Knifes Edge
The cold burning the stallion’s lungs as he runs through sand, and with every breath his hooves ache. He has to get away, he can’t stop, if he does, he dies. Stars shine all across the sky like a glimmering mosaic, the moon full and shining bright behind him as he runs. On any other night he might stop to admire such beauty, but not now. Not when his life is on the line.
Running for so long his hooves finally give out, he loses his hoofing and falls to the cold sand beneath him, his body gliding down the rest of the sand dune until he stops, his chest rising and falling from exhaustion. He lays there motionless for some time, enjoying the brief respite. Then, the memory of his terror seizes his soul once again and he fights to pick himself back up, struggling with his tired limbs he grunts and finally gets up.
He continues to fight, his will is strong, he must run, he refuses to die here in this awful desert. Picking up his pace he makes it maybe three or four feet before a knife slices through his leg like a bolt of lightning. Crimson spills upon the sand, and the stallion falls to the cold ground once more and for the last time.
A figure all in black floats across the desert like a flower in the breeze, it’s face hidden behind a mask in white. Two slits for eyes are the only thing on its plain white mask. “P-please don’t kill me, I’ll pay you anything!” The stallion screams, using all his strength to crawl away from the almost equine figure. Blood trails behind him as the figure gets closer. “Who are you, what do you want?!” He demands loudly.
A knife from the dark slices through the air and connects at its intended target. He stares in wide-eyed horror as he feels the most pain he has felt in his entire life. Screaming, or at least trying to, he starts crying and whimpering like a foal as he stares down at the knife embedded in his thigh.
“Who am I, you sad little thing?” The dark figure says with a soft but cold tone as it steps into the moonlight, revealing itself for the first time. Through his tears he notices a very feminine form, a unicorn mare in lace and black leather. “Well, I’m a picture of ugly stories, and I’m a killer of course.” She finishes by pulling one of her knives out of its holster with her magic.
She stares at her knife, admiring it, as the moon reflects off its chrome like surface. “My knives are clean… my knives are final… my knives are deadly, when it’s done.” She cackles evilly, the sound echoing in the night sending shivers down his spine.
He knows he’s going to die, all he wants now is for the end to take him, to set him free of this nightmare...free of this psychotic mare before him.
“You know, she offered me one thousand bits for your head.” She states, bringing the knife closer to press it against his face. He whimpers at the cold touch of steel. “Just kill me already!”
She answers by slashing his face, and he hisses in pain. “Not yet my little plaything.” She circles around him dragging her knife along his body. “Would you like to know what I said?”
The only answer she gets is a choked sob. Snorting, she stops, pulling the knife away and directing his eyes to hers, locking them in a cold stare. “I said I’d kill you for free, that I would love nothing more than to watch as your life drains from your eyes. To see you beg for mercy as so many have begged you.” She declares in a chilling tone.
“I’m sorry.” He says pathetically sobbing.
“HA! You’re sorry!” She sneers shoving his head into the sand “Please, don’t make me laugh.”
“Please I beg you, let me go, and I’ll give you whatever you want!” He pleads.
She answers by twisting the knives in his thigh and hoof. He screams in anguish, crying and sobbing in the sand like a foal. Pulling the knives out, the assassin watches the blood pour forth freely. “Didn’t I just say that I accepted this job for free, slaver?” Is her response, cold and angry while she wipes the blades clean on her leather sleeve.
“How many young mares and stallions begged for their lives before you ripped it from them, hmm? She says, placing one of the knives back in its sheath around her hooves.
“Let’s get started, shall we?” She says, smiling behind her mask.
A chorus of pain and utter anguish echo through the desert night for hours, the mare in black taking her time with her prey. He no longer pleads for life, instead he begs for death. The masked mare stares down at her broken and bloody target, circling him. “I once was a slave you know… but I survived.”
Blood soaking the sand around him, his vision going dim as he fades from the world. The mare takes her mask off to reveal a beautiful unicorn standing above him. Her eyes are an ice blue and her coat is black as night. Her mane falling loosely over her face reveals strands of purple. She looks into the stallion eyes, watching as the last bits of life fade from his gaze. Slowly she puts the knife under his neck and plunges the blade deep in his throat.
It doesn't take long, and the world fades to black…
She feels the rain coming down, her face feels wet, her mind a storm. The ponies around her race to find shelter from the downpour. Silently moving through ponies in the streets, she stops and turns into a familiar alleyway to wait patiently for her contact. The two buildings next to each other made of brick, and one the assassin believes is a restaurant and the other a barber shop she’s not sure though. Shaking her head, ‘doesn't matter anyway.’ Drainage pipes sending rivers of water into the sewer system below, the sound almost soothing. Closing her eyes, she waits, listening to the sound of the rain falling down around her.
She breathes in the cool damp air of the soaked city and sighs contentedly. After a while she opens her eyes to look up and stare at the clouds. ‘A typical midnight in Manehattan.’ She dreams of going home to her bar, to her pink goddess, the only pony that brings her any sense of peace in this world.
Her Diamond.
Smiling, she feels a familiar cold presence blow through the alley and she turns to face her contact. A figure comes from the darkness and shadow of the ally, and it shifts into the form of the night princess. Her flowing ethereal mane flicking whenever rain hits it. Fond memories of being held and sung to when she was a foal come flooding to her memory. “Hello mother, how have you been?” The assassin asks, watching as the alicorn’s hooves click down onto the stone pavement beneath them, and stops to face her.
“Very well, Belladonna.” She says, looking down at the ground, “Is the job completed then?” Luna looks up with inquisitive eyes.
“Yes, would you like to see the blade I forged from the iron in his blood?” Bella says smiling with satisfaction, pulling the gleaming new knife out of its sheath showing it off to her mentor, and adopted mother.
Luna takes the knife into her magic and examines it. “Very nice, the balance is very good, it will make for an excellent new throwing knife.”
“May I go now? I would like to return home.” Bella says, taking the knife back into her magic and sliding it back into it’s sheath.
“Yes, I believe were done here… except for this.” Luna throws a bag of bits on the ground. “Your reward, for a job well done.”
“But I said I would do it for free. I… I already have enough bits to last me a lifetime.” She finishes lightly kicking the bag in front of her.
“I know what you said, but why not use those bits to buy her a dress or some such thing?” Luna says waving her hoof about in a circular motion.
Reluctantly, she places the coin pouch in her saddlebag, her face forming into a frown. “Speaking of which, I need to get home. She hasn't seen me in a week.”
“Well then, I will leave you to it.” Luna says, turning away to leave, but stops. Looking back around to Bella, she calls, “Oh! I almost forgot, but please come by the castle in a week, my sister has a job for you.”
Bella can only stare at Luna in wide-eyed shock. “What! But Celestia never asks for my services!?”
“Yes, but there is a certain griffin she wants taken care of, and wants it done quietly. The rest of the information you will find out in a week during your meeting with her. Now go, and forget about work for now.”
Bella nods her head “Ok, then, see you in a week.” She exits the alleyway in favor of the Manehattan streets, watching as some ponies gallop to get home and out of the rain. She follows suit, but not to escape the rain, but to get home to her. ‘I hope she’s not asleep.’ Bella thinks to herself and increased her pace.
She passes through the entrance to her bar and silently makes her way past the ponies gathered within. ‘I’ll talk to my staff in the morning.’ The onyx mare can feel vibrations running through the floor from the music inside. Ponies all around dancing and enjoying themselves to the sound of the live band playing on the small stage. She smiles when she sees her favorite customer sitting at the bar. “Trixie did not order this swill!” She says loudly, pushing her glass back to the bartender in disgust. The bartender rolling her eyes at Trixie’s usual crap, “Well then oh miss great and powerful I made it just like you said.” She says, irritation clearly in her tone.
Bella just chuckles at Trixie’s usual antics as she weaves past two mares making out in the hallway leading up to the stairs to her room. Climbing up the stairs, her hooves squish onto every step. The door at the top opens, Bella poking her head inside to look around. “Diamond, are you awake?
A jasmine scent fills the air as she softly makes her way into the room, closing the door behind her. A bed next to a very large window that leads to the outside balcony sets along with Diamond’s vanity table. A variety of different makeups and perfumes sets upon its pink surface. The room is about the size of an apartment in Manehatten, the walls are a dark purple and the floor is black carpet. Pink rugs set around the bed and wardrobe.
Smiling, Bella notices Diamond’s tiara setting on the nightstand next to the bed. ‘She must be in the shower,' she concludes, smiling devilishly. ‘I think I’ll surprise her, and besides I could use a wash after walking around in the rain.’ She thinks to herself, stepping over to her wardrobe in the far corner of the room. Taking off her gear and tools and placing them neatly inside a hidden compartment.
Closing her wardrobe and approaching the door to the bathroom silently, the sound of water falling in the shower confirms her suspicions, and she slowly opens the door, entering a rather average sized bathroom. Feeling the damp humid air waft over her as she enters. A mirror over the sink fogged up with condensation fills her view along with traditional white walls. She makes her way to the center of the bathroom and parks herself on the pink rug next to the toilet.
Setting down she watches Diamond under the water running a loofa slowly over her beautifully curved body. The water soaking into her coat and turning it into a deep purple, and her mane hanging like curtains over her ears. The sight driving Bella wild with lust. ‘By the stars she’s beautiful, I just want to squeeze her until she begs for mercy.’ She thinks to herself chuckling under her hoof quietly.
You know that feeling you get when you know you have the drop on someone, and that you have two options available. Leave quietly and pleasantly surprise them later... or, scare the crap out them. Bella’s face turns into a wicked grin and she chooses the latter.
“HI!” Bella shouts.
Diamond jumps into the air in a panic. ”Ahaaaaaaa!” She screams, dropping her loofa onto the shower floor, her eyes wide in shock and surprise. Bella falls to the floor laughing hysterically at the sight. Too busy slamming her hoof into the rug enjoying her mirth at Tiara’s expense she doesn't notice the shampoo bottle flying through the air at the speed of vengeance.
A loud conk echos through the bathroom as the shampoo bottle hits its intended target, bouncing off Bellas head and into the sink. “Oww!” Bella says rubbing the top of her head, looking over at Diamond, “that hurt!” She finishes pouting like a foal.
Her marefriend, looking very, very angry replies, “That was not funny!” Screaming and panting at the sudden surge of fear-fueled adrenaline.
Her face softens a bit as she looks Bella over. “Why are you all wet?”
Getting up off the floor, while rubbing her head she replies. “I wanted to take a shower I’ve been trotting out in the rain all night, and I feel dirty.”
Diamond’s face turns into a warm yet dangerous smile. “Bring me back my shampoo, would you dear.”
Bella shivers at the sultry tone in her voice, and grabs the shampoo bottle out of the sink moving over to the pink mare and hoofing it over to her. Diamond shoves the bottle into her chest “Wash my mane!”
Bella flinches at the sudden change in attitude, but her mouth curves into to a playful smile. “You know, you're very sexy when your angry.” Giggling like a filly she steps into the shower, the warm water hitting her coat soaking it further. She then squeezes a liberal amount of shampoo onto her hoof and starts to lathering it into Diamond’s mane, slowly. She just sighs annoyingly in response. “Just wash my mane, and maybe I’ll forget about you scaring me half to death,” she says, leaning back into Bella's chest giving her better access to her mane.
“I’m sorry,” Bella says sincerely, pulling the shower head down to rinses the soap out of her mane, running a hoof through it.
“I’m sure you are,” Diamond says, arching an eyebrow. “You probably just want to get some flank.”
Finishing up her little chore Bella puts the shower head back and wraps her hooves around Diamonds waist, laying her head on her shoulder. “I missed you.” She whispers softly into her ear. Diamond turns instantly around at that, breaking the embrace for only a moment. Forcing Bella to the shower floor with her hoof staring down at her with half lidded eyes. Bella just stares into her light blue eyes surprised, tasting her breath as she speaks. “I missed you too,” Diamond says while laying down on top of Bella’s chest, leaning down to trace her lips over Bella’s sensually.
Bella never knew what intimacy or romance was until Diamond came into her life. Before her, life was her job, her bar, and the alcohol to numb the pain of both... nothing else mattered. The heat coming from Diamond causing Bella to moan in pleasure, the mare on top dominating her mouth. Bella takes heavy panting breaths through her nose, the heat coming from the shower fills her lungs. She was losing her mind, the combination of warm humid air and a warm wet body on top of her, and she starts getting heavily aroused.
One of Diamond’s knees starts rubbing up against her most sensitive area. Her coat was wet from the long soak in the shower, causing the fine hairs to slide against Bellas marehood with incredible ease. Finally having enough, Diamond breaks the kiss, leaving Bella panting on the shower floor in a haze, slowly continuing her ministrations.
Through the haze and the panting she looks into the eyes of her beloved and sees a smirk across her face. Diamond Tiara then leans down and whispers softly into Bella's ear, “I have a surprise for you. Meet me in our room when you’re finished.” She says, getting off Bella’s chest, and walking out of the shower to pick up one of the towels on the rack and dry herself off.
Bella stands up from the shower floor, smiling serenely. “You know you could have just waited, now I’m all wet and ready to go.” She says, snickering at her very poor joke, picking up the loofa, running across her body very quickly.
Diamond rolls her eyes and looks at her. “I’ve been in that shower for the past fifteen minutes I think I’m clean.” She says defensively, and adding, “Besides, I don’t wish to prune.”
“Oh no, we don’t want that,” Bella says in a sarcastic voice, continuing ministrations with her loofa.
Shaking her head Diamond exits the bathroom, Bella staring at her behind as she does with a wicked grin.
Washing her mane she brushes a strand of hair out her sight and looks over at the radio on the shelf next to the shower and turns it on. A song starts playing over the radio that causes her to start moving her body to the sound of music.
Author's Note
