A Newly Hooded Road to Walk

Fluttershy walked in to an open courtyard covered in lush grass and large oak trees, which made the place feel welcoming. The main path led thirty feet through the miniature forest to two flights of stairs that parted at the bottom, and wrapped around a fountain that sat on the next story. Fluttershy saw that the cylinder shaped base which held the fountain also showed the Assassins' symbol, but was much larger than that of the entrance.

Fluttershy and Silvershade slowly neared the stairs as their bags seemed, in a way, to have gotten heavier after dragging them for miles from the platform. They soon began to hear voices from the upper level of the estate up the fountain, and as they grew closer up the stairs they discovered it was actually yelling and frantic instructions being spat out. As they rose to the second story they saw that two fairly built stallions were in intense hand to hand combat where the fountain should have been, however it was empty, with only hard packed earth and violence to fill it.

A few other stallions stood at the edge of the fountain cheering their bets, but one, who seemed to be an instructor of some sort was forcefully shouting orders to both combatants about what to do. The two arrivals from Ponyville decided to watch till the end, which didn't take very long, one stallion ducked under the punch of the other and punched him in the groin, then while bent over in pain the other grabbed him by the mane and kneed him in the face, knocking the stallion unconscious.

Everyone cheered at the victory, but were soon quieted down by the instructor, who stepped into the fountain, congratulated the victor, and woke the loser with a bucket of water on his face.

"hows the nose?" asked the instructor

"Just fine sir," smiled the stallion as he sat and regained his senses

"That's what I like to here, now come on, up you go," at that the instructor helped the stallion rise to his hooves and walk out of the fountain. The instructor had noticed that Fluttershy and Silvershade were standing at the edge watching, which made her a little nervous. He was a large Unicorn with a gray coat and short white mane, cut all even and blocky in a military style. He wore a jacket that fell just past his knees and was outlined with gold designs on the edges, and on his head sat a cylinder hat with designs matching that of his jacket. His pants matched the rest of his clothes from what you could tell, surprisingly enough. On his hip sat a large axe which was probably used originally for chopping large trees, however you could tell it had been altered for other purposes, and on the left side of his hip swung a oversized double barrel flintlock pistol.

"That, little girl, is for sticky situations." Fluttershy heart skipped as she noticed that the stallion she was studying was now somehow standing directly in front of her, and must had noticed her staring at his pistol. His voice was deep and thorough, with a strong northern accent (Russian to us), and as she looked up to his face which towered two feet above hers, she saw that the voice matched its owner very well.

Fluttershy nervously said the first thing that came to mind, "I-I-I can tell." Fluttershy internally face-palmed, of all the things she could of said that was the oddest thing, so she thought.

Fluttershy was completely surprised when the huge unicorn gave a deep bellowing laugh, "HAHAHA! oh boy I like you already little mare! You sure know how to pick 'em Silvershade! AAaaah yes, yes she will make a good wife one day boy." The grizzly unicorn gave Silvershade a very stern pat on the back.

"Yeah I know, she's grea- Wait what!" shouted Silvershade embarrassingly, "I-I-its not like that!"

"HAHAHA! yes yes I know, it was a joke my boy! Anyway, little mare, my name is Boris Bogrof, but you being a trainee, you will address me as Sir, Master, or simply Bo, as I normally prefer, is that clear? good? end of story!"

Bo looked at Fluttershy implying her to respond, "Oh! uh, uh B-Bo?"

"Yes little filly?"

"M-my name is Fluttershy C-Carington, but Fluttershy is fine, I-if you mind! that is," replied fluttershy nervously, almost forgetting what her name was."

Bo stuck out his big gray hand to shake fluttershy's, who responded accordingly, "Well Fluttershy, your name matches you very well, for I have heard that I am not too intimidating, but in all aspects, it is very nice to meet you." He then leaned down and kissed her little hand, making her give a quick blushing smile and nod to the large Unicorn.

"Well, you two have a good day, for I must return to training these foolish boys, till next time," said Bo as he smiled and walked off.

"W-Well he seemed nice enough." observed Fluttershy

Silvershade answered as if annoyed, "Oh trust me, you'll get tired of it soon enough, and when he's training he doesn't act like that at all."

They started walking towards the large main building that looked like a mansion.

"He can't be that bad, can he?"

"Oh yeah, more than you can imagine."

They soon made it to the doorstep of the Mansion through a nice flower garden enveloping the entrance path, where two big oak doors lead inside. There, marble pillars held up the second floor, which was up a wide staircase that posed at the center of the large entry-hall--all of which was made of grey-veined marble flooring, as were the stairs.

"This place seems a little too fancy for an organization of assassins and what not," stated Fluttershy curiously.

"Hmm? oh all this? Yeah this is just the front, all the real operations happen in the back, we'll get there soon."

"Oh, so now where to?"

"Straight up the stairs."

At the top of the stairs there was another set of double doors, leading into another room, which seemed to Fluttershy to be very important.

"So what's in the there?" pointed the little mare nervously.

"This, is where we make you official."

"O-Official, I-I don't like the sound of that."

"Hehe don't worry, he's a nice guy, just for now don't say anything unless spoken too, otherwise simply stay quiet and let me do the talking. Should be easy enough for you, right?"

"Right."

"You ready?"

"R-ready."