Blood Moon awoke, his dream escaping him, flittering away and out of his grasp. He frowned; that had happened to him before and it was not a nice feeling, like something just out of reach, that one tormenting inch away from his hoof. He put his hoof to his temple and made circular movements in an attempt to be rid himself of the ache threatening to emerge, though soon enough, he felt the rhythmic pulse of pain begin as the headache started up. The assassin shook his head a few times as he got up from the couch he had called 'bed' for the last few nights. Blood Moon didn’t like headaches, as was the case with many of the ponies of Equestria, but he felt himself in a slightly better position than anypony else. Mainly because he knew just how to get rid of them. He trotted into the kitchen and went through a few draws until he came across some aspirin; taking three, he then put his head under the tap and chugged water like a frat would booze. By the time the water had filled his stomach, it had also numbed him a little with the cold water, paving the way for the aspirin. Or at least, that’s what that one guy wearing a suspiciously bloody doctor’s uniform had told him.

Rubbing his head again as he turned around, Blood Moon turned straight into Dinky Hooves. She wore a small grin on her face, likely aimed at the assassin’s ‘interesting’ drinking method. The assassin returned the filly’s grin, a small smirk stretching across his face .

“Hey” he said.

"Hey" she replied “better now” she asked, motioning at the sink behind him. Blood Moon grunted a laugh.

“Muchly so” he replied as he sat down on one of the chairs in the kitchen, watching the filly do the same. “You’re up a little early, aren’t you?” Dinky gave a small frown.

“I’ve gotta get ready for school” she told him. The assassin frowned back.

“Wait, you’re telling me that right after an attack on Ponyville, the foals still have to go to school? Wow, and I thought my youth was brutal” he commented “What about repairs, anypony hurt?” Dinky giggled, rather adorably.

“Nopony was badly hurt, and the only real damage was the thatch roofing on the houses. Ponies like Miss Twilight can fix that easily” she told him. Blood Moon raised an eyebrow, cocking his head.

“And how, pray tell, do you know all this little one?” Dinky gave him a small shrug.

“I dunno, I just looked around yesterday when we were coming back here and figured that with almost everypony trotting around, builder-stallions only really looking at the rooftops and that the only real work being done was...d-dragging the...changelings away” she said, he confidence diminishing when she approached the subject of death. The assassin gave her a sympathetic smile.

“You’re a smart filly, you know that? Wise beyond your years.” Dinky gave him a small smile of thanks. After a second of sitting in silence, the pair of ponies heard the sound of another pony trotting down the stairs. Blood Moon and Dinky rose and peered into the living room to find a sleepy-looking Ditzy Doo meandering gracelessly down the stairs. The filly and stallion glanced at each other, exchanging a concerned look.

"You…ok sis" Dinky asked, making it obvious that she had not seen her elder sibling like this all too often. Her mane and tail were badly messed up, her eyes holding sleepy bags and her trot, as per said, was very off-balance.

"Sleep well" the assassin asked sarcastically as he trotted over to her, putting a steadying hoof on her shoulder.

"No, had a bad dream" she told them both as she scratched her mane. The assassin cocked his head.

"Nightmares? What of?" Ditzy grumbled something before she spoke.

“I…” she yawned “I don’t really remember. I think it had something to do with what happened last night” she said absently. Blood Moon lead her to the couch, sitting her on it, Dinky sitting next to her, and scratched his head.

“Is that it, any specifics?” Ditzy shook her head. “Was Luna there” he asked with a short grunt. Ditzy shook her head once more.

"No, besides I'm sure it's nothing" the mare looked over at her little sister "you ready for school yet?"

"Yeah, but are you ready to take me there" she responded. The assassin almost laughed at the question. Ditzy gave her sister a small scrunchy-face glare as she stood.

"Yeah I'm fi-" She didn't get to finish her sentence as she tripped over her own hooves, landed on her face and put herself in a…compromising position.

"Sis" Dinky squealed, partly in worry for her but mainly in embarrassment at seeing her rear-end in full view. Blood Moon, on the other hoof, just made a ‘not bad’ face, nodding his head a little.

“I have to agree with Dinky on this one” the assassin said as he helped her up. “You’re a little...out of sorts, to be taking Ditzy anywhere without somepony taking you” he told her, a small grin on his face. Blood Moon cocked his head a little. “I could take you while you take her” he suggested, as though he’d plucked the idea out of the air. In truth, however, the assassin was praying for something to do today. He got the impression that he wouldn’t exactly be welcome helping out with ponies, but he wasn’t about to sit around all day. Ditzy looked unsure.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean with all that been going on you're bound to get some mixed reactions" the mail mare asked, sounding like she'd just taken some observant pills. Blood Moon just brushed her off.

"It'll be fine" he assured as he threw his cloak over his back and flipped his hood up "besides, I won't be stirring up too much trouble so staying incognito won't be much of a problem" the dark stallion explained as he opened the door and ushered them out.

It was, as per the usual, a bright day in Ponyville; few clouds lingered in the blue in the sky and Celestia's sun shone down in all its glory. In Ponyville, it was as Dinky had said it; pretty much all of the damage that had been done the other night had either already been repaired or was close to being repaired and life went on as normal. It was rather amazing, Blood Moon had to admit, as a city like Manehatten or Canterlot facing this kind of damage would take weeks or even months to get itself back together. Here, however, the ponies were just much more hardcore.

As the trio trotted, the assassin looked around the streets and found that he was definitely getting some odd looks from the town's residents; some were weary of him, some were sending smiles of thanks his way and others remained neutral, simply not noticing him or not caring about him. The Hunter liked them the best. The journey to the schoolhouse didn't take too long, Blood Moon and Ditzy moving at a slow canter while Dinky sat on the assassin's back, a sensation that the killer was both well-versed in and had missed for quite some time.

When they eventually arrived at the school, fun definitely ensued; the parents looked over in horror at the mail mare's company and most of the foals follow suit. A mare in specific trotted over to them; deep purple fur, green eyes and two tone pink mane and tail. She had a cutie mark showing three flowers with smiles on them.

‘Teacher’ was the assassin's mental sum up of this mare.

"Why hello there Ditzy Doo" she greeted cheerfully. She took a second to look over the assassin, though couldn't get a good look at his face due to the hood "who's your friend" she asked. In response, Blood Moon lifted his hood off of his head and looked her dead in the eye. He watched in well-hidden amusement as she almost fainted at the sight of him.

"Blood Moon" he told her simply “a pleasure.” Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to form words, failing miserably, and blinked rapidly, as if one random speck of dust was obstructing her vision so much she saw the assassin and not some other dark coloured stallion. After a few seconds of staring, blinking and trying to talk, she shook her head in an effort to regain her composure.

"Hiya miss Cheerilee" Dinky called over the top of Blood Moon's head before ‘Cheerilee’ could speak. The teacher seemed to brighten up again as she noticed the foal.

"H-hello Dinky Hooves, why don't y-you go on inside and I'll catch up to you?" The filly nodded before leaping off the killer's back, hugging her big sister goodbye before turning to Blood Moon and doing the same, galloping off towards the schoolhouse as the assassin gave a small smile. Cheerilee wasted no time in leaving the assassin and Ditzy by themselves and going over to other parents, the killer watching as she left them with no small amount of distaste aimed at her for her somewhat…judgmental reaction to him. That said, it had been rather bemusing.

"Howdy there Blood Moon" a familiar southern drawl called over.,pulling the assassin from his thoughts. Said murderer turned to his right and found the owner of the accented voice.

"Hey there Applejack" the killer replied as the orchard worker ushered her little sister after her friends, watching her trot to the school before she meandered over to the the pair of ponies. “Dropping of Applebloom, perchance?” Applejack nodded.

"Yup, not even the Changelings are gonna stop mah little sis from gettin’ tah school" She answered, no small amount of pride on her face and in her tone. The apple farmer looked from her waving sister, disappearing into the school, at the stallion and mare, a large smile stretching across her face "well don't you two make jus' the sweetest couple." The assassin gave a small smirk and grunt, and felt Ditzy cosy up next to him. He turned his head over to her, giving her a small grin, but he almost thought that she’d gotten a little closer to him as the farm hoof turned up. Deciding he had no desire to talk about his love life, the assassin chose to turn the conversation to something more productive.

"Say Applejack, you know anypony who's got work" he asked, still looking for things to amuse himself with. AJ put a hoof to her chin in thought for a second before she answered.

"Well, we could always use an extra hoof or two down at the farm, that is, if ya'll don't mind gettin' your hoove's dirty" she told him.

"My hooves haven't been clean for a long time and I'm no stranger to manual labour" Blood Moon retorted, wondering how many meanings they took from that. Apparently, the orange mare hadn’t taken anything sinister from it, and lit up.

"All righty' then, if y' like yew can come with me to Sweet Apple Acres now, Applebuckin' season has jus' come in and me 'n Big macintosh need as much help as we can git" the orange pony explained. The assassin shrugged and turned to Ditzy.

"I guess I'll see you later then" the stallion told the mare, who kissed him goodbye in response. The bright and dark ponies trotted away from the schoolhouse in relative silence for a while before Applejack decided to make conversation.

"It's so nice ta see love blossomin' between to ponies" the mare said, a smile growing on her face once more. She didn't get a response; instead the assassin lowered his gaze to the ground and hummed his agreement. "Somethin' botherin' ya there sugarcube?" Blood Moon just shrugged, still unwilling to talk about his lovelife. It was, after all, something he held very personally."Blood Moon" Applejack asked again,figuring that the stallion had gotten lost in his thoughts "ya'll still in there?"

"Yeah, just… a lot on my mind" he lied with a shake of his head.

"Well, if yew like ya'll can talk to me about it. Ah'm a mighty fine listener. Besides 's always nice ta be able to talk with somepony while ah work."

"Sure, whatever" the assassin responded half-heartedly. They trotted together in silence, Applejack picking up that he didn’t much like talking about his personal relations. Around fifteen minutes later, AJ spoke up again.

“Can ah ask you somethin’?”

“Sure” Blood Moon replied.

“Why’re you so quiet all of a sudden? Yesterday ya’ll was as talkative as Pinkie Pie on a sugar rush. Well, maybe not like that but, you get the idea.” Blood Moon smirked and shuddered at the thought of that mare hyper on sugar.

“No reason. I’m an assassin. I’m quiet” he replied. “Besides which, I don’t really like talking about my lovelife with other ponies, or at least, ponies not directly involved” he explained.

“But besides that, yer good?” The dark stallion shrugged again.

“I guess.”

"Great, and would yew look at that; we're here." The pair had stopped at the gate of what looked like a pretty rundown farm; a small farm house was the first thing that caught the assassin's attention, it held similarities of the homes of most of Ponyville's residents but had a definite 'country' feel to it; the second building was a large, red barn that look like it had seen much better days. What stood out most though, were the trees. Hills rolled into the distance as far as the eye could see, and every one of them had trees planted all over them, not a spot of bare grass visible as far as even the assassin's eyes could see. "Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres" Applejack proudly announces as she throws her left fore-leg in a grand, introducing flourish. The assassin could only gaze over the fields in half awe and half indifference.

"Well, you weren't lyin' when you said 'acres' I guess" was all Blood Moon gave in response. The two trotted down a small lane towards what the farm-hoof described as the 'east field' and found themselves at the edge of a towering mass of apple trees.

"D' yew even know how to buck apples?" Blood Moon gave her a 'bitch please' look before he removed his hood, belt and cloak, setting them on a nearby barrel, before heading over to a tree, turning, leaning forwards and lashing out with his powerful rear legs. He was rewarded with a satisfying 'THWACK' and a steady tumble as the apples fell into buckets around the tree.

"That answers your question?" Applejack gave an appreciative whistle as she inspected the dent, the BIG dent, he'd left in the bark of the tree.

"Not bad sugarcube, ah must admit ah don't think ah've seen a unicorn with as much grunt in him as yourself" she commented as she lined herself up to her own tree and kicked, watching Blood Moon do the same "jus' why did you focus so much on your body anywho? Ponies like Rarity and Twi don't give all too much consideration for their physic or at least the labour side to it anyway."

THWACK

"Well I'm smart enough to know that magic can't solve all of life's problems and that sometimes you gotta take things into your own two hooves to get it done."

THWACK

"An' jus' how did ya'll figure that out. Surly yew had magic yer whole life?"

THWACK

"That's just it. I've been alive long enough to know that a well-placed hoof is just as effective as a well-placed spell."

THWACK

"That brings me onto another question…"

THWACK

"Jus' how long have you been alive?" There was a long pause in which Applejack braced for the sound of hoof on tree, but nothing came. Instead, there was just a silent assassin and her own breathing.

Now that he had only his vest on and there was a lull in the efforts to dislodge the fruits, she got a good look at him and she was just as surprised as she was unsurprised; Fluttershy had told her about the condition of his face, and the description had not done the disfigurement justice; his bland face was covered in wrinkles, and that ugly scar on his face gave him a look that she felt would look more at home on Shining armour, what with the worry lines and battle scars and everything. That was what didn't surprise her. What did surprise her was atoned and muscled physique that could only come from years of hard work and labour, not training in a gym but real work, the kind of thing she could respect. The thing that surprised her was just how much she could feel herself staring at him, rather powerless to look away. he sort of reminded her of Big Macintosh, but her brother was both taller, and had more muscle mass to him, not to mention he was less toned than the stallion before her.

The orchard worker allowed herself a brief moment of weakness as she appreciated his build and allowed her mind to wander as she looked at him with sweat running down his fur, making it stick to his body and gleam a little in the sun, his mane drooping over his face slightly while he rolled his neck muscles gently.

"Applejack, it's rude to stare" the assassin commented as he smelled under his fore-leg, before pulling away sharply in disgust. Applejack, meanwhile, had frozen to the spot.

‘What in the hay was that, he didn't even look at me, how did he know that ah was…’ she stopped the thought track and regained her composure, save the blush that stubbornly adorned her face.

"A-ah wasn't starein' ah was jus'…jus', uhhh. A-are yew gonna answer mah question or not?"

"May as well" he answered with a laugh before he made a thinking face for a second "my lungs have drawn breath and my heart has been beating for around fifteen thousand years now" he told her casually. Applejack, for the second time in a minuet, froze in place. But she wasn't sure why; it could have been the way he was so casual with being older than Celestia herself, the fact that he was still in his prime or maybe that he never seemed to act his multiple century year old age.

"M-mah stars" was all the mare could say "ah-ah didn't expect you to be THAT old."

"I'm not surprised" he said with a shrug. Millions of questions flooded into the mare's head but she couldn't get a hold on her thoughts, instead she resorted to standing there blankly as Blood Moon got back to work.

Hours passed. The two had taken to working in silence, only the rhythmic 'THWACK' echoing through the still air. Morning had turned to noon and noon turned to evening, all the while the ponies continued to buck trees, only resting once throughout their shift. By the time six had rolled around the two had worked their way up a hill without realising it and now had a beautiful view of the Celestia's setting sun. Applejack had opted they call it a day and admire the work of the princess of the day. Unbeknownst to Blood Moon, Applejack had been setting her thoughts straight and had a few questions planned for the assassin. Sat against a tree, in the light of the setting sun, the orchard-hoof looked over to the blade-for-hire.

"So, how do ya’ll spend fifteen thousand years?"

"I'll tell you, in exchange for a question of my own" he told her as he leaned against his tree, putting his fore-legs behind his head.

"Fair 'nuff" the mare replied, who then proceeded to spit on her hoof and hold it out to the stallion. Blood Moon looked down at the hoof, unimpressed, before shrugging and following suit "information for information."

"You sound like the leader of the thieves' guild" the assassin muttered.

"Ya say somethin' sugarcube?" The assassin shook his head.

"Anyway, to answer your question; what does one do to spend fifteen thousand years…" It suddenly clicked for him when he realised what he’d just gotten himself into, realising she'd fooled him into giving up his life story. He looked slowly over at Applejack with narrowed eyes. The mare just gave a very unconvincing innocent 'what, me' look. "Alright then, well the first thing to understand is that I'm not naturally immortal, not like Celestia or Luna. No, instead I have been cursed with unending life."

"Wait, that's a curse?"

"Look at it like this; all my friends die around me, I can't get too attached to a mare and I know that I can't do buck all about it" his eyes narrowing in his eerily calm manner "I'll never be able to have foals, as I know I won't be able to take watching them die before me and I'll be damned before I ever actually die at the hoof of another." Applejack was torn; on one hoof she felt for him, he'd lost everypony close to him and there was nothing nopony could do about it. Long story short, he'd been through what she'd been through, ten-fold, and she wanted to go over to him and put a supportive hoof over his shoulder;.On the other hoof, she was scared witless at his strange manner, his silent rage. She couldn’t see nor hear it, so to speak, but she could feel it. And that was all she needed to swallow nervously. She watched as he took a long, sigh to steady himself, his eyes closing and his muscles relaxing. She saw a different pony for a brief second; no pride, none of his usual darkness, his radiation of strength, power and control evaporated and he just looked…weak and old, this stallion who had so easily and readily protected Ponyville from the changelings and she had caught him at one of his weakest moments, thought it only lasted for a second, if that.

After a few seconds of silence, she spoke up again.

"So...so jus' what happened, to make you the way you are?" He tensed one side of his maw, shrugging a slightly.

"I…I was raised in a training facility, in a programme that was known simply as the 'Initiative'. From what I know, it sort of an extraordinarily intense training program, twentyfour seven combat, espionage, magic, psychology, the body, the mind, the spirit, emotions, weapons, armour, pretty much everything under the sun. Alongside that, was training with a new breed of magic, magic that, at the time, had only just begun being developed and explored…"

"Umbra Linguam" the two said in unison. The assassin bowed his head, not in shame nor regret, just in weariness.

"This particular brand of magic was…is...unique, in more ways than one; for one it required a ritual for the mage to truly access it; secondly, it’s a particularly dark brand of magic...but in ways nopony knew. It corrupted the wielder of these spells, tourtured them in both body and mind. And...there were also certain…requirements to be met for one to use it, as per said, this is a dark breed of magic, and only ponies of a certain caliber could use it, also, this magic is not cheap and sacrifice is required, normally taking form of a curse." Applejack frowned.

"Curse, like what?"

"Well in my case, as we've already established, I lost my mortality. King Sombra fell into a crazed lust for power and crystals. Starswirl…well we don't talk about him anymore…"

"W-what happened to him?"

"Well let's just say that, that particular curse was more subtle than most others." The two stayed in silence for a few minutes. Blood Moon looked over at the setting sun and couldn't help but feel a prang in his heart; he'd shown her how to do them best, shown her a few things, he was by no means an artist but he had a good eye for detail and the transition from light to dark held a special place in his heart. His perpetual vision, however, held a much more spectacular sight; Applejack, in the bronze rays of the sun, which was doing a magnificent job of turning her orange fur to a shade of bronze a goddess would be jealous of. She had taken her hat off and had let her mane, turned golden in the sunlight, flow majestically in the soft breeze that flowed between them. Her half-lidded eyes held a deep shade of bronze upon them, and the way she had them half open…well let's just say it reminded the assassin of an incident that had left him with a satisfied grin on his face as he climbed out of the window of the mare's room. The crushed emerald of her eyes themselves were doing nothing to stop the assassin’s growing appreciation for her beauty.

"Not nice to stare Blood Moon" Applejack smirks, a mischievous smirk on her face. The Hunter just shrugs, a smirk of his own on his face.

"Just enjoying the view." The remark earned him a blush from the mare that could rival the look of embarrassment she had given him earlier when he had noticed her staring. He would not lie to the mare, Element of Honesty and all that, he definitely liked this mare, if only because she appreciated the smaller things in life. A loving family, hard work, natural beauty, something she had in abundance.

"So you gonna keep admiring the scenery or carry on” she asked, not entirely hating the attention.

"Well I wasn't born into that facility. I was discovered when I accidently performed a spell, 'hide' to be accurate, and barely a day after three stallions came for me. I had been alive for three years, hugged by my mother nine times and watched my dad bail-out on us twice” he said in a dull tone, his face distant. “He was a disloyal drunk and she was a moronic sell-out. As you can imagine, I didn't care for them all too much. One of my earliest memories was when my mother bartered for a decent price for me. In the end it cost her, her life."

Applejack was at a loss for words, she couldn't remember her parents well at all, they had died soon after Applebloom's birth, when she had been around seven years old. In fact, that was what had been the final push that had sent her to Manehatten, but from what she could remember of them was that they were kind, honest and decent ponies that she had loved very much.

"So what happened after?"

"Well, to cut a long, tedious, somewhat boring and rather painful story short, I was trained for one purpose and I was trained well for it. Twentyfour years were spent honing my skills in shadow magic so I could, as they called it, start the transaction. That was when I was became immortal." He sighed gently. “Twentyseven years, eight month and eleven days old. That was when my life both ended and began in earnest.

"Jus' what were they trainin' yew for?" Blood Moon took another long breath.

"I was trained, for a good one-thousand years, to end the reign of Discord. It was my sole purpose in life to end the life of a god. What they didn't tell me was what they wanted me to do afterwards." Applejack gulped.

"An’ wh-what was that."

"What they wanted me to do was help them maintain their own control of Equestria, once Discord was out of the way. I decided that, out of spite, I would not kill Discord for them. Once I’d found that out, I struck out against them, murdered every single one of them in cold blood and trotted out of there.” He grunted. “I guess they assumed the killing machine they’d created would have been broken down by the abuse, torturous training and mind games that were part of my psychological training.” He shook his head in amusement of their folly. “Either way, I went off on my own."

"But wait, yew'd been in that facility most of yer life." Blood Moon nodded once.

"Exactly; no-where to go, I didn't know anypony and, for whatever reason, nopony believed I was a master assassin. But after about ten years of scraping together contracts, I was finally thrown a bone, a bone in the form of king Nocturnal and queen Illumination. Celestia's and Luna's parents." A cool breeze passed them both, a few leaves following in its wake, as he spoke. Not many ponies spoke about the princess' parents and many others didn't really know about them. "I was approached by them, they told me that they were getting ready for a war with Discord, but Illumination had fallen pregnant. Now, as you can imagine, a war zone is not the best of places to raise a foal, there was also the fact that the filly likely was to have attempts on her life made, so they needed somepony to watch over her while they were off playing general." Despite his story, Applejack laughed slightly, doing a bad job of holding it down.

"An’ that was yew, ya'll was Celestia's foalsitter" Applejack laughs. Blood Moon gives a smirk of his own.

"Yep, the infamous Blood Moon, the Hunter, the never seen, caught or killed assassin used to change Celestia's diaper" he confirmed, much to the amusement of Applejack, who continurd to laugh. The assassin waited for the farmer to stop laughing, letting her chuckle a little as she wound down. "I knew at the time I was living in the gutter, so any work was good enough for me. I took the job and not a day later I was introduced to the a six year old Celestia" the assassin gave a sad sigh as he remembered the days long past "I was her keeper, her protector and her best friend for five hundred years until Luna was born, and it was then that I had my duties expanded; Celestia was still at the development stages of an eleven year old, so it was like I had two children to juggle. The only thing that stopped me from jumping out a window was that they got along and I had the help of their nanny, the one who took care of them when…my other duty called" he looked up as he tried to remember something "I think her name was Faust or something" he gave up after a few failed attempts at confirming this "anyway, life with two princesses under your wing was actually supposed to be rather simple; just follow them around and make sure no harm comes to them. I made a mistake though. I got too attached to them; they got too attached to me. I was more a father to them than Nocturnal ever was. I loved them like my own. I taught them everything they know about war and combat, about life, about Equestria. I tried to teach them about how society worked, how they could better it. But, their father didn't agree with those lessons, feeling it better if the girls had a sense of ‘propriety’ rather than muddy their hooves with the mud of peasants.” He grunted in a way that gave Applejack the impression that Blood Moon and Nocturnal hadn’t gotten along. The assassin gave a small sigh again. “When the war finally came to an end, I felt the need to go down a different path than the aristocrats and politics, not my scene, too many assholes. Instead, I went back to being an assassin full time. I maintained the ruse of being mortal, a millennium became a year, centuries became months and so forth. For all intents and purposes, I've only been an assassin for ten years, but in actual fact it's been ten thousand." Applejack nods.

"Ah get it."

"The problem was that neither of the princesses could forgive me for it, they saw it as me turning on them, becoming the very thing I had protected them from for a good few thousand years and they never really got over it. They saw it as me abandoning them. To this day they hunt me down."

‘And if Luna was anything to go by, that particular chase is about to come to an end.’

"So, in a nutshell, that is how one spends fifteen thousand years." Applejack gave an appreciative whistle.

"Well, that there is quite the story" the mare comments, Blood moon smirks.

"Yep, I win the ol' 'dramatic past tail' every time. So ,now a question for you; where are your folks?" Even as he forms the question he gets his answer from the way Applejack deflates.

"They're…they're in a better place" she says at length.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, they was good ponies looked afta me an’ Big Mac good before they…passed away." The assassin nodded before he raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"What about Applebloom?"

"Ma died givin' birth and Pa died soon afta. The doctors never really did find out what happened to him, but ah always thought he died of a broken heart." The mare had begun to well up at these memories. She turned her head to the stallion, took one look at his face and almost broke down; he had a look of concern on his face she’d never seen off the face of her family before. She turned away, silently cursing Blood Moon’s ability to do this to her. "Blood Moon...is it right that ah still haven't gotten over it?" Much to her surprise, the assassin nods.

"The loss of a parent or carer is one of the most difficult losses you can deal with, having them there for all of your life before they're so cruelly taken away. It's one of those things that we aren't really supposed to get over at all, if only because we fear forgetting them if we do." Applejack was quiet for a few seconds, taking his words to heart.

"Ah-ah suppose that makes sense."

"Come on, we should get back" the assassin says abruptly as he stands up. Applejack doesn't complain as he leads the way towards where they had started. As they trot through the trees the dark stallion looks over to the mare. "Just remember Applejack, you don't have to face all of life's problems alone, you have your family and your friends, don't forget that."

"Trust me, ah already learnt that lesson" she says with a laugh. The assassin holds his gaze for a second.

"But did you take it to heart?" Nothing more is said by either pony, the two simply trotting back to the barn. Once they arrive, Blood Moon finds a note on his hood and cloak. "The hay? Applejack, bring Blood Moon to the library when you're done with done with the harvest. Twilight." he mumbles. The assassin looks over to Applejack who shrugs.

"Well, better not keep 'em waitin' shud we?" The assassin grunts in reply and follows her to the library. As they, go he notices something wrong with the small town; for one there are very few ponies on the road and most of the lights of off in most of the buildings. "Well here we are" Applejack announces as they reach the front door of Twilight's library. She steps aside so Blood Moon can go in first. The killer looks over the home/tree/library, and notices that the lights are out, signifying that nopony's home or…

He smirks as he opens the door.