Advent Of A Gunslinger

“Brother? Are ye alright?” Fleche had flown down to Axel’s side, having witnessed the tail-end of the events that transpired on the ground. “What just happened?”

Not wanting to get sidetracked any further, the gunslinger chose to focus on the objective ahead of them. “...Nothin’ we can worry about right now, sis. What’s the plan?”

Without hesitation, Fleche grabbed ahold of a white string that was attached to a cannon made of clouds? “Watch this trick, brother. I picked it up from our ma!” With a harsh pull from her teeth, the cannon fired--

“Take cover!” Fleche yelped as she hid behind the nearby rock with Axel in tow--the pair used their wings to cover each other’s bodies as they huddle up together.

BOOM!

A lightning bolt the size of a carriage was shot out of it, and struck the shed. With a small spark, then a flash, it instantly--

ZZZZZ--BLAM!

Exploded--nuked to smithereens. The force was so great that a thick cloud of dust from the desert was kicked up as pieces of wood and shrapnel fell all around them. Thankfully, they weren’t harmed by any of the passing debris, but the dust cloud was so thick that it made it difficult to see.

Which Axel took full advantage of. His keen eagle eyes allowed him to see perfectly through the smoking dust as he flew out over the rock. “Alright. I think we got her cornered. Let’s get ‘er done!”

“Hold up, brother!” Fleche grabbed Axel’s tail between her teeth before he could take off. “Approach this carefully. A cornered wildebeest will attack in unpredictable ways. Let’s approach this carefully, ya ken?”

“I cotton,” Axel started walking through the smoky dust, “C’mon. Let’s get her before she mounts any kinda counterattack.”

Meanwhile, beneath Klugetown…

As expected. Kora, Vido, and Chang had gone ahead to set all of the imprisoned ponies free that were still stuck beneath the city. But how were they doing this?

Kora was making use of the grimoire that she had acquired to heal all of the ponies that were in need of repair so they could walk again.

“Hrrk…gah…” the she-cat muttered as she waved her hand and winced from the amount of stress the magic had placed on her body.

“Lady Kora--are you certain that you’ll be okay with the continuous use of that tome?” Chang asked with a concerned tilt of his head. “You look rather winded from it as it is.”

Kora refused his words as she finished healing the wounds of a unicorn that fled the underground base and was escorted to the upper level by Vido.

“No…I have to be strong,” she insisted, “There’s no way I’m going to stand idly by anymore and allow innocent people to…agh…!” She dropped the tome and held her paws against the side of her head. “...Ow….okay. Maybe I should stop for a second…”

Chang knelt down next to her and put a hand on her head, rubbing in small circles to ease her pain. “Shhh…relax now. You’ve done all you could for them. Vido and I will take care of the rest.”

The griffon flew down to them a few moments later. “Actually, no. Here’s what we’re gonna do. Celaeno and I will escort the rest of the ponies out of here. Chang, you go ahead and help her rest up for a while until we can get them all out of here. Then we’ll give them as much medical attention as they need.”

“Understood,” the monkey prince turned his head, and picked Kora up, “Come on, Lady Kora. We should get you out of here.”

“Hooogh…” she grumbled shamefully, but was unable to refuse the prince’s assistance. “Thank you very much, Lord Chang. Throughout this ordeal, you’ve managed to stay the most sane and focused out of all of us. I quite admire that.”

“Oh, er, well…” he tripped over his words as he escorted her out of the mine and back up to the surface. “I-I-I suppose that’s due to my upbringing. No time for focusing on emotions, though. We need to get you someplace safe and round up the stragglers.”

“Makes sense to me. And…Chang?” The she-cat turned her head away from him for a moment.

Which prompted him to glance at her with a concerned frown. “Yes, Kora? What’s wrong?”

“...My students. It’s not safe for them here anymore. At least not at the moment,” she muttered while looking around at the ghostly state of Klugetown. “Do you think I could…bring them to your palace for a while?”

“...I think we can arrange that.”

“Oh, thank you…thank you, Chang!” she purred, and threw her arms around him, nuzzling the side of her face against his. “You have my absolute highest gratitude.”

“Not a problem,” he replied with a giggle, “I’d had to see you fall to sadness and your pupils and their families deserve a safe place to live until Klugetown can sort itself out, yes?”

“Yes. I just hope Lord Remington and his sister are safe…wherever they are right now,” Kora muttered under her breath.