One who specializes in guns or hunts game with guns.
This definition, while correct, misses the connotation of the word. There’s something more to a gunner than just having a gun and using it, and it wouldn’t be too far out there to call someone a gunner who had no gun at all.
After all, it is possible to “gun” for something. To seek it with a single-minded determination and zeal that makes enemies quake in their boots. To pursue in defiance of all…
Gunner. Noun.
One who pursues a goal with a violent determination that goes above and beyond what is required.
~~~
Starlight Glimmer was a thin mare of average height with a natural magic talent that put most unicorns to shame. Her horn was perfectly polished, not that it could be seen under its intense blue-green glow. She twisted her head back, focusing more energy into her horn. Swinging her entire body like a curved blade, she unleashed a series of arcane orbs at Jack.
Despite being embedded in a tree, Jack was more than able to get away from the orbs with a jump that not only cleared Starlight, but the tree behind her.
“Impressive jump!” she called, mockingly.
“Jump good,” Jack responded, pulling out a sword and a gun from his armor, prompting Starlight to raise a shield. He approached her in a spiral fashion, pulling the gun’s trigger rapidly while holding the sword up high. “Get out of here!” he called to the others as he approached her.
“Oh no, we’re not leaving you!” Rainbow called, rushing toward Starlight while Jack reloaded the gun. Starlight grabbed Rainbow in her telekinesis and tossed her into the ground, spraining the pegasus’ already injured hoof. “Augh!”
“You really should learn not t—” Starlight was interrupted by a giant dog’s hand closing around her and squeezing.
Jake lifted up his hand and shook it. “Hah! Not so tough now, are you?”
Starlight teleported out of his hand and shot Jake in the eye with a laser.
“Hey! No fair, I need those eyes!”
“You’ll just have to learn to make-do, mutt!” She cast an explosive spell behind her, intercepting Jack’s attack. To her shock, it didn’t stop him, but rather propelled him further into the air so he could throw shurikens at her. She caught all of them in her magic—but then they exploded, driving her into the ground.
Jack jumped her with a sword, but she took the opening to blast him with a magic laser. It hit him square in the armor, pushing him back, but doing nothing else.
“That was supposed to freeze you,” Starlight mused, teleporting a few feet forward before Finn could stab her with his sword. “That armor you wear is more than a hunk of metal, isn’t it?”
“I have learned to combat the magic of this time,” Jack said, drawing his electric trident. “Arcane wizardry does nothing to me.”
“Really?” Starlight scratched her chin. “Then how about…” Her eyes went white and a burst of wind erupted from her location. “Absoluta Dispello.” Three magic rings appeared around her horn, connected by a series of white triangle-shaped flecks. Jack jumped to the side, but Starlight teleported right behind him, surrounding him in the triangle flecks with a twist of her head. They reacted instantly to the enchantments in the armor, absorbing into the metallic plates, stripping them bare of any and all magic.
This was more effective than Starlight had hoped. There had been a weight-reduction spell in place on the armor, with it gone, Jack’s speed was severely limited. One swift kick from her hoof to his head knocked him to the ground. She powered her laser once again, directing it right at his chest.
Jake, once again, interrupted her, this time with a barrage of punches. “Ugh, stupid dog! I’m busy!” She grabbed all the fists in her telekinesis at once and tied them into a massive knot. She proceeded to swing Jake around like a sling, taking out three trees in the process before driving him into the softer ground. “You’re nothing t—”
Finn swung his sword. Starlight jumped out of the way and raised a shield, but the pearly blade cut through the magic like butter and nicked her leg just above her hoof. “Wh-hey!”
Finn let out a warrior’s yell and charged again, sword high.
Starlight blasted him in the chest with a laser, burning his shirt and knocking him over with pathetic ease. She wrenched the sword out of his weakened hand, examining it closely. “What sort of blade is this? The time resonance…”
Rainbow tried to take her out again, but she ran into a simple barrier far too quickly. Jack was still lying on the ground. And Jake, to Starlight’s increasing disdain, had just pulled himself out of the hole and grown himself in size ten times. “All right, namby pamby pony wizard, you’ve got this many seconds,” he held up his knotted hands as if they were a number of fingers, “before I go all ape on you. You do not want to see a dog go ape, lemme tell you, it’s a perversion of the natural order!”
Starlight stared at him with a bored expression.
“Ape time it is!” He opened his mouth and jumped toward her. Her response was to create a fist out of magical energy and punch him with it. He closed his mouth around the fist and started chewing at the same moment Starlight turned it into a sea-urchin shape. Yowling, he spat the urchin out, only to find that Starlight had driven a secondary fist into his stomach and frozen his legs to the ground.
“You don’t play fair,” Jake muttered, stretching himself back to a more reasonable size so he could focus on getting his legs out of the ice.
“You’re a dog with the ability to reshape himself at will and come up with endlessly creative and unheard of combat maneuvers,” Starlight deadpanned. “Forgive me if I’m trying to win here.”
“Yeah, but bad guys like you always lose, so, can’t you just make it easy on us for once?”
Starlight cast explosion on his face.
“Okay… guess not…” Jake’s eyes rolled into the back of his skull and he passed out.
“Finally,” Starlight muttered. She trotted back to the armored form of Jack, still exactly where she left it. “So, the legendary samurai can’t beat a single unicorn, even with the help of friends. I have no idea why Aku’s had such trouble with you, this was easy.”
Jack didn’t say anything. He didn’t even move.
“Not gonna talk back? No smack talk? No last words? Nothing?” Starlight smile faltered. “Not even a… Oh no.”
Jack’s armor exploded in a burst of flame so hot it was a searing blue color. Smoke wafted into the air in a miniature mushroom cloud, darkening the immediate vicinity.
From his position in a nearby tree, Jack smiled.
“Nice try,” a badly singed and smoky Starlight said from behind him. Even with the minor burns and soot all over her, she continued her charge. Jack, no longer burdened by armor, jumped through all her magic shots like a grasshopper. None of them so much as grazed him or even the corner of his thin white robes.
Starlight growled, letting out a burst of power that turned the tree to ash. Both of them dropped to the ground. Jack stood proud, carrying a curved blade. He was completely uninjured. Starlight, meanwhile, had burnt hair, a charred mane, and a few cuts here and there. She was haggard—and more than a little nervous. He had a sword after all, and she knew what that sword meant. It… was curved.
“Hold on,” Starlight said, pointing at the blade. “That’s not your artifact blade. That’s just… a hunk of metal.”
“It is no less honorable.”
“Oh, that’s not my observation. You’re very good with it, of course. But… if it’s not a legendary artifact, it’s not going to be able to cut through my magic, is it?” She smirked, grabbing hold of the sword with her magic.
Jack pulled his arm at a sideways angle Starlight hadn’t been expecting, wrenching it out of her control. He’d clearly dealt with unicorns trying to disarm him before and knew how to confuse the telekinesis. But he was just a man with a sword, there was only so much he could do. Starlight cast explosion again, but his jump cleared it, completely unharmed.
Starlight scowled. “I see the direct approach isn’t going to work with you…” She teleported behind him, charging a laser. Underneath the laser, she prepared a secondary teleport. There was no way for Jack to tell she was dual-casting, so when he dodged right she teleported to his back and unleashed the laser at the same time, hitting him square in the back. He toppled head over heels, coming to a rest next to the downed form of Finn.
Even this didn’t keep him down long enough to initiate a proper explosion spell. He jumped over Finn and landed on his feet, glaring at Starlight.
Starlight pointed her horn to Finn, charging a laser spell and aiming at his chest. Her scowl faltered.
Jack stayed still. “You hesitate.”
“Shut up!” Starlight shouted, twisting the laser to Jack. He, naturally, jumped out of the way without issue, directing his momentum toward Starlight. She raised a barrier.
He pulled out the Finn Sword.
“Sassafras,” Starlight swore. The sword punched through her shield with little effort and it would have gone through her as well had she not twisted to the side. Instead of teleporting away, she tried something different—bucking Jack in the face. It was the one thing he had not been expecting her to do, so she hit him squarely. He kept hold on the Finn Sword and landed on his feet, but she could tell it dazed him.
She made use of the opportunity, casting explosion.
At long last, she got a direct hit. He fell back. Starlight could tell he wouldn’t lie like that for long, and she knew she was running low on the energy to continue this fight, so she summoned cuffs that sealed his arms and legs to the ground, keeping him prone.
She was glad she did, for no less than a second later, he tried to move. The magic restraints were already established, however, and his strength was not enough to push through them. Even so, he refused to lessen his grip on the Finn Sword.
Cautiously, she walked up to his prone form, keeping careful watch on the restraint spells. Rather than wasting energy on the often ineffective laser spell, she spent some time creating a blade of magic energy. She pointed it at Jack’s neck, narrowing her eyes.
He stared at her, wordlessly, with no expression. He didn’t blink, and his eyes never left hers.
Starlight clenched her jaw and locked all four of her knees. She lifted her sword up…
Jack stared at her.
The sword trembled. “Say something.”
Jack did no such thing.
Starlight closed her eyes, a tear running down her cheek. A deep sigh escaped her lips and she dissipated the sword spell. She opened her mouth to speak.
A wave of water shaped like a fist slammed into her and knocked her off her hooves. The water rushed down her throat, forcing her into a coughing gagging fit that removed all sense of control and reason she had. She flailed wildly, having no control over herself and definitely not enough mental capacity to activate a spell.
The water threw her to the ground, sputtering and coughing uncontrollably, at the feet of none other than Lapis Lazuli. Water affixed to her back like a pair of wings, and the oceanic fist became a sphere of unused moisture floating above her head. Lifting a hand, she formed the water into a point directed at Starlight’s horn.
Starlight was too busy coughing to notice the irony.
“STOP!”
She was not too busy coughing to hear the voice of Rainbow Dash.
The battered pegasus flew between Lapis and Starlight before collapsing onto the ground from overexertion while injured. “She stopped herself, Lapis, she stopped herself… Don’t hurt her.”
Both Lapis and Starlight stared at Rainbow in disbelief. As Starlight’s coughs died down, Lapis’ expression became one of sorrow—and recognition. She gently released the water into the ground.
“Thank you…” Rainbow said, letting out a pained groan. “Now… let’s all… talk, or something…”