Ponies' Creed: Ascentby Phantom SongChaptersThe AmbassadorThe Sisterhood's CallThe Sisterhood of Equestrian AssassinsThe AmbassadorWhat's in a name? Is it the legacy of all those who have carried it? Does the individual determine what his name will mean, or is he doomed to be identified only by his ancestors? Does the individual determine the meaning of his name, or does his name define his life and who he shall be? Mainly, this is a story about the unspoken history of Equestria's rise, but in a sense, this is also a story about names... The first name of importance is that of the unicorn ambassador Jacques Hollande-Cadenza. Now Jacques lived before the winter of the Windigos and long before the birth of Equestria, when the races of ponies were still divided and locked in an endless rivalry, and when no race had any love for the others and only kept peace because they had to cooperate to survive. The Earth Ponies grew the food and harvested the resources, the Unicorns crafted and sold their goods, the Pegasi ensured fair weather conditions, and the Alicorns brought about night and day. But even with cooperation being a necessity, no race was keen to share their abilities and possessions with the others, and this is where ponies like Jacques were essential. Jacques was an ambassador, and ambassadors had the difficult yet crucial task of getting the races to cooperate. Jacques was a rare type of pony for his time, for he was a unicorn who had fallen in love with and married a pegasus. Such crosses between the pony races were blasphemy in this time, and Jacques was chastised for it but he didn't care, for he loved the mare he married with all of his heart (and adopted her last name, Cadenza, under hyphenation), and he cared not for the prejudices of other ponies. And it was his job not to care, for it was bigotry and prejudice that kept the races apart and therefore the duty of ambassadors to ignore these prejudices in the interest of diplomacy. But Jacques was unfortunate, for he was ambassador to the wrong empire at the wrong time. Jacques was the Unicornia ambassador to the alicorn kingdom of Aria, and Aria was ruled by the alicorn King Tyrannus Horatio Aristozka. Contrary to his name, Tyrannus was a just ruler... until he changed. Slowly, and from nowhere, Tyrannus became more and more vindictive. He began to oppress his people, stripping them of their rights and casting unreasonable judgments upon them. He began to execute anyone he suspected of opposing his rule, and issued death threats against those who he disliked or who did not adhere to his ideology. Jacques was one of these unfortunate ponies. Because he had married a pony who was not of his same race and had children with her, he was branded a heretic and an abomination by the alicorn king. Jacques mainly ignored the death threats thinking that Tyrannus wouldn't risk a war with the unicorns by murdering their ambassador. Sadly, Jacques was wrong. He was very fatally wrong. One afternoon, while Jacques was relaxing in his house in Aria with his wife and daughters, Tyrannus cast a massive spell of destruction upon the home. The spell impacted the house directly, and within seconds it was reduced to flaming ashes and broken glass, and the Hollande-Cadenza family was reduced to nothing but blackened, smoldering pony skeletons dead beyond any glimmer of life. As luck would have it, however, one member of the family was absent from the house at the time of its destruction, and by this blessing that member survived. That pony was Jacques' only son, Rodrigo Cadenza. Rodrigo was a dark maroon stallion with a long, deep blonde mane and tail. He was a unicorn, but bore a pegasus name, inherited from his mother. He was a mature pony, about half the age of his father but recognized as an adult. Rodrigo had been out shopping at the marketplace in Aria when the attack occurred. Upon returning home, Rodrigo immediately dropped the bag of groceries he was carrying, and was greeted with the gruesome sight of everything he had ever known and loved in a pile of smoldering ash. Rodrigo was surrounded by a dead, pervading silence, so quiet that even the shopping bag could be heard touching the ground with a comparative racket. Rodrigo didn't hear nor care about his fresh groceries hitting the ground. He was numb from the scene before him. His heart had shattered inside, and tears poured from his eyes in droves. He felt as though he had died hundreds of times over. He sat there and wept for hours. Eventually Rodrigo began to scavenge the remains of his home, but found nothing of value, save for his mother's sapphire locket. It was now all he had left of his family. There was nothing left for him in Aria now, but Princess Platinum had to be notified. Tears blurring his vision, Rodrigo ran as fast as he could to Unicornia. Author's Note Please forgive my archaic writing style. I tried to make this as coherent and eloquent as possible. This is the exposition chapter. The Sisterhood's CallRodrigo galloped for what seemed like days. His legs seared with pain and each impact of his hooves upon the rough surfaces of the dirt and grass felt as sledgehammers pounding upon his hooves and sending their shockwave to his brain. The agony in his hooves and head would have easily brought him or anypony down were he not dead-set on continuing. He didn't care. He was numb. Numb from the shock of his loss and from his instincts crying out for him to run, to get the hell away, to escape the kingdom of the treacherous alicorns. To escape the pain. Eventually, he reached the gates of Unicornia, but by this time his body had been stretched so far past its natural limits that it could no longer continue to sustain his consciousness. He could barely mutter a syllable before fainting at the hooves of the gate guards, who quickly recognized him as a unicorn, and heaved him to the city's apothecary. The entire time he quietly and unconsciously muttered the name of Princess Platinum... Rodrigo awoke to the sight of a white unicorn in lavish robes and ornate tiara standing at the foot of his bed. It was Princess Platinum, in all her usual majesty. "Oh good, you're awake," said she, in an angelic voice. "Now, would you happen to be able to speak?" Rodrigo stared at her, wide-eyed with amazement. He had never seen the Princess before, only heard stories from his father. She was just as strikingly beautiful as he had imagined, and he found that he was having difficulty speaking in the presence of Her Majesty. Tenuously recovering from the shock of the sight, he managed to croak out a feeble "Yes." "Good!" replied the Princess, "I was worried that whatever you had been through had robbed you of that capacity. Now, onto business. The Apothecary tells me that you collapsed from exhaustion, but you sport no serious injuries. However, he does implore you to rest until your limbs have recovered from the stress. Now if you don't mind, I have a few questions for you." "Alright," replied Rodrigo, having slowly regained the ability to utter intelligible sentences, "But why have you come personally?" "Because you asked for me, darling. You were apparently muttering my name ever since you arrived!" Platinum replied, "But now on to MY questions. Firstly, what is your name? I don't believe I've seen you in Unicornia before." Rodrigo replied, "My name is Rodrigo Cadenza, son of the ambassador Jacques Hollande-Cadenza." "Ah, Jacques's son! Tell me, how is your father? I haven't seen him in quite some time," replied Platinum with a hint of seduction in her voice. Rodrigo looked down, the burden of the horrible truth weighing heavy upon his soul. "My father... My father is dead," said Rodrigo said sadly. The coy smile immediately faded from Platinum's face. "I... I see," the Princess said, her voice far less optimistic than before. "He was a great stallion. He will be missed terribly. I will arrange his funeral. I'm deeply sorry for your loss. I assume this is related to the nature of your arrival?" Rodrigo related everything that had happened to him, sparing no detail of his family's deaths or his long run to Unicornia. "I must warn you, Princess," said Rodrigo at the end of his spiel, "King Tyrranus is no pushover. He poses a great threat to Unicornia." The Princess chuckled a bit. "Oh, but you exaggerate my dear! Our unicorn magic can easily handle any threat. There's no need to worry about Tyrranus here," retorted the Princess. "With all due respect, your majesty, I believe you underestimate the gravity of the threat," Rodrigo countered. Platinum leaned in and glared at him a bit, then replied, "And you underestimate the strength of my unicorns, half-breed! Now, get some rest. I will provide you with a residence as condolence for the loss of your family. You are safe here, no alicorn will ever break our defense! You need to learn to trust in your pony kin." Platinum straightened her neck and began to trot out of the room. "And a word of advice, Monsieur Cadenza," she said, "You may not wish to use your Pegasus name here. My ponies don't take too kindly to those other brutish races. Make a Unicorn name for yourself and ponies may not glare at you as much. I think the name 'Real' would suit you well. Good day, monsieur." Rodrigo spent the night recovering in the Apothecary before leaving the next day for the address Platinum provided him. The address was a small apartment, neatly and ornately decorated and well-stocked with everything a unicorn needed to live comfortably, including a sizable stash of gold coins for subsistence. It seemed that, despite her scathing 'half-breed' insult the day before, Princess Platinum was generous enough to provide Cadenza with a comfortable existence. Following her advice, Rodrigo vowed to live a peaceful life, doing his best to remove the memory of King Tyrranus from his mind. Days later, whilst walking home from the market, Rodrigo noticed a strange symbol scratched into the side of the Apothecary. It seemed fresh and looked much like a triangle, but with a rounded base that seemed to exceed the angles of the other two sides in its length and faded at the bottom. It seemed odd, but too innocuous to be anything significant. Rodrigo dismissed it as graffiti of some sort and continued home. The next day, Rodrigo saw what appeared to be a hooded figure in a white robe outside his window. It appeared to be a mare, but what made the event significant was the fact that she appeared to be staring directly at Rodrigo. When he awoke, she quickly galloped away. Rodrigo found the same symbol he had seen yesterday twice today, but on the local funeral home and- more disturbingly- on the door to his apartment. And all that day the hooded mare seemed to be stalking him, silently following him everywhere he went, but never drawing too close. Rodrigo slept uneasily that night, his thoughts filled with the strange symbol and the mysterious hooded mare. Their appearance simply could not be a coincidence... Author's Note In this story,it is implied that the different races are further differentiated from each other by speaking different languages (despite the English text). The Unicorns are French, the Pegasi are Spanish, the Earth Ponies are English, and the Alicorns are Russian. The Sisterhood of Equestrian AssassinsRodrigo awoke the next morning to a sight that nearly caused him to have a heart attack. The hooded mare that had stalked him the day before was now standing quietly at the foot of his bed. The expression she wore was solemn yet calm. She was jet black, her white and red robes gracefully cascading down her form, head to flank, like the graceful cadence of snow upon a mountain peak. Her robes and the shadows they cast upon her face prevented her mane and eyes from being seen. The robes also covered most of her body, hiding her cutie mark. It would have been scarcely possible to tell what she looked like underneath were pony fur not usually uniform across the body. She stood as still as a garden statue until she broke the stillness by drawing in a deep breath. She opened her mouth and began to speak. "I see you're finally awake," she said with a moderately deep yet smooth voice, "Do not worry, I mean you no harm." Rodrigo gave a startled reply, "That's kind of hard to believe, considering the circumstances! How the hell did you get in here anyway?! I secured that door with an enchantment and two extra deadbolts!!" "Yes, but you didn't account for the rather flimsy bolts securing your windows." Rodrigo's eyes darted to the window beside his bed, which he had closed and locked the night before but was now very much open. Rodrigo let out a resigned sigh, "What are you, hm? One of Tyrannus's assassins come to end my bloodline for good?" "You are half correct," the assassin replied, "I am an assassin, but my allegiance is to nopony. You are my target, but my mission is not to kill you." "Then who are you, and why are you here?!" "I am called Ebony Phantom, and I am here because of your mother." Rodrigo grasped tightly at his mother's sapphire locket, which now hung about his neck. "How did you know her?" he questioned. "Allow me to explain," said Ebony, taking a step towards the side of the bed, "Your mother was one of my kind- an assassin. It was a fortunate coincidence she fell in love with your father. His career put her in a perfect position to assassinate the enemies of the Sisterhood who held power. Your parents made a perfect team, and operated in such secret that not even you knew of their true profession. Such is the way of the assassin." "Sisterhood?" Rodrigo inquired, trying to comprehend what he was being told. "Yes, the Sisterhood of Equestrian Assassins. We fight in secret for a future in which all ponies live in freedom, peace, and harmony. Our primary MO is to aid the populace by eliminating wicked and tyrannical ponies in positions of power. The symbols I left you are the sigil of our order. Despite our name, we are open to both stallions and mares. I came to ask if you wished to follow in your parents' hoofsteps. We could use another Cadenza." "NO!" Rodrigo protested vigorously. "I've had my fill of war and death! Is it too much to ask to simply start again and live in peace?!" "In this world, it may be," replied Ebony, "Nevertheless, I respect your decision. You may find, however, that the life of an assassin chooses you. In that case, I would like to leave you with this." Ebony produced a thick cuff from her robes. She used magic, indicating that she was a unicorn. "It is the signature of our order," she continued, "It is known as a hidden blade. The cuff is worn on the foreleg. Its internal mechanism, activated by the muscles in the hoof, causes a small blade to protrude from it, making it perfect for secrecy and covert assassinations. It is most effective when used to slit a throat." Ebony leapt upon the windowsill. "I do hope that you reconsider my offer. In any case, I must implore that you do not speak of the Sisterhood to anyone, even the Princess. That blade can serve you well. Use it if you find yourself in a tough situation. I wish you the best. Farewell, Monsieur Cadenza." With that, Ebony leapt out the window and vanished into the crowd of commuters below.
The AmbassadorWhat's in a name? Is it the legacy of all those who have carried it? Does the individual determine what his name will mean, or is he doomed to be identified only by his ancestors? Does the individual determine the meaning of his name, or does his name define his life and who he shall be? Mainly, this is a story about the unspoken history of Equestria's rise, but in a sense, this is also a story about names... The first name of importance is that of the unicorn ambassador Jacques Hollande-Cadenza. Now Jacques lived before the winter of the Windigos and long before the birth of Equestria, when the races of ponies were still divided and locked in an endless rivalry, and when no race had any love for the others and only kept peace because they had to cooperate to survive. The Earth Ponies grew the food and harvested the resources, the Unicorns crafted and sold their goods, the Pegasi ensured fair weather conditions, and the Alicorns brought about night and day. But even with cooperation being a necessity, no race was keen to share their abilities and possessions with the others, and this is where ponies like Jacques were essential. Jacques was an ambassador, and ambassadors had the difficult yet crucial task of getting the races to cooperate. Jacques was a rare type of pony for his time, for he was a unicorn who had fallen in love with and married a pegasus. Such crosses between the pony races were blasphemy in this time, and Jacques was chastised for it but he didn't care, for he loved the mare he married with all of his heart (and adopted her last name, Cadenza, under hyphenation), and he cared not for the prejudices of other ponies. And it was his job not to care, for it was bigotry and prejudice that kept the races apart and therefore the duty of ambassadors to ignore these prejudices in the interest of diplomacy. But Jacques was unfortunate, for he was ambassador to the wrong empire at the wrong time. Jacques was the Unicornia ambassador to the alicorn kingdom of Aria, and Aria was ruled by the alicorn King Tyrannus Horatio Aristozka. Contrary to his name, Tyrannus was a just ruler... until he changed. Slowly, and from nowhere, Tyrannus became more and more vindictive. He began to oppress his people, stripping them of their rights and casting unreasonable judgments upon them. He began to execute anyone he suspected of opposing his rule, and issued death threats against those who he disliked or who did not adhere to his ideology. Jacques was one of these unfortunate ponies. Because he had married a pony who was not of his same race and had children with her, he was branded a heretic and an abomination by the alicorn king. Jacques mainly ignored the death threats thinking that Tyrannus wouldn't risk a war with the unicorns by murdering their ambassador. Sadly, Jacques was wrong. He was very fatally wrong. One afternoon, while Jacques was relaxing in his house in Aria with his wife and daughters, Tyrannus cast a massive spell of destruction upon the home. The spell impacted the house directly, and within seconds it was reduced to flaming ashes and broken glass, and the Hollande-Cadenza family was reduced to nothing but blackened, smoldering pony skeletons dead beyond any glimmer of life. As luck would have it, however, one member of the family was absent from the house at the time of its destruction, and by this blessing that member survived. That pony was Jacques' only son, Rodrigo Cadenza. Rodrigo was a dark maroon stallion with a long, deep blonde mane and tail. He was a unicorn, but bore a pegasus name, inherited from his mother. He was a mature pony, about half the age of his father but recognized as an adult. Rodrigo had been out shopping at the marketplace in Aria when the attack occurred. Upon returning home, Rodrigo immediately dropped the bag of groceries he was carrying, and was greeted with the gruesome sight of everything he had ever known and loved in a pile of smoldering ash. Rodrigo was surrounded by a dead, pervading silence, so quiet that even the shopping bag could be heard touching the ground with a comparative racket. Rodrigo didn't hear nor care about his fresh groceries hitting the ground. He was numb from the scene before him. His heart had shattered inside, and tears poured from his eyes in droves. He felt as though he had died hundreds of times over. He sat there and wept for hours. Eventually Rodrigo began to scavenge the remains of his home, but found nothing of value, save for his mother's sapphire locket. It was now all he had left of his family. There was nothing left for him in Aria now, but Princess Platinum had to be notified. Tears blurring his vision, Rodrigo ran as fast as he could to Unicornia. Author's Note Please forgive my archaic writing style. I tried to make this as coherent and eloquent as possible. This is the exposition chapter.
The Sisterhood's CallRodrigo galloped for what seemed like days. His legs seared with pain and each impact of his hooves upon the rough surfaces of the dirt and grass felt as sledgehammers pounding upon his hooves and sending their shockwave to his brain. The agony in his hooves and head would have easily brought him or anypony down were he not dead-set on continuing. He didn't care. He was numb. Numb from the shock of his loss and from his instincts crying out for him to run, to get the hell away, to escape the kingdom of the treacherous alicorns. To escape the pain. Eventually, he reached the gates of Unicornia, but by this time his body had been stretched so far past its natural limits that it could no longer continue to sustain his consciousness. He could barely mutter a syllable before fainting at the hooves of the gate guards, who quickly recognized him as a unicorn, and heaved him to the city's apothecary. The entire time he quietly and unconsciously muttered the name of Princess Platinum... Rodrigo awoke to the sight of a white unicorn in lavish robes and ornate tiara standing at the foot of his bed. It was Princess Platinum, in all her usual majesty. "Oh good, you're awake," said she, in an angelic voice. "Now, would you happen to be able to speak?" Rodrigo stared at her, wide-eyed with amazement. He had never seen the Princess before, only heard stories from his father. She was just as strikingly beautiful as he had imagined, and he found that he was having difficulty speaking in the presence of Her Majesty. Tenuously recovering from the shock of the sight, he managed to croak out a feeble "Yes." "Good!" replied the Princess, "I was worried that whatever you had been through had robbed you of that capacity. Now, onto business. The Apothecary tells me that you collapsed from exhaustion, but you sport no serious injuries. However, he does implore you to rest until your limbs have recovered from the stress. Now if you don't mind, I have a few questions for you." "Alright," replied Rodrigo, having slowly regained the ability to utter intelligible sentences, "But why have you come personally?" "Because you asked for me, darling. You were apparently muttering my name ever since you arrived!" Platinum replied, "But now on to MY questions. Firstly, what is your name? I don't believe I've seen you in Unicornia before." Rodrigo replied, "My name is Rodrigo Cadenza, son of the ambassador Jacques Hollande-Cadenza." "Ah, Jacques's son! Tell me, how is your father? I haven't seen him in quite some time," replied Platinum with a hint of seduction in her voice. Rodrigo looked down, the burden of the horrible truth weighing heavy upon his soul. "My father... My father is dead," said Rodrigo said sadly. The coy smile immediately faded from Platinum's face. "I... I see," the Princess said, her voice far less optimistic than before. "He was a great stallion. He will be missed terribly. I will arrange his funeral. I'm deeply sorry for your loss. I assume this is related to the nature of your arrival?" Rodrigo related everything that had happened to him, sparing no detail of his family's deaths or his long run to Unicornia. "I must warn you, Princess," said Rodrigo at the end of his spiel, "King Tyrranus is no pushover. He poses a great threat to Unicornia." The Princess chuckled a bit. "Oh, but you exaggerate my dear! Our unicorn magic can easily handle any threat. There's no need to worry about Tyrranus here," retorted the Princess. "With all due respect, your majesty, I believe you underestimate the gravity of the threat," Rodrigo countered. Platinum leaned in and glared at him a bit, then replied, "And you underestimate the strength of my unicorns, half-breed! Now, get some rest. I will provide you with a residence as condolence for the loss of your family. You are safe here, no alicorn will ever break our defense! You need to learn to trust in your pony kin." Platinum straightened her neck and began to trot out of the room. "And a word of advice, Monsieur Cadenza," she said, "You may not wish to use your Pegasus name here. My ponies don't take too kindly to those other brutish races. Make a Unicorn name for yourself and ponies may not glare at you as much. I think the name 'Real' would suit you well. Good day, monsieur." Rodrigo spent the night recovering in the Apothecary before leaving the next day for the address Platinum provided him. The address was a small apartment, neatly and ornately decorated and well-stocked with everything a unicorn needed to live comfortably, including a sizable stash of gold coins for subsistence. It seemed that, despite her scathing 'half-breed' insult the day before, Princess Platinum was generous enough to provide Cadenza with a comfortable existence. Following her advice, Rodrigo vowed to live a peaceful life, doing his best to remove the memory of King Tyrranus from his mind. Days later, whilst walking home from the market, Rodrigo noticed a strange symbol scratched into the side of the Apothecary. It seemed fresh and looked much like a triangle, but with a rounded base that seemed to exceed the angles of the other two sides in its length and faded at the bottom. It seemed odd, but too innocuous to be anything significant. Rodrigo dismissed it as graffiti of some sort and continued home. The next day, Rodrigo saw what appeared to be a hooded figure in a white robe outside his window. It appeared to be a mare, but what made the event significant was the fact that she appeared to be staring directly at Rodrigo. When he awoke, she quickly galloped away. Rodrigo found the same symbol he had seen yesterday twice today, but on the local funeral home and- more disturbingly- on the door to his apartment. And all that day the hooded mare seemed to be stalking him, silently following him everywhere he went, but never drawing too close. Rodrigo slept uneasily that night, his thoughts filled with the strange symbol and the mysterious hooded mare. Their appearance simply could not be a coincidence... Author's Note In this story,it is implied that the different races are further differentiated from each other by speaking different languages (despite the English text). The Unicorns are French, the Pegasi are Spanish, the Earth Ponies are English, and the Alicorns are Russian.
The Sisterhood of Equestrian AssassinsRodrigo awoke the next morning to a sight that nearly caused him to have a heart attack. The hooded mare that had stalked him the day before was now standing quietly at the foot of his bed. The expression she wore was solemn yet calm. She was jet black, her white and red robes gracefully cascading down her form, head to flank, like the graceful cadence of snow upon a mountain peak. Her robes and the shadows they cast upon her face prevented her mane and eyes from being seen. The robes also covered most of her body, hiding her cutie mark. It would have been scarcely possible to tell what she looked like underneath were pony fur not usually uniform across the body. She stood as still as a garden statue until she broke the stillness by drawing in a deep breath. She opened her mouth and began to speak. "I see you're finally awake," she said with a moderately deep yet smooth voice, "Do not worry, I mean you no harm." Rodrigo gave a startled reply, "That's kind of hard to believe, considering the circumstances! How the hell did you get in here anyway?! I secured that door with an enchantment and two extra deadbolts!!" "Yes, but you didn't account for the rather flimsy bolts securing your windows." Rodrigo's eyes darted to the window beside his bed, which he had closed and locked the night before but was now very much open. Rodrigo let out a resigned sigh, "What are you, hm? One of Tyrannus's assassins come to end my bloodline for good?" "You are half correct," the assassin replied, "I am an assassin, but my allegiance is to nopony. You are my target, but my mission is not to kill you." "Then who are you, and why are you here?!" "I am called Ebony Phantom, and I am here because of your mother." Rodrigo grasped tightly at his mother's sapphire locket, which now hung about his neck. "How did you know her?" he questioned. "Allow me to explain," said Ebony, taking a step towards the side of the bed, "Your mother was one of my kind- an assassin. It was a fortunate coincidence she fell in love with your father. His career put her in a perfect position to assassinate the enemies of the Sisterhood who held power. Your parents made a perfect team, and operated in such secret that not even you knew of their true profession. Such is the way of the assassin." "Sisterhood?" Rodrigo inquired, trying to comprehend what he was being told. "Yes, the Sisterhood of Equestrian Assassins. We fight in secret for a future in which all ponies live in freedom, peace, and harmony. Our primary MO is to aid the populace by eliminating wicked and tyrannical ponies in positions of power. The symbols I left you are the sigil of our order. Despite our name, we are open to both stallions and mares. I came to ask if you wished to follow in your parents' hoofsteps. We could use another Cadenza." "NO!" Rodrigo protested vigorously. "I've had my fill of war and death! Is it too much to ask to simply start again and live in peace?!" "In this world, it may be," replied Ebony, "Nevertheless, I respect your decision. You may find, however, that the life of an assassin chooses you. In that case, I would like to leave you with this." Ebony produced a thick cuff from her robes. She used magic, indicating that she was a unicorn. "It is the signature of our order," she continued, "It is known as a hidden blade. The cuff is worn on the foreleg. Its internal mechanism, activated by the muscles in the hoof, causes a small blade to protrude from it, making it perfect for secrecy and covert assassinations. It is most effective when used to slit a throat." Ebony leapt upon the windowsill. "I do hope that you reconsider my offer. In any case, I must implore that you do not speak of the Sisterhood to anyone, even the Princess. That blade can serve you well. Use it if you find yourself in a tough situation. I wish you the best. Farewell, Monsieur Cadenza." With that, Ebony leapt out the window and vanished into the crowd of commuters below.
