Stepa calmly breathed in and out, looking for any signs of anything important on the streets below. Even with the 20x zoom on the Gauss Rifle, he still had some trouble telling individual details on the ‘ponies’ below them. They seemed to come in three variants: Ones with horns, ones with wings, and ones with neither.
“He will be coming along in thirty seconds.” One of the Changelings said, trying to be helpful.
“I will be waiting.” Stepa deadpanned. He was too focused right now to have a conversation.
He dialed the scope in more, the zoom increasing to its maximum extent. He was focused, so, when the target appeared, he spotted it immediately.
“Got him.” Stepa whispered. “Unicorn, white, black hair or ‘mane’ as they call it. Two thousand meters.”
“Do we have to adjust for bullet drop?” Valera asked in a joking tone.
“Is the target within fifty miles?” Stepa shot back. When Valera shook his head, he returned his attention to the scope. “Then no. The maximum the round will drop is a few millimeters at this range, and there will be no fucking travel time, either.”
“Take the fucking shot so we can get out of here.” Valera suggested.
Stepa was not listening. Instead, he had his faceplate to the scope, looking through it. The reticule lined up with the unicorn, who seemed to be talking to several other ponies near him. Stepa placed the red dot in the scope right over the target’s back. Since it was not bipedal, that was the biggest target.
Holding his breathing and steadying his rifle as much as he could, Stepa slowly squeezed the trigger.
A small electronic noise rang out as the batteries discharged, using the coilgun mechanics of the gauss rifle to accelerate the miniscule round to an extremely high velocity. It shot out of the barrel at several times the speed of sound, leading a wispy blue trail of ionized air behind it.
The round flew through the air, practically ignoring air resistance as it moved. Precisely 1/4th of a second later, it impacted.
The round hit the unicorn midway along its back. It instantly pierced through the spine and all of the internal organs in its path, erupting from the bottom of the unicorn a millisecond later, leading a three inch wide hole and piercing straight through the stone of the streets, where it traveled eight feet further into the relatively soft ground before slowing.
Stepa watched, emotionlessly, as the unicorn crumpled to the ground. With the amount of blood he saw, and with the horrified reactions of the onlookers, he could safely say that the pony was definitely dead.
“It’s dead. Let’s go.” Valera said as he got up off the ground and moved away from the cliff, Stepa following a second later as he stowed his gauss rifle.
They followed the slightly shocked group of the Changelings as they wound through the forest, until they reached the stop they had arrived in. A moment later, a flash of light signaled them being ‘teleported’ again.
“Well, we’re fucked if we go over there any time soon.” Valera said as they found themselves inside of the cave again.
“Probably.” Stepa agreed.