Blood Moon's eyes fluttered open, a pain running through his head, as he tried to remember what had just happened; his thoughts were foggy and disorganised, the stallion slowly putting them back together. He remembered the attack on Ponyville, how the changelings seemed to be putting a siege on the town for whatever reason, he could remember joining the defence of the citizens of Ponyville just outside the library and…the Pegasus, the one who had knocked him out when his back was turned the spineless…

Calming himself with a long breath through his muzzle, the assassin looked around, took in his surroundings; he seemed to be in a guest or spare room judging by the cramped space and lack of décor, he was lying on a warm, soft and much-welcomed bed that had relaxed his muscles in his sleep, which he now realised to have been dreamless yet again. The walls of the room looked as if they had been carved directly from wood, the light brown confines illuminated by the sun seeping in through the window that was uncovered by the light green curtains. The colour gave him a sudden jolt to the memory as he recalled the opening of so many changelings' hides and the blood that had spilled from them. He grinned at the memory. He continued to look around the room until he frowned as he figured out where he was; simple room, carved straight from wood, in a spot where plenty of sun can get to it. He was in Twilight's library. He didn't laugh at the irony; instead he wondered what had caused the mare's sudden change of heart, though he didn't get to complete this train of thought as he heard hoof-steps outside the door and he watched it gain a purple glow before his target trotted in.

"Oh, you're awake" she said upon realising he was conscious. The assassin looked her over; she had taken in an obviously dangerous stallion, going off the bandages he now noticed on his head and the few around his body she had even tended to his wounds to. "How are you? Rainbow gave you a pretty bad head wound" she explained. 'How are you?' So few ponies had asked him that over the course of his life and the simple gesture that said 'I could give two bucks about you' meant a lot to him.

"I'd be better if a certain Pegasus hadn't hit me while my back was turned" he told her, his eyes narrowed. The unicorn seemed uncomfortable under his gaze, as most were, he could practically see her squirming under his stare. The purple mare gave a small, awkward laugh as he remained silent.

"Y-yeah…sorry about that, I guess she was still a bit freaked out by what happened" she said to the assassin, not meeting his eyes.

"Over what happened last night or what happened the other day" he replied his head cocked to one side. The mare replied by closing the door and moving further into the room with a small sigh.
"I wondered how long it would take for that be brought up" she said quietly, sitting on the other end of the bed. Blood Moon could see that she was terrified by being so close to him, the mere distance of half a meter not enough to hide that she disliked the fact that his presence, although he had to admire her courage at getting this close without galloping away screaming.

"I talked to Ditzy about that, she's here by the way, and I've decided that after what you did outside the library and the reason for you actions against the stallions… you can't be all bad" she told him with a small, weak smile. Blood Moon didn't know what to say to that; here was a mare, obviously scared of him, who was trying to create a bridge between them despite all he had done. The mare had looked up; finding the courage to look upon the stallion she knew could kill her without breaking a sweat and looked him in the eyes, they gave nothing about him away but they seemed so full of emotion and thought

'An interesting paradox' she thought to herself. Blood Moon was doing the same, his gaze meeting Twilight's as he read into her and there was so much to read; her life as Celestia's student, her time before Ponyville, her time here, what she had done for Equestria with the Elements of Harmony and her devotion to her friends. Though six things stood out the most in those purple orbs of hers: loyalty, honour, kindness, generosity, laughter and above all magic. It was strange to him; he had seen magic in ponies before, mainly powerful unicorns and Alicorns, but here it was as if rather than having magic she was magic, like she was a pony embodiment of it.

'The Elements of Harmony' he conclude mentally. She was, of course, the element of magic. 'Strange' the assassin thought 'I know that if, say, Fluttershy were to die there'd be no kindness in the world but if Twilight were to die…would there be no magic in the world?' He knew then and there how this contract would pan out; with no blood being spilt; Twilight was just too good, decent and, above all, innocent to kill…but that begged the question: who did want her killed.

"So, 'I'm not all bad' huh? Well on that note would you like to know why I'm here in the first place" he asked the mare, whose face reflected caution and curiosity. She nodded her head slowly, like she wasn't sure she wanted him to continue. "I was sent here, by pony or ponies unknown, to kill you Twilight sparkle." Time and space seemed to hold its breath as he said this, his words cutting their path between them as they struggled to make it to Twilight's ears through the thick layer of air between the two of them. Twilight's face, which had moments ago been an image of reluctant courage, now resembled that of horror and disbelief at the assassin's words; her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, no exaggeration, while her pupils retracted to pinpricks while remained locked on Blood Moon, who was as calm as ever despite just revelling his intentions towards her. Twilight's mouth opened and closed as she tried to make words but nothing came out; all's she could do was wonder why she was not dead yet. The mare latched onto this single, rational thought as her mind spun like a whirlwind questions on everything in her head that could not be answered by herself, only by her friends, by Celestia and the stallion sat before her, the stallion she had taken into her home, tended the wounds of and treated hospitably. This stallion, who was now telling he had to kill her. She cleared her throat nervously and fearfully, knowing full well that whatever she said now could dictate the path her life took; either to her friends again or down to the morgue.

"B-Blood Moon" she started each word she uttered in a small 'squeak' that Fluttershy would be more accustomed to "I-if you're supposed to kill me, t-then why am I still alive" she asked him, her voice trembling at how this conversation could go.

"Tell me, Twilight Sparkle: what do you see when you look at me" the stallion asked, as calm and as quiet as before. Twilight was taken off-guard by the question, but knew that this was the only thing between herself and the blade she knew he wielded so professionally. She took a good look at him in the new light; his face was nothing special, he had the look of a pony in his mid-twenties, maybe a little older than herself, he had faint crow feet at his eyes, shallow lines around his maw and three deep creases on his fore-head. The scar going down his face was deep, old and ugly and did nothing to help his looks... But his eyes.

Twilight heard stories from Rarity about all the 'eligible stallions' throughout Equestria and how, as she would put it, 'dreamy' their eyes could be. She had even seen it for herself a few times while she had been living in the Canterlot castle with Princess Celestia during her studies, when a noble would bring their son along in an attempt to pair them off and gain a hoof-hold in the Equestrian royalty, their deep and sometimes thoughtful look would mostly complement a handsome face, but here, it was different; he had no handsome face to complement deep, passionate eyes but the eyes themselves held mystery, deep and old knowledge, a dark sense of foreboding and experience, passion and a definet hint of roughish charm. Twilight shook her head lightly before she stared too long, prompting a small smirk from Blood Moon.

The purple pony already knew what she considered to be a secret concerning the assassin in her home, the fact he had to be over eleven-thousand years old, making him the oldest pony in existence, older than Celestia even. She decided that if she was getting out of this she needed to catch him off guard, and she had the perfect idea as to how to do so.

"I...I see an assassin...more than ten-thousand years old" she answered. Blood Moon froze, his whole body tensed and his muscles numbed, his thoughts clouded and his thinking halted, the breath he had taken and was about to release was caught in his lungs while his heart seemed to stop. He held his position for maybe thirty seconds, not breathing, thinking, moving and, if the lack of beats was anything to go by, his heart seemed to have stopped. To all intents and purposes, he was dead.

Then he let it all loose; his muscles relaxed in perfect unison as his head fell back onto the pillow, his heart started up again at a rate way too fast for him to be relaxed at, his mind unscrambled itself as he processed the information that had just entered his brain for a second time, third time, fourth time and fifth time, all the while his breathing started again, deep and slow as he collected himself. The original plan had been for her to answer 'an assassin' and he would have answered back 'true, but I am no normal assassin' the conversation would then have lead into his reason for not killing her then an explanation about his code then answering of any questions. He had not expected this pony to be privy to knowledge only two others were supposed to know.

"H-how, do you know that" he asked at length, erg to kill rising steadily. Twilight seemed to catch on and she answered quickly.

"W-well I did some research" she told him bluntly. The assassin, however, was unsatisfied with the answer and made a rotational movement with his hoof to signal her to keep going. "After your 'first appearance' I was curious about the magic you used to get away from us. I recognised it as a form of shadow magic and, with the help of a certain unexplainable pink pony, I managed to figure out the magic you had used was called…"

"Umbra Linguam" they finished in unison.

"Not many would be in their right enough mind to be able to identify types of magic just by looking at it after watching something like that" he said under his breath but loud enough that Twilight could 'overhear' him "let me guess; you found a list of all known magicians capable of performing that particular branch of magic." He got a nod in response.

"When I saw the list I was a little confused, I mean who makes a list of the ponies that can use magic…but then I noticed how short it was" she explained. "I noticed Celestia, Luna and Starswirl straight away, but then I saw King Sombra and the name Blood Moon..." She gave a small huff "I got the feeling something wasn't quite right" she told him, prompting a small smile from the assassin. "I went on to try and find out more about you, but there were nothing but a few scraps, which, I have to admit, is kind of impressive for somepony who's at least ten-thousand years old" Twilight admitted. The young spell-caster appeared to be getting comfortable in the assassin's presence, not so tense and she'd shuffled to more comfortable position on the bed slightly.

'A few scraps are still floating around out there? I must be slipping' the assassin thought.
He sat back up and looked over at the purple mare, taking her in; she was definitely Celestia's protégé and by no stretch of the imagination would he ever doubt that fact, if only because she'd been able to gather information on him, a pony who'd always strived to stay invisible and unremembered. He chewed the inside of his cheek for a second in thought, the question he had asked himself 'who would want Twilight dead' was demanding an answer more and more, the more he learned about her. This mare had the ability to accurately name different breeds of magic before going on to find out his own preferred magic type, an impressive feat to achieve, alongside her impressive mind and natural magical ability she was becoming more and more... well perhaps 'impressive' was the only word for it, despite it being a bit of an understatement. Eventually he turned his attention back to her.
"I can only guess a pony of your nature would have some questions for me" he told her.

"Yes, a few." Translation: don't expect to leave here any time soon.

"Understood. But first one for you; just what happened last night?"

Twilight Sparkle couldn't believe what she had just seen. The amount of raw power she could feel from the spell was astronomical, and she'd never seen anything like it before; such destructive magic, she wasn't surprised it had been banned! She gazed over the chaos that Discord himself would be proud of; the scent of burned chitin and bug wings drifted over to her nose and she tried her best not to gag at the twisted smell; the burnt and dead grass was home to numerous equally burnt and dead changelings. The unicorn had no good thoughts towards the changelings, especially after her brother's wedding, but she felt that not even Queen Chrysalis deserved that kind of fate. She turned her attention away from the scene and looked at the stallion that had caused it; he was stood, calm, like he hadn't just killed at least a hundred changelings. She turned away from the dark stallion, her eyes lingered on the stallion she had brought with him that was now hovering in the air, sword in hoof; the mustard furred stallion was looking over at the assassin. She wondered who he was, she had not seen the old pony around Ponyville much, one or two times in the market sure but never actually met him. She'd have to ask Pinkie Pie about him.

Now looking over at the dark stallion again, she found him fatigued, out of breath, that last spell must have taken a lot out of him, though the purple mare more or less expected that; the book she had been studying for the most of yesterday had told her that the longer the duration, the larger ground it covered or how much more generally powerful the spell, the more magical energy it took; the assassin's magic seemed to have used a lot more magical energy than a normal spell it seemed. He was panting badly and looked to be having trouble staying on his hooves. She took a second to look over to her friends, Applejack was watching the weary stallion with the same indifference as she was, but Twilight had a feeling that after protecting her family and friends, all of which were inside the library, she would be more forgiving. She wondered if she could do the same; he had killed the stallions in the market…but he had done it defending Derp-Ditzy doo hadn't he, and the stand he put up to the changelings had been in defence of her friends, their family's and Ponyville as a whole.

'Maybe he isn't all that ba- wait…Rainbow, what are you doing' the sorceress thought as she watched the rainbow coloured mane Pegasus tip-hoof mid-air towards the exhausted stallion; hovering, she reared her right fore-hoof. Twilight made a confused frown and was sure that if the older stallion inspecting the damage done could see Rainbow, he'd be right on her, she was also sure that Applejack was making the same confusion, turn alarm face as she was as she realised what the cyan blue Pegasus was up to; with a dull thwack she hit the stallion right in the temple with a strength that would have made Big Macintosh proud.

"That's what you get for killing somepony in Ponyville" she shouted in triumph as the assassin fell. Twilight just stared as he slumped on the ground, flank in the air, and face in the ground as he snored quietly. Twilight turned her head to the old, eye patch clad stallion as she heard hooves thundering across the ground as he galloped over to her furiously. As he approached Rainbowdash straightened up in an attempt to hold her ground…despite being air-born.

"WHAT WAS THAT" he roared in a fashion that made event the headstrong Rainbowdash flinch "HE…he helped you and your friends and you just hit him in the back like some coward" he told her, right in her face, though Twilight couldn't help but agree with him.

"What do I care if he 'helped' us or not, he got what was comin' to him!" Twilight gulped lightly as she looked away, not exactly happy with arguing with one of her best friends.

"H-he's right Rainbow…he did help us. You didn't need to do that." The mare in question looked at her, mouth agape.

"Whoa whoa, whp knows what he would have done to us when he was done with those changelings! What happened to loyalty to your friends" Rainbowdash argued to her unicorn companion.

"And what happened to honour in battle and standing by your comrades" the stallion argued back.

"He's not my comrade" the mare seethed at length "and I ain't any soldier gramps."

"That doesn't change the fact he stood by you 'Dash" the stallion all but whispered in a voice that reminded the watching unicorn of the assassin lying asleep at the scimitar wielding stallion's hooves. The flying Pegasus seemed shocked that this mystery fighter knew her name.

"Say, who in Equestria are you anyhow" she demanded "and how do you know my name?"

"My name is Sand Stalker; professional blade for hire and I know you, Rainbowdash, because I knew your farther" he explained. The moment he said 'farther' Twilight's, Applejack and Rainbowdash's eyes widened; Twilight and Applejack because they knew how sensitive an issue that was for the vibrant coloured mare and Rainbow herself, well…

"DON'T YOU DARE EVEN MENTION HIM YOU BUCKER" she roared in what can only be described as the Canterlot voice turned to eleven. She lunged at him, the sand stallion stepping to the side gracefully and let her stumble over his sweeping fore-leg; RD had turned back to him with a snarl on her face, but the use of vulgar language at that volume had inevitably drew attention from the occupants of the library as Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie-Belle emerged from the library. The three fillies ran to their respective big sisters.

"Rainbowdash, please refrain from using such language in front of the girls" Rarity implored. Then, she spotted the assassin knocked out/asleep next to Sand Stalker. "Oh my" she said at a terrified length "it's him" she looked around herself and took note of the wasteland "did he do all of this" she whispered, just loud enough for everypony to hear. Rarity, Applejack and Rainbowdash were all holding their little sisters (adoptive in RD's case) in vice grips but none of them seemed to care, considering how scared they must have been.

"Jus' what in tarnation is goin' on here anyhow" Applejack demanded, filly in fore-hooves "jus' who's side is he on" she asked everypony but not expecting an answer.

"Ha, this is Blood Moon you're talkin' about here. You don't know who's side he's on till the last second" the Saddle Arabian merc told them, with a small smirk on his face.

"Uhhh…um"

"And how does that help us? For all we know he's tryin' to kill one of us, tryin' to get on our good side so he can get close" Rainbowdash argued.

'Kid you have no idea how close you are to the truth' the mercenary thought with a sideways glance to Twilight.

"Uhhh, we should really get him-"

"Please, this is no time for arguing; we've got most of Ponyville cooped up in there and we've got a whole bunch of…dead changelings out here. We've gotta figure out what to do with them" Twilight interjected.

"While that's true, there's the stallion who-"

"Twi's got a point there; we can't jus' be leavin' all ah these changelin's here. What ah we gonna do" Applejack agreed.

"B-but what about the stallion-"

"We get these civilians out of here and have any remaining guards take care of the corpses" Sand Stalker told her with a shrug.

"But Blood Moon-"

"And just who in the hay made you the boss around here, GRAMPS" Rainbow demanded.
"I-"

"And who didn't make me the boss, FILLY" the merc countered.

"QUIET" Pinkie shouted at the top of her lungs, bringing herself a little off the ground in the process, before floating back down like a bubble "Fluttershy's been trying to say something" she told them in the most polite manner known to pony, with a huge, unexplainable grin on her face. They all turned towards the Pegasus in question, who was stood close to the unconscious assassin. She shrank back a little at the large amount of attention.

"W-well it's just that I-I've been looking over his wounds and h-he seems to be losing a lot of blood, so-so I was just wondering if we should take him inside and try and heal him... I mean if that's ok with you" the yellow Pegasus asked, finishing her sentence with an adorably small 'squeak'.

"No way, why should we help HIM out" the blue flyer argued. The animal tender shrank back a little more.

"W-well he did help you protect us" she whispered from behind her mane.

"Finally, somepony who speaks sense" Sand Stalker told them, matter-of-factly.
"Ah'm with Fluttershy on this one Rainbow. He did help protect everypony" Applejack told the Pegasus.

"So am I" Twilight agreed.

"Oh come on, not you too Twilight" Rainbowdash groaned.

"I'm sorry Rainbow, but this argument isn't in your favour; Mr...

"Sand Stalker" said stallion repeated.

"Sand Stalker, Applejack and Fluttershy are all making good points. Besides, without him, these changelings would likely have gotten to Scootaloo and the rest of the Cutie mark crusaders" Twilight argued. This statement caused the Rainbowdash to look down at the orange filly in her fore-legs. Nopony noticed the somewhat loving look on her face.

"Low blow, Twilight" she muttered. Said unicorn trotted up to Pegasus and put a hoof on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry but we can't just leave him here." The unicorn trotted over to the assassin she identified as 'Blood moon' and levitated him onto the awaiting back of Sand Stalker, before she lead the way inside.
"Take him over to the spare bedroom, it's up the stairs, second door" she told the mercenary wearily, the events of the day catching up to her. The old stallion simply nodded and trotted up to the room she had directed him to, she couldn't help but notice that he was unnaturally quiet but she was glad for it, she didn't want Spike waking up.

"Hey Twilight, what's going on."

'Rats' she thought, as she recognised the voice.

"Oh, nothing Spike" she told the drowsy looking dragon, the drake rubbing his eyes.

"Don't look like nothing" he replied, looking around the library filled with a large bunch of ponies.

"Just...just do me a favour and go see if everypony is alright, please." Spike gave a small salute in return as he went around to all the ponies hanging around the library. In the end only Twilight's friends, Sand Stalker (who had reappeared from upstairs) and the unconscious Blood moon remained. While Twilight's friends gathered in a corner, finding safety in each other's company, Twilight herself trotted over to the mercenary who was stood by himself in the edge of the library; he was looking through the books on Equestrian history, or he looked to be, as Twilight noticed he kept looking over to Rainbowdash.

"So, how do you know them? Rainbow and Blood Moon I mean" she asked him as his back was turned to her, he turned his head to before answering her.

"I met Blood in a bar; we met, exchanged words, had a few drinks" he grunted to himself "we we're pretty fast friends" he said, a smile in his voice but not on his face. Twilight smiled at his words.

"Friendship is magic" she said, a little merriness in her voice as she quoted her leanings over the past few years. The merc looked over an eyebrow raised and a lopsided grin on his face.

"And wouldn't you know about that, Twilight. And, for the record, I met Rainbowdash through her dad, who I also met in a bar. She, apparently, doesn't recognise me despite my being around her most of her foalhood. That said, I wasn't really there much, and she was young, so it's no wonder" he looked over at the mare who was glancing their way now and then

"Rainbowshine, her mom, and her father, Blazing Trails, would always make small mentions of 'ol' uncle Sand' now and then, though it seems she's forgotten" he told her, a laugh in his voice "always sayin' that she would never be alone as long as there was sand or shade nearby."

"That reminds me of the assassin's song" Twilight commented absently, the merc not supposed to hear.

"Nah, that's Blood Moon" the stallion argued. Twilight had a confused expression on her face, the Pegasus sighed "cold windy nights? Just look outside" he told her. The unicorn did as asked and looked out the window, seeing the branches and leaves waving at her from outside the library. "Pray the assassin will watch over your plight? Now, be honest with yourself; were you hoping he would show up?" Twilight took a second to think before she nodded her head, admitting it to herself as much as she was to the mercenary. He smiled and nodded. "Either way, Rainbow's parents asked me to look after her but..." Twilight could sense the dark cloud looming in his mind.

"What happened" she pressed, trying to be gentle with somepony that had some obviously painful memories. Sand Stalker just shook his head, an act that cut off the conversation without dispute.

"Anyway, enough of this; I'm an old, tired and cranky stallion and you have an assassin to look after" he told her as he trotted away, not giving her a chance to say anything. Twilight just sighed and headed towards the stares that lead to the spare room, but as she got half-way up, an ever timid and hovering Fluttershy stopped her.

"Uh, um Twilight, a-are you going to see to that s-stallion" she asked, her hooves held behind her back as if she were explaining to her mother where the last cookie had gone.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Oh-oh I was just wondering if you needed any h-help with him" she asked her from behind her mane.

"Uhh, sure but, if you don't mind my asking, why?" Fluttershy clopped her hooves together nervously before answering.

"W-well it's just that Pegasus" she told the unicorn, glancing over at the mustard stallion who was still gazing over the books and taking periodic glances over at Rainbowdash "he-he scares me." Twilight sighed sadly.

'Fluttershy, I swear to Celestia, you're scared of your own shadow.'

"Don't worry about it Fluttershy" the sorceress told the animal lover, putting a hoof on her shoulder "but are you trying to say that Blood Moon doesn't make you scared" she asked, doubting her friend's logic a little.

"Well he'll be asleep...won't he" she said, a worried tone in the latter part of her sentence.
Twilight giggled slightly as she led the way up the rest of the stairs. In the spare room, Twilight found the assassin laying on the bed; he was still, silent, peaceful and, for all intents and purposes, seemed to be sleeping soundly, a bubble expanding and contracting on his maw as he breathed. Twilight couldn't help but think of a napping colt. The two proceeded to remove his garments, the unicorn making sure Fluttershy didn't see the leather belt. Once he was fully undressed the pair came across a nasty sight; Twilight and Fluttershy's eyes widened, the unicorn's jaw hung low while the Pegasus put a hoof to her mouth in shock. Blood Moon's body was covered in scars; some small nicks, others large, brutal and undoubtedly deep wounds, most of his back had ridges and bumps from the sewed up by an unpractised hoof, his stomach home to a gruesome and ugly 'Y' shaped scar where he'd undoubtedly been gored by something, all of his legs burned and scarred badly, his hooves rough and calloused.

It was all the same kind of hastily repaired damage, Twilight noticed the older looking scars were not as well mended as the newer ones and she could only draw one conclusion: he must have stitched them up himself. Twilight could now properly see the scar on his face, now that his hood was gone, and saw...just how bad it looked; she had to admit, she hadn't really known what to make of his face before but now she could see his face with the scar in all its...'glory' she was having trouble not feeling bad for whatever had done that to him, and what he must have done in return. It was deep and badly stitched, she could actually still make out where the needle and thread had gone in and out before being, from what she could tell, brutally ripped out with ease, even in the dim light, and it did nothing for his already rather unappealing looks.

"B-by Celestia" Twilight whispered. Fluttershy simply gave a terrified nod in response. Twilight looked over his body and spotted a blank spot on his scarr ridged body "say Fluttershy, notice he's got no scars on his chest?" Fluttershy looked closer at his chest and noticed he had, indeed, no scars on the front of his body.

"H-how do y-y-you think that happened" Fluttershy asked her bookish friend, who looked over at the vest she had removed from him and noticed something odd about it, though clothing was not her strong suit so she decided to leave that to Rarity. A second look across the assassin revealed around five open cuts, relatively new, and that his wound, courtesy of Rainbowdash, was leaking blood.

"Well...lets get to it" Twilight shrugged as her horn glowed and Fluttershy picked up some bandages Twilight kept in here for just such an occasion. Between them, they patched him up rather well within around twenty minutes, before deciding they were too tired to anything more and went to sleep. Though, all of the mares in the Golden oaks library had dreams plagued by black fire, a flashing blade and a hooded stallion.

"...And that's pretty much what happened" Twilight finished. Blood Moon, who had his head hung as he listened intently, looked up and nodded once.
"So it's because of you and the yellow mare that I woke up to find myself here" he asked as he looked the mare in the eye. Twilight simply nodded. "Why show me such kindness?"

"Well, you protected me and my friends... and you haven't killed me have you? Besides, that kind of behaviour should be expected from the Element of Kindness" she explained with a small smile on her face. "You know, you still haven't explained why you haven't killed me."
Blood Moon snorted.

"First rule of conduct; never kill an innocent" he told her dismissively "but whatever the case, you have my thanks..." Blood Moon looked into the void for a second before he grinned "it occurs to me I owe you my life" he told her, an amused grunt in his tone.

"Well not really, your more robust than most other ponies I've met before."

"Well, my general comfort then" he said with a smirk.

"Well if you insist on owing me something, let it be a comfy bed" she said with a giggle. Blood Moon grunted again.

"I suppose if I want to make amends with your friends, I should get it over with" he said after a long pause. Twilight nodded as the assassin stood up on his hooves, wobbling slightly, and made his way to the door. The two made their way down to the main part of the library, where Twilight's friends were gathered, before stopping at the foot of the stairs and looking at the mares and stallion gathered down there.

"Hi..." Blood Moon said casually.

Author's Notes:

It would probably be prudent to mention that the next few chapters may take a little longer to be released, given that I'm gonna have to bring them up to snuff in comparison to my already edited chapters.