The Streets of Ponyville
The market was suprisingly bustling with a lot of traffic. Mordecai kept his gun out to warn off any pick-pockets. Roland was stumbling behind the group, barely managing to stand up. Whatever he was drinking was harder than anything he had before. Maybe he was wrong about these ponies being all girly and annoying. Then he took a look at the surounding architecture and all it's bright colors. Nope, he was right the first time.
They started asking around for this Twilight pony. She was pretty hard to find, they didn't even ask for a picture or anything back at the Inn. Everybody seemed to know WHO she was, but not WHERE she was. And by the way they mentioned her name it seemed that she had a bit of a bad reputaion. They wandered for hours trying to find her. It was almost as if she was purposely trying to avoid them.
============
Twilight decided to give her old friend Rainbow Dash a visit. She walked into the Sherif's Office to find the multi-colored pony napping. She cleared her throught to try and wake her. Nothing. She walked over and tried to shake her awake. Just before she touched her, Rainbow Dash sprung up, pulled out her gun, and aimed it at her eyes. Twilight jumped in surprise as well. Dash obsevered Twilight for a few seconds longer. She gasped and lowered her gun.
"Holy Celestia! Twilight! I'm so sorry! It's just-"
"It's okay Rainbow Dash, we can all be a little jumpy around here."
Dash cocked her eyebrow, "Wow, you changed a bit, someone points a gun at your head and you just act like it was nothin'."
"Yeah, I get practice out in the fields."
"So, what brings you over 'round these parts."
"I just wanted to stop in and say hi. That's all really." Dash looked at Twilight. She was seriously questioning whether or not she could trust her. All this time hangin' low and not talkin' to anyone and NOW she wants to chat.
"Well, I'm good here. Not doing much really."
"Oh..." Twilight looked at the floor and at the pictures on the wall, nothing much to notice.
A large scream was heard coming from the streets. Rainbow Dash grabbed her gun, leaped over the desk, and ran for the door. Twilight began to follow, but Dash stopped her.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm following you."
"Sorry, but this is a job for professionals."
"I can handle myself!"
"Whatever, just don't get shot." Twilight just glared at her for a second.
In the streets a crowd gathered around Mordecai and another man wrestling. Mordecai finally got him in an arm hold and pulled out his knife. The man screamed again. He started lining up his knife with the man's hand. Dash pushed past the crowd, saw this, and bucked Mordecai square in the chest. The man got up and began to run away. Dash pointed her gun at Mordecai. "What exactly do you think you're doing!"
Mordecai stood up and brushed some dust off himself. "That man was a thief. I was just doing what ANY law enforcement would have done."
"Listen! This is MY town. You don't take the law into your hands in MY town! Now we can do this easily or REALLY easily, your choice." Mordecai looked around the crowd, neither Roland nor Brick was in sight, he put his hands forward. Dash slapped some cuffs on his hands. "Wise choice, Mu-cha-chose." They began heading for the sherif's office. "Now I should've just shot you, but I think that the Crimson Lance would like to have a word with you." Mordecai looked at Dash. "Yeah, you're pretty hard to not notice. At least they got your jaw right."
A gun then cocked behind the two. The pick-pocket had an assualt rifle pointed at Mordecai. "You gonna PAY for makin' me look like a FOOL!" Mordecai gave the thief an unimpressed look. The he lined up the sights as best he could from his waist. But Mordecai pulled his sword out and threw it right at the man's gut, all in one smooth motion. The man fell on his back. Mordecai walked over to the thief, pulled the knife out of his gut, kicked the man's right hand out into the open, and brought the giant knife down upon his hand. It fell off like it was made of paper. He then drove the blade into the ground, put the blade between his cuffed hands, and broke the chains in one good push. He picked up the gun, brought it over to Rainbow Dash, who was fronzen in shock, threw it to her hooves, and put up two fingers.
"Two things: One, you never saw me, got that? Two, get better cuffs, you'd have a harder time getting out of a brown paper bag." He then turned around and headed back to the market. Dash didn't know what to do, so she just gave the man a medkit and dragged him back to the office. Twilight finally found Rainbow Dash and ran to her side.
"What happened!? I got lost in the crowd and couldn't find you."
"Nothing happened at all."
"Oh, what's up with that guy's hands?"
"Nothin'!" Rainbow Dash kept walking towards the office.
"Did I miss something?"
"NO! YOU DIDN'T MISS ANYTHING! OKAY!?" She was agitated by being shown up by someone else.
"Alright, calm down." Rainbow Dash just kept walking foward, an angered expression on her face. Twilight thought about returning back to the office with her, but something in her gut said to leave her alone. She had already caused her enough pain...
===============
An underground Atlas co. Bunker
A man stared at a large computer screen. He studied the information that was being projected from it.
"...This element 8. Is it really as potent as the information says?" He said in a thick russian accent.
"Yes, Commandant." A female voiced computer said.
"This planet, E, really is a gold mine in ALL aspects of it's manner. Is it not?"
"Why yes it is, Commandant. The Council is very well pleased with the results. They said that you now have full control of the budget to continue all planet wide projects, sir."
"Good. How is project 9 comencing?"
"All reports say that the merging studies are going better than planned."
"And project 26?"
"Unfortunately, we have not found patient 001 or 003 yet, Commandant. But we have found patient 002. With her we can draw patient 001 out of wherever she is hiding."
"Good, good. And finally, how is the status of 'Operation: Saddle' going?"
"Alpha and Omega are being met with surprisingly heavy resistance in sector CD, but we have sucessfully captured a leader of the resistance. She is rumored to be one of the founders of the resistance. I am sure that you would like a personal meeting with her, correct?"
"Yes, I shall meet with her before the stock holder meeting, which is right about now actually. That reminds me, how are our negotiations going with the 'Riot Dome' deal?"
"Unfortunately, the Great and Powerful Trixie is not giving in to any of our deals yet."
"Great and Powerful Trixie?"
"I am sorry sir. The Great and Powerful Trixie has seemed to hack into my mainframe during the meeting with the Great and Powerful Trixie the other day. Now it seems that I can only refer to the Great and Powerful Trixie as 'the Great and Powerful Trixie' and nothing else."
"We shall try to get you fixed later. But for now let us go. I have an important guest to accomidate." He walked down the corridor and entered into a room with an automatic-openning door. He walked in front of the restrained pony. "I hope that you didn't have too much of a problem getting here, Major A? I know that traffic can be horrific nowadays but I ensure you that your stay will be pleasent. At least, compared to everyone else's stay it will be. Just as long as you sing the sweet melody of 'everyone of your resistance postions'. I do love that song."
The pony cleared her throat. "Sorry, sugarcube. But I ain't speakin'."
===============
Ponyville's Sherif's Office
The office was dark and the deputy had left for the night. A single, old florecent lightbulb flicked in the front. Rainbow Dash couldn't sleep. She just sat on her stomach. She itched at her neck, Yup. It's still there. The scar on her neck was fairly well hidden, but the feeling of it never went away. She could hardly remember that day. She was good at keeping out bad memories, but she still had an itching urge of 'what if'. The only light that was on in the entire office was Dash's television set. It wasn't even on a channel, the glow of blue protruded from the box. Suddenly a fimilar man's voice could be heard from the speaker. He breathed heavily into the microphone, or whatever he spoke into.
"Daaaaaaashie," He began in a croaking, tired voice, barely above a wisper. "You awake?" Rainbow Dash shot up. She knew the owner of that man's voice. "Great." He said slowly, draging out the last few sounds of every sentence. "Long time, no see. You forget about me? That's hurtful. I loved your visits. They were the best. It gave me somethin' to look forward to. But now, you don't even call. I would've, had the tables been switched." He took a deep breath and signed, "I guess that's what seperates us then, huh?" Rainbow Dash shot the screen of the T.V., a sudden cackling laugh burst through the corridors of the office. "Oh, ye of such little intellect. Shoot whatever you want. It might've worked the FIRST time, but now's different."
"Skinnards..." Dash wispered.
"You remember my name?" He took a slow, sarcastic sigh of relief. "And I thought I was just another man to you."
"What do you want!?" Dash said, half agitated, half scared.
"Reeeematch. I do know how you LOOOOOVE competition. And I LOVED our little git-togethers. We all shared laughs, at least 'I' was laughing. You though? Sometimes you just get too far into the games. I'd hate to say that you might actually get too involved in them. And if you lose? Maybe you pretend that you didn't. Maybe this is all pretend."
"You ain't fooling me at all..." Dash yelled out into the darkness.
"I ain't foolin' you at all... WHO? You don't want to say it, do you." He cackled again. "Go on. SAY IT."
"I don't know who you think you are, but I ain't sayin' ANYTHING!"
"You said it before. What's the matter? I didn't SCARE you, did I? I'm soooooo sorry if I did." He chuckled, "I just come off as a SCARY person."
"I ain't scared!" He cackled again. Rainbow Dash kept reminding herself that this was probably some sick joke being pulled by Carmel, he'd get a REAL 'taking' for this.
"Carmel? What a silly name. I doubt that a pony with THAT kind of name would be able to pull off something like THIS."
"What!? How!?" She looked around the darkened room franticly.
"You know EXACTLY where to find me. And no, I'm not THERE! At least, not ALL of me. You can check if you like, though." A shovel threw it's self on the ground, Rianbow Dash jumped at the sound of the loud bang. The voice went silent. Rainbow Dash picked up the shovel and headed out back. She walked up to a tombstone.
Johnny 'Skinnards' Pope: Born a man of the law; Died a dirty criminal. He will not be missed.
She began to dig. She reached the coffin, or what should've been the coffin, rather quickly. The grave diggers didn't spend too much time digging a hole for him. They were too busy partying with the rest of Ponyville. She opened the coffin, the body was still there. It was picked apart by just about every kind of rodent, but it was still mildly reconisable. She poked the body with the shovel. It didn't move. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Wow, Dash." She thought to herself, "You really got to lay off the cider before bed." Then a slight chuckle broke the silence. She could still partially hear the giggle, even when she went back to bed. She woke up the next day to find that Skinnards was in the ground. She KNEW she didn't bury him. Of course it was a dream. You're just a little uneasy, that's all. Dash left the grave. Sunddenly a quick, strong gust of wind knocked over a shovel right next to the grave stone.
==============
The Den
Gilda looked at the map in front of her. She grumbled, her borders were shrinking. Eight Ball was really getting aggressive, just in time for winter. She was certain that he would stop for the seasons, he seemed jolly enough to do that. Adolph was also trying to march onto her turf. She was basically being sandwiched by the two. Thankfully, Eight Toes kept good on the deal. He'd stay neutral for shares of the profit. Gilda was thankful for having a 'friendship' with Eight Toes, but she never liked his back-story. She got her power by making sure everybody knew were they sat, which was beneath her. Toes got his power by being the rich-boy son of some Crimson Lance commander and using his inherited private military to gain control. He didn't even PLAN his conquest. He had people for that. He just sat back and got richer. Still, this mutual peace was well worth his annoying personality.
A buff, shirtless man walked into the room Gilda was in. He had at least three heads worth of height over her, but he was quite and chose his words carefully around her.
"What do you want!" Gilda yelled at the man.
He jumped a little before saying "I got those reports you asked for."
"Wasn't Tommy supposed to give those to me?"
"He's uh..." The buff man looked back at the doorway. Tommy was hiding right behind the door. He made a back and forth sweeping motion with his arms, shook his head, and mouthing the word 'NOO!'. "He's uh, sick! Yeah, got the Scootpox."
"Oh, okay. Let's see those papers." The buff man didn't know what was in the files, Tommy just handed them to him and told him to give these to the boss. Gilda looked at the papers. Her face went from nonchalant to impressed to questioning to angry and then to 'your going to die'. The buff man headed for the exit but Gilda dashed forward and kicked it shut on the man's fingers.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" The man yelled as he fell to the ground. Tommy just walked away and began whistling.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN EIGHT TOES IS SWITCHING SIDES!"
"I'm sorry boss! It's not MY fault! I just handed you the papers! I didn't do ANYTHING!"
"Yeah, well I'm pissed and I need something to break! And you're closest!" She cracked her knuckles as she walked over to the man, who was on the verge of crying. In the mess hall, on the other side of the fort, dust began falling from the ceiling in a constant rhythm. Some recruits thought that they were being bombed. Other men stopped eating and began praying for the unlucky sucker.
Gilda finished her beating of the man. He was bloodied and bruised, but still wide awake.
"Okay..." Gilda began, slightly out of breath. She picked up the paper. There was a small piece of paper that was neatly tucked into a secret compartment in the file. It had Eight Toes signature on it and said 'Don't read this BEFORE the report.' She unraveled the paper and in small neat lettering said, 'Just kidding'. She sighed, she forgot that she was dealing with Eight Toes.
The beaten man got up and walked toward the door with a limp. He said in a calm voice, "I'll just let myself out." He then ran out and screamed "WISEOW!" Another set of feet also began to run.
"Sorry, Mark!"