Villa Del Pony
Rosita Pie leaned on the counter of the old inn her father owned. She was bored, which was incredibly unusual of Rosita, she was a very energetic pony!
However, the lack of excitement in the small frontier town of Villa Del Pony was getting to her.
"Rosita! Come over here and help me with the cider!" Her father's voice resounded from the storage room at the back of the building.
"Coming!" Rosita immediately sprang up from the counter and ran, as fast as her hooves would take her, to the back of the inn.
The inn was one of the largest buildings in all of town, there were several tables and chairs at the front, where the customers would stop by to get their drinks, then there was the large counter, it went from the left side of the building all the way to the stairs at the right. The stairs led to the second floor where Rosita and her father's rooms were.
Rosita trotted through the door that led to the storage room with a smile across her face. Her pink mane and coat well kept and clean aside from the odd cider stain or two.
"There you are Rosita! Come here and help your old man carry these barrels back to the counter."
"Okie-dokie-loki!" Rosita's smile widened as she saw her father, an old pony, around the age of fifty three, he had a small grey beard and mustache, a few wrinkles and the happiest eyes you could ever find in a pony, except for Rosita of course, when it came to being happy she was on a league of her own.
Placing the medium sized barrels of apple cider on her back she trotted off happily back to the counter. Humming a tune she had learned as a filly.
"La cucaracha! La cucaracha! Blabla bla bla blablabla!" She giggled as she couldn't remember the rest of the song.
As she reached the counter a few stallions and fewer mares were beginning to arrive in small groups. Rosita placed the barrels on the counter and happily announced.
"The cider's ready everypony!"
As the ponies cheered they threw their sombreros into the air, after a hard day of work there was nothing quite like sitting down at the tavern while enjoying a cool glass of cider.
As Rosita's father emerged from the storage room several ponies went over to greet the owner of the inn.
"Don Pie! How's it been?" A bulky, blue coated earth pony shook Don Cider Pie's hoof amiably as the later smiled.
"Oh, you know how it's been Crin Azul, the same old stuff." Don Pie continued to shake hoofs with the other ponies as Rosita served drinks and food to the other costumers.
The day was setting outside of the inn, as the sun lowered itself into the horizon the sky was painted red and the sands of the desert surrounding Villa Del Pony took a respite from the burning heat of day, preparing for the cold embrace of the night.
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Arena Caliente Desert, outskirts of Villa Del Pony.
Arcoiris Veloz sped through several cacti trying to avoid the barrage of cupcakes her persecutors shot at her.
"You wont catch me!" Arcoiris swerved from side to side dodging and trying to remain in the air as a dozen unicorns gave chase.
She was in trouble, an earlier showdown with the fastest shooting unicorn on that side of the desert had left her wings covered in cupcake frosting, and her speed was greatly reduced.
"Dang it!" A cupcake flew way too close for comfort. The unicorns were gaining on her, she had to get some ammo for her trusty six shooter if she wanted to escape that mess with her glucose levels normal.
The unicorns, chasing her on top of a wagon pulled by earth ponies, raised their guns in unison to give Arcoiris a final shot and her death wish.
She was expecting that though.
A sharp turn to the right made all unicorns miss their shots, the cupcake frosting flying straight into the sand instead of Arcoiris's back.
"Ha! See ya later losers!" Arcoiris stopped and waved at the confused unicorns. What did she mean by that?
Arcoiris winced a bit as she saw the wagon fall down a small cliff she had spotted a while ago, the unicorns had been too focused on the chase to see it.
"Meh, whatever..." Arcoiris shrugged before darting off in the direction of Villa Del Pony, she had other things to think about, more important than the cacti that spread like a forest at the bottom of the small cliff.
Laughing a bit at the pained squeals and cries of the now distant unicorns, Arcoiris sped, as fast as her wings could carry her, towards the silhouette of the town in front of her.
As the small town came into view, she took a mental note to visit the bakery to resupply on ammo and cookies.
Cookies were an important part in the life of a forajida like her.
Period.
She landed just outside of town, and pulling her hooded cloak over her head, began walking towards what she thought was an inn.
As she opened the small wooden door, she gazed around in search of unwanted company. Spotting nothing more than several exhausted ponies, she removed her hood and trotted over to the counter.
"Cider, now." Slamming a hoof against the counter for emphasis, she slipped a few bits over to the pink mare serving the drinks.
"Okie-dokie-loki!" Rosita said with a huge smile as she reached under the counter for a flagon of cider.
"Thanks." Arcoiris Veloz swiftly drank up the cider leaving only an empty flagon withing seconds. "Ah! Now that's some good stuff! More!" Another hoof slammed against the counter as a few more bits rolled over to Rosita.
"Gee stranger, you sure are thirsty! Did you, like, run all the way from the desert or something?" Rosita said as she passed another flagon to Arcoiris.
"Heh, you could say that." Arcoiris said in between large swigs from her cider.
Rosita's eyes widened.
"Ooooh!! Are you a..." She leaned in closer to the rainbow maned pegasus. "A Bandit?"
Arcoiris almost choked on her drink. After several coughs she finally looked up at the pink pony.
"What do you care?" A look of suspicion flashed across her face as she eyed Rosita warily.
"I dont!" Rosita smiled.
Perplexed, Arcoiris asked. "Why ask then?"
"Why not ask?" Rosita leaned even closer to Arcoiris and her mysterious look unnerved the runaway forajida.
"Uhm... I... Uh... Have to go!" Arcoiris smiled awkwardly before disappearing from the counter.
"Oh well!" Rosita grinned as she walked back to the barrels to prepare another round for the gathering ponies.
As the rainbow maned pegasus recovered from her strange encounter with the pink pony, she began to plan ahead for her journey.
"Ok, I'll need ammo, food, water, no scratch that... Cider! Yup! Tons of it! And some books on the Anthropological properties of ancient pony civilization... What? I'll need something to start a campfire!"
Her thoughts were interrupted as a gunshot pierced the happy atmosphere of the inn. Arcoiris quickly took cover behind a table and listened.
"Very well everypony! We know you have Arcoiris Veloz hidden in this place!" A stallion with a rough sounding voice spoke as the chatter died down.
"Wait, we do?"
"Shut up!"
Another two voices filled the quiet atmosphere. There were at last three of them and Arcoiris didn't have a loaded gun.
"So, as i was saying, we do know you have her here, and we are gonna find her! So just make it easy and hand her over!"
Silence followed as nopony was sure of how to react. These ruffians were armed and they meant business.
A quick peak over the edge of the table revealed to Arcoiris that the three ponies had two guns each, and a cupcake frosting bullet belt in the form of an X across their backs, one of them was a unicorn, the leader she assumed, while the other two were earth ponies.
"Not talking? Ok, find her fellas!" The unicorn ordered as his two lackeys started to tear down the place with kicks and gunfire.
"STOP!" Arcoiris flinched as the high pitched scream pierced the air.
Rosita stood on the counter, nose flaring, eyes wide with fury and determination, both forelegs spread into the air as she stared at the three intruders. "She's right over there!" Rosita finished with a smile as she pointed towards Arcoiris.
"Aw come on!" Arcoiris yelled at the pink pony as she facehooved.
"Get her!" The unicorn hollered and the two earth ponies aimed their guns at the pegasus.
Arcoiris barely had time to dodge the shots as she flew behind another table and, out of instinct, drew out her own six shooter.
She aimed it towards the nearest hostile pony, a brown one with a dark blue mane, and pulled the trigger.
Nothing.
She would have facehooved again, except that the approaching earth ponies kept on shooting.
Once more Arcoiris flew away, trying to get behind the counter but a growing stickiness on her left wing caused her to fall and crash into a table.
She was hit.
The cupcake frosting was smeared all over her injured wing, it was now useless until she could get it cleaned.
Backing away from the earth ponies, Arcoiris suddenly stopped as her back hit the wall of the counter. Both ponies approaching fast, guns drawn and ready to shoot.
Rosita's mind took a while to understand the situation, but after the strange rainbow maned pegasus was shot her brain finally had a reaction.
It was not a nice one.
As the brown earth pony with the dark blue mane came closer to Arcoiris, he leveled his gun to her head, a smile twisting his lips.
*BOOM*
The earth pony was sent flying backwards several feet. A giant frosting stain on his chest, he fell to the floor unconscious.
Rosita stood behind the counter, eyes covered by a large sombrero, a chocolate cigarette on her mouth.
And a cupcake shotgun on her forelegs.
The unicorn and the remaining earth pony had little to no time to react before Rosita Pie shot another cupcake at them, missing by mere inches.
The unicorn turned a table over and took cover, his friend however was not as smart. The remaining earth pony, grey coat and silver mane, hurriedly tried to aim his guns at the pink mare, his last mistake... of the day.
As his guns started to rise, Don Cider and the rest of the entire inn came to the defense of the beloved Rosita.
Gunfire filled the entire tavern as frosting, cupcakes, jam, peanut butter and even chocolate flew across the room towards the unfortunate earth pony. In a matter of seconds, he was covered up to his head in deliciously deadly desserts and frosting.
The unicorn darted out the tavern in seconds, his steps closely followed by wave after wave of frosting and cupcakes shot by the villagers of Villa Del Pony.
Arcoiris stared at the pink mare with the sombrero and back at the two earth ponies covered in sweetness, her jaw hanging in surprise.
Rosita Pie and Don Cider walked over to the rainbow maned pegasus while the rest of the inn returned to their typical drinking and chatting.
"Rosita, y esta quien es?" Don Cider spoke as he took a closer look at the pegasus.
"I dont know, hey who are you?" Rosita slung her shotgun on her shoulder and held a hoof out for Arcoiris to stand up.
"Gee guys, thanks a bunch for helping me out! My name's Arcoiris Veloz." Arcoiris stood on her four legs as she smiled gratefully at the two ponies who saved her.
"No prob Arcoiris! I'm Rosita Pie! He's my dad and this is the rest of Villa Del Pony!" Rosita smiled as she addressed the rest of the townsfolk.
Several nods and half waves as well as some hat tipping followed the brief introduction.
Arcoiris waved back and then sat down on a small stool.
"This guys are crazy!" She thought as she closed her eyes. "Awesome!"
Meanwhile, on the far north of the frontier between Mexicolt and the United Stables of Amareica, a white unicorn stared at the night sky, her pet cat resting beside her on the couch.
"Soon Arcoiris Veloz, soon enough you will pay for the crimes you committed against me..."
Her features darkened as the memories returned.
"And Fashion!"