The Hateful Six

Chapter 5
The Two Passengers

A stagecoach traveled through the snow at a reasonable pace. The snowstorm was barely visible on the horizon, but the driver knew of it. The scenery was pristine and beautiful, depicting a winter wonderland. Unlike the one that will pass through here later, this stagecoach is handled by professionals. The driver, a brown stallion named O.B., was directing a team of six other earth ponies who were galloping at sustainable speeds. These seven had been traveling these roads for many years, they knew every shortcut, every pothole, every fallen tree. Today, they were traveling to Sugarcube Corner, a few hundred meters out from Ponyville.

It didn't take long for the team to pull up to the cabin. While the six pulling ponies took their bridles off, O.B. opened the door to the inside of the stagecoach. The first one out was a cyan pegasus with a shock of rainbow hair. She had hard magenta eyes, watching everything. The second pony that came out was an orange unicorn with a fiery mane. She had a cheerful enough smile, but her teal eyes had the same hardness, maybe even more.

The two made their way to the front door, which was already open due to the six tramping inwards. O.B. remained outside to take the stagecoach inside the barn to protect it from the elements.

Sunset Shimmer stepped hoof inside Sugarcube Corner moments after Rainbow Dash and she took it all in. The six ponies made their way to where Mrs. Cake was preparing coffee with a pleasant smile and a motherly air. They were jostling each other, laughing with the freedom of a content pony, and chatting with the matron. In the back, a cradle sat, carrying two foals. Twins, Sunset would guess. A pegasus and an unicorn. Very curious, considering that Mrs. Cake and Mr. Cake are both earth ponies. Speaking of the patron of the family, he was sitting down in a comfortable chair opposite a white unicorn. The two of them seemed focused on a game of chess, commenting every so often.

By the time Sunset finished taking it all in, O.B. stepped in next to her. The unicorn was startled into moving to the side, the earth pony sure was fast.

"Why, miss Shimmer. Have ya ever had a taste of the most delicious coffee in all of Equestria before?" The brown stallion took his hat off with a content expression and placed it on a hook.

"No, not that I recall." She replied with a smile.

"Then you're in luck, because this is exactly where ya need to be in order to receive such a blessing. The Cakes, they sure know how to make their pastries and coffees. Helps with the long rides." O.B. chuckled jovially before dragging Sunset over to the other six and Mrs. Cake. "Ya simply must try a cup! Ya won't regret it."

Meanwhile, Rainbow moseyed her way to the chess game, not that she was interested in it, but because the unicorn looked way too posh to be in a dump like this. Such a statement meant she had a story to tell. As a general, Rainbow knew firsthoof how dangerous a story could be.

"Oh, hello darling. Curious of the intricacies of the wonderful game of chess?" The unicorn battered her eyelashes, which made Rainbow sick. "I must say, Mr. Cake sure is quite the opponent."

"Yeah. I'm kind of new to the game, so I was hoping to develop strategies through watching others play." The pegasus lied.

"Perfectly reasonable, darling. I have been known to wipe the floor with chess. Only if Mr. Cake agrees." Rarity smiled beautifully, but there was something behind it. It made Rainbow on edge.

"Of course. I play better with spectators." The yellow stallion chuckled before moving his knight. The unicorn responded with a feral grin and placed her queen in a check position.

While Mr. Cake was cursing about his luck, Sunset was trying out a cup of coffee and she was loathe to admit it, but it tasted heavenly. Guess mud ponies know their way around beverages. She murmured her appreciation and then took another sip.

O.B. was talking to his pull ponies, thanking them for their hard work and dedication. The six in turn congratulated him on his expert navigational skills. Then as if it were a joke, the seven of them started laughing uproariously.

Taking one last sip, Sunset placed her empty coffee cup on a counter and made her way to Mrs. Cake. The blue earth pony hummed a little ditty while preparing a pie. When the unicorn coughed to announce her presence, the mare looked up with an apologetic smile.

"Oh sorry, dearie. Is there something you need?" Behind her, her foals started crying. "Oh, excuse me. My little babies need some attention, you know how it is." She giggled and moved away, grabbing some peppermint sticks on the way. Sunset smiled pleasantly to show she didn't mind, but in reality she minded, she minded a lot. She never liked foals, always loud and needy. She watched as their mother gave each foal a stick and the two quieted down, now enraptured with their treats. "Sorry about that, dearie. Was there something?"

"Oh yeah, I wanted to know how much a peppermint stick is." Sunset pointed at a jar with said candy.

"That'll be two sticks for a bit."

"Sounds delightful, here you go." Sunset dropped a bit into Mrs. Cake's outstretched hoof and in return got two peppermint sticks. "Thank you."

"No problem, dearie." Mrs. Cake then proceeded to walk away to a glass jar filled with bits.

Looking at Rainbow who was looking at her, Sunset nodded. And all at once, Tartarus came down upon Sugarcube Corner.

Sunset whipped out several revolvers with her magic and started firing them. The first bullet struck Mrs. Cake and she went down with a scream. The second lodged itself into a pull pony's skull and collapsed dead without a sound. Several more hit their marks. On the other side of the room, Rainbow pulled out a wingpistol and shot Mr. Cake several times, but he kept on moving. He struggled and groaned in agony as he tried to make his way to the door, but another bullet to his head ended that.

While Sunset was committing mass murder, O.B. somehow escaped the onslaught and tried to escape outside. Rainbow noticed and pointed her gun to the now closed door and fanned her hammer. There was a pained yelp and the door opened slowly, the hatch shot off. Rainbow took off and followed the blood trail the earth pony left, leading up to the back of the cottage. While she was tracking, the wailing of infants were silenced by two shots.

The cyan pegasus finally found her mark trying to hide in the log shed. "Please, please! I'm just the driver! I won't tell anypony, promise!"

"Yeah, but no." Rainbow shot him.

Several minutes later, Rainbow trotted back in and saw Sunset and the other unicorn in a showdown. Despite carrying four pistols and the white mare only having one, the unknown unicorn wasn't backing down. Rainbow trotted in closer.

"Well, it seems we're at a stalemate."

"So it seems, darling, so it seems."

"Do you need any help? Mmmf!" The pegasus asked before a silk scarf was wrapped around her mouth, knocked the wingpistol out of her grip, and then tied to a post, effectively taking Rainbow out of the equation. She started yelling through her improvised gag, but Sunset didn't even bat an eye in her direction.

"I'm impressed, that was some skillful magic." Sunset said, ignoring the raging cyan mare.

"Thank you. I'm as equally impressed your ability to kill those mud ponies without breaking a sweat. Although, killing those foals were uncalled for. I won't tolerate that." Rarity replied, her easy smile never faltering.

"Not much we can do about it now, unless you know the ancient rites to necromancy?"

"That I do not."

"Then I propose a truce. You're clearly a mare of many talents, just let me do my business and then we'll let you leave unscathed." Sunset proposed, an idea formulating in her head. "An extra mare could add to the authenticity."

"Perhaps, if you tell what you're planning." Rarity was hard eyed and hard willed, never breaking contact, never letting herself feel the strain of constraining the pegasus and keeping her gun aloft.

"There's a mare coming through that I've got beef with. A unicorn you might know. I want her dead for taking my rightful place."

"Ah, a revenge story, is it? Then I accept your offer." Rarity lowered her gun slowly and stuck out her hoof. The mysterious unicorn also lowered her revolvers and bumped her hoof against hers and a deal was struck. "I do have one question, however, why is the pegasus here?"

"Oh, she's here for an entirely different reason. Apparently, another mare is holding her friend captive. She wants the bounty hunter dead." The pegasus responded to this by growling really loudly, her wide magenta eyes betraying her fury. "Are you going to release her?"

"I don't know, darling. She does seem aggressive, I wouldn't want her killing me after we struck such a nice deal." Rarity inspected her hooves, ignoring the massive migraine the pegasus was giving her. Really, how do mages do it, scratch that, how do battle mages do it!

"I'll talk to her." Sunset nodded to the white unicorn before moseying towards Rainbow. "Hey Rainbow, I know you're strung up like a piñata and it's all because of this mare, but it would really help if this mare was, you know, alive. Two ponies instead of one would definitely help our causes. Oh, and please don't screw up. Don't give yourself away by trying to talk to Fluttershy."

Sunset waited and after a while, she received a nod.

"Good. You can let her go now." The white unicorn released her magic with the same amused smile and Sunset was pleasantly surprised to see that Rainbow didn't immediately tackle her.

"Don't ever do that again, bitch. I've got enough problems with this hornhead, don't need another one." Rainbow felt satisfied that that got a reaction out of the prissy unicorn. She wisely kept her mouth shut after that, she didn't want to get Sunset mad by accidentally breaking her deal with the white unicorn. "Alright, Sunny, let's go clean up."

During the next four hours, Sunset and Rainbow chucked the bodies down the well, put away the stagecoach, tidied up around Sugarcube Corner, stashed weapons for further use, and waited for Twilight's stage to arrive.

Without the help of the mysterious unicorn, the two mares finished with mere seconds to spare before the storm rolled in. When they came inside, the white mare was perusing through the bar, checking out the various bottles.

"Hey, bitch." Sunset cringed at Rainbow's choice of words, but she didn't care. The hornhead didn't help at all.

"My name is Rarity." Rarity replied tersely, not even glancing in her direction. That infuriated Rainbow even more but a hoof stopped her. Looking at Sunset, the unicorn shook her head, forcing the pegasus to calm herself down.

"Rarity, I'm going to be hiding in the cellar and Rainbow Dash will stay up here with you. Don't give up our intentions or my location and you won't find yourself in this world anymore, you got that?" Sunset said, her voice betraying nothing.

"Sure, darling."

"Let me here you say, you got it."

"I got it."

"Don't fuck up." Sunset left and probed the floor for a hatch with her magic. The three mares suddenly heard a loud crash, audible even over the roar of the snowstorm. "That must be them." Sunset quickly found the hatch, opened it and slipped inside.

Rainbow moseyed towards the corner table and propped herself up, eyeing the door. She fought to keep the grin off her face, she was going to meet her foalhood friend after so long. The door busted open and a wrapped up unicorn stumbled inwards. Rainbow forced the smile down and started yelling.