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.

Either way, hope anyone who reads these likes them.