A Newly Hooded Road to Walk

Seven years Later...

In her last seven years with the brotherhood, Fluttershy has grown into a differently shaped and more capable pony than she had been before. Just two years ago she earned her robes and weapons, which represented her independence as a predator of many prey, but has not yet earned the title "Assassin." Her robes are colored white with green accents down the sides and on the hood (Connor's robes, just different colors), strapped to her back is a bow and arrows, at her hips sat a pair of double barrel flintlock pistols on each side, a tomahawk at her right, and two sharpened knives at her left. She's become a force to be reckoned with, as are all assassins. She has become proud to wield the dangerous skills that she has acquired, rather than reject them as she did earlier in her training. Soon, she will become a true assassin, and soon, her charmed necklace may shine again.

"Flutters come on! we've got to make it to the camp before the target moves again!" Yelled Silvershade as he sprinted through the trees, in a clearer area of the evergreen forest, "We can't let this sneaky bastard get away again, we're late as is."

"Silver I know, can't you see me running next to you?" Stated Fluttershy, frustrated by his tunnel-vision that occurs when he runs, "I am better and faster at this kind of thing remember?"

This was true in a genetic aspect. An earth pony or unicorn free running was nothing compared to that of the agility and accuracy of a pegasus, who use their wings to boost there distance and height when jumping.

The two ponies ran quickly side by side through the damp, mossy forest, which dampened their robes and to the point where their moves were slower and more lethargic than usual. The evergreens here were a much larger breed, the size of redwoods, but with branches spanning their entire trunks, making it easy to travel through them. Below the two assassins was a narrow dirt road, which they were following to find a militia camp supposedly harboring a Templar military figure, who had been causing trouble in the Brotherhood's side of Canterlot. Fluttershy, who is now an arch-apprentice, and her "master" Silvershade had been tracking this Templar for weeks, and now finally had his solid whereabouts.

"Silvershade, do you have any idea what this camp might look like? are we headed to a sort of outpost or a full-on battle-ready basecamp?" Asked Fluttershy anxiously.

"I honesty have no idea, we didn't get too many details out of that guy did we?"

"Well maybe if somepony didn't stab him in the chest before talking to him, we might have gotten some of those details!"

Silvershade merely chuckled in response.

"What is it your laughing about? This is serious! What if we came underprepared!"

"hehehe its just, Im thinking about how you don't shutter and get so nervous about this stuff anymore, it feels weird now that I'm paying attention to it."

"I-is that bad?"

"No no its good, it means your not scared or jittery anymore... even though you just stuttered two seconds ago."

"I-I did not!"

"Yep, you did, just now too."

"You are so... oh just shut up," said Fluttershy, exhaling angrily. "Hey wait, I hear something," whispered the small mare

"Yeah, I can here it too, something is coming down the road towards us." They stopped and stood in the trees motionless, without a sound, patiently waiting for the source of the sound to come into view. Soon a small passenger carriage came into sight with six guards walking along side as protection, and moving gradually towards the assassins.

"Not very common to see a little passenger wagon in the middle of nowhere like this, and even odder to see heavily armed guards with it," stated Fluttershy suspiciously.

"Yes indeed. are you thinking what I'm thinking Flutters?" asked Silvershade, looking over to Fluttershy who was focusing her eyes intensely at the wagon as it slowly drifted under them. "Hellooo. wakey wakey Flutters."

Fluttershy then snapped back to reality and looked to her partner, "There's only a single pony in the wagon, but we're to high up for me to get a clear identity."

"Yeah, same here. Alright you go down and follow the wagon in the foliage and try and get the passenger's identity. I'll stay up here and follow from above, waiting for your signal. If its the target, Ill take out the wagon driver with a rope dart and take out the two in front, then you've got the two back and the two middle. Got it?"

"Yeah, sounds simple enough, I'll give a thumbs up if its our guy, anything other than that show its not our guy."

"Good, lets do this quick, clean, and quietly. We might be in hearing range of their camp for a shot to be heard so be smooth as butter with those guards."

Fluttershy nodded to Silvershade in response.

"Excellent. lets get to it." At that Fluttershy quickly glided to the foliage near the road bellow, and began to shift through the forest towards the wagon. Silvershade slowly crept towards the wagon, still keeping his distance, keeping an eye out for Fluttershys signal.

Fluttershy crept up close to the wagon on a bend completely hidden from sight and used her eagle vision to try and see into the carriage. Her being so small helped her to excel in stealth, and has branded her a ghost assassin, one who entirely focuses on stealth and silence, making this a trivial task. As she focused in closer to the stallion in the carriage she could hear him talking to the driver.

"Ha! those hooded cowards will be in for a surprise when another lead to me comes up short, and this time they'll have to fight a whole regiment! Hahaha! boy, I surprise myself at how brilliant I am."

"Mmmhmm yes sir," said the driver sluggishly, obviously tired of lugging the annoyance in his wagon around.

What a stuck up old fool, oblivious to the fact he's leaving on the same road he came in on, so he was bound to run into us sooner or later, thought Fluttershy. The bend in the road then straightened out into a ravine with 30 foot cliffs on each side, which gradually rose from the ground. Fluttershy noticed the perfect ambush point and quickly climbed up the steady slope up the side to the peak of the cliff on the right side of the road. She looked for Silvershade who was catching up through the trees, and gave him the signal once she was sure he noticed the vantage points, he then leaped onto a fallen tree that stuck out of the left cliff and readied a rope dart.

Once the Carriage was just beneath them, Silvershade threw his dart and jumped down onto the carriage, simultaneously hanging the driver on the log, who pulled the carriage to a stop on his way up. Silvershade now sat in the drivers seat, waiting to here Fluttershy's ambush so he could take out the front two guards without getting noticed, and shot in the back by the middle guards.

Fluttershy saw Silvershade take out the driver, and noticed the guards in the back about to charge up front. She quickly hovered over top of them with her wings, then let go of the air and dropped onto the two guards. She used them as shock absorbers, impaling them in the back's of their necks with her hidden blades. The middle guards looked back to see what the commotion was, but before they could react, one was hit by a poison dart and the other tripped by a rope dart. Knowing the other would die shortly the little mare walked up to the rope dart victim writhing in pain, and struck him in the head with her tomahawk.

Fluttershy walked around to the front to find the two front guards cut down, but no sign of Silvershade. All of a sudden the military officer was thrown out of the carriage, after being stabbed in the heart with a cutlass. Silvershade then walked out of the carriage casually and up to fluttershy.

"Nice work Flutters, now lets get the hell out of here I'm starving."