The Fast, Dangerous and the Furious

Chapter Seventeen: Assassination in Harbor City

My eyes, which had been tightly sealed for the past few hours, popped open like a balloon. War had nudged my hoof to wake me up but it felt nowhere near noon. That was when the assassination was supposed to be taking place. Apparently War shares some sort of ‘magical’ telepathy with Rusty and Oceans so he knows exactly when they want to pull off a job of this size. He told us this as a joke last night, but now I’m getting the idea that maybe it’s true. Maybe it’s not. I just want to get some sleep.

I turned.

“Get up,” War demanded giving me a more violent shove.

I groaned a little, slowly getting off my lazy ass to see what the fuss was about. Daring was sitting at the bar muttering some wickedly foul … such language!

I mean last night she said some very appropriate words to our torturers, but these words, geez these words are just plain wrong! The map that was supposed to be on the table was gone and missing from view. “What’s going on,” I asked to no pony specific.

Daring shook her head in disgust. “We were tracked,” she growled. We were tracked … you know that doesn’t surprise me at all, but what does surprise me is the fact neither one of us thought to make sure no pony was following us.

The door nonchalantly swung open with Dead Eye standing in the frame next to Shelby. A smoke ring was blown in the air while Dead Eye put his cigar to the side of his mouth. “Good morning Miss Adventure, Mister Runner. Both of you come from the same crew so I thought it would be appropriate to meet the ponies I would be working with.” The atmosphere in the room shifted from light hearted to densely thick when War locked eyes with Dead Eye. I swear if I could get a saw right now I could cut the density of this moment in half. “I trust that this is your entire crew.”

“I only have a crew of three now, as I’m sure you’re aware a four member group doesn’t exactly work out,” War commented calmly and clearly too both new employers. Dead Eye stretched out a long hoof to our leader. They shook hoofs. “From what my friend over there at the bar tells me, we’re going to be working together.”

“That would be correct. You three have caused me a lot of trouble; Xtealth has gone off the grid,” he blew a smoke ring, “the way I see it you will have to repay me for my loss. I can always find more slaves and get more money, but icing a stallion from the picture is something I need a team for. You do that for me then you walk away all crimes forgiven.”

Shelby wrapped one claw around a pistol aiming it right at Daring. My pegasus friend put her pith helmet on with a sour scowl on her face. “But first I have something I need to show you.” Dead Eye’s horn lit up while simultaneously floating up a revolver. To War’s head.

“Walk,” Shelby commanded.

The griffon assassin pulled out another pistol aiming it right at me. I slid on my saddle bags with my pistol hidden inside of it. Dead Eye pushed War out the door first. My mind went blank while we stepped into the elevator heading down to ground floor.

Ding.

The doors slid open with us walking all the way out to the front door with a crowd waiting for us. It finally registered to me why so many ponies could cheer for Dead Eye. In fact it made sense to me why so many ponies in District Twelve stayed underneath a boot of corruption. When things seem hopeless, like the fight against the infected, ponies will turn to those who have the power the shield them. In my case it’s the brick walls. In Harbor City’s case it’s Dead Eye.

War was shoved. Put on display in front of all the ponies cheering at Dead Eye. In the name of Celestia, this guy is a freaking Alicorn to them. At least as close as you can get without the wings. “Ladies and gentle colts,” Dead Eye’s voice rang out shushing the cheering, “Today I bring you the mastermind behind the heists yesterday.” Boo’s mixed with shouts of hate were all directed at us. Several beer bottles were flung in War’s direction. “Do not blame the two ponies standing behind me, my little ponies, these two are going to help me get one step closer to making Equestria safer for us all. However, this stallion in front of me will be a lesson to everyone in the criminal world.”

The plan’s busted. We’re busted. I’m going to be stuck working for this guy for who knows how long.

My fore legs quivered a little while I pictured everything going down after this moment. Dead Eye would go on to keep me under his hoof until he either gave me an impossible mission or declared me unusable. At that moment he would whip out a gun or have Shelby put one very well placed bullet into the back of my skull.

Daring let out a low whistle. I looked over at her while she tried to say something. “No talking,” Shelby bumped the back of our heads with her pistols. My pegasus friend gave Shelby an irritated look. “Give me a reason.”

“Or you’ll do what,” she growled back.

“Put a bullet through your eyes,” the griffon whispered back.

In the midst of the two conversations I caught the sight of a familiar wagon rolling by, only it looked ready for a fight. It now had a metal top covering it up with small holes for the barrel of a gun to poke out of. Daring and I looked at each other for a brief second. A flap in the wagon’s wall opened up with six barrels pointing out of it.

“They’ve got a machine gun!” A pony from the crowd shouted.

My horn lit up forming two pink shields around us. War’s horn lit up red covering all three of us in our own little protection bubble.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Bullets exploded from the machine gun sending the crowd running for cover. In a matter of a second, Bolt Action managed to light up his horn, sending his entire body into an explosion of magic before disappearing. Shelby dove behind a stone wall letting the bullets bombard everything around her.

I lost War in the crossfire between Shelby and the machine gun, leaving me and Daring to gallop to the wagon minus one crucial member. Hundreds of bullets started being fired all around us ripping the red bubble to shreds along with my spell. Not Important bucked open the back of our wagon while Daring pulled me inside. I telekinetically pulled the door shut.

This wasn’t a wagon anymore though, it had been transformed into a mobile assault unit ready to mow down any enemies in its path. Not Important tossed me the key to my Challenger which had been attached to some chains hanging down from the ceiling. Loud clinking sounds rattled the wagon making me cringe a little. “Don’t worry, I reinforced everything with some thick armor plating,” Not Important assured me. Her next words were a fancy way of saying they couldn’t touch us without using anything short of an anti-sky tank missile. She whipped out a pair of sunglasses and put them on before bucking open a cabinet that literally shined with a plethora of weapons. My jaw dropped.

It’s so beautiful!

Our slick weapons-mare tossed me several fully loaded ammo clips along with a highly unique weapon I had never seen before. It was a dull grey, yet somehow still alluring, high capacity nine shot cylinder revolver. “That’s a personal favorite of mine, the LeMat revolver,” Not Important cooed. Daring ripped four automatic pistols from the walls then froze. Her hooves knocked a few things around and pulled something out. A long ammo belt with dozens upon dozens of pistol bullets attached to it. Daring slung it around her body letting it wrap three times around her before locking it in place. Not Important ripped a light machine gun from the wall with what looked like the longest snake ever for an ammo belt. She mounted it in front of a small opening, preparing to fire.

Daring gave me a quick boost up to the Challenger letting me strap myself in. “Thanks for saving our flanks,” I called down to our saviors. Oceans gave me a hoof wave before returning back to spinning the gun’s crank.

“Go take out the turrets,” he ordered.

My heavy machinery started up with a loud roar before I burst out into the gunfire outside our mobile armory. Daring trailed behind me as our eyes locked on the first turret we saw. It started moving along a track with the cannon portion of the weapon adjusting itself to fire at our wagon. I looked right back at our mobile armory and saw it engulfed in a glorious field of gold magic before it started moving on its own.

I pushed the gas pedal back, soaring straight down, aiming for the zebras that were on their way to aid Dead Eye. They jumped from building to building with great precision shooting with accuracy almost as precise. I levitated both my pistol and revolver up next to me. Daring went to grab one of her pistols with her mouth, as she did so, Shelby caught hold of her, pulling her back down to the ground. Both of them took back to the sky fighting for air dominance.

My glider bolted forward while I raised up just enough to slam the wingspan into two zebras while they jumped down from the rooftops. I threw my weight to one side causing my machine to roll, sending the two zebras down on top of a few dumpsters. Another one landed on top of my glider prepared to strike me down right away. I attempted to roll but was forced to pull up to avoid hitting a chimney. A loud crack went off and the zebra on top of me plummeted to the ground.

I’m starting to become more of a gambling stallion now, cause I put all my money on the chance that the pony who dropped that fool was Rusty!

My back hoof hit the gear shifter and put the Challenger into second, “Look out!” Daring’s strong voice called out from high above me making me jerk my head up. She was crash landing towards me! I hit the gear shifter, downshifting back into first while hitting the brake, making me loose just enough speed to let Daring fall past me. Her wings stretched out taking her back into the air while a sharp ice cold pain ran up my leg. I looked at my back leg to find a throwing knife lodged in it. Damn it, Shelby.

Said griffon assassin flew past me while tilting one of my wings to the side forcing me to take evasive maneuvers through an alleyway. Several trash cans fell over during my escapade out to the other side. I barrel rolled into another alley making use of the fire escape to knock the throwing knife out of my leg! My back hoof hit the gear shifter again making me change into second.

THUNK!

I stared straight into my rear view mirror to find Shelby clawing her way into the back of my glider. I tried shaking her off but the action only managed to piss her off even more. Her claws went for a throwing knife. A brown blur charged towards me with a pistol drawn. Shelby leapt from the wingspan, smashing a window in, to escape the sporadic gunfire coming from Daring’s pistol. My two weapons turn faced the long window stretching to the end of the building I was flying alongside. Bullets exploded out both barrels shattering the glass and possibly ripping some of the assassin’s feathers off.

The long stretched out window burst open with Shelby flaring her claws at my face. I dove down but not fast enough. Shelby’s claws gouged into the metal hood ripping it open with a metallic screech. Our combined momentum sent us crashing through the window to my right. The engine died as we slid through tables and chairs making them either break or tumble over our moving bodies. I retracted the wingspan back into the glider blocks just as we slid underneath a pool table that tore the assassin off of me with a squawk.

Daring flung herself into the room and galloped right for Shelby while I unstrapped myself from the Challenger. A claw from the assassin wrapped around a pool stick before slapping it across Daring’s face making her stumble to the ground. Shelby threw a hoof kick at the pegasus’ face only for it to be blocked by Daring’s wing! Daring lunged into Shelby and knocked her against the pool table. Three long cuts found their way against Daring’s face making her yell out in pain. My horn lit up and wrapped Shelby in blue magic just before forcing her into the refrigerator. I galloped over to her with my horn aglow only to have the fridges door slammed into my face making me hit the ground while a spell fired off.

The rogue spell reflected off a mirror and hit a radio making it turn on to a random station. Daring put a bandage rag against her face then rammed her body against Shelby’s. They stumbled into an oven and my horn lit up making the device power on. Flames spouted out from the top scorching Shelby’s feathers a little. The assassin gripped her claws around Daring’s neck attempting to throw her into the fire! I got up tackling them full force into the master bed room. Shelby tore me off of her and gave me a clawed punch into the bathroom.

My hooves wrapped around the shower curtain and brought the pole holding it up down in front of Shelby while she clawed for my face. Her lethal hoof strike hit the pole making it bend with ease. I telekinetically threw her back into Daring who bucked her with both back hooves sending her flying into the bar area with a squawk. “Shit,” Daring called out to no pony specific while diving over the bed. Several throwing knives sliced the air where she had just been at and shattered a TV screen. I pushed myself up off the ground and slid into the door frame with my horn lit up. A pink bubble formed around me while several throwing knives bounced off of it.

Daring galloped through the bubble and dove into the bar room taking cover behind another pool table. It wasn’t long before my entire protection spell shattered under the bombardment of a dozen throwing knives all intent on cutting me up into tinny tiny pieces. I dove behind a pool table that had partly collapsed near the window. Daring jumped on top of her table and flung herself on top of Shelby before crashing down with the assassin on top of another pool table making it collapse. I looked out the window just in time to catch the sight of a large cannon being pointed at us from the large wall surrounding the city.

“Oh crap, Daring we gotta go!” I galloped past both of them, strapping my glider on right away. The engine started up fast and I burst towards the broken window. My hooves went down and picked Daring up off of Shelby. I shifted into second then banked out the broken window above the streets. My rear view mirror caught a quick blur escaping the building.

KA-BOOM!

Chunks of brick and large debris came collapsing down on the street forcing me to pull up while Daring wiggled free from my grip. Her wings stretched out as we took off towards the wall. I could hear her laughing unenthusiastically. “They turned the turrets on the city!” A large dust cloud rose up while the rest of the building came collapsing down on a small restaurant just enough for it to be mildly damaged.

A loud thud echoed behind me. I looked into the rear view mirror spying a zebra going for her pistol. Daring swooped up from below knocking the zebra right off the Challenger.

Below us, several ponies were running out of buildings armed to the teeth with carbine rifles and pistols. They were all fighting with us! Not Important sure knows how to bring ponies together.

Down below us, War and Dead Eye were engaged in their own little war. From the looks of it War had enough protection spells in his arsenal to keep Dead Eye’s blindingly fast rate of fire at bay. The two of them were pretty much even. War was doing his best to hide behind AC units, but every time he poked his head out to get a lock on Dead Eye a spray of bullets was waiting for him. Damn it, where the hell is a sniper rifle when I need one.

A flash of light and a fiery explosion in my rear view mirror caught my attention. Shelby fell out of the sky and took no time at all finding me. Her wings stretched out as she dove full force for me. I did half a barrel roll and aimed my two guns at her. The revolver cracked loudly, harmoniously, with my automatic even with each shot completely missing Shelby.

I reloaded.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

I reload.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

I went to reload and felt around my saddle bags. My hoof went through a small hole where the ammo was supposed to be. Shelby must have ripped the bag during our scuffle. My eyes locked with Shelby’s while she opened her claws for me to see. I did another half barrel roll simultaneously hitting the gear shifter to first. With a loud click the Challenger began to descend towards the mobile armory moving around the city still unloading round after round into Dead Eye’s police force.

With no other idea up my saddle bag I did the only thing I could think of. My horn lit up levitating over a bull horn from a trash can. “NOT IMPORTANT! I NEED TO RELOAD!” The clip-clopping from my hooves returned when I hit the ground galloping full speed for the mobile armory. I didn’t have time to stop and Not Important knew this. Her gun had stopped firing as a window in the unit fell open. Not Important leaned out. Both my guns floated out to the side with the barrel cracked out and the old ammo clip discarded. I ditched the bull horn with it.

Time slowed down to the point everything I was seeing felt like it was moving in super slow motion. I pulled up right next to the wagon and turned to look at Not Important. Shelby was right behind me. Not Important jammed a nine shot speed loader into my revolver simultaneously reloading my automatic with an extended clip. By nothing short of a miracle, this unicorn managed to toss several ammo boxes inside the side of my bag that wasn’t ripped. Time felt like it returned to normal as Not Important pulled the window shut.

I flew past the mobile armory and took to the sky above. There was a pause in my glider while I shifted into third. The wing speedometer clocked in at sixty five wing power and continued to climb higher and higher. Several loud cracks went zooming by me just as my left wing popped. I dropped several feet back to the ground and caught the sight of Dead Eye aiming for me. Son of a bitch can even hit a moving target fast!

My hooves hit the ground hard enough it made me cringe. Several throwing knives zoomed past me while I galloped down the street weaving around ponies galloping out into the line of fire. One pony went down while another was struck in the flank. Shelby doesn’t even freaking care! AGH! I swear she gets off on torturing ponies.

I looked up at Dead Eye leaning on a balcony with a sniper rifle in his hooves. With a slow inhale I carefully put my guns inside of the glove box near the radio. “Alright, Runner,” I spoke to myself and exhaled slowly. “You can do this again.” In all honesty, I could only form a protection spell a few times and I lost track of how many times I had used it already. Sadly, after so many uses it becomes increasingly harder to form my spell.

My horn flickered a little slowly forming another pink bubble around me. Dead Eye fired and shot the spell apart. I cringed and felt my head beginning to ache a little. Yup, that’s enough of that spell for a while.

The Challenger gave a lurch while I shifted into third again. I took back up to the skies and saw War open fire at Dead Eye from another building.

How the hell did they both get from one building to those two that fast?

KA-BOOM!

An explosion turned the sky bright orange while its shock made me wobble into a dangerously low drop of altitude. My back hoof hit the gear shifter into fourth. The Challenger flew back up while Shelby closed in on my location. We weaved around a few buildings that looked like they could grow into a skyscraper. Manehattan look out for these buildings!

Metallic screeching filled my ears forcing me to jerk my head to the source of the sound. Shelby got ready to swing and I went. Straight. UP! Her wings pulled her back, but her claws dug far enough into my glider to hold herself still. “Get off,” I barked at her! Shelby’s claws went for my head only to get nowhere near me. Something flashed in my rear view mirror. I stared at it feeling my heart skip more than enough beats.

KA-BOOM!

I slammed the brake pedal down with both hooves forcing me to drop right under the explosion!

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOWWWWWWWWWWW!

Part of my mane singed making me scream out in pain. It didn’t take long before I saw part of Shelby’s wing on fire. The griffon assassin squawked relentlessly while she slapped the side of my Challenger in an attempt to put the flames out. It took her a matter of five seconds to put the flames out before releasing my glider and soaring past me. She did a loop and dove towards me. “Alright, let’s see which one of us is chicken!” My hoof slammed the gas pedal as far back as it could go. One of the turrets positioned itself at me.

VEEEEERUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

I unstrapped myself and fell.

OH SHIT! BAD IDEA! BAD IDEA!

My inner pony screamed at me, cursing with just as wonderfully colorful phrases that would possibly impress even Daring! I looked up just in time to see my hunk of metal ram Shelby into a tailspin just before …

KA-BOOM!

Bombastic sounds filled the air with a satisfying boom that rang through my ears. Feathers were scattered everywhere along with chunks of metal; I’ll admit it was sad seeing the latter plummeting to the city. Then I turned to the street below me. My heart rate picked up. I wanted to close my eyes. I didn’t. I jerked my head around looking for a crew member to bail me out, but no pony was in sight. When I said I wanted to feel the wind through my mane, I didn’t mean like this!

All I could do was pray to Celestia that I-

“GOT YOU!”

Daring scooped me in her hooves only letting my back hooves scrape the ground as we pulled back up into the air. My heart skipped a beat as I let out a breath that Celestia-only-knew how long I had been holding. I looked up at Daring and saw her giving me a smile that told me she was never going to let me hit the ground. “I’ve got your back, Runner.” And I’ve got yours! We hoof bumped and took off for the turrets attached to the wall.

I gave Shelby a salute for effort. She was in all sense of the word, deadly, but even something deadly isn’t enough to beat a well-built crew with a formulated plan. “You know I could really use a nap after this,” I panted in between words.

“What? You getting sleepy on me?” Daring shot me a confident smile while we passed over crowds of ponies fighting back against the zebra police force. If I wasn’t watching it with my own eyes, I’d swear that zebras were winning, but they weren’t. A loud crack rang through our ears.

Daring’s hooves coiled tighter around me while we dropped fast. My horn lit up and I managed to form half a protection spell under us only to have it shatter apart upon hitting the ground. I slid into a ruined Challenger amongst several others. Daring landed in a pile of scrap before rolling out from under the somehow stable structure with her body covered with gashes and scrapes. A medical kit was ripped from my saddle bags. I wrapped her body with bandage rags until she tore the rag apart once we had enough to heal her. Blood was dripping from her wing. Daring flung her wing one direction and ripped it back into a charcoal black wall. A piece of metal fell out of her wing.

Taking in the surroundings carefully I could see hallways branching out around us, all scorched or singed in some way or another. Behind me was a large bent out of shape piece of metal that looked like a dragon getting ready to breathe raging hot hell fire down on us. “We sure blew the roof off this place,” Daring trailed off looking straight up at the ceiling that had caved in at some point. I put a limping hoof around me to help her up. We were in no shape to continue a war we couldn’t finish. War, on the other hoof, probably had a backup plan that he and Rusty were acting upon right about now.

It took us several minutes to get to the burnt up factory room where my Challenger came from. Sadly there were no more usable gliders. With that in mind I kept helping a limping Daring get to the metal door that had been closed to keep any pony else out. I slid into my transparency spell. The only thing that didn’t turn transparent was the garage door that was locked up tight with an anti-magic padlock preventing me from seeing through it.

Oh no.

Please no. We are not prepared for Him of all ponies.

“Runner, what do you see?” Daring nudged me with her muzzle.

Dead Eye walked over to the metal door with a shotgun, assault rifle, pistol and sniper rifle all fully loaded. My eyes spared my own weapons a … where are my weapons? I thought back to Shelby bursting into a pile of feathers. My horn, at some point during that flight, had stopped glowing. Wherever my weapons were they wouldn’t be helping now. “Daring, give me your pistol.” I looked at her and she was about to say something, “Now.” Daring reached into her bag and gave me her remaining pistol. I checked to make sure it was loaded, but instead noticed a double barrel shotgun lying underneath some scrap metal. My horn lit up floating the mighty weapon over to me. The barrel cracked open to reveal two shells inside. That’s all I need.

I snapped the weapon shut and kept it levitating next to me. Daring could only stare at me while I pointed at another exit. I wasn’t going to argue about this one. Dead Eye hurt us, he could have scarred us for life with a permanent lesson on both our bodies if he had been in the mood. “Any advice?” I asked looking straight at the door.

“Don’t get shot.” Daring nudged me with her hoof. Don’t get shot. I’m about to go up against one of the fastest shots in the city, maybe even this part of Equestria, and all you have to say is ‘don’t get shot’. I’ll take it.

It didn’t take long for Daring to try and convince me to let her get into this gunfight, but my response was levitating her into the exit hall before blocking it off. I won’t let him hurt her again. I’m going to do what I should have done the night those bucking restraints were put on me. I’m going to kick his ass.

Above the garage door was a metal catwalk with several piles of scrap metal aside ruined gliders. Without a second thought I made my way up to the metal walkway so I could get the high ground. My hoof pushed some scrap out the way giving me a view of the ground below. I crouched low to the walkway, putting my fore hooves against the scrap pile. With my attention focused on nothing but the door I watched Dead Eye come inside after propping the door open with a metal kart.

I bucked the metal scrap down listening to it topple against the ground and pony below. Metallic screeches echoed all around us. Dead Eye’s shotgun fired at random while it clattered to the ground with the rest of his weapons. A loud pang below me made my pupils shrink.

“Oh crap,” I shouted with my voice echoing a little.

The entire catwalk groaned out in a metallic whine of pain, sliding out from its place and forming a ramp. My hooves shot out and held me in place between the guard rails. Something above me rattled taking my attention to it. I muttered a few more unkind words staring at a bulky glider that was in total shambles. My inner pony shouted at me to look down, so I did. Dead Eye bucked a few pipes off his suit jacket, lighting up his horn in dark red glow.

“Geez you’re a peachy downer,” unicorns look better with a lighter shade of magic. My horn fired off a blue spell at the glider making it tumble forward. I pushed myself away from the catwalk just in time to feel the hood scrape my back hooves before it crashed into the scrap pile below. A loud thud rang in my ears making them twitch while I slid across an overturned wagon. I leaned into my shotgun aiming it down at the glider Dead Eye was now pinned under.

BLAM! BLAM!

My bullets took out the wingspan protecting him from my last shot. I threw the shotgun down exchanging it for Daring’s pistol. Dead Eye pulled out a submachine gun formerly stuck under the glider. The clip unloaded in a quick burst while I dove down from the scrap towards my shotgun. I rolled past the gun, picking it up along the way, just before hiding behind a fridge. There was a box of ammo lying next to me. My hoof went to it and pulled out a single shotgun shell.

Crack.

Click!

Dead Eye rolled out from under the glider carcass with his pistol pointing straight at the fridge I was hiding behind. I stepped out from hiding with the double barrel pointed at his chest. “Go on, pull the trigger,” he said confidently.  “And see if you are faster shot than me.” We pulled our triggers simultaneously while I dove a little to the left to see the most bad ass thing ever. OUR BULLETS COLLIDED IN THE AIR! Shock put aside, I levitated out my pistol and fired off a few rounds at Dead Eye only to have his protection spell take the hits. I galloped over to him, throwing all me weight towards him, tackling the stallion against another fridge. Dead Eye threw the freezer door open, which I ducked under, only to have the bottom of the fridge swing out and whack me in the face. Hard.

I stumbled back falling against a glider frame where I saw Dead Eye’s saddle bags laying. There were several grenades inside. Dead Eye put his hooves down on me before dragging me back over to the fridge. My horn lit up and threw a hunk of metal at the stallion. He dove to the left, right behind a glider. I galloped over to the torn off saddle bags grabbing several grenades in my levitation field. The end of Dead Eye’s hoof slammed hard into my muzzle making me lose focus enough to drop the grenades. They all scattered around like marbles as I hit the ground noticing something shiny that looked almost like an apple stem.

Oh crap!

I pushed myself up running for the open garage door. The grenade went off sending shrapnel everywhere. I slid across the ground picking up a grenade with the pin still intact. Dead Eye galloped behind me while I pulled the pin. Without a moment’s hesitation I dropped the active grenade down next to several others, simultaneously bucking the metal kart behind me letting the garage door slam shut behind me. With an aching headache forming in my head I focused carefully. My horn started lighting up every so slowly. Each window or door, anything, that could be covered really, was engulfed in my protection spell.

“And,” the remaining intact windows near me exploded, “pop goes the weasel.” I exhaled.

All this action and fighting makes me so thirsty! I rolled a bottle of water out from my saddle bags, took a drink, than tossed it in a trash can. The sounds of turret fire ceased before I could see each one of them explode one after another taking part of the walls down to. We were winning. I chuckled with a light smile. We were actually winning this.

A puff of red magic exploded in front of me, my heart stopped beating, the smile on my face turned into a blank expression. “Did you forget, Mister Runner, the house always wins.” My pistol was too far from my hoof. A bead of sweat ran down my muzzle. Dead Eye’s revolver aimed straight at me. My pupils narrowed at the sight of magic exploding in between me and Dead Eye.

CRACK!

A puff of magic floated down to the ground, like strings of confetti, with War’s legs giving out on him. My pupils returned to normal taking in every detail of what was happening. War hit the ground with a puddle of his own blood forming around him. No … please Celestia … NO! “And so ends the life of one very troublesome stallion,” Dead Eye put his hoof on top of War’s neck. I leaned for my pistol and felt a bullet rip through my leg making me yell out in agonizing burning pain. “I have decided to terminate our contract Mister Runner, I am sure you would agree that after today’s actions we cannot keep contact with one another. Please, give War my regards. And don’t worry, I’ll send Miss Adventure to you soon enough.”

I gritted my teeth together. You know I don’t mind losing, but I hate losing to this guy. Too bad this gamble cost me my life.

CRACK!

Dead Eye locked eye contact with me. Blood started running down his muzzle and he just hit the ground. Not in an overly dramatic old style movie kind of way, just a simple fall. His body just lay on the ground unmoving with a puddle of his own blood forming around him. I turned to our mobile armory pulling up to find Oceans busting open the door yelling out our fallen friend’s name. Daring let out a scream from the other side of the factory wall, I didn’t hear anything though. Everything inside of me was just silent. Empty. My face felt … wet.

*** ***

I couldn’t wipe the sight of Daring sobbing over War from my mind. She’d been gone for a couple of minutes now, having taken War’s body in the mobile armory to find a more suitable resting place, I hadn’t moved an inch since she’d left. Oceans yelled at a Rusty, throwing his hoof around angrily while I just watched on. It took a minute to finally zone back in on what was going on. “This was your plan, Rusty! And what do we have to show for it? A dead thief, with an injured unicorn and pegasus that you put up as bait!” They had my full attention now. Rusty sighed and looked at me. Oh, he knew that I had heard that.

Oceans tensed up and rubbed the back of his mane nonchalantly looking away. My eyes narrowed. He knew as well. In fact he didn’t even look like he was going to apologize for what was going on. Rusty cleared his throat. “Simply put, we’re great actors. Just look at War, he’s literally playing dead.” Oceans jammed him with his hoof. “I’m sorry, that was too soon.”

Then they’ll be caught.

Rusty started scratching his head trying to put his thoughts into words. Oh, he knew I was pissed and ready for action. I could see my gun out the corner of my eyes. Their strange behavior on the train was making sense now. “I knew Dead Eye was going to catch you guys last night, who do you think tipped him off that some pony was there to steal from him?” My jaw dropped. He, what! “Yeah, it was all part of my plan. See, before we came into the city we needed to get Dead Eye’s attention, so what better way to do that than to get noticed breaking and entering?” I gritted my teeth. Daring considered these guys family! Wait. No. “War was pretty convincing when you guys got back, like I said, we’re great actors.”

As far as I’m concerned our plan is still going according to plan.

This was planned far in advance. That means that Daring was in on it to? Right? “What about Daring?” I found myself asking rather quickly. “Was she … in on this to?” Rusty Horseshoe went silent, nonchalantly looking away from my glare. From his silence I could tell she didn’t know anything about this. And now that I think about it, Daring had little insight into the plan to begin with. “You guys are like family to her and you pull this crap! You both can go bite a flank, but first I want my payment.”

Rusty hissed scratching is mane. My fore hoof started tapping the ground. Oceans took a few steps over to me while my hoof stretched over to my gun. He knocked it away. “Yeah, Runner, about that. See, War was going to pay you, not us. So, no, we won’t be paying you. Thanks for the hideout list though, take some pride in the fact you just helped us get one step closer to finding Sombra.” He scoffed. “I mean, you try to do things for the sake of doing good things.” I got up with my horn aglow.

“I have to give this back to Daring,” I said coldly.

*** ***

Not Important had bailed from the city after the turrets were taken down. Turns out that was all her doing, I kind of wish I could have gotten to know her a lot more. Seemed like an interesting mare and from what I could piece together, she probably didn’t have anything to do with Rusty’s plan to get us captured.

I didn’t think about anything on my walk over to the armory sitting across from our former hotel, which had been blasted apart at some point during the fighting. I bet the Princesses never saw something like this going down in Equestria. Kinda wish stuff like this hadn’t happened. Daring was staring into the mobile armory with her eyes looking puffy. This tough mare has taught me one thing, no matter how strong you think you are, no matter how tough as nails you are, none of that will matter in Equestria because this version of a once beautiful place will tear you down.

I put my hooves down on the wagon. Daring didn’t look like she was in the mood to talk, but she needed to know. I needed to tell her, because that’s what friends are for. “Daring, about War. He … He was pretending to be worried about us when we got caught. Rusty planned for us to get caught and tortured. This family of yours, isn’t much of a family.”

Daring gritted her teeth and slammed a hoof against the wall.

“Excuse me, what in Celestia and Luna’s name gives you the right to tell me about my family,” her chest puffed in and out. She pushed her pith helmet up looking me dead in the eyes. “And what the hell are you talking about.” Daring leaned up against the wagon.

“Rusty and the others used us,” I spoke calmly. I wasn’t mad at them anymore, just disappointed. In all honesty part of me thinks they’re just thieves trying to play hero. “Daring, the way they used you should tell you something. This isn’t a family, not even a team. A team doesn’t use its members like that.”

Daring punched me in the face with her hoof and sent me down to the ground. My hoof ran over the spot she had hit. I got up, then felt her wing slap me across the face. “Then go!” She barked. “We don’t need someone that’s going to complain about every little thing we do. You got your bits and gems so get the hell out of here and leave us alone!” I took one last glance at War. Now I kind of felt like I should have been the one shot, but I had my own family to think about now. I probably won’t ever find out why War protected me like he did, but I’ll remember him being a fun stallion to hang around with, as opposed to what I know Rusty and Oceans are.

I took a few steps away from Daring, sparing a look at the street heading to the train station. “They didn’t pay me; I guess the house does always win.” I started walking.