Two hours of walking around and puzzle solving, there It was. A medium version of the mansion he and his friends ruined weeks ago.
That was the closest sniper nest in the map. Some good two hundred meters from the safe house, measured by eye and instinct. This nest was conveniently well place in the high ground made of a pile of rocks of all shaped and sizes on top of a hill.

The sun in the sky marked almost the end of the evening, with the sky and Its clouds starting to get that mixture of deep blue, magenta and the orange in the clouds.
Mane climbed the pile of rocks in silence and rested, laid down with his backpack by his side along with the silent musket.
He took out the binoculars and scanned the area.

The safe house was similar to the mansion, but a bit smaller. The walls both of the house and surrounding It were made of raw rocks, pilled and glued together with cement. Windows were somewhat rare in there, chances were for a good safety measure. A small garden in the front with a roundabout decorated with mountain flowers and other plants. Behind the safe house, a big wooden shack, probably gardening equipment... or a weapon warehouse.

One of the three chimneys was letting out some light grey smoke, indicating the house was indeed occupied, and that was not a vacation retire with guards in white suits and weapons at hands guarding the perimeter, constantly moving around and with eyes open scanning the environment.
Mane putted the binoculars in the backpack again, and pulled out the leather bags holding the bullets and gunpowder and opened them, ready for a quick reload.
He grabbed the musket and got into position, but something made him stop.

He looked through the iron sight, and they were too far away. Besides, he actually never shot one of those things ever, being the only knowledge he had was by observation of the cult soldiers and Pinkamena managing her sniper. And the thing had no scope! Clearly the previous owner had practice but not much or else he had killed Mane those hours ago at the first shot.

Shaker rested the musket in the rocks and started thinking. Stealth was never his thing, but in the last weeks he had to accept It. He always loved to go loud and in chaos, but this time there was no choice. Be spotted could mean a bullet in Pinkamena's head.

"Think Mane, think dammit!" He muttered for himself while knocking his forehead, searching for an idea. "What would my grandpa would say..?"

"...magic is not always the best weapon alone, neither a sword or a spear...." Mane meditated for a bit in his grandpa words.

"I see." Mane whispered to himself with a smile

He grabbed the musket again and positioned It again, pointing at the safe house. Mane closed his eyes and used 'clayvorance'. Inside his conscious, he had a tunnel vision from inside the barrel, and with focus and control in the spell, he created a direct line towards a thug's head, standing still by a wall from one of the sides outside the mansion. He rechecked if the musket's barrel was really aligned with the target, and with the finger on the trigger, he pulled It.

*ZPIIUUU!*

The silencer did Its job, and in his conscious under the spell, he saw the target's head receive the projectile by the side of his skull, spilling blood in the wall while his body fell in the rocky ground.

"Who needs a scope when you have magic." Mane laughed.

He crawled back and reloaded the musket quickly as possible with his magic. He lifted a handful of gunpowder with his magic and shoved inside a barrel and compressed It with his magic too, the same with the iron bullet.
Getting the musket back in position, he used the spell again and proceeded to the same tactic.
Another shot with another body going down. The force of the musket against his shoulder could tell the power of that weapon and giving a clue of Pinkamena's sniper before the modification in the stock to absorb the shock.

Back to another shot, his spell allowed him to observe the scenario, and from one of the bodies, a thug running to the gate. One of them had seen a body and was about to sound the alert. Mane panicked for a second and pointed the musket under the spell on the path the bandit was taking, and shot. During the running, the thug walked right into where the bullet would pass, and It got him right in the chest, stopping him dead in the tracks with an iron pebble lodged in his heart making It an instant kill.

"That was close..."

Another reload and back to It. That side of the safe house was clean. Looking through the spell, a thug was alone by a group of trees with his back turned to Mane's position. Easy prey...
He aligned the musket, and pulled the trigger.

*Cra-BAANG!*

The explosion in the barrel echoed through the mountains, while the bullet missed the target, hitting a tree instead.
Every mafioso guarding the place went full alert, running to inside the gardens and taking position behind the walls and the house.

"What the fuck?!" Mane ended the spell and crawled out of sight from the top of the sniper nest in panic.

He checked the musket, and the silencer was all cracked in the sides and It's end completely destroyed. It has worn out, giving the information that thing was something new nopony else knew about those, besides being homemade.
Mane unscrewed It and threw It away in frustration. He grabbed the binoculars again from the backpack and took a peek. They had no idea where It was coming from, only peeking their heads out in search for somepony in the distance.

"I got the echo of the mountains on my side, It's not like they know where I am."

Mane took a deep breath and crawled up the pile of rocks while pressure made his bode tense and nervous. Every shot had to count now.
He aligned the musket and used 'clayvorance' again. All of them were searching for him, but not like that, It was like they were looking for something else. He pointed at a thug with his head out of cover.

*BANG!*

Got him. Crawl back. Reload. Get back up.
The all seeing spell showed the remaining thugs outside looking at his direction. Weird... One of them turned to the others and said something. Three ran from their cover to the shed by the corner of the garden behind the house. Mane didn't shoot for the sake of his curiosity. They opened the door and pulled by a rope something, something huge and heavy.

A black iron cylinder on a wood support with wheels by the sides. The cylinder was about half meter long, with a hole in the center, in the other end by the support, a fuse leading to the inside. The thugs headed back inside the shed and brought with themselves heavy iron balls and some small barrels of gunpowder. The other mafiosos got out of cover and helped their mates pushing the big weapon forwards and carrying the equipment.
They all stopped by a wall and pointed the thing towards Mane's spot, which didn't move from his position, baffled by that weird conception.

The group opened a barrel and poured the gunpowder inside the cylinder, followed by a iron ball. They made sure It was pointed straight, and one of them lit te fuse with his lighter.
A flash of light and fire came out of the weapon, followed by a big cloud of smoke, covering the artillery and the group of goons. A second later, a huge explosion was heard, echoing all over the mountains and the vicinity.

With a loud shock and a crater showing up in the terrain, the cannonball landed five meters away from Mane's position in the dirt ramp, making the ground shake so much that was enough to make the pill of rocks where he was fall down the slope, along with him rolling down the dirt while he struggled to stop the fall and make sense of what just happened.

He managed to grab the roots of a tree popping out of the ground and he stopped his trip down the ramp. He looked in the distance and they were getting another projectile ready. By that point, they had seen him and they wouldn't miss next time for sure.
That thing was the new generation from the catapults and balistas.

"I need to get the hell out of here!"