//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 // Story: The Stranger With a Big Iron on Her Hip // by Omega_code //------------------------------// Thanks to PiquoPie for proofreading. _____________________________________________________________________ Strongheart walked through the San Palomino desert. Yesterday was a strange day for her; another member of her tribe came to get her on orders from Chief Thunderhooves. She didn’t learn why until she got back; the whole tribe was moving. Strongheart was surprised by this. Her tribe occasion does move when they needed to find more food, but their food reserves were still good. Strongheart went up to Chief Thunderhooves and asked why they were moving. He simply replied that it was for the good of the tribe. So for the rest of the day she had to help the tribe move. The place they were moving to was a canyon that had many systems of caves. After they finally moved in Strongheart asked if she could head back to Appleloosa, but was denied. However, Strongheart didn’t want to leave her two friends alone with Scarlet, even if their princess was already there. So later during the night, she snuck out and headed for Appleloosa. It was now morning and she was half-way there. “Hello Strongheart, shouldn’t you be with your tribe at their new location?” Alpha’s voice spoke from behind her. Strongheart looked behind to see the gray pegasus standing behind her “Alpha?” “That’s my name.” “What are you doing this far from Appleloosa and how did you know about my tribe moving?” “Well first, Appleloosa isn’t my home and second I was the one who made your chief move your tribe.” “What!?” “Yes, it took a lot longer than I thought to plant that thought into his head, but I didn’t want to risk damaging his brain. I was hoping for you to stay with your tribe, but I guess I could use your help.” “What did you do to Chief Thunderhooves?” “I just used my gift to plant a simple thought of moving your tribe away from Appleloosa for a few days.” “Why?” “To protect them from the growing danger that is coming Strongheart, I didn’t want your tribe to enter a battle that could destroyed them.” “Danger? What danger.” Alpha remained silent then asked something out of the blue. “Are you brave Strongheart?” Annoyed she answered. “If it means the protection of my tribe, yes I can be brave.” “Then I need your help Strongheart. I need your help to rescue Scarlet.” ********************* “How could you still defend her Applejack? After all we’ve seen?” Twilight asked after Applejack and Braeburn gave them a brief run through of the first day with Scarlet. “She is just as dangerous now as she was when she killed those griffons.” “Twi, she was just defending herself from those griffons.” “But what about the group we saw her kill? She was the one who attacked first and they were the ones who were defending themselves.” “Well, remember what Scarlet told us about them.” Braeburn counter. “Yeah Twilight,” Rainbow Dash chimed in. “If they were as bad as Scarlet described them then they needed to be stopped.” “That may be true, but that didn’t stop us from killing the Changelings when they invaded.” “Yeah, but we had magic to defend ourselves Twi. Scarlet told us that her world doesn’t have any. That was probably the only way she could’ve stopped them from doing any more harm to other humans.” Twilight was about to say something else, but the sound of clopping hooves silence them all. Celestia walked into view, looking a bit disappointed. “Where’s Scarlet?” Applejack asked. “She left and went back to her campsite,” Celestia replied. “Though I wish she didn’t, but after what happen, we all need to calm down and give each other some space.” Twilight was about to say something but Celestia cut her off. “My dearest student, I know that you don’t trust her, but we all need to try to forget what we saw.” Twilight was surprised by this. “How! It’s pretty hard to forget something like that!” “It’s quite simple. Just push it deep into your mind and never speak of it again. It also helps to know that Scarlet’s world is not as peaceful as Equestria is Twilight. It’s a very desperate place, full of chaos and violence. People like Scarlet are some of the very few who helps keep the peace, even though it is accomplished in a matter that is very different than our ways.” “But Princess...,” “Twilight, I know you’re scared and you have the right to be. However, I trust Scarlet enough to know that she isn’t the monster Cadbury is trying to make us believe. Like I said, we need to give each other some space and cool down. Then later we can visit Scarlet and sort this issue out.” Twilight closed her mouth, and nodded her head. Celestia looked over at Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash who also nodded their heads. She then looked over to Applejack and Braeburn, who seemed quite relived that she was able to calm her friends down. However a frown grew on Celestia face as she looked over the whole room and noticed somepony was missing. “Where is Rarity?” *********************** Scarlet was sitting on the edge of a cliff not far from her camp. After putting her things away she pulled a harmonica out of her bag. She started to play some random tune she knew on it to help herself calm down. Normally she would’ve just wander out into the Wasteland and kill anyone or anything that decided to attack her to calm down. However there was a lack of "bad guys" running rampant around, so she had turned to a hobby of hers. She slurred the last of the notes together and pulled the harmonica away from her face and let out a long tired sigh. "That could've gone a lot better," she said, referring to what happen with argument with the ponies. Of course I doubt there was anything I could’ve say to make it go any better. She lowered her head. Things were a lot simpler in my life when I was just a courier. I just deliver packages, defend myself from the wild life, and visited the famous sights of the wastes. But no, you had to show up, you goodie two shoe Arroyo tribal boy. You just had to travel with me, telling me about your tribal leader and her ‘epic’ adventure out in the Wasteland. Then you convince me to make a town in the middle of the most dangerous place in the wasteland with that whimsical charm of yours. And of course, you always made me smile in some way or another. She let out a heartbroken sigh; pushing the rigorous memories back deep into her mind before they got out of control. However she said one final thing on her mind. "I wish you were still here Jason." The snap of a twig brought Scarlet out of her train of thought and she went into her defensive mode. She pulled out Lucky and aimed it towards the location where the sound was emitted. A young unicorn pony was standing there and was now eying the end of Lucky's barrel. Scarlet could recognize that it was the young pony from her first day here. The pony who could see her, even when she was invisible. The pony had some sort of brace that was holding a camera and it was now nervously looking at Scarlet. Scarlet let out an annoyed sigh and put Lucky away back in its holster. Scarlet then turned her head looking back over the cliff side. A shaky female voice spoke out. "I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you, it's just I want to take a picture of you so my mother won't think I'm crazy." "Look kid, I have no idea what you are saying, so take your picture and leave." Yes Scarlet didn't understand a single word of what the young filly said, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that filly + camera = wanted picture of Scarlet. The young filly tilted her head sideways. "Huh?" Scarlet didn't reply, only continuing to look out over the cliff. The filly slowly brought the camera up to one of her eyes and took a shot. There was a small bright flash. Scarlet continued to look out into the horizon, oblivious to the young filly’s work. The filly winded up for another shot and took it, which was shortly followed by another. Gee, how many is she going to take, Scarlet thought. "I believed she was going to waste the whole film on you," a male voice answered. "Shame though; there are far better things to be captured on camera than you." Scarlet’s eyes narrowed when she heard the voice. She pulled out Lucky again and aimed it at Cadbury's face. Cadbury had a vicious smiled on his face as he held the young filly's neck with his hoof around it. "Let her go," Scarlet demand. "Or you’ll do what, shoot me? Yes, you might be able to hit me; however,” his hoof glowed green and Maria floated up in the air and he aimed it at the young pony’s head. “...I have a feeling you won’t take that chance.” His smile grew bigger as he pulled the top part of Maria back, arming the gun. “Now how about you toss your weapon away before you have another child’s death weigh heavily on your mind.” _____________________________________________________________________ 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.