I slouched down against the side of the table after two guards undid the chains binding me to the table. I was a mess of scars and dried blood, it felt like the life had been drained from my body. Celestia walked in and peered down at me. “What?” I snapped, the pain only pissing me off. “I doubt you have had time to figure this out but, the mission I sent you on was a test to see if you were honest in your pledge to serve as a guard. It is quite obvious you failed horribly, though there are two things stopping me from just throwing you into the dungeon to serve your sentence. One is my belief that you are not an evil pony, you were just consumed by rage.” She glanced back at the door and sighed. “The other is that six ponies are here to see you.” Confusion overtook my pissiness “Who?” I asked. Before Celestia could answer I heard some commotion outside “Well, ill trust you not to make any trouble while they’re here and take my leave.” Celestia said moving out the door with the guards. “Who the hell would visit me?” I thought. I looked down and remembered my bloody and scared state “Oh well, I seriously doubt they were going to ask me out anyway.” I thought dryly. Five ponies I recognized and one I didn’t stepped into the room and all of them got pale, one I remembered as Rarity swayed on her feet a little as if she was going to faint. I grinned as best I could “Twilight, sorry I haven’t had time to clean up” I said lightly brushing flakes of dried blood from my coat. Twilight had a mix of surprise and horror on her face, along with everypony else. “Sweet Celestia…” she whispered. I coughed up a little blood and said “Don’t worry about me, ill be fine” I said. A blur of yellow and pink flew at me and soon I was in a strong but gentle hug, I looked down at Fluttershy and said “Really I'm fine!” lifting my forelegs in play surrender. “What are you all doing here?” I asked them “Well I found you out by a mountain rolling around screaming, you were covered in flames so… so I couldn’t do anything to help!” Rainbow said tears welling in her eyes. I raised my hoof at her and said “It’s not your fault, and I don’t blame you. There was nothing you could have done.” Rainbow wiped her eye and resumed her story “so I flew back to Ponyville as fast as I could and told twilight. She sent a letter to the princess and the last we heard she teleported you here.” “Twilight and I got everypony and we came here to check on you” She finished. “Well I'm fine.” I said “… Sort of.” I added sighing “What do you mean sort of?” Twilight asked “Well I was on probation really and by trying to escape I've fucked myself over, I doubt I’ll leave the castle for years. It was just stupid of me to want to live a normal life.” I trailed off as I felt Fluttershy shoulders tighten a bit. Twilight shot me a look of skepticism “I doubt the princess would do that.” She said. I looked past them into darker parts of my memories, I shuddered and shook my head “I deserve it, and there's no way in hell I'm leaving” I said darkly. Twilight’s face scrunched up in a look of determination “Come on girls, I think we should give him some space for a bit” Twilight said dragging Fluttershy off me. They all filed out of the room and closed the door behind them."That was kind of abrupt, they didn't even introduce the pink one. i guess i cant blame them. i wouldn't want to be around me ether." i mumbled. My thoughts drifted to the events before i collapsed, i wondered who that pony was and why they wanted Celestia dead. Suddenly chills crawled over my spine and i turned to face the grinning shadowy pony from before "So your wondering about your future of killing Celestia?" he purred. "Ya kind of, how exactly am i supposed to do that? You know I'm not exactly godly, magic wise." I said calmly "Well. That's one thing I can fix" He said his grin broadening widely "That will be your first mission. You'll have to kill somepony without using magic, and bring there corpse somewhere secluded. I will contact you when its done. You have one week." he said bluntly "does it matter how i kill them?" i asked. He chuckled and said "make sure there's at least some blood left in them." Then he started fading into the shadows "Wait! what about these injuries, how am i suppose to kill somepony when i can't lift my hooves?" i asked. half faded, his smile broadened and he tossed something at me. i raise a hoof and caught it. I looked down and examined what was a ball of deep green fire. suddenly the fire flared and in a few seconds covered my entire body, it felt like cool water running over me and energy washed into my body. A few seconds later it was gone along with the shadowy pony and i felt like i had been resting for a month. I stood up and felt no pain at all. My composure finally cracked and i fell to the ground. "I was going to kill somepony, not in rage, but in cold blood. But how!? the only ponies around were the guards and surely somepony would notice if one went missing." I thought Then Twilight burst through the door and smiled a broad smile at me "What?" I asked self-consciously. Her smile broadened, reminding me of a certain shadowy pony "Come on we're leaving!" she exclaimed "What, were?" i asked "Ponyville! I talked to the princess and your coming home with me!" My eyes widened in surprise.