//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Brotherhood of the Moon // by ZakTH //------------------------------// Brotherhood of the Moon Chapter 10 Firefly made a mental note as she ran; "Never trust a thief." She carefully logged the thought away and continued running for her life through the dark tunnels under Canterlot. Behind her, a heavily armored guard chased her. Despite his size, he was just as fast as either of the two other guards chasing her. It seemed like it wasn't just the city guard opposing her at times like these, the entire world had some sort of unspoken hatred towards the pegasus. And to think, how easy the task had sounded before... Firefly was walking along the rooftops with the four thieves she'd found. Despite her offer to pay them, and their interest in taking her money, they insisted that the Gold family's stronghold was impenetrable. When she persisted in trying to employ them, they bid her to follow them, and walked off. Now, of course a sane pony wouldn't follow a bunch of rotten thieves without asking where they were going, but Firefly was armed, and could probably handle anything she might walk into. Still, that didn't stop her from inquiring. "If you don't mind me asking..." Firefly said out loud to nopony in particular. "Where exactly are we going?" To her surprise, one of the bandits actually turned to answer her, happily even. "Well, you didn't think we haven't tried to infiltrate the Gold family's residence before, did you? Many times, I can assure you, and from experience I know that five little ponies like us won't do a whole lot. This sort of job will take careful planning and organization, and provided you're willing to pay, I'm sure our guild leader can assist you." Firefly was surprised, she'd been expecting them to take her into a dark alley and try to take advantage of her, and was preparing to have her question refused, as well as preparing her sword to fight. The fact that they would go to seek help for her task was an unexpected response. She also realized that their hold on her was not as tight as she believed; they were keeping their space, and if she needed to run she most likely could. "I...have to say, I'm surprised." Firefly stammered. "I didn't think thieves would be so eager to help a pony out." "Ah, but you aren't just anypony, are you?" the thief replied. "You are an outlaw, are you not? Just like us, an enemy of authority, a child of the night." Firefly turned away. "I'm no thief..." she said. "Yet I and the rest of Canterlot have seen your face and heard of your braveries. Seven guards dead? A victory for us as well as yourself." he said with glee. "It was only self-defense." Firefly replied, though even she had trouble believing the statement. "Regardless, it's seven less mules we have to deal with!" he with a hearty laugh. His comrades chimed in with a quiet cheer. Dash was also baffled by the strange friendliness of the thief, but she couldn't deny his logic. Firefly had killed two guards initially with no motive to harm her...had they deserved to die? She couldn't be a murderer, Gilded Sword was a murderer, and Firefly, her ancestor, couldn't be as bad as him...could she? A familiar symbol came into view as the group approached a building. A deep navy banner hung on the building's side that read "The Apple Core". This is not what interested Firefly though, but more the symbol under the title, an apple with a large section of the middle cut out to form an almost crescent moon shape, along with three white stars dotting its center. It was the sign of a thief’s guild. These ruffians were not just run-of-the-mill thieves, but an organized group of bandits working to steal as efficiently as possible. Normally, Firefly would not want anything to do with them, but Applejack had shown her a different side of the thief mentality. Still, in her mind a thief was a thief, and nothing would change that. The inside of the building was lively to say the least. Occupying the room was maybe 30 thieves; some drunk, some fighting, and all dirty. The air almost thickened with the stench of alcohol and body odor. The flickering torch light that lit the room seemed to grow weak in the stench. It was hardly what Firefly would call a “decent establishment”, but it was a pub after all, and such an influx of stereotypical male stupidity was common in such places. Firefly was not a stranger to the effects of alcohol on stallions; she knew just how it could bring out the worst in a person. And what she was seeing was certainly not the ponies at their best. The thieves led her past the drunken mass into a back room. It was full of wine barrels, and appeared to be some sort of storage room, but inside was also a table with a map, along with a significantly cleaner dressed, but still very dirty pony. He was standing over the map, studying the paper as if the land masses would come to life in front of him. He had a yellow coat and golden mane that was generally unkempt, but seemed to fall into a somewhat reasonable styling. Surprisingly, considering Canterlot’s standards, he was an earth pony, with no wings or horn to set him above the rest. “Oi, sir!” One of the thieves said in a formal, and yet informal tone. “We’ve got someone here to see ya! Says she wants to get into the Gold’s place.” The cleaner stallion looked up from his map and looked at Firefly with a dismissive frown on his face. He looked her over a few times, his eyes moving up and down her white robes, and then broke out into a smile and rolled up his map. “Well howdy! Welcome to The Apple Core miss, what can ah do ya for?” Firefly noted he had the same accent in his voice as Applejack, and even had a red apple as a cutie mark. Coincidence? Or possibly something else? “Uh…you’re the leader of the thieves’ guild here, right?” Firefly asked. “Well, not publicly, no.” He said with a sly voice. “But to you, why yes ah am. Surely ah can trust a member of the assassin brotherhood, right?” “You know about the brotherhood?” Firefly asked. “Well of course ah do.” He replied, lifting up his front right hoof and, to Firefly’s surprise, exposing a branded assassin insignia. “Ah’m a member.” “Like I said.” piped the thief behind them. “You’re just like us, a child of the night.” “Then…do you by any chance know a pony named Applejack?” she asked. “Applejack? Why, she’s mah cousin, and leader of the Lunagrad thieves’ guild if ah remember correct. You see, thieving kinda runs in the Apple family.” He said proudly. Firefly mentally recorded that comment for reference later on. “Oh, shoot, where are mah manners?” the stallion said suddenly, slapping himself on the head lightly. “The name’s Cortland, pleasure tah make your acquaintance miss…?” he said, prompting the pegasus. “Firefly.” She replied simply. “Miss Firefly.” Cortland finished. “Anyways, you said something about the Gold family?” he said curiously. “I need to infiltrate their stronghold and kill Gilded Sword.” Firefly said “Master Steelwing commands it.” She added quickly. Cortland’s face twisted. “Oh, that’s quite an order there, and not an easy one at that. The Gold family makes a point by keeping very tight security around themselves at all times, especially in their home.” His eyes said what he didn’t have the heart to; getting into the Gold’s home was near impossible. “Ah’m afraid Ah’ll have tah pull some strings tah get into there…but if the Master says it’s so important ah guess ah don’t really have much of a choice, do ah?” Firefly said nothing. She felt slightly guilty, taking advantage of this pony, but she saw no other way to get close without a mass of guards attacking her. She needed to get into that castle, and it became apparent that she couldn't do it alone. "Still, if yer lookin to make some money while ah sort things out, ah have a favour that would be perfect for someone like you." Cortland said, pulling out the map he had been studying. “Really,” Firefly replied “...I'm interested.” As urgent as her mission seemed, she could use a few bits in her wallet, especially since there was no way she was going to sleep at Twilight's again. Cortland opened up the map and revealed a very lightly drawn map of Canterlot. However, the real focus seemed to be a collection of underlying lines that were drawn much darker and had more right angles and strait sections that the street plan above them. “This here is a map of a tunnel system under Canterlot.” Cortland said, pointing a hoof at the map. “It leads through most of the city and comes up in tons of different places. However, the ponies up-top shut the whole thing down a few years ago. Obviously they found it too useful for us thieves to be available for use. Course, that didn’t stop us from using it anyway,” he snickered to himself, as did the other thieves in the room. Obviously, some mischief had been made in the tunnels on more than one occasion. “Anyway,” he continued. “The tunnel entrances have recently been put up for sale for a very hefty price, ah guess they figured a bunch a rotten thieves wouldn’t be able to afford them. Of course, they shoulda expected we wouldn’t let a chance like this slip away…” Cortland nodded at one of the thieves at the door, and the unicorn levitated a brown sack off a shelf in the room. He tossed it to Cortland, who caught it in his mouth by the cord. He dropped the sack onto the table and grabbed the string that held the sack closed in his mouth. “These…” he said through clenched teeth. Pulling away the string, the bag opened to reveal a large mass of golden coins that shimmered in the torchlight. Each one had “500 bits” inscribed on them, along with the image of two beautiful alicorns. Firefly’s eyes widened at the large amount of money before her. “…are counterfeit bits.” Cortland finished. Firefly’s surprise greatly diminished, she should have expected this from thieves, but yet her sense of wonder was not affected. The coins were each sparkling like polished gold, and each was uniformly engraved with stunning calligraphy. They could have given her the bag as her payment, and she would have not noticed anything strange about them. “But…how? They look so real.” She asked. “What, did you forget the rules already missy? Ya can’t trust yer eyes, ‘nothing is true’.” Cortland said, referencing the Assassin’s Creed. He reached into the bag, pulled out a coin, flipped it into the air, and caught it in his hoof, covering it on the table. “Heads or tails?” he asked casually. “Um…heads?” Firefly guessed. Cortland’s trademark smirk once again spread across his face. “Wrong.” He pulled his hoof off of the table to reveal a simple pebble where the coin had once been. “We had one of the unicorns enchant these pebbles with a simple illusion spell; the whole bag is absolutely worthless.” Firefly once again glanced at the open bag, full of glittering currency that was apparently just a pile of rocks hiding behind a magical shroud. Could’ve fooled her. “Anyway…” Cortland went on. “Normally this idea wouldn’t work. Any official with his head on straight is gonna think something’s up if a dirty street rat comes up tah him with a bag full a bits. But…you on the other hand, are much more convincing. They won’t immediately suspect you if ya try to buy the tunnel entrances, and of course, bein a mare…” Cortland trailed off, raising an eyebrow at the implication. “…What are you suggesting.” Firefly phrased the statement as a demand, not a question. “Well, ah assume that if they start to get the wrong idea you could use some of that…er…feminine charm on ‘em?” Firefly was not amused. Not in the slightest. “I’m not that kind of mare.” Firefly said with a hint of danger in her voice. “Let’s get that straight right now. I’m here to do my job and then leave. I’m not like those types, not like you. I'm no criminal.” Cortland did not lose his smirk. “Ah think you’ll find we 'criminals' aren’t so bad miss Firefly. Remember, ‘everything is permitted.’” He finished his quote. "Whatever," Firefly said, rejecting the idea from her mind. "So what's the catch?" "Well, the spell looks convincing enough, but we don't have professional magicians here; the spell wares off when touched." He emphasized his point by taking another coin out of the bag. It's golden sheen fade into a dirty stone in his grasp. "You're kidding right? What a lousy spell!" Firefly exclaimed. "Ah swear tah ya, it'll be an easy job. Just give the official the money, open up the tunnel entrance, and get the hay outta there before he notices ya gave him a sacka rocks." Cortland said, waving away any doubt with his front hoof. "Easy as apple pie!" It was now, running through the tunnels under Canterlot that Firefly decided that this job was not in fact, “easy as apple pie”. Or any pie for that matter. When one analyzed Cortland’s plan thoroughly, it became obvious that any official of the government would thoroughly inspect a sample coin from the pouch to check for counterfeit upon payment. Firefly was lucky enough that the official had waited until she was unlocking the gates to the tunnel entrance to pick a coin from the bag and bite it to check the metal’s ductility. Needless to say, he was quite angry when he found himself biting down on a rock. A quick dip into the bag with his hoof revealed all the coins to be false, and he subsequently sent the nearby guards to seize her. Her hooves skidded as she frantically turned a corner, hefty and bloodthirsty guards still behind her. Unfortunately for her, the path ahead of her was dominated by a flow of water. She couldn’t tell how deep, but she decided it was better not to jump in with metal swords, daggers, and two more bags of coins that were actually rocks. Still, she quickly found an alternate route in the form of a few posts extending from the wall. With a flap of her wings, she jumped and pranced across the wooden supports and across the gap to land onto the path. The heavily armed guard behind her, which Firefly had mentally nick-named as a brute, did not seem to see the expanse of water through his dark metal helmet, and promptly tripped into the dark watery abyss. His generous metal plating didn’t give him a chance at floating, and he disappeared into the murky waters. A few bubbles of air signified his death. Yep, swimming across had been a bad idea. However, jumping across did not work out completely in her favor either, as the less agile guards tried to jump across the posts as well. However, the first fell short and was forced to grasp the last post and hang under it rather than jump on top of it as Firefly had. His momentum allowed him no time to hang though, and he promptly swung off the post and crashed into the hooded pegasus in front of him, toppling them both to the ground. Firefly moved frantically to get up, avoiding a magically levitated stiletto by mere inches. Something in her mind switched, she stopped running and started fighting. A buck to the face was all she could manage for the guard immediately behind her, but it was effective enough to knock him to the ground with a dull thud. She was sure she heard something crack on impact with her back leg. The other guard was now floating a heavy looking war hammer in front of him. Firefly drew her own sword. A flash of sparks lit the dark tunnel briefly as their weapons collided. Firefly stayed on the defensive, parrying and deflecting all the guard’s passionate attacks. She was wearing him out, as the amateur fighter was using the faulty logic that if he struck hard enough, her defense would break. Eventually he showed signs of fatigue, and Firefly took advantage of it, moving from protective swipes to aggressive slashes. The guard’s face became less determined, more worrisome. The seemingly harmless mare under the white hood was gaining the upper hand, and although her face was one he couldn’t bring himself to mortally harm, the hatred in her eyes spoke otherwise for her feelings. The tables turned, in more ways than one. Firefly was now the one administering powerful attacks, while the guard was barely moving his sword fast enough to keep up. In the heat of their duel, they’d spun around as well, and Firefly now had her back to the expanse of water, and the guard was backing away from her position. The small sound of flesh slicing was heard, as Firefly’s sword nicked the guards hoof. His worried face broke into a mask of absolute terror. This mare was going to kill him, and he could only postpone it for so much longer. His slow and steady backpedal began to accelerate into a backwards half-run, and Firefly matched this retreat with more vicious pounces, fuelled by the added momentum of jumping toward her opponent. The guard’s fleeing courage signed his death warrant, as his sturdy defense began to fall into his abysmal fear. His swings became more reckless swipes than concentrated parries. With a final attack pattern, Firefly swung the sword with all her might, and slashed the guard across the chest. Brining the blade back the way it came, she battered the hammer at its hilt, knocking it out of the guard’s hooves and onto the floor a few meters away. His back pedal was faster than ever, and so was Firefly’s charge. Rainbow Dash felt Firefly let go of her own sword, heard it clatter behind her, and watched as she jumped into the air towards the guard, her left hoof raised above her head, and a small metal knife revealing itself at her wrist, pointed right at the guard’s neck. The world seemed to slow down as the final strike progressed. The guard slowly tripped and fell on his tail, and Firefly slowly drifted towards him, the blade at her left sliding out to its fully extended position. Time continued to decelerate exponentially, until Firefly was frozen in the air, and the guard was frozen in front of her. The look on his face was not something she had seen before from the city guards, it didn’t harbour a hatred for injustice or disgust for lowly street ponies; it was one of utter terror. This guard was new; it was obvious now more than ever. He had not expected to deal with such things in this line of work, or at least not so early. Dash’s vision twitched as if the screen she was looking at had lost connection for a few fractions of a second. The all-too-familiar gridlines of the Animus’ simulated environment faded into existence, and a set of bright white words materialized in the center of her view in an equally familiar font. OUT OF SYNC Once again, the world imploded into a blindingly bright glow of white, but this time Dash felt herself pulled away from the world, a current of nothingness dragging her away with unimaginable force. Her eyes snapped open as she lifted her head from the pillow with a gasp, the crown falling from her head and onto the ground. Luna’s horn sparked and popped, the white glow at its point exploding in a tiny burst. Rainbow Dash took large gulps of air, sucking oxygen into her over-active body. It was like waking up from a nightmare. She felt dampness on her body, was she sweating? No, moving a hoof up to her face, Dash revealed the source of the feeling. She was crying. Dried tears streamed down her face. She patted the liquid away, but felt their presence still haunting her. The experience she’d witnessed had brought her to tears. She was not controlling the actions of her ancestor, but being forced to witness and experience the savage actions that her burning heart committed, powerless to stop what transpired before her. She almost felt like crying again, but her now conscious pride didn’t allow it. Luna rubbed her head as if it ached suddenly. With a twist of pain in her face, she momentarily looked up at Dash’s condition before shutting her eyes in discomfort. “Are you alright?” She said, any compassion in the remark drowned out by her grunts of pain as she massaged her temples. “I…I…” Dash stuttered, looking down at her hooves as if the hidden blade was still strapped to her. She was shaking, not quite recovered from the vision of the past. “What was that?” Luna asked. “I…can’t…” Dash whispered. “I…can’t do it.”