Andalusian's Creed : Bloodlines

During a noon summer day, a white clad pony was perched at the lip on top of a bell tower in the middle of the city. From where she crouched, the sun warmed ledge felt hot under her suede wrapped hooves. This made her silken yellow fur full of sweat, under the clothes and bindings that serves to protect her from harm, but not heat. Yet, the temperature didn't affect her one bit. The reason was her whole attention was focused on the cobble stone street below. She closely observed the townsponies walking about, performing their own daily routines, blissfully ignorant of what was to transpire soon.

"If only they knew." she thought and gripped harder the wooden stock she held with her left hoof. She then glanced at her crossbow and admired at the handcrafted piece. The weapon was solidly built by the finest artisans in the kingdom to fire straight and true. A grim thought popped into her mind just then, "it better shoot accurately, there was no second chance."

She looked about, plotting her escape route once the deed was done. Im spite of this, she wondered though, if she could even escape alive. Reflexively, her right hoof went under her tunic. She felt for the hidden dagger under her robe; the poignard was the final solution if ever she was cornered. While touching the blade, she tried to assure herself that if her mission was a success, then even if her life was traded, the bargain would still be tipped in their favor.

Her heart began racing at that moment. Her heartbeats seemed to increase with every second that goes by. With the time to perform the deed approaching fast, the reality of the situation had finally caught up to her.

She tried to will herself to relax but her pulse would not slow down. As a result, she continued to perspire - but not from the heat. Cold liquid seeped from every pore, supposedly cooling her body. And yet, her heart kept on beating faster. The pounding throbbed in her inner ear like thundering wild ponies.

"A panic attack? Couldn't be! She was a warrior! " she thought with alarm.

Her left foreleg holding the crossbow went numb. This caused her to lose her grip and the well crafted weapon fell. The fall seemed to take forever until it hit the ground, many stories below. The beautiful instrument of war shattered into pieces, with an unmistakable cracking sound.

Her eyes grew wide.

The crowd below all stopped what they were doing. They all looked up and saw her. Already, cries of alarm were heard. With her discovery, she knew the guards will arrive in a very short time.

She had to escape. She went inside the tower and ran down the flight of steps. Moments later, she spotted a nearby roof beyond an open window. When she reached the opening, she leapt from the tower onto the roof's red clay tiles. But, her landing caused some of the tiles to crack and come loose. Although she deftly caught herself from slipping; some of the broken tiles crashed on the sidewalk below.

"There!" came a sound from above.

She looked up, disbelief in the origin of the sound filled her thoughts.

"Flyers!" she said between gritted teeth. "Why were they here?" Her escape now looked hopeless.

She galloped across the roof. At the same time, on the other side of the building, a pegasus in golden armor swooped down to block her way. It quickly charged at her, hoping to knock her down with a tackle. Instinctively from years of experience, she sidestepped the attack, simultaneously kicking with her foreleg knee. The kick hit the pegasus in the midsection, where there was no protection. The winged pony crashed and doubled over in pain.

With her adversary immobilized, she scanned her next route of escape. Unfortunately, the gap between the buildings was too wide to jump. In addition, she was too high up to climb down quickly before the rest of the pegasus's companions arrived.

She wished she planned her escape well in advance. This reminded her that someone said she should think before she acts. She allowed herself a brief chuckle at that.

Her senses soon picked up something approaching. Knowing what was to come, she unsheathed the dagger hidden in her shirt. A few moments later, the clatter of hooves landing surrounded her. More golden armored ponies flew down from above.

"So this is it." she thought.

She bit on the dagger and curled her lips into a wicked smile at her foes. She removed the false pommel that was actually just a painted piece of cork. It exposed a long needle that was tipped with a special poison. To the horror of the ponies surrounding her, she stabbed the needle into her own flank.The drug quickly spread throughout her body. While her enemies were in disarray over their next move, she attacked, blade still held with her teeth.

With unnatural speed she struck. The vile ichor coursing through her veins gave her lightning fast reflexes. As it enhanced a pony's physical prowess, it also taxed the body greatly. In the end, her heart will give out and she will die, but she would take a few of the others down with her.

Unfortunately, the pegasi recovered quickly from their shock. When they saw her advance, they flew away.

The only one she managed to reach before he went skyward was saved from her stabs by expertly shifting his body so the knife encountered metal. This made her realize that these pegasi were no ordinary guards; they knew how to fight assassins. That fact angered her a bit, but then she remembered her training.

With the short reach of the dagger, she complemented it with bucks and kicks from her speed enhanced legs. The pegasi squad soon bled from several small cuts and suffered numerous bruises.

However, she too suffered from the squad's attacks. The pegasi first flew fast to gain momentum, then they crash into her from behind, after that, they flew back up to avoid retaliation. Though not one pegasus carried a weapon, the body slams they gave using their armor and the hits from metal shod hooves were enough to cause blunt force trauma across her whole body.

The poison was coursing faster through her bloodstream than normal due to the heat of the noonday sun and that was radiated off the rooftop. She started to feel light headed and her muscles were taking slower to respond to her mental commands.

After a few minutes, she dropped the dagger. Spittle and froth filled her mouth. To add to her burden, she was having a hard time focusing. This was, she realized, the end.

"Come, finish it!" she spat.

In her blurred vision she thought she saw another pegusus coming down from the sky. It landed in the middle of the fight, between her and her adversaries.

Without thinking, she quickly stepped back. However, her hind legs still had a bit of speed and she moved to the edge of the rooftop. That was when her body failed her. Her eyes rolled and she fell.

The last thing she heard was somebody screaming. The tone was familiar - it was her own voice.

Fluttershy quickly sat up on her bed; she had that dream again. Her silken yellow fur was sweating under the quilt and blankets that serves to protect her from the cold, but not nightmares.

She looked out of her bedroom window. The dawn sun had yet to peek out from behind the mountains. Tears flowed from her eyes as she quietly sobbed the coming of the new day.

At the neighboring capital of Canterlot, Princess Celestia was strolling down the main hall, preparing to start her daily duties. On the opposite side of the hall, Princess Luna was returning, having completed her responsibilities.

Princess Celestia noticed a look of concern on her beloved sister. She stopped to ask if anything was troubling her.

Princess Luna looked up and saw her sister's distressed face. She gave a little smile to allay her sibling's worry and said it was nothing important. Her mind though was still trying to figure out why she couldn't enter Fluttershy's nightmare to help her.

Why couldn't she come inside her dream? It was like it wasn't a dream at all.

"That was impossible," was the only conclusion Princess Luna could believe. And yet, "Why was this happening to Fluttershy every night?" she asked herself.