//------------------------------//
// 8-Mission, More Like Exposition 
// Story: Deadly Love 
// by ShadowblazeCR 
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In usual fashion, Octavia and I were bickering on our way to Twilight's...Throne Room? I don't know what to call it, her lair maybe. Well, we were on our way to receive our first official mission from her and include a small update on the time we had been away. I supposed I needed to give a small introduction to my assassin turned lover, but that would come with the update. It was exciting, knowing that all the work over the long duration of training was culminating in the beginning of something hopefully successful. 

Normally, to receive missions one would go to Lily Heart and discuss signing up for contracts based off their ratings and availability. Most assassins went this way, but with the special contract I had with the one that signed off on such things I was given a special pre-order on such things. I figured whatever she had was going to be a good start to our rapport of mission successes. Obviously I needed to provide some great Master to Padawan guidance, but I was confident that whatever we were given was going to be fine. Its not like we were going to take down some crime syndicate or anything, probably some nice B or C rated mission to get our feet wet.  

In the beginning of my time over in the Shadowbolt Academy, my first mission was a simple D rated one that dealt with a good 'ol Daring Do switch of some priceless artifact in Greece. It hadn't been too much trouble and I even had time to grab some crepes at the nearby café. I wasn't going to let Octavia see, but I was actually pretty excited to get back into the scene. Maybe we would get to go to Antarctica, only place I hadn't been yet. Not many people looked to do much over there, at the time and even now only the Main Six and similarly skilled lone wolves dealt with missions over there. Nuclear launch bases and other super villian-esque things that were up to more do good level things. 

Then again, I suppose I was now apart of those do good level things, which meant I could be in luck with our very first mission. It wasn't going to take long to find out, as my monologuing took us to the main door of her throne room, personal quarters, maybe...base of operations? I was going to have to ask Twilight what she considered everything because I wasn't going to try and reach a word count for an essay of my own thoughts. 

A violet carpet led its way through the center of the throne room, yeah that sounded right. It split it down the middle, meeting an end at Twilight's throne lit nicely from the stained glass above. A few circles of them depicted her and her friends at various points in their famous adventures. I did a quick glance around to see various other depictions of the Main Six and their most famous points in their lives, even some nice aesthetic for each of them. Apple Jack had her lasso, Fluttershy her med kit, Rarity her Barret, Rainbow Dash her plane, and so on and so forth. 

Twilight sat atop the throne, dressed appropriately for the position she held. But still somewhat ready for battle, I was sure of it. A white, purple accented backless dress, with a deep enough V-neck that I tried not to stare too much at the cleavage it revealed. Though the dark purple skirt left little to the imagination with her legs, crossed they were for obvious reasons, I had a feeling it still stored some good weaponry. It was completed by some decent heels that I figured had some sort of knife function if she clacked the pair together. I was sure that it had come in handy more than often. 

I gave a small wave to Twilight and received one back, "Hey Twi, long time no see."

"Ah, Vinyl. It's good to see you again, I presume that means you are here to recieve your mission. Money is all you seemed to care about when I first met you anyway." Twilight grinned, obviously pleased with her joke. 

"Hey, hey, I'll have you know that is the old me. I'm a care about more than money, now it's money and my honey boo Octavia over here." I replied, pinching Octavia's cheek, giving it a small tug. "Though the order varies depending on how many kisses I get per day. Speaking of, today just so happens to need some money in leu of a discrepancy of kisses distributed." 

Octavia placed a kiss on my cheek, "I promise to make it up to you Scratch." She glanced at Twilight, "Princess Twilight it is an honor to meet you. I heard many great things from dear Vinyl and the academy. It has been wonderful the opportunity you and Commander Dash have provided, I do not know when I could even begin repaying the accumulating debt I have toward you two."

"Well," Twilight smiled, "It would seem you're in luck. There is a debt to be repaid as apt reward in your upcoming mission." 

I grinned, "That's what I like to hear. What have ya got for us Twi?" 

Twilight gestured to a guard next to her, who gave her a clipboard stacked with pages. After she flipped through the pages, she returned her attention toward Octavia and I, "I think we should do a quick after action report of your training. I'd like to know if you two think you're really ready and prepared for a mission." 

"Up front I would say that alone, Octavia is ready for at least E to C rated missions on her own." I took the chance to brag a bit about our progress and my amazing talent management abilities. "With me I would say up to a reasonable A rated mission. After some experience and some kills under her belt I think she'll be on track to be taking on your other Captains you have at the school." 

Twilight smiled, "That's good to hear, and because it sounds like you're ready for me to give you what you've likely been waiting for, I will cut to the chase." She paused, probably for some dramatic effect. "Scratch, you might recall me mentioning a lost Wonderbolt, who goes by the name of Velvet Rose the last time we chatted."

I nodded, having already guessed that was going to be the case, "I do, figured this is where you were gonna go with our conversation."

"Oh? It's been quite a while since we discussed this topic. How did you know?" Twilight asked.

I waved a hand in dismissal, "Well I talked to Dashie a bit about how she had an assassin missing in action after a job gone wrong. Talked to her daughter a bit too."

Twilight clasped her hands together in happiness, "Wonderful, than this won't be too difficult to introduce then."

And introduce Octavia and I to the mission she did. I had forgotten how notorious Twilight Sparkle was for droning on about a topic when she got on it. Not even considering the amount of slides in the presentation, or the strange musical that followed and short karaoke segment we joined in on, it was still a monotonous briefing that could have really been an email. But I couldn't avoid things like it anymore, and the suffering continued for a couple hours. 

To break the main points down, we had to Mario-rig this shit. We had no idea if our princess was in another castle, how she faired so far, and how fast we could get to her. Twilight needed us to plan, execute, and properly finish our mission before the summer solstice. Why you might ask dear reader? Because the Bilderhoof meetings of the assassins was occurring at that time, and I had higher obligations with Octavia to attend to. I.e. doing my actual job of guarding Twilight at the said meeting, and good luck to Velvet if I didn't because it was a no negotiating term. We had to rescue her by then or she was gonna have to be a strong independent woman and break out on her own. 

We had the mission broken into three phases; planning, execution, and rescue and relaxation. Planning focused on initially gathering any supplies we needed for what was going to be at longest, two months and likely shortest, a couple weeks. The mafia, which was still a thing nowadays I guess, was a clique that was initiated through blood. Sometimes yours in the form of a finger, or someone's life and both were reasonably negotiable. No kids, and thankfully we were in the cusp of advanced prosthetics, which as much as I'd like a vibrating function on a finger or two, I was still pretty attached to everything I had. For the latter, we really were just betting it was some other crime addicted person that was getting the Glock. 

Execution after we went through the first phase would be as long as needed, but enough to make our deadline. We had to, obviously, find Velvet Rose and hopefully get in and out with minimal problems. This included no dirty kills if necessary, no detection and reveal of ourselves, and a clean extraction. Contacts to gain initial entry were available, again obviously, not the ones that Velvet had used, but still able to get in the same group at the city she had been at. We just had to get enough trust to find out where she was, play along enough to get her out and never worry about any other mafia dealings again. It was the most important paragraph as Miss Jelavic would say. 

Lastly, the review phase would be safely dropping off Velvet at the school, reporting in to Twilight, and receiving our next mission. Though, I did note that depending on how fast we completed this mission, she would likely tell us to rest and relax until the summit. Which was fine, I was all up to another date with Octavia if I could. Maybe I could get the mandatory beach episode out of the way and see her in something nice. Maybe even help her choose it too. Man, it was a good thing I had some stereotypes, cause I wanted and needed a new swimsuit anyway. 

I cleared my throat, taking myself out of my swimsuit clad girlfriend stupor, "Well, I guess we should get on this then. Do you have the mission folder or anything related?"

Twilight nodded and gestured to a guard near her, who eventually pulled out a folder that looked filled an average amount. "Thankfully, the information we have on Velvet is still viable, her mission, description of self, contacts to get you in the mafia, and some other details are present in those documents. Please try to complete this in a timely matter, both for us and Octavia's newly forming reputation as a Trainee turned Apprentice Assassin. Be careful to avoid encountering King Sombra, as nasty as he is, you'll be more worried about him recognizing you Vinyl."

I snapped to a quick salute, "Roger that, thanks for all the info Twi. We'll be back before you finish the commercial break."





Velvet Rose had been tasked with infiltrating the mafia underside of Las Pegasus, finding information about its running's and the core values that were keeping its chapter there afloat. Within six months of conducting her mission, she was to report back with her findings and be relocated back to the academy before anyone there discovered who she was. However, it seemed after a generic 'help I think they found out who I am' SOS to the academy, her tracker among other things had gone dark. And the contact she had used to get into the mafia, well, modular human beings weren't in fashion yet but the pictures gave a good idea of what they could look like in step one of their assembly. 

Thankfully we had another contact that was still intact, and that would be Octavia and I's first stop. Well, second or third after we got some weapons and the needed housing in Las Pegasus. The academy had its own resources for cross-country operations and we would have the necessary equipment and money to execute the mission in the city. Within a few days of receiving the mission, Octavia and I had a quaint one bedroom, one bath apartment on the outskirts. It was near a safehouse that housed the weapons and equipment we needed for when the time came. We had our new identities with us, and the backstory we planned to use. 

Octavia Philharmonica and Vinyl Scratch were now Ting Harmonica and Record Scratch of the Undercity streets of Canterlot, having moved to Las Pegasus for a new start and to get away from the somewhat morally sound people of the Wonderbolt Academy. It wasn't any fancy back story by any means, but it got the job done and was believable enough to get an in to the Mafia. Octavia and I were still girlfriends and would use that to keep each other close on missions, hopefully not needing to separate and have each other's loyalty tested any way. 

The first contact required no weapons, but that just told me that I had to hide them with maximum effort compared to usual. My belt of my jean short shorts was able to snap into a sort of makeshift baton of flexible titanium, my shoe laces on my boots were able to become a garotte wire, and my black crop top was made with special Kevlar rated for up to .45 caliber. Octavia boasted similar specifications on her body, obviously making the more modest jeans and sleeveless hoodie that showed her toned arms from the months of training look better than I could. 

Our meeting place was begging to be a setup for those satellite TV commercials that ended with 'don't end up in a dark alley  because you got cable, get x product'. What I hoped was just dirty cardboard and muddy water, not the worse possibility, littered the dirt path. I tried not to think about the smell as Octavia and I walked up to our contact, Heel Soul, an assassin of similar skill level to Scootaloo's mother. 

"Hey, I hear your the beginning of the journey for my girlfriend and I from some trusted sources." I asked, beginning the conversation in my favor. "Is that true, or should I find some business elsewhere?"

Heel Soul looked behind him, "Well you won't hear about our thunderous prices anywhere else then will you?"

I sighed, this was making me feel dumb, "Not without some lightning fast haggling it won't."

"Okay, now we've got that shit out of the way. On to real business, yeah?" Heel asked, his reddened face showing he felt the same as I. 

"Well, what have you got for us?" I asked, wrapping my arm around Octavia. My glances around the ally looked like curiosity, but in truth were for escape routes and possible unwanted onlookers. I had dealt with the mafia a time or two before, back in the day of course. And it was the epitome of trust no one, not even your reflection. 

Heel leaned against the faded brick wall, lazily letting his legs cross over each other as he gave us a small smirk, "Easy stuff, just something all the new blood has to go through." 

I braced myself for the possibilities, and there were many. We had planned for plenty, whether it would be about offing someone, robbing, or even laundering of any sort it was covered. The contact had no idea to keep as much believability to the actions as possible. All it had to be was the most cliché thing he could think of and we would be in the clear. Even so, any kinks in the plan couldn't be too bad, this guy was a simple contact on the bottom of the totem pole. We just needed an in and little suspicion toward us. 

Thanks to the intel already given by the other contracts taken and received from the assassins of Wonderbolt Academy we knew that the main base of operations for the city held Velvet Rose. A pinch of trust, luck, and skill would get us near the room that held her keycard for the cell, or room, she was in. Hopefully, we wouldn't have any problems and everything would go smoothly. Knowing the premise of our story, and the future outline, it wasn't looking too good. But every once in awhile the hope method pulls through.

"And what would that be dear?" Octavia asked for me, letting her apprehension show in her shifting movements.

Heel Soul pulled a pack of cigs out of his pocket, lighting one up and puffing out some smoke. "See, its easy for the mafia to get angsty teens and people who want to stick it to the man. It's the skill and tenacity that they lack which causes them to fail the entrance tests. Usually, everything is fine and dandy when they need to do a hit on someone or launder some money, even rob a bank. No, what the mafia wants done nowadays requires more tact."

I kept my sigh to myself, of course we weren't going to do something we had planned for.

"What the mafia needs you two to do before you have your foot in the door," Heel continued, "Is to take out this guy, goes by the name Tony Lozuto. Low life kind of dude that thought it would be a good idea to get his own little clique in his own pocket of Las Pegasus. The mafia owns this place, as you two know. And this guy just wrote his own will by trying to defy them."

Octavia looked back and forth between Heel and I, voicing the question I could spot in her eyes, "And is this a... set in stone operation? Or might this man be another plant by the academy that we fake the death of?" 

She was grasping at straws. It was admirable that she was trying to stay optimistic, "No, we're in the big game now. Everything is true unless the next boss above you says otherwise." Or the plot point gets retconned, but Octavia didn't need to know that quite yet. The experience wasn't going to be great for her, but it was necessary. Octavia was an assassin now, and thankfully the morals were a little more straightforward with the Wonderbolts than the Shadowbolts. 

Heel nodded in agreement, tapping his cigarette and taking another puff before talking, "Get this done, and I can take you to the...how to say, front desk to get your paperwork done. The info needed for the rest of this mission and what we know so far is in this folder." He handed me a filled vanilla folder, "If you have any other questions, don't come to ask me. You're on your own after this. Sorry to say girls, but I'm not trying to end up in a barrel sunk at the bottom of a swamp."

And with that, our conversation was over. We had our mission, we knew the overarching parameters, and the last things that we had to do was get the details figured out. I took the time it took Octavia and I to get back to the house to think about our next move. Thankfully, the mafia liked to keep their people close. So they were constrained to a block of Las Pegasus for their headquarters. A skyscraper casino that acted as their façade for all operations in the city, covering a massive amount of land and reaching a good fifty stories into the sky. 

If it was a simple assassination mission, we would have posed as employees of the casino and gotten in and out no problem, no matter what floor the target would have been in. However, this was a higher rated mission for a reason. Everyone knew everyone, and we would only be known after the completion of Octavia's first assassination. With that we could explore here and there, but our skills would be tested to move around the 'compound'. If we had time, infiltration could occur over weeks, if not months. The solstice negated any chance of that, and we had to use the initial entry to our every advantage. 

I had a hunch that based off my previous bad guy compound infiltration experience that they likely were holding Velvet Rose in what was essentially the basement of the building. Hopefully not interrogating her too much, or actually, now that I put some thought into it, maybe at all. The mafia didn't take kindly to strangers and rats, so I hoped she was considered valuable enough to keep alive for a short while.

Back at our temporary house, I spilled the vanilla folder on our kitchen table. Separating the papers into groups pertaining to people, knowledge, and other things like blueprints. We began by going through the few people that we would be interacting with. It began with Duke Venture, the man who would be our primary contact if we completed our mission to their standards. All missions from there onwards, and anything to do with the mafia would be done through him. That would be our front desk situation, and if I was lucky enough I could finagle some info about our operative in the casino. 

Next was Amber Night, a female 'secratary' of Sombra that was the one that oversaw the operations of the mafia and casino while Sombra was off doing whatever illegal things mafia bosses do. Probably destabilizing some state or county by walking through it. If we wanted to know anything about everything, we would have to access her database from either the server room or the personal computer. 

Our other option was the suspected person that oversaw all the dark undersides of the mafia and casino, the one that left pieces of people in jars, cages, and sold them off. Lotus Grain was suspected to have the most time one on one with Velvet and if we could even tail her, I had a feeling we could find who we were looking for. That would need a bit of the hope method that wherever we followed her in the casino would lead us to our princess in the castle and not to a dead end in the mission. Worst case is we tail her and kidnap the kidnapper for information. No way what was practically a plan C would become the plan A and go the worst way it could purely for plot extension and to give us something to do. 

Improbable. 

"Are these the blueprints of the casino?" Octavia asked, touching what was to be assumed the said thing. "I have to say, I am quite curious as to why we do not have a digital rendition of this building and compound. It would seem, how to say, analog of us to have these materials amongst the plethora of other resources the Wonderbolts possess." 

"Everything can be tracked, and I mean even the things that you thought weren't even possible." I thought a moment about how to further explain it, "We give any chance that they could find out what we know and who we know in their ranks, it could topple any chance we have of saving Lily and would kill Heel in a heartbeat. You're right, our tech is probably good enough that a archaic hologram of the place could be projected in Twilight's office. But we bring that into a three block radius of their compound, all the sudden they've hacked our phones because we had the free Wi-Fi on the Starbucks near it." 

Octavia nodded in understanding, "I see." She walked around the table, glancing to and from different papers and pictures. "And we plan to begin tomorrow? Do we know where this Tony person is?"

I gave a so-so motion with my hand, "For the most part. Since he is new on the block in respect to the gig of being mafia material he's stuck in one spot. Probably some warehouse, or a mansion of one of his goon's that's still getting their electric bill paid by the parents. We've got an estimated position near the outskirts of Las Pegasus. Tomorrow we'll take a look around, check out some of the side hustlers to see anything and just in general see if there's anything suspicious going on. "

"It is not worrisome that we will be so open about looking for this man? Will his people not be aware quickly that we are in the area?" Octavia plopped down on the nearby couch, her head tilting toward the ground off the arm of the couch. I tried my best to respectfully at the boob shot I received. 

I cleared my throat to reset my thought process, "Uh, well, normally, yeah. It could be troublesome that we would have to be the only ones aware of what was going on. But in this case, I want them to come to me. People like him are overconfident, and I'm betting on him coming to us in person to intimidate some other overconfident noobs from the mafia or some blueberry cops." 

"I assume this will be done in the daylight. As counterintuitive that is to our job, it would be more efficient to have whoever is watching us from the mafia see everything correct?" Octavia shifted on the couch, and this time I ogled a little less respectfully. 

Grinning, I walked over to the couch and sat on her legs. Letting my ass sandwich itself between the couch and her thighs, effectively folding chairing me beside her. "Ah, so you figured out the main objective of being so reckless. Remember, we aren't supposed to be the level of skill we actually are. The fake us can be prodigies at fighting, sure, but street knowledge is next to zero. The mafia expects that, and that's what we'll give them."

Octavia gave me a pouty face, "So what I am hearing is no quality time with my darling for not even the day. Let alone the next few weeks." 

My cheeks heated up in response to the implication that Octavia had given. As much as I had gotten to know the ins and outs of her throughout the last months, I was still new to the romantic parts of the relationship thing. I wouldn't deny that some of my jobs required some more unique solutions, and that it had led me to take the lead more often than not during our trysts. However, lately, I was reluctant to admit I was falling behind on setting the tone with the two of us. There were no complaints, none at all. 

I moved off of Octavia, becoming the big spoon in the complicated calculus equation of couch cuddling. While I was going to cop a feel with the upper and lower assets in Octavia's tool bag, I did want to create a more romantic and less lust filled environment for the two of us. Her neck was a perfect resting place for my lips, and I took a full inhale of her scent as I grazed my lips along the side of her neck. Cherries filled my nose and I snuggled into Octavia's shoulder, letting warmth envelope me while I created as much body to body contact as I could. 

My legs entangled with Octavia's, totally not bringing some certain cheeks closer to my crotch. "Octy, I can't help but appreciate literally everything about you. And I know that they say it's what's on the inside that counts, but damn I think that the outside is a surefire multiplier."

Octavia giggled and grinded her ass deeper in response, "I think to properly understand each other we should discern the difference between the inside and outside. It is imperative that I know who my girlfriend really is, Vee. I have heard that it is easier to work from the outside in too, and it just so happens to be an opportune moment to do so."

I smiled against Octavia's hair, the onyx colored hair styled into a what would become a signature ponytail as she went on more and more missions. The single hair tie was tossed onto the table nearby after I removed it, I used the opportunity gained from the now free and flowing hair of Octavia to run my fingers through her hair. A pleasurable moan came from the receiving end, giving the unspoken go-ahead to continue. 

The next couple dozen minutes were spent with me exploring Octavia. A bra would be unclasped and hit the floor here and there, or either of the clothes covering our lower half. Eventually it was the two of us in the king sized bed of the single bedroom. I laid topless in a pair of panties that I had scrounged out of the nearby go-bags we had brought. Octavia was, probably subconsciously the opposite of me. She only wore an white debloused collard shirt, no bra and panties to complete her look. 

Even with both of us under the covers, I could see the comforter hugging Octavia's body. I shifted closer, pressing my forehead against hers after I gave it a peck. "I know this mission is a big one in perspective with the fact you've done like zero. Not counting the one against me, obviously. But trust me, at the end of the day, this will be nothing to some of the stuff in the future you do.  This'll be the type of mission you try out new moves and things you would only do on training dummies."

Octavia rolled her eyes and gave me a kiss, "I appreciate the words of affection. Do not fret Vinyl, I have no qualms with the upcoming mission. In fact, I am quite excited to see how my training can be applied."

I smiled, "Great, I'm glad. Now, I guess we should be getting some sleep. Can't miss a throwing knife 'cause of sleep depravation ya know."

"Well, I think that we can start the training for stakeouts and the small amount of sleep packaged with them." Octavia said, as I felt a warm hand sneak its way up my stomach and onto my breast. "Teacher, will you not help me study?"

"Heh, how can I say no to some extra credit opportunities."

We were professional assassins. Some sleep deprivation on the upcoming mission wouldn't hurt too much in the long run.