The Origin of Lock Target

by Lock Target

On the way home.

The sun beat down on me like a dragon breathing fire on his opponent as I pulled that wagon. For three straight days without rest, my party and I were somewhere in the desert making our way to my hometown of Gallop Gulch. The trek had begun to take its toll.

"Fauna, I told you to keep your tail out of my face while I'm sleeping!" Uma grumped.

"Sorry if I'm trying to send a letter to Hay Flower and the others!" She snarked tying a letter to a bird's leg. When she released it, it fell to the ground behind the wagon. "Dang it, another dropped bird!"

"Didn't you go over your bird limit back at Dodge Junction?" Uma asked trying to act like he cares.

As they started arguing, Slicer was looking out the window she was sitting at as Zulu (On the opposite end) was trying to use the sunlight from the front to read.

"Okay, I spy with my little eye, something...Brown!" Slicer said.

"A tumbleweed!" the frustrated Zebra snapped.

"Well glue some horns to my head and call me a Minotaur, what crawled up YOUR plot and died?"

"It's been the same thing for seven hours! If it's brown, it's a tumbleweed! If it's green, it's a cactus! If it's tan, dirt! Pick another game!"

"Just one more, okay?"

"Fine"

"Hmm...I spy with my little eye...Something...White!"

"A skull"

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN LOOK!"

Needless to say, lugging a ninja Earth Pony, an easily agrivated zebra, a sleepy Alicorn born to Earth Pony parents from Applequerque and an adlet with an I.Q of 87 can be a pain in the neck between towns. I managed to find a town where the local saloon seemed to be in high spirits.

I unhitched myself and tapped on the wagon's seat saying "REST STOP!"

They exit out one-by-one and we head over to the door. When we entered through the door, the place went silent. The only sound heard was the wind as it blew my cape, the rim of my hat and my bandanna. As we started my way to the bartender, I could hear everypony whispering about me.

"It's him" the piano player said to the dancers between him.

"The Pony With No Name!" a dancer muttered as I passed the table she was at. The whispers grew into low voiced speaking.

"The son of the late One-Shot Bullseye himself!" added a nearby bison.

"Why would somepony with a 500,000 bit bounty on his head be out in public?" Asked a mare to the guy sitting across from her.

"Someone told me that he served Princess Celestia for a while and she pardoned him" he replied. "You wanna know something else? I heard he was raised by buffaloes!" The mare gasped in amazement. "No lie, a friend of mine up in Appleoosa saw him stampeding with them"

"Is it true that he killed his own folks with one arrow?" one mare asked who I could assume is her boyfriend.

Licking the cider froth from his mustache, he shrugged and replied, "That might be just an old mare's tale. I heard somewhere that a zebra with a bone to pick with his father tied 'im to a cactus and forced him to watch as he burned his childhood home to the ground with his folks in it. Now the poor boy's huntin' 'im down. An eye for an eye"

"I heard that he made a pact with a bull the size of a Manticore to fight each other when one of them felt that he was strong enough to take on the other guy" added his neighbor at the table on the right.

"AH HEARDS A RODEO CLOWN ATE 'IS BISCUITS AND NOW HE NEEDS TO DRINK FROM THE COTTON CANDY FALLS TO GIT 'EM BACK!" raved an elderly prospector slapping the mare in the face with his beard looking between the two talking. Poor guy was obviously out in the sun for too long. I'm lucky not to have cracked myself.

As I took a seat at the bar, I turned around and lifted my hat rim slightly to see them staring at me. "Don't stop on MY account" That's all I had to say before I turned back around to the bartender. The piano player started another song and everypony else went on with their lives.

"What'll it be?" the bartender asked cleaning a glass.

"I'll take a cola" Uma said.

"I would like some milk" Slicer added.

"Apple juice" Fauna's order.

"Just some water" Zulu said hoping nopony tries anything funny.

I finished the order with, "Sarsaparilla on the rocks. Leave the bottle"

After he brought our order, he asked, "So what's on your mind, stranger?"

As I pulled down my bandanna with a sigh, I looked him in the eyes and respond, "18 years. That's how long I've been alive. I've seen many things. From a tyrannic mayor to an alicorn born with the attributes of various other creatures, and everything in between"

"Ooh, the mysterious Lock Target's secret past revealed" Fauna said sounding interested.

"I suppose the best place to start...Is the beginning" I finished as I took a drink.