Rainbow Dash quickly pulled the 9mm handgun out of her holster when she heard the first shot; to her, a natural reaction. She cocked back the chamber and released the safety before diving for cover behind a particularly large gravestone. When more shots began to ring, she peeked over to look at who was shooting whom. Mare-Do-Well? Are you kidding me? Well, at least this time, the assassin is going in style. She placed her sights on the pony and discharged three rounds before diving back to cover. When she looked over to fire a few more, a cart had arrived with three other ponies to lend aid to the Mare-Do-Well. A horrifying thought occurred to Rainbow Dash.
All of the attackers were armed with assault rifles made for combat. The stone she hid behind would do very little in stopping most of the bullets that would fly at her. From experience, she knew that a round from a standard Equestrian AK-47 would pass through stone like a nail being driven through hot butter.
She looked around in a panic, trying desperately to order her thoughts as the cracking of guns became more frequent, the pops from the many handguns being wielded as well as the automatic fire from the assault rifles. There was a hill that she could lay down behind and take cover. It was funny, she reflected, how bullets can shoot through stone and other things, while they get stuck in sandbags and dirt.
She ran for the spot she had spied earlier. With a few leaps, she was there. No time to look at back. She stuck her gun out and shot some not-so-well-aimed shots in the direction of the attackers. Her hooves began to shake as she peeked over the hill only to see that one pony, a green stallion 'family member' named Neon, was laying on the ground with part of his head missing. As far as she could see, three other family members had been hit and the Mare-Do-Well had a wound to the left back hoof.
Three more rounds. Shit, why is this all happening? Why did they try to kill Applejack (and possibly Dash herself) yesterday? Who were they? What did they want? Rainbow Dash knew this was not the time or place to be thinking these thoughts, but she couldn't help herself. Something just didn't seem right about the whole mess. She sat behind the hill thinking.
Her thoughts were finally interrupted by a pair of ponies dashing past her at lightning speeds. One of them appeared to be a gray mare wearing a pink bow tie, while the other was the very famous Vinyl Scratch, who was all white with a bright blue mane. Rainbow Dash decided that she would need an autograph sometime. Her music wasn't half bad after all. Again, Rainbow Dash kicked herself for thinking that when this obviously wasn't the time to entertain any thoughts other than survival.
She used her left hoof to put another clip in the handgun and then cocked the chamber. She positioned herself so that the gun was sticking out of the side of the small hill. The party of assaulters was gathering into the carriage now. Oh, hell no! She wouldn't let them all get away that easily. Not after Neon's death.
The confederates were all loaded into the vehicle now. The Mare-Do-Well pony had the back door to the carriage open so that she could shoot out of it. Rainbow Dash brought her sights to the masked pony.
Lets see you die, mutherfucker!
She squeezed the trigger once, and watched as the pony rolled out of the vehicle and rolled over in her cape a few times, painting the road a crimson red. The cart immediately shot into motion and rode off, taking fire from all the various mobsters in the cemetery, and drove through the back gate which was wide open.
The blue pegasus jumped from her position and took flight. She sped to the body laying in the street. When she got there, before anypony else, she saw that the Mare-Do-Well was still alive and barely holding on to every breath.
Rainbow Dash carefully placed a hoof on the bottom of the mask and made a quick upwards motion to pull it off of the assassin.
She gasped in shock. Hatred flowed through her veins, along with anger and a burning desire to see the pony in front of her in pain.
"You fucking traitor....."
She brought the gun up to the wounded pony's head.
"I want to see you dead!"
"Please, don't...." The voice sounded strangely weak and drained of emotion.
One crack.
One loud and distinct crack filled the air. And that was it. Rainbow Dash looked at the body in front of her. Pink, fluffy hair, now stained red with blood, and eyes that usually twinkled blue just looked into nothingness.
No more breathing, or heartbeat, or speech, or pain, or love. For the 15th time, Rainbow Dash had taken all of that away from a pony unfairly. She dropped to her knees and wept softly. She threw the gun to the side and buried her head into her hoofs before the pony she had just murdered. Like a soulless monster, she had again taken the life of somepony in cold blood. It just wasn't fair. She shouldn't have the power to choose life or death for somepony! Nopony should. But out of cruel fate, she was faced with that awful power quite often.
"I'm so sorry, Pinkie Pie!"
Her dear friend Pinkie Pie, the absolute kindest and funniest pony she had ever met, now lay dead.
As she lay there in agony, she felt a tap on her left hoof.
"Um... Rainbow?" Twilight Sparkle began. "We need to talk. It's about Applejack"
**********
"That ain't how ya do it!"
"Of course it is, Applebloom."
"You're both wrong!"
"So why don't y'all show us how it's done, Scootaloo," the yellow pony with the bright red bow challenged her friend.
Scootaloo, an orange pegasus filly with a purple mane, grabbed the colorful fruit from a young white unicorn named Sweetie Belle. She turned the fruit over with her hoofs a few times examining it.
"Where'd you get this anyway?"
"Ah was cleanen mah big sister's bedroom like she asked, and Ah found a whole bunch of 'em in her closet."
"Really?" Sweetie Belle squeaked. "I knew that she was in that organization thingy, but I never thought in a million years she was the kind of pony to use zap apple."
"How's this thang supposed ta get ya high anyway?"
"I dunno. Maybe ya gotta eat it?
After Scootaloo said that, Sweetie Bell chipped a piece off with her hoof and then used her unicorn magic to bring it to her mouth. Her eyes screwed up as soon as it was entered into her mouth. She swallowed it, forcing herself not to gag on the piece.
"Yuck!"
The other two ponies giggled.
"Ay, gimme some o' that!"
"Yeah, me too."
***********