The Dulling of a Blade

“Fuck, dude. You sure about this?” A male voice echoed across the dark walls of the alleyway, the sounds of two sets of four hooves clopping against cobblestone accompanying it.

“Yeah, calm down. And shut up, the cops might hear.” Another voice replied, the hooves coming to a stop. Two stallions stood in the darkest part of the alley, where only the faintest traces of Luna’s moon could even break through.

“…so…where is she?” The other voice asked.

“Hush. I said 10 PM sharp, it’s only 9:57. And we do not say anything about her being late if she is, got it? We need this.”

“B-but…I still really don’t know why we’re doing this. Is the um…problem pony really bad enough for this?” The first voice was a bit shaky.

“Yeah, it is. Besides, the boss is doing this, it’s not our idea.”

A dull fwump came from behind them both, the sound of something landing on the stone. Both stallions turned around, one of them lighting up their horn and the other spreading his wings and covering his face with them.

“Hey, calm down with the fireworks, sparkle-head.” A female voice, one that carried quite a bit of power, spoke. In the dull glow of the unicorn’s horn, a Dracony’s pure white face and multicoloured mane was revealed clearly.

“H-holy fuck, you’re-…” The unicorn started.

“Dusk Rider?” The Pegasus spoke up, taking his wings away from his face and letting himself stare in awe.

Dusk struck a lazy pose, her black-clad body shifting in the twilight. “Yeah, that’d be me. In the flesh and all that.” She wiggled herself a bit, to loosen her muscles that had been sore from flying all the way to Manehatten from Canterlot.

“Uh, wow, well can I just say you look awesome?” The unicorn said with a nervous smile.

Oh, sweet Faust… Dusk thought to herself, realizing that the two were just colts with some kind of grudge against a high school bully. “Right, yeah yeah. What is it you two wanted done? We can talk about our asses later, it’s business right now.”

“Oh, right, um…” The Pegasus fished out a piece of paper and a large bag out of his saddlebags. “Our boss has somepony he wants out of the way.”

Oh. They have a boss. Okay… Dusk sighed and nodded her head, taking the bag and putting it on the ground while she read the note.

Dear Ms. Rider,

I do apologize for sending these two to take care of business that I rightfully should have come to you for on my own. I’m quite busy as of late, and simply could not find the time. I have a job for you, one that I guarantee will pay quite lucratively if you accept. In the bag I have enclosed you have 500 bits. This is likely only a fraction of what you normally receive – but this is just an advance payment, we shall say. Should you decide to take the contract, I will provide much more when it is done. If you do not, you can still take the bits. I know a mare like you needs them.

Without any more stalling, here is who I want you to kill.

Dusk glanced down. Attached to the paper was the image of what seemed to be a Crystal Guard, but she was standing right next to Captain Shining Armour.

This guard was once part of my organization. I’d rather not disclose what she used to do, much less so to disclose what I currently do. I simply want them dead. The envelope has all the information you need on your target. I hope to have it done soon, and perhaps we can work together again some time.

Yours,

Sanctuary.

Dusk read through the letter a few more times, then glanced down at the envelope and the bag of money. Her only real thought was that she’d need to carry that sack of metal all the way to her camp…

“So…uh.” The Pegasus spoke. “You…taking the job, or…?”

The Dracony slowly stood up, taking a deep breath through her nose. She didn’t want to. Everything was telling her this was a trap, and even if it wasn’t, she really didn’t want to go near the Crystal Empire, let alone the palace. “…” She sighed and blinked her eyes a few times. “Yeah. I’ll do it.” She grabbed the bag in her teeth, folded the letter and envelope into her pocket, and flared her wings. Before the two could say anything else, she vaulted into the sky and took off.

“…” The unicorn blinked up at the sky.

“…she’s uh…pretty c-…” the Pegasus began.

“Hot?” The unicorn finished.

“I uh…what?”

“I mean…cool. Yeah.”

“…yeah…”

Fuck.

Dusk clipped the blade onto her tail.

FUCK.

She slipped her suit back on, zipping and clipping it shut where it needed to be.

“FUCK!”

She let the last one escape her audibly, a few birds scattered into the air from the surrounding trees as she stood in the middle of her campground, her chest heaving. “This is a bad idea. I shouldn’t do this. Fuck it, I’ll just take…” She let her eyes drift down to the bag lying on the ground, filled with 500 fresh, shiny bits.

Contrary to what the note had said, 500 bits was only half of what she normally got – not a fraction. If he planned to pay her more than that, she really couldn’t say no. She needed the bits for supplies, which she was extremely low on, and she refused to steal for it.

“Okay…” She closed her eyes, letting her lungs pull in a healthy amount of the cool autumn air, and then slowly breathed it out. “Just…calm down, Dusk. Everything’s fine, and you can do this easy-peasy…”

She wasn’t used to doing things like this.

Hiding her identity, or at least hiding her armaments and walking in public, was something that seemed stupid. Monumentally stupid, in fact. She didn’t have a choice though – the Crystal Empire barely had any place to sneak in, especially in broad daylight. Even so, it gave her an advantage. Guards would be more attentive at night, so during the day she’d have a much better chance of getting close to this guard.

“Heya!”

Dusk’s eyes shot wide open as her vision was suddenly engulfed in pink. It took her a moment to realize that the voice had come from within the wall of pastel fur, and looking up slightly she met the gaze of Pinkie Pie – a mare she only knew by name because of her status. “…er…hey.” Dusk’s identity wasn’t hidden brilliantly. She was wearing a dress, under which she hid her tail, and her eyes were covered by sunglasses. Her suit was underneath the dress as well.

“What’s your name? My name’s Pinkie Pie and to be honest I’m supposed to be helping Cadence and the others get ready for the Crystal Fair AGAIN but I saw you from up on the palace balcony and I was like ohmygosh this pony’s new and she’s not a crystal pony! So obviously I had to come and say hi but I realized I didn’t even know who you were but you look so familiar and wow you’re really short has anypony ever told you that?”

“…I…” Dusk was a bit befuddled, the mare’s long-winded sentence barely even having a pause in it. “Er…my name’s…White Whirl. Nice to meet you.” She held out a hoof, which had a white hoof cup on the bottom to hide her glowing clefts.

Pinkie Pie happily took Dusk’s hoof, shaking it violently to the point Dusk almost threw her. “Great to meet you! I was ju-…”

“PIIIIINKIIIIEE!” A loud voice yelled from far away. Dusk could faintly see a blob of purple standing there, but she couldn’t make out who it was…

In a bright flash of pinkish purple magic, Princess Twilight popped into existence in front of Dusk, standing before Pinkie. “I told you to get the festivities ready! The festival starts in three hours, Pinkie. You need to- who’s this?” Twilight glanced back, slowly turning to face Dusk. Since the Dracony was quite a bit smaller than the average pony, she only reached Twilight’s chin.

Out of the four princesses (that she knew of), Twilight was probably the most tolerable. Cadence was next, followed by Luna – she wouldn’t even consider Celestia worth looking at, however. “Oh, uh…White Whirl, at your service.” Dusk bowed, an action that made her internally wince.

“Oh! Er…sorry you had to see that. We do get a lot of tourists for the festival…” She held out her hoof. “I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Dusk took her hoof and was somewhat relieved that her shake was more polite than Pinkie’s.

“I’d love to stay and chat,” Dusk said. “But I’ve got some ponies to meet. It was lovely to meet you, princess Twilight. I hope we’ll see each other again.” She forced a genuine smile.

“Oh, well alright. Enjoy the festival!” Twilight waved as Dusk walked past them, heading into the city.

Dusk allowed herself a heavy sigh as she trotted away. Of course, just my luck that the friendship crew is here today. She shook her head, pacing herself through the streets. I’ll just have to hope the others aren’t here…she ran a hoof through her mane, making sure it stayed in its unnatural slicked-back style. “This was a bad idea…” She muttered. “I should’ve waited till nighttime, but this guard doesn’t have a night shift…”

As her thoughts began to wander, so too did her hooves. She paid more attention to her plan than to where she was walking, and ended up bumping into a pony.

“Gah, sorry.” She started to push herself past, her dress sliding up against the stark white fur of the body she had bumped.

“Oh, no problem.”

Dusk’s whole body stopped. She could have sworn her heart skipped several beats as her eyes flashed white for a second.

“Um…you okay?” The voice said, and Dusk felt a hoof on her shoulder.

“…I-I’m fine. Just…a little…faint.” She kept herself turned away, but managed a glance back.

As if her luck couldn’t get any worse, apparently it was just normal for the ruler of the Crystal Empire to go strolling around with no guards. Shining Armour was standing there, his hoof resting on her shoulder and his warm, charismatic smile boring through her even with the quick glance she got.

“You need help? I’d hate for you to fall.” Shining offered, but Dusk quickly shifted forward and slid out from under his hoof.

“I’m fine. I’m fine.” She insisted, trotting off without looking back again. When she was confident that she was out of sight of the stallion, she ducked into an alley and started forcefully ripping her dress off.

“Fuck this. Fuck all of this.” She pulled the torn remains of her dress over her head, dumping it on the ground and stretching herself out. “Not doing it. Not worth it.” She shook her body, tattered bits of fabric falling off her suit to reveal herself fully. Fluffing her mane with her hooves, she forced it back into its normal state and flapped her wings to take off.

Dusk looked down, meeting the gaze of a guard that was standing in the mouth of the alley.

“Oh for fuck’s sake…”

“ASSASSIN!” The guard yelled as loud as he could. Almost immediately a blade shot out from Dusk’s wing and sliced through his throat, but the damage had been done. She could hear the galloping hooves getting closer.

“Damnit…” She flapped her wings harder, sliding her blades back into place and shooting off as fast as she could.

But she wasn’t fast enough. A glowing blue bolt of magic struck her in the wing, sending a wave of pain through her body and making her plummet towards the ground. She tried to correct herself, but she landed hard – and her vision went black.

Dusk had no idea how long she had been out, or how much time had passed since the last time she had woken up…or…had she woken up at all? She had no idea.

Her hooves couldn’t move. She felt they were shackled to the ground, with very little room to pull away. Her hind legs were free, which she imagined was a mistake, but her tail was also shackled to the ground so it wouldn’t help her much. Her wings were bound with tough rope that dug into the semi-translucent flesh and her mouth ached, as if it had a bridle in it at some point.

After taking in her surroundings – there wasn’t much to take in, just grey walls and a window that was barely at ground level – she sat back down and waited. She had little to no idea if she was even in the Crystal Empire now…and she had a pretty good idea of what awaited her if she didn’t escape. Then again, she had done so many times before.

“You have no idea how hard it was to arrange this, Dusk.” It was the same voice from before. Dusk felt her muscles threaten to lock up, but she relaxed them. Looking up, she saw Shining Armour standing in the doorway with no announcement or guards to accompany him.

“Yeah. Well you shouldn’t have gone to the trouble.” Dusk scoffed, her gaze averting itself to the floor.

“Would you prefer they just executed you while you were unconscious?” He asked, shutting the door behind him. “I knew it was you, Dusk. You’re not good at disguises.”

“Could you spare me the nostalgia attempt and tell me what I need to do?” The Dracony shot Shining a glare.

“You don’t need to do anything. I’ve arranged that no one come around this cell for a few hours.” He trotted forward until his face was almost right in front of Dusk’s. “But it’s up to you if you get out or not.”

“You’re married, so I know you don’t want me to suck you off. What’s the charge?”

“All I want to hear is that you won’t do this anymore.”

Dusk had to resist the urge to laugh. “What, are you in talks with Luna or something? This is the second time in two days that somepony’s tried to do this."

“Sorry.” Shining shrugged. “I skipped He stepped past the Dracony. “This isn’t a demand, Dusk. Honestly, I want to let you go anyway. So it’s up to you if I let you go, you get caught again and probably don’t get saved by me, or I let you go and you make a choice to turn yourself around.”

Dusk just rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, giving me the option to better myself, all that. Got it. I dunno if you’re trying to convince me of something, but it’s not exactly working.” Her eyes darted from side to side, confused and a bit nervous – though the second one was a feeling she had learned to suppress.

“Dusk, would you rather keep living in that camp out in the woods, or live here, in the palace, with me?”

“…wha…but you’re married, what are you-…”

“Not like that, Dusk. Well…not at first.” He sighed and moved away, turning around to look at her.

“Come on. Your two options are to leave without anything, or live here and be safe.” He smiled, that same warm grin that made her eyes quickly avert. “With…maybe a few added benefits.”

“Shut up. Just, shut up.” Dusk’s eyes tried to find anywhere to look besides Shining.

“Dusk, I know Luna already tried to come to you, but she only cares about having your abilities in the Guard. Me…” He leaned in, close enough to risk being bitten or headbutted. “I still care about you, Dusk.”

The Dracony stiffened. Her muscles lurched and tugged at her shackles, the concrete that was holding the metal in cracking at the force of her resistance. “Don’t you fucking dare.” She growled, her teeth gritting.

“Hey, hold on.” Shining’s magic grabbed the shackles, holding them down. “Don’t say no so fast. I know you’ve felt it too.”

“Fuck off, Shining. If you cared you wouldn’t have married a princess who pretty much forces you to love her.”

“I do love Cadence.” Shining asserted. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t l-…”

“Don’t. Don’t even say it. I swear to Faust if you say it…”

Shining held up his hooves. “Fine. I won’t say it.” He ran a hoof through his mane. “Listen. I’m going to let you go. You know I am. But I want you to think about this.” He released her shackles, his magic slowly undoing the locks and letting her move freely. The Dracony immediately stretched out her legs and moved to the opposite side of the room.

“I need my things.”

“I have your things.”

“Give them to me.”

“They’re in the armoury.”

“Then bring them here.”

“I’m bringing you there.”

Dusk took a deep, sharp inhale of breath and gritted her teeth, the upper and lower jaw of the assassin grinding together harshly. “…you know what?” She stepped forward, her face craning at a near ninety-degree angle as she pressed herself chest-to-chest with him. “Maybe I’ll take you up on that offer. If only to see how you juggle an assassin and your wife at the same time.”

“Part of the agreement is you stop taking contracts.”

“And part of my agreement is that you want me back regardless of what I agree to, and you don’t have any bit of leverage here. You’ll do anything to keep me here. Right?”

“I-…” Shining started to say, but shut his mouth. “Look. I know you’re mad at me, for…some reason, but surely you see that living here would be way better than-…”

“Sorry, no deal.” Dusk snorted, trotting towards the door and letting her tail flick Shining on the chin. “You’re lucky I haven’t been contracted to kill you yet.”

“I don’t think you’d be able to.” Shining replied with a bit of a grin.

“Try me.” Dusk glared him down, her lip curled into a grimace as she trotted out of her cell.

“Where are you going, exactly?” Shining called after her.

“You can keep the stuff. I’ve got spares.” Dusk replied. As her tail vanished around the corner, Shining’s expression shifted.

“Hrmph…harder to crack than I thought…”

Dusk woke up with her face smushed into the pillow she was lying on in her tent.

“…” Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness, before she slowly heaved herself up and let a long, extremely exasperated sigh ripple out of her. “You know, this time it was a low blow.” Dusk snarled into the night, poking her head out of the tent flap. “Trying to use Shining to get to me? In a dream?” She shook her head, stepping out. It was almost pitch black. The only source of light was Dusk’s gently glowing hooves and the slightly red embers of the fire.

“I know you’re listening. And if you’re not, then fuck you anyway.” She kicked at the dirt, her eyes gleaming in the night air. “Makes sense why he was acting so weird. You’ve got no idea how my-…” She cleared her throat. “How Shining acts.”

More silence, and Dusk just stared back at the eerie forest. “Yeah, fine. Don’t say anything…” She scuffed the dirt again. “…if…you’re even listening. And if I’m not…making a fool of myself trying to talk to somepony who isn’t there.”

“…and…if that wasn’t…you.” Dusk’s eyes darted to the ground, the realization creeping in from all sides much like the oppressive darkness. “Even you would know Shining better than that…”

She took a deep breath, scratching at her head with her tail. “Fuck…was I really dreaming about that? What kinda symbolism is that supposed to be?” She whacked her tail against the ground, stirring up dust that she wasn’t able to even see. “FUCK!” She yelled out loud, her voice echoing through the night sky. It was so quiet that the echo was audible to her for several long seconds before dissipating.

She planted her rump in the dirt, followed by her whole body. Her head rested on her hooves. “I hate to say…but she’s right. I fucked up when I didn’t…” She felt a lump in her throat, but with a grimace she swallowed it. “Take the offer…”

…More silence. The only sound Dusk could hear was the constant chirping of crickets and the occasional hoot of an owl. She allowed her mind to drift, to things that she’d likely never see coming to fruition. Flashing images of her, clad in the armour of the Equestrian Royal Guard, shooting the shit with mares like her in the mess hall. Images of her interacting with the princesses in much friendlier, less venomous ways. Images of herself and Shining…as much as she hated to think of it.

Plp.

The near-silent noise of water hitting the ground below her made her grimace. Rain? She thought to herself, and looked up. As her head tilted back, she felt more liquid roll down her cheeks.

…oh. She felt her lower lip quiver. Oh, fuck off. This isn’t what’s going to make you cry, Dusk…come on, you’ve had worse…

…she heaved a sigh. Fuck it…

And there she lay, hind legs splayed beside her, head resting on her front hooves, with tears running down her cheeks. The gentle whimpers and sobs of a mare who was known for being emotionless and uncaring weren’t to be heard by anyone, and no one would take her tears into account if she went back, anymore.

She was fairly certain it wasn’t Luna that had set up that dream. It was just her mind, telling her she needed to cry for once.