//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: New Arrivals // Story: Borderlands 2 DLC: Vault of the Consular // by NightStream //------------------------------// The second that everyone heard that single response in the room, everyone had different reactions. Lilith was stunned by how easily this… creature was able to get in. Tannis questioned if it was scientifically possible for the draconequus to just emerge out of nowhere. Mordecai himself was a little too startled to think of anything at that moment in time. And then of course, there was Brick. “GET OVER HERE!!!” The first thing that the berserker did was charge head first at Discord… which only caused the embodiment of chaos to teleport away, leaving Brick to accidently fall over the second floor balcony and for his face to hit the pavement. “Geez, I was just trying to have a friendly talk and the first thing he does was try to attack me. And I thought with a name like Sanctuary that you would be welcomed with open arms.” “You got a lot of nerve showing up here,” Lilith growled as the tattoos on her arms began to glow brightly as she lift up her right arm. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t phase blast you right now.” “Easy there, little Lily… Is it alright if I call you that?” The response he got was a little bit of anger from the siren as Discord sighed. “Guess not… Besides, all I came here to do is just talk.” “And what exactly would you have to say that would convince us not to let Brick floss his teeth using your own spine?” Mordecai then asked. “AND DON’T THINK I WOULDN’T DO THAT EITHER… speaking of which when was the last time I did that?” Brick asked as he walked back in. “When you chased the rest of Hyperion off of the planet with Tiny Tina on your shoulders. You sent those jackasses running with their tails in between their legs.” Mordecai replied, noticing the fact that this Discord actually had a tail as he facepalmed himself. “No offense or anything.” “Some taken, but who cares?” Discord shrugged, “Still though, there is a reason why I came here and that was just to talk to you… I believe that you may not be as up to speed on the situation with the Vault Hunters as you may think.” That was when Lilith decided to calm down as her tattoos began to subside. “And what makes you say that?” “Well, before I continue…” Discord said as he glared at Tannis. “I rather not have her try to backstab me with a syringe to take a dna sample.” Oh why that is just rather absurd,” Tannis blew the comment off as she rolled her eyes. “If anything, Dr. Zed would do that after Brick tears you apart limb from limb with his own bare hands.” “...... Wonderful.” Discord sighed, only to hear Brick’s knuckles crack, making his ears stand up on end as he looked back at him. “Give me a very good reason not to right now.” “Well, I have a reason for everything… and mainly, this involving the vault I’m asking their help with,” He explained as with a snap of his talon, the photograph that he originally showed the vault hunters was brought up on the holoboard in crystal clear HD quality. “This one is just as ancient and mysterious as the first vault that was opened… I was going to ask for you three to help with it, but since you are basically… well… retired vault hunters, I thought it would be better to ask for the other six to help with this task.” “That still doesn’t explain about Tina or Claptrap though.” Mordecai pointed out. “Well, for that robot… he was in the same vicinity of the spell I used to transport the vault hunters… Plus, wasn’t it a little nicer here now that the daily annoyance is not bothering you every fifteen seconds?” Discord asked, causing everyone else to look at one another. “Yeah… that’s what I thought. As for Tina, there are two reasons. One, I thought that with her track record of her saving your guy’s lives as much as you save hers, she would be helpful to the others… that and she pulled me out of a tight and embarrassing situation with some bandits that wanted to use me for flesh pizza.” “O… kay. So what exactly is this specific image you are showing us?” Lilith asked. “Well, this is the entrance to the vault, which is in the side of a canyon in a place called the Badlands. As I previously told the Vault Hunters, there are six pieces to a key that needs to be used in order to open it and right now, they have no idea where any of those pieces could be. So, I thought that since you have a certain… genius here who is familiar with vaults,” Discord said, looking at Tannis before looking at the Vault Key that was used by Handsome Jack to open the Warrior. “I was wondering if there were some sort of way for them to be able to track down those pieces. Like a radar or scanner.” “Seriously?” Mordecai asked. “I thought you would be here to play mind games with us.” “Don’t be so quick to assume, Mordy.” Discord replied, narrowing his eyes for a moment. “I’ve been learning a bit of Kindness recently and I’m just doing what I can to help.” For a second, Brick was unsure whether or not to trust Discord along with Mordecai while Lilith wanted to hear more of an explanation first from him on what he was talking about. “Hunh… That is a rather interesting possibility…” Tannis spoke out loud. “The Vault key is charged by eridium and with the power that comes from it, it may be possible to come up with a radar upgrade for the vault hunters echo device if this key they’re looking for is also made of Eridium as well… But how are we going to get them over to them if they’re on another planet.” “Oh… right. I forgot to mention that their ECHO devices are back online because of a muscly man who calls himself Mr. Torgue… That also includes Tina as well… Don’t believe me? Try contacting her yourself.” He said, looking at Brick in the process. “Alright, but if doesn’t work…” Brick then pulls out his ECHO and contacts Tina. A few seconds later and he gets an answer. “WOOHOO!!! BEST DAY EVA!!!!! ‘Scuse me girls, I need to take this.” “Aww, come on! We were almost done with figuring out how to attach those booster rockets you had to our carts for a propulsion system!” One other voice replied, which Lilith and the others recognized as one of the three ponies that Mr. Torgue referred to as the Explosion of Adorableness. “Thanks to you, we can be able to get a second chance at making our carts before the race!” “Don’t worry about it, Huggabutt. This only take just a second… ‘Ello?” Tina asked. “Tina, well I’ll be damned Discord was telling the truth, how you doing?” “Everything is going… AWESOME!!! You are not going to believe some of the ponies I met today! The Vault Hunters are here and I was able to meet Princess Sunbutt, who’s the one pony with bazonga’s like you won’t beleeeeeeeeeive!!” She said, almost breaking out into song. “Ooh! That and Gaige and I are now beginning to learn Magic from that grape taffy looking pony… Oh hey Bricky, you know what would be even better!?” “And that would be?” “If you guys were here too!!!” She replied… that thought alone though caused Discord to scratch his chin and grin a little to himself. “I believe that can be arranged.” The Draconequus said to them, causing Brick, Mordecai and Lilith to look back at him. “That and with your gladiator friend Athena coming here from time to time, I believe she and a few others can keep this place in ship shape… no pun intended.” Just as anyone actually realized what he was talking about, Brick watched as the fingers in his eagle talon were preparing to snap. “Wait… what exactly are you going to do to us?” “Just fulfill her request. It is rude to ignore a lady.” Discord replied before snapping his finger and causing Lilith, Mordecai and Brick to disappear from the room before turning to Patricia Tannis. “As for you… I’ll be in touch.” He said, before disappearing in a quick flash and surprising the scientist. “...... Okay, I’m not one for using profane language, but what the actual fu-!?” The first thing Brick notices when he arrives is that he still has his hands, after he notices how bright the world is. “Ok, so the others were turned into ponies so why aren’t we?” he asked Mordecai and Lilith. “Have you noticed the… trinket on your wrists?” Discord pointed out to them as he pointed it out. “It was something that I was going to give to the other vault hunters, but I wanted to make sure it worked first… Oh and Tina’s behind you.” “Wait, wha-?” “Bricky!!” They heard Tina behind them as she landed on the berserker’s shoulders. “This is the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!! One that deserves a proper burial once the day is over but WHO CARES!?” “Hello Tina…” Brick says as he is still trying to wrap his head around all that is happening right now. Shortly before noticing Tina reach for the bracelet and accidently knocking it off of his hand… causing him to turn into a bulky earth pony stallion. “WOOHOO!!! RIDE THE PONY!!!!” “Well, this is a new experience.” Brick mumbled as he looked at the others. “You know… that just makes me curious as to what we would look like without the bands,” Lilith said as she looked at Mordecai. “Wanna take yours off?” “Nope. I believe I’ll spare myself from the craziness and keep this on.” “Suit yourself.” She replied as she took off the band and let herself transform into a pony as she trotted up alongside Brick. Once that was done though, they heard another set of voices nearby as they turned to see Gaige and Axton walking over. They were coming to check on the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Tiny Tina… but when Axton saw Mordecai… Things did not go well. “Oh you have GOT TO BE F*CKING KIDDING ME!! WHAT IN THE F*CKING SH*T IS THIS?!” Axton then goes on a rant for the next few minutes. “Hey Lilith, do you think he has issues or something?” Brick asked the siren as soon as he picked up his bracelet and put it back on. “More likely that he didn’t get the option to turn back into his original form in the first place.” Lilith replied as Tina now decided to be over where she was. After a few moments though, Axton madly trotted over to where Discord was, took one of the bracelets he had, put it on and then left. All while being extremely and downright pissed. “Hey, where are you going?” Gaige asked. “FOR A WALK!” Axton simply replied. While walking in the direction of the Everfree forest. “In the forest? Why would-?” She tried following up before hearing something else from Axton again. “AN ENTHUSIASTIC ONE!!” Gaige raised an eyebrow before turning her gaze to Lilith, Tina, Brick and Mordecai as well as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “......... Should I be worried?” “FOR THE WILDLIFE!!!” Axton shouted back as he faintly heard her. “Ohhohoho… he’s pissed.” “I think that is putting it mildly, and that's coming from me.” Brick commented. “HE’S EXTREMELY GOD DAMN MOTHER F**KING P***ED AS F**KING SH*T RIGHT NOW!!!” That got Brick, Mordecai and Lilith to turn to Gaige as the Mechromancer sighed. “Yeah… Mr. Torgue’s on my echo.” Gaige sighed. “WHAT’S UP B*TCHHHHHEEEEESSSS?!!!” He replied, before noticing what was going on. “OKAY, HOW THE ACTUAL F**K ARE THE FIRST FEW VAULT HUNTERS HERE!?!” “Wait… first vault hunters?” Applebloom asked, confused. “What is Mr. Torgue talking about?” “Well you see little slab, myself, Lilith, and the drunk over there,” Brick paused as he pointed at Mordecai, who gave him a one finger salute in the process “We were the first ones to go after the very first vault on Pandora. We would’ve continued our vault hunting days, if not for a certain someone by the name of Handsome Jack. He ended our days of vault hunting and we went our separate ways for a while. Then the current vault hunters got us all back together to help them along the way if they need it.” “So… does that mean you are retired?” Scootaloo asked. “And what’s a slab?” Sweetie Belle added on as Gaige watched Discord try to restrain himself from laughing. “Oh great. This is just like back on the train… Fan-freaking-tastic.” The Mechromancer thought to herself. “Alright to answer the first question, yes we are retired. The second one, well I call those who have earned the right to meet me slabs and you three have definitely earned that right.” “So are you like some kind of king?” Applebloom then asked in response, which sounded pretty ironic since Gaige remembered back on Pandora what Brick’s nickname was… The Slab King. “That is correct, I am the Slab King. Doesn’t help that the other slabs are all a bunch of idiots and attack anyone that comes into Thousand Cuts.” “Where?” “That’s a place back on Pandora, Scootaloo.” Gaige replied. “It’s a bit… complicated to explain… But I’m glad to see you guys here. You missed out on us blowing the crap out of some stray loader bots that landed here because of Torgue’s little… gift for us.” “I SAID IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!!!” “You mean I missed a fun party?! Damn now I wish we got here a bit earlier then, pounding some Loaders sounds fun right now.” “Yeah… Say Gaige, where are the rest of you guys?” Lilith asked, curious to find out the answer. “Well Maya is with Twilight, Salvador is back at Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie Pie, Zer0 is at Fluttershy’s cottage, and I think Krieg is back out in the forest… that Axton is walking in.” She replied before adding on something. “Trust me, it’ll all make sense once we get back to town… Right now though, I think Tina and I need to help these three build some badass carts for a race they got coming up tomorrow.” Turning to the carts themselves, they looked a lot like one of the catch a ride runners you would find back on Pandora… with the weapons included. “Are you sure that’s… well… safe?” Lilith asked. “Are you kidding me, that is perfectly safe!” Brick exclaimed with a smile. “Yeah, we haven’t gotten around to removing the rocket launchers yet and Tina wants to use two of her… damsels… to provide an extra boost to the throttle.” Gaige told her. “That and we have yet to put the paint designs on it yet.” “I want to call mine the flaming talon!! No no, Bloodwing! That sounds perfect for scaring the competition!” Scootaloo said to her friends. “What about you girls? What do you think?” “Aww… I’m having trouble with naming mine… I originally thought Dusty, but that just sounded too adorable to name a rocket car.” Sweetie Belle replied. “Ooh! I got it. Scoots, how about you name yours “The Firehawk”. That sounds pretty good right?” “Sweetie Belle, that is brilliant!!” The young pegasus said. Gaige chuckled at that, listening to them talk. Only to overhear something that Applebloom soon said afterwards. “Hey girls, I’m a little unsure what to name mine… do you think Scorpio sounds a little too intimidating for the judges.” “Uh oh…” Gaige thought. “How about we focus on the names later and work on the cart and the decorations first?” “Sure, but I call dibs on naming mine The Firehawk.” Scootaloo boasted afterwards. “Anyone else feel a little sick right now?” Brick asked as he had a thousand yard stare. “Come on, Brick. They’re just kids… I’m not even sure if they knew half of the things they just said.” Lilith replied. “... You do realize that they have been spending time with Tina, right?” Mordecai pointed out. “How likely do you think that she told them about… well… y’know.” “I’m not too sure if Tina told them about him, that is a bit of a sensitive subject for her. I mean do you remember what happened near the end of her game we played?” Both Lilith and Mordecai nodded their heads to that. They knew exactly what Brick was talking about. A while ago, they all participated in a game of Bunkers and Badasses with Tina as the Bunker Master and even though she sounded calm at first, over time, she kept bringing up Roland, one of the original four vault hunters that Handsome Jack killed and pretended like nothing happened to him. As it turned out though, having Roland in the game was a way for her to cope with his death and the death of Mordecai’s bird, Bloodwing. “Hey, maybe Gaige knows someone we can talk too to get ourselves acquainted with the locals.” Lilith mentioned, before Discord corrected her on the grammatical error. “Somepony.” “... Say what?” “Somepony is how the locals say someone here. Just letting you know ahead of time,” Discord said before disappearing in a puff of pink smoke and leaving a few rings for the other vault hunters when they met them. “I gotta go take care of something back in Canterlot. See you around, Kiddos.” “… I got a feeling that adjusting to our new environment is going to not be so easy as I originally thought.” Lilith said. Only for Brick to comment soon after that. “Yeah I figured that much, but hey a new experience and a new vault as well.” Discord then reappeared a few seconds later and set something on Mordecai’s head. “Oh whoops, almost forgot this. Don’t mind me.” He commented before disappearing. Turns out that something… was Mordecai’s new pet bird, Talon. Who soon landed on his shoulder a few seconds later. “Well, at least I got something to keep me occupied while I’m here.” Mordecai sighed to himself as he petted Talon’s head. Only for it to hiss upon seeing someone else approach them. “Hey girls, Twilight wanted me to check you guys and-.” All three vault hunters turned to see Spike approach Gaige, Tina, Applebloom and the others before setting his gaze on them. “Holy scales, who are these guys!?!” “We are the original vault hunters here, so who are you?” “Original? I thought Gaige was one.” He said before looking at the Mechromancer. “It’s a long story, Spike. To put it simply, Discord brought them from our world in order to help us.” Gaige replied. “But they look nothing like the rest of you guys.” Spike pointed out as he was talking about the difference in appearance between her and Brick. “Vault hunters can be any size and shape, it just depends if you are bold enough to tackle the challenge of the vault.” “Brick, I think this little guy is talking about the fact that Gaige is a pony and you’re on two legs.” Lilith pointed out to him. “Besides, we still need to give these bracelets to the other vault hunters.” “You mean like friendship bracelets?” They overheard from one of the cutie mark crusaders. “What? I was just curious.” That just caused Lilith to facepalm herself in the process. “Brick… take yours off for a second. I think it’ll be better to show them how they work rather than tell them.” The siren explained to him. “Alright.” Brick said as he took the bracelet off and became a pony once again. A few seconds later, he put it back on and became himself once more. “Oh… so that’s how it works.” Spike responded. “Yeah, those bracelets let us shift between the forms that we are normally familiar with back on Pandora and being a pony here from the looks of it.” Gaige said before feeling one strike her in the head. “Hey! That hurt!!” “What? All I did was throw it to you.” Brick then said shortly afterward “Though maybe a little too hard.” “You think?” Lilith then spoke up. “I did suggest to toss it… not throw it like a grenade.” Mordecai himself was still trying to process something in his head while this was going on. “So is anybody else still a little surprised by the fact that we’re talking to a lizard?” “I’m not a lizard! I’m a baby dragon!” Spike corrected, shortly before Tina lunged at him. “Oh COME on!!” “What? Dragons are AWESOME!!” Tina replied. “OOH! Next time we’re back at your place, I shall introduce you to Bunkers and Badasses shawty!! We had a LOT of fun when free Lily, Brick and Mordy played with yours truly last time!!” “Well, I do have to admit it was fun.” Brick said, though he left the part about what happened before the end of the game out. “Alright. Well, I’ll be keeping this on me, but not putting it on just yet.” Gaige told them. “Besides, I still need to take you to Twilight after I help the Cutie Mark Crusaders here… Say Tina, who else did you say was going to help with this?” “Salvador.” That… had Gaige concerned for a bit. “He does realize that these are suppose to be carts without guns right?” “Ehh, he’s extra muscle.” Tina replied, before turning around. “Ooh! Here he comes! And Pinkie Pie’s with him!!” “Wait, Pinkie Pie? Who’s that?” Brick asked. Only for the Pink earth pony to show up right behind him. “Right here, silly!” Pinkie said to her as Brick realized that the Pony was right behind him. “Woah!” Brick then took a double take of where Pinkie was and where she is now. “How, what… know what, I’m not going to ask.” He then chuckles a little “Kinda reminds me of Tina in a way.” “Oooh!? Who are these guys? New friends? Companions? Playable characters in the first game?” Pinkie asked before rushing over to Tina. “Ooh! I got an idea!! Let’s equip one of these with a party cannon! It’ll be the party-mobile!!!” “Uh… Pinkie?” Sweetie Belle asked. “These are our carts for the race tomorrow?” “Race!? You mean like in Mareo Kart?!” “…… Not exactly.” Scootaloo replied. “For one thing, the rules state that we can’t have any weapons on there or anything that could cause harm to somepony like explosives-.” “THAT’S BULLSH*T!!!” “Thank you for your input, Mr. Torgue… … So basically, we’re just trying to make sure it looks good and wins the race-.” “Oooh! Ooh! I got a TON of unused decorations that we can use!!” Pinkie Spoke, before dashing off like a hummingbird and returning with a huge pile of decorations and other important parts. “…… Is it just me or am I thinking that Pinkie and Tina are a lot similar than you think?” Mordecai then asked as he was trying to watch what was happening… without being totally confused in the process. “You’re not the only one.” Brick said to him. “Thanks for the help now, big sis!” Tina replied, hugging Pinkie in the process as the earth pony giggled. “Oh hush you… anything for my super duper best party partner EVER!!!” The earth pony replied. “Oh! I almost forgot!! I still need to set up a party for your friends!!!” She replied before dashing off in a hurry. “Oh boy… That’s going to be awkward.” Spike sighed, catching Gaige’s attention. “Why’s that?” she asked. “Pinkie throws a party for every new pony that comes to Ponyville. And given the fact that there’s… now ten of you…” He counted using his claws. “I’m going to guess that you’re going to be caught off guard the second you head back to Twilight’s Castle.” “And it’s not even MY BIRTHDAY!!” Tina added on, causing Gaige to sigh as Salvador soon went to one of the carts and tore off the machine gun that was on there before tearing it apart with his bare hands. “Wanna join in on the fun, Amigo!?” Salvador asked Brick as he motioned his head to the other mounted guns that needed to be torn off and broken into pieces. “You know it!” Brick then joined Salvador in ripping off the turrets as they broke it down into pieces as they watched the Berserker and the Gunzerker get to work on dismantling everything. The sounds of the noise caught some attention though as they heard somepony else trotting towards them. “Gaige, why is it that I hear Axton swearing up a storm in the Everfree-?” That somepony turned out to be Maya… with Twilight alongside her as she laid eyes on Lilith and the others. “Okay, just what the actual fu-!?” “Let me guess…… Discord?” “What was your first clue?” Gaige replied, all while Discord tried to prove his innocence by have a makeshift halo appear over his head. “Wait, Maya? Is that you?” Brick asked as he looked upon the siren. “Yeah, who else did you expect?” Maya replied, before lifting up her foreleg that had her tattoos on it and sighed. “My tattoo’s obviously give it away.” “She makes a point, Brick.” Lilith added on as both Sirens looked back at him. “I just thought she would look a little different, that's all.” Maya rolled her eyes and facehooved herself in the process. Yet the only pony that was still confused right now was Twilight. “Hold on a second… Maya, Gaige, you know these… people?” “Yeah we do,” Gaige explained. “It’s a lot to explain, but they were some of the original vault hunters that opened the first vault on Pandora five years ago. Normally, they would be turned into ponies, but it seems like Discord found a work around so we can use our actual bodies.” Before Maya could ask, she caught the ring that Lilith tossed in her direction and then placed it on as she turned back into her normal bipedal form. “Alright… Phew, I was wondering when I would be able to walk on two legs again.” She sighed as she looked back at Gaige, who still had not put her band on yet. “Why haven’t you put yours on Gaige?” “Well, I wanted to go back to Twilight’s castle first before I try it on. Even though most of my body is turned into a equestrian like form, my metal arm is still the same. Besides, who else is going to tell Zer0 and Krieg?” “That… is a very valid point.” Maya replied. “Hey, should one of us go check on Axton and see if he’s okay?” “Ehh, he’ll come back eventually. I think right now he just needs to blow off some steam.” The Mechromancer replied as he looked back at Salvador and Brick… who were on top of a pile of broken down parts and scrap metal. “Besides… we got some cleaning up to do first.” Axton was currently walking through the forest, just heading off in a random direction as he reloads his shotgun. “Ahh, now that is what I call a fun time.” he then looks behind himself and sees all the carnage that he himself had caused, along with his turrets. The multiple bodies of not only Timberwolves, but Manticores as well. “Time to see-” suddenly the ground starts shaking and he looks around, trying to find out where it is coming from. Then to the left, he saw three head pop out, and they are all connected to one body. He then smirked. “Well the bigger the are, the harder they fall.” He then swapped out his shotgun for a rocket launcher, The Mongol, and fired away. He fired all three rockets and a cloud of smoke covers the Hydra… only for it to appear with minor scratches on itself and for the heads that he did blast off to have two more grow back in it’s place. It was looking directly at Axton… and it was pissed. “... F*ck this Sh*t, I’M OUT!!!” Axton then turned around and ran as fast as he can away from the beast. After a few minutes of running he found himself heading towards a castle and ducked behind some rocks. He heard the Hydra hiss in anger and the sound of its feet getting distant. He hesitantly looked out from cover and sees it moving away from him. “Phew, that would’ve been more trouble than it was worth. Now though, where is this place?” He then looked at the castle and the surrounding area, only to notice a slight glow coming from a cave down below in a cave. “Hmmm, what’s this about?” He then goes over and sees steps leading down towards said cave, and follows them down. After he makes his way down to the cave he sees a  purple crystal tree and the glow from it has gotten  a little brighter. He then whistles in appreciation “Woah, I wonder where this came from?” Then he looks beyond the tree as he notices something else in there. “Hello, what have we here?”