Amongst Shadows

                The Midnight Ride And Stories Of Old

Two weeks later...

The shadowy orginization that Equilibriun is part of doesn't have anywhere for the group's employee's to meet. Every assassin in this order roams freely. Meaning that they don't have to report in or even tell the leader that their contract was completed successfully. Only in special circumstances would they send direct letters to the leader. They don't want to risk them being intercepted. In this assassin order, there aren't any assassins who are Unicorns. Most assume it is because their leader doesn't want competition. It hasn't been proven yet, but the way they receive their pay and next assignments implies that their leader is a Unicorn. There also weren't any Pegasi in the order. Equilibriun couldn't think of a good reason for that.

Equilibriun had stayed in this town for two weeks. He was waiting for  a dismissal note and another contract. Over this course of two weeks, Equilibriun had come to like Strossella. She was charming, and he found that they worked well together. She still hadn't told him her age though. Just the other day, Strossella had properly shown Equilibriun how to pick somepony's pocket, and how to cut a purse ever so meticulously. Equilibriun enjoyed the experience. Perhaps it would be useful.

Equilibriun wakes up early one morning, his back stiff. Wondering why, he gets up and walks to his mirror where a note had been stuck in the upper right corner where his mirror-frame meets the wall. He stretched up and yanked it free. It was written in Svanessa. So Equilibriun scanned his disorginized room, looking for his special glasses. He found them under a pile of paper also written in Svanessa. Carefully lifting them on to his head, he read the letter.

Dear Equilibriun,

          It has come to my attention that you have had company these last few weeks.

Equilibriun looked guiltily at the sleeping Strossella. He continued reading:

I would recommend it to be false. Also, your contract has come through completed, therefore you receive three-hundred bits.

As he read this, he looked to his mirror once more and saw a large purse sitting atop Strossella's book. He didn't notice it before, and so he guessed that this letter was enchanted. He found his place, and continued reading:

I personally congratulate you on your mission, and ask you to continue leaving emotion alone. With that being said, I have another mission for you. You are to ride the train to Canterlot. There you will find a professer from the Univeristy of Magical Studies. Somepony wants this poor sod dead, and so you will kill him. Outright. The client wants it to be public, so leave the weapon in his body. Then, escape through the sewer system underneath, and run west. You will meet one of my most trusted associates. He will give you more instructions.

         Do not fail,

         Solar Shade

Equilibriun walked over to his desk and set the letter down, deep in thought. So they know about Strossella? Hmmm. I wonder what else they know... No matter. Equilibriun slowly walked over to the sleeping magenta Unicorn, and looked her over. Her body was no longer so skinny. Though, it wasn't too skinny to begin with. She had been taught well, thought Equilibriun. He reached down and shook her shoulder. It was unsuccessful as she just turned and grumbled.

"Strossella. We've got to get a move on." He tried reasoning with her. She just feigned deaf, and remained unmoving. She finally woke up when Equilibriun had ripped the blanket from her, and proceeded to pull the pillow from her head.

"Ugh! I'm awake, I'm awake!" She said as she failed to keep hold of the pillow. Strossella then sat up and rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"And where are we going?" She said irritated.

"Canterlot." He replied. "I have reasons to go." Equilibriun said as she opened her mouth in another question.

She closed her mouth. Then, "C'mon, you can tell me." She said reassuringly.

He thought for a moment. "No I can't, not yet. All you have to know is it is because of my job."

She studied his eyes for a brief moment. "You never told me your line of work." She said surrepticiously.

"Ya know, I never did." He said sarcastically. She didn't pick up on it as she waited with increasing eagerness. He saw her face. "No, I'm not telling you." Her lovely face fell, defeated.

"Well, I don't mind anyway. At least I'll get to go to Canterlot." She brightly thought. Strossella thought of Canterlot and it's towering walls, with it's spires scraping the blue sky above. And she thought of the majestic castle, it's pearly white columns and stained windows. Then, "Do you think we'll meet the Princess?"

Equilibriun's voice was almost a whisper. "No, we won't. Twilight doesn't have time for two rough ponies from all over the world."

Strossella was dissappointed. But she was content with Canterlot alone. She'd never been to such a large city before. She was positively bursting with excitement.

And so they ate a small breakfast. Equilibriun pulled his brown cloak and handed Strossella the gray one he'd bought for her a week ago. They then left the dull brown building. Equilibriun left all his equipment where it lay, including the papers. His orginization would take care of moving those to where they needed to be.

They walked left from the building, and headed west. Equilibriun was leading them to the train station, the very train station that he got off of almost a month ago. They passed many who where confused as to why a couple of ponies were walking around in heavy cloaks in the middle of summer. And many nodded to Strossella, she nodding back.

"Who are they?" Equilibriun asked as Strossella nodded towards a red Pegasus.

"They are my friends." She said. He looked at her surprised. "I CAN make friends you know. I only met you two weeks ago and we're good friends." She pointed out.

Equilibriun laughed. "We are--mutually beneficial partners."

"I didn't realize you were getting anything out of this." She said slyly.

"I--I'm not!" He protested.

She chuckled. "I didn't think you were!"

Equilibriun just shut his mouth and put on his best stony face as the magenta mare beside him giggled. They walked past a few stalls, and the train station came into view. The station was a large, white brick building. It was rectangular in shape, and had marble steps leading up to the grand front entrance. You had to pass throuh a security check, (another good reason for leaving everything behind) and then came out to the platforms, where the trains were.

Equilibriun put his cloak back on after being checked, and walked to the ticket vendor. There, he bought two first class tickets (a total of sixty bits spent) and trotted with Strossella three quarters of the way to platform nine. He then sat with Strossella on a bench, waiting for the train that was to arrive in one hour.

Strossella was bored. So very bored. She had sat here for thirty minutes, and had nothing to occupy herself with. Her book had been left at the building (Equilibriun explained that she would get it back, he promised) and therefore had nothing to occupy herself with.

She sat there for another few minutes, until she had an idea.

"Do you want to play Seeker?" She asked eagerly.

He just turned to her, confused. "Seeker?"

"You've obviously never met another Unicorn." She rolled her eyes. "Seeker is a game of cards. I can conjure them up." She then bent her head low in concentration. Equilibriun watched her with curiousity. Then, a small deck of cards appeared out of thin air right in her lap. Strossella picked them up. "Okay, so Seeker is a game about finding five cards in this deck of twenty-five. You have twelve attempts to find them. Each card you successfully find gives you a point. We take turns until one of us reaches ten points." She started shuffling.

"And what do you win?" He asked uncertainly.

She finished shuffling the cards and got up. Then she lay them on the bench. "My respect, of course." She said. Then they began.

Equilibriun let her take the first turn. She moved her hoof over one of the cards up, and flipped it over. The symbal was a green snake. "Blast!" She exclaimed. "Your turn." Sighing, she moved out of the way.

She reached over and flipped the card back over. Equilibriun gave her a weathered look, and chose a card in the lower-left corner. He turned it over to find a green snake. "HA!" Strossella blurted out. Realizing her mistake, she said "Sorry" and quickly covered her mouth, giggling. Equilibriun just stood up shaking his head.

Strossella took her precious time with this one. She kept hovering her hoof over each individual card, starting at the top. As she did this, she closed her eyes and hummed a tune. And just as Equilibriun started going into a stupor, she screamed, "YES!!"

He started and looked around, dazed. Realizing where he was and who he was (regrettably) with, and looked as she showed him a card with a brightly colored eagle on the front.

"One point for me!" She bragged.

"Then I guess you win." He said, dryly.

Her face was amused. "Giving up already?" She teased.

He just pointed to the train behind her, that had rolled up just seconds before she found the card. She wheeled around and just gasped. "How'd I miss that?"

Equilibriun got up and started towards the train. "You were concentrating hard, I'll give you that." He said over his shoulder to the open-mouthed magenta Unicorn behind him.

Stepping on the train, a mixture of sweet aromas met them. They walked forward to the front cars, and after giving their tickets to be punched by a severe looking Unicorn, they found an empty compartment. There they sat on the comfortable red seats across from each other. The train hissed, and started chugging forward. Strossella looked out the window at the station, watching as it all slid past faster and faster, until they came out into a great open field of grasslands. The tracks led the train through the prairie, and up past a dark forrest. The hills were like beacons in this relatively flat area of Equestria. Passing through a hole in a mountain, a rainbow colored Pegasus poked her head through the door. She introduced herself.

"They call me Rainbow Dash." She announced, shaking Strossella's hoof. "Listen, I don't have anywhere to sit, and you seem like nice ponies." Rainbow said a little akwardly. "Can I ride with you?"

Before Equilibriun could decline, Strossella said, "Certainly." She scooted over and let Rainbow Dash sit down next to her. "My name is Strossella." Strossella said.

Rainbow Dash took a bit to process this name. It was very weird. "Strossella?" She said, her voice rising in pitch. "Oh, that's right. You're from far east Equestria! Your names are so different from where I'm from."

"And where might that be?" Strossella politely asked.

"Ponyville. In fact, that is where I'm going after I meet with Twilight and catch up. It's been a while, you know?" Strossella's eyes widened, and Equilibriun studied Rainbow Dash's red eyes carefully.

"You know Princess Twilight?" Strossella breathlessly said.

"Uh-yeah. I know her. We're old friends, have been for about fifty three years now." (So, about fourty-five in human years.) "I was one of the first ponies she met back when she came to study friendship. I left about ten years ago to explore Equestria, just like Daring-Do!" She reached into the saddlebags she was wearing and pulled out a book titled: Daring-Do and Ruby Rendezvous. "It's the seventh book in the series. Twilight got me hooked when I hurt my wing one day." The whole time Rainbow Dash was giving this account, Strossella stared at her, mouth agape. Rainbow Dash turned to Equilibriun who had been looking out the window again. "Is your friend okay? She seems a little--"

"What is Twilight's favorite color? How did she defeat Discord? Has she ever had a boyfriend?" This and much more Strossella had sputtered out as she lost control of her excitement. Twilight Sparkle is Strossella's idle, to say the least. Strossella has read all of Twilight's books, and can recite the name of every spell Twilight has ever performed.

"Whoa there! Just take it easy, okay." Rainbow Dash calmed Strossella down. When Strossella had regained her senses, she apologized for her extreme behavior. "It's alright." Rainbow said. Then she said, "I can't walk around Ponyville without Scootaloo and her 'fan-club' from following me around anymore." She chuckled good-naturedly. Then she turned to the gray Earth pony again.

"You seem familiar. Have I met you before?" She asked.

"N-no. You haven't." He said alarmed. Blight take me, she recognizes me. Probably from my younger days at castle Canterlot. He thought.

"I don't mean to single you out. It is just that you look like one of Twilight's old friends... What was his name... Fellstar!! That was it! Fellstar. You look just like him, except he was a Unicorn."

I hope she doesn't make the connection, Equilibriun desperately thought. She wouldn't! She couldn't! I was just a young colt then, no way she'd figure it out. But despite his reasoning, he somehow doubted that.

"He was a good colt, Fellstar. Went with Luna to where ever they ended up. Those were some troubled days." She finished her reminiscing. The sun had edged dangerously close to the horizon now.

"It is really very sad, the sun." Rainbow Dash said as it's bottom edge hid behind a hill. Her red eyes glowed, deep in thought of her history, and what happend so long ago.

Strossella took everything she'd said in, churning it around in her head. Fellstar? Who is that? I know that Luna was the sister of Celestia, but who was Fellstar? I've never read anything about him.

Equilibriun was in deep thought about Fellstar too. Fellstar is Equilibriun's father. Long ago, before Twilight became the Princess of Equestria, Fellstar had met Twilight. They fast became friends, and helped stop the rebirth of the Dreconi and the Mind Domination cultists. Then, Luna was faced with a very tough decision. In order to stop the Dreconi and to dissolve the Mind Domination spell forever, Luna had to go through a portal to some place else. This was a year after they stopped the rise of the Dreconi. And this was when Equilibriun was born. Fellstar had married an Earth pony from Ellipsa that he had fallen in love with. That was also when he decided to go with Luna, through the portal. And so they did, and left Equilibriun in the care of Twilight Sparkle. Then, seven years later, Celestia told Twilight the secret of the sun. And how it has been on the verge of dying for centuries. The only reason it hadn't is because Alicorns had been dissolving their souls and magical abilities to keep the sun powered. The rest of the Alicorns were dead back in Faerlahern (continent to the east of Equestria) because of a rogue Alicorn that had led the Dreconi in a genocidal campaign. They succeeded and killed all of the Alicorns still in Faerlahern, including the rogue. That left Celestia to perform the spell once more, and sacrifice herself so the sun wouldn't go Super Nova. Since then, Twilight has been researching a way to keep the sun going without Alicorn strength. She was found that sending large amounts of Hydrogen at a very high velocity had kept it powered. Her estimates say that it will stay burning for another millennia. Then Twilight broke at her core. Losing her mentor had been hard, so had the responsibilities of being the Princess of Equestria. So she tried to create a portal back to before Celestia had died. She just wanted to see her one more time. Unfortunately, she had accidentally created an inter-dimensional portal, and was sent to a place where there were bi-pedals called "humans." She had been helped by one human male, and now she was back, again researching the Hydrogen Theory. When she was gone, Equilibriun had run away. He was found by a bright red Earth pony, who taught him everything he knows today. He has been an assassin since then.

The sun had completely dissappeared now, leaving the land about them dark. He looked from the window and over at Strossella. She was sleeping soundly with her head resting against the window. Rainbow Dash had her head leaned back and had her red eyes closed. Equilibriun thought she was asleep, but was proved wrong and she said something.

"I know who you are, Equilibriun." She said as she tipped her head straight and looked at Equilibriun. "I know that you father is Fellstar. Why did you run away when Twilight was gone?"

She had caught him. He just had to play it cool, and act nonchalantly. "Because, I wanted to see Equestria." He lied. But Rainbow Dash isn't so stupid.

"C'mon, Equilibriun. You were so young when you left, you hadn't barely seen Ponyville. It doesn't make sense. And, boy, you don't realize how sad and angry Twilight was (and still is) that you left. She came back and found you missing. Did you not think of how that made her feel?"

Equilibriun couldn't take it. "Do YOU not realize how everypony seemed to not care that my father was gone!?! That they had no sorrow!!" He was outraged.

"They were sa--" She started, but he cut her off.

"NO! They were not sad at all. They could give an arse if my dad was lost somewhere!" His face grew hot with anger. "They DIDN'T CARE!!! All THEY cared about was who would lead them if Twilight didn't come back!! When would Twilight come back? And did Twilight care!? NO!! SHE ONLY CARED ABOUT THAT CELESTIA!" He roared.

"Equilibriun! Hold on just one second! Twilight was very sad when Fellstar left. They were so close. And when you left, she was heartbroken!! Equilibriun! She didn't perform her duties for three weeks, she was so sad!!" Devastated by this news, Equilibriun's rage melted.

"No pony wanted me. I was an outcast in school. And when Twilight left, I pannicked. I mean, she was the only reason I still went to school and studied." His voice was full with sorrow.

"Equilibriun. Why wouldn't you just come to me, or Rarity, or anypony else? We would've helped you." Now that Rainbow Dash said it, he felt very foolish and just plain horrible. I've spent the entirety of my life killing.

"I had been in a--bad spot." He said. Equillibriun was on the verge of telling Rainbow Dash everything, everything that he had been through, and had put others through. But just then, the voice of the train directer announced that they'd arrive in the Canterlot station in half an hour. Equilibriun closed his mouth, and looked away from those pretty red eyes.

After about twenty minutes, Equilibriun roused Strossella. She woke reciting a fragment from her book, and looked around blearly eyed. After that, they sat and discussed Twilight because Strossella couldn't get her from her mind. Making Strossella the happiest mare in Equestria, (Equilibriun the most uncertain colt) Rainbow Dash agreed to take them with her to castle Canterlot, where they could meet Princess Twilight.

So, Equilibriun followed Rainbow Dash as they exited the station, Strossella bounding up and down next to them. They walked through the dark streets of Canterlot, Strossella craning her neck to see all of the interesting shops that were sadly closed. As they walked under a street lamp, Strossella's excited energy had dissipated, leaving her very sore and tired.

Rainbow Dash led them astray several times, "Place looks different since I left" until they finally reached a wide marble archway, it's silver frame inlaid with gold. The trio passed under this and made it to a path with grass on either side. And they followed this path until it led them to another wall with a lowered portcullis. Two Royal Guards were standing on both sides, each holding a long ornate halberd.

"Who wants admission?" The left one demanded.

"Twilight's old friend, Rainbow Dash." Rainbow Dash replied airily.

The right guard watched the rainbow Pegasus with suspicion.

"And what is it that you want with Princess Twilight?" His voice was gravelly.

Just as Rainbow exasperatedly explained to these dull guards, a white Unicorn appeared behind the gate. Her mane was violet, and her cutiemark that of three diamonds.

"Hired guards should have the ability to think more than brigands." Her voice was regal. The right guard quickly turned and looked alarmed at the sudden appearance of this Unicorn.

"Er--I'm sorry--We were given orders to--" The guard fumbled with his words.

The white Unicorn rolled her eyes. "Just open the gate already!" With that, the guards magically lifted the gate, allowing the three to pass underneath.

"It is so very nice to see you again, Rainbow Dash." The white Unicorn greeted Rainbow.

"Same here." She said shortly. Then she lowered her voice. "Why the increased security?"

"Oh, Twilight will explain, I'm sure." She waved the question away. Then her eyes roved over the other two, in cloaks gray and brown. "And who are these--ponies?" Her eyes flashed towards the scar on Equilibriun's cheek.

"I met them on the train." Rainbow said. She didn't mention Equilibriun's past. "They were coming to Canterlot, and so I said I would take them to see Twilight. This one here," she jerked her head at Strossella, "is the biggest fan of Twilight I've ever seen."

"I--see." Was all the white Unicorn could say. "Well, my name is Rarity, and I am Twilight's friend as well." She held out her hoof, waiting for one to take it and shake it. Strossella lunged forward and gripped Rarity's hoof, shaking it up and down in a very quick motion. When Equilibriun failed to do the same, she akwardly retracted her hoof, and led the way to Twilight's chambers.