//------------------------------//
// The town of Dirt 
// Story: Phoenix 
// by Lemon Pegasus 
//------------------------------//

	Phoenix and this mysterious girl had been walking for two minutes now, when after a sharp turn round a mountain, a large town came into view. Most of the buildings appeared to be wooden, except for the occasional stone one. There were people on top of the buildings holding rifles and people wandered the streets merrily as if they were care free, but they all carried guns.

"So, this is Dirt. We call it that 'cause it's not got a very clean history," the girl started "this place has been invaded twice, and it was involved in multiple illegal slave trades in the past." Phoenix was not surprised, few of the towns he had been to were exactly safe. As they entered the town, Phoenix noticed a number of ponies looking at him funny. A lot of the windows had been bordered up and there appeared to be a cross outside a lot of the houses.

The two of them eventually came to a large building which appeared to be the only one that wasn't bordered up, Phoenix read a overhead sign that hung above the door. "The Crazy Lizard"? He read aloud. "What kind of name is that?"

"There's a story behind that name, Phoenix, somepony inside will tell ya but Celestia knows I won't." And the two of them walked inside. The first thing Phoenix noticed was how good quality the interior was for what appeared to be a very run down bar, the seats were leather padded and the lighting wasn't faded or flickering in any way. The place was clean as well, and the barman was neatly dressed in a white shirt and red bow.

"You can rest up here, the rooms for rent are upstairs." the girl said, but Phoenix wasn't paying much attention, all he noticed was all the ponies looking at him funny. Some of they just timidly looked at him while drinking, others stared directly at him with burning evil. Phoenix wanted to know why, he couldn't keep up with this much longer. He was about to ask, when a confrontation answered him just fine.

"What's your business here..." a stern voice asked. Phoenix turned around to see quite the large pony, grey fur and black mane. He had a scar on his cheek and he clearly wasn't all that friendly, I mean, he was staring at Phoenix like he just stole his waifu, cough cough, Flash Sentry.

"I'm a traveler." The pony just continued looking at him with a glare of pure evil "my name is Phoenix." The pony started groaning, when, the mystery girl stood between them.

"Eddy, he's with me. He ain't no bandit!" she said to him, showing no signs of threat from this (let's face it) pretty threatening pony.
"Lucy? Why are you with this pony! How do you know he isn't a bandit? I bet he's carrying his own weight in stolen goods..." So that's what the mystery girl's name was, Lucy. And this beefcake pony was called Eddy. Wow, manly.

"Alright, maybe I've come around a time where you guys are facing conflict I can assure you I have nothing to do with it." Phoenix calmly told Eddy. He could easily take the feller down, but that wouldn't exactly look good on his "new guy" card.

Eddy groaned and sharply twisted around, he then made for the exit. Phoenix then talked to the barman.
"I need a room for a week."

Phoenix now sat in his newly paid for room. In the morning he could see what he might get for that gem of his, really he was hoping no pony would come into his room and try to kill him in the night. But for now, he had a job to do.

He sat in his bed, eyes on the clock. Once it hit midnight, he silently got up and sneaked towards the door. Phoenix silently crept down the stairs; no pony was in the bar, good. He crept towards the door and tried to open it... it was locked. He then tried one of the windows, it opened. Phoenix gradually opened it and looked outside. There were ponies on watch at every other building, and the streets were lit with torches.

Phoenix slowly crawled out of the window and placed a coin in the window pane so it wouldn't fully close. He stayed away from the torches and crept behind the bar to the gutter. Making sure no pony spotted him, he cautiously moved a pile of leaves to reveal a trap door. He opened it and crawled inside, he was now in the underground sewer system.

Phoenix walked for a minute down the empty and dark yet massive pipe. He soon found what he was looking for, a door to the side of the pipe. He opened up and revealed the scene.

Around 30 or so ponies, all wearing jackets and all carrying guns. In the center, a table with a few chairs. To the sides were explosives and firearms. One pony stood out from the rest. He was large white pony with a black and red scruffy mane. He looked pretty darn strong, and his holsters carried 6 revolvers, plus a dagger, and even a grenade. His looked much sharper than any other pony's, and it was clear by his posture that he was in charge.

"Phoenix, you're back," he said in a deep, calm voice. "what information do you have for us?"
"Well, Mr Bullet, I don't think you'll be disappointed." Phoenix replied.

Phoenix approached the table in the middle of the room, laying on it was a map, a map of Dirt.
"There are guards with arms on almost every building, we'll need to take them out early if we want to send in our guys. Every citizen, and I mean every citizen, will have guns, so in order to take them out we can't go in all guns a blazing. The ponies are also on high alert, so my guess, we have to go in at night." Phoenix explained.

"You're friend, Eddy, has found us the points at which the guards are staying," Bullet replied "if we prep explosives under those buildings, we should be covered if it all goes bad."

"I also found this." Phoenix said and he used his magic to take a sheet of paper from his pocket. It had written on it "Prize for Bob Bullet's death, white male unicorn, black and red mane, carries lots of weaponry. 10,000 bits payment for his head."

"Surely we're not going to refuse the offer of this much money." Phoenix said, smirking. After this plan, he was going to be rich.