Author's Note

The first story I ever wrote for my oc.

Raid

I soared high over my comrades below as they moved in closer to the small mining town. I selected a perch in gray cloud bank where I could watch without being seen and the flash of my rifle would be hidden from view. The town was poorly guarded, used only to the drunken carousing of overworked ponies with nothing else to do, nothing else to lose.

We were the Dirtfoot crew, notorious robbers and thieves. We ran most of the small towns in the southwest, big enough to make us money and make us known, small enough to avoid the attention of the royals in Canterlot.

I looked back down at my crew, and watched as they split into teams. Dirty Dan, our boss, led the main team of unicorns down the main street of the town while a second team led by a burly earth pony called Brawn split off towards the mine. I was technically leader of the pegasus team but as I was the only one capable of providing cover fire for all three teams, I was alone, and my younger brother Scattershot led the rest of the pegasi around the clouds into a position to drop onto the bank. Everything seemed to be going to plan.

I watched from my position of omniscience, Dirty Dan and the unicorns started brawls in a couple of the saloons. This was my queue to remove the guards from the mine. They fell to the ground like so many sacks of oats and Brawn and the earth ponies set to work gathering the gold ore from the rail cars. Momentarily distracted by this I had not watched Scattershot and his team.

I looked around. "Shit! What he hell are you doing!" Rather than drop on the roof and blow in as per the plan the foal had dropped in front of the bank and had started a gunfight. Fuck, I didn't have a view of the front. I slung my rifle over my shoulder and latched onto the cloud I was riding and proppeled it around the town. Finally in position I reshouldered my rifle and looked through the scope at the mess my brother had made. I could see the muzzle flash of his twin scatterguns, the rest of the team was pinned on all sides. The sheriff's attention had been drawn from he brawls to the bank and now he and his gaggle of half baked deputies were firing on the would be robbers. I held Scattershot's sorry head in the cross hairs for a moment before swinging over to the first law pony. I squeezed the trigger and red mist filled the space where his skull had once been. I swung around to the next and repeated the action before any of the others had had a chance to notice. The sheriff was next, I watched his mouth move as he looked around frantically, realizing what was happening. Too late. At this point, the deputies were in disarray and their courage dissolved as they fled down the alleyways.

Dirty Dan and the unicorns joined the pegasi and finished breaking into the bank, Brawn and his crew were already enroute to the rendezvous. I relaxed my rifle and watched a moment more. Seething in rage, I allowed myself to drop through the cloud and proceeded to the meeting place.

I sat with Brawn and the other earth ponies around a fire cleaning my rifle. I heard the clop of hooves and raucous laughter coming from through darkness as Dan and the rest of the Dirtfoot crew arrived. I stood and waited.

"Good shooting Longshot!" Dan hollered as he came into camp. I grunted in response, I was still waiting for my target. Scattershot came in midway through the group laughing loudly and gesturing wildly, clearly reenacting some event earlier in the night. Spotting me, he trotted on over.

"How fun was that!" He exclaimed breathless. Before he could say another word, I swung my rifle by the barrel and caught the foal on the side of his head with the stock, laying him flat across the ground.

"What the fucking hell was that!" I bellowed. Silence dropped heavily on the campsite, "You could have been killed, or gotten one of your crew killed! My crew! You are under my command and you will obey it! Or I swear to Celestia I will shoot your sorry ass right now." I pressed the muzzle of my rifle into his temple and his eyes widened, not in fear but in anger.

"You might want to watch yourself brother, you might get yourself hurt," I felt something press against my gut, it was his shotgun.

"Boys, boys, calm down now," Dan cut in walking up, "I wouldn't want to lose my two best pegasi now would I?"

I held my stance a moment longer then both Scattershot and I relaxed our weapons simultaneously.

"There now, we can be civil can't we?" Dan grinned maliciously. Scattershot got to his hooves. I continued to glare at him.

"You damn well better hope I don't decide to drop you the next time I'm up there," I spat and turned. Scattershot just chuckled and returned to his friends.

I went and settled down next to Brawn, "You know that Dan considers you two his best ponies, I'm only second in charge cause I've been here longer," the big pony spoke up.

"Yeah well I don't even want to lead the pegasi let alone the rest of he crew," I scowled, "I only joined up because I've got debts I'm running from, I think Scattershot actually enjoys this."

"Fuck, some ponies are just like that, a little twisted in the head," Brawn fell silent and I quietly agreed.

"Alright boys! Listen up! We've got a new job coming up," Dan shouted above the din of the crowded saloon. It had been a few weeks since the mine job and the crew was getting restless. There was a great cheer, "Sadly we will not need everypony." Cries of dissent and outrage rose from the gathered ponies.

"Now calm down, everypony will still get paid," this was followed by a low murmur of confusion, "We've been hired by a private party to remove a few business rivals from the picture." Dan grinned maliciously, "Basically we've been hired for an assassination!" We were all shocked into silence, we had never taken a kill job before. Those were usually contracted out to gunslingers on a one on one level, never had a whole crew been hired.

"In addition to the hit money, from which the team members will be paid, there is also a special cargo on the train that we can take with a value of 10,000 bits!". The reaction was deafening, a good payday indeed. "We'll be in three teams, as usual. I'll take the first hit team, Sidewinder," he turned to a unicorn with a crooked horn and twisted magic, "and Winchester," an earth pony gunslinger, "you two are with me. Brawn, you pick up to four more of your strongest ponies for the grab team. Crackshot, you Scattershot and one more will be insurance and the second hit team."

"Dan," I interrupted, "I'll be more than enough on my..."

"That's an order," he looked at me sternly, "and I want no more squabbling between you two."

My brow furrowed and I settled into my chair to brood no longer listening. The meeting was dismissed and Dan called me and Brawn into the back room where he sat at his big desk.

"So you all know your parts right?" We nodded, " then here's the information you'll need.". He slid copies of a telegram across the deck to each of us. Mine had a date, time, train station, and seat and car number of my target whith a brief description. "It is utterly important that none of the targets escape."

"Has anyone ever from me?" I shot back, still pissed.

"Listen here, Long shot," he said leaning across the desk and pointing a hoof in my face. "I'm in no mood for your shit! Now swallow your petty ass pride and take your orders!" Dan snapped, "as I recall, you still owe some serious debts to some big names, and last I checked I'm the only one protecting your sorry hide, so shut the fuck up!" I frowned, he was right. "As I was saying, study these and commit them to memory. No fuck ups." He leaned back in his chair.

"You got it boss," Brawn said slowly, still looking at his paper, "damn this won't be easy." We turned and left the room.