//------------------------------//
// Chapter One 
// Story: The Bounty Hunter 
// by Hope Is Never Lost 
//------------------------------//

Rain bore on endlessly, pounding on the rooftops and turning the sidewalks and roads into vast lakes of dull, muddy water. Dark gray clouds covered the sky, only letting a few rays of feeble moonlight slip past the barrier. The monotonous sound of raindrops beating on the sidewalk blended in with the occasional whoosh of the breeze through the air. Everything was bleak, gray, and dreary even the atmosphere.

Suddenly a dark brown hoof slammed into a puddle scattering droplets of water. The hoof belonged to a brown earth pony that wore a black leather coat to keep his fur dry. His mane was white as snow. The pony ran through the streets that were abandoned leaving only him and his gasping breaths as he sprinted through the streets while his eyes panned from one direction to the other as if he was looking for something.

'Gotta hide gotta hide gotta hide.' Was all that was going through the stallion mind.

Glancing over he saw side alley. Making a choice he sprinted down it only to stop. The alley was a dead end, with a two-metre wire fence blocking the way through to another street. Other than that, there were a few dumpsters on either side of the alley, and a set of rusting metal stairs and platforms running up to various residences on the right side. An orange lambda symbol was graffitied on one of the walls. There was nowhere he could go or hide. Thinking quickly he turned to leave only to freeze as he saw a dark figure standing at the entrance. The earth pony backed up until he was completely up against the wall completely shivering in fear. His fear only increased as the figure walked towards him. With every step, the pony could feel his heart beat faster and faster. If anypony was able to hear it they might have been able to dance with the beat. His eyes widened as he saw the hunter pulled out some strange type of metal thing that was clipped to his belt. It was a strange type of weapon that had no blade on it.

A flash of lightning flew across the sky lighting the area up for only a second but that was all the pony needed to see who it was.

"Calo Nord." The pony stuttered.

The figure now known as Calo Nord stood on two legs like a minotaur without horns. On top of his head, Calo wore a headgear that was colored white with it coming down covering his neck. He had dark goggles around his eyes. On his feet, he wore a pair of black combat boots. On his lower body, he wore dark black pants with a belt around his waist. On his upper he wore a dark shirt with a blue jacket over it. Underneath the white was leather. The blue jacket he wore was open showing his chest. On his hands were dark black gloves while there were white cuffs at the end of the jacket sleeves just under his gloves. On both sides of the jacket at the bottom were two leather pockets.

Calo continued to approach his target, taking his time as he slowly trotted up to where the pony was scrambling backward despite not being able to.

"You almost gave me a good chase." Calo spoke as he walked towards the terrified stallion.

"Calo I make it worth you while just take a rain check. PLEASE!"

"How would I be able to explain to my employers that I let you go?"

Calo was now standing almost directly over his ‘contract’, silhouetted against the dim moonlight that penetrated the depths of the alley. He let out a laugh of cruel amusement.

"Who’s going to give me another contract if I breach their trust? Like how you breached our employers’ trust two weeks ago and ran off with nearly five thousand bits’ worth of marejuana."

"Please! I have a family to feed. Just let me off. Let us off."

Calo stared down at the begging stallion. The brown stallion eyes were teary from the thoughts of not being able to see his family again. Calo opened his mouth to speak only to close while turning his head towards the entrance while pulling out his other pistol.

"Why don't you come on out. Don't think I wasn't able to smell your filthy stench." Calo growled.

There was nothing but silence for a couple minutes until there was a sound of feet or hooves scurrying about. That was when three figures appeared in the entrance.

It was three average sized diamond dog, roughly the size of about one and a half ponies. His legs were short, however, this was offset by his broad torso and his long, muscular arms. His head was egg-shaped, with leaflike ears and a strong lower jaw. Two of their fur was grey while the one in the middle was gold.

"Prey found prey."

Calo's eyes narrowed from underneath his goggles. 

"Prey should give us prey. Unless prey wants to be hurt."

So they were after the same contact as him. Damn scavengers are what they were.

"Go away."

"Ha! Weak hunter no match for strong diamond dog."

"Isn't this Calo Nord? Big famous hunter?" One of the dogs taunted.

"One."

"No way."

"That's right. Calo big strong hunter. This weak hunter with no weapon."

"Two."

"Why you count?"

"Forget it. Just kill preys."

"Three."

As the words left his mouth Calo swung both his pistols up firing in rapid succession. The laser bolts easily went through the dogs armor leaving three smoking holes. The diamond dogs stood there trying to process what happened only to fall to the ground dead once their minds registered the wounds.

Calo stared for a few more seconds before raising his left hand and firing his pistol to side without looking. He heard a loud yelp. Turning he saw his contract shaking by a dumpster with a smoldering hole an inch away from the stallion head.

"I believe you and I have unfinished business."

Walking over he stood over the stallion once again. The two stared at each until Calo broke the silence. 

"I'll let you go."

The stallion shoulder sagged in relief only for him to shiver when Calo pressed a blaster up against his head.

"Just tell me where you hid the stash."

"It’s in an abandoned shed, three kilometers south-east from here. The combination for the lock on the door is five, eight, one." He quickly blurted out.

Calo just stared down at him with no expression on his face at all.

"How do I know you’re not lying?"

"I...I..."

"I believe you."

The stallion stared up at him with his eyes.

"Beacuse if you are lying....not only am I going to come after you," Calo reached into his pocket after stashing his blasters away. Pulling out what appeared to be a picture he threw it down in front of the stallion whose eyes widened at what he saw. The photo was the stallion with a white mare with her holding a foal.

"Your family as well."





Calo really was in a good mood. The contract had gone off without a hitch, even though it was only a low-risk and –pay ‘soft’ job. He had managed to conform to his employers’ wishes to retrieve their package while maintaining a minimal amount of violence......sort of. That's the problem with this job. Other hunters coming after others contract.

Though he really didn’t want to threaten his quarry, to see him in fear like that…but business was business, and he had to look out for himself anyway. Besides, nobody got hurt.....besides the diamond dogs.

Distracted by his musings, he almost missed the old shed his bounty was talking about. Stopping at the door, he noticed with satisfaction and minor relief that there was a numerical lock on the door. At least he would not have to make good his threat regarding the stallion’s family. No matter how his career had become part of him, he did not want to take an innocent life, much less two or three.

What was the combination again? Five…eight…one…bingo! The lock opened with a clack. Calo swung the thin wooden door open on its rusted hinges. His eyes fell on the medium-sized cardboard box on the floor, its content of cigarettes, supposedly of legit brand names visible through a gap in the lid. Grabbing it he stashed the box into his pocket.  Good. Now there was only one thing left to do.





Calo watched soundlessly from a rooftop, close to Stallion’s apartment. He watched as the dark brown pony approached his apartment with caution, unaware of Calo’s prying eyes. The stallion entered the house and closed the door, locking and latching it. He sat down on the couch and called out to somepony out of sight. Calo changed his viewing position to an open window on an adjacent wall.

What appeared to be the mare in the photograph from earlier appeared and hugged the stallion tightly. Calo watched in contemplative silence as the stallion conversed with his wife, head hung low, about tonight’s events.

"They sent someone after me tonight, and I had to tell him where I hid the stuff."

"It’ll be fine. We’ll get through this. It’s about time for us to live clean anyway, for the foals’ sake…"

The couple sat by each other, their mutual love and trust breaching the wall of physical silence between them. The stallion sighed deeply, momentarily just another stallion with a huge burden and no way of shouldering it.

"He threatened me, you know. He threatened to go after you and our kids if anything wasn’t right. Maybe all of you should just go somewhere safe and wait this out."

Calo felt his guilty conscience become a little more noticeable in his mind and cringed. Every job had a negative factor.
The white mare placed a hoof on her husband cheek, gently guiding his line of sight until their eyes met.

"Do you remember when you first told me about your job, and why you didn’t want to make commitments? Like I said then, no matter what happens, I want to be right here with you. We’ll face this together."

Calo broke off his gaze and edged away from his viewpoint, mulling over the outcome of the situation. Part of him was glad that he hadn’t caused any permanent damage to the family, but there was also disgust. Disgust that he had pursued the matter to its end, disgust at his blatant excuse of an attempt to be responsible for his actions, disgusted that he was so soft. Two long years and he still couldn’t come to terms with this job. It was a weakness, and it caused him to scorn himself to the very core.

It was all very confusing, as emotions always were after the incident, so he simply pushed it aside, save the personal compromise of an exasperated sigh and a wistful, longing glance into the distance, where the moon perched itself on a faraway mountain range.