To Whom It May Concern

by Wheller

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Twilight and Rainbow Dash could only watch in awe at the smouldering ruins of Ashville, though they knew it not as such, having had no contact with the Nephites. They had no knowledge that Ashville was the last known location of Derpy Hooves, Vinyl Scratch, and the Great and Powerful Trixie.

They were stunned nonetheless.

“You... you don’t think anypony was down there? Do you?” Twilight asked.

“You mean... like Vinyl and Surprise? No... Of... of course not! Why would they be... down there?” Rainbow Dash said.

Both mares looked at each other in horror, they had no proof, but they began to assume the worst.

BAM!

Twilight and Rainbow Dash turned around to discover that a large metal hatch had popped open, a white foreleg stuck out at Vinyl Scratch pulled herself up from the hole in the ground.

“Oh hey girls!” Vinyl said with a grin. “Good thing you don’t have mallets, or this would be the worst game of life-sized wack-a-mole ever!”

Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s mouths fell open, but they soon turned to a smile, Vinyl Scratch was okay!

Vinyl pulled herself out and turned around, reaching back in to pull somepony behind her out. Vinyl grunted and pulled none other than Trixie, who looked incredibly drunk and unaware of what had just happened out behind her.

Derpy Hooves followed shortly thereafter, followed by Graham Cracker, then Bishop Hoof, and one by one, the Nephites of Ashville began to pile out. The whole town was accounted for.

“There is an old saying,” Graham Cracker said. “A nephite caught unprepared, is not a nephite at all.”

Graham smiled with his eyes towards Rainbow Dash and Twilight; the then took notice of Rainbow’s injured wing. “That needs tending to.”

Graham Cracker took several bandages out of his saddlebags and began to wrap Rainbow Dash’s wound.

“Vinyl Scratch?” Derpy asked. Vinyl looked over to her and gave her a grin. Derpy didn’t respond to it. “We need to talk.”

...

Vinyl and Derpy walked away from the crowd, she looked over to her marefriend and frowned. “This was a normal day for you, wasn’t it Vinyl?”

Vinyl couldn’t help but grin. “Pretty much, yeah!”

Derpy continued to frown, causing the grin upon Vinyl’s face to slowly fade.

“Derpy?” Vinyl asked. Derpy raised a hoof, shushing her and then continued to speak.

“Vinyl... I care about you, I really do! But there is no way that I can keep up with this...” Derpy said.

Vinyl sighed, nodding her head. “I understand, I guess we’re done then?”

Derpy nodded in affirmation.

“I’m sorry Derpy; I was never good enough for you. You deserve way better than what I can offer you. I hope we can still be friends though!” Vinyl said with a smile.

Derpy shook her head in the negative. “You should have tried harder, Vinyl.”

Vinyl nodded her head in agreement.

Derpy looked away from her. “I’m not coming back to Ponyville, not right away. I’ve got a lot of thinking that I need to do.”

“I understand,” Vinyl said. “I’ll take care of Dinky for you until you get back,” she said, offering the Pegasus a smile. Derpy gave her a disapproving look and shook her head, causing Vinyl to frown.

“You can’t even take care of yourself Vinyl Scratch,” Derpy said. “You’ve proven that already.”

Vinyl opened her mouth to speak, but Derpy had already turned away from her. Vinyl shut her mouth tightly; she knew that Derpy was right.

Vinyl turned back and walked over to Twilight and Rainbow Dash. Graham Cracker had finished bandaging Rainbow Dash’s wing and had turned his attention to others.

“You okay Vinyl?” Rainbow Dash asked her.

Vinyl looked up and forced a grin at her. “Me?! Yeah! I’m great! I’m always fine!”

Neither Rainbow Dash nor Twilight believed her, but before they could say anything about it, they were interrupted by a certain azure unicorn.

“You!” Trixie shouted, pointing a hoof at Twilight Sparkle. “Twilight Sparkle! Trixie has found you! Trixie will fight you!” Trixie cried out in a drunken slur, she took a few steps and promptly passed out onto the ground.

“Yeah... we need to take her back with us,” Vinyl said. “The nephites have had enough of her... has anypony seen Surprise?”

Rainbow Dash and Twilight glanced at each other and then shook their heads. “We thought she was with you!”

“We got separated,” Vinyl explained, she opened her mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by the all too familiar cry.

“SURPRISE!”

In a flash of white, Vinyl Scratch was on the ground pinned under Surprise, who was grinning widely at her.

“Surprise...” Vinyl said, grunting in annoyance.

“Hey! You do this too!” Surprise called out. “You can’t complain when it’s done to you!”

Vinyl thought about it for a moment, and realised that the Pegasus had a point... she didn’t like it, but she had a point.

“I hate it when you’re right...” Vinyl complained.

...

Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Vinyl Scratch (who was carrying Trixie on her back), and Surprise made their way back to the scout car, leaving the Divide and the nephites behind them. The return trip was much smoother, as Vinyl Scratch found herself to be far too depressed to be her reckless self.

They continued to drive for about an hour before they noticed something off in the distance. It was a pink blob, a lone pink blob in the middle of the desert. They approached it to discover that the pink blob was a pony, and not just any pony.

It was Pinkie Pie; she was lying on her back, relaxing in the sun wearing a pair of extremely dark sunglasses.

Vinyl pulled up to her and shut the scout car off. Rainbow Dash, who was in the gunner’s spot looked down at her.

“Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow Dash called to her.

Pinkie Pie lifted the sunglasses up off her eyes and looked at her. “Hey Dashie!” she said with a smile.

Vinyl Scratch had opened the door to the car and hopped out, she trotted up to Pinkie Pie and looked directly at her. “Pinkie Pie... where is Pips Domino?”

“I dunno!” Pinkie Pie said brightly as she slid the sunglasses back down over her eyes. “I haven’t seen him since yesterday! I stopped being a hostage the day after we left!”

Vinyl Scratch looked incredibly confused and Pinkie Pie sat up and looked directly at her.

“I know you’re probably super mad at him, but you really shouldn’t be! He didn’t want to hurt me; he was just scared that Legion was going to do something bad to him!” Pinkie Pie explained. “We saw this big vapour trail off in the distance and said that he was sorry for dragging me along to this, and then he let me go! He pointed me in the direction of Appleoosa, and started walking off in... Oh I don’t remember... some direction!”

Vinyl Scratch raised an eyebrow. “Then why aren’t you going towards Appleoosa?” she asked.

“Isn’t it obvious!? Pinkie sense told me to wait RIGHT HERE! So here I am!” Pinkie Pie said, she looked blankly at her hoof for a moment, and then back to Vinyl Scratch. “Pinkie sense says I can go now! Let’s go home!”

Vinyl opened her mouth to say something, but found that she could only smile at Pinkie Pie. “All right, let’s go home!”

...

Several weeks had passed by the time the knock on the Library door came, Vinyl Scratch opened the door to find that Derpy Hooves was standing outside the door. Vinyl did a double take; it was Derpy all right, though you might not have been able to tell at this point.

Derpy looked incredibly different. What Vinyl Scratch first noticed was that her eyes were no longer crossed, but as she looked over what Derpy was dressed in, it was what Vinyl took more notice of.

Derpy was wearing Canterlot Police Service CO19 riot barding, almost identical to the vest that Graham Cracker wore, except somewhat cleaner looking and having holes in it for her wings. Around the riot barding was a schäferhund storm harness with a nephite 12.7mm pistol clipped into it.

“Derpy?” Vinyl asked in surprise.

“Not exactly,” Derpy said, maintaining a neutral expression.

“H... how are you?” Vinyl asked.

“God has seen fit to grant me safe travel,” Derpy said simply. “May I come in?”

“O... of course!” Vinyl said as she stepped aside.

Derpy casually walked inside, past Vinyl who could only stop and stare. She noticed that Derpy’s cutie mark was gone too.

“You’ve... ” Vinyl began.

“Become a nephite?” Derpy asked. “Yes, I have been welcomed into God’s fold, and it was, quite frankly, the best choice I had ever made. I am judged according to my ability, and not my appearance, and I certainly proved my worth during the construction of New Maneaan.”

Vinyl opened her mouth to ask, however, Derpy beat her to the punch, knowing exactly what she was going to ask.

“After the destruction of Ashville, Graham Cracker led our people out of the Divide and to a place where we could make our new home, our promised land where we could live out our lives in peace. That is New Maneaan.”

“Where is this...? New Maneaan at?” Vinyl asked.

Derpy gave Vinyl an annoyed look that indicated that she was not going to tell her. “God hath taught us: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.’ But as far as I am concerned, the townponies of Ponyville, and the Nephites of New Maneaan are NOT friends.”

Vinyl swallowed hard, she wasn’t sure that she liked this new Derpy.

It was at that point that Dinky wandered into the room, she looked up to discover that Derpy was in the room. “Mummy!” she cried out excitedly, and ran and gave her mother the biggest hug she could muster.

Derpy smiled brightly at Dinky, hugging her back. “Oh I missed you little one! Come on, it’s time to go home! Climb up on my back,”

Dinky smiled at Derpy brightly and climbed up onto her back. Derpy turned and walked out of the Library without another word. Vinyl Scratch followed her out.

“Derpy!” Vinyl called out to her.

Derpy looked back at her scornfully. “It’s not Derpy, not anymore. I was baptised in the nephite tradition, and I was given a new name. From now on, my name is Ditzy Doo.”

Vinyl looked in confusion as Ditzy Doo walked away from her.

“May God be with you Vinyl Scratch, you need his help far more than I,” Ditzy Doo said, she leapt into the air, and just like that, she was gone.

Comments

[Apocalypse Pony]

WHAT

THE

FUCK

[TGnPFlutterGuy]

The Fuck did I just read? Reminds me of some 007 mission impossible crossover. The plotline was quite confusing. Not sure if I liked it or Wut.
I

[Wheller]

30652

Did you read from the beginning of the series? Because if not, that's likely why you're confused.

[DreadedCandiru2]

No surprise that Ditzy has become a Mormon-analogue now; the Nephites have treated her a lot better than the ponies of Equestria ever did.

[Fallen Knight]

Now i dont trust the Nephites lol

they were nice ,but thats probably just to get recruits.

"But as far as I am concerned, the townponies of Ponyville, and the Nephites of New Maneaan are NOT friends."

like, da fak

[DreadedCandiru2]

30800
This, of course, is to set up a future story in which the two towns come to blows.

[Fallen Knight]

30826

i got that much, but still dont know what the goal of them is, why didnt they just rebuild their town where it was,(no radiation since it was just explosives ) ,instead they build it closer to Ponyville.

I fear a new slaughter will happen

[Wheller]

30832

The Divide is still rather inhospitable.

Technically, New Maneaan is closer to Ponyville, but it is still in the Mohoofie, Appleoosa and El Paso Fino are far closer to New Maneaan that if the Nephites are going to interact with anybody, it's going to be Appleoosa.

Of course, considering who is in Appleoosa right now... Well, spoilers.

[Sciura87]

Well damn son, now you've got me rooting for Surprise. I would have loved to see someone's reaction to discovering of the massacre she wreaked on the Hopeton ponies... This would be an epic series or movie... Hoping to see some Surprise redemption soon if only to see her rage focused in the proper direction.

[Kamineigh]

I-I... WHAT?

This chapter was all over the place and not all that clear. Granted, it may be the fumes getting to me.

[KaijinZero]

..but...the ending to the first part of this series.....

somepony get another reset bomb, cause we really need one.

[oblivion2k]

RIP, derpyscratch
Seriously, as soon as Vinyl has something good come to her, it gets taken away.

Oh my god WHAT THE HELL?!
I mean, this isn't necessarily a criticism of this story, but practically everything today (Nov 18) has been a Tragedy/Dark story! I'm sifting through the archives and... yeah! Pretty much everything submitted today, with the exception of like two stories, has been Tragedy/Dark.

Look, I'm not against dark or tragedy. In fact I'm all for them in principle, but for the love of christ, there comes a point where it gets to be too much bronies. Can't anyone think of ANYTHING lighthearted once in a while?

[lol1759]

34837 what can i say? the world is a dark place

[Wheller]

34837

And you should have probably noticed that all of them were by me. Being different parts of the same story.

[unph]

You have no idea how much pants-shitting occurred while I was reading this. Amazing stuff, I mean, Surprise mass-slaughter again? Amazing! Even better how Surprise is fighting for the good ponies now. It was good enough to include that insane pegasus in this chapter (Now reformed as a slightly different mare), even better to see her fight once more.

Pretty sad though to see Vinyl Scratch treat her so badly. I definitely understand why, with the events of the Old World and whatnot. Still though, poor Surprise. A good amount of character development. Personally, I think Surprise's change in character as well as Vinyl Scratch's disposition towards her was too abrupt, and could have been more subtle. It was still a very good turn of events though.

These two new factions also, Ashville and Hopeton, that makes things interesting as well. Anyway, you did an astounding job with this chapter. All of these new concepts and events came together at a rate which just makes me squee over, and over, and over again. Great job, I can't stress that enough.

[MetricCaboose]

This story reminded me of the DLC for Fallout New Vegas

[Lucky424]

Okay, I'm starting to recognise things from Parliament now. I must be catching up!

[CoatedHades436]

*cocks rifle* FUCK YOU DITZY DOO!!! WHAT HAVE U DONE WITH DERPY! GIVE HER BACK!!!!