Chapter 10- Monument
""I...I am a monument to all of your sins."

It wasn't a hard choice to avoid the Hollow just a little longer and check out this Stable. Of course, in the back of my head I was questioning if that was the right move or not, I barely knew this mare and I was following her after being sent to bring her back for stealing from a shop. But at the same time, with the context she gave me, which for all I knew was all fake, she really didn't do anything wrong. Nettle seemed nice enough, albeit not right when we first met, but even then she wasn't mean, just fighting for her survival and trying to stay alive and free. She was also clearly stronger than I was, at the minimum in the heart department. She had the guts to leave Northpass knowing she could and would have been killed if she and her dad were caught. I couldn't do that even knowing that nothing would happen to me if I did. Or at least thinking that, I was shot at by the first ponies from Northpass to find me alive outside.

That train of thought was interrupted by a gunshot at my hooves. An all too familiar crack of a Northpass rifle. Thankfully, due in part to being made by underfed and not always the brightest slave labor, they were inaccurate at times. I'm guessing this one wasn't quality tested because I had time to jump into a long exploded wagon on the road and pull my revolver.

"Oi Silver, the lads said you were dead!" I knew the voice too well.

"Not yet Auto, but I'm sure my dad was pissed at Hollow for that fuck up!" I yelled back. Auto Seer was a true bastard, both literally as most of us were out in the wastes, and in the sense that he enjoyed some fucked up shit. Like shoving a gaff hook through a pony's throat and then slamming him into the ground for not being fast enough. Something I saw as a young buck. Not a good pony, in any sense.

"Aye, he was a bit upset, but last I knew he wasn't hanging by his own entrails. I think yer dah was saving that fer you." two more shots rang out, neither were close to me or Nettle who was hiding in the wagon next to me.

"So where are the others? I know his lackeys never go out alone. And faking an ambush by a lone buck is a good way to catch some dimwit off guard." I fired a round off into the bush and heard a mare yell in pain. "Well there's one, though I can't place the yell. Care to introduce yourself miss? Maybe I can help out if you break off the slavery bandwagon." she just responded with a few, very poorly placed shots.

"Well lad, seems your balls dropped since we last spoke, care to tell me the name of the beauty you're wanderin with?" His accent made him almost sound sophisticated, until he'd been drinking at all. In truth, he was no more than a brute with some broken pieces of power armor strapped to his leather barding. Of course, he didn't wear a helmet either, guess all that muscle left him with minimal brains.

"More that they'd already dropped, but grew exponentially since I left. As far as I'm concerned, if she wants you to have her name then she can tell you." Nettle just looked over at me with a moderate glare.

"Just put the other bitch out of her misery and find the other one Silver!" she yelled over to me.

"Fine, be a lot easier if I could actually see her." I fired another round blindly into the bush and the screaming stopped.

"Ah fuck Silver, ya killed Slip!" Auto yelled at me.

"Slipknot? The executioner? What the fuck is she doing looking for me?" I questioned.

"Well shit lad, since ya left, few others got the idea of doin' it 'emselves. T' be honest, I was thinkin' it, still sorta am. But we won't be taken in by anyone out 'ere." then an idea struck me.

"Throw your weapons out and I'll personally take you in, backup and knives too though." there was a dead silence for a solid minute, no shots fired, no talking, no radio chatter, no nothing. Then the clanging of metal hitting asphalt from ahead of us and a shot fired from the right. This shot wasn't fired at Nettle or I, but it did give the location of the other slaver away and gave Nettle the opportunity to take a few shots in their direction. To be honest, while it may have been slightly out of effective range of the buckshot, it was more effective than shooting blindly with a single projectile. And given that I heard a scream, I had to assume the other one was immobilized at the minimum. Of course, that could have been Auto had it not been from the direct right of Nettle. It gave me a general location to shoot in at least.

I raised the revolver but was halted by Nettle, "Hold up with that, I've got a few things for him." she said, pulling a grenade from an ammo container that was apparently in the wagon next to her. Something I had completely missed. She pulled the pin with her teeth and tossed it in the general area I was about to shoot in. After the loud explosion sound from the grenade, there was no sound other than a slight groaning ahead of us near a pile of weapons. We walked in the direction of that groaning and found Auto Seer with a wound in his gut.

"So lad, ya actually meant ye'd take me with ya. How 'bout the lass? Nettle right?" he asked, apparently recognizing her this close.

"I'm not exactly in favor, but I'm not about to kill you without knowing why you want to leave Northpass." she said, holding the shotgun on Auto, who proceeded to pull a bottle of rum from his saddlebags.

"Aye, I can understan' that lass. I'm willin' t' recognize that I'm a right bastard, an' I know ya know I am, same with Silver. Ye've got no reason t' trust me, Silver has reason to hate me even bein' alive."

"I'm not going to hate you for existing Auto, the shit you did maybe, but not just for existing."

"An' why not lad? Ye see, I'm nothin more than a reminder of all the shit you were a part of an' benefitin from." he took a long pull off the bottle and grunted after putting it back down. "Travelin' wit me is just remembering the fucked shite you saw an did fuck all about."

"You're not wrong there Auto, I did see a lot of evil actions and did nothing to stop it, and I'll need to live the rest of my life knowing that. But you see, I, well in this case we, can do better. We can earn our right to live. So long as you tell us the actual reason you want out." he always tried to throw off anyone asking him a question he didn't want to answer.

"I want out because I know what I was doing was wrong, and now I see you managed to get out and be accepted by somepony who isn't as fucked as we were. It's nothin but an inspiration t' me." He damn near finished the bottle at that point in two pulls then passed what was left to me with his magic. "Drink wit me Silver, I 'aven't got long." I wasn't sure if I should offer him a healing potion now or not, I did only have three. I took the bottle from him.

"To fixing this world by fixing ourselves." I said before taking a pull myself. The liquor was both sweet and hard. I passed Auto a healing potion.

Level up: Level 7
New Perk:Lessons in Pain- Companion Perk- So long as Auto is in your party you will gain a boosted 10% XP with all kills and knockouts.

Author's Note

I actually got this shit done at a regular time rather than months apart, I know, rather than just working on it when I got inspired to do so, I just slammed it out whenever I wasn't working and edited when I was done. Thank you all for reading, and thank Kkat, Somber, and No-body for inspiring me to even do this. Thank the people from my life for being thinly veiled shots at you or not so thinly veiled and sometimes I make you look good. But most of all, thank you readers, I know this is a tough time for our world as a whole, but as long as you're all safe, thank you.
Stay safe, be safe, be healthy.