Kill the five

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.