The Prism Head Hunter: Part 3 - Ready to Fight?

“... AND THAT'S FINAL”, were the last words the cruel official uttered before she stormed out the front door again, her minions following her shortly after.

After several other low-quality plates flew around the room, Pinkie spoke up again, much to everypony's surprise.

"Yeesh, what's gotten her so worked up?", she asked nonchalantly, much to everypony's surprise.

"A-are you alright, Miss Pie?", Pop Tart asked back. "She shot you. H-how are not, you know, b-bleeding out and ... that?"

"She ate the Devil Fruit, mate. 'er body's as bouncy as a rubber ball." Pip answered.

"Yep, bullets can't do harm to me." Pinkie brushed off her pink shirt and put her hat on her head again. Meanwhile, Candy Cane finished her tantrum. "Can anypony here tell me how it came to all of this."

"You really wanna know, Bubblegum?", Candy Cane asked, to which Pinkie responded with a nod.

"grunt"

About three weeks earlier:

It was a busy night at the Giggling Sugar Pot. Some new visiters arrived on their journey through, but most of the guests were the navy officers, once again here to get the taste of cantine mush out of their mouths and those who didn't have to report for duty the next day slept in the comfy beds the sweet familly had in store for them.

They laughed, they sang, drank and ate. Everything seemed to go well. Until Spoiled Rich stormed through the door, Diamond Tiara right behind her.

"LIEUTENANT DEAD MEAT! REPORT!", she shouted into the room full of tables and mugs of cider and beer. An orange earth pony with a red mane fell off her chair and ran to her, saluting when she faced her.

"Y-yes, ma'am. What seems to be the problem?", she asked sternly.

"Please tell me why I find you here, drinking, when it's your night to be on guard duty." The captain's voice was as cold as a snowpony.

"Oh, uhm, that was today?" Her apparent surprise was apparent. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I must've confused today with tomorrow. Please forgive me. I'll return to my post immediately."

Spoiled Rich looked around the room, counting how many of her underlings were present.

"Every soldier is to return to the base, RIGHT THIS INSTANT. You can thank this klutz. Now, MOVE IT."

The soldiers got off their seats, disappointed. Some of them went upstairs to wake the others, but in all that commotion they forgot to do one thing.

"Hey pig-face, none of them are gonna leave without paying their bills", Candy Cane interveined without even thinking about the consequences it might have.

"How about you pay a little more respect to the pony with the highest rank around here", Diamond Tiara returned.

"I don't give damn about her rank. I want my money."

Spoiled Rich slowly walked towards the christmas-color-maned mare behind the bar. Everypony in the room stopped in their tracks and felt chills running through their entire bodied at this sight. The only movement coming from their eyes, as they followed the menacing mare.

Once she got there she lifted her right front leg, a metal prothesis attached to it. But she was stopped by a sword on her throat.

"The mare just wants the money that your soldiers owe her." Rainbow Dash sat at the bar, eating away at a plate full of rice and sea food. Her bandana was bound around her neck like she used it as a napkin. "Why don't you just let her have that?" She took another big bite of her dinner.

Spoiled Rich answered with a pimp slap, which sent the swordspony crashing into the nearby wall, creating a rather large hole.

"How dare you hold a sword to my throat. Don't you know who I am?" She pressed a button on her prothesis and a big axe shot out of it. Rainbow Dash was just trying to get up from the stattered wood as she met the business end of the battle axe.

She quickly grabbed her sword to block the attack, but both of them were interrupted by Diamond Tiara.

"Wait, Mom." She examined Rainbow, who was still lying on her back. "Why would you risk your life for this cook?"

"She gave me food. That's the only reason I need", she said, extremely nonchalant, still little drowzy from the impact. "Besides, I'm not risking anything. I could beat her in 10 seconds flat."

Diamond turned to her mother. They exchanged a glance and she looked at Rainbow again.

"How about whe make this a little more interesting? You'll be our prisoner for one month. No food, one glass of water a day. If you survive, you will be free and this establishment won't be harmed. What do you think?" She extended her hoof. And Rainbow took it.

"You got yourself a deal, you little runt."

"Now you know what happened here, kid. Happy?"

"How did it come to that. How could a pony like her become a Navy Captain?" Pipsqueak broke out in tears. "Is that what being a Captain of the Navy means?" But Pop Tart was quick to calm him down with his calm and caring tenor.

"Hold on there, Pipsqueak. She wasn't always like that. She once was very caring about her family and this island. I don't know what exactly happened, but I once overheard the soldiers talk about a pirate and her daughter or something like that. It's a shame."

Pinkie finally stood up from the floor and made her way towards the door.

"Where're ya going, Pinkie?"

"To get Rainbow Dash outta there. She can't join my crew if she's dead, am I right?" And she left with a giant smile across her face.

Diamond Tiara looked at the tied up mare in the yard with a gloomy expression on her face. She felt terrible. She thought that if she treated Twist extra rough (but not too rough), maybe her mother would have let that be the punishment and that's it. But she just made it worse.

Getting other ponies to do what she wants, sometimes requires her to be an actress. And she's a good one at that. But sometimes things just don't go according to plan. There was a crashing sound nearby. And a terrified scream to follow.

"I'm so sorry, captain. It was an accident. Please, forgive me." Diamond Tiara came around the corner and saw her mother's bust shattered on the floor. The guard must've knocked it down.

"You disrespected me. NOW PAY."

"Mom, stop it!", Diamond pleaded as she tried to hold her mother back from putting her hoof-axe down, but she was instantly thrown against the wall.

"That's it, Diamond Tiara." She went deadly silent. "You have defied me long enough. Your pity against traitors will no longer be tolerated." Diamond's eyes went wide. She knew.

"Trust me when I say that the only reason why you're still alive is that you are my daughter, but that card has now expired. From now on, you'll be of no more value to me than any other pony on this island. Maybe then you'll learn where sympathy leads."

She must've forgotten about the whole bust-thing, because she walked away right past the still cowering stallion and right towards her personal sleeping quarters.

From the tears rolling down her face, Diamond Tiara knew exactly how Twist felt this day. She needed a little fresh air.

Pinkie Pie reached the wall that parted the town from official government ground.

She tried to do the same thing she did earlier. Grabbing onto the wall and catapulting herself over it, but this time it didn't go as planned. She tripped and now she was spinning uncontrollably in the air. Flying right towards a sleeping Rainbow Dash, headbutting her out of her dreams. Both squirmed a bit.

"What the hell are you doing here, again?", she had that wake-me-again-and-I'll-kill-you tone in her voice.

"I met that family you saved. That was so awesome of you. Just taking on that pig-faced diva." Pinkie was punching the air while re-telling what was told to her. "That hole in the wall is still there, you know."

"They probably don't have enough money to fix it. The townsponies have to pay that retarded 'extra tax'. I'm not surprised that they can't afford to go out. And the soldiers are all forbidden to go there until I'm finished here. That, or they're just too afraid. But they'll just have to wait another ten days."

"No, this'll be over much sooner." Pinkie stated bluntly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rainbow took it as an insult. "Are you saying I can't win this?"

"No, I'm saying, if you don't join my crew, you'll be dead soon", she explained.

"Threatening me isn't a clever move, scatterbrain." Rainbow got more agitated with every single word Pinkie uttered.

"I'm not threatening you. Besides, you couldn't beat me anyways."

"Just how weak do you think I am? If I had my swords, I would show you what I'm made of."

"Well, where are they?" Rainbow felt a little ashamed after her most valuable items were mentioned. Her father once told her that a sword should be a swordspony's most most treasured thing. And one of them was particularly special to her.

"Diamond Tiara took them. They're somewhere in the base."

"Hang on, I'll get them." And off she was. Directly headed towards the base. Rainbow just thought about how crazy she must be.

Pinkie had it easy, since Diamond Tiara was sitting right outside the front door. Her tears had stopped, but she was still thinking about what happened. So, she was a commener, now. She wondered if she could still sleep in her own room, if her mom would make her sleep in the sleeping quarters. Would she have to do the training every recruit had to absolve?

She heard the sound of hoofsteps drawing near and she looked up just in time to see the pink blurr picking her up and storming through the door. She expertly hid her fear behind anger.

"Let me go, you ... you ..."

"Relax. Just tell me where you put Rainbow's swords and I'll let you go." Diamond Tiara seamed quite surprised.

"They're in my room. Now let me go."

"First, you have to show me the way." Diamond obliged and guided Pinkie through the halls full of guards who all cleared the way at the sight of the captain's daughter being taken hostage.

They arrived in the pink chamber (that was almost as big as the Sugar Pot's dining room), where Pinkie disposed of her guide by throwing her on her silk-sheeted Queen size bed. Right next to which were three swords leaning against the wall.

There was also a window in direction to the open field Rainbow was kept in. There were three things Pinkie noticed.

First: It was almost sundown. She had to hurry up and get those swords to Rainbow Dash.

Second: Spoiled Rich already led the firing squad to the helpless prisoner. She really needed to hurry up and get those swords to Rainbow Dash.

Third: A familiar little foal with spotted fur was trying to free Rainbow of her binds. She REALLY needed to hurry up.

Pipsqueak was aggitated. Rainbow Dash told him to stop ever since he started to losen the knots of of her confinement. Both kept their voices down in otder to avoid any attraction.

"I'm savin' ya. You're welcome."

"I don't need saving. You don't seriously believe that that goofball is gonna get outta there alive, do you? Not with that crazy captain in there." Rainbow's mood wasn't any better than his.

"First, she will make it. Second, I'm not savin' ya from 'er. We are both tryin' ter save ya from the bloody pony who's currently readyin' the bleedin' firin' squad for your execution." Pipsqueak uttered that last sentence with such seriousness that it made Rainbow speechless for a moment.

"Didn't she tell ya? After that thing with Twist, the captain 'as ordered your deaf. Did ya get it through your thick skull, na? John Cheese and checkers, 'a tight 're these knots?"

Rainbow needed some time to realize what that spotted colt had just said. After three weeks of being roasted in the sunlight, soaked in the rain, left outside in the bone-shaking cold of the night, all without any food or water, she was gonna be axed off like a pig? It seemed like she could ask the executioner herself.

"Another traitor? Shoot him right alongside her. That low-life was with the Straw Hat. They all deserve to die. TAKE AIM!"

"Come on, hurry. Bite through them if you have to. Just get me outta here." Rainbow demanded, quite urgent at that.

"A'ng t'iing." He returned, the ropes in his mouth, in a fruitless attempt to free the blue captive.

"READY!" It was over for her. There was no way Pipsqueak could free her in time. Realizing that, she stopped her struggles and waited for the final command.

"Get outta here. If you're fast enough, you might get away."

"Forget it. 'a can I become a Navy Captain if I let such injustice 'appen wifaht givin' it my aw?"

"How can you become one when you're dead?"

"FIRE!"