"Morning, 'sunshine.' You have a giggle holding me in your lap all night...?" Bruise hushed, curling up against me.

"Yeah, I did. Let's make this a daily thing."

"Tch... Not daily, bucko. Nightly, maybe. But I ain't gonna stay here all day just... lazing about and... dozin..."

I carried her to a more impressive furnishing, tucking her in to rest. All that skotch could do a number on somepony. And why they spelled it wrong, I'd never understand. The spelling was 'scotch' in my time. Not 'skotch.' I pondered the reason as I watched her snuggle up in bed, dipping her brow at the loss of warmth. I climbed in bed and wrapped my legs around her till she stopped fidgeting.

"Hey, Glass how-"

Tesla walked in on me keeping her warm. I just looked away because that was all I could do. An explanation, especially right after, would only make him cattier. A smug companion was a poor companion. He took to smiling and made it a wry, curvy one, tilting his shades down to show jet-high emerald eyes.

"Righteous. But you didn't have to sleep with her the first night, you know."

"Oh shut up. What do you need, Tesla?"

He stepped closer and handed me a plastic bag full of... something en masse. I checked inside the clinking and clanking mess to find several hoofcuffs comprising the main supply. When I glanced up, he was holding a key ring with four keys. One for the cuffs, three for the jail cells in New Glyphmark. I opened my mouth to ask again till he explained in kind.

"Surprised? Today, we're going to be bounty hunters. If you like, you can be bad cop. But you're still going to be the muscle of our operation."

I glanced down at Bruise.

"What about Bruise. What'll we do with her? She's still asleep. And I don't wanna wake an emotionally unstable raider."

"Who does? But that's besides the point. Listen, you can stay with your girlfriend here and I can do the mission myself. Because bounty hunting isn't all bullets and prayers, you know. It's more about diffusing situations and catching them off-guard."

I was conflicted. All at once, I knew Tesla Coil was doing selfless labor. But I didn't want to make Bruise stay home alone, especially not in her vulnerable state of mind. What could a buck do but do what was right. I knew the consequences of never dedicating to a cause.

I'd let Bruise sleep... as I watched the place and let my cloak and dagger friend handle the dirty work. Even though I'd only met the doll yesterday, she'd grown on me like moss to a church. The clandestine shut of her eyes told me nothing was right at home. Deep down, I knew I myself could go for a swim with Lily July on the rocks. We could all pretend like nothing happened when she woke up and stretched her legs.

But, till then, I had my work cut out for me.

The time was eight military time when Tesla departed, giving me the grin of the cat that ate the canary. He flew the cave when he'd stocked a good oodle of munitions, his favorite silenced 10mm and the brightest wig I'd ever seen. I told him to steer clear of any shady deals, watching him hit some jet before the job. Seeing Tesla Coil trot the entire way down to Glyphmark was a desolate scene, and a part of me came to regret choosing to stay.

I turned back to see her, Bruise, still curled up and feline on that old, dusty medical bed. I didn't tell her what I'd found before, but I'd have to scrub the sheets with abraxo and turpentine. The thought of finding another leathery, rotten pony corpse made me question the integrity of our sanctuary.

Just after an hour of cleaning my suit, I found another problem looming in the milky wool of the wasteland. Everything seemed... greyer than I remembered. More than that, I found a cloud of dust kicking closer and closer toward the cave. Whatever it was, that damn warning was enough for me. I spent my time repairing my suit and removing the silly spikes and camoflague Little Pip designed it with. Instead, I fitted the pauldrons with layers of spare blood. I'd looted some bloodpacks from the unmarked raider settlement yesterday.

Judging from my experience with field work, I judged the cloud as compact and low, signaling a force of footsoldiers and infantry. If the dust cloud were wide and high, it'd have been bigger than a group of ponies. It might've been something Pip told me was called 'Alicorns.'

I rounded up my combat shotgun, a spare couple of mines and one, care-free lunchbox. Inside the lunchbox, I fit something special. I didn't mind tossing it just three or four meters away from the cavern entrance, behind a few apricot-hued rocks just to the right. There, behind the old reliable entrance, I lit a cigarette to calm my nerves and levitated my combat shotgun to my left.

They arrived, those Luna damn sons of bitches. Before me were two bears and four ponies, all dressed in signature formal wear and snazzy zoot suits. I kept my mouth shut waiting for contact, watching the bears puff their cigars, standing several ponies above me and everyone else. They were towering palookas rippling with muscle and bravado, growling low bearsky to their equine officers.

I saw the one on the right, dressed in a leather-armored zoot suit, puff smoke as he grumbled. His voice was a low, rumbling bass. It might've caused an earthquake if he kept talking instead of glancing between me and his boss.

"Kogda ya poluchu , chtoby ubit'...?"

"Vskore, Eyeman. Vskore." His leader assured, straightening his tie and approaching me with a lowered luger.

The stallion before me was a slender, high-nosed stallion that liked to look down on me with his head in the clouds. Standing on the edge of the entrance, he eyed me over without so much as a word. A rough gust of wind kicked his hat away, but he caught it just after lift-off, holding it to his chest with a bow.

"Morning, sir. Are you fine this dusty wasteland afternoon?" He asked, glancing back to check on his men.

"Good morning. I'm doing swell as ever." I answered, yawning into my forehoof.

His coat was a pale beige. The eyes, though, seemed familiar. Toxic, lime green. I felt a pit of serpents crawling around in my stomach. He wasn't an ordinary stallion, I'd give him that. Just being in the same room might've felt like a mudbath with a thousand eels. There was something off about him, wether that was the curious blankness of his left eye, or the way it split focus to look elsewhere, I didn't know. It seemed as though he were gazing into another world I couldn't see, playing a grand joke on the words of the script.

"Good, good... You and I will get along just fine. Say, I heard you had a friend of ours, Johnny. You know. Sharp metal armor. Big cannon. All that fine moolah. You seen her around here by any chance?"

"No, sir, I don't believe I have." I stated, standing my ground and crounching into a stretch.

"Really...? You know my friend Eyeman here has a great nose, johnny. He could sniff a mare right out of a feminist riot. Down to the red hair. And even down to the freckle, if you can believe that. I'm willing to bet you and her have fallen into a quiet, hush hush affair, isn't that right...?"

The uncanny colt fixed his hat to have more of a sideways tilt, pulling a switchblade from underneath the hem.

"You know, johnny, she's not the marrying type. She's gone through ten, probably twelve stallions by now and boy let me tell you, it wasn't for any of their personalities... So, whaddyou say, johnny...? I give you six thousand caps by tomorrow, three thousand upfront. Then you can have a good time down in Maripony and I can find Her a good home."

I nodded softly, making eye-contact with him and taking a puff of my cigarette.

"Sure. But you don't have to pay me with money. Your blood is enough."

His eyes grew wide and his wolfish smile turned to ashes.

What more could I say. Anyone that talked that way about Bruise would live on life support. I fired the first shell into the lunchbox by the farthest bear. It blew his leg off and decommissioned two of the pony goons. Before the others could look away from the boom, I rushed into danger.

The lead colt flew backwards as I gored him with my antlers. The coolant, it seemed, bit into him and left him stunned, siezing and breathless on the floor. I scrammed back inside and unlocked the door to the broadsider. I hid behind the first shack at the top of the stairs.

The other bear lumbered over with a large, almost tree-sized baseball bat. His own personal touches were two sawblades on either side, both rusted over with blood, sweat and shit from prior rampages. I could smell the impending death over his cheap, musky cologne. Must've been an off-brand of lilacs and all that hullabaloo.

"Stupid little deer... You understand I find you and I break you, yes? Come out and face me like a man." He grumbled, stomping up the steps.

He blew smoke from his fat cigar and neared engagement distance.

"There is no forest here, little island bitch. You aren't safe no matter where you are. When I smell you... I track you. And when I find you, your bones are tiny chewtoys. You hear me, vostochnaya shlyukha?"

He took the last step up the stairs and shifted his eyes around. He didn't know where I was. I found that humorous. So I introduced myself by leaping off the roof, leaving the cover of the chimney. He swung at me mid-lunge, only, the sawblades glanced off my suit. The poor condition of his weapon must've bent and dulled the teeth.

I secured his neck and initiated a chokehold, one foreleg and slammed his temple with the other. He roared with rage as he slammed backwards into the nearest shack. The house dismantled with a booming crash, but I was still gripping. I struck his ear and used my combat knife to pierce the other. The brute lifted me off his back and put me in a piledriver. My helmet shattered violently against the rocky flooring. We couldn't repair it properly without the rare materials, so we had to improvise with regular glass.

I shambled backwards and beheld him, that towering, feral thing in front of me. He wore the clothes of a civilized person, but deep down he was just pure killing intent. I knew it in his eyes. They weren't alive. They were excited. He was glad to fight.

"Finally... good match. But we both know, puny deer; I must break you."

"You can try." I grunted, raising up and cracking my spine.

I stamped my forehoof and charged.

We met face-to-face, shoving and grappling against one another. He took hold of my antlers and did his best to snap them. To his surprise, though, he barely made a dent, much less a splinter. I sprung forward and jerked my head sharply, dislocating his wrist. The foul snap of his cartilage forced a roar from his lips. His fangs were grizzled with thick, sloppy spit.

I spun halfway around and showed my tail to him. Then, watching him rush forward, I launched my hindleg into his snout. The atrocious snap echoed throughout Rockopolis. I watched him stumble backwards and try to regain balance, flailing his arms about.

"I... will not... surrender." He growled, thrashing back and forth till he stood on all fours.

"I will never surrender...! I am bear! I am pride of the motherland!"

His eyes surged red, and the once ferocious brown pigment of his coat turned a dark sanguine. There was a skull by his name and my pipbuck said he'd mutated. A dim glow of crimson washed over his body, exploding outwards and paralyzing me.

Pride struck me head first and swiped me to the floor. He struggled to rip apart my antlers, but when he did, I felt the marrow spilling wildly over my mane. The warm slop and ooze seeped down to my scalp. I grunted in agony as he ripped my left foreleg off and stomped on my chest, yanking thoroughly to repeat the process.

I thought that maybe, it was over.

I would die there.

He held me down and swiped at my right eye, flaying the flesh apart.

"Is this all you've got...?"

In the brief glimpse of despair, I heard the words beneath the commotion, the whispers singing ever higher. And then I heard them say:

"Never lose hope, remember these words."

I pictured Bruise smiling. I pictured her happy and giggling. I felt her warmth where nothing but emptiness was. And I realized, slumbering deep down was a hero. Someone that could make a difference if they just tried. I strained my right foreleg and slammed it into his temple.

The thought of seeing Bruise happy filled me with determination.

"You think you're tough?! I'll show you tough!" I barked, stumbling to my hooves.

I strided over, one step at a time. I felt something change in my body. Something... odd. I felt my muscles threatening to tear off my bone. And somehow, he must've seen it, too. His eyes went wide and all his power has drained out of him. His eyes reverted to white, reflective pigments. In the mirror of his pupils, I saw myself, bursting with sky blue energy.

I slammed my foreleg into his temple, then his ear, then his chin, then the side of his jaw and then, I shifted my weight, crouching to the ground. I jolted my forehoof against his neck, carrying all my weight and forcing him backwards.

The bear was a mess of shattered bones, swollen lips and lacerations. I stepped over his living corpse and held him up by the neck. I glanced around to see Bruise with a few bulletholes in her armor. Other than that, she seemed fine. Unscathed, even. The blood on her armor told me the others were taken care of.

"Listen closely, because you and me will never see each other again..." I hushed, pinching blood from his coat.

"... This is what I've got."

Author's Note

Level Up!

New Perk Added!

Brawler

What's the use in guns? Now every unarmed hit you do does an extra 10% damage and because of your wild blows, sometimes your hits can't be blocked! Your damage for every hit increases with strength and perk rank. The chance to break/avoid the block, however, depends on how low or high your enemy's unarmed skill is.