//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Overpower // Story: Equestria Delivery // by JLB //------------------------------// April 10th, 1013 AN Carol City, Equestria 88 Starling Avenue, “Mustang Sally” - 10:30 AM The mare jumped off the noisy bike, shaking as her hooves hit the ground. With her lower jaw hanging, a string of drool tearing off into the wind, the pony wadded around for a few seconds and smacked herself on the head. Her body slammed into the vehicle, rattling the many chains and cosmetic plating attached to its frame, staining the pale pink, glistening jacket she wore. Having kicked the machine and caused it to quit rumbling, Handsome yawned loudly and followed the pavement to the entrance of the club. The bike lit up with a bright flash for a second, the light quickly being absorbed by the frame, now buzzing a loud static sound into the air, causing a crystalline pendant to almost jump out of the mare’s front pocket. She punched it, almost knocking herself off course, and half-yawned, half-growled. The security guards gave the unstable, thuggish, nearly bald, pierced and scarred unicorn in visibly new, oddly matched clothes a long look. They stepped out of the way once she approached them, letting her down into the club proper. The soft interior glow illuminated Handsome as she descended, flexing her neck and shifting her bloodshoot green eyes around the club. After a few seconds of pause, the mare started to her right, where a griffon had stood up on his hind legs, slowly waving his hand. Seeing the pony walk over, he exhaled and sat back down, clicking his talons on the table. She burped, sitting down on her haunches, sliding down on the slick sofa with her smooth jacket. The mare yawned again, her lower jaw getting locked up, forcing her to hit it with a forehoof. The griffon who sat at the other sofa eyed her, head tiltting. Before speaking up, the raven gave the club a quick look over. “Restless night?” he inquired, his quiet, lowly timbred, accented voice barely standing out in the club’s ambience. “Got my quarter hundred?” Handsome asked in return, snorting and hacking to clear out her throat. “We’re having a quiet little talk,” the raven told her, squinting his eyes. “We’ll lead you to your money once we’re done.” “And why the fuck’s that?” “Because while I can be seen talking to something you dig out of a trash can, but I won’t be able to explain giving it money.” The griffon straightened out his back, leaning onto the table, closing his beak toward the mare. He crossed his arms, rattling the zippers on his own leather jacket. “This place isn’t under our… ahem, ‘our’ control—" He briefly flicked a talon in the direction of two guards in white suits and blue shirts. "As such... Let’s be discrete.” “Hey fuck you, I do what I want. I wear what I want, too.” Handsome put her forelegs on the table, making the tight, leather of her shiny, new clothes squeak. “And bling ain’t all I want, so I want my righteous cash.” “You look like you’ve purchased more than just new clothes, I can say that much,” the raven said, giving his forehead a scratch, sliding his talons flat down his head, smoothening the plumage. “Are you even, uhm… ‘work-capable’ right now?” “By my standards, I’m looking fucking fancy, asshole. Now don’t make me trash this place to prove it, because I’ll break your beak in half while I’m at it.” Handsome’s bloodshot, widened green eyes glared through the avian. “That is more like it. Save up your strength for the moment. I doubt this club is worth the effort…” The raven looked over his shoulder, tracking the few other figures within. “Not the way things are going in the city right now. To think we planned to target it. Hmmm.” Handsome shrugged and pushed her back into the sofa, scruffing her chin and wiping a bit of smudge on her glistening jacket. “Yeah, this is kind of a shithole. The fuckwads in my gang used to hole out here before the Majors came in,” she commented, nodding at the guards. “At least these candyasses fixed the lights. So what do you wanna yammer to me about?” “Some details for the assignment. You’ll have to forgive me if our operation right now is in sort of… a bout of spontaneity. Our original plans had to take a back seat following the drastic changes in the ‘underworld’, as it were… However pathetic you think your old gang to be, them losing a good half of their members as well as their, ahm, criminally esteemed leader, is not exactly as we thought things would go.” “Well I’m fucking sorry I didn’t die then, huh?” Handsome spat at the table. “This simply means we have slightly different priorities, and no, don’t worry, you still kill things that bleed green,” the griffon talked on, ignoring her. He almost mumbled, eyes darting back and forth. Handsome scowled, perking up her ears and leaning into the table. Her own eyes looked to the others in the bar, scanning through mares and stallions in white and blue. A pair of interior security guards dressed in the same colors passed a nearby table, the beads on their ears fizzling with noise. She sighed, lowering her head and frowning at the griffon. Her foreleg muscles twitched. “How much do you know about Cross-Continental Solutions?” “Uh…” “The ‘Caballerons’.” The raven rolled his eyes. “Were you around long enough to get involved with them?” “Do I look that old? I’m not fuckin’ eighty, birdbeak,” Handsome said, chuckling and coughing, going on for a few seconds, eventually having to punch herself on the chest. “They’re bottom feeders, I thought the Majors put them out of commission by now.” “Not quite. Your old gang were the bottom feeders.” He pointed a talon at her, black glove crunching. “The Caballerons aren’t. Not yet. Do you know where they operate from, their main agents, primary venues, all of that?” “Why the fuck would I? They’re some greasy southland fossils wearing pink and acting like the moon still has a face on it. Shit, even I got better assholes to smash.” “I’d assumed. Well, the good news for you is that you will be helping put these… ‘fossils’ in the ground where they belong. It’s the mansion at 16 Tejuano Heights. Now, please, don’t underestimate them. Tactics are not their strong suit, but neither are yours." The two stared at each other for a while, the mare frowning and growling, a light trail of dribble leaving her mouth. "You won’t make a big impression barging in. Expect a harder fight,” the griffon told her. He opened up his zippers, checking them momentarily, and zipping them back again, repeating the motion occasionally, simulating being occupied. He talked out the side of his beak. “They aren’t geniuses, they’re slow on the uptake… Imagine yourself, but not as good. And possibly less inebriated.” She raised a hairless eyebrow. “And you’re ratting them out, aren’t you?” The mare grinned, starting to tap her hoof on the table to the beat of the music in the club. “Fuckin’ bird.” “Why do you think we’re in this dirt hole, and not somewhere more proper?” he replied, making her grin even wider. “Aside from how you look more natural coming here. Can I continue or do you have more wit to dispense?” The pony neglected to make a reply. “The mansion is built very wide. The heads of the organization see it as their familial heirloom, so things should be rather dire for them if they use their firearms. That said, the whole operation has been on a downward spiral recently.” He looked at a bypassing waiter, tracking them while speaking. “Their lieutenants prefer to keep their horns to telekinetic magic, as I’ve heard you do. Assume they’re better than you. Don’t toy with them. They’re easy to single out, there are few other unicorns among the ranks.” “Ugh… I have a question,” Handsome said, drawing out words, slowly drooling on the table. “Do I even get to kill any fucking roaches? Do they, like, let them into the mansion? This sounds really boring.” “You will,” the raven uttered sharply, turning back to face her. “The whole hierarchy is filled with them. As a matter of fact, today they hold a commendation identity binding party to their ‘newfound synaptic cohorts’.” The side of his beak twitched as he spoke. “The Caballerons fell on hard times. You only expect that they get desperate. Just don’t underestimate them.” “Bleh. Look, crowface, lemme repeat myself.” The mare bit on her lip, sending a trickle of blood down her chin and neck. “You keep talking to me like I’m a four year old, and I’ll break your crap in half. And then I’ll cry over the money.” The raven rose from his seat, propping himself up with his talons, and closed his beak with Handsome’s face on the table. “I’m trying to make sure you live to see the next day, so long as you don’t kill yourself burning through your payment. And if you want to kill me so much,” he told her, tilting his head and cutting a subtle smile. “I am particularly agile with a fencing sword, and you can expect me to change my stance regularly. Your bulky weapons won’t have a whole lot to hit. If I see an opening in your stance, I will leap and put a blade through your throat. But that’s me. My inferior copies kept around for surveillance and security, however…” “Dude, I don’t remember myself back in school, but I definitely feel like I’m back there right now.” Handsome asked with a whine, raising her head with force and yawning halfway through. “Are you done cutting the shit?” “When you see an enormous, obese minotaur, shoot or topple it over. Hope that it’s real. Changelings would put up a better fight than the real deal,” he went on unabated, cracking his neck and looking down at the mare. “And if you see either an old earth stallion in a particularly expensive suit, or a pegasus with his mane dyed blonde… send them my regards, and to the Inferno.” “Are we done?” she asked again. “Almost. This is a big deal, so you won’t be there alone. Equestria Delivery has, in spite of the commotion past your first mission, broadened its ranks. I suggest you double-time it and attack together. I don’t expect you to show much teamwork, but try to at least not get your companion killed.” Handsome rose from her seat, shaking her head, lips wobbling around, eyes darting, hints of swears leaving her mouth in incoherent tatters. Her blood vessels slowly gained in red, her cheeks took on a pale flush. “Now calm down, and let this mare walk you over to where you’ll get the cash. I need to go. Au revoir.” “You FFFUCKING what?!” the mare finally sputtered out, banging her hooves on the table, but by then the griffon was already halfway out of the club, and a daffodil earth mare in a plain suit was standing by where he used to seat, beckoning her over silently. She switched her bulging eyes to the unknown mare, grinding her teeth. “Big… fffucking… deal, you… shit-eating… I sat! For a week! Buying shit and drinking shit and eating shit! And you had other assholes run around and do MY job???” “Twenty five thousand should calm you down. Don’t get angry,” the shady pony told her as Handsome was pushing and jerking her body from behind the table. “We’re just trying to make sure this works. Nobody here wants to die.” “You sound like you fucking want to! You sound like I haven’t got my ass tatoo yet!” Handsome hissed, pushing one of her forehooves into the table, now no longer obscured by the shadow around the couch. The soft orange light illuminated half her snout, glistening off some of the fake teeth. “I could rip your head off, then murderfuck everyone else in this hole, sell off your organs and get my money that way, how about that?!” The white unicorn now stood right in front of the yellowish mare, her lips contorted in a scowl, while the mare stared back with her own mouth hanging open slightly. Her pale blue eyes barely followed Handsome as she twitched around, spitting on the floor. Slowly, the yellow mare closed her eyes and raised a hoof. “Neither of us are ready to die yet,” she said quietly. “We have better things to do.” “Such as? Lecture me around like I’m fucking, eleven or some shit?” the scarred, tatooed pony asked, tilting her head. The other one jerked her head, taking a sharp gasp, then gulping. Strands of hair peeked and bounced out of the tight yellow bun of her head. She looked straight at Handsome. “We’re all in the same boat here. You’re not alone. Don’t be angry about that. I’m not going to die trying to get you paid.” Her eyes widened as she took a step forward, staring directly into the white unicorn’s eyes. “I want to die covered in steaming synapse,” the mare whispered, her lips trembling, eyes twitching, a smile creeping onto her face. “...” “This… isn’t right… if we die now. There are great things in motion now. There is more to do. We aren’t done yet,” she continued, refusing to blink. Her snout jabbed back and forth, bird-like, as she jolted throughout her speech. “Our story isn’t over.” “I don’t plan on dying.” Handsome replied, backing away a few steps. “Keep pissing me off and I'll smash you, and I’ll smash everyone else, and I’ll loot the drinks too.” “Then you’ll be saving the bugs I was going to crush,” the yellow earth pony murmured, grinning in full, breathing heavily through her nostrils. Her rare, unkempt bluish mane stuck to her sweating coat. “I’m not ready to die, and neither are you.” “...” Rubbing a hoof against the squeaky jacket and raising a pierced, fleshy eyebrow, Handsome moved her mouth silently, before shaking her head. “Whatever. Show me the money before the guards start acting up. One’s staring right at us, my horn is getting itchy.” The other mare forced her grin into a subtler smile, exhaled loudly, and ascended out of the club, with the ragged unicorn following her lead. She trotted away without another word, a long, narrow, taped up box laying on the hind hoof stand of Handsome’s vehicle. Arcane electricity swirled around it, agitated after it had been dropped “See you later, I guess?..” she mumbled, before hacking a slimy spit at the ground and pushing the pendant in her pocket, recalling the electrical guard into the bike’s crystalline engine. She fastened the box to the chassis with the chains hanging off its side, and kicked the vehicle to life. “Cuntface.” *** Handsome stumbled out of the thick brush, giving the motorcycle a kick with her hind hooves to silence the motor. Her horn sparkled to life, levitating the torn up box and a duffel bag from the quieting-down vehicle. The pony stomped in place, creaking her neck and huffing loudly, then giving herself a smack on the snout. The bike was overflown with electricity as she pushed the pendant. She squinted and looked around, before dropping the box and bag on the road and unzipping the latter. In a few minutes, Handsome pulled a slightly oversized, stained, partly torn postmare’s uniform over her slick clothes. Next, the rubber vulture mask came over her head, leaving her limp and motionless for a few moments, before causing a giggly gurgle to emit from her throat. With a bright sparkling, the mare removed the new duct tape from the long box, leaving it covered almost entirely in patches of cheap and solid tape. Inside lay a massive club, dozens of sharp objects sticking in and out of it, some having been forced deeper while it was contained in the box, some having pushed through the wood outright. The mare flung it up in the air and made a few swings, nearly knocking down a nearby palm tree. With a hoarse, hissing laugh, she stomped to the clearing where the winding road up the cliff ended, and where a pair of sports courts belonging to the mansion on a neighboring cliff stood. The eyes behind the mask shrunk when she stumbled upon several dead bodies of changelings, a few minutes into dissolution, as well as a single body of an actual pony - a brown mare in a hot pink palmtree and parrot patterned shirt. Some had their necks snapped, some lay with most of their heads splashed and steaming on the ground, a few had a singular slice at around the chest or the throat. Over the only non-changeling corpse stood another pony, a pegasus in postal uniform. There was a pigeon’s mask obscuring their face. Handsome began to approach the pigeonhead pegasus, leaving a trail on the ground with her club as it dragged behind. “Hey, asshole.” The pegasus' head twitched and a single yellow eye stared intensely at the unicorn. The other eye twitched idly, looking upwards and to the side. Attached to the end of that postal pony’s wings were knives that glistened with a mixture of thick green and pinkish red. “Who the fuck are you?” Handsome's club began to scrape against the paved path that surrounded the court. Her own bloodshot green eyes glared at the other postal pony, provoking no reaction. “Who said you could kill these shiteaters?” the unicorn spat inside her mask. “They’re mine.” The pigeonhead blinked, first the active eye, then the lazy one. Handsome growled, bringing the club ahead of her with a burst of radiance from her horn. “Are you mute or something?” she asked, puffing her nostrils. Her joints twitched, and the club swung slowly in the air, nearly filling the distance between the two ponies. The pegasus looked away for a moment, after which they nodded. One of their wings extended in the direction of the mansion. Subtle outlines of blackened bodies were given away by weak steaming trails at several spots around the building. Handsome stomped her forehoof against the tile, leaving behind several cracks. “Just fuck off! You must think you’re cool, huh?” she wheezed, filling the mask with even more spittle. “I got shit to do - you’ve done e-fucking-nough! Don’t even try and get in my way, asshole.” The unicorn stormed past the pegasus, giving them a heavy shove as she walked past. They only took a single step to the side, neglecting most of the impact, leaving Handsome to stumble for a few steps. She turned around sharply and began to raise the club, but the pigeon was already cantering over to the walkway on the far side of the court that connected it with the mansion. Handsome groaned, breathing heavily. Her club bashed against the ground, dropping off bunches of soil as it was lifted up and swung loudly through the air. The masked mare turned her head toward the main entrance, cleared by the pigeon of the changeling guards. She ran straight over several dissipating bodies and dragged the club through others, covering it in glowing green goop. 16 Tejuano Heights - 12:29 PM “YOU’VE GOT FUCKING MAIL!” the postal mare roared as her club swung at the heavy wooden doors. Her frame rammed through the wooden mess that remained, stumbling into the foyer. She slid on the rug, shoving an assortment of statuettes off the drawer before bumping into it. Her forehoof came crashing down on the broken ceramic, adding more noise to the shrill screech that emerged from beneath the mask. The mare stomped to the left of the foyer, staring straight ahead and bashing her enormous weapon against the walls, tearing up the palm tree patterned wallpapers and breaking off chunks of stone. As she neared a door, it opened, providing a living target for the club’s next impact. There was a loud thud paired with wet, squishing noises as it nearly halved a pony. Handsome stopped for a moment, pulling it out of the body, ripping pieces of bleeding flesh off the still-eyed maidmare. Handsome's hacking laughter echoed past the curve of the corridor, where multiple brown stallions in pink emerged from. Two rushed for the door, leaving one behind, shaking in place and hurling on the floor. One of the stallions kicked the door open, immediately pointing ahead with an armed foreleg. The crystal mechanism shattered as the postal mare’s club crashed into his hoof, penetrating and breaking it in several places with the force of the impact. Another strong telekinetic pull threw him forward, straight into the kitchen Handsome was in. Multiple cabinets were broken open and much of the pottery was scattered all over the floor as the pony kicked and screamed, dragged around by his mutilated foreleg. Although the next swing out the door missed the second pony, the inertia separated the gangster from his appendage, crashing him head-first into a window, which half his body hung out of. Handsome growled and slammed the kitchen wall, breaking an ornate clock and covering a mural depicting a sword-armed pony in ancient armor in fresh blood. The foreleg, attached to the other side of the club, remained attached, leading to another shrill howl. The clanking of pottery and the shattering of glass signalled the mare’s exit out the other kitchen door, which she bucked out with her hind hooves. The thick wood had little room to fly, falling straight onto the nearest Cabalerron of the five that surrounded the door. The dark grey mare fell flat on the floor, clenching her head, steaming green ichor spreading through her long pink mane. Rapid shouting filled the mansion’s interior for a brief few moments before it was drowned out by a series of loud, thundering shots, littering the walls with glowing pellets. The guns were still banging when the noises were taken over by hoarse, roaring laughter and wet, sloppy squishing sounds, followed by thud after thud. Handsome’s club swung ahead of where she stepped, finding each target of the four, incapacitating all of the meeting party at the door within two swings. Several additional hits swung loudly through the air, sprinkling the corridor with red and green, but none remained standing. The Caballerons’ bodies were strewn around haphazardly, clothes torn, entire body parts missing from some. One of the stallions had his snout mostly removed, leaving a guzzling synaptic mess to form once the body convulsed on the floor. Another’s behind was a raw red bleeding gash, one of the smaller nails previously placed on the club now stuck deep in the flank - the gangster’s front, in turn, was all bent up, neck turned at an unnatural angle, head pressed up against a corner with the eyes bulging out. One more lay limp on his side, leaking blood out a massive crack in his head, still lips touching the sharp white bone that protruded from a broken, bent foreleg. The last had steaming green goo pouring from a large crack running down his split snout, while his abdomen steamed and glowed harder than an average dead changeling’s, penetrated by several of the gangsters’ own friendly fire bullets. The blood and synapse-covered mare heaved, glaring at the corpses. “I’LL SMASH YOU, INTO, FUCKING, PASTE!” Handsome roared. She stomped her leg on the mare that had been knocked out by the door until there was a crack left on the wooden floor. Her head turned sharply, flinging red droplets off the vulture’s beak, when the last thug from the first group to meet her fell over on the other side of the corridor. “AND YOU TOO.” The pink stallion lay in a pile of his own vomit, unblinking eyes staring at the remnants of other Caballerons. He scampered to get up as the mare stomped towards him, her club pulling chips of wood out of the floor, but a bright green glow formed at the collar of his stained shirt. The baton attached to one of his flailing forehooves broke the window he’d tried to leap through, showering the pony with glass. His gurgling scream was cut short when his body flew all the way back over to Handsome, landing at her hooves. The club came down on his abdomen the next moment, ripping through flesh and bone submerging into the intestines and organs. Handsome hacked and turned around, cantering for the end of the corridor, dragging the thug’s body by a bleeding cord of guts. The masked mare switched to a gallop as a hail of high caliber crystalline rounds thundered down the corridor. Chunks of gore spread on the walls as she ran. She lowered her head, horn going dark. Her weapon sent out a wet, squeaking thud as it and its gut wrapping fell on the floor. Handsome herself leapt at the tight group of armed gangsters that emerged from the ornate door at the end of the corridor. The unicorn stallion at the head of the group raised his revolver-armed forehoof at the airborne mare, but the loud shot ended up showering them with debris from the ceiling as he fell underneath her. She banged her head rapidly and strongly enough to break the nose and bludgeon out one of the eyes, covering his dark goatee in a mixture of mucus and blood. Her body smashed sideways into the stunned thugs to her right, knocking down a big wooden baseball bat that was being raised by a copy of the unicorn on the floor. Foaming inside the mask, Handsome head-bashed the female gangster beside the changeling, whose body was riddled with bullets from the mare’s gun as the vulture banged the foreleg against the wall. The masked mare rammed the wall itself with her head, screaming, as her horn re-lit. The Caballerons on the other side were getting up on their hooves when the killer vulture turned around sharply, twisting and tilting her head, staring at them, horn aglow. One of them balanced himself out and raised a hoof to send a metal baton crashing at the mare’s chest, but his aim was thrown off by a thick line of intestines landing on his foreleg. The next moment, the massive spiked club followed through, breaking through half his body. The other thug hopped back, avoiding his colleague’s corpse falling on top of him, but his gun wasn’t up in time to stop the mare from closing distance and grabbing his leg. He let out a distorted, echoing screech as the leg was broken, thick synapse pouring out, and the gun was shoved into his face. The revolver discharged, popping the changeling’s head and spreading green, vaporous goo all over the room. Handsome’s half-hiccuping laughter spread into the room the five were guarding once she pushed the door open with the butt of her club. It was a wide hall, decorated in shades of pink, gold and brown, with the statue of an armored pony towering atop a fountain in the middle. Rugs were laid in a circle around the fountain, most empty and crumpled, with gilded swords dropped on the floor in front of them. Three had shuddering, twitching changeling drones sitting on top of them, their jaws hanging open, the light in their dull green eyes flickering on and off. The mare’s chuckling echoed through the hall, albeit muffled out by frantic shouting coming from all around, as well as hoofsteps and occasional gunshots emitting from the second floor. Her laughter ceased - she stomped over to a wide, forking stairway at the west end of the hall, piercing one of the inactive droned onto her club without looking. A louder series of gunshots came from the top level, followed by several abrupt screams. Handsome growled and began to get up the steps, before stumbling and tumbling back down when a heavy quake rumbled through the hall. The masked mare clung to her temples, slurring incoherently. A shadow fell over her frame, slightly bigger than that of the fountain statue’s. Handsome rolled off to the side and levitated her weapon over before a brown minotaur’s hoof cracked the steps she was laying on. He stood in place for a few seconds while the mare breathed heavily underneath the mask. Some five seconds later, he turned around and searched the room before focusing his blurry, bloodshot-pink eyes on the unicorn that stood directly in front of him. The bovine twisted his obese frame, pulling the hoof out of the rubble left of the steps, and swung to face Handsome, creating a loud clatter with the dozens of seashells, amulets, gemstones, plastic pins, whistles, smoking pipes, spoons and photo cameras that hung off his neck. The unicorn shook her head, crouching and taking short steps back, putting the club several meters ahead of herself. The minotaur took in a deep breath and raised his large arms, causing Handsome to jump back and swing at the air. The loud whistling of air was drowned out by the massive minotaur’s long, drawn-out belch, especially as he swung his head in circles while his hands shook in the air, index and pinky fingers outstretched. The unicorn stood still for a moment, eyes fixed on the fat minotaur. When he stampeded towards her, hands still raised, she rolled off to the side, taking the club with her. Her body lifted off the floor tiles for a moment as the minotaur crashed into a wall. Moaning and screeching, Handsome got back on her hooves and flashed a bright spark off her horn, launching the spiked club into the minotaur’s back. He was removing himself from the imprint left in the stone wall, pieces of a mural stuck on his upwards-pointing horns. There was a dull, wet squishing noise as the club’s many points sunk into the minotaur’s back. The fat bovine stopped, clinging to the rim of his imprint with his hands, and shook his head. Handsome slid off to the side as the minotaur stampeded in her direction again, much faster in spite of the huge weapon stuck in his back by its many hooks, blades, nails and needles. She collided with the edge of the fountain, while the minotaur fell down on the stairs. She lifted herself off from the floor on shaking legs, hacking and spitting into the mask. The bull was already getting up as his purple palm tree and parrot themed shirt was overflowing with thick red blood. The unicorn screamed, loud enough to outmatch the sounds of bullets fired, cracking off pieces of the fountain near where she stood. She charged at the recovering minotaur, evading a series of further shots, which ceased before hitting their mark. There was a heavy smack as she rammed horn-first into his belly. The skin wobbled, and the unicorn herself was launched just far enough back for his fist to only penetrate a layer of floor tile. The bull bashed his knuckles together, shaking his head and letting out a whistling, hooting yell, pumping one of his hooves into the floor, cracking it into dust. “ALIVE!!!” he screamed, staring at the vulture with blurry eyes. Handsome had gotten up, narrowly avoiding tripping over a nearby changeling corpse, which lay twisted, all limbs and neck broken, a curved knife in its forehead. She cracked her neck, stepping back, squashing a puddle of synapse in the process. The massive bovine stayed in the same pose for several seconds before falling over into the large pool of his thick red blood. The mask's beak sunk in as Handsome puffed, trotting over and pulling the club out of the minotaur’s back. She brought the club down on his head repeatedly, smashing the thick skull with the side that had been padded out with his own flesh, until there was a loud crack. The unicorn moved banged the club against the floor for a short time, getting some of the flesh to fall off. She stopped momentarily once her eyes traced the hall, which gained a number of new corpses, all twisted, slashed, some with knives stuck in their necks or heads. Off to her side was a big malformed minotaur-shaped synaptic, dissipating face-down with a knife stuck in the back of its neck up to the handle. A door on the opposite side from where she entered creaked shut, the back of a postal uniform barely visible before it closed. “YOU’LL FUCKING WISH YOU WERE DEAD!” Handsome screamed, galloping for the door. Her weapon plowed against the tiles, following several meters behind. The recently shut door broke open, flying off its hinges when the unicorn’s masked head crashed into it. A few of the wood chips that sunk into the mask on impact were transferred into the face of an undisguised changeling thug who’d nearly avoided being struck by the door - Handsome bashed her head into his as his hooves slid to a halt in front of her. There was a hoarse, coughing screech from behind the vulture’s beak as she levitated her club over, breaking through the remains of the door frame, and flattened the sliced-up, weaponless changeling against the floor with a single hit. Synapse splattered all over the narrow corridor, covering stone vases and idle torches on the walls with another layer of green atop the one already present. There were two more bodies up ahead, a pink unicorn mare with flowing black hair and a synaptic changeling, both their bodies twisted, gashes running up their abdomens. The wide room beyond the corridor was thick with brown and pink, flashes of crystalline gunfire and telekinetic magic. A grey silhouette skipped back and forth, dashing from Caballeron to Caballeron. Handsome jerked and threw her head back, letting out a gurgling falsetto howl and crushing the vases to her side with the club. She ran for the room ahead, crushing the bodies underneath her hooves, her weapon leaving behind a trail of deep scratches and chips on the floor. The screaming unicorn threw herself to the left and brought the club forward in a wide, sweeping swing. Before the two thugs collided with the glass displays lined up against the wall, she swung again, catching two more, sending their bodies flying onto the rug on the floor. The large spiked club whistled through the air, crushing bone and chitin with every swing, sprinkling the remaining scattered Caballerons with red and green. The firing team of six ponies and changelings in pink was torn apart, pieces thrown all over the display room, by when the unicorn stopped. A hollow, hoarse moan came out of her throat as she bent her legs, threw her head back and broke out into an unsteady run for the other end of the room. Her horn lit up with a bright, radiant green. “I’M FUCKING INVINCIBLE!” The nearest gangsters fired off shots in her direction, but only a short volley was fired before they were splattered against the wall. The heavy club spun wildly, creating a whirlwind circle of blood and, synapse spike-pierced wood. It followed in Handsome’s wake, mowing down half a dozen thugs before the unicorn reached the other end of the room. Several changelings had their upper halves torn off completely, leaving only the hind legs and the lower body where they once stood, while their shredded heads, forelegs and abdomens flew ahead. One knocked down a Caballeron unicorn shortly before the pegasus landed on him and put a foreleg through his throat. Multiple gangsters in finer suits spun around with the cloud upon impact, dragged by their penetrated flesh and the fabric, splashing the room with fountains of blood. Handsome herself came up on the two survivors from the other side. Her body slammed into the tall brown unicorn, knocking him into a glass display, shattering it and showering the stallion with the shards. A brown mare, laying on her back, with a curved knife stuck in her shoulder, was slowly crawling toward one of the doors at the end of the room. Her silhouette emitted light flashes, going dark for brief seconds, and there was thick green synapse oozing out of the shoulder wound. The earthen mare’s silhouette switched back to its true form as Handsome brought her forehooves down upon her, stomping down on the shoulder and sinking the knife well into the floor, before trampling the head and crushing the synaptic’s jagged horn. It turned into a soup of chitin and synapse by when the masked unicorn’s own back was being splashed by the body liquid shower of her rotating club, catching up with its owner. The unicorn gangster stood in front of her as she turned around, his own horn glowing, levitating the dark metal sword formerly contained in the glass display. Handsome threw her head back to bash at his snout, but her masked forehead met thin air as she did so. The bloodied, glass-pierced unicorn falling down on the floor with a knife sticking out the back of his neck. Her hooves slipped on the blood-soaked carpet, tumbling her down onto the fresh corpse. The next moment, the sword, engulfed in leftover magic, collided with the spinning club. The two magical auras merged together, and the sword stabbed into the wildly rotating wood. With a high-pitched whine, the sword shot out, spinning backwards before stabbing into something. A sharp, piercing noise picked up, ringing out through the room. It was followed by a blinding greenish-purple flash and a heated shockwave, smashing all the displays and tossing the metalwork and jewelry into the mess of bodies on the floor. Once it subsided, Handsome got her bloodstained hooves off her head and rose, stumbling around before nearly tripping over her weapon, which lay on the floor, intact safe for a yellowish, cooling gash running down the point of impact with the sword. She exhaled, puffing up the mask’s beak, and headed for the door the synaptic had been crawling towards. The mansion had become quieter, safe a ringing noise in the air and muffled voices down the direction she was heading in. The unicorn cracked her neck and pushed the door open with a forehoof. She cantered down the empty corridor, leaving a trail of blood and scratches behind with the club. A tall figure looked down her as she turned a corner. Handsome stared at the raven griffon in a zipped-up dark purple leather jacket, almost squatting on his hind legs. The avian’s wings unfurled for a moment, flapping once to put him a few meters back. He lunged forward with his hand stretched out, crossing the distance before the mare started stepping away. The rapier in his talons glinted in the light spreading in from the display room as he thrust it forward. Handsome only had enough time to bring up her forelegs, and she grunted, her flank pushing up against the wall as the rapier’s tip pierced the double layer of clothing on her left foreleg. She moaned as the metal bit into her flesh. The raven was unable to pull it out and follow up, being sent off balance by the thrashing mare, leading him to smash beak-first into a wall. The unicorn jerked her blood-soaked foreleg hard enough to disengage the metal tip, gasping and groaning into her mask. Another attack was already half underway when the corridor was illuminated by her horn, and the griffon’s next thrust saw him impale himself on the club that had been raised vertically in his way. The avian’s fencing sword fizzled out in a green flash, and his whole body turned into a jagged synaptic mess even before the mare smashed the club against the wall, pushing his corpse off with the force of the impact. Handsome made her way down to the hallway that cut into the corridor before leaning against the wall and banging her blood-dripping hoof against it. Her throat emitted a hoarse, bubbling chuckle. The only noise safe for her breathing was two male voices conversing down the hallway in a foreign language. There was a bovine figure blocking the entrance to a blue-tiled chamber. It sat on its knees, massive arms grasping at its face, twitching and flashing sporadically. The minotaur changeling’s obese form bloated and sunk in, while the assortment of trinkets hanging on its neck flashed in and out of existence. A thin line of green drool poured out of its mouth, which emitted distorted, incoherent noises. “Don’t you… mother… fuckers…” she moaned, stomping in that direction. “Have any MORE? I want… fucking… MORE!” Handsome brought down her forehead against the changeling’s. A green stain came over the ones already splattered all over the mare's head. She stumbled back and spat into the mask. Her club whistled through the air and came down on the malformed minotaur body, ripping off half its snout, a horn and an arm. It fell over with a wet, sloshing sound, beginning to decompose under a layer of steam. A stallion’s voice shouted from within the chamber before being cut short by a loud bang. Handsome stepped over the dissipating body and into the big pool area. “Perdóname, hijo mío.” On the other side, beyond the long pool, were two stallions. One was a dark yellow earth pony, whose unbuttoned purple suit was covered in blood, as was his short-cut black and blonde mane. There was a gilded crystalline revolver attached to one of his shaking forelegs. The other was a blonde magenta pegasus in a brown polo shirt. He lay on the floor, a quarter of his head scattered in chunks all over the pool chamber. The enchanted roof cast pink, purple, blue and yellow hues on the two of them. A large jacuzzi behind the dead stallion was stained red, a piece of brain matter floating in the water. “It was almost his birthday,” the live stallion said in a weak, gravelly voice. Handsome puffed her nostrils and began to stomp over to the earth pony. He remained in place, looking at her as she approached, limping slightly on her left foreleg. “Do you ever wonder, the things that you do, what difference do they make? I knew this would never end well. But this was the right thing to do,” he spoke. The unicorn growled, bringing the club down into the water and bringing heavy waves out onto the tiles. “Everything happens for its own reasons. Whatever we do, the end is the same. You've never thought that, did you?” he asked, raising his voice. She stomped closer yet and shook her head, growling. "I've done so many horrible things. Nothing really matters anymore. But you’re just an animal, sweetie.” Handsome screamed as he raised his foreleg, dashing forward and bringing her club along. She slipped on her own blood mixed with the water of the pool and fell inside. There was another loud bang, followed by a thud. The yellow stallion’s stubbled face stared at her with unmoving eyes once she climbed out of the bloodstained water. There was a hole at the top of his head, which went down to his chin. The mare shuddered and rubbed her face through the mask, spitting and groaning as water leaked from inside it. She shook, spreading water from her wet clothes all around. Handsome's water-soaked beak pressed up against the dead Caballeron’s face. “Dead enough, cuntface?” she hissed, her injured foreleg shaking under her weight. “Fucking spineless piece of shit. You think you're smart? You think you know something I don't? You think I care?!” Handsome breathed heavily, making her way out of the pool area. She stopped by a large chunk of melting chitin laying on the torn-up hallway rug, and moaned as her bleeding left leg jerked after sending it tumbling away. The masked mare went into a coughing fit, eventually pulling off her mask, a stream of mixed spit, saliva, blood and water pouring trickling out. She placed the mask on the butt of her club. Shaking her wet head and breathing deep, Handsome limped up the hallway to a wooden cabinet. She smashed the glass with her head and pulled out a bottle of transparent liquor, holding it with magic and tearing the cap off with her teeth. The unicorn pulled up the ripped sleeve of her postal uniform, then the pierced leather sleeve of her jacket, and chuckled as she poured the liquid over the wound. She growled and roared, downing the rest of the bottle in one go. She rammed into a door to the side, entering the corpse-filled display room. Inhaling the air inside, the mare hacked a yellowish wad of spit, followed up by a few more heavy coughs to get rid of the sparkling ash particles left behind after the magical combustion. Stepping past the door, the mare nearly tripped over a hind leg. Gritting her teeth and mumbling incoherently, she focused her eyes and looked to where it was. Staring back at her was a pair of unblinking yellow eyes beyond a burned pigeon’s head mask. It was attached to the body of a pegasus wearing a stained, charred postal uniform similar to her own. There was a charred, steaming, bent metal sword stuck in the pegasus’ chest. Handsome laughed hoarsely, turning around and giving one of the limp wings a kick, cracking the bone. A single curved knife fell out from a slot between the feathers. The unicorn’s laugh grew louder, descending into half-cackling half-choking gargling peals. She regained her breath after a short coughing fit and turned around sharply. Her pierced snout pressed up against the pigeon’s charred peak. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU STARING AT???” Handsome shouted. Her teeth bit into the mask and tore it off the postal pegasus. It was an older mare with a light grey coat and fading blonde hair. Her mouth hung open, bleeding out one of the corners. The unicorn’s hoof pushed up against her neck, pinning the body to the wall. There was a big scar running through the upper part of her throat. Handsome’s bloodshot green eyes stared into the other mare’s motionless good eye. “Got what you wanted, gloryhound?! Mine! They’re MINE! THIS IS MINE! FUCK YOU AND YOUR LUCKY BREAK!” The mare tossed the corpse off to the side and spat on the floor. She trudged through the room, dragging the club behind her. She almost collapsed after tripping over a part of ruined floor tile in the room with the fountain. Burping loudly, the unicorn waded over to the fountain itself. She cursed unintelligibly and raised her head, gurgling up a wad of spittle. Handsome remained in that position for half a minute, her eyes squinting at the statue on top of the fountain. Eventually, she let out a loud, hacking reddish-yellow spit and walked away from the room with the dead minotaur, dismembered changelings and a statue of three of small ponies on top of the fountain. “This is mine,” she mumbled to herself, exiting through a door that lead to the main foyer, stepping over the dead maid, and walking out into the open. Making her way down to where her motorcycle was located before the police sirens closed in, she clumped her clothes into a ball and stuffed them in her bag, fitting them to the side of her club’s spikeless end. Her hoof wriggled into the ball, eventually pushing up against the pendant in the jacket’s pocket that discharged the electricity around the vehicle. Handsome laughed quietly, giving the vulture’s head a peck on the beak before hopping on the bike and starting it up. --- May 29th, 1013 AN Equestrian Transit “Did you ever think about it?” “Sorta. Kinda. I don’t think it matters. I mean… Shit went down. And I got to be in the thick of it. I did what I did, and it felt right to me. What do coulds or woulds mean anymore? The past is… the past. All of it.” “That’s not what the others thought, though, was it?” “Screw the others. I'm better off like this. I don’t want to know. You know how I joined in. Them? I saw that one. She gave me the creeps. Yeah, I really don’t want to know - fuck them all.” Handsome pressed her cheek closer against the pillow. Her hind hoof tapped at the wall of the compartment to the rhythm of music playing faintly somewhere in the train. The sun cast its rays down onto her face. She put a hoof over her eyes, smearing a bit of eyeliner over her white coat. “Maybe he was right? They were all going to die in the end, weren’t they?” “Eh… there was no future for them, I guess. I just sped up the inevitable. Old things die out, new things come in. All of Carol City is old now. And me? I’ve got the moves. I’ve got the mojo. I’ll last all of this out! I’m strong. Like a… like a horse.” The mare rubbed her eyes, pulling at the lower lids, casting a little blood into the vessels from the pressure. With a grunt, the mare lifted herself and sat up, bumping her head against the humming wall. “You get me.” “Looks like the future isn’t that different than the past, when you think about it.” “After all that’s happened, I guess it sort of it. Sort of not. My past is null and void. It’s all gone… old. I've lived it out, too much of it. There is no place left for old things in this world. But I changed. I am new. And I’ll be staying around whether they like it or not. Maybe the future of the past isn’t the future I’m looking forward to.” “That’s one way of looking at things.” Handsome stretched, arching her back and moaning softly. She then shifted in place, laying on her side and propping her upper body up with a hoof. Her head shook as she saw the mess of ink on her flank. Sighing, the mare prodded at budding strings of pinkish hair emerging around on her tail extremity. “Basically, I think all that’s happened is for the best. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t. Tomorrow is a new day.” “Should I get you some ice cream?” “That’d be good.” --- April 10th, 1013 AN - 9:50 PM Carol City, Equestria 14th Sun Hearth Handsome stepped into the alleyway, pulling away a dirty cloth that hung at the entrance. She yawned and belched at the same time, having to punch her throat to take in a new breath. Her leather jacket glistened in the light of a barrel fire, at least the parts that weren’t covered in dried up vomit. The unicorn threw her head back and took in a deep breath, before thrusting it down and spewing out a stream of yellowish-green bile. She walked through the narrow space between apartment blocks, the large box bouncing on her back. Its lid was cracked and splintered, covered up in several layers of variously colored tape. The mare limped now and again, a thick bandage protruding from beneath her left sleeve. It fell off with a creaking thunk as she made an abrupt stop. Handsome moved her lips silently, staring at the wall above the barrel fire. There was a piece of graffiti visible in its light. Two lines of equines faced one another on the picture, made in faintly glowing neon paint. Chitnous, black, malformed green-eyed insectoid changelings swarmed up on one side, clinging to one another, fanged maws and forked tongues open wide. On the other side was a line of pony silhouettes, charging at the changelings. They were done in flat pink and gold, sparkling almost as hard as the four letters above the picture, which read ‘HOPE’. Each pony’s head ended with a beak. She stepped in closer, her jaw dropping and her lips curving into a wide grin. Her hoof brushed against one of the ponies who stood out, being far ahead of them, in the middle of the graffiti - it was a beaked unicorn on a bike. Handsome laughed, sitting down on the box and covering her head with her hooves. She didn’t stop laughing when a figure entered the alleyway, but she did stare at them, widening her grin and exposing more of her teeth. “H-holy shit! What—” The pony gulped and cleared his throat, breathing rapidly. “W-what are you doing here? Who are you?” Handsome’s borderline red eyes stared at the greasy-maned, thin, dirt brown earth pony stallion in tattered clothing. The bum looked back with his own eyes wide and his teeth clattering. He raised his foreleg and shut his eyes once she rose from the box, chuckling quieter now. “Are you a roach?” she asked, slurring her words. “N-no,” he replied. There was a thin trickle of red blood going from his nose and into his unkempt dark beard. Handsome shrugged and changed her wide grin to a thinner smile. “You like the picture?” “Y-yeah. It shines in the fire…” “Wanna know who I am?” Handsome whispered. The bum scratched the back of his head. She tumbled off the box and leapt over to the stallion, grabbing him by the shoulders and laughing as she dragged him over to the graffiti. Her wide green irises stared right into the bum’s shrunken blue ones. The unicorn lowered him to the ground and wrapped one hoof around his shoulder. She pointed at the figure on the bike. “That’s who I am.” “...” “I am the Vulture.” The stallion’s eyes went from Handsome to her depiction on the graffiti. He swallowed. “I… I think I shouldn’t be here…” The mare snickered and bashed her forehead against his, knocking him out and breaking his nose. She put the box back on her back and left the alley, turning for the entrance to the apartment building.