Kill the five

Chapters

The hanged pony
The Sweet-Apples-Acres massacre
A new start
A taste
First day
The origin of Slit-throat
Death and vengance
A bloody dinner
A good reminder
A broken heart still bleeds
Family matters
Master and student
Hammer and anvil
Lesser evil
Heartbroken
The phoenix
A heart and an Apple
Homecoming

The hanged pony

Apple Bloom sat in a bar, leaning over the counter with a small glass in front of her. She took another shoot of cheap apple cider. The taste was comparable to donkey piss to the cider she used to drink back at Sweet-Apples-Acres but she forced it down all the same.

“You wanna refill?” The bartender asked. She was a brown unicorn with a dark brown mane and big blue eyes.

Apple Bloom was about to tell her to pour it down the sinker when she heard somepony entering the bar from the door behind her. She pushed her hat down and looked to her side.

The pony that had entered was a large stallion with a grey coat and a pitch black mane. His eyes were golden yellow. He walked stiffly and kept his head in line with his back, when he wanted to look to his side he had to turn his entire upper body. His body was marked by large muscles and his neck had a deep, crimson red scar right below the chin.

“Well?” The bartender asked again. “You wanna refill or what, honey?”

“No.” Apple Bloom flipped the glass over with her hoof.

“Alright, sourpuss.” The bartender rolled her eyes a little bit and picked up her empty glass. “What about you, Noose?” She turned to the large stallion who had sat himself down a few seats away from Apple Bloom.

“Beer.” He said with a hoarse, rasping tone. “And a large batch of peanuts with no salt.”

“Coming right up.” The bartender threw a towel over her shoulder.

“Actually…” Noose stopped the bartender. “Forget the peanuts. Give me a pair of apple slices in the beer instead.”

“Sure thing.”

Apple Bloom felt her heart skipping a beat and she stopped her breath. She glanced out from beneath her hat, she avoided Noose´s gaze but watched his every movement. He sat still, tapping the counter and staring into the air has he waited for his beer.

The bartender filled a glass with golden brown, foaming liquid and cut a bright green apple in half and cut two paper thin slices from each half. She put both of them into the beer and placed it in front of Noose.

“Thanks. How much do I owe you?”

“Two bits.”

He dropped two golden coins at the counter. “Here you go, sweet cheeks.” He winked at the bartender and she gave of a giggle.

Apple Bloom wasn´t even smiling. She tried to force a smile onto her lips but her face was pushed into a hard frown. She hid it by leaning her face on a hoof and tipping her hat forward.

Noose took a large chug out of his beer, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hoof and threw a glare at Apple Bloom. “So what´s your story?” He asked.

She felt the world freezing for a moment. He talked to her? Apple Bloom bit into her lip and considered ignoring him at first but decided to play along. “Lost all my money gambling.” She managed to force herself to sound somewhat cheerful. “What´s yours?”

He shrugged. “I just like to come here at the weekends. There´s not much else to it.” He took another chug.

“What about your neck? Did something happened or where you just born with a red collar around your neck?”

He put glass down on the counter and stared down at the bottom of the glass. “Something did happen. But it´s not something that I’d tell a complete stranger.” He looked up and smirked. “Even if she´s as good looking as you.”

Apple Bloom almost gagged when she heard those words. Her free hoof shook with anger beneath the counter. “In that case I´ll guess that you were born with it but you’re just too proud to admit it.”

“Are you calling me a liar?”

She was ready to call him every filthy word and name she could think off. “I´m calling you a coward.” She said with a somewhat bitter tone.

“I am a great many things but a coward is not one of them.” His eyes narrowed.

Apple Bloom agreed with half of that statement. “So if you´re not a coward, why don´t you tell me what happened to our neck?”

“He doesn´t want to tell you.” The bartender stepped in with a hard frown on her face. “Now could you please leave my bar? You´re bothering my costumers.” She pointed her hoof towards the door.

Apple Bloom pushed herself away from the counter and slammed the door on her way out. Outside the air was cold and the streets of the massive city were busy. She headed into the alley next to the small bar and waited.

For two hours she watched over the bar entrance, seeing drunken stallions and mares coming and going out of it, but Noose didn´t show up. Apple Bloom was beginning to suspect that maybe the coward left through some other door, perhaps the back door. She was about to start searching for when the door opened and Noose trotted out.

He lit a cigarette and took a deep breath before walking away.

Apple Bloom followed him down a broad alley way. He stopped halfway down, a puff of grey smoke flowed from his head before he turned to face her. He stared at her for a moment, studying her face. “Do I know you?”

“Does Sweet-Apple-Acres ring a bell?” Apple Bloom growled.

“Well I´ll damned.” He pointed at her with the cigarette. “The lost sister of Sweet-Apple-Acres. Wasn´t sure it was you at first.” He put the cigarette back into his mouth. “You´ve grown up. What was the other one’s name again? Apple seed, Apple heart?”

“Don´t you even dare mention her name.” Apple Bloom´s voice was filled with hatred.

“Oh, yeah. Should have known you´d be coming for that.” He took a long breath through the cigarette. “I´m not gonna try and justify what I did or plead for any kind of mercy. You do deserve your revenge and I deserve to die.” He exhaled and a wave of grey smoke flowed from his lips. “Thing is though I´m in no hurry to die and luckily for you I´m in no mood to kill either. So I´ll give you this one chance, walk away and I´ll leave you alone.”

Apple Bloom spat at his hooves.

Noose raised a narrow eye brow. “I´m one of the immortals. Do you really think you can take me on? You do remember what we do?”

“There is not a chance in hell that I´d forget. I´m gonna open up your neck, see if you actually bleed red.”

Noose threw his cigarette and put the ember out underneath his hoof. “Chance is gone.” He charged forward.

Apple Bloom jumped to the side. As Noose passed he´s back hoof came up and slammed into her side. The kick sent Apple Bloom flying into a collection of garbage cans before she crashed onto the pavement. Her hat landed by the end of the alley. It took her a moment to recover and by the time she did Noose was coming at her again. She only barely managed to avoid his attack by rolling to her side.

Noose turned and rose to his back hoofs and raised his front hoofs. He was aiming to slam his hooves into her skull.

This time Apple Bloom didn’t avoid the attack. Instead she countered by ramming her hoof into his stomach. Her hoof sank into the muscles and Noose was pushed backwards. He only managed to stop himself from hitting the wall by bracing against the ground.

Apple Bloom threw her hoof into Noose´s face. She could feel teeth being broken with the force of the impact and Apple Bloom pulled back her other hoof to slam down on him again. But Noose threw his own hoof into her barrel and Apple Bloom hit the wall behind her. The pain surged from her spine to the tip of her hooves.

“You´re a little tougher than I thought.” Noose spat out a broken, bloody tooth and his muscles flexed. “But I´ll stop holding back now.”

Apple Bloom took a hard breath through her nose. Blood sprayed from her nostrils. “look at that, the immortals bleed.”

Noose growled and charged. He raised his hoof and punch into Apple Bloom´s face.

Apple Bloom dashed to the side, blocked his incoming back hoof and countered the attack by slamming her left hoof down on his back, sending him crashing into the ground. She was about to climb onto him and smash his head into the pavement when Noose twisted around and his right hoof came rushing towards her chin. Apple Bloom only barely managed to avoid the strike by leaning back at the last second, but she overshot and lost her balance for a moment.

And that was all Noose needed. He swiped Apple Blooms away from under her and she landed back first on the ground. He raised his hoof to crush her throat beneath her.

Apple Bloom caught his hoof and stopped it just inches away from her throat. The hoof shook as he pressed down but Apple Bloom managed to get him of with one strong push. Noose stumbled back for a moment and it gave Apple Bloom just enough time to get up.

Noose stared at her with a blood shoot eye and spat out a drip of crimson saliva. Both of them trailed around each other for a moment.

Apple Bloom felt her back biting with pain each time she took a step and hear cheeks burned with fire underneath her skin.

“Ready for round two?” Noose´s voice grinded in Apple Bloom´s ears. “Bitch.”

Apple Bloom frowned and waited for him to attack. But Noose didn´t come for her this time, he just made a few fake attacks and kept his guard up. Both of the walked to the left and right next to each other. Apple Bloom bumped into something with her hoof. She threw a quick glance at the pavement. It was the lid from one of the garbage cans. She glanced back at Noose. He was still keeping his distance, biding his time waiting for Apple Bloom to make an attack.

Her hoof pressed to the pavement and she made one short dash forward. Just has she had predicted, Noose raised to guard and Apple Bloom kicked the lid up from the pavement and grabbed the edge. She rushed forward with the lid raised. When she got up to Noose she swiped it in front of her.

Noose managed to avoid the lid by ducking.

Apple Bloom pulled her hoof back and swiped the lid back at a lower angle. The metal screamed and bended as it crashed into Noose´s skull, turning his entire body so that his side ended up facing Apple Bloom. She kicked him in the ribs and felt the bones cracking from the force of the impact while Noose flipped over and landed with his stomach up. He quickly got to his feet and threw up a mouthful of blood. He smiled and laughed with a raspy, creaking noise.

Apple Bloom was baffled and stunned for a brief moment. “What are you laughing about?” She kept the lid at her side should he pull out some kind of weapon.

“You´ve punctured my lungs. I´ll bleed to death soon.” He said and coughed up more slowly flowing blood.

“Why the hell are you laughing at that?”

“Because I´m sure has hell not going to die begging.” He wiped some of the blood of his mouth. A smile filled with broken teeth, painted yellow by the blood, grew between his lips. “And that´s exactly what you want. Isn´t it?” He laughed again.

“Shut up!”

“What are you going to do? Kill me twice?”

Apple Bloom slammed the lid into his head. He kept laughing. She hit him again. He kept laughing. She hammered the lid furiously into his skull and he kept laughing until she finally felt the dome of his skull caving in. By that point the lid dug itself so deep into the skull that it held onto his head when Apple Bloom tried to pull it out.

She took a few steps back and wiped the blood of her face. She walked to the end of the alley and picked up her hat. There were five strings tied to the edge of it. She pulled one of them out.

Y´all may be wondering. Why in the flaming hot hay was I in Manehattan drinking cheap shitty cider, murdering a stallion with a blood colored collar? Well I´ll tell y´all why.

The Sweet-Apples-Acres massacre

It was a burning hot summer day like any other when it happened. I was filling up a bucket of apples for the eight time that day and my back felt like it was going to give in at any moment when I saw a gang of five ponies coming over the horizon.

“Hey, Applejack.” Apple Bloom pocked her sisters side.

Applejack fanned herself with her hat. “What is it, Apple Bloom?”

“There´s a gang of ponies going to the farm.” She marked with her hoof.

She squinted her eyes and scanned the horizon. And then her face grew pale. “Apple Bloom?”

“Yeah?”

“Head back to the house and tell Ma and Pa that there are bad ponies coming.”

“Who are they?”

“Just do what I say.” Applejack´s voice hardened and Apple Bloom decided to do has she was told.

Applejack galloped to meet her brother, who was collecting apples for the grinder at the far side of the farm. He didn´t know how to throw proper a punch but he was big and strong and may be able to help. She ran through the thick forest of green apple trees to where she thought Big Mac was working.

“Big Mac!” She shouted when she didn´t immediately found him.

There was answer.

“Big Mac!!!” She almost screamed this time and started rushing around the area.

“Applejack?” Big Mac appeared next to a filled bucket of apples.

Applejack drew a brief sigh of relief. “Head back to the farm while I find Granny.”

“Alright.” Big Mac decided not to ask why. By the look of his sisters face he knew that there was something serious going on.

Granny Smith was collecting apples from another district of the farm. It wasn´t too far off from where Applejack was now and she galloped to her.

Meanwhile, I was galloping has fast has my small legs would carry me through the apple forest, to the house were ma and pa were working. If I only knew how little it would have mattered.

Apple Bloom reached the end of the apple forest and galloped over to the house. Ma, a broad shouldered red mare with a golden yellow hair, was feeding the chickens and Pa, a crimson red stallion with yellow brown hair was fixing a part of the barns wall.

“Ma! Pa!” Apple Bloom shouted when she saw them.

“What is it?” Pa turned to her and ma trotted towards her.

“Applejack said that there are some bad ponies coming.” Apple Bloom said when she came up to them.

Both their eye´s widened.

“Apple Bloom,” Pa said. “Get inside the house and don´t come out until we say it´s okay. If you hear anything hide under the bed and don´t come out until one of us comes to get you. Okay?”

Apple Bloom nodded.

“Go.”

And I hid quite well, I managed to find a place on the attic were I could oversee everything that would happened through a narrow window. I really should have hidden under the bed or just jump out of the window but it was too late to go anywhere now and the window was too narrow for me to fit through.

Applejack shook down to her hooves at the sight before her. Granny Smith´s body hung lifeless from one of the apples trees limbs, a noose made of thick rope was wrapped around her neck.

“Damn, she took a while to stop twitching.” Said a raspy voice behind her. Applejack turned. He was grey with a short black mane, had a pair of small golden yellow eyes and had a red scar around his neck.

“Lasted a lot shorter than you.” A pony came out from behind an apple tree. This time it was a unicorn mare with a flowing crimson mane and cold blue eyes. A pink scar ran through her rust brown coat, over her lips, giving her a disfigured smile.

“I never twitched.” The stallion replied.

The mare didn´t reply. She drew a knife from her belt and licked the side. She stared at Applejack with playful eyes. “How many cuts will you take? One? Two? Maybe even three…” She pointed at Applejack with the point of the knife. “It all depends on where you are cut.” Her broken lips formed a grotesque smirk.

Her hooves trembled underneath her. Every bit of Applejack´s mind wanted to run but her body stood frozen is place and simple refused to lift even one of her hooves of the ground.

The mare chuckled, her eyes narrowed and she turned the knife around. “Maybe I´ll just finish this one of with one strike and let her bleed out.” She galloped forward, the knife raised high.

Applejack jumped to the side.

The edge of the knife gave her a cold, steely kiss and she could feel blood dripping of the side of her head. Applejack didn´t know where and how she was cut, all she knew was the she was still alive and that meant that he had to get back to the house alive. She galloped into the part of the forest that she knew would be the thickest in an effort to lose them, if they even followed her to begin with. She just kept on running.

Fortunately, the path through some of the thicker parts of the apple tree forest was no detour and she would be at the house within a minute or less.

When she was halfway there was a pillar of grey, rising smoke coming from where the house should be.

Applejack picked up the pace and started to hear screams. The smell of burning wood filled her nose. Burning wood and burning flesh. She reached the end of the wood and froze.

Ma was tied to a stake with a pyre of burning wood beneath her. She screamed in pain as the flames licked her body and burned her coat. Her golden hair folded into coal black strings. A pony wrapped in white cloth with brown burned skin surrounding his blue eyes stared at Ma burning at the stake with smile.

Pa laid still on the ground. His throat cut open from ear to ear and growing pool of blood formed from the gash. A skinny blue mare with a pink scar over her throat marked by vertical lines stood behind him. She held a sword over shoulder. The edge was marked by crimson blood dripping of it.

Big Mac´s skull was crushed under the hooves of an enormous, brown stallion. At first he looked like an earth pony but the remnants of a horn pocked out from his forehead. It was smashed with a black iron bullet pointing out of it.

Something grabbed Applejack by the back of her head and slammed her into the ground. She felt her nose breaking with the force of the impact. She felt the cold point of a knife being pushed into the back of her neck.

“Is there anyone left?” The voice of the scared mare asked behind her.

“Fuck you.” She said, somewhat muffled by the ground pressing against her mouth.

The mare behind her grabbed her by the hair, pulled violently and pressed the point deep into Applejack´s neck. “I´ll ask you again;” She twisted the knife and broke the skin, warm blood ran from the wound. “Is there anyone left?” She whispered the words with a toxic tone into Applejack´s ears.

“No.”

“Well that wasn´t so hard now was it?” The tone of her voice shifted to a warm and kind one. Then she pressed the knife into Applejack´s back. The steel cut through her skin and broke the ribs before the point cut into Applejack´s heart.

“Hammerhead.” The mare called and the unicorn with a broken horn walked up to her. “Check the rest of the farm.” She wiped the blood of on Applejack´s back.

“She lie?” He asked with deep voice and a slow tone.

“She told me to fuck off the first time I asked.”

Hammerhead stared with confused, wide open eyes.

“Yes, she lied.” She pushed the knife back into its sheath.

Hammerhead nodded. “I check house.”

When Apple Bloom saw the unicorn approaching the house she felt her heart jumping to her throat. The beating pressed against her pipes, making every breath a gasp for air.

She needed to hide, or should she run. If Hammerhead found her she would get killed to, but if she risked running the other ponies might catch her.

A cold wave spread from the back of her head and drops of sweat formed on her forehead. She looked down and saw her hooves visibly shacking. “I need to run.” She told herself. “I need to run.” The hooves wouldn´t stop shaking and she could hear the giant unicorn walking on the floor beneath. The planks creaked with every steep he took.

It was right beneath her now, only a few steps away from the hatch. Would he see it? It was only visible if you looked directly at and Apple Bloom had taken the hook that was needed to open up with her but one could still open it by pulling the hatch.

Apple Bloom pressed herself against the wall trying desperately to think of a plan. Run or hide?

Suddenly she heard herself breathing and immediately pressed her hoof against her mouth. Was it too late? Had the unicorn already heard her? The questions raced through her mind, and then she decided. “I´m going to run.” She whispered to herself and forced her breath to slow down. She pressed her hear against the floor and listened for the unicorn´s hooves.

The creaking came from just a bit farther away from her this time, almost beneath the hatch. She made a hasty plan in her mind. She was going to wait for him to open the hatch or open it when he was right beneath it so it would hit him the head. Apple Bloom just needed to reach the hatch without him noticing.

She pressed her stomach against the floor and began to slowly crawl towards the hatch, all while keeping her hear pressed against the floor. Listening carefully for the unicorn beneath.

There was no sound.

Apple Bloom was at first stunned by the silence but forced her hooves to drag her forward. The planks beneath her remained silent as she crawled. Eventually she made it to the hatch and now came to most dangerous part. The unicorn beneath had made no sounds, either he had left or he was listening for her.

She bit her lips and lifted the handle of the hatch, slowly, to make sure that it wouldn´t make any noise. Apple Bloom took a slow breath and lifted the hatch up.

The hinges creaked.

Apple Bloom froze.

The sound of hooves galloping on the floor below her came rushing towards her.

It all happened in an instant, Apple Bloom threw the hatch down and heard it hitting something. She couldn´t see what or who, but she heard someone grunting. She assumed that it was the unicorn and jumped down. The force of the fall made her stumble at the first steps but she quickly recovered and galloped down the stairs.

Apple Bloom had to assume that the rest of the gang where still in front of the house, so running out the front door would be suicide. She turned and ran for the back door. When she made her exit an open field spanned out before her. She galloped forward without a thought, without looking back. Even her vision forwards were blurred by tears streaming uncontrollably from her eyes.

“See you in another life!” A gargling voice shouted behind her as she made it into the forest.

I saw the entire thing from my little hiding spot. I saw Ma get burned alive, I saw Big Mac getting his head smashed in, I saw Pa getting his throat cut and I saw Applejack being stabbed. I wanted to look away but part of me hoped that they would stop, or that Applejack would fight them of. In retro respect, a small part of me is glad that I watched it. Because now I know exactly who I am after and what kind of deaths they deserve.

A new start

Apple Bloom galloped through the trees. She had galloped for hours. Through the thick forest, over thick marches and open fields. She eventually stopped. Her hooves started to bleed and her legs refused to take another steep.

She to the ground with a hard thump. Her breath still moved beyond her will and tears kept streaming from her eyes.

I couldn´t run. I couldn´t move. All I could do was cry. There seemed to be no end to the salty streams.

The little filly had no idea for how long she had run or where she had ended up. She only knew that she was far, far away from home. It made her feel just a little safe. The bandits couldn´t have followed her this far. Apple Bloom shifted her head and saw a beautiful dandelion. It filled her nose with a soft, lovely smell. And then questions started popping into her head. How would she make it back? How far had she galloped? And which way was home?

The world started spinning around her. Her head felt heavy and her stomach revolted.

The sour smelling fluid formed a yellow puddle that swallowed the dandelion in front of her. She put her hoof up to her nose and crawled away in a panic from the foul stench. She stopped next to an old oak and leaned on the rough bark. The taste of half-digested apples still lingered in her mouth. Apple Bloom almost vomited a second time but her stomach calmed down after a few moments. The same could not be said for the rest of her body. Her eyes were beginning to burn as the salty tears dried the skin around her eyes. She laid down next to the tree and shook with every breath, despite the warm summer day.

“Help.” She said with a small, weak voice. “Please, somepony. Help.”

There was no answer. The only sound where the leaves on the trees rustling in the wind. When the wind passed her by, Apple Bloom felt a chilling wave travel through her body. ‘

I wanted to scream and call for help, but I couldn´t. I´m not sure if it was because I was too weak or afraid that the immortals were chasing after me. Either way I was lost, cold, alone and everypony in my family had been murdered.

Apple Bloom put her head on the ground. Maybe she could lay here, fall asleep and never wake up.

It was a stupid idea, and one that I damn near went along with.

That night Apple Bloom dreamed of what she had witnessed. She saw Ma being burned alive again, her beautiful mane turning into a black shared clutch of hairs. Pa having his throat slit, a river of blood streamed from the gash. Big Mac having his head cracked open, his pink brains spilling out from the skull. And finally she saw Applejack and the knife that pushed into her back. Except it wasn´t any of the five ponies that did this time. it was her, she lit the pyre, slit open Pa´s throat, crushed Big Macs head and pushed the knife into Applejack´s back. She did all of it.

“No!” She screamed. “I didn´t do this!”

There was answer. Only the smell of blood and burning flesh.

Something poked at Apple Bloom´s head and woke her from her nightmare. Her eyes took a moment to adjust. The sun had set and the only light came from a lantern hanging from the staff that had poked her head.

Once her vision cleared she saw a tall unicorn with a dark blue coat and an ashen white mane. A grey beard framed his muzzle with streams of black. The beard was pointy and well maintained with a long mustache reaching down from his stiff upper lip.

“What are you doing here?” He asked with a hard tone while staring with narrow, green eyes.

Apple Bloom wasn´t quite sure what to say. She was still stunned by the fact there was somepony out in theses woods, maybe he could help her get back.

He smacked her with the staff.

“Answer.” He said and frowned deeply.

“I…” Just talking made Apple Blooms throat hurt. “I ran away from home.” She forced the words out of her.

“Why?” The old unicorn stared down at her.

“My…” The words seemed to stick to the walls of her throat. “My family was murdered.”

“By who?”

The little filly shook her head and stared at the ground. “I don´t know. There were five of them.” All of them flashed before her eyes. “One of them was an enormous unicorn with a broken horn, another was wrapped in bandages, and… and…”

“What is your name?” He stopped her.

“Apple Bloom.”

The old unicorn lifted her shin up and looked into her eyes. And then there was a brief moment where his lips formed a small smile. “Do you want revenge, Apple Bloom?”

Apple Bloom was stunned for a moment, but quickly answered. “Will you kill them?”

“No. If you want revenge, you´ve got to claim it yourself. But I can make it so that you can claim your vengeance if you desire it.”

Apple Bloom didn´t know what to say or what to do. If she told him yes, what would he do to her? If she told her no, then the killers would go free and he might leave her alone in the forest.

The old unicorn smacked her with the staff again. This time the skin on her forehead broke and she felt a stream of warm blood running down to the tip of her muzzle. “Answer.”

This was the most pivotal moment of my life. If I had given him a different answer I would probably be somewhere far from where I am now, or more likely killed by one of them.

“Yes.” Apple Bloom wiped the blood of her forehead. “I want revenge.” She glared at him with narrow eyes.

“Then come with me.” The stallion turned around and started walking. The lantern swung on the tip of the staff.

Apple Bloom struggled to get to her hooves. The wounds on her legs stung and her hooves trembled. Each step felt like walking on cold ice. The light of the lantern started to weaker and Apple Bloom realized something. He wasn´t waiting for her. She bit down so hard that she felt her jaw shacking and eat the pain. Her legs felt as if they were on fire and her head felt like it was filled with lead. She took a deep breath and trotted after the stallion.

“What is your name?” She asked the stallion when she managed to catch up to him.

“Nightglade.” He answered without looking at her.

“Where are we going?”

“I am going to my home.” He said. “You are going to hell.”

And hell was truly to come.

A taste

They had walked through most of the night. Apple Bloom felt her legs trembling and shaking with each step and the world swirled around her head. The lantern on Nightglade´s staff swung back and forth atop of his staff, spreading warm light around him in a yellow circle. Even though Apple Bloom was juts right behind him, the old unicorn never said a word to her or even turned to look at her.

Apple Bloom tripped and the ground came up to give her a hard punch in her chin. For a brief moment she saw white stars before her eyes. Then the world turned black.

Nightglade stopped and looked behind him. The little filly laid still on the ground, her mane was tussled with bits of leaves and broken twigs wrapped themselves in the red hair. He put the end of his staff on her barrel and waited for a moment. There was a slight raise after a moment.

The old unicorn´s horn started glowing and the lantern flowed from the staff and landed gently on the ground. Then he turned and stared at a collection of bushes with bright, pink leaves. He analyzed their height and distance from him. He took the staff with both his front hooves and pulled it apart to form a pair of short, pointy blades. He closed his eyes. With a series of swirling movements, the branches and blades of the bushes separated from the trunk and hung in the air around him. He sheathed the blades back together and opened his eyes. His horn started glowing. The flying branches stopped their descent and gathered up just above his head. He leaned the staff back on his shoulder and trotted silently back to Apple Bloom.

One of the branches hovered down and landed next to Apple Blooms head. Then the lantern ascended back to the tip of Nightglade´s staff before he turned and walked away. Regularly placing branches with pink leaves behind him.

Nightglade was old, sharp, skilled and far from patient. You may think what he just did was cruel but it only a small taste of the trials he would place on me.

Apple Bloom woke when the sun´s rays hit her eyes. The bright light stung and her first instinct was to turn away from the light. Then she woke up and looked around her. There was only the branch with a pink leaf. A cold finger moved up her spine. She was alone again. She grabbed the branch with a bloody sore hoof and stared at the trail laid in front of her. She put the branch between her teeth and bit down. She climbed to her feet. Apple Bloom trotted forward damn, near limping, and picking up each branch she came across on the way.

Nightglade leaned against a thick tree. The sun had set and a flame danced atop a small bonfire. He took a purple berry from a small mound of them he had gathered and ate it.

The fire cracked and a pile of twigs with pink leaves were thrown on the fire. Apple Bloom stared at him with narrow eyes as the flames turned the pink leaves to orange embers, flying through the air.

The old unicorn stared back at her. His hard, green eyes felt piercing but Apple Bloom didn´t flinch, and then offered her a berry.

The sweet juice that came from the berry when she crushed it in her mouth drowned out the dry taste of wooden bark. For a brief moment she forgot about the world around her. She closed her eyes relished the soft flavor filling her mouth until she had to swallow. When she opened her eyes she noticed the pile of berries that Nightglade had collected. She felt her mouth getting moist. “Can I have another?” She asked.

Nightglade took one berry in his hoof, held to Apple Bloom. She was about to take it when he tossed it in the air.

Apple Bloom barely had time to react before he snatched it out of the air and put it in his mouth. He then took another berry and held it towards Apple Bloom.

It was damn near taunting and it took me few times before I figured out what he wanted me to do. Even then I only managed to get myself one out of six.

Soon enough the berries were gone. “You are weak, Apple Bloom.” Nightglade whipped the purple juices of his mouth with the back of his hoof. “And you´ll probably be dead within a week with me.” He licked his lips to gather up the final bits around his mouth. “Luckily for you it will be the longest week of your life.”

Apple Bloom felt her heart skipping a beat and her face turned visibly pale. Despite the warmth of the fire she stood completely frozen. She wanted to say something back at him. Tell him that his threats were empty and she didn´t care, but it was a lie and what if he meant it? What if he would see this defiance as insult and he would kill her right then and there? Or just abandon her.

Nightglade stroked his mustache. “Get some sleep. I´ll heal your wounds while you sleep. Tomorrow we will begin the real training.”

Somehow those words melted her and Apple Bloom managed to get relatively quiet, albeit dreamless sleep.

First day

They entered the yard through an old wooden gate. The hinges where covered with old rusted iron and flakes of orange metal flew of as the doors where pushed aside. The yard was filled with white dawnstars. Petals lifted by the wind from the flowers flew in the air passed the two wanderers.

To her left, Apple Bloom saw a barracks lined up with all manner of different kinds of weapons. From swords to halberds and even a zwiehander, taller than Nightglade. To her right was an open field, covered in white sand.

By the end of my first week the damn thing was stained by sweet, tears and blood.

In front of her was the main house. An almost humble cottage with a patches of pink potato flowers growing before the patio.

The old unicorn stopped her with his staff. He looked down on her with hard eyes. “Choose your weapon and get to the training yard.”

Apple Bloom did as she was told without a word. She had no idea what half of the weapons where, let alone how to use them. At best she had only seen Applejack use a pitchfork or used a hammer herself. She looked at a short sword and picked that. The blade´s edge shimmered in the sunlight when it left its scabbard. The light was damn near blinding to her.

In the sand field, Nightglade was waiting. He sat with his back legs folded and his fore hooves resting on his knees. His staff was laid at his side.

He stroked his mustache and glared at her. “Show me what you can do.” He put his hoof back on his knee. “Attack me.”

Apple Bloom rushed forward with the sword.

Nightglade made no effort to avoid her charge. He just sat there and waited for her to get close.

Apple Bloom stopped herself halfway through her swing. Nightglade´s eyes narrowed and his hoof slammed into her chest, pushing Apple Bloom to the ground and sending the sword into the air. He picked the sword before it could touch the ground and pushed the blade into the sand.

“Why did you stop?”

Apple Bloom got up, quickly, before answering. “I almost cut our head off.”

Nightglade through his head backwards and released a loud, mocking laughter. He leaned forward and kept laughing into the ground. Eventually he stopped. “Even if I was blind and deaf, you wouldn´t have been able to hit with a sword. Let alone cut my head off.” He stroked his mustache. “I must admit I find your arrogance amusing.” He drew the sword from the sand and tossed back to Apple Bloom.

She picked up the sword.

“Now, try again.” He sat back down.

Apple Bloom charged. This time she wasn´t holding back. And if she hit Nightglade this time she might kill him.

When Apple Bloom was one step from him, Nightglade made a spinning movement with his body and avoided her strike.

The movement was so fast and so unexpected that Apple Bloom was stunned. She had never seen a unicorn move with such speed and grace. And then Nightglade´s hoof came crashing down on her shoulder, slamming her into the ground.

She spat out a mouthful of sand and climbed to her feet. Only to have Nightglade slam her a second time. Apple Bloom grunted and turned in the sand. She used the momentum to get her feet faster and at some distance from Nightglade.

Nightlade stroked his mustache. For a moment Apple Bloom thought that she could see a small smile in between the silver white hairs.

“Your swordplay is nothing short of worthless.” He kicked the sword of the ground and threw it back into its place in the barrack behind her. “Let´s see if you can do better with our bare hooves.”

Apple Bloom whipped some of the sand of her mouth and ran forward, hoping to tackle Nightglade to the ground.

He made one swift side steep, caught Apple Bloom with his fore hooves and she ended up with her face in the sand again.

She snorted the sand out of her nostril, turned and tried to slam her hoof into Nightglade.

A blue blur flashed before her eyes and before she could understand what happened she was being held just above the white sand. Something was pushing her fore hoof backwards, so hard that it like the bone was about to pop from its socket. The pain made her wince and made the blood boil underneath her skin.

“You can´t use a sword.” Nightglade said from behind her. “You can´t fight with hooves.” He stared out over the field of dawnstars for a moment. “Maybe one week was too generous.” He twisted Apple Bloom´s hoof around a little bit, making her scream and cry. “I´m thinking three.”

Apple Bloom bit down. Once when she was about five years old she broke her back hoof while playing in the barn´s addict. That time Applejack had been close. She picked her up and carried her back to the house. Apple Bloom recalled the pain she felt when first trying to step on her broken leg.

It was harder than this.

The skin on her lip broke and droops blood stained the white sand.

Nightglade released the filly and she gasped when she hit the ground. The relief felt like a wave of soft, cold water through her throbbing shoulder.

“Do you want this strength?” Nigthglade glared down at her.

Apple Bloom tried force her breath to slow down. “Yes.” She managed to muster the word between a pair of shallow breaths.

Nightglade stroked his mustache. “Do you want to die?”

Apple Bloom shook her head. “No.”

“Look into my eyes.”

The little filly lifted her head and stared back into his emerald, green eyes. They were sharp, filled with cold harshness that chilled her down to the bone.

“Do you want to die?” He asked again. His voice was just as cold as his eyes.

“No.”

A slight, faint smile grew on his lips. He picked up his staff and walked into the house. Apple Bloom trailed after at a distance. She limped slightly on her fore hoof.

“This is your room.” Nightglade pointed her to a room with a soft straw mattress, a small pillow and a thin cover.

Apple Bloom looked at the room in front of her. There wasn´t the smallest resembles to her old room back at farm. The cover was white with no pattern, the bed may have been soft but it was hard rock compared to her old one, the pillow was cold and hard. She hadn´t slept on a bed since the massacre, only on a hard log or moist ground.

She lay on the bed felt the soft fabric brushing against her coat. She shifted to find a comfortable position. Though she was far hungrier than sleepy, she felt like now may be the only chance she would have in a long time to get some rest. Apple Bloom shifted to another side.

The bed still felt wrong. For has long as she could remember she had slept in her bed back at her room. A cranky old thing with a fat feather mattress, a thick cover and large pillow she could sink her head into. Once she laid in that bed she fell asleep within a minute after climbing in it. In this one she laid with her eyes open.

It took me a long while to get used that bed. Along with everything else.

The old unicorn and the little filly sat opposite each other in front of the dinner table. A plate of steaming potatoes with green asparagus on top was standing in front of them.

Nightglade served himself two potatoes and began to peeling them with a knife. Next to the potatoes was a cup filled with golden yellow butter. Once the potatoes were stripped their skin he put a dollop of butter on them and waited for it to melt.

Apple Bloom had never liked potatoes, regardless of how they were served. “Is there anything else to eat?”

His eyes narrowed. “If you´re not going to eat the food I give you,” He leaned forward. “Then feel free to go and get your own.”

Apple Bloom, reluctantly, took a potato from the plate and started to peel the skin of. Her hooves were considerably sloppier and when she was done almost half of the skin was still there. The steaming root crop was tasteless and dried her mouth up. She had to take a mouthful of water with each bite.

While I sit here and eat overbaked potatoes along a miserable old jackass, let me share some of the tales that created the immortals.

The origin of Slit-throat

Slit-throat, the best swords mare in Equstria. At least that´s what I´ve been told.

The tale of the silent mare begins when she was only five years old.

The little blue filly lived in a small apartment with her mom and her ten year old sister. The mother was a prostitute and a grave alcoholic. She had gotten both her children because of her job.

It was early night and the sun was starting to set.

“You were a fucking mistake.” The mom said while pushing down a glassful of brown liquor and smoking a cigarette. “You and your fucking sister. I should have thrown both of you out in the trash when I pushed out of my slit.”

“Fuck you.” The younger filly said.

A drunken hoof slammed into the filly’s head. The skin on her cheek broke and drips of blood leaked from the wound. “Watch your mouth, Shadow Glider.” Her mother said with harsh, hateful tone. “One more word and I´ll break the bottle over your head.”

Shadow glider kept her eyes on the floor.

Her mother slammed back into the couch and filled up her glass again. “Now head back to your room and be quiet. I got a meeting in fifteen minutes and if he starts complaining about any noise coming from you two I´ll beat the two of you bloody.”

Shadow Glider pressed a hoof against her cheek and walked back to her room.

“Did mom beat you again?” A red unicorn asked. She was noticeably bigger than her younger sister and had a scar underneath her eye where their mother hit her with table leg. She looked at her little sister with kind blue eyes.

“It´s alright, Mono.” She wiped some of the blood from her cheek but a fresh droop fell from the gash. “She didn´t hit me that hard.”

Her sister´s horn started glowing as she lifted up a small piece of white cloth, at least it was once white. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Shadow Glider pressed the cloth against her cheek.

Despite being her sister, Mono always felt more like a mother to her than an older sister. She was always comforting her when she cried, rocking her slowly to sleep and letting her sleep next to her when she had nightmares. It was a whole lot more than what her mother had done to her.

They heard a knock on the door to their apartment.

Mono pulled her little sister close. “Don´t make any noise.” She whispered in her ear.

Shadow Glider nodded.

“Try and get some sleep.”

Shadow Glider crawled up in their shared bed and closed her eyes. She curled up to and her older sister crawled up next to her.

The apartment was always cold but it was worse now in the middle of winter. Not helping the two sisters was the sound of her mother moaning from the other side of the wall. The sound was about as false as one could get. Not that it was a sound that they weren´t accustomed to but neither of them could ever sleep when they heard it.

Shadow Glider felt her older sister pressing her hooves against her ears in an effort to mute the sound.

What neither of them knew was that stallion that had come to their mother was henchmen of a boss that their mother had stolen from. And he was there to teach her a lesson.

The moaning was cut off by the bark of two gunshots.

Mono froze. She knew exactly what had happened. Their mother was dead, she didn´t care. She just was scared shitless over the life of her sister.

Mono threw her sister under the bed. “Stay there. Don´t make a sound.” She rushed to press against the door but she was to slow.

The stallion charged in and started shooting wildly around him. Most of bullets hit nothing but moldy walls and furniture but one of them hit Mono square in the chest. She fell down and stared right at her underneath the bed. Blood flowed from her mouth. Mono stared at her little sister´s small, scared eyes until the world turned quiet and black.

Shadow Glider trembled. Her body shook out of her control and then she let out a small whimper.

Then everything happened so fast. A hoof came down under the bed and dragged her out from her hiding spot. She knew the face of the stallion. He was one of their mother´s regulars.

She tried to punch and kick him but the stallion was much bigger and stronger than her. He pressed her face into the floor, right next to her sister´s warm blood. A cold blade opened her throat and a stream of her own blood began to form a puddle on the floor.

The stallion whipped the knife on the cover and grunted. “Fucking kids.” He said with a dark voice before leaving.
Shadow glider laid on the floor. Blood ran from the wound on her neck. She saw her sister´s eyes. The blue sapphires that had just a few moments ago been filled with life where now cold and dead. Shadow Glider thought that she was going to die there, along with her sister.

And she would have been far better of had she just died then and there. But the cunt decided to live.

The filly pressed her hoof against the wound. Though she was bleeding heavily, the wound wasn´t deep. She took the cover on the bed and pressed it hard against her throat. The fabric quickly soaked with the sticky, warm fluid. With one slow movement she managed to get to her feet and tied a piece of a scarf around her neck. The knot got so hard that she was having a hard time breathing.

When she tried to walk everything swirled and it was a hard struggle to keep her balance. She knew exactly where she needed to go. Her desk. There was needle and thread there.

After a series of dizzy steeps, she made it to the desk. She pulled out the drawer and spilled the contents out on the floor. Shadow glider took a thick needle with a tread attached. She laid back on the floor, pulled the scarf off and started pressing it through the skin of her throat. Since she couldn´t see what she was doing the stiches turned out rough and uneven. Her skin was pulled to the point of breaking and every time she pressed the needle through her skin more blood came from the holes it created.

Once it was done she laid there. Exhausted, slipping in and out of consciousness. Dried blood cracked in her fur with every breath and her neck burned like it was one fire. But she was alive.

So the little whore borne filly survived having her throat cut. She swore vengeance. And ten years later she got it. In a bedroom, while he fucked another whore.

Slit-throat burst through the door, her sword unsheathed and her blood boiling.

He was mounted behind a skinny, dark green Pegasus. Both of them looked just as shocked to see the young mare charging for them with a curved blade but it was he who reacted faster. He pulled himself out of the whore and pushed her away from him. He was hoping that Slit-throat would be stopped by the whore long enough for him to reach for his gun.

Slit-throat´s sword split the whore from shoulder to waist. The blade cut through the flesh like a hot knife through butter. Blood sprayed from the two halves, filling the air with crimson droplets of soft, blood stained feathers.

“What in the fuck?” He shouted in terror.

The silent mare stared at him with piercing golden yellow eyes through the cloud of stained feathers. Under something resembling a smile was a bright pink scar with a series of uneven vertical lines overrunning it.

“Look,” He raised his hooves into the air. “what do you want? You want money or something?” Slowly, he made his way to the gun. “Where you just after her?” He nodded towards the corpse. “Because I don´t give a shit about her, okay?” He made a move for his gun.

Slit-throat lunged forward and the blade flashed.

The hoof separated at the elbow and landed on the floor with a wet splash.

“Aaaaaahhhh!!!” He screamed as blood squirted from the stump.

The blood splashed over her blue coat and a gentle sigh escaped her lips. She looked at the stallion in front of her. The corner of her mouth lifted as he squirmed around on the floor.

He climbed to his feet and stared back into her eyes. Whether his face turned pale because he was shocked by a realization or because he was simply loosing blood is unclear.

It didn´t matter to her. She raised her sword and released a flurry of shallow cuts onto him. He was soon painted in a coat of blood. He tried to say something but his lips were cut into a series of flabby pieces of wet meat and the only sound he could form where gargled and chocked.

She stared at him breathing. Clutching on to the last bits of his life. A life that was turned into a living hell. The sight of it made her heart bet with a rush she had never known. It was a trip of unreal pleasures and warm joy.

Then she slashed out with the sword and a new gash was formed. This one was under his chin and it wasn´t shallow. It was deep. Down to the bone and reached from one side to the other. A fresh flow of blood came from the cut.
Watching the blood flow out and roll up at her feet underneath her was a new kind of high.

And so the little filly got her revenge. Soon I will be coming to claim my own on the skinny little whore offspring.

Author's Note

Sorry for taking a while to update. :twilightsheepish:
I´ve been pretty busy of late. So many ponies to kill so little time. :pinkiecrazy:

If anyone finds any grammatical errors or other oddities it would be much appreciated if you point them out so I can fix them and know what I did wrong. :twilightsheepish:

Death and vengance

But before I chase after the quiet cunt, first things first.

Nightglade avoided Apple Bloom´s strike with a swift, yet simple side step. He pushed his hoof into her stomach. Apple Bloom flung backwards into the sand and swiftly rose back up again. Though the little filly had proved Nightglade´s prediction wrong a long time ago he still wasn´t treating her with any form of kindness or respect. He still hit when she didn´t answer fast enough or if she didn´t perform up to his standards. Apple Bloom was starting to get accustomed to getting hit in the face or shoulder when Nightglade shifted to her wrist and ankles on her hooves. When she got used to that he switched back. He always made sure that the pain was always present when she did something wrong.

Sometimes it didn´t seem to matter what she did though. Whenever the little filly learned a new trick or got a little bit faster the old unicorn would move even faster and hit harder. He was always stronger. Always faster. Always better. It didn´t matter what she did or how hard she tried.

“Get up.” Nightglade said after knocking Apple Bloom into the ground a second time.

Apple Bloom took a breath through her teeth and suffered through the pain her shoulders and legs gave her.
Nightglade stroked his moustache. “Fifty pushups with weights.” He picked up his staff and turned his back on her.
She did as she was told and placed a pair of ten kilogram weights to the backs of her shoulders. Just at the sight of them she wanted to throw the weights into a fire and watch them melt. The cold, black iron burned when it pressed against her skin. When she started pressing herself up from the ground the muscles twitched. They felt like thin strings on the verge of snapping. Each time she pressed up her fore hooves trembled.

“Ten…” She said, wincing. In the bows of her arms it felt like needles pressed into the flesh, scraping against the bone.

“Twenty…” She said a few moments later. Now the shoulders started to give in. They didn´t want to have the weights. They practically begged for her to remove them.

“Thirty…” Something snapped in her right shoulder. Had the bones dislocated? Did something brake? She couldn´t stop though. If she did, Nightglade would make her do something worse.

“Forty…”

“Fifty…” Apple Bloom turned and fell onto her back. She laid with her eyes closed, not moving a single muscle. Only her ribcage moved up and down.

“Are you in pain?” Nightglade´s voice asked.

“Yes.”

“Then you are still alive.” His tone was hard and cold. “Get up.”

The little filly could hardly believe what he asked of her. Apple Bloom had just used up her fore hooves to the point where she thought she couldn´t walk anymore and Nightglade still had more things in store for her?
She bit into her lip, breaking the skin and got up. Large droops of warm sweat dripped from her muzzle. She could even taste the salty water on her lips, drying the soft skin.

Nightglade traced around her. His cold stare pinned her to the ground. The tone of his voice was something between a grunt and a sigh but somewhere in there, under the sarcasm and bitterness, was a strange kind of happiness.
“Weak.” He said. “After months of training you´re barely any better than when I found you.”
Apple Bloom stared into the ground. Nightglade had grown to hate her defiance. Once when she sneered back at him one to many times and Nightglade almost broke her neck with a simple movement. After that Apple Bloom never raised her voice against him or talked back at him.

“What´s keeping you alive, Apple Bloom?” He asked. “Why don´t you leave or just die?”

“Revenge.” Apple Bloom replied.

“It´s a powerful desire isn´t it?”

It has been the only thing keeping me alive for the past fifteen years. My hatred. My rage. My vengeance.

“Yes, it is.”

He laughed. It was the same deep, mocking laughter he made the first time they fought and it was the second time she heard him laugh. “Hatred and rage are the killers of reason and thought.”

My hatred is my reason. My rage guides my thoughts.

“Which one is stronger in you I wonder? Hatred or rage?”

“Neither.”

He laughed again. “That´s good. Means you´ll get yourself killed all the quicker.” He shifted to a muted chuckle. “Now let´s get started on the next part of your training.” He turned and waved his hoof for Apple Bloom to follow.

She did as her master bid. They walked out of the old door. Apple Bloom had only been out of the training area when Nightglade told her to fetch water at the well just a few hundred meters away.

He led her past the well and into the forest behind it. The leaves had turned golden brown and were starting to wither from their branches. The ground was devoid of any flowers or grass. Only dead leaves from the trees covered the cold, hard ground.

They walked past an Oaktree, so old that the branches were turned white and lichens hanged of the limbs. The fibers of the lichens had the same cold white color has Nightglade´s mustache, although much worse maintained and trimmed.

The old unicorn led her around the tree. His horn started glowing and the ground in front of them dissolved into the air, revealing the entrance to dark cave. When they stepped inside the moisture formed by the rain fall dripped from the walls and smattered to the rock laid ground.

A few of the drops landed on Apple Bloom´s forehead and in her mane, breaking her focus as she tried to think about something else besides the pain in her shoulders and forelegs.

Nightglade trotted forward. He didn´t have a lantern with him. Instead he formed a glowing, white orb and let it hover just above his head. The cave soon narrowed and Apple Bloom was forced to walk behind her master.

The little filly never had any problems with narrow, dark spaces before. She used to crawl into the hills of snow formed during winter and make long tunnels. At least they seemed long to her. But the cave she was in now was nothing like the soft, white tunnels she crawled through in the past. The walls were covered with long veiny branches. The ground was covered in cold, moist dirt that send cold shivers up her legs. Slender, thin strings sprouted from the roof and tickled the tips of Nightglade´s ears. The old unicorn didn´t let it show beyond just flicking his ears in annoyance.

But Apple Bloom did notice. It was the only thing that relived her with the pain in her legs and the cold floor beneath her hooves. The little filly laughed to herself, quietly, so he didn´t hear.

Nightglade came up to an old wooden door. The rusty hinges creaked when he pushed the door open.

Behind the door was a large chamber with a small lake and a rock in the middle. The little filly took a moment to draw a sigh of relief that they were out of the narrow corridor. The chamber was large compared to the rest of the cave even if it still had the roots coming out of the roof and crawling along the walls.

“Get on that rock.” Nightglade pointed his staff towards the rock in the center of the lake. It was more than far enough of for Apple Bloom to get to it without getting into the water. And at first that was what she feared, that she would have to swim out to the rock but Nightglade´s horn started glowing and he lifted her to rock.

The rock was just small enough for Apple Bloom to be able to stand on her back legs and it was slippery has well, making it difficult for her to stay up.

The old unicorn sat down by the edge of the lake and stared at Apple Bloom. He stroked his mustache. And then he swiped his staff towards her. His staff was more than long enough to reach Apple Bloom and moved far too fast for her to avoid.

It swooped her legs out from under her and send her crashing into the lake. The black water swallowed her in one large gulp.

Apple Bloom couldn´t see anything, she couldn´t hear anything besides the water moving in her ears. The cold water filled up her nose and pressed deep into her nostrils. She scrambled and fumbled madly, looking for the surface or something solid. Everything was blurry and the cold water stung in her eyes. The little filly felt her lungs pulled inwards involuntarily. She didn´t shallow any water but she soon felt another jerk. This time it was harder to keep her mouth closed.

Suddenly she felt her hoof breaking the surface. It was her back hoof and Apple Bloom realized why she didn´t see the surface. She was swimming down.

With a clumsy movement and her lungs burning with desire to breath she turned around broke the surface. The air was a sweet relief on her lungs. She swam for the rock and only now felt her shoulders reminding themselves of their conditions. She could feel the pain bite and burn, despite the cold water she was in.

“Get up.” Nightglade said.

Apple Bloom climbed up the rook and now saw that the edge of the lake was steep and overhanging. It was practically impossible for her to climb out of the lake unless Nightglade helped her. She balanced on her back legs again and Nightglade took another swing with his staff.

She jumped up to avoid it and succeeded, but when landing she slipped on the wet rock and fell back into the water. This time she didn´t manage to stop her breath before hitting the water and the swallowed a large chug of it when the water engulfed her. Upon breaking the surface her shoulders began aching again, harder than they had before. Every stroke she made the muscles felt like they were tearing of the bones. She struggled to keep her head above the surface until she reached the rock. The filly coughed violently to get the water out of her lungs.

“Get up.” Nightglade said after smacking her at the back of her head with his staff for not getting up fast enough.
The filly climbed up on the rock and stood back on her back legs.

The old unicorn took another swing with his staff and Apple Bloom jumped to slowly.

Once again the water swallowed the little filly. This time she sank.

Apple Bloom descended down slowly. The cold water pressed into her ears and up her nose. She opened her eyes and felt like a hundred small needles pressed into them. She saw nothing but a black empty void.

This time I was considering just letting myself drown. They killed Ma, they killed Pa, they killed Big Mac, they killed Granny they killed Applejack. Death would have made it all go away.

Suddenly the darkness disappeared. Images flashed before her eyes. Old memories and faces. Ma taking her to the market, Big Mac carrying her on his shoulders. They were warm fuzzy memories but the just passed by briefly. Ma´s flesh burned on a stake and blood flowed from Big Mac´s throat.

Her barrel jerked inwards. The muscles on her ribs burned and she began swimming. When she reached the surface Nightglade sat on the edge, glaring at the little filly with his cold green eyes.

“Death is tempting isn´t it?” He asked.

Apple Bloom nodded.

“It would put an end to all of it. All your misery, all your pain, all your memories. Gone.” He stroked his mustache. “It would also be a damned waste. If you die here and now, all your efforts would be in vain. All the time you have spent here training would be all for nothing. And they would be getting away with killing your family. Living their lives while you turn to dust.”

Apple Bloom climbed out of the water. She started shivering uncontrollably when she stood on the rock again.
The sound of the old unicorn´s staff tapping the rock echoed in the chamber. “Is death still tempting?”

The filly shook her head.

Nightglade stroked his mustache. “Let´s put that to the test.” He swiped his staff towards Apple Bloom´s feet.

Apple Bloom jumped up and, to her surprise, she managed to land back on the rock and keep her balance. Even if one of her hooves was slowly gliding towards the water.

A subtle smile flashed on Nightglade´s lips. He tapped his staff on the edge of the rock. “Learning in just three tries. Either I´ve underestimated you or I´m making it to easy. Let´s find out which.” A spark flung from his horn and the glowing orb vanished. A pitch black darkness swallowed the chamber.

The only sound Apple Bloom could hear was the clanking sound of Nightglade tapping his staff on the edge.
“Is death still tempting?” He asked again.

Before Apple Bloom could answer the tapping sound stopped and was replaced the sound of the staff cutting through the air. Once again the filly was knocked into the water.

When she breached the surface everything was still just as dark and cold. She fumbled and felt around madly for the rock. The shoulders cramped up and she struggled to keep her head above the water. Every other breath she took was under the water and the rest she coughed.

Soon she started sinking. The water dragged her down and her hooves stopped paddling. A quite stillness fell over the little filly as the water swallowed her. The lake was so dark and cold yet so silent and peaceful. She felt her hoof resting on a cold, slippery rock. Apple Bloom pulled herself out of the water, shivering, crying, coughing, her arms burning and her body soaked in cold water.

“If you want it to end, all you have got to do is let go.”

Apple Bloom forced herself back on the rock. She stared at what she thought was Nightglade. Despite the cold and pain there was a fire in her heart.

“Well?” He asked. “What do you choose? Life or death?”

“Life.”

Death for them.

Nightglade stroked his mustache. “And pain.”

A bloody dinner

Apple Bloom adjusted her hat for the bright winter sun. She drove an old cranky car through the busy streets of Manehattan and had a cloak to warm herself. She stopped at a red light and glanced with a pair of sharp, golden brown eyes at the car in the lane next to her. The car was driven by a bright red unicorn. He talked on the phone and paid no attention to the stare that Apple Bloom was giving him.

The unicorn I´m scouting now is Logar, the right hoof of the Shade Stir, one of the most dangerous crime bosses in Manehattan. Famous for killing ponies he has a particular grudge against with a drawn blood eagle. He just so happens to be my best lead in finding Slit-throat. And Stir´s most trusted partner is my best trail to him.

The light turned green and both of the drivers drove forward. Apple Bloom was always at least a few car lengths away from him in order to avoid suspicion. She followed him until he reached the entrance of a large garage. The door closed before she could close.

Apple Bloom slammed her hoof into the steering wheel, just barely missing the horn. “Damn…” She cursed and chewed on her hoof.

After a few moments of thought she parked the car a block down the street and waited outside the garage door. She tipped her hat forward, wrapped the cloak around her and sat down next to the door.

Three hours later a car finally drove through. And to the vengeful mare´s luck it was exiting. When the doors came open and the car drove past she slipped under the door and into the garage. Apple Bloom glanced for anypony watching and pressed against the wall, letting the shadows absorb her silhouette.

She soon found the red car that the unicorn had been driving, but no signs of the unicorn himself. Apple Bloom searched the car and felt the doors. The back door was left unlocked. A coy, smile grew on her lips.

“Yes, I know about that.” A voice said behind her.

Apple Bloom glanced over her shoulder and saw Logar coming towards her. He had his phone pressed against his hear and his eyes were aimed to the ground. With a few graceful, yet silent, moves she slipped behind the driver´s seat.

“Yes, him heading to him now. Yeah, yeah I love you to honey.” He hung up his phone right before he stepped into the car and started the engine. Apple Bloom pressed herself against the driver´s front seat. She calmed her muscles and slowed her breathing down to make herself silent and invisible.

For the hour that came she had no idea of where the unicorn drove or where exactly he was going. But she laid there in his backseat. Completely silent and motionless. Not that it mattered all that much, the unicorn kept talking on his phone and the engine rumbled loud enough to drown out any noise she might have made.

Finally, the car stopped and unicorn got out. Apple Bloom could hear pop metal music, muffled by the car. She opened her eyes and rose like a lifeless corpse from the position she had placed herself in.

As if to confirm her previous suspicions the car was in fact parked next to a club. But not a nightclub as she had expected. It was a massive restaurant with a name written in letters Apple Bloom couldn´t read. She chose to assume that it some kind of foreign or exotic place.

She climbed silently out of the car and followed the unicorn into the restaurant. When she entered a wave of smells and aromas hit her. Everything from the soft tenderness of vanilla to the raw strength of red chilly. The combination of smells and sound seemed somewhat odd when compared with what she knew about Shade Stir.

***

Meanwhile Shade Stir sat next to a narrow table surrounded by his subordinates. Black Dynamite, a sharpshooting unicorn, Zila, a dark striped zebra and the leader of the brutal Bloodletters, and finally… Slit-Throat, the silent mare with a curved blade.

“So there I was,” Black Dynamite said. “With one jammed gun and one with only one bullet left against six really pissed of unicorns. All of them looking ready to turn my head to paste with just a thought. So I had to get resourceful. While one of them were preparing some kind of spell with his horn I tossed the jammed gun at him with enough force to brake his nose, but instead I managed to break his horn. And the spell he was about to cast backfired and five of the fuckers turned to dust right there in front of me.”

“And what happened to the last one?” Zila asked.

Slit-Throat took a shoot of clear vodka and twirled with bit of her purple hair while sighing. She was in no mood to laugh. Especially not at a story she had heard at least a dozen times before and found to be duller then the backside of her sword the first time she heard it.

“I shoot her right in the throat. At first I thought she was dead but when I looked closer she shot a spray of blood right into my face and kneed me right in the family jewels before I cracked her skull open with the back of my gun.”

Zila gave of a small laugh that was quickly drowned out by Shade Stir having a loud belly laugh to himself while slamming his hoof into the table.

“Fucking hilarious, Black Dynamite.” Shade Stir said, once he stopped laughing.

“You didn´t find my story funny?” Black Dynamite asked.

“Oh, no it was funny.” He shook his head to reinforce his statement while glaring at Black Dynamite with a pair of cold blue yes. “The first hundred times I heard it.”

Black Dynamite swallowed.

“Let me make one thing perfectly clear, Black Dynamite. I didn´t hire you to tell shitty jokes or boring stories. I hired you because you can shoot the ears of a stallion at two hundred meters away. So stop repeating that shitty, fucking story and keep your trap shut.”

***

Apple Bloom followed Logar into the restaurant. It was a massive place, housing about one hundred dinner guests at over thirty tables placed over two levels. Before the staircase to the second level was a large dance floor with about another thirty ponies dancing to rhythm of a band consisting of two stallions, a bright green one playing guitar and bright orange one on the drums. The signer was a mare. A white unicorn who sang with a soft, energetic voice.

Logar walked up to the restaurant’s owner, a chubby, yellow stallion with his wife following him around.

“What can I do for you, sir?” The owner asked.

“I’d like to be escorted to Shade Stir.”

“Now, why the hell would I disturb him?” The owner replied with a smug face.

His wife jumped up and smacked the back of his head before pushing him out of the way. “I´m terribly sorry, sir. My husband is an idiot. Shade Stir is on the second floor in the private VIP room.” She put on a forced smile that did little to hide her terror.

“Thank you.” Logar said with thankless tone.

“What did you do that for?” The owner asked when the unicorn had walked away.

“Don´t you know who that was?”

“No.” The owner shacked his head.

“That was Logar, Shade Stir´s most trusted advisor and his closest friend.”

His face turned pale and his jaw dropped.

“Do you know what Shade Stir will do to you if you piss him off? He´ll pull you lungs out from your back.”

His eyes widened and Apple Bloom walked past the both of them. The mare in the entrance had taken her hat but Apple Bloom insisted on keeping her cloak.

She followed Logar at a distance. He walked up the massive stair case and turned right. It took him a few moments to find the room he was looking for, by which time Apple Bloom had already figured out which room Shade Stir was in. She walked past the red unicorn without even looking at him. She leaned over the railing and pretended to watch to crowd on the dance floor below her.

When Logar opened the door to VIP room Shade Stir was in Apple Bloom caught a glimpse of a skinny blue mare. Her throat was marked by a series of vertical gashes with one large horizontal line crossing from one side to the other. Apple Bloom felt her heart pounding and her blood boiling at the sight of the mare. She almost charged right into the room right at that moment but stopped when she saw the rest of Shade Stir´s subordinates.

The door closed and Apple Bloom felt her body tremble. Had anypony walked up to her at that moment she would have smashed their head against the railing and tossed them over the edge. She wanted to see the silent mare dead. She wanted to kill.

Apple Bloom took a few deep breaths to regain her focus. She forced her heart to slow down but let the blood keep on boiling.

The music stopped. Apple Bloom turned her sight down to the dance floor and saw the band shuffling among themselves. It was the end of the song and they were taking a small break. The singer took a few chugs out of a water bottle and the guitar player replaced his instrument with a harmonica.

“Our next song,” The singer announced on the microphone. “is called at The Trickster’s Door.”

To Apple Bloom´s surprise it started rather calm and slow moving. The drum player tapped his drums very lightly and softly while the harmonica player kept his tunes rather quiet and subtle. Not that it was anything that interested her all that much. She was just angry, frustrated and in need of a plan. She walked down the staircase and headed straight for the bar.

“I find myself in the room.” The singer sang in a soft, sweet tone. There was something familiar about the tone in her voice. Something deep and familiar that Apple Bloom found it hard to put her hoof on.

“It´s just some damned song.” Apple Bloom told herself and sat down by the bar alone, next to stallion eating a soup so spicy she could fell a sting her eyes just by sitting next to him.

“I´m knocking on the trickster’s door.” The crowd on the dance floor moved a lot slower.

Apple Bloom kept a watchful eye at the door to the VIP room. Her plan right now was to wait for an opportunity. All it would take is that Slit-throat exited the room to go to the bathroom or refill her drink and Apple Bloom would strike.

The door opened but it wasn´t Slit-throat who exited. It was Logar. The red unicorn walked slowly down the staircase, past the dancing crowd and into the hallway leading down to the bathrooms. Apple Bloom saw him disappear behind a thick wall of ponies before entering the hallway. She took a moment to consider her next action.

The vengeful mare headed after him. He was far from alone in that hall. A couple stood pressed against the wall and a drunk stallion leaned on the wall with his head hanging forward. Apple Bloom decided that was no place for an attack and continued to follow him.

Logar entered the stallion´s bathroom.

Apple Bloom quickly decided to follow him inside. Thanks to the bathroom mirror she managed to catch a quick glimpse of the bathroom and saw no other stallions in there. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure that nopony was watching and slipped in. Logar was gone.

It was not hard for her to figure out that he had gone into one of the stalls. She quickly scanned the stalls in front of her and stepped into the one right next to Logar.

***

Back in the room Shade Stir was taking sips out of his red vine. “Still have no lead of who killed Noose?” He asked.
Slit-throat shook her head in response.

“He had a lot of enemies who wanted him dead. But the way he was killed. That wasn´t just some killer killing another killer. That was personal, which considering you and your friends, Slit-throat, doesn´t narrow it down either.”
The silent mare shrugged.

“SHADE STIR!” Logars voice shouted from outside the room. “COME OUT NOW OR I WILL HAVE MY HEAD CUT OF!”
Shade Stir walked, calmly, out the VIP room with his subordinates. He looked down at where he heard his friends voice. Logar was pale as a ghost. Behind him, a yellow mare with curved sword pressing into his back and pair of sharp golden brown eyes. He thought her fiery gaze was pointing at him but her eyes were locked squarely at the skinny blue mare at his side.

The vengeful mare blinked and pulled the sword away from her hostage. She made one wide swing and cut right through Logars neck, sending his head flying and his body falling. Blood sprayed from the stump formed at his shoulders. The crowd froze for a brief moment before galloping out. Screaming at the fountain of blood that just appeared before them. The singer looked Apple Bloom in the eye. Despite her white coat she managed to look pale at the sight before her. She and the rest of her band hurried after the terrified mob.

“Zila.” He nodded to the zebra.

“Silverstain!” He commanded one of stallions remaining.

A light blue unicorn rushed forward with a short blade in his hooves.

Apple Bloom gave him a slight look and slashed her sword towards him. His hoof came off with one clean cut and the unicorn fell to his feet. He landed next to the vengeful mare who finished him of with one decisive strike to his chest.
Zilas lip twitched and his brows sank into a deep frown. “Bloodletters!” He shouted.

A total of twenty ponies galloped forward and surrounded Apple Bloom. All of them armed with different kinds of swords and close combat weapons. Some of them had maces or axes but most were armed with short swords and wore striped black and white masks, regardless of their coat colors.

The vengeful mare made a harsh frown. She observed all of the ponies surrounding her. Her golden brown eyes meet theirs with a narrow, fiery gaze that kept any potential attacker at distance. She flipped the sword in her hoof and waited. All it would take is for one of them to break and attack first. Apple Bloom tightened her grip on the sword´s handle.

“None of you eager to serve your master?” She asked with a venomous, cold tone.

One of them attacked. It was a black stallion who charged. He came towards her right side, his sword drawn high to strike her head. “DIE!” He shouted.

Unfortunately, for him, his attack was far to telegraphed and far to slow.

Apple Bloom dashed on her back hooves and stopped his charge by pushing her sword straight through his barrel. There was a spray of blood when she drew the blade out. The vengeful mare grabbed the bleeding body and tossed it towards the Bloodletters behind her.

The corpse fell onto floor, taking the two Bloodletters who were trying to catch the body with him.
A brutish stallion charged forward. He raised his two handed axe and roared with large thundering voice.
Apple Bloom made a short jump to the side and saw the axe passing by her face as it cut through the air. The floor split beneath the head of the axe, sending a spray of splinters into the air.

Another attacker came towards her flank. His sword came crashing down and Apple Bloom blocked it with her own sword. She gave him a chilling look that froze him for a brief moment. And that was all that the vengeful mare needed. She rammed her left hoof into his stomach just beneath the ribcage, sending the air out of him. Then she threw him towards the center of the circle with enough force to make him trip over the axe. She ran up on his back and leaped out of the circle of Bloodletters.

Midair, she turned one hundred eighty degrees and cut open up the back on one of the Bloodletters on her way down, breaking bones and cutting through muscles. He fell to the ground screaming and squirting blood from his mouth.
Apple Bloom made a dash backwards to avoid the strike of an incoming mare. The mare´s sword cut into one of the wooden pillars holding the upstairs balcony and buried itself there. She tried to jerk it free. The vengeful mare slammed her hoof into the mare´s face, sending bits of broken teeth along flying with red rubies of warm blood.

Three stallions came after Apple Bloom. Each of them armed with katana swords. Apple Bloom managed to avoid the first two strikes by blocking and side stepping but the third one got to her and cut into her hoof, right above the wrist.
The vengeful mare winced through the pain and avoided the next attack by dashing backwards against the wall. Her heart jumped to her throat. She made another few strikes to keep the Bloodletters at distance, until they reached a second pillar, forcing the attackers to narrow themselves and come at her in a smaller line. Now they could only come at her one at the time.

Apple Bloom blocked the sword of the attacker to her left and let the edges press against each other until the edge of his blade reached the guard of hers. Then she pressed her sword down on his, cutting through the neck of the Bloodletter to her right.

Flinching by the blood spraying from the Bloodletter on his left the second Bloodletter had no time to react before the vengeful mare pressed her sword right through his neck.

The third Bloodletter watched wide eyed as his two comrades fell before him. The vengeful mare stared at him with wide golden brown eyes that quickly narrowed. Her lips were pulled into a deep frown as she drew a revolver out from under her cloak. The revolver´s hammer came down and a small explosion send a flying piece of hot lead that tore through the soft flesh on the Bloodletter´s neck and shattered the wall behind him.

Apple Bloom jumped back out on the dancefloor. She stared at the force before her as the tip of her blade scrapped against the floor.

None of them attacked, all of them stood with their weapons at the ready and doubt filling some of their eyes.

The vengeful mare took a moment to catch her breath. Fifteen Bloodletters remained not counting their leader who still remained on the second floor, overlooking the bloody scene. Apple Bloom put her revolver back into its holster and threw her cloak of away. At this point it was far more of a nuisance than of any help. A drop of sweat feel from the tip of her muzzle.

“Kill her!” Zila shouted. “Kill the bitch!”

This made the Bloodletters charge. They came at her like a breaching wave of steel and rage. The brutish one was the first to reach Apple Bloom. His axe swiped the air in front of him and Apple Bloom avoided the strike by lunging herself forward, over the axe´s shaft and summersaulting to the left of the brute. She blocked an incoming strike coming from her left side with her sword while ramming her right elbow into the brutes back knee. The brute went down and Apple Bloom leaned her back to his to catch two incoming attacks. The steel sang as it the edges scrapped against each other.

The brute rose and Apple bloom used the momentum to push her attackers back and take both of them out with one sweep of her sword.

A mare wielding a twin set of axes threw one of them towards the vengeful mare. Apple Bloom saw the axe coming towards her and avoided it by taking a swift step to the side. The head of the axe pressed into the brute´s back. He grunted in pain.

The mare threw her second axe. It was stopped dead in its track by Apple Bloom catching it midair with her free hoof. She parried an incoming attack and buried the axe in the attacker´s chest. He went down gargling blood.
Another mare came charging from Apple Bloom´s right. Their blades clashed and the mare spat a combination of droll, blood and teeth into Apple Bloom´s face, blinding her. The mare punched Apple Bloom´s chest and send her crashing to the floor.

When Apple Bloom looked up she saw a spiked mace coming crashing towards her head. She rolled on to her side and felt splinters spraying from the point of impact into her ear. Her momentum was stopped when she bumped into one of the Bloodletters. He looked at her with wide blue eyes. The vengeful mare pushed her sword straight into his stomach. She rolled in the opposite direction and she used the speed to get back to her feet. Just before Apple Bloom was back on her hooves she slashed her sword across the face of the spitting mare.

Back on her feet, Apple Bloom took the sword of the spitting mare and turned it in her left hoof and made a swirling series of motions with two curved blades in her hooves. Blood sprayed as the edges cut through the skin of anypony who got in their way. Limbs where removed from everpony who happened to be to close enough. She was a whirlwind of blood and steel fueled by vengeance and rage.

Shade Stir saw the spectacle before him with equal amounts of horror and admiration. A coy smile grew on Slit-throat´s lips.

When Apple Bloom stopped five Bloodletters had fallen and Apple Bloom had a series of cuts across her skin. Most of them were shallow gashes but one had managed to cut deep into left front hoof, down to the bone. She dropped the sword in her left gripped the other sword with both her fore hooves.

Remaining was the brute, the mare with a mace and three stallions wielding katanas. The brute had fire burning in his large yellow eyes as he reached back and pulled the axe out from his back. The other four looked at her with wide eyes and pale faces.

Apple Bloom raised her sword to her face and stared down the blade. She stood with her back to the balcony and saw a shadow move across the blood stained steel.

The brute raised his axe and prepared to charge forward.

Apple Bloom raised the sword then turned it to point it backwards and pushed it straight into Zila´s stomach as he was about to hit the floor behind him. He grunted as blood streamed from his mouth.

“DIE!” The brute roared with a thunderous voice as his axe was about to slam down and split the vengeful mare´s skull in half.

With a one lightning fast motion Apple Bloom pulled her sword out and pirouetted around Zila before pushing him right into the path of the brute´s axe. The head of the axe cut into flesh and smashed through bone and pinned Zila to the floor.

The brute stared baffled at the scene before him and Apple Bloom saw her chance. She ran forward with her sword, hoping to open the brute´s neck ear to ear.

But just as the blade was about to cut into his skin Apple Bloom felt the brute´s hoof ramming into her stomach. Sending her flying across dance floor, crashing into a bar stool and rolling up right next to the bar. Blood streamed from a fresh gash in her fore head as she quickly got to her feet.

The mare wielding a mace was the one who lead the charge. Everypony besides the brute, who was still struggling to get his axe out of the floor, followed her.

Apple Bloom took a step to the side to avoid the incoming ball of spiked iron. The mace instead smashed into the bar and the mare took another swing at after her. The vengeful mare took another swift steep back and leaped over the bar as one of the Bloodletters swords tried to slash at her side. She avoided another incoming sword and glanced of a third. She grabbed a bowl of soup from the counter and threw it into the faces of the three Bloodletters in front of her. Their eyes became yellow from blood shooting into them. Apple Bloom decapitated the one closest to her and jumped onto the counter. She pushed her sword into his shoulder, down the ribcage before finishing the last one of by cutting his throat open.

The mare stared at her narrow, enraged blue eyes and swung her weapon around her like a sledge.

The vengeful mare avoided the blows with ease. The weapon her opponent was using was far too heavy and clumsy for a pony of her size. The attacks were even more easy to predict now when she was just flailing all about her. Apple Bloom slid under one of her swings and cut her leg clean of at the kneecap.

She went down screaming and bleeding, clutching the stump where her right hoof used to be. Apple Bloom stared into those burning blue eyes one last time before she cut her head in half.

Behind her she could hear the brute coming. His grunting breath and loud steeps echoed in the hall.

The vengeful mare made one acrobatic stab over her head and pushed the tip of her sword deep into soft skin. The blade had reached down the opening of the brute´s ribcage, just below the base of his neck and was scratching the inside of his spine.

Apple Bloom pulled the sword out and felt blood spraying onto the back of her neck and heard a loud thump behind her as the large body hit the ground. She felt warm, ragged breaths escaping her lips as she turned to face the three ponies still standing at the balcony.

Shade Stir tapped the balcony before him and glared at Apple Bloom with narrow eyes. “Black Dynamite.” He nodded to the unicorn next to him. “Kill her.” He said with quite tone.

The unicorn drew his revolvers so fast Apple Bloom had a hard time seeing his pistols leaving their holsters. The muzzles flashed and she instinctively jumped to the side. Apple Bloom galloped alongside the bar´s counter. She heard the hammers releasing hot lead and bits of the bar exploding behind her.

The vengeful mare galloped to the end of the bar, slid on the floor and grabbed ahold of the railing at the end to get behind the counter. A bit of the floor exploded just next her and bits of hot splinters rained on her.

“Fast bitch aren´t you?” He said while reloading his revolver.

“Faster than you!” Apple Bloom shouted back while peeking out from the counter with her own revolver drawn. She took a fast aim for Black Dynamite and shoot.

The sharpshooter ducked out of the bullets path and gave Apple Bloom a harsh response by returning fire.

Apple Bloom just barely managed to get out of the way. The bullet smashed a bottle of clean vodka and its content ran out over the counter.

“I´m just getting warmed up!” Black Dynamite spun the cylinder of his revolver before slamming it back into it.

“And I´m just trying to get you pissed.” Apple Bloom said to herself. Despite that she never felt herself getting hit a warm red fluid ran down her right hoof. She stared at her leg and saw a large puddle of blood running from a wound on her fore hoof shoulder. The wound wasn´t deep and the bullet had only scrapped her but the bleeding was profuse. Apple Bloom looked around her and found a rag that had been practically drowned in vodka. She yanked it off the handle bar it was hanging of and tied it around her wound. The vodka burned like glowing iron when she pressed it against the wound.

A bit of the counter behind her was smashed into splinters by a bullet. Apple Bloom flinched and raised her hooves to guard her.

“Come on!” Black Dynamite shouted while firing again, this time he hit just above her head. Had she still be wearing her hat the bullet would have gone straight through it. “Don´t tell me you´ve died already! I´m starting to have fun!”

Apple Bloom grunted and took a few hard breaths through her nose. “No, I´m not dead yet. You jackass!”

A smirk grew on Black Dynamite´s lips. “You´re gonna make for one hell of a story.” He fired a fast shoot at the wall behind Apple Bloom. “Now come out so we can have some fun before I blow your head off.”

The vengeful mare grabbed an empty bottle and tossed it into the air before peeking out to take another shoot. She was meet by Black Dynamite aiming straight at her with both his revolvers. Apple Bloom barely managed get back into her cover before the bullets started tearing up the counter behind her.

“You really though I would fall for that old trick? You really thought I was that stupid?”

“Fuck off, you sharpshooting coward!”

“Who the hell are you calling a coward?”

“You. Your zebra friend at least had the guts to face me in close combat.”

He laughed. “If I´m a coward than you´re a fucking idiot, along with that dumb zebra.” He shot the wall behind Apple Bloom, purposefully missing her. “Now stop your taunting and get up.”

The two final words bit Apple Bloom. She felt herself jerking at the sound of them. She took a deep breath and let herself fall to the side, letting herself land just at the edge of the bar. Apple Bloom took aim and fired. The bullet hit the wooden railing.
The sharpshooter fired back and Apple Bloom felt he bullet wising past her ear, the sound of it cutting through the air rang inside her head. She took another shoot and Black Dynamite avoided it by mildly shifting his head.
He was about to shoot her right between the eyes when Apple Bloom rolled back to her cover. “I´m starting to get bored.” He said before shooting. “Maybe I should just finish you of right now.”

The bullet tore clean through the counter, right next to Apple Bloom´s right side. She took one shot over the counter without looking.

Black Dynamite didn´t even try to avoid it. The bullet buried itself into a pillar beneath them. “I count five shoots. You´ve only got one bullet left. Use it wisely.” He shot and the bullet came out right next to Apple Bloom´s left side.
She wanted to shout. She wanted to tell him to go to hell.

Black Dynamite grinned and shot. This one came out right above her neck on the left side. “My next bullet will be the one will the one with your name on it.” He pulled back the hammer and took aim. “Any last words?”

Slit-throat´s sword left its sheath and she made a horizontal cut in the air left to her.

Black Dynamite turned towards Slit-throat with wide eyes, staggering and stumbling. Blood streamed from a fresh gash on his neck. He tried to form some kind of words but only squirts of blood escaped his lips.

Slit-throat stared back him and slashed towards him again. This time she split his head in two, diagonally.

“What the-“ Shade Stir started but Slit-throat stopped his words by pointing her sword right towards his throat. The tip of her blade scraped against his neck. Her eyes where thin and sharp.

Shade Stir raised his hooves.

Slit-throat removed the sword and turned back to the floor beneath her.

Apple Bloom left her cover and walked out to the dance floor. Her sword in her right hoof and her revolver in her left hoof. Her eyes where pointed at Slit-throat with a razor sharp gaze.

The silent mare´s mint green eyes meet the vengeful mare´s golden brown.

A smirk grew on Slit-throat´s lips. She leaped of the balcony and down to the dance floor, just a good few meters away from Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom holstered her gun and took her sword with both her hooves. She held her blade in front of her and imagined Slit-throat being split right down the middle by her blade. The smirk on her lips had grown into a wide grin just before it withdrew and transformed into a stiff frown.

Slowly the two fighters walked towards each other. Both of their swords marked by blood and both of them hungry for more.

Their blades where about to meet each other when Slit-throat pulled her sword back and swung it to cut Apple Bloom in half. She blocked it with her own blade. The steel sang and sparked when the edges scrapped against each other. Apple Bloom pushed Slit-throat back and took her swing at her.

The silent mare avoided the attack with ease. She made a swift dash to the left and ended up facing Apple Bloom´s side. She took another swing.

Apple Bloom had no time to avoid it. She dropped her sword and caught it with her left hoof before it hit the ground. Slit-throat´s blade cut halfway into the sheath Apple Bloom had strapped to her side before it was meet by the vengeful mare´s blade. Apple Bloom raised her hoof to smash her elbow into the silent mare´s head.

Slit-throat jumped swiftly backwards, avoiding the attack before leaping forward like a cobra with her sword held with both hooves.

All it took was an instant and the silent mare was right above her. Her curved blade ready to strike down. Apple Bloom turned and spun on her back hoof, this time she ended up at Slit-throat´s side and she attacked.

Her sword hit nothing but air.

The silent mare had already moved out of her blade´s path and turned to face her opponent again. For brief moment a subtle smile flashed across her lips.

The smile enraged Apple Bloom for two reasons. It was both an insult and a reminder. She too a swift dash back and drew her gun. The muzzle flashed as the final bullet headed right for the silent mare.

Silt-throat´s sword released a splash of sparks and steam rose from the middle of the blade. The bullet was split down the middle by the edge of her blade.

Apple Bloom felt a cold shiver coming down her spine as the silent mare pulled the bullet right of her sword and tossed it aside. She tossed her revolver away and came at Slit-throat again. The silent mare did the same.

Both of them danced around each other, their blades exchanging brief and loud kisses while their masters fought. Behind Apple Bloom´s eyes a fire burned, behind Slit-throat´s eyes a fire had been ignited. It was a fight for vengeance and life. Yet not a single drop of blood came from either of them. Only yellow sparks coming of their swords when they meet.

After a few moments Slit-throat finally landed a blow. She made a deep cut across Apple Bloom´s chest and the vengeful mare pulled back. One hoof pressing against the wound and another pointing at the silent mare´s throat.

Slit-throat smiled at the sight of Apple Bloom bleeding. She put her sword up against her mouth, the edge pointing upwards. Her lips parted and her tongue reached out under the dull part and licked the warm blood of the cold steel.

Apple Bloom panted heavily and raised sword to guard. “Come at me. Bitch.”

The silent mare took her sword with both hooves and pointed it towards Apple Bloom with the edge upwards. She took one slow steep…

And swung the sword with enough speed to blur its shape as it cut through the air.

When Apple Bloom raised her own sword to block it she already felt the silent mare´s sword cutting through her shoulder. The blade was halfway buried into the flesh. Her fore hooves trembled as she pushed the blade up.

Slit-throat smirked and let the sword go with her right hoof. She raised it to slam down on the dull side on the blade.
In an action that was a more out of reflex than anything foreplaned, Apple Bloom let go of her own sword with one hoof and rammed it into Slit-throat´s lower jaw.

The silent mare was flung backward as an electric pain jolted through her skull and jaw bone.

Apple Bloom ignored the pain in her shoulder and lunged forward. She took her sword with both hooves and prepared kill silent mare with one final strike.

Slit-throat rolled out of the way. She quickly got back to her hooves and stared at her opponent. Her heart bet inside her chest. The blood boiled under her skin. The corners of her mouth raised.

The vengeful mare came at her again. The pair exchanged a series of blows. Both of them missed, both of them blocked. But none of them landed a strike.

Apple Bloom ended up behind Slit-throat, and this time the silent mare didn´t dodge. The blade cut across Slit-throat´s back. Apple Bloom could feel the blade moving over the spines and ribs. Bits of white bone stuck out of the diagonal gash.

Slit-throat screamed and moaned with pain. Her breath winced and her back got wet from the blood. She turned to Apple Bloom.

“That was for Pa.” She said. The tone of her voice growled with rage.

Slit-throat briefly raised a brow at what Apple Bloom said. She raised her sword and got ready to attack.
Apple Bloom responded by doing the same. She took a few deep breaths.

Both ran towards each other. The silent mare took her sword down and aimed for Apple Bloom´s legs. The vengeful mare took aim for Slit-throat´s head.

Apple Bloom leaped and swung her blade.

Slit-throat ducked.

They passed each other and stopped back to back. Apple Bloom took a few heavy breaths before falling to her knee. Slit-throat fell to the floor; a puddle of warm blood grew from her neck. Her eyes where wide but her lips where still smiling as the blood started encircling her head.

The vengeful mare leaned on her sword. She panted heavily and wiped a thick layer of sweat from her forehead.

A slow, loud clap started echoing through the restaurant. Shade Stir walked slowly down the staircase. “Good fucking job there.” He said while rolling his eyes somewhat. “You killed my best friend. My best killers, well most of them.” He nodded towards Black Dynamite´s corpse. “Still despite what you´ve done. I have an offer for you; work for me.”

Apple Bloom raised her brow in question.

“You´ll be well paid I can assure you of that. And it won´t just be money. I´ll make everypony fear your name, nopony will dear to challenge you.”

“Tempting.” Apple Bloom said with a dry tone. “But I got another idea.” She flicked her sword and put the edge up against Shade Stir´s throat. “You´re gonna sure that make the rest of Slit-throat´s friends know I´m coming. Let them now that I won´t stop regardless of who gets in my way and won´t have an ounce of mercy for them. Let them now that I won´t stop until every single one of them are cold corpses. And if you don´t I´ll come back and kill you with our own specialty.” She pressed the sword upwards, slowly, breaking the skin and drawing blood. “You got it?”

“You just killed some of the best fighters I have ever met. Not doing what you tell me to would be like hanging myself in a tight noose with a short rope.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Good.” She sheathed the sword and walked out of the restaurant. Just as she was about to exit she stopped herself to pick her hat out from the stage coat. Before she put it on she took one of the strings out from the edge. Three remained now.

Shade Stir looked over the carnage caused by Apple Bloom. Despite all that he had just witnessed one question still lingered. “Who the hell was that mare?”

Author's Note

Fuck me. These ones took a while. Sorry for taking so long, these were pretty long bits and my proofreader accidentally hurt his hand so that put them on hold further. :pinkiesick:

Either way, hope anyone who reads these likes them. :twilightblush:

A good reminder

“Vengeance is a murky, twisty road. When walking it, you must never lose track of your target. You must keep the mind sharp and clear with only the goal in focus. Lose your focus, you lose your target.”

“What should I do?”

“Get something that will act as a constant reminder of your targets and what they did. Something that will awaken the memories each time you look at it.”

Before I went on my bloodletting rampage in a quest for vengeance that was the advice Nightglade gave me should I ever leave. Something that will keep me remind of what they did, huh? I knew exactly what I should get, Nightglade.

It was a dark fall afternoon. The sky was grey and heavy droops of water fell on the ground, forming little brown rivers on the road and caking Apple Bloom´s hooves in mud. She wore a hooded cloak to protect her from the cold water as she walked up to the boutique.

She knocked on the door and a white unicorn came to greet her.

“Welcome to Rarity´s boutique.” She said with a kind voice. “Come in, come in.” She ushered the stranger in. “Anything I can help you with? Need a dress sown? Or perhaps a good raincoat?”

Apple Bloom folded back her hood and looked Rarity straight in the eye. She brushed her mane a little. “I want to buy a hat.”

“Oh, what kind of hat?” Her blue eyes sparkled with joy as she used her horn to pick over twenty hats down from the mannequins. Everything from fedoras to top hats floated above the two mare’s heads. But a single one was the kind that Apple Bloom wanted.

“I want a country hat.” She told Rarity in a plain voice.

The white mare was stunned. For a moment it looked like as if she might just drop all of the hats she was suspending.

“Is that a problem?”

Rarity shook her head. “Oh, it’s no problem. It’s just that I don´t have any in storage and it would take me a little while too make.”

Apple Bloom shrugged. “I have time.”

“Okay.” Rarity put the hats back in their place. “Let me just get your measurements.” She picked a set of measuring tape out of a drawer and wrapped it around Apple Bloom´s temple. The notion tickled Apple Bloom somewhat but she made sure not to move.

“Are your sure that you want a country hat?” She asked while rolling out some of the leather she was going to use for the hat. “It would be a lot simpler if you just bought one of the hats I have in storage.”

“Are you sure there is no problem with my order?” Apple Bloom asked. “You seem to be somewhat anxious about it.”
“It’s not about that hat exactly. It’s just that…” She paused before starting to cut. “It brings back some bad memories.”
“Oh, sorry.” Apple Bloom apologized. “I didn´t mean to offend you.”

“It’s alright.” Rarity´s smile returned, albeit visibly forced. “It was a long time ago. I shouldn´t have it affect the clothes I make.” She returned to cutting the leather for the hat and Apple Bloom sat down on a soft pillow. She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. Rarity hummed softly as she started stitching the bits of leather together. The sound was so soothing that Apple Bloom felt herself getting drowsy. The combination her tired legs and soothing melody produced by Rarity put Apple Bloom to sleep.

Like most times she slept, nightmares came to haunt her. She saw Ma burning again. But this time she wasn´t tied to a stake and the fire´s weren´t started by a pony wrapped in bandages. She started burning when she tried to hug Apple Bloom. The flames covered Ma in seconds, they blackened her fur and made her eyeballs burst into steamy fluids. But the flames didn´t hurt Apple Bloom. Even when Ma pressed herself against Apple Bloom, clutching her in her hooves and pressing her against her chest. The flames didn´t burn. They just felt like bits of soft, silken fabric flicking against her skin.

Ma screamed in pain as the fat beneath her skin started to melt and dripped from her body. Apple Bloom´s eyes searched madly for something to douse the flames. It wouldn´t have mattered if she did find something. Ma refused to let go of her. No matter much Apple Bloom pushed and struggled she couldn´t escape her mothers grip.
Even when Ma´s flesh had been turned to black ash and only a burned skeleton remained, she still couldn´t escape.

“Excuse me.”

Apple Bloom woke violently and was just about to ram her hoof into whoever woke her, when she saw that it was just Rarity.

“Where you sleeping?”

Apple Bloom nodded and rubbed her forehead. “I had a nightmare.”

“Well it was just a dream.”

Apple Bloom wasn´t sure whether to laugh like Nightglade or make a snarky remark. But she quickly decided to do neither. “Is it done?”

“Why yes.” Rarity´s horn started glowing and she presented the hat to her. It was a dark shade of brown with matching stiches, so small that Apple Bloom hardly noticed them at first.

“Beautiful work.” Apple Bloom smiled and put it on. It fell right into position, right above her ears. As if she had been wearing it for years.

Rarity shed a tear that ran down her white cheek.

“I don´t look that good in it, do I?”

Rarity wiped the tear away. “It’s just that you just look almost exactly like an old friend. She died years ago.”

Apple Bloom was about to correct her but stopped herself. “How much do I owe you?”

“Oh, it’s on me.”

“Thank you.” Apple Bloom smiled and tipped the edge of the hat before leaving.

Outside the rain was still coming down hard. The moment she stepped out of the boutique she heard the raindrops smattering down on her hat and saw the water dripping of the edge. A shrieking wind grabbed her coat and pulled it. The strings dug into her neck while drops of rain smacked her in the face. She looked up on the grey sky and saw flashes of lightning spreading across the clouds, followed by titanic roars.

Apple Bloom squinted for a moment before making her way to the center of Ponyville. The road was covered in mud with small, thin brown rivers running in little creaks and puddles. The ground was cold and wet beneath Apple Bloom´s hooves. She recognized an old store standing in a street corner.

At this point I felt both like an old mare, nostalgically visiting the town I grew up in and a complete stranger passing by a place I have never seen before in my life.

She stared into the storefront with her golden brown eyes. The lights were turned off and only a soft grey light filled the store, making it hard for Apple Bloom to see anything inside.

A thunder bolt cracked across the sky and a bright, white light flashed across Ponyville. For a brief moment Apple Bloom could see what was hidden behind the glass window. A collection of bakeries and cakes standing on top of plates. Each one of them covered in colorful glazing and some of them were decorated with beautiful marzipan roses. The sight of them made Apple Bloom´s mouth water. She sighed and leaned against the wall. “Don´t forget why you are here.” She told herself.

Apple Bloom wandered past the city hall and made for the edge of Ponyville. She was heading for a more neglected part of the town.

The graveyard was as dim and grey as the sky above it. Tombstones were either overgrown with vines or worn down by elements. Only the resent ones were still easily readable. Despite that it only took Apple Bloom a few moments to find the graves she was looking for.

A set of six tombstones stood in line next to each other.

“Applejack.” She read on the first. “Daughter, sister, friend.”

“Big Macintosh.” She read on the second. “Son, brother, friend.”

When Apple Bloom tried to read the rest she felt tears blurring her vision and the hard lump that had been growing in her throat stopped the words from escaping. She fell to the ground and her hooves started shivering as if she was bitten by harsh cold. Tears ran from her eyes until they started to burn, she cried until her lungs started to ache.

She stayed like this until she saw the sixth tombstone. Apple Bloom got up, wiped away her tears and read the text on it.

“Apple Bloom.” She read. “Daughter, sister, friend.” Her hooves started to tremble and her eyes formed a harsh frown. With one turn on her back hoof she used the momentum of the turn to knock the tombstone over. It hit the ground while Apple Bloom had her back faced to it. She turned and looked down on the fallen stone.

“I am not dead.” She said to the tombstone. “Ya hear that?” She slammed her hoof down on the text and rubbed. “I am not fucking dead.” She stomped on the tombstone until she saw blood mixing with the rain. She turned to the other graves. “And I will avenge you.”

Apple Bloom tore five pieces of string from her coat and sewed them into the hat´s edge.

“Five.” She said, quietly, before the thunder roared again.

A broken heart still bleeds

The early morning sun shun brightly on the beach. Winter just starting to lose its grip and only a thin blanket of dry snow remained on the bright sand. The sky was cold and blue, not a single cloud in sight. A strong wind pushed the sea to form waves breaching on the shore line. The cold smell of salt filled the air.

“So let things straight, your telling me that some crazy cunt chopped her way through all of Zilas Bloodletters, got Black Dynamite and Slit-throat with only one revolver and a katana?” Heartbreaker scratched the back of her head and pushed her hoof over her crimson mane.

“No,” Shade Stir replied. “she killed Zila and all his Bloodletters and Black Dynamite was about to get her when Slit-throat decided to split his skull in half. For some reason.”

Heartbreaker laughed. “She always was a mad mare.”

“Know why she did it?”

She shrugged. “Slit-throat wasn´t exactly the most talkative pony in the world. It was always hard to tell what exactly she was thinking. I guess she thought that mare would make for a good fight. And from what your telling me it seems that she was right. Any idea who she was?”

“That’s part of the reason why I´m here. Seems to me that she killed Noose first, before coming after Slit-throat. Not to mention that she told me to make sure that the rest of her friends know that she´s coming. Seems to me that she has some kind of history with you and the remaining Immortals.”

“Told Cinder yet?”

“I did and seemed to know who she was but then refused to tell me. His brother wasn´t much use either.”
Heartbreaker´s horn started glowing and she elevated a six pack of beers out of the ocean. “So what did she look like?” She asked after opening the first can.

“Red mane, yellow coat, golden brown eyes. Young, had a bit of an accent.”

“Doesn´t ring a bell.” She took a few chugs out of the can.

“You sure?”

“We´ve been at this for so many years and even more ponies have come after us I´m honestly surprised nopony has managed to start hunting us down sooner. Whatever we´ve done it must have sure as hell pissed her off.” She took another chug and gave Shade Stir a harsh stare with her cold blue eyes. “You do realize that by coming here you may have just lead that mare right to me?”

“Of course I do. Don´t think it matters though. She managed to track me down, find and kill Noose before that. I think she´ll find you sooner or later regardless of what I do.”

“So why did come here?”

“I already told you. She told me to make sure that the rest of you know that she´s coming.”

“Bold cunt.”

“She cut her way through twenty specially trained ponies, all with different weapons and skills and she made damn sure that we knew she was coming. And not to mention she somehow managed to get Slit-throat even after cutting up every single Bloodletter. I´d say she has earned the right to bold.”

“We´ll see how she fares against two of us at the once.”

“Think you´ll get her?”

“We´ll kill her. I may not know who the hell this crazy cunt is but she made it personal the moment she killed Noose.”

Shade Stir chuckled. “Betting both your lives in dangerous game like this. Now I´m starting to wonder who´s bold.”

Heartbreaker drew a knife from her hoof and pressed the tip under Shade Stir´s chin. “I may be bold, but I´m no cunt.”

“Are you trying to scare me?” Shade Stir chuckled and meet Heartbreaker´s gaze. He took the blade in his hoof and pressed down until steaming blood dripped onto the white snow. “Between you and that sword swinging, sharpshooting, vengeful mare… I´d rather take my chances with you.” Both their hooves trembled as Shade Stir pressed down.

Heartbreaker´s face formed a hard frown. Her eyes narrowed into small, sharp gashes and she felt her heart making hard, loud beats in her chest. She blinked and heard the muscle beating inside her barrel like a loud, thundering drum. She opened her eyes again and stared right back at Shade Stir. The corners of his mouth had formed a cocky grin. With her free hoof she drew another knife from her belt and stabbed Shade Stir right in the groin.

Shade Stir´s eyes widened and his face turned pale when the knife pressed into the flesh between his legs. His grip on the knife under his chin loosened.

“It´s a dangerous game alright.” Heartbreaker said and pressed the knife through his jaw and twisted the knife between his legs. “And you just got snake eyes.” A jolt of pain spread from Heartbreaker´s chest. She let go of both of the knifes and put a hoof against her chest. Every time her heart beat she felt an electric wave of pain spreading from her barrel.

Shade Stir fell to the ground. Pools of blood spread from his jaw and his groin. He managed to get the knife from his under jaw out but the knife between his legs just tore of more flesh as he moved. Above him he could see Heartbreaker struggling to breath. He spat a mixture of saliva and blood that smattered on her back. “Kill her!” He shouted with gargled voice.

Two stallion came charging over the beach’s hill.

“Hammerhead!” Heartbreaker yelled.

A massive, brawny unicorn with shattered horn on his head came galloping over the hill. His purple eyes filled with rage, his hooves spreading clouds of sand and snow. He reached the stallions before they were even halfway to Heartbreaker. With one sweep of his hoof the first stallion was pummeled into the ground sand, bones in his muzzle cracked at the impact.

The second stallion rammed his hoof into Hammerhead´s side.

The massive stallion showed no signs of pain on the impact. He grabbed the stallion with the broken muzzle by the neck and flung him around like a ragdoll. Hammerhead lifted the stallion above his head and, with the entire weight of his body the behind him, he slammed him headfirst onto the remaining stallion.

Both their skulls crushed each other on impact and bits of pink brain along fragments of shattered bones over spread the white beach.

“Heartbreaker?” Hammerhead said with a concerned tone. He ran up to her and put a hoof that was as thick as a log on her shoulder. “You okay?”

She meet Hammerhead´s soft gaze with her blue eyes. The giant was on the verge of crying with fear. “I´ll be alright.”

“You fucking bitch.” Said Shade Stir with a voice that was barely managing to form words over the blood spreading from his mouth. “When that bitch comes she´s gonna-”

The dying stallion was interrupted by a hoof the size of a log that came ramming down onto his face. Blood dripped slowly from the hoof as Hammerhead pulled it back to put it under Heartbreaker´s chin.

She smiled and stroked his cheek. “Don´t worry. Just give me a minute.” Heartbreaker took a few slow breaths and felt her heart beating slower with each one. “I´ll be alright.”

“Don´t scare like me.” The massive stallion said, sniffing.

Heartbreaker couldn´t help but release a small chuckle. “Don´t scare me like that.” She laughed before pulling her hoof around his neck and pulling him in for a soft kiss on lips. “Goof.”

Family matters

The late twilight sun was peaking over the mountain edge, spreading thin arrows of light across the valley bellow it. The air was cold and every breath that passed Cinder´s muzzle produced a small cloud of grey smoke. He stood leaning over the balcony, his furless skin pressing against the metal railing.

“I love this time of day.” He said inhaling the chilling air. “Just cold enough to be pleasantly chilling and allow me to walk around without my bandages but not enough to make me freeze.”

“Fuck you.” A voice said behind him.

“Oh, you’re still alive.” Cinder turned. “And better yet you can still talk. Means we have a long time left.”

The pony he was talking to laid on top of a table, all of his hooves pinned to the wood by thick iron nails. His left eye was missing, only a bloody, dark whole remained. Four pools of blood had formed underneath the table at each of it´s legs. Both Cinder and him expected that he would have bleed to death some time ago. Weather Cinder knew exactly where to place the nails or if he just gotten lucky, or unlucky from his victim´s perspective, isn´t certain.

“So what do you think, Mister Unlucky? What bit should I cut off next?”

“My name is Firefly. You ugly son of a bitch.”

Cinder picked up a hammer and hit the nail holding down Firefly´s fore hoof right on the head. Firefly screamed as the nail vibrated with the force of the impact.

“Let me remind you of something, you little snitch, betrayer, backstabber and…. who knows what else you have done; you’re gonna die in this room. And there´s not a thing on this planet that you can do to change that.”

“I didn´t betray our brother.” Firefly growled.

Cinder hit the nail again and Firefly screamed so loud that it echoed through the valley around them. “So now we can add liar to that little list of your doings.” He looked over the collection of tools he had for torture and cruelty.

“I didn´t betray you fucking brother!” Firefly shouted.

Cinder hit with the hammer again, not on one of the nails this time and not with the blunt side. He hit Firefly in the shoulder, the hammer´s claw dug into the flesh and Firefly shouted again.

“Damn.” Cinder said when he was trying to pull the hammer out. “It´s wedge into the bone. If I remove it now you´re gonna bleed to death really fucking fast.”

Firefly took a few ragged, pain breaths with a closed mouth. He glared into Cinder´s bright azure eyes.
Cinder wiggled the hammer a little in the wound.

Firefly grunted and released a muffled scream through his closed mouth.

“Though, stubborn and tolerable to pain, to say the least.” Cinder smirked and made a slight nod towards Firefly. “For all the flaws I listed before and I´m damn sure you have many more. You do have some redeeming qualities about you.” He studied the tools on the desk next to him, studying a stainless knife. “Shame that you never used them to get away from me. Not that they would help you escape me now anyway.” He turned and stared at Firefly. “Your curios what would help you, now aren’t you? What else could you be thinking about now? It´s starting to eat at you isn´t it?” Cinder laughed to himself. “We´ll I´d say that at this point there isn´t anything that would help you escape, so you can just drop that idea before you even think about it. There are however a few things that might make me kill you faster, shorten you suffering somewhat. Or maybe I´ll feel really good about you and just put a fast piece of hot lead right into your skull. Come on,” He tapped Firefly on the shoulder. “Aren´t you gonna ask what those qualities are?”

Firefly didn´t answer. He tried his best to avoid Cinder´s gaze.

“I haven´t cut your loose tongue, yet. And if you don´t answer me I might just do that. I´m really good at cutting tongues. It´ll come clean of and you won´t bleed to death.”

“What are they?” Firefly asked begrudgingly.

“Probably honesty. Or perhaps a sharper mind that would have kept you out of this situation to begin with.” He chuckled to himself. “But since you don´t have either it doesn´t really matter.”

“How do you know that? Maybe I can be honest.”

“Maybe you can. Answer me this question; where did you hide the money? We practically tore your house down and dug up half the yard around. So where did you hide the cash you stole from my brother?”

Firefly felt infuriated and enraged beyond belief. He wanted to shout right into this burnt, pink pony´s face. There was no point in telling Cinder anything. “Up your ass.” He told Cinder. “That´s where I hid the money.”

Cinder withdrew to his desk. “You know, I´ve meet a lot of liars in my days. Some of them pretty good, others not so much. But during my time I´ve also managed to find a lot of the telltale signs of liars. The way they look you in the eye or how it can take them just a moment to think of an answer to a though question. And you…” He turned to Firefly. “Show enough signs of lying that I would have to be deaf and blind not to notice. Even then I could probably still smell your nervous sweat.”

“Do you have some point to make?”

“One.” Cinder turned back to his desk.

“Doesn´t fucking matter.” Firefly said before Cinder could go on or say anything. “Like you said before, I´m gonna die in this room regardless of what I do. So do whatever you want with me. I´ll make sure to die before you do even half of what you want to do.”

The corners of Cinder´s mouth climbed up his cheeks and formed a large, wide grin. He had to keep himself from laughing out loud. “You´re absolutely right. You are going to die in here but the point I had was that I have also become a pretty good liar over the years. It wouldn´t have mattered what you said or did. Your death will not be painless or simple. It will be long, drawn out to the point that the time before sunrise will feel like half a century for you.” He leaned over Firefly and stared deeply into his eyes. “I´m going to break you.”

“Do your worst.”

“I will make you regret that you said that.”

And Cinder did. Through that otherwise calm and still valley a series of screams and shrieks echoed between the hills and mountains. Whatever sounds may have been produced by the animals and creatures inhabiting the valley where drowned out by the pain fueled screams coming out from the lonely house.

***

On the top of the largest hill overlooking the valley stood a lonely mare. Her silhouette cast a blurred shadow over the ground before her. The air grew cold. The breaths that escaped her muzzle formed little grey pockets of smoke. Her golden brown eyes stared into the valley below her. She made adjustment to the position of her hat and gazed at the building at the center of the valley.

As the sun settled behind her and the last remnants of daylight disappeared, the light coming out of the house´s windows grew brighter and warmer. The screams coming out of it stopped. Not abruptly, but slowly with every yell growing more and more quiet. Just as the valley was returning to being silent as a grave, the screams were replaced with music. The tunes were clearly coming from some kind of record.

Apple Bloom brushed a small insect of her shoulder and started making her way down the hill. Her cloak brushed over the rough sand. Every steep she took sent rocks rolling down the hillside and clouds of dust rose around her hooves.

Most of the pebbles and rocks that crashed down the hill were drowned out by the music playing. But then one of the rocks she pushed down fell off an edge and smashed into an old dry log. The crack of the snapping wood echoed through the valley.

Apple Bloom felt her muscles tense up as the music stopped and a shadow moved past the window. Without much thinking she pressed herself to the ground and stared at the house.

The door opened and a pony shaped figure stood in the doorway. A long shadow was cast from the black silhouette of the pony. Two small stumps seemed to grow out of the pony´s back. The head turned, searching for around for the source of the sound.

The vengeful mare kept her gaze focused, sharply on the pony in the doorway. Her hoof moved slowly under her cloak, reaching for the revolver.

Cinder took a few steps out, the ground graveled as his hooves pushed the dirt aside.

Slowly and carefully Apple Bloom removed the gun from its holster. Her heart was beating like wild drum. Every little sound she made while moving her gun under the cloak sounded like a hundred boulders rolling down the hill.
The burned stallion was in the middle of taking a series of steps when he stopped himself. His eyes narrowed and searched the valley. The smoke passing his muzzle slowed down.

A small pebble, no bigger than a grain of sand, fell down from Apple Bloom´s hoof and rolled down the hill.
Cinder´s ear flicked.

Apple Bloom froze. Not just because Cinder reacted, she realized something. She wasn´t sure if she could manage to get him from this distance or in this light.

Cinder turned his head and raised a patch of skin were his brow would have been. He stared into the darkness, right towards Apple Bloom.

The vengeful mare met his eyes with her own. Her golden browns met his azure. Her hoof struggled not to tremble or move. Two questions raced through her mind; could she manage to hit from here and what would happen is she missed? Cinder had no weapons on him that Apple Bloom could see. Though the light provided from the house only showed her a black outline of the burned stallion´s figure. The gun felt heavy in one moment and light another.
The burned stallion sighed, smacked his lips. He turned and walked back into the house.

She holstered her revolver and got up on all fours. A small pebble or two rolled of the edge of her cloak and a fine layer of dust had attached itself to her hooves. The rest of her way down the hill was quiet and the only things moving besides Apple Bloom were puffs of smoke coming off from every steep she took.

Apple Bloom stood at the door. She was about to fling the door open and charge in with her sword held high, but stopped herself just before touching the handle. Instead she pressed herself against the wall and gently pressed the door´s handle down.

The hinges didn´t creak or screech as the door opened. A bright, yellow light spread from the doorway. A scent of blood and burned flesh spread and filled the air. The stench was harsh enough that it would have made any other pony jump or shriek at the sting of it. But Apple Bloom kept stoic and the smell was barely enough for her to register. She took a quick glance into the room before her. It was empty and she saw a staircase leading to a second floor.

Inside the house the smell got worse. Enough for the vengeful mare to flinch for moment. The stench came from the second floor. She put on hoof down and one on the sword´s kashari. A slow breath moved over her muzzle. The sword made a small click before the blade started exiting the scabbard. The edge reflected the yellow light as Apple Bloom put the blade in front of her. She walked up to the stair and took the first steep.

The steeps were made of wood but kept silent when Apple Bloom´s hoof pressed down on them. Nevertheless, she took every steep carefully and until she was up the stair and the air filled with the biting stench of blood and crisply burned meat.

On the right side of the wall she saw a door, and given how thick the air was with it, probably the origin of the stench.

This time, Apple Bloom decided to ignore the instincts she obeyed before. She kicked the door open and galloped in with her sword.

She was meet by a bloody corps lying on a table and black frying pan smacking the back of her head.

The strike threw Apple Bloom to the ground. Everything became a blur and the world started swirling around her.
A voice chuckled with a gargling tone. “You sure took your time didn´t you.”

Apple Bloom tried to get up but her body seemed to have been replaced with a barrel full of lead. Her hooves just scrambled on the floor, trying desperately to get the sword lying before her.

A hoof pinned Apple Bloom to the floor. “Now, now. No funny business.” Cinder said while giving the vengeful mare an injection of sedatives into her side of her flank, right next to the base of her tail.

The world moved a lot slower around her. She didn´t fell sleepy or tired, but her body started to relax and her eyelids became increasingly heavy by the moment. Soon enough Apple Bloom´s forehead slammed into the floor and the world grew black around her.

Cinder stared down over his prize. He chuckled and turned her over. He took a gander at her weapon. He picked up the weapon and admired the edge reflecting the light coming of the lamp in the roof. “A fine sword.” He said, put the katana and her hat to the side before picking up the phone.

“Hello?” A snarky, mare´s voice asked on the other end.

“Heartbreaker, my old friend.”

“Cinder.”

“Right on.”

“How come you´re granting me the honor of you calling in the middle of the night?”

“Something peculiar just happened.”

“What?” She asked with a dry tone.

“I just caught me the cunt who killed Noose and Slit-Throat, and you´re never gonna guess who she is.”

“Who?”

“The lost filly from Sweet-Apples-Acres.”

“I´ll be fucking damned. Still alive and kicking?”

“Kicking, no. Alive, yes.”

“What are planning to do with her?”

Cinder sat down in his armchair and rubbed his chin for a moment before answering. “I´m gonna make sure that she dies, cold, alone and terrified.”

“And you´re not gonna wait for me or Hammerhead to make it over?”

“Well, if it was anypony else I would chain the fucker down in basement and lock the door to make sure that the pony would stay alive for enough for you to get here. Thing is that this mare isn´t just anypony. This is the bitch that got both Slit-Throat and Noose, I´d rather not take my chances with her. I will make sure she gets a grave that you can easily find and disrupt. That good enough for you?”

“I´ll come over with Hammerhead tomorrow. If that cunt is, by some miracle, still alive, I´ll cut her skin off and watch her stumble about the desert.”

“Almost makes me want to the risk and keep her alive. See you in the morning.” Cinder put the phone down and rose to walk back to Apple Bloom. “Thank your lucky star that I don´t know how to pull of skin.”

The phone rang again.

“Hammerhead?” Cinder asked.

“Wrong, brother.” The voice on the other end said.

“What are you calling for?”

“One of my stallions have gone missing. Wouldn´t happened to have seen him?”

“What did he look like?”

“Brown coat, grey eyes, a Pegasus.”

Cinder stared down at Apple Bloom. “Well I have come across a pony today, but I doubt she´s the one you’re looking for.”

“Who is she?”

“A mare with an old grudge to settle.”

“That doesn´t narrow it down.”

“It´s the long lost sister from Sweet-Apple-Acres. I think her name´s Apple Bloom.”

“She´s still alive?”

“Not for much longer. I´m gonna throw her into the abyss, you know that old hole from where we used to play as colts.”

Only a mute sigh came from the phone´s speaker.

“You still there?”

“Yes, I remember.” The voice took one a cold, angry tone.

“By the way, what was the name of that missing stallion?”

“Firefly.”

“I´ll let you know if I find him.” Cinder put the phone down.

***

Apple Bloom woke by her head crashing into rough gravel. Her eyelids were still heavy and her body felt numb.

“Good night.” Cinder said while staring down at her.

The vengeful mare felt a second wave of energy coming through her. She tried to make a move for him but felt ropes holding her hooves together behind her back.

“Nice try.” Cinder said with a smug grin.

Apple Bloom squirmed around and struggled to get the ropes to loosen. But the knots held on to her firmly and Cinder pushed Apple Bloom to the ground. He held the point of a knife to her eyes.

“Stop fighting.” He said with cold, angry tone. “I´m gonna through you into that hole over there.” He pointed towards a massive, black maw in the ground. “You´re gonna spend the rest of your life down there. And that will be the end of your little story. But if you keep fighting like this, I´ll poke both your eyes out. Now…” He put the knife away. “If you get your shit together and stop acting like a fucking cunt, I´ll give you this.” He held a burning lantern next to her head. The knife came in at corner of her sight. “So which one is it going to be?”

“Lantern.” Apple Bloom said, sneering and voice graveling.

Cinder´s smug grin returned. “Good choice.”

Next thing that Apple Bloom knew she standing at the edge of black pit that she couldn´t see the bottom of. Her breath was almost gasping and her heart made frantic beats.

“This is for Noose and Slit-throat.” Cinder said before pushing her.

The darkness consumed her and the wind started shrieking her ears. Whatever light remained on the walls quickly disappeared. The ground gave her back legs a hard strike when she landed. With no control over her body or knowledge of her surroundings, Apple Bloom crashed forward and her face smacked into the wall in front of her. The jagged rocks cut her cheek open. She fell to the ground and the grains of sand pressed into the wound, burning and coarse.

With her hooves still tied behind her back she managed to squirm onto her back and looked back up at Cinder, standing on the edge. The fall couldn´t have been more than a few meters but to Apple Bloom it felt like a lot more.

“What about my lantern!?” She shouted and heard her voice echoing between the walls.

“Right. Fair is fair.” He threw the lantern down the hole. The glass cracked but the flame stayed alive. “Have fun down there!” Apple Bloom could see a massive boulder rolling over the maw and closing it up.

Alone in the cold, silent, hole, with only the flickering, yellow light coming of the lantern to keep her company Apple Bloom started crying. Her cries jumped around the walls and tears started rolling down her cheeks.

Master and student

Apple Bloom ducked under the swipe of Nightglade´s staff. It passed her so close that she could feel the staff brushing the mane at the back of her neck. For a brief moment, Apple Bloom felt proud.

And then the old unicorn´s knee came up and rammed into her muzzle.

Apple Bloom fell to the sand with blood dripping from her mouth and nostrils. Nightglade put the end of his staff into the sand and stroked his moustache. His eyes narrowed. “Get up.”

The young mare´s felt her muscles aching and her head swirled but she got and meet his sharp green eyes with a pair of drowsy brown pools.

Nightglade stroked his moustache. “Again.”

Stumbling forward, Apple Bloom tried raise her hoof to strike.

Nightglade made a face like he had just been gravely offended. He made no effort to avoid her attack. Instead he met Apple Bloom, took the young mare´s hoof by the shoulder and swiped her hooves out from under her with his staff.

The sand rushed up to give her a rough kiss. The grains filled up her mouth and eyes. She had to turn her head sideway in order to breath under the pressure from Nightglade´s staff, pushing the back of her head.

Though she couldn´t see it but Nightglade´s mouth had turned into a bitter harsh frown. He put a hoof on her neck and pressed down.
The pressure was enough to make it difficult for Apple Bloom to breath.

Nightglade raised his lip in disgust.

“Pl…” Apple Bloom said. “Please…”

“Please what?” Nightglade said with tone filled with anger.

The young mare shifted her head under the staff. “Lift your hoof.”

“And what would you do if lift my hoof? Are you going to stay pinned under my walking staff?” He slammed his free hoof onto the sand right next to Apple Bloom´s face, spraying a wave of sand over her eyes. “Or are you going to keep fighting?” The old unicorn removed his hoof from the young mare´s neck. “Let´s see which one.” The staff stayed on her head.

Apple Bloom took a rough, dry breath. Sand and sweat filled both her mouth and nostrils. She made one move for the staff pinning her to the ground. To Apple Bloom´s surprise she managed to get it of rolled away from the old unicorn.

Nightglade stared at her with a deep frown.

The young mare got to up on her hooves. She spat out the sand in her mouth and couldn´t help but sneeze out the grains in her nostrils.

The old unicorn laughed and stroked his moustache. “Are you ready?”

The fact that he was asking made Apple Bloom nervous. He almost never asked her before when he was about to come at her.

“Well? Are you?”

Apple Bloom squeezed her shoulder. The skin was burning with warm blood and the muscles ached, just moving her hoof forward produced a cold pain. She positioned herself with one hoof forward. “I`m ready.”

Nightglade spun the staff around and put it under his right hoof. The old unicorn charged forward. It only took him the blink of an eye to reach Apple Bloom.

The young mare knew that there was no point in trying to avoid his attack. Though the staff was blurred by the speed of his movement, Apple Bloom could still see the path it was taking. It was coming right for her head. She raised her hoof to guard and felt a stinging pain coming from where it hit.

Then Nightglade´s hoof slammed into Apple Bloom´s side. The hit caught her by surprise and the young mare blinked.
Nightglade punished her by sweeping the staff against her feet and kicked her into the air before she hit the ground.

She landed on her back. The wave of pain breached out to the tip of her hooves. When she opened her eyes she saw Nightglade leaping forward with his staff ready to slam into the ground. Apple Bloom rolled out of the way and got back to her feet.

The old unicorn followed up his strike by sweeping his staff in front of him.

The staff missed Apple Bloom by the skin of her muzzle. She ran to her left, running for the weapon barracks. The weapon that she managed to get her hooves on was a katana. Apple Bloom just managed to get the blade out of the scabbard before Nightglade was on her again.

The two of them entered into a dance with sword and staff. Nightglade was always on the offence, always attacking and Apple Bloom was doing her best to keep up with the unrelenting pace of the old unicorn.

His attacks were unrelenting and furious. The speed of his movements seemed unnatural, not only for a pony of his age but even by the standards of the quickest Pegasi is in the world he was fast.

For every strike Apple Bloom blocked five hit her and most of them tore her skin open. There was no opportunity for Apple Bloom to fight back, she could only keep on the defensive. Hits came to her face, her side and her hooves and every one of the cracked when the staff landed.

Suddenly the old unicorn´s staff came crashing down for her head and Apple Bloom´s sword managed to push it aside and left the old unicorn open.

The young mare saw her opportunity and took it without hesitation. Apple Bloom swung the blade forward, aiming for Nightglade´s throat.

Nightglade ducked under Apple Bloom´s swing. As he was leaning backwards, he passed the staff behind his back from his right hoof to his left.

Apple Bloom noticed far too late that she had massively over swung her attack, leaving her sword pointing far to her left and her side facing Nightglade.

As the old unicorn was rising back up, he slammed his staff into Apple Bloom´s back and caught her sword hoof in his right hoof. With one swift turn he threw the young mare back into the sand arena.

When she crashed into the ground Apple Bloom lost the sword and felt her left hoof pooping out of its socket. She got up again, but this time slower, she barely had enough energy to stand.

Nightglade tossed his staff back into his right hoof and charged for her again.

Apple Bloom tried to block his attack but her hoof barely moved as she told it to. The staff came swinging into the side of her head and Apple Bloom was flung sideways into the sand. She laid still, trying to catch her breath.

The old unicorn put his hoof on Apple Bloom´s throat.

“Please…”

Nightglade pressed down.

“Please stop.” Apple Bloom´s voice cracked with the pain. “Have mercy.”

“Mercy?” The tone of his voice was thick with contempt. “Did they have any resemblance of mercy for your family?”

That one sentence shocked me. I knew early on that Nightglade was a ruthless, uncompromising, old bitter fool. But I never suspected that he would say something like that. Let alone do what he did next.

Nightglade´s horn started glowing. The light and color in Apple Bloom´s eyes started to disappear. Within a moment they had turned completely black.

“What is happening?!” Apple Bloom cried out.

The old unicorn removed his hoof from her throat and Apple Bloom fumbled around in front of her. Her hooves dug into the sand and she blinked madly, hoping that her vision would return. “What did you do?!”

The old unicorn didn´t answer. He took a few slow steeps around her.

“Where are you?”

Nightglade sat down, folded his legs and placed his staff over his knees.

Apple Bloom swiped the ground in front of her. She still had her stomach to the ground but now she trying to get up.
With legs trembling and lips twitched as Apple Bloom climbed up.

One of Nightglade´s eyebrows raised. His horn started glowing again.

In Apple Bloom´s black world a sudden flash of light blinded her. She was walking around some kind of forest. The trees were small with low hanging branches reaching down to the ground. White flowers with transparent pink veins coming from the base of the peddles. The green leaves danced in the wind.

The young mare reached up and sniffed one of the flowers. She recognized the scent immediately.

“Apples…” She said and a drop of warm blood ran from the center of the flower. The stream ran down her hoof and fell to the ground with a whispering smack.

She dropped the flower to the ground and flower started to changing. It shrank and the color started draining from it. The white peddles turned brown and folded inwards. Soon it was an only a pile of brown flakes being carried off by the wind.

Apple Bloom frowned and pressed her hoof down on the flower. When she lifted her hoof the blood stuck to the underside of her hoof. The stench coming of the blood almost caused her to gag.

A fluid cold smacked on her ear. The young mare looked up and saw black, thick clouds covering the sky. Her head rang like a tower bell. With every beat of her heart she could feel pain growing more and more intense. A sharp ringing sound stung like a nail into her ears. The pain intensified on her forehead.

Eventually the pain reached a climax. With one final wave of pain Apple Bloom felt her skull caving in. Something rammed through the bone, a mixture of red blood and pink brains ran from the wound.

The young mare laid still on the grass. Her hooves spread out over the ground, her eyes were closed.

Apple Bloom pressed her hoof against her forehead. There was no hole or sings of her skull breaking. She opened her eyes and stared into the sky above her.

The black clouds still hung over sky. Only muted sunlight managed to press through the clouds, painting the white apple flowers in grey shades.

A few calm breaths passed Apple Bloom´s muzzle. Her hoof covered her mouth for a moment before it slipped away and feel into a warm puddle. When she looked at her hoof again, blood dripped from it. Apple Bloom turned her head.

Next to her was a corpse of pony whose head had been all but crushed. The face was a dark, crimson cavity of gore. Soft, pink tissue dripped from the edges and a pool of blood formed at the bottom of it.

A cold shock pressed through Apple Bloom´s body. She stumbled backwards and felt a force, like a rough rope, pressing against her throat. The force pushed her upwards and squeezed around her neck. Every breath became hard to take and blood gathered around the point of the force.

Apple Bloom put her hooves around her neck, hoping to remove whatever it was that was trying to strangle her. But there was nothing there, just something pressing against her veins and air pipes.

The force lifted her into the air.

And Apple Bloom twitched and struggled wildly to get lose. Soon she couldn´t breath and the joints on her neck started to separate.
She blinked and found herself back on the ground. Dry, rough grass beneath her hooves and an old leafless tree next to her. She put a hoof on her neck. Underneath her skin she felt a fast, relentless pulse.

“What is happening?!” Apple Bloom shouted.

A pony hanged from one the trees thick limbs. The body hang by a thick rope from the neck.

The young mare could only see a silhouette of the body. She galloped away in panic.

Before her was a field of brown, dry grass.

Behind her a shrieking wind blew and a line of fire rushed forward. The orange flames consumed the grass and rushed for Apple Bloom.

When Apple Bloom smelled the ashes she felt her legs rushing forward even faster. Her throat grew dry and her breaths became rough.

A warm orange line grew on the horizon before her. Black streams of smoke rose from the flickering flames.

Apple Bloom stopped and looked to her sides. She was encircled by warm, orange flames. The young mare stared around her, looking for any kind of opening. With every passing moment the flames came ever closer. Eventually Apple Bloom decided to jump over the line of fire. She galloped towards the edge but when she got close she stopped.

There was no end to the flames. Wherever the flames had been, a blanket of orange flames had covered black soil. The fire cracked and spat a burst of sparks towards her, as if to spite her.

The young mare backed off but felt the warmth of the flames on her back. Apple Bloom was encircled by the sea of flames. Her skin blistered and melted as the fire licked her. Steam rose from her wounds and she felt the fluids behind her eyes boiling. Chinks of fat and flesh fell, steaming from bones. The world went black again.

The world was silent and calm. Apple Bloom could see a sharp red moon shining above her. The ground below her hooves was wet, without color or texture. The young mare looked at the underside of her hoof. The fluid attached to her reflected the red light from the moon above her.

A drop fell on her hoof. The drop spread ripples across the fluid on her hoof. That was all it started with. A single drop. Then it started pouring. A stream ran from under Apple Bloom´s jaw poured over her hoof.

The young mare felt her head growing heavy. Her vision blurred and she feel down. The warm fluid pressed against her face.
The moon above her started to fade.

“What are you doing, Nightglade?!” Apple Bloom shouted when she woke in the new world. This time everything was black. The ground below her was dry. The only sound she could hear was the sound of a heart beating slowly, and calmly.

“What-“ Apple Bloom felt a pain stabbing her in the chest. Every time she felt her heart beat the pain stabbed again. But not in her chest. It came to her side, her back, her barrel, her stomach and her neck.

She tried to scream out in pain but only managed to produce a meager whimper.

Then she was back in the yard with Nightglade. The old unicorn sat with his staff laying above his knees.

The young mare climbed up and looked over her body. Apart from the places where Nightglade had struck her before she had no signs of injuries. “What was that?” She asked, trying her best to hide her anger.

“The mercy they shoved your family.” Nightglade answered. He got to up and walked towards her. “Mercy is not a thing they know or have. Why should I give it you?”

Apple Bloom tried to think of an answer. She sat still on the sand, trying her best to think of something as Nightglade approached.

He hit Apple Bloom with his staff at the side of her head. “If you have an answer, tell me now.” He said with chillingly cold tone.

“I don´t have answer.” Apple Bloom stared into the ground.

“They don´t have mercy. The world doesn´t have mercy. The world doesn´t have an ounce of care for you or your goals. You could die here and now, and the world wouldn´t react. And neither would I.” He put his staff under Apple Bloom´s chin and forced her look into his narrow green eyes. “If I tried to kill you right now, what would you do?”

“I would fight; I would keep on fighting until I die.”

Nightglade gave of a dry chuckle. “Good answer.”

Nineteen years. That´s how many years I spent in that forest with that old unicorn. Every moment I spent there felt like a needle pushing through my skin. The bed I slept in felt cold and hard, the food I ate tasted like ash, the water I drank burned my throat. But I endured it, until now. After what Nightglade subjected me to, a desire grew inside me. It was a feeling I knew well, like a fire it burned inside my chest. I hated Nightglade and I wanted to kill him just as much as the Immortals.

Five years later. Snow drifted calmly down from the sky, painting the world in white.

The hateful mare took her curved sword out of the weapons barrack. The blade shined in the soft moon light as it exited it´s scabbard.
Nightglade stood leaning on his staff. It turned slowly in his hoof as he stared at her with a pair of narrow eyes.

“Are you ready?” Apple Bloom asked.

A smirk flashed over Nightglade´s lips. “Are you?”

Apple Bloom´s eyes narrowed. Despite the cold, her blood boiled under skin. “As I´ll ever be.”

“Then come at me with all you´ve got.”

Apple Bloom took the sword with both her hooves and charged forward. She made a thrust forward with the blade.
Nightglade took a swift steep to the side to avoid her strike.

But Apple Bloom´s attack was just a fake. She turned the blade and used the momentum to make a sweep to her side, right across Nightglade´s throat.

The old unicorn caught her attack with his staff and turned on his hooves. The speed of his movements was enough to make him a blur in Apple Bloom´s eyes.

As if to mock her, Nightglade didn´t attack. He simple stood behind her and stared at her with a smirk as flakes of snow landed on his ears.

Apple Bloom grunted and turned to Nightglade. Her grip on the sword tightened. She charged and struck the air before her.
Nightglade took steep back and pushed the staff into Apple Bloom´s stomach so hard that the air almost went out of her.

The young mare was stunned for a brief moment. She took a short breath and ran forward again. Just as she predicted the old unicorn swung his staff towards her, heading for her side. Apple Bloom caught the staff with her left hoof but when she tried to jerk it from his grip, Nightglade just smirked.

He took one steep to his left, turned his upper body and tossed Apple Bloom on the end of his staff. She flew like a ragdoll through the air and crashed into the yard wall, sending thick patches of snow to the ground. Nightglade stood with his back turned to her, laughing.
Apple Bloom picked up her sword and galloped towards Nightglade, hoping to catch him while he had his back turned.

Without turning or even looking over his shoulder, Nightglade blocked Apple Bloom´s strike by reaching behind him with his staff. He then made some a series of swirls that made the grip on Apple Bloom´s sword feel like it was made of soap. She had to struggle not to lose her grip on it but eventually he moved so fast that the sword seemed jump out of her hooves.

When she was disarmed, Nightglade turned, jumped and kicked Apple Bloom in the head.

The young mare crashed to the cold, stony ground. Her head rang and the white world blurred.

The old unicorn showed her his backside again. This time he didn´t laugh, he adjusted the staff and stroked his moustache.

It took Apple Bloom a solid half minute for her head to stop ringing and her sight to focus. When she could get up without immediately falling down again, she ran for her sword.

Nightglade´s ear perked when he heard the blade being lifted of the ground. A brief smiled flashed across his lips. It disappeared when he turned to face her, replaced by his usual frown.

A streak of blood ran down Apple Bloom´s forehead. Her breath was heavy, slow and marked by steam forming in front of her muzzle. She spat and bit her lip. She charged forward.

He made no effort to avoid her. Nightglade simply stood still and waited for her. When Apple Bloom was in reach he took his staff by both ends and pulled them apart to reveal a set of short, narrow swords. He blocked her attack with one blade, and made a cut across Apple Bloom´s belly with the other. A string of crimson droplets splashed across the white snow.

Apple Bloom dashed back. Her face was visibly pale and she put a hoof on the wound. It wasn´t a deep. Barely enough to cut through the skin and draw blood.

“I didn´t poison them.” Nightglade said.

Even though Nightglade had never lied to Apple Bloom she still found his words hard to believe.

“If there was any poison on these blades you would be dead already.”

That Apple Bloom found a lot easier to believe. She took the sword with both her hooves and raised the blade to guard. “Your turn.”
Nightglade pushed the two halves of his staff back together and stroked his moustache. Slowly so each of the hairs fell of his hoof, one by one while patchy flakes of snow drifted to the ground.

When the final hair fell the old unicorn charged. In comparison to his previous movements his attacks, his movements were slower and far more measured.

Apple Bloom stood her ground and waited for his attack.

Suddenly Nightglade started moving a lot faster. He was about halfway up to her when he took his staff with both hooves and swung it towards Apple Bloom.

She blocked his attack with ease and immediately made a dash to his side where he was vulnerable. The blade made a shallow cut on the old unicorn’s shoulder. Apple Bloom could hardly believe it. She managed to land a strike on him. It was so shocking to her that she failed to see Nightglade´s staff coming up to strike her jaw. The young mare was flung backwards and found herself on the ground.
“Getting excited over a small victory…” Nightglade said with a spiteful tone. “Stupid and foolish.”

The taste of blood filled Apple Bloom´s mouth. She leaned on her sword and got up. When she spat out lump of blood out of her mouth, she feared that she might have bitten of her tongue at the strike. She met Nightglade cold green eyes. “I´m not getting excited over any small victories. I get excited over major defeats.”

Nightglade raised one of his silvery white brows and looked at the steaming wound. He drew his hoof across the gash and tasted the blood. Both his brows jumped to the center of his forehead and the corners of his mouth went up. “Poison. Good trick.” He gave Apple Bloom a slight nod.

Seeing that nod was more shocking to Apple Bloom then the wound she caused him before. It left her speechless.

Nightglade chuckled, it was downright warm and kind this time. “How long have I got?”

“A minute at most.” Apple Bloom replied.

The staff spun in Nightglade´s hoof. He pulled the two halves apart to form to the blades again. “Now let´s see if you can last that long.” He charged.

The first sword met Apple Bloom´s blade. The blades sparked as the second sword ran towards the young mare´s throat.

Apple Bloom just barely managed to avoid it. The tip took a small bit of her neck with it. She jumped back and pressed her hoof against the wound. It was shallow and didn´t bleed too badly.

The old unicorn leaped forward like a cobra. Both his swords held above his head.

Apple Bloom threw herself to the side, summersaulting on the ground and ended up facing the wall.

Nightglade turned to her when he landed. With just a few steps he came up to her, both the swords aiming to pin her to the wall.
She managed to avoid the first sword and countered the second one. Her sword was headed for Nightglade´s face when the old unicorn moved out of her blade and made a cut across Apple Bloom´s shoulder.

He came in for a second strike but Apple Bloom managed to avoid it by taking a swift side steep and catching the blade with her sword.
She was expecting him to make another strike when the old unicorn stopped himself. He grunted and pressed a hoof against the gash on his shoulder but kept his eyes on Apple Bloom.

The young mare didn´t attack. She stood at a distance and observed Nightglade.

The old unicorn took a deep breath and rose. A drop of red blood rolled down out of his eye. The drop ran down his cheek and stained his silvery white moustache.

Apple Bloom didn´t dare to approach. She stayed right where she was and kept the point of the sword pointing towards Nightglade´s forehead.

Nightglade wiped his cheek with the back of his hoof and pushed the swords back too together. He leaned on his staff and walked forward, slowly. The color of his eyes darkened and saliva dripped from his lips.

The moment Nightglade took one step forward, Apple Bloom took two steps back.

The old unicorn was about to take another step when the staff feel out from under him. He crashed to the ground and stayed down. Fast, exhausted breaths passed his muzzle and his barrel jumped up and down. Snow started to gather on his belly. “Come here.” He urged her to come forward with his hoof.

“I`ll come over there when you´re dead.”

“Have I ever lied to you, Apple Bloom?”

“You´ve insulted me. You´ve tortured me. You´ve taken me to my breaking point and forced me keep going. You´ve done things to me I never believed a pony could to other ponies. You´ve given me the worst years of my life.”

Nightglade didn´t answer. He lay still on the ground, staring at the pale moon as streams of blood ran from his eyes. He blinked and a red coating covered his eyes.

Now Apple Bloom walked up to him. She looked down on him, stared deep into his green, bloodshot eyes.

He looked at her. “You´ll have far more years to come.” A sigh passed his lips and his eyes closed.

Author's Note

Phew. Sorry for taking so long. I´ve been rather busy and my proofreader works slower than me. :derpytongue2:

Hopefully you like these chapters. :pinkiesmile:

Hammer and anvil

The muscles on her hooves cramped behind her back. The rope had dug itself into her skin and tore some of it of at places. The light of the lantern flickered and the shadows danced against the wall of the cave. The corners of her mouth where dry from streams of salty tears.

A slow, tired sigh passed over her lips. She tipped to her side and fell to the ground. The ground was covered with rough sand. It was cold and dry. Apple Bloom stared into the flame. The warm, yellow flame shifted and moved like a flag on the top of a pole.

“Fuck dying.” Apple Bloom told herself. She crawled on the ground like a caterpillar until her back hooves faced the wall filled with ragged rocks. With a heavy grunt and strain on her muscles, Apple Bloom lifted her back hooves up and put them above one of the rocks. She pushed the hooves behind her back down into the ground and made a small jump towards the wall. She started scraping the ropes against the rock. Slowly the fibers started to tear and brake against the edge of the rock. Encouraged by the results, Apple Bloom started moving her hooves back and forth faster.

When the rope finally broke, it did it so suddenly that Apple Bloom almost slammed her hoof into another sharp rock. The edge missed her by the hairs of her coat.

A smile grew on Apple Bloom´s lips. She could kiss the rock she had cut the ropes. She took a moment to laugh before using her freed legs to turn her back against the wall and started cutting the rope on a rock below the one she used before. This one was far duller but she eventually managed to get the rope to brake. Seeing her hooves again made Apple Bloom smile a second time. And this time she started burst out laughing as she touched her own face, whiping of the dried tears and brushing of the sand in her wound.

It took her a solid minute before she stopped laughing. After that it took Apple Bloom a few moments to calm herself. She had to forcibly slow her breath down and stared at the little dancing fire. Apple Bloom walked up to the lantern and lifted it up.

The flame stood still, only shifting when Apple Bloom moved her hoof. She put it down and watched the flame flicker.

“So where´s the wind coming from?” Apple Bloom put her ear next to the lantern and listened.

A soft touch passed by her ear, tickling almost.

Apple Bloom took the lantern and moved it around the cave. When she got closer to the right wall, the flame started shaking, like a leaf in the wind. She put her hoof against the wall and felt a thin draft coming of it.

“There you are.” The vengeful mare tapped her hoof against the wall. It produced a hollow sound. A coy smile grew on Apple Bloom´s lips. She turned around and kicked the rock wall with her back hoof. A bit of it came off.

“Cinder.” Apple Bloom grinned. “I´m coming back from the dead.” She kicked the wall again and felt more of the wall giving in.

A few minutes later, she had made a hole large enough for her to crawl through. She took the lantern again and shone the light into the tunnel she created. It was barely large enough for her to fit through and Apple Bloom could hardly see more than a few feet in front of her. She put the lantern in first and went down on her stomach.

At first the tunnel was only large enough for her crawl forward on her stomach but she made descent speed. Every time she moved forward she made sure that the lantern was a few feet in front of her to make sure that the path before her was lightened.

She stopped. For some reason when she moved forward her barrel would scrape against the roof of the tunnel, her ribs pressing into the edges above. She tried to crawl back but the rock held her in place.

Short, fast breaths started passing her muzzle and a cold sweat ran down her neck.

“Calm down.” Apple Bloom told herself. She closed her mouth and began breathing through her nose, making sure that her breathing slowed down.

Once she managed to force her breathing down too slow, deep breaths she noticed something. When her barrel was almost empty the rocks let go of her.

Apple Bloom took another breath and when exhaling she managed to crawl forward, albeit slowly. Pausing every time, she had to breath in order to stop the rocks in roof and floor from tearing her skin open.

After a few minutes of crawling the cave started to grow wider and Apple Bloom could breathe while crawling again. But the vengeful mare´s problems where far from over. There was still no sign of daylight, if the sun was even in the sky, and she had no idea if the tunnel would narrow down again or if she could even find the source of the wind.

She held the lantern in front of her and watched. Carefully she read the little flicks of the flame and tried to determine where it was leaning towards.

It made a small twitch to her left.

“Right then.” Apple Bloom said and adjusted herself before she continued.

***

“So that´s where the cunt lies.” Heartbreaker commented while staring at the boulder sitting on the side of the mountain.

“That´s where she lies.” Cinder said. He was covered by bandages again, only his eyes were visible through the layers.

Heartbreaker´s blue eyes narrowed and her left cheek raised to reveal a golden tooth hidden behind her scared lips.

“She kill Slit-Throat and Noose?” Hammerhead looked at the boulder with wide watery eyes.

“Yes, the cunt did.” Heartbreaker answered.

The brutishly large unicorn sniffed as tears rolled down from his eyes.

“You okay, Hammerhead?” Cinder asked when he saw large tear fall off his muzzle.

He sniffed and stared down on the ground. Heartbreaker pressed against his side and rubbed his shoulder, tenderly.
“It´s okay.” She pulled his head in and wrapped her hooves around his neck. “The cunt that killed Slit-Throat and Noose is dead.”

He kept crying, though he did most of what he could to avoid showing his face.

Cinder walked up next to heartbreaker. “I think he needs some time alone.” He said whispered into her ear.

Heartbreaker stroked Hammerhead´s side. “Take your time.” She kissed him on the cheek. “I´ll come back for you later.”

Cinder and Heartbreaker walked away from the grave of the vengeful mare and left Hammerhead alone on the mountainside.

The massive unicorn stood still before the boulder, staring at it with a blurred vision. “Cunt.” He said slowly, not understanding the meaning of the word but realizing that it was meant to be an insult. “Cunt.” He said again. He had heard it before but recalling when and why it was used proved difficult for the massive unicorn. Hammerhead decided to use something he knew the meaning of. “Bitch.”

A rock came rolling down the side of the mountain. Hammerhead didn´t register it at first but when a second rock rolled past his head, he looked up.

Above the boulder a young mare with a red mane was crawling out of the ground. She was covered in dust and at first Hammerhead thought she was brown. When he wiped the tears from his eyes and gave her a second look he realized that she was yellow.

The mare didn´t seem to notice Hammerhead and when she was halfway out she faded and stopped moving.
Hammerhead trotted up to the mare and looked down at her with wide blue eyes. She seemed familiar somehow. The color of her mane and coat, it grinded at the back of his head. “Fruit?” It was the only word that seemed to come to mind.
He leaned down and dragged the mare out of the mountain. He turned her over and looked at her face. There was not a thing about her that Hammerhead recognized. “Strange.” Hammerhead sat down next the mare and stared out over the valley.

Apple Bloom´s eyes opened and her heart jumped straight into her throat. The pressure made it hard for Apple Bloom to breath.

The massive unicorn raised a brow. “Do I know…” He struggled with the last word. “Me?”
Despite coming out of a tight warm cave, Apple Bloom felt a colds shiver while looking at the stallion before her. She knew exactly who he was.

Hammerhead noted an error when asked her the first time. Perhaps that’s why she didn´t answer. “Do you know me?” He asked, proud.

Apple Bloom closed her mouth. The words she formed refused to escape her mouth. She just shook her head.

Hammerhead was angered by this. Why was he confused about who this mare was and why did it seem so important? In his rage the massive unicorn picked up a boulder the size of Apple Bloom and threw it down the hillside.
Apple Bloom felt her hooves tremble with terror. She had no gun or sword to fight this monstrously large pony. If he decided to attack her, Apple Bloom would have a better chance trying to eat teen apples in one bite then killing him now. She started scrambling backwards.

“Wait!” Hammerhead pointed a log thick hoof at her. “Heartbreaker will know who you are.” A satisfied smile grew on his lips. “She´s clever. She´ll know.” There was a split second when the massive unicorn looked away, and Apple Bloom scrambled to her feet and galloped away.

It took Hammerhead exactly ten seconds before he noticed the vengeful mare galloping away. He spent another two seconds staring gormlessly Apple Bloom before he galloped after her. In his mind he wasn´t sure why he was even bothering chasing after this strange mare. It could be that he was still curious about who she was or he had a feeling that she had something to do with the mare who killed Noose and Slit-Throat. But the more likely explanation was that he thought it would be funny to crack her skull open with his hooves and throw her corpse around like a ragdoll. He pictured throwing Apple Bloom´s body against the mountain, her blood splattering over the rocks. The thought made him chuckle as he hunted the vengeful mare.

Apple Bloom galloped in a panic. It had been a long time since she last felt this kind of fear for her life.

The ground trembled as Hammerhead galloped forward, dust and rocks spread around his every step. Despite still mourning his lost friends he still had a somewhat cheerful demeanor at the prospect of beating this mare to death.

The gap between them was closing. And Apple Bloom could hear the massive unicorn charging behind. His hooves hitting the ground with a thundering roar. She realized that running on open ground was going to get her killed fast.

The massive stallion came closer. He raised his hoof to slam it down on Apple Bloom´s head, crushing it like a cherry tomato.

Apple Bloom made a sharp turn on her front hoof and leaned to her side. She ended up facing Hammerhead, his hoof passed by her head and crashed into the ground next to her. With his side left open Apple Bloom took a swift step forward and rammed her elbow into his barrel. She felt a rib cracking at the impact but Hammerhead didn´t even seem to notice. He was already preparing another attack by swiping his hoof towards her.

Fortunately for Apple Bloom, all the weight he was packing behind the swing slowed Hammerhead down and made it possible for her to dash out of range just in time.

Hammerhead grunted and stood up on his back hooves, effectively doubling his length as he was preparing to slam both his hooves down on her.

Apple Bloom summersaulted to the side, putting her far out of reach from the strike.

The massive unicorn´s hooves came crashing down, turning the rock beneath them into a pile of pebbles spreading from the point of impact.

The vengeful mare only knew one thing for certain at this moment. If the massive unicorn managed to land even one strike on her she would die instantly.

Hammerhead took a boulder in his left hoof and threw it towards Apple Bloom.

She could hear the air shrieking as the boulder flew past her ear. Her eyes narrowed and Apple Bloom galloped to her left, trying to end up facing Hammerhead´s side. To her surprise, the massive unicorn managed to turn fast.
Faster than she expected.

When Apple Bloom was just about to approach Hammerhead he turned on his back hooves and faced her. He raised one of his thick hooves above her head and send it ramming for the vengeful mare´s head.

She only managed to narrowly dodge his strike. Standing in front of Hammerhead, as he was winding up for another attack, Apple Bloom saw her chance to strike. She threw hoof into his jaw. The strike broke both skin and teeth but Hammerhead didn´t even blink. He only grunted and send his left hoof for Apple Bloom´s chest.

Apple Bloom caught his hoof and used the momentum of his strike to get out of his range but it also threw her into the rock wall behind her. One of the rocks pierced the skin on her back and cracked one of her ribs. She winced at the pain.

Hammerhead glared at her with sharp, furious eyes. The ground started to tremble as he galloped towards her. He leaped into the air and pulled back his hooves to pummel Apple Bloom into the ground.

The vengeful mare leaped out of his attack with ease. As Hammerhead was getting back up after landing on the ground Apple Bloom reached back and pulled the rock out of her back. She could feel a stream of blood rolling down her barrel. The vengeful mare took a few painful breaths and waited for Hammerhead´s next attack.

The massive unicorn roared out in rage. He grunted through his breaths and stared at Apple Bloom. “Who are you?!” He said with thundering voice.

Apple Bloom spat. “Somepony who hates you.”

Hammerhead´s brows turned to hard frowns as galloped towards her again. And once again he pulled back his right hoof to strike Apple Bloom´s head.

Apple Bloom made a quick dash forward, putting herself between him and his hoof. Her action surprised the massive unicorn, as she expected and hoped it would. Her hoof came up faster than his came down. The blunt underside of her leg rammed straight into Hammerhead´s throat. She could feel the air-pipe being crushed under the force of the impact.

The massive unicorn froze in shock. And then he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

The sight of the blood made Apple Bloom smile, proud.

Hammerhead slammed his hoof into Apple Bloom´s stomach, though this time his strike was much weaker. Apple Bloom survived taking the strike straight into her barrel and being tossed into the rock wall a second time.

Apple Bloom staggered and stared at the shape before her. Hammerhead´s huge brown body had turned into a blurred smudge in her eyes. The massive unicorn tried to charge Apple Bloom but stumbled and immediately fell to the ground. A crimson pool of blood formed next to his mouth. He struggled to get up again.

The vengeful mare rolled on the ground. A fiery pain burned in her back and her head rang like a screaming bell. She winced and put her hooves on the ground. When she tried to rise, her hooves started to tremble and a pain stabbed into the center of her back.

The massive unicorn struggled to breath. Every time he inhaled, it grated like a barb wire being pushed through his throat. As soon as he got up, he stumbled and the root of his broken horn hit the ground first, pushing the black metal inwards. The pain took over his senses. The world turned white before his eyes, like the sun burning into his eyes. A needle sharp shriek cut into his ears, from inside his head. The ground beneath him disappeared, he could only feel the pressure on his forehead.

He put his hooves before his eyes to block out the light, but it still shined brilliantly before him.

He put his hooves on his eyes to try and mute the sound, but it only got louder.

He could only manage to scream. A scream that filled the mountain valley around them and send birds scattering.

Apple Bloom stared at Hammerhead. He was lying on the ground, crying in pain. Apple Bloom felt the pain in her back burning. She felt warm blood rolling out of her wound. It dripped on the ground, steaming.

“Pussy.” Apple Bloom took a large boulder from the rock wall in her hooves. The pain intensified. She walked up to Hammerhead and held it above his head.

The massive unicorn laid down with his eyes closed. Tears rolled down his cheeks. Tears of pain.

He opened his eyes and Apple Bloom let the boulder fall.

Lesser evil

“Water…” Apple Bloom said with a dry throat and crispy lips. The sand beneath her hooves burned and the sun above blinded her. Every breath she took sent another mouthful of hot, dry air down her lungs and the wound on her back burned in the sun´s rays.

The road before her seemed to go on forever. Close to the blurred, shimmered line that was the horizon.

What was Hammerhead doing here? How far away was she from the Cinder´s cabin? Who else was there? Those three questions loomed over Apple Bloom´s mind. They kept her from thinking about the sun and the long path it had to take across the sky.

Apple Bloom looked forward with her dried, golden brown eyes. She put a hoof on her forehead to block out the sun.

The only thing that she could see was the bright yellow sand and dry, bright brown bushes. But she could hear something. A humming of some kind.

“A car?” Apple Bloom said to herself. At first she was relieved. She could get out of this sea of sand and drink a bucket full of cold water. But then she remembered, Cinder drove out here in a car. She didn´t manage to see it in the dark. He could be returning. What would anypony else be going here?

Apple Bloom could see some kind of black shape forming on the horizon. She walked of the road and hid in the bed of dried out river. Thin clouds of dust rose from the ground when she pressed herself against it.

From the dead river she watched the car pass. It was a black truck with a yellow, round smily face painted on the door. She couldn´t make out the driver. Once it was well past her Apple Bloom got up and kept walking. She stayed of the road but always kept it in the corner of her eye.

After another few hours of walking, she saw a little cottage growing from the horizon. When she got closer she started recognize it. She knew without a doubt, that was Cinder´s house.

“Gotta get my things back.” She said, mostly thinking of her hat. The vengeful mare galloped, or at least trotted forward as fast as her legs could carry her, towards the cabin.

She opened the door and started turning the entire cabin over. It only took her a moment to find the katana and the revolver but her hat was a little trickier. It wasn´t on the hat shelf or the place where she had passed out. For some reason it was in the room beneath the stairway. Apple Bloom stared at it and removed another of the strings.

“Two left.” She put the hat on and walked towards the door.

When she walked out the door she was greeted by seven stallions. All of them standing in a line in front of her. Guns drawn, pointing at her.

Apple Bloom made a move for her revolver out of reflex.

One of the stallions fired. The bullet wised past her head and buried itself into the wall behind her. “Don´t.” He said with a hard tone. The stallion was blue, in a shade that reminded Apple Bloom of Nightglade, with a dark green mane and bright purple eyes. “Put your weapons down and put this on.” He threw her a black bag.

Apple Bloom stared at the stallion. Then at the bag. She picked it up. “What if I don´t?”

“We´ll take you with us but it´ll be violent.”

“I´ve taken on more than you lot.”

“Yes, I know.” The stallion gave her a light smirk. “I also happened to know that only one of them had a gun.” He pulled back the hammer on his revolver. “But I´m not stopping you from trying.” He pointed it back at Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom´s eyes narrowed. She knew if she tried to take attacking the stallions right now she would end up dead before she could draw her sword or raise her gun. A deep, rough grunt passed her lips.

The blue stallion raised a brow. “You planning something?”

“No.” Apple Bloom reached to her side and released the buckle and strap that held her katana and revolver. She threw it towards the stallion and was about to put the bag on when she touched her hat. Despite her best efforts, her hooves started to tremble when she removed it.

“Now put the bag on and stay still.”

***

“You can take of the bag now.”

Apple Bloom yanked it off. The light was blinding at first but she soon managed to get used to it. The first thing she saw once her eyes had adjusted was the blue stallion. “Where are my things?”

“You´ll get them back if the boss says so.” He was sitting opposite her on a polished table. The muzzle of his gun was still pointing at her.

“And where’s the boss?” Apple Bloom decided to act more reasonable but her anger could be heard through the tone of her voice.

“He´ll be here soon.”

The moment he finished a sand brown Pegasus walked into the room. He had azure eyes and a bright blond mane. When he saw Apple Bloom he smiled. “Hm…” His voice was deep and smooth. “So this is the lost sister of Sweet Apple Acres.”

Apple Bloom felt her brows sinking into a hard frown when he said those words.

“Oh, I guess I accidently touched a raw nerve there.” He put his hoof before his mouth. “Sorry. At least that confirms who you are.”

“And you are?” Apple Bloom had to struggle not to growl out the words.

“Velvet Jaxon.” He said, calm and courteously. “That name probably doesn’t mean anything to you, so I´ll tell you something that might ring a bell.” He smiled, warmly. “I am Cinder´s younger brother.”

Her heart jumped into her throat so hard that Apple Bloom nearly gagged. Then her eyes started jumping around, looking for ways to get the gun of the blue stallion before her could shoot.

The stallion fired his gun.

Apple Bloom sat frozen. The wall behind her was smoking from the bullet buried in it. She took a breath. “I didn´t do anything.”

“No, but you thought about doing something.” He pulled back the hammer. “If you had tried anything you´d have a hole in your head leaking blood and brains.”

The vengeful mare´s golden brown eyes narrowed.

Velvet sighed. “Should have known this would happened.” He rubbed one of his eyes. “Let me get things straight with you, Apple Bloom. I am not giving you to Cinder, okay?”

Her brows jumped straight to the middle of her forehead. It had been a while since she was surprised like this. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“Why?”

“That will probably be the biggest surprise for you today.” He reached down under the table and picked up a bottle of red wine with two glasses. He poured to himself first and filled the one for Apple Bloom. The Pegasus pushed the glass towards her.

Apple Bloom stared at the glass for a moment before she picked it up and pushed it to her lips. She never liked the taste of wine and this time was no different. It tasted bitter and far too sweet for her but she forced it down all the same. “So what´s the big surprise?” Apple Bloom got sick of waiting for Velvet to tell her.

“I´m gonna help you get Cinder.”

The glass slipped out of Apple Bloom’s hoof and cracked on the floor.

“Called it.” Velvet said with his relaxed, confident voice. He turned to the blue stallion. “You can leave us now.”

“You sure?”

“At this point I think she knows enough to realize that I´m not gonna kill her. And if she isn’t it will only take you a second to get in here.”

“Let me make one thing clear to you, Velvet.” Apple Bloom butted in. “I´m out to kill Heartbreaker and Cinder. Anypony who gets in my way, I´ll kill. Anypony who gets out of my way, I won´t waste the bullet or effort.”

Velvet Jaxon gave her a nod and turned to the blue stallion. “See.”

The blue stallion left.

Velvet Jaxon poured himself another glass. “Heartbreaker and Cinder? What about Hammerhead?”

“I crushed his skull with a rock this morning.” Apple Bloom felt somewhat proud when she said that. “Right after I crawled out of the cave Cinder threw me into.”

“So Hammerhead´s dead.” Velvet took a sip of wine. “That makes things a bit more troublesome.”

“You seem to have forgotten something.” Apple Bloom leaned forward. “I haven´t accepted any offer you´ve made.”

“Afraid there´s a catch?”

Apple Bloom raised her brow. “Remember what I said before? I will kill anypony who gets in the way of my revenge. Right now you´re either an obstacle and an opportunity.”

“And how would you kill me? You don´t have any weapons and if you try anything my friend outside will come in here and pump you full of lead.”

“I´ll snap your neck. You´ll be dead before he can reach his gun.”

“And what then?” He swirled the wine in his glass and took a sip. “He´s far from the only stallion I have around here. And all of them have guns. So stop trying to get smart and take my offer.”

Apple Bloom grunted. She brooded on what he said. “I have a few questions.”

Velvet Jaxon took a mouthful of wine. “Let me guess the first one; why am I giving up my brother to the same mare who´s been killing… a few of his friends? Did I get it right?”

“Yes.” Apple Bloom admitted, begrudgingly.

“The hole Cinder threw you into, he threw me into it when we were young.”

“You know, somehow I don´t find that all that surprising, considering what Cinder is known to do. But it doesn´t really sound like a reason for one brother to want the other dead.”

The Pegasus filled his glass again. “That was just when we were young. And it was far from the only time he tried something like that. As we got older he got worse.” He took a large chug of wine. “He started experimenting. Started killing animals. And dad always kept praising him. Whenever he presented a bad cat or a disobedient puppy he would shower him with praise for rooting out the weeds. And then he moved on to ponies. Killing ponies in creative ways. Killing each one in a far more painful way then the last.” He looked Apple Bloom into the eye. “Do you think I am easily shocked, Apple Bloom?”

“No.” Apple Bloom shock her head.

“The things Cinder has done, shocked me. They haunt me. They fill my nightmares.”

“So why don´t you just kill him?”

“Because Cinder´s not an idiot. If I or anypony I know would try to kill him and fail, he would figure out who tried to kill him and immediately come after me.”

“So when you got word of me, you figured; here´s a pony with a grudge against my psychotic killer brother. If I send her after him I can work around that problem.”

“I didn´t get that idea until I heard he captured you. When he told me he was going to throw you into the pit, I saw a perfect opportunity. He would assume you´re dead and I could point you right towards him. He´d never see you coming.”

“And then I killed Hammerhead.”

“And then you killed Hammerhead. Things would have been far simpler if you´d just stayed in that pit.”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. Even if she had known that he was coming to dig her out, she still would have crawled out of that pit. “What does it matter to you? Cinder will know that I´m alive but he won´t suspect you for it.”

“No but he´ll be on his guard.”

“That´s my fucking problem.”

“And how well did it go last when he wasn´t expecting you?”

“I won´t fall for the same trick twice.”

One of Velvet´s brows jumped slightly and he gave of a snorted chuckle. “Bold and Beautiful.” He smiled and took the last sip of wine from his glass. “In another time and place I might have grown to love you. Maybe I still can.”

Apple Bloom felt the taste of bile rising from her throat. What he said reminded her of Noose. “In another time and place my family might still be alive and I would never have to see you or your fucked up brother.”

Velvet’s eyes narrowed. The fact that he was disappointed was plain enough for Apple Bloom to see but it wasn´t because he wanted to have her. He wanted to have her at his side. Not just for killing Cinder, he wanted to have her as a soldier. “So when you´ve killed my brother you´re just gonna go after Heartbreaker?”

“Exactly.”

“Well if that´s the way you feel, then fine. Any more questions?”

“Why did they kill my family?”

“Is that your last question?”

“It is if you answer it.”

“Well it´s an easy one. They did it because they thought it was fun.”

Apple Bloom felt like something cold had smacked her right across her check. She was stunned and angry at the same time. “That was their only reason? They thought it was fun?”

Velvet filled up his glass before answering and looked at her with frustrated eyes. “They´ve been killing for over twenty years. They´ve killed for others. They´ve killed for money. They´ve killed for me. They´ve killed for themselves. And they´ve killed for fun. Your family is far from the only massacre they´ve caused.”

Apple Bloom stared into the floor. She sighed and chewed on her lip.

“Not what you were expecting?”

“I don´t know what I was expecting. I´ve had them on my mind for twenty years. Hundreds of ideas and thoughts of why they decided to go after my family have gone through my head. The idea of them doing it for fun has crossed my mind.”

“But you never believed that was the actual cause?”

Apple Bloom didn´t answer.

“No, of course you didn´t. They were your family. You loved them and they loved you. They can´t have been killed just for some ponies’ fun.”

“Shut up.”

“Touched another raw nerve it seems. Sorry.” He took a sip of wine.

Apple Bloom took a few moments to think. “Say I go after your brother. Say I kill him. What will you do then?”

“You keep coming on with the questions.” Velvet muttered. “I certainly won´t be trying to come after you or contact you in any way. As for what will be the consequences of his death, I´ll keep that to myself.”

“Fair enough.”

“So that´s it? You´ll take my offer and kill Cinder?”

“Give me back my things. My weapons. My cloak and my hat. I´ll go after him alone. Just tell me where he is and that will be the last we see of each other.”

Velvet took a mouthful of wine. “So that´s how my brother will die. At the hooves of a long lost mare. If you weren´t out to kill him, it would sound downright romantic.”

“Killing him is the only reason I´m going after him.”

“Good point.” He spun his glass. “It´s a deal then.”

“Just one more thing.”

“What?”

“Can I have a glass of water?”

Heartbroken

The air was filled with the scent of sweat cherries mixed with strong vodka. She sat leaning over a glass filled with crystal clear vodka. Her eyes starred into the liquid. A drop of blood fell from her nose, spreading scarlet waves of thin, twirling fabric through the glass as it dissolved. A slow breath passed her lips.

For three hours she had sat there, staring quietly into the strong liquor.

She lifted up the glass and took a sip from it. The strong taste of the vodka drowned out the taste of blood as it passed over her tongue. She slammed the glass back into the table.

“Want a refill?” The bartender asked from behind the counter.

Heartbreaker nodded.

The mare came from behind the counter with a bottle of clear vodka. She filled up the glass. “You okay?” She asked when she noticed Heartbreaker´s nose bleed.

“No. But not because of that.”

“Here.” The bartender offered her a tissue.

She took it and wiped of the blood coming from her nose.

“No, keep it.” She refused it when Heartbreaker tried to offer it back. “In case you start bleeding again.” She returned to her station behind the counter.

Heartbreaker put it aside and picked up the glass as well. She would have preferred if the bartender had left her the bottle.

A drum started beating inside her ears. She closed her eyes and focused. “Calm down.” She whispered to herself as she forced her breath to slow down. The beat of the drum started to fade in her ear.

It has been years since the last time she was out alone. Wherever she went, no matter how late, Hammerhead insisted on coming along. It would always irritate her. She told him once to stay home and almost made the giant cry.

She thought back to the first time she met the enormous goof.

It was at a club. She was alone with Slit-throat in a room, waiting for the boss they worked for and some of his bodyguards.

A massive stallion entered the room. The muscles on his legs pressed against his skin and flexed with every step he took. He had some kind of strange growth on his forehead. It looked like a unicorn´s horn but it was broken off and had a small black metallic rod stuck out of it. He looked at the two of them with wide blue eyes.

“Who the hell are you?” Heartbreaker asked.

“Hammerhead.” The stallion answered. “Are you?”

“Am I…?”

The stallion took a moment to think. “Who are you?”

One of Heartbreaker´s brows spiked and she scratched the side of her head. “I´m Heartbreaker. She´s Slit-Throat.” She nodded to the silent mare.

The stallion´s large eyes stared into the wall behind them. His mouth was wide open.

“Hello? Is there anypony in there?”

Hammerhead turned to her. “Heartbreaker?”

“Yes.”

He turned to the silent mare. “Slit-Throat?”

Slit-Throat rested her chin on her hoof and growled while rolling her eyes.

“She can´t talk, Numbskull.” Heartbreaker said.

“Okay.”

“What the hell happened to turn you into such dumbbell?”

Hammerhead smiled, proudly. “I head but bullet.” He said with his deep, large voice. “Bullet lost.”

Heartbreaker remembered having a tough time believing what he said. But once she knew he was being serious she started burst out laughing until tears ran from her eyes and her stomach started to hurt.

“And he just stared at me completely baffled.” Heartbreaker took another sip from her glass.

She recalled the first time they shared a bed together. His massive muscles and thick hooves wrapped around her. He was warm and powerful, yet soft and comfy at the same time. She felt calm and happy. It was strange to her at first. She was so rarely either of those things but when she was sleeping next to him she slept better than she had before in her life.

“To bad he sucked at fucking.” Heartbreaker finished of her glass and waved to bartender in for a second refill.

“Still bleeding?” The bartender asked when she´d filled the glass.

“No.” She handed the tissue back and the bartender returned to her place behind the counter.

Even though her skin was downright boiling, the glass in her hoof felt like a piece of solid, cold ice. When she pressed it against her lips, a shill spread through her mouth. As she took a swallow it felt like everything the vodka touched turned to ice. It bit and stung the inside of her throat and stomach. Her heart started beating in her ears. Her mouth dried up and her breath became dry and ragged.

“You okay?” The bartender asked.

Heartbreaker didn´t answer. She took a few heavy breaths and tried to regain control over her heart.

“Hey, are you on something?”

A stabbing pain went through her chest.

“You listening?” The bartender´s voice hardened as she walked over to Heartbreaker. She put her hoof on Heartbreaker´s shoulder.

Heartbreaker turned swiftly towards the bartender. Her eyes narrowed and a knife in her hoof.

The blade buried itself in her throat. Blood started running from the wound. The bartender´s grasped slowly for the knife. She stared at Heartbreaker with wide eyes. Her body fell to the floor with loud thud. She laid still. A dark, crimson pool grew from her neck as she stared at the roof with a pair of lifeless blue eyes.

“Cunt.” Heartbreaker spat at the body and walked over to the counter. She took the vodka bottle and started swallowing large chugs of the spirit.

The hateful unicorn wiped her mouth with the back of her hoof and threw the bottle on the ground. The shatters spread vodka and bits of sparkling glass through the air. “Apple Bloom. I´ll be waiting.”

Author's Note

Full disclosure, the head but bullet line was not my idea. It came from my proffreader silverstaid.

The phoenix

The car ran across the dark road. The sun had set and the city was covered in hard black shadows. Only the orange lights coming of the streetlights showed the hard concrete and asphalt that made the streets and buildings.

Apple Bloom leaned back in her seat and tilted her hat over her eyes. She hadn´t said a word to the pony in the car with her since he started driving. She was brooding, thinking, planning. Velvet had been quite thorough with the details on the building that Cinder would be in. He was hiding, alone, in an apartment building next to police station. And Cinder had already paid them of. “Not that it will make any difference.” Apple Bloom grumbled quietly to herself.

“What´s that you said?” The stallion driving the car asked. He was old and grey with lashes of white hair in his yellow mane.

“Nothing.” Apple Bloom replied without looking at him.

“Are you always this grumpy or is just when you’re about to kill something?” He stopped for a traffic light. The tone of his voice gave Apple Bloom a wave of nostalgia.

“Not always.” She leaned forward and stared at the road ahead. Only two of the five immortals remained. Her vengeance would be satisfied. Then she would go back.

The car started moving again. “Just out of curiosity, how long have you been hunting Cinder and his mates?”

“About to twenty years I think.”

“Hmph. Old grudges burn the hardest.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“No. Just a saying I´ve come across. Personally I´ve never waited for more than a year to settle my grudges.”

“But you´ve settled more than one?”

“Far more.”

“Well, just out of curiosity, what were those grudges about?”

“Everything from minor thefts to massacres.”

“Any one of them stick out?” Apple Bloom looked at his eyes. He had gloomy green eyes, withered by age that looked unflinchingly at the road.

“Only one.”

“What was it about?”

“Similar to yours. A dead family member.” Apple Bloom was about to ask him to stop but the old stallion kept talking. “Some jackasses murdered my little brother.”

“And what did you do?”

“Ended their lives in a brutal fashion.”

“I´ve ended lives in brutal fashions.” And she was intending to do more.

“What good would it do for you to hear about how I avenged my younger brother?”

“I don´t know. I´m just asking.”

“Well it would make me uncomfortable talking about it.”

Apple Bloom found his choice of words strange. She imagined talking about her family dying and quickly felt a cold lump growing in her stomach. Then she thought about all the ponies she´d killed. She imagined their faces as best she could. Some she remembered more brightly then others, but none of them made her the least bit uncomfortable. If anything it made her feel happy, proud of her accomplishment.

“How long do we have left?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Ten minutes maybe.”

Apple Bloom shifted her hat. “Can ask you something?”

“As long as it´s not about my brother; feel free.”

“Have you ever loved somepony?” Apple Bloom wasn´t sure why she picked that question. She was planning on asking him about just that but when he put that subject of the table, she had to pick something and that was the first question that came to her mind.

“You mean loved as a family member or as a lover?”

Now she knew what to ask. “As a lover.”

“Twice. The first one may have been more of a young stallion´s delusions than actual love though. What about you? You ever love a pony like a lover?”

“No.” Apple Bloom shook her head.

“Well here´s some wisdom from an old stallion. Love is like fire. It can soothe you, comfort you, make the coldest and darkest of times warm and enlightened. But it can burn you, scorch you, turn everything that you hold dear into endless plains of ash.”

“You´ve experienced both?”

“Experienced the later one on my first time. The former on the second one.”

“You still together?”

“We split up a few years ago. Not too surprising though, we had some rough times for a long while. It was time to end it.”

“It went down that well?”

The stallion chuckled. “Better than the first one.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let´s just say that I ended up giving her a crash course in flying. And she wasn´t a Pegasus.”

Apple Bloom found herself laughing. “Good one.”

“Planning on doing something similar for Cinder?” He glanced at Apple Bloom for a brief moment.

“Not exactly. Quite the opposite actually. I´m gonna give him a fresh pair of wings.”

“How?”

“That´s between him and me.”

“Well, I won´t dive any deeper then.”

“Thanks.”

The car turned a corner and stopped. They parked a block before a large apartment building. Next to it Apple Bloom could see the blue lights coming of the sing over the police building.

“We´re here.” He turned off the engine and looked at Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom looked back at him. His green eyes were kind and warm. “Thanks for the ride.” She said while climbing out of the car.

His eyes followed the vengeful mare as she walked down the street, towards the apartment. He picked his phone from the glow compartment. Quickly he dialed a number but stopped before pressing the final digit. His hoof started trembling. He looked back to the road.

Apple Bloom had disappeared.

He tossed the phone to side and sighed. “Fuck me.” He rubbed the back of his head. “I´ve gotten soft. Or stupid.”

The engine started and the stallion drove off into the night.

***

Apple Bloom walked down a narrow alleyway. She would not make the same mistake with Cinder a second time. She walked up to the backdoor that Velvet had told her about, and given the key too.

The lock clicked and the hinges creaked as she opened the door.

He was on the third floor. In apartment 33, if everything that Velvet had told her was to be true. And, for some strange reason, it was.
Two stairs up she found apartment 33. And from the door on apartment 33, a light came peeking out from the under the door. A flickering, shimmering light that was marked by shadows.

Apple Bloom walked up to it silently. She pressed her ear against the wall. She could hear a fire crackling.
With her sword in one hoof and her revolver ready underneath the other, she knocked on the door.

“Who´s there?” Cinder´s voice asked from the other side.

Apple Bloom knocked again.

The door exploded in a burst of splinters.

“If you´re not dead you better answer!” Cinder shouted.

Apple Bloom didn´t answer. She pressed herself against the wall and silently took the sheath of her sword with booth hooves.
Cinder hesitated. He wasn´t sure if he the pony on the other side didn´t answer because they were waiting for him or if he had killed them.
The barrel of his shotgun was still smoking as he pulled the fore-end back and sent a smoking shell into the air.

“Is it you Apple Bloom?”

Her grip on the sword tightened. The free hoof hovered above her revolver.

“Come on, don´t play coy with me. I know you´re out there.”

Apple Bloom took a deep breath. Her hoof pulled the revolver from the holster. It felt heavier and colder than before. “Yeah, it´s me.”

“You, unholy cunt.” Cinder said, baffled by the fact that he was right. “How did you find me-“

She jumped out in front of the door. Her revolver released a flash of fire. The bullet hit Cinder´s shotgun, destroying the barrel in a burst of sparkling hot metal.

Apple Bloom kicked the door open. Cinder only managed to get a glimpse of the vengeful mare´s rage filled, golden brown eyes before she was right up next to him. Her left hoof slammed into his lower jaw, sending his head backwards. Her sheathed sword cracked into his head, sending him down. Apple Bloom followed up the strike by ramming her left hoof straight into his chest like a battering ram.

Cinder was flung backwards. He fell limbless to the floor. A blurry, shape moved around him. Though he couldn´t make out any shapes he knew that it was Apple Bloom looking down on him. She was glaring at him, hateful and bitter. Then she hit on the head with the end of her sword

***

When Cinder woke up his hooves were tied up apart from each other, above him his head. His back hooves were folded and tied to the floor beneath him. The first thing he saw was Apple Bloom sitting down in front of him. Her legs folded, her sword lying on her knees and the fire crackling behind her.

“Why am I still alive?” Cinder asked.

“Because I´m not done with you.”

“You killed Slit-Throat by cutting her neck open. You cracked Hammerhead´s skull open and smashed Noose´s head in.”

“Your point?”

“You didn´t take your time with them. You just killed them and went on your way, so what makes me so special?”

“Do remember what you did to Ma?”

“Probably something involving fire.”

“You burned her alive at a stake. I saw her mane turning into black coals. I saw skin starting to boil in white blisters. I heard her screams.”

“Are you planning on burning me alive as well? Cause I gotta warn you, I´ve survived that in the past.”

“I´m not going to burn you. I´m going to give you a fresh set of wings.”

Suddenly, Cinder´s eyes narrowed. The ropes that held him in place tightened as the Pegasus struggled to break free.
Apple Bloom smirked. “Whats the matter? Did I hit a raw nerve?” She rose with the katana in her hooves. The vengeful mare looked down on Cinder as she walked around him to face his back.

Cinder followed her with his eyes until she moved out of the corner of his eyes. “What are you planning?”

Apple Bloom gripped the handle of her sword and slowly lifted the blade out of the scabbard. The metal scrapped as it exited. She stared at his back. At the two little growth spurts pressing up against his melted skin. The tip of her sword pressed against the base of his neck, on the left side, right next to the spine. The edge cut through the skin and a trickle of blood ran from the wound.

Cinder gasped in pain.

“Go ahead.” Apple Bloom said with a cold, spite full tone. “Scream. It´s only gonna get worse from here.”

Cinder closed his mouth and his eyes. “Go ahead.” He replied. “Do your worst.”

The blade started cutting down his back, along the spine. Down to the bone. Until it reached the base of his back. When that was done Apple Bloom did the same on the right side of his back. Blood dripped from her sword and from Cinder´s back. Apple Bloom took a deep breath and started pulling the skin apart, revealing the muscles, veins and bones beneath.

Cinder´s mouth opened and released a gasp, but no scream. He bit down and stared forward.

With his back laid bare before her, Apple Bloom grabbed Cinder by the shoulder and pushed the blade right into the first rib on his right side. The bones separated and she started chopping the ribs away from the spin.

Cinder stayed quiet. Not even the slightest gasp or wince escaped his lips. But his mouth trembled. It shook and quivered.

Apple Bloom started separating the ribs on the left side. She took her time, pausing in between each cut and bone. But Cinder stayed quiet.

A few long moments later all of the ribs were separated from the spine and Cinder hung from the ropes. Apple Bloom took the bones and started to slowly, push them away from the spine. It took her a solid minute until she could see what the bones were protecting.
She could see the lungs growing and shrinking, she could see the heart beating in between them.

Cinder´s head hung from his body, staring at the ground.

Apple Bloom reached into the huge bleeding holes and took both of the lungs in her hooves. They were warm, wet and pulsing weakly. Carefully she lifted them up and put them over his shoulder, so they looked like the folded wings of a newborn eagle.

Cinder sat completely still. There was not a movement or action coming from his body.

The vengeful mare walked around to face Cinder once more. The pink lungs dripped blood over his chest and shoulder. His head slowly lifted. The orange flames reflected in his azure eyes. He was pale and weak yet a small smile grew on his lips.

Apple Bloom frowned at the sight of him.

A heart and an Apple

“Only one left.” Apple Bloom said to herself as she meticulously pressed her the edge of her katana against the grind stone. Slowly, she turned pressed the blade up and down. Yellow sparks flew of as the metal scraped against the black stone. After every swipe she whipped the blade with a white piece of cloth.

Apple Bloom looked at it. The clean, reflective surfaces that was once on either side of the blade were almost gone. It was scratched and grimy, only a few spots of clean metal remained.

Carefully, she lifted the tip of the sword into the sheath before pushing it into the scabbard. When the blade was fully into the sheath and both of Apple Bloom´s hooves meet, she sighed. She put the sword on her left side and pressed out the cylinder on her revolver. All of the barrels were empty and Apple Bloom started loading. One bullet at the time, until six primers were facing her. She gave the cylinder a spin and flipped it back into the frame. The metals clicked together. Apple Bloom put the revolver on her right side.

“Only one left.” Apple Bloom leaned back until the back of her head was on the floor. She stared at the roof. It was a creaky wooden roof with dark brown wooden planks lying next to each other. Rain began to smattering down outside, a wind shrieked as it pulled on the houses walls. Apple Bloom adjusted herself as a cold string of air crawled in under her back.

“Nightglade was wrong.” She smiled and her eyes closed.

***

The early spring sun hung over beach as Heartbreaker trotted slowly across it. She watched the waves breaching on the shore. The foamed rushed up to meet her hooves, just stopping short of reaching her and slipping back down again. The salty smell of the sea filled her muzzle. It tickled and Heartbreaker snorted. She gazed out over the black salty sea.

One of the waves managed to reach the base of her hoof. The water was still bitingly cold.

Heartbreaker took a step towards the edge of the water and let a second wave splashed against her hooves. The cold stung in her legs and sent hard shills over her body. Yet she could feel her heart staying calm. It kept a steady rhythm, gently beating inside her barrel. For a few moments, she stood there. Staring down at the wet sand beneath her hooves. The waves splashed against her hooves and the wind pulled her crimson mane. She closed her eyes and her horn started glowing. She listened to the sounds.

“Took you long enough, Apple Bloom.” Heartbreaker said without turning.

The vengeful mare behind her froze.

Heartbreaker smirked and turned on her back hoof to face Apple Bloom. A beam shoot from her horn.
Apple Bloom only barely managed to jump out of the way. The sand behind her exploded in a brilliant white flash.

Her heart punched the inside of Heartbreakers barrel. She took a though breath and threw a knife towards Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom drew her sword and blocked the knife with ease.

“You´re fast, cunt.” Heartbreaker said. Her horn started glowing again.

Apple Bloom´s eyes narrowed. “You´re ugly, bitch.”

Heartbreaker laughed and shoot a second time. And once again her heart beat the inside of her ribcage. A jolt of pain shot through her chest.

Apple Bloom jumped out of the way. A spray of black, burned sand drummed on her hat. The grip on her sword tightened. “What´s so funny?” Her free hoof hovered over the holster to her gun.

“Your insult.” Heartbreaker answered. Her horn glowed. “It was so damn weak.” Her blue eyes narrowed and a furnace burned in her chest.

“Just being honest.” Apple Bloom bit her lip.

Look away. Just for a moment, bitch. Just blink. And It´ll be over.

“So am I.” She blinked.

The moment Apple Bloom saw Heartbreaker´s eyes closed she immediately moved for the revolver. But when it was only halfway out of the holster a beam shot strait for her hoof. And it hit.

The beam burned like a fire on her hoof and the gun slipped out of her grip. The coat on her leg turned black and started smoking.

“It´s just that I´m faster.” Heartbreaker smiled. The scar over her lips made it look downright hideous and uncomfortable for Apple Bloom too look at.

Apple Bloom took a few breaths through her teeth. She put a hoof on her leg. It was warm and crisp. Despite her hoof almost being numb except for heat she kept her eyes focused sharply on Heartbreaker and her horn.

“This is starting to remind me of when I killed your sister. She was just as stubborn as you are right now. Even as I pushed the knife into her neck, she tried to keep you safe. Almost more stubborn then you.” Every breath she took felt like a rush of fire passing down her throat.

Apple Bloom bit down on her lip until it broke. She took a breath and charged. A storm of sand formed behind her as she galloped forward.

Heartbreaker´s horn glowed and a bright beam shot from it.

Apple Bloom didn´t quite manage to get out of the way. The beam hit her in the left shoulder. She didn´t feel any pain from it. It just knocked her to the side and threw her to the ground. She saw the sky spinning above her and felt the katana in her hoof. Her limbs still moved as she told them to. All except her left hoof. Apple Bloom got up and saw Heartbreaker standing exactly where she stood before. A hoof was on her chest and her face was twisted with pain.

The blood in Heartbreaker´s veins burned like boiling water. Apple Bloom was a good few feet away from her, struggling to get on her hooves.

She leaned on her sword. Her left hoof was practically useless. Burned and charred, mostly black crisp flesh remained. She glared at heartbreaker. “Hammerhead cried when I killed him.” She said with contemptuous tone.

Heartbreaker´s eyes widened.

“He cried like a little bitch, begging me to not do it.”

Heartbreaker upper lip twitched. “Shut up.” Her horn started glowing again and everything beneath her skin started boiling.

“He was the easiest one. Didn´t even need my sword, just a rock.”

Heartbreaker shot with her horn. The beam was small and dim. Nowhere near the length and brilliance of the previous attacks.
Apple Bloom dodged it with ease and charged. Her left leg was black and burned to a crisp. Every time a muscle on the hoof flexed it sent numb waves of pain through her body. It was practically useless, dead meat hanging of her side. But she lived with it.

The katana´s curved blade came rushing down towards Heartbreaker. She saw Apple Bloom golden brown eyes, filled with rage and hate. And Apple Bloom saw her blue ones, hollow, empty and cool.

The edge made a shallow cut across Heartbreaker´s chest. A trace of sparkling, crimson rubies rained across the sand. Heartbreaker went down and Apple Bloom´s knee rushed up to meet her face. With the back end of her sword, Apple Bloom struck the unicorn´s horn so hard that I broke both her handle and the horn.

Heartbreaker was flung backwards. Blood and broken bits of horn came from her head. She landed on her back with a heavy thud.
Apple Bloom walked up to her and placed a hoof on her chest, pinning her to the ground. The tip of her blade pointed towards Heartbreaker´s head.

Heartbreaker looked up at her. The blue eyes narrowed. “What are you waiting for?” She said with blood running from her mouth.

“Do you remember how you killed my sister?”

“Yes, you dumb cunt.” The tip of the sword pressed down against her lip, slowly cutting her scar open.

“Get on your fucking back.” Apple Bloom lifted her hoof.

Heartbreaker turned herself over and immediately felt Apple Bloom´s hoof pressing down on her back. A cold piece of sharp steel pressed against her neck. It turned slowly, breaking the skin and drawing blood. The furnace inside her chest turned into a raging inferno.

Apple Bloom pressed the sword through her back.

Homecoming

The bright sun hanged in the sky. The soft dirty road crunched under Apple Bloom´s hooves. She tipped her hat backwards and stared at the forest of apple trees before her from the hill she stood on. The leaves rustled in the wind and the sweet scent of apple flowers reached Apple Bloom´s nose. She smiled and started trotting forward. She limped on her left leg.

Within a few minutes she reached the edge of the forest. She stopped just before entering. With a blank face she stared in between the trees. She reached up and removed her hat. Her hoof was trembling at the sight of it.

No strings left. Only five empty holes.

The hat slipped from her grasp. Her heart pounded inside her throat as it fell towards the ground. It hit the grass below with a soft thud.

Apple Bloom released her cloak and let the wind gently lift it off her. The revolver and the katana still hung to her side. She lifted the empty gun from its holster and let it slip from her hoof. The grass muted the sound of it hitting the ground. She released the buckles holding the sword and held the scabbard with the blade within it. Bits of string and fabric hang from the broken handle. The wind flickered them. When she dropped the sword it made a sharp clang as the blade shook within the scabbard.

For a moment she stood there. The wind howling quietly and pulling her mane, the scent of apples in the air and the thick forest before her. She swallowed hard and walked forward. The sun disappeared from her sight. Blotted out by the blanket of leaves and flowers. The trees were shorter than she remembered. But there were more and all of them were wildly grown and their fruits unharvested. The ground was soft and warm. And the crowns of the trees were thick and dense.

Apple Bloom wandered, her left leg giving her a slight limp. After a few minutes she started to fear that she may have gotten lost but then she saw it between two trunks.

The Sweet Apple Acres. The red-purple house with its apples drawn on. The wooden archway, overgrown with wild plants and bushes.

The white paint was all but gone. Only small patches of it remained. She trotted down the road towards the archway.

A chill traveled under her skin as she entered the archway. An image of what had happened flashed before her eyes. It caused her to bit down on her lip. She took a deep breath and sighed.

She ignored the pain in her leg and trotted up to the door of the house. The hinges creaked as she opened it. A cloak of dust drifted slowly down as she stepped inside. The smell of the house was different yet familiar.

Apple Bloom walked slowly forward. Everything looked the same and simultaneously she felt like a stranger steeping down the hall.

She glanced into the kitchen. She could see the old table and pans with the dinner table in the center of it. She walked past it, up the stair, into her old room.

With trembling hoof, she opened the door. The large bed was on her right. The window overlooking the fields were in front of her. The old wardrobe with the rosettes she used to wear as a filly was on her left.

Apple Bloom put a hoof on the bed. The cover with flowers felt like a soft cloud. Before she knew it she threw herself onto the bed and spread out her hooves. She put her head on the pillow and stared into the roof.

The roof looked strange in daylight. She remembered spending her nights staring at it when she couldn´t sleep. But she could never see what was up there. It was always hidden by the darkness. Now she could see it.

She threw a pillow at it.

The pillow met the roof with a soft thud before rushing back down. It landed next to Apple Bloom´s head.

Enraged she threw it at the wall and once it again it bounced softly of. Apple Bloom grunted before charging towards the closet. She took the door by the top and began to violently pull it until it released from the hinges. Splinters sprayed over the floor as Apple Bloom threw the door at the window, shattering the glass and the frame. Sparkling shards sprayed over the floor, rattling as they hit the boards.

Apple Bloom grabbed the remaining door and tore it free with a hard yank. She threw it at the wall with enough force to crack it. Her golden brown eyes narrowed as she stared at the collection of rosettes inside. One by one she tore them down and threw them to the floor.
When only one remained in she lifted it down. It felt soft and light in her hoof. She took a breath through her teeth and started pulling it apart. With the first yank the fabric resisted. With the second one the strings holding the cloth together started to split. Once the first strings shattered it went a lot easier. With the third yank the entire thing split into two asymmetric pieces.

She turned and pulled the cover from the bed and started ramming her hooves into the mattress. It didn´t matter how hard she pushed her hooves into it her punches merely bounced softly back at her.

Apple Bloom leaned on the edge of the bed and stared down into the floor. A tear rolled down her muzzle and dripped onto the floor.

Once the tear splashed Apple Bloom slowly raised her head. The left part of her upper lip was raised and twitched. She charged down the stairs and ran for the kitchen. She grabbed a pan from the wall and attacked the table. With every strike splinters flew from the wood. They sprayed and splashed into her face. The little pieces of wood irritated her eyes. She kept striking and striking. Hammering the pan into the boards until they broke. The table cracked with a loud crash and hit the floor with a large thud.

She threw the pan at the window and the glass shattered. Apple Bloom flipped the table over and kicked the legs off. She took the broken table leg and threw it into the cupboard filled with glasses. All of them shattered.

Apple Bloom stood still, gasping, struggling to breath. She sat on her knees, shaking and tears ran from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks and dripping from her muzzle. “It was supposed to stop.” She said, her voice trembling and shaking. “It was supposed to stop.” She repeated and leaned forward. “Why does it still hurt?”

There was a knock on the door.

Author's Note

Finally. I´m done. :yay:
Took a little longer than the last one but it was worth it. And according to the like/dislike ratio it was the best multi-chapter story I´ve ever written. :twilightsmile:

Thanks to everyone who read it and special thanks to my proofreader Silverstain, even if he reads slower then I write which is saying something. :derpytongue2:

Well now that I´m done with this godforsaken series I can finally fulfill my lifelong dream and start up my own ribjoint. See ya on the fuckside flippers. :rainbowwild: