Starlight waited patiently at the meeting point she'd arranged for her contract. It was half past twelve noon when she realized something wasn't right. The meeting time was originally set for twelve on the dot, he was late. It wasn't like him to take his time when money is on the line. As she sat there, she contemplated the chance that exiting Whinnyapolis would be much more difficult with all that's happening.

The waitress for the coffee shop walked past her, dropping off a menu as she moved. She asked no questions. It is Starlight's town after all, and she knew that whatever she was doing was important. The mare quickly moved far away from the scene, continuing her work inside. She wanted as little to do with Starlight as possible. One wrong word and she could cut her rations, or worse.

After all, she couldn't really imagine an easy way out. It's a city gone to hell after all. She didn't blow her composure as she thought of the worst. What if he hadn't survived? Well this wasn't exactly the worst case scenario, since she wouldn't need to pay him if that was the case. She heard a vibration from the phone on the table, she flipped the phone open and went to the recent text tab.

'One recent message, from tourist 2 Read now?'

She used the arrow keys until it highlighted 'yes'. Once she confirmed her choice, she was stunned.

'You're next'

She read it once, no twice. This can't be right. That was when another text came through, this time an image.

'Image from tourist 2 Read now?'

She was hesitant, but slowly complied. Once she pressed yes she was greeted with a horrific sight.

Tourist 2, or so she called him, was nothing. He was beaten down, limbs mangled, and blood pouring from a gaping wound in the chest. She threw the phone in a fountain.

"She's going to be onto us more than ever now." I started with Octavia. We were since out of the city, now that the civilian center was clear we really had no issue with abandoned cars, insecure zones, and other problems. Looks like the communists had gotten the memo that this place wasn't shelled though. We could hear the shells landing in the city even though I had put some ten miles between us.

"Well it's not like she knows where we are? Does she?" Octavia was a little shaky on asking the question. As if she didn't want the answer.
Which she probably didn't.

"She most definitely doesn't." I said, handing the map over to Octavia. I had marked down the location of this 'Our Town' place on it and made my way steadily over to it. It'd be a 12 hour drive, and after 4 hours it was 10 PM. I needed to stop somewhere. I slapped the vaporizer in my mouth and took a puff. It'd been a while since I'd gotten a fix. There was a problem this time though, it was empty. I got some weird sizzle sound and then a solid nothingness.

I put it in my pocket and kept driving, we had reached a bar and I was eager to get a shot of whisky in place of the vaporizer. I puled off to the nearest parking spot and walked into the door leading into the dingy place, Octavia waited in the car. Rightfully so, too. The place really was a shithole. The tables smelt sorta like rotten milk, upon further inspection my hoof would stick to the top. I had to thrust to get it off of the gritty table. I waltzed my way over to the bar portion, which is when I came to the conclusion that this wasn't only a bar, but a cafe as well. The health rating was nowhere to be seen.

I doubt they got any good reviews on any travel website.

I sat in the seat directly in front of me, I was between a hearty batpony and a zebra. Both of which were probably two to three times my size, and they didn't like my company. They were the regulars, and I could tell by the way they spoke. On the other end of the bar was a mare, she was mostly undressed. Marketing herself probably, no she was obviously marketing herself. I was the only one in the bar that hadn't screwed her probably.

"Hey honey, gimme a kiss!" I heard from my right, it was the zebra.

"Don't you know you gotta pay first?"

"Well yea, figured you'd be fine with this young buck."

"Looking's free, everything else is gonna charge and you know that."

"Oh come on! You can't handle me!"

The mare looked frantically for support, but instead she was surrounded by perverse criminals. The zebra better learn to count his blessings.

Said Zebra stood up and marched over to the mare; the batpony followed slowly behind. The zebra was just a little smaller than the bat, but he still rolled along with it.

"Listen honey, we can't really pay our dues right now. Whatchya say we get a room though?"

She looked frantically at me as I calculated my move. The life of a vigilante isn't always easy, but the bar reminded me of the one back in Ponyville. I couldn't help but wonder what was going on down there. Probably the same old, the vice mayor was still filling in for the deceased Mayor Mare. I didn't feel bad one bit.

The talk in the corner that I had stopped monitoring had erupted into a shout. A knife was drawn and held by the batpony while the Zebra demanded favors. Statutory rape and assault with a deadly weapon, just enough to justify some action. I can't kill them yet, I'm still rather unknown around here and I'd like to keep it that way until I have a target. The bartender wasn't doing anything to stop the incident, and other patrons at the bar were in fact urging the dynamic duo on. It was up to me. I looked at the bartender sternly, he probably was expecting me to say he saw nothing. That wasn't the case.

"You gotta roll of quarters?"

He looked stunned for a second.

"Son, you're not right." He spoke slowly.

"Don't worry, you'll get them back and some more."

He reached under the bar and came back up with a roll of 25 cent quarters surrounded in red striped paper. I picked it up with my glove and made a fist. Having a fist full of quarters increases the strength of your punch tenfold because your fist has a sturdy base to swing on. I kept the gloves balled as I approached the two. The bat was the first to notice my presence. He turned the knife towards me while the Zebra tried to peel the mare's shirt off. She was putting up a fight with him when she noticed me as well. I nodded to her.

She swung hard into his groin with her left knee, knocking the wind out of him. The batpony turned his head to see the commotion, and when he turned his head back he was greeted with a right hay maker to his temple. I heard a crack as I hit him; I must have either broken part of the temple or hit low and broke the jaw. It was the latter, there was no blood on the sight which indicated that he had not gotten any injuries protruding through the skin. Though there was some in his mouth, I had probably screwed his teeth up bad. The zebra was still on his knees, so I pulled his head back and slammed it into the bar's edge. He wasn't knocked out by this.

I grabbed him by the mane and dragged him towards the door, I didn't want this to erupt into an all out bar fight. I threw him out the door, and he had recovered from the low blow. He was now on his rear hoofs with his front two up in a boxing position. Octavia watched, not horrified but entertained. She knew how this was going to end.

He threw a hay maker, it resembled the one I used against his bat buddy. Only problem was I saw it coming, I lifted my right hoof and caught it at the forehoof, effectively stopping the punch in it's tracks. Half a second after I blocked it I followed up with a roll over his arm, he didn't know what was happening. I twisted the arm beyond it's normal point and spun in a circle. His arm was pulled behind him. We were back to back. I had the advantage though. Another pony ran out of the door and tried to grab me, in response I swung a leg upwards and into his jaw, then bucked both legs into his face. He fell back.

It was a matter of time before he recovered, I needed to finish the Zebra off quick. I wrapped my unused arm around his neck and pulled that against my back. At the same time I pulled his arm against my shoulder. His arm snapped as he was thrown over my shoulder. I stomped down on his face as soon as he hit the ground. That was when I was tackled by the pony I had bucked. He kept running as he lifted me up, and I threw swings into his back. None of them were effective enough to hurt him but it was worth the effort.

He slammed me against the back of a SUV and proceeded to hit me in the stomach. I felt like throwing up, so I bit his ear. At first he didn't respond because I wasn't trying too hard, then I jerked my head upwards. He screamed as he pulled away, half of his ear was in my blood soaked mouth. He screeched as he stumbled backwards, half an ear missing from his head. I spit it out in the dirt and stepped on it, assuring infection should he try to get it reattached.

There was no way he'd recover, so I just ran towards him and shoved him to the ground. He was rolling in a pool of blood. That was when the remainder of the bar flowed from the doors; they gathered in a circle around me. Time slowed down as the cheering crowd departed, on the other end of the line was a massive bulky pony. He was five times my size, standing tall at six foot seven, I had to look up to see him eye to eye even from the distance we were from each other. He stepped up and got into a fighting position. The crowd filled the space that he came from.

I quickly assessed the situation, then in a split second made a full plan to decimate the opposition. It was a risky move but it'd have to work. If I were to fight on his terms I'd be a dead pony. He stepped close and threw a hard hay maker, which I ducked under and shuffled to the other side of the ring. He turned in part and looked me in the eye.

I unrolled the coins and looked him in the eye, it was tense for a second, then I tossed the coins near his face. He blinked as I ran towards him. He threw the exact swing I imagined, a stray right hook, and I blocked it in part with my forehoof. At the same time I threw a close slug to his lower abdominal muscles. He flinched, giving me a chance for the next wave of attacks. I raised both hoofs in the air, and swung them hard into his ears. The result was a heavy migraine and temporary loss of hearing. All sound would be replaced by a ringing noise. I tossed a weak hook into his jaw. It wasn't meant to do any damage. He hadn't quite gained his thought back yet and threw a feral right hook. I weaved under and hit the side of his ribs. This was only going to weaken them. I swung my leg against his, knocking him off balance. I weaved back through his left side and swung a direct hit into his ribs, then a strong hook to his jaw. He stumbled backwards. The jaw certainly was done, but I needed a little more on the ribs. The swing to the jaw did it's work on weakening it. I threw a sturdy kick into his sternum, he was thrown into the crowd, landing on a few ponies.

Physical recovery should take about 6 weeks, mental should be 6 months, capacity to fight; irrecoverable.

The crowd dispersed as I drew my knife. I wasn't going to kill him, I just needed the threaten enough ponies to make a window to the car. To my surprise everypony in the parking lot ran into the bar. I went back into the bar as well and slipped the bartender a 100 bit bill.

I slipped back into the car, Octavia was waiting by the passenger side door.

"Well that was something else."

"You don't know the start of it."

We drove off, in search of a place to stay.

Author's Notes:

Sorry it took me so long to update, I've just been busy lately. Hope you enjoyed good ole fashion Cloud Dasher .