A Division of Three Sides - A Documentation of the Canterlot Turf War

IV
Three Hundred and Thirty Four Feet

‘So, what went on here, Captain?’ Lieutenant Flash Sentry turned to his superior, the blinding lights of Police Cars swamping him in colours of red and blue.

‘Looks like it's another gang crime. This place appears to have been sub-rented out to none other than Tantabus’s second in command, Miss Rainbow Dash. We traced a few fingerprints.’

Captain Shining Armour was a force to be reckoned with. A detective who has seen it all. Ever since his sister, Twilight Sparkle, was absorbed into the Canterlot crime scene, he’s tried his best to arrest as many underground criminals as he could, hoping for there to eventually be a wake up call for Twilight. Unfortunately, despite a few irrelevant goons from each gang, this has been unsuccessful thus far.

Both he and his assistant Sentry were called to the scene three hours ago to investigate. However after multiple searches inside the house and out, and a few fingerprint tests later, they have come up fruitless.

‘Who originally rented the place out to her?’ Sentry questioned.

‘We’ll have to figure it out. I’m placing my bets onto Luna, she’s her boss after all, so it wouldn’t surprise me.’ Shining grumbled, and took a sip of his coffee, which he had just ordered in from a place across the street.

‘This has to be a lead, for something!’

‘Like what?!’ Shining Armour grunted. ‘What do you think we can do? I’ve been on this case for three years and nothing has lead to anywhere! They’re all snivelling fucking hooligans, the lot of them, but they run just fast enough, fast enough to dodge any of the police.’

Flash Sentry looked to the ground, and saw the smallest drop of blood stained on the concrete pavement. He dropped to his knees to investigate further. This caught Shining’s attention.

‘Have you found anything?’ The detective asked to his assistant.

‘Yep. Blood. Fresh, but dried. It’ll had to have been spilt around the time of the incident, there’s no other way.’

Is there any chance we can get this tested?’ He asked one of the CSI crew, who nodded, and proceeded to collect as much of a sample as he could.

‘Do you think your sister would be connected to this? You know, the one that’s a criminal?’ Sentry added. Shining Armour shot him the dirtiest look possible.

‘I’d rather hope not. If I know Twilight, I know that she handles analytics, she’d rarely go out to get her hands dirty.’

‘It must feel bad. That you may have to--’

‘What?! Arrest my own sister?! Yeah, I don’t need someone to fucking remind me. I’ve had enough of all that sympathy crap.’

‘My apologies,’ Flash Sentry took off his hat and brushed his hair with a comb. ‘It’s been a long night for everyone, the station is put under a lot of pressure lately to bring down crime rate. So far, we have jack squat for a lead.’

‘I’ll give the Princesses something,’ Shining Armour chucked to himself. ‘They sure are some clever fuckers.’

‘We’ll go and test this stuff back at the lab, feel free to join.’ Sentry said before walking away with the CSI crew.

‘Yeah, yeah. I will.’ Shining pulled out a cigarette, lit the end with a Zippo lighter, and took a long drag from it, puffing it out into a huge cloud that camouflaged into the night sky.

Rainbow Dash kicked open the door of Tantabus’s Hideaway, which startled all of it’s Elite Members who had gathered for a meeting.

‘So are you guys ready to dethrone a king?!’ She shouted menacingly at her comrades, no one really taking her on, except for Luna.

‘Dash, shut the fuck up and take a seat. Your attitude is not gonna help in decision making!’ The boss scolded her right hand man, standing up out of her seat in the process.

‘Oh pipe it,’ Dash sneered back, getting a gasp from everyone else in the room, Luna kept her poker face throughout. ‘If you were my friend you would understand how hurt I am right now!’

‘Well it’s a good thing I’m not your friend,’ Luna shot back, crippling Rainbow Dash and making her lost for words. ‘I am your boss.’

‘You’re not doing a good job at being a boss if one of your damn employees gets kidnapped! It was your idea that we heist the damn club in the first place, and for what? A few thousand bits?! You’re a pathetic leader!’ Dash screamed in retaliation one last time, and Luna’s straight face grew to one of pure hatred in that moment.

‘Grow up. You little brat. It’s all very well you have feelings, kid, but you have no reason whatsoever to say things like that. I didn’t kidnap her, did I? And I also didn’t know Sombra was going to go this far, you didn’t either. This affects all of us, especially me! I’ve gotta try and pull Sunset’s ass out the mud with the help of everyone else before her brains get blown out. Because this is my business, this is my reputation going on the line here. I trust that we’re clever enough. We’re strong. But this has taken us by surprise. And if you raise your voice towards me, your boss, one more time, don’t think I won’t be throwing your body bag down the river and getting the next girl I see who can hold a gun to stand beside me. Do I make myself perfectly clear, Rainbow Dash?’

Dash felt like she had been flattened and ridiculed, and had saw how far she’d gone.

‘Yes boss.’ She said ever so quietly, slumping into her chair.

After a lengthy silence, and allowing time for the awkward, tense atmosphere to linger in the air. Luna finally spoke up.

‘My apologies for that outburst, it was beneath me,’ She spoke, trying to calm herself down. She took off her blazer, placed it on the back of her chair, and sat down. ‘I’m sure you’ve heard the bad news by now. About 2 hours ago we received a photograph of our colleague, Sunset Shimmer, from an unknown source, tied up in what seems like Chaos’s hideaway.’

Luna looked to all of her elite members. First to Big Macintosh, her bodyguard, who had a stoic look on his face, then to Fluttershy, her medic, who was in floods of tears. Then back at Rainbow Dash, who looked down all the while.

‘As you can see, I haven’t invited Sweetie Belle to this meeting,’ Luna pointed to the empty chair between Fluttershy and Zekora. ‘I don’t doubt that she can sit and negotiate team decisions, but something like this is too much for any of us, and we've been in this business for years. She’s new, she’s young, and her sister is working for Sombra so that doesn't help matters.’

‘But boss,’ The usually quiet Big Macintosh raised a beastly paw and spoke slowly. ‘Both of my sister’s work for that bastard too. It’s broke my damn heart.’

‘I understand Big Mac, I’m sorry.’

‘Eenope, no need to be.’ Big Mac smirked and nodded.

‘Is she going to die, boss?’ Fluttershy whispered at a barely audible level, through a big heaping of tears.

‘I’ve had to face death a lot of times in my career,’ Luna said with a heavy heart. ‘But don’t think for a second we aren’t gonna pool our resources and get Sunset Shimmer back. For Dash's sake. For my sake. For everyone's sake.’

‘Problem is,’ Dash spoke up for the first time in a while. ‘Have they not said when or where they aim to actually kill her?’ Surely they would say that on a ransom note.’

‘Nope. But my guess is any time within the next forty eight hours. We will need to gather intel to find out when.’

‘I’m not saying this to be funny, but can’t we just give them back their money?’ Zekora asked in one of her cryptic messages.

‘Nah,’ Dash snarled. ‘If we want to show Harmony and Chaos that we aren’t shitting around, we get her back our way.’

‘I agree with Dash here,’ Luna winked her way. ‘We’re a solid team. And I know how to get her back. But we’re gonna have to send our spy into uncharted territory.’

‘Who? Sweetie Belle?’ Fluttershy asked with a whimper.

‘Yeah, correct. I’d want her to break into her sister’s business, where Sombra launders his drug money, when she’s not around, and try to find some sort of written negotiation. Zekora, stick a camera on her and record her every move, just because we can’t take anything without coming across as sketchy.’

‘You can count on me, no doubt we will set her free.’ Zekora nodded.

‘What day would you want to do this?’ Dash asked with uncertainty.

‘Well, tomorrow’s a Sunday, meaning Carousel Boutique won’t be open,’ Luna pondered for a moment. ‘I say we go just before sunrise, say, six o’clock?’

‘That means you have seven hours at most to convince a sixteen year old girl to break into her sisters business…’ Rainbow Dash raised a reluctant eyebrow. Luna rolled her eyes.

‘She’ll be in her room upstairs, I’ll have a word with her now, I'm not going to give her specifics, but enough to convince her I imagine,’ Luna stood up, meaning that the meeting had come to an end. ‘I know times look bleak, but believe me, we’ll get Sunset Shimmer back.’

Luna cracked a genuine smile at Rainbow Dash. She, after letting it sink in for a moment, smiled back.

Apple Bloom had taken three buses and walked for twenty minutes until she reached the top of a hillside on the Eastern outskirts of Canterlot. The hills and trails, whilst very narrow and scary at night time, provided gorgeous views of the city’s bustling evening nightlife. Apple Bloom stopped at the very summit of the hill, where she stood before a chain link fence. Barbed wire was strung up at the top, meaning no one could get over it. Fortunately, considering how often she takes this root, Apple crawled through the pre-dug hole in the ground, squeezing her way through it.

Finally, after a treacherous journey, she had reached her destination. A crappy little trailer out in the middle of nowhere. Apple Bloom ran up to the door and knocked on it. She could see a silhouette moving in the small compartment, and the door slowly crept open. There stood Apple Bloom’s older sister, Applejack.

Raised in the country, Applejack was the toughest mercenary and assassin situated in Equestria, without a shadow of a doubt. Her kill count exceeded the hundreds, from many years of gang shootouts to hired assassinations, to simply stabbing someone in the eardrums based on their music taste, if there’s a way, she’s done it. Her signature weapon was a double-barrel shotgun she had named Winona. Which never really left her side and had been the cause for about three quarters of Applejack’s kills. Despite this, she was a loving, committed and friendly young woman.

‘Howdy, sis,’ She ruffled up Apple Bloom’s hair with a warm smile. ‘What’s brought you to this part of town at this time?’

‘Well, Applejack, it’s the boss. He wants you to help sort out this hostage situation going on.’ Apple Bloom said with a twinge of doubt in her voice.

‘Dang, I’m in the middle of some business myself,’ Applejack raised her arms and showed she was wearing a rubber glove on her left hand (the other was removed so she could greet her sister) ‘So I could only make my way down there tomorrow morning.’

‘I mean,’ Apple Bloom hesitated. ‘That shouldn’t be too much of a problem. We aren’t in any kind of a rush I don’t imagine.’

‘Would ya mind telling me who I’d be doing the honour of slaughtering, sis?’

‘Do ya know Tantabus’s assassin?’

Applejack’s eyes grew wider with some kind of horrific excitement.

‘Ya mean Sunset Shimmer?’

Apple Bloom nodded.

‘Well golly, I didn’t think I’d have to take out one of Luna’s dykes. If it were Rainbow Dash, I know the little muffin muncher would squirm too much, be too violent. But her girlfriend, well she’s a different story.’

‘Sis?’ Apple Bloom changed the subject.

‘Yeah?’ Her sister responded.

‘Why do you have the gloves on?’

Applejack waited for a few moments, before responding with a grin on her face.

‘Basically, I’ve become friends with this big time gambler from Las Pegasus, she’s this really mega rich gal. Anyway, I challenged her to a poker game last night and she bet on her cleaning all my dishes since I didn’t have any cash on me. And I won. I’m wearing the gloves so that I can help dry the dishes and stack them up neatly and all like that, y’see?’

‘Golly, Applejack, could I go and speak to her? If she’s really that rich, I mean?’ Apple Bloom’s curiosity peaked as she tried to look over her sister into her trailer, but to no avail.

‘I would and all, but she’s really in the cleaning flow and such. Where are y’all staying tonight?’

‘I’m gonna stay in one of Sombra’s outhouses, he gave me the keys before I left. He said it wasn’t too far from here I don’t think.’

Well, that’s handy,’ Applejack chuckled her sister, giving her a huge hug. ‘I’ll see you at sunrise tomorrow, is that alright?’

‘Sure can do! G’bye sis!’ Apple Bloom began to run off into the dead of the night.

‘See ya later!’ Applejack called out to her.

After about half a minute of staring out into the forest, Applejack turned and walked back in. In the middle of her kitchen, lay a massive plastic industrial barrel, filled to the brim with Sulphuric Acid . The substance had turned a sickly pink mixture due to a twenty minute period of breaking down fat, bone and tissue.

‘God, you were shit at poker,’ Applejack said apathetically to the barrel. ‘And yer only went and got my shower curtains covered with blood too!’

She looked onward at the dirty, acid-y liquid remains of what was once human for a moment, then turned around and turned on her TV, lying on her sofa and kicking her feet up onto it.

Sweetie Belle was grumpy, tired, and a little bit scared, and didn’t particularly want to do this mission for many reasons. But alas, the time was six o’clock in the morning, the beginnings of sunrise were just around the corner, and she was stood in front of her older sister Rarity’s business, Carousel Boutique.

On the lookout, by orders of Luna, was Big Macintosh, who was a strong protector for the teenage girl, packing a Glock in his back pocket in case things got a little rough. He stood across the street observing Sweetie Belle from afar.

‘So what am I looking for again?’ Sweetie Belle tapped the earpiece and grumbled towards Zekora on the other line.

‘The one thing you need, my dear Sweetie Belle, is some pieces of Chaos’s intel,’ Zekora responded from the hideaway. ‘Look for any dates or times, that relate towards the crime.’

‘Alrighty, if you say so.’

Sweetie Belle was very small, she had hardly developed yet as a teenager, but this was an advantage of keeping herself agile and hidden. She pulled out a wire hair clip from her hair, and a small flat iron bar from her inside coat pocket, and began to pick the lock. With a bit of twisting and turning, she got it open.

As the door creaked open slowly, Sweetie pulled the night vision goggles she had on her head over her eyes, allowing her to see clearly in the pitch blackness of the store. As she took her step inside, she heard a ticking sound.

‘I’m turning off this timer mode,’ Zekora panicked, trying her best to hack into the system, but it was no use. ‘Any chance you know the four digit code?’

‘If I know Rarity,’ Sweetie Belle said nonchalantly, walking up to the keypad as the ticking persisted. ‘Then it would be our Mom’s birthday, which is October twenty-ninth.’

She typed into the keypad the number 1029, and after a few seconds of anticipation, the ticking stopped.

‘You and Rarity being related, has stopped you from being berated.’ Zekora reassured, and Sweetie Belle smiled. ‘Now that you’ve stopped that awful sound, is there anything in here to be found?’

‘I’ll have a look around.’ Sweetie replied, looking around with her night goggles.

She started by looking into the filing cabinets, but apart from several documented illegal bank transfers, there was nothing of necessity be uncover. Sweetie Belle looked some more.

At the bottom of one of the drawers beneath a sewing machine she found just what she was looking for, Rarity’s work phone.

She must have left it by accident after her last shift here, Sweetie Belle thought.

Accessing the phone and finding a text from Discord wasn’t actually that difficult after all. From six hours ago, it said.

‘DISCORD 00:32

Tuesday. 5pm. Mark your calendar. The boss wants everyone there to witness the event.’

‘Nice going, just keep that there,’ Zekora commanded with a smile on her face. She took a screenshot and saved it onto a hard drive. ‘With Luna that will I share. Reset the timer and lock the door, otherwise we will be caught for sure.’

‘Alrighty, Sweetie Belle over and out.’ This was the teenagers first mission since being accepted to join Tantabus, and it had gone so well.

She reset the password, and left quickly enough so that it didn’t go off again, she locked the door, and then ran across the street, where Big Macintosh gave her a celebratory high five.

‘So, time for our first mission in years, bucko!’

‘Don’t call me “bucko”, for God’s sake.’

After using radio frequencies, CCTV cameras and satellite signals, Pinkie Pie used conversations between representatives from Yakyakistan to find where found the exact manhole cover they were expecting to enter, and what time as well. That time being 12:15pm. It was 11:45am and the duo sent out by Celestia pulled up outside a tall apartment block, right in the heart of Sombra’s territory.

‘This is going to be somewhat impressive if I pull this off.’ Octavia stated with only the smallest amount of worry. She was carrying a suitcase in one hand and a collapsible stool in the other.

‘That means this is gonna be a hard mission…’ Pinkie responded. She definitely was panicking under the surface.

After climbing up ten flights of stairs, they reached the roof of the apartment complex, and looked over the vast skyline of Canterlot from above it. Pinkie, whilst a little out of breath by the obstacle of the stairs, was blown away at the sights.

‘Wowee! What a cool place, Tavi!’ She yelped.

‘Keep your voice down, they may spot us from up here,’ Octavia hushed Pinkie. ‘But yes, it is pretty cool.’

Octavia was an expert with a Sniper Rifle, and this situation allowed perfect use of such a weapon. She set up her collapsible stool at the very edge of the building. Then she took off her fitted blazer and neatly placed it to her side, unbuttoned her cuffs and rolled up her sleeves past the elbows. After this, she opened up her suitcase, which contained all of the parts to her Sniper perfectly organised. With a hasty, yet honed expertise, she began to construct the powerful weapon.

Pinkie Pie was using a small little contraption she had created using parts of an old radio, a TV antenna, a car battery and a plastic toy race car controller. With this, she could hack into and isolate security signals, hence how she listened into the traders conversations, by intercepting the security signals that the bodyguard had attached to his radio. Using a large set of headphones, she listened in carefully whilst Octavia set up her station.

Once she had finished constructing her weapon of choice, Octavia pulled out a notepad and began to scribble all sorts of algebraic equations onto it. Pinkie Pie watched in astonishment. After she was done, Octavia put the notepad on the ledge, next to her Rifle.

‘So, Pinkie,’ Octavia began to explain. ‘Since we have time, and to calm my nerves to a degree, I’m going to tell you why this is going to be a pretty tricky shot.’

‘You have my attention, and it better be stupidly absurd.’

‘Well, this is a bolt action Sniper Rifle, not a semi-automatic one. This means that I have a longer period of time between shots as I have to load in each bullet individually.’

‘Well, why didn’t you pack a semi-automatic one, silly?’ Pinkie contested in a sarcastic manner.

‘Not as precise and the range isn’t as far,’ Octavia justified. ‘Those notes you saw me constructing were essentially how far this bullet needs to travel. This building is ten stories high, and using estimations of where I think the manhole cover is to the foot of the building, I predict that this bullet needs to travel three thousand and thirty four feet before meeting the head of our little target. Considering this sniper fires bullets at three thousand and forty feet per second. That means it would take just under a second to hit his head. That second is so vital, as no matter how much dedication you put in, it can all fail in that single moment. I have to fire two bullets in quick succession, the first at the representative and the second at his bodyguard. I also need to take wind into account, as it it relatively overcast and windy today.’

‘That’s a lot of big words, Octavia,’ Pinkie sat there, completely dumbfounded. ‘Could you tell me again?’

‘Basically,’ Octavia rolled her eyes. ‘The chances of a misfire are high, if I misfire we’re royally fucked.’

‘Aaaahhh, gotcha!’ Pinkie gave a wide grin in response.

There was a silence as Octavia aimed to calm herself by taking deep breaths. Pinkie, feeling the need to reassure her, asked her:

‘So, how’s the missus?’

‘I’d rather not talk about my personal life when I’m on the job.’ Octavia said professionally.

‘You and Vinyl are still together, right?’ Pinkie queried, ignoring Octavia’s entire previous statement. All the suited girl could do was sigh.

‘Yes, we are,’ Octavia quelled Pinkie’s fears. ‘We’ll be celebrating seven years of us dating next month.’

‘Awwwww,’ Pinkie squealed. ‘You guys are so cute together!’

‘You’ve never even met my girlfriend.’ Octavia scoffed, she then realised where she was and began to panic a little bit more than earlier.

‘Time?’ she asked with uncertainty.

‘Ten past twelve.’ Pinkie checked her phone clock.

‘I have time.’ Octavia said in a cool wave of calmness.

The assassin pulled out the final piece of equipment she needed from the suitcase, and that was her suppressor.

‘I didn’t want to cause any kind of commotion for the public, you see.’ Octavia grinned.

‘Awww, look at her, she’s so considerate!’ Pinkie cheered, to which her partner just tittered.

She screwed it onto the of her Sniper with precision. After this, she pulled out a packet of vogues and placed one into her mouth. She struck a match, lit the end of the slim cigarette, took a drag from it, and placed it onto the ledge. She then picked up her Sniper Rifle and gripped the handle.

‘Time?’ Octavia repeated.

‘Fourteen past twelve.’ Pinkie accounted.

‘Perfect.’ Octavia took a deep breath and looked through the scope of her trusty Rifle. Pinkie, for the first time that day, remained perfectly silent.

Octavia saw two men in business suits walking towards the designated manhole. One man had an earpiece, meaning that he must be the other man’s security. She waited a moment, whilst they looked at the manhole. The security guard handed the trader a crowbar, and managed to start lifting the heavy metal plate from off the ground. The manhole cover had been removed entirely and that meant Octavia had to strike now.

Taking a deep breath and focusing her mind she shot. Due to the suppressor, only a hiss came out of the mighty weapon. With a smoothness about her, the Assassin loaded another bullet using the bolt and immediately shot again.

Looking through her scope, she saw the representative go limp as he fell into the sewer. The security guard began to panic, but could not comprehend for long, as he too was shot in the head and went limp. Both targets had been killed in the back alley.

Octavia placed the cigarette into her mouth as she began to dismantle the weapon. She turned towards Pinkie Pie.

‘Go.’

Pinkie, in a fit of adrenaline, leapt to her feet and ran.

Despite her somewhat puffy size, Pinkie’s stamina and speed was unmatched due to her constant state of hyperactivity she was in. And even though she had to run down the ten flights of stairs she had previously climbed, and run an additional few hundred feet when at ground level, it only took her just under three minutes to run to the crime scene.

After climbing down the handful of rungs of a ladder leading down to the corpse, and trying her best to block out the awful smell of raw sewage, Pinkie checked the pockets of the trader. She found the coordinates hastily scribbled down on a piece of paper, she put that in her cleavage. Pinkie Pie also treated herself to the money that was in the recently deceased man’s back pocket, meaning it was a victory on multiple accounts.

She met Octavia where they had began, at the foot of the apartment block.

‘Did we get what we came for?’ Octavia asked nervously.

‘Yepperoni!’ Pinkie confirmed, putting her partners mind at rest.

‘Once we’re back at my car,’ Octavia began to walk off, Pinkie following behind. ‘I say we treat ourselves to ice cream, in Celestia’s territory, of course. Since I think that was a job well done, from both of us.’

‘You had me at car.’

‘But-- ah nevermind.’ Octavia chuckled.

Just as Applejack had promised, she had met up with her sister, Apple Bloom, at sunrise and made their way into the sewers for early afternoon after gathering everything she needed and making the long journey into Chaos’s hideaway. She carried a rather weighty gym bag on her shoulder that slowed her usual fast speed a little.

‘Howdy, y’all,’ Applejack welcomed herself in casually. ‘Shall we get into the activities straight away or?’

‘AJ,’ Sombra shook the mercenary’s hand. ‘A pleasure as always. You’re gonna be doing a little video for Luna and the rest of Tantabus, would that be alright? I’m sure that Apple Bloom has given you some necessary details.’

‘Well gee! I didn’t expect to be performing to THE PRINCESS Luna!’ She said in a tone that was too excited to be perceived as sarcasm. ‘Say, where’s our little target?’

Sombra pointed to the corner of the chamber, where Sunset had remained this whole time, unable to move.

‘Hey there, sugarcube,’ Applejack sat on the girls lap, who was too tired to try and push her off. ‘We’re gonna do things a little rough, but it’ll all be for a great show, don’t ya think?’

Sunset only let out a muffled grunt.

‘One thing, boss,’ Applejack turned to Sombra. ‘May I have a word with you in private?’

‘Of course.’ Sombra and Applejack went just outside the chamber to one of the pipe tunnels outside.

‘Lookee here,’ Applejack started off. ‘I can be as vicious as y’all want me to, but I can’t do this in front of Apple Bloom. I’d rather she don’t see it. Get someone to take her on a walk or something, anything. I don’t mind, as long as she’s not in the room.’

‘As you wish,’ The suddenly polite Sombra agreed. He then turned around to his engineer. ‘Rarity, here’s twenty bits. I want you to treat Apple Bloom and yourself to anything she wants. As long as you’re gone for the next hour or so.’

‘Yes boss.’ Rarity gratefully accepted the money, and took Apple Bloom out of the chamber.

‘Now that my cameraman is gone, Discord will record this for me.’ Sombra announced, handing a small camcorder to his right hand man.

‘I would be a pleasure, Captain.’ Discord bowed and began to record, focusing in on Applejack and her bound victim.

Applejack turned to the camera with a welcoming smile.

‘Hey there Luna, Rainbow Dash, and the rest of Tantabus. How are y’all doin’? You don’t need to know who I am if ya don’t already, but you sure will know who our special guest is!’

Discord turned the camera to Sunset, who was trying to scream something along the lines of ‘Help me!’ but due to the duct tape, no such sound could be formed. Applejack then proceeded to unzip her gym bag, disclosing the multitude of weapons and other instruments of torture inside.

‘So, today our patient is going to go through a little procedure today,’ Applejack narrated as she pulled out a single brass knuckle. ‘She’s gonna need to be sedated, but lack of laughing gas makes things difficult.’

Applejack slotted the brass knuckle over the right hand, and without warning punched Sunset Shimmer right across the face, snapping her nose with a violent crunch and knocking her out cold.

‘This is just so she don’t squirm or bite as I get her ready.’ The assassin winked as she pulled out her second item, an old industrial headpiece, which she began to clamp to Sunset Shimmer’s jaw after removing the tape from around her mouth. Using a metal lever she forced sunsets mouth open horrendously wide, with no means of closing due to powerful metal locks keeping it in place.

Sunset Shimmer came to, realised what situation she was in and started to scream violently. Applejack pulled out a rusted pair of pliers and immediately went into her mouth, picking one of her molars at the back of her mouth, then proceeding to rip out the tooth. This period took an excruciatingly long time, but Sombra was loving the show the whole time, unable to wipe the malicious grin from off his face. Sunset screamed until her voice went hoarse, and tears ran down like violent rivers from her eyes.

With different violent tugging and twisting gestures, Applejack was finally able to rip out the mighty tooth with a ripping gesture that would make anyone wince. Blood from Sunsets mouth and nose began to pool on the floor, and the poor girl felt delirious due to the amount of pain she was in.

‘Now that, was a magical moment.’ Applejack shoved the bloody tooth in front of the camera, then placing it in a metal dish which was in her gym bag.

‘How’s about we tune in to see what our patient has to say.’ Applejack removed the contraption from Sunset’s jaw. Immediately Sunset began cursing with what little energy she has left.

‘You inbred backwards retard! You’ll be losing a hell of a lot more than teeth when I get out of this.’

Applejack began to chuckle, before reaching one more time into her bag, to pull out a Desert Eagle that glistened in the sewer’s artificial lighting. She shot and took a direct hit at Sunset Shimmer’s right kneecap, shattering it in the process. The intensity in the gunshot echoed throughout the chamber for several seconds before dying and replacing with Sunset Shimmer’s cries of desperation.

The screaming and crying of genuine pain was greater than ever before. Sunsets screams of agony remained uninterrupted for a solid two minutes before she passed out again, no doubt because of the immense pain she was in. Discord then focused the camera onto Applejack.

‘It’s a shame she ain’t gonna be able to walk for the time being, so she can't do much,’ Applejack jeered whilst looking at the camera. ‘Luna, you waited too long, and this happens. You have until 5pm on Tuesday to give us the cash. In full. No bullshitting. Otherwise a bullet will be going through the back of her skull. You have been warned.’

Discord stopped the recording there, and placed a fresh set of tape over the hostage’s mouth. Applejack pulled out a towel from her gym bag and began wiping off the excess of blood on her exposed arms and leg areas. Sombra’s smile was just as wide as ever, slapping Applejack on the back, winding her a little.

‘This will give them the message we want to send them. My condolences,’ Sombra congratulated whilst handing his henchman a large wad of cash. ‘You’ll be paid more if and when you carry out the hit.’

‘Cheers, boss!’ Applejack nodded her head and slipped the cash into her back pocket.

‘That was a work of art, I must say.’ Discord chuckled, watching the video back.

‘Rarity will get that video sent off to Tantabus by this evening,’ Sombra reassured his elite members. ‘Speaking of which, I think we should join your sister at wherever they’ve gotten up to, don’t you think?’

‘A milkshake is definitely what I need right now!’ Applejack laughed as the three walked out of the chamber, leaving Sunset Shimmer alone.

As the poor girl came to, she began to scream as much as she could, out of desperation, pain and anguish.

But as they echoed throughout the sewers, even she knew that no one would be coming for her.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t.

Luna wasn’t.

Tantabus wasn’t.

And upon this realisation, Sunset began to cry. Listening only to the sound of intense silence as tears dripped off her face, mixing into the bloody puddles at her feet.

The silence truly was terrifying.