Where Do Your Loyalties Lie?

"So, where are we going?" Lighting asked her older brother. The three of them were flying over Cloudsdale, with only Stormy knowing their destination.

"We're going shopping," he shouted back. They landed on a cloud street in the middle of the main market plaza of the city.

"For what?"

He rolled his eyes while they headed up the road, looking for the right place.

"Stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" she questioned.

"You know, you ask too many questions," he said. He finally stopped them in front of an average-sized building that had a sign over it that read Top Gun - Military & Tactical.

Lightning looked up at her brother. "You've got to be kidding me, " she said. "You're taking us to go buy guns?"

"Yep!" he said excitedly. He turned to look back at his hesitant sister. "Well, are you coming in, or do want to buy a gun with your own money?"

At that, she instantly trotted in.

"Fluttershy, are you coming?" he asked.

"Um, no thank you. I'd rather not, if that's okay. I don't like guns." she said in an undertone voice.

"Suit yourself," he said, and followed his sister inside.

"How may I help you two?" the clerk said happily, jerking his head up his work.

"Well, my sister's gonna be looking around for the gun she likes, and I'm gonna need to discuss extreme home defense with you." he replied.

"Alrighty, then, young miss, have a look around, see what you like. And you sir, what exactly do you mean?"

Stormy walked over to the counter. "Well, I've been tipped off that I'm being hunted. I want to prepare myself, my sister, and my house for whatever is coming."

"Well, how large is your property?" the clerk asked.

Stormy cocked a smile. "Let's just say... huge. Both the house and the land."

"In that case, I can find you plenty of booby-traps for your property, along with several different weapons you can hide around your home, yet be able to get to easily. But first, let's discuss offensive." The gruff stallion began piling various pistols, assualt rifles, and other deadly-looking things onto the counter.

"As a side-arm, I would suggest the Glock 17. It's reliable, somewhat powerful, highly accurate, and a large ammunition capacity, seventeen 9mm rounds." He placed the gun he had told about on the counter.

"Next, is the Springfield rifle. It uses 30-06 six rounds, with a mak clip capacity of five rounds. Nothin' fancy, but it's accurate, powerful, and has a fairly small recoil." He also placed this weapon on the counter.

"One of my favorites, the M-21 Sniper Weapons System. A military class rifle, it has quite a history. It's no longer the cheif rifle used by the military, but it's still in use and prefered by many. It uses 7.62mm rounds, with a maximum capacity of ten. It's highly accurate, typically comes with a starlight scope and a silencer, and is very, very powerful. The recoil succeeds the Springfield rifle, which helps a lot in tactical situations."

"Then, we have the SCAR-H. That stands for--"

"Special Caliber Assualt Rifle, Heavy variant, yes I know." Stormy said. "I was in the Special Forces. It was a rifle they typically assigned us. I believe I'll go with two of those."

"Alright, I'll put that in your queue." the clerk said, and wrote down the order.

"So, next we have the Winchester 1300 shotgun. Holds eight twelve-gage shells, and has a low recoil."

"I'll take two of those as well."

"Okay, let me get that down," he said.

"Alright, now this one is probably one of the rarest--"

"A mini-gun! It's perfect, I'll take one of those!" Stormy said excitedly.

The clerk wrote all that down and turned back to Stormy. Just then, his little sister came up to the counter.

"Find what you want?" the clerk asked.

"Yes, I did!" Lightning placed a Glock 17 on the counter.

"Ah, excellent choice." the clerk said.

Stormy then said, "Oh, could you get me four of those?"

"Uh, four, sir?"

"Yes, and two MAC-11s."

"Very well," the clerk said. he sighed as wrote down the new items.

"Oh, and what kind of knives do you have?"

"Well, we proudly carry Blacksmith & Westwind. They have a very fine line of throwing knives, knife accesories, multi-tools, and combat knives."

"Right, well, I'm going to want plenty of throwing knives. I'm thinking maybe... oh, fifteen or so."

"Yeesh, demanding customer," the clerk said under his breath.

"Suppose you could say that," Stormy mused.

"How did--"

"That's not important. What is important, though, is getting what I want. Do you have MK2 frag grenades?"

"Yes, we do. I suppose you'll want several of those, as well?"

"Twenty."

"Right. Would you like some flash-bangs or smoke grenades?"

Stormy looked up him. "Yes, about ten flash-bangs and five smoke grenades."

Lightning then decided to put her two cents in. "My only worry is how you're gonna carry all this."

"Well, given that I'm buying your gun, I suppose you could pay me back by helping me carry some of it." he retorted.

"Will that be all sir?"

"Uh, no. I want mines. Claymores, twenty of them."

"Yes, sir."

"And, of course, I'm going to need ammuntition for all the guns, else they're useless."

"Yes, of course."

Finally, after about an hour or so, they had everything they needed ordered. Stormy handed the clerk his ID and his debit card.

The clerk analyzed it and then realized who he was serving. "Wait, are you the Storm Dash? As in the Wonderbolt captain?"

"Was my mane color not a good enough give-away?" he asked sarcastically.

The clerk ignored him and immedietely began shaking Stormy's hoof. "It really is an honor to be serving not only a veteran of the armed forces, but a Wonderbolt! As military personel, you have a fifteen percent discount."

"No, it's fine, really. What's the point of having money if you're not gonna spend it, right?" he said.

"Oh, sir, I insist. Oh, could I have your autograph, please?" The clerk immedietly took out a permanent marker and a photo of Stormy.

"Sure, why not?" Stormy took the pen in his left hoof and scribbled his signature on the bottom right corner of the photograph, accepted the ink pad handed to him, pressed his hoof on it, and stamped the picture.

"Thank you, sir! This really means a lot to me! Honestly, you're my favorite Wonderbolt!" The clerk had trouble keeping himself from hyper-ventilating, he was so excited.

"Why, thanks! It means a lot to me that I know exactly which gun store to go to from now on, since I know I've got a big fan working here!"

Stormy took the bags of guns the clerk handed him and slid two over his back. He asked the clerk to pile the knives, grenades, and ammunition into his saddle-bags. He then took the other two bags and handed them over to his sister, along with the minigun, which He tucked into the lighter of the two bags.

"Thanks, come again!" the clerk called.

Stormy waved and then he and his sister took off to head back home.

"It's got to look so odd to see the captain of the Wonderbolts and his little sister walking out of a gun store with a shit-load of stuff." Lightning said.

Fluttershy finally caught up and said, "Yeah, it looked funny from my vantage point."

"Well, let's hurry back to the mansion and get this stuff taken care of, before somepony gets a little too suspicious!"

With that, the two siblings raced back to the mansion, while Fluttershy bid her farewells and flew back to own cottage just outside of Ponyville.