Equestria's Borderlands

by lightningst0rm

Prepare for a Surprise

Accessing memory core. Playing recording 523-B

"Gallant, are you sure this was the right thing to do?"

"It may not seem like it, but it will work out."

"Okay but did he really have to fall off the wall?"

"I made sure he survived, although I didn't expect a bunyip."

"Yes, I was surprised to learn the Zecora tribe has learned to train them."

"What should I do about the mare, the one that found him?"

"Leave her. He'll need allies if he wishes to complete his quest."

"Is there anything else you want me to do my liege?"

"Yes, I think I forgot to turn off the camera. It just recorded our conversation."

"As you wish Princess Sparkle. HeeeAAAGH!"

KRRZZZRCHT

ERROR! Recording has been damaged, and cannot be viewed past this point. Powering down.

---

Chris

Damn! Who would'a thought that those Chu Chu fruit could have healed me that fast? I woke up this morning and my wounds were just scars now. Strangely, my wings also feel different, like, they feel... heavier. Oh well. I stood up cracked my back, not surprised by how stiff it was. Scarlet was asleep next to the bed I had slept in. She looked flat out adorable, but I decided not to wake her and instead decided to see if I could find the village elder. I pushed the hut's clothe flap aside and was greeted by the bunyip I had fought when I first fell off the wall. I could tell because it had a scar on its head. I wanted to walk back into the hut, but to my relief it simply turned and walked toward what I assumed to be a feeding pen, seeing as there were more of the creatures crowding around a large trough. I turned to walk the other way and almost walked straight into the village elder. I didn't get a good look at him before, but now I could see he had a faded brown mane and a golden, yellow coat. Sitting on his nose were an ancient looking pair of glasses with a crack going through the right lens. That didn't seem like a problem since there was a nasty scar going over his right eye. I wonder what could have left that.

"Good morning," he greeted with a smile, "I can see Scarlet's medicine worked wonders."

"Yeah, I can't believe it. I kinda wish I had whatever she used back when I started out as a knight. Could'a saved me a few hundred bits on medical bills."

"You get hurt a lot do you?"

"No, it was during a mission, one I really don't like to talk about."

"Don't worry son, we all have memories we're not proud of."

He stopped and seemed to space out for a second. There was a look of sadness in his eye. I wonder what it was that he regretted. He shook his head and then smiled again.

"So Chris, now that your wounds have healed, I think it's time I tell you about what you're up against."

"Wait, you mean the bandits?"

"We shouldn't talk about them out here. Come to my hut and I'll tell you all that I know."

He led me to a hut located not very far from the medical hut. Inside the main room was a large fire pit in the center of the space, and at the back there was a clothe flap that I assumed served as the door to his living quarters. He walked over to the flap and pushed it aside, motioning for me to follow. I pushed aside the flap and took a look as he lit a lantern attached to one of the wood poles that held up the ceiling. His living quarters contained an ancient, wood frame cot, a table with an assortment of beakers, vials, jars and more, and a large, oak desk with a heavy, leather bound book with yellowing pages taking up almost the entire desk. I lifted the pages to look at the cover of the book.

"A Complete Guide for Understanding our Planet's Magical Wildlife, written and illustrated by..."

"Lightning Storm."

The village elder's voice caught me off guard. I dropped the book back onto the desk, landing with a loud slam. The pages flipped open to a photo of the author. It was a picture of a stallion, about my age, but he was much scrawnier than I am. His mane was short, spiky, and covered his fore head, a horn poking through the hair. He wore a pair of glasses and a long sleeve shirt. What was most noticeable about him was that besides a horn, he also had wings. Also odd, was that the stallion in the picture was being tackled from behind by a mare, with big, curly hair. It was in black and white, and yet, I know I've seen the stallion before. Once again though, the village elder surprised me.

"I remember that picture. Pinkie that it'd be funny if she tackled me when they took the picture. I was going to take another one but we thought the picture was so funny, we ended up using it. That's my personal copy."

"You're... Lightning Storm?" I said in utter disbelief, "Then that means your practically 550 years old."

"Yes, I suppose it does. I knew you were from Central Haven the minute I saw you."

"You did? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I wanted to be sure I could trust you. There is a secret about the havens that few outside the council are aware of."

"Like what?"

"I think you should find out yourself. You should start with the bandits. They call themselves the Ax Stallions and they're led by a maniac called Tomahawk. I want you to stop the bandits, kill them if you must, but I need you to bring back something they stole from me."

"How will I know if it's yours when I find it?"

"Look for something beautiful but out of place. You'll know it when you see it."

"How am I going to fight them though? My sword got bitten in half by one of those things."

"It's called a bunyip, a semi-aquatic, mammalian, predator that lays eggs."

"That doesn't answer my question."

The elder/Lightning didn't respond but instead rolled his one good eye and turned his back to me. He reached underneath the table covered in beakers and pulled out a wooden chest. He turned back to me and I could see a lightning bolt and a balloon carved onto the top. He opened the chest revealing what looked like a gun, but none that I've ever seen. It was bright yellow with a disk on the side. The disk had three glowing party balloons, one yellow and two blue, printed on it. I noticed the disk was rotating slowly. I was trying to think of why he was showing me this until he cleared his throat and brought me back to attention.

"This," he began, "is Sour Lemon Drop. It is a custom built SMG that was made by a friend of mine who later founded the Rainboom company. While it doesn't have as much power as most guns, Lemon Drop's bullets electrocute whatever is unlucky enough to get hit by one."

He closed the book and set the chest on top, after which he removed the gun from the chest and began attaching more parts to it. He added a piece the produced a small hologram that I assumed was for aiming, a separate handle for stabilizing, and a two knives that he attached to the barrel. When he was finished attaching the parts, he pulled more disks bearing the same design.

"To reload, all you do is pull the disk out, not by twisting, just pull it out, take another ammo disk, place it in the now empty slot, make sure it's secure, and then rotate the disk until the balloons on the side are right-side up. The knives can be used to disable enemies. On contact with someone, the knives will deliver the same amount of electricity as a normal taser."

"So you're giving me this gun to use against the bandits? Really?"

"No, I also need to give you an I-Sparkle display system."

"A what now?"

"Think of it like this, it goes over one eye and displays how much ammo you have, how much health you have, a map of the area, and even more that I don't have time to explain."

I was going to ask more but before I could, he took hold of my head and started a setting up a headset. The headset wrapped around the sides of my head and had an earphone that he had placed in my right ear. The small glass screen that was over my right eye then started showing little bars, a red one which I assumed was my health, a bar that told me I currently had zero ammo, one above it that said I had zero of something. The last thing to appear was a small map that appeared in the top right corner. In the top left corner of the map was a small green diamond that was flashing.

"Umm, hey Lightning?" I asked, "What does the little green diamond in the map mean?

"Oh that? That diamond represents where you need to go to complete a task given to you. I've already put in the coordinates for the bandit's base."

He then attached a watch around my wrist that had a picture of a bag on it. I was curious about what it was so I pressed a button on the side of the watch. I was surprised when a hologram of a large blue rectangle appeared in the air in front of me.

"That," Lightning began, "is for checking mission status, checking your inventory, and producing a larger version of your map."

He had just finished placing supplies in a bag that he then handed to me as well as the gun. I was surprised when the ammo bar on my head set shot from zero to max capacity, but the bar above it still read zero. I'll figure that one out later, but I had one question I wanted to ask.

"What about Scarlet?"

Lightning froze. I hoped I wasn't about to get yelled at or worse. I remembered who Lightning Storm was now, he was part of a team of heroes that worked for Celestia. His abilities were pretty obvious, but for those who might be oblivious, he is a master of weather magic, although he specializes in electricity. His reaction wasn't what I was expecting. Not in the least.

"Well," he began, "maybe you should ask her if she'd like to join you. You'll have to walk a long way if you want to get back into Central Haven, and I know you don't want to do it alone. She has her own supplies, as well as the belief that I don't know where she got them."

I really had nothing else to say, so I bowed to Lightning and hurried out to go ask Scarlet. Before I left the hut, I hid Lemon Drop in the bag. I wasn't sure how well the villagers would react to the weapons and I didn't think I wanted to find out. I left the tent and hurried over to the medical tent and found myself inches from Scarlet's face as she pushed aside the flap before I could grab it. She didn't say anything, but I could see her face slowly turning red. I stood up straight and let her leave the tent. Neither of us knew what to say to the other but I guess Scarlet figured it out first. She spoke nervously but steadily, like she'd practiced it before. At least that's how I thought it sounded.

"Hey Chris, you're looking better. Those fruit really did the trick huh?" she finished by cracking an awkward smile.

"Yeah, I guess they did. Hey, umm, I had something I wanted to ask you."

"Me too but you can go first."

"Are you sure."

"Yeah, it's okay."

"Okay, I guess. Since I'm all healed up, I was going to go fight the bandits."

"I figured when I woke up and you were gone."

"I didn't think it would be polite to wake you up."

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

"So, what I wanted to ask is, well, would you like to come with me when I leave?"

"Well, I- wait, what!? You mean help you fight the bandits?"

"Well, um, I mean, if you want to help, but I meant when I'm done with that. I can't just walk into Central Haven, from what I know, the only Haven that I could actually enter normally is East Haven, and to get there, you'd have to cross the ocean. That's a long journey for one pony don't you think?"

"Are you really sure Chris?"

"Yeah but it's your decision."

"..."

"Well?"

"YES!!" she screamed, catching me completely off guard and making me jump. "Just give me a little bit, I need to gather my things."

She ran back into the hut, leaving me outside. Without thinking I pushed the flap aside to follow her inside. Not the best idea in the world.

"What are you doing!? GET OUT!!" she exclaimed.

Before I could react, I felt her hoof slam into my face, knocking me onto my back outside. I don't know if falling three hundred feet was even as painful as a kick to the face. Once my sight sharpened, the first thing I noticed was a change in the health bar. It had dropped from a hundred to ninety-two. Perfect, first time my health bar drops and it's because I got kicked in the face by a mare. At least she's hot...

---

I'm glad I have fur. If I didn't, you'd be able to see the bruise that's already forming from that kick to face Scarlet delivered to me not even thirty minutes ago. She apologized about a hundred times already after she came back outside, but when I saw her, I really didn't mind the pain. Instead of the skirt and top she had been wearing before, she was wearing a normal, sleeveless belly shirt. She had one of the kind of pants that I couldn't remember for the life of me. It was the kind that were made of tough clothe and had visible leather stitching up the sides of both legs. Both the pants and the top were a shade darker than her coat. She had her own bag, her medical satchel attached to the side of the bag. I was surprised to learn she had her own I-Sparkle, watch device, and even her own gun, an assault rifle she had stolen from a bandit that tried to jump her by himself. He didn't realize she had a pet bunyip(which thankfully stayed in the village), poor guy. Anyway, I was trying to follow the map on my I-Sparkle but I kept looking at Scarlet. She kept talking about everything she had learned from Lightning, although she still called him Elder.

"...told me that thunderbirds could get as big as some dragons, and that their presence could cause fierce thunderstorms..."

Apparently Lightning's knowledge generally revolved around animals and their habitats. Not surprising, considering he published an entire almanac on magic wildlife. Before we left the village, I took the liberty of looking at the larger map but was dismayed to learn that the only the village was visible on the map. I then discovered a little bit later that the map would only show areas that I've been to, and only if I had the I-Sparkle at the time. We been walking off path in hopes of running into one of the bandits. I was beginning to think maybe the coordinates were wrong. I ate my unspoken words about five seconds later.

"Don't let go of the goddamn chain you idiot!"

"We wouldn't have to do this if Jarrett wasn't a fucking idiot and let the thing out of its FUCKING CAGE!!"

SKREEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!

I looked up at the mini-map and noticed that there were three new symbols on the map, two red dots and a yellow exclamation point. I'm guessing that the two yelling individuals were bandits, but I'm not sure I wanted to learn what the yellow exclamation point was. However, Scarlet thought I did.

"That sounds like Elder's bird. I didn't think the bandits were crazy enough to capture it."

"Wait," I said, "a bird made that sound? What kind of bird!?"

"Weren't you listening? I said the Elder had a pet Phoenix hybrid."

"Hybrid of a phoenix and what?"

"A Phoenix and a Thunderbird."

"I just had to ask, didn't I?"

Without further questions, we rushed towards the source of the screaming. We found the source in a clearing, the source being two stallions dressed in dirty clothes, one had a mohawk and other wore a mask with an ax on it. They trying to subdue a gold and pink hawk about the size of the bandits themselves with chains. I was surprised to find that the Phoenix wasn't trying to fly away. It was instead pecking and screeching at the bandits, who didn't seem to notice us. They weren't using those chains very effectively, but maybe I could. I concentrated, my horn lighting up with a sky blue aura, and focused my magic on the chains. I felt my magic wrap around the chains, and when I had both of the entire chains in my magic grasp, I snapped the chain links connecting to the collar around the bird's neck. Now the bandits noticed me but they didn't have time to pull out their weapons as I used my magic to show them how to catch something with the chains. As I did this, Scarlet ran over to the phoenix that I was surprised to find perfectly calm. Whatever, I found what I was looking for, a couple of bandits to help me find the bandit base.

"So, tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, would either of you be willing to tell me where bandit headquarters happens to be?"

"Buzz off," the mohawked bandit retorted, "You're lucky ah'm tied up, or else I'd slit your sorry ass throat."

"We don't need to tell you nothin'," the masked bandit added.

"Really," I said sarcastically as I pulled out Sour Lemon Drop, "cuz I think you do."

"L-look buddy," the mohawked bandit said shakily, "we don' want no trouble, kay?"

"You see guys," I said, "I've never actually killed anyone, but I ain't opposed to doing so. Just tell me where the base is and no one loses their head, mm'kay?"

"A'right, ah'll tell you," the masked bandit pleaded, "jus' don't shoot us. There's an old hut located east of this clearing. If ya' go northeast from that hut, you'll find the base."

"Ya' can't miss it," the mohawked bandit added, "It's a big-ass castle on the other side of a canyon. We told ya' so can you let us go?"

I wasn't sure I should, so looked over to Scarlet who nodded in approval. I still wasn't eager to let them go but I had to anyway.

"Fine, I'll let you go," I started, "But, if my friend and I succeed, there won't be any base for you to run back to. Leave the area, and hope I never see your sorry asses again."

I unwrapped the chains from the bandits and let them stand up. They both looked at me for a second, but then took off into the forest. I really didn't care if I saw them again, I just wanted to make sure they'd leave. When I was sure they were gone, I turned back to Scarlet and the phoenix.

"So, what are we gonna do with the phoenix? We can't bring it with us to the bandit base."

"Actually, we could."

I wasn't sure what she meant, but she walked up to the phoenix, which lowered its head so Scarlet could whisper something in its ear. When she was finished, the phoenix made a cawing sound and then flew up into the air. When it reached a decent height it began to circle above us.

"What did you tell it?"

"I asked it to lead us to the hut and then to the castle."

"Why couldn't it just lead us straight to the castle?"

"I want to see if there's anything of interest inside the hut."

"We're going to loot it?"

"That's the idea," she answered before running in the direction of the hut.

"And here I was thinking she's the shy one," I said before running to catch up.

It actually didn't take very long for us to reach the hut, but It also didn't take long for the trees to almost completely block out the sun. The hut was ancient, dug into the ground beneath an equally ancient, gnarled tree. The door was overgrown by the roots of the tree, but it didn't take long for me to magically remove them. My I-Sparkle produced a light when we entered, allowing us to see in the aged darkness. In the center of the entrance room was cauldron, which still contained something. I think it used to be soup. Most of the shelves that were still hanging on the wall had nothing on them, meaning everything had been stolen or the owner had taken them when they left. There were two other rooms, so Scarlet and I each chose one to search since there wasn't anything in the entrance room. The room I chose must have been a storage room at one point. There were shelves the had a large number of empty bottles. There was a table at the other end of the room with a brewing set like Lightning had, only older and mostly destroyed. I found nothing of use so I decided to go help Scarlet. I pushed open the door to the room Scarlet was searching and found it was a bedroom.

"Didn't find anything?"

"Nothing still usable."

The bedroom had surprising amount of furnishings still inside. Scarlet had been sitting on a bed, its frame carved out of a large root that belonged to the tree above us. She had been looking at a photo album that had been left here. I was curious as to why it was left here but I chose to look at the pictures inside. They were mostly of a zebra, a female one with a mohawk and gold rings around her neck, her left wrist, and her right leg. As the pictures got newer, more ponies began appearing. I recognized a few, like Lightning for example, but one kept appearing more than the others. It was a unicorn stallion with short straight hair. Most of the pictures had lost their color but one thing did make that stallion stand out. A few were of him standing next to or talking with Celestia and or Luna. Aside from that, it was a relatively normal photo album. At one point, there were wedding photos of the zebra and the stallion. Underneath one of the photos, there were two readable names, Zecora and Gallant Heart. Scarlet turned the page and I could see her start to blush in the light of our displays. I looked down and saw why. It was their honeymoon pictures, more specifically, Zecora I guessed, lying on a bed half-naked. We flipped through the next few pages, occasionally stopping to look at certain photos. Scarlet seemed interested in the photos of a young filly I assumed was their daughter. After looking at a few more pages, I wanted to see how full this book was. I found the last few photos about two-thirds of the way through. It was them as a middle aged couple, their daughter singing at a concert, a reunion of some sort, the stallion sitting at his wife's bedside. The next page contained a single photo that made both of us gasp. It was the stallion, Gallant, wearing a black suit and standing in front of a coffin, Zecora visible inside.

Neither of us said a word. I closed the photo album and looked at the cover. It was a picture of the Equestrian flag from before the havens were raised.

"Scarlet, I think this was left here for a reason."

"Why do you say that?"

"While it's full of good memories, it also has bad ones. I wouldn't want to bring those bad memories with me."

"I guess you're right."

"Did you find anything?"

"Only a knife."

She took out a beautiful ornate knife, one not built for battle, but merely a decoration. It had a short curved blade made of a light gold metal. The guard was silver a hand shaped and the grip had black and white leather wrapping. The pommel was an onyx stone that had been cut into an almost perfect sphere.

"I think we should take the knife with us," Scarlet said.

"Huh, why?"

"I found the knife lying underneath the dresser, like someone dropped it. "

"Well, it's not like the owner is still alive?"

"I know but, I think it's the right thing to do."

"I guess."

We sat in silence for another minute or so. I stood up and looked around the room. I noticed a closet and walked over to it, but it wouldn't open.

"I think it's locked."

That didn't stop me. I pulled out Sour Lemon Drop and fired a bullet into the lock. The lock shattered and the door slowly slid open. Inside was a chest with a glowing green button on the lock. I pressed the button and the chest opened automatically. Inside was a single zebra striped pistol and some ammo for it. There was a holster for the pistol on the side of the chest so I picked it up and attached it to my side and set the pistol in the holster. I turned to face Scarlet who had finished putting the knife in her bag.

"Alright, let's go," I said, "We have a bandit base to find."

---

Scarlet

We had been walking in silence ever since Zecora's hut. My tribe's name was meant to honor her, because without her guidance, my tribe wouldn't have been able to survive in the expanding Everfree forest. I had no idea she had ever been married, let alone had a child. She must have been the one who rhymed every time she talked. I also never knew she was so beautiful. I looked at my mini-map and noticed the green diamond was getting larger. I looked ahead and saw light. We were getting close. I grabbed Chris's shoulder and he jumped a foot in the air.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh, um, it's okay. I just kinda got lost in thought. What is it?"

"We're getting close, I can see light up ahead."

Chris made a serious face. He start running towards the light so fast that I had to sprint to catch up. He stopped and jumped behind a tree at the edge of the clearing. I followed his lead, even though I didn't know why he did it.

"We have a problem," he said pointing into the clearing, "They built a gate to keep intruders out of the base."

I looked out and saw what he was talking about. Built close to the edge of the canyon edge, was a giant wooden wall with two iron bar doors locked shut with a padlock. There were two towers on both sides of the doors, each with a bandit acting as lookouts. I could see the castle rising up behind the wall, wooden platforms running between broken portions of the walls. It certainly looked like a bandit base.

"We need to find who has the key to that lock. They have to be more skilled than the others. Their leader wouldn't just give the key to a common bandit."

Smashing the almost perfect silence I had been growing used to was a loud, deep voice that for some reason, sounded like it belonged to an idiot. The owner of the voice was an absolutely massive stallion wearing dirty clothes and a metal helmet that covered his entire head. His arms were big but looked enormous in comparison to his stumpy legs. His comical proportions didn't however, make him look any less terrifying.

"Hey you slackers! No sleeping on the job!" I heard him scream at a sleeping bandit.

I watched as he pulled something off his back, a massive makeshift hammer I saw, and brought it down on the bandit. I turned away at the last second, but I still heard the sickening crunch. I looked back at the towering stallion and now noticed a health bar above his covered head. It also showed a name, labeling him as Hulk Bandit. I turned to Chris and whispered as quietly as I could so Chris could still hear me.

"Chris, what are we going to do? We can't get passed that guy, he'd crush us."

"I know, but I have an idea. He has to be wearing that helmet for a reason. If I could get close enough, I could use my magic to take it off."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"No, but it's the only one we've got right now. Take out your gun. We need to to get rid of the others before we can take care of the big guy."

I nodded and pulled out my rifle. I've practiced with it before, and I learned that if I fire one shot at a time, it can work as a sniper. Chris pulled out his SMG and took aim at on of the lookouts. I followed his lead and aimed for the other one. Chris fired the first shot, two bullets shooting out and striking his target in the chest and electrocuting him, and my round pierced the other lookout's head before he could react. Now the other bandits were aware they were being attacked, but the big guy seemed confused. He just kept looking around, watching as his subordinates were gunned down.

"Hey! What's going on? Why are you all sleeping!?" he was shouting.

One bandit who must have been hiding fired a round into the bushes in our direction. It missed but it surprised Chris while he fired off more rounds. The rounds he fired launched straight into the Hulk Bandit's helmet, sending an electrical shock through it before it launched to the air and landed on the remaining bandit. Must have been heavy, because the bandit didn't get up. We walked out of the bushes to get a closer look at the the Hulk Bandit, who just stood there, completely limp. He looked as if his neck had been pulled into his body and you could only see the top part of his jaw. His eyes were wide and bloodshot and the top of his scalp was missing, revealing the skull underneath. I didn't know why, but I felt like we should run. It was then I heard a tiny whisper come from the giant bandit.

"You pissed me off..."

"Did he just say something?" Chris asked pointing at him.

"YOU REALLY PISSED ME OFF!!" the bandit screamed at the top of his lungs.

It was then that his coat started turning red, his muscles started to bulge and blood started to squirt from where his head touched his shoulders. The next thing that happened was as terrifying as it was disgusting. The bandit's head shot up into the air and sat there sitting on top of a tube of tissue and blood vessels, the neck bones hidden in the mass of flesh. We just stood there, watching, unable to comprehend what we were seeing. I notice one difference that frightened me. The label had changed. Instead of a Hulk Bandit, it was now...

Hulking Savage Bandit: WHY SO MUCH HURT!?

"I HATE YOU!!" he screamed, "HATE! HATE!! HAAAAAAAAATE!!!"

"You know Scarlet," Chris started, "where I come from, this would be what's known as a clusterfuck."

"What does that mean?"

"It means load your gun, and hope for the best."

I did as he said. If we die now, I'll have no regrets. I'm just happy to have met Chris.

End of Chapter 3...