Ponies Row

"So, Mister, Rapid Fire, is it?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"What are you good at?"

"Well, like my name implies, I'm good at shooting. The only one I suck at is sniping."

"Interesting. However, we are short on spots for infantry men. We need ponies like strategists or carpet bombers. Go home and we will give you a call tomorrow. We'll find a spot for you if we can."

"Alright."

I headed home to my somehow standing apartment just outside of Dabo. The floors creaked with every step I took. Pipes, coming out of the walls, made it difficult for me to maneuver around the house. And the bed is cheap and very breakable. I've tried everything to keep the bed up, and I say that I've done a pretty straight forward job so far. It is already past midnight, and I couldn't sleep, so I decided to take a walk. Knowing the barbaric nature of the city's inhabitants, I grabbed my pistol and I stuffed it in my pocket, just in case. Sometimes, the gangs tend to invade the other sectors. Can't be too careful here.

Outside...

It was unusually quiet outside tonight. There were no ponies digging through the trash cans, there were no prostitutes roaming the streets for their next big buck, and there were no gang members guarding the buildings.

"Strange..." I thought.

Then suddenly, I saw Twilight Sparkle, leader of the Harmony Knights.

"What's she doing out here?"

She walked behind an alleyway. I followed her, making sure not to get caught int he process. She pulled out a cigaret and began to smoke it. Then, some other gang member poped out of nowhere and ambushed her. He was wearing a mask of white sweaters that covered most of his face. The only thing that was visible were his eyes, but just barely, as his goggles proved it difficult to see through.They looked like they were part of the Horde. A unicorn named "Rarity" leads them. Their gang rules the Aachen Sector. One of the ponies took out their knife and charged at the outnumbered unicorn. Twilight quickly reacted and dodged the attack, quickly countered the strike with a kick. The blow struck the attacker right in the gut. He fell to the ground in pain. The other three attempted to attack, only to be countered as well.

More poped out. This time, they caught her by surprise. One of them grabbed her by her shoulders. She was trapped. I knew what I had to do. I took out my M74 Eagle pistol I stole from a police pony a few years back, and checked the mag. I had 16 shots, one for everypony's head. I loaded up the gun, pulled back the slide, and aimed at the gang member, who was about to shoot Twilight in the head. Right on target. He fell to the ground, blood coming out on the side of his head. All the ponies turned toward me. I fired again, striking another pony in the chest. He dropped his gun. It fired as it hit the floor, hitting someone else in the back.

By that time, Twilight was free. She brought out her custom D41 Muskrat submachine gun, the rarest and most powerful submachine gun in Dabo, outfitted with a ACOG assault rifle scope, suppressor, purple camo with her cutie mark painted on the stock, and a laser sight, and aimed, but when I saw that she was about to join the fight, I gestured for her to stop. She hesitated for a second, then she stopped and backed off.

I fired once more, again successfully hitting someone. The rest were too close for me to use my gun. I stuffed pistol pistol in my saddlebag and used my magic to grab two of the attackers. The others began to fire their weapons. I used the two attackers as a meat shield and began to walk closer to the others. When I was close enough, I bashed them with the bodies. All of them were knocked out except for one. I again brought out my pistol and aimed at his head. He looked up.

"Tell Lil' Miss Rarity that the Harmony Knights are bringing the fight to her."

I unleashed the fury of metal onto him. His head dropped to the floor, blood followed shortly after.

Twilight walked towards me, stepping over the bodies as she went.

"You aren't half bad."

"Thanks."

"I owe you my life. If there's anything you need, just let me know."

"Actually, ma'am. There is one thing..."

"What is it? And if you want to have sex with me, the answer is no."

"No no no. I don't want to do that. I wanted to join the Harmony Knights."

"Well, you have impressive shooting skills. And you seem to know how to control your magic very well. Yes. I think you would be a great addition to the gang. Come with me."

"Ok."

Me and Twilight began heading to the Harmony Knight's base. On the way there, I began to smell something. I elbowed Twilight, while not trying to look rude.

"You smell that? It smells like... Smoke?"

"Yeah. I smell that too. It's coming from the crib!"

Twilight and I dashed towards the origin of the aroma of burning wood, bricks, and metal. Instead of arriving at a gang hangout, we arrive at a site of flames. Twilight fell to her knees.

"We spent years on that hangout... All for nothing..."

"I'm sorry, ma'am..."

"Please... Just call me Twilight..."

"Ok... Twilight... What are we going to do?"

"I don't know... I can't think straight right now..."

Twilight wrapped her hooves around me. I began to blush. I wanted to help her. But how? Then, I came up with an almost insane idea.

"Hey... How about we get the gang back up and running again?"

"You mean... Recruit new gang members?"

"Yeah."

"You're crazy."

"Always will be."

*giggle* "Well, where are we going to start?"

"First, we need to place to stay. You can stay at my place until we find a new one."

"Sounds good." and then we set off for my home. Yes, the crumbling slab of stone.