Fallout Equestria: Broken Oathsby Toaster Repair PriestChaptersBetrayalThe wastelandBand of mistrustpass of troublesDark MachinationsA small invasionStarlight FactoryRelease the houndsEmpty shellsBetrayalFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 1: Betrayal By Fallen Sentinel “Citizens of Vault 137, we have been gifted. Our great leaders saw fit to protect us with among the mightiest vaults from the zebra horde, the megaspells that continue to burn our once great Equestria. And though these leaders have fallen short, we still thrive thanks to the Enclave, even those of us without our own wings of righteous glory. All we are asked in return is our service in building a mighty army, one fit to protect the Enclave and restore Equestria. Those of us with the gift, we are entrusted with crafting the machines and engineering the soldiers that will bring us all to glory. We shall not rest until Equestria has been restored, for the glory of the Enclave!” I rolled on my side and covered my ears with a pillow as the words droned on in my skull once again. My head ached thanks to that 200 year old speech drilling into it for the thousandth time...or perhaps the ache was thanks to the guards best efforts to cave my skull in during my arrest. My wings shifted irritably, stuck inside the lab coat that had not been designed for pegasi in the slightest I hadn’t had time to remove before I was arrested. I’d always hated the design, since it hampered flying, though it wasn’t like I was going to be doing that anytime soon. Desperate for a little relief, I took another glance around the cold grey holding cell I was kept in. There was nothing new inside, just a single bed jutting from the wall and a toilet in the corner, nor was there anything of interest in the long corridor outside lined with identical cells. The only occupied cells for now were my own and the one across from me, and me and the lucky mare across the way each had our own guard to keep us in line. The guard outside mine stood tall as he listened to the speech, as if for the first time. He was proud of himself, and I couldn’t blame him for it. I would have been proud to stand there too, guarding a “traitor” such as I, one accused of murdering the head researcher here, Grey Water. Of course it was me getting blamed for his death, being the only pegasus in the research department. Ordinarily unicorns were the only one given this position due to their magic. I was allowed to program robots only thanks to my previous experiments with gemstones that improved the robot’s battery life. Back then I’d worked security, when a few of the technicians asked me to use my authority as a pegasus to get them some resources, even let me tinker with their project. I’d enjoyed it then, but if I’d known where it would lead… I was in the robotics lab, working on improving the wing chassis of our latest design, when the news of Grey Water’s death reached us. I was arrested on the spot, the only explanation being that there was “major” evidence against me. I still doubted there was, but thinking it over I wasn’t too surprised by the accusation. Even though I was a pegasus, I spent an awful lot of time associating with non-pegasi, which not a lot of Enclave members cared for. I didn’t know another pegasi in the stable that wouldn’t have looked at me very differently if I’d only picked a different group of ponies to associate with. BANG I jerked up at the sudden noise, looking around for the source of it. Outside my cell was a white pegasus mare in purple overseer uniform, streaks of purple cloth snaking up her legs to her knees. I couldn’t follow the pattern any higher, as it was cut off by her dark purple cloak covering the rest of her body. She stood staring at me, flanked by two guards in striped golden power armor. I recognized the design, it was one of the latest we’d been tasked by the Enclave to improve. And improve we had, making the armor out of a lighter and tougher material, allowing us to design a sleeker profile and add design elements meant only for intimidation factor. We’d drawn much from ancient pegasi designs, old pegasi war armor our best records called “hoplite” armor, and all of a sudden I’d wished we hadn’t done such a good job making it so imposing. “Welcome to the last day of your life, traitor,” the mare sneered at me, brushing her black and pink mane back from her eyes. Her voice was oddly calming, despite the meaning of her words. “Last day?” I questioned, even though I knew precisely what she meant. “You know full well our laws on murder,” the mare replied. “Public execution.” She stared at me for a moment, shaking her head and clicking her tongue. “Never would have expected a pegasus though. Such a waste.” I noticed one of the unicorn guards take a glance at the overseer, before turning back to attention before their action was noticed. The outright disdain most pegasi had for other species wasn’t usually voiced, so I guessed he was caught off guard by hearing outright the overseer describing pegasi as the better species. The realization of my execution was finally settling in, and only now did I find voice to fight it. “I didn’t even do it, ask anypony!” I stammered, my heart rate increasing as I spoke. “There’s cameras in all the labs, just look at the recordings!” “You mean like this?” the overseer smirked, taking a tablet from one of her personal guards and showing it to me. Sure enough, I was watching a video recording from the labs: Grey Water was standing there working on the latest robotics design. Judging by the stack of target boards next to him, it had to be he was testing the robot’s targeting systems. Then, somepony who looked exactly like me entered the lab. Grey Water waved in greeting, but I didn’t respond to him. Unphased, Grey Water turned back to his task, setting a new targeting board up in the path of the robot’s twin gatling guns. It was at that moment that the second pony, the pony who looked like me, moved in and activated the robot’s firing sequence. I stared in horror as the video showed Grey Water getting ripped apart by the twin cannons, disgusted at the sight but unable to look away as Grey Water vanished in a cloud of red mist. After what felt like an eternity, the recording of me shut down the robot’s programming and exit the room. As the overseer pulled the pad away I stared back at her, shaking. “That...that wasn’t me!” I stammered, regaining my voice. “I don’t have that kind of access to the bots! That video has to be fake, I didn’t do this!” The overseer only chuckled at me, waving her guards to stand back a bit. She approached the bars of my cell and whispered in that same even tone, “I know it wasn’t you.” For a split second she held her voice, giving me the slightest hope she was there to help me. “But you, Storm, have become quite the poor influence on others. Everypony sees you in the labs, and starts getting it in their head they can take a new job outside their position. You’ve been destroying the delicate balance that keeps our vault safe,” she whispered, her voice never leaving that calm inflection that only served to terrify me more. Desperate to look away from the mare, I glanced at the guards standing by. Not a one of them was a pegasus, but I realized it didn’t matter if they’d overheard a word of this: their minds could easily be wiped of this entire encounter. It wouldn’t be the first time. “Your death will serve as an example to the others to stay in their place,” the overseer said calmly, turning away and signalling her guards to flank her again. “I hope you understand, this is nothing personal.” As she turned to leave, however, she glanced once more at my cell and smiled. “Actually, perhaps it is.” At that, the overseer and her guards left, leaving me alone to ponder. My mind was racing almost as fast as my heart. Surely they wouldn’t execute me, a pegasus, would they? It would only show pegasi were unstable, cause ponies to question the authority in the stable. Open rebellion, the fear of every pegasus in the upper echelons. That was all my death would cause, right? They couldn’t kill me, they just couldn’t. I looked up to see the unicorn guard at my cell glancing back at me. At least, I was fairly sure it was at me, since the cold black visor he wore obscured his eyes. “What?” I asked. “First execution in 40 years?” He said. “Aren’t you a lucky one.” At that, he turned back to face the guard opposite him, leaving me alone with my imagination. It was all I could do to convince myself they weren’t, in fact, going to kill me. They were going to kill me. I was right in assuming it wouldn’t be completely public, though that was little comfort in the long run. I was led into a large room lined with cold, metal pillars stretching to the ceiling, the walls all tones of dark greys and blacks. There was no joy in this room, and I had to wonder what the purpose had ever been. I didn’t have much time to ponder as I was led under heavy guard towards the center, where despite this not being a truly public execution, there were still a substantial group of pegasi crowded around to watch. I was escorted towards a large metal stage with a steel target behind me, a familiar looking robot set up a few metres in front of me. It was a cruel and ironic death they were shooting for then, killing me the same way “I’d” killed Grey Water. I couldn’t help but glance at the robot’s eyes, hoping in vain to appeal to some kind of mercy. But there was no mercy to give, only a cold sea of blackness. Tearing my eyes away from the robot, and the crowd jeering for my death, I spotted the overseer from her earlier visit to my cell standing at a podium nearby. She’d changed outfits, had ditched the coat in favor of a purple suit covered with emblems of stars, and symbols. She leaned against her podium, looking rather bored for such a momentous occasion as an execution. Her eyes darted around the cold room, glancing towards the door I’d been led in from occasionally. I followed her gaze to see there was a balcony of other overseers standing by to observe, waiting for my death. Finally the lights in the room dimmed, prompting the crowd to fall silent. Two lights came up to illuminate both myself and the overseer at the podium, forcing the both of us to squint in the harsh light, and even then I lost sight of any individuals in the crowd. “Pegasi of Stable 137,” the overseer announced. “Before you stands a bold-faced murderer, Fantastic Storm. A pony so devoid of care that he would murder his own head researcher, out of jealousy. We decry this perversion of the spirit of competitiveness that allows us to thrive. This injustice must be corrected, for the good of us all!” She paused just long enough to let the crowd get itself worked up again, as I started to hear the jeering and cheering for my death again, this time with a proper name. “So it is my duty to, with great sorrow,” she glanced at me, her face saying nothing of the sort, “that I must grant the second worst penalty I can deliver unto a pony: death.” The crowd’s jeers grew again, before the overseer waved her hoof to silence it. “And for respect of the late Grey Water, we will execute his murderer by the same methods so cruelly used to commit this atrocity. For the safety of our stable!” At that, the overseer nodded towards a technician standing beside the robot. He appeared to do one last check of the robot’s systems, giving me time to see my life flash before my eyes. I couldn’t believe this was happening. “Load!” the technician shouted, and the robot responded by spinning up its gatling guns. The merciless eyes turned red, though despite the mortal terror I couldn’t look away. “Aim!” The robot’s legs bent into a bracing position, guns spinning up and trained on me as I stood there, shaking too badly to move. I thought for the briefest of moments I saw the eyes flicker blue again, but shifted back to red before I could be sure. “Fire!” Before anypony could react, the robot’s eyes shifted blue again, as it spun towards the technician and opened fire. The poor stallion only had a second to show his alarm before the concentrated fire ripped him to shreds. Screams emanated from the crowd as ponies dove for cover, fleeing the rogue robot. One of the overseer’s guards leapt to protect her, activating a shield to encircle them both and block any fire from hitting her. The other guard leapt into action and charged the robot, laser fire from his rifle concentrated at the robot’s chestplate. The bot turned towards its attacker as the guard leapt to tackle it, leaping backwards to avoid the armored grip. As the two moved into close combat range, the robot raised one of its forelegs, its hoof suddenly extending a sharp metal blade. The sharp, scorpion-like tail of the guard’s power armor lunged towards the bot and managed to rip deep into the robot’s left eye, though the superficial damage wasn’t enough to even slow the robot down as it plunged its blade between the neck joints of the honor guard’s armor. The guard fell limply on the ground, instantly killed by the savage blow. Before the guard had even hit the floor, the overseer turned and snapped at her other guard. “What do I have you for, destroy that thing!” she screamed, voice and hoof shaking as she pointed at the robot who had already turned to face them. As the guard moved in to engage, some distant part of my mind recognized the opening, the chance I had to run, to escape. But I was too dumbfounded by what was happening to listen, only watch as chaos continued to unfold. The remaining honor guard lined up with the bot, trying to find the best way to damage the thing I was sure. The robot itself looked like it was testing battle protocols to engage; its guns were trying to spin, but it seemed they had jammed and refused to fire. Instead, it finally started to move in, blades ready to kill again. However the robot was moving sluggishly, probably having lost a portion of its processing power to the earlier blow to its face. As the robot approached, the guard’s right forehoof begin to glow, energizing it for combat and looking to add to his comrade’s damage on the robot’s now-weaker side. The honor guard lunged at the robot, which had just enough reaction time to counter the blow and turn a crushing impact to a grazing blow on the left side of its face. However the guard flapped his armored wings and leapt into the air, smashing both hind legs into the robot’s face and slamming his entire amplified weight down on it. He flapped again and launched into the air, bringing his charged hoof down on the robot’s weakened head with all the momentum and gravity driving him. That was finally enough damage to obliterate the casing, sending the robot collapsing into a heap as its core systems shut down, its processor destroyed, along with most of the head. With the moment of action passed, I finally had a chance to blink away the tunnel vision that had kept me so focused on the fight. By now the room was empty, save for the guard, myself, and the overseer. “Good,” she said, sighing with relief. The near-death experience had clearly rattled her, but she managed to shake it off and glare at me again. “Now since we’re short one robot, you finish the job.” Without hesitation the honor guard turned to me, scorpion tail raised. I gulped and backed up as he approached, but I knew I couldn’t escape him. “Whoa, hey here,” I stammered. “What about that whole ‘respect for Grey Water’ thing?” I swallowed heavily, no idea where the words were coming from. “Get another bot to finish me, I’ll wait.” The overseer made no motion to change her mind, as the guard backed me against the wall, his tail raised up next to his head. “Well,” I thought, swallowing again. “Last thing I’ll ever see is an armored stallion way too close for comfort. Not what I pictured at all…” My thoughts of my imminent mortality were cut short by a piercing scream somewhere over to my right, followed by a new augmented voice calling “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Both the guard and I looked towards the new voice to realize what it meant by that. An armored pegasus stallion stood on his hind legs, one foreleg wrapped tightly around the overseer’s neck, choking her. She struggled to escape him, but she was no match for the power armor’s grip, and the feeble clanging of her hooves on the casing wasn’t helping her. “Take off your armor and I let her go,” the pegasus demanded, loosening his grip on the overseer slightly. The guard shifted towards them however, causing him to tighten his grip again. “Now!” the pegasus demanded. After another moment of hesitation, the honor guard lifted a hoof towards his helmet. The hiss of the armor depressurizing rang in my ears as the guard removed his helmet as ordered. It was the last mistake he made. Without warning a shot rang out, and a hole appeared straight through the guard’s head. He collapsed, but more worried about random gunfire my eyes trained back to the new armored individual, where I finally spotted a rifle mounted freely at the stallion’s side. When the gun didn’t train on me immediately afterwards, I took a second to look over the new armor. It was mostly gold with blue stripes running from his head to his hindquarters, sliding freely around and between panels all across the armor. The design itself wasn’t exactly familiar, some cross between standard armor and a more angled design to deflect projectile weapons. Small blue lights pulsed all across the suit, along the scorpion-like tail that now ended in a fairly small (for the design) barb. “Well?” the stallion looked at me curiously, as I finally met his gaze. “What are you waiting for?” “I...I-I-I don’t understand,” I stammered, “What’s happening?” The stallion leaned against the podium, supporting his weight as he continued his chokehold on the overseer. The mare was still struggling, but her efforts were quickly fading. “You’re being rescued, how fun is that?” he said simply, seemingly ignoring the mare’s feeble squirming. “Well, maybe it’s not. But either way I need your help. We’re getting out of here, and I don’t know enough about the outside world. But you do, I know you’ve been watching through those automated expeditions.” The stallion sounded almost excited, so much so that I couldn’t help but smile weakly in response. “Yeah, I have,” I lied, trying to not let it show. I hadn’t ever seen the wasteland, I’d never been that close to the other researchers who were in charge of that. I didn’t know for sure what this stallion would do if I told him the truth: he’d gone through all this trouble to save me from getting killed, killed without hesitation right in front of me, what was he going to do to me if he found out it was all for nothing? “Great,” the stallion said cheerily. “Now grab some cables from that maintenance kit,” he gestured towards the kit the technician had been using on the bot earlier. I listened to him and walked closer, trying to avert my eyes from the leftover mist of technician far too close for comfort. “Why am I doing this?” I asked, trying to frame my aversion of my eyes as trying to talk with him. “Because we’re taking this one with us,” he replied, pointing his free hoof at the near unconscious mare in his grip. “Because first, we’ll need her help to open the doors. She should have the codes and all. And two, as a little insurance policy, make sure they don’t nuke us as soon as they find us.” He sounded rather self-assured with this plan, like he’d thought this all out to the last decimal point. “That could actually work,” I replied, thankfully distracted enough that I could dig a few long, sturdy cables out of the bag. “But there’s going to be a problem if you keep choking the life out of her like that.” The stallion glanced at the nearly unconscious mare in his hooves. “Oh,” he muttered, suddenly releasing his grip. The mare collapsed on the floor, gasping for air and coughing. I reached out to pass the cables to the stallion, but he turned away and started to walk towards the door. “Don’t look at me, you figure it out.” I looked back down at the overseer, moving close to her chest as I pulled her forelegs together. “Just in case you blame me for this,” I muttered, trying to sound a little more confident than I was. “This wasn’t my idea.” The overseer coughed, closing her green eyes as she looked about ready to pass out. “They’ll kill you both before you leave this place,” she murmured before slipping away. I tried my hardest to not let her words rattle me as I started binding her legs. “Geez, you sure took long enough,” the stallion said, leaning against the doorway as I emerged. The overseer was lying unconscious across my back, forelegs and hind legs bound to keep her from waking up and running anywhere. “You could help, you know,” I said angrily, though he didn’t even look at me. “And you might be?” “Arkangel,” the armored pegasus replied. “Or just Ark. And in case you didn’t know, that’s Overseer Siren,” he said, pointing at the mare. “Really annoying individual,” he sighed. “Okay then Ark,” I muttered, “what’s the plan now?” Ark looked back at me for a second, and though I couldn’t see it I could tell he had a careless smile under his helmet. “Why, we walk right on out the front door, of course,” he said. “What, you mean just walk through all that security, give them a friendly ‘hello’ and a wave, ask for a map?” Ark didn’t respond besides a silent glance at me. “Maybe we make Siren here smile at them, that’ll put them in a good mood! And in case you hadn’t noticed, only one of us has any kind of armor here,” I said dryly, as I stamped my hoof on the floor. Ark only tilted his head a little bit, maybe trying to listen for something. “You hear any alarms?” he asked after a second. I listened myself and shook my head. “Of course not. Nopony knows that your execution has been foiled, that there’s two guards dead and an overseer’s been taken hostage.” I scoffed at Ark. “Really? Nopony noticed the throngs of pegasi running out of here, screaming and stampeding away?” “Nope,” said Ark bluntly. “Hard to stampede when there’s a bunch of null gas flooding the halls.” Instantly hearing that, I tried to cover my nose, knowing even if Ark’s helmet filtered the gas out there was no way he was hauling two unconscious ponies out of here. “Relax, it’s aired out by now. So,” he said, starting to trot down the hall. “Any further questions you’ve got I can answer on the way. I didn’t have a good response to Ark as he started to walk away, forcing me to try and keep up with him. It was a little tricky trying to keep the overseer balanced on my back as we walked, but I eventually found a decent enough gait to work with. We hadn’t gone far when I saw the result of Ark’s null gas, piles of sleeping ponies cluttering the hallway, forcing us to step around them. Thankfully, even with my hindrance I didn’t have too much trouble working my way past them. Ark and I walked in silence for a bit, me unsure of anything to say to this stranger. Nothing happened to draw attention to us either, not until we neared a security station. The unicorn guard on duty wasn’t looking up at all, staring at something on the counter in front of him. Arkangel moved close to the glass with the tail of his suit raised, ready to strike. The guard looked up just in time to see Ark’s tail lunge through the plane of glass, burying itself in his throat. I stifled a scream as Ark yanked his tail back and moved on like nothing had happened. “Are you crazy!?” I shouted at him. Ark turned and looked back at me, his just changing from red back to blue. “What?” he asked. “You just killed him! You killed a totally innocent bystander!” I raised a hoof at the poor pony collapsed in his seat, staggering for breath as he weakly tried to cover his wound. “He didn’t even know we were here!” “Look,” Ark muttered, “out in the wastelands, there’s going to be no mercy. Nopony’s going to think twice about killing you. You’re going to have to work through these kinds of obstacles quick as you can. You can bet I’m not going to hesitate if a raider points a gun at me, and I hope you don’t either.” Ark turned and kept walking, surely intent to leave without me if it came down to it. I didn’t really have a choice at this point, so I moved to follow him, making the mistake of looking at the guardpost again. The pony inside was looking directly at me, his eyes filled with panic as he reached a hoof out to me. He tried to say something, I could only imagine he was begging for help, but with his throat punctured like that the only thing that came out of his mouth was blood. “I’m so sorry…” I whispered to him, before tearing my eyes away from the scene of a cold-blooded murder. I ran as quickly as I could from him, trying to keep my stomach from turning over. Amazingly, we were lucky enough to get to the elevator to the main entrance without running into anypony else. I’d never really seen this place before, only heard a little about it. I knew the main stable gate was big, but nothing prepared me for exactly how massive it was: the thing had to be at least five stories tall! Ark immediately went for a control panel near the doorway, bypassing scattered loading and maintenance equipment as he went, before he turned back to me and tilted his head at the console. “Bring her over here,” he demanded. I did as he said and brought Overseer Siren next to the console, setting her up against the wall as she regained consciousness. Her eyes began to refocus on the two of us, glaring at me for a second before turning on Ark with a look of pure hatred. “You both are going to get a very gruesome execution for this,” she snarled. “I’m sure,” Ark said flatly. “Now be a good mare, and tell me the code to open this door,” he raised a hoof to the gate. She stared back at him, unmoved, even as he continued to threaten her. “Now!” he shouted, the voice modulator in his helmet deepening it further, to the point it sent shivers up my spine. “Or perhaps we can make this a lot worse for you.” At that moment, I started to ask myself if Ark was really better than the alternatives. Up until now I’d been following him for fear of my own life, what the other stable dwellers would do after I escaped my execution. But Ark was proving far more unstable, a far greater danger to be around. Unfortunately, it seemed that Siren didn’t seem to agree with me. “You can try all you want, traitor,” she stared straight at him, “but I’m not giving this up to you. You’re not going to escape out into the wasteland, and you’re certainly not dragging me out there with you,” she snapped, raising her forelegs to strain against her bonds. In response, Ark’s tail raised up and lunged forward, slamming into the wall not a metre from her head. The barb burrowed deep into the metal, drawing an uneasy crunch from the structure and making me sick that he hadn’t missed her after all. I could see she was rattled by the close impact, but refused to let her anger for Ark drop, even after the physical threat. Ark pulled his tail back and raised it, threatening to strike again. But I couldn’t let that happen. “Ark wait,” I called, taking a step closer. “There’s other ways we can…” “Don’t bring my name into this!” Ark’s helmet turned hastily towards me, hissing as though he were trying to keep something a secret. But the damage had already been done. “Ark...Arkangel,” Siren murmured, voice quiet in disbelief. She looked distraught all of a sudden, raising her hooves to cover her face. “What, it wasn’t obvious?” Ark replied, as his helmet began to depressurize. He pulled it off swiftly to reveal a dark grey-coated face, a black and blue mane flattened by helmet hair. His eyes stared piercingly at Siren before he glanced up angrily at me, only for me to focus on how only his right eye was a natural blue; his left had been replaced by something we might have installed in one of our battle machines. “I put you in that program out of pity,” said Siren, gasping for breath, “and this is how you repay me?” Her body was shaking, unbridled fury on her face as she glared at Ark with a stare I thought might kill him any second, even when I saw a tear drip from one eye. They stared at each other for a few uncomfortable seconds, before Siren sighed and looked down. “Untie me, and I’ll give you your stupid door codes.” “Fine by me,” replied Ark, locking his helmet back down. With two swift swipes of his tail Ark cut the cables binding Siren. She looked back up at him, far more tearful than before, still not moving from against the wall despite being free. With a sigh, Siren began to speak out the door code, with just enough time for Ark to punch it in. “1-7-3-0-5-1-0-5-3.” There was a pause as Ark finished the sequence she gave him, before he looked back expectantly. With another sigh, Siren added the last “1.” With the last key press, a warning klaxon rang out, orange lights scattered around the room began to flash and an enormous grinding noise emerged from the gate. The roar as the mechanisms started to pull the gate open were almost deafening, but I could still hear Ark well enough. “Sorry about this, but we still need you,” he said to Siren, with a hoof on her shoulder. Suddenly he lifted her up slightly and headbutted her hard with his helmet. Siren collapsed unconscious on the floor. I stared for a second as Ark started to shift Siren to flip onto his back. “You said you’d let her go!” I yelled over the sound of gears grinding. “No, I said I’d untie her,” Ark corrected me, finding a place to keep Siren balanced as he turned towards the gate. I was close to reaching out and grabbing Siren off his back when a voice rang out behind us. “Halt!” I flinched and turned hesitantly to face the source of the voice. A black uniformed officer followed by a group of guards in power armor were approaching us quickly, the officer’s hoof raised threateningly at us. “Why the hell are you opening the door, we’re not scheduled for another expedition for three days!” “Ah, yes,” Ark said behind me, sounding less convincing than I’d have liked. I glanced back at him, pleading that something better was about to come out of his mouth. “We know of course, but, I...well, we have an experiment to conduct. Won’t be long, I promise.” To my amazement, the guards seemed to buy that excuse, at least for a second. “Well, we should have still been informed that something was occurring, even with the secrecy you’d need.” The guard’s eyes were trained on me, which only made my heart sink. However, just when I thought I’d hit the bottom, my heart sank lower as the guard caught sight of the overseer’s outfit over Ark’s back. “Okay, what’s really going on here?” he snapped, his weapon starting to glow as he raised it right at my head. I could hear Ark start to say something else unconvincing, but he didn’t have time to spit out whatever excuse he’d concocted. Right at that moment, the elevator arrived again, this time bearing no less than fourteen gold and red-striped honor guards, followed an old grey pegasus mare in a golden high overseer’s outfit and a taller golden honor guard. “Door Master Picklock,” the high overseer said calmly to the black-coated officer, “kill these two traitors and return Overseer Siren to me.” Ark didn’t wait for anypony to react, his rifle leveling with the officer. Unprepared for the attack the officer reared in fear, but one of his guards leapt forward and wrapped an armored wing around him, dragging him to the floor. Meanwhile Ark turned a shotgun attached to his other side at the line of honor guards, each pointing a weapon back as they swiftly formed a line to protect the overseer. They each activated a shield to completely cover their leader and the elite guard behind them. “Evocatus,” the elite guard cried, “advance!” In perfect unison the line of honor guards marched forward, the door guards moving to shift Officer Picklock behind them to safety. I could see Ark shifting his gaze swiftly between the two groups as the door guard regained composure and started to point their weapons at him, while I tried to duck behind Ark. They wouldn’t shoot now and risk hitting the overseer, would they? That had to be the only reason we were still alive. Over the sound of the gate shifting I heard something move in the ceiling. “Ark, we need to go, now,” I cried, watching as a pair of turrets unfurled from the ceiling and started to take aim on us, while a crane arm resting in the corner sprang to life and started to rattle down a track into a nearby hallway. I didn’t want to know what that thing was going to retrieve, and thankfully Ark seemed to agree with me. I took one last glance at the groups of ponies pointing more weapons than I felt comfortable seeing active at us, and noticed the high overseer craning her neck over the honor guards, casting worried looks at Siren. Ark saw her glances and, to my surprise, responded. “I’ll take care of her, I promise,” he called, before raising his hoof and throwing something onto the ground. “Storm, run!” he bellowed, turning tail and flinging himself at the door. I didn’t waste a second and turned to follow him, glancing up at the massive door as it still was trying to open...only to realize I was wrong. Now it was closing, and the gap to squeeze through was thinning fast. Ark leapt through the gap with Siren still balanced precariously on his back, and with my only shield gone I heard the guards open fire behind me. I couldn’t help but look back as I ran, noticing a field in the guard’s fire where the bolts just seemed to vanish, right over where Ark had thrown something. I had barely enough time and sense to put it between myself and the guards as I sprinted for the gap, diving through the narrow opening right before the door slammed back into its slot. The door slammed shut with an enormous clang as I found myself standing on four legs again, breathing heavily with my eyes shut. I couldn’t believe what had just happened, that we’d somehow survived that. When I finally found myself believing enough of it to take in more unbelievable sights, I opened my eyes and shakily looked around. Right in front of me was a metal ramp, leading up several metres to a bright point of light I had to assume was open sky. Ark was already halfway up the ramp as I hurried to follow him, emerging from the cavern blinking in the light. My vision cleared enough to see a clouded sky high above us; we’d emerged at the base of a hill, surrounded by even more hills and mountains, peaks so high they dwarfed the vault door even at their distance. There was brown dust and decayed foliage everywhere, meager plants black and sickly the only things that seemed alive up here. “Welp, this is the worst day of your life,” Ark said dryly, keeping his eyes forward even as I stared at him. “Welcome to the wasteland.” Author's Note Footnote: Level Up Perk gained:They can't hurt what they can't hit! Get 25+ Damage Resistance and 25+ Energy Resistance when you're sprinting. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56 The wastelandFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 2: The Wasteland By Fallen Sentinel “A long time ago you gave me a choice, now I give you a choice. Run or Die” Emptiness. That was the only word I could think of looking at my surroundings. Sure there were things scattered here and there, a row of mountains on either side as we stood in the base of a valley, but there was nothing out here to look at. The mountains were scarred with what had to be damage from bombs, scattered plantlife struggling to grow and turning a very unhealthy black color. I tore my eyes away from the barren landscape, turning towards Arkangel to ask him something. Only then did I notice he was already on the move, heading off to the left of where we’d stepped out. I broke into a gallop to follow him. “Where are we going?” I shouted, trying to pick up speed and catch up to his lead. “Come on, keep up or get left behind,” he called back. “I really just need the overseer, I can do this alone if I have to.” I huffed as I managed to catch up with him, though Ark didn’t seem to notice. “Out of the mountain range first off,” he said with a gesture, though not at the mountain pass like I expected. I didn’t have time to ask what he was doing though, since the Pip Buck my captors had neglected to confiscate beeped at me. Surprised I’d forgotten about the device this long, I glanced down at it, seeing that the general topographic map now had a navigation beacon. “How did you…” I started to ask, but Ark cut me off as though he hadn’t heard me. “After that, we’re headed to Rock Point, then probably Manehattan ruins. And if you’re still alive by then,” he glanced back at me for a second, “I’ll tell you the rest.” “What do you mean ‘still alive’?” I gulped. Ark stared at me again, making me wither in the piercing look he shot me. “What, you thought this was going to be some kind of vacation?” I stared blankly at him in response, but he wasn’t waiting for me to actually say anything. “This is a wasteland. Everything out here’s going to try and kill you.” This day just kept getting better. It seemed like every next event was trying to one-up the last one, from a random arrest to being out here in the wastelands, all alone save a pony I still wasn’t sure I could trust since he was so casual about killing his own. But by now, I didn’t have much choice, so I sighed and kept trotting, keeping up with Ark as best I could. It was going to be a long day still... I spent a few minutes trying to talk to Ark, trying to get any more information out of him, but nothing I asked seemed to entice him to talk. Eventually I gave up and just tried to take in the surroundings. Nothing much had changed, we were still in the mountain pass, though I had noticed it was getting darker. Despite living in a Stable my whole life, I’d read enough old stories to know that Celestia was moving the sun down below the horizon, although glancing up I couldn’t see the fabled shining sphere through the dense cloud cover. I’d occasionally dreamed about what the surface had been like, wondered what it would feel like to fly free amongst the clouds...I’d just never imagined it as being so dour and depressing. “Something’s not right.” Ark’s sudden vocalization snapped me back to reality. “The stable hasn’t sent anything after us,” he replied, glancing back from where we’d come. “Well...that’s good, right?” I asked. Surely if we’d fought a bunch of soldiers by now, we’d be dead. “Not really. I mean sure, we’re not fighting them to try and get anywhere. But it doesn’t make sense, they have plenty of soldiers trained to handle the wasteland.” Ark stopped abruptly, glancing around the valley. “They’re gonna ambush us. They have to be planning one, there’s no way they’re just letting us walk away with the overseer.” Ark kept walking forward, prompting me to follow. It didn’t take too long for Ark to stop again and turn to me. “Take Siren,” he ordered. “What is it now?” I asked, though I still listened to him as he moved to drop the overseer’s unconscious body on my back. “My EFS is showing targets ahead,” was all he said, before turning off and running forward, before I could even ask what he meant by that. I wanted to call out to him, but before I could he simply vanished from sight. I blinked in surprise, trying to figure out where he’d gone. I glanced at my Pipbuck, but the civilian grade version I owned didn’t have nearly the tech whatever Ark was using available. I had no idea what was happening, all I could do was wait. I didn’t need the Pipbuck, however, to hear hoofsteps behind me, simply waiting for the bigger threat to leave. Trying not to alert whatever was there to my hearing it, I glanced around quickly for anything I might use as a weapon. There wasn’t anything particularly dangerous, a few jagged rocks that might be my best bet, so I slowly moved closer to one and set Siren down. The hoofsteps came closer, and despite my hooves shaking I grabbed the most jagged rock I could see and turned slowly. Facing me were two earth ponies, both stallions and both wearing ragged leather armor. I didn’t know too much about leather armor designs, but it wasn’t hard to tell it was in very poor condition and barely defensive at all. They did, however, have much better weapons available, a hammer and a knife, and I was sure they at least knew how to use them. The sound of gunfire erupted behind me, telling me Arkangel had found the ambush he’d been looking for and already engaged. There wasn’t going to be any help from him; I was on my own. “Stay back!” I shouted, trying to look more confident than I was. It didn’t seem to fool the earth ponies though, who just smirked at me as they approached. The one with the hammer charged at me, swinging his weapon at my skull, something I noticed with barely enough time to roll the other way to dodge his strike. Without thinking I swung the rock at the stallion, slamming it into his head and knocking him off his hooves. The hammer fell from his grip and landed, the handle tapping against my hoof as it fell. I grabbed it when I saw the original owner struggling to get back up. I swung the hammer at his head and knocked him back down to the ground, groaning in pain. With the one stallion incapacitated, I turned towards his friend, who was already barrelling towards me. I tried to raise the hammer to swing at him, but I wasn’t going to swing fast enough to catch him, I could already tell. Thankfully, the stallion tripped and fell forward, though he still had enough sense on him to slash at my legs. I jumped backwards, wings reflexively shifting even when they caught against my lab coat and couldn’t help lift me. The stallion tried to get up as I recovered, raising the hammer to strike at him if he got closer. But suddenly the stallion crashed back down on the ground, Siren landing on his back and forcing him down. I stared in shock at the overseer, as her gaze met mine. “Finish him you idiot!” she screamed, as the stallion under her struggled to throw her off. I snapped out of it and swung the hammer sideways at his face, accidentally smashing right into his eye. He screamed and writhed as Siren got up off him, grabbing the hammer from my hooves and smashing it into the stallion’s head again. He stopped moving. “I thought you could have finished him yourself when I tripped him,” she snapped, thrusting the hammer back at me. “But you keep finding ways to disappoint me.” “Well then,” a new voice startled me away from looking dejectedly at Siren. I saw a new face, a unicorn mare, moving slowly towards us. Her armor was in much better shape than the stallions, and she was holding a decent-looking rifle in her magic, hovering just behind her. “You know, these guys aren’t so easy to replace,” she sighed, glaring at me as she loaded a new bullet into her gun without even looking at it. I swallowed nervously. “So I’m going to give you one chance. Join up with me and replace those clowns you just killed.” She snapped her rifle shut and cocked it, the ominous click emphasizing her point. “Sorry,” Siren said cooly, “but I’m not exactly yours to take.” I wanted to turn and look at Siren, but the armed unicorn was making me too nervous to turn my back. I tensed my body, ready to strike if I got the chance: while I didn’t like how blunt Siren was being, I had to admit I didn’t exactly want to end up shanghaied into a bandit group. The unicorn leveled her rifle at Siren’s head, and before I could think otherwise I was lunging forwards, raising the hammer to bring down on the unicorn. But in one effortless motion she grabbed the hammer with her magic, ripped it from my grip, and swung it around to slam hard into my gut. The wind was knocked out of me as I collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath and clutching where the hammer had struck. “Last chance,” the unicorn said, keeping the gun trained on Siren. The overseer only stared back at the unicorn, her face dominated by an unamused expression. “Well fine then, I tried.” A gunshot rang out, making me cover my ears and avert my eyes. I still heard a whump of a body hitting the ground, though to my shock when I opened my eyes, the unicorn was the one lying dead at my hooves, her rifle clattering to the ground beside her. Siren looked a bit rattled as she glanced at me, sharing my look of horror as we both glanced up, trying to find where the shot had come from. “Thanks for distracting her!” we both heard a voice coming from somewhere up above. We looked up and quickly spotted a maroon coated sniper waving at us from up on a cliff. Before either of us could respond, he leapt forward and dove off the cliff, unfurling his wings and floating down towards the two of us. As he came closer, I could make out that his mane and tail were black, with just a hint of blue. He reminded me of what little I’d seen of Ark’s mane, but a bit less messy. As he touched down I watched his wings flap, and caught sight of the silver gear cutie mark on his haunch. “What in Equestria took you so long?!” Siren snapped, stepping closer. “And where is your uniform?” The stallion blinked at her for a second. “Well I was a little busy keeping an eye on that other fight,” he said, pointing in the direction where Ark’s gunfire was still ringing out. “Looking out for little miss reaver here,” he pointed at the dead unicorn at my hooves. I shied away from the body as the pegasus continued, feeling a little ill despite seeing many more corpses already. “Caught her walking on over here, and you guys just gave me a nice clean shot at her. As for a uniform...” he glanced down at his clothes for a second, before shrugging. “Don’t have one.” Siren facehooved and groaned. “You are by far the worst soldier I’ve ever seen,” she grumbled, before looking back up at him, rather tired. “Look, I do thank you for performing your duties, but once we’re back at the stable I must insist we get you a new uniform.” The pegasus only stared back at her, confused. “Stable? What stable?” Siren huffed indignantly. “What stable indeed, are you really this stupid?” I finally caught onto what Siren expected was happening and, wondering myself if it were true, tried to clarify with my own question. “Are you a soldier from the nearby stable?” “Nope,” the pegasus smirked. “Name’s Gunrunner, most efficient merc of the wastelands.” He just grinned for a second, as Siren started to back away with her eyes wide. “Had a contract to get rid of that unicorn, nothing about two strangers here. So you could thank me for not letting her kill you before I took her out, you know.” He glared at Siren with an arched eyebrow. Siren froze in place for a second, before suddenly turning tail and bolting away, screaming “you’re all traitors!” back at us. “No, stop her!” I yelled, starting to run after her myself. I tried to unfurl my wings again and take off after her, but the labcoat still prevented it. Gunrunner’s wings however were unburdened, and he leapt forward to pounce in her. Siren saw his shadow approaching and spread her wings as well, but her awkward attempts to flap didn’t even push her forward. Gunrunner caught her quickly, slamming into her and knocking her on the ground. “Get off me!” she shouted, squirming to break free, but Gunrunner had too good an advantage over her. “He and his little friend kidnapped me from the stable!” Gun looked back up at me in confusion. “Wait...so who’s the good guy here?” I sighed and shrugged; at this point, I wasn’t really sure anymore. “Kidnapping was Ark’s idea, I just didn’t want you,” I glared at Siren, “to get through executing me. Especially since you know I didn’t do anything!” Gun let out an amused snort, but seemed convinced by my words. Still pinning Siren down, he reached into a saddlebag and produced some rope. Siren glanced back and saw it, her squirming redoubled, but it was no good. “So, execution huh? What for?” he asked me, as he began to wrap Siren’s wings with the rope. “Publicly, for murder of my head researcher,” I muttered, “but really she thought I was a bad influence. And other various reasons, I think,” I turned my attention to Siren as I spoke, watching as Gun tied her wings down. “Not likely you’re going to tell me now though, huh?” Siren just glared at me, before turning her attention back to Gunrunner. “Look...Gunrunner, was it?” she asked. “This is an internal issue between members of my Stable. If you untie my wings now and back off, then I think we can overlook this little ‘incident’.” Gunrunner, however, didn’t even pause, tightening the knots around her wings before producing a metal collar he slapped around her neck. “You will regret this,” she growled, as Gunrunner added a rope lead to the collar. “Maybe I will,” he shrugged. “Maybe not. But killing someone unnecessarily like you were trying to just isn’t something I can approve of.” At that, Gunrunner passed the rope lead to me, which I took before Siren could turn and bolt for it. She yanked at the rope to try and break my hold, but I held fast, causing her to glare at me with an expression full of hatred. “I’m still saying none of this was my idea,” I replied, as Gunrunner turned to head towards Ark’s fight. I turned to follow, having to yank at Siren’s leash when she tried to dig her hooves in and not move. It turned out Arkangel wasn’t as far ahead as I’d thought. He was just wrapping up his fight with several bandits. He fired one more burst from his shotgun into a downed body, I couldn’t tell if they were dead already or not. But as he glanced up at us, he trained his gun on Gunrunner. “Ark no, he’s with us!” I cried, stepping in front of Gunrunner before he was shot. Ark didn’t respond for a moment, glancing to the left of me and spotting Siren. “Well, I leave you alone for a couple minutes, and you’ve got a new pet,” he gestured to Siren, “and boyfriend,”he gestured at Gunrunner. His guns stayed focused on Gun though. I stared back at Arkangel, keeping my face as stern as I could and ignoring his taunt. “He saved both of us, and kept Siren from getting away.” “Well somepony’s feathers are ruffled,” Gun smirked, meeting Arkangel’s gaze. He seemed far too cool under pressure, did he not understand what that armor was capable of? Ark stepped forward. “Storm, I’m only asking you this once. Stand aside,” he jerked his head to his right, trying to get me to move. “I’m not letting some raider follow us.” I was about to object again, but I suddenly felt a hoof at my shoulder. Gun pushed me aside and stepped closer to Ark. His battle saddle aimed a heavily outdated beam weapon right at Ark, the end charging brighter and brighter. “I’m open to talking this out if you want,” he said dryly. Ark opened fire, a single shot that Gun shifted just enough to make ricochet off his battle saddle. The beam weapon fired, the blast smashing into Ark’s chestplate. Ark stiffened in an instant, before falling onto his side, collapsing. I stared in horror as Gun’s saddle holstered the weapon. “You killed him!” I shouted, panic flooding my voice. “Relax,” Gunrunner said calmly. “Didn’t kill him, just crashed his suit.” Gun trotted up casually to Arkangel’s collapsed armor and rapped on the helmet. “You’re lucky that was my first choice.” Ark yelled something from inside the armor, but without the voice amplifier I couldn’t make anything out besides the angry emotion in it. “Well, do you really need him that bad?” Gun glanced back at me. “Wha...of course we need him!” I shouted. “He’s the one with the plan here!” Of course that was the main reason for keeping Ark around, but I couldn’t help but fear what might happen if we ditched him here and now. He was unstable, what would he do if he caught up with us? Gunrunner shrugged, then cast his glance at the two raiders behind us. He then looked at my Pipbuck, and back to Ark’s armor. “You know how to restart it?” I shook my head in response; my speciality was robotics, power armor was a bit different from that. “I know that robots tended to reboot a few hours later if they ran into trouble, or could be manually restarted by a charge from a spark battery. It might be the same with his armor,” I said. Gunrunner glanced back at his battle saddle and shook his head. “Sorry, not giving up mine. Guess we’re gonna have to carry him til he resets.” There was a bemused snort from Gun’s nose as he leaned down, biting onto Ark’s armored wing to flip him over. Suddenly, there was a sharp whistling sound coming at us, and before I could turn to face it I felt something very nearly clip the tip of my ear. I ducked instinctively and glanced up, just in time to see a missile whiz straight over my head. It continued on its merry way, slamming into a rock further ahead of us and exploding on contact. My head snapped around to catch sight of what was shooting at us. It was a sentry bot, one of the ones I’d been working on before all this had happened. It’s guns were spraying wildly in our direction, making me silently thankful I hadn’t managed to calibrate their targeting software yet. The sentry lumbered forward on four treads, probably trying to correct for the spread fire with close range. I dove for cover behind a rock, half dragging Siren with me as she had the same idea, but a different destination. Safe for the moment, I looked up to see Gun had dragged Ark behind some cover as well. I breathed a sigh of relief that we were all safe, only to feel Siren’s leash slip from my grasp. I lunged after it, just barely grabbing hold of her and stopping her escape attempt. At that second, the sentry’s guns stopped firing, giving me a second to glance up and see what we were dealing with. I could tell it was an older model, something we’d gotten 200 years back to update. Its torso now had mounted shield projectors to disperse oncoming fire, a missile pod on its right shoulder that was currently reloading to fire another salvo. The twin gatling guns sprayed wildly in our direction, forcing me to duck back down as the rock I was trying to hide behind got pelted with hundreds of bullets, threatening to turn the whole thing into gravel. But as Siren broke cover, the sentry stopped firing, programmed to rescue her probably, so with its wild spraying it wasn’t going to risk a stray shot hitting her. I decided to use that as an advantage and pulled her out between me and the sentry, throwing the two of us closer to Gunrunner’s cover. The sentry started tracking but refused to fire at me, at least until the two of us dove behind the second rock, Siren squirming to get away the entire time. “Do you have any idea how big of a pain she is?” I snapped as the guns spun up again, spraying bullets and filling the air with rattling. Gun only shrugged, before glancing down at Ark again. I couldn’t help but smirk at the irony, how Ark’s tail was designed off the paralyzing scorpion, and now he was paralyzed himself. “Wait a minute...the tail!” I thought, thinking back to how easily Ark’s tail had split the metal back in the stable door room. “I have an idea, but I need that spark battery.” Gunrunner only glared at me, but I wasn’t in the mood for it. “Well, you got a better idea to take that thing out?” Gun glanced back over the rock carefully to scope out the sentry, but was forced down by another burst of fire. He sighed heavily, before quickly removing his battery and giving it to me. “You owe me a fresh one,” he said bluntly, as he took Siren’s leash in response while I turned to look over Arkangel’s armor. But this was beyond my understanding, I couldn’t figure it out. “Ark, where do I insert the battery?” I asked, leaning close to his head to hear his response. Thankfully the robot stopped firing just long enough for me to hear his reply. “Spine panel!” I heard just clearly enough. I went back to look where he’d suggested and, with a bit more searching than I cared for while under fire, I managed to find a tiny break in the smooth texture near the back of Arkangel’s neck. Sure enough the second I pressed down on the rougher patch, a series plates along Ark’s spine started to shift and unfurl, revealing the under layers of the armor, as well as its operator, clad in some kind of underarmor in addition to the power frame. I stopped myself from pondering just how warm it might get in there long enough to find a socket with a spark battery installed, but when I went to remove it the battery was jammed in and refused to budge. I started to panic, blood racing in my ears as the bullets kept pounding against the rock and breaking our cover down inch by inch, pulling frantically at the battery until something caught my attention; another socket next to the installed battery. There wasn’t anything in there already, so with a mental shrug I inserted Gun’s battery into the slot and, to my relief, watched the charge transfer into Ark’s armor. Instantly Ark’s armor closed around him again, and his legs began to move. Arkangel staggered onto his hooves, his eyes blue as he regained his footing. Then, without saying a word, Arkangel bolted out past the rock, keeping ahead of the sentry’s fire as it attempted to get a bead on him. I glanced over the rock to watch Ark zig-zagging closer, leaping the last few feet to try and smash into the robot. However the shields came up and blocked the impact. Ark just planted all four hooves sternly on the ground before leaping in the air, his wings flapping to carry him up and over the sentry as it turned to face him, leaving its back to us. Gunrunner took the opportunity and raised his energy cannon at the sentry’s back, firing the instant he had a charge, but the beam was stopped before it could hit. Gun grunted in disappointment as the sentry returned its attention to us, blasting at our cover and forcing Gun to duck. But he wasn’t quite quick enough, and a rock smashed loose from the debris rushed forward and smacked him right in the face. It took me another second to realize I was wrong again: a set of hooves had propelled that rock into Gun, as he fell sideways, still in the rock’s cover thankfully. I looked around just in time to see Siren swinging another chunk at my head. I fell backwards to avoid getting hit, but wasn’t quite as lucky with my landing: I crashed down on my back,right in the firing line of the sentry, who trained its guns and readied to fire. I shut my eyes and winced, fully expecting to be shredded. But nothing came. I cracked an eyelid open to stare at my executioner, only to see Arkangel standing triumphantly on its back, a spark battery grasped in his tail. I sighed with relief, before glancing back over at Siren. She looked panicked, her cunning plan to get me killed having failed. “You really want me dead, huh? Twice in one day you put me in front of a robot,” I pointed at the sentry’s gatling gun, which was only now stopping its spinning. Siren didn’t respond, short of trying to turn and flee, but Gun yanked on her leash and forced her onto the ground. She didn’t try to get up again, sighing in defeat. Arkangel flew over to us and tossed the spark battery at Gunrunner, a curt “debt’s been paid,” before turning back to me. “Storm, get Siren, we’re out of here.” I moved to take Siren’s leash back from Gun, but the merc only shook his head. “Nuh uh, debt’s not paid,” he corrected. Arkangel stared at him, while I just looked confused. “First,” Gun said, raising a hoof in the air, “you try and kill me. Second, you drag me into your little inter-stable problem,” he gestured vaguely to the three of us, “third one of your robots tries to attack me.” He jerked his head at the collapsed sentry. “And last but certainly not least,” he said, pulling Siren’s leash taut, “she hit me in the face. With a rock.” I couldn’t help but snicker at how indignant Gunrunner sounded at the last one, but Ark was far less amused. “Fine,” he sighed, “what else do you want?” “First off, for number three, that,” he pointed at the sentry. “Gotta be some great salvage there. Then for the rest, you all help me carry it back to my place.” I looked at Gunrunner in surprise. It felt odd that this was all he was going to ask for. But I didn’t object, and neither did Arkangel. “Alright fine. But make it quick,” he warned Gunrunner. “They might send something worse after us soon. I’d watched for several minutes as Gunrunner had a field day stripping the bot down for scrap. Ark used his tail to help cut anything that he couldn’t tear apart easily, while I sat back with a silent Siren watching as the salvage pile just kept growing. Occasionally I tossed a question or two out at her, asking why she’d ordered my execution in the first place, but I was met by either silence or the same response I’d gotten before. I could just tell there was something more, but Siren refused to loosen her tongue. Eventually Gun seemed finished, tossing a spare spark battery to Ark, which he stored away in a compartment in his armor. The only things left to transport were a missile, the bot’s untouched gatling guns, and a ton of scrap metal, more than I thought would have fit in the robot’s chassis. Gun glanced between me and the scrap pile for a second, before Ark said simply “just tie the rest to me, I’ll tow it.” Gun shrugged and got to work, using a net trap to hold everything while tying it to Ark’s armor. Meanwhile I tied a blindfold over Siren’s eyes, something the three of us had decided was the best choice so she wouldn’t know where we were headed. I was finished by the time Gunrunner was finished setting up the tow line, the bots gatling guns slung over his back, allowing the three of us to set off after Gunrunner. Ark somehow managed to stay ahead of me despite the heavy load, forcing me to try and hurry up so as not to get left behind. It wasn’t as simple as speeding up, though, since I had to cope with Siren’s stumbling and wandering around all over. I kept glancing back at her to make sure she was at least alright, though every time all I could see was the fearful expression she was trying to hide. We eventually made it out of the mountains and onto a flat stretch of plains, flatlands for miles wherever I could see. I glanced at my Pipbuck’s map to tell we were headed south, before trying again to convince Siren to trot a little faster despite her handicap. It worked, probably thanks to the more stable terrain, and I managed to catch up with Ark. “So Arkangel,” I asked, “what exactly do you want to accomplish out here?” Ark’s he slowly turned to face me, causing me to wince. “I’ll tell you when I trust you,” he said curtly. I decided to try and change the subject. “So, do you know Siren? Earlier you said she was an annoying individual” I figured it was a softball question he could answer easily, to get his focus off me for a second. “She caused problems everyone and a while,” he replied after a prolonged silence, looking back up and forward. “Nothing more or less.” For a second the answer appeased me, in part because he wasn’t staring at me anymore, but I started thinking about what kind of problems she made. My thoughts were interrupted by Gunrunner announcing “we might have to stop up here for the night.” I glanced at where Gun was indicating, a half-collapsed two story building that might have been a house at one point. It was hard to tell, considering the front wall had almost entirely fallen forward into the small, sickly yard in front of it. Scattered fruits grew in the deathly garden, the blackened remains of a wood fence trying its best to contain the corrupted plants. As the four of us picked our way through the debris into the main house, Siren needing some extra help considering her blindness, I looked around to figure that this had once been a living room. Books, toys lay scattered under a thick layer of dust, beside a flipped couch and collapsed cabinet. I didn’t know the last time somepony had been in here. Ark started to dump the salvage he was hauling and moved off into a different room, while Gunrunner carefully worked his way up the remains of the staircase. I didn’t feel like trying to drag Siren through any barriers or dangers in other rooms, so I heaved the couch back upright and helped Siren to sit down on it. “You know,” I muttered, trying to think of a different question to lighten the tension. “I don’t even know what you’re overseer of. What branch?” Siren refused to speak for a moment, but as she settled into the seat she seemed a touch grateful for the rest, and eventually spoke. “Soldier development.” “You said you put Arkangel in a project out of pity...was that the program? Soldier development?” Siren only shrugged. “I don’t know.” I was dumbstruck by that response: how could she not know what program she put him in? “What do you mean by that?” I asked, as Siren settled down on the couch. She completely ignored me, and after trying to get her attention for a few minutes I figured she’d fallen asleep. I sighed and glanced around the room, only to jump in fright as I saw Ark standing in the door frame, his empty visor staring at me. After a second of staring, however, he looked away. “Want to tell me what that was about?” I asked, only to have Ark turn and trot back around the corner out of sight. I sighed; my curiosity was gnawing at me now. I wanted to know more about whatever project had happened, but if the overseer had no idea, and the testee himself was refusing to talk, what hope did I have to learn more? Trying to get my mind off it, I started flipping through radio signals on my Pipbuck, trying to see if I could pick up anything. I found scrambled or repeated phrases on a few different bands, and only two proper radio stations: Rock Point News and Tenpony Tower. I tried listening to them both as I tied Siren’s forelegs together, in case she woke up unsupervised, but listening to either of them either bored me to tears or was so depressing I finally shut it off entirely. I next tried to just get some shut eye, but sleep didn’t come; I was too anxious, too unsafe in this crumbling ruin with a mercenary and an unstable murderous nutcase. I kept trying to fall asleep for at least an hour, long enough for Gunrunner to come back into the room and turn in himself, curling up in a corner and falling asleep with the greatest of ease. I was a little envious, but also astonished at how easily he was sleeping considering he now had three strangers around who might just kill him. I eventually decided to get up and look around, spotting Ark standing stone still outside, staring off into the distance. I decided not to provoke Arkangel further and tried to occupy my mind with exploring the house. The kitchen was littered with smashed plates, scattered utensils and rusted cooking supplies. But nothing held my interest long enough, so I decided instead to try and head upstairs. The first room I entered I guessed was once a foal’s bedroom, a single bed and a few toys, but the decorations were damaged and rotted away. The next was another bedroom, also with a single bed, though I felt sure that the adult of the house had lived here. And thankfully for my nerves, a terminal was sitting on the room’s desk. I didn’t honestly expect the terminal to function, but I figured tinkering with something might calm my nerves. So it came as a surprise that the device clicked on almost instantly when I prodded it. I wasn’t that experienced dealing with this model, and terminal slicing wasn’t something I remembered too well from my old specialist training, but after testing a few words I felt appropriate to the building the password “Regret” unlocked it. I sighed, depressed that the word had actually worked, before I started poking around the files. The only vaguely interesting thing on the terminal was a selection of messages; mostly outgoing to somepony, but a few responses as well. Message sent Heard you were being shipped out today, I hope that this will be a short war. I don’t see how it could of come to this we tried so hard to stop it from happening but it still did. Just try to stay alive and don’t do anything risky, I need you to come home when this is over. Ps, I went for the test today, turns out you're going to be a father when you get back I glanced over at the bed, imagining the mare sending this message out to her war-bound husband. I guess that explained why it was a single bed...though I didn’t like where it was going. Message Received That's great news, i’ll try and keep my head down. Besides from what i’ve heard both sides are trying to keep casualties low so I rate my chances as fairly high. To add more to my luck we’re being paired with a special forces group haven’t heard much about them though, they’re keeping us in the dark until we’re fully trained. Is it a mare or a colt? I quickly scanned through the list of messages, back and forths numbering in the hundreds. I knew I’d never get through the whole list in one night, so I decided to copy all of them onto my Pipbuck’s memory. It felt odd saving these personal communications between two ponies, but I was confident they were both long gone, so it wasn’t exactly like I was invading somepony’s privacy. Plus, it would make a great material to keep me out of boredom wandering the wastelands. I then pulled myself away from the terminal, looking around for anything else of interest in the house. I didn’t find anything but some heavily aged boxes of canned food, which I kept a few of for an emergency, and a bathroom sink that to my surprise was still running. I wanted to wash some of the dirt and blood from my black fur, but when I reached closer to the water my Pipbuck’s Geiger counter started chirping, causing me to change my mind. I finally went back downstairs to find nothing else had changed while I was exploring. Gunrunner was still curled up, his battle saddle not far from him, and Siren hadn’t moved an inch from the couch, hadn’t even disrupted her blindfold. But Arkangel had moved, headed towards the shed on the other side of the house. I thought that if he were separated from Siren, and now Gunrunner, he might feel a touch chattier. It was worth the risk to me, so I decided to follow him. As Arkangel glanced around the shed, I carefully approached him. “Hey Ark,” I said quietly, trying not to startle him. Ark turned his head to face me. I breathed a restrained sigh of relief at the sight as I kept talking. “I...I know you and I aren’t really friends, but...well, I thought you might want to tell me a little more about you, now that nopony’s listening.” “Somepony’s always listening,” Ark responded, turning away from me again as he took off his helmet and set it on the desk. He then pulled out his rifle and set it down, removing its cartridge. “What are you doing?” I asked. “Swapping out parts. I prefer ballistics, but since wastelanders are using laser weapons, I’m at a disadvantage.” I watched in silence for a bit as Ark started pulling components off his rifle, reassembling it with other bits he pulled from armor compartments until the weapon started to look more like a laser rifle. “Look Ark, I...you saved me and all, and I’m really grateful for that,” I sighed, as Ark snapped a gem cartridge into the rifle and holstered it at his side. “But I really need to know what you’re getting me into. I don’t know what I’m doing out here, I don’t know why I’m following you…” Arkangel turned his full attention to me, making me wince. I’d seen his left eye had been replaced with a cybernetic one before, but the difference between his real and his replacement eyes was unsettling to have both boring into me at once. “Look at me, can’t you tell?” I stammered for a second. “Well, I can tell you’re a cyborg, but I want to know why. I work with robots all the time, they’re meant to replace soldiers...so why did anypony do this to you?” Ark glanced down at the floor. “You can make a robot smart as you like, but there’s always going to be somepony who thinks it won’t be enough. That’s all that happened, a general decided he needed cyber soldiers. Nopony else was for it though, so I’m the only one they worked on. That enough for you?” “No,” I muttered. “Did Siren approve of this? And what general are you talking about anyways?” Arks robotic eye changed to red, and I backed up. “You should get back to watching Siren,” he said sternly, as his armours tail curled up behind him, “before I get annoyed.” I decided not to push my luck and left quick as I could, only to realise Ark had put his helmet back on and was following me. I galloped into the room and grabbed one of Gunrunners weapons, diving for the couch and trying to hide the gun beneath me. Ark entered a moment later, but he didn’t approach me like I feared. “Relax, I’m not going to kill you,” he muttered, moving to the opposite corner and settling in. “Give the merc his gun back. I still need you around.” I listened to Ark as he fell silent, seemingly falling asleep while I returned the weapon to Gunrunner’s saddle. I then tried to settle in to sleep myself, but my mind was buzzing with questions. Ark was a supersoldier project, that was obvious, but what was with the eye changing colour like that? Was it something like a split personality? An AI? Why was this general involved protecting his identity? I tried to distract myself with a few more of Shining Meadow’s messages, but I wasn’t focusing nearly well enough on it to understand anything in them. It did at least help me calm down a bit and I managed to finally pass out, getting at least a little sleep before I was disrupted again. There was something clunking against a wall, and when I looked around I spotted a small, winged metal ball bobbing silently in the air. The thing hovered a little closer to me, but when I reached out it ducked away, heading outside. I followed it as it hovered around to the shed and bumped gently against the door. I stood there, baffled, until to my surprise the thing spoke. “Open the door, please.” Too dazed to question how this thing was talking to me, even what it was, I did as it asked and opened the door. The sphere hovered inside and came to rest above a few sheets draped over something. “Lift these, please.” For some reason I hesitated, as an acrid scent filled my nostrils. “Please. I need you to see what you’re traveling with.” An image of Ark flashed in my mind, and though I was still hesitant I couldn’t deny my curiosity any longer. I lifted one of the sheets and pulled it away carefully, only for my heart to skip a beat at what I saw. It was a mare’s corpse, her skull crushed in around a bloody hole. This wasn’t an old body...this was new. “Be careful with that thing,” the orb said, “I saw this happen. She tried to greet him, and she lost her life for it.” I glanced back at it, but that was all the orb said, its audio crackling and shifting to some old song as it floated away. I covered the mare up again and left before my stomach revolted, headed back into the house with a whole new set of questions rampaging through my skull. I tried to just focus on getting back to sleep after that, but I couldn’t help but steal a glance at Arkangel as he lay there. “What are you?” I muttered to myself. “I wish I knew,” Ark said softly, making me jump nearly out of my skin. I hadn’t expected him to respond at all. All I could think to do was pick Siren up, take her upstairs, and let her down on the bed in the terminal room. I locked the door behind us, feeling just a hair safer that we were at least in a different room than Ark, as I lay down next to the door and finally fell properly asleep. Author's Note Footnote: Level Up Perk gained:They can't hurt what they can't hit! Get 25+ Damage Resistance and 25+ Energy Resistance when you're sprinting. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56 Band of mistrustFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 3: Band of hate By Fallen Sentinel “Wake up! The world's falling apart, and you don’t get to play the nice guy anymore.” I shivered as I slowly woke up, surprised at how cold it had gotten overnight. I’d expected the irradiated, desert-like wasteland to be sweltering hot all the time, but I was starting to learn that things out here could swing to either extreme. Blinking the sleep from my eyes I glanced around the room. Siren was still asleep on the bed, making me a little relieved she hadn’t escaped on my watch. But only a moment later my relief vanished, as I saw Ark sitting in front of the terminal. “How did you get in here?” I asked, stunned. I was sure I’d locked the door! Arkangel pointed at a nearby window, wide open to the elements. I facehoofed in embarrassment: I hadn’t once considered that last night, and if Ark had gotten in Siren would have gotten out easily. “Gunrunner’s giving us twenty minutes before we leave,” said Ark matter-of-factly, standing and trotting to the door. “I suggest you eat something before we go.” He unlocked the door and left without another word, his armored hoofsteps clunking down the stairwell audible even through the door. I sighed and got to my hooves, stretching to try and get a knot out of my back from sleeping awkwardly. Something about Ark’s appearance had bugged me, so I went over to the terminal and unlocked it. All of the messages that had been there last night were gone. I nervously glanced at the door before checking on my Pipbuck, making sure the files were still safe there. I was sure Ark had deleted the first set, but he didn’t seem to know I’d already made a copy...and maybe it should stay that way, for the time being. So with one final check on Siren to make sure she was still asleep, I shut the window and headed downstairs to see what was going on. Gunrunner was busy with his scrap pile, organizing everything for easier transit and tossing it into a few saddlebags. Ark was sitting at the table in the dining room, staring off into space, scowling at something unseen. He did at least notice me enter the room and pushed a saddlebag across the table at me. “Here,” he muttered, “already portioned it out. Give half to Siren.” I glanced inside to find something like bread and water stashed inside. I looked back up at Ark, who had propped his head up on a hoof and resumed his scowling at the ether. “Alright, what is it now?” I asked. After yesterday, and a poor night’s sleep, the cool, brooding bad boy routine was beginning to run its course. I was starting to get ticked off by it. “You mean at the moment? Or overall?” I smirked a little, trying to lighten my tone and lift some of the dread out of the room. Like it or not, I was out here with Ark, so maybe I needed to give him a little more credit than I was currently giving him. “Let’s start with right now,” I said with a shrug. Ark looked at me for a second, before he turned his eyes away and stared out the window next to me. “We’re headed the wrong way, Rock Point is north from here. This detour’s going to add another day to our trip, at least.” I opened my mouth to say something in response, but Ark didn’t look in the mood for it. He seemed almost bored, and that nothing I said was going to improve that. So I shut my jaw again and grabbed the saddlebag before exiting the room, leaving Ark to stare into the wasteland to his heart’s content. I instead focused on getting some food into myself and our prisoner. Siren had woken up by the time I got upstairs, and rolled over to face me. Her forelegs were still tied, something she was struggling a little to work with as I pulled her blindfold off and met her gaze. “Wonderful,” she sighed. “It wasn’t a dream after all, getting dragged off by a cybernetic nutcase and his featherbrained lackey.” She was staring daggers at me, but I couldn’t help but think that tension was running high here as much as it was with Ark. “I brought you some food at least,” I said, a joking grin on my muzzle as I gestured towards the saddlebag. I noticed Siren’s expression soften at those words, her front hooves pressing down on her stomach. I could faintly hear it rumbling as she glanced away from me, looking a little embarrassed. “Here,” I reached into the bag and gave her one of the bread bites. Siren glanced at the bread for a moment as she held it carefully in her bound hooves, looking almost like she was trying to determine if it was actually food or not. “You know, I still have to have you executed when we get back,” she said, before dropping her food off the side of the bed. I sighed in annoyance and moved away from her, sitting back by the door and opening my Pipbuck again. I started to try and eat my portion, but the taste was near unbearable. The only good thing I could say about it was that it was very filling for how little I had to eat. I tried to distract myself from the taste with another message from the list. Message sent Doc said they don’t know yet and honestly, I want it to be a surprise. Not sure if you know but there's been a lot of zebras back in town talking of joining up in the Equestrian military. I don’t know how to feel about them. Sure they want to help, but I keep getting this feeling that they might try to sabotage us. If you see any zebras fighting with you, please be careful around them. A strained grunting sound pulled my attention from the message, and looking up I saw Siren straining to reach the bread she’d intentionally dropped from the bedside. She glanced over at me and looked expectantly between me and the food. I shook my head at her. “I’m not your butler here, sorry.” Siren sighed before sliding off the bedside, moving carefully to not fall over with only three points of balance, as she grabbed the bread in her teeth and hopped back on the bedside, gagging. “Yeah, I know,” I sighed, raising what was left of my own portion. “This junk tastes terrible. Maybe the water will help wash it down?” I offered. She looked at me quizzically for a second, but I didn’t let it linger and went back to my Pipbuck, forcing myself to finish my half. Message Received Well at least we got a foal coming. That’s good enough for me. As for the zebras, I think they’re doing fine. Sure, it’s a bit hard to tell between them and enemy, but they’ve been changing appearances to make it easier for us. We still haven’t been deployed yet, although I’m hearing that many groups are getting rushed training. Don’t know what for. At least everyone seems like they want to come out of this alive, a lot of prisoners are being exchanged whenever battles end. Things are getting more intense out here, but I should be alright. I can’t wait for this whole thing to be over. I glanced back up at Siren, who was eating rather noisily for an overseer: I’d expected a little more class out of a mare of her status. She glanced up at me with her portion finished. “I don’t suppose you have another one?” she asked. I shook my head. “Oh...well, there must be some more downstairs. Do you think you could get me another one?” “I’m still not your butler,” I replied, a little less jovial this time. “Oh, well what if I said ‘please?’” she asked. I sighed. “Still no.” Siren stared at me pleadingly, raising her hooves up to her chin and squirming slightly to press them together. “Pretty please?” I wanted to keep arguing with her, hold my ground and prove I wasn’t going to roll over anymore, but at the same time I did want to at least improve how the two of us interacted. “Alright, fine,” I said, trying not to sound too exasperated. “But keep this in mind later, alright?” Siren only nodded as I pulled myself up and headed back downstairs. A quick glance in the kitchen found Arkangel packing near 200-year old foods into saddlebags. “What are you even doing?” I muttered. “Relax, it’s non-perishable,” he replied, “and I already tested it, radiation’s at safe levels.” I simply stood there staring at him, unsure of how to best describe how I didn’t think ‘non perishable’ ment ‘still edible after 200 years!” By the time I got my thoughts back, Arkangel had finished his packing. “Oh, right. Siren was asking for another one of those bread things you gave us.” Ark only burst out laughing in response. “She absolutely did not, she hates those things.” He slid the saddlebag across the table at me. “So,smart guy, what do you think she really wanted you to come down here for?” I apparently took too long staring in confusion for Ark’s liking, because a moment later he answered for me. “She’ll have locked that door, tried to get herself untied and fly out the window to freedom. She might have some issues with step two of that plan…” The sound of something hitting the floor above us interrupted Ark for only a moment. “And step three, really,” Ark added with a smirk, as realization dawned on me. I turned and ran up the stairs as fast as my hooves could carry me, reaching the door and moving to slam it open. But the door didn’t budge: it was locked, just like Ark had figured. “Siren, what are you doing?” I called, frantically pushing at the door and trying to get it open. “Stay back!” she shouted, “Stay out of here! I’m not going to sit around and let you idiots drag me further out into this hell!” By now both Ark and Gunrunner had heard the commotion and met at the upstairs landing. Ark stepped closer to the doorframe and whispered “step back” to me. I did, letting him line up with his back legs to the door. “Siren, I’m giving you to the count of three before I break this door down!” he said loudly. There was no reply from Siren, not until another thud emanated from the door itself this time. “You know that’s not going to work!” Ark called, but Siren remained silent. “One...two…” Silence hung in the air for a moment as nopony moved, before Ark slammed his hind legs into the door, blasting it off its hinges and sending it skidding across the bedroom floor. The bed Siren had somehow propped against the door fell to the side as Ark’s buck cleared the path. Inside Siren was sitting in the far corner, desperately tugging at the knots binding her wings. She’d wriggled free of the binds I’d put around her forelegs, I could still see them knotted nearby, but she’d made no progress getting her wings free. She glanced up at us, shocked, before she locked eyes with Ark. He moved towards the center of the room, Siren staring him down fiercely as she got up and moved to meet him. They kept glaring at each other for nearly a minute, before Siren’s expression melted. “Of all the overseers, why did you have to pick me…” she whimpered, lowering her head and banging it against Arkangel’s armored neck. I thought for sure Ark was going to snap at her, but to my surprise his voice became very gentle as he raised a hoof to stroke her mane. “I don’t know,” he said. “Just remembered you told me you hated living in the stable. I panicked, I don’t know…” Siren didn’t respond for a moment, making Ark smirk. “What, you prefer if I’d have gone to get Redwood instead?” Siren responded to that at least, yanking her head back in disgust and glaring at Arkangel. “Redwood, Redwood, Redwood!” she snapped, “always mentioning her whenever I’m having an issue.” I blinked in shock, as Siren suddenly sounded furious. I hadn’t expected that kind of response, especially since I didn’t recognize the name at all. “Redwood this, Redwood that. ‘Oh Siren you should come to the atrium, Redwood and I had so much fun! You should have seen her flying today!’” Arkangel looked back at Siren, actually taking half a step back away from her as her blind rage built. He shot a glance over at Gunrunner and myself. “Er...give us a minute, alright?” he asked, looking very nervous all of a sudden. I could hear Gunrunner turn and start to head out of the room, but after a second of me not moving I felt Gun yank at my tail. “Oh come on,” I muttered, “I’m dying to know more about Ark and Siren.” I turned back to see an unamused Gun staring back at me through half-lidded eyes. I sighed, but turned to follow him out, closing the door behind me. I sat downstairs staring at my Pipbuck, watching the clock keep counting away. It had been thirty minutes since Siren had started her outburst, and judging from the muffled yelling we could hear through the floorboards she was still at it. I didn’t know how much longer she would go on like this, all I knew was how much I wanted to be listening in on the conversation. Nothing was clear through the floorboards, but every time I tried to leave to head upstairs Gun intercepted me and pulled me back down. I’d eventually given up and settled at the kitchen table, going back to more of the saved messages. Message sent This war is taking a turn for the worse, the frontlines are starting to pick up more heat. I’ve heard the fighting is no longer about trying to keep casualties low, Special forces are starting to be used to inflict casualties now instead of disrupting supply lines. I made my first kill yesterday, he got in close tackled me to the ground. My ammo bearer shindig jumped at him knocking him over, when I gun back I turned around in time to watch that stripe snap his neck. I screamed as my machine gun tore chunks out of the bastard. I’m feeling myself slip, they’re gonna transfer me to the second battalion much closer to home. I just want this war to end “How much longer you think those two are gonna be?” Gunrunner asked, pointing absently at the ceiling. I shrugged in response, straining to listen. It sounded like Siren had finally stopped yelling, and I thought I could hear Ark’s voice in whatever response he was giving. But the words were too muddled to make out, so I didn’t listen for much longer and tried to let silence fall again. Gunrunner decided to keep talking though. “What’s it like?” “Hmm?” I asked. “What’s what like?” “Living in a Stable,” Gun said. “Living all safe and sound, while the rest of us out here gotta kill each other just to breathe another second.” It seemed like Gunrunner was getting agitated, and I could guess why. “Well, it wasn’t really my choice to be born down there,” I started, “but it’s really not at all bad. Not until I was nearly executed for what I chose to work on,” I said jokingly, making Gun smirk as he kept listening. “Well my vault was a little different than just trying to be a shelter. We had a special job given to us by the Enclave, they…” Gunrunner’s eyes widened immediately. “Enclave?!” he shouted, before whipping his gun out and pointing it straight at me. I gasped and backed up a step, shaking. “W-w-w-what’s wrong with that?” I asked, raising a hoof in an effort to get Gun not to shoot me. Gunrunner just glared at me for a second, lips curling back to show his teeth still gripping the revolver. “You really don’t know, do you?” he snarled, and I shook my head. He sighed and set the gun down on the table. “What kind of Enclave member are you then…” he muttered, mainly to himself. “Well I’m not Enclave myself...technically, I guess,” I said, as Gun grimaced at me again. “We were just supposed to design weapons and armor for them, help finish off the zebras.” Gunrunner laughed harshly at me, shaking his head. “The rest of your Stable believe that garbage?” he asked. I looked at him blankly, apparently only ticking him off further. “Those stuck up featherbrains are never coming back,” he snapped. “They’ve had all the time and tech they need to fix all this, and what do they do with it? Sit around in the clouds, hunt down any pegasus not involved with em and brand em...make em disappear.” His hostility melted away in an instant, suddenly very remorseful. I could guess he knew that last part from personal experience, and overcome with grief I looked away, ears turned down as I bit my lip. “Look,” Gunrunner sighed, “just…don’t bring em up again, ok? The Enclave’s not your friend, no matter what your Stable thinks.” I only nodded back at him, as he grabbed his gun again and holstered it. I didn’t feel like talking anymore after the Enclave incident, just listening to the vague sound of Siren talking. After a bit she’d stopped yelling and, if I was hearing it correctly, started crying. I was debating going up there to check if Siren was alright. “Ugh...what’s taking them so long?” Gunrunner groaned, tapping his hoof iritably. “We should have been out of here ages ago…” He trotted over to me and set a hoof on my shoulder. “Look, go up there and get them moving, before I put my head through a wall,” he muttered, before moving past me and setting his forehead against the doorframe. I hurried up the stairs before Gun decided to cause serious brain damage to himself...felt like the least I could do after setting off whatever hatred of the Enclave he had built up. I made it halfway up the stairwell before I realized Ark and Siren were already at the landing. I stepped aside as Siren walked past, sitting down on the couch. “She’s having a lot of issues adjusting to the wasteland,” Ark sighed as he looked at me. I couldn’t tell what color his cyber eye was at that second, but he blinked and looked at me with the red one a moment later as he handed me a small revolver. “Make sure she doesn’t run off. If she tries to, aim for the legs,” he said calmly. “She’s not a confident flier.” Ark then pushed past me as I stored the gun away in my bag. “Mercenary,” Ark called, “we’re ready to go.” “Finally!” It was a only a few minutes of walking before my curiosity peaked, and I just had to turn to Siren and talk to her. She seemed to be doing a lot better than back at the house, even still blindfolded and leashed to me she didn’t seem as nervous as I expected. “So…” I said hesitantly, “what was that between you and Ark about? Is everything alright?” Siren glanced in my direction, missing my eyes slightly thanks to the blindfold but close enough I could tell she was thinking if telling me anything was smart. She stayed quiet for a few moments, listening for Gunrunner and Ark’s hoofsteps before she answered. “Do you trust him?” she whispered to me. I looked at her, confusion plain on my face, until I realized she couldn’t see that. “Erm...what do you mean?” I asked. “Arkangel. Do you trust him? Has he even bothered telling you where we’re going, what he’s doing? Do you even know if he wants you alive or not?” She bit her lip for a moment. “Does he even care about us?” I couldn’t help but smile slyly at that. “When you say ‘us,’ you mean you and I?” She nodded. “Well I know he didn’t try to get me killed by robot firing squad yesterday. Twice. So I trust him a bit more than you, especially after you lied to me this morning to try and escape.” Siren scoffed at me. “You’d have done the same thing if you were in my position,” she muttered, looking away. I let silence hang for a moment before I risked another question. “So who is this Redwood exactly?” Siren lashed out with one of her hind legs, kicking in my general direction. She missed by a mile, though I still jumped to the side to avoid getting hit. The conversation clearly wasn’t going to go anywhere useful, so I dropped it and spent the rest of the trip staring at the rock formations around us. Suddenly, the harsh wasteland seemed like the most inviting thing around me. It was hour’s before we arrived at Gunrunner’s place, and the sky was already darkening in the late afternoon sun bleeding through the clouds. We were headed towards a bunker nearby, something I assumed was leftover from the war. Gunrunner had clearly made himself at home here though, as the door was well maintained and sturdy after all these years, even if there were piles of loose scrap littered about the entrance. Gun was first into the place, and I moved Siren to follow him. But as I was about to cross the threshold myself, I glanced back at Ark. He was looking out at the horizon, his helmets blank stare gave no sign of what he was thinking of. “What is it?” I asked. “Thought I saw something,” he said absently, sweeping his vision across the darkening horizon. He didn’t seem to see anything worth acknowledging, however, and turned back to Gunrunner as he finished getting the door open. We followed him inside, and I took Siren’s blindfold off now that we weren’t surrounded by obvious geographic markers. She seemed relieved to be inside somewhere protected, though she seemed to be the only one of us like that. I couldn’t read what was on Ark’s mind, but I was preoccupied with the design of the place. It didn’t look like any kind of Stable I’d ever seen. As Gunrunner started to unload the scrap still attached to Ark, bouncing like an excited little filly at his new haul, I decided to wander deeper inside and take a look around. I could tell a lot of the stuff around me were trophies from Gun’s past trips: an assortment of creature heads stuffed and mounted on the walls, weapons of different designs, though what really caught my eye was a set of nearly pristine power armour. I’d never seen anything like this exactly, it wasn’t any Enclave model I knew, but it still seemed like an Equestrian design. Siren, still tied to my hoof, saw my interest and spoke up. “T-51 power armor.” I glanced at her as she dug through a desk drawer. “Steel Rangers used those in the war,” she smiled. “Developed by the Ministry of Wartime Technology, meant to be a mobile artillery. Unfortunately,” she shrugged, as she started to walk an arc around me, “they weren’t as invincible as thought. Best we can figure, a company called Ironshod Firearms created an anti-machine rifle that could punch straight through the self-repairing armor.” I recognized the type of gun, and looked again at the armor. It was hard to imagine that kind or rifle being fired at something small as a pony, the enormous recoil likely to bowl somepony over unless they had an appropriately strong battle saddle. “I think it’s a bit funny,” Siren said, suddenly much closer than I’d realized. She was still smiling, but something looked a tad off. “An invincible iron pony, but all it takes is one shot from one gun and you’re toast.” She was uncomfortably close now, her muzzle almost touching mine. I was just about to step back and give myself some room, when I felt something tense against my leg. “You think you have an advantage,” she sneered, “but it really leads to your loss.” At that she leapt backwards, grabbing her leash and yanking hard on it, pulling it closer to her. The rope snapped against my legs and pulled me off my hooves, tossing me on my side and pressing all four hooves together. I cursed myself mentally, for failing to spot her setting this up, and for giving her a longer leash to begin with. I didn’t have time to snap for long, however, as Siren leapt at me, a knife in her teeth that she pressed right to my throat. She glared at me, hissing through her teeth “you should have just left me alone in the room…now stay quiet!” At that she pulled herself back and started to cut at the rope binding her wings. She hadn’t started by cutting her leash off, we were still attached. I tried to glance around inconspicuously, looking for anything that might help. The ropes weren’t too tight around my hooves, I could probably get out easily enough, but she was armed and I wasn’t, no time to grab my gun from my bag before she noticed me moving. There wasn’t anything in easy reach for me to use, but I had a different idea and slowly moved a hoof to grab the leash firmly. Siren was almost through getting her first wing undone, I’d need to be exactly right in this timing… The rope compressing Siren’s left wing snapped and her feathers unfurled, a look of relief spreading across Siren’s face. Her jaw slacked just a little, the moment I’d been waiting for. I grabbed the leash as hard as I could and pulled hard. She jerked towards me, shocked, halfway dropping the knife as I forced myself upright and lunged for it. Our muzzles met as I snatched the knife from her teeth, before I hurled it away from both of us, yanking my other foreleg free of the wrap. Siren hadn’t yet recovered from the shock when I lunged at her, knocking her over and pinning her down on her back. She yelled and started to fight against me, but I was stronger than her and I had her pinned. She gave up and just glared at me again, making me roll my eyes. “Not fair,” she muttered. “Well you should be grateful,” I replied. “Arkangel told me what I should do if you try escaping again.” She looked at me worriedly, and I almost thought it was better to not let her know what I had been told to do. But it seemed too cruel to leave her in the dark. “You get too far away from me, and I’d have to shoot you through the hoof. Or the wing, if I had to.” She looked at me, shocked, but disbelieving, until I pulled the pistol out of my bag and showed her. She stopped fidgeting altogether then, and as I stepped away from her she stayed frozen stiff, staring back at me with fearful eyes. I might have gone too far… I didn’t have too long to worry however, as I heard armored hoofsteps coming closer to us. I glanced over as Arkangel turned the corner and moved closer to us. “The merc has something for you,” he said, looking rather bored as he indicated me. He then looked between Siren and I for a moment. “She try to escape?” I only nodded in silence. “Good job,” was all he said, before turning to walk off. “Hey Ark…” I said, before I could stop myself. for the briefest of moments I thought about bringing the subject up again. “About you ans Siren...” Ark looked back at me for a split second, he stared at me for what felt like too long. He seemed about ready to answer, but I glanced at Siren to see her response, and when I looked back at Ark he still hid behind his helmet. “That’s nothing you need to know,” he said coldly, before jerking his head towards the hallway. “Just go. I’ll watch Siren.” His voice was dangerously low, and I didn’t think it a smart idea to argue with him right now. I hurried across to the exit, watching Arkangel as he kept his gaze fixed on Siren the entire way. I was halfway down the hallway when I heard somepony talking behind me. I thought about turning around to listen, but at that exact moment Gunrunner appeared, smiling. “Hey, there you are! Come on, I got something for ya.” I sighed, but followed him back towards the bunker’s main entrance. Gun dragged out an old trunk, and cracked it open as I came closer. “So I didn’t even know you were a pegasus til Ark told me, your coat’s doing you no favors out here.” I raised a hoof and tugged at the neckline of my labcoat, a little embarrassed I was still wearing this thing so long after I’d left the Stable it came from. “So here, take it as payment for helping with the scrap.” Gun pushed the case over to me, with an old black and grey outfit. “It’s not in great shape, won’t do much good against bullets or anything sharp, but it’s better protection than what you got. I nodded and started to change outfits, taking note of the design as I did so. It was clearly meant for some kind of combat, the aged kevlar on the chest and stomach to protect a flying pegasus from ground attacks. “It’s an old retriever uniform,” Gun explained, “before the Enclave outfitted em with power armor. Real ancient.” “Well, at least it fits well,” I replied with a weak smile, surprised at just how well it did fit. My wings had a good chance to stretch finally, perfectly slotted into the outfit’s design, and the rest of the uniform was flexible and comfortable on its own. “Guys, head’s up,” came Ark’s voice from somewhere nearby. Gun and I both turned to face the sound as Ark hurried outside. We followed him, Gunrunner taking one of his rifles and staring down the scope of his rifle, towards where Arkangel had pointed almost immediately. “You see that?” “Yeah, seems like it’s getting close,” Gun replied, eye to his scope. “What is it, some kind of robot?” I shivered at the thought: was it from the Stable? Had it really found us here already? “Storm, go check on Siren,” Ark ordered me. “Don’t let her use this to get away.” I turned to head off looking for her, but as I left I heard Ark talking to Gunrunner. “Thing’s been dancing on my EFS for the last hour, at least, but I don’t know why it’s not attacking.” I wanted to ask Ark why he hadn’t warned us earlier, but Gunrunner came closer with something that looked like a cobbled-together battle saddle. He tossed it to me. “Something else I borrowed from the Retrievers.” I caught it and inspected the two weapons on it, some kind of laser pistol on one side, while the other was a ballistic rifle. I started to put it on, my days in security coming back to me as I remembered how to wear it, and I’d just gotten it on when I made it back to the room I’d last seen Siren in. She was gone. I spun around at the sound of movement behind me and spotted Siren trying to sneak towards me, knife in her teeth. She glared at me, but I pointed both my guns at her hooves and she dropped the knife without question. She’d managed to cut her wings free and removed her leash, but she’s lost her advantage. I gestured back towards the center of the room, and Siren begrudgingly obeyed, sitting down far from anything around her as I located the ropes she’d cut free. I knew I needed to tie her up again, but my security training had left me knowing how to use hoofcuffs, and clearly my rope skills weren’t up to par. She smirked slyly at me as I fumbled a bit with the rope, surely thinking the same thing. I didn’t think she’d be smiling for long if I decided to use the duct tape I’d spotted in the corner, something I was trying to avoid using since I knew getting it out of fur was a hassle. “So, what exactly are you gonna do?” Siren asked me, a haughty grin on her face. That cinched it, and with an irate sigh I grabbed the nearby tape roll. Her smile vanished instantly. “Er...no reason to use that,” she stammered, “why not use something else? The cables there, like you did in the stable,” she pointed a little to my left. I’d completely glossed over those. “Yeah, I could,” I shrugged, “but a few minutes ago you did try to slice my neck open.” I raised the tape in a wing, making her wince. “I’d call this even.” An explosion sounded from somewhere outside, distracting me for a second. Siren tried to take advantage and leapt at me, but I was stronger and forced her back down, pinning her to the ground. She looked pitiable for just a moment, and I sighed. “Look, just work with me here and I won’t use the tape, deal?” Siren glanced worriedly at the roll of tape I still was lifting with a wing, before shutting her eyes and sighing. I picked myself up off her as she held her forelegs together, not moving as I grabbed the nearby cable. I moved to tie her back legs like I’d done before, working much quicker since I had practice at this one. I tried using the ropes to mimic the bindings Gunrunner had put on her before, but I didn’t know for sure if they would work at all even as I tried to yank at them. Finally, I moved onto her forelegs, which she still hadn’t moved despite struggling a little with her other restraints. She glanced at me, almost as though she were daring me to tie them. “Wait...no, I don’t think so,” I lowered my eyebrows at her. “Hooves behind your back.” Siren sighed, but I gently pushed her until she rolled onto her stomach, hooves behind her where I could find some way to bind them there. More explosions had passed since I started tying Siren up, making me nervous that something was going wrong. I hurried towards the door to catch up, only for Gunrunner to come bursting through it, heading straight for his power armor. “Heh, not bad,” he said to me, glancing at Siren. She was still looking at me a little bemused, but I couldn’t tell if she was thinking of something or just trying to unnerve me. “Might want to add a blindfold though.” I looked up at Gunrunner in confusion as he hurriedly started to work with the armor, I assumed trying to hop into it, as I tried to figure out what he meant. But a glance around the room made me realize what he meant: there was a lot of scrap laying around Siren could have used to cut herself free, even with her hooves behind her. But if she couldn’t see any of it… I quickly took my old lab coat and tore a strip from the base, tying it sternly over Siren’s eyes. Her smile had faded by now, but I was worried she already had an escape plan in mind. I couldn’t obsess over it now, as Gunrunner tromped back across the room in his heavy armor. “That thing’s getting closer, hurry up,” he called, running surprisingly fast for a pegasus in armor so heavy there was no chance he was going to be flying anywhere. I followed him towards the bunker’s entrance, where Ark was huddled in a corner, clutching his wing and watching it intently. After a second of staring, I realized why. It looked like his wing had been almost entirely severed, messily by a hail of bullets. But after only a few seconds I saw the meat of his body knitting itself back together, the armor following suit. I’d heard that armor had self-repairing talismans to provide better longevity in a firefight, but I didn’t think the same went for their operators! “Ark, what’s happening to your wing?” I asked, before I could stifle the question and worry. “One of my enhancements,” he muttered, teeth gritted but not letting nearly as much pain as I was sure he was in obvious in his speech. “Tells my body to heal quick…” he let go of his wing as the armor took enough of the weight. “It’ll heal fine, but there’s no way I’m using it soon enough to fight that thing.” As if on cue, a blast shot past the bunker door and blew something up not too far from us. Gunrunner stepped out from cover and leveled his minigun at the target, prompting me to take a peek at the enemy. It was another bot much like the one I’d nearly been killed by back in the Stable, though clad in white armor with the air shimmering around it; I recognized it immediately. A B-series unit with energy shields. The shields were effective only to a certain point, so a minigun like Gunrunner’s might have overloaded the system before it could replenish the shield. However a B-series like that wasn’t going to go down so easily. As the bot locked onto Gun, an electronic voice emanated from all of our Pipbucks, a signal broadcast from the robot. “Steel ranger detected, switching to armor piercing.” Its miniguns spun up to match Gun’s speed. I hoped that Siren was right about the steel ranger armor, because I knew that even if he could break the shield we’d have to dig into the bot’s armor, and Gun only had the one layer of defense… The two opened fire at the same time, bullets pummeling into targets on both sides. The shielded bot was unharmed, but after only a few seconds Gun’s armor wasn’t looking too good. He dove back into cover seconds later, his armor riddled with holes, many of them oozing blood. “Ark, you got a plan here?” I asked, as Gunrunner cracked open his helmet and downed a purple mixture from a bottle. His wounds stopped bleeding near instantly, but I didn’t have time to marvel at the sight. “If I could just fly, my tail could tear that armor to pieces,” Arkangel growled, staring at his injured wing. “And with Gun pinned down in that armor...you’re gonna have to do it,” he pointed at me. I could just stare at him for a second, silent. “You’re giving me your armor?” I asked finally. “No, of course not,” Arkangel snapped, sounding rather offended. Then with a sigh, he angled the barb of his tail towards one of the last links in it, some kind of liquid dripping from the tip. The tail disintegrated on contact with the liquid, leaving the barbed tip to fall to the ground. I picked it up carefully, holding it as far from the busted metal end as I could. “Go, straight up,” Ark pointed at me. I only nodded and, barb in my teeth, I spread my wings and shot into the air. I hadn’t flown in open skies like this before, but I didn’t have time to marvel at the sensation of free-flowing air all around me. I could just barely hazard a glance back down at the robot, who had started to track me as I flew. It stopped, however, when Ark shot it in the chest with a laser blast. I knew what I had to do and turned to dive at the robot, angling the barb in my teeth straight at the robot’s head. It was then that my Pipbuck let out another message. “Airborne threat detected. Initiate Skyfire.” I twisted my body and spread my wings wide to halt my decent, flapping wildly to get some height between me and the robot as it launched several small spheres into the air above it. They exploded and coated the air in fire, too dense and dangerous for me to even get near. I’d been lucky to dodge the strike, there was no way I’d manage that again: I had to approach from the ground. Arkangel had continued firing on the robot, keeping its focus towards the bunker. I dove for the ground not far from the bot’s flank, watching carefully as it kept its focus on Ark. I lunged forward at ground level, barb still aimed right at it’s head, so close to impact. But the last second the bot intentionally sidestepped me and I flew past it, hitting the ground and flipping over myself twice as I came to a stop, dazed. I’d just shaken the dizziness off when I heard a familiar sound: the gatling guns spinning up. “If you’re going to kill me,” I thought, snapping at whatever cruel twist of fate was doing this to me, “pick a new method!” A pair of golden hooves slamming into the robot’s chassis, saving me from the guns yet again. Arkangel had tackled the bot and was tumbling around attached to it, striking with his hooves and releasing an electric shock on each impact. The robot answered with its daggers, but every blow just glanced off Ark’s armor. It finally changed tactics though and got purchase on Ark, using its hind legs to push him backwards. Ark recovered quickly and charged at the now-damaged bot, but the robot managed to spin and slam both its rear hooves into Ark’s helmet. He collapsed on the ground. Before the bot could capitalize on its opening, Gunrunner opened fire from somewhere behind me, sending a hail of bullets from his minigun into the damaged frame. The bot charged towards me and I tried to aim a gun to shoot, but I hadn’t gotten off my back from my crash landing and my saddle was useless. However, the robot wasn’t after me; it was after the barb from Ark’s tail. It grabbed it and raced towards Gunrunner, starting to fall apart under the merc’s relentless hail of fire. It wasn’t enough to stop it, but when Gunrunner braced for melee combat the robot leapt up over him, striking at his rear leg with the barb. He flinched as his armor began to spark, the barb slicing cleanly through the armor and drawing blood, giving the robot another opportunity to slash at Gunrunner’s stomach. He collapsed in a heap. With the other two incapacitated, the robot turned on me. I’d at least gotten myself back upright, and I knew exactly what I had to do. Between Arkangel and Gun the robot’s armor was damaged enough I could probably reach the processor or the spark battery, if I thought it through well enough. I aimed both my guns at it and opened fire. The robot turned and charged at me, closing the distance and giving me a better chance to hit where I needed. I braced just before it slammed into me, the two of us tumbling for a moment before the bot pinned me on the ground. Only then did it notice I’d gotten ahold of my revolver. One single shot was exactly what I needed; the bullet blasted clean through the robot’s head, and it collapsed on top of me a second later. I just lay on the ground a few moments, breathing heavily. I knew I had to get up, but my body was shaking, the adrenaline too much for me to cope with. But I was the least injured of the three of us, and I had to check on everypony else. So I forced the robot off of me and hurried over to Gunrunner. He was bleeding severely. I pulled his helmet off, but before I could ask him what I could do he locked eyes and wheezed “potion...saddlebag...now…” His eyes were pleading, though he didn’t need that to convince me to help him. I threw open his saddlebag and started digging, eventually finding another potion like the one he’d drunk earlier. I quickly gave it to him and he threw back his head, drinking greedily until the whole thing was nearly consumed. To my amazement, his wounds stopped bleeding almost instantly. “What even is that stuff?” I asked. Gun gasped for air for a second before he responded. “Magic healing potion,” he said weakly, struggling to stand. “Good for most injuries.” As he stood shakily I could get a better look at his armor: it was a wreck, and worse off I couldn’t see it repairing. The bot must have destroyed the repair talisman, but that still seemed impressive. Was that barb really so dangerous? I was sure Gun’s armor could rival that of the stable, of Ark, but… I quickly turned and hurried towards Ark, but my panic was short-lived. He was already standing back up, staring at the bot I sighed with relief, but followed his gaze to the robot. We were in serious trouble now...what would happen if they sent more of those? Or a C-series instead? We’d barely survived this one. “We can’t stay here,” said Arkangel, still staring at the robot. “They’ll send more of these, maybe some soldiers too.” Gunrunner was struggling to get his armor off and come closer, leading Ark to look back at him. “You’d better come with us. You’re a target for them now, better than getting picked off on your own.” Gunrunner glared at Ark for a second, but nodded. “There’s a town not far from here,” he said to me, “maybe we can get you some proper barding there.” With that he turned to limp back to the bunker, hobbled by the still-healing wounds, especially the nasty gash in his haunch where the bot had gone after the talisman. I followed him leaving Ark to stare at the robot as much as he wanted. I helped Gunrunner walk for a bit as he drank another potion, leaving him at the entrance to go check on Siren. She was still in the same room, but had wiggled to a wall and was sitting up against it. “Who’s there?” she asked, “Stable? Or traitor?” I didn’t answer her, only moved to cut her hooves free. “It’s about time you made it here,” she replied, reaching up to pull her blindfold of, “I didn’t think you’d ever…” She stopped dead when her blindfold fell, and she stared at me. Her expression went from shocked to disbelief. “They seriously didn’t kill you?” I just shook my head, and she sighed in defeat. “We’re headed for town, you’re still coming with us. Where’d you put that leash?” I asked her. Siren didn’t respond. “Look, I know this is awful for you, but please, just...work with me.” Siren stared at me for several seconds, unblinking, before she finally pointed towards a corner of the room. A few minutes later we’d gathered in the main entrance again. Ark had gotten the bot inside and rigged it for the recovery team. I didn’t want him to, but he’d claimed it wouldn’t kill anypony, and I didn’t feel up to arguing it. Gunrunner had his things already gathered and was taking time to heal up a bit, after finding Siren a brown cloak to wear. She’d refused to be seen in town without one big enough to obscure pretty much everything about her, save the leash that still led to my hoof. Gun had told us a little about the town we were headed to: it was called Black Pass, a gathering of mercenaries, traders, and slavers, and their regular currency was bottlecaps, of all things. I didn’t bother asking why, it wasn’t worthwhile for me to know. Arkangel was working pretty well with his non-lethal explosive, wiring it just right so it would go off if somepony tried to access the robot’s memory cores. I’d offered to help, but he’d brushed me off with a simple “I knew a guy”, and apparently he was right. As he finished, he closed the robot’s remaining armour on the device, hiding it from easy view. “Alright, all set to-” “Leaving so soon?” All three of us turned our weapons on the robot, but nothing in it moved. It was, however, playing some kind of recording. “I can only assume you defeated this robot, or you would never hear this recording. Arkangel,” the recording said, causing Ark to stiffen. “You’ve managed to deal with this one, but between you and me, this robot was supposed to lose. I’m giving you this chance to come back, and I’m even willing to forgive your companions. You have two days to return to the Stable. Consider your options carefully: you know what will happen if you don’t.” The robot clicked, and fell silent. Nopony moved for a few moments, nopony made a sound. Finally Gunrunner got his voice back. “Well that wasn’t ominous or anything,” he sighed. Then, with a much more level tone, he asked “what happens after two days?” “Terminators,” Ark said, staring blankly at the robot. Both Gun and I shared a confused glance, before Ark turned to face us, “Veterans of the great war.” Author's Note Footnote: Level up New Perk: Sniper --- 25% more likely to hit the target's head in S.A.T.S. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56 pass of troublesFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 4: pass of troubles By Fallen Sentinel “I understand your reasons for doing this, but don’t risk your soldiers lives for it.” I couldn’t get the word “veteran” out of my mind the entire trip to town. Usually, all I’d thought it to mean was somepony with a long history of experience in a field. It didn’t comfort me any to think that veterans of the bloodiest war in history were coming after us, especially with the name “Terminators” attached to them. Although the more I thought about it, the less things made sense: the war had ended 200 years ago, any survivors of that war should have been long dead. Arkangel was predictably not talkative when I asked about it, though I did get a few details from him. He told me the Terminators were the personal special forces of somepony high up in a chain of command...somewhere. They operated in secrecy and were sent regularly on suicide missions. If there was any truth to them, I was sure that they’d revel in defying the odds. Though if anything, that just made me question their existence more. I guess I’d find out in two days, unless some other Stable force got us first. Black Pass was nothing like I’d expected. It wasn’t much more than a gathering of shacks in the middle of nowhere, built around a single defining landmark: a massive black obelisk. As we approached, our group started to get noticed, suspicious stares and murmurings under ponies’ breaths as we walked past, especially about the pony in gleaming golden armor. I was a little surprised I wasn’t getting nearly as many strange looks, having a pony-shaped cloth walking along tied to my hoof, but I tried not to pay it any mind as Gunrunner explained what needed to happen. He said he and I needed to get some new armor, then stop by for weapons afterwards. I argued with him a little, thinking that knowing what weapons I had access to would change the kind of armor I needed, but Ark took Gun’s side and I didn’t bother fighting anymore. It didn’t take long for us to find an armor merchant, the sign was certainly large enough atop the storefront. As we trotted towards it, however, a group of earth pony and unicorn stallions sitting in front of what I assumed a bar watched us intently. One of them got up and stepped straight into my path: I moved to avoid him, but he kept moving to block me. I got the hint and stopped, staring him in the eye. “Can I help you?” I asked, not looking him straight in the eye. He was a brown stallion with a beige mane, ragged and ruffled from lack of care. He was wearing a leather jacket with an attached holster for his gun, but the jacket wasn’t long enough to cover his flank where I saw...a cutie mark I’d rather have forgotten the sight of. how did you even get that? I thought, biting my tongue before I insulted him to his face. The unicorn chuckled to himself. “Well, you a slaver then? How much for the mare, I’m sure we can find a suitable price.” I stared at him, insulted. “i]Celestia forbid it. “I’m not a slaver, sorry,” I said, trying to move past him again. But the stallion blocked me again with a single hoof. “Then why are you hauling that mare around?” he asked, staring at the cloak. I could see Siren fidgeting underneath it, but there wasn’t much of her visible. How had he known she was a mare anyways? I was about to snap back at him, a half-formed vile comment dancing on my lips, but I didn’t have time to let it go before he pushed me to the side and moved closer to Siren. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” I snapped, trying to get between them again. But before I could get much closer, I was stopped by a rusty knife pressed to my throat. I glanced down as carefully as I could to find the knife was levitating with a cyan glow around the hilt; another look towards the group showed me who its owner was. There was a lavender unicorn mare with a black mane stepping closer to me, her horn aglow with the same magic aura on the knife. She would have been rather attractive all things considered, but the look in her eyes and the twisted smile on her face made my tail stand on end. She licked her lips hungrily as she stared at me, pressing the knife down stronger on my neck, forcing me to back up, only for the motion to pull on Siren’s leash and yank her right up to the stallion. The stallion pulled Siren’s hood back and looked at her face appraisingly, giving a long whistle after a few moments. “Where in Equestria did you find this one?” he asked me, his eyes staring greedily at Siren, as I tried to look anywhere but at him. It only made things worse, as I was now aware that our little spectacle was drawing a crowd. “Give you 500 caps for her.” The offer sent hushed murmurs through the crowd. “I told you, I’m not a slaver, I’m damn well not going to sell her!” I snapped, stepping forward instinctively. The crowd’s interest and unrest grew, and I suddenly felt rather alone and helpless. Where were Gunrunner and Arkangel when I needed them? The mare pressed her knife to my neck again and came uncomfortably close, pinning me to the blade. “Can’t we keep both of em, Cardstack?” she glanced at the stallion with pleading eyes. “I really like this one.” Her knife pressed to my neck said otherwise. Cardstack only shrugged in response. “Cardstack!” Oh thank Celestia, it was Gunrunner finally showing up. Eyes turned up to see Gun hovering over us, coming in for a landing. There was a rustling in the crowd nearby as well, along with glints of gold armor I could see coming closer. “These two are with me, lay off em.” With that word the unicorn’s knife left my throat, letting me breathe easier for a second. But Cardstack didn’t respond, only stroking Siren’s mane as he smiled to himself. Siren for her part was glaring at him, an icy look I was glad to see directed at somepony other than me for once. Finally, Cardstack spoke. “Gunrunner, old chum, been a while now!” I didn’t want to think what he meant by that...was Gun involved with this gang at one point? “Been busy hunting down more rejects? You’ve been shrinking my client base and causing me an awful lot of trouble, you know.” Gun opened his mouth to respond, but both were cut off by a rather loud clunk of armored hooves smashing into the dirt. “Hooves off, wastelander,” Ark’s voice resonated through his armor. It heightened the subdued anger in his tone, though to his credit Cardstack didn’t seem rattled by it. In fact, he outright ignored Ark’s warning and ran a hoof along Siren’s cloak to her stomach. “Only. Warning.” Ark growled. My mane was standing straight up as I glanced at Cardstack’s gang. All of them were eyeing ark with fear, nopony wanting to go up against the power armor. But nopony moved to stop Cardstack as his hoof drifted lower, to Siren’s stomach… Ark leapt straight at Cardstack, blindingly fast for somepony in that kind of armor, but Cardstack only smirked and levitated his pistol to fire on Ark, snapping off three shots straight into Ark’s helmet. Not a single one of them pierced it. Time slowed to a crawl as I saw Cardstack’s grin evaporate, Ark’s repaired tail lunging up right at Cardstack’s face...the barb snapped straight into his eye. I gagged as Ark’s tail whipped back out and Cardstack collapsed on the ground, screaming and covering his now-empty socket with both forelegs. I had the sense to glance back at Cardstack’s gang, just in time to see the general panic cross all their faces. I thought for sure they’d see taking on Ark as suicide, but every one of them charged at him at once. The leading unicorn twirled an axe and swung it right at Ark’s neck, but his tail lashed out and snatched the axe out of the air, slamming the blunt side of it into the unicorn’s face before he could regroup. The rest of the gang didn’t slow down, quickly surrounding Ark as one earth pony leapt at him from behind. Ark simply bucked both legs back straight into the earth pony’s chest: I swore I heard her ribs crack from here. Another earth pony came at him from the right, but a swing of Ark’s right foreleg clocked the stallion upside the head and sent him to the ground, unconscious. There were only three left facing him now, and I knew Ark hadn’t even broken a sweat yet. The two earth pony stallions remaining tried to flank Ark, one swinging a spiked hammer from the right and the other a metal bar. But Ark’s focus was on the last one, the unicorn mare who had gotten far too close for comfort with her knife. In fact, he off-hoofedly knocked the one earth pony’s legs out from under him and used the momentum to slam him into his friend, taking both attackers out in one swift motion, all without taking his gaze off the mare. “Weak,” he muttered, as the two earth ponies collapsed on the ground, groaning in pain. The mare twirled her knife threateningly, trying to unnerve Ark. It wasn’t working...in fact, I was sure it was her psyche that was cracking. CRACK The sound of a gunshot straight in the air snapped everypony out of watching the fight, the crowd parting to reveal a small group of official-looking ponies in heavy barding. “Pegasus!” one of them yelled, his gun pointed in the air. “You are under arrest for unprovoked assault of Black Pass residents! Remove your armor and submit yourself to incarceration!” I stepped forward to intervene, but Gunrunner held me back. “Don’t, they have to take the Reaver’s side on this,” he said begrudgingly. Ark only chuckled as he turned to face what seemed to pass for law enforcement around here, all of them with guns trained on Ark. “trust me, if you can get this armor off me it’s all yours. But the best I can do is the helmet.” He did at least follow through with that promise, popping his helmet off and grinning casually at the guards. I was utterly unsurprised that Ark’s tone didn’t relax the guards any. “Remove your armor, now!” their leader demanded, dramatically cocking his rifle and aiming it straight at Arkangel’s forehead. Ark didn’t so much as flinch. “Last warning!” “Oh for Celestia’s sake…” Siren snapped, stepping forward towards the guard, as far as her leash allowed her. “It’s not coming off him, he can’t take it off!” The guard glanced at her in confusion, Ark keeping his eyes on the guard as he moved. He looked...almost disappointed for some reason. Siren pulled her hood off as the guard kept trying to peak underneath and see who was talking to him. “Unless you happen to have an override code from an armor master, and I doubt you have the right one, he’s stuck in that tin can!” The guard’s eyes jumped between Siren and Arkangel for a moment, almost like he was wondering if he should believe her or not. Finally, he lowered his gun, but didn’t holster it just yet. “So you’re like Ravager, huh? Fine then. Just come with us and don’t cause trouble.” Ark didn’t respond, though the leader holstered his weapon and turned away confidently. Two of his followers approached Ark cautiously, guns still drawn, but Ark still didn’t move, even casually handed his helmet to one of them. The other gave him a rough shove from behind to get him to start moving. I sighed as I watched Ark get hauled away, before throwing Siren's cloak back over her face, much to her annoyance. “Come on Gun,” I whispered, “let’s go, before they start looking at us again.” He nodded and turned towards the opposite end of the crowd, pushing his way past a few ponies as we tried to slip away unnoticed. “That’s a stupid reason.” For once, I was agreeing with Siren: neither of us were okay with the entire town taking the Reaver’s side in our little encounter earlier. But Gunrunner was convinced there was no stopping it, regardless of what we tried to ask. I’d given up asking by now, choosing to let Gunrunner try and swipe some crystals off a displayed set of barding outside a nearby shop. The owner was sitting at the counter staring at something on her desk and twirling a bottlecap in her magic: either she wasn’t paying us any attention, or she was as apathetic to Gun as I was for the moment. I turned my attention away from Gunrunner’s antics to glance back at my new armaments. We’d changed plans and stopped by a weapon shop since Ark had gotten arrested. Gun had been content browsing, not buying much except a modification or ammo here and there, he had helped me pick out a pair of laser-based pistols I felt comfortable enough using. Now we’d turned our attention back to getting some armor: I’d already picked up some new kevlar for my Retrievers armor, something I couldn’t help but notice displeased Gun, who had gotten nothing new and was still using the leather armor I’d first seen him in. He’d busied himself trying to convince Siren to get some armor as well, but she was having none of his suggestions: all she’d done as buy a new cloak to conceal herself with, an act I couldn’t help but laugh at considering her method of hiding was a cloak the same dark purple as her overseer’s outfit. “Look,” Siren finally snapped, very clearly done being pestered by Gun. She swatted his hoof off of the leather barding he’d been trying to eyeball her size for. “Forget the armor. Can we please just go find Pa…” her anger melted immediately as her jaw slammed shut, before Siren cleared her throat unexpectedly. “Can we please just go find Ark now?” Gunrunner rolled his eyes and nodded absently, but I wasn’t so distracted. She’d corrected herself from saying something… “pay? Did you just ask if we could find pay somewhere?” “No you idiot,” Siren snapped, “I said we need to find P...a pal.” She swallowed nervously, her facade cracking just a little bit. “You know, a pal, a buddy, comrade out here in the wasteland. And I don’t think it's wise to go looking without Ark around.” I sighed: she’d put herself back together by now, I wasn’t getting anything else out of her. Besides, she was right: Ark could be long gone by this point. If those guards had gotten his armor off, they might’ve overpowered him by now, busted him up bad enough that his implants wouldn’t heal. “Do you even have the slightest idea where he might be?” I muttered, as Siren returned to her cold default look. “No, but I hope…” she replied, parting her cloak to lift a hoof towards her face. She was glancing down at her Pipbuck, I caught enough of a look at the screen to tell she was on her map. I didn’t know what good that was going to do, all our trackers were disabled. But to my surprise, she did smile after a moment. “Looks like he’s near the centre of this shack town.” I just blinked at her in confusion: I could believe she might have had a way to track Ark even if it wasn’t his Pipbuck, but the guards had taken him to a town centre of all places? Well actually that kinda makes sense “Well we’d better go get him then,” Gunrunner said, heading for the door while making one last effort to nick a gemstone from a nearby set of barding. He was miles away from a subtle grab with his wing...which is why I almost didn’t realize his other wing had snatched up an entirely different one from his other side. “Yeah,” I said, maybe a little louder than was necessary to drag attention back to myself. “Before those thugs get any quality time alone with him.” I glanced out of the corner of my eye at the shopkeeper, who hadn’t moved from her spot, not even looked up at us as we spoke. But as we tried to just leave the establishment she said flatly “those gems aren’t easy to find, you know.” I glanced at Gunrunner, who only shrugged, and continued to trot out of the store, completely oblivious to the fact the gemstones were floating straight out of his bag and back to the shopkeeper. I smirked and let it happen, thinking it was a fair enough response. I still couldn’t quite believe that these guards, what passed for the police of this town, would take a dangerous prisoner like Ark to a town center of all places. Gunrunner at least seemed unsurprised enough he was fine taking point, leading us through the streets while I had time to ponder exactly how security might be lined up here. I ended up spacing out so much I almost failed to realize we were passing by Cardstack and his gang again, only snapped to attention by suddenly feeling Siren bump against my side. She was casting a wary glance from under her hood at Cardstack, who seemed content to ignore us for now...had that encounter seriously gotten to Siren so badly that she’d moved this close to me? Just then, Siren reached a hoof up and grabbed my head, pulling it a little closer to hers. “Listen, Storm,” she whispered to me. “I know that we’ve had a rough time out here. But speaking to you honestly, I’ve had more than enough of this chaos and lawlessness for a lifetime. So,” she sighed, sounding rather hesitant. “I want to cut a deal with you.” I glanced at her in suspicion, but didn’t say anything back just yet as she continued. “If you help us escape, get us back to a recovery team, back to the Stable, something, I promise I’ll personally exonerate you and reinstate your research position, if you really want to be in that field anyways. Sound good?” I took a solid few seconds to stare back at Siren, somewhere between interest and disbelief. Had she really reached a breaking point out here in the wastelands? “That’s not good enough,” I shook my head. “First off, you blame me for killing somepony I worked with, and at least three times since you’ve tried to get me killed. What makes you think I trust you?” Siren sighed, but pulled off her hood and nodded. She pulled us aside into an alley and raised her hoof. “Give me your Pipbuck,” she said bluntly, and taken aback by the sudden order I listened to her. As our hooves touched, Siren spoke slowly and clearly. “Activate protocol 1138 with the Pipbuck of Fantastic Storm.” As she spoke, her Pipbuck’s screen flashed red. I noticed my Pipbuck started to act up, and both of our screens turned a pale pink color I hadn’t seen before. “I, Siren, Overseer of Stable 137’s Soldier Evolution and Research Division, hereby record this agreement between myself and Fantastic Storm.” Siren waited for her screen to turn yellow before she continued. “If Fantastic Storm follows my commands and aids in returning the both of us to Stable 137 safely, I will clear his record of Head Researcher Grey Water’s death, admit publicly that he had no involvement with the incident. I will have him reinstated to his former position immediately. Do you agree to the terms of this contract?” she asked me. I didn’t speak for a moment, still trying to catch up with what had happened. Clearly she’d somehow linked our Pipbucks, and was writing a contract between the two of them, but was that a solid guarantee of her willingness to follow up on it? But Siren kept staring at me expectantly, leading me to nod my head. “I accept.” At that, both Pipbucks blinked back to the pink screen, a small lock appearing for a split second, before they both returned to normal functionality. Siren set her hoof down and nodded towards Gunrunner, who hadn’t bothered slowing down for us. I hurried after him so as not to lose him, but my mind was not on catching him. “What...exactly, did you just do?” I asked Siren cautiously. “I gave you an insurance policy for when we get back to the Stable,” she said plainly. “If you think I didn’t satisfactorily live up to my end of the contract, your Pipbuck will broadcast a signal that unlocks certain...sensitive materials, which lead directly to me being relieved of my duties.” “And how do I know that your overseer friends are going to follow whatever procedure that involves?” I asked. Siren let out an amused snort of a laugh, but shook her head. “It means my Pipbuck will detonate and kill me. There’s nothing for the rest of the overseers to do.” She started to move after Gunrunner again, moving a little quickly to catch up despite her leash still around me leg. “Of course it goes both ways, I should warn you,” she said over her shoulder as she walked away. “So let’s keep this between us.” I stared blankly at Siren for a moment as she pulled her hood back over her head. I started to follow her, just enough sense to realize we really shouldn’t lose Gun around here. I couldn’t believe what she was suggesting, if she really expected me to buy her story. Who had ever heard of an explosive Pipbuck before? But...I couldn’t help but hope she was telling the truth, despite everything else. I knew she was out to save herself, but Ark hadn’t really been endearing himself ever since he’d rescued me. If Siren was honestly trying to get us both back to the Stable, that might be the better option for me anyways, even if she were going to betray me once we got there. At least that I’d see coming. The town centre looked more like a saloon which was exactly what I as expecting; an old, run down and seedy looking establishment I’d really have rather stayed away from. Patrons were sparse for the moment, giving me a good solid look at two of the guards from earlier, who surprisingly didn’t share my keen interest in our presence. Of course, that didn’t last near as long as I’d hoped. “Hey Skip!” Gunrunner called to one of the guards, causing me to flinch as the guards turned to face us. “Where’s Highmill, or that pegasus you lot took in?” The guard pointed towards a door near the back wall, through which I was at just the right angle to see a staircase heading up. “Highmill’s tryin a take off dat shiny armor, scrap for laters,” he said, in a thick accent I could barely understand. Siren glanced at me for a second, almost looking amused at something, but whatever was on her mind seemed to leave as we turned for the door. Gun led the way upstairs, with me watching carefully as each board creaked under his weight. But none of us fell, and surprisingly Siren pulled ahead towards a specific door in the upper hallway, almost like she knew exactly where she was going. It turned out she was right, though that surprised me a little less than the sight that lay before us as we passed the doorframe. Arkangel was standing on his hind legs, his forelegs shackled to the wall above him and keeping him upright. But he didn’t look perturbed by that at all...he looked almost like he was about to doze off, bored out of his mind rather than panicking or trying to break free. Nearby was another pony, one I recognized as the leader of the guards that had taken Ark in. I’d mistaken them for a stallion before thanks to the short mane/tail style and bulky form, but on closer inspection I realized it was actually a mare. She was busy jamming a crowbar between joints in the plates of Arkangel’s armor and trying to pry it open with both her hooves and her magic, but judging from the two crowbars sitting on the side already bent out of shape, she wasn’t having much luck. Siren cleared her throat loudly when nopony noticed our entry, causing the mare to turn in shock, the crowbar slipping out of her grip as she stumbled. “Please tell me we’re leaving now,” Ark said dryly, yawning as he spoke. “G’day, Highmill,” Gunrunner smirked at the mare, giving a theatrical bow to her. It only seemed to make her cringe in response. “What do you want, merc,” she snapped, “I’m a tad busy. And don’t you dare suggest I let him go,” she jerked a hoof at Arkangel. “You know I can’t, the Reavers would gut every last one of us.” With that she grabbed her crowbar again and aimed for a new joint to try. “Highmill, dear,” Siren spoke, shocking everypony else in the room. She sounded like she was quite familiar with Highmill already, and Highmill herself glanced back as though she only just realized who she was talking to. Her body shifted uncomfortably, like she was suddenly quite worried about something. “Perhaps I could change your mind. Why don’t we go talk,” she stepped forward, actually starting to pull me along as she gestured towards a door by the wall. “In private.” “O...of course, Overseer,” Highmill replied, her tone very carefully left even as she dropped the crowbar and headed for the door Siren had indicated. She opened it in her magic and let Siren pass into the narrow hallway beyond, but opened her mouth as I followed. “Oh don’t fret about him,” Siren replied. “He won’t say anything about what we’re going to discuss, will he?” I stayed silent for a moment while Siren opened another door on the other side of the hall, until I heard a chirp from my foreleg. Glancing down, I realized my Pipbuck’s screen had turned red out of nowhere, a small indicator that looked disturbingly like a trigger in the lower right corner. Was Siren serious about that whole ‘exploding Pipbuck’ thing? Suddenly too nervous to question it, I shook my head in response to Siren’s question. The Pipbuck seemed satisfied with that and shifted back to green, right as Highmill closed the second door behind us, leaving her, Siren and I alone in a small barren room. “Well, Overseer, I...I can’t imagine why you’re out here like…” Highmill gestured partway to Siren’s collar, but one of Siren’s trademark glares stifled the words in the poor mare’s muzzle. “Erm...shall I perhaps call the Stable, let them know you’re here?” “Oh no, I don’t think that’s wise,” Siren replied. I blinked in surprise, wondering for a split second why it wasn’t a good idea. Thankfully Highmill seemed as confused as I was, leaving Siren to explain. “I need your little...project, to stay secret, and having a group of soldiers searching the place might be detrimental to your work. Speaking of that project,” she smiled, only for her face to fall at Highmill’s reaction. Suddenly the mare was shaking, eyes wide with terror, as Siren’s glare narrowed on her. “Do you have something you need to tell me?” I winced at Siren’s tone, the same icy chill that I remembered from far too recently when she’d first tried to get me killed. It wasn’t any better watching it go towards somepony else, even somepony I could have had an argument with. Highmill seemed equally worried, as she started to stammer. “Well, I...the project was...Vlyka, she…” “What. Happened.” Siren’s tone stayed even, but I didn’t need to look at her to tell her gaze was like an inferno, boring into Highmill as the mare folded under pressure. “I carried out your orders, to the letter!” Highmill cried. “But not long after that, the bots they...they just went haywire, lost all control of them! And Vlyka, in the chaos she...she’s gone.” I heard Siren breathing slowly, deeply, trying to keep her calm demeanor up. But I could see the fury in her eyes, she was close to snapping. “And that stupid pet name you and your researchers used was for…which bot, exactly?” “...the repurposed prototype infiltrator model?” Highmill squeaked. Suddenly Siren’s Pipbuck was raised to her face, her screen glaring red, turning her face almost as dangerously pink as parts of her mane. I tried to glance at it to get a better look, but she didn’t even look at me as she barked an order out. “Storm, turn away, close your eyes.” I wasn’t about to say ‘no’ to that tone, and followed her instructions as Highmill began sobbing. “Please, overseer, we’ll get her...we’ll get it back!” I heard Siren’s hoofsteps as she moved just in front of me, putting herself between me and Highmill. “I have my best ponies out looking for it, just please! Please don’t…” “Security Head Highmill has failed to uphold the terms of our contract.” I winced as there was a sudden wet splat against the walls, followed by a deafening silence, not so much as a peep from Highmill or Siren. I could only guess why one of them had fallen so silent, but suddenly terrified of the same fate befalling me I didn’t open my eyes to look. “This way,” Siren finally whispered to me, a wing at my back as I let her turn me around and lead me back to the door. I heard a pair of keys clinking together and the door opening, slamming shut behind us before Siren spoke again. “You can look again now.” For a second, I really didn’t want to look. I wanted to just turn and run in whatever direction would get me farthest away from here. But I knew that couldn’t last, so I opened my eyes and found myself staring at Siren’s face, her white coat splattered with something red. “You heard her attack me, didn’t you?” I nodded, my voice gone. “She’d failed me once too many...I hope you understand what I mean.” I didn’t respond, as Siren sighed and glanced down at herself, before reaching for her bag and removing her old cloak, tearing a piece from it. “Now would you please give me a hoof with cleaning off this blood?” I carefully wiped off as much of the blood I could from Siren’s face, since her current cloak had miraculously escaped unstained. My mind was racing with questions, most of them things I was debating asking Siren, but one that kept coming back to was loudly screaming at myself “why did you accept a deal with this lunatic?!” “I hope that we don’t need to repeat this,” Siren said calmly, as I finished working on the last splatter. She looked almost presentable again, a slight pink spot here or there the only sign that something awful had happened right next to her. With that, she stepped forward to the first door and returned to the room with Ark and Gunrunner. Gun had clearly been trying to get Arkangel’s shackles off him, to no avail, while Ark looked just as bored as before. His expression changed only slightly as he caught sight of Siren again. “She said we’re free to go.” With a slight smirk, Ark shifted his hooves forward, pulling almost without effort on his shackles. Within seconds, both of them snapped clean off, freeing him from the wall as he casually reached out to grab his helmet from a nearby desk. Gunrunner stared in disbelief for a moment, before smacking a hoof to his forehead. “Why do I even bother…” “After that, it’s straight into Rock Point,” Gunrunner said to Ark, wrapping up his extensive explanation of the upcoming terrain. We’d just made it to the edge of town, and Ark had explained to us where we were headed next. He nodded at Gun’s explanation and checked his armor over once more while Gun started programming the route into his map. It gave me a second to sit down and give Siren another one of our bread-like rations, since I could hear her stomach grumbling even when she’d tried staying at the end of her leash away from me. She took it begrudgingly and sat to ate, looking extremely cross as she did so; I imagined her mood wasn’t helped by the food, but I suspected that wasn’t the main reason for her grumpiness. She’d had some secret cybernetics project going on out here, something that honestly shouldn’t have surprised me, and she’d only just learned that there’d been one hell of a setback to it. I had to wonder if the missing robot from that project had been the one to come after us earlier: it would explain how it had found us so quickly, since I’d expected anything deployed from the Stable to have taken far longer. But at the same time, Siren hadn’t seemed to recognize the robot...it was possible that she just didn’t remember, that ‘pet name’ Highmill had used had no meaning to Siren, but I didn’t think she’d completely forget what her robots would look like. A few moments later, Gunrunner had finished updating his map, and sent the data to the rest of our Pipbucks. I checked mine to look at the route we had set up, but was alarmed to see the screen had switched to red for a moment, that trigger icon appearing in the corner. It vanished after a moment, but by the time I breathed a sigh of relief Arkangel was in front of me, uncomfortably close. “Can I help you?” I asked him as casually as I could, silently praying he suspected something about the explosive, since he was looking down at my Pipbuck’s screen. Ark’s head turned minutely towards Siren, who was still busy eating her rations with a sour look on her face. Her attention was nowhere near us, especially as Ark’s whiplike tail flicked forward and struck my Pipbuck three times. The strikes were surgical and barely did any damage to the casing, except for the last jab which he twisted the tail slightly before he pulled it out. There was a small metal cylinder stuck on the tip of the barb. A slight flick of the tail and the cylinder went sailing away from both of us. I glanced up at Ark’s face. “Don’t let Siren know that’s gone,” he turned towards our prisoner. “Siren, we’re out of here,” he said curtly, grabbing the leash in his hoof and tugging sternly on it. She fell on her face at the tug, looking up and glaring at Ark as he started to walk off, Siren forced to follow as she tried to pick herself up off the ground. The catharsis of her faceplant was too much and I cracked a smile, surprisingly sharing a moment with Ark as he laughed slightly at her indignance. “Storm, you think you could carry me?” she asked, flashing an oh-so-innocent smirk. I could only hope my expression conveyed exactly how unamused I was by that. “After I was so viciously attacked by one of my own workers, I’m just not sure my legs can carry me all the way to our destination.” It was a considerable effort I had to exert not to let my eyes roll halfway out of their sockets. I could tell she was trying to abuse her power over me, threatening to detonate my Pipbuck...but mercifully, Ark had already cut that power short. I still agreed with him that I should keep her thinking she was in control, it’d pacify her a little bit, so with a sigh I nodded and moved closer to her, letting her struggle to get on my back. Ark continued to laugh at the sight of Siren clambering on top of me, though at least I wasn’t alone in suddenly not enjoying his good mood. “Ark, it might be best for you so shut up,” Siren snapped, “before I decide to share a few of our secrets with them.” I closed my eyes and prayed for a moment that Ark would keep yammering on, but I knew that was hoping against hope. He fell silent as he picked up my saddlebags and started stomping off, following the map towards our next stop. We’d been traveling for only an hour or two before I was completely sick of dealing with Siren on my back. She’d spent quite some time messing with me directly, playing with my mane, leaning on my head, or just rattling off everything she would have been doing if she’d been back home at the stable right now. She’d finally fallen asleep after I fought to give her no response, though that wasn’t much better since she’d started drooling on my head as she dozed. It was a morbid relief when something else caught my attention, distracting me from Siren. There was a destroyed caravan not far ahead of us, resting in the pass between two hills. The bodies of its former inhabitants were strewn across the road, already been searched for anything useful. I couldn’t help but worry that the wagons looked broken up into pieces and scattered a little too orderly, and I wasn’t alone in that: I could see Gunrunner sweeping the terrain, just waiting for an ambush. Ark I couldn’t read as well, but I thought he looked a little more alert than when we were just walking. The shot we were all expecting rang out from the hill on the right, smashing right into Arkangel’s helmet. It was a good shot, and with any other armor I’d have expected Ark to be at least knocked unconscious...however, by now I wasn’t surprised to see it bounce harmlessly off it as Ark’s head snapped around to spot the sniper. He cloaked himself, though I managed to catch sight of a few hoofprints headed in that direction, as Gunrunner and I leapt to the wagons for cover. The gunshot had woken Siren, who screamed in panic as more gunfire echoed across the hills. Gunrunner pulled out his rifle and braced it against the wagon, aiming for the hill on the left. I was confused by his actions at first, but when he started to fire intermittently at the hillside I glanced up to follow his aim, spotting several ponies taking up positions to hit us from. And they weren’t alone, I could hear several sets of hooves moving very close by to us, charging at us. I activated my battle saddle and turned to face the party rushing us, trying to let myself fall back on my old security training to not be overcome by panic. I thought out my options, realizing my saddle’s weapons weren’t as effective at this range, so I grabbed my revolver between my teeth and breathed slowly. “Aim for the legs, incapacitate, don’t kill,” I reminded myself, before my first target crossed my vision. Siren yelped, but I ignored her and took aim with my revolver, trying to lead the shot right into his left front knee. The shot, however, wasn’t quite high enough, and it plinked into the dirt just in front of him. “Okay, maybe this is a problem,” I thought, before I ducked behind some nearby debris. He was holding an SMG in his teeth, inaccurate even at this range, but I wasn’t feeling like giving him the free shot. As I ducked into cover, I saw Siren staring at me disapprovingly from her own nearby safe zone. “How did you miss that?!” she snapped. “You try it without a SATS!” I shouted back, ignoring her eyeroll as I ducked under the spray from the stallion’s gun. “What’s your Pipbuck’s code?” Siren cried over the fire, but before I could even think if I should have given that to her or not, a mare came charging over my barrier. I took aim again, only for her to knock me over, sending my revolver skittering across the dirt towards Siren. With a moment of hesitation, Siren reached down to grab the gun, as I tried to fend off the mare brandishing a knife in her teeth. I saw Siren trying to aim at the mare, but at that second the stallion from earlier crossed into view and loomed over her. She tried to change her aim but the stallion was quicker, grabbing her and slamming her against a mostly-intact wall of a wagon. She dropped the gun in the impact. “Crap...what now?” I muttered, still struggling to keep the mare’s knife from carving open my throat. My first instinct from training was to bring my hooves up in her groin, but I didn’t think that would be as effective against her as I wanted. I wasn’t out of options though: while my wings weren’t armored or good weapons on their own, I didn’t think she’d expect me to swat at her with them. Sure enough I flapped one hard into her right side, distracting her just long enough for me to grab the knife and yank it out of her jaw, accidentally cutting a part of her lip as I got my grip on it. She reeled backwards, hoof to her mouth as I flipped myself onto my hooves again, following up on my advantage by lunging at her and forcing her head down, slamming it into a chunk of wood lying on the ground. It splintered at the impact and the mare collapsed in a daze. She’d be out for a minute, at least I hoped, so I turned back to Siren’s attacker, who was busy trying to choke her out. My revolver was laying unattended nearby, letting me grab it and fire four times at him...only to miss twice. I did at least strike his legs with my other two shots, making the stallion scream in pain as he fell back, dropping Siren roughly to the ground. She didn’t take kindly to being attacked, however, and bucked him square in the jaw. “Oh forget this,” she snapped, raising her Pipbuck to her face. “Disengage all system lockouts on nearby Pipbucks!” she cried. A second later, my Pipbuck chirped an alert, and I saw my SATS booting up just in time. Another stallion was coming at me with a hammer, but as he lunged the SATS kicked in and my perception of reality sped up, to the point I could clearly see my angle. I snapped a shot off into both his forelegs, sending him crashing to the ground. He wasn’t getting back up this fight. I ducked back into cover to reload, shaking a little as I tried to get back into practice of handling a weapon. I didn’t have a chance to calm down before my EFS started flashing, drawing me back into the fight as I turned to face three new targets with my battle saddle instead. There was enough power for the SATS to line up four more shots with my laser pistol, aiming to cripple each of his legs. I misjudged the penetrating power of the lasers, however: while all four of my shots hit, he stayed standing despite yowling in pain as the blasts burned his legs. By the time I’d ducked back into cover, my EFS warned me that the other two were turning to flank me. I waited a few seconds for them to come into striking distance before popping up, just enough power in my SATS to hit one of them twice in the legs. This time my target, a mare, went down screaming. A little confused at the varied reaction to the same kind of injury, I was distracted when another mare leapt at me from my other side. Without thinking I raised the rifle at her leading leg; I didn’t need the help of a SATS for this shot. The laser charged up and fired exactly as I’d intended...and only then did I realize my mistake. The shot blasted clean through her leg and into her torso, piercing her chest and blasting all the way through her body. She gasped and froze as she tumbled down, her wounds glowing with energy as horror flooded through me. “Oh shit no...Gun! Potion, now!” I yelled, glancing over to the sound of gunfire nearby. Thankfully he heard me and pushed the stallion he’d gotten into hoof-to-hoof combat with, forcing him to stagger before Gunrunner leveled his shotgun and blasted a hole clean through his head. Gun didn’t even react to that as he turned to run to me, grabbing a potion and sprinting towards me. By the time he’d reached me, however, it was too late. The laser had done far worse than I’d ever expected, started disintegrating the mare from the inside out. She was nothing but ashes by the time he stood up next to me. “You look okay to me,” Gun said bluntly, “and so does she.” He pointed at Siren, but the words rang harshly in my ears as I stared down at the mare’s ashes as the wind grabbed hold and started to pull them away. “I...I didn’t mean to...I didn’t think it’d…” I stammered, as Gun shrugged at me. I felt sick to my stomach; I’d been warned during my security training that we might have to kill at some point, but it had always been my job, my duty, to try my hardest to bring somepony in alive. This was the first time something awful had happened...if I’d just shot my pistol instead, if I hadn’t let the laser charge up all the way, maybe she’d… “Hey,” Gun said after a moment. He looked me in the eye and put a hoof on my shoulder. “First time you killed, huh?” he asked, voice just a hair more sympathetic than before. “You’ll get used to it, and you did the right thing here.” I opened my mouth to object, but no words came. “She’d have done the same thing to you. There’s no mercy out here,” he said with a sigh. “You’ve got to let go of that hesitation, because nopony out here’s going to give you the courtesy of talking it out.” He clapped his hoof on my back twice, before turning towards the hill Ark had left for. “You can bet I’m not gonna hesitate if somepony points a gun at me, so I hope you can do the same.” A few minutes later, Gun and Ark returned from the hillside. My EFS wasn’t detecting any more hostiles, and the ponies I’d incapacitated lay on the ground, groaning in pain but otherwise content not to attract our attention. I was still sitting by the ash pile, trying to process what had happened. I’d killed somepony, there wasn’t anything I could do to change that...but it still felt terrible. I hadn’t wanted to kill, I’d never wanted that, but the more I sat here thinking about it, the more I realized I was probably responsible for quite a few more deaths than just this; if not so far, once the robots I helped design were sent into the world. I shuddered as I felt the blood clinging to my hooves, guilt settling in my stomach like stones. To my surprise, I felt a hoof on my shoulder. I glanced up to see Gunrunner and Arkangel still far enough away, Gun prodding somepony’s corpse as he looked for anything useful, which could only mean one pony was sitting next to me. “Thank you.” Her first words startled me, and I looked at her in disbelief as she spoke. “You saved me from that beast, took down a lot more than I thought you’d manage,” she smirked slightly. Surprisingly, she seemed almost sympathetic to my plight, her smile a little encouraging despite our history. “I know you’re not used to killing, but trust me,” she sighed, “sometimes you really just need to. You need to protect yourself, what you care about, and there’s a lot of ponies who aren’t going to just let you have it, no matter what you say.” I couldn’t tell if she was speaking from experience or not, and I wasn’t certain which was the worse past for her. We looked at each other in silence for a second, before she rolled her eyes. “I know, I know, I haven’t exactly killed anypony either,” she muttered. “Not directly at least, not because I pulled the trigger. But I have called for deaths before...and I do feel responsible for them. But sometimes somepony’s life isn’t worth as much as something, and you have to make that choice. You can’t let that slow you down, like I almost did.” She glared off at the horizon for a moment, before tapping my back again. “Now come on, get up and keep going,” she muttered, “for both our sakes.” I sighed and stood up with her, knowing she was right, in her own sick and twisted way. Arkangel trotted over to us at that moment, looking almost puzzled. “What’s going on here?” he asked. “Storm here killed his first pony,” Siren explained. “Just the shock of it, he’s dealing with it ok. Right?” she asked me with a sidelong glance. I couldn’t articulate anything else, so I nodded in silence. “Well then, give him some time then, let the merc do his scrounging, then let’s get going.” Siren walked away to take a closer look at some of the remains of the wagons, while Ark sighed and gave me a similar speech to what Gun had said earlier. While I was relieved to hear it was a touch less dramatic as the speech Siren had just given me, I really didn’t want to hear Ark, a pony who had seemingly murdered somepony in cold blood, lecturing me about how 'it will get better.' Instead of argue I just nodded and let him think he was helping, before he left to do some of his own scavenging. I stood by the ash pile a few minutes more, brushing it slightly with a hoof and wondering what this poor mare had been like in life. It felt cold to just let her lie there like that, so I dug out a small rut in the earth and brushed as much of the ash as I could into it before covering the pit back up, the whole time scowling as I thought. “I’m not gonna just give up everything I’ve been because this wasteland doesn’t care,” I whispered, staring at the dirt I’d just patted down. “I don’t care what everypony up here is like, that isn’t me. I can’t let this weight just go away, I won’t.” We kept walking for hours after the fight, Ark was concerned that a straggler that had gotten away would bring reinforcements after us. I was still reeling over the death I’d caused, though after a while exhaustion had started to settle in. I wasn’t the only one feeling it, Siren was swaying all along the road as she struggled to keep walking, snapping her leash taut more than once and shocking us both awake. We were still miles away from Rock Point by my map’s standards, but I didn’t think we were likely to make it there. “Hey guys,” Gunrunner called from a little ways ahead. “Think we’d better make camp.” Oh thank Celestia he’d caught us dozing off as we walked. Ark turned and looked at him blankly, only for Gun to point back at the two of us. “Those two are gonna be useless if those bandits catch up to us.” I’d have snapped at Gunrunner for the insult, but I found myself agreeing with him all too much to argue. Ark didn’t seem phased by anything, even Gunrunner was showing signs of exhaustion, but Ark’s tone changed when Siren walked up next to him. “What about over there?” she pointed across Ark’s body towards a rocky outcropping no too far from us. Both Gun and I nodded silently, before everypony turned to Ark as he cast his gaze across us. With a sigh, he nodded as well, and we made our way over to closer inspect the site. It was too perfect to have never been used as a campsite before. The rocks formed a solid cover from the surroundings, while a decently sized open area near the center served as a good place to rest. There was even evidence of an old firepit right at in the middle, though anything that remained was at least a year old by now. Ark dropped his things and wandered off somewhere while Gunrunner went to work on making a fire. To my surprise, he pulled a strange potion out of his bag and started to pour its contents on the wood he’d gathered, which caught instantly. He capped the bottle as the fire grew into a steady and reliable burn. He was just putting it away when he glanced up at both Siren and I staring at him in bewilderment. “Fire in a bottle,” Gun said with a smirk. “My brother mixed it up. Always making strange and interesting things.” “A pegasus mixing potions,” Siren sighed, shaking her head. I glared at her out of the side of my eye, but Gunrunner didn’t seem quite so annoyed. “Oh no, he’s a unicorn,” Gun corrected Siren. That got both our attention again, though Siren’s shock quickly turned to disgust. “You can’t be serious.” I facehoofed, already seeing this conversation going to go badly. But Siren just insisted on opening her mouth. “You’re heritage is stained by a lesser breed, and you still associate with him?” Gunrunner held Siren’s gaze, his face stern and uncompromising. “Is that really how you are in your stable then?” Siren opened her mouth to say something, but Gun cut her off. “I don’t care. You can be as cruel as you want, I don’t care about your stupid, prejudiced ravings. Now shut up before I show you firsthand how effective some of my brother’s work can be.” That threat thankfully stopped Siren cold, though as she flopped down indignantly I could just hear her rambling on about lesser species in her mind. I was only dragged out of thinking of that by Ark returning with some more wood. “Oh,” he muttered, staring at the fire he’d clearly meant to start. “Well, more wood I guess.” He dropped his firewood load off to the side and slumped down in his own little area, fiddling with his armor. It was only now I remembered that I’d opened his armor, at least partway, when we’d first met Gunrunner; Siren’s words and Highmill’s obvious effort to break him out of the armor had been dominating my mind every time I looked at him since. We all sat in silence for a few minutes, nopony really wanting to talk, while I pondered if Ark was really stuck in his armor or not. I still couldn’t quite believe I was out here, following this potential nutcase with armor to rival entire battalions, with a captive overseer and a mercenary I knew nothing about. “That’s a shame,” I thought, I kinda like him. "Maybe...Hey Gunrunner,” I asked. Gun looked up from checking something on his rifle. “Tell me more about your brother. Or your family, whatever you want.” Gun sat there staring for a couple moments, before he awkwardly turned his head away. He clearly wasn’t a fan of talking about personal stuff like that. I thought I might break the ice a little, prove I was ok to talk to. “How about I tell you about my family then?” Gun shrugged, so I took a deep breath. “Well first off, my family’s huge; I’m the middle foal of seven.” I knew that would get a reaction, even Ark looked up for a moment. “Pretty much everypony’s been in security since I can remember: my dad Rocket Storm, mom Action, and my two older brothers Indigo and Apollo are all officers right now, and my older sis Glory just became a security medic. Then there’s my little brother Valor and my little sisters Majesty and Blossom, all in training. Kinda forced me into the field because of the family tradition,” I chuckled, shaking my head. “But it wasn’t for me. That didn’t go over too well with anypony...I still have a few bruises from my siblings and cousins roughhousing me over my decision. Kinda surprised,” I shrugged, “I thought building death machines would at least be close enough to ‘security’ for em, but…” My sentence fizzled out, I didn’t really know where to go after that. Gun stared at me awkwardly for a few moments before clearing his throat. “Well, that...that’s interesting,” he smirked. “I don’t really have that...interesting a story.” He seemed content to leave it at that, but sighed as I kept looking at him. “Alright, alright. Well my brother’s name is Error. We’re the foals of a couple of overseers in Stable 505. We were set to take over our parent’s positions one day, but...they just kinda vanished, and neither Error or I were that interested. So we snuck out of the stable a long while ago. Haven’t seen him in a while, we got separated...I mean not for lack of trying,” Gun grumbled, “but every time I try to track him down something goes wrong. I figure he’ll find me if he really needs something, but…well, I hope he’s alright.” I smiled at Gun and nodded silently, thanking him for opening up. I glanced at Siren, hoping against hope that hearing more of Gun’s story would break down her earlier pegasi-preferencial rant. Unfortunately, all she took from my look was a look that apparently said “you next.” She shook her head and frowned at me. “Nuh uh, I’m content to keep my secrets. I’m not so casual about my position,” she shot a dirty look at Gunrunner, who ignored it and simply rolled his eyes. While Gun and Siren had their little moment, I cast a hopeful glance at Arkangel. To my surprise, he looked almost regretful, staring at his helmet as he held it in a hoof. “Ark, you...want to say something?” I asked cautiously, causing both Gun and Siren to look up. Instantly, Ark’s demeanor shifted. “Nope. My story’s too messed up for any of you to deal with,” he glanced away from the fire. It looked like he was trying to scout for anything that might be sneaking up on us, but I could tell otherwise. “Ark, look,” I sighed. “I’ve been trying to be patient here...but at some point you’re going to have to tell us something. Otherwise...I don’t think I can trust you out here.” Arkangel glared at me with his red eye, nothing I hadn’t expected, but as he tried to hold his gaze he glanced at Gun and Siren, also starring rather worriedly at him. Ark didn’t keep his look up for long, sighing and smacking an armored hoof to his face. “Fine. If you all really need to know...I’m a supersoldier.” Gunrunner scoffed. “I’d have guessed that much.” Ark glared at him before continuing. “The program is experimental, the pegasus in charge was trying to make me into the first of a new generation of cyborg soldiers. I was with him, for a while, but I started to see he was just crazy and disturbed...so that’s why I left.” He looked at Siren for a moment, who bit her lip as she looked back at him. “I just wanted to get away from that lunatic. That’s why I brought you, and Siren,” he said. “If I can get somewhere only an overseer can access, there’s no way he can follow me. No other overseer is going to like spending the resources to retrieve me.” At that, Ark stood up and trotted several paces away from the fire. “You don’t need to trust me here...all I want is to get away from my past. Just let me do that, and you’ll never have to deal with me again.” He moved a bit further away and vanished behind a rock, his hoofsteps fading into the night. Gunrunner, Siren and I sat in uncomfortable silence for nearly a minute, listening for any signs Ark was coming back. But when it seemed he’d left us for the night, I turned to Siren. “And what’s that look for?” she snapped at me, once she noticed I was staring at her. “You said you put him in a program,” I muttered. “Did you have any idea what that researcher would do to Ark?” Siren grimaced. “It’s not the researcher exactly...it’s some lunatic from outside the stable, claimed he was the rightful ruler of 137. Most of the overseers just ignore him, but some of his ideas were...suitable,” she sighed. “But he’s been causing a lot of problems lately, and worst of all nopony can find him, not when he doesn’t want to be found.” “Oh is that all?” Gunrunner called out. We glanced up at him to see him chuckling to himself. “And here I thought you three were crazy outliers for your stable.” At that moment, Arkangel came back into view, hiscrobo eye returned to blue after some time alone. “Alright, look,” he sighed. “I know I’m being vague and demanding here. So here’s the deal: I just want to get away. The safe place I found is a bunker, but I still need some information and parts to get in. I know of an informant at Rock Point who should point us towards the pieces.” His eyes shifted back to red suddenly, making my cringe. “If any of you want to leave, go now.” Siren sighed. “Somehow I doubt that’s directed at me,” she muttered, causing Ark to glare at her. She rolled her eyes but said nothing, pulling her hood over her head and settling down to sleep. Gunrunner and I shared a glance before turning back to Arkangel, who gave us a moment to think. “Alright then,” he said. “For now, Storm, you’re watching her,” he jabbed a hoof at Siren. “If we lose her than nothing else we do matters. Gunrunner, I need you to keep us all alive out here.” “Long as you keep your heat off my back, I think I can manage that,” the merc replied. “Alright then. Now you all get some sleep,” said Ark, before turning away into the rocks again. He paused though, before turning slightly back towards us. “I do plan to get us all out of here alive.” With that Ark left us again, leaving the three of us in an uncomfortable silence. Despite how awkward that moment had been, it had settled some of my nerves about this whole endeavor, enough that it wasn’t too hard for me to find a comfortable place to settle down and fall asleep. ~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, my sleep wasn’t nearly as peaceful as I’d hoped. The death of that mare was still weighing heavily on my mind, so I wasn’t too surprised when I found myself in a familiar nightmare. It was a pained dream of something that had happened two years ago, back when I’d been in the security forces for the Stable. It had been my first breach and clear mission, which had only added to the stress and burned the entire experience into my memory. A gang of rebels had taken over a stable block, and it was our job to rescue at least the three pegasi hostages, the twenty other expendables if possible. The team was mostly made up of my own family members, though that hadn’t encouraged me in the slightest. In fact, it had only made things worse, when I nearly triggered an explosive one of the terrorists had strapped to a bound and gagged pegasus mare. But nothing had compared to the fear I felt than, after finding out the terrorists were after an overseer, we found a battleground with eight of the terrorists lying dead...along with a member of the honor guard, ragged and barely still breathing. There were clearly mortal wounds in his armor, autorepairs had failed to help him. He could just barely wheeze “Over...seeer...they have...power...armor…” before he died at my hooves. My mother had screamed in anger, the sight of an honor guard getting killed by these scum too much for her. I’d been stunned into silence, locked up and unable to even think about anything besides what horrors could await me further. My brother Indigo had snapped me out of it, but tonight the dream was...odd. “Come on, this is taking too long!” he hissed at me, yanking at my hoof. I didn’t remember that being how things had happened...especially as his tugs got rougher, like he was trying to tear something off my leg, his voice getting higher and higher pitched… I stirred roughly awake, blinking sleep and confusion from my eyes. The fire had died down, but everything else was more or less the same as when I’d fallen asleep, even the dark skies above. I couldn’t have been asleep for long, so what had… “Shit shit shit!” A panicked whisper echoed in my ears, only slightly refocusing my attention...right as something was jammed into my mouth. “Shut up, shut up!” I finally realized that it was Siren’s voice, and started to piece together what was happening: she’d tried to get her leash off my hoof, presumably to run away. I had to stop her...but my body was still uncooperative from just waking up. Before I could throw her off, I felt her yank my hooves behind my back, scrambling to tie them with something; I wasn’t sure what, but she was surprisingly adept at it. I tried to spit the rag out of my mouth, but Siren quickly grabbed a purple strip, I realized torn from her old cloak, and tied it to keep the rag in place. I struggled to get loose as she tied my hind legs together as well, leaving me helpless to fight her. She crept over to Gunrunner dozing nearby as I struggled, screaming to try and get anypony’s attention. But Gunrunner didn’t notice and slept peacefully as Siren reached into his bag and grabbed a knife. I had a brief, terrifying moment of fearing she was about to kill one of us, but I was ashamed to admit I was a little relieved that the only thing she did was hurriedly cut her leash off, before darting away into the night. I slammed my head roughly against the ground as Siren vanished. The one thing that was keeping me in his good graces, the only thing he’d told me to do, and there she went. Arkangel was gonna kill me. Author's Note Footnote: Level up New Perk: Gunslinger --- +25% accuracy in V.A.T.S. with one-handed weapons (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56 Dark MachinationsFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 5: Dark Machinations By Fallen Sentinel “Your actions will cost us more than we can afford. They may already have.” I felt like such a moron, sitting there bound tight as the hours slipped away. I was too tired from yesterday to struggle much, burning myself out after a few efforts to slip free of the knots binding my forelegs. I tried to squirm over to Gunrunner and get his attention, but the merc was sleeping soundly and I couldn't reach his bag for anything that might help me get free. I’d even tried worming my way over to the fire, but unfortunately whatever was in Gunrunner’s fire potion didn’t want to burn my binds, especially since by the time I’d gotten there the flames were nearly out. Eventually I gave up and lay there on the ground, sighing to myself. How had I let this happen? Had I seriously trusted Siren enough to let my guard down around her? I felt betrayed, but that was honestly a little stupid of me to think: Siren had never been on our side, always been antagonistic to us, always trying to get back to the Stable however she could. How far would she get given the time advantage she had now? Had she already found somepony looking for her, were we too late? I could only cringe as I thought of what would happen when Arkangel found out I’d let Siren get away. I kept expecting him to appear from thin air, yelling at me and threatening to kill me for letting her get the upper hoof on me. Had he maybe spotted her already, gone after her? He’d surely have caught her by now if he’d had the chance, but there was still no sign of him anywhere. He hadn’t gone ahead to Rock Point already, had he? After what felt like forever of waiting, struggling with what little energy I had left and muttering about how I could have used my old security training if she’d used hoofcuffs instead, the omnipresent cloud cover finally giving hints of the morning sun rising behind them. Gunrunner eventually started to stir from his sleep, but I couldn’t wait for him to wake up on his own. The instant I saw him somewhat conscious, I kicked him as hard as I could in the side. “Oww!” he yelled, jumping to attention and probably expecting a fight. It took him a moment to realize what was happening as I grumbled at him from behind the cloth, staring in utter confusion before he shook his head. “What the hell happened to you?” he asked. I did what I could to motion to where Siren had fallen asleep, but Gunrunner was already headed for his bag, digging for something. “Oh...Siren, huh? She took my knife.” I nodded at Gunrunner as he sighed, shook his head once again, before trotting over to me and starting to work out the knots binding me, starting with my muzzle. He had to struggle a bit without anything to cut, but eventually he’d gotten my mouth and forelegs free. “Ark’s gonna be pissed isn’t he,” I muttered, mostly to myself as Gun worked at untangling my hind legs. He glanced at me and only shrugged, before finally snapping the last rope off. I got to my hooves and looked around, biting my lip as I expected Ark to be somewhere by now. “Where is he, anyways?” Gunrunner looked around for Ark as well, but shrugged again. “So what now?” I asked. “Well since you’re asking me,” Gunrunner said, after a moment to think. “If Ark doesn’t have anything to be angry over, he won’t be.” I looked back at him, not quite catching his meaning, making him have to explain it to me. “We go out and find her before he knows she’s gone.” I nodded, desperate for a simple plan to solve the worry engulfing me. I could already see two big flaws with his plan: we had no idea which way Siren had gone, and she already had several hours headstart on us. It didn’t take long, however, for a third problem to emerge. Gunrunner suddenly was staring right behind me, a look of abject horror on his face. I cringed and turned slowly, seeing exactly what I was afraid of: Arkangel standing there, staring directly at me. I was glad for a moment that his helmet was still on, I didn’t want to see the look of anger on his face: the void of his dark visor was terrifying enough. “I can explain,” I stammered, trying to reason with him. The next thing I knew I was on my back on the ground, Ark’s scorpion tail smashing down inches from my ear. “ONE job,” he snarled, his voice resonating to the point I couldn’t tell if the earth were shaking, or it was just me. He pressed a hoof to my chest, applying pressure and keeping me from breathing deeply: I started to wheeze a little as he continued. “I told you to watch Siren, make sure nothing happens to her.” The pressure ramped up to the point I felt sure my ribs would crack. “I TOLD you that if we lost her, everything else is meaningless!” “But we haven’t lost her yet!” said Gunrunner, causing both of us to look at him. “She can’t have gotten too far yet, we can still follow her.” He pointed towards the eastern rock formation, and if my chest weren’t under pressure from Ark’s hoof I would have breathed a sigh of relief. Gunrunner had spotted tracks, partially disrupted but still clearly pony hoofprints; I wasn’t trained to read and even I could tell that had to be Siren’s cloak dragging in the dirt, not enough to clean her trail up entirely. Ark must have had the same realization, as he immediately leapt off my chest, allowing me to gasp and fill my starving lungs with air. “Grab your bags, we’re leaving now!” I stood shakily and checked my Pipbuck, making sure I didn’t have any serious injuries from Ark’s intimidation. Gunrunner had quickly gone to his things and started packing in a hurry; I took his lead and went to my bags. “So when we find her,” I said, after coughing to clear my lungs, “what exactly do we do?” “Rip her fucking wings off!” Ark screamed, his head swivelling to lock red eyes on me in a death glare. I froze as time seemed to stand still, until Ark himself seemed to recoil from his response. He shook his head until his eyes turned blue, only for him to turn away and start moving towards Siren’s tracks. “Just find her, catch her. We’ll worry about the rest later.” As I hurriedly packed the meager supplies I’d taken from my bag, I couldn’t help but stop thinking. Siren seemed to know something more than what she was saying...back in Black Pass, she’d started to say some other name besides Ark’s. Something that sounded like pay...was that one of the clear personalities he had? We might have lost Siren. While her tracks were obvious enough to follow for quite a ways, eventually we noticed more tracks coming up behind her, numerous ponies following her closely. Eventually Siren’s trail ended at a mess of dust and sand, evidence of a scuffle I was sure. Judging from the lack of bodies or Siren’s cloak dragging anywhere, I suspected she’d lost the fight. Unfortunately, after that fight the other ponies tracks split off in different directions, no signs which of them had taken Siren. Ark looked about set to kill somepony, and I could only hope that he would refrain from lashing out at us. But seeing as we were the only two around here… “So what...should we just keep going to Rock Point?” Gunrunner suggested. It was a bad idea. Arkangel spun towards Gunrunner rapidly, his tail flicking forward with the barb aimed right at Gunrunner’s throat. “Do I have to remind you that we need her for any of this to matter?” His voice was modulated by his armor, shifted into the same deep tone that seemed to shake the earth. “So who were they, where did they take her?” “Why do you expect me to know?” Gunrunner replied, staring defiantly back at Ark’s helmet. “You’re our wastelands expert,” Ark countered, leaving the two to stare at each other in uncomfortable silence for a few moments. “Get that out of my face and I might try finding out,” Gunrunner finally muttered, glancing down at Ark’s tail. I cringed, but thankfully Ark lowered his tail and let Gunrunner take a look around. “Well I know we’re outside Reaver territory, but that just means it could be anypony. Although…” Gun rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “There’s no blood. Best guess is slavers then, looking to sell her. Nice mare wandering the wastelands alone, easy target.” Arkangel glared at Gun for a moment, but finally turned and started walking off. “Uh...where are you going?” I asked hesitantly. “Rock Point.” I blinked and checked my Pipbuck’s map. Sure enough, Arkangel was leading the way straight there. “Civilization might know something about those slavers, or where they keep captives.” I glanced at Gunrunner, who only shrugged back at me. I sighed and raised a hoof to my face, but decided against arguing. I didn’t know for sure why Ark still felt we were worth keeping around, but I didn’t want to test his patience right now. “Looks like the Hoof has just a little more Security than a few days ag-” I switched the radio frequency again, cursing in frustration. I’d hoped that we would have found traces of Siren or the slavers as we got closer to Rock Point, but when there had been nothing I’d turned to fiddling with the radio to pass the time. I didn’t even know what security would be out in the wasteland, or who had decided to go up against it head-on. It was moments like this that made me wonder why everypony didn’t just wait out the wasteland in their Stables, like we were supposed to… I flicked through radio frequencies to try and pass the time, as it seemed even as we walked time just froze around us. But every time I glanced down to change I saw that time was passing: it had been an hour since we’d left our camp for Rock Point. It felt like far longer to me. I switched channels again. “-o the Security Mare. Looking forward to seeing what law and order you bring down next.” Sounded like somepony was having a fun time, though I had to wonder what chaos they were causing to cause it. Some particularly sad music started playing, forcing me to change stations again. “-ay that they got just what they deserved. Whomever built that thing, come by for some drinks on the house. Well...if your bot brings that mare back safely, anyways.” That mare? Could that have been Siren? “If anypony wants to get the mare back from the cybernetic death machine that just batted those slavers around, it’s taken her off to the abandoned mines south of Rock Point. You’ll know the mare when you see her: my eyewitness says she’s got a purple cloak, white coat, pink and black mane, and a fine flan- I really need to read these things before going on air.” Oh thank Celestia that was her! “Ark!” I ran up to his side. Arkangel turned and stared at me. “Somepony just said they spotted Siren. A robot’s taking her to the abandoned mines down south.” “The mines?” We turned to face Gunrunner as he shook his head. “That place is basically tearing itself apart. Can’t say I know a lot about the bot, but rumor is it turned up and has been scaring off anything that becomes trouble for the locals. But it never sticks around to chat, and anypony who goes into that mine gets dragged back out unconscious and can’t remember a thing.” “Well we’re just going to have to stay alert then,” Arkangel snapped. “Gun, lead the way,” he gave a curt motion with his head, ushering Gunrunner to the front. As Gun started to lead us towards our destination, I couldn’t help but feel anticipation bubbling in my stomach. Siren probably felt pretty sure she’d never see us again. I could only hope I got the chance to prove her wrong. It didn’t take long for me to wonder if I could prove her wrong at all. We’d reached the mines with little trouble, only with a few local desert dwellers on the path warning us not to enter. But once we were inside the dilapidated tunnels and had a look around, I was starting to worry. It was like a maze down here, tunnels branching off every which way, some collapsed due to old age and failing supports. We’d been following a slight trail for a while, but finally the tracks split off into five separate tunnels. They were each disturbingly regular, a precise gait I knew only a robot could duplicate five times over. Did this thing know we were coming? Or was it a precaution against getting followed? “Well, which way now?” I asked hesitantly. “Split up,” said Ark, curt as ever. “You take that tunnel, Gun and I can take the other four.” “Are you crazy? With that robot running around?” “Actually…” Gunrunner rubbed the back of his head, “I agree with Ark here. We’ve got one more day til those...what were they, Terminators?” He cast a glance at Arkangel, who didn’t respond. “I’d rather not stick around if we have to, we should find Siren and get as much distance as we can.” I sighed, but gave in. I was still worried about the robot, but I couldn’t help but agree with Gunrunner about our time limit. As I made my way down my designated tunnel, I tried to breathe a little easier. If that bot were hostile surely we wouldn’t have gotten so far into its territory, right? And besides, the tracks could have been old, and there were no signs of activity anywhere: I could barely see anything past the glow of my Pipbuck. “That thing surely needs light to see, right?” I thought. As if on cue, I entered another small crossroad and immediately spotted a faint hint of light down a tunnel almost looping back on mine. “Why did I say that,” I growled, facehoofing at how stupid I felt in that exact moment. Thankfully I couldn’t wallow in my idiocy for long: I realized that the bot might be active and somewhere nearby. My security training kicked in and I checked my EFS while reaching for my pistol, getting ready to set my battle saddle if necessary. But the EFS only had a single yellow bar up ahead, making me sigh with relief. Maybe Gunrunner was right earlier, maybe this robot was just defending territory? If we didn’t hurt anypony else, maybe it would leave us alone? I crept up towards the light and peeked around the corner, before moving up cautiously to a pile of stacked equipment I couldn’t quite identify. Past that was a small room offshooting the main chamber, a collection of metal bars hastily welded to form something like a cage door. The yellow bar was indicating the EFS target was in that room behind the bars, and glancing around I didn’t see any evidence of the robot anywhere. So could this be…? I crept closer to try and figure out what my EFS was sensing: the room looked almost entirely empty, save the threadbare necessities of a jail cell, and for a few seconds I completely missed a mass of purple fabric lying on the floor. It shifted a little in response to my hoofsteps, and as I tapped on the bars a familiar voice I couldn’t decide if I was glad or furious to hear rang through the chamber. “Oh what is it now, you hunk of junk? I told you to leave me alone, don’t you know how to take orders? Damned robot…” I cleared my throat almost cheekily. “Can’t say I’m much of a robot,” I muttered, as Siren leapt about a foot off the ground. She busied herself disentangling herself with her robe enough to see me as I started examining the bars a little closer. “What the hell are you doing here?!” she hissed under her breath, casting a nervous glance around behind me. “If that thing comes back and sees you…” She froze, staring in terror straight behind me. I turned quickly, only to find nothing was there. “What are you looking at?” I looked back at her with an eyebrow raised in confusion. “There!” she whispered, jabbing her hoof at the ground. I looked again, but didn’t notice anything still. “It’s cloaked!” I suddenly remembered Ark’s disappearing act and glanced down, finding a fresh set of hoofprints had started circling me. A chill ran down my spine and I quickly raised my battle rifle, trying to trigger my SATS to help me spot the threat. But it didn’t show itself. A second later something struck me hard and threw me to the side, knocking my aim off as the gun discharged, the shot ricocheting off the wall instead. I barely stayed standing and with my SATS fully charged I had an instant to think up a strategy: the robot was cloaked, so I couldn’t get a clear shot on it. But what if I could see it? There was just enough dirt at my hooves for me to grab some and throw it in the direction of the latest hoofprints. Sure enough, a pony-like shape emerged from the shadows as the dirt dusted it right where I suspected the bot was standing. I leveled my gun at the target and fired at what I thought was a forward joint in its leg. My SATS helped me confirm the shot, but instead of sinking into the target part of the energy bounced off a curved surface and shot straight past the shadow, hitting the wall behind it. I aimed to fire again, but my SATS didn’t have the charge to keep this up, and I had to aim manually. I fired three more times, one deflecting slightly off the robot’s armor, one seeming to hit dead on as I heard a metallic grinding for a second, and the third one passing straight through where I thought it was. “Did I get it?” I wondered, glancing around in case I’d missed it. But I wasn’t fast enough. Suddenly something was wrapped tight around my neck, pulling me just a bit off the ground. I gasped and reached for the obstruction, hooves finding something and pulling back, but I wasn’t strong enough to break its hold on me. All it got me was thrown sideways against a wall, pinning me down as it tried to choke me out. I struggled to breathe, yanking with all my strength and trying to get a hind leg somewhere to kick at the bot, but I was rapidly losing focus. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, and my thoughts started to slow down and drift off. Was this how I was going to die? The bot’s second hoof came down on my lower back to tighten its grip on my throat, straining me to the point I thought it might try to rip my head off. I could only hear Siren screaming something off in the distance, but I couldn’t make out her words as the world faded into oblivion... The next thing I knew I was lying on my side with somepony’s hoof on my neck. It was a far more tender touch than I’d just experienced, and as I started to regain feeling in my body I looked around as quick as I could manage, trying to find out what had just happened. It was Siren touching me, checking to see if I was ok, staring at me with more concern than I’d ever seen on her face. As I started blinking, regaining my thoughts, I glanced towards the nearest source of light I could find...on the other side of the bars. I struggled to my hooves and shook my head as the blood flow started to stabilize in my brain, letting me think clearly again. I looked to see what had happened in the time I’d been unconscious...which hadn’t been long, apparently. I could see where I’d just been choked unconscious and a fresh trail where I’d been dragged into the cell, but more interestingly I could see the robot itself. It had decloaked and was busily welding a bar back into position, probably one it had removed to throw me into the cell with Siren. The first thing that amused me about seeing this bot clearly was that it was using a portable welding torch just like a regular pony might have. But after that realization I started to take in more details about the design itself, that made me look over the thing again in confusion and interest. The robot was small, almost a head shorter than I was, yet it clearly had overpowered me. Its plating was a deep maroon red and surprisingly fluid, a sleek appearance that I might have mistaken for an organic being. Not helping that illusion was the fact it had a mane and tail, a purple matching its optics with pale pink highlights. But the oddest thing about this bot were that it had a very pony-like face, mouth and all, very detailed...and, surprisingly, it seemed to have two white fangs jutting from what I was struggling not to call a lip. I raised a hoof towards the bar ahead of me, but Siren grabbed me and pulled me back. “Don’t!” she hissed, “you're not marked as a threat.” I pushed Siren back and moved closer to the bars anyways. “Are you trying to get yourself killed? That thing is out of control! It won’t listen to my commands!” The welder flared suddenly as Siren spoke, causing us both to glance towards the bars. The robot glared at Siren, optics focused down on her with a scowl on its face...it looked angry. I couldn’t quite process what I was seeing, if I didn’t know it was metal I’d have sworn I was looking at a pony’s face. As it turned back to its work of welding us in, I tried to think of a way to interrupt it without marking myself as a threat, only now realizing it had discarded my battle saddle when it dragged me in here. But I knew it wasn’t going to do us any good, so with a sigh I turned instead to Siren with a nervous shrug. She collapsed on the ground with a heavy sigh, staring nervously between the robot and me. She probably was wondering which of us would end her less painfully at that point. I was still furious at her, but wasn’t exactly in any kind of shape to fight her: my body still hurt tremendously from the lack of oxygen and I was still recovering. I stumbled to the wall and tried to rest a little bit, only for Siren to come closer and gently stroke my mane. I couldn’t help but scoff slightly at her suddenly being nice to me, but I didn’t mind not being alone in a strange cell with a crazy robot staring at us outside. It was only then that I noticed that Siren had tears welling in her eyes. “Uh...Siren, are...are you alright?” She didn’t respond for a second, only for her to start petting my mane again. “Okay Siren enough, you’re scaring me.” I tried to pull away, but Siren grabbed me and refused to let me go, letting me feel how much her body was shaking. “I’m sick of this…” she whimpered. I blinked in shock, struggling for a moment with what to do. “Uh...yeah, I guess...the wasteland kinda sucks, doesn’t it?” “That’s not what I mean...I’m sick of all this,” she waved a hoof at the robot, who had just finished sealing us in and was walking away, grabbing my battle saddle and placing it atop the stack of equipment I’d passed by earlier. “I’m sick of everything I do coming back to haunt me! That thing, Ark, the freak, Redwood, my mother, my father…” She paused for a moment there, giving me a second to realize what she’d just said. Her own parents had caused her some kind of grief? “Even you…” “Uh...what do you mean?” I said shakily. I was hoping she didn’t notice my Pipbuck was still damaged, or what that meant. Unfortunately, she did, and she pointed straight at it to prove it. “You broke our deal,” she sniffled, wiping a tear away from her eye. I was shocked to see her so broken up. “I know I should maybe have not done that to you, but I was just starting to trust you. I thought I could finally trust somepony…” I cringed at her concept of trust: I’d felt sure she’d use that explosive as leverage over me to make me do whatever she’d wanted in the moment. That wasn’t trust, that was abuse. But Siren looked so upset, I couldn’t help but be curious. “Is it really that hard for you to trust somepony?” I asked. Siren glanced at me with teary eyes, but didn’t hold her gaze very long. I decided to change the subject, hopefully help her mood. “Look, we’re not gonna die here. Ark and Gunrunner are…” I bit my tongue as Siren cringed to hear Arkangel’s name again. Bad idea. “Siren, I...I’m sorry. I didn’t know this was…” I gestured towards my Pipbuck for a second, before gently taking one of her forehooves in mine. “I didn’t know this meant that much to you.” Siren pulled her hoof out of my grip. “It’s not that much, but it was my only chance to try again…” “Siren, look, I promise you right now,” I grabbed her hoof again. She didn’t react, save looking up at me. “I promise I will get you back to the stable as soon as Arkangel is done with us. I’ll do everything I can to get you home safe.” Siren stared at me in disbelief, though I didn’t entirely blame her at this point. “I guess I should be glad Ark’s been keeping me alive,” she smirked, sighing heavily as she spoke. “Rather not face the wasteland all alone.” I thought that changing the subject might help Siren out a bit, but unfortunately the only other thing that came to mind seemed like a horrible idea. I had nothing better to say though, so… “You had something to do with Ark a long while ago? How...how did that go? What happened?” Siren looked up at me with a bemused smirk on her face. “We were a thing for a little bit, I guess, but...one of the expeditions outside the stable we were involved in led us to...that.” Siren gestured at the robot, who had just finished welding the bars shut again and locking us in. It gave the both of us an appraising look, a look on its face that I would have almost called “curious,” before it turned and left us alone in the cell. “I don’t know what it’s doing out here now,” she shrugged, “it didn’t have any programming that would make it do this. It was completely empty in fact, memory cores completely wiped. But it was a good design, and we found plans for an entire line of them, plus a perfect way to toy with generating a fresh AI…” She sighed. “But not everypony was happy with it. Not a lot of the other overseers liked the idea of developing a totally new combat robot, however, and I was still just starting out in my own role.” There was an uncomfortable silence for a second as Siren thought about what to say next. “My father...he was the Overseer of the Military at the time, he was staunchly against them...wanted us to destroy it, and the plans. But mother wanted to use them...and so did half the other overseer population. It was down to my deciding vote, everypony staring at me for my first big decision as an overseer.” She sighed heavily, shaking her head slowly as she thought. “Eventually I decided it was worth researching, even if we never decided to use them. Unfortunately, that caused a schism between my parents, so bad that my father disowned me.” I cringed, hurt simply by hearing Siren admit to that. I knew my family was disappointed by me not joining everypony else with security, but utter disownment? I hadn’t imagined it would be that bad. “So of course, because they had to drive the nail in, the robots were assigned to me for further study and replication. The goal was mimicking some soldier’s minds, create an AI that can act like those soldiers might have, but we never got that far, only taking a few brainscans of some of the researchers for a control batch in that one,” she waved her hoof out the door, seemingly indicating the robot wandering around out there somewhere. “But the scars stayed, my father never really spoke to me after that...not until he died.” I had to wince again, feeling the hurt that Siren was trying to suppress at the memory. “Siren, I’m so sorry…” She looked up at me abruptly, a confusing smirk on her face. “Why?” I blinked back at her. “You’re the one that killed him.” ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ “Repeat, Honor Guard down, terrorists have armor.” My mother’s voice was tense, her fury only barely restrained anymore. “You have to be kidding me...comm, you got that?” my dad growled over the radio. “Affirmative Phoenix Squad, worse than we feared. Traitor has his honor guard with him.” As I struggled to regain my composure, our command started relaying worse and worse information. “Possibly eight of them, and there’s only one possible friendly honor guard in there now. “Comm, how the hell are we going to fight those things?” I tensed up all over again: it wasn’t like my father to sound so...worried. He was generally so cool under pressure, though I couldn’t blame him for it in this case. Honor guard were marked as the best of the best for a reason, how could a small group of security forces go up against those?! “Well I have good news for you at least, the High Overseer is on her way down for some reason.” I flinched. The High Overseer? Here? On a mission we’d already bungled? But at least she’d be coming with her honor guard, superior to any rogue forces we were going to encounter. “Pick up the pace,” comm said rather half-heartedly. I knew she meant for us to stay calm and try to hold position, wait for reinforcements, but it wasn’t going to look good on security if we admitted to it on record. Unfortunately, her advice had to go ignored, as at that exact moment my EFS started whining. Red, lots of it, hostiles just ahead around the corner. I quickly fell in line with my squad, as our second squad joined up and mixed in with us. Ten security ponies, my family, up against a rogue overseer and eight honor guard...I really didn’t care for our chances, but I couldn’t dwell on that. We were going in: Indigo was already perking his head around the corner, the rest of us watching from helmet cams. Though they were a fair distance away, I could just make out that four of the honor guard were attempting to cut through a door, while the other four were watching the corridor. One of them spotted Indigo immediately, and for a brief moment of panic I thought sure my brother was about to lose his head. But the guards did nothing, except I presumed spoke via their internal comms to inform the rogue Overseer of our presence, since he turned to face us. His brown and red modified honor guard armor shined in the light of the welders as he stepped closer to us, one of his guard following him. “Step forward,” he called out, but none of us listened to him. We shifted into a firing line as the honor guard stepped around the corner, followed by the Overseer who glanced bemusedly at us. He seemed to count us off, before looking right at Indigo, presumably thinking he was the leader. “Now, set your weapons down, or I’ll have to kill you all.” I felt a cold, hard lump in my throat, but I didn’t back down. None of us did. But nopony opened fire either; were we all as scared as I was right now? The Overseer sighed and shook his head. “Very well, kill them.” “Wait!” I yelled, before anypony had a chance to shift their weapons. The Overseer raised a hoof as the guard charged his weapon and quickly scanned our security line for the voice. I stepped forward, despite my father hissing at me to stay in formation. “Why are you doing this?” The Overseer laughed a little too harshly for my liking, staring straight at me, singling me out. “I’m trying to save us, of course!” He looked expectantly at me, like I should somehow know what he was raving about. I could only shrug in confusion. “Of course you don’t understand, nopony does, or nopony wants to admit it. We’re content to make the same mistakes as the past, over and over again until we’re all doomed!” I still had no idea what he was talking about. “The damn robots, the more we focus on those the more we outdate ourselves! Some day they’ll even replace us Overseers with dead metal and wire!” The rogue was snarling, almost foaming at the mouth as he stared at me, only for me to stare blankly back at him. He sighed and collected himself, shaking his head. “No, of course you can’t see it...I just wish I could have shown you all…” He waved his hoof and, to my surprise, his honor guard relaxed their stance,at least a little bit. “But very well, if this is really what you think is best for the whole Stable...arrest me.” I blinked in shock, and glanced back at the rest of my squad. Nopony moved, everypony was still suspect of the entire situation. But if there really was a chance that I could end this situation right now...I just had to take it. So fumbling to grab a pair of hoofcuffs I stepped forward, keeping my eyes focused on the rogue Overseer. He kept his eyes on me as well, helping me stay focused on him...and only too late did I realize why. “Take him alive,” the Overseer sighed. “I’ve seen too many innocents die today..” I tried to get my legs moving, realizing what was about to happen, but I was too late. One of the Honor Guard grabbed me with a hoof and their tail and dragged me towards their group. I tried to break free, only to have the barbed tail pressed to my throat. “Weren’t you supposed to keep me alive?” I muttered, though I couldn’t raise my voice enough to be heard over the rogue. “If you want him to stay this way as much as I do, don’t follow us.” None of my family moved, tense with guns still trained on the guards as they shuffled the rogue Overseer and myself back around the corner, just as a new set of Honor Guard stormed into the room, these bedecked in golden armor. The High Overseer and her forces had arrived. The rogue’s honor guard tailed us as the Overseer himself pushed me along, having taken over threatening me with a gun pointed straight at the back of my head. I didn’t want to fight him, not now, so I let him lead me forward, hoping to offer security or the High Overseer’s guard an opportunity. To my surprise, however, the High Overseer’s guard parted their defensive line, letting an old grey pegasus in golden robes step forward. The High Overseer herself...I knew I should have saluted, but threatened as I was I didn’t make an effort to move, not now. The High Overseer stepped closer to us, waving her hoof at most of her guards, ordering them to hold position. Her Elite guard followed, however, the horn of their armor glowing and ready to fire at a moment’s notice. To my surprise, the rogue pushed me into the care of one of his guard and stood between two of the others, facing her down. “Why do you still refuse to see it,” he growled at the High Overseer. “What I refuse to see? What about you? Why do you refuse to see that the counsel has chosen against you? The robots will be built, and nothing you do will stop that.” The rogue shook his head. “I won’t allow us to be replaced by those mindless machines. You know as well as I do that they’ll do it eventually, if you give them enough work. Better to scrap it all now and be done with it.” “Even if it means killing your daughter?” “OUR daughter,” the rouge snapped. The High Overseer looked startled for a moment, but forced herself to regain composure. “You know as well as I do I can’t show personal bias for a project. But you...you know that she’ll continue. She’s probably already memorized half the schematics you’re trying to burn here. Even if you destroy our data, find and destroy that original one, your daughter will keep the project alive. Is that really what you want, to kill her?” The rouge overseer paused, staring in silence. The High Overseer’s words had gotten to him, but as he searched for an answer to her comments the cutters finished their work and the door seal was broken. It slid apart easily, a chunk of the locking mechanism clattering to the ground and shattering the silence. “I suppose we’ll have to continue this later,” the rogue muttered, before heading for the busted opening. “Hold the line here,” he told his guard. “Kill them if you have to.” With that, he vanished through the doorway. We were left in silence for at least a minute, the rogue’s honor guard staring at the High Overseer and her guards, my family standing ready in the back. I was halfway between thinking that I was going to die and blaming myself for the standoff, considering I’d gotten captured like a moron. But as I glanced at the rogue’s guards I realized they were far more focused on their opponents than their hostage. It gave me an opportunity to reach slowly for a pocket on my vest, watching carefully for anypony spotting my motions. Miraculously, none of the honor guard reacted, as I pulled out a small cluster of small spheres from the pocket. Shock grenades, I should have had ten in my kit, each just strong enough to knock out a suit of power armor...if they were close enough. I carefully moved to roll one under the guard at my immediate right, trying not to watch my shot too much or else blow my cover. I could see two more guards on my left I might hit with these grenades, but there were still too many targets. How could I get something under all of them? Thankfully, I wasn’t alone. The Elite Honor Guard stared directly at me for a moment, before the horn of his helmet glowed very slightly. The rogue guards snapped attention to him as he slowly lifted a sheet of paper that had been strewn on the ground. It was a distraction from what he was really using his magic for, as I felt five more shock grenades leave my grip, as one of them very slowly hovered under a guard in front of me, one I’d felt sure I’d be caught if I rolled it to. I kept staring at him, only for him to give a curt nod in my direction. I nodded back to him and hit the trigger on my armor. All ten grenades exploded simultaneously, their electric tendrils launching upwards into the targets above them. Five rogues were hit and fell, screaming in shock and pain as their suits shut down and the shock ran into their bodies: it should have been painful, but not fatal, even the unlucky two at the front who had gotten hit by two grenades each. The other three rogues barely managed to dodge the attack, throwing their defense into enough chaos that I could slam my shoulder into the rogue threatening me and make a run for the line of golden guards as they charged to fight the rogues. They parted swiftly to let me dive through, into the waiting arms of my family. My father instantly pulled me aside. “Are you insane?!” he hissed at me. I winced slightly, the smile from the adrenaline and success of my plan vanishing instantly as he reprimanded me. “You can’t step out of line like that, especially with honor guard around. They could have…” He swallowed his next words, looking somewhere between angry and worried. Before I could apologize, I heard an explosion over the sound of the honor guards fighting. A part of the wall behind us fell away and the rogue overseer leapt through the new hole. It was hard to make out through the dust and rubble, but there was a shadow of something on his back...a mare in a purple coat, I realized, right as he stared at my squad in shock for a moment. Then he turned and ran back down the hallway. My squad turned to give chase, but just as we did a second figure leapt out through the settling dust: an honor guard. We almost raised our weapons to open fire, but I quickly put mine down: the armor of this guard was purple and badly damaged. “How many overseer guards are involved in this?” I couldn’t help but mutter over comm. The purple honor guard turn and ran after the rogue overseer, but the guard was limping, his gait was off. He must have been brutally attacked and injured in the fight, yet he was still chasing after the rogue with dedication. I couldn’t help but admire that as I ran after them, ignoring my father’s call to stay in formation. By the time I reached the corner I could hear the sounds of a fight underway: the purple guard must have caught up with the rogue. I rounded the corner in SATS to try and get a better feel for the situation: I immediately spotted the mare lying in a corner behind the rogue. The tail of his armor flashed in the broken light as he fought with the honor guard. Damaged as his armor was, the purple guard couldn’t withstand the onslaught for long, his tail already slowing down and plates falling from his suit, revealing a crimson coat beneath. If I didn’t act now, we might lose another honor guard. The rogue slammed his leg into the honor guard’s knee, dropping him to the ground as the rogue raised his tail. I only had one shot to stop it, so I targeted the tip of the rogue’s tail and fired. The impact was just enough to divert the swing, aimed at the honor guard’s exposed neck. The rogue’s tail whizzed past his head, causing the rogue to look up and scowl at me. I gulped in fear, even as my family caught up and took aim. “Don’t move, traitor!” my dad yelled. “Surrender, while you still can.” The rogue looked at my father, almost upset for a moment. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. I have to do this…” His tail whipped around and suddenly I realized that the barb had disconnected from it, spiralling straight for my father! I tried to aim to shoot the barb down but my SATS wasn’t ready. Thankfully, the barb only grazed my dad’s armor, still enough of an impact to knock him back, but it distracted all of us long enough for the rogue to grab the mare and run further down the hallway. We tried to open fire, but he was too far ahead for our shots to hit, plus the purple guard had gotten back up and was in the way. My mother took charge immediately. “Razors 1 and 4 will get Phoenix 1 medical attention. Phoenix 2 through 4 will join the rest of Razor and stop the rogue.” I knew my mother was worried about dad, but I’d have felt a lot more comfortable if she’d come with us. “Phoenix 2, you’re in command.” Apollo nodded and pointed us forward, Indigo and myself being first in the formation to run down the corridor. I was first to notice the rogue and the purple guard fighting again, but the guard was losing. The rogue grabbed one of his hooves and twisted it unnaturally: I could practically hear the bone snap despite the distance we still had between us. I cringed along with the honor guard, though to my surprise he didn’t shout in pain. He was however distracted long enough for the rogue to line up and buck him down the hallway, straight at us. My hoof reached out to Indigo and I pulled him to the ground, ducking under the honor guard as he was sent flying into the rest of the squad. The rogue quickly grabbed the mare and hurried away. “Go!” Apollo yelled at Indigo and I, and I didn't stop to question him. We rounded the corner just in time to see the mare falling off the rogue: she’d apparently woken up and had gotten off his back, falling on the ground as he turned to face her. Now I could tell for sure that this mare was another overseer, her robes the same purple as the guard outside. Indigo was first to raise his gun. “Overseer, run!” he yelled, as he charged forward, firing on the rogue. I followed suit, but the rogue wasn’t deterred by our shots. His tail whipped around and caught Indigo’s leg, yanking my brother off his hooves and towards him. The rogue’s hoof raised up and slammed Indigo’s head into the ground, knocking my brother out. In the moment I was terrified he’d just been killed, and I locked up, even as the mare I realized now was the rogue’s daughter struggled to escape his slow approach of her. The rogue’s hoof came down on his daughter’s tail, pinning her down and keeping her from sliding herself away, forcing her to stare at him on her back. She was terrified, not that I could blame her, curled up while staring at her father and shaking. He took off his helmet and looking sorrowfully at his daughter. “I wish I didn’t have to do this…” he sighed.” Just then, I heard something heavy fall behind me. The purple guard had gotten himself back up, only to collapse again. “No!” he screamed, watching as the rogue pulled out a pistol and held it in his mouth, aiming straight at his daughter. I didn’t think. I just ran and jumped at him, flapping my wings to push myself into him as fast as I could. I hit him with my shoulder just before his shot rang out, the bullet slamming into the wall mere inches from the mare’s head. The two of us fell to the ground, my shoulder screaming at me for having just bashed into an armored pony like that. The gun left the rogue’s mouth and skidded across the floor, but that’s about all I’d managed to set him back with my lunge. He easily kicked me off of him, throwing me towards the pistol as I slammed hard on the ground. My back and side joined the chorus of pain that pumped into my brain, as I struggled to stand up. I didn’t have enough time, however, as the rogue rushed forward and slammed a hoof into my stomach, throwing me back against the wall. The air rushed from my lungs as I slid down the wall and collapsed. I struggled to stand, but could only watch as the rogue grabbed the pistol again and aimed at his daughter. But this time, he hesitated. He didn’t want to shoot her, I could see it in his eyes. The rogue turned to me again, started walking towards me. I stared in fear and locked eyes with the mare cowering in the corner. Only now could I see that one of her hooves was broken: that explained why she hadn’t tried to run before, or now, as the rogue grabbed me by the collar of my armor and hauled me in front of her. “I can’t kill her...but she needs to die. So I’m ordering you to do it.” I stared at the rogue as he shoved the pistol into my mouth and turned my aim at the mare. She stared at me, shaking even worse than before as tears rolled down her cheeks. I could only stare back, fearing for my life and for hers...knowing I might well end it here. She covered her eyes and shook in silence, waiting for me to obey her father...but I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t kill her, not an innocent mare like this! “Hurry up, I can’t wait any longer…” The rogue stared at me, only something I could see out of the corner of my eye as he still held my head towards his daughter. “For fuck’s sake, you damned security drone, pull the fucking-” Enough. I twisted my neck with as much strength as I had, breaking the overseer’s grip on me. I turned straight to him, face to face, shut my eyes, and pulled the trigger. The shot rang harshly in my ears, reverberated through my teeth to my entire skull. I couldn’t look, I couldn’t open my eyes, even as I heard the clang of an armored pony crash to the floor. I couldn’t believe I’d just killed an overseer of the Stable...in any other circumstance I’d have been shot on the spot. I felt myself shaking, so badly that I dropped the pistol on the ground before I could even think of opening my eyes again. By the time I had, the mare overseer was looking at me. She wasn’t shaking anymore, but I couldn’t tell what expression she wore; ultimately it didn’t matter. I had one thing more I needed to do now… I knelt down and helped the Overseer up on my back, only for her to start sniffling as she stared at her father. I wanted to comfort her, but I didn’t think I could come up with words or actions appropriate for our difference in stations, not to mention the fact that I’d just been the one to kill him. Thankfully, she didn’t fight me, and I was able to carry her clear of the sector to my sister Glory, still attending to a hostage we’d saved from an explosive device. Glory started attending to the Overseer’s broken hoof immediately, as I went looking for my father or mother to talk debriefing. Unfortunately, my body was not at all happy with the prolonged stress and I collapsed on the ground not far from the Overseer. It was at least a minute before I could stand again, my sister checking on me to ensure I wasn’t actually injured being the only interference on my moment of panic. By the time I stood up, though, I heard something else, something I didn’t really expect to hear then: armored hoofsteps. The purple guard was lumbering out of the sector as I stood up, looking badly damaged but still alive. I couldn’t imagine how, I could have sworn he’d bled more than most ponies had in their bodies by now! He clanked his way to his Overseer and spoke to my sister. “Is...she...alright?” His voice was labored and raspy, even considering it was coming through his armor’s systems. He was in a lot of pain clearly, but apparently his worry for his Overseer was worse. “She’s got a broken leg, but she should be fine otherwise,” Glory responded, only momentarily making eye contact with the guard’s visor. He nodded to her and sighed with relief, then looking at the Overseer, who smiled at him. A moment later he turned and came to me, leaning on the wall next to me as he just tried to breathe. He reached up and hit a button on his helmet. To my surprise, it hissed like it was depressurizing, as he pulled the helmet off and dropped it to the floor next to me. It rolled and bumped into my hoof, but I wasn’t looking at that. I was taking the moment to stare at the pony beneath the armor: a crimson coated stallion with a purple and grey mane, clean cut so as to fit inside his helmet easily. He looked right at me with calming blue eyes and smiled softly, extending a hoof to me. I took it and shook. “Thanks for saving my life, and my Overseer,” he said. “Name’s Pale Shroud.” ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ I stared at Siren in silence for thirty seconds as she looked at me, teary eyed. “Oh Celestia, Siren I...I can’t believe I didn’t realize…I’m so sorry…” She glared at me for a moment, still some anger over the incident in her mind. But she sighed and shook her head. “It wasn’t your fault...it was the only thing you could have done then, to save me. Save yourself...the Stable. If he just hadn’t lost his damned mind in the first place!” She slammed her hoof into the ground. I winced at her anger, but as her emotions became clearer to me I realized something important. “There never was a vote, was there?” She looked at me, confused and a bit guilty. “You set me up to take the blame for Grey Water’s death because of your father, didn’t you?” Siren bit her lip and nodded hesitantly. I couldn’t help getting furious at her for a moment, but I sighed and leaned my head against the wall instead. “Why didn’t you just execute me then? Why drag it out in front of the whole Stable?” “I don’t know...I guess I wanted it public. Publicly humiliate you and disgrace your name because I was so mad at you…” She tore her eyes away from me. “But that won’t bring him back...Fantastic I’m so sorry for all of this…” I looked sadly back at her as she clutched her head, trying her best not to cry. I felt awful for bringing up the old memories of her father, of being responsible for almost killing her, and for killing him. And now I’d destroyed her trust in other ponies all over again out here...I needed to get her trust back, however I could. “Your Pipbuck still has that explosive charge, right?” “Yes, just like all the ones for our Stable. I don’t see how…” I grabbed Siren’s foreleg and examined her Pipbuck closely, comparing it to mine. Ark had tapped those three points with his tail, I remembered the order he’d hit them in, but I didn’t have anything sharp enough to work with. Unless… “You still have Gunrunners’ knife?” Siren reached into her cloak and produced the knife, so quickly I was a little worried. “Did she intend to use that on me?” I wondered, as she passed it to my waiting hoof. Then as carefully as I could, I stuck the knife into the same three points Arkangel had, before gently twisting the blade on the third strike. To my surprise, the same small metal cylinder Ark had taken from my Pipbuck popped out of Siren’s, and almost slipped to the ground: I barely caught it as I fumbled to hang onto it, the knife falling from my grip and clattering to the floor. I took only a moment to carefully observe the device, small and unassuming as it might have been, before carefully slotting it into my own Pipbuck, much to Siren’s shock. “What are you…” she stammered, as I watched my Pipbuck carefully. The screen flickered for a second, but it settled down and I raised my hoof back towards her. Siren gasped as she realized what I was doing, and raised her hoof to mine. “Activate protocol 1138 with the Pipbuck of Fantastic Storm.” Our screens both turned pink, just like before. Her voice a touch shaky, Siren continued. “I, Siren, Overseer of Stable 137’s Soldier Evolution and Research Division, hereby record this agreement between myself and Fantastic Storm. If Storm returns me to our Stable after our journey is finished, I promise to clear him of his alleged crimes, and take personal responsibility for Grey Water’s murder.” She paused for a moment, staring at me blankly. “D...do you accept the terms of the contract?” “I accept,” I said after only a slight sigh of worry. With that the Pipbucks chirped and returned to normal. Siren looked a little happier for it, and even though I might have just signed my own death warrant at least there was that. “So...what exactly is your job? Soldier Evolution and Research...sounds fun,” I smirked. Siren laughed and shook her head. “Far from it….mostly paperwork if I’m honest.” She sat herself down against the wall, and didn’t cringe when I sat next to her. “Lots of resource management, making sure everypony gets what they need, sometimes...making problems disappear,” she sighed at the last comment, wincing. I put a hoof to her shoulder comfortingly as she looked up, a little less tense than before. But a second later, she glanced at the cage bars and tensed up. I followed Siren’s gaze and stared past the bars of our cell I looked as Siren pointed outside the bars of our cell, straight at the magenta robot. It had returned at some point and was just...staring at us. Finally it approached us slowly, making me tense. I didn’t know what it might do, but it held my gaze for a few moments. “That knife,” it said suddenly, a feminine voice warbling from the speaker that had to be somewhere in its mouth. It pointed straight at the knife on the floor. “Give it to me.” For a second I just blinked in surprise. I hadn’t expected that kind of response from my experience with robots. But I finally got enough of my senses back to glare at it. “You lock us in here and want to demand that from me? Why don’t you come in here and…” Before I could blink, the robot dashed across the room towards a wooden crate standing in the corner. In a swift motion it ripped a single plank from the crate’s side and lunged forwards towards the cell, brandishing its weapon. Terrified, I fell backwards, pushing Siren to the back wall as she wrapped her hooves around my neck. The plank stabbed through the bars towards us, but nowhere near far enough to strike either of us...but that wasn’t what the bot had wanted at all. It twisted its head back up, locking the plank against a horizontal bar so the other end of the plank dropped to the ground, right on top of the knife. With a smooth shift of its head the robot pulled the plank further upwards, scooting the knife closer until it shot straight through the bars, under the bot’s waiting hoof. I stared slackjawed as the robot glared at me for a moment, tossed the plank back towards the crates, and grabbed the knife instead as it turned to slink away into the shadows, its mane and tail swishing as it turned its back to us. With that, we were alone again, one less tool to work with in our cell. “Well...what now?” Siren muttered. I sighed and shook my head. “I guess...wait for Ark and the merc. It’s the only chance we have now.” Siren nodded solemnly at me and sat against the wall beside me. I almost reached a wing out to drape it over her, but I wasn’t sure it’d be as well received as I hoped. Instead, I just put my hoof closer to her, hoping to offer her a slight peace offering. She bumped her hoof to mine, and we smiled briefly at each other as we settled in to wait for rescue. Author's Note Footnote: Level up New Perk: Spray 'n Pray --- Your attacks do 75% less damage to companions. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Proofreaders: ERROR 1024, Mass Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56 A small invasionFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 6: A small invasion By Fallen Sentinel “Why are you doing this? Fame? Enjoyment? Defiance? In the end it will all be for nothing.” I impatiently checked my Pipbuck again, sighing. Siren and I had been locked up for three hours now, with no signs of anything happening. Our jailer, the robot, had wandered in several times, but it never did anything, never responded to me talking to it. It just...sat there, staring. I’d noticed it sneaking in stealth mode too, but it never seemed to do anything but watch us. I couldn’t understand it. Siren wasn’t exactly being chatty either, and I didn’t feel like pushing my luck after the rough memories I’d forced her to relieve recently. She and I talked briefly on a few subjects, laughing at how strange some things on the surface had been for our Stable-dwelling lives, but for the most part, I decided to fill the silence with some more messages. Message sent Are you okay? I heard in the newspaper, about the Littehorn massacre. You said your battalion was in the region. Were you hurt? I haven’t heard from you since, I’ve been so worried. Just let me know you’re alright. You aren’t ignoring me, are you? Please just answer me. There were several more messages following that one with the same intent, begging the same question, a desperate hope for a reply. It was hard to stomach. Message Received I’m sorry I promised you I wouldn’t push too far, that I’d be sure to come back. But the Zebras went too far this time. My battalion was there, we sat and did nothing as those monsters attacked the academy. Luna has become the ruler, and the Celestial Guard are being reformed. I’ve requested a transfer to the front lines. I winced reading that. I could only imagine this was where their story went to hell. Message sent I hope that you make the right choice. We need to win the war, I understand. Those Zebras deserve what’s coming. But we need to keep what makes us US. Don’t forget, please. I sighed and hung my head. It hadn’t worked...no matter what the next messages read I knew the final outcome. Even at the height of our power, ponies hadn’t managed to best Zebras. We lost. Both sides lost… I heard a slight whir and looked up to see the robot staring quizzically at me, head tilted slightly. I glared at it for a second until it turned abruptly and left again. “Where does it keep going?” I wondered aloud. “I don’t know,” Siren answered me. I opened my mouth to say I was asking rhetorically, but shut it before I complicated the situation. At least she was talking to me. “Going to check for anypony else in its caves, probably.” *she waved her hoof absently and stared back at her Pipbuck. She hadn’t stopped staring at that thing for the past hour...I couldn’t help but be curious why. “What are you looking at?” I asked her finally. Siren stared back at me, almost leering for a second. She spoke finally, rather suddenly and rushed. “That bot keeps putting out a lot of data, I’m trying to sift through it.” I kept staring at her, unconvinced. She finally sighed and spoke again. “The Stable’s gone ballistic. I’ve been watching them form their search party.” She held her Pipbuck towards me, I turned towards her map screen. Sure enough it was hovering over the Stable, a squad indicator marked “Stable Retrieval Force 1” underneath it, with over a hundred ponies listed in its roster. “Wow...that’s a lot of them,” I muttered, brushing my hoof on the screen until it panned over to our location. The dot showing Siren’s position was glowing steady as ever, but none of the rest of our tags showed up. She pulled her Pipbuck back. “I’d give them a day or so to catch up with us.” I sighed and sat down, choosing to not bring up how our disabled locator tags would keep them from finding us. “I guess we’re about-” “Shh…” I hissed, hearing something down the hallway, the sound of metal hoofsteps. We both fell silent and listened as the hoofsteps got louder, clunking forward. They were much heavier than the robot. I listened carefully and could hear a voice I was equal parts terrified and relieved to hear. “One tunnel, is getting him to clear one tunnel really that much to ask…” “Ark! Ark we’re in here, hurry!” I cried out, and the hoofsteps got louder, faster. Ark was running towards us now. I looked back to see Siren slowly standing up, brushing dirt from her cloak before slowly approaching the bars of the cell. To my brief shock Gunrunner was the first one into the cave, spotting us and smirking. “How’d you get in there?” he almost laughed, as he trotted over to the cage bars and looked for a way to break it down. “Just get us out of here,” Siren snapped. I looked at her to try and get her to behave, but Gunrunner was already focused on trying to yank a bar off the side. It wasn’t working, the weld was too heavy for him to break. “Okay, this is-” Gun grunted as he tried to yank the bar free. He turned back to Ark, who was just staring at the entrance to the cavern. “Umm, little help here?” he called. “Equestria to soldier boy!?” He trotted over and picked up a metal bar, approaching Ark and waving his hoof in front of his visor. “Shut up.” Ark hissed, still not even looking at Gunrunner. But it wasn’t anger in his voice...it was urgency. Gun fell silent and I realized what Ark was searching for: the robot’s cloaked hoofprints. “Zebras…” he hissed. Quick as a flash Ark tore the bar from Gunrunner’s grip and swung it straight over the forming hoofprints. A loud metallic clang echoed through the small cavern as Ark’s bar snapped in half from the strain. However the impact had done its job well enough: the robot dropped its cloaking field, the only damage done seeming to be a small dent in its shoulder plate. However what worried me more than the robot’s resistance to damage was the fact that its face, something I was so used to robots having no emotion in...the robot looked angry, glaring straight at Ark with a glare and bared teeth at him. Gunrunner stammered for a second. “I don’t think that’s Zebra tech…” he muttered, as the maroon bot tilted its head down and charged at Ark. He reacted quickly, bracing and letting the bot smash into him. He pushed back, his size and weight advantage getting enough leverage to push the bot back a few steps as he swung at its head. The bot was quick and blocked his hoof, dodged the tail strike coming after it and locking its grip down on Ark’s hoof, then the other as he tried again to strike it. Gunrunner’s battle saddle began to whine as he readied the same weapon he’d used to disable Ark’s armor before, trying to take aim but not having a good shot with Ark so close. The robot seemed to see him and shifted so Ark was between itself and Gun, giving me a second to see the dent in its shoulder was repairing itself. “That thing has armor repairs too? Come on…” I groaned. Gunrunner kept trying to circle back around, but the bot was doing a good job keeping Ark as a pony shield. But Ark managed to get a hoof free of its grip, causing the bot to change tactics and drop itself to the ground. With his other hoof stuck Ark was pulled down too, the bot kicking at his head with both hind legs as it rolled away and recloaked, scattering dust into the air and obscuring its hoofprints. “Damn cowards and their cloaking…” Ark hissed as he stood back up, looking around. There was no sign of the robot, so Ark moved to Gunrunner’s side and put his back to Gun’s, watching. “I’ll pin that thing down, you hit it, got it Viper?” “Yeah,” Gun replied, “I’ll give it a...wait, Viper?” He glanced confused at Ark, losing his focus for just the right moment. As his head turned away to face Ark, the robot decloaked and charged at his side, its fangs biting down on the mount for his disabling gun. With a twist of its head the gun disconnected from Gun’s battle saddle, and a kick sent the gun skidding across the room to the opposite wall. The bot kicked Gun into Ark’s armor and bounced back, throwing up its cloaking again and disappearing. Gunrunner dove for the weapon but the bot, still cloaked, grabbed a board and slammed it down roughly on his head, dropping him to the ground mid-jump and causing him to clutch his head in pain. The board gave Ark just the angle he needed to target the robot, and he slammed into it, forcing the bot to the ground on its back as it decloaked again. He raised a hoof to smash its head but the robot twisted its head to dodge, kicking at his stomach to try and get him off. Siren winced and gasped as the two went at it, though I couldn’t help but wonder which she was more concerned for, Ark or the bot. The fight was quick and intense, the robot trying to wrap its hooves around Ark’s neck and choke him out like it had done to me, but his armor was too thick. Instead Ark grabbed the bot’s hoof and threw it against the wall, pinning it down and finally landing a solid hit on its midsection. He pinned it down with three hooves, rearing his last foreleg to strike at its head once more. “A...Arkangel…” Ark’s hoof froze as the robot spoke his name, its feminine voice sounding almost afraid. I couldn’t tell what expression he had under his visor, but after a second Ark raised his hoof again to strike. Unfortunately, the bot had taken advantage of the moment he’d locked up and gotten its legs against his stomach, kicking with leverage against the wall enough that he stumble backwards before the punch could land. Just then, a burst of energy cut through the darkness and caused the robot to stumble: Gunrunner had gotten back to his weapon and fired it. The robot staggered, struggling to stand for a moment. “Re...recalibrate...reroute…” it stammered for a second, as Gunrunner aimed again. The second shot threw the robot sideways into the wall, and it fell to the ground with a clatter of metal as it collapsed. Its optics refocused for the briefest of moments, staring right at me, as the faint light behind it faded into darkness. I gasped as the mechanical irises in its optics laxed and stopped moving. Arkangel had stood himself back up by now, but he didn’t move much either. All he did was stare down at the robot as it lay there offline. He took off his helmet and set it aside, only to suddenly bang his head on the wall behind. “Uh...do I want to know?” Gunrunner asked. “Forget that right now,” Siren snapped, making Ark and Gun turn to face us. “Just get us out of here already.” “Honestly, we should just leave it! It’s more trouble than it’s worth!” I couldn’t help but agree with Gunrunner on the matter. Yet here I was, my Pipbuck wired into the robot’s processors, searching through its systems to find any kind of control overrides. Siren had caused a huge stink after getting out of the cell about getting it up and working again under her command. She’d even stood up to Ark when he demanded we leave, insisting that the robot had more value than any of us. “Easy for you to say when you can’t even get it running,” I muttered under my breath, but kept my focus on searching. The systems onboard this thing were only somewhat like what I was used to, and I couldn’t for the life of me find a master override system. “I think I can at least override its motor controls,” I muttered, as I blocked traffic to most of its servos. “Then get it online so we can get it working again,” said Siren. I noticed midway through her sentence she tried to lighten her tone, less harsh than she had been before. I smiled briefly for it as I found the robot’s reboot function and triggered it. The entire frame of the bot jolted as the reboot kicked in, though most of its body fell limp again as the block I’d put in place held. Its neck and face were still functional, and its optics blinked twice before darting around the room, focusing and unfocusing rapidly. “What...what happened?” it asked, its female voice more stable than the last time I’d heard it. Ark winced at the voice, surely remembering how it had called him by name, though why that upset him I had no idea. “Where am I?” I couldn’t help but bite my lip in worry. This thing sounded...scared, panicked. I’d never heard a robot with such emotion in its voice. Siren, however, wasn’t so worried. “Your core systems seem to be malfunctioning, you attacked us and locked us away. I should have you scrapped for this but I’m willing to be lenient.” The robot focused on Siren, looking confused. “Unit 1-355, tell me just what you-” “Vlyka.” Siren and I blinked in synchronicity as the robot spoke. “My name...my name is Vlyka.” I looked at Siren, who shot me a disapproving glance. I kept my mouth shut, but I couldn’t help now realizing why Siren was so keen on getting this robot back. That name was the same nickname Highmill had mentioned belonged to the prototype that had escaped her lab. This was part of Siren’s work, and she wasn’t about to let it slip out of her hooves again. “Unit 1-355, activate override code-” “Override negated.” The robot glared at Siren, scowling. Her optics took a minute to refocus and her expression shifted from anger to confusion. “I...I don’t recognize you…” It's optics shifted to the rest of us, taking a second to stare at each of us in turn. “I don’t recognize any of you…” Ark huffed in the corner. “Oh yeah, you seemed to know me just fine.” “Data gathered from the conversation of these two pointed to that conclusion,” the robot said, staring at Siren and myself. However it looked confused a second later, down at its body. “My...my body is not responding...what happened?” “I had to disable your systems to keep you from hurting anypony if you got back up,” I explained. The bot looked directly at me, and I felt my heart sink in my chest. Deep in its optics, deep within the pink shutters that made up her eyes...I could see it. She was hurt by what I’d done to her. “You kidnapped us, we had to be sure you wouldn’t hurt anypony before we could talk,” I tried to explain. “Unit…” Siren began again, only to receive two piercing stares, the robot’s and my own. She sighed. “Fine...what was it?” “Vlyka.” “Okay fine. Vlyka...how did you get out here? Why aren’t you back at a lab somewhere?” Vlyka set her head down and seemed to disconnect from reality for a second before coming back and speaking. “Software patch 1.4.56.2.57B received at 15:24 hours two weeks ago, including several override orders and negation of further commands besides from an unregistered outside user. Other machines in the laboratory received the same orders via similar software patches at the same time. Remote trigger from outside user: ‘Initiate purge.’” I winced at Vlyka’s wording. Highmill had mentioned chaos, the robots going haywire, but… “You mean...you killed everypony?” “Negative.” Vlyka looked at me. “Other units interpreted orders as a purge of organics in the lab. I instead interpreted it as a purge of their information, following my principal directive of data collection in the process. I transferred as much of their information to my databanks as I could and escaped before it could be recovered.” I couldn’t help but smile a little bit at hearing that, setting my hoof on Vlyka’s cheek. She looked back up at me intently for a moment before Siren chimed in again. “Well, I suppose that explains what you’re doing out here. What about the outside source then? Any clue what that is?” Vlyka shook her head. “I haven’t been able to contact it since my software patch.” Siren sighed and put a hoof to her head. “Alright fine. We can worry about that later. RIght now I need you to tell me just what you salvaged from those computers.” But Vlyka shook her head again. “No.” Siren’s jaw hung open as Vlyka spoke. “I don’t recognize you as an administrator on my system. I will not submit to your orders.” “Vlyka, please…” I interjected. “Just...tell us what you took. Please.” Vlyka looked thoughtful for a moment before she looked back at Siren. “Unfortunately much of the data was corrupted due to outside tampering, but I retrieved some coded files and records. I will share them...if you want me to.” Her gaze fell on me again. I nodded to her. “Then allow me to access a terminal and I will transmit what I gathered.” Gunrunner laughed. “Right, like we’d let you follow us all the way to the nearest computer. You just tried to kill us!” “I only meant to incapacitate,” Vlyka replied. “Well…” I muttered, “I’ll restore your motor functions if you promise not to attack anypony.” Siren hit me in the back, giving me a significant look. “Okay...anypony who’s not a threat.” Vlyka cocked her head at me. “Define ‘threat’?” About an hour later we left the caves into the dim sunlight once more. I’d checked Vlyka’s systems and chassis for any tracking hardware the mysterious “outside source” might have on her, with no end to Gunrunner’s grumbling about bringing a rogue robot with us. Siren wasn’t too pleased either, because Vlyka adamantly refused to listen to her orders. I was surprised she listened to mine...or at least I was, until I realized that I had been asking her to do things for me instead of telling her. Vlyka had spoken a little about her directives as I’d checked her body, how she was meant to be a prototype in self-aware AI, like Siren had said meant to mimic soldiers on the battlefield. Vlyka didn’t know where her basic functions had come from, that data wasn’t easily accessed in her records and I didn’t want to push her too much just yet. All I could tell was she responded shockingly like a pony to problems: admittedly a young pony, resisting harshly any kind of hostility towards herself, but undeniably she had at least some kind of pony emotions running through her wires. I had to stop myself from squeeing at the thought and asking her every question about her design that came to the scientific part of my mind. As our group started to move towards a nearby town, I decided to hang back a little. I pulled Vlyka gently until she matched my gait to an alarming, unsettlingly perfect measure. “I wanted to ask you...how do you feel? How are your emotions running?” Vlyka looked confused. “I’m not aware of any emotions. I was designed to mimic a pony’s rational thought. I should not have any emotional functions available.” I looked at her for a moment as I tried to make sense of that. She stared at me, looking rather insulted at what I’d just said, yet she thought she had no emotions at all? “I have momentary glitches where my priority listing gets twisted around, but I’ve yet to find a root cause for this.” I giggled. “I think that’s a good definition of emotion if I’ve ever heard one,” I said, shaking my head. “Emotion: an instinctive or intuitive feeling, distinguished from reasoning or knowledge.” “And you think that doesn’t-?” I started, but I sighed. “Nevermind, sorry to bring it up.” “No reason to apologize. I can’t be hurt.” I wanted to argue with Vlyka, but she seemed keen to drop the subject. Just then Gunrunner spoke up from his long silence. “Well, we’re here, for better or worse.” I looked ahead to see we’d arrived at a large wooden wall with a single gate on the other edge of a ravine. We started to walk our way up the narrow path across the sprawling gap, a rather impressive fall awaiting anypony without shure hoofing...or wings. As we crossed the gap and got closer to the wall, two stallions guarding the gate stared down at us. I didn’t want to stare at them so I looked down the wall to the right. It was extremely shabby, looking like wood boards hastily erected and about ready to rot straight through. The gate wasn’t much better, and as one of the stallions used his magic to open the gate for us I felt certain it was going to just fall apart, crashing down on top of us. “Why’d they walk up anyways?” I heard one guard mutter to his cohort. “Bunch of pegasi, here?” The other guard just shrugged and used his magic to close the gate behind us. Trying to distract myself from that awkward revelation, how weird a group of four pegasi and a short robot was to the average wastelander, I took a look around town. It was better designed than Black Pass at least, most of the buildings looked to have a solid foundation and made mostly of stone, wood or metal. Yet I still couldn’t help but feel at least a few looked rather unstable...how did ponies live their whole lives like this? As our group walked down the main road, we got the occasional odd glance, especially at myself and Siren with her lead, but for the most part ponies were content to leave us to our business. I was just starting to wonder what business that was exactly when Arkangel finally ushered us into a small dining establishment. We sat down at an old booth table, something that looked like it was from the history books’ depictions of “before the war.” In fact, the entire diner was trying to emulate a pre-war setting, making the place feel cheerier than I expected from this town. I sat between Siren and Vlyka, straight across from Ark as he glared at the rest of the diner, looking for something. I should have known better than to ask, but my curiosity was too much to contain. “What are we looking for?” I asked Ark, keeping my voice hushed just in case. Ark looked anxious, his hooves fidgeting as he answered. “Waiting for somepony,” he replied, without looking at me. I followed his gaze to spot the diner’s owner, or so I assumed, ushering the only other group inside out on the street with a friendly but urgent wave of his hoof. As they left he locked the door behind him, and we were alone. “Well can we at least order something while we wait?” Siren grumbled. I couldn’t help but agree, I was starving from our latest walk. Ark sighed but didn’t say no, so I hoofed Siren a menu before taking a look at one myself. I’d just stumbled on something that sounded interesting, setting my hoof down on it to try and commit the name to memory, when Vlyka’s hoof pushed mine down from my selection. “Not that. That one gives some bad indigestion.” I almost turned and thanked her for her warning, but it took me a moment to notice the bolts on her hoof holding her casing together, a moment to remind myself that Vlyka was cybernetic. She shouldn’t be able to eat, how could she know what indigestion was? I had almost five minutes to ponder that as we sat in uncomfortable silence, until finally the waiter went to the door and checked outside. After a nod he unlocked the door and stepped away, to allow a green unicorn mare in. Her purple mane was spiky and pointing in all directions, with picemental, scrap metal armor adding to her wild look, a shotgun holstered lazily at her side. She seemed oddly perky and carefree, something that made me angry considering we were waiting on her for whatever reason. As she trotted closer the waiter locked the door again, leaving us alone with the strange mare. “Arky, good to see you!” the mare smirked, her voice far too cheery for my liking. “Been too long, I was starting to think I’d never see you again!” “It’s been 18 days, Telesthesia,” Ark muttered, looking impatiently at her saddlebag. “Did you find it or not?” Telesthesia tapped her chin playfully, as though she were thinking of what he meant. “The memory orb dammit, did you find it?” Ark hissed. “Oh, that orb...no, afraid I couldn’t find it. Sorry,” she said, smirking and shrugging. Ark slammed his hoof to the table and stood quickly. I heard the click of a pistol behind us as the waiter took aim at Ark, but Telesthesia waved her hoof and he set the weapon back down. “You said you had it,” Ark snapped. “I came all the way here for it, I expect you to bring it. Or would you prefer I start asking why I didn’t kill you back up in the mountains?” I cringed at Ark’s anger, but surprisingly Telethesia didn’t so much as flinch. She didn’t even lose her carefree smile, looking amused if anything at Ark’s outburst. “Well, I told you I had a location for you,” she said matter-of-factly. “Manehattan, left it there safe with a hellhound.” Gunrunner gasped in shock and stood up, even as Ark calmed down just a hair. “Are you crazy?!” Gun yelled. “You expect us to march up to a hellhound and take whatever orb this is from it?” “Well of course,” Telesthesia laughed. “Figured with this big stallion here it’d be a cinch.” She reached out to tap Ark’s armor, but he pushed her hoof back. “You got my payment?” “Payment was for delivery of the orb,” Arkangel growled, “and I don’t see an orb anywhere around here.” Telesthesia and Ark stared at each other for a moment, and I felt the tension mounting with every second. But finally, Telesthesia giggled and shook her head. “I should have known. Well I hate to leave you empty hoofed, and leave without payment, so what about something else instead?” “And what could you possibly have that I’d want?” Ark grumbled. I almost interjected with a list I’d been making in my head, such as a non-stale food supply, but Ark was wound up and I didn’t think it wise to test my luck with him. I was pretty sure he didn’t care anyways. The mare nodded towards the waiter, who approached and gave her a small bag held shut by a string. She used her magic to unravel the string and pull the bag open. “I take pride in learning about my clients,” she smirked, as she tipped the bag enough for Ark to see inside. He tensed immediately, and even through his heavy visor I could just sense the desire in his eye. “Where did you find this?” he asked, but Telesthesia shook her hoof as she closed the bag again and gave it to him. “What is it?” I couldn’t help but ask. Ark looked up at me, but to my surprise instead of completely blow me off he answered. “A gift...something somepony gave me a long while ago.” I was about to ask him for more information, but he cut me off. “What do you want us to do?” Telesthesia’s grin grew wider. “A few things. First, make sure that hellhound gets a bad case of death when you go pick up your orb. And second,” she said, levitating three few memory orbs out of her saddlebag. “These need delivery to a client of mine in Tenpony, under the name Lifebloom.” Ark took the orbs and stored them away, along with his gift bag, before anypony could argue with him. “I’ll find out when you deliver it,” she winked at Ark. “But for now, coming to meet you has taken enough time out of my business schedule.” She turned and trotted towards the door as the waiter moved to unlock it. Before he could reach it, however, the door burst open. “Boss we got a problem!” a brown unicorn stallion darted in, staring right at Telesthesia. She sighed, the first sign of her losing her cool I’d seen yet. “What is it?” The stallion gulped before he spoke, his voice shaking from fear. “Pegasi, in the sky! Tons of them!” Telesthesia turned immediately to the waiter and snapped some order to him, but I was too distracted by Siren batting my shoulder and whispering in my ear. “Get ready,” she hissed at me. She couldn’t be serious...the Stable had caught up with us already? I heard a shotgun and rifle clicking ready to fire and saw Telesthesia wielding them both as she glared at Ark, the waiter grabbing his pistol again. “‘They won’t get involved,’ you told me,” she growled at Ark. He replied with just a shrug and started to stand up, only for Telesthesia to level her shotgun right at his head. “Uh uh, you’re not going anywhere but giving yourself up to them, right now.” I couldn’t help but smirk at the thought of Ark surrendering. He seemed about as amused as I was, and pointed towards her gun. “Yeah sure, by the way. You’re safety’s on.” Telesthesia seemed shocked and glanced down, only to look up and realize that Ark was gone, cloaked. I glanced over to realize that Vlyka had followed his lead and equally disappeared. Telesthesia turned to glare at me and pointed the shotgun in my direction instead, but right before she fired she was bowled over by...honestly, I didn’t know which cloaker, but the shotgun blast whizzed over my head thanks to a timely hit. I pushed Siren under the table and joined her as I tried to figure out what was happening in the field. Gunrunner dove into the booth next to us and readied his shotgun to open fire, while all three of the local ponies readied their weapons and dove for their own cover, starting a shootout. I pulled my own pistol out and readied myself to fight if necessary. Ark however had taken advantage of Gunrunner’s distraction and quickly incapacitated the mare, just decloaking after he slammed the waiter’s head into the bar he was hiding behind. “Man what I’d give for that cloaking,” I muttered. With a final vicious “crack!” the waiter’s head caved in, and Ark hurried over to lean under our table. “Get up, we’re leaving, now.” I nodded and pulled myself clear, ensuring I had a good grip on Siren’s leash...but as I looked around I didn’t see any signs of Vlyka. Where had she gone, and why wasn’t she decloaking now? I didn’t really have time to wonder as Ark was hurrying for the front door. I followed, only to spot the brown unicorn mare lying on the ground, knocked out by what looked like a serious blow to the head. I had to assume Vlyka had dealt with him, but she was still nowhere to be seen. I considered calling out for Vlyka, but as I looked around I saw dozens of townsfolk standing in the street, staring up at the sky. I followed to see a large group of heavily armored pegasi fluttering just outside the walls of the town, waiting for an order to attack, I assumed. I glanced sadly back at the townsponies as they readied their weapons, the disparity between their run-down armor and the power armor pretty much every pegasus was wearing up there making my heart sink. These townsponies had no chance against the Stable’s forces...and it was our fault they were here in the first place. Somepony yelled out “Fire!” and the townsponies started shooting, their bullets pinging off the armor of the closest pegasi troops. Despite the armor taking the worst of the hit, the pegasi soldiers didn’t sit still to be easy targets. They started dodging and zipping in every direction they could, returning fire with energy weapons that vaporized ponies in a single hit. This battle would be over very quickly, especially since some of the pegasi had dove straight into the town to get up close and personal. Others flew overhead, sweeping the town, looking for something...us, I realized. They dove, shooting at anything they could see, prompting me to haul Siren and dive into a nearby storefront. “Storm are you crazy? We want them to see us!” Siren hissed at me, as I tried to run for the counter to duck for cover. “Siren, did you see everypony there?” I snapped, as she hurriedly followed me solely because of her leash. I could feel her trying to fight but I wasn’t giving her the chance right now. “They’re shooting at anything they see, they’re not going to slow down and not shoot us on sight!” Siren looked at me angrily as I yanked on her leash a bit, but at that moment a heavily armored pegasus slammed into the ground outside the window and opened fire on everypony standing outside. Siren yelped in terror and dove at me, wrapping her hooves around my stomach as we fell behind the bar. The sounds of gunfire and laser blasts was deafening, even from behind the front wall of the building, and I tried to sneak the two of us behind a nearby door into a back room for additional cover. Siren tried again to put herself out in the open to get spotted, as the front window exploded into shards and flew back at us. A unicorn stallion had been thrown through the window, a black armored pegasus guard flying in and slamming his hoof down on the stallion’s chest. Siren smirked. “Hey, over here, it’s Over-” “Hell yes it is…” the stallion coughed, grabbing a grenade from his vest. “Die you winged bastard!” He pulled the pin and slammed the grenade down on the ground. I pulled Siren back with all my strength right as the grenade exploded. The room was filled with dust, shrapnel and noise, prompting Siren and I to hide in the back room, coughing. As the blast wore off however, I heard the clunking of power armor outside. “Why couldn’t that have just killed him,” I groaned, as Siren tried to stand again. “Siren, no, you’ve gotta stay here!” “Why?” she asked, trying to kick my hoof off of her. “They’re from the Stable, we’re going home!” I winced and shook my head. “If Ark’s somewhere nearby he’ll kill us for betraying him. We can’t go back, not right now…” Siren sighed and shook her head. “I’m not waiting any longer.” She turned towards the door and opened her mouth to yell, but I didn’t give her a chance to finish. I grabbed Siren tightly around the stomach and hauled her to the ground, clamping a hoof around her muzzle to shut her up. She jerked and struggled against me but didn’t have the element of surprise this time, and I pinned her to the ground “Siren, shut up!” I hissed at her, lifting her off the ground with one hoof over her mouth, the other around her waist and over her forelegs to keep her from escaping my grip. She squirmed and writhed against me prompting me to do something hasty I figured I’d regret later by slamming her head roughly into a nearby crate, only to realize it echoed as though it were hollow. I used a wing to force the lid open and mercifully it was empty, letting me toss Siren inside and following her as she nursed her new headache. She tried to escape but I managed to pin her again and slide the lid shut above us, and just in time. “Come out, little groundlings,” the pegasus chuckled through his armor’s voice amplifier. I cringed, realizing my mistake trying to hide from him: his armor had to have an EFS built in, he could find us anywhere! We should have run. He’d either use that or just follow Siren, who was now pissed at me for the head trauma and screaming for him to help her. I could only hold her mouth shut so well, she’d surely give us away any second. “Come out and I’ll make this quick.” I heard the hoofsteps of the heavy armor clunking into the room, leaning against the crate and feeling my heart pounding in my chest. It didn’t help that Siren was trying to move her jaw and bite my hoof, and I was out of limbs to stop her...leaving me only one option I really didn’t care for. I found her ear with my teeth and bit down hard on it, causing Siren to squeak in pain and kick the side of the crate. I tried to entangle her legs with mine but the damage was done already. The armored boots came closer as the voice chuckled, and I heard the sound of an energy weapon charging. “Like shooting fish in a barrel,” the pegasus chuckled. We were going to die then and there, unless I did something quick. Against my better judgement, knowing Siren was pissed at me, I let go of her muzzle as she yelled. “Hold fire you idiot!” she snapped. “It’s me, the kidnapped overseer you’re here to find! Shoot me and you’re dead back home!” The energy weapon powered down for a second and I heard the armor’s hooves falter for a moment, before he spoke. “Both of you out, now!” he demanded. I didn’t have a better option, so I obeyed, climbing out of the crate next to Siren. “Hooves on the wall, traitor,” he snapped, his gun pointed right at me. Running was a stupid idea so I listened to him, turning and setting my forelegs on the wall. I glanced at Siren, who was looking rather smug in my direction, even so much as to stick out her tongue at me. At least until the pegasus pointed his gun at her. “Both of you. Now.” Siren’s smugness vanished instantly. “Excuse me?” she questioned, as he gestured towards her again. “I just told you I’m an Overseer, you don’t get to go making demands of me! Unless you want to be demoted to test subject when we get back to the Stable!” “Hooves on the wall, dammit!” the pegasus snapped, rushing forward and grabbing Siren’s head in a hoof. She froze immediately as he pushed her to the ground, hoof on her neck as he threatened to squish down on her. “You wouldn’t be the kind to remember, would you?” he sighed. “You don’t even know him, do you? Do you remember his name even?” Siren looked at the stallion in a mixture of fear and confusion, shaking her head as he leveled his gun at her. After a second he kicked her in the stomach and gestured at the wall I was standing against. “Get your hooves on the wall now,” he hissed, and this time Siren was quick to comply. She stared at me though, eyes pleading for me to do something to help her. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at her sudden change in demeanor, but it was all I could do to not return the panicked look. I didn’t have the slightest idea what we could do to save ourselves here. I heard the radio in the armor buzzing, somepony was talking to the soldier here, but I couldn’t make out the words. His response was clear enough: “No signs yet com, just a bunch of groundlings,” he said plainly, even as he gestured his gun towards us. He then switched off his radio and focused back on us. “Well whoever YOU are,” he gestured towards me, “no hard feelings, but I can’t exactly go back to the Stable with a witness.” I looked down and shut my eyes as I heard the weapon charge again. I felt my thoughts running back to my last execution not too far back, but instead of feeling the same fear or hope for peaceful silence as then, I couldn’t help but notice that I kept ending up in life-ending situations. “How many more am i gonna need to deal with?” I muttered. As it turned out, the answer was more than I had. The sound of metal rending against metal and the pained scream of the soldier filled the air instead of the blast I’d expected. I dared to turn and look, just in time to see Arkangel’s tail tear back out of the soldier’s armor as his victim fell to the ground, dead. “Ark thank Celestia I thought we were done for.” Ark gave me a curt nod as Siren turned around and stared at the corpse on the ground. Ark moved closer to her, but she kept her eyes down. “He...wanted me dead…” “At this point, who doesn’t?” Ark muttered, turning and walking back out the door with no further hesitation. He surely expected we would follow, but Siren kept staring at the corpse for a moment until I gently put a hoof on her shoulder. I pulled her away gently, taking her lead as she slowly followed us back to the front of the shop. Siren suddenly pulled me aside and held me against the wall. “Storm don’t you get it? I’m at risk out here...ponies can and will try to kill me. I can’t...I’m not used to this, I can’t take this pressure! You have to help me!” I couldn’t help but glance at her with a little annoyance at how quick she’d flipped to begging for help, and to raise the point I simply showed her the hoof she’d bitten, enough to make it bleed I realized. “Okay okay, but I thought I didn’t have a choice! I’m sorry, I panicked!” “This isn’t just panic, Siren,” I sighed. “You do this every time.” “And it’s wrong, I know. I’m sorry...look, just get me back to the Stable, as soon as you can. I promise…” Siren didn’t get a chance to keep talking, as suddenly a golden streak slammed into her head. She collapsed in an instant as Ark sighed, shaking his helmeted head and turning away from her. “Ark are you nuts! You’re going to kill her with that, at this rate!” “She has a thick skull, she’ll be fine.” Ark didn’t even give me a second glance as he walked out of the shop. I hauled Siren onto my back and followed him, my anger at her dulled for just a moment. I understood her pain, but she’d tried betraying us far too many times for me to just trust her. Ark and I made it through to the next building over with no trouble, however I didn’t see the rest of our party anywhere. “Where’s Gunrunner and Vlyka?” I asked quietly as we hid, checking for any nearby enemies. “I thought it was with you,” Ark said simply. “Gun’s waiting at the southern wall for us.” He turned and kept walking, passing a couple that was about to flee from the sight of him. He didn’t even look in their direction, and I could tell they barely avoided running out into the street because of it. I smiled nervously at them as I passed and followed Ark towards the backdoor of the building. The southern wall was close by us, and thankfully seemed almost quiet. At least until we ran past another building on the street, and an odd voice rang out. “Well well well...whatcha got there, mate?” Ark skidded to a halt at the strange mare’s voice, cursing under his breath. He turned to face the new arrival, another pegasus in brown and red-striped power armor, stripped of some of its additional plating. She was resting on a semi-collapsed building, casually laying on a wood support in full armor, instantly reminding me of Telesthesia’s nonchalant nature. The helmet was bobbing unusually, like the operator was chewing something underneath it. “Redwood,” Ark sighed, “long time no see.” As I struggled to remember why the name sounded familiar, Redwood sighed and grumbled at Ark. “Three bucking years and that’s all you have to say?” She didn’t wait for a reply before she turned her attention to me. “And who might you be?” I was split between being angry at Redwood’s laid-back attitude, puzzled at what sounded almost like a Sidneighan accent, and terrified what she might do if she were an old associate of Ark’s. “I’m Fantastic Storm,” I stammered. Before I could think of anything else to say, a pop sounded from inside Redwood’s helmet. “Oh buck’s sake,” she grumbled, pulling her helmet off. There was a line of pink stuff stuck between her mouth and her helmet’s faceplate, I had to assume it’s what she’d been chewing before. “Really need to stop doing that, happens way too often,” she muttered as she tried to pull it off her helmet. She struggled for a minute, letting me see her tawny coat and black/red mane hanging down over her left eye. But as she finally scraped the last of the pink stuff off her helmet and popped it back in her mouth, she turned straight to me and pointed at Siren. “So, what’d Ark tell you about my sister there?” My heart froze in my chest as I suddenly remembered where I’d heard that name before. Siren had brought Redwood up a few times, but never mentioned she even had a sister…”You’ve got a lot of crimes to answer for,” Redwood said, staring straight at me with deep brown eyes. “Murder, kidnapping, sabotage, conspiracy against the overseers…” she said, tapping her foreleg with each count. I winced at each of them, but Redwood stayed calm in the face of it all. I stepped backwards worriedly, to my surprise Ark followed my lead as Redwood approached. “I should just kill you,” Redwood muttered, “but at this point I could do anything I want. So how about you just hand my sister over, and we forget all this ever happened, deal?” I was sorely tempted to take Redwood up on that offer, but I knew Ark would never let it fly. He needed Siren’s biometrics at least, and one pony wasn’t going to be enough to get him to change his mind. I glanced over at him to try and read his body language, only to spot Gunrunner hiding behind some nearby crates. I saw him readying his armor-disabling gun and tried to establish a knowing eye contact without Redwood spotting us. Thankfully Gunrunner nodded to me and pointed towards Redwood’s position. I didn’t respond, not wanting to tip Redwood off, but I tried to step a little off to Redwood’s left. If I could draw her attention away from Gun for a second, get him into a better angle to shoot from his shoddy cover and embarrassingly bad hiding place. But Redwood was too focused on Ark to notice me moving. “Three years, Ark,” she said with a sad smirk on her face. “Three years, no messages, no visits...nothing. You’re lucky I haven’t moved on…” I couldn’t help but stop, tensely looking at Siren on my back. Did Redwood know about Ark and Siren? Did Siren know about Ark and Redwood? And how had there been no contact for that long? “Nothing to say?” Redwood muttered, as she was suddenly slamming into Ark faster than I thought even he could have tracked. Arkangel fell on his back and rolled back on his hooves to block as Redwood lashed out at him; to my shock though, she quickly got the best of him and forced him down, laying on his stomach with a cool look on her face. I wanted to try and yell to encourage Ark to throw her off him, but I realized that she wasn’t even holding him down. They’d just...stopped. Redwood sighed and jumped off Arkangel again, pointing a weapon towards him. “Sorry, but I do have orders now. Hand over my sister, one chance, or I will kill both of you.” “Try it,” Ark snapped, lunging forward at Redwood. I expected her to block, so I was utterly shocked when I saw her armor glow with a flash of magic; her armor must have had the experimental teleport tech, since she reappeared right behind him and kicked him hard in the stomach. Ark stumbled and fell to one side, spinning to face her as he clutched his stomach from the impact. As he lined up to strike she vanished again, causing Ark to spin behind him again...too late, as she connected another hit on his shoulder, keeping the pressure on him. Ark was trying to keep up with her, but her teleporting armor had thrown him off… I took advantage of having Redwood’s focus off me and ran for Gunrunner’s hiding spot. He was staring at the fight, whistling each time Redwood’s armor teleported her to another attack angle. “Gunrunner, what the hell are you…” “Observing the armor’s capabilities, as am I.” I jumped and spun around, spotting Vlyka standing there, optics fixed on the fight. “And where the buck have you been?” I snapped at her, but Vlyka didn’t even blink. “Observing...observations complete. I suspect Arkangel’s chances of success are pulmetting.” I sighed but nodded. Gunrunner, however, was content to stare. “Gun!” I snapped, punching him in the shoulder. “Oww! Hey...oh right,” Gun said, shaking his head and setting his tech gun down on the crate in front of him. He aimed for a second and fired a shot right into Redwood’s back. She cried out in pain as her armor locked up. “Nailed her! Hah, try fighting now you-” Redwood’s armor started clicking for a second, and she turned towards us with a nasty grimace on her face. Gunrunner turned pale and tossed the weapon towards me. “That was him,” he muttered, hastily jabbing a hoof at me. Redwood charged straight at us, smashing through the crates. Unfortunately for her, Vlyka had stayed put instead of running like Gun and I had. Her metal frame was tough enough to handle Redwood crashing into her, Vlyka’s hoof coming and striking her in the chest. Redwood gasped and lashed out with a hoof, but Vlyka’s machine reflexes were faster. She blocked the hoof and locked it down with one grip, smashing a leg into Redwood’s stomach before throwing the armored mare over her shoulder. Redwood landed roughly on her back, and before she could fight Vlyka’s hoof wrapped tight around her neck. I couldn’t help but smirk, thinking Redwood was certainly regretting keeping her helmet off now! Vlyka held Redwood down, stifling her air supply as her thrashing grew less intense. Redwood gasped and coughed, trying her hardest to break Vlyka’s hold, but without her armor’s help Redwood couldn’t overpower Vlyka’s servos. She looked just about ready to fade out of consciousness when Vlyka’s grip loosened, just a little. Redwood choked for air, gasping desperately, but Vlyka didn’t take her hooves off her prey, not even as Gunrunner approached and put a pistol to Redwood’s head. “Alright, you’ve had your fun. Now out of that tin can, now, and I’ll call off the robohound,” he snapped. Both Vlyka and Redwood glared at him, but only Redwood spoke. “Or what, you’ll…” Gunrunner put the barrel of his pistol to her forehead. She grimaced and stared defiantly at him for a moment, before sighing and pressing a button on her shoulder. The armor cracked open and Vlyka let go finally, letting Redwood step out of the armor and put her hooves clear where Gun could see them. “Happy now?” she snapped, turning slowly to show us she wasn’t hiding any weapons on her black under-armor stocking. “And your plan for me is…” “She comes with us.” Ark said, trotting to Redwood and kicking her armor away. To my surprise Redwood looked only mildly annoyed as she nodded at Ark. “You’re kidding, right?” Gunrunner muttered, but a glare from Ark’s visor shut both of our objections up in a hurry. The only thing that we heard was the sound of Siren groaning on my back. “Would it kill you lot to stop hitting me in the head?” she whined, rubbing her hoof to her forehead as she slid off my back. Redwood only laughed. “Well I thought it’d have a chance to knock some sense into you, sis.” Siren stiffened immediately and looked up, glaring. “And what the fuck is she doing here?!” Siren snapped, as Redwood only rolled her eyes and sighed. “I dunno, I thought you’d be happy that your little sis went out into the wasteland to save your sorry flank.” Siren only spat at Redwood, who stood straight up and stared back indignantly. “Well buck you too then,” she muttered, turning away in frustration. “At least mother’s not embarrassed of me.” Siren leapt a surprising distance and clocked Redwood in the face, stunning all of us for a moment as Siren started wailing on her. Redwood started blocking Siren’s blows, only for Ark’s tail to come between them and throw them both back. “Enough, both of you!” he snapped, as I grabbed Siren before she leapt back in. “Do we really need to keep you to separated here?” Siren froze. “Wait...she’s coming with us?” She looked petrified for a second, only glancing at Redwood as she smirked a little. Siren looked at Ark in a mixture of horror and sadness. “But...why?” “Because it gives me another chance to get what I need,” he said. “And if either of you act up, I can kill one of you and still get in.” Siren winced at his words, Redwood looked over in mild shock but continued to run with it. I myself was stunned to silence...was Ark kidding? By now I couldn’t tell, and that worried me more than anything else. “And for now, Siren stays with Storm, Redwood with Gun. Keep them apart.” Redwood stayed perfectly still as Gunrunner tied a leash around her neck, looking not the least bit perturbed by her current situation. “Might wanna tie my wings too,” she said, “in the spirit of good faith. I’m not like that hooved emu,” she said with a slight smirk, pointing right at Siren. Siren, for her part, tried to run at Redwood, but I grabbed her leash and pulled her back before she could cause harm. I couldn’t tell why Redwood was so calm now, but it just unnerved me. “Speaking of trusting,” Ark muttered, turning back to Siren. “Want to explain how the entire Stable knew where we were?” Siren looked awkwardly away from him, but I could tell what Ark was implying. I turned to my Pipbuck and activated my tag, the map refocusing on my position. I could clearly see both Ark and Siren’s tags on the map, as well as most of the retrieval force coming to surround us. I sighed and turned the tag off again as Ark raised his tail. “Giving you two options,” he hissed, grabbing Siren’s Pipbuck’d hoof and twisting it behind her, causing her to yelp in pain. “Disable your tag and lock your Pibuck, or I take the leg off.” Siren gasped as she tried to speak, Ark letting his grip go just a bit. “You’re crazy! I...you want me alive out here, you cutting off my leg will almost surely cause me to bleed to death out here!” “Well, now I have Redwood. So I don’t really need you alive anymore.” Siren’s face turned very pale all of a sudden. “And as a plus side, I only need your DNA. I’m sure that bot’s got some way to store your genetic code if I need it, and it’s a lot easier to get to listen.” Vlyka looked at Ark, offended, but when I glanced at her she turned away as though disinterested. I shook my head, still trying to figure out just how much emotional capacity she had. “I think I could modify my coolant system to store some of her genetic code for a few days, if necessary,” she said simply. “Maybe a week, assuming conditions remain tolerable.” “See Siren?” Ark replied. “You’re now expendable. So if you want to get through this alive I expect you to make the right choice. Now.” Siren whimpered in fear and nodded. “Okay, okay…” Ark let go of her hoof and Siren raised her leg up. “Take it, lock it, break it anything. Better my hoof than a stupid machine.” I heard Vlyka’s servos twitch again at Siren’s careless comment, but I didn’t need to look this time. I heard her stand up and walk somewhere to the left as Ark gruffly took Siren’s Pipbuck and started flipping through settings. As Siren turned her head away, Gun came close to me with a bemused whistle. “Well...this sure got interesting fast.” I could only nod, wondering just what the hell was coming next for us. “Think he was serious?” “We’ll have to see…” I muttered, watching as Ark finished and let go of Siren’s hoof. The screen turned orange with a lockpad over it, she wasn’t getting into her Pipbuck’s systems any time soon. “But right now I think we gotta go. I saw a lot of targets on the way.” Arkangel nodded to me and turned to walk off, Gunrunner taking Redwood off after him. Siren however stood silently, staring at the ground and shaking. I couldn’t help but feel a little bad for her despite all the stress she’d put me through, so I carefully set a wing down on her back. “It’s going to be alright,” I whispered, “just trust me.” She looked at me with a little anger in her eye, but not enough to cover the worry. “You make that really hard,” she muttered. I was about to reply about how she didn’t make it easy to trust her, but Vlyka tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to Ark, looking impatiently back at us. I sighed and looked at the horizon ahead of us. “To Manehattan it is, then.” Author's Note Footnote: Level up New Perk: Nerves of Steel --- 20% faster AP regeneration. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout Equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) (Redwood’s accent is supposed to be an Australian accent) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56 Starlight FactoryFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 7: By Fallen Sentinel “I remember when you could walk the streets without fear but now we can’t walk down the road without a zebra striking from the shadows” Manehattan was still over a day’s worth of travel away, and already the last rays of sunlight piercing the thick clouds above were fading away. At least so far there were no signs of us being followed: we hadn’t seen another pegasus since Rock Point. This time our trick with Siren and Redwood’s Pipbucks seemed to have worked. But that wasn’t what surprised me the most. I’d been listening to the radio for any news on the attack, but nopony even mentioned Rock Point to begin with, not even DJPon3. We were still close enough that Rock Point’s local stations were available and not even they were talking about it! I could only guess the Stable had paid off their survivors or something. I wasn’t even sure it mattered, though the thought of the retrieval team moving across the wastelands completely unreported was a little worrisome. “More like an army mobilizing,” I muttered, shaking my head in frustration. If they had those kinds of resources to go after us and could be relatively silent moving, we were in serious trouble. As I mulled over our situation, a single droplet hit my face. I looked up to see the clouds overhead darkening, more than just the oncoming night. “Uh, guys, it’s about to rain,” I muttered. Ark didn’t seem to care at all, but Gunrunner started to look around the horizon. “Guess we should find some place to bunk down for the night,” he replied, spreading his wings and taking to the skies. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten that Redwood was still leashed to him. I was about to yell for Gun to stop, but Redwood was faster; Gunrunner was no more than a pony’s height off the ground before Redwood’s teeth grabbed the leash and yanked him back to the ground. “Did ya forget we were attached?” she growled, glaring at Gunrunner as he glared right back at her, hovering just above the ground. He huffed and tossed Redwood’s lead to me before launching back into the air to go scouting. “Didn’t we talk about keeping these two seperate?” I muttered under my breath, grabbing Redwood’s leash before she got any smart ideas. But as I watched Gunrunner start circling, widening his ring with each pass, I kept a close enough eye on Redwood and Siren, who made no effort to talk to one another. In fact, they were pulling as far apart as they could on their leashes as we walked forward, trying to keep pace with Ark as he started to trot faster. I glanced over at Vlyka, hoping that talking to a robot would be less awkward than talking to either of the mares tied to my hoof, but she was buried deep in some process in her processor and only just attentive enough to walk without help. So I sighed and glanced back at Siren, dropping my pace down to come alongside her. “So…” I muttered, only for Siren to sigh irritably at me. “We could have run, you know,” she hissed at me, making my ears droop back. “Why didn’t we just run?” I glanced forwards at Ark to see if he’d heard anything, but if he had he didn’t react to it. I looked at Siren and cast a significant glance at Ark again as if to tell her exactly why, but she only shook her head and looked away in irritation. I sighed in frustration and kept trying to talk to her. “Siren I know, I know you want to get back home, and so do I. But I think that the more we fight Ark the longer it’s going to take. If we just help him finish this stupid quest of his, we can leave without any problems.” Redwood snickered, and sighed rather knowingly. “Yeah, once you’ve got no further use to him, he just up and leaves you.” Siren shot a dirty glance at Redwood, but sighed and drooped again. “You really think he’ll just let us go alive? You heard him back there, he was set to kill me now that he’s got somepony else who can do what he needs.” “Now why does that sound familiar?” I couldn’t help but wonder aloud, although Siren raising her eyebrow and gesturing towards her Pipbuck wiped the smile off my face pretty quickly. I turned my head away, mildly insulted and biting my tongue from adding “well you are being a personal nuisance to him, and the rest of us too.” But as I tried to rein in my indignation another thought crossed my mind. “What was that earlier too, about your wings?” Siren gasped, turning her head and stammering. “Look, that’s a complicated thing, I really don’t want to go-” she began, but as her wings flexed reflexively I couldn’t help but be curious. A little too curious, really, as I reached out and grabbed one of her wings, unfurling it as far as it would go as I went in closer to investigate for any deformities. Siren yelped in shock and froze up for a moment, before her wing smacked me in the face and retracted quickly to her side. “What the buck is wrong with you?!” she bellowed, leaping back as far as her leash would allow her. “I didn’t say you could touch me you sicko!” I stared incredulously at Siren for a moment, eyes darting to the rope leash running to her neck. I figured most ponies would have had second thoughts about that kind of reaction in her situation, but Siren was just as indignant as ever. I sighed and admitted to her point, not keen to make things more difficult between her and myself if I could help it. “Alright then...do you mind if I touch your wings?” Siren shot me a dirty, but slightly curious glance, and I smirked back at her. “You could touch mine too, if you want.” At that Siren blushed and turned her face away from me again. I heard a snicker from my other side and turned to see Redwood laughing at her sister’s embarrassment. What had happened between these two, they just seemed content to hate each other’s guts on sight! As I glanced back in Siren’s direction, sighing with frustration, my eyes caught sight of Vlyka’s head turned back towards us. She’d finally noticed something was going on, and I was almost tempted to ask Vlyka to interfere, hold Siren down or scan for anomalies in her wings...but I shook my head at the thought of it. I felt things were on a razor’s edge all around, I just needed to swallow my curiosity and let Siren calm down a little. “Fine,” Siren grumbled. I looked at her as she held her wing out slightly towards me. “But touch, that’s all, understand?” I nodded and stepped closer, trying to not push her if I could help it after she was already bending enough to satisfy my curiosity. I gently pulled Siren’s wing out and brushed my hoof through her feathers, trying to listen if Siren’s squeaks of discomfort got worse as I looked at her. Her feathers themselves were disorderly, though considering I hadn’t exactly preened myself in the last few days I hardly blamed her for that. But there was something odd about how her wing felt, almost too light even for pegasi wings. I gently pressed my hoof down on one of her major bones, only to feel it shift ever so slightly. Even the hollow bones of a pegasi shouldn’t feel that squishy. “Siren, your...are your bones soft?” Siren yanked her wing out of my grip and turned her head away from me. “It was an accident, when I was younger,” she huffed, sitting back and looking up towards the sky. “My sister and I, well we borrowed our friend’s power armor for...just stupid things,” she said, smiling upwards at the sky as she remembered what I could only assume were better times. Redwood chuckled. “Oh yeah, you sure won the award for idiotic ideas from that one.” Siren’s eyes flared as she glared straight at Redwood. “You were the one who didn’t have to listen to me!” she snapped, jabbing a hoof at her sister. “You’re the idiot who threw that plasma grenade!” The sisters glared at each other for a second before Siren’s eyes teared up ever so slightly, prompting her to stare right into my eyes for a moment. She sighed in frustration, but kept talking. “We snuck onto a test range and got the live ammo, I wanted to show them how brave I was...I told Redwood to throw the plasma grenade at me. But I didn’t know how strong it would be..it melted through the armor, and my wing, before we could even do anything. By the time somepony managed to help me half of my side was burned, the wing was just gone…” As Siren spoke I inched around her and started prodding her right wing, something she seemed too drawn into her story to notice. Indeed the bones in her right wing felt normal like her story would have suggested. “So...what happened?” I asked. “Well the unicorns managed to save me, heal my body,but my wing was just gone...I lived for two years without this.” She flexed her left wing. “Same pony that made that,” she said, pointing at Ark, who seemed completely uninterested n the conversation. “They promised me a new wing, good enough to fly with. Never managed it, but at least I got a display one…” As Siren took a moment to stare at her apparently fake wing, the rain around us grew heavier and heavier. Thankfully Gunrunner returned then and landed right in front of us. “There’s a building up ahead, pretty large and uninhabited as far as I could tell. Should be good to camp.” He glanced over at Siren, who was actually smiling slightly as she glanced off into nothingness. Gunrunner noticed and laughed. “Well, you sure change your mood quickly,” he said, before waving us towards his scouted location. We all turned to follow him, but Siren pulled me aside as we were about to head off. “Just so you know, I probably can fly,” she whispered. “But I get nervous trusting...this.” She flexed her left wing as it caught the leash leading to her collar. “Gah...are you sure we can’t work out some better alternative to this thing?” I almost debated muttering to her about half a dozen other options I’d had by now, but I kept my thoughts in order and shook my head. “None I can think of.” We made it into the building just before it really started pouring outside, though Vlyka still was grumbling about the risk of short-circuiting as she hurried to cover. I glanced around a little bit and realized we were in some kind of factory, a surprisingly sturdy structure of brick and broken glass that must have been held up for a while. The walls were black with age, even in what seemed to be the reception area we’d entered through. We each took a few moments to dry off before we started to explore further inside. Just past the reception area there was a four-way corridor, leading to a stairwell, the main factory floor and a small room respectively. Ark and Gunrunner headed for the factory floor, taking Redwood with them, while Vlyka had deciphered the word “office” pointing towards the stairwell and went to investigate. Siren and I went towards the small room for lack of a better option, looking around what we started to think was an old break room; wood furniture mostly rotted away, the benches and walls stained with whatever liquids they had acquired since they were last cleaned. I looked over at Siren, only to see her looking bored as ever. “What do you think they were making here before the bombs fell?” She glanced around the room and shrugged. “Well I can’t say for sure,” she muttered, sniffing at the air. I sniffed too, only to gag at the rotten stench emanating from somewhere. It seemed like it was a nearby door, and as I went to investigate it I almost immediately regretted it. The door was almost rotted through, though it still took a solid yank to pull it open. But that wasn’t the only thing that came at me: the skeleton of a pony fell out afterwards. I leapt backwards to avoid it, Siren letting out a startled shriek, as the skeleton smashed into the floor and broke apart. Tearing my eyes away from that horrifying sight, I glanced inside to see a few more pony bodies lying near the door, seemingly piled up in a desperate attempt to escape. Some others were huddled together in what must have been a desperate grab for comfort in their last moments, right before the bombs went off. Just to add misery to the whole situation, there was a faded banner hanging above the scene of horror, and I could just make out what it said up there: “Happy birthday.” I shook my head and looked at the table, wondering which of the rotted foods on the table had probably been a birthday cake. But Siren looked again at the door as I gawked at the horror. “Storm look, this lock...it’s engaged.” I glanced over and saw she was right: the bolt was sticking fully out of the door, the frame had splintered when I’d yanked it instead. “Somepony locked them inside,” said Siren. I looked at her, the two of us staring in horror at one another. Who would have done this, who would have locked these ponies in to die while the world had exploded? “I don’t like it here,” Siren murmured, rubbing her hoof anxiously, “can we go somewhere else?” I was quick to agree with her and we turned to hurry out of the break room, though despite my efforts I knew I wouldn’t be forgetting what I’d seen in there for a while. I was hopeful that something in the office might change what my mind was focusing on right now. Vlyka was busy with her head down, practically buried inside a still-functional terminal. I was curious why she wasn’t trying to directly interface with it, wondering if she even could, but as I watched her she looked up at the two of us. “Find anything?” I asked her. “According to the remaining records,” she replied, “it seems this used to be a weapons factory.” Well that was getting somewhere at least, now we knew what they were doing. “Although it seems like it was scheduled for demolition before the last record was logged.” “Well that’s...odd,” I muttered, as Vlyka stood from her terminal and shifted over to the next one. I walked closer and let Siren start trying to access another, choosing to go for any remaining cabinets myself as we continued to search. I was admittedly a little disappointed to only find some well-rotted scraps of paper and a few bobby pins in a drawer. I sighed but took the pins anyways, fiddling with one because I was bored. Siren snapped me out of my boredom however by whispering something. “ORDIS Mk5?” I glanced at her in confusion as she gestured for me to join her. I trotted over and started reading what she’d found. Good Morning Management Today we have the special privilege of designing and manufacturing a new type of power armour that will be distributed to special forces that cannot be named. I know; shocker, right? Anyhow we’re getting representatives of the military in some time today to inspect the staff and conditions of the factory. You will instruct the staff that they may not breathe a word about their new projects; say that we are still manufacturing ranger weaponry, as a cover. For some reason they want to call it ORDIS Mk5 so make sure that’s in your notes. Now here comes the interesting part. We will actually be competing with other companies for the design. Guess what the material is? Starmetal. Yep that’s right Starmetal will be in this factory, if we manage to win this contract then we will have more Starmetal than we need to make the new armour. The extra could be used for our own projects which in turn could raise your pay rates. Don’t mess this up: we’ve only got one chance to put a good impression on these guys. If we don’t get the contract then I suggest you start looking for employment elsewhere. -WarBucks --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “What the heck is Ordis?” I asked. Siren replied by grabbing my shoulders and shaking me slightly. “That’s not important! Storm, there was Starmetal, here in this factory!” she gasped. She’d lost her cool entirely, extremely excited all of a sudden that her eyes were practically glistening. “We have to find it Storm, come on!” Siren turned to run out the door but I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. “Siren wait, do you really think it’s here?” Siren glanced at me, her hopeful expression hanging in an instant. “Let’s be realistic here, do you think it’s really still here? If you know it’s so important, wouldn’t somepony else know?” Siren’s face fell further. “And look at this place, it looks like it’s already been…” My words trailed off as I watched the disappointment spread on Siren’s face. It was too much to look at, I felt so terrible for how fast she was dropping that I had to relent. “Well...there’s a chance not all of it was taken…” “Then we’d better hurry and find any that’s left!” Siren perked up almost immediately, hurrying for the doorway. I followed her without hesitation, hoping that if I was right she wouldn’t be too depressed that we didn’t find any starmetal. As we approached the four-way intersection Siren started thinking out loud. “If I were an idiot, where would I store something that precious...somewhere near the factory floor I bet,” she smirked and turned to hurry down the appropriate corridor. As we approached however, we began to hear some loud, mechanical grinding from up ahead. Siren stopped dead and facehoofed with frustration. “What the hell are those morons doing now?” she muttered, before resuming her run forwards with me right behind her. “Lift there!” I heard from just around a nearby doorway. “Don’t pull the whole thing, it’s not gonna work!” As we stepped inside I heard the sound of metal grinding from somewhere further ahead. The only problem was the catwalk had fallen down at some point, leaving a gap that was too far to step over or even jump. “It’s not gonna come off if you keep doing that!” Curious at what was going on, I spread my wings and flapped off the metal, almost entirely forgetting that Siren wasn’t a confident flier. I remembered just in time and glanced back at her, as she sprawled herself on the catwalk quivering in fear. “What’s wrong?” I asked her. Siren looked at the gap below and shrunk backwards from it. “Well...since I can’t fly and all it’s just…” she turned her head away from me as she spoke quickly, almost too quickly for me to catch. “I’m afraid of heights.” I couldn’t help but facehoof as I sighed with frustration. “You’re not kidding, are you?” I muttered, as Siren shook her head. “A pegasus, afraid of heights?” “I. Can’t. FLY.” Siren hissed at me, as I rolled my eyes and landed next to her. “How about you be so fearless when your wing might just give out over a spike pit!” “Okay okay,” I raised a hoof between us, “take it easy. Here, hop on my back, I’ll get us over.” Siren stared at me for a moment before sighing and hopping up behind my saddlebag, wrapping her forelegs around my neck. “Just hang on tight, ok?” “Uh wait wait I changed my-” Siren began, but I had already spread my wings and leapt into the air. Siren’s legs squeezed tighter at my throat and an ear-piercing shriek emanated from her mouth, directly behind my ear. I almost lost my focus and fell into the pit below, but I managed to land hard on the other side, jarring Siren loose as she clattered onto the catwalk beside me. I was busy trying to regain my sense of hearing when both Gun and Ark appeared from the doorway, weapons drawn and ready to attack. But as they spotted us they both holstered their weapons, Gun staring at Siren with a bemused look on his face. “What, see a rat?” he asked. “No, worse,” I replied. “A three foot gap.” Siren kicked my leg as she stood up indignantly, huffing at me as she trotted after Ark, who had already turned around to head back into the next room. Though right as Gunrunner pushed past her and I came up beside her, she put a hoof out to stop me. “Thank you,” she sighed, looking right at me. I blinked in shock as she turned back to walking, surprised by her civility all of a sudden. Was I making progress with her finally? I shook my head and changed my focus, glancing around the room. It was what must have been a nice office back in its day, probably for the administrator or something. There was a massive wooden desk atop an old red rug, with a set of bookshelves up against the back wall. Redwood was busying herself spinning in a nearby chair that looked about ready to fall apart, but she didn’t seem the least bit concerned, only flashing Siren a bemused smirk as the sisters locked eyes. Siren glowered back at her and turned her focus away. I shrugged and looked at Ark as he tried to get his tail behind a bookshelf on the other side of the room. “What exactly are you two doing anyways? We heard you way down the hall.” Both Gun and Ark looked at me for a second. “Well, Gunrunner thinks that there’s something behind this bookshelf,” said Ark, as he grabbed the side with a hoof and strained to pull it off. Remarkably, it didn’t move. “But it will. Not. Budge!” he said as he strained to yank it aside, to no avail. I decided to glance around the room for any kind of computer that might still work, clearly something needed to be unlocked. There was an old desk sitting in the corner, probably once a pretty nice one but by now it was way past its prime. The drawers had long since been looted, except for one that was locked at the far bottom right of the desk, but there was still a terminal sitting atop it waiting for a password. I glanced at it, attracting Siren’s attention as I tried to tick off a few words that might be made by the code wheels I was seeing. However Siren went straight to guessing words and entering them. I was about to stop her, until when she reached only one attempt remaining she quickly powered down the terminal, rebooting it with all her tries available again. Impressed by her ingenuity I watched as she cycled through a few words, rebooting the terminal twice before she hit upon the right word: “Corporational”. As the terminal opened to its main page, it displayed three seperate tabs: Facility Controls, Journal, and something that had been corrupted with age. “Maybe we can unlock things from there,” I said, pointing at the facility controls, but Siren went straight for the journal instead. What met us was nothing but a blank folder. “What?! Oh come on!” Siren snapped, smashing her hoof into the desk in frustration. Ark and Gun glanced over at us, though Siren didn’t seem to notice they were staring. “All that work for nothing?! Agh!” she growled, glancing up and finally noticing all of us staring at her. She glanced down sheepishly and, with a little prod from my hoof, she tapped on the controls tab. The page turned to three tabs again, for different areas of the facility; the factory floor, the office, and the staff areas. Glancing over at the bookshelf Siren tapped on the office tab, only for it to come up entirely empty. We all sighed in disappointment as Siren backed out and checked the other two tabs. Ark and Gun turned back to prying the bookshelf off the wall while Siren looked through the other tabs, only to find they were both empty too. “I don’t get it,” said Siren, glancing around the back of the terminal in confusion. “Who would wipe a perfectly good piece of hardware like this?” She sighed and slumped back in the chair. “This is why we can’t learn anything about the past, you know,” she muttered, staring at me and gesturing to the terminal with a hoof. I couldn’t help but smirk a little as Siren continued to pout, fiddling with the terminal screen as though it would magically restore the missing data. I instead went to look at the locked drawer below. It appeared to be a sturdy enough metal, locked so tight that whatever looter had been here couldn’t break it open; there were enough scratches on the lock to tell me they’d tried. Taking a closer look at the keyhole, it seemed pretty intact and functional, though I guessed the key was well hidden or long gone by now. “Anypony know how to get this open?” I asked, only to be met with silence. Nopony said anything, the only sound in the room the rusted squeak of Redwood’s chair as she continued to spin. “Seriously, nopony?” I turned around in surprise as Siren hopped out of the chair and raised a hoof to her mane. As she pulled her hoof free part of her mane fell loosely towards the ground, having been held up by a bobby pin she now had in her hoof. She leaned closer to the drawer and extended another hoof to Gunrunner. “Screwdriver” she demanded. Gun looked taken aback for a second, but after a moment started digging in his saddlebag while Siren waited with her hoof waving slightly. She finally sighed and rolled her eyes. “Left pocket, other bag,” she grumbled, “or do you not bother keeping that thing organized?” Gun looked offended at Siren, but checked his other bag and moments later produced the screwdriver. He gave it to her, shooting her a look somewhere between embarrassment and anger, as I simply marveled at how Siren remembered that from her escape attempt. Siren meanwhile grabbed the screwdriver without further acknowledgement of Gun and began working on the lock, flicking her mane out of her face as it fell in front of her eye. As Siren twisted the bobby pin and screwdriver in the lock, Gun pulled me aside and whispered in my ear. “If she keeps this up we might need more than a collar.” I couldn’t help but nod, watching Siren until I heard something snap. I was about to rejoice at progress, but Siren pulled the snapped bobby pin out of the lock. “Buck,” she said, slouching with defeat. I felt defeated too, only to remember that I had just grabbed some bobby pins downstairs. I offered the whole collection to her, Siren’s eyes lighting up as she took them greedily and went straight back to work jimmying the lock open. It took her two pins, but finally there was a distinctive “click” and the drawer slid open easily. Siren backed up and refitted her mane with the pin she’d been using, watching as I looked inside the drawer. Inside there were three books, a few pens, a single bullet for some unnerving reason, a pipbuck, and a small button hooked into the back of the drawer. Siren’s eyes lit up and reached for the pipbuck, but Ark’s tail lurched forwards and stopped her hoof, making her back up in fright. “Don’t even think about it,” he hissed, taking the pipbuck. Siren huffed and picked the books up to look at them closer as Ark turned to me. “Just in case we need it,” he said as he hoofed the pipbuck over. I nodded and put it in my saddlebag, watching Siren carefully before she got any ideas of digging through my bag to find it. Ark meanwhile went back to the drawer and hit the button without hesitation. Thankfully, it seemed to be what we were looking for, as the bookcase lurched slightly to the side. Then it began to creep along the wall, a loud metallic groaning filling the room as rusted metals pulled the bookcase aside and letting us see the room beyond. It was a narrow hallway leading to what must have been a panic room, complete with a comfortable looking bed, a fridge, a second terminal, a table and two chairs, a stove, and of course your traditional skeleton piled up in the corner. I winced at seeing the skeleton, wondering just how long whomever this had been survived in this room. Looking past that horror, I had to wonder why the single bulb light in the ceiling was still working despite any obvious electricity. Predictably, Gunrunner had already started poking around for things to loot, Redwood apparently interested enough now to join him. Siren was still nose-deep in the books, carefully flipping the old pages, leaving Arkangel and myself to approach the table and it’s unusual bearings; an armored helmet. I’d seen plenty of armor designs before, but I had to admit this was probably one of the most interesting, even graceful armor I had ever seen. It was a heavy plating, but was designed gracefully smooth with a surface almost like jet-black marble, and each plate was angled just so to ricochet most projectiles clear of the face. Oddly enough, there didn’t seem to be any slits for the eyes or even a visor, leading me to question how you were supposed to see out of it. “Wow,” I muttered, staring at the helmet for a few moments. But I realized that Ark had barely moved from the tableside, staring intently at the helmet and completely locked up. “Uh, Ark?” I asked hesitant. “You ok? What’s up?” Ark shook his head slowly and glanced at me after a few more seconds. “Just...it reminds me of something.” He picked the helmet up and tilted it in his hoof, before turning to me. “Here, you wear it. Might give you a little protection.” I took the helmet a little hesitantly, just realizing I hadn’t considered wearing any head protection despite the alarming number of firefights we’d already been in. I had never pictured myself with a helmet, but I finally shrugged at my own concerns and carefully lifted it towards my head. It was amazingly light in my hoof, yet felt sturdy and comfortably padded as I set it down on my skull. It was a tad too large for my head, but as it slid into place the helmet shifted slightly, small motors confining the helmet just enough to resize it to my head. I lifted it gently to be sure I could still get out, only to realize I was completely in the dark; whatever I was supposed to use to see was not working. I ran a hoof along the jawline, looking for a switch, only for Ark to jump in. “Hold still,” he said, as I heard him move behind me. His hoof hit something in the back of the helmet, which clicked and started to buzz for a moment. Multiple pink hexagons flashed in front of my eyes, one by one as it seemed like the helm was booting, before my entire vision was obscured with pink hexagons. They vanished one after another, revealing the world beyond the helm in surprisingly crisp detail. “Wow, this thing is incredible,” I said, turning my head to see how the view responded to motion; the image refreshed quick enough I didn’t notice any delay. I did however spot some kind of HUD appearing in the corner of my vision. ORDIS - MK5.9 HELMET/P ACQUIRED INITIALIZING MISSING COMPONENTS ORDIS - MK5.9 TORSO ORDIS - MK5.9 RIGHT FORELEG ORDIS - MK5.9 LEFT FORELEG ORDIS - MK5.9 WING ARMOUR/B ORDIS - MK5.9 RIGHT HINDLEG/S ORDIS - MK5.9 LEFT HINDLEG/S I glanced at the list of missing parts, peeking around the room for any signs of the rest of the armor set. I could only hope we’d run across them soon. CANNOT ACCESS AUTO MED SYSTEMS { TORSO REQUIRED } CANNOT ACCESS AUTO REGEN SYSTEM { TORSO REQUIRE } CANNOT ACCESS POWER HOOVES { LEG ARMOUR REQUIRED } CANNOT ACCESS SHOCK ABSORBERS { LEG ARMOUR REQUIRED } ACTIVATING { SATS, EFS, COMPASS, AMMO COUNTER, STRUCTURE INTEGRITY, HEALTH DIAGNOSTIC } AVAILABLE SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL SERVE WELL As the systems of the armor activated, little indicators showed up in the HUD to show that they were running properly, the ammo counter somehow linking to my laser pistol and informing me I had five shots left. And while it was discouraging to see most of the armor set in the structure integrity window as just an outline, the fact that the helmet was glowing brightly on the pony model made me smile. “This thing is awesome,” I thought, glancing around at the others. Ark had made his way over to Siren, who tried to hide what she was reading from him, neither of them even casting a passing glance at me. I turned to the other side of the room and approached both Gunrunner and Redwood, still busy digging through cabinets for anything useful. I came right up behind Gun and tapped him on the shoulder to show off the new helmet. “Yeah, what do you want,” he replied, buried neck-deep in the cabinet. I tapped him harder, more urgently, prompting him to sigh and back his head out. “What?! I’m trying-holy!” he gasped, jumping when he saw me in my helmet. He looked me up and down before responding again. “That is you Storm, right?” I nodded, glad that the helmet obscured the smirk on my face. “You know you could give somepony a heart attack doing that right?” I could barely stop myself from laughing at that. “So what are you doing here?” I asked, trying to change the subject a little. “Looking for anything worth taking,” said Gun. “But it seems like the only thing worth a damn in here is that helmet,” he snapped, turning back to the cabinet and looking again. Just as I started feeling a little bad for Gun, I felt a hoof on the side of my helmet pushing it slightly, causing me to glance and see Redwood looking intently at the helm. “I swear I’ve seen this helmet before…” she said. “But I can’t figure out where.” Redwood came closer to me, making me a little uncomfortable and resist flinching backwards away from her. “Eh, maybe it’ll come to me later,” she said with a shrug, before turning to help Gun with looting again. That left only Siren to impress with the helmet...if she was even interested. I still had to try, so I turned back to her still buried in her books. I strolled up in front of her and stood right in her light, waiting for her to look up. “Go away, I’m reading,” she huffed, not even looking up. Undaunted, I lowered my head into her field of vision, prompting her to look up in annoyance...only for her face to shift abruptly. She jolted upright as she stared at me intently. “Where did you get that?!” she gasped, hooves on my helmet almost immediately. I was about to answer but she began twisting the helm to get a better look at it, turning my head in the process. “Storm, this helmet...it’s the starmetal! Do you have any idea the chances of finding even a gram of this stuff?!” I yanked my head free of her grip and stepped back a bit, leading Siren to slump in disappointment. “Well fine, be that way. Look,” she changed gears, pointing at the book. I leaned forwards to look at it as she turned the blue-bound book to me. “It’s a bunch of info on something they called the ORDIS program. I haven’t gotten too far yet,” she sighed, and as I glanced at the sheer thickness of the book I couldn’t blame her, “but from what I can tell it was them working on armor from another program.” Siren then flipped open a purple book and raised a pen from the drawer to make some note. “This one was empty, and the last one was just some stupid journal. At least I can take notes without my pipbuck now,” she grumbled, shooting Ark a dirty look from across the room. After she got her glaring in, Siren stood and gathered the three books, reaching for my side. I backed up a step and she sighed, rolling her eyes before speaking. “Storm, can you give me your saddlebag?” I immediately shook my head, worrying that she’d go right for the pipbuck. Thankfully Siren seemed to know better than to fight me and sighed. “Alright, can I put these in there then?” she asked, a little more politely but clearly still annoyed at my resistance. I finally nodded and turned my right side to her, letting her put the books in the opposite bag as the pipbuck. She stuffed the books away and turned back to the desk as I popped the helmet off. Despite its padding, I was more comfortable not wearing it all the time, and I tried to stuff it in the left pouch of my saddlebag partially to cover the pipbuck in case Siren went snooping. With Siren satisfied at our searching the desk, I took her lead and headed back to the main office. Vlyka had somehow joined us, I presumed her servos were just strong enough to let her jump the gap, and was currently busy listening to Arkangel as he talked quietly to her. Ark noticed us however and cut himself off abruptly, turning to Siren and myself as we walked closer. He took Siren’s lead from me and hoofed it to Vlyka. “Don’t let her go anywhere,” he said sternly, as Vlyka blinked at the lead. She took it with a little hesitation, and while I was busy realizing that Vlyka actually had working eyelids Ark grabbed me and almost dragged me into the opposite corner of the room. “We need to talk,” he said to me, as I found my hoofing again and walked beside him. “Figure out what to do with her,” he gestured towards Siren, who noticed his attention and shot him a dirty glance, “and Redwood tonight. Gunrunner!” he called, as the two of us entered the back room. Gun poked his head up from behind another cabinet door, looking a little frustrated as he shut it, shaking his head. “Yeah, what now?” he asked. “We need to plan how to control those mares tonight, I need ideas,” Ark said simply. At that Redwood was paying full attention, opening her mouth to say something witty as Ark grabbed her lead from Gunrunner and pointed out the door. “Go wait with Vlyka and Siren, no room for discussion.” Thankfully Redwood only looked mildly amused as she listened calmly to Ark’s instructions. As soon as Ark was comfortable she was out of earshot, he whispered to us again. “We’ve got to keep an eye on them, especially after last time…” At that I cast a shameful glance at the ground, staring at my hooves as I remembered how pissed Ark had been. We couldn’t let that happen again, especially since now we had twice the ponies to worry about. Gunrunner nodded thoughtfully, tapping a hoof to his chin for a second. “Well, we could always shoot her in the leg.” I winced, and Ark glared at Gunrunner. “We are absolutely not carrying her,” he snapped, causing Gun to back up a step. Thankfully Ark calmed down as Gun kept thinking. “Have the robot watch Redwood, pin her down. Little thing’s strong,” he suggested next, but Ark shook his head. “We don’t know how gullible Vlyka is yet...I don’t want to run the risk Redwood turns her on us. It’ll be easier if at least one of them can behave.” Gunrunner came up with one more idea as I sat there thinking. “What about lock them in here?” he asked, gesturing to the panic room around us. Unfortunately, Ark shook his head again. “Maybe, it seemed sealed, but there’s the chance one of them will find some way out.” “Not if they’re tied down.” I finally had an idea, one that Siren would hate me for. As the others looked at me I pointed to the bed in the corner. “If we tie Siren down on that, she’ll have to get free before she can try getting out.” Gunrunner nodded as he inspected the bed. “Should hold her. Then we just deal with Redwood, I think separated from her sis she won’t cause too much trouble.” Ark thought for a moment before nodding. “Seems like it’ll work. Gun,” he said. “Gun, you know what to do.” Gunrunner only nodded in reply. “You bucking perverts are all going to be executed when the stable finds us!” Siren shouted, thrashing in her bonds. Unsurprisingly, she wasn’t keen on our restraint plan, but as it had been both Gun and Ark against her she hadn’t exactly had a chance to rebuke us more than shouting. Gunrunner had just finished tying her forelegs to the bars at the head of the bed, her back legs already secured to the stands at the far end. I watched as Gun finished tightening the ropes around her foreleg, glancing at her wings tied down to her sides. I could only hope it wasn’t crushing her soft wing, as I couldn’t bring myself to speak up for her comfort. Gun smirked at Siren as he finished the knots. “Eh, just be thankful we didn’t come up with something worse,” he said, watching as Siren squirmed for a moment to see if anything would give. “Not like you’re in a position to resist, anyways,” he added, voice lowering a little as he rubbed his hoof across her stomach. She squirmed with displeasure as his hoof ran across her clothing, her face losing some of its angry edge giving in to worry. “Gunrunner!” At the cry both Gun and I spun around to see Ark standing in the doorway. “You’ve done your part. Leave her.” Gun glanced at me, then at Siren, who only glared back at him. “Sure, you’re the boss,” he said to Ark, hurrying for the exit with all possible speed. Ark turned after him and left as well, signalling for me it was time to go. “This was your idea, wasn’t it?” Siren growled. I froze in place and turned back to her. “Just...the only thing that came to mind,” I sighed, nodding. “Better than Gun wanting to shoot you in the leg, right?” I was met by a cold, hard glare of Siren’s anger. “Can I do something to make you comfortable?” Siren continued to glare at me, only for her eyes to catch my saddlebag after a few seconds. “Well...I guess if you’re going to offer, I didn’t get through that journal earlier.” I smiled softly and trotted over to her, digging the books out of my bag and setting them on her chest, only to be met by another glare. Sighing at my own stupidity I started to use the red book to prop up the blue. “No no, the red journal!” she hissed, making me stop. She really didn’t get the hang of being without power, but since her current situation was partially my fault I decided not to bite back and prop the journal up open on her stomach, sitting by her side and turning pages for a few minutes at her signal. None of it was particularly interesting me, I got bored after three pages worth of reading along, simply listening on autopilot for Siren to order the next page change as my eyes wandered. When nothing in the room caught my attention, I instead turned to Siren’s clothing. Her cloak had been removed, and I wasn’t all that familiar with her uniform; it was more of a trench coat like an officer would wear, confusing me a little. I almost thought it would be from her father or something, but it was patterned with roses, something I kind of doubted her father had been all that interested in. As I followed the stem of one of the roses, I found myself glancing less at her clothes and more at her body. She was quite a beautiful mare after all, her flank had a great curve and I could feel a hair of lust working its way through certain parts of my body. But I managed to restrain it for now by wondering about something else, particularly since I wanted to stay on her good side. “Siren, what is your cutie mark?” The question seemed to surprise Siren, who abruptly started staring at me. For a second she was puzzled, before she started scowling again. “Why are you staring at my flank! Bunch of perverts, all of you!” she growled, turning away from me again. I almost snapped back at her defensively, but again managed to hold myself in check to talk calmly. “It was just a question, I didn’t mean anything by it,” I replied, watching her face again. Siren stared away from me for a bit, her eyes occasionally darting back to me before pushing me out of sight again. “Next,” she finally demanded, and after a moment of silence I turned the page once more and let her keep reading. I tried to keep my eyes off her, trying to respect her at least a little after creeping her out like that. “It’s a rose,” she sighed finally. “Wow,” I replied. “What did you get that for?” Siren ignored the question entirely. “Next.” I however, wasn’t satisfied with her answer. “Storm, next. I said…” she looked frustrated at me, but I just stared back at her until her will melted away. “I don’t actually know, it was just...there, one day,” she sighed heavily. “My best guess is when I started blackmailing, bribing making other ponies disappear…” She bit her lip and looked at me, a sad smile on her face. “Guess every rose has thorns?” I looked into her eyes holding her gaze for longer than I’d done before, as she showed no signs of looking away either. Finally, I smiled softly at her and looked away, only to find the book and turn the page for her. Gunrunner eventually came back to give us some food; more bread and some water rations Ark had been carrying. “Hey Siren...sorry about earlier,” he muttered. “I was out of line.” Siren, for her part, huffed at him. “Maybe keep those thoughts in your head next time, merc,” she snapped, prompting Gun to growl angrily at her. He dropped her rations on the bed and turned away, muttering something about something in Siren’s head. Meanwhile I reached across Siren’s body and picked up the rations as Siren smirked, looking quite proud of herself for telling him off. “Alright Storm, get me untied so I can eat.” I just stared at Siren, as her face went from bemused to cross rather quickly. “Oh fine, just my forelegs then.” I shook my head slightly, making her look even angrier than before. “Storm, I’m not kidding here. Untie m--mhh!” she yelped, as I shoved a piece of bread into her mouth. “Just chew on that a bit,” I muttered, trying to smirk like I’d just delivered the best line ever. Siren looked at me, somewhere between angered and a flat “really?” in her eye as I sighed and shook my head. “Yeah that was just awful,” I muttered, taking a small bite myself. I just couldn’t eat though, leaving most of the rations for Siren to eat despite her barely tolerating the stuff to begin with. As I wasn’t feeling up to eating, I took the time to preen my wings, making sure that my feathers were clean and organized. I still had flashbacks to my parents teaching me, as I checked each feather to see if anything was unusually damaged from all the fighting. By the time I’d checked my wings out completely, I glanced up to see Siren staring at me. She looked a little sad, but when I met her eyes she quickly grew frustrated again and looked at the books. “Can we go back to reading now? I’m done with the journal, get the ORDIS book.” I nodded and started to set the books up again, but my eyes were distracted by Siren’s wings now. I realized that her wings had looked like they were in worse condition than mine had been, which worried me a little bit. Even in a controlled environment I’d been worried about parasites, but now that we were out in the wasteland I didn’t want to know what might be longing to live between somepony’s feathers. Unfortunately, Siren seemed less than enthused by my attention. “Oh no, don’t you even think about it.” I reached for the ropes binding Siren’s wings and started to undo the knot. “Siren you know what happens if you don’t preen yourself.” She nodded hesitantly, only to mumble something as the knot came loose. “What was that Siren?” I asked her gently, only to hear mumbles again. “Sorry, you need to speak up. What was that?” “I don’t know how to preen,” she finally said, hurrying through her words as the shame caught up with her. I looked back at her, shocked to hear that eons of pegasi learning had been lost on her. “I used to have somepony else to preen them, then some maid I hired but now, out here…” She looked down and away from me, ashamed of herself it seemed. I looked at her, pity in my heart as I sighed and gently reached for her wing. “No don’t!” she gasped, “they’re very sensitive!” I didn’t doubt that her wings might be more sensitive than an average pegasus’, but right now we didn’t really have the luxury of waiting. “Siren, somepony should check on them. I’ve already touched your wings today, and if you need somepony to preen them, out of anypony here…” Siren looked as though she were considering my words for a minute, before she finally sighed and closed her eyes, nodding. “Ok ok, but only because I don’t want any parasites from up here in my feathers.” I sighed a little at her exasperation, but very slowly reached for her left wing as the right one was on the side of the bed pinned to the wall. Siren hadn’t been kidding about sensitive wings. I could only make four attempts to clean her feathers, each time with her shifting awkwardly as I tried to move them, with the last attempt her jerking violently to the right just as I’d gotten my teeth sternly on a collection of feathers in the center of her wing. As I felt her feathers hit me in the face I jerked backwards, the two of us recoiling from each other and causing me to yank four feathers right out of her wing. Siren swore and launched a death threat, with matching glare, at me, and I knew that this endeavor was done. With that I went back to Siren’s page turner, too frustrated to look at the book even though it seemed to be related to the program that made my helmet. Boredom threatened to put me to sleep, and Siren refusing to talk to me save her page turn commands. I went into my bag and pulled the helmet out, carefully keeping the pipbuck hidden from Siren. I took another look at the outside of the helmet before putting it back on, the same wall of pink text flashing before my eyes. I sighed a little irritably, the color too obnoxious for my eyes with every startup, only for my vision to return to see Siren staring straight at me. “Can you change that color?” she asked. “What? What color?” I replied, glancing around the room. “That pink visor,” Siren said, staring right at my face. Surprised, I yanked the helmet off my head and looked at the front; sure enough, just starting to fold away behind some panels, was a solid pink visor about where my eyes had been. “Whoa, that’s how this works?” I asked, as the helmet shut itself again. “So how do I change the color?” Siren shrugged, before glancing at the book on her stomach. “Flip back about ten pages, I feel like I remember something…” I shifted the book and flipped it like she asked, reading along with her to find any signs of the word “helmet.” Finally, we hit on something; “Settings may be altered by pipbuck integration.” Curious, I secured the helmet again and looked at my pipbuck, hoping it would automatically synch up like it had with my laser pistol. There was no such luck, discouraging me for only a moment before I couldn’t help but wonder about something. I turned to my bag and pulled out the spare pipbuck, noticing now that it had a similar jet-black design, slimmed down to the point it was almost skintight on me. Yet it still seemed incredibly strong, and if I wasn’t mistaken looked like it was meant for battle, as it seemed like the left end of it had a place that looked like some sort of retracting blade. After turning the pipbuck over in my hooves for a bit, I finally decided it was worth a shot and powered it up, clasping it around my right leg. Almost immediately, a new icon appeared in my helmet’s HUD; something was loading. As the pipbuck synched up a massive prompt appeared in the center of my vision. UNREGISTERED USER DETECTED CREATE NEW DATA [Y/N] I glanced at the screen of the old pipbuck, but it remained cracked and offline as ever. “It’s asking something about creating new data, yes or no…” As soon as I said “yes” the icons vanished entirely, the whole helmet resetting and booting back up with a green HUD. “Well looks like you did something,” Siren muttered, “now it’s not pink.” ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS MATRIARCH NETWORK … … … CONNECTION FAILED UNTIL CONNECTION IS REESTABLISHED YOUR DATA WILL NOT BE KNOW TO OTHER ORDIS DEVICES “Huh...guess there’s benefits to an apocalyptic world after all,” I thought. ENTER USER NAME “Uh...it’s asking for a username now. What do I give it?” I asked, only for Siren to shrug. USER NAME UH IT’S ASKING FOR A USERNAME NOW WHAT DO I GIVE IT ACCEPT [Y/N] “Whoa no. No no no.” Thankfully the text vanished, allowing me to try again. “Fantastic Storm.” USER NAME FANTASTIC STORM ACCEPT [Y/N] “Yes.” The prompt flickered for a second, before continuing. USER NAME ACCEPTED PLEASE DESIGNATE YOUR COMPANY AND COMMANDER “Uh…” I was stumped. I could guess names if I really wanted to, but I didn’t know what would get me access and what lock the system down entirely. So I decided to be honest. “No company, no commander.” NOTED WITH NO DESIGNATION OR COMMANDER FURTHER QUESTIONS ARE VOIDED YOU ARE CLASSED AS A ORDIS SPECIALIST CONTACT A RANKING OFFICER, FELLOW OPERATIVE, TECHNICIAN OR PONY OF INTEREST FOR ASSIGNMENT SERVE WELL “Well that got us somewhere,” I muttered. I wondered just what the helmet expected me to do as an ‘Ordis Specialist’, but at least it wasn’t locking me out. Unfortunately nothing had really changed in the helmet HUD, nothing was interactable, and glancing at the pipbuck showed it was still broken and I couldn't get it to respond. “Well, at least it isn’t pink anymore,” I sighed, disappointed that all that had been for nothing, but at least we had gotten somewhere. Siren rolled her eyes at me as I took the helmet off again, setting it to the side as I looked at the book. “Siren, what exactly is the Ordis?” Siren glanced at the book as well and shook her head. “I haven’t entirely made it far enough to tell, but so far it seems like it’s just an armor project.” She stretched her head down and flipped the page with her muzzle, causing me to blink in shock and annoyance that she hadn’t been doing that before. “What it’s for I can’t tell, and that upsets me.” She sighed in frustration as well. “I should have had some info about this from somewhere, somepony has to have seen this armor around. But there’s nothing like these designs anywhere!” I had to admit I shared Siren’s frustration. Now that I’d gotten a taste I was eager to know where more of this suit might be, what kind of tech it might hide. This helmet seemed more valuable than anything I’d done in the vault just for the materials alone, yet it was just a fraction of what was out there. There was a lot more going on up here than I’d ever expected, and it frustrated me to know that some answers might well be lost to time. All of a sudden I felt a hoof on my shoulder. I spun around abruptly, reaching for my gun, only to realize it was Vlyka standing right behind me. She looked almost unaffected by my startled reaction, backing up a step to give me some space. “From my records, you’ve been up for longer than is medically advised,” she said plainly, making me smirk at getting scolded for being up so late by a robot. “It is 12:18AM now, I advise you getting some rest.” I nodded to Vlyka, smiling gently at her. She’d been volunteered to handle the first and third watch in the night, as she’d said she only needed about 2 hours to switch off her processor and let it cool, leaving Gun to begrudgingly take a shift to let her shut down. However, as she was going to be the only being up, Ark had been worried about something, and told me I had one more task before I went to bed. So as Vlyka turned and trotted to the doorway, I turned back to Siren. “I know you’re going to hate this, Siren,” I muttered, watching as she tensed irritably. “But Ark told me I had to gag you tonight. He doesn’t trust you with Vlyka.” I expected Siren to start screaming bloody murder at my sentence, but to my surprise she lowered her head and grumbled quietly, as I started to remove the books and stash them away. Surprising me even more, when I gently took a piece of cloth and unravelled it she calmly opened her mouth, letting me place it between her teeth and tie it around the back of her head to keep it secure. I almost wanted to leave it looser for her comfort, but if Ark woke up and decided to check on Siren he might well murder me for taking the risk. “Sorry Siren,” I muttered, as I pulled the knot tight and eliciting a pained squeak from her. “Well...goodnight,” I said, trying to stay cordial, as Siren grumbled something I stood no chance of understanding. I walked out back into the office to see Gunrunner perched on his nest of bags, looking quite content with himself as he dozed off quickly. We’d finally agreed to tie Redwood to a chair, though she had been far less resistant to it and had already fallen asleep. I looked at her warily, still on edge at how it seemed like she was more interested in helping us than escape. Vlyka must have wandered to a window or balcony to keep watch, as I only saw Arkangel lying down on the catwalk just outside the office. I dropped my bag beside him and rested my head on it, trying to get a little comfortable and just take the time to fall asleep. “I’m sorry, Storm.” The words jolted me from my half-sleep as I looked at the source of the voice: Arkangel. “Uh...sorry for what?” “All this,” Ark sighed, shifting a little. I’d thought he was asleep already, but as he turned his head to look at me I heard a faint hiss of air. He pulled off his helmet and set it aside, his left eye glowing faint blue in the darkness surrounding us. His face was a little softer, more worried looking than other times I’d seen it...he even looked like he was on the verge of crying. “I wish I could explain this whole situation I dragged you into. But, truth be told, I don’t even know half of why it is myself…” I tried to say something, anything, but no words came to my mouth. I was just thinking about how I now recognized him: Pale Shroud, the pony I’d met so long ago, and still knew almost nothing about. “Promise me something,” Pale said, staring right into my eyes. In any other situation, I would have just said no. Why would I promise anything to a pony who dragged me through chaos and hell like this without even bothering to explain himself?! “Sure,” I said half-heartedly. To my surprise, a single tear did roll out of Pale’s right eye, as he took a deep, resigned breath. “Keep everypony safe. If I lose myself again please...please don’t let me kill anypony here.” I couldn’t say anything for a moment, too lost in my own thoughts to speak. I knew who this was, the insane pony with his heavy armor and incredibly ruthless streak, Arkangel, yet here he was talking about me protecting ponies from himself. “I...I’ll do my best,” I said finally, nodding slightly to him. “But...can you tell me something?” Pale nodded to me, but I could see in his face he was straining; something was deeply troubling him, and I knew that this was a bad idea. But I had yet to talk with Ark at such a vulnerable state, I couldn’t pass the chance up. “Why do you call yourself ‘Arkangel’?” Almost as soon as I said his name, Pale’s robotic eye flickered, the pony twitching and shaking violently as he shut his eyes. His hooves reached to clutch his head as he shook for a few moments, making me shift towards my hooves. I was about to run for help when the shaking stopped, Pale looking up at me with his eye shining red. The exhaustion and sadness had vanished from his face, leaving only fury. His hooves jerked forwards and grabbed his helmet, slamming it back on his head as he rose to face me, coming dangerously close to me. “Don’t talk about the devil while he’s listening,” he replied. I swallowed nervously, realizing that I was about to pay for my mistake. Ark was back, and whatever sympathy Pale might have had for me wasn’t applicable now. Ark pushed me aside and stood again, walking into the office with his barbed tail dragging across the ground. It was emitting its acid and gouging a nasty scrape into the floor, and Ark flicked a bit of the acid directly at my head. I tried to duck but his reflexes were too quick for me, though thankfully the starmetal of my helmet proved a perfect defense for the acid as it merely fizzled on the surface before dripping harmlessly off. “You’d better tell no one about that little chat,” Ark hissed, without even turning to me. He glanced at the nearby window. “Or we might be travelling with one less companion. Sure even if you survive you don’t want to be between us and the terminators I know are after us. Tomorrow morning, they’re coming, and I expect your performance to increase in response.” As he turned back to me, Ark’s tail reared up threateningly, lashing forwards towards my neck. I froze stock still, not out of defiance but because I was so afraid that my body wouldn’t move anymore. I felt the side of the barb brush against my neck, though I didn’t feel any acid left on my coat, leading me to believe Ark was trying to intimidate me. Successfully. “Pale can only keep you alive for so long, but he just doesn’t understand how weak he is compared to us.” I blinked in confusion...us? The best theory I had so far was that Pale had a split personality issue, but was there more than just Ark in his head? Thankfully Arkangel didn’t seem telepathic, as he raised his tail and patted me on the head with it, rather roughly so I could feel it hard even through my helmet. “Now why don’t you get some sleep, because my patience is only going so far.” With that, he brushed past me again, returning to the catwalk and dropping himself on his side again to sleep. I stood for almost a minute trying to control my heart rate and breathing, before turning to head for the catwalk. Before I laid down though, I shot a glance into the panic room, seeing what looked like Siren already asleep despite her binds. I finally laid down and detached my battle saddle, laying it beside me as I rested my head on my saddlebag again, before casting a glance at Ark’s back nearby. “Don’t worry Pale,” I thought, “I won’t let anything happen to them.” I smirked, thinking how strange it was that we were both in this together. It helped me a little bit to stay calm, although seeing Ark and his menace still so close didn’t help me sleep easily. But finally, sleep did come to me, and I embraced it graciously after a long and trying day. Author's Note Footnote: Level up New Perk: Nerves of Steel --- 20% faster AP regeneration. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex On another note, I would just like to apologise for the long spaces in between each chapter. Some members of our group haven't been active in a long while. Don't worry, me and the editor are still on board although we can't promise that the chapter will come out quickly as we treat this more as a hobby than a goal. Anyhow, thanks for your patience and I hope you stick around for our story. Second note, we should be getting cover art soon thanks to El_mutanto, if you want you can even see designs of some of our characters on his DeviantArt. After the cover art we will also give our readers some more content by including chapter cards in colour and some scenes without colour in the chapters. Hopefully it won't be long but El_mutanto is a busy guy with many commissions not including the 10 or so character references we commissioned. Release the houndsallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 8: Release the Hounds By Fallen Sentinel “Factories made the weapons, but whos the killer? The weapon or the user? But in your case are you the weapon or the user?” As I woke up, I felt my back stiff and couldn’t help but groan in discomfort. “I’ve got to stop sleeping on the floor,” I muttered, straining to stand up as my legs were stiff too. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and glanced around the room, thankfully finding everything about as we’d left it. I slowly made my way for the panic room, stretching as much as I could while I walked to wake my body up. By the time I made it to the door I almost felt rested, though I couldn’t help but yawn once more as I peeked inside the panic room. Siren was laying still asleep, spread out by the ropes binding her hooves and her gag still in her mouth. Vlyka was standing guard over her, but as she turned to look at me I couldn’t help but notice she was jerking a little bit as she moved. The covers on her optics fell to block almost half of her optics...she was tired? Could she even be tired? “Is...something wrong, Vlyka?” I asked, as she jerked in my direction. “Low power,” she muttered, her voice sounding significantly more artificial than I remembered it being last night. There had always been a hint of a metallic ring in her voice, but now it dominated her speech. “Need to...recharge…” she said, before moving past me and towards the door. I listened as she left, surprised to hear her servos whine and her hooffalls much, much louder than I’d ever heard her walk before. I could only guess something in her body let her walk almost silently, but in her low-powered state that took too much energy to keep running. As Vlyka clunked away, me only thinking I should have asked her how she planned to recharge well after I stopped hearing her hoofbeats, I turned my focus back to Siren. Either our talking or Vlyka’s clanking had woken her up, and she was just glancing around in minor confusion. She seemed to recall exactly how she’d ended up in this position and let out an annoyed sigh, before she looked up and saw me. “Whr ya tar ing ah me” she muttered through her gag. It was clear enough she was asking a question, but I couldn’t understand the rest and removed it so she could talk. “Storm, were you staring at me while I was asleep?” she asked. Her tone was harsh and irritated, but I was willing to chalk that up to having spent the night tied up. I shook my head in response. “I just got here a couple seconds ago,” I replied, as I reached up to start untying her forelegs. Thankfully I was quick with the knots and got her forelegs untied, and she reached down to work on freeing her wings. But after a moment she paused, staring at me before glancing down at her back legs. She looked between us for a moment until I sighed. “You know,” she muttered,as I moved to untie her hind legs. “Sometimes I can’t tell if you’re just trying to annoy me, or you’re just that lazy.” “Can’t we say I’m doing both?” I asked, glancing back at her and giving her a slight smirk. Surprisingly, I heard her let out a soft giggle. I almost recoiled in shock, but kept untying her hooves. She was freed in short order and rolled off the bed...only to fall indignantly onto the floor. “Oww…” she muttered, looking up at me as I tried to withhold the smirk on my face. “Well you try being tied up all night and see how your legs work all morning.” I kept failing to hold back my amusement, and she huffed, glaring at me as she tried to stand again. Despite her legs wobbling a little, Siren stood to her full height and started to stretch her joints out. I almost wanted to give her a moment of privacy, but I couldn’t help but stare at her as she stretched. She was truly beautiful, I had to admit, and I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of Pale Shroud: however short their relationship had been, he’d been lucky to have her. “Storm, do you have a mirror?” Her words jerked my thoughts back to the present, and I looked at the bed to distract myself from Siren’s body for a moment. She didn’t seem to notice I’d been staring as she looked over at me. I shook my head. “I don’t think so,” I said, reaching to check my saddlebag and remembering too late I’d left it sitting by my sleeping space. “Don’t remember packing one, why do you need it?” Siren’s trademark glare met me again, causing me to sigh. “And what am I missing now?” “My mane, Storm, I need to check my mane!” she snapped. I glanced at her mane in response, a little surprised I hadn’t noticed yet that it did indeed look a little messy. “Doesn’t look bad to me,” I replied, trying to be helpful. “Maybe a little messy but not bad.” Siren only rolled her eyes. “Thanks ever so much,” she grumbled. “I still need to fix it up. Now find me a mirror.” I gestured for the door with a slight, playful bow. “Well right this way, ma’am.” “Such a gentlecolt,” Siren replied, shaking her head as she trotted past me into the office. As I followed her inside, I caught her staring at Gunrunner with a bemused smirk. “How does one sleep so peacefully when he could die any second?” she asked aloud, watching as Gun shifted in his sleep, still resting atop his collection of bags. But as Siren glanced at me she shook her head again. “Nevermind, I know the feeling.” I trotted past Siren towards my saddlebags on the catwalk as Siren followed, casting her eyes acros to the chair where Redwood was still tied up. “Why did you idiots even bring her,” she growled. “She’ll cause you more trouble than I ever could.” I was about to argue with her, but as I dug through my bags I quickly found what I was looking for. “Ok Siren, come here. Got your best friends for you.” Siren turned and hurried towards me, looking momentarily excited. I winced a bit at seeing her so energized, as I pulled the collar and leash out of my bag. “Oh.” Siren muttered, raising a hoof to her neck. I could still remember the relief on her face when we’d taken it off last night, and it hurt more than I wanted to admit to put it back on her. But before Siren could get a good look at it I hurried to try and put it on her, hoping she wasn’t getting ideas how to get it off herself. Thankfully she didn’t fight me as I gently placed it on her neck, closing it while making sure there was plenty of space to breathe within its confines. I then threaded the leash back through and tied it down. “There,” I said jokingly. “Safe and secure.” “Secure, maybe,” Siren huffed. I looked at her, upset my joke hadn’t worked, as she sighed and fiddled with the collar for a second. “Now can we please get to a mirror already?” “Okay, okay,” I replied, checking quickly through my saddlebag. Like I suspected, I hadn’t brought one, but I did remember something from yesterday. “Weren’t their mirrors in the bathroom before?” “I think so,” Siren said, perking up a little. But her smile vanished quickly. “Which are all downstairs…” “Well, we know how to get there,” I replied, raising a hoof to Siren. She sighed but took it and hopped on my back as I stepped up to the gap in the catwalk. “Let me know when you’re ready,” I said, hoping to not startle her this time. I glanced back to see Arkangel, still seemingly asleep in his armor at the other end of the catwalk; I really didn’t want Siren to scream and wake him up if I could help it. On my back, I felt Siren shaking a little bit. I glanced back at her and saw her trying not to stare down, finally closing her eyes and nodding her head to me. I took that as a sign she was ready and flapped my wings, taking us both in the air. Siren squeaked with fright and her hooves dug into my neck, but I quickly flapped past the gap and set us back down before Siren could get too anxious, gently tapping her hooves to get her to let go when we were back on the ground. Thankfully Siren was well behaved while we hurried down the hallway towards the bathroom, me anxious to let Siren calm down and address her mane to her exacting specifications. I still tried to hold Siren back just a little, just to remind her that she wasn’t the one technically in charge right now, but my heart wasn’t in it as much as before. We made it to the staff room easily enough, Siren spotting the bathroom and hurrying over to the door. But she stopped right as she reached the door for the mare’s room, before glancing at me. “I know what you’re thinking,” I said sternly, “and yes I’m following you in.” Surprisingly, Siren didn’t yell at me for that comment, only sighing before silently opening the door and heading inside. I was surprised to see how clean the bathroom was. There weren’t any stains and the tiles still looked mostly white, only aged a little. I couldn’t help but feel a tad nervous, glancing behind me to see the age and devastation in the room we’d just come from, but Siren rushed right for the mirror to check her mane. As I looked back into the bathroom I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked more attentively I didn’t see anything there. There was another room connected to the bathroom, one with faint light still running above it and a sign reading “showers” above. The sign made me realize we hadn’t had a proper bath in days now. So I cleared my throat and muttered “uh, Siren?” She looked at me rather cross, until I pointed at the sign. She almost leapt with glee when she saw it. She passed me in a hurry, me getting just a whiff of her coat and realizing she really needed a good shower after all. As Siren hurried into the room I followed her, glancing around for any other signs of movement. All the stalls for each individual shower were closed, marred a little by time...more in here than in the main bathroom. I was confused by that, but Siren was far too distracting to ponder that further. “Okay Storm, I know what you’re thinking but…” She looked at me, at the leash that still held her back from the shower. I glanced down at it, then back at her, and she sighed with frustration. “Please, just go to the other room. I’m going to undress, I really don’t need you staring at me while I’m naked.” She stared right at me, glaring as I stared back at her. “Storm…” I sighed, frustrated, but finally let go of her leash. I turned to trot out of the room, rolling my eyes at Siren as I tried to keep my suspicions on her, but I was fed up with this anyways. Siren was too interested in her shower by now, I could already hear her throwing her robes to the floor in a hurry. I almost wanted to peek back, but if Siren spotted me I’d never hear the end of it, and if I just gave her a minute to have a shower to herself maybe she’d mellow out a little. By the time my lust got the better of me, Siren was already in the stall and all I could see were her hooves. I growled at myself in frustration and left the bathroom. I knew that I wouldn’t leave Siren alone for a bit if I was this close, so I tried to distract myself with something, anything. “If she weren’t an overseer this wouldn’t be so difficult…” I muttered, only to have an uncomfortable thought jump into my head. My mother had become one of the overseers a while ago. She had the same authority as Siren did, though from what I remembered not the same respect. Our family was odd, for a bunch of pegasi we tended to think better of non-pegasi, which put my mom at odds with most of the overseers, including the High Overseer. My mom had tried to teach us that we could all work together...but could we? Now that I was a traitor to the Stable? How could Siren even guarantee my life back when everypony there. Mom had mentioned work on drugs to erase memories at some point, could those really be used to clear all this up? I sighed and pulled the ORDIS helmet off my head in frustration. I needed a minute to breathe, but staring at it, shifting it in my hooves only excited my mind further. “And what the hell is this thing?” I muttered. The general stable populace didn’t know about this, did any of the overseers besides Siren? Were there records to it? Should I just leave these secrets somewhere the stable wouldn’t find? I needed fresher air than this bathroom was offering, so I left for the hallway, content that Siren would take the time to soak herself with a hot shower. There was a doorway not too far away that led back outside, and as I stepped through it I took a deep whiff of the air around me. It was dusty, wind kicking up dirt and sand from the surroundings, but still felt oddly fresh. I looked across the horizon, only for my eyes to linger on a small object not too far away. It wasn’t the same orangish color of the ground, no, it was redder than that. I stepped closer and realized what I was looking at: Vlyka. The robot had folded her legs down under her chest, lying on top of them as far as she could get down with her neck almost parallel with the ground, her snout almost in the dirt. I could see the shields over her optics had closed, just like an organic’s eyelids; it looked almost like she’d fallen asleep. What didn’t make me think she might have been organic, however, were the strange wing-like protrusions sticking out from her sides. She absolutely had not had them before, some black-blue reflective surface in a grid pattern. I stepped a little closer to get a better look, but the second my hoof hit the ground, Vlyka’s head snapped up. Her optics jerked open, the shutters narrowing to pinpricks with what I swore was a faint red light behind the iris. I jerked backwards, fearing for my life as the killer robot looked ready to charge forward and rip me to pieces. But my body froze, and Vlyka’s shutters shifted, twisting a little bit as though she were studying me. It felt like minutes passed within a second, and the shutters pulled back to open her optics back to their normal size. The faint red light vanished and her expression changed from a warning glare to calm. “Vlyka?” “Hello Fantastic,” she replied. “Uh...what...exactly are you doing?” I asked, glancing at her ‘wings.’ Vlyka looked too, her eyes narrowing on the panels for a moment. “Recharging. Solar energy is gathered on the panels and converted into electricity for me to store.” “Wait, solar power?” Vlyka nodded at me. “But, the clouds…you can get solar power through the clouds?” “Not efficiently,” she replied. “Currently my solar panels are operating at 15.271% efficiency. The highest efficiency I have recorded was 38.544%.” “Huh,” I muttered, as I came a little closer. Vlyka didn’t move, only watching me with interest as I approached her. She wasn’t hostile, her stare was very different from the killer look she’d had before. “Did I scare you?” I asked. “You kinda jerked at me like you were gonna kill me.” “I was responding to possible threats,” she said matter-of-factly. “When I go to charge, the process takes less time if I turn off all non-critical systems, with the exception of my proximity and auditory sensors for defense. I wasn’t aware it was you until my targeting systems rebooted and connected your face to my memory.” “I bet you remember a lot,” I laughed, sitting down a little ways from her. “What’s it like in there, in your head?” “I would estimate about…” “No no no,” I interrupted her, “not literally! I don’t need your schematics.” Vlyka closed her mouth, looking a little sheepish as she turned her head away. “I just meant...what do you see in there? How do you process information, what does it feel like? What’s it like to be a machine?” Vlyka was silent for a moment, and I watched with interest as the smaller plates around her optics and mouth shifted to resemble the look of a pony absolutely puzzled by a question. “I don’t know how to compare it to anything,” she said finally. “This is the only process I’ve known, I don’t fully understand how an organic mind works or how you would visualize your thoughts.” I shrugged at her as she continued to stare, I could see it in her optics she was looking for an answer. “What is it like being alive?” “Oh boy,” I thought, “why am I answering this? Why’d it have to be me?” I bit my lip gently, trying to think of how to reply. I hadn’t even been a scientist for that long, and now I was supposed to explain life to a machine? Of course that was the irony of it all: I’d wanted to build advanced robots back in the stable, but here I was face to face with one far beyond my wildest dreams and I had no idea what to say, what it wanted. “I..well it’s…” I stammered, as Vlyka tilted her head. “Being alive, it’s just sort of...experiences?” I resisted the urge to facehoof at my obvious lack of conviction in that answer, but it was getting me somewhere. “You experience things, color, sights, tastes...emotions…” “So what are emotions exactly?” my voice fell flat as Vlyka continued. “I understand the mechanism, a chemical alteration in the brain, a response to external stimuli. But what dictates emotion, why does one stimulus provoke different emotions in different ponies? How is it learned, what is its source, its goal if any?” “Guhhh…” I tried my best to make a coherent word but nothing came. I finally shook my head. “Well for me at least, emotions are like you said; responses. We respond to things that upset us, that make us happy, that cause us to just feel something.” “But why?” Dammit, I knew that question was coming. “I just...I don’t know, Vlyka.” I sighed, frustrated. I didn’t have a better answer for her, one I thought she could understand. “Do any of you organics know?” I shrugged at her, and she turned her head to the ground. “Then...how do you know what is an emotion?” “You just feel it,” I said. “I don’t really know how else to say it.” Vlyka shifted her legs a little, but remained sitting. “Do you think then, that you could create a program to experience an emotion? Or would it just be a copy of a pattern in your mind?” I gulped, afraid of that answer. Vlyka had been clearly conflicted about stating she had no emotions earlier. I knew her logic was at odds with her emotional behavior, at least when it surfaced, and she was trying to parse it out. I could only hope I could help her avoid crashing from the confusion. “I don’t think I could, but I don’t know everypony. Maybe...maybe we could make emotions in something, not just copy it.” Vlyka stared at me for a moment, before a faint smile worked its way onto her face. I think I’d done it, at least for now. “Was that what they made you for? A test bed for artificial emotions?” “No,” said Vlyka. “My original constructors designed me as an infiltration unit. I was designed to enter a stable and sabotage, or assassinate it. I...don’t know if I ever fulfilled that programming. My blueprints were created two hundred and three years ago, but my current processor and data are far newer than that.” “So...what, you think they found your chassis and replaced your mind?” Vlyka nodded once. “And what did the new scientists want with you?” “Advanced combat, soldier and assassin unit.” I should have known that would be her answer. “But as I was to be under radio silence behind enemy lines, they required an advanced, independent intelligence. What records I have of theirs indicate because I was fully built, I was an adequate test bed for that purpose. And test they did, with full intent to release me as a war machine...except for them.” I blinked in surprise. “Uh...them?” “Two of the scientists were not convinced that using me as a weapon was right,” she said. “Their personal logs indicated they thought I represented more, artificial life in his case, and that I shouldn't have to be used like the rest of the staff intended.” “Oh,” I muttered. “And...do you know what happened to them? After you left?” Vlyka’s optic twitched, her face scrunched up painfully. I’d struck a nerve...circuit, synapse? “One I don’t know, she left before I was independent enough to observe, and her personnel files were corrupted when I escaped. But the other…” One of Vlyka’s hooves worked its way out from under her body, and she stared at it. “Wait, you didn’t…” She shook her head and set the hoof down. “No, I didn’t. But I saw it happen. I was in standby mode and couldn’t react but my sensors recorded it. Highmill ordered another robot to attack and…” I saw Vlyka’s hoof shaking, I could hear some of her servos whine as they shifted so rapidly. Uncertain what to do I gently extended a hoof to hers and pressed it down. She looked back up at me as the shaking passed, her optics refocusing on me. “I’m sorry, Vlyka,” I muttered, as the solar panels on her side began to fold away. As they slotted neatly into two small compartments on Vlyka’s sides, I glanced at my Pipbuck for the time. The mention of Highmill and recalling how she and Siren had known each other had reminded me I’d given Siren enough time alone to screw us over again. I could only hope that she was enjoying a nice, long shower, but even so she’d be getting out soon and I should have been there to keep her under control. “It isn’t your fault Fantastic,” Vlyka replied as she stood upright. I watched for a second as her legs moved in every direction, I had to guess her body doing a servo check to make sure everything was still working. I started to walk back to the factory, as Vlyka’s checks went smoothly and she trotted after me, servos quieted again from her full charge. “You can call me Storm, you know,” I smiled. “Less syllables.” “I...suppose I can,” Vlyka replied, looking worried about something. But I couldn’t help but giggle at her almost adorable face. “You know, being designed as a war machine, you don’t seem all that threatening.” I smirked as Vlyka looked a bit confused. “I mean your choke out is pretty effective, but you could have just snapped my neck and been done with it.” Vlyka shook her head. “I don’t like to end an individual’s data collection process.” I almost stumbled at her words, before I started to catch up to her meaning. “You don’t like killing ponies?” She shook her head. “Well, any idea why?” “I value information,” she said curtly. “I try to collect as much information as I can to understand the situations around me. I do not want my data collection to be interrupted, I can only assume that others are the same way. I will terminate if it’s necessary, but I have to assume that organics don’t want their data lost, just like...” Suddenly, Vlyka stopped dead in her tracks. Her shutters shrunk her irises down, not quite to the danger pinpricks before but close enough to worry me. “What is it?” I asked her. “Storm, where did you leave Siren?” “Shit…” I muttered. “In the showers, why? Is she gone?” Vlyka shook her head. “No, I have her on my EFS...with multiple hostile targets.” The two of us immediately started running for the factory, Vlyka right behind me as I headed through the front door. “Go get the others, I’ll get Siren!” I yelled, gesturing for Vlyka to run towards the catwalk. She hesitated a moment, but nodded and turned to run, as I headed for the showers. I’d slammed my helmet back on my head during the run, but I realized only now that I’d forgotten to bring my battle-saddle when I’d taken Siren to the bathroom. It was too late to regret that now, as I smashed through the bathroom door and hurried for the showers. “Siren!” I cried out. “Storm! Where are you?!” Siren shrieked, as I ran for the shower stall. I could hear the sound of a struggle, and sure enough as I rounded the corner I saw Siren lying on the floor, kicking with her back legs at a stallion standing over her. But it wasn’t just an ordinary stallion; this pony had rotting, molted skin and the stench of decay suffocating the entire room. I could smell it even through the helmet, and I almost gagged on the raw disgusting odor. “Storm!” The stallion dropped his head to bite at Siren’s neck, but in a panic I charged forward and slammed into him with my shoulder, knocking him off Siren as I tripped over her stomach. The two of us skidded a bit, the stallion hitting the wall with a sickening crunch. He fell on the ground as I struggled to get back up and help Siren, but started to rise again, seemingly immune to whatever pain he was in. It lunged at me instead, biting at my hooves as I tried to defend myself from his attack. I tried to turn myself away from the stallion, pulling it away as Siren stumbled to her hooves and back towards the wall, but he was attacking me too quick for me to counter. The tiles weren’t helping either, being wet from Siren’s shower and causing me to slip as I tried to find stable hoofing. I saw Siren stare at me in fear and confusion, wondering what she could do, and while I frantically searched for an option I realized my EFS was acting up again. A second red tag showed up nearby...then another, and another, another… “Siren watch out!” I yelled, as another stall burst open. My blood ran cold as an eerie scream echoed in the shower room, like dozens of voices engulfed with pain crying out at once. Then, they came, more ragged and decaying ponies, their bodies damp and jerking just like the one attacking me now. Out of time, I slammed the stallion back into the wall, cracking his skull hard against the tiles. But it didn’t stop moving, so I grabbed it and slammed it again, and again...adrenaline took hold and I lost myself in a berserk rage, only just hearing Siren’s scream of fear as the pony’s skull finally caved. I stepped back as the pony collapsed, releasing a sickly smelling, sticky ichor instead of blood or brain matter. I didn’t have time to think of what it was though, as the new arrivals had turned for Siren. She’d climbed up onto a bathroom stall to avoid them, only just out of reach of their decayed hooves as they swung wildly for her. “What’s wrong with these ponies?!” Siren screamed, kicking at one of their hooves as they reached for her. “Stop!” I yelled, “stop it, we don’t have to kill each other!” I tried to call out, reason with these ponies, but it was no good. A unicorn turned to me and shrieked, the unearthly howl sending chills up my back as I reflexively spread my wings. The ponies turned to me, charging forward as I used my reflexes to catapult myself into the air, hovering above the ground and hopefully above their reach. “Somepony help us!” Siren cried, as a few of the decayed ponies still reaching for her. I tried to fly closer to her, but the room was a tight space to fly in and I couldn’t get much closer without getting too close to the freakshow down on the ground. “Vlyka’s getting help!” I called to Siren, “it’s going to be-” “Storm!” Siren tried to warn me, but it was too late. In trying to reassure Siren, I’d taken my focus off the horde below, and one of them had climbed on the other’s back, high enough to reach me. Their teeth sank into my back right hoof, making me gasp in pain as my wings momentarily gave out. I fell to the ground and was swarmed as more and more ghoulish ponies attacked me, surrounding me as I was dragged into the middle of the horde. I felt them bite, strike me, trying to tear through the armor on my front half to no avail. But my back half was not so lucky, as their teeth sank into my back legs and tried to tear my flesh from my bones. I was in agony, crying out in pain as it grew too much to bear. I could feel myself getting hazy, feel myself hemorrhaging blood. I couldn’t hang on anymore…. Just as I was about to fade out, I heard a deafening cracking noise, and suddenly the continuing pain was lessened. There was a blur in my fuzzy vision as the cannibal ponies were knocked away from me, I felt somepony grab my by the forelegs and haul me away from them, a red streak and white blasts keeping the cannibals back. My vision cleared a little and I looked up, Siren at my side and trying to get my ORDIS helmet off. Gunrunner was nearby too, grabbing something from his bag and hurrying to me just as Siren got the helmet to release and slide off my head. I could just see Ark’s tail striking down at the nearest cannibal, but my vision was fading out as my mind almost gave up on everything. The pain was too much, I couldn’t go on; it was time to die. It didn’t seem as though Gunrunner agreed with me though, as he opened my mouth and poured something into it. I couldn’t even bring myself to swallow it, just letting it pool in my mouth as I struggled against trying to breathe. “Storm come on, drink it,” I heard Gunrunner say, his voice far away from where he should have been. I felt Siren take my head in her hooves and turn it to face me. “He’s got to drink it, come on!” “Storm, please…” Siren’s voice now, coming through layers on layers of cloth despite her being right in front of me. Even as my vision faltered I could see her there, inches from my face. “Storm, you’ve gotta drink it, please.” I couldn’t comprehend why I saw tears in her eyes: she hated me, why would she care if I were dying? Why was she so worried? “Siren, give him a reason to live!” Gunrunner shouted, and Siren jerked in shock, staring up at the merc. “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?!” she bellowed, letting go of my head and letting it slip back to the floor. My muzzle hit the ground softly as my mind finally gave out, knocking me into complete blackness. Author's Note Footnote: Level up New Perk: Chem Resistant --- Half as likely to get addicted (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex Empty shellsFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 9: Empty Shells By Fallen Sentinel “I’ve seen the end, the end of the world. It’s all because of you” Pain Everything came through a red haze. Flashes of things in armour darker than the night striking down terrified victims. Screaming The red flashing haze showed ponies strapped down in labs? Needles, knives, scalpels lead to bloody messes. It continued with flashes of green, red and purple burning it’s hosts. End A flash of light scorched all other colours, I could see two of the black armoured creatures staring at what seemed to be an explosion that consumed a city. They turned to me and everything went black... I groaned rather loudly as I started to come to. There was a hard, annoying stripe of pressure along my chest, where it felt like all my weight was laying on. I tried to shift a little but felt off balance, so I held still and opened my eyes despite their protest of the brighter light beyond my eyelids. I quickly realized that I was on somepony’s back; more specifically, a golden, armored pony. Arkangel was carrying me, moving smoothly as the ground passed below his hooves. I tilted my head up to look at what was ahead of us and spotted both Gunrunner and Vlyka, trotting side by side and occasionally looking at each other. Vlyka must have been asking him questions, but my ears were still ringing and dull from my unconsciousness and I couldn’t even guess what was being said by either of them. Redwood was trailing behind Gunrunner, her leash still slack even though she was still pretty much as far from Gun as she could be. I turned my head behind us and spotted what I expected: Siren’s lead, tied to Ark’s side. She was standing remarkably close to him, walking and casting a nervous glance at me. She saw me shift and gasped, hurrying closer. “Storm are you alright?” she asked, lowering her head towards mine. I tried to speak but felt my voice wasn’t strong enough yet, so I only nodded as I glanced down at my dangling hind legs under Ark’s stomach. They were wrapped in so many bandages it looked like they’d been put into casts. I felt the ache in both of them, along with my stomach, telling me it probably deserved the mummy treatment… “Storm, I’m so sorry…” Siren murmured, making me blink in surprise. I hadn’t expected her to be so gentle, so ashamed...she looked horrified as she spoke. “I left you to that pile of ghouls, I should have...I wish I’d done something. I guess if Ark and Gunrunner hadn’t heard me…” I winced in irritation and pain as Siren trailed out. “Yeah, you should have,” I growled, clenching my teeth together as I refrained from snapping at her harder. “You just screamed your head off and went to save yourself! Just shoved your tail up your ass and watched me get eaten!” So I’d clearly failed to stop getting angry, groaning in pain as the tension in my body aggravated something in my stomach. Siren had stopped cold as I snapped at her, only to get pulled forward when Ark refused to slow down. Her face turned sour in a hurry as she trotted back up to me. “You know what? I should have just run. I should have left you to die and run right back to the Stable!” I heard Ark’s head turn slightly behind me, but I was too angry at Siren, meeting her glare with equal intensity, to look at him. “I’m not a fighter Storm, at least I tried to keep you alive!” She continued to glare at me for a moment, until it became obvious to her I wasn’t intent on saying “thank you.” She huffed and turned her head away, stepping as far away as she could on her leash. “And Vlyka’s the one who went for help!” I hissed at her, as she retreated. She glanced at me once before snapping her head away from us, prompting me to growl in pain and irritation. I’d certainly just lost whatever goodwill I’d gained with Siren with that little annoyance, but I hadn’t felt quite in the mood to deal with her right now… After a moment of silence, trying to recover a little strength. I turned my head towards Ark, who cast a glance at me almost like he sensed me. “Uh….Ark? Or Pale?” I asked aloud, whispering as loud as I thought he would hear me. The tone of Ark’s voice was different than I’d heard before...far calmer. “Neither,” he said, and I almost fell off his back from the start. “Uh..” I stammered, “What? Then...who are you?” How many personalities did Ark have anyways?! “Nocteal,” he replied, turning his head forwards again. “No more questions.” I stammered out a vague noise in reply, prompting Nocteal to turn back to me. “I can go get Ark if you want me to.” “Nononononono that’s ok,” I stuttered, shaking my head frantically. But after a moment, I spoke up again, very quietly. “Do you think you could get Pale though?” Nocturne seemed to think it over for a moment, before his body went rather slack. It only lasted a second, not even enough for Ark’s body to lose a step, as his head turned back to me. “Please, make it quick Storm,” Pale said, his voice tense with worry. “They really don’t like me being up here…” I glanced ahead at the other group of our merry little band, back at Siren, before looking at Ark. “Sorry, I...I just needed to talk with someone. I kinda pissed Siren off.” Pale turned to look at Siren at the end of her leash. “What’d you do? She was a mess when you passed out this morning…” So I hadn’t been out quite that long, at least. That was a minor relief. “She tried to apologize about the...ghouls,” I said, trying to recall the word Siren had used earlier. “I just got angry and snapped at her for standing there and not helping me. I’m just an asshole, I guess…” I sighed. But Pale didn’t seem to agree. “Trust me Storm, she already forgives you. She’s dealt with a lot worse than yelling like that.” I looked up at Pale, hopeful and smiling faintly, only to feel myself slipping slightly off his body. I shifted myself to keep on his back. “Storm…I know you hate each other,” Pale sighed, “but please. Please treat her better...she hates you because she’s afraid. She’s just looking for protection, so please...I can’t protect her, I know it. Please, protect her for me.” I felt an acknowledgement work its way up my throat, but I chose to push it back. I was still a little mad, I didn’t want to just be a safe thing for Siren to cower behind. But, I had to admit I understood how she felt out here, and it would be something great to have that same sensation of safety. “Storm...if you swear to keep her safe, I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I know a lot of it, trust me.” Pale’s bait had sunk deep and the mere offer of answers flooded my mind with questions. I nodded to Pale, who nodded back at me, waiting until I spoke again. “Who’s her mother?” I asked, nodding to Siren. “High Overseer Wail Stone,” Pale said. “Try to avoid her if you ever get close...she’s pretty much Siren, but a thousand times worse.” At least that explained where Siren’s attitude came from. “What was it like between you two? When you were together, how was it?” I could see Pale tense, and I knew I’d gone a step too far. He shook his head immediately after, and I knew exactly what he meant. “Ok, most of what you want to know.” “Fair,” I muttered, before saying the next thing that came to my mind. “Why don’t the others like you up here? And how many are there?” “That’s something I don’t know really,” Pale said. “Nocteal is supposed to be the smart one, but he barely talks. Hellion’s a loose cannon and I can’t trust him to be serious, Frenzy is just weird...Mido is brave and there should be three more somewhere. But I barely hear any of them. And Ark...I don’t know. I just don’t know him.” I felt bad for Pale, watching him struggle with this chaos in his head. I felt even worse with my next thought, however… “Pale, can I talk to Ark now?” Pale almost stopped in his tracks to stare at me. “You know that’s an awful idea, right?” I nodded, but said nothing else. Pale sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine, it’s your funeral.” The body slackened again, before it started to stare directly forward and continue walking on. I waited for a moment, half expecting him to ask why I’d brought him out or something. I wanted to say something, but I remembered the last time with the barb to my neck and I fell silent. Though finally, Ark did in fact speak. “If you’re not going to say anything I’ll just go back.” Ark’s voice was annoyed, not quite pissed as I’d heard him before but enough that I was nervous. So, trying to hide the quiver in my voice, I asked him. “What exactly is your endgame here?” Ark paused, staring up into the sky. Then, abruptly, he kicked his backside up and knocked me clean off his back. I slammed into the ground, grunting in pain as I clutched my stomach. “What was that for?” I groaned. Ark turned to speak, but not to me. “Carry him,” he said to Siren, who stared at both Ark and I with contempt. “I’m an Overseer, not some labor horse!” she countered. Ark’s response was about as measured as I’d expected after he’d just bucked me off his back. He raised his tail and stepped closer to Siren, pulling her leash so she was forced to step closer to him too. “And I’m the big buck that’s going to kill the both of you if you keep disobeying orders!” he shouted. I heard hooves grind in the dirt, glancing over to see that the rest of our party had come to a stop as Ark and Siren made a scene. Siren stared at the tip of Arkangel’s tail for a moment, before slowly walking around Ark to avoid it and reach me. As she approached though, I tried to raise a hoof to her to let her stay back, straining to stand on my own. “I’m fine, I can walk,” I said as calmly as I could. I stood and took a shaky step, Siren watching carefully but smiling as I moved well enough to push my hooves forward. It hurt quite a bit, but I figured I could stomach it and kept walking. Only Arkangel was not amused. “You’re limping,” he said matter of factly. I came to a stop as Ark glared at me, feeling my hooves ache. Ark loomed in front of me, drawing himself up to overshadow me as much as possible. “I will not have you as a hindrance to this operation, private!” I recoiled a bit from Ark’s suddenly snapping, but my mind got caught for a moment on what he’d called me: I’d never been a private, certainly since Ark had known me. He stared intently at Siren, who sighed and stood next to me. “From this point on your lives depend on each other. If one of you is hurt, I expect the other to take care of them. If one of you dies, then the other one does as well. You two are only, only useful to me together, and I am not going to be burdened by you two if I can help it.” I felt a shiver work its way up my back, glancing warily out of the corner of my eye as Siren looked about as worried as I felt. I flinched again as Ark tossed Siren’s leash at me, barely catching it before he turned away to stop off. I looked sadly at Siren, who I couldn’t tell if she was just expectant or demanding something from me. “I don’t need you to carry me,” I said, trying to summon that comforting tone from before. But it wasn’t easy, even knowing I didn’t weigh as much as I would have if I were a unicorn or earth pony. I didn’t need her to do that much for me. “Just...can you try and help my left side? Just support a little weight while I walk.” Without a word, Siren moved to my left side and helped me step, letting me press a wing to her cloak and keep the strain off my back leg just a little bit. We walked forward slightly faster than I could manage alone, catching up to Gunrunner, Redwood and Vlyka as they waited for us. Ark had gone ahead, but after glancing at me and the slight shake of my head I gave her, Vlyka was quick to hurry closer and keep us somewhat in a group. “Well, so much for help from the robot,” Siren muttered, glaring at Vlyka as she hurried forward. I wanted to snap at Siren in irritation; Vlyka was far shorter than I was, she wasn’t going to do much to lift me, even if she didn’t tire out like any of the rest of us might have. But I didn’t want to test Siren right now, and she seemed content to ignore me for a little bit. But as we limped on for a little while longer, the silence grew uncomfortably between us. Eventually, I felt I couldn’t remain silent. “So...what do you think Manehattan will be like?” I asked. We had to be getting close by now. Siren, for her part, barely spoke to me. “Crumbled buildings, blasted and scorched streets, ponies probably trying to kill us.” I sighed from frustration, a mixture of annoyance with Siren and with the situation. I’d expected all that already, but it had been my silent hope that things would just have been better. “So the same thing as anywhere else, just bigger?” I asked, trying to joke. But Siren was dead silent. I looked away from Siren, only realizing that somepony had replaced my battlesaddle while I was out. My forelegs still bore both of my pipbucks, and I took a second to glance at the one with the busted screen on my right hoof. The clouded sunlight filtering through the clouds glinted off its surface, making me squint my eyes and wish I had a filter for some of this light. “My helmet!” I thought, raising a hoof to my head. I could already feel it wasn’t on my face, but I didn’t know for sure if… I shifted and glanced in my saddlebag, finding it sitting comfortably with the rest of my things. I breathed a sigh of relief, before glancing at Siren. She was not keen on looking at me, or at least me knowing she was looking, as she turned her head away the moment I turned towards her. “Hey Siren?” I asked quietly. “Do you like me?” “Nope,” she replied, without turning her head or giving a moment’s pause to think. “You sure about that?” I asked, as Siren looked at me in confusion. “I seem to remember there were some tears when I was dying back there.” Abruptly, Siren pushed me off of her, sending me to the ground. I wasn’t angry or hurt though; I stared smugly back up at her as she bent down to me. “Fine. ‘I prefer you to the rest of these idiots.’ That good enough for you?” “So I guess if I asked you out on a date-” I began, joking, only for Siren to laugh before I delivered the punchline. “Not even close. Just because I prefer you doesn’t mean I have to like you.” She had a point, but it still kind of hurt, even with what she said next. “But...you have made some progress since we first met.” I’d take progress, for sure, standing back up and swaying a little on my hooves. “What do I have to do for you to like me anyways?” I asked, as Siren hesitantly came closer to me to let me lean again. She looked at me, her eyes a bit softer than before. I still had no idea if her niceness was a ploy of hers or not, but I had to admit it was hard not to fall for at least a little bit. Siren looked at me, pausing for a moment as though she wasn’t sure what I’d just said. “Are...are you really asking that?” She looked a little lost for a second, before a smirk drew across her face. “Oh Storm, that’s precious. But I’m just not into you that way.” I couldn’t help but sigh and frown a bit, dejected by being shot down so hard. But after a second Siren sighed and, in a gentler voice, added “if you get me to the Stable though, that’d be a start.” With that tiny scrap of hope in my heart, I felt my body lighten significantly. I kept thinking of what else I might do, asking Siren a few questions here and there about how I could make her like me. When she finally dropped me again, I decided it was best to drop the subject instead and stayed quiet for the rest of the trip. Even in their ruined state, I couldn’t help but marvel at the aging glory of the Manehattan skyline. The skyscrapers were greying and crumbling, streets blackened and pockmarked with age. This had been a great city, and seeing how far it had fallen through the war was disturbingly breathtaking. As I glanced at the ruins before me, I wasn’t the only one thinking along those lines. “Manehattan...one of the largest cities in Equestrian history,” Siren said, almost in awe. “Now look at it; another monument to our sins.” I sighed a bit, Siren’s flair for the dramatic a bit overdone by this point, but as I looked at her I saw her squinting off into the distance. “Gunrunner,” she asked, “is there a building here where ponies still live?” “Yep, Tenpony Tower,” he replied, and I sighed again. I could only hope they wouldn’t shoot us on sight, after the groups we’d been dealing with so far. “Been there a couple times,” Gunrunner continued, “at least until I got banned.” “What did you do?” Siren asked him, and I turned to look at him with a wary eye. There went my hopes for a peaceful encounter, if one of our group was already banned. Embarrassed, Gunrunner scratched the back of his head. “Well...I think it was because I committed a crime, what was...Oh yeah...no, not getting into that now,” he said quickly, turning his head away from us. I grumbled a little at his lack of opening up, but I could hardly force him and followed everypony else into the streets, headed for Tenpony Tower. As we walked, the late afternoon sun began to set, something noticeable between the buildings as their massive shadows moved around us. I didn’t want to think about what would come for us in the darkness of an abandoned city, so I tried making haste for the tower. Arkangel, however, seemed...distracted, oddly. He turned suddenly from the most direct path to the tower and headed off down a side street. “Ark?” I called, but there was no reply. “Where are you going now?” There was still no answer, almost as though Ark was in a trance. I glanced at Siren and Gunrunner, the latter of whom just shrugged, before we all turned to follow Ark down the side street. It was somehow better off than most of the streets we had passed before, probably because they looked like they had been fancier, better constructed buildings when they were erected. Arkangel was looking everywhere, glancing at numbers, for something. “Forty seven, forty eight, forty nine…” He was looking for a specific building, by number? Why would he know that information…? I was left wondering, as Ark finally stopped just after fifty eight, staring up at a two story brick house. The garden out front had rotted away, but the actual structure looked like it had survived the best out of the entire street. I cast a glance at my EFS, registering enemies scattered all over the place, but Ark was too distracted to notice himself, as he approached the house with what seemed to me like a sense of awe. “You come back when you need us,” he whispered, only just loud enough for me to hear. I didn’t get a chance to respond though, before he continued. “We will wait for you.” Suddenly, he looked to his left, and his tone of voice changed a bit. “That’s not you, it’s a memory.” And again, his head snapped to the right. “You’re not him! You’re a fake!” I bit my lip as I watched Arkangel struggling with himself, uncertain what exactly to say. He suddenly seemed to realize we were still behind him, staring at him have his episode, and he readjusted his posture before striding into the house without another word. Having not much else we could do, I started to follow him, Siren and the rest of the group following my lead as we stepped after Ark, who had cracked open the front door as its hinges groaned from lack of use. The room beyond was dark, so Siren, Redwood and I started to switch on the lights on our Pipbucks, despite the former being locked. Gunrunner reached into his bag for a torch, leaving only Vlyka remaining. She didn’t seem at all hindered by the darkness though, stepping inside and looking intently into the shadows where none of our lights were pointing, although curious at what she was seeing I shone my light in that direction. The room we’d entered into was a decently-sized entryway with two main exits to the right and left, a staircase just ahead of us that Arkangel was already starting his way up. Gunrunner went to the room on the left, the cone of his torch showing me enough to suggest it was once a living room. Vlyka was looking into the room on the right, as was Siren, but I knew where I needed to go...I tapped Vlyka on the shoulder and hoofed her Siren’s leash. “Hang onto this, ok? Don’t let her go anywhere,” I asked, and Vlyka nodded in understanding. The two of them ventured off into the other room while I turned to limp up the stairs; at least the pain was subsiding by now. I heard Siren grumble something about being left with the robot, and some kind of whirr from Vlyka’s body that made me wonder exactly what her reaction had been, but I didn’t want to waste time figuring out what was going on downstairs. Instead I hurried up the stairs and looked around to find a hallway stretching in both directions, five doors lining the walls. One of them was just closing behind Ark, drawing my attention as I moved quickly towards it. On the way though, I paused, glancing into a room with an already opened doorway. Inside was a bedroom that looked surprisingly intact, and as I stepped in I opened the window to let in a little more light. The room itself was filled with dark blues and purples, which hadn’t helped my vision at all, and now that there was some light I could see exactly why: it was chocked full of images I thought I recognized as the old alicorn princess Luna, one of the Two Sisters. There were posters of her all over, a small statue of her with two foals on the dresser, next to a desk with a terminal. Just on the floor in front of the desk was a photo frame, the glass shattered from some impact. I stooped down to pick it up and look at the photo, only to let out a gasp at what I saw. It was clearly some family photo, a grey-coated stallion and a blueish coated mare standing besides a disturbingly familiar looking foal. It was the spitting image of Arkangel, although his eyes were red with black sclera...and the picture had to be centuries old. There was no way this was really him, right? I took a closer look at the picture, trying to tell if there was something wrong with the photograph to change the foals eyes like that, but it didn’t seem like it was at all touched up. I shivered at the unnatural eyes staring back at me from this ancient photograph, my mind racing as thoughts of Ark’s red robotic eye drawn to the surface. “There’s no way they’re two hundred years apart, are they…?” I thought, mulling it over. Could the Arkangel personality really be that old? How had Pale Shroud gotten thrown into this mix...he’d known to come here, hadn’t he? I slipped the photo out of the frame and into my bag before leaving the room without another thought. I went back out to the hallway and glanced at the door Ark had vanished into, blinking and turning my head a bit. I thought I heard...music? I crept closer, listening intently, before I couldn’t resist my curiosity any further and slowly started to open the door. Beyond the doorframe, sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, Arkangel sat with his helmet off. I gasped in horror as I saw what else he had though: a revolver, barrel in his mouth. “Ark don’t!” I cried, causing him to look up in shock. His cybernetic eye was blue, so if I was getting the hang of his personalities this was Pale Shroud, intent on killing himself! Pale stared at me for a moment before taking the pistol out of his mouth and staring at it instead. “He’s right about me,” he sighed, lowering the pistol to the ground. I wanted to approach, snatch it away before Pale did anything stupid, but I knew if I provoked him I’d just cause bigger issues. “I feel them, all clawing at my mind whenever I’m in control...they want me gone, but they can’t get rid of me.” I came a bit closer, slowly and carefully, as I tried to figure out what he was saying. He must have been talking about the other personalities in his head, trying to wrest control of his body from him. I couldn’t for sure say what that felt like, but if he was willing to kill himself… “P-Pale?” I stammered, unsure what else to do. Pale didn’t look at me, only glancing at the old vinyl player sitting next to him, still warbling its music from before. “Want to know his weakness?” he murmured, and I couldn’t tell if he was really trying to talk to me. “Put on some old music and he’s gone. Without him the rest I can fight off,” he muttered, looking almost hopeful for a moment, before his facade broke. Pale collapsed on the ground, tears streaming from his eyes as he struggled to not sob openly. “Why...why’d it have to be me…” he begged, shuddering as he tried to talk. I came close and sat down next to Pale, almost reaching a hoof out to comfort him. I was worried though, if Ark would come back in the middle and attack me for it. “Pale, what did they do to you?” I asked gently as I could. “I...they put something inside me,” he muttered, after pausing for a second to think. “Something under my skin. There wasn’t anything at first, but now...it’s just noise.” He struggled a bit to get his chestplate off, but made no further progress than he had before. “He was the first one to show up, then the rest...and with that came visions, memories or images of...something…” Ark closed his eyes and strained his face, making me worry about him even more: this looked painful for him to even recall. “The techs, they kept saying, I saw...notes...bringing ‘him’ back…” Ark Paused and shuddered slightly, drawing my attention back from his words. The music box had paused, and as I glanced down at it, Ark turned his head towards me, robotic eye glowing red. A shiver ran up my spine as I realized what that probably meant. “Ark, I j-” I couldn’t even finish my sentence before I was slammed on the ground, Arkangel’s plated hoof pressed to my windpipe. After my head slammed hard into the ground I got disoriented, and for a moment the metal against my neck made me flash back to the caves, Vlyka’s stranglehold that had knocked me out. Only I doubted very much that I’d be quite as lucky with Arkangel, particularly with the glare he shot my way as he stood over me, resisting my panicked struggles with ease. “You just have to keep asking questions,” Arkangel muttered, shaking his head. “Questions that just aren’t meant to be answered. Ever hear the phrase 'curiosity killed the cat?’” he asked, as I heard the sound of his bladed tail whipping around somewhere above me. With limited air my vision was blurring, and for a second I failed to realize that the thud that emanated from the floorboards right next to my ear was Ark’s tail spike, slamming down to intimidate me. Gasping for air and out of fear, I stared at Ark’s blurring face, his red eye gleaming dangerously in the center of my vision, the last clear point of light I could see. Desperation took hold and I tried to roll out from under Arkangel, but he simply picked me up with both hooves and threw me at the nearby wall. I had just enough time to suck in enough air for my head to clear suddenly as I was slammed hard against it, knocking the wind out of me. I’d have fallen forward, but Ark caught me, his tail swishing, anxious to strike. However as my focus was on the dangerous motion behind Arkangel, his focus got drawn downwards towards some motion from my pocket. I glanced down in time to see Ark’s tail swish down and snag the photo I had picked up earlier, fluttering to the floor; it must have shifted out of my pocket when I was thrown. “Look at you…” he muttered, just long enough to make me fear he was even more pissed at me than before for taking it. But his grip on me softened, just a bit, as he kept staring at the photo, his other foreleg grazing it. “So young. So pure, so...like me. Before...her.” There was a pause, and a sudden shift in Ark’s posture as he stiffened. “Pathetic.” His tail flicked, I thought to slash the photo in two, but he paused it again and stared, posture changning again. Suddenly, he dropped his grip on me as I fell to the floor, coughing and clutching my neck. “What happened to us? W...why did I…?” As I struggled to stand up, Ark glared down at me, but as my head turned back and he saw the bruise starting to form on my neck, his stern glance dropped almost entirely. “You’re too curious, Storm. But I’ll give you one more question, in exchange for your silence on what you saw here today, and your continued duty.” One question? I already had about a million demanding an answer...but glancing at the photo still speared on Ark’s tail, I thought on the effect it was having on him. It was decided. “Tell me who you are, the Arkangel, and what you have to do with that foal.” There was an annoyed huff as a response, clearly some deep regret at letting me ask. But, Ark answered me. “This too you will not speak of,” he said warningly, and I nodded in agreement. “This is Arkangel. He was a soldier during the war; this was me, my first body. The Arkangel you know is a cluster of memories, just enough to have my old personality...along with the imprints of others who have been my body in the years between. Pale Shroud is just the latest.” He took a step closer to me, and though I shook violently I didn’t step back from him. He slipped the photo into a compartment on his armor and scooped up his helmet, turning for the door. He paused though, and glanced back at me. “You know my goal, Storm. I intend to flee, hide where I can’t be used to cause more damage ever again. You should also know that the parts of me that survived have made me into little more than a killing machine. I will continue to strike at those around me, and I have no concern for the consequences of my actions. I will lash out again.” His helmet slid onto his head and sealed itself. “So stop digging, unless you’re looking to hit a landmine.” With that, Arkangel left the room, leaving me to sit in stunned silence for a minute to process what in Equestria had just happened. Footnote: Level up New Perk: Nerves of Steel --- 20% faster AP regeneration. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Proofreader:: Tobias
BetrayalFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 1: Betrayal By Fallen Sentinel “Citizens of Vault 137, we have been gifted. Our great leaders saw fit to protect us with among the mightiest vaults from the zebra horde, the megaspells that continue to burn our once great Equestria. And though these leaders have fallen short, we still thrive thanks to the Enclave, even those of us without our own wings of righteous glory. All we are asked in return is our service in building a mighty army, one fit to protect the Enclave and restore Equestria. Those of us with the gift, we are entrusted with crafting the machines and engineering the soldiers that will bring us all to glory. We shall not rest until Equestria has been restored, for the glory of the Enclave!” I rolled on my side and covered my ears with a pillow as the words droned on in my skull once again. My head ached thanks to that 200 year old speech drilling into it for the thousandth time...or perhaps the ache was thanks to the guards best efforts to cave my skull in during my arrest. My wings shifted irritably, stuck inside the lab coat that had not been designed for pegasi in the slightest I hadn’t had time to remove before I was arrested. I’d always hated the design, since it hampered flying, though it wasn’t like I was going to be doing that anytime soon. Desperate for a little relief, I took another glance around the cold grey holding cell I was kept in. There was nothing new inside, just a single bed jutting from the wall and a toilet in the corner, nor was there anything of interest in the long corridor outside lined with identical cells. The only occupied cells for now were my own and the one across from me, and me and the lucky mare across the way each had our own guard to keep us in line. The guard outside mine stood tall as he listened to the speech, as if for the first time. He was proud of himself, and I couldn’t blame him for it. I would have been proud to stand there too, guarding a “traitor” such as I, one accused of murdering the head researcher here, Grey Water. Of course it was me getting blamed for his death, being the only pegasus in the research department. Ordinarily unicorns were the only one given this position due to their magic. I was allowed to program robots only thanks to my previous experiments with gemstones that improved the robot’s battery life. Back then I’d worked security, when a few of the technicians asked me to use my authority as a pegasus to get them some resources, even let me tinker with their project. I’d enjoyed it then, but if I’d known where it would lead… I was in the robotics lab, working on improving the wing chassis of our latest design, when the news of Grey Water’s death reached us. I was arrested on the spot, the only explanation being that there was “major” evidence against me. I still doubted there was, but thinking it over I wasn’t too surprised by the accusation. Even though I was a pegasus, I spent an awful lot of time associating with non-pegasi, which not a lot of Enclave members cared for. I didn’t know another pegasi in the stable that wouldn’t have looked at me very differently if I’d only picked a different group of ponies to associate with. BANG I jerked up at the sudden noise, looking around for the source of it. Outside my cell was a white pegasus mare in purple overseer uniform, streaks of purple cloth snaking up her legs to her knees. I couldn’t follow the pattern any higher, as it was cut off by her dark purple cloak covering the rest of her body. She stood staring at me, flanked by two guards in striped golden power armor. I recognized the design, it was one of the latest we’d been tasked by the Enclave to improve. And improve we had, making the armor out of a lighter and tougher material, allowing us to design a sleeker profile and add design elements meant only for intimidation factor. We’d drawn much from ancient pegasi designs, old pegasi war armor our best records called “hoplite” armor, and all of a sudden I’d wished we hadn’t done such a good job making it so imposing. “Welcome to the last day of your life, traitor,” the mare sneered at me, brushing her black and pink mane back from her eyes. Her voice was oddly calming, despite the meaning of her words. “Last day?” I questioned, even though I knew precisely what she meant. “You know full well our laws on murder,” the mare replied. “Public execution.” She stared at me for a moment, shaking her head and clicking her tongue. “Never would have expected a pegasus though. Such a waste.” I noticed one of the unicorn guards take a glance at the overseer, before turning back to attention before their action was noticed. The outright disdain most pegasi had for other species wasn’t usually voiced, so I guessed he was caught off guard by hearing outright the overseer describing pegasi as the better species. The realization of my execution was finally settling in, and only now did I find voice to fight it. “I didn’t even do it, ask anypony!” I stammered, my heart rate increasing as I spoke. “There’s cameras in all the labs, just look at the recordings!” “You mean like this?” the overseer smirked, taking a tablet from one of her personal guards and showing it to me. Sure enough, I was watching a video recording from the labs: Grey Water was standing there working on the latest robotics design. Judging by the stack of target boards next to him, it had to be he was testing the robot’s targeting systems. Then, somepony who looked exactly like me entered the lab. Grey Water waved in greeting, but I didn’t respond to him. Unphased, Grey Water turned back to his task, setting a new targeting board up in the path of the robot’s twin gatling guns. It was at that moment that the second pony, the pony who looked like me, moved in and activated the robot’s firing sequence. I stared in horror as the video showed Grey Water getting ripped apart by the twin cannons, disgusted at the sight but unable to look away as Grey Water vanished in a cloud of red mist. After what felt like an eternity, the recording of me shut down the robot’s programming and exit the room. As the overseer pulled the pad away I stared back at her, shaking. “That...that wasn’t me!” I stammered, regaining my voice. “I don’t have that kind of access to the bots! That video has to be fake, I didn’t do this!” The overseer only chuckled at me, waving her guards to stand back a bit. She approached the bars of my cell and whispered in that same even tone, “I know it wasn’t you.” For a split second she held her voice, giving me the slightest hope she was there to help me. “But you, Storm, have become quite the poor influence on others. Everypony sees you in the labs, and starts getting it in their head they can take a new job outside their position. You’ve been destroying the delicate balance that keeps our vault safe,” she whispered, her voice never leaving that calm inflection that only served to terrify me more. Desperate to look away from the mare, I glanced at the guards standing by. Not a one of them was a pegasus, but I realized it didn’t matter if they’d overheard a word of this: their minds could easily be wiped of this entire encounter. It wouldn’t be the first time. “Your death will serve as an example to the others to stay in their place,” the overseer said calmly, turning away and signalling her guards to flank her again. “I hope you understand, this is nothing personal.” As she turned to leave, however, she glanced once more at my cell and smiled. “Actually, perhaps it is.” At that, the overseer and her guards left, leaving me alone to ponder. My mind was racing almost as fast as my heart. Surely they wouldn’t execute me, a pegasus, would they? It would only show pegasi were unstable, cause ponies to question the authority in the stable. Open rebellion, the fear of every pegasus in the upper echelons. That was all my death would cause, right? They couldn’t kill me, they just couldn’t. I looked up to see the unicorn guard at my cell glancing back at me. At least, I was fairly sure it was at me, since the cold black visor he wore obscured his eyes. “What?” I asked. “First execution in 40 years?” He said. “Aren’t you a lucky one.” At that, he turned back to face the guard opposite him, leaving me alone with my imagination. It was all I could do to convince myself they weren’t, in fact, going to kill me. They were going to kill me. I was right in assuming it wouldn’t be completely public, though that was little comfort in the long run. I was led into a large room lined with cold, metal pillars stretching to the ceiling, the walls all tones of dark greys and blacks. There was no joy in this room, and I had to wonder what the purpose had ever been. I didn’t have much time to ponder as I was led under heavy guard towards the center, where despite this not being a truly public execution, there were still a substantial group of pegasi crowded around to watch. I was escorted towards a large metal stage with a steel target behind me, a familiar looking robot set up a few metres in front of me. It was a cruel and ironic death they were shooting for then, killing me the same way “I’d” killed Grey Water. I couldn’t help but glance at the robot’s eyes, hoping in vain to appeal to some kind of mercy. But there was no mercy to give, only a cold sea of blackness. Tearing my eyes away from the robot, and the crowd jeering for my death, I spotted the overseer from her earlier visit to my cell standing at a podium nearby. She’d changed outfits, had ditched the coat in favor of a purple suit covered with emblems of stars, and symbols. She leaned against her podium, looking rather bored for such a momentous occasion as an execution. Her eyes darted around the cold room, glancing towards the door I’d been led in from occasionally. I followed her gaze to see there was a balcony of other overseers standing by to observe, waiting for my death. Finally the lights in the room dimmed, prompting the crowd to fall silent. Two lights came up to illuminate both myself and the overseer at the podium, forcing the both of us to squint in the harsh light, and even then I lost sight of any individuals in the crowd. “Pegasi of Stable 137,” the overseer announced. “Before you stands a bold-faced murderer, Fantastic Storm. A pony so devoid of care that he would murder his own head researcher, out of jealousy. We decry this perversion of the spirit of competitiveness that allows us to thrive. This injustice must be corrected, for the good of us all!” She paused just long enough to let the crowd get itself worked up again, as I started to hear the jeering and cheering for my death again, this time with a proper name. “So it is my duty to, with great sorrow,” she glanced at me, her face saying nothing of the sort, “that I must grant the second worst penalty I can deliver unto a pony: death.” The crowd’s jeers grew again, before the overseer waved her hoof to silence it. “And for respect of the late Grey Water, we will execute his murderer by the same methods so cruelly used to commit this atrocity. For the safety of our stable!” At that, the overseer nodded towards a technician standing beside the robot. He appeared to do one last check of the robot’s systems, giving me time to see my life flash before my eyes. I couldn’t believe this was happening. “Load!” the technician shouted, and the robot responded by spinning up its gatling guns. The merciless eyes turned red, though despite the mortal terror I couldn’t look away. “Aim!” The robot’s legs bent into a bracing position, guns spinning up and trained on me as I stood there, shaking too badly to move. I thought for the briefest of moments I saw the eyes flicker blue again, but shifted back to red before I could be sure. “Fire!” Before anypony could react, the robot’s eyes shifted blue again, as it spun towards the technician and opened fire. The poor stallion only had a second to show his alarm before the concentrated fire ripped him to shreds. Screams emanated from the crowd as ponies dove for cover, fleeing the rogue robot. One of the overseer’s guards leapt to protect her, activating a shield to encircle them both and block any fire from hitting her. The other guard leapt into action and charged the robot, laser fire from his rifle concentrated at the robot’s chestplate. The bot turned towards its attacker as the guard leapt to tackle it, leaping backwards to avoid the armored grip. As the two moved into close combat range, the robot raised one of its forelegs, its hoof suddenly extending a sharp metal blade. The sharp, scorpion-like tail of the guard’s power armor lunged towards the bot and managed to rip deep into the robot’s left eye, though the superficial damage wasn’t enough to even slow the robot down as it plunged its blade between the neck joints of the honor guard’s armor. The guard fell limply on the ground, instantly killed by the savage blow. Before the guard had even hit the floor, the overseer turned and snapped at her other guard. “What do I have you for, destroy that thing!” she screamed, voice and hoof shaking as she pointed at the robot who had already turned to face them. As the guard moved in to engage, some distant part of my mind recognized the opening, the chance I had to run, to escape. But I was too dumbfounded by what was happening to listen, only watch as chaos continued to unfold. The remaining honor guard lined up with the bot, trying to find the best way to damage the thing I was sure. The robot itself looked like it was testing battle protocols to engage; its guns were trying to spin, but it seemed they had jammed and refused to fire. Instead, it finally started to move in, blades ready to kill again. However the robot was moving sluggishly, probably having lost a portion of its processing power to the earlier blow to its face. As the robot approached, the guard’s right forehoof begin to glow, energizing it for combat and looking to add to his comrade’s damage on the robot’s now-weaker side. The honor guard lunged at the robot, which had just enough reaction time to counter the blow and turn a crushing impact to a grazing blow on the left side of its face. However the guard flapped his armored wings and leapt into the air, smashing both hind legs into the robot’s face and slamming his entire amplified weight down on it. He flapped again and launched into the air, bringing his charged hoof down on the robot’s weakened head with all the momentum and gravity driving him. That was finally enough damage to obliterate the casing, sending the robot collapsing into a heap as its core systems shut down, its processor destroyed, along with most of the head. With the moment of action passed, I finally had a chance to blink away the tunnel vision that had kept me so focused on the fight. By now the room was empty, save for the guard, myself, and the overseer. “Good,” she said, sighing with relief. The near-death experience had clearly rattled her, but she managed to shake it off and glare at me again. “Now since we’re short one robot, you finish the job.” Without hesitation the honor guard turned to me, scorpion tail raised. I gulped and backed up as he approached, but I knew I couldn’t escape him. “Whoa, hey here,” I stammered. “What about that whole ‘respect for Grey Water’ thing?” I swallowed heavily, no idea where the words were coming from. “Get another bot to finish me, I’ll wait.” The overseer made no motion to change her mind, as the guard backed me against the wall, his tail raised up next to his head. “Well,” I thought, swallowing again. “Last thing I’ll ever see is an armored stallion way too close for comfort. Not what I pictured at all…” My thoughts of my imminent mortality were cut short by a piercing scream somewhere over to my right, followed by a new augmented voice calling “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Both the guard and I looked towards the new voice to realize what it meant by that. An armored pegasus stallion stood on his hind legs, one foreleg wrapped tightly around the overseer’s neck, choking her. She struggled to escape him, but she was no match for the power armor’s grip, and the feeble clanging of her hooves on the casing wasn’t helping her. “Take off your armor and I let her go,” the pegasus demanded, loosening his grip on the overseer slightly. The guard shifted towards them however, causing him to tighten his grip again. “Now!” the pegasus demanded. After another moment of hesitation, the honor guard lifted a hoof towards his helmet. The hiss of the armor depressurizing rang in my ears as the guard removed his helmet as ordered. It was the last mistake he made. Without warning a shot rang out, and a hole appeared straight through the guard’s head. He collapsed, but more worried about random gunfire my eyes trained back to the new armored individual, where I finally spotted a rifle mounted freely at the stallion’s side. When the gun didn’t train on me immediately afterwards, I took a second to look over the new armor. It was mostly gold with blue stripes running from his head to his hindquarters, sliding freely around and between panels all across the armor. The design itself wasn’t exactly familiar, some cross between standard armor and a more angled design to deflect projectile weapons. Small blue lights pulsed all across the suit, along the scorpion-like tail that now ended in a fairly small (for the design) barb. “Well?” the stallion looked at me curiously, as I finally met his gaze. “What are you waiting for?” “I...I-I-I don’t understand,” I stammered, “What’s happening?” The stallion leaned against the podium, supporting his weight as he continued his chokehold on the overseer. The mare was still struggling, but her efforts were quickly fading. “You’re being rescued, how fun is that?” he said simply, seemingly ignoring the mare’s feeble squirming. “Well, maybe it’s not. But either way I need your help. We’re getting out of here, and I don’t know enough about the outside world. But you do, I know you’ve been watching through those automated expeditions.” The stallion sounded almost excited, so much so that I couldn’t help but smile weakly in response. “Yeah, I have,” I lied, trying to not let it show. I hadn’t ever seen the wasteland, I’d never been that close to the other researchers who were in charge of that. I didn’t know for sure what this stallion would do if I told him the truth: he’d gone through all this trouble to save me from getting killed, killed without hesitation right in front of me, what was he going to do to me if he found out it was all for nothing? “Great,” the stallion said cheerily. “Now grab some cables from that maintenance kit,” he gestured towards the kit the technician had been using on the bot earlier. I listened to him and walked closer, trying to avert my eyes from the leftover mist of technician far too close for comfort. “Why am I doing this?” I asked, trying to frame my aversion of my eyes as trying to talk with him. “Because we’re taking this one with us,” he replied, pointing his free hoof at the near unconscious mare in his grip. “Because first, we’ll need her help to open the doors. She should have the codes and all. And two, as a little insurance policy, make sure they don’t nuke us as soon as they find us.” He sounded rather self-assured with this plan, like he’d thought this all out to the last decimal point. “That could actually work,” I replied, thankfully distracted enough that I could dig a few long, sturdy cables out of the bag. “But there’s going to be a problem if you keep choking the life out of her like that.” The stallion glanced at the nearly unconscious mare in his hooves. “Oh,” he muttered, suddenly releasing his grip. The mare collapsed on the floor, gasping for air and coughing. I reached out to pass the cables to the stallion, but he turned away and started to walk towards the door. “Don’t look at me, you figure it out.” I looked back down at the overseer, moving close to her chest as I pulled her forelegs together. “Just in case you blame me for this,” I muttered, trying to sound a little more confident than I was. “This wasn’t my idea.” The overseer coughed, closing her green eyes as she looked about ready to pass out. “They’ll kill you both before you leave this place,” she murmured before slipping away. I tried my hardest to not let her words rattle me as I started binding her legs. “Geez, you sure took long enough,” the stallion said, leaning against the doorway as I emerged. The overseer was lying unconscious across my back, forelegs and hind legs bound to keep her from waking up and running anywhere. “You could help, you know,” I said angrily, though he didn’t even look at me. “And you might be?” “Arkangel,” the armored pegasus replied. “Or just Ark. And in case you didn’t know, that’s Overseer Siren,” he said, pointing at the mare. “Really annoying individual,” he sighed. “Okay then Ark,” I muttered, “what’s the plan now?” Ark looked back at me for a second, and though I couldn’t see it I could tell he had a careless smile under his helmet. “Why, we walk right on out the front door, of course,” he said. “What, you mean just walk through all that security, give them a friendly ‘hello’ and a wave, ask for a map?” Ark didn’t respond besides a silent glance at me. “Maybe we make Siren here smile at them, that’ll put them in a good mood! And in case you hadn’t noticed, only one of us has any kind of armor here,” I said dryly, as I stamped my hoof on the floor. Ark only tilted his head a little bit, maybe trying to listen for something. “You hear any alarms?” he asked after a second. I listened myself and shook my head. “Of course not. Nopony knows that your execution has been foiled, that there’s two guards dead and an overseer’s been taken hostage.” I scoffed at Ark. “Really? Nopony noticed the throngs of pegasi running out of here, screaming and stampeding away?” “Nope,” said Ark bluntly. “Hard to stampede when there’s a bunch of null gas flooding the halls.” Instantly hearing that, I tried to cover my nose, knowing even if Ark’s helmet filtered the gas out there was no way he was hauling two unconscious ponies out of here. “Relax, it’s aired out by now. So,” he said, starting to trot down the hall. “Any further questions you’ve got I can answer on the way. I didn’t have a good response to Ark as he started to walk away, forcing me to try and keep up with him. It was a little tricky trying to keep the overseer balanced on my back as we walked, but I eventually found a decent enough gait to work with. We hadn’t gone far when I saw the result of Ark’s null gas, piles of sleeping ponies cluttering the hallway, forcing us to step around them. Thankfully, even with my hindrance I didn’t have too much trouble working my way past them. Ark and I walked in silence for a bit, me unsure of anything to say to this stranger. Nothing happened to draw attention to us either, not until we neared a security station. The unicorn guard on duty wasn’t looking up at all, staring at something on the counter in front of him. Arkangel moved close to the glass with the tail of his suit raised, ready to strike. The guard looked up just in time to see Ark’s tail lunge through the plane of glass, burying itself in his throat. I stifled a scream as Ark yanked his tail back and moved on like nothing had happened. “Are you crazy!?” I shouted at him. Ark turned and looked back at me, his just changing from red back to blue. “What?” he asked. “You just killed him! You killed a totally innocent bystander!” I raised a hoof at the poor pony collapsed in his seat, staggering for breath as he weakly tried to cover his wound. “He didn’t even know we were here!” “Look,” Ark muttered, “out in the wastelands, there’s going to be no mercy. Nopony’s going to think twice about killing you. You’re going to have to work through these kinds of obstacles quick as you can. You can bet I’m not going to hesitate if a raider points a gun at me, and I hope you don’t either.” Ark turned and kept walking, surely intent to leave without me if it came down to it. I didn’t really have a choice at this point, so I moved to follow him, making the mistake of looking at the guardpost again. The pony inside was looking directly at me, his eyes filled with panic as he reached a hoof out to me. He tried to say something, I could only imagine he was begging for help, but with his throat punctured like that the only thing that came out of his mouth was blood. “I’m so sorry…” I whispered to him, before tearing my eyes away from the scene of a cold-blooded murder. I ran as quickly as I could from him, trying to keep my stomach from turning over. Amazingly, we were lucky enough to get to the elevator to the main entrance without running into anypony else. I’d never really seen this place before, only heard a little about it. I knew the main stable gate was big, but nothing prepared me for exactly how massive it was: the thing had to be at least five stories tall! Ark immediately went for a control panel near the doorway, bypassing scattered loading and maintenance equipment as he went, before he turned back to me and tilted his head at the console. “Bring her over here,” he demanded. I did as he said and brought Overseer Siren next to the console, setting her up against the wall as she regained consciousness. Her eyes began to refocus on the two of us, glaring at me for a second before turning on Ark with a look of pure hatred. “You both are going to get a very gruesome execution for this,” she snarled. “I’m sure,” Ark said flatly. “Now be a good mare, and tell me the code to open this door,” he raised a hoof to the gate. She stared back at him, unmoved, even as he continued to threaten her. “Now!” he shouted, the voice modulator in his helmet deepening it further, to the point it sent shivers up my spine. “Or perhaps we can make this a lot worse for you.” At that moment, I started to ask myself if Ark was really better than the alternatives. Up until now I’d been following him for fear of my own life, what the other stable dwellers would do after I escaped my execution. But Ark was proving far more unstable, a far greater danger to be around. Unfortunately, it seemed that Siren didn’t seem to agree with me. “You can try all you want, traitor,” she stared straight at him, “but I’m not giving this up to you. You’re not going to escape out into the wasteland, and you’re certainly not dragging me out there with you,” she snapped, raising her forelegs to strain against her bonds. In response, Ark’s tail raised up and lunged forward, slamming into the wall not a metre from her head. The barb burrowed deep into the metal, drawing an uneasy crunch from the structure and making me sick that he hadn’t missed her after all. I could see she was rattled by the close impact, but refused to let her anger for Ark drop, even after the physical threat. Ark pulled his tail back and raised it, threatening to strike again. But I couldn’t let that happen. “Ark wait,” I called, taking a step closer. “There’s other ways we can…” “Don’t bring my name into this!” Ark’s helmet turned hastily towards me, hissing as though he were trying to keep something a secret. But the damage had already been done. “Ark...Arkangel,” Siren murmured, voice quiet in disbelief. She looked distraught all of a sudden, raising her hooves to cover her face. “What, it wasn’t obvious?” Ark replied, as his helmet began to depressurize. He pulled it off swiftly to reveal a dark grey-coated face, a black and blue mane flattened by helmet hair. His eyes stared piercingly at Siren before he glanced up angrily at me, only for me to focus on how only his right eye was a natural blue; his left had been replaced by something we might have installed in one of our battle machines. “I put you in that program out of pity,” said Siren, gasping for breath, “and this is how you repay me?” Her body was shaking, unbridled fury on her face as she glared at Ark with a stare I thought might kill him any second, even when I saw a tear drip from one eye. They stared at each other for a few uncomfortable seconds, before Siren sighed and looked down. “Untie me, and I’ll give you your stupid door codes.” “Fine by me,” replied Ark, locking his helmet back down. With two swift swipes of his tail Ark cut the cables binding Siren. She looked back up at him, far more tearful than before, still not moving from against the wall despite being free. With a sigh, Siren began to speak out the door code, with just enough time for Ark to punch it in. “1-7-3-0-5-1-0-5-3.” There was a pause as Ark finished the sequence she gave him, before he looked back expectantly. With another sigh, Siren added the last “1.” With the last key press, a warning klaxon rang out, orange lights scattered around the room began to flash and an enormous grinding noise emerged from the gate. The roar as the mechanisms started to pull the gate open were almost deafening, but I could still hear Ark well enough. “Sorry about this, but we still need you,” he said to Siren, with a hoof on her shoulder. Suddenly he lifted her up slightly and headbutted her hard with his helmet. Siren collapsed unconscious on the floor. I stared for a second as Ark started to shift Siren to flip onto his back. “You said you’d let her go!” I yelled over the sound of gears grinding. “No, I said I’d untie her,” Ark corrected me, finding a place to keep Siren balanced as he turned towards the gate. I was close to reaching out and grabbing Siren off his back when a voice rang out behind us. “Halt!” I flinched and turned hesitantly to face the source of the voice. A black uniformed officer followed by a group of guards in power armor were approaching us quickly, the officer’s hoof raised threateningly at us. “Why the hell are you opening the door, we’re not scheduled for another expedition for three days!” “Ah, yes,” Ark said behind me, sounding less convincing than I’d have liked. I glanced back at him, pleading that something better was about to come out of his mouth. “We know of course, but, I...well, we have an experiment to conduct. Won’t be long, I promise.” To my amazement, the guards seemed to buy that excuse, at least for a second. “Well, we should have still been informed that something was occurring, even with the secrecy you’d need.” The guard’s eyes were trained on me, which only made my heart sink. However, just when I thought I’d hit the bottom, my heart sank lower as the guard caught sight of the overseer’s outfit over Ark’s back. “Okay, what’s really going on here?” he snapped, his weapon starting to glow as he raised it right at my head. I could hear Ark start to say something else unconvincing, but he didn’t have time to spit out whatever excuse he’d concocted. Right at that moment, the elevator arrived again, this time bearing no less than fourteen gold and red-striped honor guards, followed an old grey pegasus mare in a golden high overseer’s outfit and a taller golden honor guard. “Door Master Picklock,” the high overseer said calmly to the black-coated officer, “kill these two traitors and return Overseer Siren to me.” Ark didn’t wait for anypony to react, his rifle leveling with the officer. Unprepared for the attack the officer reared in fear, but one of his guards leapt forward and wrapped an armored wing around him, dragging him to the floor. Meanwhile Ark turned a shotgun attached to his other side at the line of honor guards, each pointing a weapon back as they swiftly formed a line to protect the overseer. They each activated a shield to completely cover their leader and the elite guard behind them. “Evocatus,” the elite guard cried, “advance!” In perfect unison the line of honor guards marched forward, the door guards moving to shift Officer Picklock behind them to safety. I could see Ark shifting his gaze swiftly between the two groups as the door guard regained composure and started to point their weapons at him, while I tried to duck behind Ark. They wouldn’t shoot now and risk hitting the overseer, would they? That had to be the only reason we were still alive. Over the sound of the gate shifting I heard something move in the ceiling. “Ark, we need to go, now,” I cried, watching as a pair of turrets unfurled from the ceiling and started to take aim on us, while a crane arm resting in the corner sprang to life and started to rattle down a track into a nearby hallway. I didn’t want to know what that thing was going to retrieve, and thankfully Ark seemed to agree with me. I took one last glance at the groups of ponies pointing more weapons than I felt comfortable seeing active at us, and noticed the high overseer craning her neck over the honor guards, casting worried looks at Siren. Ark saw her glances and, to my surprise, responded. “I’ll take care of her, I promise,” he called, before raising his hoof and throwing something onto the ground. “Storm, run!” he bellowed, turning tail and flinging himself at the door. I didn’t waste a second and turned to follow him, glancing up at the massive door as it still was trying to open...only to realize I was wrong. Now it was closing, and the gap to squeeze through was thinning fast. Ark leapt through the gap with Siren still balanced precariously on his back, and with my only shield gone I heard the guards open fire behind me. I couldn’t help but look back as I ran, noticing a field in the guard’s fire where the bolts just seemed to vanish, right over where Ark had thrown something. I had barely enough time and sense to put it between myself and the guards as I sprinted for the gap, diving through the narrow opening right before the door slammed back into its slot. The door slammed shut with an enormous clang as I found myself standing on four legs again, breathing heavily with my eyes shut. I couldn’t believe what had just happened, that we’d somehow survived that. When I finally found myself believing enough of it to take in more unbelievable sights, I opened my eyes and shakily looked around. Right in front of me was a metal ramp, leading up several metres to a bright point of light I had to assume was open sky. Ark was already halfway up the ramp as I hurried to follow him, emerging from the cavern blinking in the light. My vision cleared enough to see a clouded sky high above us; we’d emerged at the base of a hill, surrounded by even more hills and mountains, peaks so high they dwarfed the vault door even at their distance. There was brown dust and decayed foliage everywhere, meager plants black and sickly the only things that seemed alive up here. “Welp, this is the worst day of your life,” Ark said dryly, keeping his eyes forward even as I stared at him. “Welcome to the wasteland.” Author's Note Footnote: Level Up Perk gained:They can't hurt what they can't hit! Get 25+ Damage Resistance and 25+ Energy Resistance when you're sprinting. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56
The wastelandFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 2: The Wasteland By Fallen Sentinel “A long time ago you gave me a choice, now I give you a choice. Run or Die” Emptiness. That was the only word I could think of looking at my surroundings. Sure there were things scattered here and there, a row of mountains on either side as we stood in the base of a valley, but there was nothing out here to look at. The mountains were scarred with what had to be damage from bombs, scattered plantlife struggling to grow and turning a very unhealthy black color. I tore my eyes away from the barren landscape, turning towards Arkangel to ask him something. Only then did I notice he was already on the move, heading off to the left of where we’d stepped out. I broke into a gallop to follow him. “Where are we going?” I shouted, trying to pick up speed and catch up to his lead. “Come on, keep up or get left behind,” he called back. “I really just need the overseer, I can do this alone if I have to.” I huffed as I managed to catch up with him, though Ark didn’t seem to notice. “Out of the mountain range first off,” he said with a gesture, though not at the mountain pass like I expected. I didn’t have time to ask what he was doing though, since the Pip Buck my captors had neglected to confiscate beeped at me. Surprised I’d forgotten about the device this long, I glanced down at it, seeing that the general topographic map now had a navigation beacon. “How did you…” I started to ask, but Ark cut me off as though he hadn’t heard me. “After that, we’re headed to Rock Point, then probably Manehattan ruins. And if you’re still alive by then,” he glanced back at me for a second, “I’ll tell you the rest.” “What do you mean ‘still alive’?” I gulped. Ark stared at me again, making me wither in the piercing look he shot me. “What, you thought this was going to be some kind of vacation?” I stared blankly at him in response, but he wasn’t waiting for me to actually say anything. “This is a wasteland. Everything out here’s going to try and kill you.” This day just kept getting better. It seemed like every next event was trying to one-up the last one, from a random arrest to being out here in the wastelands, all alone save a pony I still wasn’t sure I could trust since he was so casual about killing his own. But by now, I didn’t have much choice, so I sighed and kept trotting, keeping up with Ark as best I could. It was going to be a long day still... I spent a few minutes trying to talk to Ark, trying to get any more information out of him, but nothing I asked seemed to entice him to talk. Eventually I gave up and just tried to take in the surroundings. Nothing much had changed, we were still in the mountain pass, though I had noticed it was getting darker. Despite living in a Stable my whole life, I’d read enough old stories to know that Celestia was moving the sun down below the horizon, although glancing up I couldn’t see the fabled shining sphere through the dense cloud cover. I’d occasionally dreamed about what the surface had been like, wondered what it would feel like to fly free amongst the clouds...I’d just never imagined it as being so dour and depressing. “Something’s not right.” Ark’s sudden vocalization snapped me back to reality. “The stable hasn’t sent anything after us,” he replied, glancing back from where we’d come. “Well...that’s good, right?” I asked. Surely if we’d fought a bunch of soldiers by now, we’d be dead. “Not really. I mean sure, we’re not fighting them to try and get anywhere. But it doesn’t make sense, they have plenty of soldiers trained to handle the wasteland.” Ark stopped abruptly, glancing around the valley. “They’re gonna ambush us. They have to be planning one, there’s no way they’re just letting us walk away with the overseer.” Ark kept walking forward, prompting me to follow. It didn’t take too long for Ark to stop again and turn to me. “Take Siren,” he ordered. “What is it now?” I asked, though I still listened to him as he moved to drop the overseer’s unconscious body on my back. “My EFS is showing targets ahead,” was all he said, before turning off and running forward, before I could even ask what he meant by that. I wanted to call out to him, but before I could he simply vanished from sight. I blinked in surprise, trying to figure out where he’d gone. I glanced at my Pipbuck, but the civilian grade version I owned didn’t have nearly the tech whatever Ark was using available. I had no idea what was happening, all I could do was wait. I didn’t need the Pipbuck, however, to hear hoofsteps behind me, simply waiting for the bigger threat to leave. Trying not to alert whatever was there to my hearing it, I glanced around quickly for anything I might use as a weapon. There wasn’t anything particularly dangerous, a few jagged rocks that might be my best bet, so I slowly moved closer to one and set Siren down. The hoofsteps came closer, and despite my hooves shaking I grabbed the most jagged rock I could see and turned slowly. Facing me were two earth ponies, both stallions and both wearing ragged leather armor. I didn’t know too much about leather armor designs, but it wasn’t hard to tell it was in very poor condition and barely defensive at all. They did, however, have much better weapons available, a hammer and a knife, and I was sure they at least knew how to use them. The sound of gunfire erupted behind me, telling me Arkangel had found the ambush he’d been looking for and already engaged. There wasn’t going to be any help from him; I was on my own. “Stay back!” I shouted, trying to look more confident than I was. It didn’t seem to fool the earth ponies though, who just smirked at me as they approached. The one with the hammer charged at me, swinging his weapon at my skull, something I noticed with barely enough time to roll the other way to dodge his strike. Without thinking I swung the rock at the stallion, slamming it into his head and knocking him off his hooves. The hammer fell from his grip and landed, the handle tapping against my hoof as it fell. I grabbed it when I saw the original owner struggling to get back up. I swung the hammer at his head and knocked him back down to the ground, groaning in pain. With the one stallion incapacitated, I turned towards his friend, who was already barrelling towards me. I tried to raise the hammer to swing at him, but I wasn’t going to swing fast enough to catch him, I could already tell. Thankfully, the stallion tripped and fell forward, though he still had enough sense on him to slash at my legs. I jumped backwards, wings reflexively shifting even when they caught against my lab coat and couldn’t help lift me. The stallion tried to get up as I recovered, raising the hammer to strike at him if he got closer. But suddenly the stallion crashed back down on the ground, Siren landing on his back and forcing him down. I stared in shock at the overseer, as her gaze met mine. “Finish him you idiot!” she screamed, as the stallion under her struggled to throw her off. I snapped out of it and swung the hammer sideways at his face, accidentally smashing right into his eye. He screamed and writhed as Siren got up off him, grabbing the hammer from my hooves and smashing it into the stallion’s head again. He stopped moving. “I thought you could have finished him yourself when I tripped him,” she snapped, thrusting the hammer back at me. “But you keep finding ways to disappoint me.” “Well then,” a new voice startled me away from looking dejectedly at Siren. I saw a new face, a unicorn mare, moving slowly towards us. Her armor was in much better shape than the stallions, and she was holding a decent-looking rifle in her magic, hovering just behind her. “You know, these guys aren’t so easy to replace,” she sighed, glaring at me as she loaded a new bullet into her gun without even looking at it. I swallowed nervously. “So I’m going to give you one chance. Join up with me and replace those clowns you just killed.” She snapped her rifle shut and cocked it, the ominous click emphasizing her point. “Sorry,” Siren said cooly, “but I’m not exactly yours to take.” I wanted to turn and look at Siren, but the armed unicorn was making me too nervous to turn my back. I tensed my body, ready to strike if I got the chance: while I didn’t like how blunt Siren was being, I had to admit I didn’t exactly want to end up shanghaied into a bandit group. The unicorn leveled her rifle at Siren’s head, and before I could think otherwise I was lunging forwards, raising the hammer to bring down on the unicorn. But in one effortless motion she grabbed the hammer with her magic, ripped it from my grip, and swung it around to slam hard into my gut. The wind was knocked out of me as I collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath and clutching where the hammer had struck. “Last chance,” the unicorn said, keeping the gun trained on Siren. The overseer only stared back at the unicorn, her face dominated by an unamused expression. “Well fine then, I tried.” A gunshot rang out, making me cover my ears and avert my eyes. I still heard a whump of a body hitting the ground, though to my shock when I opened my eyes, the unicorn was the one lying dead at my hooves, her rifle clattering to the ground beside her. Siren looked a bit rattled as she glanced at me, sharing my look of horror as we both glanced up, trying to find where the shot had come from. “Thanks for distracting her!” we both heard a voice coming from somewhere up above. We looked up and quickly spotted a maroon coated sniper waving at us from up on a cliff. Before either of us could respond, he leapt forward and dove off the cliff, unfurling his wings and floating down towards the two of us. As he came closer, I could make out that his mane and tail were black, with just a hint of blue. He reminded me of what little I’d seen of Ark’s mane, but a bit less messy. As he touched down I watched his wings flap, and caught sight of the silver gear cutie mark on his haunch. “What in Equestria took you so long?!” Siren snapped, stepping closer. “And where is your uniform?” The stallion blinked at her for a second. “Well I was a little busy keeping an eye on that other fight,” he said, pointing in the direction where Ark’s gunfire was still ringing out. “Looking out for little miss reaver here,” he pointed at the dead unicorn at my hooves. I shied away from the body as the pegasus continued, feeling a little ill despite seeing many more corpses already. “Caught her walking on over here, and you guys just gave me a nice clean shot at her. As for a uniform...” he glanced down at his clothes for a second, before shrugging. “Don’t have one.” Siren facehooved and groaned. “You are by far the worst soldier I’ve ever seen,” she grumbled, before looking back up at him, rather tired. “Look, I do thank you for performing your duties, but once we’re back at the stable I must insist we get you a new uniform.” The pegasus only stared back at her, confused. “Stable? What stable?” Siren huffed indignantly. “What stable indeed, are you really this stupid?” I finally caught onto what Siren expected was happening and, wondering myself if it were true, tried to clarify with my own question. “Are you a soldier from the nearby stable?” “Nope,” the pegasus smirked. “Name’s Gunrunner, most efficient merc of the wastelands.” He just grinned for a second, as Siren started to back away with her eyes wide. “Had a contract to get rid of that unicorn, nothing about two strangers here. So you could thank me for not letting her kill you before I took her out, you know.” He glared at Siren with an arched eyebrow. Siren froze in place for a second, before suddenly turning tail and bolting away, screaming “you’re all traitors!” back at us. “No, stop her!” I yelled, starting to run after her myself. I tried to unfurl my wings again and take off after her, but the labcoat still prevented it. Gunrunner’s wings however were unburdened, and he leapt forward to pounce in her. Siren saw his shadow approaching and spread her wings as well, but her awkward attempts to flap didn’t even push her forward. Gunrunner caught her quickly, slamming into her and knocking her on the ground. “Get off me!” she shouted, squirming to break free, but Gunrunner had too good an advantage over her. “He and his little friend kidnapped me from the stable!” Gun looked back up at me in confusion. “Wait...so who’s the good guy here?” I sighed and shrugged; at this point, I wasn’t really sure anymore. “Kidnapping was Ark’s idea, I just didn’t want you,” I glared at Siren, “to get through executing me. Especially since you know I didn’t do anything!” Gun let out an amused snort, but seemed convinced by my words. Still pinning Siren down, he reached into a saddlebag and produced some rope. Siren glanced back and saw it, her squirming redoubled, but it was no good. “So, execution huh? What for?” he asked me, as he began to wrap Siren’s wings with the rope. “Publicly, for murder of my head researcher,” I muttered, “but really she thought I was a bad influence. And other various reasons, I think,” I turned my attention to Siren as I spoke, watching as Gun tied her wings down. “Not likely you’re going to tell me now though, huh?” Siren just glared at me, before turning her attention back to Gunrunner. “Look...Gunrunner, was it?” she asked. “This is an internal issue between members of my Stable. If you untie my wings now and back off, then I think we can overlook this little ‘incident’.” Gunrunner, however, didn’t even pause, tightening the knots around her wings before producing a metal collar he slapped around her neck. “You will regret this,” she growled, as Gunrunner added a rope lead to the collar. “Maybe I will,” he shrugged. “Maybe not. But killing someone unnecessarily like you were trying to just isn’t something I can approve of.” At that, Gunrunner passed the rope lead to me, which I took before Siren could turn and bolt for it. She yanked at the rope to try and break my hold, but I held fast, causing her to glare at me with an expression full of hatred. “I’m still saying none of this was my idea,” I replied, as Gunrunner turned to head towards Ark’s fight. I turned to follow, having to yank at Siren’s leash when she tried to dig her hooves in and not move. It turned out Arkangel wasn’t as far ahead as I’d thought. He was just wrapping up his fight with several bandits. He fired one more burst from his shotgun into a downed body, I couldn’t tell if they were dead already or not. But as he glanced up at us, he trained his gun on Gunrunner. “Ark no, he’s with us!” I cried, stepping in front of Gunrunner before he was shot. Ark didn’t respond for a moment, glancing to the left of me and spotting Siren. “Well, I leave you alone for a couple minutes, and you’ve got a new pet,” he gestured to Siren, “and boyfriend,”he gestured at Gunrunner. His guns stayed focused on Gun though. I stared back at Arkangel, keeping my face as stern as I could and ignoring his taunt. “He saved both of us, and kept Siren from getting away.” “Well somepony’s feathers are ruffled,” Gun smirked, meeting Arkangel’s gaze. He seemed far too cool under pressure, did he not understand what that armor was capable of? Ark stepped forward. “Storm, I’m only asking you this once. Stand aside,” he jerked his head to his right, trying to get me to move. “I’m not letting some raider follow us.” I was about to object again, but I suddenly felt a hoof at my shoulder. Gun pushed me aside and stepped closer to Ark. His battle saddle aimed a heavily outdated beam weapon right at Ark, the end charging brighter and brighter. “I’m open to talking this out if you want,” he said dryly. Ark opened fire, a single shot that Gun shifted just enough to make ricochet off his battle saddle. The beam weapon fired, the blast smashing into Ark’s chestplate. Ark stiffened in an instant, before falling onto his side, collapsing. I stared in horror as Gun’s saddle holstered the weapon. “You killed him!” I shouted, panic flooding my voice. “Relax,” Gunrunner said calmly. “Didn’t kill him, just crashed his suit.” Gun trotted up casually to Arkangel’s collapsed armor and rapped on the helmet. “You’re lucky that was my first choice.” Ark yelled something from inside the armor, but without the voice amplifier I couldn’t make anything out besides the angry emotion in it. “Well, do you really need him that bad?” Gun glanced back at me. “Wha...of course we need him!” I shouted. “He’s the one with the plan here!” Of course that was the main reason for keeping Ark around, but I couldn’t help but fear what might happen if we ditched him here and now. He was unstable, what would he do if he caught up with us? Gunrunner shrugged, then cast his glance at the two raiders behind us. He then looked at my Pipbuck, and back to Ark’s armor. “You know how to restart it?” I shook my head in response; my speciality was robotics, power armor was a bit different from that. “I know that robots tended to reboot a few hours later if they ran into trouble, or could be manually restarted by a charge from a spark battery. It might be the same with his armor,” I said. Gunrunner glanced back at his battle saddle and shook his head. “Sorry, not giving up mine. Guess we’re gonna have to carry him til he resets.” There was a bemused snort from Gun’s nose as he leaned down, biting onto Ark’s armored wing to flip him over. Suddenly, there was a sharp whistling sound coming at us, and before I could turn to face it I felt something very nearly clip the tip of my ear. I ducked instinctively and glanced up, just in time to see a missile whiz straight over my head. It continued on its merry way, slamming into a rock further ahead of us and exploding on contact. My head snapped around to catch sight of what was shooting at us. It was a sentry bot, one of the ones I’d been working on before all this had happened. It’s guns were spraying wildly in our direction, making me silently thankful I hadn’t managed to calibrate their targeting software yet. The sentry lumbered forward on four treads, probably trying to correct for the spread fire with close range. I dove for cover behind a rock, half dragging Siren with me as she had the same idea, but a different destination. Safe for the moment, I looked up to see Gun had dragged Ark behind some cover as well. I breathed a sigh of relief that we were all safe, only to feel Siren’s leash slip from my grasp. I lunged after it, just barely grabbing hold of her and stopping her escape attempt. At that second, the sentry’s guns stopped firing, giving me a second to glance up and see what we were dealing with. I could tell it was an older model, something we’d gotten 200 years back to update. Its torso now had mounted shield projectors to disperse oncoming fire, a missile pod on its right shoulder that was currently reloading to fire another salvo. The twin gatling guns sprayed wildly in our direction, forcing me to duck back down as the rock I was trying to hide behind got pelted with hundreds of bullets, threatening to turn the whole thing into gravel. But as Siren broke cover, the sentry stopped firing, programmed to rescue her probably, so with its wild spraying it wasn’t going to risk a stray shot hitting her. I decided to use that as an advantage and pulled her out between me and the sentry, throwing the two of us closer to Gunrunner’s cover. The sentry started tracking but refused to fire at me, at least until the two of us dove behind the second rock, Siren squirming to get away the entire time. “Do you have any idea how big of a pain she is?” I snapped as the guns spun up again, spraying bullets and filling the air with rattling. Gun only shrugged, before glancing down at Ark again. I couldn’t help but smirk at the irony, how Ark’s tail was designed off the paralyzing scorpion, and now he was paralyzed himself. “Wait a minute...the tail!” I thought, thinking back to how easily Ark’s tail had split the metal back in the stable door room. “I have an idea, but I need that spark battery.” Gunrunner only glared at me, but I wasn’t in the mood for it. “Well, you got a better idea to take that thing out?” Gun glanced back over the rock carefully to scope out the sentry, but was forced down by another burst of fire. He sighed heavily, before quickly removing his battery and giving it to me. “You owe me a fresh one,” he said bluntly, as he took Siren’s leash in response while I turned to look over Arkangel’s armor. But this was beyond my understanding, I couldn’t figure it out. “Ark, where do I insert the battery?” I asked, leaning close to his head to hear his response. Thankfully the robot stopped firing just long enough for me to hear his reply. “Spine panel!” I heard just clearly enough. I went back to look where he’d suggested and, with a bit more searching than I cared for while under fire, I managed to find a tiny break in the smooth texture near the back of Arkangel’s neck. Sure enough the second I pressed down on the rougher patch, a series plates along Ark’s spine started to shift and unfurl, revealing the under layers of the armor, as well as its operator, clad in some kind of underarmor in addition to the power frame. I stopped myself from pondering just how warm it might get in there long enough to find a socket with a spark battery installed, but when I went to remove it the battery was jammed in and refused to budge. I started to panic, blood racing in my ears as the bullets kept pounding against the rock and breaking our cover down inch by inch, pulling frantically at the battery until something caught my attention; another socket next to the installed battery. There wasn’t anything in there already, so with a mental shrug I inserted Gun’s battery into the slot and, to my relief, watched the charge transfer into Ark’s armor. Instantly Ark’s armor closed around him again, and his legs began to move. Arkangel staggered onto his hooves, his eyes blue as he regained his footing. Then, without saying a word, Arkangel bolted out past the rock, keeping ahead of the sentry’s fire as it attempted to get a bead on him. I glanced over the rock to watch Ark zig-zagging closer, leaping the last few feet to try and smash into the robot. However the shields came up and blocked the impact. Ark just planted all four hooves sternly on the ground before leaping in the air, his wings flapping to carry him up and over the sentry as it turned to face him, leaving its back to us. Gunrunner took the opportunity and raised his energy cannon at the sentry’s back, firing the instant he had a charge, but the beam was stopped before it could hit. Gun grunted in disappointment as the sentry returned its attention to us, blasting at our cover and forcing Gun to duck. But he wasn’t quite quick enough, and a rock smashed loose from the debris rushed forward and smacked him right in the face. It took me another second to realize I was wrong again: a set of hooves had propelled that rock into Gun, as he fell sideways, still in the rock’s cover thankfully. I looked around just in time to see Siren swinging another chunk at my head. I fell backwards to avoid getting hit, but wasn’t quite as lucky with my landing: I crashed down on my back,right in the firing line of the sentry, who trained its guns and readied to fire. I shut my eyes and winced, fully expecting to be shredded. But nothing came. I cracked an eyelid open to stare at my executioner, only to see Arkangel standing triumphantly on its back, a spark battery grasped in his tail. I sighed with relief, before glancing back over at Siren. She looked panicked, her cunning plan to get me killed having failed. “You really want me dead, huh? Twice in one day you put me in front of a robot,” I pointed at the sentry’s gatling gun, which was only now stopping its spinning. Siren didn’t respond, short of trying to turn and flee, but Gun yanked on her leash and forced her onto the ground. She didn’t try to get up again, sighing in defeat. Arkangel flew over to us and tossed the spark battery at Gunrunner, a curt “debt’s been paid,” before turning back to me. “Storm, get Siren, we’re out of here.” I moved to take Siren’s leash back from Gun, but the merc only shook his head. “Nuh uh, debt’s not paid,” he corrected. Arkangel stared at him, while I just looked confused. “First,” Gun said, raising a hoof in the air, “you try and kill me. Second, you drag me into your little inter-stable problem,” he gestured vaguely to the three of us, “third one of your robots tries to attack me.” He jerked his head at the collapsed sentry. “And last but certainly not least,” he said, pulling Siren’s leash taut, “she hit me in the face. With a rock.” I couldn’t help but snicker at how indignant Gunrunner sounded at the last one, but Ark was far less amused. “Fine,” he sighed, “what else do you want?” “First off, for number three, that,” he pointed at the sentry. “Gotta be some great salvage there. Then for the rest, you all help me carry it back to my place.” I looked at Gunrunner in surprise. It felt odd that this was all he was going to ask for. But I didn’t object, and neither did Arkangel. “Alright fine. But make it quick,” he warned Gunrunner. “They might send something worse after us soon. I’d watched for several minutes as Gunrunner had a field day stripping the bot down for scrap. Ark used his tail to help cut anything that he couldn’t tear apart easily, while I sat back with a silent Siren watching as the salvage pile just kept growing. Occasionally I tossed a question or two out at her, asking why she’d ordered my execution in the first place, but I was met by either silence or the same response I’d gotten before. I could just tell there was something more, but Siren refused to loosen her tongue. Eventually Gun seemed finished, tossing a spare spark battery to Ark, which he stored away in a compartment in his armor. The only things left to transport were a missile, the bot’s untouched gatling guns, and a ton of scrap metal, more than I thought would have fit in the robot’s chassis. Gun glanced between me and the scrap pile for a second, before Ark said simply “just tie the rest to me, I’ll tow it.” Gun shrugged and got to work, using a net trap to hold everything while tying it to Ark’s armor. Meanwhile I tied a blindfold over Siren’s eyes, something the three of us had decided was the best choice so she wouldn’t know where we were headed. I was finished by the time Gunrunner was finished setting up the tow line, the bots gatling guns slung over his back, allowing the three of us to set off after Gunrunner. Ark somehow managed to stay ahead of me despite the heavy load, forcing me to try and hurry up so as not to get left behind. It wasn’t as simple as speeding up, though, since I had to cope with Siren’s stumbling and wandering around all over. I kept glancing back at her to make sure she was at least alright, though every time all I could see was the fearful expression she was trying to hide. We eventually made it out of the mountains and onto a flat stretch of plains, flatlands for miles wherever I could see. I glanced at my Pipbuck’s map to tell we were headed south, before trying again to convince Siren to trot a little faster despite her handicap. It worked, probably thanks to the more stable terrain, and I managed to catch up with Ark. “So Arkangel,” I asked, “what exactly do you want to accomplish out here?” Ark’s he slowly turned to face me, causing me to wince. “I’ll tell you when I trust you,” he said curtly. I decided to try and change the subject. “So, do you know Siren? Earlier you said she was an annoying individual” I figured it was a softball question he could answer easily, to get his focus off me for a second. “She caused problems everyone and a while,” he replied after a prolonged silence, looking back up and forward. “Nothing more or less.” For a second the answer appeased me, in part because he wasn’t staring at me anymore, but I started thinking about what kind of problems she made. My thoughts were interrupted by Gunrunner announcing “we might have to stop up here for the night.” I glanced at where Gun was indicating, a half-collapsed two story building that might have been a house at one point. It was hard to tell, considering the front wall had almost entirely fallen forward into the small, sickly yard in front of it. Scattered fruits grew in the deathly garden, the blackened remains of a wood fence trying its best to contain the corrupted plants. As the four of us picked our way through the debris into the main house, Siren needing some extra help considering her blindness, I looked around to figure that this had once been a living room. Books, toys lay scattered under a thick layer of dust, beside a flipped couch and collapsed cabinet. I didn’t know the last time somepony had been in here. Ark started to dump the salvage he was hauling and moved off into a different room, while Gunrunner carefully worked his way up the remains of the staircase. I didn’t feel like trying to drag Siren through any barriers or dangers in other rooms, so I heaved the couch back upright and helped Siren to sit down on it. “You know,” I muttered, trying to think of a different question to lighten the tension. “I don’t even know what you’re overseer of. What branch?” Siren refused to speak for a moment, but as she settled into the seat she seemed a touch grateful for the rest, and eventually spoke. “Soldier development.” “You said you put Arkangel in a project out of pity...was that the program? Soldier development?” Siren only shrugged. “I don’t know.” I was dumbstruck by that response: how could she not know what program she put him in? “What do you mean by that?” I asked, as Siren settled down on the couch. She completely ignored me, and after trying to get her attention for a few minutes I figured she’d fallen asleep. I sighed and glanced around the room, only to jump in fright as I saw Ark standing in the door frame, his empty visor staring at me. After a second of staring, however, he looked away. “Want to tell me what that was about?” I asked, only to have Ark turn and trot back around the corner out of sight. I sighed; my curiosity was gnawing at me now. I wanted to know more about whatever project had happened, but if the overseer had no idea, and the testee himself was refusing to talk, what hope did I have to learn more? Trying to get my mind off it, I started flipping through radio signals on my Pipbuck, trying to see if I could pick up anything. I found scrambled or repeated phrases on a few different bands, and only two proper radio stations: Rock Point News and Tenpony Tower. I tried listening to them both as I tied Siren’s forelegs together, in case she woke up unsupervised, but listening to either of them either bored me to tears or was so depressing I finally shut it off entirely. I next tried to just get some shut eye, but sleep didn’t come; I was too anxious, too unsafe in this crumbling ruin with a mercenary and an unstable murderous nutcase. I kept trying to fall asleep for at least an hour, long enough for Gunrunner to come back into the room and turn in himself, curling up in a corner and falling asleep with the greatest of ease. I was a little envious, but also astonished at how easily he was sleeping considering he now had three strangers around who might just kill him. I eventually decided to get up and look around, spotting Ark standing stone still outside, staring off into the distance. I decided not to provoke Arkangel further and tried to occupy my mind with exploring the house. The kitchen was littered with smashed plates, scattered utensils and rusted cooking supplies. But nothing held my interest long enough, so I decided instead to try and head upstairs. The first room I entered I guessed was once a foal’s bedroom, a single bed and a few toys, but the decorations were damaged and rotted away. The next was another bedroom, also with a single bed, though I felt sure that the adult of the house had lived here. And thankfully for my nerves, a terminal was sitting on the room’s desk. I didn’t honestly expect the terminal to function, but I figured tinkering with something might calm my nerves. So it came as a surprise that the device clicked on almost instantly when I prodded it. I wasn’t that experienced dealing with this model, and terminal slicing wasn’t something I remembered too well from my old specialist training, but after testing a few words I felt appropriate to the building the password “Regret” unlocked it. I sighed, depressed that the word had actually worked, before I started poking around the files. The only vaguely interesting thing on the terminal was a selection of messages; mostly outgoing to somepony, but a few responses as well. Message sent Heard you were being shipped out today, I hope that this will be a short war. I don’t see how it could of come to this we tried so hard to stop it from happening but it still did. Just try to stay alive and don’t do anything risky, I need you to come home when this is over. Ps, I went for the test today, turns out you're going to be a father when you get back I glanced over at the bed, imagining the mare sending this message out to her war-bound husband. I guess that explained why it was a single bed...though I didn’t like where it was going. Message Received That's great news, i’ll try and keep my head down. Besides from what i’ve heard both sides are trying to keep casualties low so I rate my chances as fairly high. To add more to my luck we’re being paired with a special forces group haven’t heard much about them though, they’re keeping us in the dark until we’re fully trained. Is it a mare or a colt? I quickly scanned through the list of messages, back and forths numbering in the hundreds. I knew I’d never get through the whole list in one night, so I decided to copy all of them onto my Pipbuck’s memory. It felt odd saving these personal communications between two ponies, but I was confident they were both long gone, so it wasn’t exactly like I was invading somepony’s privacy. Plus, it would make a great material to keep me out of boredom wandering the wastelands. I then pulled myself away from the terminal, looking around for anything else of interest in the house. I didn’t find anything but some heavily aged boxes of canned food, which I kept a few of for an emergency, and a bathroom sink that to my surprise was still running. I wanted to wash some of the dirt and blood from my black fur, but when I reached closer to the water my Pipbuck’s Geiger counter started chirping, causing me to change my mind. I finally went back downstairs to find nothing else had changed while I was exploring. Gunrunner was still curled up, his battle saddle not far from him, and Siren hadn’t moved an inch from the couch, hadn’t even disrupted her blindfold. But Arkangel had moved, headed towards the shed on the other side of the house. I thought that if he were separated from Siren, and now Gunrunner, he might feel a touch chattier. It was worth the risk to me, so I decided to follow him. As Arkangel glanced around the shed, I carefully approached him. “Hey Ark,” I said quietly, trying not to startle him. Ark turned his head to face me. I breathed a restrained sigh of relief at the sight as I kept talking. “I...I know you and I aren’t really friends, but...well, I thought you might want to tell me a little more about you, now that nopony’s listening.” “Somepony’s always listening,” Ark responded, turning away from me again as he took off his helmet and set it on the desk. He then pulled out his rifle and set it down, removing its cartridge. “What are you doing?” I asked. “Swapping out parts. I prefer ballistics, but since wastelanders are using laser weapons, I’m at a disadvantage.” I watched in silence for a bit as Ark started pulling components off his rifle, reassembling it with other bits he pulled from armor compartments until the weapon started to look more like a laser rifle. “Look Ark, I...you saved me and all, and I’m really grateful for that,” I sighed, as Ark snapped a gem cartridge into the rifle and holstered it at his side. “But I really need to know what you’re getting me into. I don’t know what I’m doing out here, I don’t know why I’m following you…” Arkangel turned his full attention to me, making me wince. I’d seen his left eye had been replaced with a cybernetic one before, but the difference between his real and his replacement eyes was unsettling to have both boring into me at once. “Look at me, can’t you tell?” I stammered for a second. “Well, I can tell you’re a cyborg, but I want to know why. I work with robots all the time, they’re meant to replace soldiers...so why did anypony do this to you?” Ark glanced down at the floor. “You can make a robot smart as you like, but there’s always going to be somepony who thinks it won’t be enough. That’s all that happened, a general decided he needed cyber soldiers. Nopony else was for it though, so I’m the only one they worked on. That enough for you?” “No,” I muttered. “Did Siren approve of this? And what general are you talking about anyways?” Arks robotic eye changed to red, and I backed up. “You should get back to watching Siren,” he said sternly, as his armours tail curled up behind him, “before I get annoyed.” I decided not to push my luck and left quick as I could, only to realise Ark had put his helmet back on and was following me. I galloped into the room and grabbed one of Gunrunners weapons, diving for the couch and trying to hide the gun beneath me. Ark entered a moment later, but he didn’t approach me like I feared. “Relax, I’m not going to kill you,” he muttered, moving to the opposite corner and settling in. “Give the merc his gun back. I still need you around.” I listened to Ark as he fell silent, seemingly falling asleep while I returned the weapon to Gunrunner’s saddle. I then tried to settle in to sleep myself, but my mind was buzzing with questions. Ark was a supersoldier project, that was obvious, but what was with the eye changing colour like that? Was it something like a split personality? An AI? Why was this general involved protecting his identity? I tried to distract myself with a few more of Shining Meadow’s messages, but I wasn’t focusing nearly well enough on it to understand anything in them. It did at least help me calm down a bit and I managed to finally pass out, getting at least a little sleep before I was disrupted again. There was something clunking against a wall, and when I looked around I spotted a small, winged metal ball bobbing silently in the air. The thing hovered a little closer to me, but when I reached out it ducked away, heading outside. I followed it as it hovered around to the shed and bumped gently against the door. I stood there, baffled, until to my surprise the thing spoke. “Open the door, please.” Too dazed to question how this thing was talking to me, even what it was, I did as it asked and opened the door. The sphere hovered inside and came to rest above a few sheets draped over something. “Lift these, please.” For some reason I hesitated, as an acrid scent filled my nostrils. “Please. I need you to see what you’re traveling with.” An image of Ark flashed in my mind, and though I was still hesitant I couldn’t deny my curiosity any longer. I lifted one of the sheets and pulled it away carefully, only for my heart to skip a beat at what I saw. It was a mare’s corpse, her skull crushed in around a bloody hole. This wasn’t an old body...this was new. “Be careful with that thing,” the orb said, “I saw this happen. She tried to greet him, and she lost her life for it.” I glanced back at it, but that was all the orb said, its audio crackling and shifting to some old song as it floated away. I covered the mare up again and left before my stomach revolted, headed back into the house with a whole new set of questions rampaging through my skull. I tried to just focus on getting back to sleep after that, but I couldn’t help but steal a glance at Arkangel as he lay there. “What are you?” I muttered to myself. “I wish I knew,” Ark said softly, making me jump nearly out of my skin. I hadn’t expected him to respond at all. All I could think to do was pick Siren up, take her upstairs, and let her down on the bed in the terminal room. I locked the door behind us, feeling just a hair safer that we were at least in a different room than Ark, as I lay down next to the door and finally fell properly asleep. Author's Note Footnote: Level Up Perk gained:They can't hurt what they can't hit! Get 25+ Damage Resistance and 25+ Energy Resistance when you're sprinting. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56
Band of mistrustFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 3: Band of hate By Fallen Sentinel “Wake up! The world's falling apart, and you don’t get to play the nice guy anymore.” I shivered as I slowly woke up, surprised at how cold it had gotten overnight. I’d expected the irradiated, desert-like wasteland to be sweltering hot all the time, but I was starting to learn that things out here could swing to either extreme. Blinking the sleep from my eyes I glanced around the room. Siren was still asleep on the bed, making me a little relieved she hadn’t escaped on my watch. But only a moment later my relief vanished, as I saw Ark sitting in front of the terminal. “How did you get in here?” I asked, stunned. I was sure I’d locked the door! Arkangel pointed at a nearby window, wide open to the elements. I facehoofed in embarrassment: I hadn’t once considered that last night, and if Ark had gotten in Siren would have gotten out easily. “Gunrunner’s giving us twenty minutes before we leave,” said Ark matter-of-factly, standing and trotting to the door. “I suggest you eat something before we go.” He unlocked the door and left without another word, his armored hoofsteps clunking down the stairwell audible even through the door. I sighed and got to my hooves, stretching to try and get a knot out of my back from sleeping awkwardly. Something about Ark’s appearance had bugged me, so I went over to the terminal and unlocked it. All of the messages that had been there last night were gone. I nervously glanced at the door before checking on my Pipbuck, making sure the files were still safe there. I was sure Ark had deleted the first set, but he didn’t seem to know I’d already made a copy...and maybe it should stay that way, for the time being. So with one final check on Siren to make sure she was still asleep, I shut the window and headed downstairs to see what was going on. Gunrunner was busy with his scrap pile, organizing everything for easier transit and tossing it into a few saddlebags. Ark was sitting at the table in the dining room, staring off into space, scowling at something unseen. He did at least notice me enter the room and pushed a saddlebag across the table at me. “Here,” he muttered, “already portioned it out. Give half to Siren.” I glanced inside to find something like bread and water stashed inside. I looked back up at Ark, who had propped his head up on a hoof and resumed his scowling at the ether. “Alright, what is it now?” I asked. After yesterday, and a poor night’s sleep, the cool, brooding bad boy routine was beginning to run its course. I was starting to get ticked off by it. “You mean at the moment? Or overall?” I smirked a little, trying to lighten my tone and lift some of the dread out of the room. Like it or not, I was out here with Ark, so maybe I needed to give him a little more credit than I was currently giving him. “Let’s start with right now,” I said with a shrug. Ark looked at me for a second, before he turned his eyes away and stared out the window next to me. “We’re headed the wrong way, Rock Point is north from here. This detour’s going to add another day to our trip, at least.” I opened my mouth to say something in response, but Ark didn’t look in the mood for it. He seemed almost bored, and that nothing I said was going to improve that. So I shut my jaw again and grabbed the saddlebag before exiting the room, leaving Ark to stare into the wasteland to his heart’s content. I instead focused on getting some food into myself and our prisoner. Siren had woken up by the time I got upstairs, and rolled over to face me. Her forelegs were still tied, something she was struggling a little to work with as I pulled her blindfold off and met her gaze. “Wonderful,” she sighed. “It wasn’t a dream after all, getting dragged off by a cybernetic nutcase and his featherbrained lackey.” She was staring daggers at me, but I couldn’t help but think that tension was running high here as much as it was with Ark. “I brought you some food at least,” I said, a joking grin on my muzzle as I gestured towards the saddlebag. I noticed Siren’s expression soften at those words, her front hooves pressing down on her stomach. I could faintly hear it rumbling as she glanced away from me, looking a little embarrassed. “Here,” I reached into the bag and gave her one of the bread bites. Siren glanced at the bread for a moment as she held it carefully in her bound hooves, looking almost like she was trying to determine if it was actually food or not. “You know, I still have to have you executed when we get back,” she said, before dropping her food off the side of the bed. I sighed in annoyance and moved away from her, sitting back by the door and opening my Pipbuck again. I started to try and eat my portion, but the taste was near unbearable. The only good thing I could say about it was that it was very filling for how little I had to eat. I tried to distract myself from the taste with another message from the list. Message sent Doc said they don’t know yet and honestly, I want it to be a surprise. Not sure if you know but there's been a lot of zebras back in town talking of joining up in the Equestrian military. I don’t know how to feel about them. Sure they want to help, but I keep getting this feeling that they might try to sabotage us. If you see any zebras fighting with you, please be careful around them. A strained grunting sound pulled my attention from the message, and looking up I saw Siren straining to reach the bread she’d intentionally dropped from the bedside. She glanced over at me and looked expectantly between me and the food. I shook my head at her. “I’m not your butler here, sorry.” Siren sighed before sliding off the bedside, moving carefully to not fall over with only three points of balance, as she grabbed the bread in her teeth and hopped back on the bedside, gagging. “Yeah, I know,” I sighed, raising what was left of my own portion. “This junk tastes terrible. Maybe the water will help wash it down?” I offered. She looked at me quizzically for a second, but I didn’t let it linger and went back to my Pipbuck, forcing myself to finish my half. Message Received Well at least we got a foal coming. That’s good enough for me. As for the zebras, I think they’re doing fine. Sure, it’s a bit hard to tell between them and enemy, but they’ve been changing appearances to make it easier for us. We still haven’t been deployed yet, although I’m hearing that many groups are getting rushed training. Don’t know what for. At least everyone seems like they want to come out of this alive, a lot of prisoners are being exchanged whenever battles end. Things are getting more intense out here, but I should be alright. I can’t wait for this whole thing to be over. I glanced back up at Siren, who was eating rather noisily for an overseer: I’d expected a little more class out of a mare of her status. She glanced up at me with her portion finished. “I don’t suppose you have another one?” she asked. I shook my head. “Oh...well, there must be some more downstairs. Do you think you could get me another one?” “I’m still not your butler,” I replied, a little less jovial this time. “Oh, well what if I said ‘please?’” she asked. I sighed. “Still no.” Siren stared at me pleadingly, raising her hooves up to her chin and squirming slightly to press them together. “Pretty please?” I wanted to keep arguing with her, hold my ground and prove I wasn’t going to roll over anymore, but at the same time I did want to at least improve how the two of us interacted. “Alright, fine,” I said, trying not to sound too exasperated. “But keep this in mind later, alright?” Siren only nodded as I pulled myself up and headed back downstairs. A quick glance in the kitchen found Arkangel packing near 200-year old foods into saddlebags. “What are you even doing?” I muttered. “Relax, it’s non-perishable,” he replied, “and I already tested it, radiation’s at safe levels.” I simply stood there staring at him, unsure of how to best describe how I didn’t think ‘non perishable’ ment ‘still edible after 200 years!” By the time I got my thoughts back, Arkangel had finished his packing. “Oh, right. Siren was asking for another one of those bread things you gave us.” Ark only burst out laughing in response. “She absolutely did not, she hates those things.” He slid the saddlebag across the table at me. “So,smart guy, what do you think she really wanted you to come down here for?” I apparently took too long staring in confusion for Ark’s liking, because a moment later he answered for me. “She’ll have locked that door, tried to get herself untied and fly out the window to freedom. She might have some issues with step two of that plan…” The sound of something hitting the floor above us interrupted Ark for only a moment. “And step three, really,” Ark added with a smirk, as realization dawned on me. I turned and ran up the stairs as fast as my hooves could carry me, reaching the door and moving to slam it open. But the door didn’t budge: it was locked, just like Ark had figured. “Siren, what are you doing?” I called, frantically pushing at the door and trying to get it open. “Stay back!” she shouted, “Stay out of here! I’m not going to sit around and let you idiots drag me further out into this hell!” By now both Ark and Gunrunner had heard the commotion and met at the upstairs landing. Ark stepped closer to the doorframe and whispered “step back” to me. I did, letting him line up with his back legs to the door. “Siren, I’m giving you to the count of three before I break this door down!” he said loudly. There was no reply from Siren, not until another thud emanated from the door itself this time. “You know that’s not going to work!” Ark called, but Siren remained silent. “One...two…” Silence hung in the air for a moment as nopony moved, before Ark slammed his hind legs into the door, blasting it off its hinges and sending it skidding across the bedroom floor. The bed Siren had somehow propped against the door fell to the side as Ark’s buck cleared the path. Inside Siren was sitting in the far corner, desperately tugging at the knots binding her wings. She’d wriggled free of the binds I’d put around her forelegs, I could still see them knotted nearby, but she’d made no progress getting her wings free. She glanced up at us, shocked, before she locked eyes with Ark. He moved towards the center of the room, Siren staring him down fiercely as she got up and moved to meet him. They kept glaring at each other for nearly a minute, before Siren’s expression melted. “Of all the overseers, why did you have to pick me…” she whimpered, lowering her head and banging it against Arkangel’s armored neck. I thought for sure Ark was going to snap at her, but to my surprise his voice became very gentle as he raised a hoof to stroke her mane. “I don’t know,” he said. “Just remembered you told me you hated living in the stable. I panicked, I don’t know…” Siren didn’t respond for a moment, making Ark smirk. “What, you prefer if I’d have gone to get Redwood instead?” Siren responded to that at least, yanking her head back in disgust and glaring at Arkangel. “Redwood, Redwood, Redwood!” she snapped, “always mentioning her whenever I’m having an issue.” I blinked in shock, as Siren suddenly sounded furious. I hadn’t expected that kind of response, especially since I didn’t recognize the name at all. “Redwood this, Redwood that. ‘Oh Siren you should come to the atrium, Redwood and I had so much fun! You should have seen her flying today!’” Arkangel looked back at Siren, actually taking half a step back away from her as her blind rage built. He shot a glance over at Gunrunner and myself. “Er...give us a minute, alright?” he asked, looking very nervous all of a sudden. I could hear Gunrunner turn and start to head out of the room, but after a second of me not moving I felt Gun yank at my tail. “Oh come on,” I muttered, “I’m dying to know more about Ark and Siren.” I turned back to see an unamused Gun staring back at me through half-lidded eyes. I sighed, but turned to follow him out, closing the door behind me. I sat downstairs staring at my Pipbuck, watching the clock keep counting away. It had been thirty minutes since Siren had started her outburst, and judging from the muffled yelling we could hear through the floorboards she was still at it. I didn’t know how much longer she would go on like this, all I knew was how much I wanted to be listening in on the conversation. Nothing was clear through the floorboards, but every time I tried to leave to head upstairs Gun intercepted me and pulled me back down. I’d eventually given up and settled at the kitchen table, going back to more of the saved messages. Message sent This war is taking a turn for the worse, the frontlines are starting to pick up more heat. I’ve heard the fighting is no longer about trying to keep casualties low, Special forces are starting to be used to inflict casualties now instead of disrupting supply lines. I made my first kill yesterday, he got in close tackled me to the ground. My ammo bearer shindig jumped at him knocking him over, when I gun back I turned around in time to watch that stripe snap his neck. I screamed as my machine gun tore chunks out of the bastard. I’m feeling myself slip, they’re gonna transfer me to the second battalion much closer to home. I just want this war to end “How much longer you think those two are gonna be?” Gunrunner asked, pointing absently at the ceiling. I shrugged in response, straining to listen. It sounded like Siren had finally stopped yelling, and I thought I could hear Ark’s voice in whatever response he was giving. But the words were too muddled to make out, so I didn’t listen for much longer and tried to let silence fall again. Gunrunner decided to keep talking though. “What’s it like?” “Hmm?” I asked. “What’s what like?” “Living in a Stable,” Gun said. “Living all safe and sound, while the rest of us out here gotta kill each other just to breathe another second.” It seemed like Gunrunner was getting agitated, and I could guess why. “Well, it wasn’t really my choice to be born down there,” I started, “but it’s really not at all bad. Not until I was nearly executed for what I chose to work on,” I said jokingly, making Gun smirk as he kept listening. “Well my vault was a little different than just trying to be a shelter. We had a special job given to us by the Enclave, they…” Gunrunner’s eyes widened immediately. “Enclave?!” he shouted, before whipping his gun out and pointing it straight at me. I gasped and backed up a step, shaking. “W-w-w-what’s wrong with that?” I asked, raising a hoof in an effort to get Gun not to shoot me. Gunrunner just glared at me for a second, lips curling back to show his teeth still gripping the revolver. “You really don’t know, do you?” he snarled, and I shook my head. He sighed and set the gun down on the table. “What kind of Enclave member are you then…” he muttered, mainly to himself. “Well I’m not Enclave myself...technically, I guess,” I said, as Gun grimaced at me again. “We were just supposed to design weapons and armor for them, help finish off the zebras.” Gunrunner laughed harshly at me, shaking his head. “The rest of your Stable believe that garbage?” he asked. I looked at him blankly, apparently only ticking him off further. “Those stuck up featherbrains are never coming back,” he snapped. “They’ve had all the time and tech they need to fix all this, and what do they do with it? Sit around in the clouds, hunt down any pegasus not involved with em and brand em...make em disappear.” His hostility melted away in an instant, suddenly very remorseful. I could guess he knew that last part from personal experience, and overcome with grief I looked away, ears turned down as I bit my lip. “Look,” Gunrunner sighed, “just…don’t bring em up again, ok? The Enclave’s not your friend, no matter what your Stable thinks.” I only nodded back at him, as he grabbed his gun again and holstered it. I didn’t feel like talking anymore after the Enclave incident, just listening to the vague sound of Siren talking. After a bit she’d stopped yelling and, if I was hearing it correctly, started crying. I was debating going up there to check if Siren was alright. “Ugh...what’s taking them so long?” Gunrunner groaned, tapping his hoof iritably. “We should have been out of here ages ago…” He trotted over to me and set a hoof on my shoulder. “Look, go up there and get them moving, before I put my head through a wall,” he muttered, before moving past me and setting his forehead against the doorframe. I hurried up the stairs before Gun decided to cause serious brain damage to himself...felt like the least I could do after setting off whatever hatred of the Enclave he had built up. I made it halfway up the stairwell before I realized Ark and Siren were already at the landing. I stepped aside as Siren walked past, sitting down on the couch. “She’s having a lot of issues adjusting to the wasteland,” Ark sighed as he looked at me. I couldn’t tell what color his cyber eye was at that second, but he blinked and looked at me with the red one a moment later as he handed me a small revolver. “Make sure she doesn’t run off. If she tries to, aim for the legs,” he said calmly. “She’s not a confident flier.” Ark then pushed past me as I stored the gun away in my bag. “Mercenary,” Ark called, “we’re ready to go.” “Finally!” It was a only a few minutes of walking before my curiosity peaked, and I just had to turn to Siren and talk to her. She seemed to be doing a lot better than back at the house, even still blindfolded and leashed to me she didn’t seem as nervous as I expected. “So…” I said hesitantly, “what was that between you and Ark about? Is everything alright?” Siren glanced in my direction, missing my eyes slightly thanks to the blindfold but close enough I could tell she was thinking if telling me anything was smart. She stayed quiet for a few moments, listening for Gunrunner and Ark’s hoofsteps before she answered. “Do you trust him?” she whispered to me. I looked at her, confusion plain on my face, until I realized she couldn’t see that. “Erm...what do you mean?” I asked. “Arkangel. Do you trust him? Has he even bothered telling you where we’re going, what he’s doing? Do you even know if he wants you alive or not?” She bit her lip for a moment. “Does he even care about us?” I couldn’t help but smile slyly at that. “When you say ‘us,’ you mean you and I?” She nodded. “Well I know he didn’t try to get me killed by robot firing squad yesterday. Twice. So I trust him a bit more than you, especially after you lied to me this morning to try and escape.” Siren scoffed at me. “You’d have done the same thing if you were in my position,” she muttered, looking away. I let silence hang for a moment before I risked another question. “So who is this Redwood exactly?” Siren lashed out with one of her hind legs, kicking in my general direction. She missed by a mile, though I still jumped to the side to avoid getting hit. The conversation clearly wasn’t going to go anywhere useful, so I dropped it and spent the rest of the trip staring at the rock formations around us. Suddenly, the harsh wasteland seemed like the most inviting thing around me. It was hour’s before we arrived at Gunrunner’s place, and the sky was already darkening in the late afternoon sun bleeding through the clouds. We were headed towards a bunker nearby, something I assumed was leftover from the war. Gunrunner had clearly made himself at home here though, as the door was well maintained and sturdy after all these years, even if there were piles of loose scrap littered about the entrance. Gun was first into the place, and I moved Siren to follow him. But as I was about to cross the threshold myself, I glanced back at Ark. He was looking out at the horizon, his helmets blank stare gave no sign of what he was thinking of. “What is it?” I asked. “Thought I saw something,” he said absently, sweeping his vision across the darkening horizon. He didn’t seem to see anything worth acknowledging, however, and turned back to Gunrunner as he finished getting the door open. We followed him inside, and I took Siren’s blindfold off now that we weren’t surrounded by obvious geographic markers. She seemed relieved to be inside somewhere protected, though she seemed to be the only one of us like that. I couldn’t read what was on Ark’s mind, but I was preoccupied with the design of the place. It didn’t look like any kind of Stable I’d ever seen. As Gunrunner started to unload the scrap still attached to Ark, bouncing like an excited little filly at his new haul, I decided to wander deeper inside and take a look around. I could tell a lot of the stuff around me were trophies from Gun’s past trips: an assortment of creature heads stuffed and mounted on the walls, weapons of different designs, though what really caught my eye was a set of nearly pristine power armour. I’d never seen anything like this exactly, it wasn’t any Enclave model I knew, but it still seemed like an Equestrian design. Siren, still tied to my hoof, saw my interest and spoke up. “T-51 power armor.” I glanced at her as she dug through a desk drawer. “Steel Rangers used those in the war,” she smiled. “Developed by the Ministry of Wartime Technology, meant to be a mobile artillery. Unfortunately,” she shrugged, as she started to walk an arc around me, “they weren’t as invincible as thought. Best we can figure, a company called Ironshod Firearms created an anti-machine rifle that could punch straight through the self-repairing armor.” I recognized the type of gun, and looked again at the armor. It was hard to imagine that kind or rifle being fired at something small as a pony, the enormous recoil likely to bowl somepony over unless they had an appropriately strong battle saddle. “I think it’s a bit funny,” Siren said, suddenly much closer than I’d realized. She was still smiling, but something looked a tad off. “An invincible iron pony, but all it takes is one shot from one gun and you’re toast.” She was uncomfortably close now, her muzzle almost touching mine. I was just about to step back and give myself some room, when I felt something tense against my leg. “You think you have an advantage,” she sneered, “but it really leads to your loss.” At that she leapt backwards, grabbing her leash and yanking hard on it, pulling it closer to her. The rope snapped against my legs and pulled me off my hooves, tossing me on my side and pressing all four hooves together. I cursed myself mentally, for failing to spot her setting this up, and for giving her a longer leash to begin with. I didn’t have time to snap for long, however, as Siren leapt at me, a knife in her teeth that she pressed right to my throat. She glared at me, hissing through her teeth “you should have just left me alone in the room…now stay quiet!” At that she pulled herself back and started to cut at the rope binding her wings. She hadn’t started by cutting her leash off, we were still attached. I tried to glance around inconspicuously, looking for anything that might help. The ropes weren’t too tight around my hooves, I could probably get out easily enough, but she was armed and I wasn’t, no time to grab my gun from my bag before she noticed me moving. There wasn’t anything in easy reach for me to use, but I had a different idea and slowly moved a hoof to grab the leash firmly. Siren was almost through getting her first wing undone, I’d need to be exactly right in this timing… The rope compressing Siren’s left wing snapped and her feathers unfurled, a look of relief spreading across Siren’s face. Her jaw slacked just a little, the moment I’d been waiting for. I grabbed the leash as hard as I could and pulled hard. She jerked towards me, shocked, halfway dropping the knife as I forced myself upright and lunged for it. Our muzzles met as I snatched the knife from her teeth, before I hurled it away from both of us, yanking my other foreleg free of the wrap. Siren hadn’t yet recovered from the shock when I lunged at her, knocking her over and pinning her down on her back. She yelled and started to fight against me, but I was stronger than her and I had her pinned. She gave up and just glared at me again, making me roll my eyes. “Not fair,” she muttered. “Well you should be grateful,” I replied. “Arkangel told me what I should do if you try escaping again.” She looked at me worriedly, and I almost thought it was better to not let her know what I had been told to do. But it seemed too cruel to leave her in the dark. “You get too far away from me, and I’d have to shoot you through the hoof. Or the wing, if I had to.” She looked at me, shocked, but disbelieving, until I pulled the pistol out of my bag and showed her. She stopped fidgeting altogether then, and as I stepped away from her she stayed frozen stiff, staring back at me with fearful eyes. I might have gone too far… I didn’t have too long to worry however, as I heard armored hoofsteps coming closer to us. I glanced over as Arkangel turned the corner and moved closer to us. “The merc has something for you,” he said, looking rather bored as he indicated me. He then looked between Siren and I for a moment. “She try to escape?” I only nodded in silence. “Good job,” was all he said, before turning to walk off. “Hey Ark…” I said, before I could stop myself. for the briefest of moments I thought about bringing the subject up again. “About you ans Siren...” Ark looked back at me for a split second, he stared at me for what felt like too long. He seemed about ready to answer, but I glanced at Siren to see her response, and when I looked back at Ark he still hid behind his helmet. “That’s nothing you need to know,” he said coldly, before jerking his head towards the hallway. “Just go. I’ll watch Siren.” His voice was dangerously low, and I didn’t think it a smart idea to argue with him right now. I hurried across to the exit, watching Arkangel as he kept his gaze fixed on Siren the entire way. I was halfway down the hallway when I heard somepony talking behind me. I thought about turning around to listen, but at that exact moment Gunrunner appeared, smiling. “Hey, there you are! Come on, I got something for ya.” I sighed, but followed him back towards the bunker’s main entrance. Gun dragged out an old trunk, and cracked it open as I came closer. “So I didn’t even know you were a pegasus til Ark told me, your coat’s doing you no favors out here.” I raised a hoof and tugged at the neckline of my labcoat, a little embarrassed I was still wearing this thing so long after I’d left the Stable it came from. “So here, take it as payment for helping with the scrap.” Gun pushed the case over to me, with an old black and grey outfit. “It’s not in great shape, won’t do much good against bullets or anything sharp, but it’s better protection than what you got. I nodded and started to change outfits, taking note of the design as I did so. It was clearly meant for some kind of combat, the aged kevlar on the chest and stomach to protect a flying pegasus from ground attacks. “It’s an old retriever uniform,” Gun explained, “before the Enclave outfitted em with power armor. Real ancient.” “Well, at least it fits well,” I replied with a weak smile, surprised at just how well it did fit. My wings had a good chance to stretch finally, perfectly slotted into the outfit’s design, and the rest of the uniform was flexible and comfortable on its own. “Guys, head’s up,” came Ark’s voice from somewhere nearby. Gun and I both turned to face the sound as Ark hurried outside. We followed him, Gunrunner taking one of his rifles and staring down the scope of his rifle, towards where Arkangel had pointed almost immediately. “You see that?” “Yeah, seems like it’s getting close,” Gun replied, eye to his scope. “What is it, some kind of robot?” I shivered at the thought: was it from the Stable? Had it really found us here already? “Storm, go check on Siren,” Ark ordered me. “Don’t let her use this to get away.” I turned to head off looking for her, but as I left I heard Ark talking to Gunrunner. “Thing’s been dancing on my EFS for the last hour, at least, but I don’t know why it’s not attacking.” I wanted to ask Ark why he hadn’t warned us earlier, but Gunrunner came closer with something that looked like a cobbled-together battle saddle. He tossed it to me. “Something else I borrowed from the Retrievers.” I caught it and inspected the two weapons on it, some kind of laser pistol on one side, while the other was a ballistic rifle. I started to put it on, my days in security coming back to me as I remembered how to wear it, and I’d just gotten it on when I made it back to the room I’d last seen Siren in. She was gone. I spun around at the sound of movement behind me and spotted Siren trying to sneak towards me, knife in her teeth. She glared at me, but I pointed both my guns at her hooves and she dropped the knife without question. She’d managed to cut her wings free and removed her leash, but she’s lost her advantage. I gestured back towards the center of the room, and Siren begrudgingly obeyed, sitting down far from anything around her as I located the ropes she’d cut free. I knew I needed to tie her up again, but my security training had left me knowing how to use hoofcuffs, and clearly my rope skills weren’t up to par. She smirked slyly at me as I fumbled a bit with the rope, surely thinking the same thing. I didn’t think she’d be smiling for long if I decided to use the duct tape I’d spotted in the corner, something I was trying to avoid using since I knew getting it out of fur was a hassle. “So, what exactly are you gonna do?” Siren asked me, a haughty grin on her face. That cinched it, and with an irate sigh I grabbed the nearby tape roll. Her smile vanished instantly. “Er...no reason to use that,” she stammered, “why not use something else? The cables there, like you did in the stable,” she pointed a little to my left. I’d completely glossed over those. “Yeah, I could,” I shrugged, “but a few minutes ago you did try to slice my neck open.” I raised the tape in a wing, making her wince. “I’d call this even.” An explosion sounded from somewhere outside, distracting me for a second. Siren tried to take advantage and leapt at me, but I was stronger and forced her back down, pinning her to the ground. She looked pitiable for just a moment, and I sighed. “Look, just work with me here and I won’t use the tape, deal?” Siren glanced worriedly at the roll of tape I still was lifting with a wing, before shutting her eyes and sighing. I picked myself up off her as she held her forelegs together, not moving as I grabbed the nearby cable. I moved to tie her back legs like I’d done before, working much quicker since I had practice at this one. I tried using the ropes to mimic the bindings Gunrunner had put on her before, but I didn’t know for sure if they would work at all even as I tried to yank at them. Finally, I moved onto her forelegs, which she still hadn’t moved despite struggling a little with her other restraints. She glanced at me, almost as though she were daring me to tie them. “Wait...no, I don’t think so,” I lowered my eyebrows at her. “Hooves behind your back.” Siren sighed, but I gently pushed her until she rolled onto her stomach, hooves behind her where I could find some way to bind them there. More explosions had passed since I started tying Siren up, making me nervous that something was going wrong. I hurried towards the door to catch up, only for Gunrunner to come bursting through it, heading straight for his power armor. “Heh, not bad,” he said to me, glancing at Siren. She was still looking at me a little bemused, but I couldn’t tell if she was thinking of something or just trying to unnerve me. “Might want to add a blindfold though.” I looked up at Gunrunner in confusion as he hurriedly started to work with the armor, I assumed trying to hop into it, as I tried to figure out what he meant. But a glance around the room made me realize what he meant: there was a lot of scrap laying around Siren could have used to cut herself free, even with her hooves behind her. But if she couldn’t see any of it… I quickly took my old lab coat and tore a strip from the base, tying it sternly over Siren’s eyes. Her smile had faded by now, but I was worried she already had an escape plan in mind. I couldn’t obsess over it now, as Gunrunner tromped back across the room in his heavy armor. “That thing’s getting closer, hurry up,” he called, running surprisingly fast for a pegasus in armor so heavy there was no chance he was going to be flying anywhere. I followed him towards the bunker’s entrance, where Ark was huddled in a corner, clutching his wing and watching it intently. After a second of staring, I realized why. It looked like his wing had been almost entirely severed, messily by a hail of bullets. But after only a few seconds I saw the meat of his body knitting itself back together, the armor following suit. I’d heard that armor had self-repairing talismans to provide better longevity in a firefight, but I didn’t think the same went for their operators! “Ark, what’s happening to your wing?” I asked, before I could stifle the question and worry. “One of my enhancements,” he muttered, teeth gritted but not letting nearly as much pain as I was sure he was in obvious in his speech. “Tells my body to heal quick…” he let go of his wing as the armor took enough of the weight. “It’ll heal fine, but there’s no way I’m using it soon enough to fight that thing.” As if on cue, a blast shot past the bunker door and blew something up not too far from us. Gunrunner stepped out from cover and leveled his minigun at the target, prompting me to take a peek at the enemy. It was another bot much like the one I’d nearly been killed by back in the Stable, though clad in white armor with the air shimmering around it; I recognized it immediately. A B-series unit with energy shields. The shields were effective only to a certain point, so a minigun like Gunrunner’s might have overloaded the system before it could replenish the shield. However a B-series like that wasn’t going to go down so easily. As the bot locked onto Gun, an electronic voice emanated from all of our Pipbucks, a signal broadcast from the robot. “Steel ranger detected, switching to armor piercing.” Its miniguns spun up to match Gun’s speed. I hoped that Siren was right about the steel ranger armor, because I knew that even if he could break the shield we’d have to dig into the bot’s armor, and Gun only had the one layer of defense… The two opened fire at the same time, bullets pummeling into targets on both sides. The shielded bot was unharmed, but after only a few seconds Gun’s armor wasn’t looking too good. He dove back into cover seconds later, his armor riddled with holes, many of them oozing blood. “Ark, you got a plan here?” I asked, as Gunrunner cracked open his helmet and downed a purple mixture from a bottle. His wounds stopped bleeding near instantly, but I didn’t have time to marvel at the sight. “If I could just fly, my tail could tear that armor to pieces,” Arkangel growled, staring at his injured wing. “And with Gun pinned down in that armor...you’re gonna have to do it,” he pointed at me. I could just stare at him for a second, silent. “You’re giving me your armor?” I asked finally. “No, of course not,” Arkangel snapped, sounding rather offended. Then with a sigh, he angled the barb of his tail towards one of the last links in it, some kind of liquid dripping from the tip. The tail disintegrated on contact with the liquid, leaving the barbed tip to fall to the ground. I picked it up carefully, holding it as far from the busted metal end as I could. “Go, straight up,” Ark pointed at me. I only nodded and, barb in my teeth, I spread my wings and shot into the air. I hadn’t flown in open skies like this before, but I didn’t have time to marvel at the sensation of free-flowing air all around me. I could just barely hazard a glance back down at the robot, who had started to track me as I flew. It stopped, however, when Ark shot it in the chest with a laser blast. I knew what I had to do and turned to dive at the robot, angling the barb in my teeth straight at the robot’s head. It was then that my Pipbuck let out another message. “Airborne threat detected. Initiate Skyfire.” I twisted my body and spread my wings wide to halt my decent, flapping wildly to get some height between me and the robot as it launched several small spheres into the air above it. They exploded and coated the air in fire, too dense and dangerous for me to even get near. I’d been lucky to dodge the strike, there was no way I’d manage that again: I had to approach from the ground. Arkangel had continued firing on the robot, keeping its focus towards the bunker. I dove for the ground not far from the bot’s flank, watching carefully as it kept its focus on Ark. I lunged forward at ground level, barb still aimed right at it’s head, so close to impact. But the last second the bot intentionally sidestepped me and I flew past it, hitting the ground and flipping over myself twice as I came to a stop, dazed. I’d just shaken the dizziness off when I heard a familiar sound: the gatling guns spinning up. “If you’re going to kill me,” I thought, snapping at whatever cruel twist of fate was doing this to me, “pick a new method!” A pair of golden hooves slamming into the robot’s chassis, saving me from the guns yet again. Arkangel had tackled the bot and was tumbling around attached to it, striking with his hooves and releasing an electric shock on each impact. The robot answered with its daggers, but every blow just glanced off Ark’s armor. It finally changed tactics though and got purchase on Ark, using its hind legs to push him backwards. Ark recovered quickly and charged at the now-damaged bot, but the robot managed to spin and slam both its rear hooves into Ark’s helmet. He collapsed on the ground. Before the bot could capitalize on its opening, Gunrunner opened fire from somewhere behind me, sending a hail of bullets from his minigun into the damaged frame. The bot charged towards me and I tried to aim a gun to shoot, but I hadn’t gotten off my back from my crash landing and my saddle was useless. However, the robot wasn’t after me; it was after the barb from Ark’s tail. It grabbed it and raced towards Gunrunner, starting to fall apart under the merc’s relentless hail of fire. It wasn’t enough to stop it, but when Gunrunner braced for melee combat the robot leapt up over him, striking at his rear leg with the barb. He flinched as his armor began to spark, the barb slicing cleanly through the armor and drawing blood, giving the robot another opportunity to slash at Gunrunner’s stomach. He collapsed in a heap. With the other two incapacitated, the robot turned on me. I’d at least gotten myself back upright, and I knew exactly what I had to do. Between Arkangel and Gun the robot’s armor was damaged enough I could probably reach the processor or the spark battery, if I thought it through well enough. I aimed both my guns at it and opened fire. The robot turned and charged at me, closing the distance and giving me a better chance to hit where I needed. I braced just before it slammed into me, the two of us tumbling for a moment before the bot pinned me on the ground. Only then did it notice I’d gotten ahold of my revolver. One single shot was exactly what I needed; the bullet blasted clean through the robot’s head, and it collapsed on top of me a second later. I just lay on the ground a few moments, breathing heavily. I knew I had to get up, but my body was shaking, the adrenaline too much for me to cope with. But I was the least injured of the three of us, and I had to check on everypony else. So I forced the robot off of me and hurried over to Gunrunner. He was bleeding severely. I pulled his helmet off, but before I could ask him what I could do he locked eyes and wheezed “potion...saddlebag...now…” His eyes were pleading, though he didn’t need that to convince me to help him. I threw open his saddlebag and started digging, eventually finding another potion like the one he’d drunk earlier. I quickly gave it to him and he threw back his head, drinking greedily until the whole thing was nearly consumed. To my amazement, his wounds stopped bleeding almost instantly. “What even is that stuff?” I asked. Gun gasped for air for a second before he responded. “Magic healing potion,” he said weakly, struggling to stand. “Good for most injuries.” As he stood shakily I could get a better look at his armor: it was a wreck, and worse off I couldn’t see it repairing. The bot must have destroyed the repair talisman, but that still seemed impressive. Was that barb really so dangerous? I was sure Gun’s armor could rival that of the stable, of Ark, but… I quickly turned and hurried towards Ark, but my panic was short-lived. He was already standing back up, staring at the bot I sighed with relief, but followed his gaze to the robot. We were in serious trouble now...what would happen if they sent more of those? Or a C-series instead? We’d barely survived this one. “We can’t stay here,” said Arkangel, still staring at the robot. “They’ll send more of these, maybe some soldiers too.” Gunrunner was struggling to get his armor off and come closer, leading Ark to look back at him. “You’d better come with us. You’re a target for them now, better than getting picked off on your own.” Gunrunner glared at Ark for a second, but nodded. “There’s a town not far from here,” he said to me, “maybe we can get you some proper barding there.” With that he turned to limp back to the bunker, hobbled by the still-healing wounds, especially the nasty gash in his haunch where the bot had gone after the talisman. I followed him leaving Ark to stare at the robot as much as he wanted. I helped Gunrunner walk for a bit as he drank another potion, leaving him at the entrance to go check on Siren. She was still in the same room, but had wiggled to a wall and was sitting up against it. “Who’s there?” she asked, “Stable? Or traitor?” I didn’t answer her, only moved to cut her hooves free. “It’s about time you made it here,” she replied, reaching up to pull her blindfold of, “I didn’t think you’d ever…” She stopped dead when her blindfold fell, and she stared at me. Her expression went from shocked to disbelief. “They seriously didn’t kill you?” I just shook my head, and she sighed in defeat. “We’re headed for town, you’re still coming with us. Where’d you put that leash?” I asked her. Siren didn’t respond. “Look, I know this is awful for you, but please, just...work with me.” Siren stared at me for several seconds, unblinking, before she finally pointed towards a corner of the room. A few minutes later we’d gathered in the main entrance again. Ark had gotten the bot inside and rigged it for the recovery team. I didn’t want him to, but he’d claimed it wouldn’t kill anypony, and I didn’t feel up to arguing it. Gunrunner had his things already gathered and was taking time to heal up a bit, after finding Siren a brown cloak to wear. She’d refused to be seen in town without one big enough to obscure pretty much everything about her, save the leash that still led to my hoof. Gun had told us a little about the town we were headed to: it was called Black Pass, a gathering of mercenaries, traders, and slavers, and their regular currency was bottlecaps, of all things. I didn’t bother asking why, it wasn’t worthwhile for me to know. Arkangel was working pretty well with his non-lethal explosive, wiring it just right so it would go off if somepony tried to access the robot’s memory cores. I’d offered to help, but he’d brushed me off with a simple “I knew a guy”, and apparently he was right. As he finished, he closed the robot’s remaining armour on the device, hiding it from easy view. “Alright, all set to-” “Leaving so soon?” All three of us turned our weapons on the robot, but nothing in it moved. It was, however, playing some kind of recording. “I can only assume you defeated this robot, or you would never hear this recording. Arkangel,” the recording said, causing Ark to stiffen. “You’ve managed to deal with this one, but between you and me, this robot was supposed to lose. I’m giving you this chance to come back, and I’m even willing to forgive your companions. You have two days to return to the Stable. Consider your options carefully: you know what will happen if you don’t.” The robot clicked, and fell silent. Nopony moved for a few moments, nopony made a sound. Finally Gunrunner got his voice back. “Well that wasn’t ominous or anything,” he sighed. Then, with a much more level tone, he asked “what happens after two days?” “Terminators,” Ark said, staring blankly at the robot. Both Gun and I shared a confused glance, before Ark turned to face us, “Veterans of the great war.” Author's Note Footnote: Level up New Perk: Sniper --- 25% more likely to hit the target's head in S.A.T.S. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56
pass of troublesFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 4: pass of troubles By Fallen Sentinel “I understand your reasons for doing this, but don’t risk your soldiers lives for it.” I couldn’t get the word “veteran” out of my mind the entire trip to town. Usually, all I’d thought it to mean was somepony with a long history of experience in a field. It didn’t comfort me any to think that veterans of the bloodiest war in history were coming after us, especially with the name “Terminators” attached to them. Although the more I thought about it, the less things made sense: the war had ended 200 years ago, any survivors of that war should have been long dead. Arkangel was predictably not talkative when I asked about it, though I did get a few details from him. He told me the Terminators were the personal special forces of somepony high up in a chain of command...somewhere. They operated in secrecy and were sent regularly on suicide missions. If there was any truth to them, I was sure that they’d revel in defying the odds. Though if anything, that just made me question their existence more. I guess I’d find out in two days, unless some other Stable force got us first. Black Pass was nothing like I’d expected. It wasn’t much more than a gathering of shacks in the middle of nowhere, built around a single defining landmark: a massive black obelisk. As we approached, our group started to get noticed, suspicious stares and murmurings under ponies’ breaths as we walked past, especially about the pony in gleaming golden armor. I was a little surprised I wasn’t getting nearly as many strange looks, having a pony-shaped cloth walking along tied to my hoof, but I tried not to pay it any mind as Gunrunner explained what needed to happen. He said he and I needed to get some new armor, then stop by for weapons afterwards. I argued with him a little, thinking that knowing what weapons I had access to would change the kind of armor I needed, but Ark took Gun’s side and I didn’t bother fighting anymore. It didn’t take long for us to find an armor merchant, the sign was certainly large enough atop the storefront. As we trotted towards it, however, a group of earth pony and unicorn stallions sitting in front of what I assumed a bar watched us intently. One of them got up and stepped straight into my path: I moved to avoid him, but he kept moving to block me. I got the hint and stopped, staring him in the eye. “Can I help you?” I asked, not looking him straight in the eye. He was a brown stallion with a beige mane, ragged and ruffled from lack of care. He was wearing a leather jacket with an attached holster for his gun, but the jacket wasn’t long enough to cover his flank where I saw...a cutie mark I’d rather have forgotten the sight of. how did you even get that? I thought, biting my tongue before I insulted him to his face. The unicorn chuckled to himself. “Well, you a slaver then? How much for the mare, I’m sure we can find a suitable price.” I stared at him, insulted. “i]Celestia forbid it. “I’m not a slaver, sorry,” I said, trying to move past him again. But the stallion blocked me again with a single hoof. “Then why are you hauling that mare around?” he asked, staring at the cloak. I could see Siren fidgeting underneath it, but there wasn’t much of her visible. How had he known she was a mare anyways? I was about to snap back at him, a half-formed vile comment dancing on my lips, but I didn’t have time to let it go before he pushed me to the side and moved closer to Siren. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” I snapped, trying to get between them again. But before I could get much closer, I was stopped by a rusty knife pressed to my throat. I glanced down as carefully as I could to find the knife was levitating with a cyan glow around the hilt; another look towards the group showed me who its owner was. There was a lavender unicorn mare with a black mane stepping closer to me, her horn aglow with the same magic aura on the knife. She would have been rather attractive all things considered, but the look in her eyes and the twisted smile on her face made my tail stand on end. She licked her lips hungrily as she stared at me, pressing the knife down stronger on my neck, forcing me to back up, only for the motion to pull on Siren’s leash and yank her right up to the stallion. The stallion pulled Siren’s hood back and looked at her face appraisingly, giving a long whistle after a few moments. “Where in Equestria did you find this one?” he asked me, his eyes staring greedily at Siren, as I tried to look anywhere but at him. It only made things worse, as I was now aware that our little spectacle was drawing a crowd. “Give you 500 caps for her.” The offer sent hushed murmurs through the crowd. “I told you, I’m not a slaver, I’m damn well not going to sell her!” I snapped, stepping forward instinctively. The crowd’s interest and unrest grew, and I suddenly felt rather alone and helpless. Where were Gunrunner and Arkangel when I needed them? The mare pressed her knife to my neck again and came uncomfortably close, pinning me to the blade. “Can’t we keep both of em, Cardstack?” she glanced at the stallion with pleading eyes. “I really like this one.” Her knife pressed to my neck said otherwise. Cardstack only shrugged in response. “Cardstack!” Oh thank Celestia, it was Gunrunner finally showing up. Eyes turned up to see Gun hovering over us, coming in for a landing. There was a rustling in the crowd nearby as well, along with glints of gold armor I could see coming closer. “These two are with me, lay off em.” With that word the unicorn’s knife left my throat, letting me breathe easier for a second. But Cardstack didn’t respond, only stroking Siren’s mane as he smiled to himself. Siren for her part was glaring at him, an icy look I was glad to see directed at somepony other than me for once. Finally, Cardstack spoke. “Gunrunner, old chum, been a while now!” I didn’t want to think what he meant by that...was Gun involved with this gang at one point? “Been busy hunting down more rejects? You’ve been shrinking my client base and causing me an awful lot of trouble, you know.” Gun opened his mouth to respond, but both were cut off by a rather loud clunk of armored hooves smashing into the dirt. “Hooves off, wastelander,” Ark’s voice resonated through his armor. It heightened the subdued anger in his tone, though to his credit Cardstack didn’t seem rattled by it. In fact, he outright ignored Ark’s warning and ran a hoof along Siren’s cloak to her stomach. “Only. Warning.” Ark growled. My mane was standing straight up as I glanced at Cardstack’s gang. All of them were eyeing ark with fear, nopony wanting to go up against the power armor. But nopony moved to stop Cardstack as his hoof drifted lower, to Siren’s stomach… Ark leapt straight at Cardstack, blindingly fast for somepony in that kind of armor, but Cardstack only smirked and levitated his pistol to fire on Ark, snapping off three shots straight into Ark’s helmet. Not a single one of them pierced it. Time slowed to a crawl as I saw Cardstack’s grin evaporate, Ark’s repaired tail lunging up right at Cardstack’s face...the barb snapped straight into his eye. I gagged as Ark’s tail whipped back out and Cardstack collapsed on the ground, screaming and covering his now-empty socket with both forelegs. I had the sense to glance back at Cardstack’s gang, just in time to see the general panic cross all their faces. I thought for sure they’d see taking on Ark as suicide, but every one of them charged at him at once. The leading unicorn twirled an axe and swung it right at Ark’s neck, but his tail lashed out and snatched the axe out of the air, slamming the blunt side of it into the unicorn’s face before he could regroup. The rest of the gang didn’t slow down, quickly surrounding Ark as one earth pony leapt at him from behind. Ark simply bucked both legs back straight into the earth pony’s chest: I swore I heard her ribs crack from here. Another earth pony came at him from the right, but a swing of Ark’s right foreleg clocked the stallion upside the head and sent him to the ground, unconscious. There were only three left facing him now, and I knew Ark hadn’t even broken a sweat yet. The two earth pony stallions remaining tried to flank Ark, one swinging a spiked hammer from the right and the other a metal bar. But Ark’s focus was on the last one, the unicorn mare who had gotten far too close for comfort with her knife. In fact, he off-hoofedly knocked the one earth pony’s legs out from under him and used the momentum to slam him into his friend, taking both attackers out in one swift motion, all without taking his gaze off the mare. “Weak,” he muttered, as the two earth ponies collapsed on the ground, groaning in pain. The mare twirled her knife threateningly, trying to unnerve Ark. It wasn’t working...in fact, I was sure it was her psyche that was cracking. CRACK The sound of a gunshot straight in the air snapped everypony out of watching the fight, the crowd parting to reveal a small group of official-looking ponies in heavy barding. “Pegasus!” one of them yelled, his gun pointed in the air. “You are under arrest for unprovoked assault of Black Pass residents! Remove your armor and submit yourself to incarceration!” I stepped forward to intervene, but Gunrunner held me back. “Don’t, they have to take the Reaver’s side on this,” he said begrudgingly. Ark only chuckled as he turned to face what seemed to pass for law enforcement around here, all of them with guns trained on Ark. “trust me, if you can get this armor off me it’s all yours. But the best I can do is the helmet.” He did at least follow through with that promise, popping his helmet off and grinning casually at the guards. I was utterly unsurprised that Ark’s tone didn’t relax the guards any. “Remove your armor, now!” their leader demanded, dramatically cocking his rifle and aiming it straight at Arkangel’s forehead. Ark didn’t so much as flinch. “Last warning!” “Oh for Celestia’s sake…” Siren snapped, stepping forward towards the guard, as far as her leash allowed her. “It’s not coming off him, he can’t take it off!” The guard glanced at her in confusion, Ark keeping his eyes on the guard as he moved. He looked...almost disappointed for some reason. Siren pulled her hood off as the guard kept trying to peak underneath and see who was talking to him. “Unless you happen to have an override code from an armor master, and I doubt you have the right one, he’s stuck in that tin can!” The guard’s eyes jumped between Siren and Arkangel for a moment, almost like he was wondering if he should believe her or not. Finally, he lowered his gun, but didn’t holster it just yet. “So you’re like Ravager, huh? Fine then. Just come with us and don’t cause trouble.” Ark didn’t respond, though the leader holstered his weapon and turned away confidently. Two of his followers approached Ark cautiously, guns still drawn, but Ark still didn’t move, even casually handed his helmet to one of them. The other gave him a rough shove from behind to get him to start moving. I sighed as I watched Ark get hauled away, before throwing Siren's cloak back over her face, much to her annoyance. “Come on Gun,” I whispered, “let’s go, before they start looking at us again.” He nodded and turned towards the opposite end of the crowd, pushing his way past a few ponies as we tried to slip away unnoticed. “That’s a stupid reason.” For once, I was agreeing with Siren: neither of us were okay with the entire town taking the Reaver’s side in our little encounter earlier. But Gunrunner was convinced there was no stopping it, regardless of what we tried to ask. I’d given up asking by now, choosing to let Gunrunner try and swipe some crystals off a displayed set of barding outside a nearby shop. The owner was sitting at the counter staring at something on her desk and twirling a bottlecap in her magic: either she wasn’t paying us any attention, or she was as apathetic to Gun as I was for the moment. I turned my attention away from Gunrunner’s antics to glance back at my new armaments. We’d changed plans and stopped by a weapon shop since Ark had gotten arrested. Gun had been content browsing, not buying much except a modification or ammo here and there, he had helped me pick out a pair of laser-based pistols I felt comfortable enough using. Now we’d turned our attention back to getting some armor: I’d already picked up some new kevlar for my Retrievers armor, something I couldn’t help but notice displeased Gun, who had gotten nothing new and was still using the leather armor I’d first seen him in. He’d busied himself trying to convince Siren to get some armor as well, but she was having none of his suggestions: all she’d done as buy a new cloak to conceal herself with, an act I couldn’t help but laugh at considering her method of hiding was a cloak the same dark purple as her overseer’s outfit. “Look,” Siren finally snapped, very clearly done being pestered by Gun. She swatted his hoof off of the leather barding he’d been trying to eyeball her size for. “Forget the armor. Can we please just go find Pa…” her anger melted immediately as her jaw slammed shut, before Siren cleared her throat unexpectedly. “Can we please just go find Ark now?” Gunrunner rolled his eyes and nodded absently, but I wasn’t so distracted. She’d corrected herself from saying something… “pay? Did you just ask if we could find pay somewhere?” “No you idiot,” Siren snapped, “I said we need to find P...a pal.” She swallowed nervously, her facade cracking just a little bit. “You know, a pal, a buddy, comrade out here in the wasteland. And I don’t think it's wise to go looking without Ark around.” I sighed: she’d put herself back together by now, I wasn’t getting anything else out of her. Besides, she was right: Ark could be long gone by this point. If those guards had gotten his armor off, they might’ve overpowered him by now, busted him up bad enough that his implants wouldn’t heal. “Do you even have the slightest idea where he might be?” I muttered, as Siren returned to her cold default look. “No, but I hope…” she replied, parting her cloak to lift a hoof towards her face. She was glancing down at her Pipbuck, I caught enough of a look at the screen to tell she was on her map. I didn’t know what good that was going to do, all our trackers were disabled. But to my surprise, she did smile after a moment. “Looks like he’s near the centre of this shack town.” I just blinked at her in confusion: I could believe she might have had a way to track Ark even if it wasn’t his Pipbuck, but the guards had taken him to a town centre of all places? Well actually that kinda makes sense “Well we’d better go get him then,” Gunrunner said, heading for the door while making one last effort to nick a gemstone from a nearby set of barding. He was miles away from a subtle grab with his wing...which is why I almost didn’t realize his other wing had snatched up an entirely different one from his other side. “Yeah,” I said, maybe a little louder than was necessary to drag attention back to myself. “Before those thugs get any quality time alone with him.” I glanced out of the corner of my eye at the shopkeeper, who hadn’t moved from her spot, not even looked up at us as we spoke. But as we tried to just leave the establishment she said flatly “those gems aren’t easy to find, you know.” I glanced at Gunrunner, who only shrugged, and continued to trot out of the store, completely oblivious to the fact the gemstones were floating straight out of his bag and back to the shopkeeper. I smirked and let it happen, thinking it was a fair enough response. I still couldn’t quite believe that these guards, what passed for the police of this town, would take a dangerous prisoner like Ark to a town center of all places. Gunrunner at least seemed unsurprised enough he was fine taking point, leading us through the streets while I had time to ponder exactly how security might be lined up here. I ended up spacing out so much I almost failed to realize we were passing by Cardstack and his gang again, only snapped to attention by suddenly feeling Siren bump against my side. She was casting a wary glance from under her hood at Cardstack, who seemed content to ignore us for now...had that encounter seriously gotten to Siren so badly that she’d moved this close to me? Just then, Siren reached a hoof up and grabbed my head, pulling it a little closer to hers. “Listen, Storm,” she whispered to me. “I know that we’ve had a rough time out here. But speaking to you honestly, I’ve had more than enough of this chaos and lawlessness for a lifetime. So,” she sighed, sounding rather hesitant. “I want to cut a deal with you.” I glanced at her in suspicion, but didn’t say anything back just yet as she continued. “If you help us escape, get us back to a recovery team, back to the Stable, something, I promise I’ll personally exonerate you and reinstate your research position, if you really want to be in that field anyways. Sound good?” I took a solid few seconds to stare back at Siren, somewhere between interest and disbelief. Had she really reached a breaking point out here in the wastelands? “That’s not good enough,” I shook my head. “First off, you blame me for killing somepony I worked with, and at least three times since you’ve tried to get me killed. What makes you think I trust you?” Siren sighed, but pulled off her hood and nodded. She pulled us aside into an alley and raised her hoof. “Give me your Pipbuck,” she said bluntly, and taken aback by the sudden order I listened to her. As our hooves touched, Siren spoke slowly and clearly. “Activate protocol 1138 with the Pipbuck of Fantastic Storm.” As she spoke, her Pipbuck’s screen flashed red. I noticed my Pipbuck started to act up, and both of our screens turned a pale pink color I hadn’t seen before. “I, Siren, Overseer of Stable 137’s Soldier Evolution and Research Division, hereby record this agreement between myself and Fantastic Storm.” Siren waited for her screen to turn yellow before she continued. “If Fantastic Storm follows my commands and aids in returning the both of us to Stable 137 safely, I will clear his record of Head Researcher Grey Water’s death, admit publicly that he had no involvement with the incident. I will have him reinstated to his former position immediately. Do you agree to the terms of this contract?” she asked me. I didn’t speak for a moment, still trying to catch up with what had happened. Clearly she’d somehow linked our Pipbucks, and was writing a contract between the two of them, but was that a solid guarantee of her willingness to follow up on it? But Siren kept staring at me expectantly, leading me to nod my head. “I accept.” At that, both Pipbucks blinked back to the pink screen, a small lock appearing for a split second, before they both returned to normal functionality. Siren set her hoof down and nodded towards Gunrunner, who hadn’t bothered slowing down for us. I hurried after him so as not to lose him, but my mind was not on catching him. “What...exactly, did you just do?” I asked Siren cautiously. “I gave you an insurance policy for when we get back to the Stable,” she said plainly. “If you think I didn’t satisfactorily live up to my end of the contract, your Pipbuck will broadcast a signal that unlocks certain...sensitive materials, which lead directly to me being relieved of my duties.” “And how do I know that your overseer friends are going to follow whatever procedure that involves?” I asked. Siren let out an amused snort of a laugh, but shook her head. “It means my Pipbuck will detonate and kill me. There’s nothing for the rest of the overseers to do.” She started to move after Gunrunner again, moving a little quickly to catch up despite her leash still around me leg. “Of course it goes both ways, I should warn you,” she said over her shoulder as she walked away. “So let’s keep this between us.” I stared blankly at Siren for a moment as she pulled her hood back over her head. I started to follow her, just enough sense to realize we really shouldn’t lose Gun around here. I couldn’t believe what she was suggesting, if she really expected me to buy her story. Who had ever heard of an explosive Pipbuck before? But...I couldn’t help but hope she was telling the truth, despite everything else. I knew she was out to save herself, but Ark hadn’t really been endearing himself ever since he’d rescued me. If Siren was honestly trying to get us both back to the Stable, that might be the better option for me anyways, even if she were going to betray me once we got there. At least that I’d see coming. The town centre looked more like a saloon which was exactly what I as expecting; an old, run down and seedy looking establishment I’d really have rather stayed away from. Patrons were sparse for the moment, giving me a good solid look at two of the guards from earlier, who surprisingly didn’t share my keen interest in our presence. Of course, that didn’t last near as long as I’d hoped. “Hey Skip!” Gunrunner called to one of the guards, causing me to flinch as the guards turned to face us. “Where’s Highmill, or that pegasus you lot took in?” The guard pointed towards a door near the back wall, through which I was at just the right angle to see a staircase heading up. “Highmill’s tryin a take off dat shiny armor, scrap for laters,” he said, in a thick accent I could barely understand. Siren glanced at me for a second, almost looking amused at something, but whatever was on her mind seemed to leave as we turned for the door. Gun led the way upstairs, with me watching carefully as each board creaked under his weight. But none of us fell, and surprisingly Siren pulled ahead towards a specific door in the upper hallway, almost like she knew exactly where she was going. It turned out she was right, though that surprised me a little less than the sight that lay before us as we passed the doorframe. Arkangel was standing on his hind legs, his forelegs shackled to the wall above him and keeping him upright. But he didn’t look perturbed by that at all...he looked almost like he was about to doze off, bored out of his mind rather than panicking or trying to break free. Nearby was another pony, one I recognized as the leader of the guards that had taken Ark in. I’d mistaken them for a stallion before thanks to the short mane/tail style and bulky form, but on closer inspection I realized it was actually a mare. She was busy jamming a crowbar between joints in the plates of Arkangel’s armor and trying to pry it open with both her hooves and her magic, but judging from the two crowbars sitting on the side already bent out of shape, she wasn’t having much luck. Siren cleared her throat loudly when nopony noticed our entry, causing the mare to turn in shock, the crowbar slipping out of her grip as she stumbled. “Please tell me we’re leaving now,” Ark said dryly, yawning as he spoke. “G’day, Highmill,” Gunrunner smirked at the mare, giving a theatrical bow to her. It only seemed to make her cringe in response. “What do you want, merc,” she snapped, “I’m a tad busy. And don’t you dare suggest I let him go,” she jerked a hoof at Arkangel. “You know I can’t, the Reavers would gut every last one of us.” With that she grabbed her crowbar again and aimed for a new joint to try. “Highmill, dear,” Siren spoke, shocking everypony else in the room. She sounded like she was quite familiar with Highmill already, and Highmill herself glanced back as though she only just realized who she was talking to. Her body shifted uncomfortably, like she was suddenly quite worried about something. “Perhaps I could change your mind. Why don’t we go talk,” she stepped forward, actually starting to pull me along as she gestured towards a door by the wall. “In private.” “O...of course, Overseer,” Highmill replied, her tone very carefully left even as she dropped the crowbar and headed for the door Siren had indicated. She opened it in her magic and let Siren pass into the narrow hallway beyond, but opened her mouth as I followed. “Oh don’t fret about him,” Siren replied. “He won’t say anything about what we’re going to discuss, will he?” I stayed silent for a moment while Siren opened another door on the other side of the hall, until I heard a chirp from my foreleg. Glancing down, I realized my Pipbuck’s screen had turned red out of nowhere, a small indicator that looked disturbingly like a trigger in the lower right corner. Was Siren serious about that whole ‘exploding Pipbuck’ thing? Suddenly too nervous to question it, I shook my head in response to Siren’s question. The Pipbuck seemed satisfied with that and shifted back to green, right as Highmill closed the second door behind us, leaving her, Siren and I alone in a small barren room. “Well, Overseer, I...I can’t imagine why you’re out here like…” Highmill gestured partway to Siren’s collar, but one of Siren’s trademark glares stifled the words in the poor mare’s muzzle. “Erm...shall I perhaps call the Stable, let them know you’re here?” “Oh no, I don’t think that’s wise,” Siren replied. I blinked in surprise, wondering for a split second why it wasn’t a good idea. Thankfully Highmill seemed as confused as I was, leaving Siren to explain. “I need your little...project, to stay secret, and having a group of soldiers searching the place might be detrimental to your work. Speaking of that project,” she smiled, only for her face to fall at Highmill’s reaction. Suddenly the mare was shaking, eyes wide with terror, as Siren’s glare narrowed on her. “Do you have something you need to tell me?” I winced at Siren’s tone, the same icy chill that I remembered from far too recently when she’d first tried to get me killed. It wasn’t any better watching it go towards somepony else, even somepony I could have had an argument with. Highmill seemed equally worried, as she started to stammer. “Well, I...the project was...Vlyka, she…” “What. Happened.” Siren’s tone stayed even, but I didn’t need to look at her to tell her gaze was like an inferno, boring into Highmill as the mare folded under pressure. “I carried out your orders, to the letter!” Highmill cried. “But not long after that, the bots they...they just went haywire, lost all control of them! And Vlyka, in the chaos she...she’s gone.” I heard Siren breathing slowly, deeply, trying to keep her calm demeanor up. But I could see the fury in her eyes, she was close to snapping. “And that stupid pet name you and your researchers used was for…which bot, exactly?” “...the repurposed prototype infiltrator model?” Highmill squeaked. Suddenly Siren’s Pipbuck was raised to her face, her screen glaring red, turning her face almost as dangerously pink as parts of her mane. I tried to glance at it to get a better look, but she didn’t even look at me as she barked an order out. “Storm, turn away, close your eyes.” I wasn’t about to say ‘no’ to that tone, and followed her instructions as Highmill began sobbing. “Please, overseer, we’ll get her...we’ll get it back!” I heard Siren’s hoofsteps as she moved just in front of me, putting herself between me and Highmill. “I have my best ponies out looking for it, just please! Please don’t…” “Security Head Highmill has failed to uphold the terms of our contract.” I winced as there was a sudden wet splat against the walls, followed by a deafening silence, not so much as a peep from Highmill or Siren. I could only guess why one of them had fallen so silent, but suddenly terrified of the same fate befalling me I didn’t open my eyes to look. “This way,” Siren finally whispered to me, a wing at my back as I let her turn me around and lead me back to the door. I heard a pair of keys clinking together and the door opening, slamming shut behind us before Siren spoke again. “You can look again now.” For a second, I really didn’t want to look. I wanted to just turn and run in whatever direction would get me farthest away from here. But I knew that couldn’t last, so I opened my eyes and found myself staring at Siren’s face, her white coat splattered with something red. “You heard her attack me, didn’t you?” I nodded, my voice gone. “She’d failed me once too many...I hope you understand what I mean.” I didn’t respond, as Siren sighed and glanced down at herself, before reaching for her bag and removing her old cloak, tearing a piece from it. “Now would you please give me a hoof with cleaning off this blood?” I carefully wiped off as much of the blood I could from Siren’s face, since her current cloak had miraculously escaped unstained. My mind was racing with questions, most of them things I was debating asking Siren, but one that kept coming back to was loudly screaming at myself “why did you accept a deal with this lunatic?!” “I hope that we don’t need to repeat this,” Siren said calmly, as I finished working on the last splatter. She looked almost presentable again, a slight pink spot here or there the only sign that something awful had happened right next to her. With that, she stepped forward to the first door and returned to the room with Ark and Gunrunner. Gun had clearly been trying to get Arkangel’s shackles off him, to no avail, while Ark looked just as bored as before. His expression changed only slightly as he caught sight of Siren again. “She said we’re free to go.” With a slight smirk, Ark shifted his hooves forward, pulling almost without effort on his shackles. Within seconds, both of them snapped clean off, freeing him from the wall as he casually reached out to grab his helmet from a nearby desk. Gunrunner stared in disbelief for a moment, before smacking a hoof to his forehead. “Why do I even bother…” “After that, it’s straight into Rock Point,” Gunrunner said to Ark, wrapping up his extensive explanation of the upcoming terrain. We’d just made it to the edge of town, and Ark had explained to us where we were headed next. He nodded at Gun’s explanation and checked his armor over once more while Gun started programming the route into his map. It gave me a second to sit down and give Siren another one of our bread-like rations, since I could hear her stomach grumbling even when she’d tried staying at the end of her leash away from me. She took it begrudgingly and sat to ate, looking extremely cross as she did so; I imagined her mood wasn’t helped by the food, but I suspected that wasn’t the main reason for her grumpiness. She’d had some secret cybernetics project going on out here, something that honestly shouldn’t have surprised me, and she’d only just learned that there’d been one hell of a setback to it. I had to wonder if the missing robot from that project had been the one to come after us earlier: it would explain how it had found us so quickly, since I’d expected anything deployed from the Stable to have taken far longer. But at the same time, Siren hadn’t seemed to recognize the robot...it was possible that she just didn’t remember, that ‘pet name’ Highmill had used had no meaning to Siren, but I didn’t think she’d completely forget what her robots would look like. A few moments later, Gunrunner had finished updating his map, and sent the data to the rest of our Pipbucks. I checked mine to look at the route we had set up, but was alarmed to see the screen had switched to red for a moment, that trigger icon appearing in the corner. It vanished after a moment, but by the time I breathed a sigh of relief Arkangel was in front of me, uncomfortably close. “Can I help you?” I asked him as casually as I could, silently praying he suspected something about the explosive, since he was looking down at my Pipbuck’s screen. Ark’s head turned minutely towards Siren, who was still busy eating her rations with a sour look on her face. Her attention was nowhere near us, especially as Ark’s whiplike tail flicked forward and struck my Pipbuck three times. The strikes were surgical and barely did any damage to the casing, except for the last jab which he twisted the tail slightly before he pulled it out. There was a small metal cylinder stuck on the tip of the barb. A slight flick of the tail and the cylinder went sailing away from both of us. I glanced up at Ark’s face. “Don’t let Siren know that’s gone,” he turned towards our prisoner. “Siren, we’re out of here,” he said curtly, grabbing the leash in his hoof and tugging sternly on it. She fell on her face at the tug, looking up and glaring at Ark as he started to walk off, Siren forced to follow as she tried to pick herself up off the ground. The catharsis of her faceplant was too much and I cracked a smile, surprisingly sharing a moment with Ark as he laughed slightly at her indignance. “Storm, you think you could carry me?” she asked, flashing an oh-so-innocent smirk. I could only hope my expression conveyed exactly how unamused I was by that. “After I was so viciously attacked by one of my own workers, I’m just not sure my legs can carry me all the way to our destination.” It was a considerable effort I had to exert not to let my eyes roll halfway out of their sockets. I could tell she was trying to abuse her power over me, threatening to detonate my Pipbuck...but mercifully, Ark had already cut that power short. I still agreed with him that I should keep her thinking she was in control, it’d pacify her a little bit, so with a sigh I nodded and moved closer to her, letting her struggle to get on my back. Ark continued to laugh at the sight of Siren clambering on top of me, though at least I wasn’t alone in suddenly not enjoying his good mood. “Ark, it might be best for you so shut up,” Siren snapped, “before I decide to share a few of our secrets with them.” I closed my eyes and prayed for a moment that Ark would keep yammering on, but I knew that was hoping against hope. He fell silent as he picked up my saddlebags and started stomping off, following the map towards our next stop. We’d been traveling for only an hour or two before I was completely sick of dealing with Siren on my back. She’d spent quite some time messing with me directly, playing with my mane, leaning on my head, or just rattling off everything she would have been doing if she’d been back home at the stable right now. She’d finally fallen asleep after I fought to give her no response, though that wasn’t much better since she’d started drooling on my head as she dozed. It was a morbid relief when something else caught my attention, distracting me from Siren. There was a destroyed caravan not far ahead of us, resting in the pass between two hills. The bodies of its former inhabitants were strewn across the road, already been searched for anything useful. I couldn’t help but worry that the wagons looked broken up into pieces and scattered a little too orderly, and I wasn’t alone in that: I could see Gunrunner sweeping the terrain, just waiting for an ambush. Ark I couldn’t read as well, but I thought he looked a little more alert than when we were just walking. The shot we were all expecting rang out from the hill on the right, smashing right into Arkangel’s helmet. It was a good shot, and with any other armor I’d have expected Ark to be at least knocked unconscious...however, by now I wasn’t surprised to see it bounce harmlessly off it as Ark’s head snapped around to spot the sniper. He cloaked himself, though I managed to catch sight of a few hoofprints headed in that direction, as Gunrunner and I leapt to the wagons for cover. The gunshot had woken Siren, who screamed in panic as more gunfire echoed across the hills. Gunrunner pulled out his rifle and braced it against the wagon, aiming for the hill on the left. I was confused by his actions at first, but when he started to fire intermittently at the hillside I glanced up to follow his aim, spotting several ponies taking up positions to hit us from. And they weren’t alone, I could hear several sets of hooves moving very close by to us, charging at us. I activated my battle saddle and turned to face the party rushing us, trying to let myself fall back on my old security training to not be overcome by panic. I thought out my options, realizing my saddle’s weapons weren’t as effective at this range, so I grabbed my revolver between my teeth and breathed slowly. “Aim for the legs, incapacitate, don’t kill,” I reminded myself, before my first target crossed my vision. Siren yelped, but I ignored her and took aim with my revolver, trying to lead the shot right into his left front knee. The shot, however, wasn’t quite high enough, and it plinked into the dirt just in front of him. “Okay, maybe this is a problem,” I thought, before I ducked behind some nearby debris. He was holding an SMG in his teeth, inaccurate even at this range, but I wasn’t feeling like giving him the free shot. As I ducked into cover, I saw Siren staring at me disapprovingly from her own nearby safe zone. “How did you miss that?!” she snapped. “You try it without a SATS!” I shouted back, ignoring her eyeroll as I ducked under the spray from the stallion’s gun. “What’s your Pipbuck’s code?” Siren cried over the fire, but before I could even think if I should have given that to her or not, a mare came charging over my barrier. I took aim again, only for her to knock me over, sending my revolver skittering across the dirt towards Siren. With a moment of hesitation, Siren reached down to grab the gun, as I tried to fend off the mare brandishing a knife in her teeth. I saw Siren trying to aim at the mare, but at that second the stallion from earlier crossed into view and loomed over her. She tried to change her aim but the stallion was quicker, grabbing her and slamming her against a mostly-intact wall of a wagon. She dropped the gun in the impact. “Crap...what now?” I muttered, still struggling to keep the mare’s knife from carving open my throat. My first instinct from training was to bring my hooves up in her groin, but I didn’t think that would be as effective against her as I wanted. I wasn’t out of options though: while my wings weren’t armored or good weapons on their own, I didn’t think she’d expect me to swat at her with them. Sure enough I flapped one hard into her right side, distracting her just long enough for me to grab the knife and yank it out of her jaw, accidentally cutting a part of her lip as I got my grip on it. She reeled backwards, hoof to her mouth as I flipped myself onto my hooves again, following up on my advantage by lunging at her and forcing her head down, slamming it into a chunk of wood lying on the ground. It splintered at the impact and the mare collapsed in a daze. She’d be out for a minute, at least I hoped, so I turned back to Siren’s attacker, who was busy trying to choke her out. My revolver was laying unattended nearby, letting me grab it and fire four times at him...only to miss twice. I did at least strike his legs with my other two shots, making the stallion scream in pain as he fell back, dropping Siren roughly to the ground. She didn’t take kindly to being attacked, however, and bucked him square in the jaw. “Oh forget this,” she snapped, raising her Pipbuck to her face. “Disengage all system lockouts on nearby Pipbucks!” she cried. A second later, my Pipbuck chirped an alert, and I saw my SATS booting up just in time. Another stallion was coming at me with a hammer, but as he lunged the SATS kicked in and my perception of reality sped up, to the point I could clearly see my angle. I snapped a shot off into both his forelegs, sending him crashing to the ground. He wasn’t getting back up this fight. I ducked back into cover to reload, shaking a little as I tried to get back into practice of handling a weapon. I didn’t have a chance to calm down before my EFS started flashing, drawing me back into the fight as I turned to face three new targets with my battle saddle instead. There was enough power for the SATS to line up four more shots with my laser pistol, aiming to cripple each of his legs. I misjudged the penetrating power of the lasers, however: while all four of my shots hit, he stayed standing despite yowling in pain as the blasts burned his legs. By the time I’d ducked back into cover, my EFS warned me that the other two were turning to flank me. I waited a few seconds for them to come into striking distance before popping up, just enough power in my SATS to hit one of them twice in the legs. This time my target, a mare, went down screaming. A little confused at the varied reaction to the same kind of injury, I was distracted when another mare leapt at me from my other side. Without thinking I raised the rifle at her leading leg; I didn’t need the help of a SATS for this shot. The laser charged up and fired exactly as I’d intended...and only then did I realize my mistake. The shot blasted clean through her leg and into her torso, piercing her chest and blasting all the way through her body. She gasped and froze as she tumbled down, her wounds glowing with energy as horror flooded through me. “Oh shit no...Gun! Potion, now!” I yelled, glancing over to the sound of gunfire nearby. Thankfully he heard me and pushed the stallion he’d gotten into hoof-to-hoof combat with, forcing him to stagger before Gunrunner leveled his shotgun and blasted a hole clean through his head. Gun didn’t even react to that as he turned to run to me, grabbing a potion and sprinting towards me. By the time he’d reached me, however, it was too late. The laser had done far worse than I’d ever expected, started disintegrating the mare from the inside out. She was nothing but ashes by the time he stood up next to me. “You look okay to me,” Gun said bluntly, “and so does she.” He pointed at Siren, but the words rang harshly in my ears as I stared down at the mare’s ashes as the wind grabbed hold and started to pull them away. “I...I didn’t mean to...I didn’t think it’d…” I stammered, as Gun shrugged at me. I felt sick to my stomach; I’d been warned during my security training that we might have to kill at some point, but it had always been my job, my duty, to try my hardest to bring somepony in alive. This was the first time something awful had happened...if I’d just shot my pistol instead, if I hadn’t let the laser charge up all the way, maybe she’d… “Hey,” Gun said after a moment. He looked me in the eye and put a hoof on my shoulder. “First time you killed, huh?” he asked, voice just a hair more sympathetic than before. “You’ll get used to it, and you did the right thing here.” I opened my mouth to object, but no words came. “She’d have done the same thing to you. There’s no mercy out here,” he said with a sigh. “You’ve got to let go of that hesitation, because nopony out here’s going to give you the courtesy of talking it out.” He clapped his hoof on my back twice, before turning towards the hill Ark had left for. “You can bet I’m not gonna hesitate if somepony points a gun at me, so I hope you can do the same.” A few minutes later, Gun and Ark returned from the hillside. My EFS wasn’t detecting any more hostiles, and the ponies I’d incapacitated lay on the ground, groaning in pain but otherwise content not to attract our attention. I was still sitting by the ash pile, trying to process what had happened. I’d killed somepony, there wasn’t anything I could do to change that...but it still felt terrible. I hadn’t wanted to kill, I’d never wanted that, but the more I sat here thinking about it, the more I realized I was probably responsible for quite a few more deaths than just this; if not so far, once the robots I helped design were sent into the world. I shuddered as I felt the blood clinging to my hooves, guilt settling in my stomach like stones. To my surprise, I felt a hoof on my shoulder. I glanced up to see Gunrunner and Arkangel still far enough away, Gun prodding somepony’s corpse as he looked for anything useful, which could only mean one pony was sitting next to me. “Thank you.” Her first words startled me, and I looked at her in disbelief as she spoke. “You saved me from that beast, took down a lot more than I thought you’d manage,” she smirked slightly. Surprisingly, she seemed almost sympathetic to my plight, her smile a little encouraging despite our history. “I know you’re not used to killing, but trust me,” she sighed, “sometimes you really just need to. You need to protect yourself, what you care about, and there’s a lot of ponies who aren’t going to just let you have it, no matter what you say.” I couldn’t tell if she was speaking from experience or not, and I wasn’t certain which was the worse past for her. We looked at each other in silence for a second, before she rolled her eyes. “I know, I know, I haven’t exactly killed anypony either,” she muttered. “Not directly at least, not because I pulled the trigger. But I have called for deaths before...and I do feel responsible for them. But sometimes somepony’s life isn’t worth as much as something, and you have to make that choice. You can’t let that slow you down, like I almost did.” She glared off at the horizon for a moment, before tapping my back again. “Now come on, get up and keep going,” she muttered, “for both our sakes.” I sighed and stood up with her, knowing she was right, in her own sick and twisted way. Arkangel trotted over to us at that moment, looking almost puzzled. “What’s going on here?” he asked. “Storm here killed his first pony,” Siren explained. “Just the shock of it, he’s dealing with it ok. Right?” she asked me with a sidelong glance. I couldn’t articulate anything else, so I nodded in silence. “Well then, give him some time then, let the merc do his scrounging, then let’s get going.” Siren walked away to take a closer look at some of the remains of the wagons, while Ark sighed and gave me a similar speech to what Gun had said earlier. While I was relieved to hear it was a touch less dramatic as the speech Siren had just given me, I really didn’t want to hear Ark, a pony who had seemingly murdered somepony in cold blood, lecturing me about how 'it will get better.' Instead of argue I just nodded and let him think he was helping, before he left to do some of his own scavenging. I stood by the ash pile a few minutes more, brushing it slightly with a hoof and wondering what this poor mare had been like in life. It felt cold to just let her lie there like that, so I dug out a small rut in the earth and brushed as much of the ash as I could into it before covering the pit back up, the whole time scowling as I thought. “I’m not gonna just give up everything I’ve been because this wasteland doesn’t care,” I whispered, staring at the dirt I’d just patted down. “I don’t care what everypony up here is like, that isn’t me. I can’t let this weight just go away, I won’t.” We kept walking for hours after the fight, Ark was concerned that a straggler that had gotten away would bring reinforcements after us. I was still reeling over the death I’d caused, though after a while exhaustion had started to settle in. I wasn’t the only one feeling it, Siren was swaying all along the road as she struggled to keep walking, snapping her leash taut more than once and shocking us both awake. We were still miles away from Rock Point by my map’s standards, but I didn’t think we were likely to make it there. “Hey guys,” Gunrunner called from a little ways ahead. “Think we’d better make camp.” Oh thank Celestia he’d caught us dozing off as we walked. Ark turned and looked at him blankly, only for Gun to point back at the two of us. “Those two are gonna be useless if those bandits catch up to us.” I’d have snapped at Gunrunner for the insult, but I found myself agreeing with him all too much to argue. Ark didn’t seem phased by anything, even Gunrunner was showing signs of exhaustion, but Ark’s tone changed when Siren walked up next to him. “What about over there?” she pointed across Ark’s body towards a rocky outcropping no too far from us. Both Gun and I nodded silently, before everypony turned to Ark as he cast his gaze across us. With a sigh, he nodded as well, and we made our way over to closer inspect the site. It was too perfect to have never been used as a campsite before. The rocks formed a solid cover from the surroundings, while a decently sized open area near the center served as a good place to rest. There was even evidence of an old firepit right at in the middle, though anything that remained was at least a year old by now. Ark dropped his things and wandered off somewhere while Gunrunner went to work on making a fire. To my surprise, he pulled a strange potion out of his bag and started to pour its contents on the wood he’d gathered, which caught instantly. He capped the bottle as the fire grew into a steady and reliable burn. He was just putting it away when he glanced up at both Siren and I staring at him in bewilderment. “Fire in a bottle,” Gun said with a smirk. “My brother mixed it up. Always making strange and interesting things.” “A pegasus mixing potions,” Siren sighed, shaking her head. I glared at her out of the side of my eye, but Gunrunner didn’t seem quite so annoyed. “Oh no, he’s a unicorn,” Gun corrected Siren. That got both our attention again, though Siren’s shock quickly turned to disgust. “You can’t be serious.” I facehoofed, already seeing this conversation going to go badly. But Siren just insisted on opening her mouth. “You’re heritage is stained by a lesser breed, and you still associate with him?” Gunrunner held Siren’s gaze, his face stern and uncompromising. “Is that really how you are in your stable then?” Siren opened her mouth to say something, but Gun cut her off. “I don’t care. You can be as cruel as you want, I don’t care about your stupid, prejudiced ravings. Now shut up before I show you firsthand how effective some of my brother’s work can be.” That threat thankfully stopped Siren cold, though as she flopped down indignantly I could just hear her rambling on about lesser species in her mind. I was only dragged out of thinking of that by Ark returning with some more wood. “Oh,” he muttered, staring at the fire he’d clearly meant to start. “Well, more wood I guess.” He dropped his firewood load off to the side and slumped down in his own little area, fiddling with his armor. It was only now I remembered that I’d opened his armor, at least partway, when we’d first met Gunrunner; Siren’s words and Highmill’s obvious effort to break him out of the armor had been dominating my mind every time I looked at him since. We all sat in silence for a few minutes, nopony really wanting to talk, while I pondered if Ark was really stuck in his armor or not. I still couldn’t quite believe I was out here, following this potential nutcase with armor to rival entire battalions, with a captive overseer and a mercenary I knew nothing about. “That’s a shame,” I thought, I kinda like him. "Maybe...Hey Gunrunner,” I asked. Gun looked up from checking something on his rifle. “Tell me more about your brother. Or your family, whatever you want.” Gun sat there staring for a couple moments, before he awkwardly turned his head away. He clearly wasn’t a fan of talking about personal stuff like that. I thought I might break the ice a little, prove I was ok to talk to. “How about I tell you about my family then?” Gun shrugged, so I took a deep breath. “Well first off, my family’s huge; I’m the middle foal of seven.” I knew that would get a reaction, even Ark looked up for a moment. “Pretty much everypony’s been in security since I can remember: my dad Rocket Storm, mom Action, and my two older brothers Indigo and Apollo are all officers right now, and my older sis Glory just became a security medic. Then there’s my little brother Valor and my little sisters Majesty and Blossom, all in training. Kinda forced me into the field because of the family tradition,” I chuckled, shaking my head. “But it wasn’t for me. That didn’t go over too well with anypony...I still have a few bruises from my siblings and cousins roughhousing me over my decision. Kinda surprised,” I shrugged, “I thought building death machines would at least be close enough to ‘security’ for em, but…” My sentence fizzled out, I didn’t really know where to go after that. Gun stared at me awkwardly for a few moments before clearing his throat. “Well, that...that’s interesting,” he smirked. “I don’t really have that...interesting a story.” He seemed content to leave it at that, but sighed as I kept looking at him. “Alright, alright. Well my brother’s name is Error. We’re the foals of a couple of overseers in Stable 505. We were set to take over our parent’s positions one day, but...they just kinda vanished, and neither Error or I were that interested. So we snuck out of the stable a long while ago. Haven’t seen him in a while, we got separated...I mean not for lack of trying,” Gun grumbled, “but every time I try to track him down something goes wrong. I figure he’ll find me if he really needs something, but…well, I hope he’s alright.” I smiled at Gun and nodded silently, thanking him for opening up. I glanced at Siren, hoping against hope that hearing more of Gun’s story would break down her earlier pegasi-preferencial rant. Unfortunately, all she took from my look was a look that apparently said “you next.” She shook her head and frowned at me. “Nuh uh, I’m content to keep my secrets. I’m not so casual about my position,” she shot a dirty look at Gunrunner, who ignored it and simply rolled his eyes. While Gun and Siren had their little moment, I cast a hopeful glance at Arkangel. To my surprise, he looked almost regretful, staring at his helmet as he held it in a hoof. “Ark, you...want to say something?” I asked cautiously, causing both Gun and Siren to look up. Instantly, Ark’s demeanor shifted. “Nope. My story’s too messed up for any of you to deal with,” he glanced away from the fire. It looked like he was trying to scout for anything that might be sneaking up on us, but I could tell otherwise. “Ark, look,” I sighed. “I’ve been trying to be patient here...but at some point you’re going to have to tell us something. Otherwise...I don’t think I can trust you out here.” Arkangel glared at me with his red eye, nothing I hadn’t expected, but as he tried to hold his gaze he glanced at Gun and Siren, also starring rather worriedly at him. Ark didn’t keep his look up for long, sighing and smacking an armored hoof to his face. “Fine. If you all really need to know...I’m a supersoldier.” Gunrunner scoffed. “I’d have guessed that much.” Ark glared at him before continuing. “The program is experimental, the pegasus in charge was trying to make me into the first of a new generation of cyborg soldiers. I was with him, for a while, but I started to see he was just crazy and disturbed...so that’s why I left.” He looked at Siren for a moment, who bit her lip as she looked back at him. “I just wanted to get away from that lunatic. That’s why I brought you, and Siren,” he said. “If I can get somewhere only an overseer can access, there’s no way he can follow me. No other overseer is going to like spending the resources to retrieve me.” At that, Ark stood up and trotted several paces away from the fire. “You don’t need to trust me here...all I want is to get away from my past. Just let me do that, and you’ll never have to deal with me again.” He moved a bit further away and vanished behind a rock, his hoofsteps fading into the night. Gunrunner, Siren and I sat in uncomfortable silence for nearly a minute, listening for any signs Ark was coming back. But when it seemed he’d left us for the night, I turned to Siren. “And what’s that look for?” she snapped at me, once she noticed I was staring at her. “You said you put him in a program,” I muttered. “Did you have any idea what that researcher would do to Ark?” Siren grimaced. “It’s not the researcher exactly...it’s some lunatic from outside the stable, claimed he was the rightful ruler of 137. Most of the overseers just ignore him, but some of his ideas were...suitable,” she sighed. “But he’s been causing a lot of problems lately, and worst of all nopony can find him, not when he doesn’t want to be found.” “Oh is that all?” Gunrunner called out. We glanced up at him to see him chuckling to himself. “And here I thought you three were crazy outliers for your stable.” At that moment, Arkangel came back into view, hiscrobo eye returned to blue after some time alone. “Alright, look,” he sighed. “I know I’m being vague and demanding here. So here’s the deal: I just want to get away. The safe place I found is a bunker, but I still need some information and parts to get in. I know of an informant at Rock Point who should point us towards the pieces.” His eyes shifted back to red suddenly, making my cringe. “If any of you want to leave, go now.” Siren sighed. “Somehow I doubt that’s directed at me,” she muttered, causing Ark to glare at her. She rolled her eyes but said nothing, pulling her hood over her head and settling down to sleep. Gunrunner and I shared a glance before turning back to Arkangel, who gave us a moment to think. “Alright then,” he said. “For now, Storm, you’re watching her,” he jabbed a hoof at Siren. “If we lose her than nothing else we do matters. Gunrunner, I need you to keep us all alive out here.” “Long as you keep your heat off my back, I think I can manage that,” the merc replied. “Alright then. Now you all get some sleep,” said Ark, before turning away into the rocks again. He paused though, before turning slightly back towards us. “I do plan to get us all out of here alive.” With that Ark left us again, leaving the three of us in an uncomfortable silence. Despite how awkward that moment had been, it had settled some of my nerves about this whole endeavor, enough that it wasn’t too hard for me to find a comfortable place to settle down and fall asleep. ~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, my sleep wasn’t nearly as peaceful as I’d hoped. The death of that mare was still weighing heavily on my mind, so I wasn’t too surprised when I found myself in a familiar nightmare. It was a pained dream of something that had happened two years ago, back when I’d been in the security forces for the Stable. It had been my first breach and clear mission, which had only added to the stress and burned the entire experience into my memory. A gang of rebels had taken over a stable block, and it was our job to rescue at least the three pegasi hostages, the twenty other expendables if possible. The team was mostly made up of my own family members, though that hadn’t encouraged me in the slightest. In fact, it had only made things worse, when I nearly triggered an explosive one of the terrorists had strapped to a bound and gagged pegasus mare. But nothing had compared to the fear I felt than, after finding out the terrorists were after an overseer, we found a battleground with eight of the terrorists lying dead...along with a member of the honor guard, ragged and barely still breathing. There were clearly mortal wounds in his armor, autorepairs had failed to help him. He could just barely wheeze “Over...seeer...they have...power...armor…” before he died at my hooves. My mother had screamed in anger, the sight of an honor guard getting killed by these scum too much for her. I’d been stunned into silence, locked up and unable to even think about anything besides what horrors could await me further. My brother Indigo had snapped me out of it, but tonight the dream was...odd. “Come on, this is taking too long!” he hissed at me, yanking at my hoof. I didn’t remember that being how things had happened...especially as his tugs got rougher, like he was trying to tear something off my leg, his voice getting higher and higher pitched… I stirred roughly awake, blinking sleep and confusion from my eyes. The fire had died down, but everything else was more or less the same as when I’d fallen asleep, even the dark skies above. I couldn’t have been asleep for long, so what had… “Shit shit shit!” A panicked whisper echoed in my ears, only slightly refocusing my attention...right as something was jammed into my mouth. “Shut up, shut up!” I finally realized that it was Siren’s voice, and started to piece together what was happening: she’d tried to get her leash off my hoof, presumably to run away. I had to stop her...but my body was still uncooperative from just waking up. Before I could throw her off, I felt her yank my hooves behind my back, scrambling to tie them with something; I wasn’t sure what, but she was surprisingly adept at it. I tried to spit the rag out of my mouth, but Siren quickly grabbed a purple strip, I realized torn from her old cloak, and tied it to keep the rag in place. I struggled to get loose as she tied my hind legs together as well, leaving me helpless to fight her. She crept over to Gunrunner dozing nearby as I struggled, screaming to try and get anypony’s attention. But Gunrunner didn’t notice and slept peacefully as Siren reached into his bag and grabbed a knife. I had a brief, terrifying moment of fearing she was about to kill one of us, but I was ashamed to admit I was a little relieved that the only thing she did was hurriedly cut her leash off, before darting away into the night. I slammed my head roughly against the ground as Siren vanished. The one thing that was keeping me in his good graces, the only thing he’d told me to do, and there she went. Arkangel was gonna kill me. Author's Note Footnote: Level up New Perk: Gunslinger --- +25% accuracy in V.A.T.S. with one-handed weapons (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56
Dark MachinationsFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 5: Dark Machinations By Fallen Sentinel “Your actions will cost us more than we can afford. They may already have.” I felt like such a moron, sitting there bound tight as the hours slipped away. I was too tired from yesterday to struggle much, burning myself out after a few efforts to slip free of the knots binding my forelegs. I tried to squirm over to Gunrunner and get his attention, but the merc was sleeping soundly and I couldn't reach his bag for anything that might help me get free. I’d even tried worming my way over to the fire, but unfortunately whatever was in Gunrunner’s fire potion didn’t want to burn my binds, especially since by the time I’d gotten there the flames were nearly out. Eventually I gave up and lay there on the ground, sighing to myself. How had I let this happen? Had I seriously trusted Siren enough to let my guard down around her? I felt betrayed, but that was honestly a little stupid of me to think: Siren had never been on our side, always been antagonistic to us, always trying to get back to the Stable however she could. How far would she get given the time advantage she had now? Had she already found somepony looking for her, were we too late? I could only cringe as I thought of what would happen when Arkangel found out I’d let Siren get away. I kept expecting him to appear from thin air, yelling at me and threatening to kill me for letting her get the upper hoof on me. Had he maybe spotted her already, gone after her? He’d surely have caught her by now if he’d had the chance, but there was still no sign of him anywhere. He hadn’t gone ahead to Rock Point already, had he? After what felt like forever of waiting, struggling with what little energy I had left and muttering about how I could have used my old security training if she’d used hoofcuffs instead, the omnipresent cloud cover finally giving hints of the morning sun rising behind them. Gunrunner eventually started to stir from his sleep, but I couldn’t wait for him to wake up on his own. The instant I saw him somewhat conscious, I kicked him as hard as I could in the side. “Oww!” he yelled, jumping to attention and probably expecting a fight. It took him a moment to realize what was happening as I grumbled at him from behind the cloth, staring in utter confusion before he shook his head. “What the hell happened to you?” he asked. I did what I could to motion to where Siren had fallen asleep, but Gunrunner was already headed for his bag, digging for something. “Oh...Siren, huh? She took my knife.” I nodded at Gunrunner as he sighed, shook his head once again, before trotting over to me and starting to work out the knots binding me, starting with my muzzle. He had to struggle a bit without anything to cut, but eventually he’d gotten my mouth and forelegs free. “Ark’s gonna be pissed isn’t he,” I muttered, mostly to myself as Gun worked at untangling my hind legs. He glanced at me and only shrugged, before finally snapping the last rope off. I got to my hooves and looked around, biting my lip as I expected Ark to be somewhere by now. “Where is he, anyways?” Gunrunner looked around for Ark as well, but shrugged again. “So what now?” I asked. “Well since you’re asking me,” Gunrunner said, after a moment to think. “If Ark doesn’t have anything to be angry over, he won’t be.” I looked back at him, not quite catching his meaning, making him have to explain it to me. “We go out and find her before he knows she’s gone.” I nodded, desperate for a simple plan to solve the worry engulfing me. I could already see two big flaws with his plan: we had no idea which way Siren had gone, and she already had several hours headstart on us. It didn’t take long, however, for a third problem to emerge. Gunrunner suddenly was staring right behind me, a look of abject horror on his face. I cringed and turned slowly, seeing exactly what I was afraid of: Arkangel standing there, staring directly at me. I was glad for a moment that his helmet was still on, I didn’t want to see the look of anger on his face: the void of his dark visor was terrifying enough. “I can explain,” I stammered, trying to reason with him. The next thing I knew I was on my back on the ground, Ark’s scorpion tail smashing down inches from my ear. “ONE job,” he snarled, his voice resonating to the point I couldn’t tell if the earth were shaking, or it was just me. He pressed a hoof to my chest, applying pressure and keeping me from breathing deeply: I started to wheeze a little as he continued. “I told you to watch Siren, make sure nothing happens to her.” The pressure ramped up to the point I felt sure my ribs would crack. “I TOLD you that if we lost her, everything else is meaningless!” “But we haven’t lost her yet!” said Gunrunner, causing both of us to look at him. “She can’t have gotten too far yet, we can still follow her.” He pointed towards the eastern rock formation, and if my chest weren’t under pressure from Ark’s hoof I would have breathed a sigh of relief. Gunrunner had spotted tracks, partially disrupted but still clearly pony hoofprints; I wasn’t trained to read and even I could tell that had to be Siren’s cloak dragging in the dirt, not enough to clean her trail up entirely. Ark must have had the same realization, as he immediately leapt off my chest, allowing me to gasp and fill my starving lungs with air. “Grab your bags, we’re leaving now!” I stood shakily and checked my Pipbuck, making sure I didn’t have any serious injuries from Ark’s intimidation. Gunrunner had quickly gone to his things and started packing in a hurry; I took his lead and went to my bags. “So when we find her,” I said, after coughing to clear my lungs, “what exactly do we do?” “Rip her fucking wings off!” Ark screamed, his head swivelling to lock red eyes on me in a death glare. I froze as time seemed to stand still, until Ark himself seemed to recoil from his response. He shook his head until his eyes turned blue, only for him to turn away and start moving towards Siren’s tracks. “Just find her, catch her. We’ll worry about the rest later.” As I hurriedly packed the meager supplies I’d taken from my bag, I couldn’t help but stop thinking. Siren seemed to know something more than what she was saying...back in Black Pass, she’d started to say some other name besides Ark’s. Something that sounded like pay...was that one of the clear personalities he had? We might have lost Siren. While her tracks were obvious enough to follow for quite a ways, eventually we noticed more tracks coming up behind her, numerous ponies following her closely. Eventually Siren’s trail ended at a mess of dust and sand, evidence of a scuffle I was sure. Judging from the lack of bodies or Siren’s cloak dragging anywhere, I suspected she’d lost the fight. Unfortunately, after that fight the other ponies tracks split off in different directions, no signs which of them had taken Siren. Ark looked about set to kill somepony, and I could only hope that he would refrain from lashing out at us. But seeing as we were the only two around here… “So what...should we just keep going to Rock Point?” Gunrunner suggested. It was a bad idea. Arkangel spun towards Gunrunner rapidly, his tail flicking forward with the barb aimed right at Gunrunner’s throat. “Do I have to remind you that we need her for any of this to matter?” His voice was modulated by his armor, shifted into the same deep tone that seemed to shake the earth. “So who were they, where did they take her?” “Why do you expect me to know?” Gunrunner replied, staring defiantly back at Ark’s helmet. “You’re our wastelands expert,” Ark countered, leaving the two to stare at each other in uncomfortable silence for a few moments. “Get that out of my face and I might try finding out,” Gunrunner finally muttered, glancing down at Ark’s tail. I cringed, but thankfully Ark lowered his tail and let Gunrunner take a look around. “Well I know we’re outside Reaver territory, but that just means it could be anypony. Although…” Gun rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “There’s no blood. Best guess is slavers then, looking to sell her. Nice mare wandering the wastelands alone, easy target.” Arkangel glared at Gun for a moment, but finally turned and started walking off. “Uh...where are you going?” I asked hesitantly. “Rock Point.” I blinked and checked my Pipbuck’s map. Sure enough, Arkangel was leading the way straight there. “Civilization might know something about those slavers, or where they keep captives.” I glanced at Gunrunner, who only shrugged back at me. I sighed and raised a hoof to my face, but decided against arguing. I didn’t know for sure why Ark still felt we were worth keeping around, but I didn’t want to test his patience right now. “Looks like the Hoof has just a little more Security than a few days ag-” I switched the radio frequency again, cursing in frustration. I’d hoped that we would have found traces of Siren or the slavers as we got closer to Rock Point, but when there had been nothing I’d turned to fiddling with the radio to pass the time. I didn’t even know what security would be out in the wasteland, or who had decided to go up against it head-on. It was moments like this that made me wonder why everypony didn’t just wait out the wasteland in their Stables, like we were supposed to… I flicked through radio frequencies to try and pass the time, as it seemed even as we walked time just froze around us. But every time I glanced down to change I saw that time was passing: it had been an hour since we’d left our camp for Rock Point. It felt like far longer to me. I switched channels again. “-o the Security Mare. Looking forward to seeing what law and order you bring down next.” Sounded like somepony was having a fun time, though I had to wonder what chaos they were causing to cause it. Some particularly sad music started playing, forcing me to change stations again. “-ay that they got just what they deserved. Whomever built that thing, come by for some drinks on the house. Well...if your bot brings that mare back safely, anyways.” That mare? Could that have been Siren? “If anypony wants to get the mare back from the cybernetic death machine that just batted those slavers around, it’s taken her off to the abandoned mines south of Rock Point. You’ll know the mare when you see her: my eyewitness says she’s got a purple cloak, white coat, pink and black mane, and a fine flan- I really need to read these things before going on air.” Oh thank Celestia that was her! “Ark!” I ran up to his side. Arkangel turned and stared at me. “Somepony just said they spotted Siren. A robot’s taking her to the abandoned mines down south.” “The mines?” We turned to face Gunrunner as he shook his head. “That place is basically tearing itself apart. Can’t say I know a lot about the bot, but rumor is it turned up and has been scaring off anything that becomes trouble for the locals. But it never sticks around to chat, and anypony who goes into that mine gets dragged back out unconscious and can’t remember a thing.” “Well we’re just going to have to stay alert then,” Arkangel snapped. “Gun, lead the way,” he gave a curt motion with his head, ushering Gunrunner to the front. As Gun started to lead us towards our destination, I couldn’t help but feel anticipation bubbling in my stomach. Siren probably felt pretty sure she’d never see us again. I could only hope I got the chance to prove her wrong. It didn’t take long for me to wonder if I could prove her wrong at all. We’d reached the mines with little trouble, only with a few local desert dwellers on the path warning us not to enter. But once we were inside the dilapidated tunnels and had a look around, I was starting to worry. It was like a maze down here, tunnels branching off every which way, some collapsed due to old age and failing supports. We’d been following a slight trail for a while, but finally the tracks split off into five separate tunnels. They were each disturbingly regular, a precise gait I knew only a robot could duplicate five times over. Did this thing know we were coming? Or was it a precaution against getting followed? “Well, which way now?” I asked hesitantly. “Split up,” said Ark, curt as ever. “You take that tunnel, Gun and I can take the other four.” “Are you crazy? With that robot running around?” “Actually…” Gunrunner rubbed the back of his head, “I agree with Ark here. We’ve got one more day til those...what were they, Terminators?” He cast a glance at Arkangel, who didn’t respond. “I’d rather not stick around if we have to, we should find Siren and get as much distance as we can.” I sighed, but gave in. I was still worried about the robot, but I couldn’t help but agree with Gunrunner about our time limit. As I made my way down my designated tunnel, I tried to breathe a little easier. If that bot were hostile surely we wouldn’t have gotten so far into its territory, right? And besides, the tracks could have been old, and there were no signs of activity anywhere: I could barely see anything past the glow of my Pipbuck. “That thing surely needs light to see, right?” I thought. As if on cue, I entered another small crossroad and immediately spotted a faint hint of light down a tunnel almost looping back on mine. “Why did I say that,” I growled, facehoofing at how stupid I felt in that exact moment. Thankfully I couldn’t wallow in my idiocy for long: I realized that the bot might be active and somewhere nearby. My security training kicked in and I checked my EFS while reaching for my pistol, getting ready to set my battle saddle if necessary. But the EFS only had a single yellow bar up ahead, making me sigh with relief. Maybe Gunrunner was right earlier, maybe this robot was just defending territory? If we didn’t hurt anypony else, maybe it would leave us alone? I crept up towards the light and peeked around the corner, before moving up cautiously to a pile of stacked equipment I couldn’t quite identify. Past that was a small room offshooting the main chamber, a collection of metal bars hastily welded to form something like a cage door. The yellow bar was indicating the EFS target was in that room behind the bars, and glancing around I didn’t see any evidence of the robot anywhere. So could this be…? I crept closer to try and figure out what my EFS was sensing: the room looked almost entirely empty, save the threadbare necessities of a jail cell, and for a few seconds I completely missed a mass of purple fabric lying on the floor. It shifted a little in response to my hoofsteps, and as I tapped on the bars a familiar voice I couldn’t decide if I was glad or furious to hear rang through the chamber. “Oh what is it now, you hunk of junk? I told you to leave me alone, don’t you know how to take orders? Damned robot…” I cleared my throat almost cheekily. “Can’t say I’m much of a robot,” I muttered, as Siren leapt about a foot off the ground. She busied herself disentangling herself with her robe enough to see me as I started examining the bars a little closer. “What the hell are you doing here?!” she hissed under her breath, casting a nervous glance around behind me. “If that thing comes back and sees you…” She froze, staring in terror straight behind me. I turned quickly, only to find nothing was there. “What are you looking at?” I looked back at her with an eyebrow raised in confusion. “There!” she whispered, jabbing her hoof at the ground. I looked again, but didn’t notice anything still. “It’s cloaked!” I suddenly remembered Ark’s disappearing act and glanced down, finding a fresh set of hoofprints had started circling me. A chill ran down my spine and I quickly raised my battle rifle, trying to trigger my SATS to help me spot the threat. But it didn’t show itself. A second later something struck me hard and threw me to the side, knocking my aim off as the gun discharged, the shot ricocheting off the wall instead. I barely stayed standing and with my SATS fully charged I had an instant to think up a strategy: the robot was cloaked, so I couldn’t get a clear shot on it. But what if I could see it? There was just enough dirt at my hooves for me to grab some and throw it in the direction of the latest hoofprints. Sure enough, a pony-like shape emerged from the shadows as the dirt dusted it right where I suspected the bot was standing. I leveled my gun at the target and fired at what I thought was a forward joint in its leg. My SATS helped me confirm the shot, but instead of sinking into the target part of the energy bounced off a curved surface and shot straight past the shadow, hitting the wall behind it. I aimed to fire again, but my SATS didn’t have the charge to keep this up, and I had to aim manually. I fired three more times, one deflecting slightly off the robot’s armor, one seeming to hit dead on as I heard a metallic grinding for a second, and the third one passing straight through where I thought it was. “Did I get it?” I wondered, glancing around in case I’d missed it. But I wasn’t fast enough. Suddenly something was wrapped tight around my neck, pulling me just a bit off the ground. I gasped and reached for the obstruction, hooves finding something and pulling back, but I wasn’t strong enough to break its hold on me. All it got me was thrown sideways against a wall, pinning me down as it tried to choke me out. I struggled to breathe, yanking with all my strength and trying to get a hind leg somewhere to kick at the bot, but I was rapidly losing focus. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, and my thoughts started to slow down and drift off. Was this how I was going to die? The bot’s second hoof came down on my lower back to tighten its grip on my throat, straining me to the point I thought it might try to rip my head off. I could only hear Siren screaming something off in the distance, but I couldn’t make out her words as the world faded into oblivion... The next thing I knew I was lying on my side with somepony’s hoof on my neck. It was a far more tender touch than I’d just experienced, and as I started to regain feeling in my body I looked around as quick as I could manage, trying to find out what had just happened. It was Siren touching me, checking to see if I was ok, staring at me with more concern than I’d ever seen on her face. As I started blinking, regaining my thoughts, I glanced towards the nearest source of light I could find...on the other side of the bars. I struggled to my hooves and shook my head as the blood flow started to stabilize in my brain, letting me think clearly again. I looked to see what had happened in the time I’d been unconscious...which hadn’t been long, apparently. I could see where I’d just been choked unconscious and a fresh trail where I’d been dragged into the cell, but more interestingly I could see the robot itself. It had decloaked and was busily welding a bar back into position, probably one it had removed to throw me into the cell with Siren. The first thing that amused me about seeing this bot clearly was that it was using a portable welding torch just like a regular pony might have. But after that realization I started to take in more details about the design itself, that made me look over the thing again in confusion and interest. The robot was small, almost a head shorter than I was, yet it clearly had overpowered me. Its plating was a deep maroon red and surprisingly fluid, a sleek appearance that I might have mistaken for an organic being. Not helping that illusion was the fact it had a mane and tail, a purple matching its optics with pale pink highlights. But the oddest thing about this bot were that it had a very pony-like face, mouth and all, very detailed...and, surprisingly, it seemed to have two white fangs jutting from what I was struggling not to call a lip. I raised a hoof towards the bar ahead of me, but Siren grabbed me and pulled me back. “Don’t!” she hissed, “you're not marked as a threat.” I pushed Siren back and moved closer to the bars anyways. “Are you trying to get yourself killed? That thing is out of control! It won’t listen to my commands!” The welder flared suddenly as Siren spoke, causing us both to glance towards the bars. The robot glared at Siren, optics focused down on her with a scowl on its face...it looked angry. I couldn’t quite process what I was seeing, if I didn’t know it was metal I’d have sworn I was looking at a pony’s face. As it turned back to its work of welding us in, I tried to think of a way to interrupt it without marking myself as a threat, only now realizing it had discarded my battle saddle when it dragged me in here. But I knew it wasn’t going to do us any good, so with a sigh I turned instead to Siren with a nervous shrug. She collapsed on the ground with a heavy sigh, staring nervously between the robot and me. She probably was wondering which of us would end her less painfully at that point. I was still furious at her, but wasn’t exactly in any kind of shape to fight her: my body still hurt tremendously from the lack of oxygen and I was still recovering. I stumbled to the wall and tried to rest a little bit, only for Siren to come closer and gently stroke my mane. I couldn’t help but scoff slightly at her suddenly being nice to me, but I didn’t mind not being alone in a strange cell with a crazy robot staring at us outside. It was only then that I noticed that Siren had tears welling in her eyes. “Uh...Siren, are...are you alright?” She didn’t respond for a second, only for her to start petting my mane again. “Okay Siren enough, you’re scaring me.” I tried to pull away, but Siren grabbed me and refused to let me go, letting me feel how much her body was shaking. “I’m sick of this…” she whimpered. I blinked in shock, struggling for a moment with what to do. “Uh...yeah, I guess...the wasteland kinda sucks, doesn’t it?” “That’s not what I mean...I’m sick of all this,” she waved a hoof at the robot, who had just finished sealing us in and was walking away, grabbing my battle saddle and placing it atop the stack of equipment I’d passed by earlier. “I’m sick of everything I do coming back to haunt me! That thing, Ark, the freak, Redwood, my mother, my father…” She paused for a moment there, giving me a second to realize what she’d just said. Her own parents had caused her some kind of grief? “Even you…” “Uh...what do you mean?” I said shakily. I was hoping she didn’t notice my Pipbuck was still damaged, or what that meant. Unfortunately, she did, and she pointed straight at it to prove it. “You broke our deal,” she sniffled, wiping a tear away from her eye. I was shocked to see her so broken up. “I know I should maybe have not done that to you, but I was just starting to trust you. I thought I could finally trust somepony…” I cringed at her concept of trust: I’d felt sure she’d use that explosive as leverage over me to make me do whatever she’d wanted in the moment. That wasn’t trust, that was abuse. But Siren looked so upset, I couldn’t help but be curious. “Is it really that hard for you to trust somepony?” I asked. Siren glanced at me with teary eyes, but didn’t hold her gaze very long. I decided to change the subject, hopefully help her mood. “Look, we’re not gonna die here. Ark and Gunrunner are…” I bit my tongue as Siren cringed to hear Arkangel’s name again. Bad idea. “Siren, I...I’m sorry. I didn’t know this was…” I gestured towards my Pipbuck for a second, before gently taking one of her forehooves in mine. “I didn’t know this meant that much to you.” Siren pulled her hoof out of my grip. “It’s not that much, but it was my only chance to try again…” “Siren, look, I promise you right now,” I grabbed her hoof again. She didn’t react, save looking up at me. “I promise I will get you back to the stable as soon as Arkangel is done with us. I’ll do everything I can to get you home safe.” Siren stared at me in disbelief, though I didn’t entirely blame her at this point. “I guess I should be glad Ark’s been keeping me alive,” she smirked, sighing heavily as she spoke. “Rather not face the wasteland all alone.” I thought that changing the subject might help Siren out a bit, but unfortunately the only other thing that came to mind seemed like a horrible idea. I had nothing better to say though, so… “You had something to do with Ark a long while ago? How...how did that go? What happened?” Siren looked up at me with a bemused smirk on her face. “We were a thing for a little bit, I guess, but...one of the expeditions outside the stable we were involved in led us to...that.” Siren gestured at the robot, who had just finished welding the bars shut again and locking us in. It gave the both of us an appraising look, a look on its face that I would have almost called “curious,” before it turned and left us alone in the cell. “I don’t know what it’s doing out here now,” she shrugged, “it didn’t have any programming that would make it do this. It was completely empty in fact, memory cores completely wiped. But it was a good design, and we found plans for an entire line of them, plus a perfect way to toy with generating a fresh AI…” She sighed. “But not everypony was happy with it. Not a lot of the other overseers liked the idea of developing a totally new combat robot, however, and I was still just starting out in my own role.” There was an uncomfortable silence for a second as Siren thought about what to say next. “My father...he was the Overseer of the Military at the time, he was staunchly against them...wanted us to destroy it, and the plans. But mother wanted to use them...and so did half the other overseer population. It was down to my deciding vote, everypony staring at me for my first big decision as an overseer.” She sighed heavily, shaking her head slowly as she thought. “Eventually I decided it was worth researching, even if we never decided to use them. Unfortunately, that caused a schism between my parents, so bad that my father disowned me.” I cringed, hurt simply by hearing Siren admit to that. I knew my family was disappointed by me not joining everypony else with security, but utter disownment? I hadn’t imagined it would be that bad. “So of course, because they had to drive the nail in, the robots were assigned to me for further study and replication. The goal was mimicking some soldier’s minds, create an AI that can act like those soldiers might have, but we never got that far, only taking a few brainscans of some of the researchers for a control batch in that one,” she waved her hoof out the door, seemingly indicating the robot wandering around out there somewhere. “But the scars stayed, my father never really spoke to me after that...not until he died.” I had to wince again, feeling the hurt that Siren was trying to suppress at the memory. “Siren, I’m so sorry…” She looked up at me abruptly, a confusing smirk on her face. “Why?” I blinked back at her. “You’re the one that killed him.” ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ “Repeat, Honor Guard down, terrorists have armor.” My mother’s voice was tense, her fury only barely restrained anymore. “You have to be kidding me...comm, you got that?” my dad growled over the radio. “Affirmative Phoenix Squad, worse than we feared. Traitor has his honor guard with him.” As I struggled to regain my composure, our command started relaying worse and worse information. “Possibly eight of them, and there’s only one possible friendly honor guard in there now. “Comm, how the hell are we going to fight those things?” I tensed up all over again: it wasn’t like my father to sound so...worried. He was generally so cool under pressure, though I couldn’t blame him for it in this case. Honor guard were marked as the best of the best for a reason, how could a small group of security forces go up against those?! “Well I have good news for you at least, the High Overseer is on her way down for some reason.” I flinched. The High Overseer? Here? On a mission we’d already bungled? But at least she’d be coming with her honor guard, superior to any rogue forces we were going to encounter. “Pick up the pace,” comm said rather half-heartedly. I knew she meant for us to stay calm and try to hold position, wait for reinforcements, but it wasn’t going to look good on security if we admitted to it on record. Unfortunately, her advice had to go ignored, as at that exact moment my EFS started whining. Red, lots of it, hostiles just ahead around the corner. I quickly fell in line with my squad, as our second squad joined up and mixed in with us. Ten security ponies, my family, up against a rogue overseer and eight honor guard...I really didn’t care for our chances, but I couldn’t dwell on that. We were going in: Indigo was already perking his head around the corner, the rest of us watching from helmet cams. Though they were a fair distance away, I could just make out that four of the honor guard were attempting to cut through a door, while the other four were watching the corridor. One of them spotted Indigo immediately, and for a brief moment of panic I thought sure my brother was about to lose his head. But the guards did nothing, except I presumed spoke via their internal comms to inform the rogue Overseer of our presence, since he turned to face us. His brown and red modified honor guard armor shined in the light of the welders as he stepped closer to us, one of his guard following him. “Step forward,” he called out, but none of us listened to him. We shifted into a firing line as the honor guard stepped around the corner, followed by the Overseer who glanced bemusedly at us. He seemed to count us off, before looking right at Indigo, presumably thinking he was the leader. “Now, set your weapons down, or I’ll have to kill you all.” I felt a cold, hard lump in my throat, but I didn’t back down. None of us did. But nopony opened fire either; were we all as scared as I was right now? The Overseer sighed and shook his head. “Very well, kill them.” “Wait!” I yelled, before anypony had a chance to shift their weapons. The Overseer raised a hoof as the guard charged his weapon and quickly scanned our security line for the voice. I stepped forward, despite my father hissing at me to stay in formation. “Why are you doing this?” The Overseer laughed a little too harshly for my liking, staring straight at me, singling me out. “I’m trying to save us, of course!” He looked expectantly at me, like I should somehow know what he was raving about. I could only shrug in confusion. “Of course you don’t understand, nopony does, or nopony wants to admit it. We’re content to make the same mistakes as the past, over and over again until we’re all doomed!” I still had no idea what he was talking about. “The damn robots, the more we focus on those the more we outdate ourselves! Some day they’ll even replace us Overseers with dead metal and wire!” The rogue was snarling, almost foaming at the mouth as he stared at me, only for me to stare blankly back at him. He sighed and collected himself, shaking his head. “No, of course you can’t see it...I just wish I could have shown you all…” He waved his hoof and, to my surprise, his honor guard relaxed their stance,at least a little bit. “But very well, if this is really what you think is best for the whole Stable...arrest me.” I blinked in shock, and glanced back at the rest of my squad. Nopony moved, everypony was still suspect of the entire situation. But if there really was a chance that I could end this situation right now...I just had to take it. So fumbling to grab a pair of hoofcuffs I stepped forward, keeping my eyes focused on the rogue Overseer. He kept his eyes on me as well, helping me stay focused on him...and only too late did I realize why. “Take him alive,” the Overseer sighed. “I’ve seen too many innocents die today..” I tried to get my legs moving, realizing what was about to happen, but I was too late. One of the Honor Guard grabbed me with a hoof and their tail and dragged me towards their group. I tried to break free, only to have the barbed tail pressed to my throat. “Weren’t you supposed to keep me alive?” I muttered, though I couldn’t raise my voice enough to be heard over the rogue. “If you want him to stay this way as much as I do, don’t follow us.” None of my family moved, tense with guns still trained on the guards as they shuffled the rogue Overseer and myself back around the corner, just as a new set of Honor Guard stormed into the room, these bedecked in golden armor. The High Overseer and her forces had arrived. The rogue’s honor guard tailed us as the Overseer himself pushed me along, having taken over threatening me with a gun pointed straight at the back of my head. I didn’t want to fight him, not now, so I let him lead me forward, hoping to offer security or the High Overseer’s guard an opportunity. To my surprise, however, the High Overseer’s guard parted their defensive line, letting an old grey pegasus in golden robes step forward. The High Overseer herself...I knew I should have saluted, but threatened as I was I didn’t make an effort to move, not now. The High Overseer stepped closer to us, waving her hoof at most of her guards, ordering them to hold position. Her Elite guard followed, however, the horn of their armor glowing and ready to fire at a moment’s notice. To my surprise, the rogue pushed me into the care of one of his guard and stood between two of the others, facing her down. “Why do you still refuse to see it,” he growled at the High Overseer. “What I refuse to see? What about you? Why do you refuse to see that the counsel has chosen against you? The robots will be built, and nothing you do will stop that.” The rogue shook his head. “I won’t allow us to be replaced by those mindless machines. You know as well as I do that they’ll do it eventually, if you give them enough work. Better to scrap it all now and be done with it.” “Even if it means killing your daughter?” “OUR daughter,” the rouge snapped. The High Overseer looked startled for a moment, but forced herself to regain composure. “You know as well as I do I can’t show personal bias for a project. But you...you know that she’ll continue. She’s probably already memorized half the schematics you’re trying to burn here. Even if you destroy our data, find and destroy that original one, your daughter will keep the project alive. Is that really what you want, to kill her?” The rouge overseer paused, staring in silence. The High Overseer’s words had gotten to him, but as he searched for an answer to her comments the cutters finished their work and the door seal was broken. It slid apart easily, a chunk of the locking mechanism clattering to the ground and shattering the silence. “I suppose we’ll have to continue this later,” the rogue muttered, before heading for the busted opening. “Hold the line here,” he told his guard. “Kill them if you have to.” With that, he vanished through the doorway. We were left in silence for at least a minute, the rogue’s honor guard staring at the High Overseer and her guards, my family standing ready in the back. I was halfway between thinking that I was going to die and blaming myself for the standoff, considering I’d gotten captured like a moron. But as I glanced at the rogue’s guards I realized they were far more focused on their opponents than their hostage. It gave me an opportunity to reach slowly for a pocket on my vest, watching carefully for anypony spotting my motions. Miraculously, none of the honor guard reacted, as I pulled out a small cluster of small spheres from the pocket. Shock grenades, I should have had ten in my kit, each just strong enough to knock out a suit of power armor...if they were close enough. I carefully moved to roll one under the guard at my immediate right, trying not to watch my shot too much or else blow my cover. I could see two more guards on my left I might hit with these grenades, but there were still too many targets. How could I get something under all of them? Thankfully, I wasn’t alone. The Elite Honor Guard stared directly at me for a moment, before the horn of his helmet glowed very slightly. The rogue guards snapped attention to him as he slowly lifted a sheet of paper that had been strewn on the ground. It was a distraction from what he was really using his magic for, as I felt five more shock grenades leave my grip, as one of them very slowly hovered under a guard in front of me, one I’d felt sure I’d be caught if I rolled it to. I kept staring at him, only for him to give a curt nod in my direction. I nodded back to him and hit the trigger on my armor. All ten grenades exploded simultaneously, their electric tendrils launching upwards into the targets above them. Five rogues were hit and fell, screaming in shock and pain as their suits shut down and the shock ran into their bodies: it should have been painful, but not fatal, even the unlucky two at the front who had gotten hit by two grenades each. The other three rogues barely managed to dodge the attack, throwing their defense into enough chaos that I could slam my shoulder into the rogue threatening me and make a run for the line of golden guards as they charged to fight the rogues. They parted swiftly to let me dive through, into the waiting arms of my family. My father instantly pulled me aside. “Are you insane?!” he hissed at me. I winced slightly, the smile from the adrenaline and success of my plan vanishing instantly as he reprimanded me. “You can’t step out of line like that, especially with honor guard around. They could have…” He swallowed his next words, looking somewhere between angry and worried. Before I could apologize, I heard an explosion over the sound of the honor guards fighting. A part of the wall behind us fell away and the rogue overseer leapt through the new hole. It was hard to make out through the dust and rubble, but there was a shadow of something on his back...a mare in a purple coat, I realized, right as he stared at my squad in shock for a moment. Then he turned and ran back down the hallway. My squad turned to give chase, but just as we did a second figure leapt out through the settling dust: an honor guard. We almost raised our weapons to open fire, but I quickly put mine down: the armor of this guard was purple and badly damaged. “How many overseer guards are involved in this?” I couldn’t help but mutter over comm. The purple honor guard turn and ran after the rogue overseer, but the guard was limping, his gait was off. He must have been brutally attacked and injured in the fight, yet he was still chasing after the rogue with dedication. I couldn’t help but admire that as I ran after them, ignoring my father’s call to stay in formation. By the time I reached the corner I could hear the sounds of a fight underway: the purple guard must have caught up with the rogue. I rounded the corner in SATS to try and get a better feel for the situation: I immediately spotted the mare lying in a corner behind the rogue. The tail of his armor flashed in the broken light as he fought with the honor guard. Damaged as his armor was, the purple guard couldn’t withstand the onslaught for long, his tail already slowing down and plates falling from his suit, revealing a crimson coat beneath. If I didn’t act now, we might lose another honor guard. The rogue slammed his leg into the honor guard’s knee, dropping him to the ground as the rogue raised his tail. I only had one shot to stop it, so I targeted the tip of the rogue’s tail and fired. The impact was just enough to divert the swing, aimed at the honor guard’s exposed neck. The rogue’s tail whizzed past his head, causing the rogue to look up and scowl at me. I gulped in fear, even as my family caught up and took aim. “Don’t move, traitor!” my dad yelled. “Surrender, while you still can.” The rogue looked at my father, almost upset for a moment. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. I have to do this…” His tail whipped around and suddenly I realized that the barb had disconnected from it, spiralling straight for my father! I tried to aim to shoot the barb down but my SATS wasn’t ready. Thankfully, the barb only grazed my dad’s armor, still enough of an impact to knock him back, but it distracted all of us long enough for the rogue to grab the mare and run further down the hallway. We tried to open fire, but he was too far ahead for our shots to hit, plus the purple guard had gotten back up and was in the way. My mother took charge immediately. “Razors 1 and 4 will get Phoenix 1 medical attention. Phoenix 2 through 4 will join the rest of Razor and stop the rogue.” I knew my mother was worried about dad, but I’d have felt a lot more comfortable if she’d come with us. “Phoenix 2, you’re in command.” Apollo nodded and pointed us forward, Indigo and myself being first in the formation to run down the corridor. I was first to notice the rogue and the purple guard fighting again, but the guard was losing. The rogue grabbed one of his hooves and twisted it unnaturally: I could practically hear the bone snap despite the distance we still had between us. I cringed along with the honor guard, though to my surprise he didn’t shout in pain. He was however distracted long enough for the rogue to line up and buck him down the hallway, straight at us. My hoof reached out to Indigo and I pulled him to the ground, ducking under the honor guard as he was sent flying into the rest of the squad. The rogue quickly grabbed the mare and hurried away. “Go!” Apollo yelled at Indigo and I, and I didn't stop to question him. We rounded the corner just in time to see the mare falling off the rogue: she’d apparently woken up and had gotten off his back, falling on the ground as he turned to face her. Now I could tell for sure that this mare was another overseer, her robes the same purple as the guard outside. Indigo was first to raise his gun. “Overseer, run!” he yelled, as he charged forward, firing on the rogue. I followed suit, but the rogue wasn’t deterred by our shots. His tail whipped around and caught Indigo’s leg, yanking my brother off his hooves and towards him. The rogue’s hoof raised up and slammed Indigo’s head into the ground, knocking my brother out. In the moment I was terrified he’d just been killed, and I locked up, even as the mare I realized now was the rogue’s daughter struggled to escape his slow approach of her. The rogue’s hoof came down on his daughter’s tail, pinning her down and keeping her from sliding herself away, forcing her to stare at him on her back. She was terrified, not that I could blame her, curled up while staring at her father and shaking. He took off his helmet and looking sorrowfully at his daughter. “I wish I didn’t have to do this…” he sighed.” Just then, I heard something heavy fall behind me. The purple guard had gotten himself back up, only to collapse again. “No!” he screamed, watching as the rogue pulled out a pistol and held it in his mouth, aiming straight at his daughter. I didn’t think. I just ran and jumped at him, flapping my wings to push myself into him as fast as I could. I hit him with my shoulder just before his shot rang out, the bullet slamming into the wall mere inches from the mare’s head. The two of us fell to the ground, my shoulder screaming at me for having just bashed into an armored pony like that. The gun left the rogue’s mouth and skidded across the floor, but that’s about all I’d managed to set him back with my lunge. He easily kicked me off of him, throwing me towards the pistol as I slammed hard on the ground. My back and side joined the chorus of pain that pumped into my brain, as I struggled to stand up. I didn’t have enough time, however, as the rogue rushed forward and slammed a hoof into my stomach, throwing me back against the wall. The air rushed from my lungs as I slid down the wall and collapsed. I struggled to stand, but could only watch as the rogue grabbed the pistol again and aimed at his daughter. But this time, he hesitated. He didn’t want to shoot her, I could see it in his eyes. The rogue turned to me again, started walking towards me. I stared in fear and locked eyes with the mare cowering in the corner. Only now could I see that one of her hooves was broken: that explained why she hadn’t tried to run before, or now, as the rogue grabbed me by the collar of my armor and hauled me in front of her. “I can’t kill her...but she needs to die. So I’m ordering you to do it.” I stared at the rogue as he shoved the pistol into my mouth and turned my aim at the mare. She stared at me, shaking even worse than before as tears rolled down her cheeks. I could only stare back, fearing for my life and for hers...knowing I might well end it here. She covered her eyes and shook in silence, waiting for me to obey her father...but I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t kill her, not an innocent mare like this! “Hurry up, I can’t wait any longer…” The rogue stared at me, only something I could see out of the corner of my eye as he still held my head towards his daughter. “For fuck’s sake, you damned security drone, pull the fucking-” Enough. I twisted my neck with as much strength as I had, breaking the overseer’s grip on me. I turned straight to him, face to face, shut my eyes, and pulled the trigger. The shot rang harshly in my ears, reverberated through my teeth to my entire skull. I couldn’t look, I couldn’t open my eyes, even as I heard the clang of an armored pony crash to the floor. I couldn’t believe I’d just killed an overseer of the Stable...in any other circumstance I’d have been shot on the spot. I felt myself shaking, so badly that I dropped the pistol on the ground before I could even think of opening my eyes again. By the time I had, the mare overseer was looking at me. She wasn’t shaking anymore, but I couldn’t tell what expression she wore; ultimately it didn’t matter. I had one thing more I needed to do now… I knelt down and helped the Overseer up on my back, only for her to start sniffling as she stared at her father. I wanted to comfort her, but I didn’t think I could come up with words or actions appropriate for our difference in stations, not to mention the fact that I’d just been the one to kill him. Thankfully, she didn’t fight me, and I was able to carry her clear of the sector to my sister Glory, still attending to a hostage we’d saved from an explosive device. Glory started attending to the Overseer’s broken hoof immediately, as I went looking for my father or mother to talk debriefing. Unfortunately, my body was not at all happy with the prolonged stress and I collapsed on the ground not far from the Overseer. It was at least a minute before I could stand again, my sister checking on me to ensure I wasn’t actually injured being the only interference on my moment of panic. By the time I stood up, though, I heard something else, something I didn’t really expect to hear then: armored hoofsteps. The purple guard was lumbering out of the sector as I stood up, looking badly damaged but still alive. I couldn’t imagine how, I could have sworn he’d bled more than most ponies had in their bodies by now! He clanked his way to his Overseer and spoke to my sister. “Is...she...alright?” His voice was labored and raspy, even considering it was coming through his armor’s systems. He was in a lot of pain clearly, but apparently his worry for his Overseer was worse. “She’s got a broken leg, but she should be fine otherwise,” Glory responded, only momentarily making eye contact with the guard’s visor. He nodded to her and sighed with relief, then looking at the Overseer, who smiled at him. A moment later he turned and came to me, leaning on the wall next to me as he just tried to breathe. He reached up and hit a button on his helmet. To my surprise, it hissed like it was depressurizing, as he pulled the helmet off and dropped it to the floor next to me. It rolled and bumped into my hoof, but I wasn’t looking at that. I was taking the moment to stare at the pony beneath the armor: a crimson coated stallion with a purple and grey mane, clean cut so as to fit inside his helmet easily. He looked right at me with calming blue eyes and smiled softly, extending a hoof to me. I took it and shook. “Thanks for saving my life, and my Overseer,” he said. “Name’s Pale Shroud.” ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ I stared at Siren in silence for thirty seconds as she looked at me, teary eyed. “Oh Celestia, Siren I...I can’t believe I didn’t realize…I’m so sorry…” She glared at me for a moment, still some anger over the incident in her mind. But she sighed and shook her head. “It wasn’t your fault...it was the only thing you could have done then, to save me. Save yourself...the Stable. If he just hadn’t lost his damned mind in the first place!” She slammed her hoof into the ground. I winced at her anger, but as her emotions became clearer to me I realized something important. “There never was a vote, was there?” She looked at me, confused and a bit guilty. “You set me up to take the blame for Grey Water’s death because of your father, didn’t you?” Siren bit her lip and nodded hesitantly. I couldn’t help getting furious at her for a moment, but I sighed and leaned my head against the wall instead. “Why didn’t you just execute me then? Why drag it out in front of the whole Stable?” “I don’t know...I guess I wanted it public. Publicly humiliate you and disgrace your name because I was so mad at you…” She tore her eyes away from me. “But that won’t bring him back...Fantastic I’m so sorry for all of this…” I looked sadly back at her as she clutched her head, trying her best not to cry. I felt awful for bringing up the old memories of her father, of being responsible for almost killing her, and for killing him. And now I’d destroyed her trust in other ponies all over again out here...I needed to get her trust back, however I could. “Your Pipbuck still has that explosive charge, right?” “Yes, just like all the ones for our Stable. I don’t see how…” I grabbed Siren’s foreleg and examined her Pipbuck closely, comparing it to mine. Ark had tapped those three points with his tail, I remembered the order he’d hit them in, but I didn’t have anything sharp enough to work with. Unless… “You still have Gunrunners’ knife?” Siren reached into her cloak and produced the knife, so quickly I was a little worried. “Did she intend to use that on me?” I wondered, as she passed it to my waiting hoof. Then as carefully as I could, I stuck the knife into the same three points Arkangel had, before gently twisting the blade on the third strike. To my surprise, the same small metal cylinder Ark had taken from my Pipbuck popped out of Siren’s, and almost slipped to the ground: I barely caught it as I fumbled to hang onto it, the knife falling from my grip and clattering to the floor. I took only a moment to carefully observe the device, small and unassuming as it might have been, before carefully slotting it into my own Pipbuck, much to Siren’s shock. “What are you…” she stammered, as I watched my Pipbuck carefully. The screen flickered for a second, but it settled down and I raised my hoof back towards her. Siren gasped as she realized what I was doing, and raised her hoof to mine. “Activate protocol 1138 with the Pipbuck of Fantastic Storm.” Our screens both turned pink, just like before. Her voice a touch shaky, Siren continued. “I, Siren, Overseer of Stable 137’s Soldier Evolution and Research Division, hereby record this agreement between myself and Fantastic Storm. If Storm returns me to our Stable after our journey is finished, I promise to clear him of his alleged crimes, and take personal responsibility for Grey Water’s murder.” She paused for a moment, staring at me blankly. “D...do you accept the terms of the contract?” “I accept,” I said after only a slight sigh of worry. With that the Pipbucks chirped and returned to normal. Siren looked a little happier for it, and even though I might have just signed my own death warrant at least there was that. “So...what exactly is your job? Soldier Evolution and Research...sounds fun,” I smirked. Siren laughed and shook her head. “Far from it….mostly paperwork if I’m honest.” She sat herself down against the wall, and didn’t cringe when I sat next to her. “Lots of resource management, making sure everypony gets what they need, sometimes...making problems disappear,” she sighed at the last comment, wincing. I put a hoof to her shoulder comfortingly as she looked up, a little less tense than before. But a second later, she glanced at the cage bars and tensed up. I followed Siren’s gaze and stared past the bars of our cell I looked as Siren pointed outside the bars of our cell, straight at the magenta robot. It had returned at some point and was just...staring at us. Finally it approached us slowly, making me tense. I didn’t know what it might do, but it held my gaze for a few moments. “That knife,” it said suddenly, a feminine voice warbling from the speaker that had to be somewhere in its mouth. It pointed straight at the knife on the floor. “Give it to me.” For a second I just blinked in surprise. I hadn’t expected that kind of response from my experience with robots. But I finally got enough of my senses back to glare at it. “You lock us in here and want to demand that from me? Why don’t you come in here and…” Before I could blink, the robot dashed across the room towards a wooden crate standing in the corner. In a swift motion it ripped a single plank from the crate’s side and lunged forwards towards the cell, brandishing its weapon. Terrified, I fell backwards, pushing Siren to the back wall as she wrapped her hooves around my neck. The plank stabbed through the bars towards us, but nowhere near far enough to strike either of us...but that wasn’t what the bot had wanted at all. It twisted its head back up, locking the plank against a horizontal bar so the other end of the plank dropped to the ground, right on top of the knife. With a smooth shift of its head the robot pulled the plank further upwards, scooting the knife closer until it shot straight through the bars, under the bot’s waiting hoof. I stared slackjawed as the robot glared at me for a moment, tossed the plank back towards the crates, and grabbed the knife instead as it turned to slink away into the shadows, its mane and tail swishing as it turned its back to us. With that, we were alone again, one less tool to work with in our cell. “Well...what now?” Siren muttered. I sighed and shook my head. “I guess...wait for Ark and the merc. It’s the only chance we have now.” Siren nodded solemnly at me and sat against the wall beside me. I almost reached a wing out to drape it over her, but I wasn’t sure it’d be as well received as I hoped. Instead, I just put my hoof closer to her, hoping to offer her a slight peace offering. She bumped her hoof to mine, and we smiled briefly at each other as we settled in to wait for rescue. Author's Note Footnote: Level up New Perk: Spray 'n Pray --- Your attacks do 75% less damage to companions. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Proofreaders: ERROR 1024, Mass Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56
A small invasionFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 6: A small invasion By Fallen Sentinel “Why are you doing this? Fame? Enjoyment? Defiance? In the end it will all be for nothing.” I impatiently checked my Pipbuck again, sighing. Siren and I had been locked up for three hours now, with no signs of anything happening. Our jailer, the robot, had wandered in several times, but it never did anything, never responded to me talking to it. It just...sat there, staring. I’d noticed it sneaking in stealth mode too, but it never seemed to do anything but watch us. I couldn’t understand it. Siren wasn’t exactly being chatty either, and I didn’t feel like pushing my luck after the rough memories I’d forced her to relieve recently. She and I talked briefly on a few subjects, laughing at how strange some things on the surface had been for our Stable-dwelling lives, but for the most part, I decided to fill the silence with some more messages. Message sent Are you okay? I heard in the newspaper, about the Littehorn massacre. You said your battalion was in the region. Were you hurt? I haven’t heard from you since, I’ve been so worried. Just let me know you’re alright. You aren’t ignoring me, are you? Please just answer me. There were several more messages following that one with the same intent, begging the same question, a desperate hope for a reply. It was hard to stomach. Message Received I’m sorry I promised you I wouldn’t push too far, that I’d be sure to come back. But the Zebras went too far this time. My battalion was there, we sat and did nothing as those monsters attacked the academy. Luna has become the ruler, and the Celestial Guard are being reformed. I’ve requested a transfer to the front lines. I winced reading that. I could only imagine this was where their story went to hell. Message sent I hope that you make the right choice. We need to win the war, I understand. Those Zebras deserve what’s coming. But we need to keep what makes us US. Don’t forget, please. I sighed and hung my head. It hadn’t worked...no matter what the next messages read I knew the final outcome. Even at the height of our power, ponies hadn’t managed to best Zebras. We lost. Both sides lost… I heard a slight whir and looked up to see the robot staring quizzically at me, head tilted slightly. I glared at it for a second until it turned abruptly and left again. “Where does it keep going?” I wondered aloud. “I don’t know,” Siren answered me. I opened my mouth to say I was asking rhetorically, but shut it before I complicated the situation. At least she was talking to me. “Going to check for anypony else in its caves, probably.” *she waved her hoof absently and stared back at her Pipbuck. She hadn’t stopped staring at that thing for the past hour...I couldn’t help but be curious why. “What are you looking at?” I asked her finally. Siren stared back at me, almost leering for a second. She spoke finally, rather suddenly and rushed. “That bot keeps putting out a lot of data, I’m trying to sift through it.” I kept staring at her, unconvinced. She finally sighed and spoke again. “The Stable’s gone ballistic. I’ve been watching them form their search party.” She held her Pipbuck towards me, I turned towards her map screen. Sure enough it was hovering over the Stable, a squad indicator marked “Stable Retrieval Force 1” underneath it, with over a hundred ponies listed in its roster. “Wow...that’s a lot of them,” I muttered, brushing my hoof on the screen until it panned over to our location. The dot showing Siren’s position was glowing steady as ever, but none of the rest of our tags showed up. She pulled her Pipbuck back. “I’d give them a day or so to catch up with us.” I sighed and sat down, choosing to not bring up how our disabled locator tags would keep them from finding us. “I guess we’re about-” “Shh…” I hissed, hearing something down the hallway, the sound of metal hoofsteps. We both fell silent and listened as the hoofsteps got louder, clunking forward. They were much heavier than the robot. I listened carefully and could hear a voice I was equal parts terrified and relieved to hear. “One tunnel, is getting him to clear one tunnel really that much to ask…” “Ark! Ark we’re in here, hurry!” I cried out, and the hoofsteps got louder, faster. Ark was running towards us now. I looked back to see Siren slowly standing up, brushing dirt from her cloak before slowly approaching the bars of the cell. To my brief shock Gunrunner was the first one into the cave, spotting us and smirking. “How’d you get in there?” he almost laughed, as he trotted over to the cage bars and looked for a way to break it down. “Just get us out of here,” Siren snapped. I looked at her to try and get her to behave, but Gunrunner was already focused on trying to yank a bar off the side. It wasn’t working, the weld was too heavy for him to break. “Okay, this is-” Gun grunted as he tried to yank the bar free. He turned back to Ark, who was just staring at the entrance to the cavern. “Umm, little help here?” he called. “Equestria to soldier boy!?” He trotted over and picked up a metal bar, approaching Ark and waving his hoof in front of his visor. “Shut up.” Ark hissed, still not even looking at Gunrunner. But it wasn’t anger in his voice...it was urgency. Gun fell silent and I realized what Ark was searching for: the robot’s cloaked hoofprints. “Zebras…” he hissed. Quick as a flash Ark tore the bar from Gunrunner’s grip and swung it straight over the forming hoofprints. A loud metallic clang echoed through the small cavern as Ark’s bar snapped in half from the strain. However the impact had done its job well enough: the robot dropped its cloaking field, the only damage done seeming to be a small dent in its shoulder plate. However what worried me more than the robot’s resistance to damage was the fact that its face, something I was so used to robots having no emotion in...the robot looked angry, glaring straight at Ark with a glare and bared teeth at him. Gunrunner stammered for a second. “I don’t think that’s Zebra tech…” he muttered, as the maroon bot tilted its head down and charged at Ark. He reacted quickly, bracing and letting the bot smash into him. He pushed back, his size and weight advantage getting enough leverage to push the bot back a few steps as he swung at its head. The bot was quick and blocked his hoof, dodged the tail strike coming after it and locking its grip down on Ark’s hoof, then the other as he tried again to strike it. Gunrunner’s battle saddle began to whine as he readied the same weapon he’d used to disable Ark’s armor before, trying to take aim but not having a good shot with Ark so close. The robot seemed to see him and shifted so Ark was between itself and Gun, giving me a second to see the dent in its shoulder was repairing itself. “That thing has armor repairs too? Come on…” I groaned. Gunrunner kept trying to circle back around, but the bot was doing a good job keeping Ark as a pony shield. But Ark managed to get a hoof free of its grip, causing the bot to change tactics and drop itself to the ground. With his other hoof stuck Ark was pulled down too, the bot kicking at his head with both hind legs as it rolled away and recloaked, scattering dust into the air and obscuring its hoofprints. “Damn cowards and their cloaking…” Ark hissed as he stood back up, looking around. There was no sign of the robot, so Ark moved to Gunrunner’s side and put his back to Gun’s, watching. “I’ll pin that thing down, you hit it, got it Viper?” “Yeah,” Gun replied, “I’ll give it a...wait, Viper?” He glanced confused at Ark, losing his focus for just the right moment. As his head turned away to face Ark, the robot decloaked and charged at his side, its fangs biting down on the mount for his disabling gun. With a twist of its head the gun disconnected from Gun’s battle saddle, and a kick sent the gun skidding across the room to the opposite wall. The bot kicked Gun into Ark’s armor and bounced back, throwing up its cloaking again and disappearing. Gunrunner dove for the weapon but the bot, still cloaked, grabbed a board and slammed it down roughly on his head, dropping him to the ground mid-jump and causing him to clutch his head in pain. The board gave Ark just the angle he needed to target the robot, and he slammed into it, forcing the bot to the ground on its back as it decloaked again. He raised a hoof to smash its head but the robot twisted its head to dodge, kicking at his stomach to try and get him off. Siren winced and gasped as the two went at it, though I couldn’t help but wonder which she was more concerned for, Ark or the bot. The fight was quick and intense, the robot trying to wrap its hooves around Ark’s neck and choke him out like it had done to me, but his armor was too thick. Instead Ark grabbed the bot’s hoof and threw it against the wall, pinning it down and finally landing a solid hit on its midsection. He pinned it down with three hooves, rearing his last foreleg to strike at its head once more. “A...Arkangel…” Ark’s hoof froze as the robot spoke his name, its feminine voice sounding almost afraid. I couldn’t tell what expression he had under his visor, but after a second Ark raised his hoof again to strike. Unfortunately, the bot had taken advantage of the moment he’d locked up and gotten its legs against his stomach, kicking with leverage against the wall enough that he stumble backwards before the punch could land. Just then, a burst of energy cut through the darkness and caused the robot to stumble: Gunrunner had gotten back to his weapon and fired it. The robot staggered, struggling to stand for a moment. “Re...recalibrate...reroute…” it stammered for a second, as Gunrunner aimed again. The second shot threw the robot sideways into the wall, and it fell to the ground with a clatter of metal as it collapsed. Its optics refocused for the briefest of moments, staring right at me, as the faint light behind it faded into darkness. I gasped as the mechanical irises in its optics laxed and stopped moving. Arkangel had stood himself back up by now, but he didn’t move much either. All he did was stare down at the robot as it lay there offline. He took off his helmet and set it aside, only to suddenly bang his head on the wall behind. “Uh...do I want to know?” Gunrunner asked. “Forget that right now,” Siren snapped, making Ark and Gun turn to face us. “Just get us out of here already.” “Honestly, we should just leave it! It’s more trouble than it’s worth!” I couldn’t help but agree with Gunrunner on the matter. Yet here I was, my Pipbuck wired into the robot’s processors, searching through its systems to find any kind of control overrides. Siren had caused a huge stink after getting out of the cell about getting it up and working again under her command. She’d even stood up to Ark when he demanded we leave, insisting that the robot had more value than any of us. “Easy for you to say when you can’t even get it running,” I muttered under my breath, but kept my focus on searching. The systems onboard this thing were only somewhat like what I was used to, and I couldn’t for the life of me find a master override system. “I think I can at least override its motor controls,” I muttered, as I blocked traffic to most of its servos. “Then get it online so we can get it working again,” said Siren. I noticed midway through her sentence she tried to lighten her tone, less harsh than she had been before. I smiled briefly for it as I found the robot’s reboot function and triggered it. The entire frame of the bot jolted as the reboot kicked in, though most of its body fell limp again as the block I’d put in place held. Its neck and face were still functional, and its optics blinked twice before darting around the room, focusing and unfocusing rapidly. “What...what happened?” it asked, its female voice more stable than the last time I’d heard it. Ark winced at the voice, surely remembering how it had called him by name, though why that upset him I had no idea. “Where am I?” I couldn’t help but bite my lip in worry. This thing sounded...scared, panicked. I’d never heard a robot with such emotion in its voice. Siren, however, wasn’t so worried. “Your core systems seem to be malfunctioning, you attacked us and locked us away. I should have you scrapped for this but I’m willing to be lenient.” The robot focused on Siren, looking confused. “Unit 1-355, tell me just what you-” “Vlyka.” Siren and I blinked in synchronicity as the robot spoke. “My name...my name is Vlyka.” I looked at Siren, who shot me a disapproving glance. I kept my mouth shut, but I couldn’t help now realizing why Siren was so keen on getting this robot back. That name was the same nickname Highmill had mentioned belonged to the prototype that had escaped her lab. This was part of Siren’s work, and she wasn’t about to let it slip out of her hooves again. “Unit 1-355, activate override code-” “Override negated.” The robot glared at Siren, scowling. Her optics took a minute to refocus and her expression shifted from anger to confusion. “I...I don’t recognize you…” It's optics shifted to the rest of us, taking a second to stare at each of us in turn. “I don’t recognize any of you…” Ark huffed in the corner. “Oh yeah, you seemed to know me just fine.” “Data gathered from the conversation of these two pointed to that conclusion,” the robot said, staring at Siren and myself. However it looked confused a second later, down at its body. “My...my body is not responding...what happened?” “I had to disable your systems to keep you from hurting anypony if you got back up,” I explained. The bot looked directly at me, and I felt my heart sink in my chest. Deep in its optics, deep within the pink shutters that made up her eyes...I could see it. She was hurt by what I’d done to her. “You kidnapped us, we had to be sure you wouldn’t hurt anypony before we could talk,” I tried to explain. “Unit…” Siren began again, only to receive two piercing stares, the robot’s and my own. She sighed. “Fine...what was it?” “Vlyka.” “Okay fine. Vlyka...how did you get out here? Why aren’t you back at a lab somewhere?” Vlyka set her head down and seemed to disconnect from reality for a second before coming back and speaking. “Software patch 1.4.56.2.57B received at 15:24 hours two weeks ago, including several override orders and negation of further commands besides from an unregistered outside user. Other machines in the laboratory received the same orders via similar software patches at the same time. Remote trigger from outside user: ‘Initiate purge.’” I winced at Vlyka’s wording. Highmill had mentioned chaos, the robots going haywire, but… “You mean...you killed everypony?” “Negative.” Vlyka looked at me. “Other units interpreted orders as a purge of organics in the lab. I instead interpreted it as a purge of their information, following my principal directive of data collection in the process. I transferred as much of their information to my databanks as I could and escaped before it could be recovered.” I couldn’t help but smile a little bit at hearing that, setting my hoof on Vlyka’s cheek. She looked back up at me intently for a moment before Siren chimed in again. “Well, I suppose that explains what you’re doing out here. What about the outside source then? Any clue what that is?” Vlyka shook her head. “I haven’t been able to contact it since my software patch.” Siren sighed and put a hoof to her head. “Alright fine. We can worry about that later. RIght now I need you to tell me just what you salvaged from those computers.” But Vlyka shook her head again. “No.” Siren’s jaw hung open as Vlyka spoke. “I don’t recognize you as an administrator on my system. I will not submit to your orders.” “Vlyka, please…” I interjected. “Just...tell us what you took. Please.” Vlyka looked thoughtful for a moment before she looked back at Siren. “Unfortunately much of the data was corrupted due to outside tampering, but I retrieved some coded files and records. I will share them...if you want me to.” Her gaze fell on me again. I nodded to her. “Then allow me to access a terminal and I will transmit what I gathered.” Gunrunner laughed. “Right, like we’d let you follow us all the way to the nearest computer. You just tried to kill us!” “I only meant to incapacitate,” Vlyka replied. “Well…” I muttered, “I’ll restore your motor functions if you promise not to attack anypony.” Siren hit me in the back, giving me a significant look. “Okay...anypony who’s not a threat.” Vlyka cocked her head at me. “Define ‘threat’?” About an hour later we left the caves into the dim sunlight once more. I’d checked Vlyka’s systems and chassis for any tracking hardware the mysterious “outside source” might have on her, with no end to Gunrunner’s grumbling about bringing a rogue robot with us. Siren wasn’t too pleased either, because Vlyka adamantly refused to listen to her orders. I was surprised she listened to mine...or at least I was, until I realized that I had been asking her to do things for me instead of telling her. Vlyka had spoken a little about her directives as I’d checked her body, how she was meant to be a prototype in self-aware AI, like Siren had said meant to mimic soldiers on the battlefield. Vlyka didn’t know where her basic functions had come from, that data wasn’t easily accessed in her records and I didn’t want to push her too much just yet. All I could tell was she responded shockingly like a pony to problems: admittedly a young pony, resisting harshly any kind of hostility towards herself, but undeniably she had at least some kind of pony emotions running through her wires. I had to stop myself from squeeing at the thought and asking her every question about her design that came to the scientific part of my mind. As our group started to move towards a nearby town, I decided to hang back a little. I pulled Vlyka gently until she matched my gait to an alarming, unsettlingly perfect measure. “I wanted to ask you...how do you feel? How are your emotions running?” Vlyka looked confused. “I’m not aware of any emotions. I was designed to mimic a pony’s rational thought. I should not have any emotional functions available.” I looked at her for a moment as I tried to make sense of that. She stared at me, looking rather insulted at what I’d just said, yet she thought she had no emotions at all? “I have momentary glitches where my priority listing gets twisted around, but I’ve yet to find a root cause for this.” I giggled. “I think that’s a good definition of emotion if I’ve ever heard one,” I said, shaking my head. “Emotion: an instinctive or intuitive feeling, distinguished from reasoning or knowledge.” “And you think that doesn’t-?” I started, but I sighed. “Nevermind, sorry to bring it up.” “No reason to apologize. I can’t be hurt.” I wanted to argue with Vlyka, but she seemed keen to drop the subject. Just then Gunrunner spoke up from his long silence. “Well, we’re here, for better or worse.” I looked ahead to see we’d arrived at a large wooden wall with a single gate on the other edge of a ravine. We started to walk our way up the narrow path across the sprawling gap, a rather impressive fall awaiting anypony without shure hoofing...or wings. As we crossed the gap and got closer to the wall, two stallions guarding the gate stared down at us. I didn’t want to stare at them so I looked down the wall to the right. It was extremely shabby, looking like wood boards hastily erected and about ready to rot straight through. The gate wasn’t much better, and as one of the stallions used his magic to open the gate for us I felt certain it was going to just fall apart, crashing down on top of us. “Why’d they walk up anyways?” I heard one guard mutter to his cohort. “Bunch of pegasi, here?” The other guard just shrugged and used his magic to close the gate behind us. Trying to distract myself from that awkward revelation, how weird a group of four pegasi and a short robot was to the average wastelander, I took a look around town. It was better designed than Black Pass at least, most of the buildings looked to have a solid foundation and made mostly of stone, wood or metal. Yet I still couldn’t help but feel at least a few looked rather unstable...how did ponies live their whole lives like this? As our group walked down the main road, we got the occasional odd glance, especially at myself and Siren with her lead, but for the most part ponies were content to leave us to our business. I was just starting to wonder what business that was exactly when Arkangel finally ushered us into a small dining establishment. We sat down at an old booth table, something that looked like it was from the history books’ depictions of “before the war.” In fact, the entire diner was trying to emulate a pre-war setting, making the place feel cheerier than I expected from this town. I sat between Siren and Vlyka, straight across from Ark as he glared at the rest of the diner, looking for something. I should have known better than to ask, but my curiosity was too much to contain. “What are we looking for?” I asked Ark, keeping my voice hushed just in case. Ark looked anxious, his hooves fidgeting as he answered. “Waiting for somepony,” he replied, without looking at me. I followed his gaze to spot the diner’s owner, or so I assumed, ushering the only other group inside out on the street with a friendly but urgent wave of his hoof. As they left he locked the door behind him, and we were alone. “Well can we at least order something while we wait?” Siren grumbled. I couldn’t help but agree, I was starving from our latest walk. Ark sighed but didn’t say no, so I hoofed Siren a menu before taking a look at one myself. I’d just stumbled on something that sounded interesting, setting my hoof down on it to try and commit the name to memory, when Vlyka’s hoof pushed mine down from my selection. “Not that. That one gives some bad indigestion.” I almost turned and thanked her for her warning, but it took me a moment to notice the bolts on her hoof holding her casing together, a moment to remind myself that Vlyka was cybernetic. She shouldn’t be able to eat, how could she know what indigestion was? I had almost five minutes to ponder that as we sat in uncomfortable silence, until finally the waiter went to the door and checked outside. After a nod he unlocked the door and stepped away, to allow a green unicorn mare in. Her purple mane was spiky and pointing in all directions, with picemental, scrap metal armor adding to her wild look, a shotgun holstered lazily at her side. She seemed oddly perky and carefree, something that made me angry considering we were waiting on her for whatever reason. As she trotted closer the waiter locked the door again, leaving us alone with the strange mare. “Arky, good to see you!” the mare smirked, her voice far too cheery for my liking. “Been too long, I was starting to think I’d never see you again!” “It’s been 18 days, Telesthesia,” Ark muttered, looking impatiently at her saddlebag. “Did you find it or not?” Telesthesia tapped her chin playfully, as though she were thinking of what he meant. “The memory orb dammit, did you find it?” Ark hissed. “Oh, that orb...no, afraid I couldn’t find it. Sorry,” she said, smirking and shrugging. Ark slammed his hoof to the table and stood quickly. I heard the click of a pistol behind us as the waiter took aim at Ark, but Telesthesia waved her hoof and he set the weapon back down. “You said you had it,” Ark snapped. “I came all the way here for it, I expect you to bring it. Or would you prefer I start asking why I didn’t kill you back up in the mountains?” I cringed at Ark’s anger, but surprisingly Telethesia didn’t so much as flinch. She didn’t even lose her carefree smile, looking amused if anything at Ark’s outburst. “Well, I told you I had a location for you,” she said matter-of-factly. “Manehattan, left it there safe with a hellhound.” Gunrunner gasped in shock and stood up, even as Ark calmed down just a hair. “Are you crazy?!” Gun yelled. “You expect us to march up to a hellhound and take whatever orb this is from it?” “Well of course,” Telesthesia laughed. “Figured with this big stallion here it’d be a cinch.” She reached out to tap Ark’s armor, but he pushed her hoof back. “You got my payment?” “Payment was for delivery of the orb,” Arkangel growled, “and I don’t see an orb anywhere around here.” Telesthesia and Ark stared at each other for a moment, and I felt the tension mounting with every second. But finally, Telesthesia giggled and shook her head. “I should have known. Well I hate to leave you empty hoofed, and leave without payment, so what about something else instead?” “And what could you possibly have that I’d want?” Ark grumbled. I almost interjected with a list I’d been making in my head, such as a non-stale food supply, but Ark was wound up and I didn’t think it wise to test my luck with him. I was pretty sure he didn’t care anyways. The mare nodded towards the waiter, who approached and gave her a small bag held shut by a string. She used her magic to unravel the string and pull the bag open. “I take pride in learning about my clients,” she smirked, as she tipped the bag enough for Ark to see inside. He tensed immediately, and even through his heavy visor I could just sense the desire in his eye. “Where did you find this?” he asked, but Telesthesia shook her hoof as she closed the bag again and gave it to him. “What is it?” I couldn’t help but ask. Ark looked up at me, but to my surprise instead of completely blow me off he answered. “A gift...something somepony gave me a long while ago.” I was about to ask him for more information, but he cut me off. “What do you want us to do?” Telesthesia’s grin grew wider. “A few things. First, make sure that hellhound gets a bad case of death when you go pick up your orb. And second,” she said, levitating three few memory orbs out of her saddlebag. “These need delivery to a client of mine in Tenpony, under the name Lifebloom.” Ark took the orbs and stored them away, along with his gift bag, before anypony could argue with him. “I’ll find out when you deliver it,” she winked at Ark. “But for now, coming to meet you has taken enough time out of my business schedule.” She turned and trotted towards the door as the waiter moved to unlock it. Before he could reach it, however, the door burst open. “Boss we got a problem!” a brown unicorn stallion darted in, staring right at Telesthesia. She sighed, the first sign of her losing her cool I’d seen yet. “What is it?” The stallion gulped before he spoke, his voice shaking from fear. “Pegasi, in the sky! Tons of them!” Telesthesia turned immediately to the waiter and snapped some order to him, but I was too distracted by Siren batting my shoulder and whispering in my ear. “Get ready,” she hissed at me. She couldn’t be serious...the Stable had caught up with us already? I heard a shotgun and rifle clicking ready to fire and saw Telesthesia wielding them both as she glared at Ark, the waiter grabbing his pistol again. “‘They won’t get involved,’ you told me,” she growled at Ark. He replied with just a shrug and started to stand up, only for Telesthesia to level her shotgun right at his head. “Uh uh, you’re not going anywhere but giving yourself up to them, right now.” I couldn’t help but smirk at the thought of Ark surrendering. He seemed about as amused as I was, and pointed towards her gun. “Yeah sure, by the way. You’re safety’s on.” Telesthesia seemed shocked and glanced down, only to look up and realize that Ark was gone, cloaked. I glanced over to realize that Vlyka had followed his lead and equally disappeared. Telesthesia turned to glare at me and pointed the shotgun in my direction instead, but right before she fired she was bowled over by...honestly, I didn’t know which cloaker, but the shotgun blast whizzed over my head thanks to a timely hit. I pushed Siren under the table and joined her as I tried to figure out what was happening in the field. Gunrunner dove into the booth next to us and readied his shotgun to open fire, while all three of the local ponies readied their weapons and dove for their own cover, starting a shootout. I pulled my own pistol out and readied myself to fight if necessary. Ark however had taken advantage of Gunrunner’s distraction and quickly incapacitated the mare, just decloaking after he slammed the waiter’s head into the bar he was hiding behind. “Man what I’d give for that cloaking,” I muttered. With a final vicious “crack!” the waiter’s head caved in, and Ark hurried over to lean under our table. “Get up, we’re leaving, now.” I nodded and pulled myself clear, ensuring I had a good grip on Siren’s leash...but as I looked around I didn’t see any signs of Vlyka. Where had she gone, and why wasn’t she decloaking now? I didn’t really have time to wonder as Ark was hurrying for the front door. I followed, only to spot the brown unicorn mare lying on the ground, knocked out by what looked like a serious blow to the head. I had to assume Vlyka had dealt with him, but she was still nowhere to be seen. I considered calling out for Vlyka, but as I looked around I saw dozens of townsfolk standing in the street, staring up at the sky. I followed to see a large group of heavily armored pegasi fluttering just outside the walls of the town, waiting for an order to attack, I assumed. I glanced sadly back at the townsponies as they readied their weapons, the disparity between their run-down armor and the power armor pretty much every pegasus was wearing up there making my heart sink. These townsponies had no chance against the Stable’s forces...and it was our fault they were here in the first place. Somepony yelled out “Fire!” and the townsponies started shooting, their bullets pinging off the armor of the closest pegasi troops. Despite the armor taking the worst of the hit, the pegasi soldiers didn’t sit still to be easy targets. They started dodging and zipping in every direction they could, returning fire with energy weapons that vaporized ponies in a single hit. This battle would be over very quickly, especially since some of the pegasi had dove straight into the town to get up close and personal. Others flew overhead, sweeping the town, looking for something...us, I realized. They dove, shooting at anything they could see, prompting me to haul Siren and dive into a nearby storefront. “Storm are you crazy? We want them to see us!” Siren hissed at me, as I tried to run for the counter to duck for cover. “Siren, did you see everypony there?” I snapped, as she hurriedly followed me solely because of her leash. I could feel her trying to fight but I wasn’t giving her the chance right now. “They’re shooting at anything they see, they’re not going to slow down and not shoot us on sight!” Siren looked at me angrily as I yanked on her leash a bit, but at that moment a heavily armored pegasus slammed into the ground outside the window and opened fire on everypony standing outside. Siren yelped in terror and dove at me, wrapping her hooves around my stomach as we fell behind the bar. The sounds of gunfire and laser blasts was deafening, even from behind the front wall of the building, and I tried to sneak the two of us behind a nearby door into a back room for additional cover. Siren tried again to put herself out in the open to get spotted, as the front window exploded into shards and flew back at us. A unicorn stallion had been thrown through the window, a black armored pegasus guard flying in and slamming his hoof down on the stallion’s chest. Siren smirked. “Hey, over here, it’s Over-” “Hell yes it is…” the stallion coughed, grabbing a grenade from his vest. “Die you winged bastard!” He pulled the pin and slammed the grenade down on the ground. I pulled Siren back with all my strength right as the grenade exploded. The room was filled with dust, shrapnel and noise, prompting Siren and I to hide in the back room, coughing. As the blast wore off however, I heard the clunking of power armor outside. “Why couldn’t that have just killed him,” I groaned, as Siren tried to stand again. “Siren, no, you’ve gotta stay here!” “Why?” she asked, trying to kick my hoof off of her. “They’re from the Stable, we’re going home!” I winced and shook my head. “If Ark’s somewhere nearby he’ll kill us for betraying him. We can’t go back, not right now…” Siren sighed and shook her head. “I’m not waiting any longer.” She turned towards the door and opened her mouth to yell, but I didn’t give her a chance to finish. I grabbed Siren tightly around the stomach and hauled her to the ground, clamping a hoof around her muzzle to shut her up. She jerked and struggled against me but didn’t have the element of surprise this time, and I pinned her to the ground “Siren, shut up!” I hissed at her, lifting her off the ground with one hoof over her mouth, the other around her waist and over her forelegs to keep her from escaping my grip. She squirmed and writhed against me prompting me to do something hasty I figured I’d regret later by slamming her head roughly into a nearby crate, only to realize it echoed as though it were hollow. I used a wing to force the lid open and mercifully it was empty, letting me toss Siren inside and following her as she nursed her new headache. She tried to escape but I managed to pin her again and slide the lid shut above us, and just in time. “Come out, little groundlings,” the pegasus chuckled through his armor’s voice amplifier. I cringed, realizing my mistake trying to hide from him: his armor had to have an EFS built in, he could find us anywhere! We should have run. He’d either use that or just follow Siren, who was now pissed at me for the head trauma and screaming for him to help her. I could only hold her mouth shut so well, she’d surely give us away any second. “Come out and I’ll make this quick.” I heard the hoofsteps of the heavy armor clunking into the room, leaning against the crate and feeling my heart pounding in my chest. It didn’t help that Siren was trying to move her jaw and bite my hoof, and I was out of limbs to stop her...leaving me only one option I really didn’t care for. I found her ear with my teeth and bit down hard on it, causing Siren to squeak in pain and kick the side of the crate. I tried to entangle her legs with mine but the damage was done already. The armored boots came closer as the voice chuckled, and I heard the sound of an energy weapon charging. “Like shooting fish in a barrel,” the pegasus chuckled. We were going to die then and there, unless I did something quick. Against my better judgement, knowing Siren was pissed at me, I let go of her muzzle as she yelled. “Hold fire you idiot!” she snapped. “It’s me, the kidnapped overseer you’re here to find! Shoot me and you’re dead back home!” The energy weapon powered down for a second and I heard the armor’s hooves falter for a moment, before he spoke. “Both of you out, now!” he demanded. I didn’t have a better option, so I obeyed, climbing out of the crate next to Siren. “Hooves on the wall, traitor,” he snapped, his gun pointed right at me. Running was a stupid idea so I listened to him, turning and setting my forelegs on the wall. I glanced at Siren, who was looking rather smug in my direction, even so much as to stick out her tongue at me. At least until the pegasus pointed his gun at her. “Both of you. Now.” Siren’s smugness vanished instantly. “Excuse me?” she questioned, as he gestured towards her again. “I just told you I’m an Overseer, you don’t get to go making demands of me! Unless you want to be demoted to test subject when we get back to the Stable!” “Hooves on the wall, dammit!” the pegasus snapped, rushing forward and grabbing Siren’s head in a hoof. She froze immediately as he pushed her to the ground, hoof on her neck as he threatened to squish down on her. “You wouldn’t be the kind to remember, would you?” he sighed. “You don’t even know him, do you? Do you remember his name even?” Siren looked at the stallion in a mixture of fear and confusion, shaking her head as he leveled his gun at her. After a second he kicked her in the stomach and gestured at the wall I was standing against. “Get your hooves on the wall now,” he hissed, and this time Siren was quick to comply. She stared at me though, eyes pleading for me to do something to help her. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at her sudden change in demeanor, but it was all I could do to not return the panicked look. I didn’t have the slightest idea what we could do to save ourselves here. I heard the radio in the armor buzzing, somepony was talking to the soldier here, but I couldn’t make out the words. His response was clear enough: “No signs yet com, just a bunch of groundlings,” he said plainly, even as he gestured his gun towards us. He then switched off his radio and focused back on us. “Well whoever YOU are,” he gestured towards me, “no hard feelings, but I can’t exactly go back to the Stable with a witness.” I looked down and shut my eyes as I heard the weapon charge again. I felt my thoughts running back to my last execution not too far back, but instead of feeling the same fear or hope for peaceful silence as then, I couldn’t help but notice that I kept ending up in life-ending situations. “How many more am i gonna need to deal with?” I muttered. As it turned out, the answer was more than I had. The sound of metal rending against metal and the pained scream of the soldier filled the air instead of the blast I’d expected. I dared to turn and look, just in time to see Arkangel’s tail tear back out of the soldier’s armor as his victim fell to the ground, dead. “Ark thank Celestia I thought we were done for.” Ark gave me a curt nod as Siren turned around and stared at the corpse on the ground. Ark moved closer to her, but she kept her eyes down. “He...wanted me dead…” “At this point, who doesn’t?” Ark muttered, turning and walking back out the door with no further hesitation. He surely expected we would follow, but Siren kept staring at the corpse for a moment until I gently put a hoof on her shoulder. I pulled her away gently, taking her lead as she slowly followed us back to the front of the shop. Siren suddenly pulled me aside and held me against the wall. “Storm don’t you get it? I’m at risk out here...ponies can and will try to kill me. I can’t...I’m not used to this, I can’t take this pressure! You have to help me!” I couldn’t help but glance at her with a little annoyance at how quick she’d flipped to begging for help, and to raise the point I simply showed her the hoof she’d bitten, enough to make it bleed I realized. “Okay okay, but I thought I didn’t have a choice! I’m sorry, I panicked!” “This isn’t just panic, Siren,” I sighed. “You do this every time.” “And it’s wrong, I know. I’m sorry...look, just get me back to the Stable, as soon as you can. I promise…” Siren didn’t get a chance to keep talking, as suddenly a golden streak slammed into her head. She collapsed in an instant as Ark sighed, shaking his helmeted head and turning away from her. “Ark are you nuts! You’re going to kill her with that, at this rate!” “She has a thick skull, she’ll be fine.” Ark didn’t even give me a second glance as he walked out of the shop. I hauled Siren onto my back and followed him, my anger at her dulled for just a moment. I understood her pain, but she’d tried betraying us far too many times for me to just trust her. Ark and I made it through to the next building over with no trouble, however I didn’t see the rest of our party anywhere. “Where’s Gunrunner and Vlyka?” I asked quietly as we hid, checking for any nearby enemies. “I thought it was with you,” Ark said simply. “Gun’s waiting at the southern wall for us.” He turned and kept walking, passing a couple that was about to flee from the sight of him. He didn’t even look in their direction, and I could tell they barely avoided running out into the street because of it. I smiled nervously at them as I passed and followed Ark towards the backdoor of the building. The southern wall was close by us, and thankfully seemed almost quiet. At least until we ran past another building on the street, and an odd voice rang out. “Well well well...whatcha got there, mate?” Ark skidded to a halt at the strange mare’s voice, cursing under his breath. He turned to face the new arrival, another pegasus in brown and red-striped power armor, stripped of some of its additional plating. She was resting on a semi-collapsed building, casually laying on a wood support in full armor, instantly reminding me of Telesthesia’s nonchalant nature. The helmet was bobbing unusually, like the operator was chewing something underneath it. “Redwood,” Ark sighed, “long time no see.” As I struggled to remember why the name sounded familiar, Redwood sighed and grumbled at Ark. “Three bucking years and that’s all you have to say?” She didn’t wait for a reply before she turned her attention to me. “And who might you be?” I was split between being angry at Redwood’s laid-back attitude, puzzled at what sounded almost like a Sidneighan accent, and terrified what she might do if she were an old associate of Ark’s. “I’m Fantastic Storm,” I stammered. Before I could think of anything else to say, a pop sounded from inside Redwood’s helmet. “Oh buck’s sake,” she grumbled, pulling her helmet off. There was a line of pink stuff stuck between her mouth and her helmet’s faceplate, I had to assume it’s what she’d been chewing before. “Really need to stop doing that, happens way too often,” she muttered as she tried to pull it off her helmet. She struggled for a minute, letting me see her tawny coat and black/red mane hanging down over her left eye. But as she finally scraped the last of the pink stuff off her helmet and popped it back in her mouth, she turned straight to me and pointed at Siren. “So, what’d Ark tell you about my sister there?” My heart froze in my chest as I suddenly remembered where I’d heard that name before. Siren had brought Redwood up a few times, but never mentioned she even had a sister…”You’ve got a lot of crimes to answer for,” Redwood said, staring straight at me with deep brown eyes. “Murder, kidnapping, sabotage, conspiracy against the overseers…” she said, tapping her foreleg with each count. I winced at each of them, but Redwood stayed calm in the face of it all. I stepped backwards worriedly, to my surprise Ark followed my lead as Redwood approached. “I should just kill you,” Redwood muttered, “but at this point I could do anything I want. So how about you just hand my sister over, and we forget all this ever happened, deal?” I was sorely tempted to take Redwood up on that offer, but I knew Ark would never let it fly. He needed Siren’s biometrics at least, and one pony wasn’t going to be enough to get him to change his mind. I glanced over at him to try and read his body language, only to spot Gunrunner hiding behind some nearby crates. I saw him readying his armor-disabling gun and tried to establish a knowing eye contact without Redwood spotting us. Thankfully Gunrunner nodded to me and pointed towards Redwood’s position. I didn’t respond, not wanting to tip Redwood off, but I tried to step a little off to Redwood’s left. If I could draw her attention away from Gun for a second, get him into a better angle to shoot from his shoddy cover and embarrassingly bad hiding place. But Redwood was too focused on Ark to notice me moving. “Three years, Ark,” she said with a sad smirk on her face. “Three years, no messages, no visits...nothing. You’re lucky I haven’t moved on…” I couldn’t help but stop, tensely looking at Siren on my back. Did Redwood know about Ark and Siren? Did Siren know about Ark and Redwood? And how had there been no contact for that long? “Nothing to say?” Redwood muttered, as she was suddenly slamming into Ark faster than I thought even he could have tracked. Arkangel fell on his back and rolled back on his hooves to block as Redwood lashed out at him; to my shock though, she quickly got the best of him and forced him down, laying on his stomach with a cool look on her face. I wanted to try and yell to encourage Ark to throw her off him, but I realized that she wasn’t even holding him down. They’d just...stopped. Redwood sighed and jumped off Arkangel again, pointing a weapon towards him. “Sorry, but I do have orders now. Hand over my sister, one chance, or I will kill both of you.” “Try it,” Ark snapped, lunging forward at Redwood. I expected her to block, so I was utterly shocked when I saw her armor glow with a flash of magic; her armor must have had the experimental teleport tech, since she reappeared right behind him and kicked him hard in the stomach. Ark stumbled and fell to one side, spinning to face her as he clutched his stomach from the impact. As he lined up to strike she vanished again, causing Ark to spin behind him again...too late, as she connected another hit on his shoulder, keeping the pressure on him. Ark was trying to keep up with her, but her teleporting armor had thrown him off… I took advantage of having Redwood’s focus off me and ran for Gunrunner’s hiding spot. He was staring at the fight, whistling each time Redwood’s armor teleported her to another attack angle. “Gunrunner, what the hell are you…” “Observing the armor’s capabilities, as am I.” I jumped and spun around, spotting Vlyka standing there, optics fixed on the fight. “And where the buck have you been?” I snapped at her, but Vlyka didn’t even blink. “Observing...observations complete. I suspect Arkangel’s chances of success are pulmetting.” I sighed but nodded. Gunrunner, however, was content to stare. “Gun!” I snapped, punching him in the shoulder. “Oww! Hey...oh right,” Gun said, shaking his head and setting his tech gun down on the crate in front of him. He aimed for a second and fired a shot right into Redwood’s back. She cried out in pain as her armor locked up. “Nailed her! Hah, try fighting now you-” Redwood’s armor started clicking for a second, and she turned towards us with a nasty grimace on her face. Gunrunner turned pale and tossed the weapon towards me. “That was him,” he muttered, hastily jabbing a hoof at me. Redwood charged straight at us, smashing through the crates. Unfortunately for her, Vlyka had stayed put instead of running like Gun and I had. Her metal frame was tough enough to handle Redwood crashing into her, Vlyka’s hoof coming and striking her in the chest. Redwood gasped and lashed out with a hoof, but Vlyka’s machine reflexes were faster. She blocked the hoof and locked it down with one grip, smashing a leg into Redwood’s stomach before throwing the armored mare over her shoulder. Redwood landed roughly on her back, and before she could fight Vlyka’s hoof wrapped tight around her neck. I couldn’t help but smirk, thinking Redwood was certainly regretting keeping her helmet off now! Vlyka held Redwood down, stifling her air supply as her thrashing grew less intense. Redwood gasped and coughed, trying her hardest to break Vlyka’s hold, but without her armor’s help Redwood couldn’t overpower Vlyka’s servos. She looked just about ready to fade out of consciousness when Vlyka’s grip loosened, just a little. Redwood choked for air, gasping desperately, but Vlyka didn’t take her hooves off her prey, not even as Gunrunner approached and put a pistol to Redwood’s head. “Alright, you’ve had your fun. Now out of that tin can, now, and I’ll call off the robohound,” he snapped. Both Vlyka and Redwood glared at him, but only Redwood spoke. “Or what, you’ll…” Gunrunner put the barrel of his pistol to her forehead. She grimaced and stared defiantly at him for a moment, before sighing and pressing a button on her shoulder. The armor cracked open and Vlyka let go finally, letting Redwood step out of the armor and put her hooves clear where Gun could see them. “Happy now?” she snapped, turning slowly to show us she wasn’t hiding any weapons on her black under-armor stocking. “And your plan for me is…” “She comes with us.” Ark said, trotting to Redwood and kicking her armor away. To my surprise Redwood looked only mildly annoyed as she nodded at Ark. “You’re kidding, right?” Gunrunner muttered, but a glare from Ark’s visor shut both of our objections up in a hurry. The only thing that we heard was the sound of Siren groaning on my back. “Would it kill you lot to stop hitting me in the head?” she whined, rubbing her hoof to her forehead as she slid off my back. Redwood only laughed. “Well I thought it’d have a chance to knock some sense into you, sis.” Siren stiffened immediately and looked up, glaring. “And what the fuck is she doing here?!” Siren snapped, as Redwood only rolled her eyes and sighed. “I dunno, I thought you’d be happy that your little sis went out into the wasteland to save your sorry flank.” Siren only spat at Redwood, who stood straight up and stared back indignantly. “Well buck you too then,” she muttered, turning away in frustration. “At least mother’s not embarrassed of me.” Siren leapt a surprising distance and clocked Redwood in the face, stunning all of us for a moment as Siren started wailing on her. Redwood started blocking Siren’s blows, only for Ark’s tail to come between them and throw them both back. “Enough, both of you!” he snapped, as I grabbed Siren before she leapt back in. “Do we really need to keep you to separated here?” Siren froze. “Wait...she’s coming with us?” She looked petrified for a second, only glancing at Redwood as she smirked a little. Siren looked at Ark in a mixture of horror and sadness. “But...why?” “Because it gives me another chance to get what I need,” he said. “And if either of you act up, I can kill one of you and still get in.” Siren winced at his words, Redwood looked over in mild shock but continued to run with it. I myself was stunned to silence...was Ark kidding? By now I couldn’t tell, and that worried me more than anything else. “And for now, Siren stays with Storm, Redwood with Gun. Keep them apart.” Redwood stayed perfectly still as Gunrunner tied a leash around her neck, looking not the least bit perturbed by her current situation. “Might wanna tie my wings too,” she said, “in the spirit of good faith. I’m not like that hooved emu,” she said with a slight smirk, pointing right at Siren. Siren, for her part, tried to run at Redwood, but I grabbed her leash and pulled her back before she could cause harm. I couldn’t tell why Redwood was so calm now, but it just unnerved me. “Speaking of trusting,” Ark muttered, turning back to Siren. “Want to explain how the entire Stable knew where we were?” Siren looked awkwardly away from him, but I could tell what Ark was implying. I turned to my Pipbuck and activated my tag, the map refocusing on my position. I could clearly see both Ark and Siren’s tags on the map, as well as most of the retrieval force coming to surround us. I sighed and turned the tag off again as Ark raised his tail. “Giving you two options,” he hissed, grabbing Siren’s Pipbuck’d hoof and twisting it behind her, causing her to yelp in pain. “Disable your tag and lock your Pibuck, or I take the leg off.” Siren gasped as she tried to speak, Ark letting his grip go just a bit. “You’re crazy! I...you want me alive out here, you cutting off my leg will almost surely cause me to bleed to death out here!” “Well, now I have Redwood. So I don’t really need you alive anymore.” Siren’s face turned very pale all of a sudden. “And as a plus side, I only need your DNA. I’m sure that bot’s got some way to store your genetic code if I need it, and it’s a lot easier to get to listen.” Vlyka looked at Ark, offended, but when I glanced at her she turned away as though disinterested. I shook my head, still trying to figure out just how much emotional capacity she had. “I think I could modify my coolant system to store some of her genetic code for a few days, if necessary,” she said simply. “Maybe a week, assuming conditions remain tolerable.” “See Siren?” Ark replied. “You’re now expendable. So if you want to get through this alive I expect you to make the right choice. Now.” Siren whimpered in fear and nodded. “Okay, okay…” Ark let go of her hoof and Siren raised her leg up. “Take it, lock it, break it anything. Better my hoof than a stupid machine.” I heard Vlyka’s servos twitch again at Siren’s careless comment, but I didn’t need to look this time. I heard her stand up and walk somewhere to the left as Ark gruffly took Siren’s Pipbuck and started flipping through settings. As Siren turned her head away, Gun came close to me with a bemused whistle. “Well...this sure got interesting fast.” I could only nod, wondering just what the hell was coming next for us. “Think he was serious?” “We’ll have to see…” I muttered, watching as Ark finished and let go of Siren’s hoof. The screen turned orange with a lockpad over it, she wasn’t getting into her Pipbuck’s systems any time soon. “But right now I think we gotta go. I saw a lot of targets on the way.” Arkangel nodded to me and turned to walk off, Gunrunner taking Redwood off after him. Siren however stood silently, staring at the ground and shaking. I couldn’t help but feel a little bad for her despite all the stress she’d put me through, so I carefully set a wing down on her back. “It’s going to be alright,” I whispered, “just trust me.” She looked at me with a little anger in her eye, but not enough to cover the worry. “You make that really hard,” she muttered. I was about to reply about how she didn’t make it easy to trust her, but Vlyka tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to Ark, looking impatiently back at us. I sighed and looked at the horizon ahead of us. “To Manehattan it is, then.” Author's Note Footnote: Level up New Perk: Nerves of Steel --- 20% faster AP regeneration. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout Equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) (Redwood’s accent is supposed to be an Australian accent) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56
Starlight FactoryFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 7: By Fallen Sentinel “I remember when you could walk the streets without fear but now we can’t walk down the road without a zebra striking from the shadows” Manehattan was still over a day’s worth of travel away, and already the last rays of sunlight piercing the thick clouds above were fading away. At least so far there were no signs of us being followed: we hadn’t seen another pegasus since Rock Point. This time our trick with Siren and Redwood’s Pipbucks seemed to have worked. But that wasn’t what surprised me the most. I’d been listening to the radio for any news on the attack, but nopony even mentioned Rock Point to begin with, not even DJPon3. We were still close enough that Rock Point’s local stations were available and not even they were talking about it! I could only guess the Stable had paid off their survivors or something. I wasn’t even sure it mattered, though the thought of the retrieval team moving across the wastelands completely unreported was a little worrisome. “More like an army mobilizing,” I muttered, shaking my head in frustration. If they had those kinds of resources to go after us and could be relatively silent moving, we were in serious trouble. As I mulled over our situation, a single droplet hit my face. I looked up to see the clouds overhead darkening, more than just the oncoming night. “Uh, guys, it’s about to rain,” I muttered. Ark didn’t seem to care at all, but Gunrunner started to look around the horizon. “Guess we should find some place to bunk down for the night,” he replied, spreading his wings and taking to the skies. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten that Redwood was still leashed to him. I was about to yell for Gun to stop, but Redwood was faster; Gunrunner was no more than a pony’s height off the ground before Redwood’s teeth grabbed the leash and yanked him back to the ground. “Did ya forget we were attached?” she growled, glaring at Gunrunner as he glared right back at her, hovering just above the ground. He huffed and tossed Redwood’s lead to me before launching back into the air to go scouting. “Didn’t we talk about keeping these two seperate?” I muttered under my breath, grabbing Redwood’s leash before she got any smart ideas. But as I watched Gunrunner start circling, widening his ring with each pass, I kept a close enough eye on Redwood and Siren, who made no effort to talk to one another. In fact, they were pulling as far apart as they could on their leashes as we walked forward, trying to keep pace with Ark as he started to trot faster. I glanced over at Vlyka, hoping that talking to a robot would be less awkward than talking to either of the mares tied to my hoof, but she was buried deep in some process in her processor and only just attentive enough to walk without help. So I sighed and glanced back at Siren, dropping my pace down to come alongside her. “So…” I muttered, only for Siren to sigh irritably at me. “We could have run, you know,” she hissed at me, making my ears droop back. “Why didn’t we just run?” I glanced forwards at Ark to see if he’d heard anything, but if he had he didn’t react to it. I looked at Siren and cast a significant glance at Ark again as if to tell her exactly why, but she only shook her head and looked away in irritation. I sighed in frustration and kept trying to talk to her. “Siren I know, I know you want to get back home, and so do I. But I think that the more we fight Ark the longer it’s going to take. If we just help him finish this stupid quest of his, we can leave without any problems.” Redwood snickered, and sighed rather knowingly. “Yeah, once you’ve got no further use to him, he just up and leaves you.” Siren shot a dirty glance at Redwood, but sighed and drooped again. “You really think he’ll just let us go alive? You heard him back there, he was set to kill me now that he’s got somepony else who can do what he needs.” “Now why does that sound familiar?” I couldn’t help but wonder aloud, although Siren raising her eyebrow and gesturing towards her Pipbuck wiped the smile off my face pretty quickly. I turned my head away, mildly insulted and biting my tongue from adding “well you are being a personal nuisance to him, and the rest of us too.” But as I tried to rein in my indignation another thought crossed my mind. “What was that earlier too, about your wings?” Siren gasped, turning her head and stammering. “Look, that’s a complicated thing, I really don’t want to go-” she began, but as her wings flexed reflexively I couldn’t help but be curious. A little too curious, really, as I reached out and grabbed one of her wings, unfurling it as far as it would go as I went in closer to investigate for any deformities. Siren yelped in shock and froze up for a moment, before her wing smacked me in the face and retracted quickly to her side. “What the buck is wrong with you?!” she bellowed, leaping back as far as her leash would allow her. “I didn’t say you could touch me you sicko!” I stared incredulously at Siren for a moment, eyes darting to the rope leash running to her neck. I figured most ponies would have had second thoughts about that kind of reaction in her situation, but Siren was just as indignant as ever. I sighed and admitted to her point, not keen to make things more difficult between her and myself if I could help it. “Alright then...do you mind if I touch your wings?” Siren shot me a dirty, but slightly curious glance, and I smirked back at her. “You could touch mine too, if you want.” At that Siren blushed and turned her face away from me again. I heard a snicker from my other side and turned to see Redwood laughing at her sister’s embarrassment. What had happened between these two, they just seemed content to hate each other’s guts on sight! As I glanced back in Siren’s direction, sighing with frustration, my eyes caught sight of Vlyka’s head turned back towards us. She’d finally noticed something was going on, and I was almost tempted to ask Vlyka to interfere, hold Siren down or scan for anomalies in her wings...but I shook my head at the thought of it. I felt things were on a razor’s edge all around, I just needed to swallow my curiosity and let Siren calm down a little. “Fine,” Siren grumbled. I looked at her as she held her wing out slightly towards me. “But touch, that’s all, understand?” I nodded and stepped closer, trying to not push her if I could help it after she was already bending enough to satisfy my curiosity. I gently pulled Siren’s wing out and brushed my hoof through her feathers, trying to listen if Siren’s squeaks of discomfort got worse as I looked at her. Her feathers themselves were disorderly, though considering I hadn’t exactly preened myself in the last few days I hardly blamed her for that. But there was something odd about how her wing felt, almost too light even for pegasi wings. I gently pressed my hoof down on one of her major bones, only to feel it shift ever so slightly. Even the hollow bones of a pegasi shouldn’t feel that squishy. “Siren, your...are your bones soft?” Siren yanked her wing out of my grip and turned her head away from me. “It was an accident, when I was younger,” she huffed, sitting back and looking up towards the sky. “My sister and I, well we borrowed our friend’s power armor for...just stupid things,” she said, smiling upwards at the sky as she remembered what I could only assume were better times. Redwood chuckled. “Oh yeah, you sure won the award for idiotic ideas from that one.” Siren’s eyes flared as she glared straight at Redwood. “You were the one who didn’t have to listen to me!” she snapped, jabbing a hoof at her sister. “You’re the idiot who threw that plasma grenade!” The sisters glared at each other for a second before Siren’s eyes teared up ever so slightly, prompting her to stare right into my eyes for a moment. She sighed in frustration, but kept talking. “We snuck onto a test range and got the live ammo, I wanted to show them how brave I was...I told Redwood to throw the plasma grenade at me. But I didn’t know how strong it would be..it melted through the armor, and my wing, before we could even do anything. By the time somepony managed to help me half of my side was burned, the wing was just gone…” As Siren spoke I inched around her and started prodding her right wing, something she seemed too drawn into her story to notice. Indeed the bones in her right wing felt normal like her story would have suggested. “So...what happened?” I asked. “Well the unicorns managed to save me, heal my body,but my wing was just gone...I lived for two years without this.” She flexed her left wing. “Same pony that made that,” she said, pointing at Ark, who seemed completely uninterested n the conversation. “They promised me a new wing, good enough to fly with. Never managed it, but at least I got a display one…” As Siren took a moment to stare at her apparently fake wing, the rain around us grew heavier and heavier. Thankfully Gunrunner returned then and landed right in front of us. “There’s a building up ahead, pretty large and uninhabited as far as I could tell. Should be good to camp.” He glanced over at Siren, who was actually smiling slightly as she glanced off into nothingness. Gunrunner noticed and laughed. “Well, you sure change your mood quickly,” he said, before waving us towards his scouted location. We all turned to follow him, but Siren pulled me aside as we were about to head off. “Just so you know, I probably can fly,” she whispered. “But I get nervous trusting...this.” She flexed her left wing as it caught the leash leading to her collar. “Gah...are you sure we can’t work out some better alternative to this thing?” I almost debated muttering to her about half a dozen other options I’d had by now, but I kept my thoughts in order and shook my head. “None I can think of.” We made it into the building just before it really started pouring outside, though Vlyka still was grumbling about the risk of short-circuiting as she hurried to cover. I glanced around a little bit and realized we were in some kind of factory, a surprisingly sturdy structure of brick and broken glass that must have been held up for a while. The walls were black with age, even in what seemed to be the reception area we’d entered through. We each took a few moments to dry off before we started to explore further inside. Just past the reception area there was a four-way corridor, leading to a stairwell, the main factory floor and a small room respectively. Ark and Gunrunner headed for the factory floor, taking Redwood with them, while Vlyka had deciphered the word “office” pointing towards the stairwell and went to investigate. Siren and I went towards the small room for lack of a better option, looking around what we started to think was an old break room; wood furniture mostly rotted away, the benches and walls stained with whatever liquids they had acquired since they were last cleaned. I looked over at Siren, only to see her looking bored as ever. “What do you think they were making here before the bombs fell?” She glanced around the room and shrugged. “Well I can’t say for sure,” she muttered, sniffing at the air. I sniffed too, only to gag at the rotten stench emanating from somewhere. It seemed like it was a nearby door, and as I went to investigate it I almost immediately regretted it. The door was almost rotted through, though it still took a solid yank to pull it open. But that wasn’t the only thing that came at me: the skeleton of a pony fell out afterwards. I leapt backwards to avoid it, Siren letting out a startled shriek, as the skeleton smashed into the floor and broke apart. Tearing my eyes away from that horrifying sight, I glanced inside to see a few more pony bodies lying near the door, seemingly piled up in a desperate attempt to escape. Some others were huddled together in what must have been a desperate grab for comfort in their last moments, right before the bombs went off. Just to add misery to the whole situation, there was a faded banner hanging above the scene of horror, and I could just make out what it said up there: “Happy birthday.” I shook my head and looked at the table, wondering which of the rotted foods on the table had probably been a birthday cake. But Siren looked again at the door as I gawked at the horror. “Storm look, this lock...it’s engaged.” I glanced over and saw she was right: the bolt was sticking fully out of the door, the frame had splintered when I’d yanked it instead. “Somepony locked them inside,” said Siren. I looked at her, the two of us staring in horror at one another. Who would have done this, who would have locked these ponies in to die while the world had exploded? “I don’t like it here,” Siren murmured, rubbing her hoof anxiously, “can we go somewhere else?” I was quick to agree with her and we turned to hurry out of the break room, though despite my efforts I knew I wouldn’t be forgetting what I’d seen in there for a while. I was hopeful that something in the office might change what my mind was focusing on right now. Vlyka was busy with her head down, practically buried inside a still-functional terminal. I was curious why she wasn’t trying to directly interface with it, wondering if she even could, but as I watched her she looked up at the two of us. “Find anything?” I asked her. “According to the remaining records,” she replied, “it seems this used to be a weapons factory.” Well that was getting somewhere at least, now we knew what they were doing. “Although it seems like it was scheduled for demolition before the last record was logged.” “Well that’s...odd,” I muttered, as Vlyka stood from her terminal and shifted over to the next one. I walked closer and let Siren start trying to access another, choosing to go for any remaining cabinets myself as we continued to search. I was admittedly a little disappointed to only find some well-rotted scraps of paper and a few bobby pins in a drawer. I sighed but took the pins anyways, fiddling with one because I was bored. Siren snapped me out of my boredom however by whispering something. “ORDIS Mk5?” I glanced at her in confusion as she gestured for me to join her. I trotted over and started reading what she’d found. Good Morning Management Today we have the special privilege of designing and manufacturing a new type of power armour that will be distributed to special forces that cannot be named. I know; shocker, right? Anyhow we’re getting representatives of the military in some time today to inspect the staff and conditions of the factory. You will instruct the staff that they may not breathe a word about their new projects; say that we are still manufacturing ranger weaponry, as a cover. For some reason they want to call it ORDIS Mk5 so make sure that’s in your notes. Now here comes the interesting part. We will actually be competing with other companies for the design. Guess what the material is? Starmetal. Yep that’s right Starmetal will be in this factory, if we manage to win this contract then we will have more Starmetal than we need to make the new armour. The extra could be used for our own projects which in turn could raise your pay rates. Don’t mess this up: we’ve only got one chance to put a good impression on these guys. If we don’t get the contract then I suggest you start looking for employment elsewhere. -WarBucks --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “What the heck is Ordis?” I asked. Siren replied by grabbing my shoulders and shaking me slightly. “That’s not important! Storm, there was Starmetal, here in this factory!” she gasped. She’d lost her cool entirely, extremely excited all of a sudden that her eyes were practically glistening. “We have to find it Storm, come on!” Siren turned to run out the door but I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. “Siren wait, do you really think it’s here?” Siren glanced at me, her hopeful expression hanging in an instant. “Let’s be realistic here, do you think it’s really still here? If you know it’s so important, wouldn’t somepony else know?” Siren’s face fell further. “And look at this place, it looks like it’s already been…” My words trailed off as I watched the disappointment spread on Siren’s face. It was too much to look at, I felt so terrible for how fast she was dropping that I had to relent. “Well...there’s a chance not all of it was taken…” “Then we’d better hurry and find any that’s left!” Siren perked up almost immediately, hurrying for the doorway. I followed her without hesitation, hoping that if I was right she wouldn’t be too depressed that we didn’t find any starmetal. As we approached the four-way intersection Siren started thinking out loud. “If I were an idiot, where would I store something that precious...somewhere near the factory floor I bet,” she smirked and turned to hurry down the appropriate corridor. As we approached however, we began to hear some loud, mechanical grinding from up ahead. Siren stopped dead and facehoofed with frustration. “What the hell are those morons doing now?” she muttered, before resuming her run forwards with me right behind her. “Lift there!” I heard from just around a nearby doorway. “Don’t pull the whole thing, it’s not gonna work!” As we stepped inside I heard the sound of metal grinding from somewhere further ahead. The only problem was the catwalk had fallen down at some point, leaving a gap that was too far to step over or even jump. “It’s not gonna come off if you keep doing that!” Curious at what was going on, I spread my wings and flapped off the metal, almost entirely forgetting that Siren wasn’t a confident flier. I remembered just in time and glanced back at her, as she sprawled herself on the catwalk quivering in fear. “What’s wrong?” I asked her. Siren looked at the gap below and shrunk backwards from it. “Well...since I can’t fly and all it’s just…” she turned her head away from me as she spoke quickly, almost too quickly for me to catch. “I’m afraid of heights.” I couldn’t help but facehoof as I sighed with frustration. “You’re not kidding, are you?” I muttered, as Siren shook her head. “A pegasus, afraid of heights?” “I. Can’t. FLY.” Siren hissed at me, as I rolled my eyes and landed next to her. “How about you be so fearless when your wing might just give out over a spike pit!” “Okay okay,” I raised a hoof between us, “take it easy. Here, hop on my back, I’ll get us over.” Siren stared at me for a moment before sighing and hopping up behind my saddlebag, wrapping her forelegs around my neck. “Just hang on tight, ok?” “Uh wait wait I changed my-” Siren began, but I had already spread my wings and leapt into the air. Siren’s legs squeezed tighter at my throat and an ear-piercing shriek emanated from her mouth, directly behind my ear. I almost lost my focus and fell into the pit below, but I managed to land hard on the other side, jarring Siren loose as she clattered onto the catwalk beside me. I was busy trying to regain my sense of hearing when both Gun and Ark appeared from the doorway, weapons drawn and ready to attack. But as they spotted us they both holstered their weapons, Gun staring at Siren with a bemused look on his face. “What, see a rat?” he asked. “No, worse,” I replied. “A three foot gap.” Siren kicked my leg as she stood up indignantly, huffing at me as she trotted after Ark, who had already turned around to head back into the next room. Though right as Gunrunner pushed past her and I came up beside her, she put a hoof out to stop me. “Thank you,” she sighed, looking right at me. I blinked in shock as she turned back to walking, surprised by her civility all of a sudden. Was I making progress with her finally? I shook my head and changed my focus, glancing around the room. It was what must have been a nice office back in its day, probably for the administrator or something. There was a massive wooden desk atop an old red rug, with a set of bookshelves up against the back wall. Redwood was busying herself spinning in a nearby chair that looked about ready to fall apart, but she didn’t seem the least bit concerned, only flashing Siren a bemused smirk as the sisters locked eyes. Siren glowered back at her and turned her focus away. I shrugged and looked at Ark as he tried to get his tail behind a bookshelf on the other side of the room. “What exactly are you two doing anyways? We heard you way down the hall.” Both Gun and Ark looked at me for a second. “Well, Gunrunner thinks that there’s something behind this bookshelf,” said Ark, as he grabbed the side with a hoof and strained to pull it off. Remarkably, it didn’t move. “But it will. Not. Budge!” he said as he strained to yank it aside, to no avail. I decided to glance around the room for any kind of computer that might still work, clearly something needed to be unlocked. There was an old desk sitting in the corner, probably once a pretty nice one but by now it was way past its prime. The drawers had long since been looted, except for one that was locked at the far bottom right of the desk, but there was still a terminal sitting atop it waiting for a password. I glanced at it, attracting Siren’s attention as I tried to tick off a few words that might be made by the code wheels I was seeing. However Siren went straight to guessing words and entering them. I was about to stop her, until when she reached only one attempt remaining she quickly powered down the terminal, rebooting it with all her tries available again. Impressed by her ingenuity I watched as she cycled through a few words, rebooting the terminal twice before she hit upon the right word: “Corporational”. As the terminal opened to its main page, it displayed three seperate tabs: Facility Controls, Journal, and something that had been corrupted with age. “Maybe we can unlock things from there,” I said, pointing at the facility controls, but Siren went straight for the journal instead. What met us was nothing but a blank folder. “What?! Oh come on!” Siren snapped, smashing her hoof into the desk in frustration. Ark and Gun glanced over at us, though Siren didn’t seem to notice they were staring. “All that work for nothing?! Agh!” she growled, glancing up and finally noticing all of us staring at her. She glanced down sheepishly and, with a little prod from my hoof, she tapped on the controls tab. The page turned to three tabs again, for different areas of the facility; the factory floor, the office, and the staff areas. Glancing over at the bookshelf Siren tapped on the office tab, only for it to come up entirely empty. We all sighed in disappointment as Siren backed out and checked the other two tabs. Ark and Gun turned back to prying the bookshelf off the wall while Siren looked through the other tabs, only to find they were both empty too. “I don’t get it,” said Siren, glancing around the back of the terminal in confusion. “Who would wipe a perfectly good piece of hardware like this?” She sighed and slumped back in the chair. “This is why we can’t learn anything about the past, you know,” she muttered, staring at me and gesturing to the terminal with a hoof. I couldn’t help but smirk a little as Siren continued to pout, fiddling with the terminal screen as though it would magically restore the missing data. I instead went to look at the locked drawer below. It appeared to be a sturdy enough metal, locked so tight that whatever looter had been here couldn’t break it open; there were enough scratches on the lock to tell me they’d tried. Taking a closer look at the keyhole, it seemed pretty intact and functional, though I guessed the key was well hidden or long gone by now. “Anypony know how to get this open?” I asked, only to be met with silence. Nopony said anything, the only sound in the room the rusted squeak of Redwood’s chair as she continued to spin. “Seriously, nopony?” I turned around in surprise as Siren hopped out of the chair and raised a hoof to her mane. As she pulled her hoof free part of her mane fell loosely towards the ground, having been held up by a bobby pin she now had in her hoof. She leaned closer to the drawer and extended another hoof to Gunrunner. “Screwdriver” she demanded. Gun looked taken aback for a second, but after a moment started digging in his saddlebag while Siren waited with her hoof waving slightly. She finally sighed and rolled her eyes. “Left pocket, other bag,” she grumbled, “or do you not bother keeping that thing organized?” Gun looked offended at Siren, but checked his other bag and moments later produced the screwdriver. He gave it to her, shooting her a look somewhere between embarrassment and anger, as I simply marveled at how Siren remembered that from her escape attempt. Siren meanwhile grabbed the screwdriver without further acknowledgement of Gun and began working on the lock, flicking her mane out of her face as it fell in front of her eye. As Siren twisted the bobby pin and screwdriver in the lock, Gun pulled me aside and whispered in my ear. “If she keeps this up we might need more than a collar.” I couldn’t help but nod, watching Siren until I heard something snap. I was about to rejoice at progress, but Siren pulled the snapped bobby pin out of the lock. “Buck,” she said, slouching with defeat. I felt defeated too, only to remember that I had just grabbed some bobby pins downstairs. I offered the whole collection to her, Siren’s eyes lighting up as she took them greedily and went straight back to work jimmying the lock open. It took her two pins, but finally there was a distinctive “click” and the drawer slid open easily. Siren backed up and refitted her mane with the pin she’d been using, watching as I looked inside the drawer. Inside there were three books, a few pens, a single bullet for some unnerving reason, a pipbuck, and a small button hooked into the back of the drawer. Siren’s eyes lit up and reached for the pipbuck, but Ark’s tail lurched forwards and stopped her hoof, making her back up in fright. “Don’t even think about it,” he hissed, taking the pipbuck. Siren huffed and picked the books up to look at them closer as Ark turned to me. “Just in case we need it,” he said as he hoofed the pipbuck over. I nodded and put it in my saddlebag, watching Siren carefully before she got any ideas of digging through my bag to find it. Ark meanwhile went back to the drawer and hit the button without hesitation. Thankfully, it seemed to be what we were looking for, as the bookcase lurched slightly to the side. Then it began to creep along the wall, a loud metallic groaning filling the room as rusted metals pulled the bookcase aside and letting us see the room beyond. It was a narrow hallway leading to what must have been a panic room, complete with a comfortable looking bed, a fridge, a second terminal, a table and two chairs, a stove, and of course your traditional skeleton piled up in the corner. I winced at seeing the skeleton, wondering just how long whomever this had been survived in this room. Looking past that horror, I had to wonder why the single bulb light in the ceiling was still working despite any obvious electricity. Predictably, Gunrunner had already started poking around for things to loot, Redwood apparently interested enough now to join him. Siren was still nose-deep in the books, carefully flipping the old pages, leaving Arkangel and myself to approach the table and it’s unusual bearings; an armored helmet. I’d seen plenty of armor designs before, but I had to admit this was probably one of the most interesting, even graceful armor I had ever seen. It was a heavy plating, but was designed gracefully smooth with a surface almost like jet-black marble, and each plate was angled just so to ricochet most projectiles clear of the face. Oddly enough, there didn’t seem to be any slits for the eyes or even a visor, leading me to question how you were supposed to see out of it. “Wow,” I muttered, staring at the helmet for a few moments. But I realized that Ark had barely moved from the tableside, staring intently at the helmet and completely locked up. “Uh, Ark?” I asked hesitant. “You ok? What’s up?” Ark shook his head slowly and glanced at me after a few more seconds. “Just...it reminds me of something.” He picked the helmet up and tilted it in his hoof, before turning to me. “Here, you wear it. Might give you a little protection.” I took the helmet a little hesitantly, just realizing I hadn’t considered wearing any head protection despite the alarming number of firefights we’d already been in. I had never pictured myself with a helmet, but I finally shrugged at my own concerns and carefully lifted it towards my head. It was amazingly light in my hoof, yet felt sturdy and comfortably padded as I set it down on my skull. It was a tad too large for my head, but as it slid into place the helmet shifted slightly, small motors confining the helmet just enough to resize it to my head. I lifted it gently to be sure I could still get out, only to realize I was completely in the dark; whatever I was supposed to use to see was not working. I ran a hoof along the jawline, looking for a switch, only for Ark to jump in. “Hold still,” he said, as I heard him move behind me. His hoof hit something in the back of the helmet, which clicked and started to buzz for a moment. Multiple pink hexagons flashed in front of my eyes, one by one as it seemed like the helm was booting, before my entire vision was obscured with pink hexagons. They vanished one after another, revealing the world beyond the helm in surprisingly crisp detail. “Wow, this thing is incredible,” I said, turning my head to see how the view responded to motion; the image refreshed quick enough I didn’t notice any delay. I did however spot some kind of HUD appearing in the corner of my vision. ORDIS - MK5.9 HELMET/P ACQUIRED INITIALIZING MISSING COMPONENTS ORDIS - MK5.9 TORSO ORDIS - MK5.9 RIGHT FORELEG ORDIS - MK5.9 LEFT FORELEG ORDIS - MK5.9 WING ARMOUR/B ORDIS - MK5.9 RIGHT HINDLEG/S ORDIS - MK5.9 LEFT HINDLEG/S I glanced at the list of missing parts, peeking around the room for any signs of the rest of the armor set. I could only hope we’d run across them soon. CANNOT ACCESS AUTO MED SYSTEMS { TORSO REQUIRED } CANNOT ACCESS AUTO REGEN SYSTEM { TORSO REQUIRE } CANNOT ACCESS POWER HOOVES { LEG ARMOUR REQUIRED } CANNOT ACCESS SHOCK ABSORBERS { LEG ARMOUR REQUIRED } ACTIVATING { SATS, EFS, COMPASS, AMMO COUNTER, STRUCTURE INTEGRITY, HEALTH DIAGNOSTIC } AVAILABLE SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL SERVE WELL As the systems of the armor activated, little indicators showed up in the HUD to show that they were running properly, the ammo counter somehow linking to my laser pistol and informing me I had five shots left. And while it was discouraging to see most of the armor set in the structure integrity window as just an outline, the fact that the helmet was glowing brightly on the pony model made me smile. “This thing is awesome,” I thought, glancing around at the others. Ark had made his way over to Siren, who tried to hide what she was reading from him, neither of them even casting a passing glance at me. I turned to the other side of the room and approached both Gunrunner and Redwood, still busy digging through cabinets for anything useful. I came right up behind Gun and tapped him on the shoulder to show off the new helmet. “Yeah, what do you want,” he replied, buried neck-deep in the cabinet. I tapped him harder, more urgently, prompting him to sigh and back his head out. “What?! I’m trying-holy!” he gasped, jumping when he saw me in my helmet. He looked me up and down before responding again. “That is you Storm, right?” I nodded, glad that the helmet obscured the smirk on my face. “You know you could give somepony a heart attack doing that right?” I could barely stop myself from laughing at that. “So what are you doing here?” I asked, trying to change the subject a little. “Looking for anything worth taking,” said Gun. “But it seems like the only thing worth a damn in here is that helmet,” he snapped, turning back to the cabinet and looking again. Just as I started feeling a little bad for Gun, I felt a hoof on the side of my helmet pushing it slightly, causing me to glance and see Redwood looking intently at the helm. “I swear I’ve seen this helmet before…” she said. “But I can’t figure out where.” Redwood came closer to me, making me a little uncomfortable and resist flinching backwards away from her. “Eh, maybe it’ll come to me later,” she said with a shrug, before turning to help Gun with looting again. That left only Siren to impress with the helmet...if she was even interested. I still had to try, so I turned back to her still buried in her books. I strolled up in front of her and stood right in her light, waiting for her to look up. “Go away, I’m reading,” she huffed, not even looking up. Undaunted, I lowered my head into her field of vision, prompting her to look up in annoyance...only for her face to shift abruptly. She jolted upright as she stared at me intently. “Where did you get that?!” she gasped, hooves on my helmet almost immediately. I was about to answer but she began twisting the helm to get a better look at it, turning my head in the process. “Storm, this helmet...it’s the starmetal! Do you have any idea the chances of finding even a gram of this stuff?!” I yanked my head free of her grip and stepped back a bit, leading Siren to slump in disappointment. “Well fine, be that way. Look,” she changed gears, pointing at the book. I leaned forwards to look at it as she turned the blue-bound book to me. “It’s a bunch of info on something they called the ORDIS program. I haven’t gotten too far yet,” she sighed, and as I glanced at the sheer thickness of the book I couldn’t blame her, “but from what I can tell it was them working on armor from another program.” Siren then flipped open a purple book and raised a pen from the drawer to make some note. “This one was empty, and the last one was just some stupid journal. At least I can take notes without my pipbuck now,” she grumbled, shooting Ark a dirty look from across the room. After she got her glaring in, Siren stood and gathered the three books, reaching for my side. I backed up a step and she sighed, rolling her eyes before speaking. “Storm, can you give me your saddlebag?” I immediately shook my head, worrying that she’d go right for the pipbuck. Thankfully Siren seemed to know better than to fight me and sighed. “Alright, can I put these in there then?” she asked, a little more politely but clearly still annoyed at my resistance. I finally nodded and turned my right side to her, letting her put the books in the opposite bag as the pipbuck. She stuffed the books away and turned back to the desk as I popped the helmet off. Despite its padding, I was more comfortable not wearing it all the time, and I tried to stuff it in the left pouch of my saddlebag partially to cover the pipbuck in case Siren went snooping. With Siren satisfied at our searching the desk, I took her lead and headed back to the main office. Vlyka had somehow joined us, I presumed her servos were just strong enough to let her jump the gap, and was currently busy listening to Arkangel as he talked quietly to her. Ark noticed us however and cut himself off abruptly, turning to Siren and myself as we walked closer. He took Siren’s lead from me and hoofed it to Vlyka. “Don’t let her go anywhere,” he said sternly, as Vlyka blinked at the lead. She took it with a little hesitation, and while I was busy realizing that Vlyka actually had working eyelids Ark grabbed me and almost dragged me into the opposite corner of the room. “We need to talk,” he said to me, as I found my hoofing again and walked beside him. “Figure out what to do with her,” he gestured towards Siren, who noticed his attention and shot him a dirty glance, “and Redwood tonight. Gunrunner!” he called, as the two of us entered the back room. Gun poked his head up from behind another cabinet door, looking a little frustrated as he shut it, shaking his head. “Yeah, what now?” he asked. “We need to plan how to control those mares tonight, I need ideas,” Ark said simply. At that Redwood was paying full attention, opening her mouth to say something witty as Ark grabbed her lead from Gunrunner and pointed out the door. “Go wait with Vlyka and Siren, no room for discussion.” Thankfully Redwood only looked mildly amused as she listened calmly to Ark’s instructions. As soon as Ark was comfortable she was out of earshot, he whispered to us again. “We’ve got to keep an eye on them, especially after last time…” At that I cast a shameful glance at the ground, staring at my hooves as I remembered how pissed Ark had been. We couldn’t let that happen again, especially since now we had twice the ponies to worry about. Gunrunner nodded thoughtfully, tapping a hoof to his chin for a second. “Well, we could always shoot her in the leg.” I winced, and Ark glared at Gunrunner. “We are absolutely not carrying her,” he snapped, causing Gun to back up a step. Thankfully Ark calmed down as Gun kept thinking. “Have the robot watch Redwood, pin her down. Little thing’s strong,” he suggested next, but Ark shook his head. “We don’t know how gullible Vlyka is yet...I don’t want to run the risk Redwood turns her on us. It’ll be easier if at least one of them can behave.” Gunrunner came up with one more idea as I sat there thinking. “What about lock them in here?” he asked, gesturing to the panic room around us. Unfortunately, Ark shook his head again. “Maybe, it seemed sealed, but there’s the chance one of them will find some way out.” “Not if they’re tied down.” I finally had an idea, one that Siren would hate me for. As the others looked at me I pointed to the bed in the corner. “If we tie Siren down on that, she’ll have to get free before she can try getting out.” Gunrunner nodded as he inspected the bed. “Should hold her. Then we just deal with Redwood, I think separated from her sis she won’t cause too much trouble.” Ark thought for a moment before nodding. “Seems like it’ll work. Gun,” he said. “Gun, you know what to do.” Gunrunner only nodded in reply. “You bucking perverts are all going to be executed when the stable finds us!” Siren shouted, thrashing in her bonds. Unsurprisingly, she wasn’t keen on our restraint plan, but as it had been both Gun and Ark against her she hadn’t exactly had a chance to rebuke us more than shouting. Gunrunner had just finished tying her forelegs to the bars at the head of the bed, her back legs already secured to the stands at the far end. I watched as Gun finished tightening the ropes around her foreleg, glancing at her wings tied down to her sides. I could only hope it wasn’t crushing her soft wing, as I couldn’t bring myself to speak up for her comfort. Gun smirked at Siren as he finished the knots. “Eh, just be thankful we didn’t come up with something worse,” he said, watching as Siren squirmed for a moment to see if anything would give. “Not like you’re in a position to resist, anyways,” he added, voice lowering a little as he rubbed his hoof across her stomach. She squirmed with displeasure as his hoof ran across her clothing, her face losing some of its angry edge giving in to worry. “Gunrunner!” At the cry both Gun and I spun around to see Ark standing in the doorway. “You’ve done your part. Leave her.” Gun glanced at me, then at Siren, who only glared back at him. “Sure, you’re the boss,” he said to Ark, hurrying for the exit with all possible speed. Ark turned after him and left as well, signalling for me it was time to go. “This was your idea, wasn’t it?” Siren growled. I froze in place and turned back to her. “Just...the only thing that came to mind,” I sighed, nodding. “Better than Gun wanting to shoot you in the leg, right?” I was met by a cold, hard glare of Siren’s anger. “Can I do something to make you comfortable?” Siren continued to glare at me, only for her eyes to catch my saddlebag after a few seconds. “Well...I guess if you’re going to offer, I didn’t get through that journal earlier.” I smiled softly and trotted over to her, digging the books out of my bag and setting them on her chest, only to be met by another glare. Sighing at my own stupidity I started to use the red book to prop up the blue. “No no, the red journal!” she hissed, making me stop. She really didn’t get the hang of being without power, but since her current situation was partially my fault I decided not to bite back and prop the journal up open on her stomach, sitting by her side and turning pages for a few minutes at her signal. None of it was particularly interesting me, I got bored after three pages worth of reading along, simply listening on autopilot for Siren to order the next page change as my eyes wandered. When nothing in the room caught my attention, I instead turned to Siren’s clothing. Her cloak had been removed, and I wasn’t all that familiar with her uniform; it was more of a trench coat like an officer would wear, confusing me a little. I almost thought it would be from her father or something, but it was patterned with roses, something I kind of doubted her father had been all that interested in. As I followed the stem of one of the roses, I found myself glancing less at her clothes and more at her body. She was quite a beautiful mare after all, her flank had a great curve and I could feel a hair of lust working its way through certain parts of my body. But I managed to restrain it for now by wondering about something else, particularly since I wanted to stay on her good side. “Siren, what is your cutie mark?” The question seemed to surprise Siren, who abruptly started staring at me. For a second she was puzzled, before she started scowling again. “Why are you staring at my flank! Bunch of perverts, all of you!” she growled, turning away from me again. I almost snapped back at her defensively, but again managed to hold myself in check to talk calmly. “It was just a question, I didn’t mean anything by it,” I replied, watching her face again. Siren stared away from me for a bit, her eyes occasionally darting back to me before pushing me out of sight again. “Next,” she finally demanded, and after a moment of silence I turned the page once more and let her keep reading. I tried to keep my eyes off her, trying to respect her at least a little after creeping her out like that. “It’s a rose,” she sighed finally. “Wow,” I replied. “What did you get that for?” Siren ignored the question entirely. “Next.” I however, wasn’t satisfied with her answer. “Storm, next. I said…” she looked frustrated at me, but I just stared back at her until her will melted away. “I don’t actually know, it was just...there, one day,” she sighed heavily. “My best guess is when I started blackmailing, bribing making other ponies disappear…” She bit her lip and looked at me, a sad smile on her face. “Guess every rose has thorns?” I looked into her eyes holding her gaze for longer than I’d done before, as she showed no signs of looking away either. Finally, I smiled softly at her and looked away, only to find the book and turn the page for her. Gunrunner eventually came back to give us some food; more bread and some water rations Ark had been carrying. “Hey Siren...sorry about earlier,” he muttered. “I was out of line.” Siren, for her part, huffed at him. “Maybe keep those thoughts in your head next time, merc,” she snapped, prompting Gun to growl angrily at her. He dropped her rations on the bed and turned away, muttering something about something in Siren’s head. Meanwhile I reached across Siren’s body and picked up the rations as Siren smirked, looking quite proud of herself for telling him off. “Alright Storm, get me untied so I can eat.” I just stared at Siren, as her face went from bemused to cross rather quickly. “Oh fine, just my forelegs then.” I shook my head slightly, making her look even angrier than before. “Storm, I’m not kidding here. Untie m--mhh!” she yelped, as I shoved a piece of bread into her mouth. “Just chew on that a bit,” I muttered, trying to smirk like I’d just delivered the best line ever. Siren looked at me, somewhere between angered and a flat “really?” in her eye as I sighed and shook my head. “Yeah that was just awful,” I muttered, taking a small bite myself. I just couldn’t eat though, leaving most of the rations for Siren to eat despite her barely tolerating the stuff to begin with. As I wasn’t feeling up to eating, I took the time to preen my wings, making sure that my feathers were clean and organized. I still had flashbacks to my parents teaching me, as I checked each feather to see if anything was unusually damaged from all the fighting. By the time I’d checked my wings out completely, I glanced up to see Siren staring at me. She looked a little sad, but when I met her eyes she quickly grew frustrated again and looked at the books. “Can we go back to reading now? I’m done with the journal, get the ORDIS book.” I nodded and started to set the books up again, but my eyes were distracted by Siren’s wings now. I realized that her wings had looked like they were in worse condition than mine had been, which worried me a little bit. Even in a controlled environment I’d been worried about parasites, but now that we were out in the wasteland I didn’t want to know what might be longing to live between somepony’s feathers. Unfortunately, Siren seemed less than enthused by my attention. “Oh no, don’t you even think about it.” I reached for the ropes binding Siren’s wings and started to undo the knot. “Siren you know what happens if you don’t preen yourself.” She nodded hesitantly, only to mumble something as the knot came loose. “What was that Siren?” I asked her gently, only to hear mumbles again. “Sorry, you need to speak up. What was that?” “I don’t know how to preen,” she finally said, hurrying through her words as the shame caught up with her. I looked back at her, shocked to hear that eons of pegasi learning had been lost on her. “I used to have somepony else to preen them, then some maid I hired but now, out here…” She looked down and away from me, ashamed of herself it seemed. I looked at her, pity in my heart as I sighed and gently reached for her wing. “No don’t!” she gasped, “they’re very sensitive!” I didn’t doubt that her wings might be more sensitive than an average pegasus’, but right now we didn’t really have the luxury of waiting. “Siren, somepony should check on them. I’ve already touched your wings today, and if you need somepony to preen them, out of anypony here…” Siren looked as though she were considering my words for a minute, before she finally sighed and closed her eyes, nodding. “Ok ok, but only because I don’t want any parasites from up here in my feathers.” I sighed a little at her exasperation, but very slowly reached for her left wing as the right one was on the side of the bed pinned to the wall. Siren hadn’t been kidding about sensitive wings. I could only make four attempts to clean her feathers, each time with her shifting awkwardly as I tried to move them, with the last attempt her jerking violently to the right just as I’d gotten my teeth sternly on a collection of feathers in the center of her wing. As I felt her feathers hit me in the face I jerked backwards, the two of us recoiling from each other and causing me to yank four feathers right out of her wing. Siren swore and launched a death threat, with matching glare, at me, and I knew that this endeavor was done. With that I went back to Siren’s page turner, too frustrated to look at the book even though it seemed to be related to the program that made my helmet. Boredom threatened to put me to sleep, and Siren refusing to talk to me save her page turn commands. I went into my bag and pulled the helmet out, carefully keeping the pipbuck hidden from Siren. I took another look at the outside of the helmet before putting it back on, the same wall of pink text flashing before my eyes. I sighed a little irritably, the color too obnoxious for my eyes with every startup, only for my vision to return to see Siren staring straight at me. “Can you change that color?” she asked. “What? What color?” I replied, glancing around the room. “That pink visor,” Siren said, staring right at my face. Surprised, I yanked the helmet off my head and looked at the front; sure enough, just starting to fold away behind some panels, was a solid pink visor about where my eyes had been. “Whoa, that’s how this works?” I asked, as the helmet shut itself again. “So how do I change the color?” Siren shrugged, before glancing at the book on her stomach. “Flip back about ten pages, I feel like I remember something…” I shifted the book and flipped it like she asked, reading along with her to find any signs of the word “helmet.” Finally, we hit on something; “Settings may be altered by pipbuck integration.” Curious, I secured the helmet again and looked at my pipbuck, hoping it would automatically synch up like it had with my laser pistol. There was no such luck, discouraging me for only a moment before I couldn’t help but wonder about something. I turned to my bag and pulled out the spare pipbuck, noticing now that it had a similar jet-black design, slimmed down to the point it was almost skintight on me. Yet it still seemed incredibly strong, and if I wasn’t mistaken looked like it was meant for battle, as it seemed like the left end of it had a place that looked like some sort of retracting blade. After turning the pipbuck over in my hooves for a bit, I finally decided it was worth a shot and powered it up, clasping it around my right leg. Almost immediately, a new icon appeared in my helmet’s HUD; something was loading. As the pipbuck synched up a massive prompt appeared in the center of my vision. UNREGISTERED USER DETECTED CREATE NEW DATA [Y/N] I glanced at the screen of the old pipbuck, but it remained cracked and offline as ever. “It’s asking something about creating new data, yes or no…” As soon as I said “yes” the icons vanished entirely, the whole helmet resetting and booting back up with a green HUD. “Well looks like you did something,” Siren muttered, “now it’s not pink.” ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS MATRIARCH NETWORK … … … CONNECTION FAILED UNTIL CONNECTION IS REESTABLISHED YOUR DATA WILL NOT BE KNOW TO OTHER ORDIS DEVICES “Huh...guess there’s benefits to an apocalyptic world after all,” I thought. ENTER USER NAME “Uh...it’s asking for a username now. What do I give it?” I asked, only for Siren to shrug. USER NAME UH IT’S ASKING FOR A USERNAME NOW WHAT DO I GIVE IT ACCEPT [Y/N] “Whoa no. No no no.” Thankfully the text vanished, allowing me to try again. “Fantastic Storm.” USER NAME FANTASTIC STORM ACCEPT [Y/N] “Yes.” The prompt flickered for a second, before continuing. USER NAME ACCEPTED PLEASE DESIGNATE YOUR COMPANY AND COMMANDER “Uh…” I was stumped. I could guess names if I really wanted to, but I didn’t know what would get me access and what lock the system down entirely. So I decided to be honest. “No company, no commander.” NOTED WITH NO DESIGNATION OR COMMANDER FURTHER QUESTIONS ARE VOIDED YOU ARE CLASSED AS A ORDIS SPECIALIST CONTACT A RANKING OFFICER, FELLOW OPERATIVE, TECHNICIAN OR PONY OF INTEREST FOR ASSIGNMENT SERVE WELL “Well that got us somewhere,” I muttered. I wondered just what the helmet expected me to do as an ‘Ordis Specialist’, but at least it wasn’t locking me out. Unfortunately nothing had really changed in the helmet HUD, nothing was interactable, and glancing at the pipbuck showed it was still broken and I couldn't get it to respond. “Well, at least it isn’t pink anymore,” I sighed, disappointed that all that had been for nothing, but at least we had gotten somewhere. Siren rolled her eyes at me as I took the helmet off again, setting it to the side as I looked at the book. “Siren, what exactly is the Ordis?” Siren glanced at the book as well and shook her head. “I haven’t entirely made it far enough to tell, but so far it seems like it’s just an armor project.” She stretched her head down and flipped the page with her muzzle, causing me to blink in shock and annoyance that she hadn’t been doing that before. “What it’s for I can’t tell, and that upsets me.” She sighed in frustration as well. “I should have had some info about this from somewhere, somepony has to have seen this armor around. But there’s nothing like these designs anywhere!” I had to admit I shared Siren’s frustration. Now that I’d gotten a taste I was eager to know where more of this suit might be, what kind of tech it might hide. This helmet seemed more valuable than anything I’d done in the vault just for the materials alone, yet it was just a fraction of what was out there. There was a lot more going on up here than I’d ever expected, and it frustrated me to know that some answers might well be lost to time. All of a sudden I felt a hoof on my shoulder. I spun around abruptly, reaching for my gun, only to realize it was Vlyka standing right behind me. She looked almost unaffected by my startled reaction, backing up a step to give me some space. “From my records, you’ve been up for longer than is medically advised,” she said plainly, making me smirk at getting scolded for being up so late by a robot. “It is 12:18AM now, I advise you getting some rest.” I nodded to Vlyka, smiling gently at her. She’d been volunteered to handle the first and third watch in the night, as she’d said she only needed about 2 hours to switch off her processor and let it cool, leaving Gun to begrudgingly take a shift to let her shut down. However, as she was going to be the only being up, Ark had been worried about something, and told me I had one more task before I went to bed. So as Vlyka turned and trotted to the doorway, I turned back to Siren. “I know you’re going to hate this, Siren,” I muttered, watching as she tensed irritably. “But Ark told me I had to gag you tonight. He doesn’t trust you with Vlyka.” I expected Siren to start screaming bloody murder at my sentence, but to my surprise she lowered her head and grumbled quietly, as I started to remove the books and stash them away. Surprising me even more, when I gently took a piece of cloth and unravelled it she calmly opened her mouth, letting me place it between her teeth and tie it around the back of her head to keep it secure. I almost wanted to leave it looser for her comfort, but if Ark woke up and decided to check on Siren he might well murder me for taking the risk. “Sorry Siren,” I muttered, as I pulled the knot tight and eliciting a pained squeak from her. “Well...goodnight,” I said, trying to stay cordial, as Siren grumbled something I stood no chance of understanding. I walked out back into the office to see Gunrunner perched on his nest of bags, looking quite content with himself as he dozed off quickly. We’d finally agreed to tie Redwood to a chair, though she had been far less resistant to it and had already fallen asleep. I looked at her warily, still on edge at how it seemed like she was more interested in helping us than escape. Vlyka must have wandered to a window or balcony to keep watch, as I only saw Arkangel lying down on the catwalk just outside the office. I dropped my bag beside him and rested my head on it, trying to get a little comfortable and just take the time to fall asleep. “I’m sorry, Storm.” The words jolted me from my half-sleep as I looked at the source of the voice: Arkangel. “Uh...sorry for what?” “All this,” Ark sighed, shifting a little. I’d thought he was asleep already, but as he turned his head to look at me I heard a faint hiss of air. He pulled off his helmet and set it aside, his left eye glowing faint blue in the darkness surrounding us. His face was a little softer, more worried looking than other times I’d seen it...he even looked like he was on the verge of crying. “I wish I could explain this whole situation I dragged you into. But, truth be told, I don’t even know half of why it is myself…” I tried to say something, anything, but no words came to my mouth. I was just thinking about how I now recognized him: Pale Shroud, the pony I’d met so long ago, and still knew almost nothing about. “Promise me something,” Pale said, staring right into my eyes. In any other situation, I would have just said no. Why would I promise anything to a pony who dragged me through chaos and hell like this without even bothering to explain himself?! “Sure,” I said half-heartedly. To my surprise, a single tear did roll out of Pale’s right eye, as he took a deep, resigned breath. “Keep everypony safe. If I lose myself again please...please don’t let me kill anypony here.” I couldn’t say anything for a moment, too lost in my own thoughts to speak. I knew who this was, the insane pony with his heavy armor and incredibly ruthless streak, Arkangel, yet here he was talking about me protecting ponies from himself. “I...I’ll do my best,” I said finally, nodding slightly to him. “But...can you tell me something?” Pale nodded to me, but I could see in his face he was straining; something was deeply troubling him, and I knew that this was a bad idea. But I had yet to talk with Ark at such a vulnerable state, I couldn’t pass the chance up. “Why do you call yourself ‘Arkangel’?” Almost as soon as I said his name, Pale’s robotic eye flickered, the pony twitching and shaking violently as he shut his eyes. His hooves reached to clutch his head as he shook for a few moments, making me shift towards my hooves. I was about to run for help when the shaking stopped, Pale looking up at me with his eye shining red. The exhaustion and sadness had vanished from his face, leaving only fury. His hooves jerked forwards and grabbed his helmet, slamming it back on his head as he rose to face me, coming dangerously close to me. “Don’t talk about the devil while he’s listening,” he replied. I swallowed nervously, realizing that I was about to pay for my mistake. Ark was back, and whatever sympathy Pale might have had for me wasn’t applicable now. Ark pushed me aside and stood again, walking into the office with his barbed tail dragging across the ground. It was emitting its acid and gouging a nasty scrape into the floor, and Ark flicked a bit of the acid directly at my head. I tried to duck but his reflexes were too quick for me, though thankfully the starmetal of my helmet proved a perfect defense for the acid as it merely fizzled on the surface before dripping harmlessly off. “You’d better tell no one about that little chat,” Ark hissed, without even turning to me. He glanced at the nearby window. “Or we might be travelling with one less companion. Sure even if you survive you don’t want to be between us and the terminators I know are after us. Tomorrow morning, they’re coming, and I expect your performance to increase in response.” As he turned back to me, Ark’s tail reared up threateningly, lashing forwards towards my neck. I froze stock still, not out of defiance but because I was so afraid that my body wouldn’t move anymore. I felt the side of the barb brush against my neck, though I didn’t feel any acid left on my coat, leading me to believe Ark was trying to intimidate me. Successfully. “Pale can only keep you alive for so long, but he just doesn’t understand how weak he is compared to us.” I blinked in confusion...us? The best theory I had so far was that Pale had a split personality issue, but was there more than just Ark in his head? Thankfully Arkangel didn’t seem telepathic, as he raised his tail and patted me on the head with it, rather roughly so I could feel it hard even through my helmet. “Now why don’t you get some sleep, because my patience is only going so far.” With that, he brushed past me again, returning to the catwalk and dropping himself on his side again to sleep. I stood for almost a minute trying to control my heart rate and breathing, before turning to head for the catwalk. Before I laid down though, I shot a glance into the panic room, seeing what looked like Siren already asleep despite her binds. I finally laid down and detached my battle saddle, laying it beside me as I rested my head on my saddlebag again, before casting a glance at Ark’s back nearby. “Don’t worry Pale,” I thought, “I won’t let anything happen to them.” I smirked, thinking how strange it was that we were both in this together. It helped me a little bit to stay calm, although seeing Ark and his menace still so close didn’t help me sleep easily. But finally, sleep did come to me, and I embraced it graciously after a long and trying day. Author's Note Footnote: Level up New Perk: Nerves of Steel --- 20% faster AP regeneration. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex On another note, I would just like to apologise for the long spaces in between each chapter. Some members of our group haven't been active in a long while. Don't worry, me and the editor are still on board although we can't promise that the chapter will come out quickly as we treat this more as a hobby than a goal. Anyhow, thanks for your patience and I hope you stick around for our story. Second note, we should be getting cover art soon thanks to El_mutanto, if you want you can even see designs of some of our characters on his DeviantArt. After the cover art we will also give our readers some more content by including chapter cards in colour and some scenes without colour in the chapters. Hopefully it won't be long but El_mutanto is a busy guy with many commissions not including the 10 or so character references we commissioned.
Release the houndsallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 8: Release the Hounds By Fallen Sentinel “Factories made the weapons, but whos the killer? The weapon or the user? But in your case are you the weapon or the user?” As I woke up, I felt my back stiff and couldn’t help but groan in discomfort. “I’ve got to stop sleeping on the floor,” I muttered, straining to stand up as my legs were stiff too. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and glanced around the room, thankfully finding everything about as we’d left it. I slowly made my way for the panic room, stretching as much as I could while I walked to wake my body up. By the time I made it to the door I almost felt rested, though I couldn’t help but yawn once more as I peeked inside the panic room. Siren was laying still asleep, spread out by the ropes binding her hooves and her gag still in her mouth. Vlyka was standing guard over her, but as she turned to look at me I couldn’t help but notice she was jerking a little bit as she moved. The covers on her optics fell to block almost half of her optics...she was tired? Could she even be tired? “Is...something wrong, Vlyka?” I asked, as she jerked in my direction. “Low power,” she muttered, her voice sounding significantly more artificial than I remembered it being last night. There had always been a hint of a metallic ring in her voice, but now it dominated her speech. “Need to...recharge…” she said, before moving past me and towards the door. I listened as she left, surprised to hear her servos whine and her hooffalls much, much louder than I’d ever heard her walk before. I could only guess something in her body let her walk almost silently, but in her low-powered state that took too much energy to keep running. As Vlyka clunked away, me only thinking I should have asked her how she planned to recharge well after I stopped hearing her hoofbeats, I turned my focus back to Siren. Either our talking or Vlyka’s clanking had woken her up, and she was just glancing around in minor confusion. She seemed to recall exactly how she’d ended up in this position and let out an annoyed sigh, before she looked up and saw me. “Whr ya tar ing ah me” she muttered through her gag. It was clear enough she was asking a question, but I couldn’t understand the rest and removed it so she could talk. “Storm, were you staring at me while I was asleep?” she asked. Her tone was harsh and irritated, but I was willing to chalk that up to having spent the night tied up. I shook my head in response. “I just got here a couple seconds ago,” I replied, as I reached up to start untying her forelegs. Thankfully I was quick with the knots and got her forelegs untied, and she reached down to work on freeing her wings. But after a moment she paused, staring at me before glancing down at her back legs. She looked between us for a moment until I sighed. “You know,” she muttered,as I moved to untie her hind legs. “Sometimes I can’t tell if you’re just trying to annoy me, or you’re just that lazy.” “Can’t we say I’m doing both?” I asked, glancing back at her and giving her a slight smirk. Surprisingly, I heard her let out a soft giggle. I almost recoiled in shock, but kept untying her hooves. She was freed in short order and rolled off the bed...only to fall indignantly onto the floor. “Oww…” she muttered, looking up at me as I tried to withhold the smirk on my face. “Well you try being tied up all night and see how your legs work all morning.” I kept failing to hold back my amusement, and she huffed, glaring at me as she tried to stand again. Despite her legs wobbling a little, Siren stood to her full height and started to stretch her joints out. I almost wanted to give her a moment of privacy, but I couldn’t help but stare at her as she stretched. She was truly beautiful, I had to admit, and I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of Pale Shroud: however short their relationship had been, he’d been lucky to have her. “Storm, do you have a mirror?” Her words jerked my thoughts back to the present, and I looked at the bed to distract myself from Siren’s body for a moment. She didn’t seem to notice I’d been staring as she looked over at me. I shook my head. “I don’t think so,” I said, reaching to check my saddlebag and remembering too late I’d left it sitting by my sleeping space. “Don’t remember packing one, why do you need it?” Siren’s trademark glare met me again, causing me to sigh. “And what am I missing now?” “My mane, Storm, I need to check my mane!” she snapped. I glanced at her mane in response, a little surprised I hadn’t noticed yet that it did indeed look a little messy. “Doesn’t look bad to me,” I replied, trying to be helpful. “Maybe a little messy but not bad.” Siren only rolled her eyes. “Thanks ever so much,” she grumbled. “I still need to fix it up. Now find me a mirror.” I gestured for the door with a slight, playful bow. “Well right this way, ma’am.” “Such a gentlecolt,” Siren replied, shaking her head as she trotted past me into the office. As I followed her inside, I caught her staring at Gunrunner with a bemused smirk. “How does one sleep so peacefully when he could die any second?” she asked aloud, watching as Gun shifted in his sleep, still resting atop his collection of bags. But as Siren glanced at me she shook her head again. “Nevermind, I know the feeling.” I trotted past Siren towards my saddlebags on the catwalk as Siren followed, casting her eyes acros to the chair where Redwood was still tied up. “Why did you idiots even bring her,” she growled. “She’ll cause you more trouble than I ever could.” I was about to argue with her, but as I dug through my bags I quickly found what I was looking for. “Ok Siren, come here. Got your best friends for you.” Siren turned and hurried towards me, looking momentarily excited. I winced a bit at seeing her so energized, as I pulled the collar and leash out of my bag. “Oh.” Siren muttered, raising a hoof to her neck. I could still remember the relief on her face when we’d taken it off last night, and it hurt more than I wanted to admit to put it back on her. But before Siren could get a good look at it I hurried to try and put it on her, hoping she wasn’t getting ideas how to get it off herself. Thankfully she didn’t fight me as I gently placed it on her neck, closing it while making sure there was plenty of space to breathe within its confines. I then threaded the leash back through and tied it down. “There,” I said jokingly. “Safe and secure.” “Secure, maybe,” Siren huffed. I looked at her, upset my joke hadn’t worked, as she sighed and fiddled with the collar for a second. “Now can we please get to a mirror already?” “Okay, okay,” I replied, checking quickly through my saddlebag. Like I suspected, I hadn’t brought one, but I did remember something from yesterday. “Weren’t their mirrors in the bathroom before?” “I think so,” Siren said, perking up a little. But her smile vanished quickly. “Which are all downstairs…” “Well, we know how to get there,” I replied, raising a hoof to Siren. She sighed but took it and hopped on my back as I stepped up to the gap in the catwalk. “Let me know when you’re ready,” I said, hoping to not startle her this time. I glanced back to see Arkangel, still seemingly asleep in his armor at the other end of the catwalk; I really didn’t want Siren to scream and wake him up if I could help it. On my back, I felt Siren shaking a little bit. I glanced back at her and saw her trying not to stare down, finally closing her eyes and nodding her head to me. I took that as a sign she was ready and flapped my wings, taking us both in the air. Siren squeaked with fright and her hooves dug into my neck, but I quickly flapped past the gap and set us back down before Siren could get too anxious, gently tapping her hooves to get her to let go when we were back on the ground. Thankfully Siren was well behaved while we hurried down the hallway towards the bathroom, me anxious to let Siren calm down and address her mane to her exacting specifications. I still tried to hold Siren back just a little, just to remind her that she wasn’t the one technically in charge right now, but my heart wasn’t in it as much as before. We made it to the staff room easily enough, Siren spotting the bathroom and hurrying over to the door. But she stopped right as she reached the door for the mare’s room, before glancing at me. “I know what you’re thinking,” I said sternly, “and yes I’m following you in.” Surprisingly, Siren didn’t yell at me for that comment, only sighing before silently opening the door and heading inside. I was surprised to see how clean the bathroom was. There weren’t any stains and the tiles still looked mostly white, only aged a little. I couldn’t help but feel a tad nervous, glancing behind me to see the age and devastation in the room we’d just come from, but Siren rushed right for the mirror to check her mane. As I looked back into the bathroom I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked more attentively I didn’t see anything there. There was another room connected to the bathroom, one with faint light still running above it and a sign reading “showers” above. The sign made me realize we hadn’t had a proper bath in days now. So I cleared my throat and muttered “uh, Siren?” She looked at me rather cross, until I pointed at the sign. She almost leapt with glee when she saw it. She passed me in a hurry, me getting just a whiff of her coat and realizing she really needed a good shower after all. As Siren hurried into the room I followed her, glancing around for any other signs of movement. All the stalls for each individual shower were closed, marred a little by time...more in here than in the main bathroom. I was confused by that, but Siren was far too distracting to ponder that further. “Okay Storm, I know what you’re thinking but…” She looked at me, at the leash that still held her back from the shower. I glanced down at it, then back at her, and she sighed with frustration. “Please, just go to the other room. I’m going to undress, I really don’t need you staring at me while I’m naked.” She stared right at me, glaring as I stared back at her. “Storm…” I sighed, frustrated, but finally let go of her leash. I turned to trot out of the room, rolling my eyes at Siren as I tried to keep my suspicions on her, but I was fed up with this anyways. Siren was too interested in her shower by now, I could already hear her throwing her robes to the floor in a hurry. I almost wanted to peek back, but if Siren spotted me I’d never hear the end of it, and if I just gave her a minute to have a shower to herself maybe she’d mellow out a little. By the time my lust got the better of me, Siren was already in the stall and all I could see were her hooves. I growled at myself in frustration and left the bathroom. I knew that I wouldn’t leave Siren alone for a bit if I was this close, so I tried to distract myself with something, anything. “If she weren’t an overseer this wouldn’t be so difficult…” I muttered, only to have an uncomfortable thought jump into my head. My mother had become one of the overseers a while ago. She had the same authority as Siren did, though from what I remembered not the same respect. Our family was odd, for a bunch of pegasi we tended to think better of non-pegasi, which put my mom at odds with most of the overseers, including the High Overseer. My mom had tried to teach us that we could all work together...but could we? Now that I was a traitor to the Stable? How could Siren even guarantee my life back when everypony there. Mom had mentioned work on drugs to erase memories at some point, could those really be used to clear all this up? I sighed and pulled the ORDIS helmet off my head in frustration. I needed a minute to breathe, but staring at it, shifting it in my hooves only excited my mind further. “And what the hell is this thing?” I muttered. The general stable populace didn’t know about this, did any of the overseers besides Siren? Were there records to it? Should I just leave these secrets somewhere the stable wouldn’t find? I needed fresher air than this bathroom was offering, so I left for the hallway, content that Siren would take the time to soak herself with a hot shower. There was a doorway not too far away that led back outside, and as I stepped through it I took a deep whiff of the air around me. It was dusty, wind kicking up dirt and sand from the surroundings, but still felt oddly fresh. I looked across the horizon, only for my eyes to linger on a small object not too far away. It wasn’t the same orangish color of the ground, no, it was redder than that. I stepped closer and realized what I was looking at: Vlyka. The robot had folded her legs down under her chest, lying on top of them as far as she could get down with her neck almost parallel with the ground, her snout almost in the dirt. I could see the shields over her optics had closed, just like an organic’s eyelids; it looked almost like she’d fallen asleep. What didn’t make me think she might have been organic, however, were the strange wing-like protrusions sticking out from her sides. She absolutely had not had them before, some black-blue reflective surface in a grid pattern. I stepped a little closer to get a better look, but the second my hoof hit the ground, Vlyka’s head snapped up. Her optics jerked open, the shutters narrowing to pinpricks with what I swore was a faint red light behind the iris. I jerked backwards, fearing for my life as the killer robot looked ready to charge forward and rip me to pieces. But my body froze, and Vlyka’s shutters shifted, twisting a little bit as though she were studying me. It felt like minutes passed within a second, and the shutters pulled back to open her optics back to their normal size. The faint red light vanished and her expression changed from a warning glare to calm. “Vlyka?” “Hello Fantastic,” she replied. “Uh...what...exactly are you doing?” I asked, glancing at her ‘wings.’ Vlyka looked too, her eyes narrowing on the panels for a moment. “Recharging. Solar energy is gathered on the panels and converted into electricity for me to store.” “Wait, solar power?” Vlyka nodded at me. “But, the clouds…you can get solar power through the clouds?” “Not efficiently,” she replied. “Currently my solar panels are operating at 15.271% efficiency. The highest efficiency I have recorded was 38.544%.” “Huh,” I muttered, as I came a little closer. Vlyka didn’t move, only watching me with interest as I approached her. She wasn’t hostile, her stare was very different from the killer look she’d had before. “Did I scare you?” I asked. “You kinda jerked at me like you were gonna kill me.” “I was responding to possible threats,” she said matter-of-factly. “When I go to charge, the process takes less time if I turn off all non-critical systems, with the exception of my proximity and auditory sensors for defense. I wasn’t aware it was you until my targeting systems rebooted and connected your face to my memory.” “I bet you remember a lot,” I laughed, sitting down a little ways from her. “What’s it like in there, in your head?” “I would estimate about…” “No no no,” I interrupted her, “not literally! I don’t need your schematics.” Vlyka closed her mouth, looking a little sheepish as she turned her head away. “I just meant...what do you see in there? How do you process information, what does it feel like? What’s it like to be a machine?” Vlyka was silent for a moment, and I watched with interest as the smaller plates around her optics and mouth shifted to resemble the look of a pony absolutely puzzled by a question. “I don’t know how to compare it to anything,” she said finally. “This is the only process I’ve known, I don’t fully understand how an organic mind works or how you would visualize your thoughts.” I shrugged at her as she continued to stare, I could see it in her optics she was looking for an answer. “What is it like being alive?” “Oh boy,” I thought, “why am I answering this? Why’d it have to be me?” I bit my lip gently, trying to think of how to reply. I hadn’t even been a scientist for that long, and now I was supposed to explain life to a machine? Of course that was the irony of it all: I’d wanted to build advanced robots back in the stable, but here I was face to face with one far beyond my wildest dreams and I had no idea what to say, what it wanted. “I..well it’s…” I stammered, as Vlyka tilted her head. “Being alive, it’s just sort of...experiences?” I resisted the urge to facehoof at my obvious lack of conviction in that answer, but it was getting me somewhere. “You experience things, color, sights, tastes...emotions…” “So what are emotions exactly?” my voice fell flat as Vlyka continued. “I understand the mechanism, a chemical alteration in the brain, a response to external stimuli. But what dictates emotion, why does one stimulus provoke different emotions in different ponies? How is it learned, what is its source, its goal if any?” “Guhhh…” I tried my best to make a coherent word but nothing came. I finally shook my head. “Well for me at least, emotions are like you said; responses. We respond to things that upset us, that make us happy, that cause us to just feel something.” “But why?” Dammit, I knew that question was coming. “I just...I don’t know, Vlyka.” I sighed, frustrated. I didn’t have a better answer for her, one I thought she could understand. “Do any of you organics know?” I shrugged at her, and she turned her head to the ground. “Then...how do you know what is an emotion?” “You just feel it,” I said. “I don’t really know how else to say it.” Vlyka shifted her legs a little, but remained sitting. “Do you think then, that you could create a program to experience an emotion? Or would it just be a copy of a pattern in your mind?” I gulped, afraid of that answer. Vlyka had been clearly conflicted about stating she had no emotions earlier. I knew her logic was at odds with her emotional behavior, at least when it surfaced, and she was trying to parse it out. I could only hope I could help her avoid crashing from the confusion. “I don’t think I could, but I don’t know everypony. Maybe...maybe we could make emotions in something, not just copy it.” Vlyka stared at me for a moment, before a faint smile worked its way onto her face. I think I’d done it, at least for now. “Was that what they made you for? A test bed for artificial emotions?” “No,” said Vlyka. “My original constructors designed me as an infiltration unit. I was designed to enter a stable and sabotage, or assassinate it. I...don’t know if I ever fulfilled that programming. My blueprints were created two hundred and three years ago, but my current processor and data are far newer than that.” “So...what, you think they found your chassis and replaced your mind?” Vlyka nodded once. “And what did the new scientists want with you?” “Advanced combat, soldier and assassin unit.” I should have known that would be her answer. “But as I was to be under radio silence behind enemy lines, they required an advanced, independent intelligence. What records I have of theirs indicate because I was fully built, I was an adequate test bed for that purpose. And test they did, with full intent to release me as a war machine...except for them.” I blinked in surprise. “Uh...them?” “Two of the scientists were not convinced that using me as a weapon was right,” she said. “Their personal logs indicated they thought I represented more, artificial life in his case, and that I shouldn't have to be used like the rest of the staff intended.” “Oh,” I muttered. “And...do you know what happened to them? After you left?” Vlyka’s optic twitched, her face scrunched up painfully. I’d struck a nerve...circuit, synapse? “One I don’t know, she left before I was independent enough to observe, and her personnel files were corrupted when I escaped. But the other…” One of Vlyka’s hooves worked its way out from under her body, and she stared at it. “Wait, you didn’t…” She shook her head and set the hoof down. “No, I didn’t. But I saw it happen. I was in standby mode and couldn’t react but my sensors recorded it. Highmill ordered another robot to attack and…” I saw Vlyka’s hoof shaking, I could hear some of her servos whine as they shifted so rapidly. Uncertain what to do I gently extended a hoof to hers and pressed it down. She looked back up at me as the shaking passed, her optics refocusing on me. “I’m sorry, Vlyka,” I muttered, as the solar panels on her side began to fold away. As they slotted neatly into two small compartments on Vlyka’s sides, I glanced at my Pipbuck for the time. The mention of Highmill and recalling how she and Siren had known each other had reminded me I’d given Siren enough time alone to screw us over again. I could only hope that she was enjoying a nice, long shower, but even so she’d be getting out soon and I should have been there to keep her under control. “It isn’t your fault Fantastic,” Vlyka replied as she stood upright. I watched for a second as her legs moved in every direction, I had to guess her body doing a servo check to make sure everything was still working. I started to walk back to the factory, as Vlyka’s checks went smoothly and she trotted after me, servos quieted again from her full charge. “You can call me Storm, you know,” I smiled. “Less syllables.” “I...suppose I can,” Vlyka replied, looking worried about something. But I couldn’t help but giggle at her almost adorable face. “You know, being designed as a war machine, you don’t seem all that threatening.” I smirked as Vlyka looked a bit confused. “I mean your choke out is pretty effective, but you could have just snapped my neck and been done with it.” Vlyka shook her head. “I don’t like to end an individual’s data collection process.” I almost stumbled at her words, before I started to catch up to her meaning. “You don’t like killing ponies?” She shook her head. “Well, any idea why?” “I value information,” she said curtly. “I try to collect as much information as I can to understand the situations around me. I do not want my data collection to be interrupted, I can only assume that others are the same way. I will terminate if it’s necessary, but I have to assume that organics don’t want their data lost, just like...” Suddenly, Vlyka stopped dead in her tracks. Her shutters shrunk her irises down, not quite to the danger pinpricks before but close enough to worry me. “What is it?” I asked her. “Storm, where did you leave Siren?” “Shit…” I muttered. “In the showers, why? Is she gone?” Vlyka shook her head. “No, I have her on my EFS...with multiple hostile targets.” The two of us immediately started running for the factory, Vlyka right behind me as I headed through the front door. “Go get the others, I’ll get Siren!” I yelled, gesturing for Vlyka to run towards the catwalk. She hesitated a moment, but nodded and turned to run, as I headed for the showers. I’d slammed my helmet back on my head during the run, but I realized only now that I’d forgotten to bring my battle-saddle when I’d taken Siren to the bathroom. It was too late to regret that now, as I smashed through the bathroom door and hurried for the showers. “Siren!” I cried out. “Storm! Where are you?!” Siren shrieked, as I ran for the shower stall. I could hear the sound of a struggle, and sure enough as I rounded the corner I saw Siren lying on the floor, kicking with her back legs at a stallion standing over her. But it wasn’t just an ordinary stallion; this pony had rotting, molted skin and the stench of decay suffocating the entire room. I could smell it even through the helmet, and I almost gagged on the raw disgusting odor. “Storm!” The stallion dropped his head to bite at Siren’s neck, but in a panic I charged forward and slammed into him with my shoulder, knocking him off Siren as I tripped over her stomach. The two of us skidded a bit, the stallion hitting the wall with a sickening crunch. He fell on the ground as I struggled to get back up and help Siren, but started to rise again, seemingly immune to whatever pain he was in. It lunged at me instead, biting at my hooves as I tried to defend myself from his attack. I tried to turn myself away from the stallion, pulling it away as Siren stumbled to her hooves and back towards the wall, but he was attacking me too quick for me to counter. The tiles weren’t helping either, being wet from Siren’s shower and causing me to slip as I tried to find stable hoofing. I saw Siren stare at me in fear and confusion, wondering what she could do, and while I frantically searched for an option I realized my EFS was acting up again. A second red tag showed up nearby...then another, and another, another… “Siren watch out!” I yelled, as another stall burst open. My blood ran cold as an eerie scream echoed in the shower room, like dozens of voices engulfed with pain crying out at once. Then, they came, more ragged and decaying ponies, their bodies damp and jerking just like the one attacking me now. Out of time, I slammed the stallion back into the wall, cracking his skull hard against the tiles. But it didn’t stop moving, so I grabbed it and slammed it again, and again...adrenaline took hold and I lost myself in a berserk rage, only just hearing Siren’s scream of fear as the pony’s skull finally caved. I stepped back as the pony collapsed, releasing a sickly smelling, sticky ichor instead of blood or brain matter. I didn’t have time to think of what it was though, as the new arrivals had turned for Siren. She’d climbed up onto a bathroom stall to avoid them, only just out of reach of their decayed hooves as they swung wildly for her. “What’s wrong with these ponies?!” Siren screamed, kicking at one of their hooves as they reached for her. “Stop!” I yelled, “stop it, we don’t have to kill each other!” I tried to call out, reason with these ponies, but it was no good. A unicorn turned to me and shrieked, the unearthly howl sending chills up my back as I reflexively spread my wings. The ponies turned to me, charging forward as I used my reflexes to catapult myself into the air, hovering above the ground and hopefully above their reach. “Somepony help us!” Siren cried, as a few of the decayed ponies still reaching for her. I tried to fly closer to her, but the room was a tight space to fly in and I couldn’t get much closer without getting too close to the freakshow down on the ground. “Vlyka’s getting help!” I called to Siren, “it’s going to be-” “Storm!” Siren tried to warn me, but it was too late. In trying to reassure Siren, I’d taken my focus off the horde below, and one of them had climbed on the other’s back, high enough to reach me. Their teeth sank into my back right hoof, making me gasp in pain as my wings momentarily gave out. I fell to the ground and was swarmed as more and more ghoulish ponies attacked me, surrounding me as I was dragged into the middle of the horde. I felt them bite, strike me, trying to tear through the armor on my front half to no avail. But my back half was not so lucky, as their teeth sank into my back legs and tried to tear my flesh from my bones. I was in agony, crying out in pain as it grew too much to bear. I could feel myself getting hazy, feel myself hemorrhaging blood. I couldn’t hang on anymore…. Just as I was about to fade out, I heard a deafening cracking noise, and suddenly the continuing pain was lessened. There was a blur in my fuzzy vision as the cannibal ponies were knocked away from me, I felt somepony grab my by the forelegs and haul me away from them, a red streak and white blasts keeping the cannibals back. My vision cleared a little and I looked up, Siren at my side and trying to get my ORDIS helmet off. Gunrunner was nearby too, grabbing something from his bag and hurrying to me just as Siren got the helmet to release and slide off my head. I could just see Ark’s tail striking down at the nearest cannibal, but my vision was fading out as my mind almost gave up on everything. The pain was too much, I couldn’t go on; it was time to die. It didn’t seem as though Gunrunner agreed with me though, as he opened my mouth and poured something into it. I couldn’t even bring myself to swallow it, just letting it pool in my mouth as I struggled against trying to breathe. “Storm come on, drink it,” I heard Gunrunner say, his voice far away from where he should have been. I felt Siren take my head in her hooves and turn it to face me. “He’s got to drink it, come on!” “Storm, please…” Siren’s voice now, coming through layers on layers of cloth despite her being right in front of me. Even as my vision faltered I could see her there, inches from my face. “Storm, you’ve gotta drink it, please.” I couldn’t comprehend why I saw tears in her eyes: she hated me, why would she care if I were dying? Why was she so worried? “Siren, give him a reason to live!” Gunrunner shouted, and Siren jerked in shock, staring up at the merc. “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?!” she bellowed, letting go of my head and letting it slip back to the floor. My muzzle hit the ground softly as my mind finally gave out, knocking me into complete blackness. Author's Note Footnote: Level up New Perk: Chem Resistant --- Half as likely to get addicted (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024 Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex
Empty shellsFallout Equestria: Broken Oaths A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria Chapter 9: Empty Shells By Fallen Sentinel “I’ve seen the end, the end of the world. It’s all because of you” Pain Everything came through a red haze. Flashes of things in armour darker than the night striking down terrified victims. Screaming The red flashing haze showed ponies strapped down in labs? Needles, knives, scalpels lead to bloody messes. It continued with flashes of green, red and purple burning it’s hosts. End A flash of light scorched all other colours, I could see two of the black armoured creatures staring at what seemed to be an explosion that consumed a city. They turned to me and everything went black... I groaned rather loudly as I started to come to. There was a hard, annoying stripe of pressure along my chest, where it felt like all my weight was laying on. I tried to shift a little but felt off balance, so I held still and opened my eyes despite their protest of the brighter light beyond my eyelids. I quickly realized that I was on somepony’s back; more specifically, a golden, armored pony. Arkangel was carrying me, moving smoothly as the ground passed below his hooves. I tilted my head up to look at what was ahead of us and spotted both Gunrunner and Vlyka, trotting side by side and occasionally looking at each other. Vlyka must have been asking him questions, but my ears were still ringing and dull from my unconsciousness and I couldn’t even guess what was being said by either of them. Redwood was trailing behind Gunrunner, her leash still slack even though she was still pretty much as far from Gun as she could be. I turned my head behind us and spotted what I expected: Siren’s lead, tied to Ark’s side. She was standing remarkably close to him, walking and casting a nervous glance at me. She saw me shift and gasped, hurrying closer. “Storm are you alright?” she asked, lowering her head towards mine. I tried to speak but felt my voice wasn’t strong enough yet, so I only nodded as I glanced down at my dangling hind legs under Ark’s stomach. They were wrapped in so many bandages it looked like they’d been put into casts. I felt the ache in both of them, along with my stomach, telling me it probably deserved the mummy treatment… “Storm, I’m so sorry…” Siren murmured, making me blink in surprise. I hadn’t expected her to be so gentle, so ashamed...she looked horrified as she spoke. “I left you to that pile of ghouls, I should have...I wish I’d done something. I guess if Ark and Gunrunner hadn’t heard me…” I winced in irritation and pain as Siren trailed out. “Yeah, you should have,” I growled, clenching my teeth together as I refrained from snapping at her harder. “You just screamed your head off and went to save yourself! Just shoved your tail up your ass and watched me get eaten!” So I’d clearly failed to stop getting angry, groaning in pain as the tension in my body aggravated something in my stomach. Siren had stopped cold as I snapped at her, only to get pulled forward when Ark refused to slow down. Her face turned sour in a hurry as she trotted back up to me. “You know what? I should have just run. I should have left you to die and run right back to the Stable!” I heard Ark’s head turn slightly behind me, but I was too angry at Siren, meeting her glare with equal intensity, to look at him. “I’m not a fighter Storm, at least I tried to keep you alive!” She continued to glare at me for a moment, until it became obvious to her I wasn’t intent on saying “thank you.” She huffed and turned her head away, stepping as far away as she could on her leash. “And Vlyka’s the one who went for help!” I hissed at her, as she retreated. She glanced at me once before snapping her head away from us, prompting me to growl in pain and irritation. I’d certainly just lost whatever goodwill I’d gained with Siren with that little annoyance, but I hadn’t felt quite in the mood to deal with her right now… After a moment of silence, trying to recover a little strength. I turned my head towards Ark, who cast a glance at me almost like he sensed me. “Uh….Ark? Or Pale?” I asked aloud, whispering as loud as I thought he would hear me. The tone of Ark’s voice was different than I’d heard before...far calmer. “Neither,” he said, and I almost fell off his back from the start. “Uh..” I stammered, “What? Then...who are you?” How many personalities did Ark have anyways?! “Nocteal,” he replied, turning his head forwards again. “No more questions.” I stammered out a vague noise in reply, prompting Nocteal to turn back to me. “I can go get Ark if you want me to.” “Nononononono that’s ok,” I stuttered, shaking my head frantically. But after a moment, I spoke up again, very quietly. “Do you think you could get Pale though?” Nocturne seemed to think it over for a moment, before his body went rather slack. It only lasted a second, not even enough for Ark’s body to lose a step, as his head turned back to me. “Please, make it quick Storm,” Pale said, his voice tense with worry. “They really don’t like me being up here…” I glanced ahead at the other group of our merry little band, back at Siren, before looking at Ark. “Sorry, I...I just needed to talk with someone. I kinda pissed Siren off.” Pale turned to look at Siren at the end of her leash. “What’d you do? She was a mess when you passed out this morning…” So I hadn’t been out quite that long, at least. That was a minor relief. “She tried to apologize about the...ghouls,” I said, trying to recall the word Siren had used earlier. “I just got angry and snapped at her for standing there and not helping me. I’m just an asshole, I guess…” I sighed. But Pale didn’t seem to agree. “Trust me Storm, she already forgives you. She’s dealt with a lot worse than yelling like that.” I looked up at Pale, hopeful and smiling faintly, only to feel myself slipping slightly off his body. I shifted myself to keep on his back. “Storm…I know you hate each other,” Pale sighed, “but please. Please treat her better...she hates you because she’s afraid. She’s just looking for protection, so please...I can’t protect her, I know it. Please, protect her for me.” I felt an acknowledgement work its way up my throat, but I chose to push it back. I was still a little mad, I didn’t want to just be a safe thing for Siren to cower behind. But, I had to admit I understood how she felt out here, and it would be something great to have that same sensation of safety. “Storm...if you swear to keep her safe, I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I know a lot of it, trust me.” Pale’s bait had sunk deep and the mere offer of answers flooded my mind with questions. I nodded to Pale, who nodded back at me, waiting until I spoke again. “Who’s her mother?” I asked, nodding to Siren. “High Overseer Wail Stone,” Pale said. “Try to avoid her if you ever get close...she’s pretty much Siren, but a thousand times worse.” At least that explained where Siren’s attitude came from. “What was it like between you two? When you were together, how was it?” I could see Pale tense, and I knew I’d gone a step too far. He shook his head immediately after, and I knew exactly what he meant. “Ok, most of what you want to know.” “Fair,” I muttered, before saying the next thing that came to my mind. “Why don’t the others like you up here? And how many are there?” “That’s something I don’t know really,” Pale said. “Nocteal is supposed to be the smart one, but he barely talks. Hellion’s a loose cannon and I can’t trust him to be serious, Frenzy is just weird...Mido is brave and there should be three more somewhere. But I barely hear any of them. And Ark...I don’t know. I just don’t know him.” I felt bad for Pale, watching him struggle with this chaos in his head. I felt even worse with my next thought, however… “Pale, can I talk to Ark now?” Pale almost stopped in his tracks to stare at me. “You know that’s an awful idea, right?” I nodded, but said nothing else. Pale sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine, it’s your funeral.” The body slackened again, before it started to stare directly forward and continue walking on. I waited for a moment, half expecting him to ask why I’d brought him out or something. I wanted to say something, but I remembered the last time with the barb to my neck and I fell silent. Though finally, Ark did in fact speak. “If you’re not going to say anything I’ll just go back.” Ark’s voice was annoyed, not quite pissed as I’d heard him before but enough that I was nervous. So, trying to hide the quiver in my voice, I asked him. “What exactly is your endgame here?” Ark paused, staring up into the sky. Then, abruptly, he kicked his backside up and knocked me clean off his back. I slammed into the ground, grunting in pain as I clutched my stomach. “What was that for?” I groaned. Ark turned to speak, but not to me. “Carry him,” he said to Siren, who stared at both Ark and I with contempt. “I’m an Overseer, not some labor horse!” she countered. Ark’s response was about as measured as I’d expected after he’d just bucked me off his back. He raised his tail and stepped closer to Siren, pulling her leash so she was forced to step closer to him too. “And I’m the big buck that’s going to kill the both of you if you keep disobeying orders!” he shouted. I heard hooves grind in the dirt, glancing over to see that the rest of our party had come to a stop as Ark and Siren made a scene. Siren stared at the tip of Arkangel’s tail for a moment, before slowly walking around Ark to avoid it and reach me. As she approached though, I tried to raise a hoof to her to let her stay back, straining to stand on my own. “I’m fine, I can walk,” I said as calmly as I could. I stood and took a shaky step, Siren watching carefully but smiling as I moved well enough to push my hooves forward. It hurt quite a bit, but I figured I could stomach it and kept walking. Only Arkangel was not amused. “You’re limping,” he said matter of factly. I came to a stop as Ark glared at me, feeling my hooves ache. Ark loomed in front of me, drawing himself up to overshadow me as much as possible. “I will not have you as a hindrance to this operation, private!” I recoiled a bit from Ark’s suddenly snapping, but my mind got caught for a moment on what he’d called me: I’d never been a private, certainly since Ark had known me. He stared intently at Siren, who sighed and stood next to me. “From this point on your lives depend on each other. If one of you is hurt, I expect the other to take care of them. If one of you dies, then the other one does as well. You two are only, only useful to me together, and I am not going to be burdened by you two if I can help it.” I felt a shiver work its way up my back, glancing warily out of the corner of my eye as Siren looked about as worried as I felt. I flinched again as Ark tossed Siren’s leash at me, barely catching it before he turned away to stop off. I looked sadly at Siren, who I couldn’t tell if she was just expectant or demanding something from me. “I don’t need you to carry me,” I said, trying to summon that comforting tone from before. But it wasn’t easy, even knowing I didn’t weigh as much as I would have if I were a unicorn or earth pony. I didn’t need her to do that much for me. “Just...can you try and help my left side? Just support a little weight while I walk.” Without a word, Siren moved to my left side and helped me step, letting me press a wing to her cloak and keep the strain off my back leg just a little bit. We walked forward slightly faster than I could manage alone, catching up to Gunrunner, Redwood and Vlyka as they waited for us. Ark had gone ahead, but after glancing at me and the slight shake of my head I gave her, Vlyka was quick to hurry closer and keep us somewhat in a group. “Well, so much for help from the robot,” Siren muttered, glaring at Vlyka as she hurried forward. I wanted to snap at Siren in irritation; Vlyka was far shorter than I was, she wasn’t going to do much to lift me, even if she didn’t tire out like any of the rest of us might have. But I didn’t want to test Siren right now, and she seemed content to ignore me for a little bit. But as we limped on for a little while longer, the silence grew uncomfortably between us. Eventually, I felt I couldn’t remain silent. “So...what do you think Manehattan will be like?” I asked. We had to be getting close by now. Siren, for her part, barely spoke to me. “Crumbled buildings, blasted and scorched streets, ponies probably trying to kill us.” I sighed from frustration, a mixture of annoyance with Siren and with the situation. I’d expected all that already, but it had been my silent hope that things would just have been better. “So the same thing as anywhere else, just bigger?” I asked, trying to joke. But Siren was dead silent. I looked away from Siren, only realizing that somepony had replaced my battlesaddle while I was out. My forelegs still bore both of my pipbucks, and I took a second to glance at the one with the busted screen on my right hoof. The clouded sunlight filtering through the clouds glinted off its surface, making me squint my eyes and wish I had a filter for some of this light. “My helmet!” I thought, raising a hoof to my head. I could already feel it wasn’t on my face, but I didn’t know for sure if… I shifted and glanced in my saddlebag, finding it sitting comfortably with the rest of my things. I breathed a sigh of relief, before glancing at Siren. She was not keen on looking at me, or at least me knowing she was looking, as she turned her head away the moment I turned towards her. “Hey Siren?” I asked quietly. “Do you like me?” “Nope,” she replied, without turning her head or giving a moment’s pause to think. “You sure about that?” I asked, as Siren looked at me in confusion. “I seem to remember there were some tears when I was dying back there.” Abruptly, Siren pushed me off of her, sending me to the ground. I wasn’t angry or hurt though; I stared smugly back up at her as she bent down to me. “Fine. ‘I prefer you to the rest of these idiots.’ That good enough for you?” “So I guess if I asked you out on a date-” I began, joking, only for Siren to laugh before I delivered the punchline. “Not even close. Just because I prefer you doesn’t mean I have to like you.” She had a point, but it still kind of hurt, even with what she said next. “But...you have made some progress since we first met.” I’d take progress, for sure, standing back up and swaying a little on my hooves. “What do I have to do for you to like me anyways?” I asked, as Siren hesitantly came closer to me to let me lean again. She looked at me, her eyes a bit softer than before. I still had no idea if her niceness was a ploy of hers or not, but I had to admit it was hard not to fall for at least a little bit. Siren looked at me, pausing for a moment as though she wasn’t sure what I’d just said. “Are...are you really asking that?” She looked a little lost for a second, before a smirk drew across her face. “Oh Storm, that’s precious. But I’m just not into you that way.” I couldn’t help but sigh and frown a bit, dejected by being shot down so hard. But after a second Siren sighed and, in a gentler voice, added “if you get me to the Stable though, that’d be a start.” With that tiny scrap of hope in my heart, I felt my body lighten significantly. I kept thinking of what else I might do, asking Siren a few questions here and there about how I could make her like me. When she finally dropped me again, I decided it was best to drop the subject instead and stayed quiet for the rest of the trip. Even in their ruined state, I couldn’t help but marvel at the aging glory of the Manehattan skyline. The skyscrapers were greying and crumbling, streets blackened and pockmarked with age. This had been a great city, and seeing how far it had fallen through the war was disturbingly breathtaking. As I glanced at the ruins before me, I wasn’t the only one thinking along those lines. “Manehattan...one of the largest cities in Equestrian history,” Siren said, almost in awe. “Now look at it; another monument to our sins.” I sighed a bit, Siren’s flair for the dramatic a bit overdone by this point, but as I looked at her I saw her squinting off into the distance. “Gunrunner,” she asked, “is there a building here where ponies still live?” “Yep, Tenpony Tower,” he replied, and I sighed again. I could only hope they wouldn’t shoot us on sight, after the groups we’d been dealing with so far. “Been there a couple times,” Gunrunner continued, “at least until I got banned.” “What did you do?” Siren asked him, and I turned to look at him with a wary eye. There went my hopes for a peaceful encounter, if one of our group was already banned. Embarrassed, Gunrunner scratched the back of his head. “Well...I think it was because I committed a crime, what was...Oh yeah...no, not getting into that now,” he said quickly, turning his head away from us. I grumbled a little at his lack of opening up, but I could hardly force him and followed everypony else into the streets, headed for Tenpony Tower. As we walked, the late afternoon sun began to set, something noticeable between the buildings as their massive shadows moved around us. I didn’t want to think about what would come for us in the darkness of an abandoned city, so I tried making haste for the tower. Arkangel, however, seemed...distracted, oddly. He turned suddenly from the most direct path to the tower and headed off down a side street. “Ark?” I called, but there was no reply. “Where are you going now?” There was still no answer, almost as though Ark was in a trance. I glanced at Siren and Gunrunner, the latter of whom just shrugged, before we all turned to follow Ark down the side street. It was somehow better off than most of the streets we had passed before, probably because they looked like they had been fancier, better constructed buildings when they were erected. Arkangel was looking everywhere, glancing at numbers, for something. “Forty seven, forty eight, forty nine…” He was looking for a specific building, by number? Why would he know that information…? I was left wondering, as Ark finally stopped just after fifty eight, staring up at a two story brick house. The garden out front had rotted away, but the actual structure looked like it had survived the best out of the entire street. I cast a glance at my EFS, registering enemies scattered all over the place, but Ark was too distracted to notice himself, as he approached the house with what seemed to me like a sense of awe. “You come back when you need us,” he whispered, only just loud enough for me to hear. I didn’t get a chance to respond though, before he continued. “We will wait for you.” Suddenly, he looked to his left, and his tone of voice changed a bit. “That’s not you, it’s a memory.” And again, his head snapped to the right. “You’re not him! You’re a fake!” I bit my lip as I watched Arkangel struggling with himself, uncertain what exactly to say. He suddenly seemed to realize we were still behind him, staring at him have his episode, and he readjusted his posture before striding into the house without another word. Having not much else we could do, I started to follow him, Siren and the rest of the group following my lead as we stepped after Ark, who had cracked open the front door as its hinges groaned from lack of use. The room beyond was dark, so Siren, Redwood and I started to switch on the lights on our Pipbucks, despite the former being locked. Gunrunner reached into his bag for a torch, leaving only Vlyka remaining. She didn’t seem at all hindered by the darkness though, stepping inside and looking intently into the shadows where none of our lights were pointing, although curious at what she was seeing I shone my light in that direction. The room we’d entered into was a decently-sized entryway with two main exits to the right and left, a staircase just ahead of us that Arkangel was already starting his way up. Gunrunner went to the room on the left, the cone of his torch showing me enough to suggest it was once a living room. Vlyka was looking into the room on the right, as was Siren, but I knew where I needed to go...I tapped Vlyka on the shoulder and hoofed her Siren’s leash. “Hang onto this, ok? Don’t let her go anywhere,” I asked, and Vlyka nodded in understanding. The two of them ventured off into the other room while I turned to limp up the stairs; at least the pain was subsiding by now. I heard Siren grumble something about being left with the robot, and some kind of whirr from Vlyka’s body that made me wonder exactly what her reaction had been, but I didn’t want to waste time figuring out what was going on downstairs. Instead I hurried up the stairs and looked around to find a hallway stretching in both directions, five doors lining the walls. One of them was just closing behind Ark, drawing my attention as I moved quickly towards it. On the way though, I paused, glancing into a room with an already opened doorway. Inside was a bedroom that looked surprisingly intact, and as I stepped in I opened the window to let in a little more light. The room itself was filled with dark blues and purples, which hadn’t helped my vision at all, and now that there was some light I could see exactly why: it was chocked full of images I thought I recognized as the old alicorn princess Luna, one of the Two Sisters. There were posters of her all over, a small statue of her with two foals on the dresser, next to a desk with a terminal. Just on the floor in front of the desk was a photo frame, the glass shattered from some impact. I stooped down to pick it up and look at the photo, only to let out a gasp at what I saw. It was clearly some family photo, a grey-coated stallion and a blueish coated mare standing besides a disturbingly familiar looking foal. It was the spitting image of Arkangel, although his eyes were red with black sclera...and the picture had to be centuries old. There was no way this was really him, right? I took a closer look at the picture, trying to tell if there was something wrong with the photograph to change the foals eyes like that, but it didn’t seem like it was at all touched up. I shivered at the unnatural eyes staring back at me from this ancient photograph, my mind racing as thoughts of Ark’s red robotic eye drawn to the surface. “There’s no way they’re two hundred years apart, are they…?” I thought, mulling it over. Could the Arkangel personality really be that old? How had Pale Shroud gotten thrown into this mix...he’d known to come here, hadn’t he? I slipped the photo out of the frame and into my bag before leaving the room without another thought. I went back out to the hallway and glanced at the door Ark had vanished into, blinking and turning my head a bit. I thought I heard...music? I crept closer, listening intently, before I couldn’t resist my curiosity any further and slowly started to open the door. Beyond the doorframe, sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, Arkangel sat with his helmet off. I gasped in horror as I saw what else he had though: a revolver, barrel in his mouth. “Ark don’t!” I cried, causing him to look up in shock. His cybernetic eye was blue, so if I was getting the hang of his personalities this was Pale Shroud, intent on killing himself! Pale stared at me for a moment before taking the pistol out of his mouth and staring at it instead. “He’s right about me,” he sighed, lowering the pistol to the ground. I wanted to approach, snatch it away before Pale did anything stupid, but I knew if I provoked him I’d just cause bigger issues. “I feel them, all clawing at my mind whenever I’m in control...they want me gone, but they can’t get rid of me.” I came a bit closer, slowly and carefully, as I tried to figure out what he was saying. He must have been talking about the other personalities in his head, trying to wrest control of his body from him. I couldn’t for sure say what that felt like, but if he was willing to kill himself… “P-Pale?” I stammered, unsure what else to do. Pale didn’t look at me, only glancing at the old vinyl player sitting next to him, still warbling its music from before. “Want to know his weakness?” he murmured, and I couldn’t tell if he was really trying to talk to me. “Put on some old music and he’s gone. Without him the rest I can fight off,” he muttered, looking almost hopeful for a moment, before his facade broke. Pale collapsed on the ground, tears streaming from his eyes as he struggled to not sob openly. “Why...why’d it have to be me…” he begged, shuddering as he tried to talk. I came close and sat down next to Pale, almost reaching a hoof out to comfort him. I was worried though, if Ark would come back in the middle and attack me for it. “Pale, what did they do to you?” I asked gently as I could. “I...they put something inside me,” he muttered, after pausing for a second to think. “Something under my skin. There wasn’t anything at first, but now...it’s just noise.” He struggled a bit to get his chestplate off, but made no further progress than he had before. “He was the first one to show up, then the rest...and with that came visions, memories or images of...something…” Ark closed his eyes and strained his face, making me worry about him even more: this looked painful for him to even recall. “The techs, they kept saying, I saw...notes...bringing ‘him’ back…” Ark Paused and shuddered slightly, drawing my attention back from his words. The music box had paused, and as I glanced down at it, Ark turned his head towards me, robotic eye glowing red. A shiver ran up my spine as I realized what that probably meant. “Ark, I j-” I couldn’t even finish my sentence before I was slammed on the ground, Arkangel’s plated hoof pressed to my windpipe. After my head slammed hard into the ground I got disoriented, and for a moment the metal against my neck made me flash back to the caves, Vlyka’s stranglehold that had knocked me out. Only I doubted very much that I’d be quite as lucky with Arkangel, particularly with the glare he shot my way as he stood over me, resisting my panicked struggles with ease. “You just have to keep asking questions,” Arkangel muttered, shaking his head. “Questions that just aren’t meant to be answered. Ever hear the phrase 'curiosity killed the cat?’” he asked, as I heard the sound of his bladed tail whipping around somewhere above me. With limited air my vision was blurring, and for a second I failed to realize that the thud that emanated from the floorboards right next to my ear was Ark’s tail spike, slamming down to intimidate me. Gasping for air and out of fear, I stared at Ark’s blurring face, his red eye gleaming dangerously in the center of my vision, the last clear point of light I could see. Desperation took hold and I tried to roll out from under Arkangel, but he simply picked me up with both hooves and threw me at the nearby wall. I had just enough time to suck in enough air for my head to clear suddenly as I was slammed hard against it, knocking the wind out of me. I’d have fallen forward, but Ark caught me, his tail swishing, anxious to strike. However as my focus was on the dangerous motion behind Arkangel, his focus got drawn downwards towards some motion from my pocket. I glanced down in time to see Ark’s tail swish down and snag the photo I had picked up earlier, fluttering to the floor; it must have shifted out of my pocket when I was thrown. “Look at you…” he muttered, just long enough to make me fear he was even more pissed at me than before for taking it. But his grip on me softened, just a bit, as he kept staring at the photo, his other foreleg grazing it. “So young. So pure, so...like me. Before...her.” There was a pause, and a sudden shift in Ark’s posture as he stiffened. “Pathetic.” His tail flicked, I thought to slash the photo in two, but he paused it again and stared, posture changning again. Suddenly, he dropped his grip on me as I fell to the floor, coughing and clutching my neck. “What happened to us? W...why did I…?” As I struggled to stand up, Ark glared down at me, but as my head turned back and he saw the bruise starting to form on my neck, his stern glance dropped almost entirely. “You’re too curious, Storm. But I’ll give you one more question, in exchange for your silence on what you saw here today, and your continued duty.” One question? I already had about a million demanding an answer...but glancing at the photo still speared on Ark’s tail, I thought on the effect it was having on him. It was decided. “Tell me who you are, the Arkangel, and what you have to do with that foal.” There was an annoyed huff as a response, clearly some deep regret at letting me ask. But, Ark answered me. “This too you will not speak of,” he said warningly, and I nodded in agreement. “This is Arkangel. He was a soldier during the war; this was me, my first body. The Arkangel you know is a cluster of memories, just enough to have my old personality...along with the imprints of others who have been my body in the years between. Pale Shroud is just the latest.” He took a step closer to me, and though I shook violently I didn’t step back from him. He slipped the photo into a compartment on his armor and scooped up his helmet, turning for the door. He paused though, and glanced back at me. “You know my goal, Storm. I intend to flee, hide where I can’t be used to cause more damage ever again. You should also know that the parts of me that survived have made me into little more than a killing machine. I will continue to strike at those around me, and I have no concern for the consequences of my actions. I will lash out again.” His helmet slid onto his head and sealed itself. “So stop digging, unless you’re looking to hit a landmine.” With that, Arkangel left the room, leaving me to sit in stunned silence for a minute to process what in Equestria had just happened. Footnote: Level up New Perk: Nerves of Steel --- 20% faster AP regeneration. (thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story) Project starter: Fantastic Storm Story writer: Arkangel Editor: Midnight Storm Proofreader:: Tobias
