A dreary morning, six weeks past the destruction of Angron. Rain fell from the overcast skies in torrential sheets as frantic pegasi struggled to reign in the excess water vapor. One rainbow maned pegasus grit her teeth and muttered, “Dammit, how does Cloudsdale keep messing up our orders? Honestly, who’s in charge of cloud requisitions anyway!?”

Far away, in a small cloud shack off the edge of Ponyville, a lone, gray mare sneezed, sending her golden eyes rotating in opposite directions.

“Oh… I just don’t know what went wrong!”

Back in Twilight’s (Semi-waterlogged) Friendship Castle, Crow whistled pleasantly as he strolled through the corridors, a stream of abnormally soft and dull feathers trailing behind him, dusting the hall as he went. Once he came upon the throne room, he found his liege sitting with four other mares, one pink, one white, one blue, and the last semi-insectoid and black.

“Good morning my liege, I see you have guests?” He greeted, waving idly to the semi-bemused mares.

Twilight spoke up, drawing him over, “Good morning Cameron, come over, I’d like you to meet my friends.”

He strode forth, the stream of feathers behind him coalescing into a feather-collared cloak around him. As he drew near, he took off his (Purely ornamental) glasses and bowed to the four other mares in the room. “Greetings, miladies, my name is Cameron Murder, also known as Crow. Pleasure to meet your acquaintances.”

Three sets of giggles reached his ears, along with a fourth, dual-toned and husky chuckle. The mare on the far left, the black one, spoke, her voice coming in with an odd echo, “Well, isn’t every day that I get such a greeting, now is it? Not since I tried to take over the nation a few years back, right Cady?”

The pink one, ‘Cady’, glared at the slightly scary one, “And I still haven’t forgiven you for trying to steal my husband.”

Before the conversation could devolve further, the tall, white mare cut in with a motherly tone, “Cadence, Chrysalis, as much as you two dislike each other, I’m sure our friend here would appreciate some introductions in return, yes?”

Both mares straightened immediately, pink- apparently Cadence- smoothing out her dress while black- Chrysalis- brushed some dust from her pantsuit.

Cadence spoke first, “Hello, I’m Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but you may call me Cadence. I rule the Crystal Empire in the far north.”

Crow bowed again, kneeling and kissing the back of her hand, as he had been repeatedly taught by Rarity.

Crow hated propriety when it came to interpersonal actions. Generalized formality, such as the placement of people, was fine, but greetings and such were never his strong suit.

Judging from Twilight’s semi-disapproval, it was clear that he was being a bit too formal.

“Forgive me if I’m being overly formal. It appears as though her majesty wishes this to be a friendly gathering.” With that, Crow stood at attention and sat in one of the many chairs, this time receiving a tiny sliver of approval.

“It’s fine, Cameron. Now, let’s return to introductions, yes? My name is Celestia, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Celestia waved cheerfully, daintily lifting her tea cup as she did. “Hmm. This tea is truly exquisite, Twilight, where ever did you find such a blend?”

Twilight took a sip of her own, cocking her head in confusion, “I… I’ve never actually had this blend before, Pr- Celestia… I didn’t even know we had it! Cameron, do you know where this tea is from?”

Our resident superhero nodded, “Yeah, I got a bunch of herbal leaves from the birds a few days ago and spent some time experimenting. They share a close resemblance to tea leaves from my home reality, actually– Green Tea, to be exact.”

“Whatever this is, it is quite suited to our tastes,” spoke the blue mare, “Ah, apologies, Sir Cameron. I am Luna, former princess of Equestria.” Luna nodded her head in lieu of bowing and sipped her tea, wings fluttering in pleasure.

The gathering went on for many hours, eventually leading late into the night.

“Oh my,” Celestia spoke, “I hadn’t realized that it was so late already… Far too late to take a chariot back to Canterlot at this point…”

Twilight caught on to her meaning right away, “Well, we do have a rather large amount of guest rooms…”

“.... I’ll fetch the linens…” Crow muttered, already halfway out the door and sparking with stray feathers.

Midnight in Twilight’s Friendship Castle.

Luna stayed up late to watch over the night. Despite her reduced stature and ability, the Alicorn of the Night was still more than capable of raising the moon and dreamwalking, though some of her more complex or power draining magics were now unavailable to her.

As she stood, basking in the moonlight, she heard the light rustling of wings as hundreds of corvids settled around her, the entire flock consisting of various species, sizes, even abnormal colorations.

A single footstep caused her to swing around, startled. Crow, meanwhile, waved a greeting and set his cargo down on a convenient table.

“What brings you up here, Luna?” he asked, pouring the two some tea as the birds watched.

She returned her vigil over the night as she took the offered tea, replying with a curt, “Tis our job, Cameron. We watch over the night and the dreams of all of Equestria’s citizens.”

“I see…” Crow sat on the edge of the railing, perched as if he himself were a bird, and kept Luna quiet company as she oversaw the night.

The flock of corvids silently took wing as one, returning back into the castle attic for the night, leaving the Alicorn Ex-Princess and the otherworldly assassin/superhero/butler to simply enjoy the other’s company.

Luna slouched against the railing, looking up at her moon, round and beautiful and oh so brilliant. She spoke softly, as if she were afraid of disturbing the peaceful silence that had fallen upon the two.

“Sir Cameron, if you would, what was your homeworld like? We find ourselves curious about the home of Equestria’s newest knight of the realm.”

Crow stumbled a little, turning his sudden backwards fall into an elegant back flip. Curiosity flittered across his face as he thought of his reply. A light breeze rippled the air as he spoke, lending an air of gravitas to what was essentially a glorified history lesson.

“Well, there’s not much to tell,” he began, choosing his words carefully, “My world is much like this world, save for the fact that humans are the dominant species and that technology advanced in different areas. There’s heroes, villains, criminals, and the lowly assassins. Of course, it was much less peaceful– the world here is just so much happier, I can almost feel it. There were hundreds of countries across the planet, really, and each one was home to at least one hero. Whether they were big time and travelled a lot and joined a team or small time, like me, was entirely up to them. Well, that’s about most of the world in general, I suppose.”

Luna hummed in thought, mentally adjusting the course of her precious moon a few degrees to the left. “But what of yourself, sir Cameron? We are interested in you as well.”

“Me? Well, I’m nothing special, really. Just a kid from Los Angeles, assassinating people and being a small time hero by night, desperately trying to pass high school by day.” Crow leaned against the railing next to Luna, also watching the moon.

“Surely you jest, sir Cameron! There must have been something interesting about you!”

Crow stared at Luna through his visor. “You just want me to tell you my life story don’t you?”

“Well… yes…”

“Fine, fine…” He sighed, “Okay, well, I was born to the third most renowned assassins’ guild in the world, a family line that stretches, unbroken, all the way back about thirteen hundred years. Me, I was born in the year 1998, on July ninth. When I came here, the year was 2016. My home town, Los Angeles, was a massive metropolis and home to a majority of America’s film industry. I’ll give you the geography of Earth later, if you want.” He stopped for breath, sipping at his tea before continuing.

“I never left Los Angeles for more than a few weeks for all eighteen years of my life, again, until I came here. Now, in LA, I was just an average kid on the outside– superhero’s gotta keep his secret identity and all, yeah? But I lived alone. My parents, the heads of the guild– the Murder Family– didn’t really always have time to raise me as a child, so I got shuffled around between any relatives who could spare the time. Of course, I managed pretty well, but then I turned ten years old in the summer of 2008. That was the year I first came into my powers.” He held up a hand for emphasis, feathers peeling out of his skin and swirling around before dissipating back into the ether. “‘Course, they were weak for the first few years– I couldn’t really teleport in any degree of usefulness until I was twelve. I’d been raised as an assassin as soon as I was seven, so I already had most of the basics down by then. First thing I learned about my powers was that each feather was sharp enough to cut through a six inch block of steel when fired at normal speed. Then I learned that I could turn them into bladed weapons. My family was so jealous– I could never really be disarmed, y’know?”

“I know”

“Right, so, as soon as I hit thirteen, I was old enough, according to my family, to be an assassin for real. At this point I could teleport as far as a good hundred meters, and my auto-teleport came in that year too. So I went and I became an assassin. First kill I had left me vomiting for an hour and left me bedridden for a week with nightmares.” He let out a humorless chuckle as Luna put a hand to her mouth in horror, wings rustling in agitation.

“Your parents let an adolescent assassinate someone!?” she nearly yelled, stunned at the apparent brutality of Crow’s homeworld.

“Yup. But it gets better. So, two years later, my activities get picked up by the main superhero team on Earth, the League of Heroes. So I get taken in right after an assassination, quivering in my size ten combat boots, terrified at what a group of superheroes would do to little, fifteen year old me. And then, the best part is that they let me off with a slap on the wrist and a probationary status as a member of the League. I never asked why, but at that point it was all I could do not to vomit in fear. I… I have a strange propensity to vomit in stressful situations, though now it’s only when I’m injured a great deal.”

Luna fanned her face in disgust, clearly not enjoying the topic. As Crow paced around the rooftop and basked in the pale moonlight, he continued monologuing, “So, a year later, after not taking any assassinations for that entire year, I get called in, made a full member of the League, and put on a team of heroes. Sixteen years old and part of the big leagues, not bad, right? Well… here’s the difficult part.”

Crow stopped, taking deep breaths as he fought down tears and tried to tell a coherent narrative.

“Crow get out of here! It’s a trap!”

“I can get you out of there! Just hang tight!”

“No, DON’T!”

“C’mon, c’mon! Dammit!”

“AAAAAAAGH!”

“NO!”

“My first mission… it seemed so simple… but it was a trap and I choked…” Crow’s visor came off, revealing tear-filled green eyes.

“Vell, vell, if it isn’t mein favorite group of heroes, ze Corvidae.”

Heavy boots strode across metal grating, echoes distorting the sound and making the owner impossible to track.

“Und look, you haff a leetle baby bird vis you! Vat is zis vun’s name, hmm? Ze last vun, Rook, vas it? He screamed soooo nicely… vill you do ze same, baby bird?”

“Baron von Sterben… we were sent to Germany to take him down; end his weapons trafficking ring. If possible, track down whether or not there was a human trafficking ring too…” Crow shuddered, stray feathers filling the air as his pacing became more frantic.

“You are trapped, Corvidae! Zere is no vay to escape zis cage! Und if your leetle friend tries, you vill all be crushed to death!”

“You asshole! I’m gonna kill you when I get out of this thing!”

“We went in, took down a bunch of thugs… and then I got hauled into a net and thrown into a cage that drained my powers.”

“Crow!”

“Dammit you guys! Focus on yourselves, I’ll find a way out of here! I wasn’t born into the third best assassins’ guild for nothing!”

“My team, none of them could teleport, the most they could do was try and fly out… but only one of the team could fly, and his wings were shredded by a ball of razor wire three minutes after. They were caged… no way to climb out… if they tried to break the walls… the entire cage would flood and they’d drown since they were chained to the floor. There was a massive hydraulic press there too… if I broke out and tried to free them… it would crush them to death.”

“You son of a bitch! Take that!”

“Augh!”

Blood splattered the walls as Baron von Sterben’s head fell into the pit.

“I broke out… killed the Baron… tried to free them… but… I choked. I was so full of anger and worry that I forgot I could teleport them out! They died… electrocuted by the chains, drowning, and finally crushed under seventy tons of tungsten steel…” Crow broke down in tears, sinking to his knees in grief and throwing his visor to the side.

“My best friend was on that team… we used to meet up after she came back from a mission, share a coffee… Raven… Rachel Albjorn… best damn pyromancer I’d ever seen… was gonna ask her to go out with me after that first mission…”

Luna knelt by Crow, laying a hand on his back and trying to console him. They sat like that for an hour before Crow finally calmed down.

“I’m sorry, it’s just… that was… There’s a lot of bad memories there…” Crow murmured, slowly climbing to his feet.

Luna sighed, “Tis not a crime to share thine feelings, sir Cameron. And as Twilight Sparkle would say, talking about things usually makes them easier to deal with.”

“Yeah, maybe…” The assassin stooped over and picked up his visor turning it over in his hands. He ran his fingers over its etched surface, calmly revelling in the memories contained in the blue-gray metal.

“Y’know, this used to be Raven’s visor…” Crow started, slipping the visor back onto his face. “She gave it to me a few years back after a mission… said she didn’t need it anymore.”

Luna said nothing, quietly offering a supporting hand on his shoulder.

“My first and last mission for the League… and it ended in the deaths of my best friend and four others… some hero I am. After that, I went solo, stuck to LA, got a nickname in the criminal circles. Heh, ‘Mr. Murder’; a fitting title, I guess. Well, that’s my story. What about yours?”

Crow’s words offered a welcome relief from the previous tension filling the air, even if the boy-no, young man, Luna corrected herself- seemed all too lost in his memories.

“Well, we– What was that?” An almost unnoticeable tremor shook the castle as an ominous aura snapped into being.

Crow’s depression disappeared in an instant, all traces of emotion locked behind a cruel mask of professionalism. “Source unknown. Detecting high concentrations of dark magic. Tracking source. Scanning… Infrared, Ultraviolet, X-ray, Sonar…”

He took to the air, circling around the entire castle in broad spirals, head twitching left and right as he trailed hundreds of feathers around the castle.

Just as he passed under a particularly shadowed alcove, a tendril of something struck him in the side, engulfing him and slamming him into the ground in a spray of debris.

“Cameron!” Luna cried, charging her horn with shining magic and leaping into the fray.

“Œ„´‰ˇ˝˛ı˝Ó˜ÂÒÓÏ˛¸˛ÎÇ◊ı˜ÔÒ˘¸‰´ÅÁ˝¨ÁØ∏؈Â¸Ò؈Ӫ˙ª˙œ¨∆˜ˆ∂øˆ∆å˜øˆ¥©ø∂!” An unknown, obscene language pierced through the stillness of night, smoky tendrils of shadow lashing out with strange distortions in space and slapping Luna aside, her miscast spell impacting the side of the castle in a brilliant flash of piercing moonlight.

The shadowy being recoiled, throwing itself, inadvertently, into the pale light of the real moon. Red eyes gleamed with hatred as the shadow formed itself into a twisted parody of equine form, clawed and fanged and surrounded by a smoky aura.

“Damn you… Thou shalt die for thine interference!” The creature growled, voice guttural and unnatural, laced with dark magics and demonic corruption.

Luna crawled from her crater, weakened and cursing her own state. Then she noticed the malignant entity standing but a scant few meters away.

“You!”

The dark spectre chuckled, “Hello Luna… long time no see.”

And as it lashed out towards her with its suddenly elongated claws, it hissed out an all too familiar word.

“Crysstalsssssss….”

Author's Notes:

And here we see some of Crow's mysterious backstory.

Also, the return of an old enemy.

And a dreaded cliffhanger.

Wunderbar.