Thanks to ProtheanBrony for proofreading.
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Celestia took another sip of her specially brewed tea. The recipe of the tea was given to her by an ambassador from the Zebra nation. The tea was supposed to renew the body’s energy and calm the nerves, something Celestia thought Scarlet needed (mostly for the calming down part). Braeburn and Applejack were playing a new card game that grew popular in Appleloosa and Dodge City, and Scarlet was still in the bathroom washing up. I wonder what’s taking her so long. Celestia quietly thought to herself. The bathroom door sudden slammed open with Scarlet storming out, wearing a light blue sleeveless version of a duster she wore before and she looked quite upset.
Scarlet walked up to Celestia and spoke in hard tone. “I think it’s time for you to finally explain whom I’m facing. For when I took a small nap a male pony decided to visit me in my dreams and left a death threat for you.”
Celestia face dropped in horror and her tea cup slightly quivered in the air. She gave a small fake smile. “Are you sure it wasn’t just a bad dream? Yo….” Scarlet stopped her by clapping her hand over Celestia’s muzzle.
“Don’t you dare play that game with me. You know something and I’m getting pretty tired of your constant avoidance of acknowledging it. Now you either tell me what’s going on or something bad will happen.” Scarlet let go of Celestia muzzle and waited for a response.
Celestia could see that Applejack and Braeburn were looking at them, their mouths open in shock and horror to what Scarlet just did to her. Normally nopony would ever stop her from talking or even touch her, for they feared what she would do to them (not like that would ever happen). Of course Scarlet wasn’t a pony and this was probably not the first time she faced down a powerful being before. Celestia let out a small sigh. “You’re right. I think it’s time for this tale to be finally told.” She settled down her tea cup on top of the table. “Make yourselves comfortable for it is a long tale.”
“First off his name is Cadbury. He was one of my chief advisers, since he was a descendent of Chancellor Pudding Head. He was a strong speaker and very trustworthy among the ponies, especially among the earth ponies. He was kind, caring, compassionate and most of all a close friend. However an event happened to a pony colony that caused enough tension for him to dramatically change.”
“There was an earth pony colony set up in a place called the Pleasant Lands. They were doing well considering they were far from Canterlot and transportation wasn't as good as it is now. One day I received a letter from the mayor of the town saying they wanted to be independent from Equestria. Now this wasn’t the first time some pony colony wanted do something like this, but I had to consort with my court first before making the final decision.”
“To my surprised my whole court said we should grant their request of becoming a new nation, expect for Cadbury. He protested that if withdrew our support that the colony would be vulnerable to attack, and it wouldn’t have enough supplies to sustain itself. He said we should try to make them reconsider their thought of action.”
“However, the unicorn repersentive Lord Blueblood (the first, Prince Blueblood is the third pony with that name) argued that we shouldn’t do what Cadbury was requesting for several reasons. That the colony was very unlikely to be attacked since it was surrounded by the Macintosh Hills. Cadbury was wrong about the town supporting itself since for five months they never asked for a supply run. It was also costing a lot of bits of keeping it in the Equestrian kingdom. And with that Lord Blueblood turned the court to his favor and the majority voted to accept the colony's request to be independent.”
“Later after the court, Cadbury asked if he could travel to colony in the Pleasant Land and see if he could change the pony’s minds about leaving. I said he could and he left saying he’ll be back in a month or so. Soon three months passed, and I was starting to get worried since I haven’t received any word from him. So I headed over to the Pleasant Land with some of my personal guards, to see what was going on. However, I was not ready for what we found.”
“The land was dying; trees were wilting, grass shriveled up, and dead animals were scattered across the ground, and that was only at the edge of the Pleasant Land. There was green haze blanking the land and it had a sense of magic to it, but it felt wrong and it was spreading out. I used my magic and created a protection ward on the edge of Macintosh Hills to stop whatever was spreading. Some of my guards wanted to enter the town and rescue any survivors. I stopped them, telling them that anypony would be long dead by now since I could tell that this haze has been here for some time. I ordered that nopony will ever enter the Pleasant Land again and I renamed Pleasant Land into the Badlands.”
“A year passed, and everything was acting as normal as ever. However one day I received a letter from Lord Blueblood saying to meet him in his office. He didn’t say why but I had a feeling it was for some small petty reason. As I headed to his room I noticed something was off. There was a lack of guards patrolling the hallways and a strange magical aura in the air. I open Blueblood’s door and my heart nearly stopped.”
“The room was turned inside out as if a small battle took place. Blood was spattered across the walls and Lord Blueblood was lying dead on the floor. But standing at the end of the room looking out the window were two of my guards and Cadbury. Cadbury looked over at me and smiled and greeted me as if nothing was wrong. I asked what he did and he answered he was getting rid of traitor and a murderer. He then said I was next for condemning ponies to die.”
“He then attacked me, not with hooves or blade, but with magic. Now as you all should know that every living being in our world has some access to its magic and used it their special, unique way. Now earth ponies are able to connect with the land like no other, but Cadbury was using magic like a unicorn could, in a corrupt way. We fought, and with each strike I received I was growing weaker. So in final round of our fight I used a banishing spell that would send him to the deepest cell of Tartarus. I cast the spell with all of the energy that I had left and was able to banish him, not without an unexpected side effect.”
“The effect of my magic against Cadbury’s corrupt magic seemed to create dimension riff and I was pulled in while Cadbury was sent to Tartarus. I passed out when casting the spell and I woke up in the middle of the Wasteland. And for about a week I traveled through the Wasteland, recovering and trying to find a way back. That however is a tale for another time.”
Everyone remain quite for some time, going through the info they were given. “Should’ve killed him,” Scarlet finally stated as got up from the floor. “Now he’s back to finish the job.”
“But how did he get out of Tartarus or even still alive after 300 years?” Braeburn question.
“I don’t know. The warden never reported that there was a missing prisoner, nor do I know how he could live that long.”
Scarlet let out a small laugh of disbelief. “That’s easy, Cadbury is a ghoul.” Everypony looked at Scarlet confused of what she mean, even Celestia. “Really?” Scarlet looked at Celestia. “You’ve been in my world for a week and you don’t know what a ghoul is?”
“Please, enlighten us,” Celestia asked.
“Basically a ghoul is a person who took an amount of radiation that could kill them ten times over and survived.”
“And this explains why Cadbury is over 300 years how?” Applejack asked.
“Because I haven’t met a ghoul who has died yet of growing old since the Great War, which was about 200 years ago.”
“So you’re saying a ghoul is immortal?”
“No, they just can live a very long time. You can still kill them like any other living being out in the wastes. Besides it’s not a pleasant way to live an immortal life. Your skin flakes off as if it was rotting and many others changes happen to make you look like a walking corpse.”
“But why does he need you?”
Scarlet shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t know. I was hoping Celestia would know the answer.”
Celestia shook her head. “I have no idea why he would’ve brought you here. But the way he brought you here is more of a concern to worry about.”
“Why? You’re afraid that he’ll bring more of my race to upset the ‘peace’ of this world?”
“No, the only know way Cadbury could ever open a portal in your world is with a high combination of natural magic with corrupt magic. And since unicorns are the only ones who have use of high concentrations of natural magic it means he has some unicorns as prisoners.”
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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.