“W-wait!” Rainbow Dash raised a pair of hooves, clenching her teeth. “Think about what you're doing!”
“Oh, I have, 'Firefly'” Romulus sneered, grinning with bloodlust. “Thought it over long and hard!”
“Have you r-really?!” Rainbow Dash winced. “What about your b-buddies?! Don Canter's goons?!”
“What on earth are you rambling about?!”
“Don't play dodo with me, turkey!” Rainbow spat. “I friggin' saw you with them in Fillydelphia! Looks like those guys pack quite the punch with those explosives of theirs!” She gulped. “If you gut me and claim your prise without them around, how are they gonna back you up on your next gig?!”
“Hmmmm-hmmm-hmmm...” Romulus smirked. “You think I actually work for them?”
Rainbow's eyes twitched. “Buh?”
“I answer to a higher calling, lady.” Romulus hissed. “Or a lower one, depending on your perspective.” He raised his sword again. “Nighty night.”
Rainbow sighed. “You know, it was all good and fine until you resorted to a cliche.” That said, she yanked the corsage off her suit and shoved it into his beak.
“Fbrllghglgghgll!” Romulus hobbled backwards, choking up flower petals.
“Hmmm?” Rainbow trotted forward, sneering. “What's it smell like, honeybee? Humble pie?!” WHAM! She uppercutted him with a savage right hoof.
“Mmmnngnhh!” Romulus stumbled backwards. He spat out the rest of the flower and rubbed his bloody beak. “Why you voice cracking little popcorn fart—”
“Here's the cherry on top!” Rainbow charged forward, spearing him.
“Ooofa!” Both flew backwards—
—and smashed through the other wall of Trixie's shack, making another hole.
The unicorn went sprawling under the spray of splinters and debris, clinging to Maud. “Stop tearing up the Great and Powerful Trixie's house!” she hollered.
“I think we would be safer hiding behind a pile of rocks,” Maud said, standing dead-still amidst the clamoring hurricane the two combatants were making. “Because rocks are hard.”
“Nnnngh!” Rainbow Dash body-dropped Romulus through a wooden table. The griffon kicked through the shattered bits, smacking Rainbow upside the chin. “Ooof!” Rainbow stumbled back, wincing. Schiiiing! The air lit up from the griffon's reflective blade. Panicking, Rainbow picked up a random chair and held it out like a shield. Thw-Thwackk! Romulus' scimitar lopped off all four legs of the furniture. Rainbow blinked at it, shrugged, then slammed the thing across Romulus' beak.
“Augh!” the feathery bounty hunter fell through Trixie's bed, smashing it to bits.
Rainbow shrugged. “All a chair's friggin' good for, these days, I swear—”
“Yaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaugh!” Romulus charged full-force at Rainbow.
“Unnngh!” Rainbow slumped to her knees. “Must we?!”
WHUMP! The feathery foe speard her and—
SMASSH!
—sent the two of them sailing out the other end of the shack, where they plowed into a tall pillar of gravel. As they disappeared deep within, the mound of pebbles sank, imploding slowly from within. Eventually, after several explosive spurts, Rainbow finally burst out of the mound, gasping for breath.
“Duaaaaaaaah!” She hovered in mid-air, wheezing. “Well...” She dusted her hooves off. “At least he's done and buried—”
Swissssssssh! The scimitar went sailing out like a missile.
“Hnng!” Rainbow ducked back. She dodged the blade, but was too late to stop it from cutting a huge turquoise swath in her jacket. “Awwwwwwwww... come on!” She anxiously folded the ripped fabric back in place. “Dude, I need this! For the Dredgemane arc!”
“Rrrrgh!” Romulus' head burst out of the pile of rocks. His beak clattered, “Whine all you like! Your days are numbered! Haaugh!” He flew up, hovering across form her with talons at the ready. “I murdered that measely bat pony! A pathetic floozie such as you is going to be cake!”
“Well, I hate to break it to ya buddy, but Noir lives to speak another day!”
Romulus' one good eye twitched. “You lie, pony!” he hissed.
Rainbow smirked and tapped her nose. “You see my fuzzy muzzle growing any, bud?” WHAM! A hard talon smacked her across the face. “Aaaugh!” she grabbed her snout. “My fuzzy muzzle!”
“I'm gonna do you worse, Firefly.” Romulus growled, unsheathing a pair of shiny daggers. Sch-Schiiing! “Tell me where the rest of the shards are, or I won't stop cutting until next year—”
Out of nowhere, a tan pith helmet flew in and ricocheted off Romulus' skull.
“Augh!” The griffon fell to the earth.
Rainbow blinked over her aching nose. “...wat.”
Th-Th-Thap! The helmet bounced off multiple gravel mounds and Trixie's shack, ultimately ending up in the grip of a mustard-yellow hoof. “Throw in the towel, kid!” an older voice rasped. Suddenly, a pegasus in an olive drab shirt hovered between the two, bearing the mother of all smirks. “Better let me handle this! After all, when things get dangerous...” She tossed her gray mane and slapped the helmet atop her crown with a wink. “That's when I'm on the call.”
“Guhhhh...” Trixie crawled out of what was left of her house. “Trixie can't see what's happening. Describe it to Trixie.”
Maud stared dully up into the sky. “I think it's the plot.”
“Nope! It's none other than Noir's most trusted adventure buddy!” The pegasus struck a valiant pose over the groaning griffon. “Daring Do!”
Rainbow Dash stared. “... ... ...who?”