And I thought we were normal. How wrong I was.

     I do a spin 180 degrees to face where the roar came from and I see a collection of wooden wolves come running out of the forest. Alright, but that roar couldn't have come from timberwolves.

"Oh it's just some timberwolves." Dash says as the wolves begin to run down stream, but they aren't close enough to be a problem.

"If my memory serves me correctly, a timberwolf doesn't make that sound." I say as the last of about 12 wolves comes out if the brush.

   Contrary to the others this one seems to be about 1.5 times the size of the others and it seems to be made of walnut rather than the regular oak wood that the others are made of. I guess that would be the alpha then; but why does it look familiar? That however isn't what worries me; this wolf looks around towards its pack before turning and running towards us.

"Why is that one running towards us?" I ask and my answer comes through the brush while taking down a couple of small trees with it.

   The large beast is, needless to say, imposing. The creature is the conglomeration of the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion and the face of a man. So this is the manticore; ok, now I'm scared.

"Dash; it's probably a good idea for us to run." I say as I turn upstream.

"Yeah; it probably is." She answers back and I begin to dash upstream.

   After about thirty seconds or so of running I turn back to see the wolf and manticore are still behind us and they're closing in rather quickly. Looking back ahead I see a steep cliff face. I guess it's time for me to follow the wolf's example.

"Dash; could you please go get somepony to help?" I ask as calmly as I can as I turn my head back and lock eyes with the larger beast.

"What do you plan on doing?" I hear her say as I watch the approaching animals.

"Somepony has to redirect their path away from here." I remind her. If I don't get the manticore going the other way, or at least slowed down, there's a low likely hood of it being unable to follow us back to their camp; not to mention that that wolf looks pretty pitiful by itself.

"Well then let me; I can fly so it won't have a chance of getting me." She insists as we stop at the base of the small cliff.

"Yeah, but it'll probably realize that and go back after me. Besides, you're faster than me and we need help as quickly as possible. We don't have time for this argument either; get going." I command her and I feel a small gust of wind come against my backside a few moments later. Good; she listened.

   After forming a few seals in my mind, I ready myself to embrace the oncoming attacker. The wolf begins to slow down and it looks up at me and I swear I see a look of understanding on his face.

   After the wolf gets within 10 meters of me, he nods his head to me and jumps out of the way. Picking up on his cue, I plant both of my hands onto the ground and force magic into my spell, spire form.

   Looking up I see small tendrils of dirt coming out of the ground quickly, as they also lower the ground level around them, and they impact the manticore; stopping it in its tracks. I feel a drain in my energy, but I could probably use it few more times.

Spire form works by having at least one hand on an object and using magic to pull the object into the shape of a pillar. However, this spell does not work outside of conservation of mass and can only be used until the object has no more mass to grow with. The spell also requires more energy based on the object being shaped, for example; dirt is easier to mold than stone. Also whenever you take your magic out of the seal it will revert to its original state. I think as I remember the book's entry on it.

   I pull my energy back out of the seal and the small tendrils retreat back into the earth and the ground levels back out accordingly. While the manticore is still a little dazed, I take off my gloves and put them into my pockets. I don't want to ruin my only pair. The large wolf is now about five meters to my left and it stares at me with what seems to be confusion.

"What? I'm helping you." I tell the beast, but it doesn't seem to change much. "Whatever..." I finish and role my eyes. I guess it's a stupid idea for it to understand me.

   Seeming to have understood my last gesture, we both turn to face the now rehabilitated manticore. The beast stands about 25 centimeters taller than me and has a long red mane which in my opinion clashes a bit with its orange coat. Then again; I'm not fashion expert.

   Taking the first move, the timberwolf lunges towards the manticore with great ferocity. The manticore however uses his size to his advantage and swings his right paw in a backhanded style which sends the wolf soaring towards the forest edge like a leaf in the breeze. Rather than running towards the beast haphazardly, I levitate a few stones out of the water and I move them into different positions around the manticore. After I get the rocks into a pentagon formation, I send them all flying towards the manticore, but they simply impact and fall off without any visible effect.

   My attack must've angered it because it roars once again and lunges at me. I quickly jump out of the way and tumble a small distance before standing back up and dodging another barrage of swings which I can barely avoid. Thankfully, I see a blur come out of my peripheral vision and impact the manticore.

   While the object doesn't make the manticore move much, it does serve to break up the tempo of its attacks which I am thankful for. A few more moments of that and I'd of been in trouble. I now make out the object to be the timberwolf and it jumps off of the manticore's body, barely avoiding a swipe of its left paw.

I think it's about time for me to give myself an advantage. I think as I fill in another seal in my mind. I can feel a small bubbling in my eyes as the spell takes effect and my field-of-view begins to expand to a full 20 degrees past its usual size. While the spell doesn't take much to cast a do remember one thing about it. Open vision may not coat much to cast at first, you must beware of one thing; this spell takes one large drain as soon as it's dropped and that may result in an unwanted crash.

   Feeling confident with my new advantage, I activate quick-step for a moment and I make a jump at the manticore. Midway through my lunge, I see a large paw coming at me with my expanded view and I turn to brace myself for the impact. I form a box quickly to hopefully stop the attack. I feel a small rupture in my energy as my box shatters under the power of the manticore's attack and it hits me with the full brunt of its force.

   I am knocked back through the air and I tumble over to the edge of the forest. Well that hurt like hell. I think as my body aches. I get up with a groan and I see the wolf now is being thrown around by the manticore as it desperately tries to bite and claw at the beast. It's completely out of its element here. Without any wood to mold with it can't maneuver properly. I think and I can see two large trees out of the sides of my newly expanded peripheral vision. Bingo.

   I stretch my arms out until I have one hand on each tree and I begin to funnel magic back into a spire form seal. After it is filled I begin to manipulate the tree and I begin to extend very thin, but long tendrils of wood out of it until I have about 5 of them in total coming out of the former base of the tree. As soon as the wolf gets hit again I send out my tendrils to create a bed for it to land on.

   Thankfully the timberwolf figured out what I did and as soon as he forms into the wood I drop the spell and pain rips across my chest. Contrary to what I thought, wood is harder to use than dirt; a lot harder. The wood reverts back quickly into its previous state and the timberwolf walks out of it and looks up to me and I notice that the alpha stands at about half of my height. If he stood up he'd probably be about my size.

"You're welcome." I say as I direct my tension back at the confused manticore. This isn't good enough. At this rate we'll be done for, or at least I will be, by the time Dash gets back with help. I need another advantage.

   I look back down to the wolf and it seems he has come to a similar conclusion base on his expression. How am I telling the expression of a wooden face anyways? Wait a minute... Wooden. I think and a smile creeps across my face. That might work.

"Trust me on this one buddy." I say as I quickly plant a hand down on its head and I fill in another seal and a cloud of mist erupts from its skull. Time for a change in venue.

   After the smoke clears I see an identical copy of me standing next to me awkwardly and I remove my hand from his shoulder. I've got to say I'm surprised that worked. What used to be the wolf makes a grunting kind-of noise through its mouth and I chuckle a little at the awkwardness of the sound.

"Don't worry it won't last long." I say and my body double grunts. "Let's just finish this." I say and I dash forward at the manticore with ferocity.

   After I make my way to the beast, it decides to make use of its stinger and I twist around to dodge the downward strike. Midway through my spin I see that the wolf is attempting to move around in his new skin that my substitution spell gave him and by the time he reaches the manticore he seems to have adjusted enough and watched me enough to have figured out how to move in the body.

  He barely dodges the first attack sent at him and I come in from behind the manticore and I ram my horn into his back which allows it pierce through his skin with the sharp tip and it stops halfway. The manticore cries out in pain and I pull my horn out before he has the chance to recover and I jump back a few steps away from his fierce attacks.

   My counterpart follows my example through the confusion and uses his own horn to slash through part of the manticore's back left leg. Remembering his other adversary, the manticore sends a backhand blow to my double and he is sent to the ground and the magical body breaks off of him and leaves his now cracked and somewhat distorted body lying defenseless in the grass.

   Sadly the manticore takes advantage of this and turns back around and I see it raise its tail up into the air to finish the final blow. Following my own instincts I quickly speed-step over to his body as the manticore's tail comes down within the second and I have no time to dodge for myself.

   I hear a small clink as I bring my left hand up over my face and I feel an almost overbearing about of force behind the hit. I open my eyes and I see that the manticore's tail was impeded by my plating and the tip is stuck in between the small crevices between the plates of chitin. Well that was a lucky break for me. I think as I see a dark blue liquid drip off of the end of my hand. I guess that's the neurotoxin.

   Before the beast can reorganize its efforts, I quickly grab the wolf and jump away until I'm about 15 meters from the beast. I set down the wolf's heavily injured body and I feel a little sad for him. His back legs are only being held together by a few small sections of wood which I could easily break without any effort. His front legs are a little better, but they aren't anywhere near good. His back has large sections missing in the wood and his tail has been almost entirely nipped. His head now has a large scrape over the right side of his mouth. Small amounts of sap steadily flow out of all of these wounds and I feel a little anger inside of myself as I look into his sad glowing eyes and hear his soft breathing.

He only tried to save his pack. I think as I remember how he purposely ran in the opposite direction of his pack-mates. He saved my sorry-self more times than one. I remember as I move him over to the trees and he merges into one of them. And all you did was hurt him. Something you couldn't even use for food. Just for the sport of it, you sick freak.

"I won't lie; you've pissed me off." I tell the manticore as I clap my hands together and put my right hand on my left hands plating. "Now; I'm going to try at revenge." I finish and I fill in a seal as I drag my right hand forward.

   I feel a strong drain and my vision spins a little, but I push that aside as I look down to my modified appendage. I changed the amour-lie, plates into a solid thin spike which extends about 20 centimeters past my knuckles and its base is planted into the back of my hand. I rub my hand against the sharp edge and I can feel how sharp it is through the blue toxin left on its edge for the manticore's tail. Let's see how this works.

   I activate a quick-step with no regard to the stress and I close the distance between the manticore and myself. I dodge both of his swipes by jumping above them and I drive a thrust straight into its chest, effective injecting its own poison into its system. Let's see how you like being unable to move. I think with a smile as some of the manticore's remaining blood flows from my horn down into my right eye and I close it. Forgot about that.

   A moment later I find myself being pushed down to the earth by a large paw. I look up to see the manticore standing over my and its aligning its tail. Fuck; I forgot. That was the manticore's own poison; it wouldn't be awfully surprising that it wouldn't affect it. I think as I watch as its tail shoots down at my face and I close my eyes. Shit.

   Despite what I expected to feel, I feel nothing and I open my unbloodied left eye. Standing over my body is a large red stallion wearing a pair of jeans with a white shirt and I see the bulb on the ends of the manticore's tail in his hand with the tip in the gap between his middle and index fingers as the manticore continues to try and push it farther towards me.

"It's about time you showed up Big Mac." I mutter and I set my head back onto the grass.

"I expected more of you Sonata; I thought you could at least avoid a mistake like what you did with the poison." I hear another voice say and I turn my head to see Thunderback standing to Big Mac's right with his machete in hand.

"Sorry; a bit of anger got the better of me." I admit through rough breathes. "Did mention that this paw isn't getting any lighter?"

"Yeah; I've got it." The pegasus responds and swings his blade down on the manticore's arm and it jumps back with a yelp.

"Thanks." I say as I allow myself to take a deep breath and I let my plating return to its original shape.

"Think nothing of it. Now watch how we work." Big Mac says and he takes the machete from Thunderback.

   After taking the blade in his right hand he lunges forward at the injured manticore. He intercepts a swipe with his left hand easily and swings his weapon quickly in an upwards motion across the manticore's chest and across into its right paw. The manticore roars out in pain and Big Mac takes full advantage of this and drives the tip of the blade into the beast's chest up to the hilt and he jumps back casually and leaves the weapon.

"Your turn Thunderback; just don't play with it too much." Mac says and puts his hands back in his pockets and the manticore pushes through its pain and lunges at us.

"Well you're no fun." The dark pegasus says with a laugh before pulling a silvery white pistol out of his hoodie's right pocket and the sound of a gunshot ranges out.

   I look over at the manticore and I see a small hole next to the machete's hilt with blood flowing out of it and the manticore roars out in even more pain. I hear another five shots and I see holes open in each of his paws and one in the center of his chest.

"Good-bye." Thunderback says and another whole opens in the center of its skull and its body slumps over onto the grass. I think I found a new respect for these two.

"Wow; that sure makes me look weak." I say as I drop my open vision and vomit as I stand up. That is quite a bit of a drain.

"And that makes you look even weaker." Thunderback says while he conceals his gun back into his hoodie.

"Thanks." I say as I walk over to the stream and I dip my head down into to wash off the blood on my horn and face. Refreshing. "So what took you two so long?" I ask I stand up.

"Dash was a little hysterical when she got to us so it took a bit for us to figure what she was saying and to convince her to only tell Berry about it and where we would be. We can't have Dash or Applejack knowing about my little friend, can we?" He answers while patting his covered weapon and I walk to the forest's edge.

"You alright, buddy?" I ask and the wolf walks out of the tree I put him in. Well that son of a bitch; pun.

   The wolf walks out if the tree with not a single injury on its red cherry wood body. Its legs have been entirely reconstructed and its back now has a nice gleam to it which goes well with its now extended tail.

"You little faker." I say as I rub its head and it wags its tail a little. Like a dog; just don't get on its bad side.

"What? You didn't know about an alpha's regeneration properties?" Mac asks and I shrug in response. "Well basically the timberwolf alpha can regenerate its body from a near death state 4 times in its lifetime and each time it will change in the type of wood it is. This one has another three uses left." Mac answers and I stand up.

"Good to know." I say and look down to the animal. "See ya buddy." I say to bid farewell to him and he runs off, literally through, the trees.

"I'm surprised he didn't die; having to compensate for an idiot like you and all." Thunderback says sarcastically and I chuckle a little.

"Quite right you are Thunderback." I hear Berry say from behind me and I almost jump a little in surprise.

"You're a little late to the party, Berry." Mac reminds her.

"I had things to do. Now you two run back and tell them everything is alright. Give us a cover story too while you're at it." Berry says to Thunderback and Macintosh before turning back to me. "We'll take care of the body." The older mare says with a wink.

"Alright; we'll think of something. Just don't take too long." Mac says and they run off together back downstream.

"Now that I've taken care of them we can begin our discussion." She says and I groan.

"Something tells me this won't be beneficial to me." I say as we walk over to the manticore's body.

"Quite the contrary actually. This is quite the treat for ponies like us." She tells me as she eyes the dead animal.

"Ponies like us?"

"Yeah; omnivores. It's been a while since I've had manticore meat and we now have some sitting right in front of us." She says with no less than a slight bit of excitement.

"One problem though; how do you plan to skin and harvest all of this and get it back before it goes bad?" I remind her.

"I'm only taking the tail. The actual manticore meat isn't very good, but if you harvest the tail, and properly cook it, you can eat the toxic glands within it safely. The glands don't rot for up to 2 weeks so I don't have to worry about them going ad before I cook them. A nice treat I didn't have to work for is what it will be." She explains as she pulls a small knife out.

"I had to work for it though."

"You're indebted to me. If anything it's more skin off my bones than yours." She remarks as she cuts through the scales and through the tail of the manticore; effectively removing the appendage.

"Yeah right; so where are you going to keep that while we're out here?" I ask as she picked up the tail which is leaking a mix of blue neurotoxin and red blood onto the ground.

"At my camp; if they ask I'll just tell them I took a little war trophy."

"Why would you take a war trophy from my fight?" I say in an attempt to catch her in a fault,

"Nopony said you had to be a part of a fight to reap its benefits. Besides; if they don't buy it I'll just tell them I'm holding into it for you." She says with a smile as we walk back.

"You really love your life don't you?" I ask in suspicion of her supposed glee.

"Almost every bit of it; I've got a career I excel at, our organization is coming back from its downfall and I get to watch the youth grow to their fullest potential. What isn't there for me to love?"

"Nothing I guess, but I have a question."

"Go for it." She says and I nod back to her.

"What is it like to have...killed somepony?" I force myself to say the words and to my surprise she only chuckles a bit.

"I guess it's only natural you would be wondering about what our work is like outside of the training and the explanations. I guess you could say it's an acquired taste, though. I felt entirely prepared for it. I had simulated it so many times in my head I had lost count and even more times I had practiced it. It went really simple though. I went through like I usually did and I made my way to the pony. I didn't hesitate at all to be honest. I slit his throat easily and quickly, but that was when it went downhill." She says before giving herself a calming interlude. "As soon as I felt a little bit of blood contact my wrist I vomited and felt terrible. The grief felt unbearable at the time and I had no idea how anypony could even consider doing this as a profession. After I got back I went home, cried and drank away my sadness for six days before coming out. I didn't want to have to do that ever again, but I didn't have enough saved to leave and go in my own." She finishes solemnly.

"What did you do?" I ask with genuine intrigue.

"I did what I had to do; I kept working. I didn't want to kill anypony again but the only way out of it was for me to finish another 4 assassinations so I could buy myself out. I killed the first one and I did nearly the same thing except I didn't give myself the luxury of waiting and I killed the second one the day after along with the third one before spending another week wallowing. After that week I went off to kill the fourth one and gain my freedom from such a wretched place. I did everything right; made it past the guards and avoided any detection at all. I got right up behind my target and I slit his throat just as I did the others. My freedom from the organization was granted with that."

"What happened though? You're still here so what changed?"

"Like I said; it's an acquired taste. Contrary to my first 4 times; when I slit the throat and the blood soaked my wrist, I looked down at the corpse and I smiled wider than I had ever smiled before. I still don't know why, but something about it grew on me in an instant and I have no problems at all with killing now. That isn't to say I'm addicted to it though." She finishes with a smile on her magenta face.

Wow; to think she could change so much in an instant. Am I going to be like that at some point? I think as I remember my subtle urges to steal more back at the store. No... I can't; I won't let myself. I just have to remember what Mac said about keeping my eyes on the goal ahead of me. I will retain who I am no matter what happens; predetermined skills or not.

"Why are you telling me this?" I ask as I realize how much this must mean to her,

"I trust you. You're new with us, and you don't trust any of us very much to be honest with you. Consider this an exchange of sorts. I trust you enough to tell you things like this about me and to keep your mouth shut about them and you trust me enough to loosen up and take some of my advice. Like I said before; this organization is like a family and trust is important. A thief works but undermining people's trust and taking advantage of it. So by us trusting one another not to take advantage of our trust shows the unity of us. Just don't share too much with Spacial." She adds onto the end of her speech-like statement.

"Why not her?"

"Keep this between you and me, but I don't even trust her the greatest bit. She has never given any trust to us and always acts with contempt. The line of work is dark enough without ponies like her. She just doesn't feel right to me, but like I said; keep this between you and me only." She remarks coldly before changing to a smile. "It's mostly just speculation though so don't pay much mind to it."

"Oh; ok." I say quietly. This is a little odd. I guess I'll take her word for it though; she seems to be more trustworthy than her aforementioned associate.

"Don't worry too much about this though. You have plenty of other and more important things to worry about. I already have another fun bit of training ready for you when we're done here." She says happily as we reach the point where I had left my canteens.

"I guess this is where we part for now." I say as I pick up my canteens and turn towards the forest. "See you later."

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

   After creating another ladder for myself I climb up to our make-shift camp quickly as I hear Macintosh and Thunderback talking up above. After making my way to the top I toss the canteens over to the pile of other various things before sitting back down and moving into their conversation.

"It's about time you got back." Thunderback comments as he tosses me a green apple.

"Sorry about that." I apologize before biting into the juicy green fruit. "I have to admit though; I never thought of either of you doing something like that."

"If you're in this line of work long enough you're bound to pick up some kind of skill; for me it was marksmanship and for Mac it was just an addition to his strength. As for you; I don't think you've learned much." Thunderback says cockily and Mac slaps the back of his head soon after.

"What he means to say is that you haven't been around long enough to pick anything up."

"I don't think I meant to say that. Regardless though; I guess you didn't completely screw up. Of course, if had been Mac or me, we wouldn't have even been hurt." The pegasus remarks as he runs the back of his head.

"So what do we do now?" I ask as I notice that we have a good pile of apples and an ample enough source of water.

"Well, we have a few options. We can split up and look for flags until nightfall or we can sit around of here and start our search in the morning." Mac explains as he eats one of the apples next to him.

"How long do we have until nightfall?" I ask as I try to find the sun through the leaves.

"About 15 minutes or so. If you ask me, I think we should just wait and start in the morning. Our chances of finding a flag close enough for us to get it and get back before dark are slim." Thunderback reminds us.

"Alright then; so what will we talk about?" Mac says, putting an end to any idea if going on a search.

"Well... I guess neither of us knows much about you Sonata. Anything you wish to tell us about yourself?" Thunderback says enthusiastically.

"Thank you for your stunning amount of interest." I answer sarcastically which leaves Thunderback chuckling a little. "Regardless, there isn't much to know about me. I don't come from anywhere interesting to note, I lack any remaining family and as it seems, I tend to be near useless in most situations."

"I wouldn't say that. I'd say that you're just not effective means to an end. You did succeed in keeping Dash safe and in surviving until we got there. It's simply that you don't think enough. Wouldn't it be a safe enough assumption that manticores aren't affected by their own poison? It's things like that that make you useless. We can't trust you to work solo simply." Mac explains and I nod. He is right. I don't think things through enough. It's enough for me to reach and end but not exactly easily or to a good end.

"That's one way of putting it. If you ask me he lacks a combat or killing related skill. Mac has strength although he doesn't work in any combat or killing situations, I can shoot about any weapon in my opinion and Spacial and Berry have a great many skills. You just don't have a skill besides thinking. If you were a better tactician you may not need it, but that's not going to happen. Do what is smart; learn to shoot, learn to fist fight, learn to slash, learn to sneak, learn to run, learn to cast or learn to examine. Any of those should serve you well enough to make it in our line of work. Although; I guess learning to run will only get you so far." Thunderback advises me, causing me to think of things at a different angle. I guess that's also a valid point. If I had been better equipped or trained that may have left me much better off. Although I still think Mac's point of view is much more logical. What use is a gun if you can't figure at what to shoot first and when to shoot it?

"I still think Mac makes a better point, but both of you are right in your own rights. While I agree being able to think more quickly and clearly is important, your options are still quite limited without your own skills to make those plans come to fruition. I also agree that having a skill does help you win a fight or avoid one entirely, it's severely limited if you can't think of effective applications. You just need a balance is all I'm saying." I state my decision and after a few moments they both break in a somewhat hearty laughter. Did I miss something?

"That's a good laugh. There's a reason we're at the bottom and Berry and Spacial are at the top of this organization. We aren't anywhere near old enough or good enough to be able to balance ourselves effectively. We just worry about what is needed to finish our jobs. I know for a fact Mac is getting out ASAP and I don't plan on staying in any longer than another 3 or 4 years. We just needed extra cash." Thunderback explains.

"Neither of us really wants this as a profession. Thunderback enjoys it, but not enough to risk himself on it and I might actually be able to get off little bit earlier than expected it turns out. Since you came along, there's less of a problem with not being able to complete contracts without me." Mac continues, leaving me a little confused.

"You're the same right? You're just here until you get your debt paid off right?" Thunderback asks in an upbeat tone.

"Yeah; just until it's paid off." I say with a nervous laugh. Considering the thoughts that have gone through my head so far; that may not happen.

"See? Don't get me wrong; I like Berry and Spacial as much as the next pony, but, if you're going to be honest, they're part of a dying breed. Once we leave they won't be able to keep up with enough contracts to be able to keep their clientele and the organization will fall apart. Today's world isn't kind to thieves and, if you don't have numbers, you can't make it as one. I don't mean to be offensive, but this organization has been running on borrowed time for the last few years." Thunderback continues somewhat clinically.

"I'm a little sad that it will be the end of their long run in this profession, but it's based on dishonesty and my family can't stand dishonesty. They should've looked into alternate, legal, professions after their downfall rather than trying to recapture their glory. I sacrificed a little of my pride coming into this and I hope to gain it back by living a hard honest life after I can buy myself out." Mac finishes for Thunderback and the two nod to each other. That's a little harsh. I mean, yeah it's not an 'honest' way of living, but they've worked hard at it. Although I guess it is the choice of Thunderback and Mac as to whether or not they want to be here. I can't stop them.

"Speaking of jobs, what is it that you do as an intel gatherer Thunder?" I ask the pegasus and he chuckles a little.

"It's pretty simple really. For a simple example, say I get a job to learn about what some company's rival is planning on doing to take customers and employees from the company in question. It's my job to figure out when meetings are between executives are being held and it's also my job to 'attend' that meeting and sell the information learned back to my client. Of course I usually don't do petty things like that. Most of the time it's just some spoiled family trying to figure out ways to overthrow a rival family to gain more prominence. Some ponies value their family status a bit too much nowadays." The pegasus responds simply and I nod in understanding. Sounds about like what I expected.

"I don't need an explanation for your job Mac. I had a friend before a left that was into that stuff." I say, remembering the first time I met Uefi.

I never sold, grew, transported or smoked, but that didn't keep Uefi from telling me details after I fixed a few obvious flaws in his operation. 'The turkey is in the oven.' isn't the best code phrase for 'cooking' if it's the only thing you use and you at least get 15 messages, calls or notes saying that within a week. I wasn't involved and I had no intention to be invovled but I didn't want Uefi to get caught. In the end I gave him the advice needed for him to expand a little and not be caught. Needless to say, Uefi wasn't very good at planning ahead, nor was he good at team building. What a jumbled mess they were...

"Oh well... Ok then. What about you Sonata? Which job field are you most interested in?" Mac asks me as the light drops enough for me to feel that a light spell is in order.

"Which one pays the most?" I ask in a searching the fastest way out of this debt.

"Assassinations followed by theft, intel and finally growing." Thunder explains in a simple yet informative manner.

"I guess theft or intel then. I don't think I'm cut out for that kind of killing and I think growing might take too long." I answer and they both nod slightly.

"I guess it's logical enough. I don't think I could just kill easily. I always just shoot their legs or wings if I get caught then I run. I've never killed and I don't want to either. Too much grief is involved for me to do it." Thunder says first and Mac follows with his own statement.

"Eeyup. I might be able to in a war, but there isn't a single thing right about shooting somepony in the back."

"Yeah, but enough about work. Let's change subjects; any ideas?" Thunderback says as he takes a drink out of one of the canteens.

"What else do we have to talk about? There isn't much else we could use for a conversation besides our personal lives." I remind him. I am right. I only know these two like this because of work.

"Exactly; anypony you're interested in Sonata?" Thunderback says which causes me to be taken back a bit.

"Where did that come from?" I ask him in a somewhat offended tone.

"Nowhere in particular; was just thinking that if we plan on being 'friends' we should treat each other like friends. Besides; I don't really have a group of stallions to do shit with. Yeah Mac and I are good friends but you can't call it a group of stallions if you don't have three stallions." Thunderback says with an air that demands respect and recognition. "No homo."

"So you're not really asking about our personal lives. You're really asking for me to tell you about my personal life." I respond without missing a beat.

"Pretty much; mostly I just want to know if there's anything personally interesting going on with you. Like if you have a mare in mind or something like that." Thunderback says in an almost giddy tone. A gossip type heh? No wonder h works for intelligence gathering.

"Not really; I might have one in mind but like you said; that shouldn't be a priority for me right now." I state factually.

"True; I did say that. However, I only said I wouldn't recommend it. It will be hard to balance your facade with reality, but it can help your facade as well. The more normal you seem the more normal they think you are. I just don't think you should try to yet. You're too green for it in my opinion." The pegasus responds and I notice that Mac has fallen asleep.

"I guess you're right. You know... I never expected you to be like this." I say truthfully.

"It's my job not to appear as I really am. So; who are you interested in?" He persists and I laugh a little.

"You're not going to learn of that tonight." I tell him through a yawn. Today has been draining.

"Then when will you tell me?"

"Maybe tomorrow; or maybe never. We should probably get to sleep though. The earlier we get up; the more chances we have of getting flags." I remind him as I lay down on the hard branches.

"Alright, but at some point you have to let me know." He says as I drift into sleep before I can even hear his 'goodnight'.

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

   I slowly open my eyes and I stare up at the dark sky and the tops of pillars before realizing where I am. Without saying a word I stand up on the liquid floor and find myself face to face with Hitsuki who simply looks at me with a cocky grin.

"You forgot you had to do this tonight, didn't you?" She asks with a little laugh.

"I might have neglected that thought." I admit as I slowly ready a spell and I find my magic flowing freely.  Good; I might have a chance if this keeps working.

"Well here we go again." She says and we both fall through the floor once again into the think fluid.

   Rather than waiting for her move, I immediately change my plating into the same shape as when I had fought the manticore. Time for me to make use of these spells.

   I see a sharp red point move through the still fresh bubbles and I barley dodge it by swimming upwards. This is a liquid so I need to fight by making use of every direction. I catch sight of my adversary through the remaining bubbles and I jab my arm straight down at her left shoulder blade.

"Damnit." I hear her curse as I feel the tip of my appendage break through the resistance of her skin and into her bones. Perfect.

   I allow a smile to come across my face as she pulls herself away from me and my blade exits through the wound it made, allowing a somewhat generous amount of blood to leak from the wound and into the now darker fluid.

"How did you move like tha-..." She trails off as her eyes travel from her wound to my arm.

"I guess you understand now." I say with confidence as I look down to my own left arm.

   A thin sapphire coloured veil is wrapped around my arm from the tip of my appendage to my neck. I swing my arm up and down a few times and it moves with a speed light faster than it would in regular air.

"So that's what you did. You used Air Coil." She says with one hand on her wound.

"Exactly. I used it to wrap a small amount of air around my arm before your disabled the surface tension. Since I only used a small amount I had to lower the concentration of the air so I move a little faster even." I explain to her and she merely nods.

"So what gave you this idea?"

"I noticed how much faster you were than me last time and I knew I would need to get faster to beat you. The problem with that is that I'd either have to at least double my speed or I'd have to learn to bypass the waters high viscosity. When I read about Air Coil which allows me to stretch and constrict air at will I began to think of the properties of air; mainly it's thickness. That's when I realized that if I was to stretch a small amount of air around my arm it would allow me to not only attack with a higher speed but with a speed higher than yours here." I tell her as she moves he hand away from her wound.

"Interesting; then why not cover your whole body with that thin layer of air?" She asks meaningfully.

"Because then gravity here would work against me and continue to pull me downwards which would throw my aim off; not to mention this is all I can do without losing too much magic."

"I'm glad you actually though this through. Now we can begin again." She says before lunging upwards at me and I turn downwards and push myself downwards off of the reformed surface tension.

   I feel a pain go through the outer portion of my right shin and I twist back to face the mare. I send another jab forwards at the same moment as she does and our blade cross just past each other. Mine enters her chest and from her expression I think it entered her right lung. Hers however misses by a small margin and slices through my inner right elbow and my outer chest, barely missing my own right lung. I win.

"I-I guess this is your win then. Good job." The mare says as she pulls my blade out of her chest.

"You're not hurt, are you?" I ask with the sudden realization of what I did.

"Not really; this is your soul after all. You're never hurt when you leave and it's the same with me. I'll be fine." She says reassuringly and I sigh in relief. "Good job though; I didn't expect you to finish my trial on your second try. Although I guess it is only my first test."

"Yeah. So does this mean I can use Deviant Point?" I ask.

"Nope; Deviant comes in a pair with Chaos and for that you have to beat Safaia." She says and I notice the holes in her beginning to fill in with more tissues. "See; I'm already healing up."

"So now I have to fight the Phoenix hybrid? So be it; I guess you'll be sending me off then?" I say as I drop the Air Coil.

"Yeah; make sure you win." She finishes with an almost motherly smile as I feel a warm feeling come around me and my vision fades to black.

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

   Within a few moments my vision returns and I find myself standing on top of one of the pillars and across from me is Safaia standing idly with a small green fire floating in the air next to her head. I look around and I notice that there aren't any more pillars to stand on and I look down and to my displeasure it seems that we're standing at least 90 meters above the floor. Only two platforms to fight on and we're at a height that would either severely injure or kill me? I guess I'm going to lose then; after all Safaia can fly..

"Hello?" I say after a few moments of silence.

"Hey."

"So are you just going to stand there or are we going to fight?" I ask her simply and she nods her head.

"I guess we'll fight.  Want to get this over with too so don't waste my time." She says before spreading her wings and flying into the air with her fire following her.

   Within the next half second she dives downwards at me as if she was a hawk going after a mouse, but since she happens to be slower than Hitsuki I find myself easily able to dodge her. I suddenly feel a searing pain go down my back and I turn my head around to see the back of my shirt burning with a greenish-blue fire and I see the small flame move out of my peripheral vision.

   Before it can continue to hurt me, I rip the shirt off and toss it off the edge of the pillar which leaves me shirtless. Another shirt ruined; what shitty luck. Rather than waiting for another attack, I lunch forwards with my blade and I slash at her. She twists out of the way in an almost tired fashion and I only leave a small scrape on her left shoulder. I twist to my left to dodge another flyby from the flame and I jump back to the pillar Safaia was on originally.

"What is that anyway?" I ask as I point to the small body of fire.

"My flare, a small fire I figured would be enough to suffice for this test." She says and I nod. I figured a Phoenix might do something like this. Time for my second plan.

   I pump more magic into a seal as I retract my modified chitin and I see a small torrent of black sparks come out of my right hand.

"Safaia; I must ask you. Do you know why oxygen is dangerous?" I ask her as I ready Air Coil.

"Why?"

"Because in high concentrations it ignites very easily." I say and I torrent of red flames burst forth from my finger-tips and engulf her entire body. Perfect; as simple as compacted the oxygen so much that it created a fast moving flame. I think as vomit off the side of the pillar. Maybe not too easy.

   Contrary to what I expected, simply jumps through my flaming veil and looks at me lazily as she flaps her wings to maintain her airborne status. For an adult she sure lacks ferocity.

"But how..." I trail off as I look at her damaged figure.

"I'm a Phoenix. Did you really think that any regular fire could hurt me?" She says and I mentally face palm. Of course fire wouldn't do shit to her. Then again; if I can't use oxygen to fuel a fire perhaps I could...

"Actually; I was counting on that." I lie as her wings disappear into the air and she begins to fall.

If the fire has no oxygen the how can it burn? I think as I continue to focus my Air Coil's effect to keep air from coming within a five meter radius of her body; a task which becomes much more intensive as she distances herself. Thank whatever deity ponies thank that his spell doesn't require me to see what I'm using it on after I cast it.

   My right arm begins to rip itself open to compensate for the drain a few moments before I find my spell stopped off by a suppressive gray force. Before I can curse my luck I hear a resounding voice come from an undeterminable direction and I try to reform my weapon but the same gray force stops me.

"I can't believe I fell for something like that, but if you win you win. Congratulations you dirty cheater." I hear Safaia's voice say with great distaste. I was under the impressions thieves don't play fair.

"I wasn't under any impression that you had a rule against that so I figured it was fair game." I say factually as the hybrid rises up in front of the pillar I'm on lazily.

"Anyways you won. You can now use Chaos and Deviant Point. We'll explain what they do when you cast them, but for now it's about time for you to wake up." She informs me with an almost pleased tone.

"You're not angry?" I ask her as she sits down on the edge of the pillar opposite of mine.

"No; somepony of your occupation was quite likely to do something like that. I'd of been angry if you had played fair." She answers as she lazily swings her legs back and forth.

"Why would you be angry about that?

"I'd be angry because that would've shown that you didn't get the point of any of this. The point of these trials was to see if you had the smarts to figure out how to undermine our advantages. You figured out how to bypass your lack of weaponry, your lack of speed in the first trial and how to remove my flight advantage. Although I'm fairly certain that last one was a fluke, it still shows that you didn't have any immediate intention of trying to meet out level. You were looking for the easiest way to get to your goal. Something a thief should be apt to do," She explains with a smile.

"So you're just happy that I solved it like a thief instead of a man. Seems like the opposite of what most ponies would want."

"Trust me; sometimes the manly way of doing something is overrated."

"I guess so, but now what?"

"You wake up and later cast Deviant and Chaos again and we'll explain the spells to you. For now though I'm tired; you try taking a 100 meter plummet and not be tired. I'll see you later." She says and my vision goes black.