“Well this is an awful mess you've gotten us into, Quick.” Flash whispered, trying not to be heard over the clatter of his cuffs.
“Quiet you two, I don't want another word out of either of you until we get there.”
Quick took a look around the fields they were crossing.
“Get where? We're going in the complete opposite direction of Ponyville. Is this some kind of short-cut?”
“I thought I told you to keep quiet!”
Without another word, the three stallions made off at a slow trot. Behind them the sun was finally rising, warming their backs and sending shadows shooting off in towards their destination. Ahead of them, in the distance, lied what looked like a giant fenced off field, though neither Quick nor Flash could make out just what it was. By the time the two were close enough to see it, both of their fears had been confirmed.
Ponyville Historic Cemetery
“We're not going to the precinct are we, officer?” Flash found the courage to ask at last, as the stallion in question slid open the rusted iron gates.
“Gee, we have a regular genius here folks. It's a wonder you got this far without your skulls caving in with the vacuum of a brain you must have. Of course we're not going to the precinct, and I highly doubt you two will be going anywhere else for quite some time.”
The stallion led the two to a large pair of matching tombstones. Quick stared at them and tried to make out the worn etchings.
“Here lies Golden Delicious and Royal Russet, may their seeds grow on elsewhere. Gee, what a wonderful thought. Guess we're joining them or something?”
The officer reached behind the tombstones and produced a pair of rusted shovels.
“You two are going to dig.”
He immediately tossed the shovels towards the pair, who deftly caught them midair.
“And don't be getting any bright ideas now, I have my own way of dealing with you if you decide not to follow along.”
Quick stared back at Flash and nodded, and proceeded to grudgingly abide by the officer's demand.
One scoop at a time, they began to unearth the grave of Applejack's lost parents as the sun stretched higher in the sky, growing steadily hotter and beating down on them.
“It's a shame we can't dispose of the commissioner as easily as you two. He's been on our tails for years, but getting rid of him has been a pain. Ponies would suspect something if he turned up dead in an alley, but if you two just disappear, I doubt anypony will think twice to come looking. Good, looks like you two are almost done.”
At long last, Quick's shovel made a hard thunk as it struck the wooden top of a casket.
“Go on, open it already!” The guard shouted at the two, who were now at the bottom of a sizable pit.
“See what happens to ponies who cross the Syndicate!”
Inside the casket, to both the surprise of Flash as well as Quick were not the bones of two hardworking Earth ponies but rather an assortment of bones, two of which were distinctly pegasi.
Flash turned to Quick and whispered speedily, “Quick, these are the bodies of those pegasi apple farmers who disappeared a few years back, if we don't think of something fast we're going to be stuck here with them too.”
Quick turned back towards the officer at the top of the pit and stared back at him.
“Just what do you intend to do to us, it's two against one, you can't possibly take us both!”
The officer laughed with a sinister undertone and produced a small metal cylinder unlike anything either pony had seen before.
“With this! This fancy little device is something we've been working on for years; and the devs call it a pistol. To sum it up, we take a tiny little metal ball and shoot it at you. Simple, deadly, and highly illegal. Some ponies seem to think they'll revolutionize Equestria, but I think they're crazy. I guess we'll just have to find out, won't we?”
The maddened stallion pointed the pistol directly at Quick and stared intensely.
“So who's first? You, or the stupid gray fellow over there?”
Flash stared at Quick desperately hoping for some kind of plan to formulate in one of their heads.
The guard started laughing again, apparently quite consumed in his position of power.
“Quick, you'd better have a trick up your mane otherwise we're done for!” Flash whispered pleadingly.
“I don't have any new tricks to show this fellow, but maybe an old one might do.” Quick looked back at the guard and stared at the pistol, concentrating on the barrel as hard as he could. “Come on you mule, I dare you to try that thing on me first. I can take anything that deadly without flinching! You think you can better all the other goons who failed to take me down!?”
The guard stopped laughing and stared back, the taunt had worked and he wasted no time in pointing the pistol back at Quick again.
“Very well then, I hope you enjoy your graves!”
The guard pulled the trigger and an explosive bang echoed across the fields.