Chapter 3: The Mysterious Mare From Stable GoE-EoHS

"Who are you exactly?" Artemis asked a tad thrown off by the pony's appearance.

This mare looked fresh off the boat. Even her GoE-EoHS jumpsuit looked pristine and what did her acronym mean? The young mare spoke up to ask her question.

"You're a experienced wastelander right?" She sounded incredibly naive.

Artemis rolled her eyes on the inside, this had to be a joke. Someone was trying to sell her something no doubt.

"Err....sure somewhat. I haven't been everywhere." Artemis admitted. Personally she had never left the San Palomino Wastes.

"Will you help me?" She grimaced.

"Sure, what's the problem?" Artemis said dully.

"Okay, oh I don't know how much to say but I need to travel with you." The mare pranced around with worry.

Artemis raised an eyebrow at her odd request. She didn't even know her name. "Why?"

"Because, because it's something I have to do." She said.

This didn't sit well with her. You didn't live long in the wasteland if you blindly believed everybody. This could easliy be a convoluted raider scheme, someone could be blackmailing her. Maybe the damned Legion was trying to rub her out but if it was Legion then they'd just come for her. She would need more info first.

"Why don't you tell me your name." Artemis asked.

"My name is Aroma." She admitted delicately.

"Well, Aroma I don't understand what you mean when you say travel."

"Y'know travel the wastes doing stuff building camaraderie." She smiled. Artemis was even more perturbed by her request.

"Listen, ma'am, I don't travel the wasteland looking for trouble. If it comes nears my caravans I'll shoot it, but if it leaves me alone I'm more than happy to oblige it."

Aroma looked down. "I need, to."

Artemis inhaled with her nose and exhaled it.

"You're not following me anywhere until I get some real answers. Why do you need to travel with me!?"

Aroma exhaled, defeated. "It's my Stable's social experiment. We elect one pony to leave the Stable and they have to unite a niche a companions."

Artemis was, was. She was really blind sighted by her explanation. It was the last thing she expected and it accounted for her jumpsuit, pipbuck, and naïve personality."Why? And why me?" Artemis asked.

"Because, you were the first person that didn't tell me to buzz off." She blushed.

Artemis pondered this. What the pony had said. What exactly she wanted. Aroma wanted to build some kind of rag-tag group that wandered the wastes, all for some social experiment of Stable GoE-EoHS. This project sounded half baked. What purpose would this experiment possibly serve? One does not simply build camaraderie by turning ponies and griffons into lab rats with a singular purpose. She was going about her experiment all wrong. But she couldn't turn her away, not as dumb as she was. She'd end up some raider's pet or on a Legion cross. That was something else about the Legion, they would crucify their prisoners. Bind them to X shaped contraptions and leave them to suffer. All the while prodding and laughing at them. It was, sick and unponyish but it demand respect and fear. That's what ran the Legion.

Artemis snapped herself back to reality, "Damn, I gotta stop doing that, or at least when I'm not a conversation." She thought to herself.

"So can I go with you?" Aroma asked. Artemis rolled her head and sighed.

"Fine, you can come on a caravan trail with me and we'll see after that."

The earth pony mare's face lit up and a smile crossed her face. "Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!" She shouted whimsically and hopped around.

"Hold on!" Artemis said stopping Aroma's festivities. I'll need to show you a few things first Artemis trailed off giving Aroma the basics of what was needed of a caravan guard.

Later~

They had reeled in a customer and were getting ready to head out. Artemis had taken Aroma out on a montage of basic training and basic armoring. Aroma was far from a soldier but she would do, she would do. This caravan was heading out to Happenstance, a small town but an actual settlement not like the Palomino stock exchange. Happenstance came to be after a Stable opened opened up about 30 years ago and the residents inside built a town. Artemis had been there a couple times, the food was awful! Synthetic Stable apples yuck. But they did have a steady food supply and a water talisman so beggars can't be choosers right?

"Ms. Arrow." Aroma said timidly snapping her out of her thoughts.

Aroma had some cheap hand-me-down barding and a old m1911.

"Y'all ready to go?" Mr. Bay asked in his folkish accent.

Artemis nodded and Aroma nodded seeing Artemis giver her consent.

An hour later they were on the trail. The sun had gone down painting Equestria blue and black leaving the moon bright in the night sky. Artemis hovered over the caravan famas in hand. Aroma flanked the caravan's right side, she was noticeably looking all around her. The look children give when you introduce new concepts to them. What enraptured her most though was the sky. Artemis looked down at her.

"I see you staring at the sky a lot, I guess you didn't see a whole lot of it in Stable GoE-EoHS right?"

"Oh no, not at all, just pictures. I felt like I was gonna fall up into it when I first came out!"  Artemis nodded.

"Well why don't you turn your pipbuck on and play us some music." Artemis asked.

Aroma's eyebrows raised and she started poking through her computer.

"Well, well, well, you weren't playing me!" She turned it on and raised the volume so everyone could hear. Everyone.....

It was a cheery upbeat tone, a combination of instruments. But it was short lived a shot rang out! Artemis shot up into the air scanning the surrounding cliffs, the night sky was bad for her. Whoever was firing would blend in easier with the landscape. Another shot rang out making the birds fly away. Artemis looked down and saw Aroma laying on the ground unmoving.

"Shit." She cursed under her breath. She landed behind the cart to take cover.

"They found me!" She cried. Her jumpsuit had a bloodstain it. Her blood...

Artemis turned off her safety and rose over the cover to peek. All she could see was rocky cliff faces. She raised her famas to the sky and fired four rounds in succession.

"Help, me." Aroma whimpered helplessly, another shot fired and Aroma's face reflected pain as she was shot again.

Artemis realized Aroma was a target and reached out a talon and pulled quickly back into cover. Aroma cried in agony. She had been shot straight in the stomach and the last shot grazed her back. Artemis was no doctor, and the only one was an hour away in Happenstance. She sat Aroma up who groaned in pain.

"Stay with me, keep your eyes open and tell me who're fighting." Artemis barked angrily trying to scare her into staying awake. Aroma just bobbed her head.

"They're......they're the hunters." She muttered spitting blood.

"Hunters...What hunter!" She added.

Aroma's head bobbed down facing the ground.

"Dammit hold on!" Artemis shouted.

"Artemis.....my pip.....buck." She handed it to her. "Turn on the EFS she muttered then closed her eyes.

Artemis clasped the machine on her right talon.

-Warning unrecognized lifeform in use. Medical display may be incorrect.

-Warning inventory is not updated, please remedy.

-Warning last user was removed without logging off.

Artemis skipped these damned warning and found the EFS button. She flipped the switch and another shot rang.

A minute later the EFS was online, it was a Eyes Forward Sparkle a type of targeting system that could automatically find targets and determine if they were friend or foe.

Artemis saw red dash on her compass and zoomed in. SATS predicted a 0% probability of hitting the pony sniper. She turned around and flew away from the wagon, all the while the merchant taking cover scowled at her. Artemis was flying over head so as not to be scoped. She hovered down slowly behind the unicorn mare, she had a pink coat and camouflaged armor on. She let out a gasp and backed away. Her magic imploded when she saw Artemis.

"Goodbye!" Artemis shouted as she pushed the mare of her cliff perch.

The mare screamed as she plummeted all the way down, then suddenly stopped.All that was heard was a thud. Artemis grabbed her rifle and hovered down to her corpse. Every bone in her body had to be broken, limbs bent in unearthly ways, some place had bone protruding out of her and her neck was broken. Looting wasn't the most glorius act ever but waste not want not right?

She unbuttoned the mare's body armor and what she saw surprised her. A Stable GoE-EoHS jumpsuits!

Next Chapter: Chapter 4 - Ambush Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 21 Minutes