This story is a sequel to Seven Days in Sunny June, Book V: The New Frontier
A tale of the Berylverse. Takes place concurrently with The Golden Age of Apocalypse and meanwhile... Tales of the Berylverse.
After the eventful summer that found Sable Loam involved with warring mercenary factions and the very firmaments of the universe, the ex-army school teacher finds himself becoming the Admiral of the newly ascended Princess Sunset Shimmer's fledgling guard: the new SIRENs. Between that and his job at Equestria County Alternative High, Sable hardly has any time for a personal life.
Enter Troubleshoes Clyde, a talented mechanic and former Navy SEAL. Sable thinks he might be of some use, but unfortunately, Troubleshoes has his own string of bad luck. Problems with his family and his checkered past end up bleeding into Sable's own life, and he finds himself in the cross hairs of some truly dangerous people. The new leader of SIREN must put his team to the test if they want to avoid a repeat of the summer that never was.
Cover art by DreamingKitty
Come on people lets gets some comments going here! I think this a great start to this story! I am looking forward to more!
9968066
Thank you sir! I look forward to delivering more. Things will only get crazier from here...
9968169
9968066
Yup. Wait until the Bollywood musical scene!
media.giphy.com/media/3otPoqJNk4MDfdL9Qc/giphy.gif
9968173
Actually I am looking forward to the unannounced "Weird Al" cameo.
Ow neat Dident even know this came out
9968568
I am looking forward to Tirespin meeting the triplets.
I'm also looking forward to the triplets getting to know Withers as well, but for very different reasons.
9974353 That makes two of us, but more so on the latter one.
Withers is gonna be... well, bucked... when that happens.
So, Withers thinks that Sonata’s car was Sable’s and that is where he’ll focus his attention on.
Good news is that Celestia, Down Luck and Cinnamon are safe. Bad news (for him) is that Withers is in for a world of hurt.
9985070 Pretty much, yeah.
And indeed, on both points.
The latter thing with Withers is, he just doesn't know it yet.
But methinks he will, soon enough.
Ooooo boy, WILL he!
Just had to talk about the bee hives didn't you. Just make me worried about a completely different problem while all of this is going on.
So, going off Spike Troubleshoes looks a lot like Luke Cage, nifty.
Aw hell, why did they have to be good girls this time around and not just shoot the ass? Well, besides the obvious, but things just got very, very complicated.
9994843
Glad someone caught the bit with the beehives. As bad as Los Perros are, there are still much bigger fish out there with their sights set on our favorite alicorn/girl's family, but that's a problem for another day. Maybe.
Fun fact, I ended up casting Mike Colter as human Troubleshoes in my head when I started writing for him, and Spike's moment at breakfast was my little nod to that. I even considered having Troubleshoes say "Sweet Christmas" at one point, but decided that might be too on the nose.
Now, the reason that the triplets let Withers walk away and didn't just off him is actually three-fold. Firstly there's the obvious: they're not killers and they don't want to be killers, and perhaps even more important than that, Sunset doesn't want them to be killers. The second reason is practicality. Although covering up a murder is something Sunset would in theory be capable of (at least on a practical level), there would be too much risk of drawing the attention of the authorities, who are themselves looking for Troubleshoes. Plus, there is a lot of stuff in their secret bunker that wouldn't be fun to explain to the police if they found themselves at the center of a murder investigation. Lastly, the triplets didn't want to start a blood feud with Los Perros. However, as 9995230 pointed out, the triplets aren't aware of the apparent history between Los Perros and SIREN (or at least, this timeline's version of SIREN, of which they were never a part).
9995850
I really want him to pull a Sweet Christmas now, maybe if he really gets pissed but is around Cinnamon?
Do wonder if Withers is going to dig into them. The paper trail that is the girls new life should make what he thinks he knows seem impossible. Granted, he might think they are skilled enough to make such a paper trail, but they do have that TV shout out...
Sure, they might just go in guns blazing, but I can see the shenanigans that changed things driving Withers up the wall.
I still get the feeling that Withers' whole vendetta against Troubleshoes is being acted on without his boss's permission, meaning he's probably gonna end up in hot water, especially if Los Perros ends up in a mess chasing down SIREN remnants that, as 9996044 points out, should be impossible to prove exist as such in this timeline.
If Withers hadn't been such a paranoid psycho, TS would have just fixed the SUV and that might have been the end of it, but now he's probably gonna end up getting his group a bloodied nose that his boss will probably make him pay for.
This is realllllllly good.
Why do you want to change the cover art?
Great chapter! Glad your back.
Damn it Sunset, that's one hell of a slip up.
10062446
media.giphy.com/media/dcubXtnbck0RG/giphy.gif
10062446
Mostly because as it is, it's not really much of an actual cover (and I've commissioned someone to make some that should be nearing completion)
I knew that Sunset's illusions were a mistake when that scene started. If you're trying to make people think you're not worth their time, you don't make yourself MORE threatening to them. And she really doesn't get the wide range of information access modern tech has or she would have known using real people for her illusions was another mistake. Only thing I'll give her a break on is she didn't know about the SIREN grudge til after the fact.
Still nice to know I seem to be right about Withers' rogue agenda. But will that matter after the girls bloody them in the now inevitable fight?
Nice and at this time it's really good and the script is awesome. The characters and their development are good.
10062819
Well, for all her talents, one of Sunset’s limitations is that she’s only been on Earth for five years, and she even admits she still doesn’t get everything about human cultures, more and technology. Ironically, Jade, who has been on Earth for about half that time (by her view, anyway), spent a year just researching those very things, which is why she’s far more ingrained than Sunset is. Unfortunately, as we all know, Sunny tends to bulldoze her way through situations without worrying about things like finesse - and even when she’s applying it, it’s not quite what anyone else would think of as such (as is shown with the illusions).
Will Troubleshoes train the new SIREN of equestria?
10074830
10062819
On top of that, the illusions would genuinely have been a good idea if it weren't for the history between SIREN and Los Perros (which Sunset didn't even know about until the week after putting her illusions up). If it was just Troubleshoes they were after, they would have seen that miniature army in Sunset's yard and decided he wasn't worth the trouble (no pun intended), but because they positively IDed the triplets's souers, we have the events of this chapter. Sure, a case could probably be made for Sunset exercising more subtlety and finesse with her illusions like Shin said, but also like Shin said, there's still a lot she doesn't understand about the human world
Damnit.
I swear, there's times I think that Troubleshoes' luck is worse than mine.
Please tell me they weren't stupid enough to just leave. Even without the audience perspective, this should have screamed trap.
10086082
It may be an obvious trap to you because you know this is a work of fiction, and that there needs to be some kind of climax. The characters have no such knowledge, and thus had no reason to believe it would be a trap. Los Perros had been gone for days, and whatever stragglers that were left the FBI was closing in on. Troubleshoes knew the enemy stragglers wouldn't waste time going after him with the Feds breathing down their neck (of course, he doesn't know Withers's true motives yet). As Cadance had suggested, the safest thing to do would have been to wait a few more days to make sure everything really had blown over, but Tirespin desperately wanted to see her daughter again, and ultimately Troubleshoes loves her too much to deny her that. Trust me, even the most objectively-minded people have blind spots where their children are concerned.
The other factor is we don't get to see Sunset's perspective on the situation this chapter, which is something I'd originally planned to include. She realized during the conference call with Cadance that her desire to make Troubleshoes and Tirespin happy meant that her declaration that they could go home that night may have been a bit premature. Originally I had planned a scene in which she argues that Troubleshoes and Tirespin should stay the extra days anyway, only to fail to change their mind. I decided the scene ultimately didn't add anything to the story and scrapped it.
Maybe i'm having another RWBY phase, but am i the only one that feels like the cover came straight out of it?
Well daaaaamnn
Well Withers I can only say "Cheh". You will not be again abstracted by some primal instinct.
The story is good and the person who paid for the bail is maybe the sphinx but I hope there will be a sequel to this because it's nice and different at the same time of the others stories.
Soon you’ll be brought into the fold
Having the car be a KIA was a bad choice. This being a text medium, and given this story franchise's high body count, I keep reading it as K.I.A. and get confused for a minute or two.
11368109
I'll admit, I hadn't thought of that being an issue, but I'm pretty sure Sonata's car has been a KIA since 7DSJ book V, so it's a little late to change it now
11368695
Fair enough. Just letting you know my personal experience.
All those reactions to the end, but nothing on the fact that Troubleshoes' Ex was literally named Placeholder? Seriously?
...and there we go.
...well, $#!+. When things finally kick off, it is going to be a 21 Archenemy Conga Line, isn't it.