//------------------------------// // The hold-up // Story: The Gunslinger who saved Christmas // by Trigger_Finger //------------------------------// The police chief held up his megaphone “Lay down your weapons and surrender” the police chief ordered. A faint voice could be heard, “Hey copper, I got your present right here” he yelled out and suddenly a barrage of auto fire erupted and bullets began slamming into police carriages, smashing their windows and destroying the sirens. “SHIT” the police chief screamed as he ducked behind his police carriage. Several officers were shot by the barrage and fell to the ground, 2 were dead and the rest groaned in pain. “Have a happy holiday” the voice from the roof yelled and the figure tossed a young foal off the roof. “SHIT” the police chief roared but suddenly a blitz of rainbow flashed by and caught the young foal. The police chief sighed in relief as Rainbow Dash zipped past the wall of police carriages and brought the foal to safety. An acoustic guitar solo played and a set of legs began to walk across the roofs of all the carriages. The guitar played a D-minor as the figure stepped down onto the hood of a police cruiser and trotted onto the ground, his spurred leather boots packed the snow beneath his feet. The guitar solo continued and the figure puffed on a cigarette and looked to the town hall with a stone cold face. He dropped the cigarette to the ground and stomped it out. The guitar continued its note and Jack looked over to the pony playing the guitar, which happened to be the same one who had played the saxophone on the train ride. “Do you mind?” Jack asked with irritation in his voice. “Oh sorry” the pony replied and stopped playing the guitar solo. The police chief looked over to Jack as he started walking towards town hall. “PAULSONNNNNNN” the chief roared and began to chase after him, sputtering a jumble of angry retorts that literally made no sense. “Listen, if you go in there I’m calling the princess” the police chief yelled. Jack pulled out a cell phone and tossed it over his shoulders, the police chief caught it in his front hooves and looked at the cell phone. “She’s on speed-dial, oh and Haggard? Tell her I said hi” Jack chuckled and continued on. Mayor Mare raced over to Jack as he continued walking towards town hall. “Listen Jack I know that as Mayor you don’t really like me because I’m with the politics but this is the co-executive chief of the royal guard” Mayor Mare informed Jack and a fat, plump stallion stood in his way. “Jack I’m ordering you not to go in there, if you do go in there will be severe” he began but Jack punched him in the face and the force knocked him to the ground. “When Celestia gets here call me” Jack replied and continued walking towards the town hall building. Luna trotted up behind him, “What are you going to do?” Luna asked and Jack chuckled, “I’m going to say please” Jack replied. Haggard got on his walkie-talkie and radioed to the police pony at the door, “Paulson is trying to get in, don’t let him enter goddammit” Haggard yelled into the walkie-talkie. The pony at the door was a large brute-like pony, his muscles bulged and he smiled “Yeah no problem” he replied. Though his wings were tiny and his fur was a snowy white his gigantic bulging muscles more than made up for the small problems. Jack walked up and Snowflake turned around but had to look up to see Jack standing in front of him and gulped. “Hey Snowflake, long time no see” Jack replied and Snowflake stood to his full height to try and be more intimidating but still stood a full 2 feet shorter than Jack. “Hey Snowflake” Luna called out and Snowflake redirected his attention to Luna just as she gave him a mighty buck with her hindlegs. Snowflake’s body flew back and slammed against the wall. Jack looked to Luna with a surprised look, “Believe me, we won’t get in as much trouble as you would” Luna replied and went to open the door. As she opened the door Jack gasped and pulled her back and swung her body behind a wall. Gunfire erupted and bullets flew past where they had both recently been standing. “I appreciate the help but I think Celestia would kill me if you got shot” Jack told her and pulled out his revolvers as he swung his body back into the doorway. He cocked back the hammers back and began firing the revolvers at any of the ponies that were stupid enough to stand in the open. The ponies, whether they were here to rob the place or for whatever reason, were armed with G3 assault rifles and 2 seconds after Jack began shooting them down they returned fire but were stupid enough to just stand in the open. Jack swung his body behind the wall as auto fire ripped through the air. “Shit, outgunned again… to bad this place doesn’t have a conveniently placed Gatling gun or something” Jack muttered and reloaded his revolvers. He waited for the ponies inside to stop firing. They were foolish enough to all fire at the same time and shoot until their ammunition was depleted. Jack swung his body back into the doorway and fired both his revolvers at the remaining ponies. They screamed, their bodies twisted and turned as .357 magnum rounds tore through their bodies and took their life from them. Within seconds it was over. Jack stood there in the doorway, a lone silhouette, his arms extended and a smoking six shooter in each hand. He brought the guns up to his face and blew the smoke out of the barrels then began to spin the revolvers on his index fingers and holstered both revolvers. Suddenly he saw movement on the balcony of the second floor of the building. “What the fu” was all Jack managed before the entire building lit up, a crank operated Gatling gun began to spit out .30 caliber rounds and Jack lept behind a stack of metal crates. “Fuck it, I take it back, no conveniently placed machinegun” Jack yelled and the machinegun continuously tore away at the crates. Jack crawled along the ground doing his best not to be spotted and peeked around the corner of one of the crates to see that the pony operating the machinegun was simply firing blindly at the metal crates. Jack quickly shuffled across the floor and rolled into an office without being noticed. Jack groaned to himself and crawled along the ground and out the second door of the office which led to another. He continued going office to office until he reached the last office and looked up to the machine gunner who was still stupidly firing at the metal crates. Jack eased the door open silently and crept up along the staircase towards the balcony. He crept up behind the machine gunner silently and unslung his Mossberg. He cocked the shotgun and the machine gunner froze and stopped cranking the machinegun. Jack pulled the trigger on the shotgun and the machine gunner’s body was devastated by the blast. 00 buckshot tore through his body and propelled his body over the edge of the balcony, his body fell to the ground below with a thud and blood began to pool around his body. Jack looked towards the staircase that led to the roof and began to race up the stairs. The door to the roof got booted open and several ponies screamed in fear as Jack entered onto the snowy roof. A pony with a long blue overcoat turned to Jack, he was holding Scootaloo by the chest and had the blade of a machete to her throat. “Morning” Jack said in a cold voice. “Oh, but what have we here? Another police officer sent to arrest me?” the crazed criminal laughed and Jack snarled. “The name’s Jack” Jack told him and the criminal sneered, “Well Jack I hate to have to waste time with introductions so I’ll keep it brief, the name’s Slicer, now die” Slicer laughed and threw a driving knife at Jack with deadly accuracy. Jack lept back and fell to the ground, the knife missed him by a mere fraction of an inch. Jack rolled up to his feet unholstered his Colt peacemaker. “They call it a peacemaker because it makes peace” Jack snarled and Slicer laughed. “You know, I promised Scootaloo here that she could watch me kill Rainbow Dash… but I think I’ll have to disappoint her and just kill you” Slicer said. “Now lower the gun… or the filly gets it” Slicer said in a completely insane voice. Jack crouched down and placed his revolver on the snowy roof. “There I’m unarmed… now stop this madness” Jack ordered him but Slicer laughed. “Please don’t make me laugh, I know you have another revolver and that shotgun” Slicer sneered and Jack snarled and unholstered his revolver, dropping it to the ground then unslung his shotgun and dropped it to the ground as well. “That’s it, I have no more weapons” Jack replied and Slicer pondered a thought for a moment. “Alright Jack, get on your knees and place your hands behind your head” Slicer laughed. Jack got down on his knees and placed his hands behind his head. “See how it feels to be on the other side of the law?” Slicer laughed. Jack began to slide his right hand up the opposite coat sleeve. “This isn’t what it feels like to be on the wrong side of the law” Jack told him and Slicer let out a small chuckled and his mouth had a smile spread across it. “Jack, don’t tell me what it feels like, I was in prison for 15 years… I know what it feels like to be on the wrong side of the law” Slicer said, insanity in his voice. “If you were on the wrong side of the law then how are you still alive?” Jack asked as he slid his hand further up his sleeve. “Jack… I’m alive because no-pony in prison had the guts to come after me. Yeah that’s how I survived” Slicer said as he began to chuckle. “No, what I meant was you don’t know what it’s like to be on the wrong side of the law because if you ever had been then you’d be dead” Jack told him with a cold look. “Jack, the reason they caught me was because they surrounded me with an entire platoon of armed soldiers, they wouldn’t have caught me any other way” Slicer laughed and Jack looked to him. “You want to know what it truly feels like to be on the wrong side of the law” Jack told him and Slicer’s eyes widened as he realized what Jack’s statement had meant. Jack grabbed the handle on the Desert Eagle .50 cal. that was hidden in the upper arm of his coat and ripped it out of the coat as Slicer tried to throw another knife at Jack. But Jack was faster, lining up a shot on Slicer and pulling the trigger only once. The massive handgun boomed in his and a single .50 cal. round burst from the muzzle of the gun and slammed into Slicer’s shoulder. It blew away a large chunk of his shoulder and Slicer gasped, blood spewed out of his mouth as the devastation of the bullet ripped apart arteries in his neck. “That’s what the wrong side of the law feels like” Jack quoted. As Slicer fell backwards over the edge of the roof his grip on Scootaloo tightened and she was pulled over the edge along with him. “SHIT” Jack yelled as he lept up and jumped over the edge of the roof and slid down the angled roof. The ice sped up his pace and he fell of the very edge of the roof slant. Grabbing Scootaloo by her front hoof with one hand and the roof’s edge with his other hand he dangled there. His arm throbbed as their combined weight stressed out his muscles to the max. Actually Scootaloo only weighed around 90 pounds but Jack was 230 pounds, and the fact that he was holding them up with his left arm made it even harder. Slicer fell with a gurgling scream and splattered against the hard ground below. “Luna I take back what I said earlier… HELP ME” Jack yelled out as his grip on Scootaloo’s hoof began to slip. Luna rushed out from the town hall and looked up at them. He tossed Scootaloo up and grabbed her around the waist so he wouldn’t drop her. Luna flew up and tried to get underneath Jack. “No, get the kid” Jack ordered and Luna looked up to Jack, “But what about you?” Luna asked with worry in her eyes. “Just trust me, I’ll be fine” Jack told her and Luna flew up beside Jack and took Scootaloo from his grasp and fluttered back down to the ground, bringing Scootaloo away to safety. Jack grunted to himself as he grabbed the edge of the roof with his other hand and launched himself up onto the roof. However due to the ice that had accumulated over the past few days the slant to the roof was impossibly slippery and was ridiculously difficult to get a grip on and Jack slid back off the roof. He tried to grab the edge of the roof but missed the edge by a fraction of a second. “OH SHIIIITTTTTT” Jack yelled as he plummeted down 4 stories downwards and his body slammed into a police cruiser’s roof. Glass from the windshield shattered as Jack’s body made a huge indent in the roof of the carriage. “JAAACCKKK” Luna screamed and she rushed over to the motionless Jack.