The Black Rose

The Second Time

Bucking Finally! I tracked one of those bastards down, I think he was the one that killed my mother. Doesn't matter what he did in my house he was there or should I say she...

A white rose stood in the vase and a dossier sat in front of me while I ate the Celestial golden rose, I had no need to study this one, I already knew everything about them right down to appearance, although my memory said male the pictures didn't lie. She was without a doubt the most stallionish mare I had ever laid eyes on and in fact often lived as a stallion complete with a herd of mares to attend her.

I couldn't hope to win an outright fight with this one, Strong Hoof got her name for a reason, I had to use all my abilities in stealth to even hope to get this job done. She did have one useful phobia... she hated feeling like she was being followed, and would take great care to use several different routes home from her various businesses. Normally I didn't care why I was being hired for a job but this one was different, personal, Mathias wanted her dead so that Draklekar could take over the local gang muscle in Las Pegasus. Apparently Las Pegasus muscle is so dangerous because of Strong hoof, running fighting gyms will do that when used as a front for training local goons.

Either way the bitch was dead.

I jumped the first train to Las Pegasus after a very awkward explanation to Scoots that she couldn't come with me because I might not be coming back if this didn't go right. Of course I got called “almost as awesome as Dash” which was nearly as heartwarming as her huge puppy dog eyes.

It wasn't until I was settled into my hotel room that I noticed one of my bags was lighter than it had been the entire trip so far and given the sound of Fleetwood Mare coming from the front room I had a sneaking suspicion that I knew why.

Sure enough I had a stowaway... dancing in the front room to the sound of Seven Wonders was a teenage filly swaying to the voice of Stevie Nicks. I let her be cute for a moment even though I was mildly furious then abruptly shut the music off. Signing to her slowly as she had yet to pick everything up “what exactly are you doing here young lady”

“Well, the way I see it, this Strong Hoof runs the local muscle right? Right. So you will need a street rat to get into the place if you have any hope of doing any kind of recon. Who cares that its' been ten years since this mule saw you last, she might recognize you. Then what are your options?”

Surely a thought that made me cringe if there ever was one, but she had a point, I had let my personal vendetta get in the way of cold calculations. I needed someone unobtrusive to give me a way in the place and gather intel. “Daisy know you are with me?”

Turning her music back on switching it to something newer I think Hale Storm, something about devil may care with a lust for life, she started dancing again tossing me a bag of bits and announcing loudly, “her idea”

Fuming but resigned I set out my gear for easy access and decided then and there that if Scoots was going to accompany me on jobs then I had better start training her. Daisy wouldn't have sent her out here with no training, but it wasn't at my level, never would be since I had no intention of training her to be an assassin. But given the situations I get into, she needed to know enough to get out of any situation that she would get into. Best way to figure out where she was was to give her a shot in training. I hopped onto my back hooves and sauntered out to the front room once again only to see an empty room with music still playing, and a carpet that was strangely free of hoof marks other than my own. No sound of wings so she wasn't flying above me, hmm, I scanned the room and had a horrifying thought, I jumped just as a hoof swept from behind me attempting to knock me over. I turned in the air as I flipped so that I was facing Scoots who stood, stone steady, on her hind hooves, she was already in motion as soon as I landed and threw strike after strike all of which had a power behind them that made no sense to me. How could a thirteen year old filly have enough power in her strikes to make me even blink much less wince?

As we went through fight patterns I had a startling realization, Scoots was better than even Daisy. Finally after several minutes of this I motioned for a stop. “Where did you learn to fight like that?”

“Same place you did, well same pony, Moon Strike was my father, and truthfully years on a scooter helped my muscles for standing on my back legs. You may have more years of application but I actually have more training years than you do.” to prove her point she trotted over to the window and after opening it to the balcony walked out and motioned for me to follow. She slowly rose into the air and after taking a stance she lashed out at the stone pillar near the window, I never saw the strike actually connect but the divot that suddenly flew from the pillar was enough let me know I NEVER wanted to be hit at this fillys' hardest.

After landing and laughing at my open mouthed stare she touched three points on my body seemingly at random and it took me a moment to realize that I was no longer in control of my own body. “You see, I was trained to be your apprentice from birth. But I am still too young to do any of this by myself since I cannot start up my delivery service yet for the same reason. I would settle for being your daughter and helping out when I can. I have no love for blood and no vendetta to settle, my dad died serving Equestria, Mom gave up after that and ended up killing herself. So instead of an apprentice can we call it daughter and occasional assistant?” she said as she touched the same three points and freed my body. I had no choice but to smile and sign to her after hugging her for all I was worth

“Of course, daughter of mine”

“Good, then lets get this job planned, tomorrow though we are spending some time together outside of the job.” she said with mock menace in her voice to which I could only salute smartly.