Chapter 7
Twilight spent the last few hours of the ride locked alone in her compartment with Rainbow Dash. Legion had since left, returning to his compartment near the rear of the train. Twilight hadn’t let Rainbow Dash go since Legion had threatened her life.
‘You shouldn’t have given in to him’, Rainbow Dash said.
‘He was going to kill you Rainbow Dash, it wouldn’t have been the first time he tried’, Twilight said as she squeezed Rainbow Dash tightly. ‘I can’t lose you, not again’.
Rainbow Dash turned her head upward towards Twilight, giving her a smile. ‘Hey, you don’t need to worry about that, I’ve taken precautions’.
‘You have?’ Twilight asked.
‘Yep, Fluttershy isn’t allowed to have sharp objects anymore’, Rainbow Dash said with a grin. ‘She was fine with that, because she doesn’t really like sharp things anyway’.
Twilight couldn’t help but smile at Rainbow Dash’s joke; she planted a small kiss on Rainbow Dash’s cheek, before being jolted around by the train hitting the breaks. They were at their destination. Twilight looked up and out of the window. The lightning storm surrounding the Vermillion Mesa was much bigger looking here than it had been on their approach.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash rose to their hooves, exiting the compartment to find that their friends, along with Carrot Top and Caramel were already out in the hallway.
‘Follow my lead when we get out there, I’m the most senior Saracen that we’ve got with us’, Carrot Top said.
‘I’ve been meaning to ask’, Vinyl said. ‘What’s this about being called Saracen? I thought you blue robed ones were called scribes?’
‘That’s Fillydelphia’, Carrot Top said coldly. ‘Fillydelphia only, I wouldn’t recommend using that word around here, not unless you want to get smacked around and thrown out. There’s bad blood between Fillydelphia and the rest of the Cultus Mechanius’.
‘What happened?’ Twilight asked.
‘I don’t know all the details, suffice it to say, their chapter master died. Archimedes took over; most ponies don’t recognise him as a legitimate authority, because he was one of their scribes, while the new leader should have been their head paladin’.
‘Why are the names of their orders different?’ Vinyl asked.
‘Something about the Fillydelphia chapter having more of a public presence, Scribe, Knight, and Paladin sound a little less... abrasive than Saracen, Hospitaller, and Templar’, Carrot Top said. ‘I really don’t know all that much, you should really ask somepony else these questions’.
‘I think we will’, Vinyl said.
The group began to depart off the train, joining the Cutie Mark Crusaders as they climbed out of the engine. Twilight looked around, despite everyone funnelling out of the train; she did not see Legion anywhere. Though she wasn’t sure if she liked that or not.
Carrot Top walked over towards two Templar guards at the front gate of a settlement. ‘Sister Saracen Carrot Top, Manehattan Chapter, along with the refugee’s of Ponyville’, Carrot Top said.
‘Ponyville?’ One of the Templars said. ‘What happened?’
‘Fillydelphia happened’, Carrot Top said simply.
‘I see... welcome to Dustbowl!’ the Templar called over to the refugees.
‘Dustbowl?’ Twilight asked. ‘I thought this was Vermillion Mesa?’
‘Dustbowl is the name of the settlement’, Carrot Top said.
‘But... it’s a mesa’, Twilight protested.
‘We didn’t name it’, the two templar guards said in unison, and with that, Twilight dropped the subject. The group wandered into Dustbowl and they couldn’t help but gaping in awe at what they saw. The buildings were all made of concrete, each of them seemingly constructed as bunkers, despite the signs out in front of it declaring the use of each building. Tailor, maintenance, bar, et cetra.
‘Hey Carrot Top?’ Vinyl Scratch called to her. ‘We allowed to do some wandering around here?’
‘I wouldn’t recommend doing much wandering’, Carrot Top said. ‘Stick to the settlement’s public areas, anything that’s not labelled is likely somepony’s home, and don’t poke around anywhere with armed guards. I have to go give a report on the loss of FutureTec headquarters, please stay out of trouble’, Carrot Top added as she motioned to Caramel to follow.
Vinyl Scratch waited until they were out of sight before turning to the rest of the group. ‘Does she know who we are? We don’t go looking for trouble, trouble finds us!’
‘Might as well hang around the bar’, Rarity said. ‘It’s public, and it’ll give us a chance to have a decent meal’.
‘Works for me’, Vinyl said with a shrug as she led the way into the bar. She heard music coming from inside, a song.
‘That's life, that's what people say. You're riding high in April, Shot down in May. But I know I'm gonna change their tune, When I'm right back on top in June’.
Vinyl Scratch recognised this song. This was one of the songs she had sung on that street corner in Manehattan for money as a filly. As Vinyl walked in she noticed that the bar had a stage, and that there was somepony performing on it.
The pony on stage was a brown coated earth pony stallion, wearing a suit and wearing dark sunglasses.
‘That's life, funny as it seems. Some people get their kicks, Steppin' on dreams But I just can't let it get me down, Cause this big old world keeps spinnin' around’.
Vinyl Scratch’s anger surged, and before anyone knew it she was storming off heading for the stage. The pony on it seemed to take notice of her, as he stopped singing.
‘I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,... aw fuck’, Pips Domino said as Vinyl Scratch leapt up on stage, her saddle bags flashing open and in under a second, her revolver was out and pressed against the lounge singer’s forehead. ‘Heh... hello there... Vinyl Scratch’, Pips Domino added nervously.
‘Give me a good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now?’ Vinyl Scratch asked, her voice seething in anger.
‘Well... actually, I’ve got about twenty... twenty very good reasons’, Pips Domino said earlier. ‘And they’re all right behind you, and they look pretty upset’.
Vinyl Scratch raised an eyebrow and glanced backwards, only to discover that twenty or so of the Cultus Mechanius ponies in the bar were all looking right at her, pointing a wide variety of Nephite designed weapons at her. ‘Oh... hi everypony!’ Vinyl Scratch said with a nervous chuckle. ‘This is all just a terrible misunderstanding... I’m just going to put my gun away... and maybe we can all pretend this never happened?’ Vinyl said as she slipped her revolver back into her saddlebags.
‘That seems fair, I don’t want to have to file a incident report’, said a light brown unicorn with a straw yellow mane clad in Saracen robes, clearly she was the most senior of the group, as she motioned to everypony, and they all put their weapons away.
‘Well I’m glad that cooler heads prevailed...’ Pips Domino said with a grin.
‘Oh no, you are NOT off the hook! Not after what you did!’ Vinyl said, as she grabbed his collar with magic and dragged him off the stage and back towards her group. ‘You can start by answering some questions, what are you doing here?’ Vinyl asked as she plopped Pips Domino down in a chair.
‘I... uh...’ Pips Domino said with a nervous chuckle. ‘Well, after parting ways with Pinkie Pie in the desert... oh, and hello Pinkie Pie!’ he said.
‘Hi Pips! Nice to see you again!’ Pinkie Pie said with a sincere smile.
‘Likewise... anyway, after parting ways with Pinkie Pie in the mohoofie desert, I made my way to Appleoosa, didn’t stick around long, decided that I needed to find some old friends of mine... Haven’t had much luck, didn’t exactly know where to start looking, and eventually came here... didn’t find the one I was looking for specifically... did find another one, but she didn’t remember me, had planned to move on soon, but... ah, seems that somepony threw a spanner in that plan’, Pips added with a grin.
Surprise then poked her head in, examining the lounge singer. Pips Domino looked back at her and gasped loudly, falling of his chair and scurrying back along the floor. ‘No! No no no! Not you! Please! No! Anypony but you!’
Vinyl Scratch turned and looked at Surprise in confusion. ‘Surprise? Do you know him?’
Surprise looked at Pips Domino for a second. ‘Yeah! I think I do! Back when I was in the master’s service... he wanted me to keep an eye on him and his friends! Thought... I don’t think I ever actually learned any of their names’.
‘You made us set a building on fire, you monster!’ Pips Domino shouted at her.
Surprise looked down at the floor glumly. ‘Oh yeah... I remember that now...’ she said sadly.
‘Is there a problem over here?’ said a mare’s voice from behind them. Vinyl Scratch turned back around to discover the same blonde unicorn mare from before. ‘You know you’re making it really, really hard to forget that little incident from earlier’, she added.
‘Glass Bauble!’ Pips Domino cried out. ‘Oh thank goodness!’
‘Do I know you?’ the mare asked as she looked down at Pips Domino. Pips didn’t reply, instead, just mumbled something quietly.
‘In any case...’ the mare, now identified as Glass Bauble, said. ‘I’ve been instructed to bring you to Order Master Darius. Congratulations are in order Outsiders, Darius never wants to talk to anybody unless their important’.
Vinyl Scratch looked back at Pips Domino. ‘This isn’t over’.
Glass Bauble waved the group along. Surprise hung back continuing to stare at Pips Domino, she made a silly face towards him, causing the performer to flinch, and with that, she made her way to catch up with the rest of the group.