The Painted Ponies (part 1)
The strangeness of his mistress's false world always gave him a headache. Before him stood four fillies, all happily snacking on whatever his mistress conjured up, but out of the corner of his eye, Cobalt could see the truth: that three of the fillies were asleep and the fourth was busy modifying their memories. Having only an invitation to this world through the specter he called Dye, rather than full control, he too was subject to the dreamlike properties of the artificial universe.
With only a little focus, the assassin pushed his way out of the dreamlike construct and into the white limbo that surrounded it. The ground, despite being indistinguishable from the sky, was solid enough under his hooves, so he trotted over to where the others were.
"Good, you're out," Sparkle nonchalantly commented upon spotting him.
"How much are you changing?" Cobalt asked.
"Not much, really," Sparkle answered. "Mostly I'm fogging up their memories. They'll think this was all a bad dream."
"And when they figure out that it wasn't?"
"The geas on them will keep them from talking, while their original assumption of it being a dream will give them time to process and forget more before the shock comes. Hopefully, they won't freak out too badly," Sparkle said, as she leaned over Sweetie's sleeping form. "They're under a calming illusion now, but I can't keep them this way forever."
Sparkle straightened back up. "Hey, Cobalt, how's your own head. Dye tells me that you're getting some more memories back, but I want to hear how you're doing straight from the pony's mouth."
Cobalt shrugged in reply. "Meh. Between my memories and my fact-checking, I've got maybe four fifths of my life back. It's honestly quite depressing, really. I do remember my sister now, so that's something."
Sparkle smiled, delighted at the news. Family had always had an important place in her heart. "Good! Have you spoken to her since you regained your memories of her?"
"She called me a mud pony to my face shortly before the gala. I'm inclined not to bother," Cobalt started dryly.
While the earth pony didn't look too upset, Sparkle could tell that the atmosphere around them had taken on a distinctly sour note. Not wanting to press the issue lest there become bitterness between them, Sparkle awkwardly turned her attention and the conversation back to the fillies who were sleeping by her hooves. "So, ah, I think I've got everything under control here. You're free to go. Thank you for your help."
"My pleasure," Cobalt replied, nodding his head. "But, um..." He paused, suddenly looking very nervous. "Mistress, forgive me, but are you Lady Death?"
Sparkle froze mid step. "... Didn't I tell you not to assume anything?"
"It's less of an assumption and more of a logical hypothesis based on a series of observations," Cobalt replied, his tone stiff and cadence measured.
Sparkle sighed. "I don't know. It's vaguely possible, and the conclusion I came to as well."
"You mean-"
"I don't know. There's too many things to consider, the most important being how it would even be possible. Her soul is massive, almost a million times the size of my own. It's... Look, I don't want to talk about it. I don't even want to think about the possibility that I become that... I don't even know what to call her. Just drop it."
Cobalt looked at her for a bit, his expression unreadable. "If that is what you wish, then I won't press you on the matter, Mistress. But might I make one last observation before I depart?"
"What?" Sparkle asked with a slightly annoyed inflection to her voice. "And drop the formal tone."
"Yes, well, if you are the Reaper, wouldn't that make your little shrine somewhat... narcissistic?" And before she could reply, he winked and warped out of the pocket dimension.
Sparkle blinked. A small smile graced her lips. "Heh... I suppose it might be."
The portal looked nothing like a conventional portal. Rather than being a flat plane that one could pass through like a door, it appeared to be a sphere of glass, save for the fact that the image seen through it was not the distorted background of its location, but of its destination. Additionally, one could approach it from any angle and pass through it.
This was what Cobalt observed as he stepped out into an alleyway near Canterlot's gardens and rejoined with Dye, who was acting as an anchor for the portal. With the disappearance of the hole in space and the reunion of specter and host, the alley returned to a state of normality.
Knowing that there was a clock tower nearby, Cobalt hurried off to get a sense of how long he had been gone. It likely wouldn't have been more than a half hour, but he still had to be sure.
When he did finally come to the right street and spotted the clock, he sighed. There would be time to meet his "friend" like he had planned, but no time to get food beforehoof. Wishing that a Manehattan food vendor cart would appear on his path, and knowing that it wouldn't, Cobalt set off towards the northern end of the gardens.
A tingling sensation spread through his skull as he passed through the garden; the latent chaos magic still left here – even after the Elements of Harmony and elements of nature had done their part to clean it up – still set off his training-heightened magic sense. And although the sensation wasn't terribly unpleasant, he knew that this was a bad place for spell casting, and would likely be for a long time.
Speaking of which, Cobalt noted that there was a royal chariot returning the statue of Discord back to its original spot. Why it had been removed, he didn't know. Hopefully, whatever had happened wouldn't let the draconequus escape again.
Continuing on, Cobalt soon came to a small fountain dedicated to Celestia. Water shot up from the little jet and rained down on the statue of a mare whose mane was carved as if it was wet. And although the water had already eroded some of the finer details, the statue itself was still quite beautiful.
"Cobalt!"
He turned, hearing his name called out from behind him. Immediately, the painted pony recognized his "friend," Shifty Eyes. Although the pegasus was over a decade older than Cobalt, his svelte body still looked as if time hadn't touched his speed or agility.
"Shifty! Good to see you!"
"And you," the pegasus replied. "So, has anything interesting happened with you lately?“
"Well..." Suddenly, Cobalt was behind Shifty with a summoned knife pressed to the latter's throat, having moved faster than the eye could follow. "I finished my high speed technique, so if you would be so kind as to mention that when you talk to your associates, it would be much appreciated." He withdrew the blade and banished it back to his home.
"Impressive," the information hungry pegasus noted. "Anything else?"
"Meh, I may have accidentally sold my soul to the dark goddess. Not quite sure on that one, though. I'll let you know if it turns out that I have," Cobalt stated with the same matter-of-fact tone that one would use to say that the sky is blue. "What about you?"
Shifty Eyes blinked owlishly, attempting to process that little bit of trivia. Deciding to ignore it for the time being, he filed it away in the back of his mind. "Oh, nothing special..."
Some of Cobalt's bits found their way into Shifty's saddle bags.
"... But I did hear about an interesting job on the market. It's a single target infiltration-assassination, but the client is hosting an interview for the position tomorrow. The pay is great, as well."
"An interview?" Cobalt asked, surprised. Most clients hired by reputation alone, and it was ponies like Shifty Eyes who marketed the assassins to them. "When and where?"
"I don't know..."
More bits changed hooves.
"But I'm pretty sure that it's tomorrow at noon, at this address," Shifty stated, withdrawing a slip of paper from his shirt's pocket and passing it to Cobalt. The painted pony took it and memorized it quickly. Once he was sure that he had it, he passed the slip back.
"Thank you for this," Cobalt replied.
"No problem," he said, smiling. "I'm happy to help."
With a snicker, Cobalt added, "For the right price, of course."
"Of course."
That address led Cobalt to a surprisingly normal house. Most ponies who hired his kind went elsewhere to do business; should something go wrong, the less one side knew about the other, the better. Cobalt's intuition told him that this potential client was new to the underworld.
Fiddling with the doorknob and finding it unlocked, Cobalt swung it open. If one were to describe the scene inside, an apt description would be a house party that had gotten boring, and then downright hostile. Ponies of all shapes and sizes filled the nearby rooms, ranging from tall and muscular stallions to dainty little mares, and all of them seemed mildly hostile to one another, or at least irritated with each other. Many of those ponies Cobalt recognized as his peers in the assassination business.
"Ya here for the interview?" A gruff voice asked.
"Yes," Cobalt told the large stallion, pushing his way past him.
"Then get lost. There are too many here already." The large stallion reached out to grab Cobalt, but the smaller pony sidestepped him so fast that he seemed to teleport to the side without breaking stride.
"I think I'll stay, thank you."
"Red?"
The pony's ears swiveled to focus on the young mare's voice that called his birth name.
"Red Fields, is that you?"
Pinning down the source of the familiar voice, Cobalt spotted a mare that he really didn't want to have anything to do with: his younger sister, Blood Lily. At nearly a decade younger than him, Blood Lily was easily the youngest pony in the room.
That didn't mean she wasn't as deadly as the rest of them. Their mother and father saw to that.
"Hello, Brat."
"Aww, the first thing he says to me after almost two years missing is an insult? And a lame one at that? Hmmm... I really shouldn't have expected anything more from a mud pony," she retorted. The elder brother noted that her usual level of immaturity - a level that a filly half her age would have - was pleasantly absent. That apparently didn't translate to the young teenager being nice.
Cobalt also noted with some satisfaction that several of the earth ponies in the room had caught the racist insult and were now glaring at her. There was no doubt in Cobalt's mind that Canterlot was a racist city, but almost nopony dared openly state their beliefs aloud. To say something like that, especially considering the present company, was a very gutsy but foolish move.
"Brat, do look around. It's not the place for spewing insults that affect more than half the ponies in here,” Cobalt commented calmly. The insults didn't bother him too terribly much, but he would be mildly irritated if somepony did something stupid because of her.
"I don't care; they can't touch me here. Fighting in front of the client is the fastest way to lose a contract, you know."
"And there are some that care about their pride more than money, foolish filly."
Blood Lily just shrugged. "Whatever. Hey, you still getting whipped by your mistress? I bet that whorse loves a stallion that can't fuck back."
Cobalt's eye twitched, the only outward sign of the rage that engulfed him. The fury from years of abuse from his family, remembered or still suppressed, welled up all at once in his mind. He could tolerate their abuse of him, but of Sparkle? That was a line that, once crossed, he wasn't willing to forgive the offending party.
He smiled, but the grin never made it to his eyes. "Why yes, she is whipping me... Into shape, that is. Now, normally my geas prevents me from using her teachings against another, but I can in the defense of someone. I feel like defending her honor... Why don't I show you what I've learned? No, I have a better idea: a bet. If I show off and get the job, you apologize. If I don't, I admit that I am a balless stallion. Deal?"
"Interesting." She considered for a second. "Deal."
A black sphere, about the size of an orange, appeared a hoof-length above Cobalt's forehead, where the tip of a unicorn's horn would be. Less than a fraction of a second after it appeared, it started expanding rapidly and fading to clear. The sphere passed harmlessly through the ponies in the room and through the walls itself, but the more magically sensitive could feel the malicious intent that it carried. By the time it had expanded to contain the entire building, it was completely invisible to the naked eye, but no less present.
"Soul Trap."
Blood Lily stepped back, surprised.
"HEY EVERYPONY! I NEED THIS JOB, SO UNLESS YOU'RE LYING FACE DOWN ON THE GROUND IN THE NEXT FIVE SECONDS, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Cobalt roared to the room.
"Ha! I'd like to see you t-“
Cobalt flung the dead stallion away. With his super speed, copied from Filly Second, Cobalt had crossed the room faster than any eyes could track. "Alright, Blood Lily, watch carefully."
The dead stallion that Cobalt had discarded stood back up in spite of his broken neck and lunged at the nearest mare.
"This, this is what I can do."
"Send in the next pony on your way out," the unicorn mare said to the younger pegasus mare on the opposite side of the desk.
The younger pony nodded and stood. "Thank you for considering me," she replied.
The older mare nodded. As soon as her potential hitmare exited the room, she frowned and rubbed her head. She hadn't quite expected there to be so many of them applying for this job.
There was a muffled thump outside the office door, and a blue earth pony walked in. Her eyes immediately gravitated to the blood on one of his cheeks. "Are you hurt?"
"It's just a scratch," he replied. "I had a little accident while preparing a portfolio of my skills. It will heal."
"A portfolio? My my, you are a sensible business pony. None of the other candidates I've seen so far have had that," she said. "Slim Chance."
"Red Fields. A pleasure," Cobalt said. "If you would step outside? I have something set up that I think will impress you."
Slim Chance stood up, stretching a bit as she did. "Oh, I am getting too old to be sitting still for too long. I really should stretch more."
She walked to the door, stepped out into the hall, and froze. Dead bodies littered the ground, while bodies that were too mutilated to live still stood.
"As you can see," Cobalt said, "I am an assassin with skills in fighting many opponents without alerting those nearby. I have knowledge of blades, poison, melee combat, and most importantly, magic.“ As he spoke, he pointed to bodies that had fallen in those exact ways. "Under my teacher, Necromancer Sparkle, the Bone Mare, I too have acquired the ability to raise the dead and raze the living through dark magic. But wait, there's more!"
Suddenly, he dragged her over to another room. "I also have skills in intimidation," - he pointed to several cowering mares - "physical coercion," - a stallion with broken legs - "and illusion-based mental manipulation.” He pointed to his sister, who was sobbing an apology. “I don’t like doing those things, but I can if I need to.”
Slim Chance stared at him. “You...”
“I can also clean up after myself. Dye!”
The black, ink-like specter flowed out of his body. “Yes?”
“Take everything dead to Thorn for me. Empty the trap and take those to Thorn as well. I know he’ll be happy with this."
“And the injured?”
“Do whatever you want. Just get them out of the house.”
Dye saluted. “Hehehe... yes, sir.” She then swooped off to go perform her tasks.
Cobalt then focused and created some more specters of his own. “You all, clean the house up. Leave no trace that we were here.”
“Yes, sir!”
The potential client finally got her mouth working. “You... what are you?”
“A necromancer’s apprentice,” Cobalt answered. “Also, I’m the only assassin left; the others all surrendered to me or died, so if you really want this job done, it’s me or nothing.” He gave her a winning smile.
Sparkle smiled somewhat dreamily; her attention was definitely somewhere else instead of on Cheerilee’s class.
‘Hmmm... well, I’m upset that he killed so many, but all those he killed were assassins that would have definitely killed more had they still been alive. There obviously will be a net decrease in the amount of ponies killed as a result of this. I guess it isn’t that bad,’ she thought. Then she blinked upon realizing a minor detail that she’d overlooked in her musing. ‘I’ve killed killers before. Who am I to contemplate the morality of Cobalt’s kills when I’m just as guilty?’
“Mom, enough philosophy,” Thorn said through the link.
Sparkle blushed a little. “Was I broadcasting that?”
“Yes, Mom,” Thorn replied. “Hey, you want any of this that Cobalt sent? ‘Cause I’m going to eat them if you don’t.”
“I’m fine.”
“You sure? This mare has some nice flanks if you want a bite, and these souls are really tasty~.”
For a second, she was tempted to say yes, until she realized that she would have meant a blanket yes - a yes to cannibalism. Realistically, it was a step down from soul-eating, as the body was the vessel and not the person within, but she didn’t want to go there... yet. And with that realization, another tiny part of her self-identity as a pony degraded away, and took her appetite with it. “No. I’m good.” She paused. “Were you watching him through Dye by any chance?”
“Nope.”
“Ah, well he’s gotten really good. I’m proud of his skill.”
“Shouldn’t you be focusing on class, little filly?”
“Rhodium!” That snapped Sparkle out of her conversation with Thorn.
“Yes, Ms. Cheerilee?”
“I asked if you would come up and solve the problem on the board?”
Sparkle glanced at the chalkboard. “Twenty seven,” she replied and then looked back out the window.
Cheerilee sighed. “Correct. Rhodium, are you bored in my class?”
Sparkle blinked. “What? No!” A pause. “Ok, maybe a little. But it’s fine!”
The teacher nodded, having heard exactly what she expected. “Alright, but if you ever need more of a challenge, feel free to talk to me, Ok?”
The other, darker teacher-turned-student nodded. “Ok, Ms. Cheerilee.”
She swallowed a bite of food. “Hey girls!”
“Howdy, Scoots. What’s up?” Applebloom said.
Scootaloo set her PB&J sandwich down on her plate while the other two original crusaders sat down next to her at the clubhouse table.
“I had a dream last night were we thought of a prank for Diamond Tiara. Well, it started out with us making a potion, and then Rody had to be a doctor, and then she turned into a monster, and then we talked about pranks... well, you know how dreams are. Anyway...” Scootaloo paused. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Ah had the same dream,” Applebloom said.
Sweetie exclaimed, “You too?”
“It wasn’t a dream.”
The trio turned to see Sparkle sitting down next to them. “It wasn’t a dream,” she repeated. “That was real; I only made you think you were dreaming so that you didn’t panic and cause a scene. In fact, there’s still a little magic in you now forcing you to be calm.”
“Wait, what?” Scootaloo asked.
“So you’re really a monster?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Sparkle nodded. “Yes. Does that bother you?”
Sweetie Belle nodded. “A little.”
“I don’t believe you,” Scootaloo said. “Yeah, you may have seemed a little scary, but that doesn’t make you a monster.”
Sparkle rolled her eyes. Obviously, she’d fuzzed up their memories too well. Noting that they were alone in the Crusader’s Clubhouse, she decided. “Oh? I don’t? Here, let me remind you.” In quick succession, she flared her magic, partially dissolved into smoke, let her eyes change color, and bared her sharp teeth, now freed from the illusion hiding them. The effect was instant and profound.
The trio jumped back in fright and screamed.
Sparkle moved closer, grinning like a shark. “Why are you afraid of me? I already promised that I wouldn’t hurt you,” she said, her voice distorted by the raw magic she was exuding. When spoken like that, even innocent words could sound sinister.
And then, as fast as she had transformed, she changed back into the “sweet filly” named Rhodium. “I promise that I mean you no harm. I’m just living here until it's safe to move on with my life, and in order for me to stay safe, I can’t hurt you three. Your sisters wield the Elements of Harmony; they’d blast me to the moon if I did anything to hurt you. And even if I could hurt you, I wouldn’t. You three are too sweet for me to ever want to hurt,” Sparkle declared.
Following a sad frown, a spell formed on Sparkle’s horn. When it touched their minds, the Crusader’s bodies relaxed. “I’m really sorry, girls. I shouldn’t have done that. I can understand if you don’t want to be my friends any more.”
Whether it was because of the calming magic or because of her own bravery, Sparkle didn’t know, but Scootaloo reached out and put a tender hoof on the fake filly’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s cool with me, on one condition...”
“What?”
“You’ve got to help us do that epic prank on Diamond Tiara.”
“Hehehe. Deal.”
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Filler or not, I found the chapter amazing! I just wanted to see more of this fic with more frequency like before ~ but it is ok. You have your own problems to solve, life to live and I have a dark
corner to sit while I wait for the next chapter to arrive. Cheers!
If this was filler..then i can't wait to see the rest of this!
Called it!
That "s" though.
That comma wants ...
... to be a dot.
and I can hardly wait for the the next chapter. I'll be sitting here hammering F5 untill it apears. ... not really but I'll keep a close eye on it, that's for sure.
I love the story so much
MfG NIchtraucher
6467109 I did myself a few chapters back
Nice little chapter. I really felt that this captured a part of Sparkle's personality well.
Sparkle and the reaper...even Sparkle herself now suspects that she might become lady Death later, but it's so impossible that she can't piece together a plausible chain of events for that to happen - imagine if someone told you "in a week you're going to be the first human on mars!". That's the impression i get at least, also, Cobalt is taking things well as usual.
That address lead Cobalt to a surprisingly normal
on you way out
“ I don’t like doing those things
1. Led.
2. Your.
3. Extra spacing at the start.
Huh... Cobalt sure made a killing at that interview.
6468832
41.media.tumblr.com/9a25aafa40c8fd2806ddc7ecadcfc251/tumblr_inline_nrjr5hy7a21qf76o9_500.jpg
Nothing seems to really challenge any of them. At all.
6467540
I did in a spoiler halfway through the last story :p
If you call now, within the next twenty minutes cause we can't do this all day, we'll give you a second set absolutely free! So that's 8 specter assassins for 19.95! It comes with a ten year warranty, here's how to order: call 1-800-666-DEATH.
6469053 What are you talking about? Have you even read the story? So many setbacks and problems happen to them that it is actually pretty funny in a way. They overcome these problems, and grow stronger as a result.
6471544
No, the number's 42-42-564! (shini-shini-goroshi in Japanese; literally death-death-murder).
6467540 I called it back in the first book.
6471611 I think a good amount did, including myself. Granted, I doubt anyone was 100% sure until the last few chapters when Death's gender change affected Sparkle as well. I was about 60% sure she was Death by the end of the first book. I still have a few other hypotheses as well, but it was the leading contender.
6471600 Yeah, that number does seem more fitting, but it doesn't really work as a phone number does it? Well, I guess Death's number, I mean Sparkle's, doesn't really need to be like ours. Hehe. They don't even have phones yet, do they?
6471600
Just wondering, are we done?
"We've got the reunion of the characters, some flashbacks to events from the year missing, some significant events in Ponyville, and a bit on Thorn to cover before the age-up occurs."
6475489
Only one chapter of foal shenanagins left (part 2). The age up occurs at the end of the still unnamed chapter after that.
6475670
Awesome. Thanks for the reply.
You are missing the quotation mark at the end there.
6471544 1-800-666-DETH (because seven digit limit)
6471600 424-2564 The spacing may be wrong, but anyone familiar should still see it.
hmmmn will sparkle or does sparkle find her celestia attractive or want her (baring the whole eternity in tartarus thing. iirc sparkle states that light and dark mages are attracted to each other (even if that is kind of fatal 9 times out of 10) and does celestia feel attracted to sparkle. I mean celestia seemed quite obsessed with 'capturing' sparkle. before luna knocked some sense into her. also if not does sparkle prefer Luna as a potential mate?
What ever happened to celestree?
Well it may not be her but here is something
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6520146
Yes.
6516323
IIRC, Celestia has feminine magic, not light, as her "natural type".
6520146
Where's that from?
6523495
It's from Doctor Who. That was the Master's bad regeneration.
I've summed up the prelude to this story
Sparkle casts "reincarnate"
Death casts "soul snare"
Reincarnate has split second
*thoughts on Cobolt's "interview"*
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/305/131/25e.gif
Hah! Yeah, yeah it probably is.
A fountain statue of a wet maned Celestia? Some artist had a bit of fun with that, I can just tell.
Heh.
Cobalt's sister is really kind of an idiot.
Geeze, Cobalt.
Honesty!
First off, killing most of your competition is not a good idea when the profession cannot be done by a corporation... Sure it guarantees that you'll have the job. But it also guarantees that you will have All of the jobs, and that's a little too much to do. When not everyone can place hits on demand (What happened to Sparkle's little moral chapter in the first book?) then the customers will look into alternative methods, leaving him with a deteriorating customer base.
I know he didn't kill all assassins everywhere, but it's not a good thing for the business.
7043973 ill agree with most of the logic but it will inevitably force prices on assignation up, until more train to be assassins due to the heavily inflated costs especially if he didn't kill all of them, though you are right that it would likely drive away a portion of the overall customer base as well
commenting about the chapter talking about the avatars of the elements and stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if twilight was the avatar of life and sparkle was the avatar of death. if the original twilight sparkle still exists, then shes the avatar of magic or friendship.
Color me interested and reading. I'll pick it up once I've caught up with this story.
I was expecting a retort along the lines of: " I'm smarter than you and can solve anything you throw at me if its not impossible."