My Little Western

Chapters

Once Upon a Time in the West
The Showdown
The Last Hard Men
Three Amigos
3:10 to Yuma
Unforgiven
Four Rode Out
How the West Was Won
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Once Upon a Time in the West

Pausing at the top of the mesa, Trixie looked down onto the frontier village of Appleloosa, and reflected briefly on the past year. She had been at the top of her game, wowing audiences with her repertoire of tricks, both magical and mundane. She had been the object of everyone else's affections and adoration. The world had been her apple... And then she had arrived in Ponyville.

Her stay there had started the same as all the other stops before it. Her arrival had gathered in the the curious, and then she had started her act. As always, challengers had been drawn out by her boastful nature, and one by one she had proved herself against them, demonstrating her greatness. It was only later, that very night to be exact, when things had fallen apart. How was she to know that the very rare creature she had claimed to have vanquished actually lived so very close to Ponyville? Trixie shook her head in disbelief at the improbability of it all.

Yet even her inability to do anything about it hadn't been the worst part of that night. No, it was watching as some other pony did what she couldn't do. Losing her wagon and her possessions during it all was simply adding insult to that kind of injury. After all, her things could be replaced, the proof being what she had pulled all these miles behind her. She looked back at her new wagon. Sure, it lacked some of the finer touches that her previous one had, and she missed that she couldn't have it fold out to create a stage for her. But for the small amount of funds she had been able to raise, it was an excellent place to spend the nights in. The only complaint she really had was how much heavier than her old one it was, but after the first couple of weeks, she hardly noticed that anymore.

And while it had been built, she hadn't just sat around on her rump. Trixie had done her best to expand her library of tricks. She had several new firework displays to be used, and the range of magical tricks she had gathered had grown too. Her only real regret was still lacking anything that could serve as an Ursa Minor defeating tool, but she had worked out a way around that. Simply not bring it up again. Not that she expected to run into a creature that dwelled in deep woods to live way out here.

However, that wasn't why she had decided to come to the very edge of Equestria. No, she had spent over a month on the road simply because, if she was going to have to start over, she figured it would be easier to do it in a place where nobody had heard of her before. Many were the tales of other ponies who, finding themselves in unsavory situations, had simply headed off to Appleloosa to start over. Not only was it difficult for news to reach out this far, its small population combined with the difficult terrain meant that every pony was welcome, regardless of the reason they had for heading out to the frontier town.

With a smile on her face, Trixie started to head down the trail that led to Appleloosa. The downward slope, coupled with the twisting trail that followed the curves of the ridge, meant she had to take things slowly to keep her wagon from pushing her out of control, but it wasn't anything that Trixie hadn't dealt with before. Taking her time, she started to think about how she would introduce herself to the ponies below.

"Boss, we may have a problem here." Taking the binoculars away from his eyes, the skinny diamond dog held them out and waited for his leader to take them. After a brief delay, a magical aura surrounded the binoculars and they floated away from his hand and over to a grey unicorn who proceeded to look through the eyepiece.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Another unicorn, and one who looks like she may have some ability too." A scowl turned the corners of the unicorn's mouth downward. "And today was looking to be perfect to put our plan into action. Well, no sense in rushing things. Let's just sit back and see what little miss magic there is capable of." The rest of the group, a pair of buffalo and a one winged pegasus, made various sounds of irritation, and quickly settled into a card game, while the unicorn and and the diamond dog took turns with the binoculars, watching Trixie from afar.

"Behold, Appleloosans, the Great and Powerful Trixie!... No, no, too straight forward, too blunt." Trixie muttered to herself as she carefully made her way down the trail. "Maybe I should go for something a little bit restrained at first? Ha ha, of course not. Hmm. Friends, Appleloosans, Equestrains, prepare to be amazed by me, the Great and Powerful Trixie! Well, that's okay, but I don't think that's the one I want to use."

Lost in her train of thought, Trixie missed the signs that a small rock slide had recently occurred. Scree and loose gravel covered the trail, and she was only made aware of it when her hoof slipped on a loose rock. All thoughts of opening speeches were forgotten as she found her balance threatened not only by the unsure footing, but also from heavy load that continued to push against her from behind. She scrambled, and for a moment thought she had successfully recovered, but then her legs shifted underneath her, and she was pushed into the ground by the wagon's momentum, using her and the harness she was attached to like a brake.

Had the ground underneath her been solid, or at least free of debris, Trixie felt certain that she would have escaped with just a dirty cloak and skinned knees. Instead, she figured she now knew how a plow felt, being used to clear aside the mess on the road and allowing the wagon to slowly build up momentum. With a muttered curse, Trixie did her best to get her legs back under her to avoid being scraped into a bloody mess. It took a moment, but she was able to get back on her hooves. Looking briefly in front of her, she saw the trail take a turn to her left up ahead. If she couldn't get the wagon under control before then, she realized she would be pushed right off the edge! Sure, it wasn't a straight away drop off, but it was steep enough that with her wagon still right behind her, she would like be very likely pushed to her death.

Searching her head for something, anything that would keep her from becoming the Dead and Mutilated Trixie, she finally had an idea come to her. Gathering up her magic, she got her legs underneath her and before she was pushed over the edge, jumped up and cast her spell. Using the telekinesis that all unicorns knew, she first grabbed the harness shafts with her magic, and lifted them upwards. In turn, this also lifted Trixie off of the ground. While she was no longer being forcefully being pushed through the dirt, she was also no longer doing anything to slow the acceleration of the wagon. With an audible effort, she increased the area of her spell, and soon she had the wheels of the wagon under her control.

She tried to stop them at first, but realized she didn't have enough time to bring the wagon to a complete stop before reaching the corner, so she did the next best thing she could think of. When the wagon reached the bend, she used all of her magical might and turned the wagon so that it stayed on the trail. She allowed herself a brief shout of triumph at having escaped death, until she realized that she wasn't safe yet. The trail still stretched out before her, with several more twists and turns to its route to go before reaching the bottom and opening up onto the outskirts of Appleloosa.

She considered dropping the spell, and in turn herself, to see if she could bring the wagon to a halt, but deemed the risk too high. Instead, she kept her magic going, and rode things out. By the end, she was about ready to collapse from the strain of maintaining such a draining spell for such a long time, but seeing that a crowd had gathered to watch her unorthodox entrance into town, she smiled. After all, if there was anything that Trixie was always ready to do, it was wow an audience. With a laugh, she let the wagon coast down the main road of the settlement, come to a slow stop, and only then did she slowly lower herself back to the ground and dismiss the spell.

All around her, the townsfolk were whispering to each other excitedly. "Did you see that?" "I can't believe she didn't fall off the edge! What a gutsy thing to do!" "I don't think I could have done the same as she just did, amazing!" Trixie soaked it all in, a smug look on her face. The crowd slowly parted to make way for a beige earth pony, wearing a black and red cowboy hat, and a blue vest with a silver star pinned onto it. "Welcome to Appleloosa, ma'am." he said with an twangy accent. "That was quite the entrance you made there. I'm Sheriff Silverstar, at your service."

With a huge smile, she replied, "I am the Great and Powerful Trixie! Entertainer of Equestria, master of many magics, I have come out here to put on a show that nopony will ever forget! Tonight, at sunset, come and watch me put on a show, for the ages!" At her declaration, excited murmurs raced through the crowd, with several ponies racing off to spread the news.

"All right, everypony!" Sheriff Silverstar cried out, getting the crowd's attention. "Let's give the lady some room to set her stuff up. It's still a few hours until sundown anyway, why don't you all return to your business until it's time, ya hear?" A few complaints were uttered, but in general the crowd dispersed, heading back to their homes and jobs. The sheriff then turned to Trixie. "Let me know if you need any help, or security for that matter."

"Security? Do you really think that the ponies here will be that eager to see me, the Great and Powerful Trixie?"

"Well, a couple of the younger stallions may get a bit feisty, but that isn't what I'm talking about. We've had a few problems with outlaws the past month or so. Nopony has been hurt, and they haven't managed to do anything but be a nuisance, but I reckon that's only going to last for so long." said the sheriff.

"Well, I'll certainly keep an eye out for ruffians such as those. The Great and Powerful Trixie thanks you for the warning. Now, if you'll pardon me, I need to make sure that all of my things are in order for my dazzling display later on tonight!" Pausing a second to look around, she asked, "Is there any place you would recommend for me to set up my wagon?"

The sheriff paused to consider. "Well, we do have a stage area over there," he pointed with a hoof. "Will that work?"

"Ah! Perfect! The Great and Powerful Trixie thanks you for your assistance! And now, if you'll excuse me?" Without waiting for an answer, Trixie started moving her wagon over towards the stage. The sheriff watched with an eyebrow raised, and then with a shrug walked off, back to the jailhouse.

The grey unicorn spat at the ground. "Okay boys, you can head on back to the camp if you want. I don't see it being worth the risk to try anything today." The buffalo and the pegasus both got up and walked away.

"What are you planning to do, boss?" the diamond dog asked.

The unicorn sat down behind a rock and raised the binoculars back up to his eyes. "Looks like our newcomer is going to put on a show later tonight. She's already heading over to the stage. I think I'll stick around and do a little bit of scouting, see what we might be up against." He turned briefly to look at the diamond dog. "Just keep an eye on the the others, would ya? I don't expect any trouble, but with the disappointment of not going ahead with things, they may be a bit... touchy, if you know what I mean?"

The diamond dog gave a wheezy chuckle. "I sure do, boss. I'll keep them in line if I have to."

"Good. Now go ahead and head on back. I may be here for quite a while."

The sun seemed to race across the sky for Trixie. While she was happy about there already being a stage set up for her to use, she had grown so accustomed to using her old wagon as her performance center that she was unused to having to set things up ahead of time. With the old wagon, the fireworks had already been in place, the props ready to go with the simple press of a floor pedal. Here, she had to set everything up by hoof herself, and it was taking her much longer than she would have liked.

As the clock tower rang out seven chimes, Trixie finally felt comfortable enough to stand back and realize just how hungry she was. Trotting over and into her wagon, she ate a quick meal of celery and apples while mulling over her performance to come. Should she go with her new routine? Was there anything specific she wanted to attempt? It had been quite a while since her last performance, since Ponyville, now that she thought of it. That's when the realization of it all hit her.

She was suffering from stage fright! Sure, she had put on a couple of small shows for others on request, but those had been private, personal affairs. She had been doing specific tricks for small groups, the largest groups still being less than ten ponies all told. Nothing even remotely close to this kind of free flowing, only partially planned extravaganza in front of what would easily be a hundred ponies, if the crowd from earlier had been any sort of indicator of how many might show up.

She growled at herself. "C'mon, Trixie! You've done this dozens of times! It wasn't even the performance that you botched, it was the arrival of the Ursa that brought everything crashing down! You have no reason to be worried at all!" Feeling better for saying it out loud, she watched as the townsfolk slowly started to file in.

Dear Applejack,

Hello cousin! Just another quick letter to let you know how things are going for us up here in Appleloosa. Preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration continue along smoothly. I still can't believe that it's just a few weeks away before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both show up here. When you consider that two years ago there was barely a building in sight, well, you can imagine my pride at how fast our town has come along. This celebration will put Appleloosa on the map for sure!

Just thought I'd share with you that a name from one of your past letters has shown up here. It seems that the Great and Powerful Trixie arrived in town early this afternoon, and she already has all the folks abuzz with excitement with the promise of an exciting show. Looking back at what you wrote though, I'm wondering just how great it is going to be, if she really is as boastful and as big of a braggart as you made her out as. Well, I'll leave this off for now, and I'll add to it later tonight and let you know how things went. The Pony Express mail delivery pony doesn't leave for another couple of days still, so I'll have plenty of time to add to this letter.

Braeburn put down his quill and noticed that the sky was starting to darken. Not wanting to be late to the show, he quickly grabbed his brown cowboy hat and headed out of his house towards the stage. He was relieved to see that he wasn't among the first to arrive for the performance. If the show turned into anything resembling what his cousin from Ponyville had described, he wanted an easy avenue of escape. Looking around, he figured that at least half of the town had decided to show up. Which he supposed wasn't too big of a surprise, really. It wasn't as if there was anything to do other than hang around at the Salt Lick or take care of things at home at this hour.

Just as the sun dropped below the horizon and the sky started to turn noticeably darker, a flash of light followed by a puff of smoke drew everypony's attention to the stage. Torches seemingly lit themselves as the smoke cleared, and the audience saw that a blue pony, wearing a wizard hat and a star covered robe stood front and center. "Welcome, one and all! I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, have at long last come to the town of Appleloosa to entertain all of you with my marvelous multitudes of magical mysteries!"

The crowd whistled and stomped their hooves on the ground in excitement and expectation, and Trixie stood there, preening and posing. As the audience started to quiet down, Trixie waved a foreleg, and a flurry of fireworks erupted above her, filling the sky with colorful explosions. The audience oohed in appreciation.

"Yes!" Trixie called out. "Now, prepare yourselves, for what you are about to witness will be..." Trixie was cut off as another firework launched itself, taking off her hat as it barely missed hitting her in her head before detonating just off to the side of the stage. Braeburn could tell right away this wasn't part of the act. The unicorn looked a bit rattled by the incident, but she seemed to recover quickly enough. "Um, yes! See how fantastic my act is, even I, the Great and Powerful Trixie can not fully prepare myself for what I am about to do." She leaned towards the crowd, and in a stage whisper said, "Those who are faint of heart may wish to leave now!"

The crowd chuckled appreciatively. With a smile on her face Trixie gestured at several jars situated around the stage. "For my first act, I will share with you a display of magical mastery that was first developed in the distant city of Coltcutta, land of pony mystics! Watch as I, the Great and Powerful Trixie performs for you... the Dance of the Snakes!"

Trixie's horn started to glow, and she started a record player hidden behind the back of the stage. A tune played with pipes and strange stringed instruments filled the air, and from the four jars, Trixie slowly levitated ropes hidden in each one up into the air. Each rope moved in a serpentine fashion, twisting back and forth, never in a straight line. They were slowly woven together, in time to the music, into a complex weave above Trixie's head. Suddenly, the music sped up, turning from a slow, almost hypnotic pace to something that seemed almost panicked. Trixie started to obviously sweat as she tried to keep up, but when the music all of a sudden died, it threw off her concentration to the point where all the ropes fell down... right on top of her.

The audience laughed appreciatively at what they assumed was an intentional joke. Trixie did her best to ignore the laughter, and the knot starting to form in her stomach. Her mind raced as she pulled herself out from the pile of ropes, trying to figure out what was going wrong. Had the speedy trip down the path damaged some of her equipment? Thinking back, she had been more concerned with getting things into place, and hadn't really checked things over to see if they were still in tip top shape.

Finally standing up, she gave the crowd a weak smile. "All part of the show, folks! Haha. And now, for my next feat!" With a little help from her magic, she set off the next batch of fireworks. "The last time any pony performed this stunt successfully was over two hundred years ago! And even then, the performer who pulled it off was never quite the same afterwords." She lowered her voice, and the audience, fully drawn in, leaned in to hear every word. "Prepare yourselves, for the Comet's Tail!"

Trixie concentrated, her horn glowing brightly, until flames from the torches seemed to fly away from their sources and formed a ball of fire above her head. Soon, the pyrotechnic sphere was flying around above her, and then lower and lower, until Trixie was soon engaged in an elaborate routine of jumps and spins, seeming to barely evade the ball of fire by the smallest of margins with each of its passes. The crowd soon erupted in cheers, whooping it up as Trixie time and again seemed to escape injury time by mere inches.

Suddenly, the music from the previous act started back up again. The shock of it happening was enough to throw Trixie off of her routine, and the ball of fire caught her on her side. Gasps of horror erupted from the crowd, but Trixie was able to magic her cloak off quickly enough that her fur was barely singed. "All part of the act, ponies, no need to worry!" Trixie called out, trying to calm them down. Her insides were so tense, she could hardly keep he voice steady.

Braeburn frowned. While he had come only to see if this pony was as bad as he had been told, and he had to admit that her way of talking seemed to point in that direction, he was still starting to fell a bit of sympathy for the unicorn. Everything seemed to be going wrong for her, and the crowd was picking up on it too, if he judged the murmurs and muttering from the ponies around him correctly. Looking back at the stage, he saw that Trixie had extinguished the cloak safely.

"And now," Trixie called out to the assembled ponies, "for my grand finale! Watch, and be amazed, as the Great and Powerful Trixie..." She never got the chance to finish her description, as all of the remaining fireworks she had set up started to go off all at once. Soon, Trixie was dodging sparklers and balls of exploding light coming at her from what felt like every side. The crowd didn't know what to make of it first, but as Trixie kept on managing to evade time and time again what appeared to be certain hits, they started to cheer her on and hollering words of encouragement.

What brought the crowd to sudden silence wasn't Trixie being hit, but one of the bigger balls of light flying inside of her wagon and exploding with a loud boom! Trixie and turned and watched in horror as fires started to erupt from the inside of her wagon, and she rushed over, ignoring the glancing blows from other fireworks as she desperately tried to extinguish the flames before they caused too much damage. After a few seconds, Trixie managed to telekinetically carry out all of the items that had caught on fire, and dumped them safely onto the ground. The audience after a brief moment of confusion finally started to slowly applaud her actions, and soon everypony was cheering loudly for her.

Trixie stared dumbfounded at the reaction. She wanted to scream at them, let them know that she had failed miserably, that every part of performance had been flubbed, a disaster! Finally, she found her voice, and asked, "Why are you cheering?"

An older pony in the front row answered, "Miss, we haven't seen such an amusing and comedic performance here in Appleloosa in, well, as long as I can recall! You've done put a smile on all of our faces, and we are mighty thankful for that!"

Trixie blinked rapidly in disbelief. Her? Amusing? Comedic? Never! She was supposed to be revered, held up in high esteem! Not to be.. laughed at! The show pony in her kept Trixie from erupting in anger. "Well, I'm glad you all enjoyed the presentation! Thank you all, and have a good night." She watched as the residents slowly left in small groups, until she was finally alone. Checking over things to make sure that nothing would blow away, she stomped away from the stage in frustration, wanting to be alone with her thoughts.

Trixie soon found herself a fair distance outside of town. Finally, she slowed down and took stock of her surroundings. She had gone over a couple of hills, and now Appleloosa was barely visible in the distance. Seeing she was alone, she allowed the frustration she had been holding to come out. "Comedic! Amusing! Me, the Great and Powerful Trixie? How could they have mistaken my act for something so... Vaudeville?"

"Well, if you want my opinion, it's because those Appleloosans are all a bunch of stuck up freaks." A voice answered unexpectedly from above and to the side. Turning quickly, Trixie saw a grey unicorn stallion with a tan mane and tail, both ratty in appearance. Across his chest hung a bandoleer, holding easily a dozen knives. "They all think they're special and better than anypony else." He slowly approached Trixie, and she gasped in horror as she saw on his flank, where his cutie mark should have been, was a giant scar instead, showing signs of a terrible burn.

"Who, who are you?" she asked.

The pony chuckled. "Forgive me darling, it was rude of me to sneak up on you like that, and not even introduce myself." He slowly did an exaggerated bow. "Folks around here call me the Coyote Colt, fastest spell in all of Appleloosa. Why don'tcha come with me, I think you and I need to discuss some things."

The Showdown

The two unicorns eyed each other carefully, looking for some sign of what the other was planning. Seconds passed as they both stared each other down, waiting for some signal of movement. Finally, The Coyote Colt made the first move. A brief flare in the aura around his horn was the only warning Trixie had before the knives he held beside him came racing at her. Trixie reached out with her magic reflexively and tried to wrest the blades away from her opponent's control. She found her efforts rebuffed, but at least she had succeeded in bringing the projectiles to a halt a couple of feet in front of her. Seeing The Coyote Colt levitate an additional knife from his bandoleer, she increased the strength of her spell as he sent it hurtling towards her.

The expanded scope of her magic was able to bring the third knife to a halt in mid air, this one a bit further away form her than the first two. "Is that all you can do?" she taunted her opponent. "You saw my performance, you should know that mass manipulation is easy for me!"

The Coyote Colt smirked. "Oh, I'm quite aware of what you are capable of. If you think this is all that I can do though, you're vastly underestimating me." Two more knives left his bandoleer, and this time he sent them off to each side in an arc, forcing Trixie to further expand her area of concentration to catch the blades that were flying in from each side of her. "Looks like you're slowing down some. Let me show you what it means to be the fastest spell in all of Appleloosa!"

Trixie scoffed. "Fastest spell in Appleloosa? Have you looked around at the residents lately? I think I've seen two other unicorns since I arrived! So you're claiming to be the best of what, at the most half a dozen?" She let loose with a mocking chuckle. "Nice to see that you maintain such high standards!" Flaring her power, she pushed at all of the knives in the air at once, and sent them flying away from her, scattering them onto the ground.

The Coyote Colt stood still for a moment, eyes wide, and then lifted his head back and laughed. "Oh, please, as if you're one to talk! How many times a day do you have to remind yourself just how great and powerful you are, hmm? At least my name was given to me. It was earned." His horn flared with power, and behind him, dozens of coins rose into the air. "Can you say the same?" As one, the coins all flew forward, a metallic swarm racing towards Trixie.

Trixie dove to her left while doing her best to deflect the coins in that area, but still winced in pain as several bits struck her. Quickly jumping back to her hooves, she saw another wave of golden coins flying in her direction... and a flash of something silver amongst them too. Focusing her attention on that, she bore the stings of the coins as they hit her. She smirked, knowing that she had made the right decision. A few welts tomorrow would be an easy price to pay to avoid being cut by the knife she had deflected to the side.

"Is that all you know how to do?" she chided as she wove a spell of her own. "Throw things around? How inelegant!" The Coyote Colt's glanced backwards, his attention drawn by one of the bags of coins emptying itself on top of Braeburn and almost burying the earth pony under a pile of bits in the process. The bag flew at The Coyote Colt and swallowed him up. Trixie laughed loudly. "See? That's how it is done! Behold the skill of the Great and Power... Eep!" Trixie was startled as the bag she was using to trap The Coyote Colt exploded. Shreds of fabric flew in all directions, some of them on fire. The Coyote Colt dropped the short distance to the ground, looking singed but unhurt, and landed on his hooves.

"As a matter of fact," The Coyote Colt said in a bored voice, "I actually can do a few other things. I just prefer to not go around advertising what I'm capable of if I can help it." Horn glowing, he reached out and levitated up the knives that he had previously thrown at Trixie. "I myself would never have held an exhibition showcasing my talents." The knives settled into an evenly spaced circle, orbiting The Coyote Colt chest high. "For example, you showed me that it wouldn't be a very bright idea to try tossing anything fiery at you."

Trixie laughed. "Oh, please, as if it would even be possible for The Great and Powerful Trixie to reveal every single sorcerous skill she had at her disposal! Let me show you another trick I have in my repertoire!" From her mane, a pair of small pellets flew out and hit the ground in front of her with a flash of light. Quickly, a dark cloud filled the air obscuring that part of the street from sight. Holding her breath, Trixie stood still in the center of her smokescreen. A few seconds later, her patience was rewarded as knives flew past on both sides, followed by a muttered curse from in front of her.

Casting a quick spell, she gathered in the smoke from behind her and sent it flying straight ahead, to where she had heard The Coyote Colt. The muttered curses became full blown expletives as the outlaw found himself surrounded by the obscuring haze. Trixie wasted no time, and raced out of the smoke, hoping to be able to further utilize her magic to use the smoke as a trap against him. As she exited the cloud, she found herself coming up short. Right in front of her was The Coyote Colt, who seemed equally startled to find his own opponent right in front of him.

The Coyote Colt wasted no time. Turning with a snarl, he bucked at Trixie as hard has he could and connected. Trixie yelped, more in surprise from being physically attacked than from the pain, and was sent flying unceremoniously to the ground several yards from the outlaw.

Standing back up, she huffed, "Resorting to base and vulgar tactics like that? Even though you are a miscreant, The Great and Powerful Trixie somehow expected better than that from you!" Weaving the smoke in the air into a cohesive screen, she began to manipulate it to entangle her opponent.

The Coyote Colt laughed derisively and his horn glowed brightly. Trixie continued to weaving her spell while trying to anticipate what kind of attack The Coyote Colt might launch. She was surprised when instead of another knife being thrown at her, a strong wind picked up and blew the cloud her smoke pellets had created away.

Realizing that her current effort was a waste of time, she instead looked around for something she could use to help her. Seeing a brown cowboy hat laying on the ground in front of the bank, Trixie levitated it and tried to blind The Coyote Colt with it. With an irritated glance, the outlaw sent a knife to pin the floating hat against the wall of the bank. "Really? That's the best you can come up with to pester me?"

Seeing The Coyote Colt's horn glow brightly, Trixie again kept an eye out for flying projectiles, only to be surprised when the dirt at her feet shot up, filling her eyes and mouth with grit and gravel. Blinking furiously, trying to clear her sight, she blindly pushed away from her with her magic in all directions. It was draining, but she felt it was worth it when she felt a pair of knives be deflected by her blind gamble. Spitting a mouthful of grime to the side, she said, "Is this all you know how to do? Inelegant tactics and boorish attacks? No wonder you no longer have your cutie mark. I bet it left on its own, ashamed to be a part of a unicorn such as you!"

Trixie was taken aback by the murderous glare The Coyote Colt shot at her. In a pained, hoarse voice that seemed almost louder than a yell, he said, "Don't you ever. Ever. Talk about my cutie mark like that again." Stunned by the sheer malice in his voice, Trixie could only stare as The Coyote Colt stood there, raggedly drawing in breath. "You have no idea what you are talking about!" His horn flared brightly, and Trixie tried to shake off her shock to gather up her magic in return. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA!" The Coyote Colt screamed, sending all eight of his knives flying at Trixie at once.

Any self congratulatory thoughts Trixie was harboring for finding a button to push on her opponent were quickly forgotten as she tried desperately to keep the weapons flying at her from reaching their target. The blades flew at her so fast, she could hardly follow them. Still, she somehow managed to turn them aside in their flight, although she still felt the need to take a step backward afterwards. That had been too close for comfort!

To her surprise, the knives returned to The Coyote Colt, who was chuckling and shaking his head. "Well done." he said grudgingly. "You really had me going there. Not many can do that - bring out that side of me. And I should know better than that too! That's how you win! You find the other pony's weakness, their soft spot. Whatever it takes to throw them off of their game." He spat to the side. "Enough of this. I've had my fun. I've seen enough of what you can do. This ends now."

Trixie started to voice a rebuttal, but before she could do more than open her mouth, The Coyote Colt sent his knives flying at her again, this time from several different directions. Trixie felt her abilities strained as she reached out. The ones coming straight at her she stopped with her telekinesis first, and then she arrested the ones angling in from the sides, the ones to the left first, then the ones to the right. Stopping the last group just a few feet from her flank, she allowed herself a small smile when she realized that she had indeed managed to halt all of the knives.

The Coyote Colt nodded. "Yes, you're getting good at that. That's another thing I noticed about you, while you were doing your show. As long as you're comfortable, you can pull off some amazing feats. However..." Trixie felt the strength of the spell pushing the knives increase, and she found herself struggling to match it. "The moment something upsets you or knocks you out of that comfort zone, you tend to fall apart. For example, say somepony was to prematurely launch your fireworks? Or maybe meddle with your record player, turning it off and on? What happens then, I wonder?"

Trixie gasped at the revelation. "That was you?" she asked furiously. Her anger was quickly choked down when she realized that he had distracted her from the knives around her. They were slowly closing in now, barely moving at all, but Trixie knew that she didn't have much room to spare. She wanted to close her eyes to help her focus, but didn't dare take the risk.

The Coyote Colt laughed. "Oh yes. I wanted to know just what you were capable of. Honestly, I'm disappointed that you didn't want to join up with me and my gang. With the way you carried on, calling yourself 'Great and Powerful' all the time, I though you had the right attitude. Plus, having somepony with your talents would have been something else. I wouldn't have to stoop to just robbing the bank. No," he gave her a low chuckle, "we could have taken over the whole town!"

Trixie's eyes narrowed, and she felt her magic flare. The knives stopped closing in, and now she was starting to push them back away again. "I do enjoy being the center of attention. And I may also find it fun to try to prick the egos of others. But never at the cost of another pony's life!" She chuckled. "After all, if you kill everypony else, who will be left to cheer you on? Who will be able to acknowledge your greatness if you scare them all away?" With one last push of her power, Trixie reached out and wrested the knives away from The Coyote Colt's control, and turned them to face him. "HA! Now what do you think?"

Trixie drank in the look of shock on The Coyote Colt's face with glee, and then sent the knives flying in at him. As she had hoped, he was forced to focus on defending against the blades, which gave Trixie the opening she was looking for. Straining herself, using every last iota of strength she had left, she reached out and tore the cowboy hat free from the knife that was holding it against the wall, leaving a small patch of it still pinned to the bank. She then further unraveled it, tearing the brim off of the rest. Satisfied that it was large enough to make a blindfold, she sent it towards The Coyote Colt. "I suggest you surrender now, before I end up hurting you." she warned him, hoping to bring the duel to an end.

"Ironically," The Coyote Colt replied, "I was thinking about how I was going to hurt you. I think I have it figured out now, thanks." The knife that Trixie had left in the wall of the bank suddenly pulled free and turned to face her. "I believe I'll do... this."

Trixie found herself releasing the hat and trying to deflect the knife, but it was moving so fast! Seeing that it was aimed right for her head, she tried to drop and roll to the side, anything to keep the blade from hitting her face. Her world filled with pain as the knife struck her horn, embedding itself in its side. She fell to the ground, losing her hold on her spell as it fizzled out, and screaming in agony.

The Coyote Colt walked over to her slowly, a wicked grin on his face. "Not exactly what I was aiming for, but you know what? I think I like this even better than me blinding one of your eyes! I wonder what would happen if I did even more, if I went and broke your horn, hmm?" Trixie could only lay there, whimpering in pain, sparks and small arcs of magical energy flickering around where the knife was stuck.

"I think you've more than enough for now, outlaw." The Coyote Colt turned to see Sheriff Silverstar back on his hooves. "Look around, and tell me how confident you are of getting out of this alive, if you decide to cross that line."

The tunnel vision that the showdown had induced in him disappearing, The Coyote Colt saw that the ponies that had been sent to deal with the distraction from earlier had returned. A couple dozen stallions blocked the street, looks of grim determination on their faces. Reaching behind him, The Coyote Colt levitated the knives that had fallen to the ground when Trixie had been hit, and brought them back into an orbit around him.

"Well then, sheriff," The Coyote Colt said, "what do you suggest? Because I sure ain't going to surrender. Looks like to me we have a Mexicolt Standoff on our hooves here."

The sheriff nodded. "It makes me sick to even think of it, but seeing how the others in your gang seem to have run off, how about you do the same as long as you keep your knives from hurting anypony else. Of course, the money stays here."

The Coyote Colt looked around, disgust on his face. "I reckon that will work to my favor just fine for now. You best better make sure nopony tries to follow me home though, or they won't live long enough to regret it." Reluctantly, several of the bystanders made a path for him, and the Coyote Colt galloped out of town.

Watching to make sure the outlaw kept on going, he yelled out, "Somepony get Sawbones here now!" A couple of the watchers raced off to find the town's doctor, while another pony came up to the sheriff.

"Sheriff Silverstar! I have some good news, sir!" the young pony said.

"Well, I sure could use some. What is it?" Silverstar asked, looking at the scene around him.

"We have one of them outlaws as a prisoner! We found him all tied up and everything!"

The sheriff looked down at Trixie, who was on her side and in obvious pain. "Not an even trade at all." he muttered. "All right. Get the prisoner to the jail. Braeburn! You okay, son?"

The yellow earth pony was slowly standing back up. "I am sheriff, although the same sure can't be said about my hat." He shook his head to get the last few coins that were still in his mane to fall to the ground. "Need me to do anything for you?"

"Yeah, stay here, make sure the doctor takes good care of her. I'll be making sure the jail is ready to house our new guest." He turned to the crowd that had assembled. "Okay folks, the show is over. Everypony head home. We'll get this mess straightened out a lot easier without you all getting in our way." The crowd slowly dispersed, concern and worry plain in their manner as they left.

Shortly, Doctor Sawbones came running up, carrying his black medical bag in his mouth by its handle. He took one look at Trixie's condition and swore. Dropping his bag to one side, he knelt down next to the blue unicorn. "Ma'am, what I'm about to do is going to cause you a lot of pain. I could give you something to drink to help blunt it some, but I'll be honest, I don't think it will do enough. But I have to pull that knife out. The sooner I do so, the quicker you'll be healing, and you should be in less pain too."

Trixie whimpered, and nodded her head. "Forgive me, ma'am." the doctor softly said, and quickly reached down, grabbed the knife with his teeth, and pulled it out. Trixie tried to scream, but passed out instead, the shock just too much for her to handle. "Well, I guess that's for the best." he muttered.

The doctor looked around. Braeburn stood off to one side, watching him nervously as bank employees gathered up all the coins and returned them to the bank. Motioning for Braeburn to come on over, the doctor said, "Help me carry her, please. We should move her now, while she's still unconscious. I have a sickbed at my place, with her there it will be much easier for me to care for her. Just mind the horn, please." Braeburn got down on his knees, and the doctor got Trixie onto his back. Slowly, the two transported her to the doctor's house.

Well cousin, it seems that you won't be the only pony with some exciting stories to tell at the next family reunion. So much happened last night, I don't even know where to begin. An attempted robbery at the bank. The sheriff asking ME to help him out. Trixie and The Coyote Colt in a showdown that will be talked about for months if not years.

I only wish Trixie had come out in better shape afterwards. She was still out cold when I left the doctor's house. He was still searching through his medical manuals, trying to find out what a cracked horn means for a unicorn. At least she kept the money from being stolen, and apparently was the one who tied up another of the outlaws. We now have One Winged Willie in the jail, although he refuses to talk to anypony.

I'll add more if I find anything else out before the train arrives tomorrow. I'm off to go check on Trixie, and see if there is anything I can do to help the sheriff.

On his way over to the doctor's house, Braeburn saw the sheriff heading that way too, and picked up his pace to walk next to him. "Anything new, sir?"

Sheriff Silverstar shook his head. "The pegasus won't say a peep. He just keeps on pacing around his cell occasionally, and when he isn't doing that just lies on his cot."

The two ponies walked in silence the rest of the way to the doctor's house. Seeing the front door open, they walked in and saw the doctor giving Trixie a glass of water. The unicorn was propped up on the bed, a gauze bandage wrapped around her horn. "She just woke up maybe twenty minutes ago. I was about to share with her what I learned." He turned to his patient. "Do you mind of they also hear what I have discovered?"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie does not mind if they hear it." she said in a soft but proud tone of voice. She looked at the sheriff and Braeburn. "You two were the ponies defending the bank, correct? Tell me, how did events there turn out?"

"The robbery was averted, thanks to you ma'am." Sheriff Silverstar answered solemnly. "Also the pegasus you tied up in now in jail. Thank you."

Trixie managed a small smile at the news. "That, at least, is good to know."

The doctor cleared his throat. "Some other good news that I have discovered is that your injury will fully heal too. It will just take some time."

Trixie nodded. "You say that as if there is also some bad news to go with it."

The doctor walked over to a table, and motioned at the small pile of books that were on it. "It took me some time to find out what a cracked unicorn horn involves. It will take several months for it to heal. During this time, you will still have some access to your magic." Seeing Trixie's eyes light up, he raised a hoof. "Please, it is not as good as it sounds. Your strength will be greatly diminished, and even using the smallest of spells will cause you pain. Also, should you push yourself too hard, it could cause additional strain on the horn. This could lead to the crack in the horn growing, and to your injury taking even more time to heal. In the worst case scenario, your horn may even snap."

Trixie's eyes grew large. "Snap? What do you mean, snap? As in, break into two pieces?"

The doctor nodded. "Exactly. If that were to occur, well, you would then lose your ability to use magic forever. I advise you to abstain from using any and all magic until your horn is fully healed."

A silence settled over the group as Trixie took in the ramifications of her injury. "Well then," she said, "what about The Coyote Colt?"

The sheriff grimaced. "He got away, as well as the rest of his gang." He stamped his hoof in frustration. "I just wish I could get something out of that pegasus! If I even had a clue as to why The Coyote Colt was doing this, I'd have a much better chance of stopping him."

Trixie slowly got out of bed, brushing off attempts to either help her or keep her in bed. "My horn is hurt, not the rest of me!" she snapped. She faced the sheriff. "It seems that I know even less than you do about what is happening, and yet events have dragged The Great and Powerful Trixie in without my realizing it. Tell me what you know on the way to the jail, and I'll see if I might have better luck with getting the pegasus to talk."

"It's a long story." Sheriff Silverstar warned.

"That's okay." said Trixie, slowly walking towards the door. "It's going to take a bit to get my hooves back under me. We'll have time."

The Last Hard Men

Sheriff Silverstar and Trixie slowly walked down the main street of Appleloosa. Trixie was looking better as she moved along, but it was still at a sluggish pace. The sheriff waved and said hello to other townsfolk as they meandered by, but his attention kept returning to his traveling companion. Giving her a concerned look, the sheriff asked, "Are you sure you're all right?"

Trixie nodded, and then winced as the motion brought on a small surge of pain from her horn. "I'm just trying to move carefully, to keep anything that might jostle my horn to a minimum for now. It's still giving me an awful headache." she admitted.

"You know, we can put this off for a bit if you want to." the sheriff offered.

"No," Trixie said with a frustrated look on her face, "the only thing wrong with me is the crack on my horn. Laying around doing nothing is something the Great and Powerful Trixie detests. Since I won't be able to put on any more shows for a while, I might as well do what I can to help stop The Coyote Colt. Not only do I owe him for this injury, I need to pay him back for sabotaging my show too." Trixie stopped, her eyes growing large. "I can't believe I've forgotten about my cart up until now! I need to go and check on it, make sure everything is still in place."

Sheriff Silverstar nodded. "Why don't we go there first then. I'll help you out, if you need it, and that will give me some more time to answer your questions too. Speaking of which, what do you want to know?" he asked as they turned towards the stage area at the edge of town.

"Everything, although I suppose that doesn't help you out in picking where to start." Trixie frowned and considered her options. "Let's start with what you know about The Coyote Colt. I have a feeling that what I was told about him is flawed at the best."

The sheriff gathered his thoughts before replying. "To be honest, I wish I knew more. I was among the first group to join the initial settlers up here in Appleloosa, but he was here before any of us were, from what I've been told." The sheriff pointed ahead on them. "In fact, if I recall correctly, his house was rather close to where the stage is set up."

Trixie frowned, a bit surprised to see the stories matching up so well. "That's... interesting. So, why did he move away then?"

"Well, he was never what one would call the most social of ponies to begin with. Lots of us tried to be neighborly, but he seemed to want no part of it." He shrugged. "Personally, I think he just wanted to get away from everypony, and when he discovered that even out here he would be forced to interact with others, he just up and moved further out."

"On his own?" Trixie asked.

Sheriff Silverstar nodded. "He sold his plot to us, and then traveled out a ways." He pointed with a hoof to indicate the general direction The Coyote Colt had left in. "Honestly, that's the thing that puzzled me. He knew that Appleloosa was going to grow. Why he didn't head out further than he did, I don't know, but it would have saved him a lot of trouble."

"Why? What happened next?" she asked, looking for more discrepancies between the sheriff's version and what The Coyote Colt had told her himself.

"He ended up settling on some of the only arable land around. Which would have been okay if he had been willing to work it. Heck, we would have gladly helped him, even despite how solitary he was." His voice grew grim as he remembered it all. "In the end though, all he did with it was dig some holes and mope around. When we finally realized he owned the only sizable plot of farm land around, we all pitched in and made an offer for his property. He gladly accepted it, and moved to where he lives now."

Trixie frowned, and motioned at the sheriff to continue. Obliging his companion, he said, "This is the first he's done anything like this. He's hassled folk whenever they came close to where he lived, but he never went out of his way to cause trouble. If I had known he would someday do something like this, I would have formed a posse long ago and brought him in." The sheriff sighed at the thought. "I'm going to have to do that now, and it won't be easy work at all, let me tell you. Maybe if I inform the Princess, she can send some help up ahead of time, get this whole mess cleaned up before she arrives with her sister."

Trixie halted. "Wait. Princess Celestia is coming here? Whatever for?"

The sheriff stopped and looked back to her. "The Summer Sun Festival. In just under three weeks, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will both be here to celebrate the longest day of the year." He smiled. "It will be the biggest event in this town's history. From nothing more than a small cluster of cottages two years ago, to hosting the royalty of the land on the biggest holiday of the year. It makes me proud to think how far we've come so quickly."

Trixie started walking again, her thoughts racing. "Okay then, what else can you tell me about The Coyote Colt? How did he lose his cutie mark?"

"Nopony in town knows." the sheriff replied. "He didn't have it when we first arrived, and as I'm sure you can attest to from your encounter with him, he doesn't take kindly to questions about it either."

The two of them came up short as they approached the stage. Several ponies were cleaning up the area, and one could be seen inside the wagon with a feather duster in her mouth. Seeing Trixie, they all stopped what they were doing and rushed over to her, words of joy and thanks being tossed at her from several mouths all at once. "You're already up and about!" "I saw what you did, it was amazing!" "Thank you for standing up to that monster!" "Your horn! Is it going to be okay?"

Trixie smiled and basked in the positive attention, even as she started to feel a little queasy. "Yes, yes, my horn will be alright. It just needs some time to heal, and then The Great and Powerful Trixie will back at one hundred percent!" she proclaimed. "Also, thank you for cleaning things up for me."

"It's the least we can do!" the mare with the feather duster said. "We may be a poor folk out here, but we do what we can to help each other. After what you did last night? As far as I'm concerned, you're one of us now! You need something, you let us know, you hear?" The other ponies nodded their heads vigorously and shouted agreement.

Seeing Trixie's growing discomfort, the sheriff stepped up. "Well, we'll leave you ponies be then, we just stopped by to check on things before heading to the jail. We're hoping we can get some information out of that pegasus." The other ponies gave Trixie a final round of thanks and assurances that her stuff would be sparkling clean by the time they were done, and then returned to their work.

Trixie and the sheriff turned back towards town, walking in silence. After they were a fair distance away from the stage, the sheriff asked, "What's wrong? You seem strangely upset for someone who just received so much praise and thanks."

"I lost!" Trixie angrily spat out. "Don't get me wrong, Trixie loves to hear words of adoration. But how can they be so happy about what I did when all I did was get hurt? The Coyote Colt got away! He's still out there, free to return whenever he wants to! And they're happy about that?"

Sheriff Silverstar raised an eyebrow. "You may have lost the duel, but consider what else you accomplished. Not only did you keep The Coyote Colt from making off with all of our money, you also managed to capture One Winged Willie, and maybe prevented his gang from hurting others too. You may feel like you didn't come out on top, but I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that you saved the town last night."

Still feeling uncomfortable about it all, Trixie decided to change the topic. "Say, I have a question. If this is such a poor town, why was there so much money in the bank?"

"To pay for the supplies that will be arriving on the train tomorrow. We still have to set up Princess Celestia's sun podium, bleachers for everypony, and a bunch of other stuff too. All of that requires wood, and that's the one thing we don't have in abundance up here." Silverstar sighed in frustration. "We received a grant from Canterlot to help pay for it all; I just wish they had thought to pay for it back there, and then send us the supplies. What they did seems convoluted to me, but then I guess that's bureaucracy for you."

Trixie nodded slowly, trying not to jostle her horn too much. "I couldn't say myself. Government has never held any appeal to me." She looked ahead, and saw the jailhouse start to come into view.

"So, what can you tell me about our pegasus prisoner?" she asked.

Sheriff Silverstar grunted. "He used to go by the name Whirlwind. He was one of the first settlers, even before my time. Not many ponies remember him, to be honest. From what I heard, he really helped those first few brave souls survive, helping to make sure there was enough rain to keep them alive until wells could be dug." The sheriff looked up at the sky, trying to recall everything he had been told about the pony. "They say he loved to fly in rough weather, and was good at it too. Then, one day, he pushed his luck a little too hard. A tornado got a hold of him, and pretty much destroyed one of his wings. Turned it into tatters. I guess they had to remove it, it was so badly ripped up. After that, he was never the same, and one day he simply wandered off. Nopony knew where he went."

They stopped outside the door to the jail. "Something doesn't feel right about all of this." Trixie said. "I can't see why The Coyote Colt would want all of that money. He's been out here so long, what would he use it for? Where else could he spend it?" She growled in frustration. "Curse this headache of mine! It keeps the magnificent deduction capabilities of the Great and Powerful Trixie from operating at full efficiency!"

Seeing the sheriff give her a questioning look, Trixie huffed, "Well, let's go and see what we can learn from our outlaw in the oubliette." Waiting for the sheriff to open the door, Trixie walked in, head held high. The inside of the jailhouse was a large room, with the far side separated from the rest by a rows of metal bars. They stretched from the floor up to the ceiling, spaced no farther apart than what Trixie estimated to be three or four inches. The only break in this wall of iron was a door that had been built into the bars. The other three walls of the cell were solid wood, with just a single small window high off the ground, also featuring iron bars. Inside the cell was a cot, a pail, and the pegasus that Trixie had captured last night — One Winged Willie.

Seeing the sheriff and Trixie enter, Willie lazily looked up from where he was laying on the cot. Growling something unintelligible, he then plopped his head back down onto the mattress, doing his best to ignore the newcomers. The sheriff walked over to the only other piece of furniture in the building, a desk on the wall farthest from the cell. Scattered across the top of the desk were various papers and an object that caught Trixie's eye.

"That knife there... is it?" she asked, fascinated and a bit unsettled by the possibility.

Sheriff Silverstar nodded. "Yup. That's the one that hit your horn."

"May I?" Trixie asked, curiosity overcoming her brief aversion. Seeing the sheriff nod, Trixie reached with her magic for the knife. She stopped as her headache — which had faded for the most part — returned with a vengeance. Wincing, she shook her head.

Noticing Trixie's reaction, Silverstar quickly put together what had happened. "Hey now, are you sure that's the best thing to be trying to do so soon after last night?" He walked over to his desk to pick it up for Trixie.

"Stop!" Trixie commanded. "I am supposed to still have access to some of my magic. If The Great and Powerful Trixie can not manage even this much without making things worse for herself, it is best that she knows that now, instead of later." Closing her eyes to help her focus, and prepared for the pain this time, Trixie was able to lift the knife from the desk and float it over to her.

She opened her eyes and gave the blade a thorough inspection. The sheriff watched her, but kept quiet. After a short while of rotating the knife, looking at it from all angles, she turned and asked Silverstar, "Would you mind if I kept this?"

The sheriff shrugged. "If you want to. I don't have any use for it." Trixie grabbed the hilt of the knife with her mouth, unsure of where to put.

Without warning, the door to the jailhouse burst open, and Braeburn dashed in. "Sheriff!" he cried, obviously in panic. "The Coyote Colt is at the edge of town, and he's calling you out!"

The sheriff scowled. "As if things weren't already bad enough for us." he muttered.

Trixie put the knife down on the ground. "Wait, is it just The Coyote Colt?" she asked.

Braeburn nodded, and the sheriff looked at Trixie and nodded. "Braeburn," Silverstar drawled, "I think me and Trixie have come to the same conclusion. How would like to help us out?"

"Sure. What do you need me to do?" asked Braeburn.

Sheriff Silverstar opened one of the drawers of his desk and fished out a key. "This might be an attempt for the rest of The Coyote's Colt gang to try to spring One Winged Willie from his cell. Since the only way to get him out is through the door in the bars, and then out the door of the jailhouse itself, I think the best thing we could do would be to make it so they can't get in here." He tossed the key to Braeburn, who caught it in his mouth. "After we leave, lock the door and block it with my desk too. Don't open it up unless you hear me tell you to, understood?"

"Will do! You can count on me." Braeburn replied eagerly.

Trixie picked the knife back up and put it in the open desk drawer. "I'll get that later. Let's go."

Braeburn watched them leave, and then locked the door and started to push the desk, spilling papers onto the floor as he did so. Willie simply watched from his cot. After a moment, Braeburn stepped back to look at his work. Satisfied that he had positioned the desk as well as he could, he turned to One Winged Willie and said, "Well, if I have anything to say about it, you won't be going anywhere for a while."

"Just because I'm missing a wing doesn't mean I can't fly away." Willie replied cryptically, and then turned around on his cot, looking away from Braeburn and ending the conversation.

Sheriff Silverstar and Trixie galloped to the edge of town to find The Coyote Colt waiting with a bored expression on his face. "There you are, sheriff." he drawled, and took a double take at seeing Trixie. "Well, well, well. Back up on your hooves already? I'm impressed, although having your horn all wrapped up like that takes away a few style points, if you care."

Trixie haughtily sniffed. "Coming from a pony like you, I'll take that as a compliment."

Sensing things starting to escalate beyond his comfort, Silverstar stepped forward. "What exactly are you doing here?" he asked the outlaw, doing his best to put a tamper on things.

"I have a couple of requests for you, sheriff." The Coyote Colt said, turning his attention away from Trixie.

"Well, I can't guarantee that I'll be willing to follow them, but I figure the least I can do is listen, since you've done me the courtesy of not attacking anypony yet." The sheriff drawled.

"Isn't that neighborly of you!" The Coyote Colt said with a smirk. "Well then, I'd like you to let me leave with my compatriot, One Winged Willie. I feel right awful that I left him here last night."

The sheriff slowly shook his head. "Sorry, but he stays."

With a melodramatic sigh, The Coyote Colt shook his head sadly. " If you aren't going to give me that, I sure do hope that you'll see things my way for my other request."

"I hope it involves you choking on your tail." Trixie muttered, earning herself a sharp glare from the sheriff.

"Like I said before," the sheriff said, "I'm willing to at least listen."

The Coyote Colt's demeanor took on a serious tone. "I want you to cancel the Summer Sun Celebration."

A surprised murmur rippled through a small crowd that had assembled behind the sheriff and Trixie. Silverstar looked at Trixie with a questioning look on his face, and seeing a similar one on hers, he turned back to The Coyote Colt. "I'm sorry, you want me to do what?" he asked, not believing his ears.

"You heard me." he replied angrily. "Cancel it, shut it down, make sure it doesn't happen. Tell the princesses to stay away."

"Why?" Trixie asked, gobsmacked.

"That ain't any of your business. Just know that if you keep on preparing for it, well, stuff like this will happen." His horn started glowing, and the assembled ponies took a few steps back quickly. Rearing up, the Coyote Colt shot a ball of fire into the air. After flying upwards for a few seconds and a hundred feet or so, it loudly exploded, sending sparks raining down towards the ground even as the booming sound it created echoed across the area.

A few ponies in the crowd broke from the group and ran back into town. Trixie studied the spell, and nodded slowly to herself. "Now I see why he relied so heavily on his telekinesis in our fight." she whispered to the sheriff.

"Well, if you can't make an effort to at least give me the reasons behind your demand," the sheriff answered, "I just can't bring myself to accommodate you. I guess you'll have to leave empty hoofed today."

The Coyote Colt glared at the sheriff. "You'll regret this, Silverstar. I promise you, you will rue this day very soon." With that, he abruptly turned and slowly walked away from the townsfolk.

Trixie turned to the sheriff. "Why would he want the Summer Sun Celebration cancelled? That makes no sense to me."

The sheriff shrugged. "Part of me wants to believe it was just a ruse to buy time for his gang to try to spring Willie, but I can't shake the feeling that he was completely serious about it."

Trixie frowned, and after coming up with nothing sighed. "Do you think we gave the rest of his gang enough time to realize they aren't going to get Willie free?" she asked, putting off the mystery for later.

"I'm actually hoping we can catch them in the act, maybe put a couple more of them behind bars." the sheriff replied. "Let's go and see how lucky we can get."

Finding himself quickly bored after the sheriff and Trixie had left, Braeburn took the chance to look through the papers on top of the sheriff's desk. "Hey," he called over to One Winged Willie, "did you know that the sheriff has to look over building permits?" Seeing the lame pegasus fail to rise to his conversational gambit, Braeburn shrugged and continued to peruse the papers when he heard the doorknob rattle briefly, followed by a muffled curse.

Braeburn quickly forgot about the notes he had been reading and braced against the desk. "Ha!" he yelled out. "You won't be getting in today, no sirree!" He listened closely, but heard no reply. A few seconds later though, his attention was drawn to the window inside the cell, when a grayish face peered through.

"Ah, quite clever!" Douglas the diamond dog called out. "To be honest, I was hoping that the ponies of this town would be intelligent enough to see through at least this much of our ruse. I would have been disappointed if all it took was our leader showing up somewhere to make the jail available to us." He then proceeded to start positioning hooks to the bar of the window.

Braeburn frowned. "If you think you can simply pull out the window and free Willie, you're mistaken. I don't think he would even fit through that small of an opening, and besides, those bars don't stop at the edge of the window; they go all the way down into the building's foundation!"

Douglas chuckled. "Oh, I know! In fact, we wouldn't even be trying this if they didn't. I agree, Willie wouldn't be able to fit through this hole. At least, he'd need to suffer through a lengthy bread and water prison diet to squeeze through." Willie gave a nonplussed hmmph as he turned the cot over onto its side and hid behind it.

Braeburn tilted his head. "So, what, you think you can pull out the entire wall?"

Douglas paused to tip his hat at Braeburn. "Well done! Indeed, notice how we're using chains" he held one up for Braeburn to take in, "so they don't snap from the stress. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get into position. We are running on a schedule, after all. By the way, do pay close attention. I want the sheriff to get as detailed an account as possible of what happens next." With that, he disappeared from sight.

Seconds passed, and Braeburn found himself wondering when the outlaws were going to make their attempt. He was starting to seriously consider moving the desk aside and charging out to try to do something to stop them, sheriff's orders notwithstanding, when he heard Douglas bark out, "Go!"

A bright light flashed through the window, and a booming sound joined it. At the same time, Braeburn saw the chains pull taut, and then the loud sound of timbers being broken and metal bars being uprooted melded into the explosive echo, and part of the prison wall simply flew away. After a second, the newly freed partition dropped to the ground to show it was being dragged by two now visible buffalo. Douglas stuck his head through the gap and motioned to Willie. The pegasus quickly got on his feet, turned and blew Braeburn a raspberry, and then trotted out through the newly created exit.

Braeburn stared dumbfounded at the escaping bandits for a moment. Finally, he shook his head and with a shrug, dug through the desk drawer for a key he remembered seeing earlier. Finding it, he opened the door to the jail cell and walked out through the hole in the wall. He headed around to the street and decided to go find the sheriff. "At least this way, I'm not going against his orders!" he chuckled as he walked down the street.

Three Amigos

Sheriff Silverstar and Trixie stood staring at the gaping hole left in the wall of the jail. Neither of them had wanted to believe Braeburn when he had met them on the way back to the jailhouse, but the physical evidence of the feat erased any doubts from their minds. Silverstar started swearing under his breath as Trixie walked out to examine the discarded halters and chains left by the outlaws.

Braeburn headed back inside through the open cell door and pushed the sheriff's desk away from the jail's entrance. He then unlocked it and placed the key back on the desk, asking, "Is there anything else you need me for, sheriff?"

Silverstar shook his head in disgust, unable to tear his gaze away from the wreckage. "Not unless you know how to get the jail back in one piece." he replied furiously. He kicked a shard of wood in anger. "I haven't had to keep anypony in here for anything worse than to cool them down after imbibing too much salt, and now that I actually need the dang fool place, it's wrecked!"

Trixie watched as Braeburn seemed to deflate during the sheriff tirade and walked over to him. "I'm certain that Sheriff Silverstar is mad at what happened, and not at you Braeburn."

"And if he is?" Braeburn asked glumly.

"Then the Great and Powerful Trixie will set him straight, don't you worry." She looked back at the damage that had been done. "Still, even Trixie is impressed by how strong those buffalo are. It's going to be hard to overcome something like that."

Braeburn blinked, and looked at Trixie. "Well, we could always go ask the buffalo tribe if they'd be willing to help us out. Get a couple of buffalo on our side as well, that'd work, right?"

Trixie gave Braeburn an appreciative look. "You know what, that just may do the trick. Do you think they'd be willing to help?"

"They might. There was a time when us and them actually came to blows, but we've managed to come to a compromise since then." Braeburn walked towards the sheriff. "Sir, do you want us to go and see if the buffalo might be willing to help?" he called out to the lawman.

Sheriff Silverstar paused and looked at Braeburn. "That's not a bad idea. You think you two can pull it off?" he asked, his tirade momentarily forgotten.

Braeburn nodded. "I reckon we can, sir!"

"Well then, why don't you two go and see what you can do? I'll go and round up some ponies and get them to help me clean this mess up." He returned his attention to the mess that his jailhouse wall had been turned into.

Trixie turned to Braeburn. "I would like to stop by my wagon and get my cloak and hat back, if you don't mind. If we're going to do any sort of travel under the sun..."

"It's a fair distance out to their camp." Braeburn confirmed.

"Then The Great and Powerful Trixie would like to avoid getting a stroke from the heat, if at all possible."

Braeburn grinned. "Well, I'd like to stop by my place too then. I'll grab my saddlebags and get us some grub for the trip, and there are a couple of quick things I'd like to attend to as well, if you don't mind a short wait?"

Trixie shook her head, ignoring the small twinge of pain it caused. "Not in the least. That will give me time to get my things in order too. How about I wait for you at the stage?" she asked.

"Sounds good to me! I'll see you in a bit then, ma'am!" Braeburn trotted off, with a small hop to his stride.

Trixie watched the enthusiastic stallion trot off and then turned her attention to the desk. Opening the door, she focused and lifted the knife out from the pile of papers it had been resting on, and then grabbed the hilt in her mouth. She then trotted over to the sheriff, who had finally calmed down from his earlier outburst.

"Ere an I ine sunnun oo ake is indo a nekwace?" Trixie asked as well as she could with her mouth full.

Sheriff Silverstar blinked. "Uh... I beg your pardon?"

"I edd, ere an I ine..." with a sigh, Trixie floated the knife briefly in front of her. "I said, where can I find someone to make this into a necklace?" she asked, voice filled with annoyance, before grasping the knife in her teeth again.

"Hmm, well, we don't have anypony who specializes as a jeweler, but maybe one of the outfitters could help you." he answered.

Trixie waited a moment, and then said, "An ere an i ine..." With a growl, she levitated the knife again and said, "And where can I find one of these outfitters?"

Sheriff Silverstar gave Trixie an abashed look. "Sorry about that. I forgot you've only been here for a day so far. See that store with the sign displaying a cowboy hat?" He pointed with a hoof down the main street. Seeing Trixie nod, knife once again in her mouth, he continued, "That's the one I visit regularly. The other one is down the road a bit further, its sign is a pair of red cowboy boots. Can't miss it."

"Ank oo!" Trixie mumbled around her mouthful. She proceeded to trot off to the first store the sheriff had pointed out, since it was closer.

Trixie walked through the door, causing a small bell to ring to announce her entrance. The building was filled with various hats and vests, for both mares and stallions. "Coming!" yelled a voice from the back area, which could only be seen as a curtain covering an entryway behind a desk with a cash register. Trixie walked towards it, but just before she got there, a yellow mare wearing a brown cowboy hat with a green mane and tail adorned with pink bows emerged from behind the curtain.

"Hello, what can I.. Ack!" The mare's eyes widened in shock. "Please don't hurt me! You can have all the money, it isn't much, but I... pleeeeease don't hurt me!"

Trixie quickly looked around, wondering what could be causing such an extreme reaction when she belatedly remembered what she was carrying in her mouth. Quickly spitting the knife onto the floor, she waved a hoof in front of her. "Please! The Great and Powerful Trixie has no desire to rob your fine establishment! Indeed, the sheriff himself recommended that I come here for my shopping needs!"

The mare behind the counter calmed down some, and then noticed Trixie's bandaged horn. "Oh! It's you!" she gave off a nervous chuckle. "I'm sorry, but with everything that has happened the last couple of days, I'm just a bit on edge is all. By the way, my name is Cactus Wren, pleased to meet you Trixie! How can I help you? Ooh! I know! I bet you need a hat, to keep people from staring at your horn!"

Trixie smiled. "No, thank you though. I have one back at my wagon that will serve me quite well for such purposes." She raised the knife from the floor and had it come to rest on the counter. "I was hoping to turn this into a necklace."

Cactus Wren studied the knife apprehensively. "Do you mean, melt it down and use the blade for the material for a necklace, or...?"

Trixie shook her head. "No, I mean I'd like to somehow make it so I can wear this around my neck. I was thinking maybe drilling a hole through the handle, and then threading some sort of fine chain through that."

"Ah, I see what you mean." the store mare replied. "I'll be honest, I wouldn't be capable to doing that myself, but I could easily weave some leather strands around the bottom of the handle, and then make a loop so you could wear it like that." Cactus Wren gave Trixie a puzzled look. "Wouldn't it be dangerous to have such a thing hanging from your neck all the time though?"

"I would think that if the loop was snug enough, the knife wouldn't be able to swing about that much. Trixie believes that she will be perfectly fine," she stated with authority.

Cactus Wren nodded slowly. "I see what you're talking about now. Hold on, let me go get my measuring tape. I think I can whip something up real quick if you don't mind waiting a few minutes?"

"Not at all." Trixie said with a welcome smile.

Cousin, let me tell you, things keep on getting wilder and wilder by the hour it seems. The good news is that Trixie can still use her magic, although I guess she runs the risk of hurting herself even more if she pushes things. The bad news though is that those outlaws have freed the pegasus we caught, and ruined the jail in the process! It was quite the sight seeing those buffalo rip the wall right off, let me tell you!

We may be on the defensive right now, but I still have a good feeling about things. I'm going out to the buffalo with Trixie to see if we can't get some help from them, help even the odds some. We're not going to let The Coyote Colt keep us down, dang it! Anyway, I need to finish packing food and water for our trip onto the plains, I'll make sure to add on how our trip went when I get back!

Braeburn shook his head in disbelief at how long his letter to his cousin Applejack had grown over the last couple of days. Normally he had trouble coming up with enough things to write to even justify the cost of sending a letter down to Ponyville. But now? He had already covered two pieces of parchment, front and back, and he still had more to write when he returned!

Leaving the letter on his table so the ink could properly dry, he went and got his saddlebags on. He had already packed enough food for a couple of meals for him and Trixie, although he hoped that he could maybe get some food from the buffalo if they needed it. He didn't think they would be delayed that long, but he knew from experience that the weather had a habit of turning sour without warning sometimes. After digging through his closet for a minute, he finally found a couple of canteens, filled them up and put them in his saddle bags too. At a loss for anything else they might need, he exited his house and headed to the stage to meet Trixie.

As he approached he saw Trixie talking with a couple of other ponies. She was once again wearing her magician's hat and star covered cloak, and he saw hanging from her neck a knife, held in place by a leather choker. Seeing him approach, Trixie said some last words to the other ponies, hopped off the stage and met Braeburn halfway.

"So, um" Braeburn started, unsure of how to broach the subject tactfully, "a knife?"

Trixie sighed. "Why is it that everypony assumes that the moment The Great and Powerful Trixie wears a knife around her neck, that she is going to somehow find a way to slit her own throat?"

"Because sharp blades have a habit of cutting things if ponies aren't careful?" Braeburn shot back. "Aren't you just asking The Coyote Colt to try to use his magic on it and hurt you?"

"Oh, please!" Trixie sniffed. "I can forgive your ignorance, since you are an earth pony, but trust me. It is quite difficult to control items if they are moving around, or are being worn by others. While I can lift it if I need too, other unicorns would have a difficult time trying to target it." She motioned for Braeburn to start walking. "After all, does not The Coyote Colt wear a whole bandoleer of knifes across his chest?"

Braeburn started walking out of town, considering Trixie's words. "That makes sense. Still, why would you even want to wear such a thing? It makes me nervous just thinking about it!"

Falling into stride next to Braeburn, Trixie gave him a grim smile. "As a reminder. Not for myself, mind you. This crack in my horn is all the reminder The Great and Powerful Trixie requires. I want The Coyote Colt to see it, and for him to know that even with what he did to me, it wasn't enough to keep me down." She looked around at the vast expanse of flat, rocky soil stretching out. "So, how far do we have to go to meet with these buffalo?"

"It's a couple of hours out or so. I'm not exactly certain where they live, to be honest." Seeing Trixie starting to grow angry, he quickly added, "They keep an eye out for strangers! Odds are they'll see us from a ways off, and send someone to meet us. That's what happened every time I've come out here before."

Mollified, Trixie looked ahead. The landscape was full of large rocks and cacti that seemed to reach for the sky with their spiky, thick branches. "I can see why Appleloosa is where it sits. There really isn't anything out here in this direction, is there?"

"Not that we could use, anyway." Braeburn agreed. "Still, the amount of things that live out here is surprising. And the buffalo have been out here for, well, I don't know. For a long, long time."

The two of them walked in silence for a time. Midday came, and they stopped for lunch in a small sliver of shade provided by a boulder. "So," Braeburn asked after they had finished and started to move on again, "do you have any idea on how we can stop The Coyote Colt? Do you have enough magic left to stand up to him?"

Trixie's faced twisted in frustration. "I didn't have enough magic to stop him the first time. In my current condition? I wouldn't stand a chance against him straight up. As much as The Great and Powerful Trixie detests the idea, I'm going to have to come up with something to give me an edge."

"An edge? Like what?" Braeburn asked, curious.

"I don't know." Trixie admitted, annoyed that she couldn't provide an answer. "Something to either boost my magic, or make his less effective."

The two continued walking for a bit, mulling over the problem. "From what I could see of the fight, laying where I was," Braeburn said, "all he seemed to do was throw those knives of his around. That's all you have to worry about, right?"

Trixie shook her head. "You didn't get to see it since you were at the jail, but he has some fire magic too. He tossed a large fireball into the air, and it made a large explosion."

"Ah!" Braeburn exclaimed. "That must have been what I heard then. I was wondering what made that noise. So, why wasn't he throwing those things at you during your duel then?"

"He watched my show, and saw that I knew how to manipulate fire." she explained. "Actually, I can control any visible, intangible object like that. Fire, smoke, mist, rainbows..."

Braeburn blinked. "Rainbows?"

"They show up more often than you would think." Trixie replied with a smirk. "Still, it takes a lot of effort. It isn't something I'm eager to try out in my condition."

"Okay then, knives and fireballs." Braeburn said, trying to puzzle things out. "We need something that can stop both of them. Do you think throwing water on the fireball would be enough to put it out?"

Trixie considered it for a minute. "Possibly," she answered, "but I don't think it would be a feasible strategy. It would take more water than what a bucket could hold, and the magic needed to put enough water into a fireball's path would require more effort than me just redirecting the attack."

"Hmm. How about armor then?" Braeburn asked. "I've seen pictures of the Royal Guards. They have some sort of metal barding that covers most of their body. That would stop the knives for the most part, right?"

"Maybe, but where would we find some?" Trixie asked.

Braeburn shrugged. "I'm just tossing out ideas. Anyway, look over there." He pointed ahead, where a cloud of dust could be seen. "If that isn't a lookout coming out to meet us, I'll dip my hat in Tabascolt sauce and eat it!"

After another minute of walking, two buffalo came running up to the ponies. "Howdy!" Braeburn called out to them. "Sorry to intrude, but we really need to talk to your chief."

"Oh?" one of the buffalo replied in a deep, gruff voice. "And why is that?"

"Because of a couple of buffalo have been helping cause havoc on the village of Appleloosa." Trixie said. "Their names are Weed and Tumble, and they've joined up with a gang of criminals."

Hearing the names, the two buffalo looked at each other before turning back to face the ponies. "Very well, come with us." They then turned around and started heading off.

Braeburn looked at Trixie. "I'm impressed! How did you know their names?"

Trixie covered her mouth and coughed. "I, uh, overheard one of the other outlaws mention it. Come, let's get a move on, we don't want to be left behind!" She then ran off after the buffalo, leaving Braeburn to follow without giving him the opportunity to ask any further questions.

Half an hour later, Trixie and Braeburn found themselves in the center of a cluster of teepees. Over a dozen buffalo stood in a half circle, facing the two ponies, with the largest buffalo of the group standing right in front of them. While most of the buffalo wore a feather or two, this one wore a full headdress with larger feathers. "So," the large one spoke, "I hear that you have news that I should listen to."

Braeburn stepped forward, bowing his head to him. "That's right, Chief Thunderhooves. Our village is currently having problems with a gang of outlaws, and they have two buffalo among them. Their names are... Tumble and Weed?" he looked back at Trixie for confirmation, who nodded. The rest of the buffalo started to murmur, and Chief Thunderhooves had to clear his throat to regain their attention.

"What exactly have those two idiots done? Do you have any proof?" he asked.

"I saw them tear down the wall of our jail with my own two eyes." Braeburn replied. "It happened only this morning. If you were to come with us back to Appleloosa, you could see the damage for yourself. There ain't no way a pony could have done what they did."

Chief Thunderhooves paused to consider things. "If what you say is true, then indeed we owe you ponies some aid." Seeing Trixie grow indignant, he raised a hoof. "I am not calling you liars, but I would not be doing my duty as chief if I did not make sure of the truth of your words. I will send one of our tribe's best scouts with you. If she finds what you say to be true, then she will remain and help you until the two rogue buffalo have been dealt with."

Braeburn bowed his head. "Thank you very much, Chief. We greatly appreciate this."

Chief Thunderhooves grunted, and then turned to look around. "Little Strongheart! Where are you?"

"Right here, chief."

Trixie was surprised by the soft, feminine voice she heard reply, and then outright shocked when she saw a buffalo slightly smaller than herself step forward. "Braeburn!" she hissed, motioning for her companion to come close.

"What is it?" Braeburn asked, looking confused at Trixie's consternation.

"We're being... duped! We're dealing with two large buffalo, and they're handing us someone who looks like she would get squished flat if either one of them sat down on her!" Trixie whispered, obviously upset over the situation.

"Now, don't you worry about that!" Braeburn said calmly. "I've seen her in action before. Granted, she may not look it, but she packs quite the punch. She'll run circles around those other two, you just wait and see."

Seeing that her concerns weren't going to be taken seriously, Trixie studied the buffalo that was being sent back to Appleloosa with them, watching as Chief Thunderhooves gave her some instructions. She just couldn't help but think that they were being given a token piece of aid, with the hope that it would shut them up.

"You're looking at this the wrong way." Braeburn said, watching Trixie. "While I doubt their chief is thinking of it, this is probably the best thing he could have done. How do you think the villagers would have reacted if they saw us return with several large buffalo, after all the havoc those outlaws have caused?"

Trixie considered things. "They'd be really nervous, unsure about which buffalo they could trust probably." she admitted. "Still, The Great and Powerful Trixie was hoping for a squadron of them to come charging in and flatten The Coyote Colt unequivocally. That'd solve all of our problems."

"Sure," Braeburn conceded, "that would be nice. But how would the villagers feel about that? I know it wouldn't sit well with me that we had to go beg for help from others like that in order to take care of our situation." His face took on a sour look, like he had just bit into a lemon. "What would be the point of us living out here if we had to have other folk solve all of our problems for us?"

She gave Braeburn a quizzical look. "So, how do you feel about me helping you then? I don't live in Appleloosa, after all."

"True, but you were forcefully dragged into it. That's different. The Coyote Colt hasn't made any moves against the buffalo yet." Seeing Little Strongheart come up to them, he turned to face her. "Howdy!"

"Greeting, Braeburn. It has been a while since we last saw each other. How have you been doing? And who is this?" she asked, looking at Trixie.

"Besides the current problem, I've been doing okay, thank you." He gestured at Trixie. "This here is..."

"I am The Great and Powerful Trixie!" she interrupted. "Entertainer extraordinaire, practiced prestidigitator, and currently helping the settlers of Appleloosa combat The Coyote Colt and his band of miscreants." She stood tall and proud.

Little Strongheart looked over at Braeburn, who shrugged. "Um, pleased to meet you. I look forward to helping you." she replied, doing her best to be cordial.

Giving a noncommittal hmmph, Trixie turned to Braeburn. "Well, shall we be heading back to town? I'd like to get back before sunset." Not bothering to wait for a reply, Trixie turned and started to leave the buffalo encampment.

Braeburn and Little Strongheart looked at each other in confusion. Braeburn shrugged and said, "Just give her a chance. She doesn't know what you're capable of. I'm sure she'll come around." They started after the departing unicorn. "Trixie!" he called ahead. Seeing her ignore him, he muttered under his breath before yelling, "Darn it, Trixie, wait up! You're heading the wrong way!"

Trixie paused, and then lowered her head. She waited for the other two to catch up. "I am sorry. It's just..." she sighed. "It has always been hard for me to ask for help from others. Even with these kind of circumstances and my injury, it is a bitter pill to swallow that The Great and Powerful Trixie is not up to the task on her own."

Little Strongheart looked at Trixie. "You do not appear to be hurt."

Trixie closed her eyes, and levitated her hat off of her head to reveal her bandaged horn. "The Coyote Colt cracked it yesterday when we faced off against each other." She lowered her hat back onto her head. "Even doing that small of an amount of magic gives me a headache, and I've been told that I risk aggravating my injury if I push myself too far."

"I am sorry to hear that!" Little Strongheart said, sympathy showing on her face. "But who is this Coyote Colt?"

"We'll fill you in on the way back." Braeburn said as he turned towards Appleloosa. "It's a long story."

The Coyote Colt levitated his saddlebags onto his back. "So," he said, turning to face his diamond dog companion, "do you think you and Willie will be okay while I head out with the buffalo brothers?"

Douglas smiled. "I am certain that, should the worst happen, me and Willie can escape that other unicorn easily enough. And I don't honestly see the townsfolk trying anything after what we did this morning."

"There's no need for us to fly away." Willie piped up. "That witch is only able to use half of her horn at most."

"What do you mean?" the outlaw leader asked, his curiosity piqued.

"I saw it while they had me cooped up. She can barely lift a knife off of the ground without hurting herself." the pegasus explained.

The Coyote Colt chuckled, and then started to laugh loudly. "Oh, that's rich! I was worried when I saw her earlier today, already up and about. But knowing this? I don't think anything will be able to stop us now, boys." He looked over at Tumble and Weed. "You two ready?" Seeing them grunt, he grinned.

"Alright then. Let's go catch ourselves a train."

3:10 to Yuma

Douglas looked through the contents of his knapsack, making sure everything he wanted was there. Curious as to what the diamond dog was doing, One Winged Willie wandered over, slightly erratic in his course across the room in the the gang's base. Noticing that Douglas was preparing to head out, the maimed pegasus let out a mournful sigh. "You know if The Coyote Colt finds out that you went out treasure hunting again that he'll be angry?"

"Angry he will be," Douglas replied as he slung the bag over his shoulder, "but I doubt he will do anything rash. Especially if he pulls off his ambush successfully. And besides," he added, giving the pegasus a sad smile, "I have to do this. Finding hidden wealth, searching for long lost riches, this is something that is ingrained into the very essence of a diamond dog. Even one such as me."

Willie nodded, and followed Douglas outside. The diamond dog turned to his pegasus friend, or at least the closest thing that Douglas could consider a friend among their ragtag band of outlaws, and gave him a pat on the head. "I'll be heading out that way." he pointed with a paw towards the east. "While I don't think anyone will come out here, if you need to follow after me, head in that direction."

The pegasus nodded. "Be careful. The weather, she'll be going all topsy turvy come the morning. More messed up than marmalade."

Douglas nodded. "Thanks." With a final wave, the diamond dog headed out on his personal quest.

Well cousin, this will be the last time I add to this letter. The train arrives in town in an hour or so, so I'll quickly tack on a few last lines before sealing this up and making sure I put enough postage so that this gets to you at Sweet Apple Acres.

Our trip to visit the buffalo went well, I thought. Remember Little Strongheart? Chief Thunderhooves sent her to help us deal with The Coyote Colt and his gang, since that outlaw has a pair of buffalo of his own. Trixie doesn't seemed to be all that pleased, mainly because she doesn't think Little Strongheart will be able to do anything against two fully grown buffalo. I'm sure once she sees her in action though Trixie will come around.

Anyway, with the extra help, and the supplies on the train coming in shortly, we should be able to finish the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in plenty of time. Say hello to all the other family members there in Ponyville for me, would you? I'm looking forward to the next family reunion, for once I'll have a grand story of my own to share!

Take care, cousin!
Braeburn

Braeburn looked over his writing one last time, searching for any mistakes in his writing that would be more embarrassing than crossing out the word and rewriting it above it would be. Finding none, he folded up his lengthy letter and slid it into an envelope. He then licked several stamps and affixed them to the already addressed envelope and, after some thought, grabbed one more just to make sure it didn't get sent back to him with a big red stamp proclaiming 'RETURN TO SENDER: INSUFFICIENT POSTAGE' on the back. Again.

He started to head back to the kitchen to clean up after breakfast when he heard an urgent knocking at his door. Braeburn trotted to the front of the house and opened the door to see the sheriff standing there, a grim look on his face. "What's wrong, sir?" Braeburn asked, a knot of worry growing in his gut.

"Come take a look at this." Sheriff Silverstar said curtly, motioning for the young stallion to follow him, and led him around to the side of his house. Once there he pointed to a pillar of dark smoke rising in the distance, visible against what looked to be a sky quickly filling with storm clouds.. "I'd like to think that's just a small brush fire, but it looks to me like it's coming up from where the train tracks run. Do you think you and your friends could meet me at the jailhouse, the sooner the better?"

Braeburn nodded. "You bet! Just give me five minutes to get them, and we'll be there."

"Thank you, son." Silverstar turned to head back to the jailhouse, and Braeburn headed off towards the stage at the edge of town. He knew that Trixie had spent the night in her wagon, and Little Strongheart had decided to sleep out behind the stage on the ground. Braeburn had offered her the use of his living room and some cushions he had stored away but the diminutive buffalo scout had politely declined the offer. She said she preferred to be sleep outside, under the stars, and that anything but the hard ground beneath her would be too soft for her comfort.

A couple of minutes later he arrived at the stage to find Trixie and Little Strongheart already up and talking. Braeburn smiled to see the two of them apparently getting along better than they originally had when they had first met at the buffalo camp. Upon getting closer to the pair however he heard to his disappointment that they were, if not arguing, then at least seemed to be having some sort of disagreement.

"Heya ladies!" he called out, in an effort to cut short whatever dispute was brewing between them.

It seemed to work, as they both turned to face him. "Greetings, Braeburn." Little Strongheart replied as the stallion came up to them. "We were just discussing various ways that we might be able to stop this Coyote Colt."

"Any luck with that?" Braeburn asked.

"Sadly, the best that we are able to come up with is the brutish method of everyone jumping him at the same time." Trixie sniffed. "While Trixie admits the idea has merits, she also worries that it leaves us too open for assaults from the rest of his gang."

"But isn't he biggest threat?" Little Strongheart countered. "If what you say about his abilities are true, and I have no reason to doubt you, then I would think that ignoring him for even a minute would be worse than ignoring the rest of his gang."

Seeing that the discussion was about to return to the debate that it had been before he arrived, Braeburn cleared his throat to regain their attention. He pointed at the still growing tower of dark smoke in the distance. "I hate to interrupt your discussion, but Sheriff Silverstar wants to meet us at the jailhouse as soon as we can get there. He's worried about that pillar of smoke."

Little Strongheart frowned. "It looks to me that the approaching storms should easily put it out."

"True," Braeburn replied, "but Silverstar says that is also in the area where the train tracks lie. I think he's worried that something might hinder the train coming in to town."

"Well then," Trixie snorted, looking a bit miffed that her conversation with the buffalo scout had been interrupted, "let's go hear what the sheriff has to say." The three departed the stage and after a short walk found themselves entering the still damaged jailhouse. Inside, they found the sheriff standing by his desk, talking to the doctor and a couple of other ponies.

"Ah, good." Sheriff Silverstar said seeing them enter, and the conversation between the other ponies quickly died off. "I figure, since you three are taking it upon yourselves to help out Appleloosa against The Coyote Colt, that I should make sure that we're doing everything by the books." He opened a drawer of his desk and pulled out several silver badges shaped like stars. "If we want to make sure that those outlaws are able to be arrested and sentenced to the full extent of the law, then they must be apprehended by representatives of the law, so I am using my power as sheriff to deputize you three until this situation is over with."

One of the other ponies piped up, "Are you allowed to deputize buffalo? Has that ever been done before?"

Sheriff Silverstar gave a lidded stare at the pony who had spoken up. "There's nothing in the books that says that I can't, and you're right, she will be the first." He turned and gave Little Strongheart a grin and a wink. "About time too, if you ask me." The sheriff then proceed to deftly pin the stars, one on Braeburn's vest, another on Little Strongheart's headband next to the feathers, and the last one to Trixie's cloak. "There, the deed is done and witnessed. You three are now my deputies."

"So, what now?" asked Braeburn as he admired the the badge he had just been given.

"Well, as I mentioned earlier, I have a bad feeling about that smoke out to the east. I'd like for the three of you to go give it a look over. Hopefully it's nothing, but I'm worried that something might have happened to the train tracks..." Silverstar paused, the added in a softer voice, "or maybe even the train itself, heaven forbid."

After a brief pause where everyone took in the ramifications of the train itself being attacked, Braeburn said, "Well, let me stop by my house really quick to grab some things and then we'll be off."

A short while later, the three new deputies were out of town and following the train tracks east. Braeburn now had on a set of saddlebags, packed with some food and drink as well as his letter to Applejack. "If the train has had an accident, I might still be able to pass the letter on to one of the train stallions if any are still nearby." he had explained.

"So, do these tracks keep on heading straight this way, or do they turn to the side after a bit?" Trixie asked.

Braeburn shook his head. "No, they go straight on for quite a long ways." Looking up at the pillar of smoke, it was obvious the it was indeed either on or right next to the path the train tracks took. "Looks like that storm is moving in pretty fast." he noted, seeing that the clouds were rapidly filling the sky.

Trixie frowned at the approaching storm. "I'm surprised that the pegasus ponies scheduled a storm for when a train was scheduled to arrive..." she trailed off, and then shook her head in annoyance. "I forgot, you don't have the luxury of scheduled weather out here, do you?"

"Scheduled weather?" Little Strongheart asked.

"Back in Equestria proper," Braeburn explained, "there are enough pegasi to make sure that just the right amount of rain falls for the crops, and that the times when it occurs is known in advance. Extreme weather such as giant thunderstorms are a very rare occurrence, usually only happening due to special circumstances."

Little Strongheart shuddered. "That sounds... unnatural."

Trixie chuckled. "I can see how you would think that, but everypony back east would think the exact opposite. After all, our rulers are responsible for the rising of the sun and the moon. Why not control the clouds as well?"

The buffalo scout quietly pondered that over as they continued to follow the tracks. Soon, the wind began to pick up a little, and small dust devils could be seen forming a short distance away from the tracks.

"Hey!" Little Strongheart exclaimed upon seeing the tiny cyclones. "Look, at those! We buffalo play games with them."

"How do you play games with something like that?" Braeburn asked.

"Well, the bigger buffalo use them to demonstrate how surehooved they are." Little Strongheart admitted. "The bigger the whirlwind you can remain standing on the ground against, the stronger you are. I've found that it's just as fun to let one pick you up. They're weak enough that all they can do is lift you a couple of feet off the ground, but... Well, just watch this, you'll see!"

The buffalo scout ran off towards a dust devil and stood in front of it's path. The tiny twister enveloped and lifted her off the ground, spinning her around for a few seconds before moving on and dropping her safely back to the ground. "See? You just have to be careful not to let yourself get too dizzy is all. Try it, you two!"

Braeburn took a step towards a nearby dust devil, but remembering why they were out there he stopped and regretfully shook his head. "No thank you. I'd like to, but I don't want to risk spilling the stuff in my bags doing that, so I'll pass."

Trixie however was looking thoughtfully at Little Strongheart. "While Trixie usually doesn't partake in such diversions, she has to admit that it does look like fun. And Trixie has not had many chances for fun lately either." She floated her hat over to Braeburn. "Would you please hold on to this for me? The Great and Powerful Trixie does not wish to lose such an important part of her wardrobe trying this."

As Braeburn placed her hat in his saddlebags, Trixie trotted out and placed herself on front of another dust devil. Waiting until it was almost right on top of her, she then closed her eyes to keep the dirt from getting in her eyes. She was startled when the whirlwind first picked her up and let out a startled squeak, but as she was spun around it changed to a squeal that was a combination of fear and enjoyment. She knew it was only seconds later when the force of the wind weakened as the dust devil moved past her as she was lowered to the ground, but it had felt much longer to her. Opening her eyes, she looked around and smiled.

"That was fun!" she exclaimed, as her two companions smiled bemusedly at her reaction. "I'm going to try that again!" Braeburn watched as the other two let themselves be flung upwards time and time again. Soon, Little Strongheart grew tired of it, and rejoined him next to the track as they continued on, but Trixie kept on dashing ahead to find another dust devil to take a ride in, spinning in mid air as her cloak billowed out around her.

The wind continued to grow stronger as they proceeded, and Little Strongheart started to look worried as she watched Trixie. "I think we had better rein her in, she might hurt herself with the way the weather is picking up."

Braeburn shrugged. "I'm sure she's aware of what could happen, and won't let herself get picked up by anything too big."

Indeed, Trixie seemed to be keeping to the smaller dust devils, and avoiding the rare but increasing larger cyclones that randomly spawned. Soon, the entire sky overhead had turned black, and the wind started to become a minor hindrance to their efforts to move forward. "Braeburn, I think we should get her to come back. I'm honestly getting worried."

Braeburn looked hesitant. "I don't know. I haven't seen her happy since she had her horn cracked, I don't want to ruin what might the first fun she's had in a while. Besides, it's not like she's going to let a tornado swallow her up, she knows better than that."

"Does she?" Little Strongheart asked. "Didn't she say earlier that weather like this doesn't happen where she comes from? Would she even know what a real tornado looks like?"

Braeburn stopped as what his buffalo friend said registered. As one, the two of them turned to look at Trixie, who stood in front of a gigantic, towering whirlwind, one just shy of being large enough to be an actual tornado. With a dramatic pose, pointing a hoof at the twister that closed in on her, she shouted in a voice that seemed to almost supernaturally cut through the wind "Challenge... ACCEPTED!"

"TRIXIE! NO!" Braeburn and Little Strongheart ran towards Trixie, but they were too far away. They watched numbly as the cyclone picked her up and, instead of moving on and leaving her behind, carried her up and away from them.

"What do we do now?" Little Strongheart asked, her voice so soft from shock that Braeburn could barely hear it.

The earth pony looked around, hoping for some sort of inspiration, anything to help him figure out what to do. His eyes settled on the badge that he had been given just earlier that day, and he quickly made up his mind. "You try to follow that whirlwind. You're faster than I am, and hopefully it will eventually weaken enough that it will put Trixie down. You know these lands better than I do anyway, so getting back to Appleloosa should be easier for you too. I'll go and see what happened up ahead on the train tracks."

Little Strongheart nodded and then quickly took off after the receding cyclone, and Braeburn headed off down the tracks, hoping that whatever was ahead of him was something that he could handle.

Trixie had expected that she would be held aloft longer than usual when she had picked the larger dust devil to stand in front of, but after even just few seconds she knew something had gone wrong. Cracking open her eyes, fighting through the particles of grit that flew between her eyelashes, she looked down and saw that she still being pulled higher and higher. While it was hard to gauge distances while being spun around so fast, she would guess she was easily dozens of feet above the ground.

For the first time in her life, Trixie believed that she was going to die. She felt powerless to do anything. When she had tried facing down the Ursa in Ponyville, or when she was pushing her magic for all it was worth against The Coyote Colt, she had still felt deep down inside of herself that she was going to triumph. But in both of those cases, she had the full use of her magic, and there were other ponies around too, in case she had to retreat. Here and now, it was just her, and with her horn cracked, she had no idea just how much she could depend on her unicorn heritage.

Several minutes passed, and she felt her ears pop. Looking up, she could see the top of the funnel cloud she was in, and above that was a large mass of dark, angry looking clouds. Finally she was shot out the top, and for a brief moment she found herself hovering in the air, her spinning slowly coming to a stop, as the force from the cyclone and the pull of gravity cancelled each other out. It was a perfect moment in time, she thought. She wondered if this was what it was like to be a pegasus, as rain started to fall from the clouds above. She started to fall downwards, panic starting to well up inside of her, when a memory from the past rose up.

The rainbow maned pegasus had just returned to her stage, followed by a miniature rain shower she had managed to pull behind her by the sheer force of her speed as she had darted through several clouds only seconds before. Coming to a stop, she spread her wings, letting the droplets hit against her and turn into a fine mist, which gave birth to a rainbow above her.

Trixie countered the pegasus's boast with a quip of her own, and then used her magic to use the rainbow against its creator. She transmuted the bands of color into a pony sized whirlwind, which then carried the pegasus around on a wild ride before gently settling her down on the ground, dizzy and defeated by Trixie's magical superiority.

Trixie looked around, but the overcast sky kept the sun from shining through. She tried to avoid looking down, but couldn't help herself. The plains below were rapidly rising to meet her. Again, inspiration struck, and she summoned a simple light spell on to the end of her horn. Sure enough, the illumination she conjured was enough to create a small rainbow next to her.

Knowing that time was short, she pushed her magic and tried to cast the same spell as she had months ago back in Ponyville. Her horn flared with pain, and she could literally feel the crack in it grow rapidly, spider-webbing up and down the length of her horn. But the very real, life threatening situation she was in was a wonderful motivator for Trixie. She pushed through the pain, and managed to complete the spell.

Feeling herself cocooned by the rainbow, she felt a brief rush of relief, and then the pain from her horn became too much to ignore, and she felt herself black out.

Douglas stood by the edge of a small cliff, peering inside the opening of a cave. It looked empty of snakes and scorpions, and appeared to be deep enough for him to shelter him from the storm that was continuing to grow. He looked upward one last time to try to gauge just how long the squall might last when a multi-colored blur caught his attention. He watched as it spun around, looping and twisting in its flight through the sky before crashing down to the ground just on the other side of a line of hills a short distance away.

His curiosity piqued, the diamond dog loped over to the top of the hill, and was shocked by what he saw. Sprawled out on the ground, unmoving, was the very same unicorn that had been giving them trouble the last couple of days. "Trixie." he muttered to himself, finally remembering her name. Looking up at the sky with a frown, he sighed and walked over to the blue unicorn. Picking her up, he started back towards the cave he had found earlier.

Unforgiven

Braeburn felt the first drops of the summer squall start to fall when he finally arrived at the source of the pillar of smoke. He stopped to take in the devastation in front of him. Railroad ties had been ripped from the ground, warping the tracks in the process. The engine of the train looked to be okay, but the cars behind it were charred hulks, some of them still glowing red from the fires that that destroyed them. As he looked around, he was relieved to notice that there were no bodies lying around; either the ponies that pulled the train had escaped without injury, or they had been able to take care of their own.

A loud whistle cut through the wind, and Braeburn saw one of the train ponies waving at him. Braeburn trotted over and saw that they had all gathered together into the cramped confines of the engine car to escape the weather. Several of the train ponies sported burn marks on their bodies, but none seem to be seriously injured.

"What happened?" Braeburn asked, trying his best to fit inside the train engine without pushing against any of the other ponies already inside.

"It was an ambush," said a large brown earth pony, wearing a blue and white pinstriped conductor's hat. "We could see from a distance that something had messed with the tracks, so we were able to slow down in time to avoid wrecking the train. Just when we had started to repair the tracks, balls of fire came flying in and exploded against the cargo cars. We saw a unicorn was the one responsible, and we set off after him. When he started to toss his attacks at us though, we backed off and hid, I'm not ashamed to admit."

Braeburn nodded. "That would be The Coyote Colt. He's been giving us a bunch of problems in Appleloosa that last few days too." The rain was now falling in full force, and Braeburn had to raise his voice to be heard over the sound of raindrops striking the roof of the engine car. "So, what are your plans? I'd be more than happy to lead you back to Appleloosa after this storm has blown past."

"Thanks for the offer, but we'll be taking back what's left of the train to Equestria proper. We need to spread the word about the damaged tracks, and get a repair crew up here. We'll likely need some guards too, so we can't be attacked again like today."

"How long do you think that will take?" Braeburn asked, his voice filled with concern.

"I reckon that it should be a somewhat easy trip back home," the conductor said with a wry smile. "A lot less weight to pull. A couple of days at the most, weather permitting. I don't know how long it will take to get the supplies needed to fix the tracks though. Might just take a day or two, might take up to a week."

"I don't suppose I could ask a small favor of you then?" Braeburn dug around in his saddlebags. "I have a letter I'd like to have delivered to my kin in Ponyville. I don't suppose I could bother one of you to get it to a post office for me once you're back in the mainland?"

The conductor chuckled. "Oh, I imagine we'll find room for it somewhere in here. Hoof it over, and I'll see to it myself."

"Thank you kindly!"

Trixie floated in darkness until the sensation of being gently placed down on something rocky brought forth a groan from her throat and forced her to try to focus on her surroundings. Her horn throbbed in pain from base to point, but she took solace in the fact that she could feel the point of it. She had heard somepony somewhere flippantly state that pain meant you were still alive. Only now did she see the stark and grim truth of those words.

Slowly, she opened her eyes. She was in a very poorly lit cave. Her state of mind was so frazzled that she didn't notice that she was no longer wearing her cape until she saw that it had been used to build a makeshift door to the cave. This stirred her thoughts some more, and she realized that she wasn't alone. Lifting her head, she looked around until she saw Douglas the diamond dog, hunkered in the back among the shadows and eyeing her cautiously. The sight of the outlaw helped bring her mind back into focus quickly.

"Ah, good. You do live." Douglas said. "I was a bit worried about you for a moment there. That was quite the unusual entrance you made, if I may say so."

"It certainly wasn't one I had intended to make," Trixie admitted. "Let me just say that it was more a matter of necessity than of artistry." Her lips turned downward. "And while I'm not complaining about your assistance or your concern, Trixie does wonder why you should care," she said, distrust evident in her voice.

Douglas chuckled softly. "As improbable as it may seem, not every outlaw is by nature bloodthirsty or evil."

Seeing Trixie about to voice disbelief, he raised a paw to stop her protest. "No, no, you are correct. My motives are by no means entirely altruistic. But what am I to do when a prize such as yourself literally falls from the sky in front of me? Let such a wonderful opportunity fly on by?" He shook his head and chuckled. "If nothing else, presenting you to The Coyote Colt should keep him happy."

"If that's what you call 'nothing else'," she asked, "what do you plan to do with me?"

"I'm still deciding, to be honest," the diamond dog replied. "And with this storm moving through, I've got some time to think about it. I'm warning you though, try any more of that magic stuff, and you'll regret it."

"If you only knew just how," the blue unicorn muttered softly, recalling how much pain her last spell has caused her.

Douglas tilted his head towards her. "What was that?"

"I said, what do we do now? Simply wait out the storm?"

Douglas shrugged. "Pretty much. Why, did you have some pressing need to attend to?"

Trixie snorted. "No, but I was thinking that this storm could last for some time, and I've got something of a headache. Some sort of diversion, even talking to you, would be preferable to simply passing the time in silence."

"Your idea has merit," the outlaw agreed with a slow nod, "but what would we talk about?"

The unicorn paused to consider the question. "Trixie admits to having some curiosity about how you came to be out here in Appleloosa, instead of back with others of your kind."

Douglas spat off to one side. "I parted ways with my kind long ago. I had no use for them, and they were happy to see me leave."

"So, you're an outcast? What little I have heard of diamond dogs paint them as a rather brutish group. What sort of things does one have to do to be forced away from such types?"

"The same as most outcasts the world over. Be different enough from the rest of the group to not be welcome. For me, that meant that I was willfully and blatantly intellectual and mannered. If there is one thing that those who are in charge do not appreciate, it is being constantly reminded that they are not the smartest or cleverest of the group." Douglas gestured with his paws. "As smart as I was though, I failed to take into account that I wasn't just aggravating those in charge, I was also making myself unwelcome to everyone else. As so, after refusing to dumb down my act to fit in, I was given the choice to either spend the rest of my life doing the most menial and physical of jobs for the tribe, or to leave and try to find someplace else to fit in."

Trixie nodded slowly. "I can... relate." She frowned for a moment as she stared at the floor of the cave, a bit put off by finding some uncomfortable common ground with the diamond dog, and then returned her attention to her current companion. "So, what brought you out here then? I would have thought that any being, showing an honest desire to be peaceful, would have been able to find a place amongst the ponies of Equestria."

Douglas grimaced. "What makes you think I wanted one? But yes, I tried. As smart as I thought I was, being alone and away from society, any society, was hard. It was difficult getting others to trust me, but I finally found a place in Canterlot. While my height may not have made it easy for me to find a house or furnishings that were comfortable, it did help me find employment." Douglas leaned back against the wall of the cave and looked upward. "Then he showed up..."

Trixie waited patiently for the diamond dog to continue, but the only sound came from the howling wind outside. After a few minutes, she grimly asked, "By him, do you mean The Coyote Colt?"

Douglas grunted. "I'm not certain if I should continue. I fail to see how sharing anything else about this with you would be of any benefit to me."

"Well then," Trixie said after a short pause, "how about a trade? You tell me about your history with The Coyote Colt, and I'll tell you about my past."

Douglas barked out a laugh. "And why should I deign to trade for something that I'll be able to take from you as soon as I get you back to the rest of the gang?"

Trixie grimaced. "Well, why should I deign to tell you and your group the truth, or anything at all? Which would you trust more, a freely given story, or one forced out by whatever means you or The Coyote Colt may decide to use?"

Trixie watched the diamond dog intently. Douglas seemed to be struggling with something, and Trixie didn't like not knowing what he was agonizing over, or not knowing the proper move to make to influence things to go her way. She was about to give up hope when Douglas softly spoke, "You first."

Trixie was wary about Douglas holding up his end of the bargain, but realized this might be her only chance to learn something about the outlaws she found herself working against, and so she quickly gathered her thoughts. "Where Trixie grew up," she haltingly started after a short pause, "was in Hoofington. A place that others ponies would call average, if they had need to talk of the town at all. It was one of many small, interchangeable towns that dotted the land and filled in the gaps between the cities of the realm.

"My parents were nothing special either, if I am to be honest. Oh, we loved each other, but as for being unicorns, their talents and magical abilities were nothing that made them stand out from the herd. Indeed, when my magic finally started to develop, and I showed a level of affinity for magic that is rarely seen, it came as a shock to all of us. Who would have expected that little Trixie would be a magical prodigy, given her surroundings?"

Trixie looked at her cloak, now soaked through as it hung in the mouth of the cave, keeping the inhabitants inside dry. "In retrospect, that in itself may have been the problem. If my family had lived in Canterlot, for example, my parents could have enrolled me in one of several schools built for the purpose to help those like me become accustomed to their talents. Or if my parents possessed similar skills, they might have known how to raise me better.

"Not that I blame my parents." Trixie hastily added. "The worst crime that I can pin on them would be wanting the best for their filly. They were always ready to praise me whenever I learned a new way to use my magic, and they always encouraged me when I performed for others.

"I remember coming home from school one day. It had been a hard day, filled with tests to take and reports to give in front of the class. I had completely forgotten that it was my birthday. Imagine my surprise when I came home to find the party that had been planned for me." Trixie closed her eyes, and a small smile appeared on her face. "My mom had made for me the first of the many cloaks I would wear, and my father had built a crude stage behind the house. I then proceeded to put on my very first show, and all the other colts and fillies at the party loved it."

Trixie fell silent. Slowly, the smile faded, and she opened her eyes again. "Of course, it didn't last. Some ponies may say that dragons are the cruelest of creatures, and others will name different species known for their heinous ways. But the truth of the matter is that children are the worst of all, simply because they don't know how hurtful the things they say truly are.

"The next day, I wore my cloak to school. And, of course, I was mocked and laughed at for doing so. Nothing attracts a bully more than sticking out from everypony else. Finally, at the end of of the lunch break, I got angry. If they wanted to paint me as a show off, and too good to play with them, I decided that I would do just that! That was where 'The Great and Powerful Trixie' was born, I suppose, out there by the sandbox and the rope swing. By the time I was done, two colts had to be sent to see the nurse, and my parents had to come talk to the teacher. They agreed to talk to all of us kids to make sure that we knew what we had done was wrong, and we promised to not do it again.

"Of course, that just meant that we made sure we weren't caught doing those things again. I may have had the advantage of skill and talent, but they had numbers. Whatever friends I may have had I soon pushed away from me due to my new attitude. In the end though, it didn't really bother me. Even back then, I was already making plans for my future. I was going to see the world, and dazzle ponies everywhere with my feats of magic. I would save others with my talents, and be hailed as a hero. I would perform for Princess Celestia herself, and be granted a title to let others know just how truly amazing I was. When I wasn't practicing my magic, I was in the library, studying maps and making up travel routes in my head.

"My parents, bless their hearts, did all they could to help me follow me dream. Father's carpentry skills improved, and he helped me build my first wagon. It took us almost two years to finish it. Mom, I could tell, was torn. She wanted me to be happy, and she could tell that my future wasn't in Hoofington. I wasn't blind to the fact that seeing her only child leave would hurt her, however. I almost stayed, but she insisted I leave."

Trixie sighed. "I need to go visit them again. It's been too long." She silently stared at her cloak for a moment before continuing.

"While leaving Hoofington may have let me escape the ponies who went out of their way to harass me, it didn't let me escape from myself. My role as a show pony grew, and soon I became quite the braggart. My shows changed, from displays designed to entertain into nothing more than me standing in front of a crowd, goading them into making foals of themselves as I 'proved' myself to be the superior pony. Of course, it couldn't last."

"You finally met your match?" Douglas asked, his voice showing interest where his posture didn't.

Trixie laid her head down on the ground. "And then some. And I hadn't even made it to Canterlot yet! How was I to show the world how great I was if ponies like me weren't as rare as I thought? How could I be special? What was my dream worth?" Trixie turned her head to look at Douglas, leaving a small trail as she swept it across the dirt. "For all that I had learned growing up, there was one lesson that I hadn't been taught. What it was like to lose, to fail.

"But it was a wake up call that I needed, I suppose. I lost everything overnight, and the months that followed were difficult. And yet, free from having to prove myself to others, I actually found myself enjoying life again. I had forgotten how much fun it had been as a filly to come up with new tricks to perform." Trixie chuckled softly at herself. "I had forgotten simply how much fun it was to perform, instead of trying to belittle others.

"And so, after finally rebuilding my wagon, I was ready to try starting over. I set off, and over the last few months I traveled until I ended up out here in Appleloosa. It was the farthest I could get from where things had fallen apart for me while still being in Equestrian lands." Trixie lifted her head off of the ground, and brushed off a few stubborn pieces of dirt that clung to her chin with a foreleg. "I think you know the rest of what happened."

"Indeed." With a grunt, Douglas stood up from the wall he had been leaning against. "Well then, I suppose it is my turn now, hmm? Very well.

"I had found a job working in one of the many libraries in Canterlot. It was the perfect place for me. I could easily reach and replace books even on the highest of shelves, and when I was not needed to perform such tasks, I was allowed to read the books around me. The place where I worked was somewhat small compared to some of the great libraries in the city, but its location helped to ensure that it had a steady stream of visitors. It was situated right across the street from a school sponsored by the Princess herself for talented young unicorns. And while such a place had an impressive library of its own, it never seemed to be able to keep up with the demands of its students.

"It wasn't just the current students that frequented the place either," Douglas continued, slowly pacing around the cave as he spoke. "Those who were applying for the honor of attending such a prestigious academy were always trying to learn more, hoping to increase their chances of being accepted. The entrance exam was very difficult, I was told. It was so challenging that fewer than half of the applicants earned a passing grade.

"Many of these hopefuls were cut from the same cloth. A few, however, still stand out even now in my memory. The one filly, who though I never knew her name, I will always remember for the unique coloring of her mane, orange with dozens of bright purple stripes. The one pony who constantly fell asleep at her desk. And, of course, there was the one colt who had grand aspirations, and loved to share his dreams with anyone who would listen. His name was Firecracker."

Trixie head slowly turned to follow Douglas as he meandered about the cave they were sheltering in. "I take it Firecracker is The Coyote Colt?"

Douglas nodded. "Or, to be more accurate, who would become The Coyote Colt. Back then, however, he was still just a young unicorn, just starting to come into his magic. He had so many things he wanted to do when he grew up. One day he wanted to be a guardpony for the Princess. While his coat was lighter than what the unicorns who worked for the Princess had, I could see how he came to wanting to do that. Other times, he wanted to go explore the world, discovering lost civilizations. He also wanted to be a hero of the land, one who used his magic to protect others and save Equestria."

Douglas raised a paw to forestall a question from Trixie. "How did such an energetic colt with such dreams become The Coyote Colt?" Seeing the blue unicorn nod, he continued, "It all started on a day that, from what I have been able to learn, was a day of joy for most young ponies. It began on the day when he gained his cutie mark."

The relative silence of the library was briefly broken by the sounds of ponies walking and chatting on the street as the front door opened to admit a young stallion inside. Douglas turned and, seeing who it was, raised a paw to wave a greeting to Firecracker. The young pony was wearing a set of saddlebags, and looked very glum and downcast instead of being his usual cheery self. Putting down the small stack of books that he had been in the process of restocking onto the shelves, Douglas motioned to the young colt to follow him into the back of the building.

Once the two were far enough back that they wouldn't disturb the ponies out front who were perusing the books, Douglas asked his pony friend, "What's wrong?"

Firecracker sighed. "Do you promise not to laugh at me?" he asked, staring at the floor.

"Of course I won't!" Douglas said. "Why ever would I do that?"

"Because I'm being stupid." the young colt said. "Or, that's what my parents and friends are saying, at least. They just don't understand."

"Well," Douglas said, sitting down on a wooden crate, "there are still many things that I still do not understand about pony society, so I may not understand either. But I promise not to call you stupid out of hand if you share with me what's wrong."

Firecracker opened his mouth, but seemed to have lost his voice. Several times, he tried to start talking, but each time seemed to reconsider what he was going to say and closed his mouth. Finally, his voice full of frustration, he muttered, "Maybe this will make more sense if you see it." Turning his head around, he grabbed the strap of his saddlebags in his teeth and yanked them off of his back, revealing for the first time his flanks. Instead of being blank, Douglas could see that a picture of a small stick with sparks of light erupting from a glowing end now adorned his side.

"Ah!" Douglas softly exclaimed, "your cutie mark finally came in! You've been waiting a while now for it, haven't you?"

"Yeah," Firecracker said in a discouraged tone, "but it's... it's WRONG."

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

Firecracker sighed. "How much do you know about cutie marks?"

"A small amount," Douglas admitted. "I know that they are for the most part unique, that it is rare for any two ponies to have the same one. Also, they represent in some way or another what a pony's special talent is, if I remember correctly?"

Firecracker nodded. "You do. And that's why I hate mine. It's a sparkler. A stupid, silly sparkler!"

Douglas paused to consider and choose his words carefully. "I am afraid that you are correct, that I do not understand. What is wrong about your cutie mark being a sparkler?"

Firecracker sighed. "It means that my talents lie in fireworks, just like my parents. It means that, instead of being able to to do something with my magic that would let me have great adventures, that all I'll be able to do is be able to make pretty, colorful explosions. It means I probably won't be able to get into Princess Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns, that all my dreams are ruined."

Douglas was taken aback by how bitter the colt was. While he felt that the young pony in front of him was overreacting, he could also tell that he was honestly hurting. "Surely it can't be as bad as all that." Douglas said, hoping to mollify the youngster. "After all, it isn't like your magic just changed overnight, right?" The diamond dog's face turned pensive. "Or did it?"

"No, it hasn't," the colt admitted. "I'm still able to do everything that I was before. The problem is... how do I explain this?" Firecracker looked up at the ceiling, looking for all the world like he was trying to find what he wanted to say written above him. "It's that, now that I know where my talents are, all those other things I wanted to do, they just aren't there for me anymore. How can I be an explorer, or a guard, or a hero of some sort, if all I can do is make a brief explosion in the night sky? Instead of being able to use my magic to help me overcome ancient traps, or defeat fearsome foes, I'll only be able to help prepare the celebrations for the ponies that can.

"That's what bugs me, I guess," Firecracker continued. "Maybe not even the fact that I won't be able to go and do all those things, but that my talent puts me in a place where, when they celebrate the ponies who can do those things, I'll have to watch from the background. That instead of being the center of the celebration, I'll have to watch from the outside."

"That's one way to look at it," Douglas said. "However, I do wonder if you might be looking at this all in the wrong manner. While I can see how you came to your conclusion, isn't it possible that you looking at things from the wrong angle?"

"Oh, like how?" Firecracker sullenly asked.

Douglas thought for a bit, very aware of the frustrated look Firecracker was giving him. "Well, what exactly is it that sparklers do? They create light, and allow anyone to have fun with them. Perhaps that is what your cutie mark represents, not so much an ability to use fireworks, but the potential to enable others to also join in the experience? Maybe instead of you being cast to the background unnoticed like you think, your cutie mark means that you'll be front and center?"

Firecracker's face turned sour. "I understand what you mean, I guess, but that still isn't what's bothering me. I don't want to be pigeonholed into spending the rest of my life with fireworks. Do I enjoy them? Sure! I've grown up with them, after all. And last night! Dad let me handle the whole show, and hearing everypony ooh and aah, knowing that it was my work they were cheering for... that was something else altogether," he admitted, his anger momentarily replaced by the joy of the memory of last night.

"But it doesn't change the fact that it still isn't what I really want to do!" Firecracker spat out, the happiness of last night quickly replaced once again by his current dark mood. "Guardponies don't stop criminals by making them stop to watch a fireworks display! Adventurers don't escape from certain death by creating glowing balls of light!"

Douglas stood up suddenly. "Ah! That's it! You are looking at things in the wrong way!"

Firecracker looked at his friend with a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Well, instead of looking at how your magic might limit what you can do, you should instead think about how to utilize your magic to do the things you want to do! Maybe a guardpony can stop a criminal with fireworks, if he uses it to distract the culprit and allows others to capture him! Maybe glowing balls of light is exactly what the adventurer needs to light his way through the dark hallways of some buried tomb!" Douglas smiled. "Just because fireworks don't seem to naturally lend themselves to great feats of action and daring doesn't mean that you can't still use them. And who's more impressive, the pony that accomplishes those deeds with ease because his magic made it easy for him, or the one who used ingenuity and intellect to overcome odds that few others would even dream of attempting?"

Firecracker nodded slowly. "You're right!" he said with a small grin on his face. "Thanks, Douglas! Especially with my entrance exam coming up in a couple of weeks, I can't let this get me down! I just needed someone to help me look at this from a different view is all!" The young colt rubbed his muzzle against the diamond dog's side. "Thanks for cheering me up, and helping me see that things aren't as bad as I was making it out to be. I guess I just got caught up in the fact that they didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted them to."

Douglas smiled. "I understand. It's never fun to realize that your dreams aren't going to come true exactly the way that you want them to. But look at me! I was still able to find a place where I fit in and could do what I love. Surely if I can do that, you'll be able to also, right?"

The 'ding!' of a bell from out front caught the attention of the two friends. "Looks like I'm needed," Douglas said.

Firecracker nodded. "And I should go and get some more practice done with my magic for my upcoming exam. Thanks again, Douglas!"

"I take it that things didn't improve after that?" Trixie asked softly, hoping to keep the diamond dog talking.

Douglas shook his head. "No. He was in good spirits until up to the day of the entrance exam, but he bombed the test... literally. The school staff wanted him to use his magic to assemble a model. The stress of the situation got to him and his firework magic, which he didn't have mastery of yet, seeped into what he was doing with his telekinesis, and..."

"Boom." Trixie said, with a small shake of her head. "I can only imagine."

"Even after that though, he didn't give up. He simply became more... focused. He dedicated himself next to becoming a guardpony. On top of working hard to master his magic, to avoid a similar disaster as the one that happened during his entrance exam at the school, he began working out and getting his body into excellent shape too. And when he failed to make the grade there, he still kept on trying other ideas, hoping to overcome what he saw as his main hindrance, his cutie mark.

"I tried to do my best encourage him, to cheer him up, but I could tell that I was starting to lose him. I went and talked to his parents, but they seemed to be at a loss for what to do also. I think part of the problem with them was that they couldn't understand why their son thought being in the firework business was bad. It was good enough for them, after all, so why not for their son as well?"

"I think I can see where this is going," Trixie said, "but there's still one thing that puzzles me. How is it that you decided to leave your job at the library to end up with The Coyote Colt out here?"

Douglas sighed. "Is it really so hard to believe that I too was brought down by my own hubris? I wasn't just a diamond dog, I was an intelligent one. I was the one who had risen above his kind. Surely, if anyone could find the solution, it would be me! And so, I spent my spare time in the stacks of books, looking for ideas and inspiration. After my initial attempt of trying to tell Firecracker's parents what was happening, I kept everything to myself. I was going to be the one who found the solution! And for a while, I thought I was succeeding. He seemed to be slowly unwinding, becoming more like the colt I knew from before.

"And then, one evening, it all just fell apart..."

Douglas had just finished eating his dinner when he heard his front door slam with a crash. Jumping to his feet, the diamond dog left his kitchen to see who was there and was shocked to find Firecracker (he still couldn't believe how much his young friend had grown over the last year) standing in his house. Douglas could tell right away something was wrong. Firecracker's eyes were open as wide as they could be, and yet the pupils had shrunk so small, they were almost invisible.

"Douglas," Firecracker spoke softly, in a flat tone. "I... I think I made a horrible mistake."

The diamond dog moved slowly. He didn't want to risk scaring his friend away. "Well then," Douglas replied, "why don't you sit down and tell me about it?"

Firecracker slowly sat down on a pillow, and Douglas pulled a chair in from the kitchen to sit on. After a moment of silence, Douglas softly asked, "So, what happened?"

"I... I hurt somepony."

Douglas frowned. "How? Are they all right?"

"I don't know." Firecracker started to tremble, and his voice began to crack. "I was walking home, when I saw some ponies pulling a prank on a little filly. She was starting to cry, and the other ponies weren't stopping... I had to do something!" He looked at the diamond dog with tears starting to well up in his eyes.

Seeing Douglas motion with a paw, Firecracker said, "I trotted over and told the bullies to stop, but they just laughed at me too. I used my magic like you suggested, and created a few fireworks above us, hoping to either scare them off or attract some more help to the area. But it didn't work. There were four of them, and they started circling me and the filly..."

Douglas waited for his friend to continue, but the unicorn simply lay there, staring ahead at something that the diamond dog couldn't see. Finally, he cleared his throat, which seemed to focus Firecracker's attention again.

"They started nipping at us," Firecracker continued. "They were focusing on me, which is what I wanted, but they would still try to harass the filly. I didn't know what to do! I knew that if somepony didn't come along soon, I could get hurt badly, and I didn't want to think about what might happen to the filly if they got out of control. So I tried gathering my magic again. I was trying to intimidate them, to get them to back off... But I was so nervous, and they kept on nipping at me, poking at me, taunting me... I couldn't concentrate.

"Instead of just letting my spell go, though, I struggled to hold onto it. It was the only thing I could think of to help us, and if I let it get away from me..." His voice dropped to a whisper. "I would be a failure. I would have let that filly down. So I tried my best to ignore their barbs and bites, to weave together some sort of spell. I was able to gather the energy, but in my panic, with all of the distractions, I couldn't shape it... I lost my hold on it."

Douglas frowned. "What did it do?"

Firecracker closed his eyes tightly. "It simply exploded, right there at the end of my horn. It was as if somepony had tied a massive firework there and let it go off. It bowled the bullies away, sent them tumbling. It threw me backwards into a wall. and the filly... the filly..."

In a barely audible whisper, he said, "There was so much blood. The bullies sat where they landed, mouths wide open in shock and fear. The filly was howling in pain. Finally, somepony else heard us and they came rushing over to see what the commotion was all about. But they asked the bullies what had happened, they didn't ask me, and they, they lied! They blamed everything on me, and everypony just glared at me angrily. I was too shaken by everything, I couldn't talk, and so I ran away.

"I know I shouldn't have, but it was the only thing I could think of! Nopony followed me, they were all trying to help the filly, and I don't know what I should do!" he looked at Douglas, eyes filled with desperation. "What do I do now, Douglas?"

Douglas closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. "Oh, Firecracker. I don't think you'll like to hear this, but you need to go back and tell your side of the story. I'm sure that the filly will vouch for you, right?"

Firecracker's eyes lit up. "Of course! I'm a foal! I do need to go back, why didn't I think..."

BAM BAM BAM! A loud knock interrupted the unicorn and echoed throughout the small house. "This is the Equestrian Guard, open up in the name of the law!" an authoritarian voice yelled.

Douglas and Firecracker stared at each other in amazement. The diamond dog called out, "Coming!" and got up from his chair.

Firecracker jumped up from his pillow and stood in front of Douglas. "What are you going to do?" he whispered.

"Let them in," Douglas softly explained. "You were going to go back to explain what happened, right? Well, this works just as well. You'll just need to explain to them what happened, and they'll sort it all out." The diamond dog stepped around the unicorn and walked to the door.

He opened the door to reveal a pair of white pegasi wearing polished metallic barding. "Out of the way," one of them said as he shouldered his way inside the house. The other gave an apologetic look to Douglas as he followed his partner inside.

"You there! You match the description we were given of the unicorn Firecracker," the first guardpony said in a loud voice upon seeing the young stallion. "You are under arrest, and are to come with us..."

"What?" exclaimed Firecracker. "But, but it wasn't my fault! I'm as much a victim here as that filly was! Ask her!"

"We will when we have the chance," the other guard replied, "but as of right now she's on her way to the hospital. She should pull through, but we don't know if or when she'll be able to describe what happened. Until she recovers, we're going to have to put you in a holding cell."

"What about those other ponies? The ponies who were bullying us? They're the reason all this happened!"

"You're the first to say that," the first guard gruffly replied. "You're the only pony that others have described as the one who caused the explosion and hurt the young filly. Nopony else has been accused."

"Is there anyway for us to go back to the scene, and at least get these other ponies names?" Douglas asked. "I'm sure once this filly has recovered, she'll be happy to collaborate what my friend here is trying to tell you."

The second guard tried to answer, but was cut off by his partner. "What, you think we don't know how to do our job, is that it? And just what are you supposed to be anyway?" The calmer guard stepped in and tried to defuse the situation, while Douglas stood staring in shock at the naked hatred the one guard was displaying at him.

Firecracker, momentarily forgotten amongst the heated words, watched as things fell apart around him. Visions of being in jail, his parents coming to see him, crying, asking what he had done, what they had done wrong... The abuse his friend was receiving from the guard... And the sight of that filly, lying on the ground, blood on her flank, slowly spreading out from her...

"I'm supposed to provide joy to others," he whispered to himself, "and yet, all I can seem to do is bring pain. Well, no more. I'm tired of this. I tried helping others, and all it did was get me in trouble. From here on, all I'm going to think about is myself." Looking up, he saw that the gruff guardpony was in Douglas's face, having shoved his meeker partner to the side. Making a quick decision, the unicorn quickly prepared a spell, closed his eyes, and shot a giant firework effect at the guardpony, hitting him square in the side. The resulting explosion blinded and deafened the others. Firecracker dashed forward, grabbed Douglas's paw in his mouth, and led him outside.

Douglas shook his head, trying to clear it. Still dazed by what had just happened, he let himself be led away. Finally regaining his senses, he came to a stop, and in a disbelieving voice asked, "What are you doing?"

"They don't care!" Firecracker spat out. "They think they already know everything that happened, and don't want to do anything that would ruin their tidy little solution. You saw what happened when you tried to even suggest that there was something else they could do! I wouldn't be surprised if they were going to take you in too, just because you're different!"

"I don't believe they would have been that rash," Douglas said, looking behind him to see if the guards were chasing after them yet, "but I fear that your latest actions have all but guaranteed that we will both be locked up behind bars should they catch us." The diamond dog frowned as he considered his options. With a sigh, he turned back to face Firecracker.

"This is your last chance. While things will be tough on you until that filly wakes up, I still feel confident that when she comes to, you'll be cleared of any charges, and those other ponies will get their due. And life on the run from your own kind is not easy. I know this all too well."

"No," Firecracker answered. His knees were trembling in fear, but his voice was strong and steady. "I've made my decision, and I'm not going back on it."

Douglas nodded sadly. "Then I better come with you. C'mon, lets get moving before those guards call for help." He started loping off down the street, only to stop and turn around when he noticed that Firecracker hadn't moved. "What are you waiting for?" Douglas called back, beckoning the unicorn to follow.

Firecracker raced up to the diamond dog, a sad look in his eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to drag you into this."

Douglas shrugged. "What's done is done. I'll miss the job, but I'm sure I can find another like it elsewhere. What's more important is helping out one of the very few friends I have. We'll get out of town and lie low until this all blows over. Like I said, I've done this before. We'll be okay, as long as we get out of Canterlot before the guards get their act together."

Firecracker nodded, and the two companions ran down the street, leaving their old lives behind.

Outside the cave, there was silence. The storm had finally ran its course. "I think that's more than enough for now. It wasn't the complete tale, but it was more than I planned to share, to be honest." Douglas said. "Now that the storm is over with, I think it's time we head back to The Coyote Colt."

"Or," a voice called from outside, "you can get on out of here while you still can, and let me take Trixie home!" The cloak was torn down to reveal Little Strongheart, soaked through from the rain but still standing proudly in the mouth of the cave.

Douglas froze, and then slowly stood up straight. "And what makes you think that I can't take both of you back with me?"

Little Strongheart nodded. "There is a chance that might happen. Just as there is also a chance I could end up beating you, and drag you all the way back to Appleloosa. Or," the buffalo scout continued as she entered the cave, "You can leave now, and nobody gets hurt, and we can settle things later."

Douglas nodded, and slowly circled around the cave, keeping to the walls. After a few tense moments, he was at the entrance, and Little Strongheart was standing over Trixie. "Until later then, ladies." Douglas gave a curt wave, and loped away.

Little Strongheart breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the diamond dog disappear from sight. "Thank goodness. While I felt confident that I could beat him in a fight, the prospect of dragging him back to town while carrying you was not something I wanted to try." She looked Trixie over. "Are you able to walk on your own, or will I need to carry you?"

Trixie was able to slowly stand upright, but found she could do nothing more than balance there, legs wobbling. "I am afraid that I will have to let you carry me. I am sorry. My recklessness has placed us all in a terrible position."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," Little Strongheart said as she slid underneath Trixie to carry the unicorn crosswise on her back. "You may have hurt yourself, but you did learn some valuable information about the pony that we are up against, right?"

Trixie stared in surprise at the buffalo. "You heard all of that? How long were you there? Why didn't you come in out of the weather?"

Little Strongheart gave Trixie a smile. "You seemed to have things well in hoof. I saw where you landed, but that dog thing got to you first. I was worried at first, but he seemed to go out of his way to make sure he didn't hurt you when he was moving you. I figured anyone who was willing to go to such lengths to be careful wasn't going to turn around and try something right afterwards.

"Also, I was worried that if I made my presence known, he wouldn't be as open with you as he was. You've been trying to find out more about who we're up against, and while this might not have been the method you had in mind, I didn't want to ruin your chance. As long as Braeburn was able to get to where that smoke was coming from, we'll have not only succeeded in what the Sheriff sent us out to do, we'll have hopefully gained some valuable insights into our opponents too!"

Trixie smiled weakly. "Thank you very much. Still, I feel like a foal for doing what I did. And now, I'm afraid to even try to use my magic. I fear that I will have nothing to contribute when we face them down."

"Let's worry about that later. For now, our only concern is getting back to Appleloosa." Little Strongheart walked out of the cave, carrying Trixie on her back. "Please let me know if I'm hurting you, or if you need to stop for some reason." Trixie nodded weakly, and then closed her eyes. Before too long, she had fallen asleep, lulled there by the slow but steady gait of her buffalo friend.

Four Rode Out

Trixie slowly opened her eyes, and was surprised to find herself laying down on the bed in Doctor Sawbone's house back in Appleloosa. "I seem to be making it a habit of waking up in unexpected places," she muttered as she carefully stretched her legs. Feeling better for having slept, she slowly got out of bed and found herself able to stand without much of a problem.

The door to the house opened, and the doctor and Little Strongheart walked in. "You're awake!" the buffalo scout said cheerfully. "How are you feeling?"

"I still have a headache," Trixie admitted, "but other than that not too bad. I'm sorry you had to carry me all the way back here."

"Don't worry about it! I could tell by how quickly you fell asleep that you really needed it. I was surprised that I didn't wake you up during the trip back!"

"If you don't mind," the doctor interrupted, "I'd like to take a closer look at you Trixie, to make sure you aren't pushing yourself by being up on your hooves so soon."

"While I assure you that I feel okay, I would appreciate that all the same, thank you." Trixie looked outside to see the sky was still overcast, filled with a layer of grey clouds. "Just how long was I asleep, anyway?"

"Your friend brought you here a little after lunch, and we're just an hour away from dinner time now. So, at least three or four hours here at my place, and however long you were asleep during the trip back to town."

Little Strongheart headed towards the door. "While you look her over, doctor," she said, "I'll go and get the Sheriff and Braeburn. They wanted to talk to her when she woke up, so we can figure out what we're going to do now that the supplies on the train were destroyed by The Coyote Colt." She waved a hoof goodbye, and then darted outside and down the street.

Trixie contemplated what Little Strongheart had said as Doctor Sawbone slowly circled her, occasionally prodding her with a hoof. While she had feared that was what had happened, it was still a shock to have it said so plainly to her.

"Okay, I'm going to have to change the bandage on your horn," the doctor said. "It looks like the crack has gotten worse since I last saw it?"

Trixie nodded, remembering her unexpected ride in the giant twister. "I hadn't planned on using my magic to such a degree, but without it, I don't think I would be alive right now." She frowned at the memory. Had it really happened just earlier today? "Just be careful, please."

"Of course," the doctor replied. He reached up and carefully grabbed the end of the bandage that was wrapped around Trixie's horn with his teeth. He then slowly walked around Trixie, carefully unwinding the dirt stained length of cloth. It took him a couple of minutes, but finally, he had removed the bandage to reveal Trixie's horn. He dropped the strip of cloth to the ground and let out a low whistle. "I'll be honest with you, I'm surprised the thing is still holding together. Let me go get a mirror."

Trixie stood perfectly still as the doctor trotted off into a different room of the house. Although it only took him half a minute at most to find what he was looking for and return, to Trixie each second seemed to take forever. While her horn hurt, it didn't seem to be that bad off; did she really want to see what had happened to it?

She looked into the reflection of the looking glass that the doctor held in front of her by his teeth. Where the horn had been previously marred by a single gash from the knife, with a couple of smaller cracks spider webbing away from it, the entirety of the horn was now covered in larger cracks from the base to the tip. On top of that, the spaces between the larger cracks were filled with hundreds of smaller fissures. Trixie stared in horror at the state of her horn, her mouth hanging open in shock, until the sight of it became too much and finally she closed her eyes at the sight. "That... is more than I need to see, thank you," she stated in a subdued, hollow voice. "Please, wrap it back up again?"

"Of course," the doctor replied gently. "And I'm sorry for making you look at it, but I wanted you to see, to understand just how bad off it was. You simply can not use your magic for anything now, even the most simple of spells. If you ever get the urge to use it, think back to what you just saw."

Trixie opened her eyes, and silently watched as the doctor used a new bandage to re-wrap her horn up tightly. "I understand that I set back the length of time it will take for my horn to heal," Trixie said, "but just how far back did I put it?"

"I honestly don't know," the doctor replied after he finished placing a new bandage on her horn. "I'd guess maybe a year, maybe several? Your best bet, I think, is to head to one of the larger towns, I'd recommend trying Canterlot first, and I'd also suggest Fillydelphia, they have a large medical quarter there too. Maybe a doctor in one of those places will be able to prescribe some sort of treatment that could help speed up the process." He stepped back and gave Trixie one last look over. "Other than your horn's condition though, you're in remarkably good shape. Just don't push yourself in your activities for a week or so, make sure you eat plenty of food, and you should be just fine."

Trixie nodded. "I'm in good shape for a unicorn. One of the benefits of taking my home with me wherever I go. In fact, if I may be so bold, I would say..." She was cut off by the return of Little Strongheart, with Sheriff Silverstar and Braeburn right behind her.

"Trixie!" Braeburn exclaimed with a large smile on his face. "Boy, am I glad to see you up and about! How are you feeling?"

Trixie smiled warmly at the enthusiastic stallion. "All things considered, I'm doing remarkably well, thank you. And thank you, Little Strongheart. Who knows where I would be right now without your timely intervention." The buffalo scout smiled and nodded at the praise.

"Speaking of that," Sheriff Silverstar said, "perhaps you'd be willing to fill us in on everything that happened to you? Little Strongheart told us some, but there was a lot of things she didn't catch or fully understand."

The unicorn nodded. "Of course. I woke up to find myself inside of a cave with Douglas the diamond dog, and while we weren't what you would call friendly to each other, we managed to pass the time without coming to blows. In fact, I was able to get him to open up and get some information out of him that I think will be of some use to us."

Over the next half hour, Trixie told her compatriots what Douglas had shared with her. "As far as I can tell, we're not going to be able to reason with The Coyote Colt. He's too far gone for us to reach with words anymore." She looked over at Braeburn. "So, Little Strongheart mentioned that the train was what we saw burning?"

Braeburn nodded. "Not only that, but he sabotaged the tracks too! They're going to have to send up a repair crew, along with a squad of guards to keep them safe, but..." The young stallion looked frustrated. "I just don't see how that's going to help us out in the long run. Seems to me, all The Coyote Colt has to do is strike where they ain't. There's over a hundred miles of tracks all together, there ain't no way that they can guard all of that... is there?"

"No, there isn't," Sheriff Silverstar said. "I had been hoping that we could use some of the supplies that were on the train to repair the damage to the jail, so we would have someplace to put the outlaws after we apprehended them. Although I'll admit that I still can't think of anyway to guarantee that The Coyote Colt won't be able to use his magic to break out again." He scowled, and looked like he wanted to spit the the taste of the situation from his mouth. "Just how are we supposed to lock him up if he can use his magic to open the lock, or just knock the walls down?" He looked at Trixie. "You know more about how magic works than the rest of us added together. What can you tell us that might be of help?"

Trixie considered the situation. "I think if we had time, we could build a suitable cell to hold him. We'd have to construct it out of stone and steel, but as long as it isn't flammable, I think it could be done. And yes, I know," she said, cutting off a protest from the Sheriff, "that isn't an option we have available to us right now.

"A lot of unicorn magic is based on being able to see what we are using our magic on," Trixie continued. "However, simply tying a blindfold on him won't work all that well; he'll still be able to see the blindfold, after all. Even locking him up in a cellar with no windows won't work either. All unicorns can use their horns to create a small amount of illumination, and we can use that to get a good idea of where things are. And if we know where something is, we can still use our magic on it."

"So what can we do then?" Braeburn asked, his voice betraying his frustration. The group stood there in thought, trying to think of solutions.

"Well," Little Strongheart said after a couple of minutes of silence, "would it be safe to assume that if he's asleep or knocked out, he can't use his magic?"

"That would work," the doctor replied, "but if you were to forcibly keep on knocking him out every time he started to regain consciousness, well, what with the long term ramifications of what that could do to him I'd have to suggest just killing him then."

Little Strongheart waved a hoof in front of her. "No, I wasn't thinking like that. But us buffalo have several medicines that we use to help dull the senses. We generally use them when a warrior hurts himself, and we need to block out the pain. Some of them tend to put the buffalo to sleep too, so I was thinking that might be an option?"

The doctor nodded slowly. "It might be. I'm a bit worried about the possibility of addiction to such a substance, or what an accidental overdose might do, but I'd rather go with that over physical trauma. Would it be possible for me to have a sample of one of these medicines so that I can do some study on it? I would also like to check that there won't be any sort of allergic reaction that ponies may have to it that buffalo do not experience."

Little Strongheart nodded. "I will have to go back to the buffalo camp to get some, but that's something I should do anyway, to tell Chief Thunderhooves what I have learned. If I head out now, I should be back here before sundown."

"Well, before you head out," Sheriff SIlverstar interjected, "I'd like to take a few moments for us to come up with some ideas on just how we're going to fight the The Coyote Colt and his gang. We've put off confronting them long enough, and if we wait too long, they may catch word that another train is coming. If they go to ambush that one, we'll have that much harder of a time trying to find and stop them."

"Excuse me," the doctor interrupted, "but I seem to be missing something here. Just exactly why does it have to be the four of you to go and stop The Coyote Colt? Wouldn't it just be safer and smarter to let Princess Celestia send in a large group of guards, ponies who have been trained for this kind of thing? Besides some misplaced pride, what exactly do you hope to gain by taking him on yourselves?"

"While pride does play a part in it," the sheriff admitted, "and a large force of guards would be able to put down their gang without too much trouble, the hard part for the guards would be finding them. It's obvious to me that The Coyote Colt has some means of keeping track of the comings and goings of others. Most likely because of how wide open the land is here.

"And if you were The Coyote Colt, and you saw a large force of guards coming in, what would you do? Stick around, or head out into the wilds for a time, until it became too much of a cost for the troops to be kept in town? On the other hoof, if he sees it is just the four of us, he's much more likely to face us, believing that he can defeat us. That's why it has to be us, and it has to be done soon. We have a chance to stop him, and we need to do it before he runs off into the wilderness to hide. That's why I think we need to strike as soon as we can." Silverstar looked at Trixie. "If we head out tomorrow morning, will you be up for it?"

Trixie nodded. "While I could use an extra day or two to get my strength back, I should be okay with just one last night of sleep. Waiting for my magic to return is no longer an option, if it ever was one to begin with."

"Well, sheriff," Braeburn said, "we've talked about this a few times, and the best plan we can come up with is to keep The Coyote Colt occupied while we take down the rest of his gang, then have everypony team up on the Colt himself."

"I was against such a tactic at the start," Trixie added, "but that was back when I thought that we could do things the other way around. But without my magic, I don't foresee me being able to dispatch the rest of his gang as quickly as I did the night of the bank robbery."

The room fell silent as everyone considered the tactic, and what other options might be available. Sheriff Silverstar broke the silence by clearing his throat and said, "Well, if nopony else has any other ideas, I suggest we use that plan and start figuring out the details, such as who will have the task of taking of The Coyote Colt, and how we'll divide up the labor of the rest of the gang."

"The Coyote Colt will be my responsibility," Trixie stated confidently. "Not only will I have a better idea of what to watch out for, being a unicorn myself, I've learned enough about him that I think I can easily influence his behavior and keep him focused on me."

"And for the same reasons," Little Strongheart chimed in, "I think I should be responsible for those two idiot buffalo brothers, Tumble and Weed. I may not be able to take them down quickly, but if I can keep them occupied, that should make it easy for you two," she said, pointing at Braeburn and the sheriff, "to take care of the diamond dog and the injured pegasus. Then, you guys can help me out, and then we all take on the Coyote Colt together?"

Sheriff Silverstar nodded. "It sounds like an easy plan to me, and those are the best kind, in my experience. The more stuff you try to tack on, the worse things tend to go in the end. Any other ideas we should consider?"

"Well," Braeburn said, "I could always go ask my cousin Apple Fritter to make us some pies. They were a big help in the last fight the townsponies were in, after all."

"Ooh! Good idea!" Little Strongheart said.

"Indeed!" the sheriff agreed.

Trixie raised a hoof and used it to try to clean out her ear. "I'm sorry, did you just say that you used pies in a fight?"

Little Strongheart nodded. "It was over half a year ago now, but my tribe and the ponies of Appleloosa were unable to peacefully settle their differences about where their apple orchard should be planted. In the end, my tribe attacked the town, and they fought us off with apple pies as part of heir arsenal."

Trixie blinked rapidly, trying to process the information. "Did these pies have rocks in them? To make them painful when they hit?" she asked, her voice full of confusion.

The sheriff's mouth turned in distaste. "Why would we do that? They wouldn't taste good if we did that!"

Trixie placed a hoof to her forehead in disbelief. "Okay then, um, were they cooked extra hot, so that they burned whoever was hit by them?"

Braeburn frowned at the notion. "That wouldn't be very neighborly, if we did that!"

"That's my point!" Trixie hollered. Everyone else took a step backwards, shocked by the level of frustration in Trixie's voice. "Maybe you and the buffalo were able to work something out, well, obviously you were because of Little Strongheart being here helping us right now, but The Coyote Colt isn't going to care about that! He uses knives! Sharp, pointy, deadly knives! What do you expect him to do, see pies flying at him and stop and use his weapons to cut the fruit pastries into equal sized pieces for everyone to share?"

Trixie stared at her compatriots in turn. "I won't discount the notion that some sort of ranged attack would be helpful, even though The Coyote Colt might be able to turn it against us with his magic... But pies? Do you really think that the way to save Appleloosa and the Summer Sun Celebration is by instigating a massive food fight?"

Sheriff Silverstar held up a hoof in a placating motion. "I'll agree that an apple pie might not seem like the ideal weapon to bring to a showdown, but what other options do we have? It isn't like we have the means to whip up some sort of weapon. We're waiting on supplies from out of town to get the jail repaired." He sighed and shook his head slowly. "We may be slowly growing and expanding, but the truth of the matter is, foodstuffs are one of the few things that we have enough of that we can afford to throw them around in an attempt to gain an advantage, any advantage, in this kind of situation."

"You know what? Fine! Go and get some pies! I'll just..." Trixie looked around the room in frustration before settling on the doctor. "Do you mind if I read through some of your medical books?" she asked, trying to calm herself as she ignored the anxious looks from the others. "I'd like to look up a couple of things, the state of my horn being top of the list."

Doctor Sawbone nodded and pointed with a hoof at a few dozen tomes sitting on a desk in the corner of the room. "It isn't a very comprehensive library by any sort of reckoning, but it is the biggest collection of books for a hundred miles in any direction," he said with a bit of pride in his voice.

The other ponies watched as Trixie walked over to the small table with a rigid back and head held a bit higher than it needed to be. Little Strongheart looked back and forth between the unicorn and the others in the room, and then shrugged and excused herself, starting her long journey back to the buffalo tribe's camp.

Braeburn slowly walked up behind Trixie, his usual smile missing from his face and his eyes looking at the floor. "Look," he said after a uncomfortable moment of silence had passed during which nopony had spoken, "if you think that bringing pies will be a huge mistake, then I won't. It's just that, besides being a pony who's willing to face the risks that we're about to, what else do I have to offer?"

Trixie slumped. Softly, she said, "I'm sorry, Braeburn. I'm being too harsh in my criticisms. Maybe the pain in my horn is just something I can't get used to, and that has me on edge. Perhaps it's knowing that, come tomorrow, I might die." She turned to face the young stallion with an embarrassed look on her face. "If you honestly think it has a chance to make a difference in our favor, then yes, please, go and get some pies."

Braeburn smiled widely. "Thank you Trixie, I'll make sure you won't regret this!" With that, he turned and galloped out of the house and down the street.

Sheriff Silverstar walked over and stood next to Trixie. "You know, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'm sure I can round up a few others to help out in your place, and nopony will fault you for holding back after all of the injuries you've sustained. You don't even live here, you're just a traveling pony who happened to come through town at the wrong time."

Trixie shook her head emphatically. "While I thank you for the offer, sheriff, I refuse to sit this one out. It might sound silly to say this, but I need this. This is my chance to prove to myself that I can be the pony that I think I am. And like I said earlier, I have a good idea on how to get under The Coyote Colt's skin. You guys just do your part and take care of the rest of his gang as fast as you can. While I'm sure I can keep him focused on me, I'm just not certain how long I can handle that all by myself."

The sheriff nodded and smiled grimly. "I'm glad to hear that, to be honest. Well then, I'll leave you to your reading. I need to go and take care of a few things myself."

Trixie watched Silverstar leave, and then returned to her studies. There were several things she wanted to look up, and while her own injury was one of them she found herself reaching for a book about pony psychology first instead.

The sky had remained overcast during the night, and the hot summer sun still had failed to burn away the morning cloud cover when the group reunited shortly after sunrise. The dry wilderness ahead of them was blanketed by large patches of rarely seen fog, giving their journey a haunted feel to it.

Trixie, Braeburn, Sheriff Silverstar and Little Strongheart walked together in silence. Braeburn was carrying a set of loaded saddlebags, filled not only with pies, but also with some rope and the medicine that Little Strongheart had brought back with her from her tribe's shaman. Doctor Sawbone followed a ways behind with a couple of ponies who had agreed to be his assistants. They hoped to be helping drag away captured outlaws, but also understood that they might be needed to rescue their champions instead.

After half an hour of travel, Trixie had led them to the top of a hill that she had stood upon just a few days earlier, and what also seemed like a lifetime ago. She watched as Sawbone and his volunteers turned back and hid behind a nearby hill to await the outcome of the upcoming battle. Turning to face the sheriff, she whispered, "Are you sure we don't want to try ambushing them? Getting the drop on just one of them before everything goes crazy could be a huge difference in the outcome."

Sheriff Silverstar shook his head. "I understand that, and if I wasn't the voice of the law, I might even follow that advice." He gazed down at the ramshackle settlement below them. "But this is what separates those of us who live in Appleloosa from those who would see it suffer. This is what I was chosen to do by the townsfolk, and I don't know if I would be able to look the princesses in the eye when they show up in a week or so if I didn't do everything I could to uphold those values."

Trixie grimaced, but didn't argue the point. Instead she looked to Braeburn and Little Strongheart. "Are the two of you all set?" Braeburn removed his saddlebags, placing them on the ground next to him, and the two of them nodded to Trixie. Taking a deep breath, the blue unicorn stepped forward and yelled, "Hey! I have a cutie mark of a dunce cap that I found lying around! It wouldn't happen to be yours, now would it Coyote?"

Trixie's voice echoed for a moment across the foggy landscape, until a slow, angry chuckle came back to her. The door to the house swung open violently, and The Coyote Colt walked outside, followed by the rest of his gang. "Well, well. I was wondering when you'd make another appearance. And I see you brought some friends with you? I'm surprised you found some." He paused to spit noisily to the side. "So, what, am I supposed to just walk back into town with you and just sit in your comfortable, open-air jail?"

Sheriff Silverstar walked forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Trixie. "This is your last chance to do so. Surrender yourselves now, and patiently await the judgement that will come, and things will go easier for the lot of you. Resist us, and I can guarantee that you suffer the full weight of the laws of Equestria."

"Well, how about I offer you guys the same? I'm not really in the mood to be getting my hooves all messy by killing the lot of you idiots so early in the day. Go back to Appleloosa, and you might just be able to live long enough to see this crappy weather pass." He scowled up at the clouds. "Stupid clouds."

"I happen to like this kind of weather," muttered One Winged Willie.

"Not wanting to fight us?" Trixie asked, her voice full of scorn. "I think I detect some cowardice! Understandable, knowing that standing against you is none other than The Great and Powerful Trixie! "

The Coyote Colt snorted. "Ooh, and what are you going to stop me with? Even when your horn was whole, you couldn't match me."

"Yeah," Braeburn shouted out with a cocky grin on his face, "but this time, I've got pies!"

The Coyote Colt blinked and started to form a retort when the sound of panicked breathing from behind him made him turn around. He saw Weed and Tumble standing up against each other, eyes filled with worry, trembling slightly in fear. His jaw dropped, and he then turned back to look up at Trixie, who with an equally puzzled look simply shrugged in reply. "You heard the stallion," she yelled back down at him, "PIES!"

The Coyote Colt walked over to the buffalo brothers and floated up a nearby rock to gently strike them both over the head with. "Get a hold of yourselves! Idiots!" Turning back to face Trixie, he growled, "Okay then! Fine! I guess I can spend a minute of my morning ending the lot of you. I think I'll start with pie boy there."

Trixie started to slowly walk down the hill. "Oh, I think you'll be quite busy dealing with me... Firecracker."

She almost stumbled to the ground from the fury of the glare The Coyote Colt leveled at her. Behind her, she heard Silverstar yell out, "Go!" and sensed her friends spreading out, closing in with their designated opponents. Swallowing down her fear, she continued to advance at a slow, steady pace.

"That's right, I've done some research. I know all about you. I know why you're doing this."

"You know nothing!" The Coyote Colt yelled in anger, his horn starting to glow.

"Oh, I know all too well," Trixie replied, halfway down the hill. "Now whenever I look at you, I think to myself, there but for the grace of Celestia go I. I can't help but imagine myself where you are right now. Was it just dumb luck, I asked myself?" She shook her head. "I still don't know, to be honest. I do know though, that for everypony's sake, your own included, I need to stop you here and now. So, Firecracker, are you ready?"

"Don't. Call. ME. THAT!" With a primal scream of anger, he levitated several of his knives from their sheathes on his bandoleer, and charged towards Trixie. "Never call me that!"

Trixie grinned as she saw The Coyote Colt throw caution to the wind and recklessly charge her. All I have to do now, she thought, is survive the next couple of minutes. With a wild yell of her own, she also charged forward, steeling herself for the battle to come.

How the West Was Won

"Go!"

Little Strongheart heard Sheriff Silverstar give the command, and she took off down the hill through the morning fog, easily outdistancing her pony compatriots. Her haste was driven by several factors. She wanted to make sure she was the one to take on the buffalo bothers Tumble and Weed, as much as a matter of buffalo pride as to prove that her chief had made the right decision in letting her help out the settler ponies of Appleloosa. She honestly believed that she was the best fighter on her side, and that if any of them could handle two to one odds for any length of time, it would be her.

The main reason why she moved so fast, why she was already yards ahead of her teammates, was that she was desperately worried about Trixie. While the buffalo scout felt that the unicorn was correct with why she was the one who should occupy the outlaw unicorn, Strongheart didn't know if Trixie was up to the task. Admittedly, she hadn't seen any signs of injury in the unicorn during the walk out to the outlaw camp, but the amount of fatigue that she had witnessed, that had let the unicorn sleep for hours as she carried her across uneven terrain just yesterday... The sooner that she could go to her aid, the better their chances of not just winning this fight, but escaping without any serious injuries to their side too as well.

Her train of thought was brought to a halt when her right foreleg was snared by a lasso. Only luck had kept her other foreleg free of the strike, but she still stumbled and found herself rolling down to the bottom of the hill gracelessly. Before she could regain her footing, she found herself being dragged quickly across the ground towards the diamond dog whom she had faced off against the day before. "I do believe that we will now have the chance to see what might have happened yesterday," Douglas said as he reeled her in.

Little Strongheart scowled. Their simple plan seemed to have fallen apart in a matter of seconds! She saw out of the corner of her eye that Sheriff Silverstar, instead of facing off against the pegasus, was being forced to deal with the delinquent buffaloes, which meant that Braeburn would have to deal with One Winged Willie instead. She waited for the right moment, and when Douglas paused so he could move his paws to take in more rope, she used the brief respite to flip onto her hooves. "Very well," Little Strongheart replied as she unsuccessfully tried to shake her leg free of the lasso, "let's see how quickly I would have- whoops!"

Little Strongheart was cut short by a sharp tug of the lasso that put the buffalo scout off balance, and with another pull on the rope had her sprawling on the ground again. Muttering to herself over her carelessness, she scrambled to regain her footing before the diamond dog could reel her all the way in.

Braeburn watched in frustration as Little Strongheart got snared by what was supposed to be his opponent. He had really wanted a chance to show that diamond dog that he wasn't just a pony who hid behind locked doors! Instead, he found himself moving against One Winged Willie. "All right then," he muttered as he changed his path down the hill, "I'll do my best to knock out Willie, then I can go help whoever needs it the most. I might have wanted the chance to go against Douglas, but I won't complain about getting to fight the weakest of the outlaws." Raising his voice, he hollered, "Last chance, Willie! Surrender, and I won't have to hurt you!"

Willie gave Braeburn a puzzled look. "Why are you looking down on me?" he asked. "After all..." Willie jumped up into the air, and Braeburn found himself skidding to a halt, utterly stunned, as he watched the pegasus's hooves land on a thick patch of fog and stay there instead of falling back through to the ground. "...I'm the one who's higher up!"

"Ah, that ain't fair!" Braeburn exclaimed as he looked upward. "But fine, stay up there! Just means I can go help out the sheriff right away then. After all, if I can't reach you, how can you reach me?"

Willie's eyes took on a fanatical gleam as he raised his wing to reveal a collection of small grenades hanging from the appendage's underside. "Forecast calls for cloudy skies with a chance of kaboom!" he called out with in an excited voice. Chuckling as Braeburn's eyes widened in shock, the pegasus proceeded to climb to the top of the fog bank. Sitting down, he unhooked one and tried to light its fuse with his flint and steel.

Stunned, Braeburn stood and watched as Willie managed to get a spark to light the grenade's fuse on his first try. Willie cackled as he hurled the explosive down at Braeburn, who jumped off to the side and watched as it landed with a thud. After a couple of seconds of watching the fuse slowly burn down, Braeburn trotted over and extinguished the wick with a hoof. "Like I said-" he began, only to dodge to the side with a startled yelp as another lit grenade flew towards him.

This time, Willie had timed his throw much better, and Braeburn was barely able to escape the worst of the blast as the grenade fragmented into hundreds of small shards. He felt a couple of pieces of shrapnel bite into his flesh, but it stung no worse than being chomped by a fly. Not wanting to stay on the receiving end of this kind of exchange for long, or experience an explosion up close, he looked around, searching for a spot where the fog wasn't as thick. Not seeing any break in the cloud cover, he turned and dashed back up the hill, hoping to at least get back on level footing with his opponent.

Trixie ran as fast as she could towards The Coyote Colt, hoping to minimize the time that the outlaw would have to hurl attacks at her from a distance. She could tell that her opening barbs had hit home; instead of the guided strikes that The Coyote Colt had used during their encounter at the bank in Appleloosa, these were crude, straight affairs, nothing more than speed powered by hate. While one of them came close enough to clip off a small piece of her mane- missing her neck by mere inches- she was able to dodge the first wave of knives with relative ease.

Before the outlaw had time to ready another attack, she covered the distance between them. Throwing caution to the wind, Trixie crashed into The Coyote Colt, and sent the two unicorns tumbling in a ball of dust for a few to keep the outlaw off balance, she started flailing with her forelegs. While she could feel them connect, Trixie could tell they were glancing blows at the best.

"Have you gone mad?" The Coyote Colt yelled as he tried to adjust to the unexpected tactic that was being used against him. His horn started to glow, but his concentration was broken when Trixie finally managed to connect with a hoof to the side of his head. Growling in frustration, and a little bit of pain, he gathered his legs together and pushed Trixie away from him. "I know your magic is greatly reduced," he taunted as he gained his footing, "but I didn't know you had also come down with foaming sickness!"

Trixie regained her footing, noticing that the sheriff was facing off against the two outlaw buffalo without much success. Frowning at the apparent breakdown of the plan, she returned her full attention to The Coyote Colt. "I'm not the sick one here. I'm not the one who thought burning off my own cutie mark was a good idea, after all." She started to slowly circle around her adversary, looking for any sign of an opening, or an attack to be dodged. "You're the one who needs to see a doctor, not me!"

"It's like you're trying to get me to kill you quickly," The Coyote Colt snarled. "What, has the thought of not being able to use your 'great and powerful' magic all this time made you suicidal?" He sent another knife streaking at the blue unicorn, who barely dodged by rolling to the side as the blade buried itself up to its hilt in the rocky soil where she had been standing. "No, no, I see you do have a sort of desire to live. Which just puzzles me all the more as to why you're going out of your way to antagonize me!" Two more knives shot out, one of which scored a grazing hit on Trixie's flank, leaving behind a short red gash that slowly began to bleed.

Trixie winced. She had been lucky so far, but either she was tiring faster than she thought she would, or The Coyote Colt was figuring out how to attack through the flames of rage she was fanning within him. She tried closing the gap between her and The Coyote Colt again, but was forced to dodge backwards as more knives flew and hit the ground at her hooves. Her mind raced, trying to come up with something, anything to help her gain an advantage. Without her magic, she was limited to verbal and physical attacks, the latter of which she was hardly proficient with. And right now, neither of those avenues were working for her. She realized, as she sidestepped another knife, that she needed something new, and fast.

Douglas gave his lasso another pull, once again sending the diminutive buffalo sprawling to the ground. He would have been impressed by her determination to remain on her hooves if it wasn't for the fact that he was the one who had to deal with it! Still, he had things well in paw; another length or two of lasso reeled in would put his opponent right where he wanted her.

In fact, he was just about to announce that to her when a smile of all things appeared on the buffalo's face. "Gotcha!" she cried, and instead of pulling against him, as she had been doing all along, she charged at him instead. Douglas cursed, instantly seeing what her ploy had been; let him get her close enough to fight him, without giving him a chance to dodge or escape like he could have had she started her attack from farther away. With a yelp of surprise, he raised an arm, hoping to protect his face, if not somehow fend off the attack entirely.

Douglas felt the wind forcibly driven from his body as the hooves of the buffalo slammed into his gut. He tried to keep his balance, but after a couple of staggering steps backwards he found himself falling to the ground and landing on his rear. Seeing the opponent get ready to charge him again, he grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at her, hoping to at least slow her down enough so he could regain his breath as well as his footing.

Douglas smiled when he saw that his desperation ploy had worked better than he had hoped. The buffalo had come to a stop herself, and was frantically rubbing her eyes, trying to regain her eyesight. Feeling his confidence surge from his small success, Douglas shook the stars from his vision and slowly stood back up noisily drawing his breath. He bent over and picked up his lasso, just as the buffalo seemed to be satisfied with how well she could see again.

"Quite the dirty trick," the buffalo girl snarled at him. "I suppose I should have expected such tactics from an outlaw like you."

Douglas chuckled. "Oh, indeed, and especially from a diamond dog too. We do love to play in the dirt." He set his stance, and beckoned at the buffalo. "By the way, how comfortable do you feel about charging me when you're not using subterfuge yourself, hmm?"

The narrowing of eyes was the only warning Douglas had of her next assault. He managed to dodge the worst of the attack, but still grunted in pain as his side was clipped by one of her hooves. Quickly he reached out and grabbed one of her legs and twisted. Although he couldn't maintain his grip, he was able to change her trajectory enough that she was the one who sprawled onto the ground and not him. Darting forward, Douglas dog-piled on top of her and did his best to use his rope in an effort to tie her legs together and bring the fight between them to an end before he took any more injuries.

Trixie risked a quick glance at her companions, to see if any of them had managed to defeat their opponents already and be able to lend her a hoof. Just a single one of them would be enough, she felt, especially with how mad and focused on her she had made The Coyote Colt. But Silverstar was doing his best to simply avoid being trampled by the hulking buffalo brothers, Braeburn was on the run from One Winged Willie, and Little Strongheart looked to be in an even worse position than she was herself! At this rate, she'd end up having to help them out instead! The thought of her actually doing do made her grin.

The Coyote Colt stared at her in disbelief. "What are you smiling at?" he scowled.

Trixie's smile grew as she realized she had found yet another way to keep her opponent angered. "Oh, I was just planning on how I was going to go help my friends out after I had finished with you. I was thinking about evening the odds for Sheriff Silverstar over there. Two to one isn't very sporting, after all."

The outlaw's eyes narrowed. "I'd be focusing more on keeping yourself alive than on trivial ideas like that." He flung a couple more knives at Trixie, one of which nicked a foreleg. He glanced down at his bandoleers and frowned. He had already used up half of his weapons on hand. Soon, he'd have to start gathering up the knives he had thrown about. He didn't want to do that; this fight should have been over by now anyway!

"It's so hard to focus on staying alive when you make it so easy to do though," Trixie replied. "My mind simply wanders to other topics, such as the Summer Sun Celebration in a week, what am I going wear for that?" She hopped over another knife that hit the ground at her hooves. "I wonder if anypony in town will have some sort of hat I could wear. I lost my magician's hat yesterday during the storm. I don't want other ponies to think I'm flaunting the injury to my horn, especially when I have so many other features that deserve to be flaunted." She smirked as she evaded another pair of knives that had been launched with an accompanying growl of annoyance. "Such as my eyes, I've been told before they're quite fetching. And my cutie mark, surely you understand, oh wait, my bad!"

"WOULD YOU SHUT UP?" the outlaw screamed in anger. "And come up with something new, would you? Making cracks about my cutie mark wasn't funny to begin with, and now it's just tired and old... just like you!"

"But having gotten rid of your cutie mark is so fascinating! I mean, haven't you ever wondered why nopony else gets rid of theirs, no matter how much they may dislike it?" Trixie kept a smug look on her face as she started to slowly circle the other unicorn. "I looked through the books the town's doctor has, and what you are going through isn't that uncommon at all. Mind you, the lengths you've gone with it are rare-" She paused in her speech as she jumped to the side to dodge another knife, and winced as it left a cut on her back.

"Oh?" sneered The Coyote Colt. "And what do they call it, being nagged by a nag-itis?"

"Oh, don't be silly, this goes way back, I'm guessing a few years for you to be as warped and messed up as you are. Way before I showed up to point out how much of a foal you're acting like. Why, if I had to hazard an educated guess, and if what I was told was even partially true, I think this reaches all the way back to Canterlot."

The Coyote Colt froze, his eyes growing large in shock. "Who told you?" he asked very softly.

"You see, according to the ponies who did the studies, everypony goes through a time or two in their life when..."

"WHO TOLD YOU?" Trixie was cut off as The Coyote Colt screamed at her.

"Ahem, when they can't seem to do anything right, especially the one thing that they love to do the most."

"SHUT UP!"

Dodging and weaving, Braeburn made his way back up the hill he had so recently charged down. Above him, One Winged Willie hopped from fog bank to fog bank, tossing down grenades and yelling non sequiturs such as "I'm so happy, this must be cloud nine!" and "Call me Lakitu!" Braeburn was glad that the wounded pegasus had to stop to light each fuse. The delay bought him enough time to race on ahead and make it difficult for Willie to be able to get close enough to have an easy time of hitting him with his explosives.

Reaching the crest of the hill, Braeburn was disappointed to see that the fog stretched every which way around him. He looked upward, hoping that the sun was doing its best to burn through, but it appeared that even that celestial body was a bit put off by the recent weather, and was taking its time in returning the frontier lands to their usual parched condition.

Braeburn's climb wasn't completely for naught though. He grabbed his saddlebags and put them onto his back. He then kicked the bottom of one of the pouches with a foreleg, and out popped a pie. Deftly grabbing the edge of the pan with his teeth, Braeburn turned to look up at Willie. When the pegasus sat down to light another fuse, Braeburn tossed the pie into the air, turned, and bucked the pie upward. His volley missed, but it was close enough to make Willie yelp in surprise and drop the grenade in his hooves before he could light it.

Dodging a second pie sent flying up at him, One Winged Willie quickly worked his way from the hill and back towards the rest of the outlaws. Braeburn pursued below him, and whenever Willie paused to light another grenade, the earth pony would send a pie up at him. Willie finally found a cloud where he felt comfortable, sat down, and started tossing grenades down, one after another. He watched as a pie flew up past him, and had just lit the fuse on another bomblet when the pie came back down and blinded him when it hit him in the face. With a startled cry, he reached up to wipe the (admittedly tasty) pie particles from his face... but dropped his freshly lit grenade in the process.

The grenade bounced off a rock and careened downhill. After a couple more bounces, it came to a stop between Trixie and The Coyote Colt, who both paused to wonder where the round device that had suddenly appeared between them had come from. A second later, the lit fuse burned up, and the grenade exploded, pelting both unicorns with numerous shards and knocking Trixie off of her hooves in the process. The Coyote Colt yelled angrily, "Watch what you're doing, you insane idiot!" His horn glowed brightly, and a large ball of fire rocketed skyward.

Willie was finally managed to clear his face of the sticky apple pie filling when he looked down to see the magical attack come flying at him and hit him dead on. A loud boom, followed by several smaller ones, sounded out as the pegasus disappeared briefly inside of a ball of fire. Willie let out a loud shriek of pain, and then, knocked from his perch in the fog, fell towards the ground. He flapped his wing as fast as he could, slowing his earthward momentum some, but he still hit the ground with a THUD! and then laid motionless.

Braeburn blinked, stunned at the turn of events. Hearing a frustrated cry from Little Strongheart, he quickly scanned the area and saw the buffalo scout on the verge of being completely tied up by her diamond dog opponent. Lowering his head, Braeburn charged down the hill to go help his friend.

Trixie stood back up as fast as she could, fearful that a knife with her name on it was going to impale her at any moment. To her relief, she saw that The Coyote Colt was busy watching the results of his spell. Knowing she wouldn't get another chance, Trixie charged at the outlaw unicorn. The Coyote Colt's attention returned to her and their fight, but too late to prevent Trixie from tackling him, sending the two of them tumbling to the dirt once more.

Unable to toss Trixie away like he had before, The Coyote Colt jabbed at her chin with a forehoof. Looking in his eyes, Trixie was surprised by the sheer malice and hate she saw in them. Silently reminding herself that she didn't have to defeat the renegade unicorn alone, she glanced over towards where Douglas was. Seeing Braeburn rapidly charging in, she decided against telling The Coyote Colt that it had been the diamond dog who had told her about his past. While she would have been happy to let her opponent take care of his allies for them, she didn't want either of her compatriots to be close to one of those attacks if she could help it.

As if he was reading her thoughts, The Coyote Colt snarled at her, "Now that I think about it, it was either Willie or Douglas who could have told you. And I've already taken care of one of them. I might as well as blast that diamond dog, just to be sure. I'd get some of your friends too, which wouldn't be bad either... AAAHHH!"

Trixie did the only thing she could to derail the outlaw's train of thought; she bit him deeply on his shoulder. Resorting to such tactics put a taste in her mouth worse than dirty pony hair did though, so she quickly released her hold. "Pay attention to me, you ruffian! Here I am, taking time out of my day to help you out, and this is how you treat me?"

Seeing her opponent sputter in disbelief and rage, Trixie quickly rushed ahead. "As I was saying before the explosion, you're all messed up in your head! You've turned your back on what you'd rather be doing, ignored your better self so much, that you actually thought self-mutilation was a good idea! I'm surprised you haven't used your knives to cut pretty scars on your legs yet!"

"Let me guess," The Coyote Colt snarled, "you figured all of this out by looking at your own sad, pathetic excuse of a life, haven't you?"

Trixie froze, the implications of the bandit's words hitting her harder than the magical blast that The Coyote Colt struck her with a moment later. Was he right? she wondered as she flew back through the air. Had she turned into such a egotistical jerk because she had been forced away from doing what she really wanted to do? Instead of performing, she had reduced herself to simply embarrassing others with insults and cheap tricks; could it really be that simple? She shakily stood up, and did her best to push those questioning thoughts to the side. She couldn't afford to wonder right now about the possible validity of the outlaw's jibe.

Jumping to the side in order to dodge another fireball, she put her performance face back on. "Oh, I couldn't use my own experiences in order to to try to understand somepony like you. I never let my failure change what I wanted to do, after all. It took actual reading for me to even begin to comprehend how somepony could let failure change their life so drastically." Trixie swallowed nervously after she narrowly evaded a knife that flew past her at eye level.

"And yet, here you are." The Coyote Colt replied mockingly. "Way out here in Appleloosa, far from where you used live. And when I cut your horn, well, that changed how you do things too, right? So don't be so high and mighty with me." His horn glowed, and a couple more knives flew at Trixie, one of which left a cut on the side of her neck. "Right now, the only difference that matters is that you're the one who can't use their magic. That's why you're bleeding, and I'm not."

Trixie wished she had a quick comeback for that, but sidestepping another magical blast, she was forced to admit that he had a point. She couldn't even risk looking around her to see if help was on its way. And she could sure use it; she wasn't certain how much longer she could keep on dodging the constant attacks.

Braeburn ran towards Little Strongheart. His first impulse had been to go help Sheriff Silverstar instead, since he had been fighting against both of the outlaw buffaloes. But Strongheart was the one who needed the assistance, and needed it now. She was on her back, and Douglas looked ready to put the finishing touches on some sort of knot that would leave his friend unable to do anything but lie there entangled, fighting against her constraints.

Fortunately for the Apple family earth pony, the diamond dog had his back to him, and didn't see the pony charging down the hill towards him. Little Strongheart did though, and doubled her efforts to escape to keep Douglas's attention squarely on her. The outlaw's only warning came too late, when he finally heard the sound of Braeburn galloping in. Lowering his head, Braeburn rammed the diamond dog's back and sent him flying. Braeburn barely managed to keep his balance, and after making sure that Little Strongheart would be able to get free of her bonds on her own, charged at Douglas again.

The diamond dog frowned as he stood up and dodged Braeburn's second charge. Not only was he without his rope, he knew he only had a minute at the most before he would be outnumbered. If only he'd had just a bit more time, he could have been able remove that pesky little buffalo from the fight! But there was no time for wishes. Sliding into a stance better suited for brawling, he motioned at the earth pony to come at him again.

Braeburn happily complied, although this time he drew up short, and in one smooth motion turned around to launch a buck at the diamond dog. While Douglas was able to step back easily enough, he couldn't recover fast enough to take advantage of his opponent having his back to him before Braeburn finished his spin, leaving the two of them face to face again. Douglas took a swipe with a paw, hoping his longer reach would take the settler pony by surprise, but Braeburn simply ducked and then hopped forward, hoping to connect with a short range headbutt.

Again, Douglas sidestepped the incoming attack, and soon the two of them found themselves slowly circling each other, taking turns trying to land a strike on the other. Risking a glance to the side, Douglas swore. Little Strongheart was undoing the last of the knots that he had tied. He had to do something, and do it now! Throwing caution to the wind, he dove at Braeburn, and managed to tackle him successfully.

Ignoring the hits he was taking as Braeburn swung his forelegs at him in an effort to push the diamond dog off of him, he started to rain down punches onto the earth pony recklessly, fearing that at any moment he would be struck from behind again. Indeed, he heard a triumphant yell from Little Strongheart, and the sound of hooves rapidly closing in.

Hoping to avoid another charge into his back, Douglas tried to roll away from Braeburn. To his chagrin, he found his efforts halted when Braeburn grabbed a hold of his vest with his teeth. Whimpering, he turned just in time to see the hind hooves of Little Strongheart grow large in his vision. With a loud TWACK! she landed her strike right onto Douglas's snout. Braeburn was more than willing to release his grip so that the diamond dog could fly backwards through the air a few feet before landing on his back and skidding a short ways further before finally coming to a stop, out cold.

"All right!" Braeburn cheered as he stood up. "Now let's go help out Sheriff Silverstar!" The two of them turned towards the lawpony, only to gape in fear at what they saw. Silverstar stood there, looking completely worn out as he panted with his head hanging low. Tumble and Weed closed in from different angles, heads lowered in an effort to pound the sheriff into glue between them. "Sheriff!" Braeburn called out in warning, knowing he was too far away to give any other kind of assistance at the moment. SIlverstar raised his head at Braeburn's cry, looked at him... and smiled.

Waiting until the last second, Silverstar suddenly sprung forward. Right behind him, the two buffalo brothers ended up crashing head first into each other at top speed. The resulting collision was so loud, Braeburn was sure he heard it echo a couple of times through the hills around them. Even more amazing was the fact that the two buffalo didn't fall over right away, but managed to stumble about, like a stallion who had consumed too much salt, before their brains decided that they weren't going to be able to handle the situation and shut down. With a thud, they finally collapsed to the ground as one.

Sheriff Silverstar trotted over to Little Strongheart and Braeburn, who were both staring at awe at him. "Glad to see I still have it," he chuckled as he came up to them. "The hard part was getting them to come at me from different angles. They just didn't want to leave each other's side! Quite annoying. Well, it took us longer than we hoped, but we're back on track. Let's go help Trixie wrap this thing up." He walked past the two of them, and after a few steps turned around to see them both standing still and staring at him.

"What? It was just two buffalo. They didn't make me the sheriff just because of my cutie mark, you know. Now shake a leg, we need to help Trixie!"

Trixie hated to admit it, but she was pretty sure she was at the end of her rope. With all of the accumulated wounds she had taken, and with how fatigued she was, she figured she had maybe a minute left before she would be simply unable to avoid another attack. She was even running out of insults and witty remarks, something she thought she would never have happen to her!

It was with great relief then when she saw her allies finally come running up. Doing her best to hide her condition, Trixie called out, "Well, it took you three long enough! What did you do, run them back to Appleloosa first? It's been hard for me to drag this out long enough for you to help me, I thought I was going to have to go help you guys out!"

Sheriff Silverstar rolled his eyes as he, Braeburn, and Little Strongheart spread out and quickly surrounded The Coyote Colt. "This is your last chance to surrender!" he called out. "Your allies have been defeated, you're outnumbered and surrounded. You stand no chance. Why make things more difficult than they have to be?"

"Because I think I can still win, that's why!" The Coyote Colt yelled out. "You think I'm surrounded?" he asked as his horn started to glow. "I think of it as being right where I want to be to do this!" With a yell, the remaining knives on him rose from their sheathes, briefly gathered above his head, and then flew away from him in a speeding circle of death towards those surrounding him.

Trixie was amazed, not only at the number of knives that The Coyote Colt still had had on him, but also at his accuracy. Even doing her best to dodge, one of the blades struck home, impaling her shoulder up to its hilt. From the groans and cursing she heard come from the others, she knew she hadn't been the only one hit by the attack. Biting back a cry of pain of her own, she grabbed the offending weapon with her teeth and pulled it out. Seeing The Coyote Colt starting to power up another spell, she charged forward, knife still in her mouth.

For once, Trixie was glad that she didn't have the full attention of the outlaw unicorn. The Coyote Colt was staring at the sheriff with murder in his eyes, hoping to finish the job that his knives had started. Trixie tackled the other unicorn, and before he could get out from underneath her, she pressed the knife up against his horn.

The Coyote Colt's eyes grew wide in fear, and the glow around his horn quickly went out. "You, you wouldn't!" he said, half in denial and half in terror. Unable to say anything in return, Trixie simply raised an eyebrow instead, and slowly dragged the edge of the blade against his horn.

"What's it going to be?" Sheriff Silverstar asked, doing his best to ignore the gash in his side The Coyote Colt's attack had left. "I figure if anypony has a right to do that to you, it would be her. Mind you, she's my deputy, so she won't do that unless I tell her to," he said, giving Trixie a hard look. "But I still haven't heard you say that you were giving up, and I can't risk another attack like that last one, so..."

"I surrender! I surrender, just get this mad mare off of me!"

Trixie was shocked by how fast the outlaw's demeanor had changed. Looking into his eyes, she could see a reflection of herself, and saw that the bandage on her horn had come off during the fight. No wonder he was so scared, she realized. He didn't want to have his horn end up looking like hers! Still, Trixie refused to budge, and even pressed the knife against his horn harder. She figured that, if given the chance, the outlaw would gladly go back on the attack if he felt he had a chance to escape or win.

Braeburn limped back up the hill, one of his legs sporting a nasty cut right below the knee. Little Strongheart moved up next to Trixie, turned, and raised a hind leg. "Just in case you get any silly thoughts, know that I'll gladly buck you in the head if I think you're going to try something. Just keep still and be quiet." The Coyote Colt obeyed, and soon they heard Braeburn call out to the doctor and his helpers that the fight was over and their help was needed.

Soon, the sound of several ponies galloping in could be heard through the fog, and Doctor Sawbone came up next to Trixie. Digging around in his black bag, he pulled out a jar containing a green paste. Working the jar open, he placed it next to the outlaw's mouth. "We can go about this two ways," the doctor said. "Either you swallow some of this, which will put you to sleep painlessly, or I let our buffalo friend here send you to dream land through the use of blunt force trauma. I really don't want to have any extra work on my hooves than what I'm already looking at, to be honest, so please do us both a favor and eat a small mouthful of this stuff."

Defeat finally apparent in his posture, The Coyote Colt stuck his tongue into the jar and swallowed a small dollop of the medicine. After a couple of minutes of strained silence as everypony waited, The Coyote Colt's eyes closed and his breathing slowed down considerably. Trixie raised an eyebrow at the doctor, who first checked the outlaw's pulse, and then pulled open an eyelid with his hoof to examine the eye underneath. Letting it close again, he nodded and said, "He's so deep in sleep that if I hadn't been the one to put him there, I'd be worried."

Little Strongheart lowered her leg, and Trixie raised her head and tossed the knife to one side. Looking around, she saw that the other ponies that the doctor had brought with him were busy tying up the other outlaws and getting ready to carry, or in the case of the buffalo brothers drag, them back to Appleloosa. "So, we're finished here then?" she asked.

"Indeed. Well done, I might add," the doctor replied.

"Thank you," she said, and then Trixie let her wounds and fatigue catch up to her and she fell over, unconscious before she even hit the ground.

EPILOGUE

It was the morning before the Summer Sun Celebration, and Appleloosa was abuzz with excitement. The last week had been a whirlwind of activity, as everypony had worked hard to get all the preparations for the festival done on time. Now, having finished things the night before, a large part of the town's populace waited by the train station. Off in the distance, the whistle of the train carrying the royal princesses could be heard echoing across the plains, and soon it was coming to a halt next to the heavily decorated station platform.

Sheriff Silverstar stood by, waiting to greet Celestia and Luna. Behind him stood Braeburn, his leg still bandaged from the injury he had taken during the fight, and his deputy star shining brightly on his vest. Before the train had come to a complete stop though, a door farther down on the train, near the caboose, opened up and with the cry of somepony yelling, "Applejack! What are you doing?" An orange earth pony jumped out the door, followed by a blue pegasus with a multi-hued mane and tail. With a chuckle, the pegasus bit into the earth pony's tail and dragged her to a halt half way from the sheriff.

Braeburn sighed, and after a quick apology to the sheriff, trotted down to meet his cousin from Ponyville. "Cousin Applejack!" he said, as four more ponies leaped out of the train to join them on the station's platform. "Did you all come out here to see the Summer Sun Celebration? I wish you'd let me know ahead of time, it's going to be hard to find a place for all of you to stay, what with all the other visitors in town for the festival!"

Applejack was looking at Braeburn leg in concern. "I knew things were bad from your letter! Having to depend on Trixie of all ponies to help? Where is that show off anyway? I bet she left town just to avoid the princesses!"

"Um, cousin..." Braeburn tried to interrupt, but Applejack had a full head of steam, and wasn't going to be stopped so easily.

"I mean, what are you trying to do, scare me and the rest of us back at Sweet Apple Acres to death with all this talk of 'outlaws' and 'ambushes' and what not? And not even a single word of asking me to come and help you! You know I'd drop anything to come help you and Bloomberg out!"

"Cousin..."

"Why, the moment I read your letter, I went and got my friends together, and here we are! Big MacIntosh would've. come too if we hadn't have needed somepony to keep the farm going. Apple Bloom tries hard, bless her heart, but she's still a year or so away before she'll be able to take care of things on her own if needed to. And look at you! What happened to your leg anyway? Are you okay?"

"COUSIN!" Braeburn yelled, his voice filled with frustration.

Applejack blinked. "Yes, Braeburn?"

"Can this wait a few minutes, please?" Braeburn asked pleadingly.

"I, I suppose it can?" Applejack replied, a bit surprised to see her good natured cousin so upset.

"Good! Because you're interrupting that!" Braeburn pointed behind him, where Sheriff Silverstar stood with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, waiting to properly welcome them to Appleloosa. The three of them were watching them, with expressions ranging from bemused to annoyed.

Applejack blushed and bowed her head, suddenly aware that there were also hundreds of ponies in the town square that were focused on her also. "I reckon I can do that. Sorry, your highnesses. I just do worry about my kin a lot!"

"Yeah," muttered Rainbow Dash. "They know. You were stressing out about it the whole trip up here!"

Princess Celestia smiled and nodded at her, and then turned her attention back to Sheriff Silverstar, who with a shake of his head, got down to the business of welcoming Equestria's leaders to the frontier town.

After the ceremony, the townponies all dispersed, letting the sheriff and Braeburn meet with the Princesses to discuss recent events. Seeing Applejack and her friends standing close by, Braeburn motioned them to join in the conversation.

"First off, let me say how glad I was to hear that you were able to take care of things on your own, Sheriff Silverstar," Princess Celestia said. "I knew when I chose you for the position that you would be capable, but even I am impressed by what you have accomplished."

"Well, to be honest, your highness, it weren't all my doing," the sheriff admitted. "While I had some help from the buffalo and Braeburn here, I don't think we would have had a chance at succeeding if Trixie hadn't been here to help us out."

"What?" squawked Rainbow Dash. "Oh man, what did she do, brag them into submission?"

"Hey now!" protested Braeburn. "She put her life on the line for us several times in the past couple of weeks! Why, if it wasn't for her being here, the bank would have been robbed, and there might not even be a Summer Sun Celebration going on tomorrow!"

Rainbow Dash was surprised by the rebuttal, but she pressed on. "Hmph! I bet you had to beg her for her help, knowing her attitude."

Sheriff Silverstar stepped in between the pegasus and Braeburn, who looked ready to take a swing at Rainbow Dash. "Actually," the sheriff drawled, "she was helping us before we even had a chance to ask. Now, would I have asked, if needed to? Sure. I know when I need a helping hoof or two. That's why I can deputize ponies as needed."

He then stepped up close to Rainbow Dash, his snout almost touching hers. "The point I'm trying to politely make here, in the presence of our beloved rulers," he continued in a much more serious tone of voice, "is that maybe you should shut your mouth until you know all of the details of what happened, since you weren't here to see things yourself. That way, without you interrupting us every few seconds, we can get this discussion done before night fall!"

Rainbow Dash lowered her head and, after muttering something that only the sheriff could hear, stepped back behind her friends. "Oooh, busted!" Pinkie Pie called out.

Sheriff Silverstar turned back to the two princesses, who had politely turned their attention elsewhere during the exchange. "Sorry about that, your highnesses. As I was saying, thanks to Trixie, we managed to apprehend their entire gang. Little Strongheart brought Chief Thunderhooves and several other buffalo into town to collect the two buffalo brothers. I've been assured that they will be properly punished for their actions, and from what I saw, they most certainly are."

"If I may inquire, just what sort of punishment do the buffalo tribes use?" asked Princess Luna.

"Hard labor and imprisonment. They work out under the sun for most of the day, and then spend the night locked inside a small cave, Princess."

Luna nodded. "And what of the other outlaws?"

Silverstar sighed. "To be honest, I was hoping that the two of you could help me with that. Our jailhouse is still being repaired, and if I had to hold them here for as long as their crimes dictated, I wouldn't have any room for anypony else. Besides, our jail is more of a place to help ponies cool down, not to incarcerate them for long periods of time to be honest. Fortunately, Douglas and Willie seem content to simply wait things out patiently."

"And what of this Coyote Colt? Do you need us to take him with us also?" asked Celestia.

"Please, this is where I really do need your help, let there be no mistake about that. We've kept him pretty much drugged up and knocked out for the last week, and I don't like having to do that at all. But what can we do? We can't trust him to not try breaking free at the first chance, and without a unicorn of our own to keep him in check, we've been forced to drip feed him for the most part." Silverstar shook his head dejectedly. "It ain't right at all, I hate it, but I've got no choice either."

"Wait, what do you mean you don't have a unicorn of your own to keep him in check?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "You have Trixie, right? Why can't she help with that?" Noticing a glare from Braeburn, she hastily added, "I'm not accusing her of anything, it just seems odd to me is all."

The sheriff nodded. "Her horned is injured, covered in cracks big and small, so she is unable to use any magic until it heals," he replied.

"A cracked horn?" Luna asked, looking a bit worried. "Is she able to have visitors? I'd like to take a look at this myself."

Celestia nodded. "Yes, let's go pay Trixie a visit. Is she at the doctor's house, or...?"

"She's at my place, actually." Braeburn replied. "Sawbone wanted to use his sickbed to keep an eye on The Coyote Colt, and I have a spare bedroom, so I'm helping her out while she recovers."

"Lead the way then, if you please, and on the way could you fill us in on what all she did?"

Trixie stared at the walls of the guest bedroom in Braeburn's house. The last week had been nothing short of frustrating. The nerve of Doctor Sawbone to confine her to a bed! Not that she couldn't understand where he was coming from; after all, it had been the third time in just a few days that she had been carried into a bed, unconscious, and needing medical care. She started to absentmindedly scratch at one of the still healing cuts on her flank with a hoof before stopping herself. That was another no-no the doctor had repeated at her many times. He didn't want the stitches to come undone before they'd had time to do their job.

Still, the past week hadn't been completely dismal. Braeburn had been the perfect host, taking care of her every need with a smile. Also, it felt like over half the town had at one point or another come by to visit and profusely thank and visit with her, talking and keeping her company. Braeburn had even had to start turning away some of the food that some of the settler ponies had brought with them, just because he was running out of places to store it! All in all, it was a bit surreal to her. Not that she minded being the center of attention, of course not! It was just that the manner in which she had become so was new and strange to her.

Her reverie was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and Braeburn calling out to her, "Trixie, are you up for some more guests?"

"Trixie is always ready for some guests, but until tomorrow comes, I'll be unable to get up from this bed!" she hollered back. "Yes, please, send them in."

Trixie was amazed by the number of ponies she heard walking towards her room. This was more than the two or three that had come at a time during the past week! Soon, her room was packed full with ponies she didn't recognize, except for the last two. One was a sky blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tail; throughout all of her travels across Equestria, she had yet to see another pony with hair like that! And the other was the purple unicorn who still haunted her dreams some nights. Obviously, these ponies had to be from Ponyville. Only their questioning looks kept her from blurting out a caustic comment at them about coming to rub things in when she was down on her luck.

Such thoughts were quickly banished however when somehow everypony managed to make room for two more visitors. Trixie's eyes widened in surprise - the Royal Princesses were here to see her? She started to stammer out an apology about not being able to bow to them like she should when a friendly chuckle from Celestia cut her off.

"So, how is the hero of Appleloosa doing?" asked the tall, white alicorn. "Do you mind if I take a look at your horn?" Seeing Trixie nod mutely, she magicked the bandage off quickly and effortlessly. While everypony was affected by the sight of the massively cracked horn some, it was the unicorns that were unable to look at it for long before turning their heads away in horror.

"Oh my goodness!" exclaimed the white unicorn with purple hair. (A memory from the past bubbled up in Trixie's mind; had she done something to that mane previously? During her show in Ponyville? It was so long ago, she really couldn't say for sure.) "Doesn't that hurt? How can you stand it?"

"It, it just becomes background noise after a while," Trixie admitted, the sarcastic response that she might have normally replied with refusing to show itself in the presence of the princesses. "The doctor gave me some medicine to help ease the pain when it's time for sleep, but otherwise I've just had to adapt to it, or risk driving myself crazy."

The purple unicorn turned to Princess Celestia with pleading eyes. "Isn't there anything you can do to help her? Surely there must be some sort of spell that can help heal her!" She looked at Trixie. "Nopony deserves to suffer like that, let alone one who has done the things that we heard about!"

Princess Luna shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, Twilight Sparkle, but no. While there are many feats that healing magic can accomplish, healing a cracked horn is simply impossible."

"But why?" Twilight asked, turning her attention from one alicorn to the other. "I've read that, in the right hooves and with the proper training, even broken legs and rare sicknesses can be healed! What's so different about a cracked horn that makes it incurable?"

Luna smiled sadly. "The problem is the injury itself. The reason why the horn is cracked so badly is because of stress caused by there being more magic in the horn than it can safely handle. Also, the more cracks in the horn, the less it can take. The very act of somepony trying to heal a cracked horn will only make it worse, since it would be directing a large amount of magic into the horn directly, something it simply can not handle."

"While we may not be able to do anything ourselves," Princess Celestia interjected, looking at Trixie, "I'm certain that there are ponies in the hospitals in Canterlot who will be able to speed up your recovery. If you want, I can make sure that there is room on the train back to Canterlot with us. I promise, you'll be in the best of hooves, and it won't cost you a single bit."

Trixie was stunned. While she had at times during the past week daydreamed about such an event happening, she had never expected to have her fantasies come true! After a short moment of silence, as the offer sunk in as well as the realization that everypony in the room was waiting on her reply, she smiled. She bowed her head and softly replied, "I thank you, your highness. This is an unbelievable offer, and very kind of you." Trixie then raised her gaze and looked Celestia straight in the eyes. "But as wonderful of an offer as it is, I will have to decline." She had to fight the urge to smile smugly as the other ponies in the room showed signs of shock, from dropped jaws from the ponies from Ponyville to widened eyes from Princess Luna and a raised eyebrow from Celestia herself. She still knew how to amaze an audience, all right!

"Oh?" Princess Celestia asked, her expression briefly turning into a sly smile. "What do you plan to do then?"

Trixie felt herself blushing. How quickly the princess has turned the tables on her, putting her on the defensive again! "Well, I knew that I had a long recovery ahead of me, even before hearing Princess Luna confirm it. So, when Sheriff Silverstar offered me a job to be his full time deputy while my horn healed, I had to accept. He said that with how fast the town has been growing, he's finding it harder and harder to take care of everything by himself." She smiled weakly. "It would be rude of me to back out now after I've already agreed to the position, right?"

Celestia flashed her a quick grin before reverting back to a dead serious face. "If that is all that is keeping you here, I can easily arrange to have somepony sent up to fill that position. Again, all at the expense of the crown."

Trixie stared at the white alicorn. Was she going to make her say it, in front of everypony? Yes, she realized, yes she was. With a defeated sigh, Trixie said, "No, that's not all, and it isn't even the main reason why I want to stay." She took a deep breath, and then forged on ahead. "I want to remain in Appleloosa because, well, I'm liked here. Not for being a show off, or for the fact that I can do amazing feats of magic, but because they like me, Trixie. For once, instead of simple adoration for my skills, I have the respect of others, for who I am." She turned to smile at Braeburn. "I even have real friends again, something I haven't had since I was a young filly. If I leave, I might lose that, and right now having that means more to me than the chance to shorten the length of time it would take for my horn to heal."

If the other ponies had been shocked before, they looked outright stunned now, to the point that Trixie imagined that an errant breeze coming through the window would knock the six of them over. She was happy to see Braeburn smile back at her, and wasn't surprised in the least to see Celestia nod and smile knowingly at her.

"Very well then. I'll ask around myself, and see to it that a medical team is sent up here to help you out in any way that they can." She turned to her sister. "Anything else you can think of?"

Luna shook her head. "I just want to let you know that we'll be doing our best to help out the captured outlaws too. Just because they're criminals doesn't mean we won't do our best to help them heal also." Luna smiled. "I know from personal experience, sometimes all one needs is a helping hoof to become the pony they can be."

"Speaking of them, what is going to happen to The Coyote Colt?" asked Trixie.

"We'll be taking him back to Canterlot with us," Celestia replied. "We'll be able to make sure that he gets the help he needs. Is it true that he actually burnt off his cutie mark?"

Trixie nodded. "His name is Firecracker. I'd suggest talking to the diamond dog, he knows quite a bit about him. He could give you a much better history about him than I could hope to."

"I'll make sure to do that." Celestia smiled and then turned to the other ponies in the room. "Well, we don't want to tire her out too much, especially when we still have so much to do today before the celebration." She looked back at Trixie. "I'll see you there tomorrow morning?"

Trixie nodded. "I wouldn't miss it for anything!"

"Good. We'll see you then. Thank you so much for everything that you've done." With that, the visitors all filed out, leaving Braeburn and Trixie alone again.

"Wow," exclaimed Braeburn, "how amazing is that? Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna came here just to see you! What an honor!"

"This wasn't how I planned on it happening, but you know what?" Trixie smiled at Braeburn. "I'm glad things went the way they did. I wouldn't change this for anything right now."

THE END

Author's Notes

Thank yous! I have many, so let's get to it! First, as always, to my pre-reader Heatwave. Many parts of this story would have been terrible if not for his assistance, especially the fight scenes which I have learned through the writing of this story that I am not very good at. Also, to RaspleZS for the awesome piece of fan-art of Coyote Colt's wanted poster. Also, to Floofy Hooves and Wolf Walrus, who actually did readings of the first chapter of this story. It was at first surreal, and then awesome to hear something I wrote read out loud. Also, grats to Wolf Walrus, who's efforts actually won him 3rd place in a reading contest for Celestia Radio! Well done! And of course, thank you to everyone who took the time to read this. I hope that you were entertained by my efforts.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Still fuming over the reception that her show had received, and not wanting to return to Appleloosa right away, Trixie decided to follow The Coyote Colt. After a minute during which the grey unicorn had kept silent, she trotted up next to him and asked, "So, where exactly are we going?"

"It's a short ways, not too far." The Coyote Colt responded. "Me and my boys can't be too close to Appleloosa, after all. Otherwise, those settler ponies would form a posse and force us even farther out into the desert. Being pushed out once was enough for us to begin with."

"They pushed you out?" Trixie asked, surprised that a unicorn would allow himself to be pushed around by a bunch of earth ponies so easily.

"Yup." Pausing to spit off to one side, and ignoring Trixie's shudder at the act, he then continued, "Back before there was an Appleloosa, I lived all alone out here. Had myself a nice little parcel of land. You weren't too far from it when you were performing earlier tonight. Then word got out to the so called civilized parts of Equestria. Ponies heard that there was room to grow up here, a place to make their own. So, they all came on up in large numbers, and before I could do anything about it I was smack dab in the middle of a town I wanted nothing to do with."

"What did you do?" Trixie asked, drawn in by the stallion's tale despite herself.

"Well, first I tried to see if I could sell my land, maybe get a different parcel further out. I like my privacy, you see. But the amount of money they offered me wasn't close to the value of my property. But what else could I do? The sheriff flat out told me, I could either take what they were offering, or stay put and cope with how things had turned out. Finally, I caved in and took what they offered, and tried to settle a new plot farther out. Of course, just a month later, the townsfolk decided that where I had moved to was the perfect place to plant an apple orchard. So, I was told to move again. No choice in the matter this time either." The grey unicorn stallion fell silent, and continued walking.

"So," Trixie said after a brief pause, "what? You moved even further out then?"

The Coyote Colt nodded. "That I did. It's an ugly patch of land, but I reckon them Appleloosans won't bother me for a bit this far out. And even where I am, I've managed to make some friends. Some others who share my dislike of those greedy settler ponies." He turned to look Trixie straight in the eye. "I'd like you to meet them. I think you just might fit in with us."

Trixie started to feel a little uneasy. "Well, I'm not certain about that..."

"Let me ask you a couple questions. Exactly how much did all those fireworks of yours cost? Did you get them for free, somewhere?"

"No. As a matter of fact, they're fairly expensive." Trixie admitted. "Not that money is of much concern to the Great and Powerful Trixie."

The Coyote Colt nodded. "And just how much money did you make from your show? Enough to to break even?"

Trixie stopped in her tracks. "Why, now that I think of it, I don't think I was given even a single bit by anypony! Not a single one of them, and I stayed and watched them all leave too! The nerve of them!"

The Coyote Colt stopped and turned back to face Trixie. "Everypony knows, even me, a pony who lives way out here, that you still toss a few coins onto the stage in you liked the performance when it's over. They were all willing to cheer and stomp for you during the show, but could any of them be bothered to part with even a single bit? Hmm?"

Trixie felt herself growing indignant at the how she had been treated, when a question occurred to her. "Say, just how do you know what happened, anyways? You seem pretty well informed on what those cheapskate settlers did and didn't do."

Using his magic, The Coyote Colt levitated a pair of binoculars that Trixie had missed were attached to his bandoleer on the back of his neck. "My buddy Douglas saw your entrance into town, thought I might be interested that another unicorn had arrived. So, I came out to take a look from a distance, since the settler's aren't too keen on me coming into town. I could tell right away what you were doing, so while you were setting things up, I did my best to sneak in as close as I could. Thanks for holding your show at sundown, by the way. Made it that much easier to get up close and see what all happened." He shook his head sadly. "I still can't believe how unlucky you were, with things going wrong like that."

Trixie frowned. "I can't either. The only thing I can think of is that coming down the trail as fast as I did shook things up in the wagon. Even that doesn't explain why the record player came back on all of a sudden though."

"Well, we can worry about that later. Here we are, at my homestead." The Coyote Colt gestured with a hoof at a run down house with a small vegetable garden on one side. Light shone out from the window, and Trixie could see shadows moving inside. "Why don't you wait up here for a second, let me clue the boys in that I brought a visitor back with me. They can all be a bit... jumpy when a stranger shows up without them knowing ahead of time." Without waiting for a reply, he galloped down to his home and entered.

Finding herself left alone, Trixie thought back to the warning that the sheriff had made about outlaws causing trouble for Appleloosa. Was The Coyote Colt and his still unseen friends the ones the sheriff had been talking about? She decided that she really couldn't tell just yet. The sheriff hadn't even mentioned if one of the outlaws was a unicorn, and judging by The Coyote Colt's story, he seemed more like a pony down on his luck than any sort of trouble maker. Deciding that she could at least hear these ponies out, and figuring that she could use her magic to easily get her out of any trouble that might arise if they were a group of thugs, Trixie waited patiently.

After a few minutes of standing alone, Trixie was about to turn around and leave after all, tired of the growing delay, when The Coyote Colt finally exited his house and trotted up to her. "Sorry about that. The guys had made a mess while I was away, and they wanted to clean things up real quick before you came inside. It isn't an everyday occurrence that a lady visits us way out here, after all." Trixie smiled at the compliment. He led Trixie down to the front door, and paused. "Just as a warning, the fellows are a little bit nervous around strangers the first time they see them, so try not to take any silence on their part as anything other than them getting used to you." That said, he opened the front door wide.

Trixie was surprised by the fact that inside, only one other pony could be seen. She also saw a pair of buffalo, and a tall, upright creature that made her think of a dog or a wolf. Seeing her confusion, the blue grey being grabbed his black cowboy hat from his head and bowed respectfully. "Hello, ma'am." he said in a deep, raspy voice. "Might I judge from your studies of me that you have never seen one of my kind before?"

"Um, yes." Trixie replied, taken aback by how civilized his speech patterns were.

"I am a diamond dog. My kind prefers to live underground, but I never enjoyed that kind of life. My name is Douglas, and it is a pleasure to meet you..."

Trixie realized he was waiting for her name, and she replied, "I am the Great and Powerful Trixie. I am glad to have made your acquaintance as well."

The Coyote Colt stepped forward, and gestured to the two buffalo. "These here are the brothers Tumble and Weed." Tumble had a shaggy coat of light brown fur, while his brother Weed's was of a much darker shade of brown. Each grunted in turn as their name was spoken. "They both sympathize with my plight, as they have been forced to watch their own tribe be slowly pushed away from their traditional lands by the settlers of Appleloosa. Tired of watching their chief have to make compromise after concession, just to keep the buffalo people from being utterly shut out from their ways, they have joined up with me. The hope is that, together, we can find a way to make the settler ponies at least recognize the thoughtlessness of their actions against the natives of this land."

Trixie nodded slowly. "I am sorry to hear of that. It was something The Great and Powerful Trixie was unaware of."

The Coyote Colt chuckled angrily. "Of course you hadn't heard of it. It isn't like the settler ponies would up and announce to any and every pony who arrived in their town everything they did that might make them look bad." He then pointed at the brown pegasus, who Trixie realized had only one wing to go with his cutie mark of a whirlwind. "This here is One Winged Willie. He used to help out Appleloosa with the weather, make living out here in these harsh lands much more bearable. But he got bit by a rattler one night, and the poison of the snake was so bad, it atrophied his wing and made him hurt all day long. Finally, at his pleading, they cut it off to stop the agony. But since he was unable to do his job anymore, they pretty much pushed him out of town."

"They done and bushwacked by bird feathers, they did!" the pegasus said in a high pitched voice that made Trixie wonder if he was drunk. "Gone and made me like a scorpion without his stinger, yup yup yup!"

The Coyote Colt leaned in towards Trixie and whispered into her ear, "He isn't all there anymore, if you know what I mean. Which makes the townsfolk forcing him away all the more tragic, if you ask me." Straightening up, he said to everyone, "Trixie here suffered at their hooves like the rest of us. She went and tried to put on a exhibition of magic for their entertainment. But when some bad luck happened, they mercilessly laughed at her, made fun of her!" The rest of his gang shook their heads in dismay, and muttered how unfair it all was.

Trixie felt her pride swell. Finally, some folks who sympathized with her, who seemed to understand! "Well, it is a good thing indeed you found her then, boss. We wouldn't have wanted her to be caught up in your plan for tonight!" Douglas said.

The Coyote Colt nodded. "Indeed." he turned to Trixie. "Me and my boys were going to go pull a prank of the townsfolk tonight. They just finished building a new water tower a couple of days ago, and we thought it might be fun to go and paint our names on it. Let them know that, no matter how much they push us around, that they can't get rid of us as easily as they wish they could."

Trixie frowned. "That sounds a bit dangerous! I mean, if they have all been as rotten as you say they are, what is there to stop them from coming at all of you in force?"

The grey unicorn chuckled. "Oh, we're fully aware of the risks. But if we can get them to feel even a portion of the frustration they made us undergo, why, it'll be worth it. I was going to suggest that you stay here while we go and pull it off, though. Like you say, things could get out of hand. The Appleloosans might go a bit overboard, after all, if they see us too soon. Unless..." he paused, and shook his head. "No, I'm an idiot for even thinking about it. Forget I said anything."

Trixie felt her curiosity roused. "Oh? Surely it could not hurt to tell me about it."

His face blushing in embarrassment, The Coyote Colt looked to the side and said softly, "Well, I was thinking that, if you did something even remotely close to those awesome spells you were using during your performance, it would create the perfect distraction for the rest of us, easily buying us enough time to get in, make our marks, and get out again before they knew what we were doing. Especially after they didn't even give you a single bit for your efforts earlier, it'd be a way for you to get back at them for that slight too."

Trixie felt conflicted. After all, she didn't really know this group well enough-- she didn't know anypony out here well enough, really-- to be choosing sides in something like this. The obvious choice was to just stand back, maybe return to her wagon and curl up for the night. Pretend she knew nothing about anything related to this.

And yet, she also felt an urge to help this motley crew out. Even though she hardly knew them, they seemed to have warmed to her rather quickly. And as The Coyote Colt had said, the settlers had been rather rude to her. They had laughed at her, and treated her efforts as nothing more than a joke. Why, it would be delicious irony she realized if her tricks helped prick the pride of these settlers! If she was careful, they wouldn't even see her, and she could then slip back to her wagon.

"You know what?" Trixie said. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is intrigued by this escapade of yours. What all would you have me do?"

"You, you would really help us out?" The Coyote Colt said in awe, tears starting to well up in his eyes. "You have no idea how much this means to us, Trixie. We've been trying to decide on what to do for a while now, and we all agree that things have finally gone far enough. We either have to pack up and head far away, or make a stand. And as you can see, we decided that we we're going to make a stand, once and for all." The rest of the gang nodded solemnly.

The Coyote Colt's face took on a sterner edge, and he motioned everyone to gather around him. "Okay, here's what the changes to the plan are going to be then..."

Well, I'm back from the show, cousin, and I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about what I just saw. Trixie was as stuck up as you made her out to be. Using long words, always talking about herself in the third pony, and as prideful as any pony I ever saw. But her show was completely different from the one you described in your earlier letter. Instead of just standing there bragging, baiting others to challenge her, well, she actually performed!

And, I have to admit, what I saw her do was for the most part pretty impressive. It's just that things went haywire for her the whole time. Small glitches in the act that made every trick she tried to perform backfire and made her look more like a clown than a performer. I'm still undecided if she meant to have everything she tried to do mess up on purpose, or if she was just really unlucky.

Not sure about what else to write, Braeburn put his quill down and looked outside. A half moon was rising in the sky, giving the landscape a ethereal white tint to it. He could even hear the sound of the piano playing in the Salt Lick if he tried to, with it being a rather quiet night. Feeling restless, Braeburn headed outside and slowly walked down the main street of Appleloosa. With no destination in mind, he simply wandered and was surprised to find himself back at the stage.

He looked around at the area, surprised to see that Trixie hadn't even bothered to clean up after her performance. A giant pile of rope was still sitting off to one side, where Trixie had pushed it after crawling out from underneath it. Even more shocking was the fact that her wagon still appeared to be open.

"Hello? Trixie?" he called out as he slowly walked towards the open wagon door. Peering inside, he saw a mess. Burn marks were everywhere, and nothing was situated like he would have expected it to be. Braeburn looked around for a sign of the unicorn performer, and didn't see any. With worry evident on his face, he galloped back to town. "I've got to tell the sheriff!" he said as he made a beeline for the jailhouse. "I wonder if something happened to her!"

Arriving at the jailhouse, he saw that the lights were out. Knowing that it was too early for the sheriff to be asleep already, he trotted over to the Salt Lick to see if he could find him there, or at the least somepony who had seen him recently. Just as he was about to enter between the swinging doors however, a loud boom rattled the windows. Braeburn jumped to one side as several ponies came running out of the watering hole to see what had caused such a ruckus.

On the top of a hill opposite of where the ponies stood, a small fire was visible. "What's going on here?" Braeburn turned to see that Sheriff Silverstar had indeed been inside the Salt Lick.

Trotting up to him, Braeburn said, "I don't know to be honest, sheriff. I was trying to find you when, just as I got here, well you heard it just as well as I did, I reckon. Maybe that's what caused the fire? Sort sort of explosion?"

The sheriff paused to consider things. "Well, we certainly can't leave that alone. Even though there isn't much of a wind at the moment, who knows when one will pick up and make it spread. Okay everypony, let's go put it out!" The assembled ponies moved off towards the hill, intent on stomping out the fire before it could grow.

"Sheriff!" Braeburn called out. Silverstar paused and turned back to him. "That wasn't the reason I was looking for you, sir."

"Oh, and what was?"

"I was walking down near the stage, and it looks like Trixie has just vanished. She didn't clean up after her performance, and her wagon is just sitting there, open with nopony around." Braeburn explained.

Sheriff Silverstar stopped, and gave a thoughtful look back at the fire on the hill. "I reckon those ponies can handle that problem up there. Why don't you come with me, son. All of a sudden I have a feeling that things are about to turn ugly."

Braeburn gulped. "Where are we going?"

"To the bank."

Trixie and One Winged Willie trotted down from the hill, leaving behind them a bonfire burning brightly. Trixie had used her magic to quickly gather up a large pile of wood, and then provided the loud noise. She then watched Willie, amazed at how quickly the pegasus had been able to get a flame going. "So, what do we do now?" she asked.

"Well, I reckon we can always skedaddle around the back way and join up with the rest of the gang at the bank." the pegasus replied.

Trixie paused. "The bank? Why would we go there?"

"Well, um, it's a place to gather at before we head to the water tower! Nice big place like that, in case we get lost, right?" Willie picked up his pace. "C'mon, let's get moving, we don't want to be late! Heh heh heh."

Trixie followed after the pegasus, confused at Willie's reasoning. How could any group get lost in such a small town like Appleloosa? But then, she realized, it wasn't like any of them lived in the town. Maybe they really didn't know much about the place? Trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together in her head, she continued towards town. After they were a fair distance away from the hill, she saw a group of ponies racing up towards the fire they had set. Well, at least that seems to have worked out perfectly, she thought. The fire will be extinguished safely while keeping anypony from interfering with the vandalism that the others are performing right now.

"Ah, cactus needles!" Willie cried out. "They're gonna stop my precious fire! And so soon after I got her going too." he lamented. Trixie recoiled as a crazed look overtook the pegasus's face. "I guess I'll just have to start another one then!" Willie shouted in glee. With that, he dashed towards the town, heading straight to the closest building.

Stunned for a moment, Trixie galloped after the pegasus, wondering just what he had in mind. By the time she caught up to him, he had stopped outside a house, and was gathering up a bunch of wood and placing it under a window. "What are you doing?" She hissed at Willie, not wanting to draw the attention of anypony inside the house.

"Well, since those Apple-idiots are putting out my other fire, I thought I'd set another one right here!" He continued to shove kindling under the stack of wood he had gathered.

"There's no need to do that! We were just supposed to make a distraction while the others go and paint their names on the water tower!" Trixie looked around, glad to see that the two of them were still unnoticed by anypony yet. "Not only will another fire bring those other ponies back faster from the site of the first fire, you're likely to hurt somepony!"

Willie turned to Trixie and gave her a look that turned her blood cold with fear. His eyes were open wide, and yet his pupils were so tiny she could barely see them. "I know!" He said, his voice filled with malice and eagerness. "Wouldn't that be great?" He turned his attention back to his pile of wood, and pulled out his flint and steel from underneath his wing.

Trixie took a couple of steps away from Willie, fearful of what the seemingly senile injured pegasus had turned into. In the distance, she heard somepony yell, "The bank! Bandits are trying to rob the bank!"

Things quickly fell into place for Trixie. Using her magic, she pulled the flint and steel away from Willie's hooves, and flung them on top of the house. "Hey! Why'd you have to go and do that for?" Willie protested.

Not bothering to answer, Trixie looked around, and seeing a clothesline in the neighboring yard, magicked it over to her. Seeing that Willie was starting to run off, she send the cord after him, and tangled up his feet with it, tripping him just before he got onto the main avenue. "Fellas! Help!" Willie called out. "That witch has turned on me! She stole my fire tools, and is trying to mrrfmrrf!"

The pegasus was cut off as Trixie grabbed a bucket with her magic and used to to cover his mouth. "Now, now." Trixie chided the pegasus. "That isn't a polite thing to say at all! I'm a magician, not a witch!" Running over to him, she quickly hogtied Willie up, and then cautiously looked onto the street.

It was chaos. The buffalo brothers were charging back and forth, chasing settlers away from the street, while Douglas and the Coyote Colt stood just outside the bank, staring at the sheriff and another pony who held their ground in front of it. Trixie cursed at her foolishness. Had she really been that desperate to hear anypony speak well of her that she had swallowed what were now obvious deceptions, and allowed herself to be manipulated the way she had? Looking at what was happening, the obvious answer was a painful yes.

She quickly checked on Willie, and seeing that the struggling pony wasn't making any progress on freeing himself, she tied one end of the clothesline to a fence post to make sure he couldn't roll into the street. She then stepped out onto the road and, using her magic, made a bright flare appear above her head, drawing everyone's attention to her. Douglas ran towards her, and the buffalo stopped to watch.

"Trixie, glad to see you made it. Where's Willie?" the diamond dog asked.

With a smirk, Trixie replied, "Sorry, he's a bit tied up at the moment. What happened to defacing the water tower? I didn't think water was rare enough to be considered a liquid asset in that manner." Behind her, she could hear the pegasus muffled yells become louder.

Douglas seemed able to hear them too. "I see. Really, you think you can take us all on, Trixie?"

Trixie laughed. "Well, I am the Great and Powerful Trixie, after all. And besides, didn't The Coyote Colt tell me that I should make a stand? I think that is just what I'm going to do." Douglas pulled a lasso that was coiled up from his belt, and started to twirl it above his head as Tumble and Weed started charging at her.

"Really? A lasso?" Trixie asked, scorn dripping from her voice. "You're making this too easy!" Her horn glowed brightly, and she pulled the lasso away from Douglas and used it to tangle up the feet of the charging buffalo, who became a tumbling pile and crashed loudly into the side of a building.

The diamond dog charged at Trixie, and she found herself just barely able to dodge his attempt to tackle her. He picked himself up from the ground, and growled at her. "Boss!" He yelled. "We have ourselves a problem here!" Trixie spared a second to glance at the bank. The two ponies who had been guarding it had been knocked to the side, both bleeding from cuts on their sides. The bank doors stood wide open, and The Coyote Colt was nowhere to be seen. Douglas cursed and ran off. Trixie let him leave, and galloped towards the bank. She had almost reached it when the sheriff looked up and saw her.

"Get away from here!" He yelled. "The Coyote Colt is inside, I won't see any other ponies hurt by him tonight if I can help it!"

Trixie laughed loudly. "Oh, don't worry, sheriff! I won't be hurt tonight! Instead, The Coyote Colt will regret the day he tried to trick The Great and Powerful Trixie!"

Just then, the Coyote Colt came walking out, holding several bags overflowing with bits in the air with his magic. "Well, well, well. Seems like somepony figured some things out." He dropped the bags of money on top of the sheriff and the other pony, a yellow stallion wearing a brown vest and with a red apple for a cutie mark, eliciting groans from both of them and also pinning them in place. "Looks like it's time for you to learn another lesson."

Laughing, Trixie dismissively waved a hoof at the outlaw. "Oh please, I just took out the rest of your gang without even breaking a sweat. What chance do you have against me alone?"

Scowling, he used his magic to levitate a couple of knives out of his bandoleer. "Nopony goes one-on-one against The Coyote Colt and wins. Nopony!"

The Great and Powerful Trixie smiled, her horn glowing brightly. "We'll see about that!"