I would like to thank ProtheanBrony for proofreading this chapter.
____________________________________________________________________
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.
*******************
“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.
*******************
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.
****************
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.
*****************
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.
_____________________________________________________________________
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.