Chapter Thirteen:
Following Orders
"Wake up, shit-flank!"
A sharp pain struck the side of the weapons dealers face as he was met with the feeling of a forehoof slapping him. Slowly his vision swam back into focus, though it was still pretty hazy. Through his one good eye he could barely make out the familiar surroundings of his weapons shop, as well as the cyan colored face in front of him, scowling viciously.
"Huh, wha..." he could barely speak or think coherently. "Am I... dead?"
"No, silly filly!" Comes the high-pitched squeak of the pink mare. "You're not dead... yet."
His memory began to come back to him now; he was in his weapons shop helping a group of mares with some weapon selection when... they attacked him. The purple unicorn had hit him with some kind of magical attack, rendering him momentarily unconscious, though for a second he had honestly thought she had killed him.
"I said wake up!" He received another slap. His vision was still blurry, and his eye began to droop again.
"I, um, don't think that's going to work, Rainbow Dash," that squeaky soft voice met his ears. "I think he might need a moment to regain himself."
"I'll give him another minute, and if he's not fully awake I'm putting a round in his leg; that oughta get his attention!"
"Dash, ya don't even know how the consarned weapons work," he could barely make out the form of the orange earth pony off to the side.
"We managed to load 'em, didn't we? How hard can it be?" The cyan pegasus became more clear in his vision. "Besides, we have the instructions with us. I'll just give 'em a quick once-over and I'll be handling this baby like a pro."
"Uh, dears?" That prim and proper unicorn spoke up. "I believe our friend here is coming to again."
"Urgh, what the fuck?" The stallion shook his head a bit. His vision was clearing up even better now, though what he saw did nothing to set his mind at ease.
The six multi-colored mares were gathered around him, their weapons trained on him. The dim lighting of the room gave them a shadowy, sinister appearance. He made an attempt at moving, but found that he couldn't. His forehooves were bound by a thick rope, tied around a metal pipe in the corner of his shop. He was laying on the floor, sprawled out on his back in the most vulnerable position imaginable. If one of those mares felt so inclined, they could easily bring a powerful hoof down on his... area.
Internally he was beating himself up fiercely. He had foalishly let his guard down. As a weapons dealer for one of the most dangerous organizations in Equestria, he had to always be wary of those who came to him. There was always a good chance that he could be dealing with violence. Just about every day he found himself face to face with a psycho of some kind. It wasn't his place to ask questions, though. His job was to provide firearms and that was that. It didn't matter to him in the slightest what those firearms were to be used for.
Occasionally he did find himself dealing with some sort of attempted robbery, or just some nut who didn't want to pay for his weapons, and in those cases his expertise in hoof to hoof combat really came in handy. He learned quite a bit while serving in Stallions army. But when he saw these six seemingly harmless mares enter his shop that night, he let all his defenses slip. He figured these mares would be the last ones to ever start any kind of trouble.
Guess it's always the ones you least suspect, he thought bitterly to himself.
"Morning, sweetheart," the cyan pegasus said venomously to him.
The stallion showed no fear externally, even though deep down he was a bit nervous. He had been incapacitated in ways similar to this; captured by enemies, beaten and tortured and such. It would've been almost nostalgic for him if he hadn't felt this sense of dread that he had never quite experienced before, at least not at that level. When he was captured by enemies in his army days, he knew what they wanted from him: information. And he also knew that as long as didn't break down, they wouldn't kill him. The longer he could hold out, the longer he would live, and the sooner he we come to getting rescued.
But these six mares... aside from money, he could sense something else in that they wanted. There was something in their eyes that told him they had something they wanted from him. Something more... personal. Putting on his most defiant expression, the grizzled old weapons dealer glared viciously up at his captors.
"Well isn't this cute," he hissed. "Bunch of mares think they can intimidate me? ME?" He spat at their hooves. "You're lucky you caught me off guard, YOU HEAR ME? YOU'RE LUCKY! IF I HAD BEEN FASTER-"
"SHUT IT!" Rainbow Dash roared, sending a powerful kick into his side. The stallion groaned in pain, coughing and sputtering incoherently. Dash smiled with pride at the pain she was able to inflict. She leaned in closer to him, right down to his ear. "Even if you had been fast enough... we still would've kicked your ass."
"Oh ho ho," the stallion laughed mirthlessly, still cringing a bit at the pain in his side. "Yes, I'm sure you would've. Look at you all; you look like you've never handled weapons before in your lives!" He ran his eyes over all of them. "You don't scare me! Not in the slightest! Whatever it is you want from me, you're not going to get it easily! I've been through way worse than you!"
"That so?" Twilight Sparkle stepped froward, her rifle was levitated in front of her, surrounded in a purple aura, aimed directly at his head. "Well then it looks like we have our work cut out for us, don't we girls?"
"It would appear so," Rarity moved in towards the stallion, her weapon held in a similar manner to Twilights. "But we will most certainly not be leaving until we have what we want, so I must insist that you make this easy on yourself and just tell us what we want to know, dear," She paused there and leaned in closer to him, her expression became significantly more grim. "You don't want to know what we are capable of."
With a sharp exhale the stallion glanced around the room at the others again. They certainly did look serious, and that pink one... well, he knew a psychopath when he saw one. And that yellow pegasus, the quiet one... something in her eyes made him feel paralyzed with fear. He avoided her gaze as best he could, but the feeling he had when first glancing into them was not subsiding.
"And what exactly is it that you want from me?" He sneered at the mares, already knowing full well what the answer was.
"Ain't it obvious?" Applejack said. She stood firmly on her hind legs, aiming her shottie in his general direction. Though with a twelve-gauge she could've aimed a little off to the side and still probably would've taken a good chunk out of him.
"We're in a bit of a tight spot financially," Twilight began. She paced around in front of him in the way a movie villain would pace before a captured hero. "Each one of us has been met with severe misfortune the past week. It wasn't anypony's fault, we did nothing to deserve it, it was just a case of terrible luck. Now, we're just trying to make things right again. But in order to do that, we're taking a bit of a... radical approach." She stopped pacing and slowly turned to face him, her expression deadly serious. "We're hitting the bank of Equestria."
The stallions stared at the lavender unicorn, completely bank-faced. Truth be told, he was stuck between two possible reactions: either burst out laughing (and risk another possible kick in the gut) or take them seriously and just give them whatever they wanted (he might as well consider himself a total pansy if he did that).
All he managed to do was give a weak, almost shit-eating grin. He ran his eyes over the entire group again, making sure they were all looking at him.
"Is that so?" He said softly. "Well, this may come as a bit of a shock to you all, but... DO I LOOK LIKE THE FUCKING BANK OF EQUESTRIA?" Spit flew from his mouth as he shouted this, spraying those closest to him.
Applejack, annoyed at his outburst, stepped up to him, turned around and drove a back hoof into his stomach, hard. The stallion gasped in pain as the wind was knocked out of him. He coughed and sputtered again as he rolled over as far to the side as his bindings would allow.
"That's half what Ah got, boy," Applejack sneered. "Another outburst from ya and Ah'm aimin' lower."
The stallion grunted and glared back up at the earth pony. He wanted badly to retaliate in some way, but he was unable to catch his breath.
"You, my friend," Twilight leaned in close to him again. "Are just something of a practice run for us. With how you were going on about yourself earlier, you seem to be a pretty succesful merchant of death." The stallions glare hardened at hearing Twilights name for him. "Now, depending on how cooperative you're willing to be, this could all be over in a matter of minutes. Quick and painless, ya know? What do you say to that? You gonna be a good boy and help us out, or do we have to be a little more... persuasive?"
The stallion, in an act of defiance, struggled at his bindings some more, groaning and clenching his teeth furiously.
"Ain't no use strugglin', honey," Applejack said. "That there's mah special lasso. Ain't no way yer breakin' outta it."
"Damn," the stallion cursed under his breath.
"Stop acting so foalish," Twilight sneered. "Just tell us where you've got your bits stashed and maybe, maybe, we'll let you go back to your pathetic, hate-filled existence."
At that moment, the stallions body suddenly went stiff, almost as if he were standing at attention.
"Kill Shot! Private First Class! 2927339!" He shouted proudly.
The six mares just looked at each other. Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all looked confused. Twilight and Rainbow Dash appeared to know what was going on.
It's his name, rank and military number," Dash explained to the others.
"It's what prisoners of war are required to give to their captors," Twilight added.
"Prisoners of war?" Rarity mused. "What does he think this is, some kind of game?"
"Yeah! Ya think we're playing around, asshat?" Pinkie Pie spat at him.
"Kill Shot! Private First Class! 2927339!" Kill Shot shouted again with the same level of pride.
"Alright, buddy. You want to play POW? Then that's how we'll treat you." Twilight snapped. She turned to her friends. "One of you hold his leg up a bit. I'm gonna break it."
Her friends gaped at her. Well, most of 'em did. Rainbow Dash gave her a look that said she was as ready, willing and able as always.
"Twilight?" Came the soft, barely audible squeak of Fluttershy. "I... I thought we weren't going to hurt anypony anymore."
"What in tarnation's gotten inta, Twi?" Applejack said sharply. "Ah understand we gotta do what we gotta do, but just moments ago you were the only one who didn't want ta come in here. Now yer all ready ta strat bustin' up limbs like some kinda consarned mob boss?"
"Will you guys just listen to me for a sec?" Twilight hissed in a hushed tone. "If we're gonna get this guy to give us what we want, we have to show him that we mean business. We can't afford to show any sign of weakness in front of him or he'll think we're not to be taken seriously."
"She's right, guys," Dash came in. "If this guy thinks for a second that we'll falter under pressure, we're fucked. We'll end up leaving here empty hoofed... well, actually we'll have the free weapons and all, but we're not going to be much closer to fixing our main problem, which is getting us financially sound again. If we don't take what we can here, it's just gonna give us more to do when we actually pull off the heist. Any chance we can take to make this whole thing easier, we gotta jump on. In fact, Twi, you hold his leg up, and I'll break it."
"Oh, um... sure, Dash, if that's what you want," Twilight stammered a bit. She sounded a bit taken aback, but deep down, she was grateful for the support. "Thanks, Dash. That's very... noble of you... I guess."
Dash placed a reassuring hoof on Twilights shoulder.
"We gotta do what we gotta do, right?"
Twilight exhaled sharply and gave a solemn nod. Rainbow Dash, for being as dense-minded and clueless as she could be, could not have made a more accurate statement right then and there. The others seemed to take it to heart as well, because they were all nodding as well.
Twilight turned back to their captive, who was still staring at them with that same look of defiance and pride. Twilights horn glowed, a pinkish aura surrounded the right rear leg of Kill Shot and levitated about a foot in the air. She locked it there firmly, then pressed down on it, making sure it was secure enough. At that point Rainbow Dash stepped up, with a look of what almost appeared to be sadistic glee... or maybe she was just trying to look tough, and deep down she was not exactly looking forward to this. Impossible to tell.
"So your name's Kill Shot, huh?" She said to the stallion as she placed her forehoof over his suspended leg. "Ya know, with a name like that, I guess your parents were kinda expecting you to be a fighter."
"It's not my birth name," the stallion replied. "It was the name given to me for skill with a sniper rifle."
"That so?" Dash pressed her hoof down gently on his leg. "I'm guessing your real name is embarrassing or somethin'? Like, is it Crap Shoot or something, and they wanted the name they gave you to be kinda close to your real name so you wouldn't be too confused when they called you or something?"
"Why don't you let me go, and I'll show exactly why that name was given to me," Kill Shot sneered viscously.
"Hmm," Dash took a mock pondering stance, rubbing her chin with forehoof. "Tempting, buuuuuuut..."
At that moment, the pegasus, her face screwed up in an almost comical expression of rage, slammed her hoof down on the stallions leg. A loud snap filled the room as the leg bent at an unusual angle, followed by the standard shriek of pain.
"FFFFFFFUCKING SHHHHHHIT!" Kill Shot screamed and flailed wildly.
Rainbow Dash, feeling a sudden surge of adrenaline as well as an urge to really prove that she and her friends weren't messing around, couldn't help herself and smashed her hoof down on it again. This time the leg remained bent at that unusual angle, and the weapons dealer roared even louder. Twilight and the others all cringed, but tried to make it unnoticeable. Fluttershy was once again hidden behind her mane, her weapon still aimed blindly in the general direction of the hysterically screaming stallion.
"YOU BITCH! YOU FUCKING BITCH!"
"Dash, that's enough," Twilight said calmly. "We don't need to go too far... yet."
Rainbow Dash grunted in acknowlegdement, but that small gleam of insanity (or was it fear?) hadn't left her eyes.
"So how 'bout it, feller?" Applejack said to the wailing proprietor. "Ya gonna buck up an' tell us where yer bit 'r stashed?"
"Or should we move onto the next leg?" Twilight interjected. She released her magical grip on his leg and let it thump to the ground, drawing a groan of pain from him.
Kill Shot coughed and sputtered incoherently for a little while longer. Twilight debated giving him a kick in the gut, but decided that it was best to just let him recompose himself and try to answer rather than inflict more pain on him. It wasn't long before is coughing began to sound very much like chuckling. That faint chuckling soon gave way to full-blown laughter. Although it was still heavily labored, and there was definitely pain underlying it, there was no doubt it was laughter. The six mares exchanged glances. Every one of wore an expression of worry, though they were definitely trying to mask it. Even Pinkie Pie couldn't hide the fact that she was a little freaked out.
"You... you want to know where my bits are stashed?" The shaky voice of Kill Shot drew their attention back to him. He was pale and shivering violently, but he wore a nasty, disturbing smirk on his face. "I... I'll tell you where they are. No problem."
The ponies just gaped at him for a second, as if they weren't sure they had heard him correctly.
"Really?" Twilight said stupidly. She was cringing internally at how dumb she had sounded. "Well... um, alright then."
"Smart boy," Dash snarked.
Even Fluttershy seemed to calm down a bit as her face reemerged from behind her curtain-like mane.
"Well, we're all ears, friendo," Twilight said, leaning in towards Kill Shot again. She was honestly deeply relieved that this ended up not taking as long as she thought it would. She so badly wanted to get out of there.
Slowly, the captive stallions laughter began to fade. Sweat poured profusely down his face, his teeth chattered a bit as he opened his mouth to speak.
"I keep them hidden..." he began, pausing for effect. The six mares leaned in closer to him, anticipation gleaming in their eyes. "Riiiiiiiight... under... my... BAllS!" He roared out the last part, making his captors jump back in surprise. "That's right! Right there under my balls! Now, which of you nice young ladies wants to do the honors of FONDLING THEM FOR ME?"
The ponies all frowned in disgust at him. Fluttershy retreated back into her mane.
"Stupid fuckin' masochists," Dash muttered.
Applejack set her shottie down and trotted calmly up to him. The look on her face almost scared Twilight; she looked like she was about to explode with rage, and at the same time there was a sort of chilling calm to her. She was actually smiling a bit even. It was the flaring of her nostrils and the slight shakiness in her step that suggested the rage that was underlying her seemingly benign exterior. The unicorn took a step back, not wanting to be anywhere near the unspeakable hell the farm pony was about to unleash.
"Yer hindin' under yer balls, ya say?" Applejack asked. "Which balls we talkin' 'bout here? Yer beach balls? Yer soccer balls? Basketballs maybe?"
The wounded stallion just chuckled. He was clearly not letting this pony get to him, and he certainly wasn't going to play along with her phony little Twenty Questions game either.
"Ohhhhhhh!" Applejack said, a sinister smile stretching across her features. "Ya meant yer little hacky sack down there, didn't ya!"
"DING DING DING DING DING! She's got it!" Kill Shot cried out in mock joy, and Applejack just burst out laughing, though it was obvious she was feigning her amusement.
"Ah ha ha! Aw, boy howdy, Ah knew were dumb, but Ah didn't think ya were downright stupid!" The earth pony spun around and got into her standard apple bucking position, aiming a little lower. "Soooooo, yer sayin' they're right... about... HERE?" She bucked with almost full force. Her friends all cringed at the sound of the contact.
The room filled with eardrum shattering roar of pain. It was almost enough to make the lights flicker. Kill Shot squirmed and writhed uncontrollably, ignoring the pain in his leg. Applejack's mouth curved up in a small smile. Though she felt a small tinge of disgust at herself for using her apple bucking skills for such brutal means, she was also starting to enjoy her newfound talent of getting these bastards to scream.
"Ah ain't seein' any bits here, ya varmint!" She snarled at him. "Maybe ya oughta smarten up an' spill the beans now, lessin' ya want another blow ta yer stallionhood!"
"I... I... they're... you..." Kill Shot could barely get a word out between his heavy, labored breathing. Sweat was pouring down him like waterfalls now, and his shaking was becoming more pronounced.
"Beg pardon?" Applejack place a hoof to her ear and leaned towards him a bit.
Kill Shot was practically choking out his words now.
"A li- *cough* a l-little more to the r-right..."
Applejack pulled back and just stared at him, eyebrows raised in confusion.
"Excuse me?" She said in disbelief.
"I... I said... a little more to the right... heh heh, it... it itches there..." Kill Shot shot a nasty grin at her.
Applejack gaped slightly, her eye twitched uncontrollably. Her friends stared at her with worry. No, "worry" was an understatement; they were downright freaked out, or at least Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy were. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash didn't seem all that fazed. In fact, they almost seemed to be urging Applejack on the looks they were giving.
"Do it, make him scream," Rainbow Dash mouthed silently to the earth pony.
Even though Applejack wasn't looking at them, she could practically sense the urging coming from her friend/rival, and if Applejack had been a pony of lesser restraint, she would've turned around, socked Dash right in the face, then rounded on the stallion again and ripped him apart limb by limb. The fact that he would have the gall to even remotely imply that she should scratch his... ugh... was more than enough to drive her into psychotic beast mode.
Without a word, and in one swift move, the enraged earth pony spun around and slammed her rear hooves into him with full force... again and again.
The look on Applejacks face was unforgettable; it was pure, insane, almost gleeful rage. As she continued to pummel mercilessly into her victim, her friends found themselves almost instictually backing away, though once again Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were continuing urge the raging farmer on with their looks. Meanwhile, Kill Shot was roaring with pain and... was that a faint hint of amusement in his voice?
"AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! OH DO IT AGAIN, BITCH!" He roared through his wails. "AHHHAAAHAAAA! DON'T STOP! OHHHHHHH KEEP GOING!"
"Um... Applejack," Fluttershy whimpered through her mane. "I... think you can stop now. I mean, if you want to, that is."
"Applejack, that's enough!" Twilight found her courage again and gave a stern order.
With one last mighty rear, Applejack sent her strongest buck possible right into his nether regions, savoring the feeling of his ravaged member. The farmer then stepped away, panting and grunting heavily, her eyes still twitching erratically. Behind her the brutally ravaged stallion, moaning and groaning loudly, turned to his side and vomited profusely. The foul stench of his bile filled the room instantly, making Rarity audibly gag.
"H-had enough?" Twilight said shakily, as she stepped up again.
As Kill Shots moaning and retching began to subside, a faint and slightly pained laughter began to replace it. It became more and more pronounced, and soon it was just full-blown jovial laughter. The mares just gaped at him in disbelief. Even Applejack, who still appeared heavily exhausted, was humbled by this reaction.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, man?" Rainbow Dash asked, just absolutely stunned.
"A-are you insane or something?" Twilight stuttered. "I-I think maybe we should just break his other leg!"
"Aw screw that, Twi," Rainbow Dash spat as she stepped up to the huddled mass of stallion. She sent a sharp forehoof right upside his mucus and vomit covered face. "I say we break every bone in his worthless... stupid... body!" She landed another blow with each word. The sounds of her hoof cracking against his face was sickening.
"Back room!" Kill Shot burst out suddenly. Rainbow Dash halted her next blow.
"What?" She spat.
"B-back room," the broken stallion choked out, blood dribbling from his mouth. "It's in a safe in the back room. Combination's 21-16-30." He began chuckling again, a couple of loose teeth fell out of his mouth.
Once again, the six mares could only gape at the weapons proprietor, and all the while he was just laughing away.
"This guy's crocked," Dash said with a forced laugh. "He's totally nuts! But, oh well, guess The Dash proved to be too much for him!" She socked him again just for the hay of it. It elicited a groan from him, which was quickly followed by more laughter.
Twilight moved in closer to Kill Shot, glaring at him with a look that practically screamed 'I don't believe you.'
"The back room, you say?" She asked him sharply. "Where you got her gun?" she nodded towards Rainbow Dash.
"Y-yes," Kill Shot replied weakly. "I do want you to see what's in there. I just wanted to fuck with you a bit before I told you about it. Oh, I... I think you'll like what you find..." he began to laugh again.
"The hay's he talkin' about?" Dash asked.
"Why are you being so cooperative all of a sudden?" Twilight asked him harshly. "Because I don't think we've broken you quite yet. I think there's something you're not telling us." The lavender unicorn then pressed her hoof down hard on his broken leg, drawing a loud roar of pain mixed with laughter from him. "What've you got in that safe? Is rigged to explode with the wrong combination or something? Tell me!" She pressed her hoof in harder, practically feeling the break in his leg. His laughter cut off abruptly there.
"I-it's harmless, I s-swear," he managed to say. "B-b-but..." he began to smile a bloody, almost toothless grin. "Y-you just have to see for yourself... heh heh."
Twilight turned back to her friends to see that they all wore similar expressions of concern.
"Twilight," Rarity addressed her fellow unicorn. "I... I don't think it would be wise to trust him. He is clearly a very sick stallion, and he may be so delirious with pain right now that he might not know what he's saying."
Twilight considered that for a moment. It was true this stallion was sick; she had made that assumption about him the minute she laid eyes on him. But there was no way he was too out of it to know what he was talking about. For some strange reason, she genuinely believed him when he said the was no danger in that safe. Maybe he wasn't as strong as he was letting on earlier. Maybe he figured he was very much like a cornered animal here, and that whether he held back or not... he was totally screwed.
Yes, it was true, Twilight Sparkle had no intention of letting this stallion live. As much as she had at first wanted to avoid any killing or maiming on this whole journey, there was no way she could sleep at night knowing that this stallion existed; selling instruments of death and destruction to anypony with the means to afford them, not caring what it was used for, just wanting to make a profit. This was her way of contributing to aiding in the war against crime, she supposed... even if she was a couple days away from committing one, herself.
'Might as well do something good for this city while I'm here, even if it's not the most orthodox of methods.'
"I'm checking it out," she said shortly. "One of you stay here and watch him."
"I'll do it!" Pinkie Pie offered with the same air of joy she always had. She trotted up to Kill Shot on her hind legs (very skillfully) and pressed the muzzle of her massive weapon right into his cheek, her face suddenly dead serious.
"Um, alright then," Twilight said. "Let's go girls."
One by one the mares threw their weapons into their sack (making sure the safety's were on, of course. They managed to figure tha part out fairly easily) and followed Twilight into the back room. Applejack's steps were shaky and awkward, and she was muttering something incoherent to herself. The earth pony was obviously still shaken by her sudden outburst. Fluttershy moved up to try and comfort her friend, but Applejack coldly shrunk away from her, eliciting a small squeak from the pegasus.
Meanwhile Pinkie Pie glared dangerously down at the dealer of death... and he glared back, though his glare was significantly weaker.
"Just know," Pinkie said to him in her most threatening tone. "That if anything happens to my friends in there, if they're harmed in any way..." She got right down into his face. "I won't shoot you. Not just yet at least. I'll rip you open and make you eat every last thing I pull out of you. And then I'll shoot you."
Kill Shot's glare softened a bit, and he soon found that he couldn't meet her eyes anymore. He didn't want to admit it, but this pony scared him. The others, not so much; they were just some armatures in way over their heads. But this Pink pony here, there was something wrong her... something very wrong.
"Here it is," Dash announced as she located a rusty old small safe in the back corner of the room. Not particularly large, but big enough to contain a fair amount of bits.
It was a disgusting place, really, even more dank and grimy than the rest of the shop. This appeared to be his living quarters as well as the place he kept some of the more advanced weaponry. The kind of stuff you had to ask for. There was a dirty, ragged old bed on one side of the room. In front of the bed was an ancient T.V set. Though the screen was fuzzy and distorted, the image it was showing was clearly definitely something pornographic.
"Pfft, nice," Dash had remarked when she noticed it. Rarity and Fluttershy just turned away in disgust. Applejack was still too busy fuming to notice. Thankfully the sound was muted. Or maybe it was broken. Didn't matter at all. The last thing they needed to hear was some slut moaning away.
Twilight stared intently dilapidated old safe alongside her friends.
"Well, it certainly wasn't very well hidden now, was it?" Rarity said with a slight tone of relief. "Perhaps we needn't have bothered with torturing the poor foal back there."
"Well yeah, but we'd have needed to know the combination now, wouldn't we?" Rainbow Dash replied.
"Oh... right," Rarity flushed a bit.
At that moment, Twilight cantered briskly up to the safe and, without a seconds hesitation began putting in the combination. Her friends stared at her with shock.
"Twilight, dear, are you quite sure this is wise?" Rarity asked, not bothering to hide the fear in her voice. "Wh-what if it's-"
"It's not a trap," Twilight interrupted.
"How the hay can you know for sure?" Dash asked.
"I can tell he wasn't lying about that," Twilight replied. "I saw it in his eyes. But there's something else that's wrong with this whole thing; he clearly wants us to see something in here. I just want to find out what it is, finish him off, and get out of here. I've had enough of this place."
"Wh-what do you mean 'finish him off?'" Fluttershy whimpered through her mane.
Twilight didn't have time answer as the loud clunking sound within the safe indicated that it was unlocked. Twilight swung the rusty door open, which squeaked loudly as it did, and gazed into the safe. Behind her the others had shielded themselves or attempted to take cover behind whatever they could find to protect themselves from what they feared would be a massive blast of some kind. Even Applejack seemed to regain herself a bit as she made a move to get under the bed.
There was no explosion.
Slowly, the four mares began returned to there positions. Twilight sat in front of them, completely still. Almost statue-like. Her friends exchanged worried glances and stepped slowly towards her.
"What is it, Twi?" Rainbow Dash asked with concern. "What's in there?"
"Five hundred," Twilight muttered quickly and almost incomprehensibly.
"Five hundred?" Rarity said, confused. "What do you mean 'five hundred?'"
"Five hundred bits; that's all he's got in here!" Twilight snapped.
"Ah-are ya sure?" Applejacks shaky voice came from behind her. She sounded so distant...
"See for yourselves!" Twilight spat angrily as she stepped back.
The others moved briskly up to the safe, and what they saw made there blood boil; a small pile of golden bits lying the center. Small little tens and twentys were marked on them to indicate their value, and from where they were standing, it did indeed appear to be no more than five hundred worth.
"Well... it's a start, isn't it?" Fluttershy said hopefully.
"Fuck," was all Dash could manage. "FUCK!" She kicked the side of the safe, reeling back in pain when her hoof made contact with the hard steel.
"Ah'm gonna kill 'im," Applejack said with chilling calm. "Ah-Ah'm honestly gonna kill 'im."
"You won't have to," Twilight said quietly. "I will."
From behind them came the rage inducing laughter of Kill Shot. Clearly he knew they had found his little gift for them.
In one swift motion, Twilight levitated the tiny pile of bits into her saddlebag and spun around. She cantered out of the room, followed closely by her friends, and approached the wounded stallion, who was now laughing uproariously. Above him stood a very confused Pinkie Pie.
"Happy Hearths Warming Eve!" He shouted gleefully.
Twilight said nothing. When she got up to Kill Shot, she wasted no time unleashing hell on him. First she grabbed his broken leg between her forehooves and snapped it at an unusual angle. That act alone was enough to cut off his laughter and replace it with his loudest roar of pain yet. Then, like a wild animal, the lavender unicorn pounced on him and pummeled his face without relent.
"WHERE ARE THE REST OF YOUR BITS?" She roared as she smashed her hooves into him. "WHERE ARE YOU HIDING THE REST OF YOUR BITS?"
"Th-thats... all... I... have..." Kill Shot said between blows.
"BULLSHIT!" Twilight screamed right in his ear. "BULLSHIT, THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE! WHERE ARE THE REST OF YOUR BITS?" She finally let up her blows to allow him to speak.
"If... if only you had been a day earlier," he managed to say, his face was bloodied and swollen to near incomprehensibility. "B-before I paid for that shipment of SMGs. Ha ha ha ha!"
Twilight was breathing heavily now, her teeth were bared like a manticore's. As badly as she wanted to absolutely destroy him right then and there, there was something she wanted to know of him first. She took a few moments to collect herself, for she had to be calm to ask him this. She had accepted now that he was telling the truth, and that they were hardly any closer at all to solving their financial crisis. As much as she hated it, she knew he wasn't lying; he had that same look in his eye that he had when he told her about the safe. It was huge disappointment, but she had to let it go for a moment. She could be mad about it more later.
Slowly her breathing returned to normal, and her face, once contorted with rage, began to relax a bit. She cast a quick glance at her friends, just to see how they had reacted to her situation. And, to her honest relief; none of them looked the least bit fazed. Even Fluttershy had poked her face out of her mane again, and she no longer looked as nervous as before. In fact, all of them seemed to be mentally telling her to "do what you have to do".
And that was exactly what she wanted to see from them.
"Tell me something," she began calmly. The stallion was staring intently at her now through his blackened, swollen eye. "Are you proud of what you've become? Are you proud of what you do? Are you satisfied with what you've done with your life? Fighting for a mad dictator? Selling objects that can only bring death and misery? Is that what you wanted to do with your life?"
Kill Shot didn't laugh. In fact, his expression was impossible to read, and not just because it was bloodied and bruised beyond belief. There was absolutely no emotion in that face whatsoever.
"No," he answered curtly. "No, I'm not. I never asked for this life, it was just given to me. I had not choice but to accept it. My family was poor, my father was a drunk, my mother, a prostitute who received more beatings than pleasure. I was the only one trying to make ends meet; I tried to find good, honest, well paying work, but in the end it wasn't enough. I couldn't save my brother from dying of starvation. He was only six...
"There was nothing for me there, so I left my home to join Josef Stallion's army. I believed in his cause, I thought it was noble, just. Even I couldn't have predicted the madness that laid behind his eyes. I believed in his ideals, yet I couldn't condone the means he went to to achieve them. Yet I continued to fight for him, even after I knew what a monster he was. War was all I knew. I've killed stallions, mares, fillys, colts, just about everything that lives and breathes at one point or another, and all because I was just following orders. But now you ask me if I'm proud of it?"
He paused there for a moment, staring up at Twilight with that emotionless, ravaged face. The unicorn gazed back down at him. Her glare hadn't lessened one increment in it's intensity, but the rage in it had noticeably faded a bit, replaced by something that vaguely resembled understanding. Kill Shot registered this look and continued.
"Do you honestly think anypony grows up wanting to live this kind of life? Do you?" Another long pause. "There's not a day that goes by where I don't wish with every fiber of my being that things could've been different. But I had to do what I had to do. Whatever atrocities I committed, it was all because I was trying to survive." He gave a small, sarcastic laugh. "Guess it didn't amount to much in the end anyway, considering where I am now; tied up and brutalized by a gang of wannabe tough mares." He ran his eye over the entire group again, a look of loathing and contempt replaced the blankness that was there moments ago.
"Now, let me ask you all a question," his voice was deep and deadly serious. "Are you all proud of what you are doing? Is this where you wanted to end up; holding up a back ally weapons dealer in preparation for some kind of grand heist that you probably all believe is for a noble cause?" He paused for a moment, clearly waiting for an answer. They gave him none, but their glares hardened again, and that was enough of an answer for him.
"I suppose you won't care about anything I have to say, and I can see it clearly in your eyes that you have no intention of letting me live. Putting an end to the life of a pathetic weapons dealer will be your good deed for the day, I suppose is what you're thinking." he stared right up at Twilight. "But before you end my pitiful existence, allow me to give you this one bit of advice: Go home. You have no idea what kind of life you're getting into. You didn't have to experience the kind of life that I had. There are other ways, other paths to take. You continue doing what you're doing here tonight and you may very well end up like I did.
"This kind of life... it will destroy you, young ones."
Kill Shot fell silent there. He exhaled sharply, let his head relax and slowly exhaled. His single bruised eye slowly fell closed. Twilight could feel heart beating still, as well as faint shots of warmth blowing from his nostrils. The lavender unicorn brought her face right down to his, putting her mouth right up against his ear, which she just now noticed was missing a chunk from the tip of it.
"You know nothing about us," she whispered coldly.
And then, in one swift move, Twilight drove her horn right into his eye patch with full force. Kill Shot yelped briefly, his limbs flailed frantically, his body convulsed, blood spewed from his mouth gratuitously as coughed and sputtered, spraying Twilight's face and mane. The unicorn paid it no heed. Her focus was solely placed on ending his life. She ignored the disgusting feeling of his warm, squishy brain matter sliding against her horn as she pushed it in further and further, her face screwed up in concentration.
About a minute had passed before Kill Shots convulsing began to subside. His body gave one last mighty twitch before going completely limp. Twilight heard his final breath escape his lips in an almost peaceful sigh. She closed her eyes slowly and attempted to breathe calmly; the deed was done, she could relax now.
Twilight slowly removed her horn from his eye socket, a sickening squashing sound accompanying it. When it was finally lose, a torrent of blood poured from the large gaping hole like a small waterfall. Her horn dripped with blood. A few bits of brain matter clung to it as well. Twilight wiped it off, along with the rest of her face on the the dead stallions sweat soaked coat. She didn't exactly get it completely clean, but it was clean enough to avoid drawing weird looks from others on the streets. She would clean herself up better when she got back to the warehouse. She stared into his single eye once more. Even in death, this stallion appeared to be staring into her.
She then slowly turned back to her friends, hoping deep down that they wouldn't be too terrified by her. They didn't look that way at all. In fact, they looked almost downright sympathetic towards her, as if they felt more sorry for her than they did the victim of her rage. Even Flutttershy wasn't as badly shaken as she assumed she would be. Maybe she was getting used to all this violence...
"I... I'm so sorry you had to do that, dear," Rarity said calmly, her head hanging.
"Why?" Twilight asked her as she trotted past them. "I'm not."
That was the last word any of them spoke for a while. Applejack trotted slowly up to the dead body. She used her teeth to undo his bindings and toss it back into her saddlebag, along with her twelve gage. She was significantly calmer now, her breathing normal and her mutterings subsided. She would never fully understand why she reacted the way she did when that stallion had made that remark to her. It was a very similar feeling to when she bucked that punks head into the stairs; just pure, white-hot anger. Maybe this whole damn city was just getting to her. Maybe this whole damn experience was just getting to her. Life was never gonna be the same for her after this whole ordeal... it wasn't going to be the same for any of her friends as a matter of fact. She had always had that thought in the back of her head since this whole journey began, but she had never really thought deeply about it until just then.
How were they going to go on once this whole thing was over? Would they ever be able to come to terms with the fact that they ended the lives of a fair few ponies? Sure, they were ponies that probably deserved to die, but were she and her friends justified in doing the deeds? The once peaceful farmer was going to have one hay of a time sleeping tonight. She had a feeling they all were...
They would leave his body as it was. Whoever would come in next would find it and it would be their problem.
"Black Market Dealer Found Dead in Back Ally" Seemed like an appropriate headline for the papers... if the story was even important enough to make the papers in the first place.
Twilight lead the group back outside, into the significantly cooler night air. It felt quite good against their sweat-soaked bodies, though it still wasn't enough to put there minds fully at ease. Wordlessly, they began trotting towards their temporary home, all looking forwards to laying down for the night and putting this whole day behind them.
They were so out of it that they had failed to notice that Pinkie Pie had managed to sneak another little gift for herself into her bag; something significantly more... explosive.
Yeah, I know I'm taking longer and longer with these chapters. But here's the deal with this chapter: I actually had this thing ready to go up last friday, but then there came the whole tragedy in Colorado, and given the nature of this story particularly this chapter- I decided to hold off on it for a few days. I even decided to go back and change the last part of it (originally Twilight was going to shoot him). I don't know if it was entirely necessary for me to do this, but for all I know some of my readers could've been affected by that whole ordeal in some way, and I thought it would be too much for me to put this chapter out there a little too soon after. Honestly, if anyone reading was affected by that whole thing, know that you have my deepest and sincerest condolences. It's such a terrible terrible thing.
I have to admit, this whole thing as very much affected the way I'm approaching future chapters. I won't give anything away, but I can guarantee there's going to be some gun-play. I was never intending to portray any of this stuff as "fun times". It's supposed to be kind of an intense, disturbing story. Obviously, being held at gunpoint or brutally tortured would be a terrifying ordeal (even if it is cute little ponies doing it), and in light of the events in Colorado, I don't know how some people may take future chapters.
But know this: I'm not abandoning this story AT ALL. I'm gonna push through and get it done no matter what. After all, they didn't cancel screenings of TDKR, so I have to show the same resolve they did. Again, my heart goes out to the victims and families. Be strong, guys.
Thanks for reading. I'll have the next chapter soon.