Twilight sighed as she set down the book. It was nice to read some fiction once in a while and Daring Do always scratched that little itch nicely. Though they did seem to be getting darker in tone lately.
She stretched and popped her back, a shudder of pleasure passing through her as her muscles unbunched.
“Well, let's get to the next one...”
The library was quiet that day. It seemed that either nopony was reading or it really was just a very quiet day. Maybe some new books would help...? She'd have to ask the Mayor about some funding.
She levitated the book onto the shelf just as the bell tinkled, alerting Twilight to a patron. She turned, her civil servant smile on and ready to assist.
“Hello! Can I help-”
“Ah ah ah. Zip.”
Dash had bound across the room, pushing her hoof to Twilight's lips to keep her purple mouth shut. Twilight glared at having a dirty hoof in her mouth.
“No talkies. New Daring book. Can't stop. Can't full sentences.”
The book was yoinked from the shelf by a magical purple aura just before the Pegasus could get it into her blue hooves, much to Dash's annoyance. Twilight smirked as the book landed atop her hoof.
“I'm afraid I just checked this out. You'll have to wait.”
Twilight turned her back on her friend, her wicked deed leaving Dash in quite a predicament and her mouth hanging open. She NEEDED that book. This was the day she read the new book, every three months like clockwork when they came out. The one schedule she ever kept absolutely straight was being interfered with by the one pony in Ponyville crazy about schedules.
Perhaps an appeal to reason was in order, so Twilight could see how much the book meant to the literature deprived Pegasus?
K-chak.
Or maybe a Smith & Wesson M&P45 pressed to the back of Twilight's skull was just as good.
“Give me that book Twilight.”
The click of the safety being turned off made Twilight freeze, though the metal digging into the back of her skull was just as convincing. Sweat dripped down her temple, her eye twitching.
“D-Dash...isn't this pretty extreme just for-”
The whip of cold steel on the back of her head sent her to the ground with a throb of pain and a quickly growing lump. Dash pressed the gun closer to Twilight's forehead, the handgun firmly gripped via the bizarrely dexterous wingtips. Her voice was cool, threatening.
“You should have thought of that before you tried to take my book, little miss librarian. Give it. Now.”
Twilight looked up at Dash, her teeth clenched in anger. She slowly levitated the book towards her, her horn power increasing in such a small amount that only a trained court magician would have noticed.
Or somepony with really good ears and amazing reflexes.
The spray of bullets tore through the floor where Dash had been standing only a second before, the Heckler & Kock MP7 floating behind her where Twilight had raised it. Twilight still had the book in her magical grasp and now something to defend herself with. Dash's face contorted with a snarl as she barked out.
“So that's how it's going to be!”
Dash took to the air, gaining speed as bullets tore after her, the sub-machine gun spinning as Twilight twirled it with her magic to aim after the cerulean blur of feathers. Dash's athleticism truly wasn't for nothing as she dashed ahead and under every controlled burst, rolling and twisting away.
Dash fired off two shots, each deflected by the purple shield the grinning unicorn threw up. In a burst of speed, Dash wound her way around the carved out tree, her speed too much for Twilight to keep a bead on. The click-click-click of the empty magazine made Twilight's eyes go up in shock as she ripped a book from the shelf, levitating a fresh magazine from the carved out book.
Dash crashed into the helpless unicorn, pinning her to the floor and pressing the handgun to her snout.
“No matter how many bullets you fire, it's the the one that hits that matters.”
K-chak.
“True, sugarcube. Seein' as ah got the last shot, why don't y'all putcher guns down an we call it a draw?”
As much as everyone expected AJ to be loud and galumphing along like a big mass of country gal and bucking muscles, she'd slipped right in during the fight and crept up on the two, the length of shotgun she carried pressed hard into Dash's skull, hooves cradling the gun by stock and hoof sized trigger guard.
Dash tried to swallow the massive fear-lump in her throat. Applejack had shown her what that H&K Benelli 512 Shotgun of hers could do once to the side of an old barn. She could have flown through the hole it made with full wing span and she briefly imagined them scraping her left overs into a jam jar.
Twilight dropped hers and Dash's handgun hit the ground. Twilight stood opposite the nervous pegasus, shotgun still on her and the book still in Twilight's purple grip.
“AJ, what are you doing here? Not that I'm ungrateful, you saved my life!”
“Ah came inta town fer that farmer's almanac. I think you were onto something with that rotation farming, Twilight.”
In that moment of slack awareness, Dash dove to the side, AJ's shotgun blowing a hole in the floor at the sudden movement and recoil sending the barrel high.
Dash scooped up her gun, firing several wild shots at the friendly pair as she grabbed the floating book in her teeth and scooted backward out the door. Applejack kicked over the thickest table in the library, statue crashing to the ground and hot lead thudding into the wood.
The door slammed shut behind Dash and Twilight was after her, throwing it open and putting power into a shield as she whipped her neck around after the Pegasus. She was disappearing into the buildings to the East, flying low for cover. Freaked out ponies lay in cover behind bushes and fences, watching their local librarian with fear engorged eyes.
AJ poked her head out the door and, the coast being clear, stepped up beside Twilight and drawled out.
“Was that book important?”
Fresh magazines floated from inside the library followed by the twin of the sub-machine gun Twilight had been using.
“No. Not at all.”
Two sharp clicks sounded as she loaded each gun.
“But it's the principle of the thing.”
Author's Note
Sometimes you just need to go nuts and write whatever.