Carol City, Equestria

14th Sun Hearth

The table shuddered as Handsome slammed the box shut. She mushed her snout against the lid and sniffed in deep. Her hooves came down on it several more times before the mare emitted a low grumble and placed the box into a plastic bandolier. It and the other three boxes in the bandolier stayed shut as she banged them repetitively. Handsome exhaled and cracked her neck, getting off the couch.

The bandolier was thrown over into the kitchen, where a postmare’s uniform and bag lay on the table. It landed on top of the sticker and stripe-laden blunderbuss situated under the table, on top of a pile of pizza boxes. The mare eyed the inventory in the kitchen closely, mouthing to herself. She cantered over to the weapon and uniform. The clothes wrinkled as her hooves tested the uneven patches and stitches, some of them loosening threads under pressure.

Handsome sighed and bumped her head against the table, stopped from full collision by her horn tearing into one of the patches. Hacking and spitting on the bluish uniform, the mare knelt toward the gun.

The heavy iron contraption tumbled off the crushed pizza boxes, rolling into the mare. She jumped, colliding with the coldbox.

“Stupid piece of… fucking… Fuck!” she growled, letting out a hiss as the tube smashed into a wall. A picture fell onto the floor, its glass cracking. “Mothershitting bundle of CUNT.”

Handsome pulled the coldbox open, downing a can of fizzy liquor and burping. She stomped on the can before kicking it into the open window. A minute later, the gun was pointing its hole at the ceiling, pulled up by the unicorn’s green aura. She was groaning, reaching inside the gun with a forehoof, when the other unicorn slowly peeked into the kitchen.

“I’m good.” Handsome scowled, staring at the crystal dust tangled in her dirty white coat. “You were leaving.”

“You were leaving,” Handsome repeated, turning over to her. “I’m doing something important. Don’t test me.”

“Yes, I know, it'd just be, it'd be really inconvenient if, well, if after... you know... paying off all our rent and getting all this new stuff... if it'd all—” Gulping and biting her lip, the other unicorn meddled with her glasses.

“I get it. Don’t pack my ammo when on joy. I put out the fire, you fucking nag. What now, do I make you sandwiches? Did you forget who got the money for all of what you just said?” Handsome levitated the gun into the air, spinning it in place. The other mare shuddered and wiped her brow. “Why are you still here?”

“I’m… a-already back. Don’t point that—” The grey mare backed away, smiling unevenly as the scarred unicorn glared at her with shrinking green eyes. She exhaled, going into quicker breaths, when the bigger mare lowered the gun. “It didn’t take that long. M-my new employer doesn’t… mince words very much. She, uhm. Had a slight… interest in you.”

Page just began to approach Handsome when she smashed the butt of the gun into the floor, ripping out a plank with the bladed end.

“She can eat shit! I’m not working security for some dumb cow. I’ve…” She breathed in deep, leaving the gun stuck in the floor and putting hooves against her temples. “I've known I had to do something like this for a long time. You know I have. This is my big break.”

“O-of course I do. I always… um… always knew you’d find your place, that’s—” the other mare spoke, stammering and drawing her eyes away. “That’s why I let you stay here for… four years... A-and now things are better, and I’m thankful for that.”

“You better be, you four-eyed shit, ‘cause these days, I own more of this place than you do.”

“I understand that this… movement you joined, it’s rather powerful. The city is, um, a lot different now than it was before… You’re not the Tunnel Snakes or the other gangs.” Page rubbed her hooves against her dark grey suit, avoiding Handsome’s stare. “But, my employer understands that as well. It’s just that, well, look, you and your ponies are… changing things very rapidly. That tends to result in rather, ahhh, unstable events. Other… parties, so called, get involved. It’s not a very good idea to still be here when that happens.”

“Why do I give a fuck?” Handsome shrugged. “I belong in here, in this boiling vat of shit. I was meant for this. Don’t try to tell me you know better. You want me the fuck out of here anyway, so why don’t you sit down and go root for those chitin-cunts. Or do your cow’s numbers. I don’t care.”

“...h-how do I…” the grey unicorn whispered, turning around and chewing on her lips, eyes darting back and forth.

“You don’t. Get the fuck out. Make your own money to leave Carol Shitty. I’ve found my place here. It's all about to get good. I feel it.”

“Miss Lockvara has inside knowledge of things happening here right now. Things are getting all the uglier. You have unique skills, you don’t have to stay here, you could join us and move elsewhere. You wouldn’t be out of things to do in Equestria,” Page spoke within a single breath. She lifted her hooves and closed her eyes, shaking. “That’s, that’s all she wanted me to tell you. Just consider that, Handsome.”

The scarred mare walked up to her roommate and grabbed her by the shoulder, putting their snouts together. Her breath clouded the shining, crystal-encrusted glasses.

“...I’m better than ever,” she spoke slowly, in syllables, eyes wide open. “I want this to go right. I've waited for this shit my entire life. I know where this is going, and I'm loving it. I have places to be. Things to do. Go find your own.” Her eyes grew slightly bloodshot from remaining open for over a minute.

“It’s okay, I’m not snooping! Y-your logo is all over the streets, everyone talks about you, they’re—" Her glasses went askew as she shook, raising her hooves. "Just, just in case something, anything goes wrong and you decide to—"

"No justs. No cases. I know what I'm fucking doing! I'm the fucking Vulture, you ungrateful shit! Get out."

The grey mare didn’t reply, merely gulping. “Good. Fuck off.” Handsome pushed her away and into the corridor. She walked over to the kitchen windowsill and hunched over the letter spread out there, kept in place with dirty mugs.

“Well let’s fucking see about that change, then,” Handsome mumbled under her breath.

She put on the uniform, pulled the gun out of the floor and into the bag, equipped the bandolier, picked up the keys and retreated into the living room. Over an hour later, shaking and mumbling to herself, Handsome tumbled out, forcing the mask into the bag with unsteady hooves. She grinned, smashing the door open with her head.

***

57 Sugar Trail - 6:36 PM

The bike came to a loud halt, leaving a trail of dust settling on the wet pavement. The chains hanging off the grip bar clattered against the frame as Handsome leaned, looking at the dark entrance to the tall building. She scowled, staring at the warning and safety signs preceding the entrance. After a few seconds of hesitation, she pushed her hind hoof into the accelerator, sending the bike into the parking lot. It nearly avoided smashing into carriages parked at the very entrance.

Narrowly entering a curve that lead to the next floor, the bike scratched a no motorcycles sign.

Handsome hit the brakes once a group of figures entered her line of sight, gathered near a postal delivery carriage van.

The large window just by the van had a full view of the front of the bank. The mare grunted, tearing her bag off the luggage rack. She looked out the window before rolling her eyes and stepping toward the group.

Handsome stopped, staring at three crystal guns - two identical repeaters and a short snubbed gun - that aimed at her, the repeaters floating in the air, while the gun was attached to a hoof.

Her eyes shifted to a pair of dismembered and hole-ridden jagged black carcasses, which were just barely visible in the shadows, their wounds faintly glowing.

“Sorry for the cold welcome, miss. You’re a little late,” a female voice with a foreign accent spoke up. The mare growled, neck twisting to find the source, looking through half a dozen various shapes in the dark, scarcely illuminated by the occasional flash of a broken lightbulb that was meant to be over their spot. “We’ve had a few curious cats come by. There are interested parties that'd want to know what we're up to. Can't have that.”

“Hey! You there!” a voice came from the group. One of them, a pegasus, trotted closer to Handsome, leaving the darkness.

The unicorn moved her eyes at the green-maned pink pegasus, who pointed a hoof at her, gritting his teeth. Her jaw hung open for a moment, eyes losing focus. She scratched her head.

“This ASSHOLE stole my BIKE!” the pegasus screamed. Several of the other figures began to move closer. “And my mask, too! Drugged me or some shit and crashed my damn house! Get her out of here, or I swear she’s dead meat!”

The pegasus growled, shaking a hoof in the air. There were several kitchen cleavers attached to it, grey enough to almost blend into the postal uniform him and the others wore. There were five ponies there in total, emerging from the dark corner by the van.

One other figure was a long-beaked griffon with a curved neck. She was white, with blue highlights around her eyes, and wore a tight blue suit. She her talons on the stallion’s shoulder, pulling him back.

“Ponies are supposed to be friendly, not cutting allies up with knives. Please, keep the distinction in mind when you’re in.”

They glared at each other, and the griffon turned her head to Handsome. “Today is the big day. After this, it’s all downhill for you... in a good way. The breaking point, so to say,” the crane enunciated slowly, keeping her voice down.

A thin, subtle stiletto twirled between the talons of her other hand, which the pegasus’ eyes followed intently, as she happened to pass it right by his throat.

“So we can’t be ruining things by turning on each other. You ponies have had success ever since the start of this month, but we really do need to be discrete this time.” Her eyes turned to Handsome. “So it was you Skate helped recruit? Corvine told me.” She drawled out words with a slight accent, a curving smirk always at the side of her long beak.

“And then she fucked up my place, stole my package and jacked my FUCKING BIKE!” Skate stomped his hooves, some of his green bangs falling over his eyes despite the headband he wore. “That mask is supposed to be mine! This ugly bitch... I’m not going to work with her!”

“We can’t argue over rubber, guys,” another of the group said - a big brown unicorn, overgrown with a dirty blonde mane and facial hair. “Let’s put shit past us today. We’re really doing it today, right?”

“Hey, screw you. I’m Vulture. Don’t you fucking try to get at me.” Handsome squinted at the burly stallion. “It’s not ‘just rubber’. What, you shitstains don’t even get to have masks, don’t know what it feels like?!”

“We do. I’m Honeybird.” The stallion pointed at himself. He spoke in a low, bassy, measured tone. Handsome frowned at him, hard enough for the wrinkles to be visible on her shaved-out eyebrows.

He continued. “This is Seagull.” The unicorn motioned at the pink pegasus, who puffed his nostrils and ground his teeth.

“That is Eagle.” He pointed at the stallion to his side, a buzz-cut dark orange earth pony with an uneven stubble and a burn mark around his right eye. There were metal chains and barbs tied around his forehooves.

“That is Cormorant.” The female pegasus was leaning against the van, long black hair covering up most of her face. She turned, raising her eyes for a brief moment before going back to looking at the ground..

"This is Crow. She’s not normally with us, she’s management, with the birds - I think you’ve met, too?” Another mare, a lemon earth pony with a daffodil yellow mane packed in a tight bun. She had been looking at Handsome the entire time, staying completely still.

“And this is Vulture.” The crane took over, letting go of Skate and stepping in front of the mare. Skate stormed off into a dark corner. “As for me… let’s call me Etta. Not a familiar beak, I know. After your last run, Corvine decided we needed you on this side a little more. My job is to have you briefed, get you through to a vulnerable point at just the right time to do the most damage. And keep you from killing each other, of course. We’ve made ourselves known, you see, but this time we’re going for much more of an… important strategic asset. Now please stop staring at me, Vulture.”

“This fucking stinks. I don’t give a shit about any of you.” Handsome sighed. Veins protruded through her tattoo-covered skin and coat. “I’m here to kill roaches, I have a big gun, and I don’t need any briefing.”

Etta shook her head. Honeybird paced back to Skate, who extended a wing to him and folded all the feathers but the main primary. Crow backpedaled towards the van doors, still keeping her eyes on Handsome. Cormorant got out a smokestick, which Eagle came over to share. Growling to herself, Handsome bent and zipped her bag open, pulling out the blunderbuss and lifting it over to her side.

The griffon stopped in the middle of trying to extend her arm to her. She raised an eyebrow, falling back on all fours.

“Look, Miss Vulture. Don’t you think it would be more convenient to do all this killing of yours if you had an idea of what’s to happen? Let me elaborate." Etta raised a hand and clicked her talons. Handsome's neck twitched. "In case my fashion taste isn’t enough to spell it out - I’m selling out the Majors.”

Etta’s beak tightened in a wider smile. Handsome stepped back, lips puckering, mouthing silently to herself.

“That’s the short of it. We take them down, and changelings don’t feel as safe robbing you poor pony folk, especially without access to their bank.” The mare tilted her head toward the crane as she gestured and enunciated throughout the explanation. “You see, they came here together with what’s left of our Caballeron friends to defend their rainy day supplies. An old little bird just happened to tell us that some particularly desperate out-of-town meat shields are going to go and try a heist on them today. You get the picture -there’s no better time to make an entrance and remove them from the map." Etta smiled and tilted her head. "Fill the bank with bodies.”

Handsome grabbed her temples and emitted a shrill screech, her cracked voice going through octaves.

“This is some sort of joke, right?! You all coming here to fucking lecture me? I’ll have you know, you’d be sitting on your asses right now if not for me!" she screamed. Her shouts were percussioned by the scrapes and thuds of her gun being bashed against the floor with sparkling magic. “Don’t you stare at me, do you think I’m dumb?! I know your whole clown show is a half-assed pile of garbage! I can fucking read, morons, I read the letter you sent that lazy fucker - if I listened to you, my gang would still be all over half this shitty town!”

“Yeah, your gang,” Eagle spoke up. He was loud enough to be audible over the noise. “I know you.”

“...oh, yeah?” Handsome’s voice cracked as she went from screaming to hissing. “Want me to blow you for that, genius?!” she raised her voice back up immediately, turning toward the stallion.

Etta shrugged and retreated. She pulled down a sleeve and looked at the glowing crystal watch underneath. Distant thunder echoed through the rainy street.

“You would come to my salon to get tattoos. I can’t believe you got even worse since then.” The stallion spoke through his teeth. “You’re a pretentious tantrum-throwing drama queen. If this is what we’re getting with you, then get lost.”

“Yeah?..” the mare whispered, her eyes shrinking. She walked closer to the stallion. “That salon where you’d paint roaches for half price, yeah? Look who’s talking.”

“It’s called a racket. Why do you think I’m here?” Eagle replied, looking her in the eyes. “They ruined everything. I had to fight back. What about you, lady? Not feeling different enough from all your trashbag friends?”

The unicorn’s pupils shrunk and her ears bent back. She breathed heavily through her nostrils, biting deep into her lower lip, gilded teeth scraping against one of her piercings.

Eagle looked down at her, Honeybird was wiping a complex crystalline repeater, Cormorant was shoving a smokestick into her mouth through the thick cover of hair shielding her face, Skate was doing wing-ups, his teeth bared and eyes filling with red.

“You all think you’re hot shit, huh. What, you think you’re heroes? You think you know how this works? Look at you, standing here, listening to this dumb shitbeak! Why don’t you draw on a fucking floor map, huh?!” Handsome stomped her hooves in place before ripping the zipper on her bag open with her teeth and pulling out her mask. “Leave this shit to me - I can do this alone!”

“We know you’ve done a lot. It feels great, yeah? Killing bugs, strangling them, beating their heads in. Ripping their eyes out. Listening to them scream, seeing them die in agony.” The yellow mare licked her lips. “But you don’t just get to do that willy-nilly. Corvine tells me, and I agree - things are so much different now. Just this once, all of us have to come together and be as one.”

“I AM the one. Go and piss your pants at home, I don’t WANT any of you stealing MY kills, anyway!" She banged her gun against the floor. "This fucker can’t get up to get his mail, this hairy asshole is fat as balls, this bastard thinks he’s cool mouthing off to me, this cuntrag can’t even be assed to talk to me, and you’re dumb as shit if you’re for real right now!” Handsome pointed her hoof at each of the other postal ponies in succession, spittle landing all over the parking lot as her voice kept cracking and raising. “And now I have to listen to some long-necked bitch that’s been working with those roaches for fuck knows how long?! This is bullshit!”

“Corvine also said you weren’t alone for when you killed the Caballerons,” Crow said. By then, she had leaned in close enough for her deep breaths to brush against Handsome’s scarred, tattooed face. Handsome scowled.

“Vulture… Handsome, sweetie…” Etta stopped, rubbing her forehead with a free hand while still playing with her stiletto in the other. “You need to understand, your partner wasn’t what you would call an average pony. She was no worse than you are. So please, shut up, put up and stop making a scene.”

“Or go and get fucking killed, you dumb bitch. I’ll beat the shit out of the pig that told me recruiting you was a good idea!” Skate shouted from the back. “You'll wish you never woke up!”

“You’re of no use to the cause when you die. I know you know that.” Crow’s lips slowly went into a smile as she nodded.

“We’re all going to be fine, guys. Just calm down. Once this is over, we’ll all get pizza,” Honeybird said. He was peeking into the van, inside which were everyone else’s bags but Handsome’s.

“Yeah… It’s gonna be fine.” Handsome sighed and put on her mask. She breathed in deep, her eyes closed. A low growl rose from within her chest as her body twitched. “It’s like you’re asking me to kill you.”

Crow fell down on the floor - her nose was shattered when the unicorn’s head collided with hers. Eagle’s ribs cracked open as the levitated gun lashed out from the mare, slicing through his chest with the blade. The darkness lit up as the gun fired off a shot of hot crystal, which dug deep into Honeybird’s body, leaving it full of glowing holes. Another blast left smoking holes in the wall, some shards sinking into Skate as he raised his throwing hoof, knocking the pegasus down on the floor. Cormorant’s cigarette dropped as the mare rolled and dove into Handsome, her face crashing into the hot metal tube instead.

Still screaming, the mare emptied the rest of the crystal charge inside her gun firing wildly at figures in the smoke that rose from the smoldering bodies. One of the shots ended up leaving behind a blurred shape of a griffon, leaping backwards from the shards. The mare’s gun flew into it, tumbling it onto the floor. As the gun dove down blade-first, it skewered the figure. Impaled, Etta coughed up blood, losing her stiletto while her body was being dragged along the floor, leaving behind a dark red trail littered with shreds of fabric. Handsome’s eyes twitched, growing bloodshot beneath the vulture’s mask.

Once the guttural screams had gone hoarse, the blood-covered mare tore the blunderbuss out of the dismembered avian, knocked the lid off one of the boxes in her bandolier, shoved the contents into the gun and stormed towards the window. Her wheezing, croaking screeching bubbled up with a laugh as she landed into bushes wet with rain. Lightning flashed, casting the two-story bank building in plain white light, albeit lit with a shade of green coursing through the walls.

Dripping blood and scraping against the pavement with the blade of the gun, Handsome galloped towards the gunfire and explosions coming out of the bank.

Griffon-Equestrian Deposits Bank - 7:12 PM

The stained glass window shattered, letting through a hail of crystal shot, followed by a tumbling unicorn wearing a postal uniform. Her body bounced off a couch, smearing it with blood. She landed on top of a liquefying black carcass sporting a bank teller’s uniform, steaming from the synapse that leaked out of the gaping hole that took up most of the changeling’s face. Having leaped onto her hooves, the mare stopped to lean in and squash the rest of the face. The sound of gunfire present in the deeper parts of the bank now picked up in the foyer, with armed guards opening fire.

Various projectiles penetrated the cushions of the couch behind her. The mare slipped off to the side, trampling over dead carcasses in white and blue suits. Her weapon dragged along, firing off shot after shot before running dry. By then, Handsome leaped from behind the column of info screens that absorbed the last of the volley. She hacked and growled, rushing forward, hooves stomping through pools of blood and puddles of synapse.

She ran straight into one of the thugs, toppling him onto the floor with her weight. He tried and failed to fight back using the steel mace harnessed onto his foreleg - Handsome’s blunderbuss caught up to her, its blade dragging across the floor. It sliced the armed foreleg clean off. She smashed her own forehooves against his head, covering it in blood and cracking the thick sunglasses, until his skull quickly gave way. The blood from her hooves mixed in with the green liquid pouring out of the gaping wounds, the body turning black and jagged by when she moved on.

Having fallen back to each side of the foyer respectively, two more thugs knelt by the help desks, hastily shoving crystal munitions into their long rifles. One of them just finished by the time Handsome approached, only to watch the hot metal barrel crash through the desk, smashing into his forehooves. The rifle smacked him on his snout as it fired into the ceiling. He screamed as the mare grabbed him by the shoulders, pushed him down on his broken legs, and launched his body across the slick tiles with a buck.

The other stallion jumped out of the way of his crippled partner, but by when he returned to a firing position, Handsome was already in his face. He swore in a foreign language and maneuvered to kick, only to reel back when the mare rammed straight into him. Blood bubbled out of his mouth as the unicorn’s horn gored through the thug’s throat. His body fell on top of several civilian changeling carcasses nearby, lying in a heap underneath advertisement posters on the wall.

Handsome breathed heavily, even her mask now mostly red. As intermittent gunfire and shouting erupted from the inner wings of the bank, she darted from one body to another, growling and whining gutturally.

There was at least a dozen corpses in Majors uniforms, most peppered with gunfire, some with their heads caved in. More than half were changelings, among them several jagged, black avian bodies with elongated, sharp crane heads. Regular ponies and changelings lay in piles along the sides, hooves bound, their throats slit. Three additional corpses were from the same gang as the ones recently killed - all of them shredded to pieces and cooking with the hot crystals still burning through their bodies. Two were drones, the third was a real pony.

There were two doors on opposing sides of the ruined foyer, sounds of fighting coming from each direction. The masked mare stomped on a nearby corpse, her eyes wide at all the bodies that had accumulated her arrival. She hacked and emitted a shrill screech, bashing the barrel of her gun against the tellers’ windows. A loud alarm went off, making her scream again. She grit her teeth and emptied the rest of her gun’s ammunition at the ceiling, the walls, the windows, and the corpses. One of her shots blasted open the doors to the right, and, flexing her shoulders, Handsome stormed through it.

Beyond the doorway was a destroyed service hall, filled with burned desks and smashed videodromes. The floor was littered with leaflets, munitions casings, limbs and fragments of the ceiling. She shoved a boxful of crystal shot into her gun and cracked her neck before stepping into the singed remains of a gangster in what used to be a pink palmtree shirt.

The towering, bearded minotaur, armed with a handgun the size of the mare’s own blunderbuss, limped towards her, raising the gun. Another such handgun lay on the floor nearby, along with the remains of an arm, penetrated by a fencing sword - both the arm and the sword exuded green vapor. Handsome charged on, speeding just past a massive bullet he’d fired, and unloaded a volley in his direction. By when the smoke cleared, she was behind the column, chopping into the black carcass of the bovine changeling.

A loud electric crackle erupted nearby, causing her to duck behind the column. She fired in that direction, screaming and shaking her head as the sharp sound of lightning rang through the hall. Something popped, blowing several bank leaflets her way with a strong gust of wind. Handsome leaped out, pointing the gun at the source of the sound and wind, where there was only a melting table and burned corpses. There was another pop right as she took a step towards it, blowing her forward with another gust. The unicorn grunted, bending over and stumbling, falling on her side. Clanking, uneven steps approached her, and she launched herself off the ground in their direction, flailing her hooves and roaring.

She landed into a long-beaked griffon, knocking him off his hind legs. Handsome glared at the scarred beak and half-plumaged head for a moment before bringing her forehooves down on it, crushing through a cheekbone and squishing into an eye socket. The old griffon began to turn to changeling form, steaming and sizzling. Having gotten up, Handsome groaned and swore after stepping onto the dissolving walking cane he’d dropped, before being sent tumbling forward when it let out a final burst of electricity.

She took deep breaths before screaming out, emptying her blunderbuss in all directions, leaving burn marks in the desks, couches, walls and corpses. The electrocuted bodies of Majors guards smoked as the crystal burned through their flesh and chitin.

Once her screaming turned to coughing, Handsome moved on to the end of the room, cracking her neck. The gun dragged behind, slicing through a changeling corpse, while one of the boxes in her bandolier detached itself and floated in the air. She groaned and sputtered, having to stop and kick away a large, badly burned body that lay behind the makeshift barricade and itself blocked the door. The mare hissed once its front came into view, relatively unburned - the earth pony wore a postal outfit, and his face was obscured by a heavily damaged penguin mask. Her hind hoof mashed it into paste, after which she pulverized the corpse uncovered from beneath the dead masked killer as well. Handsome huffed loudly as her hoof tore through the tough white fabric of the dead unicorn's suit, hollowing out his chest, splattering his singed blue coat and blonde mane with blood. Her hoof left a large hole in the place of one of his eyes.

Exhaling and grinning with a twitching mouth, she busted through the doors. A circle of green flame began to grow underneath her as soon as she made her way in, raising upwards moments after the masked unicorn ran over it. It came into effect moments after she had passed, rising where her tail would have been if she had one.

The synaptic that was first saw her threw himself out of the way, leaving the one behind him to take her weight head on. Handsome smashed straight into a massive, thick-legged, wide-snouted changeling, smearing his black vest with blood. The synaptic took a step back and retorted by headbutting Handsome back, sending her stumbling backwards, her horn shutting off. She fell on top of a burned corpse covered in dragon tattoos, breaking the dead pony’s sunglasses. Her weapon and ammo clanged against the floor tiles.

The large synaptic cracked his neck and blew his short, weed-like mane out of his eye, stepping over to the mare, followed by two other black-vested changelings. Another, a taller, thinner, shiftier synaptic, hung back. When the big one turned to face Handsome, he darted toward the stairway to the second floor with a shout. The other three turned around, only to face a hail of hot crystal shot bursting out of the singed ammo box. The mare groaned and cursed, shifting underneath the large synaptic’s weight, his body being burned through by dozens of small shards.

She got up, shaking her head and stumbling around the shredded changelings. Holding onto the stairway railing, Handsome made her way to where her weapon had been tossed by the explosion. The slightly bent barrel of the blunderbuss returned to the air, and was immediately brought down on the big synaptic’s head multiple times while it was still smoldering. The partly molten blade chopped his head off, while the smoking, dented tube bashed the synapse out of the skull.

The second to last box on her bandolier emptied its contents into the gun before being discarded into the open doors that lead to the other service hall. It landed into the bloated, dissipating gut of a bovine changeling that lay on top of a pile of corpses in pink. The mare stomped in place, sweat, blood and saliva dripping from below the mask. They were followed by incoherent, shrill cries.

She gripped her temples before bashing head first into a metal plaque on the section of the wall between the two stairways leading up. There was a sharp humming sound coming from behind the plaque, getting louder each time her head left a patch of blood and synapse on its surface.

The wall began to tremble as the mare continued. The image of an equine and an avian standing at each side of a globe, engraved atop the plaque, filled up with green veins and took on a blur. Handsome stared, jaw hanging off, mouth filling up with blood and sweat. Her eyes went from wide and unfocused to pinpricks, darting upwards, at a figure that came into sight.

“...” she took in a breath, her pupils shrinking. “YOU’RE FUCKING DEAD!”

Handsome’s gun locked on to his figure and fired off a volley of crystal, missing the competing killer as he vaulted upwards and disappeared to the floor above. There was a crackling of flame came from followed by loud, echoing, distorted screams. The mare straightened out, her head shooting upwards.

The wooden steps cracked and splintered under the masked killer’s galloping hooves. She left blood and synapse stains on the walls and railings, flying into them by inertia, scampering to get to the second floor. The office space with walled off sections of cubicles and lounges sectioned off by glass was filled with sounds of fighting, fire, smoke and dead bodies. Flying into the opening and tumbling over a burning potted palm tree, Handsome immediately fired a volley down the corridor.

All of the pellets landed into the body of a tall, bluish minotaur in a white suit. He bent over, covering the scorching wounds with his large arms. His deep bellow was cut short by a metal pipe smashing into his head, having been thrown from the side. Handsome stumbled, eyes rolling, foam and saliva dripping down her neck. She rushed back up, stomping a foreleg against the floor, and ran onward through the smoke-filled offices.

A raven-headed griffon came sliding out of a cubicle, hitting his back against the wall and failing to reach his sword. The mare growled hoarsely at the griffon, her head twitching. The barrel of her gun smashed his head in, leaving the corpse to contort and phase into black carapace. Handsome hacked and spat into her mask, laughing incoherently while nearly slipping on the trail of synapse left by the changeling. Without the mare looking, the gun was levitated into the opening of the cubicle and fired, resulting in a distant holler and a loud crash of office furniture.

The path ahead lead through two separate crossroads, each of them sporting multiple corpses - dismembered, burned, contorted and mutilated bodies wearing Majors clothes, with occasional Caballeros. Handsome darted around, navigating the maze of cubicles, jumping over bodies and heading in the direction of gunfire and screaming. More and more smoke filled the spaces between identical looking orange and pink-striped cubicle walls, blurring the bodies strewn about and overcoming the smell of dead flesh and sizzling synapse. Handsome swung her forehooves and rammed her head at blurred shadows, swaying her head to the sounds of nearby fighting.

The blunderbuss followed her with some delay, shuddering in the air as the unicorn’s horn flickered whenever she coughed, running into more and more smoke. At halfway down the path, it collided with thin air, sending a long-necked avian figure stumbling onto the floor as it lost its invisibility in a green flash. It convulsed, phasing in and out of the image of the dead crane. Handsome stomped through its long neck until her hooves began to crack the floor tiles beneath.

A bright wall of flame lit up the far end of the offices, causing the mare to cease her stomping. A rooster-headed earth pony ran out, speeding by the infographic whiteboards set on fire by the spell. Handsome screeched, bashed her gun against the floor, and kicked her forehooves in the air, rushing onwards. There was an explosion of sparks just barely in view.

She lost balance and had to lean against a dead bovine changeling’s body. At that point, the seagull - a pegasus with bright pink wings - ran out from the other side. Handsome’s grip on the changeling tightened enough for her to crack the rigid, jagged carapace with her hoof. The peagsus skidded to a halt, turning over to her, breathing heavily.

“Oh come on, you weren’t there - I’m fine! Go lead the way, I’ll cover you.” He raised a synapse-soaked cleaver attached to the side of his foreleg.

With a single leap, she closed the distance between her and Seagull, smashing into the railing separating the second floor from the foyer below. The sheet of glass cracked and collapsed, showering both sides with its shards. The masked mare’s body contorted, horn firing off sparks all around her. She howled and cackled, locking her eyes onto the pegasus.

He turned around and glanced back, swearing loudly and flinging his forehoof, a small cleaver passing by the rampaging masked mare. A blast of crystal shot went his way, which he avoided by vaulting to the side, entering a cubicle. He was followed, Handsome galloping inside and nearly tumbling over the furniture littering the floor. She smashed through a thin wall, broke through a table, bucked chairs into the next hallway and stepped right over cups and picture frames, while Seagull sped past the obstacles and into the hallway.

“STAY! FUCKING! DEAD!” Handsome’s roar echoed through the burning corridors.

Her gun fired repeatedly, sending bursts of hot crystal in the rough direction of the fleeing pegasus. He zig-zagged, throwing himself from one side of the corridor to the other, ending up in the dead zone of each shot. One last blast went up into the skylights as the mare slipped on a trail of blood, sliding down the corridor on her side. Seagull twisted around, raising his cleaver-equipped hoof, only to bolt through another cubicle when Handsome’s blunderbuss was already throwing itself at him.

The masked mare rose, growling, and began to bash the cubicle’s wall in when lightning flashed, followed by thunder filling in the entire floor. The thin wall crumbled on its own, falling back on top of her, sharp shards of glass dropping into it. A loud gust of wind entered through the collapsed skylights, followed by an amplified voice that was lost in the thunder. Handsome bucked the door off and stared at an earth pony in a blue suit of armor, who was pulling his legs out of the holes they’d cracked through the tiles where the cubicle used to stand.

The unicorn punched her horn, having it flash back on, and raised her gun, having it puff out crystal dust at the armored trooper. Before he could put up his electrified shield, she’d tackled him from below and stabbed at his throat with the blade of her gun. It crushed through a crack between armor plates, and emerged back out dripping with blood. Handsome stumbled off the corpse and spent a moment covering her ears as more armored ponies dropped down from the skylights.

She rushed through the ruined offices, more troopers descending behind her. She had pulled out one last box from her bandolier and banged it open against a still intact wall, but it dropped down on the floor when her head bumped against another tall shield.

Reeling back and growling over shouts coming from multiple sides, Handsome flailed her gun around, bashing hard enough against the wood and metal of a shield to cause a wet crack. The scream of pain that followed was cut short once the gun flung back, toppling the shieldbearer over. Another pony standing by their side stumbled from the impact, and she charged at them with the blade end of her gun, putting it through their skull.

The mare coughed and knocked on her temples, standing still for a moment by the corpses of two postal ponies, both wearing identical duck masks with numerals on them. She backpedaled at a brisk pace, pulled the box of crystal shot from underneath the shieldbearing earth pony’s corpse and shoved its contents down the barrel of her gun.

The corpses cased over with ice as a wave of frost shot over them, but Handsome was already off to the side, cantering after Seagull, who just turned a corner into the rest lounge to the side of the offices.

The rug that ran down the lounge was wet with blood, synapse and water from the destroyed water coolers, torn up with shards from the glass that used to separate it from the working area. Handsome stumbled forward as it contorted underneath her hooves, sending her beak-first into the cracked chitin plates of a bovine changeling. His body lay on its back, its limbs splayed, the large belly and chest pierced and holed up. The chitin had already begun to soften up and turn to synaptic mush, leaving the mare covered in green goo as she climbed over him and ran ahead. Seagull ran up to a railing at the end of the lounge, staring back at her, and, after tossing several cleavers her way, floated down on his wings.

None of them hit her, one being knocked out of the air by a telekinetic blast from a unicorn trooper who ran ahead of the chase on Handsome’s trail. Her gun turned around, firing blindly at the armored ponies, forcing them to pause. The electrified shields resisted the burning crystals, humming loudly. Gas-masked unicorns with glowing oculi peeked through the openings of the shields, sending flaming, freezing and kinetic blasts her way. The magic mutilated the bodies of changelings and ponies on the floor, but the railing had already been smashed down by Handsome as she leaped straight down.

There was a bright green flash, followed by a wave of blurry, hot air rushing through the building. Handsome was halfway up, wobbling in place on half-bent legs, leaning on her gun, before losing balance and falling down. She scampered back as green veins emerged on every surface around her - the entire interior of the bank was covered in green veins, and green vapor emerged from the bodies of dead changelings.

Right in front of the entrance, Seagull collapsed, grabbing his temple and screaming out. His body distorted, fizzling and flashing. The postal uniform, pink wings and seagull mask became a pale pink coat, messy blonde hair and a horn, then the jagged, black limbs of a changeling, thinner and sharper than other ones strewn about him.

“THINK YOU CAN FUCK WITH ME?!” the masked mare growled, jumping back on her hooves and swiveling in place. “THINK I’M-” She stopped to cough, punching her chest, while the changeling shifted through more forms - yellow, orange, white coats, different limbs, blurring in and out. “THINK I’M SCARED?! Fucking BUG.”

The changeling stabilized himself, only to duck down and slide to the side when burning crystals shredded the door just behind where he stood a moment ago. He hacked up green slime and looked at the masked mare closing in on him, then the door, before rolling further down the side, avoiding another blast. Taking up Seagull’s appearance again, he spun in place, keeping balance with the wings, and threw a cleaver at the mare, boosting himself forward with a flap before it made impact. It clanged against the blunderbuss’ own blade, smacking the mare on the snout as it bounced off.

The changeling reached the service hall door on the left, barreling through it with his shoulder. It closed back hard, knocking up glass shards littered in front of it, only to get knocked off its hinges as Handsome rammed into it. The clattering noise of his chitinous hooves was overpowered by the mare’s gallop, even as she fell behind, slowed down by rubble and furniture. Any chairs or tables along the way that remained standing were being knocked down by the changeling and thrown in the way, causing the mare to jump over them or swerve to the side, with the changeling maintaining distance.

Handsome cantered on, sucking the rubber of her mask in with each heavy heave, the gun dragging behind her, bumping and slicing into dead bodies, some burned to a crisp, some filled with bullet holes, some with their heads bashed into the floor.

Another shot scattered its load all over the wall, burning through a credit plan poster on the wall. The changeling rolled past a sharp corner, leaping over a makeshift barricade of two chairs and a round table. Handsome smashed it with an upswing of her gun, slicing off the horn of a white unicorn in a blue suit, whose body was collapsed against the other end. It came in the way of her legs, sending her snout-down on the floor, pushing the mask into the ornate crystal pistol by the dead Major's body. Her horn sparked on and off, activating the trigger of her gun, pellets scorching into the door that the changeling had just closed. Handsome wheezed and screamed out, lighting her horn back up.

The door fell into pieces of burning plastic and metal, bashed in with the tube of the blunderbuss, while the unicorn remained a few steps behind, closing in with a slight limp. The changeling was in the middle to the room, mumbling under his breath and bashing a nearby corpse with his hoof.

He bolted to his side as Handsome’s gun fired. Stomping after him, the mare ran through a dark chasm where the plaque used to be. The green veins were spreading from there, slowly growing dimmer. As soon as the tunnel they entered made a turn, they were left the only source of light. The synaptic’s hoofsteps ringing against the smooth surface below sounded out ahead of the mare.

At another turn, the mare slipped off her hooves, landing on her back and continuing to slide downwards for a few seconds before picking herself up again. The changeling’s voice sounded out from ahead, causing the mare to shriek, her voice going silent for a moment. The echo of her shout outlasted the changeling’s screaming, and the last of them was covered up when her gun fired the moment his shape came into the masked mare’s vision.

The lanky synaptic fell on top of an armored corpse, one of many that littered the floor of the entire bank vault, illuminated by unstable crystal lamps hanging off the low ceiling.

He yelled loudly, with an echo that sounded off far into the vault tunnel. Handsome neared him, huffing and growling, navigating past the dead troopers. Kicking away a discarded tower shield, she turned him over onto his back. He writhed, coughing up liquid synapse and flailing his sharp forehooves at her.

“That’s it, shitbug,” she whispered hoarsely, pushing the barrel of the gun into the changeling’s thin, skeletal face. “Can’t run when you’re DEAD.”

“They… they can’t… aaahhh, crap..” the synaptic muttered, banging his hooves against the floor, crystals burning through his body. “You’re so fucked, you dumb, stupid animal…”

“You’re a roach. I’m not afraid of you.” They locked eyes for a couple of seconds, Handsome’s bloodshot irises and shrunken pupils vibrating in their sockets. The changeling closed his eyes and bit his lip with a fang, moaning and heaving. The mare cackled and ripped the stained vulture mask off her face, leaving it attached to a hoof. She breathed in deep and coughed, hard enough to spill a bit of vomit on the changeling’s body.

“Y-you got… no clue… not a fucking clue, none of you… You’ll…” The changeling gulped and hissed, his lips curving into a smirk. “You’ll wish… You’ll wish one of those assholes gutted you. Should have ran…” He began to chuckle, green goo bubbling at his mouth, his snake-like eyes watering. “Should have… should have ran…”

“Got nowhere to go, cheeseleg. Nowhere. You’re all FUCKED,” Handsome uttered quietly, voice cracking.

The changeling’s form fizzled in and out of different appearances again. Tear streaks showed on his cheeks whenever a pony visage flashed in for a fraction of a second. “Should have ran… s-should have fucking ran, fuckI’msosorry-”

Handsome tumbled backward from the recoil of the blunderbuss, landing on a nearby corpse. The synaptic’s head was left a smoldering mush.

Most bodies in the vault were blasted apart, limbs and sizable chunks of flesh missing. There was little space on the floor - it was taken up by shieldbearer earth ponies in dark blue armor and riot helmets, a few mage unicorns in thinner rubber suits and gas masks, pegasi fighters in stitched jackets and balaclavas, as well as all medical troopers in white gear and crystal helmets that obscured any markings. Their limbs splayed out, some of their accessories detached and carried off into other bodies or the wall.

One figure stood out - a large bearded buffalo minotaur in a silver ornamented suit. His eye sockets were empty, blood and mucus covering the dragon tattoos on his bare, wound-ridden chest. The massive handguns clenched in his fists still smoked. Troopers closest to him were missing entire thirds of their bodies. Closer to the entrance, a small number of gangsters in similar silver apparel lay dead, crushed and burned.

There were also two ponies in postal uniforms. One slumped against a battered safe, the rooster mask on his head pointing down. Near him lay two unicorn troopers with cracked oculi, splattered with blood form the inside, and a pegasus trooper with an unnaturally bent neck. The other was closer to the far end of the vault, burned and disfigured, to the point where only fragments of a bird mask remained. A green eye hanging by its nerve, as well as a patch of thick red mane left among the charred meat of his head.

Handsome raised her head and looked at the busted safes, nearly empty of cash and gold. The green veins that had spread all around faded in their entirety, up to the spot at the very end of the vault, where a black patch had been burnt into the floor.

The body of a long-haired synaptic with a scarred face lay there, still mostly intact. His horn oozed green vapor and smoke, having been covered in the same veins. Patches of chitin that formed his lips were burned off, also vaporized were his eyes. The veins that started at his horn reocurred at his limbs, pulsating as his hooves twitched.

Above him, on the wall, hung a wall-wide replica of the engraving with a pony and griffon figures surrounding a globe with three foals on top of it. Handsome coughed and blinked, shaking her head and covering her eyes with the hoof her mask was placed on. She tilted her head and lowered the hoof, squinting at the mural.

Hoofsteps and deep, throaty huffs echoed down the tunnel, causing the mare to jolt and scamper back on her hooves, levitating the gun in front of herself. Her mask dropped down, hanging off a dead unicorn’s horn. She umped over to it, placing one of her legs in front of the bloodstained, torn rubber vulture head. A griffon and a pony emerged in the blinking lights of the lamps.

The raven’s beak opened wide and he grabbed his head, letting out a quiet groan and shutting his eyes. Next to him was a mare - a lemon yellow earth pony in a postal uniform, her face covered in blood and her nose broken to the bone. Her eyes slowly passed over the scene. Huffing and gasping, the earth pony turned to the griffon, who shook his head back at her.

“Vulture happened,” the unicorn replied, baring her teeth and nodding slowly. “You blind? What you asking me for?”

Handsome glared back, her teeth clenched. A string of drool poured from the side of her mouth, where a tooth was missing. She took quick breaths, rubbing the bloodstained mask against her grey uniform.

“We know what happened back at the parking lot, Handsome.” The griffon put a hand on the pommel of his sword. “That was not the plan.”

“I know,” Handsome muttered. She blinked rapidly, shaking her head, and looked around, hooves stepping in place. "That creepy bitch should be dead."

“No, no, fuck off. I’m not playing this shit.” The unicorn lifted her gun back into the air. Crow lifted her armed foreleg, taking a step back. “I don’t care what happened here, okay? Who the fuck are you to question me? You send me out here to kill these shitstains, and that’s what I did! Nothing more, nothing motherfucking less!”

“Handsome… Vulture,” Crow said, while the griffon scratched his temple and scowled. “Why do you do all this? What is your goal here? Can we rely on you?” The yellow mare sucked in some blood dripping from her broken snout and gulped it down. “Because after today, it doesn’t seem like you quite understand us.”

“You a sink or something? Fuck off.” Handsome stomped her hoof, denting an armor plate of a nearby trooper. “Let me go, or I’ll let myself go.”

“I was a secretary before all this. I organized papers, I called ponies, I served coffee. I don’t do any of that anymore. All of that is gone now.” The earth mare’s monotone echoed through the vault. The griffon kept his eyes on Handsome’s gun while he walked around examining corpses. “All of us lost something. We can never be what we were, unless Equestria is back to how it was. This is why we formed Equestria Delivery. Do you understand that, Vulture? Are we on the same page?”

“Want me to break the rest of your face?” The unicorn growled. Her horn sparked, the gun wobbling in the air for a moment. Crow didn’t move.

“We all had our reasons, Vulture. Eagle was a tattoo artist. Honeybird worked at a restaurant. Cormorant played hoofball. Skate did stunts. But we are none of that anymore. Our Equestria has been taken away, bit by little bit, and we were too hurt to notice." Blood filled Crow's mouth, which the mare did not appear to notice. "This is all we could be - this was the only thing to become. Our marks are meaningless now. All there is, is the call to our old freedoms.” Crow’s eyes closed, eyelids coming down unevenly, one after the other, while her eyeballs shook in place. She breathed faster. “So why did you do what you did? You were lost too, weren’t you?”

“I think I know why you did this. You’re not lost. You’re not one of us. Not anymore. You are gone. You have no purpose.” The mare’s eyes remained shut. The trigger pull by the elbow of her forehoof tensed up. “Equestria Delivery does. That is our new special talent. Yours is not special. You are not—”

Crow quietly gasped and hacked. The tip of a rapier emerged from her throat. There was a wet crack as a clawed hand grabbed her armed foreleg and snapped it back, removing the pistol on the fly.

“You’ve heard and seen a lot, Handsome. Too much, maybe.” The raven threw the dead mare aside and pulled his sword from her body. “And not for the first time. However… you’ve proven reliably destructive. Unlike Crow here, you aren’t inevitably going to turn into a problem unless you decide to.” He got on his legs and stretched out his hand, the sword still pointing to her. “We can avoid that decision being made. You're our only survivor. You can have all that they were meant to have. Including the motorcycle I helped Mister Seagull procure, as thanks for his recruiting efforts. In exchange, you never, ever speak - or think - about what happened here today. Is it a deal? It isn't like you like doing much of one or the other. There'll be more work to do... now that you culled our ranks.”

Handsome whined, covering her head with her hooves and dropping momentarily onto the floor. She began to smash her hooves against the nearby bodies. The raven stayed over the body of Crow, sighing and wiping his claws against the dead mare’s uniform.

He cried out briefly when the blade cut his hand off, his talons sinking reflectively into Crow's corpse. Moments later, the unicorn's gun smashed into his face, pulverizing his skull. The dented barrel fell back on the floor, clanging loudly over the sounds of Handsome’s sputtering laughter, which got muffled as she put the vulture mask back on. The mare galloped through the bank, crashing into walls, falling down, and careening into destroyed furniture.

Her hoarse laughter turned to inconsistent gurgling when she smashed through the front door and rushed to the parking lot. The heavy rain spread the blood and synapse being washed off her clothes into the deep puddles that had formed on the road.

***

May 29th, 1013 AN

Equestrian Transit

Handsome chewed on a lollipop, twirling the stick back and forth. Shadows ran across her face as hills passed by outside the windows.

“Good thing I packed light, I guess,” she said, having gulped down a chunk of candy.

“You invested a lot into those things. Don’t you regret leaving them all behind?”

“No. I don’t like baggage. I wouldn’t know what to do with it, anyway.” Her hooves rubbed into the smooth black texture of her jacket, while she rocked in place slowly. “I’ll figure things out for myself on the spot.”

The unicorn chewed at the plastic stick in her mouth, eyes turned to the table extended through the middle of the cabin. She exhaled and spat it out, hitting the disposables container next to the cab doors. Rubbing the side of her head with one hoof, Handsome reached for a colorful plastic bottle on the other side of the table. She grunted, nudging it closer, and took the cap off with her teeth. Spittle covered the table as she coughed, having inhaled the contents. A napkin wiped the stains away while the mare gulped, slowly drinking down the entire bottle.

“I think I’ll go without joy for a bit longer. I want to see how it pans out,” Handsome said quietly, pressing her hooves against her chest and wincing. “I’m numb enough as it is.”

Handsome looked to the other side of the cabin. She frowned, hissing and raising a hoof to one of her thin eyebrows, rubbing the rare colored hairs. There was a slight bump, knocking the bottle off the table. The mare opened her mouth, groaning after a few moments of stillness. She turned her head, watching the skyline close in.

“Yeah. That’s me. I was so numb, it took me time to realize that all these things, things I've seen so many times, just weren't right anymore. I felt… better than ever, back there. But I’m not dumb.” She pressed her face against the glass, the teardrop tattoos colliding. “I know what this is all about, you know.”

“I’d be dead if I didn’t. Or worse than dead. I went through a lot of crap before it finally got into my stupid head.” The glass vibrated and hummed after her hoof knocked against it. “There’s always a catch. I've seen it, but I kept turning a blind eye. See, it’ll always go to shit. When you think you got it all figured out, someone comes in and fucks it all up. That someone tends to be you, the other assholes just help about. All of us, all we do is fuck ourselves over. That’s our special talent now. You don’t need a picture on your ass for that.”

“This is why I’m here. When I had the mask on, the world was my bitch. I’d get sliced up with it on, and die happy. Only I wouldn’t.” She turned her head away from the window and closed her eyes. “When I was the Vulture, I saw myself going somewhere. Fast. Same place those freaks were going, only they knew why they did the things that they did. I just did things... and I could see every next step.”

“Like hitting the rewind key on your videodrome remote. Again, and again. Going somewhere I was meant to go.”
Handsome brought her hooves down on the table. She breathed heavily and coughed. After raising her eyes to the other side, she shrugged and took in a heavy breath, exhaling at a slow pace.

“Yeah. I didn’t mind. But then, too much of their garbage piled up. I wasn’t having it. This… isn’t how things are going to go.” The mare gestured, gritting her teeth as she spoke in a low tone. “All of this has sucked, but if it’s going to end in shit, I want it to end in MY shit. On MY terms.”

“What is to say the cycle just repeats again? Running away. Hurting others. Inventing reasons."

“Because once that mask was done burning, and I was done wailing, I knew I wasn’t supposed to be here.”

The train’s horn went off, and the conductor’s voice spread through the cabins. Handsome smiled, stretching the scars on her lips. She pulled her ticket out of the air, where it levitated in a magical aura, and turned towards the door as it slid open.

***

April 21st, 1013 AN - 9:12 PM

Sun Hearth Street

Handsome waddled down the street, her snout pointed down. Her wheezing breath was occasionally interspersed with whimpers, guffaws and coughs, which sent reddish spittle flying into the puddles that formed in the heavy rain. Her jaw hung open. Raindrops hammered against her uncovered, shaved head, filling up her mouth.

The postal uniform was half undone, hanging off her body, revealing cuts, bruises and tattoos on her back and chest. Her eyes darted, tracking the walls of the stores and houses on both sides of the street. Squinting, the mare crossed the road, approaching a carriage stop. Stumbling over the empty bench, she pressed her snout against the duct-taped crystalline display on the sign pole. After shaking her head and squinting even tighter, the mare groaned, resting against the pole. The display alternated between “9:15 PM”, “NO TRANSIT”, and “STORM WARNING”.

She looked around, blinking slowly. The bright crystalline neon lights of streetside stores reflected in the puddles. Equine figures moved away from the doors and windows, keeping their heads turned in her direction. The mare proceeded through the closest door into a small grocery store. The sign hanging on the other side of the door swung in the air, flipping over to the side that read “CLOSED”.

Handsome gurgled and spat on the floor, spreading faintly reddish droplets all over the tiles. Her stuttered, heavy breathing was audible over the quiet music playing in the store. The few ponies that were inside - a store clerk and two customers - fell quiet, staying by the cash register. One of them, a young pink filly, gasped and hid behind a taller, teenage mare of a darker pink color.

“C-can we help you, m-mi… um… mister?..” the clerk asked, his forehooves twitching on the desk. The earth stallion’s dark orange coat perspired with sweat, his glasses sliding a bit down his snout. The acne covering his snout began to stand out as he went pale.

“I’m a mare, you fuck.” The mare grabbed her head and audibly grit her teeth. She hissed and whimpered. “I need booze.”

“NOW.” Handsome stomped her hoof, cracking a floor tile. She crouched for a moment, coughing and hissing. Rubbing the hoof against her chest, she leaned against a set of shelves, knocking down cans of salad.

“...who are you?” the filly asked quietly. The taller mare’s hoof immediately smacked her on the head. She froze when the scarred unicorn turned her head towards them, her neck emitting an audible crack.

Handsome glared at them, bloody drops still falling off her uniform and onto the floor. Her head tilted slowly, chest heaving alongside loud wheezes.

The postal mare moved closer, lowering her head, setting her eyes on the filly hiding behind the mare. Handsome’s breath reached the small pony, who coughed and shielded her snout, staring back. Flinging small sparks, the unicorn’s horn lit up erratically.

Her pinprick green pupils shook in the irises, vessels filled up with blood. They began to roll upwards before her eyelids closed, eyeballs still moving beneath. She exhaled with a high-pitched whine, turning her head away from the red-headed yellow earth pony with a bow in her mane.

“Good question,” Handsome muttered, extending a hoof to pat the filly on her bow. She convulsed, nearly slipping on the wet floor. Quiet, raspy laughter mixed into her huffs and groans as she leaned against the wall. Her hooves pressed against her eyes.

“It’s just the postmare! Be quiet!” the teenager whimpered out the side of her mouth. Sweat beads ran down her forehead. “Look, please… You’ve got the wrong address.”

“...is that so?” The scarred mare’s hooves dropped down on the floor, letting her eyes open again. She stared at the dark orange pegasus. The corner of her torn up lip wobbled. “Or maybe it’s YOU.” The unicorn’s teeth ground together loudly, eyes rolling back again. “Get the fuck OUT.”

The teenage mare rushed for the exit, dragging the filly behind her even after she’d slipped on the wet tiles. Handsome began to laugh more audibly, wobbling around and bumping into shelves, knocking over rows of groceries. She stopped to pick up a pack of cotton candy and bit into it, chewing it alongside the plastic bag it came in.

“Ma’am? Y-your… order?..” the stallion spoke up. Handsome spun in place, pieces of cotton candy falling out of her mouth. The clerk ducked under the desk, hiding behind the cash register.

The mare breathed in and coughed, spitting out a piece of plastic. She walked over to the counter and leaned over the large duffel bag that had been filled with salt drink. Her gilded teeth tore the cap off one of the bottles. The mare closed her lips around the neck and downed the whole liter and a half, holding the bottle vertically with her mouth. She shattered it against the counter and burped.

“Smokestick lighter. And fuel for it. Lots of fuel,” Handsome slurred. "On the house."

She giggled to herself as she stumbled out of the store, tears washed out by the rain, bag banging against her flank. Out of the dozen salt drink bottles inside, a quarter had been downed by when she turned into an alleyway by the apartment building. Smaller bottles of lighter liquid filled up the rest of the space.

Drooling out the mouth, the unicorn threw the bag off, some of the bottles smashing and spilling their contents into the puddles. Horn flickering, the mare levitated an intact bottle of lighter fluid. Having taken a sniff and, she took a small sip. Still coughing, she took in a mouthful and walked over to the bike that had been chained to a barrel fire underneath a cloth cover. Handsome spat the liquid out at the pin and spike-ornamented vehicle.

The mare downed the last of the alcohol and proceeded to toss lighter fluid at the bike. The lights got cracked, the leather seats got cushioned with glass, and the vulture mask that had been impaled onto a spike rising from the bike’s back was hit by at least three bottles, coating it in fluorescent fuel. Much of it spread onto the damaged blunderbuss and the club that lay on the luggage rack.

“Was it too much, Handsome?” A calm, deep female voice called out from behind. The mare turned her head, grimacing at the tall minotaur that stood in the alleyway. She held a big metal briefcase in one hand and an umbrella in the other. There was a unicorn next to her.

“I don't fucking know what any of this was,” the mare said before biting on the smokestick lighter’s trigger and throwing it at her fuel-soaked gear. "I want out."

“Are we leaving, then?” The minotaur and the mare’s glasses reflected the pillar of flame that engulfed the bike, the mask and the weapons. Handsome shielded her eyes from the piercing, bright glows.

She shuddered and howled, choking up tears and cackles, as she walked out into the rain and away from the fire.

Equestria Delivery

by JLB

Chapter 3: Dead End