//------------------------------//
// Bullets in the Gun 
// Story: Tales of the Battle Foals 
// by Sirdubya 
//------------------------------//

Tumbleweeds bullied by the desert winds were shoved and rolled through town as Kickback stood there still as could be for whatever was supposed to happen occur. The entire town looked on in the tense atmosphere around the young gunman. The boxes around him could be heard ticking in the deafening silence. 

That silence was broken when one of the boxes directly in front of him launched a soda can high into the air. Just as it reached the peak of its air time, Kickback drew his left revolver about as quick as Shadow Shroud could drew and throw her kunai, and fired it at the can. The sudden bang startled the crowd, and echoed throughout the town. The can had been hit square in the side. No sooner after that did a soda can directly behind him launch into the air. He drew the gun holstered at his right side as quick at the other, turned around in the blink of an eye, and shot it as expertly as the other.

No sooner after that did varying series of can from all around start popping up. All of which were expertly shot by Kickback’s guns. Some of the cans formed shapes such as diamonds, squares, what have you; Kickback shot them in such lightning fast succession that the unobservant eye would swear he’d shot them all at once. In between series of cans, which were barely any seconds apart, Kickback would flip his guns to reload with peerless precision and dexterity when needed. This continued for roughly a minute before the grand finale. Cans were launched into the air in quick succession starting the six o’clock boxes, and continuing both clockwise and counterclockwise simultaneously. Kickback shot both of his guns in either direction simultaneously as they reached the peak of their jumps. Finally the box right in front of him belched out a cluster of cans. After reloading at lightning speed, Kickback fired one shot at each of the cans, hitting them each in their proverbial bullseyes. Kickback calmly blew the leftover smoke out of his guns, put them on safety, and holstered them. He tipped his hat to the crowd as they went wild.

“G******! I forgot how loud those things were!” Turf War commented.

Shadow Shroud looked at him with her ear held up. “WHAT!? I CAN’T HEAR YOU! MY EARS ARE RINGING!” she said. Fire Fight relished this moment as this likely was the only time she’d ever raise her voice.

While the crowd seemed excited for the most part, there were a noticeable number of spectators clearly concerned at the very existence of such a dangerous item, and that a foal had possession of them. The stallion that Shroud had noticed earlier could be seen hanging his head down as he shook it in disappointment. Kickback seemed to pay him no heed as he calmly walked out of the show area with the crowd still cheering for spectacular display.

The announcer took his place in the middle of the stage as the launcher boxes were removed by the stagehands. He was visibly rattled by the sheer potential that Kickback’s guns displayed, but was trying to keep his cool for the crowd. “Ehehehe…..Ain’t he just one of a kind? Talk about lettin’ the show go out with a bang, huh? Hehe….” He took a deep breath, and totally regained his composure. “Well folks, Ah sincerely thank ya from the bottom o’ mah heart fer joinin’ us ‘ere. Ah sure had a hootin’ hay of a time puttin’ all this together with our mayor, todays acts, and of course, the sheriff. Now we’ve all got food stalls and games lined up from street to street for everypony. Many thanks to those who are runnin’ ‘em. Ah ask that ya don’t bother the show ponies as they’re puttin’ away their equipment an’ all. Other than that, enjoy the rest o’ the day! YEE-HAW!”

Fire Fight immediately turned to his comrades. Shadow Shroud was still cleaning out her ears a little. “Let’s go find Kickback!” he said.

“We really should get out of this crowd first.” Spiral Galaxy said. “Why don’t we go back behind that building and wait for it to break up?”

“You do that. I’ll ascend above the city, and see if I can’t see our target from above.” Air Slash said.

Fire Fight nodded. “Alright. Meet us back there when you catch sight of him.” He said.

Air Slash nodded, and flew up to get a bird’s eye view of his surroundings while the other foals retreated to their designated spot. With other touring pegasi airborne, he raised no suspicion. Viewing the ground below and around him, Air Slash had difficulty spotting the gun-wielding colt in the large crowd that was still dispersing to the listed attractions throughout town. He carefully scanned every inch of the streets he could immediately see. Within a moment or so, he spotted Kickback slowly trudging through the same crowd of fillies who had been lauding over him earlier just before his performance. He very politely excused himself through them, and walked towards a rather unhappy looking stallion who was facing him. Upon seeing that, Air Slash immediately flew back down to his waiting compatriots.

“Quickly! Follow me!” he whispered. He lead them through the now well-dispersed crowd to where he last saw Kickback. When he explained the stallion he witnessed, Shadow Shroud perked up.

“I saw that very same stallion eyeing him in such a way during the show. Perhaps…they’re connected?” she stated.

“Looks like we’re about to find out.” Fire Fight said. Just ahead of them was Kickback walking alongside the aforementioned stallion. It sounded like they were talking.

“Let’s listen in, you guys.” Spiral said.

Air Slash firmly shook his head. “I will not stoop to the level of a-”

“Air Slash, we have to be discreet. I know you’re used to having a big presence, but while we’re searching, we can’t draw too much attention to ourselves. Otherwise, you might have to go back to your stronghold to your father again!” Fire Fight said. 

The mention of his father immediately silenced the samurai. He reluctantly conceded to acting on the level of somepony he considered his enemy. Shadow Shroud silently smirked.

Casually walking behind them, the foals eavesdropped on what Kickback and this stallion were talking about. “Kickback, Ah don’t even know why Ah bother. You saw some o’ them spectators. They knew just as well as Ah do that as sure the sun is bright and hot, them guns o’ yers are as cold as the steel they’re made of!” the stallion said.

“Well shucks, Pa. Ah don’t reckon Sound and Fury have done any harm to ‘em. Besides, a lot o’ the other ponies seemed to take quite kindly to ‘em. If the sheriff, and even the mayor were okay with ‘em-” Kickback said to his apparent father, but he cut him off.

“Those two can kiss me where the sun don’t shine. Ah haven’t forgotten what those two little metal blasters have done to us, and you of all ponies shouldn’t neither!” he scolded.

Kickback held his hat over his face. “Ah reckon Ah managed to help fight off them pesky Sand Vipers so we could have our show.” He muttered.

His father shook his head. “It wasn’t a show Ah was rightly looking forward to, so you shoulda just kept those two in bed! Safer that way anyhow! Get on home an’ put them varmints wherever the hay ya keep ‘em, an’….ugh, Ah don’t know. The rest o’ the show’s going today, so…have fun, Ah guess. Just get away for a while.”

While his hat was still over his face, Kickback had noticeably gotten a little more dejected. It was clear that for whatever reason, Kickback’s father wasn’t too fond of his son. Furthermore, it sounded as though a group called the ‘Sand Vipers’, who or whatever they were the so-called ‘varmints’ that prevented the show from running on schedule, and Kickback had helped fight them off.

The foals were forced to fall back as Kickback and his disgruntled father began trotting out of town and into the outskirts. A small, humble little house could be seen out in the distance. Presumably, it was there home. They didn’t want to look suspicious, so they casually walked off into another street to discuss what they had just witnessed.

“Interesting…” Shadow Shroud said.

“Saddening…” Spiral Galaxy replied sorrowfully.

“It’s no surprise that those guns would make that stallion weary.” Air Slash said.

“Who d’hese ‘Sand Vipers’, d’ho? Dat’s what I wanna know.” Turf War said.

“Let’s hope they’re nothing we need to worry about. Right now, our focus is Kickback. Though, it looks like we’ll have to wait for him to get back out here from his house before we can talk to him.” Fire Fight said.

“Indeed, but I’d be concerned about these ‘Sand Vipers’ of theirs just in case they come up once more. If they were big enough a problem to warrant having to cancel this whole event in the time that it took for us to finally get here, I think we can agree that they’re not just a mere inconvenience.” Shadow Shroud said.

“I’m inclined to agree with the Shadewalker….for once. But we mustn’t just sit here and wait for Kickback. We’ll likely be seen as stalkers, or the sort otherwise.” Air Slash said.

“Slash has a point. Let’s just enjoy the rest of the festival until we happen to bump into him!” Spiral suggested.

“I’m down fo’ dat. Y’all smell dat hay and wheat barbeque d’hey got poppin’ off! WHEW, LORD! I’m a get like ten plates o’ dat stuff! I’ll be thick as hell and prolly kill myself, but it’s all good!” Turf War commented.

Fire Fight nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably the best thing we can do right now. What do you think, Shroud?”

Shroud tried to hide her embarrassment by rolling her eyes. She had a blast watching the performing acts even if Kickback’s guns made her nearly go deaf. It was the first time she’d ever really….had fun apart from fights to the death, and found herself wanting to enjoy it while it lasted. “Hmph! If that’s truly the best course of action, then I suppose we have no choice.”

The colts chuckled while Spiral giggled. Then a sudden thought crossed Fire Fight’s mind. “Wait, we’ve still got our bits, right?”

Shroud nodded, and pulled out the small wallet she’d been using to store what little finances they had….or for that matter really needed. It contained 25 bits total. There was still a good sum from when she looted the thugs in Detrot.

“I snuck some wealth of my own out from the stronghold. 30 bits to be exact.” Air Slash said.

Spiral gasped. “Awesome! I doubt we’ll really need 55 bits since everything here is like…what, one to three at most?  But let’s just enjoy the day!”

They all hoof bumped, and said ‘Yeah!’


Turf War left a crowd stunned when he got a chance at the High Striker when he struck the bell with considerable force on his first attempt. His comrades weren’t that surprised, but they were certainly reminded of just how strong he was. He won a free voucher for a barbeque dinner that he used immediately! Despite being kinda hungry, he shared his strips of honey and hickory glazed hay with hid friends, much to their appreciation- It was delicious! Even Shadow Shroud happily gobbled it down with almost no regard to her dress, which she miraculously left unstained……but then again, this was Shadow Shroud.

Air Slash participated in an aerial race in which participants flew through hoops and around various obstacles. His remarkable fitness from being born a Bladerunner made some of the spectators wonder if he was the son of one of the Wonderbolts. Much of the maneuvers he had to make were reminiscent of his style of sword fighting, so he’d swing his arms as though he was actually wielding his blades out of pure habit, which Shadow Shroud got a snicker or two out of. His grace and strength in the air earned him a solid second place mere milliseconds behind first, which frustrated him at first, but was satisfied when he earned  his prize- a free ticket to one of any of the other games, which he used at the Dunk Ball. Much to their surprise, the apparent sheriff was in the dunk seat. Turf War suggested that he probably wanted to get wet with how hot it is out here. Air Slash sadly didn’t have very good throwing dexterity, so he missed every shot, leaving poor Sheriff North Fork to fry…

Fire Fight and Shadow Shroud participated in a dart-throwing game that involved having a limited amount of darts to throw at a series of moving targets. Some foals had thrown them one by one at the targets with some doing better than others. Fire Fight went first, and hit all the targets, but nowhere near to the center. Shadow Shroud then tried her hoof. When she was given her darts, she folded all of them into her hoof as she would with her kunai. Other fillies giggled at her thinking she was just being silly, but quickly shut them up when she athletically jumped into the air and threw the darts simultaneously into every bullseye. She quickly glanced at the fillies whose mouths were hitting the ground, and smirked deviously. The stallion running the game was no less shocked, but snapped out of his trance to give her what she had won- a huge teddy bear, which she generously gave to a filly watching that had performed abhorrently earlier. The filly was ecstatic, and profusely thanked her.

Walking alongside her with the rest of the gang, Fire Fight was more than content to see Shadow Shroud open up to such a new world to her. It was then that she looked at him. “Fire Fight?” she said.

“Yeah?” he replied.

Shadow Shroud sighed in a way that made sound as though she was pleasantly annoyed with what she was about to say. “I’m having fun.” She said with a genuine smile.

Fire Fight smiled back, and blushed a little. “Me too.” He said. They chuckled as they looked into each other’s eyes for that moment.

It was then that they overheard two mares loudly talking. “Did ya see that shootin’ star last night?”

“That was just amazin’! Did y’all make a wish?”

“Ah sure did! Ah wished that this ‘ere show would be able to continue, and looked what happened!” What about you?”

“Oh, you know. Ah wished Ah could actually find mahself a nice stallion. Maybe with all the tourists comin’ in for the show, Ah actually will.”

“Ooohh. Well, I just might helped that come true! Mind sharin’ ‘em with me?” The other mare rolled her eyes as her friend giggled.

Turf War nudged Spiral Galaxy lightly. “Hey! Y’all see dat?” he said to her. Spiral couldn’t help but to blush happily at the sight of her little accident last night having such a positive effect.

The foals’ fun was quickly replaced with their unwavering diligence as they spotted their target standing with his back against the support beam of a building just ahead…