest work, we won't expect to excavate it until January of next year.
Speaking of January, I had woken up just in time for Christmas. Which meant it was time to spread some joy. And best of all, I got all my friends to agree to join me this year. We would all fly together via a sleigh. And the best part, I only had to do the ritual for myself. I could then use Christmas Magic to turn everyone into reindeer to fly a sleigh I had made myself. I wasn't sure who would play the role of Santa yet. I was just thinking of putting a Santa hat on Dogmeat and having him be the 'pilot.' Mostly because I would be leading the sleigh team. I was doing all of this work for a reason. If it were just myself then I wouldn't be able to cross the entire globe by myself. There wasn't enough Christmas Spirit to power me alone. But with a team all working together, it changes things. I could use them as conduits of sorts, and with the power of friendship, we would be able to span the entire globe in a single night. I didn't need to do that, but I wanted to.
Sometime Later...
"Okay, everyone ready?" I ask already in my reindeer form.
"Uh, I don't know about this. Are you sure this is safe?" MacCready asks with a nervous sweat.
"Yeah, this is a bit out there, Rio," Hancock comments with a nervous chuckle.
"Ahh, come on, have some Christmas Spirit. This will be fun, I promise. And you already agreed," I reply.
Before anyone else can say anything, Cadenza volunteers to be changed first. She ends up looking pretty close to what I look like, except she doesn't have a shining red nose. Once she transforms, she starts to fly around and seems to handle it well, which makes everyone else less worried. One by one, I transform them all into reindeer, and then I let them play around for a bit.
"Okay, come on back, we got a schedule to maintain. These presents won't deliver themselves," I yell, and everyone gathers around.
I have everyone hooked up in their harnesses and make sure they fit properly. The harnesses were made of bright red leather and had silver bells attached all over them. Once everyone was good, I had the magic clone pilot us with Dogmeat being the most useful copilot possible.
"Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!" The Clone yells as we start to prance into the sky.
Jingling Jingling Jingling Jingling Jingling Jingling Jingling
As we fly through the sky, the soft jingling of bells can be heard. At first, we weren't going too fast as everyone started to figure out how to get into rhythm with me. As the head reindeer, I set the rhythm for the prancing and was also the guide of sorts. Once everyone matched my rythmn our speed drastically increased. And as we were going so fast, I started to hear music.
(AN: Play Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Burl Ives for music, or if you want the instrumental version, you can listen to Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (Instrumental) do know that the instrumental is not quite right, but I couldn't find the version I wanted. There is also an animated version of this song, but it looks pretty weird, so watch it at your own risk. )
As the music started announcing each reindeer name, each one of us felt a surge of joy and wonder. I felt like I was a kid again, who was opening presents with friends and family. Or like reading a book by the fire on a cold winter night. Everything just felt... nice. Like everything would be okay. I was so lost in that feeling that I didn't even notice as we made stop after stop delivering presents, nor when the music caused the lingering spirits to smile and fade away. Or at least not at first, but I started to notice after an hour or so. It seemed like a lot of spirits and ghosts had been lingering on Earth since the Great War and even before that. Which made sense when you think about the many people who died nearly instantly without even having a chance to say goodbye. Or those that slowly lost themselves to radiation.
Regardless of how or when they died, many were put to rest once and for all, thanks to us. And that was something really special even for me. I may have done something like this before, but it never stopped being a deed that made me feel like I had done something good for the world. And now I could say that my friends have experienced this as well.
Our territory was done fairly quickly, and we didn't find many on the naughty list this year. It made me feel fantastic to see such a clear improvement. It also helped that many people had proper homes and stable lives. The few on the naughty list weren't that bad, just too many bad things and not enough nice things. We didn't even find a single raider or gunner. At least not in Minutemen territory. The Island was still a mess in terms of bad people, but it still had some good people mixed in.
After the island, the next place was the rest of the world. Honestly, it was pretty depressing to see how much damage the Lich had caused before we managed to stop him. I mean, I knew he had caused damage and had seen some of it firsthand, but seeing it from above made things that much darker. Practically the entire globe was covered in deadlands. It dampened our spirits, but we still found a small vestige of life in the seemingly endless wasteland. A small part of North America had managed to cling to life. It was the area around the Hoover Dam and parts of California.
[Image Of US Here]
It was there that we found two factions still surviving. The first was the Free Economic Zone of New Vegas, which Mr. House led. And the other was what was called the United Empire. Not sure where they came from, but that wasn't my problem. Both groups were small but alive nonetheless. I counted only 36k for the Empire and 11k for New Vegas. Both sides had their mix of bad apples, but on average, it was better than The Island, so it was good enough. They at least had a fairly stable government of sorts.
We had finished the job in only 5 hours, which was a good time, but what I didn't expect was for us to appear on Equus suddenly. We were clearly flying towards Solaris, but as we did so, I suddenly spotted the spirits of many creatures. The brightest of which was a trio of reindeer. The youngest looked to be a child. The middle seemed like a normal adult reindeer. And the last was an elderly reindeer. Each one joined our procession and guided us past the barrier and into the various homes of the residents in the city.
Solaris was finished very quickly. It took only around an hour and a half to get everyone their presents. The difference was staggering as we ran into only 922 people on the naughty list. Of which 411 were former rebels hiding out and waiting to strike again, or were in custody already. The rest were business ponies or nobles who were exploiting the current situation for their own gain. Which, in a city of 75k, is a very impressive percentage.
Once we had finished delivering the presents, we stopped at the palace, and the spirits had all moved on. Except for the three reindeer that I was pretty sure were the gift givers of the grove. They smiled at me but didn't speak. As I started to get confused about what they wanted, they began to glow a brilliant white. Once the light faded, they were gone, and in their place was a Christmas tree with presents underneath. Moveover we were back home in Sanctuary. Before I could even comment, a chime echoed, and I realised the transformation spell was ending, so I quickly brought out beds and got ready for the wave of exhaustion that was about to hit us. And it seemed I got everyone out of the sleigh and ready to conk out as the spell ended, and we all felt beyond exhausted. I didn't even say a word and dropped into bed and fell asleep immediately.
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Author's Note:
Merry Christmas, even if it's late or early. To me Chistmas isn't about religion or tradition but about being kind to your fellow man and coming together to be with friends and family to spread joy and kindness to everyone you see. I truly do think it is the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year. As I end this chapter, I wanted to leave you with the poem: A Visit from Saint Nicholas, by Clement C. Moore.
'T was the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap;
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and Saint Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney Saint Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"