Author's Note

I rushed this one out again too. We're starting to get to some really fun stuff (chapters that I had gone ahead to write, because I thought they would be so much fun I couldn't wait for the story to catch up until now :p).

So, if you'd all kindly proof read the grammar and spelling, and in more serious issues even the sentence structure that would be wonderful. Please include a copy/paste of the area around the mistake so I can find it easily with cnt F. Thank you.

You can either use the public comment system or PM it to me: I don't really care which personally.

9: Taking Slaves

Selene and Thunder Flint had stayed at the bar and talked for most of the night, mostly trading stories from their pasts but Thunder Flint also filled Selene in on some of the generals about the West. As Selene had expected there was no central power, with every town and city basically on their own. It wasn't unheard of for neighbors to come to each others aid, but it was rare.

The three main powers though were undoubtedly the Neighvada Raiders in the northeast, a massive tribe of roaming Earthponies who controlled most of the Wastelands slave trade, the City Of New San Franciscolt, the largest city in the West located along the coastline in the north, and Las Pegasus, the crashed remnants of the largest pre-war Pegasi city that had fallen from the clouds in the far south of the San Palomino Desert during the war.

Selene had decided internally that these two cities, New San Franciscolt and Las Pegasus, were likely his best bets to begin unifying the Western Wasteland, and he'd head there way as soon as possible.

Selene had wanted to stay at the bar all night if he had to, waiting for Neighbourhood to return, but he also wasn't sure he should tell Thunder Flint about her. Out of all the ponies in T.F.'s gang, most had been Earthponies with a decent number of Pegasi, but none had been Unicorns, and Selene didn't know how they'd react to him traveling with one, so he kept it to himself.

"Hey, so what is this gang about anyway?" Selene finally asked.

"We're a group of mercenaries. We mostly act as escorts for caravans, but we also have our own caravans to make our own large trades, and we'll act as a private army for anypony who can pay, as long as it's not too immoral. "

"Too immoral?"

"Well, I mean we do participate in the slave trade a bit. I don't know, we haven't had anyone take it too far yet, but it makes us sound civilized to say that, you know? Anyway, most places respect our neutrality, and as one of the largest mercenary companies everywhere else is too afraid of us to stop us.

We operate out of here, Dodge City, and some might even say we own the city," Thunder Flint finished with a wink.

"Yea, but do you?" Selene asked with his own sly grin.

"Not really, but the mayor loves us because we give her a massive discount for free residence. We have our own permanent garrison in the city that's at least twice the size of the towns own force, not to mention the hundreds of other ponies we have passing through between assignments. We could take this place over at anytime, and they know it."

"Then why don't you?"

"We don't have any reason to."

"And what if you had a reason?" Selene asked, with another sly grin.

"Then we'd take it over," Thunder responded with his own grin. "But that's not my call, I just run a small escort team. Quick is in charge of overall operations."

"Quick?"

"Quick Silver. This big Pegasus Mare. Stay away from her," Thunder said, suddenly serious. "I mean it, she's a bit unhinged right now. Where are you staying?"

"I don't know yet," Selene admitted with a shrug.

"Alright, well we have room for you, if you need it. We have a job too..."

"What?" Selene asked bluntly, not wanting to beat around.

"We've got one of our own caravans traveling all the way down to Las Pegasus, through the desert. It's an extremely dangerous trip, through a valley packed with ghouls. I'm betting we'll end up having to deal with at least some of them, and I'd like more ponies with us along the way. I'll give you half of my own pay for it, which as the division leader is nearly quadruple what the others get already."

"You'll give me twice the starting pay, for a crippled and unarmed Pegasus?"

"We have some weapons for you to barrow, and it's also more a show-of-force thing. The Pegasi down there can be shrewd negotiators, and crippled or not, you look awfully impressive in that armor. Also, I'm thinking we could use you as bait. Those ghouls can bite through a ponies leg in an instant, but I think you'd have a much better chance in that."

"At least your honest," Selene said, staring into Thunders eyes and trying to guess what he still wasn't telling him. He couldn't even begin to guess what, but he was hiding something. "If you come clean and tell me everything, sure, I'll come."

Thunder Flint looked down, his confident demeanor fading for a moment. "Yea, alright, pay attention because I'm only saying this once. Quick Silver is a bit pissed with me, and she's refused me any support on this one. I'm down four ponies, and I meant what I said, this is a dangerous rout. It's going to be a five day march too, if we're lucky and even longer if we're not. I also lied, we don't have any weapons for you, so if you can't find your own you'll just be ghoul bait, but that's still more than nothing and I need everyone I can get."

Selene waited a moment before speaking. "Alright, thank you for being honest. Sure, I'll help out, but I want three quarters of your pay." He gave Thunder a large grin, thinking he had him here.

"I would've givin you all of it, but if that's all you want," he returned, his cocky grin returning as well. "Look, I don't need the moeny, they pay me well enough it's fine, but this job needs to get done well, or I might be done for. This means a lot to me, thank you."

***

Thunder took Selene back with him to his officer barracks. His room wasn't terribly large, but it was enough for two stallions to sleep comfortably apart. The next morning Selene went to pick up his harness, and took a bit of time to return to the club to ask around if Neighbourhood had returned. She hadn't.

I guess I should just carry on with my life then... I really wish we had set up a meeting point or something. But they hadn't, and he didn't have a clue where she could be by now. Selene told the barkeep where he was going and to tell Neighbourhood if he saw her. He also stopped by to tell the tailor the same thing, as she might go back there too.

He then went to the southern end of town to meet Thunder, and begin their trek. By the time Selene arrived the caravan had already left, but they would be moving slowly enough that catching them on the trot would be easy enough. Thunder had gone with them, but had left a small Earthpony mare behind to meet Selene.

"So, is everypony who works with Thunder smaller than he is?" Selene asked as they began their march to catch up.

"No," the little lime green mare replied, "but he does tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to new recruits."

"Ah, so that must be part of why he was so desperate to higher me directly."

"Yea, whatever you say, stallion. A crippled Pegasus with no weapons to his name. I can see why he wanted you."

***

Selene made it a point to trot fast enough on his long legs to force his rude escort to gallop to keep up with him. She was a tough little thing though, and never once complained or asked him to slow.

It only took them a few hours to catch up to the caravan. It was simply a massive barrel with wagon wheels attached at the front and back, and two good sized Earthpony stallions were pulling it along at a brisk pace. A Pegasi stallion and another mid sized Earthpony mare were walking along a bit in front of it, while Thunder Flint was laying across the top of the large barrel.

"Took you long enough," Flint shouted down from his perch.

They continued on for a few more hours, bleeding away most of the day, before something out of the ordinary happened.

"Boss, we've got something!" one of the large Earthponies pulling the wagon shouted.

Selene was still following along behind the wagon, so he picked up his pace to circle around in front of it.

"What!?" Thunder Flint shouted down, not bothering to look for himself.

"I don't know, but it looks like a lot of blood and some bodies!"

"Go check it out, Swift!"

"I'd rather not go alone!" the red Pegasus stallion said back. "How about I take the new guy with me?"

"He can't fly, he's injured!"

"It's ok, I can gallop fast enough to cover the distance almost as quickly," Selene said, moving up beside the other Pegasus who had himself picked up his pace to get a bit ahead of the wagon, which was still moving at it's normal pace.

"Are you sure?" Swift asked him.

"Yea, just cover me," Selene said, giving him a quick wink, then turned as began to gallop ahead of the caravan.

It had been a long time since Selene had actually sprinted along the ground, being a Pegasi he usually just flew, but he was not only one of the fastest fliers, but also one of the fastest runners too. Still, he cheated a bit by using as much of his wings as he could to help push himself through the air. He was of course bluffing about being faster on the ground than a Pegasi could fly, that just wasn't possible, but he was as close as anypony could be.

He covered the distance in less than a minute, so quickly that Swift actually had to push himself in the air to keep up, but he obviously wasn't at his top flying speed.

Selene slowed to a canter as he approached the bodies, looking around in every direction. The road was passing through some small rolling hills, mostly made of bare sand and dirt, but there was still virtually zero cover. Swift flew high into the sky, and began to circle, watching for threats over the hills. Selene moved right up to the corpses now, confident that nothing would sneak up on him with Swift overhead.

There were six of them a few feet off the side of the road, most blown to pieces with the others badly chard. All except one, which had obviously been blasted with a shotgun at close range, the only one that had been killed in a conventional way. A thick blood trail lead away from the road, up over a nearby hill.

"Anything over the hill!?" Selene shouted up at Swift.

"Yea, two more bodies!" he shouted back down.

There was a second blood trail, but it was very light and moved almost in parallel with the road, still heading south. Selene looked over the ponies more closely: they were all Earthponies, and while Selene didn't recognize any of them specifically, they looked like the ponies that had chased Neighbourhood away.

Selene thought it through for a moment, and came to the obvious conclusion. The only weapon Selene remembered seeing Neighbourhood posses, other than his knives and pistol, was a short shotgun, and it had obviously been at least one powerful Unicorn who had killed the rest.

"I'm going up ahead, to follow this lighter trail. Go tell the others what's happened, then follow me."

"What!?" Swift shouted down, gliding closer to Selene. "Why!?"

"Just do it," Selene said, looking over the Earthponies quickly, selecting a 10mm SMG from near one of them, and digging two extra magazines from the nearby corpse's pockets. He pulled the magazine from the weapon, and cycled the action. No round was ejected from the chamber. I guess they weren't expecting trouble...

He returned the magazine to the SMG's receiver, and cycled a round into the chamber, then clicked the safety on. He aimed it away from himself and tested the trigger. Happy that the safety was working as intended, he slung the SMG over his neck so it was dangling in easy reach across his chest, then began to follow the faint blood trail.

***

The blood trail faded pretty quickly, but Selene continued down the road anyway, watching for any signs of passage.

The river that passed Dodge City snaked its way to the south too, coming up beside the road in a few places and extending far away in others.

As Selene approached another spot where the river came close to the road, he moved off the road towards it on a hunch. Sure enough as he crossed over a small rise he could clearly see what looked to be a pony laying near the river, watching the water. He couldn't see the ponies colors, but it looked to be Neighbourhood in her black cloak.

His mind began to race through the possibilities. How do I play this? I don't know how these guys are going to respond to me traveling with a Unicorn... I could just leave her, I'm sure she'll be fine. But the sun had just gone down and it was already starting to get quite cold in the bare desert, and it was going to get far colder later in the night, and he knew how poorly Neighbourhood dealt with the cold.

Swift answered most of Selene's questions for him, as he quietly glided in to land right beside him. "Hey, do you know who that is?"

"I think I might."

"Well, if they were the one who did that, killed all those ponies back there, we need to deal with them. We can't leave some bastard Unicorn out here to terrorize everyone!" Swift was whispering, but in his excitement he was just loud enough to catch the pony down by the rivers attention.

Both Selene and Swift stepped back down the hill, far enough they wouldn't be seen, but Selene kept his head poked above the rise enough he could see, and quickly flipped his armored hood up to hide the brighter stripes in his mane. In the twilight his dark fur would be almost impossible to see against he dark, permanently hazed sky behind him.

As she turned to look, Selene could see her white face sticking out of her hood clearly, as well as the bulge in her hood as it covered her horn. She scanned the hillside for a moment, eyes passing right over Selene without noticing him twice, before she turned back to watch the river.

"What do you have against Unicorns?" Selene asked Swift.

"Against the normal one's? Nothing, but the kind that can nuke eight ponies and walk away? We'd be better off without those witches."

"And what if they deserved it?"

"Who's to say they did? Are you really going to trust that thing?"

"Seriously, you don't recognize her? She's the mare who was chased out of the bar last night, or at least I'm pretty sure."

"So? You missed the point, man. It's not why she did it, it's that she can do it that's the problem. No pony should have that much power."

"Whatever. Go get the others, I'm going to go talk to her," Selene said, standing up and beginning over the hill.

"Dude, what are you!—"

"Just go," Selene interrupted, and quietly made his way down the hill. If he was wrong and this wasn't Neighbourhood he very well may be in trouble, but he couldn't possibly imagine another Unicorn with that level of strength was wondering around, or the same light blue eyes and white fur.

"Hey, Neigh," he said as he approached, loud enough to be clearly heard but trying not to startle her more than necessary.

She still jolted slightly, and snapped her head around to stare at him. "Oh, hey. Sorry, I'm just... tired."

"Are you ok? Was that your blood you left on the road back there?" Now that he clearly knew who it was he cantered right up beside her.

"Yea, some of it. I got hit pretty hard in the shoulder, but I healed most of it. How did you find me?"

"I just stumbled across the mess you left, and followed the trail. I'm heading south towards Las Pegasus at the moment."

"Ah. Ok, we can go that way." She looked ok, but her eyes were pretty vacant.

"We?" Selene asked, cocking his head sideways.

Neighbourhood's eyes snapped back to Selene's face, and they slowly began to narrow as she processed what he had just said. "What do you mean?"

Selene still didn't know how the others were going to react, but he sure as hell wasn't going down with the ship if it was bad. He'd do his best, but he wasn't sticking his neck out very far. "Just trust me, ok?" He let his eyes go soft, and gave her a gentle pat on the back.

"...Trust you with what?"

Selene stepped a small distance away from her, and waited a moment.

Neighbourhood continued to stare up at him, her face slowly contorting in worry. "...Selene?"

Pegasi tended to have sharper senses than the other breeds, but Selene took it to a further level, and he could hear the sound of weapons being loaded faintly echoing over the hill, so he wasn't at all surprised when the mercenary ponies he was traveling with all suddenly come flooding over the hill.

"Selene!? What's going on?" Neighbourhood jumped to her hooves, and turned her back to the river. She inched closer to Selene, but apparently had lost enough faith in him that she didn't try to hide behind him.

The two stallions and two mare Earthponies spread out in a loose half circle around them, while Swift hovered above and behind them, in the sky about 20 feet over the river.

Thunder Flint came up last, moving closer to them to stand nearly beside Selene. "How does she know your name?"

"I told her," Selene shrugged, completely confident in his half truth.

Thunder walked passed Selene to address Neighbourhood directly. "Are you responsible for those other ponies deaths?"

"Yes, they were hunting me." If she could have moved backwards without walking into the cold river, she likely would have. Thunder was slightly shorter than she was, but he was an imposing presence nonetheless.

"Ok. Well, I'm sorry, but you're far too dangerous to be left alive."

"...What!?"

Rather than repeating himself, Thunder moved back away from Neighbourhood to stand between the two large stallions. "I'm sorry, but this is final."

Before Neighbourhood could react, and likely blow half of them away, Selene moved in front of her. "What kind of reasoning is that, Flint?"

"The sane kind, Selene."

"Sane? What did she do?"

"She killed eight ponies, Selene. I won't have somepony like that traveling with us. She'd kill us in our sleep."

"I could kill you in your sleep. Hell, even she could," Selene said, pointing at the little Earthpony mare who had escorted him back. "Any of us could. Sleeping sucks, doesn't it."

"She killed eight—"

"How many raiders and slavers have you killed?"

"Well, about ten, but—"

"But what?"

"Not all at once!" Flint shouted, moving forward slightly.

Because of how the bank was slanted and he was uphill Flint's eyes were about level with Selene's. Selene stepped forward, closing the distance and raising himself above the littler pony. "So that's it?" he growled, "you want to kill her because she's better at killing raiders than you?"

"No!"

"Then why?"

"Because she's too dangerous to have around!"

"Because she's too strong? Because she's better at killing that you are?"

Flint went silent, and his face began to flush red as his frustration built. "Yes Selene, that's why," he admitted,

"Then who's to say I'm not to strong to have around, or you are?"

"Common sense."

"What sense?"

"She can kill eight ponies with her bucking mind!"

Selene glanced around at the other ponies, seeing if any of them had what he'd need to make his point. He found it quickly enough; the larger mare had two grenades attached to her harness across her chest. Selene wondered over and grabbed one before she could figure out what he was doing.

He trotted back to Flint, then checked to make sure he had a good grip on the plunger, then plucked the pin out. "I might survive this in my armor, and Neighbourhood can probably shield herself. You'd all die, except maybe Swift. Even pipsqueak here can kill most of us in an instant."

"Pint!" the little Earthpony shouted at him.

"What? Really?" Selene asked, legitimately impressed at the bluntness of her name. "Pint Sized, I take it?"

She blushed a little as she admitted, "yea, I still don't know how my parents knew I'd be short..."

"Yea, I get it, now put that away!" Flint barked at him.

Selene carefully slid the pin back into the grenade, and checked that it would really hold the plunger in place.

Flint moved forward and snatched it out of his hooves. "The differences is, if I don't trust you I can take the grenade away from you!"

"Then lets take her magic away," Swift offered, coming in to land beside Selene. "We're transporting Belvedeer Vodka, right?"

As the others looked at each other, trying to figure out what Swift meant Selene turned around and looked at Neighbourhood. She was looking at the river, likely considering if jumping in the cold water would be worth escaping the situation. It didn't matter, Selene knew: with Swift here she would never be able to escape. She looked back up from the river, and Selene caught her eye, and gently shook his head.

"Yea, so?" Flint asked Swift.

"Well, don't Unicorns need focus to cast?" Swift asked, with a suggestive note in his voice.

"Yea, they do..." Flint ceded the point.

"Hey," Pint spoke up, "isn't there a massive bounty on live Unicorns in Las Pegasus?"

"Yea, there is, especially for powerful casters..." Flint looked back at Neighbourhood. "They want them unharmed though, and I'm not sure we can manage that."

"I can," Selene offered, moving back to stand in front of Neighbourhood. "I've dealt with them before. Not terribly difficult if you're not an ass."'

"No, we're using Swift's idea. I'm not trusting my life to one of them."

"Fine, but I'm in charge of implementing it, alright?" Selene wasn't going to cede this one. He was confident any of the others would end up pushing things too far, and getting themselves killed, and he was hoping Neighbourhood would give him more leeway before resisting, and resist less aggressively if he did go too far.

As he turned to look at her and saw her hurt, furious glare, he seriously considered just giving her up and walking away. But it was too late for that.

"Fine, she's yours," Flint said, turning to walk away, "but strip her of equipment and keep her under; I don't want any surprises."

Selene actually couldn't argue that point, and he wanted his stuff back if he was honest. He turned fully around to face Neighbourhood. She looked like a small animal backed into a corner, and her horn was already faintly glowing. Shit... all or nothing, I guess.

Selene moved forward slowly, and removed his new SMG and left it on the ground. "Hey, you're going to be fine in the long run, ok?"

"Stay away," she growled, lowering her head and pointing her horn at him.

Selene continued forward, walking upright and loosely, as non-threateningly as he could.

She hesitated, letting him move right up in front of her without reacting.

Selene stood in front of her for a moment, then snapped his forehoof up and grabbed her horn, using it as leverage to twist her head back. He then wrapped his other foreleg around behind her neck, and used it to pull her forward away from the river.

She collapsed onto her knees in front of him, and fought to bring her head back down, but couldn't overcome the massive leverage her horn gave Selene. "Get off!"

Selene could feel the heat in her horn build as she attempted to cast something, but with a violent shake and a tight squeeze around her neck, he was able to break her concentration, and the energy dissipated harmlessly. After a moment to make sure she wouldn't try it again, he then untied her cloak and pulled it off of her, and threw it over his own back–he might as well use it himself–before continuing on to her other things.

He quickly found the pocket at her side that held the potion she had bought him to help heal his wing, and slipped it into his own harness. He tried to find her coin purse as quickly, but he couldn't before the others realized what he was trying to do.

"Hey!" Pint barked, moving up to her other side. "Her stuff's not all yours!" She began to dig into Neighbourhood's other side, and came away with her gem bag and coin purse almost immediately. "Whoa, she's loaded!"

So much for that, Selene thought as he continued to strip Neighbourhood of everything she had. He took his pistol and it's magazines, as well as his combat and utility knives and compass, and found places for them on his own harness. He decided to leave what little else she had for the others, and removed her harness all together, and tossed it on the ground in front of them.

Pint hoofed the gem and coin bags to Flint, then went over her harness herself, coming away with Neighbourhood's short shotgun. "Awe, ya! Don't make any funny moves, or your heads coming off!"

Neighbourhood again tried to wrestle free, and Selene again used her horn as leverage to twist her head back and hold her still, but she kept fighting him.

The larger mare had gone up to the wagon, and returned with a large canteen Selene assumed was now full of vodka.

She tried to offer it to Neighbourhood, but she continued to struggle. "I'm not drinking that!"

Selene decided enough was enough, and pulled Neighbourhood over onto her side and sat on her. He stepped down on her horn, using it to force her head to the ground. "This isn't going to work... Anyone have some hose I can borrow?"

"Umm, yea, we have some on the wagon. How long?"

"Just a foot or two," Selene shrugged, "and a relatively small diameter would be nice."

The mare went to retrieve the hose from the wagon, and Selene motioned to Swift. "Could you stand on her horn please? If it starts to get really hot just stomp on it a bit."

"Sure," Swift mumbled, doing as he was told.

Flint had gone back to the wagon too, taking the two large stallions with him, apparently trusting Selene to take care of things, but Pint was still standing around watching. "Can you bring me her harness?"

"Gotcha," she peeped, bringing him Neighbourhood's harness from where Selene had thrown it.

Selene fiddled with some of the straps, approximating the pattern he would need. He used his utility knife to cut the straps to the right lengths for it's new, smaller purpose, making sure to keep all the fasteners on the back to make it much more difficult for Neighbourhood to get it off on her own.

He then gently pushed Swift off of her, and pulled her head up off the ground. Moving as quickly as possible, hopefully faster than she could realize what he was doing, Selene pulled his new tangle of straps over her face and around to the back of her head. As he tightened them the straps squeezed around her muzzle, clamping her mouth closed. Selene then locked the straps in their place, and let go, seeing how well his quick work would hold up.

Neighbourhood squirmed underneath him, and clawed at her face with her forehooves, mumbling through her closed mouth but unable to make any louder sounds. The straps held well enough, and as Selene expected she couldn't get enough leverage on the straps to pull them free on her own. As she finally stopped struggling, she looked up at Selene with a sad pout, or at least as close as she could get with her muzzle clamped closed.

By then the larger mare had returned with a short length of hose. Selene grabbed it, then looked back down at Neighbourhood. "You're sure you won't drink this on your own?"

Her pout slowly shifted to a furious glare, and she started to try and struggle free from underneath him, her horn again beginning to glow.

Selene leaned forward and stepped on her horn, pining her head to the ground again, breaking her concentration. He then loosened the straps enough to allow her to open her mouth. "Last chance."

She stayed silent, and glared straight ahead, refusing to open her mouth to even speak.

Selene checked the hose: it was made from a hard rubber, and wouldn't collapse unless under extreme pressure. He suspected it would easily be strong enough to stop Neighbourhood from being able to bite it closed.

"Fine. Swift, back on her horn."

As Swift took up position, holding her head down by the horn, Selene stood instead on her neck, just below her jaw. He slowly leaned more and more of his weight on her neck.

She squirmed under the weight for a time, but eventually couldn't stop herself, and opened her mouth to give out a brief cry of pain.

Selene took his weight off her neck, and shoved a bundled up length of strap into her mouth to momentarily hold it open. He then began to slide the hose through her mouth, and down into her throat.

She bucked and squirmed rather violently, but to her credit she never screamed.

He was eventually able to get the majority of it down her throat, and leaned forward to listen down the hose. He could clearly hear the soft gurgle of her stomach acid at work, rather than the soft wheezing he'd hear if he had ended up in her lungs. He then tied the other end of the hose up behind her head, about even with the base of her horn.

He tugged on the bundled up strap still holding her mouth open. After a moment of tugging she opened her mouth enough to let Selene pull it free. Finally he pulled the straps around her muzzle tight again, locking her mouth closed around the hard hose, locking the straps behind her head.

"That should do it," he said, leaning back.

Neighbourhood looked up at him, looking more sad than angry.

He gave her his best 'sorry' expression before pulling her head up, again using her horn as leverage. "Swift, if you'll pour for me."

"Yep, gotcha," he said, grabbing up the canteen. "How much do you think it'll take?"

"I'd rather not kill her, so lets start with half."

As he expected Neighbourhood began to violently thrash around the moment Swift began to try and pour the Vodka down the hose now leading to her stomach. Selene concentrated all of his strength on holding her head still enough Swift could pour without spilling too much, and allowed her body to thrash around behind her uselessly.

"And to think, you could have just had a nice drink, like a civilized pony," Selene mocked as her thrashing finally slowed as Swift finished.

"Alright, so you can take it from here?" he asked, backing away and hoofing Selene the canteen.

"Yea, I got her," Selene answered, taking it and attaching it to his harness. He then let go of Neighbourhood, to see what she would do.

She stood almost immediately, and tried to step away from him, but stumbled back onto her knees. She shook her head, then tried again and managed to stand easily enough, but the alcohol hadn't really set in yet so Selene had expected her to.

Selene picked up her cloak, and wrapped it around himself, tying it loosely enough he could easily throw it off if he needed to. He then picked up his new SMG, pulled the magazine from it, cycled it to eject the round he had loaded earlier, and picked the round up. He looked it over, then loaded it back into the magazine, checked that the mag was full, which it was, and returned it to the weapons receiver.

He decided to leave it safe, without a round in the chamber, slung it over his back hidden beneath his new cloak, then repeated the process with his pistol he had liberated from Neighbourhood. His pistol didn't have any safety mechanism at all, making it even more important to leave it without a round in the chamber and arguably making it better to leave it without a magazine in it either, although he usually did.

By the time he had finished Neighbourhood was wobbling on her hooves, any thoughts of trying to escape lost as a haze descended over her mind.

"Hey, common," he said, jabbing her in the side. When she didn't respond other than the initial jolt Selene wrapped his right wing around her side, and held her still.

He looked around for the other ponies, but they had all moved over the hill back to the wagon on the road, and were all out of sight. He took the moment to get the potion she had bought him to help with his wing, and drink some of it.

As he put it back in his harness under his new cloak he noticed Neighbourhood glaring at him. "Thanks for that again, dearest." He leaned forward, sticking his muzzle into her ear, and whispered, "seriously, play along and I'll make sure you'll be ok."

He then started making his way up the hill, dragging her along with him.