The thin wire wrung tightly around her neck; the console screen she was sat in front of was being tugged out of her vision. Applejack had barely had time to work out how to turn it on, much less how to check her messages like she wanted. Her breathing was now cut off at her throat, each mouthful of air denied.
Throwing herself up, pushing the chair behind, choking on her breath trying to call for help and pushing her hooves under the wire were doing little to help, while she started feeling a vacuum in her lungs from the lack of in-breath.
Acting in pure fear, she bucked backwards in a low sweep, and felt something she hit give out and slump on her back. Then she heaved, like in her youngest days of rodeo, and managed to throw the aggressor completely off the ground, and flip it in midair until it landed in front of her, freeing her of the chokehold.
Sprawled on the floor and quickly recovering was a striped equine, mostly covered in a dark grey cloak. A zebra. An assassin!
"*cough* *wheeze* Help! *cough* *cough* Somepony he-" was all she managed to sputter before the aggressor produced a blade from under her cloth and lunged at her.
Applejack reacted by instinct and raw self-preservation. She moved in the way she knew best: she turned in place, and bucked.
What she heard next was the crunch of her hooves connecting with barely protected hide, a heavy thud against the wall, and a softer one on the floor right underneath.
Then, a slam from the door as two Ministry guardsponies, a mare and a stallion, barged in.
"Miss Applejack? We... Oh Luna, you're hurt!" Said the mare with horror, as the stallion rushed to the zebra laying on the other side of the room, unmoving.
"Miss Applejack, what happened?"
There was no answer. The ex-farmpony could just gape wide-eyed, stunned, as the guardstallion gripped the assassin in a hold.
Tense, silent seconds passed as he inspected her, before standing back up.
"She's neutralized," he declared, trying to keep her voice neutral.
The orange mare stammered, trying to will herself to form words. "Wh-w-w-w-"
"Snapped neck. Er, I mean... was, snapped, before we came in." He said.
Applejack's felt her head swim, and her legs on the verge of giving out.
"Miss Applejack, we have to take you to the infirmary," the Guardsmare gently suggested, which was answered with an empty stare and a small nod.
The guardsmare slowly wrapped a hoof on AJ's back and accompanied her to the corridor, while the ex-farmpony's mind was slowly recovering from the adrenaline rush; she still barely noticed the pain from the gash on her side while she was busy attempting to rationalize her... her murder.
She managed to walk only a few steps, before retching and galloping to the nearest trash bin, emptying her stomach in it inbetween pained gasps for breath.