Dusk to Dawn

Ink was alive, but for a moment, she couldn't tell if she was awake or asleep. The sounds around her were all muffled. She felt heavy. She tried to move, but couldn't. She could barely breathe. For a moment, it seemed panic would set it in, but she forced herself to draw in the deepest breaths she could manage. Much to her relief, the numbness slowly receded into just tingling in her limbs. Ink was almost mortified to feel a low moan escape her lips.

“Ah good, you're awake,” came a rough voice, sounding completely calm despite the controlled panic she felt. Ink struggled to open her eyes against the lingering stupor, but managed to open them enough to see the world through a blurry haze. She couldn't help but gasp.

Perhaps she had been expecting the dark basement of a rotting building, filled with puddles of unidentifiable fluids and rats. Perhaps she had been expecting darkness. Maybe she had spent too many nights staying up and reading worn out murder novels. Whatever she had expected, this definitely was not it.

She lay on a soft daybed in a brightly lit, cavernous room. She had been stripped of her weapons and cloak, but they were neatly arranged on a table nearby- easily in view as if to reassure her. All around her hung red tapestries adorned with silver embroidery. Imported elaborate area rugs. Shelves filled with books. Racks of well cared-for weapons lined the smooth, white walls. Ink Flash looked up to see a large, doomed ceiling carved into what looked like stone. She guessed this place was underground from the lack of natural lighting.

Then she turned her attention to the black, stallion pegasus that stood beside her bed. His mane and tail were cropped short, a similar color to her coat. He had a thin line of silver spots that ran across his nose and as she looked closely, she could see that he was missing the tips of both ears. He watched her with stern eyes that were the same color as her own and he also had the same brilliant red hooves.

“Star Strike.”

He rolled his eyes, “You could at least call me your father.”

Ink let out a hard laugh as she carefully got up, legs still wobbling from the anesthetic in the dart. “After what you put me through, no. Besides,” she tossed her mane out of her eyes, “you disowned me after I declared myself apprentice to Night, remember? You claimed I was turning my back on everything the Order stood for and chose not to recognize me as your daughter anymore.”

The stallion glared at her, “And after I bring you here so you could be safe...”

“My alliance is no longer solely with the Order, Star Strike,” Ink walked over to the table and picked up her cloak, putting it back on. “I'm a Bleeding Moon now.”

“I can see that,” he growled. “But understand this, Ink Flash, no matter how skilled you've gotten over the past few years, you'll never be able to handle this alone. Nopony can. So for now, you'll have to control your pride long enough to work with us.”

Ink only nodded, strapping on all of her weapons. A black and white kodachi on her back. A bandoleer of throwing knives across her chest, the blades placed high enough on the strap to be hidden under her cloak. Her hoof blades, the edges of the blades made with diamond and cased in leather to keep her hoof-steps quiet. She paused and looked around with confusion when she realized a main part of her arsenal was missing.

“Where is my dagger?” she asked in a low voice that somehow still managed to echo off the walls of the room.

“What are you talking about?” He sighed at his daughter's distrustful gaze, “I'm not lying, Ink, when I say those are all we found you with in the street.” Ink was surprised to hear actual concern in her father's voice. “Are you saying you had the family dagger with you?”

Ink nodded slowly, trying to think over what she chose to bring. Perhaps she did not wear it in its holster and that was why she couldn't find it. She opened the leather satchel that sat next to the table and rummaged through it. More throwing knives. A map. A picture of a pale, tan unicorn filly sleeping as a bright blue stallion unicorn kept watch nearby. Another of Silent Shadow, face coated with sweat as he bent over a superheated metal blank in the forge. Bandages. But her dagger was nowhere to be found.

Her face creased with worry. Surely there had to be some mistake. No. There were no holes in her bag, so it couldn't have fallen out on the way here.

“Did you stop for the night somewhere?” Her father suggested, voice steeped in worry.

Ink only shook her head and sat back on her haunches, rubbing the spot between her eyes with one hoof and letting the other trail down her neck absently. For a moment, she paused and was alarmed that she did not feel the thin chain that usually hung there. Her heart rate immediately picked up.“Did you find me with a necklace on that looked like my cutie mark?”

Her father nodded and left the room for a moment before returning and hoofing her a slightly tarnished silver chain. From it hung the pendant of a blue sapphire heart with a sword through it. Ink hastily put the necklace back on, tucking it under the collar of her cloak.

“At least I know one powerful relic I carry is safe,” she grumbled, putting her things back in her satchel.

“Is it precious to you?”

Ink nodded. “An ex of mine gave it to me after he found it tucked in one of his family's old journals with a poem saying how the one who bears a cutie mark similar to the pendant can use it for temporary, but powerful, magic. I never used it or wore it when I was younger because I was always afraid of magic. I grew to be slightly more accepting as the years passed.” She nervously, almost absent-mindedly, clutched the pendant with one hoof. “Of course only I can use it, but I still wear it for safe keeping.”

Star Strike nodded, a soft, knowing smile on his lips.

Ink shook her head, “But that's not the point right now.” She sighed, “As much as it pains me to say it, yes, I know I'll have to work with you. I was toying with the idea of going home to get Night, but even then...” She hook her head. “That, and I don't want to involve him. Or Thunder.” She smiled softly at the mention of the filly, her thoughts drifting back to more innocent times she spent with the filly's father. Her smile grew deeper as her thoughts drifted farther, all the way to her former master and how their relationship had changed over the years. She looked at her father to see what she thought was annoyance in his eyes at the way his daughter spoke so fondly of this stallion whom he saw as unfit to carry the title of “assassin.”

Of course the two had grown close during the year and few months she was his apprentice. It was almost impossible not to, especially when Ink's only ambition for the longest time was to get a proud smile out of her master. She wanted nothing more than to make him proud, and it remained that way today. If she were speaking to anypony else, she would have called him her husband. But that would be a title she couldn't give him in front of her father, even if was true. She needed Star Strike to cooperate with her, and vice versa. There was no point in one making the other mad simply because of past disagreements.

As the two sat there in silence, Ink could see her father trying to control she thought was his anger. Even after all this time, she was sure he remained bitter that she had left him. She had chosen to learn from another pony that she had only known for a short time before he offered to train her. But she had her reasons, and Star Strike tried to understand that. He tried to see the way things seemed to be through Ink's eyes. She had been miserable. She had felt like a slave, a victim. He had been impatient with her, too hasty. When he looked at her training under his guidance that way, it was painfully obvious why she chose to leave him for Silent Shadow.

Star Strike had to hide the smile that was slowly twisting its way across his face when Ink turned to look at him. He had always loved his daughter, never had he been so hard on her because he didn't. He had wanted her to be the best, to prove that she did not have to be a colt to live up to the family tradition. And in a way, he had to admit, she had done that and much more.

The only thorn in his side was that she did it all under the banner of the Bleeding Moons.

And that was a stigma alone, even just for him.

“Wise choice,” he spoke up softly. “I can tell you love him very much.” He held up a hoof to tell her to wait, “And I have to admit, from what I've heard, he did a wonderful job training you. I'm interested to see what the others will think of you-”

The door to the hideout creaked open and both fell quiet instantly. There was the clopping of two sets of hooves on stone steps in another room. With a sigh, Star Strike went to the door of the room he and Ink were in and pushed it open, motioning for her to follow him. Cautiously, Ink crept over as her father pushed the door open and revealed a much larger room that resembled the grand hall of a mansion. It was decorated in a similar fashion to the other room.

In the middle of the hall stood one pegasus mare, only slightly younger than Ink, and a younger stallion unicorn. They were bickering over something, their white robes dusty and torn in places to reveal angry looking wounds. Even from where she stood, Ink could tell the mare was barely standing.

As she and her father walked into the room, the two stopped bickering. Both sets of eyes fell on Ink Flash, on her black cloak and red hooves that matched her father's. Of course both who knew who she was. Ink had no doubt that everypony here would know who she was, but she was unsure of what they had been told about her. Had they been told the stories of brutality that she often heard whispered on the wind? The twisted stories of exploits that actually belonged to her old master? Or had they been told of the simple assassin just trying to make a living for herself and her adopted daughter?

The mare was the first to speak up, “Are you-?” The unicorn nudged her nervously and shot her a warning glance.

Ink smiled, finding her own voice and stepping out from behind her father. “Yes, I am Ink Flash. I don't know what you've been told, but I'm not a ruthless killer. Within the Order or no, I have morals.”

“I know that,” the mare smiled, her emerald eyes sparkling, “My brother is the one who believes all those crazy stories of you going on rampages or whatever.”

Ink couldn't help but chuckle. “Stories like that are often created out nothing but ignorant fear. Such as the ones about my own master.” She smiled, “Now, your names are..?”

“Moonshine,” the mare spoke up, “Because of my dark mane.” She looked at the unicorn, who took a step behind her.

Ink couldn't help but smile. Celestia only knew what these two had been told about her. And while Moonshine saw that Ink's words about not being a ruthless killer were true, her brother was not so sure. Ink smiled and peered around Moonshine at him, eyes gentle.

“What have you been told about me, little one, that makes you so scared of just my name?”

He shook his head, golden eyes wide in fear. “Y-you killed fifty other ponies with no r-real p-p-problem...and y-you-”

Ink held up a hoof. “The most I've fought at once was ten. And it was one of the worst fights I've been in.” She held up the tails of her cloak to show a thin, pink line that ran through her cutie mark. “It was my first mission without Silent. He decided I was experienced enough to handle it on my own.” She sighed and let her cloak fall back into place, hanging her head, “I was severely out numbered.” She shivered as she thought about it, “I couldn't even move afterwards. I was collapsed on the ground, one enemy left, staring at me with contempt in her eyes as my own started to flutter shut. Just as I thought I was done for, Silent appeared just as his name suggests and saved me.” She laughed harshly and closed her eyes. “I'm not the invincible wraith ponies make me out to be. They only fear me because of the red moon on my back, because of the stories associated with it. No pony knows me for me.”

Silence fell on the room.

Star Strike eventually sighed and came to stand beside his daughter. “It doesn't matter where her loyalty lies. She is my daughter, a high ranking member of the Order,” he looked at Ink with a smile, “and I trust her.”