A Train to Catch
On a warm spring day in Ponyville a middle aged bright red unicorn stallion with a dynamite cutiemark made his way through the streets full of ponies going about their morning business of setting up stalls in the marketplace. He caught weird glances because of the bomb vest he wore that was laden with all sorts of explosives, including grenades for a launcher that he didn't have with him. He disregarded these ponies as he took drags off the cigar he held clenched in his teeth, making his way to a fairly large building and heading inside after stomping out his smoke. Inside he made his way over to a table in the east corner that had all sorts of pyrotechnic scraps spread across it. He grinned happily, "Just like I left it..."
"Good morning Firecracker!", a white unicorn mare with a green mane called from her office across from Firecracker's table.
"Mornin' Clara", he replied in his gruff voice. "Any new bounties come in today?"
The mare shook her head,"No, but there's somepony that needs to see you in the back. Apparently it's something to do with Blank."
Fire ran a hoof through his greasy gray mane thoughtfully, "Blank, huh? Well I guess I'd better go look into it then, shouldn't I?"
Blank had always been a strange case to the group of bounty hunters known as the Phoenix Knights, only ever communicating when absolutely necessary. Although Firecracker knew a lot more about the quiet mare than the rest of the team, he chose not to share because of how some of the others would react. But he resolved to shove these thoughts to the back of his head as he got up and made his way to a back room behind all the offices, waving to a gray earth stallion on his way who was lifting weights in an exercise room off to the side.
"Hey there Buster, what's good?", Fire called out to the working pony.
The bulky gray stallion turned his head towards Fire and grinned, "Just liftin' some metal, old man. Now don't you have somewhere to be?"
"Yep, sure do.", Fire replied before moving along, staring at all the monster trophies on the walls and the giant empty cork board which usually held bounty sheets. "Guess it's gonna be a slow day today...", he mumbled to himself before pushing open the door to the back room to reveal the princess of friendship herself, Twilight Sparkle. His jaw dropped as he took a slight bow, "Princess?! What in Tartarus are you doin' here!?"
The princess smiled gently, "I'm here on behalf of my friend Blank. Me and her have a past together and she's in a bit of trouble so I thought I'd offer some assistance.". As she said this a pure white pegasus stepped from the shadows, but she looked miserable as she coughed and wheezed uncontrollably. Her voice seemed distorted too, almost like a machine.
"H-hey there F-firecracker", the pegasus managed before breaking into another fit of coughing.
Firecracker shook his head, "I knew something was off the last time I checked and repaired you..."
Twilight coughed to get his attention, "Now isn't the time to discuss her past, but the time to focus on the problem at hand. Ever since she was fused with clockwork parts she's had to change them every now and again like any other machine. I've been supplying her with these parts to reduce her stress about finding them, but the shipments have stopped for some reason...".
"Where do these shipments come from exactly?", Fire asked curiously.
Blank spoke up,"She receives crates shipped from the Frozen Nurth by train, but a complication has halted most of the trade on the railways so there's no way for me to replace my old parts. If I don't get them soon I'll lock up and become useless to you guys. It's as effective as me dying."
Twilight put a wing over her friend's shoulder comfortingly, "Don't worry, that's why I'm asking your friend here for help", she turns to Fire, "You're the only one who knows Blank's secret so you're the best and only pony for this job. I’d go myself, but Celestia has needed my help with some military decisions. All we require of you is to travel to a town called Snowshoe in the Nurth, find out why trade on the railways has stopped, and remedy it if possible. If you can't fix the trade problem then at least try to recover Blank's parts for her. I've sent Spike ahead as you're contact, so you'll be working with him on this mission as he digs up intel and assists you in the field.".
Firecracker chuckled, "Well buck me, I was just gettin' used to the warm spring weather. But still, I'm more than willing to help a friend in need. I'll be ready to go in an hour since I have to collect my gear and such", he turned to Blank, "Tell Kathy to fire up the teleporter and set coordinates closest to Snowshoe. I don't want to have to trudge my way through a blizzard to get there, ya hear?"
Blank smiles and nods, "I will see to it, Fire". She walked around the table and gently put her forelegs around Fire's neck, "Thank you for doing this for me. It's nice to know somepony cares for me even though I'm what most ponies think of as a monster...".
Fire laughs and strokes her mane, "It's alright sweetheart, we'll get you all fixed up. Now get goin', I've got some preparations to make.". As Blank left the room, Fire turned to Twilight, "I assume you can find your way out?"
The princess smiled, "But of course. Thank you again for agreeing to help her. She really has been through a lot...". At this point the alicorn's horn lit up and the princess disappeared in a flash of lavender light.
Fire made his way back to the table and began gathering up tools and such for the trip. His pickings consisted of his double barrel grenade launcher, three canisters of fire, ice, and regular explosive grenades for the launcher, some dynamite detpacks, a bottle of his favorite whiskey, some cigars, and finally adorning a woolen bomb vest, boots, and winter cap from his nearby locker. After all his equipment was secured in it's respective pouches he gripped the launcher with his magic and slipped it into a holster on his back, making his way up the hall to a room with a lavender glow and sparks of magic flying out every now and then.
Inside a purple unicorn mare resembling the princess was muttering incantations over her raging storm of a portal. Eventually an image appeared in the middle, looking like a frozen winter landscape with snow covered pines, mountains in the background, and a stretch of train tracks directly below. Firecracker looked to her and asked, “Do we still have parachutes? I don’t feel like becoming a grease spot in the snow.”
The mare snorted and flung a backpack at him none too gently with her magic, “I hope your plot freezes solid.”
Fire chuckled and donned the backpack, “Attitude, my dear Kathy~”. At this point she had had enough and shoved him through the portal with a blast of force magic.
“Have a nice trip old man!!!”, she hollered as he fell.
As Fire fell he noticed an oncoming train and pulled his chute at the moment he knew would be right for him to descend slow enough to land on the roof. “Buck walking...I’m sure this train is headed in the direction i need to go”. As he glided towards the roof he noticed a commotion on the caboose as a group of ponies he didn’t recognize landed on it and busted inside. “Didn’t the princess say there was a problem with the train shipments lately? Cause it looks like i just found it”. Firecracker landed a few cars down from the caboose and made his way inside, hoping to catch the intruders on their way to the engine. As he entered the car he noticed two of the ponies he saw just a few moments ago rooting through some supply crates while a third bulky one finished slitting the throat of one of the guards, tossing his body to the wall like a rag doll. Fire hid behind one of the crates and popped two standard grenades into his launcher, closing the chamber with a *click*, “You sons a diamond dogs are mine…”. He peeked from his hiding spot and brought his launcher around, setting the sights on the bulky stallion first. He aimed high since he was a good distance away and pulled the trigger before the bulky pony could move. The grenade left the barrel with a loud *DUNK* and sailed towards the unaware stallion, landing a direct hit and exploding on contact. The resulting explosion sent his friends flying into the east wall of the car while also sending his bloody giblets and bones all over the rest of the car. “So long tubby!!! Ahahahahahah!!!”, Fire cackled as he replaced the grenade he had just shot, clicking the chamber shut again.
The two ponies who had hit the wall groaned as they pulled themselves together. One of them, a green unicorn stallion with cross-hairs for a cutiemark and a sniper rifle slung to his back, stared in horror at the bloody mess that used to be his friend and gasped, “What in Tartarus was that!? Johnny just bloody exploded!”
The other who was a cobalt black earth pony mare with a knife cutiemark and a pair of blade gauntlets on her front hooves stuck her hoof over his mouth to shut him up and whispered, “Shut the hell up Clear Shot! Whoever or whatever did that to him is still here!”
The green stallion rolled his eyes and said just as soon as she moved her hoof, “You’re making as much noise as me Shady, stop being a hypocrite!”
Fire listened to the two companions bicker as he leisurely lit a stogie from his bomb vest and took a drag from it, holding it as well as his launcher in his magic. He then shouted across the car, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way! Since I’m feeling so generous today, I’ll give you guys the chance to give yourselves up! If not, another one of you will be giblets while the other gets to be interrogated, and THEN turned into giblets! Your choice!”
Clear Shot peeked around the corner and spotted Firecracker’s stogie sticking out from behind the crate, a smirk appearing on his face. He loaded his rifle and quick as a flash scoped in and shot Fire’s smoke in half, “Stupid wanker!!! I’ll avenge Johnny and have your head above my fireplace!!!”, he shouted as he pulled back the bolt, letting his used casing hit the ground with a crystal clear *CLINK*.
Shady rolled her eyes and began diving from cover to cover, using crates to avoid Firecracker’s grenades as he swore and reloaded over and over as he tried to peg the agile mare.
“Hold still twinklehooves!!!”, Fire cussed as he plopped two more grenades in the chamber and fired them behind the crate where Shady was hiding. She tried to dive out of the way, but the explosion sent her reeling into the middle of the aisle where a very pissed-looking Firecracker had his flare gun aimed point blank at her face, “So much as twitch and I’ll light you like the pile of coal you resemble…”
Clear Shot stepped from around the crates and lowered his rifle, “Whoa Whoa Whoa! Take it easy mate! I’ll tell you anything you wanna know about us, just let poor Shady go!”. He didn’t want to have to embarrass Shady by explaining the reason she was shaking and wide-eyed was because she had a deadly fear of fire.
Fire raised an eyebrow, but kept his gun trained on the mare, “Start talking, ‘cause ahm not feelin’ so generous anymore…”, his accent becoming thicker because of his anger.
Clear Shot sighed, “Well...you see…*BLAM!*”, the green stallion choked as a gaping hole appeared in his throat, a new unicorn standing behind him with a revolver pressed against the back of his head.
The pony smirked evilly, his trench coat and hat stained by the now dead stallion’s blood, “Nobody gets to blab about the boss and live...heheheh…”.
Shady’s eyes grew wide and she yelled at the top of her lungs,”NOOOOO!!!, High Ball you backstabbing snake!!!”. Tears began streaming down her face as she wept for her friend. Even though she was rude to him a moment ago, she couldn’t forget how Johnny and Clear Shot were like brothers to her.
Firecracker was having a hard time keeping up with this turn of events, finally snapping out of it and aiming his flare gun at High Ball while shouting to Shady, “Duck lassy!!!”. She did as she was told and ducked as a flare popped out of the gun and sped towards the stallion. He narrowly dodged, but the flare caught his hem on fire, causing him to flail about frantically and fall out of a hole in the side of the car caused by Fire’s reckless grenade firing. Fire shook his head, “Good riddance…”. He turned back to Shady and stared at the weeping mare as the train came to a stop. Fire helped the mare up and nudged her towards the hole, “C’mon, we need to make ourselves scarce…”. When they exited the train they found themselves at a station where the sign at the front said “Welcome to Snowshoe!”. Firecracker chuckled, “Well, that’s bloody convenient. Now to find Spike.”. It didn’t take long since a dragon is the last thing you’d expect to find in such a cold place. The found him shivering and waiting on the porch of a log cabin, bundled up with a puffy winter jacket.
His teeth chattered as he said with annoyance, “What took you? I was told you’d be here an hour ago. Did you get attacked by windigos or something?”.
Fire shook his head and nudged Shady forward, “It’s a long story, but not as important as the story Shady is going to have to tell us in a few minutes.”.
Spike seemed to understand and nodded, “Ok then, let’s get inside before we attract attention”. He got up and led the two tired ponies into the cabin, shutting the door behind him to lock the freezing weather out.