"Damn... I guess this was the only it could end." Sunset Shimmer murmured as she stared blankly at the corpse of her recently killed 'friend', traveling companion was closer to the truth. Her legs had not stopped shaking since she pulled the trigger of her revolver, the smell of blood filled her nostrils. Her breathing had remained steadied the entire time as she had watched her companion desperately crawl away from her, there was no sense of satisfaction as she had followed along side.
Sighing Sunset shook away the memory and leaned down to begin to rummage for anything useful the body might have on it, the duster was too torn up to be of much use, the ammo however was a welcome retrieval.
"So you're just gonna leave me here to die!" Sunset turned her head slightly to to stare at her best friend, her mind was reeling between her feelings of revenge and love. Sunset slowly turned away from her friend and started to walk away. "Sunset I swear if I survive I'll find you!" The screaming caused Sunset to pause as she she clenched her fists. "I can't stop... Not even for you..." She didn't see the look of betrayal in Twilight's eyes as she walked away.
Sighing Sunset slowly surveyed her surroundings, a few cacti stood tall among the barren waste of sand and hills, the sun beat down on her oppressively as she wiped her forehead of sweat. Getting up from her crouched stance Sunset lazily kicked some dust over her "friend" and slowly set off towards the south, there she would eventually find Apploosa, then Dodge Junction. She stopped and stared at her recently killed companion thinking of how much time they spent together, shaking her head she continued to travel towards her target, the time of regrets had long since passed, reminiscing served no further purpose then to distract and get her killed.
A few days had passed since Sunset once again found herself alone in the unforgiving wastes of south Equestria, the only company she had of late were that of lizards and birds and the occasional coyote. She stared forward as the sun beat overhead, the heat was as unbearable as always. The sound of distant shouting stopped Sunset in her tracks. She quickly rotated her head to pinpoint the sounds as she began to lower herself to the ground; East sounded the clearest to her as she started to pull her rifle from its sling and point it towards the noise.
Through her short scope she could see a small group of four travelers, though she could not identify them from her position as they kicked up dirt. Sunset began to dial in her range as she considered what she needed to continue her journey south; Water, more ammo, and food. The small group had a horse dragging a small cart behind it as they noisily crossed the desert. Sunset took a few deep breathes as she lined up her shot on the horse... A small mist of red was all she could see as the horse fell to the ground, Sunset quickly shot the person furthest behind the cart and just as quickly tucked her rifle away and hide among the sand.
She hoped that days of wondering through the desert had caked enough dust on her that she blended in with the environment. She lay flat against the ground as the shouting in the distance grew frantic, no doubt she assumed trying to ruse their fallen comrade, she decided she would wait for the shouting to calm down.
Hours had gruelingly passed as she waited for the sun to set, she could now clearly make out the three people trying to best cover themselves around the cart and horse, no doubt trying to spy who had crippled their caravan. The outline of the people gave Sunset the advantage as she slowly started to crawl along the ground stopping every few feet to make sure they hadn't spotted her. With the sun to her back she was almost untouchable, Sunset took a few steadying breaths as she lined up a shot on one of the taller people left standing, the small kick of the rife allowed Sunset to glimpse the crimson mist spray from the person, her next shot followed and tore half the face off the shortest of the two left standing.
Sunset felt a bullet rip past her head before the crack of the air finally reached her ears. Sunset quickly rolled to her left as another two shots flew by, she felt annoyed as there was not much time remaining in the day for her to line up shots. Sighing she resigned herself to a dangerous close quarters gunfight in the night, one to be decided by the shooter with the sharper ears.
After an hour the sun had finally set, the only light was from the moon. Sunset cursed her luck that of all nights this was the one that had to be cloudy, her visibility was reduced to a few feet in front of her, her hearing however made up for this short coming. Sunset stood up as she was a good distance from where the caravan was and slowly started to walk towards it, every few feet she stopped and listened for the last remaining guard, the last thing she wanted was to take a bullet to the gut. The crunching of the gravel beneath her feet was deafening as she traversed the ground towards the cart. A loud scrambling startled Sunset as she listened to it bump against a hard surface; Sunset started as she realized she was much closer then she thought she was. She carefully brought her revolver in front of her, she was breathing as quietly as possible, she felt her saliva building in her mouth uncomfortably; too afraid to swallow her spit in fears of giving away her position.
The pounding in her head was becoming deafening as the silence grew to envelope her... Then she heard it, a slight shift of gravel to her right, she didn't move as she listened for more sound; Suddenly a break in the clouds brought her face to face with a kid holding a knife in one hand and in the other a small six-shooter, his wide eyes burnt into her mind as the flash from her revolver illuminated the surrounding area coloured red with blood, the sound of him being thrown to the ground was last thing she heard that night.
The darkness of the night quickly settled over the empty desert, though all was far from peaceful as Sunset heard a wet raspy gasping. 'Guess he'll drown in soon.' Sunset thought as she started to walk past the boy. "Help me...." Coughed the young man as he heard her start walking past him, one of his arms flailing against the rough ground kicking up dust. The desert lit up as the clouds finally passed for the night, Sunset merely stared down at the boy as he desperately towards her, the fear in his eyes as death quickly closed it hands around him.
Sunset felt herself thrown to the ground as a blinding pain ripped through her shoulder, she quickly shook her head as the disorientation of being knocked down so violently had rattled her. "You're not bad girly," Called out a raspy feminine voice "Almost fast enough to pull that pretty gun from it's holster." The taunting was frustrating as Sunset rolled onto her back. A dark silhouette towered over her as she prayed for mercy. "Calm down girly, I ain't gonna kill you. Not yet at least, you've got some potential," Relief overcame Sunset as she listened intently to her victorious enemy. "I'm going to make you an offer... I'm in the market for a new partner, and you've got the skills, but you lack discipline." A gust of wind caused the shooter to pause in her rambling, Sunset watched as the woman gathered her thoughts. "Join me and I'll teach you everything I know, refuse and I'll leave you here for the coyotes." There was no decision for Sunset to make.
The weight of her six-shooter felt comforting, she stared at it as she inspected the scuffs and scratches over the gun, just as quickly as the memories came they left her alone next the fatality wounded boy. "You got hit in the lung kid, the only thing can save you now is a bullet through the brain." The boy seemed too far gone at this point to hear her, sighing Sunset pointed the gun towards his head, she took a breath to steady her aim and barely felt the recoil of the gun as she put the kid out of misery. 'A wasted bullet, I should have just let him alone.' Her frustration was soon forgotten as she started to search the cart for anything good.
Years of discipline usually kept Sunset stoic in the face of most things, yet finding a compass was something she couldn't help but let out a shout at. The light of the moon enough that Sunset could loot the cart with very little trouble, though at this point she was starting to feel exhausted as the day started to catch up with her, there was still stuff in here that would prove to be invaluable. Sunset paused as her fingers brushed a lock, with something this protected there must be something worth taking.
"What's the matter girly? Ain't you ever skinned an animal before?" Sunset sighed as Dash slapped her back, it had been just over a year since the older woman had taken her under her wing, yet the lessons she had learned felt trivial compared to the skills she could learn in shooting from the more experienced woman. "That's right RD, I don't know how to skin an animal." Dash merely stared at her with a bemused expression and Sunset continued to butcher the dead animal. "Alrighty then, it's time you learned by error, you're gonna be eating that for dinner." The deer looked less then desirable at this point in time.
A few hours later Sunset had a few less than desirable cuts of meat to cook for her dinner that night, sighing she started to make a fire for her and Dash to start cooking their food, off by the river Dash was gathering water in their pots. Dash deposited the largest pot on top of the small grill sitting on the fire pit and put the smaller one next to the fire, it was going to be boiled for drinking water later. Sunset studied the way the slightly older woman carried herself, yet couldn't gleam anything useful from Dash, she was too hard to read.
A few days had passed since her raid on that small caravan, the only real thing of note she got from it was a compass and poncho to throw on over her beaten duster. Shortly after she had left the caravan she had spotted an inuksut, it had been built to point south east, so that's the direction she headed off in. The last few days had been uneventful as she wondered what she could hope to find out in the barren wastes of the Badlands, some had claimed that there were hidden treasures to be found if you came across an abandoned Changeling hive, yet the idea was so outrageous that it was really only laughable.
Of course the Badlands did indeed hold riches for people to find if they didn't mind bloodying their hands a bit, mercenary work out here was thriving as people offed each other faster then rabbits reproduce, the upside to that was the fact that a lot of young gunslingers came in to prove just how good they were and there was no shortage of young idiots. Sighing loudly Sunset took a swig from her animal skin flask, the water felt heavenly as it ran down her throat and cooled her down from the unrelenting sun overhead. Taking out her compass she reaffirmed her heading and settled her mind.
Sunset rubbed her right shoulder as it flared painfully, it had been just over a year and a half yet the damage beneath continued to remind her of her over-confidence and her mistake of challenging someone with more experience then her, a lesson she took to heart since that time. The lessons Dash had taught her had paid off way more then she could have imagined when she start all that time ago, the hunting and foraging skills had proved to be invaluable in helping Sunset keep her independence.
"Hey girly, come here you need to see this." Dash still never used her name despite how much time had passed, at this point Sunset took it as term of endearment, it was comforting being with someone who cared so little about titles and backgrounds so long as you could keep up.