Forty Minute Fantasies

“O-Oh!  I’m sorry, sir, you startled me!  Please forgive my rudeness.  My name is Fluttershy; please, come in.”

Blueblood looked down, to where the butter-yellow pegasus mare who’d opened the door had drawn back.  She seemed vaguely familiar from somewhere, although he couldn’t immediately place it.  “I don’t particularly care,” he said.  “I’m a busy stallion, so let’s get to the point.  Is your husband home?”

She blinked at him.  “Husband?”  Then, after a few more seconds, “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m not married.”

“Your brother, then.”

She shook her head.  “My family lives in Cloudsdale, sir.”

Blueblood felt his teeth beginning to grind together as his anger grew.  His time was precious; if Lady Blossom had sent him on a wild goose chase, he would have serious words with her on his return to Canterlot.  “I was sent here,” he growled out, “to seek out someone named ‘Free Shot’.  If I was given this location in error, I will-”

Blueblood broke off, stepping back involuntarily.  The mare in front of him was changing.  There wasn’t any actual physical difference, but as she rose to her full height her posture was shifting, her wings folding back to a sleek, streamlined shape, and a look of determination in her eye mixed with a sudden aura of sheer confidence, and possibly a touch of anger.  “Where did you hear that name?” she snapped.

“L,lady Elegant Blossom, in Canterlot!”  Blueblood cursed himself for showing even a second’s weakness, but the sudden transformation in his host's demeanor had shaken him to the core.

He also wasn’t much helped when she took a step toward him.  “I see.  So you’re here on business, then.”

Blueblood’s eyes went wide.  “You?  You’re Free Shot?  But you’re so-”

She gave him a look of disdain.  “Timid?  Weak, maybe?  Makes a great cover, doesn’t it?  Now, if my lady sent you, she’ll have given you a token to prove yourself.  Do you have anything like that on you?”  Her expression made it clear he wouldn’t like the results if he didn’t.

Frantically, Blueblood pulled at his saddlebag, fumbling out a small carved wooden rod resembling a set of six stacked acorns hammered into one another.  Both ends were stamped with Elegant Blossom’s house seal.  Once it was in the open, Blueblood all but threw it at Fluttershy, who snatched it out of the air with her wing.  After inspecting it, she bit down, snapping one of the segments off at the taper, then tossed the rest back to Blueblood, who had to fumble it a bit with his hooves before he remembered to grasp it telekinetically.  “I see,” Fluttershy said, “you were telling the truth.”  She bowed down low, a formal sweep Blueblood had seen many times before from Elegant Blossom’s house servants.  “By my acceptance of this token and in accordance with my lady’s commands, I pledge myself to your service until my mission may be finished.  So,” she said, rising to her hooves once more, “tell me - who do you want me to kill?”

Blueblood gaped. “No one,” he squeaked out, “exact opposite!”  As Fluttershy - or, perhaps, Free Shot - lifted her exposed eyebrow, he continued his babbling.  “They’re coming after me, and I need someone to stop them!”

“Go on.”

Blueblood nodded nervously.  “There have been attempts on my life recently!  They only happen when my guards are away, but they can’t stay by my side at all times!  I asked some of the other nobles for advice, and Lady Blossom sent me to find you!”

Fluttershy blinked, a slow grin growing across her face.  “I think I begin to see.  Tell me, mister Blueblood, do you have any big social events coming up?”  The grin turned sly, and she moved so as to view him sidelong.  “The kind where you, personally, might take, oh, a trophy date with you when you went?”

Blueblood felt his head bouncing as he nodded, and a small part of him wondered exactly how he’d lost control of the situation.  The rest answered her question.  “Opera production; I’m the composer’s patron.  There’s supposed to be a big feast after the first showing.”

“Mmm… I’ll have to get something to wear, then.”  She looked over at him again as his jaw dropped even further.  “I spent about a week or so as a fashion model, mister Blueblood.  Surely that’s the kind of mare a big social figure like yourself would take with you?”

“I’m terribly sorry, your highness!  I don’t know how this could have happened!”

Blueblood looked the Maitre'd straight in the eyes.  “I see,” he said coldly, “then I suppose you’d better find out.”  Then, turning to his date, “are you all right, m’dear?”

“Y,yes,” Fluttershy said, “just a bit shaken.”

“Of course.”  Blueblood didn’t believe it for an instant, although he had to admit she was an excellent actress.  The assassin had come disguised as one of the waitresses; only the brief narrowing of Fluttershy’s eyes had given Blueblood any sign something was up.  Fluttershy then had, seemingly quite innocently and by accident, managed to toss her soup in the mare’s face and her salad dish into the mare’s throat.  Then, under the guise of apologizing, she’d done… something.  Blueblood wasn’t quite sure exactly what had happened, but he did note that at the same time the killer’s eyes had bugged out while Fluttershy flustered at her, the sharp melon-cutting knife had vanished from Fluttershy’s place set.  That, of course, had been the point the ‘waitress’s’ panniers had slipped sideways, spilling the cleverly concealed vials of… something toxic, he didn’t know what, only that it had started to eat away not only the tablecloth, but the table underneath and even the silverware.

It had also left a hellish odor, still lingering even though the entire table had been carted away by the Royal Guards summoned by the Maitre’d in the aftermath.  Blueblood turned to Fluttershy.   “My dear.  Would you care to take in the night air?”

“I, I think I would,” she said, and Blueblood helped her off her bench, heading for the Opera House courtyard.

Once outside, Fluttershy’s projection of confusion and fluster vanished, replaced by the same cold calmness she’d shown Blueblood before.  “I don’t think you’ll have any problem with them tonight; they’ll be too busy trying to stay out of the Royal Guard’s gaze now that that acid dropped out of that one’s things.”

The words stopped Blueblood short as he pictured the consequences if she were wrong.  “Please,” he squeaked out, “don’t leave me alone!  What if she does have friends?”

Fluttershy glanced over at him.  “Fellow travelers, you mean.  Her kind don’t make friends easily.  And don’t be such a baby; I told you when I accepted your shot that I’d follow your orders until the mission ended.”  A sly smile crept over her face as she continued.  “Besides, even if I were inclined to call it finished, you’ve still got five more of them you could expend.  Either my lady sees something in you, or she’s decided to give you enough rope to hang yourself with.  Better hope its the former, mister Blueblood.  Otherwise, she might just decide to send me after you.”

Blueblood thought about that for a second.  Only a second; that’s all he could take before his legs gave way and he keeled over onto the grass.    The last thing to go through his head before the darkness hit was the phrase ‘Dead Stallion Walking.’