Twisted Fate

Chapter Seven – The City that Never Sleeps

“Start spreading the news. I’m leaving today…”

“I can’t believe you signed us up for this,” Faith complained.

“What did you expect me to do? I told them I’ll look into it,” I replied.

“I expected you to just, I don’t know, lie your way out of kidnapping?”

I glared at Faith; I was currently in no mood for this kind of crap. True, I didn’t want to get roped into helping the thieves guild, but if this Green Back turned out to be some kind monster that the guild was making him out to be, I definitely wanted to put a stop to it.

“Faith, you know I want to help this city, and since it turns out that the thieves’ guild aren’t robbing the helpless and really just doing some forceful charity-“

“Forceful is right,” Faith interrupted.

“Really just doing some forceful charity,” I continued, “We should support them, besides,” I added, “from the way they made it sound like this Green Back was connected, way too much for some corporate kingpin. It’s suspicious to say the least.”

“Well then what’s our first move?” Faith asked. She had a valid point, I had no idea on how to take down this guy. I barely even had an idea on where to start.

“More recon,” I guessed. “Green Back lives on the other side of town in the financial district. It’s our best bet to find him there.”

“And how do you plan to go about finding him in that section of town?” Faith asked back.

“Simple,” I replied. “We just grease a few hooves is all.”

“Oh,” Faith commented, “That’s all we’re doing? Bribing ponies to give up the location of one of the most important ponies in the city and you don’t think that we’re going to run into any complications whatsoever?”

“We’ve got to start somewhere,” I pointed out.

“Whatever,” Faith said defeated, “Let’s just get going and put your suspicions that this guy is anything more than a savvy business pony.”

“How much is it for a Sparkle Cola!?”

“10 bits, take it or leave it lady,” The barcolt repeated to me in annoyance. It turns out in the ‘rich’ part of town a soda is the same as a night in the inn back in the residential district.

“I’ll leave it,” I replied flatly. I turned to walk over to Faith, who was patiently waiting on me at a table.

“Did you get me a soda?” She asked.

“Pff, no, guy wanted ten bits for one, there’s no way I’m paying for that.”

“You’re dragging me into surveillance and you won’t even get me something to drink to help pass the time?” Faith asked in a rhetorical tone. “Some friend you are.”

“Can we just focus?” I asked, exasperated from watching for any pony that looked well connected, the few they did walk up to having fallen through. “I know this is boring but sometimes that’s just part of it.”

“I still don’t even know who were looking for, you know.”

“Some stallion named Diamond Brass,” I responded, “Free Bird says he’s Green Back’s second in command. Pearl coated unicorn, shouldn’t be hard to locate.”

“Is that him?” Faith shifted her gaze slightly towards the door, and sure enough, a pearl coated unicorn wearing a rather fancy blazer had just walked into the bar. It seemed like a simple snatch and grab, if it weren’t for one thing.

“Damn it,” I huffed under my breath, trying to keep my voice down with our target so close. “He’s carrying a flintlock pistol.”

“Pistol?” Faith asked back.

“Gryphon firearm technology,” I replied, “Unicorns can use them too, but they’re virtually useless to creatures with hooves and paws.”

“Great,” Faith sighed, “Our guy has a gun, this is going swimmingly.”

“Hey it just means we’ve got to take him quietly is all,” I reasoned. “Let’s just wait until he leaves alright? I’ll even buy you a drink.” That raised a smile out of the mare, and she shifted slightly in the seat she was in as I left the table to grab a drink.

“On second thought,” I said as I came up to the barcolt, “I’ll take that sparkle cola, and a vodka sour as well.” I tossed some bits onto the bar.

“The vodka’s for you or your date over there?” The barcolt smirked, “She’s a looker ain’t she?”

“Yeah,” I suddenly forgot what I was doing as I took a quick look at Faith, her white beige coat complimenting her auburn mane and sapphire blue eyes. A whistle broke me out of my trance as Diamond Brass approached the bar.

“If she’s yours,” he commented, “You are one lucky mare.”

“You could say that.” It took a second for my mind to process the fact that I was having a conversation with my target, but decided to play along and roll with it for a while and see where it led. “Name’s Fate,” I said as I decided to go with the second part of my name, hoping that the difference in names given to the guild and Brass ended up not colliding.

“Nice to meet you, Fate,” Brass raised his glass, a martini done straight up, using his magic. “A toast, of sorts, to good relationships, what say you?”

“To good relationships,” I said back, then added, “And to forming new ones with friends.” I raised my vodka sour in my mouth and toasted it against his martini glass, an audible clank sounding between us as we each took a sip of our drink. “Sorry to cut this encounter short, but I must be getting back to my rather fine mare.”

Diamond Brass reached out a hoof and put it on my shoulder, causing me to turn around. “I’m having a little get together tonight,” he stated, “with some friends. A business associate of mine will be attending; I would love it if you and your marefriend were to drop on by.”

I thought of it to be a great attempt for me to get close to Green Back. “I’m sure she’d love to. We’ll both be there.”

“Ah, excellent,” he said contentedly, “Well here’s the address,” he handed me a business card containing information about his fortune 500 company with an address scribbled on the back. “I look forward to seeing you there, Miss Fate.”

I turned and walked back over to the table, both the half full glass of vodka sour and a glass of Sparkle Cola in my mouth. I set them down on the table before Faith spoke.

“What took so long?”

“I was having a little conversation with our target over there,” I responded.

“Oh?” Faith became suddenly intrigued by my recent actions, “And what did you tell him?”

“We’re going to a party tonight, at this address,” I slid the card across the table to her. “Green Back will be there.”

“You made friends,” Faith commented. “That’s good, set us up with some badass cover stories to go with?”

“Yeah!” I said a little more excitedly than intended, “You’re going as my marefriend.”

“I think I hate you.”

“A party you say?” Free Bird was stunned by my success and ease of getting close to Green Back’s right hand stallion. “Well this is certainly interesting. You’ve done the guild a fine deed, Miss Destiny, how did you manage to convince that hardflank Brass to invite you to a private business party?”

“I told him Faith and I are dating,” I said.

Free Bird chuckled, “Oh how the truth can sometimes work wonders.”

“What do you mean?”

“Faith and you aren’t...oh,” Free Bird stopped talking momentarily.

“I don’t think she swings that way,” I commented, trying to turn an awkward situation into a joke, even one at Faith’s expense.

“Shame, she’s cute, you two would make a great couple.”

“A mare can dream, Bird,” I sighed, “A mare can dream.”

“Let’s get you ready for this soirée,” Free Bird tossed over a sack of bits, only to be surprised as I tossed it back.

“I’m more than capable of covering my own mission expenses, you give enough to the poor, most of you still work full time cover jobs,” I pointed out. “I’m carrying a hefty sack from a job I did back in Alexmanedria, I can spring a bit on some formal wear to help blend in.”

“Thank you, Destiny,” Free Bird replied. She opened the door from the hidden room that led out into the alley, “You and Faith had best get ready.”

“These are awesome!” Faith squee’d in delight as I showed her the dress she was set to wear for Diamond Brass’ party. A lovely white gown trimmed with light blue silk matched her figure perfectly. I caught myself staring more than I intended to at her. “Like what you see?” She teased, striking a seductive pose that almost made me melt.

“Don’t tease me like that,” I chided.

“Put yours’ on, I want to see my date for tonight in full costume,” Faith gave me a look I couldn’t refuse and I went to go fit my dress on. I picked out a midnight blue dress with slightly lighter yet still dark navy blue trims that the dressmaker said accented my black coat and brought out my white mane. Better than attracting attention to my dull grey eyes. It wasn’t hard to fit the dress on, using my teeth to pull my head through and slip it on, I wiggled slightly in it, adjusting myself till the cloth sat comfortably on my coat.

“Sexy,” Faith commented, causing a blush to turn my black cheeks pink with blood. “Oh, this is so exciting! I’ve never been to a soirée before, the only dance I’ve ever been to was my high school prom back in Alexmanedria; and even then my dress wasn’t near as beautiful as this. Nor did I end up with such a beautiful date.”

“Who did you end up going to prom with anyway?” I figured now was as good a time as any to find out whether it was harmless teasing or if there could be something deeper with Faith.

“Some colt an old friend set me up with,” Faith scoffed. I dropped slightly at the mention of a stallion. “Then again, that was before I really found out colts are overrated.”

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” I asked, my voice quivering ever so lightly with anticipation.

“I’m saying anything you want your imagination to make me say,” she smirked.

“You’re the biggest tease I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, you know.”

“Glad to fill your thoughts,” was the only reply I got.

“Remember,” I reminded Faith, “We still have a job to do.”

“Oh, relax, I’m sure we can get away with mixing a little business and pleasure.”

Faith and I had made our way down the streets of the extremely wealthy financial district of Hoovegorod, the sea towns buildings continuing to get more and more lavish as we went deeper in. I had picked my weapons back up from the inn and moved it into the thieves’ guild, though I wanted to keep the hoof blade on me in case of emergencies, but Free Bird managed to convince me otherwise, saying how if I was found out carrying a weapon to a party there would be no talking my way out of it. It would quickly escalate to a blood bath, most of it being mine.

“So I’m sure we need a deeper cover story than just two mares randomly hanging out at a bar,” I mentioned, “Any ideas?”

“How about wealthy overseas merchant and her scholar marefriend?” Faith suggested

“At least you can play the part of scholar perfectly,” I said back. “Well then what would I be a merchant of? I don’t want to mess this up, it’s gone almost questionably perfect up to now, and we could really make a difference here if we play our cards right.”

“Then let’s just play our cards, Destiny. I’m sure fate will come through, if you have a little faith.”

“Hey! I’m the one supposed to be making the puns,” I pouted.

“Oh hush now,” Faith replied.

“So I said to the stallion, you going to buy something or get lost because I’ve got money to make from saps like you.”

The story sent uproars of laughter amongst several business type ponies at the party. I set myself up as an arms dealer of sorts, working in Heliopolis to finance some private military corporation by selling them what I called the ‘best blades around.’ The story went that I had met my lovely marefriend Faith when I spotted her as I made a deal. Being the smooth and savvy business mare I was, it was easy to ‘sweet talk’ her into going on a date with me.

The cover story worked wonders, Diamond Brass introducing me to all kinds of named associates of his, from produce marketing kingpins to rather shady ponies like his coworker who basically acted as a right hoof pony for the right hoof pony of the whole Green Back enterprises. There seemed to be something deeper but I decided against pressing the issue, lest I tread somewhere I’m not welcome.

“Come now Miss Fate,” Brass motioned me over, “Mr. Green Back will arrive shortly, grab your date and take a seat, and I’ll propose a toast of sorts.”

I went over to Faith to tell her the news of Green Back’s arrival, knowing that we’d have two choices when he arrived: snatch and grab or lie in wait and get deeper in our cover stories.

“It’s up to you, Destiny,” Faith said. “What should we do?”

“Play it by ear?” I suggested, “We can wait it out and see where it goes from there.”

“Alright, I’ll trust your judgment on this.” Faith and I made our way to a large banquet table located outside in the garden of the party we were in. We took seats next to each other, making small talk with the ponies around us until a very green coated unicorn stepped up to the head of the table, Diamond Brass sitting right at his right hand, and the shady business associate at his left.

“Greeting friends,” Green Back announced, “Friends, business partners, guests, and more, I thank you for coming to this little get together.”

“Destiny, heads up, nine o’ clock, shady business pony is doing something,” Faith whispered, causing me to turn towards the unicorn at the left hand of Green Back, his horn glowing in a sinister red aura, though the object he was holding was hidden from sight.

“I think I can see a knife handle,” I whispered back.

“I want to personally thank my right hand stallion, Mr. Diamond Brass for his invaluable effort in securing another location of which for us to mine for valuable gems and reap the profits,” Green Back continued his speech in the background as Faith and I whispered our next course of action.

“Can you charge a knock out spell without your horn glowing?” I asked under my breath.

“I can cast it in an instant’s notice, don’t worry,” Faith replied. “Why? What are you planning?”

“Just wait for my signal, I’ll cause a distraction and you hit Mr. Shady with the spell and I’ll go for Diamond Brass.”

“What’s the signal?” Faith asked.

“You’ll know,” I replied cryptically.

“I propose a toast,” Diamond Brass announced, “To a bright future, and a long life of Mr. Green Back.”

“I’ll drink to that!”

“Here, here!”

Multiple unicorns and earth ponies raised glasses of assorted alcohol in celebration. I noticed Mr. Shady tense up, looking as if he was ready to jump.

“Get ready,” I whispered to Faith.

Diamond Brass nodded to his partner, the sinister pony raising the knife slightly, looking to slash at his neck, I had to act now.

“Get down!” I yelled, tossing my glass at Green Back’s head as Mr. Shady pony slashed at his neck. Thankfully, Green Back reacted to my shouting and flying glass, ducking just as the would-be murderer’s weapon would have slashed across a major artery on his neck.

“What are you doing?” Green Back recovered from the thrown drink and was now looking at me with everypony else. Well, everypony save Diamond Brass and the assassin. I dashed across the table as Faith unleashed her knock out spell on the knife wielding assassin. I attempted to tackle Diamond Brass as he rolled to the side, drawing out the pistol he kept concealed in his suit.

“You annoying little whelp, I advise you to not be a thorn in my side,” Brass snarled. Okay, he called me a whelp, probably Elemental Hammer. I regretted not taking any weapons, even bringing a knife to a gun fight would be better than coming unarmed. He aimed the gun at me and fired, a loud bang filling my ears. I ducked on instinct, hearing the bullet whiz over my head as he looked in surprise at my unscathed body. I took a quick glance behind me to notice that the bullet had

actually passed through Faith’s dress. Luckily it had still missed her, but left a noticeable hole in the cloth.

“You ruined my dress,” Faith breathed, almost as if in shock. “I loved this dress!” Whoa, note to self, never, ever piss off Faith. Also, more dresses, Faith loves dresses. I recoiled in shock as Faith dove forward, her horn glowing as she cast another knock out spell, firing it and hitting Diamond Brass square in the chest, causing him to fall to the ground with an ‘oomph.’

Guards arrived on the scene soon after, quickly attempting to arrest me and Faith, until Green Back stopped them.

“Guards! Release them at once!” Green Back shouted at them, causing the guards to both cower in fear and look in confusion. He continued, “These two mares just saved my life and disabled the assailants, they are not at fault of any crime as far as I’m aware of.” The guards begrudgingly dropped me and Faith, rather roughly if I may add, and went about interviewing other ponies at the scene as Green Back walked up to us.

“I don’t know how to thank you two; if you hadn’t been here I’d be a corpse on the grass by now. How can I repay either of you?”

“It was nothing really,” I replied modestly, “Just trying to keep everypony alive.”

“As far as repayment goes,” Faith added, “You could help us out by donating a generous portion of your profits to several named charities, it would mean a lot.”

“You’re with the guild, aren’t you?” Green Back replied flatly.

“Not exactly,” I replied, “We promised them we’d look into it.”

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, Free Bird always like to recruit civilians for the weirdest jobs,” Green Back mused.

“You talk as if you know her really well,” Faith mentioned.

“She was my right hoof mare, a while back,” Green stated.

“Wait,” I paused, “You led the thieves guild?”

“Ironic isn’t it?”

“You could say that,” I mentioned back. “So what are you going to do now?”

“Set up a meeting with Free Bird,” Green Back said, “She can handle distribution, but I have some demands of my own, I won’t have my contributions go towards guild weapons.”

“Fair enough,” Faith said, “Thank you, sir.”

“You should be free to go,” Green Back stated, “I’ll handle any issues with the guard, check in with Free Bird, she’ll want to know your mission status.”

“I’ll be damned,” Free Bird said, “You’re good Destiny, you and your little friend Faith.”

“I held up my end of the bargain, now I ask for a favor in return,” I replied.

“Okay, you get one,” Free Bird stated, “What can I do you for?”

“Can you get in contact with any, err, associates you have in Manehattan, Faith and I will need a headquarters and we don’t have the funds to stay long term in a hotel in that city.”

“Done,” Free Bird responded. “I’ll get you in touch with someone who can smuggle you past customs at the port and get you into the city, you want to talk to Frostbite, the local assassin’s guild leader.”

“Assassins?” Faith inquired.

“Not the kind that tried to take a slash at Green Back, think of them as us, only more violent. They’re just out to help the

common folk and stop injustice, yadda yadda yadda, you know the deal.”

“Right,” I sighed, “More violent good guys.”

“Don’t look so glum, Destiny,” Free Bird spoke, “I’ve heard from my sources you used to do the same thing back in Vaporia.”

I blushed at the lavish praise, then remembered that I was no longer an archangel, and was more powerless to help everypony. “Thanks,” was all I managed. “Your help means a lot.”

“Get moving to the docks,” Free Bird said, “You’ve got a boat to catch, I’ll get Apple Fritter to inform him.”

“Wake up ladies!” A burly voice stirred me from my slumber. Apple Fritter had informed a contact of theirs, some sailor named Salty Seas that we needed secret transport into Equestria. It was a simple enough job, Salty just needed to distract the guards long enough for Faith and I to make our way onto the docks and into the city. “Welcome to the beautiful and cosmopolitan city of Manehattan. It’s big, it’s bad and it’s full of scam artists, but Fritz said you needed to get here and I don’t question that mare.”

We had been on the boat for two days, living off your average sea farers diet, which was basically dried herbs since fresh produce usually didn’t cut it on longer journeys. Our surroundings were dark, but they could have been worse. Faith and I had been stashed in the cargo hold, sleeping back to back in a rather small hammock. Now don’t get me wrong, after I found out Faith was like that, I was seriously tempted to try something under our current circumstances, but decided that by some twist of fate it worked out, it wouldn’t be the most comfortable thing on a hammock anyway.

Despite my dry spell and wild imagination, the two days past relatively easy with no complications, Faith and I passing the time telling stories of our childhood. I had found out Faith had once gotten in trouble for stealing books from the library that were restricted for age, tainting her innocent foal mind. In turn, I spilled to her the full nature of my situation, including my suspicions that the two ponies that attacked Notch and the ones that took on me, Sun Spark and Dusty were all part of the Elemental Hammer. This cult went deeper than either of us could imagine.

Even with some covert multinational cult embedded into both the government and financial sides of not only countries but independent city states like Hoovegorod, Faith and I managed to keep our spirits high, especially with the prospect of help from a guild of highly trained warriors ready to combat the Hammer in Manehattan on a large scale.

Faith and I made our way onto the docks while Salty was talking with an equestrian guard, characterized by their golden armor and white coats. We managed to slip by unnoticed and walk along the docks, making sure to give a nod to Salty as we passed by.

“Alright, Manehattan,” I said. “The city that never sleeps.”

“Let’s get to work,” Faith said.

Faith and I walked down the street, for once in our life blending in to our surroundings perfectly. Non earth ponies look out of place in Alexmanedria, and the same could be said for pegasi in Hoovegorod. Here in the big apple though, there were all kinds of ponies, rich and poor. Unicorn, pegasi and earth ponies were all living together in the most mixed city ever. I even saw a few donkeys and gryphons.

“Okay so we are, where?” I turned to Faith, currently having her head buried in a map of the city.

“Ninety Seventh East and Madison,” Faith replied. “Ad Street, second in income only to Wall Street, big business goes down there.”

“Think any cultists taking refuge in the piles of cash down on Wall Street?” I asked.

“Wouldn’t surprise me; do you know where were supposed to head to meet up with Frostbite?” Faith looked up from her map as we approached an intersection, the entire street being filled with taxi carriages. “This city is huge.”

“Bucking huge,” I replied. “Free Bird mentioned Frostbite to be some unicorn prodigy; I think his cover id is a scholar at the grand Manehattan archives.”

“We have something in common then, at least,” Faith commented.

“Yeah,” I said, “That’s the only thing.”

“What do you mean?” Faith asked intrigued.

“I mean you don’t kill others for a living, I think,” I replied. She giggled at the comment before pointing us in the right direction to hit the archives.

I whistled.

“Damn, nice place,” I remarked. The library was huge, at the corner of two major streets stood the grand Manehattan archives, home to all sorts of records that documented most of the stuff in Equestrian history. I almost had to hold Faith back from running into the doors, earning some snide remark from a passerby that I made out as roughly ‘Pff, tourists.’

“Whoa there, girl,” I said as I held back the scholarly mare. “Guild contact first, perusing tomes later, ok?”

“Promise me we get time to browse this place,” she said. “Pretty, pretty please?” She pouted with her best puppy dog expression, a look I couldn’t refuse, especially after those, rather disturbing yet arousing, thoughts about her. I really just wanted to make her happy.

“Fine,” I said in defeat, “After we talk to Frostbite you can run all around the archives and check out a hundred books.”

She squee’d in delight as she grabbed me and pulled me towards the front door, using her magic to open it up and shove me inside. I slid across the door with the momentum of being tossed in delight. As I came to a stop near the front desk, a blue coated stallion with a slightly lighter shade of blue as his mane greeting my eyes.

“Welcome to the Manehattan archives, can I help you?” He sounded almost annoyed at being disturbed; obviously busy reading whatever tome he read to keep up his cover id.

“Are you Frostbite?” I asked.

He tensed ever so slightly at this, lowering his hoof down below the desk. “Easy,” I said as I raised my hoof with the hoof blade on it, “We have a mutual friend of sorts, we don’t want any trouble.”

“Listen to me,” he said, “I’m a business stallion, and I don’t have friends. I’ve got associates, rivals, even a few enemies, but not friends, I think your mistaking me with somepony else.”

“Free Bird sends her regards,” I rebutted with.

“I see,” Frostbite said as he got up from his seat and flipped the sign on the front of the archived to closed, locking the door in the process. “Her and I go back a while, if she sent you two you must be of some value to her, what did you manage to do anyway?”

“Convince her mortal enemy to finance the guild while disabling an assassin and his conspirator and turning them over to the guard,” I stated with a rather smug expression.

“Very nice,” Frostbite commented, “You managed to convince Green Back to finance the guild and allow them to distribute more wealth, and you stopped a murder, all in one day? That’s almost too good to be true.”

“Too good to be true is my specialty,” I responded. “Were looking for some help though, and your resources would be invaluable in our search.”

“For what?” Frostbite seemed to be at least interested in our quest for the item, “And more importantly, what can you do for me? If I’m going to devote assassins to a treasure hunt you better be damn ready to get blood on your hooves in return.”

“It’s called the Lunar Pendant,” Faith interjected, “It can control the light in an area around the user, we’re looking to add it to our collection.”

“I see,” Frostbite took a look behind him towards the desk, floating out a folder and flipping through a few pages, “Grand Manehattan Museum, under lock and key, bullet proof glass, even a few infrared lasers for good measure. I can give you an address and maybe dedicate one assassin to help you get in. That’s all I can spare right now.”

“Spare? Something going down?” I asked.

“We’ve got wind of some violent group sinking its teeth into the heart of Manehattan, lying in wait until they can seize power in both the government and finances of the city simultaneously. We want to stop it in its infancy.”

“Sound like the Elemental Hammer,” Faith commented.

“You’ve encountered the like before?” Frostbite seemed to lighten up at the idea that we might actually be useful.

“You could say that we’re kind of enemies of them, and they’re after the Lunar Pendant as well,” Faith answered for me.

“Excellent, then we already have a known area to scout, what else can you tell me about them?” Frostbite turned back to me for an answer.

“Only that if I know them, they’re probably already sunk deep undercover already.”

Frostbite grunted, “Very well then, it’s time you met the team at least.”