"What? A hundred and twenty thousand quid for just one single bounty? You're not serious??" exclaimed Reno Raines, as he stood up from his chair.
"Well, that's what it says here," said Bobby Sixkiller, Reno's dark-haired Native-American employer, the boss and owner of Sixkiller Enterprises in Sacramento, California, USA. "A certain guy, real name unknown, goes by the alias of the 'Viscount Vinyl Slash', wanted for gate-crashing the South By Southwest festival in 2013. The police have not been able to capture him up till this day. Word has it that 'Viscount Vinyl Slash' has ties to a certain extremist group based in Cuba, the Social-Inter-National Group and Association of Peron's Omni-National Entities, commonly known as the Peronistas. As it is, 'Viscount Vinyl Slash' was last seen in a small alley in New York City's Sugar Hill District."
"That's like seven years!" cried Reno. "And a hundred and twenty thousand quid for his capture - for just one guy, and also such a minor offence as gate-crashing? This... isn't too good to be true, is it?"
Bobby winced. "I've seen worse," he said. "This can't be more difficult than the capture of Donald Dutch Dixon. However, if this guy has been able to elude the police for so long, he must be really scheming. As things are, the only photo they have of him is this very poor shot taken from the SXSW 2013 using a poor-quality iPhone camera. It's a hundred and twenty thousand quid bounty, Reno. If you don't want it, then I don't mind."
Pushing his long brown hair backwards, Reno bitterly recalled the five years he spent on the run from the law between 1992 and 1997 for being falsely accused of shooting and murdering his girlfriend Valerie Prentice and also officer Buzzy Burrell. Ever since the real killer, DSP Donald "Dutch" Dixon, had been eventually captured by Reno and Bobby, tried and found guilty, and given the life sentence without parole, Reno's life as a bounty hunter had become very mundane; all he did in Sixkiller Enterprises was now little more than paper work for Bobby, and when he wasn't in the office, he was now a loving husband to Valerie Prentice, who had miraculously survived the shot way back then. Deep within Reno's very soul, something just screamed out for more adventure.
"You know what, Bobby?" he said. "I'm on it."
"Very well then," said Bobby, giving his old pal a pet on the back. "Good luck, and please come back safely."
Reno stepped out of the office and into the hot summer sun, and mounted his Harley Davidson, ready to make off for New York City. This was to be another day in the life of a bounty hunter... or was it?
* * *
"He was a cop, and good at his job. But he committed the ultimate sin, and testified against other cops gone bad. Cops that tried to kill him, but got the woman he loved instead. Framed for murder, now he prowls the badlands. An outlaw hunting outlaws. A bounty hunter. A renegade."
* * *
Three weeks later, in Equestria, Rarity was working the night shift together with Rheneas the narrow-gauge engine, doing track maintenance on Equestria's Horseshoe Bay Sands narrow-gauge line.
"So far, so good," said Rheneas, as he slowly rolled along the tracks. "Our rails seem very much in order."
"It feels a bit unusual to do this without Spike," said Rarity, as she used her horn to straighten the rails. Spike the reptilian, who normally assisted Rarity and the engines doing the night-shift track maintenance, was on MC that night.
Rheneas rolled his eyes. "You do know how your husband would feel if he saw you and Spike doing this together," he said solemnly.
"Aw, never mind him!" said Rarity, shaking her head. "Shadows has become more and more like Hoops..."
"Yes, honey?" came a familiar male voice from nearby. Rarity looked up and saw her own husband, Shadowfax the white earth pony, trotting up in her direction.
"Baby! It's not like you to be out and about so late!" gasped Rarity, hoping Shadowfax had not heard what she had said previously.
"Well," said Shadowfax, innocently, "I thought you might like to know that I found this - thingy on the rails a few metres behind you, which I think you might have overlooked." He held up a parchment.
"Let me have a look!" cried Rarity. She unravelled the parchment and read it:
"Mae fi'n wylio a ti yr hen mwyach a ffaithdra! I'r gad, gwladgarwyr! Marchogon i rhyfel!"
"Uh oh," said Rheneas to himself, "I can see where this is going..."
"What the ... is this language?" cried Rarity, who didn't understand a word.
"I'm not sure," replied Shadowfax. "I just found this on the rails. That's all."
"It's French!" said Rarity, guessing wildly.
"Definitely not French," said Shadowfax.
"Or maybe Russian! Or Bulgarian!"
"Doesn't sound Russian to me either. Nor Bulgarian."
"Ha! Then it was Tagalog! Either Tagalog or Ugro!"
"No. And not that either."
"Zulu! Swahili! Tuareg! Hausa!"
"None of the above, honey."
"Then WHAT is it?!" said Rarity, in a rage.
Shadowfax was getting equally annoyed. "Like I had the powers to insta-translate, eh?! If only I had a horn like you, sweetie!"
Rheneas decided that he had to say something in order to stop the equine couple from bickering any further.
"It's Welsh, guys," he said. "Stop arguing."
"WHAT?" cried Rarity, turning towards Rheneas.
"Welsh," replied the gallant old engine. "Let me translate it for ya. It says, 'I've been observing you, you abominations! My followers are ready to come to battle!'."
Rarity was skeptical. "It's probably a prank," she said. "Some playful monkey must have wanted to lead us a dance while we were working by throwing this parchment our way. Just throw it away. I've got to get back to work now."
"But honey..." Shadowfax began.
"No time to talk now," Rarity interrupted. "You don't want Controller Feather Bangs to step in again?"
"Sorry," sighed Shadowfax. "I'll see you in the morning at home. Good luck." And with those words, he turned to go, taking the parchment with him.
"You've got a point, Rarity," said Rheneas. "It does sound like the kind of message that a prankster would write."
"True," said Rarity, "but then again, I'm no linguist, and I certainly don't understand Welsh..."
"Well, you got me to translate for ya," said Rheneas, smiling.
"You mean YOU understand Welsh?" gasped Rarity.
"Like, duh..." Rheneas rolled his eyes mysteriously.
* * *
Meanwhile, Reno Raines had finally arrived in New York City. It had taken him a total of three weeks to ride his Harley Davidson all the way up to Sugar Hill, having stopped at several motels along the way. It was past midnight, most of the district's residents had gone to bed, and it was hard to see the road ahead. But Reno knew he had to keep going. This was a big bounty, he had volunteered for it, and he had to live up to his promise.
"I'm going to look for clues," he said to himself.
So he parked his motorbike beside a wall, and walked into an alley which was, according to the map on the bounty's profile that Bobby had given him, the very same location where the bounty had last been seen.
Reno walked straight on into the alley. He didn't care that he was all alone, now on foot, and that it was pitch dark. He was likely to be eaten by a Grue. Or was he?
Reno proceeded on, his eyes peeled for any sign of the bounty. He didn't for one minute notice that he was walking through a portal into a completely different world. In any case, it was so dark, he could not have seen very much anyway.
Suddenly, something furry brushed against Reno's side in the dark. Reno jumped in fright, thinking it was the bounty.
"Help!" he cried.
"Sorry about that," said a male voice. Looking through the darkness at the figure in front of him, Reno could make out what looked like a white Andalusian stallion.
"That's all right," said Reno. "Wait - you're a horse??"
"Yeah," replied Shadowfax.
"And you can TALK??" gasped Reno, who clearly had never before seen a talking horse.
"Euh... yes?" said Shadowfax, who now knew that this was clearly one of the few dudes who was not acquainted with the My Little Pony fandom.
"That's strange," replied Reno, without thinking.
"And why should you find that strange?" countered Shadowfax, who was getting even more intrigued by this strange long-haired biped clad in a black leather jacket and looked just like a stereotypical renegade.
Reno suddenly remembered he had a job to do and a bounty to catch. "Wait... no... I must be going crazy... Bobby will kill me if I don't get on with my work!" he cried, aloud, and then ran away at top speed, not caring where he was going.
Shadowfax was by now very very interested to find out who this weird biped was. "What a strange fellow!" he said to himself. "I must tell Rarity about this when she gets home!"
* * *
The next morning at Rarity's Boutique, Shadowfax was telling Rarity all about the interesting biped that he had seen.
"Wait a minute," said Rarity. "A biped with long hair? Short moustache and beard? Black leather jacket? American?"
"That's the guy," replied Shadowfax.
Rarity laughed; she straightaway knew who Shadowfax was talking about. "That's Reno Raines," she said. "He's a travelling bounty hunter. He doesn't come into contact with our kind frequently. So don't be surprised that he doesn't believe in us."
Shadowfax was not convinced. "The question is," he said, "how did he end up in Equestria, of all places?"
"Well," said Rarity, clearing her throat, "he must have some kind of bounty to find here, otherwise he wouldn't be here. Anyways. What was it about that parchment that you were so intent to show it to me on the job?"
"That's what I wanted to tell you," replied Shadowfax. "Why was it written in Welsh of all languages? Are we dealing with a monster who speaks Welsh here?"
"From the way it looks," said Rarity, "it certainly looks like it."
* * *
That same morning at the Narrow Gauge Sheds near Horseshoe Bay Sands, Rheneas was sharing with Skarloey, Duncan, and Sir Handel about the maintenance work the previous night.
"You can rest first, Rheneas," said Sir Handel. "Skarloey and I will be doing goods work today; and I think Duncan's gonna be on passenger duties."
Duncan didn't want to be too flattered. "Hey guys," he said, "why don't we let Controller Feather Bangs decide on that."
"Right you are, Duncan," added Skarloey. "And I think he should be coming anytime right... about ... now!"
As he spoke, a tall, dark bipedal figure walked up towards the engines. He had long, brown hair, a short beard, and was clad in a black leather jacket. Reno Raines slowly walked up to the engines; he was equally taken aback that these steam locomotives had faces and could talk, and was beginning to wonder if he was indeed going mad.
"You're not Controller Feather Bangs!" cried Rheneas.
"Of course I'm not," said Reno, trying his best to control himself. "My name's Vincent Black," he went on, using his alias, "and I'm a bounty hunter. Have any of you seen a dude named Viscount Vinyl Slash?"
The engines gasped in horror when they heard the name. They remembered the damage that the Viscount Vinyl Slash had caused back then when he and his henchmen captured Sir Handel.
"What again?" asked Rheneas, who couldn't believe his ears.
"As I said," repeated Reno, "I'm a bounty hunter. I work for Sixkiller Enterprises down in California. I've sent to New York to capture a dude named Viscount Vinyl Slash, to be turned in for a good hundred and twenty thousand quid. Have you seen him?"
The engines looked at one another, wondering if this guy was a few peas short of a casserole. It was Rheneas again who decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Firstly, Mr Black," he said, "you're in Equestria, not New York. Secondly, and more importantly, I can guarantee you that you would NEVER want to meet the Viscount Vinyl Slash..."
Reno decided that enough was enough. "I don't care if you are real or just a bad dream," he said, "but even if it is a bad dream and I don't wake from it, I can still have you turned in too for obstruction of justice!"
He took out his gun and pointed it at the engines, who rolled back in alarm.
"Excuse me!" came a male voice from behind Reno. Reno turned around and saw Feather Bangs walking towards him, and also wielding a gun.
"Oh no, not another talking horse..." groaned Reno, putting his face in his hands.
"My name's Feather Bangs," said Feather Bangs, "and I'm the controller of this railway. How can I help you, Mr...?"
"Vincent Black, bounty hunter," said Reno.
"How can I help you, Mr Black?" repeated Feather Bangs.
"Look here," said Reno, who was by now getting very sick and tired of repeating himself. "I’ve been sent to New York by my firm to look for a guy known as the Viscount Vinyl Slash, who is believed to be based here in New York. And your – er – locomotives, are obstructing the course of justice, by saying that I’m not in New York, and that I would “never want to” meet the Viscount Vinyl Slash."
Feather Bangs was not convinced. "You know what, Mr Black? Let me ask you something first - how did you get in here?"
Reno told him the entire story. Feather Bangs was intrigued - he was now certainly convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that this biped was certainly not a fan. But he was equally eager to get rid of him, as he had work to do - him being controller of the Narrow Gauge Railway and all.
"So we understand," he said, "that you are looking for the Viscount Vinyl Slash, and hoping to turn him in for a large bounty, am I right?"
"That's what I said," Reno said, exasperated. "Where is he?"
"As a matter of fact, he isn't here," replied Feather Bangs, truthfully.
Reno took a deep breath before asking his next question. "Where did he go?"
"He hasn't come to Equestria for many years now," replied Feather Bangs, again telling the truth. "I understand that he was last seen in New York City, from what you told my engines?"
"Yes, that's right," Reno affirmed.
"So would you like to go back to New York and find him?"
"Yes. How?"
Feather Bangs walked up to the engines. "You can board Duncan here," he said, indicating to Duncan, who - like the others - was not coupled to any rolling stock. "You can just stand on his hoofplate. He'll bring you back to Canterlot Station, where you can get a standard-gauge train to New York. Duncan, would you be so kind as to do us the honours?"
"Gladly," grumbled Duncan, who had been looking forward to pulling the passenger train for the day.
"You're all barbarians!" murmured Reno as he boarded Duncan's hoofplate. Duncan whistled and slowly steamed off.
Feather Bangs looked at Skarloey, Rheneas, and Sir Handel. "That guy mentioned that he was looking for Viscount Vinyl Slash," he said. "Surely he wasn't referring to THAT Viscount Vinyl Slash?"
"Well, as a matter of fact, there's only one Viscount Vinyl Slash - and that's the very guy," said Sir Handel, trembling. He recalled the incident involving himself and the Viscount, and how hard it was for the others to team up and save him because he couldn't save himself - he had experienced the Viscount's magical powers first-hoof, and he knew how powerful and influential the Viscount was...
[flashback]
Three years ago, in 2017. Sir Handel was a prisoner en bord the Take Heart, the Viscount Vinyl Slash's private yacht; and he was locked up in the yacht's private shed specially meant for locomotives and rolling stock which the Viscount intended to send for scrap. The Viscount's scrapping yards were located on Black Skull Island in the south-east of Equestria; countless steamies had met their ends there, mostly as a result of the Viscount's eradicating melee attack - all the Viscount had to do was to point at someone within melee distance and shout "Yozozzo!", and the target would instantly be eradicated.
The Viscount himself was a very mysterious figure. He was perpetually clad in a white suit, and wearing purple shades and a blue wig; he was always addressed as "Your Grace" even by his closest friends. As such, it was hard for Sir Handel to figure out who this mysterious guy really was.
Thankfully, it was Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash who had managed to rescue Sir Handel. They had taken advantage of a moment when the Viscount was entertaining guests in his yacht's private casino, and they straightaway flew in, unlocked the yacht shed's door (using Twilight's magic), and got Sir Handel out and flew him to safety...
[/flashback]
Recalling the horrors, even though it lasted only a short while, Sir Handel suddenly felt cold in his boiler. But he picked up courage. "I believe we've got passengers and goods duties to do today, Controller Feather Bangs," he said...
* * *
Later that evening at Canterlot Castle, the Mane 6, along with Feather Bangs and Double Diamond, were having a meeting in the banquet hall with Equestria's current human leader Amos Thompson. Word had arrived that the Viscount Vinyl Slash had apparently been seen within Equestrian borders, and might have intentions to capture an engine, possibly Sir Handel once again, given the fact that Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash had rescued him that one time.
Spike suddenly came in. "Your Highness?" he said, addressing Twilight Sparkle, who was chairing the meeting.
Twilight was not amused. "As you can see, we're in a meeting!" she said.
"There's this dude outside," Spike went on. "He says his name is Vincent Black, and he wishes to see you, regarding the Viscount Vinyl Slash's thingy."
Twilight immediately perked out. "Excuse me guys," she said. "I'll be back!" She left the hall in a hurry.
Feather Bangs remembered the name. "Vincent Black - hey, ain't that the dude who came to the Narrow Gauge sheds earlier this morning?"
