“Look Fluttershy I understand that your worried about my leg. But can’t I just climb?” I pleaded.

Fluttershy shook her head, “Shadow it’s only been two days, a broken leg can take up to 4 weeks to heal.”

“Fluttershy, I’ve been sitting on my ass on that chair for 3 days now. Can’t I do some light climbing activity?” I complained.

“Shadow you need to listen to me. Taking on a scary… Ursa Major then cracking your leg twice, is the reason why you need to stop moving and just rest.” She said pushing me towards my bed.

“But Fluttershy…” I whined.

“No buts.” She said shoving me into my bed and wrapping me like I was some kind of burrito.

“But it’s the middle of the afternoon!” I exclaimed.

“Hush now quiet now, it’s time to lay your sleepy head.” She started to sing.

“Fluttershy…. What are you doing?” I asked confused about what she was trying to do.

She continued to ignore my questions and kept on singing

-----1 hour later----------------

“Go to sleep now….. Are you asleep yet?” Asked Fluttershy who was exhausted for singing for such a long time.

“…no” I responded.

“But you want to know what I’m feeling right now?”I asked her with an annoyed look on my face.

“What is it Shadow, is it something joyful?” asked Fluttershy.

“BOREDOM!” I shouted jumping out of bed.

“Shadow your leg!” exclaimed Fluttershy.

I landed... and nothing happened.

“Trust me Fluttershy I heal fast, I don’t even need that crutch anymore.” I reassured her.

“HEY! DID I HEAR YOU WERE BORED?” shouted Pinkie from across the room that then stood up to me face to face.

“Because Shadow you can help me with my Cupcake BOMBS!” she excitingly shouted.

Testing out… PINKIE BOMBS? NO WAY!

Twilight came over to see what the commotion was about, “Um... sorry Pinkie but I need to ask Shadow about something. Hey, why don’t you get Spike to help you?”

THANK YOU TWILIGHT… and sorry Spike…

“GREAT IDEA TWILIGHT! SPIKE CATCH!” she said throwing one of her cupcake bombs at Spike.

“Huh?” said a confused Spike.

*boom*

"Ah!" shouted Spike.

Smoke filled the room and Spike was knocked out from the artillery cupcake.

With Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy attending to Spike’s injuries Twilight came over to me, “Shadow. I understand your looking for these “Seals”.

“WHAT? How would you know?” I asked her.

“Oh I borrowed your book about the seals from your coat pocket. Now then I understand there are 6…”

Twilight you little thief. I’m so proud!

“…And by cross referencing these I determined that there are a bunch of them hidden around Ponyville and other places.” She finished.

“I’ve found one but I left it in Ponitaly and are you sure there’s one hidden in Ponyville right now?” I asked wanting to know if she was correct on this.

She nodded.

“There’s no doubt about it, it’s hidden in an abandoned fort.”

“Well what are we waiting for let’s go get it!” I said.

“It’s in the… Everfree Forest.” she nervously said.

Crap.

------------------------------------------------------------

We were walking in the dark forest despite the fact that it was still in the afternoon. The sun didn’t have enough power to pierce through the fog or the bog of the forest’s structure.
Vegetation was abundant everywhere I looked.

If this is the plant life I can’t imagine the animals that live in here.

I just hope that Applejack can keep the guild intact while we’re gone.

-----10 minutes before-----

“Hey Applejack! I and Twilight are going treasure hunting so can you make sure that the place doesn’t get burned down by Pinkie… thanks, bye!”

---------------------------------

Ya she’ll be fine.

*rustle*

I signaled Twilight and turned around towards the noise which leads into a bush.

“Could it be a Cerberus? Or a cockatrice!?” said Twilight who was shaking from fear.

The bushes continued to rustle; I got closer to the bush and carefully put my hands on opposite sides of the shrubbery. I pulled the bush apart quickly and we saw the mysterious creature of the dark forest.

A grey rabbit.

“Whew…” we breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m just glad a Manticore didn’t come out and own me.” I chuckled to Twilight.

*POW*

A paw came out from the other side of the clearing and rammed against my face sending me flying down the path.
I wiped the blood from my lip and saw what had attacked me.

A Manticore.
Ask and you shall receive… Tenant 27.

I climbed back up to my hooves and saw the winged beast charging towards Twilight.
I was fast, but I was faster.
Despite my broken leg injury I propelled myself to Twilight shoving her out of the Manticore’s path of destruction.

The Manticore turned around and huffed at me readying another charge attack.

Fighting him head on is useless, I just need a little…lift.

The Manticore roared and charged at me this time with Twilight safely out of the way. I began to charge at him too. Just before we collided I stuck my hidden blade out and used it to stab a side in its mane and for me to climb up onto its back.

“RIDE EM MANTI!” I shouted trying to imitate what Applejack would say.

The beast was confused and began to get enraged trying to shake me off. When that failed he tries to impale me with his scorpion tail. I dodged left and right around his body until the stinger had pierced the Manticore’s own back.

He yelled out in pain, but was still determined to get me.

I can’t kill him but I have to finish this.

I jumped from the Manticore and grabbed his tail with me as I landed behind him.

“YOU THINK THAT WAS PAINFUL? WHAT ABOUT…THIS!” I said sticking the Manticore’s tail into an uncomfortable place.

He yelped out in pain and awkwardly ran into the thick forest.

“Shadow… did you?” Twilight said as I helped her up.

“Yep…” I said turning to the where the Manticore disappeared.

“RIGHT UP YOUR ASS!” I shouted into the forest.

---------------------------------------------------

We crossed a bridge that lead into a broken down fort.

“Wow I haven’t been here ever since we defeated Nightmare Moon a long time ago.” Acknowledged Twilight.

We entered the broken fort and made our way into a room with a pedestal of the 6 Elements of Harmony.

“Now my book says that there should be a secret chamber underneath this room.” Said Twilight as she looked around the walls and floors.

I looked at the pedestal and I looked at it very closely.
There near the bottom of the stone monument I saw a symbol.

The Assassin’s logo?

I examined it more closely and saw that it was indeed the Assassin’s insignia and there was a small hole in the middle of it.
Twilight came over to me to see what I was doing.
I stuck out my hidden blade and inserted it into the insignia’s opening while turning my wrist to see if it was some kind of lock mechanism.

*click*

The pedestal started to move outwards from the centre of the room until it revealed a big hole leading into pitch darkness.

“After you.” Offered Twilight.

I jumped down the dark hole and landed into the chamber below.

“Oof,” uttered Twilight as she landed next to me.

“What in the…” said Twilight with an astonished tone.

----------------------------------------------

The chamber we landed in wasn’t just a chamber it was a cavern. Dim lights decorated the stony walls of this enormous cavern.

A natural waterfall was made at the edge of the cavern accompanied by a flowing river. I and Twilight stood at an edge where a pathway had broken up leading to a centre platform in the middle of the river had taken place. What was worse was that platform was elevated by a precarious stalagmite supporting the rocky platform and underneath span a raging whirlpool.

I took a closer look at the platform and saw a pony statue holding a round object in its hoof.

A seal.

I scanned the cavern looking for a route to use to get me across to the centre platform.
I noticed many rocks were out of place and many scaffolds (probably used for excavating this cave) were still intact.

“Ok Twilight I’m going to get that seal on the statue over there.” I told her.

“How? There’s no direct route.”

Now I know my leg’s broken but I was wondering can you use your magic to give my leg lift as I scale the cavern’s wall.” I asked.

“Well… ok Shadow, but just be careful alright?” she said as a purple light enveloped my leg making my broken leg feel better than normal.

“Don’t worry Twilight, I will.” I told one last glance to Twilight before I ran up a wall and grabbed the edge of a small hole.

I hauled myself up until I found a secure piece of scaffolding to hang off of.

Why would they hide these seals in places like this? Who would hide these seals?
I guess I’ll get my answer when I’ve collected all of them.

I swung from the scaffolding and landed on an outcrop off the wall. I pushed myself off the wall just barely reaching a wooden scaffold imbedded in the wall.

It started to break off and fall into the raging river below. I quickly scampered my way up as best I could then the whole thing came down. I thought I heard a yelp from Twilight as I grabbed onto a wooden block at the last second just before I could fall in the river with the rest of the scaffold.

Let’s try this again.

I worked my way upwards using as much stone placements and cracks than the rickety wooden scaffoldings. I continued to go higher and higher until I've reached the ceiling of the cavern. I looked behind me and saw the platform was a big drop below me and it was still pretty far.

If this height can help me though...

I push my legs off the cavern wall with all my strength and fell towards the river. I stuck out my hoof which was then caught by the centre platform’s edge as the rest of my body dangled above the raging currents and whirlpool.

Carefully I climbed up to the platform’s dusty rock floor.
I picked myself up and went over to the statue and finally in a sigh I pick up the seal.

Finally, now… how to get back?

*FWOOSH*

Twilight had teleported next to me on the platform scaring the daylights out of me.

“Why didn’t I just teleport us across from the beginning?” asked Twilight.

“It would spoil the fun also…” I started to talk before the platform’s precarious stalagmite holding up this weight gave away.

*Snap*

"That..."

The rocky platform fell into the river and we started to go downstream at a high velocity.

“AHHHHH!” screamed Twilight who didn’t want to fall in the river or get slammed into the cavern wall.

“YOU FORGOT TO PUT A “Y” IN FRONT OF THAT!” I shouted over the rapids.

The platform crashed from wall to wall spinning us in a circle as pieces of the platform started to break off I could hear Twilight panicking.

Then it just stopped.

We felt daylight on our fur as the speed of the river ride subsided and we were just casually floating on a small platform with a pony statue.

“All right Twilight! We’ve got the seal now if we can only find our way back..”

*crack* my leg snapped, as Twilight’s spell wore off.

“HOME!” I yelled out in pain as I sat down and held my poor broken leg.

“Teleport?”

“Teleport.” I weakly asked.

----------------------------------------------

In a poof we appeared back in our hideout.

Sweet…sweet… cupcakes?

We landed on a gooey batch of cupcake residue. I looked around and saw the room in chaos.

There are Cupcakes EVERYWHERE!
And what’s with all the rainbows drawn on the walls? IS IT WASHABLE?
What is…is that? A giraffe?

Animals from all over Equestia were everywhere in the room eating cupcakes from the floor as well as making their own…
I noticed Rarity with a broom frantically sweeping the mess away from her workstation, “First cupcakes, then the animals, NOW THIS!?”
Spike was running around trying to get letters and documents back from the animals.

Applejack saw me and quickly galloped towards me with a sad expression on her face.
“Shadow, I’m so sorry first Pinkie’s bombs then the animals, I tried getting Dr. Mareio to help but he only made things worse!” She shouted point towards Dr. Mareio who was giving a chimp a green mushroom.

“That comes to 3 bits… thank you come again soon! … AH SHADOW! Business is wonderful! Who knew these animals were so civil when bartering for goods. Would you like to buy one Shadow… Shadow?”

I started to grind my teeth then I stopped breathed out and said calmly, “Ok everyone let’s just get this mess cleaned up. Then we can talk about…”

*CRACK*

An elephant had snapped my mahogany desk… in half.

“Wooh Nellie, “said Applejack taking off her hat and diving under a table.

“EVERY’A BODY DOWN!” shouted Dr. Mareio as loud as he can bringing all the assassins together under the same desk Applejack hid under.

My… My… Desk.

“When a mahogany tree snaps somewhere in the world a desk has been as well.” I recalled from Le Duck, after seeing for myself what happens when an Observer's mahogany desk breaks.
Mahogany…

A dark red veil surrounded the desk then surrounded me.

“My… desk.” I said turning around so everyone can see the tear falling down my cheek.

All the animals stopped. Everyone can feel the change in the air and I can feel the change within myself.

I spread my wings open and inhaled deeply,

“RAGE…”

A wind bellowed towards me as I said the first word.

“FOR…”

This time the wind pushed back so hard that a hole had appeared at the end of the room.
Everyone knew what was going to happen next and they bunkered down.

“DA!!”

I shouted at the top of my voice as a huge gust of wind escaped through my mouth blowing all the cupcakes, graffiti, and animals out the hole in the wall to who knows where.

I let my rage pass by me and picked myself emotionally back up.

“Ok everyone! Let’s fix the hideout!” I cheerfully said knowing that I’ve done about half off the work already.

Everyone looked shocked by my sudden change of attitude.

----------------------------------------------

After fixing the hole and cleaned up around the place some more. I retired at my desk.

Rarity had fixed it so well that you can’t even tell that I was shattered in half by an elephant.
“Ok everyone great work! Gather up!” I shouted around the room as the ponies started to converge.

“Now that, that mess is cleared up let’s talk about the next one we have to clean up as well. Mareio?” I said gesturing to the doctor.

“YES SHADOW! We found Volcanous is currently in GERPONY!” he said with a tune.

“Great now, we’ll need an edge to help us against him as I’m already aware he has about 100,000 ponies on standby.”

“How would you go about it?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I would just charge in but I’m sure you all aren’t as fast as me!”

“I’VE GOT AN IDEA!” Dr. Mareio shouted out.

“THE RED FOX!”

“The Red Fox? Who’s he?” asked Applejack.

“He’s a RENEGADE! Help the people prosper and yadda yadda.” Answered Dr. Mareio to Applejack and the others.

“I can arrange a meeting with him!” he said excitingly.

“Excellent Mareio… now about transportation. We need a ride that can carry our crafting stuff and ingredients so we can make the necessary preparations. I don’t think a train cart would allow such things.” I wondered out loud.

“LOOK OUT THE WINDOW!” shouted Mareio.

We all turned around my desk and went on my bed to get a better look out of the window..

“Ehh... Mareio is that a…”

“NUKE!... That’s what you’ve said the last time Shadow!” Pinkie burst in.

“Ahem…. Is that a… Zeppelin?” I asked.

“SILLY SHADOW! ------- It’s a MUSHROOM!” Dr. Mareio corrected me.