Before I knew it, the morning had passed and the hour of attack was upon us. Ripper reminded everypony of the plans one last time before we split up, not to reunite again until we reached the stash.

Me and Duster ambled over to our chosen spot, just outside Ponyville's borders. We didn't talk much during the trot, instead preferring to keep our eyes and ears open for any sort of trouble. If the raid went bad, then we needed to be prepared to have an out. I took careful details of the area around us in case I needed an exit plan.

Finally, we reached a good vantage point from which to receive Ripper's signal. He said that he would fire a single bullet into the air when the raid had begun, so Duster and I decided to wait on top of a small residential building where we would hear any gunshots.

Duster made some small talk as I opened a can of beans. "I can't understand why you would ever want to stop being a raider. How will anypony accept you after what you've done in your life?"

"Easy. They'll never find out. I'd start my life over. Begin again, you know." I struggled to cut the lid open with a rusty kitchen knife.

"If you think that'll work, you're crazy. You can dress up all you like, pretend you're normal like everypony else, but you've still got the mindset of a killer. No matter what, that never leaves you. It never leaves anypony." Duster seemed like he had thought about it quite a bit.

I cracked open the beans and poured some into my mouth, not caring for manners. "I'll find a way. I just wanna stop the killing. I've killed more than a hundred ponies."

"You know what your trouble is?" Duster said. "You need to stop counting your kills. You'll only feel guilty."

I shrugged. I didn't feel like talking any more about it. I heard the faint jingle of the bottle caps in my saddlebag. And so did Duster. A look of realization flashed across his face, and he narrowed his eyebrows.

"How many caps you got in there, Jet?" he asked in a less-than-polite manner. "Sounds like a lot more than you had yesterday."

I gulped. "I-I have no idea what you're talking about, Duster."

Duster pulled his gun from his belt, pointing it at my head before I could even react. "Don't you fucking lie to me, you sack of shit! You've been hoarding caps from the rest of us!"

I raised a foreleg disarmingly. "No, you've got it all wrong! I found this fair and square. It was just lying around."

Duster put two and two together. "When you were looking for that noise the other day... A crow, my flank! You sneaky bastard." He didn't lower his gun.

I stared into his eyes. "Well? Do it. Shoot me, you damned chicken."

Before he could decide on a course of action, a gunshot rang out in the distance. The raid was on. Duster cursed and lowered the revolver.

"We'll settle this after the raid." He climbed down the side of the building, charging into the middle of town. I followed behind, grateful for Ripper's timing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When we reached the edge of Ponyville, we saw an all-out war. Three of our companions were perched atop the wreckage of what had once been a building, seeking refuge from the Bloodletters's hail of gunfire. Gorehead had her rifle propped up against the side of the building as she took shots at the enemies. Fillet and Shanks were providing covering fire, but it was clear that they were being overrun.

"Duster! Jet! Get the hell over here and help us out!"

We rushed over, guns raised. The Bloodletters were taking cover behind a busted carriage to our right. They weren't expecting to be flanked, and before they could run, I had taken them down with a hail of bullets. That brought my count up to 146.

"Nice shot," said Duster. He sounded a bit angry that he hadn't shot them first. He called up to our companions on the roof. "You guys okay?"

Gorehead waved back. "Yeah! We're fine. We haven't seen Rock Smasher or Ripper, though. The Bloodletters's stash is up the street. But there's landmines everywhere, so watch your ass. We'll stay here and cover you."

I nodded. "Thanks." We hurried down the street, watching for any frag mines that might be hidden out of sight. The small metal discs were scattered across the road in plain sight, so we shot at them from a distance to trigger them. Once it was clear, we started to move further down the road. "I can see the place now." I pointed with my hoof at the building, which looked like it had been a sweet shop back before the megaspells landed.

"Looks like the coast is clear," said Duster. He picked up the pace, rushing to get to the stash before anypony else. "C'mon, asshole, we're nearly-" He didn't finish his sentence. A sniper rifle bullet caught the poor stallion in the foreleg, causing him to topple over and sprawl flat on the concrete.

"God damn it!" Duster cried out.

I looked ahead of us, where I caught a glance of a rifle's barrel from the second-story window of the sweet shop. I grabbed Duster by the torso and pulled him out of the gunpony's line of sight. "Stay down!" I told him as I moved him behind a dumpster for cover. I looked at the wound and winced. The bullet had dug deep into his foreleg, only stopping when it had hit the bone.

"Is it bad?" he asked, his eyes narrowed in agony.

"You'll be fine," I lied. "Just stay here."

As I darted out of cover, he raised his injured hoof. "What the fuck do you think I would do!? Get up and trot away?"

The sniper hurriedly fired at me as I sprinted for the building, but it missed me by a foot. I raised my own gun and retaliated, but he had already moved away from the window.

I charged through the doors of the shop, scanning the room. Blood and guts adorned the walls like party favors, and somepony had scrawled racial slurs on nearly every surface. Tables and chairs were strewn across the room, knocked over long ago in some confrontation or other.

A few shots whizzed over my head from the other end of the room. Two Bloodletters were firing at me with pistols from behind the counter. I ducked behind an overturned table, but not before I felt a bullet graze my side.

"Eat shit!" I peeked over the edge of the table and bit down on the battle saddle's trigger. Two more wasted. 148.

I was barreled over by another one. Before I could even react, the riflepony from the second floor was on top of me with a knife. As he brought the blade down, I caught it with my foreleg. I could feel the knife digging into my hoof, bringing fresh droplets of blood to the surface of my fur. Then my attacker raised the blade again.

I kicked out with my hind leg, knocking him down to the floor before he could slash at me again. I brought my hooves down on his head with brutal efficiency, crushing his skull. 149.

Once I had finished off the raider, I looked around. The room was completely devoid of life now, aside from myself. That must have been the last of them. Now all I had to do was look for-

"Ripper!" The stallion trotted into the shop at that moment, observing the mess I had made of the place. He looked unscathed, surprisingly. "Have you seen the others?" I asked. "They were further back down the road, last time I saw 'em."

He shook his head. "They're dead."

I felt my heart drop into my stomach. "What do you mean? They were fine just a few minutes ago..."

Ripper stomped his hoof. "Well, they're sure as shit dead now. Help me look for the stash, and we'll split it fifty-fifty."

I felt uneasy for some reason. "Okay." The two of us began to poke around the building, searching for any sign of their loot. Finally, Ripper discovered what we were searching for in a safe under the counter.

"There we are!" he said, opening the metal box and peering in at the contents.

I was ecstatic. "We did it! We're gonna be rich!"

I felt the gunshot before I heard it. The bullet punched through my throat, filling my mouth with blood and making it impossible to speak. I was stunned for a moment, but the shock was quickly replaced with searing pain. That's when I noticed the revolver in Ripper's teeth, its barrel still smoking. I collapsed on the hardwood, my blood spilling forth like a fountain from my neck. I couldn't even move or resist as my former friend began to rummage through my saddlebags.

"It's a damn shame," Ripper said. "You always were my friend. That's exactly why I'm letting you live. But stealing this big of a take, I couldn't share it with everypony. All for one, eh?" He laughed, grabbing my bag of bits and pocketing it. "I can't believe you left Duster all alone like that, just waiting for somepony to trot over and finish him off. He thought I was coming to save him, the poor asshole."

That bastard! He killed our companions! I tried to express to him my hatred, but I no longer had the ability or the energy to exercise my colorful vocabulary. I could only stare at him, my eyes emanating pure anger.

"Between your caps and the Bloodletters's, I'll have enough money to take me to New Pegasus!" He trotted out of the building, grinning from ear to ear. It was the last time I ever saw him. Moments later, I heard an explosion from just outside the shop and knew exactly what had happened.

Sounds like Gorehead had never warned ol' Ripper about the landmines.

After a few moments of herculean effort, I rose to my hooves. Blood still trickled from my gunshot wound, but I tore off a section of cotton from my saddlebag strap and fastened it tight around my neck to stop the bleeding. Slowly and wordlessly, I exited the shop and looked at where most of Ripper's body now lay, in scores of pieces around the street. Bottle caps and gore both decorated the asphalt, having been torn from the stallion as he had stepped on the mine.

I set to work gathering the caps on the ground. Roughly four-hundred of them were scattered about the place, but I was quick to scoop them into my bags. When the deed was done, I turned my back on the town for the last time.

It was difficult for me to decide whether or not Ripper's death was my doing. Sure, I didn't put the landmine there, but I didn't exactly warn him either. In the end, I figured that one more notch on my rifle couldn't hurt.

And 150 is an awfully good number to stop at.

Author's Note

Revised and reloaded. Ending is slightly different, but you get the same vibe. Thanks for reading, and upvotes are appreciated (especially since I've gotten quite a few downvotes already).
-Endless Madness