Borderlands of Equestria: Finding the Vault

I walked out of the train station to see the desolate town ahead of me. It looked like half of the original buildings fell long ago, and the other half were just patchwork. As I walked up the path toward the town some of the buildings began to stick out from the rest. At the front of the town I could see a garage, crudely made up of a bunch of left over metal from the other buildings. Closer to the center of town, I saw what looked like a bar. The bar stood out from the rest of the town since it looks like it came from the old days, untouched and still looked like a house made of candy. I looked out to what I think used to be a forest, and I saw a run down cottage with a big red plus on the roof.

Before I could notice anything else, I bumped into something metal. "What the Hell did I bump into?"

"oh! That would be me!"

I looked down to see a small CL4P-TP unit. It was painted purple and green with a plastic tail taped on its back with matching spines that went up to the top of the unit. "And just who, or what, are you supposed to be?"

The little robot gave a salute and introduced himself, "My name is 5-P-1-K-3, but you can just call me Spike." He bounced on his wheel and rolled in a small circle before continuing, "I'm the assistant to Ms.T up in what used to be the library." He pointed to the back of the town where I could barely make out a few dead branches. "Ms.T is expecting you!"

"Is she my Vault informer then?"

"Yes she is. Follow me!" Spike began to roll off into town. "I'll give you a tour while I'm at it." I followed spike into town, our first stop was the garage named, Ridin' AJ.

The building was fairly large with two garage doors as the only entrances. Both of the doors were closed with a large sign outside that said, "out to lunch, Be back whenever."

I looked at the sign, "seems like the mechanic isn't here right now."

"Oh well, She'll be back later. Let's go to Sugars Corner! They're always open, all you have to do is come inside!" Spike rolled around me and started off to the next destination, sounding like a walking ad.

We made our way to the building that looked like it was made of candy and sweets. There were tables outside with a few rough looking ponies getting drunk. I could hear loud music coming from inside masking the commotion and roughhousing. Spike made his way toward the door but stopped at the stairs and looked up at the large unicorn stallion guarding the door, "Hey buddy mind giving me a hand?"

The stallion scoffed and turned his head, "forget it tic-tac, Rated-R doesn't want you in her club anymore since you tried to get it on with her radio."

"aww come on! that was one time! and I only did it since she wouldn't show me the goods." Spike started getting mad, "come on Clarence, just hoist me up the stairs! I won't make trouble, Please?"

"no can do, sorry shrimp." The bouncer looked at me, "Sorry miss, I would let you in but Rated-R doesn't let anyone in while that little turd is at her front door."

I nodded, "no problem I'll come back later."

Spike crossed his arms and rolled back to me, "all right, let's just go to Ms.T, you can check out the rest of the town later."

I followed Spike through the town up to the tree in a small clearing, or what was once a tree. The "tree" had no leaves and was basically a large chunk of wood in the shape of a tree. There was quite a bit of tech protecting the tree, a particle wall, several auto turrets, and a basic keypad lock on the door. I looked over to Spike, "aaaaand how do you propose we get through all of that?"

He twirled in place, "Don't worry friend! all of this is mostly for show. I just need to say the pass-phrase and we can go through!"

"ok so what's the pass-phrase?" I looked at Spike in disbelief.

I heard a light click from Spike as he started speaking in a different voice, "Dear Princess Celestia, Friendship is dead."

Right as Spike finished speaking, an opening appeared in the wall and the turrets shut down. We continued ahead and walked up to the door. Spike started to press buttons on the console. I looked at the door to see several large metal bolts covering it. The bolts began to retract to reveal a wooden door that had a faint painting of a candle on it, the door also nested several bullet holes as well. Seems like whoever lives here isn't very popular with the locals. Spike opened the door, and I saw who lives here.

She was a unicorn with a light purple coat, and a smooth long dark purple mane that had three stripes running through it. She had on a red labcoat and jeans, along with a spiked ring around her horn. She stood there arguing with a small device in her hoof.

"I'm Telling you, I'm getting closer and closer to finding the location to the Vault. All I really need is a few more months and I will know approximately where the Vault might be. I'm also going to need that artifact you found sent here for study. I have reason to believe that it might be a crucial piece of the Vault. Also if you could send over some daises, I have been starving, and don't cheep out with dandelions! They are not the same and don't make a fool of me! Also, say hi to fluff for me." She turned to me and Spike. "Spike goddammit! What have I told you about leading strange ponies into the house!"

She lifted Spike in the air with her magic and threw him down the basement stairs, "stay down there and reprogram yourself or something, I don't care." She pulled out a Dahl pistol and pointed it at me, in turn I quickly drew my pistol as well. "what do you want?"

Before I could answer, Spike's voice echoed from downstairs, "that's the Vault hunter Ms.T!!!"

She looked me over, "One second, don't move." her pistol was in-cased in a faint purple glow as she went over to one of the messy desks strewn about the room. She shuffled through the papers, until she pulled out a photograph. She held up the photograph and compared me to it. Her pistol lowered and she put it away, "You're much larger in person." She held out her hoof, "My name is Twilight Sparkle... or it used to be, before the Vault happened. Now I just go by Ms.T"

I put my pistol away and shook her hoof, "My name is Allure, I guess I'm right to assume that you're my Vault informant?"

"Yes, that's correct." She put the picture back on the desk. "Here, follow me to my bedroom. we can talk there, also i have something I need to give you." Ms.T started to walk up the stairs. I followed and took my first good look around the room.

This building apparently used to be a library, there were still a few books on the shelves but not enough to fill all of the scorched shelves. Only about a third of the books were left from what this library could hold, and most of those books were burnt as well. The main circular area was cluttered with several desks and papers strewn about everywhere. The circular table in the center was the worst though, there were artifacts, books, and notes everywhere, and on the top of the table looked like there was once a statue there but only about half of it remained.

I walked up the stairs and went to Ms.T's bedroom, it was a simple bed and nightstand with a window over looking it. Ms.T was hunched over looking in the bottom drawer of her nightstand. I looked over to a picture on the wall, it was of Ms.T and 5 other ponies that had were ripped from the picture, along with a small dragon that had the same color pattern as her CL4P-TP unit.

"Ms.T? Who are the other ponies in this picture on your wall?" I asked

She didn't even look up from her night stand as she answered me, "Their all unimportant. Now mind your own damn business!" She threw something long and purple at me, and I had no time to react so it hit me straight in the face awkwardly. I looked down to see that it was a dildo.

"aww that's disgusting! don't throw something at me that's been inside you! Blugh!" I wiped off my face.

"oh stop being a kid and grow up." she took out a small device and handed it to me with her magic.

It was labeled "Echo Device" with a handle and a small speaker. "what is this?"

"it's an echo device, also a heads up display. look on the back."

I looked on the back of the device to see a pair of goggles, I put them on and instantly saw a map, how much ammo I had, how health I was, and a cross-hair wherever I looked. I strapped the Echo Device on my belt next to my inventory and instantly saw another option open up, Inventory, I looked at the menu and could see everything that was in my inventory unit. This Device was way to awesome to pass up.

Ms.T smiled, something that seemed like she hasn't done in a long time, as she saw me in amazement. "I made it, I made plenty of Echo devices, but that's the only one with a heads up display." She puffed up her chest in pride. A small beeping sound could be heard from the other room. Ms.T rushed into the room as I played with the options on the heads up display a bit more.

She quickly ran back in, "There's no Time to explain but I need you to go! Now!" She lifted me up with her magic and threw me out the door, "Don't worry about my defense system, I registered you just now, feel free to come back any time except for right now!"

Confused, I began to walk away from the tree-house and make my way back to town to explore a bit more.