Applejack let out a groan of pain as she was thrown into a recently and hastily vacated merchant stand. The wood shattered and snapped upon impact, leaving the apple farmer with more cuts and bruises than she would have preferred.
"Come on, inbreed!" Fury growled as she grabbed Applejack by the end of her mane and tossing her through the air once again. "Make this entertaining for me!"
She rolled once before attempting to use the momentum to bring herself back onto all four hooves. It wasn't a perfect landing by any means and she almost stumbled back into the dirt and dust, bit it would have to suffice. "Ah ain't gonna fight ya!" Applejack shouted back at the mare, shaking her head to try and shrug off the pain she felt.
Fury spat on the ground. "Weak," She swung her hoof, slapping the other mare across the face with the chain on her shackle and knocking the already unsteady mare back to the ground. "Tell me, am I the first pony you let beat your ass, or do I just happen to be at the front of the line?"
Fury didn't much care if the mare responded to her or not as she was already closing the distance between them. What caused her to stop in her tracks was the line of ponies forming between her and her target. Mares and stallions alike, it seemed that nearly a dozen of this town's inhabitants looked to put an end to the fight.
"That's enough! I don't know who you are, but you are not welcome here!" One shouted, trying to stand up straighter and appear more intimidating to the smaller mare.
"We won't let you bully innocent ponies around any longer!" A mare said as she offered a helping hoof to Applejack, who gladly took the aid and was pulled back onto all fours.
"I'm only here for her." Fury's words were slow but dripped with venom. If one could truly glare daggers at another, the stallion in front of her would be nothing more than a pin cushion. "I have no time for games and I care little for your lives. Once I bring her life to an end, I'll have no further reason to remain in this shithole of a town."
Fury's eyes followed the ponies who were so determined to put her actions to an end as they began to slowly encircle her. Did they really think that they had a chance?
"I said," The stallion continued, "You aren't welcome here."
She smiled. "Bring it, bitch. Just promise me that you can show a mare like me a good time."
The sound of hoofsteps behind her gave away the pony's intention of rushing her while she wasn't looking. With a strong kick of her legs she leaped up off the ground just in time for the stallion to dive on her previous position, only to end up with a face full of dirt. Fury landed on him, the extra weight stopping him from skidding along the ground any further. As he tried to lift himself up, one of Fury's chains wrapped around his neck. Grabbing the end in her teeth, she pulled back hard.
His eyes opened wide and hardly a sound came from his mouth. The panic on his face was evident as his eyes pleaded for help from his comrades. A Pegasus mare to their right was the first to respond, but she made the same mistake that he did. She blindly flew forward in an attempt to tackle the mare; but while some may say she was flying faster than one could blink, Fury only saw the mare moving in slow motion.
She ducked down right as she closed the distance, allowing the mare to fly harmlessly overhead. At the last moment she released the chain from her mouth and twisted her head around to grab the mare by her tail. The momentum was enough to pull her off the stallion but that mattered little now as she quickly spun herself around, pulling the mare around like wire to a twisting spool and slamming her down onto the stallion's back. Both let out cries of pain, but any hopes of their comrades coming closer to aid them was destroyed by a simple look of the mare in their direction.
Fury's smile faded as she watched them cower. Here she was, smaller than any of them and bound in chains and after only two attempts they found all hope to be lost.
The sound of a pony clearing their throat brought her attention back to the first stallion. He now stood only a short distance away and was crouching down as if ready to pounce. "I had hoped it wouldn't come to this."
Fury raised an eyebrow at him. "The smart thing to do would have been to jump me while I wasn't looking just now."
"Obviously that didn't work out so well for my friends." He said without an ounce of resentment to the mare for her actions. "Besides, fighting dirty like that isn't my style."
To this, Fury's malicious grin returned. "Well, that's too bad. I like dirty."
She couldn't help but feel a little disappointed by the fact that her comments didn't leave him in a state of discomfort. She liked watching her enemies squirm or boil with rage. It meant less thinking and more fighting. No need to rely on out thinking the enemy, but rather on being faster and stronger than the other. A fight decided by whoever's reflexes failed them first, that was the fight she preferred.
When she saw that both she and he had attempted to make the first move, she knew that was the fight she was going to get.
The stallion threw the first punch but Fury avoided it by ducking down and using her size to her advantage. She quickly spun around kicked straight up with one of her hindlegs, slamming it into his jaw and throwing him up onto both his hindlegs. He stood there, stunned by the blow for only a moment, but in that moment Fury was able to hop up and use both hindlegs to deliver a kick straight into his chest, knocking him backwards a short distance.
The kick was enough to send him into a roll which he used to land back on his hooves. He clutched his aching chest but was given no mercy in his state as Fury rushed forward once more. She stood up on her hindlegs and delivered a barrage on punches against the stallion's face. He tried to back away from the strikes but she would always keep the distance close. Just as it appeared that he was about to lose his balance, she spun around and slammed one of her rear legs into the side of his head. The force was enough to throw him off the ground and land with a heavy thud. Much to her disappointment, he didn't get back up.
Fury wobbled slightly before landing back on all fours. She cursed silently under her breath at herself, as, despite all her practice, she could still only maintain her balance for a short time. Her ears flicked around as once again the sound of hoofsteps could be heard quickly closing in behind her. Without so much as bothering to turn her full body around, her eyes glanced towards the incoming "threat." It was the mare that had helped Applejack back onto her hooves earlier. She leaped forward in some vain hope of catching the mare off guard, but Fury merely held out one of her legs and let the mare run straight into it, effortlessly delivering a blow straight into her neck.
The mare fell to the ground, holding her neck as she writhed and choked. Fury merely shrugged it off as her own fault before looking around to see if anypony else was brave enough to try and attack her. Both to her disappointment and relief, not a soul stepped forward. She could finally continue with her original mission: putting an end to that wretched mare that killed Silence. After that was over and done with, who knows? Maybe she'd take up a hobby or something.
Her eyes immediately locked with the most hideous building around. The tallest building around, it had several tiers and enough windows to make the walls seem practically meaningless. The small gazebo at the top made it look more like some kind of wedding cake rather than a building. But the door was open and that was the direction the mare had run at her from, and that meant it was the place to be looking.
---
Applejack held her breath as she heard the door on the far side of the room be pushed open. She leaned over and peeked around the wooden support beam that she hid behind. Just as she feared, the red mare had entered the building. She ducked back into cover and bit her lip. What was she going to do? Fury had already proven just how easily she could throw the farm mare around, and she wasn't exactly light. And that's not even mentioning the fact that she had just made her way through a hooffull of other ponies just to get here and looked no worse for the wear.
What if this was it? What if this was really how she was to die? Beaten and broken by a psychotic mare powered by dragon's blood? It certainly wasn't how she expected to go out, that was for sure. But if she was right, and this truly was to be her end... She wasn't going to meet it while hiding in a corner, hoping and preying that she be spared.
No, if she was going to go out, then she was going to do so proudly! She was going to... wait, when did it get so quiet?
Applejack's ears searched for any kind of sound besides that of her own heartbeat. No hoofsteps, no rattling of chains, no heavy breathing in her ear... nothing. She held her breath again and quietly turned to peak around the corner. Maybe this wasn't to be her end, and Fury had left?
Of course, things could never be that simple.
Just as she was about to look around to the other side, a metal chain broke right through the wooden beam just inches above her head. She let out a shout in surprise and tried to get away as quickly as she could. Despite her deciding to go out proudly just moments earlier, her natural instincts were kicking in and they were screaming at her to run. She dared not look back as she bobbed and weaved between obstacles.
Fury, however, simply smashed through anything in her way. Her chains had been built to hold back things much larger and stronger than she, and as such held together quite well as they were thrown around and threw objects. Their strength coupled with hers meant it was only a matter of time before she caught up to her prey.
And catch her she did.
Fury leaped forward and tackled the mare, sending the two of them rolling along the ground until finally coming to a stop near the center of the room with Fury on top. Wasting no time, she crimson mare began thrusting one hoof after another down into Applejack's face. After a few punches, she reared her head back and slammed their foreheads together.
Applejack barely opened her eyes to find eyes of bloody crimson looking back into hers. Fury did not move after her headbutt, and from the heavy breathing she felt against her face it seemed that the mare was trying everything in her power to not immediately continue bashing anything and everything against her skull until it was opened.
"I'm going to make you pay for what you did him." She hissed through clenched teeth. "I'm going to break you until your face is just as unrecognizable."
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Applejack's hoof come up. She didn't expect the mare to have any kind of strength left in her and was more than a little surprised when the hoof went around her neck and pulled her into a tight embrace.
"Ah had to protect my family..."
Fury's eyes went wide and she immediately stopped struggling. She only lay their atop the other mare, listening to her shaky breaths and words.
"He was gonna hurt my little sister... Ah had to do somethin'... Ah didn' mean for anypony to get hurt..."
Applejack's embrace loosened and her hoof fell back to her side, allowing Fury to slowly pull herself back up and look down at the closed eyes of the mare under her.
"Y-you're just trying to send me on some kind of guilt trip!" Fury roared in response. She pulled her hoof back, ready to strike the mare again when her vision began to blur. Everything around her was changing. Like the flickering of dying lights, one moment she was in the town hall and another moment she was someplace... else. One moment she held down the orange mare that had caused her so much trouble, and the next she was holding down a familiar filly.
"Just promise..."
"You won't hurt..."
"My family..."
"Momma..."
Fury was hyperventilating by now. Her eyes were wide and unblinking as her heart rate skyrocketed. What was happening? Why was it happening now?
The sound of something snapping loudly above them caused both mares to look upwards just in time to see a large wooden beam falling directly above them. Applejack clenched her eyes shut, but when the end never came she risked opening them to see Fury now standing on her hind legs and holding the beam with her hooves. She lay there, confused for a few moments before remembering how Fury had savagely tore through everything to get to her - including the support beams that held the building up.
The town hall was falling apart all around them! They had to escape, or else -
"Run!"
Applejack looked up at the mare, dumbfounded. Hadn't she been trying to relentlessly kill her just minutes ago?
"Did I break your hearing when I broke your spirit? I said move!"
"B-but..."
Fury let out a short cry as another beam fell on top of the first, causing her to now start visibly shaking under the weight.
"He wouldn't want me..." She breathed, "To become a murderer..."
She reared back one of her legs and kicked Applejack straight in the side with enough force to send her flying out the doorway. A few ponies rushed to her side as she turned around just in time to see the rest of the building collapse into rubble.
-------------
Twilight gasped for air as she finally broke the surface of the water. She reached out and grabbed onto something solid, holding to it for dear life. She didn't know what had happened, but she was certain she was going to develop some kind of phobia of swimming for a short while after today.
Feeling something grab onto her, she quickly brushed her wet mane aside and reached down under the water to pull up New Dawn. The colt did exactly as she did, holding tightly to the closest solid thing he could; in this case, her.
Once they caught their breath and made sure that the other was okay, they finally took in their surroundings. An incredibly extravagant room with multiple colorful stained glass windows that let in a rainbow of light from the sun. As their eyes moved from the ceiling and walls to what was directly next to them, she couldn't help but jump in surprise as she was met by the awkward stares of not only a prince of Equestria, Blueblood himself, but also her own brother.