"You're Silvia, aren't you," Pinkie exclaimed as she struggled against the assassin's grip. She only knew about Silvia from what she read earlier in the story, and guessed that it would be an appropriate plot twist if she showed up about now. She could feel the cold blade shaking against her neck as the assassin gave a small scoff and hint of a smirk at that statement.

"I don't know how anyone could mistake me for that skank," the assassin mused, "I'm hotter and more interesting than she'll ever be. I'm also more popular with all these drooling fanboys. Lots of people even want me to have my own game."

Travis glowered at the assassin who held Pinkie's life in her hooves. He would have charged in and attacked violently to save her, even if it meant getting cut down himself, but he knew this person, and thought it may be wise to reason with her.

"What are you doing here, Shinobu?"

Upon hearing that name, Pinkie turned her head to better see the assassin.

"Shinobu," she exclaimed in her mind. For the first time since learning about her existence, she had met face to face with a mare she herself never expected, or even wanted, to see.

As Pinkie looked her over, she wondered how she missed the fact that she and Shinobu were wearing the same outfit, and had the same manecut. Heck, they even looked very similar in both face and body type. The only major difference between them was that while Pinkie's coat was hot pink, like bubblegum, Shinobu's was deep brown, like coffee.

"You already forgot about that? That's real nice," Shinobu said as if Travis should have known why she was here. She decided to elucidate Travis to the facts of this matter, "I gave you a note, didn't I? It said that I was going to leave the country again to train with a new master. It just so happens that here in Equestria, there's a guy called Razor Edge who runs a school for swordsponies up in the mountains a few countries over. I learned about it from my friend, Strawberry Surprise. I always thought she had kind of a weird name, but then again, how often do you meet people named Scarlett?"

"I mean: why are you here, in Ponyville with a sword to my girlfriend's neck," Travis said, not actually caring about the particulars of how or why Shinobu was in Equestria at all. To him, all that mattered was getting Pinkie away from her, and somewhere safe.

"Cutting to the quick, huh? I'm here to kill someone called 'The Bearer of Loyalty.' She's supposed to be someone important. I guess while I'm at it, I can kill this Bearer too since Glastits couldn't," Shinobu said as she threateningly pressed the blade of her sword against Pinkie's neck.

"In case you don't remember: I'm the one who's supposed to be the target here. Let her go, and forget about the other Bearers. I'm the only one who's death should matter to you," Travis said as he tried to sway Shinobu to let Pinkie go. And from the look of things, it looked like he had succeeded.

"True," Shinobu said as she took her sword away from Pinkie's neck. Then something occurred to her: how far had she come in her training? Maybe now she would be able to get the better of Travis. But to be certain, he had to be at the top of his game. There was only one way to do that, and she had everything she needed right in her hooves. She put her sword back to Pinkie's throat, ready to slice through it, "But then again, whose death really does matter?" she asked slyly.

Pinkie nearly screamed as Travis jolted forward to stop Shinobu.

Before he even took two steps, a familiar rainbow streak came in and plowed Shinobu through the dirt road of the town, freeing Pinkie from her grip.

Upon her release, Pinkie ran to Travis as Rainbow Dash continued her battle with Shinobu in the streets.

That was a strange thing about Dash: whenever you needed her, there she was. It was almost like she had her own version of the mysterious Pinkie Sense.

"Pinkie, go get Applejack and Spike! It's gonna take all of us to handle Shinobu!" Travis said.

Pinkie gave a short salute and zipped away as fast as she could to bring her friends to the fight.

Dash and Shinobu took to the air and flew towards one another. Dash was surprised to see that this opponent was just as fast as she was. This didn't sit well with her, since she prided herself on being the fastest pony in Ponyville, if not all of Equestria, and she intended to keep it that way. She sped up her attacks, but they were only met with mirrored blows from Shinobu, almost as if they practiced the same fighting style.

Through it all, the noise they were making began to wake up the town.

Lights turned on and curious ponies looked out their doors and windows to see what the hay was going on.

One particularly irate stallion yelled from his window for them to 'cut out that racket.'

Shinobu responded with a bland 'shut your hole, douche' as she sent a sonic slash his way.

The crescent shaped energy wave cut the wall next to his window, and the stallion quickly scrambled back into the safety of his house.

Soon after, the streets were lined with ponies who came out of their homes to witness the overhead battle.

High above, the two pegasi battled ferociously beyond the reach of anypony else.

Dash began the offensive by pushing their battle into the midst of a group of clouds. She then pushed all of the clouds together into one single mass, engulfing both of the pegasi.

This kept either one of them from seeing each other.

Shinobu swung blindly trying to hit her opponent, but anytime she came close, Dash easily dodged it.

Dash had flown blind on plenty of occasions, and learned how to maneuver on sheer instinct.

This put Dash at a serious advantage, allowing her to ebb and advance without fear of being cut down. She landed hit after hit on Shinobu, and smiled as she thought that after all the fights that have happened, she would beat Travis's time for ending one.

But it appeared that Shinobu had other plans.

With a shout of, "GENTOKEN," she unleashed a flurry of sonic slashes in all directions.

That sudden attack took Dash completely by surprise. Her rhythm of attacking and retreating was interrupted by the fact that she now had to dodge random projectiles. Every time she got close to attacking again, she had to back off to avoid losing a wing. She decided it was time to change her strategy when one of her feathers got clipped.

One thing that she learned while training for combat was that she should use her environment to her advantage, just like one of those wrestlers that Travis liked. And right now, her environment was a giant cloud. An idea immediately clicked in her mind.

Remembering her attempt to impress Travis a while ago, Dash began to fly around the mass of clouds at blinding speeds.

Inside, Shinobu tried to escape from the sudden gusts that were whipping around her, but it seemed that no matter where she moved, the fog moved with her.

Dash anticipated her escape attempts and compensated by shifting the cloud's position to keep her trapped.

Faster and faster Dash flew, condensing the cloud to a smaller and smaller size.

Soon, Shinobu was trapped in a massive globe of water, which dropped out of the sky back towards Ponyville.

She landed with a large splash that soaked most of the street.

Looking up, she saw Dash dive bombing her with her weapon drawn.

With a simple step to the side, Dash very nearly crashed into the ground, but with a powerful flap of her wings, she only landed with a solid thud.

But this was all that Shinobu needed to gain the upper hand.

As Dash recoiled from her hard landing, Shinobu let loose with her acrobatic fighting style, jumping over Dash, weaving through attacks, even sliding under her to get behind her.

Dash's head was spinning from the flurry of attacks, making it difficult for her to block properly. On the ground, she was uncomfortable, and her combat rhythm was disrupted. Down here, she was out of her element. She tried to take to the air, but every time she tried, Shinobu stopped her with a powerful jumping strike.

Around this time, Travis joined the fight. He needed weapons that would be able to counter Shinobu's speedy, erratic strikes, so he opted to use the Rose Nasty/Blood Berry combo and rushed in.

Travis's advance ended up pushing the battle into the crowd of ponies who gathered around.

The ponies all parted, giving the fighters plenty of room.

Fighting Dash was easy for Shinobu, all that needed to be done was to keep her on the ground.

Travis, on the other hand, proved to be just as formidable as she remembered. And it was only worse now that he could use multiple weapons. Something had to be done, and she had just the thing.

In her time training in this land, she had learned a new technique or two. Quite a devastating few techniques indeed.

Shinobu stopped her attacks and allowed Travis to execute a downward swing.

Just before the blade touched her, something happened that made everyopony watching gasp in equal amounts of awe, wonder and horror.

At first glance, it seemed that Shinobu had been cut in two, but it wasn't so. A closer look showed that what really happened was that Shinobu had split her body into two separate copies of itself, though both were see-through, as if they were ghosts.

"What the fuck is this," Travis yelled as he took a surprised step back from the two phantoms.

Both of the phantoms smiled at his words.

"This is just a small taste," one of them said.

"Get ready, because there's a hell of a lot more," the other one finished.

They both charged at once, and would have killed Travis if Dash didn't intervene.

Each phantom became an opponent for the two solid ponies.

The four fighters then started circling the perimeter of the circle of spectators, sometimes coming dangerously close to a casualty.

Eventually, the two Shinobu phantoms pushed Travis and Dash both into the center of the circle so that they ended up back to back.

The two phantoms dashed forward, trying to kill them both.

It was the lightning fast reflexes of the two that let them dodge to the side as their opponents clashed in the center.

When they met, the two phantoms began to merge into a singular, solid being once more, but not without another surprise.

During the process of becoming solid, sonic blades appeared around Shinobu's body, though they didn't radiate outwards. They simply circled her body, as a way of shielding her from further attacks while she was vulnerable. They dissipated into nothing when she was finished, which took about a second.

"It looks like you've lost your moe, 'Master' Travis," she taunted. Before, whenever she called Travis 'master' it carried an air of admiration and respect. Now, she only used the term sarcastically as she honestly felt that she had surpassed him.

Taunting her opponents was a weakness of Shinobu's. In the past, it left her wide open to counter attacks. This instance was no different, as she felt the sharp pain of Dash's blade cut right through her.

When Shinobu looked to parry the next attack, Dash was nowhere in sight.

Then another attack hit her from behind.

Shinobu turned once more, and was once again attacked from behind. It was like she could teleport or something, a trick exclusive to magical ponies. It had to be some kind of maneuver paired with her naturally blinding speed.

But two could play the speed game.

Shinobu focused her mind and in the fraction of a second between Dash's attacks, she was ready to counter.

Travis had backed off from the other two, not wanting to accidentally get hit by Dash. But when he saw how Shinobu clutched her sword, he knew there was trouble. It was something that she had tried on him when he fought her years ago. Though he was lucky to never be hit by it, he knew that if he had, it would have been the end of him. He charged into the fray, but it was too late.

As Dash was going for what she intended to be the finishing blow that would set up a kill for Travis, she saw Shinobu's body shift towards her.

At first, she thought that her opponent had simply dodged the attack when she didn't feel her weapon cut into her, but then she felt something else.

She had broken her wing once, and that was the most painful experience she ever had, but this pain she felt now vastly outweighed it. It was the single, deepest cut she ever received, and it went all along her side, making her spiral and crash to the ground, bleeding profusely.

Shinobu's mission had succeeded.

"RAINBOW DASH!!!"

Dash was barely conscious when she felt her head lifted off the ground, and found herself looking at the face of a very, very distraught Fluttershy. She looked nearly on the verge of tears, but she soon got over it and started desperately trying to save Dash.

As Fluttershy worked, Dash turned her head to look at the fight that was still happening.

Travis yelled something about a shortcake, which she couldn't hear, since her fading consciousness muffled her senses. But whatever he said, he began to unleash insanely fast attacks that seemed to all hit their mark.

That was all Dash saw before she closed her eyes.

It was then that the cavalry arrived.

The crowd of ponies had pulled way back from the fight, and through them came the reinforcements that Pinkie was sent to retrieve.

Upon seeing Dash get cut, Applejack bucked Spike directly into battle.

He cut through the air with a dropkick that met powerfully with Shinobu's face. After that, he bounced to Travis's side to begin the next attack.

Even though he felt the same rage that Travis did after Dash was cut down, something about him made him uneasy. In all his time with him, he never saw Travis like this. He seemed somehow less approachable and friendly, it was like all the light in his being had disappeared and was replaced by something dark and terrible.

They were joined by Applejack, and the three of them stared down their opponent, who stared right back.

"Another bearer," Shinobu observed, "This keeps getting easier. If this keeps up, I can kill you all in one night."

"Ya don't know what happened to the last griffin who thought that, do ya," Applejack shouted as she bombarded Shinobu with a volley of horseshoes.

Each one of them was cut down by the two spectral Shinobu's, after she split into two beings again. That would have been a problem if Applejack didn't already have a plan as soon as she saw them split.

Remembering what she had done with Gina, she already had a length of rope ready with a horseshoe at the end. Instead of throwing it directly at her opponent, she lobbed it slightly to the side of both the phantoms.

With a small tug of the rope, and a change of her position, she had maneuvered it to wrap around them both, and with a strong pull, she yanked the two together.

The sudden jolt kept Shinobu from executing her sonic barrier technique, allowing Travis and Spike to execute their Superball Special.

Shinobu dodged the first attack, which sent Spike bouncing off the wall back towards her

Another dodge, and Spike was sent back into Travis's chest.

Travis never really thought about how much it might hurt being hit by a ballistic dragon, but now he had a sudden pang of empathy for the Parfait sisters.

Applejack tried to make her move with an up close an personal battle, hoof-to-blade.

But Shinobu had learned much in her training with Razor Edge. She never understood the nature of her sonic slashes, but with her new teacher, she learned that it was a physical manifestation of her ki.

Ki was the life energy that all living things had (or some bullshit like that), and there were other ways to use it besides attacking.

With a powerful roundhouse kick, she sent Applejack flying away. Once she was at a distance, she used one of her new techniques.

The sonic energy now enveloped her body, and from what everypony could see, all the wounds she had sustained during the battle disappeared from her body.

Travis brandished his weapons threateningly as he tried to steel himself for another attack. He never faced any opponent who could do that, and it was such a cheap, dick move that only the most annoying opponents used.

"You know, healing yourself mid-battle is the sign of an unsure fighter," he quipped.

"So is calling for reinforcements," Shinobu shot back.

Her three opponents all advanced at once, and she took to the air beyond their reach.

With a loop, she came soaring back with an added surprise. While she was holding her katana, the edges of her wings became lined with crescent sonic blades. Her rapid flight towards them had become a literal flying guillotine attack.

"Hit the dirt," Applejack yelled as the three of them dove to the ground.

Shinobu swooped over their heads, and one of her wings cut through a wooden column of a building. She flew high up and came circling back.

Something had to be done about this tactic of hers.

Thinking quickly, Travis blurted out the first words that came to mind, "Spike! Hail Mary piledriver!"

Spike responded with an unaware, "What?"

That was the first time that Travis had spoken those words to him, so he had now way of knowing what he meant.

Without warning, he was picked up by Travis's magic hold and, despite his protests, was flung into the air towards the approaching pegasus.

Before he impacted with her, he suddenly understood what Travis meant.

The Hail Mary had been completed, now what was needed was the piledriver part.

He maneuvered through the air over Shinobu's sword, a feat which made Twilight almost bite her hooves off as she watched him.

When Spike reached her back, he grabbed her tightly and pinned her wings to her sides.

The two then went plummeting to the ground, and created a small, pegasus shaped impression in the ground when they landed.

Spike rolled to safety to avoid Applejack's next attack.

She came in from the air, ready to smash Shinobu's head under her hooves, a move she learned from watching Travis fight Pinkie's assassin.

But just like that fight against Glastits, Shinobu easily dodged it and fluidly got to her hooves. In this same motion, she grappled with Applejack and threw her through the nearest window. After that, she flew in to finish off the farm pony.

The building they ended up in was the cider bar. The lights were already on when they came in, probably turned on by Jack when he was making his way through the bar from his apartment upstairs when he came outside. This allowed the two to continue their brawl unhindered.

Applejack's first move was to pick up a bar stool and swing it at Shinobu's head.

The stool was immediately cut in two.

After swinging her blade, Applejack tackled Shinobu, and slammed her back against the bar.

Shinobu reversed the grip Applejack had on her and smashed her face into the wooden surface of the bar.

The pain of having her face smashed, as well as the rage that came from Dash's demise made Applejack unleash tartarus as she grabbed Shinobu and slid her along the bar, smashing her head through the various mugs, bottles, and ended with her opponent's head hitting the post at the end of the bar so hard that it was dislodged from where it was set.

Applejack let go, and Shinobu rolled behind the bar. Looking down, Applejack saw a bottle that hadn't broken when it fell down.

She bent down to pick it up, and as soon as she came up, so did Shinobu.

Applejack broke the bottle over Shinobu's head, not realizing that her opponent grabbed a bottle of her own behind the bar, and at the exact same time, swung at Applejack's head.

The bottles smashed on each of the mare's heads at the exact same time, pissing both of them off.

They both retaliated with a strong jab in each other's faces. Applejack and Shinobu both recoiled in pain, shouting a respective 'buck' and 'fuck' simultaneously.

"Bitch," Shinobu yelled as she jumped over the bar and kicked Applejack in her face. As a human, Shinobu was accustomed to fighting in enclosed spaces, but as a pegasus, she was at an advantage in open areas.

She made her escape out the window, and swooped overhead to ambush Applejack when she exited the bar. However, it was Shinobu who was ambushed.

Jumping from the rooftops up to her was Travis, who executed a heel drop that sent Shinobu back to the ground where Spike was waiting with a 2x4. As soon as she was in his reach, he swung as hard as he could.

Working purely off of her reflexes, Shinobu sliced through the wooden plank, and nearly cut Spike with it.

Spike staggered backwards away from harm, though he was not out of danger.

Shinobu shot a couple of sonic slashes his way, both of which were dodged.

After Spike stumbled to the side, he found that he fell down next to a metal pipe that was lying in the alleyway between two buildings. He picked it up to use as a makeshift sword.

Shinobu almost laughed at the sight of a tiny dragon holding a piece of metal as if it was a real sword, but she soon learned not to judge appearances.

The little dragon proved to be just as formidable as the other two fighters.

Speaking of which, Travis came jumping in from behind her, attempting a surprise attack, but he was countered by a phantom Shinobu that sprang right out of her back.

Next came Applejack who tried to rush in with a powerful buck that would send her flying.

They all should have seen this coming.

As soon as Applejack got close, and they were all near her, the Shinobu phantoms merged and became surrounded by sonic blades.

Travis and Spike both recoiled as their weapons bounced off the sonic blades, but Applejack, who preferred to fight hoof-to-hoof, got one of her rear legs caught in the blades.

With a loud curse, Applejack fell on her side, and painfully climbed to her hooves. It was only a parry from the Blood Berry that kept Applejack from losing her head to Shinobu.

"Spike, take Applejack out of here," Travis ordered, to which Spike obliged. He put one of her hooves over his shoulder, and helped her limp to the sidelines. He turned to watch them both safely make their way to Fluttershy, but then he realized something: his back was turned to Shinobu, and she hadn't attacked yet.

"I guess this is your way of fucking with me," Travis said, remembering what she said to him before their first fight.

Travis turned to face her, just in time to see a nostalgic smile spread across her face. The two then began circling the edges of the crowd of ponies, who all took several steps back to a safe distance.

"What can I say? You've rubbed off onto me," she stated as she eyed Travis, waiting for him to drop his guard. "But why the hell would you remember that of all the things I've said?"

"I've remembered almost everything you've said to me."

"I'm flattered."

"And I remember once that you said you'd do anything I want. And to be honest: I'd really like it if you stopped this bullshit fight."

"No deal. I said I'd do anything my master wants."

"So that's it? Little Shinobu's all grown up and doesn't need me anymore," Travis said sardonically as the two stopped circling, "I guess that means anything we ever had in the past is null and void now?"

"We never had anything," Shinobu bitterly answered, "I wasn't lying when I said that I still loved you, but I did a lot of thinking after I left. I realized that if I kept holding on to something I never had, I would never surpass you. I don't need you, and I never did."

"No! Come back! You need to lie down," came Fluttershy's voice from the crowd.

It seemed that Shinobu hadn't quite succeeded in her mission, because stepping next to Travis came Rainbow Dash, who was glaring furiously at Shinobu. She took a few ragged breaths before speaking.

"You..." Dash began contemptuously, "You backstabbing piece of trash! Is this how you're going to repay him?! He's a caring, strong, compassionate stallion who's been nothing but nice to everypony he's met! You should be grateful that you met him at all!!" She was seething with rage at the idea that she would readily drop Travis for such a selfish reason as becoming stronger, especially when she claimed to have loved him.

Shinobu responded by shaking her head, "I don't know if I should laugh, or feel sorry for you. You spend all of your time looking out for others, so you never end up bettering yourself. That's why you're still in this place instead of fulfilling your ambitions."

Dash hated how the assassins seemed to know how to strike their nerves. She clenched her teeth, knowing that on some level Shinobu was right. But she still wouldn't stand for this mother bucker's selfish behavior.

"Travis, get back," Dash practically demanded.

Travis knew what Dash was planning. She had a sense of duty towards her friends, and Shinobu was offending every sensibility she had.

"You're not in any condition. Just sit back, and I'll handle this," he said as he tried to gently goad her back into the crowd with a hoof on her shoulder.

This was met with Dash pushing him away into the crowd where he was caught by Pinkie. When he looked to the fighting circle, he saw that Dash and Shinobu were already going at it. He simply stood on the sidelines and watched what unfolded.

"Aren't you going to help her," Pinkie asked him.

"This is something that she has to work out," Travis responded with a sigh, "Besides, could we really stop her?"

Pinkie had to agree with him, so they just watched the battle play out.

Shinobu decided to accommodate Dash's handicap by not taking to the air. After all, it would be a good test of her own skill.

Meanwhile, Dash nearly keeled over in severe pain with every strike she made. She couldn't take to the air for fear of reopening her wound if she flapped her wings. But even with these severe hindrances, she still proved to be just as fast a fighter as she normally was.

"Someone's tapped their moe," Shinobu said, feeling the rage in Dash's strikes, and still not knowing what 'moe' meant, "What's your deal? Trying to impress one of the guys in the crowd?"

Shinobu had to jump to avoid having her legs cut. When she came back down, she ended up locking swords with Dash.

"You sounded weirdly fond of Travis earlier. Too bad he's taken."

Dash's face changed, and it revealed something to Shinobu.

"He broke your heart too, didn't he?"

Dash said nothing, but it was this silence that tipped Shinobu off.

"Hate to break it to you, but he only goes for women with serious personality issues."

Dash wasn't about to take that statement lightly. It was one thing to insult her, but another to insult her friends.

"Leave Pinkie out of this," she growled as she pushed Shinobu back. As soon as she regained her footing, Shinobu charged with series of slashes, all of which were blocked.

Under the strain of the attacks, Dash's wound began to open up again, creating a fresh bloodstain under the already red bandages. The two clashed their weapons once more.

"What do you owe him anyway," Shinobu asked, "Why are you going so far that you're almost killing yourself?"

Dash only stared as she thought about her answer.

"Because he'd have done the same for me," Dash said.

Now it was Shinobu's turn to fall dead silent. She remembered how after Travis defeated her three years ago, he spared her life, stating that he did it so that she could come back stronger one day. And there she was reflecting on the fight she had just carried out in the streets of Ponyville.

During the whole fight, she had taken hit after hit of abuse from her opponents, and now she was having trouble against someone she didn't even know. Someone who she could tell was not nearly as strong as Travis.

Everything she had done up to that point now seemed futile to her. Now she doubted that she truly could carry out her mission to eliminate Travis.

Shinobu's thoughts ended when Dash let loose a technique that she had been practicing to beat Travis during their sparring.

With a twist of her beam katana, Dash executed a masterful disarming technique that relinquished Shinobu of her sword.

The sword flew through the air and ended up caught in Travis's magic.

Shinobu could have easily taken him on unarmed and retrieved her sword, but something had stopped her. She dropped to her knees, and hung her head in shame.

"I give up," she said quietly, "I'm so sick of trying to accomplish the impossible and be something I'm not. Travis..." She paused, and closed her eyes as she tried to admit her difficult confession, "You truly are better than I am. And I see no reason to go on anymore."

"Oh no..." Pinkie said, expecting another suicide. She remembered how she felt when she watched Travis kill Glastits. It made her sad, afraid and sick to her stomach, but it was only ten thousand times worse when she watched Cream slit her own throat. She began to feel queasy as Travis approached the brown pegasus with her sword at his side.

Travis stepped in front of Shinobu, who bowed her head in submission, expecting a warrior's execution. Travis turned to Dash, who looked away as she had done before every other assassin was killed. Many of the ponies who were watching followed Dash's example, but a few seemed to be in a stupor that kept them from averting their eyes.

Travis then turned to Shinobu.

Here was someone who he never thought he would end up having to fight again, and now here it was once more: him with a sword, and her awaiting her demise. He sighed sadly as he raised the sword over her head, aimed right at her neck.

In those seconds, Shinobu slightly regretted conceding to defeat, but for her there was nothing else. She had reaped what she had sown, and this was what she got for sparing Travis.

The whoosh of a blade cutting through the air made her blood run cold.

At first she felt nothing but terror, and then nothing at all.

But things hadn't turned out as they seemed.

Shinobu opened her eyes, and found that her head was still attached to her body. Next to her, her sword was dug into the ground.

She looked up and saw Travis smiling at her and her fear became relief. She spared him, and he had done the same for her.

Something changed in her then, which made her do what Dash had said, and appreciate simply being as close as she was to him. With a bright smile, she stood up and threw her forelegs around Travis's neck, an action which dropped the jaw of every onlooker.

"What the hay just happened," Applejack yelled from the sidelines.

"What the--but why--how did--" Dash sputtered as she angrily waved her hooves around.

"I think I could answer if you finished one of those sentences," Travis said with a chuckle.

Dash only let out a frustrated groan, which turned to a pained one as her wound opened up ever so slightly from her flustering about. Fluttershy dragged her back to the crowd to take care of her as Twilight approached Travis.

"Did I miss something," she asked.

Neither Travis, nor Shinobu had said anything when Travis decided to not kill her. Much like everypony else, she was profoundly confused, and confusion was not something that she took lightly. Especially when it came to social interactions between two ponies.

"Best not sweat it, Sparks," Travis casually dismissed the issue, "Right now, we just have to clear things up."

Shinobu readily agreed to that statement with a nod.

"I'll accept any punishment necessary for this mess," she said, still smiling with her hooves around Travis, "Whatever it takes to atone for this, I'll do it."

"You're in luck, Shinobu. It just so happens that Sparks here has a direct line to the two ruling princesses of this world."

When Travis finished talking, Pinkie came in and pushed Shinobu off of Travis and next the Twilight.

"Great! Everypony's happy! Now get your hooves off my coltfriend and go with Twilight already," she demanded. It made her crazy to see Travis with another mare, let alone one that was an ex.

Shinobu brushed off Pinkie's brash actions and spoke to Twilight.

"I guess we should get started then," she said, unsure of what was to come next.

Though it made Twilight uncomfortable taking an assassin who nearly killed her friends to her home, she agreed and called Spike over to her. The three of them then walked away to her home.

As they walked, Shinobu nervously looked back to Travis who gave her a reassuring smile, but Pinkie gave her a glare and gestured that she would be watching her. As far as she was concerned, Shinobu was trouble. Then she noticed that they were being watched by the crowd.

"It's okay, everypony! You can go home now," she called out to the crowd.

Slowly the crowd disappeared back to their homes.

Travis looked around bewildered, not even noticing that there was a crowd until now. He had gotten so into his work, he didn't even notice the dramatic change in the environment around him. He took Pinkie's hoof, and the two of them started their own way back home.

As they walked, Pinkie remembered that important thing she had to tell Travis about. She knew that it was now or never, and avoiding it would only make it worse.

"Travis...we need to talk."

During the entire walk to Travis's house, Pinkie explained the situation of the summoning spell, and how they had a limited time to be together. Travis didn't say much outside of a few questions, such as how long she knew about it, and if they could do something to work around the magic spell.

"We just can't get a break, can we," Travis sighed, genuinely hurt by the news. Now that he found a place where he was actually happy, it turned out that he was going to have to leave it as suddenly as he entered it. What made it worse for him was thinking about how his departure would affect everyone he had grown close to during his time there.

"I know, but I've been trying to think of ways that we could make our time special," Pinkie said, "I thought that maybe we could keep up these fighting lessons since they're such an amaaaaaazing rush."

As she spoke, Travis could hear her begin to hyperventilate.

"Easy, tiger. We aren't even back in bed yet," they both had a small chuckle, but at what, they didn't know. It seemed like all they could do to make their situation seem better than it actually was.

From that point on, they had to try and think about the positive aspects of the limited future they had together.

But not yet.

When they arrived back at Travis's home, they found a trail of blood, as though someone had been dragged away.

Travis drew his Tsubaki and he and Pinkie cautiously followed the trail to one of the cabins on the property. He opened the door and was greeted with a peculiar sight.

What he saw was Jeanne sitting innocently on the ground, and her front paws were stained red. The rest of the bloody trail led to the group of thugs that had been thoroughly trounced earlier.

All of them seemed dreadfully scared the way they were all huddled in the corner, trembling. None of them seemed terribly injured, but one of them was clutching his bleeding foreleg, had a few fresh bruises, two black eyes, and his mane and tail had been shredded.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about these guys," Travis said.

"Y-Your cat's bucking crazy, man," one of them said as he pointed a shaking hoof at Jeanne, who mewled contently. "Rough House tried to sneak away while she was cleaning herself, but once she saw he was missing, she ran out after him, and he started screaming, man! She came back, dragging him in like a dead rat! Like we're just pieces of meat to her, man!"

"The horror...the horror," shuddered the bleeding stallion as he slowly shrank to the ground and whimpered, "You wouldn't believe those dead eyes of hers! She stopped being a cat...more like a monster!"

The words confused Jeanne, and she turned her head to look at the group of ponies with a small trill as if to ask what they meant.

The cat's action made the entire group gasp sharply and press further back into the corner they were in.

Travis and Pinkie both burst out laughing. In all their years, they never thought they'd see something as silly as a group of grown stallions scared to death of a single, small tabby cat. It was even funnier knowing that Jeanne was such a sweet little kitty any other time.

"Jeanne, can you keep watching these guys? We'll have the guards take care of them in the morning," Travis requested.

Jeanne meowed in confirmation.

"That's a good girl," he said as he scratched her ears, "And I promise that in the morning, I'm gonna give you a whole can of wet food."

Jeanne purred happily at the promise, and hopped on a chair to begin her night watch on the thugs.

Meanwhile, Travis and Pinkie decided to pick up where they had left off.

The two retired to the bedroom, turned out the lights, and noises of love soon followed that could be faintly heard all throughout Ponyville.

With the noises, a strange phenomenon occurred that affected the entire town. Those noises had a romantic side effect on every pony who lived in Ponyville. Everything from midnight rendezvous, to dreams of romance, to bedroom gymnastics happened that night, and it was all thanks to the love two ponies shared, and would share for as long as they could.

Author's Notes:

Along with No More Heroes 3, I desperately want Shinobu to get her own game. I saw some screenshots a few years back, and it looked like that was happening, but then it became something called "Let It Die." Lame...

So, Shinobu's new move set was inspired by the Eight Devils of Kimon from the movie Ninja Scroll. I thought it worked: they're ninjas, Shinobu's like a ninja. It just seemed like a natural fit.

I also know that all of you, even the ones who didn't comment, were hoping that the mystery pegasus was going to be Henry, so I'm super sorry that it didn't turn out that way, but I already figured out when Shinobu was going to come in as soon as I finished the prologue chapter.

But fear not: Henry is most definitely going to appear in a later chapter. Not the next one, though. I already planned the point for him to appear as well. Telling you when would also be a spoiler, so just bear with this thing. Have fun and rock on \m/!