"Soooo, how is this going to work again?" Rainbow asks as she eyes the gun in my hand.

"Well first of all, would you be more comfortable firing while flying or standing on your back legs?"

"Is there anything that would like, knock me off balance?"

"Recoil. Whenever you fire the gun, it pushes back against you, Newton's law and blah blah blah. Basically it kicks back."

"Then I want to stand on my hind hooves. If I'm flying, I need to be able to keep myself balanced or I'll probably crash."

"Alright then. First things first I guess. Go on up." I say as I wave my hand in an upward motion. Rainbow looks down hesitantly before kicking up her forelegs, flailing around a bit, then balancing on her back legs. Never have I ever seen her standing like this, and I gotta say, seeing her standing at a solid five feet tall looks really strange.

"I-I don't know how long I can really hold this." She says as she sways back and forth. I walk up to her, placing a hand on her shoulder to keep her balanced.

"I'll support you until you feel comfortable, alright?"

"F-Fine... But just so you know, I wouldn't let anyone else touch or help me like this." She mumbles, her independent attitude showing. That's always been a big problem from her, never accepting help from others.

"Alright, so, do you think you can hold the gun? You should only need one hoof to hold it. You can probably do so by wrapping your ankle joint around the grip tightly. Usually a pistol like this is held with two hands, but you need your entire other hoof to fire. Luckily, you're probably much stronger than any normal human, so you should be able to handle the recoil." I explain as I hold the gun in front of her.

"So... just take this?" She asks as she takes the gun out of my hand. I have one bullet loaded in so that in the case the gun goes flying from her hooves, a second bullet won't be able to be fired if the gun misfired.

"Yep, then wrap your hoof around... yeah like that. Now, hold it up in front of you." I move my hand from her shoulder to her chest, now able to support her better with both hands free. I hold her almost in a hugging position to keep her standing upright.

"Now what? How do I fire it?"

"First, take the safety off by flicking that little switch on the side." Rainbow obeys, and turns the safety off with a simple flick of the hoof. "Now, see how there are these little, I don't know what they're called, indicators? Anyway, those things on top are called the sights, just look through them, and line up your target with the one in the middle at the end of the barrel. Once it is lined up, pull the trigger. I want you to hit that paint can on the fence right there." I point to a large, empty paint can sitting on the fence, and pat her chest once to let her know she is free to fire. "Oh, also, be careful with the sound. Guns are really loud, and from what I remember from that time we body swapped, your ears are really sensitive."

"Yeah yeah, I got this!" She says confidently. She holds the gun out in front of her, one eye closed to look through the sights. She uses her free hoof the pull the trigger, using the very edge of her hoof to pull the trigger back. Thankfully the trigger on this particular gun doesn't have much resistance to it.

*BANG*

A shot rings through the air, causing me to shut my eyes and pull my head back out of reaction, not to mention the ringing in my eyes. Damn, I'm such an idiot for not bringing ear protection. Rainbow, though her ears are pressed flatly against her head, just stares at the paint can which now lies on the ground with a gaping hole in it. Her mouth hangs slightly open, and the only sound I can hear is the ringing in my ears, and Rainbow breathing heavily.

"Rainbow, you good?" I ask as I pat her chest, rubbing my hand through her fur in a circular motion to try and bring her back to her senses. When that doesn't work, I try again. "Rainbow? You there?"

"That..." She mumbles under her breath. "Was..." A little louder now. "AWESOME!" She yells as she throws her forelegs into the air, the gun still wrapped up in one of her ankle joints. She does a 180, and looks me in the eyes before embracing me rather tightly. "Why didn't I do this sooner!?"

"Can't... breathe!" I gasp out as I try to pry her off of me.

"Oh, sorry!" She says with a sheepish smile as she pulls back. "It's just that, I haven't done anything so amazing in like, forever! I thought I was becoming soft from you and Star, but it looks like the ol' Rainbow's still got it!" She says as she points a hoof at herself.

"You calling me soft?" I say with a smirk. "I'm the guy who taught you how to use that damn thing, not to mention I'm thousands of times better than you at it."

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that." She says with a confident smile. "Load me up." She says as she tosses me the gun, causing me to wince a little before remembering that it is empty.

"You're getting good at standing on two fee- er, hooves like that Rainbow. Isn't that uncomfortable?" I ask as I load some more ammo into the gun.

"Heck yeah it is!" She says with a laugh. "But it's nice actually being on eye level with you without flying. I've never really seen you from this angle before."

"Same to you. Y'know, you ponies look strangely more like humans than actual horses, I notice that now that you're standing like us. Honestly, if you had hands and feet, weren't blue, and didn't have wings, I'd probably mistake you for one of us." I say with a slight smirk.

"Still 100% pegasus over here." She says as she points a hoof at herself. "Whether you like it or not." In response I just laugh to myself before loading the magazine back into the gun and handing it back to her with the safety on.

For the next twenty minutes, I teach Rainbow more about guns, sharing what little knowledge I have on the subject. Of course, she called me an egghead when I started to explain how chemical reactions made the gunshots possible and such, saying that I was being too much like Twilight by going too deep into detail. Hey, you can't blame a guy for liking his science right?

"That was really fun." Rainbow says happily as she hovers beside me as we walk back towards the house.

"Well, sure, shooting at targets is fun and all." I say with a sigh as I run my hand through my hair. "The thing is, will you be ready to aim it at someone, a living person?" I ask as I look into her eyes with a stern look. Her happiness quickly fades away after hearing my question, and she looks solemnly at the ground.

"W-Well... that depends. We're talking about the... what were they called? Daggers? We're talking about them right?"

"Yeah. Would you be willing to, y'know... pull the trigger if and when the time comes? To protect Star, or Emily, or even me?"

"Of course I would! I'm the literal element of loyalty if you forgot." She says with a serious tone.

"You say that. I told myself that once as well. It's really easy to say you could do it, but you'll never know until you're actually in the situation where it might be necessary. See, when I was a kid, I was really protective of my family, like I am now. I always visioned myself as being a hero, telling myself that I'd shoot someone without hesitating if they threatened me or my family. Of course, that's only what I though because I was never actually in that situation. Well, when I got kidnapped, I finally figured out how I'd respond to something like that. I wasn't like most people Rainbow. A lot of people, though they think they would, wouldn't have pulled the trigger, but I did. And you know what the scary part is? I didn't even hesitate to do it. Hell, I didn't even think about it until it was all over. Do you know why I'm telling you all of this?"

"Because you want me to be ready?"

"Because I want you to know your limits. If you just run in thinking you're invincible, you might not make it back out. You may think you could pull the trigger, but in reality, you might not, and that could really get you in trouble."

"I-I know... But trust me Matt, I can do it, I really can. I'm not proud of it, but I think I could pull the trigger." She says with a confident smile.

"C'mere." I say calmly as I grab her out of the air and pull her into an embrace. "My little girl's grown up." I say with a chuckle.

"I am NOT your little girl." She says as she smacks me in the back with a hoof.

"Keep telling yourself that shorty." I say as I put her back on the ground and begin walking again.

"And I'm not short! You're just freakishly tall!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." I say as I wave a hand over my shoulder.

"You sure don't at all." I come to a stop, and turn around to see a smug little grin on her face. "I mean, you snore SOOOO loudly." She says as she rolls her eyes for emphasis.

"Yeah? It's even harder to sleep next to a pegasus who can't keep her wings tucked by her sides." I retort with my own grin.

"H-Hey, that's a little personal Matt. You know I... have my problems when I'm that close to you." She says as a hint of red adorns her cheeks.

"Seriously, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were in heat 24/7, I swear." I say as I turn and begin walking again. Really, I only turned around so she wouldn't see me trying to not laugh hysterically.

"MATTHEW GREEN!" She yells. I don't even have to turn around to know I need to start running. Of course, a pegasus that can go 0-60 in less than a second is going to catch up to me. The air is knocked out of my lungs. I end up falling flat on my back just outside of the cabin.

"I suppose you want an apology." I say with a sheepish grin. I stare up at her, her magenta eyes burning with either rage or embarrassment, maybe a hint of both. She even snorts like a horse, a little steam coming from her nose in the cool evening air.

"Yeah I do! You know I can't control that kind of stuff!"

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry. Allow me to make it up." I say as I pull her down onto my chest, causing her to yelp as she is taken off guard. While she still wants to see made, she obviously forgot about all of that when her lips met mine. The moment is ruined of course when somebody walks out of the back door.

"Aw, what the fuck!?" I hear John yell out. I quickly open my eyes, and pull my face away from Rainbow's. Of course, when she sees John, she blushes deeply from embarrassment. "Seriously Matt, what's with the horse fetish?"

"I'm not a horse! Why does everyone keep saying that!?"

"Why did you come out here exactly John? Do you need something?" I ask, ignoring his outburst and Rainbow's comment.

"Yeah pony boy. We're packing up to head out soon." He says. For the first time, I notice the shotgun in his hands. Hm, I didn't know he even had that. Guess it isn't weird for a country guy like him. He probably uses it for hunting.

"Oh yeah?" I say as I run my hand through Rainbow's hair absentmindedly.

"Yep." He says as he pumps the shotgun. His eyes narrow, and his lips form into a sly, mischievous grin. "Gonna teach that son of bitch Jack a lesson."