The walk outside was a quiet but tense affair as we walked down the emergency exit of the office building and onto the remains of Vaverfront. The streets are eerily silent as opposed to a couple of hours before when Scarlet’s gang chased us into Vaverfront. After a quick scan of the area, I signaled for Cherry and Orange to exit, waiting as I kept a vigilant lookout of the street.

Orange walked out with her mouth on the firing attached to the battle saddle soon after Cherry walked out still levitating her machete. “Stay sharp. Just because they’re not around doesn't mean they’re gone.” The two mares simply nodded at my words.

We trudged down the decayed streets of Vaverfront, cutting through alleyways whenever possible attempting to avoid any patrols, if there were any. We stopped inside a convenience store with broken windows to rest and hopefully scavenge any leftover supplies. I elected to search the counter whereas the other two searched the shelves.

Searching the register netted me two Olenian Bits which have the image of Queen Cristera on the front and on the back it has the image of a rose imprinted on the coin. Taking them into my saddle bags even if they’re useless as a currency in the world today I’m sure I can still find some other uses for the gold coins.

Crouching down I looked underneath the counter and found one can of soup. As I was placing the soup can into my bag then out of the corner of my eye I spotted a folded-up newspaper that was still in relatively good condition. Grabbing the newspaper and unfolding it to the front page the text was a bit faded but still recognizable, it read.

Vaverfront Chronicle

Massacre At Littlehorn!

Princess Celestia Abdicates!

Yesterday at approximately 1:30 pm a zebra talisman was activated inside Luna’s School for Gifted Unicorns which unleashed a pink cloud upon Littlehorn Valley that killed anything which came into contact with the pink cloud. No survivors have been reported thus far. Is this a sign of great escalation by the Zebrican Empire?

In a statement this morning Princess Celestia was quoted saying “I express great anguish at the loss of the staff and foals that were at the academy.” In that same statement she announced her abdication with the quote “My Little Ponies, it is with great regret that I announce my abdication and leave my little sister Luna in charge.” With Celestia’s abdication, the future of Equestria is uncertain, but one thing is certain the Great War will reach new heights.

5/15/1029
Mikkari Daarpala

The rest of the article gets more and more unrecognizable after the front page. Reading through the front page I remember the Littlehorn Massacre, it was all anycreature talked about for months. What came as a shock to me and many others was the news of Celestia’s abdication. I found it hard to believe that Celestia would abdicate especially since she led the fight against the Changeling Queendom or as it’s more commonly referred to as the Changeling Lands.

Folding the newspaper back into its original place, I then found a medkit attached to the counter, opening it I got a hold of; one bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol, ointment, and lastly a roll of magical bandages.
I placed them into my bags when I suddenly hear outside.

Peeking up over the counter I saw three stallions outside the store, two earth ponies and one unicorn, all wearing leather and metal barding, with disheveled manes underneath their metal helmets, and they all had pipe rifles. Looking over to the other side I saw Orange using the shelves for cover, but Cherry was nowhere to be seen. I hear one of the stallions speak. “Man you bastards have been a real nuisance, but it’ll all be worth it when Scarlet creams your ass hehe.”

I fell onto the floor and crawled toward Orange, I was sure that the three would’ve spotted but I guess they were all focused on Orange. Reaching Orange who was standing upright and holding her pipe rifle in her hooves. She looked toward me with worry evident on her face. “How the hell did they find us?”

Peeking out, then looking back towards her. “Damnit, I was so sure that we were in the clear.” Levitating my rifle towards me. I detached the mag and saw twenty-four with one in the chamber. Attaching the mag back to the rifle. “Ok, and where did Cherry go?”

“No idea,” was the response I got.

“Ok Orange you take the left I take the right. On the count of three, we strike.” I said taking my position on the right side of the shelf while Orange did the same. Once in position, we looked at each other and nodded then I counted us off.

“One…”

“Two…”

“Three… Now!”

I jumped out, surprising the three, and opened fire. Firing a total of ten bullets killing the stallion on the left, while Orange unloaded on the stallion on the right, the unicorn in the middle panicking called out. “Shit, I need backu-” Before he could finish, Cherry jumped down from out of nowhere, jabbing a machete through his skull. Orange smiled upon seeing Cherry.

“By the goddesses. Cherry, I thought you bailed on us!.” Orange exclaimed.

Cherry gave out a freakish smile “I would never bail on my friends, and before you say, no Scarlet’s gang were never my friends.”

Looking out I spotted more coming. “Uh guys, now’s not the time to celebrate, there's more!” I started, then looked towards Cherry. “Cherry grab a gun and get inside!”

Cherry jumped when a bullet nearly nicked her in the flank, now noticing more coming she sheathed her machete, levitated a gun alongside and grabbed any ammunition off of the bodies, and galloped inside. We took cover behind a shelf as a hailstorm of bullets came upon us.

At this point, I counted twelve more incoming, when I pointed out the number Orange had despaired while Cherry had a wide smile and commented. “I like the odds.”

I levitated my gun out and fired blindly, stopping once I heard the clicking noise. Bringing it back and levitating out a fresh mag. I hit something as I heard a shout of pain and a body hitting the floor. Orange meanwhile fired back through the hole she had carved out on the shelf, while Cherry sporting a wide deranged smile stuck her head out, her pipe rifle floating just above her, firing while cackling madly.

But it was all in vain as every time we downed or killed one of them another one would come out. I had used up three mags for my rifle and two for my pistol, they were gaining ground albeit at a slow pace. Eventually one did reach us but they were quickly taken down by Cherry using her machete.

Things had gone from bad to worse as a wagon being pulled by two stallions turned up and stopped over a sewer grate. The wagon itself had a pony skull and a red zigzag going through it, which Cherry quickly explained that it's Scarlet’s insignia for her gang. I despaired when I spotted a mare opening a hatch on the wagon’s roof and began shooting at us with a light machine.

The three of us were ducking down as we were under the constant barrage of bullets. “We need to get the hell out of here!” Orange yelled over the sound of the machine gun.

“How? We're trapped in here!” I yelled back while I blind-fired five more shots in a vain attempt to silence the machine gun, but to no avail as the machine continued firing. Just then we heard a roar outside, loud enough to echo throughout the city.

At that point, the shooting had stopped and the three of us peeked out and watched as something was banging out of the sewer grate. All eyes were drawn toward the sewer grate, watching in anticipation. When suddenly a giant reptilian-like creature jumped out launching the wagon alongside its occupants in the air. The wagon crashed on the ground, splattering its drivers and the mare. It was at that moment that all hell broke loose.

Orange and Cherry looked on with fear, while I looked at it in surprise. All of the remaining raiders began firing at the reptile creature, while Orange turned to me and said “That’s a Deathclaw! We need to get the fuck out of here while it's distracted or we’re fucked!” As if to prove her point a mangled corpse of a stallion hit our shelf.

Taking that as our cue to leave we booked it out of the convenience store passing by any raider who was more focused on taking out the Deathclaw. Hearing the combined roars and gunshots grow distant as we neared the outskirts of Vaverfront and grew silent as we entered the forest.

We had been running for three hours, and by the time we had stopped to take a breather, I took the opportunity to sit down and rest. Orange, who was panting heavily, leaned down against a dead tree and plopped herself onto the floor, looking into the gray cloudy skies. Resting for a moment, she commented. “I changed my mind, this was the second longest run I’ve ever had.”

“Are you kidding? That was amazing! Except for the Deathclaw arriving, that wasn’t amazing.” Cherry interjected with a wide smile and a sparkle into her noticeably less bloodshot eyes. While Orange looked at her bewildered. While Cherry continued “The rush. The excitement. The thrill.”

“Cherry.” Orange began.

“Yes?” Cherry looked toward the mare.

“You’re a battle junkie.” Orange deadpanned.

Cherry fell on the floor laughing, before wiping away a tear. “Oh, so you finally noticed, although the jet certainly didn’t help.”

I joined the conversation by adding. “So that explains the smile you gave me when we first met, and the smile you were giving towards the raiders”

“Yup.” Was the response I received. Opening my saddle bag and fished out a Sunrise Sarsaparilla and taking a sip. Before I heard Orange speak up “So Aurelia where do we go from here?”

“Well now we just continue heading east towards Seaddle, a much smaller city than Vaverfront, akin to a town, and from there we can either continue north towards Tercia’s territory or go south into Vanhoover,” I said.

“Seaddle? Yeah, we passed by it before going to Vaverfront.” Cherry added.

I began to wonder if the other had better luck with scavenging the convenience store, I asked. “What did you guys get while I was searching behind the counter? I found some much-needed medical supplies under the counter.”

Orange looked at me before saying “Oh, I hadn’t had any luck, I found two cans of peaches and two bottles of, uhhhhh, Pilven-Alto? I butchered that.”

“Pilvinen Aalto?”

“Yes, that,” Orange confirmed.

Giggling, I explained “Ah, well Pilvinen Aalto or Cloudy Wave is a popular Olenian soda that consists of strawberries and mangoes mixed to produce a taste of sunshine in every sip, with the juicy sweetness of mangoes and the summery goodness of fresh strawberries. Some deer who drank it joked about it being a ‘tropical vacation in a bottle’ Overall I recommend it. Although it didn’t sell internationally due to its competitors being Sunrise Sarsaparilla and Sparkle-Cola, so it became more of a local thing.”

As soon as I said that, Orange popped open the cap and took a big swig. Orange perked up and her eyes widened after she lowered the bottle, “Hey this stuff is really good!”

I looked toward Cherry who was laying on her side, “And what about you, what’d you find?” I asked.

“Yeah it’s the same with Orange I didn’t find much, the entire place was already looted, except for two more cans of soup and that Pelven stuff you mentioned, guess the scavengers that came weren’t Olenian, cause I took five bottles of that stuff,” Cherry says digging through her saddlebags pulling out a bottle of Pilvinen Aalto and hoofed it to me. “Here you can have this, I got four more.”

“Thanks,” I said, placing the bottle inside my saddlebags. “Anyway, I think we should get a move on while it's light out.”

Orange got up after placing the now empty bottle of Pilvinen Aalto inside her saddlebags. “Yeah we should, wouldn’t wanna get caught up outside in the dark, especially with goddess knows what prowling in the night.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Cherry said as she got up.

Since we agree we packed our things and continued the journey eastward towards Seaddle.

Author's Note

Chapter 3 is out hope you enjoy it as much as I did when writing it.

And yes Aurelia is Finnish(Olenian in this case.)

Edit: The part with the Deathclaw was inspired by the Deathclaw that jumped out of a sewer grate after you rescue Preston Garvey and the Minutemen in Fallout 4.