Cadence had gotten used to being nervous over the past couple of months. First she was constantly in fear over the sake of her nation, but now that the fanatics had made it clear that they were willing to go after her daughter, she was pratcially in full blown paranoia mode. Nopony was allowed in the same train car as her, except for Shining Armor, and she wanted to have eyes on Flurry Heart at all times. Which was difficult considering how her daughter had a nasty habit of teleporting around whenever she felt like it.

Then there was the matter of the spandex wearing menace in Twilight's letter and the problem of Slade. She had deduced from the information that Twilight had chosen to share in her letter that the being bothering her sister in law was another mercenary, one that apparently had some bizarre powers. A second human mercenary, appearing in Equestria at the same time as Slade.

'It can't be a coincidence,' she thought to herself, her chin resting on her hoof as she stared out the window as the train chugged along. 'Two mercenaries, both of which are humans, show up at the same time and each attach themselves to a different princess? Well, at least tried to attach themselves. Are they working together?...no, Slade hates everypony too much to dare work with another.'

Next to her Shining Armor played peekaboo with Fluttery Heart, covering his face when he pretended to hide. Flurry, the adorable and innocent angel that she was, actually looked around for her father in confusion everytime he covered his face. Just as she began to whimper in confusion, Shining Armor would move his hooves to the side and greet his daughter, getting Flurry Heart to shriek with delight and burst into giggles. The image of the two playing was almost enough to calm all of Cadence's fears.

But sadly, her fears were still very much real. Her face softened for a moment as she gazed at her family, but then she returned to her thoughts. Her eyes shot to the only door to her train car, which had been reinforced to make sure nopony could so much as look in its direction without her knowing. She knew on the other side of the door stood Slade, standing at attention and waiting for anything that tried to get in. She couldn't see him, but she knew he was there. Despite all of her concerns about him, he did what he was paid to do. He was professional.

'But how long will that last?' she thought in a foreboding manner. 'He does what he is paid to do. Is it possible he would betray me if somepony else was to pay him more? Should I increase his pay to make sure that he stays on my side? I hate to think what would happen if we had to go up against him. He's terrifying in combat. I don't know if I can beat him.'

"Yeah, I don't like him either," Shining Armor said, breaking through Cadence's thoughts and getting the alicorn to glance over at her husband. He had Flurry in his arms and was gently rocking her to sleep. "He's almost too good. I've never seen any being, be it pony or other, move or fight the way he has. It's like he has perfect control over his body. If you ask me, we should take him down now and save ourselves the inevitable fight that will eventually happen. Why are we trusting him so much again?"

"Who said I'm trusting him? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," Cadence replied in a low voice, certain that Slade had plenty of tricks that he hadn't show yet and she wagered he had a way of listening in on their conversation. "But right now he's not the only enemy we face. And with the fanatics having gotten as close as they have to nearly killing us and taking our daughter...I want every tool I have at my disposal working to bring them down."

"I don't like it. He's too dangerous."

"That he is. Too dangerous to let him run loose on Equestria without somepony with power keeping an eye on him," Cadence muttered in reply. Shining Armor considered her words for a moment before he nodded in agreement. "Besides, he has shown that as long as we pay him, he'll do what we say for the most part."

"A hired gun is the most dangerous gun, for you never know which way it's truly pointing."

"At the moment it's pointed at those who seek to harm my daughter. That's all I care about right now."

The train started to slow down as the two wrapped up their conversation and the squeaking of the brakes awoke Flurry
Heart once more. As Shining tried to calm her down, Cadence walked over to the entrance to her car. She slid open the door and found that Slade was standing exactly where she had told him to stand, ever vigilante.

"We've arrived in Ponyville," Slade informed her. She nodded and took in a deep breath to calm herself, before she gave Slade a quick look.

"You know who Twilight is talking about, don't you?" she asked Slade. "You know what's awaiting us in Ponyville."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sure you don't. Be on your best behavior. Twilight and her friends are the greatest heroes of our world and if I've learned anything about you, it's that you and heroes have probably never gotten along in the past."

"Seems you have the ability to reason. That puts you slightly above the others that I've lost brain cells talking to," Slade replied with nothing but contempt in his voice, but Cadence decided that he was talking about the others he had mentioned and not her.

The station pulled into view and she could see Twilight hopping on the platform in anticipation of her sister in law. Cadence also recognized Pinkie Pie standing on the platform next to her friend, but to Cadence's surprise, she didn't see any of Twilight's other friends waiting for her.

Who was there, however, was the merc in red. Who was also wearing a black bowtie.

{D/S}

"You see him?" Pinkie asked Wade.

"Oh yeah, that scowl would stand out even if I was in a room stuck with over a hundred different Batman's," Deadpool whispered to her in reply. "Do I really have to wear this thing? The last time I wore any kind of formal clothing was for my wedding and whoo boy did that not go well."

"You were married?"

"It actually lasted more than three issues, which is impressive considering how modern day comic writers treat change like the black plague. Ask my friend Parker and his fucked up marriage," Deadpool muttered to Pinkie, before a scowl from Twilight got him to stand up at attention.

The train came a halt at the center of the platform and the doors opened, allowing over a dozen of the royal guards ponies to step out and take their positions around the perimeter of the platform. Then the man in the orange and black armor stepped off of the train, locking his eye onto Twilight instantly. The two summed up each other in a heartbeat and both instantly decided that they would not like the other. He then stepped to the side and allowed Cadence and Shining to step off of the train.

"The area is clear. There are no fanatics or any other beings nearby that seek to do you harm," Slade informed the two, which gained him a brief nod from Cadence while Shining rushed forward to greet his sister. While the families reunited, Deadpool raced forward to Slade with his arms extended.

"Daddy, it's been-hello there," Deadpool said as he appeared at Cadence's side a moment later, fixing his bow tie as he did so. "Well hello there. It is so nice to meet a princess that doesn't want to kill me mere moments after meeting me. How about you and me go talk about politics after this?"

"You do realize that's my wife you're talking to," Shining Armor seethed through gritted teeth, the fact that his daughter was watching being the only factor that was preventing him from blasting Wade's head off with his magic.

"Hey man, I get you. Don't worry, I'm totally into threeways as well. See, I like to share," Deadpool said with a wink at Cadence that revolted her. "That's how you know I'm perfect boyfriend-"

Cadence had only a split second to register that Slade had placed his hand over Flurry's eyes before a gunshot tore through the air, followed by Wade's head exploding like a balloon filled with blood. The body of the merc with a mouth slumped to the side while blood painted the floor of the station a new coat of red.

Twilight bit back bile, still mortified by a being having it's head taken off right in front of her. Cadence glared up at Slade, having given him specific orders not to do anything like that. Shining gazed down at the twitching body of the human that had hit on his wife, wondering if he may have misjudged Slade. Flurry couldn't see anything, but began to cry because of the loud noise. And Pinkie just stared down at Wade, waiting for what would come next.

"Dang it Slade, I specifically told you not to use lethal force, even on someone like him!" Cadence yelled up at Slade, who had an annoyed look on his face.

"Believe me princess, I wish that had been lethal. Give him a moment."

Just as Slade had predicted, a moment later Deadpool's entire head grew back within moments. Before his face had fully formed he reached deep into his spandex and whipped out another mask out of somewhere, but that was a path of thought Slade was not ready to go down. Wade slipped his mask over his regrowing face and a moment later was standing back up like nothing had happened.

"By Faust, he completely regrew his head," Cadence whispered to herself with amazement, before she looked at Twilight. "I know in your letter you mentioned he had incredible healing powers, but to think he could regrown missing limbs completely without any repercussions..."

"Oh trust me, there are repercussions. That hurt like a bitch," Wade said with narrowed eyes as he pointed his finger at Slade. "You know, I really gave my all into this relationship, trying to get it to work. But you don't come to my ball games, you never read me bed time stories and every time you see me, you blow my head clean off or riddle me with lead. I'm starting to think that you really don't care about me."

Slade answered that question by shooting Wade in the face once more, getting the merc to slump over once more as his face went missing.

"Why do you bothering doing that?" Pinkie asked Slade. "You know he's just going to come back, right?"

"At this point it's honestly just to make myself feel better," Slade answered truthfully before Deadpool got up once again, this time pissed off.

"That's it dad, it's time for some parent-kid bonding," Wade snarled as he whipped out his twin katana's and spun them faster than the ponies could follow. "So how about a little sword play? Seems like it's the only thing you-"

Wade looked down at his chest to find Slade's sword halfway through his chest, while his own blades where imbedded on the two walls to the left and right of Wade. Slade then twisted the blade so that he forced Deadpool to his knees, where he glared into the white cloth that covered Deadpool's eyes.

"Allow me to make this perfectly clear. The only reason that you still draw breath is because I do not have the time to waste on killing you once and for all," Slade whispered to Wade. "Do you believe that you are the first regenerating immortal that I've had to face?"

"No. But keep this up and I'll be your last."

Wade and Slade glared at each other, before Slade looked down and realized that Deadpool had somehow managed to steal Slade's sword and now had it pointed at Slade's throat without Slade noticing. Refusing to show any sign of concern, Slade look back up and Wade and smirked beneath his mask. Wade seemed to know what Slade did and he pressed the blade closer to Slade's throat.

"Don't think that just because you're the reason for my creation that I won't slice your head off and mount it on the front of my car," Deadpool promised. "I will not be player two in my story. I am cooler, much better looking and far more popular than you ever will be, daddy dearest."

"If I had ever spawned someone as pathetic and worthless as you, I would have put a bullet through my brain long ago," Slade said before in a blur of motion he snapped Wade's arms and took back his blade, which he held to Wade's throat. "But only after I wiped out my mistake. And you are nothing but a mistake."

For a long moment the two glared each other down, then a small whimper escaped Flurry Heart's lips. And a moment later Deadpool was at her side. "Oh my god, what an adorable little baby! Sure it looks like a freak with how big it's eyes are and it has that will totally kill you look going on and wait a moment why does this one have pupils when the Cakes babies, who I am fairly certain are older, still have marbles attached to their faces?"

As Shining fought with every last ounce of power to keep Wade from getting anywhere close to his baby, Slade sheathed his sword with a narrowed eye. Cadence and Twilight stood next to each other, each of them giving the other a concerned look.

"So...this is who you mentioned in your letter? I can't believe how...resilient he is," Cadence muttered, still not certain what she had witnessed with Wade's healing. "It's kinda scary."

"Scary? How about the mercenary you're working with? Did you see how quickly he disarmed Wade then impaled him?! I've never seen speed like that!" Twilight muttered with disbelief.

"Twilight, Slade shot Wade's head off and Wade got back up a moment later. I think that's the scariest sentence I've ever had to say," Cadence replied and Twilight acknowledged the point. Then a blinding flash of light went off and the two princess glanced over to see Princess Celestia standing next to them.

"Princesses, I bring good news. My sister and I have...what is going on?" Celestia asked as she gazed upon the seen in front of her. Shining had Wade trapped in a sphere of magic, with one of Wade's arms laying on the ground when it had been sliced off by the sphere. For a brief second Celestia wondered what in the heck had happened to cause a scene like this.

Then Wade's arm started to crawl around.