The Scaled Courier

I woke up on the side of a mountain, wondering how I got from a little shack-turn-Inn in Wyoming to the side of a mountain. I was glad I was in my Riot gear because something told me that it was pretty cold up here, probably the snow. Not used to cold in the wasteland, well, snow cold anyway. Either way I needed to find a town soon or I would have to fly in a random direction till I found something and I hated that. My wings grew in alright, or so I assumed, but the risk of being shot isn’t worth it. Part of why I loved hearing Riot gear, too many people mistook me for a small super mutant.

Half an hour passed as I walked through the snow covered hills and I finally found a town in the distance. I pulled out my Anti-Material Rifle to scope it out. Just to make sure it wasn't a raider camp, been there don’t wanna do that again. What I saw surprised me. "Ponies? I'm back In Equestria?" I said to myself as I remembered the last time I was In Equestria.

I was having an argument with Twilight about something that I don't remember anymore. "Fine." I shouted as I left the Library running for who knows how long till I ended up In the Everfree forest. I heard a noise that startled me. "Hello?" I said, scared. "Is anypony out there?" I asked to myself as I walked backwards into something. "Twilight?" As I turned around to see a Timberwolf staring at me "*gulp* hello Mr. Timberwolf."

Backing up, I saw more of them came out of the bushes. Seeing this I decided to run away from them. After a short while I lost them by climbing up a tree. 'I hope I lost them.' I thought to myself as I yawned as my eyes closed 'I guess I could sleep for a while before I return to Twilight and apologies.' I thought to myself as I drifted into sleep. When next I woke up I wouldn't be in Equestria anymore.

As I drifted out of my thoughts as I entered the town. Many eyes were on me as they haven't seen Armor like mine before. As I walked through the town I saw a group of ponies that looked familiar 'Twilight?' I thought to myself before going, 'No that can’t be them, it’s been years.'
But as I got closer I overheard one of them speak. "Come on Fluttershy."

The pony who said it was a pink unicorn with a purple mane holding staff. Her voice rubbed me the wrong way, It was too friendly, which normally wouldn't raise any flags for an Equestrian, but for a wastelander It was easy to pick up. "Oh, hello. I'm Starlight Glimmer. Welcome to Our Town." I decided to play along.

"Hi I'm... Big Iron. I was wondering where I was?" lying about my name, not the first time I’ve done that. I’ve actually rarely used my real name since I appeared in the Wastelands.

"Well like I said, your in Our town. That's the name of the town by the way, but in any case welcome to our lovely little town. We'll bring you some food for your stay." She said as the town started to leave to do their roles.

As Fluttershy passed me she whispered something in my ear. "You need to get out of here!" Before walking away. It was confirmation as to what my gut feeling had told me that this town was bad news. As I wandered the town I thought back to when I found myself in Arroyo.

Arroyo, 25 years ago.

I woke up in a a patch of grass, I looked around for the tree I was sleeping in, but nothing around me looked like the area I was sleeping in. It didn't even look like the Everfree forest anymore! "Hello." I said to nobody as I heard a noise behind me as a large gecko like creature came out of the bush. I screamed as more of them came out of the bushes and started chasing me. I ran away screaming. After a few minutes of running I ran into a dead end I shouted and cried as they were getting close then, I heard a sound I would soon become all too familiar with.

I just looked at the bodies of the geckos as a large figure came up to me and spoke. "Hello little guy." I looked up to see a large human, at least that’s how Lyra always described them as, standing over me and the sight of him caused me to faint.

The old man PoV, a few minutes ago

I was out for a walk out in the hunting grounds near the town when I heard someone scream coming from the area. 'Shit, I told the children not to play here.' I thought to myself as I pulled out my old 10mm to go save the child, but when I got there I saw a purple gecko being chased by a group of larger geckos. Probably a runt being chased by some alphas. I ran to shoot the back of one in the back of the head before they turned to face me. I shoot the one on the left, killing it before shooting the last one dead.

With that done I went up to the little guy. "Hello little guy." I said hoping that it wouldn't try to attack me, but it collapsed in front of me. "Poor thing must have been running for a while." I picked it up to bring back to my hut in the village. As I entered the village I stopped one of the guards "Gather a hunting party, there’s a child lost in the hunting grounds." I told him as I headed to my hut to focus on the… gecko? "Now what are you?" I asked as I looked at the gecko "There is no w-..." I begin to say as the gecko mumbled something.

"Five more minutes Twilight." It mumbled as I shook it awake It looked around as if it was wondering where it was. "What happened?" IIt spoke in the voice I heard screaming earlier. I went out of my tent to tell one somebody to tell the headhunter to recall the hunters the child that I had heard was the mutant gecko I had found. As I reentered my hut I found that he was looking at his claws in confusion. "You're a human right?" It asked. I nodded and said yes which made him more confused "Where am I?" He asked.

"You are in the town of Arroyo." I said as he tried to climb down from the table. I helped him down.

"Do you have a quill and paper?" He asked I looked around for some paper, but I had no idea what a quill was.

"Here I don't think I have a quill, but do you need a pencil?" I asked handing him a piece of paper before heading off to find a pencil or pen. As soon as he wrote something up he took a deep breath and burned the letter. "Why did you do that!?" I yelled, stomping out the fire. He just looked at the fire mumbling how it didn't work. Was something else supposed to happen just now? "Are you okay?" I asked as he started to cry.

"No. I don't know where I am and I can't get back home." He cried.

"Well... you can stay with me for as long as you need to." I said trying to comfort him. He’s like a toddler really.

The gecko, er, kid? looked up at me. "R, rely?"

I looked at him for a moment as he hugged me. Yeah, he’s just a kid. "What's your name little fella?"

"I'm spike."

PoV Spike

I snapped out of my thoughts as I was being lead into a cave. The townsfolk, that could/would, told me they were being controlled by Starlight Glimmer, which I didn't buy due to the fact that If that were true then she would be trying to steal my nonexistent cutie mark. As I entered the cave I played along, but couldn't help but be surprised at the wall of cutie marks. "Well that's a nice collection you got there. So where is yours?" I asked as a surprised Starlight came out of hiding.

As she opened her mouth I spoke before she could. "Save the 'I'm better then you' talk and just get on with it." She looked offended, but complied by lifting me up in the air as she was about to say something I dropped a flashbang down.

"What’s this? Your big plan?" She mocked, levitating the flashbang close to her face causing me to smirked underneath my helmet. That’s gonna hurt~

"I wouldn't hold it so close to you if I were you." I spoke as It went off. She screamed, blinded and fear in her voice. Her not being able to see anything caused her to drop me. I fell on my feet where I ran and punched her in the face, knocking her out. I grabbed her staff and broke it into pieces, I then took a key from her unconscious body to unlock one of the Cutie mark containers letting one fly off to whomever it belongs to before I placed a grenade in its container then pulled the pin. Would have taken forever if it was one-by-one.

I told everypony to run as I grabbed Starlight Slimmer and ran out of the cave before the grenade exploded, causing all the cutie marks to fly off to there respective owners all except for Starlight's.

"Where's her cutie mark?" One of the ponies asked I had a feeling.

"Somepony bring me a bucket of water, I have an idea." Fluttershy came to me holding a bucket in her wings. "Thank you." I said pouring the bucket over Starlight Glimmer waking her up and revealing her cutie mark. She just painted over it.

*Gasp* everypony said as she stood up "What?" she asked before noticing that her cutie mark wasn't a equal sign, but a star and waves. Before she could say anything Twilight and her friends came out to give a Friendship speech, but as she was in the middle of it Starlight shouted "QUIET!" Stopping Twilight in her tracks. Before she could teleport away I punched her again knocking her out.

"You didn't need to do that!" Twilight yelled as I placed Starlight on the ground.

"Does anypony have a rope? I don't want this bounty to get away." Twilight seemed surprised.

"Bounty? There's a bounty on her?"

"Probably, I mean she did kidnap an Alicorn Princess." She rolled her eyes.

"Okay, so what you're saying is that there's no bounty on her"

"Okay maybe not, but she did hold you hostage and try to brainwash all of you." I retorted.

"Fine I'll give you a bounty when we get to Canterlot."

"Great." I said as A.J. handed me some rope to tie Starlight up with. "Before we head out I need to do something real quick." I said, leaving them with Starlight wondering where their cutie marks where.

Canterlot, Celestia PoV

I was finishing a stack of paperwork when I had gotten a note in a way that I haven't gotten In awhile. Via Spike. It had been months since he disappeared and I couldn't reach him, but to finally get word from him was making me happy. The note was short but made me cry in joy.

Hey mom,

I'm coming home with Twilight, but you may not recognize me (Twilight sure doesn’t, neither does the others) but look for the one In black and a helmet.

Love spike

My son was coming home!