Blood Moon awoke. He was not distressed or panicked, he wasn't sweating nor did he seem to have been shifting much in his sleep, so Luna hadn't paid him a visit. The assassin recalled the events of last night; he, Ditzy and Dinky had gone to bed at nine, he had planned on waking up at two in the morning; Blood Moon looked at the clock and found it to be one in the morning. He frowned, normally his body clock was rather accurate but he knew he'd woken up for a reason; he couldn't explain it, it was just in his gut and he always trusted his gut; it hadn't been wrong before. He looked around him, everything seemed normal but something wasn't right and he couldn't put his hoof on it; upstairs he could hear the soft sounds of Dinky and Ditzy sleeping soundly, outside he could see the dim glow of Ponyville's nightlife and in the air… smoke. There was smoke hanging in the room and the atmosphere was thick, there was no heat around him so it wasn't Ditzy's house that was on fire, so there was that much at least.

'Wait, that glow…' The assassin trotted slowly up to the window and gazed out. What he saw made a stone drop in his chest. That glow wasn't the Ponyville nightlife, it was Ponyville itself. He wasted no time; he galloped up the stairs and crashed through the door, awaking Ditzy in a somewhat panicked fashion.

"Blood Moon" she said, sounding scared at his sudden appearance.

"Ditzy, get up, Ponyville is on fire and I have to get you and Dinky out of here" he explained quickly, watching Ditzy's face grow more and more fearful.

"What's going on" a drowsy Dinky hooves asks from behind Blood Moon, rubbing sleep out of her eyes and a stuffed…muffin in her grip. The assassin didn't respond, instead he used his magic to put her on her big sister's back before going over to the window and throwing it open.

"Ditzy, you need to get somewhere safe. Don't stop, don't dawdle and don't look back, return at noon" he ordered, much the same way a commander would tell his soldiers.

"Blood Moon" Ditzy began, before pulling him into a soft kiss for a few seconds "be careful" she told him softly. The assassin smiled.

"Ditzy, I'm an assassin, I've been an assassin for as long as I can remember, whatever's going on in town, I can handle it" he reassured the mare. Ditzy nodded and took flight, heading north. The assassin watched them go for a while before he turned back into the room and went down into the lounge; there he picked up and put on his vest, cloak, hood and belt and trotted outside then towards the town. Ditzy lived a short way outside the town and he arrived in ten minutes. He wasn't too sure if he was glad he had.
The small and normally quiet town was in turmoil; most of the buildings on the edge of the town were ablaze, the flames cutting a path through the town as the occupants galloped for cover. It was apparent that none knew how to fend off the flames themselves properly, judging by the pained bodies of ponies that lay on the ground, not dead but defiantly wounded. The assassin raised an eyebrow.

'They aren't burnt at all; there are cuts and stab wounds but no burns, not many anyway. What's going on here' the assassin wondered as he looked over the ponies lying on the ground and judged their wounds; some were worse than others and those that were unable to move he pulled into alleyways and those that could move followed him to safety.

"Stay here and keep quiet" he ordered the ponies that were conscious. He got a few terrified nods in return, they apparently recognized him from the market "is this is some kind of attack" the ponies in front of him nodded in conformation "is there a spot where everypony is rallying" the assassin asked a mare with light mint fur and light cyan and white streaked mane and tail, she had yellow eyes and a lyre for her cutie mark. She was scared out of her mind, partly from the events around her and partly from the stallion before her. She didn't answer at once.

"Y-yeah… Tw-Twilight's library" she stuttered. Blood Moon nearly flinched; if that was where all the ponies were going then that was where the attacking forces where going, so that was where Blood Moon was going but at the same time that was where Twilight and, most likely, where all her friends were. It was between the contract and the safety of Ponyville; not helping these ponies was the equivalent of killing them, considering that none of them could fight and since whoever, or whatever, was attacking was willing to burn the place to the ground to get to their target, so collateral damage didn't seem to be high on their list of concerns. He couldn't leave these ponies to die.

"What's the fastest way there" he asked simply.

"Straight up that street" the mare told him, pointing with her hoof up a street leading into the centre of Ponyville. This allowed the assassin to see what he was up against; changelings and lots of them. That, amongst other things, confused Blood Moon; why were they here, what was the reason for their erratic behaviour? These were the questions spiralling through his mind as he watched them tear the town apart, but these question would be answered later, for now he would have to fight and fight he would.

He galloped into the street, metal on leather echoing across the battle before him, drawing the attention of the changelings that were running riot throughout the streets of the quaint, little town. Three changelings that had been busy trashing a store advanced on him; the three of them were grunts, no bigger than the average pony but they were by no means ponies. Deep black bodies, a blue chitin back, bug like wings, blue pupil-less eyes, a curved black horn, a pair of fangs jutting out of the side of their mouths and the infamous holes in their legs.
The three changelings were unarmed but they seemed confident in their numbers. Blood Moon grunted and cracked his neck to the side.

The middle changeling darted forwards and went to hit the assassin in the face; the strike was dodged as Blood Moon swerved to the left, out of the way of the changeling's right hoof, before he chopped his left hoof across his opponents neck and disoriented the changeling. Blood Moon pushed past the fist black-bodied creature and stepped quickly up to the second, wasting no time in dispatching him, he ran him through the chest with his short sword, the well-tempered blade easily cutting through the chitin armour on his back as the weapon slipped right through the body, drawing the dark green blood of the shapeshifter out across the ground and staining his killer's blade; the third changeling lunged for the assassin as he whipped the blade out, catching him in the side; the blue chitin cracked and gave way as the weapon passed through and lodged itself in his ribs. The assassin left it there and turned back to the first attacker; he hopped off his fore-hooves and slapped them hard against the changeling's ears, stunning him and detonating some white bombs in his opponent's eyes. Back on all-fours, Blood Moon's left fore-hoof shot into the changeling's throat; he staggered and fell, his windpipe bruising and swelling until no air could get through, quickly suffocating.

Turning his attention back to the last changeling, he gripped the handle of his blade with his hoof and wrenched it free, green blood spurting out and the grating of bone on blade screamed from the wound. Weapon free, he looked up from the corpses and started forwards.
Blood Moon had very little love for changelings; they were clumsy in battle and disorganised, contrary to any assumptions of insect and hive organisation. Truth be told, they were little more than marauders when the emerged from their hovels and reared their ugly heads in the direction of Equestria, Tartartus bent on claiming the land and loving race of ponies for themselves. Their fighting style matched this fact, in that they didn't really have one, residing to simply swinging wildly and using basic spells. Or, perhaps their most infamous attack, using themselves as bombardments. Changelings had some weird ideas of how to engage in
warfare.

The assassin had been cantering for barely fifteen seconds before, more changelings appeared; two of them, more grunts, advanced on the assassin, who reached into his cape and grabbed three knives from their leather pouch, holding them in his hoof, and moved his leg in an arc letting them fly at the shapeshifters. All three found their mark, embedded deep in the left changeling's chest causing blood to ooze out of the injuries and onto the changeling's hoof which he held in front of his new orifices in shock before slumping down. The second went just as fast; the assassin's blade sung across the distance and slashed the neck, opening the neck muscles and arteries before he reached forwards and renched his head back, opening the neck completely as blood spat out of the hole, the changeling gurgling a little.

The assassin continued his trek to the library. Half-way there he came across a battle that was not his own; Sand Stalker was facing off four changelings, they had him surrounded and were grinning menacingly at the older merc, who was glaring at the four of them with equal menace. The mercenary had his scimitar clutched in his right hoof and was spinning it gracefully, his body weight resting on his bent left fore-hoof. Two of the shapeshifters charged at the merc, though what happened next impressed the assassin; one second the elderly mercenary was there, the next he was beside one of the advancing changelings with his weapon buried in his enemy's neck; the merc proceeded to rotate his body and slam his right fore-hoof up against the other changeling's jaw, flipping him over; Sand Stalker held the changeling by his inverted neck, one leg going under and the other over, and twisting savagely and sharply, the distinct 'snap' the ripped from the bug-winged equine's neck signalling the snap of his neck. The Arabian merc then whipped his sword out of the first changeling and flung it at one of the other changelings, watching his display of skill with face slackened awe, impaling him through the fore-head, taking him off his hooves. The last one was too taken aback to react to the mercenary that was galloping at him, jabbing him in the face and slamming his head into the ground. Sand Stalker went onto extend his wings and with one powerful burst of power from them he was above the changeling and dropping down onto him, slamming his rear-hooves onto his back and snapping the spine.

"Not bad" the assassin commented as he viewed the mercenary's hoof-work.

"What you get from forty years' experience" the merc shrugged. The pair took a moment to look around them. The pitch black night was illuminated by the fire working through the town, casting flickering shadows of the chaos around them, mares and stallions alike galloped and screamed some alone, some in pairs and others with foals on their backs, all around them changelings were wreaking havoc on the buildings, and attacking some of the fleeing ponies.

"Do we have a plan" the merc asked the assassin as he pulled his blade from the skull of the changeling that held it, a splatter of blood and grey matter following it out.

"Yeah, head to Twilight's library" Blood Moon responded as his hoof shot up and grabbed a changeling him by the neck, twisting it sharply as he snapped the neck before he tossed him aside. If Sand Stalker had been drinking something he would have spat it out in shock.

"What, you wanna go to the place everypony in Ponyville, all of whom I might add hate your guts right now, will be" Sand Stalker demanded in a 'say what' manner.

"Yeah, if we're gonna help out these ponies the best we can do is help protect them and the best way to protect them is to help hold down the fort" he explained to a merc waving for him to stop.

"Yes, yes I know that. What I mean is that do you really want to go to the place your targets held up" the merc asked. Blood Moon made his best effort not to lung at the merc and put a blade through his throat.

"How did you know that" he demanded his eyes narrowed in a fashion that made even the hardened mercenary pause for thought.

"Wasn't hard to figure out" he told Blood Moon as they began making their way towards the library, blades in magical grip and the right hoof of the flying Pegasus merc. Between them, they cut down changelings that attacked from all directions "first" the merc deflected a blow and cut off the fore-hooves of a changeling before continuing "you're an assassin in Ponyville. Not the kind of place our kind frequents without reason" he stopped talking as Blood Moon dodged an attack and stuck his sword through his attacker's eye and ripped it down through the eye socket. "Second, asking about the elements of harmony lead me to believe" he deflected a concussive magical blast from another changeling while Blood Moon gave him one of his own and knocked his target off his hooves, throwing him into another "that your hit had something to do with them" he darted to the side as a tendril of shadow shot up and snatched an airborne changeling out of the air before it crushed his ribs, lungs and heart under the pressure of it. The merc looked at the tendril that had just dropped a crushed changeling with the side of his maw pulled won in a 'not bad' face. "So I got to thinking: 'who out of the Elements of Harmony, would be worthy of an Equestria class assassin to be hired to kill?' So what are my options?" Three changelings charged the mid-air merc from the air; one was taken down by Blood Moon throwing his sword into him, cutting strait through the spinal cord, while the other two were killed by Sand Stalker, one with his head flying in the opposite direction of his body, the other seeing his entrails on the ground below him. They continued after Blood Moon ripped his sword out of the changeling before stabbing him through the heart to finish him. "Well there's Rainbowdash, the weathermare. Not the type that was well liked for her ego but she is an, admittedly, impressive mare so she's pretty well liked and well known ever since the young flyers competition" the merc finished with a grand flourish of his blade severing the wings off of three changelings, watching them drop into the jaws of two shadow serpents and the lethal flash of Blood Moon's blade. Blood Moon looked back at the two serpents; the shadows cast by the flames were doing a good job of keeping the darkness of the night away while casting their own shade on the ground allowing the assassin to latch his own shadow onto them, using a simple trick he'd learned when being trained in Umbra Linguam called 'shadow stretching' the simple act of moving the shadow of the caster over to other shadows to make use of the power they could provide the spell without having to be right next to them. The first serpent had eaten one of the changelings whole, it having fallen straight into its gullet. The second changeling was being ripped apart alive, his green blood and grey intestines being thrown about the place by the gorging black serpents as his gurgling screams echoed throughout the night.

"Boys, please, have some manners" he told the great beasts that had erupted from the shadows. He got a snarl in return that caused him to laugh. Above him, Sand Stalker was having trouble holding his lunch down.

"So, um…the other five" the merc said, glancing back at the mutilated corpse "there's Fluttershy, the animal caretaker; she's got a darker side but she's pretty nice most of the time, again not a good assassin target. Applejack is the resident food supplier, main one at least, she's honest, hardworking and decent, kind of pony that looks out for her family and doesn't wrong others, again not the type to have a price put on her head unless it's an extremely competitive rival-" the merc dodged an attempted lung at him, grabbed the attacker by the tail and pulled him back onto his blade stabbing him through the heart, cleaving it in half "- but you don't seem the type" he finished as he dropped the changeling. "Rarity is one of the best fashion designer in town, maybe Equestria, she has some competition but not to that extent" he told Blood Moon as he watched him stab a changeling in the eye with a throwing knife. The assassin had two changelings rushing him from either side; Blood Moon proceeded to leap up and grab the mane of one and guide him into the other stabbing his horn into the changeling's comrade's eye, all while doing a fore-hoof stand, before dropping down to the side and keeping his grip on the changeling's mane and reaching over, grabbing his chin and snapping the neck, the added momentum given by the drop allowing him to spin the neck right around one-eighty degrees, leaving the head rotated at an unnatural angle. All with wingboner grace.

"What about Pinkie Pie" Blood Moon called up.

"Pinkie Pie? Who'd want to, she's pretty much known throughout Equestria as the 'great party pony.' Everypony in Ponyville knows her and she's pretty well liked" the merc caught a knife out of the air and threw it back at the changeling that had thrown it, meeting it's mark between the changeling's eyes. "So that leaves-" he dodged a swipe from an airborne changeling and struck him in the throat in return "-Twilight Sparkle. Leader of the elements of harmony" Blood Moon rolled onto his back as a changeling grunt charged at him, using his rear-hooves to propel his enemy into the sky and the awaiting blade of Sand Stalker's scimitar, which cleaved him cleanly in half "making her the target of focus for anypony-" he moved his head to the side vacantly, avoiding a conceive blast from a changeling who was ripped apart by Blood Moon's serpents "or anything else changelings or anything they've saved Equestria from" he told the assassin as he watched him grab the hoof of a changeling that had thrown a strike, twist it at an unnatural angle and then snap it so the bone popped out of the joint. He then went onto move into the changeling and snaps the leg at the joint that met the body, leaving the entire left leg mangled and busted in an ugly fashion before Blood Moon clobbered him on the side of the head with the pommel of his sword, most likely causing brain damage in the process "she's got plenty of enemies, most of which have failed to defeat her face-to-face so hiring you to take her out from the shadows makes sense, then there's the fact that she's Celestia's student so anypony wanting to get to her could do so through Twilight" the mercenary explained as he impaled a changeling as casually as he would getting the mail. Blood Moon looked up at Sand Stalker, who was now busy wiping the blood from his blade, and saw the mind of the pony that had lived through numerous things some good, most bad and saw that, despite his rather brutish exterior, he had the rather commendable mind of a detective.

"It's a long list then" Blood Moon commented as they covered the final leg of their journey "of potential clients." He could see the tall tree before him in the distance and it appeared to be surrounded by changelings. The pair picked up their pace and galloped towards the line of changelings; Sand Stalker flew at a speed that seemed impossible for his age, while Blood Moon looked like a dark blur rather than a pony. The merc had sheathed his weapon and lowered his fore-hooves for Blood Moon who leapt up and grabbed them in response, using Sand Stalker as a swing to get over the three changeling wide wall between them and the library. The assassin landed with his normal grace, while Sand Stalker simply pulled in his wings and dropped to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. Around them, three other ponies stood, facing off the changelings; Twilight, who was looking at him like she had expected his appearance but still didn't want him there, the rainbow coloured mare how he suspected to be Rainbowdash and the orange earth pony that could only be Applejack, going off her cutie mark. The two of them looked at him in disgust.

"Great, just what we need; a fifty-five year old swordspony and a blood thirsty assassin" the Pegasus mare said sarcastically at the two blood stained fighters arrival.

"Yer darn lucky that we got ta' take care 'o these vermin" the earth pony told the assassin as she bucked a changeling in the face, sending him flying.

"Now's not the time for bickering girls" Twilight told them as she ducked under a changeling that had lunged for her, who was quickly dispatched by a knife from Blood Moon "we need their help."

"Help? How could that ancient Pegasus-" she kicked two changelings that had jumped for her out of the air "-help us, I mean look at him, and I'll bet he could probably barely lift that sword off his back" she commented, earning a glare from the stallion in question. She returned the look he gave her "you heard me" she yelled over to him. The elderly mercenary went onto unsheathe his blade and cut down two changelings that had dived for him, hoping to dig their teeth into him, by spinning gracefully and removing both their heads faster than anypony could register. Not done with proving the mare wrong, he let two more changeling dive for him, the merc grabbing them and beating the face of one into the ground, going on to use the dazed shapeshifter to beat the other senseless, dropping the two as he stepped to the side slightly and let his left fore-hoof shoot up and slam into the face of a changeling that had come up behind him. Rainbowdash simply hovered there, her mouth agape.

"Do we have some kind of plan here" Blood Moon asked Twilight as they stood side by side, firing spells into the crowd.

"Not really" she replied "we were just trying to fight off as many as we could and hope they gave up" she admitted. She watched as Blood Moon dodged a concussive blast, made bigger from the conjoined efforts of the three unicorn changelings that fired it, and levitate them into the air for easy targets for her, the mare picking them off as he held them there for her.

"Some plan" he shouted as his horn glowed it's dark aura and four shadowy tentacles erupted from the ground, throwing a bunch of shapeshifters into the air while the four of them ripped apart the remaining changelings. Twilight looked on in awe and horror; awe because of the spell she was witnessing, at its raw power and the complexity it surely held, and horror at what it was doing to the changelings. She and her friends had been knocking out and disabling their attackers but Blood Moon, as she had come to understand, and the Pegasus he had brought with him were killing the changelings indiscriminately. She pushed the thoughts from her mind as best she could and focused on protecting her friends and town from the ever attacking changelings. Around her, she could hear Rainbowdash and Applejack fighting off the changelings but she could tell by the slowing strikes from AJ and Rainbow's longer pauses that they were getting tired, not that she was any different; she had been on her last reserves for a while now, not to mention that her second wind had come and gone a while back. Reluctantly she approached the assassin, who was cutting down, throwing knives, casting spell and…was he humming to himself? Twilight frowned as she thought she recognised the tune, but she approached him either way.

"Do you have a way to get rid of them" she asked Blood Moon, who in her opinion was having way too much fun with this.

"Maybe, but it will take a sec" he replied.

"Oh how cliché" the Pegasus in the beanie called over "we have to survive long enough for the massive, world ending attack to be ready. How long will it take, five minutes" he said sarcastically, all the while defending himself from the changelings.

"No" the assassin responded, teeth gritted and sweat pouring down his face, the glow about his horn reminding Twilight of the time she had 'vanquished' the Ersa-minor from Ponyville. As she was watching she heard screams coming from the crowd of changelings, she looked over and her eyes widened in horror. Flames, black flames as dark as the pony that created them were eating through the crowd of shapeshifters, burning them alive. The huge wall of dark fire was unlike anything Twilight had seen or felt before; it casted no light, instead making the area darker, it expelled no heat but gave off a strange sensation as Twilight's body prepared for warmth and got none, just the cold air of the night; the torrent of fire reached high into the night sky, easily standing taller than her library, and it seemed about as wide as the crowd of changelings. She looked over at Blood Moon, he had the look of ultimate concentration on his face and sweat was really running down his face now, like a mini Neighagra falls had spawned on his head.

After thirty seconds of the powerful spell, Blood Moon felt weak, an unfamiliar sensation that he often tried to avoid, and cut off the magic fuelling the spell. The last spell he had performed, a very powerful shadow spell even by Umbra Linguam standards, had taken it out of him. His vision was blurred and he could feel his legs giving way but he held himself up, his pride being his only motivation. Before him was a wasteland; the dead and charred corpses of changelings littered the ground and the grass they lay upon was black and dead, smoking slightly, killed by the dark fire he had created. He was getting looks from the ponies around him; Sand Stalker was looking at him with a menacing grin, though when he saw Blood Moon notice him, he gave a small nod and looked over the battle field; Twilight looked troubled, like she wanted to thank him but couldn't bring herself to do so, not after seeing his methods.

'Foolish mare, she really needs to open her eyes. What would she have preferred? Me and Sand let the kill all of them?' he thought as he looked over at her and her debating eyes; the orange earth pony was much the same as Twilight but seemed to be leaning towards 'forgive and forget'. Blood Moon knew why too; he had protected her friends and, if his theory about her family being in the library behind him was correct, her kin. The rainbow coloured mare, however, was nowhere to be seen, the assassin looked around himself, suddenly paranoid, and spotted the looks of confusion the two mares were giving the space to the upper left hoof side of head. The looks of confusion suddenly turned to alarm as he felt a blinding pain in his temple and the world dimmed, his balance faling him as he fell. Though not before he heard somepony, most likely the missing Pegasus shout:

"That's what you get for killing somepony in Ponyville!"