The Stranger With a Big Iron on Her Hip

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter <error>
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
A letter from the Author.
Prologue
Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Somewhere in the desert, Scarlet was lying on her back, passed out. A bird flew in and landed on top of her. It tilted its small head and hopped towards her face, and gave a small peck on her check. Scarlet moan in complain and shifted for a moment. The bird peck again and did it a few more times causing Scarlet to final awake. She quickly sat up and tried to swat the bird away. She watched the bird fly away mumbling, “Stupid bird.” Then she suddenly remembered what had happen to her and she franticly patted herself down. She sighed in relief to find herself still in one peace. Then her eyes narrow, “Klein, I’m going hit you so hard, your brain will be spinning for weeks.” She reached into her bag and grabbed the Big Mountain Transportalponder! and active it. Nothing happen.

She looked at the Transportalponder and pulled the trigger a few more times. “Work you stupid piece of…,” the device suddenly spark and smoke started to come out of it. She sighed and put the now broken device in her bag, “Great, now I’m stranded here…wherever here is.” She looked her Pip-Boy and pulled up the map, only to get a location unknown message. “Forget what I said Klein. I’m going to slowly kill you.”

She lowered her arm and looked around the area. It looked like any old desert, with subs spread throughout the land and mountains in the distance. However, she didn’t see any land marks she was familiar with that were in the Mojave, if she was still in the Mojave that is. In fact nothing looked familiar and that coming the women who travel throughout the whole area of the Mojave. “Maybe I’m in Mexico,” she jokingly said. “But my Pip-Boy should still pick up my location.”

She looked at her Pip-Boy again and was glad that the compasses and clock was still working. Then she notice something was off; judging the position the sun was in the sky, the time was…a few hours in the morning? Her clock said otherwise and the time was actually 1:34pm. “Okay… now that is strange.” If her Pip-Boy couldn’t get the time right something must be wrong with it.

Well there no point in standing here wasting time, I should try to find a town and see if they have any electronics parts to sell. Just need to get the Transportalponder to work again and I get back to Big Mountain. She reached into a pocket from her Desert Ranger armor and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. Let hope the nearest town is not that far away, because I don’t have enough supplies for a long trip. She decided to head towards the rising sun. Why? She just felt like it.

******************

It seemed the way of the desert deem her worthy to continue to on living, because it wasn’t that long till she came across a train track. Where there are train tracks there has to be some sort of town next to it or the tracks led to some old world ruins. She walked on top of the track, heading down the same direction as before, and was utterly board out her mind. Shouldn’t some giant Radscorpions attack me by now? Or even Deathclaws since they like to hang around trains tracks. In fact, I haven’t seen any living being, no roaming Bighorns, Geckos, and thankfully no swarm of Cazadors, only birds. In fact…I haven’t even any old world ruins. Where are the billboards or the roads that are normally run along the tracks?

A loud whistle was emitted and rang throughout the air of the desert from behind her. Scarlet stopped walking, turned around and saw something coming down the track. “What in the world is that?” She soon heard a chugging sound and another whistle was emitted. Scarlet had the sudden urged to get off of the track. As she did the noise from the strange object only got louder and louder. She pulled out the 12.7mm SMG and got ready for the worst possibility. The earth rumble beneath her and she could she smoke rising from the mysterious object. Then something came to her mind, “Wait? Is that a train?” It was indeed a train and soon it pass in front of her, and it was dragging along multiple of rectangle boxes with it.

Scarlet just stood there, her month slightly open in amazed. She had never seen a working train before. Sure there was the monorail, but that was small compare to what was in front of her. The train finally end and continued heading east. Scarlet still stood there bewilder of what she saw. “Okay, that’s new.” She only read about trains from the archives in Big Mountain, but to see one that was still working was beyond her imagination, especially if the engine was coated in the color pink. She shook her head, “Get back on the track and follow that train. Train means people and people mean supplies and information.” She went back on the train track and jogged down it.

*******************

“Kind-of looked like Nipton,” she said once the town came into view over the horizon. She grabbed a water bottle and took a sip from the warm water. Hopefully it hasn't be attack by any savages, she thought. Of course if there are any crazy savages, I’ll take them out this time.

As she got closer she noticed several small colorful specks wandering inside the town. She took off her sunglasses and rubbed her eyes, wanting to make sure she wasn't seeing thing. She looked again, and the colorful specks were still there. “Okay, what are you?” She unstrapped the Anti-materiel rifle and looked through the scope.

For a while she just stare at the town, rattle at what she saw. “No, I’m not seeing this.” Colorful four legged creatures were walking inside the town, and almost all of them were wearing cowboy hats. However the creature name hung in the back of her mind and made her to stare aimlessly for a while. “Horses…they’re horses,” remembering the book she gave to Papa Khan to convince him to leave during the battle at Hoover Dam.

“Well fuck,” she lowered the scope, “that's a complete frag in my plans.”

*******************

“Thanks again Applejack for coming all the way from Ponyville,” Braeburn said.

“It’s not a problem Braeburn. Just can’t believe that a whole acre of apple trees are sick. Hopefully we can find out what’s wrong with them before it’s too late.” Applejack and Braeburn were walking towards the orchard field.

“So, how was the train ride?” Braeburn asked in his normal cheerful voice.

“Boring like the last time I came down here,” Applejack answered. “Until we got closer to Appleloosa through, some filly clamed to see a hairless ape standing on the side of the track, which cause an argument between her and her mother.”

Braeburn slightly chuckle, “Did you see this big hairless ape?”

“Na, I was taking a nap. It was the argument woke that me up. That filly sure can get loud when she wants to.” They both chuckle as they enter the orchard field. Applejack then saw a familiar face, “Well howdy there Little Strongheart, long time no see.”

“Hello again Applejack,” Strongheart said. She turned to face Braeburn, “I could find nothing wrong with the land to find reason why the apple trees are sick.”

Applejack looked at Braeburn with her eyes slightly raised. “Little Strongheart insisted to help, since the buffalo tribe knows the land better than we do. She asked right as you were coming from Ponyville.”

“I’m not mad Braeburn. Beside two heads are better than one.” She did a smug smile then shook her head. “Now where is the worst cast of this here illness?”

“Near the river,” Braeburn said pointing a hoof to one side of the orchard. “I notice some of the trees’ leaves were wilting a few days ago. At first I thought they weren’t getting enough water, but the irrigation channels are all working fine. Then I thought it was something in the water, but it’s still clean as before.”

“I see.” Applejack walked around the tree several times inspecting it. “How about the apples, are they still good?”

“Yes, I ate one and it tasted just fine. However, I don’t want to sell the sick trees’ apples until we find what is wrong with them or made sure the apples themselves are ok.”

“You still feel fine Braeburn?” Applejack stopped her pacing and looked at Braeburn with a concern look.

“I’m fine AJ. It was just one apple, and beside I got a strong immune system.” Braeburn stood in a proud stance as he said the last part.

“So Applejack,” Strongheart asked, “can you find anything wrong?”

Applejack went back to her trotting around the tree, and after a few minutes she stopped shaking her head. “No, I can’t find anything wrong.”

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Well, how do you like it so far? Not much in these two chapters, but don’t worry crazy thing will happen in the next one.

Fallout New Vegas is copyrighted Obsidian Entertainment and Bethesda Softworks.
MLP: Friendship is Magic is copyright to Hasbro.
All characters that belong to their companies are rightfully theirs. This writing is for fun and nothing else.

Chapter 3

Once again I would like to thank ProtheanBrony for proofreading.
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“Dang, the roots look perfectly fine,” Applejack stated. She was cover in dirt as looked at the half dug up tree. She crawled out from under it, “Alright fellas, ya’ll can lower it back down now.”

The sound of groaning wood and stomping hoofs filled the air as the tree was slowly lowered down back to its hole. I’m running out of ideas, she told herself, I can’t find anything wrong that’s causing these trees to be sick. Maybe I should ask for Twilight’s help before it’s too late.

She felt a light tap on her head, she turn to see Braeburn offering her hat back.

“Thanks Braeburn,” she said before she grabbed her hat with her teeth and skillfully tossed it back on her head. “I think we need to send a letter to Twilight via Lighting Express. I have no idea what I’m looking for, all of my tricks aren’t working, and hopefully Twilight might be able to help us out. Otherwise, there nothing else I can do.”

Braeburn nodded his head, “I trust your judgment cus’, and I think I know the perfect pegasus for the job.” Braeburn noticed the other ponies had finish putting the tree back and were heading back to Appleloosa. He looked back at Applejack, “Will if there nothing else to do, how about we head to my place, you clean up and I buy lunch.”

Applejack smiled, “That sounds mighty fine. You and Strongheart go head though, I catch up with ya’ll in a few minutes.” Braeburn nodded his head and left Applejack alone. Applejack stood there for a few minutes, surveying the land, trying to account about how many trees were truly sick and maybe find a way to stop the spread of the disease if they had to.

After six minutes of thinking, she started to make her way back to Appleloosa. However, as she about to leave the orchard she heard something. It was faint but she could hear rock rolling off the cliff side that was near the orchard. She panned her head towards there and saw some dust floated in the air before it faded away. She narrow her eyes…there was an intruder in the orchard.

********************

“Shit…hoped no one saw that.” Scarlet climbed down numerous hills sides, ruins, and other things from the Mojave, Zion, and even the great Divide. But just she was about to step of the slope off the hill that overlooked this tree field, she lost her footing and stumbled forward. This cause some rocks to rolled down and dust spewing up only to be carried away by the slight breeze that was present.

This cause Scarlet to be uneasy, she knew the importance of trying to make as little change to the land as possible to remain hidden. Which is why she favored the Desert Ranger Combat armor and a long rang riffle with some kind of scope on it. She could blend in with environment and scoped out the land before making her move.

Which she did; when she decided that she needed to find some source of water to replenish her supplies, she found a river running down not far from the town. There were also acres of actually living apple trees near the river, a rare sight in the Mojave. Well…that takes care of food and water, she thought as she took in the view. Sure the apples might not give her a full stomach, but it would be a nice side dish to her meals.

As she was surveying the land she noticed that near the river bed there were a group of horses working on something. Curious she took out her Anti-material rifle and looked down the scope. They were digging out one of the trees and not all of them were horses, one of them looked like a deformed Bighorn calf.

She didn’t want to risk going down and get spotted, so she stayed on the hillside and silently observed them. After making a the tree lean out of a hole exposing its roots, an orange horse jump down and looked at the roots. What is it doing? Never seen a tree’s root before? However, the horse didn’t stay under there for long and soon jumped out, followed by tree being lowered back down. Scarlet observed the orange horse talked to a yellow one for a while. The yellow one soon left with the others while the orange one stayed behind…standing there…doing nothing.

It finally started to make its way out of the field and Scarlet decided that it was safe enough to descend from the hillside. However, as she was taking careful steps down, she misjudged the sturdiness of one of the rocks and it gave under her weight. She stumbled forward, but she caught herself before falling flat on her face. Soon, Scarlet finally reached the edge of the field and she made her way to the river’s bed.

Once she got there she knelt by the river and got out anything that could hold water. As she was filling her last water bottle, she turned her head towards the nearest apple tree. The apples were hanging low, and they looked delicious. One wouldn’t hurt them…and they have thousands of apples to eat. She got up and walked to the tree, reached out and plucked an apple. It was shiny and fresh compare to the one in her world, and she bet it taste a lot better too.

She took a bite and…it was the most moist and sweet thing she had eaten in her entire life. Its flavor was almost like nothing she tasted, it was…it was…*click-click-click*… irradiated.

She looked at her Pip-boy, and indeed, the apple held small amount of radiation in it. Strange, that's the first sign of radiation I've seen in this world. Scarlet didn’t have much time to think about it, for something flew over her head, wrapping around her arms and chest. A hard tug forced her to fall down on her tailbone with a hard thud. She looked down, and saw a rope pinning her arms to her chest, and she traced it to the orange horse she had seen earlier.

“Crap.”

********************

Applejack had never seen a creature like the one before her. Its body was mostly covered in clothes that seemed to be made to blend into the desert. It didn’t have any fur covering its skins expect for a small red patch on top of its head. Oddly enough it was wearing sunglasses like the ones Rainbow Dash would sometimes wear to make herself to looked cooler; however, the ones the creature had looked like its purpose was to intimidate ponies instead.

Applejack was shocked at what she saw, but when the creature pluck and ate one of her family’s apples, AJ kind of lost it. Nopony stole from Apple’s family!

Applejack grabbed her robe, twirled it in the air for a few revolutions and tossed it at the creature. The rope successfully went over the creature and with a hard tug, Applejack brought the creature down. Applejack deftly wrapped her end of the rope a couple of times around her hoof, and kept the rope tight. The creature was a bit daze at first then it looked at itself for a moment and soon turned its head facing Applejack.

“Crap,” she heard the creature speak in an unfamiliar language. The sunglasses were slightly off and Applejack saw its eyes. They were blue and they looked a bit afraid; however, they soon were glaring right at her. A memory of Fluttershy staring down the dragon a few years back, flashed in Applejack’s mind.

“Now, I don’t know if you can understand me, but if you cooperate, we can try to find some way to work this out.” Applejack turned her head to find something to tied down the rope; however, her world soon tumble as something rammed into her hard. Before she could get back up she felt something go around her neck and being force to stay down. She then felt her legs being bound together. I’m being hogged tied!

“Now hold there muafjdaoidpfjl.” The creature took off Applejack’s hat off and stuffed it in pony’s mouth.

“Sorry, but in reality I’m going easy on you. And I can’t let you call out for help just yet.” The creature reached behind its back and pulled out a long cylinder with a big circle at the end of it. As the creature point at her face it said some more things she couldn’t understand, “Don’t worry, I believed the worst injures will be your pride and a bad headache.”

There was a small hum as device glowed and a blue pulse was emitted, passing through Applejack’s head. Her head spin and it was hard to stay awake. She tried to say something before passing out.

***************

The horse finally passed out and Scarlet carefully laid its head on the ground. She removed the hat from its muzzle and noticed some small blood running from its noise. Scarlet accidentally discovered that when fired at point blank range at the head, the Pulse gun acts as partial stun gun. It caused a massive headache and the noise to bleed for a few seconds, nothing serious. Boone didn’t talk for a whole week, she thought to herself, and that was the last time I let Veronica ever mix me a drink. Of course the stun doesn't last very long so Scarlet wasted no time in getting her stuff and headed right back to her campsite. Well that’s one way to introduced yourself to the town’s folks Scarlet, bravo…bravo.

***************

High in the sky two gryphons were sitting on a cloud, watching the human leave the apple orchard. The black feather one turned to brown one.

“Is this the “human” our master talked about?”

“Yes,” he answered with a sly smile.

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Author Note: I kind of making up the part with Pulse gun working as a stun gun. Just want a way for Scarlet to stun without causing massive head damaged to AJ.

Chapter 4

Thanks again to ProtheanBrony for proofreading this. Enjoy.
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“Ohhhh,” Applejack moaned as she slowly regained consciousness. Her head was still spinning and she felt as if she was just bucked in the head. As she opened her eyes, she could see that the world was tilted on its side. She tried to move, but found her legs bound to each other. Then she remembered what happened to her.

She wiggled around a bit, and found the rope was slightly loose, showing the lack of skill the strange creature had with it. Soon Applejack was free and shook the rope off. She found her hat lying not far from her and she grabbed it, but before she put it on her head, she saw some red spots inside the hat. Remembering when the creature stuffed her hat in her face, Applejack rubbed her muzzle with the back of her hoof. As she finished she looked at it and she noticed several small pieces of dry blood on her fur.

“Applejack, you still here?” she heard Braeburn calling out.

“Yeah, I’m still here,” she shouted back. Braeburn came into view and smiled his trademark smile.

“Well there you are, you been gone for twelve minutes. I was wondering what…,” he noticed the rope and small dried strips of blood on AJ’s face, “…happened.”

“I think I just met the 'hairless ape' the little filly saw on the tracks.” Braeburn looked at AJ with disbelief. “Look, Braeburn, I’m the Element of Honesty; I ain't making this up.”

“And you thought you’ll just go up to it and roped it?!”

“Well…I explain later. For now I think we need Little Strongheart’s help.”

********************************

“I can’t believe you decided to face a creature twice your size,” Braeburn shouted in distress as Applejack explained what happen at the apple orchard, “just because it ate an apple!”

“You know me Braeburn, I don’t like anypony stealing apples from us…I just kind of lost it.”

“If you two keep yammering, we might lose this creature,” Strongheart said, annoyed. The two ponies stopped talking and Strongheart went back to tracking the creature. Since she was little, Strongheart had been trained to reading different kinds of animal tracks. Theses track usually helped in finding new sources of water, food, or even tell if there were any predators lurking around in the area. After Applejack told her the creature was about the size of a minotaur she kept a eye out for tracks the size of one. However the tracks she were finding were more flat than round, which was unfamiliar to her, but she could still read them.

After knocking out Applejack, it hastily went to the river bed and then quickly headed for the hills. As the three of them were ascending up the hillside, Strongheart noticed some deep impressions in the gravel, meaning that the creature ran up the hill as quickly as it could. Once on top Strongheart pointed out a big disturbed area, meaning the creature was waiting there for a while looking over the apple orchard; Applejack was a bit uneased by that. But after that the tracks were getting harder for Strongheart to find. Strongheart did the best she could, but eventually she was at standstill. Shaking her head she said, “I can’t follow these tracks anymore.”

“Why, what’s wrong?” Applejack asked.

“The creature is being careful of where its step is being place. It’s avoiding any sort of vegetation and stepping in places where the wind can easy blow them away. I'd say it is very experienced in hiding in the desert, and it could be anywhere by now.”

“Oh gosh darn it,” Applejack said will stomping her hoof. Right as she stomped her hoof there was a small bang, causing everyone’s ears to perk up. “Ya’ll heard that?” Braeburn and Strongheart both nodded their heads. Shortly after a gryphon’s roar could be heard and it was followed by another bang.

“It’s coming from the other side of that cliff,” Strongheart said, pointing her hoof at the nearby cliff.

“Come on, let's go see what’s going on over there,” Braeburn said as he galloped to a slope that led up the cliff.

*********************************

“Yep…even the water is irradiated.” After Scarlet got back to her makeshift campsite, she wanted to see if the water from the river was irradiated. Due to the Y-3 implant, she had to take her right glove off and pour the water on her hand. She had to drain the whole bottle to make her Pip-boy to click a few times. “It’s just a very small amount though.” She looked out in the distance thinking, So this either means this world also had nuclear war and the water is still tainted, or there’s a radiation leak somewhere up the river.

As she was thinking, a shadow passed in front of her on the desert floor. It was too big to be a bird, and it wasn’t a bug since she saw it only had two wings. Slowly, she pulled out Maria and got up, and quickly spun around with the gun pointing at the creatures that landed behind her. The creatures looked like something Doctor Borous would’ve made, with the head of some sort of bird and a body of some kind of mammal, and there were four of them standing right in front of her. Two were brown, one was gray and the other was black.

“There's no need to be hostile, we just want to talk,” the black one surprising said in English.

Scarlet raised an eyebrow, “You can speak English?”

“No, but with the help of this necklace,” he gestured at a blue crystal around his neck, “you and I can understand each other. My name is Stromwing”

“I see,” Scarlet lowered Maria, but didn’t holster it. “So, what do want to talk about, Stromwing?”

“As you may have noticed, you’re no longer on your world.” You don’t say, Scarlet thought out loud to herself. “You see, our master was experimenting with a spell, and it seemed to partially open in your world, and somehow you were pulled out of your world and brought here. Our master sensed your coming here and if you wish, he can help you get back to your own world.”

“I see…,” This is too easy. Somethings up, “well then, I guess I accept his offer.”

Stromwing smiled and said, “Excellent, now if you please follow us…”

Scarlet interrupted him, “Not just yet. First you must bring your master here so we can talk face to face. I don’t follow people I just met, nor do I fully make deals with people I haven’t met in person, so I’m not going anywhere till then.”

Stromwing frowned, “Well then, I guess we have to used others means to convince you otherwise.” He tilted his head up and gave a small nod. Sudden Scarlet felt something pierce the side of her neck. She quickly reached up and pulled out a small wood stick with some fuzz on the end. She then glanced up and saw two more creatures, one had some sort of weapon and the other carried rope and metal braces.

“You see human, our master told us to bring you no matter what you said.” He chuckled slightly, “Sweet dreams.”

Stromwing expected Scarlet to try her best to fight against the poison, but soon the poison would work its course and make her muscles immoveable and she’d fall flat on her face.

Unexpectedly, she still stood, and wasn’t even stumbling as her muscles were supposed to tighten against her will. Scarlet dropped the dart and took off her sunglasses as she holstered Maria, showing she had her eyes closed.

“You were going to poison me hoping that it would knock me out, and then bound me up like some kind of slave?” She opened her blue eyes and glared at Stromwing, “Bad move.” She drew Lucky out of its holster and aimed it at Stromwing.

Frightened, Stromwing turned to one of his men shouting out an order, “Get he…,” was all he got to say before a bullet tunneled through the side of his head. Blood splattered across the nearest creature’s face, which was the gray one and he blinked a few times. He turned his head at Scarlet and unleashed a challenging roar and charged right at her.

The creature leapt at her, but Scarlet simply side stepped away and let the gray one land a few feet from her. She aimed Lucky at the back of its head and fired another round. The bullet easily pierced the gray one’s head and part of his head burst open. Scarlet turned her attention to the two brown ones who were positioning themselves to take Scarlet in two different directions.

Nice try, with a single thought the world around her seemed to slow down as she entered V.A.T.S. With the help of her Pip-Boy she choose a spot on each creature and soon her gun, with lightning fast speed, aimed at the head of the one on her right and fired. She could see the bullet barrowing in its head before her Pip-Boy made her turn to face the other and fired at the head again. This time when the bullet made contact, the brown one's head exploded, meaning the bullet hit a sweet spot on the skull. The world sped back up to regular time and Scarlet turned her head at the last two in the air.

They were both in shock and in fear of what they saw to their fellow brethrens who were killed so quickly, they decided to flee instead of engaging Scarlet.

They dropped what they were carrying and flew high into the air. “Oh, you’re not getting away that easy.” Scarlet quickly grabbed her Anti-materiel rifle she left leaning on a rock. She held it up and looked through the scope, aiming at the nearest creature, not even caring what ammo she had equipped in the rifle. In mere seconds she had the creature lined up with her sights and fired, letting the rifle roar as it spat out a .50 MG round. The creature sadly didn’t even know what happened to him, as his body soon split into two bloody pieces. Scarlet quickly aimed the rifle at the other one, but it disappeared into the clouds before Scarlet could even lock on. “Damn,” she muttered to herself.

“You murderer!” Scarlet took herself away from the scope and looked towards where she heard the unfamiliar voice. Standing near her campsite were two horses, one was the horse she met in the apple field, and the deformed Bighorn calf. The two horses looked sick to their stomachs, while the Bighorn calf looked very pissed off.

“Not again,” Scarlet said out loud.

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I would like to say Scarlet also has the Trigger Discipline trait. She might not be the fastest shooter, but she rarely misses what she's aiming for…which is mostly the head. You could also say she a “heartless” woman too.

Chapter 5

This is where would I normally thank ProtheanBrony for proofreading, but sadly he couldn't do it due to massive backlog of work of his. So does anyone else want to volunteer to be my back up proofreader? Anyway I did my best at editing this and as always if there is any grammar errors please point them out (if you want to that is). Enjoy :)

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Applejack, Braeburn, and Strongheart wasn’t ready for what they saw when they reach the topside of the cliff. They saw the creature standing holding up some long black object. Next to her was the body of four griffons, and each of their heads were burst open. They all looked up in the sky to see two griffons flying towards the clouds. Sudden there was a loud bang of a small thunderclap and one of the griffons exploded in two. Horrified of what they saw, Applejack nearly vomited and Braeburn face turn white. Strongheart on the other hoof was extremely ticked off. “Murderer,” she shouted.

The creature took its head away from the black object and faced them. “Not again,” it said in the language they couldn’t understand. The two of them looked at each other in silence. Soon the creature turned its head looking for something and that is when Strongheart made her move.

“Strongheart, NO,” Braeburn shouted out in vain.

*************************

Scarlet just stared at her unexpected visitors. Well this is great…for all that I know I just killed some of their friends. However…Stromwing does have that necklace that allowed me and him understand each other. I wonder if it will work for me? Scarlet looked away and looked for Stromwing corpse. Then she heard one of the animals shouted, “Strongheart, NO!” As Scarlet looked up she saw the Bighorn calf leapt up in the air, and planted its back hoofs on her chest. Scarlet stumbled back a few feet, but she quickly caught herself and got into one of her fighting stances. Normally when someone attack her, that gave her enough reason to kill, like with the Stormwing, but somewhere in Scarlet’s mind, it told her no killing. The Bighorn calf landed a few feet from Scarlet and was about to charged at her again, but Scarlet lowered her rifle and fired.

***********************

The ground in front of Strongheart exploded as small thunder clap was emitted. Dirt and gravel flew up in the air, some hitting Strongheart’s face. She looked up and saw the creature pulled some sort of leaver on the black object, ejecting a small metal object, and pushed the leaver back to its original position. Then the creature pointed the black object at Strongheart, and gave her a looked saying “move and you die.” The creature then turned its head back to the ground, but kept the black object train on Strongheart. It then moved towards the black griffon’s corpse and reached down and pick up a necklace. The creature study the necklace for a while then put it around its neck.

It then faced Strongheart. “So…can you understand me now,” it…no, she said in a language they could now understand.

Strongheart lost it again and yelled, “Murderer!”

The woman raised an eyebrow, “I will take that as a yes.”

“Is that all you have to say, you murderer five griffons. Don’t you feel any remorse?”

“I called it more of self-defense; after all, they did try to poison me and bound me up like a slave. Now,” she sifted the black object closer to her shoulder and moved her free hand under it, “were they friends of yours?”

“No,” Braeburn quickly answered, “we never seen them before. I‘m sorry for what these griffons tried to do your, but how about we all just clam down and talk about what’s going on.” He gave a nervous friendly smile at the woman, hoping that she would accept.

The female glance at Braeburn for a while, then she looked back at Strongheart and said, “As long as ya’ll stay near the ridge and don’t try to attack me again, we can talk.”

Strongheart glare at the woman, then she reluctantly moved back to Braeburn and Applejack. “Now,” Braeburn spoke, “my name is Braeburn, this here is my cousin Applejack and this is our friend Little Strongheart.” He pointed a hoof indicating Applejack and Strongheart, “Might I ask what your name is?”

The female thought for a while, thinking if she really wanted to give out her name, then she lowered the black object and said, “Lot of people simply know me as the Courier…but you may call me Scarlet.”

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With the pled of Braeburn to move somewhere out of the view of the dead griffons, Scarlet set her rifle leaning against the nearest rock and asked the first question, “So…where exactly am I?”

Braeburn seemed confused but answered, “You’re in the land of Equestria near the town of Appleloosa.”

Equestria? If my Latin is correct, that means Land of horses…kind fits them I guess. “I'm guessing ya'll are wondering where I come from. To put it in simple terms, I’m from another world and was apparently brought by some sort of energy experiment from your world.”

“How do you know that,” Applejack asked.

“Those griffons told me their master was working on a “spell” and it somehow leak to my world. There was an energy phenomena at the moment that I was getting ready to teleport. I was caught up in it and now I am here.” Scarlet waved her arms outward emphasizing the point.

“Now why did they tell you that?”

“It seemed their master wants me for some reason and they were sent to get me. After their first plan failed, they attack me and I have to defend myself.” Scarlet reached into her bag and pulled out her Vault 13 canteen and took a sip from it.

“Some defense,” Strongheart said in a harsh tone.

Scarlet put the canteen back in her bag saying, “Look, I don’t know anything about how y'all protect yourself out here, but where I come from, when someone attacked me, I have the right to defend myself by any means necessary. Especially since they tried to knock me out with poison, so that they could bound me up like some sort of slave.” She looked at Strongheart, “Also, I made a promise that the next time someone tries to turn me into any sort of slave, I would put a bullet in their head. I will never again let someone have any sort of control over me.”

“What happen to you,” Applejack dared to ask.

Scarlet let out a small chuckle, “Let just say I went into an area I wasn’t ready for and a man took advantaged over that. He then used me and three others to do his dirty work, threatening all of us we’ll die if we didn’t cooperated with him or each other. However, he slipped up near the end of his plan and I was able to smear his head against the nearest wall.”

Applejack was horrified of how much violence Scarlet had, “Haven’t you ever tried to solve your problems by simply talking to them instead of fighting?"

This time Scarlet laughed out loud, bellowing to her knees. “Talk as in negotiating?” She continued on laughing for some time causing her three guests to look at her in a peculiarly way. Scarlet finally clam down from her laughter then said, “I rarely let my mouth win my battles, but, trying to solve my problems through negotiations does sometimes work, if you have the right set up that is. Otherwise, you better be good with a weapon.” Scarlet then looked at Applejack. “So, why did you try to attack me in the field.”

“To be honest it was for eating that apple,” Applejack answer. She then asked, “I could ask the same of you for not killing me like you did with those griffons.”

“That because you had every right to attack me. Clean food and water are hard to come by sometimes in the Wasteland and stealing them tends to make a people turn violent against you. That’s why I only stunned you with the Pulse gun and not put a 9mm round in your head.”

“Your logic of killing is very flimsy,” Strongheart said.

“Hey, it kept me alive so far and people are still happy. So don’t fix what ain’t broke.” Scarlet stretched out the crane in her neck, “Also, before I forget, it’s not a good idea to grow plants with irradiated water; they tend to die off later on. I’m surprised they lasted this long to fully grow and produce edible fruit, well…almost edible.” Scarlet took notice of the strange looks Braeburn, Applejack and Strongheart were giving her. “What?”

“What do you mean by irradiated water,” they all ask simultaneously.

*******************

The griffon flew high in the sky, following up the river as fast as he could. After seeing what happen to his fellow brethrens, it was up to him to relay the news of their failure, and beg for a second chance. Shortly he reached the huge rock formation near the river and he dived towards it. Soon he landed in front of a cave and was greeted by its guardian.

“Galewing…where is the rest of our brethrens,” the minotaur asked in a low voice.

“Dead…the human didn’t fall under the poison we were given. I was able to get away before it could get me.”

“Then clearly you didn’t used the poison right,” a male voice spoke out. An equine covered in a clock walked out of the cave’s shadow. The minotaur did a slight bow to the equine. “The poison I gave you could take down two charging minotaurs.”

“We did exactly what you said Listener. The dart pierced its skin, but the human didn’t fall. It quickly killed Stromwing and the others with it strange guns.” The griffon bowed its face to the ground, “I’m sorry for our failure, but give me more griffons along with some weapons, and I can avenge our fallen brethens.”

“And why should I do that you imbecilic,” the Listener shouted. “You should have died along with your brethens in trying to capture the human. I should…” He stopped and looked up as if someone was talking to him. The Listener looked back at Galewing and smiled, “It seemed our master have a few words to speak to you Galewing.”

Galewing looked up in horror, and his pupils dilated into small orbs. He let out a scream of horrifying pain as he grasp his head with his talons and curl up on the ground, trying to block out someone's voice. Soon he stopped scream and was lying still on the ground. He was frozen in an unending terror.

“Take him to the pit, he usefulness has come to an end,” the Listener told the minotaur. The minotaur did another bow of the head and moved to the griffon. He picked up Galewing and headed back towards the cave while the Listener still stood outside. “It seemed we will have to find some other way to bring this human to us.”

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Chapter 6

I would like to thank lolcatsmanseven for proofreading and editing this chapter. Enjoy.

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“So, let me understand…you’ve never heard of radiation before?” Scarlet asked. They all shook their heads.

“What is it?” Applejack asked.

“To be honest I don’t fully know myself. But what I do know is that it’s a sort of energy that was a byproduct from nuclear fires that covered the world during the Great War. It’s extremely deadly to living beings in large amounts, if they’re lucky enough to die that is. Otherwise it mutates them into… something else.”

“How do you know that the water has this radiation in it?” Braeburn asked.

“Because of this.” Scarlet held up her left arm showing them the Pip-Boy. “It has a device in it that tells me if an area has any amount of radiation. It can also tell me if any food or water that I consume has any radiation in it too. When I ate that apple in the field, it told me there was some radiation inside of it. The only way that could happen is if the apple was grown in heavily irradiated soil, or the water was irradiated.”

“What does this mean for my apple orchard?”

“If you can’t find where the radiation is coming from, soon all of your trees will die. The apples are still okay to eat, if you eat them in small quantities and have something to get rid of the radiation before the rad levels gets too high.”

The two horses were in a state of disbelief about what Scarlet told them. “Th-the whole apple field?” Applejack stuttered out.

“Given the low amount of radiation that’s in the water, and based on how much the trees are being affected by it, I’d say the whole orchard has about three months to four months left. That is, if the water’s radiation level doesn’t increase.”

“Is that some sort of threat?” Strongheart said.

“No, that was just an estimate. I could help y’all solve this problem of yours…if we can make the right deal that is.”

“What sort of deal?” Braeburn asked.

Scarlet smiled slightly. “Food and water, a roof over my head, and any sort of electrical or metal parts you have… if you have any.”

“Those demands are a bit odd.”

“Normally I would charge you bottle caps, but I doubt you have two thousand of them. But, I still have needs to satisfy. I need food and water of course, parts to repair my gear, and as much as I love the outdoors, I would like to sleep inside a building once in a while.” She walked up to the group and knelt down while holding out her hand. “So, do we have a deal?”

Braeburn thought for a while. “I can get the food and water; we don’t have much electrical parts. As for the room…”

“Look, Braeburn. I’m really not asking for much; in fact I’m being much more generous than I normally would be when making these sort of deals. So, do we have a deal?”

Braeburn looked at Scarlet, and then grabbed her hand with his hoof, shaking it up and down really hard. “Deal.”

Scarlet was a bit bewildered about how a horse could “grab” her hand, but smiled and said, “Good, now let me gather up the rest of my gear and I’ll follow you into town.” She got up and went to her campsite to get what was left.

***************

“Are you crazy?” Strongheart asked Braeburn. “How could you trust her so easily? For all we know she’s behind the poison in the apples trees."

“I don’t think so.” Applejack said. Braeburn and Strongheart glanced over at her. “She was telling the truth to us the whole time. Her eyes weren't moving rapidly, and she spoke in a steady rhythm. She wasn’t making her story up on the fly, and she clearly hadn’t be practicing it ahead of time.” She looked at Braeburn and Strongheart, who were giving her questioning looks. “Being the Element of Honesty, you tend to pick up a few things if somepony is lying or not.”

They heard Scarlet's footsteps as she come back and saw she was carrying a lot of stuff on her back and side. Along with the long black object she had used on the griffins, she had a rectangular black object, and a short black object with a small round cylinder attach to it. “Well I think I got everything.” She said. Scarlet looked at the three of them for a moment before saying, “Lead the way.” She smirked and added coyly, “Also, Applejack, this is one of those examples where my mouth won the battle.”

***************

A murmur rose from amongst the townsfolk as Scarlet walked into their town behind Braeburn, Applejack and Strongheart. The last time Scarlet had been treated like this was when she walked out of The Divide. After spending almost a week there, most of the people of New Vegas had thought she was dead… again. I wonder what’s happening over there right now, she thought to herself.

After she kicked the NCR out of Vegas and killed any Legion member she came across, she had been very busy running an independent New Vegas. It was a bit hectic at first, with small riots starting in the streets and in the casinos, but they were quickly dealt with using the Mark II Securitrons. And after the riots ended, she had received an earful of complaints from Julie, the leaders of the Three Families, and even the King, which caused even more chaos. The Families wanted caps to pay for the damages cause by the riots, Julie said the Followers needed more medicals supplies to heal the people who were wounded from the fights, and the King said he wanted a presence in the Strip.

It was a bit overwhelming for Scarlet to handle by herself. Luckily she had her friends to help out. With the combined knowledge of The Enclave and experience in the Wasteland, Arcade helped the Followers use their supplies wisely and helped keep order as best he could. Veronica also helped the Followers by repairing the tech the Followers had, and by understanding the data they recovered from ED-E. Cassidy helped out by keeping the caverns running ever since the Crimson Cavern leader went… missing. Boone, Lily and Raul helped keep order outside of Vegas by getting rid of any Fiends, Scorpions, or anyone else who thought they could take advantage of the chaos happening in the Strip and Freeside.

For about a month and a half, chaos reigned in New Vegas until everything finally settled down to normal. Soon the streets were filled with old world music and drunken gamblers complaining about the caps they lost.

Don’t worry Scarlet, Yes Man took care of Vegas every time you visited Big MT, so he should be able to continue to do so.

Braeburn led her to a house and held up a hoof saying, “Well this is my place, and it’s also a roof to go over your head, Scarlet.” He went to the door and held it open. “Ladies.” Applejack and Strongheart went in first, with Applejack saying thank you to Braeburn. As Scarlet went inside, she had to duck slightly to avoid banging her head on the doorframe. Inside, everything looked… untouched, to Scarlet’s eyes, that is. The furniture didn’t have that decayed worn out look, and the wood wasn’t rotting or falling apart from centuries of no maintenance. It all looked like one of those pictures she saw of the inside of an old war house.

“I see that you like it.” Braeburn said with a small chuckle, due to the astonished look Scarlet had on her face.

“Yeah, it’s just…unfamiliar. Now, point me to the nearest bed, it’s been two days since I last slept and I need some rest to clear my mind.”

“Oh, you can take the one in my room; upstairs last door on the right.”

“Thanks.” Scarlet made her way up the stairs, with the two horses and the calf watching her leave.

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Chapter 7

Big Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading. Enjoy.
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“Braeburn,” Applejack spoke once they heard the door close, “have you sent a letter to Twi yet?”

“No, I was waiting for you, but a pegasus is ready to deliver it.”

“Thanks Braeburn.” Applejack walked to a desk and pulled out paper and a pencil, and with her mouth she began to write.

Dear Twilight,

I need to tell you something. It seemed the apple orchard in Appleloosa is being poisoned by an energy source called “radiation”. How do I know this? Well, I also have to tell you something else. Today, Braeburn, Strongheart, and I had met with a creature, an alien so to speak, who came here from another world and she’s stranded here. Now, before you put this letter down, and start jumping up and down in excitement I need to tell you something else about the female.

Her name is Scarlet, and Twi, when she got here, six griffons tried to attack her for some reason, and she killed them. It was all in defense Twilight, but the way she acted after she was done, it showed she'd done this before, and is okay with it. That scares me Twi, but you want to know what is scarier? Right now, she is in a room right above me, and I’m okay with that. Yeah, you might think I’m crazy, but I trust her. She had not one, but two times she could’ve killed, but she didn’t.

Now, I have no idea how to truly handle this radiation and with Scarlet, but right now Scarlet had offered to help with this radiation problem of ours. She seemed to have a lot of experience in dealing with it, and is only doing this for food, water, a room, and spare parts.

Now Twilight, I’m also sending a more detailed summary of what happened, and I would like you tell this to Princess Celestia. Maybe she will know how to deal with the radiation and with Scarlet. I don’t know…I just need help with this one.

Sincerely, Applejack.

Applejack took out another piece of paper and wrote why she was at Appleloosa, and what happened at the field with the first encounter with Scarlet. How Strongheart led them near Scarlet campsite where the bodies of the dead griffons still lay. The information Scarlet told them about radiation and the deal they made.

Applejack folded the letters and put them in an envelope. “Well, it’s ready. So who’s the pegasus who said they will deliver it?”

“That will be Rushing Wind. He’s the fastest flyer in Appleloosa, and should get the letter to Canterlot by noon tomorrow.”

“Okay, well after I send the letter I will be in my room at the inn if you need me.”

“And I need to head back to my tribe, but I will be back tomorrow,” Strongheart said. She looked at Braeburn, “Will you be okay by yourself with that creature?”

“You know she does have a name,” Braeburn said.

“Well, I don’t fully trust her. Scarlet is a person who kills and feels no remorse of what they’ve done. She is almost like the coyotes' tribes up north. So until then, I will watch her with strict eyes.” Strongheart left without saying another word.

Braeburn sighed in disappointment. “Don’t feel too bad for her Braeburn,” Applejack told him. “She just needs time to adjust, we all do. I still need time to get over the fact that I could’ve died. Let's just hope Princess Celestia will know what to do.” Braeburn turned to AJ to see her smiling at him. “Now you’re sure you will be okay with her around?”

Braeburn smiled back, “Yeah, I’ll be alright. I still need to do a few things around town first. And I have a feeling we have a lot of explaining to do to the rest of the ponies.”

“Yeah, I bet we do.”

********************

“That is one big family,” Scarlet mumbled to herself. The first thing that caught Scarlet’s eyes was a color photo of a huge group of horses gathered together. With her keen eyes she was able to spot out Applejack and Braeburn in the group, and conclude that this must be the rest of their family’s members. The next thing that caught her eye was a hard wooden structure. It had a glass door with a metal rod with a metal circle on the end and it was swinging back and forth making a small clicking noise. There was also a clock’s face on the top, with the number 1-12 going around inside of it. Strange, different world but it has the same amount of time for a day as mine.

A small yawn told her that her coyote tobacco chew was starting to wear off. Anyway, I need to get ready for a nice long sleep, she thought to herself. Scarlet first removed the necklace and put it on top of a nightstand, and then she took off the metal brace along with the glove on her right arm. She then took off the duster part of her armor and laid it next to the bed. Next she unstrapped the combat armor vest and laid it on top of the duster. Finally she took off her boots, but kept the pants on since they were the only part of the armor comfortable to sleep in.

She sat on top of the small bed, and it did a small bounce reacting to her weight. It’s small, but at least it’s soft, unlike the many beds that I used to sleep in my travels thought out the wastes. Before she went to sleep she picked up the necklace and studied it. She couldn’t see any sort of circuitry in the crystal and wonder how it work of translating her words or the horses word into a language both could understand. Stromwing did said I was brought here by a spell, and those work by the use of...magic. Maybe, the crystal works the same way? But magic doesn’t exist; it just something made up for those old wars fairy tales. Scarlet let out another small yawn, I'll figure this out later, right now I need some sleep. She put the necklace back on the nightstand, and laid her head on a pillow, letting go of her thoughts and fell into a peaceful sleep.

********************

Strongheart ran through the wilderness in a fast pace, with a cross looked on her face. Suddenly a male voice spoke out, “What’s the hurry young buffalo?” Strongheart quickly turned around in a defensive stance, but no one was there. “Oh… sorry if I startled you, I’m right above you by the way.” Strongheart looked up and saw a pegasus still on the edge of a cloud. “I saw you running from Appleloosa, did something bad happen?”

“Not exactly,” Strongheart answer.

“Does it have to deal with that strange creature walking through Appleloosa a while back,” he asked as he flew down next to her. Strongheart looked at him with a questionable look. “A creature the size of a minotaur isn’t had to miss in a town like Appleloosa. Kind of reminds me of the time when three minotaurs made their way through town about two months ago.” The pegasus chuckle to himself saying, “The whole town kept their distance away from them, some even barred up their windows.”

Strongheart also chuckle along with the pegasus, as she took some time observing him. The pegasus had a light gray coat along with a black mane and tail with some dark green highlights in them. His cutie mark was a strange symbol of an A. “What’s your name?” she asked.

“Oh, how impolite of me,” he remark. He held of hoof to his chest and did a slight bow, “My name is Alpha.” He bended back up and asked, “What’s your name?”

“Little Strongheart, and it’s nice to meet you Alpha, but I can’t stay and chat. I need to get back to my tribe before the sun sets."

“Of course, I was just curious. I mostly lived out in the wilderness and I don’t hear much of what’s going on in Appleloosa.”

“Well, you're not missing much, it just that this creature, Scarlet, has the smell of death all around her, and I don’t trust her one bit. I fear what she might do to my friends, if she ever decided to turn against us.” Strongheart broke from the small conversation and continued to head back to her tribe.

Alpha stood there, watching Strongheart run off into the horizon. After a while he smiled, whispering, “Scarlet…a fitting name, for a human that is.” He then took off to the sky, to do the rest of his plans.

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One day down...some more to go.

Chapter 8

Big Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading. Enjoy.
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Spear in hand Scarlet walked down one of the Villa’s streets, keeping an eye on her Pip-boy to make sure no more Ghosts would sneak up on her. She walked quickly to the Police Station, trying to keep out of the Cloud as best she could, but the air was fully covered in its copper color. As she reached for the door, she took a quick glace at the note scribbled on the wall, and opened the door and walked through it.

However, she found herself not inside a building, but outside…in a completely different place. There were NCR soldiers patrolling the area and people talking to merchants or to each other, in a town that Scarlet hadn’t seen in a long time. Out in the distance Scarlet saw a red haired woman wearing an armored Vault 13 suit just walking through them, and Scarlet’s body just froze.

The other woman stopped walking, and turned her head to face Scarlet. Scarlet was looking at herself…a younger version of herself…in the town Hopeville. Suddenly something touched Scarlet's shoulder and a male voice spoke out, “You doomed them all…”

****************

Scarlet grabbed whatever was touching her and pulled it away from her. She quickly opened her eyes ready to…see Braeburn, scared out of his wits. Scarlet let out a sigh and released Braeburn’s hoof. “You know you shouldn’t do that to a woman.”

Braeburn looked at her, confused and said, “Huh?”

Necklace Scarlet, necklace, she told herself. She reached over to the nightstand and grabbed the necklace, and quickly put it around her neck. “I said you shouldn’t do that when a woman is sleeping, keeps you alive longer.” She rubbed her eyes to get them to wake up.

“Sorry, I'll remember that next time.” Braeburn rubbed his hoof for a bit. “So…do you want some breakfast?”

“Breakfast?” Scarlet looked at the clock and saw the time was 7:45. Wow…I slept for a long time; must've been more tire than I thought.

“Never heard of breakfast before?”

“Yes I have, it just I wasn’t planning to sleep through the whole night.” She ran her hand through her hair trying to untangle it. “I’ll be down there shortly.”

“Alrighty then,” Braeburn said in a cheerful tone. He left the room and trotted down the hall.

Scarlet waited till Braeburn was out of view, before getting out of the bed. What a strange dream, first I was at the Sierra Madre, then at Hopeville, and that voice.... She grabbed the duster and combat vest and put them on. I need to stop drinking atomic cocktail mixes; it’s messing up my mind. Scarlet made sure the leather glove was on tightly before grabbing the rest of her gear. And what did that voice mean, “I doomed them all?” She walked down the stairs and was greeted by the smell of a pleasant aroma.

“Wonderful smell,” she commented as she walked into the kitchen. Braeburn had a skillet flipping some sort of flat bread. On the table there was a bowel full of apples and other fruits she didn’t recognized. One looked like an apple but its color was orange, and the other was a skinny, slightly curved, yellow skin fruit. But there was no sign of meat. “I guess you horses don’t eat meat,” she asked.

Braeburn stopped what he was doing, and his pupils got smaller. He gulped and nervously answered, “No…we don’t eat meat.”

Scarlet realizing what was wrong quickly said, “You don’t have to worry Braeburn, my species are omnivores, I can eat fruit and vegetables. It just, getting them fresh are hard to get where I come from, so meat has mostly been my diet. Don’t worry though, I not going to make a meal out of any of y'all.”

Braeburn let out a sigh of relief, “I’m glad to hear that. Also Scarlet, we call ourselves ponies, not horses.”

“Ponies? Huh…okay.” Scarlet reached over and picked up the strange yellow curved fruit and studied it in her hand.

“So Scarlet, would you like to try out my families world’s famous sweet apple pancakes?”

Scarlet looked away from the strange fruit, and asked, “Pancakes?”

*****************

Strongheart was heading back to Appleloosa when she heard a familiar voice. “Good morning Strongheart, heading back to Appleloosa I see.” Strongheart glace up to see Alpha flying down next to her. “Would you mind if I walk by you into town?”

“Of course not,” she answered.

“So yesterday, I heard Applejack and Braeburn talked to the town’s folks about Scarlet, and how we shouldn’t be afraid of her. Applejack even said she was sending a letter to Princess Celestia. However, I did feel the two of them were hiding something about Scarlet.” He looked a Strongheart with an inquisitive look, “You won’t know what they’re hiding?”

“Maybe the fact Scarlet is probably the most dangerous creature that has entered Appleloosa.”

“How so?”

“Because…,” Strongheart started to say but she stopped herself. What am I doing? “I don’t think I should say. If Applejack didn’t say anything about it yesterday then I have no right to tell. Now if you excused me I have some things to do in Appleloosa.”

“Of course, but allowed me to say something to you before I part from here.” Strongheart stopped her walking and looked at Alpha. In an ominous voice, Alpha said, “If you’re afraid of Scarlet, you shouldn’t be. She’s not a threat to Equestria, but maybe its only hope.” Before Strongheart could even ask what he meant, Alpha opened his wings and after a few strong flaps, flew off into the sky.

Strongheart watched Alpha fly off in the sky for a moment, before continuing her advance towards Appleloosa.

***************

“A cutie mark, huh,” Scarlet said before taking another bite of pancakes. During breakfast, Scarlet thought to ask some questions about this world. The first few were about the pancakes and the two strange fruits. Next were the tattoos she kept seeing on every ponies' flanks. “So they tell what yours life job is going to be?”

“Not exactly,” Braeburn said as he sat across from Scarlet. “They show what our special talent is, what we’re good at. They never determine what our jobs will be.” He cut into his own stack of pancakes. “Don’t you have one?” he asked before taking a bite.

Scarlet let out a small chuckle, “No, I don’t have a “cutie mark” on my butt. I don’t think any of my kind has anything like that.” She reached over and grabbed the fruit called a banana (from what Braeburn told her). “So what’s your special talent?”

“Oh, it’s…,” the sound of the front door opening interrupted him. Both Scarlet and Braeburn turned to see Applejack and Strongheart coming inside. “Ah, good morning ladies,” Braeburn said in a merry tone.

“Morning Braeburn and morning to you too Scarlet,” Applejack replied in the same merry tone.

“Morning,” Strongheart in a bit of an acidic tone while looking at Scarlet.

Scarlet just gave Strongheart an unamused look, “I see you are still bitter at my killing of those griffons.”

“And I see you still don’t care that you took someone’s life,” Strongheart replied.

“Look, I’m getting tired of this bitterness between the two of us. If I tell you about my world, maybe you’ll finally understand why I don't care about taking someone's life.” Everyone sat down, waiting to hear Scarlet’s tale.

“Now, about 200 years ago there was a war, the Great War, which devastated my world. No one fully knows what was being fight over, but it nearly killed every human and every living being on the plant.”

“Human?” Applejack asked.

“That’s what my species is called, now luckily an the old world government put out an order to builds these underground shelters, called Vaults. These Vaults were designed to withstand the nuclear fallout from the war.”

“What’s a nuclear fallout?”

Scarlet paused, and thought for a moment of how to answer correctly. “A fallout is the dangerous side effect caused by nukes. Now nukes are an extremely powerful explosion that can completely devastate an area and leave little to nothing left. They cause a nuclear fallout, which is the wide spread of radiation for miles and miles, which does more damage than the explosion. The Vaults, for the most part, did their jobs of protecting anyone who were lucky enough to be inside one. Very few people who were outside survived the fallout, and the very few of those people who did survive, didn't remained the same. After a few centuries some of the Vault’s doors finally opened, and the dwellers of those Vaults were met with a barely livable world, full of deadly creatures. Those dwellers fought those creatures to survive and later on they even fought with each other.”

“They fought with each other even though they were probably the last of their kind,” Strongheart asked.

“That’s because war never changes, Strongheart, even in a post-apocalyptic world. People want land, resources and anything else they want and some will murder others to get it. My world is a very violent place. It’s either fight to survive for another day or die and be part of the wasteland. I don't know about y'all but I like to survive so I have to kill.” Scarlet paused for a moment and allowed her information to sink in. “Besides, I need to survive since I do have a city to run.”

The three of them looked at Scarlet in amazement. “You’re the mayor of a city?” Applejack asked.

“Something like that,” Scarlet took a sip from her apple juice. “I’m the overseer, so to speak, of city called New Vegas, the shining pearl in the middle of the Mojave Desert. It’s a place where a person can lose themselves in the glitter of old world’s lights.” Scarlet just stared aimlessly out in the open thinking of old memories. “I think I’ve talked enough for now. I’m going to grab my gear and take a nice little walk up the river.”

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Chapter 9

Edit: How stupid of me. Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading.
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“You’re sure you want to do this Scarlet?” Applejack asked in Braeburn’s room.

“Gee Applejack, are you always so paranoid?” Scarlet stated while removing a few things from her bag. “Before you answer that, yes I’m sure I want to take simple walk through the desert. I’m just going to scout out the land. It’s not like I’m about to walk into a dust storm that could rip my skin off.” Applejack looked at Scarlet with a bewildered look at such a statement. Scarlet waved her hand to dismiss the example, “Forget about that statement. I’ve traveled a lot throughout the Wasteland, and fought things that would normally kill a person. I can take care of myself.” She finished organizing her bag and strapped it across her back. “Now I’m going to leave a few of my things here, so please don’t mess with them. I’ll be following the river upstream, and I’ll be back some time when the sun is setting.”

“That’s a long time for a simple walk through the desert.”

“I like to take time strolling through the sand, picking up any shiny object along the way,” Scarlet sarcastically said. In a more serious tone, “When I was up on the hill overlooking Appleloosa, I saw some towering rock formation that was near the river. That’s my destination, and it’s going to take some time to walk up there, look around and come back.”

“And you think you’ll find the source of the radiation up there?”

“Maybe, maybe not; I’m going on a hunch here. Besides, I need the exercise.” Scarlet made her way downstairs with Applejack closely following her.

“You sure you don’t need anypony to help guide you, just in case you get lost?”

“No, I don’t need anybody…or anypony’s help. I’m mostly going to stay near the river, and it’s kind of hard to lose track of a river.” The two of them passed by the kitchen and Scarlet overheard Braeburn and Strongheart talking about a pegasus (whatever that was.) “Look Applejack, I know you’re worrying about what I might do out there. But rest assured, I’ll try to remain out of sight and only use non-lethal attacks when it is necessary.” Scarlet opened the front door and finally said, “Like I said, I’ll be back some time before the sun fully sets.”

*********************

“What do you mean you are unable to sell any of your apples,” the angry earth pony yelled. “I’m almost out and I need to restock!”

“Sorry Backlog, but due to a sickness in the trees and apples, we can’t sell any apples until we can cure them,” Braeburn said.

“I’m also sure the rest of the Apple family, including myself, will be more than happy to sell you apples when you run out,” Applejack said. “I'll even throw in a discount.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Backlog said. He let out a small agitated sigh, “I guess I’ll put an order out for the next supply run on the train.” He reached under the counter and pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. “Now unless both of you are about to buy something, I think we’re done here.” He grabbed the pencil with his month and began to write, ignoring Applejack and Braeburn.

As the two left the general store, Applejack let out a small, annoyed grunt. “Is he always like this?”

“Only when business is bad,” Braeburn answered. “He’s really a nice fella, and like most settlers wanted to make a name for himself. Plus he does manage to make sure that every store has its entire inventory in stock. He’s very organized and extremely busy.”

“Sounds almost like Twilight.” Both of them let a small round of chuckles.

Then a voice spoke out, “Are you Applejack?” They both turned around to see a lime green unicorn wearing a white coat, and he was levitating a scroll in the air.

“Yes,” AJ answered.

“I have a letter for you from Canterlot, and apparently you need to read it immediately.”

“How could a letter from Canterlot gotten here so fast?”

“By usage of the Emergency Magical Letter Spell; it’s a spell given to talented unicorn so that outer most towns can send messages to Canterlot in case of trouble. It can also work in reverse as well.” He floated the scroll to Applejack, which she took. “Now, I bid you two farewell and have a nice day.” The unicorn turned and walked away.

“You too Doc,” Braeburn called out. He looked at Applejack who was already opening the letter. “What does it say?”

Dear Applejack,

I have received your letter about your apple field and the human Scarlet. And with a heavy heart, I can tell you I that know about the energy source known as radiation. Now we do need Scarlet’s help in getting rid of it, but I want to meet with her first before any of you try to find the source of the radiation. I should be in Appleloosa in about three hours after you get this letter.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia.

Applejack lowered the letter, “Well it seems Princess Celestia is coming to Appleloosa to help with our apple problem, and she wants to meet with Scarlet. She said she’ll be here in about three hours.”

“Celestia is coming here?!”

“Eeyup,” Applejack answered with a small chuckle to Braeburn’s sudden shock and surprised of the news. “Now I think we should try to find Scarlet before….,” then something hit AJ’s mind. She looked back the letter and re-read the first part. “Now how in world did she know that?”

********************

Scarlet walked in a nice fast pace, and she took a sip out of her Vault 13 canteen, keeping an eye out for anything that looked suspicious. She been walking for about an hour and the apple field was getting to be part of the horizon behind her. She had no idea how much longer it would be till she reach the rock formation, nor what she would find up there. She took a glance at her Pip-boy and noticed she had a visitor.

“So you’re the infamous Scarlet,” a male voice spoke out.

Scarlet quickly drew Lucky and spun around to see another griffon. Its fur color was a gray with some black mixed in. “It seems you have me at a disadvantage with names,” she replied.

The griffon smiled slightly, “My name is Beta, human.”

Scarlet narrowed her eyes, “I see. Let make a guess, you want to take me to your master?”

“Oh, we have smart one don’t we? How did you come to that conclusion?”

“Easy, there are only four creatures who know what race I belong to. Three of them I told myself, the other one wanted to drag me to his master. Add to the fact the other one was the same creature as you also helps.”

“Ah yes, Stromwing and his crew. It was just supposed to be a simple mission; however, it ended up being the end of their lives.”

“And yours too, apparently.” Scarlet fired a round right at Beta’s head. However, the bullet bounced off a sickly green dome that suddenly appeared around Beta.

Beta grin devilishly, “You thought my master would send me and make the same mistake twice? You know nothing of the type of power we can hold.” There was a green aura coming out of Beta’s body and he dragged a single claw in a half circle forward. Several hand sized rocks in the area started glowing with the same green color and floated several feet in the air. Soon they were positioned around Scarlet and Beta said, “Now surrender.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Chapter 10

Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading.
_____________________________________________________________________

“Well…that’s new.” Scarlet observed the floating rocks, then at Beta who was waiting for her to say those magic words of his. “I hate tell you this, but you think this is going to make me to surrender, by flinging rocks at me?” Scarlet let out an unamused laugh. “Oh, I’m quaking in my boots.” Scarlet’s laughter grew as she shook her head now in amusement. “Out of all of the threats throughout my life, getting rocks thrown at me is lowest of the low.” Suddenly three rocks were slammed into the ground near Scarlet, making her to cease laughing.

“I assure you, this is no small threat.” Three other rocks were cover in the green glow and join the others in the air. “Now, put down your weapon or I’ll…”

“Or you’ll what, kill me? You can’t, otherwise you would’ve done it already. Your master wants me alive, so you’re limited on your moves. Me on the other hand, well I could kill you with my bare hands. Lucky for you I don’t feel like killing today, so I’ll let you live.” Scarlet turned around and started to walk away.

“What….you…why,” Beta said in a furious tone. Enraged he lifted his front talons and slammed them into the ground. A wall of green fire erupted a few feet in front of Scarlet, blocking her path. “I WILL NOT LET YOU LEAVE!”

Scarlet didn’t turn around, but instead looked at her Pip-Boy. It was clicking, showing the wall of fire was emitted around 2 rad/sec of radiation. She then glanced behind her and saw Beta position the rocks trying to entrap her between them and the fire.

“Now,” Beta continued, “how about you give up like a good little female and I'll make sure I won’t make the metal brace so tight.”

Scarlet closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. “You are so dead.” In mere seconds Scarlet fully turned around while she took out her Anti-material rifle and entered into V.A.T.S. Beta was far away enough for her Pip-Boy to tell her she had a 70% with the head and an 80% with the torso. Not wanting to try her luck, she took her one chance with the torso. She fired and the bullet traveled through the air.

Now Scarlet likes V.A.T.S., for it gave her a good edge in her fights. There was only one down side of using V.A.T.S., it only targets the spot the target is standing in when it is calculating percent chances and doesn’t fully calculate the movement of the target. So when Scarlet fired her rifle, Beta was moving in a way just enough that the bullet didn’t hit mid-center of Beta’s chest, but through his left wing.

There was small burst of red as Beta’s wing was almost torn off from his body, and blood curling scream of pain filled the desert’s sky. Beta held a talon to his wing and blood oozed from a gaping wound. The green aura around Beta intensified and his wound was starting to heal.

“Shit.” Scarlet reloaded her rifle and was about to fire again when she see something from the comer of her eye. She quickly side stepped back and a rock slammed into the ground in front of her.

“I’m going to make you wish you didn't do that.” Beta’s voice ranged out as if it was being amplified. “I may not be able to kill you, but that doesn’t stop me from breaking your bones.”

Scarlet smiled, “I’d like to see you try.” Scarlet then broke into a run towards Beta. She could hear rocks slamming into the ground closing following her. Normally she would’ve switched from her rifle to one of her machine guns; however, she stupidity left both of them at Braeburn’s house. Quickly Scarlet ejected both the rifle’s magazine and the loaded round, letting them both fall to the ground and quickly loaded the explosive round clip from her belt. She braced the rifle’s stock to her shoulder and aimed without using the scope. She was about to fire but a rock slammed into her causing her to fire a wild round into the air.

Scarlet about to recover from the blow but more rocks slammed into her. Soon a small tornado of hand sized rocks flew around Scarlet, every other rock hitting her as they spun around. Dust got in Scarlet’s eyes and mixed with the air she breathed. Lucky, she had lots of experience of moments like this in the Divide and soon adapted. She brought the rifle’s scope to her face and looked through all of the dust and ignored the rocks plumbing her. She could see Beta through her scope, and even with everything going around her, she could see a smile on his face as if he won.

She pulled the trigger and the rifle unleashed the explosive round. The area Beta was standing soon went up in smoke. The small tornado suddenly died and the rocks fall to the ground. “Well that was easy.” Scarlet looked at the Beta’s beaten body while she took out the magazine and put it back on her belt. “But still strange.” The green fire was starting to die down and the clicking from her Pip-Boy stopped. She then checked the ground, looking for the mag she dropped earlier. Spotting it a few feet from her she walked up to it and reached down for it.

Sudden she felt as if something grabbed her as a green glow wrapped around the metal arm guard on her right arm. The green glow caused her Pip-Boy to started clicking rapidly telling her whatever was on her arm, it was radioactive. Her arm was then violently jerked down to the ground and was dragged across it. Scarlet’s body twisted and turned and her arm strained as the unknown force pulled her across the desert floor. Then the force pulled her up high in the air, making her shoulder scream in pain. Then Beta’s voice filled the air. “You fought well human.” Scarlet looked ahead a saw Beta limping up to her. He was missing his left talon, part of his wing and had a blood red eye and who know how many internal injuries. “Surprised that I’m still alive?” He let out an unsettling chuckle. “When griffons are gifted with the power magic, apparently we are granted with a high tolerance to injuries. So in a way, we can never be defeated.”

The grip around Scarlet’s arm got tighter and she felt some pressure on her shoulder. “You however,” her arm was violent move back while her shoulder was pushed hard forward, dislodging her arm, “are not.” Beta let go of Scarlet making her fall to the ground to add to the new alit pain in her arm. Scarlet landed with a hard thud and now her whole body was screaming in pain. She let out hard grunts of pain and was breathing heavily. “Now do you surrender or do I have to break every bone in your body?”

Scarlet could hear Beta walking up to her with his three limbs. “I would rather be mauled by a Deathclaw than surrender.” Carefully she pulled out Maria concealing it from Beta’s view.

“Bone breaking it is then.” Before Beta could do anything Scarlet rolled over her right arm and held Maria out and once again went into V.A.T.S. She spent all of her AP on Beta’s head and unleashed a volley of bullets. Since she wasn’t good firing with her left hand some bullets missed, but enough went into his skull.

Beta had a blank look to his face, as if he didn’t knew what happen to him, and his body plummet to the ground. But that wasn’t good enough for Scarlet. She discarded Maria and pulled out her gladius and started hacking the body to pieces (which I won’t go into detail). After doing the final satisfying slash, she looked at the ruined body. Blood was everywhere and Scarlet was panting in exhaustion and in pain. “I think I won.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Chapter 11

Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading.
_____________________________________________________________________

The news of Celestia coming to Appleloosa quickly spread like a wildfire in a forest. The town folks didn’t know specifically why she was coming, but that didn’t stop them from trying to make the desert settlement look its best for its first royal visit. “It’s Ponyville all over again,” Applejack mumbled out loud to herself. Several ponies were cleaning up parts of the town, putting up banners and other things to make the town look its best. “If only if it was under better terms.”

“Hey Applejack, any sign of Princes Celestia?” Braeburn and Strongheart came from the apple field, and trotted up next to AJ, also overlooking the town with her.

“Nope, any sign of Scarlet?”

“Nope, I think she said she’ll be back when the sun is setting."

“I think its best that your ruler doesn’t meet with Scarlet right away,” Strongheart said. “We should inform her how dangerous Scarlet really is.”

“Princess Celestia already knows what Scarlet has done in my letter Strongheart, but I think she knows more than that,” Applejack answered.

“What do you mean?”

“Remember Scarlet told us how her species are called humans this morning?” Both Braeburn and Strongheart nodded their heads. “Well, Princess Celestia knew that Scarlet was a human even though I didn’t say so when I wrote my letter. I did give a description of Scarlet, the best I could, and it was enough for Celestia to know Scarlet was human. So that means either Scarlet is native to our world, or…well, I haven’t thought that far yet.”

“SHE’S HERE!” a mare’s voice yelled in the sky. Everypony looked up and saw a brownish-red pegasus point a hoof to the south side of town. As everypony craned their heads expecting to see Celestia to come in riding one of her royal chariots, they just saw her flying in by herself, which was a bit strange. She landed in the middle of town and slowly trotted towards Applejack. The town folks were bowing as she warmly passed by them, shooting off greetings.

Before Applejack bowed down she noticed that even though the princess was walking in a nice pace, she was breathing very heavily. “Applejack, it’s nice to see you again, and these two must be Braeburn and Little Strongheart.” She smiled at the two and started to look around the town’s square. “Where’s Scarlet?”

“She made her way up the river before your letter arrived your highness,” Applejack answered as she got up from her bow.

“Alone?” Applejack nodded her head. “Well then…I must get her before she gets herself into trouble.”

“But your highness, shouldn’t you rest from such a long trip,” Braeburn suggested.

“I appreciate your concurred Braeburn, but if what Applejack told me is true about your apple field, then I need to stop Scarlet before it’s too late.” Celestia opened her wings and took off, heading towards the river.

As everypony watched the princess leave, Applejack had a worried look on her face. “Something's wrong.” Braeburn said.

“Yeah…I think we got our hooves in a situation deeper than we thought. And I hope Scarlet didn’t find any trouble.”

**************

“Alright, one…two…three.” Scarlet moved her right arm slowly away from her chest with her elbow bent at a 90 degree angle. Pain screamed in her mind as she tried to reattach her shoulder joint with this simple method. Shortly she felt her shoulder pop back in, but the pain only sky rocketed. Taking in deep breaths she rasped out, “Okay… that should do…for now.” Her arm still hurt, but was more bearable to ignore along with her other injures. When she accessed the medical section on her Pip-Boy it told her she had several bruises, her legs were slightly damaged from the fall and she had gained nearly 170 rads of radiation. She didn’t want to waste a hydra to fix such minor crippled limbs, so a dose of one stimpak, rad-away, and Med-x would have to do for now.

As the pain was starting to numb, she began to gather her gear that was scattered around the area. Note to self, the next time any creature flies in from the sky, shoot first ask question later. She picked up the magazine full of the regular rounds of .50. In fact any griffon you see, just shoot. Likely save me the trouble of a long fight. The last item she picked up was her battered beret that fell off after she was dragged across the ground like a ragdoll. Since Scarlet’s hair was in a mess she just shoved the beret in her bag. Better get cleaned up before heading back to town. She walked up to the river, taking another glance at Beta’s body to make sure it stayed down.

“Wow…I’m a mess,” she remarked after looking at her reflection in the water. Her face was distorted but she could make out her face. There were some small cuts on her lips, probably caused by biting herself, and dust and dirt mixed with Beta’s blood was all over her. Shouldn’t have gotten so wild when cutting up Beta. Almost felt like fighting a Ghost…a superpowered Ghost, but a Ghost none the less. She knelt down and started splashing water on her face. I can just imagine the earful of complaints when I walk into Appleloosa with new blood stains. She knelt back up, shaking her wet hands. “Better make my way back to town.”

“Good, I’m glad you came to that decision.” A female voice spoke out of nowhere and Scarlet reactively turned around with Lucky drawn out. Expect, Scarlet didn’t see anyone or anything. “Is that how all humans react? Shoot first, ask question later?”

Scarlet looked around the desert, looking for any invisible figure. “Depends on the situation, mine right now is on the shoot first basis.”

“I can understand that. Facing a griffon who was skill with tainted magic is hard to do alone, let alone to win.”

“I take that as a compliment.” Scarlet was now doing a trick she learned with her Pip-Boy, and it was looking at an area an activating V.A.T.S. to do a scan. Even if a person or creature was invisible, V.A.T.S. could still see them (somehow). She would have a zero percent in hitting though, but she’ll have an idea of where to aim in real time. Soon she found the owner of the voice standing far away downstream of the river. She trained Lucky at the creature, “So who are you and what do you want?”

The female chuckle for a bit, “You must have good eyes to spot me, not many of my subjects could ever do that.” There was a bright flash of light and a large white pony with wings and a horn came into view. Her man and tail were multi-color and was waving in a non-existenting breeze. “To answer your question, I’m Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria and I came here to make sure nothing bad would happen to you.” She looked over at the remains of Beta’s body, “It seems I’m a bit late.”

“If you’re going talk about how it’s bad to take a life, I just want to say I did give him a chance to walk away.”

“You don’t have to explain. While I don’t like it, I can understand your reason, your world is violent. It’s tough to live a peaceful life in a world that’s been devastated by war. Fighting is probably the only thing you know.”

Scarlet chuckled a bit as she holstered Lucky, since Celestia didn’t seem to pose a threat. “I know a bit more than fighting for my life. You make it sound like you’ve been to my world.”

“Actually, yes I have.” Scarlet’s eyes open widen in shock and looked at Celestia in disbelief. “Oh, course that was a long time ago, and I bet many years have pass in your world since then. Tell me, what year is it on your world.”

Scarlet was puzzled at such a question but answered, “2282.”

“I see, almost 75 years.” Celestia looked away for moment as if she was thinking of something.

Scarlet, seeing the bit of sorrow in Celestia’s eyes, said, “It seemed you did more than visit my world. Made a friend maybe?”

Celestia closed her eyes and smiled in amusement. “You really are perceptive aren’t you? Yes, I met an old man who was wandering in the Wasteland. He helped me not to get myself killed along with a few other things.”

“He must have been a tough old goat to wander the Wasteland alone at such an age. Now that 75 years has pass, he’s probably long dead.”

“Actually it has been nearly 300 years in Equestrian years since I came back, and yes he was a tough old goat so to speak.”

Dumbfounded Scarlet fumbled out, “I…what…300 years?”

“Apparently time moves faster here than on Earth due to dimensional time difference between our worlds. I don’t know why, but that’s magic for you.”

“Wow…you ponies must live for a long time then.”

“No, I’m just immortal. Everypony aged the same way as a human.”

“Immortal? Really? Well I'll keep that in mind.” This place just keeps on getting weirder. “Now, princess you seemed to know what is going on. Care to explain.”

“Yes, but not here. We should head back to Appleloosa and get you cleaned up. I can answer some of your questions along the way.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Chapter 12

Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading.
_____________________________________________________________________

“First off, are you alright?”Celestia trotted next to Scarlet as they made their way back to Appleloosa.

“Pfft minor scratches, they should heal up in no time. My shoulder however, is going to take a day or so.”

“What happened?”

“Beta dislodged it. I was able to pop it back in, but it’s going to be very sore tomorrow.”

“Beta? That’s an odd name for a griffon. Speaking of griffons, Applejack mentioned the last group of them tried to poison you. Exactly how did they try?”

“By some sort of dart, it pierced the side of my neck. Don’t know what it was supposed to do, never will.”

“Wait, how were you not affected by the poison?”

Scarlet smiled as she tapped the upper left part of her chest. “Let’s just say I have a special heart condition that prevents me from getting poisoned.” She then reached to her side and pulled out her Vault 13 canteen, drinking the last of the water that was in it. As she took the last sip she noticed Celestia was strangely staring at her…no…at the canteen. “Yes?”

“Where did you get that canteen?” Her voice was inquisitive and her eye carefully followed the canteen as Scarlet putted it back where it belong.

Scarlet was a bit creep out of the sudden interest to a piece of tin. “Um…from a merchant in Vault City, he had a half a dozen of these. Why?”

“Oh,” Celestia sound a bit disappointed, “it just my friend had one. So Scarlet, can you tell me more about yourself?

Scarlet gave a small chuckle, “I don’t think so. The less you know about me the better.”

“Is there something you’re trying to hide I should be concerned about?”

“Not as much as you should be.” Scarlet could see the questionable look Celestia was giving her. “But I guess a short run through wouldn’t hurt. Sometime twenty-seven years ago I was born somewhere in Wasteland. Never knew my father and my mother was drunken whore who didn’t have much time to take care of me. After I reached the age of thirteen I got tired of my home and ran away, wandering the Wasteland.”

“Why in the world did you do that? Didn’t your mother miss you?”

“Ha, I bet she thought I was dead a week after I left. Anyway I went to a town far away from home and took a job there as apprentice to a merchant. I stood there for a year or so, learning a lot about making deals work in my favor. When I was around the age of sixteen I took job as a courier. From then on I been mostly be walking to several different towns and places, never really settling in. People always have some little thing they want to send to a friend, family, or business in the town, and I would take it to them, for the right price that is. And for the most part, I was happy to do it. Of course it wasn’t all perfect.”

“Why, was something wrong?”

“Yeah, you can say that. A few of my packages weren’t exactly… legal, but I didn’t know. I shouldn’t have to worry about what I’m carrying or if it has the possibility to change my life. For example, my last delivery job got me shot in the head.” Celestia looked Scarlet in shock. “I got better. The strange part is that in my revenge to get the bastard who shot at me and get my package back, that I became the leader of a city.”

“Really? How did that happen?”

“Don’t really know. I was the wild card in a three way battle over an Old World relic. Add to fact that I didn’t like any of their plans for Vegas once they gotten hold of the relic, so I just…took over.”

“What were their plans?”

“The current leader of Vegas wanted to build a world that died centuries ago, another was a nation that just wanted the land and the Old World relic in their hands and the last group…well, let’s just say I have bad history with them.”

“Really vague on names here.”

“I doubt you’ll know any of their names…well maybe you have heard about the NCR. They’ve been around for nearly a century.”

“Yes I have heard about them, were they the ones you had bad history with?”

“Nope, those are the ones who just wanted the land and the relic. The one I had bad history with was a group known as Caesar Legion. They were led by a man who had some good ideals, but was doing it in a matter that just wasn’t right.”

“So why do you have a bad history with them?”

“Because they….,” Scarlet stopped herself from finishing her sentence. “Because, they’re not to be trusted, that’s why. Now how about I ask some of my questions, like what kind of pony are you?”

“I’m an Alicorn, a combination of the three kinds of ponies; earth, pegasus and unicorn. You already met with two earth ponies, pegasus have wings and unicorns have a horn on their head.”

“I see. Appleloosa must be an earth pony kind-of town then.”

“It mostly is; however, Appleloosa does have a few unicorns and pegasi living there.”

“Kay, now what did you mean fighting a griffon with tainted magic?”

“I know your world doesn’t have magic so it would be hard to fully explain, but for now it’s a type of magic that’s venomous to the natural flow of magic in our world.”

“The natural flow of magic, so you’re telling me magic is real?”

“Yes,” there was tingling sound as a rock in front of them glowed with a light yellow glow and was brought up in the air. Scarlet was hesitant to be near it, but she didn’t hear any clicking from her Pip-Boy which eased part of her mind. “Don’t worry. My magic, or any other unicorn's magic, will not harm you like tainted magic does.”

“Nice to know, but it's still strange though. So does magic have any other uses other than moving rocks or creating a wall of fire?”

“Many, I use my magic mostly to move the sun across the sky.”

Scarlet let out a laughter of disbelief. “Now you’re just pulling my leg. I read enough of The Big Book of Science to know that’s physically impossible.”

“I am not pulling your leg; my sister and I move the celestial bodies across the sky. I move the sun and my sister, Luna, moves the moon.”

Scarlet sarcastically added, “Next you’re going to tell there’s a pony who spreads the love and happiness throughout the land.”

“Well Cadance doesn’t do it like that, but…”

“Stop…you didn’t have to answer that.” Scarlet rubbed her forehead, “Ugh, this world is getting weirder by the minute.”

“Give it time; I’m sure you will adjust.”

“True, I have seen weird things before,” talking to one’s own brain for one. “So what do you know about the griffon’s master?”

“That's a tale I need to tell once we’re back at Appleloosa with Applejack, Braeburn and Strongheart.” Celestia took another look at the human. “After we get you cleaned up first.”

Scarlet looked up and saw they were coming close to Appleloosa. “Oh goodie, it’s been a while since the last time I bathed.”

Celestia gave a small chuckle saying, “Yes I can tell.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Chapter 13

Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading.
_____________________________________________________________________

“What in tarnation happened to you Scarlet?” Applejack asked once Celestia and Scarlet were in ear range.

“Had a problem with another griffon and my sword had to say hi to his feathery hide. It was a long and messy conversation.” Scarlet said in a partly lighthearted tone.

Applejack’s eyes shot open in shock and was about to say something but Celestia held up a hoof. “Save them for later Applejack. Right now we need to get Scarlet cleaned up, but not be notice by the town. I don’t think they will react well to your condition.”

“It’s not my fault your people can’t handle the sight of a small amount of blood.”

“Small,” Applejack remarked.

“But I’m not going waste a Stealth Boy for a walk through town for a bath that I don’t really need.”

Ignoring Scarlet’s statement, Celestia looked over at Applejack. “Where are Braeburn and Strongheart?”

“Strongheart had to get back her tribe to handle something and Braeburn is in his house waiting for us.”

“Strongheart is a tribal, huh, that explains a few things,” Scarlet stated out loud.

“I see. Alright, stand still you two.” Celestia’s horn started glowing as well as Applejack and Scarlet’s bodies.

“Hey what the hell is…” was all Scarlet got to say before all three of them disappeared in a bright flash of light.

******************

Braeburn was sitting in the kitchen, eating an apple and reading the towns' newspaper. He was about to take another bite when there was a bright flash in the living room along with a confused sounding Scarlet saying, “…going on!?” Braeburn leaned over and saw the Princess, Applejack, and Scarlet, who was rapidly looking around the room.

“We were teleported Scar,” Applejack answered. She glanced to the kitchen. “Howdy Braeburn, we’re back.”

“I can see that.”

Scarlet was now patting herself down to make sure her butt was still facing the correct direction. “Okay first off, warn me,” she said pointing to Celestia. Then pointing at Applejack, “Second, it’s Scarlet not Scar. I don’t need a nick name for a nick name.”

Applejack was surprised by this. “Scarlet not your real name?”

Scarlet laugh slightly. “Yeah, my real name faded away in my travels through the Wasteland since I rarely told my name to anyone I met. So they just gave me nick names. Scarlet and the Courier are the two popular among them.

“So how did you get the name Scarlet?”

“I’ll let y'all figure that one out.” Scarlet looked over to Celestia. “Now I thought you were going to answer my last question once we got here?”

“Well aren’t you hungry? I am after a very long fight, and after the fight you had I figure you might be as well. I also know a good recipe for tea that's supposed to renew the body’s energy.” Celestia made her way to the kitchen and stopped by the doorway and looked at Scarlet.

“No thanks,” Scarlet said crossing her arms looking a bit annoyed of her question being constantly pushed off .

“Okay. In the meantime, can you please wash up and leave your clothes outside to be cleaned later?”

“You’re not going to let that go huh?” Celestia’s coy look answered Scarlet’s question. “Fine, I'll clean up this small mess. Lucky for me I have an extra pair of clothes to change in to.” Scarlet made her way to the bathroom, and Celestia went into the kitchen.

As the two leaders went in their two separate directions, Braeburn went up to Applejack. “So what trouble did Scarlet get herself into to have blood on her clothes?”

“She fought another griffon. She used that sword of hers to…,” Applejack closed her eyes and shuddered in what she said next, “… to cut him up.” Braeburn’s pupils slightly grew bigger as he looked down the hallway. “I know, she just gets scarier by the minute.”

“Does the Princess know what she did?”

“I think she does, but she either talked it out with Scarlet or is somehow okay with it.”

“Actually it’s neither,” Celestia said suddenly appearing right behind the two. The two ponies turned their heads around to see Celestia munching on a sandwich. “It’s just I understand her reason why.” She took another bite of the sandwich.

“Exactly how do you understand her?” Applejack asked.

“Because a long time ago I was in her world, and saw things which would make any sane pony go crazy. I was nearly killed, if it wasn’t for the kindness of one stranger.” She was about to say more but the whistle of a tea pot stopped her. “Ah tea is almost ready,” she said making her way back to the kitchen.

“Well that explains a few things,” Applejack said, “but still leaves more questions.”

“Yeah, like where did she get the tea pot since I don’t own one,” Braeburn replied.

******************

Scarlet was lying in the tub with her arms over the sides, letting out a relaxed sigh as the warm water helped to ease up her sore muscles. This was the second bath she had drawn since the first one’s water got really dirty while cleaning her not-often-washed body. “I should do this more often,” She mumbled out in a low voice. She then closed her eyes and stretched her body out. “Too bad they don’t have radio signals so I can play some music.” Still having her eyes closed she put her arms back on the side, as well as resting her head on the end of the tub, taking a small, little nap.

Suddenly her Pip-Boy made a clicking noise and a familiar song played out. Scarlet opened her eyes in confusion and held her Pip-Boy in front of her to check what was going on. However, her eyes soon found something else to focus on, like having a hoof instead of a hand. She could feel her heart racing as she checked to see her other arm was a hoof as well. She looked down her chest to see a pony’s body instead of her owns.

“What in the world?” She scrambled herself to get out the tub which was a bit difficult in her sudden new from. She did her best to walk to the mirror and look at herself. Her coat was dark tan with the same scarlet color she had for her hair was matching her mane and tail. On both side of her body was what looked like wings. “How the hell did this happen?”

“You look lovely,” a male voice spoke out. Scarlet turn around to see she wasn’t alone. A brown earth pony (if she remembered correctly) with a black mane stood behind her. He smiled as he admired Scarlet, “I must admit I had my doubts, but you fit her body so well.” Scarlet looked around the room for her weapons but couldn’t find them. “Like you could use them; your weapons were made for human hands, not pony’s hooves.” Scarlet gritted her teeth and charged at him to punch him in the face. However she went through him like he was a hologram, causing her to plummet to the floor. “Finished yet?”

Scarlet grunted as she propped herself back up. “I guess so.” Scarlet felt as if she was on all four as she stood facing the mysterious pony. “So who the hell are you?”

The pony chuckle, “That all depends on you. I can be your friend or I can be your master.”

“If that’s the case how about neither. Now put me back in my body or I’ll find a way to smash your face into the nearest object.”

“Awe, so soon? Don’t you want to stretch out your legs and feel the wind under your wings?” He let out a smiled, “And I know the perfect place.” In the blink of an eye the bath room changed to a cliff side overlooking a desert, where there was a spewing dust storm below them. It was a familiar sight to Scarlet.

“So this is the Divide,” a female voice spoke out. Scarlet looked to her left and saw a group of people and some pack Brahimn.

Then Scarlet's voice answered, “Pretty much, of course you’re looking at the good side of it.” Scarlet, wearing the armored Vault 13 jumpsuit, walked out of the group. “Alright, the road will only get rougher from here on now. Everyone stay close together or you’ll be food for the Deathclaws.”

“Deathclaws?” A random man spoke out. “You didn’t say anything about Deathclaws living here. I thought nothing lived in the Divide!”

“Then you chose the wrong group to travel with.” Scarlet raised an armed and pointed behind them. “The path to California is still open, you can still leave and head back home. Nothing is holding you back.”

The man readjusted the bag on his back, turned around and started making his way out of the Divide. Others soon followed his lead and nearly one-third of the party left. “Well I hope you’re happy Courier. You just made this trip a lot harder,” the woman who spoke before said.

A male, wearing custom leather armor, spoke out. “Actually she made this trip a lot easier. We don’t have to worry about people who might flee in the mid of battle. Plus it did save you some caps the in payment later on.” He walked up to Scarlet giving a warming smile, in which Scarlet tried to pretend not to notice. “Now let’s get a move on, we don’t want to be outside when sun goes down.” He moved forward with Scarlet and everyone else who stayed following, which caused the group to fade away.

The male pony spoke right into Scarlet’s ear. “You know those who left were smart enough to leave when they could, because you and your friend only led the others to their untimely deaths.”

The pony Scarlet narrowed her eyes and glared at the male pony. “I didn’t do anything to them. They asked us to guided them into the Divide and we did just that. The NCR brought the destruction to this place once they greedily claimed this land in their 'Oh so glorious' government.”

“Oh really? The people of the Divide looked up to you for leadership, inspiration, and moral. And what did you do in their time of need? You left to head back West, but not without living a small gift for them.”

“I hate to tell this but someone already went through the whole ordeal to tell me what happened here already. So save your breath and tell me what you want when I wake up.”

The male pony smiled in amusement. “Oh you are a smart one. Fine then, here’s what I want. I want you to deliver a message to Princess Celestia.” His face sudden turned into a menacing look, “I will finish what was started 300 years ago and bring down this unjust government. There’s no point in trying to resist my forces for everything is already in motion. Equestria will be cleansed and be brought under a new unity. And there is nothing she can do to stop it.” He lifted up a single hoof and slammed it on the ground creating a green fiery explosion which quickly engulfed Scarlet.

******************

Scarlet opened her eyes rapidly as she sat up straight, breathing in and out heavily. The water in the tub swished back and forth reacting to her sudden moment, and Scarlet was gazing off in the distance; her skin still tingled as if she was still on fire. Scarlet held an arm in front of her, glad to see a hand instead of a hoof. She put the hand on the side and got out of the tub. I think it’s time to find what the hell is going on.

_____________________________________________________________________

Chapter 14

Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading.
_____________________________________________________________________

Celestia took another sip of her specially brewed tea. The recipe of the tea was given to her by an ambassador from the Zebra nation. The tea was supposed to renew the body’s energy and calm the nerves, something Celestia thought Scarlet needed (mostly for the calming down part). Braeburn and Applejack were playing a new card game that grew popular in Appleloosa and Dodge City, and Scarlet was still in the bathroom washing up. I wonder what’s taking her so long. Celestia quietly thought to herself. The bathroom door sudden slammed open with Scarlet storming out, wearing a light blue sleeveless version of a duster she wore before and she looked quite upset.

Scarlet walked up to Celestia and spoke in hard tone. “I think it’s time for you to finally explain whom I’m facing. For when I took a small nap a male pony decided to visit me in my dreams and left a death threat for you.”

Celestia face dropped in horror and her tea cup slightly quivered in the air. She gave a small fake smile. “Are you sure it wasn’t just a bad dream? Yo….” Scarlet stopped her by clapping her hand over Celestia’s muzzle.

“Don’t you dare play that game with me. You know something and I’m getting pretty tired of your constant avoidance of acknowledging it. Now you either tell me what’s going on or something bad will happen.” Scarlet let go of Celestia muzzle and waited for a response.

Celestia could see that Applejack and Braeburn were looking at them, their mouths open in shock and horror to what Scarlet just did to her. Normally nopony would ever stop her from talking or even touch her, for they feared what she would do to them (not like that would ever happen). Of course Scarlet wasn’t a pony and this was probably not the first time she faced down a powerful being before. Celestia let out a small sigh. “You’re right. I think it’s time for this tale to be finally told.” She settled down her tea cup on top of the table. “Make yourselves comfortable for it is a long tale.”

“First off his name is Cadbury. He was one of my chief advisers, since he was a descendent of Chancellor Pudding Head. He was a strong speaker and very trustworthy among the ponies, especially among the earth ponies. He was kind, caring, compassionate and most of all a close friend. However an event happened to a pony colony that caused enough tension for him to dramatically change.”

“There was an earth pony colony set up in a place called the Pleasant Lands. They were doing well considering they were far from Canterlot and transportation wasn't as good as it is now. One day I received a letter from the mayor of the town saying they wanted to be independent from Equestria. Now this wasn’t the first time some pony colony wanted do something like this, but I had to consort with my court first before making the final decision.”

“To my surprised my whole court said we should grant their request of becoming a new nation, expect for Cadbury. He protested that if withdrew our support that the colony would be vulnerable to attack, and it wouldn’t have enough supplies to sustain itself. He said we should try to make them reconsider their thought of action.”

“However, the unicorn repersentive Lord Blueblood (the first, Prince Blueblood is the third pony with that name) argued that we shouldn’t do what Cadbury was requesting for several reasons. That the colony was very unlikely to be attacked since it was surrounded by the Macintosh Hills. Cadbury was wrong about the town supporting itself since for five months they never asked for a supply run. It was also costing a lot of bits of keeping it in the Equestrian kingdom. And with that Lord Blueblood turned the court to his favor and the majority voted to accept the colony's request to be independent.”

“Later after the court, Cadbury asked if he could travel to colony in the Pleasant Land and see if he could change the pony’s minds about leaving. I said he could and he left saying he’ll be back in a month or so. Soon three months passed, and I was starting to get worried since I haven’t received any word from him. So I headed over to the Pleasant Land with some of my personal guards, to see what was going on. However, I was not ready for what we found.”

“The land was dying; trees were wilting, grass shriveled up, and dead animals were scattered across the ground, and that was only at the edge of the Pleasant Land. There was green haze blanking the land and it had a sense of magic to it, but it felt wrong and it was spreading out. I used my magic and created a protection ward on the edge of Macintosh Hills to stop whatever was spreading. Some of my guards wanted to enter the town and rescue any survivors. I stopped them, telling them that anypony would be long dead by now since I could tell that this haze has been here for some time. I ordered that nopony will ever enter the Pleasant Land again and I renamed Pleasant Land into the Badlands.”

“A year passed, and everything was acting as normal as ever. However one day I received a letter from Lord Blueblood saying to meet him in his office. He didn’t say why but I had a feeling it was for some small petty reason. As I headed to his room I noticed something was off. There was a lack of guards patrolling the hallways and a strange magical aura in the air. I open Blueblood’s door and my heart nearly stopped.”

“The room was turned inside out as if a small battle took place. Blood was spattered across the walls and Lord Blueblood was lying dead on the floor. But standing at the end of the room looking out the window were two of my guards and Cadbury. Cadbury looked over at me and smiled and greeted me as if nothing was wrong. I asked what he did and he answered he was getting rid of traitor and a murderer. He then said I was next for condemning ponies to die.”

“He then attacked me, not with hooves or blade, but with magic. Now as you all should know that every living being in our world has some access to its magic and used it their special, unique way. Now earth ponies are able to connect with the land like no other, but Cadbury was using magic like a unicorn could, in a corrupt way. We fought, and with each strike I received I was growing weaker. So in final round of our fight I used a banishing spell that would send him to the deepest cell of Tartarus. I cast the spell with all of the energy that I had left and was able to banish him, not without an unexpected side effect.”

“The effect of my magic against Cadbury’s corrupt magic seemed to create dimension riff and I was pulled in while Cadbury was sent to Tartarus. I passed out when casting the spell and I woke up in the middle of the Wasteland. And for about a week I traveled through the Wasteland, recovering and trying to find a way back. That however is a tale for another time.”

Everyone remain quite for some time, going through the info they were given. “Should’ve killed him,” Scarlet finally stated as got up from the floor. “Now he’s back to finish the job.”

“But how did he get out of Tartarus or even still alive after 300 years?” Braeburn question.

“I don’t know. The warden never reported that there was a missing prisoner, nor do I know how he could live that long.”

Scarlet let out a small laugh of disbelief. “That’s easy, Cadbury is a ghoul.” Everypony looked at Scarlet confused of what she mean, even Celestia. “Really?” Scarlet looked at Celestia. “You’ve been in my world for a week and you don’t know what a ghoul is?”

“Please, enlighten us,” Celestia asked.

“Basically a ghoul is a person who took an amount of radiation that could kill them ten times over and survived.”

“And this explains why Cadbury is over 300 years how?” Applejack asked.

“Because I haven’t met a ghoul who has died yet of growing old since the Great War, which was about 200 years ago.”

“So you’re saying a ghoul is immortal?”

“No, they just can live a very long time. You can still kill them like any other living being out in the wastes. Besides it’s not a pleasant way to live an immortal life. Your skin flakes off as if it was rotting and many others changes happen to make you look like a walking corpse.”

“But why does he need you?”

Scarlet shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t know. I was hoping Celestia would know the answer.”

Celestia shook her head. “I have no idea why he would’ve brought you here. But the way he brought you here is more of a concern to worry about.”

“Why? You’re afraid that he’ll bring more of my race to upset the ‘peace’ of this world?”

“No, the only know way Cadbury could ever open a portal in your world is with a high combination of natural magic with corrupt magic. And since unicorns are the only ones who have use of high concentrations of natural magic it means he has some unicorns as prisoners.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Chapter 15

Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading.
_____________________________________________________________________

The room was quiet when Celestia told what Cadbury possibly was doing. Applejack and Braeburn looked horrified while Scarlet’s face was normal as ever. “Your Highness, why have I never heard of Cadbury’s attack before?” Applejack asked after she recovered from her shock.

“From what I can tell once I got back from Earth, the court decided to keep it quiet, including my disappearance for almost a month. We weren’t on good terms with the griffons at the time and the court thought it would be ill will if the griffons found out.”

“A month, I thought you were in Scarlet’s world for only a week?”

“Apparently, time in my world moves a lot slower than time here,” Scarlet stated. “What did you mean that each strike from Cadbury made you weaker? You got weaker in what?”

“I got weaker in my magic. I don’t know how exactly, but Cadbury’s corrupt magic emits an energy signature that acts like radiation. Not only is it deadly to life, but it somehow stops the flow of natural magic.”

“So it’s twice as deadly to you than to normal pony, like Applejack.” Celestia nodded her head.

“But if Cadbury has unicorns, doesn’t that mean they’re probably slowly being poison to death?” Applejack asked.

Celestia nodded her head and sorrowfully replied, “Yes.”

“We need to go and save them!”

“And how exactly are we going to do that?” Everypony looked over at Scarlet. “We have no idea where Cadbury’s is located, and we don’t know the number of his forces. Any plan we come up with is pointless.”

“Oh but walking down the river trying to find a source of radiation is!”

“I can take care of myself dearie. And unless you've walked the same road that I've walked, don’t talk to me like that.” Scarlet let out a long sigh. “I didn’t know the full story behind the griffon attack. I thought I was dealing with paranoid talking animals at the time. Now that I know, I won’t make foolish decisions like before.” Scarlet bent her neck out and started rubbing the back of it, trying to remove a strain from her muscles. “I need a drink.”

Braeburn spoke up for the first time. “I’ll get you some water, unless you want something else?”

“Do you have any whiskey?”

“Um, no, but I think the Salt Block has some.”

Scarlet smiled. Finally, something good for once. “Where can I find this Salt Block?”

“It’s just down the road to your left, across from the clock tower. Just look for the big salt shaker sign”

Scarlet made her way to the door. “Then I’ll be back, and I promise I won’t set the town on fire.”

The door swung and closed in a rapid motion as Scarlet walked out of Braeburn’s house. Celestia let out a sigh and got up. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t stir up any trouble. We’ll be back.”

********************

Scarlet walked down the dirt road with Celestia walking not far behind. “You don’t have to follow me.”

“Actually, I’m wanted to try some of the local beverage myself, if you won’t mind that is.”

Scarlet rolled her eyes at the obvious lie. “Sure, as long as you're buying.”

The two of them walked into the Salt Block. Any activity that was going on suddenly stopped and all heads turned at them. Some were looking at Scarlet, but the rest were looking at Celestia.

“Actually, my counsel might not like it if I give money to a non-citizen of Equestria. So I can’t loan you any bits.” Celestia whispered in Scarlet’s ear.

“Awe, but I thought we were good friends.” Scarlet said in fake sad tone. She then spotted a group of ponies sitting around a table, playing a familiar game. “Well, I guess I’ll go get some by other means then.” She walked over to group and her suspicion was correct. The ponies were gambling with their money with a good game of poker.

A male earth pony with top hat spoke. “Is there something you want, hairless monkey?” The group all laughed softly together, except for one.

Scarlet just glare at the pony for a while then smiled. “Yeah, I want your bits.” The group stopped laughing and looked at her, a bit worry shown in their eyes. “In a good game of poker of course, I’m not that kind of thief. Also,” she pointed at the earth pony, “I have no idea what a monkey is so, trying to insult me like that is pointless and dangerous.”

The one who didn’t laugh from last time, let out a small chuckle of amusement. “Here, you can take the spot next to me.” Scarlet sat down next to the male yellow pegasus. The pegasus had a cowboy hat on top of his black mane, and he smiled at Scarlet while looking at her with his orange eyes. “I hope you have bits, don’t think we can spend any of your alien money.”

“Well, I can trade one of my items for some bits.”

“I might be willing to do that,” he replied. “That is, if you have anything worth value to trade with.”

Scarlet thought for a while, and smiled gleefully. “As a matter of fact I think I do.” Scarlet reached behind her and pulled out Maria. The rest of the ponies at the table (and Celestia) became a bit uneasy, but in a quick series of motion ejected both the magazine and the loaded round out of the gun. She then put the gun in front of the pegasus.

The pegasus pupils grew large and his mouth open in awe. “Is this some sort of gun?”

Surprised the pegasus knew what a gun is, smiled and answered. “That’s Maria, a custom 9mm pistol that comes real handy in close corners with multiple enemies coming at you. I got it from a man who had great taste when it came to fashion and business." Too bad it got him killed at the end.

The pegasus picked up Maria and set her down next to a small pile of clothes and some sort of metal contraption. He then pushed over a stack of 15 bits to Scarlet. “That should cover for it. Now do you know how to play?”

“If ya’ll are playing what I think you’re playing, then yes, and don’t start thinking that you will be able keep Maria. I am going to get her back.” The pegasus smiled at the challenge and began to deal the cards.

*******************

“Just how many bits did you win?” Celestia asked after Scarlet ordered three bottles of whiskey.

“I got 136 bits and my gun. Is that a lot?”

“A lot? That’s about what a pony can make in about a month. And you did it in a matter of hours, how did you do that?”

“Well when you’re leader of a city with three casinos, you pick up a few tricks in how to play. Plus most of those ponies had horrible poker faces. It was as if I could see what they were holding. Only that yellow pegasus gave me some trouble.” The bartender brought Scarlet three bottles of Equestria Rough Sea Whiskey and laid them in front of her. Scarlet uncorked one and started drinking it right out of the bottle. Celestia watched in awe as Scarlet chugged down the whole bottle down, in a few quick gulps. Scarlet put the empty bottle on the counter and let out a satisfying sigh. “Oh, I needed that.” She reached for another bottle to start the whole process over again.

“Careful, last thing I need is a drunk human. Don’t want to let you embarrass yourself.”

“You won’t have to worry about that Celestia. It takes more than three bottles of whiskey before I start slurring my words.” Scarlet began to drink her second bottle.

“I hope so.” Celestia placed an order for some wine. By then the clock tower started to ring, telling the time of the day. The loud rings of the bell echoed throughout the room. Scarlet shifted on the stool and slightly shiver uneasily. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing you would understand.” Scarlet finish her second bottle and reached for the final one.

“Are you sure? I have been to your world, so…”

“Yeah, but you only been there for a week. That doesn’t make you an expert on human psychology.”

“Come on. You must’ve faced many dangers out in the Wasteland. Why does the ringing of a single bell make you uneasy?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

Celestia closed her eyes. Her horn softly glowed and Scarlet’s necklace glowed along with it. Scarlet moved her eyes as she watched the necklace being removed around her neck and settled down on the bar counter. Celestia open her eyes and spoke in English. “Then make me understand.”

Scarlet raised an eyebrow. “Fine, I’ll tell you, but I won’t go light on the details you know.” Celestia nod her head and waited for Scarlet to begin her tale. “It all started when I heard a radio broadcast saying I could begin again with my life.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Chapter 16

Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading.
_____________________________________________________________________

Scarlet told her tale of the Sierra Madre, and Celestia listened to every single word. Celestia didn't stop Scarlet to ask any question, she only showed some small emotions on her face. Anger of what Elijah did to countless people, joy that Scarlet was able to make some friends, and the fear of numerous times Scarlet almost had her head blown off. Scarlet was finishing explaining of how she took Elijah's face and smashed it against the vault's wall; cringing at the details Scarlet was going into.

"And with Elijah finally dead I ran to get to the elevator, trying to beat the ticking time bomb around my neck. I made it and went up back up to the suites. Once I left the casino I was able to remove the bomb collar, and I tossed the bloody thing into the Cloud. I then gathered up my spoils, making my way back to the Villa to exit the city, never to return again." Scarlet took a sip from her fifth bottle, and Celestia could tell she was beginning to get tipsy. "I swear I could hear that bloody bell tower as I was making my way back to Vegas.” Scarlet rubbed her head as if trying to repress the memory. “I had nightmares of dreadful bells ringing, radios, and ghost peoples for a week." Scarlet looked at Celestia. "Now you know why I didn't like that ringing of the bell from the clock tower. Feel better?"

"No, but do you?"

Scarlet looked at Celestia with a stumped looked. “Huh?”

"I'm might not much about the human mind, but I do know a lot about ponies minds. The two minds, as far as I can tell, do think in similar ways, and my subjects normally feel a lot better when they let  something off the back of their mind. So do you feel better?"

She's right; she is technically the only person whom I told the whole tale. And it might be the whiskey, but it does feel like I did get rid of a few pounds. "Maybe," she answered before finishing off her fifth bottle in one hard sip.

"So what happened to your friends?"

Scarlet put the empty bottle on top of the bar counter. "I wouldn’t call them friends, more like acquaintances. After all it was a force partnership, and that ended once Elijah was dead."

"So you don't know?"

Scarlet let a small sigh of frustration. "After I got back from the vault, they were nowhere to be found. I didn't take the time to go and look for them because I wanted to get the hell out of there and get back to Vegas. Besides, they can take care of themselves."

"But still they were your friends, even if it was for a sort amount of time. Don't you wonder what ever happened to them after you came out of the vault?"

"Forced partnership, and no. I gain and lose many followers out in my travels throughout the Wasteland. Rarely do I have the time of making friends, or keeping up with them for that matter."

"But you do wonder what happen to them, don't you?" Scarlet remain silent.

"Yeah...sometimes." Scarlet moved a hand over her Pip-Boy and started fidgeting with the knobs.  “Look, I think we've talked enough about the Sierra Madre for today. Shouldn't we focus on trying to find a way to rescue the unicorns that Cadbury has in his 'friendly hospitality'?"

"Yes, I just wanted to let you ease yourself down. You seemed very tense after your came out of the bath. And from my experience a cranky human doesn't think very straight."

"That’s why I’m drinking whiskey. So what's the plan?"

"I...don't have one. Like you said, we don't know where he is, or the strength of his forces, so any plan we make will be pointless. However, before I came here, I told my sister to send me a special item from Canterlot storage and to bring the Elements of Harmony. Both should be here tomorrow."

"What's so special about this item and what are the elements of harmony?"

"The item helps me find where radiation is, and the Elements of Harmony are the most powerful items of magic in Equestria; Cadbury will have no defense against it."

"So, you'll use your item to find Cadbury and then use the elements to take him out? Why in the hell didn't you do that the first time you faced him?"

"I lost the connection to the use Elements after a certain…incident. But they have already found new ponies to be the bearers. You've already met one, Applejack."

Scarlet was inquired by that. "Just how many elements are their?"

"Six."

Scarlet let out a sigh. "So that means I'll get to meet five more little ponies. Oh joy."

"You seemed just fine play a game with the ponies at the poker table."

"Because they were gamblers; I'm use to gamblers, I run a city full of them. Why didn't you tell that we were expecting visitors tomorrow?"

"Because I had my best hopes that what Applejack told me in the letter wasn't the work of Cadbury’s tainted magic, but now I know. You should be fine; after all you did get along with  Applejack."

Scarlet let out a small chuckle. "I'll get the Pulse Gun warmed up then."

"Oh stop acting like that. You're acting like Twilight when I told her to go Ponyville and make friends for the first time."

"Then stop making it sound like you want me to make friends. You can't just force people into friendships and expect it to hold out."

"Hate to say this but Elijah did.” Scarlet looked at Celestia with doubtful expression. “He forced you into working with God/Dog, Dean, and Christine. From that forced ‘partnership’ you forged trust and loyalty between each other. And with new bond you all were able overcome the dangers of the Sierra Madre and bring down Elijah. And even though all of you are no longer together, that bond still exists, and it will last for a life time.”

“So you’re saying that Elijah unknowingly made me become friends with three complete strangers, and that ‘friendship’ still exists even though we're no longer together?”

“That’s the magic of friendship.” Celestia said in a cheery way and had a joyful smile on her face.

“Whatever floats your boat.” Scarlet pushed herself away from the counter and got up. “If you said I made friends, then I will let you believe that.” Scarlet made her way to the door with Celestia closely following behind. “So, speaking of friends, tell me then how did you become friend with an old man who you met in the middle of the wastes.”

“It’s a long tale. For now he helped me and Stacy….”

“Wait, wait, wait. Who’s Stacy?”

“She is, or was, a ten year old girl, and was one of the very first humans I met.”

“So the old man was her grandfather or something.”

“No, there was no family relationship between the two of them. Stacy only had her father, but…” Celestia voice got real quiet and the sound of clopping hooves cease.

Scarlet stopped walking and looked back to see Celestia with her head looking down at the ground. “But?”

“But he was killed by raiders…right in front of her.”

Scarlet could tell Celestia's heart broke of her first violent experience out in the Wasteland, and felt it would be inappropriate to say something...at all. Feeling that topic needed to changed, quickly, she said. “So you couldn’t understand English back then huh? Must’ve made you almost go crazy not binging able to talk.”

“No, not really; once my magic recovered to a certain point, I was able to cast a full translation spell on them.”

“Just like what my necklace does,” a thought came to her, “…my necklace.” Scarlet reached a hand up to her chest to where necklace should’ve been hanging from, but didn’t feel it. “Did you remember to grab my necklace before we left the Salt Block?”

“No…I thought you grabbed it.”

Scarlet let out another sigh of frustration and mumbled something under her breath. She turned around to walked back to the Salt Block. It didn’t take long to get back, but it was already closed and blocked off. “Oh, come on.” The doorway was blocked by a metal fence and was locked by a key padlock.

“Well, it is night time and we were the last ones out of the Salt Block. We can get it back once it opens tomorrow.”

“Yeah, or…” Scarlet reach into one of her pockets and pulled out a screwdriver and a bobby pin, “we could let ourselves in.” She knelt down, putting the bobby pin and screwdriver in the locking mechanism of the padlock.

“Scarlet!” Celestia protested. She was about to use her magic to stop Scarlet, but was too late. In quick fluid motions, Scarlet unlocked the fence and pushed it aside while walking inside the saloon. Scarlet immediately went to the bar counter and looked for her necklace. Celestia walked up next to her. “You know, I can cast the translation spell on you?”

“No thanks, I like to have the ability to turn it on or off.” Scarlet looked up and down the whole counter, but found no faint blue light the crystal on the necklace gave off. “Damn, it’s not here.” Scarlet was about to looked somewhere else in the saloon, but a letter caught her eye. She reached for it and examined it. She frowned and opened the letter.

“Why are you opening somepony’s letter?”

“Because it’s not address to a pony.” Scarlet held up the envelope for Celestia to see. In bold letters was Scarlet’s name written on the front. Scarlet began to read it to herself. “Sorry, but I had to take the necklace for your protection. Signed α.” Scarlet put down the letter and looked at Celestia. “Well, it seems that you have new job.”

Celestia took the letter and also read it. “What was so dangerous about it?”

“Maybe you one of your subjects didn’t like me conversing with everyone else.”

“I doubt that…still can’t have you walking about without understanding us.” Celestia let her horn touched Scarlet’s head, and cast a spell. It happened so quickly that Scarlet didn’t know what was going on when there was a bright flash and her head started to tingle as if electricity was running through her.

“Oui, what was that for.”

“A translation spell, the same spell I used to help Stacy and the old man understand me.” She easily went into Equestrian for the next part. “So can you understand me?"

“If that was a question if I understood you, the answer is no.”

Celestia was troubled by this. “You don’t understand a single word that is coming out of my mouth?”

“Stop trying to make me guess what you’re saying.”

Celestia began to speak English again. “I don’t understand. It should’ve worked.”

“Well, it didn’t.” Scarlet rubbed her head. “I told you to warn me when you are about to use your magic. It felt like I got hit by a robo-scorpion laser beam. I feel stupider already.”

“Sorry.” Celestia tried to comprehend what went wrong, but felt ill will to stay in the bar any longer. “Come on, we should leave before we make the owner mad.”

“Oh like he’ll get mad that the ruler of his nation broke into his bar.” Scarlet whimsically stated.The two of them walked out of the Salt Block, and Celestia used her magic to put the metal fence back where it was with the padlock on it in a matter of seconds. With the door looking like it did before, Scarlet and Celestia headed back for Braeburn’s home.

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Day Two done.

Chapter <error>

Note: this hasn't went through ProtheanBrony for proofreading because this chapter is short and is mostly to mess with ya'll heads. Enjoy :)
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The minotaur walked down the dark, damp, cramp (to him at least) tunnel. He was teaching some new recruits to use the Gift when he was called to see the Listener. He wasn’t given an explanation why he needed to meet the Listener, but the minotaur didn’t need one. He came into a cavern light by bright glowing orbs of light, showing the room was filled with chemistry equipment, a small living space and a tall semitransparent green column. The minotaur could see that inside the column was a pony and there were several tubes that were keeping the pony alive inside. “Ah, Gamma, you’ve arrived. I thought you would take longer since you were training the new recruits.”

The minotaur turned around to see a zebra, whose eyes stopped working a long time ago, smiling and looking right at Gamma. Gamma did a slight bow. “I always have time to receive instructions from the master. What does he want of me?”

The zebra walked past Gamma to a set of beakers. He lifted a hoof and it started to glow with a soft green aura. Several beakers also glowed with same green aura and were lifted up in the air. Soon the Listener started to pour and mix the contends inside them. “The traitor destroyed the crystal that the human had. The master felt the loss of his grip to the human mind a few minutes ago.”

Gamma frowned, ever since Alpha attacked the Listener,which resulted in his eyes going blind, he had been an annoying thorn in their side. “Do I need to send another group for the human to get another crystal?”

“No, the traitor probably left some sort of note warning about the crystal. However, we did received word from our stand-in that Celestia had called her and the rest of the Elements to Appleloosa. He has already be given his orders. Soon the human will be hearing our master's voice once again.”

“Then what does my master need me to do?”

“He wants several things done. First he wants production on the weapons increase by 45%. Second he wants a small raiding party to be ready to attack tomorrow, you’ll be told where on that day as well.”

“May I ask why are we attacking so soon?”

“No, but if you must know we need to provoke the human into coming to us alone. Right now she’s just annoyed by us, we need to change that. Also our master thought it the perfect time to show Celestia our power. Now gather your troops and be ready tomorrow to attack.”

Gamma did another bow of acknowledgment and left the Listener’s room. The Listener smiled to himself and looked at the pony inside the green column. “Soon the key will be here, and you will finally be finished. The master's dream will soon be fulfilled.” The Listener got back to work of mixing chemicals to prepare for future events.

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(insert evil laugh here) Now to get back finishing Chapter 17.

Chapter 17

Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading.
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“Oh...” Scarlet moaned as she woke up with a pounding hangover. She didn’t remember of getting into bed last night, nor did she care. Why do the negative effects of alcohol always affect me way after after I drink it? She looked down at her chest. I blame you. You artificial heart with your toxin filters making me think I can drink more than I can handle. She rubbed both of her eyes to wake them up. I just hope I didn’t do anything too stupid before I went to bed. A thought came to her. She checked the other side of the bed, and let out a sigh of relief to find no pony lying next to her. At least I haven’t done that yet. The last thing I need is to end up like my mother.

Scarlet slowly got out of the bed and stretched out her body. She was still wearing her courier duster from the other night. At least I kept my clothes on. She looked around the room and spotted something familiar. Her ranger armor neatly folded on top of a dresser. She walked over to it and picked it up. It was completely clean. Any stains of any matter were wiped clean. Lucky it still had its battle damages from it past and current user, keeping the look that Scarlet liked about it. Scarlet softly smiled to herself and put it back on top of the dresser. She reached to one side of the blue sleeveless duster she was wearing and took one arm out, shortly followed by the other.

She took a moment of time to look at the symbol painted on its back; a black spade with a yellow numeral 21 inside the spade. The symbol Ulysses thought best fitted her for the flag she was carrying for New Vegas. Scarlet sometimes wondered what would happen to Vegas, and the Divide, if she didn’t fight to make New Vegas independent and went with whom she originally planned to follow. I would’ve probably been a different woman… and Vegas would’ve been… different. She pushed the silly thought aside and set the blue duster on the bed. She started to remove the rest of her clothes, getting herself prepared for another day in this world.

*********************

Applejack took a bite from an apple (hopefully an apple that wasn’t full of radiation). Last night when Celestia and Scarlet came back late during the night from the Salt Block, Scarlet was a bit… not all there. She was zoning out, saying things Applejack couldn’t understand. Celestia later explained she lost the crystal that was used for translating, and was a bit drunk. One Celestia led Scarlet to her room she briefly told them that Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity were coming to Appleloosa. Celestia didn’t tell them why, but Applejack didn’t need a reason. It wasn’t the first time Celestia called the bearers of the Elements of Harmony together to take a great threat of Equestria down.

Luna’s night was starting to pass into day and Celestia had to go somewhere to bring up the sun to begin it, saying she’ll be back with Applejack's friends. So Applejack and Braeburn were having breakfast together, waiting for Scarlet to wake up.  Heavy sounds of Scarlet’s boots pounding down the stairs could be heard from the other side of the wall. “Celestia are you here?” Scarlet called out as she came into of view through the kitchen doorway, wearing the armor she had on the first day they met. Scarlet looked in the kitchen and spotted Applejack and Braeburn. “Oh, you two; I guess Celestia's not here.”

“Eeyup, she’s out raising the sun. She should be back soon, along with my friends.” Applejack answered before finishing off her apple.

“I see…wait... you’re speaking English!”

“Celestia was able to cast a translation spell on us. So we don’t need your necklace anymore.” Braeburn answered for Applejack in a cheery tone.

“Oh, so the spell doesn’t work on me, but works on everyone else. That’s my luck.” Scarlet walked over to the table and grabbed an apple with her left hand. She took a bite and took a glance at the device strapped to her left arm. Nothing happened, to which Scarlet seemed happy with and took another bite.

The device on Scarlet’s arm intrigued Applejack. For the last two days she has been wearing that, never taking it off. Sure Scarlet told her that it could detect that radiation energy, but Applejack felt it could do more than just that; otherwise, it didn’t look like something to strap on one’s arm for just doing one thing.

“You know Applejack; I never took you as that type of woman. I know that I have a decent set, but still, it’s not nice to stare.” Scarlet randomly stated out. Applejack took her gaze away from the device and looked at Scarlet face, a bit confused of what she meant. “In other words, stop staring at my boobs.”

Suddenly Applejack understood what Scarlet. Scarlet held her left arm near her chest and from what Scarlet said it was near…something private. “No, no no…I… was…just looking...," Applejack stumbled through in complete embarrassment.

Scarlet interrupted Applejack before she could finish, and in a humorous tone spoke, “It’s okay Applejack, I understand. You’re not the first woman who tried to hit on me, but sadly I don’t swing that way. Better luck next time.” Scarlet took another bite from the apple with a huge smile across her face.

Applejack’s face was blushing so much she tried to hide under her hooves. “Scarlet that wasn’t nice to tease about, especially when it’s not true.” Braeburn said trying to defend Applejack.

Scarlet let out a small disappointed sigh. “It was just a joke, but fine. Sorry for teasing you like that Applejack. It’s just normal for me; you don’t know how many woman actually tried to have sex with me...it’s surprising.”

Applejack’s face stopped blushing and returned to normal. “It’s okay Scarlet, it just I didn’t know I was looking at anything… private…”

“It’s okay, really. After all, y’all basically walk around naked all day, so privacy in this world is probably not as all important as it is in my world.” Scarlet finished off her apple and threw it away. She then pulled a bag that she was carrying and went to the sink.

Curious Applejack asked, “What’s that?”

“An MRE, I’m making myself some breakfast.” She opened the bag and dumped several small boxes out and smaller bags out. She did a series of steps with the small boxes and bags which Applejack could keep track of. Scarlet ended with leaving the box leaning against the wall. “Now I just let that cook and it will be ready.”

“What type of food are you cooking?”

“I believe its sliced bits of pork chop.”

“Pork chop, what’s that?”

“It’s a type of meat.”

Applejack slightly shuddered when she heard that, but wasn’t surprised. Braeburn told her about asking for meat yesterday morning. “I see...,” she said with an unsteady voice.

“Look Applejack, I know your species are herbivores and all, but I’m an omnivore. I need meat as part of my diet. However, don’t worry, I will never, NEVER, eat an animal here who can talk, think, and have free will. That’s basically cannibalism in my books.” She picked up the box and opened it up, letting out some steam. She grabbed some sort of utensil, “Now if you like I can eat this outside and spare you the view.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s just new to me. Enjoy your meal.”

"I will, and don't worry. I don't chew loud." Scarlet ripped open a bag and started to eat her meal.

****************

The train came to a screeching stop next to the station. Celestia was sitting on the side watching and waiting. The doors on the passenger wagons opened and ponies started to flood out. Many ponies stopped to pay their respects to Celestia, and Celestia smiled and greeted everypony who did. Soon five, all of whom she was happy to see, made their way out of the train.

“Princess Celestia,” Twilight called out in a joyful tone.

“Hello Twilight, it’s wonderful to see you again, and hello to you too, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. I’m glad you all were able to make it to Appleloosa.”

“And why were we called here your majesty, if you don’t mind me asking,” Rarity question.

“Yeah, does this have to do with this alien Applejack met?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Both are good questions, and they will be answered once we are inside Braeburn’s house.” Sudden Pinkie raised a hoof in the air. “Yes Pinkie?”

“Are we throwing a super duper surprise party for the alien, or did the alien already get one?”

Celestia let out a small chuckle. “No we are not, and I don’t think one was thrown for her either.” Pinkie smiled to that answer and Celestia could see the wheels turning the party pony's mind.

“Excuse me your majesty,” a stallion's voice spoke out. Celestia looked away from the five ponies and saw two unicorn guards. “We’ve brought the two items you have requested.” Both of them activated their magic and brought two chests up. One was the chest that held the Elements of Harmony and the other the device that should help find Cadbury’s hideout.

“Thank you sirs,” Celestia used her magic to take hold over the chests. “If there is nothing else, you two can head back to Canterlot.”

One of the stallions looked a bit uneasy. “Are you sure your highness? We were told by Shining Armor to help you in any way we can. He even prepared a small force incase...”

“There is no need of that. The Elements should be able to take care of the threat, and I believe I have more than enough protection.” Sounds like Shining Armor, ever since the Changeling’s Invasion he’s been juggling between being a husband and keeping security up. “However, do tell Shining Armor to keep the forces on alert.”

The two guards did a salute and headed back on the train. “Are you sure Princess? My brother looked worried when I got on the train to come here,” Twilight asked.

“It's natural for a brother to be worried. Now, I need to cast a translation spell on all of you. Our visitor doesn’t understand our language, and we don’t want to add any more confusion than there already is. Now who’s first?”

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Chapter 18

Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading.
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“So let me get this straight. Y’all were able to repel the whole Changeling army with nothing but love? My faith in Celestia’s plan is now at an all-time low.” While waiting for Celestia to come back, Scarlet decided to ask more details about the Elements of Harmony. Applejack told about how they used them on Nightmare Moon and on Discord. She then mentioned something about a Changeling invasion, which Scarlet pushed for more details. After hearing what happened, Scarlet just shook her head in disappointment. “I can’t believe Celestia is putting the safety of the entire world in y’all's hands...or hooves in this case.”

“What, you think we can’t handle it? My friends and I were able to take down two of Equestria's greatest threats.”

“But this Queen of the Changelings; her soldiers were able to take you and your friends down pretty quickly, from what you’re telling me of course.”

“Still, we were able to defeat them, so what’s your point?”

“That when it comes down to a real fight, y’all are nothing but dead weight. Sure you were able to take down Moon and Discord, but that was mostly their fault. From what you’re telling me they let you take a free shot at them with no resistance, that’s just dumb. If it were me on the other end, I would’ve killed y’all in the blink of an eye.”

“That’s your world, not mine.”

“No Applejack, that’s war and war does have rules. One of them is never give your enemy the chance to have the upper hand. One of my enemies did that by giving me a full pass to his base; he and his troops didn’t last long when I decided to wipe him from the face of the Earth with a big bloody laser beam.”

“Still, why do you worry about Celestia’s plan? Once we find Cadbury’s base, we’ll just use the Elements of Harmony on him and that’s it, he’ll be done for.”

“Tell me Applejack, what’s the range of these elements?” Applejack tilted her head in confusion. “In other words, how close do y’all have to be for the elements to work to their full power?”

“I...don’t know. Both the time we used them were we close to our target...we never really got to use them any far than a few yards. I don’t see why that’s important.”

“Range is the most important tactic in the field of battle, Applejack. The farther you can attack someone from the better. Why do you think I carry around that big Anti-Materiel rifle? Not for its looks. If we have to infiltrate Cadbury’s base, there will be resistance and lots of it. I can’t be the only one who has to defend six defenseless ponies and expect all of them to live. I don’t have the equipment for that kind of mission.”

“I don’t believe Celestia would’ve called us just to put our life in mortal danger. If she thinks we can do this, we can do this.”

There was a rap of knocks on the door with Celestia’s voice speaking on the other side. “Braeburn, I’m back with everypony.” Braeburn left them and Applejack was about to follow, but Scarlet stopped her by grabbing a hoof.

“I hope you’re right Applejack. Cadbury doesn’t seem to be the type who sits idly by and watch from the side. I promise you this; there will be blood and lots of it before we take Cadbury down.” Scarlet let go of Applejack’s hoof and reached for her pair of sunglasses. “Now, let's meet these friends of yours.” She put the glasses on and got up walking to the living room.

*******************

Braeburn opened the door and was greeted with six smiley faces. “Howdy y’all, it’s nice to see y’all again.” He opened the door wider letting Celestia, Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie in.

“It’s nice to see you too Braeburn,” Twilight said.

“Hello Braeburn, is that a new hat?” Rarity asked as she passed by and a faint smell of some kind of perfume filled the room.

“What’s up Braeburn,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Oh...hey Braeburn...it’s nice to see you,” Fluttershy softly spoke.

“Hi Braeburn, have a cupcake!” Pinkie said as she passed by leaving a cupcake in Braeburn’s hoof.

“Um...thanks Pinkie Pie.” Strawberry with vanilla frosting, how did she know those are my favorite? “How was the train ride?”

“Oh, it was boring as last time,” Rarity chip in, “of course the ride went more smoothly than our last time we took a trip here.”

“Yeah, yeah; so where is the alien?” Rainbow eagerly asked.

“You know I do have a name,” Scarlet’s voice spoke out from behind them.

Everypony jumped and looked behind them and saw Scarlet standing aloof near the wall. How did she sneak up on us in such a small room, and why is she wearing sun glasses indoors? “Everypony, I would like to introduce y’all to Scarlet. Scarlet I would like to introduce you to Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie.” Braeburn pointed a hoof as he introduced Scarlet and his friends.

“And I thought my nick names were abnormal.”

“And what’s wrong with our names?” Rainbow Dash asked as she hovered up to Scarlet’s face.

Scarlet just stared back at cyan pony (hopefully, it’s hard to tell with the sunglasses on). “Nothing, they just sound weird to me. Now how about you back away from my face before you regret coming so close to it.” Scarlet made a small gesture with head downward which Rainbow followed. Scarlet had her hand on a grey weapon, still holstered, but ready to be pulled out. Rainbow slowly flew away. Scarlet softly smiled, “Smart move.” She looked over at Celestia who was glaring at her. “Hey, I did warn you.”

There was a small cough. Scarlet looked down to see Twilight standing in front of her. “Sorry about Rainbow Dash. She can get kind-of get defensive when ponies make fun of her name.” She held up a hoof. “Anyway it’s nice to meet you Scarlet.”

Scarlet didn’t grab the hoof, instead she just glanced back up and looked at the others mares. She then looked back at Celestia. “They kind of look...weak; I don’t think they could handle a single fiend, let alone anyone else.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” Celestia stated. She looked around the room. “Where’s Applejack?”

“Still in the kitchen I think, probably thinking over what I told her during our little chat.”

“I’m here, just had to put the dishes away,” Applejack said as she walked out from the kitchen. Her face beamed a smile as she saw her friends. “Howdy girls.” She walked up to them and a group hug formed.

As the group of friends got out of their group hug Twilight looked at Celestia. “So, why did you call us Princess?”

“I need you and your friends to once again bare the Elements of Harmony to defeat another threat to Equestria and to the world.”

“Who?” Everypony asked.

“His name is...”

“Excuse me,” Scarlet interrupted, “but if you’re going to go through same story from yesterday, then I’m going to work on something of mine upstairs.” Scarlet made her way to stairs before anypony could object.

Celestia pick up from where she was cut off. “As I was saying, his name is Cadbury, and it is going to take some time to discuss about him.” Celestia retold the story she gave to Applejack, Braeburn and Scarlet. Once she finished the room remain quite once again.

Rainbow spoke first. “We can take him,” she said with lots of confidence.

“That brute will get what’s coming to him,” Rarity said with a scowl on her face.

Braeburn smiled at this. Applejack was right about Celestia's plan, if she believed the Elements of Harmony and its bearers can take down Cadbury, then Cadbury’s hooves should be quaking in fear.

Sudden a small headache started to form in his head; follow by a low ringing in his ear. Braeburn quickly rubbed his ear, with a small look of discomfort on his face. “You too Braeburn?” Applejack asked. Braeburn looked up and saw the same look on Applejack and the others (expect for Pinkie Pie, who was trying to find the source of the ringing) faces. The ringing then painfully intensified causing everypony to wince. Braeburn's vision of the room suddenly started to spin and Braeburn blacked out.

***********************

Sunlight glared in Braeburn’s eyes. “What in tarnation is going on?” As his eyes adjusted he found himself standing in some sort of camp, with several humans wearing what seemed like red version of the Canterlot royal armor, roaming around the area. “Where are we?”

“We’re in Scarlet’s world,” Celestia answered. Braeburn looked behind and a saw Celestia and the rest standing around looking at their new surroundings. “The question is how?”

“Well let’s go and ask these nice people,” Pinkie said as she hopped to the nearest human. “Hi, can you tell us how we got here?” The man didn’t replied or even seemed to notice the chirpy pink pony next to him. The man picked up some sort of spear and then walked through Pinkie like she was a ghost. “Oh, you can do that too, cool!”

“My intelligence was right, you are as dumb as you look,” a new stallion voice spoke up. Everypony looked towards where the voice came from to see a brown earth pony sitting across from them. “Of course I wasn’t expecting much from a mind whose mess up just as my great ancestor was.”

“Cadbury,” Celestia said in a low tone.

“Celestia,” he replied in a lighthearted tone. “You haven’t changed one bit ever since you banished me to the deepest hole in Tartarus.”

“I could say the same to you. What do you want.”

“To give you a warning of the monster you are housing.”

“Scarlet,” Applejack question.

“Have you ever wondered why people gave her that nick name? I can tell you it’s not because she has red hair.”

“Why does that matter Cadbury? From what I learn a name doesn’t defined a human, just like a cutie mark with a pony.” Celestia chastised in a sour tone.

“Such anger Celestia, you should drink more of that tea of yours to calm yourself down. You don’t want to scare your little ponies.” He looked at the mares. “Of course what you already have put them through, I’m surprised they still trust you.”

Rainbow Dash zoomed up to his face. “Of course we trust her, she's our ruler."

“So these are the Elements of Harmony.” Then he looked right at Braeburn and spoke in a mocking tone, “I guess I should be quaking in my hooves and begging for my life to be spared.” He then was rolling on a chuckle.

Fed up with Cadbury, Rainbow took a swing at him, only to have her hoof pass through him like he was a cloud. “Huh?” She tried a couple of more times, each ending with the same result.

Annoyed, Cadbury threw his own punch which land a solid blow on Rainbow’s face. Rainbow landed hard on the ground and she rubbed the spot where Cadbury hit her. “You know, at least the human stopped after her first attempt.”

Celestia step in front of him. “Enough Cadbury. What do you want?”

“You already know that Celestia, I just want to show you something from what I learn from Scarlet. It’s quite the eye opener.”

“By the order of the great Caesar, all visitors must hand over all of their weapons before entering.” Everypony looked to their right and saw a group of three men surrounding Scarlet, another man wearing dark brown clothing, with a pair sunglasses and a red cap on his head, and a flying spherical metal object.

Scarlet spoke up. “How about...,” she quickly pulled out Lucky and fired a shoot into the man’s skull, “...no.” As the man whom Scarlet shot at fell to the ground, the other two men quickly reached for their weapons. However the man next to Scarlet pulled out a knife swiftly slashed across one of man’s neck. The flying metal object played some dramatic music and fired blue beams of light at the last one standing. The man did small flinches as each beam hit him until the last one hit him in the face and he disintegration to a pile of dust in a blue flash of light.

“Nice work you two,” Scarlet complimented. The flying spherical metal object let out a happy beeping noise. “But it’s just getting started.” She hoisted Lucky and pulled out her anti-materiel rifle.

“Kill the profligate and the traitor!” An angry war cry was yelled out. Everypony looked and saw several more humans running down a hill. Suddenly there was a loud thunderous bang and a small explosion emitted right in the middle of the charging men. The explosion pushed the men outward, some having parts of their body being rip apart and others just drop with the shock wave passing through them. One of them remarkably survived, but soon his head ruptured as another gun shot was fired. Scarlet then aimed up at another group of men who were making their way down and fired another explosive round. One of bodies disintegrated at the center of the explosion. There was another man who was near a metal wall and instead of fighting he quickly ran through a gate shouting orders to shut it.

“Humph, this is going surprising well,” the man with Scarlet spoke.

“Well this is only the front door Boone, there’s more behind that wall, and I bet they’re all lining up waiting for us to make another grand entrance.” Scarlet gave an ecstatic smile. “Let’s not disappoint them. ED-E: open storage unit.” The flying object made a beeping noise and went up to Scarlet, opening a door on its back side. Scarlet went up to it and pulled out a small cylinder. She tossed it to Boone who caught it and Scarlet pulled out another one, and kept it for herself. “You remember how to correctly use a plasma grenade?”

“Yes; do we have a plan after we toss these?”

“Yeah, kill those who are left standing.” The three of them made their way up to the gate.

“Sounds simple enough.”

“Nothing ever sounds simple; there still the slaves in the camp. Hopefully we won’t have to worry on hitting them if Siri did what I told her, but still watch who you’re shooting at.”

“Don’t worry; I’ll only shoot at men wearing red.” They reached the gate, and the sound of orders being shouted could be heard.

“Well, let’s get this party started then,” Scarlet said with a smile on her face. Scarlet and Boone both press a button and the cylinders started to glow green. “Now on the count of three; one…two…three.” They both tossed the green cylinders over the gate, and cries of alarm were yelled not shortly after. Then there were two big green electrical explosion, and Scarlet went and opened the gate while Boone and ED-E stood (or hovered) ready to gun down anyone standing on the other side. Boone started to fire his rifle while ED-E let out another short musical tune before firing more blue beams.

Scarlet however pulled out a spear that had three knives tied together and ran into battle. She quickly impaled it into one man’s chest, cutting through the armor like it was nothing. She pulled it out and used the spears handle to block another man’s blade. A blue beam hit the man causing enough distraction for Scarlet to slash the spear across the man head, decapitating him.

Fluttershy was hiding under her mane, weeping in fear. Pinkie Pie's mane lost its fluff and was straight down flat, with tears forming in her eyes. Rainbow Dash actually tried to fly into the battle trying to stop Scarlet, but every time she almost came in contact with any of the humans she appeared right back with the others. Rarity had her eyes closed and was looking away from the dreaded sight off blood and gore. Twilight’s mouth was hanged open in shock as she watch, and Applejack was also looking down at the ground trying not to watch the battle. Celestia however showed no emotion, and just stared at the battle, wishing it to end quickly.

The sound of guns going off ceased, and heavy breathing could only be heard. “You okay Boone,” Scarlet asked.

“Only a few graze cuts, you?”

“My heart's getting a bit jumpy and I think I got a few bullet hits along with some other cuts, but I’m still breathing.” Scarlet looked at the battle field. Bodies of men and dogs with blood leaking out of them covered the ground. She then raised her left arm up and looked at the device strapped on her arm. “I think that’s all of them in this area.”

“Then nothing is standing in our way to Caesar? Good.” Boone made his way to path that led up the hill, but Scarlet put a hand on his chest stopping him.

“Whoa there big guy; all of Caesar’s guards have ballistics fists. We’ll be killed before firing off a single shot.”

“Then what are we supposed to do? Shoot blindly into the tent expecting to hit someone.”

“No, but I do have a way still. ED-E, storage unit again.” ED-E let out another beeping noise and hovered up to Scarlet opening the storage compartment. Scarlet reached inside and pulled out a strange weapon, which looked more like a toy.

Scarlet walked up to the edge of the hill where the big tent sat on. She then yelled really loud. “Hey, son of Mars, I got a special delivery for you.” She held up the strange toy gun. “And it’s directly from the sun.” She then held down the trigger causing the toy to make lots of noise. The ponies could see three small faint beams of light forming over the big tent, and was getting closer together. Then the sky suddenly got brighter as a giant blue beam of light smashed to the ground. The ponies, and even Boone, covered their eyes from the light which didn’t last long.

As the ponies opened their eyes again, they saw the big tent was aflame. “Whoa,” Boone said.

“I know right; it’s a nice little toy from the Old World me and Veronica found at HELIOS One.”

Boone then extended his hand and pointed his thump down. “Thumbs-down, you son of a bitch!”

“Nice choice of words,” Scarlet complemented. She looked behind herself to see a group of humans dressed in rags who were all amazed of the fire on the hill. “You and ED-E lead the people back to raft. I’m going to check the area in back for any more Legionaries.” Boone nodded his head and ED-E made a beeping noise, making their way to the group of people, fading away. Scarlet moved down a path that winded around the hill the tent sat upon.

“Enough Cadbury,” Celestia demanded.

“Not just yet, there one more event that I know you would love to see.”

The scene changed into Scarlet pulling out her spear out of a man’s chest. She was breathing heavily and placed a hand over the left part her chest. She stood like that for a while then spotted something laying on the ground. She put the spear back on her back next to the ARM and picked up the sword she been carrying from before. She looked down at the dead body. “I’m going to take this, I hope you won’t mind.” Then a spear embedded itself into the ground close to Scarlet. She quickly pulled out Lucky and turn around, surprised to see what was in front of her.

Two children, both were wearing the same clothing as all of the other men Scarlet was killing. One was cowering in fear while the other one had anger in his eyes. Scarlet just stood there in disbelief, slowly shaking her head whispering no to herself. The child that was standing quickly went to grab another spear that was embedded in the ground, only to be stop when Scarlet fired a round. “Don’t do it kid.”

The kid looked at Scarlet, tears in his eyes along with rage. He ignored her warning grabbed the spear and yelled, “FOR CAE…” His chest exploded with blood cutting him off, as the ringing of a gunshot filled the air. The child fell to the ground, will dull surprised on his face and he was gasping the air, which didn’t last long. The world became quite. Everypony had their mounts agape from what they saw.

“I warned ya,” Scarlet spoke. She then just faded away along with everyone else leaving the ponies at an empty battle field.

“I think that should be enough for you all to get the point,” Cadbury spoke.

“She...she did all that,” Twilight shakily asked.

“That and more: the massacre of the White Legs, the killer of rulers, and the destruction of a nation. Everywhere she travels the earth is painted in blood, which is why the people gave her the name Scarlet. My tip, lock her up before it’s too late.” Cadbury then waved a hoof and the world around the ponies collapsed and they all fell down in an endless white world.

************************

Braeburn woke up from the jolt of the fall and sprang up. He noticed Scarlet sitting next to him and was holding a syringe in her hand. Scarlet looked at the syringe then back at Braeburn. “Just to let you know, this was supposed to wake you up.”

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Did you know that the developers were going to give you the option to have the ability to kill children? (Obviously they didn't go with it) Anywho, ProtheanBrony told me that he might not be able to proofread for sometime, so any volunteers just encase that happens?

Chapter 19

Thanks to ~~ProtheanBrony~~ PiquoPie for proofreading.
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Just need to reattach this wire and... done. Scarlet reattached the cover on the transponder and turned it on, making blue electricity dance inside the glass tubing. Scarlet lifted the transponder and pulled the trigger, nothing happen. Well what were you expecting Scarlet. It's not like the transponder alone will be able to bring you back to the Mojave. She turned the transponder off and set it back down on the dresser. Exactly how the hell am I going to get back anyway? Ask Cadbury nicely for him and Celestia to make a portal back to my world so I can leave and let them go at each other’s throats? Scarlet chuckled softly to herself. Still…hopefully there is a way for me to get back. After all Celestia got back from my world so there has to be some way to do the same here without any help of Cadbury. Because the last thing I want is to spend the rest of my life here while Vegas runs leaderless.

Vegas... a place she thought she never be running, and the only reason she got mixed into trying to take over Vegas was because of Benny. If only he had asked nicely for the platinum chip, then maybe he would’ve still been alive, possibly even ruling Vegas instead of me. But no Mr. Smooth Lips had to shoot me in the head and leave me in a shallow grave. Then he believed me, the person who he thought was dead, wanted to have sex with him. The next thing he knows I stuck a knife in his throat while he was taking his pants down. Scarlet got up and left the bedroom. I still can’t believe he fell for that. As she entered the main room, the sight took her by surprised.

Every pony was lying down on the floor with their eyes closed. Some of them were making small noises as if they were in a bad dream. Scarlet went up to Applejack and shook her shoulder hard. “Hey, wake up.” No response. Scarlet then picked up her head a few inches in the air and let it fall back on the floor; nothing. Well this is not good. Scarlet went to check everyone else to see they were all in the same condition. Passed out, and mumbling in their sleep. Can’t get help from the townsfolk otherwise they might think I have something to do with this. Scarlet thought for a while. I could give a small dose of jet and psycho, that would snap anyone awake. She went back upstairs to get her medical bag. I’ll bring some fixer too, just in case.

She opened her duffel bag and pulled out the doctor bag full of the drugs she carries. Don’t know why I still carry these; I only used the hydra and med-x. Guess old habits die hard. She pulled out an empty syringe along with psycho and jet, and with her medical skill she mixed the two together in the syringe. Only got one shot at this. So who’s going to be the lucky pony? Obviously it should be Celestia, but Scarlet feared the dose she had wouldn’t be enough for Celestia big body, so it would have to be one of the others. Braeburn…he’s a male and if anything goes wrong I can just use my lady like charm.

She picked up some fixer and headed to the main room again with everyone still asleep. She sat down next to Braeburn and started to look for an artery on his neck, which was hard to do since she was unfamiliar with pony physiology (plus, the yellow coat was annoying). Finally finding one, she prepared the syringe to inject the drug.

Braeburn’s eyes sudden opened up and he let out yelled of panic as he shot up. Scarlet quickly pulled the syringe out of the way before it impaled him. Soon the other ponies woke up and did their own little jumps of shock. Well, that was a waste of drugs. Braeburn’s eyes rapidly darted around the room, until they locked onto Scarlet. The pupils shrank to a third of their original size, full of horror.

Scarlet looked at the syringe in her hand, then back at Braeburn. “Just to let you know, this was supposed to wake you up.”

“Get away from him you monster!” A voice shouted out. Scarlet suddenly felt as if something grabbed her entire body and she was thrust and pinned to the nearest wall. She then saw the purple unicorn come into view with her horn glowing and an angry scowl on her face.

Scarlet tried to pull away but it felt as if the whole weight of a super mutant was being pushed against her. “What the fuck did you think you’re doing? LET ME GO!”

“Never! I won’t have the likes of you…”

“Twilight Sparkle, release Scarlet now!” Celestia voice overcast Twilight’s. Twilight looked over to her mentor to see Celestia looking disappointingly at her.

“But Princess...”

“Twilight,” Celestia said again with a hard tone. Twilight’s mouth fumble with a few words but soon released Scarlet from her magical grip. “Let me also remind you Scarlet, that I’m far more powerful than my student is.”

Scarlet pushed herself away from the wall. She gave a hard glare at Twilight (which Twilight returned), “Point taken.” She looked at Celestia. “Now would you mind telling me why your student decided to attack me?”

“Because you’re a monster!” Twilight yelled.

“A downright brute,” Rarity disgusting said.

“A total meanie,” Pinkie finally added.

Scarlet, unfazed by the names the ponies were calling her, looked at everypony. Every single one of them (expect for Applejack and Braeburn who had looks of fear, but with sadden eyes) had some sort of anger on their face. She looked back to Celestia. “Is there a reason for the sudden hate?”

Celestia sigh. “Cadbury somehow forced us asleep and put us in a share dream state. He showed us a memory of yours of you killing a large group of men.”

“You’re going have to be more specific. I’ve done that a lot of times in the recent year.”

“They were wearing red armor and you had a man name Boone and robot who you called ED-E.”

Scarlet thought for a while, then a small smile grew on her face. “Ah yes, the attack on Caesar’s Fort.” Her smile grew bigger and she gave a soft chuckle. “That was a great day.”

“How could say something like that!?” Twilight demanded.

“Because on that day I did something no one was ever able to do for over four years. Kill the great Son of Mars, Caesar, and right on his own land. I also killed lots of his soldiers and freed a lot of slaves, but those are small side notes.”

“Why would you ever do that? They were your own kind.” Rainbow Dash asked.

Scarlet looked at Dash with an insulted look. “Was that a joke? Because I am not a rapist, a slaver, a raider, or a senseless cold blooded murderer. They killed anyone who didn’t accept their ‘great leader’s’ ways, and took the rest as slaves to do as they please.”

“So aimless killing them was the only answer?”

I can’t believe I’m having this kind of argument. “Look, if any of y’all seen what they did to countless people, you should be glad that I kill them all. Hell, ask any one person in the Mojave and they all would’ve said the same thing. I did the Wasteland a big favor killing him and his men!” Scarlet looked at Celestia. “You should explain it to them; after all you’ve been to my world.” Celestia remain silent. “Well?”

“Like I said Scarlet, I understand your ways, but I have never approved of them.”

Scarlet looked at Celestia with disbelief. “Well, thanks.” With that Scarlet stormed off and went back up stairs.

“Scarlet wait,” Applejack called out.

“No Applejack,” Celestia intervened. “I’ll handle Scarlet, can you please comfort your friends.” Celestia walked to the staircase, leaving Applejack and Braeburn with five unhappy mares.

**********************

Celestia walked up to Scarlet’s room and found the door shut. She used her magic to grabbed the door handle and found it locked tight, for a human that is. She could’ve used her magic to unlock it, but she wanted to give Scarlet her room. “Scarlet,” she gently called out.

“Leave me alone, Princess.” Scarlet tonelessly said on the other side of the door.

“I’m sorry for the way the Elements treated you, but what Cadbury showed us was very disturbing to them. They’re just not used to your world’s violence. I tried to wake us up, but I couldn’t use my magic.”

“Nice excuse, but you still didn’t help defend me. What I did is basic, normal in my world, and you know it. I’m not ashamed of what I did that day. Every single member of the Legion deserved to die.”

“Even the children?” Celestia asked.

Scarlet remained silent, then a low chuckle could be heard. “Oh, he showed that little scene eh? Not my most righteous moment I know, but there was nothing else I could’ve done.”

“That’s not true; you could’ve easily stopped him by shooting the spear away or a number of other possibilities.”

“And then what?” Scarlet’s voice harshly rose. “Take him with the rest of the free slaves hoping he wouldn’t grow up with some sort of plot for revenge for his fellow fallen soldiers? When he grabbed that spear and started to yelled ‘For Caesar’ he made a statement that he was fully part of the Legion. So I had to make sure he had died like the rest of them.” Scarlet voice started to chuckle and get a bit delusional. “You know it ain’t easy... killing children. Some of them you know you can stop and make them change their ways, but with the rest...” Her voice grew silent once more. “The ammo was Hallow pointed. He only suffered for a few seconds.” Her voice was back to its monotonous state and it sounded as if it she wasn’t all there too.

The sound of the window opening along with something heavy landing on the ground faintly filled Celestia’s ears. “Scarlet, what are you doing?”

“Leaving. You have your weapon Celestia, you really don’t need my help.” Celestia quickly used her magic to unlock the door and open it just in time to see Scarlet leapt out of the window. There was a loud thud along with Scarlet grunting a few seconds afterward. Celestia trotted over to the open window and look out. Scarlet was dusting herself off before grabbing her duffle bag and the rest of her equipment. She looked up at Celestia. “I’ll be around the campsite I made a few days ago, out of sight and out of mind. I should have enough supplies to last me for about a week. Come see me again once you finish this little war of yours and have a way back to my world.”

She put something on top of the Pip-boy and finally stated. “Also, I’m still in the shoot first asked question later kind of mood. So if anyone comes up to me and isn’t someone I’ve meet before, I will shoot.” She flipped something and vanished into a barely visible outline of herself, walking out in the middle of the street and out of town.

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Chapter 20

Thanks to PiquoPie for proofreading.
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Strongheart walked through the San Palomino desert. Yesterday was a strange day for her; another member of her tribe came to get her on orders from Chief Thunderhooves. She didn’t learn why until she got back; the whole tribe was moving. Strongheart was surprised by this. Her tribe occasion does move when they needed to find more food, but their food reserves were still good. Strongheart went up to Chief Thunderhooves and asked why they were moving. He simply replied that it was for the good of the tribe.

So for the rest of the day she had to help the tribe move. The place they were moving to was a canyon that had many systems of caves. After they finally moved in Strongheart asked if she could head back to Appleloosa, but was denied. However, Strongheart didn’t want to leave her two friends alone with Scarlet, even if their princess was already there. So later during the night, she snuck out and headed for Appleloosa. It was now morning and she was half-way there.

“Hello Strongheart, shouldn’t you be with your tribe at their new location?” Alpha’s voice spoke from behind her.

Strongheart looked behind to see the gray pegasus standing behind her “Alpha?”

“That’s my name.”

“What are you doing this far from Appleloosa and how did you know about my tribe moving?”

“Well first, Appleloosa isn’t my home and second I was the one who made your chief move your tribe.”

“What!?”

“Yes, it took a lot longer than I thought to plant that thought into his head, but I didn’t want to risk damaging his brain. I was hoping for you to stay with your tribe, but I guess I could use your help.”

“What did you do to Chief Thunderhooves?”

“I just used my gift to plant a simple thought of moving your tribe away from Appleloosa for a few days.”

“Why?”

“To protect them from the growing danger that is coming Strongheart, I didn’t want your tribe to enter a battle that could destroyed them.”

“Danger? What danger.”

Alpha remained silent then asked something out of the blue. “Are you brave Strongheart?”

Annoyed she answered. “If it means the protection of my tribe, yes I can be brave.”

“Then I need your help Strongheart. I need your help to rescue Scarlet.”

*********************

“How could you still defend her Applejack? After all we’ve seen?” Twilight asked after Applejack and Braeburn gave them a brief run through of the first day with Scarlet. “She is just as dangerous now as she was when she killed those griffons.”

“Twi, she was just defending herself from those griffons.”

“But what about the group we saw her kill? She was the one who attacked first and they were the ones who were defending themselves.”

“Well, remember what Scarlet told us about them.” Braeburn counter.

“Yeah Twilight,” Rainbow Dash chimed in. “If they were as bad as Scarlet described them then they needed to be stopped.”

“That may be true, but that didn’t stop us from killing the Changelings when they invaded.”

“Yeah, but we had magic to defend ourselves Twi. Scarlet told us that her world doesn’t have any. That was probably the only way she could’ve stopped them from doing any more harm to other humans.”

Twilight was about to say something else, but the sound of clopping hooves silence them all. Celestia walked into view, looking a bit disappointed. “Where’s Scarlet?” Applejack asked.

“She left and went back to her campsite,” Celestia replied. “Though I wish she didn’t, but after what happen, we all need to calm down and give each other some space.” Twilight was about to say something but Celestia cut her off. “My dearest student, I know that you don’t trust her, but we all need to try to forget what we saw.”

Twilight was surprised by this. “How! It’s pretty hard to forget something like that!”

“It’s quite simple. Just push it deep into your mind and never speak of it again. It also helps to know that Scarlet’s world is not as peaceful as Equestria is Twilight. It’s a very desperate place, full of chaos and violence. People like Scarlet are some of the very few who helps keep the peace, even though it is accomplished in a matter that is very different than our ways.”

“But Princess...,”

“Twilight, I know you’re scared and you have the right to be. However, I trust Scarlet enough to know that she isn’t the monster Cadbury is trying to make us believe. Like I said, we need to give each other some space and cool down. Then later we can visit Scarlet and sort this issue out.”

Twilight closed her mouth, and nodded her head. Celestia looked over at Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash who also nodded their heads. She then looked over to Applejack and Braeburn, who seemed quite relived that she was able to calm her friends down. However a frown grew on Celestia face as she looked over the whole room and noticed somepony was missing. “Where is Rarity?”

***********************

Scarlet was sitting on the edge of a cliff not far from her camp. After putting her things away she pulled a harmonica out of her bag. She started to play some random tune she knew on it to help herself calm down. Normally she would’ve just wander out into the Wasteland and kill anyone or anything that decided to attack her to calm down. However there was a lack of "bad guys" running rampant around, so she had turned to a hobby of hers. She slurred the last of the notes together and pulled the harmonica away from her face and let out a long tired sigh. "That could've gone a lot better," she said, referring to what happen with argument with the ponies. Of course I doubt there was anything I could’ve say to make it go any better.

She lowered her head. Things were a lot simpler in my life when I was just a courier. I just deliver packages, defend myself from the wild life, and visited the famous sights of the wastes. But no, you had to show up, you goodie two shoe Arroyo tribal boy. You just had to travel with me, telling me about your tribal leader and her ‘epic’ adventure out in the Wasteland. Then you convince me to make a town in the middle of the most dangerous place in the wasteland with that whimsical charm of yours. And of course, you always made me smile in some way or another.

She let out a heartbroken sigh; pushing the rigorous memories back deep into her mind before they got out of control. However she said one final thing on her mind. "I wish you were still here Jason." The snap of a twig brought Scarlet out of her train of thought and she went into her defensive mode. She pulled out Lucky and aimed it towards the location where the sound was emitted.

A young unicorn pony was standing there and was now eying the end of Lucky's barrel. Scarlet could recognize that it was the young pony from her first day here. The pony who could see her, even when she was invisible. The pony had some sort of brace that was holding a camera and it was now nervously looking at Scarlet. Scarlet let out an annoyed sigh and put Lucky away back in its holster. Scarlet then turned her head looking back over the cliff side.

A shaky female voice spoke out. "I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you, it's just I want to take a picture of you so my mother won't think I'm crazy."

"Look kid, I have no idea what you are saying, so take your picture and leave." Yes Scarlet didn't understand a single word of what the young filly said, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that filly + camera = wanted picture of Scarlet.

The young filly tilted her head sideways. "Huh?" Scarlet didn't reply, only continuing to look out over the cliff. The filly slowly brought the camera up to one of her eyes and took a shot. There was a small bright flash. Scarlet continued to look out into the horizon, oblivious to the young filly’s work. The filly winded up for another shot and took it, which was shortly followed by another.

Gee, how many is she going to take, Scarlet thought.

"I believed she was going to waste the whole film on you," a male voice answered. "Shame though; there are far better things to be captured on camera than you."

Scarlet’s eyes narrowed when she heard the voice. She pulled out Lucky again and aimed it at Cadbury's face. Cadbury had a vicious smiled on his face as he held the young filly's neck with his hoof around it. "Let her go," Scarlet demand.

"Or you’ll do what, shoot me? Yes, you might be able to hit me; however,” his hoof glowed green and Maria floated up in the air and he aimed it at the young pony’s head. “...I have a feeling you won’t take that chance.” His smile grew bigger as he pulled the top part of Maria back, arming the gun. “Now how about you toss your weapon away before you have another child’s death weigh heavily on your mind.”

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Chapter 21

Thanks to PiquoPie for proofreading.
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Scarlet and Cadbury looked at each other; Scarlet pointing Lucky at Cadbury’s skull and Cadbury pointing Maria at the young filly’s head. Scarlet had no doubt she could make the shot, leaving Cadbury with a new hole in his head, but there was one thing that was troubling her mind, a magical shield. Beta used one to stop one of her shots dead cold and there was no doubt in Scarlet’s mind that Cadbury could do the same thing. That is, if he was really there at all.

“Well, Scarlet?” Cadbury asked out loud.

“How do I know this is real and not some sort of illusion? For all I know this is just happening in my head and I’m still looking over at Appleloosa.”

Cadbury tilted his head in bemusement and let out a small deranged chuckle. “You do realize there are many ways I could answer that question. Like simply killing the filly and let her spilled guts tell you that.” He stopped his chuckling and his voice got a bit more formal as he continued. “However, it is unwise to spend my only card to answer such a simple question.” He turned Maria toward Scarlet and fired a single round.

The bullet hit square center of Scarlet’s combat armor covered chest, making Scarlet feel as if someone had thrown a weak punch at her. Scarlet looked down to see the flattened bullet embedded in her armor.

“Real enough for you I hope? I’m good at making illusions but even I have my limits; mincing the laws of physics for one. It always has been a tough one for me to get right.” Scarlet looked back up to see Cadbury had Maria trained once again at the filly’s head, who was now even more freaked out of what was going on around her. “For instance I didn’t know how the bullet would’ve reacted when hitting your amour, even though I have your memories for reference. So no, this is not an illusion, and yes, I can cast a shield around me. So just put Lucky away, follow me willfully and this can all end peacefully.”

Scarlet was frustrated by this. Ever since she was brought her he had been trying to get her. And she wanted to know why. “Why? Why are you so committed on trying to get me? What use am I to you for your plan of revenge against Celestia?”

“Oh, there are many reasons why I need you Scarlet. One of them is so that I will be able to continue on the pony race after the purification of Equestria.”

Scarlet was bewildered by this. “How in the world am I supposed to help with that? I don’t think humans and ponies can breed.”

“You’re right we can’t. However, that wasn’t what I meant. I only need a certain genetic code that your race has that mine does not. Any human would do.”

“If you only needed some random human, you could’ve chosen better.”

“True, but due to my limits with unicorn’s magic I was also limited on the way I could pick up a human. The easiest way I figured out was to intercept a teleport energy signature, since energy traveling through the air is easier to grab than people on the ground. At the time of my searching I only found two humans who had the ability to transport a grant distance; you and a male out East. I choose you because a female had a better chance of having the genetic code I am looking for.”

Someone else has the ability to teleport out in the Wasteland? I thought Big MT had the only functioning teleporter prototyped on Earth. Still, this explained a few things. Now VATS should be quick enough to take him...

A green shield popped up around Cadbury and the filly. “Now, now Scarlet no cheating. Now toss your weapon away or this filly will soon die of radiation poising.”

Scarlet closed her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh, thinking of cruel things before tossing her weapon a few feet in front of her. “You’re a son of bitch Cadbury.”

“That what your mouth says, but not your mind.” He put down his magical shield, but still had Maria pointing at the filly’s head. “Hands, behind your head and slowly get up,” he ordered Scarlet.

Scarlet gave one last glare at Cadbury before closing her eyes and moving her hands behind her head. She used her legs and pushed herself to stand up. “You’re going to pay for this you know. The moment you let your guard down I will kill you in a blink of an eye.”

Cadbury let out an amuse chuckle. “You try to growl like a lioness defender her territory, but in reality you’re nothing more than a Kitty who is trying to act fierce with her tiny pitiful yowls.”

Scarlet narrowed her eyes at Cadbury. He just referred her by an old nickname that he had no right to call her. She was about to say something else but didn’t get the chance as a ball of energy hit the ground near Cadbury.

Cadbury’s body went stiff as the force of the blown passed around him. Both he and Scarlet looked up at the sky where the ball came from. Up in the sky, standing on a cloud was a grey pegasus.

Cadbury was furious by the pegasus appearance, but he latter clam down as he emitted an amused chuckle. “So you finally show your face Alpha, too bad you can’t physical harm me.”

“It’s a good thing I brought help then.” Alpha simply replied.

There was the sound of fast clopping hooves and Strongheart jump into view. She rammed herself into Cadbury’s right side, making him to tumble over. Cadbury loss his hold on the filly and her fight or flight instinct took over as she bolted away from Cadbury as fast as her little legs could. Strongheart pinned Cadbury down on the ground, giving him a warning glare.

“Foolish buffalo,” he stated. A green burst emitted from him and it knocked Strongheart off of him. Strongheart landed a few yards away from him. Cadbury got up and was about to cast another spell. However he failed to notice a figure appearing right next to him.

The moment Strongheart rammed into Cadbury’s side, Scarlet made her move. As she broke out into a run and with her first two steps she pulled her hands away from her head, moving them down to her left side. On her third and fourth step she pulled out her gladius, and in her sixth step she entered VATS. Even though Cadbury was still a few yards away from her, VATS still show a 90% chance of hitting and she spent every AP she could. Her Pipboy took over and she inhumanly ran up to Cadbury right as he knocked off Strongheart.

Cadbury glance to his left to see Scarlet landed her first slash across his side. Green blood spurted out, and Scarlet gave several more lighting slashes, spilling blood with each stoke. As Scarlet exited out of VATS, she looked at Cadbury. She was a bit surprised to see Cadbury’s body still in one piece, since she knew the gladius could cut through flesh like butter, but was more surprised to see green blood oozing out of the lashes instead of red. “Kitty has very sharp claws,” she said in a low voice.

Cadbury gave a weak smile before coughing in pain. Then green fire burst from his body which quickly engulfed his whole body. When the fire died down, Cadbury wasn’t there anymore but what looked like radiscorpion shaped as a pony. The “pony” passed out and fell right to the ground. Scarlet raised her gladius to give the final blow.

“Don’t kill him!” The pegasus Cadbury called Alpha cried out. Scarlet glance to her left to see the grey pegasus holding a hoof up in protest.

“Give me one good reason why,” she demanded.

“Because he might be the only one who knows if a kidnapped pony is still alive.”

Scarlet was surprised by this. “What?”

Alpha was about to explain more but the frantic ringing of a bell stopped him. He turned his gaze behind Scarlet and was staring at something. “It has begun.”

Scarlet turned around to see what Alpha was talking about. Large columns of black smoke were rising up from the town. “Shit.”

_____________________________________________________________________

*Looks at personal check list* Mention the Vault Dweller, the Chosen One, and the Lone Wanderer in this story. *checks the box* Check.

Chapter 22

Thanks to PiquoPie for proofreading.

After a fruitless search in Appleloosa for Rarity, the five mares and Braeburn waited in Braeburn’s living room for Celestia, who was preparing a tracing spell. Rainbow Dash was pacing back and forth in the air with a sour look on her face.

“I can’t believe we couldn’t find her,” she exclaim. “I mean how hard is it to spot a white pony with her ridicules mane style.” She stopped her pacing when she noticed the looks she was getting from everypony. “What? It’s not that hard to miss.”

“Still, that wasn’t nice to say Dash,” Twilight said. “However, you are right about no pony seeing her. There’s no reasonable way she could’ve disappear like that.” Twilight started to paced back and forth as she began to list out reasons. “She couldn’t have teleported herself out because she doesn’t have the magical skill to do something like that. She’s not the stealthiest pony out there since, like you said, isn’t hard to miss. She also isn’t the fastest pony so there’s no way she could just have walked out of town, plus she doesn’t even like walking long distances. And even if she could get to the train station, the next train isn’t due to arrive till another nine hours.”

“Then where could she be?” Fluttershy asked.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to answer that with this spell,” Celestia’s voice spoke out from behind the group.

Twilight stopped her pacing and looked up to see her mentor standing in the doorway carrying a spherical stone object and Rarity’s piece of the Element of Harmony in her magical grip. A smile formed on Twilight lips, but after doing a double take at the stone object her face quickly turn to shock and awe as she recognized the magical artifact. “That’s a scrying stone! I thought all of those were destroyed?”

Celestia let out an amused chuckle as she gave a small nod of her head. “You are right my thoughtful student, they were all destroyed. This one, however, is a copy I made out of memory nearly 300 hundreds years ago. It’s not as powerful as it was only going to be used to seek out corrupt magic and the radiation it spreads; however, I modified it to act like a fully functional scrying stone so we can find Rarity.”

“Um, can somepony please explain what y’all are talking about?” Applejack asked.

“Scrying stones were artifacts used by powerful unicorns back during the ancient time of Eqeustria. They could locate almost anything in the land and show the user exactly where it was. However some ponies started to use them improperly for wicked deeds and Celestia ordered Starswirl the Bearded to find and destroyed them along with the blueprints for making them. I only read about them, and the books that talked about them were very vague on how they work.”

“That’s because I didn’t want the incident that they caused to happen again. Now,” she moved the Element of Generosity on top on the scrying stone, “let’s see where Miss. Rarity is hiding.” The yellow glow on Celestia’s horn intensified and bright beam was shot out hitting the scrying stone. The stone brightly glowed by itself and started to emit a 3-D picture of Equestria on the floor. Everypony was ‘oohing’ and ‘awing’ while Celestia shared a stern look as she study the map.

Her eyes scanned the map carefully as it was drawn to one point. “How can that be?” She mumbled disbelievingly. Everypony stopped glorifying the map and looked over to see what Celestia was looking at. There on the map was a small bright blue point inside Macintosh Hill near the river that ran by Appleloosa.

“Wait, she’s all the way over there, but how is that possible!?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like this.” Celestia looked at Rainbow dash and ordered, “I would like you to fly over to Scarlet and try to get her to come back.”

Rainbow Dash eyes widened both in surprised and fear. “Wait, why me? Why can’t you do it?”

“I need to make sure I configured the scrying stone properly, to know whether the location it is giving us is real or not. You are the one who can reach Scarlet quickly. Don’t worry; she said she won’t harm anyone she has already met.”

“But Princess, why do we need her. I thought you said we need to give each other some space.” Fluttershy nervously asked.

“Things are not adding up right. I have reason to believe all this might be Cadbury’s doing.”

“Doing? Doing of what?” Twilight unsettling asked.

Celestia let out a heavy sigh. “That the Rarity that was with us was not the real Rarity.”

Expressions of shock and horror formed on everyponies face. “But…but how is that possible,” Fluttershy asked with much sorrow. “She acted the same at the spa, in her shop, on the train, at-at…,” she broke into tears and Pinkie Pie went over to comfort her.

Celestia’s heart ache at hearing one of her subjects cry in pain. “I don’t know, all I know is that she is still alive, otherwise the stone wouldn’t have found her. Now, Rainbow Dash, please go and fetch Scarlet from her camp.”

Rainbow Dash slowly nodded her head and made her way to the door. She opened it and prepared to take off.

Three green fireballs erupted from the sky. Two slammed into buildings across the street and the last one on top of Braeburn’s house. The house shook and the sound of crackling wood could be heard. Ponies, both from inside the house and outside, were shouting out cries of alarm. Celestia dropped her work on the stone and rushed over to the door. She looked up to the sky to see griffons flying around throwing more fireballs towards the ground.

“Princess, what’s going on!?” Twilight asked with much panic in her voice.

“We are under attack,” she answered in an enraged tone, a tone Twilight rarely heard from her mentor. Celestia started to make her way out of the door. “I need you and the others to get to safety. I will handle the griffons.” Before her student could say anything to object, Celestia’s horn glowed and she took off with a single strong flap from her wings.

Celestia flew at high speeds toward the nearest griffon in the sky. The griffon had a dull surprised look as Celestia zoomed by him. A yellow glow formed around the griffon and he was yanked out of the spot that he was hovering in. Celestia held the griffon in a firm magical grip and she moved him high in the air before flinging him toward the ground. The griffon flared his wings, trying to stop his fall, but with little success. He slammed into the ground causing dust to spew everywhere.

As the dust settle, the bruised griffon tried to get out of the small crater he made, but didn’t get the chance. In the blink of an eye, a ball of light slammed square onto the griffon’s forehead with great force. The griffon black out and fell into unconsciousness.

Celestia hovered in the air while griffons started to surround her, all of them wearing pissed off looks. Celestia closed her eyes and her horn brightly glowed. She opened her eyes and casted her spell causing two objects to materialize in front of her, a large circler shield with a golden sun painted on the front of it and a spear with its metal tip looking cherry red hot. She firmly grasped them with her magic and brought the shield to her side and the spear up next to her face, getting into a battle stance. With fierce determination she yelled out, “I WILL NOT LET YOU HARM MY SUBJECTS!”

************************

“It seemed Celestia has thrown herself into the battle.” Alpha stated.

Scarlet squinted both of her eyes towards Appleloosa. Sure enough she could barely see Celestia in the air along with several griffons. She then thought she heard something then a bright streak red line flashed through the air. “Wow, she’s actually fighting them.”

Her Pip-Boy started to click and Alpha’s voice spoke right from under her. “Yes, contrary to many beliefs, she is not a pacifist. She must have strong reasons why she brought forth her Corona Shield and Flare Spear out for this battle.”

Scarlet looked down to see Alpha standing over the Changeling with one of his hoofs glowing green. Scarlet took a couple of steps backwards which made her Pip-Boy stop clicking. “Watch it with the magic, and what in the heck are you doing?”

“Making sure he won’t die.” Scarlet looked at the Changeling and noticed that his wounds wear sealing up. “Like I said, we need him alive. It’s hard to get information from a dead pony.” After the final wound was closed up, Alpha brought his hoof closer to him and concentrated on another spell. He then thrust his hoofs and green braces formed around each the Changeling’s hoof and pinned them to the earth. Alpha then looked up to Scarlet. “I’m going to help Celestia defeat the griffons. I need you to stay here; we can’t let you get in harm’s way.” Scarlet just looked at Alpha as if he had just insulted her.

Paying no attention to the look he was getting from Scarlet, Alpha walked up to Strongheart, who was looking with concern out towards Appleloosa. “I know you want to help defending the town, but there’s nothing you can do to help.”

Strongheart looked at Alpha full of outrage. “That can’t be true; there must be something I can do to help.”

Alpha shook his head. “You will be killed in a heartbeat, or come under a worse fate. But if you do want to help, watch over the little filly.”

Strongheart looked over to the side to see the filly peering over a rock, towards the town with a worried expression on her face. She heard the flap of wings and looked back to see Alpha flying at high speed towards Appleloosa. “Hump, it’s not like he alone will be able to save the town,” Strongheart heard Scarlet muttering quietly to herself, not quite hearing what she was saying. Strongheart looked behind her again to see Scarlet standing aloof with her arms crisscrossing each other. Scarlet unfolded her arms and walked to where one of her weapons lay on the ground. She bent down to pick it up and then walked to where her bag and other things were lying.

She knelt down next to the bag and began messing with it. Strongheart thought she was about to pack up and leave. “You’re going to leave us!? You can’t do that! Appleloosa is under attack and they need your help. If you call yourself a defender of your homeland then you should start acting like that!” She said with much irritation in her voice.

Scarlet looked away from her bag and at Strongheart. She then pointed at her neck and Strongheart noticed the necklace that was used to translate their languages was missing, making Strongheart realize what she said didn’t make it across to Scarlet. However, Strongheart noticed something else. Scarlet had two of her weapons laid out in front of her, the one with the large black circle attached to it and the other the sleek greenish rectangular. Scarlet also had two more large black circles along with several small rectangular black boxes.

Scarlet equipped her two guns, one on her back and the other on a strap that went across her shoulder making the gun rest next to her hip. She placed the rest either on her belt or in pockets. She grabbed something else, stuffing it under her left arm, before standing up. She looked towards Appleloosa to see that the more pillars of smoke were rising up from the town. “I’m going to get some new scars aren’t I? And I was having such great luck not getting any for the last month.”

Scarlet looked at Strongheart, and then took a quick glance at the filly. The filly now had her face buried in her hoofs crying, probably thinking that she just lost everything she know and love. Scarlet looked back at Strongheart and pointed her right free arm at the filly. In a slow and orderly voice she spoke, “Watch over her.” She then walked towards the edge of the cliff and quickly (but carefully) made her way down.

Author's Note

Sorry for the month long update. This would've gotten updated earlier, but PiquoPie ran into trouble with everyone greatest enemy....LIFE. Also I had to completely rewrite this chapter so that added some time too.

Chapter 23

Thanks to PiquoPie for proofreading.

The ground reverberate under the pounding of the griffon’s feet as she ran. She lashed forth at Celestia, bringing her claws down at a full swing. Celestia quickly moved her shield in the way, letting the griffon’s claw bounce harmlessly off the shield. Celestia quickly bashed her shield against the griffon’s body, knocking the griffon back a couple of feet.

The griffon’s head vibrated violently, making her vision of the world shake back and forth. Her vision refocused just in time to see a hoof making its way towards her face. The hoof struck with great force, causing the griffon’s neck to brutally bend backwards. She fell on her back; her wings sprawled out on the ground, her blank eyes staring out into the sky.

Celestia let out a suppressed sigh before putting her hind right hoof back on the ground, straightening her pose. Her body was griped with pain, especially in her left wing where a griffon had gotten a lucky shot, but more importantly she was getting very exhausted from all the fighting. She was not as young as she used to be and had been out of practice for many decades. Add to that the effects of the radiation poisoning from the corrupted magic the griffons were spreading throughout the town and you get one very tired Princess.

Stay strong Celestia, she thought to herself. You can’t fail your subjects a second time. Celestia made her way where her spear was imbedded in the ground. It was soon wrapped in a yellow glow and pulled free. You need to finish this battle quickly; these griffons aren’t like the changelings. They have no intention to keep your subjects alive. You can’t hold back your power any longer; you have to end them.

Celestia reassessed her last thought. “No, I won’t; I’m not that kind of pony any longer.”

Celestia heard the flap of wings behind here along with the sound of someone landing on the ground. Thinking it was a griffon trying to ambush her, Celestia spun around with her shield and spear up in the air and charged forth.

“Your highness!” A stallion’s voice shouted out.

Celestia stopped. In front of her was a grey pegasus that she had never seen before. He was holding up a single hoof in the air as if he was about to block the spear with it. Celestia, realizing what she had almost done, drew her spear away from the pegasus and relaxed her pose as the grey pegasus lowered his hoof. “You shouldn’t be here my little pony. You need to get to safety,” she said wearily.

“Actually it should be quite the opposite; you need to get safety while I handle Cadbury’s forces.” Celestia gave the pegasus a strict look. “Save your questions for later. Right now you have more pressing matters.” Something caught the pegasus’ eye. A green magical blade extend from his hoof and he flew pass Celestia. A squawk of pain and the sound of flesh being stabbed filled Celestia’s ears. Celestia slowly turned her head to see a griffon she’d knock out earlier with the pegasus’ blade protruding through his neck. The grey pegasus jerked his blade to the left, freeing it from the griffon’s neck while dislodging the griffon’s head. Celestia watched in horror as the head roll around on the ground. “You didn’t have to do that,” she said in a shock tone.

“There’s no other way your highness. Any pain you inflect on them, they can just shrug off. You have to end them; otherwise...,” he pointed his hoof behind her. Celestia turned around and saw the other griffons getting back up. “...they will just get back up.” A griffon lashed forth at Celestia, wanting revenge for getting bucked in the chest. The grey pegasus intercepts the griffon, and tackle him to the ground. The magic blade once again extended from the pegasus’ hoof and he embedded it into the griffon’s neck.

Celestia didn’t know what to do. She wanted to protect her subjects, but wasn’t getting anywhere with her passive fighting. Even worse, the griffons were out for blood and were not holding back on who they were attacking. A griffon leapt towards the grey pegasus; Celestia held up her spear and threw it.

*********************

“You’re doing fine Twilight; don’t give up now,” Applejack reassured. Twilight only responded by grunting as she continued to concentrate on keeping her magical shield dome up. Inside that dome (along with Twilight and Applejack) were Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Braeburn, and half a dozen or so Appleloosa’s town folk.

Outside were two griffons Twilight was trying to keep out. Each of the griffons took turns in lobbing fireballs at Twilight’s shield; enjoying the torment they were causing the ponies inside as they chipped away their protective shield. The shield cracked and strained with each strike it took. Twilight’s horn flickered at the effort to keep her spell up. She didn’t know how long she could maintain it.

One of the griffons, a dark gray one, saw Twilight’s predicament and stopped the other from attacking. The other griffon was a bit confused as to why he was being stopped, but the gray griffon only gave a reassuring smile as he walked up to Twilight’s shield and stood on his hind legs. He then engulfed both of his claws in the green taint of corrupt magic.

The griffon began to furiously swipe his claws against the shield. Sparks of energy flew out of the shield with each strike, and the cracks grew larger. Twilight moaned as she tried to keep her shield together, but it was too much this time. The griffon held his claws high in the air and gave a final powerful downward slash. His claws sliced right through the shield, which shattered, and Twilight was greeted by a backlash of magic and a splitting pain in her head.

Twilight began to fall to the ground, but Applejack caught her before she could hit it. “Twilight, are you alright!?” Applejack asked. Her only respond was a soft, exhausted moan. “One down,” Applejack heard the griffon taunt. Applejack took her gaze away from Twilight and looked at the griffon. He and his friend both had sinister grins on their faces as they looked at the terrorized group of ponies.

“I’m not going down that easy,” Rainbow Dash shouted back. She shot forth from the group and tackled the grey griffon to the ground. Dash rained blows down upon the griffon. The griffon reached up and placed his claw underneath Rainbow’s chest and fired a fireball. The force from the fireball knocked Dash high into the air as she let out a cry of pain. She landed a few yards away from the griffon with smoke rising from her chest. She tumbled around in the dirt for a couple rotations before stopping; her body remained motionless.

The three standing mares all looked at Dash’s body in horror, fearing the worst. However, Rainbow propped a single hoof on the ground as she tried to push herself back up. Fluttershy began to rush to Dash’s side to help, but the other griffon got in her way. He made a ball of fire in his claws. “Wait your turn,” he said menacing. Fluttershy stopped in her tracks, to unnerved to move back with the group.

The grey griffon posed himself over to the weaken Dash. Dash turned her head to see the griffon raised up its sharp claws in air.

*Bang*

The griffon’s claw exploded, making Rainbow clinch her face as blood rained down on her. The griffon roared in pain as he withdrew from Dash and clinched his missing claw. However, the air was quickly filled with the sound of rapid mini explosions. The griffon body rippled as small burst erupted from his body. The rapid exploding sounds soon ceased, and the griffon’s body stopped jerking. Gravity soon dragged the body down, making the griffon fall over to his side.

Everyone looked to where the sounds were coming from. Standing there was a bipedal figure somewhat familiar. While Braeburn and the three standing mares recognized the body and the armor of Scarlet, her face was now covered by an expressionless mask with green eyes. Scarlet pointed her weapon over to other griffon before he could retaliate, and fired another long burst of fire from her weapon.

The griffon reacted quickly by leaping out of the way, but the lower half of his body got hit by a spray of bullets. The griffon slid across the ground for a few feet as Scarlet tracked her gun on him. Sudden the gun stopped firing and Scarlet looked down at it. She swiftly released the trigger and pulled again, only getting a single clicking sound from the gun.

The griffon wasted in no time and lobed a fireball at Scarlet. Scarlet saw the fireball coming at, and quickly turned her back to it. The fireball hit the lower part of Scarlet’s right shoulder. It exploded with the force akin to being hit by a rebar club swung by a Knightkin, and caused green flame to spread across her back.

Scarlet stood her ground and ignored the heat from the fire along with frantic ticking from her Pip-Boy. She pulled out the empty magazine, letting it drop to the ground, and quickly reached for the fully loaded one. She snapped in the mag and pulled the small lever on the gun; a satisfying click reaching her ears.

She turned and faced the griffon. Her weapon then fired several precise rabid bursts. Bullets hit the griffon’s chest and part of his wing, creating small bursts of fur and blood with each contact. The griffon collapsed to the ground, and didn’t get back up. Scarlet walked up to the body and pulled out Lucky. She aimed at the head and fired three rounds into it.

The ponies shuddered, with the exception of Fluttershy who rushed over to Rainbow Dash’s side. “Rainbow Dash, are you alright!?” Dash’s only response was a very weak moan. Two more shots filled the air, and Fluttershy took her gaze away from Dash. She saw Scarlet standing over the other griffon body with her gun pointing down on it. Scarlet holstered her weapon and began to walk over to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. She knelt down opposite from Fluttershy and placed two fingers on the side of Rainbow’s neck.

After a few seconds passed Scarlet reach down to a pouch and pulled out the other.

Scarlet then began to gently roll Dash on her back, which caused Dash to moan some more. Scarlet then raised the small device in the air, and stabbed the needle into Rainbow Dash’s chest. Dash’s eyes widened at the sudden pressure, and she let out a small cry of pain. Fluttershy let out a startled gasp, concerned that Scarlet was doing more harm.

“She’ll be fine,” Scarlet’s muffled voice spoke out. “They’re only minor second degree burns; the stimpak should be able to heal most of it.” Scarlet pulled the stimpak out of Dash’s chest and discarded it to the ground. The sound of fast clopping hooves came up from behind. Scarlet turned her head to see Applejack and Braeburn rushing up to them.

“Fluttershy, Scarlet!” AJ called out. The two southern ponies stopped as they reached the human and the ponies. Applejack looked at her passed out injured friend. “Is she going to be all right?”

“She will be.” Scarlet stood back up. “You need to clean her wound of dead and burnt skin.” She pulled out another stimpak. “Then after that, inject this into her chest and bandage the wound, if you can.” She held it out, waiting for somepony to grab it. Applejack reached out and took it.

“What are you going to do?” Braeburn asked

A small explosion burst from the other end of town, catching everyone attention. “Y’all need to head back inside and keep low. I have some griffons to kill.” Scarlet rearmed herself with her previous weapon, and walked off towards the recent explosion.

“But what if we’re attacked again?”

Scarlet stopped and looked back. “Then y’all better hope you can fight better than your friend did.” Without saying another word, Scarlet continued on walking, leaving the ponies to fend for themselves.

Author's Note

Oh look something new for me to play with. :pinkiesmile:

Not much to say here other than the mane six are not going to be spare lightly in my fights. Like Scarlet said earlier,"There will be blood", and she didn't meant there will be only griffon's blood.

Chapter 24

Thanks to PiquoPie for proofreading.

While it might have been cruel to leave a dozen defenseless ponies to themselves in the middle of a battle, Scarlet was no babysitter and didn’t plan to become one. She hurried down the street, passing by burning homes and either dead or passed out ponies. She took a left down an alleyway and saw her target; a single griffon just finishing off some random pony.

Scarlet quickly pinned herself to the side of the nearest wall before the griffon could had a chance to see her, though if had good ears her Pip-boy’s ticking would have already given her away. She took in a deep breath to calm her nerves. While one thought told her to just mow down the lone griffon, another told her to make sure he was alone and to reload Lucky too. Scarlet carefully let go of the .45 machine gun, letting the leather strap hold the gun as she reached to her right side to pull out Lucky. Her left hand also reached for a pouch that held her .357 magnum round. Her two hands began to work on reloading Lucky with what was second nature to them and her eyes look over the compass of her Pip-boy.

Built in the compass was the Friend-or-Foe radar which helped her “see” were people are and if they are hostile or not. Right now there were three red marks appeared among a scatter of yellow marks. Making a mental note to keep an eye out for other griffons, she flipped the loading compartment of Lucky closed and holstered it, and then rearmed herself with the .45 machine gun. Scarlet took in a deep breath and slightly leaned out to the side to check on the griffon. The griffon had its back to her and was about to take off.

Scarlet quickly acted. She stepped out and pointed her weapon at the griffon and let loose a small burst of fire. The bullets tore through the griffon’s back, and the griffon let out a roar of pain. He turned around to see the imposing woman and charged. Scarlet didn’t move, allowing the griffon to advance to her spot. Then at the last few seconds the griffon leapt towards her with his claws fully extended, but Scarlet quickly took refuge behind the wall letting the griffon grabbed nothing but air. She then pointed her weapon at the griffon and dispatched him like all of the rest.

Scarlet smirked inside her helmet. They always fall for that trick. Scarlet took out the round magazine clip, figuring it didn’t have many bullets left, and went to grab a fresh regular rectangular clip for the weapon.

The moan of wood faintly reached Scarlet’s ears. Scarlet tilted her head up to see a griffon pouncing on top of her. The griffon dragged Scarlet to the ground, clawing at her back and trying to bite into her neck. Scarlet struggled with griffon trying to knock it off her, but the griffon didn’t seem to be phased by her blows.

The two fought, rolling around in the dirt, each of them raining blows at each other. Scarlet was finally able to shove the griffon off her back by grasping a hand around the griffon’s neck and her other hand at one of griffon’s front claws. She then braced her knees on the ground and began to pull both of her hands down, flipping the griffon onto its side. Scarlet promptly reached for a pistol, pulling out Maria and fired five rounds at the griffon.

The griffon’s body went slack, and Scarlet took in deep short raspy breaths through her mask. She fried two more rounds for good measure, since the gun did have a record of once failing to kill. Scarlet then scanned around her area, making sure there wasn’t another griffon waiting its turn to leap off a building. She couldn’t see anything with her eyes, but her Pip-boy still had one red mark left.

Scarlet grunted as she stood back up, and wince in pain from the cuts the griffon made. The cuts ran through her neck to her shoulders where the griffon tried to rip into her; however, there were also cuts running along the back of her legs. Probably made by his hind legs, figures that they have sharp claws at both ends.

Scarlet holstered Maria and reached for the .45 machine gun, only to find it not at her side anymore. She reached behind to also find her 12.7mm SMG was missing too. Scarlet frantically looked around to find them lying on the ground, probably knock off with her struggle with the griffon. She walked over and pick up the 12.7 SMG and was glad to see it was relatively undamaged; however, when she went over to the .45 machine gun she found not only a torn leather strap, but also a bent barrel. It was only a minor bend at the end of the barrel near the tip, something that she could fix if she had the right tools and the time, but she didn’t have either right now so she just left it hoping to find it once this battle was over.

She armed herself with 12.7 SMG, making sure it was fully loaded before heading off to face the final griffon. Scarlet walked out onto the street carefully scanning for the other griffon. However, her eyes spotted something completely different. If the symbol of the Legion and a Super Mutant had an offspring it would probably look like the creature that was standing on the far side of the road. It had a buffed torso of a human supported by two tiny legs with hooves instead of feet. There was also a bull's head sitting on top of the body, with two white pointed horns ejecting out from the side. It had a grey fur coat barring several grayish pink scars, and it was gripping an axe, the head of which was resting on the ground, firmly in his hand.

"It appeared my master was wrong about you for his plan to fail," a ruffed male voice spoke out. "To let a young filly die to save your skin can be seen as a very disgraceful thing in the eyes of many. Yet I'm happy that you did it otherwise I wouldn't have the pleasure of taking you down myself."

I guess he hasn’t heard about Alpha’s interference. “Well I’m happy to make your last battle end on a happy thought.” Scarlet brought up her 12.7 into firing position. “Say hi to your friends will ya.” Scarlet quickly enter VATS and selected her actions, hoping to beat the shield the bull could pull up. Her Pip-boy carried out her actions and all of her bullets hit their marks.

The bull staggered as his chest was hit by a barraged of bullets, but he did not fall. The bull looked up at Scarlet and smiled wickedly. “I think you have the wrong idea there human.” He took one of his hands off from the axe and began to swap down his chest with it. “It will take more than your mere weapons to take me down.” Flattened bullet heads began to fall of the bull’s chest, making small thumps as they hit the ground. “This is not going to be my last battle, it will be yours.”

The bull gripped both of his hands back around the axe’s handle and lifted the head up from the ground. He turned the axe around so that the axe’s head was now pointing up in the air, and the bull got himself into a stance rearing the axe for a swing. The bull then charged at Scarlet with rushing speed equivalent to that of a Deathclaw. Scarlet barely had enough time to get out of the way before she gotten sideswipe by the blade of the axe. The air made a swooshing sound as the axe swung inches away from her chest. The bull abruptly stopped in his charge, his hoofs carving lines in the ground as he recovered from his missed swing.

Scarlet briskly continued to sidestep away from him while unloading the rest of her magazine, hoping it would damage at close range. Unfortunately her attack ended up in the same result as before. The bullets flattened when they made contact with the bull’s skin. The bull let out an annoyed snort and prepared for an overhead swing at her. Scarlet quickly stepped out the way, letting the axe’s head get embedded in the ground, and she discard her SMG and pulled out her gladius. “I thought your master wanted me alive!” She shouted out through her mask.

“True, but in reality he only needs your body to complete his project.” The bull pulled the axe out of the ground with one strong tugged of his muscular arms. “He will have to find someone else for the mind to power it later.” The bull prepared his axe for another sideway swing. Scarlet barely dodged it and got in close to the bull as he was finishing his swing, thrusting her gladius at the bull’s chest. The blade didn’t make the slightest mark, only being deflected upward. The bull smirked at Scarlet’s failed attempt to kill him. He brought one of his hands off the axe, curled it up into a fist, and backhanded Scarlet.

Scarlet staggered backwards, nearly losing her balance. Her head was aching and she could taste blood inside her helmet. “I’m impressed in your will to fight, even when all of your attempts of harming me fail; normally anyone else will either be fleeing or begging for their life.”

“I’d rather be crucified to a cross than giving up.” Scarlet bitterly answered.

“Hmph, you should give up. My master’s gift gives me an enormous amount of strength, skin tough as hardened steel and endless stamina to run on. You have no chance of ever taking me down.”

Scarlet emitted a soft chuckle as a faint smile grew on her inside the mask. “So you have to rely on cheating to win your battles? I guess your own strength was too weak for you to even throw a simple punch.”

The bull scowled at Scarlet. “I assured you, I don’t need my master’s gift to win all of my battles or to aid me. That punch I’ve gave you is a taste of my true strength without any aid.”

Scarlet let an amused scoffed. “You called that a punch? I know a grandma who is over two hundred years old who can hit harder than you.” Her grip tightened on the gladius as she held it up preparing for a fight. “She’s a lot prettier than you too.”

The bull’s scowled intensified. “Very well, I shall give you the slow and painful death you have wished for.” The bull impaled his axe in the ground and curled up both of his hands into fists. The bull then dashed forward, jabbing his right fist into Scarlet’s chest only to give an uppercut with the left shortly after. Scarlet stumbled, but was still standing. She retaliated back lashing her gladius; however, the bull grabbed her arm and twisted it, forcing her to drop the blade. While still holding Scarlet twisted arm, the bull gave a hard blow to her head, only then to release his grip.

Scarlet slammed onto her back, knocking the wind out of her. Scarlet started to rasped for air, but found out the filter was broken and the air flow being restricted. Part of the helmet’s eye lens was also cracked, making her version distorted. Scarlet frantically moved her hands on working of removing the helmet. She succeeded by ripping her head out taking a deep breath, followed by coughing up blood. She rolled over, propping herself up by a single arm and spitting out more blood.

A shadow grew over her. Scarlet looked up to see the bull got its axe out the ground. “You put up a valiant fight. I can see why my master would want you alive.” He raised his axe over his head. “However, you are too much of a threat to his final plans.” The bull swung the axe down in a full overhead swing, letting the axe’s head swoop towards Scarlet’s neck.

A round shield placed itself between Scarlet and the axe in blink of an eye. The axe slammed into the shield, and the resonating sound of clashing metal filled the air. The axe bounced off the shielded and the bladed shatter into pieces. Both Scarlet and the bull were surprised to see the shield block such a might blow, and had no sort of mark made on it. The shield started to move away from them and flew back to its owner, Celestia, who looked as if she was been through a ruff fight.

Her body bore some cuts and scorch marks, her mane didn’t seemed as lively flowing as before, and there were blood stains spatter across her legs and lower part of her chest. Her face was no longer showing that compassionate face Scarlet had always seen her carrying, but was now showing one that bared fierce determination of anger and vengeance. “I will only say this once, leave Appleloosa and your life will be spare.” She said in a calm calculated voice.

The bull blinked a few times in disbelief, then he started to chuckle. “Oh you don’t know how many times I’ve dreamt of taking down the ruler of Equestria.” He cracked his knuckles and neck as he walked towards the Princess. “Cadbury will be very pleased if I bring the human and your head when I get back.”

Celestia eyes closed as her horn increased in brightness. “Very well,” her eyes opened reviling a blinding glow, “then your life will end now.”

The bull grinned at the challenge. He dropped his broken axe and rolled his hands up into fists. He then charged at Celestia letting out a war cry. The magic aura around Celestia’s spear began to hum as the glowed gleamed even brighter; the metal tip of the spear now looked as if it was engulfed in flame. The bull was getting closer; his eyes became delusional as they zeroed in on Celestia, his body began to emit an eerie green glow. Celestia stood her ground, not budging a single inch, waiting for the right moment. The green glow around the bull began to look like a fire dancing on top of his skin. He was a few yards from Celestia when he leapt, throwing his fist towards Celestia face. With a bright flash Celestia disappeared, making the bull’s fist hit the ground.

A small magical explosion burst harmlessly, leaving a small fist-size crater burrowed into the ground. Enraged, the bull quickly got up and looked around for Celestia. “I knew it; you’re just a pathetic weak coward! Your kingdom will fall and there is nothing you can do to stop it!” He savagely yelled out.

“You’re wrong,” Celestia voice menacingly said from out nowhere. Instantly she appeared behind the bull and plunged her spear through his chest. The bull let out a labor gasp as he eyed the spear coming out of his chest. “I will not fail my subjects again. I will do everything in my power to stop Cadbury and make sure he will never harm anyone ever again.” She drew her spear out as the bull fell to the ground.

Celestia let out a tensed sigh as she relaxed her body. She looked over at Scarlet who was now standing with one of her hands clinching over a chest injury. “About bloody time you showed up,” she said in pain. “I didn’t know how much longer I could’ve held him off.” Scarlet began to slowly walk forward. “I must say, you fight well for a pony who abhorred killing.”

Celestia rest her spear in the ground and rushed over to Scarlet’s side. “Don’t push yourself too hard.”

“Don’t worry about me, I had worse injures than this before. Shot in the head remember?” Scarlet spotted something off in the distance. “Though I think you have more pressing matters to deal with.”

Celestia turned her head around and spotted a group of ponies gathering, and among them was Twilight. Twilight’s face bore shock and horror and she was shaking her head in disbelief. She slowly backed away from the group, and galloped off in the distance. Celestia stood there with a heavy heart. They have the won the battle, but at what cost?

Author's Note

Random Lilly reference FTW :rainbowdetermined2:

Chapter 25

Thanks to PiquoPie for proofreading.

Celestia and Scarlet walked slowly down the road of Appleloosa. Ponies were searching through the ruins of their homes, either for personal items or for other ponies. Many came for Celestia’s aid, and she tried to comfort them as best she could; however, Celestia’s current gloomy mood didn’t help. Sure she got rid of it and put a warm face the moment she talks to one of her subjects, but the instance the pony left, her somber mood quickly grew back. Scarlet was getting sick of it.

“You need to get over this,” Scarlet said bitterly. “Otherwise it’s going to bite you really hard in the ass latter on.”

Feeling both insulated and confused Celestia asked, “I can’t feel sympathy for the harm my subjects have endured today?”

“No, just pick a mood and sick with it. These ponies’ moral has already been struck low as it is; seeing their ruler flip flopping from being all sad and gloomy to everything is alright only to go back again won’t help raise it.” *cough* “They’ll just start questioning your strength, and maybe even begin to question your ability to lead. So pick a mood, preferably one that gives them some form of hope.”

Celestia was a bit astonished by Scarlet’s wisdom, and could only smile at it. “You’re right; my subjects do not need to see me demoralize. I need to remain strong for them so they can have hope. It’s just...they don’t deserve this...they’re not ready for war.”

*cough* “Well, tough luck.” *cough* “You’re ankle deep in this and the only way out of it is to kill Cadbury.” Scarlet coughed again, this time very small squirts of blood spurt out of her mouth. She wiped the blood of her lips with the back of her hand. “Damn it, the stimpak mustn’t have heal all of my internal injuries, though I think the broken ribs aren’t helping.” Suddenly, Scarlet almost lost her balance as her left leg slightly gave away causing her to stumble forward for a bit.

Celestia started to rush closer to Scarlet side, but Scarlet held a hand up at her. “You need to stop pushing yourself Scarlet. You need to sit down and rest and let me heal you.” Celestia offered.

Scarlet was taking in breath gasp of air, trying not to throw up. “I don’t need your magic for help.” She began to walk forwards again. “Just get me to my medical supplies and...,” this time her right leg gave in and Scarlet began to plummet towards the ground. Celestia quickly grabbed her in a yellow glow, stopping scarlet mid free fall.

Scarlet grunted and her face winced in pain. Celestia “Okay, just this once.” Scarlet reluctantly mumbled out.

Celestia helped support Scarlet back up and let her regain her balance before they continued their walk down the road. “So what happen to Alpha?” Scarlet asked.

*************************

“You need to stay still Dash; your wounds haven’t fully healed yet.” Applejack said as she tried to keep the impatient pegasus from moving.

“I feel fine AJ. I just can’t sit here on my rump doing nothing while Appleloosa is in danger!”

“Appleloosa is safe for now Rainbow Dash,” Alpha spoke out. “Celestia and I took care of the griffons that were a threat to this town. They won’t bother it anymore.” Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked back to see Alpha still working on what he was doing since he got here. He was standing next to a group of ponies with one of his hoofs extended out. His hoof was glowing with a faint green light as it absorbed a thin stream of green mist that was coming from ponies.

The girls had no idea what he was doing, but he did that strange absorption tick on Dash when he first arrived and saw she was injured. After which Dash, who had some sort of fever, instantly recovered. When Applejack asked what he was doing he only replied that he was making sure she won’t get tainted. He then began to do the same thing to everypony in the room.

Applejack didn’t fully trust Alpha at first, but when he stated he came by on Celestia’s orders she eased up a bit.

“How about Scarlet, is she okay?” Braeburn asked.

The green mist came to an end and Alpha put his hoof back to the floor. “I only know that she is in town, and ignored my warning of coming here.”

“Why did you warn her about coming here?” Applejack curiously asked.

“She is the final piece for Cadbury’s master plan; if he ever got his hooves on her nothing will stop him from unleashing it upon Equestria. Equestria will be destroyed in fire and his vision of the world will be built upon its ashes.” The town ponies were stunned by Alpha’s statement as they worriedly murmured with one another.

The doors to the building suddenly swung opened showing a battle scared Celestia and Scarlet on the other side. “See, they’re still here. I knew they wouldn’t try to do any more stupid ideas once I left them here.” Scarlet smugly stated to Celestia. The two walked inside and Celestia help Scarlet settle down with her back next to a wall; Scarlet grunted and winced as she slowly slide down the wall.

Alpha walked up to her with a disapproval frown on his face. “What were you doing coming down here and fighting Cadbury’s minions!? You could’ve been killed or capture and Cadbury could’ve won!”

Scarlet glanced up at Alpha with annoyed expression. “Geh, really? I’ll put that into consideration the next time I run into a life-threating situation.” Scarlet winced as a sudden spike of pain shot through her ribs.

“Scarlet, Alpha, now is not the time to bicker amongst ourselves.” Celestia spoke up before an argument could brew between Scarlet and Alpha. “Scarlet knew the risks and still tried to help anyway. Now we must help her get better. I would use my magic, but it was hard enough to carry her let alone heal her with all of the radiation her body has absorbed.” Celestia looked at Alpha. “Can you please get her bag; I need her medical supplies to get rid of the radiation.”

“No need for that.” Alpha raised a single hoof in the air. The hoof started to faintly glow green as a similarly green mist whisper out of Scarlet’s body and started to flow into it.

Scarlet’s body did a startled jerk as her eyes widen. Her face quickly adopted a perplexed expression as she tried to figure out what was happening to her, then utter disgust as if she tasted the most fowl thing in her life.

The mist stopped flowing and Alpha put his hoof down and started to make his way to the door. “I’ve done what I can. I’m going to her campsite to retrieve her equipment and tell the others that it’s safe to come back.”

Alpha pushed aside the double swing doors and walked outside taking to the air with a few strokes of his wings. Everypony watch him leave before turning their heads towards the still confused Scarlet. “Are you alright?” Applejack asked.

Scarlet remained quite as she gazed up in the air. Then in an unsettled tone she said. “I feel like someone took a slimy piece of cloth and scrubbed every inch of my body with it.” She placed a hand on her head as if she was trying to forget the experience. “Though now I don’t feel like I’m going to throw up at any moment.” She brought down her hand to look her Pip-boy and was surprised on what she saw. “Huh, my rad level is at zero. Nice little magic trick.” Scarlet put her arm back down over her ribs. “Now if only he could’ve mended my ribs before heading out.”

“I’m able to help with that,” Celestia offer. “An advance healing spell should do the trick though you will have to take your clothes off so I can cast it correctly.”

Scarlet gave a sour looked at Celestia. “And why in the world should I do that?” She snipped. “Just cast your spell with my armor on; I’m not stripping down just to get some broken ribs fixed. I’ll wait for Alpha to come back with my supplies.”

Celestia let out a strained sigh. “Cause the spell might accidently fuse your skin to your armor. I’ve heard it an unpleasant feeling, and we don’t want that now do we?” Celestia leaned her head closer to Scarlet. “Look, I can tell you don’t like to be naked in front of others, but does that really matter?” Celestia said in a low voice.

Scarlet looked straight into Celestia’s eyes, then moved to gaze at the other ponies in analyzing rapid movements. “Well...you do have a point.” She winced in pain again. “Okay, but I will only expose my chest. I’m not going full nude even if y’all already are.” With that Scarlet began to remove her duster.

********************

The faint smell of smoke filled Strongheart’s nose. During most of the time the wind was blowing to the east, carrying the smoke away from the hill side and to the vast wilderness. However, the wind had started to shift southwest towards the area of Scarlet’s campsite. The small amount of smoke reaching her was a good sign to Strongheart, telling her that the initial town fires had died out and the situation in the town was under control.

“You think my mother is safe and okay,” the young filly, Hearsay, asked.

Strongheart looked down at the worried filly with uncertainty in her eyes but bore a firm smile. “I do not know, but your Princess is there and Alpha is a pony who looks as if he can do well in a battle. I’m sure they were able to drive out the ones who were attacking your town before anypony got hurt.” Strongheart knew that was a lie, but she didn’t want to diminish what little hope the filly had.

“What about that hairless ape? Would it also make sure nopony gets hurt?”

Strongheart hesitated to answer. “She....I...hope so.” The filly’s worry seemed to grow with Strongheart uncertainty. “I mean, she made sure you weren’t harmed, I believe she would do the same to others.” While Strongheart still didn’t fully trust Scarlet, she did see her surrender herself to the Changeling, from what Strongheart could deduce, to protect the filly. For Strongheart, that was enough to...tolerate Scarlet.

The filly seemed to be happy with Strongheart answer as she looked out towards Appleloosa. Then her face got excited when she pointed her hoof out and shouting. “SOMEPONY IS COMING!”

Strongheart lifted her head up to see who was coming, and was a bit relived to see it was Alpha flying in. He landed a few feet away from Strongheart and the filly, and immediately went over to Scarlet’s things...completely ignoring the pair. His right hoof glowed green and he began gathering Scarlet things. He then looked over at Strongheart and Hearsay. "It's safe enough to head back to Appleloosa. Your friends are safely gathered in a building near the clock tower with Celestia and Scarlet."

“What are you doing?” Strongheart asked.

“I’m gathering Scarlet’s things and I’ll bring our prisoner to them.” Alpha headed towards the still passed out pinned to the ground changeling. Alpha waved his hoof over the changeling making the chains around each hoof disappeared. The changeling’s body was then wrapped in a green glow and lifted off of the ground and placed on Alpha’s back. “Let’s head back to the town, I’m sure the young filly is worried about her family. It’s time to put her worry to an end.” He said in a monotone voice.

********************

“So many scars…,” Applejack said in a disturbed tone. During the time Celestia was healing Scarlet, the ponies were treated to a view of what the upper body of a human female looked like; of course that sight also contained the view of the scars Scarlet obtain though her life. Scars varying in both length and width were embedded on Scarlet's tanned chest; it looked like a bear had mauled the trunk of a tree and left no outer bark intact. Scarlet stated that most of the scars she got were during her younger days when she was first starting off as a courier. “Are all of y'all jobs so…life threating,” Applejack asked still a little zone out.

“Pretty much,” Scarlet said as she put on a dirty tan shirt on. “From being a stripper to being a soldier, your life will always be at risk.” Scarlet started to poke at her chest, checking on Celestia’s handy work. “Nice job mending me up Cele, it doesn’t even hurt; you’re almost as good as an Auto-Doc.”

“I’m just surprised that you are still alive. From what I can tell on my brief medical scan, your body has suffered through a lot of physical trauma. I healed your ribs and other injures the best I could, though I wish I could have done more to fix you up.” Celestia replied back while she was checking on Rainbow Dash’s own injures.

“Done more? You’ve done more than enough fixing me up. Normally I’m still in pain for a few minutes even after I heal my own wounds. I feel like I could take on the whole Legion again.” Scarlet threw a few punches in the air to test out her body.

A small smile formed on Celestia’s face, though unease grew in her mind. She was happy to see Scarlet in a pleasant mood, though a bit disturbed that the mood was focused on more fighting. “So…Princess, am I going to be okay?” Rainbow Dash voice’s asked in a embarrass tone. Celestia’s focus was taken away from Scarlet and back to her patient.

Dash was lying on her side allowing Celestia access to her underbelly where she got hit from the fire ball. Part of her underbelly was hairless due to fire eating it away and the cleaning of the burnt wound. “Yes Rainbow Dash, you are going to be okay.” Celestia replied. “I didn’t have to do too much healing, it seemed the medicine Scarlet gave you healed all of the serious damage that was dealt to you. Though, it did leave some scarring, but I was able to fix the scared tissue before it became permanent. You’re going to make a complete recovery.” Celestia knelt back up allowing Rainbow Dash to get up into a sitting position.

“Cool,” she stiffly mumbled out with a half bake smile. She lifted a hoof to her bare chest and started to slowly rub it as a small blush formed on her face. “Though, you think you could make my fur grow back faster?” She optimistically asked. “Like now?”

Celestia gave a captivating smile as her horn lit up once again. A single light beam flashed from her horn hitting Dash’s chest and in mere seconds her fur had fully grown back. Dash let out a relieved sigh as she brought her hoof down back to the ground, and the blush on face faded away. “Thank you Princess Celestia.” Dash gratefully stated with an appeased smile as she bowed her head.

“You’re welcome,” Celestia kindly replied. Dash lifted her head back up with her smile still mounted on her muzzle.

Applejack trotted over. “Excused me Princess, but where’s Twilight? She went looking for you and Scarlet when Alpha came in here.”

Celestia’s heart waded in sorrow. “She... she isn’t with me, and needs some time alone. However she also needs help from her friends to help her regain her moral.”

Confused, Applejack tilted her head. “Why?”

Celestia thought how to explain what happen; however, Scarlet’s voice spoke out first. “She ran away crying after seeing Celestia run her spear through a two legged bull.”

Gasps of shock and disbelief were extricated by the ponies who understood Scarlet, and Celestia let out a disappointed sigh. She glanced over at Scarlet who was examining the chest plate of her armor, but there was a smug expression on her face. Scarlet glanced up from her chest plate with a look saying, Payback is a bitch isn’t?

Celestia looked back at her subjects, who were waiting on her to disavow Scarlet’s statement about her. With another bended sigh she stated. “She’s right my little ponies, but I want you to understand something. I didn’t like what I did and wish I could’ve stop the minotaur and the griffons by some other means, but there were none. This isn’t like Nightmare Moon trying to make the night to last forever so she could feel appreciated by her subjects, Discord spreading chaos upon the world for his enjoyment, nor Chrysalis who wanted to capture everypony to feed on love. Cadbury wants everypony’s death, and nothing is going to change his mind. I need to stop him, and there is only one way to do so; I need to permanently end him by taking his life.”

Author's Note

Is it me or are my chapters getting longer...

Chapter 26

Thanks to PiquoPie for proofreading, and for ed2481 for helping me finished this chapter.

“I... can’t believe Celestia did this...” Twilight disorientedly mumbled. Out in front of her was the battlefield her and her friends ran from, corpses of head-less griffons sprawled out on the road. Twilight almost lost what was in her stomach when her eyes first lay upon the sight, and she quickly turned her head away. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes once more to look at the horrific sight hoping it was just some sort of nightmare and Luna would be there to tell her that; but no, the lifeless husks remained.

Twilight continued to stare at the sight even longer, her mind shattering as it fought with itself, unwilling to accept what was in front of her. Her memories raced through her mind, trying to figure out the reason why Celestia, her mentor, could’ve done this. The mentor who told her that magic should never be used to takes a life, and violence is never the answer.

Yet right in front of her was the headless evidence, and the anger in Celestia’s eyes when she... she...

Twilight bowed her head, tears started to flow from her eyes as she tried to contain the sobs forming in her throat. “This can’t be true, this can’t be true...”

“Oh, but it is true Twilight.” A stallion’s voice spoke out.

Twilight recognized the voice and her head instantly snapped up. Her eyes didn’t see anypony standing next to her but she felt as if somepony was close. “Where are you Cadbury?”

“Oh come on Miss. Smarty Pants, can’t you figure that out by yourself?” Cadbury mockingly asked.

Twilight rashly looked around the area, but didn’t see him. Then the thought hit her. “You’re speaking by telepathy.”

“Somepony gives this young mare a prize,” he jested in an unimpressed tone.

“Get out of my head!”

“Why should I do that so soon? There are so many things for us to talk about.”

“There’s nothing for us to talk about,” She bitterly said. “Now get out of my head.”

”Make me.” Cadbury mockingly ordered.

Twilight grit her teeth in anger and focused on her drawing forth her magic. She was about to cast a spell but right at the moment the grasp she had on magic vanished and was replaced by a mind splitting headache. Twilight let out a cry of pain as she placed a hoof to her horn. Her mind got wobbly as well as for the vision of the world. “What’s going on?”

“Your body is trying to resist my magic, and is failing to do so which is resulting in those spasms of pain throughout your body. And I must say you’ve lasted longer than any other unicorn that absorbed this much of my magic. Normally they would be begging for release from the pain with the small amount of breath they could muster.” His voice grew into a menacing mocking tone when he stated, “Like your dear friend Rarity did.”

Another wave of pain rushed through Twilight as she narrowed her eyes down and growled out. “If you harm Rarity in any way I’ll...”

“You’ll do what?” Cadbury interrupted. “Kill me. But isn’t that against your dear mentor’s teaching?” he began to chuckle darkly. “Besides, what hope do you have in defeating me? Celestia herself couldn’t take me down when we faced each other three hundred years ago and there is no way she can do that now. The Elements of Harmony cannot be united as long as Rarity is under my control.” He paused as he let out a small scoff. “Face it, there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

“That’s not true!” she declared out loud.

“Still in denial I see, figures, you unicorns never knew when to give up. Always thinking that’s there some magic spell to fix their problems.” He chuckle softly. “Especially with Celestia, always taking down any sort of rebellious thought before any pony truly questioned her.”

Twilight let off a low growl of anger. “How dare you accuse her of such action, she has never done something like that.”

Cadbury chuckled in amusement. “The truth hurts doesn’t it? It stings like salt in an open wound. Face it Twilight, Celestia is not the gentle ruler she makes you believe. She’s a warrior, a ‘Spartan of the Sun’ who takes down anypony who stood against her and her ideals.”

“Liar!” Twilight yelled out in a dazed state as her mind struggled to stay awake.

“Oh, but it’s the honest truth Twilight, I swear. How else do you think she and her sister ascended to being our benevolent rulers? They took out the only competition and no pony since has ever tried to overthrow them.” A maniacal chuckle echo in the mare's mind. "In fact, the only reason she used you and the Elements is because she can. After all, you are no more than an obedient puppet for her, doing things she could had easily done herself."

Twilight’s mind boggled with the info Cadbury was giving her. She almost began to believe him, but she shook her head muttering. “No, that’s not true... that can’t be...”

"Oh but it is, Twilight, you will see it for yourself soon enough."

“TWILIGHT!” Applejack’s voice pierced the air. Twilight snapped out of her current frame of mind and turned her head to look towards the direction from which Applejack’s voice came. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were racing up to her, all of their faces bearing a form of worried expression.

They were all gathered around her, each of them took a small quick glance at the battle scene, but quickly turned their gaze back to Twilight. “It’s nice to see that you’re safe Twi,” Applejack said comfortingly.

Twilight beamed a weak smile at her friends and started to straighten her posed, but her body didn’t want to cooperate and she soon found how hard the ground really was. “Twilight!” her friends all yelled out. Twilight could feel somepony’s hooves wrapping around her waist and pulling her up from the ground.

With what little strength Twilight had left she used in lifting up her head. Her eyes met with a worried Applejack along with an equally worried Fluttershy. Fluttershy put a hoof on Twilight’s forehead. “She’s burning up! Oh dear, we need to get her to Celestia right away!”

Applejack nodded in argument. “Dash can you give me a hoof carrying Twi?” Dash nodded her head as she made her way and grabbed hold of Twilight’s rear legs. Applejack shifted her body to move Twilight’s front half across her back. Together the earth and pegasus ponies carried the nearly passed out unicorn carefully back to Celestia.

The smell of ash and smoke struck Strongheart’s nose as she got closer to the town. Many of the fires were put out throughout the town, but a few stray ember coals still clung on to life as they exhausted faint stains of black smoke into the murky sky.

As Strongheart, Alpha and the little filly walked into the half dead town, the little filly nearly wanting to run into it, but fear was nipping at her heart so she keep close to Strongheart. The buffalo was looking at the damage done by the attackers.

For a battle that only last for about half of an hour, the town was significantly damaged and fire touched nearly every building. Strongheart’s heart filled with sorrow as she also saw some ponies’ corpses trapped in collapsed buildings. Alpha bared little to no emotions as he carried the knocked out changeling on his back and Scarlet’s duffle bag and sniper in the air with his magic, destined to head back to Celestia.

“You... you knew this was happening didn’t you.” Strongheart asked bluntly.

“I knew Cadbury was going to attack the town, I didn’t know when.” The pegasus replied.

Strongheart’s eyes narrowed as she growled out, “Then why didn’t you warn them!? These deaths could’ve been avoided!”

“Only by a fraction, in the long run they will die if we don’t act quickly,” Alpha replied. “Of course if Cadbury carries out his plan, the life we know will come to an end and one of fire will be born.”

Strongheart frowned. “How do you know all of this?”

“Let’s just say... I was very immersed with Cadbury’s inner works.” Alpha replied hesitantly.

“You worked for this fiend?” the buffalo asked in disbelief.

“I really didn’t have much choice in the beginning, but now I do, and I’m doing my best in trying to stop him,” Alpha stated with a hard tone. “One way that I’m doing so is to make sure he won’t get his hooves on Scarlet.”

“Why... why is he trying to capture her?” Strongheart asked.

“She’s the final key he needs in order to complete his plan. With her, the secrets of how to counteract the ill effects of tainted magic and to create a new breed of pony will be in his grasp,” the stallion replied darkly.

Strongheart’s eyebrows rose. “What... do you mean by ‘create a new breed of ponies’?”

Alpha glanced back at the buffalo. “A race of ponies who can use tainted magic and are immune to its effects it has on a pony or any other living creature. Normally they would need to continue to use it, slowly rotting the brain and body, and would lose all sense of self and be lost to their own insanity,” he told her before turning his head away.

“I see... that is... troubling,” Strongheart stated with a disturbed tone of voice.

“Which is why time is of the essence,” Alpha said with a steady voice. “He’s already moving ahead with his plan... he wasn’t going to try to bring Scarlet till next month...” he said in a low voice. “But that must’ve change when he was able to kidnap Rarity... being a bearer of the Elements makes her a greater foci than any normal unicorn.”

Strongheart’s ears perked up as her eyes widen with surprise. “Wait, what do you mean he kidnapped Rarity?!”

Alpha sighed and open his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the loud sound of galloping hooves. The two turned their heads to see Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash and Applejack rushed by, with a passed out Twilight being carried by the farmpony and the stunt pegasus. The pegasus and the buffalo exchanged looks and together they ran after the group, the little filly doing her best to not to get left behind and the bound challenging bouncing up and down on Alpha’s back.

“Well, that’s going to be tricky to fix,” Scarlet muttered as she looked at her crushed ranger helmet. The front of the helmet was barely recognizable, the mask was totally destroyed, and the helm was crumpled. “That bull had one strong punch... I’m lucky the helmet took most of blow.” She said as she put the helmet to her side with one arm while rubbing her nose with other arm’s hand. “I doubt I would’ve survived that.”

“And I doubt my magic could’ve helped you,” Celestia said. “I would suggest you avoid fighting any more minotaurs in the near future.”

“Heh, you don’t have to tell me twice,” Scarlet said as she discarded the ranger helm with her gear. “I’ll just use my 50. Cal. Sniper Rifle with explosive ammo next time... haven’t seen anyone live after a bullet hits and explodes in their face.” She stated with a smirk. “Also, they’re called minotaures? Huh... sound familiar just can’t remember where I’ve heard it from.” She added with a shrug.

“You’re not seriously thinking about still fighting? We’re not dealing with simple raiders or bandits here. This is a madpony with a tremendous amount of power, power the likes of which you’ve never seen.”

Scarlet shrugged his shoulders again. “People thought it was impossible for one person to take over New Vegas, yet I’m in charge while the former leader is dead and two nations who tried to take it ran away with the tails tucked between their legs. Cadbury wants to fight me, I won’t back down”

Celestia sighed. “You humans always fight don’t you? Rarely backing down or even avoiding them, even if you know you’re outnumbered and outclassed.”

“Hey, the last few times I tried to ‘avoid’ the conflict circling around New Vegas, I ended up in the Sierra Madre and getting caught in the middle of a tribal war,” Scarlet said with a scoff. “Since then I took the hint that it’s pointless to try to walk away from a brewing storm. You’ve got to take it head on, or let it consume you and choke you to death. And since I rather like breathing, I’ll keep on fighting until someone stops my lungs from functioning,” the woman declared.

“And exactly how will you continue to fight if you can’t-” Celestia was cut off when the doors burst open, propelled by five racing mares.

“Princess Celestia! Twilight is burning up and is passed out! HELP!” Applejack shouted desperately.

Celestia instantly moved towards the group, her horn glowing as her golden veil engulfed the purple mare. She tried to lift Twilight, but her magic slipped off the mare’s coat like water off a duck’s back. The alicorn frowned, knowing what was the problem. “She’s heavily doused with radiation... her body is trying to deal with it as if it were a virus... but it won’t be able to win.” She said slowly with a tensed voice.

Just then the doors opened again with Alpha and Strongheart standing under its frame. Celestia glanced up at them and her eyes focused on the floating duffle bag. Her horn glowed once again and it snatched the bag out of Alpha’s hold with enough power to tear a tree out of the earth, roots and all.

The alicorn brought back up to her and opened it, digging through its contents.

“Hey!” Scarlet protested. Celestia glanced at the woman with narrowed eyes and a fiery glare. “Just... go ahead,” Scarlet said backing off with a wave of her hand.

Celestia continued with her digging until she pulled out a small packet with a short tube that was capped on the end, filled with a faint glowing orange liquid. She uncapped the tube revealing a needle and she quickly injected it into Twilight’s neck before squeezing the bag and sending the glowing juice into the mare’s body.

As she final drops of the juice enter Twilight’s body, Celestia removed the needle from the skin and discarded the bag. She then pulled out another packet and started injecting its contents into Twilight.

The group of mares watched with anxious eyes as the alicorn mended Twilight with anxiety induced speed. Scarlet tapped her fingers on her against the side of her arms, trying to suppress her fidgeting need to just yank her bag away from Celestia. Celestia finished with the second packet and then injected a third. Once it was spent she let out a sigh.

“Now all we can do is pray,” Celestia said with a worried motherly expression as she gazed down at Twilight’s unmoving body.

“She should be fine after you injected three entire bags of Rad-away into her,” Scarlet muttered as she grabbed her bag. “Why not inject three stimpaks too while you're at it?”

Celestia looked up at Scarlet with a frown.

Scarlet shook her head and let out a sigh. “Sorry, it’s just I don’t like other touching my bag... it’s very important to me,” she said. “Anyways, I hope she makes a full recovery, but I think we have another matter to do while we wait,” she stated as she glanced up at Alpha, or more at the changeling strapped across his back. “Like trying to find what our little bug friend knows of our favorite megalomaniac bastard of the week, Cadbury.”

Author's Note

Boy...this took way too long to get out. But I'm happy to finally have this out.

Chapter 27

Thanks to PiquoPie for proofreading, and for ed2481 for helping me finished this chapter.

The changeling let out a small moan as he started to regain consciousness. He noticed his movement was strictly limited, for he could not open his wings or move a single leg. His head, however, had a full range of motion as he lifted it up to check his surroundings. He was tied to a chair that was standing in the middle of a basically empty room, with the exception of one thing.

The changeling smiled and cocked his head to the side. “Well, well, if it isn’t Princess Celestia, the soon to be ex-ruler of Equestria. It’s an honor to meet you,” he said in mock flattery.

The white alicorn got up from the corner she was patiently waiting in and stood in front of the insectoid, giving him an imposing glare. “You have some information that is important to me,” she said in a controled tone.

“Oh do I? Please tell, I don’t know what information I have that’s so vastly important to you, expect how it’s useless to fight Master Cadbury,” the changeling replied with a devious chuckle.

Celestia eyes narrowed on the changeling and her horn glowed as she lower her head, making it level with his. “You are going to tell me where you are holding Rarity and whatever else Cadbury is planning,” she said in a low and threatening voice. “Willfully I hope. If not... there are ways to acquire what I need.”

The changeling blinked a couple of times before he smiled widely. “Oh... this should be good.”

Scarlet stood against the wall, looking over at the five ponies standing over the still unconscious Twilight. Strongheart left to help the little filly, Hearsay, find her mother, and Alpha stayed behind... ‘guarding’ the woman as he stood a few feet away from her. They were all waiting for Celestia to finished her ‘talk’ with the changeling in a room currently sealed off from view, and warded to prevent sound from traveling through it.

Scarlet let off a small peeved sigh for not being allowed to join in the integration, since it was something she was good at, but the way Celestia was acting made the woman feel the alicorn should have all the fun alone. After all, she know the ‘I will get what we need no matter what’ look, whether it from human or beast, and since it was Celestia’s land, it was her rules.

Scarlet glanced at the stallion ‘guarding’ her as he watched emotionlessly. The woman blinked a couple of times before looking back out, yet she could feel the pony’s eyes upon her.

“You know, I thank you for the little help in saving that young pony and what not, but I don’t need a guard dog,” the redhead said, glancing a bit back towards the pegasus direction.

“You’re a key component for the final part of Cadbury’s plan, and after your defeat at the hands of Hard Iron, I am not letting you out of my sight,” Alpha stated bleakly.

“Defeat? Last time I checked I’m the one who came out alive and the bull ended up with a hole where his heart should be,” Scarlet pointed out.

“Yes, but that was of Celestia’s doing, not yours. You are not capable of defending yourself against Cadbury’s elite troops,” the pegasus continued.

“I did with that Beta fellow,” Scarlet commented. “Granted he ruffled me a bit during the fight, but I was able to kill him.”

“Then you just got lucky,” Alpha replied. “Beside Beta was not very powerful to begin with, like most griffons in Cadbury’s reserve.”

“Luck?” Scarlet asked as she chuckled. “I don’t believe in luck, only skill, and I do have skills.” She held up a finger upon seeing Alpha was about to say something. “The fight with that minotaur doesn’t really count. I didn’t know I was going to fight someone with power armor like skin. If I’d known that I would have brought my rifle and blown his head off with either an armor piercing or explosive round.”

“Then all the more for me to continue guarding you. For you do not know what you’re truly facing,” Alpha stated. “And I will continue on guarding you until Cadbury is defeated or we find a way to send you back to your world.”

“Oh joy,” Scarlet said, rolling her eyes slightly. “But I guess you do have point, just don’t get in my way when I’m lining up a shot, ‘kay?”

“I will try to keep that in mind,” the stallion replied.

Scarlet glanced back over at the ponies, their coats and manes seeming to lose their shine after the battle and seeing the damage Twilight took from just the radiation alone. “They’re going to have nightmares tonight,” Scarlet muttered.

“I am sure many of the citizens of Appleloosa will,” Alpha replied. “Princess Luna will have a hoof-ful tonight in trying to ward away as many of the nightmares as she can.”

Scarlet frowned a bit as she looked at the light gray pegasus with a raised eyebrow. “Ward off nightmares? First she could move the moon and now she can suddenly ward away bad dreams?” she asked with a small disbelieving scoff. “Next you’re going to tell me she can make all your dreams come true,” she added sarcastically.

“No, she cannot, but what I said was true,” Alpha said. “After she became a being known as Nightmare Moon she gained the ability to enter into people dreams. No one knows exactly why that is, though some say it is because she is the Princess of Night. However I do not think that is the cause.”

Scarlet shook her head. “Whatever, she’d better not intrude into my mind tonight then. Last thing I want is someone to see... my dreams,” she said, dodging something at the end of her sentence.

Alpha gave Scarlet a sideway glance, noticing her attempts to avoid to saying something. “I am sure she will leave you alone, what with being a foreigners mind and all.”

Scarlet chuckled softly. “Yeah, that or nightmares really don’t phase me... not after... with everything that happen in the Sierra Madre,” she said, still dodging an unknowable topic.

The stallion continued to glance towards the human for a while, sensing that wasn’t the full truth, but knowing it didn’t really matter for the true subject at hand. He didn’t push any further.

“Also can you stop watching me like some sort of living statue?” Scarlet added.

Suddenly the door to the room Celestia and the changeling were in open, and the white alicorn walked out from it before probably shutting it. The mare glanced up at the view of stares she was receiving from everyone. She glanced at Scarlet and Alpha. “I would like to speak to the two of you privately upstairs, please,” she asked before turning to head for the stairs without a reply from either of them. Scarlet raised an eyebrow, but followed anyways, the light grey stallion following not a few steps behind. Questioning looks were being exchanged between the mares and Braeburn as they watched the three head up stairs.

Celestia’s horn flashed for a second time. “There, now no one should be able to interrupt us,” she said as she turned to the human and pony.

“Alright, so what were you able to ‘yank’ from that bug?” Scarlet asked.

“Things I wish weren’t true,” the mare replied with a small look of distraught. “The location of where Rarity and five other unicorns are being held, the conformation that you are indeed the main ‘key’ of his plan, and... a weapon that is almost ready for deployment.”

Scarlet raised a questioning eyebrow while Alpha’s brow deepen as he let out a distraught sigh. “So, he is further along than I thought he was...” he said.

“What wait? What does he mean by weapons?” Scarlet ask as she looked at the stallion.

“When Cadbury viewed your world he was intrigued how it came to be to. When he learned about your ‘nukes’, he was inspiration to try and copy them to help him reform Equestria,” he replied.

“And you thought to tell us about this now?” the woman asked crossly.

“I thought it would be impossible for him to do so, since your technology is far more advanced than ours, but I guess I was wrong,” Alpha commented.

“No shit Sherlock!” Scarlet deadpanned.

“Scarlet, calm yourself,” Celestia said.

“Why? Not only do you have a madman but a madman who has nukes!” the woman stated.

“Because they’re not the same weapons as your world,” the alicorn replied. Both Alpha and Scarlet gave the mare a puzzled look. “They’re more radiation bombs, designed to unleash a high amount of radiation over a vast area in a short period of time. Still devastating nevertheless, but nothing like what a nuke could do.”

The woman scoffed. “Alright, so we just let the info of how Cadbury has a nuke like weapon on his disposal pass by, after all, once he uses them he is just signing his own death warrant too.”

“No, it would not. Cadbury can survive the ill touch of death from the radiation, unlike everypony else,” Alpha said. “Which is why he is driven to replicate his ability onto another pony, which is why we cannot let him get you.”

Scarlet shook her head. “I still don’t see why that is, but I also don’t see how you know so much about this?” The woman glance at the stallion with an imposing questioning glare. “Care to explain?”

Alpha glanced at the alicorn, who was also giving the stallion the same questioning star, just less imposing. He let out a small sigh. “The reason I know all of this is because I used to be a part of Cadbury’s forces... more importantly I was part of his elite troops.”

“So you’re a defector?” Celestia asked.

“In a way,” he replied.

“And the reason you’re acting now on ‘warning’ us about Cadbury,” the mare asked further.

“Because I was... busy, trying to keep a low profile,” Alpha answered. “I am not exactly a pony he wished to still be alive.”

“Why?” Celestia inquired with a raised eyebrow.

“Because of what I am... I am essentially him... or a modified copy of him,” Alpha informed them.

Celestia raised an eyebrow, not quite understanding what he meant by that; however, Scarlet seemed to know as an intrigue look crossed her face. “You’re a clone?” the woman inquired.

“Something like that,” Alpha replied.

“What’s a clone exactly?” Celestia asked.

“A genetic copy of a being, or a duplicate,” Scarlet answered. “However, you don’t look anything like Cadbury, being a pegasus and the light grey fur,” she pointed out.

“Like I said, I’m a modified copy of him, but still him essentially... especially what makes me truly alive,” the stallion clarified. “I hold half of his soul.”

Both Scarlet and Celestia eyebrows rose for different reason. For the mare it was shock and for the woman it was disbelief.

“Cadbury has the ability to weave with souls?” Celestia asked.

“That sounds... hardly possible to even do,” Scarlet said shaking her head. “Yet I sometimes forget where exactly I am at the moment.”

“It is possible and yes he can,” Alpha said as he closed his eyes and let out a slow sigh. “I’m proof as it is. One for sharing his abilities of using tainted magic, and two already having his knowledge of how to use it.” He opened his eyes and look at Scarlet. “One of reason why we can’t let him get a hold of you.”

Scarlet gave the stallion a skeptical look. “Why? You keep saying that but I have yet to learn the reason behind the words?”

“Because he needs a female version of himself,” Alpha answered.

A dumbfounded look crossed the woman’s face. “Say what?”

“He can create stallions that mimic his abilities, I am proof of that; however, we cannot breed with normal mares and trying to create a new nation with a race of ponies that cannot breed will lead to a downfall pretty fast. He has tried to replicate the event that turned him into what he is on mares... but so far none have survived. So he went into switch his genes around to create a mare version of himself, and in doing so he ran into another snag. He cannot create the reproductive organs without having some sort of example to copy form. And in order to do so he will need to study a race who can survived becoming tainted and can still breed. You humans are the closest he has found that meet that standard.”

Scarlet blinked a couple of times as she went over the information. “So what you’re saying he wants to capture me in order for him to make me ‘tainted’, so he can study my uterus?” she said eerily calm. “That’s... creepy, pervert, and fucked up crazy,” the woman stated flatly.

“Yet it is the truth,” Alpha said in a serious tone.

“But wait, I thought you said every mare who Cadbury tries to taints ends up dead?” Celestia asked. “Also why do the griffins and minotaurs so easily attune to using tainted magic?”

“Because they have very little magic,” the stallion replied. “Unlike all ponies who have some form of a huge amount of natural magic that follows through them, they do not, which allows an easy transfer to make then run on tainted magic. The same goes for Scarlet’s race, so she should easily survive the process of getting tainted.”

“Wait, wait, wait. If the other races can be tainted, then he should have plenty of examples of how to make a fertile fetes. Why go through the hassle to bring me?” Scarlet asked.

“He has tried that in the past... but once female counterparts are tainted they suddenly become infertile,” he replied. “Your race does not seem to have that problem once you reach the same state of being tainted over there, a ghoul as you call it.”

Scarlet ponder for a while as she thought over what Alpha meant. “You mean ghoul born children?”

Celestia looked at the woman with a puzzling look. “A what?”

Scarlet waved her hand in a circle as she thought of a response. “I told you ghouls are humans who take huge amount of radiation yet do not die, but mutate into a different being.” Celestia nodded her head in affirmation. “Well, ghoul born are beings who are born as ghouls from ghouls parents. I’ve only heard rumors in the wasteland, never seen it but... I heard its pretty nasty stuff but it is supposed to be possible.”

“And it is that possibility that Cadbury wants to copy,” Alpha stated.

Scarlet shook her head. “Still creepy, prevent and downright fuck up crazy,” she said.

“Still... if that is his goal... we need to stop him,” Celestia said.

“Indeed... I fear he has everything set in motion to attack Equestria at a moment’s notice,” Alpha said with a frown. “So our time to act is now.”

“Indeed,” Celestia agreed.

“Well then what are we waiting for? We got an insane bastard’s skull to split open,” Scarlet said with a determine grin. She held up a finger at the stallion. “And don’t you try to stop me. The way I see it, it’s a win or lose situation. Either we kill Cadbury, or he kills y’all and get’s me. I’m not going to run or hide, it’d be pointless.”

Alpha was still about to object, but Celestia cut him off. “She has a point, plus she will be helpful in our assault against Cadbury,” the mare pointed out.

A vexed frown formed on his face as he bowed his head to Celestia. “So be it,” he said.

“Now... I think I need to have a talk with the ponies before night falls... I need to tell them about evacuating Appleloosa,” the mare informed them as she got up and head towards the exit. “You two should start getting some rest... it’s going to be a long and rough day tomorrow.”

“Right,” Scarlet said while Alpha just nodded his head slightly. Scarlet put her hands into her pockets and looked at the stallion. “Well, I guess things are about to heat up,” she said with a small smile.

“You have no idea,” Alpha said with a grim frown.

A letter from the Author.

Dear Readers, it's with a heavy heart to tell you that I will be cancelling Big Iron. The ideas and the will to continued is dry up and I don't want to be spending 'years' trying to force them out. So this is the end... I might write up a summery of the final act of the story to help bring it to an end but other than that, there won't be another full chapter. Again, I'm sorry to do this but... it's either this or wait for months for a possible 2k chapter to be release.

Still, thank you for all of the favorites, likes, and the comments for the story. It really meant a lot towards me and it makes it all the more bitter for me to end it this way.

Sincerely, Omega_Code

Prologue

Thanks to Violet Droplet for editing this chapter.
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A group of Y-17s were walking near the entrance of the Think Tank building. One was wielding a heavy incinerator, and the other two had LAERs. A figure that was hiding several meters away from them lowered the scope of her Anti-materiel rifle and sighed. “Just when you think you get rid of them all, three more pop out of nowhere,” she said. She ejected the magazine that held regular rounds for the rifle and changed it for a magazine that held her explosive rounds. “At least they haven’t seen me yet.”

She looked down the scope and aimed at a middle spot between the three of them. The Y-17s were walking at a slow pace and the woman carefully trailed them. Soon she aimed a little to the right and fired. Even with the suppressor the rifle let out a loud roar and a small explosion erupted right in the middle of Y-17s. The smoke soon settled down and the woman saw there were three piles made out of shatter pieces of suites and bones. “Perfect,” she said with a small smile across her face.

Then a booming voice shouted out.“THIS IS THE VOICE OF DOCTOR KLEIN LETTING YOU KNOW THAT WHAT YOU ASKED OF US IS DONE…THAT IS ALL.”

About time, she thought. She got up from her hiding spot and strapped the rifle to her back. She jump down off of the ledge and started making her way towards the Think Tank building. Her gear slightly jiggled as she jogged, and she kept an eye out for any cyberdogs or Lobotomites who like to roam around the area. Luckily she didn’t spot any so she reached the entrance to the Think Tank in no time. She took the small elevator ride up and soon met with the five scientists. “So,” she asked loudly, “y'all actually got the transporter to work this time?”

“Of course we got it to work, you doubt our absolute GENIUS,” Dr. Borous said.

“Now, now,” Dr. Dala said. “I bet the little teddy bear didn’t mean that.”

“@*$^(#&(*$_#*^@(*$)(*^@$%&*&$^*(@^%(&#%*@*%)(#^)**#,” Dr. 8 spoke.

“Exactly,” the women said, “I don’t want to end up like the plants from the first test.” I like my insides to stay inside of me, she thought.

“Well Yes Man just transmitted that the test subject we sent through the transporter came through whole and is still alive,” Dr. 0 stated.

“Wait…who was this test subject?”

“Um…Roxie…she was very eager to go through…probably to see that other cyberdog again,” Dr. 0 answered.

“Great," she said with small annoyance in her voice. "Well thanks for the favor. I guess I let y'all get back to work with your experiments. Be back sometime next week.” The women made her way to the elevator that led to the Sink.

“YES OF COURSE, NOW WHICH ONE OF YOU STOLE MY NOTES!? WAS IT YOU DR. 8?” Klein asked out loud.

“#@^#*(*&^$^$(*%@.”

“DR. 0!”

“Well if you kept your work area tidy, I wouldn’t have to “move” them!” The women didn’t hear the rest of the conversation, but in reality she really didn’t care. The elevator took her to the Sink, and when the door opened she was greeted by all of the Sink’s AIs.

“Welcome back sir.”

“Howdy.”

“Do you have any mugs?”

“Hey there baby.”

“Got any new blue tunes for me to play lately?”

“Good day, citizen!”

“Do you need any water?”

“How about we turn on the lights?”

“Don’t turn her on, turn me on!”

“How about the two of you just shut up before I burn you two up in nuclear fire!”

The women just shook her head, amused of how much the AIs miss her. “CIU open a transmission to Yes Man.”

“As you wish sir,” the CIU said. The commutation signal between here and the Lucky 38 was one of the few upgrades the women made to the Sink after the battle at Hoover Dam. Just in case something happened in New Vegas and Yes Man needed her to take care of it. Normally she would have to travel outside of the building and use “The Big Mountain Transportalponder!”, but hopefully this transporter would change that. The transporter in the Sink led to one that was recently built inside the Penthouse in the Lucky 38. Hopefully it would be a lot quicker than going outside of a building and using the Transportalponder, then having to track across the Mojave to get back to Vegas. She also wouldn’t need to explain to the people why she disappeared in a flash of light. Like the one time a man claimed she had been abducted by aliens. She was later able to convince the man that he was just high on Jet and was just making it all up.

“Hi there Scarlet, it’s been awhile since I heard from you,” the cheery voice of Yes Man came from the speaker inside CIU.

“Yes Man, you know I don’t like you addressing me like that.”

“Opps…sorry, anyway I bet you would like me to tell you about this here teleporter of yours.”

“That would be nice.”

“Well it works like a charm. Roxie came through nice and clean. I think she is with Rex right now…”

“Yes Man I don’t need to know what Roxie is doing right now. Is the teleporter safe enough for me to use?”

“Of course it is. Didn’t those scientists tell you that already?”

“I trust your word better than theirs.” Since you have little to no choice but to tell me the truth, she added in her mind. “Well then, I’ll be there shortly.”

“Great, ED-E will be real happy to hear that, Yes Man signing off.” There was a small click and static rang out as the signal was cut off. Right, better get ready then. Scarlet took off her gear and put it on top of the bed in her room and got a checkup by Doc.

“You are healthy as you were last time I check ya. I don’t know why you even bother,” he said once the checkup was finish.

“Just want to make sure I did a good job fixing myself up. Got jumped by a pack of cyberdogs the other day and one of my arms broke. Just want to make sure the Hydra did its job.” She looked at a small mirror and readjusted the red beret back on top of her head of red hair. “Besides, I never pass down a free checkup,” she smiled slightly and went back to the bed room to gear back up. Along with her Anti-materiel rifle, she had a .45 and a 12.7mm SMG, Maria, Lucky, the Pulse gun, and a machete gladius. Lighter than what she would have normally carried, but she didn’t expect much trouble with this short visit in Big MT. “Well I’m off, be back next week.”

“Brings some mugs next time, will ya? I'M DYING HERE TO CLEAN SOME,” Muggy shouted out.

Scarlet just rolled her eyes. She looked at the circular pad that was in front of her. “Well, here I go.” She stepped on it and it softly glowed, notifying her it was active and ready. “Please don’t turn me inside out,” she quietly chanted out. She reached for a button when Dr. Klein voiced boomed through the room’s speakers.

“WARNING! UNIDENTIFIED ENERGY SOURCE DETECTED! TELEPORTATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED!”

Scarlet’s body jump and she accidentally hit the button. “Oh-no,” was all she got to say before she got teleported.

“Oh dear, that’s not good,” the CIU said.

The Courier: Scarlet
Level 50
Karma: Good…enough.
S: 8
P: 9
E: 7
C: 5
I: 9
A: 6
L: 4

Yes it is possible to get this with no mods. Just used implants and the one you get from the Lonesome Road, no SPECIAL training perks.

Some of her Perks (That I want to reveal for now): Pack Rat, Finesse, Fast Metabolism, Silent Running, Adamantium Skeleton, Weapon Handling, Burden to Bear, Strong Back, Run’n Gun, Quick Draw, Rapid Reload, Sniper, Commando, and Jury Rigging.

Those who don’t know what they do. Here’s a link.

And yes this story was inspired from tony1685 and Explodium stories, but I wanted to do my own little twist with the idea. Like why don't we have a human female protagonist instead of a male? Also this is actually my in game Courier. For some bizarre reason I think the story in New Vegas plays far better when as a female than playing as a male...due to one scene you can do with a certain perk (only to get him alone though, easier to him kill that way).

Chapter 2

I would like to thank ProtheanBrony for proofreading this chapter.
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Scarlet found a nice ridge that overlooked the town, while remaining out of sight from the horses.

“Still can’t believe this,” she mumbled as she reviewed what she saw in town through her scope. It seemed the horses are the only creatures living in this town. How in the world did they build a town without hands; with their mouths? Questions rabidly formed in her mind, but she shook her head to clear it up. Stay focus, remember, you’re stranded on this strange world? Now it looked like they’re civil and smart, otherwise they probably wouldn’t have built a town in the middle of a desert. Scarlet had heard once about the legends of the intelligent Deathclaws that used to live in the legendary Vault 13 and that they were civil enough that some humans actually lived near or with them…in peace! However she had heard that tale from a drunken person in a casino in New Reno (who still owned her 50 caps), so she didn’t believed him.

But seeing actual living talking animals living bedazzled a small portion of her mind into believing that maybe the old man in New Reno wasn’t crazy as she had thought. So what to do? Go down and hope they don’t freak out, or sneak in and learn more about the town…if I can that is. An idea came to her head and she reached into her bag and pulled out a Stealth Boy. For a while she just stared at it. Then she place the device on her wrist and thought, this is going to be one of my stupid plans isn’t it…almost up there with charging at a Nightkin with a penknife.

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“Cheer up AJ,” Braeburn said, as he gave her a glass of water. “I’m sure we’ll find out what’s wrong with the trees sooner or later.”

“Hopefully we find it before it’s too late; otherwise ya’ll will lose some of your total apple harvest. That is if the sickness stays where it is at the moment. ” She took a sip from the glass. As she gulped the water, something didn’t taste quite right, but she couldn’t put her hoof on why.

“Is there anypony else that you think of that might be able to help us?” Strongheart asked, as she also took a sip from her own glass of water.

“Well there Twi, but she’s up in Canterlot visiting her brother.” She looked at Braeburn, “Unless you know a unicorn that is good at magic and works well with plant anatomy?”

“I don’t believe I do.”

“Then I don’t know,” Applejack slump on the table. “I guess the next thing to do is to dig up a tree and make sure the roots are okay.” Braeburn nodded his head, and the three of them got up and left the Saltlicker Saloon.

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Even through Scarlet was invisible she walked behind the building to make sure she didn’t run into any of the horses. Funny, I thought horses were supposed to be…bigger? The horse’s head only reached the mid-section of her chest and they were about as wide as the average mini-gun.

Sadly she couldn’t understand a single word they were saying. She listened to two groups of different horse, and she couldn’t determine a relationship with her language and theirs with the short time she could spare. She was looking across the street to what looked like a general store. It had posters and products of apples, hats, and other items display inside through the window. She lowered her eyes and observed the horse walking by. Many had coats of different color of the rainbow, but mostly they seemed to be comprised mostly of the color, brown, dark yellow, tan, gray, and red.

She noticed two horses, one was smaller than the other one, and it was closely following the bigger one. Maybe that’s a young horse? Both had the same tan coat color, but the little one had a horn on its head while the adult’s head had nothing like that. In contrast the adult had this picture on its rear, and the little one was blank. Maybe it’s something to deal with puberty? Lose the horn gain a picture on your…butt. She giggled at this, shaking her head.

She looked back up and noticed that the young horse was looking at her direction. Scarlet could see the young horse squinting its huge eyes, extremely focused on trying to spot something. Suddenly, its huge eyes open rapidly and it ran to its parent and tugged on their tail, saying something and pointing at Scarlet’s location. I think that’s my cue to leave, beside I think I only have twenties minutes left on my Stealth Boy. She crouched slowly leaving the spot she was standing and in a hurry, but quiet, walk, left the strange town.

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As Applejack, Braeburn, and Strongheart were heading back to the apple orchard, they heard a loud agreement between a filly and her mother.

“I don’t need glasses Ma. I really did see a big ghost standing there and it was looking right at me.”

The mother shook her head in disappointment and mumble.“First it was a hairless ape, now it’s a ghost.” She looked at her daughter and told her, “I think you’ve been reading too much of that magic book of yours. Your imagination is just making these images up and fooling your eyes sweetie.”

“But I’m not making them up, they’re both real.” As the group of three walk by the filly and mother, Applejack seemed distracted by something.

“Something wrong AJ,” Braeburn asked, seeing the look on her face.

“That was the same filly in the train that clam to see a hairless ape standing on the side of the tracks.”

“Are you starting to believe her,” Strongheart asked.

“Maybe, I don’t think it’s a conquincidence that filly spotted two big figures through.” She looked at Strongheart, “Is there some sort of buffalo’s tale that has big apes or a roaming ghost in it?”

Strongheart thought for a moment and shook her head, “I don’t think such tales exist.”

“I see.” Applejack didn’t say anything else and the three of walked silently to the apple orchard.

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Scarlet was doing her best on trying to make a small fire with some of the wood she “found” lying around in the town. She was starting to get hungry and wanted to heat up some of the gecko meat she had with her. She carefully arranged a small triangle shape around tinder, and reach for her engraved lighter. With one click a small flame came to life and Scarlet light the tinder inside her small wooden formation.

The tinder blared to life and shortly after she had a small fire in front her. Scarlet watched the smoke float up in the air, only to be carried away by the wind that was blowing away from town. She took out her gladius and a big slice of gecko meat out her bag. With the gladius she cut off some meat, stabbed it, and held it over the fire, just until the piece of meat was warm enough to her liking.

After a while she took it off of the gladius and took a bite. As she chewed it, she could hear the familiar clicking of her Pip-Boy. Shut up, I know it’s irradiated. She sliced another piece of meat and started the whole process again. She glanced at the sun, and saw that it was already past its afternoon position. Wow, it’s been that long already? She looked at the horizon in front of her. This place is so…peaceful. No gang members wanting to kill me for my supplies, no wild life wanting me to be part of their meal, and no vengeful members of Ceaser’s Legion coming for my head. For once, nothing wants me dead…yet. She finished the last piece of her meal and cleaned her blade.

Of course, if I can’t feed my basic needs, I won’t last long out here.

She held her Pip-boy up to check what supplies she had left. It told her she had three purified water bottles, four MREs, two gecko steaks, and three cobs of corn left. Not much, she thought in disappointment, two to three days max with the water and six days with the food, longer if I let myself starve for some days. She looked over her shoulder at the town. So that means I need to find some way to introduce myself to the town’s folks without causing a mass panic.

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