My Little Western

by Laurence Brown

The Last Hard Men

Sheriff Silverstar and Trixie slowly walked down the main street of Appleloosa. Trixie was looking better as she moved along, but it was still at a sluggish pace. The sheriff waved and said hello to other townsfolk as they meandered by, but his attention kept returning to his traveling companion. Giving her a concerned look, the sheriff asked, "Are you sure you're all right?"

Trixie nodded, and then winced as the motion brought on a small surge of pain from her horn. "I'm just trying to move carefully, to keep anything that might jostle my horn to a minimum for now. It's still giving me an awful headache." she admitted.

"You know, we can put this off for a bit if you want to." the sheriff offered.

"No," Trixie said with a frustrated look on her face, "the only thing wrong with me is the crack on my horn. Laying around doing nothing is something the Great and Powerful Trixie detests. Since I won't be able to put on any more shows for a while, I might as well do what I can to help stop The Coyote Colt. Not only do I owe him for this injury, I need to pay him back for sabotaging my show too." Trixie stopped, her eyes growing large. "I can't believe I've forgotten about my cart up until now! I need to go and check on it, make sure everything is still in place."

Sheriff Silverstar nodded. "Why don't we go there first then. I'll help you out, if you need it, and that will give me some more time to answer your questions too. Speaking of which, what do you want to know?" he asked as they turned towards the stage area at the edge of town.

"Everything, although I suppose that doesn't help you out in picking where to start." Trixie frowned and considered her options. "Let's start with what you know about The Coyote Colt. I have a feeling that what I was told about him is flawed at the best."

The sheriff gathered his thoughts before replying. "To be honest, I wish I knew more. I was among the first group to join the initial settlers up here in Appleloosa, but he was here before any of us were, from what I've been told." The sheriff pointed ahead on them. "In fact, if I recall correctly, his house was rather close to where the stage is set up."

Trixie frowned, a bit surprised to see the stories matching up so well. "That's... interesting. So, why did he move away then?"

"Well, he was never what one would call the most social of ponies to begin with. Lots of us tried to be neighborly, but he seemed to want no part of it." He shrugged. "Personally, I think he just wanted to get away from everypony, and when he discovered that even out here he would be forced to interact with others, he just up and moved further out."

"On his own?" Trixie asked.

Sheriff Silverstar nodded. "He sold his plot to us, and then traveled out a ways." He pointed with a hoof to indicate the general direction The Coyote Colt had left in. "Honestly, that's the thing that puzzled me. He knew that Appleloosa was going to grow. Why he didn't head out further than he did, I don't know, but it would have saved him a lot of trouble."

"Why? What happened next?" she asked, looking for more discrepancies between the sheriff's version and what The Coyote Colt had told her himself.

"He ended up settling on some of the only arable land around. Which would have been okay if he had been willing to work it. Heck, we would have gladly helped him, even despite how solitary he was." His voice grew grim as he remembered it all. "In the end though, all he did with it was dig some holes and mope around. When we finally realized he owned the only sizable plot of farm land around, we all pitched in and made an offer for his property. He gladly accepted it, and moved to where he lives now."

Trixie frowned, and motioned at the sheriff to continue. Obliging his companion, he said, "This is the first he's done anything like this. He's hassled folk whenever they came close to where he lived, but he never went out of his way to cause trouble. If I had known he would someday do something like this, I would have formed a posse long ago and brought him in." The sheriff sighed at the thought. "I'm going to have to do that now, and it won't be easy work at all, let me tell you. Maybe if I inform the Princess, she can send some help up ahead of time, get this whole mess cleaned up before she arrives with her sister."

Trixie halted. "Wait. Princess Celestia is coming here? Whatever for?"

The sheriff stopped and looked back to her. "The Summer Sun Festival. In just under three weeks, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will both be here to celebrate the longest day of the year." He smiled. "It will be the biggest event in this town's history. From nothing more than a small cluster of cottages two years ago, to hosting the royalty of the land on the biggest holiday of the year. It makes me proud to think how far we've come so quickly."

Trixie started walking again, her thoughts racing. "Okay then, what else can you tell me about The Coyote Colt? How did he lose his cutie mark?"

"Nopony in town knows." the sheriff replied. "He didn't have it when we first arrived, and as I'm sure you can attest to from your encounter with him, he doesn't take kindly to questions about it either."

The two of them came up short as they approached the stage. Several ponies were cleaning up the area, and one could be seen inside the wagon with a feather duster in her mouth. Seeing Trixie, they all stopped what they were doing and rushed over to her, words of joy and thanks being tossed at her from several mouths all at once. "You're already up and about!" "I saw what you did, it was amazing!" "Thank you for standing up to that monster!" "Your horn! Is it going to be okay?"

Trixie smiled and basked in the positive attention, even as she started to feel a little queasy. "Yes, yes, my horn will be alright. It just needs some time to heal, and then The Great and Powerful Trixie will back at one hundred percent!" she proclaimed. "Also, thank you for cleaning things up for me."

"It's the least we can do!" the mare with the feather duster said. "We may be a poor folk out here, but we do what we can to help each other. After what you did last night? As far as I'm concerned, you're one of us now! You need something, you let us know, you hear?" The other ponies nodded their heads vigorously and shouted agreement.

Seeing Trixie's growing discomfort, the sheriff stepped up. "Well, we'll leave you ponies be then, we just stopped by to check on things before heading to the jail. We're hoping we can get some information out of that pegasus." The other ponies gave Trixie a final round of thanks and assurances that her stuff would be sparkling clean by the time they were done, and then returned to their work.

Trixie and the sheriff turned back towards town, walking in silence. After they were a fair distance away from the stage, the sheriff asked, "What's wrong? You seem strangely upset for someone who just received so much praise and thanks."

"I lost!" Trixie angrily spat out. "Don't get me wrong, Trixie loves to hear words of adoration. But how can they be so happy about what I did when all I did was get hurt? The Coyote Colt got away! He's still out there, free to return whenever he wants to! And they're happy about that?"

Sheriff Silverstar raised an eyebrow. "You may have lost the duel, but consider what else you accomplished. Not only did you keep The Coyote Colt from making off with all of our money, you also managed to capture One Winged Willie, and maybe prevented his gang from hurting others too. You may feel like you didn't come out on top, but I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that you saved the town last night."

Still feeling uncomfortable about it all, Trixie decided to change the topic. "Say, I have a question. If this is such a poor town, why was there so much money in the bank?"

"To pay for the supplies that will be arriving on the train tomorrow. We still have to set up Princess Celestia's sun podium, bleachers for everypony, and a bunch of other stuff too. All of that requires wood, and that's the one thing we don't have in abundance up here." Silverstar sighed in frustration. "We received a grant from Canterlot to help pay for it all; I just wish they had thought to pay for it back there, and then send us the supplies. What they did seems convoluted to me, but then I guess that's bureaucracy for you."

Trixie nodded slowly, trying not to jostle her horn too much. "I couldn't say myself. Government has never held any appeal to me." She looked ahead, and saw the jailhouse start to come into view.

"So, what can you tell me about our pegasus prisoner?" she asked.

Sheriff Silverstar grunted. "He used to go by the name Whirlwind. He was one of the first settlers, even before my time. Not many ponies remember him, to be honest. From what I heard, he really helped those first few brave souls survive, helping to make sure there was enough rain to keep them alive until wells could be dug." The sheriff looked up at the sky, trying to recall everything he had been told about the pony. "They say he loved to fly in rough weather, and was good at it too. Then, one day, he pushed his luck a little too hard. A tornado got a hold of him, and pretty much destroyed one of his wings. Turned it into tatters. I guess they had to remove it, it was so badly ripped up. After that, he was never the same, and one day he simply wandered off. Nopony knew where he went."

They stopped outside the door to the jail. "Something doesn't feel right about all of this." Trixie said. "I can't see why The Coyote Colt would want all of that money. He's been out here so long, what would he use it for? Where else could he spend it?" She growled in frustration. "Curse this headache of mine! It keeps the magnificent deduction capabilities of the Great and Powerful Trixie from operating at full efficiency!"

Seeing the sheriff give her a questioning look, Trixie huffed, "Well, let's go and see what we can learn from our outlaw in the oubliette." Waiting for the sheriff to open the door, Trixie walked in, head held high. The inside of the jailhouse was a large room, with the far side separated from the rest by a rows of metal bars. They stretched from the floor up to the ceiling, spaced no farther apart than what Trixie estimated to be three or four inches. The only break in this wall of iron was a door that had been built into the bars. The other three walls of the cell were solid wood, with just a single small window high off the ground, also featuring iron bars. Inside the cell was a cot, a pail, and the pegasus that Trixie had captured last night — One Winged Willie.

Seeing the sheriff and Trixie enter, Willie lazily looked up from where he was laying on the cot. Growling something unintelligible, he then plopped his head back down onto the mattress, doing his best to ignore the newcomers. The sheriff walked over to the only other piece of furniture in the building, a desk on the wall farthest from the cell. Scattered across the top of the desk were various papers and an object that caught Trixie's eye.

"That knife there... is it?" she asked, fascinated and a bit unsettled by the possibility.

Sheriff Silverstar nodded. "Yup. That's the one that hit your horn."

"May I?" Trixie asked, curiosity overcoming her brief aversion. Seeing the sheriff nod, Trixie reached with her magic for the knife. She stopped as her headache — which had faded for the most part — returned with a vengeance. Wincing, she shook her head.

Noticing Trixie's reaction, Silverstar quickly put together what had happened. "Hey now, are you sure that's the best thing to be trying to do so soon after last night?" He walked over to his desk to pick it up for Trixie.

"Stop!" Trixie commanded. "I am supposed to still have access to some of my magic. If The Great and Powerful Trixie can not manage even this much without making things worse for herself, it is best that she knows that now, instead of later." Closing her eyes to help her focus, and prepared for the pain this time, Trixie was able to lift the knife from the desk and float it over to her.

She opened her eyes and gave the blade a thorough inspection. The sheriff watched her, but kept quiet. After a short while of rotating the knife, looking at it from all angles, she turned and asked Silverstar, "Would you mind if I kept this?"

The sheriff shrugged. "If you want to. I don't have any use for it." Trixie grabbed the hilt of the knife with her mouth, unsure of where to put.

Without warning, the door to the jailhouse burst open, and Braeburn dashed in. "Sheriff!" he cried, obviously in panic. "The Coyote Colt is at the edge of town, and he's calling you out!"

The sheriff scowled. "As if things weren't already bad enough for us." he muttered.

Trixie put the knife down on the ground. "Wait, is it just The Coyote Colt?" she asked.

Braeburn nodded, and the sheriff looked at Trixie and nodded. "Braeburn," Silverstar drawled, "I think me and Trixie have come to the same conclusion. How would like to help us out?"

"Sure. What do you need me to do?" asked Braeburn.

Sheriff Silverstar opened one of the drawers of his desk and fished out a key. "This might be an attempt for the rest of The Coyote's Colt gang to try to spring One Winged Willie from his cell. Since the only way to get him out is through the door in the bars, and then out the door of the jailhouse itself, I think the best thing we could do would be to make it so they can't get in here." He tossed the key to Braeburn, who caught it in his mouth. "After we leave, lock the door and block it with my desk too. Don't open it up unless you hear me tell you to, understood?"

"Will do! You can count on me." Braeburn replied eagerly.

Trixie picked the knife back up and put it in the open desk drawer. "I'll get that later. Let's go."

Braeburn watched them leave, and then locked the door and started to push the desk, spilling papers onto the floor as he did so. Willie simply watched from his cot. After a moment, Braeburn stepped back to look at his work. Satisfied that he had positioned the desk as well as he could, he turned to One Winged Willie and said, "Well, if I have anything to say about it, you won't be going anywhere for a while."

"Just because I'm missing a wing doesn't mean I can't fly away." Willie replied cryptically, and then turned around on his cot, looking away from Braeburn and ending the conversation.

---

Sheriff Silverstar and Trixie galloped to the edge of town to find The Coyote Colt waiting with a bored expression on his face. "There you are, sheriff." he drawled, and took a double take at seeing Trixie. "Well, well, well. Back up on your hooves already? I'm impressed, although having your horn all wrapped up like that takes away a few style points, if you care."

Trixie haughtily sniffed. "Coming from a pony like you, I'll take that as a compliment."

Sensing things starting to escalate beyond his comfort, Silverstar stepped forward. "What exactly are you doing here?" he asked the outlaw, doing his best to put a tamper on things.

"I have a couple of requests for you, sheriff." The Coyote Colt said, turning his attention away from Trixie.

"Well, I can't guarantee that I'll be willing to follow them, but I figure the least I can do is listen, since you've done me the courtesy of not attacking anypony yet." The sheriff drawled.

"Isn't that neighborly of you!" The Coyote Colt said with a smirk. "Well then, I'd like you to let me leave with my compatriot, One Winged Willie. I feel right awful that I left him here last night."

The sheriff slowly shook his head. "Sorry, but he stays."

With a melodramatic sigh, The Coyote Colt shook his head sadly. " If you aren't going to give me that, I sure do hope that you'll see things my way for my other request."

"I hope it involves you choking on your tail." Trixie muttered, earning herself a sharp glare from the sheriff.

"Like I said before," the sheriff said, "I'm willing to at least listen."

The Coyote Colt's demeanor took on a serious tone. "I want you to cancel the Summer Sun Celebration."

A surprised murmur rippled through a small crowd that had assembled behind the sheriff and Trixie. Silverstar looked at Trixie with a questioning look on his face, and seeing a similar one on hers, he turned back to The Coyote Colt. "I'm sorry, you want me to do what?" he asked, not believing his ears.

"You heard me." he replied angrily. "Cancel it, shut it down, make sure it doesn't happen. Tell the princesses to stay away."

"Why?" Trixie asked, gobsmacked.

"That ain't any of your business. Just know that if you keep on preparing for it, well, stuff like this will happen." His horn started glowing, and the assembled ponies took a few steps back quickly. Rearing up, the Coyote Colt shot a ball of fire into the air. After flying upwards for a few seconds and a hundred feet or so, it loudly exploded, sending sparks raining down towards the ground even as the booming sound it created echoed across the area.

A few ponies in the crowd broke from the group and ran back into town. Trixie studied the spell, and nodded slowly to herself. "Now I see why he relied so heavily on his telekinesis in our fight." she whispered to the sheriff.

"Well, if you can't make an effort to at least give me the reasons behind your demand," the sheriff answered, "I just can't bring myself to accommodate you. I guess you'll have to leave empty hoofed today."

The Coyote Colt glared at the sheriff. "You'll regret this, Silverstar. I promise you, you will rue this day very soon." With that, he abruptly turned and slowly walked away from the townsfolk.

Trixie turned to the sheriff. "Why would he want the Summer Sun Celebration cancelled? That makes no sense to me."

The sheriff shrugged. "Part of me wants to believe it was just a ruse to buy time for his gang to try to spring Willie, but I can't shake the feeling that he was completely serious about it."

Trixie frowned, and after coming up with nothing sighed. "Do you think we gave the rest of his gang enough time to realize they aren't going to get Willie free?" she asked, putting off the mystery for later.

"I'm actually hoping we can catch them in the act, maybe put a couple more of them behind bars." the sheriff replied. "Let's go and see how lucky we can get."

---

Finding himself quickly bored after the sheriff and Trixie had left, Braeburn took the chance to look through the papers on top of the sheriff's desk. "Hey," he called over to One Winged Willie, "did you know that the sheriff has to look over building permits?" Seeing the lame pegasus fail to rise to his conversational gambit, Braeburn shrugged and continued to peruse the papers when he heard the doorknob rattle briefly, followed by a muffled curse.

Braeburn quickly forgot about the notes he had been reading and braced against the desk. "Ha!" he yelled out. "You won't be getting in today, no sirree!" He listened closely, but heard no reply. A few seconds later though, his attention was drawn to the window inside the cell, when a grayish face peered through.

"Ah, quite clever!" Douglas the diamond dog called out. "To be honest, I was hoping that the ponies of this town would be intelligent enough to see through at least this much of our ruse. I would have been disappointed if all it took was our leader showing up somewhere to make the jail available to us." He then proceeded to start positioning hooks to the bar of the window.

Braeburn frowned. "If you think you can simply pull out the window and free Willie, you're mistaken. I don't think he would even fit through that small of an opening, and besides, those bars don't stop at the edge of the window; they go all the way down into the building's foundation!"

Douglas chuckled. "Oh, I know! In fact, we wouldn't even be trying this if they didn't. I agree, Willie wouldn't be able to fit through this hole. At least, he'd need to suffer through a lengthy bread and water prison diet to squeeze through." Willie gave a nonplussed hmmph as he turned the cot over onto its side and hid behind it.

Braeburn tilted his head. "So, what, you think you can pull out the entire wall?"

Douglas paused to tip his hat at Braeburn. "Well done! Indeed, notice how we're using chains" he held one up for Braeburn to take in, "so they don't snap from the stress. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get into position. We are running on a schedule, after all. By the way, do pay close attention. I want the sheriff to get as detailed an account as possible of what happens next." With that, he disappeared from sight.

Seconds passed, and Braeburn found himself wondering when the outlaws were going to make their attempt. He was starting to seriously consider moving the desk aside and charging out to try to do something to stop them, sheriff's orders notwithstanding, when he heard Douglas bark out, "Go!"

A bright light flashed through the window, and a booming sound joined it. At the same time, Braeburn saw the chains pull taut, and then the loud sound of timbers being broken and metal bars being uprooted melded into the explosive echo, and part of the prison wall simply flew away. After a second, the newly freed partition dropped to the ground to show it was being dragged by two now visible buffalo. Douglas stuck his head through the gap and motioned to Willie. The pegasus quickly got on his feet, turned and blew Braeburn a raspberry, and then trotted out through the newly created exit.

Braeburn stared dumbfounded at the escaping bandits for a moment. Finally, he shook his head and with a shrug, dug through the desk drawer for a key he remembered seeing earlier. Finding it, he opened the door to the jail cell and walked out through the hole in the wall. He headed around to the street and decided to go find the sheriff. "At least this way, I'm not going against his orders!" he chuckled as he walked down the street.