Advent Of A Gunslinger

Believe it or not, yes. There was in fact a school located within the confines of a lawless cesspool like Klugetown. Even among the various acts of pony enslavement and substance abuse, there was some sense of order.

Though, it was reserved only for those who had the capacity to pay.

Within the confines of a rather normal-looking building was a training facility dedicated to helping Kluegtowners master the art of fighting. Each instructor had their own styles based on various techniques found throughout the world. Essentially? A fight club.

In one room in particular, a female Abyssinian with black fur and a muscular build had been giving instructional drills. Her attire consisted of a gray sports bra and blue bike shorts. Her authoritative, yet calm tone allowed her to stand out among her students who were of various Beast races. She was also very well-spoken for a Klugetown resident.

“Remember, strike with the knee to counter against grapples, ya’ll.” She demonstrated the move on a punching bag that hung from a chain against the ceiling. “Your opponent will usually go for a clinch if your posture is too relaxed. So when you see them try to reach with their arms, you strike with a well-timed knee to throw them off-balance and restrict their approach. Does that make sense to everyone?”

The various beasts who had been lined up against the wall of the gymnasium gave various murmurs of understanding…

“Good,” she said, “Now I want each of you to come up and try it for yourselves. Then, we will split apart into teams and try it further. Okay? Let’s git--”

TAP-TAP-TAP

There was a knock at the door of her gym. The Abyssinian would stop mid-lecture to answer it. “Give me one second, everyone.”

“Yes, Ms. Kora,” the students replied in unison.

The Disciplinary.

She let loose a small purr of satisfaction under her breath when she heard her students respond in an orderly fashion. Nothing made her feel more at peace than the knowledge of everything working properly.

She walked to the gym door, and opened it to find a well-dressed Abyssinian tom. “...Mr. Gatto?” she greeted him, “What brings you by on this fine day?”

“Yes, I would just like to speak with you for a moment. Won’t take long.”

Kora retrieved her round glasses and placed them on her face. Gatto was much taller than she was. In fact, she was only a little bit taller than the average pony. “What’s the matter, good sir?”

“Two things,” he put his hands together, “First and chiefly of which, your sister is dealing with quite the workload order from my boss. Would be a shame if she didn’t accomplish it in time…”

Turns out that Kora was Maxine’s sister. Gatto’s ‘boss’, however, was still yet to be seen.

Kora didn’t take kindly to such words, but also knew that her own position was rather precarious. As such, she knew she had to hold her tongue. “Hmph...did you arrive here to merely insult me with your idle chatter, or do you actually have something important to say?”

“Hmph. You’d rather cut to the important shit early, eh? I like that about you,” Gatto remarked, and pointed the cigar in her direction. “Very well, then. What I mainly wanted to discuss with you is that we might have a bit of a situation on our paws.”

Kora folded her arms. Her tail flicked as a sign of her impatience. “What is it, G?”

“My informants came across a few bits of fishy info. Something about a hippogriff cowboy…”

The she-cat took a second to respond as she glanced down at the floor. “Ah, I see. So the time has finally come, ain’t it?”

“I’m afraid so. If he’s here, then that means my boss messed up something from two decades ago. We really can’t take time to deal with this right now because, well--”

Kora let out another small purr to mock him. “You’rrrrrrre busy. And ya’ll can’t tell me why because that’s how things work, ‘cetera, ‘cetera.”

Gatto snapped his fingers, and flashed her a wide smile. “That’s it. You learn fast, don’t you?”

“That was rhetorical, you imbecile.” She didn’t take very kindly to that. Her expression flattened along with her drooped ears which indicated apathy. “Am I s’posed to be impressed? Anyhow, just what do ya’ll want from me?”

“If you see him, take him down. But don’t kill,” the tom explained, “If that really is who I think it is, then we would do better to make good use of him rather than just exterminate him on sight. I came to you because you’re skilled with your…” He waved his hand around as he tried to come up with a term to use. “...Beatboxing, or whatever.”

“Kickboxin’,” she hissed in response, and adjusted her glasses, “And I might consider assistin’ with that…”

“Well actually, this is non-negotiable,” he persisted, “You see him, you deal with him. Got it?”

The idea of going up against someone she had little idea about put a bit of fear in the she-cat. At most, she had only heard information about a hippogriff bounty hunter from sources that weren’t exactly reliable. If it proved to be true, then she had no idea what she was getting into.

Couple that with essentially being used as a guinea pig, it made her stomach turn.

Kora would keep an outward expression of agreement just to sate the tom. “Fair ‘nough,” she replied, “I’ll do what I can to subdue him.” “And that’s all. No more, no less.”

Satisfied with the answer, Gatto would retain that happy smile of his. “Perfect. I knew we could count on you, my dear. With that, I have to take my leave. Adieu, my lady.” He would then turn, and exit the building as casually as ever.

“Ugh…” she sighed as she tapped her foot against the wood floor. “Just what have I gotten myself into here?”

A few seconds later, one of Kora’s students, a young diamond dog, would exit the room to check on her. “Ms. Kora? Is everything okay?”

“Hm?” she turned around, and swiftly changed her tune so as to not cause any extra concern for the pup. “Oh yes. Everything’s alright. C’mon, let’s get back in there and finish up.”

Meanwhile…

Axel had made his way through Klugetown. Just like before, many of its residents refused to engage with him out of fear. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. It made navigation through the silly-string pathways of this ‘city’ much easier than they otherwise would have been. That in tandem with the map he obtained from Mynx had made his trial far less complicated. Unfortunately, it didn’t account for the sheer amount of messy buildings and run-down wastes that had piled up all around.

“Hrm…gonna need to get a better view.”

After a bit more walking, he decided to take flight. With his wings spread wide, he flew into the air and hovered in one spot. This allowed him to get a proper survey of the entire horizon. And there, he would spot what appeared to be a schoolhouse on a hill. Was this the academy that Mynx had mentioned?

Well, it had to be. There was no other school in the entire territory.

He took flight, and swooped in towards that building…

About twenty minutes later, he would finally arrive. But he stayed airborne for a moment to observe his surroundings, and perched on a roof of a neighboring building. As he sat there, he would watch as several beasts would exit the building--all very young in age. Many of them appeared to be very muscular or had very nimble body shapes.

“Hot damn. They got themselves a whole damn trainin’ grounds for their gangs. Wonder who could be in charge.”

A few adult beasts exited as well. What appeared to be a rhino, a komodo dragon, and an emu would all follow suit. All of which had oddly anthropomorphic features that looked nothing like the regular animals that were a part of mainland Equestria.

“...Just how does any of this even work?” Axel thought to himself as he realized there were walking, talking versions of the animals he had seen back home. “Lizards are just regular lizards ‘round my neck’a the woods. But here, they’re movin’ and thinkin’ like the rest’uf us.”

He’d be waiting for a bit longer. It wasn’t until a few more minutes had passed that Axel would notice a specific beast within the crowd. An Abyssinian with dark fur and round glasses over her eyes was down there. However, she didn’t leave like all of the others. Instead, she returned back to the inside of the building.

And that would serve as Axel’s target.

Since he was only looking for information from her, and not to attack, he wanted to approach this as casually as possible. So he flew down, and landed upon the steps that led right up to the main doors. There, he would knock with a tap of his claw.

It wasn’t long before he got an answer. The door opened to reveal…

Kora. The Abyssinian stood in front of him, and stared down with a rather stoic expression. “Can I help you, sir?”

“...Are you Mynx’s sister?” he asked with a hesitant tone of voice, “She told me that you knew how to get to Abyssinia.”

“So this is our man? Don’t look like much at all. Anyone can just throw on some leather and call themselves a cowpoke.” The light reflected off of Kora’s glasses to where they shined white. The tension in the air was palpable from how long she spent idle before she gave a response. “...You know her, then. Eh, partner?”

Axel gave her a side-eye of sorts. Already wary of her. “...That’s right. She lives near the entrance to the city. Helped me with some plumb-crazy locals. Said I should come see you about it.”

“Ya’ll did well to think about me. But know that such information doesn’t come cheap…” She stood aside, and allowed him to enter.

“Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me at all,” Axel snarked as he stepped inside, “How much are we talkin’, missy?”

“It’s not yourrrrr money that I want, sir,” A wide, catty grin appeared on Kora’s face as she shut the door, and locked it. “Spar with me. If you beat me, then I’ll give you what you want.”

He stopped dead in his tracks, and raised an eyebrow at this. “...Ya’ll serious?”