‘You got the stuff?’
‘Yeah, I have the stuff. You have another job?’
The exchange took place in one of the private booths in the Weary Windigo, a seedy little establishment in the lower levels of Cloudsdale. Dusk had delivered his side of the bargain to the Bounty Hunters’ Guild, who would take a cut of whatever his employers paid him, and give him the rest. He was currently in conversation with Eye Spy, the Guild’s contract manager.
‘Here’s your pay for another job well done. Now, about that assignment,’ Eye Spy paused and waited for the mercenary to give him his full attention.
Dusk looked up from the mug of ale held between his hooves, unusually strong anticipation hidden behind an unimpressed stare. Eye Spy was not the kind of pony to dither in making his point. Whatever this was, it was important.
‘I’m listening.’
‘The Guild has noticed that your performance has only been improving ever since you joined us. In the light of your recent success, we’ve decided to give you a Black Contract.’
Black Contract. This was the best news that Dusk had received in a long, long time. A Black Contract was the code given to high-priority, high-confidentiality assignments. They were among the most dangerous and glorious tasks a bounty hunter could receive. The pay off one such contract was almost as high as the risk itself, not to mention the bragging rights and boost in reputation.
The corners of his mouth curved upwards for the merest fraction of a second before he resumed his impassive expression once more and waited for Eye Spy to continue.
‘You’ll be working for a very...peculiar client with a contract that can be considered to be of a debatably religious nature. Needless to say, there’s a fair measure of risky business, and frankly, they’re not paying you enough. Not that the pay isn’t high, just not enough.’
‘More like the Guild isn’t giving me big enough slice of the pie…,’Dusk commented with mock accusation. Eye Spy ignored the jibe and continued.
‘Our customer has stressed repeatedly that the operation needs to go smoothly, or we may never get another chance, high-value target and all that. Also, we’re working on a need-to-know basis, and we’re going to need someone can operate alone. The less who know about this contract, the better chances we have of succeeding.’
‘This contract is starting to sound very…military…’
‘In more than one sense as well. If you choose to accept this contract, you may well have to tangle with your old colleagues in the Royal Guard. You know them well, so it shouldn’t be a problem.’
Eye Spy paused and cleared his throat, looking quite hesitant and almost undetectably apologetic.
‘Due to the confidential nature of this contract, I’ll have to secure a response from you before I continue.’
Dusk contemplated the situation, eyes angled down and defocused. He didn’t like to work for dubious customers, purely as a matter of personal preference, maybe, he had to admit, as a way of easing his dying conscience. But this opportunity might never come again if he denied it. Everypony would see him for what he was. Weak. Sentimental. No, he would not allow himself the weakness of emotion. Not again, not like the last time…
‘I’ll do it.’
The contracts manager brightened up instantly.
‘Excellent. You’ll have the pleasure of meeting up with our client very shortly.’
‘Where and when?’
'Now.’
He beckoned to somepony who was out of Dusk’s line of sight, and a very, very peculiar pony appeared a few seconds later. The third member of the ‘get-together’ was a pony Dusk would have imagined to be right at home in some sort of foals’ cartoon, not dealing out Black Contracts to mercenaries. He was conspicuous in every imaginable way. First of all, in contrast to the rugged impression that one generally got from the attire of the scum that frequented Lower Cloudsdale, this character wore a taut, speckles black suit. Perched on his neck was a polka-dotted turquoise bow tie, and his back pocket bulged with sand and a cactus.
Dusk was extremely doubtful as to whether this particular pony could cough up the amount he or his organization promised. He looked like he had either escaped from a mental asylum or was a distant cousin of the Element of Laughter. Then again, it could have been a complicated guise to throw off any unwanted attention. Interesting…
‘Um, Dusk, this is our client, Mr. Case. Sir, this is the, uh…agent we’ve assigned to the assignment.’
Dusk reached out a hoof in a somewhat awkward offer to shake. Case looked like he was about to take it, but at the last second his own hoof veered away in the opposite direction and slapped him in the face.
So much for a formal introduction…
‘Pleasure meeting you, Dusk. Now, if you don’t mind, Eye Spy, I’d prefer to personally brief him on the assignment, as you put it so elegantly.’ With that, the peculiar client reached behind his back and pulled out two suitcases that had simply not been there a few moments ago.
‘As I’m sure you’ve already heard, you may have to deal with the Royal Guard. In addition to that, you’ll definitely be dealing with some extremely strong magic. Are you feeling up do it?’
Dusk nodded and downed the rest of his ale.
‘Okay, now, I’ll be supplying you with some…unusual equipment to deal with that.’
At this point of time, the ‘customer’ had already opened one of the two cases and produced three round black devices that seemed to be a hardened but brittle shell filled with a black-brown semi-solid sludge.
‘These are filled with the refined extract of the Magicians’ Bane plant, and will bind to any magic-producing object in seconds, in this case unicorn horns. It’s been chemically altered to prevent the use of magic, and is not removable except by another unicorn, or worse. Even then, it’ll take a series of complex spells and a fair amount of time.’
Dusk accepted the small black spheres and pocketed them for later use.
‘Next, I have these.’
Case turned the case around to show a dozen bronze daggers lined up neatly in the case, each one with a blade about a hoofspan long and a hilt of about the same length. They were expertly crafted such that their textures resembled feathers.
‘Nothing I don’t already have,’ Dusk replied, feigning boredom.
‘Wait till you actually try them out. They’re a special bronze alloy infused with the same extract as the spheres I just supplied. They can’t be magically grabbed, deflected, or handled otherwise. You’re supposed to carry and throw them in and from your wings, easy to conceal and all, but whatever goes for you. ’
Dusk decided to give it a try and was pleasantly surprised to find that the daggers easily fitted in his wings and were light and well weighted. He retracted his wings, and the knives with them.
Case’s voice gained a serious undertone as he moved on to the next issue at hand.
‘Now. About the pay. Ten thousand bits before and after the completion of the assignment.’
Wow.
Dusk was not sure whether he should try his luck or just accept the pay. It was pretty damn high by any standard already. He looked discreetly at Eye Spy for advice. The latter urged him with an inconspicuous forward motion of the head.
Dusk looked his client in the eye, facial expression carefully unreadable.
‘I’ll need to know what the assignment is first. ‘
‘Ah, yes, about that. I was holding on just in case you might have changed your mind. I have your word that you can keep this a secret? It would be very…damaging for my organization if anypony else were to find out.’
Again, Dusk nodded with a level expression, but this time, his heart was pounding in his chest. Secrets could be worth a lot to the right ponies too, and he was not sure exactly how much it would take to buy his loyalty, or if he wanted to remain trustable. No, he would keep…whatever morals he still had intact. He nodded again subconsciously, as if to convince himself.
‘Good, because there’ll be a contract on your head if you do. There’s a lot at stake for us and we’ll likely only ever get one shot.’
Case’s voice dropped sharply in volume and he looked Dusk back in the eye.
‘I just want you to know, Dusk, it’s all riding on you now. You see, my organization requires you to capture and deliver to us Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic. Failure is not an option.’
Dusk felt a peculiar sensation in his gut, like watching a stunt flyer perform a nosedive, only to have things go terribly wrong at the last moment.
Dusk stumbled into the shared bunk of the Guild compound. It was a sparse, drab place. The walls were a dull white mottled with specks of dirt, the floor exposed smoothe grey concrete. along either side of the long rectangular room were four to five sets of double decked metal bunks, each with a ten-centimetre layer of sponge mattress, a stained and mottled pillow in a white case and a moderately sized sheet of the same colour on top. Dusk’s was a plain unwrinkled sheet that was perfect except for the signs of age, his pillow propped up against the wall against it.
He had made sure to stash the valuable equipment in his locker before this, but still felt vulnerable. He had not even a rough measure of how patriotic his colleagues in the Guild were, and what they might subsequently might do to him if they found out about his new task.
Trying not to think too much about the situation and hoping to avoid being interrogated by his bunkmates, he decided that to sleep immediately was the best option. Carefully, he lifted the sheet covering his bed and folded it twice, then hoisted his hind legs onto the bed after the rest of him. He shut his eyes immediately and expected sleep to follow soon afterwards, but tonight, it proved to be more elusive than ever.
He kept thinking back to the impossible assignment that had been bestowed upon him, the implications of helping Case’s organization, likely a group of revolutionists. He thought most of all about the consequences; not for him if he failed, but for the rest of Equestria if—when he completed his task. The Elements of Harmony had protected Equestria from impending doom twice, thrice to those who were generous. He had heard that they only possessed their awesome power when together, and he did not want to test that theory......
But no, I’m honour bound now, and I’ll have a very serious contract on my head if I don’t deliver.
Dusk tossed and turned, checked the clock at the far end of the bunk (it had been an hour since he got back), went to the toilet, checked the clock again, and crawled back into the bed. It was the dead of night when fatigue finally took hold of his mind and his body, forcing him into an unrestful sleep.