Author's Note
There are differences between this one and the first, this one is canon however.Also for the sake of resubmitting this story I'll be deleting the first chapter.
Crosshairs (redone)
The summer sun beat down on Sharpshooter as he lay behind a parapet looking down on the streets with some binoculars hanging around his neck my some thread. Next to him his m24 was chambered and ready for immediate use. Looking around the streets he didn't see anything that he thought was important enough for him to intervene with. His gray coat gave him natural camouflage for the urban environment leaving his only fear being a missed shot. He let out a sigh and put the binoculars down. He levitated a bottle of water up and gulped about half the bottle down. An ear piercing scream nearly made him choke. Grabbing the binoculars he look to see a bleeding pony holding his chest. Another pony with a gray hoodie covering his face ran down an alley way with a bag of bits clattering. He quickly grabbed his rifle and aimed down at the ponies chest. Taking a deep breath he used his magic to squeeze the trigger sending a bullet screaming through the air. The other pony didn't have time to know his death was near as his chest erupted. the bullet lodged itself deep in the ponies chest and he fell to the ground and remained still. As blood pooled around to body Sharpshooter ducked back down behind his cover and set his rifle down. Whipping sweat from his brow he listened down at the ponies below.
"He's up there!" one yelled.
"No he's up there!" another argued.
"No, no, no look he's up there !" yet another joined in trying to pinpoint the snipers location. He sat still listening to what was going on below him for what felt like a few hours, eventually nothing besides normal conversation was heard. Sharpshooter crawled to the other side of the building trying to keep quiet and keep his head low as city police where bound to be in the area by now. Slowly he pocked his head out and looked around with his binoculars. He saw he was overlooking a long alley way littered with bums and trash. He panned over a large steel door leading into a small building. A pony looking rather wealthy to be in a ran down part of town trotted up to the thick door and knocked. A small slot opened and the rich pony said something to the other side that he couldn't quite make out. The slot shut and the door opened just enough for the wealthy tycoon to slip in. As he walked in Sharpshooter got a look at his cutie mark, a green '$' surrounded by a golden circle. He kept his sight on the door and waited until nightfall before the door crept open again. A cab rolled up down the alley as the tycoon and two thugs slowly walked down the alley towards the cab. Sharpshooter looked at the three and saw a little orange filly with straw colored hair. A muzzle saw securely fashioned keeping her from making a sound. She tried to turn and run but one of the thugs smacked her back into line. Sharpshooter grabbed his rifle and aimed it steadily on a thug. Taking a deep breathe he sent a bullet crashing through his skull. Quickly cambering another shot he fired into the second thug sending blood up the alley walls. The tycoon understood what was going on and grabbed the filly by the mane and ran as fast as he could. Sharpshooter aimed on the wealthy pony and shot a bullet through his hind leg. The pony dropped to the ground and gave the sniper an opening to finish him off. Sending his final shot into the rich pony ending his life he quickly put his rifle into his cello case and crashed down the stairs in the building. He was hoping the filly didn't run too far. He reached the bottom on the stair well gasping for breath and looked around for the filly. A series of small bloody hoof prints ran out of the alley. He bolted out trying his best to keep the case levitating. He looked across the street to see the frightened filly clawing at the muzzle. Sharpshooter looked around before popping open the case. Moving some shells around he retrieved his old Royal Guard badge and wrapped it around his left leg. He trotted up to the girl.
"Excuse me miss, isn't it a little late to be out?" he asked pretending to be a guard. The frightened filly looked up and got ready to run, but when she saw the light reflect off of the badge she simply began to cry out of joy. Looking surprised Sharpshooter ran over to the filly and undid the muzzle.
"What happened?" Sharpshooter asked genuinely curious. The filly went on to explain how she left her family's farm for life in the city, she was staying with her aunt and uncle but decided to go back home. While she was walking down the street about a day ago she was kidnapped and held up in the small building until the "client" came to purchase her for who knows what.
"Uh huh, I see," Sharpshooter said, "Well what's your name dear?" Whipping tears from her face she answered,
"Applejack".
"Well Applejack I'll get you back home... in the morning," Sharpshooter said realizing how late it had gotten. The two walked back to his apartment just a few blocks away. Quietly as not to awake his neighbors he popped open the door and set the case down .
"Well I guess you can sleep in my bed tonight, I'll just take the couch," he said closing the door. Showing Applejack the way she went to sleep quite fast. Sharpshooter cracked his back and put away his badge. The truth is he hadn't been a part of the Royal Guards for about three years. He chuckled to himself remembering the days he served. He remembered back to when he began mentoring a young colt by the name of Shining Armor. He quit after about a year of mentoring the boy. With those old thoughts he went and stretched out on the couch. Morning came around and bright rays of sunlight shone in through curtains landing on Sharpshooters eyes. He let out a yawn as he rolled off the couch. Rubbing his eyes he trotted over to the coffee pot and began making something to perk him up a little. Not too long after Applejack walked from the bedroom still half asleep. Downing a cup of coffee Sharpshooter slung on his saddle bag and threw the badge inside.
"You ready to go?" Sharpshooter asked the filly.
"Huh, yea," she said still half asleep. The two left the apartment and headed down towards the train station.
"So kid where do you live?" Sharpshooter asked realizing he never asked.
"Ponyville," she responded. He grunted to himself hoping it was somewhere closer. He bought the tickets and the two took their seats. The train took off to a jerky start but soon was moving smoothly. With a sigh he looked at the kid looking out the window.
"So kid, why'd you trust me so easily? I mean I know I'm a Royal Guard but why did you come back with me?" Sharpshooter asked the filly.
"Well muh pa used to be a Royal Guard before he moved back to Ponyville to run Sweet Apple Acres, he said all Royal Guard folks are mighty nice," Applejack said, "You would of liked him". Sharpshooter frowned getting that he was probably gone. After at least an hour the train came to a screeching halt at the Ponyville terminal. A voice came over the intercom and announced that they had arrived at their destination . The two stepped off of the train and began walking into the center of town.
"So kid where do you live?" Sharpshooter asked not familiar with the area.
"This way," Applejack said trotting towards the farm. Following behind he took in the sights of the small town. Everything looked so peaceful. It was a major change from the big city life he'd always been around. They walked out of the small town into a a field filled with apple trees. Just a few feet in and he saw more apples than he'd ever seen in his life.
"Crazy," he said to himself. As they walked farther in a large red barn came into sight. He turned back silently and began leaving without Applejack knowing, he didn't want any praise are anything like that it just wouldn't feel right. Applejack saw her granny and her brother and dashed over to them embracing them with a huge hug. Turning around Applejack saw that the Guard was gone.
"What's wrong?" Granny Smith asked seeing Applejack looked surprise.
"A Royal Guard brought me home, but he's gone," Applejack said.
Years passed and the sniper moved back to his hometown after his mother fell ill. Manehatten was riddled with crime but Canterlot was no different surprisingly. Sharpshooter figured that with Canterlot being the capital city of Equestria it would be in safe hands, this was not the case however. After a string of murders Celestia began paying attention. It did not take long before the city fell into a panic. As a last ditch attempt the mane six where summoned to bring closure more than anything else.
"My princesses really must protest these actions, we cannot put the mane six in danger, if they where to fall all of Equestria would be opened for a full on assault from any of our enemies and that's just foreign threats. What if Discord were to break out again? We would have absolutely no way of defending ourselves," Shining Armor argued with Celestia and Luna.
"We must calm our people, the mane six is the only option we have without putting the entire city under martial law. By putting martial law into action that would stir up even more panic. This is just one person so the mane six should not be in that much danger," Celestia said back.
"What we can do is have the mane six guarded at all times. They really our extremely important to us and every other pony, I propose that we shall have no fewer than two guards with each member of the mane six at all times," Luna said trying to reach a conclusion. Shining Armor sighed, he really didn't have much choice in the matter.
"Send an armored train to pick up the six and bring them here, they will not be informed prior just in the off chance we may be dealing with a foreign enemy who could intercept the message and be prepared to launch an attack," Celestia said taking Shining armors thoughts into consideration.
"What's going to happen when they're here?" Armor asked.
"We'll hold speeches where they'll also give speeches about how great the empire is, this should boost moral and give a small boost of nationalism hopefully driving the culprit to turn themselves in or getting someone who knows about them to give up their identity," Celestia said.
"While deceiving out people is against my moral code this is what we'll need to do to make sure all stays relatively calm," Shining Armor said signing executive orders to put everything into action. The princesses both signed putting the order into effect.
"We'll do whatever it takes to bring this murderer into our custody," Celestia said ending the council meeting.
