Chapters The Black Rose
Allow me to tell you a story from one who has no voice.
My name is Roseluck and while most of you know me as a simple florist, I am so much more. I live my life very simply but I am probably the wealthiest mare outside of the princesses in all of Equestria, thanks to my profession that is. Is being a florist such a lucrative profession you may ask? Buck no! That's just my day job, and thanks to my associate Daisy is a legitimate one but it is still just a front for my real career.
Equestria's most wanted, and renown assassin, The Black Rose.
No one has heard my voice since I was eleven, not because I refuse to talk but because I cut my own vocal cords at that age to save my own life from the stallions that killed my mother and father. I spent the next five years training to make sure that I was never that scared again. At fourteen I killed the first of my families murderers. That is the story I wish to tell you here.
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My uncle Filthy Rich is one of only two that know my real identity, he should know he helped train me. Thousands of ponies take Martial arts every year, but not everyone takes them from former black ops guards. I was not taught to “defend myself” as most students are, no, I was taught to brutalize my opponents in such a way that they never desired to be touched by me an any foreseeable future.
“These are my legs and I want them strong” growled Moon Strike, as he once again twisted me quite deftly into a pretzel.
I nod, going into my usual punishment for failing to take him down, one hundred push ups while standing on my forelegs.
He gently stopped me, something he had never done before “not today” he said simply. He made a gesture to follow him to a makeshift table in our camp in the Everfree. On it I saw a file and a small makeup kit next to it.
“Are you ready to take your first step to avenge your family?” He asked as he opened the kit and started to apply makeup to my young face. At my nod, he began telling me about the file.
“That is a dossier detailing a stallion named Luck Stroke, known murderer and thief, what is less known is that he is a violent foal fiddler targeting fillies about your age. Captain Rich and I believe he is the one who was searching the house for you for exactly that reason.” Lieutenant Strike said applying the last of the makeup and showing me in a mirror that I now looked years younger than my fourteen years.
“ He will try to get you to come with him, and he will try to rape you. He may even succeed, are you prepared for that?” I hesitantly nod again knowing that any other answer will lose my chance at this bastard.
I pick up the quill I kept nearby and wrote a small note on my pad, “Will I have any help if he does succeed?”
“No, This is your kill, we will be standing by should it get too out of hoof and he tries to kill you, but otherwise this is your first paid job.”
I once again nod and signing in the thieves cant that I was taught to communicate in “Is there any certain way the client wants the job done?”
“Garrotte which it will be your job to hide on your body” I nod beginning to think about where I could secret a length of piano wire on my body and not have it be out of place only coming to one conclusion.
As the sun began its decent I finished studying the file and having already chosen and hidden my weapon I wandered into Ponyville going to the town center and taking in the view around me. A small farming village ostensibly run by the Apple family who had strong business ties with my Uncle Rich, it was beautiful in its own way though I never took any joy in it. I sat down in the park and began my ploy as soon as my mark came into view. Weeping silently with just grunts coming from my throat drew the plot holes attention, instead of some decent pony, and he trotted up to me with a gleam in his eyes.
“Did you lose your mama little one? Come with me and we will get you warmed up and call the guard to help.” he said with so much sincerity in his voice that if I had not read his file an hour earlier I would not have believed that this was the same stallion.
I nod nervously studying my mark closely, tan fur with a yellow mane, cutie mark of a pool cue and eight-ball on his flank. Yes this was the bastard that I had been sent for. My nervous shakes only adding to the effect of the little lost filly act, I followed him to a small ramshackle house not two doors down from the local guard barracks.
As he set me on the couch and fixed me a cup of tea he began talking quietly, “I can't believe one actually fell for that” not realizing I could hear him perfectly. He sat next to me and began stroking my back as I continued my weeping, but of course he was so focused on his next conquest that he never realized that not a tear fell.
As his stroking kept getting to more and more risque areas, going near my tail and stroking my dock even once going near my teats he kept up his patter “it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want you to feel better so the guards can help you better” I will admit that my hindquarters felt wet and lamented that this foal fiddler would have been a decent lover if he wasn't such a sicko.
I played along until he flipped me over and growled “Enough games you little slut you're going to get what all sluts need.”
As he forced the first few inches of his stallion hood into me I felt myself stretching to accommodate his size but between my struggling and young age I began to tear. Feeling the blood begin to drip I had a moment of clarity, I was here to kill this son of a mule. Reaching underneath my body as he mounted me I grasped the wire I had taped to my teat to retrieve my garrote which left me with a bit of a problem, where I had hidden the garrote was currently occupied by stallion right up to his medial ring. Removing said weapon would certainly alert him to my intentions, unless...
Yanking swiftly I felt the wire of the garrote contract within me and slice neatly through the thick stallion hood within my depths eliciting a gut wrenching scream from my erstwhile victim, though who can really say who was who's victim at this point. He fell off my haunches with his dick looking like raw hamburger as he scooted to the wall vomiting from the pain that I had just inflicted on him. I stood on my hind legs and strutted over to him with a mixture of our blood dripping from my nether region wrapping the ends of the garrote around my hoof and a gleam not unlike his earlier one in my eyes I slowly wrapped it around his neck and looking into his eyes watched as he struggled to breath around the wire currently cutting his larynx off and his air supply with it.
As the light left his eyes I made a decision, and once I made sure he was really dead. I took the garrote from the meat of his neck, only now realizing that I had nearly decapitated him, and looped it around his hanging blood covered sack. With one great yank using all the strength I had gained through three years of training. I clipped them off and walked out only to be greeted by Lieutenant Strike who threw a cloak over me.
“Nice job Rose, anything I can do to help right now other than getting you to safety?” he asked kinder than any other time he had spoken to me.
Signing helplessly “get it out...”
Author's Note
This story will continue and how she got her moniker will become clear. I assure that this will be the last time I do anything even remotely close to foal-con as I nearly puked writing that scene. Please be kind.
Knowing Your Target
Knowing your target is important to any assassin, but getting contacted through circumspect means is arguably more important.
Some of you may be asking how I went from being Roseluck to The Black Rose, I will tell you how. It comes from how I am contacted, a client brings in a dossier of their target, sometimes it is just a name other times it is a full work up. They come to the shop Daisy and I own and buy one of my Golden Celestial roses, my own hybrid, and place it in the vase on the counter with the file underneath. If I accept the job I will switch it to a white rose indicating that the job is underway. When the job is complete I switch it to a Night Blooming Lunar rose, again my own strain, and the client meets at a predetermined place with an agent of my choosing to deliver payment.
Why all the complexity you might ask? It comes down to trust and disguises. Daisy knows very well who I am and what I do on my nights off, she is my lover and go between for clients, so I trust her implicitly. I do not however trust anyone else, which brings me to this nights tale.
I was contracted to deal with a pesky politician, who was making trouble for my clients interests. They came in with a full work up, schedule, guards, even a full travel itinerary. Now you may think that whenever I get this kind of information golden hoofed to me that I would be thankful, truth is it just made me nervous. This job was no different. What made it even more of an issue for me is that neither Daisy nor I saw the client when it was dropped off, but the pay was more than double my standard fee.
I switched the roses and while nibbling on the Golden Celestial I began my usual ritual, studying every facet of my mark so that I knew them and their schedule better than they did. I had three days to make the kill and it was a two day trip to Manehatten where he would be for a political conference. It was vital that I take him out before he spoke that night.
Name: Mathias Crimsonblood
Race: Minotaur
Occupation: politician and suspected high shaman (confirmed)
Guards: one dragon young-ling named Draklekar (Elite Dragon blood line, has wings at 15, exercise caution)
The rest of the file was full of schedules and pictures of Mathias, this was almost too well put together. I contacted my favorite street rat Scootaloo, and left her a note to find out what she could about anyone seen coming into or out of my shop that day and began packing my gear for the trip.
In my loft above the shop that I shared with Daisy I opened the secret compartment in our closet floor and dragged out my leathers and weapons, buttery soft and oiled to wonderful silence my leathers were a story unto themselves, they still bore the mark of the hide that it was made from. A cue stick and an eight ball, ah memories, they had a spider harness built into the framework of the armor which allowed me to scale walls easily and had straps to secure all manner of tools of the trade, pouches for various smoke and effect bombs, hardened cases on the chest to hold vials of poison and other drugs. My leathers were in a word, perfect.
I laced on my boots, the only part of the armor that I could wear without drawing suspicion, and checked the spring blades in the heel and then shimmied into a stylish dress for the train ride while the rest of my gear went into a large travel bag. The train ride was boring so I will not belabor the point that I made it to Manehatten without incident. I spent this time studying my mark further committing it all to memory.
Once in my room a floor below Mathias' rooms, he had rented the entire floor citing security issues, I slipped into my leathers and began searching through my weapons. The client was more worried about the job than the method so I was left to my own preferences here. I eventually settled on a set of special hoof blades that had been a gift from my trainers, they folded along my fetlocks so were almost invisible until deployed and had a reservoir for poisons should I choose to use them. I almost always did.
This time they were filled with Everfree spider venom, a concentrated hallucinogen, which would disorient and distract the mark while my blades did their bloody work. I have no illusions about what I do, I am an assassin, that means I kill living sentient beings for money. I never sugar coat what I do, not even to myself, that only cheapens what I have struggled so long for.
I finally applied the last of my gear to my armor, a shadow stone. Next to my leathers this was my most treasured possession, a heavily enchanted stone that allowed me to step through shadows to any other shadow I could see. With the last of my tools in place I waited until sundown and attached my harness to the outside of my window and began scaling the wall to position myself above the widow of the room Mathias was in. I say above because no one ever looks up for the big scary thing in the night, idiots.
As I watched the room from a shadowy alcove above the window I heard a gruff voice that could only come from the dragon
“Master Mathias, the room is clear of spells and personnel, you can safely enter.” Draklekar said in his gravely voice
What came next was a true surprise, while I knew that Mathias was on the lean side for a minotaur I never expected manners.
“Thank you, Draklekar, you may retire to your rooms until it is time.” Mathias said in a voice that could only be described as iron wrapped in silk. There was a confidence to it that belied any threat to his person.
The dragon, a truly fearsome specimen for his age, buck for any age, bowed out of the room wrapping his wings about him like a cloak.
Mathias walked to the window and spoke calmly. “I know you're there Rose you can come out I will not fight you.” again that maddeningly calm voice
Not wanting to lose my edge I activated the stone and stepped through to his own shadow so that I was right behind him, only to find he had turned around and was facing me with empty hands. I shot him a questioning look.
“You are a remarkable creature, my dear, and I have a proposition for you. You see, I hired you, I wanted to know if you were really good enough to slip past Draklekar's senses to get to me. I need you to kill me without killing me. I need to be in a state of near death so that no one but an Alicorn could tell the difference.” Once more I let the questioning look linger on my masked face.
“You see, my political machinations have caused me far more problems than I would like, so many that my... darker pursuits are threatening to come to light from the sheer publicity.” at my nod he sits in a chair facing me while I flush and switch the poisons in my blades and write him a small note.
“This will hurt like all of Tartarus is in your veins” I write while switching the poison in my blade to a liquid form of tetrodotoxin laced with a miniscule amount of curare.
At his nod I crumple the note and throw it in the fire and stab him just below his last rib with just enough upward angle to appear that I hit a lung. As the poisons take effect he further explains “My death will be blamed on a political rival, and all evidence has already been planted, though none will lead to your door.” I nod and step back through the shadows to the window and again through my own and hurriedly begin packing my gear.
Something had my senses tingling and, whenever I felt that the job had already gone pear shaped, I just hadn't figured out how yet. I checked out citing family emergency and left in a hurry contacting one of my local unicorn contacts, I bought a series of teleports back to Ponyville. Something told me that this job while not unusual, I had been hired to fake deaths before, was going to bite me on the flank sooner rather than later.
I got back to the shop just in time to see Daisy switch the roses and hand me a new file: Mathias Crimsonblood....
Author's Note
This one was fun to write and while not as dark it does have darker implications. you will see more of Mathias and Draklekar
Knowing your Client
Knowing your client is almost as difficult as tracking your target, but a lot can be said from the file they leave. If they leave simply a name then they are not organized and likely cannot even afford my services, which works out badly for them if I take a job and they do not pay up. What happens you may ask? Why, I take the ten thousand out of their hide, that's what happens.
The newest file I have is a duplicate of the last one, Mathias Crimsonblood, so I have two options; one I take the pay for a job that has ostensibly been done via faked death, or two I pass on the job and deal with the fallout that will inevitably come. Unfortunate side effect of my business is that when a well organized and obviously well funded client comes my way and I do not take the job for whatever reason, they tend to take that badly and will inevitably send some hired muscle to take me out whenever I am sighted in an area. What? You thought I was the only assassin or hired thug with a network of street rats?
Daisy was worried, she always was when she knew I had to turn down a job, worried that I might get hurt on the next job or after that someone might even follow me home and unravel everything we had worked for. The only thing I could do is hold her as she worried herself sick after we closed up for the day.
She didn't need to know that only lower level muscle would have the guts and stupidity in combination to come after me, any of the other half dozen well positioned assassins in Equestria wouldn't dream of it. Honor among thieves and all that rot.
The twenty four hour mark had passed on my last job and still no word from Scoots and a huge bag of bits in my hoof, I liked the little street rat but this wasn't like her. My train of thought was rather abruptly derailed as a what was supposed to be a ghost walked through my door.
“Master Mathias, why are we coming here?” A gravely voice asked, one I recognized as Draklekar.
“Because, Draklekar, I wish to employ her services personally.” Mathias' silky voice replied as they turned the corner and came within sight of the counter.
They were greeted with a sight not many saw and survived, Daisy holding one of my bows and standing on her hind hooves with an arrow set to the string and drawn back to full draw while I snuck up behind them daggers attached to my hooves.
“You must be incredibly stupid or suicidal coming here after she executed your contract.” Daisy growled as her bow creaked under the strain.
Looking unrepentant and wholly unconcerned Mathias smirked as my dagger found a home nestled against Draklekar's throat “I assure you I am neither, I simply wish to employ her services as a client once again. In fact I wish to employ her services full time.”
“What do you mean full time?” Daisy asked not lessening the hold on the string of the bow
“I mean, my dear Daisy, that I wish for her to be MY assassin, I will employ her services as normal but I want her to only take my contracts.” Mathias crooned
“And just why would she do that?”
“Because I intend for her to be paid very well for doing so, now can we please put these weapons away and talk like civil beings?” Mathias asked with that steel and velvet voice.
I retract my daggers as Daisy lowers her bow, “start talking horn boy”
“horn boy?... that's a new one ha ha” Mathias drawls clearly not amused
I look over my shoulder at him, very pointedly clicking my dagger back into place for a moment, before retracting it and strutting over to Daisy nuzzling her as I pass.
“Ah that explains your protective nature over her.” Mathias croons once again. “I assumed merely business associates or at the very least you were training her. Ah well young love, I will be brief, I will pay you a monthly rate so that you do not take any other contracts but my own, this cost will cover any contracts you may turn down in favor of my own, as well as covering your fee for the contracts I may send your way.”
“we have goals of our own to accomplish” Daisy says at my nod, writing down a list of four names that we are still looking for.
“and I shall not hinder those goals, in fact I happen to be looking for these individuals myself” he says after looking at the note “Though I imagine that you are doing so for very different reasons.”
“what would this payment be should we agree?” Daisy asks
“Well, that depends on how many contracts you take in one months time.”
“Anywhere from three to six depending on complexity.”
“So then I shall pay you for five contracts per month, plus the standard fee for any that I send you.”
Mathias says without batting an eyelash.
“Then what shall we tell the thugs that will inevitably try to 'convince us' to take the jobs that we refuse?” Daisy asked snarkily
“That's my job.” Draklekar growls flaring his wings slightly to reveal a rather intimidating sword tucked into the folds of his wings something that disturbed me greatly as I had not noticed it while pinned against his back with my dagger at his throat. “I will be taking over the local gang presence while doubling as local farm hand for the Apple family. I will discourage any local toughs from taking a job to convince you and prevent any outsiders from coming in the first place.”
Daisy looks to me and whispers “Sounds too good to be true, but we can always deal with them if they turn on us.” at which I nod and turn to leave only to stop as I hear a large bag of bits hit the table coupled by the buzzing I am used to hearing from Scoots' wings.
“Sorry I'm late, this guy had me hung up by my wings when I tried to pick up the payment” only then realizing that “this guy” was standing next to her smiling.
“So you spoke the truth when you said you worked for our dear Rose.” Mathias said smiling
“Why would I lie about that? I pick up her order payments all the time. She pays me ten percent and tips me with these amazing black roses that taste so awesome, I live the high life around here.” Scoots says taking her usual Lunar Rose from the vase, and a small bag of bits out of the larger bag and moving to her usual space in the attic of our shop where she lived most nights when she was out later than the local shelter would allow her in for the night.
I would adopt the young filly but Daisy was far to worried about our lifestyle to think about adopting her even though she wanted it as bad as I did. Maybe this new arrangement would allow for such a thing.
My thoughts were interrupted by Daisy agreeing to the arrangement with Mathias as I watched Scoots come back down stairs and order a pizza with hay fries while humming Queen's “Fat Bottomed Mares” a personal favorite of mine.
As the young filly continued to hum and began to dance along to the tune coming from her small room I decided to approach her about being adopted by Daisy and myself. Motioning her over I began to dance along with her while writing a note,
'would you like to be adopted scoots?' she stopped dancing as she realized I wasn't joking and answered me seriously
“Yeah... I hoped it would be you that asked me since I know Dash never will, hell she doesn't even know I live in the shelter when I'm not lucky enough to be out late and crash here. Yeah as long as Daisy is cool with it I can get the paperwork filled out tomorrow with Princess Twilight.” the young filly asked with the pricks of tears in her eyes “Would you still want me to pick up your order payments? Even adopted I like that I can still help the other kids get new stuff when they need it. I like that you trust me to pick up that amount of bits and not steal from you I even like that you trust me to know what you really do even though it is always coded into flower orders.” my surprise must have shown because she laughed “I'm orphaned and homeless, not stupid”
Daisy walked over and smiled at us knowing damn good and well what we had been talking about “of course you will still do what you do for us, and you will be safe and well fed every night, which is more than I can say that shelter does.” curse her sensitive ears. “we have wanted to ask you for a while but with Roses' job and the risks that often come our way we didn't want to put you in any danger, but now we can train you to take care of yourself like we do."
After Scoots went to bed Daisy talked me through the deal she had made with Mathias basically the gist was that i turned down anything that didn't already match up with a preset list of targets and any that did match up I was free to accept and take normal payment on. Scales for brains would take care of any toughs that came our way and we all kept on living happily ever after.
Why is nothing ever that simple?
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.
The Second Time Pt 2
Strong Hoof stalked around my broken form as she smirked....wait, I guess I better back up and let you know how I got into this pile of sour apples.
Scoots and I had done our research and even had some fun sparring in an unaffiliated gym then went to watch a movie, something Scoots had never done. We had decided that the time to strike was tonight, having figured out her schedule, turns out she was rather predictable even as she tried to be circumspect with her movements.
As I strapped on my leathers and weapons, I had a small moment of panic, there was always a chance that I would not come back from these jobs, and while most were relatively safe this one was bucking dangerous. Strong hoof could use me like a puppet if she got her hooves on me so I had to be quick, in and out, preferably in her sleep but as far as we had been able to tell she never did sleep. Strong hoof came home every night to her seemingly devoted herd and screwed them senseless until dawn then went back to the gym.
With that fact in mind I filled the reservoirs on my daggers with curare and a small dose of cyanide for a quick paralytic punch then a slow death, since I wanted to watch this mule die. As I remembered why I was here the small dose of panic turned to a large boiling ball of anger. This target had helped to kill my entire family and it was past time for payback.
Most of my life I had been treading a fine line between madness and apathy, tonight though, the madness had a hold on me stronger than before, blood lust growing within me I decided that it was time.
I stepped from shadow to shadow until I reached the path that we had determined Strong Hoof would take tonight. I settled in to wait and was rewarded with an early arrival, Strong hoof strode down the alleyway as if she owned it, totally fearless for someone so paranoid. What I did not anticipate is the two goons following her. Well this was a wrinkle that was easily ironed out and would have the added benefit of panicking my target. As one of the goons stepped too far into the shadows I stepped in behind him and quickly stabbed my dagger up into his skull through his lower jaw. He went down with a gurgle that had exactly the effect I wanted, it drew the attention of idiot number two, and as Strong Hoof bolted he was stupid enough to step right in to the same patch of shadow and received the exact same treatment as his friend.
I was quickly losing track of my target as she was surprisingly swift on her hooves for such a large mare. I knew she was going directly home so I stayed a few shadows ahead of her making just enough noise that it renewed the panic at every turn. Finally her home loomed into view and I stepped into a shadow above her foyer door letting her see my now larger than life shadow. The fear rolling off of this mare was palpable even as a sudden calm seemed to enter her eyes as she bolted into her door.
For the first time in many years I got nervous when I jumped down and received the single hardest punch in my life straight to my muzzle, to say that stars were floating around my head would have been the understatement of the century as I not only saw stars I saw entire galaxies. That punch was followed by an equally hard buck to my chest and I heard ribs crack as all the wind in my body suddenly rejoined its brethren outside my chest.
I sat there for a moment trying to relearn how to breath as Strong Hoof stood over me gloating
“The Black Rose... I was warned you would be coming after me” she said in a surprisingly feminine voice.
I looked at her enormous frame and crawled back to my hooves getting onto my back legs and releasing my blades from their retracted position. I made a 'come at me' motion with my right hoof as she loosened up her neck muscles, let me pause for a moment to say, anyone who ever thought a large opponent is slow needs to be bucked right in the head and the sense knocked back into them. Strong Hoof came at me so fast I had already been hit three or four times before my brain registered the pain, as the pain hit me and I tried to fight back getting in a few hits and cuts with my blades, I lamented not choosing to poison them this time. It would have proven fatal if not for a fortuitous turn of events, an orange and purple blur moving at near sonic speeds flew through the open door and began a series of fly by attacks that staggered the vicious giant enough for me to get back to my hooves and try to fight again.
It didn't last long as my erstwhile savior retreated to the rafters and allowed Strong Hoof to once again focus on me, something that I was regretting from the moment I stepped into her range. Every strike of mine seemed to be hitting steel, while her every strike felt like getting hit by boulders. Her next strike hit my front hoof just past my fetlocks and I heard bone shatter, as I crumpled to the ground once again screaming, she stepped on my now broken leg and began crushing the hoof, just as I felt the hardened surface begin to crack I heard a gurgle from above me as the pressure eased.
I had no idea what had happened, only that Scootaloo was now standing between me and Strong Hoof with a bloody blade sticking from her wing tip, and Strong Hoof was backing away holding a bleeding wound in her barrel. She was in obvious pain but it was not a fatal strike.
“I was just going to kill you, now I'm going to rape you both, and once you are good and submissive I'm going to add you to my herd.” Strong hoof said as blood flew from her lips with every word.
From the shadows I heard a smooth voice growl “One thing I cannot abide is a rapist, Strong Hoof you have sealed your own doom. Draklekar attend to our wilting rose.” Mathias stepped from the shadows with the hulking young dragon at his heels. He wore the form of a griffin but that voice was unmistakable. “Gehennae ignibus hostis devorabit” Mathias said as he turned a small rod in his claws until it was parallel to the floor. No sooner did the words leave his mouth than Strong Hoof began screaming as her flesh began to smoke from every pore. After a moment Mathias moved the rod back to its original position resting in his claw. All that could be heard was the sobbing of the broken wreck of a pony that had once been Strong Hoof. As the smoke cleared from her form I could see horrific burns covering most of her body, the fur had been burnt off leaving only raw reddened flesh that was cracked and peeling in places.
“I'm sorry did that hurt? Here allow me to cool you off.” Mathias growled as he made another motion with the strange rod, this time lifting it slowly towards the ceiling “Benedicite glacies, et omnes inimici Nessus operiam” The screams that came from her muzzle were short lived as her over heated body was suddenly supercooled to below glacial temperatures. When the fog lifted from her body I could see not a pony but a tortured statue made by a psychotic sculptor, her mouth open in a scream so wide that the flesh at the edges of her mouth had ripped revealing the muscle beneath.
Draklekar stood beside me as if daring Scootaloo to attack him as he handed me a small vial that I recognized from my many trips to Zecora's hut, a health poultice. “Drink it.” he growled as if quite infuriated with me. Scoots took it from him and with a glare at the giant young dragon held it to my lips so I could drink it. As the healing magic of the poultice spread through my body, correcting most of the damage done to me, I had a moment of clarity, never piss this shaman or whatever he was off.
Mathias strolled over to me in his new form and must have seen the question in my eyes, “I decided that it was best for my minotaur form to vanish for a while, until the political fallout from my demise had corrected itself. You have disappointed me one time Rose, do not do so again.” he said gesturing to the fallen form of Strong Hoof, the Or Else was pretty clear. I nodded once to show my acquiescence as I hobbled to Scoots and we took our leave.
It would take some time for my wounds to heal fully, but at least I walked away from this fight, I would have to train harder to make sure that I never was in that kind of position again.
Author's Note
Well it seems that Rose is not infallible after all. The real question is, just who is she working for, what kind of monster is he?
Training (or How Not to Fail)
My training needed to be improve if I wanted to avoid a beating like Strong Hoof gave me again, so I went to the only place I could think of, The home of the Bat Pony Tribes. Now everyone knows about the Thestrals, Princess Luna’s guards were made up almost exclusively of them, draconic winged pegasi more closely related to bats then birds. What was less known is that like us they too had three tribes Thestrals, Nightsabers, and Grove-Walkers.
Nightsabers are more well known than people realize since they can literally blend in with a unicorn populace with the only difference being that their horns were more curved and pointier than their unicorn cousins. They also tended to be combat magic specialists and sociopaths lending themselves well to their efforts at being Princess Luna’s Wardens and interrogators (read torturers). They are delightfully loyal to their Princess and will only serve her whims, so training with them was not only impractical, not a unicorn after all, but impossible without a princesses orders. That last bit was NOT going to happen so my only other option was to go to Moon Strikes family.
Moon Strike was the only Nightsaber born into a proud clan of Grove Walkers and showed traits of both Tribes with his expertise in combat magic and blatant sociopathic nature. He also showed skills in stealth and physical combat which are the primary skills of the Grove Walkers.
Grove Walkers were not unlike our Earth Ponies, such as myself, except that they tended to have a black thumb when it came to farming and were larger than the average Earth Pony with the smallest of them being able to look a behemoth like Big Macintosh in the eye. With the largest being almost the size of some Saddle Arabians being nearly the size of their Princess.
Scoots came with me only because she had been trained here by Moon Strike before he passed and had information on the leaders of the various clans. She had been cast out due to her mixed heritage, her mom having been a pegasus of the Sun tribes as they called us. She was My daughter now and even though she wasn’t happy about going back she would be thrilled to rub her new mom in their face.
The Grove Walkers compound was borderline monkish with its ascetic and severe lines and utter lack of anything remotely comfortable. The Grandmaster, Night Strike, waited for me on the steps to their compound and despite the rumors of him being a taskmaster he was actually smiling. Though the fangs made it seem more predatory and less friendly.
"You have come to me, outsider, and I will agree to train you on this little ones word that you are worth it" Night Strike said in his gravelly voice. "I am to understand that you cannot speak?"
Signing with Scootaloo translating "Yes, I cut my vocal cords to save my own life from the ones I am training to defeat. Two are dead and forgotten, Two remain in the darkness of my mind."
"Very well, let me see what you can do" directing Scootaloo to a training arena nearby. "You will Fight each other first and you will train together. When and only when you are ready to learn from me will I teach you anything."
Taking a two hoofed fighting stance across from Scoots I waited for a signal to begin, Which the Grandmaster gave almost in a perfunctory way. Scoots was on me in moments aided by her wings, which while not able to make her fly yet certainly aided her speedy form of combat. Something that I learned quite quickly as her two front hooves landed in my gut, trying to knock me off balance. I countered by grabbing her right hoof and sending her flying past me into the nearby dirt. I quickly landed on her back and wrenched one wing and her same right hoof into a painful submission hold leading her to quickly yield.
"Good, good, you have learned some of our ways." Master Night Strike called from the edge of the arena "Enough for now, Young one, go get your wing tended while I prepare your lesson plans..." He continued ominously.
The lesson plan I came to find out was brutal in both its depth and scope, what followed was the toughest four months I have ever endured, by the end my hooves had been micro fractured hundreds of times and allowed to heal leading me to have hooves like steel plates, my already trim body now sculpted like marble with almost no excess body fat lending me further speed and stamina. The weighted training clothes we wore at all times toughened our muscles to the strength of finely woven cables. What I once thought of as a fine fighting form I now saw as flabby useless waste and this forced me to take in my fighting leathers in secret to now form fit once again to my sculpted frame.
Scoots had changed as well and could now take to the air for a good length of time before beginning to tire. She had been awarded a small set of throwing darts that could be hidden within her wings for actually managing to land a blow on Night Strike during our final sparring match.
"You both have changed much during your time here, no more will I teach you, unless you enlist in Princess Luna's Guard as there are techniques and mysteries that I would only entrust to them. Mayhap when your quest is done?" He asked
Master, My skills may be useful to her Highness but my past would come in between me and that lofty goal. I signed to him slowly as he had only just started learning to understand sign. Perhaps if I had joined, I could have left my past in the past, but that was not the path I chose.
Nodding, he turned dismissing us but not before I heard him mutter "Such a pity, you have chosen a dark path, I may one day be called to stop you..." with one last look back he left us to gather our things and head to the train station. Scoots, having settled into her seat said in a whisper "He knows who you are, he saw your leathers." she said this in a voice so small and terrified that I could do nothing more than bring her in for a hug and let her know it was going to be okay.
I hoped I was right....
