Later the next morning, outside the old Everfree Mansion, Noteworthy waited with the gang for Mise to show up. Out of everyone in attendance only Octavia and Noteworthy knew what was about to happen

“I wonder why he told us all to come here.” Vinyl said as she paced

“Yeah, I mean, there’s nothing here except the mansion and we’ve already dealt with that.” Rainbow said pointing to the dilapidated building

“I hope everything is alright, I’d hate for something to be wrong.” Rarity said with a hint of worry

Upon hearing this Octavia started to think back to how she could have prevent this

‘Why didn’t I stop him when I had the chance, now Mise and Noteworthy are going possibly end up dead’ Octavia thought

“I don’t know why, but I have a bad feeling about this.” Swift said

And just as swift said that, a deep rumbling could be heard in the distance

“What the hell is that!?” Noteworthy asked with a hint of worry

“That would be…Mise?” Rarity said shocked at what she was seeing

Everybody turned in Mise’s direction, to see him standing shirtless on to off the moving tank hold what looked to be a small briefcase. The
gang just stood there asking all kinds of questions

“Why is Mise sanding on top of his tank?” Sunset asked

“Why is he shirtless?” Pinkie said staring at him

“Who’s driving it?” Warhawk asked

“And what is in his hand?” Alex wondered

“I don’t know but let go find out, come on.” Applejack said as she and the rest of the group walked up to Mise and the tank

The tank then stopped and Mise got off. As the gang approached him they saw that his normal happy expression was replaced with one of
determination and hatred and that, if looks could kill, would be outlawed.

Along with the potentially lethal look, the noticed a large scar across his chest.

“Mise what’s going on here, why are you shirtless, what is up the scar on your chest, and what’s in the case?” straight said standing in front Mise

Mise looked at straight then to the rest of his friends then to Octavia and finally stared daggers at Noteworthy.

“what going here is that I have score to settle with Noteworthy and I want you all to see what’s about to happen, the reason I’m shirtless is because I want show that I’m not afraid of what I’m about to face and to show that I’m no cheater, the scar I will explain in a minute, and as far as the case, well see for yourselves.” Mise said as he explained the situation and opened the case to reveal two antique dueling pistols.

Everyone gasped at what they were seeing

“Mise are you seriously going to duel Noteworthy?” vinyl said now scared

“I am” Mise replied

“But wait this still doesn’t explain the giant scar on your chest.” Artemis said

Mise simply sighed and looked to the sky.

“This scar is the result of a previous duel, one in which I fought against Noteworthy. You see this isn’t the first time we’ve done this. Me and him have known each other for years, and we’ve always been rivals. He would always best me at everything, especially when it came to romance. Every girl I ever liked, he would find a way to steal her away from me.” Mise explained

“And one day I had had enough of it and I challenged him to a duel and not knowing the rules, I let him decide the settings and he picked a sword based duel to first blood. And needless to say I lost the duel and the girl of my dreams.” Mise continued to explain

“It was not long after that, that the incident with crystal happened, and that was really the straw that broke the camel’s back. My parents decided that it was too dangerous for me to stay there any longer and the rest is history.” Mise finished

“Ok, so why are you two dueling today if you already dueled.” Zero asked

“Because, unlike me he never changed and he was up to his old tricks and tried to take Octavia away from me too, but no more. I challenged him to a duel to put an end to it all.” Mise replied

“Mise please, you’re going to end up getting killed. There are other ways around this.” Octavia pleaded breaking her silence

“no, this is what have to do, the only way I’m going to let him get to you is by having him step over my cold dead body.” Mise said in a tone that sent chills up everyone’s spine

“Hey just think Mise, after I’m done with this, you can just spend the rest of you days in the kitchen and me and octy here will be living it up in style.” Noteworthy said not caring about what Mise just said.

“Are you going to duel me or you going to just stand there and run the shit factory you call a mouth.” Mise said with venom on his breath

“Let’s duel then.” Noteworthy said

“Let’s, uncle ironsides would you please prepare the pistols for me.”

“Yes Mise, I just hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.” Ironsides said taking the pistols from Mise.

“I do, now Noteworthy, I have read the rules of dueling and since I am the challenger I have decided that we will duel with pistols at 20 paces to first blood, whether the wounds are lethal or otherwise.” Mise said

“Fine by me, I just hope you’re prepared for what’s in store.” Noteworthy said

“The feeling is mutual.” Mise replied

And with the terms of the duel agreed upon, the two shook hands and waited for ironsides to finish prepping the guns.

“All set you two.” Ironsides said as he came back with the two identical pistols

“Now before we start, we need to check and make sure that they are loaded.” Mise said as he checked his pistol

“Mine’s loaded” Mise said

“And so is mine” Noteworthy said.

And with that the group backed up far away and left only Mise, Noteworthy and ironsides

“Gentlemen, you are here on a matter of honor. I am here to see that you settle it honorably. There will be no back-stabbing, you will not throw your guns, nor will you use weapons other than those agreed. Proceed to the agreed upon points” Ironsides said in an official tone

And with that Mise and note worth took their pistols stood back to back and walked to hammered-in posts

“Now gentleman, cock your weapons” ironsides said. Mise and Noteworthy did as they were told

“Turn to face your opponent” iron sides said. Mise and Noteworthy again did as they were told

“Aim your weapons and fire” ironsides ordered

Noteworthy was the first to pull the trigger, but something was wrong, his pistol was jammed, as was commonplace with pistols of the era.

“Mise, something’s wrong, I think my pistol’s jammed.” Noteworthy said as he tried to reason with Mise.

“Oh, well that’s too bad, because mine works just fine.” Mise said in tone so cold it could cause hell to freeze over. He then aimed his pistol and shot Noteworthy in the chest, just above his right lung

Noteworthy clutched his chest and fell to the ground with a thud. Everybody except Mise ran over to him. Ironsides took a look at the boy

“He’s going to be fine, it missed his lung and an artery, someone go grab medical bag out of the tank, and I’ll fix him up.”

“I’m on it” artimes said running as fast as he could

“What, you can’t do that, we need to get him to a hospital!” Soul said about to drag Noteworthy away

“Here’s your stuff” Artemis said giving ironsides the bag

“Yes I can, before I became a scrap yard owner I was an army medic. I’ve seen things that would make grown men cry and puke.” Ironsides said as he tended to the boy

While Ironsides worked on removing the bullet and stitching up the wound, everybody turned to mind Mise sitting on top of his tank, staring out into space.

“Hey Mise, we need to talk with you.” Clyde said he and the other approached the tank.

Mise snapped out of his trance and looked down the group now sporting faces ranging from concern to anger.

“Now before you try and form a lynch mob, you have to look at it from my perspective. He’s the reason Octavia’s been my only girlfriend, he’s the reason I always doubted myself when it came to romance, he’s the reason for so many things in my life. I had to do something to put an end to it all. Not just for me but for all the people he hurt over the years.” Mise said addressing his friends
The group looked at each other and then to Mise and nodded signaling that they understood. Octavia then went up to Mise and smiled at him and proceed to slap him across the face

“OW, what was that for?” Mise said rubbing his check

“That was for scaring the crap out of me with this duel, you could have died out there. You could have been the one on the ground lying in a pool of blood. Then what, would you suddenly rise up from the dead and declare the fight off.” Octavia said crying.
Mise grabbed hold of Octavia’s shoulders, and looked at her dead in the eyes

“Octavia, listen, I knew full well what I was getting into, but this was something much bigger than just you or anybody else here. I needed to do this, and if had died, I would’ve died for you and the ones I love. I like I said the only way he was going to get TO you was by stepping over my dead body. I never said he was going to get with you. There are too many of us to let something like that happen.” Mise said as he wiped away Octavia’s tears

“Don’t you ever scare us like that again Mise.” Daemon said

“Yeah we thought you were going to die out there” Adagio said

“Well I’m not dead, and neither is Noteworthy, but in accordance with the agreed upon rules, I am the winner. And I promise no more duels.” Mise said