If Bon Bon were asked to describe what the desert was like, she would’ve said that it was a land of extremes. Whether it was scorching under Celestia’s glorious sun or freezing under the blue haze of the nightmare moon; or simply the complete void of life contrasted against the bustling cities of Saddle Arabia. The carriage gave a little jump as they made their way along the road, causing a drop of sweat that had been hiding in her mane to drop down the side of her head.

“I don’t like the desert,” She muttered.

“It’s not so bad once you get used to it” Haakim replied, apparently Bon Bon had to work on keeping her mouth shut.

She looked up apologetically at the larger stallion, but there was no anger in his features. Bon Bon turned to look at the ponies pulling the carriage along the desert road, they were probably hating the desert a bit more than she was. Her thoughts went back to a few days ago when she had received a gorgeous white letter with the golden seal of the queen herself.

Bon Bon had thought that her days of sneaking around Equestria were over once the agency had disbanded, but it seemed that the records being burned hadn’t purged her reputation. Celestia herself had requested her assistance in protecting delegate Haakim on his trip to Canterlot.

And now here she was, miles away from her home in Ponyville, fully decked with her armor and weapons, under royal orders to protect the Saddle Arabia delegate. She did wonder, however, why Celestia would ask for her of all ponies… and why she had asked for “Maximum security”. Ever since they picked up the delegate, Bon Bon and the royal guard garrison had been on high alert, but nothing had happened.

“I must say, I had my doubts about letting the Equestrian guard take charge of my protection, but I see that you spared no expense… Are these…?” The delegate pointed at the golden scales that covered the carriage’s exterior.

“Genuine dragon scales,” Bon Bon replied with a smile, “Nothing short of another dragon can get through that,”

“Splendid,” The stallion smiled.

She eyed the desert landscape, not that there was much to look at aside from the endless dunes. But once more, the extreme dissonance of the desert revealed itself as the barren landscape changed to an urban backdrop. Ponies walked to and fro along the sidewalks, some giving glances at the royal caravan as it passed them.

Haakim cleared his throat, crossing his forehooves, “You don’t look as… rugged, as the royal guards” He pointed out the window at one of the armored ponies for emphasis.

“I’ve been off-duty for some time,” Bon Bon responded.

“I see, I suppose you were some kind of elite guard?” The delegate pointed at her specialized armor.

“Close, I started out with monster hunting… But after some time we realized that the worse kind of monsters wore pony skin,” The echoes of the past started to rear their ugly faces before the little pony in her head kicked them back down.

“Well, given how peaceful Equestria is now, it would seem you’ve done a good job”

Bon Bon gave the delegate a warm smile, it did feel pretty nice to be told something positive about her job in Equestria. She opened her mouth to speak again, but it closed when she felt the carriage stop abruptly. Something was wrong, they should have had half an hour left on their journey. Bon Bon opened the window that separated them from the driver.

“Silver, what was that?” She asked.

The hippogryph driving the carriage turned to look at Bon Bon before replying.

“Somepony is blocking the road ahead”

Bon Bon stretched her neck to look at the front of the caravan, two royal guards had circled around the ponies that were dragging the carriage and stood with weapons drawn in front of an approaching figure.

The pony in question wore an advanced suit of armor, the reinforced metal painted a dull green as opposed to the guard’s golden sheen. Her rear leg stood out due to the black plates covering it, streaked with orange details. But by far the most striking feature of the pony was the blonde mane... and the stetson that was firmly perched on the mare’s head.

“Is that?-" Silverstream started, but she was interrupted by the orange pony’s thickly accented voice.

“Howdy y’all!” There was no doubt about it, the mare standing before the convoy was none other than Ponyville’s very own apple farmer, Applejack.

Bon Bon lifted an eyebrow, what could she be doing all the way out here? The royal guards seemed to be experiencing similar doubts as they kept staring at the orange pony sternly.

“Ah’m under orders tah take mister Haakim off yer hooves” Applejack explained, giving a reassuring smile to the guards.

This was wrong, they hadn’t received any notice of reinforcements, let alone of a transfer. Not to mention Applejack was a civilian. But then a thought tugged on her mind as she focused on the orange pony, the princess had specifically ordered them to remain on high alert.

“Ummm, we’re going to need to see those orders,” One of the guards told the armored mare.

“Do ya? Have I ever lied to y’all?” Applejack responded with a pout.

Bon Bon saw the guard hesitate for an instant, but his years of training shone through as he planted his hoof on the ground and spoke.

“I’m afraid we do, transferring over such an important pony is a rather big deal”

Applejack clenched her jaw as her left eye gave a little twitch. The orange mare tensed her body, poised to attack.

“Well, ah can’t say ah didn’t try diplomacy,” She said.

With a great leap, Applejack launched herself forward towards the pair of guards. The closest one to her, a unicorn, fired a panicked blast of magic at the mare, but the bright bolt went flying to the side after crashing against a flash of orange. The magically enhanced blade in the mare’s mouth flew through the air once more towards the unicorn guard.

The pony tried to fire off another spell, but he was literally cut off as his horn clattered onto the street. He had no time to scream, the sword had struck again, this time across his chest. Two halves of the guard fell onto the floor, surrounded by the clattering of his destroyed armor. With an ease that denoted years of practice, Applejack resheathed the orange blade into the scabbard on her side.

“Ah guess now he’s half the stallion he used to,” She said, turning to give the other guards a wide grin.

“We need to get out of here! Run!” Silver shouted at the guards that were pulling the carriage.

The armored ponies didn’t even nod, they just launched into a full gallop, pulling the carriage behind them. The hippogryph guided the cart through the city at breakneck speed, just barely dodging anypony that happened to be in the way.

“Silver! What happened?” Yona asked through the magical communicator in their ears.

“We were attacked!” Silver shouted, tapping her earbud.

“Attacked?! By who? I bet it was changelings!” The yak said in her thick accent.

“I doubt any changeling would have that sort of gear,” Bon Bon responded into her own communicator.

“This is bad, Bon Bon, defend delegate until we can help”

“Yes ma’am”

The cart turned a hard corner, nearly tipping over, before coming to a stop. Bon Bon turned to look out front and saw several ponies encased in armor similar to Applejack’s. The royal guards that had been pulling the cart drew their weapons, but the harnesses that held them in place would surely spell their doom.

“I’ll hold them off, get Haakim to the closest guard outpost,” She shouted to Silverstream as she opened the carriage door.

“Take care, miss Bon Bon,” The stallion in question said before she closed the door.

The second her hooves touched the road she heard the carriage rushing back the way they had come. The armored ponies that had stopped them started to surround Bon Bon with their weapons drawn. One sword-wielding unicorn and two earth ponies armed with lances, not a problem at all.

“I’ll give you this one chance to run away,” She said, trying to convince the ponies that this wasn’t exactly an intelligent career choice. She gathered by their lack of response that her efforts had failed.

She turned her head to the side, wrapping her mouth around the handle of her magically enhanced weapon. The sword’s white blade slid out of the scabbard smoothly, pulsating with magical energy. Her gaze danced over her opponents, the unicorn was the most dangerous of the group, but if she ignored the other two she could put herself into an even worse situation.

“Stand down!” The unicorn shouted, brandishing his sword with telekinesis, he seemed to be the leader, given how his was the only face that wasn’t encased in a helmet.

No, no she wouldn’t stand down. Bon Bon jumped at the nearest earth pony, cutting the tip of his weapon off before cartwheeling and throwing a kick at the pony’s neck. Her rear hoof connected with the back of her opponent’s head, throwing the pony off balance before they had time to react. The unicorn swung his sword at her, but she turned to catch the blade in her own with a midair spin. The sword must’ve had some magic infused into it given how it only chipped under her white blade instead of being cut in half.

She was forced to backflip out of the way before the second earth pony skewered her. Adjusting the blade in her mouth to face the other way, Bon Bon deflected a second overhead swipe from the unicorn before giving him a roundhouse kick. The unicorn fell to the ground.

Bon Bon lifted her head to stare at the earth pony, it had grown smarter and refused to attack, instead standing a few paces away. Unfortunately for them, however, Bon Bon’s blade wouldn’t break if their weapons met. Determined to prove this, the beige mare launched herself forward making sure to keep the white sword perfectly horizontal. The blade met no resistance, just as intended. Her opponent’s front and rear right legs fell to the floor, the rest of the pony following suit shortly after.

A sound coming from behind her caught her attention, she turned her head to see that the first earth pony had gotten up and was charging at her. Remembering her training, she let herself go limp, letting the armor absorb the dazed buck and rolling to the side before jumping back to her hooves.

One down, one disarmed, and one is still dangerous.

The unicorn attacked first, he was clearly trained on how to fight earth ponies given how he knew the hardest angles to block. But he didn’t know how to deal with an elite fighter, Bon Bon managed to parry his assault with a series of acrobatic flips. There was no way that the unicorn’s sword could keep taking the abuse that meeting her own blade was dishing out for long.

And alas, with the telltale sound of magic expiring, the sword was cut in half by Bon Bon’s. The earth pony threw themselves forward, but a threatening swing of her weapon was enough to dissuade them. She bolted at the unicorn, seeing his eyes grow wide with fear as his body locked up in shock.

With practiced ease, Bon Bon rose onto her rear hooves and spat out her sword. The blade flew until it caught by a specially designed notch in her armor, just above her hoof. Time seemed to slow around her as she focused solely on the white blade that shone between her and her opponent… no, her target.

A flurry of cuts rained over the unicorn, severing horn, limbs, and dividing his torso into small chunks. The world returned to her as she placed her blade back into her mouth, looking away as the remains of the stallion fell to the street. The last pony seemed to consider attacking, but apparently had a change of heart after seeing his commander get chopped up.

“Bon Bon! Are you there?” The yak shouted in her ear.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, resheathing her blade.

“Silverstream is in trouble, they have some kind of dragon with them. Hurry! Bon Bon!”

A dragon? All the way out here? This day was just getting worse and worse. She sprinted towards the guard outpost, remembering its location from the mission briefing in case anything went wrong. Things had, in fact, gone very wrong.

Bon Bon turned a corner and came face to face with what could only be described as a warzone. Carriages were strewn about like a tornado had passed through, long scorch marks decorating the streets and buildings. She heard the sounds of combat somewhere between the piles of carts and darted towards it.

On the other side of the wreckages she spotted the royal carriage, overturned and scorched, but otherwise intact. Around the cart, stood two royal guards fighting off two ponies in black armor like the ones she had fought before. There was no sign of the other two guards that pulled the cart… or Silverstream. She rushed forward to help, but she stopped after noticing a massive black figure jumping off of a nearby roof.

“Look out!” One of the guards, a brown pegasus mare, shouted to her comrade.

The other guard turned his head up just in time to have it slashed in half by a blade at least twice as big as Bon Bon’s. A massive earth pony draped in black armor stood before the pegasus, an ominous blade held firmly in his mouth. The sword itself lacked any sort of decoration, it was a rectangle of magically enhanced steel, a tool for carnage, more than a weapon. A bright orange mane shining over a red coat gave her a clue as to who this new foe was.

With a scream, the pegasus guard took to the sky and charged at Big Mac, aiming at his neck with the blades attached to her wings. The earth pony gave her a big smile before deflecting the blades with the sword in his mouth, then he drew a second weapon from his side, attaching it to a notch in his armor. The pegasus mare tried to spin out of the way, but her wing was caught by the sharpened steel, cutting it clean off.

After losing her ability to fly, the pegasus spun to the ground, barely managing to land on her hooves. But she didn’t get to turn and face her opponent before receiving a gargantuan apple buck to the side. Bon Bon watched as the broken mare flew away, trailing blood from her gaping mouth.

The red earth pony replaced his swords into their respective scabbards before walking up to the overturned carriage. Shortly after he dragged himself out, an unconscious Haakim draped over his back. Even with the delegate’s considerable size he still looked small when contrasted against Macintosh.

“Stop right there! Put him down!” Bon Bon shouted, walking into view of the earth pony.

“Howdy, Bon Bon,” The baritone voice of Big Mac said.

“What are you doing Mac? What do you want with Haakim?”

The red pony took a moment to smile at her before giving his answer.

“Well ah need him dead, nothin’ personal, just orders,”

“Orders from whom?” Bon Bon demanded, “Why are you doing this?”

“Ah can’t tell you who, but ah can tell you the why. There’s only so much me an’ mah sister can do tah keep the family safe, we had tah… find some side jobs. How else is an honest pony s’posed to make a livin’?”

Bon Bon stared at the pony, confused. Who could’ve given an order to assassinate Haakim? Was it even possible to wield enough power to perform such an operation without the queen finding out?

“You don’t have to kill him, don’t do this, Mac,” She tried to reason with the large stallion.

“Oh ah won’t kill him yet, not while we can get somethin’ out of him!”

She weighed her options; she didn’t like her chances of taking down the earth pony in one on one combat, especially with those twin magic blades. but she had to at least try, no one else was available to help the delegate. She reluctantly drew her blade, the white glow bathing the side of her face as she stared down her opponent.

“Eeeenope, ah don’t have time tah kill you too,” The red pony said before pressing a button on his armor.

Bon Bon dropped into a fighting stance as she heard a metallic screeching sound from somewhere downstreet. Yona had said that they had a dragon in the area, but that didn’t sound like any dragon she had ever fought before. Before she could decide on whether or not to continue pressing Mac, a huge figure flew into the pile of destroyed carts next to her.

That thing wasn’t a dragon, it was some abomination of metal and stone, held together by magic unknown to her. It turned its armored head to face her, opening the hydraulic jaws that revealed a kiln of white-hot metal within.

“Oh for Pete’s sake” Bon Bon muttered as she looked at the creature.

Her magical armor propelled her just barely enough to jump out of the way, the beam of magical fire destroying a building on the opposite end of the street. She drew her blade once more, analyzing just how similar this… thing was to a real dragon.

“Have fun now!” Big Mac said before running away laughing.

She wouldn’t be having any of that. Bon Bon made a beeline to Mac, but was forced to jump back to avoid being crushed by a metallic claw. The chase would have to wait until the dragon was defeated.

She turned to get a better look at the creature, clearly, it was some sort of magical artifact. Its entire body seemed to be buzzing with an amber haze of magic, to confirm this, Bon Bon dashed under another sweep and tried cutting the dragon’s leg. As she had expected, the blade she had locked into her hoof bounced off the metal hide.

“I don’t know what pit in Tartarus that thing crawled out of, but you are on your own, Bon Bon, our reinforcements are chasing down Haakim,” Yena told her.

“Oh please, I’ve killed at least five dragons bigger than this one!” Bon Bon replied.

She rolled out of the way to avoid a claw stepping on her, the beast took to the skies for a moment, escaping her reach. She crouched, ready to jump out of the way of any attack as she replaced the sword in her mouth. The creature landed on top of a nearby building, charging up its fire once more, Bon Bon jumped behind a carriage just in time to avoid the scorching inferno.

The dragon flew down towards her, as she expected. Just before the jaws reached her, Bon Bon leaped towards the dragon’s face, launching herself higher by giving a kick to its upper jaw. She aligned her blade with a quick spin, aiming for the biggest weak point of any dragon: the wing membrane. The white edge of her sword bit deeply into the canvas-like wing, leaving a long cut that separated it from the dragon’s body.

The inertia of the jump carried her past the beast, but she had ignored one rather pressing fact… this wasn’t a real dragon. The metallic tail spun around in a way that would’ve broken any real one, catching Bon Bon in midair and sending her flying down the street.

She had to give props to her armor, it somehow prevented the metal tail from ripping her apart. She got up to continue fighting, still dazed from the impact, fortunately, the damage she had done to the dragon was enough to throw it off balance when it tried to fly at her. The metallic creature falling onto its side due to the damaged wing. Bon Bon shook her head to try and get the world to stop spinning.

The dragon recovered, realizing it was grounded, and charged towards Bon Bon in a shadow of sparks as its metal claws scraped off the street. She waited to the last moment to jump aside, spitting her blade into the notch on her right forehoof and aiming it at the creature. The white sword scraped off the dragon’s armor without leaving as much as a scratch. But when she turned to look at the beast she noticed how the amber field that surrounded it had dimmed noticeably where she had struck.

Just as the last time she had done the jumping technique, the dragon’s tail spun unnaturally to slam her into the ground. Only this time, she was ready.

“Gotcha!” She shouted.

She dropped onto her back, lifting her blade to meet the tail. The impact rocked her down to the core and she heard the reinforcements on her armor buckle and break under the incredible pressure of the tail, but it held. Planting both her rear hooves on the metal plate above her she launched upwards with a massive heave.

Pony and tail flew upward. Bon Bon backflipped in the air to face the tail once more and focused on her blade. The first slash glanced off the magically enhanced hide, then another, and another, the amber glow growing dimmer after each attack. After the tenth cut, the glow gave out completely. The white blade bit deeply into the metal beneath, slicing the armor apart with the ease of a hot knife through butter. And after a flurry of cuts, Pony and tail fell back down, only the tail was now falling away from its former body.

Bon Bon rolled along the street, grabbing the sword with her mouth again and lifting her head to look at the creature. It started to charge its fire breath, looking almost… angry.

“Ten cuts,” She murmured to herself.

She charged at the beast, running along the wrecked carts and lines of scorched street. A ray of flame shot out of the dragon’s maw and headed directly at the approaching pony. Bon Bon jumped to the left of the beam, singing her coat slightly under the fire. The dragon turned its head to aim at her, but thinking quickly she jumped off an overturned carriage and backflipped over the beam, landing on the other side.

The fire cut out as Bon Bon closed the last few steps, its white-hot teeth opening wide to grab her. Using her sword as a jumping pole, she dodged the snapping jaws and focused completely on the creature’s neck. Her sword firmly locked on her hoof, she stared at the armored plate that shone in front of her.

Slicing as fast as her body could allow, the beige mare chopped away at the magic covering the plate. As with the tail, after ten cuts the magical protection fizzled out and left a plate the size of two ponies unprotected. Bon Bon watched as her sword bit deeply into the dragon’s neck and smiled wide when she saw the white blade cut cleanly through the next plate, ignoring its magical field. With a shower of magical flashes, she kicked off the dragon’s head and flew towards the stump of its tail, never lifting her sword out from under the metallic hide.

She placed the sword once more in her mouth before her hooves met the street. Turning to see her work, she noticed how the dragon had collapsed onto itself. The large pieces of metal and stone indistinguishable from the debris around it. In the middle of where the creature’s chest used to be shone a large purple amulet, cut cleanly in half.

“Yona, are you there?” Bon Bon said into her communicator after resheathing her sword.

“Did- did you take it down?” The yak asked, incredulous.

“No time for that, where’s Macintosh?” She asked, exasperated.

“Eh… yes, he is making his way to train station, just out of town”

“On my way,” She said before bolting towards the train station.

Her mind was still trying to wrap itself around the fact that the two unassuming apple farmers from ponyville had openly and directly attacked a royal caravan. Going against the queen’s wishes… It was heresy!

If she recalled correctly, the train station should be on the western end of the city, with the sun on her back, she made her way down the deserted streets. It seemed that everypony in the city had hidden from the commotion. The echoes of her ironclad hooves were soon drowned out by the sounds of fighting, and as the sound grew louder she saw that she was just a little too late.

Macintosh stood tall over the slain bodies of at least ten guards, completely unscathed. The blood on his armor had given it a red tint that almost matched his coat. Three royal guards, one of which was gravely wounded, were the only remnant of their forces that stood before the red pony. The sound of an approaching train caused Mac to give the ponies a wide grin before jumping backward onto the moving vehicle.

“No you don’t!” Bon Bon shouted as she galloped towards the train.

Under normal circumstances, Bon Bon would advise against jumping into a moving train, but high treason and murder counted as an exception in her books. Her battered armor held together as she crashed into the wooden wall of the last train car, falling onto her hooves in the empty room. Thinking quickly she turned to the rear of the train, where the city was already shrinking in the distance.

With a kick, the door to the stairs that hung behind the train flew open. She climbed onto the roof, feeling the wind blow through her mane, she took a deep breath and headed for the engine at a gallop. Her hooves clattered against the metal roof of the train cars, pausing every couple of seconds as she jumped from one roof to the next.

Before long, she made it to the first four cars of the train, long, flat cargo cars covered in an assortment of boxes. Bon Bon saw three figures in the furthest car and dropped onto the metal floor. She walked calmly towards the three ponies, making sure to catch her breath in anticipation of the coming fight.

“Look sis, it’s the candy mare,” Big Mac said, looking up at Bon Bon.

Applejack lifted her hat slightly to look at her as she approached. She didn’t appear to be wounded at all, much like her brother. Both ponies stood at either side of a beaten Haakim, his forehooves tied to the sides of a large box.

“Release him,” Bon Bon said, pointing at the delegate.

“Eeeenope, ah told ya already, orders r’orders,” Big Mac said, crouching to meet the bound stallion face to face, “B’sides, a small war with Saddle Arabia would do wonders for us! Think ‘bout it Bon, wouldn’t everypony finally come together tah fight a common enemy?”

“What are you even talking about? We’ve been in harmony for centuries!” She inquired.

“And we’ve grown stale, if it weren’t for somepony that cares about the future ah would’ve lost everythin’. And that same pony has told me that he needs to die!” The red stallion said, pointing back at Haakim.

Big Mac unsheathed one of his swords, locking it into his forehoof, then he unsheathed the second one and placed it on top of his first blade. A magical field enveloped the handles, creating a V shape, which Mac promptly used to catch the head of the delegate. Before Bon Bon could react, the blades closed together, decapitating the unconscious stallion in a single swift motion.

“You bastard!” She bellowed before drawing her own sword and galloping at the stallion.

But her charge was forced to stop when an orange blade attached to an armored hoof crossed her path.

“Mind if ah cut in?” Applejack said, placing herself between Bon Bon and her brother.

Big Macintosh laughed and jumped onto the boxes where the headless body of Haakim was still bound. The scenery around them was starting to change as they approached a mountain range, Bon Bon couldn’t remember where this train was headed, but she was sure that Yona and the others were in hot pursuit.

“All yours sis, ah’ve got a train tah steal,” The red stallion said as he turned and walked towards the engine.

Applejack resheathed her sword and gave Macintosh a tip of her hat before turning to face Bon Bon.

“Well,” The orange mare spoke, “Let’s get this over with,”

Bon Bon said nothing, instead growling around the hilt of her sword. The world fell into darkness as they entered a tunnel, the stone walls interrupted by the occasional lantern.

Their blades met, white and orange sparks bathing the steel floor as the magically enhanced edges clashed. Applejack was clearly fighting defensively, relying on parries and shoves as she watched Bon Bon’s moves with the eye of a hawk stalking its prey.

Her white sword came down towards the mare’s head but was deflected to the side by the orange blade. The farmer pony backflipped onto a nearby box before dropping her sword into her hoof-catch.

“Ah’m gonna be honest, yer fightin’ is decent… but y’all are missin’ somethin’,” She said, rearing up on her haunches.

Applejack leaped towards Bon Bon, barely giving her enough time to place her sword in her own hoof. She dropped onto her back and outstretched her leg to block the orange blade as it came at her body again and again.

It became immediately apparent that Bon Bon was hopelessly outmatched. Not only did her opponent move so fast that she was struggling to follow, but every single attack had so much power behind it that the white sword in her hoof threatened to fly out of its catch.

The flurry of hits stopped as Applejack finished her pass above her. Both ponies got back to their hooves, weapons in mouth. A large bead of sweat fell down Bon Bon’s face, this day was getting too long.

Despite her knowing that this was a losing battle, she didn’t let up the attack. Sparks flew as their blades met, and the two mares danced around each other. A long cut appeared on Bon Bon’s left shoulder; she had been a moment too slow to parry an attack, or rather, she had parried it in such a way that the orange mare’s incredible strength had pushed the blade into her anyway.

Steel met steel again, another cut, this time on her left flank, just barely missing her cutie mark. The two ponies sat on their haunches in front of each other, readying their blades in their hooves. A maelstrom of white and orange danced between them as they engaged in their furious brawl, their blades eventually catching on each other and leaving the mares face to face.

“Ah think ah know what yer missin’!” Said Applejack, she didn’t even look winded, “Yer holding back! Ya won’t win if ya don’t use that thing like it’s s’posed to be used!” She finished, pointing at the sword in Bon Bon’s hoof with her head.

“I don’t use my sword for carnage, I use it as a tool to protect harmony!” She spat back.

The orange mare gave her a mirthless laugh, adjusting her stance as the swords continued to shower the car in sparks. Bon Bon’s rear legs were starting to burn from the awkward position.

“Well ah use mah sword like it’s s’posed to… like a weapon!” Applejack shouted as she lunged forward, the orange sword slid against the one in Bon Bon’s hoof, its magical edge flying upward into the beige mare’s face.

She couldn’t help but scream in agony as the tip of Applejack’s sword cut through her left eye, showering her face in her own blood. She flipped backward in a desperate attempt to escape the reach of the orange blade… a blade that now sported several red stains.

Bon Bon lifted her teary gaze to try and see where the next attack would come from, but she almost froze in place when she saw Applejack standing there, blade sheathed. The orange mare let out a delighted chuckle.

“Well, this was fun, too bad it’s over,” She said, not bothering to contain her smile.

A fire of pure hatred lit inside Bon Bon, a fire she hadn’t felt for many years. She grabbed the white sword in her mouth and charged at the orange pony. She wasn’t going to let herself be humiliated like this, this fight wasn’t over yet. And now her foe had made the grave mistake of sheathing her weapon, there was no way she could redraw it in time to prevent her head from rolling onto the floor.

She jumped into the air, nearly cracking her teeth from the sheer strength with which she was clenching the hilt. Her only good eye nailed on her target: Applejack’s neck, just above her shoulder. Mouth foaming, she turned her head back to wind up the slash… and heard a single, dry, click.

A line of sparkling orange crossed her view, jerking Applejack’s head violently to the side. She noticed how the mare was holding her sword even though there was no way she could’ve drawn it that fast. The next thing she noticed was the crimson trail the blade had left in its wake… a trail that came from two cuts in both of Bon Bon’s forelegs, just under the shoulder.

She had felt nothing, the cut had been nearly instantaneous. In her accelerated perception she saw how her opponent used whatever inpony strength had propelled her blade to spin around, facing away from her as she continued flying.

Two hooves came at her as the orange farmpony bucked hard. The left hoof connected with her chest, crumpling her armor like it was made from wet paper and crushing her ribcage with a sickening wet crunch. The right hoof went a bit higher, slamming directly into Bon Bon’s jaw, teeth, blood, sword, and fragments of her jawbone went flying out of her ruined mouth as the mighty kick sent her flying backward.

She slammed limply into the crates, just above the body of Haakim. Another crunching sound came from somewhere behind her before she collapsed onto the floor.

She tried to move, but she couldn’t feel any of her legs.

She tried to see, but her good eye was pressed against the metal floor of the train car.

She tried to breathe, but her crushed ribs and destroyed mouth barely let any air reach her lungs.

A hoof kicked her to turn her mangled body over. Her eye was flipped upward and met by the orange face of Applejack.

“Ah’m sorry sugarcube, but that’s what happens when ya bring a tool to a sword fight,” She said, in an almost apologetic tone, “Ah’ll put ya outta your misery”

The orange mare unsheathed her sword once more, aiming it carefully at Bon Bon’s blood-soaked neck, but she stopped after the world exploded in a flash of light. They were out of the tunnel.

Applejack jumped back and deflected several blasts of magic coming from somewhere to their left, but Bon Bon didn’t care anymore, her eyes were locked on the sky. She heard somepony say something incomprehensible before her view was covered in a green haze. Her body rose off the ground, it was probably Celestia, lifting her tortured soul into the afterlife. She embraced the bright light of the sun with a smile… or as much of a smile as she could manage with what was left of her mouth.

Author's Note

Well, this is the first story I've ever published. Any and all criticism is welcome and encouraged.

I'm not a good writer, but I just found the idea too fun to not give it a shot. I hope you somehow got some enjoyment out of my work.

The next chapter should come out by next Wednesday at the latest.