Advent Of A Gunslinger

“ARRRRRH!”

SWIPE!

With a mighty swing of her paw, the hyena woman tried fruitlessly to swat Kora off of her back to no avail.

“RRRR!” Kora dug her serrated feline fangs into the dog woman’s neck, and drew blood, forcing her to stumble as she leapt off of her. “You…you’re all monsters! I can’t believe you would capture all of these innocent ponies and force them into…this gross state of…whatever the hell this is!”

“Gh…rrgh…” Ejei grit her teeth as she placed a paw on the gaping wound on the back of her neck. “You…I ain’t gotta answer nothin’ to ya. We do what we do ‘cuz that’s all we know how, got it? Did them soft little bitches in their cushy castle put ya up’ta this?”

Shing.

Kora’s claws protruded from the fingers on her paws, ready to cut anything in her path. “No. We are here of our own free will and desire for justice.”

“Hyeh!” Ejei managed to breathe out a small laugh, “Bullshit, honey. I can smell ‘em on ya. Doesn’t matter no way. All they know how’ta do is stay up in their homes without a damn care in’tha world. They soft now. They dun lost what made Diamond Dogs so strong and feared ‘round the natural world. But that’s all gon’ change…”

“You cannot impose your will on others!” Kora hissed, “They chose a life of peace and decided to abandon your old, feral ways.”

Ejei was adamant though. She refused to back down from her stance as she roared back, “Them old ways is what made the diamond dogs so powerful! But we ain’t like that no more. Which is fine…I’mma handle it myself.”

“And just what are you going to do to accomplish such a thing?” Kora questioned her intent, “Sadistic and twisted forms of manipulation?!”

“Pssh,” Ejei scoffed as she groaned from the wound on her neck, “Agh…nah. Not at all. What’s we’s gonna do is just take it back over for ourselves and make ‘em go back to their old ways. That’s why we took all that there money outta the reserve. For our…developments.”

Kora paused for a moment, wondering just what she could mean. “...Developments?”

But the hyena lady denied her an answer. Instead, she removed her paw from the wound, and stretched out both of her arms. “Enough talkin’ little missy. If you wanna know so badly…I’ll show ya.” She then pressed a button that was hidden by a plastic casing on the nearby wall, and a board suddenly lowered down from the ceiling to show what appeared to be a board with a diagram for a…bomb?

“What in the…?” Kora stared at the blueprints with her mouth agape. “You…what do you intend to do with this…?”

“Makin’ somethin’ that’ll change the world ain’t cheap, honey,” Ejei explained while rubbing her fingers together, “But once ya get in touch with the right people who know how to make certain things…”

Kora hissed at the mere thought of what that device was going to be used for. “So you intend to destroy a city filled with innocent dog-people?! People who have done nothing wrong to you?! This is mass genocide we’re talking about!”

The hyena woman only replied with a slightly wheezing laugh. “Heeheeee! It ain’t so much a genocide…call it a reset button, honey. We’re gonna start the evolution of the diamond dogs over from the beginnin’.”

“Rese--?!” Kora’s left eyelid twitched involuntarily from the pressure that had been building up in her head. Yes, while her mind told her to run away and not face the taller, stronger diamond dog lady, her heart kept her from running away. “No…I will not allow this! You will die before I allow you to accomplish such a thing.”

Even Ejei was impressed by her sudden, newfound bravery as she could smell her fear from before. “Well now. Ain’t this interestin’. You ain’t shyin’ away from me this time are ya? What changed?” she asked with a patronizing smile from her rows of sharpened teeth.

“The moment you decided to endanger the lives of many for no good reason,” she hissed with her claws at the ready, “Have at you, scoundrel dog.”

With Vido…

Meanwhile, the griffon was doing his best to find an escape route for the injured Ornithian that he carried upon his back.

“Damn, nothing…this place is like a giaganto maze of sorts,” he muttered, and turned to Stratus for some help regarding where they were. “When you were brought in here, did you see anything familiar? Anything at all?”

“I don’t think…wait a second…” Stratus racked his brain for information until.... “I remember where they were keeping other prisoners. Maybe if we head that way, we can--”

The sounds of gunshots and screams interrupted their conversation. And with that, their priorities shifted.

“Ay, son of a--stay close to me,” Vido commanded while pulling out his rifle, “We don’t know what could happen next. Best case scenario is that Axel’s the one doing the shooting.”

With Axel…

Well they were half right. The gunslinger was nearly out of bullets dealing with the bulldog boss and was currently taking cover behind a stack of steel crates.

“Why are ya’ll even doin’ this? Ain’t there better things out there worth fightin’ over than who controls some castle?”

“It’s more than a castle!” Kolasi shouted back, “The entire reason why we do this is to prove that the diamond dogs are a force’ta be reckoned with all over the world. Griffonstone, the Dragon Lands, Appleloosa--the works!”

Silence. Axel slowly began to process what she had just said to him. “...Hold up now…what did you just say? That last one?”

“Hm? Appleloosa,” she repeated herself then questioned him, “Why? Something about--” That’s when it hit her. His accent was a dead ringer for ponies that were from the Equestrian South. “Oh…I see it now. You’re wondering if we took anyone in particular from there? What are you, some kinda sheriff?”

“I ain’t no lawman,” Axel replied while returning his guns to their holsters, “I’m here for the sake of my folks. Were ya’ll the ones responsible?”

Kolasi scoffed and rolled her eyes at such a vague question. “How the hell am I s’posed’ta know? All you pony-folk look the same.”

While he knew that the bounty was important, the chance to finally find if his family was alive for real…this chance wouldn’t happen again in any other lifetime. So Axel decided to play things a bit more smoothly…mainly because he was out of bullets.

“Listen here, little missy. I can’t shoot no more,” he said from behind the crates, “Just lemme see if my folks are here. And I’ll be on my merry way.”

Silence…