Sunset laid on the hill overlooking Blueblood's manor in the countryside outside of Trottingham zeroing in the scope on the sniper rifle. She had been tracking him for the better part of a month after she had learned that he had be responsible for the kidnapping of Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity which had allowed all three of them to be tortured by that laughing mare. Rarity had been left disfigured and in a coma. The only thing that made her breathe a sigh of relief is that the laughing terrorist had been captured. She pressed the butt of the rifle against her shoulder and looked through the scope, sighting in on the balcony where Blueblood liked to come out to every morning to eat his breakfast.

Like clockwork Blueblood stepped out onto the balcony holding a cup of coffee in his magic sipping it. Sunset placed the crosshairs over Blueblood's head. "Come on come on! Just turn your head just slightly.", she whispered as she placed her hoof on the trigger. She shifted her aim slightly and Blueblood snapped his head slightly looking in her direction. "Smile you son of a...", she said squeezing the trigger.

Blueblood stood on the balcony of his manor sipping his coffee and waiting for his breakfast. As the maid opened the elaborately decorated doors to his room, he saw a glint on the hill. "What is...", he asked turning his head towards the glint. The last thing he saw was a red flash of light.

The maid walked into Blueblood's room carrying a silver tray in her mouth holding his breakfast. As she turned to deliver the tray onto the balcony, the next thing she heard was a wet smack as blood and brains sprayed in a cone from the balcony. The tray fell from her mouth scattering the breakfast onto the floor and she screamed as she saw Blueblood fall backwards into the room, a bloody hole where his left eye was. Running out of the room, she shouted for help.

Sunset watched as the bullet entered into Blueblood's eye, then spray brains and blood into the room behind him as he fell backwards. Giving a grunt of satisfaction, she cycled the bolt, ejecting the spent round. Strapping the sniper rifle to her back, she rose and sprinted down the far side of the hill away from the manor. After a mile, she stopped pulling a quill and a piece of parchment from her saddlebag and wrote three words, "Blueblood is dead". Placing the parchment in an envelope, sealed it and made her way to a roadside mailbox. She addressed the letter to Celestia, stuck a priority stamp on it and dropped it in. She took a moment to wrap her gear in a blanket, then walked down the road hoping to hitch from a passing wagon or cart.

An earth pony stallion with an orange coat and blue mane walked into Blueblood's room, seeing his body laying on the floor with a pool of blood around his head. Blueblood stirred on the floor as his coat and mane turned black. He rose to his feet as the wound in his eye closed over.

The pony in the red robes bowed. "Lord Stygian."

Stygian craned his neck and spit out a gob of blood onto the floor. "That really hurt.", he said in a burbling voice as the hole in the back of his head began slowly closed, "It was about time to discard the disguise." As he began taking off the bloodstained clothes he asked the robed stallion, "Do you have a new disguise for me?"

"Yes sire.", said the robed stallion rising from the floor reaching into his robes and producing a folder.

Stygian took the folder and opened it. "Ah, Fluer Dis Lis. I've always wanted to try my hand at modeling." Transforming into Fluer, she turned to the robed stallion and said in a Prench accent, "I take it that you have dealt with the original Fluer. Oui oui?"

"She is at the bottom of Manehattan harbor as we speak, sire.", the robed stallion replied.

"C'est bon. Long ze Hoof.", Stygian now disguised as Fluer said.

"May the Hoof's reign be eternal.", the robed stallion replied.

Author's Note

Epilogue number one is done.