A Fallen Angel

Angel woke with a sigh. Last day.

This was the final day of his "training" before he headed home. Despite wanting to stay, he knew he'd have to go back to school before the end of the year.

He lay in bed, feeling a bit off. He quickly realised something was off. The bed feels lighter... Angel opened his eyes, and couldn't find his mother. Refusing to panic, knowing she could take care of herself, Angel looked for clues as to where she had gone.

He must've been asleep quite a while: He noticed water around the edge of the bathroom mirror, which he figured meant she had had a shower. He followed the light driblets of water to the bedroom, where she must've dried off. He was at a loss for a second, before he noticed patches where the carpet was slightly more depressed. He then watched the patches lead out of the bedroom, knowing they'd lead to the front door.

Sitting back down on the bed, Angel was wondering if she wanted him to wait or follow. He glanced at the bedside table and saw a note he hadn't noticed before. One that would have made the search much easier.

Angel quickly read the note.

Angel, I want you to recap what we have learned. Track me to my current location, then I will show you a target. Note: This is not a test. He is an actual target I have been contracted to track and kill. If you screw up, you may die. Do not come if you aren't ready. At 12:00, I will chase the target myself.

Angel instantly jumped out of bed. No way was he letting a live opportunity like this slip through his hooves. He quickly opened the door and locked it behind him, almost galloping down the steps to the front door of the hotel.

He glanced at the old grandfather clock next to the desk, and quickly questioned the hotel clerk behind the counter. "Is that clock running late today?"

"Nope, just wound it myself. That's the right time. Ten o'clock."

Angel slowed his pace and walked outside. Two hours to find his mother. That he was thankful for. He flashed a glance at the sub-walk-way tunnel map, and made an estimate of how big the city was. Thankfully, it was a clear day, which meant he could fly overhead and look for her. But he abolished that idea. She said he needed to track her, which meant she wouldn't be sitting on a roof somewhere.

He glanced down at his hooves, but focussed more keenly on the tracks of hooves. He made out his mother's ever so slightly inwards-pointing hoof prints against all the others. It wasn't that old, maybe a few minutes. Angel turned and followed the hoofprints down the street. His gaze was keenly pressed on the hoofprints; he used his ears to tell when he had to move left or right.

After a few blocks, he saw his worst nightmare: An indoor market. Hoofprints wouldn't be here, and the constant crowds made finding ponies even harder. Angel could only see one exit, though. He flew up and over the market, landing on the other side. Try as he might, he couldn't make out his mother's tracks. The ones left here were older than his mothers, though. Which meant she was waiting somewhere in the market.

Angel instantly brought a mental image of his mother into his mind's-eye, starting to search through the crowd. He, only being a colt, didn't have the advantage of looking over the crowd. Instead, he resigned to combing the entire market, front to back.

He was halfway through when he saw one cream-coloured pony who stood a little different from the crowd around them. He couldn't see if it was his mother: their face was angled toward the floor. But Angel knew it was her. Having almost always walked on her hind-hooves, walking four-on-the-floor always made her a bit unbalanced.

Angel creaped up beside her. "Hello." Melody said. "Glad to see you decided to show up."

Angel nodded. "Wouldn't miss this for Equestria."

Melody smiled. "That's good." She then nodded forward. "That pony, there. The blue one. The one with all the friends. He's the one I need you to assassinate. You can't do it here; too many witnesses. You need to familiarise with him. He's a contract of mine, so if you screw up, it reflects poorly on me."

Angel nodded, then dispersed into the crowd.

Four minutes later found him standing, leaning on the wall, listening in on the conversation this pony was having.

"Oh, man, did you see the way Skates bailed on that last turn? That must've hurt." He heard his target say.

"Yeah man, he'll feel that when he wakes up."

"Why do you guys do that?" A strikingly high pitched voice sprung up. A mare. Angel reasoned.

"Do what, babe?" And my target's marefriend. Angel added with a small smile.

"Go and do stupid tricks like that. You know I hate thinking you'd get hurt."

"Pfft. Whatever. Y'know I'm strong enough to last forever."

"It still makes me sad, knowing you might get hurt."

Instantly Angel formed a plan in his mind. He may have to deal with the mare seperatly, but it'd still work.

He pushed on the biggest, most innocent eyes he could manage, and walked up to the group of ponies. "'Scuse me?" He said in a voice he hoped sounded young. "Has one of you seen Mommy?"

It killed Angel to berate himself like this, but it payed off. "Oh, you poor little thing."

Instantly Angel was face to face with the target's marefriend. "You must be so afraid." She turned back to Angel's target. "Clyde, we have to find this child's mother." It was an order, not a request.

"But...Babe, we were gonna see that movie, remember?"

"You really expect me to leave a lost foal all by himself to go see a movie?!"

Angel saw "Clyde" look at his hooves. He then turned to the surrounding ponies. "'Later, guys. Guess I got something else to do."

Clyde turned back to Angel and the unknown mare with his brow raised. "You sure? This may take a while..."

The mare rounded on Clyde. "How could you even think of leaving him here?!"

"Okay! I'm just making sure." Clyde looked at Angel. "Hey little guy, what's your name?"

"Angel." Angel replied. It took a lot of restraint not to snap at that. He hated it when ponies called him "little".

"Aw... His name's Angel." The mare smiled at him. "Don't worry, Angel. We'll help you find your mommy. What's her name?"

"She's Melody." Angel said, slowly losing his patience.

Clyde started to turn off into the croud. "You coming, babe?" He asked the somewhat dazed mare.

The mare quickly snapped out of her glazed look. "Huh? Oh yeah. Right." She walked alongside Angel as they went moving through the crowd.

They were walking through the crowd, asking if anypony had seen a mare asking around for her child. Angel had to fight the urge to groan: Instead of getting his target out of the crowd, he had gotten Clyde even more into it.

Then Clyde turned to the mare. "Babe, we've asked everypony here." Then in a lower voice he added. "I don't think she's here."

Angel was thankful when the mare said stubbornly. "Then we'll look farther. There's more to Vanhoover than this market."

Clyde sighed, but thankfully didn't argue. As they walked out, Angel saw Melody leaning in the exit.

"Oh, you three are such a great family."

Angel grinned at the hidden compliment. The mare smiled sweetly at Melody. "Oh, no. We aren't his parents. He's lost. We're trying to find his mom."

Melody jaw dropped, her eyes wide. "What's her name? Maybe I can find her?"

The mare smiled at her. "Thanks, but we've already asked everypony in here. We're going to look through Vanhoover."

His mother smiled at that. Or was that a grin? "You're such a nice pony."

Four hours later, Angel regretted ever accepting this mission. "Nice pony" or not.

They had walked through all of Vanhoover. Or as much as they could cover. Angel almost groaned aloud. He had hoped a chance to get rid of his target would arise quickly, but he had had no such luck. Everypony had come out to enjoy the sun. It didn't help that Clyde had stuck to main streets and busses, trying to ask as many ponies as possible. Probably to appease his "babe."

The mare turned to Clyde as they walked down a side street, still heavily crowded with ponies. "Clyde, I don't think we're going to find her. Maybe she left him on purpose."

Angel decided to guilt trip the mare. He couldn't lose a target this far into his contract. "Whaddya mean 'on purpose'? Can't you find her? You said you would." Angel forced himself to tear up, and sniffed. "I'll never find Mommy, will I?"

He was rewarded with the mare being face to face with him, her eyes wide. "Nonono... Don't cry. We'll try again tomorrow. It's just getting late today."

"Seriously, Rose? Can't you just-"

"No. I can't 'just'. He's only a foal. We're taking him back to our house. He can sleep in the guest room."

This made Angel blink. They had a house together? Angel glanced over at the marital ring around Clyde's hoof. Not "special someponies","Beloved's". Probably a new couple.

Clyde sighed. "Fine, he can stay the night with us. Tomorrow we'll go ask the Guards."

Rose beamed at him. "Thank you, Clyde." Then she turned to Angel. "When you get to our house, you're on your best behaviour, ok? No breaking things, or shouting."

Angel nodded with renewed vigor: If he was alone in the house with Clyde, he could off him quietly.

Half an hour later, and Angel couldn't believe his luck. He had gotten himself into his target's house. He had hidden in plain sight, and it had payed off royally.

Clyde was sitting right next to him in the sofa. So close, but yet so far. Angel had decided he would wait until Clyde was asleep before making a move.

Angel was getting the biggest exercise in patience ever. He sat there for another hour before he saw Clyde glancing at him in the corner of his eye.

Deciding to test a theory, Angel yawned, and was rewarded to an ever-so slight smirk from Clyde. Angel realised Clyde must want him in bed as soon as possible, and so he followed that up with "I feel tired."

Instantly, the ever-so-gentle mare was by his side. "I better get you to bed than."

Rose escorted Angel into a room she had cleaned out just for him. If anything, Angel felt bad for hurting the mare more than for killing the stallion. Angel decided to throw in one last guilt trip. For old times sake. "I miss Mom."

Rose leaned down and kissed his forehead. "I'm sorry, Angel. I'll look extra hard tomorrow. I'll find your mom."

Angel lay there. He counted the seconds as he waited for an appropriate time to go after his prey. 1. 2. 3...

After an arguement that had issued over whether the couple should be helping the kid or not (7304. 7305.), and the couple headed off to bed (14624.), Angel finally rolled off the bed and sneaked over to the door.

Placing an ear against the door, he could make out the soft sound of snoring. Angel slowly reached up and turned the doorhandle.

Once open, he leaned out into the hallway, looking up and down. He saw the door at the end of the hall, which led to the couples bedroom. The soft snoring came from the door's direction.

He was suddenly aware of a new sound, the soft humming of a television. He creaped downstairs, and Angel instantly recognised the long-maned pony as Rose.

Holding his breath as he sneaked past into the kitchen, he slowly started opening the drawers, one at a time. Finding the cutlery drawer, he pulled a bread knife from the drawer, freezing at the sound of hoofsteps.

They were drawing closer. Angel forced his panic down and slid the drawer closed. He needed an escape, but this kitchen only had one exit. Rolling behind the island, he pushed his back against it.

He felt a small saving grace press itself against his back. Opening the cupboard, he tucked himself in and pulled the door shut.

The crushing darkness quickly swallowed him. Slowly but surely, Angel heard hoofsteps growing louder as they got closer.

They stopped just outside of the cupboard he was in. Holding his breath, he sat silently praying while Rose started opening cupboards. Angel sat in the darkness. He heard the fridge door open, and the rattling of shelves as things were being pulled out.

He then heard Rose's hushed voice as she opened the cutlery drawer. "Where in Equestria is the bread knife?"

Angel strained not to curse his luck. Leaning forward and shifting his weight, he graced Luna when he heard the hoofsteps leading away from him, towards the dish-tray he had passed on his way into the kitchen. Pushing the cupboard open with his hoof, Angel set the knife on the floor. He closed the cupboard door, and leaned back into the darkness.

Rose sounded like she was starting to get frustrated. Angel heard the sound of hooves storm around the island, and a sudden sharp yelp against the silence accompanied by Rose's loud whisper. "Ow! What the heck?!"

He heard Rose fumble around on the floor, followed by a whispered cheer and the sound of her muttering. "I found you, you little devil."

Angel listened as she used the bread knife on what was presumably a loaf of bread, and started using the items she had left on the counter.

After what felt like an age, he heard her give a satisfied hum, and she put the items back into the fridge, and trotted away.

Angel pushed the cupboard open. Thank Luna I'm so small. He crawled out of the cupboard, being careful not to bump anything. He peered over the island and saw the knife lying on top of a cutting board.

Being ever so careful so as to not cause any noise, Angel leaned forward and grasped the knife between his teeth before crawling back toward the living room.

Angel peared in to see Rose sitting in the exact same place as before, albiet now a bit more relaxed, and a sandwich on a plate infront of her. Angel creeped around behind her chair and sneaked back upstairs.

Once on the upstairs landing, Angel took great care in moving very slowly down the hall. He knew he couldn't risk anypony, especially not Rose, hearing him.

As he neared the door, he stopped and pointed his ears up sharply. He listened for what felt like hours. The only sound that he could pick up was the sound of Clyde's snoring, and the soft giggling of Rose downstairs now and then. Angel slowly reached up and turned the door handle, taking caution not to let it creak in it's frame.

Finally, Angel was reaching the last leg. He creeped forward, approaching the right side of the bed. He dropped the knife from his teeth to his front right hoof, and stood up on his hind hooves.

Walking up as quietly as possible to the side of the bed, he saw Clyde's mane sticking out from the blanket.

Wanting to be sure this wasn't a trap, Angel pulled down the covers and saw Clyde laying there, smiling in his blissful ignorance. Angel smiled. He's so peacefull...

Angel brought the knife down quickly on the left side of Clyde's throat. The first time woke Clyde, but it was too late: His vocals were already severed. the second time punctured Clyde's windpipe, filling his lungs with blood. The third time.... Well, that was just for fun.

Clyde slowly gurgled in protest as his throat was filled with blood. He rolled over in the bed, letting the blood in his mouth and throat drain out onto the floor. Angel saw his eyes start to water, and Clyde gathered all his last effort to fight the pain and form one last word. "Rose."

Angel grinned. His contract complete, he turned and went to walk away, only to be stunned by a blinding flash of light. As his pupil's dialated, he saw an all too familiar outline, and heard Rose's  gasp.

"Angel?!"