A Newly Hooded Road to Walk

The warehouse before Fluttershy was shrouded by night with the exception of a dimly lit door in the back-hidden from the view of the street. Despite the lack of activity outside, Fluttershy detected a hive of activity going on inside. Knowing the mob, its hardly likely anything legal is going on in there, thought Fluttershy as she studied the area from a nearby rooftop; that said, my work isn't exactly legal either.

Fluttershy proceeded onto the roof of the warehouse to get a better idea of what was going on inside. It was multiple ponies working on something, but Fluttershy doubted it was opium since it was such a populated area around the building. Fluttershy then pressed her ear to the roof, but even so she couldn't tell; Though she could tell exactly where each pony was inside, and that they were all stallions but one. Well I won't find out this way, I wonder why they wanted to meet here?

At that Fluttershy jumped down to the illuminated back door and gave it a firm nock.

"Who the fuck are you?" came a rough voice from behind the door.

Fluttershy said no word in response, instead she flashed her brotherhood ring to the glass peep-hole above her. She heard a sort of grunt and then silence until the door unlatched with a loud thud. A second later, the door slowly drifted open to reveal a large earth-pony wielding a large war hammer strapped to his back. Fluttershy peered from under her hood to meet his gaze, when they made eye-contact the brute nodded, and Fluttershy walked past as he closed the door behind her.

"He's just inside, you'll see him," said the brute as Fluttershy walked by.

Fluttershy brought herself to the warehouse floor where multiple stallions were doing work on carriages. She thought it was odd but figured she shouldn't ask. To her right was a small office, at which another brutish stallion beckoned her over with a flick of his snout. Fluttershy walked over, and was let in by the stallion.

Her entrance into the office interrupted an ongoing conversation.

"I don't see why we gotta bring in someone else to deal with these assholes. Just let me grab four of my guys, and we'll hit 'em in their sleep all quiet like."

"No. There's more intricate shit going on here alright! We need-" The stallion talking paused his sentence at the appearance of the hooded figure in his office, "We need exactly that!" Exclaimed the stallion. He stood up from behind his desk and extended a hand to greet Fluttershy, who firmly shook it and met his eyes from under her hood.

"I'm glad the striped one out in the woods finally sent an agent, we can finally get some work done!" said the stallion, still shaking Fluttershy's hand.

"I agree," responded Fluttershy quietly but confidently.

"I believe some introductions are in order eh? As you already know I'm Flathead, the Don." Fluttershy now understood the precedence behind such a title; The Don seemed to be a unicorn by birth, but his horn was cleanly cut off leaving a flat disk on his head-thus giving him the name Flathead. Other than that distinct feature, Flathead was rather bland in appearance, and simply had a grey coat with a brown mane cut short.

The Don continued, "to my left is Tanian, she's my aid of sorts," she was a beautiful purple mare sporting a tight white dress. Fluttershy nodded and Tanian gave a casual bow, is she foreign? thought Fluttershy. "and to your right is my obnoxious son." Fluttershy extended a hand in greeting but was denied by the Don's son, who ignored her and spoke to his father across the desk.

"Pops are you seriously choosing this shrimp of a mare to do our spring cleaning!? I could break her like a twig! Or is it that you don't trust me?" The stallion glared across the desk with discontent, but the Don laughed at his son's sudden outburst.

"Boy, if you are gonna be running this branch in the future, you gotta understand some complicated and traditional things, and this is one of see, the difference between her and you, is that I trust that she could probably kill all of us right now if she so desired to, and luckily for us, she doesn't. She's from the Assassin's, those ponies all over the posters? You probably at least know that, huh?"

The Don's son began to sulk in the face of his lecture, "Yes sir."

"And it just so happens that the two fuckers we want dead are also wanted dead by our little friend here. Now if that's not a friendship in the making, then I don't know what is." Flathead sat down again with a large sigh. "Now, before my son so rudely interrupted, you can refer to him as Holm to keep it simple."

Fluttershy decided to use her rhyming alias, "please call me Butterfly." Silvershade had thought it up years ago in reference to her cutie mark, but it just so happened to rhyme as well. "I'd prefer to get to work as soon as possible."

Flathead stood again and gestured out the door, "great! then we should head somewhere more suitable for discussion, my apologies for meeting in such a crowded place. Son, I trust you can finish things here?" Holm nodded to his father in response. "Good, lets go." At that Flathead and Tanian left the office with Fluttershy in tow, boarded a carriage outside the warehouse, and the three were off into the city.

The carriage ride was silent. Fluttershy awkwardly twiddled her thumbs in an attempt to occupy her body during the ride; However, the silence was broken by Tanian.

"Butterfly dear, how did such a small mare join the cult of assassin's anyhow? You hardly seem like a prime choice, no offense intended."

Fluttershy's mood soured a little, for if anything annoyed her the most, it would be meddlers on the job. It's a hatred drawn up by Silvershade's loud mouth early on in Fluttershy's training, as well as by ponies involved in her work temporarily...like Tanian.

"I'd rather not indulge into my personal affairs Ms. Tanian," said Fluttershy firmly, "And I recommend that you do the same."

A frown came to Tanian's face, "Well you're no fun, have you just spent your life a scrooge whilst killing ponies here and there?"

Flathead then decided to butt in, "Enough. Tanian, shut your trap or you won't be talking again. Though our company is female, it doesn't mean your free game to chat with them. Understand?"

Tanian gave a "hmph" and stared out the window in angrily.

After what felt like a year to Fluttershy, the carriage finally stopped. They were at a large mansion just out of town, with crop fields surrounding it for acres.

"Tanian go freshen up somewhere, we have business to discuss," said Flathead, gesturing to Fluttershy and himself.

...

"Might I ask why you had us meet at some street-side warehouse in the middle of the city?" said Fluttershy in frustration, "It was exposed, and five blocks from the Guardsmen's barracks." She glared across Flathead's large desk, confused by the Don's negligence to meet at his headquarter's in the first place.

"I've got more business than just you sweetheart. Business that needed me there at the time, so don't fuss about it." The Don leaned back in his leather chair as he lit a cigarette, "now, ask me some more relevant questions to the business at hand wouldja?"

Fluttershy gritted her teeth, "Fine, where are Crimson Breeze and Harvus anyway?"

"We don't know."

"You don't-" Fluttershy rubbed the ridge of her snout in frustration, "How do you not know? Aren't they some of your men?"

"Not anymore, they've gone into hiding after they were exposed. They've been rerouting our products to an anonymous player." Said Flathead as he ashed his cigarette, "and until we get our hands on at least one of these fuckers, we'll be swinging in the dark against our nameless competition."

Fluttershy wondered why Flathead was suspicious that Templars were at work; This whole situation sounded like the typical gang dispute with a new opium distributor. "So what makes you think that its the Templars?"

"I've been a Don for while now, and in this business for even longer, so believe me when I tell you that these are Templars."

Fluttershy found this outrageous, and let out loud sigh. "You've better explain your reasoning or give me proof that they're Templars, because I will not do your dirty work for you. Your son seemed more than willing to do it."

Flathead leant on his elbow in thought, then looked Fluttershy in the eye. "What does that propaganda against you all over the city show to you? huh? That it's just some scared town? an overprotective princess?"

Fluttershy fidgeted in her seat. "Possibly," she said, averting her eyes somewhere else.

"Ha! well if that's the case then this damn city has been scared shitless of you for nearly a decade. Now you and I both know that's bullshit. My boys and I have admittedly done more damage to this town than you have ten times over, but you don't see warnings of us plastered up on the streets."

Fluttershy already understood this, and understood that Templars were clearly at work in Ponyville. "But how does this correlate to you losing product? It could still be another gang."

Flathead leaned forward, and put his finished cigarette in the ash tray on his desk. "That's impossible."

"Why?" In response to Fluttershy Flathead opened a drawer in his desk, and pulled out a pamphlet filled with files, then plopped it in front of Fluttershy. Fluttershy opened it whilst looking at Flathead, "What's this?"

"Records. Records of sales, quantities, and revenue from virtually every section of the city. If there was a rival gang here, then these records would show it like a map. If there were other opium dealers getting my shit, then they'd be stolen in a concentrated area of the city: Their territory. Except my shit's getting stolen everywhere, and I would've noticed a gang with that kind of man power month's, if not years ago."

Fluttershy understood Flathead's suspicion. "So you're just putting two and two together?"

"Yes. There's obviously Templars in the city, and some nameless ghost ponies are fucking with my shit. So it's gotta be these Templars finally making moves."

"So what do you think they're doing with these shipments?" Fluttershy was getting sidetracked from the targets at hand, but felt that this was valuable information either way.

"That's the other thing that brought the Templars to mind. If it was a gang stealing from me, they'd be flipping it on the streets and stealing my buyers. But our revenue hasn't dropped, and by people around the city haven't seen other dealers out there."

"So the thieves are using the opium for something else... What tho?"

"Hell if I know."

Fluttershy finally understood the situation, but to get anywhere else, she needed to chat with Crimson Breeze and Harvus. "Where should I start looking for the targets?"

"Both were from the shitty part of the city, have family there so it's worth the look. We haven't done much searching since they fled, I figured you'd be a little quieter than my boys." Flathead then gave Fluttershy a small card, "and this has their addresses if you want to look there."

Fluttershy stood up and took the card. "Thank you for the help."

Flathead stood up as well and shook Fluttershy's hand. "Likewise, I'm sure you can show yourself out?"

Fluttershy nodded, then headed to the door of the office. As she opened the door Flathead interrupted her.

"Oh and assassin," he said in a wholesome tone, "I believe in honest business, if you pull this through I'd be willing to aid in any future business."

Fluttershy glanced back and nodded again from under her hood, then left into the city.