Fallout Equestria: Operation Flankorage

by Kashin

Reap The Reward

 
                Our new Rouncey hummed to life and began its trip down the ski slope on its three remaining pods.  Alabaster and Granite were in the cockpit, controlling the crippled war machine.  Rippertini had offered to take a turn in the pilot’s seat, but nopony was comfortable letting the perpetually inebriated mare drive.  I would need to learn to fly this thing eventually, but under more controlled conditions; besides, I had some things to go over with Echo, Keystone and our captive griffin youth, Serrish.
 
                First things first, I sat in one of the seats across from the tawny buck.  The APC was far less claustrophobic with nine passengers instead of three dozen; though the chunk of metal that had been welded over the door I ripped off ate up a decent bit of space.  “So, what the hell are you doing here?”  I asked bluntly, crossing my front legs over my chest.
 
                My former friend averted his gaze and mumbled something that was too quiet even for my ears.
 
                “Speak up,”  I snapped.  It was taking a good deal of willpower to not just pummel him again, I was not going to deal with any BS from him.
 
                “I can’t stay in the Stable either,”  he finally replied.
 
                “Let me guess,”  I interjected before he could continue.  “Half of them think you are hardware, not worth listening to and the other half think you are a traitor who should be string up by his stallionhood.”  He hung his head and nodded.  No, no, no, I couldn’t feel bad for him.  He kept everypony in the dark for over a decade…  I sighed.  “Look, Key… just...”  I sighed.  “You had ten years to tell me, so why didn't you?”
 
                “I couldn’t tell you,”  he replied dully, still not looking up.
 
                “Horse apples!”  I barked back, stomping a hoof.  “You are going to need to do better than that.”
 
                He looked away and fiddled with his hooves as if he was scared of answering.  Finally the tawny stallion turned back to me.  “If I told you…  Goldlight said she would be forced to eliminate anypony who threatened the simulation’s stability.”
 
                That bitch!  I fumed and clawed at my seat absentmindedly.  That was actually a rather good reason; Goldlight had a nasty habit of seeming to be everywhere at once.  I chewed my lip.  A good intentioned betrayal was still a betrayal…  “Ouch,”  I grimaced as my fangs punctured my gums.  Ugh, I would need to be more careful about my body movements; scratching my mane could take my head off.
 
                “Are you alright?”  Keystone asked with what sounded like genuine concern, reaching over hesitantly.  I nodded and for a moment I was at home, talking to my friend about some trivial little scrape.
 
                I groaned and looked him in the eyes.  “Key,”  I started, ugh, this was hard.  “What are you going to do now?  You can‘t come with us.”  I may be able to forgive him one day, but not if he was there as a constant reminder… besides, he less of a fighter than I was and regardless of what was between us, I didn‘t want to get him killed.
 
                He gave me a forced smile.  “I have been appointed as the Stable 114 ambassador to Flankorage.”  He gave a grim chuckle and looked down to his hooves.  “It is perfect really.  I get to use my administrative training to help and because of our PipBucks…”  He held up his fetlock computer and trailed off.  He shook his head and met my eyes again.  “Nopony needs to see me again.”
 
                Hnng…  Goddesses that was grim.  I got up and stepped closer to him and put a clawed hoof on his shoulder.  He flinched, but did not push me away; fair enough given what he had seen those talons do.  “Key, look,”  I said in a stern, but supportive tone, tilting my head a bit so my real eye was closer than my synthetic one.  “I still can’t forgive what you have done; not yet anyway.  But nopony should be forced to be all alone.  I have a few friends in the city who can help you get you settled and back on your hooves.”
 
                The administrator stallion perked up.  “Really?”  he asked in painful mix of hope and desperation.  “You would still do that for me?”
 
                I nodded.  Yeah, Scoop and Ron could show him around the city and possibly get him a day job. I may be able to convince Racket to help him get him acclimated to the council and help him get established; I had no idea if his new position came with a place to live and he would do little good to anypony living with that hobo pony in a box.  “I can’t promise anything except that I will try.”
 
                Without warning the tawny unicorn threw his hooves around me.  “Thank you,”  he mumbled into my neck.  “You have no idea how much this means to me.  I thought I would be on my own out here.”
 
                I had relied on him and Primrose to do this sort of thing for me more times than I cared to count in the months following mother’s accident.  I patted his back with the safe side of my hoof and returned the hug.  Regardless of his actions I owed him this much.
 
                Everypony else had paused whatever they were doing and were looking at us.  Maple had poked her nose over her book in some failed attempt to be inconspicuous.  Echo was looking rather ominous, affixing us with her seemingly emotionless gaze while all of her blades were arrayed and glistening at her hooves.  I even caught brief glances from Serrish and BARON before they both returned to being mopey and brooding respectively.  With Racket’s two mercenaries flying the only one I couldn’t account for was…
 
                “Stop bien so gloomeh!”  Rippertini commanded as she flopped her fluffy, blue body into our hug.  Keystone practically jumped out of his skin.  I could smell the booze on her breath well enough to sort out everything she had been drinking; vodka, beer and what I had to guess was fermented Brahmin milk.  “Cumon moopy, have ah drink wif meh!”
 
                I untangled myself from the hug.  The odour of the drunken unicorn was quite potent, my enhanced sense of smell amplifying it so much I actually felt a little nauseous.  First thing on my to-do list when we got back to the city, after seeing Scoop again, was to get this girl a bath and figuring out what to do with Serrish, and working out out how to get to Canterlot…  A bath was in there somewhere.
 
                The mercenary mare still had herself draped over Keystone and was poking him with a bottle of… something green.  “Cumon,”  she winged again,  “it’ll make yeh smile.”
 
                The tawny stallion looked at me pleadingly.  I rolled my eye and scotched back over and tapped the merc on the back.  “Tini, would you mind easing off a bit?”  I asked sternly enough to imply that it was not really a request, but not enough for her to take as a challenge.  “He is new and could use some space.”
 
                She pouted.  “He needs ta lighten up,”  she replied, rolling off the tawny buck.  “All dis gloomeh ish maken meh a sad poneh.”  She tapped her chin a moment while Key regained his composure.  “Ah!”  she exclaimed.  “Ah know.  Maybeh he needs ah roll in da hay!”
 
                Both the administrator unicorn and I blinked for a moment, staring at the brutally blunt ex-Shrike.  I couldn’t help but stifle a giggle.  Boy was she barking up the wrong tree with that stallion.
 
                As if on cue Keystone shook his head.  “I’m sorry miss, but I do not care for mares.”
 
                ‘Ah dun’t either!”  Rippertini said in her outside voice, making me flatten my ears.  “What a cowinkidink, weh alreadeh ‘ave so much in comm…”  She trailed off and I could almost see the wheels turning in her head.  This was depressingly amusing.  “OooOooOooh, Ah get it.  Yur a cold cuddlier.”  Without missing a beat, she turned to me.  “Welp, looks like yer back up,”  she said calmly, pointing to the very confused stallion behind her.
 
                Now it was my turn to be flustered.  “What?”  I asked, pulling my head back.  “Um, no, I think not.  I… just no.”
 
                The tawny stallion chuckled into his hoof.  “Thanks for the offer ma’am,”  he interjected through chortles,  “but Ocher and I have agreed not to do that again.”
 
                “Again?”  Maple asked, cocking an eyebrow with the hint of a smirk on her lips.
 
                Oh, Keystone, you traitorous bastard.  I shrunk back into my seat and glanced from the assembled ponies and griffin who were not even pretending not to eavesdrop any more.  I knew it was more my reaction than anything else, but I couldn’t help myself.
 
                It had happened about six years ago at a party we were throwing for Primrose‘s first decanting.  It was the first time I had wine, one of her fieldhooves convinced me to a few shots with him and I was drunk off my ass; we all were.  Key was figuring out his preferences, but was too nervous to talk to anypony about it; there was no real stigma towards it, but given the gender ratios the straight mares tended to get irritated when a stallion left the bachelor herd and Key was the kind of pony who liked to keep everypony happy with him…
 
                I remembered the tawny colt puffing himself up, barreling through the crowd of vintner and farmer ponies, stopping directly in front of me and asking to kiss me.  He had shrunk back, drooped his ears and tried to back away as soon as he had said it.  I hated seeing my friend looking so dejected so I complied with his request…
 
                And the next thing I remembered was feeling rather uncomfortable, waking up in my bed the next morning with him curled against me and Primrose sitting at the foot of my bed with a shit eating grin, all topped off with a raging hangover.
 
                I had never gotten blackout drunk or touched hard liquor since.  Primrose had teased me about being easy for weeks and Keystone started talking with some of the other stallions.
 
                “He any good?”  Rippertini inquired, pointing at me.  Oh sweet Celestia, why?!  Did this mare have no filter for what she says?!
 
                Keystone shrugged.  He wouldn’t dare…  “The cuddling was good,”  the tawny buck relied matter-of-factly.  Goddesses, he would.  “but he was actually kind of clumsy.”
 
                “I was not clumsy!”  I bellowed definitely and without thinking.  “I was wasted!”  I was kicking myself for that the moment I finished the last syllable.
 
                There was a moment of silence, with every eye in the IFV on me; I could have sworn that the vehicle itself had gotten quieter to process what I had just said.  I must have turned a shade of red that would have put BARON’s host to shame.
 
                “Oh, this is too good,”  Icy chuckled.
 
                As if on cue, the entire cabin burst into raucous laughter.  Maple and Rippertini were practically rolling.  Echo and Serrish had both buried their noses in their wings.  BARON was even letting out a low rumble mixed with what sounded like a muffled feedback screech.
 
                I shrunk back further and let the cackling run its course and glanced up at Keystone, who was wearing a smug grin on his face…  He had been saving this for years, just waiting to get back at me for some prank or another.
 
                I felt a fuzzy leg flop over my shoulders.  “Y’a haf noooooooooooo idea how often dat ‘as happened tu meh,”  Rippertini giggled in my ear.  “Even woke up wif ah moose one time.”  Oh by Luna’s star speckled nighty, somepony change the subject…
 
                “And that was Dishwasher,”  Ron’s rolling voice drifted out of the cockpit.  “A newly uncovered Vinyl Scratch original.  We would like to thank the Stable Dweller for recovering this piece and our brother in broadcast, DJ-P0N3 for sending a runner to share it with us.  And now our own recently returned news mare has an exclusive report from the newly opened Sta-”
 
                Oh thank you divine, nocturnal camisole.  I flicked on my PipBuck’s radio for everypony… and griffin, who did not have my ears.
 
                “114.  Scoop.”
 
                “Ay!”  the unicorn lush exclaimed from her perch across my shoulders.  “We were just der!”
 
                “Thank you Ron,”  Scoop’s bright, energetic voice responded.  I let out a low rumble in the back of my throat as I settled down.  While I understood why and quite frankly was glad she had not come with us given what happened, something about hearing her again was doing wonders for my nerves.  “I am coming to you all today with a momentous news.  The settlement, Stable 114, has chosen to become a full protectorate of the Sovereign City of Flankorage.”  I guess everypony knew what would happen.  It was probably the best solution available, but hardly a choice.  I don’t even think I would have minded if they had bothered to tell me the price of their help in the first place, but I should have expected it; nothing is free after all.
 
                “As you may recall,”  the reporter mare’s voice continued,  “the settlement was contested territory between the Unity and a Stable born stallion known as the Merchant.”  Huh… I had to wonder why she used my pseudo-title instead of my name…  She wanted to keep my name a secret to try and make the Unity’s inevitable assassins work harder?  No, that was pointless; I had gotten into a pissing contest with their leader in front of every powerful pony in the valley.  The speech had been written for some nebulous entity so a single line could be used regardless of the participant? Nah, that was silly.  Easier to wholly support a heroic symbol than the lost, battered and mutated real pony? Yeah, lets go with that last one.
 
                “While the Council was not able to rule in support of the Merchant, they did sent a small contingent of Frostborn and assorted experts to assess living conditions and offer ponytarian aid.”  She sighed remorsefully; I could almost see her shaking her head in disappointment. “This, sadly, did not go as planned.”
 
                There was a loud bang that I had to assume was Scoop slamming her hooves down on whatever desk or table she was reporting from.  “As soon as our peaceful envoys had arrived and witnessed the atrocities committed, which we will not share for the sake of public decency, the Unity forces opened fire on them!”  I could see why BARON was worried about his pride when my little marefriend came at him with a quill; I was a little nervous just hearing her angry on the radio.  “The battle raged for hours, but thanks to the aid of the Merchant and a brave Stable militia, our brave mares and stallions in uniform were victorious.”
 
                Her voice seemed to calm as smoothly as if it was on a dimmer switch.  “A representative is now on their way to join the city council.  We hope the rest of the delegates will give them a warm welcome and help them get settled.  We know it is traditional to be as unpleasant as equinely possible, but come on guys, they have had a rough few weeks.’’  That could not have been good for Key’s nerves.
 
                “And on behalf of our friends,’  I could practically see the air quotes,  “in the Unity; we would like to offer our condolences and wish their fallen comrades the best of luck in whatever well deserved hell they find themselves. Now back to you Ron.”

                Just hearing her voice again made me feel all warm and snuggly.  I couldn’t wait to see her again, to hold her, to ki…  My ears drooped and I sighed.  Right…
 
                “Thank you Scoop,”  RFP picked up again.  “Merchant, if you are listening, we have received several requests for you to join us again in the studio.  Our doors are always open.  Now, we have a classic here for-”
 
                I shut the radio off.  How was I going to tell Scoop what happened to me?  I needed to think.
 

 
                Blankflank slowed to a standstill as the hidden sun vanished behind the mountains and plunged the valley into the hour long twilight before true night.  We hadn’t even managed to make it halfway back to the city in the crippled war machine before we started losing the light.  I had learned my lesson last time, night travel was bad, so we pulled off at the closest point of interest my PipBuck located.
 
                I slung my beam RCW over my back and trotted down our Rouncey’s remaining side ramp.  I was still dreading the news I would need to give my special somepony, but I had more or less resigned myself to it.  It was my own damned fault after all.  If I had listened to Rocksalt and taken the long way around from the timber yard the arbor mare, Spruce, would not have died and I would remained a real pony.
 
                “Knock it off,”  Icy instructed sternly as I reached the bottom of he ramp and stepped off into a prickly shrub.  Maple, BARON, Sarrish, Echo, Rippertini and Keystone followed me down.
 
                “Come on,”  I grumbled to myself, shuffling out of the bush to let my companions disembark.  “Let me be self deprecating for a bit.”
 
                I stopped abruptly as I could have sworn I felt a cold hoof smack me across the face; though it just could have been the frigid night air.  “You want to beat yourself up?”  my mental companion snapped.  “Fine.  Let me help.  You fucked up, bad.  You ignored a local in favor of your own ignorant nobility.  But you know what?  Everypony does that.  Don’t you dare let me catch you having a pity party over this.”
 
                I grumbled and let it drop; I was in no mood to explain having an argument with myself.  Shaking my head, I took a look at the E.F.S. blip we would be sleeping in.
 
                ‘Royal Canterlot Parole Station Delta’, as my fetlock computer had dubbed the building, was a squat, drab, concrete box with an equally spartan garage built out of one side and a four story tower jutting up from its roof.  The Equestrian flag painted above the front door had been modified with the ring tipped pyramid crest of Flankorage and an accompanying flag was waving from the tower.
 
                It was a Frostborn outpost with a garage that looked big enough to fit the Rouncey.  This was going to be easier than I thought; BARON may even be able to get started on Blankflank‘s repairs.
 
                All the trees around the complex had been cleared away save for one pine whose roots had grown into the concrete and seemed to be the only things holding the west wall up.  The sparse underbrush of shrubs, grass and tiny clusters of flowers had been worn away in wide, hoof pounded paths that connected the main road, the front door and the garage.  A crude firing range was set up behind the facility, with a row of bullet hole riddled dressforms visible from my position.
 
                But there were no ponies…  We hadn’t exactly been discreet in our approach with the limping, twenty hoof tall war machine, but nopony had come out to welcome or shoot us.  For that matter, my PipBuck did not pick up anything beyond the beasts that lived in the forest; the number of red contacts growing rapidly in the dying sunlight.
 
                “This doesn’t feel right,”  Echo stated, landing next to me and tensing her wings.  “No self respecting outpost would ignore a war machine landing in their front yard.”  She pointed to the tower.  “They should have been able to see us for at least an hour from there.”
 
                “I agree, but we don’t have much choice in the matter,”  Maple stated, pointing to the horizon.  “We don’t have time to find another building and I think BARON is the only one who could safely spend the night in the open with the demons, big bugs and monster birds around; him not needing to sleep and all.”
 
                “Can’t we just stay in da tank?”  Rippertini asked, flopping over my back.  I grunted from the unexpected maresaddle and looked over my shoulder at the Shrike mare.
 
                “I would not recommend it,”  BARON rumbled from the top of the ramp.  “I need to spend most of the night working on this vehicle if we want to reach the city by tomorrow.”  He pointed to the empty turret slot and nose of the vessel.  “Even if I did not need to work on it, this vehicle is hardly a secure shelter right now.  If we were swarmed we would be dead in moments.”
 
                “Canned food,”  I mumbled under my breath.  I turned back to my companions displaying forced confidence.  “Whatever is in there I’m sure we can handle it.  If we are lucky the guards just got sloppy and we are going to catch the garrison at a card game.
 
                I spun on my heel and gave the concrete structure another once over as I shrugged the fuzzy, blue mare off my back.  “Okay, how about this…”  I scratched my chin, careful not to cut myself.  “Rippertini, you can float yourself like you did to me in the Stable, right?”
 
                The mercenary mare nodded, unceremoniously getting back to her hooves.  “Ah c’n. Why?”
 
                “Good,”  I replied, giving her a curt nod.  “We don’t have a lot of time to clear this place out if there are problems.  So, I want you and Echo to check the tower from the top down.”  There couldn’t be a single room in that structure more than four ponies across, well within range of the two terrifyingly brutal melee mares.
 
                “BARON,”  I continued as I turned to each pony in turn.  “I want you to take Granit and Key to make sure the garage is clear for Alabaster to bring Blankflank inside.”  Key was not particularly good with tools, but he was a good diplomat and, as I had recently learned, a good liar as well.  If there were any ponies in there, he could probably get them to help without a fight.  Failing that, there was the parasite robot and mercenary buck to keep him safe.
 
                “Maple, Serrish and I will handle the main building.  Sound good to everypony?”  I asked, looking between them.  “Er, I mean, everyone,”  I corrected myself as my gaze passed the sullen griffin that I had taken responsibility for.
 
                Echo stepped between the griffin youth and I.  “As an officer, I can not condone taking an enemy combatant into a potentially hazardous situation,”  she stated sternly.  “Until yesterday her loyalties were with our enemy to the point of worship.”
 
                I spared a glance to the rest of my traveling companions.  Serrish just sat there, solemnly, only drooping her head at the Enclave pony’s accusation.  BARON, Keystone and Granite were all just looking on, waiting for us to work this out ourselves; big helps there.  And Rippertinni was… playing with a patch of grass… right then.
 
                I was about to protest when Maple cut me off by walking up on the pegasi’s other side, obviously close enough to make her uncomfortable.  “That was before they tried to kill her,”  the security mare hissed back, leaning in closer; much to Echo‘s obvious chagrin.  I had to strain to pick up the rest of her statement.  “I understand caution, but if we keep treating her like she is going to eventually stab us in the back, she will do just that.”
 
                The back pegasus ruffled her metal coated wings and stepped back.  “Fine, she gets one chance.”  Turning to Serrish, the soldier mare pointed her wing and glared.  “One.  Chance.”  Without another word she kicked into the air and zipped off to perch on top of the watch tower.  This was going to be trouble, I could just tell.
 
                I pinched my nose in my fetlock and shook my head as the fuzzy, blue mercenary dashed off to catch up with her feathered partner.  “Thanks Maple,”  I said earnestly, floating my beam RCW off my back and making sure the cylindrical, magic charge was secure; I could never find enough of these spell batteries to last.  “That could have gone a lot worse.”  I eyed the griffin youth out of concern.  The lionbird girl hadn’t even flinched during the whole argument, just kept her head down, looking defeated and morose.  “Let's go then. Its getting dark fast.”  The fading light behind her was making the whole thing even more depressing.
 

 
                I floated my rifle around another drab, concrete corner, feeding the image from the scope to my eye.  After a half dozen, completely abandoned, yet still fully stocked rooms there was no doubt that something went terribly wrong here.  Guns, ammo, medical supplies, a practical treasure trove, were all just laying around.  The pungent, yet disturbingly exciting smell of scared ponies teased my mutated nose in each and every room, making my heart race.  At this point I would have welcomed a swarm of those massive locusts over the quiet.  At least I would know what I was dealing with.
 
                With my E.F.S. and cyber eye confirming that the next room was also empty, I stepped around the corner and into a cafeteria.  The blank, concrete board walls were speckled with food wrappers, labels and magazine advertisements, glued all over them.  A line of vending machines sat at the far side of the room, all but one of their fronts pried off to turn them into impromptu cabinets.  A quartet of steel tables were arranged, two by two, in the middle of the room, covered in half eaten food and surrounded by hastily shoved out chairs.  Finally, there was a set of double doors with a down arrow.
 
                Walking up to one of the tables and waving for the security mare and griffin teen to follow me in with my tail, I sniffed at the food.  While nothing could stay warm for long in the valley’s subarctic climate, the food still smelled fresh; or as fresh as ancient canned goods could smell.  “Somepony sure left in a hurry,”  I stated absentmindedly as I took stock of the mess hall; the supplies in the soda machines looked safe.
 
                “Thank you, captain obvious,”  Icy quipped sarcastically.  “It is nice to see you putting that snout to good use.”
 
                I rolled my eye as the others came in and looked around.  I was starting to get worried about Echo, Rippertini, Granit and Key.  BARON… not so much; sure he was the only one who could cure me, but he was nigh immortal anyway.  I quickly jotted down a message on my PipBuck, >We are clear here, but it looks like they cleared out in a hurry. You? and sent it to the other teams.
 
                “Miss… Maple was it?”  I picked up Serrish’s voice from behind me as I scanned through my E.F.S.’ auto map to see if we had missed anything.  I was in no hurry to suggest going to the basement.  Nothing good ever came from fighting in a basement; especially something that could pose a problem to at least a dozen Frostborn if the table settings were any indication.
 
                The azure officer turned her head to the griffin youth as she finagled with the lock on the still intact vending machine in my peripheral.  “Yes?”  she asked almost gently.
 
                The former slaver leaned in close for a whisper.  “Why did you defend me?”  I twitched my ear.  I doubted she knew I could still hear her, but I was not about to interrupt them to point that out.  I wasn’t entirely sure if it was ruder to interrupt or eavesdrop, but I had to admit, I was also curious.
 
                Maple sighed and set down her tools.  “What you were dealing with…  It felt too familiar to leave be.”
 
                Serrish tilted her head to the side.  “Familiar?”
 
                The azure earth pony put a hoof of the cub’s feathered shoulder, causing the outcast griffin to flinch.  “When I was a filly, I was a little terror.  I got into fights, robbed other foals, broke into the older ponies’ homes.”  Maple sighed, shaking her head slightly.  “When I got caught I was considered to be more trouble than I was worth, but a very special, young mare stood up for me.”  She let go of Serrish and ran her hoof over the Grim Harvest, the two wedding bangles chiming against the assault weapon’s casing.  “It just wouldn’t be right not to give someone else that chance.”
 
                Serrish just stood there and blinked.  I caught her eyes dart across the SMG and two wedding bands.  “We killed her didn’t we?”  the young lion-bird asked, dropping her head and looking up through a plume of feathers that resembled bangs.
 
                A line if text ran across my eye’s E.F.S. display.
 
                >Scans show clear.  Visuals confirm.  Fully stocked comms tower abandoned.  Orders?
 
                I quickly replied >Stand by, and slid the message aside and returned my attention to the griffin and Stable pony‘s conversation.
 
                The law mare nodded slowly, almost expressionless.  “Yes. Yes you did.”
 
                The adolescent lion-bird rubbed her forearm uncomfortably with a claw, unable to meet Maple’s eyes.  “I-I’m sorry for your loss…”  Her golden brown tail swished back and forth slowly as she finally looked up from the Stable mare’s armored hooves.
 
                Maple just stared back wordlessly, absentmindedly chewing her lip.  There was no way this was easy for her.  On the one hoof, she wanted to help this girl to honor Harvest Blossom’s memory, but on the other…  She obviously knew, but having it spelled out could not be fun.
 
                The two just stood there the ever-present chronometer in my vision ticked away the seconds.  another message flashed across my robotic eye‘s view; this one from Keystone‘s group.
 
                >Garage is empty.  Your large, scary friends have started fixing the tank.
 
                >Good.  I replied curtly as I swiped the message out of the way, not even pretending to not eavesdrop on the two young ladies.
 
                The Security mare slowly slipped her tail into her saddlebags, drawing the Talon girl’s gaze and making her tense up.  Maple drew out the last of our Shrike hoof cannons.
 
                “B-but, I didn’t do it,” Serrish squawked out in a feebly masked panic, holding up her claws, eyes locked on the large pistol.  “I was just a lookout.  Besides, we were only trying to help.  We are fixing Equestria.  Making it better for everyone.  It was for the gr-”  She cut off as the white maned mare shoved the gun into her upheld talons.
 
                Maple looked the adolescent predator in the eyes with a ‘stop talking‘ look.  “Don’t make me regret this.”  She shoved a spare clip into the ex slaver’s other claw and walked off without another word.
 
                I glanced after the security mare as she went back the way we came.  “Maple…”  I started to follow her out.  We clearly needed to talk.
 
                “I’m finding a place to sleep,”  Maple said flatly without stopping or turning back to me.  “I wouldn’t leave that door unguarded if you aren’t going down.”  I drooped my ears. Okay, we clearly needed to talk… later.
 
                I sighed and let the Stable mare have her space.  Turning back around, I saw the talon youth load the pistol and chamber the first round with practiced ease, seeming to be acting more on instinct than anything else, still staring after the blue pony.  “Come on,”  I said, patting Serrish’s shoulder, causing her to tense up; smooth move, Ocher.  I quickly removed my hoof and nodded to the basement door.  “Looks like we have the first shift.”
 
                The lion-bird looked perplexed.  “You trust me with a gun?”  she asked, holding up the loaded weapon.  “I am an ‘enemy combatant’ after all.”  I found the hoof cannon pointed in my general direction.
 
                Sparing a quick glance to the bottom of my E.F.S., I checked her tag; still white, good.  “’I’ll keep a eye on it and keep S.A.T.S. on standby,”  Icy assured me, without his almost constant, condescending tone.  I nodded silent thanks as I turned to look Serrish in the eyes.  How many could claim that their pseudo psychosis had their back?
 
                “Yes,”  I replied flatly, with a nod.  She tilted her head, clearly confused, and not lowering the gun; I guessed I would need to clarify.  “Several reasons:  One, if you had wanted me dead, we would not be having this talk.  Two, it is safer not to kill me and to stay with us; for now at least.”  This last one was a gamble on an ego.  “And three, I don’t think you want to prove Echo right about you.”
 
                The young Talon brushed the plume of dusty blue tipped feathers out of her face and lowered her gun.  “Right…” She sighed and sat down at one of the tables.  “I don’t know what I am going to do with myself.”
 
                “No need to figure it out right now,”  I responded, relaxing and joining her at the table.  “Just stick with us until something clicks.  Then we can figure out a way to let you go free.  That sound okay?”
 
                Serrish nodded and turned back to the door.  “I suppose.”  I guessed that was the best I could expect at this point.  Progress was progress after all.
 
                “I’m still keeping an eye on the E.F.S. for a while,”  my cold brainmate spoke up.
 
                “That’s actually not a bad idea,”  I mumbled to myself, rubbing my chin.  “I’m not all that attentive to it most of the time.”  The number of times I had been snuck up on because I didn’t check the fool thing, Echo’s radial or the bar, was getting rather embarrassing.
 
                I caught Icy’s distorted reflection lifting an eyebrow in the steel table‘s dull finish.  “So, I’m on all day E.F.S. watch now?”
 
                I nodded to the reflection.  “Yup.  It’s not like there is much else demanding your attention…”  I looked up.  My autoconversing was getting me an odd look from the griffin on the other side of the table.  “Um, talking out loud helps me think.  Sorry.”  That was not a conversation I wanted to have with her at this point.  ‘Hi, you know how I am the only thing keeping you safe?  Well, I have a disembodied voice in my head that helps me out and make snide comments.’  That would just go over so well.
 
                “Well, okay then…”  she replied softly, turning her attention back to the basement door.
 
                This was going to be a long night.
 

 
                I groaned a little, as a rumble in my stomach pulled me out of a very pleasant dream; I was making a ‘snow’ pony on a mountain made of ice-cream.  I rolled over in my sleeping bag, not willing to wake up yet…  Mmmm.  I sniffed around, sticking my snout out of the zipper and worming across the floor.  What was that?  It was lovely.  So savory, rich, a little metaly…  My nose pressed against the source, it was soft and warm too…
 
                Wait…
 
                I reluctantly peeled my eyes open and found my muzzle pressed against Maple’s silver shield mark.  I scampered back and covered my nose with the sleeping bag.  No!  Bad!  A friend is not food.  I let out a little whimper.  I needed more food in short order.  I shuddered at the memory of my loss of control in Stable 114 and the disturbingly tantalizing taste of Gelwin’s flesh.  There was no way in Tartarus I was going to let myself go off like that again.
 
                Everypony… and griffin had set up in the cafeteria, pulling out the tables and dragging in some cots from elsewhere in the building.  BARON, with his not needing sleep thing, had opted to keep working through the night on our hobbled APC; Granite stayed with him as a guard.  We had hauled the bulk of the weapons, medicine and other treasures into Blankflank, for transport back to Flankorage.  We hadn’t quite decided if we were going to sell them, give them back to the Frostborn or save them to be taken back to 114, but that could be hammered out on the road.
 
                “You okay?”  somepony whispered in my ear.
 
                I jumped and tried to get into a defensive stance, but I only managed to get myself tangled in my sleeping bag and flop on my back.  I found myself staring up at the insectoid helmet of our resident ninja mare.   Apparently it had been Echo's watch, so it was likely she had seen my whole worming across to Maple's cot.  The umbral pegasus just floated there, seemingly unperturbed by my floundering.
 
                I groaned as I untangled myself as quietly as I could.  “Hungry,”  I whispered, taking care to breath through my mouth to avoid temptation.  “You wouldn’t happen to have ferreted away some of that jerky would you?”  I was almost certain the answer was-
 
                Echo shook her head slowly.  “Sorry, no.”
 
                Yup, that‘s what I thought.
 
                I sighed and rubbed my temples.  There was no way I would trust myself to sleep without eating something.  “Thanks anyway,”  I grumbled, slipping my barding on.  What could I do here?  Eat some chips, cereal, or the like; see if it would tide me over?  Nah.  At best, that would stop the rumblings in my stomach, but not the cravings.  Go outside and hunt something?
 
                “Going into the woods at night is what caused this in the first place,”  Icy reminded me with all the finesse of a wrecking ball.
 
                Definitely don’t want to be repeating that calamity; I wasn‘t likely to get another two hundred year old boogiemare to safe my fluffy ass again.  So that left me with coming up with some sort of muzzle for myself, or…  I looked over to the basement door and gulped.  We never did check down there.
 
                The Enclave mare landed next to me, her bladed tail swishing back and forth.  “You are planning something rash,”  she breathed with almost eerie clarity and calm.  “I hope you were not planning on going alone.”  She slid her knife out of its sheath with a wing and twirled it idly between her primary feathers.
 
                I blinked in surprise.  I honestly had expected her to tell me to let sleeping dragons lie or some such.  “You aren’t going to chastise me for tempting fate or risking our security again?”  I glanced over to the softly snoring mound of dusty blue feathers and golden brown fur that was our little Talon refugee.
 
                The soldier mare followed my gaze to the juvenile griffin, more specifically to the miniature cannon that was clutched in her claws.  “Yes…”  She turned back to me.  “I still feel giving her a weapon is a mistake.  I will trust your judgment on the matter and will not bring it up again, but insist on keeping an eye on her.”
 
                Wow… was not expecting that one.
 
                She stepped closer to the door before I could reply.  “As for this,”  she switched on the radial E.F.S. map,  “I don’t like having an enemy lurking at my back.”  She smirked back at me as she lifted herself off the ground and hovered in place.  “I’d rather fight on my terms.”
 
                I nodded and floated out my magical assault rifle.  This was looking more and more promising.  “I’ll wake the others,”  I mumbled as I walked back over to Maple’s cot, but I was stopped by a slightly shaking hoof on my shoulder.
 
                “I would rather you didn’t,”  the soldier mare said, her voice quivering a bit.  She pulled her hoof away and took a deep breath, her voice returning to its calm, even timbre.  “Everypony else we travel with is as stealthy as a dragon in a pastry shop.”
 
                I honestly could not fault her there.  BARON and Granite made a cacophony just entering a room, and I doubted our alcoholic merc could keep her mouth shut if her life depended on it…  Given how I first met her I would not have been surprised if that was not an embellishment.  “Good point,”  I acquiesced as I jotted down a quick note on a snack wrapper and set it by Maple’s hoof.  “But what if things go… poorly?”
 
                The military mare double checked her hoof blades and waited for me to open the door.  “I have heard you scream.  Getting their attention should not be too hard.”
 
                I gave an indignant snort as I walked over next to her and wrapped the door handle in my magic.  “Well, here goes.”
 

 
                Something smelled very wrong down here.
 
                No sooner had we opened the door than I was hit with an overwhelming burst of slowly rotting meat and stagnating blood mixed with an odd, waxy scent, like a half melted candle.  I immediately pulled my jumpsuit’s collar over my muzzle; the hefty amount of my own sweat that had been absorbed over the past day did wonders to mask the smell.  Whatever was making the foul, yet balefully enticing, odor was clearly potent enough to cause Echo problems, despite her normal nose, as the pegasus took a single sniff and I could see a shiver run down her spine.
 
                A steel mesh staircase descended into the murky sublevel below.  Every step I took made the ancient metal creak and groan, causing me to sound like squad of Steel Rangers; though it may have just been my oversensitive ears.  My eyes darted back to the EFS with every noise, bump and echo.  Still all clear save for the black armored soldier mare, who floated behind me like a very pointy shadow.
 
                I made it about halfway down the stairs in the murk before something hit me.  Down led to the tunnels.  Tunnels were full of demons.  A pack of demons could probably do this to a garrison… and demons did not show up on regular E.F.S. scans.
 
                I came to a grinding halt, pulled down my collar and sniffed at the air again.  Just the same funk, now with stallion sweat.  Pulling the covering back up I looked over my shoulder to Echo.  “Me may need the motion sensors for this,”  I whispered, hooking up my Beam RCW’s scope to my eye.
 
                The teal maned flyer made an almost imperceptible gulp as she shifted my display to the black and white detector mode she had whipped together in the tunnels.  The only contacts I could see were the Enclave mare and myself.
 
                I took a deep breath and continued down, lighting up my horn as the passage grew darker and darker until it was almost pitch black at the foot of the stairs.  Keeping my glow low, I glanced around.
 
                The lower level resembled a miniature warehouse.  The single, large room made of concrete, filled with rows of mostly empty, floor to ceiling, metal shelves.  Two other rooms opened up to our left.  The air was so thick with dust and the waxy gore that I felt as if I could almost chew it.  The E.F.S. still read clear.
 
                I glanced over to my feathered companion with a gulp.  “Best get this over with then?”  I asked softly.  I half hoped she said no.  This whole thing just gave me the heeby jeebies.
 
                She nodded curtly without a word.
 
                I pulled down my collar again and lifted my nose, taking in the bizarre odor.  After a few quick whiffs the edges of my vision started to redden and was able pick out the source.  The second room on the left was where I would find my meal-  No!  Bad think!  Bad think!  I quickly yanked the cover back up over my muzzle and started breathing through my mouth in an attempt to calm down.
 
                As my natural eyesight slowly cleared I pointed to the source and let out a little whimper.  “Do we have to?”  I asked rather pathetically, my ears flopping down.
 
                I could just feel the flat stare from my flying friend.  “This was your idea.”
 
                I sighed and nodded.  I needed to look for some food; it just wasn’t safe to be around me otherwise.  That, and having an unknown threat to our sleeping backs was never a good thing.  But now that we were down here…  I shuddered.  It felt like an old horror movie and the little audience in my head was yelling ‘don’t go in the room!’.
 
                “Don’t go in the room!”  Icy mocked in a fake filly’s voice.  “The Cutie Mark Eaters will get you!”
 
                I snorted a quick laugh.  “Yeah, like that,”  I mumbled back with a little smirk.  I remembered that movie.  A little, lavender filly, a few years younger than I was, kept claiming she had run afoul of the dreaded Cutie Mark Eaters when she became the last in her class to get her mark.  I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to her; I didn’t remember seeing her among the dead and, while I hadn’t bumped into everypony from Shetland, I had not seen her back in 114.
 
                Taking a deep breath, I looked back at the source of the smell.  This needed to be done.  Couldn’t let my friends spend the night with whatever was down here at their backs and my own quickly dwindling supply of self control in front of them.  “Okay,”  I whispered, readdressing the Enclave mare behind me.  “I’ll go first; I’m lit up like a torch anyway.  Keep my ass clear and…  You’re already doing that and I’m just talking to thin air now aren’t I?”
 
                I glanced to my E.F.S.  “Yup.”  Echo’s motion dot was gone, probably nestled in a shelf or somewhere she didn’t need to flap her wings.  I glanced around as I walked over to the side room, scanning for where the sneaky mare had nestled herself… or something down here had gotten her.  “She is still here, right?”  I asked myself as I was struck by the grim, monster movie cliché.
 
                Little motes of light appeared in the left half of my vision and seemed to flutter upwards; there was no sign of the sparkles in my real eye.  I lifted my head, following the lights up, by the ceiling.  Nestled inside a dark mass, just hovering there, were a pair of matted, blue blades.  “She’s there,”  Icy assured me.  “Don’t worry, we’re watching.”  I breathed a little sigh of relief as the sparkles faded away.
 
                Rustling slightly, I continued on my way to the door.  Here goes nothing.  I took a deep breath, set off a flare spell and swept my rifle around the corner.
 
                There was nothing there.
 
                It was just a boiler room.  A cheap, orange sofa sat to the right of the door, flanked by a, no doubt broken, mini-fridge and a magazine rack with a book in it.  I floated the novel out and over to me.  Fifty Shades of Hay?  As nothing was trying to kill me at the moment, I opened it up and took a look.
 
                ‘To complete the spell matrix, connect the last magical conduit to the starting gem in order to contain the charge.  Now, if your arcane foci are correctly aligned in the spell bank…’
 
                I tilted my head and blinked at all the techno babble.  Unless they were really overusing euphemisms, this wasn’t porn.  This wasn’t porn at all.  I pulled off the dust cover to reveal a ‘Big Book of Arcane Science’.  I had to wonder what would possess some two century old janitor, or modern Frostborn soldier to disguise a textbook as a porn novel.
 
                I shrugged and slipped it into my bags anyway; somepony in my company may have some interest in it.
 
                There wasn’t much else of interest that I could see.  A few shelves of cleaning and basic maintenance tools were jumbled in a corner.  Half of them had fallen down, spewing their contents over the floor.  I was sure BARON would probably be able to mash them all together and make some kind of guided, bleach powered missile or some such Maregyver silliness, but it was all just junk and scrap to me.  I floated some batteries into my bag, at least I knew how those worked; put them in things and the things do stuff.
 
                “Well that was eloquent,”  my chilly brainmate teased, manifesting himself in my reflection on one of the batteries.  “Stay focused.  We have a task to accomplish here.  Threats, food, this ringing a bell?”
 
                I shook my head and sighed.  “Right.  But the only thing left here is the boiler.“  The big water tank itself was planted near the back of the room, between the shelves of janitorial refuse, connected to a web of pipes that snaked up into the… ceiling.
 
                I gulped.  “Echo!”  I called out, fighting the urge to be ill.  “I think I found the garrison!”
 
                Four Frostborn stallions were plastered to the ceiling with some sort of sickly green mastic.  Each was splayed out and the fronts of their armor suits had been torn off by what looked like a hacksaw.  Each of their faces were frozen, contorted in a mix of horror and shock.  Each one of them bore the same single injury.  They all had ragged, gaping holes in their chests.  Their ribcages seemed to have been wrenched open and their hearts ripped out.
 
                I just stared at the hanging bodies as the seconds stretched into minutes, cycling between horror, revulsion at nagging urge to state my hunger with the mutilated soldiers and grim curiosity as to what did this.
 
                I jolted out of my cycle of repulsion when a message popped up on my E.F.S.
 
                >There is something here.  Stay quiet and don’t move.  Coming to you.
 
                My eyes darted to my E.F.S.  There was a single, very faint contact, winking in and out of existence as it made its way across the display.  “I thought that was Echo,”  my brainmate grumbled as a second, more solid, contact appeared behind it.  “Damn it.  I’m sorry…  At least it isn’t coming this way.”
 
                I gulped and checked the contact again.  He was right, it was passing the boiler room and heading for-  “It’s going for the stairs!”
 
                I bolted out of the impromptu morgue, soaking my barding in a cold sweat as I bolted for the stairway.  I overshot the contact, spun on my toe at the foot of the steel steps and swung up my rifle.
 
                No longer caring anything for stealth, I increased the radiance of my horn as much as I could, radiating a floodlight from my forehead.  The subterranean store room came alive with long, harsh shadows as my intense, golden glow filled it; though I could have sworn I saw a flash of flickering green somewhere.  The black on black shape of my feathered companion floated near the ceiling, blades at the ready and glistening.
 
                A small, emerald green earth pony mare was pressing herself against a wall and quaking in her horseshoes.  She was wearing filthy, ripped, khaki fatigues and clutching a pistol in her fetlocks.  She was coated head to hoof in dust, scrapes and small bruises and her eyes were red and puffy.
 
                I blinked and slowly lowered my weapon.  “It’s okay,“  I assured her, softening the light a little.  “Nopony is going to hurt you.“  She looked scared to death; probably saw what happened to the others and hi till she heard my yelling.
 
                “Or she was the one who killed them,”  Ice growled,  “And was just slinking down here until she found new victims or ran out of food.  This does not sit well with me.”
 
                I twitched a little.  That was certainly a possibility, but not one I was particularly fond of.  Though he had a point, there was something wrong.  It didn’t smell right down here.
 
                Echo swooped down silently as the ragged mare let her gun fall from her shaking hooves.  “Who… who are you?”  the traumatized earth pony stammered.  “Are you reinforcements?  Did our messages get through?”
 
                I shook my head and floated her firearm into one of my bags; couldn’t have her zipping about with a weapon till I was sure what had happened here and how she fit in.  “Sorry, no.”  She didn’t seem to even notice that I took her gun… not sure if that was a good sign or not.  “We came across this place on our way to the city.  We figured it would be a good place to rest the night.”  No point hiding the fact that I was not alone as I had clearly yelled to somepony else earlier.
 
                The filthy earth pony cringed.  “Are you going to kill me?”
 
                I shook my head and completely slung my weapon.  “No, no, no,”  I rushed to reassure her.  “We are going to help you.  We can get you back to the city with us.  We have transportation and should be able to get to the walls by noon at the latest.”
 
                The green equine slowly got all her hooves back under her and took a cautious step towards me.  “Really?”
 
                I nodded with my best disarming smile, probably lessened by the toaster on my face that passed for an eye.  “Really.”  I looked over to the room full of mutilated stallions.  “What happened here?”
 
                The verdant mare started shaking again.  “They were insane.”  She wrapped her front legs across her chest, her breathing getting steadily more and more strained.  “They said they were a trade caravan, so we let them stay.  We were having dinner and they brought out the knives and the glue and…”  She trailed off into nonsensical murmurs.
 
                I gritted my teeth.  Smooth, Ocher, real smooth.  “It’s okay,”  I glanced at the name on her collar,  “Corporal Peat Moss.”  I knelt down and tucked my clawed hooves under my body in an attempt to seem as un-intimidating as I could.  “Whoever they were, they’re gone now.”  At least they weren’t demons.  We could fight lunatics.  “Come on, we’ll get you cleaned up and prepare a warm meal.”
 
                Echo tilted her head at the news of the more mundane, albeit detestable, foes and switched back to the radial E.F.S., showing our three white dots on the mini map.  She eased herself silently to the ground, swishing her bladed tail back and forth like some big cat.
 
                The Frostborn mare took a cautious step forward.  “Th-thank you,”  she stammered out and started following me.
 
                I nodded to sole survivor and turned back to the stairs.  I could probably hold out another day or so without meat if I stayed focused and avoided… stimuli.  Icy was right.  This was fishy, but if she was telling the truth how could I just leave her like this?
 
                “You’re too sentimental, you know that, right?”  Icy asked, seeming half amused and half condescending.  “There is something to be said for pragmatism.”
 
                I shrugged and started up the stairs.  “I like making friends and allies better myself,”  I whispered back.  “Rarely do the two overlap.”
 
                I could feel the disembodied entity roll its eyes.  “Ponies.”
 
                I couldn’t help but chuckle at that.  It was sometimes hard to remember that Ice was not entirely equine, crazy  fragment or otherwise…  Wait a second…  I stopped as something struck me.  “What was that stuff the others were stuck to the ceiling with?”  I asked the odd mare over my shoulder.  There was no way that was made by a pony.
 
                The mare stopped as well.  “Ummm…”  A flash of flickering, green light appeared from behind me and the middle dot on my E.F.S. turned red.
 
                Oh, that couldn’t be good.
 
                Before I could do anything, the world slowed to a crawl as S.A.T.S. seemed to trigger on its own.  Thank you, Icy.  The targeting spell spun me around to face a frozen nightmare.  At first I thought it was one of Echo’s Enclave soldiers in their suits of dark, insectoid power armor, but that illusion was quickly shattered.
 
                A massive, equapomorphic insect was lunging at me, bearing an unnaturally wide, lamprey-like maw, filled with several rows of dripping fangs that put mine to shame.  A pair of bulbous, almost white blue, compound eyes glared at me below a pair of ear like antennae.  A gnarled horn sprouted from the beast’s forehead, connected to an almost fish-like fin running down its neck in an approximation of a mane.
 
                Green flames were still passing over the creature’s hind legs.  The emerald green of Peat Moss’ hide rippled, blistered and twisted into a jagged, almost black carapace with a slight wet shine to it.  The monster’s forelegs were coated in sharp barbs hooking over serrated hollows that made the entire lower half of the creature’s limbs look like they had been made from cheese graters.  A quartet of semitransparent, amber wings sprouted on either side of a mass of long quills between its shoulder blades; each of the opalescent membranes looked as if dozens of little bites had been taken out of them, adding to the horror’s spiky visage.
 
                My PipBuck labeled it a Cazdoppelganger; now that was a mouthful if I ever read one.  Its tail had started to warp into a cruel looking stinger as its transformation finished.  I mentally gulped as I realized that, even in S.A.T.S., it was still moving.  There was no way I could get my weapon unslung and brought to bear I time.  In desperation, I queued up a buck to the creature’s head and dropped the spell, hoping Echo would be able to handle it before it recovered.
 
                With speed I could never manage on my own, my hind legs jerked out behind me, slamming into the shape shifter’s face as I flipped around onto my back.  My blow produced a dull clack, as if I had struck hard plastic, and forced the creature to buzz its wings to keep from falling over, but otherwise seemed unaffected.
 
                Echo started up winding up for her odd, spinning style as the thing lunged at me again, hooked claws first.  I barely managed to bring my rifle up before the things legs clamped shut over the energy weapon, scraping and slightly denting the casing.
 
                I struggled with my magic to hold the claws in place and pressed all four legs into the thing’s backside in a desperate attempt to keep its stinger as far away from me as possible.  It head lurched forward, over my gun, snapping at my throat with its rows and rows of needle teeth.  Each one of the fangs sprayed a mist of noxious chemicals in my face as it thrashed.  The creatures abrasive chitin pinched, scratched and gouged the flesh around my lower legs and shredded the frogs of my hooves with each writhing movement.
 
                The black pegasus raked her fetlock blades across the creature’s back, extracting an in equine screech as thin sprays of luminescent green burst from the wounds.  She whipped around, lighting fast, to bring her tail blade hurtling around, on course for the Cazdoppelganger’s snarling head.  The monster, however, was faster, lashing out with its stinger and catching the mare in an armor gap over her inner thigh.
 
                With a sharp gasp, the soldier pony dropped to the floor like a lead weight, gasping and shivering as her swing fell short and grazed off the thing‘s side.  Oh, Celestia, we were royally screwed.  I clamped my mouth shut to keep from calling out and letting the noxious spittle in my mouth.
 
                The thing returned its full attention to me as Echo started growing pale.  I let my magic falter slightly to float a healing potion from my bags to the prostrated, poisoned pegasus’ lips.  It returned some color to her cheeks, but her complexion was still ashen.
 
                The monster used my lapse in focus to lurch forward, ripping into my chest armor with its gaping maw.  AGH!  Wrong think!  That was wrong think!  Its teeth were grinding through the ceramic plates at alarming speed and try as I might, I couldn‘t dislodge it.
 
                I found myself hyperventilating as I watched the massive insect seem to try and burrow into my sternum.  I had cheated death from worse than this!  The edges of my vision started turning red and my pulse began to race.  I was not about to let some freaky, magic vermin take me out now!
 
                *BANG!*
 
                I blinked in surprise as one of the predator’s massive eyes exploded into glowing green gore.  Its mouth jerked off me and its head jerked back as it screeched in pain; a noise more like a saw being run across a violin than any noise a living creature should be able to make.
 
                Almost immediately, Icy snapped my S.A.T.S. back on and forced my body to buck the dazed creature away with the small amount of the bestial strength I had let slip out; I was still far from strong, but it was enough of a boost to make a difference.
 
                *BANG!*  *BANG!*  *BANG!*
 
                A trio of blasts smashed into the thing’s barrel, shattering its exoskeleton into dozens of pieces and leaving its chest cavity a jagged mess of blade-like black shards floating in incandescent slime.  The beast thrashed for a few more seconds, before falling silent and curling its limbs to its belly.
 
                Fighting to regain control of my breathing and force the red in my vision to recede, I looked over to the source of the gunshots that had saved my fuzzy ass.  Standing in the doorway to the main complex, was a winged, leonine figure, standing on it hind legs and looking down the barrel of a Shrike hoof cannon.  The massive pistol started shaking in the adolescent griffin’s claw as she stared down at us.
 
                I slowly got back to my hooves, panting and coating my wounds in magic to staunch the bleeding.  “At least we know where she stands between you and giant bugs.”  Icy sneered as I walked over to Echo.
 
Footnote: Level Up
New Perk:  --  S.A.T.S. Guardian:  You have something watching your screens.  On the initial round of combat you have an AP bonus (50% of AP gained by AGI) and you can 'carry over AP' even if you aren't the first in turn order.
 
New Companion Perk: Eagle Eye -- While Serrish is with you all ranged weapons can be counted as being Long Ranged.
 
This is a story based off the magnificent work of Kkat (Fallout Equestria)
 
(Special thanks to  for helping me go over this and making it as good as it could be. And to all the good folks at Fallout: Equestria Side Stories Compilation and )