"I really should have thanked Three-Dog for all these holotapes, right Dogmeat?" Jason asked his companion.

A single bark was the response.

Jason smiled at his dog before staring out towards the road ahead. The massive town made of wood and colors danced along his view as he moved his gaze about the scenery. His smile quickly dropped when he remembered the way he first felt like this. Back at Megaton. The first time he went there, he met the Mayor/Sheriff/Shred of Hope that town held dear. It was then that Jason found something good to look for in the Wasteland. That not everyone was a Raider that hung raped corpses in Elementary Schools. That there were still some folks worth saving.

And that no matter how hard you try, you can't save all of them.

Jason cringed a bit as he remembered Lucas Simms. He had risked his life, for years on end, to protect Megaton and everyone inside its walls. And just as soon as Jason had met him, Simms was taken away. By his actions, no less. Jason knew that he should have killed that man from Tenpenny Tower the moment he was handed the Fusion Pulse Charge, but he wanted to play it safe. He had sent the Sheriff to his own grave that in that moment. With his dying words, Simms left the duty of protecting Megaton to Jason, and he would never forget the look in that Sheriff's eyes. The look of peace, knowing that he had left someone right for the position in charge. Jason held down his Stetson while grimacing at the prospect.

'I'm sorry, Lucas. I couldn't keep your promise.' Jason thought to himself.

Distracted by his thoughts, Jason walked right into a sign that sent him back onto his ass. As he got up and began to rub his nose, he looked up to the sign.

Welcome to Ponyville

"Well, ain't that something. A sign that doesn't have a skull or rust on it. And no deaths threats! How nice." Jason joked as he slowly got back up.

With a quick twist of his head, Jason looked around and noticed that while distracted, he had made it to the small settlement. The Wanderer managed to will himself forwards and, along with Dogmeat, began to walk into the town for their first time.

\\\\\\//////

Celestia stared down at the letter she had written Twilight with mixed feelings. She had mentioned that she was more than proud of her new accomplishments, her friends were heroes of Equestria, the Castle isn't that spacious, the usual stuff like she would normally say in her letters to her former student since she managed to defeat Tirek. However, in this rendition, she had added something new to talk to Twilight about. The Wanderer.

She had written about how she met a Unicorn and his dog in the Everfree Forest, after he had traveled a great distance to come to Equestria. Since he was new, he had to learn to adjust to certain ways Equestria may be different than where he's from, and that she had mentioned Twilight and Ponyville to the Wanderer, whose name she left out of the message. After rereading the letter, and making sure that she told Twilight about how she might find him, she rolled up the parchment and sent it off in a flash.

With the distraction gone, Celestia focused on the reports piling up on her figurative doorstep. As well as her literal one.

Reaching with her magic, she began to levitate each and every scroll report brought to her and read them to herself. As she had feared, it was more encounters with the Diamond Dogs. Far more aggressive than before, it would seem. At first, they were harmlessly throwing insults at the Guards on borders of towns near the Ends of Equestria. It escalated a bit when a group of Guards went to repay the Diamond Dogs for their constant remarks, but ended up coming back with broken legs across the board. Then it continued until the fair town of Marenor had been attacked and burned down to the dirt. Since then, Nobles and Captains of the Guard have demanded that she declare war on the Diamond Dogs for what they did.

After which, she contacted the Diamond Dog Central Packs, and found out that a faction had gone rouge from their ranks. Apparently, since they were being forced into mass production scales of labor, they had decided that they would need slaves to work for them in order to maintain a standard of living for their own kind. The Packs, however, saw it as unjust to own slaves for any reason, and that since the faction was so far off from the main sprawls they used for cities and towns, then it wouldn't bring any harm to use their entire section of land as a production ground. Since the dispute between the Council of Hounds, the highest ranking officials in the Packs, the Jaws, as the new faction of Diamond Dogs are calling themselves, have been relocated towards the borders of the Ends of Equestria, trying to outrun the pursuit of even their own kind.

Ever since they destroyed their first Equestrian piece of land, they have done nothing but attract attention to themselves by foalnapping, sieges on factories and storage facilities, and to cap it all off, out-right mockery. They were mocking the very principles that Equestria was founded on, and how soft that they were. They even boasted that if it came to it, they could just go up and wreck any village that they wanted to.

Unfortunately, they were right. Even with years of training, the Royal Guard was far from any kind of threat to any of Equestria's enemies, however few they are. They were supposed to be a a warning, but haven't been much else since the days of the Tribes, when the first of the Alicorns came down to Equestria and founded the basics of Pony society. Even after the focus on defense since the Royal Wedding, the Guards were still inexperienced in every sense of the word. She didn't want to admit it to her Ponies, but if it truly came down to which side can kill better, the Diamond Dogs, or the Jaws, rather, would win. Easily.

Unless, she recalled, the Wanderer had anything useful to add. He was from an entirely different world. Perhaps he could help in some way that she has yet to discover. After all, his world, he mentioned, was a deadly wasteland. But now she wondered, how could one survive for so long? Did the Wanderer know more about how to avoid conflict than the average Pony, or did he resort to... other, methods? Now she felt foalish for letting him go unsupervised. He had shown up, from another world, with strange equipment, no less, and had just... literally wandered off. How she let him go was beyond her. Maybe he had some kind of powers of persuasion? In any case, now she felt as though she had to worry about the Talons a little less.

Her thoughts were struck down when a scroll appeared out of a green mist before her. Quickly grabbing at it with her magic, Celestia unfurled the parchment to read the letter.

Dear Princess Celestia,

If what you're saying is correct, then this is indeed a rare opportunity for us, and I am more than glad to take up the chance to be able to converse with a Pony from outside Equestria!

I do, however, find it rather odd that a Unicorn wouldn't be allowed to study magic, and how he doesn't know the Equestrian terminology for anatomy, or Equestrian law, but don't worry. I can handle it!

Thank you, again, for giving the chance to study, as well as educate, a foreigner. This, "Wanderer," sounds like a great Pony, and I look forward to learning as much about him as he can learn about us.

Your Most Faithful Student,

Sincerely,

Princess Twilight Sparkle

Celestia smiled at the letter, reading about how eager the newest Princess of Equestria was to simply meet somepony new. However, her smile faded when she realized that Jason was still a wild card. For all she knew, he could try something completely alien to learn about magic and Equestria. He might not even try to listen to Twilight, or even heed Celestia's word about Ponyville. For all she knew, the Wanderer could have bypassed the town completely, and made himself nothing more than a memory to the Princess. A troubling, headache inducing memory. Could she trust him to not do anything bad to Twilight if she finds him? Should she trust him at all? Why did she let him go in the first place? With all these questions, Celestia considered what to write in response, and how to approach the new Unicorn.

Dear Princess Twilight,

I want you to exercise caution when meeting with him. Do not approach him immediately if you do see him in Ponyville. Wait until he sees you, and then speak to him. Be careful with how you talk to him, since his vocabulary may differ in use of certain words. Also, make sure that if he does want to learn about magic, that he has to stay with you or in an inn nearby, and that he doesn't leave until you send me a letter detailing what you teach him and his progress on said subject. Please understand that while he is a guest, his intentions and actions are still unknown to us, and I don't want you or anypony else to get hurt.

Princess Celestia

The Princess rolled up the letter and sent it off, eagerly waiting for a response. After another minute or so, Twilight's message came to her once again. Celestia unfurled the letter and read.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Don't worry one bit. I'm sure that this Pony, whoever they are, won't mean any harm to us. Even if they do, I have my friends to stop them. Speaking of which, I'm going to tell them about this "Wanderer," and how we should help introduce him to Equestrian customs. I know Rarity would want to do something about that jacket you mentioned. We have everything under control, Princess. You can count on us.

Sincerely,

Princess Twilight Sparkle

Again, Celestia found herself smiling at the letter, remembering the hardships that her previous student and her friends have gone through. The hardships which they faced together in order to become stronger. If anypony could take on this challenge, it would definitely be them. And this Wanderer, she thought, would either be another obstacle for them to overcome, should he do something wrong, or a more powerful friend, if what he said was true. As for whether or not he was going to keep his word, and not bring harm to her Ponies, only time would tell. And as Celestia looked towards the reports of Jaws, she hoped that time would for once, be on her side.

\\\\\\//////

Jason walked along the dirt path of Ponyville, watching in awe as more and more colors clashed before him in a mass of so many interjections to his senses that he couldn't find any way to react, besides continuously walking. There were all kinds of shades and hues of every color in the rainbow, and even a few rainbows in the mix. If his eyes weren't already adjusted with his new Pony body, he was pretty sure that this would have blinded him. Or given him a seizure. Or both. Either way, his eyes were working, and he couldn't believe what he was seeing. The Ponies were all smiling. All happy and strolling along without a care in the world. No one had a weapon, there weren't any kind of uniforms or gang members around, no flags or poles with skulls on them, nothing at all. The houses were all brand-new, untouched by any kind of war or aging beyond their construction limits like the Capital Wasteland.

Everywhere he looked, smiles, colors, genuine pleasure and happiness. Something that he had worked his whole life to see in the faces of the citizens of the Capital Wasteland. Something he thought he would never see. And in term, it all made him smile. He felt the warmth of this place reach into him and start settling in right next to his heart. He thought that this type of living was only something to be fantasized about by some crazy junkie hopped up on too much Jet. Yet here it was, being acted out and fully held right in front of him. As he watched the Ponies go by, he noticed that there were much smaller ones without the weird tattoos on their backsides. They were children. All smiling and playing with each other. They ran throughout the roads and tackled into each other a lot, but never did anything besides that. They weren't trying to spill anyone's blood or trying to fight over something. Children playing happily in the streets. It almost got a tear out of the Wanderer.

Which was stopped short by a low grumble that shook Jason to his core. Or rather his stomach. He sheepishly looked over to Dogmeat as the canine began to lick his lips.

"Guess we should find something to eat, huh?"

A single bark was the response.

Jason looked around for some kind of stand or salesman with anything food related or edible to purchase. Luckily, one of the first he spotted held a universal symbol of goods: an apple. With a small smile, Jason walked up to the stand with a few steps, and began to speak to the Pony behind the wooden stall.

"Excuse me." Jason stated lightly.

The orange Pony turned around as Jason got a full descriptive view of her, determining gender by the build and curves that resembled Celestia, only far smaller. She had an orange coat of fur and had blonde hair. Her head-hair and tail were both kept in a quite humorous way, both being tied in pony-tails. That feature earned a brighter smile from the Wanderer. Atop her head was a Stetson, like the one Jason wore. On her rear, like every other Pony besides the younger ones, she had a picture of something there. Specifically, three apples. Another odd way to see this world's sense of humor, but better than trying to understand Centaurs. The mention of said abominations made the Wanderer shudder a little bit. The Pony in front of him looked at him and smiled before talking.

"Well, howdy there, partner!" She proudly exclaimed with a similar accent to Jason. "What can I do for ya?"

"Well, how 'bout that?" Jason replied. "Thought I was the only one here with a good ol' fashioned hard worker's accent."

"Hoo-wee! How 'bout that, huh?" She replied. "You from another farm land or somethin'?"

"Nope, came from outta town with mah buddy, here, Dogmeat."

Dogmeat then barked at the vendor of goods while wagging his tail.

"Mighty nice dog, there! Dogmeat, 'cha said?"

"Eeyup. Only knows that name. Found him all 'lone in the Wasteland I called home. We came here together in hopes of finding something better."

"Lemme jus' say, then, welcome to Ponyville!" The Pony then raised her foreleg out towards Jason. "Name's Applejack!"

Jason smiled before holding up his foreleg slowly towards hers, bumping it before they both put their legs down.

"They call me the 'Wanderer'. And Ah'd like to buy some apples."