//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The Stranger With a Big Iron on Her Hip // by Omega_code //------------------------------// This is where would I normally thank ProtheanBrony for proofreading, but sadly he couldn't do it due to massive backlog of work of his. So does anyone else want to volunteer to be my back up proofreader? Anyway I did my best at editing this and as always if there is any grammar errors please point them out (if you want to that is). Enjoy :) _____________________________________________________________________ Applejack, Braeburn, and Strongheart wasn’t ready for what they saw when they reach the topside of the cliff. They saw the creature standing holding up some long black object. Next to her was the body of four griffons, and each of their heads were burst open. They all looked up in the sky to see two griffons flying towards the clouds. Sudden there was a loud bang of a small thunderclap and one of the griffons exploded in two. Horrified of what they saw, Applejack nearly vomited and Braeburn face turn white. Strongheart on the other hoof was extremely ticked off. “Murderer,” she shouted. The creature took its head away from the black object and faced them. “Not again,” it said in the language they couldn’t understand. The two of them looked at each other in silence. Soon the creature turned its head looking for something and that is when Strongheart made her move. “Strongheart, NO,” Braeburn shouted out in vain. ************************* Scarlet just stared at her unexpected visitors. Well this is great…for all that I know I just killed some of their friends. However…Stromwing does have that necklace that allowed me and him understand each other. I wonder if it will work for me? Scarlet looked away and looked for Stromwing corpse. Then she heard one of the animals shouted, “Strongheart, NO!” As Scarlet looked up she saw the Bighorn calf leapt up in the air, and planted its back hoofs on her chest. Scarlet stumbled back a few feet, but she quickly caught herself and got into one of her fighting stances. Normally when someone attack her, that gave her enough reason to kill, like with the Stormwing, but somewhere in Scarlet’s mind, it told her no killing. The Bighorn calf landed a few feet from Scarlet and was about to charged at her again, but Scarlet lowered her rifle and fired. *********************** The ground in front of Strongheart exploded as small thunder clap was emitted. Dirt and gravel flew up in the air, some hitting Strongheart’s face. She looked up and saw the creature pulled some sort of leaver on the black object, ejecting a small metal object, and pushed the leaver back to its original position. Then the creature pointed the black object at Strongheart, and gave her a looked saying “move and you die.” The creature then turned its head back to the ground, but kept the black object train on Strongheart. It then moved towards the black griffon’s corpse and reached down and pick up a necklace. The creature study the necklace for a while then put it around its neck. It then faced Strongheart. “So…can you understand me now,” it…no, she said in a language they could now understand. Strongheart lost it again and yelled, “Murderer!” The woman raised an eyebrow, “I will take that as a yes.” “Is that all you have to say, you murderer five griffons. Don’t you feel any remorse?” “I called it more of self-defense; after all, they did try to poison me and bound me up like a slave. Now,” she sifted the black object closer to her shoulder and moved her free hand under it, “were they friends of yours?” “No,” Braeburn quickly answered, “we never seen them before. I‘m sorry for what these griffons tried to do your, but how about we all just clam down and talk about what’s going on.” He gave a nervous friendly smile at the woman, hoping that she would accept. The female glance at Braeburn for a while, then she looked back at Strongheart and said, “As long as ya’ll stay near the ridge and don’t try to attack me again, we can talk.” Strongheart glare at the woman, then she reluctantly moved back to Braeburn and Applejack. “Now,” Braeburn spoke, “my name is Braeburn, this here is my cousin Applejack and this is our friend Little Strongheart.” He pointed a hoof indicating Applejack and Strongheart, “Might I ask what your name is?” The female thought for a while, thinking if she really wanted to give out her name, then she lowered the black object and said, “Lot of people simply know me as the Courier…but you may call me Scarlet.” ************************* With the pled of Braeburn to move somewhere out of the view of the dead griffons, Scarlet set her rifle leaning against the nearest rock and asked the first question, “So…where exactly am I?” Braeburn seemed confused but answered, “You’re in the land of Equestria near the town of Appleloosa.” Equestria? If my Latin is correct, that means Land of horses…kind fits them I guess. “I'm guessing ya'll are wondering where I come from. To put it in simple terms, I’m from another world and was apparently brought by some sort of energy experiment from your world.” “How do you know that,” Applejack asked. “Those griffons told me their master was working on a “spell” and it somehow leak to my world. There was an energy phenomena at the moment that I was getting ready to teleport. I was caught up in it and now I am here.” Scarlet waved her arms outward emphasizing the point. “Now why did they tell you that?” “It seemed their master wants me for some reason and they were sent to get me. After their first plan failed, they attack me and I have to defend myself.” Scarlet reached into her bag and pulled out her Vault 13 canteen and took a sip from it. “Some defense,” Strongheart said in a harsh tone. Scarlet put the canteen back in her bag saying, “Look, I don’t know anything about how y'all protect yourself out here, but where I come from, when someone attacked me, I have the right to defend myself by any means necessary. Especially since they tried to knock me out with poison, so that they could bound me up like some sort of slave.” She looked at Strongheart, “Also, I made a promise that the next time someone tries to turn me into any sort of slave, I would put a bullet in their head. I will never again let someone have any sort of control over me.” “What happen to you,” Applejack dared to ask. Scarlet let out a small chuckle, “Let just say I went into an area I wasn’t ready for and a man took advantaged over that. He then used me and three others to do his dirty work, threatening all of us we’ll die if we didn’t cooperated with him or each other. However, he slipped up near the end of his plan and I was able to smear his head against the nearest wall.” Applejack was horrified of how much violence Scarlet had, “Haven’t you ever tried to solve your problems by simply talking to them instead of fighting?" This time Scarlet laughed out loud, bellowing to her knees. “Talk as in negotiating?” She continued on laughing for some time causing her three guests to look at her in a peculiarly way. Scarlet finally clam down from her laughter then said, “I rarely let my mouth win my battles, but, trying to solve my problems through negotiations does sometimes work, if you have the right set up that is. Otherwise, you better be good with a weapon.” Scarlet then looked at Applejack. “So, why did you try to attack me in the field.” “To be honest it was for eating that apple,” Applejack answer. She then asked, “I could ask the same of you for not killing me like you did with those griffons.” “That because you had every right to attack me. Clean food and water are hard to come by sometimes in the Wasteland and stealing them tends to make a people turn violent against you. That’s why I only stunned you with the Pulse gun and not put a 9mm round in your head.” “Your logic of killing is very flimsy,” Strongheart said. “Hey, it kept me alive so far and people are still happy. So don’t fix what ain’t broke.” Scarlet stretched out the crane in her neck, “Also, before I forget, it’s not a good idea to grow plants with irradiated water; they tend to die off later on. I’m surprised they lasted this long to fully grow and produce edible fruit, well…almost edible.” Scarlet took notice of the strange looks Braeburn, Applejack and Strongheart were giving her. “What?” “What do you mean by irradiated water,” they all ask simultaneously. ******************* The griffon flew high in the sky, following up the river as fast as he could. After seeing what happen to his fellow brethrens, it was up to him to relay the news of their failure, and beg for a second chance. Shortly he reached the huge rock formation near the river and he dived towards it. Soon he landed in front of a cave and was greeted by its guardian. “Galewing…where is the rest of our brethrens,” the minotaur asked in a low voice. “Dead…the human didn’t fall under the poison we were given. I was able to get away before it could get me.” “Then clearly you didn’t used the poison right,” a male voice spoke out. An equine covered in a clock walked out of the cave’s shadow. The minotaur did a slight bow to the equine. “The poison I gave you could take down two charging minotaurs.” “We did exactly what you said Listener. The dart pierced its skin, but the human didn’t fall. It quickly killed Stromwing and the others with it strange guns.” The griffon bowed its face to the ground, “I’m sorry for our failure, but give me more griffons along with some weapons, and I can avenge our fallen brethens.” “And why should I do that you imbecilic,” the Listener shouted. “You should have died along with your brethens in trying to capture the human. I should…” He stopped and looked up as if someone was talking to him. The Listener looked back at Galewing and smiled, “It seemed our master have a few words to speak to you Galewing.” Galewing looked up in horror, and his pupils dilated into small orbs. He let out a scream of horrifying pain as he grasp his head with his talons and curl up on the ground, trying to block out someone's voice. Soon he stopped scream and was lying still on the ground. He was frozen in an unending terror. “Take him to the pit, he usefulness has come to an end,” the Listener told the minotaur. The minotaur did another bow of the head and moved to the griffon. He picked up Galewing and headed back towards the cave while the Listener still stood outside. “It seemed we will have to find some other way to bring this human to us.” _____________________________________________________________________ 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.