The fourth floor window shattered as a lavender unicorn wearing a torn white hood and cloak and a red feathered griffin wearing a suit sailed out of the large building. The unicorn was straddling the griffin and mercilessly beating him with nothing but her own hooves. Shards of razor sharp glass moved dangerously close to her eyes, getting caught in her dark coloured mane. Twilight's hood had been forced back during her fight with the griffin, revealing her white on black eye. The two started to fall after a moment, the midday sun illuminating the scene as the cityscape was laid out before them. Twilight hit the griffin a few more times, his teeth being spat out with each hit. They hit the ground together, Twilight bouncing off and landing on the ground next to him. They both lay still for a moment, breathing heavily. She let out a gurgling cough that was accompanied by a spurt of blood. She slowly tried to get to her hooves, every muscle in her body arguing with her mind, telling her to stay down and rest. She willed herself past the pain, stretching her back and hearing quite a few of her vertebrae crack. She shot a look at her target, and was surprised to see his chest moving. She sighed, extending her hidden blade and pressing it firmly against his throat. The griffin stared at her with bloodshot eyes and tries feebly to hit her. She batted the weak talon away and flipped her hood over her head with magic.
"No more slaves," she whispered, noiselessly piercing the griffin's throat with the blade. His eyes slowly started to close as his own pulse forced the blood from his jugular. Twilight waited for the blood to stop flowing, using the time to recover from the fight that had taken her over half an hour. The slave owner had been a lot stronger then she had expected, even managing to leave long, deep slashes across her belly with his talons.
***
She closed her eyes, her body limp with exhaustion. A small smile of satisfaction spread across her lips as she mentally chalked up another successful hit. A week had passed since her vow to kill an evil griffin a day. So far, ten had died this week, not including the red feathered griffin, due to the fact that Twilight and her team had been lucky enough to find a secret meeting of slave owners and the one that Twilight had just killed was the only one that had managed to escape. All of a sudden, she heard the sound of something approaching. Her hidden blade was still extended, slowly dripping blood falling from the tip. She tensed the muscles in her arm, getting herself ready for an attack.
"Well that was definitely dramatic," said the voice, and she soon realised that it belonged to Archangel, the only other pony in her team of assassins. He helped Twilight to her hooves and started to lead her away, Twilight leaning on him and limping away, feeling a great pain in the knee of her left foreleg. They stuck to the dark alleys that crisscrossed the city, trying their best to avoid the masses of unfortunate homeless that resided there. When they eventually arrived at the cathedral, Twilight looked at the spiral staircase that led to the top of the tower and sighed.
"Do you want a lift?" Archangel asked and Twilight just smiled and nodded weakly. He bent down and she clambered up onto his back, and much to her surprise, he was more than able to lift her weight. Together, they flew up to the top of the tower. Archangel deposited her onto her bed. Undoing her hood and cloak and using it as a blanket. Next to her, Twilight could see Jean in her bed, still recovering from the wound inflicted by the flintlock weapon. Archangel got to work patching up the various cuts and such that covered her body, working his way over her with the gentlest touch. When he got to the larger wounds on her belly, he pulled a small syringe out of his first aid kit.
"Now Dusk, I'm going to have to clean out that wound with disinfectant. I won't lie, it's going to hurt. A lot. So I'm going to give you some painkiller to numb you. Okay?" he told her, not waiting for a response before pricking her with the needle. A few moments passed before Twilight started to feel the effects of the painkiller, as light-headedness overtook her. She turned to Archangel, the pain all over her body all but completely gone. She smiled at him, lazily lifting her hoof up and brushing his cheek.
"You know… I've always been impressed that you never made a pass at me," she told him weakly, only to receive a smile from the brown Pegasus.
"Would it have done any good? I get the impression that you have a special somepony at home," he replied, pouring a few drips of disinfectant into the cuts. Twilight hesitated, subconsciously remembering her own promise not to reveal herself too much.
"You're right. At least I think so. I can't seem to forget about her for too long at a time. And just before I came here… She kissed me," she said eventually, looking away from him. Archangel turned her head to look at him, and looking her deep in the eyes.
"Keep your eyes on me. I want to make sure you haven't lost too much blood. Now, what's the mare's name?" he enquired, picking up the curved needle that he used for doing stitches.
"Pinkie Pie. Her name's Pinkie Pie," she said, a large grin spreading across her face as she thought about the energetic pink pony. Archangel smiled, pulling the needle through her skin. Twilight started to tell him all about Pinkie and her adventures in Ponyville.
***
Half an hour later, Archangel pulled the last stitch through, tying it off and cutting the excess. Twilight was still under the influence of the painkiller, as the world swirled in her vision. Archangel helped her to move underneath the covers of her bed, while he took her hood and cloak to try and get it repaired. Twilight shifted her body, trying to find a position that was comfortable and wouldn't put strain on the injured parts of her body. When she did finally find one that worked, she closed her eyes and let out a deep breath, relaxing her muscles and allowing herself some time to recover. She started to drift off to sleep, despite it only being the early afternoon. As she passed into unconsciousness, her mind turned to Pinkie Pie and she smiled.
***
Twilight was shaken awake by Jean, who still had a blood stained bandage wrapped around her chest. The octagonal room was empty save for the two girls, and Jean had prepared them both dinner. The painkiller had apparently worn off, as Twilight discovered when she tried to get out of bed. A sharp pain spread across her body from her belly, and she groaned, rolling off the bed instead of trying to sit up. Jean had prepared a bowl of some kind of stew. It was nothing like Twilight had had before, full of flavour and chunks of vegetables. They sat in silence as they ate, Twilight out of guilt and Jean because it hurt to talk. After a time, Jean set her bowl down and spoke;
"So… Do you know where the boys are?" she asked, and Twilight shrugged, looking away awkwardly.
"I'm afraid not. Max and David were on a mission and Archangel must have just patched me up and gone out," she replied, finishing the last of her stew and setting the bowl down on the table. Another moment passed and Twilight sighed, looking at Jean.
"Hey look, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that you got hurt. I should never have put you in that position and-, " she started, before Jean held her hand up to stop her.
"Dusk… Twilight, stop. You don't have to apologise. I willingly went out with you and put myself into danger. You saved my life and I will never be able to pay you back for that," she said, moving around the table and hugging Twilight, before they both recoiled from the pain of their individual injuries. They smirked, pressing their foreheads together instead.
"What is going on here and what are you doing with my sister?" asked a voice behind them. They both turned to look at the source of the voice; Jean's Brother Max, who was standing by the large window with a smirk on his face. Behind him was David, the other griffin on the team, and a former council member. Max shot them a wink before David pushed him off the window sill playfully. Twilight was pleased that they weren't as hostile toward each other like they had been when David had first joined the team, but each still held a strange animosity for the other that she was concerned about. They had a tendency to play small but dangerous pranks on each other, such as the time that Max tripped David as he was going down the stairs, or when David put his pet tarantula in Max's bed. She hoped that she had put a stop to it, but wasn't sure.
***
The two male griffins took off their hood and cloaks, and Twilight could spot the blood stains on the leather bracers that held their hidden blades.
"So it went well?" she enquired, ignoring his earlier joke. They both nodded, making their way over to them as Jean served them up a bowl of stew each.
"Yep, we didn't have too many issues. A couple of close calls but nothing too serious," Max told her, sitting down next to them and picking a spoon.
"Although it was a bit awkward to find Councillor Desmond and Councillor Sandra in bed together," he laughed, giving Jean a nudge with his elbow.
"Made it easier though," Max pointed out, his mouth full of food. David nodded, giggling to himself. Twilight and Jean stood and walked back to their beds and lay down as the boys gave them a detailed report on what happened. It didn't take long, and she was very grateful for that. She was incredibly tired from the fight, and still in quite a lot of pain. She only half listened to Max and David as they talked, her mind turning back to Pinkie.
'I miss you,' she thought, closing her eyes again, and she could picture her. Her poofy pink mane, her absolute randomness and the way that she could get an entire town to break into song at the drop of a hat. A loud noise shocked her back into reality, and she painfully sat up to find Archangel sliding across the floorboards on his hooves.
"Dusk! Get up! We need to move right now!" he yelled, throwing her now repaired outfit at her.
"Why? What's happened?" she asked, putting it on as fast as her injury would allow.
"I'm not sure; all I know is that something is happening in the slums and my contact tells me it's bad," he said, opening up the box that rested next to his bed. He pulled a long sword out and attached it to his belt, and Max and David scrambled to get dressed. Twilight sighed, pulling the last of the straps on her cloak.
"Let's go," she said, as the thoughts of Pinkie drifted from her mind.