Chapter 2 - Night on the Town

The city of Wintertrot, the furthest northern city of the kingdom of Equestria, lay in the shadow of the White-Cap Mountains, named for the ever present snow lining their peaks. The mountain range connected to the Swayback Mountains along its southern tip and together they made up the border between Equestria and Griffonia. The White-Cap Mountains were an unwelcoming, bleak landscape; however, Wintertrot, by contrast, was warm and almost always busy. The city owed its existence to the vast mineral wealth of the mountains surrounding it. Nopony in their right mind would willingly live in this frozen waist-land otherwise.

The Frozen Stone Mines churned out carts full of materials essential to Wintertrot's livelihood. Iron, gold, silver, copper, and various gems were the common fair. On exceedingly rare occasions, a miner would find themselves in possession of a small fortune by unearthing a nugget of starmetal. The shear quality of the minerals within the White-Cap Mountains made Wintertrot one of the wealthiest settlements in all of Equestria. The food was mostly imported as the near constant snowfall made it impossible to grow crops outside of greenhouses. The metal refineries sent a steady stream of smoke up into the sky, keeping the city warm as they churned out refined bars of metal and exquisitely polished gemstones. The supplies were sent out like clockwork, coinciding with deliveries of food from all over Equestria.

Three barrels of Sweet Apple Acres' famous apple cider were set out by the loading bay of the distribution center's largest warehouse. When the workers delivering the cider left, a blade from within the largest barrel pierced the wax seal from inside and carefully cut it open. The lid was popped off as an earth pony mare and a disgruntled unicorn emerged. "You wield your weapon well, initiate. Get Snowball so we can be on our way." Spoke the unicorn in his usual business tone.

The earth pony nodded curtly and rapped one barrel only to be met with silence. She wandered over to the second and knocked. There was a brief pause before the reply rap came. Wordlessly, the initiate broke the wax seal on the barrel and tipped it over gently, allowing a tall, slender, snow white mare wearing a white robe to emerge. "Was a barrel really the only way to get in, Crow?" The white mare whined, inspecting her hooves for damage.

"It was the safest way. Pegasi patrol the borders and their are unicorns adept at picking up strong surges of magic, like teleportation spells. Our mission is too important to risk being discovered, Snowball." Crow spoke with an annoyed tone. "Let us proceed." With that, he led the group to the exit of the warehouse; Tick Tock's description of the its layout was accurate, as always. Their window of opportunity was small, they had two days to find their target and make it back to the Everfree Forest. Tick Tock had said they would be needed there, a major event was about to take place.

They approached a side door out of the warehouse that was rigged to an alarm system. Calmly, Snowball opened a small set of tools and levitated them using her magic, manipulating them with her fore-hooves as she carefully disabled the alarm. The initiate watched, observing as she had been told to do. Her master had been very specific that she watch and learn.

She wouldn't be able to do as many things simultaneously as Snowball could with her magic but she could pick a simple lock. She waited for Snowball to finish and flicked out a pin and screwdriver. The initiate carefully felt for the pins and unlocked the door with a satisfyingly soft click. She pushed open the door and carefully scoped out the area. Seeing that it was clear, she let Crow and Snowball take the lead.

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The biting cold and constant snowfall made Snowball practically invisible. The semi-permanent slush on the streets made them all grateful they had taken Tick Tock's orders to heart and worn a pair of fur lined boots though their cloaks were thin and unsuitable for the weather. Only Snowball had any winter protection, a white scarf, matching her coat and cloak perfectly, was wrapped around her face and neck leaving her sapphire blue eyes the only part of her head visible.

The initiate shivered, doing her best to hide her discomfort. Crow had a fire gem locked into a slot in his armor that generated enough warmth for him. Her shivering caught Snowball's eye, who immediately looked her over, concern written in her eyes. She reached into her saddlebag and extracted a fur trimmed jacket. "Darling, you must be absolutely frigid." The initiate didn't respond but looked away. "It's nothing to be ashamed of dear, not everyone can think as long term as myself."

Snowball levitated the jacket toward the indigo mare and, with a small flash, the initiate was made to wear the comfortably cozy garment. She managed a weak smile as Crow pressed on impatiently, forcing the mares to quickly trot after him.

They arrived at a tavern named the Caged Stallion. Above the entrance hung an old iron cage suspended by a chain from an overhang. Contained within the bars of his prison was a puppet stallion that forlornly gazed out across the frozen street. The assassins entered the rickety tavern and paid for a single room. After ascending the stairs, the trio entered a small but warm chamber. A crackling fire was burning within the chimney and two cots lay across from it. A chair sat across form the door, resting in a position next to the fireplace that would allow the sitter ample light and warmth, away from the covers of the cots, should somepony wish to read.

After casting a silencing spell on the room to make it soundproof, Crow unfolding a scroll which bore the image of a Celestial Guard stallion, his face was young and his fur was white and, like most of Celestia's Royal Guards, was a pegasus. All three examined his features, committing them to memory. The initiate remembered her first lesson on memory. She focused on the little details that distinguished the stallion from the other pegasus guards, most notably the cutie-mark which was a bulwark shield, not commonly used in modern equestrian military due to the heavy weight off-balancing most stallions. Unicorns were the most effective users of such cumbersome shields.

"Our target is Captain Headstrong, he was spotted on his way to Wintertrot by one of our informants." Crow, telekinetically opened a flask he was carrying and took a sip before continuing. "He seeks to rally this city's guard regiment and march them off to die in a fruitless assault against our Queen. These guard ponies would do better serving the Queen alive, protecting this fair city."

"Crow, why not let them die? Surely Queen Moon would be better off without a guard regiment waiting to stab her in the back?"

"The greatest victory, Snowball, is making your enemies realize they were wrong to oppose you. When word reaches Wintertrot of our Queen's inevitable victory, all spirit of rebellion will be crushed and Queen Moon will have a city's guard regiment at her beck and call should she need it." Snowball nodded in agreement.

The initiate watched the two discuss some of the finer details. She stood there, quietly as ever, making mental notes on how they acted towards one another. Crow was all business, while Snowball always seemed to be making an effort to get Crow to let her scout out the captain's location.

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Cold moonlight pierced the cloud cover over Wintertrot, the intensity indicated it was the new day cycle, casting the city in a ghostly white light. Snow fell lightly, dissolving in puddles or adding to the piles of snowdrift that were carted to a processing plant just outside the city to be converted into drinking water. Captain Headstrong was sleeping in the attic of an old mare's house who had been willing to let him rent it out. The attic was a little chilly but thick insulation in the walls and floor kept the worst of the biting chill outside at bay. He slept in a bed made for a single pony and awoke, as he always did, at precisely six in the morning.

The Captain stretched out and suited up. It had taken him a day to learn the location of the guard house and now that he had rested, he would make his way there. He trotted downstairs, being careful to stay quiet, not wanting to wake the old mare, and quietly left through the front door, pushing her house key back in through the letter box. The chill wind bit into him, but he did his best to ignore it, confident he could reach the guard house undisturbed.

The trek through the dark city was rather depressing. He'd expected to see ponies in fear of the night and staying in doors, instead, he saw an industrious city continuing to work diligently as ever. He spotted a guard pony regulating traffic at an intersection with ponies pulling carts of various goods. It seemed impossible to approach the guard pony, short of flying, due to the shear mass of carts coming and going through the intersection. After unfurling his wings, he flew over to the guard to ask for directions.

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The initiate stood by as Snowball paid a colt wrapped in a heavy jacket. They had managed to find a network of runners that delivered messages between various refineries and warehouses, and bribed a few of them to keep an eye out for the Captain. The fruits of a days worth of searching were paying off as he'd been sighted on the way to the local guard station.

Snowball led the initiate through the alleyways, steam rising out of various vents as buildings exuded the excess heat to prevent pressure building up. The alleyways were mildly warmer than the streets and were far quieter as well. Fewer ponies were back here besides those doing their jobs, unloading crates or pulling supply carriages.

Snowball wordlessly began sprinting, her longer legs keeping her further ahead of the initiate as she leapt and used her hooves to do a small trot along a wall, before leaping off and pulling herself onto a fire escape. The initiate rather than waiting for the ladder imitated her and almost fell short, her shorter legs would've caused her to fall if not for the hidden blade presented to her for passing her leap of faith. Using the blade, she levered herself up and followed Snowball who had continued up the fire escape.

They arrived atop the roofs, the winds were biting into their coats as they trudged along the shingles, Snowball creating temporary bridges of magic that allowed them to cross the larger gaps. The wind only made the journey more treacherous as it tried to tease them close to the edge of the magical bridges they had to cross.

Ultimately, they made it to their destination. The initiate spotted a stallion wearing the royal armor and pointed him out to Snowball who grinned and ducked down, extracting a queer piece of finely engraved metal detailed with small flowers and, with a quick flick of her magic, unfolded it to reveal a full longbow. She passed the initiate a spyglass. "Make sure it's him while I line up the shot."

Nodding, the initiate followed the stallion, looking at his flank. She could make out the bulwark shield against the snowfall and nodded again, letting Snowball take the shot. Snowball lined her shot up with the wind patterns so that it would fly in a near straight line. With a twing of the bows line, the bolt shot out in a soft arch before plunging down upon the unsuspecting guard and exploded in a small puff of black smoke as it hit the captain on the left wing. He fell, but not far enough. He managed to land on a rooftop, two blocks away, eliciting a groan of frustration from Snowball . "Of all the rotten luck. He's close to one of the patrol routes Crow warned us about." She carefully folded her bow and packed it away. "I guess we'll have to do this the old fashioned way."

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Captain Headstrong felt the arrow pierce his left wing, his flight pattern fumbled, but wasn't irrecoverable. That is until the magical explosive went off. Pain shot through his wing as feathers and flesh fell away. He started to descend, the feeling of butterflies was terrible as the wind began batting him around. Using his now mismatched wings, Headstrong steered himself towards a low, solid rooftop. The snow softened the blow, but he was still winded, his wing ached and his body was chilled by the snow.

Struggling to his hooves, he began making his way over to the first door he saw. It was locked tight from the other side, a key was needed, which only left the fire escape. He started for one when the sound of snow crunching caught his attention. He ducked low as a thin blade knocked his helmet off and set him off balance.

He turned and saw an elegant unicorn wielding a weapon wrapped in a white aura, invisible against the snow. The blade lunged forward and headstrong back stepped and pulled out his own sword parrying the blow. He placed the sword in his mouth and extracted a bulwark shield clipped to his right side and placed it on his right hoof.

The elegant blade rained down quick, successive blows as Headstrong blocked them with his hefty shield and he began to slowly advance. He focused solely on getting close to the unicorn who kept a cheeky smile on her face as she fought. Headstrong was finally within striking distance of the white unicorn and he raised his sword but before he could swing, felt the unicorn exert more force on his blade, dislodging it from his grip, along with her own. Some will say a shield is solely to defend but Headstrong knew that wasn't the case and slammed his shield at the unicorn who erected a small barrier. She was dangerously close to the edge of the rooftops now, and Headstrong saw it would only take one more push.

He attempted to do just that but she was as agile as her thin frame suggested and avoided the shield, sidestepping around him as though they were dancing. Headstrong felt the cold arrow hit the back of his head before he looked up and saw a magnificent metal bow. The assassin had been leading him the whole fight. He fell over the edge but did not hit the ground.

The initiate waited just below the edge on the firm scaffolding being used to replace several broken windows. She watched the fight take place and ducked down once Snowball dodged to the side, or else she would've been seen by the captain. Headstrong fell but the initiate caught him before he could slip away to the streets below. She hoisted him onto her back and made it onto the roof.

Snowball was waiting for her, packing away her weapons and examining the captain's shield. "It's a fine piece. A family emblem engraved here and a stamp certifying it's place of origin as Stalliongrad, two-hundred years ago. Quite marvelous really. I'm sure Tick Tock would love to discuss it's history."

Snowball continued to ramble on as the initiate closed Headstrong's eyes and plucked a bloody feather from his damaged wing and pocketed it as Tick Tock instructed her to do after every kill. They carried the body in a burlap sack as they made their way back to the tavern. It was cleverly concealed by Snowball to look like the initiate was carrying a sack of laundry.

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"You were successful I take it?" Crow was sitting in front of the fire, reading an old worn leather bound book. The initiate extracted the feather, which Crow wrapped in his red magic and levitated over to himself. "Very good. Pack your things, we leave tonight."

Snowball walked over to her bed and began packing her saddlebags but the initiate stood still. She'd brought nothing worth packing and merely waited attentively so they could leave.

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Editor's Notes: Another chapter filled with fun. Gotta say, I'm lovin' this. Hope all you enjoyed it.