Vendetta

by SonicRainboom1

Chapter One: Reflection

I lean against a chimney, overlooking Canterlot with an unwavering gaze, or so I like to think. The target was said to be passing on this street in about ten minutes. Letting out a deep breath, I watched the mist disperse in to the chill night air.

Crouching down, I make sure that my blade is in perfect condition. I hadn't failed an assassination yet, and I wouldn't let this be my first failure. I stroke my hoof along the leather bracer, pressing the catch that thrusted the blade out at an alarming speed. Rubbing a cloth along the metal, I'm satisfied that the blade was not chipped or scratched. Forcing my wrist down, the blade goes back in to the sheath hidden in the bracer. Pulling my wrist back, it comes out again. Perfect. I do the same with the other bracer. Satisfied with the state of my weapons, I close my eyes for a moment, letting my thoughts drift back to when I was a child.

Heh. My childhood wasn’t much. Sure, I had loving parents, a roof over my head, and a dream. What more could a little filly want?

I sigh. How did I get here? How did I go from an innocent little filly to a trained assassin? I ask myself every day.

I remember hitting the floor, and freezing. Did whatever was out there hear me? I grabbed my photo from under the pillow, running over to the closet. I tried really hard not to make any sound as I closed the door. I hid underneath a pile of clothes, and listened as the hoofsteps got closer. I peeked out from between the clothes and through the crack in the door. I could see a shadowy figure in a cloak slowly approaching my bed. Seeing it empty, they looked to the left, where I had gotten out. And on the floor they saw my photo, dropped carelessly on the floor as I ran to my closet. They now knew where I was, but I could not care at that point. I watched in horror as the shadowy figure stomped on my photo, shattering the glass and scattering pieces all around my room. Lines of tears were already streaming down my face, making dark spots on the closet's carpet.

They then turned their attention to the closet. I watched them pad ever closer, and could make out the eyes, tinged just about the same colour as mine. Those eyes narrowed - they had found mine. I trembled as they arrived at the door, and reached for the handle.

More thumping from the living room. More of them? I let out an audible sob. But then, the shadowy figure looked to my door and as soon as they appeared, they were gone through my window, the glass from my window mixing with the glass from my shattered dreams. Hoofsteps came towards the closet, purposeful this time, and opened the door. Two beige hooves shuffled through the pile of clothes and picked me up. I squirmed, bit and clawed, crying all the while. They brought me in to the middle of my room, where there more of these strangely clothed people. They all had clothing matching their coat colours, and the one in beige, after putting me down, started speaking. They pulled their hood back, revealing a mare with a poofy mane of pink and indigo hair with startling turquoise eyes. I had stopped squirming at this point, so stunned that I didn't have any tears left.

"You may not know it, but we saved your life today."

That was obvious enough for me, even in my shaky state.

"That one that killed your parents today is an assassin. We do not know who they are, but we are trying our best to track down and kill them. The people you see around you are also assassins. But you don't need to be afraid of us, because we are assassins of the Sanctuary. We don't kill in cold blood - we kill for a purpose."

I was still shaking from the shock of everything, but I kept myself together, and I couldn't really understand what she was saying, but I got the gist of it. You have no family. We are good. They are bad. A pang of sadness, grief and loneliness hit me as I remembered that my parents were dead. Gone, forever.

"We can't leave you here alone, and we can't bring back your family. But what we can offer is a home. A new family, one where you are understood, loved, and put to use. You will be clothed, fed, and given a roof to reside under. What do you say?" She smiled and held out her hoof.

All those things she was offering.. I had them less than ten minutes ago. I could just go to the orphanage; food, clothing, and a roof over my head would all be provided. But there was one thing she was offering that the orphanage wouldn't.

A purpose. Something clicked then. I realized then that I would never join the Wonderbolts. It's strange - I realized all too well when I was in the closet that dreams don't matter. All that matters is the looming shadow of death that will soon come to take you, no matter what you do to stop it. You have to make friends with death, and what a better way to do so than be his servant. I nodded, and she lifted me up and put me in to the arms of a mint green robed unicorn, who for some reason was walking on two legs. I promptly fell asleep in her arms. It's funny how I fell asleep in the arms of an assassin the night my parents were murdered by one.

It's also funny how fast you mature once everything you love is smashed to bits in a matter of minutes.

I woke up the next morning in a soft warm bed. I looked up, expecting to see sun shining in through my window, and my dad coming in to tickle me like he usually did in the morning. Then the events from the night before came rushing in like an overpowering wave of grief and confusion. But the green one was there to comfort me. She said her name was Lyra, and that everything was all right. She brought me to the beige one, who they called Bon Bon.

From that day forth, I was an assassin. They taught me how to protect myself, and how to quickly dispatch of others. Slowly, the person I was before came back, and I like to think I've never changed from that moment on.

I open my eyes, and see the moon much lower in the sky than I would have liked. I strain my ears, and I can hear the sound of hooves clattering off of the cobblestones down the road, growing ever fainter.

"Ah, buck." I spring up and set off along the rooftops, hopping from roof to roof with remarkable speed, aided by my wings. I see my target start to speed up. They must be nearing their destination! I urge myself to go faster, and give one final leap, clearing 2 buildings at once, and land without a sound. It's then out of the corner of my eye I see a dark figure hustling off in to the darkness down a dark alleyway. I look back at the pony I was following, who looks back at me with a quizzical expression.

"Rainbow, what are you doing in Canterlot late at night? And what's with your new getup? Ahh... I see. Haha, you really need to let the whole Wonderbolts thing go, Dash. You're way beyond them! Anyways, I gotta get back to the castle. I'm visiting the princess, and she wanted me to pick up a few books. Alright, seeya around!" The purple unicorn ran off, not giving me any time to explain myself. Well, she did a lot better job of covering me then I would have done anyways. I'm already making my way towards the alleyway I saw the shadow in.

It's at times like this I love my job. Heh, could it be called a job? Whatever - the cold night air, the wind in my face, and the excitement of the hunt is enough to keep me happy. As I leap over the passage, I see the figure huddled in the shadows. Attempting to hide, so that I might pass by? But wait - I can use this. I keep going past the alleyway for a little bit, making sure to be somewhat loud. Then I backtrack, being quiet this time. I'm rewarded with the figure running down the road with the look of frightened prey.

I run silently across the rooftops, and when I'm close enough, I extend my wings, gliding effortlessly to the point just in front of the target. As I touch down, the figure spins around and attempts to run, but at this point, it's over. I'm on them in under a second, my blade extended and poised to pierce the chest cavity. Thrusting upwards, I hold the target for a couple of seconds. The pony slumps down and is still, and I drop them with a satisfying thump.

I clean my blade quickly and run up the wall of a building, landing somewhat gracefully on the roof. It's a little trick I've been trying to learn. Use the momentum of my legs to stick to the wall, and use my wings to get enough lift to have the illusion of running up the wall. It's very intimidating when I'm facing more than one attacker.

I'm running back to the Sanctuary, when my mind strays to my target, and I asked myself the usual questions. Who were they that they knew that I would be going after them? Were they doing something wrong? I was never told who my targets were before hand, as was custom. Sentiments could not come before the Sanctuary. Dropping down to the street level, I open a door to an abandoned house on the outskirts of Canterlot. I walk over to a bookcase hidden near the back of the house. Pushing one of the books in swings open the bookcase to reveal a stairway leading down in to the darkness.
As I swivel the bookcase back in to place, I hear an audible click. I'm now safe. I begin to walk down the winding stairway illuminated by torches. On the left wall, there are occasional holes in the wall where I can see eyes confirming my presence. The Sanctuary is secure - no attack has ever been successful. Well, it's not as if we have that many enemies - most people know of us as a rumour of cloaked figures in the night, and we like to keep it that way.

I reach the bottom of the stairway and walk into the heart of our Sanctuary. To my left and right are pools of bubbling water, fed by an underground spring. Around the pools are a few new to our order; meditation is very important to us, as it meant complete control over our minds, and therefore our bodies.

I walk over the bridge between the pools and in to a large center area, referred to as the Arena. Personally, I don't think it's much of an arena at all, but it serves its purpose. The ground is worn dirt, with a row of benches all around it. There was the armoury nearby, a small wooden structure that housed our weapons that we weren't carrying. The Arena is where we practice our combat skills. I didn't really need the lessons, as I almost never was in combat with more than one person - I got the single assassinations most of the time. The room itself was made of simple grey cobblestone, but it was bathed gold in the light of the numerous torches set in to the walls.

I see that there is a fight in progress in the Arena - most likely just a practise bout. I pick a seat on one of the benches, next to a unicorn in pure white robes. I cast a glance over at her, and she looks back at me with startlingly red eyes shrouded by a mop of blue hair. She smiles, seemingly as if she were mocking me in her mind, and turns her attention back to the fight. A grey robed pony looks accusingly at me with her violet eyes from the other side of the arena, and I can't help but smile myself - why is she looking at me like that?

I disregard the now seemingly fuming pony and try to concentrate on the fight. This seems to be a friendly match, as the two don't seem to be very aggressive in their attacks. The one in the light orange robes takes a lunge, but the other pony in grey robes leaps out of the way and taps the other on the flank with the blocks of wood we used in place of our blades for Arena matches. Two more hits until the match is over.

The orange one glares at the other with emerald green eyes, and feints to the right. The grey one expects it and twirls in the other direction, but the orange one keeps thrusting and scores a hit on her opponent's chin.

The people seated on the benches give a nod to the pony in orange; she has won. A score on the head means an instant win in the Arena. I give her a pat on the back as she leaves, and notice that she puts her arm around the pony in grey, who looks up at her with sparkling yellow eyes. They walk off to the bed chambers, as do everyone else. It's time to turn in for the night, as most ponies had contracts to get to tomorrow.

I stand up, and the filly I was sitting beside touches me on the shoulder, and I turn around to look at her. Those red eyes convey a kind of childishness most would deem out of place in an assassin.

"Heya! I'm called Vinyl Scratch, and that filly over there givin' you the funny look is Octavia. She kinda... has a thing for me, if you know what I mean. Don't mind her." She looked at me with a puzzling face. "Why the long face?"

I open my eyes a little bit more. They were almost completely closed at this point, I was numb from exhaustion. "Hey Scratch. I'm Rainbow Dash... and I'm just tired, not depressed. So uhhh... you two.. you know..." I smashed my hooves together rather clumsily. "Together?"

She giggled, trying to cover her face with her hoof. "You really are tired. But no, we aren't 'together', as you might think. I was never one for... fillyfooling, I think they call it. I don't really see much in stuff like love anyways. We don't even have time for stuff like that, huh?" She bumped me with her elbow, and I jolted back awake.

"Uhhh, yeah. Listen, I'm falling asleep on my hooves here - I gotta get to bed. Maybe we can talk later? You seem pretty cool."

The unicorn looked delighted. "Yeah! Sounds great! Seeya later Dashie!" The unicorn bounced off, followed by the grey pony, who looked rather dejected as the trotted off.

I tiredly shuffle my hooves across a bridge leading to the bed chambers, a series of small rooms with beds and chests scattered throughout. I get a couple nods from some of the other assassins as I make my way over to a bed. I quickly unclothe, leaving my sky blue robes and bracers in the chest at the front of the bed. I allow myself a little jump in to the bed, wrapping the blanket around me to make sure that no cold air would get in. The Sanctuary got pretty cold at night.

I had forgotten to ask Bon Bon about my target. It didn't matter.. she's probably asleep anyways. I'll ask her later. Closing my eyes, I take a few deep breaths. Sleeping after a contract is sometimes hard, but we've all grown to live with it. I remind myself that I'm going to a picnic with the girls tomorrow. Wouldn't want to miss that... ugh.

Surveying the room last time, I see the orange and grey pony getting in to beds side by side, as well as Scratch and.. Octavia I think it was. I lay my head back. Seriously, fillyfooling? At least Scratch wasn't that stupid. I mean, if we continued at this rate, the pony race would be extinct in the next century! But whatever - I'll just let these things be. I can't understand these things, and ponies will make their own desicions. I was happy with myself for coming to a conclusion as non-offensive as that. Feeling another wave of exhaustion come at me, I lay back.

Rolling over one last time, I close my eyes and dream of a simpler time, one where there wasn't as much conflict in my life.

Comments

[RusselNotSCP]

getting a darkbrotherhood vibe. intentional?