//------------------------------//
// 2: The Assassin, the Vigilante, and the Nomad 
// Story: Steampony 
// by Winged Anomaly 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 2:  The Assassin, The Vigilante, and The Nomad

“What the fuck do you mean, 'leave'!?”
“I mean leave,” he shouted back, “As in leave!  As in you, and your stuff, someplace ELSE!”
I was speechless.
“Wh... why!?”
His face fell, and he turned away.  That's when it clicked.
“You're bucking somebody else, aren't you?”
“I...”
“AREN'T YOU!?”
It was incredible.  Thundercloud was a strong, massive Earth Pony, and here I had him backed into a corner like a scared kitten.  I threw up my hooves.
“Oh, that's great.  You find somepony a little more attractive, a little more seductive, and you decide to run me out of a home!?  You're damn shameless, you are!”
“Run you out of a home!?” he snapped, “You're a damn freeloader!  You stay in my apartment, spending all my hard-earned bits on booze, and wake me up in the early AM when you stumble in the front door!  Damn near anyone is more desirable than you!  Now get your stuff and GET OUT!!”
Not so kittenlike anymore.  He was too big for me to face down in a straight fight, so I yielded.
“Fine,” I said, straightening my hat and doing up my coat, “Fine.  I'm out.”
Thundercloud paused, calming down slightly.
“I... I can help you pack.”
I shook my head, grabbing my baseball bat and holding it up.
“If you ever knew me like you said you did, you'll know this is all I need.”
And for the second time in five hours, a door slammed behind me, my temper soaring.  But as I paced angrily in the hallway, my rage turned to panic.  I had nowhere to live, no money to eat with... no friends.  I'd only moved from Ponyville to Manehattan a year ago, and in that time I'd shifted from place to place so often I'd had no time to make any real friends.  I had, literally, nobody I could call for help, a loan, or even a place to crash for a night.  I realized as I stumbled out into the midnight chill, the snow slowly drifting down around me, I was completely alone.  There was nothing left to do but sit in the snow, tighten up my jacket, and hope I could survive the night.
“Hey.”
I started, glancing up.  And there, lo and behold, stood Whitefire.
“Hey,” I replied nervously.  She nodded towards the door.
“Earlier, did you just want to get away from me, or...”
“My boyfriend kicked me out,” I clarified, “And honestly, I'm really sorry about earlier.  I was drunk, and...”
She cracked a half smile, and offered me a hoof.
“It's okay.  So was I.  Anyway, you haven't exactly had the best life experience with lesbians, so the situation back at the bar was pretty much a perfect storm.  All's forgiven.”
I accepted her help up, and smiled as she brushed snow off my cap.
“Come on,” she said, starting down the path, “I've got a couch you can crash on.”
I stopped cold in shock.
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah,” she laughed, “Or would you rather freeze your ass off out here?”
I started grinning as I followed her down the road.
“Damn, am I ever glad I met you today.”
“Believe it or not, the feeling's mutual.  Not many are a cop's friend in this part of town, so I'm pretty lonely.”
I nodded slowly.
“I know how that goes.  I moved from Ponyville to Manehattan only a year ago, and since then, I haven't managed to hold down a job, or even a relationship for more than a month.  I have no friends, period.”
I snorted.
“Somepony thought I had enough dignity to call me a nomad.  I just call myself a failure.”
She opened her mouth to say something, hesitated, and went on anyway.
“I'm... not actually a cop.  I was, a few months back but... shit went down, I walked out.  As a last 'fuck you', I kept the gear, and I'll never forget the training.  So I decided to put what resources I had to good use.  Been a stop-and-go vigilante ever since, haven't made a penny in weeks.  I'd say that's sufficient to challenge your title of 'failure'.”
I laughed outright.
“Not a cop, huh?  Well, you put on a damn good show.  If anything, I'd say my opinion of you just went up.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
We walked some distance in silence, until she asked the question I always knew she would.
“Who were your mothers?”
I just shook my head.
“You wouldn't believe me if I told you.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Try me.”
I sighed.
“Alright, here goes... Rainbow Dash gave birth to me, but I was raised by both her and her partner, Spitfire.”
Whitefire's jaw hit the proverbial floor.
“No fucking way.”
I shot her a 'told you so' look.  It took her a while to get her words back.
“You... were raised by, Spitfire, my hero in just about every way, and birthed by Rainbow Dash, the legendary warrior and activist?”
I shook my head.
“Spitfire wasn't around much, as much as I wish she was... she was a much better parent.  Always off on call with the Wonderbolts, or town sheriff business.  That left me to cope with Rainbow Dash on my own most of the time, and let me tell you, she may be the stuff of legends, but a mother she is not.”
“Why was Spitfire always away?” she asked innocently.  I sighed inwardly.
“Alright, brace yourself.  Storytime.  Way back when Luna and Celestia were first assassinated and the three races turned against each other, at the start of the Harmony's End War, the Wonderbolts were repurposed: turned from a showflight group to an elite squadron of the Pegasus race's best combat flyers, the ultimate tool against the Earth Ponies and Unicorns.  They were mostly a propaganda instrument, but occasionally, they were sent on missions normally assumed to be suicide.  Rainbow Dash was integrated into their number near the start of the war, and it was quickly discovered she was the fastest, by a long shot.  So when it came time to send a small Wonderbolt team against the stiffest odds they'd ever faced, deep behind Earth Pony lines, she, Spitfire, and  another Wonderbolt, Soarin', were chosen.  I don't know the details... Dash didn't like to talk about it, but she wound up shot down.  In the end, she completed the mission, but the event had ruined her ability to fly.  She was physically capable, but might as well have been tied down with rope.  Couldn't even so much as flap without breaking down.  She lived like that for a year; from the Unicorn victory to the crushing weight of their collective boot.  It was so hard for her to fly, she couldn't even manage it when her lover, Twilight Sparkle, was captured and scheduled for execution.  It cost Twilight her life.
“Rainbow Dash joined the resistance at that point; the common people, no matter the race, united against the oppressive Unicorn regime.  Turns out Spitfire was one of the founding elements of the Ponyville resistance, and over the course of the next six months, she taught Dash to fly again.  This earned Rainbow's love, and the two started and ended the rebellion together over the course of... three, four years.  Once the Collective Republic was put in place, a government run equally by all three races, the Wonderbolts hung up their guns and became a showflight group again.  Spitfire assumed her rightful place as their leader, and offered Rainbow Dash the position she'd always wanted... but Rainbow declined.  As much as she loved flying, she didn't want the spot.  Brought back too many memories of the war, I suppose.  Anyway, about a year after that, Rainbow and Spitfire decided that they had to do their part.  The Pegasus population was literally cut in half during the war, so both Rainbow and Spitfire had a child with another lucky Stallion – whose name escapes me, I'm afraid.  Rainbow's daughter, me, was kept by Rainbow and Spitfire, and Spitfire's daughter went to live with the father.  The rest of that is history.
“After I was born, my family moved out to a remote little town in the Mild West... the name escapes me at the moment, but it was a rough, lawless place, not the escape Dash and Spitfire had been looking for.  So Spitfire decided to straighten the place out and appointed herself town sheriff.  Got herself a deputy and a bunch of willing volunteers... got the place cleaned up eventually, but... well, cleaning up the town plus flying with the Wonderbolts equals not much spare time for the kid.  So Rainbow raised me.”
Whitefire nodded slowly.
“That was... probably the most roundabout answer I've ever heard.  Very informative, though.  I never really did know much of anything about Harmony's End; my dad always said that it's best to let old horrors die.”
I shrugged.
“Rainbow's view was that if we let the travesties of the past slip from our memory, they're liable to become the travesties of the present.”
White sighed.
“And with the War in the West, the Unicorn underground...”
She didn't need to finish the sentence.
“On the subject of the war,” she picked up a moment later, “What do you think of Quill's Titan Heart project?”
So the professor had told her; I needn't have worried.
“I don't know.  On one hand, these new war machines could finally put an end to the fighting with the Buffalo, but on the other hand, it... ups the ante, I suppose.  You start marching in walking buildings, your enemy marches in walking buildings twice the size.”
“Well, the Buffalo have never been really... technically minded.  They only just worked out guns and rifles; the only reason the war wasn't over before it started is that they know the lay of the land.”
I shook my head.
“I wasn't talking about the Buffalo.  What about the Griffons?  Politics with them have been rough for years, and they're at least as advanced as we are.”
“I make a point of avoiding politics,” she laughed, “Too much dogma and petty infighting.”
“Eh, I find it handy to know when another war's about to fall out of the sky.”
I started when Whitefire suddenly halted, turning to me with an uneasy expression.
“Did you hear that?” she asked in a whisper.
“Hear what?”
“Shh, listen.”
I focused, and found that I could hear voices, their echoes faint over the winter breeze.  The first voice was a mare's.
“I believe I already stated that I am uninterested.”
The next voice was a stallion's; thick with a lower Manehattan accent.
“But I am, you pretty little thing.  Why don't you put out for us and make it easy on yourself?”
That didn't sound good.  Whitefire motioned me to follow her, and quietly, we moved around the corner.  There, in the middle of the street, stood a pretty, young, light blue Pegasus mare with a dark blue mane and strikingly red eyes.  She was surrounded by at least six stallions of various races, all armed with knives and blunt instruments.  The biggest of them was circling her, grinning in a way that made me sick.
“I'm going to give you one chance, and one chance only,” she said in a cold monotone that sent shivers right down my spine, “Leave, before somepony gets hurt.”
The leader slowly unsheathed a long combat knife, and traced the point across her throat.
“I'd say the only pony in danger of getting hurt is you, luv.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, focusing.
“Remember,” she said in a cold whisper, “I gave you a chance.”
And with speed I could only describe as unnatural, she'd driven the point of the leader's own knife up through the bottom of his jaw and out the top of his skull, his hooves still firmly locked around the hilt.  The stallion gurgled blood for a moment before toppling over, the rest of his troupe glancing around nervously as the Pegasus unsheathed two knives of her own, shifting into a combat stance.  Eventually, one of the other ponies charged her from behind; hearing his clattering footsteps, she whirled at the last minute and slashed his throat open with both knives.  He flopped to the ground like a sack of bricks, his momentum sending him skidding a meter on his face.  Two more attacked her at the same time, one going straight forward, knife raised, the other circling around to strike at her flank.  The Pegasus simply tripped the first one and drove her knife into the base of his skull as he fell, slinging the corpse like a club to bludgeon the second assailant to the ground, where she broke his neck with a well-placed kick.  But she didn't have eyes in the back of her head.  She was tackled from behind by one of the two remaining ponies, and in the moment her guard was down, the other one managed to get a pretty good cut in.  She didn't even flinch as she threw a blow, but missed, and in the half second before she was ready to fight again, one of the remainders managed to grapple her from behind, pinning her front legs to her sides.
“Fucking bitch!” the free stallion growled, kicking her in the gut and readying his knife.  That's when I sprung into action.  I took a firm grip on my baseball bat and ran for it, shouting to gain his attention... and with a brutal crunch of shattering jawbone, I smashed him upside the head as hard as I could.  He hit the ground with a thud, screaming in agony as the mysterious fighter shook free of the last stallion's grip and buried a knife in the top of his skull.  She hesitated, then turned to the one on the ground and mercifully broke his neck.  For a moment or two, she just stood among the bodies, calming her breathing.  Then she turned to us.
“Thank you for your aid,” she said in that quiet, cold voice, “The situation was... out of my control.”
“You were doing pretty damn well,” I said, “I've never seen somebody use moves like that outside of movies and books.  What are you, some kind of assassin?”
She met my gaze with her bright crimson eyes.
“Yes.”
Then she glanced away.
“In training.”
“What's your name?” I asked quietly, and she looked back to me.
“My name is Sky Blue.”
Whitefire stepped between us.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Sky, that cut is bleeding badly.  I can see to it; my apartment's not far.”
She bowed slightly.
“Again, I thank you.  I am in your debt.”
A few minutes later, we were back at Whitefire's apartment.  “Nice place,” I commented as I wandered around.  'Thanks,' echoed from the bathroom, where Whitefire was busy stitching up the deep gash on Sky Blue's shoulder.  The fillie was tough, that was certain.  She seemed to hardly know the injury was there.  She was young, too... younger than me at least.  I was twenty four, she looked to be between eighteen and twenty.  Practically still wet behind the ears, and yet she'd cut down five ponies and finished off another one without so much as blinking.  What kind of 'training' was she involved in?  More importantly, who was training her?  She reminded me of some superpony Rainbow had told me she used to work with... but the name was escaping me.  Damn, I probably should've listened to her more, now that I thought about it.  She may have not been the best parent, but she certainly had experience from which to give advice.  I wandered into the washroom just as Whitefire finished bandaging the wound.  Sky Blue tested the bandages, then nodded in approval.
“I thank you again for your kindness and hospitality.  Perhaps we will meet again some day, and I can repay you.”
“Wait,” Whitefire called after her as she started to grab her things, “Where are you going?”
Sky paused.
“I... don't know.”
She set her pack down.
“I have no home.  No money.”
For the first time, I saw emotion cross her face in the form of a wry smile.
“I'm not a very good assassin.  Were I given a chance, I could probably make my way... but nopony wants to hire an assassin who's never taken an official contract.”
She sighed.
“I was taught by the best.  I have the skills, I have the strength... but nopony wants to take a risk with me.”
She unrolled her pack on the couch, and sorted through her things.  Two gore-stained knives, a small bag filled with food, a map, and a long, thin object wrapped in cloth.
“This is everything I have in this world.”
Then she just... stood there, staring at the thin package with that strange intensity that always seemed to be about her.  It scared me, a little... but Whitefire walked right up and put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Then you'll fit right in.  If you need a place to stay, you're free to remain here as long as you want.”
Then she looked to me.
“You too, Pandora.  Way I see it, three failures working together have triple the chances of one failure working alone.”
I let a smile spread across my face, and Sky just looked stunned.  I put a hoof on Whitefire's shoulder, and said, “You are officially the most awesome cop I have ever met.”
“Ex cop,” she corrected, “that or disgraced cop.  Your choice.”
Sky glanced away.
“I... I cannot accept.  I already owe you a great deal...”
“Spare me,” Whitefire interrupted, “You owe me nothing.  Nopony here is in a good spot; all we've got is each other, so as long as you watch my back and help me out if and when the time comes, what's mine is yours.”
She paused.
“...provided I can maintain the rent.  So what do you ponies say we call it a night, and discuss potential jobs in the morning?”
I nodded.
“Sounds good to me.”
“I agree, the fight was tiring,” Sky added.
“Alright,” Whitefire said, nodding, “Let me show you all where you'll be sleeping.”

***

For the first time in ages, I actually slept soundly.  Part of me suspected it was freedom from Thundercloud's snoring, but part of me knew and understood that it was my newfound sense of freedom.  I didn't need that oaf; I'd never needed any of them.  Us three fillies, we were going to make something of ourselves, no shoulders to cry on required.  By morning's light, I was rested, energetic, and in a very good mood.
“Morning,” I cheerily greeted Whitefire as she put on some toast, “Where's Sky?”
Whitefire shrugged.
“Flying, exercising, practicing.  I made it clear I wouldn't try to regulate her... assassiney stuff, so she's probably off doing her morning regimen.”
“How do you know she has a morning regimen?” I asked as I pulled a box of cereal from under the counter.  Whitefire just laughed.
“Come on, you've seen 'Assassination', right?  The movie about that Pegasus that tracked General Whytemane to the end of the earth to kill him for a friend?”
Something clicked so suddenly I dropped the box of cereal.
“The protagonist,” I pressed Whitefire, “What was her name?  What was the protagonist's name?”
She just frowned for a moment, then realization dawned over her.
“Navy Blue.  Navy fucking Blue!  And that movie was based on...”
“A true story,” I finished for her.  We just stared at each other for a moment in complete shock.
“Do you think she's...”
“Related to the greatest assassin who ever lived?  The pony that took murder and turned it into a fine art?  The pony who created an order of honorable contract vigilantes?  The pony who had a personal hand in the fall of the Unicorn regime during Harmony's End?”
She shrugged, after taking a breath.
“Makes sense.”
“And it explains where she got the training,” I continued, still thinking.
“I mean no intrusion, but who is this 'she' of whom you speak?”
I froze, and whirled on my heel to see Sky Blue standing in the entrance to the kitchen, just... looking at me.
“Oh,” I stammered, “We were... um...”
“Are you related to Navy Blue?” Whitefire blurted out.  Sky seemed confused.
“Yes.  She is my mother.  I'm sorry, I assumed you knew... I should have told you.”
She seemed slightly let down.
“Does this... make you want to alter the terms of our agreement?”
White was speecheless for a second.
“Uh... no!  No way!  Sky, now that I know where you got your training, I have nothing but the utmost faith in you.  Now that I know Navy was your mother, I know that I can trust you to be just, honorable, sensitive, and should the need arise, lethal.”
I had to suppress a laugh.  That was almost a direct quote from the movie.  Whitefire had paused, frowning.
“Do you tell your prospective clients you're her daughter?”
Sky shook her head adamantly.
“No.  I want to make my own path, not build upon her success.”
I frowned.
“The world's pretty tough, Sky.  If I were you, I would've used the connection to get a little starting boost, then worked off my reputation alone.”
“But there's the trick,” she said pointing at me, “If I start by referring her name, I become known by that.  I become known as the one whose mother was a great assassin.  Eventually, my own skill would grow to surpass the voices of the naysayers, but that 'starting boost' would cost me in the long run by locking a ball and chain about the ankles of my success.”
She closed her eyes for a moment.
“By mentioning my connection to Navy Blue, I imply I am comparable to her.  This may get me jobs in the short run, but in the end... I will never be as good as she is, and that would haunt me till the day I died, even if it didn't haunt the decisions of others.”
“Wait,” I interrupted, “Off topic, but you're talking about her in present tense.  Is Navy is still alive?”
Sky cursed under her breath.
“A slip of the tongue.  She lives, but in hiding.  I trust you can keep this to yourselves?”
We both nodded, and Sky seemed to accept that as sufficient.
“This subject grows weary.  I say we focus on acquiring some money.”
Whitefire and I both nodded.
“Alright,” I said, “What are we all good at?”
There was a long, awkward silence.
“Come on, guys.  Alright then, I'll start.  I'm good at baseball, drinking, good, old-fashioned dirty fighting, and causing chaos.  I've also got a hell of a lucky streak when it comes down to violence; got into a knife fight stone-drunk once, walked out without a scratch.”
White nodded towards my wings.
“You're Rainbow's daughter.  What's your wingpower?”
That was probably the subject I liked talking about the least.  I broke eye contact.
“I can fly...” I muttered, “But really, I'd rather not.  And before you ask, I'm not interested in talking about it.”
Whitefire seemed a bit taken aback.
“Alright... but you know I'm here if you need anything.”
Then she cleared her throat.
“Ahkey... I'm damn good at flying, fifteen wingpower, and I'm armed with my police training.  Was the best of my class, as a matter of fact.  I know various forms of hoof-to-hoof combat, as well as various knife and gunfighting techniques.  Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but if I have two guns, it's like... instinct.  I'm faster and more accurate than I'd ever be on my own.  My special talent, if you still believe in those sorts of things.”
When she was finished, Sky gave us a very brief list.
“I can kill, quickly, quietly, invisibly.  Unfortunately, I have never developed a talent for guns, so my skills are reserved to knives and blades.”
I glanced between the two other ponies.
“So what you guys are saying is this:” I clarified, “We're all terrible at life, but we all know how to kick some serious flank.”
Whitefire shrugged.
“Seems about right.”
A slow smile spread across my face.
“Then let's go see to getting into some trouble, why don't we?”