Chapter 54: A Meeting With A Man
*knock* *knock* *knock*
The wooden door swung open, "Oh, I'm so glad you're all back, please, come in."
Fluttershy left the door open for her guests and retreated to the kitchen. Solemnly, Dash, James and the rest of his team entered and took their seats in her living room around the coffee table. Humming a carefree tune and with a large smile, the pink maned pegasus returned with a tray loaded with some tea and biscuits, placing it on the short table in front of her guests.
"I'm glad to see you all came back safely, did you enjoy your trip to the ocean?" She asked eagerly.
James cleared his throat, "Actually, we're here to talk about Feather."
"Oh yes, he was supposed to go with me to Zecora's tomorrow and help me get some medicine for the animals. He's not here right now, is he busy?" Fluttershy asked sweetly.
"Um, actually, he won't be coming back."
Fluttershy looked a little downtrodden at the news, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, did he move away?"
Her sweetness was really starting to get to James, the tremor that afflicted his hands briefly returned, but he temporarily masked it by quickly reaching for a cup of the tea and taking a sip.
"Uh, 'Shy... That's not exactly it...." Dash said slowly.
"W-What do you mean?" The yellow pegasus asked confusedly.
"That's it, I don't know if I can do this..." Flash got up to leave.
James could understand, he was having a hard time with it too. Lieutenant Bellis had told him about having to do things like this when he lost a soldier or a teammate, how hard it was, but having never experienced it for himself, James was finding it difficult to cope. He knew he had to stay, though, and see it through. Still, he stopped Flash briefly.
"Go ahead, I'll meet you back at the HQ. But first, I want you to round up the rest of the girls if you can and bring them back here, Fluttershy is gonna need all her friends."
Flash gave him a compliant nod and excused himself, taking off from the ground as soon as he was out the door. Steeling himself for what he needed to do, James turned back to the sweet, blue eyed mare.
"This is going to be hard for you to hear, but there's something you should know about Feather..."
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It had killed James to tell her, but that was nothing compared to how he felt when he witnessed her reaction. After he explained everything to Fluttershy, she had just sat there quietly at first, but then he noticed a slight twitch in her eye. The next second, she jumped up from her seat and quickly scrambled up the stairs to her room, the door loudly slamming behind her. Rainbow Dash rushed up after her, but didn't get past the bedroom door. In frustration, she told James, Garth and Sparks to go on ahead and leave it to her, she would stay with her friend until the rest of the girls arrived.
Uncomfortable in the awkward situation, James obliged and stepped on out with Sparks and Garth. Confident Dash could handle the situation, he began the journey back to the HQ. As his two teammates walked just behind him, James motioned for them to move up to his side.
"So what's the plan now?" The unicorn asked him.
"We're gonna keep training. Garth, I think it's time I introduced you to firearms, we might need the extra firepower. Sparks, I want you to take him back to HQ and start running him through firearms safety. Show him how every pistol, shotgun and rifle we have works, but no ammunition of any kind until I say he's ready. Once you've finished that, I want the two of you to spar with Flash for at least an hour, after that, call it a night." James instructed.
"What about you, you coming with?"
"No, I'm leaving this up to you guys to do."
"Then what're you gonna do, just chill at the house?"
"No. I'm gonna go for a walk, blow off some steam. I'll see you all in the morning." The human stated shortly.
"Well, ok then. Stay safe."
"You too, brother."
Garth and Sparks peeled off in the direction of the HQ, James kept walking back towards the house. He looked high up into the sky, the sun was getting low. A warm breeze hushed through the trees and bushes. James got to his house and proceeded up to his room. Quickly, but without rushing, he grabbed his shoulder holster from the closet and threw it on. Then, he opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out Bellis' magnum revolver and loaded it up with the high caliber rounds. Next he stuck it into the holster and put a faded green vest Rarity had made for him on over it to compliment his blue jeans and white long sleeve.
The last thing he did before leaving the house was to pocket some extra ammo for the revolver and snap his knife in it's sheath onto his belt. Stepping out onto the porch, he began striding towards the forest. James wanted a secluded, quiet place to think, and then subsequently cause a little destruction to vent some of the anger that had been piling up recently without hurting or disturbing anyone nearby.
Before he entered, he used the sun to make a note of which direction he was entering so he wouldn't get lost. Traveling along game trails and picking his way down the banks of small streams, James delved deep into the leafy green depths of the Everfree. The residents of Ponyville avoided the wood, fearing it's strange ways, how it cycled through weather and the seasons without their help, but James liked it. It almost reminded him of home.
For a few hours, the human trekked, making sure he was far enough in. In due time, he found a decently sized recessed clearing, suitable for his needs. He walked around the perimeter a bit, checking to be sure he was alone and gathering pinecones, chunks of wood fist sized rocks and other random refuse he deemed fit for the task. Then he walked over to an old rotting log laying in the grass at one end of the clearing and set all the items in a neat little row. When he finished, he turned his back to the neat little set up and walked thirty paces to the other side of the clearing.
James drew his pistol from inside his vest and lined up the sights on his target. His mind kept returning to unpleasant thoughts. The things he'd done with the pistol he was holding, his friend's death. Slowly, he cocked the hammer, took a breath, and squeezed the trigger. With a loud report, the revolver bucked in his hand. Down range, one of the pinecones exploded, sending pieces of wood flying in all directions. Next he targeted one of the rocks. He fired and was met with similar results, the one fist sized rock was now a handful of small pebbles. James repeated this four more times, until the last round had been expended.
He hit the button on the side and flipped the cylinder open, then hit the plunger and ejected the spent casings. Without much vigor, he reached into his pocket and began extracting fresh rounds, lazily loading them into the still warm weapon. He had already loaded four when he heard a rustle in the bushes behind him. Dropping the other two rounds, James flipped the cylinder shut and spun around.
"Who's there!?"
"Please do not be alarmed." Garth stepped out from the foliage, "The pink one asked me to bring her to you."
James lowered his weapon, "The pink one? Wait, you mean--"
"Surprise!" An energetic pink mare bounced out from the bushes with a smile, "It sounded like you needed cheering up, so I came to find you!"
James bent down to pick up the two bullets he dropped and loaded them into the two remaining empty chambers in the revolver's cylinder before closing it back up and holstering it, "I appreciate the sentiment Pinkie, but I think Fluttershy probably needs it more."
"Nope! She's good now."
"She ok?"
"Yep! It took us a while to get her out of her room, but once she did, she had a nice cry and now she's all back to smiles!"
James walked over to a small boulder and sat down on it, "That's good to hear." He lowered his head and began rubbing his eyes again.
"Mm hm! And now all we have left is you, mister grumpy face!" Pinkie beamed and started bouncing around him, "So what'll it be; a sassy song, a colorful cupcake, a ghastly gift, ooh ooh, how about a tangibly awesome trip to Sugarcube Corner? We can have all those things!"
"Ghastly gift?"
"Yeah, it has spiders..." the party mare said way too casually.
"Right......."
Suddenly, Garth dropped to a crouch and motioned to James for silence.
James grabbed Pinkie mid reverie, to which she protested, "Hey! I was having fun!"
James placed a hand over he muzzle to quiet her and said in a low whisper, "Garth says there's a threat nearby, we have to be quiet, understand?"
Pinkie shook her head yes. James looked over to he teammate kneeling in the grass. The mottled skinned warrior held up his hand and made a one, then a three, with his fingers. Then he pointed to the tree line and rotated his hand around his head. Thirteen hostiles, surrounded. James put Pinkie down and drew his pistol and unsheathed his knife, tossing the blade over to Garth. Pinkie sat by the boulder, looking all around her for whatever her two friends were talking about with a confused look on her face. James still couldn't see what Garth had warned them of, but if he listened carefully, he heard the rustle of leaves here, the snap of a twig there. Then the bone chillingly familiar sound of a pistol being cocked.
"You might want to put that down before you hurt somebody. Or a pony." Came a despising familiar voice from the tree line ahead.
"The fuck are you doing here?" James yelled at the source of the voice.
"Oh, so now you want to talk!"
From the shadows of the forest stepped a man with an ugly burn scar running down the side of his face, armed with an M9, which he held down at his side. Upon seeing him, James immediately snapped up the revolver and sighted on the man's forehead.
"Ah ah ah, we wouldn't want to cause an incident now, would we?" Kraster gestured all around him with his pistol.
James looked and saw a dozen Lotkin surrounding them, all had crossbows up and ready to fire. James still didn't lower his weapon, he kept the sights focused firmly on his enemy, eyebrows furrowed and eyes burning with morbid determination.
"You might get... pin cushioned. You can't shoot them all, so maybe put down the gun." Kraster warned.
"That's fine, the only one I want to shoot here is you." James retorted, cocking the hammer for emphasis.
"Fair enough, but what about your pink friend there, or the traitor? I don't think you want to see them hurt. Besides, I'm more here for words, than for bullets. How's your arm, heal up ok?"
"Why don't we both drop our weapons and you can come find out." James taunted.
"Ha, as tempting as that sounds, I'm not about to trust you that well, I'm guessing you'll probably just shoot me anyway."
"You're not too far off."
"Any who, down to why I'm here. Your unwillingness to cooperate last time we met sparked a burning desire to find out all I could. Gotta say, my people didn't disappoint. You're James Kaughn, Commander Kaughn. Funny, you struck me as an enlisted man."
"I got a promotion."
"Ah, well that all makes sense. Your name was a little familiar, but I couldn't figure why. Then I remembered! You were one of Bellis' guys! That's his gun too, isn't it? I remember it. I remember when he lost it."
"How the hell could you possibly know about any of that?" James angrily questioned.
"Oh, come on, you know the Spec. War. community isn't all that big. Of course back when I first knew him, he was just a budding ensign. We worked together a few times, kept in touch when we weren't. Of course, had I known he'd also be the one to help condemn me for my actions and drum me out of the service, we probably wouldn't have been so friendly."
"So that was you he was talking about. You know, he spent quite a while teaching us to avoid becoming someone like you. A fucking murderer and a coward."
"Meh, the little shits were all gonna grow up to be terrorists anyway. Stop the threat at it's source, right?"
"That idea isn't looking so bad right now." James threatened.
"Buddy, you pull that trigger and I can guarantee you we won't be the only ones to die here tonight." Kraster reminded him. "Besides, your not so much the saint yourself. Let's start recently; there was the unicorn you killed after he was already wounded and defenseless, one of my lieutenants, found him and his team all slaughtered where they slept, they didn't have a chance. Then of course, there's all the soldiers you've killed. Oh yeah, and the little shit you yourself shot!"
The gun in James' hand started shaking slightly as the old, unwanted memory came screaming back to the surface of his mind.
"Oh, didn't like that did you? Yeah, Bellis told me all about that little incident. How did it feel, huh? Taking the life of a kid whose balls hadn't even dropped yet?"
"I DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE, HE'D ALREADY SHOT UP THE HELICOPTER AND WOUNDED A PILOT, IT WAS HIM OR US!" James bellowed in hate and rage.
"Oooh, touched a nerve there, did I?"
"You might want to leave while you have the chance. NOW."
"Oh, I don't think I want to leave just--"
Kraster was abruptly cut off as the Clipper passed swiftly over head at low altitude. I quickly began gaining height and started circling back towards the clearing.
"Dammit, and just when it was getting interesting." The scarred man said dejectedly. "Well, we'll just continue this the next time we meet. Hell, maybe I'll just kill you then too."
Kraster gave a quick, sharp, high pitched whistle. "Until next time, Commander."
Almost instantly, Kraster and his entourage melted back into the forest. James kept his weapon up as he listened to the sound of their passage through the forest fade off to the southwest. Once they were gone, he finally dropped the gun to his side and exhaled deeply.
"Who was that guy? He seemed like a big meanie." Pinkie asked.
"He's certainly not the nicest man I've met." James replied.
The buzz of the propeller grew as the Clipper slowly descended to them in the clearing. The side door slid open and a unicorn and two pegasi stuck their heads out to look down on the trio. James gazed up at the craft, at least grateful that he wouldn't have to walk home. Still, his mind buzzed with questions of how, and why, his old lieutenant would associate himself with such a ruthless and unfeeling man.