The Rise of The Winged Huntress

The night was as black as the void around the area, the air deathly still around the small camp of which a small fire burned in the middle of, while Dr. Caballeron sat in front of it. His henchponies were in the middle of scouting the perimeter to clear it, as he awaited the arrival of his newest business partner, Ahuizotl. The latter had contacted Caballeron to meet him here a week ago for a proposal, and it had taken the doctor at least 5 days to arrive, due to inclement weather. He heard the buzzing of insects and calls of nocturnal creatures around him in the night.

As he stared into the fire, he heard one of his stallions approaching him.

"Boss. He's here."

Caballeron cleared his throat. "Good. Escort him to the main tent." He said as he stood up from his laying position.

The stallion trotted off to obey his command as Caballeron moved to the tent himself.

As Ahuizotl was escorted to the tent, one of the stallions patrolling the perimeter heard what sounded like a yelp coming from a nearby tree, slightly alarmed, he went to check it out.

"Who-" Was all he got out of his mouth, before he felt two powerful hooves grab each side of his head from above, and violently twist it sideways. The stallion's neck snapped instantly, and he went limp as he died within seconds of the gruesome feat, before his body was pulled up into the tree above him. The dark figure who had murdered him placed his body next to that of another stallion who suffered a similar fate of death by a crushed windpipe.

Like a black streak of lightning the figure zoomed out of the tree into another 20 or so yards away from the previous one, directly above a unicorn stallion who was using his horn to light up the area to aid in his patrol, as he slowly trotted on his route. Before he could leave the vicinity, he felt the searing pain of something being stabbed directly into the back of his neck, before he felt blood pool up in his mouth and throat. His horn's glow faded as the light left his eyes forever more, and the figure quickly dragged his corpse as quietly and discreetly as possible into a nearby bush. The figure slid the blade they had just used into a sheath on their side under their left wing before zooming off again, the only thing visible being two brilliant green eyes before so.

Within a few moments afterward, a pegasus stallion had a wire wrapped around his neck with lightning speed before he was violently hung from a tree branch, his ragged gasps for air quickly ceasing as his windpipe was crushed. The unicorn who went to investigate the noise was the next to fall, a hoof grabbing his mane from behind before a glint of metal flashed across his neck, and a spray of blood gushed out before his soon lifeless corpse was dropped to the ground.

As this was happening, Ahuizotl sat down at the small table in front of the Earth Pony doctor, taking a cup full of tea into the hand at the end of his tail before addressing him. "Have you considered my proposition?"

Caballeron nodded. "Indeed. What you propose seems to be our only option in getting rid of Daring Do for good. My only question is: How do you intend to pull it off?"

Ahuizotl smiled. "I have a few ideas."

Before the doctor could request an explanation a pegasus stallion, whose name was Winter Gust as Caballeron remembered, opened the tent with his hoof and peeked his head in.

"Sir? We have a problem." He said.

Caballeron turned his head and snapped at his subordinate. "What?!"

"Moonshadow, Marble, Comet, Thunder, and Crimson have all gone dark. They failed to rendezvous with us in camp just now."

Caballeron narrowed his eyes. "Is it her?"

"I don't know sir, Daring Do has never been this... Discreet." The stallion admitted nervously. "I just sent the rest of our stallions on a tight-knit search. If she is here, we'll find her, sir."

"See to it that you do." Caballeron growled.

The stallion nodded firmly before rushing out.

Ahuizotl turned to his associate. "How could it be her? Could you have been followed?" He asked.

"It's possible, knowing how infuriating that mare is, it makes it all the more important that we eliminate her." Caballeron said with a sneer.

Winter Gust immediately took to the air after leaving the tent, determined to get a clear vantage point so he could see what was going on, but even with his eyes being used to the dark it was hard to see outside of the fire's light. The only light he saw was the light of a unicorn on patrol.

...Which winked out of existence as he was watching...

He immediately flapped his powerful wings and rushed towards the area, looking for any sign of his suddenly missing companion, before he landed and spotted something on the ground that made his dinner nearly abandon his stomach: The still alive unicorn with his horn cut off and neck slit as he bled out on the ground.

Winter tried to yell out, he did, but it was very hard to do so when he suddenly felt cold and wet steel press against his own throat, before he heard the whisper:

"Night Night."

With that, he felt the steel slash his throat open, and the pain of his jugular vein being sliced open by the metal. Within moments the entire world faded around him, his eyes going dark as well, as the void greeted him.

The figure then turned to the tent, all of the guards dealt with, it's two targets being inside. It used a cloth from a saddlebag attached to it's cloak to clean off the blade it was holding, before stashing the cloth and weapon away. The figure slowly and silently trotted toward the tent, before pushing the flap aside, revealing itself to the tent's occupants.

Caballeron felt his blood go as cold as ice when he turned to see the pony opening the tent and saw two vibrant green eyes staring back at him from under a hood.

Daring Do did not have green eyes.

He saw them narrow at both him and Ahuizotl, before something flashed in the pony's hoof and Caballeron heard a sickening thunk! before he heard something heavy hitting the ground, he turned and saw it was Ahuizotl with a knife directly between his still-open eyes.

Caballeron nearly lost his stomach itself at the sight, but he had no time for throwing up, his brain had only one order that was important for him to follow:

Run.

And he did. Out of the back flap of the tent. As fast as his hooves could carry him.

He heard the sound of wings flapping behind him, gaining fast, and he realized his pursuer was a pegasus pony. That meant he had to get somewhere too difficult to fly, which would be hard to find, but he was so desperate to stay alive he prayed to Celestia herself he could find something. Anything.

As luck would have had it, he spotted a thick grove of trees to his left in the moonlight, and in his desperation he ran right into it. He kept running even after the flapping faded away, he kept running even after the only sounds he heard was his own panicked breathing and frantic hoofsteps, he did not stop running until his legs could literally run no more.

He turned his head to look behind him shortly after collapsing onto his haunches, breathing big gulps full of air, before he gave a smile of relief and a small chuckle of nervousness.

He had gotten away. He had escaped. Thank the Goddess of the Sun herself.

He turned to look back in the direction he was going, and what he saw mere inches in front of his face, were two eyes.

Two vibrant green eyes.

He never even had the chance to scream.

The figure watched as the Earth Pony convulsed on the ground in agony as his chest spilled blood to the ground, showing no reaction to the sight, merely waiting for the inevitable to happen. Eventually, the pony went still, and the light left his eyes. The job was done.

With that, the figure swept back the hood, and the face of mare looked down at the stallion she had just killed. Using her hoof, she reached down towards his blood-soaked shirt and took the bandanna from around his neck, placing it into her saddle bag with her teeth. She looked out towards where the camp was, taking note how hard it would be to carry the necklace from her other target away to prove to her client the job was done.

In the end, her wings spread out in a shape not dissimilar to that of a bat, before she took off for the camp, she would find out how to transport it when she got there.

Her job was done, that was all that mattered, it was time to collect her payment.