Chapter 1: INGiiaFD

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Morning. It was morning again. At least I was mostly sure it was. Always hard to tell with the cloud cover. I turned my head to the right, seeing the mare from that I seduced into bed last night still sleeping soundly. Wait, did I seduce her, or was she a whore I paid for? Eh, either way she was decent enough. I'll leave her some caps for her efforts.

I rolled out of bed as quietly as I could so my companion wouldn't be disturbed, looking around my room as I woke up more and more. It used to be full of bunk beds for what I guessed were staff working long shifts. Taking all of them out and putting in a single, larger bed gave the place a lot more room. Now if only I had stuff to put in this extra space besides the few pinups of mares I ripped out of some Playpony magazines and stuck to the walls. I really need to buy more crap from the traders and scavengers...

Both happy and sad to be out of bed (it's a nice bed) I began my morning routine. I stretched and twisted my body as far as I was comfortable with going, sighing in relief at the quiet pops that came from my joints. Stretches, check. I trudged over to the bathroom to do my business. It was pretty small, but I couldn't complain. At least I had indoor plumbing and a shower. Gargle with water because I don't have any other way to clean my mouth and teeth, and I was ready to move on. Use bathroom, check.

I moved into the main room of my home, a rather large break room with two couches and a small kitchen. It was no Tenpony Tower, but it was cozy enough. I stared into the mirror next to the door, ready to do the final check of everything before heading out. Still a unicorn? I tapped my horn for good measure. Check. Still a stallion? A quick peek between my legs confirmed that. Check. Still have a purple coat? Check. Still have a purple and teal mane? Check. Still as sexy as ever? I grinned at the mirror. "Double check, you handsome devil, you!" I quickly clasped my hooves over my mouth, forgetting about my guest for a second. Hearing no noise suggesting she was awake, I moved on to the part of the checklist that wasn't me ogling at myself in the mirror.

Barding. I slid into the old slightly tight security vest, thankful for having scratched out all the lettering and for the pockets it gave. Check. Coat. I dressed in said coat, the long black fabric covering everywhere the vest didn't and hiding my very stand outish colors. Check. Boots. I hopped into them, all four landing perfectly on my hooves. Check. Hat. The black cowponys hat floated onto my head, lining up with the hole I made for my horn. Check. Saddlebags? Their weight settled in on my sides. Check. Guns? The revolvers floated in front of me, and I took the time to check over every detail of my money makers.
They were pretty little six shooters, deep black, with intricate silver patterns running along them. They were unique, they were deadly, and they were mine. I loved these little moneymakers of mine... Both were slid into their holsters, the added weight feeling like the hug of old friends returning. Guns? Check.

Alright- Oop, I almost forgot. I pulled about fifty caps out of my saddlebags and returned to my bedroom, setting them next to the mare. Alright, NOW I'm ready to start what I hope is the day.

Time to get to work, Gunslinger.
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Maremi International Skyport was Equestrias busiest skyport before and even during the war. The whole city was a major transportation hub, really. Railyards, wagon depots, the port… But the most lavish of these was the skyport. Numerous terminals all outfitted with the latest (relatively speaking) comforts and trendy shops, long, spanning runways, hangars filled with skywagons… All in surprisingly well condition. Well I guess that’s all thanks in part to Maremis unique brand of wasteland hell.

See, back on the day everything went to complete shit, Maremis missile defense system actually managed to shoot down every single missile that was coming for the city, and even some heading for others! Of course, this just means they all exploded high in the sky around the same time the pegasi decided to say “fuck this” seal off everything with clouds. So what happens when radiation and other chemicals seep into clouds? Radioactive acidic rain. And that clap of thunder tells me I’m probably going to have to trudge through that today. Yay me. At least all the radiation and acids are pretty damn weak after nearly two centuries. Still, that just means it’ll kill you slower and hurt longer.
I made my way towards the main terminal, the sound of music and talking getting louder as I headed towards the more populated areas of MiS. The main terminal housed most of the major shops, even today, though many of them also doubled as homes now as well. Merchants of all kinds were out in full force, selling everything from fresh water to whores from their storefronts. I may have considered both, pondering on the latter longer than the former… You know what, best to just avoid the marketplace right now before my libido throws me off track from my main goal.
Managing to will myself to turn away from flesh temptations for now, I took the long way around towards my destination. Down two flights of stairs, out a side door, walk down the way a bit and… I walked down the wrong way. Should’ve noticed the music getting quieter… Walk the CORRECT way this time, open an inconspicuous door, down four flights of stairs deep underground, and I was finally at the open gear shaped door of stable 37 and heading inside towards the Overmares office.

Stable 37 was alive with the sounds of music as always, that was their experiment after all. Stable-Tec literally took every piece of music, a few of every instrument, and all the recording materials they could get their hooves on, stuffed them into this stable and said “make music.” Surprisingly, this actually worked out well. Most of those who are in 37 are friendly and peaceful, make and listen to music of all kinds, and even trade and sell music along with the other things they offer, namely grain and oranges. It was the kind of place where you could kick back with some toast and OJ and listen to whatever music tickled your fancy in a happy, safe environment.

Of course, all of this didn’t mean that the stable dwellers was a bunch of pushovers. Quite the contrary, actually. They were probably the biggest gang around, controlling the Skyport and the surrounding area. Mostly thanks to their Overmare and her best friend, who they rally behind and whose office door I was now standing in front of. I sighed and steeled myself. Might as well get this over with… My hoof gently made contact with the metal door three times, and I awaited a response.

“Enter.” A young, no nonsense voice said after a moment. I didn’t waste any time following her request, opening the door and stepping inside. Behind the desk of the Overmare was a pink earth pony mare in her late teens dressed in the special blue and yellow jumpsuit made for the stable leaders. She looked up from her papers, blue mane bobbing a bit as she finally acknowledged my presence. “Gunslinger,” She said near emotionlessly.

“Tinker,” I replied with a little more warmth in my voice than hers. “Got any work for me?”

The young Overmare nodded, digging through some papers. “I do, actually. Where is it… Ah, here it is!” I moved a bit closer to try and read the piece of paper she had, but she held it up, blocking my view of the words. “Apparently a Steel Ranger has been razing caravans around the warehouses down the way. I want you to take care of it.”

Normally I accepted the job and then asked for more info, but this one seemed a little… strange. “The Steel Rangers? Why would they even bother caravans?”

Tinker shook her head. “Not THE Steel Rangers, A Steel Ranger, in some particularly creepy looking power armor from the reports.”
One of my eyebrows raised at that. “A single Steel Ranger in some creepy armor…?”
“And pretty damn deadly from what these reports say,” The small mare added.

I sighed deeply. “Of course they are. Alright, I’ll do it. 3,000 caps when I get back.”

Now it was Tinker who raised an eyebrow. “3,000 caps? Isn’t that a bit much?”

“The safety of caravans coming to trade supplies here isn’t worth that cost?” I retorted.

“Maybe it isn’t,” She replied coldly. “Maybe it’s only worth 2,000 caps.”

“Then I say find someone else who will take on a more deadly than normal Steel Ranger who can take out entire caravans single hoofedly for that low.” I turned and began to leave the room.

“Wait!” She called before I could leave. “2,500. That’s as high as I’ll go.”

“And maybe send a cute, mare up to me once I’m back?” I asked as innocently as I could.

Tinker let out a sigh and I saw her head hitting the desk with a thump out of the corner of my eye. “I’ll see what I can do... But you’re not getting anything else out of me for this job.”

I grinned and started making my way out of the office. “One dead Steel Ranger, coming right up!”

I heard the Overmares head hit the desk again, and just barely caught her muttering “Why do I put up with him…” to herself.

My grin just got wider.
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I made my way through what used to be a restaurant, shaking off some of the stinging rain that had managed to land on my coat, the one I was born with, I mean. At least the toxic storm was starting to weaken to a little drizzle. I checked my surroundings carefully as I slowly made my way through the half collapsed building. Nearly all of the buildings may have remained untouched when the bombs fell, but 200 years of acidic rain and neglect have made many collapse, especially the taller ones. I gingerly peeked around the corner of a large hole in the wall where a cart had crashed through, making my route plan. Through the parking lot, across the four lane street, and take cover at that skywagon stop. Alright, that’ll work. One… Two… Three!

Almost immediately I backpedaled back into the restaurant as a burst of bullets came my way, a few bouncing off harmlessly against my coat. I had to wonder if the thing was made of kevlar or something, because it held up surprisingly well against low caliber ammunition… Usually.
“Get out here, you little trespasser!” A male voice yelled at me.

“Trespasser?” I took a look around the restaurant again. Some dirty mattresses and supplies were around the place, but I didn’t think anything of them before. I mean, who leaves all their stuff unguarded!? “Look, this is all a misunderstanding. I honestly didn’t know anypony was actually living here. Can you let me go this one time? Please?” Not only did I not want to get in a shooting match and murder ponies who were just trying to survive, I also had a job to do and this was wasting my time. It’d already taken me a few hours without trouble to get a few blocks from my targets supposed area.

“Come out slowly, don’t make any sudden movements or I’ll blow your fucking brains out.” The same male voice called. I had a feeling he was telling the truth. I creeped out of my cover slowly as he instructed, walking slowly towards him. A blonde earth pony stallion with a dirty green mane and armor that looked like he just threw a junk pile on himself stood in front of me under an awning, with a mare and stallion dressed in similarly junky armor on either side of him, all with weapons pointed at me. Oh joy, bandits. Well at least they weren't raiders. “That’s far enough.” He ordered, and I stopped moving. “Dagger, search him.” The mare, another earth pony, nodded and stepped closer to me. What, now I had to be frisked?

Don’t think any lewd thoughts, don’t think any lewd thoughts… Though she’s surprisingly good looking for a raider… Shut up, brain, I’m trying not to get shot here! Her hooves do feel rather nice… While she’s probably checking to see if I stole anything while her friends have me at gunpoint. Does it really take that long to check under your coat? YOU’RE NOT HELPING.

“He didn’t take nothin’ of ours, boss.” The mare finally said, stepping back into her previous place. It seems that in my inner struggle, she searched me and my saddlebags thoroughly. VERY thoroughly, the perverted part of my brain reminded me. I immediately beat that part up with a pipe.

“Why are you out here?” The stallion who I could now safely call the leader asked.

“I’m on a job for Tinker. I’m supposed to take out a Steel Ranger causing trouble.” I replied. Usually mentioning I worked for Tinker got me out of these situations faster. I thought of making a smart remark along with that, but decided against it. No use pushing my luck just yet. I could take these three pretty easy should it come to it, but since I wasn’t lucky enough to have a pipbuck or any type of device with an Eyes Forward Sparkle, or E.F.S., I didn’t know how many friends they had hiding out of sight or around the corner. Not worth the risk.

“She sent you to take on that psycho?” The other stallion, a unicorn, asked in surprise. I nodded.

“About damn time!” Dagger said with a smile. “Bastard has been shooting up everyone who gets near. We’re just lucky he doesn’t come out this far.”

“He doesn’t?” I asked. All three of them shook their heads. “Interesting…” Perhaps this was a feral ghoul of sorts? That wouldn’t explain the shooting part though. Maybe a robot that looks like a Ranger? An automated suit of armor? “At any rate, I’ve got a job to do and you’ve proven I haven’t stole from you. Can I go now, please?”

“Your funeral.” The lead stallion said with a chuckle. “Yeah, you’re free to go this time, just because I know you’ll be dead in a little while anyway.”

Well that sure helped my confidence… I started trotting past them and was nearly out of the parking lot when an idea hit me. It was really stupid, but I was already let go, so it couldn’t hurt. I turned back to the three who were making their way inside. “Hey!” They all stopped and turned back to me. “Mind if I ask a question?”

They all looked at me quizzically, but the leader shrugged. “Sure, go ahead.”

“It was for her, specifically.” I said, focusing on the mare. Now they looked even more curious.

“What?” Dagger asked impatiently.

“Ms. Dagger,” I started, no longer able to stop a grin from breaking out on my face. “Would either of those nice stallions with you happen to be named Cloak?”

I spent the next two blocks grinning like an idiot and running from a knife throwing Dagger as she screamed about “That fucking joke!”
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Well this has killed my good mood completely, though dead bodies tend to do that.
I’d finally made it to the area my target is supposed to be in to find dead bodies lining the streets like decorations. A lot of dead bodies. Males, females, earth ponies, unicorns, a few pegasi, griffins, two manticores, and what may have been an alicorn, though I couldn’t be sure since its body was cut in half, intestines dangling between the two parts of what used to be a powerful creature. Many of them hung from the remaining streetlamps, some by rope, others by their own intestines. Others had been speared to the walls of surrounding warehouses by steel pipes and rebar and sometimes bone where the walls were weak enough. All of them had expressions of pure fear and terror forever frozen on their faces.
I was just a little bit more worried now about my chances of survival.
“One Steel Ranger did all this?” I said to myself.

“Oh this is nothing. Some Steel Rangers have wiped out entire stables before.” A voice that definitely wasn’t mine responded. It was feminine and sounded slightly metallic, like they were trying to talk to me from behind a metal door. I jumped a bit in surprise and whirled, ready to confront whoever it was… And adopted the same look of fear and terror that the deceased around me had.

Standing a few yards away was a suit of Steel Ranger armor, although different from what I’ve seen before. It was a good few inches taller than normal, making it just that more imposing. Someone had taken the time to meticulously paint it with bones. It wasn’t just a random assortment of bones either, each one was placed exactly where it would be on a ponys body, making the suit look like a walking skeleton. The last real difference was the eyes. Two bright red lights burned like the fires of Tartarus themselves from their home inside the skeletal looking helmet instead of a suits regular, mute color. I felt my blood run cold when I looked into them.

“What’s the matter?” The now what I assumed to be a power armored mare asked. “Something got you scared?” I could hear the playfulness in her voice, like she already knew the awnser. "It's the bodies isn't it? I tried to organize them to really give off how the place felt. What do the Neighpanese call it? Um..."

Alright, enough of this. I was pretty proud of my ability to draw and shoot my revolvers. You can't exactly be a gunslinger without being able to draw quickly. Luckily for me, she was too lost in her thoughts to even react to me drawing and shooting. Unluckily for me, my shots missed the one part of her armor nearly any caliber bullet could break through, the eyes. Now all of her attention was back on me after my bullets pinged harmlessly off her helmet and chest.

"You little shit!" She yelled, starting to circle around me, but not move closer. Her pattern was erratic, never allowing me a clean shot at her face. "You're another fucker here to try and kill me, aren't you? I thought you were some lost little colt or something. I was just gonna scare you away, but now you're getting your ass kicked!"

"We'll see about that, you homicidal bitch!" I yelled back, trying to circle around her the same way she was doing me when suddenly the psycho ranger changed her course and charged right at me, binging her weapons to bear. I had hoped that whoever the Ranger was had weapons like grenade machine guns or rocket launchers, weapons they couldn't risk firing at close range. My bad luck continued however, as I saw the heavy miniguns on her armor start to spin up.

I rolled to the side as the hail of bullets started coming my way. They weren't of a high caliber, but the sheer amount of them she was able to fire off was insane! I was able to dodge most of them, but a few managed to tear through my coat, luckily being stopped by my vest. I could feel the bullets whizzing by my flank as I ran and jumped behind an overturned wagon.

"That's right, run and hide like the little bitch you are!" Oh great, she was gonna spend this entire fight insulting me. The creepy Ranger had at least stopped firing her miniguns, so that was good. Then I heard her moving, and quickly too. I chanced a peek out of my cover and paled. The crazy bitch was charging me! On one hoof, this would bring her closer, allowing me to get a better shot at her eyes. On the other, she could easily hit me with her heavy power armor and perforate me with her miniguns should I move too far back.
An idea hit me. It was stupid, but it should be enough to buy me some time. Backing up several feet, I prepared myself. Just had to time this right...

"You stay right there so I can crush you properly!" She was still charging, and now I began charging too.

"Not a chance, baby!" Now we were running towards eachother, nearly at the wagon. She must have thought I was going to charge her head on, or just didn't care.

It's times like this I wish I had S.A.T.S. (Stable-Tec Assisted Targeting Spell) for more reasons than just help with aiming, but also because the slow motion of it would make some things so much cooler. We both jumped at the same time, sailing over the wagon mere inches from eachother. I like to think her eyes were wide with surprise as we passed eachother. I rolled a bit once I was on the other side, quickly scrambling to my hooves. That at least bought me some time to back off and think of a plan. Maybe if-

An absolute storm of bullets tore through the wagon, and I had to run to the side to avoid them. She could have done that the entire time?! The bitch was playing with me!

"Alright, you caught me off guard. I'll admit that." She said once her gun had stopped again. "You're a smart one. Avoided my charge, keep trying to aim for my eyes..." I could feel the grin on her face again. "You're gonna be a fun one, I can tell!" The power armored mare charged through the wreckage of the wagon at me again, guns blazing again. "Come on, stud, lets dance!"

"Stud, huh? I like it!." I was actually starting to like this mares personality a bit, aside from the insane killer part! I ran towards the opposite end of the street, bullets chasing me all the while.

"You're putting up a good fight, but do you have what it takes to kill me? I think you just might!" She was laughing madly at the prospect of potentially being killed! What the hell have I gotten myself into?

I kept zigging and zagging, but her aim was getting closer. I had to think fast or I was toast. I was getting close to the body of one of the manticores... Hmm, that could work! I ran right past the hanging heavy body a bit and then doubled back straight towards her again.

"You gonna try and pull the same shit again?" She was laughing as we continued our charge. A few bullets hit me, but I shrugged them off for now. I couldn’t go off course. I just had to hold on until the time was right... Now!
I shot upwards while slamming my hooves on the ground to try and come to a stop. My bullets cut through the thick ropes holding up the heavy body of the manticore. It fell to the ground, a few feet in front of the charging Ranger.

"Oh shi-" Was all she managed to get out before she crashed into the heavy body with a wet crunch. My plan actually seemed to work this time, as I only impacted against the animals corpse with a light thud. I had pain rushing through my chest and forehooves, but I shrugged it off as I moved to the other side of the body. I could worry about it after she was taken care of.

The Steel Ranger mare had her rear half stuck out of the manticore, wiggling around as she tried to free herself. She'd managed to get herself pretty well stuck in its ribs and guts, the broken bones catching on the power armor and the blood and guts making traction hard for her front end.

"Nice ass." I joked as I sat on the street near her, still trying to ignore my injuries. A muffled "fuck you" was her response. "I might've let you, but I'm not into necrophilia, seeing as you'll be dead soon. Sorry, babe." I chuckled at my own little joke. My bullets still couldn't penetrate her armor, so I had to wait for her to get herself free of the corpse for a shot at her eyes.

It took about a minute for the Steel Ranger to get free of the manticore’s body, my guns in her face the moment she was. "Sorry, baby." I said, grinning. "You were probably good looking too." With that, I pulled the triggers.

Click click.

My grin fell as both of my guns came up empty. Had I really used up all twelve of my shots? I quickly pulled the trigger a few more times, all of them clicking on an empty chamber. Oh this was not good. I had to reload quick or-
It was around this time that the Steel Ranger finally came out of her daze, realized that I couldn't kill her at the moment, stood, turned, and bucked me.

Amazingly, she didn't hit my chest much, but I still heard something pop and felt heavy pain as I went flying across the street, rolling to a stop on the sidewalk. My guns were somewhere behind me, having been tossed when my magic cut off. The crazy mare started moving towards me slowly, like she had all the time in the world. Well I'll show her, I-

Cried out and immedietly collapsed on the ground when I tried to stand on my front legs, burning pain shooting through the joints where they met my body. She dislocated my fucking legs!? This was bad, but I could still kill her. I just had to find my guns, I just needed one bullet... Just had to ignore the screaming pain in my legs...

A metal hoof pressed against my horn, and I looked up at the power armored mare, covered in blood and guts, the skeletal paint job underneath just visible and those burning red eyes burrowing straight into my soul. A flash of lightning pierced the sky behind her, making her look all the more menacing. "Stop using magic or I crush it." I could tell that was a promise. I stopped searching for my guns and ammo and closed my eyes, awaiting my fate. She moved to sit on my chest, not enough to crush me, but I couldn't move under her weight.

She just sat there for a few minutes, and I was starting to get worried. Was she waiting for backup? Whoever put her up to this? Were they going to torture me for information? Just for fun? To hell with that, I wasn't going to let them! "Come on, finish me already." I managed to groan out. Laying there like that left me with nothing to do but focus on my injuries, which while they weren't life threatening, they still hurt like hell. "Kill me already, you fucking murderous psychopath!"

That got a reaction out of her. She grabbed my head with both forelegs, lifted it up, and smashed it against the concrete. I was seventy percent sure I had a concussion. I couldn't tell with my brain all scrambled from the impact, though. "Like you have any right to call me a murderous psychopath, Mr. Kill People for Caps!" She spat.

"Up yours." I shot back. "I’m not the one hanging bodies up like decorations!"

That earned me another skull smashing against the concrete. "Yeah, and they’re supposed to keep people away!." She said once she thought I regained my senses. “What kind of dumbass walks into a place with as obvious a keep out sign as hanging bodies?

“Well I never was the most intelligent.” I joked. She seemed to agree and chuckle to herself. “But… Why so many?”

“I like killing.” The mare stated simply. “Some attacked me, others I attacked first. Some I killed to save others, some I killed just because. But I killed all of them because I fucking love the act of murder.”

Wow, this mare really is a psychopath! Or at the very least a cold blooded killer. “W-why the caravans?” It was getting a little harder to keep awake and ignore the pain.

“Why not?” She gave a shrug. “I needed supplies, and they’d rather shoot than try to talk to me, so I killed them. Let those that ran go, though. If they ran away fast enough, that is.”

“Oh I’m so sorry that you got shot at while wearing STEEL RANGER ARMOR that was PAINTED LIKE A SKELETON.” I gave a cough and almost yelped from the pain in my chest. Damn she got me good… “Look, are you gonna sit here and talk to me, or are you gonna kill me already?” The pain was hitting me full force now, and I really didn’t want to spend a few hours suffering a slow and painful death.

“Hmm…” The power armored mare tapped her chin in thought. “How about neither?” She moved to throw me over her back, and as my injuries finally caught up with me and I blacked out from pain, all I could think was that this was going to end badly.
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I awoke laying on something soft, which I was grateful for. My body ached all over, so I ruled out being dead. Half ruled out. Opening my eyes, I was greeted to the sight of me being naked and grey concrete walls. Was I in the stable or something? No, the walls looked too disrepaired for 37, and it definitely didn’t have the blessed air conditioning that it did. Maybe a bunker? My guessing game was interrupted by a female voice.

“Oh, you’re awake. Took you long enough,” She said, stepping closer to my…bed? I turned my head to look at her, and was a bit more convinced that I might have died. In front of me was an earth pony mare, a good bit taller than normal, with a dark blue coat and a deep red mane and tail. Her eyes were the most brilliant shade of red I’d ever seen, and the warm smile she gave me just helped to accent the beauty of her beautiful face, slender body, and long legs. She could give the models of the old days a run for their money easily! “I almost thought you were in a coma or something.”

I managed to stop staring long enough to start asking questions. “Who are you? Where am I? How long have I been out? Where’s-”

The mare put a hoof over my mouth to silence any further questions. “Slow down a bit, damn! My name is Bone Crusher, you’re in my home, and you’ve been out for about 4 days.”

“4 DAYS!?” I knew my injuries were bad, but not THAT bad.

Bone Crusher nodded in confirmation. “I fucked you up pretty good. Took me a while to get your legs reset.” She said with a smile.

I nodded. “Yeah, you-” I stopped as the full context of her words hit me. Taller than normal, female, the Ranger was carrying me off before I blacked out…

The grin she gave me just made my blood run cold. All her teeth were the sharpest looking I've ever seen on a pony! They would've looked more at home on a Hellhound! "Something wrong?" She asked with the same playful tone she had when we first met.

"YOU!" I tried to hop out of the bed, but only ended up falling back in the position I was in before, albeit with more pain. "You stay the fuck away from me!"

"Is that how you talk to someone that saved your fucking life?" Now the tone of her voice was the same annoyance she had four days ago.

"You mean those injuries you caused?" I gave her what I hoped was a deadpan look.

"You mean those injuries I gave you because you tried to fucking kill me?" Crusher responded with a glare.

"... Alright, you have a point." I grumbled, looking away from her. My body tensed when I felt her hoof on my chest. Preparing myself to try and fight her off, I was surprised to find that she was just... Rubbing my chest.

"You're recovering nicely," She said with surprising gentleness. "Now that I know I'm not going to have a goddessesdamned vegetable on my hooves, I can start giving you full healing potions. You should be good to go in a few hours."

I turned my head to look at her curiously. "Why'd you save me? Why not just kill me or leave me to die?"

"Because I'm tired of this shit," Crusher spat bitterly. "I have a roof over my head, my armor, and that's about it. Still need food, water, supplies... Hard things to get when everyone runs from you. Caravans keep moving further and further away, keep hiring more guards. More and more attempts to kill me..." She sighed. “Not that I mind, but eventually one of them is actually going to get me. So congratulations, you’ve been given the honor of putting me down.” She gave a fake cheer before turning and leaving the room, giving me a very nice look at her flank. And what a view it was!
Her cutie mark was a skull and crossbones with both crossbones broken and a hole in the skull. Well, it fit her name at least. I couldn't be certain, but as my eyes traveled further across the rest of her nice hips and rear, I thought I saw something… different? under her tail. I shrugged it off as my eyes playing tricks on me.
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The next few hours were basically spent alone with my thoughts. Crusher returned once with two healing potions, telling me to nurse them over the next few hours. She was always nearby, though, doing something in the other rooms of wherever she made her home. I did just that, sipping at the terrible tasting liquid (cherries, yuck!) and mulling over my next course of action. I wasn't sure what to do about Bone Crusher. Yes, she was a murderer, and probably a psychopath as well, but did I really have to put her down? Perhaps there was a way for her to live AND stop being a threat to at least the Skyport and the caravans going to and from it...

It took a few minutes after I was done thinking for Crusher to return. "Well fuck, you look better than even before we fought!"

I nodded and gave her a smile. "Oh yeah! Best I've felt in a while, actually." I felt like a million caps! Guess there were some injuries I never patched up from previous fights. It's been a good while since I've drank a healing potion now that I think about it...

"Ready to end me then?" She asked with a little bit of excitement in her voice. Was she really that eager to die?

"Actually... I was thinking about that, and..."

"And...?" She asked curiously.

Here goes nothing... "I want to offer you a job."

Now she looked at me with suspicion. "What kind of job?"

"The kind of job where you get to kill and get paid for it," I said plainly. "I work for the Skyport, almost exclusively for Tinker and Stable 37. Right now, you're a target, but if you get with her, no one in their right mind would think of coming after you. Not to mention that the pay is good, the Skyport is nice to live in, and you'll be getting rid of threats to good ponies."

She went silent for a while, before finally asking “Why?”

“Why what?” I was pretty confused as to what she was asking.

“Why offer me this? A job, a nice place to live in, potential chances to kill…” She seemed honestly surprised anyone would even offer such a thing to her.

“You’d be a valuable asset to us if you joined,” I said with a shrug before grinning. “Plus, you’re pretty damn good looking. Can’t let that go to waste.”

She chuckled at that, nodding and extending a hoof towards me. “Why the fuck not? Can’t be any worse than how I’m doing currently.”

I smiled and shook her hoof. “Welcome aboard. With me all healed up, we can get going whenever you want to.”

“I’m ready to go now, no real point in staying around here. Don’t really have a lot to pack. Let me get you your shit and we can go.” Crusher left and returned a few minutes later in her power armor, my clothes and gear lying on her back. I got up and floated it all over to me, glad to have it back. “One question though,” The power armored mare said, still staring at me as I dressed.

“Shoot.” Hopefully it wasn’t something too deep or anything.

“What’s your name?”

I just grinned as I finished slipping my hat onto my head. “Gunslinger.”

She cracked up at the reveal of my name. “Well at least it’s accurate.”

“And a good name too.” I added defensively. I liked my name, I picked it out myself.

“Sure it is,” She teased, making a motion to wipe a tear out of her eye, though it was pretty useless given she was in power armor. “Now come on, I’ve got nothing left to do here.” Bone Crusher turned to leave the room, me following her since I didn’t know where we were.
________________________
The trip back to the Skyport was surprisingly uneventful. That may have been thanks to the fact that Crusher was traveling with me. I guess no one really wants to mess with you when you’re traveling around with a known psychopath responsible for killing numerous ponies and others. It gave me plenty of time to talk to my traveling companion.

“So…” I started, not really sure what to say.

“Yeah?” She responded. While not the biggest talker at the moment, she was at least open to conversation.

“What are you?” I asked simply.

“A pony, you dumbass.” Crusher deadpanned.

“Ha, ha, that’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“Well why the fuck do you need to know anyway?” She spat. Well that was a sudden change!

I held up my hooves defensively. “Easy, easy. I just was wondering why a Steel Ranger was living in a warehouse and not a bunker or base is all.”

The power armored mare stopped for a second and apparently let my words sink in. “Ohhhh, THAT’S what you meant.”

I nodded. “What were you thinking I was asking?”

“Nothing!” Crusher responded before changing the subject back to what I originally asked. “What I am? Well maybe I’m an outcast Steel Ranger. Or maybe they have me on special assignment. Maybe I’m not a Ranger at all, and I stole this suit. Maybe I’m a raider or working for Red Eye. So who knows what I am?” She shrugged and I could feel the grin she had on her face.

“Trying to be all dark and mysterious. What are you, a comic book character?” I mean really, was it that hard to give a straight answer?

“Oh go eat a dick,” Crusher said playfully, swatting at me with a metal clad hoof. “Maybe I’ll tell you later. Right now, I have a question for you.”

I raised an eyebrow, looking back over at her. “Oh? Well ask it.”

“Exactly where the fuck am I going to be staying?” She asked. I opened my mouth to answer before closing it again. I hadn’t exactly thought about that.

“Well…” I began, thinking of an answer on the fly. “You can stay with me.”

“Really now?” Crusher sounded surprised I suggested that before she began chuckling. “I think this is the most intricate plot ever created to get someone into bed.”

My cheeks turned red and I briefly looked away to regain my composure. “I meant sharing the place I live in. Although…” I grinned at her, hoping I wasn’t still blushing. “I wouldn’t object to that.”

Crusher was silent for a while and I was getting worried that she was mad at what I’d said at me before she spoke again. “You know what? I wouldn’t object to it either. We’ll see what happens.”

My grin came back again as we continued walking. I had a feeling I was going to enjoy having Bone Crusher as a roommate.
___________________________

Everyone in the terminals and the stable gave us a wide area and nervous glances as we passed by, though I couldn’t really blame them. This was a known killer I was walking with. Though the nervousness and quiet we got in passing quickly changed to angry and loud once we got to Tinkers office.

“You WHAT?!” The young Overmare looked like she wanted to rip my head off. I guess I couldn’t hold it against her, I did kind of bring an insane killer all through the terminals and stable while she was armed. Still, I wasn’t expecting that much of a reaction. “I send you out on a simple job, you disappear for nearly a week, then you come back with the target you were supposed to kill and ask me to let her work for me. What in the hell were you thinking!?"

I shrugged. “I thought this would make you happier, honest.”

"Why would I possibly be happy with you bringing this killer here?" Tinker asked in utter confusion.

“Because I’m on your side now,” Crusher spoke, finally getting in on the conversation. “You can call me whatever the fuck you want, but the fact remains that I’m valuable if I decide to join up with a group. Lucky you, I was convinced to come here first. I can always leave and offer my expertise to someone else.” Even though I couldn’t see her eyes, I knew Crusher was staring Tinker down, and the young mare was staring right back.

“You’re not getting paid for this,” Tinker said, suddenly focusing on me. “You failed to do the job.”

“Then pay me what he was going to get.” Crushe spoke before I could even open my mouth. “I was the threat and I neutralized myself. Therefore, I should get the pay.”

I could see poor Tinker on the verge of ripping her mane out. “You know what, fine! I don’t even care anymore.” She got up from her desk and moved over to the offices terminal and input something, causing a door to open next to her. “Stay there,” My short friend instructed us before she went inside. It was about a minute before she returned with a bag, the sound of numerous caps clinking away inside it. I floated the bag over to us and deposited it in Crushers saddlebags, my new acquaintance nodding at seeing the correct amount.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Crusher said with obvious smugness in her voice.

“Just get the hell out of my office,” growled the very annoyed overmare. “Now.” Her head hit the desk before we’d even turned to leave. “I hate my job sometimes…”
______________________________

“So you’ve got some caps, what do you want to do with them?” I asked as we left Tinker to recover from talking with us.

“Right now I want to see where I’m staying. Get a feel for the place and everything.” Crusher responded. I nodded in agreement, that was as good a plan as any.

“Works for me. We’ll take the fast route up.” She looked at me curiously at that.

“What fast route and why didn’t we take it before?” I could tell she was glaring at me.

“The elevator and direct stairs and I didn’t want to make that much of a scene with you.” I knew I’d made a bad choice of words the moment they left my mouth.

“Make a scene with me? The fuck do you mean “make a scene with me?” You think I make scenes?” Oh great now she was getting angry.

“That’s not what I meant,” I said quickly as we reached the large elevator and stairs that led straight up into the terminal. “I just wanted to make sure that you and Tinker didn’t kill one another before I started showing you around.”

Crusher pondered over this while we rode the elevator up, letting out a sigh once we reached the top and disembarked. “Alright, I guess you’ve got a point. Still, I don’t cause scenes.”

“Never said you did, I was just being careful.” I gave her my best reassuring smile and she nodded back as we both walked through the back room of the store that held the stable entrance and back into the terminal proper. Needless to say, ponies were off put by Bone Crusher walking around with me as I showed her the shops on the way home, but there was no threats or attacks surprisingly. I knew some of the traders here had to have tangled with her before. It might not be safe for the Ranger to travel alone just yet…
____________________________

“A refrigerator. You have a fucking REFRIGERATOR?!” Crusher looked at the thing in disbelief. I knew they were rare, but… “Holy shit, Gun. I haven’t seen one of these things in years!”

“Years?” I asked. “I thought the Rangers would at least have some.”

“Let me put it this way: There’s a reason all Ranger bases and outposts have a No Power Armor in the Kitchen rule, and we’re the reason for it.” The annoyance in her voice was clear. I had a feeling whoever made the need for that rule still hasn’t been forgiven. She moved away from the kitchen and into my room, continuing to check out my humble abode. “Nice bed. What’s through here?” She had already trotted over to the bathroom door and opened it, falling down on her haunches after she took a look. “Does it work?” The power armored mare asked.

“Everything in there works, yeah,” I responded, raising an eyebrow even though she couldn’t see me. “Why do you-”

Before I could finish, Bone Crusher was laying on the ground crying. “It’s… Beautiful…” She said with a sniffle. “Do you know what this means?” She asked, suddenly turning her head to look at me.

“Um… It means-” I tried to say, but was cut off again.

“It means I don’t have to try and bathe in the rain!” She exclaimed, jumping to her hooves. “It means I can take an actual shower! It means I don’t have to piss and shit in a ditch!” Crusher swept me into a tight hug before I could react, still crying tears of joy. “Thank you Celestia or Luna or Discord or whoever or whatever convinced me not to kill you!”

“Breaking… Spine…” I forced out, causing my happy friend to drop me.

“Sorry,” she sheepishly replied, dropping me to the floor. “I’m just so happy! You’ve got yourself a roommate, definitely!”

“Glad to hear it,” I coughed, getting to my hooves again. “So you’ll be taking the couch until I get a real bed for you-”

“Oh no, I’m taking the bed.” She interrupted, moving over to a corner of the room and stepping out of her power armor.

“What?! But this is my bed!” There was no way I was just going to let her come in and bully me out of my own bed!

“So we’ll share it,” She suggested, stepping closer to me again. “You don’t have a problem with that,” She was right in front of me, her head next to mine. “Do you?” The words were spoken in my ear in a sultry purr, sending a shiver running down my spine. How could I say no to that?

“Of course,” I said with a grin.

“Good,” Crusher purred in my ear again, giving it a slow, teasing lick. “Now before we get to bed, there’s something I should tell you.” Before I could even ask, she’d thrown me onto the bed from where we were. I looked up so I could see her and gaped at what I saw.

Crusher was still as beautiful as ever, but what really made my jaw drop was what was between her legs. An actual stallionhood was hanging there, raring to go! I wasn’t opposed to playing with males as well as females, but this was a complete shock. My reaction just made the strange, beautiful mare give a sharp toothed grin, stalking towards me like a predator towards their prey. “I’m not like most mares.” With that, she pounced.

It was going to be a long night.

Chapter 2: Youngbloods

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Sore. Every inch of my body was sore. Not the bad kind of sore like running from angry manticores or getting tossed into a solid object, but the good “I just had the best sex of my life” kind. This was something I could get used to! I groaned as I rolled on my side and opened my eyes, being greeted with an empty bed. Now where did-

“You sleep like a rock.” Bone Crusher said from behind me. I rolled over to find her standing in front of the tiny bathroom, water still dripping off her body, mane and tail slick and giving her an entirely different look. Goddesses, she was beautiful… “A pretty soft, snuggleble rock, but a rock nonetheless.”

"Everything is soreeee..." I whined like a little colt.

"Oh suck it up, you pussy." Crusher said with a roll of her eyes.

"No more sucking anything, please." I begged with a groan. The beautiful mare in front of me just scoffed.

"See, this just proves that Earth Ponies are the best at sex." She said, shaking the water off her body.

I immediately sat up and dropped the act, even though I really was feeling sore. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." She moved over to her armor and began looking over it as she continued. "Earth Ponies and Zebras are the best in the sack, then Unicorns, while Griffins and Pegasi are the pussiest of the pussiest."

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. "Oh please. You have no evidence that proves that. Have you even slept with a Pegasus or Griffin?"

Crusher seemed to deflate a little before answering. "Well... No..."

"Ha! Now I know you're full of shit!" I laughed triumphantly, sticking my tongue at her.

"Oh yeah? Why's it taking you so long to get out of bed? Afraid you'll walk funny?" She grinned smugly at me, finishing the checkups on her suit. I didn't say anything in response, I simply got out of bed, walked straight to Bone Crusher -without any limps, I might add- and pulled her into the deepest kiss I could muster. Needless to say, it took the Ranger completely off guard.

We stayed like that for nearly a minute before I pulled back and dove forward to nibble at her ear. "You're mine later." I growled. "I'll put that silly notion of yours to rest and THEN we'll see who walks funny after. But that's later." I gave her a quick peck on the lips before moving away completely. "Right now, I need to clean up and we need to go see Tinker."

It took Crusher a few more seconds to snap out of her daze. "H-huh? You cocktease! Why do we need to go see that bitch anyway?" She obviously wanted to put the theory of who's better in bed to rest right now. I did too, but duty calls...

"Guilty as charged." I chuckled and changed my walk as I moved to the bathroom, trying to imitate the trotting of all those mares who made their hips sway when they moved. I seemed to be copying it alright, because I could feel the killer mares eyes glued to my backside. "And we need to see Tinker about work, so get ready." I didn't hear a response when I entered the bathroom and closed the door, so I assumed Crusher was still staring dumbfoundedly at the door. The thought made me grin.

___________________________

We made our way through the large marketplace of the Skyport, opting to take the short route to Stable 37. I could feel all the eyes on us, Specifically on Bone Crusher. How many here had seen this armor kill their loved ones? How many still held grudges? How long before they acted on them?

"Look, you need to ditch the armor." I said plainly. "At least when you're at the Skyport, and especially in the market."

"Why would I do that?" She asked with honest confusion in her voice.

"You don't feel the stares? The hatred for that suit of power armor you're prancing about in?" I asked back.

"Oh I feel it. And I relish in it. The worst torture one can do is of the mind, not the body. They can't do anything because here they'll be the aggressor, and they'll be in trouble. Or I'll retaliate and they'll join the ones I took from them. And they know this, so they just sit and seethe and it's delicious." She purred and I imagined her licking her lips.

"Dear Goddesses, you're sick." I said with mild disgust in my voice, but a little admiration was there as well.

"You know you love it." She teased, before turning her attention to a stallion running a stand selling various odds and ends. "I think I broke that stallions legs." The power armored mare gave him a happy wave.

The glare he gave in return could have frozen the sun.

I just shook my head and sighed. "You're certainly something, that's for sure."
Surprisingly, we made it to the shop housing the elevator to the stable without any trouble. I wasn't so sure we'd be as lucky next time. That was a bridge to burn later, however. Right now, it was time to see if Tinker had anything for me- us to do today. The elevator was already coming up, so we just had to wait for it to get here. Perfect time to push our earlier conversation. "Will you at least consider it?" I asked hopefully.

Crusher sighed, nodding her head. "Fine, I'll consider it. Just because somepony out there might want to really get rid of me."

"You think?" I asked with as much sarcasm as I could.

"Fuck you, you smartass." She spat, turning her head away from me as the elevator finally arrived. "Now lets-" Bone Crushers words died in her throat, and the power armored mare jumped a few feet back in what could only be surprise and a little bit of fear. "Holy fucking shit!"

I just gave the only creature in the elevator that even had a possibility to frighten her a wave. "Hi Tiny."

"Gunslinger." She replied with a polite nod. Tiny was the very definition of irony. The zebra mare was massive, at least as large as an Alicorn, with muscles that seemed to be made of steel. The numerous scars along her hide and missing eye just added to that "I'm going to fuck your shit up" look. Bone Crusher may had the psychotic killer look down, but Tiny just oozed strength and dominance wherever she went. Despite this, she had a pretty nice, if distant attitude usually. She was like the wise old mare who dished out helpful advice sometimes and cracked everyone's skulls off the wall until they got in line when they were rowdy.

"So you're the little mares big lap dog." Crusher said, getting herself back under control. Mostly. "I heard a lot about you."

"And me about you." The giant zebra mare replied. "Hopefully you won't be razing any more caravans. At least not any that are friendly to us, anyway." She gave her an accusing glare, but Crusher just drank it in with glee.

"No promises, but you can rest assured I won't be doing it often from now on, if at all." The power armored mare said nonchalantly, ticking Tiny off just a bit. "I've got a fucking sweet gig here, and I'd be a fool to mess it up."

"Well more of a fool than you already are." For a zebra getting in her, what, late 40s? Early 50s? Tiny sure could be childish at times. Guess it came from hanging around Tinker so much... "Anyway, as much as I'd love to continue this conversation, I must be going." The stable ponies took this as their cue to safely haul ass out of the room before anything happened. She turned to me and stared, her eye asking a silent question.

"I'll look after the little brat while you're gone, promise. I was just going to try and get some work from her anyway." I gave her my best smile, and that seemed to seal it.

"Thank you, Gunslinger. I... worry about her when I'm not close by." Tiny looked apprehensive for a second before straightening back up into the badass wall of flesh she was.

"Don't worry, we'll make sure nothing will happen to her." Bone Crusher said with confidence.

Tiny stared her down like she was an enemy ready to attack. "You better." Was all the massive zebra said, and even though I've done this for her many times, I still felt my blood run cold at the unspoken "or else" tacked onto the end of that.

"Where are you going anyway?" I quickly asked, not wanting the conversation to end on an ominous tone.

"I'm escorting some of the Stable inhabitants to a place they wanted to scavenge and back. It should not take more than a few hours." She replied, moving out of the elevator and heading for the door. "Which reminds me, I should catch up with them. Stay safe, Gun."

"You too, old timer." I gave a nod and moved into the elevator, Crusher following behind me.

"That is one big ass zebra." She remarked, stating the obvious.

"Eh. Her ass is more toned and muscular than big." I answered with a shake of my hoof.

"I heard that!" Tiny yelled from across the room. I'd hoped she was out of earshot by this time. Though the tone of her voice was more playful than annoyed, I closed the door and made the elevator start descending just in case she decided to "playfully" throw a heavy object at us.

___________________________

"So what is this called again?" Bone Crusher asked, eyeing her plate curiously. The killer mare sniffed her plate, unsure of how to feel about the food on it.

"It's a waffle. They make it out of wheat from the stable." I replied simply. We'd gone to Tinker looking for work, and she said to give her some time to check if she had anything of value for us to do. I decided to take this free time and take my new partner in crime to breakfast at a nice little resturant in the terminal that sold some different kinds of good food for a reasonable ammount of caps. So far it had gone better than I had hoped. There was no one dead yet.

"And this stuff that looks like cum?" She asked, gesturing to the white square in the middle of the waffle.

"Butter. If I remember correctly, they make it from Brahmin milk." I awnsered for the second time.

"And this sticky orange stuff?" She gave it a lick, nodding at the taste.

"That's syrup they make from the oranges." I replied with a bit of irritation in my voice. It couldn't have been five minuets ago that I just explained all this!

"Uhhuh... And-" She began to ask something else, but I cut her off.
"By Lunas fat ass, will you just eat the damn thing already!" I wanted to get to my own food sometime this year.

"Alright, alright! Jeez, who shoved a stick up your ass?" Crusher gave me a glare, but finally leaned in and took a bite after one more apprehensive look. And then she took another. And another. And then the entire thing was gone in a flurry of noisy gobbling and plate licking. As quick as she started, she sat back and called over the waiter, ignoring the stares of all the patrons around us.

"Yes, miss?" He asked innocently.

"Bring me all of your waffles." Crusher said simply.

"What?" We both asked in confusion.

"I said bring me all of your waffles." She repeated.

"Miss, we can't just-" He started, but got cut off when Crusher grabbed him and pulled his face into hers.

"I said..." She started darkly, staring into his eyes. I swear the temperature of the room dropped a few degrees. "Bring me. All of. Your waffles. Now."

To his credit, the waiter stallion didn't piss himself and scream in fear, though he was shaking like a newborn foal. "Y-y-yes miss. R-right a-away..." He turned tail and ran as fast as his shaky legs could cary him the moment she let him go.

Crusher turned back to me once he was out of sight, grinning as if she hasn't just silently threatened someponys life with her eyes. "This shit is delicious! I think I'm going to come here often."

I heard a scream of what I assumed was pure terror and sighed. Either that waiter was going to quit or we were banned for life. The only thing certain right now was that Bone Crusher liked waffles.

________________________

I stood across the desk from Tinker, waiting for her to say something. Crusher had went off on her own in the stable, complaining about "not wanting to deal with the pink bitch" and stuff. Fine by me, it cut down on problems anyway. I had to admit, it was a little amazing watching the little pink and blue mare handle piles upon piles of paperwork like a machine. You'd hardly think she was still a teenager! Though I do suppose they were training her to be her mothers successor since day one.

"I've got a job for you, and I need it done quick." The young Overmare said, finally looking up at me. "That means no getting knocked out for four days, alright?" She fixed me with a glare.

"That was that one time, jeez." I defended, though I still looked away and rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "But you can count on me and Bone Crusher to get the job done."

"I'm hoping so. This is important, but I'd rather not risk any more stable inhabitants." Tinker slid a paper towards me and I grasped it with my magic. Looking it over, I found it was a map of a good chunk of the city around the Skyport.

"What am I looking at here?" I asked confusedly.

"A map." She looked at me like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"No shit it's a map. A map for what?" I really hated it when Tinker tried to make me look stupid.

“It’s a map of the area they were working in. They were scavenging, said they found some nice stuff, bought it back to trade." She explained.

"I'm surprised you let them go that far away." Tinker didn’t restrict where the ponies under her could go, but they almost always stayed around the Skyport to stop her from worrying so much. She was overprotective of them like that.

"They assured me they could handle it. And they did, numerous times. Until now." The young mare sighed, and I could see the worry in her eyes. "They were supposed to return yesterday and check in, but none of them showed. Then an hour ago, all their Pipbuck signals blinked out one by one."

"What were they doing over the course of that day?" That was a pretty big gap not to come home.

"Two of them traveled towards the north and came back, while three of them stayed put all that time in the same location."

"And they all disappeared after the other two returned?" I asked curiously.

"That's correct." She replied.

"What am I looking for?" I was beginning to see where this was going.

"If they're captured, I need you to rescue them. If they're..." Tinker paused and steeled herself. "Dead, I need you to recover their Pipbucks and see if you can't find any clues to who did it. Most importantly, I need you to clear a safe route in either circumstance so more of us can come behind and continue their work... And potentially recover the bodies." She added grimly.

“Why not send Tiny?” I asked with genuine curiosity. I wouldn’t say everyone was afraid of her, but the enemy at least thought twice about attacking when she was around.

“I sent her with another group of scavengers. If this is an attack on 37, I want them protected.” She explained, and I nodded in agreement. It was pretty sound logic.

"And my pay?" While I wasn't above doing rescue missions for free, I don't think Crusher would be as charitable.

"A thousand caps for every one you bring back alive, five hundred for their Pipbucks only, fifteen hundred for just coming back with info, no negotiations." The tone of her voice said that there really would be no discussion of payment.

"Fine by me. Have the last location?"

"Yeah, let me get the paper again?" I floated the paper back over to Tinker and she took it, grabbing another piece of paper from a small stack and a marker. She marked a location pretty damn far away from the Skyport with a blue dot before handing it back. "I suggest you get going. I would like them back as soon as possible.”

"Noted. I'll get this done as quick as I can." I slipped the paper into my saddlebags and began to leave.

"Good luck, Gunslinger. Try to bring them home alive." Tinker said before I left.

I hoped they were still alive for me to bring them home.

__________________________

It was surprisingly easy to find Bone Crusher, since she was already waiting by the Stable door. "Had fun waiting?" I asked as I started heading out, the power armored mare following close behind.

"Yep! Spent 500 caps." She said happily.

That made me stop and balk at her. "500 already?! On what?"

"Music! Got a hundred songs at five caps a pop. No more listening to the same few songs from DJ Dickwad for me!" The killer mare just seemed to beak behind her armors helmet at that. That was right, the Stable sold their music for five caps a song. Not really a bad price when the only other options were DJ-PON3s same old songs or the spritebots music, both of which got really old really fast.
The music that started playing from Crushers suit was pretty heavy to say the least. Beating drums, screeching guitars, foul lyrics... It really fit her. I was still surprised Tinker let them make that kind of music. "

At least you've got good taste in music." I said with a grin. At least we weren't going to be arguing about that.

"You're damn straight I do!" She replied, stopping the music from playing out loud. "Now, what kind of work do we have?"

I filled her in on the job as we traveled back to the terminal and back out into the wastes and to my surprise, she agreed that it sounded suspicious. “So we’re going to find out what the hell happened, basically.”

I nodded and blinked in surprise as I found ourselves already outside the Skyport, passing the guards and incoming caravans. Do try to watch your fire if they are hostages, I want that bigger payout for rescuing them.”

"No promises, but I'll try since I want the bigger reward as well. Keyword, try." She responded.

"That's the best I'm going to get out of you, isn't it?" I sighed and kept on walking. "Fine..."

"So how long is this job going to take anyway?" Crusher asked as we started moving away from the populated area of the Skyport and into the city proper.
"Well..." I crunched the numbers in my head, trying to come up with a good estimate. "It'll take us the rest of today to get there at least, then we have to search and possibly rescue so who knows how long that'll take... At the very least, we won't be back until tomorrow."

"Well fuck, and I was just getting used to high class living too." She sighed in what I assumed was actual sadness.

"Don't worry, we'll be back soon enough, and hopefully with five missing ponies in tow." I said, trying to be cheerful. I wasn't sure it worked, as she said nothing in return and silence fell upon us as we made our way into the ruined city of Maremi.

____________________________

This was getting boring. We'd been traveling for a few hours now through the ruined streets and buildings of Maremi, and absolutely nothing has happened. No raiders, no bandits, no Steel Rangers, no rain, no wild animals, no caravans, nothing. Not even any talking, though I think that was due to Crusher listening to all the new songs she just bought. I couldn't take anymore of this quiet! Pausing to check the map again, I turned to speak to my killer companion once I was sure we were still going the right way. "Hey, Crusher."

"Hmm?" She came out of her music induced trance and looked at me. "What's up?"

"See anything?" I asked, hoping the hopefulness wasn't easy to detect in my voice.

She stopped and took a look around the area. "Buildings, road, sidewalk, sky, you."

I resisted the urge to buck her in the face. "I meant on your EFS, you dumb bitch."

"Yeah fuck you too." Crusher spat back before actually giving the answer to what I wanted. "EFS shows you in front of me as friendly and a few red dots dotted around moving all over the place before disappearing. Probably just some wild animals or something. I'll tell you if I think there's anything that's actually a threat."

"I'll hold you to that." I really hoped she would warn me before something or someone offed me. Silence was starting to come back between us, but I wasn't about to have it. "Can I ask you a question?"

"What now?" She groaned. "I just wanna get back to music."

"Tough titties, I want to talk." I replied indifferently. "So... What's with the painting and the red lights in your eyes?" It really was an odd look. "Come to think of it, your armor looks completely different from any other Ranger armor I've ever seen."

"I was wondering when you'd ask that. Honestly no one has really cared about asking why I did this since I left the Rangers..." Crusher went silent for a bit and I was about to kick her to make her speak when she finally opened her mouth again. "Well, since I was at least two heads taller than most everypony, nobody close to my height wanted to give me their suit, and my parents weren't dead so I could inherit theirs, I had to get a whole new one."

"Inherit a suit of power armor?" I asked in surprise.

"You think we got a fucking factory to keep making new suits or something?" Bone Crusher asked, and I looked away, chuckling nervously. "Really? I mean really?"

"So, you had to get a whole new suit?" I hoped she'd get back to the story and ignore my stupidity.

"Yeah. And it wasn't get new armor, it was get a piece of shit no one wanted. You're looking at the T-83 series of Steel Ranger power armor. Strongest, most armored, and one of the most rare suits of power armor in the entire series, and also the shittiest. Servos are trash so you can't move well, inferior spell talismans can barely lighten it up or repair it, no AC unit so you’ll die of heatstroke if you use it for five minutes... The worst part was it didn't even fit me! It was either fix it up or be stuck on scribe duty for the rest of my life."

"So you chose fix it up." I interjected.

“Damn straight!” She beamed. “It took me nearly five years of working by myself. Repairing shit, replacing shit, stealing shit, building shit… They laughed at me for five years, but I showed every single one of those fuckheads when I strolled into training with the best damn suit on the base! Most powerful, best looking AND most comfortable!”

“Most comfortable?” I didn’t even know Steel Ranger armor differed in comfort levels. Then again, I didn’t even know there were different types of armor until this conversation.

“Right before the bombs fell, our base got a delivery of carpet. Really comfortable, plush stuff too that was supposed to go into the executive offices we had. Then the world ended, so nobody gave a fuck about a few rolls of carpet. We kept it all down in a storeroom for all this time, and it stayed in surprisingly good condition. Nopony was using it, so I took some and covered nearly everything in it. The result? I have nice, comfortable carpet surrounding everything but my ears, mouth, nose, AC and medicine injectors. Only thing more comfortable would be sleeping on a pony. Not a dead one though, they aren’t very comfortable.”

I did not want to know how Crusher was able to compare sleeping on a living or dead pony. I turned my attention to check the map. Seeing we were still on the way and getting close now, I decided to continue the conversation with my companion. “Ok, that explains the odd suit, but what about the paint and the eyes?”

“Those? Well-” She began, but suddenly paused. “There’s a yellow dot over in that building.” She pointed in the direction of a five story building, probably an office building before the bombs fell.

“Yellow means friendly, right?” Crusher nodded in confirmation. “Then lets go say hello. maybe it’s a merchant or scavenger and we can get something off them.” The whole front of the building had collapsed and become inaccessible, but there was an alley next to it that led to a side door. Hopefully this wasn’t blocked off as well. Luckily it wasn’t and I let the much more able to survive an ambush mare lead the way.

“Well that’s… Interesting…” She wasn’t dead or being attacked, so I assumed it was something of the hopefully good kind of interesting. I started making my way inside behind her when someone started shouting.

“HoldthedoorholdthedoorholdthedoorholdthedoorholdtheDOORHOLDTHEDOOR!” Before I could even start searching for a voice, I was bowled over and went tumbling inside the building with someone else. By the time I got my bearings back, they were already off of me and closing the door. “Ok… I think I’m safe…” My dive bomber was a female griffin. She didn’t look to be too old, though I never was good at telling griffins apart. I was only sure I’d never seen her before due to her size and the almost garish green feathers on top of her head. The other thing I’d noticed was that she was armed to the teeth- uh, beak. Her armor looked sturdy and in one piece, and two submachine guns hung from her sides along with a few blue tipped grenades. I drew my guns just in case she wasn’t going to be friendly.

“You alright?” I asked while backing up a bit and keeping my guns trained on her. I didn’t fancy my chances of taking a griffin in hoof to talon combat.

“I should be fine now. Sorry for tackling you like that.” She said meekly.

I waved a hoof dismissively. “No harm, no foul. What’s with the big rush anyway?”

She was about to answer, but paused and stared at me. No wait, she was looking past me. I turned my head to see Bone Crusher and… I raised my eyebrows at the pony beside her.

It was a filly with a bright orange mane and a deep black coat, made all the darker looking with the black fireproof cloak over her body. What really caught my attention was the almost comically oversized flamethrower she had. The fuel tank alone took up most of her back! I also noticed the red tipped grenades, strange striped pistol, and gas mask hanging around her neck that almost looked perfect for her size… What’s with the sudden appearance of heavily armed children?

“Who’s your new friend?” Crusher asked me, gesturing to the griffin behind me.

“I should be asking you that!” I exclaimed, pointing at the filly. "I leave you alone for two seconds and you pick up a kid?"

“I’m Firebug!” The filly said happily. Well at least it was fitting…

“I’m… Aryanna.” The griffin replied, stepping up to all of us.

“Now that’s an interesting name.” The killer mare said, Aryanna nodding in agreement.

“I’m an interesting griffin.” She replied with a smirk.

"I'll say. What exactly made you run like that?" I was curious as to why she was so heavily armed in the first place, but that could wait.

"Raiders, and not the gang kind that'll probably let you live." The you g griffon looked horrified as she spoke.

"And you couldn't take them with all the firepower you have?" Crusher asked skeptically.

"They took out my whole squad and you expect me to stick around to try and face them?" Aryanna did raise a good point.

"Squad?" Firebug asked. "Does that mean there was a lot of you?"

"Let me just explain the whole thing..." Aryanna took a deep breath and calmed herself before starting to speak again. "Ever since I was little, it was my dream to be a badass like the Talon mercenaries. So I trained hard, ran away from home when my parents wanted me to become a metalworker, and lied about my age to join the Talons."

"Just how old are you anyway?" Crusher interrupted to ask.

"16. I'll be 17 in a few months, but that's not important." The young griffon waved off the question with a few dismissive waves of her talons. "So anyway, I joined the Talons, and was lucky enough to be taken on as a part of Red Eyes glorious army. Stern herself gave me my first mission! Stern! The head hen, Red Eyes right hoof, the most badass griffon in existence since the legendary Gilda herself!" I was starting to think she was a fan of Stern.

"Is this exposition going anywhere?" Crusher asked annoyedly. Apparently she was getting impatient.

"It is, it is, keep your power armor on." Aryanna reassured her. "So Stern gave me my first mission, this mission, and she looked me straight in the eyes and said "Don't fail me." And then I failed! Me and six others were sent down here to secure the Robronco factory down here for Red Eyes operation. They gave us access to everything we'd need: Matrix disruption grenades and bullets, anti machine rifles, the whole nine yards! And we didn't even get to use any of it!"

I saw where this was going. "You're saying you got ambushed?"

"Yes!" Aryanna nearly cried. "Raiders got us before we even got to Robronco. They popped five of us out of the air before we could even react, and got the other survivor before he could use his anti machine rifle. I ran before they shot me and ducked in here because I didn't want to risk a locked door. I'm sorry for telling you my life story, but I wanted to tell someone before I died..."

"Don't worry, we'll take care of those mean old raiders for you!" Firebug said, giving the griffon a hug.

"We will?" Crusher asked in surprise. "I don't recall saying I'd do shit."

"Might as well, they're probably between us and where we need to go anyway." I said with a shrug. Extra work I'm not getting paid for, great... But with any luck, they kept all the griffons weapons and armor.

"It doesn't matter, I'm dead no matter what!" Aryanna finally broke down and started crying. "I'm the only one left to face Stern! Not only did I fail her, I broke the contract by failing her! She'll probably clip my wings and throw me in the pit against Brimstone Blitz or someone else who can easily kill me! I can't go back to her and I can't survive the wasteland on my own, I know I can't! I'm as good as dead!" She held onto Firebug, sobbing into the fillys shoulder. "All I wanted was to be a badass..."

"You still could be." Crusher chimed in, surprising all of us.

"What?" The three of us said simultaneously.

"Look, you want to be a badass, right?" Aryanna nodded. "I don't like to brag, but I'm a pretty big badass around these parts. You stick with me, and I'll show you how to become the biggest badass in the wastes."

"Y-you mean it?" The young griffon asked hopefully.

Crusher nodded. "I mean it. First lesson, stop being such a pussy! There's a time and place to break down and cry and out in the field is not it. Shape up, right now!" She barked. Aryanna immedietly stood up and saluted, wiping a few tears from her eyes.

"Y-yes ma'am!"

"Don't show weakness out in the field around your allies or your enemies. Your allies rely on you for morale as much as they do firepower, and your enemies will press down on you even harder if they see that you're weak." The power armored mare explained.

"Yes ma'am!" Aryanna still held the salute.

"At ease." The griffon lowered her arm. I had to give Crusher credit where it was due, there was a lot more confidence in Aryanna's eyes. Still, I had to ask just to make sure.

"You're serious about this, right?" I was skeptical about the whole thing.

"You bet your ass I'm serious. Not only will she be a good asset for us with all her anti-robot gear, I honestly want to see her become a true badass of the wastes." She explained. While that was smart, I was still a little skeptical about the situation. But if Crusher wanted to take her under her wing and was actually serious about this, I guess I couldn't complain.

"Alright then, welcome to the team." I extended my hoof towards the young griffon, who seemed to have stars in her eyes. She shook it nonetheless. "I'm Gunslinger and she's Bone Crusher." The killer mare gave a nod.

"Ooh, ooh, can I join the team?" Firebug asked, leaning forward on her front hooves. Me and Crusher looked at eachother, thinking it over.

"Well she would be a valuable asset with all the flammable stuff." I admitted.

Crusher shrugged and looked over to Firebug. "Sure, why not? You're part of the team, kid."

"Yay!" The filly hugged Crushers armor tightly. "This is gonna be so much fun!"

I rolled my eyes, observing the two new additions to our little group. Hopefully this wouldn't he something I'd end up regretting.

_______________________

It hadn't been ten minutes since we met our two newest teammates and already we were about to go into battle. Crusher had warned us that quite a few targets were closing in on us from two sides. While this normally would've left us with a way to retreat, the collapsed front of the building along with Firebugs conirmation of only two entrances and exits to this building meant we were trapped.

"It's the raiders, it has to be." Aryanna said dejectedly, like she'd already given up hope at surviving the fight. "But how we're they able to finding me...?"

"That's a good question." Crusher admitted. "Maybe they have a zebra with them that can track targets or something?"

"We'll find out soon enough." I looked over my companions, thinking of a battle plan. "Alright, here's what we'll do. Crusher, you and Firebug will take the alley. It's pretty tight, so you should be able to make quick work of them. Aryanna, we'll clear the building. That sound good?" They all nodded. "Then lets get to it. We don't know when they'll try and come for us." We split up without another word, Firebug and Crusher taking position near the alley door while me and Aryanna moved deeper into the building.

"Hey, Gun?" The young griffon called, tapping me on the shoulder. "Can I borrow a gun? ... And some bullets? I don't have anything besides spark ammo for these, and I'd rather save that for robots. If that's alright with you I mean..."

Of course she wouldn't want to waste ammo meant for robots on living enemies. I unholstered one of my revolvers and floated it over to her along with some bullets from my saddlebags. "That should hold you over for now. Try and take their weapons off of them if you can." She nodded, checking over the weapon and storing the spare bullets in a chest pocket on her armor.

We stood in the lobby of the building, awaiting our attackers. It didn't have much in the way of cover, but it was open enough for Aryanna to fly around with ease. The way we could also see up every balcony up to the fifth floor meant we eliminated the chance of getting sandwiched between multiple attackers. I just hoped we wouldn't be ambushed. Without Crushers EFS, we were completely blind to how many enemies were coming or where they were coming from.

Suddenly I heard a shout, and then a scream and the roar of flames. It looks like our attackers were finally ready to close in on us. A stallion wearing dirty, junked together armor galloped into the room from further in the building, holding a pistol in his mouth. I didn't hesitate to draw my remaining revolver and shoot at his head. The round struck true, entering and exiting cleanly -relatively speaking- through his eye, sending the raider tumbling to the ground.

Automatic fire assaulted my cover in return, a couch. It was probably comfortable, but it definitely wasn't able to withstand bullets. I bolted out from behind the couch, firing blindly at the raiders. I didn't hit anypony, but it did make them retreat into cover, letting me dive into my own behind the big receptionists desk in the center of the room. That didn't stop somepony from taking a pot shot at me and nearly getting me in the head! I quickly pressed myself against the floor, ignoring the jagged concrete and broken glass trying to stab me through my vest and coat. Gingerly, I moved a bit further down and quickly popped my head up. Two rounds tore into the desk before I could get my head down again, another burst of assault rifle fire joining it soon after.

I was completely pinned down! There were two snipers on the second floor balcony and then there were the two raiders with assault rifles on the ground. And who knew if they had backup on top of that? Why'd so many of them come hunting after Aryanna anyway? Seemed like overkill... Or assurance. My thoughts were focused back to the task at hand when a shot from my gun rang out and struck someone, making them fire wildly before they hit the ground with a thump. Seems Aryanna had finally decided to join the fight.

"It's the griffon!" One of the remaining raiders shouted, confirming what I thought. "Shoot that bitch now!" They opened fire again, not in my direction this time. Perfect. I popped out of cover again and took aim, firing my last two rounds into one of the assault rifle wielding ponies. My shots hit home, both embedding themselves in the chest of the raider mare.

Now things were a bit more fair. I quickly floated out six more bullets for my gun as I dashed to the other side of the receptionists desk. They were getting smart now, however, with one keeping fire on me while the other tried to get Aryanna. One of them would have to reload soon enough, and that's when we'd strike. Sure enough, the sniping raider hit empty first, and both me and the young griffin pounced, a bullet coming from each of our guns striking him and sending him slumping against the railing, lifeless.

I came out of cover fully now, aiming my gun straight at the last enemy. I heard the soft thump of Aryanna landing near me soon after. By the way the stallion was looking from one of us to the other, it seemed like he'd realized there was no way to get both of us before the other got him. The unicorn let the magic around his rifle fade out, and it flattered to the ground.

"Smart choice." I said, holstering my own weapon. "Now then-" I started to say, but before I could, the raider stallions magic flared up again. I instinctively reached for the assault rifle, but found noponys magic on it but my own. Instead, I found a grenade being hurled at us, pin already missing. There was no way I'd be able to stop it and throw it back before it went off, so I did the next best thing. My magic wrapped around the grenade and pulled it towards us, and then straight past us where I let it go and hit the floor.

It went off just after, showering me with debris and shrapnel. Some pieces were large enough to give me a good bump on the noggin or sharp enough to pierce my coat and prick me, but it was much less severe than what could've been. My first priority was to stop the ringing in my ears. My second priority was to go over and check on Aryanna. "You alright?"

The griffin nodded and got to her feet, coughing out a bit of dust. "Aw man, now my head feathers are all dirty!" She was definitely fine. Now on to my third priority, catching that stallion. To my surprise, I didn't have to do anything to catch him. He was already back in front of me!

"Now that wasn't very nice." Crusher chided, giving the stallion another hit to the gut with her heavy metal covered hoof. He groaned in pain, curling into a fetal position.

"Thanks for catching him." I commended. This made the power armored mare laugh.

"Catch him? He ran right into us!" She exclaimed, shaking her head down at him. "You aren't too bright, are you?"

"So what do we do with him?" Firebug asked, joining the conversation. It was a good question, but one I already had the awnser to.

"Simple." I levitated my revolver out and put it to his head. "He's obviously going to cause trouble if we try to interrogate him or take him prisoner," I pulled the trigger, blowing the raider stallions brains out. "So we end him. Now lets start gathering up all their stuff, we still have a job to do."

________________________

We'd stripped what we thought were raiders of anything valuable, all of us taking what we wanted. The strange thing was that their weapons were in surprisingly high condition, as were their owners before they met their end. These raiders weren't as drugged up and crazy as Aryanna thought. They may not have been raiders at all... Still, we collected a good haul from them and made the final few block trek to our destination. What was there really surprised us.

Taking up the whole next block was a huge warehouse, surrounded by a rusting chain-link fence. Wagons and carts upon wagons and carts of what I assumed were lomg gone shippimg companies sat in its yard, some being moved by ponies that reminded me of the "raiders" we just fought, and others being pulled by ponies who were obviously slaves, though I did see a zebra or two working on both sides. The wagons and carts were either taken towards the warehouse or out into the street where they were being pulled... Somewhere.

"Red Eye?" I asked, turning to the Aryanna.

She shook her head. "I doubt it. This is around where and my old team was ambushed."

"I see... This is very interesting..." An operation this big outside of Fillydelphia wouldn't go unnoticed unless someone deliberetly kept people in the dark. Or only fed them some of the story... It became clearer to me exactly what was going on when I spotted a mare walking around in a blue and yellow jumpsuit barking out orders. The 37 was clearly visible on her back when she turned around.

"So that's their game..." Crusher said more to herself than any of us, but I nodded anyway.

"Alright, I think it's time we get some answers." The others gave their agreement. "So, who wants to raid a warehouse and kill nearly everyone there?" They all raised a hoof, and in Aryanna's case a talon, eagerly. I couldn't help but grin a little.

"Alright then, here's the plan..."

Chapter 3: Night Attack

View Online

I was broke.

We'd decided to wait for the dead of night to make our move. Not only would the darkness provide better cover, but we also could use the rest to be in tip top shape for the coming fight. Taking shelter in a nearby office building, we set up camp and waited. I couldn't say I truly trusted my companions yet, which led me to suggest we stand guard and sleep in pairs; an easy way to keep an eye on a potential backstabber and (hopefully) not have to deal with them alone. Bone Crusher paired up with Aryanna, while I took Firebug and the first shift of watching.

The filly talked a mile a minute, but nearly everything she said just didn't make sense or was about fire. She was definitely a little crazy, and I had to wonder how she survived in the wasteland like that, or if that was what helped her survive. When I'd finally gotten tired of her constant rambling, I suggested a game. To my surprise, she pulled out a pack of cards. Sounds fun, right? Just a friendly card game with a (mostly) innocent filly.

She had won everything but my hat and guns by the time Crusher and Aryanna woke up and came to take over guard duty. I was so engrossed in getting my ass kicked by Firebug that I didn't even notice the sun set and night set in. Soon it'd be the dead of night and time to strike. I wasn't sure how successful our plan would be. I wasn't certain how much I could trust my new allies, or Crusher for that matter. In fact, there was only one thing I was certain of as I laid down on the two century old sleeping bags me and Crusher had packed for ourselves:

I was NEVER going to play cards with Firebug again!

__________________________

It was time to attack. According to Bone Crushers suit, it'd been three hours since me and Firebug went for our naps. It was the middle of the night and thundering overhead as storm clouds rolled in. Or away. I really couldn't tell, but I hoped they were coming because that'd make the area even darker. Darkness was a key factor to the success of this operation.

The plan was simple: Aryanna would fly me and Firebug up to the roof of the warehouse, then go hide in a nearby building. Then Crusher would launch a full out frontal assault on the place, with Aryanna backing her up from a distance. While they did that, me and Firebug would slip in and find the stable ponies. We'd secure them, rescue and rally the slaves for support, then clean up whatever enemies remained. It was really a simple distraction plan, but even the simplest plans could go wrong...

I'd volunteered to be flown over first, since I was most likely the heaviest between me and the fire loving filly. Surprisingly, I didn't feel much about flying. I was more focused about the task at hand than getting a new view on the wasteland. Even from this vantage point, I could barely see Crusher as she walked towards the warehouse. The black parts of her power armor were nearly hidden in the darkness. For all intents and purposes, she looked like a walking skeleton with glowing red eyes. I had to admit, that was definitely something I would NOT want to see coming my way unless it was on my side. Maybe even then...

The roof of the warehouse was in pretty good shape. Not that many holes, it felt pretty solid, and there was even a hatch that gave us access into the building. To top it all off, there were only two guards up here, both sleeping together after seeming to have engaged in some on the job fun. This could literally not get any easier! As long as those two didn't wake up before Crusher started her assault, we were in the clear. I kept my eyes on them as I waited for Aryanna to drop off Firebug. Best not to have any unwanted surprises out of them. The griffin returned with Firebug in tow and gently set her on the roof before flying off. Everyone was in position or just about. Time to get this party started...

The roar of minigun fire signaled that Crusher had begun her job as the distraction. It also woke up the two lovebirds in front of me. Four bullets made sure they'd be together forever in the afterlife. There was something I wanted to see before I went inside, though. I'd never seen my killer companion actually fight, and up here on the edge of the building, I had a safe front row seat to see just that.

It was kinda frightening to say the least. Small arms fire pinged off of the ex Rangers suit harmlessly while she layed down bursts of fire from her miniguns. The flaw in her battle saddle -like all battle saddles- was that she could only aim at the angle her body was at, which left everyone above and below her relatively safe... For now. Her guns were easily chewing through most of the cover the slavers had to get behind as she advanced through the lot. Anyone stupid enough to try and attack her up close found out that Bone Crusher was a very fitting name for the killer mare. Right now she was a one mare army, a walking tank that was invincible. But that'd change once they start going for heavier weapons. It was time for us to play our part.

I moved over to the hatch and pulled it open. A short ladder and a small supply closet greeted me. Much better than what I was expecting, a room full of enemies or an open and exposed area. I climbed down the ladder, Firebug following me. The closet was cramped with both of us in here, but luckily we weren't staying for long. I cracked the door and peeked into the hallway. Empty, perfect. I creeped into the hallway, checking again in both directions before motioning to the filly for her to join me. "Ok, if you were a stable pony, where would you stay?" I asked the pyromaniac.

"Um... I'm not sure..." She admitted.

"First, they were stable ponies, so they'd probably lay up somewhere cushy to try and have some resemblance of home. Second, they looked more important than the others, but didn't seem like fighters or exactly brave, which means they're as far away from the battle as possible. Got all that?" Firebug was writing everything I said down on a notepad. When she finished, she put it and the pencil she was using to write away.

"Mmhmm! So that means that they'd be..." She trailed off for a while, looking around the hallway. There were no signs telling what was in either direction. "Um... This way?" The pyromaniac offered, pointing down the hall with a sheepish smile. I shrugged and started heading that way. Not like I had any better way of picking which way to go first.

_________________________

It was both good and bad luck that we went this way. Good luck because on the other side of the warehouse, I could just make out another set of doors and I was at least 80 percent certain that I saw the word Executive. Bad luck because of catwalks. It seems that this warehouse built most everything higher up to have more floor space. This left a maze of catwalks hanging over everything. They looked pretty safe, but these things were notorious for giving out under someponys hooves. Not to mention that we're completely exposed with only a limited number of paths to run if we get spotted...

I sighed and turned to Firebug. "Ok, I think where we need to go is straight across. Just act like you belong here and if anybody starts shooting, run for the door." She nodded in understanding and I turned back to the catwalks. "Here we go."

The first couple dozen steps were surprisingly smooth sailing. With the fight against Crusher and Aryanna and the race to find something that could actually punch through her armor, almost no one noticed us. Almost. A grey stallion carrying an anti machine rifle passed under us and only spared a glance. Apparently under some of the still functioning warehouse lights, that was enough for him to notice something was off.

"Wait a fucking second..." He stopped in his tracks. "We don't have any flamethrowers here." Me and Firebug started trotting faster. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him starting to adjust his body to try and line up a shot. Fuck punching through Crushers armor, that gun will tear us to bloody chunks!

"Run!" I shouted, not even bothering to see if Firebug was running behind me. Our saving grace was that the warehouse floor was a maze of crates and boxes. Combined with the fact that he had to aim his battle saddle by standing at an angle, and we were pretty much home free.

Then part of the catwalk blew up.

He'd fired at us, something that was definitely going to attract attention with the thunderous CRACK! the AMR made. It didn't matter how many times he missed, all the stallion had to do was hit us once and we were dead. Not to mention that every one of his potshots were chewing away at the catwalk.

We were almost to the door now. A few more feet... And then there was no door no more. The heavy rifle welding stallion missed us barely, blowing the door to pieces and showering us with splinters. I also noticed a lot more groaning of metal than I did a few seconds ago. It seemed like that last shot hit some vital support or the 200 year old metal just couldn't take this abuse anymore. Whatever the reason, the catwalk started coming down, beginning with the section WE were on!

I didn't even think, I just jumped for the doorway and crashed through what little remains were left of it. I landed, going into a roll and drawing my revolvers as soon as I was on all fours again. Our side of the mission was no longer a stealth one. Firebug went tumbling a few feet ahead of me on her back. Seems she wasn't able to make a roll like I was. It was enough to get a chuckle out of me despite our plan having gone half wrong. After all, it had only gone half wrong. They'd be coming for us, and our targets probably knew we were here, but we could still round them up and fight our way out. I trotted over to the filly and helped her up to her hooves. "Be careful, we're still in trouble here." I told her. She gave a nod, and we got back to the task at hoof.

There were a lot more doors than I expected. While I figured that there'd probably be a fair amount of loot and potentially useful pre war information to be garnered from exploring every room, I was on a tight schedule. So I simply reached out with my magic, grabbed every single doorknob, and threw open all the doors I could. Now all we had to do was quickly peek inside the rooms and shoot or capture whoever was inside. That was the plan at least.

The plan did not go as expected.

No sooner than I had thought of it did we come under fire from across the gap the catwalk made. Luckily, the distance was a far bit greater than our attackers were used to, leading them to miss and shoot up the carpet and wall around us. We needed to get moving before they stopped being shit with their aim.

"Follow my lead." I ordered Firebug, and dashed to the next open room. She followed a few seconds later, just missing being hit by the gunfire. I dreaded to think what'd happen if they struck her tank. I was definitely going to look into getting that reinforced once this job was over. Working with a walking bomb was just a little too dangerous for my tastes.

We continued our door to door dodging strategy until we reached the end of the hall. We needed to get these Stable ponies quickly, and the equally long hallways branching from the center in a T shape housed so many more doors... At this rate, we'd have to get dug in and really fight our way out. The gunfire had stopped, so I could only assume they were on their way over here using one of the other catwalks.

"Agh!" I yelled in frustration, slamming my hoof against the wall. "Which room could they be in?!"

"How about... that one?" Firebug asked, pointing to a door about halfway down the right side of the hallway we were on.

"Oh yes, I'm sure that's it." I mocked, grabbing the handle with my magic. "You've magically picked the right door, and when I open it, a Stable pony is gonna fall out."

A pony wearing a Stable 37 jumpsuit fell out of the doorway as soon as I opened the door.

"... Huh." I think he was just as surprised as me that Firebug actually chose the correct door. The filly just grinned at both of us.

"I told you so!" She beamed.

"That was just lucky." I retorted. Right, time to get this over with. The stallion was trying to stealthily slide his way back into the room, but I stopped him with a look. "We're not here to hurt you, we were just sent to find you is all."

"By who?" The stallion asked curiously. Four more ponies dressed in Stable 37 jumpsuits poked their heads out the doorway now that they knew we at least wouldn't hurt them on sight.

"Tinker." I responded. "She was worried about you all since you just seemed to vanish and not report in."

"Oh. Her." One of the stallions said with clear disdain in his voice.

"We definitely haven't been worrying about that brat." A mare added.

I raised an eyebrow at them. It was stupid to think that everyone in the Skyport or even the Stable liked Tinker, but I'd never encountered this much animosity before. "Well that's nice, but it's time to get you all back to the Stable."

"Like hell we're going back." The mare I first saw barking orders said, stepping forward. "We've got a good thing going here. Freedom, lots of caps, lots of supplies... We've got so much that we'd be more than willing to share with anyone who joined our cause..."

So we've moved into the bribery stage already. I weighed the benefits of each side. On one hoof, these ponies weren't lying about their operation. It wasn't Skyport and Stable 37 sized, but getting a good hoofhold in a small operation before it goes big means big rewards in the end for me. On the other, the Stable provided several unique advantages, like a barber, fresh food, clean water, the ability to have my clothes cleaned, close proximity to the Skyport, a steady source of caps, not being an enemy to Tiny, glorious, glorious air conditioning, and pretty Stable mares who wanted to experience a wild night with a "rough, tough wasteland stallion."

"Sorry, I don't change loyalties that easy." Not without the other side offering better benefits, anyway, but they didn't need to know that.

"I'm sure we can work something out, right stud?" The mare in front of me asked, placing a hoof on my chest and slowly dragging it up and down. That combined with the seductive smile made it clear what she was offering.

I entertained the thought for a few seconds before shaking my head. "No dice." I may have offered freedom to mares and stallions for a roll in the hay before, but this job was too important to throw away over a quickie. "Besides, I think I've blinked you before. The experience wasn't something I'd call barter worthy."

That little jab, wether true or not (I really needed to keep a list of who I screwed) earned me a slap to the face. "You bastard!" She screamed, readying to strike me again. I drew my guns and aimed them at her before she could.

"Alright, playtime is over. You're all coming back wether you like it or not." It was around the time I finished my ultimatum that I noticed there was only four of the five Stable ponies in my field of view. Before I could even ask where the fifth went, he came from another room (this room was joined to the two next to it) brandishing an assault rifle in his magical grip.

"No, I don't think we will." He said with a grin.

I looked over at Firebug, careful to keep my guns aimed straight at the mare in front of me for security. "Why weren't you watching them?!"

"I was!" The filly defended. "I watched them the whole time you were talking. I even watched him go and get that gun!"

I took a long, deep breath to calm myself. She was still a filly, I didn't want a foals blood on my conscience... "Next time, say or do something if you see something like that happening again." The pyromaniac nodded, and I turned my attention back to the Stable ponies. "And as for you, I still have a gun pointed at your friends head."

"That doesn't mean anything." The assault rifle wielding stallion replied. "You can't shoot us, let alone kill us."

"What makes you say that?" I quickly asked, trying not to show any nervousness at my bluff having been called before I even mentioned it.

"Because you won't get paid if we're dead, will you?" He answered, that shit eating grin stil on his face. I really wanted to rip it off.. While it wasn't completely true that I wouldn't get paid if they were dead, I noticed a distinct lack of Pipbucks on their legs. Add to that the fact that if I killed even one of them, the others would blab the moment we got back to Tinker. Deserters that dislike her or not, she'd still be pretty pissed if I killed one of her ponies.

I had to think of a way to turn this back in my favor. Seconds ticked by until I finally remembered the only reason we were able to get in here in the first place. "You have no choice but to come back."

"Why's that?" The mare without a gun at her head asked.

"Because your operation here is done." I said smugly. "You think we just snuck through this place to rescue you?"

"But we did do that." Firebug ever so helpfully added. I made sure to give her the best glare I could.

"Anyway, the only reason we were able to do that is because my associates are currently outside killing everyone who's not a slave."

"Bullshit. You're just making up anything now to try and get us to go with you." The stallion holding the assault rifle said. He looked very close to pulling the trigger.

"Try me." I dared, doing my best to keep up my confidence. "You five seem important here, am I right? Have guards and stuff patrol this area maybe? Well we've been standing here for a good few minutes, and I haven't seen anypony. That might have to do with the fact that they're all dead."

"You-" The mare in front of me started, but I cut her off. I was on a roll.

"AND. You have no choice but to come back anyway because lets be honest here, there's no way you all did this on your own. Gathering slaves, getting so many goons, establishing shipping routes and buyers for the goods here... No, you're getting big, but you're far from the top still. And whoevers at the top won't like how I've fucked up your operation, will they? They may come after me, but they'll definitely come after you."

"We-" The other mare began, but I cut her off too.

"Go ahead, call my bluff. Shoot us and go outside. You'll find most, if not all of your non slave workers dead, and you'll also find that our friends out there aren't as nice as us." I held my breath for several seconds, hoping that half stringed together train of thought was enough to get us out of this situation. They looked between eachother, talking in hushed whispers and contemplating what I said. The assault rifle wielding stallion finally gave his full attention back to me.

"Even if everything else you said is bullshit, you're right about what'd happen to us once our employer catches wind of this. The safest place to stay until the heat cools down would be the Stable." He said.

"So does that mean...?" I asked hopefully, guns still at the ready in case this situation got worse again.

"We'll come along quietly." He said dejectedly. I let out a sigh of relief. Our side of the operation was finally starting to go according to plan!

"Rifle. Now." I ordered, grabbing it with my magic now that I was mostly sure I wasn't going to get shot. He let his own magic stop holding it and I floated it over to float in front of me. I wasn't that experienced with assault rifles, but I didn't think I could miss very much at this range. "Are your Pipbucks close by?" The mare in front of me nodded. "Go grab them. I won't make you wear them, but I know Tinker wants them back." One of the stallions -I REALLY need to find out their names- ducked into the room on the right and quickly returned with a box. A quick look through it confirmed that it was those oh so helpful devices. "Firebug."

"Yeah?" The filly hopped to her hooves, having decided to lay down on her stomach while I dealt with the Stable ponies.

"I need you to take the lead. Anypony who isn't Crushef, Aryanna, or a slave you can attack."

The pyromaniac grinned and pulled her gas mask back on before saluting. "Yes sir!"

I nodded in approval. "You all follow me. No sudden movements or anything." I'd had one too many targets suddenly turn cooperative just to try and stab me in the back to give them too much free reign. "Alright, lets get outside."

_________________________

It was carnage. Plain and simple carnage.

Our trip outside wasn't met with opposition, and it was clear why once we were back out.

The bodies of numerous ponies lay dead all around us. Some were perforated with minigun rounds, others only had a single or a few bullets in or through them, and others looked like knives had torn through them and torn out their throats. The ground was a sticky mess due to the blood mixing with the light drizzle that had started to come down. I couldn't smell the corpses much yet, but I figured that was going to change soon. All in all, it was pretty gruesome.

And standing in the center of it all was Bone Crusher. The ex Ranger had already freed the slaves along with Aryanna, and was having them collect every single weapon and piece of useable armor they could get from the bodies. She gave us a wave and trotted over. "Yeah! I don't think I've ever raised this much hell in one sitting!" The killer mare was absolutely delighted with herself, and I couldn't blame her. It was a pretty tough task she was assigned. "So what the hell took you guys so long?"

"Negotiations." I said simply. "How'd it go?"

"Fucking sweet is how it went!" Aryanna answered for her, landing next to the power armored pony. "Bone Crusher just went in and was all-" she paused to give her best impression of a minigun. "And then everyone else started shooting like pow, pow, pow! But then I came in and I was like bam, bam, bam! And they couldn't find me because they were so focused on Crusher who's still shooting. But then I ran out of ammo, so I swooped down and kicked someone right in the face! Then I just started going all ancient zebra crouching manticore style no jutsu on them like wah! Hah! Hyah! And I tore them to shreds! And then they gave up after that when they saw Crusher was still pretty much fine. It was so epic!" The griffin finally finished her tale of how the battle happened, giving a flourish and falling on her back. "Woo!"

"That's... Pretty much what happened." Crusher said slowly.

"Ok then..." I decided to just let the action loving griffin rest while we finished up here. "Alright, so the slaves are free, and they're stripping the bodies and taking their weapons." She nodded in affirmation. "Ok, we need to put all the stripped bodies into a pile."

"Already ahead of you." She pointed further down the side of the building, wher the stripped bodies were being placed into a big pile in an open area. There was already about two dozen. I had to wonder just how big this operation was... "We're gonna have Firebug light em up once they're all there, right?"

I nodded. "That was that part of the plan, yes. After Firebug burns all of them-"

"Yay!"

"We'll need to gather up as much guns, armor, and some of these carts full of goods too. The rest we'll let the slaves take."

"Like hell we're giving them this entire fucking warehouse!" Crusher protested. I gave her a light tap on the side of her helmet to calm her down.

"Relax, will you? We're not letting them take everything, just enough for them to be satisfied. We'll have Tinker get the rest or come for it ourselves. This place is a gold mine, and I'm not gonna let it go so easily."

"What about the survivors?"

"Oh that ones easy." I grinned. "Give them a taste of their own medicine. Throw some bomb collars on them. The Stable ponies too." That got them in a tizzy, but I paid no mind. I was taking no chances on this.

A few minutes later, the stripped corpses were cooking nicely, all the non slaves who were controlling the place had bomb collars on, and the freed slaves were finally ready to enjoy themselves. I had something to say before they did, though.

"I'm proud to say that you are most certainly free now!" This got a cheer out of them all. "However, there's a favor I'd like to ask of some of you before we part ways." This got a lot of quizzical looks in my direction. "I'd like to ask if any of you will help escort your former captors to the Skyport so they can face justice. You'll be paid for helping, of course." The promise of payment and their former slavers getting punishment for what they did got a lot of volunteers.

"What's your names" One of the former slaves asked. The question made me pause. Not because I forgot my or my companions name, but because this was the first real opportunity to get some kind of unified name out there. If we were going to be working together, we might as well do it under one banner. I tore through my thoughts looking for some decent name to call us. Then something Crusher said early stood out to me.

"My name is Gunslinger. That's Aryanna, Firebug, and Bone Crusher. And... We're Hellraisers."

Silence.

"That name sucks!"

I promptly shot the jerkass slaver in the head. "Everybody's a critic..."

Chapter 4: Caravans, Raiders, and Baths

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"So... Hellraisers?" Bone Crusher asked suddenly.

"Um... Yeah? What about it?" I replied, looking over at her. It seemed odd for her to bring it up now, considering that I christened us that name about two hours ago. I guess it was just something to talk about while we led the slavers and Stable ponies back to the Skyport. Our prisoners were behaving for the most part, and between Crusher and her E.F.S., and Aryanna flying around ahead as a scout, we were able to avoid or be ready for trouble.

"Oh nothing, just you didn't fucking ask for our opinions before slapping some shitty name on us!" She screamed at me. I'd wondered why there wasn't much cursing from her earlier in the trip, seems she was saving it for me.

"Hey Firebug!" I shouted, turning my head so I could see the pyromaniac. She was bringing up the rear of the group, sitting on a slavers head and using her as a seat/lookout post, much to her disdain. "Do you have a problem with the name I gave the group?"

"Nope!" The energetic little filly replied, shaking her head. That's one in my favor.

I turned around fully, looking up to the sky to look at Aryanna, who was currently floating over the group. "What about you?"

"Who, me? Hmm..." The griffin rubbed her chin in thought before shrugging. "I suppose it's cool and/or badass enough to work. Not what I would've chose, but eh."

"And there you have it." I said, turning back to Crusher with a smug smile.

"You're an asshole, you know that?" She said, and I could almost see the glare she was giving me through her helmet. I just kept up my smug smile.

"Isn't that why you like me?" I asked.

"Ooh, Crusher has a crush! Crusher has a crush!" Firebug sang, hopping up and down on the slaver mares head, her pleas of "Get her off me!" and "Make her stop, please!" mixing in with the fillys teasing. Aryanna just chuckled from above us.

"Shut the fuck up, both of you!" The power armored mare shouted before focusing her attention back on me. Now she was staring me down, effectively bringing the group to a halt. "And you! I don't like you, I TOLERATE you. Learn the damn difference."

"Riiiight." I said with a roll of my eyes. I wasn't putting much stock in the whole crush thing -what were we, schoolfoals?- but I couldn't pass up having some fun at the ex Rangers expense. "I'm sure you "tolerated" me in bed, too."

I could feel the glare coming from inside the armor this time. "Fuck you, Gun."

"Repeatedly."

"Fuck you, Gun!"

"You curse a lot when you're enjoying it. Well, more than normal."

Crusher closed the short distance between us, pressing her helmet covered head against mine. "I'M WARNING YOU, GUNSLINGER." She said, cranking up the volume of her mic so it echoed around the whole area. "IF YOU DON'T SHUT THE FUCK UP, I'M GOING TO HIT YOU. GROUP LEADER OR NOT, YOU'RE BEING A DICK AND I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS IF YOU KEEP IT UP."

Silence. Everyone was waiting to see what I'd do. Now normally I'd be smart enough to shut up and end the conversation there, but I was feeling cocky after our victory against the slavers and the acquisition of the Stable ponies. Plus antagonizing the killer mare was just fun at times! So instead of being smart, I just put on the biggest shit eating grin I could muster. "I never called myself the group leader, you know. But it's nice to know you're prepared to follow my orders like a good little Ranger."

That one struck a chord! A power armored hoof raised up, most likely to punch me straight in the face.

"What's all this, then? A little lovers spat?" A strangely accented voice said from somewhere ahead of us.

That just made Crusher even more mad! She stomped the hoof she raised back down hard and turned to give whoever interrupted her violence -and called us lovers- a piece of her mind. "Why don't you fuck... Right... Off...?" The way she trailed off worried me. "That's a lot of red dots." And that worried me even more. Our interrupter just chuckled. I really should see who they are now that my nose wasn't in immediate danger of being broken...

Standing a little ways away on the sidewalk was an absolutely MASSIVE earth pony mare. She was easily as tall as an Alicorn, with legs thicker than two of mine put together! Although they looked normal when put together with the rest of her strong looking body. It was all definitely needed to weild the big super sledge on her side. Surprisingly, a lance was attached to her other side, pointing right at us like it was eager to spear straight through our bodies. What worried me the most though was that the black and silver mares armor reminded me of a raiders, although it looked pretty clean, which was definitely odd. In fact, she looked kinda odd in general. I took a closer look at her from the silver mane and tail, to the same silver hair that thickly covered her fetlocks and interrupted her jet black coat, to the way her face was shaped. She was definitely like nopony I had seen before.

"Ye know," she started, grinning at us. "It's called EYES FORWARD Sparkle for a reason."

"I'm sorry, I can't understand your thick accent." Bone Crusher replied. The raiders accent WAS pretty heavy, but I could still understand her.

The mare looked confused, her grin fading. "I said that-"

"E-quest-ri-an. Do. You. Speak. It?" Crusher said slowly. I had the distinct feeling that she was trying to antagonize the mare in front of us. We both must've come to the same conclusion, because her look of confusion turned right into a scowl.

"So you got jokes, do ye? Wanna hear one of mine, ya bloody tin can?" With a sharp whistle, all of the raiders revealed themselves. They were all in front of us, with most brandishing guns, but a few had spiked bats and other melee weapons. "It has a killer punchline!" She said with a laugh. The first thing I noticed was the powerful looking rifle one of the further back mares had. It'd probably be enough to punch through Crushers armor. The second thing I noticed was that their weapons and armor were in surprisingly good condition for raiders. Maybe they were bandits? The crazy look in some of their eyes made me doubtful of that. The last thing I noticed was that all of them, pony and zebra alike, were mares. The third observation was odd, but not very helpful. The first two observations led me to one conclusion:

We were screwed.

There were at least two dozen of them, and they were already dug in behind cover while we were out in the open. While I didn't mind using the prisoners (sans Stable ponies) as living shields, me, Crusher, Firebug, and the few freed slaves we'd been able to get to help keep the prisoners in line would still get shot up eventually. Even 9 millimeter bullets get lucky and kill somepony sometimes. We did have an aerial advantage with Aryanna. That could be enough to give us a fighting chance, or just delay our deaths for a few minutes.

Right, it was time for plan B: Try and talk us out of getting slaughtered.

"I'm sorry miss, but I didn't catch your name." I said, trying to take the raider leaders attention away from shooting the ex Ranger. She focused on me, raising an eyebrow.

"Names Sledge. What's it to ye?"

"Oh nothing, just wanted to know your name. It's a very nice name. Fitting." Compliments were always good, right? They always helped make things to better.

"Uhhuh..." Or it could make the recipient confused like how Sledge was looking.

"Well, Sledge, you seem like a nice, reasonable mare, and-"

Sledge held up a hoof to silence me, chuckling. "Look, lad, I ain't a piece of toast." She stopped chuckling and her eyes locked with mine, looking dead serious. "So stop buttering me up and get to the fucking point before I lose me patience."

I sighed and gestured to our prisoners. "Alright, you see these ponies we have all chained and collared?" The raider nodded. "They're assholes, specifically of the slaver variety. Now what I'm offering is all of them except the Stable ponies, we need them to complete our job."

The tall mare raised an eyebrow. "And we can do whatever we want with em'?"

I nodded. "In exchange for letting the rest of us go, they're yours to keep."

She stared me down for a while, and I did my best to keep any looks of worry off my face. Finally, she started chuckling, and then outright laughing. "Ye've got balls, I'll give ye that. Most ponies would've started offering useless shit or something they don't have. I take that back, most would've started begging for their lives before we killed em anyway!" The raider leader laughed again before continuing. "I'll take the offer, just because I find ye entertaining."

Crusher, who'd thankfully been silent since all the raiders popped out, decided now was the time to open her big mouth. "Oh I'll show you entertaining, you-"

"Thank you for accepting the offer instead of KILLING US." I did my best to emphasize that we were screwed if it came to a fight with them. She didn't seem to get the message, so I conked her upside her armored head when she tried to start speaking again. "Can it, will ya? I don't know about you, but the rest of us want to live." The ex Ranger growled, but stayed silent. She was probably gonna kick my ass later, but at least there'd be a later now.

I reached into my saddlebags with my magic and dug out both the hoofcuff key and the detonator for the bomb collar, gently placing the latter on the ground. I let my mind wander briefly while I seperated the Stable ponies from the rest of the chain gang. Hoofcuffs always seemed to be one size fits all, and the keys always looked the same from what I've seen. Magic, maybe? Lazy crafting? Who knew? Once the Stable ponies were seperated, I undid all their bomb collars with my magic and floated them onto the back of the nearest slaver. "I'm gonna leave these bozos here along with the detonator to their bomb collars and the keys to their cuffs." I said to Sledge, starting to step towards her. "If you don't mind, we'll be passing through now. Places to go, and all that stuff."

She nodded, and the rest of the raider mares lowered their weapons, though they still tracked us with their eyes as we moved. "Of course, of course. Pleasure doing business with ye." As I walked past the raider leader, her bright emerald eyes looked directly into mine again. "But ye best watch yerself, boyo. We ain't seen the last of eachother, not by a long shot."

I stopped and returned her look while the rest kept going. I didn't blame them for not waiting around a lot of potential shooters for me. A smirk came to my lips as I thought of what to say. "Looking forward to it. I'd love to meet such a pretty group of mares when they weren't trying to kill me."

Sledge let out a sharp laugh again, grinning madly. "HA! So ye noticed that, huh? Well who knows what'll happen when we see eachother again? Ye might get lucky..." Her grin began to look more maniacal. All her features seemed to be changing from "normal pony" and start shifting towards "crazed raider."

"Or ye luck just might run out."

_________________________________________________________________________________

We got quite a few odd looks coming back into the Skyport. I wasn't sure if it was because of my companions, or because our prisoners were five ponies from the Stable below. I think it was most likely a combination of both. Luckily, after our encounter with Sledge and her gang, we had no other trouble and made great time getting back. Another stroke of good luck was that while the residents of the Skyport were curious, they weren't coming to bother us, which allowed the entire group to get down to the Stable. Of course, the residents of 37 were more open about their concern seeing their fellow Stable dwellers being led around in chains.

"What the hell? Hey!" One of the Stable security guards who watched the entryway to 37 for trouble approached us, his rifle aimed directly at me. "Why are they chained up?"

"I'll only answer that in the presence of the Overmare or her bodyguard." I responded. I didn't know who I could trust in the Stable right now besides Tinker and Tiny.

The earth pony snorted, narrowing his eyes at me. "Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna let a bunch of armed ponies who're dragging around people from my home in chains near the Overmare. I think it's best if you let them go and left before anything happens."

Ok, new strategy. "Hey now, it's me! Gunslinger, the sexy stallion that's been coming down here almost every day for almost four and a half years! I wouldn't be here with your friends like this if there wasn't a reason."

"Alright then, what's the reason?" He asked.

"I... Can't tell you. Sorry." I replied with a sheepish smile.

"Then I don't care if you're Celestia herself, release them and maybe I'll consider letting you through." Seems he was dead set on getting them free. I couldn't let them just go, who knows what evidence they'll go and destroy before I could get to Tinker? And now the other guard was speaking into his Pipbuck, most likely calling for back up. Oh this wasn't going good...

I quickly turned around to address the others of my group, only to find that all the freed slaves had bailed. Seems they didn't want anything to do with potentially having to shoot Stable ponies just doing their job. "Come on guys, help me out here." I pleaded with my companions.

"I think everything you're saying is a lie." One of the chained up stallions said.

"I said help me, not help yourself." I replied flatly.

"Don't ask me, I'm just supposed to be following orders like a good little Ranger." Bone Crusher said. I could feel the sarcasm behind the words. Not her too...

"Are you really gonna do this right now?" I asked. She wasn't really doing this when we were potentially about to be shot, was she?

"I'm really doing this right now." She replied, the answer making me grit my teeth. Now was not the time to be petty! I was about to tell her such when a different voice spoke up.

"Gun, what's going on?" Tiny asked, trotting up to the scene from the elevator that led to the stairs. Seems she was out helping the scavangers again. This was my ticket to get to Tinker! I wheeled on her as fast as I could, staring up at the large zebra.

"Tiny, you gotta get us through to Tinker. It's extremely important she hears what we have to say." I pleaded.

"And what exactly do you have to say to her? And why are those Stable residents chained up?" She was studying me closely, but I didn't let my gaze falter.

"It has to be explained between us, you, and Tinker only. I just don't trust anyone else in 37, right now." I explained for what had to be the third time since getting here. I really hoped Tinker would understand it all in one shot.

Tiny stared me down for a few more seconds before nodding. "Alright, I'll let you all see Tinker. But I'm warning you, Gun..."

"It's not a trick, I swear!" I said, quickly and with more fear in my voice than I probably should've had to be believable. Cut me some slack, that zebra is terrifying!

"What?!" The first guard who stopped us, who was quickly becoming a pain, exclaimed, staring at us in shock. "You're just gonna let them go through?!" Apparently he was dumbfounded that she'd allow the four heavily armed mercs to go see the Overmare while dragging some of the ponies she was supposed to protect around in chains. I was still pretty surprised about it myself, but tried not to show it.

"I am. I'll watch over them and make sure they don't cause any trouble. Unless you doubt my ability to handle a few enemies in a fight?" The way she said it just dared him to say yes.

"N-no, ma'am." The guard responded. Smart stallion.

"Good. Now move." She ordered. I chuckled at how the stallion scrambled to get out of her way. Tinys presence alone was intimidating, nevermind when she actually wanted to be intimidating. The zebra took one look at the rest of the guards that had come as backup in case things went south. The wall of armed ponies quickly made a hole for her before she could even open her mouth. Satisfied at them clearing a way for us, Tiny started leading all of us to Tinker, frequently looking back at us.

Not that she had to worry, we weren't going anywhere. I wanted to talk to Tinker, Crusher wanted to get paid, our prisoners were thoroughly chained up, and Aryanna and Firebug seemed to be in awe at the Stable, heads on swivels as they took in as many things as they could while we passed by. I debated just letting them go off, but decided against it. This job was something all of us did, we all might as well see it through to the end.

_________________________________________________________________________________

"So let me see if I've got this straight." Tinker said, looking over all of us. After making our way through the Atrium and up to the Overmares office, Tiny went in and briefly explained the situation to her friend before letting us inside to explain it in more detail. The task fell upon me, and I quickly -and hopefully clearly- laid out everything that happened. Tinker had just listened until now, seemingly waiting for me to finish. "I sent you two-" She pointed at me and Bone Crusher "to find them." Her hoof moved to be pointed at the still chained up Stable 37 ponies.

"Yep." I responded simply.

"And along the way, you met these two-" The pink hoof moved to point to Aryanna and Firebug, both of them waving at their fellow teen. "Who decided to join up with you."

"Yes."

"And the last location of their Pipbuck tags that I gave you led you to a slaver encampment."

"Yes."

"Which after seeing one of the Stable ponies working with the slavers, decided to assault and take them back here by force."

"Mmhmm."

"And after doing that and freeing the slaves, you took the ponies from 37 and the remaining slavers back with you. But you traded them to a raider named Sledge in exchange for safe passage."

"Right."

"And finally, after all that, you came here to tell me all this."

"That's about the gist of it."

"I see..." The pink mare turned her focus to the Stable ponies I'd brought back with me. "And what's your version of events?"

"He's crazy!" The mare at the head of the group shouted, gesturing to me. "They all are! He's got some crazy plan to take over the Stable, get you put out and then he waltzes in just happening to have all the answers. Gunslinger is gonna try and usurp you, I swear! That's why we're chained up like this, because he needs to throw you off his trail. So he caught us and came up with that bogus story."

"How did he get your Pipbucks off?" Tinker quickly asked.

"The Ranger. She knows all about technology, including our Pipbucks and how to remove them." The mare responded without missing a beat.

"And the-"

"The griffin and filly was extra muscle to help keep us in line." She quickly said, sheepishly adding in a "Sorry..." after realizing that she cut off Tinker.

"It's ok." Tinker replied with a dismissive wave of her hoof before spinning around in her chair so she faced away from us. "Tiny?" The huge zebra nodded and moved closer to her friend, leaning her head down so they could quietly talk to eachother. Now was where I started to worry. At the end of the day, Tinker was a mare that liked facts, and unfortunately for me, the story the Stable ponies came up with sounded more real and factual than mine, despite it being a load of garbage. These ponies also knew and had more contact with their Overmare for longer than I had. They had a better grasp on her mindset and how to exploit it. Lie or not, if she agreed with them...

After a few minutes of talking with Tiny, Tinker turned back around towards us, staring us all down from behind goggle covered eyes. "I've come to a decision." She said evenly. Moment of truth... Her head turned to face the Stable ponies specifically. "You five are under arrest."

I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding in. She had believed me! I couldn't stop a grin from forming at the news. We were in the clear!

"And you."

Fuck.

Tinker was looking at me and my group now, and I felt the grin leave as quickly as it came. I really, really hoped it was something good, but just from her tone of voice (that was the same she used to address the Stable ponies) I could tell it wasn't.

"Your pay for this job will be held until further notice."

"What?!" Crusher exclaimed from beside me. It seems the prospect of not being paid finally spurred her to join the conversation. "Where the hell do you get off denying us payment?"

"I'm the one who gave the job, remember?" The small mare replied, a bit of an edge creeping into her voice.

"Yeah, and we did your fucking job!" The Ex Ranger stepped closer to the desk, and Tiny took a step forward as well, ready to take her down should it come to that. If Crusher noticed the zebra move, she didn't care. "There they are, right fucking there, AND we got their Pipbucks back! Job. Done."

"I'm still not paying you." Tinker replied, continuing before any more objections could be raised. "I'm not paying you because the whole situation is too suspicious now. Both of your scenarios sound plausible, but also raise questions. I'm responsible for almost a thousand ponies, not to mention the music they produce, the instruments that are probably the last of their kind, and the Stable itself. One of the groups in here poses a potential threat to all of that if the other groups story is true. I will not let that potential threat walk freely OR take caps from the Stable it wants to attack. Until this is over, you're not getting paid." Even from behind her goggles and not even looking at me, I could feel the glare she was giving Crusher. "End. Of. Story."

Blue and red lenses stared eachother down, and I was worried they might start fighting. Thankfully, the power armored mare backed down before either of them did something stupid or me or Tiny stepped in. "Fuck this, I'll be outside." She stomped past me and out the door back into the hallway. Even with the most vocal opponent of this decision gone, the tension in the room was barely alleviated.

"So..." I started awkwardly. "What now?"

"For now, you four are clear to go." Tinker responded, but I held my sigh of relief this time. "But you better watch yourself, Gun." And as if on cue, there's the worrisome part. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this, and when I do, heads will roll." I chanced a glance up at Tiny, and the look she gave me said just what kind of "head rolling" she had in mind. Hopefully the massive zebra was still on our side, but if the evidence said otherwise...

_________________________________________________________________________________

"Wow, this is a nice place." Aryanna commented as she entered the break room that served as my home. We had all booked it as soon as Tinker let us go, not wanting to stick around and look like we were trying to impede her investigation. With none of my companions really knowing the Skyport, and all of us wanting to rest for a bit, I suggested going to my place. If they were going to be working with me, they might as well get a feel for the place. A shower schedule -one that had me going first- would definitely have to be worked out later.

"Eh, it's a roof over my head." I replied with a shrug, hanging all my gear on the coat rack next to the door.

"Ooh, is that a refrigerator?" Firebug asked, poking the white rectangle of metal set into the wall. Before I could answer, she opened the door, squealing happily as she pulled out a Sparkle Cola "It is!"

"It's not THAT uncommon to see a refrigarator." I said dismissively.

"Dude, you have a working refrigarator, what I'm going to assume is a working stove and microwave-"

"Don't forget the fully working bathroom with hot water." Crusher added, stepping out of my room sans power armor.

"What? No way." The griffin got up and stepped past her mentor into my room. A minute later, she returned with the most awestruck expression I'd ever seen. "A working toilet and shower..."

"It's honestly not THAT uncommon." I replied. Or was it? There did seem to be quite a few ponies around with bad hygiene and a bit of a smell. Maybe I should start charging for hot showers... Double the normal price for one with me, of course.

"Do you know," Aryanna started, staring straight at me. "How many times I had to cop a squat in a ditch on the way to Fillydelphia and on the way to here? Every. Single. Time. I only took three baths since I left home: One on the way to Filly, one when I got there and joined Red Eye, and one in the rainwater down here. A working toilet and shower are gifts from the gods to me, dude!"

"Well, I guess when you put it that way..." I guess it was impressive to someone like Aryanna. Then, something else she said registered in my mind. "Wait, does everyone not take baths regularly or is it just those that don't have access to clean water?"

"The Rangers had a two day rule when I was with them." Crusher spoke from her new position of lounging on the couch where Aryanna was. "There were exemptions for those out on long missions and stuff, but it was mostly enforced. When I got kicked out of them, I... Started waiting a little longer than two days. And them a little longer than that. And then a little longer than that..." She chuckled, rubbing her hooves together nervously.

"Ew, ew, ew, ew, EW!" I couldn't hide a shudder of disgust. I was no clean freak, but come on, once a week at least! I really hoped she had bathed before we fucked and that how she tasted was her natural, clean taste and that that sudden itching in my crotch was just in my head and oh goddesses...

"Fuck off." The killer mare spat, her nervousness replaced with anger. "I'm not going to bathe myself in contaminated water just so I can die clean with radiation poisoning."

That was a good point.. Before I could say as much, Firebug said something that made my skin crawl.

"I haven't bathed in months!" She exclaimed proudly. All of us looked at her, and then moved away from the pyromaniac. "What?"

"Why?" I asked in utter bafflement.

"Because it takes time away from important things. Like fire, and burning things!" The filly answered with a big grin.

Since she was closest to Firebug, Crusher leaned over and took a tentative sniff of her. Almost immediately, she pulled her head back like she'd been shot, covering her nose and coughing. "Oh my- I ca-carved up dead- bodies and never sme- lled anything this ba- a- ad!" She grabbed at her throat, holding it like she was choking, before going limp, one of her back legs twitching.

"Okay, now you're just over exaggerating." Aryanna said with a roll of her eyes, getting a "fuck you" from the now suddenly fine Bone Crusher. She leaned over close to Firebug, taking a whiff of her. Almost immediately, she recoiled and fell flat on her ass like she'd been punched. "Oh dude, that is GNARLY! And not the good kind of gnarly, either!"

While I didn't know what "gnarly" meant, both their reactions led me to one conclusion. "Firebug, you need to take a bath."

"But I don't wannaaaaaaaa!" The filly replied, pouting. It was almost cute enough to make me drop the bath subject. Almost.

"I don't care, you're going to take one." I said in what I hoped was a stern enough tone.

"Uh-Uh!" She gave a few violent shakes of her head, dead set on not coming into contact with water.

Okay, I was not about to have this argument. I floated over one of my revolvers from where I'd hung the holsters, pointing it directly at Firebug. "My home, my rules. Go take a bath right now, young lady!"

"No!" She shouted, turning her head up with a hmmph.

"Yes!" I shouted back, pulling back on the hammer. Maybe that'd be enough to make her go?

"Never!"

Nope, still not willing to go take a bath. As a last resort, I pressed the gun up against her head. Firebug looked at me, seeming completely unphased about having a loaded revolver pressed against her skull. "Bath. Go. Now." I said with as much authority as I could put in my voice, glaring at her with what I hoped was a no nonsense look. After a moment of thought, I added a "Please." in hopes that'd help.

"Well... Ok!" She finally relented, much to my releif. "But only because you said please!" Without any further protest, Firebug turned and trotted into my room, hopefully heading for the shower.

"Well she sure seems fearless!" Crusher commented, breaking the awkward silence that settled over the three of us after the filly left. "Maybe a little insane..."

"That was... mildly badass. Would've been more if it wasn't over taking a bath. Kinda lame subject." Aryanna added as she finally picked herself up off the floor.

"I was worried I was gonna have to shoot her in the leg or something for a second there." I lowered my revolver, looking over at Aryanna. "Could you go in there and help her? Make sure she actually cleans herself, please?"

"Hell no, man. Not unless you have a hazmat suit lying around, if then." She protested.

The revolver went back up, pointed at her this time.

"Alright, alright!" The griffin held up her arms, backing into my room. "Don't have to be such a hardass..." She muttered before closing the door behind her.

Once she was out of the room, Crusher turned to me, her lips curled into a naughty little smirk and her eyes half lidded with desire. "Now that the kids are out of the room, let's have a little talk."

I grinned, watching the sway of her shapely hips as she sauntered the few steps between us until our faces were inches from each other. "What about?"

As soon as I said that, the smirk turned into a frown and her eyes looked way more angry than horny. ""Good little Ranger?"" Before I could even realize that this conversation or anything that followed was not going to be pleasant, I was already on my back, Bone Crusher attempting to live up to her name as she strangled me. "There's nothing good about me."

"Your... Ass..." I managed to choke out, giving her a cheeky grin. Well, a cheeky grin or something akin to a fish gasping for breath, either or.

She didn't seem to find it funny, as the pressure against my neck increased. "I'm serious, Gun. You want me in this group, I want to be respected."

"Sor... Ry..." Was all I managed to get out through my now very narrow windpipe. Darkness was beginning to close in from the edges of my vision, and I was starting to become seriously worried about my survival.

Crusher continued to strangle me, glaring down at me as my world continued to grow darker. I managed to hit her a few times with my hooves while struggling to get free, but she shrugged off the weak blows easily. She just kept the pressure on my throat, kept glaring at me. I swear her red eyes were glowing, but that was probably just the lack of oxygen to my brain playing tricks on me.

Just when the darkness was going to take over my entire vision and I thought I would have to shoot her to make her stop, Crusher let out a sigh and her glare softened, the strong earth pony lifting her hooves off my neck. "You're lucky you have a nice ass." She muttered. At least that's what I think she said, I was too busy gasping for breath and taking in large gulps of sweet, sweet oxygen to really be sure.

"What the fuck was that?!" I shouted, shoving her away from me and getting to my hooves. I put some more distance between us just to be safe.

"Me being blunt about my concerns." Crusher replied nonchalantly.

"Being blunt? BEING BLUNT?!" I nearly threw something at her, but I didn't like the odds of me winning hoof to hoof if she decided to fight over it. "Strangling someone is not "being blunt", it's attempted murder!"

The ex Ranger just gave me a shrug. "It got the point across, didn't it?"

"Got the- I- You-" I was at a loss for words. Actually, I could think of one thing to say. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"A lot." She replied simply. "Look, the point is you know to give me some more respect now."

Know to give her respect? Know to shoot her before she gets close enough to choke me again is more like it! "Nope. Uh-uh. We're not doing that "I can kick your ass so respect me" bullshit. We're not a bunch of raiders." My head was starting to get a little dizzy from the back and forth motions of me shaking it no, but I REALLY wanted to get the point across. "I was a bit out of line with the good little ranger thing, and I apologize, but if you want respect you EARN it. You don't beat it out of people, you crazy bitch."

Crusher laughed like I'd just told the funniest joke ever. "HahahahaHA! I'm sorry mom, I'll be nicer the next time I shoot somepony in the face. That'll get them to respect me for sure!" She said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "What's next, you're gonna tell me everypony should do better or some shit like that, right?" She laughed again before fixing me with a cold glare, eyes narrowed to angry little slits. "This is the fucking wasteland. You're either tough or you're dead; there's no time to worry about feelings and shit."

I sighed, my hoof hitting my face. "I'm not askin you to become a pacifist, I just think you should tone it down a little before you get yourself hurt or hurt someone you care about."

We stared each other down for a while, long enough for a much cleaner Firebug and Aryanna to return from their shower. "Whatever you say, Gun. I work how I work and it hasn't backfired on me yet, so kindly take your thoughts and fuck yourself up the ass with them." She trotted off into my room without another word.

"Uh... What was that all about?" Aryanna asked before the silence became too awkward.

"Just a little conversation on respect."
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The rest of the night went surprisingly smooth. I was able to take a bath and kick Bone Crusher out of bed with relative ease -I was not sharing a bed with her after the strangling thing- and get a good nights sleep. I even got a nice surprise when we all headed out for brekfast in the morning: Several huge wagons painted in bright colors and hearts were out on the runway, their sides folded out and covered like tents to provide even more room for the guys and gals that worked in them. Many smaller carts and wagons painted in the same style were dotted around the larger wagons. "Hey, The Madame is back in town!"

"Who?" All three of them asked at the same time.

I could only grin in response. "I'll show you, come on."

We made our way down towards the runway, Aryanna beating all of us down by flying out a window. Luckily, she waited for us, or was just a little awestruck. I couldn't blame her, it was kind of awe inspiring. The Madame didn't normally have this much of her caravan in one location, but even normally it felt like she had a small settlement with her. It really felt that way now, ponies and zebras and griffins and others of all shapes, sizes, and colors rushing and setting up tents and storefronts to sell to all the incoming customers.

And coming they were! Dozens of Stable 37 jumpsuits were out here already, and many more were bound to be out and shopping soon. Many residents of the Skyport and the surrounding area were perusing wares as well. I swear I saw a few of the mares who had ambushed us with Sledge yesterday, and the easy to tease Dagger and her group looking around at various stalls. I gave them all a wide berth, not wanting any trouble and already having a destination in mind. "Stick with me, now."

"Just where the fuck are you leading us?" Crusher asked, clearly annoyed she wasn't able to go off shopping and had to follow me around.

"You'll see~" I sang, trotting between two of the large wagons that everything seemed to be centered around. There were more hastily erected tents and stands on this side as well, but what interested me was the stretch limo sitting in the middle of a few tents, painted just as brightly as the rest of the caravan. I made my way straight there, about to knock on the door when a voice interrupted me.

"Hey! You can't- Oh hey!" The voice above me was male, going from serious and tough to light and friendly as soon as I was recognized. "Gunslinger, you old bastard! Was wondering when you'd show up."

"I'm the younger of us the last time I checked, Duststorm." I said with mock annoyance, looking up at the griffin with a smile. He was light brown, speckled with dark brown. It was interesting, something that matched his personality.

"Still makes you an old bastard." He replied, grinning. "Who're your lady friends?"

So that's why he still had that old riot shotgun of his out and ready to be fired. "They're my new..." I paused, trying to find the right words for what they were besides -possibly- being friends. "Business associates. Finally breaking into the real mercenary business."

"Finally tired of working for young mare Tinker, huh? Bout time you came to play with the big boys." His eyes looked behind me, and I had a good guess they ended up on by the gleam in them. "Good choice of company, too."

Before I could shoot off my cocky reply, Aryanna spoke up. "Question. How cool are you?"

The question caught the normally cool -pun intended- griffin completely off guard. "What?"

"What's the coolest thing you ever did?" She rephrased.

"Um..." Dust tapped the shotgun in thought. He'd been around the wasteland a few times, had a few adventures, but nothing that was "cool" unless he'd been holding out on me. "Oh! I took out three glowing ferals all by myself."

"Eh." Aryanna replied.

"With my bare talons."

"Meh."

"While injured. And irradiated."

I turned to face the younger griffin, deciding to help the old guy out. "I can confirm that. The Madame told me about it, and she's not prone to lying and exaggerating."

"Hmmm..." She narrowed her eyes, studying Duststorm like she was looking for any hint of deception. She finally relaxed after a bit more obsefving, giving a shrug. "I guess we could bang sometime. Maybe. You'd definitely be the least cool person I'd slept with."

"Uh... I..." Duststorm just continued to stutter. Was he really caught off guard by such directness? Strange, considering where he worked. Giving up on forming a reply to his fellow griffin, he turned his attention back to me. "Good choice of company indeed, heh..."

I was about to reply when I was cut off for the second time in a few minutes. "I thought I heard the sound of Dust slacking off more than usual." The voice belonged to Sandstorm, Duststorms twin sister and the other personal guard of The Madame. Since Dust was the other bodyguard and they were both here, that meant...

I turned around and sure enough, she was right there behind Firebug. Her deep brown and cream coat and jet black mane looked better than most of her kind, a bonus of taking care of yourself when most of them dont care about their appearance. She was tall as well, about even with Bone Crusher, something that helped make her all the more beautiful and terrifying depending on her mood. The most striking things about her though, were her eyes. Bright, yellow orbs that glowed with mirth, playfulness, and most importantly, intelligence. The other striking thing was her teeth, the shiny white orbs visible as she grinned at me. "Hello, Gunslinger. My, it has been a while." She said in her normal seductive tone, only a trace of the graveliness ghouls normally had present.

Her voice made the others turn around to face her, Aryanna nearly jumping out of her skin as she scrambled back against the limo. "What the flying fuck?!"

Firebug took it better, giving the newcomer a simple "Hello!"

Crusher remained the most calm, just asking "And you are?"

The mule took it in stride, her grin not faltering in the slightest. "Allow me to introduce myself." She gave a low bow, like a performer would when introducing an act. "I am The Madame." Her bow turned into a grand flourish as she stood back up, gesturing to everything around her. "And welcome to Madame Mules traveling brothel and caravan!"

_________________________________________________________________________________

The best way to describe the inside of Madame Mules limo was pink. Pink carpet, pink upholstery, pink lights, pink sheets on the bed, even the mattress itself was pink! It wasn't a garish shade of pink per say, but there was just so goddess damned much of it that it hurt your eyes anyway.

"It's very... Colorful." Crusher commented, looking around the inside of the limo. The Madame had invited us all inside to chat and have breakfast with her and the Storm twins. I'm sure all my new friends were still trying to adjust to the wall of pink assaulting them from all directions.

"Isn't it?" The Madame replied from beside me with a smile. She was sitting between me and Duststorm at the rear of the limo. Bone Crusher and Firebug sat further ahead on the right side, and Aryanna and Sandstorm were further ahead on the left, the latter of which still had her rifle ready to be brought up at a moments notice. "It used to belong to one of the ministry mares. I found it about... Forty? Forty five years ago? I don't think they'll mind me borrowing it." She chuckled.

"So you've been at this for a while, then?" Crusher asked, getting a nod from the mule.

"Been at this for about one hundred and seventy years. The first thirty years of my unlife were... A lot about coming to terms and finding myself."

"Sounds cheesy." Aryanna commented. She must've seen my aghast expression, because she gave a shrug in my direction afterwards. "What? It does."

I was about to yell at her about how insulting someone who has an armed guard sitting right next to her was a bad idea, but Madame simply laughed and held up a hoof. "Yes, it does sound rather cheesy, now that I think about it more. Still, it was a rather important part of my life. Fighting to stay who I was, letting to of the past, setting out into this new, destroyed world on my own..." She tapped her chin in thought. "Was actually quite the action filled adventure, actually."

That got Aryanna's attention. "Really?"

"I'll have to tell you about it someday-" The ghoul paused in her speaking, scrunching her muzzle in thought. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch any of your names."

I knew I forgot something... Aryanna stood, striking some sort of dramatic pose and putting on her best smile. "I'm Aryanna, Hellraiser mercenary and all around cool, awesome griffin badass!" Crusher cleared her throat, making the griffin blush and sheepishly add "In training..." while sitting down.

Firebug hopped up on the couch like seat she and Crusher were sitting on, easily having enough room to stand even with her gear on. "Hello, I'm Firebug! I burn things! You wanna see?"

The Madame held up her hooves, quickly waving them dismissively and shaking her head. "No, no, no, no, that's quite alright! I'll take your word for it."

"Alright..." The fire obsessed filly sat back down, clearly a little disappointed at being unable to show off her talents at burning things.

All eyes in the room turned to the Ex Ranger. "What?" We continued to stare expectantly. "Oh fine... I'm Bone Crusher, and I fuck shit up for a living. Happy?"

"Very." The Madame said with a nod. "I must say, you're a rather pretty mare. Are you part Saddle Arabian?"

"I- Uh..." It was amusing to see the normally foul mouthed and always snappy Crusher at a loss for words. "Thanks?" She finally managed to get out. "And I'm not sure. Things like family heritages get a little lost when the world gets fried. All I know is that there luckily hasn't been any inbreeding in my family tree, thank fucking Celestia."

"Inbreeding?" The Madame and I asked at the same time.

"There's not a lot of choice in a closed off bunker when you want to have children. Everypony becomes each others cousin real quick." She explained, glaring at nothing in particular. I guessed that the Rangers are still a sore topic for her even after all these... Months? Weeks? Years? I really don't know how long it's been since her "discharge" from the Steel Dickheads.

Now that I thought about it, I didn't know much about any of my new companions. Aryanna and Crusher had said a bit, but left me with more questions than answers when I thought back to those brief conversations, and I knew squat about Firebug besides "I like to burn things." I wasn't some paranoid loon who had no friends and thought everyone was out to get him, but I was a little cautious at least. I'd have to find out more about them soon. While they were trustworthy so far, the "talk" me and Bone Crusher had was still clear in my mind.

"I see..." The Madame replied, seeming lost in thought. Probably pondering if the rest of the Rangers she used to belong to were drooling idiots with birth defects. At least that's one of the things I was wondering. "Anyway," she continued, "You really are a pretty looking mare, dear. In fact, with your height and a little makeup, color the coat and mane differently..." The ghoul mule was looking over Crusher critically now, as if trying to piece something together. "Hmm..."

A knock at the limos door drew our attention to it instead of the still thinking Madame. Since I was sitting right next to it, I went ahead and opened it with my magic. Outside was an earth pony stallion, one of the brothel workers if his lack of protective clothing and weaponry and handsome everything were any indication. "I've brought the food that the Madame has requested." He stated simply. Behind him was an entire food cart filed up with -what else?- food and drink.

Well that was quick. Then again, Madame Mule ran a pretty tight ship. I poked the still deep in thought ghoul in her side, not getting her attention, but a grunt of acknowledgement. "Food is here." I got another grunt in reply, the Madame reaching around Duststorm to press a hard to see pink button. A table rose from the floor a few seconds later.

"Cool hidden table. That's some spy level shit right there." Aryanna said, examining the wooden -surprise, surprise- pink table.

Crusher was examining the table too. Unlike the coolness loving griffin, she saw the obvious problems with a table this large coming from the floor so suddenly. "There's no fucking way this table was under the limo or some shit, it's too tall!" She poked her head under the table, coming back up a second later looking even more confused. "And the legs aren't jointed to bend or anything! How the fuck-"

Surprisingly, it was the normally quiet Sandstorm who answered. "This was the transportation for a pony able to perfectly decorate a room for a party with a cannon and who was said to break the laws of reality on a daily basis. The table is really one of the least surprising things coming from her."

"B-but how?! Why?! What the fuck?!" She looked like she was at a complete loss of comprehension, at least from the glimpses I caught while I was floating all the food and drink over to the table. I felt her pain. I still remember the massive headache I gave myself trying to figure out that crazy pink pony the first time I heard about her.

Those of us that have had experience with the head of the Ministry of Morale gave her the best answer anyone seems to have come up with before or after the war: "Pinkie Pie."

_________________________________________________________________________________

"Fleur-De-Lis!" The exclamation from The Madame startled all of us. She'd been lost in thought long enough for all of us to nearly finish eating the generous meal that'd been provided to us. I was worried she might've went and turned feral, but luckily it seemed that the ghoul mule just went normal crazy instead of eat us crazy.

Naturally, the answer most of us gave was a simultaneous "What?"

"Fleur-De-Lis!" She repeated, pointing a hoof at Bone Crusher. "She's the spitting image of Fleur-De-Lis!"

All eyes in the room (sans Firebug, who still had her face buried in her plate and was eating like a pig) turned to look at the killer mare. Now that I was looking at her closer than I have before... "Holy shit, you're right. Her colors are different and she's not a unicorn obviously, but I see it now." Even though she was sitting on the other side of Firebug, I made a show of looking at her flanks. "Her ass is definitely larger, too."

"Fuck you, Gun." Crusher was glaring at me, but had a smirk on her face. "I've seen pictures of Fleur before, but I never compared me to her, just didn't see it. I can kind of see it now that I think about it. I've definitely got sharper teeth, though." She grinned to punctuate the point, showing off her razor sharp teeth. I REALLY hoped to never end up on the receiving end of those. "Not to mention I'm a better fighter and killer, I'm not a stuck up noble with my head up my ass, and I'm pretty sure I've got a bigger dick than her."

Firebug finally removed her face from her plate, looking over at The Madame and I with the remains of her meal dripping off her face. "Who's Fleur-De-Lis?"

Aryanna, who had already been looking at Crusher, stared at the Ex Ranger with wide eyes. "Wait, you have a dick?"

Before an answer could be given to either question, there was a knock at the door. Knocking which was followed by more knocking, and even more knocking. Whoever was out there was beating on the door like their life depended on it. I flung the door open with my magic, finding Tinker standing on the other side. "I need your help, Gunslinger."

This is normally the point where I make a smart reply and we go back and forth a bit until we get to the actual job, but I felt this time was different. She sounded serious. Beyond serious. The most serious I've ever heard her, and that's a feat, considering she always sounds serious. And even with her goggles on, I could see the trails of recent tears in her coat below them. Something was definitely wrong here, and I said as such. "What's wrong, Tinker?"

She said one sentence that made my mane stand on end. "Tiny has been kidnapped."

Dead silence.

"Seriously, do you really have a dick?"

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Chapter 5: Portside

View Online

"Hello, Tinker." The voice was heavily distorted, leaving no way to know who it really was or even what gender they might be. "If you're hearing this message, then it means you've either ignored or was oblivious to our numerous subtle and not so subtle attempts to get you to stand down as Overmare. Either way, I doubt you'll be able to ignore this. As you can see by the dead security pony accompanying the device that recorded this message, we're playing hardball now. If that isn't enough to convince you that we mean business, we've kidnapped several Stable members in addition to several of them defecting and leading this operation. Among those kidnapped is your precious zebra friend, Tiny.

Our demands are simple: The Stables water talisman in exchange for the safe return of the prisoners. You will deliver it to us at Maremis port within twelve hours. You must come alone, but are allowed to bring weapons to protect yourself on the journey there. If you do not comply, we will slaughter the prisoners, and let the whole Wastelandknow their blood is on your hooves. I trust you'll make the right decision."

The recording was cut off with a click. Dead silence followed inside the limousine.

"Who'd they kill?" I asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had fallen over us.

"Nopony, thank Celestia." Tinker answered, smiling weakly. Any good news was welcome, especially against this tide of bad news. "Cuffs got shot once in the back of the head, but luckily she survived. Red Alert worked on her all night. She's stable, but still hasn't woken up yet, so we don't know if any brain damage has been suffered or not." Her small smile fell at that, returning to the frown it had been in for the past while.

Cuffs... I remembered who she was. Unicorn, second in command of the Stables security forces (AKA: The one who did all the work), liked to tie up her bedroom conquests, was always very friendly and helpful... She was always so bright and cheerful, never even made anyone angry as far as I knew. If these ponies were willing to kill somepony like her just to SHOW they meant business, I was worried at what they would do when it was time to really fight.

"I'm between a rock and a hard place here." Tinker explained, rubbing the sides of her head with her forehooves. She sounded tired, tired beyond her years, way beyond what any teenager should sound like. But no average teenager had hundreds of lives depending on their every decision. "I can't give them the water talisman, that's not even an option. No more water for food production, no clean water to drink, to bathe with... We'd have to leave the stable, probably the entire Skyport. But... I can't lose her, I just can't. I won't. Not like this." Rock and a hard place, indeed.

"Any place we can get a water talisman from?" Crusher asked, joining the conversation. "Other Stables, Stable-Tec warehouses, Steel Ranger bases, anything?"

The Overmare just shook her head. "I don't know where any Ranger bases are, i don't know if there's any warehouses like that in Maremi, and the other local Stables are either sealed, populated by Stable Dwellers, or populated by horrors of some Stable-Tec experiment gone wrong. Even focusing on one of these options, it would take too long and be too much of a gamble."

"So you came to us." The Madame deduced, still sitting in the same spot she was before.

"I came to him." Tinker looked straight at me, and in a surprising move, lifted her goggles up to her forehead. Her eyes were a bright and brilliant blue that matched the lenses that frequently covered them, and right now, they were giving me the saddest, most pleading look I've ever seen. "Please, Gunslinger, I know you and your friends can do this. It's too late for me to hire mercenaries from somewhere else. You're my only chance at getting Tiny back without sacrificing the rest of the Stable. Anything you want, I'll give it to you! Just please, bring her back to me..."

I considered exactly what "anything" I could get from her. I had Tinker over a barrel at this point, and I could literally have her over one if I so wished. Could clean her out of caps, get my own harem of Stable mares, hell, *I* could ask for the water talisman! But as tempting as as all of those were, they were all short term. In the long term, it served to keep Tinker as my friend. Not only because of her position as Overmare, but she was also well read on mechanics and computers, and practiced those skills regularly. She'd be a valuable asset to the group.

"I'll do this for free." Before anyone could gather their wits and stop staring at me like I turned into an Alicorn, I added "On one condition."

"Name it." Tinker said before the words were barely out of my mouth.

"I want you to join the Hellraisers."

"Was already planning to." Now everyone -myself included- was staring at Tinker like SHE turned into an Alicorn. "It's obvious this group is willing to go to any length to see me ousted as leader. I'm not going to let any more innocents be hurt by these maniacs. As soon as Tiny is back, I'm stepping down as Overmare."

"But isn't that what they want?" Aryanna asked, scratching her head in confusion. It was pretty confusing, honestly. All this and she was just going to give in to their demands anyway?

"I know, but it's just too dangerous to the Stable for me to stay in power. But if I'm going to step down, I'm going to do it on my own terms. Not like they'll be around to see it, anyway."

"So what are you thinking?" I asked.

"I want you to rescue any and all prisoners you find over there. As for the rest..." The little mares eyes narrowed, blue orbs filled with fury like a tidal wave. "No survivors."

"You sure?" I started. "Could be beneficial to keep one as a prisoner or some-"

"No." The tone that Tinker said that in made me just a little bit afraid of her. Tiny bit. Completely minuscule amount, heh... "You can interrogate some of them for information if you want, but I want all enemies dead. Do you hear me, Gunslinger? DEAD."

"Now you're speaking my language!" Crusher had a huge grin on her face. Of course she'd be happy for a massacre.

"You've got my support." Madame Mule added. "I've known Tiny for a long time, long enough that I remember when she had two eyes. I'd help just to rescue her. Saving some poor, innocent ponies and getting rid of some would be overthrowers and enslavers of my friends? Icing on the cake. Sandstorm will-"

"No." Tinker interrupted again. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I can't have you getting that involved. If there's any retaliation for this, I don't want you to suffer it."

The Madame looked off in thought again, before nodding. "I appreciate your concern. I suppose I can offer a one time fifty percent discount for whatever you'll need for the rescue. Now that I think about it... There might be someone I can get to help out. Someone not afiliated with me. You dears just write down what you need and the amount of it, and I'll pass it on to some of my vendors when I return. I need to see if she'll be willing to help us out." Her part of the plan done or at least in the balance, the Madame made her exit... By climbing over me and out the limo, Duststorm following her but thankfully squeezing around me. I didn't mind the closeness of the ghoul, I just wish I had some warning before things got... squishy.

Pushing any sudden, strange thoughts of disgust to the back of my mind, (I'd gotten much closer to the mule before. Don't get grossed out now, you weirdo) I focused on something that we definitely needed. "So what's the plan?"

"Go in, shoot everyone who isn't a prisoner, come out." Crusher stated simply. I was inclined to agree with her, if I didn't know it'd be more difficult than that.

"The port is a big place and like a maze, not to mention that we have no intelligence in their numbers or where they'll specifically be. We've gotta come at this smartly or we're gonna get our asses kicked."

"They'll most likely know you're coming." Tinker stated. "I'm not going to tell anypony, but I have a feeling I'm being watched, and I doubt that those four could be the only defectors in what looks like a large operation."

"Any other Stable Dwellers missing?" Sandstorm asked, Tinker shaking her head in the negative.

"Besides the five known defectors, the scavengers, and Tiny, no. They obviously didn't let themselves out of jail or shoot Cuffs, though." She sighed, rubbing her temples. "Or maybe they did, I'm not sure. Not sure of anything right now..."

"It's ok, Tinker." Sandstorm reassured with a smile. "We know this is a tough time for you."

"I've already given you all the information I know. I just feel kinda... Useless." She sighed.

I racked my brain trying to think of how we were going to rescue Tiny and the others. We had no idea on their numbers, their positions, their tactics, anything. The plan at the slaver camp only worked because of the element of surprise. Hmm, element of surprise... There must be something we can do to get the jump on them! Wait... I looked over at Tinker, an idea forming in my head. A very crazy idea that could potentially kill us all. "I think I have a way for you to be more useful, Tinker."

"How?" She asked, looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

I just grinned.

________________________________________________________________________

• 500 5mm rounds, Hollow Point
• 500 5mm rounds, Armor Piercing
• 36 .357 magnum rounds
• 180 10mm rounds
• 60 5.56mm rounds
• 180 units of Flamer fuel

"I don't know, that's only about... three reloads each." Tinker said, looking over the list of ammunition we'd be needing for this job.

"Yeah, I think we need some more, just in case." Crusher agreed.

"Come on, we're not gonna need any more." Aryanna said, snatching up the piece of paper we'd wrote down our little supply list on. "We're just going to go in, be like "BAM! BANG! BOOM!" and come home. Easy!"

"It won't be easy if we run out of rounds in the middle of the fucking fight, dumbass." Crusher spat. "Badasses are always prepared for a situation, or they improvise. You don't look ready to improvise, so we better be well fucking prepared."

That seemed to deflate her a bit, the griffin slumping a bit on the couch and tossing the paper back on the table. "Fine, more bullets then..."

"You can never have enough Flamer fuel!" Firebug added. Never have enough when it came to her, anyway, I was perfectly happy with having none of the stuff around.

I floated the paper back over to me, erasing the previous numbers with the pencil I was using to write -thank you, Stable 37- and adjusting them.

• 750 5mm rounds, Hollow Point
• 750 5mm rounds, Armor Piercing
• 60 .357 magnum rounds
• 360 10mm rounds
• 180 5.56mm rounds
• 300 units of Flamer fuel
• 5 healing potions
• 2 rolls of healing bandages
• 5 shots of Med-X

"How's that?" I asked, passing the list back to the others so they could review it.

"Much better." Tinker said, passing it along. "Gives you much more of a fighting chance, combined with the ammo you already have."

"Yeah, we'll have plenty of shit to kill with!" Crusher exclaimed, grin on her face. "Well, as far as rounds go. Our guns could be a little more varied..."

"It's fine, I guess..." Aryanna said dejectedly, not even bothering to look at the paper before passing it along.

"This has more Flamer fuel, so I like it!" Firebug said happily.

"You sure you have enough ammo for that pistol of yours, Tinker?" I honestly didn't think she had any intention of using that old gun anyway, but one has to keep up appearances and ask about these kind of things.

"I'm stocked well enough, Gun, don't worry." Tinker reassured.

"You do know how to use that thing, right?" I couldn't stop a wry little smile from breaking out on my face.

"I've only been outside the Stable hundreds of times in the past five years, not all of which were pleasant little strolls around the block." She spoke, almost sounding proud about surviving fights. Then again, that is a big accomplishment in a place where almost everything is trying to kill you. "I can handle myself. Besides, if the plan works, I won't even have to fire off a single shot."

"Alright, so, where's the Madame? She's kinda crucial to the plan." I looked at Sandstorm who just shrugged. "Well whenever she gets here-"

And as if on cue, the Madame opened up the door other and poked her head in, Dust doing the same thing on the other side "Alright, she's agreed to help. Do you have that list for me?"

"We do." I floated the list over to her, the ghoul taking it in a hoof and her eyes nearly bugging out of her skull as she looked over the paper. "Seven hundred and fifty five millimeter rounds?! In armor piercing AND hollow point?! Are you KIDDING ME?!"

"I know it's a lot, but we're really going in blind here." I explained.

"I know, I know..." She sighed. "I'll try and see if I can scrounge up five hundred of each, but that's a large if. Everything else will be easy to get."

I could feel the disappointment coming from Bone Crusher, but she was going to have to suck it up. "That's good. Is that stallion still around? The one who does the body painting?"

"Um..." The Madame tapped her chin in thought, before clopping her hooves together. "I know who you're talking about! Yeah, he's still here. Why do you ask? Not thinking of getting a quickie in before you have to go, are you?" The mule winked at me. If only I had the time...

"Maybe." I admitted with a chuckle. "But not from him, he's needed for the plan."

That made her tilt her head, looking at me curiously. "What did you come up with, exactly?"

"I'll explain it to her." Tinker slid over the seats to us, squeezing between the Madame and I to get out. "We need to get to work on this, and fast. We only have... six hours left."

The ghoul mule and I nodded in agreement. "Alright, I'll take you over to him- Brushstroke, that's his name!" She turned and started leading Tinker away, before turning back to speak to me. "Oh, Gunslinger? The pony who I'd asked to help will be over here in a few minutes. Unicorn, blue with a blue and white mane. Name is Smoking Aces. I think you two will get along just fine~" She purred, chuckling as she walked off.

What the heck did she mean by that? No matter, we had to start getting ready. "Come on." I got out of the limo, the others filing out behind me.

"So what now?" Crusher asked, stepping beside me.

"Wait for this Smoking Aces, tell her the plan, wait for Brushstroke to do his magic and get all that stuff ready so we can get down to the port." It seemed simple, but I had the sneaking suspicion that something was going to go wrong. Maybe Tinys pessimism was just rubbing off on me. Hope she's ok...

A minute or two of standing around later, and Smokin' Aces showed up. Well, at least I think she did. Blue coat, white and blue swirled mane, unicorn... She had a very "girl next door" type of look to her; innocent, but really anything but. She didn't seem to have much in the way of armor, just some leather barding covering the front half of her body with a few pockets on the chest. In fact, she didn't seem to have anything else besides her saddlebags, not even a weapon. Maybe she knew some zebra fighting techniques or something?

"Are you the Hellraisers?" She asked, looking us over.

"That's us." I replied. "I'm Gunslinger, that's Bone Crusher, that's Aryanna, and that's Firebug. And I assume you're Smoking Aces?"

She nodded, smiling brightly at us. "I am. It's great to meet you all!" The unicorn came over and shook my hoof, doing the same for the others -shaking a hand in Aryannas case.

"We're glad to have all the help we can get to rescue Tiny." I really was happy to have some extra help. I had a feeling this was going to be harder than we thought.

"I'm just glad to finally be free of the caravan." Aces replied with a chuckle. "Didn't know it'd take so long when I asked the Madame to take me as south as she went."

"Why'd you want to go south?" Bone Crusher asked, looking Aces over.

"I wanted to travel, see how grey and brown somewhere else was." She grinned. "And make new friends, of course! Take the time to get to know them... Intimately~" The purr in her voice reminded me of the Madame, and it sent shivers down my spine in the same way.

"Sounds slutty." Crusher said plainly.

"I wear the title proudly." Aces replied back without any hesitation. She even threw a wink in the Ex-Rangers direction. "Rolls off the tongue better than raider or slaver. Gets me much more things than either of those can to boot."

Crusher huffed. "Got me there, slut. I won't judge you for what you do. Might even have to see if you deserve that title." She chuckled.

"I worked hard for that title, and I'll be glad to prove it to you later~" Were they really doing this in front of children? "But we have someone to rescue first, don't we?"

"Right!" I practically threw myself back into the conversation. "That reminds me, do you need any ammo? I can go and run down the Madame and add it to the list."

The unicorn mare shook her head. "I don't really use guns."

"Energy weapons?" I guessed.

"Nope."

"Explosives?" Crusher suggested.

"Nuh-uh."

"Kickass zebra martial arts?" The ever action loving Aryanna offered.

"Swing and a miss."

"Fire?!" Firebug eagerly -and hopefully- tried.

Aces just giggled and shook her head. "No, sorry!"

"Well what the fuck is it, then?!" Bone Crusher was obviously not a fan of the guessing game.

Smoking Aces opened one of the pockets on her chest with her magic and floated out a pack of playing cards. "These!" She beamed.

"What."

"You're fucking kidding."

"Weaaak."

"Zero out of ten, not a fire weapon."

She just giggled and floated the pack towards me. "Pick a card, big boy~"

I dug through the deck until I found the card I wanted, sliding it out with a smirk and letting her see it.

"King of hearts. Cute." I just waggled my eyebrows at her. "Now watch." She looked towards one of the stands that was set up for trade. It was nothing special, a little thing made out of some sturdy wood selling various wares. With a little flick of her magic, the card shot out of her magic and towards the stand, burying about half of itself in the wooden countertop with a solid THUNK. Needless to say, it startled the crap out of the stallion sitting there, the older pony falling out of his seat with a yell. Aces just giggled again and yanked the card out, bringing it back to her. "Got about an inch and a quarter in there."

"That's... pretty fucking interesting."

"That's badass!"

"Five out of ten, still needs more fire."

They were all right in some form. It was definitely interesting, I could see where it could be called "badass", and they'd be sharp, flaming projectiles if they could be lit on fire. I still had a question, though. "How'd you do that? What else can those things do, for that matter?"

Smoking Aces put the card back into the pack, slipping the whole thing back inside the pocket she took it from. "A lady never reveals all her secrets."

"Isn't that supposed to be "A magician never reveals all her secrets"?" Aryanna asked.

"I'm a lady and I have magic, so either/or for me." She replied with a smirk.

"I... Don't think that's how it works..."

"Alright, so!" I clapped my hooves together to get my companions attention. "We have one shot at this and six hours to pull it off. Here's the plan..."

_________________________________________________________________

We galloped -flew, in Aryanna's case- hard over the ruined roads of Maremi, hooves thundering against the ground as we raced to make it to the port on time. Getting everything Tinker needed for the plan ready took much longer than we thought. When we saw that there was only an hour and a half left before the deadline, we all took off running, hoping that we'd make it in time. Luckily for all of us, it was more or less a straight path down some of the old expressways there.

It was finally coming in in sight after what I hoped wasn't too much time. Containers of few sizes but all kinds of colors was what greeted us as we came over the last hill! towards the way we were going to get into the port. "We" being all of us but Tinker. She'd split from us a few minutes ago to go through the ports main entrance. She was supposed to come alone, after all.

We finally stopped at the entrance to the tunnel, all of us panting hard and trying to catch our breath before going forward. "Crusher... Time..." I gasped out, leaning on the power armored mare for support.

"Seven fifty." She replied, barely sounding winded. Should've expected that from somepony that spent most of her life in the Steel Rangers. This was probably a normal run for her!

"Ok... We have time to... Get in place..." Hopefully. At least we weren't too late to meet the deadline. "Alright, I'm... I'm ok..." Whew! I took a few more gasps of breath just to be safe. Firebug, I'm going to need to borrow that pistol of yours." The filly pulled the striped pistol out of its holster, silencer still attached. I still didn't have any idea why she had this when she had that flamethrower as her main weapon. Whatever the reason, I was glad she had it, as it gave us another silent weapon.

As soon as we all stopped gasping for air, we started moving into the tunnel. Crusher took the lead, Aces and I behind her, Aryanna above, and Firebug bringing up the rear. We moved quietly through the tunnel -as quietly as a suit of power armor could be, anyway- keeping an eye out for any enemies or any signs this tunnel was going to go. It'd held up surprisingly well for 200 years of neglect, only a few spots where concrete had broken and let water start to trickle in. Better safe than sorry, still.

"Hostiles. Two, dead ahead." Crushers words snapped us out of the silence we'd fallen into. I moved forward, Firebugs pistol at the ready as Aces followed me. Just like the Ex-Ranger had said, two ponies were milling about, one watching down each end of the tunnel.

"Hey!" The unicorn stallion watching our way shouted, getting his companions attention. I shot him as soon as I saw his horn light up, three rounds striking him in his chest... And setting him on fire? We all paused as the stallion fell over screaming bloody murder as he was burnt alive. I looked at him, and then the pistol, and back to the stallion again.

I shot him three more times just to be sure I was seeing this correctly. I was. "What the fuck...?"

Of course, while I was being an idiot and staring at my gun and the now dead stallion, his friend decided to shoot me. Luckily, a few well placed cards stopped him from blasting me with the submachinegun he had, the bullets impacting harmlessly against the ground and wall. Thank goodness he was an earth pony! A unicorn wouldn't have had to turn.

We quickly searched the bodies, managing to find a pair of radios and some ammo. Hopefully we'd be able to listen in on them and get some valuable information. I clicked on the radio as we started walking again. I'd ask Firebug about her strange fire pistol later, though I should've expected it seeing who the owner was...

"She's here." A lady's voice came through the radio, one I'd never heard before. "And she's alone like we requested."

"I don't buy it." A male replied. "She's too smart to just give up like this. Cruise ship team, tunnel team, hold your positions. Everyone else, fall back and make a tight halfcircle around the meeting area, just like we discussed."

A chorus of "Yes sir"s followed his words. It seemed this pony ran a tight ship, or was at least well prepared.

"Good, keep an eye out for her little friends. No knowing where they'll pop up from. And get the collar on her, it's crucial." Another round of affirmatives were said before the radio went back to be silent. This was definitely going to be a bit more difficult if they were expecting us. Hold on. Collar?

"It's eight already!" Crusher said, breaking into a gallop. Shit, she was right! We all took off after her, nowhere near being in position. We all raced out of the tunnel, immediately ducking behind a stack of crates as a pony passed by not two seconds later. All of us held our breath, weapons at the ready in case she turned around, but she didn't, continuing to head towards the maze of containers. A quick peek around the crate revealed more ponies heading in the same direction.

"How're we gonna do this with them all so clustered now?" Aryanna asked, tapping her twin SMGs with her talons impatiently. I could relate. After that little fight in the tunnel, we were all pumped up to cause some mayhem. Sadly, we were outnumbered and outgunned against an enemy who knew we may be coming. This had to be approached delicately.

"Hey, guys, I've got an idea." Aces poked me in the side, getting the attention of us all before gesturing to herself. "You and Bone Crusher go up the middle, I'll take the left, Firebug, you come in from the right. Aryanna, go get on top of a stack of containers, hit them from above when the confusion starts. Sound good?"

I thought about it for several seconds, the others already agreeing. An attack from multiple positions was our best bet against an enemy of unknown size and strength. Returning Firebugs pistol and making sure the safeties were off on my revolvers, I gave a nod of my own.

"Great!" Aces beamed. "um..." She looked over the two radios, the rest of us doing the same. She'd have one, Aryanna wouldn't need one from her vantage point, Bone Crusher and I would need ours, and Firebug...

"Sorry, Firebug." I shrugged. She was a strong, crazy filly, she'd be fine.

"Its okay!" She replied. "I'll just "borrow" one, hehe..." Somepony was going to have a very fire filled rest of their life, however short it'd be.

"Lets fuck some shit up, then." Crusher said, letting out an evil little chuckle. As soon as the coast was clear, we were all out of cover and very quietly and quickly trying to make our ways around to be ready for attack. Which is kinda hard when the radio decides to turn on.

"Hello, Tinker." The male voice from before spoke again.

"Good evening." Tinker responded levelly. "I'd ask if you're the one behind all this, but my first question is why I have some kind of device around my neck and on my back? Slave collar?"

"Oh please. Just because we resort to slavery sometimes doesn't mean everything we do will be about slavery." The male voice sounded hurt at her assumption. "It's a transmitter device that dispatchers here used to use before the end, set to always transmitting and speaking to all radios in the network. In simple terms, we can all hear everything you say, which means no contacting your little friends without us knowing."

"Shit." Both of us said in unison as we tried to make our way through maze of containers. Now Tinker had no way of contacting us without them knowing. Sure, we were basically planning for her to shout "NOW!" and we all come out guns blazing, but it wouldn't have alerted every single damn one of them at the same time, at least!

"You'll always have the jump on me if I say anything. How clever." Tinker sounded less then impressed. "But how do you know I don't have other ways of contacting them? For all you know, a simple wiggle of my ears like so will-"

A single shot rang out through the port, and Crusher and I froze for several seconds, holding our breath. Had they just straight up murdered her? Oh boy, everything was about to go down the drain...

"I do not appreciate your comedy or your tone." The male spoke, sounding a lot more annoyed. "Now please do try and be mature about this. I know that's a tall order for a brat like yourself, but please, make an effort. The next one won't miss."

"You want mature?" Tinker asked. Thank the goddesses, she was alive! "Lets get some questions out the way, then. Who are you?"

"The stallion holding your friend hostage. Next question."

"What's your name?"

"Unimportant."

"Why do you want the water talisman so bad, Unimportant?"

"Childish little..." He growled. "It's classified."

"Where's Tiny?"

"Around somewhere."

"Show me her." That one wasn't a question.

"And what, dare I ask, makes you think you're in any position to make demands? You're completely surrounded by armed combatants, and your poor excuses for mercenaries friends are going to be blown away the second we see them."

"Hmm... Question for a question. Have you ever heard of a dead mares switch, Unimportant?"

"Why you insolent-" He paused and took a deep breath. "I have. Why do you ask?"

By all the gasps coming over the radio, I could only assume that she revealed the broken C4 detonator that was held in her hoof. "Because guess what I have?"

Unimportant laughed. "Oh give me a break! So what if you blow yourself up? If this was your plan from the beginning, then you most likely don't even have the talisman on you!"

"Oh, but I do." The quiet "Shit" that I heard Unimportant let out meant that she revealed the fake water talisman we had made. Not the best recreation, but it should fool those at a distance. "And I'm not planning on blowing just myself up. I've got enough Balefire Eggs on me to sink this whole damn port to the bottom of the ocean."

"Bullshit!" He retorted. Oh, he was angry now! "You wouldn't blow up your precious zebra friend."

"Not normally, no." She admitted. "But to stop her from being tortured or killed by you power hungry monsters, if she isn't already dead... Not to mention you threatening me, endangering my stable, my friends. I'm through being pushed around by you." Her voice was rising with every word now. "So call my bluff. Go ahead and kill me, right here and now, but it won't matter even if you're right. Because I will NEVER let you threaten me or anyone I care about again!"

I rounded a corner, nearly bumping into the flank of one of the ponies watching guard. I held my breath, hoping not to disturb them. At least that was the plan, until Crusher walked right up to them and punched them in the back of the head hard enough to knock them out. Power armor was so overpowered... At least with him out of the way, I had a clear view of Tinker and Unimportant staring each other down. He reminded me of a piece of toast with jelly on it with the way his dark red mane spilled over his golden coat. Not half bad looking, even if one conversation was all it took to see he was a douche.

They were silent for several long seconds until Unimportant finally spoke, hanging his head in defeat with a sigh. "Bring the zebra."

"Sir, are you sure-"

"I SAID BRING THE DAMN STRIPE!" He shouted. That was more than enough to stop any other questions, several of his lackeys going off to fetch Tiny from wherever she was being held.

"I'm glad you could see reason." The smugness in her voice was palpable.

"You haven't won yet."

"Is that so? I think I-" Tinker let out a gasp, holding the hoof with the detonator to her mouth. "Tiny..."

They dragged Tinys body across the ground, leaving her a few feet from Tinker and Unimportant. They had some seriously heavy chains on her hooves, and those looked to be the best condition things about her right now. Numerous cuts and nasty bruises adorned her body, and it might've just been where I was standing, but I was pretty sure that hind leg wasn't supposed to bend like that...

"What did you do to her?" The little pink mare growled, the rage in her voice deathly clear.

"Beat her up." He responded calmly, like he was discussing the weather. "Quite badly, too, even though she offered no resistance after we threatened to kill those with her."

Tinker snorted, grabbing the pistol that was hanging around her neck. I'd almost forgotten about that old thing. What did she call it...? Crescendo? Concerto? It was something that all the overmares and stallions had since they closed up the Stable, apparently. Supposedly, it held and fired a single fifty caliber round, and had all these magical dampeners and stuff to prevent the one firing from losing their jaw or having the thing go flying out of their magic. I didn't believe all that myself, but if it was true, then Unimportant was about to be torn apart from the chest up!

He just chuckled in the face of the powerful gun. "Oh please, stop embarrassing yourself. I'm too important for you to kill."

"Since when?" She asked, somehow having understandable speech even with the gun in her mouth. I still didn't know how earth ponies did that!

"I control this whole operation. You kill me, you'll never find out why all this happened." The ego was just dripping from him at this point.

"It also means that if I kill you, this whole thing ends." She surmised. I had to admit that that made sense. Cut off the head...

"Would it really? Killing me wouldn't stop my plans in the least, as I've planned for that. Can never be too sure, dear, maybe you'll learn that when you're older."

"So why tell me, then?" The short mare asked, sounding just as confused as I felt.

"To watch you fail, of course!" Unimportant responded with glee . "That'd be the best way to get you back for the trouble you've caused me. You can't stop what I'm going to do."

"That's pretty overconfident, don't you think? Just what exactly are you planning to do that I won't be able to stop?"

If the look on his face was any cockier, he'd have been a chicken. "Well first, I'm going to-"

"Lie to... save your sorry skin...?" Tiny said, voice filled with pain as she spoke with some difficulty. Still, it was enough to kill whatever ego Unimportant had. "Maybe you shouldn't... shouldn't talk to your superiors in front of your -ugh- prisoners.."

"Remind me to tear the vocal cords out of the next prisoners we take." He growled, looking in the large zebras direction. I couldn't see his eyes with his head turned, but I imagine he was shooting her a pretty nasty glare. "I know you'll trust your stupid striped friend over whatever I say, so yes, she's right. I'm not the head of this operation, but-"

Tinker held up a hoof for him to stop. "Then you're just another cog in whatever plan involves my stable. Possibly a big cog, but not the heart of the machine, and therefore useless to me. Not to mention that you've been proven to be a liar. We're done here."

"We are NOT done here, you little twerp!" He yelled, taking a step forward. "We are not done here until I say so!"

Tinker and Unimportant started yelling at each other, although I wasn't able to focus on their conversation as Bone Crusher started poking me in the side. "Hey, Gun?"

"What?" I asked, looking over at her.

"See her?" She pointed towards the group of ponies standing closest to the arguing pair. "Behind Tiny. The one with the sunglasses?"

No wonder we could just stand close by in some darkness and not be seen! Who wears sunglasses at night? That stupidity aside, I still didn't know why she was being singled out. "What about her?"

"I know her from somewhere."

And? "So what? A scavenger you let get away or something?"

Getting poked in the side -even lightly- by power armor hurts a lot. At least it wasn't enough to send me flying into the container next to me. "No, asshole, I think I remember her from before I ended up out here. She's a Steel Ranger."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "You sure? What'd a Steel Ranger be doing out here helping in something like this?"

"I don't know, but I intend to find out." She started moving forward. Oh sweet Celestia, what was she planning to do now?

"Woah, woah! Where the fuck are you going?" I hissed quietly. Stop moving forward, please!

"To find out." Was her reply, still heading towards Unimportant, Tinker, and all the other heavily armed ponies who wanted to kill us on sight.

"Shit..." I grumbled, ducking behind the container and poking my head around the corner. Might as well see her final moments....

"Sir, we've got contact!" The very mare that Crusher was heading to spoke. "One hos... tile..." She trailed off, taking a few steps back. "You're... You really are still alive..."

"You're damn right I'm still alive." The Ex Ranger replied, strolling right between Unimportant and Tinker like they weren't even there."And I want some answers..."

"I knew it!" Unimportant shouted. "I knew you violated our agreement you TRAITOROUS-"

"I told them not to follow me!" Tinker defended, taking a few steps back.

"Sure you did, you double crossing brat! Maybe they'll listen to you in the afterlife! Open fire!"

"I'll blow us all to Tartarus if you do, I swear!"

Now all of Unimportants henchponies seemed conflicted. Bone Crusher was a very real threat, but so was getting blown up by all the zebra alchemical death they thought Tinker had on a hair trigger. The final nail in the coffin was probably the stallion that ran into the area. Screaming. While on fire.

"I found a radio, guys!" Firebug happily announced over said radio.

The mercs or soldiers or whatever they were looked at their burning comrade, then the direction he came from, then to Crusher and back again for several seconds, completely conflicted about who to shoot at this point. I didn't blame them, I wasn't sure who'd be more frightening to get into a fight with!

Several tense seconds passed by, Unimportant and Tinker staring each other down again. The stallion made the first move again, letting out an annoyed snort. "To hell with it! If I'm going to die to a foal, I'm going to die fighting!" He rushed her, tackling her and taking them both to the ground out of my line of sight. I couldn't see what was happening, but the sounds of blows landing and grunts of pain made it clear.

"Tinker!" Tiny shouted, trying to get to her hooves even while injured and shackled. A hit from the butt of a rifle kept her down, but she kept trying, determined to help her friend. Bone Crusher, meanwhile, hadn't even moved. She was still staring down that mare, who looked like she was close to pissing herself.

I sighed, coming from behind the container and starting to Sprint towards the open. Looks like the plan has fallen to shit... I saw about what I expcted when I got there: Unimportant raining hits down on Tinker, the filly trying to protect herself with her forehooves. Of course, I only saw this for a second before I barreled into the stallion and threw us both away from Tinker.

I'll be honest: I suck at hoof to hoof combat. I carry a knife on me for emergencies and knew the obvious weakpoints in a body just about everyone else did, but anybody who even spent five minutes practicing could probably beat me.

It was clear Unimportant had spent at least ten.

I ended up on top, but was thrown off before I could get my guns out. I got to my hooves quickly, Unimportant already going for a pistol strapped to his chest.

"STOP!" Tinker shouted, getting to her hooves. "I'll do it, I swear!"

We stopped, looking at Tinker. "Um, Tinker?" I started. "You're missing a little something." I pointed to her hoof.

The stable pony looked at me in confusion, looking at her hoof... Her now empty hoof that used to hold the broken detonator. She looked at the detonator a few feet away that went flying when she was tackled. It's formerly depressed position had been let up, meaning she'd be meaty bits by now if it really was a dead mares switch. "Oh... Well, horseapples."

I would've facehoofed if I didn't have to dodge a hail of gunfire. Seems Unimportants gang got their shit together now that fear of being blown to smithereens was gone. Great!

At least I wasn't the only one getting shot at. Tinker scrambled away, galloping behind a row of containers, and I could hear Crushers miniguns spinning up. The fight was on.

I rolled behind some kind of metal thing attached to the dock (I'm not fluent in boats and related terminology, sue me) and drew my revolvers, blindly firing. My cover was barely large enough to hide behind, so I didn't dare poke my head out.

Somepony screamed, and my ego assumed it was from me. It was more likely that it was because of Crusher. Even over all the other gunfire, I could hear the roar of her miniguns spitting lead at an insane rate. It didn't seem to be as effective as it was against the slavers, though. In fact, I could hear her stepping towards me. She came into view a second later, limping on her front left leg. "They've got fucking armor piercers!" She screamed over the roar of her guns.

Shit. Of course they had armor piercing ammo, they were prepared to fight power armor! If Crusher went down, there was no way we'd be getting out of here alive. I had an idea of how to help her, but it was a stupid one that'd put me more in the line of fire more. Still, it'd at least give the power armored killing machine time to heal up.

"Switch!" I yelled, dashing out of my barely pony sized cover as Crusher slid in. As I expected, all the gunfire followed her, and then turned on me since I was out in the open. It was a mad dash the fifty or so meters to the relative safety of the containers, bullets flying at me the entire time. I was extremely thankful for my kevlar coat at this moment, but it didn't help much with how it was flying up from my galloping. Just more motivation to move faster!

Somehow, I managed to make it to the ccontainers without sustaining any injuries. I should be a little more safe in the maze of metal, for now, anyway. I could already hear the galloping of some of Unimportants ponies coming after me. I had to keep moving. If I could at least link up with Tinker, she could use her EFS to spot targets for me. I could hear her over the radio, breathing deeply as she ran to get away from Unimportant and his attackers like we were.

Some kind of goal in mind besides survival, I moved deeper into the maze of cargo containers. An smg wielding stallion spotted me from a T junction further down, ready to fire at me. At least, that was what he was going to do before a small, thin, rectangle streamed past his neck, leaving a deep cut in it. Another hit both of his clothed forehooves, barely able to penetrate the armor, but still hitting deep enough to send him collapsing on his face. A single bullet from me finished him off. Smoking Aces came around the corner a second later, smiling when she saw me. "Hey, stud."

"Hey, beautiful." I replied, smirking. "Have you seen Tinker?"

She shook her head. "You're the first one I've found. We've gotta get out of here, these goons are everywhere!"

"I know, but we can't leave Tiny behind!" There's no way they'd let her live now, not to mention how badly it'd devastate Tinker. The two of us moved deeper into the maze, my guns drawn and a bunch of cards circling Aces, both of us ready for attack.

I had to admit that Smoking Aces cards were more effective than I thought they would be. Enemies we encountered were dispatched quickly with a few of her special cards to vital areas or just a flurry of them at anything we could hit. Of course my guns did just as well, dispensing quick death on any enemy I was lucky enough to fight. I was quickly using up all my ammo, though...

We entered into another open area between the containers, checking around the area. We were far away enough from the gunfire that there was no way to tell apart one gun from another. There was definitely less gunfire than before, that much was for certain. I could also hear the roar of flames and manic laughter around somewhere... If I looked up the right way, I could see Aryanna high above on one of the taller stacks of containers, firing down at the enemy and moving to another stack when they returned fire. They seemed to wisen up to it, though, an explosion rocking the stack she was shooting from. It began to fall, crashing into the one next to it. And then that one began to fall into the next one, and that into the next. A giant domino effect, resulting in a horendohs sound of screeching and crunching metal, the Griffin flying far away from the mess so she wouldn't get caught in it.

This was almost enough noise to cover up the sound of Tinker screaming.

"Let me go, you- Agh!"

"Shut up, you stupid child!" Unimportant roared, and I heard the smack of a hoof slapping someone. "You've ruined everything! We were almost close, I could feel it!" Another smack. Aces and I were galloping around, listening intently to see if they were close. "We almost-" He screamed a few octaves higher than anything I'd heard from him so far, and I had a feeling of what my small friend had done to get away. "Bitch!" He squeaked.

We made it to the next open row just as several shots rang out, close enough for us to hear over the radio and in person. Tinker screamed, tumbling to the ground several rows of containers over, groaning in pain and trying to drag herself forward. She didn't make it far before Unimportant was back on her, dragging her back towards where they came.

That was until a bunch of cards and bullets went flying in his direction.

He dived down behind the still struggling Tinker, trying to use her as a shield. Which worked for the most part. There was an obvious size difference between the teenage filly and the full grown stallion, but she protected enough of him to make us move in closer, weapons still drawn. Unimportant placed his back against a container, using it to prop himself on to two legs, still holding Tinker like a sheild between us and him. His mouth held gun was pressed against her skull, ready to fire. "Stahy bachk!" He mumbled.

We stopped where we were, not wanting to antagonize him any further. "Weaphuns ohn the groundh!" Again, we complied, my revolvers and several packs of playing cards being placed on the ground in front of us. The look he gave us was one full of malice and also a bit of eccentricity. The gunfire had all but died down now, and there weren't any of his goons coming to help him. His back was against the wall -figuratively AND literally- and his only option of getting out of here alive was by keeping Tinker between us and him.

"Stahy backh" Unimportant shouted again, awkwardly backing away from us on his hind hooves. Tinker was still held tight in his grip, her struggling weaker than it was before. We didn't dare try and stop him, lest we agitate him any further. I didn't know what Aces reasoning was, but not only did I not want to lose a friend, that big brain of hers was worth a lot more to me alive than dead. There was nothing a could do to stop him, though. He looked ready to splatter the fillys brains out if we so much as twitched in his direction. Goddesses damnit, I hated being helpless like this! All we could do was watch as the bastard stallion got further away, taking my friend with him...

And then a bullet tore through Unimportants leg. He screamed, toppling to the ground. The gun fired, and Tinker screamed. We screamed, rushing over to check on her. She was alright, rolling on the ground and clutching her head. I tossed the still cursing Unimportants gun away, and Aces kicked him in the gut to send him rolling away from us. Just to be safe. "Tinker, are you alright?" I asked.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!" Well, at least she was still alive. It was obvious that she was hurt, but I couldn't see where with her clutching her head like that.

"Tinker, I need to see where you're hurt, ok?" I said gently, placing my forehooves on her. I didn't want to startle her, especially with that monster mouth cannon that she weilded.

Slowly, she calmed down and took her hooves away from her head. I couldn't help but wince. Half of her right ear had been blown clean off, and I could see where the bullet made a hole through her mane. Just a few centimeters lower and it would've caught her skull...

"How bad is it?" The filly asked, still trying to calm down completely.

I smiled. "Nothing a healing potion can't-"

With a roar of anger, Unimportant jumped to his hooves, trying to charge the three of us. Another bullet tore through his leg, putting him down on the ground again, swearing profusely. Aryanna landed next to him a second later, assault rifle trained on him. "Sup?"

"Nice shot." Aces commented with a smirk.

"Shot?" The griffin looked confused, looking back at the still cursing Unimportant and then to her gun, finally figuring it out. "Oh, THAT shot! Yeah, it was nothing. Just me being my normal awesome self, heh..."

I rolled my eyes, turning my focus back to Tinker. "Now like I was trying to do..." I fished out the healing potion I had, pouring half of it over her ear and placing it to her lips for her to drink the other half. It seemed to do the trick, the blown apart ear growing back right before my eyes.

"Ugh... Never getting my ears pierced..." The small filly groaned, pulling herself to a sitting position. "I don't hear gunfire..."

She was right, it was deathly quiet compared to a few minutes ago. Aces and I were back on guard immediately, weapons drawn.

Aryanna didn't seem worried. "Relax, guys, Crusher sent them running or killed them. With help from yours truly, of course." She puffed out her chest, obviously proud of herself. Credit where credit was due, she played a good support today, and putting down Unimportant was definitely a point in her favor.

"You did good, Aryanna." I congratulated, holding out my hoof for her to bump it with her fist, which she did. "One step closer to being a badass."

"Aww yeah, just you wait. I'm gonna be the most badass bird to ever exist!" The griffin beamed, striking a pose I guess she thought was cool. The ego on this girl sometimes...

"If we're quite done feeding her ego, this job isn't done yet." Tinker spoke, getting back to her hooves. I only needed one look at her to know that the really serious Tinker was on deck. "Grab him and follow." She walked off without another word. The three of us looked at each other and shrugged, Aces grabbing Unimportant by the tail with her magic and dragging him behind us.

_________________________________________________________________

It was actually a bit of a walk back to where the fight began. We'd crossed over several rows of containers chasing after Tinker and Unimportant, about five or six if the row numbers were right. She could really haul ass if she wanted to!

Bone Crusher and Firebug were already waiting for us by the time we got back. I hadn't seen where the pyomaniac had gotten off to, but I could smell her work on the sea breeze. Charred flesh was a very distinct smell... "Well you guys took your sweet ass time." Crusher remarked when we approached, looking down towards Unimportant. "Ah, so you caught the fucker. He give you any trouble?"

We looked down at the stallion, who'd given up his struggling by the second pier. "Not as much as he'd have liked." Aces replied with a giggle.

"Can I burn him?" Firebug asked excitedly. Always with that one track mind...

"Not yet." Our attention turned to Tinker, who was staring at Unimportant with what I assumed was a glare. Always hard to tell with those goggles of hers. "I want answers first." She drew her gun, pointing it straight at the stallions face. "So get talking."

The golden brown stallion actually had the gall to laugh. "And who's going to make me? You?"

"I was hoping you'd say that." Crusher stepped forward, but was stopped by a raised hoof from Tinker.

"Are you afraid of me?" She asked, lowering her pistol to speak more clearly.

"As much as I am of a radroach." He gave her a look that showed just how much hate he has for her.

"Say you're not afraid of me then." Before he could even open his mouth to cheekily respond, she added "Look me in the eyes and say it."

Unimportant hesitated.

"Look me in the eyes and say it." Tinker repeated, pulling up her goggles so those brilliant blue eyes were revealed. "Look at me." He refused to, so she smacked him. "Look at me!" Still nothing. "I said look at me!" She grabbed his face, keeping it still as she pressed their foreheads together. "Look into the eyes of the mare who destroyed everything you worked for, who had nearly all of your troops killed, who you were stupid enough to cross! Look. At. ME!"

Unimportant finally relented, staring into the eyes of the smaller filly. It was almost comical, this short little foal staring down a grown stallion and making him tremble. It would be funny if I hadn't been on the receiving end of those eyes myself at times. Tinker may have been twelve when she was given the job, but they definitely chose the right mare for it! She had become a powerful leader, one that'd gained the respect of many in Maremi through her words and actions. When Tinker looked at you and spoke, you obeyed. ESPECIALLY when she was giving you a glare that could cut through a stable door. "Are you afraid of me?"

"Y-yes!" Unimportant stuttered out, looking ready to piss himself.

"Good." The cold overmare of Stable 37 smirked. "Now tell me everything."

"I was a s-small time slaver." He began. "Was lucky if I caught and sold two head a week. Then a few months ago, this stallion comes around a slaver hangout I was at, buys slaves like crazy. Buys slavers, too. He recruited me, said his group was close to finding ultimate power. Most of us didn't believe him, but his caps were good."

"And this wasn't Red Eye?" Aryanna asked.

"No, I'm sure of it. I've seen Red Eye, and this guy looked completely different."

"What happened next?" Tinker sounded like she was growing inpatient.

"We were brought down here to work. Our employer scouted out potential places, and we sent the slaves in to collect the stuff. Something must've been found because I got a dozen more head last week and was told to make them work double shifts."

"And my stable ponies are involved how?"

"They found us. A month ago, maybe. Convinced them to work with us. That's what happened, I swear!"

"And where did the slaves go?"

"A-a switching point! They meet halfway so we don't tire them as much! Easier to keep them in line!"

"Where!?"

"I don't know!" Unimportant was practically hysterical at this point. "They moved everything after you discovered us! I haven't been out there since!"

"I swear if you're lying about even one thing-"

"Tinker... That's enough..." Tiny spoke from farther away. I'd almost forgotten about her with how quiet she was being, and she almost seemed to blend into the concrete of the pier with her stripes. She didn't seem to be hurt, well, from the fight, anyway. She still looked plenty beat up from before we arrived. It looked like the big mare participated in it, though, if only just long enough to catch the unicorn mare Crusher was after in a bear hug, her guns nowhere to be found. "You have your info... Don't stoop to his level..."

Tinker stared down Unimportant, unblinking. I was honestly expecting her to kill him right then and there, but she backed off with a sigh. "You're right, Tiny. I shouldn't let myself get so worked up against such... scum." You'd almost think she was from Tenpony with the amount of venom she spat that last word out with!

"Now that that's been dealt with..." Crusher stepped forward, trotting over to the captured unicorn mare until their faces were almost touching. "Talk."

"Nice weather we're having?" She replied with a nervous smile.

The former Steel Ranger didn't show any signs of annoyance. "Isn't it? You know what a nice day like this calls for? A joke. Would you like to hear a joke?"

The mare looked at her confusedly. "Yes?"

It had hurt when I'd been playfully shoved earlier by her, so I know it had to hurt when Crusher lifted an armor clad hoof and smacked her prisoner across the face. The poor mare was sent reeling, her cheek already starting to swell up. "Want to hear another? They've all got the same punchline, but they always bring a smile to my face!"

"N-no, please!" She begged, pausing to spit up a glob of blood and a tooth. "I'll talk, I'll talk!"

"Well? I feel another joke coming on."

"I'm just supposed to observe and report, that's all!" She exclaimed quickly.

"Observe and report what?"

"The actions of our allies!"

That got everyones attention. As far as a all knew, the Steel Rangers were either neutral with most factions -deeming themselves above the "petty squabbles of tribals"- or actively hostile -in the case of groups like the Enclave and raiders, who shot first and asked questions later- and were really only friendly with themselves.

"Who're their allies?" Crushed asked confusedly. So they weren't there when she was a Ranger...

"I don't know."

"Stop me if you've heard this one before..."

"I don't, honest! I'm just an initiate, all that info is for the higher ups only!"

"Fine... You're free to go."

The initiate blinked. "R-really?"

Bone Crushed nodded. "You're just a grunt, my problem is with your superiors."

"Wait!" Aryanna shouted, catching us all off guard. She flew over all of us, landing right at the edge of the pier and picked up a... pair of sunglasses? "Can I have these?"

Their former owner nodded quickly. "You can! Just let me go, please!"

"Go on then, get the fuck out of here." The former Steel Ranger ordered. With a nod to Tiny, the mare was released, and she was galloping away as soon as her hooves hit the ground. "And if you know what's good for you, you'll abandon the Steel Cocksuckers before they leave you for dead like me!"

It was at this moment that Unimportant decided to make a break for it. I've never seen a pony with an injured leg gallop so fast! Of course, he couldn't outrun the hail of gunfire coming his way as we raised our weapons to fire and-

"Don't shoot!" Tinker exclaimed.

We all paused and looked back at her in confusion, which gave the bastard enough time to round a corner and get away.

"Why did you- Crusher began to ask.

"Because short of killing him, anything we do is bound to be a fraction of what his bosses will do to him for failure." The short mare explained with a smirk. "And I had no intention of killing him, not after I..." She cleared her throat, looking away from us. "Regained my composure."

"So... Now what?" Aryanna asked. It was a good question. Things were winding down, the battle was over... I suppose the only thing to do was-

"I suggest we leave as soon as poaaible." Tiny spoke. With a rather gross POP, the zebra set her leg nearly back to its relatively normal position and stood up. After a quick test, which resulted in a wince, she decided to keep her weight off of it still.

"Hey, Big Sexy. Glad to see you're not too worse for wear." I smiled. Loved using that nickname with her... It was just one of those things about our friendship.

"I'm only allowing you to get away with saying that because you saved mine and Tinkers life tonight." She huffed. Still, she couldn't hide the smile on her lips. "All they did was rough me up. I've had worse."

"Your leg is broken!" Firebug pointed out.

"I've had worse." She repeated.

"Tiny..." Tinker approached her oldest friend, voice wavering. "I-I..."

And her oldest friend put a hoof to her lips, smiling wider. "Shh... This is not your fault. This is also not the time for tears. We need to get somewhere safe right now."

"She's right." Crusher chimed in. "Anyone who survived might grab reinforcements. It's time to get the fuck out of here."

"Right... Right." Tinker nodded, taking a few breaths before turning around to face us. "Aryanna, go and scout ahead. I'll lead us ahead. Bone Crusher, I need you to help support Tiny so we can move a little faster. Gunslinger, Firebug, you know what to do if we encounter a threat. Got it? Then lets-"

"Hold up." Crusher interrupted. "Since when do you get to call any shots?"

The filly looked up at the former Steel Ranger with a grin. "Since I've been leading ponies and making plans for six years now." She replied. "Any objections?"

Silence.

"Then let's go."

I couldn't help but smile as we began to leave the port. Partly because we were victorious, and partly because I realised something. In addition to her computer and mechanical expertise, Tinker brought something else to the table that was equally as, if not more valuable. Something that our group would need if we were to succeed.

The experience of a leader.

Fallout Equestria: Hellraisers

by GenericPonyName

Chapter 1: INGiiaFD

Chapter 2: Youngbloods

Chapter 3: Night Attack

Chapter 4: Caravans, Raiders, and Baths

Chapter 5: Portside