The sky was unnaturally black for midnight, there was moon tonight for it was hidden but the clouds, the night air especially cold which was odd for the summer months, and there I was passed out drunk in the gutters of Detrott the city without hope, the city I was born and raised. I may look like your average drunk with my worn hat, and jacket, and the un-kept stubble, and permanent scars on my face, but I wasn’t always like this.
Let me start from the beginning, twenty eight years ago I was born a colt with endless potential with a light grey coat almost to the point of being blue, and a mane the color of coil, I don’t remember my birth name but ever since I was young I’ve always been known as just Ace. Both my parents abandoned me when I was just a baby so I don’t remember anything about them, I was later found in my parent house crying until some old lady called the cops about the noise, and they came and rescued me. From that moment on I lived in an orphanage, they never found any record of my birth in any hospital assuming I was born at home and my parent decided to keep it a secret. When I was taken to orphanage one of the first things I did was take a foam toy ball and threw it across the room hitting one of the caretakers right between the eyes, from that moment on I was known as Ace saying I was an “Ace Shot”.
As soon as I was old enough they sent me to school, the school wasn’t far from the orphanage so I would walk there with a group of other kids. School was always easy for me, but I was never really the social type I didn’t meet my true best friend until high school. He was Silver Dash, just as his name implied his coat was the color of silver, even shined like it too, and his mane was also like silver, he was the fastest Pegasus in the entire school, hell he was probably the fastest Pegasus in the entire city. He sort of forced himself into my life, on my first day of highschool I choose to eat alone because I didn’t have any friends and I didn’t care to meet anyone new. He just come up and sat across from and introduced himself, and then he asked for my name too. I just gave him a look, a look saying “leave me alone” and went back to staring at my lunch, but he kept insisting on learning my name. Eventually I cracked and told him, we then started talking and really got know each other, turns out he was a really nice guy. We started hanging out on weekends and after school if he didn’t have flight practice, he convinced me to join a club also so I had something to do while he was at practice, he recommend the archery club. He was one of the only people that noticed that everything I wanted to hit, I hit even if it was just me throwing something away from a far distance.
The archery club was a blast; within my first week I became the best in the club able to get a bull’s-eye almost every shot. After a couple of weeks of shooting I was able to earn my Cutie Mark, a red and black target on my flank. My high school years were the best years of my life, me and Silver having the time of our lives, but everything changed when high school was over.
At the age of eighteen I graduated high school, and the rules of the orphanage was as soon as you finished high school and were a least eighteen you had to leave. I packed my bags and never looked back; I found a cheap apartment and got a few odd jobs. I didn’t speak to Silver much anymore; I’ve heard he now flies for The Wonderbolts. Several months’ later money kept getting tighter and tighter, at first I was forced to skip meals just to pay the bills, but then I had to go whole days even weeks without eating. Eventually I lost my apartment and was forced to live out on the streets doing whatever I could for food and money. One night when I was almost to the point starvation a man approached me in a long, dark trench coat, his coat was black as night and concealed his face with the shade of the night, he offered me a job he claimed to have seen me in the paper for me archery and was impressed by my skills. He wanted me to kill a man, he was a low life drug dealer he would sell to anypony of any age and the man in front me wanted him dead. The man offered me 10,000 bits to do this job, and it took it, it was either kill this man or die of starvation myself. The man handed me an envelope with an address, a time, and a photo of the target.
I grabbed my bow a couple of arrows and went to the right location at the right time and there he was. He was one ugly pony, he was missing some teeth and there was a lot of red in his eyes implying he also used what he sold. This man needed to be put down he was truly the scum of the city. I readied my bow but I couldn’t keep my hooves from shaking I’ve never shot at a real pony before only circle targets. Killing somepony is very different; with my bow still readied I took a deep breath and kept telling myself he was scum. Finally I held my breath and took the shot. The arrow flew through the night air and went right through the man’s neck, I watched as the life quickly left his body and he finally fell dead. The job was finished. I quickly fled the scene with adrenalin and fear running through my entire body, I was gone before anypony even saw me and went back where I first meet the man in the dark coat.
He didn’t show up until morning I end up falling asleep waiting for him. He woke me up by tossing a case of bits on me, in the light of day I could finally see his face he was actually quite handsome with a large scar across his face meaning he must have had a long past, and his mane was even darker than his coat somehow, I opened the case and as expected all 10,000 bits were in there I could finally eat a decent meal. He praised me on a job well done saying I did better than most especially for my first time, he then offered me a second job this time paying double. He said I didn’t have to except it now, but to meet him at a specified location at midnight tonight and handed me a slip with the location. He left me to my decision.
I took my money and left. I took all the bits I needed and hid the rest along with my bow and went to the best restaurant I could think of and ordered the best meal they had, I ate almost to the point of throwing up but somehow it felt good. I wait around until about midnight grabbed my bow and left for the meeting place. As expected he was there holding another case. He handed me an envelope and the case he was holding, in the envelope was information on my next target he was a leader of gang; the gang had committed several robberies and had a huge drug ring. It also stated he was a pimp, the kind of pimp that age didn’t matter his “girls” would range from young fillies to full grown mares. And he would also “spent the night” with some of his “girls”, this man was the definition of pony trash and needed to be taking care of. Next I opened the case, inside was a brand new scoped crossbow, I’ve never used a crossbow before but how hard could it be. I took a couple practice shot to get the hang of it and left for the target.
I went to the location at the time the file on him listed. And there he was just as expected, he was a lot uglier in person then his photo, his face looked deformed like it had been all cut up and stitched back up many times, it also looked like he’s had a bad run of alcohol and drugs. I loaded a bolt in the bow and I was ready. It appeared he was going for a late night walk the perfect time to take him out. It raised my crossbow and looked through the scope and moved the crosshair to his forehead right between his misshapen eyes. This time I wasn’t as nervous, maybe what they say is true the second kill is much easier. I made sure the shot would hit and pulled the trigger, the bolt flew through the air hitting him between the eyes as planned. He didn’t have time to react he just fell dead, another job was finished it made me feel joy the kind of feeling I got by doing something good by ridding the world of people like him, the kind of feeling heroes must get when they save someone. Once again I fled the scene and went back to the location I received the job.
Again he didn’t appear until morning, but he arrived with another case. He handed me the case as he said before all 20,000 bits were in there, I’ve honestly never seen that much money before in my life. He then said he had one final job for me and would pay 5,000 bits but said it was a fairly easy one. He wanted me to eliminate man, a homeless man. The man never did anything wrong in his life he was the type of man that couldn’t hold a job and was bad with money, they saw him as a stain on the shirt of Detrott and needed to be wiped out, he was just like me. I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t kill somepony who’s never harmed anypony in their life, just a couple of days ago that was me, no job and no money living on the street. I told the man in front of me I couldn’t take the job. He nodded his head and hand handed me a slip of paper with a number and a location he then said to me “If you change your mind or are looking for more work call me at that number or find me at this location, by the way the names Stormy Skies.”
And like that he left and from then on out I made a promise to never harm an innocent pony. It didn’t take long for word to get around of my jobs and skill and soon was contacted by other ponies that needed jobs done. From there on out I became a mercenary for hire. I would take on any job as long as it didn’t break my code. And I keep doing this for about eleven years taking out all kinds of targets; thieves, drug dealer, murders, rapist, and many other types of criminals. I’d also do other odd jobs like dig up information on somepony or steal something back that was taken from somepony. With all the money I was making I was able to move into a good studio apartment, I also bumped up my arsenal from my crossbow to a sniper rifle and I also add a couple pistols and hid a knife in my jacket just in case things just heated, but I also held onto my crossbow. Life was going well for me I was also bringing in a lot of money, enough to live comfortably the rest of my life, I could have quit but I loved the feeling that I got from ridding the world of filth. But one day everything changed.
One day about a year ago I was giving a new assignment; it seemed easy enough I was to take out another drug dealer. He was new to game he only started about a month ago, thought it would be good to get rid of him before he got too big. I went to the location he would be at and got ready and assembled my sniper rifle. He arrived a few minutes after, he didn’t seem like the other drug dealers I hit, and he just seemed like a normal pony Joe. I just shrugged it off took aim and took the shot like I’ve done several times before. And he was gone, I packed up my rifle and left and got my pay. The next morning I turned on the news as I normally do, they were covering a report on a single father that turned up dead, the man I just killed. His face was shown on the top corner of the broadcast I knew it was him, it turned out he was a single father who held a full time job and two part time jobs on the weekend to keep him and his five year old son feed and have a decent place to live. They must have not known about the drug dealing, he must have done that at night to earn a little extra money for his son. They then went on the mention that they would be moving him to an orphanage, the same orphanage I stayed at. I had single hoofedly ruined this child’s life with one kill. I know that orphanage it’s not a good place to grow up and he wouldn’t get adapted, nopony did. I did it, I broke my code, I herm the life of an innocent pony.
I then fell into a deep depression and I turned to alcohol and painkillers for the answer. I often found myself in bars most nights and in bed most days. I stopped my mercenary work and then spent most my days drinking in bars not known what it was like to be sober anymore. Which lead me to the sad excuses of a pony I am today passed out in the gutter of Celestia knows where. And this is where my story truly begins.
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