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.
_____________________________________________________________________
Day Two done.
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.