Blood streamed from her nose. Tempest rolled over onto her side, coughing and spitting until she didn’t taste the sand on her tongue anymore. Gus was shouting somewhere, he must have been miles away. No, he was right in front of her. Another body hit the ground, she saw it rather than heard it. The pain in her leg felt like dry ice on a burn. Slowly she lowered her head, wincing and trying not to breathe in the loose dust.

=========================================================================

“Quick and easy, right?” Night Tempest reminded Gus as she flicked a cigarette butt into the road. They sat across the street from Diablo’s house, leaning against the sheet metal wall of some dilapidated building. The pair waited their two days, before coming back and settling down in their spot at noon. There they waited, ready to pounce on Aswad the moment they saw him. To the calico’s chagrin, they had been waiting for hours.

Gus was idly running his fingers in the sand when she piped up. Sighing, he said, “Temp, I love you and all, but I’m fuckin’ bored. I think I’m gonna drop by the convenience store and grab a drink. You want anything?”

She shook her head. Then, “Don’t leave. We don’t know when he’s coming, so we have to be prepared for him to come at any second.”

The cat groaned and looked over his shoulder around the corner. “It’s literally right up the road. I can see it from here. I’ll be back in two shakes, I promise.”

A moment of silence passed. “I want hard apple cider.”

Gus chuckled, patting her arm and standing. He stretched his legs for a second and reached for the sun, doing his best to unfuck the stiffness. A growl followed newly-comfort in his muscles and joints, and he wandered towards the store.

The little shop wasn’t anything spectacular, in fact it would have blended in with every other building if not for the wooden sign out front that read Moe’s Convenience in garish blue lettering. The inside seemed a little nicer, with shelves lined up perpendicular to the left wall. There were cheap snacks and candy. Adorning the wall they sat next to was a long cooler with a glass cover. It was filled with ice and had various beverages inside. The section marked ‘alcohol’ was larger than the rest, and was apparently the most popular thing in the store. Every customer in line had at least one beer, if not three or four.

It was noticeably quaint, and even had a little bell that rang when the door hit it. Something smelled pleasant, and he instinctively looked around for candles or incense. None to be seen, but a fan was blowing into the main room from the entrance to the back room, where a candleglow was visible. Crude but effective, he supposed.

He picked out a generic ale for himself and Temp’s cider, trotting to the front to get in line. His eye flicked over to the front door. It rang the little bell above the entranceway and a mean-looking cat stepped in, firing a hideous glare in Gus’ direction. The calico turned his gaze back to the front, pretending to focus on the cashier. Only seconds had gone by before he heard a dark whisper in his ear.

“What are you and your girlfriend doing here?”

Gus scowled. “Hey, first of all, we aren’t together. Secondly, it’s not your fuckin’ business, pal.” He never bothered to turn and look at who it was. He figured it was the asshole that just walked in.

The big cat snorted. “If it ain’t my business, then you have no business being in this part of Brink. You best get back to wherever you’re from.”

“How about you try to make me?” he shoots back quickly. “I’ll stomp a mudhole in your ass, and then she’ll come over and make the gaping cavern where your chest cavity used to be just a little bigger.” Gus was spitting venom now. The lady cat in front of him shifted nervously, and the cashier cocked a brow at the two of them.

“Just watch yourself, pretty boy,” the cat answers. “You’re in a for a world of medical bills if you stick around.”

“Get fucked, dude. It doesn’t concern you. We’ll be gone by tonight.”

“I know you will,” he mutters.

Gus almost flinched. ...What did he mean by that?

The line finally whittled itself down to Gus and the folk behind him. He flashed a warm smile and paid for his drinks, then gave the big fucker one last glance before leaving.

Night Tempest was hardly paying attention to anything in the real world, so when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she jumped and shot her head up. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Dear God, Temp, it’s just apple cider. Did you have negative experiences with alcohol at a young age?” Gus smirked as he sat back down beside her.

“Shut up. Gimme that.” She yoinked the cider and popped the cap off, taking a sip before humming appreciatively. “Fuck, but it’s so good. Thanks.”

“No skin off my back. Tell you what though, trouble’s lookin’ for us.” He started sipping his own drink, lazily scanning the area for any signs of their target. “Some guy was threatening me, saying we don’t need to be here.”

“Yeah, people on this side of town are weirdly paranoid.” Another mouthful of cider gave way to her next comment. “Think he’s looking out for Aswad or something?”

“Maybe,” the cat muses, taking larger swigs of the ale. He licked his lips and when he saw the same big cat from the store walking through the sidewalk crowds, he nudged her. “Hey, look. It’s the guy I was just talking about.”

“He’s moving with purpose,” she noted, squinting. The cat disappeared around the corner of another house. “Well, I believe I cracked the caper.”

“Huh?”

“Check it out,” she mutters, pointing to the crowds. “Some of these guys have been here almost as long as we have. And they’re just standing there. I caught one of ‘em staring at me.”

Gus scoffed. “Maybe he just liked your tits.” He got an elbow in the side for that.

“I’m serious, man. I don’t think we’re the only people looking for him. If what Diablo said is true, this guy’s a dick with a thousand bits sitting on his noggin.”

Another half-hour passed. Gus and Temp were on edge, keeping a close eye on as many people as they could. On top of being excruciatingly uneventful, they were both stressed and anxious, waiting for anything and everything to happen. A gentle breeze was beginning to wash over them as the sun kissed the horizon.

Night Tempest saw the distinct figure of a slim tuxedo cat padding confidently up the street, making a beeline for the house. Despite the name of his breed, his attire was far from formal. Baggy jeans and a dirty tank top. It was definitely their guy. Gus started to get up, but she grabbed his arm. “Wait. We need to see if anyone else is moving first.”

For a moment it looked as if Aswad was going to make it to the door unmolested, but one of the potheads, an orange tabby, got to him first. He passed the joint off, and with actual cat-like reflexes, turned and tackled the guy to the ground. They rolled, and the stoner cat drew a knife from his belt. With a snarl, he went to push the blade into Aswad’s neck. The other cat was just a little faster. The tuxedo cat bucked his hips, throwing the stoner off.

The tabby rolled, getting to his paws in no time. The moment he raised his dagger, he heard something whiz past his ear. Aswad’s head snapped back from the impact of an arrow appearing in his skull. He crumpled, falling on his back and twitching. The stoner watched in shock as the shooter calmly walked past - a female cat about Gus’ size, bending over to rip the projectile out of her victim’s forehead.

“She’s quite the crackshot,” Temp whispers, still processing all that had happened so quickly.

“She’s pretty cute,” the calico adds, smirking when the mare gave him a dirty look.

“Come on, we need… Fuck.”

Several other cats and even a gnoll approached the woman, each of them armed and glancing between Aswad and the bowcat herself. She put her paw on his face, looking around to see if any of them would challenge her for it. The next comment to leave her mouth would be her last.

“Whoever helps me carry him gets half the cut.”

Our heroes had the brief second to look one another in the eyes before a member of the crowd raised a hand to pipe up. He was one of at least a dozen, plus the bow chick, and then Gus and Night Tempest. The moment he opened his mouth, a fist connected with his jaw.

The fighting was intense and nobody really seemed to take sides. The gnoll, being almost seven feet tall, walked directly to the lady standing on Aswad’s corpse. She saw him coming and started to notch an arrow, but she must have underestimated his speed, because he was up her ass before she could pull the drawstring.

His fingers were around her throat before she could back up. A strangled cry limped out of her throat, the bow falling to the ground as he lifted her. As if being lifted by her throat wasn’t enough, the gnoll drew his sword, nearly as long as her arm. Her eyes widened in fear, and she kicked helplessly as he plunged the iron into her stomach. For good measure, he went through her chest as well, several times. He didn’t stop when she stopped struggling, and even after she hung lifelessly in his grip, he continued to eviscerate her rib cage. Only after her body was completely drenched in her own blood did he drop her.

At that point a few people started to pair up, ganging up on one another and even going after the towering hyena. With a roar, he was swinging and punching, trying his damndest to hit any of his opponents. While he was fast, virtually everyone else was faster, and now that they’d seen him in action, they’d gotten braver. Gus and Temp hung back, staying across the street for the time being. It had been decided they’d wait it out until only a handful were left that they could deal with. This plan would have been fine if it wasn’t for Gus’ nasty words coming back to bite him and the pony in the ass. They watched a scrawny fellow with a long dagger stab the gnoll in the lower back, using all his strength to drive the wedge into his spine.

“Big guy’s out,” Temp says casually, reaching for a cigarette. She glanced over and saw Gus staring with his brows furrowed off to her left. She looked the other way and saw the same big cat from earlier. He was approaching the two of them, wearing a horrifying grin.

“I fuckin’ knew it!” he bellowed, drawing a sword from its home at his waist.

“Book it,” Gus says abruptly, sprinting for the crowd of bounty hunters still in mid-slaughter. The earth mare followed, looking behind her as the guy gave chase. The moment they merged with the group, they were volunteered to fight. A pure black cat cut someone down and turned to see her, immediately advancing and raising his blade. Dagger in hand, Temp brought her hands into a fighting stance, the tip of her knife pointed earthwards. He reared up to swing, blatantly telegraphing his attack. In this case, it was an example that size didn’t always matter - it was how you used it.

She ducked and caught his arm in the backswing, hitting his elbow with her free hand as hard as she could. His arm broke with a stomach-churning crack, bone ripping flesh apart from the inside, and he fell to one knee at her feet. The black cat’s weapon landed in the dirt, just before he looked in time to see her flip her dagger and push it into his throat with a twist. He gurgled as if trying to speak underwater, eyes rolling back into his head as she cut a wide gash in his flesh. Temp tore the dagger back out and turned her attention to Gus.

The calico had been busy. While she dealt with one, he dealt with another, the one who’d dispatched the gnoll. He probably used to be a gorgeous siamese cat, but sand and bits of blood ruined his coat. The little shit was fast - Gus was quick with the shortsword, putting his palm against the flat of the blade and gripping it carefully so he could block the incoming strikes. The siamese wasn’t letting up, pushing harder and harder, waiting for him to slip up. As he lunged to try to get his blade inside the calico’s defenses, Gus backed up, surprising the Hell out of the attacker.

“Didn’t see that coming?” he snarks as the siamese stumbled forward. Gus was already swinging before his adversary could recover. The edge tore through the smaller cat’s fingers, sending digits and his weapon into the dust. The shock of the pain and being suddenly disarmed got him ultimately killed. The last thing he felt was the throbbing agony of a sword passing through his heart.

He looked over in time to see Night Tempest’s eyes locking with his, and the form of the big asshole appearing suddenly. “Hey-!” Gus heard a commotion behind him and spun, raising his shortsword to parry an attack he was sure was coming. His instincts proved right, saving his life by the nuance of an inch of steel. The new opponent’s sword glanced off his, and the calico readied for another fight.

The corner of Night Tempest’s vision was eclipsed by a sword swinging into view. She darted to the side and faced her attacker directly, bringing herself to a familiar fighting stance. There weren’t too many bounty hunters left, and a few had ran. Hopefully this guy would be the last. He took a big step forward, aiming the tip of his blade for her left shoulder. She easily side-stepped, and then figured out what he was up to. Too late. The moment her right leg reconnected with the ground, he swung down, slicing her thigh wide open. Pain shot through her body in a wave of torment, punctuated by his off-hand clenching into a fist and crashing into her snout. The pony toppled, the sheer force spinning her and leaving her face-down in the sand. She gasped and coughed, choking on the earth.

Gus snarled, running his sword through the other cat’s neck and swiftly twisting to see Temp laid out in the sand, and Big Guy standing over her with the intent to drive his blade into her. The calico moved, faster than he thought he could ever go, and felt himself force his weapon into him with all of his body-weight behind it. He successfully buried his sword hilt-deep, punching through ribs and organs. He twisted and jerked, continuing to push until pulling it back out with an ungodly cry of rage.

Night Tempest watched her friend impale their foe with a horrible roar, loud enough for her to hear clearly through her haze. She blinked the tears out of her eyes, wincing and sitting up as she rubbed her temple with her palm. The punch definitely shook her up, but everything was coming back into focus soon enough. She closed her eyes again, groaning weakly. She felt a warmth place itself next to her, and a pair of hands grabbed her arms.

“Hey, you alright?” asks Gus’ voice.

“You killed the shit out of him,” she manages, reaching up to put her arms around him. He helped her to her feet, keeping her weight on her good leg. Her thigh was burning dully, and any movement in her leg felt like someone was pouring gasoline in her wound.

The calico looked around, letting a small smile cross his features. Everyone in the crowd was dead or far away by now. “Looks like we win.”

=========================================================================

Diablo was resourceful, that much was obvious. One of his cats was a skilled healer, reportedly having learned from zebras out east. After some adhesive and amateurishly-applied sutures, the mare’s thigh was no longer a bloody cavernous mess. She was sat on the bed, occasionally flinching as the cat worked on cleaning the area. Her pants were around her ankles. The cat might have been staring if he didn’t have something more important to focus on.

“Let me get this straight,” Gus says, pinching the bridge of his snout with his eyes closed. “You let all these people come and fight over Aswad Jezoar for shits and giggles?”

The gang leader was still chuckling. “It was entertaining, at least for me. I figured whoever won would be mad, so I set aside some bits to offer as compensation.” The dude was higher than a horse.

Temp’s head snapped up when she caught that. “How much?” she asks impatiently.

He shrugged. “I got quite a bit from all them crazy cats paying me for information on him. Most of the guys didn’t stay behind to fight. Does five-hundred bits sound fair?”

If the pair had drinks they would have spat them out.

=========================================================================

It was the early hours of the morning when Tempest and Gus walked in her home. He helped her to sit down, and he sat beside her, dropping the bag of coins at their feet. They sat in quietness for a few moments before Gus opened his trap.

“What are we gonna do with fifteen-hundred bits?” he asks, his gaze finally averting to her.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Buy a shit-load of food?”

It was right then that the cat remembered what he wanted to talk about with her. “Hey, why don’t we get tickets to Equestria?”

The pony furrowed her brow. “Gus… Tickets for an airship to Equestria are usually eighteen-hundred a piece. We don’t have enough to cover even one of us leaving.”

“Then we’ll save up. How nice would it be to get out of Brink?”

“It would be awesome, but could you imagine the reaction we’d get from the natives? They’re not just ponies - they’re sheep and their princesses coddle them. We’re wolves - as soon as we show our fangs, they’ll run us out of every city we come across.”

“Hey, I resent that,” the cat says, chuckling. He settled back down, thinking about what she said. “Maybe you’re right. But anything is worth a try, right? Anything is better than here. You wanna live like this for the rest of our lives? Putting our lives in danger just so we can scrape up enough to buy bread and cigarettes?”

Night Tempest sighed, leaning back and stretching out on the bed. “I don’t know. I’ll sleep on it.”

Gus smiled at that and squeezed her hand, getting up. “I’m gonna run on home, let you rest. Sleep tight, Temp.”

“You too, man. Be safe.” Gus was about to walk when she spoke again. “Hey?” What am I doing?

“Yeah?” he asks, quirking a brow and looking over his shoulder.

She hesitated. “I’m serious. Be careful.” There was a sincerity in her voice that caught the calico off-guard.

Her friend just chuckled. “I promise I’ll be fine. I’ll drop by in the afternoon, make sure your leg didn’t rot off in your sleep.”

Tempest snorted, rolling her eyes and smiling. “We’ll see. See ya.”

Author's Note

Holy shit these dislikes. Come on y'all, at least tell me why you think it's shit, lmao.