//------------------------------// // Missions and bat ponies // Story: Winter Blade // by F3lix //------------------------------// Darkness once more greeted my eyes as I awoke within a cave within the Whitetail woods. My body was sore, I fought to get up and walked over to retrieve my bags. The events of the previous day would not make finding work easy and to add to my troubles, I had caught the attention of a princess. I groaned at my misfortune, deciding to I needed to clear my head I got up and prepared to go for a walk. I pulled out my sword, it had a beveled iron blade and enchanted to make so it could cut through steel like butter. It was one of the few possessions I could actually call mine and it never left my side. I Loosened the straps of the sword’s scabbard and secured the sword to the side of my barrel. Ensuring it was secure I then placed my saddle bag over the sword hiding it from view Reaching into my bag once more I removed my crossbow and decided to hide it in the cave among a small outcrop of stones near the entrance of the cave. Satisfied I made my way out of my temporary dwelling. The forest around the cave was dense with bushes, trees and all manner of animals I wasn’t even aware existed until now. The closer I traveled to the edge of the forest the more sparse it became. Alarmed by this fact I donned my disguise. Soon I cleared the treeline and trotted into Ponyville. Ponies were whispering behind my back when they thought I wasn’t paying attention to them. One couple who were talking in hushed voices I did hear though, “He's the one who started the fight last night?!” It was enough for me to realise why everyone in the town was whispering behind my back. I entered the bar once more and and got the bartender's attention. His eyes flashed with recognition and he glared at me, “You better not be here to start trouble again.” “Don’t worry, I won’t.” “Well then, what’ll it be?” “Nothing this time. I’m here for something different”, I said flashing him my sword. His eyes widened and he looked around to make sure none of his other patrons were paying attention to our conversation. Satisfied he ushered me through a door and into a back room. “It’s been a long time since we had somepony like you come to town.” “Figured”, I responded gesturing through the open door to the almost empty establishment. “So what are your plans in our little town?”, he said, his mood darkening. “I told you I was not looking for trouble, I’m just looking for some work”, I replied adding a matching amount of venom to my voice. “Well then!”, his mood brightened, “ I’ve heard there’s one pony looking for your kind of services. She owns a nightclub a few blocks from here. I’d start there.” “Thanks for the tip.” I nodded my head. I got up and made my way out of the the bar. Once outside I decided it was about time to explore this town. I hadn’t gotten the chance yesterday thanks to a certain pony princess. Not surprisingly I didn’t see any blacksmith’s shops but there was a clothes shop on the edge of town called ‘Carousel Boutique’ I hated fashion and frilly useless expensive clothes so I made a mental note to avoid that place at all costs. Evening neared and it was time to meet my potential employer. I entered the nightclub and asked the receptionist where I could find Vinyl.The receptionist led me through a maze of doors but finally opened one to reveal a white unicorn with mane colors very similar to mine along with the hairstyle but her tail was short and spiky. She motioned for me to enter. I nodded thanks and stepped through the threshold and approached the dancing mare as the door was closed behind me. “Hello!” I yelled trying in vain to get her attention. She just kept dancing apparently not hearing me over the music coming from her headphones. I Tapped her on the shoulder and was finally got her attention. Taking off her headphones she sat down on her couch and motioned for me to sit across from her. I settled into the chair making sure she got a good view of the hilt of my sword. Her eyes narrowed and she gave me a serious glare, “I’m guessing you're here for the job then”, she stated, getting right to the point. “Yup” A sly smile crept across her face. “I’m not going to just give out this job to anypony. You have to prove to me that you’ve got what it takes” “What do you have in mind?” “I want you to bring me the head of a manticore.”, she stated,“ And you have one hour or you don’t get the job.” One manticore head and many disgusted stares later… I returned to Vinyl’s office and dropped the manticore head on her desk in a vain attempt to get her attention. After a lot of waving my hooves around like a maniac she finally noticed me. I Motioned towards the head on her table, sat back on my haunches and watched her face change from a look of horror, to shock then to happiness. She happily held out her hoof, I reached forward with my own and gave it a shake. She reached to her side and hoofed over a folder containing the details of my mission. “You have until the end of the month to complete the mission.”, she started,” Half your payment is in that folder and you will get the other half when the job is done.” With that she ushered me out the door and her receptionist lead me back to the entrance. The next few days were filled with planning and getting ready for my mission. I was confronted by Miss sparkle once again. She asked me where I was going but she left after I grunted “Work” at her showing that I was not interested in talking to her. I used some of the money she had given me for supplies like ammo, food, and used the remaining money for more specialized equipment. If I was going to pull this off my equipment would need to be light to allow me to work swiftly while still being ready for any situation. All of this as you could imagine was pretty expensive but I was able to make it work within my budget. The mission, according to the file was to find a pop star by the name of Sugar Cherry and assassinate her. The job was most likely fueled by jealousy, but it payed well and as long as I didn’t get sent to jail I did not really care. Her next performance was in Manehatten and I was making plans to pay her a visit during it. The day before I left on my mission I was walked out of the hotel I had been staying in and literally ran into a pegasus. She had a cyan coat and rainbow colored maine. “I’m so sorry, I did not see you come out”, she apologised. “It’s fine I wasn’t looking where I was going either.” “No it’s totally my fault, let me do something to make it up to you.” “Alright.” I looked around and saw Sugarcube Corner off in the distance. “I know, why don’t you let me treat you to some coffee and we will call it even.” The pegasus’s name was Rainbow Dash and I found her to be a nice pony unlike her friend miss Sparkle. We made small talk as I wanted to know more about my new rainbow maned friend. “So, how long have you lived in ponyville?”, I asked taking a sip of my coffee. “Oh I’ve lived here since my friend fluttershy moved here. So about three or four years.” “I’m new, mind telling me a bit about the town?” “Sure!”, she said her mood brightening. “It was founded almost a century ago by a group of earth pony settlers but since then unicorns and pegasi have moved in.” “Interesting.” I said. “Well where do you come from?” “I don’t really have a place to call home, I don’t stay anywhere long”, I responded. “Oh that’s a shame…” A sad frown appeared on her face. Trying to change the subject, I inquired “Well, what do you do for fun?” Once again she brightened at this, “Lots of things, I enjoy racing with other pegasi! But you don’t have wings...” “Actually, I do have a pair and if you're willing to my hotel room I’ll show you them.” She adopted a confused look as she looked over my body closely looking for wings. When she did not find any she raised an eyebrow. “They’re magic wings”, I quickly interjected trying to head of the inevitable question. “Awesome! They sound awesome!”, she said. “Want to meet at six then?” “Sure! That sounds great! I haven’t been able to show someone my wings quite some time.” “Okay, see you then! But no funny business.”, she gave me a serious glare then we parted ways. After some of shopping and organizing it was finally six. I heard a knock on my door and went to open it. Standing just beyond the threshold was an excited Rainbow Dash. “So, where are your wings?”, She asked once again looking over my body for a set of feathered appendages. “Are you gonna do the spell after I come in?” she asked, a look of confusion on her face. “Yes, just come in and make yourself comfortable.” She stepped inside and I closed the door. I Dropped my disguise in a flash of green fire and stood in front of rainbow, “So what do you think?” She didn’t appear overly concerned that a changeling was standing before her. “Huh…..”, was all she was able to get out at first, “I had my suspicions about it considering that Twilight mentioned the spell to give wings was very difficult to perform.” “What, you have that little faith in me?”, I asked faking a pouty face. “No it’s just that Twilight was the only unicorn I knew that was powerful enough to perform that spell aside from the princesses of course. Not that it matters anymore since she is an alicorn” she stated not falling for my fake pouty face. “Well then as you can probably see I can’t exactly race unless you want to race around the hotel room, or explain a random new pegasus in town.” I stated gesturing around the room with a hole filled hoof. “Well what else can we do then?” Her expression faltered and she stared at the ground in disappointment. “Well we could go hunting… Except you can’t eat meat...”, I hesitantly interjected hoping my suggestion did not disgust her.. “Actually..”, she started opening her mouth and flashing a set of fangs, “I can considering I’m a thestral.” I was dumbstruck, she hid her true nature so well it would make Chrysalis envious. She smirked at my awed expression, “What? Pony society is fearful of thestrals so we’ve gotten very good at hiding our true nature.” “Well as long as you promise to not suck my blood then sure. First let me get my scarf.” When I arrived back at the door she was admiring my two pistols, “Where did you get these?” I gave her a knowing smile,“The previous owner died and had no further use of them.” She looked at me quizzically for a second but shrugged it off, “Well enough wasting time, let’s go!” I nodded, quickly donned my disguise and we walked out the door. Ten minutes later we arrived at the edge of the Everfree Forest, I loaded my pistols in preparation for the hunt. Much to my surprise Rainbow lifted a wing revealing a short bow with some arrows. Lifting her other wing she pulled out a small hunting knife. She noticed my staring, “What? You honestly didn’t believe we were all unarmed here?” I shrugged and started trotting into the forest. We moved silently through the forest, our eyes scanning the underbrush looking for any unsuspecting prey. Eventually we came upon two birds, carefully we took aim with our respective weapons. Rainbow loosed her arrow first striking the bird on the left. I quickly followed with my pistol, the loud bang reverberating around us as the second bird lay motionless on the ground. Near the edge of the Everfree we found a small clearing and decided to started a campfire. The birds were skinned, gutted, spitted on a stick and left to roast over the open fire. Rainbow curled up next to me and we sat by the fire. I decided to transform into a pegasus, reaching out with a feathered wing I let it fall gently over her shoulders and pulled her into a tight embrace as we watched our meal slowly cook. “Thanks for coming along on this hunting trip. It’s been a long time since I have been able to find someone who accepts me and doesn’t run away screaming.” I said, true gratitude showing in my eyes. “I’m glad I came. I can’t tell my friends because of an encounter before with Fluttershy turning into a thestral and threatening Applejack’s farm so they would probably hate me.” she said, her voice getting a bit of a sadder tone. I held her tight with my wing, “I won’t reject or hate you ever.” I stated, smiling down at her. We spent the rest of the time before the meal finished cooking enjoying each others company and keeping warm by the side of the fire. It felt good to be able to share this with someone. Overall it had been an awesome night, tomorrow I would embark on my mission for who knows how long.