Pale watched Hammer work. He heated the forge with his breath, warming the metal inside. His fireproof scales let him work the metal with more dexterity than could be achieved with tools.
Pale needed a new set of knives. The Whirling Havoc had demonstrated a tendency to break hers. Even as messy and clumsy as he was, he got the job done. The two of them had found and eliminated a couple other Weeds over the last month.
One had even lived long enough to talk. Unfortunately, he hadn’t revealed much, other than to imply the Weeds were working for something - or someone - bigger than themselves. The guild still didn’t have any information they could use to find and destroy the Weeds.
They’d kept Whirl out of the cave for a month, until it was obvious that if he were a twitcher, he’d have bloomed already. From the saliva and blood Pale had brought back from Canella, Shard had managed to put together a rudimentary test to detect infection. Whirl had tested negative as a final precaution before allowing him into the cave.
It was still precious little to go off of. Shard insisted that he needed more data and samples. That was easier said than done.
At the forge, Hammer held up the glowing knife, inspecting it closely. It met his standards, and he applied the finishing touch by gently placing it in a bucket to quench and harden.
“Thank you,” said Pale. “I’m sure they’ll be better than ever.”
Hammer nodded. “I’ll get started on something for Whirl. Maybe a cleaver. It sounds like he’ll need something sturdy.”
That was the truth. Perhaps the guild could train Whirl to be a little more cautious and careful. Calming him down hadn’t worked. The sedatives provided by Shard didn’t change Whirl’s attitude, it just made him dopey and slow, which could get him killed.
“Did you have time to look at the sabre?” Pale asked, meaning the weapon she’d taken from Halberd, the royal guardspony from Trottingham. Hammer had wanted to inspect it, and Pale was happy to let him. She didn’t typically keep anything from dead twitchers.
“It’s a quality Royal Guard blade, and old,” he said. “I might be able to improve it with time and effort. Might. It would be almost a shame to try, as nice as it is.”
He picked it up from his work bench and gave it back to her. Pale hung the scabbard and belt on her shoulder. It was an odd feeling of unbalance, which is why she rarely wore any weapon so large.
He retrieved the new knives and gave those to her, too. She thanked him again and left, dropping off the sabre at her quarters before going to the front room.
Whirl was off in western Equestria after a twitcher. He was a blunt tool, but better than nothing. It just required Piper to keep a careful control over him, at Pale’s behest.
Shadow and Whisper were in Manehattan, doing the same job Pale had left. The Weeds were proving difficult to pin down and trying a different approach might produce different results. Still, Pale was restless and looking forward to going back.
“I have a task for you,” said Piper, as Pale came into the room. He motioned to the map, pointing out a location “There is a drifting twitcher, who has currently come to rest in the Everfree Forest.”
“Not a wise place to rest,” Pale observed.
“Correct. I believe he’s very close to bloom.”
“Why not let him be, if he’s in the forest?” said Pale. “Perhaps some monster will take care of him.”
“Because he is within stumbling distance of Ponyville, not to mention a rather cagey zebra who lives in the forest. I would not be surprised if she knows he’s there.”
Pale nodded. Keep it quiet, then, even in the dense forest.
She made ready to leave. As she headed for the cave, Shard came running up. “Glad I caught you. Here.” He shoved a small box into her hooves.
“What’s this?”
“It’s been chill-charmed. Get me a sample of twitcher blood, if you can.”
Pale nodded, and stowed the container with her things. It was hardly the strangest ad-hoc request Shard had ever made of her.
She set off from the cave, intending to arrive at the forest just after dusk. Small town that Ponyville was, she didn’t see the lights until she was nearly upon it. Pale turned away, heading towards the smear of dark trees on the horizon.
The Everfree Forest was wild and primal. Pale understood that magic behaved erratically, pegasus weather control not working at all. Stepping into the trees certainly felt different than the clear land. Pale wasn’t sure exactly why.
Her senses sharpened as she focused on her target. She walked at a half-crouch, moving slowly and placing her hooves with care and attention. Passing by some bare ground, she grabbed up some soil and smeared it on her face. The night was dark, but extra precaution wouldn’t hurt.
She navigated by vague sense of direction. The canopy of trees hid the moon and stars. Small sounds around her told of insects and other tiny creatures. Occasionally something larger and farther away would move through the brush. Pale made no such noises.
As attuned as her eyes were to the darkness, she spotted the faintest flicker of light through the trees. It must be the hut where the zebra lived. Pale didn’t know much about her, but if she was as perceptive as Piper believed, it would be best to give her a wide berth.
Pale didn’t know what a zebra was doing here. She’d rarely ventured to their native lands. As with griffons, there seemed to be fewer twitchers there. Pale wondered if perhaps they had a guild of their own.
She made a wide circle around the hut, marking it by the barest glimmers of light. Once clear, she headed deeper into the forest.
The ruins of an ancient castle were in the forest somewhere. It was where the Princesses had lived before one had banished the other to the moon, or so Pale had heard. She didn’t think she was anywhere near there, though.
The light of a fire came into view between the trees ahead. Pale moved even slower, averting her eyes from the light and sinking into a lower crouch.
Minutes passed as she stalked closer. A brief glance through the trees revealed the silhouette of a pony.
A twitcher would not hesitate to act if they heard a noise or suspected something suspicious. Pale circled, looking for an angle to her target.
He sat in front of a fire, tossing small sticks into it. Pale approached from his back, weaving between trees and prowling like a cat. She stayed silent all the way, quieter than a ghost.
The knife punched into the side of his neck, severing blood vessels and windpipe, before he even knew she was there.
That made it much easier for Pale to take a sample of his blood. The tiny box Shard had given her was frosty on the inside and wisps of vapor formed in the air around it as the lid was opened. Careful not to spill, Pale made sure some of the twitcher’s blood made it inside before closing the lid.
Pale let the body down, still careful. In the light of the fire, she went through his rucksack. Nothing of interest besides a few bits.
There was a handkerchief, though. Pale pulled it out and rolled the body over, wrapping the wound. When she was sure it wouldn’t drip blood, she hoisted the body onto her back and kicked dirt over the blood on the ground. Somepony might eventually come to find the fire. There was no point it taking chances when she didn’t have to.
Pale retreated from the fire, back into the darkness, walking heavier on her hooves with her load. Remembering her study of the map at the cave, there was a deep ravine that ran through the forest. She walked in silence for several minutes, seeing a thinning of the trees up ahead. That would be it.
It was too dark to see the bottom of the trench. It was too wide to jump across. Pale heaved the body off her back and it fell into the void. She didn’t hear the sound of it hitting bottom.
That was that. Pale was almost glad to get back to one of the standard tasks that she had gotten used to over the years. It almost felt like pride in a job well done, if the job wasn’t so grim.
But that only served to remind her the new paradigm. With the Weeds in the picture, nothing would be standard again. The guild would have to hunt them down. And after that...well, things would still be different.
Pale turned and walked away, fading into darkness.