Chapter 11
Intimidation and retrieval
Hammer glared at the gryphons ahead of him, waiting for their next move. He had had enough of these encroaching over-sized birds and silently hoped he could put his new weapons to good use.
"Uh, draw what?" A small gryphon asked with a perplexed expression, making Hammer mentally facehoof.
"It basically means make your move," Hammer explained, getting an 'oh' from the crowd. "That is, if you're stupid enough to attack again now that I'm properly armed." He glanced at the pistol to his right for a moment.
I only have six rounds in each pistol and I just used one in my right. I could either try to intimidate them by shooting the ground they're standing on or just kill them outright. While it would be considered self-defense in Caelondia, I'm not sure a place like this would take kindly to killing other sentient beings.
"There's still eleven of us and one of you, pony," Talon sneered. The bleeding on his cheek had stopped, but the stain still showed on his face. He took a step toward Hammer.
Pulling on the wood handle near the left side of his head, the corresponding pistol also let out a loud bang. The bullet hit right next to where Talon's talon stepped, embedding itself into the dirt.
Ten bullets left.
"Wrong choice, Talon." Hammer glanced at the other gryphons to make sure they were not advancing as well. "I'm giving you all a choice to back off now. I'm no stranger to violence and I will not think twice to put a bullet in any of your heads if you take another step." His aim tilted higher to emphasize he wasn't bluffing. It was a half-bluff actually. He wasn't going to shoot any of them unless they actually tried to strike him down.
Hammer hid a smile as several gryphons started to back off. Several spouted off reasons for their departure, to make it sound justified and hide their fear. His personal favorite was the creme feathered gryphon saying he left his pet parakeet in the oven. After each gryphon had made their decision to stay or leave, the only ones that remained were Talon, Gilda, and Rake. Unfortunately for Rake, he didn't have a choice since he was too busy playing the role of being unconscious.
"Bunch of cowards," Talon muttered while looking at the direction the other gryphons exited. He looked down at Hammer once more. "Fine. Keep your island then, but this isn't over." With that said, he walked toward the edge of the island and dove off the side.
Hammer noticed Gilda was standing in the same spot, looking at him like he had grown a an extra limb. He could only guess she saw him as an odd pony compared to the others. The fact he threatened to kill another while wielding such strange weaponry didn't help her perplexed situation.
His eye caught a Rainbow mane poke out of the air balloon's basket and scan around the surrounding area.
"I'm not sure what sort of problem you and Rainbow Dash have," Hammer spoke quickly while staring back at Gilda. "But unless you want to have a chat with her, now would be a good time to leave."
Following his gaze, Gilda's eyes widened and she ran toward the same edge talon dove off of. Taking another glance at him, she dove off the side before she was spotted. No sooner did she disappear from sight did Hammer have a pegasus right in his face.
"That was so cool!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, before being quickly pulled away by her tail with magic. "Hey, what gives?"
"Don't be so rude, darling. Don't you know anything about personal space?" Rarity chided the excited pegasus. setting her down beside Twilight. "I must say that was a brave thing you did facing all those gryphons. Who knows what those ruffians would've done to us!"
"I'm just happy nopony was, uhm, you know..." Fluttershy trailed off before returning to tend Rake's wounds. Though everypony knew what she was getting at.
"So what exactly are those things on the sides of your chest, Hammer?" Twilight asked. "They sure made quite a lot of noise."
Hammer fiddled with a clasp located near his chest to take off the holsters, but to no avail. Sighing heavily, he gave up and stood to the side so Twilight could get a clear look.
"The building I hid in contains all the weapons I collected during my adventures in Caelondia. The one's strapped to me are my trusty Slinger pistols."
Twilight got closer and examined the small device, her eyes giving off a tiny sparkle of excitement to learning about the weapons.
The tube was slightly longer then the width of her hoof. A loop of rope was tied around what must've been the trigger. There were six chambers filled with what looked like gold cylinder and the chamber itself seemed able to spin. The entire thing was snug with several straps of brown material that looked very durable.
"So, how does it work?"
"Maybe later, Twilight." Receiving an adorable pout from the unicorn, he kept his willpower intact. "Sorry, but right now we need to get Rucks back here and discuss what to do next."
"Oh, alright," Twilight dropped the look. "That always worked on Celestia," she added with a mutter.
"Rainbow Dash, think you can get Tale? He should be at Applejack's house."
"Sure thing! I'll be back in ten seconds... Oh, you know what i mean."
"And this picture here is Big Mac when he was a foal using his yoke for the first time." Granny Smith pointed with a hoof in the photo album she had out on the table. "He was so adorable at that age."
Big Mac was grateful his coat was red to hide his faint blush of embarrassment as he sat across from the two older ponies.
"That's uh, wonderful Miss Smith." Rucks glanced at the front door for the what felt like hundredth time. Kid had been away for quite awhile and he hoped they hadn't run into too much trouble with those gryphons. He reassured himself that he was fine. Kid was a resourceful lad when it came to fighting. Usually using the environment to his advantage.
More importantly, he wanted to get away from Granny Smith as soon as possible.
Now, he wasn't a stranger to a good talk or tale. He enjoyed his long talks with Kid, Zia, and sometimes Zulf, But sitting through two hours with a pony talking about her family made him want to jump off an edge. And they were only halfway through the photo album.
The thought made him wonder if Kid enjoyed their talks when they were still human.
"Oh, dearie, just call me Granny." She said with a smile. "Everypony else does."
"As you wish... Granny." He furrowed his brow in confusion when she began to flap her ear around with a hoof.
"Wha was that, dearie?"
"I said 'As you wish, Granny."
"Feed the fish, Granny? We ain't got no fish."
"No, I said... nevermind."
"No, you didn't say that."
Rucks only responded by resting the front of his face on the table in frustration. There were only a few instances in his lifetime where his patience would run out, and this was one of them. Thankfully several knocks, which may as well be angels singing, came from the front door.
"Ah'll get it." Big Mac walked the short distance to the door and opened it.
"Hey Big Mac! Is Tale here?" A female voice asked. Rucks couldn't see who it was because of Mac standing in the way.
"Eyup," he replied, standing out-of-the-way to show Rainbow Dash right outside the doorway.
"Hey, Tale." Rainbow Dash greeted as she walked inside the room. "Hammer needs you at the Bastion pronto."
"He managed to clear them out?" Rucks asked, his ears perking up. Before she could answer he was already past her and purposefully walking out the door. "Let's go then!" Rainbow Dash quickly followed behind him and was flapping her wings to stay in a hover.
"Alright, hang on!"
"Hang on to what?" Rucks yelled 'what' when Rainbow Dash wrapped her hooves around the front of his chest, behind his forelegs. Before he could say another word, she lifted off into the sky.