Thistles of Circumstance - Equestrian Rain

by ThistlesOfCircumstance

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Random, Human
Length: 7644

A pair of Dimension hopping bounty hunters wind up on Equs, Equestria. Their job one of necessity and their reasons their own. However the pleasant world may not be all it appears as darkness conspires to throw the world into chaos and despair.

Silver and Quill. A mage and an assassin, though I dislike the term. We even have a name for little Duo. "Thistles of Circumstance". I thought it was rather clever.

Our unlikely partnership started as a temporary thing and I had intended for it to stay that way. However, things change. A royal screw up during our last assignment together forced us to run from our home. With no way to clear our name we can never return. What's worse is we're being followed. By who or what we're not sure but we don't intend to find out if we can help it.

We fled the only way we could, through the very dimensions themselves. We take work where we can find it in a form that suits our unique talents; Bounty hunting. Dirty work but it pays well enough and accommodates our nomadic lifestyle.

We never stay in one place for too long but this time something felt different, wrong. The harmonious nature of this world is a front, a guise, the rug under which you sweep the secrets you want to stay hidden. A rug which fate has politely turned the corners up for us to trip on.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-15 22:12:00 UTC

Another Day, Another Job

This is a collaboration fic between myself and a friend. Each chapter will alternate between my character and his from their perspective. Updates weekly. Tuesday being my chapter and Thursday being his. We're putting out the first two chapters to begin with so you can get a feel for the characters and our writing styles. Be sure to point out any flaws etc. so we can fix 'em and let us know what you think!

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Breathe.

Focus.

Look with more than just your eyes.

I recalled the lessons of my old master as I lined up my shot.

Never did quite understand that one, I get that you have to use your other senses and such to get a good feel for your environment before making a move but... He could’ve phrased it better

I was perched in a somewhat precarious position between a tree and a cliff edge. It looked kinda cool, but it was pretty uncomfortable. Clad in black my hair tied back underneath my hood and face hidden by my mask. It wasn't really necessity just a habit. Also my mask currently smelled like lavender. Don't ask. Up to this moment I had been eying up the clearing below just waiting.

“Just go up there and wait for the signal” I mimicked in a sarcastic tone “You’ll know it when you see it~”.

My partner, Silver, was a damn good mage but he was also an arrogant one. If we didn’t make such an effective team I probably would have killed him years ago. Aright maybe not but I keep telling myself that to make it easier to listen to him. Not that I didn’t like the guy, on the contrary we’re good friends. But gods if that smartass attitude of his doesn't irritate me. He always acted like he knew everything. Worst part about that is I honestly believe he did.

We’re out here in the middle of this forest for a mark. You see we’re bounty hunters. Dimension hopping bounty hunters at that. We hop around a lot because once we’ve been in a dimension for long enough, we tend to piss off the locals by being... well by being too good at what we do. When that happens we dimension hop. It sounds easy but I’m assured it’s not. Apparently it’s a ‘high level and complex spell’ and I ‘wouldn’t understand the intricacies of the arcane arts’. Damn mage.

It was quite a pretty place honestly. Trees grew everywhere, each one a luscious green. We seem to have arrived at a good time for sightseeing, the sun reflected off the dew covered leaves making the forest literally sparkle.

It seemed to be the peak of spring; you could feel that slight chill in the air. Perfect. In the clearing below lay a small lake of sorts. The water was a beautiful shade of blue its reflections rippling in the light. Scattered flowers lay about, likely weeds really, akin to a dandelion. They look nice but no one really grows them on purpose. All in all it was a peaceful scene.

Y’know, minus the hulking monstrosity that was currently fucking it up.

The beast was roughly ten feet tall. Humanoid.  Its skin was a kind of pasty greyish white, it almost looked sick. Spikes coming out of its shoulders, not sure if it was armour or natural, though the only other clothing it was wearing was a loin cloth so I’m guessing natural.

I’d expected to see a makeshift club in its clutches, but no. A giant claymore lay next to it. At least its guard is down, makes my job easier. I thought. This thing is a complete terror, been ransacking the farmsteads on the outskirts of the kingdom. The locals claim they did nothing to incite this beasts incursion into their lands but to be honest I doubt it's here for kicks. Frankly I don't care.  The lord had placed a nice bounty on its head and I intend to collect.

To be honest, our lives aren’t glamorous. In fact they’re downright dangerous but we don’t really have much of a choice.  We both have our reasons for running away from our original universe. Actually they’re the same reason.

I’m adamant it was his fault though; he just can’t leave well enough alone sometimes. But I digress.

"Dee" I said, calling for my magical construct.

Dee appeared in a small ball of, actually nothing. It's like he just comes out of the darkness its quite impressive. Dee took the form of a black monarch butterfly, I didn't chose that form its apparently something that he takes from his masters mind during binding.

Turning to him I said "Gimmie an analysis", Dee complied.

Silver made him for me as a birthday present. His function was analytical in nature but he was a sassy little shit. I think Silver did that to annoy me. Jokes on him though, he annoys the shit out of Silver more than he does me. Poetry in motion.

"Creature matches the locals decryptions of a sub species of ogre known as 'Ogrim', Its weapon would not have been forged by locals, far too big, this suggests it has some form of society, one at least capable of metal working, possibly more nearby" Dee paused for a moment.

"Carnivorous"

The creature had been sitting in the middle of the clearing, eating what looked to be a cow. Oh no cow! Poor cow, I would have named it Bessie.Dee continued,

"Strength comes from its upper body, weak point appears to be... its neck. How conventional, if not a little boring, you're a lucky one today"

As a final note Dee added "It's also quite large"

"Yes thank you Dee..." He really could annoy me but he's handy.

"No problem sir" He replied, annoyingly chipper.

I dismissed him with a nod and he faded back into nothingness.

I’d been perched between this tree and cliff for close to an hour now just watching this thing enjoy its lunch. Even its eating habits are grotesque. Taking large slobbering mouthfuls, chewing for minutes at a time. No wonder it's not finished yet.  All the better, since Silver seemed keen on taking his own damn time. Whatever he’s gonna do, it’s probably elaborate and overly complicated. I wonder what this ‘signal’ is gonna be.

No sooner had I thought it, I saw it. I think everyone within a 3 mile radius saw it. Hell Bessie probably saw it and she was DEAD!

Out from the brush directly in front of the Ogrim shot a brilliant beam of light. It struck it square in the chest, as the Ogrim recoiled in surprise and probably pain, that didn’t look particularly fun. I was about to make my move when another beam shot out from behind it. The Ogrim was shunted forward, pushing it into the first beam, evidently not to its particular liking as it let out a roar that could shatter windows. I’m not even kidding that thing had some bass to it.

Two more from either side of the creature made contact, pinning it in place. That wasn’t the end of it though, the 4 beams split at their points of contact forming a ring. The ring then tightened around the creature, pinning its arms at its sides.

Letting out another roar, the creature struggled against its confines. It clearly wasn’t happy.

'I think that was the signal. It’s certainly flashy eno-' My thoughts were interrupted by a final flash from the forest. The bolt shot up into the air and exploded in a brilliant white.

“I’m going to kill him, I'm going to kill that, then I’m killing him.”

Hovering in the air in the wake of the flash was simply the word ‘Signal!’

I quickly took aim and loosed my arrow. Leaping from my position I drew my sword and plummeted towards the mark. The arrow made contact with the things left eye. I allowed myself a moment of smugness before the creature turned to me, after all that was a damned good shot, looking up and exposing its neck.

One swing and it was over, the creatures head was rendered from its shoulders. Landing with a dull thud and rolling away, I quickly got to my feet, momentum still carrying me, and turned to face the headless Ogrim , skidding to a halt.

It slumped in its position. Dead. That went... a little too smoothly. The beams of lights faded and the binding with them. The creature fell over, its head a few feet from it. Shortly after there was a rustling from the bushes behind me.

“Ah so you DID notice the signal, good”

Silver strode out, confident as always and that smug grin on his face.

Oh right, I need to kill him.

“Silver I’ve enjoyed our friendship but I’m afraid I am going to have to kill you now, good bye"

And with that, I stabbed him in the chest.

Silver dissolved into confetti. An illusion spell, Figures. He knows what he did.

“I thought about snowflakes, but I felt more in a partying mood if you know what I mean. Why the hostility? I thought you’d appreciate a nice obvious signal!” You could TASTE the sarcasm. It tasted like purple.

The real Silver strode out of the bushes as I sheathed my sword.

“Oh hah hah... One of these days I really will kill you” I didn’t mean it but that’s just how our friendship worked. It’s a constant back of forth of jokes and insults and death threats. The last one is mostly from me though.

Silver looked around. His singed white hair and beard always makes me laugh. His magical experiments tend to have... explosive results. It happens often enough that it pretty much looks that way all the time. He was a bit taller than me standing at 6 foot. His green eyes always gave the impression that he was planning something and he usually was. His robes were the colour of sarcasm. That is to say purple. Can't say he doesn't stand out from the rest.

He spoke “We should collect the head, get our bounty and skip this dimension” his tone was serious and I knew exactly why.

“Agreed” Pulling back my hood and my mask I followed his line of sight to a patch of bushes to the east. Resting my hand on my swords hilt I turn back to Silver.

“How many?” I asked scanning the area around us.

“Too many” he replied “Forget the head we’re leaving” He spread his arms “I’m opening the portal, cover me” he clapped his hands together and held them there, a look of concentration across his face.

Now I’m not one for magic, however I do have two particular skills that are almost as good: Sigil evocation, and hand sign energy manipulation.

Neither are like spell based magic where you’re required to manipulate mana in some complex pattern and then release it out in the form you chose.

Sigil evocation requires you to draw out a specific pattern, then charge it with mana and poof! Instant spell.  These are great since you can draw them on paper and pull them out at a moment’s notice and don't require complex mana control. You just can’t have too many variants on you at once, else you’ll have a hard time discerning one from the other. Unless you're incredibly organized.

Hand sign energy manipulation, or sigh weaving for short, is a popular art among ninjas since they’re easy to deploy in battle and emit no actual energy until they’re cast. Silent and undetectable until it's too late. They require no mana and you can have a great deal of variance with these but their uses are limited to offensive and personal modification. I.e. a fireball or stimulating your muscles to increase your reflexes or your ability to jump / land easier. Unless you get creative. And by creative I mean downright stupid, Needless to say I have some creative techniques at my disposal.

An advanced used of weaving can actually skip the whole weaving part for basic spells like the afore mentioned muscle stimulation, allowing for quick use at a moment’s notice.

The present situation called for something a little flashier though. I always keep one sigil pre-drawn for emergencies. Pulling the scroll from the loop on my belt I laid it on the ground in front of me and slammed my palm into it.

“You know, you don’t need to be so forceful it’s a sigil not a horse” Silver jibed

"Not now Sil'" I warned. "Jokes later, portal now"

I wasn’t in the mood for his games. What should have been a victory and a good meal later had turned into a battle situation. Charging the sigil, the diagram  rapidly expanded outward.  Upon reaching the size I was comfortable with I twisted my hand clockwise and a bubble started to form, rising from the edge of the now expanded sigil. Good timing too, no sooner had it raised past my eye level than had three arrows struck the barrier. That was a little too close. With that thought I poured more mana into the sigil and the bubble quickly finished forming. We we’re safe, for now.

Funny thing about sigils is that they’re actually quite tricky in their application. Some require a constant stream of power, whilst others, which I had dubbed flash spells, needed only the minimum required mana to activate and then it was done.

This one was the former; I was stuck like this until Silver could get the portal open. Problem was under these circumstances I’d limited the amount of magic he could access from the world meaning he had to fuel the spell entirely on his own mana supply. He could do it but it was going to take time. Again not really a problem, apart from my mana pool being rather limited. in fact it was pretty poor. I might have to improvise.

"Dee" I called. Dee appeared again settling on my shoulder. "With my mana, how long do I have before the shield collapses?"

For all his sarcasm Dee knew when things were serious, Silver could learn from him.

"The strength of this sigil will drain it completely in about 5 minutes"

I nodded

"No way to boost the duration at all?"

"None"

Not good.

I looked over to Silver who was completely silent, unmoving. Concentrating on the spell meaning I couldn’t ask him how long he actually needed to open the portal.

Four men emerged from the bushes, the leader of which I recognized instantly. “Brutus. I should have known” I spat. There's no love between us, he was the best bounty hunter around, all the big scores were left for him out of respect or fear. Which is probably why he took offense when we came along and started plucking his prizes right out from under him. We've exchanged words, some more harsh than others, but we've never fought. I have no idea what he's capable of.

I was about to call him out on his little sneak attack but seeing as it's my preferred method of doing things I held my tongue. “What do you want?” I asked. I’d honestly rather NOT talk to him but I need to stall for time. The group strode up to the barrier and stopped a few feet short of its boundaries.

Brutus was a...larger fellow who made no effort to hide it. His shirtless body, balding black hair and bulging gut made him kinda hard to miss in a crowd. His two handed war hammer  was held in his right hand and laid across his shoulders like some sort of toy. I’ll say this for the man, he’s got some strength.

He Laughed. “Ha! Ain’t it obvious? I’m here to claim my bounty and kill you two pests in the process. And it looks like you’ve already taken care of the Ogrim for me, thanks for that”

If I could spit through this barrier I’d definitely have done it by now. I glanced at his lackeys, Hooded but obviously archers,

"Dee"

He quickly complied "None of the group's members possess any magical abilities"

Dee's analysis abilities were astounding at times, he had assessed the situation and deemed telepathy the best form of contact.

No magical talent among them good, they can’t break this barrier then. I thought.

I could take them. I’d quickly dispatch his scrawny men and then him. He’s big and physically stronger, but I was certainly faster. Only problem was Silver, he’d be defenseless. I can’t take that risk. Gotta wait for an opportunity then take them out quickly.

“Come on and make this easy on me, lower this barrier, if not...” he raised his war hammer, still in one hand. Still impressed by the way, but I still hate his face. He slammed it against the barrier, causing it to ripple. I winced at that. What? I felt that I thought. How the hell did I feel that? Whatever that’s not important. What IS important is I apparently have less time to get rid of them.

I racked my brain for a way out.

"Dee. Options. Now."

Dee paused for a moment, he had an idea but I don't think he liked it one bit.

"Overcharge the sigil enough to destabilise it"

Good idea actually. But there was a problem.

"Dee I don't have that kind of mana control"

"No but I do"

And like that I understood his plan. That's why he was sat on my shoulder. He was a clever one. I'd had a suspicion that he could see everything I did when he wasn't summoned, this basically confirmed it. He planned to manipulate the mainstream in my arm.

Now overcharging a sigil is obviously dangerous, however the risk varies depending on the sigil in question. A fireball sigil would literally explode, not unlike Silvers experiments, where as a shield one. Well that would explode too. Sigils seem to explode a lot. However instead of flat out overcharging it, If I put just enough mana into it whilst simultaneously changing its frequency It would destabilise it. Producing a disastrous effect when struck.

Brutus raised his hammer again and spoke “Now I’m gonna count to three before I start pounding this shield of yours into nothing, and then do the same to you”

I glared at him in response

“ONE”

I felt a jolt in my arm, Dee had established his link.

“TWO”

I lifted my hand form the sigil paper so only my fingertips were touching it

“THREE”

Brutus swung his hammer, with BOTH of his hands. Just before it hit the barrier I lowered my hand again, striking the sigil paper with my palm and releasing the mana burst. The barrier visibly started to crack and waver, Brutus smiled, but not for long. Now for the fun part.

Mentally I said, 'Sorry Sil' can't afford to take any chances. They need to die. '

As Brutus struck the barrier it exploded outwards in a devastating shockwave, his war hammer was wrenched from his grip, smashing into the face of one of his goons.

Dee quickly took his leave.

One down. Now free of the sigil paper I sprang forward throwing two knives at his remaining men. One pierced the throat of the man on the right. It pierced his jugular vein and he collapsed to the ground in gurgling pile, clutching his neck.

Two down

The other went straight through the eye of the other and into his brain. Death was instant as he joined his comrades on the ground.

Three down

My foot hit the ground as I stood before Brutus, before he could react I brought my knee straight up, leaping upwards and hitting him square on the chin. He didn’t fall but it forced him backwards.

Determined not to let him get his bearings I threw my remaining knife at him and as soon as my feet hit the ground I charged. He blocked the knife with his arm, blood seeping out of the wound. He didn’t even look like he felt it, just tossed it away like it was nothing. This didn't look like an easy fight to win. No matter I didn’t need to beat him, just keep him busy. Aiming low I attempted to sweep out his legs, the key was to keep him off balance.

This promptly backfired. I made contact alright, hitting his ankle with a resounding thud. He didn’t budge.  What the hell was this guy made of?!

Brutus smirked and brought his free leg up for a kick to the chest. I was thrown backwards, the wind knocked out of me. This man was insanely strong. Brutus laughed as he stalked towards me. If I kept this up, it wasn’t going to end well. I looked over to Silver, his arms still spread wide, same as  before. However the air in front of him was starting to warp and bend.

Silver was in his own world of complex mana manipulation and calculation. The rupturing of the barrier had allowed him access to the worlds ambient magic. All worlds had this, that he knew of, and it was great for larger spells if you knew how to draw on it. The addition of the world magic had forced him to recalculate his mana input and distribution. By the time the portal was finished he knew that either I or my opponent would be dead. The latter would be preferable.

Good, any minute now we’ll be home free. Question is how do I delay this monster long enough? I looked around for something to use to my advantage. There was nothing but 3 small corpses, and one LARGE one, The Ogrim we’d slain only moments before this ass showed up. Not much I can do with that. Its sword was also laying nearby, shame it's not my size. For a crude looking weapon it had a certain charm to it.

Ok first things first, I had to push Brutus back. He was getting too close to Sil'. I had an idea.

Rising to my feet I stared him directly in the face, causing him to stop. I tightened my silver hair in its ponytail and pulled it fully out of the back of my shirt. Ironic that I should have the silver hair considering.

Brutus stood there bemused "Nice hair goldy locks”

Oh come on, I'm not even blonde I thought.

He started plucking his war hammer from the skull of unfortunate goon number 1. It seemed to be stuck? A man of his strength would have no problem separating steel from grey matter. His plan was somewhat obvious. But I played along. I could use it to my advantage.

I took a powerful first step and bounded forward charging right at him, weaving three hand signs. The signs for ‘Dense’, ‘air’ and ‘force’. Three quick hand movements and I brought my arms to chest level, pulling my elbows back.

Brutus sprung his less than subtle trap and swung his war hammer in a horizontal arc. I ducked under it, taking the final step forward and thrusting both hands into his chest. For a moment nothing happened, then a pressure bubble in front of my hands burst, you could see his skin rippling from the impact. Frankly it was a disturbing sight. The force of it threw him back a good 200 metres straight into a tree. Made one hell of an impact and, I kid you not, he went right through it! Any normal man would have died. This was however obviously no normal man, still I allowed myself the victory,

“Too many” I scoffed. “This is what you call too many? Pfft”

I walked back to Silver, keeping an eye on the forest where Brutus had disappeared into. As I got there Silver thrust his arms outwards and the air in front of him tore apart in a yellow flash, a portal now stood before us. It looked like he'd literally just tore a hole in space time. Kinda badass but I'd never admit that.

Turning around he saw what remained Brutus’ ‘friends’ and gave me a disappointed look.

"Quill... was killing them necessary?"

"Yes" I replied with total certainty. I had no other way without compromising his safety at that time.

“Also. Too many? Come on man have some faith!” Ignoring the fact that I didn’t actually kill Brutus, just knocked the wind out of him for a minute.

“That’s not what I me-” I cut him off

“Ah ah ahh you can’t take it back now! Face it I overcame what you wanted to run from”

“As I recall you agreed we should leave” He retorted.

He was right but I’d never admit that to his face

“I said nothing of the sort!”

Silver was about to argue when he was interrupted again, but this time not by me.

“YOUR LITTLE TRICKS WON’T WORK ON ME BOYS”

Ahh shit. Brutus recovered quicker than I thought and he sounded piiiiiissed. Standing atop the corpse of the creature he held his war hammer in one hand and the Ogrim head in the other.

“YOUR HEADS WILL SIT ON MY MANTLE RIGHT NEXT TO HIS!"

A large creature emerged from the forest behind Brutus, then another and another. Oh. Too many, it made sense now.

Apparently he drowned the sound of its approach out with his yelling. This other Ogrim was looking a lot more pissed off than Brutus. It was looking at him, more specifically the head he was holding.

“I’M GOING TO BEAT YOU TWO TO WITHIN AN INCH OF YOUR LIVES THEN MAKE YOU WATCH AS THE OTHER SLOWLY BLEEDS TO DE-“ his colourful threat was cut short as the Ogrim behind him struck him with its club at an alarming speed. Brutus was nothing but a smear on the side of its weapon now. It walked over to the body of the headless Ogrim and let out a roar. It almost sounded...sad? I felt no guilt or regret. I did however have the urge to leave.

I turned to Silver.

“So Sil’, Portal?”

Silver looked at me with an amused look.

“Yes Quill. Portal”.

We jumped through and the portal closed behind us.

I never know where we’ll end up next.

The Chapter of Seconds

My teacher was a rather odd specimen, his large wings were the only reason he wasn't doubled over with age. Or maybe it was the seventh eye that never looked directly at you that weirded me out so much.

Despite all his quirks, he was a great master of magic. "Any mage worth his butter won't ever test his wills against another." he said to me one day, "A battle of mages is one of ingenuity."

After seeing his underground aerial reversal mines, I could see what he was talking about.

Having torn another rip through dimensions, both me and Quill fell through the "hole" that connected us to another dimension. That's not really what was happening, but it makes more sense than what was.

I felt bad for the men who had been sent after us, they had only been doing their jobs. Quill has quite the candid way of dealing with things, but I guess it keeps me on my toes. He does what he can I suppose.

We landed rather abruptly on the other side, only to see that we hadn't really changed scenery all that much. The grass was still green, and the trees still covered with leaves. Maybe a bit off color, but that was to be expected.

"Is a smoother landing so much to ask for?"

Possibly I suppose. There are other ways of opening dimensional portals, but I'm not keen on most of them. I'm not a fan of hunting down winged lash-tongues for their eyes, nor do I like stretching myself across time and space. Instead of explaining this to my simple friend, I merely replied,

"Think of it as training. Your masters would be disappointed that you can't land on your feet after just a quick portal jump."

Quill merely gave me a sign with his hand to let me know what he thought about that.

As is our strategy for arriving in unknown areas, we split up. Quill went to scout out the surrounding area for danger, and to see if we accidentally took anything with us. I began to get a feel for the world around me.

Each world has its own ambient magic, but not all of them have the same kind. There isn't much difference between them, but enough to where I have to adjust my spells. I'm fairly quick at the calculations now, but it used to take quite some time before I could cast again.

Once certain I was adjusted, I cast my first spell. My vision darkened, and then quickly returned better than before. Now able to see the magical make up of the things around me, my next spells would be even easier. I heard Quill from across the field we had landed in say,

"You still need that spell? I thought you said you were beyond it now."

Inwardly I smiled. He was right of course, the spell was more of a precaution than anything else. After so many dimensional jumps, my instinct is quite adapt at judging the world around me. However, it had the added bonus of making Quill look like a stick figure, and that was humorous to me.

"I'm sure I said it was beyond you or something of the sort."

I was still a bit irritated at him for killing the bystanders. Not only are we already running, but he isn't making the problem any better by slaughtering anyone who looks at us funny. More importantly though, you never know what will happen when someone dies. That's still one of those things that no one quite understands.

After a few basic mapping spells, among other things, I had found the nearest settlement. Quill had finished his surveying by the time I did this, so he was standing in the field waiting on me.

"What did you find?" He asked.

"Oh this and that. Some form of intelligent life."

"How do you know that exactly? I don't recall your surveying spell being that informative."

I smiled for I knew the information I had would surely annoy him. Stifling my own humor I said,  "Well judging by the way the two forms in the nearest us are going at it, they've got to be civilized in some way."

Without his mask on I could see Quill's head shake with disbelief. The look of annoyance was highly satisfactory.

"Just how does that prove they're intelligent and civilized. Cows do it too, doesn't make them anything of the sort."

My inner smile only grew bigger, I'd wager it reached my eyes. "Toys" I said smugly.

Quill made a curious face then, the one he makes when he's between anger and annoyance, and then threw a dagger at me. Expecting this, I merely returned the dagger to its sheath before it could make contact. Though I'm sure if it had made contact, I would no longer be standing. The fact that Quill has survived this long is a testament to his skill. I debated on telling him that I had seen a house in a village not to far from here, and that's how I deduced the intelligent factor, but I decided not to.

Quill gave me another look that said he meant serious business and asked,

"Okay... Are there any cities nearby?"

I'll be honest, it's hard to be a mage. I have to juggle being insane, grumpy, and snarky all at the same time. At least that's what my teacher told me. I have a really hard time with the grumpy bit I admit.

"No" I replied with my best drawl, "I actually opened a dimension that has herds of nomads with no centralized civilization."

That could be possible really, if I hadn't seen the village already. Quill doesn't know, but I have no idea of where we'll end up. Tholgrain's algorithm for dimensional portals doesn't have room for parameters or coordinates. Instead it just dumps you in a random place, although I'm told it does try to put you somewhere you won't just die immediately. On the bright side, the portals don't leave residue, so no one could follow us through that method.

Quill merely sighed this time, meaning I'd have to improve upon my snarkyness in the future, and just asked for a direction to walk in. Deciding I'd had enough of this field, I moved towards the village.

"Do you think we'll need illusions?" Quill asked.

I opted for a straight answer, "I can only guess. I know it would be easier if I could tell right off, but I can't. The proper term is veil by the way, since we are disguising ourselves with the magic."

"I suppose I should get ready then" He said as he began rummaging amongst his person.

The first dimension we had been chased out of had been because the inhabitants had never seen a humanoid before. After that we had come up with a little test. We find a singular inhabitant, I introduce myself, if they freak out, Quill takes them out. With a sleeping dart or sigil of course. Then I make the inhabitant sort of glaze over the last few moments.

We approached the outskirts of the town cautiously, keeping a lookout for anyone that might try to sneak up on us. The first house had a back door that was luckily left unlocked.  We entered the kitchen area, and heard soft noises from upstairs.

We checked the house out, and found no one else in the living place. Quill went up the stairs, and approached the room echoing noises. My mage sight allowed me to see there was some sort of heavy magic material across the door. Some sort of silencing bubble was my best guess.

Quill looked at me, I nodded, and he flung the door open.

The look on his face, and the look on the locals face will be a memory I hope to keep for awhile. Quill had managed to reveal a small horse of bright color, wearing a towel on its head. The horse opened its mouth to scream, but true to his talent, Quill had a dart in its body before it could. I hadn't even seen him move for that one.

Quill turned to face me and said, "Well... That's new."

I reached up to brush my hair back, forgetting momentarily that it had been blown off not to long ago, "I don't think I've ever seen something not human wearing a towel on its head before."

We both looked down at the creature, who was currently having a nice nap. Contemplating I said, "I suggest veils for now, although our test isn't really conclusive. Put it on the bed will you?"

Quill did so while I pulled out a monocle from what Quill called my funbag. It wasn't really a monocle in the sense that it was used as an eye sight handicap thing. I had... procured it from a local artifact dealer in some other realm before this whole mess started.

It was heavily enchanted, beyond what simple mage sight can do. However, looking through it all the time can cause massive migraines, so I use it for precision work only. Now able to see all the tiny little ley lines running through the creatures brain, I could precisely remove the memory of it seeing us.

Of course if it thought to hard on why it was in bed, it would realize it was forgetting something, but it would be hard pressed to remember what. I would've liked to take time to read more of its memories, but that takes an excruciatingly long time to do.

So instead I took off the monocle, and turned to face Quill. "That should do it, take a look at her, any fine details I'm missing?"

While I'm certainly good at the intricate arts and patience is certainly a requirement, I prefer to leave the detail refinement to Quill. He has a certain... knack for finding all the kinks in any creature's body. Quite creepy really.

"Looks like a normal horse to me. Minus the pastel colour anyways. There seems to be some sort of design on its flank.. Apparently it has a pie tattooed on its arse. There's no extra bones or muscles beyond normal."

"One broody black mini horse veil coming right up."

Quill quickly put in, "Its usually referred to as a pony."

Ignoring him, I put my hand a few inches away from Quill's chest, muttered a few fancy words that don't actually mean anything, and poof. In front of me stood a black mini horse with a silver mane. Of course with my mage sight I could see beyond the veil, not the death one mind you, and see and outline of Quill's real body.

A few changes to the equation, and I appeared to be a deep purple mini horse with a white mane. A very deep purple.

"Y'know" Quill said, "It'd be more believable if half your hair was burnt off."

"In that case" I replied, "I better give you a pointy hat and funny bathrobe, since you are obviously the master of devious magics."

Quill grumbled something I couldn't quite hear, and then my head started to ache a little. Before it could get worse, I uttered the cancel command for the mage sight. The lesser version caries the same risks as the more effective one to be sure.

We left the house before the inhabitant could wake up, and moved to observe the town. It didn't take long before we ran into several other mini horses. The sun, which was a quite larger sun than what I've seen, was just starting to get high in the sky.

In a quiet tone I told Quill, "Mini horses seem to be the dominant species here, at least in this town."

"Again Sil', they're ponies. You're supposed to be the smart one."

"There is a difference between cleverness and smartness you may never know oh broodmare."

Quill stopped for a second, before trying to turn around. I watched him for a second, wondering if I should say anything.

I decided to alleviate his.. well probably well placed fears, "It's a joke Quill. You know, the whole 'I'm an assassin my life is in the dark' broodiness."

He looked me in the eyes and said, "It better be just a joke. After the last time you did that... well I won't be pulling any punches."

I fake sighed and then replied, "Well at least you know that much about the basics of combat. Maybe I should get you an instructor."

Quill ignored my jibe and whispered, "We're getting a lot of looks Sil', are you sure you did this right?"

Well I couldn't be 100% sure, you never can you know. But I think it was safe to say that my veils would hold up under any scrutinization. "Oh whoops, silly me, I forgot to give you four legs." I replied in my best drawl.

In my normal voice I continued, "They're just seeing some unknown folks walking through. Though you'd draw attention anywhere we go regardless."

Dutifully he ignored me again and he whispered, "Well you better put up one of those language spells now. They don't speak anything I recognize. We've probably already drawn some suspicious speaking like this.

Adding to the list of things Quill is good for, hearing things I can't because I've been next to too many explosions, and knowing a lot of languages. I can't confirm the second one, but honestly if the first wasn't true, he'd have to be deaf. Magic can only repair so much unless you start sacrificing things.

Without a word I brought up the calculation that would create my own customized language compulsion. I'm very proud of it if you must know. Instead of using a translating spell that would require we have two people that know one language each, I cast a compulsion on us that makes us want to be understood by everyone.

It forces us to speak whatever language the listener knows best, even though we don't know. Pure genius I must say. Of course we had a few mishaps in early development where you couldn't lie or even hide your true intentions. That was a bit awkward. The only issue here is that I must also cast compulsions on each individual that we wish to understand. Its the same spell of course, it just has to be recast quite a few times.

We used to have an amulet of tongues that I had fashioned, which gave off an aura of this compulsion, another thing of genius, before some rabid sea otters stole it and smashed it against some rocks. Quill of course in his ignorance blamed me for not putting indestructible enchantments on it. Because he knows so much about enchanting.

Now we had some jewelry that I procured with a lesser version of the same enchantment. This one couldn't always stay on like my first one, but it could go a week before cutting out. Of course leaving it off when you sleep, or when you aren't using it could prolong the use greatly. The amulet had used some rather rare ingredients to make its effect permanent. The jewelry rather had to absorb the magic around it when it could to keep itself running. I'd give this to Quill should we ever split up, since he couldn't cast the spell as I could.

Meanwhile I suppose something odd must have happened when I cast the compulsion because Quill gave me an odd look. Before he could say something though, someone else did.

Now I couldn't understand the words at first but a quick cast at the offending other purple pony at least let us hear the last few words.

"...not possible, you don't have a horn to do that with. There it is again."

Now I know I'm usually a composed and reasonable man, but the words were out of my mouth before I could stop myself,

"Oh I've got a horn alright, and it can do..."

Quill stopped me from saying anything more, and began dragging me away forcefully. While he did so he loudly stated, "Sorry my friend is a bit ill and isn't quite right in the head. We need to get going sorry again." And under his breath said, "Not that being ill has anything to do with you being wrong in the head."

When we were safely away from the not-quite-as-purple-as-me one, Quill let me go. I straightened myself and respectably said,

"You shouldn't interrupt a man when he's getting his grove on."

Quill offered me another hand gesture in return while saying, "When you cast those spells you're head lit up like a torch, and everyone was giving you really weird looks."

I shrugged and said, "I've got a killer angler fish impression, what of it?"

I got a punch to the arm for that one. I thought that was a good one too, at least deserving of a kick to the shins. Not that it really mattered, since I intercepted it with a well placed shield.

"Well apparently you didn't notice anything while talking about you're own horn. Because she certainly had one."

I put my hands up in a defensive manner, "Whoa whoa whoa. Now I'm all for voyeurism, but that's a bit too much. Then again you are the assassin guy."

"Ninja" Quill replied curtly, "And not that you prat, a horn as in a unicorn. Magical horse type deal. Plus her horn was going off the same way your head was, as was the basket that was floating next to her head."

Okay so his noticing things in the background skill is good, I was just preoccupied with something else. Complex calculations or something. However, knowing that he was more likely to be right than wrong, I did adjust my veil to fit his description.

"How's that?" I asked.

"Better, but the horn needs to be shorter, her's was only half that length."

Before I could reply, Quill held up his fist. However, I will point out that my horn did not change length.

"Anything else you noticed oh far-sight the assassin?" I asked in my memorable drawl.

"Ninja." He corrected, "And yes I did. The town has a circular structure with a river running right through the middle. It's not big enough to be a city but it's quite large nonetheless."

"Well then." I replied a bit put out, "Shall we go find some food?"

Quill pulled out the purse we carried our usually paltry sums in. Bounty hunting should pay well, but between having to cut out early, and other issues, we have enough problems simply surviving. Thankfully money is one of those things that keeps changing to fit wherever we end up. How? I don't rightly know.

After counting what we had he said, "Judging by how much we had last time, we should have enough for a few days."

He pulled out a single golden coin, "Although there are less of these than we had gems. So lets hope that they're also worth more. Although we seriously need to actually cash in on a bounty this time. We can't afford another mix up, literally."