The Good, the Bad, and the Ponies

by Sharp Spark

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe
Length: 22656

As a train heads west into the wild frontier, six different mares have their sights set on its valuable cargo. When they collide, old grudges come to bear and bullets begin to fly.

Out on the frontier, the only friend a pony can really trust is the gun in her hoof. Out where the land is wild and the buffalo roam, more than a few ponies have foregone scratching out a living on the farms or mines to seek riches and glory on the wrong side of the law. As a particularly mysterious and valuable cargo heads west on a long train journey, six mares follow with trouble in their wake, each intending to claim the prize for her own.

Also, a lot of ponies get shot.

Edited by: Exuno
Preread by: barbeque
Inspired by the art of: Coin-Trip39
(Make sure you take a look at the cover image full-size! It's fantastic!)

Published 2013-09-05 05:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2014-03-02 20:20:38 UTC

I: Once Upon a Train in the West

The station was busy – busier than usual. Hayseed kept on chattering, oblivious to the chaos around him, but Applejack’s eyes flickered back and forth attentively. There were lots of passengers milling around, but it was the weekly 10:00 A.M. Westbound Express, and those ponies interested in traveling far had to catch the train today.

That meant businessponies headed to Las Pegasus, ragged-looking miners out to seek their fortune in the Rocky Spurs, and farmponies with their families moving west to the open lands of the frontier. It made for a large crowd, but a crowd this size wasn’t abnormal.

The lawmen, however, stuck out. The entire station was swarming with ponies bearing silver stars pinned to their vests. Applejack’s sharp eyes made out the insignia – feds, not local boys. Something big was happening, and it had to do with the crate being loaded onto a rear storage car. A whole posse of brawny officers watched over the nondescript box, with their leader embroiled in a heated debate with a purple unicorn.

Applejack couldn’t help but peer curiously, until she heard the buzzing of Hayseed’s voice drop off. She turned back to him with an easy smile.

“Well, cousin, this’s probably it,” he said. “I sure do wish you coulda stayed longer. Next time you plan on gettin’ into town, give me a holler first and we’ll be more ready for you.”

“Aw, shucks,” Applejack reached over to grab him in a loose hug. “Y’all know I don’t expect much. Puttin’ me in with the chickens is just fine, knowin’ how harvest season gets.”

“Tell the other Apples we all miss ’em. It’s been, what, years and years since we’ve seen hide or hair of any of y’all. We was beginning to think somethin’ had happened!”

Applejack pulled back and closed her eyes as she tipped her hat. “Will do,” she said. She glanced back towards the city. It wasn’t much of a city, and the Seeds were one of many farming families living in the surrounding county, but it was far more than she was comfortable with. Her smile was easy and genuine as she looked at the train. “But I reckon I should be on my way.”

For a moment, Applejack thought she saw a tear in Hayseed’s eye, but he pulled her in for a tight hug. She had to gently push back to get him to let go, and even then, he kept waving enthusiastically as the crowd hustled and bustled around him.

She nodded back and turned to walk off towards the passenger cars. This many ponies around meant it took some effort, but she smoothly threaded her way through ponies rushing back and forth. She had almost made it to the ticket-taker when a big sheriff’s deputy barged through, knocking her back into a scrawny pegasus and sending them both sprawling.

Applejack hopped up to her hooves, embarrassed at taking a tumble, and offered a hoof to the pony, who was covered head-to-toe in coal dust that stained her coat a grimy grey. The mare looked back at her with a glare that could have peeled paint off a barn and used her wings to lift herself up, ignoring the proffered help. “Watch where you’re going, mudhoof,” she spat in a raspy voice, and then before Applejack could fire back, the pegasus was gone, slipping off into the crowd.

Applejack frowned. Some ponies wouldn’t know civility if it bucked them in the face. She straightened up her vest and recentered the rucksack on her back, smiling at the comforting weight between her shoulders. No sense sweating the small stuff. There was plenty of big stuff still to worry about.

The fire was important. Even in the morning, the fire was a symbol. Of... something.

Life, maybe. Or consuming hunger. Maybe… maybe anger. Anger that at times faded to embers and other times flared up in an inferno, but always burned.

Yes, anger. Fluttershy thought that was appropriate.

She didn’t move or speak as she stared into the fire, waiting for the drums to stop beating and the elders to speak. Devil’s talons dug into her shoulder, but it was a good pain, and she bore the weight of the hawk with no complaint.

The grizzled buffalo resting on the dais overlooking the fire slowly shuffled to his hooves, gazing down with rheumy eyes at Fluttershy. She met his stare, giving no ground.

“Enough,” he said, and the drumming ceased, leaving a silence interrupted only by the the sound of the wind.

Fluttershy’s face was stony in looking up to the Chief. His head dipped once, approvingly.

“Pony, you have done much for our tribe. Your debt to us is more than repaid in spirit and blood. I must ask again. Why do you fight for us?”

Fluttershy didn’t answer. She gazed upwards unblinking as the moment drew out longer.

“Very well,” the Chief said. He raised a hoof upwards and a pair of young buffalo took up position next to Fluttershy.

The Chief turned slowly to look out at the horizon. “There is one more task we ask of you. Not as master to debtor, but as tribe to brave.” His voice dwindled away in a gusty sigh before picking back up. “The ponies have taken much from us. Our land. Our sons and daughters. Even our very way of life. But we are going to take back what is ours.”

He raised a hoof and pointed off in the distance, where sunlight glinted off of the ribbon of metal tracks that cut through the scrubby desert. “The ponies have the greatest treasure of the Buffalo, plundered from their destruction of the peaceful peoples of the Eastern Plains. They are moving it. We do not know why. We do not care. We are going to retrieve it.”

He turned to face Fluttershy. “You are going to retrieve it. We cannot risk openly attacking the ponies now. We cannot give them reason to justify war on us once again. You will not be alone. We have arranged for another pony to assist you in your task.”

He paused, but Fluttershy did not speak or look away.

“You will retrieve our treasure. Strongheart and Proudhoof will guide you.”

The buffalo on either side of Fluttershy dipped down in deep bows.

Fluttershy’s eyes returned to the fire. “And if I must kill?” Her soft voice cut through the silence, causing the buffalo near her to tense.

The Chief’s head slowly drifted down and then back up. “Then it must be so.”

Fluttershy’s knelt down to the dead rabbit in front of her – a prize that Devil had provided her earlier that morning. With a soft click, she slid her knife out of its sheath, deftly handling the long blade. In a single, smooth motion, she struck, cutting across the rabbit’s underbelly. Reaching down, she touched her hooves to the blood and reached up to smear the red in twin lines across her face.

She did not speak as she stood and turned to walk away from the fire, only pausing to heft her rifle from its resting place at the edge of the circle.

It did not take long before the train started moving, and expecting a long trip, Applejack had decided to make her way to the refreshment car. She wasn’t any sort of fancy pony, but knew very well that words like ‘refreshment’ were polite ways to hide certain real meanings. When she sauntered in to see the bar, she knew she was in the right place.

A savvy glance sized up the clientele – mostly businessponies and the well-to-do – but her eyes lingered on one particular mare. She was dressed in a suit, a finely tailored affair that had seen better days, still maintaining a certain classiness but worn and faded with age. Where most of the other ponies were engaged in friendly banter with friends or sociable strangers, the white unicorn stood alone at the bar, the cold half-sneer on her face plainly stating that her solitude was a deliberate choice.

Applejack smirked as she trotted up to take the seat next to the mare. “Hey there, how boutcha buy a drink for an old friend?”

The unicorn’s head tilted slightly as she looked down her nose at Applejack. “I don’t think I have had the pleasure of making your acquaintance.”

“Then how ’bout a drink for a new friend?” Applejack grinned, raising her eyebrows hopefully.

“I don’t think so,” the mare replied. She turned and started to move away, but Applejack reached out to grasp her sleeve and the unicorn froze.

“Hold your hooves. I’ll buy you a drink. Whatd’ya say?”

The unicorn sized Applejack up, eyes flashing as she took in the battered stetson and dusty farmpony attire. Her frown deepened.

Applejack raised her other hoof to gesture the bartender over. “I’m Applejack.”

The pony hesitated, but finally jerked her leg away from Applejack and turned to the bar. “Whiskey. Neat.” She inclined her head slightly, still studying Applejack without facing her directly. “My name is Zirconia.”

Applejack whistled. “That’s sure pretty. What brings you on board, Miz Zirconia?”

“Business.”

“What kinda business?”

“Personal business.” Zirconia sniffed. “I could ask you the same.”

“And I could answer!” Applejack smirked. “I’m a farmer. Crops are doin’ terrible out west, though. On my way home now with some new seeds, s’posed to be drought resistant. We’ll hafta see if that’s true or just a load of hogwash.”

An eyebrow arched on Zirconia’s face. “Seeds? And where, pray tell, are you carrying these seeds?”

Applejack frowned slightly, and raised a shoulder to shake the rucksack on her back. “Apple seeds are small. And it ain’t like we’ve got a real big farm or nothin’.”

“Mhm.” Zirconia lifted the glass in front of her and took a sip of the amber liquid before grimacing. “Cheap stuff,” she muttered. “Figures.”

“But that’s what I’m here for. What about you, now?”

“Like I said, business.” Zirconia’s eyes wandered over towards the door to the next car, where they came to a sudden stop as one of her ears flicked.

“That’s awfully non-specific,” Applejack said.

Zirconia’s eyes remained fixated on the door. “The jewelry business,” she said. “Do you hear something?”

Applejack paused, in time to hear a muffled thump from one car over. “S’probably somepony dropping something. So jewelry.” She smirked. “Supply or demand?”

Zirconia opened her mouth, about to reply, when the sound of a gunshot rang out. All eyes turned towards the door to the next car. Applejack slowly spun around on her stool to face the door.

Everypony seemed to be holding their breath as the door slowly creaked open. A blue earth pony dressed in a train porter’s uniform stumbled through, clutching his chest. His eyes were wide as he fell to his knees, and he pulled his hoof back to stare at the red blood on it without any signs of comprehension.

He collapsed forward to sprawl out on the floor of the refreshment car as the patrons started to scream.

Applejack and Zirconia stood as calm islands in the ocean of chaos as ponies rushed away, knocking tables and chairs as they fled, jostling and shoving one another in their rush to the door leading to the opposite car.

A hulking green stallion wearing a black bowtie stepped through the door, a long revolver in his hoof. His eyes scanned the panicking ponies and fixated on the unmoving two at the bar. As the gun dropped down to point directly at them, Applejack’s eyes grew large.

Alone in the middle of the desert, a rickety wooden tower stood, an ancient outpost that marked an old train junction. At one time plenty of trains had traveled on that rusted track, heading all the way to a lone mountain peak in the north. Back then, the mine still had flecks of silver and plenty of promise. When those promises had run dry, mine and town both had withered away to nothing, leaving behind empty houses and a thousand ghosts of old hopes and dreams.

Pinkie got a little dramatic when she thought about it. The hard line of her mouth tightened further as she raised an old spyglass to look in the distance. She could see the cloud of smoke on its way. It wouldn’t be much longer now.

She allowed herself one more glance north towards the peak in the distance. It hadn’t been a bad town, for the short time that she was there. Mining was hard, boring work, but it paid well enough, always held the chance that you’d strike it big, and most importantly, you weren’t in chains.

The mine going under meant Pinkie needed to find a new line of work – more accurately, she needed to return to an old line of work. The buffalo hadn’t said what it was she was supposed to steal, but if they wanted it bad enough to promise her the bits they did, it was probably worth even more on the black market.

She checked the satchel at her side. The benefits of a mining town meant plenty of supplies that had been left behind – not much in the way of valuables, but certain items that would come in handy on this job. Her hoof moved from the satchel to a pocket in the threadbare pants she wore, feeling the reassuring shape of the small box within.

The train was certainly moving fast. It had gone from a speck in the distance to a silver bullet trailed by a cloud of dark black smoke as it quickly approached.

The speed would make it tricky to get onboard. She leaned over to twang the solid cord moored at the tower’s edge. Her eyes followed the line from its place on the tower down to where it ran in a diagonal line across to a point on the other side of the tracks.

She eyeballed it for at least the twentieth time. It’d do – not perfect but she could make it work.

She frowned as she lifted the satchel and threw the strap over her shoulder, grabbing the metal hook from the floor. It only took a moment to clamber up onto the tower’s railing and loosely hold the hook to the rope.

She waited, biding her time.

The white stallion straightened his bowtie as he looked into the mirror to check his hair. He frowned as he turned back to the room, where several similarly attired stallions lounged around aimlessly.

“Report!” Blueblood called out crisply. “Have we secured the train yet, or not?”

The ponies in bowties glanced at one another and shrugged, one eventually speaking up. “Haven’t heard anything, boss. Rough and Tumble should be back from the locomotive pretty soon, but it’s gonna take a while for the boys to make it all the way to the rear of the train.” He laid a hoof on his holstered pistol and leaned back, stretching. “Remind me again why we didn’t just start at the back if the whatsit’s being kept there?”

“Idiot,” Blueblood growled. “First class is up front. Didn’t you see all the marshals at the station? It would have been suspicious not to be here. Not to mention absolutely improper.”

The pony rolled his eyes and slunk down into a seat.

Blueblood walked over to a window and stared out to see a lonely mountain rising in the distance, surrounded by desert. He hated desert. As soon as they had secured the shipment, he would head back to civilization, to find a place to spend his hard-earned cash. Maybe Los Pegasus. Or if the heat was too much there, he could make his way back to Manehattan and lie low for a bit. Yes, that would be nice. Drinks at the nicer variety of nightclubs, perhaps with a few mares who he knew would go for a stallion with bits to spare. Maybe even rent out a penthouse suite at—

His reverie was cut short by a loud thudding coming from above. He pushed the window open and stuck his head out, looking up just in time to see a wisp of pink vanish from sight.

“There’s somepony on the roof!” His goons all suddenly slouched, trying not to meet his eyes. Blueblood gritted his teeth and raised a hoof. “You, you, and you. Get up there and take care of it.”

He paused for a moment, noticing a distinctive lack of movement. His hoof moved down to grab his pearl-inlaid pistol. “Now!” he shouted, and he fired a shot right through the ceiling to emphasize his command.

The loud bang caused the thugs to jump and hustle over to the window, where they busied themselves with trying to figure out a good way to crawl out and get to the top of the car.

Blueblood turned to his remaining henchponies. His hoof pointed to the pony who had been questioning him earlier as he sneered. “You, check on Rough and Tumble. The rest, start getting our backup plan in place.”

Everypony turned to glance at the heavy crate in the corner of the car.

“I don’t pay you to stand around! Get to work!”

The first shot whistled over Applejack’s ear, exploding a bottle on the shelf behind the bar. She frantically looked to Zirconia, only to see a purple tail already disappearing over the side of the bar.

When the second shot also went wide, Applejack didn’t waste time in diving over the counter to join her.

The two ponies crouched behind the thankfully solid wood, as more gunshots exploded bottles above them, sending a rain of glass and liquor down. Applejack winced at the destruction of perfectly good alcohol, and glanced around to sum up the situation. The bartender was curled up in a ball with both hooves pressed over his ears in the corner. He wouldn’t be much help.

Zirconia, on the other hoof, was attentively watching Applejack’s movements.

“There’s gotta be a gun around here somewhere,” Applejack ordered. “Nopony runs a saloon without keeping a little somethin’ behind the bar for when things get rowdy.” She swung her rucksack to the floor in front of her and peered inside.

“Perhaps in a... saloon,” Zirconia said, voice still soft and calm. “I hardly think an establishment such as this would keep loaded firearms at the ready.”

Applejack rolled her eyes as she removed her shotgun from the rucksack, hoof lingering for a moment on the carved wooden stock. “Guess it’ll just be the two of us, then.”

Zirconia raised an eyebrow. “Surely you don’t expect me to charge out there?”

“Course not!” Applejack grinned as she patted her shotgun. “I’m talking ’bout me an’ Boomberg.”

Zirconia held one hoof up to her forehead and let out a deep sigh. “Right. Fine. It’s one thug with a gun, at least. That’s not exactly asking much, for somepony of your caliber.”

“That bein’ a farmer,” Applejack said.

Zirconia met her eyes steadily. “Sure.”

Applejack hesitated for only a moment before she doffed her hat, starting to raise it up until she felt Zirconia’s hoof on her arm.

“Allow me.” Zirconia reached in a pocket of her coat to produce a small compact mirror. Flipping it open she raised it above the bar. Her eyes watched the mirror sharply until another hail of gunfire sounded, one shot of which struck right in its center, shattering the glass.

Zirconia grimaced. “Okay. More than one, now. Still, no problems, yes?”

“How many?”

“Four.” Her hoof pointed out, straight at the wall in front of them. “Four o’clock, six o’clock, seven o’clock, and eight forty-five.”

“Eight forty-five,” Applejack said.

“You heard me.”

“I reckon that’s going to make things a mite tricky.” Applejack took one last look at her shotgun and turned to her hat, lining up shells under her hatband before placing it back on her head.

“Need a distraction?”

Applejack smirked. “As much as I’d love to see what you meant by that, I’ve got it covered.” She placed a hoof to her lips and let out an ear-splitting whistle, before another flurry of bullets impacted the bar.

Zirconia paused, frowning. “I don’t exactly see how that was supposed to—”

There was a loud bang as the door to the next car down was kicked open, followed by a whooping yell.

Applejack didn’t waste a second. Smoothly she rose to her hooves drawing the shotgun around to bear and taking in the scene, starting from her right. Zirconia had been accurate: four of them, three of whom had already turned towards the new disturbance. The one that was left was either particularly slow to react or really dedicated to putting bullet holes in the bar. Either way, he had to go.

The blast from Applejack’s shotgun hit the bow-tied pony right in the chest, sending him flying back.

More gunshots rang out from the other side of the car, but Applejack was already pumping the shotgun and loading a second shell. Swinging it back up, she took aim at the furthest right pony – Mr. Eight Forty-Five, her head filled in – right as he ducked behind a table to take cover from the bullets whizzing from across the car.

Applejack still had an angle on him. He never saw it coming.

She turned towards the other two, seeing one already crumpled to the floor. The last crouched behind a table, taking cover from the three ponies in red kerchiefs at the opposite end of the car. He flinched as more potshots echoed around him, accompanied by whooping and hollering.

Of course, from this angle Applejack had a wide open view of him. She took her time in loading the next bullet in her shotgun, giving the pony a big wink. That was enough for the bow-tied pony, who jumped up and attempt a scramble to safety, but as soon as he left his cover, the bullets of the kerchiefed ponies found their marks.

Applejack shook her head with a wry smile, nose wrinkling at the smell of gunpowder in the air. The refreshment car was a total wreck, the bar covered with bullet-holes and broken glass, the tables and chairs in the main area all scattered about, and several bodies slumped over on the floor.

The biggest of the three standing ponies pulled down his kerchief to reveal a lopsided grin. “Ya didn’t tell us there’d be this much excitement, Applejack.”

“Didn’t wantcha to start trouble before it needed causin’, Thunderlane.” Applejack set her shotgun down on the top of the bar. “Any trouble in the back?”

“Naw,” Thunderlane said. “Had a buncha ponies run by, but no shootin’.”

“Then I do believe we’ve got some cargo to steal, boys.”

“I don’t think so,” a breathy voice whispered in Applejack’s ear. She felt cold metal press against the back of her head. “Applejack, darling. I believe I’ve found a gun after all.”

Applejack froze.

“Dammit,” Applejack said, as she glanced down at the shotgun a hoofsbreadth away. “Why d’ya always have to be so darned dramatic, Rarity?”

“Put the damn gun down,” Tumble said. “Who exactly are you gonna shoot? Me?”

“If you don’t shut up, I might.” Rough hefted the revolver, aiming it around the empty car. “What if we run into somepony who’s armed? What then?”

“Train engineers aren’t armed, stupid. They’re civilians or whatever.” Tumble glanced around the empty car. “Clear.”

“If I was a train engineer, I’d be armed.” Rough moved forward, keeping his gun at the ready.

“If you was a train engineer, we’d have already crashed into a mountain.”

Rough glared at the other pony. “Open the door, I’ll cover you.”

“I’m telling you, it’s the damn locomotive.” Tumble trotted forward to push the door open, not even waiting as he breezed inside. A moment later Rough followed.

The locomotive’s interior was dark and hazy, clouds of smoke and coal dust hanging in the air. The windows on either side of the train’s controls were grimy and sootstained, causing the light that made it through to be tinged a dirty yellow.

A single pony inside held a huge shovel, moving coal from a huge pile into the furnace that powered the train. It was blazing hot – Tumble started sweating as soon as he entered – but the shoveling pony bore the heat without a single word.

“Hey, you,” Tumble called out.

“Freeze, we got you covered,” Rough added, keeping the pistol trained on the soot-covered pegasus.

Tumble rolled his eyes, but frowned as the pony kept shoveling, ignoring both of them. “I said, hey!”

The pony slowed, then after one final load turned to stick the shovel blade down in the pile of coal. Tumble realized it was a mare as she turned to face them, eyes burning like the fire of the furnace.

Tumble blinked. The sweat running down the mare’s face revealed lines of light blue and that color triggered a memory. “You— You’re one of ours, right? I remember seeing you at the hideout when Blueblood was planning this.”

Rough narrowed his eyes as he held the gun out in front of him gripped both hooves. “She wasn’t with us when we got on the train. I woulda noticed.”

Tumble shrugged. “Whatever, we’ll take her back and let Blueblood deal with it.” He nodded at Rough. “See? Easy job. It’s our train now.”

“Naw,” the pegasus said.

Tumble squinted at the mare. “What?”

Her eyes flickered in the dim light of the locomotive, staring back with such an intensity that Tumble involuntarily took a step back. As he did so he nearly tripped, and glanced down to see the body of a pony lying in the darkness, dressed in soot-stained overalls.

“It’s my train now.”

Before Rough had even a chance to move, the pegasus’s arm dropped to her side. In a blur of movement, one hoof dipped to draw her revolver, while the other crossed over to rest on the hammer of the weapon.

Three shots came out, so close together that they sounded like one. The first blew the gun right out of Rough’s hooves, which would have caused him distress had the next not found its way right between his eyes. Tumble found himself equally indisposed by a bullet hole in his chest, and everything grew dark as he sank to his knees.

“Tch,” Rainbow Dash said. “I screwed that up. Should have left one alive to question.”

She headed over the train’s controls, checking the gauges. She didn’t know what most of them meant, but the important part was that the throttle was cranked up for maximum speed.

Even over the clanking machinery, her ears made out the sound of the door opening behind her.

“Hey, the boss said to go check on— Whoa! What happened!”

Rainbow Dash’s mouth curved in a predatory grin as she turned around.

“Gentlemen,” Rarity said. “I take it you are the notorious Bad Apple Bunch?”

Thunderlane’s mouth formed a sneer. “Ya could say that, yeah.”

Rarity frowned. “Applejack, I must say, you’re really scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel here.”

“At least they don’t mind gettin’ their hooves dirty,” Applejack muttered.

Rarity pressed the gun ever-so-slightly forward against Applejack, causing her to jerk her hooves higher in the air. “Very well. Now, Mister Thunderlane. I have no grudge against you, but the items that are being transported on this train belong to me. If you want your fearsome leader back alive, could you be so kind as to drop your firearms?”

Thunderlane looked from the pony at his left to the pony at his right. “Naw, I don’t think so.” He slowly leveled his pistol at Applejack and Rarity.

“Hey!” Applejack exclaimed. “What’s the big idea, manure-for-brains? Are you tryin’ ta get me killed?”

“Ya see, Jackie...” Applejack’s eye twitched at the name. “Me an’ the boys have been thinking. We don’t think ya give us enough credit. Maybe it’s time for the Bad Apple Bunch to have a new leader, and whaddya know? That means one less pony to split the loot with.”

“You good-for-nothing weasel,” Applejack growled.

Thunderlane chuckled. “Hey, I’m just a pragmatist. This’s too good an opportunity to pass up.” The ponies on either side of him nodded, not even having the decency to look guilty about the doublecross.

Rarity sighed theatrically. “Must everything go poorly today?” Her eyes flicked to the shotgun sitting on the bar counter and then up to Thunderlane again. “Applejack, darling, do you happen to remember Salt Lick City?”

Applejack blinked. “I reckon so, yeah.”

“And have you in the remaining years learned to tell your left hoof from your right?”

“Hey!” Applejack ground her teeth. “You’re the one that couldn’t make up your mind.”

Rarity sighed again, and Applejack felt her breath on her ear. “Just don’t screw it up this time, please?”

Thunderlane scowled. “You two better not be thinking ’bout any funny bus—”

Rarity’s other hoof raised up to point at the pony to her left, and a spring-loaded derringer flew out of her sleeve and right into her hoof. A single shot sent the kerchiefed pony spinning backwards to collapse in a heap.

Meanwhile, Applejack slammed her hooves down against the bar counter, the impact cracking the wood and causing the shotgun to bounce up where she caught it easily, turning to blast the pony on the right squarely in the chest. She ducked down, dropping to the floor like a stone.

Rarity’s other derringer, now no longer blocked by Applejack’s head, aimed true to hit Thunderlane in his arm. He let out a sharp howl of pain as the gun dropped from his hoof.

Applejack smiled up from below. “Looks like someone’s still just as good as ever.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “You expected any different?”

Applejack stood and hopped over the bar, keeping her shotgun carefully aimed at Thunderlane, who was clutching his wounded foreleg. Behind her, Rarity calmly walked around the long way.

“Now what should I do with an uppity bandit who don’t know his place?”

Thunderlane looked up at her through watering eyes. “Look, Applejack, it was just a joke. We were just throwin’ her off guard and then we’d have saved you. I swear!”

Applejack smirked. “I don’t think so. But I should be sportin’. I’ll give you five seconds to get out of my sight and never come back.”

Thunderlane’s eyes grew wide and he froze.

“One...”

He spun around and dashed towards the door to the next car, scrambling as his wounded foreleg barely managed to hold his weight.

“Two.”

Applejack shot him in the back before he had made it even a third of the way there.

“Really?” Rarity said, voice dripping with disapproval. “Don’t you find that a little... uncouth?”

Applejack shrugged. “Ain’t no need to give a weasel a noble death. He woulda done the same to you or me.”

She turned her gun back towards Rarity, to see the other pony already had both derringers trained on her.

A moment passed in silence as they sized one another up.

“I reckon we’ve got some business to settle, then.”

“You could say that, yes.”

Pinkie’s legs spread out and her arms spun wildly as she tried to maintain her balance atop the train car. It was traveling fast – much too fast, and the slightest curve or bump set the car underhoof shaking and swaying.

It was a mistake to land this far up on the train. She had barely missed landing on the locomotive itself, and she figured that any important cargo would be kept in the storage cars at the very back. As she got settled and used to the movement of the train, she gauged how far back it was, and whether she’d be able travel across the top the whole way.

“Hey! You!”

At the sound of the shout, Pinkie whirled around to see a pony with a bow-tie crouched on the roof. Next to him, another two were in the progress of hauling themselves up.

The pony cautiously crept forward, a pistol held in one hoof. “What do you think you’re doing?! Get down now!”

“Tch,” Pinkie said, eyes focused in the distance. The train was making its way through the flat desert towards a looming mesa.

This is what her backup was for. Her eyes focused on the tall cliffs, running along the edge, seeking out some sign. Her eyes stopped at a sudden tiny flash. Was that her imagination? No, it had to be the sun reflecting off of metal. There, that was—

The twinge in her leg gave her less than a second to react, but she had long ago gotten used to moving first and thinking second. She flung herself off to the side, sliding across the metal roof of the train and barely managing to keep from tumbling off.

The loud crack of a rifle echoed across the desert, and a bullet slammed into the roof where she had been standing a moment before.

They were shooting at her! Pinkie felt the twinge again and dived forward in a roll, as a second shot barely missed. She didn’t have much time to consider her options, and rushed forward in a low stance to collide with the first bow-tied pony.

He screamed like a filly as she twisted a forehoof behind his back and held him up for cover. One of the other ponies tried to circle around towards her but Pinkie kicked out, hitting him square in the chest and sending him flying off the side of the train.

A gunshot hit the pony that Pinkie was using as a shield, and he stopped struggling. She grimaced – the shooter wasn’t on these guys’ side, either. The third pony had finally made his way up on top of the roof and drew his pistol, the barrel wavering with a combination of fear and the swaying of the train.

She couldn’t guard two directions at once. With nothing better to try, Pinkie flung the body she was holding in the last pony’s direction. The weight only knocked him back a few steps, but from his sharply cut-off yell, that last one was a doozy. Pinkie didn’t look back. As soon as she was clear, she sprinted towards the rear of the train.

Gunshots rang down on either side of her as she charged down the length of the train, leaping over the gaps between the cars. Her shoulder twitched and she dove to the left, then her ear tweaked and she rolled to the right. The shots were getting closer and closer as the sniper adjusted, the last one cutting through the top of her mane.

She had to find better cover than this.

As she was about to leap over another gap in between the cars, she noticed the door below was open. Without a second thought, she abruptly changed her trajectory to swing down and through, tumbling into the train car below.

She hit the floor with her shoulder first, dropping into a roll that terminated in a low crouch, still breathing heavily from her dash across the top of the train. She had to be at least two-thirds of the way down the train now, so it’d just be—

Pinkie blinked as she noticed the wreckage of furniture and surplus of bodies in the car she was in. She slowly looked up to see a very surprised orange mare with a shotgun and an irked white unicorn with two small pistols, all of which were now aimed directly at her.

Rainbow Dash had started to peek up at the top of the train but as soon as she heard the first shots, she hastily ducked her head back down. Something was going on up there, and if she flew up, she’d be a sitting duck. Er, a flying duck.

Either way, she was fast. The fastest. But not as fast as a bullet, particularly taking into account she’d need to be matching the train’s speed, and she had already made sure it was going awfully fast on its own.

She growled to herself. This was going to make it a lot harder to get to the back of the train. Heading through the cars would work, but that’d slow her down a whole lot, and her wings were itching to be used.

She shook her head. The score was too important to screw up. She’d just be patient.

Either way, the longer she stood around, the more time she wasted. Her hoof dropped down to her revolver as a grin returned to her face. It was go time.

She stepped forward with confidence and pushed open the door to the next car.

Only to immediately come face to face with a mob of ponies wearing bowties and wielding a motley collection of firearms. In the corner, several were hauling some sort of metal framework out of a big box. More relevantly, she saw Blueblood staring back, his brow wrinkled at the sight of her and lips already moving to bark out an order.

One, two, three, four... ten ponies. Not counting Blueblood. This is where using a six-shooter had its disadvantages.

“Sorry! Wrong room!” she stammered, closing the door again.

She still heard Blueblood’s muffled “Get her!” as she frantically began to look around for an escape route.

Her head swiveled up. She no longer heard any gunshots above, but it would be too dangerous to fly up now. She could go back, but there wasn’t anything that way other than the locomotive, and she’d be trapped there.

What other option did she have? Unless... Her eyes flared, as she got a slightly crazy idea.

Barely a second later, the goons slammed the door open and charged forward, guns waving every direction. They charged past the break in the cars, moving onward into the train in pursuit of Rainbow.

They’d certainly be surprised when they ended up in an empty locomotive.

That was enough to put a grin on Rainbow’s face, even though she was shaking terribly. Not out of fear or anything. Just because the train was shaking so dang much.

There was perhaps a foot and a half of space between the bottom of the train and the railroad tracks, and perhaps three feet between the flashing wheels on either side of her. She kept her wings tightly tucked against her sides as she clung upside-down onto the undercarriage with all her strength. Her gaze was straight ahead. No sense looking at the ground flying by beneath her.

She focused on the point of light that marked the next gap between cars. One hoof tentatively reached forward, shifting to grab a strut and pull herself in that direction.

Celestia damn it.

This was even slower.

Fluttershy grimaced as she pulled back from the scope on her rifle. She shifted from her prone position to a half-crouch with one knee on the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Strongheart bouncing up and down.

“What were you doing?” the young buffalo said. “The pink one works for the tribe!”

Fluttershy coolly shook her head, irked by the doubt of her loyalty. At least Strongheart had known enough to keep quiet when she was working. “No. I have a score to settle with that pony.”

“But... the tribe! Our treasure!”

Fluttershy did a last check of her rifle and hoofed it over to Proudhoof, who had the good sense to keep his thoughts to himself. “I will retrieve it myself.”

“But it’s sure to be protected! Are you not even taking your gun?”

Fluttershy’s only answer was the loosening of her knife from its sheath. Her wings flared open, and at her side Devil rocketed off into the air to a high vantage point.

Running forward, she dove off the edge of the mesa, weaving through the swirling currents as she angled herself towards the tracks to meet the train head-on.

Behind her, the two buffalo trotted up to the cliff’s edge and looked down to see her picking up speed in a dive, before Strongheart swallowed and took several steps back from the long drop.

“Is she going to be alright?” Strongheart asked.

Proudhoof looked down at the rifle, holding it with great reverence. “I would worry more about the pony she hunts.”

“Ladies,” Pinkie said. “Let’s not be hasty.”

Applejack and Rarity shared a glance before turning back to the pony that had abruptly intruded upon their standoff.

“I’m just passing through on my way to pick up a package.” Pinkie stood and stretched, brushing dust off her tattered pants. “Not looking for any trouble.”

Rarity’s eyes narrowed. “A package? And what, precisely, might it contain?”

“Party supplies.” Pinkie met Rarity’s gaze with a challenging stare of her own.

Applejack snorted. “Yeah, and I’ve got beachfront property in Neighvada to sell ya.”

“I think it’s best if you turned around and left, dear.” Rarity smiled, but her pistols never strayed from covering Pinkie.

“No, I think I’m just gonna walk on through, and then you two can get back to shooting each other or making lovey-dovey eyes or whatever.”

Applejack smirked as she saw Rarity stiffen.

Rarity’s voice turned icy. “I think if you are inclined to try, you’ll find a few new holes in those rags that you call clothing.”

An unsettling smile crossed Pinkie’s face as she calmly reached forward to unbutton the loose vest she wore. With a smooth motion, she popped the garment open, revealing dozens of sticks of dynamite strapped to the shirt underneath. “I think that might be a bad idea.”

A moment of silence passed, before Rarity and Applejack shared another glance. Applejack’s eyes were wide as she jerked her head in Pinkie’s direction and then shook her head furiously. Rarity smiled and nodded slightly, before turning back to catch Pinkie in the middle of slowly circling around the two.

Rarity’s first shot missed, but was so close as to make another hole in the frizzy pink mess of Pinkie’s mane. Somehow, Pinkie had managed to anticipate the shot, and she sprung forward, abandoning all pretense as she ran for the door, keeping her head low.

Rarity was lining up a second shot when Applejack tackled her. “Are you crazy?!” Applejack exclaimed. “You’re gonna blow us to kingdom come!”

“Not if I don’t miss. And I don’t miss.” She wrestled with Applejack for a moment before giving up at the earth pony’s natural strength. “Why didn’t you grab her?”

“Oh. Right.” Applejack let go of Rarity and took off in hot pursuit of Pinkie, but the mare was already halfway through the car, hurdling the furniture and bodies that littered the refreshment car with an unnatural agility.

Pinkie flew through the door to the next car down, looking back over her shoulder at Applejack with the faintest hint of a smile as she slammed the door shut. When Applejack hit the door at full speed a moment later, she found out painfully that it had been locked, and a few more deliberate ramming attempts with her shoulder revealed it to be sturdily built. That, or Pinkie had blocked the other side.

Applejack gritted her teeth. Either way, she didn’t take kindly to being made a fool. She took inventory at the gap between the cars. Maybe she could go across the top? One hoof was already raised to test whether a thin window ledge gave enough support for a foothold when she felt Rarity’s hoof on her shoulder.

“Darling, there’s a better solution than just chasing after her.”

Applejack blinked and lowered her hoof. “I’m listening.”

“There’s certain to be guards, and that mare will make a very suitable distraction.” Rarity smiled smugly. “We shall come in from behind while they deal with one another.”

“There’s a problem with that,” Applejack said. “How’re we s’posed to get behind ’em?”

“It has been a while since we’ve worked together.” Rarity raised her nose up in the air and bounced her mane slightly with a hoof. “I’ve learned a few new tricks.”

Applejack frowned skeptically. “I don’t know about—”

Rarity reached over with one foreleg to pull Applejack extremely close, and her horn flared a brilliant cyan as the two ponies disappeared with a loud pop.

Seconds later, the far door opened and a pegasus trotted through. Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as she saw the wreckage of the refreshments car, but she kept moving, picking her way around the mess while trying to avoid stepping on any bodies.

“Celestia damn it.”

Only to find the door to the next car locked.

The strip of blue sky that she could see above was awfully tempting. But though she didn’t hear any gunfire, the thought of taking a bullet in the wing made her shiver. It was too much of a risk to take.

Which meant...

She looked down at the tiny gap between the train’s undercarriage and the tracks and grimaced.

Great.

Pinkie didn’t waste the time looking over her shoulder as she hurried through the train, galloping down the long hallways past rows of seats and ignoring the ponies huddled in fear. She only slowed once she found herself in the first of the storage cars. The large open space was lined with luggage – suitcases, saddlebags, and traveling chests.

Her trained eyes naturally picked out a set of designer bags in faux-snakeskin as potential targets for valuables, but she didn’t have the time to spare. At best, they’d have some jewelry, maybe a pouch of bits, and that was small potatoes compared to the big prize.

She wasn’t sure how much further the treasure would be, but she was certain it would be well guarded. Quietly she slipped into the next car to find it full of more bags, all piled in a rough heap. She didn’t give them a second glance, their condition and rougher exteriors indicating their lower-class origins. More importantly, in the center of the car, a pony was waiting for her.

“Fluttershy.”

The eyes of the yellow pegasus flashed, frightening in their intensity. “Pinkie Pie. How long has it been?”

Pinkie touched a hoof to her pocket, feeling the matches underhoof as she kept an eye on Fluttershy. “Not long enough.”

Fluttershy’s head tilted as a serene smile crossed her face. “But I’ve been looking for you for so long. We have debts to settle.”

“Just get out of my way,” Pinkie said, evenly. “I’ve already made my peace with how things happened, but that doesn’t mean I won’t go through you if I have to.”

Fluttershy’s eye twitched. “You’ve made your peace? Oh, no. No, I don’t think so. You haven’t even begun to pay for what you’ve done.” Metal flashed in her hoof as she revealed the blade of a long knife.

Pinkie gritted her teeth, her hoof quietly moving up to a second pocket. “Look. The three of us knew going in that it was dangerous work, and the bank job went spectacularly wrong. But that’s nopony’s fault but—”

“You liar!” Fluttershy leapt forward, using her wings to fling herself through the air at Pinkie.

Pinkie threw herself to the floor just in time to avoid the angry pegasus missile, but Fluttershy caught herself in midair, spinning to land with her knife at the ready.

“You were the one who suggested we split up,” Fluttershy said, her voice laced with accusation. Step after step she slowly but relentlessly moved towards Pinkie. “We’ll meet at the normal place, you said. So explain to me why I walked into an ambush.”

“I—” Pinkie’s words were cut off as she had to jump back from a slash of the knife.

“Was that your plan the whole time? Maybe that’s why the bank job went wrong. Were you sick of us? Or just greedy?” Fluttershy punctuated each sentence with an attack, continually moving forward as Pinkie stumbled back to evade the sharp blade.

“I—” Pinkie felt a wall at her back and saw Fluttershy’s grin widen. She waited until Fluttershy drew the knife back for a final swing before flinging the item in her hoof to the floor and squeezing her eyes shut.

A blinding flash enveloped the storage car, and even with her eyes shut, Pinkie felt the intensity of the light. She kicked off from the wall to fling herself forward, colliding with Fluttershy in an awkward tackle. The sound of skidding metal meant that she had succeeded in knocking the knife away, but Fluttershy immediately started flailing her hooves.

“I was under arrest!” Pinkie yelled. “They caught me at my usual hiding place in Dodge Junction. I did three years hard labor at the federal rock farm, thinking the whole time that you had sold me out!”

Fluttershy kept struggling and Pinkie felt a hoof collide with her snout, sending her reeling. She opened her eyes as the pegasus kicked out with both legs, knocking her back. Even half-blinded, Fluttershy was after her blade with surprising speed, and Pinkie desperately grabbed at her pockets for a second flash bomb.

She found one, raising it in one hoof only to have Fluttershy jump at her, grabbing to wrest it out of her grasp. Pinkie immediately jabbed at Fluttershy’s other hoof, trying to knock the knife away or at least keep it from being used.

For a long moment, they wrestled, further conversation forgotten as the two ponies spent all their energy trying to overcome the other. Then, with a flap of her wings, Fluttershy turned the tables, pushing forward to knock Pinkie down flat on her back, and landing right on top of her.

She pinned Pinkie’s arms down with her knees, as Pinkie kicked out wildly. “You can lie all you want, Pinkie Pie. But somepony told them where to find me. Who else could it have been?” She smirked.

Pinkie glared upwards and then blinked. “R-Rainbow Dash?”

Fire burned in Fluttershy’s eyes as she raised the knife. “Oh? Are you going to blame dead ponies now?”

Pinkie swallowed and pushed forward, all her muscles tense as she tried to sit up. “No, Rainbow Dash is—”

“Don’t think you can trick me, Pinkie. I’ve seen all your tricks. I—” Fluttershy frowned. Pinkie had stopped struggling entirely, not even looking at Fluttershy as her mouth opened and closed.

Carefully making sure not to loosen her hold on Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy slowly turned her head to look behind her.

Rainbow Dash stood in the doorway, staring wide-eyed at the scene before her. “Oh,” she said. “Gosh. Hi guys.”

Fluttershy’s arms fell to her sides, and Pinkie’s head dropped back against the floor with a thud, both of them staring at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow rubbed her mane sheepishly. “Sorry, I’d love to catch up but I’m sort of in a hurry, so I’ll let you two get back to… whatever that is.”

Both ponies kept staring. A thought ever-so-slowly percolated through Fluttershy’s head.

With a strangled scream, she flew off Pinkie and charged at Rainbow. Pinkie Pie unsteadily got back to her hooves, and took a deep breath.

She watched for a moment as Fluttershy chased a frantic Rainbow Dash through the storage car and then took the opportunity to slip out a window.

Other ponies could worry about revenge. She still had cargo to steal.

“Look, Miss Sparkle, we’ve been over this a hundred times. We have our orders.”

Twilight Sparkle barely managed to keep from grabbing the stallion and giving him a good shake. The fact that he was twice her size helped to dissuade her from that idea. “You have got to listen to me! Tell your men to stand down!”

The stallion shook his head impassively. He pointed with one hoof at the wooden crate at the center of the otherwise empty storage car. “We are to protect the cargo with our lives. It’s that simple.”

“It is going to be your lives because you are all going to die. At this moment there are very dangerous mares on their way here, and unless you leave now and let me handle this, things are going to go very badly.”

The stallion rolled his eyes. One of the dozen of nearly-identical guardsponies snickered in the background. “I think we can handle a few mares.”

Twilight pressed a hoof to her forehead as she squeezed her eyes shut. There had to be some way to convince them that—

A scream sounded from behind the car’s front door. It was muffled through the metal, but enough to cause a few of the guards to shift nervously.

“Men, stand at the ready,” the stallion in charge barked, as he raised his own weapon.

“No!” Twilight shouted. “Go! Go now!”

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave, Miss Sparkle. It’s not safe here for—”

The scream sounded again, closer, and everypony went quiet at once. A dozen gunbarrels all pointed at the front door.

“Hold your fire, men! Wait for my mark!”

Twilight slowly backed away towards a corner of the storage car.

With a flash of movement, the door flew open and then slammed shut, a blue pegasus arriving on the inside to lean against it while panting heavily. She sighed in relief, but upon looking up found herself facing down a whole squad of armed guardsponies.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Rainbow Dash said.

With a resounding thud, something hit the door from the other side, causing the whole frame to shudder and Rainbow to let out an embarrassing “Eep!”

“This is a restricted area,” the head guardspony said. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave. Now.”

Rainbow’s mouth hung open as her eyes flickered over the stallions in front of her, sizing them up. “One… two… come on!” she muttered. Another thud shook the door, and Rainbow swallowed. Her hoof begun to creep towards the knob of the door as she smiled sheepishly.

Twilight was the only one to notice the back door of the storage car slowly open.

“I’m not going to ask you again,” the head guardspony said. “Leave or we will be forced to fire. In three… two…”

Twilight Sparkle wasn’t exactly sure what happened next. It was impossible to tell what had happened first: Rainbow Dash flinging the door open so that Fluttershy crashed through to slam into the guardsponies like a very angry bowling ball, or Applejack and Rarity opening fire from behind.

Either way, the ceiling didn’t explode until at least five seconds later.

The car descended into madness, bullets flashing and screams sounding through a cloud of smoke.

When it finally went quiet and the haze cleared, five mares were left standing, bodies strewn all around them. Applejack and Rarity had their guns at the ready, covering the remaining intruders. Fluttershy stood with her knife in hoof, blood dripping from its blade. Rainbow Dash had her revolver trained right on the yellow pegasus. And Pinkie Pie crouched in the very center, standing on the crate itself, trying to look in all directions at once.

It was a moment of stillness all too ready to burst out into violence once again, but each pony knew that whoever made the first move would also be the first to be targeted. They waited.

Until—

“Stop!” Twilight Sparkle shouted. She wobbled slightly as she stood up, the purple shield of magic around her dissipating. “Don’t shoot! I need to talk to you!”

The five ponies shared a look of confusion.

“Talk to who, darling?” Rarity said.

“You. All of you.”

“Do we know you?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Yes!” Twilight blinked. “Well, no. But I brought you all here for a reason.”

“You brought…” Applejack stopped short with a laugh. “No, I reckon a shipment of gold bars brought me here.”

“Diamonds,” Rarity corrected.

Fluttershy shook her head. “No. It is an ancient treasure of the Buffalo Tribes.”

“Um,” Twilight said, raising both hooves in front of her defensively. “Actually, that’s what I mean. It’s not any of that. Those were just rumors I made sure to spread so that you all would show up.”

Five voices exclaimed “What?” at the same time.

“Actually,” Twilight mused, “in retrospect, that was sort of an awful plan. I’m surprised it worked! But there’s a certain narrative expediency invol—”

Rainbow Dash was the first to recover. “Then what’s in the box?”

Twilight Sparkle smiled nervously. “Right. Um, Pinkie Pie, would you do the honors?”

Pinkie looked at her sharply, and then at the box under her hooves. She slowly climbed down and found an edge of the crate that had not been sufficiently nailed down, pulling at it with all her strength.

The lid clattered against the floor, and all five mares lowered their weapons, leaning in to peer at the contents.

There, on a dark red satin lining, sat five golden necklaces each embedded with a shaped jewel, and a single gem-studded tiara.

II: The Magnificent Six

“You have got to be kidding,” Rainbow Dash said.

Applejack reached down to pick up one of the necklaces and prod at it tentatively. “What kinda stunt are you tryin’ to pull?” She glared at the inset gem, shaped in the form of an apple but cloudy white in color and more than a little scuffed. With a growl she tossed the necklace back into the box. “What’s that supposed to be? Glass?”

Twilight blinked. “No, they’re the Elements of Harmony. Don’t you—”

“Elements of Hogwash, s’more like it.” Applejack narrowed her eyes as she studied Twilight’s expression. “I didn’t come here for shiny trinkets.”

“Then you won’t mind if I take your share,” Rarity said smoothly, as her magic aura lifted the tiara up so she could appraise it. “Gaudy, yes, but if it’s real gold it could perhaps be melted down and repurposed.”

“Even if you put them all together, that’s not a lot to work with,” Pinkie said, a dour frown on her face. “And you’re assuming they’re not copper underneath.”

“Well, I am not leaving empty-hoofed,” Rainbow said.

Fluttershy turned away from the crate to face Rainbow. “You’re not leaving at all.” One hoof slowly raised her knife. “Not until—”

“Girls!” Twilight shouted. They all turned to her again, and Twilight wilted a little under the five expressions focused on her, ranging from dismissive to outright annoyed. “Just… just put them on?”

Rarity promptly floated the tiara up to her head. “Hey!” Twilight said. “That one’s mine!”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Well, someone certainly fancies herself a princess.”

“Ugh.” Twilight frowned. “You’re supposed to take the one that has your cutie mark on it.”

Several sets of hooves reached down into the crate. “Mine’s missing the cloud part,” Rainbow Dash groused.

Twilight shook her head. “Now everyone put theirs on,” she said, as she doffed her hat and reached out with her magic to lift the tiara off Rarity’s head and onto her own. “See?”

Fluttershy looked down at the milky-white butterfly enclosed in the golden necklace. “See what?”

“Don’t you feel any different?” Twilight asked. She smiled brightly at the other ponies, who shifted their hooves uneasily.

After a moment of silence, Pinkie spoke up. “I’m a little hungry, I guess.”

“Embarrassed at this clashing dreadfully with my attire,” Rarity chimed in.

“Annoyed,” Applejack said. “Now are you sure there ain’t a different crate of gold ‘round here somewhere?”

Twilight’s face fell. “This wasn’t supposed to be how this worked,” she said, as tears welled up in her eyes. “It took me so long to track you girls down, and I tried so hard to have everything just right and to bring everypony together and...” Her words trailed away into soft mumbling in between teary sniffs.

Applejack and Rarity shared a disbelieving glance, and Applejack mouthed some words, gesturing at Rarity and then Twilight. Rarity smirked, and Applejack turned to Rainbow Dash, who looked bored. Gritting her teeth, she glanced at Pinkie, who was already shaking her head 'no' violently. She sighed and steeled her resolve before noticing another pony had beaten her to the task.

Fluttershy stepped forward and gingerly laid a hoof across Twilight’s shoulders, pulling her close. “Hey,” she said. “Um. It’s… it’s going to be okay?”

Twilight looked up through wet eyes. Her breath caught as for the briefest of moments she saw a flicker in the gem on Fluttershy’s necklace. It didn’t last, but it was unmistakable, and Twilight’s eyes grew wide.

“Eep!” Fluttershy said, freezing as Twilight grabbed her in a tight hug. She roughly pushed the unicorn away. “W-what’s wrong with you?”

“I think I get it!” Twilight said. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

Fluttershy took a step back as Rainbow Dash snickered.

“We just need to stick together and—” Twilight hesitated, taking in the frowns that statement had brought. A cunning plan took form in her head. “And I’ll make sure you get all the bits you can carry.”

Applejack shook her head. “How dumb do you think we are? We just shot up the better part of a train, and the law doesn’t look too kindly on that. I think I better get while the gettin’s good.”

“No! You don’t understand, I am a personal advisor to Governor Celestia herself. I can get you all pardons. And plenty of compensation.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow dubiously, not noticing the flicker of interest in Rarity’s eyes.

“You know what?” Rainbow Dash said. “That just sounds super. We can stay and throw a slumber party and promise to be best pony friends forever.”

“Yes!” Twilight said, clopping her hooves together excitedly.

“Or no, better idea: I could ditch the lot of you.“ Without a look back, Rainbow rocketed up into the air, leaving behind a prismatic contrail as she flew through the gaping hole in the roof.

To her credit, Fluttershy was the first to recover, springing up in pursuit.

“No! We—”

Twilight was abruptly cut off as Rarity leapt forward to wrap both hooves around her torso, the two of them disappearing with a pop of light blue magic.

Pinkie and Applejack were left behind, the two earth ponies alone in the remains of a thoroughly shot-up supply car.

Applejack threw her stetson to the ground in frustration. “Consarn it! Talk about a bust of a heist.”

Pinkie ignored her, trotting over to peer out through a hole in the wall as the scenery rushed past. “We’re going pretty fast, huh?”

Applejack grimaced as she trudged over to pick up her hat again. “Yeah, I reckon’. The engineer must be in a hurry.”

“Too fast to jump off?”

Applejack joined her to look out at the desert blazing by. They had to be going eighty, ninety— maybe even a hundred miles an hour.

She shook her head. “Not if you like keepin’ your bones on the inside. Just wait till we get to Dodge Junction and slip off then. We mighta poked the hornet’s nest, but they won’t be buzzin’ round quite yet.”

Pinkie looked askance at Applejack, her expression unreadable. “Dodge Junction’s not too far off now.”

“Eeyup.”

“And a little bit before you get to town, you gotta cross over Ghastly Gorge.”

“Eeyup.”

“Where that big bridge was.”

“Ee—” Applejack blinked. “Wait. Was?”

“Was.”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but grin as she blasted out of the supply car into the open sky. Finally, she could take flight and leave those losers behind.

Sure, she came away from the whole endeavor empty-hooved, but sometimes you gotta choose your battles. And the day was still young!

She tucked in her wings and leveled out, relishing the push of the wind against her feathers for a brief moment before falling into a shallow dive to maintain pace with the speeding train.

The big cargo mystery might have been a hoax, but she knew Blueblood. He wasn’t one to let a single bit slip past his grasp, and so chances were he’d have his crew round up the passengers to relieve them of any jewelry and valuables.

In which case, by now, he was probably sitting on a nice little nest egg while most of his men were off chasing down the big-cargo-that-wasn’t. The sap was as controlling and paranoid as all get-out, but Rainbow Dash wasn’t afraid of a cityslicker with a big gun, a stallion almost certainly overcompensating for—

“Rainbow Dash!”

She heard the yell behind her and didn’t even look back. Her tightly-closed lips curved into a grin and she pushed herself harder, the wind whipping past her wings as she reveled in the speed.

Fluttershy was a dangerous pony in many ways, but she didn’t have a chance in Tartarus of keeping up with the Rainbow Dash, fastest wings in the West. Flutters probably couldn’t even keep pace with the train at this speed, meaning Rainbow would have plenty of time to pop in, give Blueblood a quick and deadly surprise, and then hightail it for greener pastures.

Yeah. Rainbow Dash had everything figured out.

Behind her she heard a piercing whistle. It didn’t so much as faze her, but the responding screech from above set off alarm bells in her head.

Then, a heavy weight slammed into her side, and Rainbow Dash found her flight abruptly impeded by a ball of razor-sharp talons and inordinate rage.

She couldn’t help but scream as sharp pain lanced through her left wing, and she rolled on her side, kicking out in vain at the hawk that was tearing at her body.

That turned out to be less than her best idea. Her flight form interrupted, she fell through the air, dropping like a rock towards the ground, still at close to her top speed.

In a panic, her wings snapped open, causing a fresh wave of agony but managing to temporarily dislodge the hawk. Unfortunately, the abrupt action also jerked her body into an uncontrolled twist.

The last thing she saw was the plate-glass windows of one of the train’s observation cars rising up in front of her. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to tuck in her wings as she crashed through, pain exploding in her body before the blackness took her.

With a flash of blue, Rarity and Twilight materialized in the caboose, causing the junior-assistant engineer on duty to trip over his own hooves and tumble across the car in shock.

It only took a moment before Rarity’s vision stopped spinning and she had him covered with a derringer. A quick glance was all that was necessary to have him read and classified as harmless before she turned her gun on Twilight.

Twilight, who was staring at her with big, round eyes. “You can teleport?”

Rarity gritted her teeth, already feeling the headache coming on. Twice in one day was stupid, but she didn’t have many options. “It always helps to have a few tricks up your sleeve.”

“But the energy expenditure for not just one but two ponies should be remarkable, and I could only detect roughly a fifth of—” She halted, mid-thought and broke out into a sunny smile. “Wait, you didn’t teleport us any distance, you just kept our position constant and let the train move past us. How clever!” She glanced out the open back doorway of the caboose, seeing the tracks stretching out behind them. “Uh. Though that was close.”

“Yes, well. Whatever.” She gestured with a derringer. “The important thing is that you’re coming with me, as soon as I work out a way to get us off this train.” She looked out the back again with a grimace. “Obviously I can’t count on those two to show up on time,” she muttered before turning to the engineer still cowering at the back of the train. “You! Can you disengage this car from the rest of the train?”

“N-no… Not while we’re moving.”

Rarity’s glare caused him to curl up in a shaking ball, both hooves wrapped around his head.

She sighed. “Stallions.”

“I’m not going anywhere without the rest of the girls,” Twilight said, staring right into her eyes with conviction.

Rarity shivered and glanced away. “You don’t have much choice in the matter, darling.” She flourished her derringer again. “You’re my golden ticket, so let’s just do this the easy way, hm?”

“Ticket to what?”

“I don’t know about all the nonsense you were rambling about earlier, but you were telling the truth about being connected to Governor Celestia.” Rarity smirked. “I’ve heard the rumors.”

“Rumors?”

Rarity’s brows furrowed as her eyes met Twilight’s again. Those purple eyes were still shining with innocent sincerity. “Nevermind. Suffice it to say, I’m sure she’ll be willing to accede to my demands. Non-sequential bits— No. Gemstones. Easier to transport, harder to track. Yes, that’ll be a fine start.”

Twilight frowned. “Is that all you care about? Money?”

Rarity’s lip curled back in a sneer, but she fell silent, the witty retort dying in her mouth. The only sounds in the caboose came from the clatter of wheels against rails and the soft whimpering from the engineer.

“There is one other thing.” Rarity’s lips pursed as her eyes focused on the wall behind Twilight. “As Governor, Celestia should be able to grant clemency. A pardon for a stallion wrongfully convicted. But it’d have to be discreet. No throwing him back in jail or getting him lynched as soon as I’m out of state.”

Twilight’s head tilted, the question unasked.

Rarity sighed. “He goes by Big Macintosh. I think he’s currently being held in Foalsom State Prison.” She frowned. “What? Why are you grinning like that? Stop it!”

She poked Twilight in the chest with her derringer, and then glanced down, trying to figure out what the crazy unicorn was staring at. All she saw was the gaudy jewelry she was still wearing.

Twilight brushed past her, headed towards the door leading further up the train. “C’mon Rarity. We need to catch up with the others.”

“What?” Rarity stamped a hoof. “No! I’m the one with the gun here. I’ll… I’ll shoot you!”

Twilight kept trotting. “No you won’t. Don’t worry. I’m going to fix this. For all of us. For Big Mac. For Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.”

Rarity’s mouth dropped open. “How did you know— Who are you?”

Twilight looked back over her shoulder, still smiling.

“A friend.”

“We ain’t got time for this!” Applejack shouted.

Growling, she stood up from behind the wooden bench and zeroed in with her shotgun. The first shot struck a bow-tied pony square in the chest, the force lifting him up off his hooves before he collapsed back down into an unmoving pile.

The second just barely missed the other pony. She could practically see the buckshot part his mane as he ducked behind a bench of his own.

And then she saw the door to the next car fly open, and two more ponies rush in.

She dove down again as the reinforcements fired in her direction, slumping down with her back against the wood. Bullets whistled overhead.

The pink mare next to her raised an eyebrow.

“Get rid a’ one and two more show up,” Applejack muttered. “I feel like I’m at one of them shootin’ galleries at the county fair.”

“At this rate there’s no way we’ll get to the locomotive in time,” Pinkie said.

“Don’tcha think I know that?” Applejack felt around in her bag to grab some more cartridges, loading one up and tucking a few more into her hat. “Maybe if somepony else would lend a hoof.”

“Alright. But no complaints.” Pinkie’s head popped up, peeking over the wooden seat. “I’ll just— Eep!” A bullet cut a hole in her poofy mane as she hastily dropped back down. “You think you could get ‘em to stop shooting for a minute?”

“How d’ya expect me to do that?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Improvise?”

Applejack let out a sigh, then took a deep breath. “Hey y’all!” she shouted out. “Reckon we could take a quick breather?”

The gunshots faded away, leaving behind a suspicious silence.

A voice piped up. “Why?”

“S’all yours,” Applejack whispered in a low voice, but when she turned to see what the pink mare was doing, she froze. Pinkie had a short-fused stick of dynamite in one hoof and a lit match in the other.

“I got you a present!” she yelled, fluidly rising to stand on her back hooves. “Catch!”

With an underhoofed throw, she pitched the dynamite towards the front of the car, where a surprised stallion just about dropped his pistol as he clumsily juggled between his hooves.

Pinkie hit the deck, and Applejack barely had the presence of mind to jam her hooves over her ears.

The explosion wasn’t quite as fiery as Applejack would have expected, but the concussive shockwave hit like a ton of bricks. It blew past the two with enough force that she was pretty certain it would have sent their makeshift wooden cover flying had the seat not been bolted to the floor. As it was, it left her ears ringing and head spinning.

“What in the—”

“Nuh uh,” Pinkie said. “No complaining. You wanted fast, not clean.”

Applejack cautiously peeked over the seat. The other half of the car wasn’t much more than a black scorch mark, with no sign of the ponies that had been there a moment ago.

She stood, settling her stetson back on her head. “Let’s get movin’, then.”

The steel of the blade felt icy cold, gripped between Fluttershy’s teeth as she strode through the sleeper car. The sensation was sharp. Purposeful. Properly mirroring her own resolve.

Revenge.

That was what really mattered. The only thing that mattered.

Everything else was a distraction. The other ponies, the supposed ‘treasure’... it all had thrown her off, confused her, taken her back to a time when she was a different, weaker pony. But she was focused now. Revenge was all that she had wanted, for so very long now, and it was right at her hooves.

Her hoofsteps were quiet on the carpeted hallway, but her gait was steady. Inexorable. She drew near to a thin door that opened off the narrow hall, and a flick of a wing slid it open. Her eyes flicked over the private sleeping compartment. Empty, the bed too low to the ground to hide a pony and the closet far too shallow.

Her wing slid the door closed again, and she moved onwards.

It was a matter of time. Rainbow Dash couldn’t escape, not with Devil watching the skies. Fluttershy could afford to be patient and methodical. She would wait until she had her opportunity, and then seize it.

Fluttershy felt a trickle of blood drip down, bringing a sharp metallic taste to her tongue. She had been gritting her teeth too hard, and the knife had cut into the corner of her mouth.

She took a deep breath to relax and kept moving to the next compartment.

Fluttershy checked one room, then another. As she approached the fourth, a sound caused her ears to instinctively flick forward.

A muffled, high-pitched wailing. She hurried through her check of the closest room and pushed on to the last compartment in the sleeper car. As she approached, the sound grew louder, until harsh words barked out, through the same wall.

“I said keep it down! Or I will shut the damn thing up for good!”

Fluttershy’s wing slid the door open.

Even though these accommodations were technically the luxury suites, they were still limited by the size of the train to be fairly small. But the bedroom – at least half of it – was more than full. Seven or eight well-dressed, but terrified, ponies huddled against one wall. One couple clung together tightly, heads buried in each other’s mane. Another mustachioed stallion shook with fear, but kept standing, shielding a middle-aged mare carrying a tiny crying foal.

In the other half of the room a single earth pony stood, a black bowtie clashing with the rags he wore. His mane was grizzled and streaked with soot, and the snarl frozen on his face revealed a single golden tooth.

He turned his head at the sound of the door opening, but kept his tarnished revolver pointing at the huddled group of ponies. At the sight of the yellow pegasus and the long blade in her mouth, his eyes widened and mouth twisted in a silent curse.

“This ain’t none of your business,” he said, his eyes narrowing as they darted back and forth. “Why don’t… uh. Why don’t you just keep on movin’, feathers?”

Fluttershy didn’t speak as she sized up the stallion. She took in the strand of pearls around his neck and the two watches around his front foreleg. Then her gaze moved to the other ponies, still frozen with terror, but the eyes of the father conflicted. Terror… mixed with the slightest bit of desperate hope. The mare behind him was still shakily trying to rock the squalling foal, and another small head poked around the side of her dress, a colt not much more than a foal himself peeking out.

Fluttershy looked back at the disreputable pony with the gun, watching his lips curl back as he bared his teeth again.

“I said... this ain’t your concern,” he growled. “Now get.”

Fluttershy didn’t respond. She took her time coming to a decision.

“Close ‘r eyes,” she said.

“What?”

“I w’ ’nt talk’n to ‘ou.”

The stallion’s mouth opened and closed, and then his arm twitched, swiveling to point the gun at Fluttershy.

Across the room, the father squeezed his eyes tightly shut and turned, raising his forelegs to protect his wife and children and block the scene from their view.

He heard a single gunshot, and then a ripping sound, as a few warm droplets were flicked all the way across the room to land on his coat. For an instant, one eye cracked open, and he saw the bandit, a stained foreleg pressed to his stomach as he frantically stumbled, falling forward and out the door into the hallway.

One of the yellow pegasus’s wings dipped and then arched, a still-dripping blade sliding along the leading edge before a rapid flick sent it flying out into the hallway. His eyes flew shut again, but he still heard the wet thunk and soft gurgling that slowly faded into silence.

Fluttershy considered the group of ponies. They all were either covering their eyes or looking every direction but at her.

She turned and trotted out, stopping only to retrieve her knife. It took several tugs before she was able to pull the blade out from where it was lodged. She’d need to see about getting it sharpened soon.

She paused to wipe the metal clean on a unbloodied patch of the bandit’s clothing and then continued on. She had many more cars to get through.

Justice.

That was what really mattered. The only thing that mattered.

“We’re catching up to them, it seems.”

Twilight paused, looking over at Rarity. “How can you tell?”

Rarity pulled her hoof back from the body of a pony lying crumpled behind an overturned poker table. Her lips curved up in a half-smile. “You might say their trail’s getting warmer.”

She was distracted from the amusingly grossed-out expression Twilight was making when she noticed a familiar shape, half hidden behind the chip exchange counter of the gambling car they were in. Rarity made a beeline for the heavy iron safe, hoping in all the chaos it had so far gone untouched.

“We need to keep moving,” Twilight said. She jerked her head towards the door to the next car. “Come on.”

“This will only take a moment, dear,” Rarity murmured, stepping around the counter to get a better look. The front of the safe held a single silver dial. It was an awfully sturdy safe, but they had neglected to invest in a truly good lock. Perfect.

“We need to catch up with the girls before… before something else goes wrong!”

Rarity glanced back. “Well, go ahead, but I’m staying here. So unless you want to leave me behind...” She grinned and gave Twilight a wink. “Not so much fun when the shoe’s on the other hoof, is it, dear?”

“Uuuuugh,” Twilight groaned, already starting to pace back and forth rapidly.

Rarity ignored her, placing her head against the cold iron of the safe’s front. With a glow of blue magic, the dial turned painstakingly slowly. Rarity’s other ear folded down as she focused intently, searching for a particular sound.

The dial spun, and then, there it was. The tiny metallic click of the first tumbler opening. Rarity reversed direction, taking even greater care.

Click!

“Uh, Rarity?” Twilight’s voice butted in, causing her to momentarily freeze, trying to keep from missing the last tumbler and having to start from scratch.

“Shush, I’m almost done.”

Rarity closed her eyes, trying to block out everything but the sound. There was some sort of hissing, blowing sound getting in the way, making it hard to hear exactly. Twilight must be doing something or another. Rarity considered speaking up again to tell the mare to knock it off, but then, with a click, the final tumbler caught, and the door to the safe released.

Rarity squealed in delight, swinging the door to the safe open to find…

Poker chips.

She cried out again, this time in frustration, as she reached in the safe, raking out a pile of poker chips to scatter across the floor. No bits. No gems.

“Rarity!” Twilight Sparkle said. This time, Rarity noticed the urgency in her voice.

She turned to see a truly strange sight. In between them and the door to the next car, a black cloud had grown, mist seeping from the floor to swirl in a vortex as the cloud took on greater form and definition, until the form of a pony appeared. A shape with a ragged mane, a curved horn, and a wide-brimmed hat and poncho.

Rarity didn’t hesitate to take the shot. Bullets flew through the air, harmlessly cutting through the shape of the pony like he was nothing more than a ghost.

Unperturbed, the shadowy pony reared back. Two glowing green eyes snapped open, and a chilling howl echoed forth from between the figure’s razor-sharp teeth. “Twilight Sparkle! Tremble in fear before the great… Sombra de Diablo!”

Pinkie moved rapidly through the door, pushing ahead into the next car. Applejack followed, shaking her head – the fool pony didn’t even have a gun and she was still taking the lead.

She poked her head in, sizing up the next car for trouble. It looked clear, an open and spacious car with a thin bench running the length of the walls, huge plate-glass windows there to allow viewing of the scenery as the train traveled.

But one of them had been smashed good, meaning some sort of trouble. Pinkie was already a third of the way through, her hooves crunching against glass as she passed the broken window.

Applejack grimaced and ducked in to follow. Something about it gave her a bad feeling, but Pinkie had made it that far without running into any—

Pinkie’s back leg twitched, and then she reared back as a loud bang of a gunshot rang out, right at her hooves. In a twisting motion that seemed physically impossible, she kicked her back hooves and jumped backwards, her forelegs swinging down in a hoofspring as another gunshot barely missed her and then, a third.

There was no cover for either of them. Applejack brought her shotgun around to bear, hoof on the trigger and ready to blast away until the sight of the assailant caused her to momentarily hesitate.

It was a big minotaur, grey in color, with a shining silver revolver in his hand. His other arm held a rainbow-maned pegasus in a tight headlock, her eyes drooping closed and body hanging limp.

With a smirk, the minotaur held the gun to the pegasus’s head. “Drop your gun or this one’s done,” he barked out.

Applejack’s brow furrowed for a moment before she broke out into a smile. “Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t rightly care what ya do to Blue Wingy over there.”

She started to raise her shotgun up when a pink hoof next to her shoved it roughly back down.

“No,” Pinkie said, her mouth set in a thin line as she stared forward at the minotaur.

Applejack frowned. “I sure hope you got a plan or somethin’ here. What’s to say he doesn’t just shoot us anyways as soon as we’re unarmed?”

Pinkie slowly raised her hooves in the air to show they were empty. “Trust me,” she whispered.

Another loud bang sounded out as the minotaur fired a shot into the ceiling. “I’m not gonna ask again, pony. Do like your friend there.”

Applejack levelly sized up the minotaur. The pegasus twitched slightly, causing the minotaur to tighten his grip. For a moment, one rose-colored eye cracked open, darting back and forth before closing to only a sliver again.

Applejack glanced back at Pinkie, who hadn’t moved. With one final sigh, her gun clattered to the floor.

The minotaur grinned and fired another shot with the revolver, causing Applejack’s shotgun to spin as it slid back along the floor out of reach.

“I swear, if you so much as scratched the finish on ol’ Boomberg, I will end you,” Applejack growled.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to be making threats,” the minotaur said. “Now I think— Why is she smiling?”

Applejack blinked, and then she turned to Pinkie. Sure enough, the pony was… actually grinning. Applejack had only known her for a brief time now, but she hadn’t so much as cracked a smile until now. Damn fool crazy pink ponies.

“I don’t think that gun belongs to you,” Pinkie said.

The minotaur smirked. “If I steal, you’ll have to deal.”

“Only…” Pinkie rested her chin on a hoof, gazing up as if in thought. “See, Dashie always carries a rather nice six-shooter.”

“So?” the minotaur grunted.

“And you’ve just used six shots.”

The smile left the minotaurs face as he froze.

Pinkie continued to grin.

In a flash of motion, the minotaur flung the revolver forward awkwardly, and his hand dropped down towards his belt, where a second, older pistol hung.

He found a blue-feathered wing in the way. Rainbow Dash slammed one elbow into the minotaur’s solar plexus and twisted out of his grip, her wing slipping the pistol out of the belt-holster and flipping it into her grip.

The minotaur barely had the time to start a groan before Rainbow had the gun to his chest. Two gunshots rang out, and the hulking bandit fell.

Rainbow distastefully dropped the old pistol with a clunk, and whirled around to Pinkie. “Are you crazy? He only fired five times!”

Mischief danced in Pinkie Pie’s eyes, as her lips twisted, unable to keep from still smiling. Finally, she composed herself, and her expression returned to the neutral blank that Applejack had previously seen. “He didn’t look like he was very good at math.”

She trotted forward to scoop up Dash’s six-shooter, and Rainbow Dash froze, brain suddenly registering Pinkie approaching with gun in hoof. Pinkie – a pony who probably had just as much reason as Fluttershy to bear a grudge. Rainbow’s eyes darted to the pistol she had stupidly dropped on the floor.

She was gauging whether her aching wings could help her dodge a bullet, when Pinkie tossed the revolver in hoof, catching it by the barrel and offering it to Dash.

Rainbow blinked and gingerly accepted the gun, sliding it back into her holster as she stared at Pinkie.

The pony trotted past without another word. Applejack, having watched the whole interaction, just shrugged and followed her.

Rainbow stood there in the middle of the train car, alone for a long moment, until a voice called back.

“Hurry up, Dashie!”

She turned and hurriedly followed the other two ponies.

The train’s wheels screamed against the metal tracks as it took a banked curve at entirely too high of a speed, the scraggly desert growing rockier and rockier.

At first, the speck in the distance could have been a mirage, not much more than a bright glint in the sunlight. But as it grew closer, the shape resolved into a strange conveyance, a machine in form similar to a miniature locomotive, but all burnished chrome and cherry-red paint. It kicked up a tremendous cloud of dust as it swept across the plains at an angle to intercept the train.

The stallion at the helm adjusted his driving goggles and brought the vehicle in closer. He had to shout to be heard over the whipping wind. “Where do you think she’s at, oh brother of mine?”

The mustachioed pony next to him clambered halfway up a metal exhaust vent that branched off the engine. He raised one hoof to block out the sun as he peered towards the train.

An entire roulette table burst out of one of the windows of the train up ahead, and the pair’s vehicle swerved to hastily avoid it. A rain of poker chips clattered across their windshield.

“I do not know, but I believe that deserves closer scrutiny!” the mustachioed brother called back.

“Right you are.” The thrumming sound of the engine grew louder and higher in pitch as the vehicle picked up speed, drawing level with the hole in the window. The pony behind the wheel slammed his hoof down against a button.

With a cacophonous blaring, several different horns began playing a string of jaunty notes.

He waited, as the wind whistled past. Just as he raised a hoof to pound the horn again, a white unicorn flew out the side of the car, screaming bloody murder.

Overlapping auras of bright green caught her in midair and she hung upside down, her eyes tightly closed. One of them cracked open, taking stock of her situation. “You two!” she yelled out. “It’s about time!”

“Pleasure to see you again, Miss R.,” Flim stated, taking a moment to bow. “I trust you have upheld your end of the bargain and possess the treasure as expected?”

“It’s not— There’s been a change of plans.” Rarity flailed her legs in a vain attempt to flip herself right-side up again. “I just need to get a friend and we’re leaving.”

Flim and Flam shared a look. “We’re not going anywhere without said treasure,” Flam said.

“She—” Rarity heard a crash from inside the train and she winced. “We don’t have time. Throw me back in. I swear, you two will get your bits.”

Flim shrugged, and Rarity couldn’t help but squeak in surprise as the magic enveloping her roughly flung her back into the car.

It was only with Flim’s exceptional hearing that he managed to make out the sounds coming from the train car. Of course, Rarity’s angry scream as she charged into battle was plenty loud enough, but the crashing of furniture being turned into splinters, the desperate commands from another voice, and the deep rumbling laughter? Harder to hear.

And then came a loud slam and a momentary reprieve, before the squeals of metal dragging across wood. A huge metal safe appeared at the hole in the side of the car, and the eyes of the two brothers lit up.

“You thinking what I’m thinking, Flim?”

“Most certainly, brother!”

As Rarity and another unicorn shoved the safe out the side of the train, it found itself wrapped in green magic, only barely slowing the rate of its descent as it landed on its side in the back of Flim and Flam’s vehicle.

“You idiots!” Rarity yelled out. “What are you doing? Get rid of that!”

Flam doffed his straw boater, waving to Rarity. “Thanks, Miss R.! We’ll just be going now.”

“You— Get back here! We had a deal!”

Flim grinned widely. “You of all people should know – no honor among thieves. Good bye and good luck!”

Rarity sputtered, while the other unicorn watched them with big round eyes and her mouth hanging open. It made for an amusing sight in the rear-view mirror as they sped away into the distance.

Flam hopped down and started to examine the safe in greater detail. “Look-ee what we got here,” he crowed, spinning the dial.

Flim kept his eyes on the terrain, swerving around rocks as they made for the horizon. “What’s the score?” He paused, waiting for an answer that didn’t come. “Flam?”

“Brother, what kind of treasure normally… shakes this much?”

Both of them heard the angry roar, even muffled through an inch of iron. Then the locking mechanism gave, and the door to the safe blew open.

“This is getting ridiculous,” Applejack said.

Rainbow popped up from behind the overturned food cart the three ponies were squeezed behind and a flurry of gunshots rang out. As she dove down again, a gurgling groan indicated at least one of her bullets had found its mark.

“How many?” Applejack asked. A fresh round of bullets slammed into their makeshift cover, causing the cart to shake.

“Too many.” Rainbow’s hoof dipped into her pocket, rummaging around. Her face paled as she began to search with more urgency. She grimaced, and pulled her hoof back, holding a single bullet. “Way too many.”

Applejack reached up to touch the brim of her hat, her own last two shells tucked into the band. “How ‘bout you, Pinkie? Got any more of that dynamite?”

“Yeah, but nothing small enough to be useful. We’d be talking about blowing up the whole car. Us included.” Pinkie frowned. “And probably derail the better part of the train.”

“Let’s file that away as plan B, then,” Rainbow said.

Applejack snorted. “And what’s plan A?”

“Well. They’ve gotta run out of ammo sooner or later, right?”

“That or they realize we’ve stopped shooting and circle around.” Applejack said. “How much time we got left, you think?”

Pinkie frowned. “Till they figure out we’re sitting ducks or till we end up at the bottom of Ghastly Gorge? Either way, a few minutes, tops.”

“We had a mighty fine run at it, anyways,” Applejack said. She tipped her hat. “S’been a pleasure, girls.”

“Whoa!” Rainbow Dash’s wings flared out. “We’ve still got time. We can— If—” Her face scrunched up in thought. “What if we surrendered?”

Applejack shook her head. “After gunning down as many of ‘em as we have? I ain’t gonna die on my knees.” A rueful grin crossed her face. “Might as well bring a few more along with me.”

“We don’t all have to die,” Pinkie said.

Applejack looked up to see Pinkie’s eyes drilling into Dash. “She’s got a point. I figure if we’re enough of a distraction, you could probably make it to the window and out.”

“And leave you two behind?”

“Don’t be dumb, Rainbow,” Pinkie said. “You getting killed too isn’t going to help anyone.”

Rainbow Dash looked down at the revolver in her hooves. On the other side of their cover, the rate of gunshots started to dwindle, and they could hear muffled whispers and furtive movement.

“Reckon it’s about showtime,” Applejack said. She loaded up her shotgun with one of her last shells and raised a hoof to center her hat on her head. “No big bang until I’m out of ammo and Blue Wingy here’s clear of the car.”

Pinkie nodded, carefully cradling a tightly-wound bundle of dynamite in her hooves. Rainbow Dash’s glance flitted between the two, a pained expression on her face.

“Three… Two…”

The door behind them banged open with a clatter, and an inky darkness fell throughout the whole car.

“What the—”

Applejack heard hoofsteps racing towards her and then felt a breeze as a ghostly white figure leapt right over them, landing lightly on the cart they were crouched behind.

The confused shouts from their enemies gave way to absolute panic as gunshots rang out rapidly, flashes appearing from the figure above. Applejack could barely see in the dim light, but the movements of the figure’s arms never stopped, aiming with precision at the ponies in the back half of the car.

Not sparing a motion, the pony above dropped both guns right as two more appeared from her sleeves as if by magic. One landed with a thunk in front of Applejack, and she reached out to fumble at it. A derringer, one all-too-familiar.

“Rarity?” she said.

The gunshots continued as the screams died away. Even the groans of pain found themselves sharply cut off by more bullets flying in their direction. After exhausting her third set of derringers, the figure above paused, leaving the car deathly silent except for the sound of the train’s wheels on the rails.

“That’ll do, Twilight,” Rarity called out.

The darkness vanished, and Applejack squinted as light poured back into the room. Twilight Sparkle trotted up, her eyes wide at the chaos. The bodies of bow-tied ponies were strewn across the whole other half of the car, unmoving and still.

“I think I’ll need to learn that spell myself,” Rarity said. “It seems quite helpful.”

“Did you really have to…” Twilight looked particularly pale.

“Applejack,” Rarity said neutrally, nodding ever so slightly as she hopped off the cart and offered Applejack a hoof to pull her upright.

“Rares, I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to see ya.”

Rarity rolled her eyes.

“Where’s Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, as Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash stood up.

The two shared a look. “Beats me,” Rainbow said.

“We’ve got bigger worries. The bridge’s out.” Pinkie raised a hoof as Twilight’s mouth opened to frame a question. “Long story that we can all laugh about later. We need to stop the train and pronto before we all end up at the bottom of Ghastly Gorge.”

“O-okay, then let’s go!”

Applejack had her back turned when the solitary figure quietly stood up from the pile of bodies, a pale stallion that had lain hidden among the dead. Blueblood gritted his teeth in a sneer as he raised his pistol.

“Look out!” somepony screamed.

Three shots rang out.

To say that Rarity moved without thinking would be a lie.

Rarity was a mare that prided herself on thinking fast. It was a skill that was in many ways necessary for surviving out on the frontier. The strong took from the weak, but the quick took from the strong. And the slow? They tended to take a one-way trip to the the undertaker’s.

But Rarity was always a step faster than everypony else. And so, even though she moved, in part, based on pure reflexes, when she heard the shout and saw the flicker of movement, she had an idea of what was coming next.

And when she leapt in front of Applejack and the bullets slammed into her, that only confirmed her worst suspicions.

Rather than the hard impact of the floor, she felt hooves catch her inches from the ground and looked up to see a wide-eyed Applejack gently lowering her down.

“Rarity!” Applejack cried out. “Rarity! Are you okay?”

To their side, a small wisp of smoke rose from the gun Twilight Sparkle held clutched in both hooves.

Blueblood looked down at the blood rapidly staining his white suit and raised his hoof to touch where the bullet had hit him in the gut. The gun tumbled out of his other hoof and he sank to his knees.

A brief flash of agony crossed Rainbow Dash’s face as her head swiveled between Blueblood and Twilight. Twilight kept her gun trained on the stallion, but her face was deathly pale as her hooves shook.

Rainbow gritted her teeth. “I’ve got this,” she said, her voice even raspier than usual. Her hoofsteps were loud on the floor as she walked over slowly, taking the time to load her last bullet in her revolver.

Blueblood looked up at her, face twisted in an ugly sneer even though his eyes looked glassy. “Don’t you want to hear my last words?” he asked.

Rainbow pulled the hammer back on her revolver. “I just did.”

Twilight turned her head away at the sound of the gunshot, biting her lip fiercely. Pinkie Pie’s eyes never left Rainbow.

Still held in Applejack’s firm grip, Rarity’s eyelashes fluttered as her breath grew shallow.

“Rarity,” Applejack repeated, desperation creeping into her voice. “Stay with me. We’re going to— It’s going to be okay.”

“Don’t,” Rarity breathed out. “Lying is unbecoming of you, dear.”

Applejack’s eyes glistened.

“Before…” Rarity forced herself to take a shuddering breath. “Applejack. Can I— Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“Why did you leave?”

Applejack closed her eyes, the tears flowing freely now. “I… I…”

“The truth,” Rarity whispered.

“Because I thought you were going to cross me first.”

A ghost of a smile flickered on the unicorn’s face. “You— You might have been right. Hard to tell. But sometimes, I think… I think we could have had something.”

“Rarity,” Applejack said, unflinching as she looked deep into her eyes, “There ain’t been one day that’s passed in the last two years that I’ve not regretted leaving you behind. That’s the truth.” The faintest glimmer appeared in the necklace she still wore, but Rarity wrote it off as a trick of the light.

Rarity’s eyes slowly slid shut. “You always were too sentimental, dear.”

“Rarity! Hang in there!” Applejack clutched her desperately, as Rarity’s breath dwindled.

Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle looked on, giving the two room, even as Rainbow’s wings fluttered in agitation and tears flowed down Twilight’s cheeks.

A smirk suddenly blossomed on Rarity’s face. “That being said,” her voice rang out, louder and more assured, “sometimes sentimentality isn’t all that bad.”

One of her hooves reached up to slide beneath her coat and retrieve something from an inner pocket. It was a tarnished metal flask, imprinted with a familiar insignia. And right in the center of the three embossed apples, a bullet sat, halfway embedded in the metal.

“You are damn well the craziest pony I’ve ever met,” Applejack said, eyes wide.

“I always have been good at putting on a show,” Rarity said lightly. “Oof!” She found herself locked in a tight hug from the orange pony.

A more genuine smile shone on her face for a moment, before she wriggled in Applejack’s grasp. “Ow. Gentle please, I still feel like someone bucked me right in the chest.”

Applejack let go. “I— You—” She took a moment to compose herself. “We are going to have words about this, Rares.”

Rarity nodded. “Yes, but I don’t think we can spare the time now. Don’t you have a train to stop?” Her eyes cut over to the other three ponies, still guiltily looking on. Twilight gave a start and rapidly cantered over to the door to the next car, Pinkie behind her.

Rainbow Dash hesitated, still watching the two.

“You’re right.” Applejack stood and offered Rarity a hoof, pulling her up. “We’ll talk about this later. Let’s go.“

Rarity ruefully shook her head. “Yes. But go ahead, I’ll be right behind. I just need to catch my breath.”

“Are you sure?”

“Go, Applejack.”

Applejack nodded, and Rainbow Dash followed her as they headed away. The last Rarity saw was Applejack looking back over a shoulder, trying to maintain a reproving frown that couldn’t help but melt into a smile.

Rarity closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Always been good at putting on a show, indeed,” she murmured.

She winced as she bent down to set a chair upright again, and settled into it heavily. One hoof rose to touch her stomach. With care she moved her coat aside slightly and looked down to see the red stain spreading from where the second bullet had hit.

Rarity’s eyes closed.

“Sorry Applejack,” she whispered. “But I think right now they need you more than I do.”

The diamond-shaped gem in her necklace glowed as she sat alone in the empty car.

Twilight panted as she ran, trying to keep up with Pinkie Pie. The pink mare blazed through the train at a full gallop, stopping only for a moment at each door to the next car to cautiously peek inside.

But each time, the room was empty and quiet.

It worried Twilight. A lot. Sure, Blueblood was… was gone, and he was presumably the leader of the bandits, but this was too easy.

A feeling of creeping dread weighed her down, but she forced herself forward. It was just a hunch. Not even that. A silly feeling, and how often had those proven to be false? Or at the very least, only overexcited exaggerations of minor worries. Plus, she was with Pinkie. Unlike her wild stabs at intuition, Pinkie would certainly—

Pinkie stopped in the middle of the car, the cessation of motion allowing Twilight to catch up with her again.

“Pinkie.” Twilight took a gulping breath. “Is everything okay?”

The pink pony’s teeth clamped together and then began chattering wildly. Her entire body went rigid, her mane and tail shooting straight out. Then she began vibrating – huge, jerky spasms that bounced her up and down on the floor.

“D—” she choked out. “D— D—”

“A doozy?” Twilight said, her eyes growing big.

At last, Pinkie forced her mouth open long enough to gasp out a single word.

“Dynamite!”

Everything exploded.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash felt the explosion before they heard it, as a wave of concussive force slammed into them, nearly sending the pair head over hoof. Then the sound came, a deafening roar arriving alongside a flash of burning but thankfully brief heat.

Applejack shouted something unintelligible as Rainbow shook her head to clear the ringing in her ears. Together they dashed forward, jostling as they made for the next car.

Beyond that door was chaos.

The whole upper half of the train car was gone, obliterated into kindling from the explosion, and the steel skeleton that held up the floor could be seen through jagged holes. Smoke was everywhere, but the rushing wind as the train barreled onwards sent it streaming away, and as the haze cleared, they could see a glimmer of magic from the middle of the train.

There, under a half dome of wavering magenta magic, Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie stood.

A whirring, purring whine sounded out, dragging Rainbow’s eyes up to a hulking metal shape mounted to the roof of the next car. She wasn’t sure what it was at first, but when the spinning metal cylinder began spitting a hail of bullets, its purpose was clear.

Blueblood had brought a gatling gun.

A hoof pulled Rainbow back from standing in the doorway, and she and Applejack peeked out to see the stream of shells smash against Twilight’s barrier with a resounding crash. Twilight visibly recoiled at the impact, but the glow around her horn intensified as she leaned forward, pain written across her muzzle.

A crack blossomed in the surface of the magical field, spiderwebbing out and deepening as the bullets kept flying.

“We’ve got to do something!” Applejack yelled over the cacophony. “They won’t last long!”

“Shoot it!” Rainbow shouted back.

“Shoot what?” Applejack’s hoof flung forward at the gatling gun, its operator completely hidden behind a thick shield of metal that protected the gun’s front. “I can’t get a shot from here. And how am I supposed to get behind it?”

Rainbow paused for a moment, her heart thumping. She took a deep breath. “What if he turned? Could you get the shot?”

Applejack’s eyes flashed from her shotgun to the gatling gun, and then lingered for a second on Twilight visibly straining to maintain her shield. “I— I think so. But how—”

“A distraction,” Rainbow said, and her wings snapped open.

“That’s suicide!” Applejack yelled out, but Rainbow was already in the air, soaring up above.

From the height she could see Ghastly Gorge far in the distance, drawing ever closer. And, with a moment of shock, she realized the gun hadn’t even followed her.

Her wings beat as she hung there in midair, and a thought crept into her mind.

She could just leave.

There were other scores to be had. There was no reason to risk her life for ponies that she either barely knew or who probably still hated her. She had left them once before, after all. What was one more time?

Her eyes flickered to the glowing circle of magic below, where the cracks in the shield ran deep and jagged. She could barely see Twilight and Pinkie, but she knew they were there, still clinging onto a fruitless hope of survival.

Rainbow Dash screamed and blasted forward, a prismatic contrail in her wake. The gem around her neck flashed a brilliant red, as the gatling gun’s barrel turned upwards to follow her, still firing.

“Twi!” Pinkie cried out.

Sparks popped and sizzled from the unicorn’s horn, scattering in all directions as with a resounding, tearing crash, the shield broke and fell apart. Twilight stumbled forward in a collapse and Pinkie caught her.

She cringed, waiting for the pain of the gatling gun tearing through them.

But no bullets came. “Move!” a voice behind them shouted.

Pinkie obeyed, doing her best to drag Twilight forward. She risked a glance back to see Applejack stepping forward, shotgun raised and waiting.

Above them, rainbows crisscrossed the sky in jagged zigzags as a blue figure weaved between the hail of fire.

Applejack raised her gun, one eye squeezing shut as she aimed for the barest hint of pony flesh visible at the side of the gatling’s front shield, but the train jerked and the shot went wide.

“C’mon Twilight,” Pinkie said, shaking her roughly.

The unicorn looked up at her, eyes cloudy, but shook off her daze enough to stumble along as the two made for the safety of the doorway ahead.

Applejack gritted her teeth and loaded her last shell. Her shotgun raised again, and her hoof tensed as she took aim, desperate to make her last shot count.

She held out for a long, agonizing moment, and then the gatling gun turned to the side, and she saw the pony behind in profile, a grey-maned pegasus hunched close with both hooves on the controls. She had her shot.

It would have worked, too, had the sharp scream not broken her concentration. Instead, the buckshot harmlessly pinged off the metal shielding of the gatling gun, and Applejack’s face grew pale at the realization of what that scream had meant.

Rainbow Dash had taken a shot to the wing. The blue pegasus above twisted and jerked, losing the rainbow trail of her flight as she fluttered her other wing to try and keep from falling into a completely uncontrolled spiral.

“C’mon!” Pinkie yelled back at Applejack.

“No— No!”

The gatling gun paused its firing for a moment to recenter on the easy target that Rainbow Dash made.

Applejack and Pinkie both stared up in dread, unable to look away.

And a yellow figure flashed overhead, rocketing towards the gatling gun.

Fluttershy did move without thinking.

She had been following the other ponies for some time, biding her time as she sought for an opportunity to catch Rainbow Dash alone. Yelling out when she had seen Blueblood was a mistake, a slip of the tongue, but luckily one that had been overlooked in the resulting gunfire.

But when Rainbow Dash screamed… Fluttershy moved without thinking. She moved, knowing, launching into the air with a direct and undeniable purpose.

It didn’t matter why, whether it was a simple, pragmatic desire to personally be the one to kill Rainbow Dash, or some mysterious swelling feeling that she thought she had long ago stamped out. All that mattered was the action itself.

She flew upwards to meet the gatling gun faster than she would have thought possible, only veering at the last second to catch the corner of the front shielding with a wing, jerking the swiveling platform aside as the motion and force flung her body around in a compressed arc to meet that of the gunner.

Her hooves slammed into him, sending him flying, and her body followed the movement, maintaining contact. Her neck twisted as the blade flashed in her teeth.

She almost rode the body all the way to the desert floor, only popping her wings open and releasing her grip at the last second.

The pony’s head landed at least twenty feet further away.

“How do you stop this thing?” Twilight shouted, almost drowned out by the roar of the train’s engine.

“Here!” Pinkie said, reaching to a lever painted in chipped red. As she touched the metal, Twilight could hear the sharp, burning hiss, and Pinkie cried out, yanking her hooves back.

“I got it!” Twilight’s horn flared up, the unicorn wincing at the expenditure of magic, and a magenta field enveloped the lever. It shuddered but refused to budge.

Applejack pushed the both of them aside and grabbed it with both hooves, letting out a yell at the touch, but refusing to let go. The muscles in her forelegs bulged as she used all of her strength at once.

And with a snap, the lever broke off, sending Applejack crashing backwards.

A moment of dreadful silence passed as Twilight and Pinkie Pie shared a horrified look.

Pinkie was the first to recover. “Now what?!”

“How am I supposed to know!” Twilight said, holding her hooves to her head.

“Well figure something out!” Pinkie flung one arm out to point at one of the locomotive’s grimy windows. “We are almost out of track here!”

“That’s it!”

Pinkie looked at the mad glint in Twilight’s eyes and then turned her gaze to Applejack, who was gingerly getting to her hooves again.

A sound of breaking glass caused her to turn back to Twilight, just in time to see the mare squeezing through the locomotive’s window, ignoring the shards of broken glass that still hung in the frame.

“What! Where are you going?”

The last thing Pinkie heard was Twilight yelling back over the rushing wind.

“Don’t worry! Everything is going to be okay!”

Rainbow Dash barely managed to land on the top of one of the train’s cars, and that only by accident. Her wings hurt. Everything hurt, a constant throbbing pain lancing up to overwhelm her entire body.

She stared upwards, her vision beginning to blur as the few wispy clouds in the sky wavered in and out of focus. And for the strangest reason, she was smiling.

It was the stupidest thing she had ever done. Suicidal was right, and heck, who’s to say that wasn’t still the truth, given her lightheadedness and the warm blood she could feel beneath her. But for some reason, she couldn’t help but feel like for once in her life, maybe even the first time in her life, she had done something right.

Rainbow heard a thump, and she tried to tilt her head to look before the pain made that thought impossible. So she waited, and a moment later, a yellow blob appeared above her. She had to squint her eyes to recognize the shape as a pony.

“Hi Fluttershy,” Rainbow said.

Fluttershy didn’t say anything, and Rainbow couldn’t make out the expression on her face.

“Guess you finally caught up to me, huh?” Rainbow’s voice was a hoarse whisper, but she forced the words out. “Can’t say I don’t deserve it. And I don’t guess it matters anymore, but…”

Rainbow squinted again. Fluttershy still hadn’t moved, but Rainbow’s vision itself felt like it was spinning, so she shut her eyes, the smile refusing to leave her face.

“But I’m sorry. Don’t got an excuse. Wouldn’t be one good enough. Just sorry.”

She waited. After a long moment, one of her eyes cracked open.

“Go ahead,” Rainbow said. “I don’t got all day. Heh. Literally.”

She felt Fluttershy’s hoof push against her to forcibly roll her on her stomach. And then sharp pain as cold metal dug into her left wing.

“Ow!” Rainbow yelled out. “Buck! Can you at least make it fast?”

“Shut up,” Fluttershy said. “I need to get the bullets out if you ever want to fly again.”

Rainbow Dash’s brow furrowed. She flailed her hooves out weakly to push and twist her upper body to see the other pegasus.

It was the strangest thing. Rainbow Dash figured she really must be losing a lot of blood, because it looked like the butterfly on Fluttershy’s necklace had lit up bright pink.

“Stop it,” Pinkie snapped. She stopped pacing back and forth to glare over at where Applejack was leaning up against one wall of the locomotive.

“Stop what?” Applejack said.

“You’re smiling. Why are you smiling? We’re all going to die.”

Applejack’s grin grew even bigger. “Reckon that’s part of it. Sometimes you gotta laugh if you don’t wanna cry.”

“What kind of sense does that make?” Pinkie said.

“Or could be that it’s more ‘n a little ironic that we wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for you.” Applejack’s hoof reached up to rest against her chin. “But really? I’d have to say I’m smiling because I don’t for the life of me know why, but I really do think that unicorn’s gonna save us somehow.”

Pinkie stared at her. “You’re crazy. There’s no way. You’re messed up in the head.”

Applejack shrugged, the smile still on her lips.

Pinkie looked at the window that Twilight had squeezed through. She looked at the engine still pounding and roaring. She looked at Applejack, nonchalantly leaning there against the wall.

“You’re insane!” Pinkie said, her lips twitching as she stalked back and forth down the length of the locomotive.

“Ain’t the first time I’ve heard that,” Applejack said.

“You—! I—!” Pinkie finally settled on a disbelieving grin. “I’m going to die alongside the only other ponies in the state – no, country – who are more messed up than me.”

Her hooves suddenly halted and she twisted to peer at Applejack. Her face returned to a deadpan as she stared at the other pony with grave intensity.

Applejack’s brow furrowed, a crack of worried curiosity showing in her faltering smile.

“Hey,” Pinkie said. “Why’d the six crazy ponies murder a train?”

Applejack blinked. “What?” After a moment of silence passed, she amended her statement to a “I don’t know. Why?”

“Loco motives.”

It took a moment to click, and then Applejack winced in exaggerated pain at the joke. She couldn’t help it though. A snort broke through. And then Pinkie giggled, which caused her to break into a guffaw, and then both ponies were overcome with a hysterical, gulping laughter.

The engine of the locomotive kept chugging and the wheels of the train screamed against the track, but Applejack just slung one foreleg over Pinkie’s shoulder, the two of them so overcome with laughter that tears streamed down their eyes.

Neither one noticed the shine in Pinkie’s necklace.

Twilight clung onto the slick metal of the top of locomotive with all the force she could muster. Choking smoke billowed past her from the exhaust pipe in front, but she pushed on, her horn lighting up as she used her magic to sense her surroundings.

She only barely kept from tumbling off when the sway of the train beneath her threatened to knock her off her hooves, and had to twist when that overcorrection almost sent her stumbling back to where a metal rod churned up and down with vicious force.

She pressed on, using all of her concentration and willpower to keep going, even though her head alternated between searing pain and a fuzzy blankness, the rapidly transitioning sensations symptoms of extreme magic exertion.

She edged her way past the smokestack, moving with urgency but caution – one false step meant she’d fall at a speed that’d leave her as little more than a purplish smear across the desert ground.

Then she was home free, perched at the very front of the train. Right in front of her, the Ghastly Gorge rose up, a yawning cavernous pit filled with razor-sharp rocks. They were barrelling towards it, and she could see the wreckage of the bridge’s supports on this side. Nothing spanned the canyon anymore. No bridge, no track.

They only had one option. A plan that depended on not just her but everypony else, where any sort of failure on the part of one would mean death. There were a million ways for her to have miscalculated, for something to have gone wrong, for one of her friends to have failed and as a result doomed them all.

Twilight closed her eyes as she smiled.

She knew with absolute certainty it would work.

The train hit the twisted end of the track with a ear-splitting screech of metal scraping against metal. The locomotive jerked viciously, its speed causing it to derail spectacularly as it leapt upwards, gaining the slightest bit of altitude before gravity caught up and it began to plunge forward into the abyss.

When Twilight’s eyes opened again, a blinding white light spilled forth from them. Her hair floated up in tendrils of magic as the gemstone in her tiara radiated power, reaching out to its counterparts and weaving all of their power together.

It would work. It did work, because she trusted her friends.

A rainbow of power burst outwards, its blindingly vibrant hues exploding into being from all around.

Epilogue: For a Few Bits More

When Rainbow Dash’s eyes fluttered open, she saw sturdy beams holding up a wooden ceiling above her. She closed her eyes again, and as per her standard for waking up in strange places, tried to think back to where she had been last.

And when she remembered that, she sat straight up, eyes wide, until her look of surprise gave way to a wince of pain from the twinge in her wings.

She was in a small, tidy room lying on a stiff bed. Her nose caught the faintest hint of cider – probably a saloon, then. Across the room, on another identical bed, Rarity lay. Her chest was wrapped tightly in bandages, but Rainbow could see it gently rise and fall as the other pony breathed.

Rainbow herself was in a similar state. One look behind her confirmed that her left wing was carefully stretched out against a wooden splint to keep it from moving.

“You’re lucky,” a voice said from next to her.

Rainbow jumped, and would have found herself floating up in the corner of the room had her wing not been incapacitated. Instead, she tumbled off the bed, landing muzzle-first against the wood floor. Her face grew warm as she heard a snicker, then a yellow hoof reached down to help her back up.

“Fluttershy?” Dash said.

“Lucky,” she repeated. “Doctor said you just barely missed having the bullet shatter the bone.”

Rainbow shivered. Her eyes strayed over to Rarity. “And her? She’s okay?”

“Was more touch and go there, but she’ll be fine.”

“And Pinkie?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, everyone else is fine too. You just missed Applejack. Twilight came by and insisted she get some sleep, so I agreed to sit for a spell in case one of you two woke up.”

Rainbow’s brow furrowed as she thought back. “But the train… How—”

“Giant rainbow bridge across the entire gorge.” Rainbow’s eyes widened and a smirk crossed Fluttershy’s face. “Yeah, I wouldn’t believe it either, had I not been there.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it.” Rainbow Dash leaned back gingerly, letting her wings rest. Her hooves fidgeted, tapping out an uneven rhythm against the bed as she kept her eyes on Fluttershy.

“You don’t have to worry about the law either. Twilight was true to her word. Pulled rank as soon as we got into town and has been running the local sheriff ragged in the meantime on all sorts of errands. She’s up to something, but I’m not sure what.”

“Mmhmm,” Rainbow intoned, still staring at the other pony.

Fluttershy looked back levelly, her cool expression revealing nothing.

“So,” Rainbow quietly said. “Where do we go from here?”

Fluttershy took a moment to seriously consider the question. “Forward. Whatever that means.”

Rainbow didn’t reply, but her hoof stopped its tapping.

Fluttershy’s eyes darted to Dash, muscles in her jaw tightening. “At least for me. I’m tired of living in the past. You can make your own decisions, and I know—”

Rainbow cut in, her gaze steely. “No. I won’t be running away any more.”

Fluttershy turned away so Rainbow couldn’t see the smile crossing her face. “Then forward together.”

The last tack forcefully stabbed itself into the wall and the aura around Twilight’s horn faded away. She grinned up at the map stretched out across the wall and turned to her makeshift podium, quickly shuffling through her cue cards to make sure they were all in the proper order.

All five of the girls were there, though Rainbow Dash’s eyes kept flickering to the bottles lined up behind the bar. Twilight knew the saloon wasn’t the best place to have commandeered for their purposes, but it was far more comfortable than the Sheriff’s office, and did provide a certain degree of privacy.

Applejack sat beside Rarity, who still wore her bandages but had insisted on receiving no help as she made her way down to the main room. Fluttershy leaned against the back wall, her eyes as sharp as ever, and Pinkie Pie couldn’t sit still, pacing back and forth as she watched Twilight with obvious curiosity.

Satisfied, Twilight cleared her throat and put on her brightest smile. “Now, I’m sure you all have a lot of questions—”

“Damn right we do,” Applejack broke in.

“—which I will be quite happy to answer, after I’ve—”

“What arethese things?” Rainbow Dash pulled at the golden jewelry still around her neck.

Twilight paused, her mouth quirking in annoyance at already going off script. “You can call them the Elements of Harmony, though that’s less an official name and more of—”

“An’ what exactly does that have to do with…” Applejack twirled a hoof in the air, “giant rainbowy magic bridges? I ain’t never seen a unicorn manage something like that before.”

“Um, so, I’m still investigating the effects, but I think when invoked in full, the quantum magilecular structure best expresses itself through a full spectrum, similar to the contrail left by Rainbow’s flight patterns, if you—”

“Who are you?” Rarity said.

The other four considered that for a moment, and then directed their full attention to Twilight, who had started sweating a little. She stared down at her index cards, and her hooves fumbled as she flipped through them, trying to find her place.

It took a long moment, and only then did her smile return, and she kept her eyes down, not meeting those of the others. “My name, as I may have previously mentioned, is Twilight Sparkle. I work for Governor Celestia herself, officially as a high-level advisor on political matters. In truth, I’m the head of the Bureau of Unified Clandestine Knowledge, a classified organization that works behind the scenes to identify and eliminate certain threats to law and order that would be difficult to handle through conventional means.”

“So why haven’t I heard about you, then?” Rainbow Dash said.

“We wouldn’t be very good at our job if everyone knew about us.”

Rarity smirked. “You’re telling us about it now.”

“Well, yes. Because… Because I need your help.” Twilight glanced back at the map, biting her lip. “We’ve got a problem. A big one. There’s a certain outlaw on the loose.”

“Twilight,” Pinkie said. “I think you’re a little mixed up. We’re ‘certain outlaws on the loose’.”

Twilight shook her head. “No! You’re all— Okay, yes. You’re all bandits, but you’re all good ponies. This one, he’s something else – a danger to every stallion, mare, and foal in the entire state.”

“Then why haven’t I heard anything about that either?” Rainbow asked, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair. “I think some sort of legendary bandit raising hell across the state would get some headlines, wanted posters, the normal stuff.”

Twilight’s foreleg shot out to point at the map. “Look. Dodge Junction, Appleloosa, Salt Lick City. And smaller towns sprinkled all in-between. But here.” Her hoof gestured at a point near the bottom of the map where the dots all vanished, leaving a blank, empty patch. “There’s nothing here. Isn’t that odd?”

Pinkie shrugged. “So what? Is the big scary outlaw that nopony knows about busy robbing all the no-ponies who don’t live down south?”

“Um.” Twilight blinked. “Almost. I’m saying that there used to be settlements all through this region. They’re gone – and I don’t mean destroyed. They’ve been erased. Untethered from reality as we know it, so that no one even remembers them. And it’s the doing of him.” Her eyes darted back and forth before her next word came out in a hushed whisper.“Discord.”

Fluttershy leaned forward. “Is that name supposed to meansomething to us?“

An awkward silence fell in the saloon, and Twilight looked from pony to pony, expecting to see dread in their faces, but finding nothing but confusion. She took a deep breath, trying to muster all the confidence that she had. It wasn’t much, anymore.

“And if what you’re saying is true, how do you even know any of this?” Rarity spoke up.

“We sent in a company of the 45th Infantry,” Twilight said. “At least, that’s what the only survivor said when he showed up at the capitol, bringing with him stories of a fierce gunfight – no… a massacre. No records existed of the original mission, or anyone else as ever having served in the entire company, save for that one private. That’s when Governor Celestia put me on the job.”

Twilight took a deep breath. “And that’s why I went in to investigate with my best team.” A brief pain flashed in her eyes.

“Still not seeing what I’ve got to do with any of this,” Applejack said. “What’re ya saying? Your next big idea is to round up a buncha outlaws and give it another go? That way at least we’re expendable?”

“No,” Twilight said. “My next option is to try again with my best team.”

The moment of silence stretched out, as her full meaning became clear. Rarity was the first to speak. “You can’t possibly mean—”

“Yes. I know it’s hard to believe but it’s the truth. Discord was on us from the very beginning, splitting us up and turning our greatest strengths into weaknesses before scattering us to the four winds. He left me alone, unchanged. I think it was one last joke of his.”

“No way…” Rainbow Dash looked up, confusion in her eyes. “I don’t remember—”

“You don’t get it. He can change everything. You remember the false memories he gave you.” Twilight gritted her teeth. “Fake stories meant to keep us apart.”

“How much?” Rarity said quietly. “How much is fake?”

“I don’t know.” Twilight looked up, forcing a smile. “But— But it’s okay now, because we’re together again, and everything is fine! All of the that past is just a dream, a nightmare even and now you can—”

“Hold on,” Applejack said. She glanced at Rarity for a moment before meeting Twilight’s gaze. “No offense, but I don’t rightly appreciate half-loopy unicorns tellin’ me my life’s all been some sorta dream.”

“But it’s a lie!” Twilight stomped one hoof against the ground.

“Don’t matter.” Applejack’s lips curled upwards, but her eyes remained serious. “Ain’t your place to decide. Even if you are right about it being a lie, it’s my truth now.”

Rainbow Dash nodded slowly. “Heck. I’d love to be able to say the past few years or however long was all made up. I’ve done a lotta things that I’m not exactly proud of. But… it’s all part of who I am.”

Twilight fell her heart sink. “So you don’t believe me?” The look on her face was stricken as she sought any positive indication at all from any of her friends. Pinkie Pie stared back at her coolly. Fluttershy had resumed leaning against the back wall. “Or… or you don’t care.”

Rarity coughed lightly. “It’s nothing personal, dear, but you have to understand that you’re springing a lot on us here.”

“But— The plan! The Elements!” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Our friendship.”

Twilight looked back at the map one more time, her eyes lingering on the blank patch. Faces flashed in her mind. The townsfolk who had once happily lived and worked all throughout that region, the soldiers of the 45th who had given their lives to try and protect others. And the faces of her friends – the friends she used to have.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Twilight mumbled to herself. “I thought they would believe me. I thought they’d be my friends again. I thought… I thought we’d have a chance against Discord.”

“Well, you got one part of that right,” Rainbow Dash said. “Heck. Two.”

Twilight’s head snapped up to look at the other pony.

Rainbow glanced away, one hoof rising to rub the back of her mane. “I mean, just cause I said I don’t buy the whole past-erased thing doesn’t mean I’m not gonna help you. Can’t have some second-rate bandit out there screwing things up for us pros. I’m the most feared outlaw in the West.”

Applejack snorted, earning a glare from the pegasus. “I don’t know about all that, but if we bring in this Discord fella, that means a pretty big reward, I’d bet. I wouldn’t mind a taste a’ that. Not to mention, I still owe you for saving my hide back on that train.”

“And I believe we had an arrangement, dear,” Rarity said, smiling at Twilight. “You still have my services. Unless you are planning on going back on your half of the bargain.”

“No, of course not,” Twilight said. “But I mean, you don’t have to—” Rarity cut her off with a raised hoof, shaking her head.

“I’m in too,” Pinkie said. A smile flickered on her face. “I don’t think anyone has ever called me a ‘good pony’ before. I kinda like that.”

Fluttershy didn’t even say a word. She just grinned, her head inclining in a shallow nod.

“Well,” Applejack said. “Looks like you’ve got yourself a team after all, sugarcube.”

Twilight reached up, her hoof wiping away wetness from her eyes. Her legs shook, but she felt something warm deep inside herself.

“But I reckon it’s going to be plenty dangerous,” Applejack continued. “Even if we were to believe you, that’s saying we’ve already taken out shot and missed. What’s the difference now?”

Twilight’s grin stretched across her muzzle. “This time. This time I have a plan.”

Author's Note

Rejected alternate ending:

"Spike," Twilight Sparkle said. "If I find out you set so much as one claw in that enchanted comic book store again, you're not getting any ice cream for a whole year."

Thanks for following me on this wild ride!