Dark Days of Crackshot

The sun rose to find me prone on the conical roof of the depot water tower. I had lain in this position for several hours, waiting patiently. The target would be arriving at 7:34 am on the overnight express from San Flankcisco. It was 6:28, over an hour to go, but I needed to be ready before I was seen. Time sped up to me. I felt the sun warm me from the left. Every once in a while, Brawn or one of his crew would peek out of the warehouse where they were hidden. Windfall and Scattershot arrived at the depot and made like they were expecting someone. 7:28.

A cloud of smoke was rising in the distance, it was zero hour. I braced myself, bringing my senses to hyper-awareness. The train pulled into the station right on time. Steam billowed from the engine with a loud hiss and quickly dispersed. The conductors stepped from the train and prepared to aid passengers. Porters began to unload baggage and the first passengers disembarked and ponies on the platform stepped forward to greet their guests. I put my eye to the scope and began to scan for a blue stallion with a brown mane. My eye paused a moment a I crossed the old mare from the candy counter. I started to move on, and stopped again. Blue stallion. Brown mane. One problem. He was a colt, he old mare's grandcolt.

I froze for the first time in my life. I had him in the crosshairs, and I couldn't pull the trigger. Killing had never bothered me, murdering. Lumps of meat and bone that were in the way. This was different, this was child.

Gunshots rang out and cries of dismay. I jumped and lost the target. Dan and the unicorns had made their move. I don't know who their target was or what happened to him. Looking through the scope again I found him, the old mare was clutching him close. I could see Scattershot and Windfall, impatiently waiting for the crack of my rifle. Tired of waiting, Windfall began to cut through the frantic crowd. I saw the glint of steel in her hoof.

CRACK!

My rifle rang out loud and clear, the bullet was true. The colt and his grandmare both dropped to the boardwalk. Windfall looked down, eyes wide with surprise as blood blossomed across her chest. She collapsed, still. Scattershot bellowed in rage and drew his scatterguns. Pointing them at the pair of quivering ponies. I fired again. Blood sprayed from his head and he spun with the force of the impact, falling to the deck. Dan stepped from the train car in time to see him fall. His gaze whipped in my direction. I didn't wait.

Slinging my rifle over my shoulder, I sprang from my perch and rocketed towards the depot. I'd had enough. I had made enough orphans, a child would not die at my hooves as well. I swooped down and grabbed the colt, wrenching him from his grandmare's grasp. I tossed him onto my back and began to flap away slowed by the burden of his weight.

BOOM!

I felt a searing pain along my left flank and in my left wing as the pellets of my brother's scatterguns tore into me. I looked to see him, face bloodied aiming in my direction. I veered off to the west, to the other side of the train and behind some cover. Unable to fly further, I landed between two warehouses.

"Git down, boy," I grunted through gritted teeth, "I'm saving your life."

The colt slid from my back and crumpled to the ground in a pool of blood. His blood. He was choking, gasping for air. I knelt down and pulled his head into my lap. Tears blurred my vision. The first tears I had cried since I was a foal.

"I... I..." The colt's breath rattled in his throat. The same shot that had caught me in the side had torn through his neck.

"I want my granny," he gasped, "Mister, I'm scared."

Years of repressed emotion can bubbling to the surface and I wept openly.

"She's on her way boy," I choked, "I know your granny, an' you know what she says? She says you like apple sours. Is that right?"

The colt nodded and coughed, spraying more blood. I reached into my pocket and pulled a hard candy from its paper package, gently placing in his mouth. He smiled weakly at me before he began to choke and cough violently. He becoming still in my hooves and his eyes glasses over.

Blood was everywhere. On the ground, on my rifle, soaking into my coat. But I couldn't tell, for my coat was the same shade of red. I was horrified, I felt soaked in the blood of everypony I'd ever shot. In that moment, something in me broke, and I swore I would never kill again.

I heard voices coming and I knew I had to go. I gently laid the colt on the ground and closed his unseeing eyes.

I rose and imprinted the image in my mind, never to forget. Turning, I began threading my way through the buildings, jaw set around an apple sour. I would have my revenge on Dan and the Dirtfoots. I wouldn't kill them. No, that would be too good for them. I would do worse. Much worse. . .