All alone

The changeling sat patiently stalking the small rabbit that was springing gleefully across the forest floor. It inched closer and closer then in a flash he pinned it under his hoof. His horn lit and within moments the rabbit was dead completely drained of all life. He tossed it aside without a second thought. He walked over to a dense tree that had about 89 markings in it and he took a sharpened rock from the side and added another.

"That's all 90 days" He said turning and walking to the fields.

There he waited. He soon heard the sound of grinding stone and looked to see a piece of stone rising into the air revealing a tall white alicorn that now seemed a mere distant memory.

"My my your still alive you are a skilled one" Celestia said beckoning him

"Thank you" The changeling replayed and received a strong smack across the face sending him flying backwards

"You are not to say a word until training is over understood" Celestia said in a stern voice

".." the changeling merely nooded walking off the pain as he followed her back through the door

He was lead into a very different looking room than before. It was now lit with strange glowing orbs and the floor was lined with tablets of pure white.

"Midnight" Celestia said "This is where you shall be trained and i have the perfect teacher" she said as a black and red pony stepped out of the shadows

He carried a long scythe on his back. It seemed to heavy a weight for the pony to carry but it seemed as if he barely even noticed it.

"Blackheart" Celestia said with a beaming smile "Just in time"

"So this ones the new assassin" Blackheart said eyeing the changeling

"Assassin?" Midnight said only to be answered by a smack across the face

"Nice going" Celestia said looking slightly irritated

"Oh i see" Blackheart said a grin creeping its way across his face "She didn't tell you" Blackheart said "You will not just be a protector of Equestria but you shall also be its greatest weapon for years ever since the changeling attack on Canterlot there has been a secret order to protect Equestria and vanquish its enemies. They have many names the High Council, Guardians, and some others. First there are the signalers they are merely like a wake up call telling you where to go and who to eliminate. Then there are guardians they protect strictly Equestria and are most often in groups but unlike guards they have the insatiable appetite to kill. And finally there are the Assassins the most highly decorated of the group, they are the most trusted ponies in Equestria sworn to secrecy about their mission. They are quick cunning deceptive, they are hand picked by myself,Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna. You Midnight Fury are sort of the king of the super soldiers called a Spartan the name comes from and old game that a friend of mine used to play he had said something about before his apocalypse and moving pictures a queer sort of thought but never mind that, Spartans are well imagine this take all the power Luna,Celestia,and myself have and multiply by the amount of power the elements of harmony have and that is merely about one tenth of it" He said "You will be trained to be something of a cold blooded killer, your only priority will be the mission at hand not the amount of casualties and what not, and finally you shall do exactly as told no if ands or buts about it understood"

"..." the changeling stood silent and nodded

"This ones smarter than the others  Celestia" Blackheart said

"Put him to good use and make sure to keep this one alive unlike the others" Celestia said  walking away and ascending the steps

"Alright kid come at me with all you've got" Blackheart said tossing him a sword

The changeling picked it up hesitantly and looking at him with a sort of questioning look and Blackheart came rushing at him and swung his scythe cutting a large gash just under the changeling's throat. He jumped backwards and howled in pin before Blackheart came at him again knocking him backwards with nearly bone crushing force into the wall and a loud thud echoed through the white room.

"Get up and fight!" Blackheart shouted as he leaped into the air and brought his scythe down to spite the changeling in half.

Midnight became angry. He took the blade in both hooves and stopped Blackheart's attack dead in its tracks. Blackheart kicked Midnight's blade causing it to dig slightly into his skin but he barely noticed with the pounds of adrenaline that had already begun to flood his system. He came at Blackheart before to had even landed knocking Blackheart off his hooves and sending him flying as Midnight rushed him.

This went on for quite sometime until Blackheart finally decided end it. He came at Midnight with full force and in a flash of black light transformed into the king of hell. His appearance so gruesome and frighting it should have caused Midnight to falter but he didn't.

Blackheart lunged and Midnight dodged and caught him by the throat and threw him in the opposite direction nearly snapping his neck. Blackheart tried to defend with his scythe as Midnight launched himself upon him cutting with his sword and punching him with his hoof even worse than a rabid timberwolf. Midnight raised his sword to finally execute his enemy and looked upon Blackheart's bloodied face and remembered who he was fighting. He stopped maming Blackheart and the stallions expression turned angered.

"What are you waiting for?" He asked "Finish the fight"

Midnight paused. Blackheart wanted him to kill him but he just couldn't do it. A sudden kick sent Midnight flying across the room crashing into the floor with an audible crack. He stood up dazed only to find that Blackheart was gone from sight. He felt a burning pain suddenly explode in his back and the sound of flesh tearing. He felt himself lifted off the ground and looked down just long enough to see Blackheart and his scythe digging to his back. He screamed as Blackheart brought the scythe down at a sharp angle to the ground and Midnight's head exploded with a nerve shattering pain. He was gasping for breathe as it had pierced one of his lungs. He crawled loosing blood quickly and weakly shouted up the stairway.

"Celestia help me!" He screamed and felt something grip his neck and he soon found himself once again crashing into the wall a bloody shaking mess.

"Get up...and fight!" Blackheart shouted to him.

Midnight stood weakly on his shaking hooves ready to collapse at any moment. Blackheart charged him impaling him on his horn and taking him with it slamming into the wall as blood poured from Midnight. Midnight began to feel sleepy and dazed. In a last ditch attempted Midnight looked for the sword and found that he was miraculously still clutching it. He kicked hard causing Blackheart's horn to remove itself from his chest as blood poured to the floor he charged Blackheart and instead of taking him head on he stopped to duck under Blackheart and then counter-attacked stabbing his sword directly through Blackheart's chest causing him to cough up a good amount of blood on to the floor. One last kick sent Blackheart 's body flying through the air and landed with a crack. Midnight suddenly fell over from the loss of so much blood. He heard the soft taps of hooves on stone and then two separate slicing sounds. He could see  a white blur standing over him and then darkness.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Midnight wasn't exactly sure where he was. He could just barely make out the room he was in. He was lying on a whiteish-red bed,he didn't even want to think about where the red came from,and he could feel the various needles and different contraptions hooked up to him. He could hear a soft beeping that seemingly synced with his own heartbeat increasing in speed when ever his heart did. He could feel the tight redish white bandages that were wrapped tightly around his wounds.

He looked over to see Blackheart in a much worse state. Not only did he have all that he did but he could also see that he was staring seemingly mindlessly at the ceiling his pupils the size of pinpoints. He heard a creak as the door opened and in walked Celestia in her usual elegant manner and walked directly over to Blackheart. He heard a loud sigh as she turned to check on him when she noticed he was awake and a smile stretched across her face.

"Are you alright" Celestia asked caring. For as long as Midnight could remember Celestia had been like a mother to him. She had always been by him,with him as long as he dared to remember.

The memories of her made him feel so peaceful until he trekked deeper into them. The hive, the blood, all the dead changelings. Thousands of his brothers,sisters and his own mother all taken away by the one he held most dear to this day something that had barred him for so long from actually feeling like she cared about him the memory burned inside and had cultivated itself deep within the recesses of his mind the hate,spite,and agony one day waiting to be released.

"Midnight?" She said worridly as he was staring up at the white ceiling much like Blackheart seemingly lost in a maze of his own thoughts.

"Yes Princess just a little ruffed up is all" He said trying to sit up. He felt a burning pain rip through his body and he screamed in pain no matter how much he tried to suppress it.

"Don't do that" Celestia said gently supporting Midnight's back and laying him back down "You'll hurt yourself even worse i don't want anything happening to you" Celestia said

As Celestia began to leave the room he began to think back to the day that the hive was destroyed and he lost everything.

"Um Princess" Midnight said nervously "Can i speak with you about something"

"Hmmm" Celestia said turning around and walking to the side of the bed "About what?"

"The day.." Midnight gulped loudly "That the hive was attacked"

"..." there was dead silence as both of them went completely stiff

"Uh...er...very well i suppose..." Celestia said visibly becoming worried

"What happened there i can't really remember it all i was so young" Midnight said his voice shaking

"Well..er...after the attack on Canterlot the ponies of Equestria demanded...ummm...retribution for the actions of the changeling queen. That is when we invaded the hive. We originally only meant to take her prisoner but she had the changelings attack. When they began to flee for their lives i tried to calm down the troops but there was just to much chaos to stop them" Celestia explained as gently as she could

"But what about Qu... when Chrysalis was killed and you almost killed me too you said your next what was..." Midnight paused his eyes went wide at the sudden realization at what he had just told Celestia, the pony he thought of as his mother, that she nearly had killed him.

"I...er...i" Celestia studded unable to find an answer. She suddenly took Midnight in a firm hug and he felt tears begin to drip from her face onto his coat "I'm so sorry"

Midnight began to cry as well. He never could stand seeing Celestia ,his sort of adoptive mother, upset "It's alright i forgive you" He said

"How can you forgive me after something so horrible" Celestia sobbed

"Why does the wind blow? How many numbers are before infinity? Its just one of those things that just is Princess why we may never know" Midnight said confortingly

"Midnight do you ever wish that you could just do something over again or just to make something right" Celestia asked looking out the window out to the orangish horizon.

Midnight sighed "All the time Princess....all the time"

____________________________________________________________________________________________

1 month later...

"Are you ready for your final test Midnight?" Blackheart asked

"Yes sir" Midnight said

Blackheart looked upon Midnight Fury with pride. His constant harsh training had made his stronger, better, faster, stronger the truly perfect soldier.

"Alright you are to jump from here down to that building,slide down the pole onto the room and then jump from building to building all the way avoiding the pegasus guards that i'll be sending after you" Blackheart explained

"Wait pegasus guards that's not even fair" Midnight complained receiving a hard smack upside his head

"War is rarely fair" Blackheart said a mischievous smile stretching across his face as it was his trademark and shoving an unprepared Midnight off the palace ledge

Midnight felt a surge of adrenaline run through him and he quickly gained control of himself effortlessly gripping to top of the building and sliding down as inspected. He saw pegasus guards begin descending from the tower and were handed swords from Blackheart. Knowing him he probably poison tipped them as it was his way of pushing him to do his best Blackheart turned and nodded to Midnight confirming his suspicions. Midnight bolted as he pegasi guards descended to tower.He quickly turned directions as an arrow landed in front of him.

"He's really going all out this time" Midnight though to himself

He came to the fend of the building and jumped diagonally with the guards following close behind. There he grabbed onto a rope he had seen and swung sharply to the building on the other side causing the some of the guards to crash into the wall while the others continued chasing him. One the guards sped ahead and tried to block off his escape route.Midnight jumped over him and just as he had expected two others came at him from both sides.

He turned head down and made his body into a straight line towards the ground flipping over at the last minute and landing with a loud smash. He heard a thud as the two guards presumably crashed into each other while the one remaining guard took chase. Try as he might he simply couldn't shake that one and then he had an idea.

He stopped and turned and as soon as the guard was about to strike Midnight lit his horn as brightly as he could temporarily blinding the unsuspecting guard long enough for Midnight to jump down from the building and disappear into the crowds of Canterlot.

He walked over as if nothing had happened over to a vendor and took out some bits from his saddle bag. He wasn't at all surprised that Blackheart looked up at him and spoke quickly.

"Very good" He said in disguise "Now i have instructed the guards to keep a watch for you and you must infiltrate the castle and manage to make it to the throne room without raising an alarm you will have to do this many times in your travels now i have intercepted a return letter for a meeting with a pony named Twilight Sparkle. Her meeting is set at approximately 5 minutes from now, She is Celestia's personal student and does nothing short of idolizing her mentor, she is very organized and is always prepared for just about anything, she very much enjoys books and making lists blah blah blah... here transform into the mare in this picture and use what I've taught you to gain more information if you need it now go this is you most important task yet if you can do this we can begin phase two even faster" Blackheart said quickly noticing the guards searching the area and not wanting to mess up his students test

Midnight trotted away into and dark alleyway and concentrated on the picture and green flames engulfed him. He turned and stared into a small pony. The resemblance was uncanny not a flaw in the design of his disguise. He checked the flank of his new disguise to ensure that the mark was there and it was. He trotted out into the street and blended in with the crowds. He trotted towards the castle and was stopped by the guards as all guests would be.

"State your name and business" One said

"My name is Twilight Sparkle i'm here for the meeting" the fake Twilight said as Midnight mentally breathe a sigh of relief as he had just barely remember the higher voice

"Enter" one said as the crossed spears parted

Midnight entered the castle and ascended the stairs when he was stopped by Shining Armor a stallion he had come to know well.

"Twily" he said giving Midnight  a rough pat on the head "how have you been"

"Good" Midnight answered

"hows live been" Shining Armor asked

"Pretty quiet lately" the fake Twilight answered

Shining Armor squinted "Somethings different about you" he said sending a chill up Midnight's spine "have you grown since the last time i saw you"

Midnight just noticed that he and Shining Armor were nearly the same height. He mentally kicked himself. He had forgotten that the females of this species were normally shorter than the males.

"Um..er...sure i guess" the fake Twilight said stammering over her words "I have to go i can't be late" she said nearly running away

Midnight turned a corner and saw Celestia walking down the hallway. She thankfully hadn't noticed him as he slipped back behind the wall.

"Guards you are not to let anyone inside understood?" He heard her said

"Yes mam" he heard a low voice respond

Midnight in disguise turned the corner and approached the two guards standing at the door.

"Halt the Princess is not to be disturbed" one said

"Really?" the fake Twilight said innocently "i thought i was on time" she said rummaging through the bag and skimming over the letter to make sure that she wasn't late

"Something important has come up Twilight Sparkle it is of the utmost importance" the other said looking up to revealBlackheart's smiling face hidden from the other guard by the slightly longer helmet he made himself

the fake Twilight returned his smile "very well" she said walking off

The faux Twilight turned the corner and looked around to see if anyone was watching and green flames flickered over him as he transformed back into Midnight Fury. His glowed brightly and with a flash of light he was gone. He turned the corner to test the spell he approached the guards and they did nothing. The spell had worked he was invisible. He found a window and climbed out it and began to slowly move across the ledge trying not to look down.

He came to a corner when he stopped for a moment to rest his concentration failed and the spell dissipated causing a nearby guard to spot him. He used his magic to grab him and throw him to the wall. He pinned him down and took some chloroform from his saddlebag he quickly soaked a rag with it and pressed it to the stallions face. Within moments the pony had stopped moving and was unconscious.

Midnight resumed the spell and with a bright flash was once again invisible to the eye. He moved silently until he came to a clear window. He looked in to see that he had made it to the window directly behind the throne. He looked in and saw something that broke his concentration completely.

Celestia and Blackheart were fighting. He saw a large flash of light come from Celestia's horn and the window itself completely shattered and Midnight retreated just in time to avoid the sharp spikes of glass. He jumped through the window and managed to grab onto one of the beams that supported the room.

He gripped it tightly and moved slowly along the ledge by his front hooves while his back dangled uselessly. He scooted along until he found a larger ledge and pulled himself up onto it careful not to make a sound. He dropped down silently behind the throne and looked around the end to watch the battle.

"You traitor" Celestia shouted as a large blast of magic fired from her horn

"If betraying a tyrant is a crime then i'm a criminal" Blackheart said from a spot about 50 ft from where Celestia had fired her magic

Midnight saw Blackheart look over towards the throne and he could have sworn that he saw him as he dipped back behind the throne. Midnight Fury had a choice; to either protect Celestia or help his mentor Blackheart. He jumped back up to the platform and jumped. He pinned Blackheart to the floor and with a powerful punch he knocked Blackheart out like a light.

"M..mi...Midnight" Celestia said stumbling over her words "Why did you just.. how did you...."

"It's alright Princess he out cold" Midnight said glancing over to the unconscious Blackheart

"That fight was simply for your test Midnight you weren't actually supposed to... uh oh" Celestia said staring at something behind Midnight

Midnight turned to see Blackheart looking especially grim. He lift Midnight off the ground with one hoof.

"Midnight..." He began looking ready to rip him in half "That was....AWESOME!" He said putting Midnight down "I've taught you well soldier" He said patting him on the back "Are you ready for the stage two?"

"Yes sir" Midnight assured

He felt a sharp pain in his arm and winced at the feeling. At the site he began to feel a slight sting and then very sleepy. He fell onto his knees and struggled to stay awake. He eventually succame to the effects and fell into unconsciousness.

He awoke to see doctors in white coats stained red making constant cuts in his body. The pain hit him and he screamed and attempted to free himself but found restraints binding him to the bed. He saw Celestia run over the the side of the bed.

"He's awake get the anesthetic now!" She shouted to one of the doctors who handed her a small bottle. She sucked some up in a needle and buried it into his forearm. He winced but tried not to move. He felt as if she knew what was best for him. He had recognized that she trusted him with her live and he trusted her.

"Queen Celestia" he thought as he began to fall asleep again "Has a ring to it" he smiled as he fell unconsciousness

As he lay there in the dark void of his subconscious he looked upwards and saw bright flashes of light which he recognized from his previous experiences as magical spells being cast on his body. He didn't know the difference between one spell and the next that they were casting but felt sure that he would be alright for Celestia was watching over him and  he knew nothing would dare try and injure him.