“Everything alright?” Lucky asked as he and Six trotted through the Las Pegasus desert. Six was lagging behind and hadn’t said a word since the two had left Blue Mane’s office in search of Gus.
“Yeah, I just…” Six started but the words fell flat in her throat. She surveyed the landscape and noticed she recognized this place. “How long ‘til we get there?”
“Not long, hour or two if we keep up the pace.”
“It’s… going to be weird being back,” Six said. Lucky kept silent. The thought of trying to comfort her came to mind but she’d been through so much in so little time. She was returning home a completely different pony than when she’d left. No amount of comforting would help her now. The two ponies travelled in silence for the next two hours until Lucky spotted some shacks atop a hill in the distance. He stopped and turned to Six, and the mare nodded.
“Before we go any further,” Lucky started, “our objective is to secure the area and search for Blue Mane’s attaché case.”
“And eliminate Gus,” Six added.
“Yes… Look Six, I understand if you-”
“Stop,” Six interrupted. “I know what my orders are.”
“Well yeah but-” Before Lucky could continue, Six unholstered Snow’s, or rather “her,” Colt Python from her chest holster and spun the chamber in her magical grasp.
“Gus put my family in danger by stealing that thing and bringing it to us. Putting him down won’t be a problem.”
Without a word Lucky turned his focus back to the shacks on the hill and galloped towards them, with Six close behind.
The shacks were silent. Six looked around but saw nothing but the home she had left behind. No case. No Gus. The two ponies trotted low along the back of Six’s old home until Lucky suddenly stopped.
“Let me go first,” he suggested, though it was more of an order. “You stay behind and cover me since you have range.” Six nodded to him and right as he ducked out of cover, something caught her eye. In the wall was a bullet hole. Flashes of the gunfight came to her. The bullets blasting through her mother and out through this very wall. Maybe this hole was from the bullet that-
“Six!” Lucky said in a loud whisper, his voice jerking her back to reality. He was pointing at something. Six peered around the corner and saw a pony sitting on the ground. They weren’t big enough to be Gus… unless he had gotten smaller since the last time Six had saw him. Six looked back to Lucky who was standing perfectly still. He met her gaze and pointed to himself before he began trotting closer to the seated pony. Six took aim, ready to fire should the pony move.
Suddenly the seated pony fell back.
“What the fu-” Lucky couldn’t finish before he lept backwards towards Six. He hadn’t hit the ground before the seated pony erupted in a brilliant explosion. Six took cover and could feel the heat from the blast even from her position behind the house. She looked from cover once again to see Lucky running to her, parts of his leather jacket smoldering. He took the corner to Six’s cover and quickly threw off the jacket.
“Lucky are you-”
“Fuck!” Lucky swore trying his best to remain quiet. “It was a dead raider. Some kind of explosive was strapped to his chest… it was a trap!”
Six looked around the corner again but the burning pony was all she could see.
“Do you think it’s Raiders?” Six asked.
“Raiders are pretty fucked… but I…” Lucky breathed slowly, trying to catch his breath. The leap to get away from the bomb must’ve knocked the wind out of him. “I doubt they’d use one of their own.”
“You think it’s…” Six started.
“It’s Gus,” Lucky answered quickly. “Bad news is, he knows he’s being attacked. Good news, he probably thinks it’s raiders.”
Six looked up to the hills. But saw nothing.
Bang
Six ducked behind cover just in time as a bullet whizzed past her muzzle and into the desert sand.
“How far?” Lucky asked, still trying to regain his breath.
“50 meters. Give or take.”
“Hmm…” Lucky thought for a moment as another bullet smacked into the sand near Six. The unicorn looked at the crater in the sand and suddenly had an idea. She turned to face a bullet hole from when the raiders attack her family and peered through.
“Six get the fuck down!” Lucky ordered, trying again to keep his voice low.
“I see his rifle,” Six stated, going back into a crouching stance.
“Alright, okay, good!” Lucky replied. “You think you can get a shot off?”
“Nah, I couldn’t see him, only the barrel of his rifle.”
“Shit…” Lucky began scanning his surroundings for anything when Six suddenly spoke up.
“I could trying hitting his barrel,” Six suggested. Lucky looked back to her, his expression was doubtful to say the least. “Look just… distract him while I line up the shot. I won’t miss.”
“F-Fine, if we make it out of this, you are buying rounds.”
The fire from the raider corpse had began to spread to the house. Their cover would soon be a burning rubble. Six was on the left side, Lucky on the right. Lucky turned to the mare he was entrusting with his life—her dark brown coat, the light brown and black mane… the rather firm looking flank. He looked away, focusing back on the cover he was intended to run to. A shed just 5 meters from him… An otherwise short distance, made to feel endless by the experienced sniper trained on the position. He sighed and turned back to Six. She met his gaze and nodded. She was ready.
As fast as Lucky could muster he threw himself from behind cover. Six ducked out from her side and lined up her shot with the barrel. She had less than a second before-
Bang
Bang
Six’s Colt was smoking from its powerful shot. The barrel of Gus’s rifle was separated from the rest of the carbine. Both pieces flew high into the air… but not before it fired one final shot. Quickly Six ducked back into cover.
“Lucky?!” she yelled, running to the right side of the house were Lucky had been in cover, then froze.
Lucky was face down in the sand, he wasn’t moving or breathing.
“L-Lucky… C-Can you hear-”
Lucky flipped over and grinned up at the young mare.
“Good shooting there Six!”
Six blushed for the first time in what felt like years.
“You’re lucky I fired first,” she bragged. They both smiled to one another then looked to the hills for Gus.
“Ready?” Lucky asked. Six turned to the burning building to her left. Her home… or what was left of it. It wasn’t a home anymore, Snow made made sure of that. They were Delta’s raiders who attacked though so maybe she was to blame, assuming she was alive. Or… Gus was the reason Snow had came in the first place.... Or maybe the real pony to blame was Blue Mane after all.
“Six?” Lucky asked again. Six snapped back to him. “Are you ready to head up there? We shouldn’t give him time to recover.”
“Y-Yeah,” Six answered. The two ponies galloped to the hill. As she ran, Six took one look back at her former home and silently swore she’d kill whoever it was that took it from her.
The hilltop on which Gus had been positioned was abandoned, but both Six and Lucky spotted a blood trail leading away from the sniper nest to a small shack to the north.
“Blood?” Six asked. “You think he’s injured?”
“When you shot his rifle it must’ve blew back at him. I’m surprised he had the strength to walk it off.”
Six looked to the shack to which the blood trail led—no doubt they’d find Gus inside. They both trotted to the shack and stopped at the entrance.
“Let me do this,” Six stated. Lucky looked to her and shook his head.
“He could be setting another trap for us.”
“I’ll be careful… please Lucky.”
Lucky sighed and finally backed away from the door.
“Just keep your gun handy.”
Six nodded and slowly opened the door. Inside was a run-down living room. A kitchen, table and chairs. Slowly, Six inched back further into the home, and into a small room separated from the rest of the shack. Whipping around the corner, revolver raised, she found the pony she had been sent to kill.
Slowly Gus turned to face her and went wide-eyed when he saw who it was that had tracked him down.
“S-Six Shooter? You’re alive?!” A smile began to form across his muzzle but it died when he saw the revolver she had pointed at him in a magical grip. He sighed and began limping slowly towards her.
“Don’t move!” Six ordered. Gus froze and looked to her in almost a sad manner.
“That gear… you must be working for her now,” Gus said with a cough. “I knew this day would come… but I wasn’t expecting you, Six.”
“You knew you were being hunted and you still decided to involve my family?!”
“I... urg… I am sorry Six,” Gus told her as he slumped over against the wall of the shack. That’s when Six noticed pieces of metal from the rifle buried into his legs and neck. The wounds in his neck were bad and blood was flowing freely from there.
“I should’ve never involved myself with other ponies while I was on the run from… from Blue Mane… I’m… I’m so sorry Six.”
Six felt a massive anger swell within her.
“That’s all you can say?!” she yelled. “‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t cut it! They’re dead because of you!”
Gus coughed again, this time blood spilled out of his mouth and into his grey beard.
“Six when… when I escaped Blue Mane I found a filly out in the desert,” Gus began. “That filly… was Molly. I-I knew taking care of her would put her in danger but… she would have died. I told her I’d find… her a new family… and I did, I found your family.”
Six’s revolver started to shake in her grasp.
“Shut up! Molly, Buck, my mom, they’re all dead because of you!”
“That’s true.” Gus coughed again, and more blood came up onto his chest. “I should have left when I found… when I found your family but I… I grew attached to that little filly… and attached to you all too! That’s no excuse but I… I just wanted you to know… that I never wanted any of this.”
Gus raised a hoof and pointed to the corner of the room where a dusty old attaché case was lying. Six trotted over to the case, never taking an eye of Gus. Quickly she scooped up the case with a flick of her horn and trotted slowly back to the kitchen area. She turned away from Gus and right as she was going to leave the hall he spoke up one last time.
“Six.”
Six turned to face him, the revolver and case still in her grasp.
“Don’t let revenge take you. You’re a smart, bright, young girl with her whole future ahead of her… don’t… don’t let it…”
Gus coughed again then closed his eyes, his hoofs falling limply to the dirt floor.
Six stared down at him. His breathing had stopped and she knew it was done, still… she had felt like avenging her family’s death would make her happy but she felt nothing. Maybe revenge wouldn’t make her happy, but if revenge wasn’t the answer to her problems… then what did she have left?