The shade of a dark figure stood alone in one of the empty streets of Baltimare. It was night, but the otherwise illuminative rays of the moon was blocked by the thick clouds left behind by Baltimare’s weather team. This, in combination with the vague fog that slowly spread across the sleeping city, made the dark silhouette next to the abandoned facility look like a red blur of floating blood. A ghoul, if you so like.
The shape might perhaps not belong to one of the bloodthirsty beings that dwelled deep inside the mountain, but it would be a grievous mistake to assume that the creature was harmless. Or friendly, for that matter. No, the creature leaning against the cold bricks that formed the ancient factory was none other, than Sharp Knife himself. A pegasus assassin, wanted dead or alive (but mostly dead) in three different states for everything between murder to torture. He was a pony that had worked hard for his title as “the most wanted criminal in Equestria”, and he was determined to keep it that way. After all, it was his reputation that brought food to the table each day. Well, come to think of it, he could probably retire and still have enough money to live in luxury the rest of his life. But what was the fun with retirement?
For the untrained eye, the red pegasus looked to be off-guard. But many foolish ponies have lost their lives in their belief of this statement. The truth was, that the experienced hitpony had already calculated the possibilities of an ambush or an unicorn-sniper, and had already planned an escape route for each individual scenario in case things got ugly. A professional, like himself, knew that planning is the key to survival. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”, he quoted in his mind.
Although, it seems like things wasn’t going according to plan this time. It was two minutes left before midnight, and still no sign of his next client. Unless his client wasn’t going to teleport here in the last second, Sharp would have seen somepony by now. It could only mean one thing: the client is going to be late.
He didn’t like that.
He didn’t like that at all.
When his clients doesn’t show up on time, it either means that they are dead, or it was a trap. At least the factory was empty, he had checked it beforehand. Well, he admitted a bit to himself that the clouds did leave him open for an air assault. But then again, the cloudy night could just as easily be used to his advantage, so he didn’t worry to much about it.
One minute left to midnight. The sound of cold winds, blowing quickly through the hard street was still the only sound echoing through the night. He started to get that gut feeling that something was not right, but he dismissed it just as fast as it came. Even if his client acted unprofessionally by not showing up, he would not. He had standards to uphold. It was his standards that separated him from the thugs and the lunatics. It was he standards that made him an elite, and elitist waits for the very last second before departing from a meet up.
22 seconds left. The fog had grown tighter by now, and he could barely see the building in the opposite side of the street. Unintentionally, he tightened his hoof around the hidden knife inside his cloak. Something felt odd, he couldn’t really put a hoof on it. Was it fear? Or confusion? Perhaps both. But again, he pushed the feeling away. It was 15 seconds left, he could endure that. The feeling was probably just an old remnant from the stone-age, he knew better than to let his primal-instincts get the better of him.
2 seconds left.
1 Second.
He looked around one last time. Still nopony in sight. He let out a sigh and swept away some sweat from his forehead. Why was he sweating? He never sweat before... Nevermind that now. He had fulfilled his part of the deal, and could go back to his hideout. Finally.
The red pony was just about to trot away from the scene, when his left eye corner suddenly caught up movement next to him. Adrenaline immediately started pumping, and he turned 90 degree to face the potential threat. The being that had caught his attention looked like something that could have jumped out from an action-painting in the foggy night. Was it a dragon? Or a pony? Or a dragon riding a pony? It was hard to tell.
“Are you Sharp Knife?” a deep voice from the brown-blue blur asked.
Where did that thing come from anyway? It must be have teleported somehow, it was the only reasonable explanation...
Preparing himself for a confontration, he put himself in his fighting-stance. Something still didn't feel right...
"Yes, what do you want from me?"
The figure answered immediately.
"I'm here to offer you a job, remember the note?"
Yes, he remember the note alright. He returned the question with a slight nod.
“Yes, but my... services doesn't come cheap..."
The shadow in front of the pegasus seemed to reach for something behind him, and eventually throw something large over to Sharp Knife. It landed some few feet next to the pegasus, followed by the very well-known sound of bits being scratched against each other. Sharp identified the object to be a large brown-sack, almost as tall as himself. If it was filled with what he thought it was...
“Open it up,” the voice ordered.
Astounded by expectations, the stallion did not hesitate to do as he was told. The sack was, indeed, filled with the tiny round coins that served as currency for the pony-civilization. It was a lesser fortune, not a sum anypony could just dig out.
He sticked his hoof deep down the coin-bag. It was filled with coins all the way through, no cheating here. Last time somepony had given him this amount of money for a job was when he was tasked with the assassinating the dragon prince. And damn it had been a though task!
“You sure are desperate,” the red pony concluded and started knot the the bag closed.
“There is three more of those sacks waiting for you after you have finished your job,” the voice said indifferent.
Sharp dropped the bag shocked.
“Three more bags?? With that much money, you could hire a private army to do your bidding. Who do you want me to kill? Celestia?”
The owner of the voice went quiet.
Worryingly quiet.
“Close... I want you to kill Rainbow Dash AKA the element of loyalty...”
It was a silent night outside Manehattan. The rural country-cows slept peacefully in their stables, and and sheeps could be seen slumber in the distant side of the grassfield. The night was clear, and only a single owl could be heard hooting in the moonlight. It was like any other night.
But suddenly, in the middle of this otherwise eventless landscape, a magical blue circle started to form out from seemingly thin air. The circle started out small, but gradually grew into the size of a pony, and its shining glow disturbed some sleeping animals around it. Eventually, the circle stopped grow, and suddenly spit out an orange creature at the ground beneath it before disappearing as fast as it appeared. The creature landed disorientated head-first on the hard grass with a tiny groan of pain, and the animals around it took some startled step backwards.
The creature stumbled up on its four legs and started looking around dizzy. The shape formed a young pony, an earth pony to be more precise, and her right eye was patched with several thick white bandages. It looked like she had just got out from a hospital.
The pony looked around until her non-bandaged eye got stuck on the vague light seeping out from Manehattan.
“I...I gotta warn Rainbow Dash...” the mare said and started running towards the living city.