Twisted Fate

Chapter Eight – Midnight’s Shadow

“There is darkness in us all, little one.”

“You want us to what?” I asked, exasperated. “How the hay are we supposed to do that?”

“I don’t care,” Celerity said, “Get it done.”

“Ugh, these assassins,” I mumbled under my breath, just quiet enough to avoid the grand master assassin Celerity from overhearing. Frostbite had been kind enough to introduce us to the guild, an assortment of ponies, plus one former gryphon spy named Gilda, made up the ranks. Celerity was Frostbite’s second in command, and after Frostbite made it clear that we were to help out the guild until he could gather enough intel on the pendant heist, Celerity jumped on us getting some non-lethal wet work done.

I looked back to the mare as I walked away. If you took a pass at her on the street there’s no way you’d guess she was a trained killer with over a hundred kills done throughout Equestria. A normal salmon colored mare with a red mane and cutie mark of an arrow pointing forward clearly indicated this was a pony on the move, and she wanted work done.

Faith and I were set to do some scouting, thankfully on the guilds budget, on a possible organized crime ring that enjoyed hanging out at a quaint little bistro down near central park. Simple enough job, just sit, act casual, order some food and snap some photos discreetly with a camera resting on the table.

The assassin headquarters was actually under the cover name of ‘Quick Fix Security,’ a private security firm run by Celerity, and no one got to see the upper floors of the buildings. The windows were blacked out one way so you couldn’t see inside them, but you could still see out. Several security measures that would scare away even the hardest veteran of breaking and entering accompanied the secret hiding windows, including burn safes, laser alarm grids rigged to sear as well as trip an annoying noise guarded the main guild armory. A large wooden table surrounded by chairs with various whiteboards, chalkboards and corkboards sprawled with various maps, mug shots and statistics made up the planning room.

Those of the assassins who didn’t live a cover id and simply stayed off the grid lived in the floors above, which also included the guest room for Faith and I. One room. With one bed. As if there wasn’t enough awkward sexual tension between me and that mare, the universe throws more crap in my face. Still, it was nice enough for them to give us a warm welcome. For a group of killers, even killers of criminals, they seemed like genuinely friendly ponies. Well, except Frostbite, that dude was just cold. Ha, more puns, I knew I would fit one in eventually, can’t have Faith upstaging me now, can we?

“Hey Destiny,” Faith said with a friendly wave. She was enjoying coffee in the lounge of the building, casually watching various banking executives talk to Celerity about getting increased security as a certain product came in or toning down increased measures to lower their cost. “What did Celerity want us to do for our first assignment while Frostbite gets the details on the museum specifications?”

“You’re not going to like this, or you might,” I said back.

“Oh come now,” Faith waved off my fears with a wave of her hoof, “I’m sure it can’t be that bad.”

“We’re staking out and doing surveillance on an organized crime leader named Crimine Capo.”

“Bleh, spying? What’s up with that, they couldn’t give us something entertaining?”

“He likes to hang out at a bistro on Grand and Centre, guild is picking up expense for the mission, that means lunch,” I mentioned.

“Oh why didn’t you say so? I’d love to go to lunch with you!”

“We’re going on a mission, not a date,” I pointed out.

“We’re going on whatever you want us to be doing,” Faith said, “Besides, date makes a great cover story, it worked back in Hoovegorod.”

“Point taken,” I responded. “It’s nearly noon, want to head out now?”

“I’d love too.”

We casually sat down at a table that sat outside of the bistro, Faith casually placing the camera on the table and pointed it towards Capo, the two of us playing ignorant tourists. It was an easy enough guise to put on; playing dumb is a lot harder than playing smart.

“What can I get for you two fine ladies today?” A waiter came up to our table and politely asked.

“I’ll just have a glass of water,” I said.

“Iced tea, please.”

“Very well, I’ll be right back with those,” The waiter said as he walked off to go fetch our drinks.

“Act casual,” I turned to Faith, “Take turns casually glancing around the restaurant, and do anything to alleviate suspicion.”

“I think I can handle it,” Faith replied. “In the meantime, what do you think is going to happen with Frostbite? How does this heist go down, and more importantly what then? If we’re successful and get away clean what’s our next move for getting towards the next artifact.”

“From the notes we used to have,” I replied. “I can remember several locations, the nearest being one of the gryphon kingdom capital cities, Asgard.”

“Yay,” Faith replied melodramatically, “How I adore gryphons.”

The waiter approached shortly after with our drink orders and set us them down on the table. We ordered our meals after, a nice daisy sandwich for me and Faith ordered a salad. Casual customers that just put a camera on the table, even the most careful bastard won’t interrupt two mares eating a salad dressed to look like tourists that just so happened to dine at a rather famous bistro down in little Italy.

“What’s Capo doing?” I asked without breaking eye contact with Faith. I saw her casually glance behind me and towards the table where the crime boss was sitting.

“Drinking some espresso, talking with another pony, looks like some kind of business meeting,” Faith noted.

“Any muscle?” I asked.

“Two stallions casually sitting at the table over and giving shady glances at everyone in the bistro, I think I can hear one of them if I lean a little closer-”

“Don’t,” I interrupted, “Hold my hooves, quick.” I grabbed her hooves in mine and held them on the table, making sure she never broke eye contact with me. “You were leaning to close, I have to do this to alleviate any growing concern over the two tourists sitting here. Play it cool, Faith.”

“Cool, got it,” Faith let go of my hooves, although with noted reluctance, and went back about her salad. I casually moved my hoof over the camera, acting as if I was reaching in for Faith’s hoof again and snapped a couple of shots at the crime ring leader. We finished our meals with relatively little complications, dropping a few bits for the tab plus tip, Faith once again floating the camera over to her and putting it over her neck in typical tourist sightseer fashion.

“Shall we go back to base?” Faith asked.

“Mmm, nah,” I said back, “Let’s go check out those archives.”

She nearly broke on of my ribs in a hug.

We walked up to the doors of the archives, Faith almost bouncing along at the prospect of all of the knowledge held within. I considered it a good time to catch up with Frostbite on our progress with the artifact, and maybe look into possible other locations that we lost with the crashed ship.

At the sound of the door opening, Frostbite looked up from some files he was looking through, his expression leaving something to be desired.

“I thought you two were supposed to be helping Celerity on her assignment with Crimine Capo, what happened?”

“We got the surveillance done, but I promised Faith we’d check out the archives. You can take the mare out of the library, but you can’t take the library out of the mare.”

“Very well,” Frostbite replied flatly, “As long as you get those photos to Celerity by the end of the day so we can develop them, you are free to explore the city, it’s quite a sight.”

“She’s just excited about learning,” I remarked as Faith went about browsing the many different tomes and sheer wealth of information contained in the archives, “Meanwhile I was wondering how the information on the museum security is coming along.” It’s not that I didn’t like Manehattan, but we did have several more artifacts to recover and doing favors for a guild of murderers for good wasn’t on the time table for us.

“It’s coming,” was all Frostbite said, “I’ve found an assassin to accompany you on retrieving the artifact, his name is Midnight, Midnight Shadow.”

“Interesting name,” I remarked, “When do I meet him?”

“He does night patrols, I was thinking that you could observe him in action tonight, he likes second avenue, find him after dark. I hope you make friends with him, he is not exactly the most sociable pony.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing I can’t handle,” I reassured him. “I’ve dealt with worse than an anti-social pony.”

“And he’s dealt with much worse as well,” Frostbite pointed out. “Get those pictures to Celerity, and tell Faith there’s a strict limit of two books per person to be checked out at one time.”

“I’ll break the bad news to her.” I chuckled before giving my best to Frostbite, going off deeper into the archives to find the lost scholar that had buried herself within the confines of near limitless knowledge. I know she had missed her chance to browse the grand library at Alexmanedria, the glowing holographic globe and ancient owl spirit being a more prevalent matter for the time being. I hoped that one day she would get to browse all the lost tomes in there someday.

“Destiny!” A voice called out from amongst the shelves, helping me locate the mare buried in the volumes of history from all over the Celestine Empire. “Check this out,” she said as she tossed a book my way with her magic. I grabbed the book in my mouth and laid it down on the ground, taking a careful look at what passage she had passed to me.

It was gryphon history, specifically about the Kingdom of Asgard and the rumored magical artifact held there, the golden feather. The passage mentions how the golden feather can give the ability of flight to creatures not native to such a feat, such as canines and earth ponies, as well as giving flight creatures like gryphons, pegasi and dragons the ability to pass through clouds when held. It was said to be activated from a spiritual bond with the item only possessed by a number of gryphons in recorded history, probably the direct descendants of the feathers original user, just as Wong Shei Tuong said.

“Interesting,” I mused, “Does this book say where the feather is now?”

“It mentions it being lost to gryphons with the fall of the old City of Asgard, on the upper cliff faces overlooking the newer city.”

“Strange,” I wondered, “You usually don’t rebuild a city of creatures of flight closer to the ground, was the old city at the peak of the mountain?”

“As far as I know the ruins of the old palace occupied the peak, the new city is nestled within a valley between two mountains, allows for more farming than on the Peak of Asgard Mountain.”

“Agriculture is important,” I said. “Well then we have our next target, infiltrate the ruins of Asgard before the gryphons or the Hammer kills us, seems simple enough.”

“I’d love to check these out to do more research while we’re back at the assassin’s base while were waiting on Frost to get the specs on the robbery.”

“Slow down there, bookworm,” I said, “He told me to mention to you a strict two book limit when checking out from the archives, choose our best two resources on both the Golden Feather and the Lunar Pendant. We’ve got to get this camera to Celerity though before she misses us, it’s already late afternoon.”

She pouted, “I suppose your right; I’ll just take these two.” Faith levitated two large textbooks, one titled ‘The Egghead’s guide to Magical Artifacts’ and the other being ‘Wonders of the Ancient World.’ Both I assumed were suitable choices when looking for powerful pieces that dates back thousands of years.

“Come on,” I motioned with my hoof, “We should get back to base.”

“Excellent work you two, these photos will certainly help us in tracking down Capo’s base, we can tail the guy he was meeting with fairly easily,” Celerity was busy giving us lavish praise on a near perfect assignment, without any serious complications to mention.

“It was nothing really, don’t mention it,” I replied. “What’s next?”

“We’ll get Gilda’s team working on tailing him to their hideout, you can meet up with her tomorrow for debriefing, got anything planned for tonight?”

“Frostbite wants Faith and I to meet with Midnight Shadow on Second Avenue tonight, he’s supposed to be our partner on the heist to retrieve the Lunar Pendant,” I responded.

“Frost assigned Midnight to you guys?” Celerity asked in disbelief, “You two are in for a pleasant evening; a lot of shit goes down on Second at night, all kinds of the lowlife crawl from their shadows and prey on passerby’s. I’d keep your weapons on you when going down to meet him.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said goodbye to Celerity and decided to check out the assassin training grounds, two floors contained underground dedicated solely to honing a pony or gryphons ability with any weapon. I stepped into the elevator and hit a button with my hoof, an audible ding responding to my input at the elevator door closed and I descended into the training rooms.

The first sight to greet me was your standard gym on the first underground floor, from treadmills containing a few very fit mares and stallions running on them to others lifting weights with both their forelegs and magic, straining to strengthen both of them. None of them really seemed to take notice of me stopping onto the floor, either that or they assumed I wasn’t a threat to them and they could simply leave me alone without needing to worry about me doing anything nefarious. I left quickly and descended down some stairs, the elevator not going any deeper than the bottom first floor. I trotted down a few until I reached the bottom second floor, my eyes greeted not by your average gym but instead of a rather expansive training ground filled with exotic and deadly weapons, a full size shooting range and multiple training dummies allowed any member of the guild to hone their skills on a new move or keep at the peak of their performance in whatever school of combat they had mastered.

A lone gryphon was working the firing range, a sound proof glass separating the range from the rest of the expansive training ground. She was standing up on her hind talons, a regular flintlock pistol gripped in her forward talons and aimed downrange as pony shaped targets popped up in rapid succession.

I tapped on the glass as the gryphon has just finished a round of five targets, reloading twin pistols with more speed than I have ever seen any pony do before, even unicorns with their magic couldn’t top this gryphon on her speed and accuracy. She turned to me as I tapped on the glass, looking up from her still smoking firearms. She turned and opened the door before speaking.

“Sup? Like what you see?” The gryphon asked.

“Your amazing with those, I wouldn’t want to get on your bad side,” I complimented.

“You murder any civilians recently?” She asked.

“Umm, no,” I answered apprehensively at the strange question.

“Then we’re fine,” she replied. “The name’s Gilda, and I used to be a gryphon spy.”

“Used to?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t prying.

“Let’s just say when you get retired as a spy they don’t give you a golden watch and a card.”

“You were burned?” I asked back.

“A little toasty,” she responded. “I met Frostbite to help keep me on ice, been working assassin missions for a little over a year now, even got my own squad.”

“Oh yeah,” I remembered, “Celerity said you were supposed to track down Capo tomorrow for the mission Faith and I are working on.”

“Oh so you’re the walk in’s Frost decided to help, why?”

“I guess he owed Free Bird,” I fathomed. “He’s gathering intel on a heist Faith and I have to pull to retrieve a powerful artifact to keep it out of a mysterious and multinational cult.”

“Sounds harsh,” Gilda commented, “You at least rolling with assassin support?”

“Midnight Shadow,” I said. “Does that mean anything?”

“Only that you’re going to have a hard time convincing him to follow your plan, he’s more vigilante than assassin. Still, he gets the job done, so I can’t really complain.”

“Thanks for the advice, Gilda.”

“Don’t mention it, but if you want some real advice, try to keep your life in order, don’t end up like me.”

“Your life can’t be that bad,” I reasoned, “I mean you’re helping a lot of ponies with this work.”

“Yeah, I hold a rating in any weapon that fires a bullet or holds an edge, but I can’t rekindle an old relationship with an old mare of mine.”

“You miss her don’t you?” I asked. Now was usually not the time to give relationship advice, but if my love life couldn’t be simple and straightforward, you could bet your flank I’d do my best to help simplify it for somepony, or some gryphon else.

“It wouldn’t work out, anyway,” Gilda said. “I feathered up something bad with the way I acted towards her friends when I last saw her.”

“When was that?” I asked.

“Over a year ago, right before I took one way train ticket here and met Frostbite.”

“Go tell her how you feel, if I can’t have a simple and happy love life maybe at least you can.”

“Got a special stallion somewhere? Or mare maybe?”

“Only my first real friend that I can’t really tell her how I feel,” I replied sheepishly.

“Pff, been there, done that. Come out and say it, I’m sure even if she doesn’t feel the same way, you won’t spend the

rest of your life wondering ‘What if.’”

“I don’t know…” I began before Gilda interrupted me.

“Tell you what, come to dinner with me and my partner Trixie, we’re grabbing dinner while doing some scouting on another one of Capo’s higher up’s at a sweet Italian place. I hear they’ve got great pasta. Bring your mare, the more the better our cover. I’ve never seen somepony question a group of three mares and a gryphon as a bunch of assassins.”

“You know what, that doesn’t sound bad, I can meet Midnight right after.”

“Perfect,” Gilda said as she extended a talon and shook my hoof. While a bit rough around the edges, Gilda seemed like a genuinely friendly gryphon.

I can’t believe I just said that.

“You want to take me to dinner?” Faith was giddy with excitement when I told her the plan, completely ignoring the whole Gilda and Trixie thing, the double date cover or the fact we were doing more surveillance on Capo’s mafia; nope, she only focused on me, taking her to dinner.

Maybe Gilda was right about just coming out and telling her that maybe I didn’t just want her as a traveling companion; that I cared for her more than I let on. Still I thought it could complicate things more than I need at the moment with the whole Elemental Hammer thing.

Our plan was simple enough; a small restaurant called La Tavolozza D’oro frequently serviced one of Capo’s chief mobsters, a burly grey pegasus stallion by the name of Grigio Nuvola. Trixie was to meet up with us at the corner where the restaurant was located and pose as Gilda’s date for the night, with Faith posing as mine.

Gilda advised we avoid using a camera and instead just try to recall as many events from the surveillance as we could. Nuvola was supposedly a very careful stallion, and sometimes took measures even more strict than Capo, even asking the owner of the restaurant to scour the location for anypony with a camera and politely ask them to put it away.

We weren’t taking any chances on this one, Gilda concealing a micro talon on the very ends of her own talons, small enough to not be noticed yet still sharp enough to rend flesh. Trixie, as Gilda had described it, brought a repertoire of lethal and non-lethal spells to the table that paired well with Faith’s disabling spell. I would be taking my hoof blade, leaving the wing blades behind and concealing the hidden knife underneath a formal slipper worn with a dress. Only Gilda would forgo formal wear, it being extremely difficult to tailor an extravagant dress over feathers, down and thick chest fur.

“Of course I want to take you to dinner,” I responded to Faith’s earlier inquisition about my intentions. “I’m not going to lie to you that there may be ulterior motives here like surveillance, but I really do want to do something nice for you after all we’ve been through. I mean, when’s the next time we’re going to get to be in a big city, most of these artifacts are in the farthest reaches of the known world. Now’s our chance to do something fun, before we meet this Midnight and get right back into the thick of it with the museum heist.”

“You really mean that?” Faith asked in near disbelief. “Thank you, Destiny. It- It really means a lot to me to hear you say that.”

“Anything for my best friend, Faith,” I said back.

“Best friend…” Faith repeated quietly.

“So I said to the little dweeb, buzz off kid I don’t need your kind dorking up the sky,” Gilda finished her story with a sip of her drink, the other three of us chuckling at it. Gilda was telling the story of her arch rival back in junior speedsters’ flight camp, another gryphon named Talon.

“Trixie thinks that that gryphon should have taken the hint and flown away to a less intense training camp, he obviously couldn’t handle you, Gilda,” Trixie smirked. It took a bit of getting used to her always talking in the third person, but I have to admit it’s both a little comical and gave insight into her egotistical nature. Still, it was nice to have another unicorn on backup in case things went sour. “It’s a good thing I can,” Trixie added.

It was certainly awkward watching another couple flirt with one another, seeing as how Faith teased me all the time as I cracked jokes back to her. Yet it was also cute at the same time as they bantered back and forth like and old married couple.

I was still extremely new to the whole undercover gig, my first and only previous experience being the on the fly attempt to get close to Diamond Brass. Even then, we never lost sight of our objective, each of us casually taking strolls to the restroom, never taking the same route twice yet always catching glances as Nuvola went about his business, meeting with several sketchy characters. Gilda casually glancing over my shoulder as waiters brought various imported wines from throughout the Celestine Empire.

“1,220 AC chardonnay,” Gilda commented.

“That’s over a hundred year old wine,” Faith exclaimed. “He must be meeting with someone important now.”

“From the southern Trottingham vineyards,” Trixie added, “You recognize the blue stallion he’s meeting with now?”

“Yeah,” Gilda replied flatly. “It’s Midnight.”

“Faith get ears in on the situation,” I virtually ordered Faith to cast a long range communication spell to allow us to eavesdrop in.

“What the buck is Midnight doing working deep cover off the books?” Gilda hissed under her breath. I could hear her blood pressure rising as the words flowed through the ley energy in the air and into our four ears.

“Ombra,” Nuvola spoke, “Glad to see you again.”

“Save the formalities, signore,” Midnight responded. “Ah, a twelve twenty chardonnay, you know me to well, i miei ringraziamenti.”

“You’ve got to admit,” I commented, “He can pull of Italian really well.”

“You come here for a favor, yes?” Nuvola asked Midnight. “You are a good friend of Don Capo. I am sure I can help you with some lovely crime spree you wish to pull. That last snatch and grab on the child predator, il magnifico.”

I suddenly recalled the dream in which I envisioned a busy citing street adjacent to a dark alley. I recalled the filly happily skipping along on her way home, the shady pony coming to take her away, the heroic rescue by the vigilante. Could my visions really be true?

“Grazie, I come to you for information, Don Nuvola,” Midnight picked up Nuvola’s hoof and gave it a light kiss, a cultural sign of respect Gilda told me. “It’s about this,” Midnight said as he slid over a newspaper with a picture concealed underneath.

“Either of you get eyes on?” I asked to Trixie and Gilda, Faith and my backs still turned against the meeting.

“Trixie thinks she sees some sort of jewelry photo.”

“What was that?” I asked, unsure if I had heard her right. I was interrupted before I could receive a response when the conversation between the deep cover assassin and the mobster continued.

“It’s a nice necklace, I can tell you that,” Nuvola said. “I don’t see how a picture can help me get you any information. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I only see one, inutile, useless.”

“It’s being held at the Grand Manehattan Museum, and I’m looking to ‘acquire’ it,” Midnight spoke.

“Acquisitions are my speciality, Ombra. But you know my work doesn’t come without knowledge of who this is going too and more importantly, why they want it,” Nuvola spat his demands.

“Two mares, one black coated and one beige, named Yin and Flame. They’re looking to snag the museum piece before it leaves display to be auctioned in Canterlot, so they called the best, and I came to you for help. I know you love heists like this with big payouts,” Midnight smirked.

“How big are we talking here, amico?”

“These mares have very, very deep pockets, and even larger banking accounts.”

“Did he just set us up with cover stories?” I broke the eavesdropping to toss a question into the open. My question was answered with another.

“Flame? What a boring name, when we get done with this dinner I’m going to give him a piece of my mind,” Faith scowled.

“You think Frostbite had Midnight working this deep cover without telling anypony?” I turned and asked Gilda.

“Doubt it, not even Celerity was giving an inkling that she knew we’d run into him.”

“I will see what I can do about your, acquisition, signore,” Nuvola interrupted our conversation with more information.

“Grazie, and grazie for the wine,” Midnight cordially responded. “If you’ll excuse me Don, I do have another appointment to attend to, give my regards to your boss if you can.”

“I think he’s talking about our meeting,” Faith pointed out.

“Sounds like it,” I replied as I turned back towards Gilda and Trixie. “Thanks for dinner, ladies. Faith and I will wait until Nuvola isn’t looking and head out. I assume dinner was covered under assassin expenses, but I’ll drop a few tens anyway. It was more than worth it for the meal.”

“I got to head back to base, Trix. Tell Twi’ I said hey, alright?” Gilda decided to depart with us to avoid suspicion.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is not a messenger pony! But I shall send her your regards none of the less.”

“Keep your eyes peeled, Faith,” I said to my companion. We had left dinner and headed down to Second Avenue for our schedules meeting with the vigilante.

“What do you think that whole deal with Nuvola was about?” Faith asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, “We can ask him when we find him, in the meantime lets worry about getting mugged down here at night, I don’t trust this part of town.”

“What’s so bad about this part of town?” A voice broke our conversation. Its source being unknown yet coming from an alley; Faith and I turning towards it to ready ourselves in case the speaker displayed hostility. “I personally like this part of town.”

“Midnight,” I guessed. “Glad to see you.”

“So you two are the ones I’m supposed to help,” Midnight stated flatly, “I trust that both of you enjoyed my little meeting with Nuvola.”

“Gilda looked like she was about to bust a blood vessel,” I replied.

“Frostbite wanted it done quietly, in a swift two birds, one stone movement,” Midnight punctuated his sentence with a wave of his hoof. “Use them to get the necklace, then bust them with the guards for robbery and make a clean escape. Your cover stories are already set up as two wealthy business mares looking to-”

“Looking to snatch it before it hits auction in Canterlot, we heard,” I interrupted. “What’s the plan?” I asked.

“The plan,” Midnight said, “So to speak is let Nuvola do most of the work while we scout out the Elemental Hammer in the city. He’s getting the security specs and giving us two of his guys to pull the heist, it should be easy enough to trick them in a quick snatch and grab.”

“Still,” he stopped, “Frostbite was vague on the details, what exactly is this necklace for and why are we helping you two with stealing it?”

“The Elemental Hammer cult,” I stated simply, “I don’t know what Frost has told you about them or the artifacts but the Hammer is after them and Faith and I are tracking them all down to keep them out of their hands.”

“So I assume you already have a few if you’re here in Manehattan looking for one.”

“Well, just one,” Faith admitted, “An hourglass rumored to control time.”

“Rumored?” Midnight asked.

“We haven’t actually used it,” I acknowledged. “If it controls time and we have no idea exactly how it works I don’t want to be responsible for permanently freezing time for all eternity.”

“Fair enough,” Midnight said.

“Still,” Faith added, “What are you going to tell Gilda? Or Celerity for that matter?”

“Pass it off as internal guild affairs, which it is. Frostbite doesn’t always share everything with his number two.”

“And what are we supposed to do?” I turned to him.

“Get some rest, and meet me here,” Midnight said as he levitated a card over with an address sprawled over the back, “tomorrow morning; nine sharp. Don’t be late.”

“So…” I said rather awkwardly.

“You’re sure they had no rooms with, I don’t know, two beds?” Faith asked.

“Celerity said this was the best they could do, they don’t have any other spare rooms.”

“Well I suppose if I had to share a bed with anypony, I’d rather it be you I guess.” Without another word Faith moved over to the bed and hopped on, sliding across to make room for me on the full size mattress. “Come on, we need to get some sleep. Sounds like Midnight is going to work us to the bone tomorrow morning.”

“Alright,” I replied absently, hopping into bed without much thought.

“Good night, Destiny,” Faith said as she flicked off the switch with her magic.

“Good night, Faith,” I responded in the darkness. I was apprehensive to fall asleep at first, afraid the malicious visions turned future predictions would return, but eventually I let sleep encapsulate me.

The only dream I could recall was getting to sleep next to Faith.

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead,” A voice followed by a pillow to the face woke me up rather abruptly. “We’ve got to meet Midnight in an hour, we should grab breakfast.”

“Five more minutes,” I mumbled.

“Not five more minutes,” Faith said as she poked at my side with a hoof, “Now, Destiny. I want to eat before we’re scouting out cultists all day.”

I grumbled as I forced myself up and onto my hooves, my vision blacking out for a second due to the sudden change in blood flow. “Sleep well?” Faith asked.

“Like a rock,” I told her. She still had no idea about my visions, but I couldn’t worry her about them now, especially after they were noticeably absent last night. “Any idea for breakfast?”

“I heard Celerity sent somepony to grab donuts and coffee, it’s downstairs,” Faith turned towards the door and opened it with her magic. “Coming?”

“Free donuts? You know it,” I replied as I followed suit. “So,” I decided to stir up conversation, “What do you think Celerity is doing about Frostbite running Midnight in deep cover without telling anypony else?”

“If I had to guess in one word,” Faith responded, “It’d be seething. She’s waiting until she gets Frostbite alone to chew him out on it.”

“I almost feel bad for the stallion,” I mused.

“Me too.” I noticed Faith sneaking glances at me, turning away with a blush when she noticed I saw her.

“Something on your mind?” I asked her.

“I’m fine,” she replied hastily, “Just hungry is all.”

“Then let’s get a move on, slowpony. I’m just as hungry as you are.” I gave Faith a light hearted half punch, half tap on the shoulder as I picked up my pace slightly as we came up to the elevator and descended down towards the lobby. I shared my past with her, I thought, she’ll tell me what’s on her mind eventually.

We stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby, the familiar sight of the salmon colored mare Celerity sitting at the front desk, perusing through several files greeted us.

“Morning you two,” she said. “I was beginning to wonder if you had both died in your sleep or something. If you’re looking for the free food it’s over there.” She motioned over to a table where Trixie and Gilda were casually sipping Star Buck’s coffee with several of ‘Pony Joe’s Famous Donuts’ lying in a box.

“Good to see you guys again,” I greeted as I trotted over the table. “I thought you had to leave town Trixie.”

“Trixie has decided to stay another night to help Gilda with her assignment,” The powder blue mare replied.

“More on the mafia?” I asked.

“Nah,” Gilda waved it off with a hoof. “Frostbite had me reassigned, I’m working undercover at the Gryphon Kingdoms embassy here for a while, Trixie’s my backup.”

“Sounds like fun,” Faith said as she levitated over a donut and took a dainty bite out of it.

“Is it ever?” Gilda responded sarcastically, “A bunch of pencil pushing gryphons that are all part of the organization that authorized my toasting and banishment. Hay, I might even run into Talon working there, the head of security at these embassies are always undercover spies.”

“That old rival from flight camp went into espionage like you?” I asked.

“We were pretty close once, him and I,” was the only response I got. “In any case, how did the meet up with Midnight go after his little meeting with Nuvola?”

“He told us Frost wanted the two of us to help him scout out some possible suspects as Elemental Hammer members.”

“I heard about those guys,” Gilda said, “They sound like a nasty bunch.”

“And they hate us pretty badly,” Faith added.

“Either way,” I broke off the conversation, “We have to head out to do the scouting, good luck running security for a bunch of bureaucratic gryphons.”

Gilda only grunted in response.

“Glad you could make it,” Midnight said. “Ready to get down to business?”

We had met Midnight at a corner store, the three of us departing quickly and casually strolling down the street while discussing our next course of action. The city was bustling with activity even in the early morning, far rivaling that of the industrial city state Hoovegorod and even that of slightly larger cities like Alexmanedria and Vaporia had nothing on the business that went down in an average Manehattan day. Frank Sinotetra, a famous earth pony once sang that if you could make it here you could make it anywhere. It was the song heard around the world, and only now it made sense.

We had discussed several ponies of notable suspicion, namely the secretary of the mayor of Manehattan as well as locally famous Wall Street executive Money Hooves. All of them were exhibiting odd and rather shady behavior usually exhibited by trains operatives, like never taking the same route to work or always exiting a room from a different door.

“When is our mobster friend going to get you the access to the museum?” I asked Midnight.

“He wanted to meet with us tonight.”

“Us?” Faith asked. “He wants us there too?”

“He likes to meet the clientele before big jobs like this. He’ll probably tail you two so I set up a hotel room for him to track you back to, can’t have you leading him to some private military corporation slash security firm. He might think you’re trying to rob him or something crazy like that.”

“He sounds careful,” I noted. “I don’t like that.”

“It certainly makes it more difficult to get him and Capo taken down, but I think Celerity assigned a new team to watch Capo’s until we can get Nuvola busted.”

“It’s all teamwork,” Faith commented. “Like one big family of trained killers.”

“Exactly,” Midnight smirked.

“Give me good news, Destiny,” a voice came into my ear. Apparently long range communication spells are standard for the guild, Midnight able to keep in contact with both Faith and I as we browsed downtown Manehattan for a single executive in a suit.

They all looked the same to me, all of them wearing a brown or black blazer with a red tie and white shirt with some cutie mark related to money or business in some way. It made it a little difficult to locate somepony in a crowd.

“I have absolutely nothing,” I hissed back. It kind of looks weird talking to yourself in a crowd of ponies. Frostbite was running point around the block, Faith across the street.

“Do we even have a description of this stallion Money Hooves?” Faith’s voice rang in my head.

“Brown colored coat, triple silver coins cutie mark, have fun,” Midnight said. “This trading firm is cleared. Also,” he added, “Sparkle Cola stalks are up, I’m rich.”

“Very funny,” I replied.

“Destiny,” Faith spoke up, “I think I’ve got something, brown coat, black mane, I can’t see his cutie mark, I’m going in for a closer look.”

“Wait for backup,” I said, “Midnight we need you, now.”

“Already rounding the corner,” Midnight replied, “I got you covered Faith, go in and identify the target if you can.”

“On it.” I could catch glimpses of Faith through the crowd of traders as she approached a stallion with a light brown coat. “Silver coins,”  the voice came through.

“Snatch and grab?” Midnight suggested.

“In broad daylight? Perfect way to get ourselves in deep trouble,” I replied back.

“Any suggestions, then?”

“Let’s try tailing and approaching him when he’s secluded,” I tried.

“I’ll roll with it,” Midnight said. “Faith?”

“Keeping it rolling I got it, you two owe me for this, you know.”

“He could be Elemental Hammer, you know,” I pointed out. “Technically they’re your enemies too, but I’m sure they hate me more.”

“Thanks for the reassurance,” Faith responded sarcastically.

I looked for when the street was mostly clear of taxi carriages before crossing, ending up slightly behind Faith as we both attempted to blend into the crowd and tail Money back to his little nefarious hiding hole that he lived out in.

“Pass off surveillance at random intervals,” Midnight recommended, “it helps keep them unaware.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Faith give up the lead, I got this.” I picked up the pace slightly, passing Faith in the crowd without even a glance at her. I knew these Hammer cultists were devoted and in the loop. While I doubted one could pick either Faith or I from a crowd, it doesn’t mean they couldn’t identify a single pony tailing them for a long distance.

I took note to always look preoccupied, gaping at the various sites around Wall Street. Whenever I did steal a glance at the possible cultist, he seemed to be suffering from extreme paranoia. I guess that comes with being part of society looking to simultaneously take every major city and country in the world in one fell swoop, only to have two of the plans fall apart due to, well, me.

“I’m intercepting him at the corner,” Midnight said, “Cross it, Destiny, to lose him.”

“Got it,” I said. I turned right and cross the street at a crosswalk, Midnight coming from my left to follow Money straight across the road. “Keep me up to date, Midnight. I’m taking the long way around.”

“Faith you’ll take the lead soon, come around again,” Midnight’s voice resonated out again in my eardrums. “Gah, there’s too many ponies, I’m losing him. Faith I need you to step in.”

“I’m one block over, give me time,” Faith bartered.

“We don’t have time, Faith. Destiny, back me up.”

“I’m on my way but there’s traffic, I’m not getting across this street unless I’m flying.”

“Then fly,” Midnight commanded.

“To the skies, I go.” I took off and jumped across the street, earning stares. I guessed it wasn’t common courtesy for pegasi to fly randomly through the buildings in Manehattan. I had to land and continue following Money Hooves before he became wary of my intentions.

“Destiny, where are you?” Midnight asked.

“I don’t see him,” I said. “He’s gone.”

“You lost him!?” Celerity yelled, causing everypony else in the room to look at her. She ignored their stares and continued being furious at us. “One job Midnight! One bucking job to tail a business pony, that was it. We even gave you two backups, a Vaporian Archangel, their Wonderbolts, and the smartest mare in Heliopolis and you can’t tail one business pony!”

“If I rushed through the crowd to keep up with him our cover would be blown,” Midnight argued. “There’s no telling what trouble that would have caused if he was part of the Hammer.”

“Well now we won’t know!” Celerity screamed again, “That stock broker, Midnight, he went underground! We can’t find him anymore. Gone, completely off the grid.”

“What were we supposed to do?” Midnight countered, “A snatch and grab in broad daylight doesn’t usually work, you know.”

“Will you two shut up already?” Faith broke up the argument with an exasperated shout. “By Celestia, you two bicker like an old married couple.”

“When did you start saying by Celestia?” I asked Faith.

“Were in Equestria, Destiny; blending in is everything,” she stated matter-of-factly. “In any event, Midnight has to go get the specs for retrieving the pendant from the museum, and not to be rude after such generous hospitality, but we must be going as soon as possible. I’d like to get this artifact and leave.”

Damn, I thought, my mare can shut an argument down.

Wait, my mare?

“Still,” Celerity continued. “Now we’re dealing with two major issues at the moment at the same time. Go to this meeting with Nuvola, I want this crime ring stopped so we can focus on the cultists.”

“My mare…” I mumbled subconsciously.

“What was that Destiny?” Faith having calmed down now turned to me.

“Oh, nothing, just saying how we should get ready for the meet.”

“Easy buddy,” I said. I hated get pat down. I know criminals and guards do it for safety, but having a big hunk of stallion meat pat you down when you prefer mares is well, awkward and annoying to say the least.

“They’re clean,” the mobster said.

“Ombra,” Nuvola said, “You weren’t kidding when you said these mares had deep pockets.”

“I wouldn’t lie to you, Nuvola,” Midnight replied. It was hard to not laugh at the irony of that line, but I held it in in exchange for not getting killed. “I trust you did some digging?”

“A friend of mine works at a local bank, he ran the banking account numbers by to check the mares balances,” Nuvola paused. “I didn’t know you could have so many zeros in one account; all with a nice one, in front of it.”

“So are we in business?” Midnight asked.

“We are,” Nuvola responded with. “You’ll find all of the specs in here.” Nuvola slid a folder across the table and towards Midnight. It was hard to make anything out in the room we were in, the low light making it difficult to identify anything other than silhouettes and the outlines of a few pieces of furniture.

“Unfortunately, I will have to back out of the other part of the deal,” Nuvola added. “I can’t spare any of my men at the moment to heist the Manehattan Museum, despite how valuable that necklace seems to be. In any event, I’m sure you are aware of my usual consultation fee, signore.”

“You’ll have the money wired to your account within 24 hours,” Midnight replied, going over the specs in dark light. I’m sure having a name like Midnight Shadow gives you better vision at night as one of your special talents. “Grazie for this, I’ll get right on your payment, but I must go and find another suitable assistant for the heist.”

“Of course, amico. Go, we will talk soon, I trust?”

“Absolutely,” Midnight said as he levitated the folder and stashed in a saddle bag he brought with him.

“What are we supposed to do about him backing out of the deal?” I asked to Midnight as we trotted back down the street towards the hotel where Faith and I were supposed to wait out as Nuvola’s guys tailed us.

“Act natural, it just means we can’t set him up after the heist is all, we have to make our own, clean, getaway,” Midnight spoke in a cool and calm demeanor that showed no signs of nervousness at the change in plans, yet I could sense a bit of worry. “Perhaps he got wind of that the guild was after him and wants to consolidate his forces incase Frost decides to move in soon. In any event, wait here until tonight. Destiny, I trust you can fly Faith down from the balcony tonight.”

“Well of course,” I said back. “But, are we really pulling the heist tonight, I mean we just got the specs.”

“I’ll have a plan by tonight,” Midnight responded. “I’ll tell you on the way to the museum, just be on the street by midnight, but don’t take the elevator, fly your way down.”

“Why?” Faith spoke up.

“No doubt Nuvola is going to stash surveillance in the lobby to track your movement, he doesn’t trust you. I could sense it,” Midnight spoke in response. “Rest up girls, if this goes well you’ll be on your way by sunrise.”

“These beds are sooooooo comfortable,” Faith mused as she rolled in the sheets of the deluxe queen size bed that far beat out the accommodations at the private security firm. “Are you sure we can’t stay just another night? I want to get a night’s sleep on here.”

“Easy there, sleeping beauty,” I replied. “Even if we could spend another night, which by the way I don’t think Frost will cover, there’s only one bed, and I’d rather be on the move then on the couch.”

“Who ever said you had to sleep on the couch?” Faith asked back, laying half covered in sheets looked back up at me.

“Again with the teasing?”

“It’s fun and funny, really,” Faith smirked.

“I really don’t know if I can do this Faith,” I said suddenly, causing Faith to dawn a worried expression.

“What do you mean?”

“This whole teasing thing, I don’t know if I can take that.”

“Destiny,” Faith paused, looking downtrodden at possibly hurting me. “I didn’t know, to be honest I really-”

An alarm interrupted her, alerting us that it was midnight. “Come on,” I spoke up. “Midnight will be waiting for us on the ground, down we go.”

“Whoa, Destiny, wait!” Faith tried to protest as I scooped her up by the waist in my fore hooves and flew out the open balcony door and slowly descending down to the ground.

“What took you so long?” Midnight said as I dropped Faith on the ground.

“Umm, relationship issues?” I said apprehensively.

“Forget it,” Midnight replied. “I don’t want to know details.”

“We are not done talking about this,” Faith muttered to me. “We do this heist, then we talk.”

“Count on it,” I replied.

“When you two ladies are done discussing pillow talk,” Midnight interrupted, “we can get down to details.”

“Fine,” I said defeated, “What are we up against?”

“Nuvola found the room where the pendant was located. The museum is holding it separate from the other exhibits in its own room with its own security system on a separate wiring from the main one.” Midnight pulled a map out with his magic from his bag and laid it on the sidewalk, the light from the streetlamps just barely bright enough to illuminate the floor plan. “We enter here, Faith cuts the wires here,” Midnight moved his hoof across the floor plan of the museum grounds, illustrating our movements and entrance plans. “Cutting the wires to the transformer should disable most of the electrical security countermeasures, we deal with the magical ones as we come across them.”

“And those include?” I asked.

“Several arcane powered motion sensors meant to shock anyone with a powerful electric bolt if tripped, we can disable them as we find them,” Midnight said.

“Okay, it seems simple enough,” Faith spoke up, “What else are we looking for?”

“That hoof blade Destiny has is going to come in handy in cutting the bullet proof glass display case that the locket is in, I’ll dispel the magical enchantment on it and Destiny here will slice right into it.”

“That’s reinforced glass,” I pointed out, “It’ll take a few minutes for me to cut into it.”

“We’ve got time if we do this right, no alarms will get tripped and the guards watching the front gate will be unaware we’re even inside.”

“Did you say guards? At the front gate?” Faith asked.

“Yeah,” I agreed, “If there’s guards what’s our point of entry?”

“You’re going to fly us onto the roof,” Midnight said expectantly.

“Seems easy enough, can we get this done?” I turned to both Faith and Midnight. I noticed Faith’s worried expression fading into one of determination, better resembling the mare I knew back in Alexmanedria when things were a bit simpler. We were just doing a job for the Ka back then, now we’re pulling a museum heist to keep a powerful artifact out of the wrong hands. I finally understood what Free Bird meant by bad things for good reasons.

I silently cursed her for it.

“Alright we’re going one at a time,” I said. We were sitting in an alley on the side of the building, managing to slip by into it after avoiding a set of two security guards staying at the front gate. “Faith, you’re up first to get to work on cutting the wiring while I carry Midnight over to the other end of the roof and begin the entry point process.”

“Agreed,” Midnight said, “I’ll guard down here then take point inside, all good?”

“Sounds fine by me,” Faith replied almost cheerily. It was a weird mood shift from flirty to downtrodden to determination and optimism.

“Alright Faith,” I took off and hovered in the air a small distance above the ground, “Up we go.” I lifted Faith in my hooves up onto the roof, a rim on the roof of the one story museum would give us cover from anypony looking on the ground, lack of light was supposed to protect us from prying eyes above.

I ascended to the roof and dropped Faith off, her hooves landing squarely on the building as she made a quick dash to the electrical building controls jutting out. Midnight had been nice enough to give us another three way mental communication spell while we made our entrance.

The roof was barely visible in the moonlight, but I could make out several pipes that allowed the air from the ventilation to get in and out, as well as two power boxes, easily labeled as ‘Main’ and ‘Show room.’

“I see the show room box,” Faith’s voice came through my ears as I descended down the alleyway to pick up Midnight.

“Just cut the blue wire,” Midnight said as I scooped him up. “Destiny, get me to the main ventilation entrance on the other side of the roof, we make our entrance there.”

“On it,” I replied as I ascended once more onto the roof. I flew over where Faith was working a pair of wire cutters on the circuitry and set Midnight down near a ventilation shaft large enough to sneak a gryphon inside. Midnight used his magic to unhinge the bolts that held the grate in place and place it lightly on the ground, taking extra precaution not to make a noise by dropping it.

“You’re in first Destiny, I’ll set up plan B.”

“What’s plan B?” Faith asked.

“Just an envelope of gun powder and small pieces of aluminum foil taped to the edge of the roof above the guards’ heads.”

“And that does?” I asked questionably, hoping to not have to kill anypony tonight.

“Don’t worry,” Midnight attempted to assuage my fears, “Assassins don’t kill civilians, it’s just a flash grenade meant to temporarily blind and deafen the guards in case things go south.”

“Alright, plant it and let’s get going,” I responded, my fears put to rest in the assurance that nopony that didn’t need to get hurt wasn’t going to get hurt. “Faith, how is disabling the security measures coming along?”

“Almost done, you can get going down the vents, I’ll tell you when you can drop in,” Faith’s voice replied to mine. I could make our a glowing pair of wire cutters still making a few cuts at the electrical box next to a silhouette of a unicorn.

“Down we go,” Midnight said as I took the lead, dropping down lightly onto the bottom of the vent, Midnight dropping in behind me with a slightly louder thud. “You’re on point, Destiny.”

“Got it,” I said as I took the lead. I crept along the shaft until Faith’s voice came out again.

“Alarm systems are disabled, dropping down now,” Faith said, a light thud accompanying her statement.

“Okay, Destiny,” Midnight spoke up. I craned my neck in the cramped vent to try and look at him face to face. “Next grate is the show room, drop on in.” I moved forward towards the next grate, peering through it in the low light as I saw a lone display case with a small object inside. I tapped on the grate a few times, allowing it to swing open so I could make my descent. I dropped onto the ground, gracefully gliding as my eyes darted around in the night light, attempting to make out the shock sensors Midnight had mentioned.

“On the ground,” I spoke up, “Either of you two want to join me?”

“Coming,” Midnight said, dropping down right behind me. “Now just to disable the counter measures around the room so we could make an escape; Faith, stay up in the vent and drop the rope we brought when I tell you.”

“You tell me when,” was Faith’s only response. “But please, hurry, it’s quite cramped in here.”

“We’ll make it snappy,” Midnight said back, using his hoof to reach into a small saddle pack and take out a dark purple crystal. He tossed it at the glass, the room suddenly lighting up in a purple hue before dying down. My heartbeat quickened as I waited for any alarms to go off, but everything remained silent.

“What the hay was that?” I asked as I turned to face Midnight.

“Null Crystal,” Midnight remarked simply, “It dispels the magic on an object it touches, which unfortunately means I can’t pick it up with magic.”

“Remind me to pick up some of those,” I breathed in surprise that such an item exsists.

“Right so, get to cutting,” Midnight said. “I’ll guard the entrance to the room.” I extended the hoof blade on my wrist and began to trace a circle on the now non-magical glass. I felt sweat bead on my forehead as I continually traced the same shape multiple times on the glass, each time the cut getting deeper in the reinforced glass. It seemed to be going smoothly with no complications aside from my tiring hoof.

“Destiny,” Midnight spoke up, causing me to silently curse myself at saying everything was going good just a moment before. “I hear voices.”

“More guards?” I asked.

“Not by those accents,” he responded, “Sounds like after getting the specs on this place Nuvola went to Capo for a heist.”

“Do you think they tripped anything?” I asked.

Unfortunately I was answered by a loud alarm going off, a red light flashing in rapid succession as I quickly scrambled to finish cutting the glass.

“Damn amateurs,” Midnight muttered, floating out his own dagger. “Destiny, fly up the vent and make your escape, I’ll meet up with you and Faith once I have the necklace.”

“What?” I basically yelled above the alarm, “Are you insane?”

“Just go! Trust me, I got this!”

“I’m not leaving you behind!” I yelled right back at Midnight for being so stubborn.

“If you don’t get out of here now we all go down! At least give me the chance for a snatch and grab! I can elude the guards and the mob, I know it!”

“You better make it out of here then! Promise me?” I wanted to make sure everypony got out safely, and I wasn’t about to let that plan shatter into pieces.

“Promise, now go,” Midnight began working with his magic and blade on the glass, starting off where I left it and began to make the cut deeper. I took off and flew up in the vent, Faith shutting it behind her with her magic as we began frantically crawling through the tunnel, our bodies cramped together as we raced to escape the museum. Faith grabbed hold of the escape rope put at the entrance to the vent, using her mouth and hooves to shimmy up the rope and out of the vent.

I followed suit as we moved out of the building, scooping up Faith and dashing away.

Author's Note: Holy Chapter Length Batman that was a doozey, Hope you all enjoy!