Chapter Seven
Business Offers
Apple Bloom woke up slowly after a few hours of unpleasant sleep. Her dreams were plagued with images of the two officers she killed the night before. Flashes of police ponies arriving at her motel room or Sweet Apple Acres arresting her and her family haunted her.
She finally rolled to her hooves grumbling and rubbed her eyes heading to the bathroom to wash up yawning softly. Apple Bloom had hoped a good shower would help her feel better, but she wasn't sure if she ever would get over what she was feeling. Then again, she wasn't sure if she should get over how she was feeling about what happen.
After her shower and drying off she put on the duster and headed out of the room, the sky had an overcast gloom to it causing her to sigh. “Must be storm rolling in...” She muttered looking up at the sky before trotting to her car checking it over.
The front had a large dent in the fender were the first pony hit taking out the headlight. Dried mud covered the front from where she tried to cover it up. “Going to take a little work to fix this.” She mused to herself getting into the driver seat and pulled the car around to the front office turning in the key as she checked out.
Once she had checked out of the motel she found a parts store and got a replacement headlight. Since it was near a car wash she drove over to clean the mud and hidden blood off the car before putting the new headlight in smiling at her hoof work. “Much better.” She agreed to herself, she would try to fix the dents when she got back to Ponyville.
“Psst, ya Apple Bloom?” Apple Bloom heard a pony call her to her in a Manehatten accent and she glanced over her shoulder at an older colt near the entrance of the car watch look at her.
“Maybe I am... who's ask?” Apple Bloom asked in return folding her ears back.
“That ain't important right now, what is important is what I do for ya.” The colt said taking an envelope out of a saddle bag and dropping it on the ground, “Just think bout it.” He said before galloping off before Apple Bloom could react.
Apple Bloom galloped over, but the colt was gone, she picked up the envelope and opened it taking the note out reading it. “Meeting at Mariponie Diner tonight at ten p.m. no guns.” Apple Bloom read tilting her head.
“Could be a trap...” Apple Bloom thought to herself tucking the note into a pocket of her duster as she finished cleaning her car sighing. “But it is an opportunity to move this work away from Sweet Apple Acres and my family.” She frowned.
Apple Bloom tried to think of the best thing to do, “Applejack wouldn't want me away from the family...” she bonks herself on the head.
“Dang it Apple bloom start thinking for yourself and stop worrying about what Applejack wants.” Apple Bloom scolded herself starting the engine of the car she drove back to a small diner and go a small lunch, it was still quite some time before ten p.m. and her meeting at the diner.
After lunch Apple Bloom was unsure what to do with the rest of the day till ten p.m. when her meeting with, whoever it was who wanted to meet her. She was still unsure if this meeting a good idea or not.
Apple Bloom went back to the motel and returned another room for another day, requesting one around back out of sight of the road. She also bought an early edition copy of the Manehatten Chronicle.
After parking Apple Bloom went into her room and climbed onto the bed opening the paper to start reading. It was mostly local news but her heart sank when she got to the story of the officers killed last night, the first story was on the two she ran down, thought there was no mention of her car being involved.
The second was in the regional news about the police car running off the road, the driving being killed on impact with a tree causing her neck to snap. Once again Apple Bloom's car wasn't mentioned. The police car's crash was instead blamed on driver error and claimed to be an unfortunate accident on the drivers part.
Apple Bloom was both relieved and a little sick. She was glad the deaths wasn't pointing to her or her family, but she also sick at the thought of taking so many lives in a single night. She also read a story from Ponyville, they were still looking for suspects in the death of Water Lily reminding her of the first pony she had killed.
Apple Bloom sighed tossing the paper on the floor. “Maybe Applejack was right... maybe all this ain't worth it...” She mused to herself looking at the paper before grumbling and reminded herself, “Dang it Apple Bloom, stop thinking like that, the family needs the bits.”
Apple Bloom got off the bed and headed out to her car climbing it and starting the engine. Pulling out of the parking lot of the motel she knew what she wanted to do know, she needed to protect herself.
After a few minutes of driving she found a local gun shop and pulled into a parking spot going inside.
“Good evenin, what can I do for you?” The stallion behind the counter asked looking Apple Bloom over. “Ya old enough to be in here?”
“Ya, I'm old enough.” She snorted showing her licenses. “I'm lookin for something... special.”
“Special eh?” The colt takes out some small handguns, mostly .22 caliber and a .38 caliber. “How about these?” he offered.
Apple Bloom shakes her head. “No no, none of this, special special.” She said looking around quietly taking out a bit bag. “If you get my meaning.”
The colt spotted the bag before looking around the shop. He waves a hoof for her to follow and she did as he took her to a back room. “Alright... but if yer a cop I'll ice you without a second thought.”
“I ain't a cop,” she tried to reassure the colt looking around the room. “I need something easy to use, but packs a punch especially against cars.”
The colt thinks for a moment before taking out a sub machine gun, “This is a Colt Sub Machine Gun. It's easy enough to use for beginners, but it should be able to go through the door a car with little trouble. Two thousand bits and it's all yours, I'll even throw in a box of bullets for the magazine.”
Apple Bloom looked it over before nodding, “Alright, I'll take it and that shotgun with a box of shotgun shells.”
He took the guns, and ammo to the front putting the sub machine gun in case for her before ringing up the sell. “That will be two thousand seven hundred and fifty bits.”
Apple Bloom nodded at him giving him the bits for the guns and ammo before taking both back to her car. She wasn't sure if she was making the right choice, but it had been made now she would have to live with it.