Harmony of Machines

by CreeperZone

Can't Wait To Die Like This

“Hi, Bun!” Somepony yelled from the crowd as a bad joke.

“Yes, yes, haha, Maverick.” Blood Diamond went to roll her eyes and barely bothered to get halfway before looking back to Bun. “Just introduce yourself please.”

“O-okay...” Bun took a deep breath, finding something odd in her deepest feelings. There was an energy, an energy which felt sporadic and wild, and for whichever reason right now it made her feel incredibly confident.

Bun lifted her head up and smiled with a deeply rooted pride. “My name is Bun Button, born and raised in Manehattan, as I child I made friends with a living robot and now as an adult I've become one myself. I'm a robotics engineer, one of... Well, there's no need to be formal I suppose... The best in the business. I have personally created sentient robotic life and I also experienced death yesterday... And now I'm here as one of you, waiting for a chance to throw off this stupid suit.”

A stomping of hooves caught her off guard as the crowd applauded, though whatever chaotic energy inside her that gave her that confidence had quickly resided. Now being drowned in applause felt more like just regular old drowning than it should.

“Right, well put, Agent Bun.” Blood Diamond took the spotlight from her by stepping forward, which Bun very oh so fucking gladly let her take. “You will be placed with Theta squad as normal for new recruits, they'll explain all the rules of advancing and whatnot to you there. Until then, just keep quiet and try to listen to the meeting to be aware of anything important you should pick up on. You may sit over there with the rest of Theta squad.”

“O-okay... I will go then... Thank you...” Bun faintly smiled to Blood and quickly skittered down the steps and sped over to where Blood had just pointed. It was the back row near the entrance, and the pony that Blood Diamond told off for interrupting was sitting there along with four other colourful characters, including a burly red-scaled dragon which frightened Bun with a glance and huff of smoke. Bun sat down nearly a meter shy of the next pony from what seemed to be the Theta squad.

The rest of the meeting was then brought to order and the Chariot pony came back up and gave some conclusions on yesterday's missions; Alpha squad had apparently came back from Canterlot after dealing with some numbskull guards who found The Orb Of Nightmares in Celestia's royal vault and tried to release the lich from inside of it.

Mission reports from different agents were held, notices were given along with some new job assignments for the day and a bunch of boring jargon Bun phased out and didn't quite catch; instead she found herself thinking through the day, it was almost like a bizarre dream. Did she really become a secret agent overnight? That's kind of ridiculous - really really cool - but ridiculous nonetheless. She had long thoughts on how her regular life would be affected, would she have to quit her job? Most likely. How would this affect her and her closest friends? She hasn't even had the chance to tell Odin everything yet...

Though she'd have to continue this train of thought later, as Chariots concluded the meeting. “And that brings us to the end of the meeting, Chariots Jobstone, we're done here.”

In a rush of thunderous hooves, everypony stood and went to gallop off out of the meeting hall, Bun looked to her right and barely drew a breath before a set of dark blue hooves from behind her seat pulled her out of her seat at the edge of the row, she was yanked over the back and then fell onto her ass and back, groaning softly in a wince of pain. Her eyes then went wide as the agents that sat along her row trampled out without a care in the world for each others’ safety; if she were in that she might have been killed by just the dragon stomping over her.

“Holy moly! What is everyone in such a rush for?!” Bun exclaimed to herself.

“Haha... They all want to get to the cafeteria, we have lunch after the morning meeting.” A gruff, charming and half-sleazy voice came up from behind Bun, the pony who had just saved her. “Oh, and hi, Bun.” He chuckled softly to himself as Bun stood up and looked him over. He was a decently built Earth Pony stallion, his fur was a dark navy blue, his eyes a soft red and his hair a sleek silver combed back mane. His facial features also included a thick scar gashing across his lips and throat. And he is very handsome and an absolute stud that any mare would want to die for.

He also seemed very self absorbed, so much so that he apparently thinks of himself as a sex-god.

“H-hello... W-who are you..?” Bun asked with a frightened curiosity.

“Depends who you ask, ponies around here call me Maverick, while the author calls me the prick who will ruin this whole book thing for her.” Maverick smiled, knowing he was right.

Bun softly gasped, “T-the... Author..? Y-you mean... Is... Is that who I saw..? I'm not just going crazy?”

Maverick gleamed with a dirty smile, “Oh, you sweet summer child, you don't even know the half of it... And you’re already far beyond crazy, but let's talk it over lunch, eh?”

“S-sure...” Bun took a frazzled breath and released it while standing up. “You can lead the way...”

“Of course.” Maverick trotted out with Bun after everyone was already far and gone. “So, Bun... You’re getting into Theta squad with me and the boys. Everyone else on T-squad is a newbie like you, but I've personally been working here for the better part of the decade.”

“Oh... So you’re like... Training Theta squad?” Bun asked while scanning the halls, walking back through the lobby down a large hallway leading to a lunchroom and cafeteria, most creatures already sitting down and chowing on a buffet of kinda meh salads, good looking carrots and other vegetables in sauce and even some loose scraps of meat.

“Yuppers. Can't leave all you little foals to squabble about on your own; someone should get the chance to watch and laugh. Heh.” Maverick brought them both to the back of the queue for the cafeteria, only a dozen places from the front. Most of the best dishes had already vanished, so Bun and Maverick picked out some simple hay and lettuce.

The lunchmare on the other end went into the steel cabinet and brought out a fresh red apple and floated it over onto Mavericks tray with a smile and wink, Maverick grinned at her and then left to bring Bun to a table sitting the majority of Theta squad. Bun sat directly opposite to Maverick sheepishly.

“So, what're your thoughts so far, Bunny?” Maverick took a bite of the apple, so you knew he was an asshole.

“Yeah just... T-this is all so much... It doesn't even feel like real life... But... It's so exciting... T-though I do feel a bit lost on how the rest of my life will function now...”

“Yeah, the shock period is normal, I was pulled out halfway through a three year prison sentence to be an agent, took me a month to start believing they weren't poisoning the food. You'll get over it, and soon you’re gonna be worrying more about how many people you've shanked this week than anything in your quote unquotes real life.”

“I hope... I don't even know how to be an agent really... Apparently I just have "potential", but not any actual skill that I'm aware of.”

“Yet again, completely the norm. Don't worry your little head, you'll be a killing machine in no time. Very literally too.” Maverick chopped down on his salad.

“H-heh... Cool...” Bun bashfully giggled.

“Now eat up, you'll be meeting Theta squad right after this.”

Bun down to her tray. “Oh... Yeah, right. What way am I supposed to introduce myself?”

---

“This way!” Maverick kicked through the door of training hall C, bringing Bun in after him.

The ceiling was high and an easy on the eyes pale colour, same as the long wide walls holding up punching bags, climbing walls, and treadmills, along with a whole bunch of other equipment I'm not bothered to list.

Bun walked in with a broad smile; she felt confident again after that nice little lunch, and now she looked upon the other five members of Theta squad chatting in their pairs slowly dispersing out into the room before her.

“Welcome to the gym, Bun, now are you ready to meet the team?” Maverick pulled her in under his foreleg.

“Yeah I am!” Bun's legs riveted up and down with energy.

“Okay, everybody! Formation!” Maverick walked forward and commanded out, the five other peculiar squad members lining up neatly, giving Bun a clear view of everyone as she walked up to Maverick's side.

Maverick slid to the next creature. “This one, this one is called Ace Derby, she's the filly of a bitch who stole seventeen million bits worth of magical artifacts from the princesses' vaults. She's practically a treasure magnet and can smell any valuable within a ten mile radius.” Ace was a rugged fire-red coated Pegasus missing one of her wings, a pitch black mane combed back behind her ears. (One of which was partly cut off by the tip.) Her remaining left wing had a large machete sheathed under it along with a sling draped over her shoulders coated in little gadgets. She had rough dark gray eyes, well worn, with the beauty of every gold coin she's stolen sunk into them. She was quite pretty in a farmer, ranger kind of way. At least Bun thought so. Finally Ace had a slim, faded, brown cowgirl hat that she tipped to Bun.

Maverick moved another place down, “Over here we got Hue Renn, she's only fifteen years old, a very talented pony, her mother works here, Agent Specter Renn. Little Hue has a particular affinity for mental magic, she's currently learning how to wipe memories like I wipe floors with terrorists.” The pony was shorter than the rest, half a head down, and covered in dark gray, blackish fur. A deep royal blue in her girly, flowy mane tied into a crochet from the back down. She had a dark cloak to match her fur with little slots for knives, finally a cute, stubby horn poked out the tip of her head.

Maverick set his eyes on the next creature in the row, the burly, immense red scaled dragon lurched over everypony several times taller than Maverick with hard toned muscles and striking talons tapping at his sides impatiently, he huffed black smoke and his dark green crystal eyes watched Maverick right back. “That's a big fucking dragon, we found him inside here one day and nobody wanted to say no to him so he's now an agent in training.”

Maverick tip-toed around the big dragon, his eye never leaving the beast as he reached the next pony. “This... Is Pious Duty, came directly from the royal guard. His family had a history of... Well...” Maverick took a step to Bun and murmured beneath his breath. “Dragon slayers... Don't tell bitey over there.” He cleared his throat. “And he has some curse or blessing or whatever, yada yada, now he can see living creatures through walls or something I dunno.” Maverick walked off from the silver coated and pale green maned earth pony. Pious also had a sword and shield ready at his flanks and a light set of gold and red crystal stylized royal guard armour. As maverick walked away Pious opened his mouth to speak, but Maverick cut him off as immediately as he could. “We all have origin stories, Pious, tell her on your own time. Now...”

Maverick patted the last pony on their back, they looked like an oddly regular pegasus to Bun. “This is Felix, he's a changeling.”

Bun's eyes rose in shock, she thought changelings were all kill on sight.

“S-Shimmer.” Felix corrected.

“Yeah, whatever you wanna call yourself bug eyes. What matters is he's a shapeshifter so that's cool.” Maverick trotted by and stood himself at the end of the row, Felix grumbled and shook his head. Bun's eyes followed the Captain in deep surprise.

“And that just leaves me, Maverick. I'm like Deadpool except with a horse dick and not as well written.” Maverick's sassy ass smile gleamed.

The very ends of Bun's lips rose into a smile for a few moments at Mavericks remark, some little part of her understood him.

“See, you’re getting it!” Maverick broke the formation and skipped to the front of the pack, turning to them. “Okay, ya'll get chitty chatty with Bun! I've been talking for an hour so I'ma go slam back a water like a baby with bottle of bleach. Peace!” Maverick slid out the room and everyone managed to take a breath.

“Well... It's wonderful to meet you all.” Bun smiled up to them all.

“Wonderful indeed, I say.” Ace took half a skip forward and drew her keen eyes around Bun, licking her lips like a lion would at the sight of a little piglet. “Mhmmm...”

“Uh... H-hello..? Whatcha up to there..?” Bun's head softly leaned back to regain some minuscule amount of personal space, she wasn't used to being so close to somepony this intimidating, and well... Pretty.

“Oh, nothin' partner... Just couldn't help but notice that there gem inside ya... I know a fella who'd buy that for a couple million bits without a hassle.” Ace's smile peaked as they made eye contact. “Don't worry, I'll wait till somepony else kills ya first before I try an' take it.”

Bun was too scared to smile but thought it was appropriate so she really tried her hardest to appear in on the joke. “H-hha... Y-yeah... Um. Well... How... So... You can like sense... Valuables..?”

“Valuebles, weapons, bits... Basically anythin' important. It's based around desire, an' not just mine, I can tell what others want as well. Heh.” The pony stepped back gracefully and held down the tip of her hat to just barely sit above her eye line, basically only trying to look cool.

“Really..? That's really neat... Um... What do I desire then?” Bun asked in an attempt to be polite.

“Oh, heh.” Ace stood down back to ease. “To tell ya I'd have to touch ya and stuff, so maybe sometime later, eh?”

“Oh... O-okay...” Bun released a cute little breath of relief.

“Heh heh... It can also be done by kiss.” Ace winked at Bun with a dumb grin.

“Yeah... Um... Uhh...” Bun began to retreat step by step, softly blushing until her path was cut by the younger unicorn Hue.

“Hey! Sorry about her, I know how stressful being new can be, come talk with me and Fe! We'll help you feel right at home.” Hue hugged Bun nice and tight.

It was a great surprise to Bun, causing her to jump a little before settling into the warm embrace. “Uh... Oh... Thanks.”

“My pleasure, new friend!” Hue brought Bun down to the side of the training area where Felix stood reluctantly watching them approach. “This is Felix, we're still trying to fit in as well! So with us... You'll fit right in!” Hue's eyes lit up like a fireworks display as she slipped to Felix's side and watched Bun.

“Cool... Yeah I've been feeling really weird lately, and that's not helped me being socially awkward. You know how it is.” Bun looked to Felix sheepishly, both of them avoiding direct contact.

“Yeah we do! No worries! So... What's your powers like? What's your specialty?” Hue giddily asked.

“Oh my... Specialty... So... I'm a cyborg... Sorta. And um... Apparently I'm filled with... Chaos energy..?”

“Chaos? That's cool! I'm more of a harmony mare myself, I'm learning how to mess with memories and wipe minds and stuff right now! Wanna see?” Hue's childish smile melted Bun's heart into submission.

“S-sure... W̴̷̷̴h̶̴̴̵y̷̵̷̵ N̷̷̵̵o̴̵̷̶t̷̵̶̶.” Bun haphazardly agreed, immediately feeling lightheaded before Hue hoofed over her phone, showing a selfie of Hue and Bun together. “W-what... When did you take that...”

“Five seconds ago, then I wiped your memory of it! Cool huh?” Hue beamed from beneath her dark shaded cloak.

“Yeah... It kinda is. But I'd hope you don't do that again.”

“Of course I won't, despite if I change my mind I could just make you forget this promise. Hehe.” Hue wrapped a hoof over Felix. “Felix introduce yourself already!”

“Ughh... Fine... Hi...” Felix looked up at Bun with his normal pony eyes, burning with a hot fire of annoyance behind them, as well as a slightly less intense fire of low expectations even further behind.

He then sighed and his eyes glimmered all sparkly-like, turning into smooth, blank, light blue spheres. “Firstly I am not a changeling, I am a shimmer. The differences may be subtle but they are very important. No, I will not be eating your emotions, you don't have to be scared of me like everyone except Hue seems to be. Okay?”

If Bun were to be completely honest, she did jump a little when Felix's eyes changed. “Y-yeah... Okay. That's cool, sorry if I upset you or anything.” Bun uneagerly raised her hoof, finding a soft smile in Felix as he shook it back.

“Thank you. I'm here because one of my unique features being a shimmer means I cannot be detected while disguised like a changeling... So yeah. That's my power...” Felix softly sighed.

“That's cool... You seem cool, Felix.” Bun nodded to him gently.

Felix seemed stunned. “R-really? T-thanks...”

“Yay!!!” Hue screamed in joy like a raccoon in a trashcan. “I made a friend and made my friend a friend! Score for the power of friendship!” She pumped her hoof into the air.

Maverick stumbled into the room after faintly hearing what Hue said. “W-woah woah! Hue did you say power of friendship or magic of friendship, cause I'm pretty sure that's copyrighted.”

Hue cocked her head back and dropped her hoof. “I... I said power... What are you talking about?”

“Oh phew, no worries, just forget I said anything, anyways, I'm back! Now I know we were supposed to begin our work on our next task with the whole zebra town thing, but today we'll be getting Bun settled in, so let's do a regular old combat training session! Woot.” Maverick smiled and began over-exaggerating some stretches. Everyone began to conjugate around Maverick, “Aight, ya'll get into pairs, we're starting with some wrestling, old fashioned hoof to hoof...” Maverick peeked over at the dragon. “...to claw style. Get to it!”

“Fe, you’re mine!” Hue lept at Felix and hugged him.

Meanwhile on the other end of the group, Ace playfully bucked the dragon's thigh. “Come on, firebreath, ready for another round?” The dragon huffed and slapped her leg away with a devilish grin.

Maverick clapped his hooves together. “And Pious that leaves you with meeeoh... Wait... You’re with Bun. We got an even number now! Fuck yes!” Maverick jumped to the side where he landed on a sofa that sat off scene with an iced drink that he began sipping from while laying back.

Pious nonchalantly turned his eyes to Bun. “Care to join me, miss Bun?”

“Yeah... Sure.” Bun trotted up to the green, silver maned burly stallion, his kind, guardian angel eyes settling on her and beginning to glow a soft red. “Um... W-what are you...”

“Just getting prepared.” He pulled a short cloth from a pocket in his armour, placing it down over his eyes to blindfold himself.

“Right... So you can see me through that... Yeah?”

“Yes, madam, very clearly.” He grinned.

Maverick swigged back the rest of his glass and sat up. “Everybody listen up, first things first, I wanna see how long Bun can avoid getting her butt kicked so I can see how much training she needs.” Maverick pulled a serving of popcorn from under a couch cushion and leaned back to watch. “Do the thing.”

Pious Duty lifted his right hoof in solemn concentration, leaning back into a ready pounce. “You may have the first move, miss.”

“I... Um... I... Well... I've never...” Bun shook.

“Yeah yeah, "I've never hurt another pony". We get that all the time, I mean look at Hue, she's like fifteen or something and a month ago she'd cry when she stepped on a butterfly and now she's a little psycho, you'll get used to it, just give it all you got and we'll judge it from there.” Maverick blurted out at her.

“O-oh... Fine...” Bun looked down to Pious standing ready, and she already regretted doing this and she hadn't even started yet. Here goes nothing... Bun dreaded the words as she they sprawled through her own mind as she took a deep settling breath. She pulled a hoof back and wound it up, getting it a few clicks back before looking up at her target.

With a blind eye she thrusted her hoof forward towards Pious, which he could see from behind his blindfold with his cursed eyes. So in the middle of her motion he had already intersected the movement and locked his leg around hers and twisted Bun's up. “Come on, miss Bun, don't hold back.” Pious smiled to her.

Bun opened her eyes. “W-what the...” Bun put more pressure against his grip, though his skillful use of weight leverage held back against her robotic strength. So she swung with her second foreleg, yielding yet again pitiful results as he dodged into the attack and pressed her leg against his torso.

Maverick laughed over in the corner, very much at Bun.

“You can tap out whenever you want to, miss.” Pious softly whispered into her ear with complete respect.

“N-no!” Bun groaned and pushed against both of his grips, her hind legs scrambling helplessly. Ughh!! What the hell can I do?! She screamed internally.

And as if that was a console command, thinking the words caused something Bun had yet to experience. Her vision shifted a deep pink and her body popped up with a schematic of her body and its joints, and her thinking became logistical, as if she was seeing in numbers. She spotted a tag on her right leg's knee, and without thinking twice as she willed the joint to dislodge itself, the bottom of her foreleg being left in Pious' grip, while the upper part split free and struck Pious down by the jaw with the now exposed, smooth, steel hinge-joint.

And once Bun turned her eyes up to the stunned, hurting soldier, seeing his body clearly mapped out in front of her, taking a single millisecond to think, before deciding to dislodge her other upper left leg and ran it up and knocked it into his chin in an uppercut as his face flew down from her last punch, knocking him up and away from her. His body dropped along with Bun's leg stumps, which she promptly reattached to herself. When she shut her eyes and her enhanced perception faded for now.

“Ah fuck...” Pious groaned on the ground. “Did not see that coming... Heh... That was great...”

“W-wha... What came over me...” Bun rubbed her soft forehead, dazed after that odd lapse of judgement. Then when she saw that she had caused Pious to bleed from the nose, she bolted over in pure and helpless need to say sorry to him. “Oh my goodness! I am so so so so sorry! I did not mean to hit you so hard!”

“It's good, miss Bun... I underestimated you and let my guard down. Good fight.” He picked himself up with an honorable strength.

“Y-you’re okay? You sure? You’re bleeding...” Bun whimpered.

“Yes, miss, I am perfectly fine.” He stood up.

“Okay...” Bun still felt bad about it.

Maverick began slow clapping like a prick, “Wow... Now that far excelled any sort of minuscule hopes I had for you doing well at combat, so I'm... Gradually impressed, Bun.”

“T-Thanks I guess...” Bun backed off to the side.

“No need to be so enthusiastic, Bun, we all understand you feel so good after that. Haha... Now. Let's get to training. Bun, get your pink butt over here, I'm gonna teach you how to fight without losing your legs in the process... Well, without losing most of them. Chip chop.” Maverick got up from his sofa and got everyone together and began the training.

For the next few hours Maverick taught Bun the very basics of proper self defense and hoof to hoof combat, which she picked up quite well, though she seemed to pull punches, even when she got to land hits against the dragon, she put him into more danger of passing out from lethargy and boredom than getting a bruise.

But by the time it was over, at least she had the basic mechanics down, so it wasn't completely for nothing. Maverick held a quick briefing after, telling everyone now that Bun has settled in a bit, they can go back to their previous schedule tomorrow...

“Everyone got it? I don't need to go over anything twice do I? Cause I'm not going to anyways. Now out of my sight, all of you. Not you, readers... If you want to stay and let me become the main character that would be just... Wonderful.” Maverick swayed his hoof at the others and smiled all charming and stuff.

“Whatevs, Mav, seeya!” Hue said her farewell, followed by the others as they trotted out.

But Bun had a tiny bit of a problem, so she stayed back against Maverick's wishes. “Uh... Maverick... Can we talk..?”

“Well, I'd say no, but you are female, good looking, and there's always potential for us to be in a clop fic together if I get the readers to ship us... So, yes. Please go on.” Maverick threw a devilish grin in her direction.

“Firstly, ew. Gross. Secondly, I don't... Well... I don't think this is gonna work out... I don't feel... At home, in this like... More violent setting. Everything up to this has been quite a lot... But... I don't think I can hurt anypony... Good or bad... And I'm not comfortable helping others be hurt either... It's just... This... This isn't meant for me. I loved my old job, and I think I'll be going back to it permanently... So, yeah...” Bun sheepishly looked up to Maverick.

“Cool.” Maverick brushed her off hard.

“W-what? But... Aren't you gonna argue? You know how these stories go, you’re supposed to tell me that I can't leave and then try make me come around in the end once I see the "good" I can do or whatever! And... Great. You have me talking like you now... I'm still not convinced that I'm not just delusional.” Bun grew stern.

“Hehe, yeah you are. But regardless! I don't need to argue with you. You'll be back anyways.” Maverick patted her on the back all dickheadishly.

“What the hell do you mean?”

“What the tartarus... We gotta keep with the lore. And... Don't worry about it... You'll see. So you definitely want to leave?”

“Yes. I do.”

“One hundred percent?”

“Yes. Can I?”

“Of course! Hue!” Maverick clapped his hooves and Hue's horn flashed form out of nowhere as she decloaked an invisibility spell right beside Bun.

“Ahh!! D-don't do that!” Bun softly hyperventilated herself back to calm.

“Hehe, sorry! And sorry things didn't work out, good luck in your normal life.” Hue lit up her horn and Bun suddenly began feeling dizzy.

“W-wait... I...” Bun's head slumped down as Hue's magic began working.

Maverick lifted her head up tenderly by the chin, and he looked into her weak eyes. “You won't actually remember anything about this, but for the sake of theatrics... Remember, y̶o̶u̵'̸l̴l̸ b̴̟͛e̶̼̍ ̵̩̔b̸̛̪a̶̲͌c̵͎̈k̴̪̇.̷̱̑.̷͓͘.̵̩̀”

---

Bun was walking back. Back to her home after her visit to Twilight's and short stay in Ponyville's local inn, having spent the day just enjoying the historic sights and speaking with the locals. It was a pleasant day, though she was glad to be finally getting home.

She had just hopped off of the train and set down the familiar thick streets of Manehattan. It was a bit rainy, though she didn't mind, it was kind of refreshing if anything. The city street lamp's soft lights flickered through the crystal streaks of rain dripping on their glass in the dark. Glowing neon signs encumbered the sky, held up by the skyscrapers of Manehattan.

Surely is home... Bun sighed in succulent relief. As she walked she took out her phone to check the time.

""‖‖ /^\ [34%]

[19:24]

Saturday, 19 October

|
|
|

{New Robotics News From MJS}
/-\
Twilight sparkle announces changeling based robotic body-modification research.

Click here to learn more.

{17 New Texts Form Disarray}
/-\
Open

{WyndStreme - New Music Video just dropped, watch it right now! }
/-\
Click here!

|
|
|

Slide to unlock.

Hmm... Hehe. Bun opened up the article and read through it as she trotted, very very happy to see Twilight Sparkle opening up to the idea of robotics again, especially knowing she had her hoof in causing the princess's change of heart.

Soon she got lost in a maze of reading the news as she often does, finding that the rocket Odin was piloting is going smoothly as they could have possibly hoped, some beloved tv show had premiered its final episodes, and Bun was half way through reading about "10 ways to know if your loved ones are changelings" when she stumbled slightly on a crack in the pavement.

“A-ah... Sheesh.” Bun eyed her surroundings, uh... It was dark out, she really should focus on getting home. Bun put away her phone and sped up her trot, she always hated walking home in the dark, her fear of thieves was only heightened like the hairs at the back of her little robo neck did as she hastily trotted through the darkening streets.

She knew her way home though, and nothing was going to stop her from...

“Hey, you!” A thuggish voice came from behind Bun.

“W-what..?” Bun turned around in a shudder to see a large pony in a hood.

“Let's not make this any more difficult than it needs... Wait... You’re that bitch from the news, you've got millions!” The thug seemed to be amazed at their catch, quickly pulling out a knife to make things serious.

”W-wait! Woah! Y-you really really don't want to do this!" Bun stumbled backwards in despair.

“No... No I think I do... I need that money far more than you do, bitch! Now give me everything you have, and if I ain't happy, I'm bringing you to an ATM, got it?!” The thug caught up with Bun easily.

“N-no I don't have any bits, i-it all goes to my company, I don't manage any finances! I only have a few dozen bits, just please take them and leave me alone!” Bun threw out her bag of coins from her purse and it landed on the floor, the pony groaned at the sight.

“N-no! I need more than this! Urghh!!” Bun was grabbed by the pony, while she was well able to fight her off if she wanted, she had no way of knowing that yet, she had clearly never done anything even remotely combat related... And so she was helplessly dragged down the block with a knife at her neck, being thrown at an ATM at the end of her nonconsensual journey.

“P-please... I don't have anything, I swear!” Bun pleaded as her own credit card was thrown into her face.

“Open your account! NOW!” Bun was pressed against the ATM as she started crying.

“L-look...” She put in her credit card and submitted the necessary numbers to open her account, showing only the few hundred bits she keeps for her own personal needs, this angered the thug more than anything so far.

“Fuck fuck fuck! Come on!” The pony slammed the ATM's side and dented it.

“P-please... Take it all... Just let me go...” Bun shifted in the ponies grip, which only made the very visible anger inside them grow, causing them to react and knock Bun upside the head, her skin being broken against her chin, exposing a small piece of metal.

“W... What...” The pony climbed ontop of Bun and pushed her to the ground and inspecting the wound. “You’re... You’re made of metal huh?! Do you even understand!? The amount of fucking pain I feel every day! While fucking millionares like you get fancy fucking robot organs?!?” The pony has begun crying all over Bun at this point, bringing her knife down against Bun's throat. “Do you even feel pain?!?”

“P-please! S-s... Stop! Don't hurt me!” While Bun cried and whimpered, struggling against the criminal pitifully, she did not feel pain... At least not intensely, her body regulated her pain senses so that she could just notice the pain, but it was nowhere as bad as the real thing.

“Answer me, bitch! You feel pain?! Or do you bleed? Heh... Ahh... I guess we'll see about that!” Bun felt the pony strike her in the chest, being stabbed by the pony’s knife right in her center.

“Ahhh... P-please!!! Stop!!! Ahh!!” Bun cried out as she felt some great... Chaotic... Energy surge from her wound.

“Hah! No blood! Not a drop, you bitch! Why don't we see if you burn now huh?!” The maddened pony then brandished a lighter and lifted it high into the rainy sky, opening up in Bun's view, right in the center of the moon like a panel straight out of an edgy comic book...

Wait... Bun looked down at her sparking chest of chaotic energy, and back up at the lighter.

Then she sighed.

“I fucking hate foreshadowing...”

The lighter lit, and the magic leaking from her chest erupted with the flame, killing the pony holding her down instantaneously, but Bun was not victim to the same fate. The intense chaos within her blew into a spiral of sensation and sights all around her as the epicenter of the storm, and as chaos magic tends to do, the eye of the storm twisted the world around her, warping the very fabric of her little sphere of existence for just a split second... Just enough to... Well.

Bring her back, duh. Maverick, somewhere, wherever he was, smiled. Bye, Bun!