Chapter Three
Applejack laid the young man down, gently slipping him under the covers of his bed. She glanced at Twilight, the mage’s aloft mask firmly back in place, her emotions almost completely hidden. Only almost, because Applejack was no fool. She saw the tightening at the edge of Twilight’s mouth, the flicker of concern in her eyes when Spike shifted in his sleep. Her hands were balled into fists, only barely visible within the sleeves of another of her voluminous purple robes.
“He’s doin’ fine, sugar,” Applejack said, reaching for the covers.
“I know that,” Twilight snapped. Stopping her with gesture, she took the ranger’s place pulling the covers up over him. She stayed there for a moment, looking down at his scaly features. The damage from the acid was gone, but she could still hear him screaming.
She nearly jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, looking back to see the convicted ranger giving her a reassuring smile.
“Trust me sugar, he’ll be fine. I’ve seen what acid can do, but the stuff wasn’t nearly as bad as it shoulda been,” said Applejack. She adjusted her towel absently.
“Yes, I know. I am completely aware of what acid can do, thank you,” Twilight said, irritation creeping into her voice. After a moment she sighed. “I apologise, Miss Applejack. That was rude of me.”
“Told ya, nobles,” Dash called from the doorway. She leaned against the door frame, arms crossed. A lavender tunic replaced her rags, a loose cloth belt tied around her waist.
Applejack sighed, giving Twilight’s shoulder a squeeze before turning back to the irate thief.
“I can forgive a little rudeness considerin’ what just happened. She still thinks ya’ll are plannin’ somethin’ on us,” Applejack told Twilight.
“I might trust you, but just because her little apprentice got hurt doesn’t mean I’ll forget what she is. If it had been either of us, I doubt she’d have wasted the potions,” Dash scowled.
Twilight stood up, her mouth forming a thin, disapproving frown. She left Spike, advancing on the thief who stared coldly at her, tensing slightly. Applejack followed, moving quickly to stand between the two.
“Speaking of potions, Dash, you delayed getting those potions for Spike. Why?” Twilight asked, her tone frosty and her expression dark. “He was in pain, and you just stood there, staring at the drawers. It should have been simple.”
“I just wasn’t sure which drawer you mentioned, no need to throw a-”
“I told you, that’s all you needed, a single letter! What if that acid had been stronger? I don’t care if you hold some irrational hatred of me because I was born to a noble family, but do not ever, ever, risk Spike out of spite,” Twilight cut in, glaring into the shorter girl’s eyes.
“I didn’t risk him! I just…” Dash hesitated, “I just…”
Twilight folded her arms over her chest, giving the thief a flat look as she waited expectantly for whatever pathetic excuse Dash was going to give her. Applejack watched too, but her expression was considerably less displeased. If anything it was curious.
“Rainbow, sugar, I’m sure you just got a little jittered, ain’t no shame in that,” Applejack said softly.
“It shouldn’t have taken her that long to get the potions. It was obvious, I have all the drawers clearly labelled. All she had to do was read the very large letter-” Twilight gasped, cutting herself off. Her look of upset faded, and now she was looking at Dash with, unexpectedly, pity.
That made Dash squirm far more than the anger had. She could deal with anger. Anger was simple and easy. Pity, on the other hand, made her angry. She glared at Twilight, daring her to say it.
“You can’t read, can you?” asked Twilight softly.
“Tch, what do I look like, a librarian?” Sneering, Dash turned away and strode back into the main room. Twilight pursued her, Applejack closing the door into Spike’s room quietly behind her as she followed them out.
“How could you possibly not know how to read? This isn’t the Shadow Age, most people can read. I know for a fact the thieves guild teaches the basics to all it’s members, and the Solar Clergy teach the poor every Day of Rest and Sun’s Day.” Twilight didn’t let Dash flee, her anger replaced by outrage. The difference was subtle, but Applejack was relieved it wasn’t actually directed at Dash. If anything, the mage seemed outraged for Dash instead.
Shrugging, the girl with rainbow hair tried to walk faster without giving the impression of fleeing. The corridor ended in the main room, where the book-laden tables had been pushed around. A ring of cloth, suspended between wooden stands, surrounded the table and acid-stained floor where Spike had been hurt.
“How could you know that? Actually, I don’t care how you know what the thieves guild teaches, because I’m not one of them,” Dash sneered. “Those bozos can’t be trusted. So just drop it, okay? I can’t read, oh well, what harm could it do?”
“You could be unable to identify which drawer has healing potions when someone is in desperate need of them,” Twilight suggested. prompting a wince from Dash.
“Okay,” she admitted with a shrug, “it was a bad once, but that’s all it really was. Shouldn’t you be focusing on something in important, like finding out what happened? I mean, where does acid just come from?”
Twilight gave her a look to tell Dash that this was by no means over, but she nodded and turned to the place Spike had been stricken. Slipping through the barrier, she kneeled down where he had fallen and murmured quietly, running one hand across a blackened pockmark.
“Magic. There was a lot of acid, and it vanished too quickly to be anything else. Too much for a spell of Acid Splash, and much too strong,” Twilight murmured to herself. Her words suddenly shifted, turning to the strange language she had displayed in her brother’s office. She blinked and the moment her eyelids rose a soft magenta light had tinted the whites of her eyes. She focused her sight on the floor, faint magical energies taking form before her.
Dash sat back, breathing a sigh of relief with the shifting of attention off her. She had always had a difficult relationship with attention; as a thief she worked best when she had no attention on her, but she couldn’t bear the idea of her work going unnoticed. She had to be noticed, she thrilled in being at the centre of attention.
'Look where that got me,' she thought with a scowl. 'A month of making half the nobles in the High District paranoid and setting the thieves guild hunting me, and I end up magically leashed to some spoiled little wizard.'
She was tempted to make a run for it, but Applejack came out at last, her towel replaced by a shirt and trousers. The ranger gave Dash a smile and a nod.
"So, can't read?"
Dash rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, I can't read, why do you both care so much?" she growled quietly.
Applejack made a calming gesture which only really served to aggravate the thief more at the idea she needed to be calmed.
"No need to be defensive Rainbow-"
"I'm not being defensive!" Dash hissed.
"-I'm just curious. Ya’ll're a smart girl, can't have had trouble with it could ya?" Applejack continued like she didn't hear her.
"I just...I left the guild before I could learn, and I was always busy, okay? I had better things to do than sit with burning children in front of a bunch of priests," Dash snarled, forcing herself to keep her voice low.
A muttered curse from Twilight got their attention and delayed Applejack’s response. Twilight straightened with a scowl.
"Long night, I should have come back faster. The aura is gone."
"Somethin' gone wrong sugar?" Applejack asked calmly.
"No, she's clearly so happy," muttered Dash under her breath with a sarcastic lilt to her tone.
"All magic has an aura, and spells leave behind one that lasts a certain amount of time. This one didn't last very long. Okay, I just need to think this through. The effects were clearly not weak; too much and too strong, but the aura didn’t last ten minutes. This puts it in a small range of spell ring to be able to produce the effect of the strength we saw and not leave a long lasting aura. Fifth ring, possibly sixth," Twilight concluded. She tapped her right index finger against her chin as she thought.
"Ya know all that from not findin' anythin'?" Applejack whistled, impressed. "But, uh, what do ya mean 'ring'? Someone used one o' them magic rings?"
"Thank you, and no, 'ring' is an archiac term used to place the strength and complexity of a spell. First ring spells, second ring, etcetera, etcetera. The modern term is level, but I prefer ring." Twilight paced, finger tapping continuing as she contemplated.
Dash and Applejack watched her pace, the whirring of her mind almost audible. Bored, Dash sat on the edge of a table, pushing books back to form a niche around her.
"I need more information, I need to know more about it, narrow down the options..." she muttered to herself.
In the quiet, the avalanche of books as they tipped from the table behind Dash. She coughed, looking away as the other two women looked at her.
"...oops."
Applejack shook her head with a good-natured chuckle, although she stopped when she saw Twilight’s frozen posture.
"Just books sugar, I’m sure it was accident," she reassured the mage quickly.
Twilight ignored her. She stood with wide eyes, staring at the pile of books on the ground.
"That's it. Spike had something to show me. I can't be sure until he wakes up, but I think I have an idea about what it might have been. You two, please put the books back on the table but do not open them. Once you're done, keep an eye on Spike. I need to sweep the rest of the room for any more of these magical traps.” Instructing them as she rose, Twilight began to pace the room, moving to one end and focusing her vision it. As they worked, Applejack and Dash watched Twilight seeming to stare at one area for nearly half a minute before stepping slightly to the side.
Dash twirled a finger next to her ear, mouthing ‘mages’ in the manner of the word ‘crazy’. Biting back a chuckle, Applejack shrugged and kept working. She worked quickly, not letting any one book stay in her hands for too long. If there were anymore traps in these books, she had no interest in finding out. Yet the thought never seemed to occur to Dash, the thief opting instead to focus on being bitter about moving books.
“Twilight, we’re done,” Applejack called.
The mage made an impatient gesture towards Spike’s room without looking up or saying anything. The dismissive nature certainly got a rise out of Dash, who ground her teeth as she followed Applejack towards the room.
“Burning day, that witch is just ordering us about like servants!” she fumed, pacing around Spike’s room. One hand rested on the cloth belt, the other spinning a small ornamental wand of silver, only a few inches long but easily dancing between her nimble fingers.
“She ain’t a witch, an’ technically we kinda are,” Applejack pointed out calmly. She rested a hand on Spike’s forehead for a moment before adjusting her seat on the edge of his bed. “Lil’ fella’s all normal now, might wanna lower your voice.”
Dash snorted. “Normal? Have you even looked at him? He’s got scales. That isn’t normal.”
“Neither is hair like yours.”
That made her stop her pacing. Dash glared at Applejack, though the ranger brushed it off easily which only served to infuriate her more.
“Leave my hair out of this,” the slender girl snapped, “there’s nothing weird about it.”
“Uh-huh. I’ve never seen that many colours in one head of hair, Rainbow. Ya’ll must have stuck out, for a thief.” Applejack kept her tone soft and friendly, her head turned enough to imply she was looking at Spike without letting Dash out of her sight.
“I just covered it up. Not like having this hair ever did me any good. So many idiots think I must have a fortune or something saved up to get dyes and stuff, so all it’s ever given me is trouble.” Dash scowled at the wall, a shelf lined with books doing little to cheer her. “Being too different isn’t safe. Why do you think I didn’t stay in the guild long enough to even to learn to read?”
Applejack opened her mouth to reply, but a quieter voice got in first.
“T-Twilight always tells me being different is just like being the same, only more people are looking at you,” Spike croaked, his voice raspy. He pushed at the covers, forcing himself up. “W-wha-...”
He trailed off in a chorus of harsh coughs that tore at his throat. When his eyes open, it was to find a porcelain mug in front of him, a strong tanned hand holding it up.
“Here ya go kiddo.” Applejack eased it into his hand, hers staying at the base in case his body failed him. She held it as he gulped down precious water, a pang of regret striking her. This reminded her all too strongly of sitting at her little sister’s bedside when the girl was ill. “Ya’ll have us a nasty fright.”
“Yeah, you did.” This surprising admission came from Dash. She wore a sharkish grin as they both looked at her surprise. “You scream like a little girl.”
The dragon-blooded boy glared at her with a defiant pout, massaging his throat with one hand to make sure he could retort without a stutter ruining it.
“At least I can read!”
“Great, I bet that helps heaps when you go and play dress up, little girl!”
Applejack sighed, pressing a hand to her face for a moment as the two children, one presumably an adult and the other surely schooled in manners and etiquette, glared at each other.
“Alright, alright, break it up,” she told them off with a shake of her head.
“I do not sound like a little girl,” Spike insisted stubbornly.
“I know, I know. Ignore her. She’s just jealous ‘cause she never got ta play dress up when she was a lil’ girl. Well, a lil’er girl,” Applejack corrected herself, almost feeling the heated glare being sent at the back of her head by Dash. She smiled when Spike let out a laugh, the youth grinning at her.
“Ha, good one! She so got you!” he taunted the thief, who rolled her eyes.
“Whatever.” Dash brushed it off, but no one was fooled thanks to the way she glared at the wall.
“So, how ya feelin’?” asked Applejack, helping him sit up.
“Alright. I guess. I mean…” he shuddered, “I got a faceful of acid. It...it really hurt.”
His voice went quiet, the boy hugging himself at the memory. Applejack didn’t say anything, just patting him on the shoulder with a sympathetic look.
Spike forced himself to stop thinking about it, looking at her. “I kind of remember some of the other stuff. I think, did you carry me to the bath?”
“Yeah, an’ Rainbow there got the potions to keep ya goin’. Twilight is out there makin’ sure there ain’t no more of whatever it was that got ya, but she’s been right upset ‘bout what happened,” Applejack told him.
“We just stacked up books, because that’s the first step in trying to work out who tried to kill you,” added Dash with a sarcastic lilt and a sneer.
Spike sat there for a moment, frozen with his nearly-clawed hands digging into the quilt. His eyes went wide, the last sight before he was overwhelmed with pain returning to him in a horrible rush.
“Books...it was a book!”
The women looked at him with confused expressions, prompting Spike to rush forward as he pushed back the covers.
“It was a book! The trap was there, when I read it!” He found his progress out of his bed thwarted by Applejack, the ranger easily keeping him there with one hand.
“Now calm down sugar, ya’ll need to stay there. Dash, coulda ya go grab Twilight? She wanted us to get her anyway when he woke up.”
Dash opened her mouth, intending to let Applejack know precisely where she could stick her request, but found herself hesitating. After a moment of indecision she sighed and turned towards the door.
“Yeah, I might as well…” The silver rod spun from her fingers, landing with a clink in a metal cup filled with quills as she vanished through the door.
Twilight was there the moment Dash interrupted her, rushing through to Spike’s room. She swept him into a hug, hard enough for him to let out a half-hearted protest. Standing aside, Applejack concealed a warm smile. Spike was clearly more than just an apprentice to Twilight; she fawned over him like a mother-hen. It took a while for Spike to actually get her to stop fussing so he could tell her what he wanted, by which time Dash had come back and was seated atop the writing desk in one corner of the room.
“Twilight, seriously, stop it. I have to tell you something,” Spike interrupted her as Twilight got started on another list of possible magical injuries.
She pursed her lips, a moment of indecision, before nodding. “Okay then. What did you want to tell me?”
“I think I know what it was that got me. I found the book you were looking for, the one with Jeggare’s essay on sorcerous bloodlines and stuff like that. I opened it up and gave it a read-”
“Explosive runes!” Twilight exclaimed, nodding to herself. “I knew it! Someone sabotaged my book. I’ve never heard of an acidic variant, and how did they know I was going to read it?”
Spike waved his arms, getting her attention before she could get lost in endless ponderings. “Yeah, Twilight, that’s not it. It was the words in there. That wasn’t the book. It was a fake, with ‘guess what spell I prepared today’ written on blank pages.”
That rocked Twilight back for a second. She cupped her chin in one hand, turning over this new information.
“A fake? But why? Perhaps the acidic variant requires a material component within the surface it’s cast on, to transmute the effect from a concussive blast to acid. It would explain why I’ve never heard of this version before, it would be too much effort for most when the normal version would work fine on any surface.” Twilight wrestled with the issue, her gaze turning distant. Spike could only shrug, suddenly uncertain now that she was taking what he said so seriously. Silence fell over the room.
Except for the snickering thief. Twilight glanced at her disapprovingly.Dash didn’t notice.
“Excuse me, but I am trying to do some thinking. If you could quiet yourself, I would appreciate it.” Each word was clipped and precise, all technically said politely but with an undercurrent of annoyance ringing in each syllable.
“Sure,” Dash shrugged, shoulders shaking, “if you wanna keep being wrong, go ahead.”
“Yes, thank you, I-...what did you just say?” Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Wrong?”
“I’m kinda interested myself. Whatcha mean sugar?”
Hands resting behind her head, Dash leaned back and flashed the three a cocky smirk.
“Someone tried to kill you with that spell, but it wasn’t normal, right? If they were just trying to do that, would this weird version be better for it?” she asked instead of answering.
“I...suppose not. The traditional form of the spell of Explosive Runes creates a concussive blast, more than enough to have broken my neck if not my entire skull if I had activated it. The use of acid was pointless.” Despite her annoyance at being told she was wrong, Twilight felt a niggling of something at the edge of her thoughts. A loose thread, a possibility.
Dash nodded. “Right. Someone had to sneak to do this, I guess, and you don’t sneak in without knowing exactly what you’re gonna do. Basic stuff. I scout out a place, work out what I can take, then come back at the best time, slip in, grab it, and I’m gone. Some places, like that one you had the box in, I can’t risk getting in more than once so I can’t do it quite as well, but I still knew in general what I should take. This is the palace. You don’t sneak in here without knowing exactly what you’re gonna do, because you aren’t going to get another try.”
With a flash of insight Twilight realised what the thief was hinting at. She looked at the illiterate thief with a little more respect now. Dash might be a criminal, but she was not a fool.
“There was more to this than just killing me. The additional effort to make the spell acidic could have been put to simply increasing its force if my death was the aim. So using acid had to do something else for whoever did this. It provided them with something the original version could not achieve. They had more than one goal,” Twilight concluded after a moment of thought.
Dash’s smirk grew, but she didn’t say anything. It was clear what she wanted. Applejack rolled her eyes and obliged.
“Okay, ya look like ya know what it is. Come on Dash, spill.”
“I’ve done it before. Well, okay, not like this, but I know what they did,” answered Dash with a dark chuckle. “I’ve only done it a few times, takes a lot of effort to pull off, and never for myself. It’s always been a fancy sort of job I’ve been hired for. Pretty simple though; you take something, replace it with a fake and make sure the fake is going to get ruined or destroyed or something in a way that makes sure no one can recognise it’s not the real thing.”
“What?”
Dash shrugged nonchalantly. “Did a job once, had to take a fancy painting, replace it with a fake, only before I left I made a little crack in the ceiling just above it. Rain poured in, ruined the fake, the owner never even tried to look for a thief. Didn’t know there was one.”
It felt to Twilight like she had suddenly been deprived of air, her entire being freezing. It all clicked into place.
“You’re saying…” she began slowly, “you’re saying someone wanted to kill me and make everyone think my copy of The Magicks of Mortal Descent had been destroyed. Because they have it now, and no one is meant to know that.”
“Whoa...that sounds...evil. I mean, killing you is pretty burning evil-”
“Language, mister.”
Spike rolled his eyes. “Pretty evil, but doing that and trying to steal a book like that? There is someone seriously evil out there.”
Twilight nodded in agreement, one hand resting on his and squeezing it tightly. “There certainly is…” She looked at Dash again, her eyes this time burning with an intense desire.
It took Dash all of six seconds to realise what she wanted, and she responded by pushing back until she was sitting in the middle of the desk, back against the wall.
“No, no. No way. I can’t. This isn’t something I can just do, just give away like a- like a-...okay, I don’t give away so much as the sunlight at noon, but you get the idea. I can’t.”
Twilight stood up, approaching the desk with an urgent look on her face. “Dash, I need you-”
“No, I already said it! I can’t!”
“I need you, Dash,” Twilight repeated firmly, “I need you to tell me who hired you to do those kinds of jobs.”
“And I said I can’t! What don’t you get about that Sparkle? I get by because I pay off the guild and a few power players. Sometimes in gold and valuables, sometimes in favours. But if I rat them out, I’ll be on their list.”
“First of all, you got by like that, you don’t get by that way anymore. For the duration of your time with me, you are in service to me, you are no longer a thief in the slums. Second; you are under my protection, and that means you are under Her protection.” Twilight pointed at the wall behind Dash and she turned just a little bit to look.
A painting of the rising sun silhouetting a robed figure of white with a wild mane of green, pink and blue greeted her. “What…” It took a few seconds for the meaning to get across.
Applejack nearly tripped over herself without moving. She understood too.
“Princess Celestia. I did say I was her apprentice, didn’t I?” Twilight’s tone was just a touch smug.
Dash shook her head, trying to regain the initiative. “Y-you can’t be! You’re lying.”
“Twilight isn’t a liar!” Spike piped up aggressively, glaring at her. “She’s the royal apprentice!”
“Then how does she have her own apprentice, huh? Even I know that it doesn’t work like that,” spat Dash.
“It does in this case” Twilight explained. “The royal apprentice isn’t like an ordinary apprentice. Most royal apprentices spend their whole lives, or at least most of them, as such, while achieving the ranks of archmage or master wizard. I will likely remain Celestia’s apprentice until I retire of old age-”
Spike snorted. “You, retire!”
“Shush you. Until I retire of old age in the very distant future. I am most certainly her apprentice, and if you were harmed because of something you did for me, it would be not be tolerated. Dash, you are safer now than you have ever been.” Twilight approached the wary thief. “Believe me, I don’t have any ulterior motives here. I just want to know who hurt Spike, and why.”
Dash hesitated. She knew Twilight could make her tell, so all this convincing was pointless. So far Twilight had only used the magic holding her prisoner once, when she tried to run off. The dark skinned wizard stood there, looking entirely inoffensive and not the slightest bit hostile.
‘It’s a trick...’ Dash told herself. ‘It has to be.’
“Rainbow, tell her. There’s lives at stake.” Applejack unexpectedly intruded on the conversation. She wore a serious expression as she looked at her fellow criminal. “If someone was willin’ to kill once, they’re gonna try again. I know ya don’t want that to happen.”
“You don’t know anything!” Dash snapped back, temper flaring. It was only a brief flash of anger, a moment of heat that died down and took her will to argue with it. A sigh escaped her. “Fine.”
“You’ll tell me?” asked Twilight hopefully.
Dash shrugged, “yeah, I guess. You could just make me tell you anyway,” she muttered.
“But I won’t,” Twilight answered quietly. “Forced cooperation isn’t going to help you become a better person, and if I just force you to do what I say there’s no value to anything you do. Please, Dash, I would like you to tell me.”
The thief mulled it over for a moment before sighing. “Yeah, sure, whatever. Just this once though, and you better not send guards around there; I’m no rat.”
Twilight gently pulled her off the desk, sitting down and taking a quill from the stand. With a flick of her finger she broke the seal on the inkwell.
“Thank you, thank you very much. If you could write down the-oh.” Twilight blushed, pulling back the quill she had been about to offer to Dash. “My mistake. If you could just tell me the names, addresses and any pertinent facts about these people you can, I would appreciate it.”
Her expression turning dark for a moment, Dash let her head droop.
“Okay, couple of things; one, I don’t know what ‘pertinent’ means, so I have no idea what you want-”
“Pertinent; relevant or significantly important and directly related to-”
Dash cut Twilight off, shoving a hand in her face to shut her up.
“The other thing,” she continued irritatedly, “is that you can’t go. They see some fancy noble coming they’ll be gone before you get within shouting distance. They don’t know you, and most of them are pretty shifty.”
“If they do know her, it’ll be even worse,” Spike volunteered. At the confused looks from Applejack and Dash, his chest puffed up with pride. “Me and Twilight-”
“Twilight and I, young man.”
“Gah, quit it! Okay, okay, ‘Twilight and I’ help out Shining Armour with investigations and stuff. Well, mostly Twilight, but I help too. Anyway, it’s thanks to Twilight that some big stuff has been found and bad guys thrown in jail. It’s so cool! I bet at least some of them will know who Twilight is, and they’d totally run off if she came to their door.” Spike snickered. He was clearly imagining criminals fleeing Twilight in fear, and by the grin on his face Twilight was winning the mental skirmish.
“Riiiight.” Applejack looked at Dash, lifting an eyebrow quizzically. “If Twilight can’t go cause they don’t know her, or ‘cause they might, I’m guessin’ she needs to send someone they do know, an’ the only one ‘round here like that is you.”
“Yeah, I know. The sooner the better. The longer I’m gone, the more suspicious anyone back in the midden will be. I mean, they’ll be pretty damn suspicious after guards carried me out for everyone to burning see,” she hissed the last part bitterly.
That, to her surprise, brought a smile to Twilight’s face.
“Actually, no one should be aware. I carried you out.”
The other three people in the room didn’t say anything, but they all looked at her thin, unmuscled limbs concealed within the voluminous robe. Twilight looked between them as they stared at her, her cheeks going red after a moment when she realised the silent skepticism.
“I used magic to increase my strength. It’s not like you weigh all that much,” she answered their unasked question huffily.
“You used one of your scrolls?” Spike scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Bull’s Strength, right?”
Twilight smiled at him in pleasure. “Exactly right.” She turned back to Dash. “No one should have seen you being taken.”
“But someone will know. We left the anthill, someone would have seen me. Long night! I’m gonna have to do so much damage control if I want to keep from having the guild after me,” Dash complained, rubbing her forehead. She could imagine the headache of dealing with all this.
“Then you two better get to work.”
Dash stuck a finger in her ear to make sure she had heard right. “You ‘two’?”
Twilight nodded. “Yes. If there’s a chance of your previous associates not receiving your inquiries in a reasonable way, Applejack can help keep you safe. Applejack, your equipment that was confiscated should be here soon. Once you have it, you two can set off. I’ll show you out, using one of the back entrances.”
It took half an hour for the promised equipment to arrive, and Dash spent the whole time doing her best to explain why Applejack’s presence was unneeded.
“I’m sorry, Dash, but I have to be sure. You are my responsibility now, just as much as Spike is, and I can’t put you at risk. It would be irresponsible of me, both towards you and to my duty to make sure you turn over a new leaf,” Twilight informed the frustrated thief.
“Oh, so you don’t trust me, I knew it!” Dash stabbed a finger at her in an accusatory gesture.
Behind them, Applejack was busy going over her things, showing off her armoured leather coat and the sheathed greatsword to Spike.
Twilight sighed. “Would you trust? Magic might restrict you, but you still have a mind of your own and there’s nothing I can do to change who you are. You are a thief, and you have already made one attempt to escape. Applejack will keep you safe and keep an eye on you.”
Grumbling under her breath, Dash glared at the wall.
“-an’ this was my Ma’s sword- oh, we goin’ now?” Applejack buckled the large sword to her back, giving Spike a grin when he ‘awww’d at the chance to gawk at the weapon some more. “Ya’ll can look at it when we get back. Heck, if things don’t go well ya might get to see what it looks like covered in bloo-”
“Okay, time to go!” Twilight interrupted, grabbing Applejack by the shoulder and tugging her towards the door. The larger woman went along with it, chuckling. Twilight really didn’t know anything about swords, it seemed.
*
Dash and Applejack trudged through the city.
“So, I never asked, why did ya call this place the midden?” Applejack wondered idly.
Dash, her hair hidden in a drab headcloth, shrugged. “We’re not there yet, but you’ll find out.” She looked up curiously. “You probably came in through the midden gate, you should know.”
“So it is ‘cause of the smell. I came in through the southern gate, that the one ya mean?”
They crossed through the tidy streets, Applejack looking more out of place than her companion. Although not fancy, Dash wore old cast offs of Twilight’s, things she had for whatever reason not thrown away, and they were of quality make. The ranger, however, was adorned in a tough, worn armoured leather coat that reached to her knees and similarly worn leathers underneath, with her large sword doing little to make her less conspicuous.
“Yeah, near the gate in the midden is where all the garbage is thrown, and it’s where all the farmers arrive, so we call it what it is,” Dash answered. She stopped for a moment and glanced back the way they came. The towering edifice that formed the High Wall greeted her, the towers of the High District and the peak of Canterlot Mountain spearing into the sky behind it. The nobles lived very much above the rest of the city, tiered off higher up the mountain.
“So, where we headin’?”
Dash looked over to the rustic warrior with a snort.
“First, we’re heading to one of my stashes. I show up like this, everyone is going to take notice. Way better than I normally wear, better than what anyone down there wears. I’m going to attract enough attention with a sword-toting rube following me about,” complained the thief yet again.
Applejack just chuckled and patted her shoulder, urging her on.
“It’ll work out. If anyone of ‘em do take issue with me,” her grip tightened, “I’ll show ‘em the same thing I showed that bastard son of a whore who tried to drug me. Only this time, I won’t forget to take my sword out first.”
“And that’s why we’re keeping clear of Red Palm’s territory. If he sees you, and recognises you, he’s going to go crazy if you really did all that to him. He’s not a guy to take being humiliated lying down. Trust me, I know.” Despite her words and outward demeanour, something about Applejack made the thief feel safer. Since she didn’t often feel safe, it was quite the change for her.
“That scum-sucker has territory?” Applejack asked incredulously.
Dash rolled her eyes. “Rube. Yeah, he runs one of the gangs. Long night, don’t you know anything?” She sighed in mock-disgust. “The midden is run by a bunch of folks. The thieves guild is the biggest player; there are too many gangs with their own little areas to fight. The ‘guild’ pretty much keeps control of things by making sure all the gangs toe the line most of the time and don’t kick over the Anthill.”
“Anthill?”
“The guard fort; the anthill. No one wants them deciding they need to ‘restore order’ or some burning madness like that,” Dash explained. She glanced down at her feet as they walked. The shoes she had been practically forced to wear had been uncomfortable, so when Applejack wasn’t looking she ditched them. Bare feet felt much nicer.
“I see. So, the thieves are strongest?” As she asked, Applejack envisioned possible enemies and planned against them. ‘Like fightin’ bandits, only city-folk bandit.’
That made Dash laugh, loud enough to get a few looks from others. She eventually stiffled her amusement, snickering under her breath for a bit longer.
“What?” Applejack demanded, confused by the reaction.
“Nah, freckles, not strong. The guild is able to pay off most of the gangs, and any gang that doesn’t take their gold would have to deal with all the other gangs that did.” Dash laughed again. “The guild doesn’t like stand up fights. Too much risk of exposure. Better to knife someone in the back and make the body vanish.”
Applejack grimaced. She didn’t like how casually her companion said that. Murder was not something so...easy. At least, it shouldn’t be. She felt a predatory grin threaten to replace her grimace; if any of Dash’s associates tried the same thing on the slender thief, they were going to find the task far, far less easy.
Maybe she would even get to show Spike a bloody sword.
*
“So, have you told them?”
Twilight frowned, closing the door behind her as she re-entered her room. Spike looked up from his book for a moment before going back to reading it, just leaving his question and the front two legs of his chair wavering in the air.
“Feet off the table. If I tell any of the guards, Shining will know and if he finds out you know he’ll have a dozen guards around us at every moment. Remember the time with the assassin?” She strode into the room, looking at the book he was reading before nodding in approval.
Spike looked up at her, frowning in annoyance. “I didn’t mean the guards. I mean them; Applejack and Rainbow Dash.”
“Her name is Dash,” she corrected him absently. “Told them what?”
“Their magic. I mean, come on, that’s the whole reason you did this thing. Which I still don’t understand, by the way. The arcane colleges are meant to deal with untapped sorcerers, right? Why not just let them deal with it?” he asked.
Twilight sighed, sitting down across from him. “I…”
His book snapped shut, the dragonblooded boy watching her curiously. Words were Twilight’s forte, so when she didn’t have any it was hard not to pay attention.
“I don’t know.”
Spike, the front legs of his chair slowly rising as he leaned back, nearly lost his balance.
“You don’t know?!” His nails dug shallow grooves into the desk as he pulled himself forward.
She didn’t even tell him off for that, which made him even more worried. Twilight just sighed again.
“I don’t know. I really don’t. I feel a...connection to them. It’s hard to explain. I was hoping I could find something in The Magicks of Descent, perhaps they have a bloodline related to mine, or even from the same source. Something like that.” Twilight shrugged, dropping her head to the table.
Spike slowly dragged his chair over, which took longer than he liked. He winced, exhaustion overcoming him and he slumped down next to her.
“Maybe you just want to make some friends who aren’t your brother or an orphan you’ve looked after for most of his life?” He suggested.
“Yes, so the best choice is a thief who can’t read and thinks I’m some callous noble plotting to do something horrible to her and a rustic ranger who beat up a bunch of men in a tavern,” Twilight deadpanned, reaching over to muss his hair gently. “Clearly.”
“You should still tell them. The sooner the better. I mean, what if Rainbow Dash-”
“Dash.”
“I like Rainbow Dash better. What if she finds out later on? If you don’t tell her now, she’ll hold it against you for not doing so,” he pointed out.
“...” Twilight stared at the table top for a moment.
“Twilight?”
“I...already did. I mean, I mentioned it to her when she was in the cell. That’s how I know she doesn’t realise it. I don’t think either of them do. She was surprised. It explains how I was able to track her. Her magical abilities are just on the verge of fully awakening, hence all the magical energy she leaves everywhere. Did you use Detect Magic around her?” Twilight asked, naming the same spell she had used to inspect the trap’s aura.
Spike shook his head.
“She has a constant magical aura around her. Applejack isn’t quite the same, but I’m sure what I saw when she overcame my spell was her bloodline in effect. Increased magical power, increased ability to fight off magic.” She massaged her forehead. “I really wish I had another copy of The Magicks of Descent, but it’s so rare. The only other copy I can think of is Time Turner’s.”
“So let’s go get it from him. He’s awesome!” Spike grinned, despite the tiredness he felt. Being nearly killed by magic acid and drinking half a dozen healing potions really took it out of him-
He shuddered, flashes of that traumatic pain flashing back into his mind. For a moment it felt real, like he had been doused in acid all over his chest, eating into his face and neck and-
Twilight drew him over to her, pulling the gangly youth onto her lap and wrapping her arms around his shaking form. She ran a hand through his green hair, not saying anything until his shaking subsided.
“S-sorry...I just…” He sniffed, brushing wetness from his eyes.
“It’s fine. Are you okay now?” She held onto him for a moment, not letting him go right away.
“Yeah, I-I’m fine, keep going. Time Turner has a copy of that book?”
Twilight gave him a sharp look. “Spike. If this happens again, let me know. We used a lot of potions, and you would be scarred if you weren’t naturally resistant to acid. That must have been traumatic.”
He rolled his eyes, pulling away and dropping heavily back into his seat. “Yeah yeah, whatever, I’m fine. So, Time Turner, book, let’s go get it. Maybe he’ll tell us another story?”
“Spike…” Twilight sighed. This discussion was for later. She gave him a soft smile. “Yes, maybe he would, but I think we’ve heard all of them, from him and Shining. How many times do you need to hear about how the three of them defeated the Everfree Stalker, slew the Fire King and outwitted the False-Priest of Trottingham?”
“There’s never too many times! I wish I could meet Mac too, he sounds awesome...wait…” Spike trailed off for a moment, narrowing his eyes at her. “You’re trying to distract me! Why don’t you want to go get his copy?”
Twilight grimaced. ‘I taught him too well.’ “Alright, fine. Spike, what if he asks what happened to my copy? The copy he helped me find? What do I say?”
“That it was...oh.” He winced.
“I can’t lie to him, he’ll see straight through it. If I tell him the truth, he’ll definitely tell Shining Armour, and, well…” Twilight hesitated. “I don’t want to tell him I lost it,” she admitted.
Spike laughed, leaning back and barely bothering to cover his mirth.
“He’ll be so disappointed, and I just can’t face that right now. I’ll inquire about other copies, and if I really need it, we can go to him. Now stop laughing, I need you to help me find something.” She stood up, ruffling his hair again.
He dragged himself to his feet, groaning like an old man, and followed her towards the library area.
“What are we looking for?” To his confusion, she led him to the small, out of the way shelf where books Twilight deemed not useful were kept. Most were copies of non-academic works, in particular the small range of books that circulated among the nobility for children. Despite her lack of interest or reason to keep them, it went against the grain for Twilight to simply get rid of any book. They sat, forlorn and unused, on their own little shelf where they could come to no harm. Until now, at least.
She graced him with a small smile. “Which book did I use to teach you to read?”
*
Applejack and Dash, the thief now appropriately attired in ragged clothes and complaining that being clean made her stick out, approached the area of the city lovingly named the midden. The piles of garbage that served to supply the farmland to the south with fertilizer rested near the wall, but the smell reached far. It dominated most of the wedge that formed the slum south of the city-dividing Sun’s Road, expanding until it hit the southern wall.
“Don’t meet anyone’s eyes. They’ll take it as a challenge.” Dash was busy informing her companion how life worked in the slums.
Applejack scowled. “What, are they wolves or somethin’? Anyone wants to pick a fight, I’ll just-”
“Yeah, cut ‘em up with your pigsticker and attract everyone’s attention,” Dash interrupted. “We’re trying to, y’know, be subtle about this. Come on, the first guy I want to see lives right on the edge, it’s not far away.”
Shaking her head, Applejack followed along. Despite the bustle of the late afternoon, Applejack was surprised that Dash didn’t try to lose her. She had been expecting half her job here to be to track down the thief at some point. It wasn’t very trusting of her, but Dash’s only motivation not to get away was the magic laid over them both.
“Wait out here,” instructed the local girl, stopping at a corner. She peeked around, checking the street, and pointed to a certain building. “I’m going in there. Shifty should be home, he’s only active at night.”
“How am I gonna know if ya need help if I’m all the way out here?” the ranger asked, eyes scanning the street for threats.
Dash grinned. “If I come running out screaming ‘help!’, I’m sure you can pick up on it, freckles.”
Applejack snorted and nodded, leaning against the wall casually. She didn’t contrive to be unintrusive; she was well experienced in simply fading into the darkness of a forest. A city might be different, but the same principles applied; if you tried to be unseen, you were an oddity, exactly what beasts searching in the shadows for foes were looking for. She just relaxed, calm, at peace, nothing to draw attention. Her eyes tracked Dash, watching her vanish into a narrow alley barely big enough for the lithe thief to slip through.
Dash didn’t bother with the door; it would have been odd for her if she did. Instead she slipped into his home through a window, nimbly climbing up the wall after slipping down the narrow alley between buildings.
“Dash. Been a while.”
She paused halfway through the window, looking up with a grin.
“Hey, Shifty, what’s up?” she asked casually, dropping to the floor.
Clad in the shadows, Shifty didn’t lower his crossbow. “Well, I’m wondering what you’re doing here. I don’t remember coming to you about a job.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m here about, actually.” Dash dropped into a chair, the beaten wood furniture rattling under even her light impact. “Things are kinda tight right now, and last night…”
He barked a laugh. “High District last night was you? Should have waited until later in the night, around dawn. Never trusted sundown myself, too close to the day.”
Relaxing to show him she wasn’t about to do anything, Dash shrugged nonchalantly. There was barely anything in the room, but she had planned on that, going for the room she knew he kept empty. It was his business room, with nothing to distract the wandering eyes or twitching fingers of his hirelings.
“So, you want a job?” He asked. Still, his crossbow didn’t lower. Shifty was nothing if not paranoid.
“Yeah, last time I did something for you all I had to do was knick a painting and put a little hole in the wall. Burning day, that was great. I heard how the guy lost his mind when he found his painting ruined,” she laughed, grinning. “Awesome plan.”
Shifty allowed himself a slightly smug smile as he stepped from the shadows. There was, upon even close inspection, nothing that interesting about him save that he looked far older than her, his hair beginning to gray at the temple. He could have fit into any crowd, and his only slightly frayed clothing told of a life more prosperous than most in the midden. The crossbow, by comparison, was in perfection condition.
“Yes, well, I do like to credit myself with a little bit of wisdom in this area. What’s better than a theft no one will ever detect? So, what sort of job are you looking for? I don’t have anything in mind for your talents right now, but I might know someone who does.”
Dash shrugged again. “Eh, something like that. That’s why I came to you first, I mean, how many others could know a trick like that?”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “Oh, there’s a few.”
“Like?” She asked it lazily, making idle conversation.
It took him a moment to answer. “A few. Why so curious?”
The pale girl fixed him with a slightly mocking look. “Because I want a job like that. What, your memory going in your old age?”
To her surprise he flinched. It was less the gesture itself than the fact she saw that gesture. Shifty was an expert at dealing with his fellow criminals, and givng away a sore point was just asking for trouble.
“Maybe it is, and maybe I don’t have time for impudent little girls,” he growled, his tone suddenly hostile and the hand around the crossbow trigger tensing.
Dash held her hands up, fighting back surprise, as she gestured to him to calm down.
“Burning day, it was just a joke! Calm down,” she snarled back.
After a moment, the tension in the room growing palpable, he sagged suddenly. The anger seemed to just drain away.
“Just a joke, sure,” he muttered, lifting one hand to rub at his forehead. “Yeah, there’s a few. Grapple Hook. Trap Sense. Hot Property. Those three know the trick. They might have a job like that for you. Now get out of here, I’ve got things to do.”
He directed her with his crossbow, and despite the rudeness Dash nodded and got up.
“Thanks Shifty, I’ll let ‘em know you sent me their way and if I do a job, you’ll get your share.”
Shifty just grunted and nodded towards the window again. “Whatever. Get going.”
Applejack watched the building, her focus on the narrow alley Dash had slipped into. The girl hadn’t appeared, and despite herself she was growing worried. What if Dash had run off? She hoped this wasn’t the case. The streets had started to empty as dusk approached, a quiet moment in the city’s endless cycle.
She only heard the barest hint of movement, and she was spinning around instantly, drawing her sword. She would have cut her erstwhile companion in two, had Dash not dodged away at the last moment.
Applejack glared. “Girl, what in the long night are ya’ll thinkin’, sneakin’ up on me like that!” she scolded. “Coulda cut ya up open like a pig.”
“Put that thing away and let’s get out of here,” Dash hissed, wrapping her fingers in Applejack’s coat and pulling her away. “I got what I came for, don’t attract attention.”
“I wouldn’t be attractin’ attention if ya didn’t try to sneak up on me,” Applejack retorted. She shoved her weapon back into its sheath and pulled Dash’s hand off her. “Where we goin’?”
“Try? I did sneak up on you,” said Dash, ignoring the question.
“Until I nearly turned ya into two halves instead a’ one whole. Sneakin’ up ain’t no good if ya’ll are gonna get killed anyway. Where are we goin’?” the ranger all but demanded, jerking Dash to a stop with a hand on her shoulder.
“One of the guys Shifty told me knows this trick, Trap Sense. Don’t work with him much, but we have time to make a stop at his place before nightfall.” Glancing back at her, Dash gave Applejack a smug look. “Hey freckles, ten silver says I find a clue or something before we get back to Sparkle.”
“You’re on, Rainbow, just because if ya got a bet to win ya might try harder,” Applejack agreed with a smirk.
The smell grew as they entered the midden proper, the buildings showing some signs of disrepair. Despite that, it was surprisingly clean thanks to the large, centralised waste area. The aqueducts that characterised Canterlot still ran through the slums, but they were few and far between compared to more prosperous districts.
The sun was vanishing over the horizon when they stopped again. The pits that formed the refuse piles were only a few blocks away, and Applejack’s nose wrinkled.
“I’ve smelled worse, but not by much.”
Dash rolled her eyes. “Trust me, you don’t want to actually go there. Working in the pits is the shittiest job in the city, and I don’t just mean it sucks.” She twiddled her fingers. “These little things mean I’ve never had to.”
She pointed towards a rundown shack, a small home that seemed barely able to support its own weight.
“Trap Sense should be in there. You wait out here again, I’ll shout or something if I need you. Which I won’t. Again.”
Applejack shook her head and slapped the thief’s shoulder, gesturing for her to go. “As ya keep sayin’. Now get along already.”
Giving the ranger a smug smirk, Dash crossed the street, not going into the shack but passing by another debilitated building. Applejack could only assume she was circling around, taking a deceptive route to draw off suspicion and misdirect any watchers. Including, perhaps, Applejack.
She was at least half right, as Dash climbed up the wall of one building once she was out of sight, nimbly climbing along the ruined roofing and dropping down the other side, onto the edge of Trap Sense’s home. She kept an eye out as she gingerly lowered herself through a window, knowing he wasn’t called Trap Sense for nothing. For once, however, she didn’t have to dodge any darts of sharpened pieces of wood, launching from nowhere thanks to a wayward foot coming down on a very inconveniently placed wire.
Dropping to the floor she cast her eye across the room. Nothing of interest here. Dash couldn’t resist glancing in a few of the boxes stacked here. They were stuffed with wood and metal, but not any kind that was useful to her. Wooden stakes, little metal rings that were doubtless part of some mechanism, that sort of useless debris. Trap Sense would throw it together into one of the traps he was infamous for. There was nothing he loved more than stealing into a home or vault, disabling any traps they had lying about, taking everything of value and then setting up his own traps. His rundown home showed exactly how bad a business model this was.
She stepped into the next room, ears alert for any wayward sounds. There was something wrong. If he was home, he should have either noticed her or she should have noticed him.
The creak of a rusted hinge shot through the air. Dash moved before she thought, dropping to the floor. Her hands hit the ground, each spread wide, and she throw her weight forward into a roll. Despite her display of acrobatic evasion, she was sorely disappointed by the lack of thuds as bolts buried into the wood, darts bouncing off the floor or cleverly concealed axes cutting through the air.
“O~okay…” Dash murmured, creeping towards the door on all fours. It hung half open, and as she approached it a familiar, coppery smell reached her nose. She forced down any thoughts about backing out away. It might smell of blood, but for all she knew Trap Sense had finally had an accident and lost another finger. She eased the door open, the ancient hinge making the task harder than it should have been, and slowly rose to her feet as she stepped into the room.
A quiet curse escaped Dash’s lips as she stared down at the body. Trap Sense lay in a growing pool of his own blood, its source a terrible wound where his heart should be, staring up with an expression of curious surprise, like something very confusing but utterly fascinating was happening to him. In a sense, it was.
“Burning day…” she growled, running a hand under her head-cloth and through her hair. “You just had to be dead, didn’t you? Couldn’t make this easy on me for once?”
Fuming, her ears filled with the sound of her own cursing, Dash ignored the creak of the door behind her as it slowly swung shut. Her eyes fixed on the murdered trapmaker, she couldn’t see the black-clad form clinging to the back of the door, the gnarly, pointed snout smeared with blood peeking through it’s face cover or the pair of distinctly gleamless throwing stars clutched in one gloved hand. Its beady red eyes swam with contempt, and with a deceptively flippant twitch it sent the matte blades spinning towards the unfortunate thief’s back.
*
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I don't get to guess? Aww man.
Jeez, I'm surprised that the guard isn't out for his blood.
Another great chapter, THE SUSPENSE THOUGH!
A gem to see this one updated, and heh, we might get to see a bit of that magic soon it seems.
Oh bugger all cliff hangers and the leaving of your readers on the edge of their various seats... Can't wait for more now x_x;;
cliff