Ripples

CHAPTER 9

Dodge City

        Rage completed his training in record time, finishing all tests and courses in less than two days. Fury, on the other hand, was struggling far behind. The instructors predicted it would take him a week minimum to finish his training. Rage rarely saw Fury, and when he did it was usually in the bathroom.

        “Rage, we’re proud of you,” said the voice of the leader into his earpiece. “I think you’re worthy of a...special operation.”        “Consider it done,” said Rage with determination.        “Good,” the leader said. “We have intel on the location of the Rebellion’s main base. An attack has just been staged recently, and their assault was a total success. I want you to retrieve some goods from inside their base...”        Rage was ready. “Whenever you need me.” And with that, Rage walked to the briefing room.

~ ~ ~

        I slid twenty bits that Captain had given me across the counter. The dealer smiled and reached under the counter, withdrawing a shotgun. He also set four boxes of shotgun rounds on the counter.        “Thanks for doing business with Dodge Firearms,” he told me. I put my new toys in my saddlebag, and placed the shotgun in a convenient strap holder thingy along my side for easy access. I left the old glorified trailer to find Captain testing his new assault rifle on some targets behind the store. He was hitting nearly in the center every time.        I slowly walked near him, and pulled out the shotgun as quietly as possible. The training for holding firearms really came in handy about now, and I carefully wielded it between my hooves. I looked down the iron sights on top, lined it up with the target, and fired.        The kick from the shot sent the gun straight into my nose, slamming it with immense force. The noise was also so loud that Captain jumped and sprayed gunfire on the trailer, and my ears began ringing. As I rubbed my now-bleeding nose, I heard an angry yell from inside the trailer. The words were incomprehensible, but it sounded angry. I blushed and smiled guiltily as Captain shot me an accusing look.        “Did you intend on getting the loudest shotgun they had?” Captain angrily scolded.        “No, it just looked cool!” I rebutted.        He sighed, and took out some medicine from his pack. For a lack of decent firearms, he sure had a lot of medical supplies...after rubbing it on my nose, we decided to ask around and see what the latest news was.        After finding a green mare, we were able to squeeze some information out of her. She was a little nervous around Captain, but she talked.        “Well, some lone Resistor walked by here last night, couldn’t see him very well, but he was heading off towards Baltimare...or maybe Fillydelphia?” she had told us. Then she nervously hurried off to a house nearby, ran in and slammed the door.        “I don’t see why they’re so afraid of me,” said Captain. “Pegasi used to be completely normal.”        I was about to apologize when I noticed some kind of bulletin board near a bench and fountain. The fountain was long dry, the bench was rusty and broken, but the bulletin board looked...used. We trotted over to investigate.        “DODGE CITY NOTICEBOARD” had been scratched across the top haphazardly, and various old papers were pinned on. They had been repeatedly used and erased, but the notices were clear.        “HELP, NEED FOOD FOR SICK FOAL” read one. “HOUSE BROKEN INTO AND ROBBED” read another. Nothing seemed important. As we were turning around, we began to hear a crackle. Captain’s face seemed to droop in worry.        “There’s a speaker,” he said. I began to look around for the source of the crackle, when a very strange male voice sounded.        “Hello, Captain,” it said, sinister. “I do believe your base is now under control by the Resistance, is it not?” Captain’s face was flaming red, out of both anger and shame.        “Not a stallion of many words? I can’t hear you, but the cameras are information enough. Who’s your friend?”        Captain was turning so red that couldn’t be healthy. This was starting to make me angry, as well.        “Embarrassed? What, did you sleep with him?” the voice said with a giggle. Captain was practically steaming.        “I’m just going to leave you on your way, doing whatever it is you’re doing. Oh yeah, those super secret documents you left in your living room? They’re mine now.”        Captain’s jaw dropped. He began a serious rampage. “WHO THE HELL DO YOU FUCKING THINK YOU ARE?! THOSE ARE RIGHTFULLY MINE, AND YOU CAN’T JUST MARCH IN AND FUCKING TAKE-”        “-And who says we can’t? What rights? There’s no government yet. And until there is, rights are nothing. You can’t stop us.”        Captain was vibrating with anger, looking at the bulletin board. He was beginning to make strange noises from his weird spasm. I just sat down and watched, somewhat mad because of all the shit I had to go through to get that stuff, but also somewhat clueless.        “And I have one last thing,” the voice said and let out a long, evil laugh. “I do believe you used to have a, how do I put this...very special somepony?”        Captain stopped vibrating, and suddenly became overrun with fear. I didn’t know what to do. This must have been very personal. He finally murmured, “Greenstrike...”

Who now?

        “Vaporized in battle...ah, a heroic...death. You were quick to accept the easy way out. You thought she died.” it said, with a very sinister tone. Captain is going to need to explain something to me later...        “NO! NO! NOOOOO!” Captain yelled, finally broken. “STOP THIS NOW!!!” He collapsed on the ground and began sobbing his eyes out. I just sat, mouth agape, staring at the scene.        “Let me assure you: the new and improved Greenstrike is quite the...shocker,” it concluded with a laugh. “Also, the camera’s in the fountain, you idiot.” And then the connection was severed.        “NOOOOOOOO!” Captain yelled at the top of his voice. “FUCK. NO.” He stomped his hooves, and I think he began foaming at the mouth...        I began to speak. “Captain, are you oka-”        “SHUT UP!” he interrupted. “SHUT THE HELL UP!” My mouth opened wide once again. Did he just...?        “I AM GOING TO GET REVENGE ON THAT MOTHERFUCKER...I WILL FUCKING KILL HIM!” he continued. I started slowly inching away from him, becoming scared. Something bad is about to happen. Captain let out a very loud, senseless gargly scream, withdrew his assault rifle and flew into the air. I ran under the bench to hide.        “GET THE FUCK OUT OF THOSE HOUSES!” he yelled, and even from a distance, the loudness hurt. “GET OUT OR YOU WILL FUCKING DIE!” I think I’ll just be leaving now.        I ran. I ran for my life. Something was very wrong here, and I did not want to be a part of it. The last thing I heard before leaving earshot was gunfire. Lots of gunfire. And screams. Lots of screams.