Equestria's Borderlands

by lightningst0rm

A City so Nice...

Scarlet

Well...

This mission ended better than I expected. We got to the base, defeated the guard, infiltrated(and looted) the base, killed off a bunch of bandits, and managed to kill the self-appointed bandit boss. It's true that during all that I did almost get shot, but we succeeded. The Elder's phoenix was flying high above us, swooping, diving, twirling, basically dancing through the air, all while singing its beautiful song. My new pet, a chimera as Chris called it, was walking next to me. It wasn't as big up close as I thought when I first saw it. From the ground to its shoulder, it was only about three feet. Its goat head put it at a little shorter than my shoulder, but it was still quite large and no less frightening to those who might see it. Chris told me that chimeras came in a variety of different looks but this kind is the most well known. He said he had only seen one chimera before this one and that one was at a zoo and nowhere close to this one's size.

It was still night when we reached the path that we had left the village on. I could just barely see the light of the village as we began down the path, and my happiness continued to grow the closer we came to the village. I looked and saw the Elder's phoenix glide in the direction of the village, excited to see its master no doubt.

A sudden realization hit me just then. It occurred to me that I was no longer a simple medicine mare. I had helped bring down the tyrant that had been harassing our village for so long. I wasn't coming back to my village a medicine mare, I was coming back a hero. I couldn't stop myself, I ran ahead and left Chris and the chimera sprinting to catch up.

I ran between the two wooden phoenix statues that marked one of the few entrances to the village and was greeted by the Elder and his phoenix. He smiled and looked at Chris when he entered behind me, but he went wide-eyed when he saw the chimera. I guess he wasn't expecting that.

"I'm glad to see you two succeeded," he said in amazement, "but why did you also bring back a chimera?"

"Oh this guy?" I asked, "I rescued it from the bandits and it decided to come with us."

"It looks young. I bet it's not even five years old. If it was an adult and fully grown, that base may not have been there by time you reached it."

"Are saying it's dangerous?"

"Scarlet, even a tamed dog can be dangerous in certain situations, what I'm saying is that if it were older and larger, it would have killed even if you helped it. This one probably just began life outside of a group."

"Does that mean I can't keep it?"

"No, it just wants to return the favor I suppose. It will probably stay with you until you reach the edge of the forest."

I turned to Chris, expecting him to add something, but he was examining his inventory, probably looking at the stuff he had looted from the bandit base. Turning back to the Elder, I decided to ask about what we should do next.

"So Elder," I asked, "since we've stopped the bandit leader, what should we do next?"

"I would think that would be Chris's decision," he answered, pointing his cane at Chris.

Chris closed his inventory and saw the Elder pointing at him and looked at me in confusion.

"Chris," the Elder continued, "I believe you wanted to find a way back into the Haven after he had stopped the bandits."

"Oh yeah," Chris added, scratching his head, "I had almost forgot that. The problem is that I don't know where to go from here."

"I would suggest heading towards Eden."

"Eden?" Chris asked, "Where's Eden?"

"Do you know where Manehatten used to be located?"

"Yeah."

"Then you know where Eden is located, but just to be safe, I'll mark its location on your mini-map."

The Elder pulled out a small device that looked fairly old and outdated and typed something into its built in keyboard. When he was finished, a new green diamond appeared on the map. This one was really small, meaning it was pretty far away.

"Where we're standing right now," the Elder began, "used to be part of an apple orchard named Sweet Apple Acres that was owned by the Apple family. The orchard was massive but none of it was located above the haven so none of it was contained inside. The orchard grew free until the Everfree forest swallowed it. The only part of the orchard left untouched are the zap apple trees. The Apple family, being all well built and hard working, were all relocated into the havens and started a new business."

"Producing guns," Chris commented.

"You know of this?"

"No. The shotgun Tomahawk was using is an Apple Family gun. What does this have to do with Eden?"

"An excellent question. Sweet Apple Acres was located just outside of Ponyville, which had a train that went to Manehatten. The train tracks are still used by the bandits who I assume have returned to being traders. They trade fruits and materials gained from the forest for supplies and technology built in Eden. Just ask them for a lift to Eden.

"Sweet! Thanks!"

Chris began to turn around, but stopped and looked back at the Elder. He looked suspicious.

"Hold on," he began, "I can understand that you're ancient, but that doesn't explain how you know so much about everything."

The Elder chuckled. He walked over to my Chimera and scratched both of its chins, making it produce an odd purring sound.

"You see," the Elder explained, "I used to be part of a special group of individuals."

"Yes I'm aware of that."

"I'm not the only one of the original group who's still alive. Some of those individuals would be very interesting to learn about. What I'm about to tell you was our motto, and it might not make sense now, but it will be valuable to remember."

"What is it?"

"Sometimes, to get harmony, you have to make a little chaos."

"What's that mean?"

"You'll understand," the Elder finished with a chuckle.

The Elder turned around and made his way back to his hut. As he was walking, I could hear his singing a song quietly to himself. I never understood where he heard it but it always calmed me down.

"Cause I love to make you smile, smile, smile. It fills my heart with sunshine all the while- Yes it does!"

---

Establishing feed to Location_Sobek_Arena. Connection established.

"Simon, I have news for you."

"Oi! What'sa big idea? Callin' me whin ah'm eatin'?"

"Tomahawk is dead."

"WHAT!? Ah' mus' ave mud in me ears. Ah t'ought ya' said Tomahawk was dead."

"I did. He was killed by a knight called Christopher White."

"So why shou' ah be worried?"

"You're supposed to be acting as a bandit leader, right?"

"Aye."

"If Chris gets word of you being a bandit leader, he'll come after you."

"Then tha's a good thing!"

"I don't follow."

"If that Chris feller comes huntin' fo' me, ah'll jus' kill'im, skin'im, an' eat'im!"

"Not reassuring."

"Don' worry 'bout ol' Killer Kelpie. Ah c'n take care'o me'self."

"Fine, but I'm giving this warning to the others as well."

"Yeah whatever."

Communication feed cut. Terminating feed.

---

Chris

Scarlet decided to leave her Chimera at the village so she was feeling a little sad but I was just the tiniest bit annoyed at the fact that I had to return to the place I had came from, but I got over it when we found Skyler in the traveling towards the village to apologize. Scarlet informed him that Lightning knew about it already, causing Skyler to breath a sigh of relief. I was looking at the vehicle Skyler and two other traders had driven here. It was like nothing I'd ever seen, it had tires but it also had visible hover technology. It also had a large back area that I guessed was for supplies and other traders. I'll think about that later, I needed to ask Skyler about a ride to Eden.

"Hey Skyler," I asked, "I was told that you guys have a way to get from the forest to Eden. Is that true?"

"Yeah," he replied, "Jus' got it workin' again."

"Would you be able to give us a lift to Eden?"

"Sure I can, but I have t' send Marshal with ya'."

"Why's that?"

"I sent an ECHO message to Garrick telling him about what happened, but he didn't respond. I'm sending Marshal to go down and see what's going on."

"Okay, got that, but one question. What's an ECHO?"

"An ECHO is sort of like a message you record and then send to someone else's I-Sparkle."

"Sort of like an e-mail?"

"Sure, whatever that is."

"It's nothin' special, but if something's going on in Eden, do you want us to help?"

"Yeah," Scarlet added in, "We're sure we could be of some help."

"Thanks," Skyler said, "but that last message I got from Garrick was him talking about some bandit named Killer Kelpie and that was days ago. I think something might have happened."

"Don't sweat it," I said, "We can handle anything."

"I hope you're right. Hop on, we'll give you a lift to the train, Marshal will be there waiting."

"Sweet."

===================================

"What the?"

I think I was beginning to see why Tomahawk broke the train. While it was ancient and rusted, actually, it looked like it was Frankensteined into a working train again, I could still see that the train was once ridiculously feminine. The front window, while broken, was clearly shaped like a heart, and some of the original paint was still visible: a bright pink that had long since dulled in color. I couldn't find Marshal waiting, but Skyler said he was probably inside the train. When I stepped inside, I found that the inside was better. What I think had once been wood floors were now plated steel, the windows had been covered with metal blinds, the walls were reinforced, probably to protect from bullet fire, and mounted on one of the roofs was a minigun turret that was controlled from inside the train. It may have looked ridiculous on the outside, it was still pretty beast. We found Marshal shoveling coal into the engine, the difference being that he wasn't wearing the vest he had before and was instead wearing an old military helmet, the kind that was pretty much an iron bowl. He stopped shoveling coal after we had been standing there for a couple minutes and turned to face us.

"Let me guess," he said, "You want a ride to Eden, eh?

He cracked us a smile that showed off his teeth. They were like a crocodile's only his teeth were more needle like and stained green by something.

"Yeah," I said with a gulp, "I was told that if I wanted to get back into Central Haven, I should start at Eden, but then Skyler told us that something may have happened there."

He looked us over. He acted like he didn't trust us, which was kinda weird.

"I can give you a ride," he said. I was about to respond but he interrupted before I could even get a word out. "But you'll need to show me something first."

"What do you mean by that?"

"We kelpie's are... odd creatures. We take interest in objects others hold close to there hearts, but we do not steal them from others. We just like to see prized treasures, the treasures that can tell stories. Do you understand?"

I didn't quite understand what he meant, but I decided to try something. I reached into the pocket of my knight's leggings and pulled out the locket I've had ever since I can remember. It had a gold chain and the locket itself was pretty small. It was shaped like a heart and made of gold and crystal. It can open, but something in my head always told me not to. I held it up for Marshal to see. He took the locket and studied it for a couple seconds before letting go of it. He waited a second before he spoke.

"This will not do, it does not have a story to tell yet. You will need to show me something else."

I had nothing else to show that was mine. I looked back at Scarlet, hoping she had something. She seemed to understand and took off her bag and began digging through. A few seconds later, she pulled out the dagger we had found in Zecora's hut. She slid its sheath off and handed the exposed dagger to Marshal for him to examine. He seemed to be more interested in the dagger than my locket. He placed his hand on the flat of the blade and closed his eyes as if trying to feel for something. After about a minute or so of examining the dagger he handed it back to Scarlet and let out a sigh before speaking.

"This is acceptable. That dagger has a tragic history, one of love, birth, war, death, and sorrow. It was not left alone on purpose, it was lost in the ever obscuring fog that is sadness. You will know the owner of the dagger when you find them. Help me load the train, we leave for Eden in twenty minutes."

===============================

There are a few trains in Central Haven, one of which I have to ride to get to work. However, none of them ran like this one, let alone ran on steam. The train rattled as it moved along the twin metal tracks, sometimes making me think we've ran out of track and were now riding offtrack. It was like a perfectly flat roller coaster, and I HATED roller coasters. Scarlet pointed out that we were still in forest and that might be why it was so rough, but I didn't care, I still hated it. So much in fact, I was gripping the seat with enough force to leave a mark in the metal.

Luckily, like Scarlet thought, our ride became smoother as we left the forest. When the walls around me stopped rattling, I finally decided to release my grip on the seat. I looked down and saw a perfect mold of my grip imprinted in the metal. I looked through the metal blinds to see the forest had been replaced by a grass covered field. Scarlet got up and had started moving around the car, stumbling a bit at almost every shake of the car. She had walked close to where I was sitting when the train hit a bump in the tracks. The bump threw Scarlet off her hooves and onto my lap.

"Don't worry," I said with a smile, "I got'ya."

She did that thing again when her face became almost as red as her hair. Sensing she was getting nervous, I lifted her off my lap and sat her on the seat beside me. Her face slowly began to change back to its normal shade of light brown, but I could see she was still nervous. We hit another bump in the track, almost knocking her off the seat, but I caught her before she hit the floor. This time instead of turning red, she simply blushed. She surprised me with a question that I never thought I'd ever hear myself.

"Umm, Chris," she spoke slowly and quietly, "do you... love anyone... back in your home I mean."

"Well- I- um- you see... no," I said, hanging my head, "I've had a couple marefriends, but the first one ended in staying friends and the second, well, let's just say, I'm one of a select few stallions who think its not morally wrong to hit a mare. Her and I are on better terms now."

"How long ago was this?"

"My minds sort of fuzzy, but I think around five years."

"So, you don't have a mare that you love currently?"

"No. I don't. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was just wondering if-"

Whatever she was about to ask was cut off by Marshal talking over a intercom. I hadn't noticed it when I walked.

"Attention Passengers. Would you please come to the front car. You might want to see this."

I turned to Scarlet hoping she would finish but she was already getting up. I let out a sigh and followed her through the door and into the front car. Marshal turned to face us and pointed out the left side window before he pulled the brake.

"Take a look out that window. We have a problem."

I stuck my head out the window to look at the rapidly approaching city. The first thing I noticed was a that the city looked like it had been destroyed before already. The second thing I noticed was the smoke.

Someone had attacked the city.

---

Scarlet

I've never seen a city before, I mean the Elder used to tell me about cities he's been to so I knew that they shouldn't be smoking. I had no idea what could have done something like this. The train jerked forward as it pulled to a stop, throwing me into Chris. Like before, he caught me in his arms. He smiled when I looked up at him, but I couldn't think, I could barely breath. I could feel my face getting hotter the longer he held me. I pushed against his chest to break his embrace before my face turned bright red again. I had no idea how I was going to be able to tell him what I wanted to say. Luckily, Marshal spared me more embarrassment when he spoke up. However, I wish he would have said something else.

"Oi, lovebirds, grab yer guns and move out. We need to find Garrick."

I felt my face get hot again and when I glanced at Chris, he was looking down but clearly blushing. I couldn't help but smile. Marshal rolled his eyes and walked out of the front car and made his way back to the supplies car. I looked at Chris again and then followed Marshal, Chris following close behind me. When we reached the supplies car, Marshal was packing ammo into several small bags attached to his belt and thighs. He had a gun harness fastened on his body and a sniper rifle with a light blue camo design strapped to the back of the harness. When he was finished collecting ammo, he picked up a murky blue pistol with a serrated, sand colored blade and scope. He loaded a clip into the pistol and turned to face us.

"Get yer shit and move out. We don't know if the attackers are still in the city so staying here for long isn't safe. You also shouldn't carry large bags with you."

He pointed to two small boxes with "Nite" printed on the top.

"Those are Alchemy Chests, though most folks just call'em storage decks. When hooked up to your I-Sparkle, any weapon, ammo, items, or personal objects registered on your I-Sparkle can be stored inside. Don't worry, it will tell you before it gets completely full. Just attach them to any strap, bring up your inventory display, and then click yes when it asks if you want to connect the Alchemy Chest to your I-Sparkle."

We both did as we told. We picked up the small boxes, Chris attached his to belt and I attached mine to the strap of my medical bag. Once we had connected them to our I-Sparkles, Marshal moved aside and let us collect ammo and our guns. Chris handed me the Zebra-striped pistol we had found at Zecora's hunt. I shook my head, but he insisted. He had his SMG and the shotgun he got from killing Tomahawk, but I only had my assault rifle so I reluctantly took the pistol. As we were leaving the train, I took my knife out of my medical bag and attached it to my waist. I wasn't sure if I'd need it, but I thought I should have it just in case.

When we stepped off the train, the smell of smoke invaded my nose, forcing me to cover my nose and causing me to start coughing. It was the kind of smoke created from something that shouldn't burn or is burning out; thick and overpowering. Marshal seemed unfazed, he closed the train doors, pulled out his pistol and motioned for us to follow. Chris pulled out his SMG and followed close behind, leaving me at the back. I looked up at the buildings that towered above me. Far up above me the buildings looked to be in fairly good condition but the closer to the ground I looked, the more destroyed the buildings began to look. Many of the ground level buildings I looked at had either broken windows, boarded up windows, or had been covered with metal blinds. The city looks like it was beautiful a couple centuries ago, but like ponies, it got older, and now it's falling apart.

Marshal led us through the train station, which was just as rundown and depressing as the city. Marshal said it was only used for storing goods for trading, so anything that isn't for trading has been in here for over two hundred years. There were boards covering up a part of the left wall where we came in, and something had been ripped out of the floor where we came in as well. There were a few benches still intact, and sitting on one of the benches was an almost destroyed stuffed bear. It almost made me cry. Marshal saw me look at it and told me it was left here during a disaster that made almost everyone leave the city. The city remained empty for almost three hundred years before ponies started coming back. That made me shed a tear. What could have happened that made them leave?

As we left the station and began to move silently through the destroyed streets of the city, I was quick to notice a lack of bodies. I was starting to fall behind as I began searching every nook and cranny for a body. What was even weirder was that I couldn't hear any sounds. There were no birds, no dogs barking, not even the wind could be heard. Something wasn't right, I didn't know what it is, but I could feel it. I looked in the direction of Marshal and Chris. They were walking between two damaged vehicles, but something more caught my eye. A tripwire.

"Get back!" I screamed running towards them.

Chris jumped backwards, but Marshal responded to late. His leg bumped the almost invisible wire, setting off whatever trap it had been set to trigger. Time slowed down around me, but Marshal moved faster than a normal creature should be able to.

Several saw blades came flying from both sides, the first few of which Marshal dodged with the grace and skill of a well trained warrior. He deflected two that came from the right, and the last blade, one that came from the left, he caught in his mouth. He stepped away from the triggered trap and pulled the saw blade from his mouth. His teeth had pierced through the steel disk, but a murky green liquid was visible on the blade, most likely his blood. Marshal tossed the disk aside and spoke with the same steady calm he spoke before.

"That was a trap meant for bandit stragglers," he said, "one of Garrick's men set it up. I knew the trap was there, but I was surprised that you spotted it Scarlet. Garrick knows we're here now, we just need to get to him. Be happy it wasn't one of Garrick's, we might have had to deal with alchemic bombs if it was."

I didn't know what an alchemic bomb was, but I saw Chris gulp. I'm guessing they're something I don't want to run into. Marshal turned around and continued walking, completely unfazed by the fact that he could have died. Maybe this isn't the first time something like this has happened. We were walking in silence, occasionally stopping to disarm a trap, and I was getting paranoid. I needed to get my mind off of it, so I decided to ask some questions.

"So Marshal," I asked, "who exactly is Garrick?"

"Garrick is a warrior," he said without turning around, "He's been alive for a very long time and has seen, fought in, and won many battles during that time. He's also an extremely powerful alchemist, so powerful he managed to concoct a potion of extended life. The grip of his cane is also a philosopher's stone. When ponies started using guns instead of swords, he was quick to adopt the new form of battle, but was disdained when he learned that fights could be over in a single well placed shot. His people were created for battle using melee weapons, not guns."

"So then, what kind of creature is Garrick?"

"He's a War Wolf."

"You're joking right?" Chris asked, "The War Wolves left Equestria over two thousand years ago, Garrick can't be one of them."

"He is," Marshal continued, kneeling down and cutting another tripwire, "Garrick was banished from their island for learning alchemy. They believed using magic was a sign of weakness. When Garrick reached the shores of Equestria, he started aimlessly traveling from town to town, searching for a new purpose. He eventually found one, becoming a trainer of heroes. He has trained many great heroes how to survive in battle. Eventually he became one of six most powerful magic users in all of Equestria, much like Star Swirl the bearded."

"Alright then," Chris said, "if that's true, the how come I could never find anything on him in books on war heroes?"

"Easy," Marshal responded, "Garrick didn't want to be remembered. His life was his business. However, he is mentioned in some of Star Swirl's and Necro Shade's journals."

"Pffft, whatever, I still don't believe he's a War Wolf. A diamond dog maybe."

I was going to tell Chris to at least show some respect but I was cut off when an impossibly fast figure moved in front of me and punched Chris in the chest, throwing him back into a wall. When I opened my eyes, I found a tall, dog like creature wearing red armor complete with a short cape looking at me. He had big ears and a long tail that seemed to move with a mind of its own, he gripped a cane in his left hand. His pale blue eyes were staring at me from behind a pair of ancient spectacles similar to the pair that the Elder wore. He had a beard coming off his chin and was visibly elderly, but he was surprisingly muscular. He spoke in a gruff voice that literally demanded complete obedience.

"Your friend needs to learn some manners," he said, "I should let you introduce yourself first miss."

"My name is Scarlet," I said through my amazement.

"A lovely name," he responded with a bow, "My name is Garrick Magnus, but you can just call me Garrick."

---

Establishing feed to Location_Sobek_Arena. Connection established.

"Simon!"

"Ah what now?"

"Why is it that you decided to attack the city, but decided to leave the Alchemist alive!?"

"Now listen 'ere, do ye' know 'ow hard it is t' even find 'im?"

"Humor me."

"Tha' THING killed 'alf of me men!"

"You're not your men."

"Cut me some slack. Ah' got some'in ah c'n use t' lure tha' Chris feller t' me arena."

"Who is it?"

"War'ead Industry's CEO!"

"You're officially an impossibly idiotic buffoon."

"Hey, what does'at mean?"

Communication feed cut. Terminating feed.

---

Chris

I suppose this is what I get. I don't believe that there's an actual War Wolf in the city of Eden, and I get punched in the chest by him. What's worse, he's about twenty times my age. I had to walk to the Eden guard base clutching my chest in pain, which was an hour walk, why me? The base was an old police station that was beginning to fall apart. There were metal blinds covering all of the windows, and the front doors had been reinforced with metal. The inside wasn't as bad. There were boxes of ammo scattered around, a couple guns, beer bottles, and one dirty magazine sitting on one of the tables. Otherwise, it was just an old looking police station, nothing special.

When I sat down in an ancient metal chair, Garrick tossed me a small berry and told me to eat it. I wasn't sure I wanted to but Scarlet told me it would help. I put it in my mouth and was surprised to find the berry was a mixture of sweet and spicy. When I swallowed it, I felt the pain in my chest begin to dull. Marshal was the first one to ask a question.

"What happened here Garrick?"

"Killer Kelpie," he said with a snarl, "that's what happened. He's a fat, redneck bandit who showed up a couple months ago. He wasn't much trouble at first, preferring to stay in the old sports arena a mile or two outside of Eden. But recently, he's been coming to the city, demanding weapons, food, even citizens. I usually just chased him out, but yesterday, he came again looking for somebody named Christopher White. When I told him there was nobody of that name in the city, he ordered his bandits to start attacking. I destroyed as many of the bandit's bikes as I could, but Kelpie managed to kidnap the CEO of Warhead industries in all of the chaos."

"What!?" Marshal said surprised, "What was the CEO doing here?"

"Talking to me, we're friends of course."

Now he turned to me, with a face of cold as stone seriousness. I wondered what he could possibly have to say to me.

"You," he said, "I'm guessing you're Christopher White. Am I right?"

"Yeah," I said, "What about it?"

"I have a task for you."

"Let me guess. You want me to, head to the arena, find Killer Kelpie, kill him, and finally rescue the CEO of Warhead industries, right?"

"You're smarter than you look."

"Thanks, I think."

He looked away from me and faced Marshal. Marshal gave a salute to Garrick before Garrick spoke.

"Marshal, I would like you to head to the safe houses and tell the citizens it's safe."

"Yes sir," Marshal responded before running out the door.

"Now, as for you two," he said turning to face us, "there's an ammo vendor and medical vendor in the back. You can use it to sell any extra weapons you have on you. I'd also suggest buying a shield."

"What's a shield?" Scarlet asked.

"Excellent question," Garrick answered happily, "A shield is a device that when attached to your I-Sparkles, will produce a barrier than can provide temporary protection from bullets. All shields have different stats and attributes, but they all work the same. You won't take any physical damage until the shield breaks, after that, you'll need to wait before the shield can regenerate and if it's damaged while regenerating, you'll need to wait again before it can finish."

"Wow," I said scratching my head, "those would have been useful when fighting Tomahawk."

I didn't need to ask anything else, I just walked to the back of the office and found two large machines, one labeled Bandit Munitions and the other being Fluttershy Pharmaceutical. I recognized the mare on the red machine as the founder of the hospitals in the havens, but the stallion on the other machine bothered me. It was a brown stallion wearing a mask and making the gun sign with his left hand and pointing it at his head. Scarlet was currently using the red machine so I walked up to the ammo machine and pressed the button right underneath a projector. The projector switched on as the machine was activated and a menu appeared on my headset. It gave a list of various ammo types and several grenades. I was also greeted by a stallion's voice in a prerecorded message.

"WELCOME TO BANDIT MUNITIONS!! YOUR MAIN PROVIDER OF AMMO AND EXPLOSIVES!!"

The message practically blew out my eardrums, but I shook my head started buying the ammo I needed. I also looked in my inventory and began selling the guns I didn't plan on using. I also sold a couple grenade types that I wasn't going to use. When I was finished, I closed the menu and my eardrums were assaulted by another message.

"NOW GO BREAK SOME FACES!!"

Once the ringing in my ears had stopped, I looked over at Scarlet. She was busy attaching what I assumed to be a shield to her side. She noticed me looking at her and quickly finished attaching the shield.

"Turn the volume down on your headset," I told her as we switched places, "just trust me."

At first she gave me a confused look, but then she smiled and turned the volume down before pressing the button. She flinched when the menu was brought up on her headset. I pressed the button on the red machine and was greeted by a pink menu and quiet mare's voice. Her voice was so quiet and soft it was almost like she was whispering.

"Welcome to Fluttershy Pharmaceutical, the number one provider of medicine and battle shields"

At the very top of the menu, separated from what I now knew were the shields, was red syringe. I looked at it and my display said it was for restoring health. I had full health, so I started looking through the shields. Some of them had additional effects. One had superior stats to the rest but lowered my health(not quite sure how); didn't want that. One rose my health but had below average stats; didn't want that one either. I decided on a Bandit shield that increased my strength when the shield was depleted. I closed the menu and looked down when I heard the tray at the bottom slide out. I picked up the shield, which pulsed with a green light, and attached it to my belt. My I-Sparkle asked me if I wanted to equip the shield. I clicked yes and a blue bar appeared above my health.

Scarlet had already finished buying ammo and selling her extra weapons when I turned to her. Now that I had a fresh picture of "Fluttershy" in my mind, I was startled to notice how much Scarlet looked like her. I was beginning to zone out but Scarlet brought me back to reality.

"Are we gonna get going Chris?"

I shook my head and looked at her. I smiled a bit and scratched the back of my head.

"Yeah, sorry. I zoned out a bit."

At this point, Garrick walked in. I noticed he walked with a slight limp in his right leg. That was surprising, seeing as he came at me faster than I could turn head my head. That just proves how terrifying it must have been to fight the War Wolves in battle. Originally, the War Wolves were a breed of Diamond Dogs that had been changed with magic. The lost their huge muscles and clubbed tails and instead gained lean, athletic bodies, like that of a wolf. It was said that they would do everything in their power to prolong the length of a war. When I look at Garrick though, I don't just see a warrior, I see a being of great wisdom, one that eyed the shield I had chosen.

"You chose a shield that increases strength when depleted. Useful against one enemy, but against a group, it serves no purpose."

"What are you talking about?"

"That type of shield is for individuals who charge recklessly into battle. I use that kind of shield myself, but that's because I'm confident in my ability to fight unarmed. Seeing as you completely failed in even moving to block my attack, I doubt you can fight efficiently."

"With all do respect sir, that proves nothing about my ability to fight."

"Oh? Then enlighten me."

"You caught me off guard, I didn't have any time to respond to your attack and therefore couldn't block it. Another thing, you're a War Wolf and I'm an Equestrian. In judging someone's ability to fight, you also need to account for their race. The War Wolves were bred for fighting, Equestrians were a mostly peaceful race, we aren't accustomed to fighting in wars. With this knowledge in mind, you've no evidence to govern my fighting ability due to the fact that you've never seen me fight and know nothing about my history."

I must have caught him off guard with my statement; I guess he'd never been argued with before. While it's true I was never very good at planning, I had a talent for winning arguments. Garrick started stroking his beard and began thinking. I was getting impatient, but I didn't want to get punched again. When he spoke again, his voice had a lighter tone.

"I see. You give a good point there. Maybe sometime in the future, we could have a sparring match, but for now I'll let you get going. If you go north for two miles outside the city, you'll reach Sobek Arena, Killer Kelpie's base of operations."

"I'll think about it and thanks. It was an honor to meet you Garrick."

He gave me a salute and I responded with my own salute before we exited the building. As Scarlet and I walked out into the street, we were greeted by the citizens of Eden. Most of them payed me no mind, a couple waved at me as we left, but when we walked past Marshal, he looked up from bandaging a young filly's arm and saluted. We walked past a group of teenage colts that whistled as Scarlet walked past. They stopped when I turned around and gave them a death glare. Scarlet didn't see me glare at the colts, which was good. I don't want her to know how I feel about her right now. It could put us both in danger.

She may not know it, but right now, she might be more important to me than getting home.

End of Chapter 5...