Plinking (Patreon)

Another moment from my Royal Equestria Security Forces (RESF) anthro MLP dreamscape. While Chrysalis has recently had to engage in some serious shooting Link Coco Pommel has been able to do a much more relaxing version of it. 

     Rarity looked up from the sewing machine and stretched. From the living room she heard the pendulum clock chime 2 in the afternoon. Removing her red cats eye sewing/reading glasses she looked out the large French-style windows at the lush, rolling, forested hills of the estate. Bees buzzed in the flowerbeds outside the windows and barn swallows swooped and dove across the meticulously mowed lawn in pursuit of various summer insects. Also one could occasionally hear another sound. Not too loud but very distinctive.

    Krak.

    The unicorn got up and went to seek out the source of the sound. She needed to get up and stretch anyways.

     Being a member of the RESF could be terribly demanding work that entailed lots of travel, irregular hours, days of rigorous training, and of course the overall stress of being involved having to make life and death decisions. Sometimes on the drop of the hat. 

      For this reason all RESF members, and especially field operatives, went through rigorous screening before being accepted and had an extensive support network to help them cope with their jobs. The Royal Sisters understood the sacrifices they were making.

     But sometimes a pony just needed a chance to indulge in their favorite pastimes and hobbies. For the last month Rarity and Coco Pommel had been able enjoy some this precious and much cherished down time. After their vacation to Cabo San Luna Link, Link, Link the mares had expected to go back to the grind. However they found themselves cooling their heels instead in this glorious estate about an hour outside of Trottingham. The estate was owned by the Crown and on occasion was used for training exercises. But it also had something that both mares found far more exciting.

    A large, well equipped sewing room with multiple machines and space to work. Both mares spent lots of time in here, but Rarity in particular was almost living in it. She had a project she'd wanted to finish for quite sometime, and she didn't know when they might get the call, so she'd been working in the room everyday to finish her Top Secret project. 

    Krak. The sound was louder now as Rarity made her way down one of the trails into a grove beech and oaks.

    Coco viewed her target through the reticle of the scope. The target was unaware of her presence, although truth be told it wasn't aware of anything. The mare slowly took a deep breath then slowly let it. Then she pressed the trigger.

     Krak.

    50yds away the animal cracker shattered as the bullet passed through it throwing its crumbs against the side of the target berm. The berm was already littered with the remains of other crackers and shattered candy wafers. 

    Coco smiled lowered the rifle. With her right hand she depressed the side lever on the rifle and the action clicked open softly. Breaking the action the extractor partially popped the fired cartridge from the chamber. The mare reached down and removed the still warm piece of brass and looked at it for a moment. The primer had a clean strike from firing pin and the rest of the case looked just fine. 

     Depositing the fired brass in one of the pockets on the left side of her vest. She then extracted a new 5.6x35mmR cartridge from a pocket on the right side of the same vest and slipped it into the chamber. Then she closed the action again.

     The mare smiled and looked at the rifle in her hand. It was an elegant creation, bordering on being petite. It was almost as much a work of art as a lethal tool. The sun glinted off its gleaming coin-finished receiver, and in the sunlight the richly grained walnut stock seemed to glow. Even the scope and the suppressor were finished in a rich satin blue that nicely matched slim barrel of the rifle. On the end of the ebony cap adorning the semi pistol grip and on the top of receiver were 2 gold inlays. 

     One was Coco's own cutie mark. The other was Princess Celestia's. Her Highness had commissioned the rifle awhile ago as a way acknowledging Coco's services to Equestria. Link The mare had found it waiting for her when she arrived at the estate. Along with the rifle was it's carrying case, cleaning equipment, and 3 boxes of ammunition. Celestia felt this gift was a better recognition of her efforts than any another medal or certificate.  

      The earth pony shouldered the rifle and acquired her next target. The distance was only 50yds, but at those ranges hitting a little candy wafer or cracker was challenging. Especially from the offhand position, but Coco enjoyed plinking like this. It reminded her of when back when she'd been a filly and her mom and dad would take her out for a day of shooting at an abandoned quarry. She'd learned her fundamentals of shooting this way. 

     Another Krak carried across the grove. The suppressor was eliminating most of the actual sound of the cartridge firing, but Coco wasn't using subsonic ammunition. However the supersonic krak was much easier to deal with. Still the mare had earplugs on. She'd look into developing a specific hand load for it later. 

     Having shattered another animal cracker, Coco noticed Rarity approaching across the grove. She broke the action and extracted the fired cartridge. Then she started walking toward the unicorn. The birds and squirrels would make short order of the debris leftover from her shooting. 

    Besides Coco could go for a glass iced tea about now.