“The sun is up.” Siringo walked up beside Marshals Cornfield and Star at the near center of the farm. Other ponies gathered around a brightly colored stagecoach, as if anticipating something.

“Way to say ‘morning’, isn’t it?” Cornfield said. “You ‘n Mac just crashed when you came in the doctor’s clinic late last night. The hell you did, anyways?”

“Bounty hunting.”

“I see - wait, you did what?!”

“Killing a pony and getting paid. Yes, bounty hunting.”

“Right, thanks for the clarification. No, I mean with Mr. Mac?!”

“Yup. Why?”

“Shitfire. Hasn’t he killed 5-or-some-shit ponies already? Don’t he have enough to contend with having to tag along with your dirty work?”

“First of all - wait, he actually has killed five. I was the one who killed Lil’ Pip back there...”

“Just what are you saying now?”

“Er, nothing. I was going to say that he didn’t mind at all, plus it was a little target practice for him, I guess.”

Cornfield rolled his eyes. “Shouldn’t matter now. Mac’s still alive so that’s close enough to ‘alright’. So what was the name of the goon?”

“‘Bad’ Lee Cobb. Wanted for murder and theft of a stagecoach.”

“Where’s his body?”

“And that’s the thing. He... exploded.”

“So you don’t have his corpse?”

“Yeah, uh, he went and shot a box of explosive shit by him.” Siringo casually recalled. “Then he exploded.”

“No proof he was there or nothin’?”

“A piece of his hoof maybe could’ve counted, not that I have it.”

“So...”

“So yes, it was for nothing.”

Mac then entered the scene, shambling to Siringo’s side.

“What’s all this?” He asked, gazing at the growing assembly of bystanders.

Instead of answering his question, Cornfield sized up Mac’s new clothes. Now that he was in daylight, stains of blood were visible around his neck.

“I hope you’ve sewn up those threads up yourself, Mac.”

Siringo slightly leaned in front of Mac. “Oh, he got cold. And he was naked. I dunno why the hell you wouldn’t see that in the first place.”

“And as to this spectacle we’re lookin’ at,” Cornfield added. “this stagecoach just rolled in early this morning. You two were still asleep.”

“It was just standing there.” Marshal Star commented. “All suspicious looking.”

“Go and take a closer look.” Siringo urged, as he tapped Mac’s side.

Mac scoffed, but walked towards the cart anyways. When he was at a short distance, at about a few meters, he observed a blue moon painted on the side.

“I’ve heard about this before...” he thought.

He tilted his head up to see a flag waving on the wagon’s roof. It was a purple color depicting a blue dust and a magic wand surrounded by stars. Mac started to step backwards when a mare’s voice almost sang from within the stagecoach.

“Come one! Come all!” The stagecoach called.

Cornfield and Siringo both dropped their jaws. “Oh shit...” they muttered in unison.

“Come and witness the marvelous magic of The Grrreat and Powerful Trixie!” The wagon started playing an upbeat jazz song fused with that of music heard in Appleloosa. A wall of the stagecoach fell to the ground and unfolded into a stage. Speakers rose from the stage, revealing the music at full blast. Three cardboard cutouts of planets sprang from the top as the roof fell outwards.

A spark popped at the center of the stage followed by a dense cloud of smoke. When it faded away, a familiar blue unicorn stood egotistically with a smirk. The gem that held her waving cape of stars gleamed into the eyes of every spectator.

“Holy shit...” Cornfield and Siringo said, once again in unison.

Mac reversed himself to the two. “How you two know her?”

“She came by Appleloosa not long ago. And Dodge, as I heard. Never guessed she’d be in the desert.” Cornfield answered.

“Oh, she has been for a while now.” Siringo added. “I, uh, knew her. Then the mare decided we’d just be acquaintances when she saw I was ‘better’ than her.”

Trixie stomped the wooden floor below her to get the undivided attention she yearned.

“Settlers of the San Palomino desert! Have you heard of the unicorn who solely vanquished an ursa major? The one who conquered a flock of dragons? Even the one who transformed a young filly to a handsome stallion?”

One of the viewers shouted out, “What a load ‘o bullshit!”

Trixie gave a quick, nervous glance at the direction of the heckler, but maintained her character.

“She assures you, if it were for those tales to be false, she would not be standing in this spot, in the flesh, as The Great and Powerful Trixie!”

She faked an aggressive gaze over the crowd, daring any pony to taunt her any longer.

“Now, The Great and Powerful Trixie makes it a privilege of the settlers of the San Palomino desert to witness the most spectacular feats of magic performed in Equestrian history!”

Only half of the ponies in the crowd seemed to show any form of enthusiasm to Trixie, while the other half stood unamused, murmuring amongst each other.

Trixie, again, looked forward to her audience, but with more dissatisfaction.

“Her first act, however, must take a volunteer!”

The crowd groaned once more.

Siringo tapped Cornfield and Mac’s back. “Come on now, let’s stop wastin’ time and get Marshal Cross so we won’t see more of this nag.” They agreed and began to walk away back to the doctor’s office.

“However - this volunteer must also wager his or her life! Is there anypony at all?”

An odd urge suddenly took over Mac upon those words. Him, and of course every pony, knew what she was intending. He stopped right in his tracks, turned around, and raised his hoof.

Like a magnet, Trixie stuck her eyes onto Mac.

“Well, well! We already have an Earth pony willing enough! With little hesitation, no less.”

Cornfield didn’t notice Mac until he was already part-way to Trixie.

“Whoa, what’s that boy doing now?!” He paced back to him. They were both in the wide open, as the center of attention. “The hell you think you’re doing?” he whispered.

“What you think?”

“No shit, I know. I’m saying you’re taking yourself too far now. I’m saying over these past few weeks, you went and killed five damn ponies now, and almost had yourself killed two times, especially your bounty hunting with Siringo. You even took those clothes from a dead pony, for Pete’s sake!”

“Your point?”

“You have the rest of your family filled with worry back home. How do you think they’re gonna feel to hear that you’ve gone through all this bull, to be killed by some second-rate, stuck-up mare?”

“As if I’ll let her.”

“Okay, if not that, let me go back a step, you’re getting too ahead of yourself! Cocky is being the word for you, the same goes for that pony up there.”

Admittedly stubborn, Mac let out a short sigh and glanced around him. Every pony was still staring at the two of them.

“We are all waiting!” Trixie called out arrogantly, of course.

“I’ll see what happens.” Mac turned and continued on his way.

“You come back right here!”

This time, he was ignored and Mac kept walking.

Cornfield scorned at him, then went straight for Siringo to share his disapproval.

“What did you do to him?”

“Did I do something to him?”

“You know, influence him? Change his mind?”

Siringo reflected on his recent kill. “Uh, I may have.”

“Whether you did or not, the fool of a colt’s gonna go up there and get himself killed.”

“First, she never really was worth a damn in anything in history, so he does have a chance, even if she is a unicorn. And if not, meaning not at all, I’ll be right there to take a shot if he can’t do it on his own. That goes against something like this, but we both know I’d have to do that for him.”

“Better be right in both instances then...”

Mac nonchalantly hopped up on top of the stage. He countered Trixie’s disdainful gaze with a pressuring look of his own.

“Are you ready now, my volunteer? Prepared to regret your decision?”

Jaded by Trixie’s speaking, he shuffled into position, standing on his rear legs. He hovered his right hoof just above his revolver.

“Ha! It’s a funny thing to watch an Earth pony even dreaming of defeating a unicorn!”

“If you’re so ready, shut your mouth.”

“Yes, enough of this foolish talk.” Trixie giggled one last time and prepared herself. With a quick movement, she flipped her cape to reveal her own gun and gun belt, wrapped around her chest. She moved her hat to reveal her tall, pointy horn.

Mac couldn’t help but feel too confident himself at the thought of this ‘powerful’ mare trying to operate a weapon. He blew air out of his nose in place of chuckling out loud.

…..

Silence ultimately covered the whole area, except with the whistling of the wind. The only movement seen was the wavering of Trixie’s over colored cape. Back in the crowd, Siringo took part of this stare-off. Gently, he slid his revolver out his holster by half an inch.

Trixie’s grin widened every few seconds, but Mac stood at his spot remaining calm. His eyes were steely like Col. Mortimer himself.*

What felt like a whole day was actually 30 seconds, then there was a change in Trixie’s posture which everybody noticed. After her whole charade, she finally started to feel hesitant. Her eyebrows lowered and she adjusted one of her front legs to move inwards.

Right there on the stage, Mac immediately took note. He slowly touched the butt of his gun with his hoof.

Trixie attempted to cover her move and in turn, lowered her head as well as if she would charge.

Mac was a statue, he wasn’t convinced at all and maintained his hard stare.

Siringo hid back nervously, his horn was causing his gun to slightly shake in anticipation. Is she going to let down her guard? The question kept clouding the minds of both of them.

All what Mac needed was another subtle movement to confirm that question.

Will it be another minute of waiting? He held his hoof firmly on the gun.

“There, she moved again.” Her started to twitch her eyebrows. “Not enough.” He thought. Mac felt Siringo’s gaze watching from under him. Keeping his head still, he barely shifted his eyes to the right, in his direction.

There was a perfect window for Trixie to strike within that second. However, she was feeling uneasy enough at this point to make her move. Mac became aware of his mistake and looked forward. Unfortunately, Trixie seemingly took her turn in realizing her own error and made another one.

Her previously confident grin faded away.

Time to take the shot. Fluently and rapidly, Mac lifted the pistol from his holster. He spun it around his hoof and placed his other hoof to pull back the hammer.

Bam!

Moving back to the crowd, Cornfield flinched at the instant Mac moved. He buried his head into his foreleg. The audience stood their place in disbelief. Siringo stared at Mac in fright.

Summoning his courage, Cornfield looked back up at the stage. No blood was anywhere to be shed.

Plunk!

Trixie’s horn, in one whole piece, plunged down onto the wooden floor.

The Marshal beamed at the horn and gave a stern look down at Siringo. Siringo winced and firmly tucked the revolver.

Trixie gawked down at her horn in pure shock. She gasped and moved her head to look back at her challenger.

As if he had bucked a single apple tree, Mac casually twirled the pistol back into his holster.

Trixie burst into tears and collapsed onto her horn. “No. No! Why did that have to happen to me!? Why me!? Of all the unicorns in Equestria!” She continued to run her mouth incoherently while she tried to reattach her horn to no avail.

Mac quietly jumped down from the stage and trot up to Cornfield and Siringo. “Go ‘head and get the other Marshal. I’ll meet you outside.” He turned right around to begin to advance from the farm.

The two gazed at Mac dumbfounded as he moved on. All eyes were on his every step. The crowd scattered about to make a path for him. No one could decide for themselves whether it was out of respect or fear.

At a loss for words, Siringo shrugged at the Marshal and went back to the doctor’s office. He gave one last glance at Mac, as if he was reminiscing a familiar pony walking down that same path under the sunlight.

Author's Note

Reference to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wi4W2ATGAs

This chapter's supposed to be a short interval before the rest of the story, if it seems so short. I've always had the idea of this chapter in my head since I started on this, after all.

*This is what Colonel Mortimer looks like: http://content8.flixster.com/photo/11/69/55/11695530_gal.jpg Played by Lee Van Cleef in For a Few Dollars More.