Ace in the Hole

Chapter Eleven – The Trick of the Trade

“Tranquil as a forest, but on fire within.  Once you find your center, you are sure to win…-Mulan“

The next morning Dead Eye awoke me.  I was sore and bruised from the previous day’s exertions.  I looked around the tent that we were staying in and found it devoid of life.  I guess that’s what happens when you work hard and don’t have any previous experience.  Dead Eye again took me out to our training grounds and we began practice with the knives and short swords from yesterday.  I was feeling more confident today and was actually able to keep toe to toe with him.  I knew he was going easy on me, but it still felt good to see that leap of improvement.  After Dead Eye felt confident that I understood the basics of the two weapons, we began working with a mace.  Dead Eye informed me that we weren’t going to be training with any other melee weapons other than these three.  When I asked why, he told me that those were probably the only ones I would be able to take with me and I would have a better chance to master three weapons than an entire onslaught of them.  It made sense and would give us more time to focus on ranged weapons and stealth.  I was about as good with maces as I was with short swords and Dead Eye was pleased that we wouldn’t have to spend more time than was necessary on it.

“Okay son,” Dead Eye said, “you seem to understand the basics of fighting with weapons.  That’s good.  The knife, however, isn’t only a weapon brought out it close range.  From what you’ve told me about your fight against the hood ponies, I guess you know that the knife is also a weapon of surprise.  The knife is extremely versatile and easy to conceal.  If you can get close to somebody with a knife, chances are that you have a very good chance of killing them before they even know they are in danger.  Another benefit of a knife is that you can carry more than one.  Keeping this in mind, you can have multiple knives for multiple occasions.  Knives can be poisoned in different ways and every poison is useful in some situation.  This is also why you are going to be studying with nurse Night.  She will probably explain how plants can be used to heal people and tell you how much is needed in certain instances.  She will also tell you and Pearl what amount of the medicine will kill someone.  When you’re learning with her this is what I want you to pay attention to.  We will be practicing poisoning your arrows and bolts to make sure you get kills.”

“Okay,” I said.  “What are we going to work on now?  More work with the knife or some other ranged weapon?”

“We’re going to be working on concealing your knives and your ability to pull them out without a second thought,” Dead Eye said.  With a flick of his foot, a knife appeared out of thin air and was at my throat in an instant.  “Dead,” said Dead Eye calmly.

“Where the…” I started.  “I guess you won’t tell me all of your secrets.  I guess I’m going to have to learn how to do that on my own.”

Dead Eye laughed and threw me his knife with a practiced ease.  I caught it out of the air even though I was nervous that I would catch the wrong side.  Dead Eye then pulled out my cloak and told me to put it on.

“Cloaks are amazing things.  You can hide so many things behind a cloak that you practically become your own mobile army,” said Dead Eye, pulling out three more knives.  He began to casually juggle them to make his point.

“Some of the other sharpshooters have been learning to sew so that they can add more pockets to the insides of their cloaks.  Some of them have also been able to excel in the art of making cloaks that mimic their surroundings.  I can’t tell you how invaluable these cloaks have been for our hunters.  It’s actually an unfair advantage.  The animals don’t even know what hit them,” said Dead Eye.  “I would recommend that you learn how to make capes, but you don’t have the time to learn that art.”

“That sounds like something Pearl would be good at,” I said, thinking out loud.  “She made an amazing outfit for Windstorm when we were in the Drudge.”

“Well that is interesting,” said Dead Eye.  “I might have to see about bringing one of the tailor ponies to help keep her occupied.  If she could make you a cloak while we are traveling, you could have an even better protection against the dark.”

“If she made a tight fitting outfit to go underneath the cloak, wouldn’t that also help to keep me warm at night and possibly provide some extra protection?” I asked Dead Eye.

“That is an interesting idea son.  I would probably prioritize the cloak, but if we have enough time that would be a good idea to try out,” said Dead Eye, seriously considering trying out my idea.  “Anyway, we need to keep training.  Any wasted time could mean your death and we wouldn’t want that.”

So back to training it was.  It was another hard day of training, buy my desire to help the Resistance drove me onward.  This was finally my chance to strike back at those who did things only for themselves and left others to suffer needlessly.  I had lost any sympathy for Smoothtounge when she slaughtered all of those innocents in front of a crowd.  How was that even supposed to help public relations?  I guess it did deter people from trying to do what I was planning to do, usurp the usurper.  Her life had lost its value, in my mind, when she had taken the lives of the other ponies.  There was no excuse, other than protecting your own life, to take another ponies life.  I abhorred thinking that I had been the pony that had extinguished the lives of those hood ponies, but I justified it in protecting the life of another.  Those ponies had forfeited there right to live by taking the life, or at least trying to, of another.

By the end of the day I was so sore that I was having trouble moving my legs properly.  My hooves ached and it felt as though I had been running for days without a single break.  By the time me and Dead Eye headed back to camp, I was ready to sleep.  I probably would have gone straight to bed if it hadn’t been for Pearl and Windstorm.  I wanted to stay up and talk to them for a while.  After all, I spent all day with Dead Eye, and let’s face it; he wasn’t the most entertaining pony.  He was good at what he did, but he could only talk about killing things.  Sometimes, it’s nice to be able to talk about something else and I could do that with Pearl and Windstorm.  Pearl was enjoying her lessons with nurse Night and Windstorm had been going out during the day and flying around.  He was restless as we got closer to the date that we would finally leave for the Sunfire Desert.  I got to tell my usual lies about the extent of my training and after telling a few jokes around the campfire, we set off to bed.

Again, I woke up late and was awoken by Dead Eye.  I got ready as quickly as I could although my muscles complained every step of the way.  When Dead Eye saw how my muscles were cramping up, he took on a worried expression.  “How are we going to be able to practice with you limping around like an old grandpa?  You’ve got to get used to the uncomfortable feeling because it’s never going to go away now.  It only gets worse as you get older.  You’re just going to keep working and working until one day you find out that you can’t work anymore and then you’re dead and that’s that.  You’ve got a ways to go there kid so you better get used to it.  Don’t want to then quit.  Though I wouldn’t recommend that as you know what happens to the quitters.” Dead Eye sighed.  “Work your legs out on the walk.  We’re learning something new today.”  With that Dead Eye left the tent.  I would enjoy being taught a lot more if I had a teacher that would let up sometimes.  I ran out of the tent after Dead Eye and we walked deep into the Haunted Hollows to ply our trade in the secret of the forest.

“So what are we going to work on today?”  I asked.  “Are we going to work on your favorite, the long bow, or maybe throwing knives?”

“No weapons today son.  Today we’re going to learn how to move,” Dead Eye said.

“Um… what?” I asked, confused.  What’s Dead Eye talking about.  My muscles are sore but not completely destroyed

“I borrowed one of those cloaks that I was telling you about yesterday,” said Dead Eye, pulling out a cloak that looked as though it was made out of green patches.  “This is the type of clothing that the hunters use in the woods nowadays.  It works better than those brown suits you used while hunting at the guild.  The material shifts in the wind and is extremely hard to spot unless you are looking for someone with one of these cloaks on.  It’s still pretty hard to spot them though.”

“So why would Pearl need to make a cloak for me if we already have cloaks?” I asked.  Seemed like a waste of time making something for me if we already had it.

“Because we don’t have one for the dark,” Dead Eye replied.  “Your dark coat would stand out in the places that the cloak can’t cover.  Also, you won’t be in the woods when you’re trying to assassinate somebody but probably in some dark corner of a stone building.  So that’s why we need close for your wet work.  Also having a suit specifically tailored to your own size will help you be more mobile than you otherwise would have been.  Picture it like this son.  The nurses have their coats that make them stand out as nurses.  You have your cloak and wet work clothes and they are the clothes of your trade.  A nurse has syringes and you have knives and bolts.  Both are tools suited for their purpose.”

“Okay,” I said, figuring it was better not to question him.  “What are we going to be working on with this cloak you brought?  Are we going hunting?”

“No, we are going to be practicing the magical act of disappearing without magic.  This would have been so much simpler if you had been a unicorn, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.”  Dead Eye threw the cloak at me and I put it on.  He also pulled out one that looked to be his own personal cloak.  When he put it on, the cloak seemed to blend in with the woods around him.  He ran off into the woods and called, “Try and find me before I catch you.”

Simple enough.  Once I had clasped the pin of my cloak together I took off in the direction I had seen Dead Eye take.  I followed his hoof tracks on the ground and thought that they would for sure lead me to him.  There was no way that he would have been able to create false tracks.  I appeared to be wrong.  After a few dozen yards, the tracks abruptly ended in a leafy field and there was no Dead Eye to be seen.  There were no trees that he could have jumped up nearby, so I assumed he had walked through the patch of leaves without leaving any trace.  I ran across the patch, and just to check I looked behind me.  My tracks were clearly visible and were denoted by broken twigs and numerous wet leaves left behind.  If Dead Eye had crossed, how had he been able to walk across them without upsetting anything?  I ran back to look at the tracks that I knew belonged to Dead Eye.  They were extremely light and looked as though he had glided over the ground instead of galloping.  My tracks looked as though I had purposely been trying to dig out the ground as I had run after him.  I guessed that was one lesson that I was going to have to learn

I continued past the patch of leaves and looked for any sign of which direction Dead Eye had taken.  After some careful inspection, I ran across what looked like the back end of a hoof print in some of the soggier dirt.  I guess that was what had done it.  It looked like Dead Eye had been sticking to the dryer more compact earth that hardly left any trace of him and was completely eradicated by the wind.  I began paying more attention to detail as I continued in the direction where I had found the print.  It looked to be a false lead until I saw something else out of the ordinary.  It appeared that a bit of bark had been recently chipped off a tree and was lying on the ground.

I guess that Dead Eye had taken to the trees to avoid leaving any unnecessary footprints on the ground.  I decided I would go up into the tree to have a look.  From the top of the tree I followed the branches that looked displaced or scuffed.  Because I had to focus on the clues that the trees provided, I was following Dead Eye at a slow place.  If he was moving quickly, there was no way that I was going to be able to find him.  I persevered and continued tracking the trail that Dead Eye had left.  Eventually I fell into a groove and was moving much faster through the branches.  I felt like I was close to catching my elusive teacher and I moved at full speed in the direction I thought he was.  I was jumping from branch to branch as fast as I could when I began falling.  I landed with my back first and my sight faded to black as I almost passed out from the impact. The wind had been forced out of my lungs and I tried to flip over as I tried to catch my breath.  I quickly realized that I couldn’t because something was holding my chest down.  I immediately thought of the manticore and began panicking.  My vision was slowly returning, but I was thrashing around as wildly as I could to try to throw the beast off.

Once my vision had partially returned, I was able to look at what held me down.  There, standing above me, was none other than Dead Eye.  He didn’t seem to be too pleased with me either.  He just looked down at me and began talking after I had finished my thrashing.  “You were doing so good tracking me with all those hints I left behind.  Then you just start rushing through the branches hardly looking at anything at all.  I could hear you all the way from where I was and all I had to do was throw you a false trail and wait.  I caught you by your cloak and if I had meant you harm, you would have been dead.”

“What did you want me to do?” I demanded.  “There would have been no chance of catching you if I kept going at the same pace that I was previously at.  I had a good idea of the direction you had been heading in and so I moved as fast as I could to catch up.”

“Well at least you’re thinking on the right level,” Dead Eye said.  “We definitely need to work on your movement.  Even a filly could follow the trail you left.  If you don’t get better at moving without being seen and heard, there’s no way that you’re going to be sneaking up on anyone.  I’m surprised that you never got caught when you were in that guild and beaten to death.  You have plenty of room for improvement son.”  Dead Eye took his hoof off of my chest and I was finally able to stand up and brush myself off.  Dead Eye began walking back to where I assumed we had come from. I followed him but did not talk to him.  I was still a bit sore about his brutal evaluation of my skills.

We arrived back at the training grounds and Dead Eye again began with the basics.  We took my cloak off so that we could practice basic sneaking.  Dead Eye showed me what to look for to avoid being seen.  “You have to look at places ponies never expect you to be.  Being small, you have the advantage of fitting inside of things other ponies can’t.  You also want to stick to the shadows or other places ponies try not to look at.  Ponies don’t look at the poorer areas in town because they don’t want to be associated with them.  Another good way of hiding is near something that commands attention, like a statue.  If people are looking at the statue, then they aren’t looking at you.  Go ahead, son, tell me some places that fit the criteria around here.”

I looked around and took note of things I instinctively began looking at and then focused on things that I had never noticed before.  The small outcropping we used for resting seemed to be where my eyes strayed to the most (whether out of want of rest or the contrast between the shade and the sun I could not tell.)  I decided that I would want a hiding spot that stayed well out of the view from the outcropping.  Looking around for something I had never noticed before, I saw a dying tree whose leaves had begun losing their color.  I guess I had been avoiding looking at it because I would rather have looked at the other lush life around me.  So this is what Dead Eye meant, people want to look at pretty things, not ugly ones.  “If I were to hide somewhere around here,” I said, “I would hide in that tree over there.”  I indicated the tree I had only now noticed.  “It’s a decent distance from these training grounds and I would avoid looking at it.  I would rather be looking at the rest of the lush forest around here than at that decrepit thing.  It also provides a nice cover for a pony of my size and could hide me from sight even if somepony looked over there.”

“That’s where I would have hidden too,” said Dead Eye, seemingly pleased.  “However, keep in mind what I told you about hiding places.  It’s always a good idea to practice, even if we aren’t training together.  Look for good places to hide when we are back at camp tonight and when we go traveling to the Sunfire Desert.  You need to be able to find the best hiding place possible in a completely new area without thinking.  If you can do it instinctively, then you can focus more on your target or your pursuers, depending on your situation.  Now then, we’re moving on.”

Dead Eye began showing me how to move without leaving obvious traces of where I had been on the ground.  He confirmed my suspicions about sticking to dry patches of earth. Apparently it also helped to reduce the sound your hoof made on the ground by not causing a squish like mud does.  Another strategy that Dead Eye showed me involved constant awareness of my surroundings.  It was more of a strategy of moving through an area quickly though than without leaving traces.  If you are moving uphill, you always want to step to an area that is near the same level you are at.  If you just go anywhere, you usually end up climbing twice as much because you have to continually move up and down to get to your destination.

Our next lesson was moving through trees.  According to Dead Eye, I was going about tree climbing all wrong.  “You can’t just hop from branch to branch. There’s an entire science behind it.  You want to start on thick branches and move on those thick branches.  They produce less sway when you put your weight on them and it sounds more like the rush of wind if they do move.  When you were running after me earlier, you weren’t very specific with which branches you chose and it was extremely easy to tell that something was moving through there.  It’s much harder to stop people from seeing your markings in the tree, but hopefully you were good enough covering your tracks on the ground that that isn’t too much of a problem.”

We practiced moving through the trees a lot. Dead Eye wasn’t going to let up on me until I could prove to him that I could actually move around on the branches without attracting attention.  I had trouble mastering the new way of moving around because I had gotten used to my usual way of moving through the trees while hunting.  I was a bit resentful that I was being forced to change something that I had never viewed as broken.  I had to admit though, once I began getting a hang of moving from branch to branch properly, I was able to move pretty fast.  Weaker branches had always caused me to move a bit slower to avoid falling off of them and now I could basically dash through the trees while still being quite.  It took me at least four hours to learn what branches I would be good for my weight and, from there, it had been easy going learning to move fast through the trees.

Dead Eye never seemed to be extremely pleased with my performance, but always gave me a word of encouragement whenever I finally conquered some obstacle that I had been unable to before.  He never really got angry whenever I failed, although he would often give me a disappointed shake of his head.  I wanted his approval of my skills so those shakes motivated me to work harder to master whatever skill I was working on at the time.

We spent some time learning how to move quietly.  Dead Eye said that some of the other sharpshooters liked to wear little leather slippers over their feet to dampen the sounds of their feet.  Unicorns were able to use their magic to greatly reduce the sound their feet made, but unfortunately I was just an earth pony.  According to Dead Eye, unicorns made the best assassins because they could do so much with their powers.  He also said that he did not like unicorn assassins because they usually became too confident in their abilities that it caused them to make rudimentary mistakes.  “Although a unicorn can be extremely good at being sneaky, lots of practice can make you even better than them by being able to outsmart them.  I don’t know of any spells that can make a unicorn smart.  Vigilance makes you smart.  If you can spot the assassin before he spots, you win.”

It was beginning to turn dark on our final training session before heading out for the Sunfire Desert.  “Grab your cloak son,” Dead Eye said, “We’re going to try to get you to use your cloak to its maximum potential.”  I began putting on the woodland cloak that I had been given earlier today.  “No, not that one.  You’re going to be using that other cloak you have, the back one.”  Dead Eye said taking the woodland cloak away from me.  I put on my black cape that I had taken from the hood ponies and we began our training with the cloak.

“You’re cloak is like a portable hiding place.  If used at the right time, you can render yourself nearly invisible to everypony.  When you hide yourself behind the cloak, you have to stay perfectly still or else people will notice the strange way that the patch of darkness moved.  On close inspection, your disguise becomes exactly that, a disguise and your cover has been blown.  Also when you attempt to hide yourself, make sure that anypony that looks in your direction will have trouble differentiating the color of your cloak from the scenery behind you.  If they don’t expect you to be there, chances are that they will move on without a second thought.”  Dead Eye showed me through an example.  He covered himself beneath his cloak while standing close to the face of a cliff.  I knew where he was but the natural swaying of the cloak made it extremely difficult for me to find a clear outline of his frame.  If I hadn’t been intently staring at where I had last seen Dead Eye, I doubt I would have noticed him.  I never knew that a ponies clothing could do that.  Dead Eye moved out from underneath the cloak and told me to attempt doing the same thing.  I went over to the face of the cliff and just pulled my cloak over my body.  I assumed that was all I had to do because that was all I had seen Dead Eye do.  Dead Eye walked over to me and sighed.  “See you have the principle right.  It’s basically covering yourself with a piece of cloth, but you’re doing it wrong.  First off, like a little tent sticking out against the rock face.  You should give the cloak a little leeway so that it can sway in the wind a bit and give it a more natural look.  Second, you have to stay completely still.  I could see your legs quivering a bit in the darkness and that attracted my attention.  Another good thing to do while hiding under the cloak is to have a way to look out from underneath it.  While it’s pretty hard to do with your standard cloak, I think it’s something we should add to the cloak that your friend makes.  Then you’ll be able to know when it’s safe to move on or its time to bail.”

Dead Eye told me that it was best to try to get into the most comfortable position I could find as quickly as possible so that it would be easier to stay still for extended periods of time.  According to Dead Eye, it was never possible to get into a position that would stay comfortable but there were better positions to stay in than others.  It didn’t take me very long to learn to hide beneath my cloak properly, but I couldn’t stay still for really long amounts of time and there was no way that I was going to learn to be able to move while underneath it today.

“Well I think that’s good enough for today son.  We have to leave early tomorrow and if you keep on wake up like you did today, you’re going to make everyone late.  I was glad to hear that.  Training was fun but extremely tiring.  I would probably just talk to my friends for a short while and slip off to bed so that we could set off early tomorrow.  After all, I was going to be seeing a kingdom that most of the ponies in my guild had once considered to be fairy tales.

“Thank you,” I said earnestly. “I’ll be sure to wake you up tomorrow when everybody is waiting for you.”

Dead Eye laughed. ‘Wait what? He’s capable of that?  I thought he was limited to grim speeches about killing ponies and giving me pointers.’ Dead Eye looked at me with a glimmer in his eye.  “Kid, I wouldn’t be late tomorrow for anything.  I’ve wanted to see the Sunfire Desert for years.  I had a friend that went out there once and told me about all of the buildings made of some kind of stone that appeared to be like condensed sand.  It will be great to get out of here and get some reprieve.