Fallout 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