I walk down the aisles of the Grocery Store, tipping the items I need into the cart as I casually sauntered by. Most of the items I need are right there, placed at the top to keep the kids from getting their hands on them, and I can't help but wear a confident smile as I skillfully use my wing to knock a Soda bottle down.The bottle falls straight into the cart, and fizzes as much as it can before lying in wait for some unlucky soul- probably Angel- to unleash it's liquid power. I contemplate putting it back and getting one that wasn't going to explode as soon as someone opens it, but decide against it as I imagine Angel's reaction to an army of bubbles assaulting him.
I walk my cart to the checkout aisle, and swiftly place my items onto the conveyor belt. The clerk gives me a warm smile, quickly putting all of my items into a bag. She looks nice with her light blue mane, obviously shortened as to not get in her eyes, and a dark blue coat to compliment it. She seems small, yet she somehow appeared more frail than I would've thought somepony of frame and age would allow. There's something about her though- something I can't place- that makes her look strong and independent.
"Excuse me, ma'am?" She says, getting my attention "Is that credit or debit?"
I stop my thought process, and respond with as much happiness as I can put into my voice right now.
"It'll be debit." I say, hoping that this will be quick.She presses a few buttons on her screen, and I fill in the usual information that comes with swiping my card. I grab my bags, which are somewhat heavy, but I can carry them with ease.
As I walk down the Parking Lot to my carriage, a group of three Earth Ponies come to me and stand in front of me, blocking my way. In a somewhat comical way, the smallest one turns out to be the ring leader of this tiny circus. He speaks first, while his much taller friends crack their knuckles, in an attempt to be intimidating.
"Listen, I'll be quick and to the point," The stumpy man says, his tone shaky and unsure, clearly evident with the reluctance to cause any harm. "Just hand us the bags in your hands, and we'll be on our way; there's no need to do this the hard way." I replied with a slight shake of my head, my face adopting a look of stubbornness and determination.
"I'm not giving you these bags." I said with a degree of insouciance, hoping my composure of nonchalance would be enough to ward away the thugs, I obviously didn’t want to get into a brawl. The small one spoke up again, his tone appearing much more menacing and hostile than before.
"Come on now, this doesn't have to be hard. I just got laid off, I need those bags for my family." A smile breaks out on his face, making him look more malicious and deceiving than his tone previously conveyed. "While we're at it, I'm also gonna need your Wallet to pay off my bills."
His groupies begin going around to my sides, in an attempt to flank me should this get violent.
His smug grin revealed to me that he’s obviously used to getting what he wants, so I decided to take advantage of this… by giving him exactly what he wanted.
"Alright," I say, holding the bags out so that he can take it, "just go right on ahead, take 'em."
With a smug expression on his face, he begins to reach out. Spotting a window of opportunity, I immediately brought the bags up high, using the gathered momentum I deftly arch them in a three-sixty, coming into contact with the tiny man’s thugs, unfortunately leaving him unscathed. The bags hit his friends in the face, sending them to the ground, and I drop the bags in time to sidestep away from the tiny man’s fist.
I wheel my right hand around, and ball it into a fist at the last second, so that it has a higher velocity than a usual punch. My fist connects with his face, twisting his head to the side and the momentum making him stumble backwards a bit.
I feel something hard hit my right side, and a fist punches the left side of my face. Pain spreads across my cheek as I fall to the ground, and make an attempt to get up. When I do, the tiny man punches me back to the ground. This goes on a couple times, before I learn and roll on the ground to trip one of his friends, and then get up. His other lackey throws a punch at me, and I duck as it flies above my head.
The leader takes advantage of my shortened stance, and kicks me directly in my stomach, knocking the wind out of me as a searing pain begins to spread through my body. I fall to the ground, sputtering and coughing, and can do nothing but curl up into a ball as they repeatedly kick me.
When they're done, my entire body is bloodied and I can hardly feel my arms. I stay in this balled state until the tiny man speaks up again.
"Celestia damn, you should've chosen the easy way and just handed the bags over, but you wanted to be a tough mare." I hear a clicking sound, and only have enough time to look at him before a switchblade knife digs into my chest.
The sting of the blade in my chest is unbearable. My lungs burn, trying to put air back into my body. He removes the blade, leaving just a searing pain and a gaping wound, and my vision begins to get blurry as black dots dance around in my peripherals.
The last thing I see is the Earth Ponies running off with my purse and what Groceries they could grab before running off. My vision goes black, and all I can feel is the blood staining my grass green dress as I black out.
