A Newly Hooded Road to Walk

"Hello! a-are you here!" shouted Fluttershy in hopes that the mysterious stallion was there. She knew she shouldn't but she really wanted to see her savior again, even though he was a murderer and not the safest to be around, him being the danger, or her possibility of getting caught with the most wanted stallion in all of equestria. But the thing that bothered her the most was celestia's apology. It sparked Fluttershy's suspicion of something else in the back of celestia's mind, something that doubted fluttershy's abstance after the murder, to be her usual easily startled nature. It seemed too rushed to fluttershy, too, too, odd. Of course maybe fluttershy was thinking way to much about it, and the princess was just desperate to get the whole thing past them, without any more thought so things could be normal, and she felt bad. However she talked like a child, quickly making excuses too their parents, which now made fluttershy uncomfortable, fillies do that when they try to hide something, either prominent or a deep secret, and this was not prominent in any way, at least not to fluttershy.

"S-Silvershade was it?" she stood there awkwardly, waiting for the vigilante to appear, if he was even there. She was then startled by a deep voice behind her.

"hey fluttershy, you made it, I doubted you'd want to, I thought you would be afraid, you seem like one of those cautious quiet types, those are some of my favorite, ponies, calm, soothing, quick thinkers in tight situations," Fluttershy stood there awkwardly, wondering why the stallion she just met was going on like this, "and they have a rare quality to have the strongest desire to live, no matter what circumstances, and no matter who wishes to defy that quality of yours, in order to kill or harm you." said the silver manned stallion who stood with his hood off.

"Oh, w-well thank you, I don't really see my self as that though I don't think about some things enough, like letting those guards in, I kept thinking to myself that they were drunk but I let them in anyway, and I cant fight very well, o-or at all for that matter."

"That is one bad excuse, everything you did was merely common sense! you were being yelled at by the royal guard, which anyone would answer to, and your not the most stubborn pony when it comes to arguments from what I have seen, but physically you are as defiant as and ass! it took three trained royal guards to restrain you."

Fluttershy blushed as he complimented her, "T-thanks, I-I guess that's true," she said covering her face with her bangs and grinned to the old wooden floor of the church. Silvershade took a step closer to her, putting a hand on her shoulder and lifting up her chin with his finger.

"Don't doubt yourself fluttershy, and definitely don't doubt yourself to cover up embarrassment from someone's praise of you, you are great and don't be embarrassed from someone pointing it out. Alright?"

"O-okay, I can do that," said fluttershy shyly, and pushing her hair behind her ear.

"Perfect. Now!" said silvershade clapping his hands and sitting on a nearby crate crossing his hooves, "Lets get down to business, I know that you need something from me, so ladies first, what is your question?"

"Oh, w-well, I was curious of Celestia's apology..."

"good so she did apologize," said silvershade for confirmation.

"Yes, but to me it seemed odd, I mean it was completely genuine, but it was talking differently, like she was professional about it like she would,"

"Well how do you figure?"

"She talked really fast and short like a child, as if she was giving excuses, and I know that when children do this, they normally try and cover something up, you know."

"Sort of, so what you are thinking is that she hiding something from you? and that you are getting this from how quickly she said her apology?"

"Yes, but, uh um... oh, when you put it like that it just sounds completely stupid," sighed fluttershy in shameful defeat.

"yep," said silvershade as he walked over to fluttershy and put his worn hands on her shoulders, "but not illogical. You can never be too cautious of something. Plus, I wasn't there," he said reassuringly, then sat on his crate again. "So let me break this down, and correct me if I'm wrong, you she is hiding something by being over dramatic, and Celestia is a smart woman no doubt, so she would play it off professionally in her right and logical mind." Fluttershy looked at the earthpony in amazement at how he was figuring out her thoughts from scratch. "However, she was probably nervous, causing her to talk rapidly to get the conversation over with ASAP. So what would this secret be?"

"W-well I was thinking doubt," said Fluttershy answering Silvershade's question, "like doubting that I wasn't involved, even though all of the evidence showed otherwise,"

"Maybe, but if that is the case, she probably would convince her self otherwise, since all the evidence and common sense says that she is wrong. So overall, I wouldn't worry about it, her harmless conspiracy that will undo itself as she finds nothing to back it up with," said silvershade simply to the yellow mare.

"Sorry to ask," said Fluttershy, changing the subject after agreeing with the black ponies very logical theories, "are you some sort of psychologist as your day job? because you seem to know an awful lot about pony mentalities and what not."

Silvershade chuckled at her curiosity, "No, I'm just around crazy and dramatic ponies for long periods of time, doing very traumatic work in frightening environments, so you tend to catch on to some traits."

"Well I can't imagine what your day job is," stated fluttershy, with a spark of more curiosity.

"Ha! I wouldn't either, but I can, and well, I guess its this!, this is one of the more calmer jobs I do of course, but well, its unique I'll give it that."

"How would you define this job's objective then? talking to complete strangers about their problems, along with assassinating important figures, seems to me like a pretty wide range of professions."

"Not at all Fluttershy, I would define it as recruiting."

"W-wait, what? recruiting for what?"

"You explained my job quite perfectly just now, so what is your guess?"

"Waaaait, no, no no no no no, m-me? surely there are other ponies far more qualified for this job, and..."

"No. I want you, unless you have a job already?"

fluttershy blushed with embarrassment at the fact that she didn't have a job that actually made any money "W-w-well I don'..."

"That's what I had thought," said silvershade chuckling, fluttershy was looking to the ground again, covering face with her long pink bangs, silvershade had to move them again and lift up her head to make eye contact. "I'm not forcing this on you, ok? you don't have to, there is a lot more to this profession of mine than just killing, and the killing that we do is for the better of Equestria, and my organization was created by Princess Luna thousands of years ago you know."

At that remark, fluttershy felt better about the whole thing, to a certain extent, a lot can change over thousands of years, "W-well I'm still not so sure, I probably won't be any good at the killing, or anything else you do. I-I wouldn't be able to kill anypony any way."

"Fluttershy, I wouldn't be offering this if you didn't have so much potential, but you do and that is a fact, training will change you for the better, and the people you will kill with either want to kill you, or will want to make you and others suffer, for their own gain," replied silvershade sternly, and reassuringly.

Fluttershy was running out of reasons not to, Silvershade was being awfully persuasive with her. "Uh uh, I-I would like to have more details o-on the rest of this organization that you are willing me to blindly join."

"That is some info I'll have to leave ya in the dark on until you except for privacy and safety reasons, because if I do and you don't join I'll have to kill you, because you would be holding secret information, and I really don't want to have to do that," replied the stallion, mustering a fake smile. "Please trust me on this, if you join you will have amazing skills to protect yourself and others, plus allies who will protect you, it is a good cause, and if it wasn't here today, everyone would be suffering worse than the Crystal Empire did when that one asshole was in charge." Said Silvershade almost getting to his knees and begging.

Fluttershy stood there for minutes, thinking of what she should do, she realized that she was surprisingly not afraid like she would be otherwise, but instead confused, she needed time to think such a big decision over. "I'll have to think on it for a while ok Silvershade."

"perfect! how about in two weeks we meet back here about it okay?" he asked excitedly.

"O-okay, alright, that's a deal," what the hell are you getting yourself into fluttershy?