The Dulling of a Blade

The feeling of fear weighing down on a pony like Light Sel was unbearable. He had no choice, that was what he told himself. He had to take the loan, but now he had no way of paying it back and every day he walked home from work with the constant nagging feeling that it would be the last time he made the trip. He nervously ran a hoof through his mane, the dark streets of Manehatten barely populated at all. Occasionally a pony would walk by, or he’d see somepony sitting in an alley, but nothing else.

“Fuck me…” He muttered to himself, his hoof shaking as he brought it back down to the ground. He could swear he felt like he was being watched, but that was just the nerves getting to him. Within a week he’d have enough money to at least pay back Sanctuary, and while it wouldn’t save him from his rent issues, it would at least keep him out of the group’s bad side.

“I wouldn’t quite use a harsh word like that, kid.” A feminine voice interrupted his thoughts. It came from the alley he just walked past. Every muscle in his body was screaming for him to run, or at least just keep walking, but regardless he overrode them and backed up to peer back into the alley.

A pair of glowing blue eyes peered back at him, the slight glint of teeth a bit below them. He opened his mouth to scream, but the figure lunged, wrapped something around his neck and dragged him into the alley. No one saw anything.

“Come on now.” The mare tossed him to the floor, putting a hoof on his chest. He felt colt metal pressing up against his neck, and his eyes went wide. “Don’t even think about screaming, or I won’t make it painless.”

“Wh-what the f-fuck?!” Light yelped. His horn lit up, illuminating a small part of the alley they were in. He immediately wished he hadn’t.

The mare on top of him was Dusk Rider, a Dracony whose face was plastered on every wanted bulletin in Equestria. Public enemy #1, though many criminals might debate it. “H-holy…s-sweet Celestia…y-you’re…”

“Yeah, I am. Skip the intro honey, I know who I am.” Dusk spoke in a soft tone, but it was neither sympathetic nor overly cruel. Neutral, that was the way to put it.

“Wh-…a-are you…here to…”

“Yeah, your name’s up on my list. I don’t have much of a clue why anypony wants you dead but it doesn’t matter.” Light felt the metal tip of the blade attached to Dusk’s tail sink into the flesh of his neck, making his rate of breathing increase and his eyes widen even further.

“W-wait, don’t!” Light was panicking, but Dusk didn’t press any further.

“Listen, I’ve got a schedule.” Dusk said, pressing just a bit more. He felt blood trickle down his neck. “If you’ve got some final thing to say, just spill it before I spill everything else.”

“P-please…just…I…t-tell Sanctuary I’ll get him the money, okay?” He pleaded, his eyes staring right into Dusk’s.

The Dracony just shrugged. “Kid, I’ve got no idea who it is that wants you gone, all I know is they’re paying me. Nothing personal.”

“N-no, please! I promise, I’ll get the money! I-I’ll…I’ll get you money! M-more than he was going to pay! Please, don’t kill m-…”

Schnk.

Quick and easy. That was the way Dusk handled things. A faint gargle and fumbling of limbs, but then silence. She pulled away from the corpse, a pool of blood slowly forming under the dead pony, before she flapped her wings and took off into the night sky.

“So.” A regal voice echoed through the halls of Canterlot Palace.

“So…” Another one replied. Both were female, though one sounded older.

“Have you gotten through to her, at all?” The first one began.

“Not yet. I only managed to enter her dreams once…but I was observing another.”

“And?”

“Well…I think she feels guilty for leaving her past behind. But she also…doesn’t want to deal with er…” The younger voice trailed off.

Slowly, two sisters rounded the corner. Celestia and Luna, the two co-rulers of Equestria, gently paced through the corridors. “Doesn’t want to deal with what?” Celestia asked.

“Well…you.” Luna replied, sheepishly. “The grudge she holds is deeply ingrained. I don’t think even a personal audience with you would lessen it.”

“…right. And tell me, what do you see in her, sister? So far, you are the only reason I haven’t allowed the guard to simply kill her on sight.” Celestia looked down at her shorter sister, who grimaced slightly.

“Celestia, you need to realize that sometimes a pony is worth saving even if they don’t contribute directly to your benefit. You only wanted to reform Discord because he was powerful, is that not right?”

Celestia just sighed. “Well even if I thought she was worth it, we can’t get through to her. It’s not possible. I am ordering her execution when we find and catch her.”

Luna winced again, her chest fluttering with a twinge of pity. “Sister, please. You thought Dusk was useful, did you not?”

“I did. Until she refused to do as commanded.”

“You did horrible things, Celestia!” Luna had a hint of exasperation in her voice.

“I did what I had to, to ensure their survival-…”

“Stop.” Luna slammed a hoof down, her voice lowering a few levels but also gaining a hint of anger. “I won’t hear the same excuse every time we discuss this, Celestia. You were in the wrong.”

The sun princess frowned. “Well perhaps I was, but the draconies are their own ponies now. There are no restrictions on them.”

“And yet they are still treated as second-class citizens. Sweet ever-loving Faust, sister, you’ve helped yourself to three of them in the past week!”

“They weren’t doing their jobs.”

“Celestia, you can be horribly dense sometimes. Do you not realize that perhaps your Dracony subjects aren’t happy about the status that you unintentionally forced upon them?”

“It is no fault of mine. The Draconies brought this on themselves. Don’t think I have not heard the reports from Tempest Diadem.”

“Wh…Tempest? You mean you haven’t actually seen it for yourself?”

“I trust him.” Celestia said firmly. “And even if I thought he was lying at first, the actions of this…this blade-for-hire just cements it.”

“But you surely can’t believe every word he says without investigating on your own!” Luna retorted, her voice and body language expressing pure shock at her sister’s blasé attitude towards her subjects.

“I would not have appointed him if I did not trust him, Luna. Bellephron and the draconies who inhabited it are his responsibility.” Celestia began to trot away, her point made.

“You…you’ve just…given up all responsibility, haven’t you? I can’t tell if this is just pure ignorance or wilful blindness…” She said, quietly but loud enough for her sister to hear. Celestia paused her stride for a moment, then continued to trot away.

After standing idly in the hall for a few seconds, Luna turned on her heels and began to gallop back to her quarters. If her sister wasn’t willing to speak about it, she’d have to make it happen.

“I bet this is a fucking dream, isn’t it?” Dusk growled, standing at the point she had been instructed in the letter. “Having me wait here so your cake-fat ass can fly in and tell me about friendship or something.” She spoke to the sky, or perhaps to the specific cloud she was staring at, as if it was expected that Luna would spontaneously pop out of it. “Stupid alicorn bitch…” She muttered, idly running her hoof along the sharpened edge of her tail blade.

She had been waiting for two hours – two hours past the time that she was told to be there. At this point she thought it was an attempt to get into her head, and her patience was in fact running thin.

“Mmmkay. I think I’m done.” She stepped forward, the sound of her tail scraping the ground accompanying a light gust of wind that gently made her mane flow and a few leaves blow past her. Spreading her wings, she began to run forward, starting to flap them…

The sound of jingling metal hit her ears.

Her muscles tensed. Her course almost instantly changed direction, her whole body crouching low as she spun herself around. A long metal chain with a heavy metal ball attached on either end very narrowly missed scraping her wings, which she quickly folded to her side. Another one came directly after, and she used her tail to vault herself over it.

Landing back on all fours, she brought her tail over her head, poised like a scorpion’s. Standing before her was a group of ponies – she couldn’t tell if they were guards or just members of the group who had contracted her that didn’t want to pay up.

“You guys made a big mistake. You could’ve had a free assassination there.” She flicked her tail, the gleaming blade sliding forward a bit to make it less for quiet assassinations and more for open combat. “I’m giving you all three seconds to fuck off or you’ll be spilling into the river.”

A few of the ponies – mostly stallions – nervously glanced at the unicorn in front. He also looked rather nervous, but with a nod of his head the rest steeled themselves. “You can’t take all of us, drop the act.” He said firmly.

“Try me.” Dusk’s voice was low and her eyes shot daggers into the head stallion’s.

Silence reigned over the park for a few moments, the gentle blowing of the wind making trees creak and groan. None of the ponies moved, and neither did Dusk.

Suddenly, pain.

Sharp, searing pain shot up Dusk’s spine, her whole body locking up. Her tail lashed back to hit at whatever had attacked her, but it was met with a CLANG of metal hitting metal. She convulsed violently for a few seconds, veins bulging out in her neck and muscles before she collapsed forward.

Her body was throbbing, her vision blurred. The ponies standing across from her didn’t move, but Dusk felt something touching her tail before the metal blade dropped to the ground next to her face. She snarled, her teeth gritting together as an angry grimace crossed her muzzle, but she couldn’t move.

“My most sincere apologies for the shock, Dracony.” A female voice spoke, and a mare she had never seen before stepped forward. It was a royal guard, dressed in full armour and her horn crackling with electricity. Her mane was bright blue and her coat was white. “But the princess did say we didn’t need to be gentle…”

“F…uck…off…” Dusk wheezed, her legs desperately trying to obey her command to stand up, but they couldn’t. She fell again, and the mare raised a hoof clad in a metal boot.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be awake in time for your execution.”

Dusk tried to retort, but the metal-covered hoof slammed down on her temple and stars exploded in front of her eyes.

“…ah. Shit. That was supposed to knock you out. Now I look like an idiot.” She sighed and whipped her hoof into the side of Dusk’s head, everything in Dusk’s vision going black.