> Equestria's Borderlands
>  by lightningst0rm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> "What Just Happened?" Moments
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Long ago, on a peaceful planet, was a beautiful and magical kingdom called Equestria. The main inhabitants of this kingdom were the ponies but other races lived in this kingdom too. Equestria was known for being a land of peace and harmony, but it is no surprise that a select few would rise up and disrupt that harmony. To combat these threats, six ponies were chosen to wield powerful artifacts known as the Elements of Harmony. Using the Elements, those six ponies stopped the threats each time they would arise.

But one day, a great evil descended upon the kingdom, something that was too powerful for even the Elements of Harmony to stop. This evil had a name: The Dark Dragons. For years the kingdom fought against the Dark Dragons but it seemed that there was no way to defeat them. The rulers became desperate, willing to try anything in hopes of stopping the war once and for all.

A single unicorn answered their call. This unicorn proposed a plan: one that did not end in the deaths of the Dark Dragons, but their imprisonment. They agreed that his plan was their best chance at winning. They began immediately, using powerful magic to enchant the very land they stood on. The unicorn's plan was to turn the ground into the dragons' prisons. They performed the same actions all around the planet. Once the first phase was complete, they tested his plan. They lured one of the dragons into landing on top of one the prisons and with one giant blast of magic from the unicorn's horn, the dragon sank beneath the earth.

And so it went on; one after another, every Dark Dragon was imprisoned until only one remained; the leader of the Dark Dragons: Kage Lung. The final battle was not an easy one; for four days and nights the battle raged. The final hour of the battle pitted the heroic unicorn against Kage Lung in a bloody final battle beneath the light of a full moon. As the last of the moons rays shined over the blood stained battlefield; the final blow was struck. The heroic unicorn used the last of his magic to cast the spell that would trap the evil dragon for all eternity, and as his horn shined with a light that lit up the horizon like a rising sun, the battle was over. 

The dust settled, and as the sun's light began to bathe the battlefield; one lone figure stood in the middle of the carnage. The victor; the brave unicorn; he who had used every bit of strength to claim victory, stood in the field that now rested above Kage Lung's new prison. Alas, the brave soldier of Harmony did not stay to celebrate this victory; for he had lost much during the war and now only wished to live out his days in peace and solitude. So this soldier; this brave soul who sacrificed so much to ensure the safety of the land he called home, simply vanished; never to be seen again. 

In honor of this soldier, and his great plan that led to the defeat of the dark dragons, the people of this land built great cities over the prisons of the dark dragons as beacons showing where this great hero had left his mark. These cities, or "Havens" as they were eventually called, became homes to the families of those who served under the great hero. Centuries passed, and the inhabitants of the Havens have long since forgotten what lies outside of the great walls surrounding each Haven. The land outside has also changed, becoming savage; a place where the strong survive, and everyday means another challenge. The Council of Celestia, who now carry on the duties of the princess they are named for, warn the Havens' citizens of the dangers lying outside the walls. Life has changed so much, that one might believe that the story of the hero has been forgotten, but this is not the case.

The story of this soldier lives on. His tale is told by mothers to their children, each with a different end to his great story. Some say that he died from the injuries he took in battle; others say he started traveling the world, searching for his destiny. So many endings have been told about this soldier, but one stands above all others. It states that the battle never truly ended; that the soldier knew the dark dragons would one day return; that he chose a great warrior to take his place as the Soldier of Harmony; and that the new Soldier would rise and stop the Dark Dragons once and for all.






Worlds Apart






Chris

"FUCK MY LIFE!!"

Hey there, my name's Christopher, but you can call me Chris. Ever had one of those moments when one second you're on top of the world and the next you seem to be falling to the bottom? Well, I'm having one of those right now, quite literally too. I was just pushed over the edge and out of the Haven I live in by my lieutenant, a pegasus named Travis. I should be pissed at him, but currently, I have only one thing I can say.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHH!!!"

I'm falling about a three hundred feet. Being a unicorn, should have mentioned that before but hey, I'm falling to my doom, but being a unicorn, I could teleport but for some inconvenient reason, I can't teleport when I panic. I was going to give up hope when I saw the ground below me, but, in a mixture of luck and bad luck, I landed in a tree that broke my fall(and possibly one of my limbs), but despite this, it still hurt like a bitch. So instead of getting up right away, I laid there, trying to find the strength to get up. 

"When I get back up there, Travis is a dead man. Fuuuuck."

There was a gash down my right arm that had begun bleeding profusely. That might be a problem if I need to use my sword, but luckily, I'm ambidextrous. I removed my sword from its scabbard and sliced the cloth hood from my uniform. I gripped one end of it in my teeth and wrapped it around as much of the wound as I could cover. It's going to need medical treatment but it'll do for now. I leaned against the tree and began thinking of ways to get back into the Haven, which is basically a giant, walled in city meant to protect the citizens from the outside world. I looked around, noticing how beautiful it actually was. Funny, the Council always said that the outside was a wasteland. 

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!"

The roar brought me out of my thoughts. Okay, so not a wasteland, but still dangerous. I readied my sword for whatever made that cry. I heard something charging towards me from the forest, so I leaped back from the tree towards the wall just as a massive beast's claws splintered the tree's trunk. I actually felt a pang of sadness seeing the tree get destroyed. After all, it did save my life. Back to the creature. 

"What the hell is that?"

That is all I can say. The creature looked like a crocodile if it had hair on its back, claws, and horns. It produced a roar like nothing I've ever heard. It was like a mixture of a frog's croak and a lion's roar. Big ugly attacked first by charging at me. Basic attack patterns, must not be very bright. As it moved forward, I leaped to the side letting it crash into the wall. Its head wasn't built for that because the thing's head was now bleeding. It's blood was a murky green color and smelled like something died. 

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!"

Now it was my turn. I charged the creature, aiming to pierce its skull. But just as I close enough to slash at it, the beast opened its jaws and clamped down on my sword. My sword literally broke in its teeth.

"Oh... shit," was all I could say when I lifted the broken blade up in front of me.

The creature reared up on its hind legs and raked its enormous claws across my chest as it came back down. Its claws went clean through my armor and I could feel them cut into my flesh. The creature didn't even give me time to react as it swung around and struck with its tail. I was thrown at least 30 feet before I slammed into a tree. Dazed by the attack and now noticeable blood loss, I cold barely understand what happened next. The creature began to charge at me again, but when it was about 15 feet from me, a figure jumped out in front of me. I think it was a girl who talked.

"Heyvan getdi!!" is what it sounded like. I wasn't sure considering I went unconscious a few seconds later.

I don't know what happened after I passed out. I wasn't even sure what happened before, it all happened so fast. I wasn't dead, but all I could see was darkness. I heard a few words here and there, but none that I've heard before. I was not prepared at all for what happened next.





End of Chapter 1...
> Eye Opener and a Cute Red-head
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chris


If you've ever been knocked unconscious, you know what it's like when you wake up. Your head is sometimes pounding or you notice pain that you didn't before, but all in all, it sucks. For me, I woke up and my head was killing me, like when you wake up after a hangover. It took a few seconds for my vision to focus, and when it did, I found myself lying on a makeshift bed inside what looked like a hut. My armor was still on, the claw marks reminding me of the fight. It surprised me how easily that creature was able to tear through my armor; it was built to withstand gunshots and this thing tore through like it was butter. I checked my arm to see how bad it was and was surprised to find it was wrapped in fresh bandages. I touched it cautiously and found that it wasn't hurting either. Whoever did this had a very good understanding of medicine.

"Yaxşı, siz oyaq edirik," said a voice to the side of me. I jumped a little bit because I hadn't realized there was another pony in the tent with me.

I turned over to see a mare who was currently mixing something in a bowl. She was an earth pony, but she had tribal tattoos around her neck, above her left eye, and around her wrists. She had red hair that covered her right eye and rested on her shoulder. Her coat was tan, making her look like that pegasus mare that founded the Central Haven Hospital, but if you darkened her coat and mane. She was cute.

"Necə hiss edir?" she asked me in a language I didn't understand. "Siz məni başa bilməz? Əziz Oh. Elder, o, məni başa bilməz."

She must have noticed that I couldn't understand her. I don't know what she said but after she said it, an elderly unicorn stallion pushed aside the cloth that acted as a door.  He looked at me for a few seconds before turning to the mare.

"Siz o Scarlet anlamaq deyil əminsinizmi?" he spoke with a gruff voice, but in it there was a hint of great wisdom.

"Bəli, o, səhv görünür."

"O, hələ tam şüurlu ola bilər, ancaq çox təəssüf təhlükəsiz olmaq daha yaxşıdır güman edirlər."

I honestly had no idea what they were saying, but the elderly stallion reached into a pocket in his robe and pulled out what looked like a pin shaped like a pair of wings. I wondered why he pulled it out and what it for, but before I could ask, he grabbed me by the head and placed the pin on my fore head, just below my horn. Was he going to stick that in my forehead? I'm normally calm in situations like this but I was never fond of needles, so I was beginning to panic.

"Um, look, I'm thankful for you tending to my wounds but you don't need to give me a piercing," I sputtered out.

Still, the elderly stallion positioned the pin, it now just occurring to me that he might not understand me either. I closed my eyes and held in a scream as I felt the pin go into my fore head. It only took a few seconds, but it felt like longer. To me; it felt like it took several minutes. The pain subsided to a dull ache after a few seconds. 

"So, tell me young stallion, can you understand me now?" said the elderly unicorn in perfect English.

Hold on; did he just speak English? Just seconds ago, he was speaking some form of gibberish.

"Excuse me; I said can you understand me now?"

"Yeah, I can understand you now. Can you understand me?" I said while still trying to understand what was happening.

"I could actually understand you to begin with. Everyone in the village wears a charm like the one I just stuck in your forehead."

Naturally I had questions but I chose not to ask them. I need to get back to the haven. Maybe these ponies could help me. I tried to sit up but was forced back down by a searing pain in my chest. I then realized why I still had my armor on.

"Neither of you know how to take off my armor, do you?" I asked through the pain. The red haired mare answered first.

"I was the one tasked with treating your wounds but I've never seen "armor" before, so I couldn't treat the wounds on your chest. I asked the elder, but he didn't know how to remove it either." 

"Hehe; at least not this armor," the unicorn added with a chuckle.

I didn't hear him; I was focused on the mare sitting next to me. Her voice was soft and gentle. I couldn't find anything else to describe it besides those two words and I wish I could find more. I must have been staring because she started blushing. I blushed too after that and she giggled at my reaction. I'll consider that my first victory of the day. That aside I realized I need to remove my armor if I wanted help removing my armor. I went to undo the first strap but I stopped as a thought crossed my mind.

"Hold on, I was told that any ponies living outside of the havens were either savages or bandits," the elderly stallion noticed my suspicion and the mare seemed distressed(which made me regret saying it), "How do I know you aren't going to kill me as soon as I remove my armor?"

The elderly stallion was quick to answer. "You don't. For all you know, I could have a dagger and I'm just waiting to strike. You'll never know until you get there. The one problem with your theory is that we planned to kill you, why would my young medicine mare have risked her life to save you, and then carry you back here by herself to heal you?"

I have to admit, he did make sense. They could kill me, but if I don't remove my armor, the wound will get infected and I'll die from that. I guess I don't have choice in the matter. I let out a sigh and began undoing the straps for my armor. After I lifted it over my head, I finally got a good look at the wound. It was much worse than I thought it was. I also realized I had been wearing my favorite work shirt. None of us moved for about a minute, and once again, the elderly stallion spoke first.

"As you can see, neither of us tried to kill you. I'll leave Scarlet to tend to your wounds. Maybe when she's finished, you and I can have a conversation," and with that said, the stallion left the hut.

I let out a sigh of relief, maybe because I was still alive or because he left. The mare had picked up the bowl and was mixing it again. Every few seconds she'd glance back at me or maybe it was my wound. The silence in the hut was bothering me so I decided to ask some questions that I wanted to ask.

"So," I began, "Scarlet right?" 

"Yes, that's right,"  she responded without looking up.

"You  have a really beautiful name. Such a name fits an equally beautiful mare."

She almost dropped the bowl after I said that. I must have sounded like an idiot. Sweet Celestia, why did I have to say such a cheesy line? I was never good at talking to mares. The only mare I can talk to is Chelsy, and that's because she's one of my best friends. I'm such an idiot.

"I'm sorry," I sputtered, "I shouldn't have said that."

She almost dropped the bowl again. 

"No, no," she responded, her face almost as red as her hair, "You just caught me off guard. I'm not used to getting compliments. The stallions of my tribe give gifts to mares they find attractive, and because I'm one the medicine mares, I'm not allowed to get married unless I left the tribe."

"I'm sorry, if I would have known, I would've had something to give you."

She giggled this time, ending her giggle with a snort. I had to keep myself from laughing. Her laugh was adorable and funny at the same time.

"I'm sorry, your way of speaking is new to me. I'm almost finished with the medicine for your wound but I need you to remove your shirt."

"That's probably a good idea. The shirt is pretty much ruined now."

I now got to see what she had been mixing. She had been mixing herbal powder with a paste. I removed my now ruined shirt. Normally I don't get to remove my shirt until I get home, so stretching my wings early was felt amazing. I thought I might have accidentally knocked the bowl from her hand, because when I finished stretching, I heard the bowl clatter on the ground. I turned to see Scarlet staring wide-eyed at my wings.

"Hey," I began, "I didn't mean to- 

"ELDER!" she screamed before I could finish.

I instantly assumed the worst. I wasn't sure what happened, but then I remembered that any alicorn born in the haven must join the council to stay an alicorn. If they choose otherwise, they lose their magic or their flight. I chose to keep my magic. Since I'm outside the haven, I can assume they don't see alicorns very often. I began to sweat when the elder walked in and saw my wings.

"I'm g-guessing being a-an alicorn is a b-bad thing," I stuttered.

The elder looked at Scarlet and smiled. I found myself becoming calmer when I saw that. It was weird.

"Scarlet, there's no need to scream. An alicorn is not unnatural, although, one with wings of that size is unnatural. I wouldn't mind hearing your story son."

"Uh sure I guess? Well, in the havens, the Council of Celestia are a group of alicorns that helped keep the kingdom running after Celestia died. Whenever an alicorn is born, the council is immediately alerted to the birth. The child is given eighteen years to live normally, but when they reach the age of eighteen, they're given three choices."

"What are those choices son?"

"You become a member of the council, or you choose between becoming a legal pegasus or unicorn. They don't remove your horn or wings but they do make it so you can't use them. Those who choose to become pegasi have their horns sanded down into bumps, and those who chose to become unicorns, like me, magically cease the growth of the wings. While I can still move them, they're practically useless. I chose to become an Elite Guard so I could patrol the haven walls. It puts me close to the sky."

"You wish you could still fly."

"Yeah, I do..."

There was a long moment of silence. I felt like I didn't need to be pitied, but I felt glad that someone understood me.

"You and I have more in common than you think."

My ears shot up. what was he talking about. How would he know? He chuckled as if he read my thoughts.

"I had wings too once. I lost mine during a fight with a stallion who came to my village with his gang. He demanded our mares and anything of potential value. I agreed to nothing. He ordered an attack but his men were no match for me. Neither was the leader himself, but he still cut off my wings. I never used to pay them any mind, but you never really think of something until it's gone."

"Wow, I'm sorry. I should feel glad I still have mine."

I turned to Scarlet. She currently replacing the medicine that had fallen on the ground with the bowl.

"I'll leave you two alone now. I can see you two already get along quite well," and he said this with an added chuckle before leaving the hut.

Scarlet was blushing again. I guess I blushed too. What did he mean, we've barely known each other for twenty minutes. I kinda wish it were more than that. 

Scarlet finished the medicine faster than last time. She sighed before turning to me.

"I need you to lie down for this. The medicine is going to sting for a bit, but that's it burning away any possible infections that have begun."

I did as she said and leaned onto my back. She must have done this many times before because while I blushed a little knowing she was leaning over me, she had the same gentle smile as before. The medicine paste was a pale green color, and just like she said it would, it stung. She rubbed it over the wound and would occasionally press her fingers into the wound. After a few seconds the pain begun to dull and I relaxed a little. After about a minute she stopped rubbing the medicine over the wound. 

"Okay," she began, "I need you to sit up now. I need to wrap it so no dirt can get in."

I found myself following every direction she gave me without a thought. She pulled a long ribbon of clothe out of a basket and began wrapping it around my waist. She continued to do so until there wasn't any visible blood soaking through the bandages. I leaned back when she had tied the ribbon to keep it in place.

"I actually need you to stay sitting up. I need to check and see if any of your ribs are broken"

"Huh? Why would you need to do that?"

"The bunyip smashed you with its tail. I just need to be sure."

"Yeah, and before that I did fall about three hundred feet."

Next thing I know, she's poking me in the chest, feeling my ribs, checking my ribs and other places in search of broken bones. I was sore in some spots, but to my relief, no broken bones were found. I guess I got really lucky. I actually felt more relaxed right now then I have in a few years. I began to day dream but was brought back to reality by her voice.

"Do you mind if I ask what your name is?"

"Huh? Oh, my name. My name's Christopher White, but you can just call me Chris."

"Okay, um, Chris. In truth, I actually saw you fall. I had been gathering herbs when I heard you screaming. Unfortunately, that screaming set off our village's bunyip."

"Wait, hold on, you mean to say that the thing that attacked me lives in this village?"

"Yes, it also helped bring you back to the village. It's trained to protect the medicine mares when we go out collecting herbs, so when it saw your sword, it charged. There's a group of dangerous bandits who live deeper in the forest. They capture any villager that happens to be alone."

"Do you think I could help you with that problem?"

"Well, I'd need to talk with the village Elder, but I suppose you could. Your wounds would need to heal before you could do anything."

She was right about that, I wouldn't be going anywhere until my wounds healed a bit. I began estimating how long it would take but was interrupted by my stomach. I had no idea how long I was out, so I was starving.

"Hey Scarlet?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you have anything to eat?"

She giggled again because the second I asked that, my stomach growled. This time, I found I was the one embarrassed. I must have blushing pretty hard because she was laughing now, occasionally snorting while she did. Her laugh was adorable but that didn't keep me from blushing.

"You rest here," she said while trying to keep from laughing, "I'll go get some food and talk to the Elder."

I found myself staring at her plot as she left the tent. Maybe being betrayed wasn't the worst thing to happen to me. In fact, I'm beginning to like it.

I'm still going to kick Travis's ass...

End of Chapter 2...
> Happiness from the Sky
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Scarlet


This is one of the best days of my life! No, focus, um okay, I was going to get some fruit from one of stalls for Chris. I'm not actually sure if he eats the same things I do but I don't care. He's just so handsome and charming. His coat is the same shade as the sky, his hair is the color of shining silver, and his eyes, I've never seen eyes that deep blue. I'm just a simple medicine mare, the filly that no stallion would marry, but Chris, he's different, I think he actually likes me. Before Chris, no one but the Elder ever told me I was beautiful. After paying for the fruit, I practically danced back towards the tent, but I remembered I needed to talk to the Elder about Chris's offer. Luckily, the Elder's hut isn't far from my hut, which also serves as the medical tent. I walked to the Elder's hut and took a breath before I entered. Sometimes the incense the Elder burned was to strong for me to stand for too long. I entered his hut and was relieved to find he was burning the strawberry ones. The dragon's breath incense was really strong. He turned to face me with the usual smile. I sat down on my usual spot across from him.

"How is our guest doing? Must be doing well seeing as you already went to get food for him."

I guess I started blushing, because the Elder started to chuckle. 

"There's no need to be embarrassed young one, it's perfectly normal, but you didn't come to hear an old stallion prattle on did you?"

I sometimes wonder if he can sense when something's wrong, because he always seems to have a solution to any problem I have. I'm not sure how he'll respond to what I'm going to say to him though.

"Y-yes," I managed to say through a stutter, "I wanted to talk to y-you a-a-b-bout the b-ba-bandits."

He tensed up. I know he's been trying to avoid talk about the bandit problem. They came about half a year ago, and while we were able to chase them off, they wouldn't leave us alone. Soon they began attacking any villager that went out alone. Sometimes we'd find hunters hung from the trees, but any mare that gets captured doesn't return, but there have been rumors of new bandit mares who resemble those who have gone missing. The village is scared, so is the Elder. After a long moment of silence, he finally answered.

"Why do you bring up the bandits Scarlet? I told you that you need not worry."

"I might have told Chris, the stallion I found, about the bandits. He has offered to help chase them off."

He didn't relax after I said this. I could tell he was hesitant, I was just has hesitant about letting Chris do this too. He sighed and relaxed when he next spoke, but his voice was still serious.

"Scarlet, you must tell him what he's up against if he really wants to help. These bandits aren't normal criminals, if they catch him, they will kill him. I know about where he came from and what is told about the outside world. While not entirely true, the one truth is that there are savages, those who have been spawned by the hatred of being left outside the havens. They're not criminals anymore, they've become-"

"They've become monsters."

I turned around to face Chris. I actually couldn't believe that he had been able to stand up and walk. I don't know why, but I started blushing. Do I really find Chris that attractive?

"How l-long have you been s-standing there?" I managed to sputter out. 

"Long enough to here him talk about the bandits," he replied calmly.

"You, don't seem very frightened."

"With all do respect, I've dealt with murderers before. From what I've heard though, they don't really have much power," Chris said with a steady tone. "You haven't said much, but I know they use sneak attacks to catch others, but they're afraid of those creatures."

"Many ponies would be afraid of an adult bunyip."

"True, but have you ever seen them using tools that make loud bangs and then leave holes."

The Elder was silent, as if he didn't want to speak out. I could tell he didn't like talking about this, neither did I, but he sighed and gave Chris an answer.

"The leader used one. It was nothing like I've seen but it terrified me. It was like polished, red stone in silver armor with two pitch black eyes at the end and a blade bearing serrated teeth beneath those eyes. He called it Bone Chipper."

"He's using a gun. I've been taught how to use one but the Elite Guard are given swords. I could be a shot gun, some have two, three, heck, some have four barrels. At close range, they can rip you apart, but with enough distance-"

"Chris was it? I appreciate your offer, but in your current condition, you have no chance against them. I think you should heal a bit before we make a decision."

Chris opened his mouth like he was going to argue but he stopped and let out a sigh. He stood up again, letting out a grunt of pain, and bowed to the Elder. He then turned and left the hut. I still couldn't believe he was able to walk with wounds like that. Maybe he could manage to beat the bandits.

"Scarlet."

The Elder's calm voice brought me out of my thoughts. I had been so quiet since Chris walked in, I had forgotten why I was here.

"What is it Elder?"

"I can understand that you only wanted to help, when you brought him here, but I know where he came from. Scarlet, the ponies that control the great cities aren't as they seem. It's the main reason I left, giving up my love in doing so."

"You've told me this before, but I think Chris is different."

"Scarlet, I used to know ponies who acted like Chris. They always thought of others long before they thought of themselves. Unfortunately, that also led to our falling out. When the havens were risen, we all had different opinions, our leader wanted to follow the princesses, but others, like myself, thought we should also help those unable to enter the haven. Eventually, we all just gave up on each other. I left the city and my love, taking only prized possessions, and my regrets. My regrets still follow me. Change is something we all fear Scarlet, do you think your friend will be brave enough to accept it?"

I had never heard Elder speak of his past like this before, I didn't know exactly what to say about it. Part of me wondered if Chris only wants to get back to the city to reclaim his old life, and the other part wondered if he cares enough about the outside to want help change it. I didn't know, I just didn't know, but something inside me was giving me an answer. Something that most would ignore but I felt I should hear out. It spoke one word. One simple word.

"Yes. I believe Chris can help us. I believe he could change."

The Elder stared at me for a minute before cracking that smile that always seemed to calm me down. He chuckled as he stood up and moved aside the cloth that covered the entrance to his living space. I waited, listening as he searched through his things. About a minute later, he came out holding a small vial with a closed top. It was small and made of glass, and inside it contained a golden liquid that seemed to give off a dim light. He swirled the contents of the bottle as he spoke.

"This Scarlet," he began, "is a potion I made almost a century ago. Currently, few would be able to successfully produce this potion. It is a healing potion, one so powerful, that only a single drop can heal the most fatal wounds. I'm giving it to you Scarlet. Place a drop into one the fruit and give the fruit to Chris. By tomorrow, his wounds should be fully healed, the only reminders being scars. The one who taught me to make this died a long time ago. How did she tell me how it worked? Oh right! With only one drop, the pain will stop, and the wound you knew, becomes a tattoo."

"I've never heard anyone speak like that."

"She liked to speak in rhymes. I'll admit, I sometimes didn't know what she meant."

We both laughed at that. When I was little, I loved Elder's stories of the past. I once asked how long he could live. He told me that while he could live close to a thousand years at the most, the princesses were already over a thousand and still young. He then added, that if I thought that was amazing, one of his friends was over ten thousand. When we stopped laughing, I stood up and turned to leave, but the Elder stopped me.

"Remember Scarlet, only a single drop. Nothing bad would happen if you added anymore, but that is the only vial of that potion I possess. If all of it gets used, I might not be able to make another."

I nodded and left his hut. Was what just happened a sign, was he going to let Chris help? Maybe he'd even let me leave with Chris when he's done. I guess I'll know when it gets there.





I entered my hut expecting to see Chris sitting up, but instead I found him asleep. I decided to use this time to do what the Elder told me. I sat down beside Chris and pulled my knife out from my satchel. It wasn't a knife that's used for battle, just a knife I carry for cutting bandages, vines, ropes, fruit. The Elder gave it to me when I first became a medicine mare. The blade is made from a stone he called obsidian that he enchanted to make it stronger. I rarely need to sharpen it, which is sometimes good and bad. It's great for cutting open my favorite fruit. I wasn't sure if he'd like this fruit, so I decided to give him the smallest one first to see if he'd like them. After I cut it open, I opened the vial and let single drop of the potion fall into the fruit. The fruit has a really strong scent so I quickly screwed the top back onto the vial and put it in my satchel. Chris sat up after I had finished closing my satchel. He made an odd face when he sniffed the air.

"Wow," he said, "that is strong. I mean it smells good, but woah, what is that?"

"It's called Chu Chu fruit," I answered, "Its scent is strong but it's really good."

He took the fruit slice from me and sniffed it. I hoped the potion didn't have a smell. I didn't sigh out of relief when he tried it. He scooped the slimy innards of the fruit with his hand and seemed confused on how to eat it. He managed to finish it without spilling it, which was good. 

"You're right, that is good. Kinda tastes like cherries. Can I have some more?"

I breathed a sigh of relief as I handed him another piece. I cut open another for myself but I dropped my knife in surprise when I looked inside.

"What's wrong?" he asked after swallowing another handful of the slime.

"This one was too ripe. You can always tell when they're over ripe when the eyes had formed."

He stopped and looked down at the fruit in his hands, then to the one in my hands, and finally to me before he responded.

"Eyes? Did you say eyes?"

"Sorry, I should have mentioned that. Chu Chus are strange creatures that are born out of the fruit. Before they're born they're basically just edible slime. When they're adults, they look like living slime balls with eyes. They come in more than just one color, but red is the most common."

"So, they're living tree sap?"

"I guess you could say that. It doesn't change the way it tastes and the red jelly helps heal injuries."

That last part was more or less true, you have to heat the red jelly until it becomes juice for it to help heal wounds. I said that in hope that he'd decide to keep eating. I relaxed when he continued eating, albeit not like before. At least he was eating. I had barely finished mine before he asked for more. When we had finished off the fruit(except the one with eyes), I asked him about what it was like living in the city. He told me about the vehicles that they drive around, the weapons some of the knights use, and about the different food. I really liked the story about He who Watches, a mysterious specter that supposedly lived in the last remaining piece of Canterlot Castle, a tower that Celestia herself once lived in.

We talked for a couple hours but Chris must have been tired because he fell asleep in the middle of a story. By tomorrow, the potion should have helped his wounds heal, but I hoped that they weren't healed enough for him to fight the bandits. I believed he could stop them, but I was still worried. What if he got hurt? What if they kill him? What if he joins them? That's it, I won't let him do this alone. I'm going to help him fight the bandits. I'm not going to be just another medicine mare. I want to see the world and hopefully, Chris can help me do just that.


End of Chapter 2...
	

	

	
> 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...

	

	
> Bandit Busters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chris


Okay, Scarlet was right. My plan straight up sucked.

"THIS WAS A HORRIBLE PLAN!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"GET ON YER GODDAMN KNEES!!" replied the terrifying stallion-thing who was somehow still able to scream.

This thing was determined to kill us. We were basically trying to avoid his punches and hammer, shooting at him whenever we had the chance. His health bar was barely dropping, but it was kinda hard to focus on shooting a guy when you keep looking at his head flailing limply about behind him like a half-deflated balloon comically attached to a headless gorilla. How he still managed to talk with his head like that was baffling. At one point, the bandit smashed his hammer in half. That only seemed to make him angrier, his attacks becoming more savage and reckless. Noticing that gave me an idea; I just hope this one works out better.

"SCARLET!!" I screamed over the chaos, "We need to get him to charge into the wall!"

"What!?" she screamed, her voice cracking, "What for!?"

"If it works, he'll charge straight through it and fall over the edge!"

"This one better work!"

I dodged a punch and launched myself off the bandit's shoulders, landing behind him and running towards the wall. Scarlet was already waiting for me at the wall. It didn't take long for the bandit to find where we ran, because his head was hanging behind him and his eyes pointed directly at us. He turned around and cracked his knuckles.

"Okay," Scarlet whispered, "now what?"

"When he charges, the moment before he reaches us, we jump to the side and let him crash through it."

"Sounds easy enough, but if it fails, then what?"

"Let's not think about that."

The bandit scraped his hoof on the ground, like a bull about to charge, which I was counting on. 

"YOU ARE SO FUCKING DEAD!!" he screamed before charging at us.

"Wait for it," I said.

"Chris?"

He was about half way to us, moving now would all ow him to change direction.

Wait for it."

The bandit was almost to us. Just a couple more seconds.

"I'M GONNA GRIND YOU INTO DUST!!"

"Chris!"

"NOW!" I signaled, both of us jumping out of the way at the last second.

The bandit crashed into the wall with enough force to shatter a brick wall. The wall splintered and cracked but it didn't give. There was another sound in the impact as well as the breaking wood. A sickening crack that only a breaking neck could produce. I looked at the bandit who was stumbling, barely able to keep balance. I looked up and saw his health bar had dropped to zero. His coat had lost its red color and his muscles had ceased bulging.

"Why... so much... hurt?" he said slowly.

The bandit dropped to his knees and then with a final grunt, fell to the ground, shaking the earth beneath us. His head smashed the ground, limp as before but now silent and lifeless. Scarlet walked over to the massive body and placed her hand to the exposed blood vessels that are usually invisible beneath the neck on a normal pony.

"He's dead," she told me, "How did you know he would charge?"

"That's the thing, I didn't. He could have done any number of things. We just got lucky."

"So we could have died there?"

"Eeyup. Come on, we need to search his body for the key."

Scarlet wasn't to keen on looting a corpse for a single key, but I honestly didn't care. In the elite guard, you were trained to be prepared for anything. As for what caused a normal pony to look like this, a couple centuries ago, there was supposedly rumors of a group disposing of failed magical potions by dumping them over the haven walls. Maybe the waste caused mutations.

"Hey Chris!" Scarlet yelled waving me over to the helmet, "I found it!"

The helmet was huge, about the size of a trash can, and had a single opening in the helmet to allow sight. The key was hidden on the inside of the helmet above the visor. Pretty smart place to hide a key, no one in the right mind would want to try and take it if they knew it was there. I took the key from its hiding spot and was surprised by a groan. We both looked down and found that the bandit that the helmet landed on was moving. I felt guilty, seeing as I was the one that got him crushed by the helmet anyway. The helmet wasn't as heavy as I thought before because I could lift it without magic. It wasn't even sturdy metal, why would a bandit be wearing this aside from hiding their appearance. Without thinking about it anymore, I tossed the helmet aside and nudged the bandit with my hoof.

"Hey buddy," I said, nudging the bandit, "your back ain't busted. You can get up."

It crossed my mind just then that he could have a concussion. If he did, he probably wasn't getting up any time soon. I looked up and saw the phoenix circling above, reminding me of our task. We should just leave the bandit here, if he's gone when we're finished, it won't make any difference to me.

"Leave him alone," Scarlet told me annoyed, "We got the key, let's go unlock the gate so we can get inside."

"Are you angry because of my plan?"

"Gee, What do ya' think?"

I didn't answer. I just rolled my eyes and walked over to the padlock. I never was good at making plans, Chelsy was my strategist and my best friend. We used to date but decided on staying friends. She told me I was handsome but not very good with words or using my head. That's gonna need to change soon. I placed the key in the lock and tried to turn it. I took the key out and looked into the lock, hoping to find something. When I didn't, I put the key back in and tried turning it again, and this time it broke.

"Son of a bitch!" I swore, "The goddamn key broke!"

I went into one of my moods, where I just started screaming random shit. I don't know when during my freak out I did it, but I magically blew the lock open. I didn't notice until Scarlet calmed me down and pointed it out. I never really understood magic, but I could always find some spell that would help me out; it's why I chose to give up flight instead of magic.

Scarlet patted me on the back, before running ahead of me towards the castle. The bridge had been wrapped in a light fog that obscured some of the castle, so when I ran onto the bridge, I got a really good look at it.  It looked like someone couldn't decide on building it out of wood or stone. The bandits had used thousands of planks of wood to make the crumbling castle structurally safe enough to live in. The front towers had been modified to act as sniper lookouts and the walkways had wood planks set up to provide cover. However, one detail stuck out the most. Growing out of the center of the castle, was a massive tree, that could have only been grown with magic and then left alone for hundreds of years. Its branches extended through the walls and its roots hung over the cliff and into the canyon below us. The front gate had fallen over long ago and was now lying half buried in the ground in front of the door way. I could hear cheering from inside. Something was going on inside.






Scarlet


The inside of the base was nicer than I thought. The bandits had strengthened the ceilings with wood and kept the castle lit and warm with hundreds of torches(which wasn't very safe considering all of the wood). Which struck me as odd was that no one seemed to be around. Chris said that the cheering was coming from the center of the castle but we should still be careful. I stayed together and began searching through rooms. Most of them were storage rooms, some of which Chris decided to loot for ammo or guns. He mentioned something about maybe being able to sell them. After checking all the rooms we found, we began moving closer towards the cheering. We cut through the kitchen to find the source of the cheering, but I wish we could have gone around. The bandits weren't very tidy, dirty dishes were everywhere and there was a huge fish lying on the table. I couldn't believe the bandits were eating fish. Chris didn't seem bothered. He said fish were a main source of food for griffins and kelpies. I hoped he was right.

As we made our way closer to the cheering, which had escalated to a roar with stomping and whistling mixed in, I also became aware of other sounds. It sounded like two animals were fighting; two very big animals. Chris was unfazed and continued in the direction of the noise. The source was a massive room that may have once been smaller, but had been converted a huge arena. The massive tree we saw from the outside was growing on the other side of the pit. Hundreds of bandits were seated in various spots cheering, and from what Chris pointed out, mostly unarmed. I was glad to see there weren't any other bandits like the one we fought earlier, but I saw some new ones. There were a couple griffins that I could see, next to one of them was a creature that looked like a pony mixed with a crocodile that had straight black hair and glowing yellow eyes; I assumed that was a kelpie. There were also small shacks built on top of the platforms surrounding the pit, so there was a possibility some shacks contained more bandits. Chris tapped my shoulder and pointed into the arena, and I was horrified by what I saw.

Fighting in the arena were two creatures that looked like nothing I've ever seen. One looked like a massive tree that had grown legs and four arms. Its leaves and branches hung down, like a willow tree, giving it the appearance of having hair. The other creature was just as bizarre. It had two heads, a goat's head and a lion's head. It had the front legs of a lion and the back legs of a goat and instead of a tail, it had a long snake that was looking at the tree creature and bearing its teeth. The beast looked like it may have once had wings, but if it did they had been cut off. Chris identified the tree creature as an Ent, a magic plant being found only in deep forests, and the three headed monster as a Chimera. As we watched the two creatures fight, I began to notice that something was off. They weren't physically attacking each other; they were just roaring and clawing at the air in front of them. Is this why the bandits captured the Elder's pet phoenix.

"We have to stop this," I whispered to Chris, "this is wrong, it's inhumane."

"I know," he whispered back, "but we can't just run in there, we're out numbered."

"Then what? It's not like we can attack them from behind a corner."

"Actually, we might be able to do just that."

I didn't understand he meant at first but then he pulled a small object out of his bag and showed it to me. My I-Sparkle became active and told me it was a bandit made grenade, although my display spelled it as Humming Boome Stik. Apparently bandits don't have very good grammar, weird since my assault rifle is bandit made and it has correct spelling. Maybe the bandit who made my rifle knew how to spell. 

"What do you plan to do with that?"

"Easy; it's a homing grenade. It homes in on the closest target that's registered as an enemy. All we have to do is get their attention and when they come up here, take out the group. I only have one so-"

He was interrupted by a gun shot coming from the stadium followed by an increase in cheering. We looked back in to see that someone had shot the Ent and somehow managed to light it on fire. Some of the bandits had jumped into the pit and were tossing chains around the Chimera. Another group of the bandits stood up and began walking in our direction. I frantically looked between Chris and the bandits. I panicked; without thinking, I grabbed the grenade from Chris's hand and tossed it at the group of bandits. Chris grabbed me and pulled me back as we heard beeping.

"What the?" was all one of the bandits could say before the grenade went off.

There was no good way for me to describe what it sounded like when the grenade went off but it was sickening, and worse, now the bandits knew we were here. Chris wasted no time in pulling out his SMG before running out of our hiding spot and then began unloading bullets. I did the same thing, but instead of standing in the door way like Chris, I ran past him and began making my way down to the pit. I wasn't going to let them lock up that creature. No creature deserved this kind of treatment.

It wasn't very hard to get down there, most of the bandits had low quality pistols or rifles and some were even completely unarmed. However, one bandit caught me off guard. He was a muscular stallion that had a large horn on the end of his snout, a smaller one right behind it. My I-Sparkle labeled him as an Indrik Raider. The way he spoke told me to fire a bullet into his skull.

"Hey goily," he said, "hows about you drop the gun an' we go someplace nice 'n quiet?"

I growled at the statement. I fired the first bullet into his crotch and smiled as he dropped his gun and fell over in pure agony. I walked up to him and fired a second bullet into his neck. Without a second thought, I picked up his gun and strapped it to my bag, I'll sell it later.

I was caught off guard by a piercing pain shot across my side. I looked down and saw a shallow gash in my hip. I spun around and saw that a bandit had fired at me and was furiously attempting to reload his gun. Unfazed by the pain, I emptied the rest of my magazine into the bandit's body. I walked over to his now lifeless body and found his gun was the same as mine, which gave me an idea. I took the rifle from the dead bandit's hand. Both rifles in hand, I continued down towards the pit, firing bullet after bullet into bandit bodies. I need to remember this method. It's as effective as it was fun.

I fought my way through more bandits before I reached the edge of the pit. Upon reaching the edge, I tossed the other rifle aside, noticing that I was consuming twice as much ammo as before. I hopped in and fired at the bandits trying to subdue the Chimera. I hit the first one in the chest, the second in the knee, but I missed the last one entirely. The third bandit dropped the chain but was bitten by the chimera's snake tale and slammed down on top of the bandit I shot in the knee. The chimera turned around to face me with its two front heads and brushed up against as a way of thanks. It then jumped up into the stands and began ripping apart bandits one by one. It charged past Chris who jumped down into the pit with me. We looked up and saw some of the remaining bandits were just watching us.

"So you think you can walk in and ruin our fun," a voice said from above us.

We both looked up and saw the griffin Chris had pointed out earlier. My display identified him as First Mate Skylar. He wore muscle shirt with an ax design on it, and a pair of heavy pants with a lot of pockets that sported a camo print. There was a large chip in his beak and his feathers were fashioned into a mohawk.

"I think they look like a couple of party crashers," another voice said.

This voice came from the kelpie that had been sitting next to the griffin Skylar. He wore a ratty, dusty brown vest over top of a shirt that looked like it was fashioned from a net. His skin was visible through the net shirt and I could see he had scars, teeth marks it looked like. His pants were just as ragged as his vest. They looked like they've been repeatedly drug through the mud. I bet he smelled as dirty as he looked. He was identified as Second Mate Marshal.

"Hey Marshal, what do you think we should do?" Skylar asked.

"I bet they think they're pretty strong," Marshal answered, "Maybe we should let Tomahawk take care of them."

"Hey everybody!" Skylar yelled, "Should we call Tomahawk?"

"TOMAHAWK! TOMAHAWK! TOMAHAWK! TOMAHAWK! TOMAHAWK!" the bandits began chanting.

The griffin and kelpie jumped into the stands and joined in the chanting. We kept looking around for the bandit called Tomahawk, but we couldn't see him. It was then that a roar broke through the chanting, causing us to look up. Dropping from the top of the massive tree, was a massive griffin. The griffin landed on a platform at the base of the tree. He looked like lion with the head of a vulture. His wings were bigger than any of the other griffins in the room. He wore a jacket that had its sleeves ripped off and no shirt was visible beneath his chest feathers, but he had a necklace showing various animal teeth around his neck. He wore a pair of camo pants and a pair of combat boots. He had a bright red mohawk on his head, the edges of his beak the same shade of red. He pulled a gun from a strap on his belt held it so we got a good look at it. It was a double barrel shotgun with a serrated blade at the end of the barrels. The handle was carved wood and had silver plating with designs carved into it. It was the gun that the Elder had seen, and it looked terrifying. His voice was rough and violent.

"So," the griffin yelled, "I hear we gotta couple'a party crashers. They look more like two 'o them tree huggers to me. To me, tree huggers are just idiots who want t' be trees. As of right now, you two tree huggers are trees, and what do we do t' trees boys? WE CUT 'EM DOWN!!"


Commander Tomahawk: TIIIIIIMBEEEEEEER!!







Chris


I looked away from this, monster of a griffin, to Scarlet who stood trembling next to me. She was shaking, most likely from thinking about what was going to happen to us. Tomahawk jumped off the platform, throwing up a cloud of dust when he landed, and began walking towards us. Scarlet was visibly panicking now, she's probably never seen a griffin of this size before. When he was about ten feet from us, Scarlet fell over and began backing away. I however, didn't flinch, I never even blinked, and I could tell Tomahawk noticed.

"Your filly friend looks like she's about to start screaming, but you, you stand tall. Like a knight protecting an innocent. You've got guts kid."

"Maybe, but then again, you're not very frightening."

I could tell I struck a nerve. Tomahawk snarled and smashed me across the face, throwing me back. I could taste blood on my tongue. I didn't care, I've taken worse punches than that.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, comin' in here, talkin' like you're king, callin' me a coward," he screamed in rage, "What makes you better than me?"

"You're a wuss," I said through my blood covered teeth, "You're a big griffin who hides behind his grunts. That guy we fought outside the gate was scarier than you."

He punched me again, knocking me onto me back. My nose was bleeding now. I looked over at Scarlet, thankful she wasn't shaking now. I mouthed a sentence to her, hoping she'll understand.

Aim for his wings.

Tomahawk picked me up by the neck and raised me above his head. He took his gun and placed its blade to my throat. I could see he was twitching. Like, I could visibly see his veins twitching under the feathers on his head.

"You come in here," he said, "kill my strongest guard, kill my men, release my entertainment, and then have the nerve to call me a WUSS!? What makes you better than me, huh!? Why are you special!?"

"I still have wings," I said, running out of breath.

Before he could question me further, Scarlet pulled a second gun from her bag and shot Tomahawk in the wings, sending blood and feathers into the air. He tossed me to the ground and began stomping around screaming from a mixture of pain and anger. The bullets were explosive rounds and had blown his left wing right off of his body, while the other was hanging loosely, turning red from the blood pouring out. Scarlet ran over to where I had landed. I was coughing and gasping for air. I stood up shakily and took out Lemon Drop. This fight ain't over yet.

I glanced up into the stands and noticed that none of the other bandits were moving. Maybe they were waiting for something. Tomahawk had begun to quiet down and now turned to face us. His eyes were full of hate, but his health was also a fourth of the way gone. I knew that the gun he was holding would do serious damage if it shot me. I needed to keep him enraged. 

"Hey Tomahawk," I taunted, "I noticed none of your men are jumping down here to stop us."

"Yeah?" he said through his panting, "What about it?"

"I was just thinking that, you know, maybe they're waiting for something."

"Waiting for what?" he growled as he turned in my direction.

"I thought," I continued while spinning Lemon Drop on my finger, "Maybe they're waiting for you to grow a pair and actually kill me."

I heard a few of the bandits surrounding us start laughing. Tomahawk on the other hand, was getting really, really pissed.

"You stupid, fucking, pony," he said through his teeth, "I am going to claw that tongue out of your mouth if you don't shut up."

"Really? Those are big words coming from a griffin who just had his wings clipped."

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!! I'M GONNA KICK YER ASS!!"

"Oh! In that case, I'll shut up. After all, I wouldn't want to crush a chicken's dreams."

"I am giving you one last chance..."

"Alright I'm done," I said before leaning closer to him, "Have fun getting back on your perch Captain Flightless."

For almost a solid minute, he just stood there twitching. I was laughing my ass off inside my head, and the bandits surrounding us were now laughing uncontrollably. I even heard his mates Skyler and Marshal laughing. Griffins can speak, write, read, and use guns, but get them angry enough, they change back into what they truly are: wild animals.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!

Tomahawk went into a frenzy, slashing, snapping, kicking, roaring, anything a wild animal would do when enraged. Meanwhile, I was just frantically trying to dodge his attacks and firing at him every chance I could, Scarlet keeping her distance and doing the same. The bandits up in the stands were cheering like before. This is what they wanted to see, a fight to the death between a monster and something else.

Eventually, the blood lost from the wound on his back, plus the blood lost from the bullet wounds, was beginning to take its toll. Tomahawk was moving slower, his attacks became less vicious, and he was visibly sweating. I kept him going by taunting him, but now it didn't matter. Calm or angered, Tomahawk had lost a lot of blood. The walls and floor of the pit were dotted with spots of crimson and speckled with feathers. He collapsed in the center of the pit, panting heavily, his body weak and burning from a mixture of pain and exhaustion. I walked up to Tomahawk and aimed Lemon Drop at his forehead.

"Please," he begged, "have... mercy..."

I raised an eye brow and took my finger off the trigger and lifted Lemon Drop above my head. My eyes were uncaring and my expression was like stone. He deserves no mercy.

"Sorry," I told him, "I don't care for tyrants like you."

"YOU PUTRID FUCKING CUN-," was all he had time to say.

I brought Lemon Drop's blades down onto Tomahawk's head, ending his life. Not even a second after I had killed him though, a green question mark appeared over Tomahawk's lifeless body. I activated my watch display, and a screen popped up alerting me that I've completed the mission. I gained money and a gun from the mission. I looked at the gun I earned and it was the shotgun I had seen Tomahawk holding. I brought up my display screen to look at its stats. It had incredible power but bad accuracy and fire rate. It also had a magazine size of two and it consumed both bullets in one shot. There were two names given on the stats: Bonechipper and Apple Family. I figured Bonechipper was the gun's name, so that left Apple Family as the manufacturer's name.

When I closed the screen, I became aware that the bandits were cheering. Skyler and Marshal jumped down and landed in front of me. I readied my newly obtained gun for a fight but Scarlet ran over put her hand on the gun. Skyler spoke first.

"Dude!" he spoke excitedly, "That was awesome!"

"He means thank you," Marshal added.

"Hold on," I said confused, "you're not gonna kill us?"

"Why should we do that?" Marshal asked.

"If it weren't for you, we'd have never been rid of that idiot." Skyler said.

"So wait," Scarlet asked, "You mean you were being forced to serve him?"

"Exactly," Skyler answered, "I am the actual leader of this group. We were never hostile, we would help the nearby tribes in their trading with other villages."

"And then Tomahawk came along and decided to take over," Marshal continued, "He wanted to take the resources for himself and he forced us into helping him. None of us were brave enough to attack him because he had that thing with him."

"And now that you've killed them both," Skyler finished, "we can go back to doing what we like to do. Tomahawk also liked capturing animals and forcing them to fight. We thought that was entertaining some times, but others..."

"It was just cruel?" Scarlet asked.

"Right," Skyler answered, "but now I'm not trying to be rude, but I'm gonna have t' ask you to leave. We got a lot of cleaning up to do. Be careful though, some of my men did align themselves with Tomahawk on their own free will. They'll still try to kill you.

"Thank you Skyler," I said, shaking his hand, "It's good to know there are good people out here. You'd have made great knight."

With that said, I gave Skyler and Marshal a salute, and they saluted back. Scarlet and I made our way back out of the base and found the phoenix waiting outside with the chimera. The chimera walked up and brushed up against Scarlet, making a sound that I assumed was supposed to be purring.

"Oh," Scarlet said, " Would you like to come with us?"

The chimera sat down in front of us. I guessed that was a yes, so we walked across the bridge with the phoenix flying over head and a new companion by our side. We found a group of bandits lighting the dead hulking bandit on fire. I would done the same thing, because, I don't think I could have lifted him even with magic. The bandit who had the helmet fall on him was being treated by a mare wearing bandit clothes smiled and waved at us as we walked out of the clearing.

I looked at my mini-map and found a new objective. It said to return to the village, probably to return the phoenix to Lightning. We had just defeated a tyrant and saved several villages, and though I hurt in parts of my body, I felt good. It's official, falling off the wall was the best thing to ever happen to me. Maybe second to meeting Scarlet.

Our journey back was less exciting than the journey up to the base, but it gave us time to talk. We stopped when we passed Zecora's hut. I don't know what it was about that place but when I see it, I feel this aura of sadness around the hut, like someone is still there, mourning. We walked away from it, without saying another word until it was no longer in view. I guess we felt it was wrong to laugh at a place where sadness remains. I looked up to the sky and just now noticed it was night time. Wow, how could I have not noticed that?





Establishing feed. Processing.

"What is his progress Gallant?"

"He's currently returning to Lightning. He successfully defeated that bandit like I had hoped."

"Have you delivered the message to Lightning?"

"Of course, I did that the second they entered... that place."

"Holding on to the past only hinders progress, Gallant."

"Seems to me like you could have benefited from doing just that, Sombra."

"...I...suppose I could have, but back on task. You need to make sure he goes to New Manehatten."

"I know, I know. He won't be able to survive unless he goes there first."

"..."

"What's wrong?"

"Godammit, we're being watched!"

KKRRZZCH!!

ERROR! Probe damaged. Feed lost.


End of Chapter 4...
> 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...