A young woman with long dark blue hair with a magenta stripe and a pair of large, lavender feathered wings attached seamlessly to her back, entered one of the vast guest bedrooms within Canterlot Castle, a thoroughly depressed look on her face. She wore an elegant lavender dress, a pink diamond necklace, and brown sandals with heels. Upon her head was a golden tiara. This was Twilight Sparkle, recently-crowned Princess of Equestria… although, at the moment, she was wishing she was still an ordinary Spellcaster, getting ready for bed in her old treehouse/library home, back before Tirek had smashed it to splinters… back before she had to put up with all of this hatred and anger towards her and her politics.

I just don’t understand it… why do they hate me so much? thought Twilight as she striped down to her black bra and panties. It’s not like I’ve done anything horrible to them… I’m just trying to make sure that Equestria isn’t left behind in this ever-evolving world we live in now. I mean, right now Equestria is laughably out gunned, lovers of two different species can’t get married, no matter how much they want to, and the Council is made up of royals and nobles who only have interest in themselves rather than the common good.

As Twilight snuggled into the blankets and bedsheets, she felt a wave of hopelessness wash over her. Maybe I’m not meant to be a Princess of Equestria is this is how ponies are going to treat me… maybe I should just step down…

No, Twilight. You can’t step down now. Do you really think all of this hatred will just go away because you’re not a Princess anymore? a stronger voice told Twilight deep in her subconscious

Immediately, Twilight reached into a bedside dresser drawer and pulled out three pictures. One of them was of her and her friends, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. The second was of her and the other three Princesses, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence, all of them looking very formal and elegant in their dresses. The third was a picture of a man around Twilight’s age with navy blue hair and orange feathered wings wearing a Royal Guard dress uniform. This was Flash Sentry, Twilight’s secret boyfriend… although, she was starting to suspect that he was getting ready to propose to her.

Twilight thought for a moment about what this might mean for them, given all the hate she’d received. Flash must truly and deeply love her if he was willing to risk going through all of the same bullshit she’d been through… and if he wanted to start a family with her.

Twilight smiled. As long as she had this group of people by her side, she could take anything those nay-sayers and Traditionalists threw at her.

And with that, Twilight returned the pictures to the drawer, and closed her eyes… completely unaware of what was going on right under her nose.

…

“Well? Are we going to do this thing or what?” grumbled a voice in the shadows to one of its four fellows.

“Are you really sure about this? I mean, we’re about to MURDER A PRINCESS-”

“Shut up, Gallant! Do you want to get us arrested? Besides, we’ve got the one thing that can make our troubles that much easier.”

As the voice said this, a faint gleam of light from a shining blade appeared. A gasp was heard.

“Is that… is that really-”

“Orichalum. The boss man had this thing forged just for this sole purpose… something about getting some lady drunk enough that she wasn’t even able to stand on her own two feet or something like that. Anyways, this is our room.”

”Heh, good thing you and Gallant were posted there.”

As the five shadowy figures reached the bedroom, they silently opened the door. There, sleeping soundly on the bed, was Princess Twilight Sparkle.

“Well? Who wants the honors?” asked one of the voices.

“I’ll do it.”

“She’s all yours, Gallant.”

As the single figure crept silently into the room, the orichalum blade in his hand, they felt as though a huge weight was resting upon their shoulders. Finally, the figure clamped his hand down over Twilight’s nose and mouth, causing her to awaken.

“Get on her! Keep her down!”

As the other four figures held Twilight down with both their hands and magic, the princess tried to muster up some magic, but found herself unable to thanks to the magical field the assassins had her trapped in. As Twilight continued to struggle, the orichalam blade slashed across her throat, cutting deep into her flesh. As blood gushed out of the wound in her throat, Twilight stared in horror at her attacker, unable to scream or even breathe as they continued to stab her. Finally, after a moment of fruitless struggling, Twilight went limp and cold, and her eyes turned glassy. She was dead.

“Good job, now let’s get the fuck out of here!”

And with that, the five killers ran for it, leaving their handy work behind as they ran through the castle halls, desperate to avoid detection. Unfortunately for them, they were being followed from the shadows, something that quickly became apparent when one of the assassins was swept of his feet and pulled into the shadows by something unseen, screaming his lungs out as he went, and causing the other four to turn in the direction his screaming was coming from, drawing their swords and sidearms as a cold shiver ran down each of their spines.

“Hey… Cage? Are you okay?” asked one of the other assassins before a moment later, a sickening crack rang out in the empty hallways.

The other assassins, literally quaking in their boots as they approached the direction it sounded like the crack had come from. When they found their fellow assassin, dangling by his ankles from the rafters with his head turned a full 180 degrees, they staggered back in horror, hardly able to understand what they were seeing, unable to understand how one human could possibly do that to another.

Then, another voice rang out from the darkness, somehow much more terrifying than it actually was.

”You know… I never could stand the type of coward who would kill someone in their sleep. If you’re gonna assassinate someone, then you’d better have the spine to do it to their face.”

The four remaining assassins turned around to find a man that was armed to the teeth with swords, guns, grenades, and a variety of throwing weapons, clad in a grey, black, and orange suit of armor. Concealing his face was an orange and black helmet that had only a single red eyepiece on the left side.

”Tell me… do you prefer steel or lead?” the masked man asked, his voice sounding as though it were coming through a filter of some kind as he drew one of his katanas.

The four assassins looked at each other nervously before they attempted to bum rush the masked man with their swords raised.

The masked man heaved a sigh as he took up a combat stance. ”Steel it is, then.”

Two of the assassins took a swing at the masked man, only for him to lazily deflect both attacks faster than the blink of an eye.

”Come, come, surely you men can do better than this!” the masked man taunted before he swung his own sword at one of the assassins, who was swiftly impaled then decapitated in a single, fluid, lightning-fast movement.

The three remaining assassins were quickly losing their nerve as the fight progressed. One of the assassins actually managed to get a very lucky hit on the masked man, although it didn’t actually do anything to hurt him thanks to his armor.

”Okay, now you’re getting annoying,” the masked man said, a bored look on his face before he struck down the assassin who’d managed to hit him, swiftly followed by the second assassin, who was cut almost effortlessly in two. The last assassin, the one who’d been called Gallant, however, was disarmed in the most literal sense of the term before he fell to his knees.

“P-please! You don’t have to do this! You don’t understand! Th-they threatened my brother! They said they were gonna kill him unless I helped them kill her!”

The masked man held his sword to Gallant’s throat. ”’They?’ Who’s ‘they?’ These men?” he asked Gallant, gesturing to the bodies lying on the ground.

“The nobles. The nobles who hired us for this hit! There’s six of them. Lord Ivory Shell, Lord Cosmo and his father, Lady Sundancer, Lord Rooternburg, with Prince Amadeus Blueblood Junior as the mastermind! That’s all I know, I swear!”

The masked man glared at the sniveling assassin before him, trying to figure out what to do with him. Finally, he made up his mind. ”Thanks you for the information. Because you gave me what I wanted, I swear you’ll have a good night’s sleep!” he said before hitting Gallant in the head with his free hand, rendering him unconscious as he put away his sword.

Almost a split-second later, however, someone very strong and very quiet got the drop on the masked man and slammed his head into the wall with brute force that almost reminded him of the target of a contract he took early in his career for $50 million.

The last thing the masked man saw before he passed out was a pair of legs that looked as though they belonged to a woman wearing a suit of black and midnight blue armor.

…

Princess Celestia, a young woman who had pale skin and long, flowing hair that resembled the lush green fields of the land, the open blue sky, and the pink of love and compassion, yawned and stretched as she woke up and climbed out of her vast four-poster bed and made her way over to the balcony on the other side. Stepping onto the cold white marble, Celestia channeled her energies and focused them at the blazing golden sunset. With seemingly no effort at all, Celestia raised the sun to such a position that gravity would be able to take care of the rest until sundown, where Luna would take over and raise her moon.

Celestia smiled. Looks like it’s gonna be a beautiful day… considering, she thought to herself, thinking back to all of her prized pupil’s troubles as of late. I don’t understand it. If these Traditionalists can’t bring themselves to trust Twilight, then why can’t they trust me? It’s not like I’m in any danger. Twilight was my personal protege at my school for Gifted Spellcasters ever since she was a small foal. One would think that I’d know her well enough to say that she’d never-

Celestia’s inner dialogue was interrupted by a member of her guard bursting into her room, a mingled look of panic and embarrassment at seeing his leader in her nightclothes. “P-Princess C-C-C-Celestia… f-f-f-forgive m-m-m-me,” stammered the guard as he started to turn beet red.

Celestia frowned. What could’ve possibly happened to get this guard all worked up like this. “It’s all right, just tell me what’s wrong,” she said.

“I-I-I-I-It’s P-P-P-P-Princess T-Twilight… sh-she’s b-b-been… m-m-m-m-m-murdered!”

Celestia could almost hear the glass in her mind breaking into a million pieces. Part of her wanted to dismiss and demote the guard because of his lies… and yet, the look on his face and the way he was acting was very, very hard to fake.

“T-Take me to her,” said Celestia, doing her best to sound dignified.

The guard was taken aback. “Your Majesty, are you-” he began to say, only to be drowned out by Celestia’s anguished voice.

“TAKE ME TO HER, I NEED TO SEE HER!” wailed Celestia.

Nodding to show he understood, the guard led Princess Celestia out of her room and through the halls to Twilight’s room, where a small crowd had gathered, mostly consisting of Royal Guardsmen.

“Let me through! Let me through!” yelled Celestia.

The crowd made way for her. Lying on the ground before Princess Celestia were three bodies of Royal Guardsmen, while a fourth was hanging upside down with a snapped neck.

And then Celestia saw her. Her worst fears had been confirmed.

Princess Twilight Sparkle lay on her bed as a couple of Royal Guardsmen moved around her, examining the crime scene, while a third, who had short dark blue hair and orange feathered wings sprouting from his back, sobbed uncontrollably and stroked Celestia’s pupil’s hair. Blood was splattered all over the bedsheets, and there was a dark slash across Twilight’s throat.

Princess Celestia couldn’t believe it. She refused to believe it. She closed her eyes and called upon a healing spell. Twilight’s injuries were repaired but the Princess did not awaken. Celestia tried a shock spell. Twilight’s body shook and vibrated as though it’d received and electrical shock, but still she did not awaken.

No matter what the tear-soaked Princess Celestia tried, she could not get any response from her beloved student. Finally, she was forced to face the truth.

Twilight Sparkle had been slain in her sleep.

“Twilight… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” wailed Celestia as she fell to her knees and began to weep.

So immersed was Celestia in her pain that she didn’t hear her younger sister, Luna, who had long, flowing hair much like the night sky itself, pale skin, and wore a navy blue dress with a protrusion in the back and black heels approach and rest her hand on her sister’s shoulder, shaking it to try and get her attention.

“Sister? Sister?” Luna said before deciding to use the Royal Canterlot Voice. ”SISTER!!!!!!!!”

Luna’s shout caused several people nearby to jump in fright and caused several nearby windows to shatter. Slowly, Celestia, her eyes red and puffy, turned to look up at her younger sister.

“Come. There’s someone who you and I need to speak with,” said Luna as she hoisted her sister to her feet and half-pulled half-dragged her sister towards the castle dungeons.

“Lu, what are we…? What’s going on?” asked Celestia, barely audible.

“Last night I’d sensed a disturbance within that castle. When I went to investigate, I saw the most magnificent warrior, clad in orange, grey, and black armor and armed with all manner of weapons. He was strong, fast, and one of the best swordsmen I’ve ever seen, and given my own prowess with a sword, that’s saying something. He was able to get one of the assassins responsible for Twilight’s to name names, although I was unable to distinguish which names Gallant Stride uttered-” explained Luna.

“Gallant? Gallant Stride, Shining Armor’s partner and one of the most upstanding members of the royal guard, killed Twilight?” whispered Celestia, horror joining the whirlwind of emotions that were swirling within her, as she’d been the one who’d assigned Gallant to Twilight’s chambers.

“Regrettably, yes, sister. However, I believe this new warrior can help us destroy those who brought about Twilight’s demise. At least, he seemed open to discuss it when I spoke to him earlier-”

“What and who are you talking about, Luna?” asked Celestia, who was growing more and more confused by the second as they reached the staircase leading down to the dungeons.

“We’ve a guest from another world, sister. His name is Slade Wilson, but he prefers to go by the alias Deathstroke.”

Author's Note

And so it begins! Be sure to join us next time as Luna and Celestia interrogate Slade, and for the funeral of Princess Twilight Sparkle! Until then, be sure to fave, follow, like and comment, and I'll see you guys next time! Until then, stay flashy!