Crackshot slept lightly at his position atop Sugercube Corner. He was a dark brown unicorn who had moved to Ponyville from Appleoosa almost three months ago with his two children, Fire Blaze, his son, and his daughter, Starlit Harvest. He had been accepted into the Ponyville police department due to his special talent, which was anything to do with revolvers. If you needed something shot from several yards away, you called him. Usually, though, he served as a negotiator first, and a marksman second. He could put a bullet in somepony’s head from a mile away while they were swarmed with guards, but he’d be praying for them to stand down the entire time before he took the shot. Despite what most ponies think, based on his skill set, he prefers to avoid violence as much as possible. His sleep was interrupted by his communication spell, which kept him in contact with the brass at the PD. “Corporal Crackshot, this is Captain Firecloak, how ya doin’ up there buddy?” came the voice over the magic connection between him and the rest of the team, knocking Crackshot back to reality. He shook his head slightly groggily to remove the last traces of sleep, and bits of snow.

“Ah’m doin’ just wonderful, freezing my damn flank off up here is just great, how are you doin’ sir?” he replied sarcastically, bringing forth a laugh from the captain. If it were anyone else, they would have been chewed out on the spot, but not him. The captain and him had been good friends since they met when Crackshot signed up for the local police department. Matching each others wit, and getting each other out of many hairy situations.

“Oh, I’m doin’ just great, freezing my flank off down here on the ground, out in the open, waiting to meet a potential threat to all of Equestria, without a weapon. Speaking of which, he’s not showing yet. How’s everything on your end?” asked the captain, causing Crackshot to move to the ledge of the building and look around, knocking more snow off of both himself and the building. He couldn’t see much through the blizzard that was sweeping through town, but he could see his friend…. And something else.

“Hold on a minute, ah think ah’ve got something.” he said, using his magic to grab his custom made .44 caliber sniper rifle and position it so that he could see better. He looked around, trying to get a scope on his friend, but instead finding the target, a unicorn stallion, name unknown, along with everything else about him. All they knew was that he went by the name “Nex Herald”. He didn’t know what it meant, but the captain did, and had called it a sick joke. “Captain, ah’ve got an eye on the target, permission to fire?”

“Denied, this is a negotiation, not an execution. Don’t take the shot until I give you the signal.” he had a bad feeling about it, but he followed orders. He had the trigger of his rifle wrapped in his magic, waiting to earn his wages. He watched as the target approached the captain, and they began to converse. He mentally skimmed through the conversation, looking for the code phrase. They talked about a lot of things. The targets motivation, his reasoning, his mental health, but there were five words he was looking for. As he trained his scope on the targets head, he heard them. “Give his love to Rose.” That was always the code phrase when they worked together, because it reminded him of why he took the job, and gave him the motivation to pull the trigger, time and time again. Rose Thorn had been his wife, who was killed just the week before the move, murdered in cold blood. He pulled the stylized rose hair trigger slowly, readying himself for the recoil caused by his many self proclaimed upgrades, such as larger, higher velocity, armor piercing rounds.

“This one’s fer you darlin’.” he said under his breath, as time seemed to slow. It was like this every time he pulled the trigger. He watched as the barrel bloomed and the bullet moved slowly out of the barrel, towards it’s target, and thanked his wife for giving such a personal touch to his tools. Then, time returned to normal, and the bullet sped eagerly towards it’s target, who didn’t have time to react. Crackshot watched as the unicorns head exploded in a rain of blood, brain matter, and bone. He sighed, and shook his head. “They never listen, do they?”

“No….. they never do.”