After That Fateful Night - The Assassins' Story

by Tonto the Trotter

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Romance, Comedy, Adventure
Length: 41883

A cell of Assassin's serve Nightmare Moon and her new regime in secret.

Watch as a small cell of assassins, lead by the mysterious and charismatic Tick Tock, seek to strengthen the rule of the recently returned Queen Nightmare Moon from within the shadows of eternal night. The assassins will face numerous foes and unspeakable odds. Will they succeed? Only time will tell.

A story I originally wrote in the comments of After That Fateful Night by Peppy Greyskull. The story begins during the events of chapter four of Peppy's story and it is highly recommended that you read it.

Also, go check out Rebelfire's The Hunger.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-05-20 23:13:03 UTC

Prologue - A timely Assassin

Prologue - The Timely Assassin

The Moon's gaze fell down upon an encampment filled to the brim with rows and rows of tents that housed the most of a bustling army. The rest of the military force, mainly comprised of clan-less whelps and inexperienced soldiers still waiting for their first battle, were forced to make due with roughly spun nests in the tree's surrounding the enclosure.

The great mass of tents lay below the foundations of an old fort, aptly named The Three Spires for three jutting towers that rose out of the structure. One of the turrets had collapsed at some point in the last two-hundred years since it was occupied, but the rest of the structure stood strong. The fort's other defining feature besides the remaining two towers was a banner raised over the fortress' entrance, a black griffon outlined against a gold backdrop. The interior had been cleaned and gutted weeks ago and made fit for habitation a fortnight later as part of a covert effort to secure a military presence in Equestria. Now that the griffons were gearing for war, it was expected that the fort would be housing more soldiers temporarily before they moved on. The stronghold's spartan interior was lit by candle light that left long shadows along the high roofs.

Sixty seconds....

A stallion moved silently along the wooden support beams suspended a few feet below the ceiling, hidden within the shadows of a corridor on the third floor of the formidable fortress, hopping gracefully from beam-to-beam. His deep blue, hooded cloak covered his mane and body, while his face was hidden beneath a beak-like piece of cloth attached to the hood.

Forty-five seconds....

The doors at the ends of the corridor opened as the guards left and prepared to change shift. Below him, two griffons that had been guarding his target left, leaving the door to the commander's quarters exposed. The replacement shift could be heard approaching, their sharp talons and hind paws clicking softly on the ground, while their plate armor clanked loudly against their feathers and flanks. Dropping down from the support beam, the stallion quickly pushed the door open and quietly slid inside before easing it shut.

Thirty seconds....

Moving silently, the stallion examined the room as he made his way to the bathroom on his right. A feather cot lay across from the door he had come through and a sword and dagger lay on a table just outside the bathroom door. The stallion picked them up and moved them quietly under the cot, just in case things get out of hoof. He walked up to the bathroom door and quietly slid it open.

Fifteen seconds....

His target was before him, General Black Beak. The old crow was notorious for his pillaging of neighboring countries and the rumors that he rapes war criminals. He wouldn't dare attack Equestria while Celestia reigned; however, now that Celestia was gone, all the griffon clans united in preparations for war. Black Beak had been chosen for his infamous reputation and was to begin leading raids as soon as the new ruler of Equestria, Nightmare Moon, was confirmed to be dead.

Ten seconds....

Black Beak was preparing to engaged in an act of sexual depravity. He turned as the door creaked open and spotted the intruder. Taking in a deep breath, he attempted to screech in order to alert the guards; however, the stallion wasn't about to let the old bird ruin his plans. He slid at remarkable speeds across the tiled bathroom floor and, with a smooth motion, brought up his two fore hooves and a pair of gleaming blades flashed as the candle light struck them. The blades plunged into the foul bird's chest, puncturing both lungs. His mouth managed only to croak out a pitiful moan before the stallion released him, and retracted his blades before he caught Black Beak in his hooves.

"Five seconds....Tick-tock..., tick-tock.... Your time is up, General Black Beak." The stallion said in a quiet voice as he lowered Black Beak to the floor and pulled his eyes shut.

Silently, the stallion approached the only other living being in the room. A young mare, barely out of foal-hood, huddled in fear in a far corner. She was trying and failing to stay away from the expanding pool of blood coming from the griffon's corpse. The stallion extended a hoof to the indigo mare and was not at all surprised when she cringed in fear at the assassin. "Tick-tock, tick-tock. We must leave. Come with me if you want to live."

The mare, still huddled in the corner, slowly took his hoof in her own and allowed him to guide her out of the bathroom. He walked back over to Black Beak's corpse and took a white feather off of the depraved griffon's head and dipped it in his blood before the he placed it in one of his pouches. He then followed the last order of business and dipped a hoof in the blood and sketched a crescent moon on the wall opposite the door. The stallion walked back into the main room and wiped the blood off on the bed. "Follow me, my dear. My name isn't Tick Tock and I promise you that I will lead you to safety."

The mare followed him to the window as he hid behind the curtains scanning the skies and wooden palisade walls for sentries. Seeing none, he slid the window open and prepared to leap. The shivering mare walked up beside the stallion and wrapped her hooves around him, assuming he had pegasus wings beneath his cloak.

He did not.

The stallion leapt into the night sky and they both plummeted. The mare realized her mistake to late and took in a deep breath, preparing to scream, but was prevented by a hoof to the mouth. They both slowed down as they neared the ground, a dark red aura surrounding them. They landed softly and, immediately after, Tick Tock trotted forward, shifting the mare onto his back. He walked into the shadow of an old oak tree, blending in seamlessly with the mare being the only indication that he was there at all.

An ashen unicorn was waiting for them. Tick Tock showed the feather to the newcomer and gave a curt nod before all three vanished into the countryside, their mission a success. They would be training their newly acquired acolyte until another mission demanded their attention came up.

Author's Notes: I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter, special thanks to Peppy Greyskull for giving this story a thumbs up and to Dr.Jekyll for suggesting I post the story. Oh and also special thanks to the good doctor for becoming my editor. Be sure and thank him.

Editor's Notes: Yo, I'm Dr.Jekyll and, wow, was that fun. Lotsa' work done on this one. Great prologue. Had fun editing it. Hope all of you enjoyed it. See ya' next chapter.

Chapter 1: A leap of Faith

Chapter 1 - A Leap of Faith

The shadowy city of Canterlot was quieter than usual. The royal guards performed practiced drills in the gardens of Canterlot Castle wearing dark armor. Unicorns and the occasional earth pony archer took practice shots at dummies made to look like griffons with snarling bucket heads and feather filled sacks for torsos. Earth pony soldiers performed exercise routines, practiced hoof to hoof combat and used swords in sparring matches.

Other ponies, civilians who had yet to be drafted, were making the most of their free time, shopping, going out to clubs and bars or just spending time with their loved ones. In an alleyway running parallel to main street, two ponies went unnoticed. The first was a stallion wearing a deep blue cloak that covered his body. The second was a younger mare who wore a simpler, grey cloak.

"Tick-tock, my dear. The night moves forward. Tonight you practice what we showed you in the catacomb." Said the stallion as he lined himself up, facing the back wall of a restaurant. The lowest window was a respectable distance above the stallion's head.

The mare's saviors had been drilling it into her head for the past week the ways in which an insurmountable surface could be overcome. How she could use momentum and her own body to scale surfaces only a spider had any hopes of climbing.

Tick Tock charged forward. Just before he ran head first into the wall, his hind-legs scrunched up and with a swift buck to the ground, he leapt up the wall. He latched onto the window sill and looked down to watch his apprentice. Her first jump was clumsy but she recovered quickly and made for a second which was met with success. She scrabbled up the old brick walls, her hooves finding the small gaps she needed to keep pulling herself up. She clambered up to the window beside her master as he demonstrated the long jump.

Tick Tock swung his whole body in an arc as he performed the long jump and allowed a small smile to creep on his face as his apprentice mimicked him almost simultaneously. The trainee had begun to move more confidently, this was much easier than climbing cliff faces, admittedly. And safer too, the fall would still hurt but it would be shorter and they had a unicorn standing by to assist medically.

Once they reached the rooftop, Tick Tock picked the next exercise for his apprentice. "Tick-tock, my dear. We're on time it seems. I worried for a tick, when you fumbled your first climb." His apprentice scuffed the rooftop nervously. "Heh heh. Nopony is perfect, but I'm afraid you'll have to be for this next task..., or I'll make you do it again."

Tick Tock galloped towards the edge of the rooftop and leapt, easily passing over the ignorant masses below. He stood and waited, his apprentice readied herself and began running forward, her steps muffled by the velvet shoes she was given to avoid unwanted attention. She jumped and managed to make it past the gap, but only by a few inches. She curled up into a ball, rolling forward and, after doing a full loop, quickly stretched her legs out landing upon her hooves.

"Good. You're doing well for your first run in a city. Now that you know the basics of climbing and jumping, do keep up. We're on a schedule. Tick-tock, time to work, my dear."

The two assassins galloped together, leaping from roof to roof, scaling walls and buildings, making they're way toward Canterlot Castle. They sped past chimney sweeps unnoticed as they reached the residential districts and used clothing lines strung up between buildings to cross gaps that were too big to leap. Tick Tock was subtlety teaching his apprentice to notice when a gap was too big to make a jump and how to spot an escape route if pursued. They ran along the top of thin boards and shaky scaffolding, the master pointing out how to notice unsafe running surfaces, like damp roof tiles or guard ponies monitoring the roofs near the old palace training grounds.

Tick Tock and his apprentice arrived atop the tall palace spires. Below them, the shapes of training soldiers could be seen. The pegasi were gathered at the other side of the palace, investigating a fiery crescent moon burned into the hedge maze. From their view point it looked marvelous, the glowing embers seemed to highlight hidden details like small fiery stars burning within the Moon.

Tick Tock looked at his apprentice with a grim expression on his face as he led her to the edge of one of the spires. The sloping surface made it difficult for her to maintain a firm grip, so she settled for a loose one instead. Tick Tock held her from the edge with one hoof and used the other to maintain his own balance.

"Tick-tock, my dear apprentice. It's decision time." He looked up admiring the moon before he continued. "Trust is the most important thing you need to have in your fellow assassins." He looked her in the eyes, his cool greys boring into her own deep indigo. "Do you trust me?" She hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Really now?" A small grin spread on his face. "Jump off this roof and I promise you'll be safe."

She looked down, the ground seeming to rush up at her and then retract, and her sense of balance abandoned her. She looked back up to Tick Tock, fear in her eyes as he gave her a deadpan expression. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, realizing she couldn't back out now.

And she took a leap of faith.

The air whipped at the mare's face as she fell and opened her eyes. She saw the ground fast approaching, her breath came out in quick gasps as she began to hyperventilate, the ground rushing to meet her. She was two stories from her death when she felt herself slow down and stop, bouncing back up. The mare looked back up and saw a cable wrapped around one of her legs. A bungee wire like the one they used for practice held her as Tick Tock descended on a zip line.

He leapt forward, grabbing his apprentice, and freed her from the rope before he used his zip line to lower them both to the ground. A scarlet glow enveloped the zip line and bungee cord as the unicorn she'd met before teleported their equipment to their feet folded neatly.

"Tick-tock, time to move my dear. You did well on your first free run too, I might add." Tick Tock gave her an encouraging smile. She shied away but nodded.

"You've earned your name, initiate. You can inform us when you have chosen." The unicorn said, his voice was stern and professional.

"Oh, lighten up, Crow. My young apprentice is progressing rather nicely, I'd say. She even passed her leap of faith on her first try as well. I reckon she'll be as quick as me with some practice." The unicorn shrugged at this and teleported them all to their rendezvous point and together they made their way to their local safe house.

Editor's Notes: Fun, fun, fun. Now, I need sleep. It's been two days since I last had a nap. Hope you all enjoyed it.

Chapter 2: A Night on the Town

Chapter 2 - Night on the Town

The city of Wintertrot, the furthest northern city of the kingdom of Equestria, lay in the shadow of the White-Cap Mountains, named for the ever present snow lining their peaks. The mountain range connected to the Swayback Mountains along its southern tip and together they made up the border between Equestria and Griffonia. The White-Cap Mountains were an unwelcoming, bleak landscape; however, Wintertrot, by contrast, was warm and almost always busy. The city owed its existence to the vast mineral wealth of the mountains surrounding it. Nopony in their right mind would willingly live in this frozen waist-land otherwise.

The Frozen Stone Mines churned out carts full of materials essential to Wintertrot's livelihood. Iron, gold, silver, copper, and various gems were the common fair. On exceedingly rare occasions, a miner would find themselves in possession of a small fortune by unearthing a nugget of starmetal. The shear quality of the minerals within the White-Cap Mountains made Wintertrot one of the wealthiest settlements in all of Equestria. The food was mostly imported as the near constant snowfall made it impossible to grow crops outside of greenhouses. The metal refineries sent a steady stream of smoke up into the sky, keeping the city warm as they churned out refined bars of metal and exquisitely polished gemstones. The supplies were sent out like clockwork, coinciding with deliveries of food from all over Equestria.

Three barrels of Sweet Apple Acres' famous apple cider were set out by the loading bay of the distribution center's largest warehouse. When the workers delivering the cider left, a blade from within the largest barrel pierced the wax seal from inside and carefully cut it open. The lid was popped off as an earth pony mare and a disgruntled unicorn emerged. "You wield your weapon well, initiate. Get Snowball so we can be on our way." Spoke the unicorn in his usual business tone.

The earth pony nodded curtly and rapped one barrel only to be met with silence. She wandered over to the second and knocked. There was a brief pause before the reply rap came. Wordlessly, the initiate broke the wax seal on the barrel and tipped it over gently, allowing a tall, slender, snow white mare wearing a white robe to emerge. "Was a barrel really the only way to get in, Crow?" The white mare whined, inspecting her hooves for damage.

"It was the safest way. Pegasi patrol the borders and their are unicorns adept at picking up strong surges of magic, like teleportation spells. Our mission is too important to risk being discovered, Snowball." Crow spoke with an annoyed tone. "Let us proceed." With that, he led the group to the exit of the warehouse; Tick Tock's description of the its layout was accurate, as always. Their window of opportunity was small, they had two days to find their target and make it back to the Everfree Forest. Tick Tock had said they would be needed there, a major event was about to take place.

They approached a side door out of the warehouse that was rigged to an alarm system. Calmly, Snowball opened a small set of tools and levitated them using her magic, manipulating them with her fore-hooves as she carefully disabled the alarm. The initiate watched, observing as she had been told to do. Her master had been very specific that she watch and learn.

She wouldn't be able to do as many things simultaneously as Snowball could with her magic but she could pick a simple lock. She waited for Snowball to finish and flicked out a pin and screwdriver. The initiate carefully felt for the pins and unlocked the door with a satisfyingly soft click. She pushed open the door and carefully scoped out the area. Seeing that it was clear, she let Crow and Snowball take the lead.

The biting cold and constant snowfall made Snowball practically invisible. The semi-permanent slush on the streets made them all grateful they had taken Tick Tock's orders to heart and worn a pair of fur lined boots though their cloaks were thin and unsuitable for the weather. Only Snowball had any winter protection, a white scarf, matching her coat and cloak perfectly, was wrapped around her face and neck leaving her sapphire blue eyes the only part of her head visible.

The initiate shivered, doing her best to hide her discomfort. Crow had a fire gem locked into a slot in his armor that generated enough warmth for him. Her shivering caught Snowball's eye, who immediately looked her over, concern written in her eyes. She reached into her saddlebag and extracted a fur trimmed jacket. "Darling, you must be absolutely frigid." The initiate didn't respond but looked away. "It's nothing to be ashamed of dear, not everyone can think as long term as myself."

Snowball levitated the jacket toward the indigo mare and, with a small flash, the initiate was made to wear the comfortably cozy garment. She managed a weak smile as Crow pressed on impatiently, forcing the mares to quickly trot after him.

They arrived at a tavern named the Caged Stallion. Above the entrance hung an old iron cage suspended by a chain from an overhang. Contained within the bars of his prison was a puppet stallion that forlornly gazed out across the frozen street. The assassins entered the rickety tavern and paid for a single room. After ascending the stairs, the trio entered a small but warm chamber. A crackling fire was burning within the chimney and two cots lay across from it. A chair sat across form the door, resting in a position next to the fireplace that would allow the sitter ample light and warmth, away from the covers of the cots, should somepony wish to read.

After casting a silencing spell on the room to make it soundproof, Crow unfolding a scroll which bore the image of a Celestial Guard stallion, his face was young and his fur was white and, like most of Celestia's Royal Guards, was a pegasus. All three examined his features, committing them to memory. The initiate remembered her first lesson on memory. She focused on the little details that distinguished the stallion from the other pegasus guards, most notably the cutie-mark which was a bulwark shield, not commonly used in modern equestrian military due to the heavy weight off-balancing most stallions. Unicorns were the most effective users of such cumbersome shields.

"Our target is Captain Headstrong, he was spotted on his way to Wintertrot by one of our informants." Crow, telekinetically opened a flask he was carrying and took a sip before continuing. "He seeks to rally this city's guard regiment and march them off to die in a fruitless assault against our Queen. These guard ponies would do better serving the Queen alive, protecting this fair city."

"Crow, why not let them die? Surely Queen Moon would be better off without a guard regiment waiting to stab her in the back?"

"The greatest victory, Snowball, is making your enemies realize they were wrong to oppose you. When word reaches Wintertrot of our Queen's inevitable victory, all spirit of rebellion will be crushed and Queen Moon will have a city's guard regiment at her beck and call should she need it." Snowball nodded in agreement.

The initiate watched the two discuss some of the finer details. She stood there, quietly as ever, making mental notes on how they acted towards one another. Crow was all business, while Snowball always seemed to be making an effort to get Crow to let her scout out the captain's location.

Cold moonlight pierced the cloud cover over Wintertrot, the intensity indicated it was the new day cycle, casting the city in a ghostly white light. Snow fell lightly, dissolving in puddles or adding to the piles of snowdrift that were carted to a processing plant just outside the city to be converted into drinking water. Captain Headstrong was sleeping in the attic of an old mare's house who had been willing to let him rent it out. The attic was a little chilly but thick insulation in the walls and floor kept the worst of the biting chill outside at bay. He slept in a bed made for a single pony and awoke, as he always did, at precisely six in the morning.

The Captain stretched out and suited up. It had taken him a day to learn the location of the guard house and now that he had rested, he would make his way there. He trotted downstairs, being careful to stay quiet, not wanting to wake the old mare, and quietly left through the front door, pushing her house key back in through the letter box. The chill wind bit into him, but he did his best to ignore it, confident he could reach the guard house undisturbed.

The trek through the dark city was rather depressing. He'd expected to see ponies in fear of the night and staying in doors, instead, he saw an industrious city continuing to work diligently as ever. He spotted a guard pony regulating traffic at an intersection with ponies pulling carts of various goods. It seemed impossible to approach the guard pony, short of flying, due to the shear mass of carts coming and going through the intersection. After unfurling his wings, he flew over to the guard to ask for directions.

The initiate stood by as Snowball paid a colt wrapped in a heavy jacket. They had managed to find a network of runners that delivered messages between various refineries and warehouses, and bribed a few of them to keep an eye out for the Captain. The fruits of a days worth of searching were paying off as he'd been sighted on the way to the local guard station.

Snowball led the initiate through the alleyways, steam rising out of various vents as buildings exuded the excess heat to prevent pressure building up. The alleyways were mildly warmer than the streets and were far quieter as well. Fewer ponies were back here besides those doing their jobs, unloading crates or pulling supply carriages.

Snowball wordlessly began sprinting, her longer legs keeping her further ahead of the initiate as she leapt and used her hooves to do a small trot along a wall, before leaping off and pulling herself onto a fire escape. The initiate rather than waiting for the ladder imitated her and almost fell short, her shorter legs would've caused her to fall if not for the hidden blade presented to her for passing her leap of faith. Using the blade, she levered herself up and followed Snowball who had continued up the fire escape.

They arrived atop the roofs, the winds were biting into their coats as they trudged along the shingles, Snowball creating temporary bridges of magic that allowed them to cross the larger gaps. The wind only made the journey more treacherous as it tried to tease them close to the edge of the magical bridges they had to cross.

Ultimately, they made it to their destination. The initiate spotted a stallion wearing the royal armor and pointed him out to Snowball who grinned and ducked down, extracting a queer piece of finely engraved metal detailed with small flowers and, with a quick flick of her magic, unfolded it to reveal a full longbow. She passed the initiate a spyglass. "Make sure it's him while I line up the shot."

Nodding, the initiate followed the stallion, looking at his flank. She could make out the bulwark shield against the snowfall and nodded again, letting Snowball take the shot. Snowball lined her shot up with the wind patterns so that it would fly in a near straight line. With a twing of the bows line, the bolt shot out in a soft arch before plunging down upon the unsuspecting guard and exploded in a small puff of black smoke as it hit the captain on the left wing. He fell, but not far enough. He managed to land on a rooftop, two blocks away, eliciting a groan of frustration from Snowball . "Of all the rotten luck. He's close to one of the patrol routes Crow warned us about." She carefully folded her bow and packed it away. "I guess we'll have to do this the old fashioned way."

Captain Headstrong felt the arrow pierce his left wing, his flight pattern fumbled, but wasn't irrecoverable. That is until the magical explosive went off. Pain shot through his wing as feathers and flesh fell away. He started to descend, the feeling of butterflies was terrible as the wind began batting him around. Using his now mismatched wings, Headstrong steered himself towards a low, solid rooftop. The snow softened the blow, but he was still winded, his wing ached and his body was chilled by the snow.

Struggling to his hooves, he began making his way over to the first door he saw. It was locked tight from the other side, a key was needed, which only left the fire escape. He started for one when the sound of snow crunching caught his attention. He ducked low as a thin blade knocked his helmet off and set him off balance.

He turned and saw an elegant unicorn wielding a weapon wrapped in a white aura, invisible against the snow. The blade lunged forward and headstrong back stepped and pulled out his own sword parrying the blow. He placed the sword in his mouth and extracted a bulwark shield clipped to his right side and placed it on his right hoof.

The elegant blade rained down quick, successive blows as Headstrong blocked them with his hefty shield and he began to slowly advance. He focused solely on getting close to the unicorn who kept a cheeky smile on her face as she fought. Headstrong was finally within striking distance of the white unicorn and he raised his sword but before he could swing, felt the unicorn exert more force on his blade, dislodging it from his grip, along with her own. Some will say a shield is solely to defend but Headstrong knew that wasn't the case and slammed his shield at the unicorn who erected a small barrier. She was dangerously close to the edge of the rooftops now, and Headstrong saw it would only take one more push.

He attempted to do just that but she was as agile as her thin frame suggested and avoided the shield, sidestepping around him as though they were dancing. Headstrong felt the cold arrow hit the back of his head before he looked up and saw a magnificent metal bow. The assassin had been leading him the whole fight. He fell over the edge but did not hit the ground.

The initiate waited just below the edge on the firm scaffolding being used to replace several broken windows. She watched the fight take place and ducked down once Snowball dodged to the side, or else she would've been seen by the captain. Headstrong fell but the initiate caught him before he could slip away to the streets below. She hoisted him onto her back and made it onto the roof.

Snowball was waiting for her, packing away her weapons and examining the captain's shield. "It's a fine piece. A family emblem engraved here and a stamp certifying it's place of origin as Stalliongrad, two-hundred years ago. Quite marvelous really. I'm sure Tick Tock would love to discuss it's history."

Snowball continued to ramble on as the initiate closed Headstrong's eyes and plucked a bloody feather from his damaged wing and pocketed it as Tick Tock instructed her to do after every kill. They carried the body in a burlap sack as they made their way back to the tavern. It was cleverly concealed by Snowball to look like the initiate was carrying a sack of laundry.

"You were successful I take it?" Crow was sitting in front of the fire, reading an old worn leather bound book. The initiate extracted the feather, which Crow wrapped in his red magic and levitated over to himself. "Very good. Pack your things, we leave tonight."

Snowball walked over to her bed and began packing her saddlebags but the initiate stood still. She'd brought nothing worth packing and merely waited attentively so they could leave.

Editor's Notes: Another chapter filled with fun. Gotta say, I'm lovin' this. Hope all you enjoyed it.

Chapter 3: Battle under the Pale Moonlight

Chapter - Battle Under the Pale Moonlight

"Tick-tock, tick-tock. These barrels of apple cider won't deliver themselves, you know."

Tick Tock finished the letter of apology for accidentally sending three empty barrels of Sweet Apple Acre's apple cider to Craggy's Pub by sending four barrels instead. The barrels being sent were originally old and worn, but a day with his careful hooves had made them look every bit as authentic as any of Sweet Apple Acre's barrels and forging Applejack's handwriting was simple once he'd acquired the original batch of cider to be sent out.

Tick Tock watched the delivery stallion and his two Diamond Dog escorts leave Ponyville and make their way to Wintertrot. The timing of the delivery had to be perfect so he had intentionally booked the delivery pony a room at an inn on the route to Wintertrot so he would arrive on the day before his apprentice and her teachers finished their mission. It would look too suspicious if an honest, hardworking pony like Applejack waited too long to correct a clerical error that could ruin a good day's business for somepony.

Trotting off, Tick Tock entered the Everfree Forest. On this end of the vast expanse of dark trees near Ponyville lived a zebra herbalist who was shunned by the irrational fears of the locals excluding a group of fillies whom Tick Tock actively encouraged to visit her. They'd never learn how to love and tolerate others if all they did was avoid anypony that looked and behaved differently. Tick Tock would never have met Crow if he hadn't been practicing parkour down by the bad side of Manehatten. He smiled fondly at the memory as he made his way into the woods.

He was after a particular plant, considered by many to be a nuisance, named Poison Joke. Pulling out his pruning blade and gardening socks, Tick Tock meticulously cut and harvested his monthly supply of Poison Joke which amounted to roughly two saddlebags full. He had discovered Poison Joke as a colt, when he and his parents were passing through Ponyville, he had run off to play and ate a few petals of the blue flower. Thankfully, despite the plants name, all it does is pull jokes. In his case the joke turned him into a filly as a way of getting back at his father for accusing him off prancing off into the woods like a little school filly skipping through meadows.

Tick Tock had found it to be quite humorous. His mother had always wanted a daughter and for about a year, she found one in Tick Tock. He sighed at the fond memories as he recalled his father trying to best the curse, as he called it, with testosterone injections and, when that failed, as many artifical remedies he could get his hooves on. This had continued for a month until Tick Tock's father finally conceded defeat and, believing that his son-turned-daughter would never be a colt again, tried for a second son. He had no idea what awaited him eleven months later. Ironically, the doctors at Manehatten General Hospital had the answer to Tick Tock's condition. On the day of his sister's birth, he had mentioned to the family doctor that he vaguely remembered eating a blue flower. His father had been sulking in a slight depression since his daughter's birth only to have Tick Tock trot back into their private hospital room a colt again.

Tick Tock put away his gardening tools and made his way out of the Everfree Forest. He had found Poison Joke to be a harmless way to incapacitate ponies or cause distractions. He could create three different capsule strengths, the first was a semi-permanent variety that acted like regular Poison Joke and washed off with some bath salts. The second was a weaker version that lasted an hour or longer, depending on certain variables. The third was kept for practical jokes and training. Nothing showed his assassins were cautious and alert than being ready for a trap at any moment, it was his way of injecting some humor in-between the assassinations, espionage and subterfuge that made up their lives.

It was midnight in the village of Ponyville and, for all intents and purposes, quiet. The moon beams bathed the town in ghostly white light giving the it a certain serene beauty. That is, until the night was disturbed by a panic stricken mare. She was being pursued by a shadow, a shade in the night, that seemed to be following at a much slower pace but never falling too far behind.

The mare ducked around a corner and breathed out. Hearing the hoof steps of her pursuer, she clamped her own hooves over her mouth being careful not to breathe. She saw the shadow as it loomed at the mouth of the alleyway before it appeared to turn away and continue down the larger street. The mare didn't dare breathe until the hoof steps were gone and felt safe. As she breathed out a sigh of relief, the sounds of rushing hoof steps came to her ears and she ducked, attempting to hide, before a massive blade swung around the corner and into the wall where she had been standing, leaving a very fine line across its surface.

"Jill be nimble!"

She fled once more, galloping in the direction of the clock tower.

"Jill be quick!"

She found the door at the base of the tower open and slunk inside.

"Jill jumped over the candlestick!"

The mare climbed the tower stairs. A trap door at the top hung open and she rushed up to it.

"Jill jump high!"

The shadow rushed over to the tower at a gallop.

"Jill jump looooooow!"

He leapt into the air as his wings unfolded and lifted him into the sky. The mare had reached the top and had closed the two trap doors as she had passed them and she was galloping up to the last one when a shadow obscured the small window on her left. She turned and saw a single blood red eye staring at her before it constricted.

"Jill jumped over and burnt her tail!"

She barely dodged his blade as it came through the window. She screamed in fear, fleeing even higher up the tower. She arrived at the top and found a small room filled with photographs of happy pony families littering the walls. The trap door she had come through slammed shut behind her. She turned but saw nopony other than her own shadow dancing on the walls, the only light source were the firefly lamp's hanging around the edges of the room.

"There once was a foal who thought she could fool." A voice spoke out from the dark, filled with glee. "She had others do the deadly deed as she sat back, wishing to succeed."

The menacing colt emerged from the shadows, his body hidden beneath a full robe and hood combo in black and red, his face hidden behind a mask. Half the mask was entirely blank, whilst the other half a disturbing smile that was impossibly huge and a bright red eye that changed size whenever the wearer demanded it.

"I-I ha-have no idea what you mean!" Her voice was quavering at the site of the young colt, with a blade bigger than himself and almost as thick as his small body carried in a sheath on his side.

"Good one. You know what you did, Jillllll." His voice was still cheerful as he stretched out the last syllable.

"My name's not Jill, you have the wrong mare."

"Jill..., Jill..., Jill.... I know that it's not your name but merely the one I've chosen for our little game." The Colt drew his blade, it's edge gleaming in the luminescent light of fireflies. "You see, Jill, you killed each pony on this wall and doomed all these happy families to fall."

The mare shook her head, whimpering. She could vaguely recognize the faces but she couldn't put any names to them.

"This is Summer Spring and he was a guard bound by a ring. You convinced him to try and kill Queen Moon and so sent him to his doom. He and several of his friends in fact, you definitely know how to act. You promised to sleep with a few you horrid shrew."

The colt pointed at another photo "This is Autumn Breeze, brother of Summer Spring who tried to avenge his brother's death. Killed by the Queen's Daughter, Moon Beam, during a failed attack." The colt continued pointing out photos, each name a damning mark against the mare."You had a hand in organizing several attempts on the Queen. You hoped to bring back that aloof Celestia and her damnable sun." The colt no longer spoke in rhymes as contempt crept into his voice.

"C-Celestia is good and pure. She was always good to her subjects..., always willing to listen..., alwa-"

The Colt laughed, a manic laugh, the red eye shrinking and then returning to normal as he stopped.

"Celestia...! Good and kind? It's easy to believe that, isn't it? Nightmare Moon is giving this country a firm hoof of authority. Celestia gave the nobles too much freedom! The nobles had power and wealth they didn't deserve!"

The colt breathed slowly as he raised his sword and slammed it down, using it to propel himself and the blade forward. The mare was backed up against the wall as the blade landed in front of the her. The colt perched atop the blade and used his front hooves to grip the mare's face.

"You're a monster, too cowardly to try and kill Queen Moon yourself but bold enough to send assassins."

The mare tried to escape by biting the colts left fore-leg. He jerked back as she ran around him. A surge of hope flowed through her as the happy pictures on the walls seemed to turn cold and accusative. She managed four steps before the colt lifted the blade and used it's weight to cleave a bloody wound on the mare's back. She gasped as she collapsed forward, losing blood. She felt herself weaken as her blood flowed ceaselessly from the wound.

"I-I only wanted to be a good pony, I was t-trying to do the right thing." The mare mumbled to herself as she began to hallucinate Celestia was before her, a warm smile on her face, calming the mare. As she prepared to fade peacefully, the reality of the situation returned as the blade pierced her stomach from above. Agony and pain filled her and before her eyes she saw the Dark Queen, Nightmare Moon, cackling away.

"Tick-tock, Tick-tock. I must say; your little games are rather time consuming, no?" Tick Tock appeared from the rafters, his sides burdened with two full saddlebags.

"I apologize, master. I felt a simple assassination wasn't enough."

"Indeed... Well, her actions have caused much pain and suffering but you'll have no time for games in our next assignment, Shade. A clean and simple kill is more to my tastes."

"Understood, master. After I clean up..., can we... play?"

Tick Tock sighed. "Tick-tock, Tick-tock. You're gaming time is running out, Shade. We'll play on the way."

Tick Tock stepped out of the carriage. He paid the cab fair and waited along with Shade. The two could be mistaken for father and son at a distance but Shades albino tail and mane would give him away. His mask was packed in his saddlebag revealing a colt with a royal blue coat and a short mane tied back in a ponytail. His eyes were brown like polished oak and he stared ahead undeterred at the lack of anything interesting. They were on the dirt road leading to New Mareland. Tick Tock's face was calm and impassive, he observed a watch with a silver casing and crystal hands waiting for the rest of their meagre strike force.

A half hour passed before three ponies emerged from the Everfree Forest. Crow and Snowball lead the group whilst the initiate followed dutifully.

"Tick-tock, Tick-tock. Impeccable timing my friends." Tick Tock smiled warmly as Crow and the initiate nodded and Snowball gave him a warm smile of her own.

"Are Celestia's foolhardy loyalists on the move Crow?"

The unicorn nodded. "They're on the move, along with twenty Dragons."

Shade whistled.

"That is more than I expected, Crow, thankfully fewer than I thought they'd bring." Tick Tock managed a small smile.

"I'm afraid we have more bad news. A regiment of militia are arriving, led by Lord Rust." Snowball said with a small frown.

Tick Tock was smiling as was Shade. "Tick-tock. Lord Rust, what a wonderful stroke of luck." Crow and Snowball looked at each other confused. "Rust is a old general, too old to be of any practical use in battle, hence why they stuck him with the lightly equipped militia. Hoping he'll get himself killed just getting to the battlefield."

Shade reached into his Saddlebag and pulled on his Mask. "Can I play with him Master?"

Tick Tock shook his head sadly. "Sorry, Shade, not tonight. Lord Rust may be old but he'll likely have brought his own private army. You know how these nobles are. You've got to cut through all that gristle they call nobility to get to the pony..., starting with his troops. We will be intercepting Lord Rust. Preventing him from joining the fray may be the most important thing we can do, without revealing ourselves."

The assassins gathered together as Crow pulled out a map so they could go over the details.

If there was one sad truth in the universe, it's that nobility are twits no better than the ponies below them. Sun Chaser reflected on this as he pulled Rust's carriage. Rust insisted on riding up near the front of the column, which meant his stupid carriage kept dipping into pot holes on the damaged roads. The disused road once ran from New Mareland to Rust's countryside estate.

Lord Rust had logically presumed that any attacking force would take the main road, it would be stealthier and technically deadlier to take this old path. Sun Chaser blessed the fact he was a pegasus as he floated Rusts Carriage over a gap near the edge of the road. They rounded the corner where they would be meeting up with two-hundred and fifty drafted ponies. Instead they found a wall stretching out across the road. Sun Chaser halted, the scene ahead felt dangerous. He could make out two ponies putting the finishing touches on the wall.

"PRIVATE! What seems to be the hold up?" Rusts raspy voice emanated from the carriage in an annoyed tone.

"Sir it seems some civilians or loyalists have set up a wall or barricade across the road.

"Well don't just stand there like a useless foal, take one-hundred ponies and clear that obstruction. Apprehend the scum that built it and kill anypony that tries to stop you."

"Sir, yes sir!"

Sun Chaser saluted smartly and rounded up one-hundred earth ponies to help him take down the wall. Unicorns and pegasi needed to be kept in reserve for the coming battle, The Queen herself was said to have a thirst for battle. Sun Chaser chuckled at the thought of Old Rust trying to take on the alicorn Queen.

The large group approached the wall finding two ponies adding to it's base.

"Cease and desist this instant, this wall of yours is blocking our army."

The smallest Pony, no more than a colt turned to face them wearing what looked like a Nightmare Night costume, complete with a creepy mask."

The colt drew a blade bigger than himself.

"'Welcome to my parlor,' said the spider to the fly~" The colts voice was singsong but sounded ominous through the mask.

"Enough of this foolishness, seize them." Sun Chaser ordered, his regiment moving in, only for a vast shield to spring up and surround them. Outside the dome, Snowball and Crow stood hidden behind the wall.

The group of soldiers were still stunned when Shade and Tick Tock lunged into them. Shade hacked away, like an aggressive berserker, dismembering ponies, while Tick Tock was swift and accurate, piercing lungs, hearts, necks and anything else that would kill quickly with little to no pain. Tick Tock caught a sword blow with his hidden blade and threw a capsule of Poison joke. The clothes and mane of the stallion beside him turned into an exact copy of his own.

Before the unfortunate stallion could respond his friends and fellow soldiers speared him, only for Shade to leap in and hack at the soldiers whose weapons were now stuck in their friend's body. The battle raged on within the dome as Rust impatiently got out of his carriage in full armor. "Stallions, mares, something is wrong, we've been ambushed. Rush forward and shatter that dome before all of our forward party are killed."

The group of three-hundred remaining soldier edged around to the battlefield, the edges of the dome were crimson with blood and behind it stood a looming wall. They began encircling it, the unicorns charging up dispelling magic. The shield wavered under their spells and barrage of swords as the army was able to surge forward. Tick Tock and Shade made their tactical retreat, Crow teleporting them as they allowed the enemy to be demoralized at the sight before them.

The wall wasn't built of rock, stone, brick or magic. It was a grisly edifice, a wall of bodies roughly thirty feet high made of the regiment the militia had expected to meet up with earlier. Around them and underneath their hooves were the bodies of roughly seventy ponies slaughtered by Tick Tock and Shade. Panic began to spread as they realized what a horrid sight they were witnessing. Not even griffons were so callous as to use dead ponies to build a wall. Rust forced his way forward with a grim expression on his face.

"YOU THINK THIS WALL OF MEAT IS GOING TO STOP ME!? DO YOU!? I've got something that'll fix your little wall. Captain Fizzler, send the signal flare." The unicorn nodded as he began charging up his spell. A moment later a red burst of magic soared into the sky and exploded creating a temporary magical beacon.

Shade looked over to Tick Tock, his expression hidden by the mask. "Now?" he asked cautiously.

"Now." Said Tick Tock plainly. They both pushed against the wall feeling it budge as Crow and Snowball joined in. The wall of bodies surged forward burying Lord Rust and any pony unfortunate enough to be too close to the wall, which had been six layers thick.

Around half the ponies had stayed after the wall had fallen forward, perhaps hoping the butchers who had cut so many of them down would be buried beneath it. Sadly for them, Tick Tock and his group emerged unscathed. The initiate stepped out, one of these ponies would be her first kill, it was frightening and parts of her wanted to run, but she had nowhere to go. Tick Tock had rescued her, trusted her, trained her and admittedly changed her and probably not for the better, but definitely for the best. She looked into the sea of confused, scared and angry faces before her, none of them probably wanted to be here in the first place.

As she was choosing her first kill a terrible roar broke the silence. The form of a dragon emerged, it's body was thick with muscle but it was still a youngling compared to older dragons. This one looked younger than the ones she, Crow and Snowball had seen earlier that night. It's scales were bright green and shinier compared to the duller colors of the adults they'd seen.

The dragon roared landing amongst the soldiers, clearly confused as to who it was supposed to fight. Rust must've had some instructions for it, but without him to give any, the dragon was attacking anypony it could reach.

"Kill the dragon, my apprentice." Tick Tock had leaned close to her and whispered.

She nodded and stepped forward intending to use everything she'd learned to kill this beast. It bellowed and let off a gust of thick smoke, it couldn't breathe a lot of fire so she had one advantage at least. She charged forward, the beast not immediately noticing her since her cloak blended so well against the night sky. The dragon spotted her when the gleam of her hidden blade attracted it's eye. It sent down a large claw which she dodged and jumped on top of piercing it right through with the blade, she did it again and again. Before leaping off a small gust of fire had erupted from the enraged dragon.

She observed the battlefield in front of her. The dragon had one non-functional hand but was now breathing fire. She rushed forward again, leading it to attack right when she was actually faking out and going left, it retracted it's arm, but the initiate was behind the beast. She stabbed her blade into the tail, twisting it in at the base of the beasts back. It roared in obvious agony and took to the sky.

She held on as the beast rose higher, and more quickly than any pegasus could, digging in her blade, she felt the dragon even out and used the opportunity to shimmy further up it's back. she reached the base of it's wings and jammed her knife upwards tearing into the soft weak flesh. Realizing she might not be able to kill it solely by stabbing, the initiate reached into her pouches. An assassin uses everything at her disposal, she found a small curved dagger she'd been given by Snowball.

The Dragon began twisting, trying to knock her loose. The wind lashed at her face as the dragon twisted and looped like a common show mare. It's cries of pain being the only indicator of it's unusual predicament. The initiate felt the sweat on her coat crystallize as they went higher still.

Gritting her teeth against the thin air and colder temperature. With the hidden blade anchoring her she used the second knife to slice into the bone and joints of the dragon's left wing. It roared as it lost control of it's wing and began falling down to earth.

The ground was a long way away, and Crow and Snowball combined couldn't reach out with their magic and slow her enough to prevent dying. She looked at the knife and grimaced, an idea popping in her head.

Tick Tock watched the Dragon plummet, it was truly a wonderful sight, a whole wing missing and a fall from such a height was bound to kill it. Sadly his apprentice too. He had seen much promise in her, it was only right that they go to the dragon and make sure it was dead. You didn't kill one of Tick Tock's friends and get away with it. Fire erupted from the dragon as it made a final terrified roar of pain as it slammed into the ground. The landing sending off a small tremor.

The corpse of the green dragon, lay amongst the corpses of trees His apprentice had done a real number on it, it's back was covered in various minor stab wounds and one particularly large one which was probably made when she fell off. The Dragon's back twitched, everypony readied themselves. Instead of an angry Dragon though they saw a mare burst out of the large gash carved down the dragon's back choking for air.

Tick Tock beamed, she'd done better than he could've hoped. He had been sure he'd have to help her kill the dragon. but all her training had served her well.

"My apprentice, you are truly full of surprises." Tick Tock smiled and helped her out.

"My name... is Dagger." She held the small blade above her head proudly.

Chapter 4: Observer Effect & Darkness Within

Chapter 4 - Observer Effect and Darkness Within

The Moonlight shone upon a mountainside road that was in a state of disrepair, the sides of the road led down into a valley and was covered in a thick forest of pine, elm and oak tree's. The trail itself was an old dirt affaire, wide enough to run a carriage through, though many of the edges of the path had become dangerously unstable.

This particular road ran from New Mareland to Rust County. The road in question was a scene of horror and death that would've pleased the Queen if she knew about it. Blood pooled together in to what could only be described as a sea of crimson flowing over the edges of the mountain path. The metallic smell of blood drew the attention of predators and scavengers, in particular a pack of timber wolves which began to gorge on a few of the corpses littering the road.

A particularly dense pile of corpses stirred as a hoof broke through the mass of tangled, broken bodies and began to free itself. A second hoof emerged and an aged stallion broke free of the mass of bodies, their cold hoofs and dead eyes all seemed to stare at him with what he almost felt to be blame. He snorted; such thoughts were unbecoming of a commander of ponies, like himself. Judging by the body count he estimated that maybe half of his original force survived. All I have to do is get back to Rust County and I can rebu-

His thoughts were cut off abruptly by a high pitched clanging. His attention focused on a small pegasus wearing an unusual mask, smashing two bloody shields together creating the terrible clanging sound. The timber wolves growled angrily, the sound making them want to flee whilst the blood and pony meat made them want to stay. A fire spell struck one of the wolves, sent by an ash colored unicorn hidden by a frayed, grey cloak. The wolves retreated rather than risk the full wrath of the unicorn mage slinking back into the shadows.

"My, my. Quite a mess we've made." A stallion wearing a deep blue robe said as he stood away from the carnage.

"It seems the worm rotting Equestria has survived and dug it's way out." The gleeful tone of the hovering pegasus colt made Rust bristle with indignation.

"Me, a worm? You would do well to show respect to your betters, whelp." Rusts voice was full of scorn and his disdainful tone made Tick Tock shake his head.

"My apologies, Lord. I was not aware you were worth respect." Tick Tock trotted towards the old stallion glaring at him. "A title and some land gave you power, Rust. Power you abused." Tick Tock was two feet from Lord Rust, who had taken his blade from its sheathe. "That whelp, as you put it, has a personal grudge against you and he isn't the forgiving type." The stallion finished, bringing out a piece of rope from under his cloak.

Rust lunged forward and Tick Tock casually avoided the blade in an almost waltz like motion. Rust struck out again but Tick Tock had already side-stepped behind him. He turned and felt a hoof connect with his face. The old stallion groaned as teeth fell to the ground and he landed in the sea of blood, staining his coat and armor red. Rust rose again on slightly shaky legs and tried to gallop away. The sea of blood boiled around him as tendrils of the sticky liquid rose up and held him in place while Tick Tock calmly tied his arms and legs. Snowball released her magic and the sea of crimson became still once more.

"Sleeeep." Tick Tock said soothingly as he placed a small green capsule beneath Rusts nose and watched the old stallion pass into a dreamless slumber.

"Can I have him later? Can I?" Shade asked, obviously anxious he would miss his chance at revenge.

"Of course you can, Shade, but first we've got to clean up." Tick Tock patted Shade on the head before he turned back to the group.

"We routed and killed any reinforcements the Royal Guard could've hoped for but we can't leave any trace or simply make a group of soldiers vanish. Queen Nightmare would be wasting time searching for a non-existent platoon and commander." Tick Tock explained whilst he allowed Snowball to remove the blood staining his coat and clothes.

"Crow, you and Snowball will remain here and prepare these bodies for transportation, we'll need to spread them out amongst the battlefield after the rest of the Royal Guard army has been destroyed. I will be taking Dagger with me." Shade started hovering over to Rust. "Oh..., and Shade..., do be a good sport and gather together some rain clouds. We need to wash away all this blood." Grumbling, Shade flew off to gather enough clouds together.

"Tick-tock. Crow, if you would be so kind as to transport myself and Miss Dagger as close to New Mareland as you can." He strode over to Dagger and stood beside her as Crow charged his magic.

"Wait" Snowball cantered over and lit up her horn, quickly shrouding Dagger in her magic and stripping away the coat of blood that covered her. "Sorry, Darling. I couldn't bear the thought of you going to New Mareland like that. Speaking of which, maybe we can go shopping there after."

"I'd like that." Dagger said as she smiled sheepishly, looking away to hide her blush. She tactfully decided not to remind Snowball that New Mareland's construction had been halted in response to the Royal Guard and that what had been built was nowhere near complete.

"Tick-tock. If you lovely mares are through now, I'd like to get going. We can't keep treating Crow like a taxi service." Crow nodded and charged his spell again, sending the two ponies across several miles to their desired location.

A great battle raged on as the Queen's forces held back the tide of relentless attackers. A great beast killed attacking pegasi guards, whilst below the Royal Guard had arrows raining down on them from behind the walls. Their dragon allies began breaking down the fairly recent walls, creating the breach needed by the guard to begin fighting the Queen's army.

The Queen herself used her exceptional magic to kill and maim any and all attackers she came across. The Queen perched herself upon the muzzle of a dragon and, with a scathing glare and a black aura sucking in all light embracing her horn, petrified a dragon up to the head and shattered it's body.

Just beyond the edge of the battlefield, a red orb of light appeared, swirling and growing outward as the wind picked up around it before it flashed white and vanished, leaving Tick Tock and Dagger feeling slightly nauseous.

"Take a deep breath, Dagger. Traveling long distance can be quite a strain to the average pony." She took Tick Tock's advice and began breathing heavily. They felt tremors reach them and turned to see chunks of rock falling from the sky in clusters assaulting the exterior of the wall. "Impressive, isn't it?" She nodded dumbly struck by the sheer power of the falling meteorites. "I must admit, I thought Queen Moon had a bigger army. I suppose with more time she could've mustered a better defense force."  Tick Tock lamented. "Still, she seems to be doing fine, a bit of a pyrrhic victory on the Queens side."

They sat there and stared for a while before Tick Tock began to trot towards New Mareland when he felt Dagger bite his tail. Confused he spun around and saw her point upwards. The great spherical Moon burst through the clouds over the battlefield. It's presence crushing and flattening a vast area of land. They watched as enemy pegasi fell, the weight of their wings too great to bear the Moon's gravity and saw armor buckle and bodies snap as ally and enemy alike were wiped out.

Tick Tock whistled as he saw the Moon return to the sky. "I believe it's safe to say our Queen can handle herself." Dagger nodded again. "It seems we aren't needed then. We already took care of their reinforcements. I suppose we could look for survivors but it seems the Queen's might has crushed everything within a small radius of a few miles. Outside and probably inside the walls."

Dagger examined the area, unsure of where they should go. The imperial road, that would link New Mareland with other settlements was still under construction. Everything had to be brought in via sky carriage it seemed.

"Tick-tock. A window of opportunity has presented itself, my dear. Come along Dagger." Dagger complied following her master as they trotted alongside the damaged walls.

The bodies of ponies piled high. The sight would leave a weaker pony in shock but Dagger had already witnessed plenty of death being around Tick Tock and her new friends. I'm glad I wasn't fighting these dragons, she thought idly as Tick Tock stopped at one of the craters. He slid down and approached the broken bodies of two dragons. A small hard object blackened by fire sat at the center of the crater.

Tick Tock poked the blackened rock with a hidden blade, and when it didn't immediately shatter or crumble to dust he scooped it up and placed it in his saddlebag.

"It seems the Queen has rained down a bountiful gift for the daring." Tick Tock climbed out and dusted himself off before continuing his ramble. "Tick-tock, Dagger, gather as many of these blackened stones as you can."

They split off, examining each crater and extracting the small pieces of rock. They were surprisingly heavy, for being so small. Dagger reflected on what it was like falling from such a great height, digging into a dragon's back with a knife was probably number one on insane ways to survive falling from above the cloud line.

She exited the last crater and found Tick Tock had done the same. Their pouches heavy, a brief but bright burst of magical light drew their attention. The front door glowed purple casting vague and confusing shadows. Tick Tock was already galloping towards the gate, Dagger close behind.

They arrived to see a lavender mare standing over the body of a lime green mare who could almost be mistaken for an older filly. They both watched and realized they were out in the open, moving quietly they edged up to the wall of the castle beneath some scaffolding. Tick Tock ran up the wall, turned and leapt, landing softly on a higher platform of the scaffold. He walked up a small board being used as stairs to the higher level and felt Dagger land softly on the scaffolding behind him. They watched and listened, hidden above the ponies.

The green mare up at the lavender, the knife still sticking out of her stomach, and pleaded. "Please... I don't want to die... I'm sorry. I-I'm s-sorry..."

"No. You toyed with my feelings... I won't save you." The lavender mare's voice was cold and uncaring, not too dissimilar to Nightmare Moon's.

"B-but... you'll be... just like... her...!" Desperation filled the lime green mare's voice as she felt the warmth continue to drain from her body with each once of blood that poured from her gut.

The lavender mare's countenance broke for a moment as if only now realizing the implications of what she was doing, but her features hardened once more. She stared into the dying pony's eyes and smiled. "If it means that Nightmare Moon won't hate me..." Her voice softened. "Then so be it."

The green mare coughed, blood splattering to add to the puddle beneath her. "I always knew... that you'd side with that... monster...." She hissed at the unicorn. "If Celestia were here..., she would..." her final words were lost as the life faded from her.

"But she isn't," the lavender mare said sadly, "nor will she likely ever be anymore...." she turned away and left the body cold and alone on the cobbled ground and trotted up to the sleeping form of a black filly. She smiled warmly and levitated the foal onto her back, kissing her below her horn. "At least I have you two...."

Tick Tock watched the Queen walk over and converse with the unicorn and saw the lavender mare incinerate the corpse of the green one with barely any hesitation.

My, my. It seems the queen has a lover... or perhaps a devoted follower? I'll need to place that mare under my watch. Tick Tock's thoughts were interrupted by the Queen slamming the castle door.

"That was a close one Dagger, we failed our duty tonight. The Queen was almost killed whilst I had us looting the battlefield." Tick Tock shuddered a little, angry at his failure.

"It was nopony's fault." Daggers voice was full of conviction as she looked at Tick Tock. "Mistakes happen. Learn from your mistake... as you're so fond of telling me."

The stallion nodded, grinning at a sea of new ideas brimming in his head. "Come along Dagger, I've got a lot to think about, and this night has been... exhausting."

They prepared to make their way off of the scaffolding when a bright flash caught their attention. It burned like a magic flare, but stuttered out fairly quickly.

"It seems somepony is alive down there." Dagger observed as they began making their way down the scaffolding.

"Tick-tock. Indeed my apprentice, we should investigate. The chances of them lasting long are slim." The two assassins cantered down to where they had seen the flash.

Shade was soaring through the empty sky, a lot of the cloud cover was hovering over New Mareland and it was very far away. Fortunately for Shade he'd found some in the direction Rusts army had come from. He could see them scurrying back to their homesteads and villages. They were never soldiers, never really a threat to them at all.

As he flew, he saw the hated edifice of Lord Rusts estate. It was a beautiful villa, built in the same fashion as the many buildings of Canterlot. Posh and impractical. To him it was almost a blight upon the land, the memories he had of that place. Shade remembered that he had a play date with Lord Rust. He smiled at the idea, pushing back his bad memories as he realized their was a loose end. Lady Rust.

Kill her! Kill the stupid mule! She's as responsible as that old Lord Rust.

I agree. I've clearly got plans for Rust so she is merely a liability. One problem in the grand scheme of things.

Shade scouted out the estate. None of the guards Rust had taken with him had returned, he likely expected to be back the day after the battle.

Oh, how Lady Rust would weep.

Yesss. Make her weeeep.

Kill her neatly. You've got Rust to play with, remember that.

Shade hovered by the windows for a while, looking for a quiet way in. His chance came when a servant opened a window to cool down the kitchen. Slipping inside, Shade ducked behind a barrel of vinegar and pulled on his mask.

He would be Lady Rusts end.

He slipped quietly along the walls and made his way through the villa. He remembered his father coming here so long ago. How he pleaded and begged for help, only to be turned away, Lady Rust's impassive face as damning as her husband's.

He eventually stumbled onto the bedroom of the Rusts. He could see the expensive double bed she shared with her husband, with it's lilac coverings. Steam rose from under the only other door in the room. Shade floated over quietly and opened the door ever so slightly, noticing the tiled flooring of the bathroom. The sound of Lady Rust in the shower sent another painful memory lurching into his mind; having to bath in ponds and rivers, as he and his parents wandered in their search for work. He drew his blade, and let Lady Rust hear the door click shut.

"Is someone there? If it's the towel boy, leave it by the door." Lady Rusts voice was high pitched, filled with authority.

Shade grinned under the mask "Itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the water spout." Shade took a step forward, stamping his hoof letting the sound of his hoof-step reverberate off the tiled floor and walls. "Down came the rain and washed poor Itsy out,"

"Who's out there? I demand to know this instant." Her voice shrilled angrily as she reached to turn off the stream of water.

"Out came the sun, that dried poor Itsy out." Shade's hoof stamped again. Closing the distance. "Now poor Itsy's dead, bled dry in the drought." Lady Rust pulled back the shower curtain to see Shade, stained in blood. "This is for poor Itsssy!" Shade's voice was a growl as he lunged forward, bucking Lady Rust. She twisted back as Shade flew over her and spun his body to make a clean cut to the back of her hind legs. He steadied himself, hovering over the broken mare.

Lady Rust couldn't move, her hind legs were paralyzed. She tried to make them move, but nothing would happen. Instead, she tried to crawl to the door and shout for help.

"YOU DON'T GET TO CALL FOR HELP!" Shades voice came out as a shout but sounded like a growl as he clamped a hoof over Lady Rust's mouth. "Itsy didn't get that chance." Shade drew his blade across Lady Rusts fore-hooves, slashing them. "Oh, I know you won't have much time left." Shade cooed, "Your old and you're losing blood." Shade leapt off Lady Rust, watching the deep cuts he made leak arterial blood into the shower floor.

"So to sooth your passing, know that I have Lord Rust and he's going to suffer even worse." Shade paused a moment in consideration, tapping a hoof to his chin. "I'd ask you to thank me, but then you wouldn't be able to appreciate what I'm doing. Wait here." Shade hovered away as Lady Rust lay in the shower, unable to move. He returned a minute later with a small knife in his hooves.

"I never figured Rust, to be the sentimental type." Shade examined the knife he was holding. "Your lovely name etched into a fine blade hidden beneath the bed. I'd never have noticed if not for the wonderful moonlight. So sad you took your own life, hidden away in the shower as you slit your wrists. A peaceful way to go, if also painful." Shade glared into her eyes a moment and then floated down to her, placing the knife by her side, after slitting her fore hooves with it. "Sadly, you won't get to drift off peacefully. You'll be painfully aware of your approaching death."

Shade turned on the shower at it's hottest setting, letting a stream of steamy hot water, grow scolding hot.

Lady Rust whimpered weakly as Shade exited, careful to ensure he left no trace of himself. Wiping the floor of his hoof prints and making sure, none of his feathers fell out. Shade worked his way back to the kitchen fifteen minutes later, making sure Lady Rust was dead and took off into the night.

Author's Notes: Changed this chapter. Added a reference to Rebelfire's character and added a segment involving Shade and a target of opportunity, Lady Rust.

Editor's Notes: Sorry, sorry. A bit late with this one. Just know that I'll be shifting my duties as editor higher up my list of priorities.

Chapter 5: Stories within the Story

Chapter 5 - Stories Within the Story

The warmer-than-usual Moon beams cast a silvery thread of light across a soft, carpeted floor. The light continued up to a bed were a sleeping mare rested, her chest rising softly as she slept. She would probably have slept for another hour if not for the arrival of a snow white mare.

The door to the room opened softly as the white mare entered. She smiled sympathetically when she saw the other mare still asleep and ignited her horn. Her horn set the fireplace ablaze, immediately brightening the room. It was carpeted with a cream beige carpet and the walls had soft wallpaper with floral patterns running up it. The fire's glow almost seemed to make the flowers dance and flicker.

The white mare shook the sleeping pony gently, a soft moan escaping the sleeping pony as she tried to bat away the intrusive hoof shaking her awake. Giggling at the sleeping mare, the white mare levitated the covers off, or tried to. The sleeping mare had a tight grip on the covers and levitated up with them before she slipped off and landed on the bed again.

The now awake mare rolled over and faced her white friend. "Snowball! I'm still sore from last night." The mare in the bed moaned. "Give me back the covers, they're still warm."

"Now now, Dagger. I can't let you sleep all day... or should that be night? It's half past eight darling, breakfast is being put out now."

The exhausted mare sighed in defeat as she reluctantly exited the bed. Snowball lowered the covers and tucked them in at the sides, and then ignited her horn once more as Dagger tried to leap back in to bed. Wrapped in a magical light, Dagger was levitated out the room by the cheerful Snowball.

Tick Tock watched an amused expression spread across his face as Dagger was carried by Snowball down to the dining room. He was happy to see them both getting on so well. Admittedly, Shade tended to avoid them, but he was always shy around mare's. Unless they were a part of one of his 'special games'. Shaking off that train of thought he returned to his private study.

The Study was a mix of library, sitting room, games room and miniature chemistry set. The left wall was lined solely with bookshelves, sorted by category and then alphabetically. The right wall had three comfy armchairs sitting in front of a cosy fire, and a writing desk set further against the wall, away from the fireplace.

The room was windowless and lit by a bright chandelier set in the middle of the roof and the crackling fireplace. Above it ran a trap door mechanism that could be opened and closed via a winch built into the right wall. The roof would open up to reveal a skylight which Tick Tock would sometimes star gaze out of on quiet nights, when he didn't have something more pressing or desirable to do.

They had finished their clean up operation after working diligently all night and the day after. He himself had to cart several cart loads of corpses along with Dagger. They had to leave the dragon's corpse, it's size and weight made it difficult to move and it's presence at the battlefield would have raised some questions since an extra dragon corpse simply doesn't show up overnight.

Tick Tock walked over to his chemical lab. He didn't handle anything fatal in this small lab, but rather devoted it to make his less lethal concoctions. Like sleeping and Poison Joke capsules. He also made liquid rainbow, the substance used by pegasi to create the fantastic arcs of light. He reflected sadly that the pegasi hadn't managed to create a brighter rainbow to shine against the darker skies.

He lit the bunsen-burner on his chemistry set and allowed it to boil some purified water. While he waited, he extracted a small vial of liquid rainbow and poured it into a mug. The liquid sat there while he spooned two teaspoons of white granulated sugar into it. The substance bubbled as it dissolved the sugar, a small cloud of steam rising. Tick Tock then placed a small sieve above the mug and added some coffee beans to the now boiling water tumbler and lifted it with a pair of tongs. The water boiled and churned the beans turning it into a near pitch black substance and poured it through the sieve filling the cup.

The Cup boiled and frothed at the foreign substance as coffee and rainbow blended together. Tick Tock stirred the cup and reached into a small cooler under the table and added an ice cube to the mixture, allowing it to slowly melt away before drinking.

"You left your newspaper at the breakfast table."

Tick Tock turned as Crow entered levitating a newspaper and a tray with two cups and a small teapot on it and a plate of muffins. Tick Tock took in the familiar scent of the muffins smiling.

"Ah! Muffins, Miss Doo's finest. You know me so well, Crow." Tick Tock practically glided over to the unicorn and took a muffin from the small plate he was levitating. Crow sighed and walked over to the cushy chairs placing the muffins on a table between the chairs and sat down, sinking into one of their comfortable embraces.

Tick Tock joined him carrying his special blend of coffee. He placed it on the table as Crow levitated the newspaper over to him.

"It seems a certain Earth Pony is pursuing information on our Queen and her... companion." Crow said the last word looking to see Tick Tock nod, allowing him to continue. "I think we should follow him. I'm certain he'd be good practice for Dagger." Tick Tock nodded again and continued to read the paper intently.

They both sat in silence and enjoyed their refreshments. The clock above the fireplace announced it was now two hours before noon and Crow decided he had to prepare for tonight's festivities.

"I thought I should let you know..." Tick Tock began, Crow turned to face him worry on his face. "...that Lady Centennial will be attending the Queen's court alongside Lord Rust."

"She... she won't put us through another nine months of hell, will she?" Said Crow, his voice a desperate plea.

"Oh, I can assure you she'll do no such thing. In fact, I arranged for her to accompany Snowball and Dagger today."

Crow nearly fainted as Tick Tock rushed over and caught his shaky friend. "Don't worry. You get to stay here and prepare Lord Rust. He'll need to be there by the morrow."

Crow nodded walking off with unsteady legs. Tick Tock grinned and made his way over to the chemistry table.

Dagger felt herself be gently let down by Snowball as they entered the dining room. It was a decent sized room, with a table large enough to sit eight ponies and a divide in the middle where another section could be slotted to seat another four. The table had a freshly made stack of warm pancakes, sitting alongside a bowl of scrambled egg and a jug of orange juice. A small stack of toast was also there and spare plates were on the table so they could help themselves to what they wanted.

Crow was sitting at the table, his hood off revealing his scarlet red mane and a silver stud in his left ear. He was busy reading a newspaper, and waved at them absentmindedly. Snowball sat away from Crow leaving him in peace to read, Dagger hopped up in the chair besides her, their different heights almost made them look like an older and younger sister. Snowball levitated the orange juice over and poured two glasses, whilst Dagger used a fork to spear and dish out some pancakes.

Snowball levitated the syrup over to them and applied a small amount on her own pancakes, Dagger applied a much more generous dollop and dug into her food. They ate in silence for a bit until Dagger went for a second and then a third helping of pancakes.

"Dagger dear, you really shouldn't eat all that sugar. You'll get fat and in our line of work, that's bad." Dagger gave Snowball a curious look and simply shrugged, unsure of what she should say. She ate some more and then reached for the scrambled eggs. "Dagger, you'll be working in the gym all day to work off all that fat." Dagger actually laughed imagining herself running until she was as thin and agile as Snowball, she'd look more like a filly than a mare if she followed Snowball's diet.

"Snowball, if I was on your diet, I would lose this fantastic flank of mine." Snowball blushed eliciting a small chuckle from Crow. "Besides, I have a high metabolism, always have. Our regular workout routine will burn off all that fat."

A small ringing sound broke the silence before Snowball could and they watched Crow rush off. A minute later he returned with a basket of muffins slightly steamed under a plastic cover. Crow peeled it off magically and loaded several muffins onto a spare plate and wrapped up the newspaper in his magical aura. Excusing himself to bring Tick Tock this morning's newspaper.

"So, how bout that workout?" Dagger asked smiling.

The Gym was not any sort of gym you would see in a regular home. An indoor archery range existed so anypony could practice with ranged weaponry like throwing knives or bows. Exercise equipment for flexing and training various muscles including pegasi wings were lined up against the walls.

An obstacle course took up half the room, designed to test how well they managed to keep their balance and poise, their were fans that would simulate strong winds or even gale force wind. And there was also a climbing wall and a zip line. Then there was the short pool you had to swim across and the barrels you had to weave in between.

Dagger and Snowball were currently on their seventh lap of the obstacle course, neither one willing to call it quits. It had become a friendly competition after Snowball upstaged Dagger with her superior marksmanship to one up her after Dagger had easily lifted a set of weights with her tail that snowball struggled to lift with her whole body.

Panting heavily, Snowball looked over at Dagger as they ran along the thin walkways with the fans streaming air at them, trying to edge them into the nets below. "Getting tired yet?" Dagger asked a grin spreading along her face, obviously noticing how tired Snowball was.

"I must admit... Dagger..., you have a *pant* lot of stamina for being... so small" She stopped after they finished their eighth lap and accepted a glass of water offered to her and sat down on a soft beanbag chair, Dagger sitting on the one next to it.

"You know it's just occurred to me-" Snowball sipped her drink as she listened. "-that we don't have any transport." Snowball gave her a confused look. "I mean I know we could walk, but we're miles outside any city. And Crow's busy today, he said something about Rust last night when we were unloading the last of the bodies." Dagger finished and took a big drink of her own glass of water.

"Well..., Tick Tock is no mage, and I'm not very good at teleporting, especially long distance. So that just leaves one pony...." She looked at Dagger, a small smile playing across her face.

"Shade." They said in unison.

Shade floated over his creation, admiring his work. He'd been adding to it for a day now and he had to admit it was shaping up rather nicely. Shade floated outside a firm wooden structure shaped like a simple box. It wasn't finished by a long shot, he still had to add the interior, and floors. But when he did, oh how he'd have such fun with old Lord Rust. Shade was making a checklist of missing supplies when he heard the two mares approaching.

"Shaaade." They said in unison, causing him to blush and hide his face behind his checklist.

"G-good morning." He said. "What can I-I do f-for you?"  He saw Dagger whisper something to Snowball before she answered.

"Shade dear, you know I've been dying to go and see New Mareland's shops and facilities yes?" Shade recalled hearing some mention of it, but he'd been fixated on his latest game of Casualty with Crow to pay too much attention. He shrugged and nodded unsure of what to say.

"Well, it turns out New Mareland isn't exactly up to standards at the moment, all that repair work that needs done. We were wondering if you could pull the sky carriage and take us to Ponyville instead." Dagger and Snowball gave him a pair of pleading puppy dog eyes, the combined assault of cute was overloading. He nodded eliciting a cheer from the mares as they cantered off he paused to remember his last time there.

He'd had such fun, and hadn't there been a hardware store somewhere? He was sure he could acquire what he needed to finish his project. He flew back to the house with renewed vigor. He had to ask Tick Tock for some spending money.

Snowball was brimming with pride. Dagger had shown she could pull off the puppy dog eyes, and she'd done it well. She even got the lip pout just right. Though she missed the small lip wobble, that added the illusion of heart break, but only a master of begging and whining like herself would notice.

The two mares re-entered the house to find a mare that just oozed beauty waiting there. Her coat was a rich gold, that seemed to be somewhat dulled, her mane was a soft silver and her hooves were painted a glittery white. She beamed at the arriving mares and trotted forward, Snowball drew her blade and Dagger brought out her hidden blade. The mare, unfazed by the weapons, smiled softly.

"Ahhh, you dears must be Snowball and Dagger. A pleasure to meet you both. I'm Centennial Clock but I'm called Lady Centennial by everyone. She extended a hoof, Dagger noted it had a bracer like her own on it. "Dear me, didn't Tick Tock tell you I was coming? He personally asked me to go with you, he had an errand to run. But said he told Crow to let you know."

Snowball and Dagger relaxed but kept their weapons ready. "Ah, yes. Tick Tock wanted you to have these...." Lady Centennial reached into the saddlebag she wore and brought out two bags of coins. "One for you" She handed Snowball a bag. "And one for you too." Dagger took the second bag.

"I'll wait here with Dagger then shall I? Whilst you go off and check my story with Crow." The Golden Mare trotted away and sat down on a soft seat waiting. Dagger and Snowball had a brief whispered discussion and split. Dagger stayed with Lady Centennial, whilst Snowball ran up to Crow's library.

The Library was chock full of books. Crow a firm believer in preserving the written word, had made copies of rarer books he found and did his best to preserve them. Thus, if Crow borrowed a book from a library he would make a detailed, and sometimes revised, copy of the book. The library was also where he enjoyed playing Casualty or Chess with Tick Tock or Shade. All the walls were lined with books, Crow even had a smaller library under a trap door where he stored more dangerous tomes and books.

"Crow! You buzzard, where are you?" Snowball called out whilst scanning the shelf's for him. A sigh emanated and she turned to see Crow on a bookshelf built over the door.

"Yes, Snowball? How can this humble magician help you today?" He slid down a ladder beside the door and trotted over to her.

"Crow dear, sorry to bother you. I realize you're busy and all." Crow nodded and waited patiently for her to continue. "Do you know that golden mare in the hall? She said her name was Lady Centennial." Crow sighed exasperated.

"Yes, Snowball. I know that lady. She's... a friend of Tick Tock's. I'm meeting her later tonight for a mission actually." Snowball nodded a relieved smile broke across her face.

"Thank you dear, I won't keep you from your work any longer." Snowball left humming to herself. As she left Crow walked over to a small cabinet and took out a small bottle of amber whiskey, courtesy of Lord Rust and downed a quick shot. He shuddered a moment and then locked the library door.

Sure that everyone was leaving, Crow began the first stages of his spell, it was complicated work. The spell had a timer and he had to work to extend it and be able to dispel it himself, and quickly. Gritting his teeth, his horn glowed bathing the room in his red magical aura.

Shade gleefully pulled the sky carriage up to the front door. He was excited to begin shopping for supplies and waited impatiently, his hoofs practically dancing as he stood in place. He heard the front door open and turned to see three mares exiting, talking idly. He groaned mentally, the extra mare would mean he would be unable to carry back more supplies.

He felt the three mares enter the carriage and he began to pull, and felt the door to the carriage click shut. He made sure he was strapped in properly and began building up some speed. They went by ground for five minutes until Shade felt confident enough that the momentum built up would help him lift the carriage and proceeded to ascend. The carriage rose up a little unsteady, as one might expect, having one pegasi colt pulling a carriage carrying three young adult mares.

Shade evened out the carriage and started heading towards Ponyville. His mind focused on his checklist. He went over the details, and then started to factor in travel time between Ponyville and Tick Tock's safe house manor. It would probably be around an hour of travel to get to Ponyville and an hour back. If he wished to make good time and be able to pick up the mares again without Tick Tock scolding him, then he'd have to be as his Master would say 'Tick-tock quick and accurate.'

The sky carriage set down just along the side of the gingerbread themed Sugar Cube Corner. Shade pulled the carriage behind one of the nearby, thatched roof houses and waited for the three Mares to exit the carriage. Once they exited the carriage, Snowball lit up her horn and pulled the Carriage's cover out from the small storage compartment on the floor. Concealing it.

"Snowball dear, I've heard Tick Tock rave about your magical prowess." Snowball waved her hoof at the compliment. "And I heard you cast a particularly effective 'Who's that?' Spell." Lady Centennial finished

"Well of course I'm good with that spell, I need to be."

"Excellent, well it seems to me that you have to cast that spell on yourselves. Can't have anyone in Ponyville remember your beautiful face, or they might start wondering what you're doing here." Lady Centennial winked and began to trot away.

"Why don't you need the spell?" Dagger asked, a slightly accusative tone in her voice.

Lady Centennial laughed softly before looking back. "Because dear, I'm expected to pass through Ponyville. It'll be odd if no one remembers me passing through."

The golden mare strutted over to the edge of the houses keeping a lookout whilst Snowball's white magical aura flared up and engulfed herself, Dagger and Shade.

The golden mare walked back over with a small bag of coins in her mouth and tossed them at Shade. "For you Shade. Tick Tock apologizes for not giving you your allowance earlier."

Shade gripped the bag and slid it into a small side pouch he wore under his left wing and proceeded to take his cloak out of the same pouch and wrap it around him, hiding his sword and wings.

Shade mumbled something that resembled a 'thank you', before he flew off as the golden mare smiled warmly after him.

"He's a nice little gentlecolt, no?" Snowball and Dagger nodded watching the pegasi fly off over the town.

"Right. Ladies, I believe we have an appointment. A spa appointment." Snowball hopped a little excitedly at her own announcement, whilst Dagger dragged her hooves uncomfortably. Lady Centennial chuckled as they trotted off to their spa date.

An elderly stallion lay in a dimly lit room. The room was unusual in that the floor felt soft and lumpy. The elderly Stallion examined the room and found the walls too were padded, knitted into tight square formations that covered the walls and ceiling. A dim light came from the door which was padded on the inside, with a small window allowing light to leak in and illuminate the room.

The elderly stallion was starved and his mouth was a mess. He could feel various missing teeth, where their had been perfectly healthy ones only a few days ago. His front left leg also hurt, and continued to trouble him as he made his way over to the door and climbed up on his hind legs to look out.

The corridor outside the room was very regal, with paintings of watercolor landscapes lining the wall and a intricately detailed carpet stretching off past his point of view. The stallion pounded against the door and began trying to buck it down. The door's padding absorbed the force of his blows and since he was no unicorn, ripping it off the hinges was a no-go.  Sighing in defeat he tried calling out for aid, he heard hoof steps coming down the hall, he looked out hopefully only to see one of his tormenters. A grey black stallion with a scarlet mane and a ragged cloak draped over him.

The pony wrapped him in his magic and pushed him away from the door as it swung open. "Ah, Lord Rust. I have business with you." Crow said with a calm expression on his face as he closed the door behind him.

"You may have me now, stallion, but someone will come looking for me. And when they do I can assure you, your little group of psychopaths and misfits aren't going to-" He was cut off by Crow's magic choking and lifting him off the floor. Crow had a bored expression on his face, like he was looking at a bowl of porridge.

"You talk too much." Crow stated, walking towards Rust as he levitated a strange contraption out of his saddlebags. "And I don't need your empty words, land or title." The device he levitated out of his saddlebags had a small needle which Crow brought down into a vein in Rust's left hoof. "Because your giving all that to Queen Moon." The Old Stallion tried to resist as Crow calmly began drawing blood. "Now how much blood can I draw before you pass out?"

Shade exited the hardware store, flipping the sign closed as he left. He'd been able to acquire everything he'd wanted from here. He thought back on his frustrating effort to buy his supplies. Buy nails? No problem. Buy planks of wood? No problem. Buy plaster and window panes oh no problem at all little colt, building a clubhouse are we? Eh? What's that? you want seven hundred and fifty stanley blade replacements? oh no can do son, those are dangerous.

Shade covered his purchase under a tarp he acquired in store and left the money for the supplies. It was a bit extravagant but Lord Rust was a special playmate and he had a personal grudge with the stallion. He pondered whether or not he could make it back to his masters home and drop off his supplies when four fillies began trotting over to him. One was a yellow earth pony, another an orange pegasi, the third was a white unicorn and the fourth a grey one.

"Hi there, you need any help? That looks awful heavy?" The white unicorn filly asked.

"Um... N-no that's fine. I got it." Shade began to pull the small cart with more vigor only to pull himself loose. It seemed he would need assistance. "Uh... Actually, can you help me with this?" Shade asked the orange filly. "I just need someone to help me fly it over to my place."

"Oooh sorry. I can't fly yet." Shade paused a moment. Surely a filly her age could fly by now?

He turned and walked over to her, and began examining her wings much to the orange filly's annoyance she pulled away as Shade started stretching them out.

"HEY! Leave Scootaloo's wing alone. Yer being awful invasive." The yellow filly scolded.

Shade raised his eyebrow inquisitively trying to figure out what Tick Tock would do.

Tick-tock, tick-tock. Shade, ask her if she'd like to learn to fly. The conversation's getting awkward.

Mustering his courage, Shade managed to speak. "I-I'm sorry about that. Your wings looked strong enough, I thought you might have been lying."

Scootaloo looked aghast at his accusation. Shade sighed, it always ended up like this when he spoke his mind. He turned and started walking back to the cart.

"H-hey, you don't have a cutie-mark, do you?" The orange Filly asked trotting over and lifting his cloak. "Yep! Blank-flank." Shade scowled until the filly patted him on the back. "Same as us." Shade's angry thoughts stilled, The same as them? In a weird way he was, if only because of something minor like missing a cutie-mark.

"You wanna come Crusadin with us later?" The yellow filly asked.

"What is... crusading?" Shade had heard of crusades and could hardly imagine these three fillies doing something as violent as wage war against ponies and others.

"Oh, crusading's the best thing ever. We're all trying to find our cutie-marks for we are..." The orange filly paused before shouting out in unison with her three friends. "THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS"

Shade covered his ears at the sudden outburst. He could use these fillies to help him get his supplies back home and be back before the three mares he brought here were done. By the time he was back, they might be finished and he could escape the three fillies and make it back home.

"Have you four thought about being delivery drivers?" Shade asked, putting as much curious naivety into his voice as possible.

"Well, we did try to do mom's job once." Said the up to now silent grey unicorn. "But we promised my Mom we wouldn't do that again unless she went with us."

"Well, this delivery is very straight forward. All we need to do is pull my carriage back to my house. And then best of all I can fly us all back once it's unloaded." Shade waited for the fillies response and was happy to see them hooking themselves up to the harness. He hooked himself in and they began pulling the sky carriage away.

The four fillies eagerly called out their continually changing catch-phrase. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DELIVERY SERVICE!" As they all galloped out of town.

If somepony had told Dagger that a mare stepping on her back would help her relax and work out the kinks in her muscles, she'd have told them they were crazy. She lay there on a massage table alongside Lady Centennial, who preferred Lady C. for short, and Snowball. All three were wearing facial masks, the green material clinging to their skin and fur removing impurities.

Dagger sighed happily as her masseur Aloe, now off her back was working on the kinks on her shoulders. "So, Snowy. How often do you pay the spas a visit?"  Lady C. asked politely. "Oh, all the time Darling, I've been to one's in Manehatten, Trottingham, Las Neighas..."

Snowball prattled on whilst Dagger tried to sneak a quick nap in, she was a little drowsy from the massage and felt a quick doze wouldn't go amiss. She relaxed her eyes and felt them drift close, greeting the darkness behind her eyes. "Eeeep" Dagger squeaked and leapt off the table after the spa pony had pressed in on a muscle on her flank.

"Oh my, are you all right darling? Did that masseur do something wrong." Snowball's horn light up a little in warning as she glanced at the blushing spa pony, standing at Dagger's table embarrassed. Dagger sat on the floor refusing to move until Snowball and Lady C. were finished. A different masseur removed Daggers skin mask, and applied a moisturizing agent.

The three mare's left the spa an hour later, the owner continuing to utter apologies as they trotted out.

"I must say I do feel better after that" Exclaimed Lady C. "All I need to do now is get fitted for a dress. Would you both like to come with me?" Dagger touched a hoof to her chin in thought but decided to wait and see what Snowball would do. To her relief Snowball smiled but shook her head.

"Thanks for the offer Lady C. but I think I'll take Dagger and go get something for lunch." Lady C. actually grinned as she sauntered off calling back to them as she left.

"Tick-tock. Ladies, I understand. I have a few appointments to keep, don't let me hold you back." Dagger froze for a moment a terrible possibility forming in her head as she replayed those last words in her head. Oh Please don't let it be what I think it is... Dagger's thoughts trailed off as Snowball led her away, heading towards a small cafe."

Crow made one more sweep of the house, ensuring everything was locked up tight before he departed. It would take several minor teleportation jumps to reach the edge of New Mareland and from there he would cautiously approach the city in time for the Royal Court with Lady Centennial.

He carried nothing but essentials: a sack of bits, the documents Tick Tock asked him to bring, and the cloak on his back. He entered the kitchen and inspected the broth he was cooking. He had been cooking it in the pressure cooker and levitated the lid back on, and turned down the heat. The broth would require precise heating and cooking time to cook properly and release it's full flavor. As his old cooking instructor would say, 'To harness the taste of food, you must understand the ingredient's mind.' His teacher's lesson had always been both practical and philosophical, which is probably why he cooked so well.

Crow left a note on the kitchen door, and one on the fridge giving exact instructions of when and how to take the broth off the cooker. Any deviation could cause the recipe to burn or turn sour. The last of the doors now secure, Crow made his way down the path intending to teleport, when he spotted the sky carriage Tick Tock had gotten a while back loaded with supplies. He was expecting Dagger and Snowball but instead found Shade... with foals his own age.

It was such a strange sight, Shade was actually smiling, in an innocent colt way and not the eager to learn or competitive smiles he had during lessons or games of chess and casualty. It was a nice break from the smiles of murderous intent he had whenever he was out by himself. Crow flared up his horn and began his first teleportation spell, Tick Tock would be happy to hear about Shade socializing with Fillies his own age.

If he didn't know already.

Author's Notes: I wanted to do more with the Spa but I couldn't think of anything. So I left it short, but I might play it up for some cheap laughs later in that flashback chapter I plan on doing. This chapter is really long, longer than I originally intended. It's gotten so long and chock full of little stories that I need to take a bit of a breather. I'll be staring work on Chapter 6 later tonight and pull all these stories together again.

Editor's Notes: Yay!

Chapter 6: Doctors, Politicians and Assassins

Chapter 6 - Doctors, Politicians and Assassins

Six Hours After The Battle Of New Mareland

Two stallions stood over an operating table, before them was a bleeding mess of a stallion. The stallion had a silver coat and an orange mane that almost looked like it was burning. Both were stained with blood, his wings were ruined and his hind-legs crippled. The two stallions standing over him were talking.

"Can anything be done for him, doctor?" Tick Tock was anxious, something was important about this stallion, he just knew it.

The other stallion tittered as he examined the wreck of a stallion before him. "Dear oh dear.... What a mess you've brought me. I prefer working on whole ponies you know." The doctor finished his sentence in a whimsical tone. "But there's potential here, oh yes, so much potential. A body so utterly destroyed is in need of replacement parts."

"What are the extent of his injuries, doctor?"

The doctor stallion paused lifting a checklist he had with his claw. "The patient has two permanently disfigured hind-legs, a pair of broken wings, a collapsed lung, multiple skeletal fractures, a severe loss of blood and various other problems his current body will continue to plague him with for some time."

Tick Tock looked at the stallion on the table, he knew this individual was important but it was doubtful he'd survive any normal form of surgery. Then again, he had a very creative surgeon on hand, a surgeon famous for doing the impossible. "Can you do it? Can you save this devoted servant of the Queen?"

The doctor paused; a slightly predatory gleam appearing in his mismatched eyes as a sharp toothed smile broke across his face. "Oh, I can do it, Tick Tock, my old friend. I can make him better. In fact as part of my payment I want to give him all the enhancements I can fit in. Such extensive damage means he'll need lots and lots of replacement parts." The doctor frowned for a moment as something occurred to him "Of course I'll need your full permission to fix everything I see as a problem."

Tick Tock paused for a moment, realizing what he was about to do to the stallion on the table. The horror that would be inflicted on the brave stallion seemed an unfair reward but Tick Tock found himself nodding. "I give you my full blessing to do as you want. Bar messing with this stallion's head."

The Doctor beamed and happily trotted over to the double door entrance to get supplies. Tick Tock looked sadly on the stallion, barely held back from the edge of death by various machines plugged into his body. At the moment, he was nothing but living meat and a mind.

"I apologize for the pain you are about to experience. A sedative coupled with the doctor's methods would likely send you into a coma or shock." Tick Tock raised a hoof and placed it gently on the immobile stallion's shoulder who winced in pain. "I won't leave you to suffer this alone, I will be watching."

The double doors opened as the doctor returned wearing a harness with various spider-like arms. Each arm had a different tool and all of them were wrapped in the purple glow of his magic. Behind the doctor came three others, a griffon, a diamond dog and a stallion earth pony, his 'apprentices'. Each was carrying some important part of the procedure. A neat stack of containers emanating a cold fog were placed beside the operating slab. A large pumping machine already full of blood was sitting on stand by. The earth pony was setting up what looked like a blender, of all things, beside the operating table.

"You'll need this, if you're staying to watch." The diamond dog's voice rumbled as he handed Tick Tock a fool body covering and a pair of goggles. "We've got to be sterile... and there's going to be a lot of blood." The diamond dog lumbered back over to his fellow surgeons as they all put on surgical get-ups. Tick Tock complied with the diamond dog's advice and suited up, leaving his robe and cloak in a locker as the surgeons had done, but kept his hidden blades on underneath his coverings, he felt uncomfortable without them.

The doctor was ready to begin. To an uneducated person, they looked like they would be performing surgery. To someone of a medical persuasion it would look like a butcher was ready to work and keep the cow he was butchering alive. To Tick Tock it was a mixture of both. He watched as the blades of the doctor's apparatus descend and began slicing off the tail and hind legs. The immobile stallion was awake but couldn't scream, his mouth was bound shut by thin, white wires.

Two Days Later

Pyretread's head hurt, his eyes hurt, everything hurt. He tried to open his eyes, but couldn't move them. Panicking, he moved his legs knocking something over. The crash sounded heavy, like a metal machine or cabinet had been brushed aside. He tried to rise but a hoof to his chest halted him, followed by a sharp nip as the cold length of a needle entered his throat and injected a numbing solution.

The cool numbing feeling spread to his head quickly, calming him down. He was frightened but he was no longer panicky. He vaguely recalled signaling for help, perhaps someone found him and he was recovering in the castle hospital. He frowned remembering his wings and hind legs had been out of commission, he would no doubt be relocated to a job like recruiting new stallions or serving as a living example of failure. If it was all he could do as the Queen's servant then he would do his duty.

"Ah.... You're awake. Good, I was hoping we could have a chat." Pyretread turned left and right, listening for the source of the voice. "I'll be honest, you'll likely want to run off back to the castle. But I can assure you that won't be necessary. At the moment you are considered dead"

The voice's words sunk in. Dead? but he has a duty to perform, he can't just-

His thoughts were cut off as the voice continued. "You would probably be killed on sight anyway. You don't exactly look or even work the same way any more." Pyretread didn't understand, he felt fine now he was numbed up..., strange but fine.

He heard mismatched hoof steps as someone else entered the room. "Ah. Tick Tock, I see our lucky stallion is finally awake. Amazing what banned medicine can do for a pony's health hmmm?"

Pyretread felt an unnatural urge to shed his skin and run away. Something about that voice made him shudder. He felt an appendage, he wasn't sure what to call it wrap around his head. "It's time to remove these bandages. Welcome him back to the daylight... or should I say moonlight?"

Pyretread's face immediately felt looser and less squashed as something heavy was removed from his head and then thin bandages layered around his eyes were peeled off. The light was dim behind his eyes as the last bandage was removed and he blinked. He was in some kind of sterile room, the surfaces gleamed with a streak free shine, that only a meticulous cleaner could accomplish.

"Over here." The creepy voice called, Pyretread turned to the source and saw a menacing spider pony. He tried to move back but his limbs felt odd, he fell off the bed away from the doctor and scrabbled uselessly on the ground. "Oh deary me. Tick Tock, he seems defective. Are you sure I can't interest you in letting me give him a mechanical leg? I'm sure I can convince Clockwork to make him one, then again we haven't been on the best of terms since I replaced his mechanical hoof with a -"

"This... will be fine. Thank you, Dr. Feelgood. You've done more than enough." The doctor shrugged, Pyretread realizing the spider like appearance was brought on by a strange harness the doctor was wearing. The appendage he felt earlier could be seen, more a claw or a tendril. It was wrapped around his right hoof, four finger like appendages clasped tightly. He opened them as a diamond dog would his paw and scratched his chin before he turned and left.

"Sorry about that. I had to give him a lot of freedom, just to save your life. Oh, I'm Tick Tock by the way." The stallion's voice had a pang of guilt to it as he extended his hoof to help Pyretread up. Pyretread gripped it in his claw. Pyretread released Tick Tock staring aghast at the appendage attached to him. It was a dragon's claw, his foreleg was coated in a layer of silver fur but his actual claw was green and scaled. He looked at his other foreleg and saw it was a large griffon's talon, it opened and closed as he sat on his haunch uncomfortably. He looked back and saw he had a manticore's scorpion tail, it curled up as he reacted in revulsion and tried to trot away from it stumbling on unfamiliarly strong back legs.

Pyretread looked at his left flank and saw he had a pony leg, he turned to his right and saw the same, they were both stronger than he was used to. Tick Tock stood still giving Pyretread time to come to grips with his new body. He watched the chimera get used to the stronger hind legs and watched him stand up.

"This is all new to you so I'll explain what happened on that fateful night two days ago." Pyretread looked at the stallion with his mismatched eyes, and nodded letting Tick Tock continue. "You don't remember much, especially since I forced you to eat a hoofful of sleeping grass. Your body relaxed allowing me to patch up many of the smaller and serious injuries. I knew you'd bleed out so I had my apprentice, Dagger, go and fetch Crow."

The stallion paused, closing his eyes as he relived the moments. "We teleported to Manehatten over several teleporting jumps. It is very tiring for Crow to do such things and we had to stop every now and then to patch you up, as your bindings came loose due to the constant teleporting."

Tick Tock paused once more and took a deep breath. "We arrived after the twenty fifth jump. Only someone like Crow and maybe that lavender companion of the queen could manage such a task." Tick Tock opened a small bag lying on top of a table. "We'd never have found you without these actually, you had a few of them on you when we first found you." Tick Tock passed him the bag, which Pyretread took in his new Talon.

"Anyway, back to the story. So after arriving I managed to find an old friend of mine and Crow's. Dr. Feelgood, he's an expert on the field of impossible medicine. For example, it should be medically impossible for all these different parts to be on a pony body and function so well. That's why I chose him."

Pyretread recalled something happening to him after the sleep-weed, he woke up in a sterile room, but it was bigger than this one. He recalled a stabbing pain and then feeling nothing as something was missing. He'd tried to scream but his mouth had been tied shut, and then he must have passed out from pain because he didn't remember anything else.

"Thank... you, for sa...ving me." Pyretread's mouth felt different, he used his tongue to feel around his mouth and felt two pairs of canine teeth.

"Your body works differently now too, you might notice your new canines? A personal touch of Dr.Feelgood, he decided an alternative to a vegetarian diet was in order." Tick Tock tapped a hoof to his chin in thought. "Oh and you have a new stomach too, and a new set of lungs. And do you like the wings? Griffin wings, much stronger than Pony wings..., though less flexible."

Tick Tock's words left Pyretread numb, how was he supposed to respond to being saved and yet so thoroughly changed?

"You aren't a monster, you're simply different." He smiled kindly before continuing "Tick-tock, tick-tock. You have a choice stallion. Come with me and serve your Queen. Or try to go back and be killed mistaken for a monster. I doubt Queen Moon will let you get close in your current form."

Pyretread looked himself over again, holding back his thoughts of running off. Tick Tock offered him a chance to serve the Queen and he would take it. He nodded his head and let Tick Tock lead him out of the building.

Tick Tock arrived back home, his newly acquired trainee hidden beneath a heavy cloak and jacket. It was a tiresome trip back. He still had to make it to New Mareland. Shade should be back with Snowball and Dagger by now. He trotted round the front and almost did a double take, enjoying the feeling of pleasant surprise at Shade playing with fillies his own age. He seemed to be coaching an orange pegasus filly on flight. With limited success.

A pile of construction supplies lay besides Shade's pet project for Rust, a project Shade had been utterly devoted to since they had finished shifting the bodies.

"Who's the kid?" Asked Pyretread peering round the edge of the house.

"That's Shade, he's... one of my apprentices." Tick Tock watched Shade with a sense of pride. He hadn't seen him look so innocent in a long time. Perhaps I should have- He cut his own trail of thought remembering Dagger's words. He had to learn from his examples of his twisted kindness. Shade, Dagger and his new trainee would always be there to remind him.

"Let's go in the back door, I'll let him play a little longer." Tick Tock turned and led the way round the back.

The door was locked, requiring Tick Tock's house key, he pulled it out of a small pocket in his vest and led Pyretread inside. The smell of simmering broth caught their attention as they entered. Crow had left clear instructions on the fridge which Tick Tock began reading. Pyretread walked in and started looking around the kitchen. His new stomach grumbled which caught Tick Tock's attention.

"You're hungry I see, that's good. If you weren't hungry after two days unconsciousness, I would be very worried." Tick Tock sounded cheerful as he opened the fridge and pulled out a carrot, a gem and a piece of steak.

"Wondering about the meat and gem? I occasionally have to meet creatures that have very different diets to ponies and it makes them much more approachable if you show some culinary sensitivity."

Tick Tock placed the items on a plate and brought them over to Pyretread leaving them on the counter. "I need you to stay and watch the broth. Follow these instructions." Tick Tock left the note besides the plate. "I have some business to take care of elsewhere tonight. You are permitted to go into the rooms on the bottom floor, everything upstairs is locked and protected."

Tick Tock got up and left the bewildered Pyretread as he went out the back door and trotted round to the front of the house.

Shade stood by offering encouraging words and support as Scootaloo practiced wing-ups with the training barbells he'd given her. She could open them easily with the weights. It was lifting and closing she had trouble with. "You're doing fine. Give it another few days and we might be able to get you airborne like me."  His comment made Scootaloo smile as she continued her practice.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were play fighting with sticks. They'd gotten interested after noticing his broadsword and he decided to show them how it was done. He sparred with Dinky who was surprisingly good with a stick, even if it was only mock playing. Despite that, he was giving them real lessons, the sticks clacked against each other as Dinky tried to disarm Shade. His superior strength and training easily won out and he sidestepped turning her force against her. She stumbled forward but he quickly caught her, not wanting his new friend to get hurt.

Friends, they were so easy to make. Why had he had so much trouble before now? He admittedly hadn't gotten around to speaking with many colts and fillies and his darker impulses had kept him occupied since his parent's deaths and his adoption by Tick Tock.

"Hey Shade? Whose tha tall fella?" Shade turned and saw Applebloom point out the unmistakable form of Tick Tock. He seemed at ease as he approached Shade. A small smile on his face, Tick Tock was happy? His master was happy he made friends? He had been encouraging Shade to go out more, maybe this was what he meant.

"Hello Shade" His face had a fatherly smile on it. "Made some new friends I see?"

"Yes, yes I did." Shades answer was flat and monotone but Tick Tock seemed not to notice.

"Well Shade, I would love to let you play all night. But I need a driver. I'll have to inform Snowball and Dag... Nah, they'll be fine. They won't worry about you, they know you're a big colt." Shade blushed a little as his adoptive father talked about him. "Tick-tock. Shade, we really must be off. You can visit your friends tomorrow, I have someone else who can pull the carriage when you aren't around then."

Shade nodded and ran off to hook himself into the sky chariot. Tick Tock climbed in and looked at the staring fillies. "Tick-tock my dears, are you coming? Hop in. I have candy."

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo complied, Sweetie Belle and Dinky stood still. "Mom said never accept rides from strangers offering candy." Sweetie belle nodded in agreement as Tick Tock rolled his eyes. "Girl's, I'm Shade's father. I'm hardly a stranger now am I? So hop in, I have a very important appointment to keep." A little reluctantly Sweetie Belle and Dinky climbed in.

"Hey, haven't we met y'all before?" Tick Tock nodded. "You met me when you went to see Zecora. A fine zebra mare if I do say so myself." He waited as Shade settled into his harness more comfortably before letting Shade pull the sky carriage.

"To Ponyville, Shade, we have to drop off these delightful little fillies." They took off into the night, heading for Ponyville. "You never did tell me your names?" Tick Tock said looking at the fillies with mild interest.

"Dinky."

"Scootaloo."

"Sweetie Belle."

"Apple Bloom."

They each said their own names before speaking in unison. "And we are... THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!"

Dagger shifted as she tried to get comfy. She hadn't been able to sit properly since the spa incident. The cafe they were at had an outdoor seating area, with small hay stacks as seats, and mushroom themed tables. It was not the image that popped in her head when she thought Cafe. Her hay seat was uncomfortable and unstable, and kept falling apart as she tried to adjust herself, until she would be better off standing.

Snowball noticed her plight as she finished making her order. She took note of her own hay stack and tutted, lighting up her horn and pulling apart both of their haystacks. Her magical aura now wrapped around the individual hay strands, pulled them together and began to knit them together into solid sheets of hay. The hay was then stacked neatly until two sturdy hay chairs replaced the sad haystacks they were sitting on.

"Much better, wouldn't you agree?" Snowball placed her left leg on the table and rested her head against her hoof.

Dagger nodded, still replaying all the incidents of the spa. Was that really Tick Tock? Did he routinely turn into other people? was Tick Tock even his real name? These thoughts plagued Dagger as she waited. Snowball kept giving her glances which Dagger took note of, it was something that could distract her thoughts and so she observed Snowball.

Her pristine white fur was like freshly fallen snow, her hooves gleamed in the moonlight and her sapphire blue eyes were piercing. Dagger did her best to avoid her eyes and found her eyes drawn to the heart shaped sapphire cutie mark. It was like an actual gem was attached to her side, it almost seemed to be glinting in the moonlight. Perhaps her fur was simply shiny from the shampoos applied, but that didn't explain how it glinted.

Dagger looked back at her own flank sadly, it was still bare and purple as the day she'd been born. "Do you enjoy looking at mare's flanks, Dagger?" Snowball's playful voice made Dagger blush and hide her face behind her menu. "It's alright if you do, darling. Our group doesn't judge other ponies preferences." Snowball flashed Dagger a small flicker of a smile before their waiter returned with their orders.

Dagger began munching on her golden, crispy chips. They were seasoned with something slightly spicy, that teased at the edges of her tongue. She watched Snowball across from her, eating her white rose salad with care and elegance, even pausing to dab her face with a napkin. Dagger tried to focus on anything other than the snow white Mare but all that came to mind was the other mare they'd met this morning.

Lady Centennial with her golden coat and silvery mane, a mare who seemed beyond perfect. She had the right muscle, the right tone, the right shape. Everything a mare could want. But she seemed too perfect, something had put Dagger off about that mare, she didn't doubt Snowball noticed it too. Snowball had done most of the speaking this afternoon. Dagger just felt less involved as Lady C. took up more and more of Snowball's attention. It should have been aggravating, but the way she spoke and handled herself seemed to diffuse any sort of confrontation.

Dagger banished the image of Lady C. and bit into her chips, doing her best to focus on their crispy texture, yellow skin and slightly spicy taste. It was almost laughably exotic, like those spa mares, their hair hung low and their coats and mane being a basic palette swap. This is ridiculous, I am not thinking of licking chocolate off those two... dammit.

Dagger tried to think of someone else and remembered the battle weary Queen Moon. Her black fur, so tantalizing and mysterious, just like the night sky. Dagger Shook her head and dispelled the image, only for the lavender mare to spring up, holding a white rose between her teeth. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME! Dagger raised her hooves to her face in frustration , the action didn't go unnoticed as Snowball watched her with some worry.

"Dagger, dear. Are you feeling well?" Snowball's eyes were full of concern and curiosity

"I'm uh... fine. Just fine. I've got a lot on my mind at the moment." Dagger looked down, afraid if she looked at Snowball another bizarre fantasy might start. Dagger looked up and noticed a rainbow maned pegasi flying overhead. What would tasting that rainbow be like... Dagger squeaked, causing Snowball to give her and odd look, she looked in the same direction Dagger had been looking a second ago and smiled.

"Mmhmmmm. Inspecting the skies for griffons, are we? I find it more likely you have a thing for mares, Dagger." Dagger blushed and looked away, sighing. "Oh don't be so melodramatic Dagger. Besides, if you wanted to sleep with a mare, all you had to do was ask." Snowball winked, and blew her a kiss.

If it was possible for Dagger to blush any more, her face would've been glowing bright red. "S-S-Snowball, I c-couldn't." Dagger whined laying her head on the table.

"Dagger Darling, I see a Mare suffering in front of me. I know you're not sure about how you feel. But if you change your mind my room is always open."

The silence that stretched on after their little chat was thankfully short as the waiter returned with their dessert, strawberries and cream.

Crow made his way across the battleground outside New Mareland. The staggering number of corpses had attracted an unprecedented number of corpse flies. The foul bugs buzzed, and fried against Crow's barrier creating a trail of dead flies behind him as he made his way to the castle. As Crow walked he noticed an unusual flower growing amongst all this death, a white rose with a wide circle of land around it clear of any death or decay, even the flies seemed to stay at the borders. He made a mental note to tell Tick Tock, he was always interested in unique and odd plants, and a white rose that bloomed after a battle had to be high up on the list.

The city gates were unguarded, which suited Crow's purposes well. He ducked into an incomplete shell of a building and took out an amulet with a pair of fangs on it. The amulet weighed several pounds, weighted by the blood of Lord Rust and the condensed magic within. He silently hoped that nothing would disrupt the Royal Court, he would be powered down for at least a day to recover his full strength, after all the magic he had forced himself to use today, like a construction worker or a farmer who had been working too hard and strained a muscle requiring a day's rest.

The amulet felt heavy and made him bend a little lower than was comfortable, which was fine, he was impersonating an elderly stallion after all. The amulet sparked and he felt it's effect work on him. His back arched a little, his shins felt weaker, his whole body was weaker and the cloth and armor he now wore felt pompous and too boastful. Crow sighed as he wrapped the armor in his magic, making small alterations to make it more humble, Lord Rust was supposed to be a humble broken stallion. Not a bold and boastful fool who tried to lead a ragtag group of ponies against the Queen.

The armor morphed and distorted, changing into a much more comfortable shape and felt it ease the pinching it did on his sides. Crow looked around sure no-one had noticed him and began trotting towards the castle, scanning the sky. Crow kept watch for Tick Tock's sky carriage, and spotted it's trademark navy blue painted body passing overhead about a hundred feet. Shade's small form was practically invisible against the night sky as he pulled the carriage to a full stop and lowered it. Crow trotted over to the landing zone, cursing Rust's older body for being so slow.

Tick Tock felt the sky carriage settle down gently, hidden by one of the unfinished shops that the town's builders were putting together, he exited the Carriage along with Lady C., they had both been uncharacteristically silent since Ponyville. Shade unbuckled himself when the Rust imposter appeared.

"RUST! YOU WILL DIE!" Shade yelled leaping on the surprised Crow, much to Tick Tock's horror only for shade to leap off Crow a second later. "Gotcha" He giggled and trotted away, leaving Crow with a mixture of confusion and relief.

That was odd, even for Shade. He doesn't normally do jokes. Crow shook his head, derailing that particular train of thought, as he waited for Tick Tock and Lady C. to step out of the sky carriage.

"Ah Crow darling, how nice to see you again."Lady C. flashed him a small smile. "I'm sorry you have to impersonate that oaf of a stallion." She exited the carriage wearing an elegant gold dress and a pair of pearl earrings. A golden bracelet adorned her right hoof and she wore a set of soft white socks on her hoofs that complimented her dress.

Crow merely nodded to her and looked away as he waited impatiently.

"Tick Tock, Tick-" A small smile crept on Crow's face as Tick Tock gave Lady C. an annoyed look.

"That's my line."

Lady C. chuckled softly and trotted over alongside Crow, leaning on him with her shoulder. "Don't fret Darling, I only did it once earlier. You know how I love messing with your new apprentices."

Tick Tock sighed again. "Confound you, my Lady, you've driven Crow to drink." Crow paused levitating his hidden flask away again and grunting in annoyance.

"Well we've wasted enough time here, Crow you know what you have to do. Lady C. keep an eye on the nobles and catch up with any of your old acquaintances. Shade and I will be scoping out the Castle for places we can monitor the Queen undetected."

The three Ponies moved out, Tick Tock leaving to find Shade whilst Crow and Lady C. went to the Queen's Royal Court.

Shade trotted along the roof of the Castle. He was invisible against the black castle, his white tail and mane hidden under his cloak. Shade was scanning the skies and taking note of the dryness in the air. The air should have more moisture in it and less cloud cover.

Flying higher, Shade looked at the clouds as only a pegasus can, noticing small details like the moonlight shining through clouds vaguely silhouetting certain figures. Shade took a head count, around five individuals and began scanning the ground and then the surrounding towers. There were no others immediately visible, but Shade suspected there were others watching. He slipped into the shadows and spotted Tick Tock, he was on a balcony below him, watching him with a small smile on his face.

Shade hovered down to him, and landed softly on the railing of the balcony. "How many did you see Shade? I personally noted four hiding out in the castle grounds."

Tick Tock nodding his head in the direction of the hiding griffons. Shade could barely make them out, but noticed a head move past a darkened window of a tool shed and a slow, gentle movement of what might have been a paw or talon hiding in the shadow of the structure.

"I noted five in the cloud cover. Though more may be hiding around the spires of the Palace." Tick Tock nodded, a plan forming in his mind as he worked out how many griffons he could kill from the ground.

"We'll need Crow, come Shade we'll wait for this business to conclude and then we'll show these griffon upstarts how a real assassin works." Shade hopped down beside Tick Tock and together they blended into the crowd of ponies making it's way to the Royal Court.

The nobles stood gossiping and chatting away amongst themselves. They held themselves with a certain degree of arrogance and a decorum of politeness, partially forced by some. Crow hated it, he hated acting like this, hated socializing with these upper crust snobs and most importantly hated being dressed up like one. He felt like a fish out of water, amongst these ponies. He watched Lady C. slip off into the crowd to begin sowing seeds of support for Queen Moon whilst he made his painfully slow way towards the throne.

The Queen to any observant eye was bored. Crow noted how she stole glances at the exotically dressed Lavender Unicorn beside her. There was definitely more going on than Tick Tock had suspected, a possible romantic relationship would place her under Tick Tock's protection, alongside the Queen. As Crow approached the Queen he noticed Tick Tock and Shade had slunk into the room. Their dark and drab outfits making them stand out amongst the crowd of ponies.

He noticed Fancy Pants, the one stallion he could respect in this room for his management skills. He was fourth in line to see the Queen three other Lords with empty words stood in front of him meaning the Queen might become embittered and might not speak to Fancy Pants if these foals ruined her mood. Thankfully he had something to offer which should brighten her mood considerably.

Shade watched Fancy Pants give his little welcome speech to the Queen. Shade liked this stallion, perhaps it was that mustache of his or how well he handled himself. So much like Tick Tock, only Tick Tock had taken time to care about him. He briefly wondered what serving under Fancy Pants would be like when he felt Tick Tock restrain him as he unconsciously began walking forward and unsheathing his blade at the sight of Blueblood.

Tick Tock gave him a warning look, which had a very sobering effect. Shade placed his blade firmly back in its sheath before anypony noticed, and focused his attention on the stained glass windows surrounding the room. They seemed very egotistical, like Crow when he knew something no-one else had any clue about and became the groups expert on it. Shade felt a smile spread on his face as he watched the Queen force Blueblood to writhe and squirm, if he couldn't have him at least he'd die painfully. His hope shattered when the Queen released him and he felt Tick Tock pat him comfortingly on his back. He leaned into Tick Tock who made no objection instead whispering to him.

"I doubt the Queen is through with that lout Shade, continue to watch."

Shade nodded and saw Blueblood try to rise only for the lavender mare to slam him back down with her own magic. He definitely liked this mare. I wonder if she'd like our games? She'd make an excellent game master.

Don't judge based on first impressions, she's likely just protective of the queen.

That final sobering thought saddened Shade but knew it would probably please his Master to see such a devoted guardian.

He watched as the queen teleported Blueblood away. He sighed a little. Don't worry there are plenty of birds outside to play with.

Yesss! The birds shall feel true terror tonight, Shade. Red and Watchers voices danced through his head. Watcher insisted he take his time whilst Red insisted he kill them as brutally and efficiently as possible.

He felt Tick Tock begin to move and turned to follow him. Crow was speaking with Fancy Pants and signing some forms with his teeth whilst Lady C. idly chatted with Fancy Pants. It would be about a half hour before Crow and Lady C. exited the hall. Crow ducked into an unused room and pulled off the amulet reverting to his old form. Shade watched him pack the amulet away, folded in several layers of cloth.

"I say good show Crow, you seemed to have the Queen and royal court fooled. I daresay you could've had everypony signing off their lands to Queen Moon if we gave you time to work." Crow grumbled at Lady C.'s response.

"I hate acting like that Sweet Centennial. That Fancy Pants fellow is the only tolerable person in that room short of the Queen and her... consort."

Tick Tock was examining his crystal watch and frowning. "My friends we cannot tarry, Shade and myself, Avid bird-watchers that we are have spotted something unpleasant." He paused for dramatic effect, Lady C. rolled her eyes at him. "An invasive bird species has infiltrated our fair land. The notorious griffon, thankfully, we've spotted only a small number of them here. Ten in all."

"Allow me a moment to change, dears, I would hate to get blood on my new dress." Lady C. drifted into the room Crow had left and began changing. Shade and Crow mimicked each other as they tapped their hoofs impatiently. A royal guard saw them and began approaching.

"You don't have authority to be here." The guard spoke in his best authoritarian tone but only elicited a giggle from the colt in the group of ponies.

"Shade, do be a sport and knock him out" Tick Tock spoke with a casual tone as if he was asking Shade to fetch him the newspaper.

Shade leapt forward and tackled the guard. They clattered to the floor as Shade scrambled onto his back and gripped his skull. Using his powerful wings he pulled the stunned guard pony and slammed him into the wall, knocking him out.

Lady C. exited wearing a velvet purple robe and turned to Shade frowning. "Tsk tsk Shade, you know it's too early for your games." Shade hid his blush and looked away hovering behind Tick Tock.

Crow levitated the guard pony over to him and performed a quick memory wipe spell. He then levitated the unconscious guard into the room Lady C. had vacated and placed him on the guest bed.

"Let's depart, the night is eternal and the griffons won't stay there all night." Tick tock led his merry band out of the castle to begin their own assassin's hunt.

Blackbird yawned, barely able to stifle it as Ripper gave her look of disapproval. Blackbird was a griffon, and like the other ten griffons staking out the palace, she was an outcast. Each of them had lost their clan affiliation, it was something that they didn't speak about. Back in Griffonia they were considered as undesirable and untrustworthy, barely able to keep jobs. Many outcasts or clan-less had to turn to crime or mercenary work.

Worse still was the fact that any griffon born of an outcast would also be considered an outcast and be unable to join the greater part of griffon society. The only sure-fire way was an outcast could rejoin the rest of the griffons was royal pardon which extended to all descendants or adoption into a clan. Many famous or powerful griffons that were cast out would be accepted into another clan.

No such luck for Blackbird. She had been born clan-less out in the countryside. She reflected on what life would've been like had she been born to a clan, able to roost in a comfortable home with fellow clan members and family. She sighed and began inspecting her crossbow, Bianca. Bianca was a custom piece, modified overtime by various earth ponies, unicorns, griffons and zebras. It was unique and the only gift of her griffon mate.

"Ripper? How long has the Queen been in court now?" Ripper gave Blackbird a sharp look before shaking his head.

"An hour at most hatchling, you'll get your shot at the queen soon enough." Blackbird scowled. She hated being called a hatchling, she was fourteen and more than capable than the seven other's sent to kill the queen.

"Over there, look." Ripper pointed his talon at two ponies strolling the grounds. Ripper watched them with a fierce determination. They walked slowly and leisurely, almost like they were trying to be seen.

Odd that two ponies would just stroll the city alone, these ponies have been keeping in little groups since they arrived. Blackbird's trail of thought was halted when she saw the light flicker on in the tool shed she and Ripper were hiding behind. Ripper hissed angrily and yanked the door open.

"Deadbolt what are y-" He stopped mid-sentence as he saw the grisly sight of Deadbolt, his chest was cracked open. The flesh of his chest forcibly peeled back to reveal the ribcage and the beating organs underneath. All the muscle was gone leaving bare and bloody bone. The shed was most disturbingly bone dry, no blood anywhere. Deadbolt looked up a bloody tear leaking from his left eye.

"Killll meeee..." Deadbolt managed to croak, his voice strained and causing him to speak with a lisp. Ripper moved forward to perform the act of mercy when the roof fell in. Blackbird who had stayed back saw a pony in a deep blue cloak driving a blade neatly into the ear of Ripper.

Ripper's body spasmed until the pony removed the blade and looked up. His eyes were hidden under the cloak but a small frown was visible on his muzzle.

"I'm sorry about this, but I cannot let you harm my Queen." The stallion leapt forward and began galloping forward. Blackbird instinctively took to the air and aimed her precision crossbow. The stallion was a blur as he moved at an impressive speed. She fired off a volley, shooting three bolts in quick succession, at the quicksilver stallion. He leapt to an impressive height and threw several small capsules at her.

Blackbird had fought enough zebra to recognize an alchemy capsule and swooped lower. She was within reach of the stallion, but he was also closer to her. She primed her crossbow and fired off three volleys. The nine bolts fired would skewer a slower stallion but this one was much quicker. He leapt into the air and she fired a fourth volley.

To her horror the stallion unfolded his cloak, and used the wind to pull him out of harms way. She saw him leap again and latch onto one of her wings. She twisted in the air, trying to dislodge him and aimed her crossbow at him. She pulled the trigger and felt two bolts pierce her wing and a grunt of pain from the stallion confirmed she hit him. They crashed to the ground a short distance from each other.

Blackbird panicked when she noted her crossbow was missing, searching around she saw it had landed a short distance away. The stallion was also getting up, he gripped the bolt stuck in his foreleg and started tugging it out. Not wasting any time, Blackbird forced herself into a sprint, her hind legs launching her forward. She gripped the handle in her talons and turned expecting the stallion to still be tugging. Instead his wound was closed and he was charging her.

She hefted her crossbow but realized it was jammed, she moaned and pulled out the small blade tied to the tip of her weapon. The stallion leapt towards her, both his fore-hooves raised. She saw the glint of his hidden blade and deflected the first blow. The second blade cut open her talon as she raised it to defend herself. She gripped the blade and managed to yank it off the surprised stallion who quickly leapt back.

"Tick-tock, Tick-tock. Impressive. Tell me what clan are you so I might send your body back to be buried with respect."

Blackbird growled "I'm clan-less, there's no-one waiting for me." Not anymore.

"Ah... So you aren't tied down by all that Clan nonsense then?" The stallion seemed to relax.

"No, I'm not. I'm trying to get into griffon society, taking down your Queen is the only way." She managed to fix the firing mechanism on her crossbow, but her injured Talon made it impossible to wield. The stallion across from her tittered.

"Ah my dear, how narrow your vision is. You don't seem to realize how much a clan will tie you down." The stallion had an odd smile on his face, like he was smiling but thinking of something else entirely. "Tell me, my feathered friend, have you noticed what's odd about tonight?" The stallion examined his remaining blade whilst he waited for her answer. Blackbird hadn't noticed it until now, the pain in her hand and the pumping of her heart as well as the adrenaline rush had pushed everything out of her head. The night was deadly silent, her fellow griffons were nowhere to be seen or heard.

"I-It's too quiet. What are you doing? Are you a unicorn, are you messing with my head?" She glared angrily as the stallion chuckled.

"Oh, far from it my dear, you're the sole survivor of your little group. You're injured and can't fly away for long or fight for very long either." The stallion looked up a toothy smile flashed across his mouth. "Besides you can't escape anyway, my friends have us surrounded."

Blackbird stopped and looked up seeing a pegasus colt carrying a large sword and an unnatural grin glinting in the moonlight. She looked around and saw the unicorn and earth pony from earlier. Both sticking to different sides of the battlefield, ready to pounce. She grimaced realizing she was beat and recalled what they did to Deadbolt.

Closing her eyes Blackbird lifted her blade to her throat only for the blade to be pulled away. She opened her eyes and saw her blade wrapped in a red aura. She stepped back now, realizing everything she had hoped to gain was gone she fell on her haunches awaiting her painful and horrific death.

"Tick-tock. Do you want to come with us?" Blackbird looked at the stallion, his face had a kind smile on it.

"Why would you want someone like me? I-I, I'm a nobody." Her voice was full of sorrow as she spoke.

She felt the stallion's hoof rest comfortingly on her shoulder, whilst the other removed his bracer from her grip.

"Oh, you're hardly a no-one my Dear. You had the courage to try and kill Queen Moon and you went hoof to hoof with an experienced assassin. You held the advantage for a good part of the battle. And I'm always looking for new talent." Blackbird smiled a little, it was a sad smile but it was better than nothing. "Tick-tock, what's your answer? We've got a busy night my dear."

The griffon nodded numbly and heard two sets of hoofs clapping whilst the voice of the unicorn stallion groaned and started walking away. Back to where the battle began.

"Excellent my Dear, you won't regret your decision. Lady C., I need you to go back to the manor and make sure my other new Acolyte isn't getting into trouble. Shade my boy, I need you to assist Crow in the clean up." Shade pouted and folded his fore-hooves irritably.

"Then come as soon as you can. We can take some time to finish your little project." Shade brightened at that and flew off to start the clean up operation with as much enthusiasm as he could muster.

"Come, my new Acolyte, oh and drink this, it'll deal with that nasty slash across your talon." He handed the griffon a small blue vial which she downed. a puff of smoke enveloped her.

"Hey what gives?" She emerged from the cloud as a pale blue Pegasi, her crossbow strapped to her back and a small griffon head as a Cutie Mark.

"Well my dear, I believed it would be rather difficult to explain why a griffon is here in the capital unannounced. We can slip out like this. I have a smith friend I need to see and I'm sure he can take a look at your crossbow for you."

Blackbird reached a hoof onto her back and stroked the unique weapon as Tick Tock led her out of the city, towards the Everfree Forest.

A single griffon remained. The last of the ten sent here to kill the queen. He was the leader, he was responsible for them. And he had let them all down. He pulled out the small green vial around his neck and examined the deadly substance under the pale moonlight. He would avenge his fallen comrades and slay the Queen that had employed them. Confident she would be relaxed and more at ease, not expecting a surprise attack from him.

Author's Notes: Oh man this took forever to do. I kept nearly finishing it. But realised it wasn't ready and had to keep adding to it. I be you were all surprised that Lady.C was someone else? Well she was originally going to be Tick Tock just under the Gender switching effects of Poison Joke. But I decided a separate person would be better. Anyway's I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I got more plans for Tick Tock and the gang, and their are plenty of side-stories that will leave you all wondering what's going to happen next.

Feel free to comment and do some fan-art, I need a better cover image dammit. :trollestia:

Special thanks to Jekyll for his edits

Chapter 7: Catch up and Drinkin Smiths

Chapter 7 - Catch up and Drinkin Smiths

Deadbolt was sitting nervously, examining his two blades with the same meticulous nature as someone who isn't experienced with them. Had he been a more knowledgeable sword fighter, he'd realize he had two rather cheap blades, with copper laced through them. To his eye's, however, they looked fierce and deadly, the jagged edges along the blade would jam or snap off the first time he tried to stab someone with it.

A flash of red blinded Deadbolt, his eyes adjusted in time to see a grinning face knocking him to the floor. The walls and floor were coated in an eerie red light, that faded to a fainter red barely noticeable. The small form of Shade had knocked the griffon down and had already disarmed him. Before Deadbolt could think to do anything else, the colt smashed his face into his mask. The mask was hard and cold, sending pain through Deadbolt's face. Shade slammed his face into the griffon's again and again, until he passed out.

"Goodnight, Jaaack"

Twenty Minutes Later

Deadbolt groaned and opened his eyes. The Shed was pitch black, the only light coming in was moonlight cutting across the floor. He tried to move but found he couldn't do anything short of speak. Those bucking ponies tied me up. Oh when I get my hands on them.... Before Deadbolt could continue his mental tirade a luminous red orb illuminated the room. He looked at it and realized it was an eye.

"Wakey, wakey." Shade's voice was singsong as he flew off the ground, giving the impression he was much taller.

"Buck you, you think this is funny? Do you? My friends outside are gonna hear you and then you-" He was cut off by Shade's manic laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha ha. Oh Jack, you crack me up. If your friends could hear us, they would have burst in by now and put an end to the game."

Deadbolt's eye bolted to the window, he couldn't see anyone outside. They were likely sitting down, resting, unable to see the terrible predicament he found himself in.

"Oh what am I going to do with you?" Shades voice was deeper than it had been earlier as the red eye shrunk.

"How bout you let me down? Then I can kill you, you little-"

He was cut off as Shade flew over to him and gripped his skull. "Ho ho ho. Oh Jack, if I did that I couldn't fulfill my purpose or play my games.... Now I wonder?" Shade lifted Deadbolt's blades and bent both of them. Wrapping one around the tip of his tail and the other around his left hoof.

"I wonder what griffons made of?" Shade brought his own blade forward and made a quick and precise cut down Deadbolt's chest. The wound stung and made him grit his teeth against the pain.

"What are griffons made of?" Shade repeated driving his bladed hoof into the cut, the rough jagged edges being used to saw away at muscle and sinew. Blood began to coat the wall and floor as Shade continued his grisly work, sawing off the muscle and throwing it into a bucket.

"Blood and bone and puppy dog tails, that is what griffons are made of." Shade finished his little mantra and used the crude, bent blades to prop open the chest cavity.

"Dear oh dear, what a mess you've made." Shade spread his fore-hooves as he pointed to the blood spattered walls. "Fortunately, Crow provided a solution to our little dilemma." Shade lifted a small amulet, it glowed red and a terrible tugging overcame Deadbolt as Blood began flowing into the amulet. The small opening on top greedily devouring the blood-spatter and bloodshed. It filled up impossibly, steam rising out of the amulet as it had it's fill. Even his chest cavity was drunk dry, leaving Deadbolt barely alive, only the dull thumping pain for company.

"Please... just killll me." Deadbolt begged.

Shade tittered, turning away. "Sorry Jack, no can do. Your part of my Masters game now too. Don't fret, he'll only be another fifteen minutes."

Deadbolt whimpered, the prospect of this monsters Master made him pray to anyone, even Celestia that his friends would find him and finish him quickly. He watched the small pony slink along the walls and exit out a window, quiet as a cat.

Lady.C walked beside Crow. She could sense his annoyance through his indifferent expression, and she couldn't blame him. The last time they'd met she'd been pregnant but had hoped Crow might warm up to her again. She was now being proved how wrong she was.

"So Crow dear, I realize we haven't always been on-" She stopped talking when he flared his horn in warning. They both wandered beneath the cloud cover and watched as Shade began approaching, his small frame moving between small clumps of cloud. He would be invisible if not for his mask, the red orb of the eye moved closer and closer to the cloud their quarry was hiding in.

"With a flash of his horn, Crow dissipated the cloud cover, sending the surprised griffons tumbling down. Two fell on their backs and broke their wings, the other four managed to stop their descent and fly back up. Crow enveloped a large area of the sky in a red dome, made faint and invisible by the width he stretched it out to. No one would hear the horrors inflicted in the skies above.

The dome gave Shade the killing ground he needed. Leaving Lady C. to deal with the two others now recovering on the ground.

"The killing floor is open." Shade's voice was filled with unrestrained glee as he flew into the first griffon trapped in the dome. The griffon saw him approach and hefted a shield which blocked Shade's first sword blow. Shade performed a spinning front flip, using his blade to continue to punch through the griffon's defense. He was spinning so fast the griffon couldn't raise his own blade due to the shattering force of Shade's own blade.

The shield sparked one last time as Shade dislodged it from the griffon's grip and hacked into his shoulder dismembering an arm and part of the griffon's upper shoulder blade. The griffon shrieked as blood spurted in a small fountain crimson and purple, a welcome sight to Shade. He heard the two other griffons respond to his attack and fly at him from behind. He performed an aerial front flip and pushed the already injured griffon in his way, using him as a meat shield.

Shade saw the other two try to stab him through their comrade with a halberd and a claymore, his red eye shrunk as they stabbed through and grew again as he leapt over the head of the now dead griffon and plunge his own weapon into the head of the griffon on the right. He pulled it free again and backed off. Scanning the dome for the remaining griffon. Look Up Watcher's intuition was right as he saw the griffon above him line up a shot with a longbow.

Shade soared towards his new attacker and saw him launch a hasty talon full of arrows. Several flew off harmlessly, whilst other flew in a direct path towards him. Shade used his blade as a shield, hugging close to it's edges, he felt the arrows bounce off harmlessly. Shade soared upwards and saw the griffon line up another shot. Show him how to aim. Shade waited for the griffon to release his volley. The other one hovering out of the range of the arrows watching and waiting.

The griffon let loose another haphazard cluster of arrows. Shade at the same time, used his body to throw his blade in a swift arching blow, before moving aside as quickly as he could. A garbled screech was emitted by the griffon as Shade's blade embedded itself in it's body. Shade now began making his way forward to retrieve his blade. The other griffon blocked him.

"You won't have your blade back so easily, whelp." The griffin remained steadfast blocking the way to the body below. Shade flew right at the griffon.

The griffon was ready to cut down Shade, who charged head first, and then dove straight down. Using his smaller frame and greater speed to out-maneuver the angry griffon as it shrieked in anger and frustration. Turning around and flying after the small pony who had just pulled his blade back out of his latest victim.

Shade's blade clashed with the griffon's own blade. Shade noted the griffon readying to grab him with it's talon and pushed against the other griffon harder. The griffon was forced to grip it's claymore with both talons again. Shade moved the blade tip down along the edge of the griffon's blade. His blade no longer blocking him, Shade butted the griffon and spun his body bringing his blade in a corkscrew slash.

The griffon screamed as both it's talons were slashed off. Shade flew higher and steadied himself again. He then flew towards the griffon performing a clean slash through the stomach and another slash through the chest, ending the griffon's torment.

Lady C. began trotting towards the two fallen griffons. Shade was up above doing his regular routine of bloody slaughter. Lady C. preferred a more quiet approach. She approached the first griffon.

"Oh Darling are you alright?" She feigned concern allowing her to draw closer.

"I'm fine Ma'am, just gimmie a moment. Please keep back." She watched the griffon trying to pop it's wing back into place and made her move.

She almost glided over to the Griffin and plunged her hidden blade into it's heart. The griffon gasped silently as she retracted the blade and stabbed the griffon in the neck. Allowing the poor bird to die quietly. The other griffon was angry, it's eyes darted to Lady C. and then just behind her. The Griffin noticed Crow was occupied and went for him instead.

Lady C. tutted as she chased after the griffon and leapt. It turned and saw her. Bringing up an axe. She deflected the blow, and landed softly, pivoting around like a ballerina. Lady C.'s hind hooves reared and kicked out, bucking the griffon in the side of the head. The griffon staggered and turned to face her only to find she'd slipped alongside it and stabbed into it's back legs.

The griffon prepared to screech but Lady C. pivoted and bucked it in the throat, damaging it's voice box, letting it emit a small croaking sound. The griffon came at her once more bringing the axe down in several downward slashes. Lady C. danced away from the blows and finally shot towards the griffin. Leaping onto the axe, she stabbed the griffon through the eye.

Shade was still fighting and Crow was pre-occupied so she looked for Tick Tock and saw the shed collapse. She realized Tick Tock was still fighting one more assassin and trotted over besides Crow to watch.

"I say Crow, you should really see this, it's quite an impressive display." Lady C. sat besides him and watched as Tick Tock avoided several crossbow bolts.

"Quite an impressive individual, she's avoiding his capsules like a pro. Oh my Tick Tock is leading her closer. Tsk Tsk, that move only had a fifty/fifty shot my old friend." She talked on as Crow grew more frustrated with her. He watched Shade take down the third Griffin. One more, just one more Shade. HURRY UP!

"I suppose I better go over, I think Tick Tock just lost one of his blades." Lady C. trotted off leaving Crow with his thoughts for a moment. Before Shade viciously slashed the final Griffin into three pieces. Sighing with relief Crow lowered the dome and brought out his hip flask taking a much needed drink.

Pyretread poked the meat in front of him. His sense's were giving him very conflicted opinions. Part of him wanted to wolf it down raw, another part wanted him to cook it black and another part wanted him to forget the whole idea and eat the carrot. He was familiar with carrots, they had a nice slightly spicy taste to him, before he met Dr. Feelgood. He grasped the carrot in his talon and took a bite. It tasted plainer somehow, like some of the flavor was lost forever. Sighing he put the carrot back on the plate.

The Gem was smooth and shiny, like a piece of crystallized fruit or a mint green lollipop. Pyretread lifted it to his mouth and gave it an experimental lick. He was instantly bombarded with a creamy minty taste that seemed to dance on his tongue all the way to his stomach. He smiled and took a bite, feeling the gem crush and grind in his powerful jaws. The small shards would be deadly for anything of a none-draconic nature and made him reflect briefly on how different he now was. He placed the remaining half of the gem down and looked at the slab of meat.

He gripped it in his dragon claw and griffon talon and took an experimental bite. It was unlike anything he had experienced, the juices, the flavors, the blood. He bit in again and again and chewed thoughtfully. Reflecting that it might taste better cooked. He lifted it over to the cooker and undid the lid of the pressure cooker. Steam shot out but he didn't feel it burn his scaly arm as he plopped the meat into it and watched it brown.

He smiled as the broth took on pangs of meat and vegetables. He then used his tail to try and flick the plate over to him. His long and sturdy manticore tail launched the plat at the wall, it shattered in front of him. Now feeling rather silly, Pyretread stood up and gingerly took a piece of plate and nibbled on it. It tasted a bit like a dry, overcooked bun. The moisture having long left it stale and dry. He picked up the pieces and threw them into the broth. Then he sliced up the carrot in his new talons and crushed the gem with his dragon claw.

He stirred all his new ingredients in, eliciting a soft line of dribble from his mouth. He stirred it all in for several minutes and brought the concoction back over to the table, only now noticing the note Tick Tock had left and remembering he was supposed to follow the instructions. Oh Hay, what do I do....

Pyretread pondered for awhile and decided to eat the concoction. The flavors clashed horribly with his new senses, the meat now tasted bland, having soaked up the flavors of the vegetables whilst the vegetables tasted dry and gritty with the added gem and dish plate. It seemed he wasn't a born chef, his talent was making things explode.

He sighed inwardly, his mouth jammed shut by his sticky creation and took his concoction with him, looking for a bathroom to pour it down the toilet. It took him an hour to find a bathroom, many of the doors on the ground floor had been locked and he had promised not to go upstairs. He contemplated forcing himself to eat it when he finally found a bathroom. He smiled and brought the mixture over and dumped it into the toilet bowl.

It plopped in with a popping sound as the mess fell out of the pressure cooker. He tried to flush it away but by the fifty third flush he should've known better. He skittered out the bathroom feeling mortified and a little paranoid about what Tick Tock would do to him when he got back. He returned to the kitchen and rinsed out the pressure cooker thoroughly, and hoped whoever Crow was, he wasn't overly touchy about wasted food.

Pyretread made his way out of the kitchen and into the main hallway, he heard the soft clicking of keys and assumed it was Tick Tock or perhaps Crow. He trotted over to the door only to see two mares walk in. All three froze as they saw one another. "SPEAK UP NOW MONSTER" The purple mare's voice had a fierceness he wouldn't expect from such a short mare.

Pyretread tried to speak but the sticky mess was still in his mouth. The tall white mare's horn began glowing drawing out a bow whilst the smaller purple one pulled out a dagger. Pyretread did the only thing he could do. He ran back into the main hallway, the two mares pursued him as he used his wings to make a flying leap up to the second floor, he looked back and saw the purple mare shimmying up the support beam across the other side of the stairs and the white mare running up the one he just came up. He sprinted off down the only unblocked hallway away from the mad mares, he felt if he hurt them defending himself, that Tick Tock would be less than forgiving.

Blackbird was having the best and worst night of her life. On one talon she'd lost all hope of joining griffon society as a full citizen. On the other however she'd been ambushed and nearly killed by an assassin who had taken her in based on her skill, and circumstances. It was a kind gesture, one she might have taken advantage of if she could fire the crossbow as a pegasus.

She was a griffon by nature so the smaller wings of a pegasus were alien and familiar to her at the same time. The strange stallion she was busy trotting beside was her new Master. Tick Tock was his name and being timely was his game, he'd made that joke when she'd asked who he was.

"Tick-tock my Dear, we're almost there." His voice was cheerful as he led her up alongside an old river. She could just make out a small circle of light emanating from what looked like a porthole. They trotted up carefully, the ground a little steeper now as Tick Tock lead her up a roughly hewn path. The path was composed of dead forest debris and jutting rocks, stamped down into an almost stair like pattern, the forest debris filling the gaps in between.

"We're here, stay close to me. My smith friend doesn't like visitors. Excluding myself of course." Tick Tock walked up to a round door built into the wooden structure, the river they had followed up, ran underneath the house, turning a small waterwheel underneath it. Tick Tock rapped the door smartly and waited bouncing on his hoofs.

"Hullo? Who's oot there?" A booming voice sounded from inside. "Ah swear if it's that bloody Royal Guard again, Ah'm goin tae plant mah hoof firmly up his arse." Heavy hoof steps sounded from within as the door opened, a massive form filled the already large door. His features hidden by the shadows and the fire light behind him only seemed to make him seem bigger. Blackbird felt like she was a hatchling again, looking at her father for the first time.

"Tick Tock? Is that you? Celestia's swollen teats it's been a while." The massive form extended a hairy hoof which Tick Tock promptly placed his own hoof against in the classic brohoof gesture. "Dave, my old friend, it's been too long." The massive form nodded it's shaggy head, Blackbird noted he had a rather unique horn sticking out of his head.

"Where are ma manners, come in, come in." The Massive form stepped aside and let Tick Tock and Blackbird enter. "Who's yer friend here Tick Tock?" Dave closed the door behind Blackbird making her feel trapped and smaller besides the massive creature besides her.

"Ah yes Dave, this is Blackbird my new apprentice." Blackbird let a small smile creep on her face, before she felt herself being pushed down, she realized the giant before her was giving her a playful noogie. "HAH HAH. Nice one Lass. This calls fer a celebration. Wait here you two." The large form passed down a set of zigzaggy stairs leaving the two in the hall.

"Is he... always so...?" Blackbird couldn't think of a word to describe him.

"Loud? If it's loud, then yes, if it's cheery also yes." Tick Tock smiled and examined an old grandfather clock sitting at an angle. He poked his head inside and shook his head, pulling out a small screwdriver from his front pocket. He began working on the clock which soon began ticking away at a steady rate.

"Assassination, clock repair, trail guide. Is there anything you can't do?" Asked a bemused Blackbird. Tick Tock looked at her a small smile on his face.

"Nope" He then threw a clear capsule at her, illuminated temporarily by the firelight so it seemed a small golden capsules struck her face. A puff of smoke enveloped her and then faded.

*cough* *hack* "What, what was that for?" Blackbird waved away the smoke with her talons. She looked at them and realized she was a griffon again. She looked up happily as Tick Tock waved a hoof almost absentmindedly.

"Think nothing of it my dear, we're away from the city and Dave is comfortable around anything. Even manticores."

Dave's heavy hoofsteps announced his return, he was levitating three tumblers and a dark brown bottle wrapped in his black magical aura.

"Ah Tick Tock, still playing wi those capsules o yours are ye?" Dave nodded towards Blackbird as he began pouring a generous measure of the brown amber liquid into the tumblers.

"Yes Dave, though it was more necessity than-" He was cut off as Dave spoke up again.

"Hah. Dinnae let him kid ye Lass, he'll try an use tha silly things first chance he gets." Dave levitated a blue capsule out of his drink grinning. "Oh aye n lassie, call me Big Dave, everybody else does except Old Tick Tock here."

How did Tick Tock do that? Blackbird thought as she examined her own drink for capsules carefully. It had a strong seedy smell, slightly similar to wheat.

"Cheers." Dave clinked his glass against her own and downed the whole tumbler. Cautiously, Blackbird tasted her own and found the taste to be rich and exquisite. She almost didn't want to stop drinking but lowered her glass anyway, she had to ask for more.

"Ah know whit yer thinkin lass an the answer is aye." She beamed as he levitated her crossbow over to himself. "Ah can fix this up better than ever." She frowned. "And gie ye some Whiskey tae take wi ye, I'm mare perceptive than ah look lass." He winked and turned back to Tick Tock who had already downed his own tumbler.

"Ah assume ye brought me something tae work wi Tick old friend?" Tick Tock reached for his sides and brought out a heavy satchel. Dave levitated it and opened the small bag levitating the small rocks in front of him. He pulled out a small eyeglass and started examining it in greater detail.

"Nightmare slices an pieces tomato's are these lumps o star metal ore?" Tick Tock nodded as Dave removed the eyeglass a black ring was left around his eye. "Ah can work wi this alright come on doon thae the forge we'll see whit we can dae."  Blackbird raised a talon and opened her mouth about to tell Dave about his blackened eye, when Tick Tock stopped her and shook his head. A playful smile spread across his muzzle. Dave led them downstairs past a kitchen where a green mare was doing some dishes whilst four foals where sitting at the tables reading.

They arrived in the forge room, the room was cast in a fiery glow, showing off Dave's impressive physique. He was a stallion as big, if not bigger than Nightmare Moon herself. His fur was amber brown and his mane was red and shaggy. He had a unicorn's horn that had a dip mid-way and then it went straight up again. His body was full of muscle, making him look like some warhorse from the old story books. Given he had no trouble with wild beasts it wasn't hard to imagine him off to slay dragons and hydras before breakfast and deal with an Ursa Major and Minor after dinner. Another stallion was in the forge room, bigger than the average pony but smaller than Big Dave.

"Alright father, come tae check in on me?" The stallion asked Big Dave looking up as Big Dave shook his shaggy head.

"Nah, nah Lad. we both got some big things tae work on with ma old Pal Tick Tock here."

The smaller Stallion nodded and stepped away from the forge before he started chuckling. "Um Dad, have ye.. um have ye looked in a mirror?" Dave sighed and levitated a reflective piece of metal from an unused anvil, examining his face and spotting his blackened eye.

"THISTLE WHIT DID AH TELL YE ABOOT PUTTING INK ON MA EYEGLASSES!"

Author's Notes: So I snuck in my own OC Big Dave from the Story Big Yin. And no this is not going to turn into a story related to that one. Big Dave is simply so awesome he can exist in any place or time. Thus if I want to include him in any of my stories he can show up and nobody questions it.

Edit: Added and changed a few minor, little things nothing to get excited about

Chapter 8: Quarry's & Palace's

Chapter 8 - Quarry's & Palace's

Dagger felt her heart pumping at a quick and steady pace. The monster she and Snowball were pursuing, a monster that had broken into their home whilst they were out. The monster had fled upstairs and Dagger had cut it off leaving only one direction it could run. She'd lived here long enough to know the monster was running down a hallway that ended with a dead end. Appropriate in an ironic sort of manner.

Snowball was beside her, her horn lit up as she levitated her bow. They rounded the final corner of the hallway, only to find it empty. They both looked at each other grimly, knowing that these doors were rigged with traps. They hadn't had time to disable the alarm rune carved by the coat room, and now faced the dilemma of facing the monster... or Tick Tock's booby traps.

"Snowball, we appear to have reached an impasse. The monster could be in any of these rooms and we don't have time to deal with each trap, or risk being trapped ourselves. Any ideas?" Dagger looked to Snowball who nodded her head a small smile playing across it.

"I have an idea, go back about twenty steps. I'll join you in a minute" Dagger complied and stepped back down the hallway a bit, and waited for Snowball. A minute later she rounded the corner and backed up until she stood next to Dagger. Her horn lit up all the doors and her eyes were closed as she concentrated unlocking them all and ready to open them.

"Dagger get on my back." Dagger raised an eyebrow but complied, leaping up onto Snowballs back. My god her fur feels like silk- Before Dagger could continue this train of thought, every door in the corridor opened. Snowball's magic dissipated and then surrounded them both in a shield. The lights flickered as various traps activated simultaneously. Nets, and cages fell, trap doors sprung open, doors snapped forward like spring loaded mouse traps and one door curiously did nothing but leave a pie with a note beside it.

They waited for the traps to subside and after several minutes the hallway quietened down again. "That was... something different." Snowball chuckled at Dagger and levitated them both around the corner, not wanting to let either of them set off any more traps. The monster was lying unconscious, a spring loaded door kept it pinned to the floor, it's breathing was slow and steady.

"Funny, I swear I've seen something like this before?" Dagger tapped her hoof to the floor thinking. "Canterlot Gardens, I recall seeing a statue like this monster there." Dagger's expression was curious now as she looked over the monster, she turned pale when she saw his flank.

"Snowball, come here a second... please?" Snowball walked over, careful to avoid standing on the door and saw what Dagger was looking at. The monsters flank had a cutie mark, a magnificent fiery inferno.

"Dagger dear, I think he might be... one of Tick Tock's new Acolyte's." Dagger face hoofed as she realized where she'd seen that mark.

"Oh Snowball, we just chased one of Nightmare's soldiers through the house. One Tick Tock was having fixed up." Dagger examined his front legs looking a little queasy. "Snowball, if I'm ever seriously injured, don't let Tick Tock take me to Manehatten. I enjoy being a full pony."

Snowball patted her on the back and lit up her horn pulling their 'Monster' free. "Let's take him to the medical ward. Oh and be a darling and turn off the security please? I don't want to open a door and have it flatten me or flood the corridor."

Dagger nodded smiling sheepishly as she took off, sprinting back to the door. Snowball levitated the unconscious Pyretread besides her as she made her way back to the main hall.

Pyretread ran as fast as his mismatched limbs could carry him. FIGHT THEM YOU FOAL, CAPTAIN HORIZONS WILL NEVER BE INTERESTED IN SUCH A WEAK STALLION! He groaned, the damn voice was back. You must hide, if you wish to live to see her again. Both of them. he mentally face hoofed as he rounded the corner and realised he was trapped.

He backed into the furthest corner and tensed up. Wishing he was invisible, wishing he could simply get out of this unharmed. He saw the indigo purple mare round the corner, her fierce eyes scanning the hallway and looking right at his eyes. He gulped and readied himself for a fight. Only the mare had a look of confusion on her face and looked to her taller snow white friend.

"Snowball, we appear to have reached an impasse. The monster could be in any of these rooms and we don't have time to deal with each trap, or risk being trapped ourselves. Any ideas?" The purple mare looked to Snowball who nodded her head a small smile playing across it. That smile made Pyretread uncomfortable, but he was more curious about the fact he was undetectable. He lifted his arm and noticed he could see through it, his outline was there, vague and shimmery when he moved his arm. He stopped remembering the other two were still looking for him.

He watched the purple one head back down the corridor they had just come up from. And the white one's horn shimmered her aura surrounding each door. He could hear small clicks as she worked to unlock them. He relaxed and noticed he was becoming visible again, he tensed up again but found himself becoming more and more visible.

Luckily the white mare had her eyes closed in concentration. Do not rush her. The purple one is still around the corner, remember. His dark voice was right, he waited as he already intended to do in the first place as she rounded the corner again. When she rounded the corner completely he relaxed himself and stepped out of the corner he had been hiding in.

Pyretread stretched his wings a little and readied himself to sprint, hoping he could employ his new ability to sneak by the mare's and perhaps clean his mouth out so he could talk properly. But before he could the doors all opened. The door he stood beside sprung open and a burlap sack swung from a newly revealed hatch on the roof. The sack was heading right for him, he jumped but felt his manticore tail crunch painfully, gritting his teeth, he rushed forward only for a trap door to open up beneath him. Pyretread beat his wings and avoided it, he also avoided the frost rune which activated as he flew over it creating a tall pillar of ice, the snapping door caught him. Just as he made it past a blow tube firing blue capsules at a door. He landed on a pressure plate which caused the door to snap over him.

The instant that happened his whole body and head rushed to the ground, smacking it painfully. This place is a madhouse.... Was the last thing he thought as he passed into a pleasant dream involving Captain Horizon.

Crow finished incinerating the last of the griffons. His body ached from the strain of performing so much magic throughout the day. A unicorn with less raw power than himself would've been exhausted hours ago. That was his major advantage, as far as magic was concerned he had vast stores of energy and stamina.

He saw Shade bring the sky carriage around and was not ungrateful, he would rest up on the way home and then settle for a night in bed.

"Thank you Shade, take your time going back. I want to catch some shut eye." Shade nodded as he began to draw the carriage back to their manor. Crow settled down in the back seat, buckling himself in and allowed himself to doze off, one eye opened and aware whilst the other remained closed. It was a trick he picked up from a dragon when he cooked him a particularly spectacular lightning gem meringue.

Shade scanned the skies as he pulled the carriage. His mask now stowed away safely. The cold night air whipped against his face as he flew off in the direction of home. He could take his time, but it would be better to be cautious than relaxed. The griffons were already manoeuvring themselves into a position to take over Equestria and it wouldn't be long before they began assaulting supply lines and trade routes.

The skies seemed relatively clear. He closed his eyes for a moment. Grey? I need you to take care of the journey back. The mental image of a an all Gray pony with a Gray mane looked up from the book she was reading.

*sigh* Fine, scoot over. Go play in your palace or do whatever it is you need to do.

Shade opened his eyes again, they looked the same but had a more sombre and dull look to them as Gray was put in control.

Shade flew freely through the dark, looking down on the realm of his mind. A massive wall stretched out, disappearing over the horizons. The wall divided the land in two, behind the wall there was only darkness, something that wanted to get at him. On the other end was a vast landscape of greenery. The most important feature of this vast greenery was a fortress, built to be strong and impregnable. It was surrounded by a thick wall, which in turn was surrounded by another and another. This was his Memory Palace.

The Palace was staffed with troops, all of them wore heavy armor and carried vicious weapons, far too large for the average pony. Much like how he himself used a weapon as large as himself. They stood as silent as statue's. He could make them talk, give them personality and sentience, allow them to develop. But he already had Red, Watcher, Tick Tock and Gray and he was certain a few others who were hiding out, and avoiding him. Shade walked past the silent ranks and arrived at the front doors.

Shade stood before the two massive black doors. Blackened by Red back when they were learning to get along. Shade approached the doors without hesitation, and enjoyed watching them open at his whim. He entered into the main hallway, from here it branched out into dozens upon dozens of corridors. All on the first floor, above him were several other levels with just as many corridors.

Shade began flying up, not content to take his time. As he flew up he sensed the familiar trickle of Watcher's presence. He turned and saw him on the fifth floor watching him, an amused expression on his face. "Couldn't stay away for too long, could you?" In here his voice was clear, no lisp or dark undertones.

Watcher's inky black mane writhed and moved on it's own, acting like tendrils as they batted each other and his glowing yellow eyes made him stand out from any normal pony. Watcher's grey coat was speckled with spots of black and most strangely a cutie mark. A yellow eye surrounded in a black sphere with a red pupil at the center of the yellow eye.

"This is my mind Watcher, I can come and go as I please." Shade's force was firm as he glared at Watcher who merely shrugged.

"Suit yourself friend, do you want some company?" Shade tapped a hoof and nodded flying higher and letting Watcher follow. Watcher's mane spread out like a pair of wings and lifted him up, behind Shade. As they rose they started to hear the screams. Unperturbed by this the two began walking down a corridor on the ninth floor.

"It seems Red has chosen to relive our night in Ponyville." Shade stated as they heard the final moments of Jill's life play out. A door opened behind them as a terrifying pony exited.

Red, if he existed outside Shade's mind, would be considered a demon. His mane was composed of fire in various shades of yellow and red. His skin was coated in dragon scales, his flank had a pony skull with two blades crossed beneath it and encircled by a ring of fire. His Pony head turned to look at them, his red eyes, one larger than the other looked at them with a friendly gleam. His hooves were black with tufts of fire at the hooves and his back had a pair of dragon wings with clawed tips. He smiled revealing his teeth to be finely sharpened points.

"Shade, Watcher how nice to see you, are you both just out for a stroll... or here for a trip down memory lane?" Red watched them both expectantly, as Shade finally replied.

"Yes red, we're going to room one-oh-one."

"Aw, Room one-oh-one? Why not room five sixty-two? I always get a chuckle when that one guards neck collapses from..." He stopped himself seeing the sad look on Shade's face and walked over patting him on the back. "Sorry Kid, I sometimes get carried away, why don't we go and see them together hmmmm?" Shade nodded and began walking away, Watcher saying nothing but gliding along the floor on his mane, whilst Red tried to think of a non-violent way to make it up to Shade.

They all arrived outside Room one-oh-one, the door was made of steel and had two Guardian Ponies standing outside it. Shade walked up to the door and manifested the key needed for entry, it rose out of his form a black and viscous smoke. The smoke key entered the lock, causing the door to de-pressurize and open. The three entered and a bright flash enveloped the room, revealing a camp fire, a small family was huddled around it. Two adult ponies and their young colt. The colt was meticulously working on crafting something when a small flash of light caught his attention. "Mom, Dad look, look, look." The colt excitedly pointed at the sky as a shooting star shot past, followed by a few others.

"Make a wish Shade." His mother's voice was soft and gentle as she walked over to Shade and sat next to him, her white mane and cream coat making her almost ghostlike against the night. She watched the young Shade make his wish.

"Did you make a wish Shade?" The colt shook his head a bright smile played across his face. "I don't need to Mom, I have everything I could ever want." Young Shade was leaning into his mother as he said those words.

Shade gritted his teeth and felt tears spread on his face, watching his younger self. "Always remember Shade. This is what they took from you." Watcher's voice was full of anger as he slunk off out the room. Red wanted to go after him, but Shade needed him, he placed his hoof softly on Shade's back and stood with him, watching the rest of Shade's painful memory play out.

"Thats Ah Bit Oh A Doozy There Tick Tock Mah Auld Friend." Big Dave rumbled as he looked over the designs they had all come up with, in the last three hours, in between tea breaks and brainstorming sessions. "It's No Impossible, But Ah Couldnae Make The Whole Lot Frae Thae Dainty Wee Rocks, Starmetal Or Not."

Tick Tock nodded, as he tinkered with a music box, which began playing a rather pleasant melody. Blackbird tapped her talons on the table, and picked up her mug of tea draining it of the last dregs and biscuit lumps. She placed it down and examined the list of materials Dave and Tick Tock had made.

The list read as follows:

1.Star Metal

2.Dragon Bone

3.Hydra Spine

4.Steel

5.Gold

"Why don't you use wood?" Everyone turned to Blackbird who recoiled a little. "I-I mean, this is Everfree right. Aren't there some magical trees with wood strong enough to endure the forge?" Blackbird felt silly but a dawning look of comprehension filled Dave's sons face.

"Ironbark faither, we could use ironbark. It's a tricky business shaping it right enough."

Dave stamped a hoof. "By Nightmare Bleedin Moon Ah Think This Lass Really Is On Tae Somethin. Ironbark Is Just The Ticket." Dave stepped out of the room and began rummaging in a cupboard. "Ah Better Get On Mah Buckin Shoes. Gotta Buck The Necessary Amount Oh Wood, Probably Take Ah Day Or Two." Dave closed the cupboard holding a fearsome pair of steel shoes in his teeth, he levitated them onto the table. "Come N See Me Again In Aboot Three Days Tick."

Big Dave nodded to Tick Tock then turned to his son. "Jock Ma Boy, Go An Find Jock, Big Jock & Wee Jock. Ah'll Need All The Help Ah Can Get Wi This Project." Dave's son now revealed to be Jock saluted and galloped off quickly, levitating a hammer after himself and snagging some armor off a stand. Dave made his way upstairs waving to Tick Tock and Blackbird.

"So, I guess we just... leave?" Blackbird looked to Tick Tock uncertainly as he put away the music box.

"Tick-tock. Oh definitely, my dear. It would be rude to impose on poor Verdant and Dave's hospitality." Tick Tock brushed off some crumbs from his muzzle. "Come along then.... Oh and take as many of Dave's Rock Cakes as you can carry." Tick Tock himself had filled a small satchel and was strapping it to his side.

They left five minutes later bidding Verdant a long and pleasant night. As they left, Dave's home, Blackbird noted they were taking a different forest path, to the one they had been walking on originally. An hour on the path Blackbird was covered in numerous minor cuts, Tick Tock somehow managing to go unharmed by the hostile forest. The tree's covered the night sky, obscuring even the ghostly moonlight, leaving Blackbird to rely on her nocturnal senses. She knew ponies didn't see as well in the dark, she could run away, or she could kill the stallion in front of her.

She felt the reassuring weight of Bianca on her back and remembered how Dave had fixed it up and actually improved it. She could whip it out and fire it faster than before. What would be the point in killing him? He actually accepts me for my talents, where as my own people ignored me. She patted the weapon and continued to focus on navigating through the forest. Tick Tock halted.

"Congratulations my dear."  Tick Tock sounded pleased as he rounded on her. "I knew I had chosen well with you." Blackbird cocked her head in confusion. "HmHmhm. You had the perfect chance to kill me, or what anyone would assume was the perfect chance." He patted her on the shoulder. "You've taken a step in the right direction, my Dear. Do you mind if we fly from here? It will take dreadfully long to make it to my home by hoof or paw."

Blackbird nodded, feeling like a small hatchling again, he was pleased with her, and he was willing to fly the rest of the way. Blackbird adjusted the crossbow and slid it on to her side. She expected Tick Tock to jump on to her back. Instead he took out a bubbling green vial and downed it. A small drop fell and she noticed it combusted when it struck the ground. She looked at Tick Tock anxiously and then a mixture of horror and awe.

Large Wings as big as an Alicorns burst out of his back which had a large hump on it. His whole body bulged with unnatural muscle, and Blackbird watched him with a worried expression. He took off into the air, his powerful wings beating, brought him through the forest roof and sent him into the night sky. Blackbird followed at a slower pace as they both headed in the direction of Tick Tock's manor.

A massive hammer stood in the middle of an old quarry. the moonlight glinting off it's massive form. It was too big to be of practical use for any normal creature. It's black metal head, was inlaid with gold and silver vein patterns, making the hammer look almost alive. The Quarry it stood in was a ghostly white, the surface layer of chalk from long ago contributed to the name this place earned itself. It was christened the Bone Caverns, after the miners began turning up dragon bones. Celestia had prohibited the mining of the Quarry years ago and did her best to erase traces of it's existence.

It was here a flight of forty griffons had decided to camp out. They would be here until morning and move out. They had discovered the giant hammer and the boldest griffons were trying to lift it. A particularly barrel chested griffon with a gold plumage began hefting it when a voice caught all their attention.

"If You Plan On Usin Them Talon's Again Boy." The group of griffons turned to see a massive stallion. "You Best Not Be Touchin, That What Ain't Yers." The stallion stamped his hoof to emphasize the point creating a small crater at his hoofs. "Ah Don't Like Strangers. Especially One's In My Quarry."

One of the griffons moved forward to strike. The stallion disappeared in a black flash that left them feeling tired. The Hammer was gone too. The griffon commander began squawking out orders as he hovered above his men when the hammer came down from the sky glowing red hot as it sent the griffon into the ground.

"Ah Don't Like Pigeons Crappin In Mah Quarry. GO ON PIGEONS! FLY AWAY AH'FORE A PLUCK YA!" The stallion stood above the quarry, giving himself a bird eye view of the quarry below. "That's The Only Warnin Yer Gettin From Big Dave The Black Hammer."

The Barrel chested Griffin padded over to the Hammer again. "Pony bastard, you think.... we'll leave after....you killed our commander." He paused in between words as he tried to heft the hammer.

"BWAH HA HA HA HA HAAAA. Please Allow Me." Dave leapt, wreathing himself in his magical aura as he landed again in the quarry sending out a powerful shockwave stunning several griffons and turning the barrel chested one into an unrecognisable pulp under his hoofs. He gripped the hammer in his massive jaw and brought it around in a massive, over the top motion smashing three griffons standing there into broken messes.

"THATS WHAT YE GET FER TOUCHIN WHAT ISNAE YOURS. Time Tae Make Some Feathers Fly Boys." A group of stallions emerged, all hefting various large weapons. The griffons charged at their attackers in hopes that their numbers and skill would win out.

Dave laughed as he used his magic to effortlessly block various arrows and bolts that flew at him, and then sent them back at full force. The other stallions prevented the others from escaping, lassoing or shooting them out of the sky with arrows or magic. A grim silence filled the air as the griffons lay dead, all forty of them.

"Hoo many did you get Big Jock?" A unicorn stallion asked.

"Och only four No as Big as Big Jock, but no as wee as Wee Jock, Jock. Hoo aboot you?"

"Ach Ah only managed two, but they was good ones, two griffons tryin tae fly off whilst mah faither was busy wi his own magic." The unicorn paused "An jus call me Jock, it's easier than the full name Big Jock."

"Only Four Big Jock, tsk tsk. Ah managed tae bag 6 oh the flyin buggers." Wee Jock walked over, a grin spread out over his small snout.

"Aye Aye Lads, All Good N All. But We Dae Have A Job Tae Dae Here." Big Dave's booming voice broke up the friendly chat. "Besides Ah Got Twent Four, You Lads Need Tae Be Quicker." He levitated a gourd to his lips and drank the concoction within, perform passing it to the Jocks. "Big Jock, Jock and Wee Jock. You three search the bodies. Wee Billie Git Doon here n Get The Minin Equipment Ready. And Where's Black Bart? He's Meant Tae Help Me Buck Them Ironbark Trees." Dave wandered off gathering the various members of their Motley crew together.

Shade returned to full control once more. The sight of a large mishaped flyer and an approaching Griffin had him on high alert. He stopped and bucked the carriage waking up Crow.

"Crow wake up, we have company." Crow blinked away the tiredness and charged up his horn, his short nap left him feeling a little refreshed but still tired. He examined the forms and then chuckled.

"Ah Shade that misshapen flyer is Tick Tock, only he would have the moxie to give himself Alicorn wings." The two flyers approached Shade recognizing the Griffin from earlier and Tick Tock too, his face was the same but his body out of proportion.

"Tick Tock, Ah Shade my lad. Good to see you and Crow finished quickly." Shade nodded and waited for Tick Tock to continue. "I'll be riding the rest of the way, the Alicorn wings are... uncomfortable. He hovered round to the back seat of the carriage and downed another vial his transformation receding slowly. Blackbird hooked herself up next to Shade, who merely nodded.

The group flew for another hour Tick Tock apparently nodded off like Crow had once more. When the smell of Smoke and Fire awoke them both. Looking forward they could see cast them a concerned look as they got closer to their home. A raging fire was burning and an angry mob had the house surrounded.

"Tick-tock, tick-tock... Tick-tock."Crow looked at Tick Tock with concern as the Stallion shook angrily and stood up.

"TICK TOCK, KILL THEM, NO ONE ATTACKS OUR HOME AND GETS AWAY WITH IT. NO ONE!"

Shade and Blackbird pulled the carriage into a landing pattern and then unfastened themselves flying off to sow death from above. Tick Tock readied his blades and prepared to leap, Crow was ready to jump, but Tick Tock held him down.

"Tick Tock, no, no old Friend. Much as I might want you in this fight. You are tired. Get inside and make sure everything worth saving is saved and all our people are out here helping." Crow nodded, teleporting himself away, whilst Tick Tock used the altitude to aim the sky carriage directly at the crowd surrounding his home.

Author's Notes: What's this... a Cliffhanger? Why yes it is. Sorry to leave you guys on a cliffhanger but I couldn't resist. Peppy does it all the time anyway's, I'll try not to make too much of a habit of it. And only end it on Cliffhangers when it would be cool or appropriate.

Chapter 9: Slaughterhouse

Chapter 9 - Slaughterhouse

The Moon shone upon the black cloud layer and smog that was rising from the ground. Red embers blazed and burned angrily within the blackness of the smoke cloud. The Smoke rose from a massive blaze that had consumed a mighty manor, the blaze burned so brightly it illuminated the thick black smoke cloud above. Casting it in a fiery glow, making it look like a broiling red and yellow sea.

The great inferno had a large mob surrounding it, many of them wore finely made armour, whilst others wore simpler leather armour or nothing at all but the clubs and other weapons they carried in their mouths. Several Unicorns continued to batter the house with destructive spells, creating gaping wounds in the walls.

One gaunt unicorn who was charging a destructive spell ended up killing fifteen members of the mob when a Crossbow bolt pierced his skull. He fell over, his horn and by extension his spell making contact with the ground caused a large discharge or energy and death.

Blackbird was perched at the edge of the scene, firing off carefully aimed shots with her Crossbow. Her targets were stationery and even if they moved their were so many she'd still kill someone. She concentrated on the Unicorns who were causing the most damage and took out three more before she was spotted. She switched her Cross bow into it's regular mode. Putting the sight she'd been using back into it's little slot in the crossbow and flew upwards taking well aimed pot shots at the crowd of attackers.

She watched the sky carriage from earlier crash into the crowd who had begun lashing out at the edges where Tick Tock and Shade were cutting them down. Blackbird watched a tall white Unicorn burst out of the Manor's front door. Crossbow bolts, arrows and throwing knives and axes surged forward but were repelled by a shimmering white shield. Blackbird noted a small purple pony on the white one's back dressed similarly to Tick Tock and Shade.

She flew closer to the mob, using the distraction the White Unicorn provided and began peppering the mob with Crossbow bolts.

*****

Nine Diamond Dogs froze as their lives ended. Shades Blade had made a clean cut through them as he efficiently hacked away at the hostile crowd. A spear flew at him, it was hard to predict where all the attacks would come from with such a large mass of Soldiers. BEHIND YOU Shade turned in time to block the incoming axe blade with his own sword, but felt a jab of pain as an arrow pierced his left wing.

Shade don't let anger cloud you, stay focused Shade grimaced as he forced himself to back off from the mass of bodies. Their were so many of them and each enemy was supporting the other. As one a large section of the force moved forward, careful to keep their defences up. Shade tried to fly, but his left wing was numb, he turned to it and found it was unresponsive. The clever devils drugged the arrows. Shade backed up again and used his blade to hold them back, performing a few wild swings to push the enemy back. He was beginning to feel trapped, when one of the soldiers screamed. He was stabbed through by a Manticores tail which promptly tossed him aside. The soldiers looked back only to be torn apart as a creature of chaos tore into them. It's powerful claws tearing open the throats of two other ponies. It gripped a fallen blade and began using it in conjunction with it's tail which rattled much like a rattlesnakes.

The soldiers now found themselves trapped between two monsters. Shade laughed as he drove his blade into them and used his sword, much like a vaulting pole to launch himself at his enemies. Shade's new ally was proving fairly effective. Piercing, clawing and stabbing his way through the masses of enemies.

"Your name's Shade right?" The beast asked as he rammed his tail into the skull of a Griffin trying to attack from above.

"I am Shade, but I don't know you warrior." Shade spoke politely as he cut through the legs of a Earth Pony Mare and then ran her through with her own blade.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that. You were with those fillies earlier. Tick Tock was gonna introduce me when he got back." They both finished off the last six troops. "Oh and I'm Pyretread." Pyretread was watching the sky for any fliers whilst Shade scanned the area around them. Shade noted his project was on fire, Lord Rust was still inside too.

"Dammit, this Mob has ruined my game." Pyretread gave Shade a puzzled look but shrugged it off. "Relax kid, you can always start again. I'll even help you." Shade smiled and nodded, as he galloped alongside Pyretread to assault a group of soldiers, attacking Blackbird.

*****

The words whirlwind of death were never more appropriate when it concerned Tick Tock. His hooves worked faster than it should be possible, his attacks were sloppier than his usual accurate kills, instead a great many of his attackers lay choking to death on their own blood or bleeding out from multiple wounds. Capsules flew out as Tick Tock carefully aimed explosive capsules. Like miniature suns they ignited sending off deafening booms and stunning shockwaves. Tick Tock's body still ached from his careless use of his Alicorn wing concoction. I shouldn't have been so reckless. He could feel the strain his body was under. It had been a long day, going from city to city, staying up late, using transformation potions, hefting several pounds in supplies hadn't helped either.

Tick Tock threw three throwing knives watching them impale three different spots of a Zebra's body. This unruly mob of warriors was so confusing. They had no real organisation, except when working in smaller groups. As a mob they could potentially overwhelm Tick Tock and his team. But the sight of such a well prepared team of Ponies slaughtering them seemed to stall many of them.

They didn't know who they were fighting. But whoever sent them probably knew I was gone. Tick Tock, having run out of explosive capsules and having only five poison joke ones opted for a less than normal approach to killing the Donkey in front of him. Tick Tock performed a curving leap and steadied himself on the donkeys back whilst using a length of wire to strangle the poor mule. The mule bucked and kicked, injury his fellow attackers. As the mule's face turned blue, Tick Tock used the wire like a sling. The mule soared over Tick Tock's head and into the crowd of attackers, offering a brief reprieve. His opponents surged around the fallen stallion hoping to take Tick Tock by surprise. Instead he saw a rapid burst of crossbow bolts pierce into several of the attackers. Looking Up he Saw Blackbird descend and offer him her tail, he leapt and bit down on it, quickly climbing her tail and shimmying onto her back.

From above, Tick Tock could see their were less than a two hundred attackers left. He saw Snowball levitate and manipulate a dozen or more weapons, it was hard to tell since they were moving at such a speed they were hard for even the Stallions impressive vision to follow. Dagger was still on Snowball's back, Snowball was maintaining a shield to keep any of the remaining ranged or magical attackers at bay. He watched with pride as Pyretread used every part of his fierce body to lash out, his scorpion tail acting like a lance as it struck in quick and decisive strikes puncturing holes in armoured hides. Pyretreads claws slashed at unprotected faces or gouged out eye's as he fought with an almost primal rage. Tick Tock noted however that Pyretread had several minor gashes and cuts over his body. Shade was killing at a much slower rate, the foe's he was fighting outnumbered him and wore heavier armour. Forcing Shade to actively seek weak spots, when he was used to making them with the sheer force of his weapon and the aggressiveness of his fighting style.

Blackbird landed close to Shade and let Tick Tock hop off, before she took off again, intent on assaulting Shade's attackers from behind.

*****

A hurricane of death surrounded the shimmering white shield as Snowball focused on killing as many foes as quickly as possible. She smiled as she caught a crudely formed fireball spell and began squeezing it, sending a controlled downpour of hot flame on the heads of multiple attackers, their manes and fur burning viciously. Every foe she struck down was a bit of personal revenge for the harm that befell Dagger.

The fire raged, consuming the wallpaper and igniting the ceiling. The flames were unnatural, magical green and crimson flames powered by the combined effort of several Unicorns. The Fire hungrily consumed walls and support beams, and lashed out at Snowball, Dagger and Pyretread as they fled the infirmary. The cantered down the stairs, the flames creating a terrible searing heat whilst also consuming the oxygen in the room. As if the lack of oxygen wasn't bad enough, the smoke being generated was partly obscuring the way downstairs. Snowball tripped and was getting on her feet again, when the stair case above her cracked. She reached out with her magic and halted it, getting back onto her unsteady feet. Pyretread grabbed her and pulled her away quickly as the staircase fell down.

They reached the ground floor when she saw the support beam falling, she managed to yank Pyretread back with her Magic, but Dagger was a little too far ahead. Snowball pulled her out of the way, but the beam still struck her back as she was pulled out of the away. A sickening crack and a horrid gash decorated Dagger's back. Galloping out the front door, they saw the soldiers finish surrounding the Manor. Gently Snowball levitated Dagger off her back and saw how badly her back was bent, she focused on setting it and engulfed her in a healing spell.

Pyretread roared, alerting Snowball to a lightning spell thrown at her. She dodged it but felt it prickle her fur, Dagger cried out as the lightning grazed her. Screaming in fury, Snowball began lashing out, forcibly drawing the blood out of the first twenty five attackers and began using the blooding to lash out as the surrounding mob. She let the blood fall and levitated Dagger onto her back, engulfing them both in a white shield as she started to draw out her blade and arm her bow.

Snowball levitated the weapons of the first troops she killed and used them to begin cutting a swathe of death and destruction.

The memories of the horrible events spurred Snowball on, she noted a Black headed Griffin flying overhead, taking out enemy troops and mentally marked the Griffin down as an ally. She Started to notice a distinct lack of enemies and realized their weren't all the many left. Roughly sixty fighters if she had to take a guess. Shade and Pyretread were making a combined effort to kill off the remaining enemies, whilst Tick Tock was picking off the stragglers trying to get away. She noted how exhausted he looked and heard a faint moan from Dagger, which reminded her why she had been fighting so hard. Snowball decided she had to kill as many of them as quickly as possible, so Crow or Tick Tock could examine her.

Closing her eyes, Snowball folded her bow and levitated her blade into it's sheath. She tugged at Shade with her magic, his masked face turned to her and got him to fly over.

"Shade, get everyone away from this rabble. I'm about to finish this." Shade nodded and opened his hooves as she levitated Dagger into his hooves. He gripped her firmly and flew over to the Griffon a little unsteadily, who proceeded towards Tick Tock. Snowball levitated the stolen blades and sent them into the ground, creating two half rings, one bigger than the other. Her horn flared and crackled with magic, Snowballs shield began shaking and fading. A grazing blow from a thrown axe, almost made her lose the spell. But she held firm and opened her eyes.

Snowballs eyes were now glowing white orbs as the grass on the ground died around her. Even the flames seemed to sputter and dim as she brought down the spell. Bolts of Arcane power shot through the blades, creating a killing field. A great chorus of screams split the night air as the bolts of power ended the lives of her would be attackers. The scream seeming to echo on even after the spell finally fizzled out.

Several piles of ash surrounding Snowball indicated the enemies who had received the brunt of her spell and had died and been incinerated rather quickly. Farther out they corpses still smoked and burned, the tingle of magic in the air made her horn spark and sputter. Snowball navigated the battlefield, the various swords and armour of the fallen had fused, creating a single mass of death, bodies and metal. She passed the larger outer ring of blades and noted that they had melted into piles of useless metal slag.

Tick Tock trotted up the hill again, carrying Dagger on his back, Dagger looked much better now. Her breathing was calm and steady and a leather brace was wrapped around her mid-section, keeping her back straight. A flash of red magic confirmed Crow's reappearance, he seemed bedraggled and exhausted. His coat was coated in soot and his body and mane slick with sweat, but he still managed to keep a calm demeanour.

Tick Tock nodded to him and gently lay Dagger on the ground, allowing Crow to examine her more carefully. Tick Tock looked at Dagger and back to Snowball,flashing a knowing smile and then trotted off to examine the dead.

*****

The morning cycle began as the brightened moon illuminated the burnt out husk of a manor. The lower levels had been saved and some of the rooms on the upper floors had been spared. It was partly due to Snowballs spell that the fire had become more tame, the energy stolen from it had robbed it of some of it's destructive power. Tick Tocked placed another stack of books in another crate and grunted in unfamiliar annoyance as he couldn't read the title's as clearly in moonlight.

I never thought I'd miss that Sun as much as I do now... Tick Tocks thoughts continued to protest packing his books this way, surely he could spend a few moments gathering some glow worms or fireflies? Perhaps I could send Shade to gather some fireflies? No, no he's already busy packing things with Crow. He sighed as he trotted back inside,  an unfamiliar glow caught his attention, turning he saw Pyretread with an annoyed look as Blackbird continued to poke a strange glowing orb, at the tip of his tail.

"Quit it Blacky, bad enough I can't control all of my bodily functions without you turning me on and off like a light switch" He huffed and tried to walk away. Only for Blackbird to poke his tail again and turn it off, and on repeatedly.

"Light on, Light off, light on, light off." Blackbird laughed as she messed around with his tail until Pyretread punched one of the walls in anger, the taloned fist drove straight through the burnt wood and let out a horrid cracking sound.

"Now, Now you two. I assumed you'd both get along wonderfully, I recruited you both on the same day after all." Tick Tock's tone was cheery if a little strained. He'd been awake nearly eighteen hours, and longed to get some shut eye, but he had to secure all the books in his study first. He gave them both a stern but friendly gaze, just the right amount to make them squirm.

To their credit, Pyretread and Blackbird looked equally guilty about their behaviour, and tried to imitate Snowball's sad eye which had originally gotten them into their scavenging task. Tick Tock sympathized with them, their sad eyes could easily be seen through. Blackbirds predatory eagle eyes and Pyretreads mismatched set were hardly going to match up with Snowballs skill. Still Tick Tock softened his gaze a little and chuckled at their sad eyes.

"A valiant effort, but I've suffered that stare more times than I care to recount." Blackbird seemed to deflate a little at hearing this, Pyretread shrugged and waited for Tick Tock to continue.

"Pyretread, I believe I have a specific task in mind for you, follow me please. Blackbird my dear, can you please check in on Crow? He has an even bigger library than I do." Blackbird saluted and flew off to find Crow, Pyretread followed Tick Tock to his study and saw several open boxes and a lot of singed furniture.

"Sad isn't it? I really liked those chairs." Tick Tock's back was to him as he lifted several books that hadn't been burned or ruined down off higher shelves. "I need some light Pyretread, see if you can ignite it yourself."

Pyretread sighed. What am I, an acolyte or a lamp? Grumbling to himself, Pyretread pulled his tail forward and tried to twitch the right muscle with his claws. Tick Tock watched him and shook his head. He made his way back to the floor, balancing the books on his head.

"Pyretread, you'll never be a true Assassin if you can't control your own body." Pyretread scowled at his master. What does he know about it? Hmmmm? Oh joy, Dark voice was back. "I know what it's like to use muscles you're unfamiliar with Pyretread. Allow me to enlighten you on a little story about myself."

Tick Tock sat himself down on one of the closed crates and invited Pyretread to do the same. He complied and sat down looking into Tick Tock's Gray eyes as he began his tale.

*****

The sunlight shone brightly on the unusual town of Two Towers. What made it so significantly different from many other towns on the borders of Equestria was the majority of the town was built on a massive bridge. The Bridge spanned the width of two castles, and was three miles long. Each end of the bridge had a small village built on the surrounding land to cater to visitors or house the farming families that lived by the river's edge.

Each end of the bridge was guarded by fierce stone fortresses, built to withstand attacks from either end. The Fortresses were identical, excluding the colour scheme. Both were built of hard stone and identical layouts, but had different decorative layers. One Castle decorated in a layer of Obsidian and the other decorated in a layer of Alabaster.

The town built between the two castles, had two long rows of buildings, some extending to twelve stories high, as was permissible by the Viscount and Town architects. No space was wasted on alleyways or back gardens, though rooftop and window gardens were a common enough sight, even a few gardens built on balconies overlooking the river or streets. No villa's existed on the actual bridge since it would be a horrible waste of space.

Both sides of the Bridge had guard posts built along it, and stoic guard ponies patrolling it, wary for Ponies trying to sneak into the city by scaling the walls via the river.

The sun shone brightly off the Alabaster Castle. The castle had an occupied medical room where a fair mare breathed in and out quickly, besides her a Stallion stood and gripped her right hoof firmly in his own. The mare heaved and wept as she was encouraged by the form of a white doctor stallion and the black coated stallion gripping her hoof.

"Easy my dear, it's almost over. Just one more push should do it." The Doctor Stallion said. The black coated Stallion flared up his magic and the Mare breathed more easily as she pushed once more. The pain was dulled allowing her to focus on pushing and ignoring the pain. She gritted her teeth and stamped her left forehoof down on the metal railing at the edge of the bed, depressing the metal.

The Doctor Stallion seemed visibly nervous by this display but focused again on the task at hand. A small head emerged much to his relief but he noticed the cord wrapped around the infants throat.

"NURSE, WE NEED A RESPIRATOR ASAP!" The Doctor bellowed at a Nurse Mare standing by. She galloped off quickly as the mother continued to push desperately. The pain returning as she forced herself to the point of exhaustion. A sense of relief washed over her as the small filly's body came free. The Black stallion focused on the young filly and began breathing for her, forcing her lungs to take in air for her small body.

The nurse returned with the respirator and immediately set it up, pulling the small mask onto the filly's face whilst the Doctor stallion examined her. The Black Stallion stood by the Mare as she blacked out, the last thing she heard was, "Doctor what is wrong with the filly."

Twelve hours later

She awoke to an unfamiliar sensation, opening her bleary eyes, she saw a machine hooked up to her swollen teats draining her milk and bottling it. Looking around she saw the black Stallion levitating a small Pegasus filly. The Filly was being rocked, very, very gently by the Stallion until he noticed she was awake.

He smiled and trotted over his magic propping her up against a small pile of pillows. "You did it my Lady. Your own filly." He stood beside her and gave her a gentle look as he ever so gently, handed her the small filly. The filly's eyes were closed as she slept softly, the miracle of life, symbolized within her own hoofs.

*****

Pyretread sat on his haunches staring straight ahead as his mind began to make sense of everything Tick Tock told him, the detail of the town, the pain of giving birth, the effects of the spell. Dawning horror spread across his face, much to Tick Tocks own amusement as he burst out in uncontrollable laughter.

"HAHAHAHA Oh how I love seeing everyponys expression when they hear that story. Giving birth the first time is a terrible task." Tick Tock seemed almost invigorated by his amusing story. Whilst Pyretread reflected glumly that he felt rather weak and tired. He was about to ask Tick Tock what this had to do with learning to turn his tail on, when Crow kicked in the Door.

"YOU!" Pyretread squeaked and hid behind Tick Tock, amusing since he was taller and bulkier than his Master. "How did you do it." Tick Tock gave Crow a quizzical look. "How did my apprentice offend you Crow?"  Crows features contorted as he angrily showed him the glittering interior of his pressure cooker. "You put ground up gems in a pressure cooker, exclusively designed to cook vegetables." He pointed an angry hoof at Pyretread who somehow managed to look smaller than the two Stallions in the room.

"Calm down Crow, I see a solution to your dilemma." Tick Tocks voice was full of confidence as he spoke. Crow nodded and waited for Tick Tock to continue, an intrigued look on his face.

"The way I see it, Pyretread messed up as he's an inexperienced chef. You Crow are a Master chef taught by thirty seven different culinary masters." Crow beamed, a smug smile creeping on his face.

"Pyretread is an ex-soldier coping with a new body, and a lack of practice in cooking anything that isn't explosive." Pyretread nodded in agreement with Tick Tock. "Henceforth you shall be his Cooking Master." Tick Tock allowed a grin to permeate his face as Crow and Pyretread looked aghast. They both noted they had a similar expression on their faces and promptly shut their mouths and pawed the ground nervously.

"And no but's from either of you, I already have a headache. Someone come wake me when Lady.C arrives." Tick Tock trotted out the room, leaving the Chimera and Stallion looking at one another. They both had an unspoken understanding, as they both walked off together. "Since you'll be my cooking apprentice, you'll need to learn your cooking implements. You can help me pack up the kitchen supplies." Crow lead the reluctant Pyretread into the kitchen and began instructing him on each cooking utensil and pot he owned.

Author's Notes

Hey guys, hope you liked this chapter. I'll try and see if I can maintain a twice the week update rate. some days I obviously don't have a lot of inspiration or know where to take my story in the next chapter. I have some brilliant ideas regarding the next few chapters. I feel chapter 11 will definitely be that long promised flashback chapter and in a day or two I'll be posting an updated character sheet.

End of Part One.

Despite the title, I assure you this isn't the end of the story. Decided I need to take an extended break from this story. I know it's been forever since I updated but I assure you the story will continue in a new story. Taking Aegis Shield's approach to writing, like how he did with his Lunar Stallion Trilogy.

So I shall end this story here for now and post the next story which will take place after a bit of time has passed. Will give me time to figure out where I want to go with the story. I'm currently invested in one of my other stories which I shall mention in my latest blog.

I'll post an update to this story with a link to Part two of the Assassins' Story.

Also Moving the Character Sheet to this last page.

I realize I'm sometimes vague or overly descriptive when it comes to my characters. And I need a little break from this story and the others I'm adding to, so I decided to update the Character sheet

Tick Tock

Coat Colour - Chestnut Brown

Mane Colour - Black

Eye Colour - Gray

Race - Earth Pony

Cutie Mark - Magnifying Glass

Theme Music: Sword and Shield

Biography

Tick Tock is a stallion with a very colourful past. When he was a colt he had a run in with Poison Joke and was stuck as a Filly for a year. This experience encouraged Tick Tock to study Alchemy and Herbalism. He also has experience in espionage, having infiltrated the Zebra, Equestrian and Griffon governments at one time or another. Tick Tock developed his skills at climbing, scaling and moving quickly through urban environments in Manehatten when he joined a group of Ponies that practised Parkour. He also met Crow in Manehatten in a life changing event for them both, they travelled together for years before Nightmare Moon's return.

Tick Tock is a kind Stallion, he cannot stand to see injustice, but finds systems that allow injustice even more infuriating. Tick Tock saw Celestia as a problem, her way of governing was not just in his opinion, ineffective and at best a naive dream that she continued to delude herself with. He see's Nightmare Moon as someone he can devote himself too, but knows she needs more than loyal Stallions so he began to use his accumulated skills to assassinate various threats and enemies, ranging from Griffin Generals to Ponies who tried to off her.

Tick Tock prefers fighting with his two hidden blades, but is not above using a sword or a stolen blade. He will employ various deceiving manoeuvres in battle. Like using Poison Joke capsules. When using his blades, Tick Tock prefers to go for quick and efficient kills, he dislikes letting people suffer long, even enemies of the state.

Crow

Coat Colour - Black/Dark grey (Depending on the lighting

Mane Colour - Scarlet Red

Eye Colour - Scarlet Red like his Mane

Race - Unicorn

Cutie Mark - A Crimson Six pointed star with a black gear inside

Theme Music: Glass Harp

Biography

Crow is a native of Manehatten, he was schooled by his father, a magician. He learned Magic and magical theory from his father before he moved out in his early twenties. Crow took up the study of science and magic when he was in his teens. and became a recluse. Shunning contact he left and went off to study on his own in his twenties.

He met Tick Tock during this time of soul searching and along with Tick Tock discovered his Cutie Mark. Crow is a powerful Unicorn, his shield spells are strong able to resist prolonged attacks for a substantial amount of time or contain threats for just as long. He is also very good at long range teleportation and knows a variety of offensive spells. He is not a fighter but will defend himself when he must.

Crow is a very good liar and master of deceit, he learned to be even better after he met Tick Tock. He travelled with Tick Tock for several years up until the arrival of Nightmare Moon, he saw Nightmare Moon's return as the beginning of a great change in Equestria and decided to assist Tick Tock in his endeavours for a better equestria. Crow also has a passion for cooking, his teachers included various respected and eccentric chefs, he has picked up recipes in his travels with Tick Tock making him an even more reliable source of cooking information than any book. He also has a passion for Arcane Sciences and magical experimentation, as well as a thirst for knowledge rivalled by few others.

Snowball

Coat Colour - Snow White

Mane Colour - Snow White

Eye Colour - Sapphire Blue

Race - Unicorn

Cutie Mark - A heart shaped Sapphire blue diamond

Theme Music: Until the Last Moment

Biography

Snowball is a notably tall Mare, with a distinct white Coat. She was raised to be a proper lady but enjoyed swordplay and archery, colt pursuits which she was permitted to learn since eccentricies make Mare's more interesting to other noble families. Like a Zebra maid or a diamond Dog butler. Snowball not content to live a life as some dullards wife turned down all her suitors.

It was at the point her mother got desperate to marry her off that she presented her with a Noble Stallion by the name of Royal Gear. She got to know the stallion who lead her in exciting escapades, teaching her parkour and even a few magic lessons. It was revealed to her that Royal Gear was actually Crow.Tick Tock had sent Crow to seek out talent for his little group and he found Snowball.

She was initially upset by the deception but upon hearing that she was wanted for her talents and not her good looks she reconsidered, on the condition that Tick Tock extend the invitation. Tick Tock met her and after a few nights he brought her to the top of Ghastly gorge where he asked her to jump, promising she would be safe. She was reluctant but complied, realising she would probably never see Crow or Tick Tock again if she didn't take that leap.

The Eels in ghastly Gorge snapped out as she fell but she was protected by Crow's magic and teleported back up. She passed her leap of faith and tick tock made her a travelling companion. Snowball has greater control and focus of her magic than Crow. A side effect of living such a controlled lifestyle, she is able to multi-task with her magic, wielding multiple weapons. Her preferred melee weapon is her family's blade she stole when she ran off with Tick Tock and Crow. Her custom made fold out bow was built with assistance from Crow and Tick Tock.

Snowballs wealthy lifestyle still sticks with her, she enjoys spa treatments, jewellery and unique items and antiques. She has also become very generous inspired by Tick Tock's unique approach to recruiting her. Snowball has recently come to realize she cares for Dagger as more than just a friend, only time will tell how this relationship will pan out.

Shade

Coat Colour - Royal Blue

Mane Colour - White

Eye Colour - Brown, like Polished oak.

Race - Pegasi

Cutie Mark - Hasn't appeared yet

Theme Song Requiem For a Dream

Shade is a Pegasi orphan, found by Tick Tock whilst Crow was off on another mission with Snowball. Shade's parents were killed early on in Nightmare Moon reign by a patrol of Royal Guard Ponies desperate for supplies. Shade's family had little and fought back, culminating in his parent's death, it is at this moment when Shade almost lost his mind, his world having been chipped away over the years until all he had left were his parents. Dead he had nothing to live for and promptly took up a fallen guards Weapon.

Tick Tock arrived to find the Colt alone, covered in blood with dead guards around him. Tick Tock managed to comfort the colt and snap him out of the daze he was in, before taking him with him. Tick Tock initially planned to set him up in an orphanage but noticed over time how distraught and destroyed the Colt really was.

Deciding to take the colt with him, Tick Tock took on the role of his master/mentor instilling the young colt with a code of ethics. Shade also enjoys games of logic like Chess or Casualty and has come to see Tick Tock as a father and Crow as an uncle. Shade is uncomfortable around Mares, likely due to his early interactions since his parents death being with male role-models like Tick Tock and Crow, but he is more relaxed amongst fillies his own age.

Shade's real name is unknown, but he has a very detailed memory of his life, he can remember everything in perfect clarity making the act of forgetting the past and moving on seemingly impossible. To help him, Tick Tock decided to help the Colt get revenge. Together they have compiled a long list of Ponies responsible for major disasters in the young colts life.

Shade due to Tick Tock's care has developed his own inner Tick Tock that offers him guidance and assistance, a what would Tick Tock think or do type of persona. There is also two other more vocal voices, one is Red his revenge incarnate, he drives Shade to hit harder and faster than it should normally be possible for a Colt his age. The other voice is simply the Watcher, a black presence that urges Shade to watch and revel in his Games. There's also Gray, but she is merely content to lounge about and do nothing, taking over for Shade here and there.

In combat Shade uses a Broadsword as long and wide as himself, he wields it with great accuracy, able to slow it down so it doesn't kill or dismember a limb or make it strike harder so it does dismember. When shade is hunting an assassination target he will sometimes speak in nursery rhymes, which he will twist to make them more sinister. When killing Shade prefers to don a mask, called his death Mask he claims it is the last face he saw before he met Tick Tock.

The Mask is made of smooth Iron, Dyed  black. A single Red eye appears on the mask which has been enchanted to allow Shade to see out of it. as if the mask was his face.  A large smile takes up half the mask whilst the other side remains blank, the teeth of the smile are large and white, whilst the gums are purple and sickly.

Shade's mind is structured so that all that he is, is safe and secure within his own mental fortress. Guarded constantly Shade rules here, and allows his other personalities to live here as well. Other personalities linger in Shade's warped mind, hiding from him for their own reasons.

Dagger

Coat Colour - Indigo Purple

Mane Colour - Pale Brown

Eye Colour - Indigo Purple

Race - Earth Pony

Cutie Mark - Hasn't appeared yet

Theme Music: Get a hold of yourself

Biography

Not much of Dagger's past is known. She was taken by a scouting party and brought before Blackbeak who was preparing to engage her in forced sex when Tick Tock arrived and slew the foul beast. Since then she has been grateful to Tick Tock, developing a devotion to him over the last few weeks.

The training she went through in her first few weeks was brutal, she had to perform the obstacle course 5 times in the morning before she would be led blindfolded to the catacombs and taught to wall climb by Crow. She would be returned to Tick Tock who would show her how to wield a hidden blade.

She witnessed each member of Tick Tock's group kill at some point until she too was ordered to make her first kill, she survived her first assassination mission and like Shade chose a name for herself. Calling herself Dagger after the blade she used to best her first kill, a dragon. The blade was given to her by Snowball on the eve of the battle at New Mareland. Tick Tock has taken her on as an apprentice. Dagger has shown an impressive ability to soak up teachings and skills in a short amount of time, hence why Tick Tock rushed her training since she is doing so well.

In battle Dagger prefers her hidden blade, but is also happy dual wielding or simply wielding the dagger, which can deflect larger weapons and leave a hoof free to use in other creative ways such as mixing brawling in with her knife attacks. Dagger has begun to develop friendly feelings for Snowball and has taken it upon herself to make the effort and befriend her. Her efforts have been well received so far, so much so that a possible relationship is beginning to bloom. It's up to Dagger and Snowball where it will go though.

Pyretread

Coat Colour - Silver

Mane Colour - Fiery Orange

Eye Colour - Mismatched

Race - Chimera Pony

Cutie Mark - A burst of explosive fire

Theme Music - Dream Theater - Panic Attack

Before the battle of New Mareland, Pyretread was a soldier in Nightmare Moon's Lunar Army. His resolve to serve Queen and country was strengthened when Celestia's Royal Guard burned down his home and killed his family and friends. Having nothing left to go home to, Pyretread fell into a brief depression, until he remembered his oath to serve Nightmare Moon, and the prospect of one day courting Cloudy Horizons.

During the battle Pyretread fought bravely but was injured in the fighting, he managed to crawl away from the fighting, far enough that the Moon's presence didn't outright kill him, but left his legs useless. He spied activity at the castle and was motivated by voices in his head to continue to live. Pulling out a home made flare he managed to catch somepony's attention, but not anypony he was expecting.

Tick Tock and Dagger discovered him after nearly failing to save Queen Moon, from the Assassination attempt by Silent Brook. His curiosity peaked at a sole survivor of the battle and his unique flares, drove Tick Tock to rescue Pyretread. Working with all the alchemy and medical skills he'd acquired, Tick Tock stalled Death long enough for Dagger to bring Crow. Crow and Tick Tock over a series of lengthy teleportation spells and repeated redressing of his bandages, brought Pyretread to an acquaintance of theirs, Dr. Feelgood. The good Doctor examined Pyretread and decided he would save Pyretread, if he got to give him some special augmentations.

Tick Tock agreed and Pyretread underwent massive surgery. Reshaping Pyretread into a Chimera Pony, with bits and pieces of various other species. His new biology has given him a whole host of new abilities, including chameleon like invisibility, A tail filled with seventeen poisons, a light membrane in his tail, that can be used to illuminate dark areas. Pyretread is also able to eat Meat, Vegetables/Fruit i.e, Pony Food and Gems. Pyretreads forelegs were replaced with a dragons claw and a Griffon Talon, allowing him to hold and grip objects with more ease and dexterity. He also has the wings of a Griffin, giving him strong if less agile flight.

Blackbird

Coat Colour - brown

Head Colour - Black

Eye Colour - Golden

Race - Griffin

Cutie Mark - A Griffin's head when she's in Pony Form

Theme Music - Illuminate Me

Blackbird is a Griffin outcast. Born without Clan, and never adopted into one. Blackbird like many other's of her kind, has lived a hard life. For most of her life Blackbird only wanted to join a clan, it was her sole obsession, her driving force in life. She never achieved her lofty goal and had all but given up on life. That changed when she met Bianca, Bianca didn't care about clan or status and accepted Blackbird.

Unfortunately, Blackbirds relationship with Bianca was discovered, and Bianca was killed. Heartbroken and desperate to establish some sort of connection, Blackbird decided to try and join a clan once again. When the assassination of Nightmare Moon was organised, Blackbird and several other Griffins were hired and placed under the command of a more experienced assassin. The plan failed horribly as Blackbird whilst fighting for her life, was left as the last Griffin standing, having seen Deadbolts brutal treatment at Shade's hooves, Blackbird tried to kill herself.

Blackbirds suicide was stopped By Crow and Tick Tock, who took her in as an Assassin. Finally finding some sort of acceptance and companionship Blackbird now works for Crow. Blackbird is a little rough around the edges, teasing Pyretread since she isn't as experienced in long term friendships. Her interactions with others are modelled a little after her relationship with Bianca, but she always tries to be sociable with everyone she knows.

Blackbird carries a custom made Crossbow, with multiple firing methods in remembrance of Bianca and named it after her. She is a skilled marksman, able to use the Crossbow over long distances, and fight with it in mid air.