I bit my lip in thought as we trudged along. In my haste to find a safe way to Manehatten I had neglected to bring up the fact that we still hadn’t gotten the very thing we were supposed to be getting there, if we could even find it. Obviously we would need to keep searching for it but I wasn’t really sure how to approach the idea with Barrel.

It had been a few hours since we had set off, the clouds above must have been pretty thick today because it was a lot cooler than it had been the day before. Most of the journey had been pretty quiet and uneventful. A less experienced pony might have called it boring, and they would be right, but they would see it as a bad thing.

To me, boring meant safe.

I was torn from my contemplation as Lock spoke up.
“You guys ever’ been in a fight?” he said, raising an eyebrow in my direction. I blinked at him.

“If you mean have I ever had to shoot somepony-” He shook his head.

“Nah, nah, I mean have you ever had a tussle, like, buck someone in the face or somethin’?”

I paused in thought for a moment. I couldn’t really recall any times that I really had to. Then again I never really went looking for trouble, at least not without my gun to back me up, though I’d had a few close calls.

“Not really.” I replied bluntly. He opened his mouth to say more but decided against it, looking forward again and continuing to walk in silence. After a few minutes, however, he spoke up again.

“Me an’ Stock have been in a few, right bro?” His brother shrugged, causing the harness to shift slightly.

“By ‘us’ do you mean you talking shit and me havin’ to save your ass?” He grunted moodily. Lock giggled.

“Oh yeah, what I call that guy again?” Lock asked, barely keeping himself composed. Stock sighed.

“What guy?” He said flatly.

“The one with the weird hat” Lock replied, miming around his head with a hoof.

Stock sighed again. He seemed to do that a lot.

“He called you a ‘Small-Fingered Vegetarian’.”

“Vulgarian.” Summer corrected.

“He said ‘Vulgarian’.”

This promptly caused Lock to collapse in a laughing fit.

“OH fuck I remember Ma! HA-HAAAaaHAA He was hella smashed, He-heh, fuck! Aw shit that was good!” Stock rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, maybe for you, you didn’t have to save an idiot from getting’ shanked by an angry nutjob.” he grumbled, grumpily shifting his harness again. Lock managed to pull himself clumsily to his hooves, still giggling hysterically.

“He-hey I ain’t an idiot!” He said, trying to both frown and recover from his laughing fit simultaneously. It made him look like that weird clown from those old comic books.

Barrel chuckled as they began to bicker at each other, Summer just sighed and rolled her eyes. I zoned out again, wondering if I should address my concerns with Barrel. He must have seen something in my face because, as if on cue, he turned to address me.

“Something on your mind Miss Benchmark?” Welp, I guess I had no choice.

“Sort of” I replied, avoiding eye contact. I glanced towards the others and slowed my pace so I lagged behind slightly. Barrel followed suit raising his eyebrow questioningly.

“We still have a job to complete here, something we have to collect.” I looked up at him with a level expression. He frowned, but nodded.

“Ah see… I don’t suppose it’s on the way to Tuck?” He asked, pursing his lips. I glanced at my pipbuck, it wasn’t. I looked back up and shook my head.

Barrel cocked his head in thought for a few moments.

“Mh… Well… that does complicate things, Hard to provide your services as a guard if you ain’t here.” I noticed that his accent was thicker than it had been the day before. After another pause he looked back at me, pursing his lips again.

“How far away is this ‘something’, how long do you reckon it will take you to get there? “ I looked at my pipbuck again.

“Maybe half a day’s walk if we keep good pace, we could meet back up at Tuck tonight if you’re willing to let us.” I gave him a hopeful look. He returned it with a frown. He looked over my shoulder at Ember and back to me.

“Do both o’ ya need to go?” I blinked. Was he suggesting...

“What do you mean?” I asked tentatively.

He adjusted his hat with his ear and puffed out his chest.

“Well if it’s just a simple fetch job it should only take one pony, which means one gets to stay and help do the job they promised.” He proclaimed, giving me a sidelong glance. I felt my gut tighten, Leaving Ember wasn’t something I was comfortable with, but what choice did I have? After a moment I gave a small nod.

“Might work, but I’ll have to talk to Ember, if that’s ok” He gave me a curt nod and I caught up with the others.

“What? NO!” Ember spat, staring at me with wide-eyed confusion. I knew this wasn’t gonna be easy. I sighed and shifted closer to her.

“It’s our only real option, unless you want to ditch them and get to Manehatten alone?” I whispered, making sure the others couldn’t hear me. I noticed Lock giving his father a questioning look.

“I’m not going anywhere without you!” Ember hissed.

“Tell him to go fuck himself” She snarled. I hurriedly hushed her and gave her shoulder a small shove.

“Ember, please, I don’t like this anymore than you, but think about it for a minute, we NEED this job. I’m not gonna be gone for long, just a day, I promise I’ll be careful.” I whispered frantically, cutting off her protests as best I could. She opened her mouth to object, but thought twice when she saw my expression. She huffed and stomped with her hoof.

Her face twisted into a filly-like scowl. She looked up at me, her blue eyes filled with angry intensity, though hidden beneath I could see the fear behind them.

“You better come back.” She turned away and kept trotting, eyes focused on the road. I sighed and drifted back over to Barrel.

He gave me a worried look.

“Everything alright?” He asked, gesturing to Ember. I frowned and shook my head.

“Yeah, it’s fine, she’s staying here while I get our job done.” He nodded and looked away.

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep her safe for ya.” He grunted quietly, tipping his hat as I moved past him. I couldn’t hold back the spike of anger in my gut.

“It’s not her I’m worried about.” I hissed, setting off towards my waypoint, the group watching me as I went.

I ground my teeth as I walked. Despite what I had told Barrel I was worried about Ember. It wasn’t so much that I doubted her ability to protect herself; in reality she was probably better in a fight than I was. It was being away from her and not being able to comfort her that made me worry.

Ember had never been the most levelheaded pony, and as far back as I can remember I was the one that always kept her safe and sane. Our childhood hadn’t been an easy one, and unlike me, Ember still bore many of the scars.

I shook myself and looked back at the map to distract myself. It had been a few hours since I split from the group and I had made good ground. According to the map I wasn’t too far from my destination, in fact I’d be reaching the canyon any second-.

I jerked to a halt, rearing and falling backwards, my packs cushioned my fall as I rolled back to my hooves. In my lack of paying attention to where I was walking I had almost walked right over the edge of said canyon. I mentally kicked myself as I peered over the edge. It probably wasn’t a fatal fall, but I didn’t want to test that theory.

I spotted the dark patch of earth where the injured mare had lay, I reminded myself to check on her when I returned to Girders… When WE returned to girders.

I checked the map again, making sure my target was where it should be, and carefully made my way along the edge of the canyon until I found a place that I could make my way down.

If the map was right, I should have been able to reach the shack by following the canyon. Choosing not to linger any longer, I began to tentatively make my way along the riverbed, hugging the wall as I went.

The canyon was longer that I had first thought, snaking its way between small hills and large rock formations that must have diverted the river that had once flowed through it. I rounded a corner and almost tripped over some loose rocks.

Shaking myself I grunted, kicking the offending rock further down the canyon. As I watched it go, glaring at it angrily I realized that the canyon was opening out into a large, flat plain, dusty and bare, with only a few rocky outcroppings… Wait…

I squinted through the fading light. One of the outcrops had a different shape to the others. I quickly glanced at my Pipbuck again. “That must be it.” I muttered, gingerly traversing the final stretches of the canyon. As I got closer I could make out more of the outcropping, revealing that it was, indeed, the half ruined shack the stallion had described.

Somewhere above the clouds, the sun was setting and the air was starting to get chilly. It looked like I was going to be spending the night here.

Keeping low, I finally reached the shack. With a tentative glance over my shoulder, I pushed on what used to be the door. With a tortured creak and the sound of splintering wood, the ‘door’ swung open.

I drew my gun and entered, lighting my horn to illuminate the room before me. The interior looked like it smelled - rotten and slightly moldy. I wasn’t sure how a book could survive in that kind of environment. There were the remains of a small dining table, a rusted, long dead terminal, and a rusty bed frame with a worn out mattress. To top it off there was also a skeleton in a stable jumpsuit leaning against a set of cluttered shelves. Wonderful.

If the book was here, it was probably hidden, perhaps in a safe? Either way, it wasn’t going anywhere and I was tired. Slumping into the driest and least cluttered corner, I un-strapped by bedroll, which was really just a well used blanket. With my pack as a pillow, I settled down to sleep. I closed my eyes and listened to the wind outside. It was a soothing sound, a cool, gentle whisper.

I was just starting to drift off when another noise caught my attention. My ears pricked, trying to figure out what it was. My eyes flicked open as It began to get clearer, a rhythmic ‘thud, thud, thud’.
I slowly sat up and leaned back against the wall, gathering my hooves beneath me as the sound got louder. It sounded like hoofsteps, but something was off.

Another sound accompanied it now, the sound of harsh, mechanical breathing.
A mare’s voice, muffled and tinny spoke out. “Breach the door.”

My ears flattened to my skull and adrenaline shot through me like lightning as I heard a sound I definitely recognized, the whirr of a minigun.

Flashes of fire and the smell of smoke flashed through my memory as the door exploded, shredded by a hail of gunfire. I yelped and hit the ground covering my head with my hooves as the bullet storm continued.

“Hold fire.” The voice ordered, ceasing the onslaught. Shaking, I peeked through my hooves at the, now ruined, doorway as it was suddenly lit by a flood of harsh, white light.

“Secure the interior.” Oh shit.

A huge, looming silhouette blocked the door. I covered my eyes as a bright light blinded me. I curled up into the fetal position as I heard it speak.

“Building secure, one tribal, female, unicorn.” His voice was a deep baritone. This one was most definitely a stallion, though it was impossible to tell otherwise as he was clad, head to hoof in steel armor.

The female voice spoke up again, from outside. “Bring her out” Oh fuck.

The armor-clad stallion advanced on me, his battle saddle clicking. “Get up.” He ordered, stomping one of his metallic hooves for emphasis. I shakily got to my hooves, still squinting from the harsh light of his headlamp. He gestured with his head in the direction of the door.

“Out. Try to run, you die.” If I wasn’t so close to shitting myself I might have made a comment. Instead I complied.

I walked past him gingerly and he led me out. Outside there were three more headlights and two unarmored mares, both dressed in hefty-looking red dresses.
One of the mares was tapping away on what looked like a heavily modified pipbuck, the other was looking directly at me, with her piercing blue eyes. I gulped.

Incase it wasn’t obvious by now these were Steel Rangers. The leg under my pipbuck began to itch. Somehow, I didn’t feel like this was going to end well.

The mare with the blue eyes stepped forward and directly into the light cast by the ranger helmets. She was about my height, with a short-cropped purple mane and a pale yellow coat. I also noticed that one of her ears was missing, her mane just barely able to cover the stump that was left of it.

I heard the clicking of weapons being primed as the ranger behind me shoved me forwards. The mare’s expression remained stoic as I timidly looked around at the suits of armour that now surrounded me.

The mare spoke, pulling my attention back to her.

“You are in possession of Ministry Of Technology property, you will relinquish it to us or suffer the consequences.” It didn’t seem I had much of a choice. My stomach lurched at the prospect. The pipbuck was the only thing that I had to direct me to Manehattan, if I’d even get a chance to retrieve that damn book, that is, which right now didn’t seem likely.

I looked down at the small computer, already dreading having to make it to Crest Top and some how meet back up with the others without it. Then again what choice did I have? I looked around at the silhouettes around me. I was sure each of them had their guns pointed at my head, primed to turn me into paste at a moment’s notice.

I looked back to the earless mare and sighed. “Doesn’t look like I have a choice, does it?” The blue-eyed mare jerked her head in the direction of the second mare and she scuttled forward. She was much shorter than her companion, and certainly didn’t carry herself with the same gravitas and authority. She almost seemed meek.

I yelped as the ranger behind me drove a hoof into my back, pushing me to the ground and knocking the wind out of me. I whimpered and coughed as the little unicorn scurried over to me. I felt a tingling sensation as she lifted my left leg in her magic.

She withdrew something from her robes and began to tinker with my pipbuck. After a few clicks it came free from my leg. She made a small disgusted noise as the sour odor of my leg wafted from underneath it. Internally I smirked, clearly she wasn’t used to the concept of clean water being to precious to bathe with.

After gathering herself the little mare retreated back into the darkness and the blue-eyed bitch spoke up again.

“Thank you for complying, tribal.” Fuck you too bitch. The pressure on my back eased as the ranger on top of me stopped trying to crush the life out of me. I rolled over and sucked more air into my lungs.

I heard a mechanical murmur from behind the tall bitch, she turned her head slightly, keeping her eyes on me. She then nodded and faced me fully again. “Before you go, however, I have a question for you, where is Storm Chaser?”

I gave her a blank look. “Wh-“ but before I could even respond, there was a flash of pink light from her horn and everything went white.

Author's Note

3 months for a short chapter... Sorry.