Canterlot Academy Trials

When it was all said and done, Lionel came out of the storage room to see the damage left over from the situation. The aftermath was three changelings with their faces bitten into, skinned, and their faces and lips ripped off, exposing their squishy interior beneath their exoskeletons.

“...guess you made good on your promise then, huh?” Lionel commented with a snide tone, then sighed as he looked over the sheer amount of damage that had been caused in the ensuing battle.

“Rrgh…” Bullet let out a small growl as he spat out some of the changeling’s flesh from his maw. Once he glanced at the carnage that he had committed, he froze and started to shiver in place as he backed away. “...again…? I…I can’t believe I just did that…”

“...I’ve only seen you get like this once before,” Lionel explained while offering Bullet a glass of water. “...are you alright, boy?”

Bullet accepted the water, and could barely bring it to his lips as his hands jittered, causing him to spill a bit of it before finally taking a sip. “...No. I…I don’t think so. Just…wish I didn’t get like that.”

“They had a defenseless lady in their clutches,” the lynx man muttered while walking around the counter to assess the damage at the front of the building. “...I don’t blame ya for doin’ whatcha did.”

“S-still…” the primate placed the glass down and rubbed the side of his head as he winced, teeth clenched, “...that’s not something I particularly enjoy about myself. My kind…we have a burning fire within us that sets us apart from most other races. I’m sorry you had to see me that way.”

Lionel had gathered up the weapons from the fallen gangsters and had taken them apart piece by piece before offering the entire lot to Bullet in a duffel bag. “Here. Dispose of these for me and we’ll call it even. You’re a good kid, ya know? In fact, I hope my son turns out to be like ya one day,” he encouraged Bullet with a pat on the back before walking around behind the counter. “...poor boy is damn near scared of his own shadow.”

That’s when Bullet took notice of Lionel’s fur pattern. The same exact brown spots with stripes and extended ears of a lynx akin to the same younger one that he had rescued from abyssinian gangsters not too long ago. His curiosity got the better of him and he’d ask.

“...Mr. L. Do you happen to have a son?” Bullet asked, “Named Laurent?”

“...no? I have a nephew named L--” his tail flicked and with a purr, he turned to the primate and snarled, “...how do you know about him? You better not be wrapping him up in your crazy shit, boy!”

Bullet shook his head, “No sir. Just…wondering. You both look a bit similar so I figured I’d ask. To be quite frank I…” he rolled his left hand while scratching the back of his head with his right, “...ran into him once and got him out of trouble once, let’s say.”

“Hmph…” the lynx man relaxed, and took a seat behind the bar counter, “...so you’re the one that my brother told me about. Good on ya. Now I know I can trust ya more than anyone.”

As it turned out, Laurent had blabbed the entire story of how he was rescued by a primate mercenary to his parents who had subsequently told his uncle of it all. That very uncle was indeed Lionel himself.

“...I see,” Bullet muttered with an insecure tone as he grasped the red t-shirt beneath his jacket. “I…thank you, sir.”

‘Maybe I’m not so bad after all? But would Lee still accept me after all this?’

Lionel had lit up a cigarette and waved him off as he took a hit from it. “Yeah yeah now go on. I gotta get a cleanup crew down here. Go rest your nerves, yeah?”

“I will…I promise.”

And with that, Bullet left the bar, but from the corner of his eye, he noticed someone peculiar leaving the club across the street...

Meanwhile, at the club…

Odu and Gwin had left the club with a small wooden box of some kind. It looked big enough to hold a horn such a trumpet.

“...so this is what we’re using?” Gwin asked, “I have to admit that it almost seems a bit inhumane…almost.”

Odu scoffed as he noticed Irina following them along from the nearby rooftop. “You both don’t even realize just yet. The Diamond Dogs will, quite literally, be brought to heel for what they did to us in the past. If drastic measures with mind-altering pheromones need to be taken…then so be it.”