//------------------------------//
// A Little Bit of Angst For Your Tease 
// Story: Appledashery 
// by Just Essay 
//------------------------------//

	While Don Canter spoke closely with his thugs, Top Dog gathered with the freshly recruited mutts from the teleportation spell.  The canine cretins gathered together seveal spears, sharpening and examining them while Top Dog barked orders.  Meanwhile, several henchstallions pulled a crate full of ranged weapons from the summoning circle and began assigning them to various members of the gang.

"Well..."  Rainbow mumbled.  "All things considered... that went kinda okay..."

"Seems like they're setting up for a war," Lancie remarked.  "And now they've got you as the spearhead."

"I figured I'd always make for a good hood ornament."

"Well, at least you're honest."  Clearing his throat, Lancie leaned against her head and smirked down at her.  "Y'know, I suppose I should be thanking you."

"Hmmmphh... for what?"

"For sticking out for me the way you did."  Lancie adjusted an invisible collar, his granite features wincing.  "For a moment there, it looked like the big fat one wanted to turn me into kitty litter."

"Don't be silly," Rainbow droned.  "You're not nearly that absorbant."

"Hardy har har..."  Lancie cleared his throat.  "Actually, Sparky, there's... something else I'd like to bring up."

"Yeah?"

"About what you said earlier to these punks and punkettes—"

"I was bluffing," Rainbow said quietly.  "I told you before.  Remember?"

"Yes, but even still."  His brow furrowed.  "Just how far are you willing to go with... all this?"

"What does it matter?" Rainbow muttered.  "And, furthermore, why do you care?"

"Well, it just so happens that I think that—"

"Well well well..."  Flim shuffled up, smirking coyly.  He folded his forelimbs.  "It seems like you smooth-talked your way over the boss.  But you can't fool me."

Rainbow sighed.  With a flick of her tail, she trotted across the clearing.  "Buzz off, spitwad."

"Do you seriously think that Romulus and his idiot allies are gonna buy your schtick forever?  Huh?"  Flim trotted swiftly after her.  "My brother and I have seen the inside of your head, filly.  We know that you're loyal... but we also know that you're loyal to a fault."

"Jee... how'd you figure that one out?" Rainbow rolled her eyes.  "By endangering the lives of ponies for no good reason?"

"You call our mother's well-being no good reason?!"  Flim snarled, his teeth showing.  "She had a life to live in the world that we gave her!  Your so-called friends?!  They don't even scratch the surface of Mother's legacy!  Just who were you to play executioner in the end?!"

Rainbow turned to glare at him.  "...you're a friggin' lunatic."  She waved a hoof.  "Go find yourself a cork factory and plug up both of your mouths, ya melon fudge."  She turned to trot off again.  "At least that way you can keep the manure to yourself."

"I'm serious!"  Flim hissed, hopping in front of Rainbow Dash and growling in her face.  "This isn't over once we find the shards.  Oh no..."  He shook his head with a wicked smile.  "Once we get our piece of the cut, we'll bring back Mother.  And then we'll head to that rinky-dinky little hole-in-a-ground you call a hometown.  Once there, maybe we'll play a game of 'executioner' ourselves."

Rainbow squinted.  "Back.  Off."

"Ahem..."  Lancie pointed.  "I... would listen to her if I were you, 'old chum.'"

"Why's that?"  Flim cackled.  "I'm not afraid of her!  I'm not the one who should be afraid, after all."  He turned to leer at Rainbow again, smiling.  "You know... the last time we had your friend, we gave her a heaven."  He licked his lips.  "Maybe she could use a good dose of hell this time... though it'd be heaven for Flam and me—"

WHACK!  A string of blood flew from Flim's nose.  It may have had something to do with the massive uppercut Rainbow had just given him.

"Oboy—" Lancie fell off Rainbow's darting body.  "Oofa!"

"Rrrrrrrrrgh!"  Rainbow plowed the stallion to the ground, gripping his skull.  THUD!  "You even think about touching her, and I'll shove that catapult down your throat and pull it out the other end until you turn inside out, ya lame waste of noodle!"

"Gaaaah...!"  Flim wheezed and flailed, gargling his own blood.  "Flam!  H-help!"

"What in Tartarus do you think you're doing?!"  Flam galloped over, hissing.  "Get off him, you crazed harpy—"

"Rrrgh—" Rainbow immediately flew off Flim's figure and howled in Flam's face.  "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!"

Flam teetered back, his resolve instantly melting as he stared at her with shrinking pupils.

Several diamond dogs and thugs looked over.  Squidgy rolled in his emerald jar.

Rainbow Dash panted and seethed.  After several hyperventilating breaths, she stood in place with her backhairs bristled.  "You two dapper dorkfarts know me so well..."  She exhaled menacingly, taking bold steps towards them.  "Then you know... you know what I'll do to you if you so much as threaten my friends again—"

"I can expect anything..." Flam growled.  "From the mare who murdered our mother."

"Will you stop—!"

Whump!  Sunset Shimmer suddenly charged in, knocking Rainbow and Flam apart.  "Alright!  That's enough!"  She glared at Flam.  "You heard the boss!  We're going forward with this group effort!  So stop your brother from shaking the hornet's nest for once!"

"I swear..." Rainbow pointed.  "If you don't make Romulus or someone tie these two jokers up—"

"And you!"  Sunset frowned.  "Don Canter doesn't take kindly to you messing up the goods!  He's hired these tinkerers, and for better or for worse, they're helping us achieve the same goal you want!  Doesn't mean you have to like them!  Tartarus, I don't even like them!  But we have to make do, don't we?"

"But—"

"Don't forget it was me who agreed with you on the whole 'team-up' thing!" Sunset's voice cracked.   "While it was Romulus who wanted to gut you like the pig you are.  And believe me, I'd like nothing better."  Her eyes narrowed.  "You left me to rot in a hole in the ground, with all of my dreams and hopes crushed to dust.  You're lucky I didn't boil your blood the very moment I saw you in the squirrels' den.  But that's not what we're here for, anymore, is it?"

"I am not about to be preached to by—"

Sunset shoved her hoof in Rainbow's chest.  "Leave your anger at the door.  When all of this is said and done, then you can commit bloody murder on any punks you want.  Quite frankly it's the same hole you dug for yourself in the first place.  But don't buck up the operation because of it!"

Silence.

"Are we done butting heads?!  Good!"  Sunset stormed off.  "Now, if you don't mind, I have to meditate super-hard to regain the magic in my horn... ... ... again!"

Rainbow seethed and seethed.

Flam helped Flim up to his hooves.  The half-bleeding brothers glared back at Rainbow, then trotted up to their mechanical catapult.

Meanwhile, Romulus leaned against a dead tree, sharpening a dagger.  He smirked bitterly, chuckled to himself, and kept grinding away.

Rainbow hung her head while Lancie climbed back on her shoulder.

"Well... that was certainly..."  Lancie blinked.  "Cathartic."

"Not really," Rainbow muttered.

"Need help with the not-killing-creeps-who-deserve-it schtick?"

"Mmmf..."  Rainbow Dash trotted swiftly north, stretching her wings.  "I... I need to do some thinking."

"About...?"

"Everything.  But most importantly this mission."

Romulus glared at Rainbow Dash as she streaked by.  "And where do you think you're going?"

"Reconnaissance."

"But now's not the time for—"

"Reconnaissance!"  And Rainbow took off for the northern horizon.

"Hmmmff..." Romulus shook her head, grumbling.  "She's so dead."