//------------------------------// // Coming Up Short? // Story: Tales of the Battle Foals // by Sirdubya //------------------------------// Kickback seemed as calm and collected as ever with his hat over his face, but Shadow Shroud could tell that something was bothering him. This didn’t come as a surprise after the argument he had earlier with his father. “Hmm….how to approach this….” Shadow Shroud wondered aloud. The other foals wondered with her as they tried to decide how to approach the cowpony. He didn’t seem very quick to anger and wasn’t with his guns, but it was still a delicate subject, or at least they had to assume it was. Just as they were getting closer to him, a relatively old mare walked up to him. “Howdy, Kickback.” She said to him. Kickback looked up, smiled, and politely removed his hat before speaking to her. “Good afternoon, miss Sunrise. Enjoy the show much?” he replied. Shadow Shroud and Spiral Galaxy could tell from the somewhat short distance they were why those fillies were going so crazy. Not only was he gentlemanly, but…..he was handsome! “Oh! That was just a hootenanny! Although, Ah reckon ya really shoulda warned us just how loud them guns o’ yers were. Golly! Ah could barely hear mah husband cheering right next to me!” Sunrise said. “Well Ah’m awful for Sound and Fury, ma’am. They don’t mean any harm none. They just don’t get a chance to talk much, so they relish every second that they do, Ah reckon.” Kickback said. Sunrise laughed at his comment. “Surely they do, honey. I could hear ‘em out the distance when you were helpin’ the sheriff fend off the Vipers, but Ah didn’t think they’d so hootin’ loud up close. Anyway, Ah just wanted to let ya know that we’re gonna be goin’ over more o’ Dodge City’s history in class tomorrow, so Ah’m gonna let ya keep that book Ah lent ya for just a li’l longer, alright?” she said. Kickback nodded. “Why, thank ya kindly, ma’am! It’s been a mighty fine read.” Sunrise giggled, and patted him on the head. Kickback put his hat back on as she let up. “Yer welcome! Alright, well y’all enjoy the rest o’ the day, sweetheart.” She said as she walked off. Kickback waved as she did. “Y’all too!” he said. As she got far enough away, Kickback’s smile quickly faded into a frown. He sighed heavily as he held his hat over his face. “At least Ah won’t have to bring Sound and Fury…” he muttered sorrowfully. Taking in what they heard, the foals could tell that for one reason or another, Kickback wasn’t any more proud of his talent than his father did despite having a good conversation about them with his apparent teacher. At least it could be seen that Kickback was easy to talk to, so a conversation with him might be easier than they thought. It was still just a matter of how to approach the subject. Deciding not to waste any time thinking about it, they decided to just strike a conversation with, and see where it goes. They walked up to him. “Hi there. Kickback, right?” Fire Fight said. Kickback looked up his new company, smiled, and tipped his hat. “Howdy, strangers.” He greeted. He looked over at Shadow Shroud and Spiral Galaxy, and took off his hat. “Fillies.” He greeted, then put his hat back on. Spiral found herself blushing, and smiling nervously as she waved hello back. Shadow Shroud simply nodded while holding back her emotions. “What can Ah do ya for?” Fire Fight tried to think of something to say, but came up short. Thankfully, Air Slash swooped in to the rescue. “You’re performance was quite the spectacle.” He said. “Why thank ya, partner! Ah was rather pleased with it mahself.” Kickback replied. “Ah reckon y’all ain’t from around these parts?” Fire Fight shook his head. “No, we’re not. So we were wondering just who or what these ‘Sand Vipers’ we’ve hearing about are. Mind telling us?” he asked. Kickback looked at him curiously. “Huh…Figured if y’all came to see the show, you’d know about ‘em. Anyhow, the Sand Vipers are bunch o’ rotten, no good bandits livin’ out in the middle o’ the desert between here and Appleoosa. Them varmints make a livin’ stealin’ from others, and trying to raid the town from time to time. They raided us not long before we we’re supposed to hold this ‘ere Rodeo Show, and caused a good bit o’ damage. We had to make some repairs so we could still have our show.” He explained. “And from what we’ve heard, you fought them off?” Shadow Shroud asked. “Yes, ma’am. The sheriff and his deputies managed to chase ‘em outta town before they could cause any more trouble, and Ah had the help o’ my two compadres to chase them rascals all the way back into the desert.” Kickback said. “Yo’ dad ain’t seem too happy ‘bout it d’ho.” Turf War said. Shadow Shroud shot him a quick glare silently reprimanding him for his brazen inquiry. Kickback suddenly lost his luster a little, and sighed. “Well…..he just……He don’t take too kindly to Sound and Fury none. Ah…..Ah can understand if he’s worried about me usin’ those two. They ain’t toys, let me tell ya. Ah was a li’l bit worried the rest o’ town might not like ‘em, but…..looks like they’re ok…..Ah……Ah guess” He said. The foals could tell that this was about as far as their conversation would go, so they decided to seize a more opportune moment to really see what was going on. “O-Ok, Kickback. Well….See ya later. Great show!” Fire Fight said as he led the other foals away. Kickback nodded. “Y’all take good care now!” he said as he waved goodbye. As Fire Fight and his friends disappeared into the sunset, Kickback reassumed his solemn position on the wooden beam. He heavily sighed to himself as he held his hat over his face. “Pa……Ah’m…..Ah’m so sorry.........It…..was an accident!” he whispered to himself. ***** Shadow Shroud lightly but firmly elbowed Turf War. “You idiot!” she hissed. “Why did you press that issue so soon!?” “The hell I was supposed to say? We had to bring dat up sometime! Damn!” Turf War argued. “Yeah, I could tell that wasn’t gonna go anywhere otherwise, but you kinda brought that up out of the blue, Turf War. I think you might have hurt his feelings.” Spiral Galaxy said. Turf War thought for a moment, and conceded. “Yeah…Maybe I did. I should prolly go back real quick, and-” “No. He’ll be fine. Besides, it’s starting to get late. We need to get back to our little hideout to discuss what to do. I’ll make us some dinner when we get back.” Fire Fight said. They agreed, and let Shadow Shroud sneak them back into the forest after she flipped back into her cloak. The sun had just about finished setting by the time they got back. Air Slash managed to acquire more eggs, and gave them to Fire Fight so he could get to work making another nice stew with them along with the other stuff they had. Working through the rise of Luna’s moon, Fire Fight whipped up a decent amount of stew; everypony was still pretty stuffed from that delicious barbeque. It was a wonder they’d only spent 10 bits altogether. He served them their food, and they dug in. “How are we supposed to approach Kickback now? We really can’t get much out him anyway.” Spiral Galaxy wondered aloud. “Indeed. We’ve little cause to convince him to leave this place as it stands. Hmm….This will be difficult.” Air Slash said. “I mean….Is it even worth it?” Turf War asked. “What do you mean by that?” Air Slash asked him. “Well, ya know. It just…..look like d’here ain’t really much we can do for him. Dis might o’ just been a false alarm for us, y’all.” Turf War answered. “Yeah…..you might be right. This looks like nothing more than just something between him and his dad that they just need to work out.” Fire Fight said. Shadow Shroud sighed. “Perhaps……you’re correct this time. I knew a time like this might come…….but,……” she started. “But what?” Fire Fight asked. “I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something way more to it than that. Such turned out to be the case with Curfew back in Detrot…..Perhaps I’m too eager?” Shadow Shroud said. “Well……thinking about it now, where was Kickback’s mom? If even his dad cared enough to see his performance, than surely his mom would too, right?” Spiral asked. Fire Fight sighed. “Maybe she just left them like my dad did. Wouldn’t be too surprising considering he’s got those guns…” he said. They all sighed. It looked like this was their first unsuccessful search. While Kickback certainly had an issue with his dad pertaining to his guns, the rest of the town seemed at least ok with them despite showing some fear of them during his earlier performance, meaning that this wasn’t a problem of great enough magnitude to warrant their intervention. As the foals finished their dinner, they decided to get a little bit of sleep before going to retrieve their raft. Sure, Appleoosa was just a hike across the desert, but the foals ultimately decided that they wanted to cover the rest of Eastern Equestria before setting out for newer destinations. As they were about to crawl into their bedrolls, they heard several continuous echoing ‘bangs’ coming from the direction of Dodge City! “That sounds like Kickback’s guns! You think maybe it’s the Sand Vipers!?” Spiral asked. Shadow Shroud donned her mask. “Only one way to find out!” she said. The others nodded, and quickly armed themselves before rushing out into the nighttime desert. They steered clear from the city to avoid being discovered. When they were a good distance into the sandy landscape, they were met with the distant sight of a group of stallions with black bandanas covering their mouths rushing off into the desert with a carriage containing a relatively big box with Kickback hot on their tail firing at them like a mad pony!