The Return of a Familiar Face

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady groaned softly as she hit the hard stone floor of the prison cell, the metal bars closing right behind her. She had been stripped of all of her possessions, including her brown cloak to reveal who she really was to the outside world. Being utterly defenseless in a room alone, she mare shuddered slightly on the floor. She knew nothing good was going to happen to her, and was very worried about her love who was still out there somewhere, hiding from the ones who had captured her.

Slowly sitting up from the floor, her very thin and somewhat malnourished body ached all over from her capture. There was no doubt that at least a few bruises sat underneath her black fur.

The nocturnal mare slowly huddled herself into a corner of her cell for warmth, waiting for her punishment for deserting the griffons to be brought down upon her.

[Tisis Antony]

In the distance of the facility, a distinct buzz of machinery at work sounded off. Dust listed down from the stoney roofing of the cell, settling on the floor and the poor mare in her cot. The old pipes shake and rumbled in the walls, a sound not unlike bombs exploding in the distance.

A face appeared at the bars to the cell. Two pink eyes leered inwards, watching Shady. The face stood there for a few minutes, turned about, and left. Minutes more passed, and the same pink eyes returned to the cell. "Are you Sil-who... et?" the griffon asked, struggling to pronounce her name in a thick, Halden accent.

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady jumped slightly from the sudden unexpected voice that spoke out to her. Narrowing her eyes at the griffon, she gave a slow nod of her head to show that she indeed was the pony in question.

"Yes I am, who wants to know?" She asked in a blunt tone, voice heavy and tired despite the attitude that was presented by the mare in custody. Her body language seemed to show an air of 'get on with it', as if she knew she was going to die that day and had slowly come to terms with the knowledge.

[Tisis Antony]

The griffon looked at something in his talons with weary eyes, and peered in at the mare. She did indeed have bat wings, so that certainly passed for positive identification in his eyes. Ain't never heard of a batpony before, reckoned this must be one. To be sure, the griffon decided to ask her a set of questions based on the identification card he held.

"Ehm, your er, how'n old are you? I mean, in the pony years or wh't'ver you call 'em. And eh, what are yo-our, ehm, yer 'vital'r statistics?'"

The Griffon seemed to be reading from something he couldn't quite read, but he somehow managed to try and convey that he wanted more personal identification from the mare.

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady gave the griffon a flat stare for a few moments as she tried to suss out what he was trying to say to her, eventually getting a rough idea on what was needed of her. "Nineteen years of age. I'm four-hoot one, my blood type is AB-positive, I usually weigh somewhere around ninety-seven or so, but probably less right now." She replied simply. "Talent is trickery, practiced in persuasion and keeping silent while moving about, and I guess you could say ex-assassin and spy."

[Tisis Antony]

"Now, didn't need all that, thanks though, and a'right misses, thanks for the cooperation." The griffon wandered off with his notes, leaving the mare to her own devices.

Time passed. Hours slipped by without any form of communication. The lights outside the cells flickered off at some point. It was at this inauspicious moment that a small leather satchel passed in through the grate in the door, and plopped rather loudly on the floor inside of her cell.

A small note was affixed to the front of the package with a length of twine. "Don't forget the little things."

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady quietly napped in her cot to pass the time, not having anything better to do while trapped inside the cell of stone and metal. The sound of a satchel hitting the floor caused the black mare to slowly stir before waking up fully. Turning her attention to the bag in question, she slipped out of the bed and onto her hooves.

Shady get her back a small stretch, moving over to the bag to open it up and look at the things inside it. Though she didn't really care about what was inside, she didn't want to make her punishment worse by angering the griffons by ignoring it.

[Tisis Antony]

The satchel was possessed five or six tiny trinkets. A small photo of the selfsame griffon who had interviewed her hours ago. A tiny cyanide pill. A nice length of highly varnished garrot wire, with tiny wooden dongles on the ends. Two keys.

A small little inset had been made in the pouch. A single image of Freyia had been placed in the inset. A set of words were marked in pen across the bottom of the photo. "The little things."

One of the keys was to Shady's own cell.

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady rose a brow at the items inside, not seeming to understand the offer that had been made. Not trusting the pill, she simply left it alone for the time being and looked through the rest of the items. Staring at the picture of Freyia for a few long moments, a sigh escaped her. She knew she probably wouldn't be getting out of there alive, and this picture just seemed like a taunt to her.

The bat mare took the keys out next, scanning them over before looking up at the door to her cell. "Not ever those birdbrains would be this du-..." She mare trailed off, the garrot wire coming to her mind and forming an image. "Wait..."

She stood up with the two keys in hoof and made her way to the door. Slipping one in and finding it didn't work, she tried to other. As the lock opened up and the door swung open, a large grin curled onto her face. It seemed the griffons had something other than death planned for her. Even if it wasn't the freedom to see Freyia, it still was a way out of a death sentence.

[Tisis Antony]

The hallway outside of her room was as sparce and economic as her cell. It trailed on for miles- never finding an outlet- and hundreds of empty cells lined it's length. Shady's cell was at the far end; her exit had a dead end to the left.

A challenge had been posed. By whom, for what intent, and to what industry remained unknown. Outside of the cell, glowing in a brilliant orange shadowglyph, a haphazard picture of an eye, wide open peered. The iris wasn't drawn, but the pupil appeared snapped, and bloodshot.

A trail of shadowglyph arrows jauntily traced down the length of the hall, disappearing in the distance of the path.

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady slipped the satchel onto herself before moving out of the door and into the hallway. Instantly recognizing the shadowglyph as such, she studied the eye for a moment. Giving a nod when she felt she understood its meaning, she swiftly followed the arrows down the hallway, knowing that only one of her own kind was able to make such markings, let alone see them. Something was up, and she was going to get to the bottom of it one way or another.

[Tisis Antony]

The hallway was rather repetitive. Door, door, door, bench, door, door, door, bench, door, door, door, bench. And so on and so forth. Every door looked into a similar concrete and steel cell. None of the cells looked inhabited, or like they've ever been inhabited. They were clean, but still speckled all over with dust.

The arrows stopped following the wall, dancing along the corners, the floor, bouncing on the opposite wall, and even jumping up on the ceiling. They gave the impression of arrow-like footprints, glowing their brilliant shade of orange in a funny sort of tap-dance all along the path. They still led forwards, and as the walk went along, they became increasingly erratic, as if they'd become impatient.

The mare reached what appeared to be the end of the hallway. It was, unlike the hallway, a lot more open, expanding to about the width and length of four cells. A small magical generator was propped up on the corner, still radiating heat from the magic infused fuel that burnt on still within it's insides.

A large table sat in the other corner. The griffon before slept at the table, head propped up on a talon. The tablecloth was stained with wax from the burnt out candle on the center. The griffon with the pink eyes- his eyes weren't just pink- he was apparently albino as well, as indicated by his bright snow-white fur, and the pink-ness of his flesh and belly.

The arrows became chaotic here- they stopped dancing, and formed spirals, large exclamation points. The entire area around the griffon was swamped in images of eyes staring down at him in his sleep, little pictures of daggers coated in blood all angled towards him. Vibrant illustrations of gore and blood scattered the fringes of the illustration. The seat of the chair the griffon was propped in was flanked on all sides by concentric rings, narrowing and becoming more chaotic as they furthered out.

The room had two doors, side by side.

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady slipped inside, eying the shadowglyphs that seamed to almost encase the white griffon asleep at the table. The message all too clear for her now, she lowered herself to the floor to silently sneak across the room like she had done plenty of times before in her information gathering runs. Sneaking her way up behind the griffon, a large grin grew across her muzzle. She had no idea who left the glyphs, or who would even be helping her, but she would finally be able to get her revenge on at least one of those who had hunted her and Freyia.

Slowly removing the garrot from her bag, she sneaked up behind him and reared up onto her hind legs. She carefully slipped the wire around the guard's neck, wrapping it around, but not pulling just yet.

Waiting her a moment, she moved her muzzle up to her mark. "Say goodnight, buddy..." She replied, suddenly pulling on the wooden handles of the wire with her full strength.

[Tisis Antony]

The griffon pulled, and wasn't able to even gasp- he was deep in an exhale when the tug of the garot caught his neck, and he was unable to draw in a breath. He had no clue what was strangling him, and he struggled meekly. His resistance was half-hearted and meek, and his body quickly surrendered itself to the mare. His leg was the last thing to give up. By the time his arms and body had gone limp, his left leg was still kicking... kicking... kicking... until it too came to a stop, rolling to the side and becoming limp.

Nothing happened to celebrate the kill. The mare was still alone, with naught but the griffon's corpse for company.

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady made a large smirk, a fang slipping its way out of the corner of her mouth from the expression. Removing the weapon from the griffon's neck, she simply tucked it away again before looking to the two doors in the room while laving the body at the table without a care for who it was or what she had just done.

Bringing a hoof up, she placed it onto the handle of the one on the left, trying to open it up.

[Tisis Antony]

The door on the left was a bit more sturdy then the one on the right. It had a series of locks, each of them requiring different keys. From the feel and look of the door, it led into the night- a set of stairs were visible through the bars of the window, and a fresh breeze drifted in from outside that sharply contrasted with the cold humidity of the cells. The keys Shady had did not open any of the locks.

The door to the right was similar to all of the cell doors that had been passed, with the exception that it's window was absent. It was instead, just a flat iron door, with only the tiniest perforations along its bottom and top to ventilate air. It had a single lock. Shady's remaining key fit well...

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady looked the locks up and down, ignoring the door for now and moving over to the right one to see where it led instead. Removing the key she hadn't used from her satchel, she pushed it into the lock of the door and gave it a twist, removing the key before opening the door.

With a single glance through the doorway, she moved inside with very few worries of what was going to happen.

[Tisis Antony]

The Praetor Augustus sat across from Shady, grinning wide. He was propped against a metal chair, and sitting behind a metal interrogation table in the middle of the room. His left eye was missing, and the entire left side of his face for that matter- all that was there was a small patch of skeletal tissue peaking out of the skin, and a fringe of scabbed over scars and molted feathers.

The remaining half of his face was looking at Shady with an eager expression. He was, of course, wearing the Prudentatae cloak that he'd never been seen out of, and had his talons folded together on the center of the table.

Laying on the side of the table, a small trinket sat. It looked almost like the taxidermied hoof of a batpony, and that assumption would be correct- it was indeed, the preserved hoof of a batpony, and the base held some sort of enchanting crystal in a socket next to the hoof. A small chain dangled from the hoof, off the edge of the table. The damn thing was a necklace, or pendant.

Augustus smiled at Shady the good side of his face. "These things seem to come full circle, don't they now?"

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady paused for a moment, not seeming to care much about either of the rather disturbing things in the room. She simply glared at the griffon, taking a few steps forward as she bore her fangs in mild aggression.

"What do you want from me? Aren't you going to execute me or something?" She asked, lowering her head slightly. "What's with all of this stuff? These puzzles and shadowglyph markings?"

[Tisis Antony]

The Praetor was listless. He didn't immediately reply, instead, adjusting the metal collar around his neck. "Hmmmm.... you made a decision just now. You were given death, and you were given the means to deliver death; you chose the latter. I take it you are willing to continue this path, hmmm? If so, well, we have business to attend to."

"So sit, please?"

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady straightened her posture when a deal seemed to be suggested by the griffon, giving a resisted nod before moving over to the offered seat and placing her rump onto it. Staring at the other occupant of the room across from her, she placed her hooves on the table while keeping her expression serious.

"Of course I did. My life is more valuable than everyone's. Well, all but one anyway." She replied coldly. "And if it means keeping myself alive, of course I'll stay on this path. What are you suggesting?"

[Tisis Antony]

The Praetor stood, and limped to the doorway, peaking outside. The griffon corpse was still sitting there, limp and lifeless, strewn across the floor. The Praetor couldn't see the glyphs, but knew that she had seen them. It was fun to get in touch with his creative side, from time to time.

He limped back to the table and slowly propped himself back into his chair. "It's simple, really. You were there. You saw the messy purge that Feliks thought would save him some face. And now we have several little other messes, that Feliks can't clean up."

"The reason we are both alive right now, is because we can clean up these messes. I have a written... pardon right- here," he says, removing the letter with stamp from his cloak, "that gives pardon to you and your special somepony, and formally apologizes for the indiscretions of the military here. This pardon is written by the Tsar's secretary himself. It bypasses Felik's authority."

"Following so far?"

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady turned her attention to the signed paper, looking it over before staring at it for a few moments longer. Slowly setting the paper back down flat onto the table, she closed her eyes and gave a small nod of understanding. "Yes, I follow. And I know there's a catch to this thing, so spit it out already."

[Tisis Antony]

The Praetor loved her enthusiasm. "Not really a catch. Just a job. I'll be your handler, because the goddamn turkeys who tried to kill me can't seem to grasp this field of work. We've got a laundry list of ponies, griffons, and miscellanea that needs dying, and needs it bad, yes?"

The Praetor removed a scroll from his cloak, and showed it to Shady. It was a literal list of ponies and griffons- some of the names had been scrawled out. The Praetor offered her a quill. "Cross out mister... Gingred Palemire- from the looks of him out there, you off'ed the pale fellow quite nicely."

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady looked down at the list of names, smirking slightly as the names of those she had met below the streets weren't listed. Looks like they can't get anything right without me. She thought silently to herself. The young mare took the quill and crossed off the name she was told to before turning her eyes back to the griffon in front of her.

"I think I'm getting you now..." She replied simply. "You want me to come back as your spy and assassin in return for letting me live and leaving Freyia alone, right?"

[Tisis Antony]

"Mmmmmmhmm, yeah, that's the gist of it. These assassinations go over Feliks, go over the Guerrillas, or the Gaurds. We got this list from the big man upstairs, and he wants to make sure that not even the so called "king" of Manehattan knows about this."

"Funny thing is, I wrote this list myself, a few years back. Wouldn't be surprised if half these people are already dead. Our targets comprise old OGI staff that can't be trusted without the OGI to look over them, some of Felik's crew that the we figured were potential security threats, and some other unmentionables."

"So, how this works. This pardon is effective as soon as the last name on this list is dead, conditionally hinging on us remaining undiscovered. You report to me, because they trust me more then you. I report to this slave collar, because they trust magical artifacts more then me. And this slave collar reports to an abstract set of instructions and guidelines that determine whether or not my behavior warrants the continued use of my head."

"I wont lie to you, if we fail at this, they're going to kill me, and Freyia, and ideally you, if they can. Freyia can hide and run, but I don't reckon she realizes how much your continued cooperation is keeping the authorities from hunting her down. Anyways, its that or the cyanide pills. So what say you? Got any bright insights?"

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady's expression remained serious while the explanation of all the terms, people involved and just about everything else was described to her. Without even a moment's thought, the pony gave a nod. "Alright, I'll comply and finish this list." She replied. "Not for you, not for me, not for your precious czar. I'm doing this for Freyia."

With an annoyed huff, the mare slipped off of her seat and stood back on her hooves. "That means if I hear anything about Freyia being hurt... I'll let them kill you! No...I'll do it myself!" She growled, rearing up and slamming her forehooves on the table to show her point, even if the mildly exposed ribs from her malnourished self might have taken away from the threat.

[Tisis Antony]

The Praetor grinned. "Killing me is both surprisingly simple and surprisingly hard."

"Anyways, we have some time on our hands. Welcome to the outfit, yada yada yada, I'm going to goddamn sleep. I've not slept in twenty-eight hours."

With that sad, the Praetor stood up, walked from the door, and unlocked the locks on the adjoining door. He began the walk up the stairs, and viewed the city of Manehattan open up before them. "Are you coming?"

[Shady Silhouette]

Shady watched the griffon leave, stretching out her stiff wings before following him to the stairs. "Don't worry about me, I'll take care of these names like they were little pieces of glass." She replied coldly while moving up the stairs. "Just keep your side of the deal and you won't have to worry about me."

[Tisis Antony]

Thread completed.

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