Babs got out of the wagon, looked at the building and realised that it was a funeral parlour. She shuddered, but then thought that it was making sense. No one would look for a body there.
They circled the building and Raz led them to the back door, hidden in the ivy growing on the wall. He raised his hoof and knocked on the door.
“Who’s there?” they heard a sleepy voice with an unmistakable Trottingham accent.
“It’s me, Raz,” Raz said.
The door opened and they saw an orange unicorn filly, slightly older than Babs. She had a green mane and Babs had an absurd thought that she looked like a carrot. She tried to chuckle, but then she remembered why she was here and wiped tears from her eyes.
“Ya brought friends or what?” the filly asked. “I’m not in the mood for parties, y’know.” She yawned. When she covered her mouth with her hoof, Babs saw a row of scars on it. She began to wonder how the filly acquired them.
“We have a problem,” Raz said. “Our wagon is in the front.”
“Wagon?” The filly looked at Babs, Hedgehog and Lightning Dust unsurely. “How many ‘problems’ do ya have?”
“Six,” Hedgehog replied. “Would be less, but Babs…”
“Fuck off,” Babs muttered, glaring at him angrily.
“Oh… okay…” the filly said. “Come inside. By the way, my name’s Sunshine Rainbows. I work here and, as Raz probably told ya, I sometimes… umm… clean.”
Lightning Dust nodded. “We just kinda need cleaning,” she said. “Some kids simply…”
“Enough!” Raz exclaimed, seeing that Babs was about to tackle Lightning Dust.
“How exactly do ya… clean?” Hedgehog asked, trying to sound casual. The fact that Sunshine Rainbows was currently making a tea for them as if nothing happened wasn’t helping him in that.
“Oh, it’s easy,” Sunshine replied. “Too bad I can’t use the crematory – the owners would notice. Also it’d make a lot of mess if one of your ‘problems’ had a pacemaker. But I just bury them in the cemetery…”
“No one says anything about that?” Babs asked.
Sunshine Rainbows levitated five cups of tea and put them on the table. Then she levitated a couple of shovels. “I often dig at night,” she replied. “With the amount of ponies who die in Manehattan every day…”
“No one would discover that?” Hedgehog asked. “Someone could later dig another grave in that place…”
“Don’t worry,” Sunshine said. “We usually dig graves about six hooves deep. For problems like yours, we’ll dig a deeper grave, bury them, and tomorrow put some good citizen above them. Ya’ll help me digging, of course.” She looked at the faces of her guests. “Ya don’t think I’ll dig that myself…”
“I was just thinking…” Babs said in a monotone voice. She still could see the six bodies anytime she closed her eyes. She looked at her tea, but she couldn’t make herself drink it. “Why it feels so… natural to ya?”
“It’s my job,” Sunshine replied. “Also, I’m used to weird shit, ya know. I was in a nuthouse with the Sleepless Killer.” She grinned like a madmare, but no one laughed. “If ya don’t want yer tea, let’s go and help me digging. In the meantime, ya can tell me what happened…Y’know, I love such stories...”
Babs was barely able to keep a straight face while hanging out with Scootaloo on the railway station. When the train to Ponyville finally arrived, she sighed with relief, said goodbye to the pegasus and quickly left the station, going back to Hedgehog. He was barely able to sit calmly on a bench and when he saw her, he immediately ran to her.
“What exactly happened?” Babs asked frantically when they found some nook where no one could hear them.
“Sh-she was makin’ a delivery,” Hedgehog replied. “They caught her… took the drugs… and they’re keepin’ her in some warehouse…”
“Where exactly?” Babs exclaimed. She began pacing around nervously. “We need to go to Raz…”
“The kids are lookin’ for her,” Hedgehog said. “The big guy is only concerned about the drugs, but I talked to that mare he fucks… She’ll help us…”
Babs nodded her head. She remembered the aquamarine pegasus she’d seen when she last was in the big guy’s house. Suddenly, she thought about something else. “The kids?” she asked. “Ya mean that bunch of retards that talked to me on a train? D’ya want ‘em to be killed or what?”
“It’s all I got,” he replied.
“It’s all ya got? Me, ya, Raz, some kids and the boss’ whore?!” Babs yelled. “We’re gonna die!”
“Whore? Funny ya say that,” Hedgehog said. “She’s a Wonderbolts drop-out or somethin’. And she gave me this.” He unzipped his jacket, revealing a submachine gun.
Babs sighed. “Just great…” she muttered. “We’re not only gonna get killed or arrested… And all that for some little–”
“Don’t say that…” Hedgehog glared at her angrily. “If it wasn’t for her, we’d still have to mother that cunt… Or ya’d be in prison…”
“I’d rather be in prison…” Babs said. “She… she killed her… Just like that…”
“And now the griffons will kill her.” Hedgehog sighed. “Just like that.”
Babs looked at her hooves. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll help ya…”
“So, you are that filly, right?” the aquamarine pegasus asked. “Name’s Lightning Dust.”
Babs said nothing. They were in the record studio where Hedgehog lived and she’d just seen the ponies who were supposed to help them free White Dove.
Raz was sitting in the corner, silent as usual. Next to him stood three colts, maybe fourteen or fifteen years old. She noticed that they weren’t given guns and sighed with relief.
“Do you know how to shoot this?” Lightning Dust asked, giving her a submachine similar to the one Hedgehog had shown her. Babs shook her head, so Lightning pulled the bolt backwards, aiming the gun at the floor. “Now it’s almost ready to shoot,” she said. “It’s a cheap piece of shit, so don’t drop it or it might fire. It has a safety catch that also switches it between semi-auto and full-auto, but I wouldn’t trust it. Same with the sights.”
“Just great,” Babs muttered and lit up a cigarette. “How often it explodes in somepony’s hooves?”
“Don’t worry.” Lightning Dust closed the bolt of the gun and gave it to Babs. “It didn’t happen… yet. You’ll die of lung cancer faster.”
“Fuck ya,” Babs replied.
“Is she always like that?” Lightning Dust asked Hedgehog. “No wonder you two broke up.”
Babs pulled the bolt of the gun backwards, undid the safety catch and aimed it at Lightning Dust. “Fuck off me,” she said. “I don’t wanna hear anythin’ about me and Hedgehog, got it? I’m tired of this crap.”
“Geez…” Lightning Dust tried to roll her eyes, but it didn’t look very convincing – seeing Babs aiming at her, she started to sweat profusely. “Okay, I’ll fuck off! Just stop waiving this around!”
“Good,” Babs said, turned the safety on and hid the gun in her jacket. It was making a barely visible bulge.
“Still, I think you’re a crazy little bitch…” Lightning Dust muttered and turned to the colts. “Do you know where those griffons are?” she asked.
“It’s a small warehouse not far away from the airship factory,” said one of the colts. He had a slight lisp. “There are six griffons there…”
“So, six of ‘em and four of us…” Babs said.
“Seven of us,” the colt interrupted her.
“Shut up,” Babs muttered. “We ain’t gonna take ya there. Ya’ll wait outside.”
“Why?” the other colt asked. Babs remembered that it was the one whom Hedgehog sent to talk with her.
“Because if the griffons don’t shoot ya, I’ll do that…” Babs replied.
The colt wanted to say something, but Raz silenced him. “Don’t argue with her,” he said. “It ain’t safe for ya to go there.”
“Also, Babs only understands arguments like ‘I have a gun and you don’t’,” Hedgehog added.
“You’ve never had problems with that before,” Babs muttered.
Lightning Dust sighed. “That’s why I hate teenagers…” she said. “You’ll finish that conversation in the wagon.”
They left the studio and trotted to a battered wagon with “Delivery” written on its wall in large letters. They harnessed Raz and Lightning Dust to it and sat inside. The sun was slowly setting when they rode down the street.
“There are clothes inside,” Lightning Dust said. Babs found a couple of black bags in the wagon and opened them. Inside were navy blue bardings with lots of straps for additional equipment like knives or clips of ammo. There was also some duct tape there. Babs remembered a war novel she’d once read and taped two magazines together in case she needed to reload quickly. Hedgehog, seeing this, did the same.
The barding was a bit too big for her. She stood in it, trying different moves. She noticed that it was reinforced with metal plates, though they weren’t thick enough to be called a proper bulletproof vest. However, she decided to keep it – it was better to have cracked ribs than be dead.
She looked through the window and saw that they were now going through the part of the town littered with magazines, warehouses, hangars, and factory halls. On the horizon, she could see the silhouettes of skeletons of several airships. With the red sky in the background, they looked ominous. Babs sat on the floor of the wagon and checked if she could easily reach her knife.
The vehicle stopped.
“We need to go further by hoof,” Lightning Dust said. “We don’t want to alarm them…”
Raz and Lightning Dust quickly put their bardings on. Babs noticed that the pegasus’ outfit was different – it seemed that it was made of an old Wonderbolts trainee uniform with a sewn tear on the chest.
“Let’s go,” Lightning Dust said. Babs blew her mane from her eyes and trotted forward. Someone trotted on the other side of the street seeing them.
“We’re close…” Hedgehog muttered, seeing an abandoned warehouse. Several large, rusty pipes were lying before it. “It’s the magazine Cortland described to me…”
So, that kid’s name is Cortland? Babs thought. His parents probably hate him… Then she remembered that cortland was a kind of apple and started to wonder if the colt wasn’t, by some twist of fate, her fourth cousin, twice removed. They circled the building and stopped in front of a hole in the fence.
“I’ll check what’s going on,” Lightning Dust said. She spread her wings and took off. She flew some circles above the building, trying to look through the broken windows, landed on the roof and gestured them towards herself.
“Let’s go,” Hedgehog said. They trotted slowly through the backyard, hiding behind the pipes. Babs walked on three hooves, holding her gun in the fourth; she knew that after a few shots it’d probably hit her in the face, but still it was better than stopping and trying to reach for it. She sighed, seeing Hedgehog simply levitating his gun, and blew her mane from her eyes. She craved a cigarette and she couldn’t get the thought about White Dove from her mind – was she still alive?
“It’s too silent,” Raz whispered when they approached the back door of the warehouse.
Lightning Dust landed next to them. “Two are sitting there and seem very bored,” she muttered, pointing at the door.
Hedgehog aimed at the door, but Raz stopped him. “It’s better not to warn ‘em…”
“Exactly,” Lightning Dust stood in front of the door, ready to kick them open. “Try not to shoot… 3… 2… 1...”
They ran into the dark magazine. The first griffon only managed to raise his head when Lightning Dust kicked him in the head, sending him backwards and the stack of empty crates. The second stood up, spreading his wings when Babs pierced one of them with a knife. He screamed and hit her with his claws, which bounced off the metal plate in her barding. Hedgehog jumped to him, swinging a gun with his magic. It hit the griffon’s skull. Blood stained white feathers, but the griffon didn’t want to give up. He reached behind the mattress he’d been lying on and tried to lift a large revolver.
Before he could put his claws on the weapon, Raz appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Babs heard a blood-curdling snap and another scream when the donkey kicked the griffon. Another hit with the butt of the gun finally caused him to collapse. They could already hear the flapping of wings and quick steps.
“We woke everyone up!” Lightning Dust exclaimed. “Get down!”
They hid behind the stack of wooden crates. An explosion tore the air. Babs screamed when she felt a powerful punch to the side. She collapsed, trying to catch her breath. Above her, Lightning Dust was firing at the incoming griffons. The shotgun fired once more – after piercing through several rows of crates, the buckshot had no power to kill, but, as Babs learned, it was still painful to get hit. She sat down and lifted her gun, firing at everything that was moving in the dimness. The recoil was causing the gun to go upwards. Babs cursed, shaking her mane off her eyes.
They heard a series of bursts from a machine gun. A torrent of splinters fell on them. They began to crawl to the right, trying to outflank the griffons.
“Watch out!” Lightning Dust screamed, taking off – just in time to ram into a griffon, sending him at the warehouse wall. He tried to get up, but then Lightning Dust dived to the left, leaving Raz and Hedgehog a clean shot. Several scarlet holes appeared on his chest, throwing him back at the wall.
Babs didn’t see that – she spotted another griffon, trying to approach them, flying at low altitude. She aimed, holding the gun firmly in both hooves, and fired – a single bullet pierced through his wing and hit the crates behind him, leaving a trail of blood and feathers. The griffon fell to the ground, losing his gun. Babs aimed one more time, only to hear a click. She cursed under her breath. Her hoof shook, when she hesitated, unsure if she should take another clip or a knife. Luckily, the griffon was now running away.
“Three down…” Lightning Dust muttered, wiping sweat from her forehead. “That leaves three…”
“One of them is wounded,” Babs said. Her hooves were shaking when she changed the magazine. “Let’s find Dove and get outta here…”
Raz and Hedgehog pulled the two unconscious griffons behind their cover, put them next to their dead companion and bound them with duct tape.
They trotted forward, hiding behind the crates, rotten remains of carts and other equipment they could find. The griffons were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, Lightning Dust stopped and pointed at a puddle on the floor. “Seems that our bleeding friend was here,” she muttered.
“Watch out!” Babs shouted. She looked up at the ceiling just in time to see two griffons sitting on a timber and aiming at them. A wave of buckshot hit the floor next to her; she lifted her gun and fired back. The bullets missed; she rolled on the floor, trying to avoid the shots.
Lightning Dust darted upwards, holding a metal spanner in her hooves. When the griffon with a submachine stopped firing to reload she threw it at him – before he could see what hit him, he was already halfway to the stack of crates. His companion looked to see what happened. Lightning Dust only waited for that – she rammed into him, pushing him off the timber. He spread his wings, trying to save himself, but then a wave of bullets from three guns hit him, tearing him apart. He was dead before he hit the floor with a sickening crunch.
Lightning Dust landed next to the griffon she’d hit with a spanner and checked his pulse. “Alive,” she muttered. “We need to find that last fucker…”
Babs changed the magazine and looked around. The griffon she’d shot was nowhere to be seen. She knew that he couldn’t fly but it wasn’t making him any less dangerous. Lightning Dust started to circle around the hall, trying to spot him, while Babs, Raz, and Hedgehog began searching through the crates.
“I’m here…” they heard a voice not far away from the warehouse’s social room. They turned there and saw the griffon lying on the floor and panting heavily. She was holding White Dove’s saddlebags in his claws. “I give it back…” he said. “That’s why you’re here, right?”
Before anypony could reply, Babs rushed to him, punched him in the beak and stood on his injured wing. “We don’t give a fuck about your drugs!” she shouted. “Where’s the filly?”
“What filly?” he asked, trying to not scream. “I ain’t know nothin’ about the filly!”
“Yeah, right…” Lightning Dust muttered. She flew to the griffon and took saddlebags from him. “Raz, Hedge, get the rest. Maybe they’ll be more talkative.” She looked inside the torn saddlebags and smirked.
Raz and Hedgehog dragged the bound griffons and the bodies to the centre of the hall. Their prisoners were slowly regaining consciousness. Some of them looked at their two dead companions and shuddered.
“Okay, guys,” Lightning Dust said. “It won’t take long… Remember the filly who was carrying those saddlebags? White, orange mane, about fourteen years old? The first to say where she is will be free like a bird…”
“Fuck you,” the griffon whom they’d knocked down first replied. “We know you, ponies… You’ll kill us anyway…” He was brutally cut off, when Lightning Dust punched him.
Babs shook her head. She looked at the torn body of a griffon and realised that she’d killed him. She wasn’t sure if her bullets didn’t miss when she’d fired at him together with Raz and Hedgehog, but still she shot at him, wanting him dead.
She felt an unpleasant feeling in her stomach and decided to go to the social room and smoke a cigarette. Lightning Dust was currently busy beating and kicking the griffons, so she simply trotted away.
She put a cigarette in her mouth and pushed the scratched door open, looking for her lighter in the pocket of her barding. She could barely see anything in the room – the remains of torn posters with sexy mares were hanging from the walls, there was also an old cupboard and a rotting table covered with a thick layer of dust. She lit up a cigarette and in a light from her lighter she saw something that caused it to fall on the floor.
White Dove was lying on the floor behind the table. Her glassy eyes were looking at the ceiling. Her hind legs were spread. Babs felt a wave of nausea when she looked at her more exactly and saw a puddle of stale blood between them. Her white fur was covered in black marks, as if someone used it to quench cigarettes. Her mouth was opened in a silent scream; the shards of broken teeth were protruding from her pale gums.
Babs staggered and threw up on the floor. Then she felt her muscles tense and shiver. She started to hyperventilate and barely made herself turn her gaze away from White Dove’s body. She looked for some cloth to cover it, but there was nothing like that in sight. She took off her barding, tearing it in some places and put it on White Dove. Then she noticed a familiar black thing that fell out from her pocket when she’d been stripping herself.
The gun. Babs looked at it and something in her mind clicked.
Letting out a powerful scream, she darted out of the social room. “Get out!” she yelled to Lightning Dust and her friends. Lightning looked at her, surprised and took off, just before the brain of the first griffon, the one with an injured wing, splashed on her barding. The second griffon tried to tear the duct tape, but another bullet pierced through his throat, causing him to collapse, trying to catch his breath.
Babs went past him, unfazed by the fact that her hooves were stained with his blood and shot at the third griffon at a point-blank range. The contents of his skull sprayed on her face and mane, but she didn’t even flinch. The last griffon stopped struggling – he only looked at her when she fired a few bullets at his crotch and stomach. He rolled on the ground, screaming and weeping.
“Kill… me…” he panted.
“As ya wish,” Babs said coldly, took her knife and pierced it through his eye. She pulled it off, it’s blade covered in vitreous fluid and plunged it into the second eye. The griffon screamed even louder than before. Babs put a hoof on his neck and pushed, hearing his scream changing into rattle when his throat gave up under her weight. She backpedalled, listening to him as he was slowly drowning in his own blood and switched the gun to full-auto. Then she pulled the trigger, ripping the dead bodies apart and spraying the gore around. Finally, the ammo ended and Babs dropped the gun on the ground. The sound echoed through the silent warehouse.
“Are you fuckin’ insane?!” Lightning Dust exclaimed. “What have you done, you crazy cunt?!” She trotted to Babs and pushed her on the floor. “How do you want to find Dove now? Fuckin’ psycho!” She spat on her and backpedalled, shuddering.
“I found her…” Babs muttered, wiping saliva from her face.
Lightning Dust opened her mouth, but said nothing. She trotted to Babs and helped her up, trying not to look into her eyes.
“W-we need to clean that…” Hedgehog muttered, looking around.
“But how?” Lightning Dust asked. “Babs basically made a Hearts and Hooves Day Massacre here…”
“What will we do with Dove?” Babs asked, her voice devoid of any emotions. “She can’t stay here…”
“We’ll call the cops,” Lightning Dust said. “The Boss knows some guards… They’ll tell her father that the griffons did it and then killed each other. But those bodies can’t stay here – some guards are, umm…”
“Incorruptible?” Babs asked.
Lightning Dust glared at her angrily. “I’d prefer to call ‘em ‘pesky’.” she said. “Anyway, any ideas how to deal with this clusterfuck?”
“Well,” Raz muttered. “I have a friend who can help us…”