Black eye, Black suit.. Black heart?

She wiped a bit of muck of her face as she stood up and looked around. Her suit was torn and the idiots who had fought her seem to be laying in neat little pile.

She felt her head as she braced herself against a wall. Why did they think they could win? If you can't stand alone for yourself you lost from the start. Though she hadn't expected the bottle when they said it would be all hooves match. Cowards.

Talon felt her eye and sighed. Another shiner for the world to see. She looked down at her suit and went into rage as she torn off her over shirt. "Arghhhh! Another one! Great.." She said as threw in the trash. which was later that today be the new jacket for a hobo.

She just walked till she got to the park and crashed on the bench, letting the clouds go over her head. "One day." She said to herself. "There won't be any need to fight. I'll be the strongest..." She passed out on the bench in mid-sentence as she laid there.

"Loyal."

"Yes mistress."

"Is this mare going to perish?"

The maid narrowed her eyes at the vagrant passed out on the park bench. After a short while, she shook her head.

"No, Mrs Admirer. It would appear her time is not today."

Crystal Admirer sighed and brushed some of her mane out of her eyes. "Very well, then. It is our duty as good samaritans to ensure the poor soul gets proper medical care. Can you carry her so as to transport her to the nearest hospital?"

Loyal paused. "I believe that might be beyond my capability. She is not the smallest of ponies. Should we maybe alert the hospital when we pass by?"

Admirer shook her head. "I doubt that they will much care for a pony who participated in what seemed to be a brawl. Especially for one so destitute. Let us first make sure this mare is alright. Rouse her, please."

Loyal walked over to the lying figure and shook it gently.

Talon coughed as she wiped her nose, leaning up with a look of confusion at the nice smelling pony trying to wake her up. She felt her head as she looked down at the filly. "What the fu-" She stopped as she looked up at the nicely dress filly standing behind her. "Just my luck. Someone with morality." She groaned, standing up to set her hat suddenly, her light sensitive eyes had saw how prefect the mare's hair was.

She had always had impossible hair to deal with. That one of the reasons Mary had convinced her to wear the thing. Also it looked good with a suit. She unbuttoned her top a bit to help the sweating as she curled up her sleeves. "Thanks for waking me up. Could of died of a concision or something."

"Oh, don't mind me," Admirer waved the gratitude away, "Just doing what a pony with morality would do. Oh my, you look terrible. Like- Loyal, what's the term?"

The maid pursed her lips and looked to the sky. "Like shit, mistress. Looks like absolute shit, the term is." Admirer frowned.

"No, that's a bit too vulgar. I'm thinking something about a dog, a snake and cockerel. Oh, that doesn't matter. I am Crystal Admirer, and this is my maid, Loyal. Can you walk okay? If so, allow us to escort you to the hospital. It's not far."

She followed this with a hopeful smile. Hopefully, the poor mare wasn't one of those stupidly proud ones that refused any help even if they desperately needed it. It was difficult to walk the line between helping somepony and respecting their independence. Admirer took a glance at Loyal. Now there was pony not so much didn't walk the line as much as completely ignore the line's existence.

Ironic, considering Loyal's actual name.

Loyal, for her part, looked bored, as if this sort of thing happened all the time. Admirer was a compassionate, kindly soul, always wanting to help other ponies. It was a given that she would try to help this raggedy pony. The maid didn't see the point really. Raggedy pony wasn't going to die today, whether they assisted or not. Furthermore, she thought, as narrowed her eyes at the mare her master was currently over, in the end...

The maid closed her eyes and smirked.

She wipes the wood chips from what was left of her suit. "Look Too-Pretty, or whatever your name is." She adjusted her hat as she just stood up to be in a almost fighting stance as she rolled her shoulders, cracking her back a bit. "I don't need a hospital, because of the fact I don't have the money to pay for it. Maybe you and your questionable maid, which your breaking some kinda foal right laws with. Then again when have rich ever cared about laws?" She huffed laugh as that as she guess eyed them both, trying wonder if there worth fighting.

Maybe that maid was some kinda brainwashed maid who could fight. She remembered barging into store and reading that in some magazine or comic book. Whatever there called. She fought her eager hoof when she noticed the kid's face reminded her of something she liked to forget most of the time. "So unless your forking the bill. Let's not and say we did. Now if your looking for bodyguard or something stupid like that. I'm more your filly. Though wearing the maid suit will cost extra."

Admirer giggled. "Me, pretty, and Loyal, a foal? Isn't she a flatterer?" she joked, nudging her maid, who just rolled her eyes. "But our monetary assistance is a given, I should think."

"If I may suggest something, mistress," Loyal stated flatly, "I think it would be best if we were not to converse with the vagrant any longer. She doesn't seem to be one deserving of charity, and honestly..." The maid waved dismissively at the hobo. "...she's a lost cause. The day after the doctors wrap her up, she's going to get her head bashed in another pointless brawl. Wash, rinse, repeat, until one day she's going to go down, and not get up again."

Admirer bit her lip, whilst Loyal continued, "And you know nothing, nothing will spare her from that fate. No amount of kindness nor money will change her base nature."

The mistress replied with a glare, then, "I wish you didn't do that, Loyal. Charity is something that can't be wasted. We are taking her to hospital and we are going to pay for her treatment. If we find her beaten up after that, then we shall do it again! Goodness is its own reward!"

Talon fixed her sleeves as she watched them, thinking how funny this all was. "Real interesting you two."

She smirked as she worked on the other tenuous, ripped sleeve, rolling it up as she thought of how she'd explain herself. "Maid fetishist over got the right idea. You being kind, nice and all around delightful won't do anything. I value only one thing honey." She points at a nasty scarp on her arm.

"You wanna buy me a suit, feed get me dinner, pay for my hospital bill and hear my sob story boo-whoo if you want. You could do all that if you get that warm feeling you helped somebody. You won't hear me say no." She had a sort of half smile as it fought a bit of smug expression. "Though the only thing that makes it charity is you didn't make me wear a maid outfit and call you mommy. Which would get the same result and you'd still get a warm fuzzy feeling."

She huffed laugh as blew a bit of hair out of her face. "Thing is. I know it would be simple as simon to just fix my life, but I won't till I become stronger. Now what that means could be anything and maybe if I explained it to ya you might get some kinda investment in my problem." She explained as she itched some of sleep powder stuff from her eye as the grass chimed softly in the quiet park. It was just before most ponies got off work, or the foals out of school.

"Thing is I lost all that charity and desire to follow like lackey that you two still got." He grasped the air before her with force. Her muscles forged from fighting and anger flexed for a moment, giving her her face a rougher outlook. "It was taken from me, but revenge isn't something worth or possibly make right what happened. So unless you got a time machine I don't want what your selling." She smirked a again as she stepped a bit closer to the pair.

"If you need a someone to trim your prefect hedges in the better part of town. Need someone to build a fence or protect you from thugs on the lower end when your shopping wearing clothes that yell "I'm rich and I would make a good ransom or sell well in the sex trade." Or you need someone with a philosophy major to argue about stupid bull all day. I'm your filly. Just don't offering me salvation on a silver plate. I got that offer once before and I paid in full."

When she had worked for the darker side of the spectrum. She had attended the college out of boredom, taking a philosophy major. Teacher out to not be a totally idiot and only wanted to argue. Perfect class for her.

"Unfortunately, the positions of bodyguard, gardener and philosophical conversationalist have been filled," Admirer motioned to Loyal, "Though I am definitely not adverse to listening to your story, and I am not one to force anypony into a maid suit."

As the vagrant stepped towards the uptown mare, her maid stepped between them. "Mistress, this mare is murderer."

This was followed by a long silence, broken only by a gentle breeze.

"Loyal, you didn't-"
"I can't turn off my nose, mistress. The stench of death is quite hard not to notice."

Admirer thought for moment, then asked, "That means you're going to hire her, is that correct?"

A laugh. "You heard her. No maid suit. 'Sides, she's living a broken life, and as she said, she's not going to let anypony fix it. What she doesn't say is that she doesn't want to fix herself, either." A grin. "And she never will. As I said, mistress, a lost cause. Might as well be a dead pony walking."

"Like you were?"

Admirer's soft assertion made Loyal's grin disappear, only for it to be replaced with a grim smile. "There's an important distinction between dead and never alive to begin with, mistress."

Talon laughed, but it retained actual feminine tone unlike her previous chuckles. It seems she stumbled on something that was pretty rare. Someone that knew the smell of death that filled the air. Not the one like you were hugging a corpse for a hour so you smell. She took pride in few things. One was suits and showers. This kid knew death wasn't something you could scrub away. Your red hoofed ill-regardless of the fancy soap or orange blossom perfume you wear.

She grinned a bit. Been a long time sense she met a killer. A loyal one at that. It was pretty clear Miss.Save the world had decided to bring this filthy filly home, scrub away the dirt and swamp water. At least it explains the get-up.

Talon adjusted her hat, letting her body lean a bit as she smirked. "Never alive?" Her smirk turned to a grin as fixed a curl poking from her hat. "Sounds like a petty excuse to me. Maybe pain numbed your soul, but if you felt pain. Your alive in my book." She pressed her hoof to her chin as she thought. "Though in the end I'm pretty stupid, a vagrant and murder right?"

She turned around with carefree walk, swaying her hips with a few waddled steps. "So why listen to me? Besides. I need to go somewhere to sit if I'm gonna tell you my sad story."

Admirer winced as Loyal's lips formed a mocking smile, "Well, miss, I'm afraid that I still don't fit your criteria for 'alive', but at least you are self-aware about your situation. As for my mistress, well, she doesn't like talking about it, but she feels terrible that she lives a privileged life, whilst others don't. Thus she tries helping others in an attempt to increase the sum total of happiness. Helping others makes her happy, and the pony she helps happy. So she helps."

"Are you sure you should be walking?" Admirer interrupted before Loyal said any more, "You do look badly roughed up and..." She sighed. "I made a bet with Loyal that the next pony I tried to help would accept instead of brush me off."

Loyal glared at her mistress. "Mistress, that's cheating."

Admirer, for her part, met the glare with a cool stare of her own. "Really? I don't recall anything about telling the pony in question about the bet."

"And I seem to recall this bet being about cynicism versus idealism, mistress."

Talon turned around with her cheeks pushed up from the half frown, removing her hat to runn her hoof through her hair. "So let me get this straight. You want to add a sub total of happiness to your own prefect life. I find that kinda funny and ironic."

She tapped her foot as she went on. "Yet I'm pretty sure that fits a different train of thought, though I have never been one to care about total happiness. More egoistical in how I stand. Though I know it in-itself is a broken theory. Prefect for broken garbage like me right?"

She stares at the both of them, like looking at some animal that had been extinct for millions of years and she was looking at their bones through a window. "One time. I knew a filly like you Too-pretty. Though she was poor. Living on the streets like a cat, or hobo. Whatever you understand." Her teeth were held together as she tried not to get mad, crushing her hat a bit. "She pissed me off. She give away the beard we had to steal and was really happy when she did it. She was pain in the flank.."

She let her tongue lick over her teeth as she held her hat in the crushed position. "You both make me sick." She flopped her hat on her head. "Betting on me like I'm some kinda game. So do me a favor." A few tears trailed from her eyes. "How about next time you just leave some food or give to some charity. I feel sick." She touched her stomach as tried to compose herself.

It was just stupid cycle she had expected. She'd get haunted by memory, get mad and fight till she collapses. Then some prefect princess, or some too nice for his own good guard like Renny would show up and be all nice like they owned her money or something. "Dammit. Sorry. Just ignore me." She turned away, setting a hoof to her face in hopes that plugs up tears.

As one, the maid and mistress turned to face the vagrant. Loyal snickered. "Get over yourself, miss. Mistress is like this with all ponies she happens to meet. You're nothing special. Five points for me for another self-centred bitch who can't even take kindness gracefully. Let's go, mistress. She's not even worth the pity she wallows in. To take your utilitarian view, trying to help her will only make her pissed, and you frustrated, net loss of happiness."

"You forget your place, Loyal," Admirer snapped, "You can add your points to your 'I'm right about everything' tally, but I am not going to just leave a fellow pony in distress. We're taking her to Tender Remedy." She strode over in front of the vagrant. "If I can donate to a charity, I will. If I can work in the soup kitchens, I will. If can help make a pony that views herself as broken garbage feel a little less broken, I will. If a pony that lives on the street can give away what little she has, then there's no good excuse for a pony with what I have not to help everypony she sees. We're taking you to my private doctor, and you don't have to pay a single bit. If for some Celestia forsaken reason you'd rather do what she-" Admirer pointed at Loyal. "-said and die in some unnamed backalley, then all you have to do is walk away. I won't stop you, because that is your choice. Your freedom to take the consequences. But the last thing you would ever want is for her to be right about you."

She was going to need a aspirin or two after all this bull malarkey as she slid hier leg across her face and pretended it was just for pushing up her hat. Though maybe one day she'd think it was sort of funny how life does that to you. Sticking your decisions bluntly in your face and expecting a answer when your off guard. "Kinda funny now that I think about. Getting blunt therapy ain't as healing as I thought."

She tried to make a smirk, but it seem to have had a car wreck with a frown trying to form in the intersections of her face. "Fine, whatever. Let's go to Quacks or whatever your doctor's name is." Talon said with her jaded tone as she turned to face the ponies. She could say the only thing she hadn't meet before was such degrees of ponies together. Kinda nice when you get insulted and then treated nice in the same breath. Like that convenience store on the corner from her apartments.

She let the idea of this pony trying to help her and decided she needed to try some save some pride, even it's only herself who believed it. Her two reasons to go: Maybe Too-Pretty here could do something worth her time and now she had somepony's shell she wanted to crack. She finally cracked smirk as the goals set in her mind as she wondered if she'd she maid fetishist scrubbing floors in the future. That be fun.

Loyal sighed, then smirked right back at the vagrant. "If you want to donate some organs to capitalism, we can forgo Remedy and skip straight to me cutting you open."

Admirer glared at her maid.

"Oh, wait, of course we need to preserve the goods, so we might have to drop by Remedy for some cool boxes."

Shaking her head, Admirer said flatly, "This way. You know, I don't seem to have caught your name..."

As Admirer fussed over the vagrant, Loyal kept close in case any funny business occurred, inserting a few insults here and there as they walked over to the good doctor.

---

It took the ninth knock for Remedy to open the door, and when she did, she was handling a giant syringe.

"Remedy, it's been a-oh, Celestia what is that?" Admirer said.

Tender looked at Crystal critically, before looking at the maid-Loyal, wasn't it?- and a bruised hobo next to her.

"I was preparing a salad," the doctor said awkwardly.

"With a syringe?"

"Yes... Why, what do you use for-never mind," Remedy nodded toward the hobo, "Let me guess, your good work for the day?"

Admirer crossed her forelimbs and huffed. "Don't make it sound like a daily quota I have to fulfill."

"Yeah, yeah, bring her in," Remedy sighed, "These things aren't going to take care of themselves..."

The interior of the house was neat and organised. Not a speckle of dirt was misplaced, and it had the feel of a quarantined zone. Closing the door behind the guests, Remedy then said, "Make yourselves at home in the living room, I'll be with you in a sec."

Talon took off her hat, rubbing her hair as she noticed the clean freak tornado that had to have come through here. Though so far she liked the doctor. He seem like the right mix of kooky and eccentric. Reminded her of that hobo she knew that would talk into a broken mirror and spend all his bits of scrubbing bubbles and scrub alleyways with toothbrush.

Talon sat with her hat in her lap as she pulled up the Canterlot Times, reading about something that she didn't find that interesting. She quickly discarded and decided just to look at what Dress-Up and Nurse Charity were doing.

Loyal was standing in the corner, eyes closed and head down, as if in prayer, whilst Admirer sat down on a sofa and proceeded to take part in the art of small talk.

"Canterlot Times, Rems? What's wrong with our local paper?"

A derisive snort came from the kitchen.

"What, the Manehattan Inquirer? That old rag? If I wanted toilet paper, I would buy rolls. Anyway, the Times has a better crossword, even if some of the articles are about teatime trends. Apparently, bread and butter is the rage among the Canterlot nobility."

Admirer laughed. "Well, that's strange indeed. They'd probably buy far too expensive bread and far too expensive butter, though, in the spirit of one-upmareship."

Remedy then entered the room in a coat and carrying a kit.

"Kay, then," she said, "This won't hurt a bit. Probably. 'nless you have really bad enemies."

"Look Doctor Quack. If you want to hit punch me in the face first or press of the lower part of my back where my rib is healing. I could honesty care less about needles and little tools." She set her hat down, removing her torn sleeved shirt and setting it aside.

Talon looked over at the two, waiting for the doctor to do whatever. "I haven't had good bread in a while. Last time when I took it from stall on bet. I remember because she never forked the bits out and I had to go hid in the sewer. Doesn't smell as bad they say it does."

She itched her hair as she thought about something. "So Too-Pretty. How do you got the dough to be so nice and how you convince maid service over here to wear it? She lose some kinda bet, or she indebted you in some way really heart warming way." She pressed her front hooves together with mushy-gooey look like the teenage girls when seeing a puppy sleeping in a slipper with a baby kitty.

Remedy tilted her head. "I'm sorry, Masochist Hobo, I'm not into the S&M scene, so needles and bandages will have to do for now." Sitting down next to her patient, she started work. It was simple patching up, but Remedy tensed when the topic of Loyal and Admirer's past came up. She had heard the story. She played a small part. She didn't want it to be told again.

Admirer, for her part, took it in stride. "Oh, my," she laughed, "Now there's an interesting tale. You know what? Why don't you tell me your sob story, and I can tell you mine. I promise my recollection will have the minimum of mush and goo."

Talon hated trading, but whatever and why not in this case. "Well let's skip the boring part about living on the streets with pack of homeless foals. Stealing just to get by, because that's pretty much most of the residents of Manehatten." She waved her hoof, wondering if the good doctor do surgery on his own head if she cracked it open, though she smirked. She liked him like she liked the maid. They both were strong and kinda jerky. Just the way she liked it.

"I wanted to split from them, uh." She wiped the back of her head. "But my friend begged me to help them. So I did that." She blinked as she fought with some vivid memories she kinda hated memorable they were. "She kinda dragged me on her stupid charity missions till.. she went into a coma." She paused, kinda feeling this turning in her stomach.

(Storms, Tender Remedy is female.)

Loyal stifled a laugh, "Looks like you got short changed on this one, mistress." Admirer shook her head at the maid.

"So I'll skip the part of having a rich father too blind to notice that he had gotten on the wrong side of some very dangerous ponies. One day, on a train ride, a bunch of bandits raid the train and tie me and my mother up, and..."

"Chrys, you don't have to start from there," Remedy interjected, as she glared at some of the patient's bruises. There was something not quite right about them...

"Why not?" Crystal responded, "It's the beginning, isn't it? Apparently, they wanted my father to go against on law or another or some legal thing like that. Daddy was very strict with his morals so he refused. He kept to his moral code no matter how many blows he was struck with, no matter how many times they...cut him."

The mare took a deep breath. "Your turn."

Talon liked the sound of her father. He was one you could call a dying breed. She wondered what law he refused. Could of been anything from some way they have to move something or a direct law against. Talon had a itch to ask if it was even worth the cuts, but the damn filly doctor was checking her bruises, which made her tense. Her whole life she never was touchy feely and being a fighter at heart made being exposed to someone that likely had a few sharp objects in their coat made her have to focus on not knocking the doc out be reflex when she decided to investigate.

"Most colts fold when the family is held. Very loyal to whatever kinda work he did." She said soberly as she itched her head when she seem to wanting to play trade off. "Anyway. MaryRose.. didn't have any money and I sure as sugar didn't either. So I started just being criminal, whatever paid. Worked my way around town and made name. Cuaght the attention of the mob. I joined up and MaryRose was taken care of.." Her eyelids seem slightly closed as remembered those days, where she didn't care what she was doing. If it paid to help MaryRose. It got done.


"So I worked with them for a while till I learned they were the ones who bat MaryRose so bad she went into a coma." Talon licked her lip in frustration as her leg shakes a bit and her muscles tensed. She took a few breaths to hold back the anger that bubbled below the surface. Her hooves itching to punch something.

Remedy sensed the other two wanting to speak; Loyal with a smart-ass remark, Crystal with her patronizing concern. So she commented quickly before the others could.

"Is that why you have a botched curse of eternal bruising on you?" she stated as she enchanted some needles of her own, "Thankfully, since it wasn't cast successfully, you aren't feeling the full adverse effects of continuous bruising, but it's going to feel strange as I remove it. As in, it'll feel like you have no bones for a bit, and there won't be any pain even though all sensibilities tell you there should. Should be pain, that is."

The little tirade allowed the other two to think carefully about what they were going to say next. Surprisingly, it was Loyal that spoke next in a happy tone.

"Our turn. You may remember the massacre on the Stalliongrad-Manehattan Express, where 13 ponies and a newly elected mayor were killed after a failed raid. What they did not say in the papers was that the murders were not caused by the train raiders, but rather, some psychopath that was unrelated to the hostage situation. The mayor himself was killed after a period of torture, yet why would the torturers kill him if they wanted him to do something? For that matter, why would one of the raiders be strung up with a tablecloth and dragged along the railway tracks? So many unanswered questions, and Crystal was a mare who wanted answers. She eventually found them."

Admirer looked at the floor and remained silent. Remedy looked at her best friend sadly for a few seconds before saying, "Are you ready? Removing curse in three...two...one..."

"Look at me with my normal, growing up on the streets of a big story compared too this secret agent and political intrigue." She smirked, but her face seem to flush the color from her face as she felt like threw her into a brick wall and set a pack of dogs on her, adding a firing squad to the picture as she cussed loudly, almost buckling from the jolt of... numbness. She blinked a bit at the feeling, wondering where she can get some of this stuff. She felt more at ease then she had in while as fuzzy feeling warmed through her.

"Oooooo~ Mother Mare likes." She closed her eyes as she let the feeling soak over her for a second before going on to say. "I didn't read the paper back then. I only read it because I steal it from my neighbor Renny." She chuckled a bit as as her eyes cast over to see what the doctor was up too, growing bored and cracked her neck. "Please go on with your story. Mines pretty much done. Poor, I fight ponies to get over my issues and I have medical bills driving me to grey hairs." She touched her hair as if she was worried she could feel the color fading, glazing at Admirer's hair for moment as she beat down the green envy of her prefect hair.

"Turns out there was no reason for the deaths, nothing but noise and fire. Noise and fire," Admirer said slowly, "I found my answers, and they were pointless. My father's death, the deaths of all the others on that fateful train trip...they were part of no great scheme, no espionage plot. Just her. Everything just led to her." She nodded towards the maid, who was looking at nothing.

There was a long period of silence.

"Funny how you simply ended up forgiving the pony you swore vengeance on," the maid said in a light-hearted, almost mocking tone.

"Well, what else could I do? I'm not like our friend here," Admirer said lowly, "I find no solace in harm, even those who have wronged me. After all, that just perpetuates misery." She shook her head, then turned to Talon. "Tell me, then. Would Mary Rose be happy with where you are? With what you are?"

Talon had a little tingle as Admirer told her story it made Talon feel a tiny, little bit of sorta like something that could be compared to sympathy with frosty hints of empathy. It seems vengeance like to be everybody middle man, regardless where you were born. Always someone stepping on you till you climb out under to walk away or step on them. Talon decided to hid her feelings with mean joke.

"Great story. Can't wait to read the book." She let her face shift a few emotions till she managed a frown. "Also don't try your 'saving' bull by dropping her name." She turned her head, wondering why the itch to punch didn't come when she spoke to Admirer. Maybe she had that true noble thing or something dumb like that. "She wouldn't want me getting myself in trouble, but I can't say if she'd want me to get back at him.. those she did always seem the kinda to be 'eye for a eye makes the world blind'." By the end of her sentence she got back her devil's smirk. "Though I one to reply in the world of the blind the one eyed colt is king. Though it's just to be smartflank and have comeback."

She took her hat off the chair nearby and set it on her head. "So Trained Maid. Let's hear it. Why did you go with Too-Clean here? Feeling you gotta make up for mistakes, or fall in love with her and follow her around like a lost puppy? Both are kinda sweet, in twisted sort of way."