Lunar Shade didn't know what to feel as she stared confusingly at the myriad of ponies that had just said surprise. Should she be frustrated? Confused? Happy? If she could use any emotion to describe herself right now, it would be surprised.

As the crowd of ponies started to to mingle with themselves, a certain pink pony, and musicians walked towards the trio, smiles plastered on their faces.

"Hi Luney! How do you like the party?!" Pinkie Pie asked energetically.

"L-Luney?"

"Yes, sooner or later Pinkie Pie gives everypony their own nickname." Octavia said, casually taking a sip of her glass.

"That's......good to know." Shade said, still a little surprised from earlier.

"Well I hope you love,love, love the party! It's all for you." Pinkie gave Shade one last grin before disappearing in the crowd of ponies.

Finally taking some time to observe the environment, Lunar Shade saw that the party was tailored to her. All of the decorations were a midnight black with her cutie mark scattered around randomly on them. It was the same with the serving cups, table cloths, and punch bowl.

"Is it just me, or is all of this a bit............disturbing." Shade said, feeling a slight shiver resonate through her body.

"Yeah, it can be a little creepy on how much Pinkie knows about somepony." Vinyl said as she lifted her glasses, revealing her magenta eyes.

"Yeah, but how would she know so much about me?" Shade said, staring at Vinyl with her purplish-blue eyes.

Vinyl rubbed the back of her neck as she tried to avoid her gaze. "Yeah, well....."

As Pinkie Pie dashed off towards Sugarcube corner with Vinyl, The white mare tried, but failed to make sure she wouldn't become disoriented.

"Pinkie, where are ya taking me?!" Vinyl questioned as she was taken into the town bakery.

Pinkie Pie didn't answer, all she did was sit a dazed Vinyl Scratch down at one of the tables before darting to a nearby supply closet.

"What are you doing?" Vinyl asked, trying to focus on Pinkie even though her vision was swimming.

By the time Vinyl was able to get her bearings straight, Pinkie had emerged from the closet with black and silver cloths, paints, and plastic.

"So, what does Luney like?" Pinkie said in her usual energetic tone.

"And so you told her everything." Shade just sighed as she put a hoof to her forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

"Of course I didn't tell her everything. I only told her a few things. And even then, I kept some of it vague." Vinyl put a reassuring hoof on Shades shoulder. "All I told her was what you liked."

Lunar Shades eyes widened at what Vinyl had said, and in the blink of an eye, she darted towards the concessions table. As she gazed over the assortment of foods, both Vinyl and Octavia walked over to her, bemused smiles across their muzzles.

"Like I said, I only told her what you like." Vinyl said as she grabbed the trio plates.

"Lily cake, lotus candy, Honey sickle Surprise! The only thing that's missing is-"

"Night Shade salad!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, holding a bowl with deep purple petals in it.

"But how did you get the recipe?! It took me years to find it, let alone make it." Shade said with a slight giddiness in her voice.

"Really?! It took me less than an hour to make this. And I even added your favorite add ins." Pinkie handed over the bowl before, for some reason, her ear flopped, eye fluttered, and her knee twitched. "Twilight look out!" Which after a few seconds, a startled yelp followed. "Oh, I'm so sorry to cut this short, but another one of my friends needs me. Enjoy the party!"

"Oookay then." Shade looked at her two friends for some sort of explanation, only to be answered by two frustrated groans.

"Don't try to understand it." Octavia said with a sheepish smile. "Twilight Sparkle tried and received not just a flower pot, but an anvil and piano to the head."

"Pinkie Pie threw it at her?!"

"Actually no, it by was coincidence."

Shade was a little suspicious about it being "coincidence", but just shrugged it off and attributed her suspicion to paranoia. Sure, she was usually a very calm, collected, and straight to the point when it came to being an assassin. But she could also tell when she wasn't wanted or down right hated.

More specifically, she could feel it from the element bearers, and to her discomfort, students. It seems as though most of the element bearers have either negative or mixed feelings towards me. Lunar Shade thought as she sat down at a nearby table, idly eating her salad. The apple farmer seems to show extreme anger towards me combined with distrust. The same goes for that athletic mare, although she seems more protective with her anger and suspicion. The quiet one doesn't seem to show any anger, more like fear. I would expect her to probably tense up in any serious situation. She took another bite of her salad, but also felt the table get slightly nudged. She ignored it though, and continued her internal analysis. The fashionista shows a little malice, but that is probably overshadowed by how she might view my robes and cloak. She did seem a bit distracted when she had found out Elder Freedom Seeker said he was from Roam. The table was nudged again, a bit harder this time, but was again ignored. Then there's Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie acts like the kind of mare that loves everypony. Hell, she's even throwing a party for the mare that had tried to get her executed. All I can get out of her emotion wise is happiness and.....sympathy? Shade thought about it for a minute, and then just shrugged, completely oblivious to three pairs of eyes looking at her. No, it can't be sympathy. It couldn't be. Now, on to the alicorn. She seems to be a little wary of me still, but seems to be warming up to me. She's even given me a place to stay until the guild hall is created. I might not like them, but overall they seem like a loving, tight knit group. All I have to worry about is how to teach them. It won't be easy, but I'll have to g-

"Hey miss. How did ya get your cutie mark?" A fillies voice, accompanied by a familiar drawl, said, snapping Lunar Shade out of her train of thought.

When she looked down, Lunar Shade saw three little fillies. The first was a yellow coated and red maned earth pony filly with a red bow, reminding her of a certain apple farmer. The second was a unicorn with a white coat with a curly purple and lavender mane, looking almost like the spitting image of Rarity. The third one.......sent a slight chill down Shades spine. She was an orange pegasus filly with the same purple mane Shade had. for a moment, Shade could only see one thing......

"No, you can't die! You just can't!"

Lunar Shade held her fellow assassin in her hooves, oblivious to the blood staining her cloak. She couldn't believe it, she had left her camp for barely five minutes, and now she was holding her best friend, the life from her body slowly draining onto the forest floor.

"Please don't die." Lunar Shade shakily said, tears dropping onto her friends cloak.

"It's..." The assassin coughs up some blood, before continuing. "Alright. You didn't see me. I doubt I would've survived anyway." The assassin said, pointing to her broken orange wings. "It's not your fault, Shade."

"No! It's not alright. I-I thought you were one of them, and I acted on instinct. I didn't mean to kill you! Your like a sister to me!" Her tears were coming on full fledged, all her sadness and despair being poured into her crying.

"It's not your fault...." The assassins purple eyes started to glaze over as they slowly closed. "It's....not....your fault....."

"C'mon, wake up." Lunar Shade didn't want to lose her greatest friend, she just couldn't. "No, don't go to sleep. Please don't." Still no response. "N-n-no........" Shade pulled the lifeless body into a tight embrace, tears creating small pools in the blood that had already formed on the forest floor. "I don't want to be your murderer." Finally unable to hold it back, lunar Shade let out a blood curdling scream full of anger, despair, and sadness.

"Helloooo? You still there?" The pegasus filly asked as she tried to wave of hoof in front of Shades face.

Snapping out of her memory quickly, she looked down at the three fillies. "I'm sorry, but what did you say?"

"We asked how you had gotten your cutie mark?" The unicorn filly asked, pointing at Lunar Shades flank.

Lunar Shade adopted a caring smile. "Well, at first I didn't even understand what it meant, but after a while, I realized it means hope, freedom, and above all else, the preservation of ones virtues." Lunar Shade said truthfully. "I got it when I was protecting a friend from a bully at school." Shade lied, although sh had actually gotten her cutie mark in a not so different situation.

"Coool." The pegasus said.

Lunar Shades smile grew a bit, but not by much. "Anyway ,I'm Lunar Shade. What are your names, little ones?"

"I'm Applebloom, Applejacks sister."

"I'm Sweetie Belle, Rarities sister."

"And I'm Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash's honorary sister."

"And together we're....." The three said in unison as they took a deep breath. "THE CUTIE MARKS CRUSADERS, YAY!"

Lunar Shade was a little taken aback by there shout, but was able to quickly get acclimated afterwords. "Well, it was nice to meet you three."

"You two Miss Shade. Bye!" They all said in unison as they trotted away.

Lunar Shade smiled caringly at the three fillies, until she saw two very angry looking mares walking towards her.

"Look, I don't know why you tried to kill us, and don't even care about you little cult, but if you even lay one hoof on Scootaloo, I will break both your wings and leave you to the Timberwolves!" Rainbow Dash said with a scowl on her face.

"The same goes fer Applebloom."

"If you weren't paying attention at Masayaf, one of the Orders tenants is to not harm the innocent." Lunar Shade said, before returning the same hate filled scowl, but it was mostly directed towards Rainbow Dash. " And I would NEVER hurt Scootaloo."

The cyan pegasus was taken a little by surprise when Shade had said that, but her scowl had never faltered. Eventually the two mares left, and the rest of the party had proceeded without incident. By the time the party ended, the sun was already setting and everypony was already going home.

Once Lunar Shade and Twilight had gotten back home and went to bed, Shade had done the same thing she had done the previous night. But instead of the gem shard, she pulled out an extremely old orange feather ,the blood stain that had once been on it adding a bit of a red tinge to the feather.

"I'm sorry, Gentle Wing." Shade said, a small tear rolling down her cheek as she drifted of into sleep. "I'm sorry."

Author's Note

Sorry this took a while, but I hope you like it.