Thunder Clap found a single roll of wax paper in the case along with a powder horn. Thunder carried the rife over his shoulder and made his way to the back porch. As he passed through the living room, the heat of the fireplace washed over him. His father saw him carrying the rifle and nearly spilled his coffee as he shot out of his chair.

“Where did you get that?” his father, Autumn Harvest, asked his son.

“The Boss gave it to me. It’s for somepony else. It wouldn’t shoot so he gave the project of finding out what was wrong with it.” The teenager replied happily.

“He’s trusting you to handle something dangerous? After what happened last week?”

“Yeah! It’s incredible ain’t it?”

“Where are you going with it?”

“Out back to test fire. The trigger mechanism had a sprocket that was snapped in half an’ the passage to the firing chamber was clogged. Nothing major I just need to make sure its shoots.”

“Do you know how to do that?”

“Yeah. I read over the schematics a few times. Come on! This’ll be fun.”

His father hesitated for an instant. He liked Midnight Spangle, but he wasn’t sure if his 17 year old son was ready to start taking on projects. The harvest was over and the barn was raised so all they had to do was tend to the animals. But after the transmission incident, Autumn wasn’t so sure that Thunder Clap was ready for something like this. The stallion thought for another moment before answering.

“Just don’t shoot the livestock.” Autumn Harvest said with a grin.

Thunder clap started thanking his father with rapid movements of his mouth before finally going out back to test fire the Silver Bit rifle. From what he schematics told him, he had to bite the hard end of the roll of wax paper off and pour the powder that was inside of it out into the barrel of the gun. His jaw held the hard end of the wax cartridge in place and he ripped it free with his hoof. Without spilling the powder everywhere, he dumped the black, explosive compound into the barrel of the gun. After the paper was empty, he tossed it to the side and took out the “ram rod” as the schematics put it. He used the long iron rod to push the gunpowder all the way down into the gun to ensure that none would be around the sides of the musket ball.

Keeping the ram rod in his left hoof, he spit the wax covered lead ball out of his teeth and into his right hoof. As easily as he could he pushed the lead ball, still wrapped in wax paper into the muzzle of the rifle. Once it was in a few centimeters, he used the ram rod to push it as far against the compacted gunpowder. Once the ram rod wouldn’t go down any further he returned it to its place under the barrel and went for the powder horn.

Not wanting to blast his other leg off, he put just a small amount of the powder in the pan and placed the iron plate over top of it. Careful not to use the extreme power of his right hoof, he pulled the hammer back and then put the rifle’s shaft against his cheek as he took aim at the tree directly across from his porch. He held his breath as the foresite lined up with the reticule at the end of the barrel. He quickly pulled the trigger as the site lined up on the middle of the tree and a powerful explosion deafened him as a bright flash took over the entire world in front of him.

The rifle in his hoofs kicked like a mule and knocked him on his haunches. He put the weapon down and rubbed his eyes with his left hoof. After blinking the white from his eyes, he saw the splintery hole in the tree, right where he had been aiming. A wide grin crossed his face as his father came rushing out to find his son on his ass grinning like a mad stallion.

“Son! Are you okay?” he shouted looked his son over before he notice something that was off.

Though most colts his age not only had a job but also had a cutie mark. Thunder always attributed his lack of on to him not having gone out and done anything other than work the farm. Now he had his first taste of the rest of the world and what the job he had could open up for him. Ideas flashed through his mind on ways to make the rifle more user friendly and ways to simplify the system of reloading it.

“Son?”

“Yeah dad?”

“You feelin’ right?”

“Right as rain dad.”

“More like lightning.”

“Hu?”

Autumn pointed his hoof to Thunder Clap’s flank and his eyes nearly jumped out of his head when he saw the golden lightning bolt striking air with a mighty white flash embroidered on his upper thigh. It took him nearly twice as long as the rest of his friends, but he finally had his cutie mark. Thunder Clap jumped to his hoofs and started squealing the manliest way possible in excitement.

“This is awesome!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Okay, son. Calm down. Ponies might start starrin’ at ya.”

“Right. Sorry.” Thunder Clap scrambled to pick up the rifle before running to Midnight Spangle’s work shop to prove his progress to his teacher. “I’ll be back in a flash!” (all pun intended)

Author's Notes:

sorry if this is underwhelming, but I have a lot on my plate at the moment so chapters are going to start trickling in rather then a steady flow.