*Click*

My hidden blade opened followed by the clicks of the other assassin’s blades, then we all retracted and went to our respected areas. I picked up a couple of throwing knives from the weapons counter and tucked them in my shoulder sleeve. I looked around the hideout and saw the rest of the assassins grabbing their stuff and putting on their robes.

Let’s see… Applejack is bringing a rope that’s good…
Rainbow re-bandaged her wing.
Twilight and Rarity seem to be ready with their unicorn magic…
Fluttershy is trying to find her bow and Pinkie is….. where’s Pinkie?

“PARTY NUKES!” Pinkie shouted from behind me as she took out two rather large nuclear warheads from under my desk.

“AAH! Dammit Pinkie, don’t scare me like that!” I shouted in annoyance.

“But scaring ponies is so much FUN!!” she said with a goofy large smile.

“Ok Pinkie *ahem* let’s be professional about this…. NUKES!? NUKES IN MANEHATTEN!? DON’T YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN!?”

“No, what?” she asked cheerfully.

I face hoofed, “They will lock us in a room, separate us and interrogate us individually until we tell them about the assassins,” I explained to her about how far Templar corruption went.

‘Well that doesn’t sound so bad!”

Everyone face hoofed, I went up to her and whispered to her, “No fun….”

Her bright pink mane shot straight down and she turned a rather somber grey colour. I could see that she was greatly hurt by this and before she goes crazy and kill us all I took a P.U.K.E from her explosives backpack.

“We can’t use party nukes but we can use these!” I cheerfully said handing the vomiting grenade to her.

Her face lit up like a light bulb and her colour returned back to its original pink fluffiness.

“YIPPEE!”

Once she was done bouncing around we all assembled around the room with our stuff ready and us willing to hunt down WingBlade.

“Okay everypony! I’m just going to put this out but Manehatten is a big place, but if Pinkie can sense her then it should be easy to track WingBlade. Unfortunately we’re also at a disadvantage.” I stated.

“What are ya’ll talking about?” Applejack asked me followed by many nodding heads.

“Well you didn’t see before but because of WingBlade’s err… wings, she can deflect magic. Also with Rainbow Dash’s wings broken we have to chase her down on foot as I’m pretty sure Fluttershy you wouldn’t want to do any 400mph flight speeds, do you?”

“Um… no Shadow, I really wouldn’t want to…” she said nervously.

“So she can fly and is resistant to magic… quite a combination if you ask me. Anyways that means we need to use practical assassinations and fighting techniques and I’m pretty sure one of us will get a broken leg at the end of the day from doing so much free-running and roof jumping.”

I mainly pointed to myself and everypony gave a slight chuckle.

“Any questions….? GOOD! LET’S DO THIS!” I encouraged them as we started to march out the door.

*SLAM*

The door was thrown open and a small purple dragon ran quickly inside.

“Did I miss it, am I too late?” Spike asked.

“Sorry Spike, but you can’t come with us. It’s much too dangerous for you.” Twilight said sweetly to her baby dragon, which merely shook its head.

“BUT I WANNA GO!!” he shouted at all of us.

I went over to Twilight and I whispered in her ear, “Don’t worry let me handle this…”

I walked over to Spike and kneeled down to his eyelevel and I began to speak, “Hello Spike.”

“Uhh… hi?”

I leaned closer to him to make him feel uncomfortably uncomfortable, “We’re going to Manehatten to catch a Templar by the name of WingBlade.”

“Oh cool! Can I--,”

“Her wings are made of solid steel and she uses them to cut her way into the flesh of her victims, she has already killed two here and wounded Rainbow Dash. I know that you don’t have your wings yet and we’re going to be chasing her up on 50 floor rooftops with the possibility that she will throw you off the building towards your doom. She will, if she gets a chance to completely turn you inside out and show you your own heart before she finishes you off."

“Now, I know that you are a brave dragon, so why don’t you join us on this lovely trip?” I said with a weird cheerful voice.

“Uhh…. Maybe I’ll stay here and help Ace and Dr. Mareio.” He said as he ran underneath a table from fright.

“Oh that’s too bad… LET’S GO EVERYPONY!” I shouted as I stepped towards the door.

“I don’t know, maybe I should stay…” Fluttershy squeaked.

“EVERYPONY!” I went back and grabbed her as I shoved her out the door along with everypony else.

-----An hour of walking later-----------

“Pinkie do you still have her signal?” Twilight asked her.

“IT’S OKIE DOKIE LOKIE!” she smiled back.

Just then I remembered something rather important.

“Um.. girls?” I asked with a confused look.

“Yes Shadow?” they replied as we all stopped on the dirt path.

“I didn’t see him at the hideout, but uh… Where’s Dr. Mareio?”

-----Mareio’s POV------------

Mareio was seen in the reception room getting swarmed by the hospital doctors and nurses.

“Oh Doctor Mareio, your medical experience is a true inspiration to us all!” shouted a nurse.

“You have upgraded the medicine technology by 50 years!” exclaimed a doctor.

“Oh it was nothing. After all… IT’S A ME!” Mareio laughed and the other ponies laughed too.

Suddenly a nurse ran around the corner holding a clipboard and she shouted, “Doctor! There’s a patient in the E.R!”

Mareio stopped joking around with the doctors and walked over to the nurse. He held out a hoof in the air and shouted confidently, “LET’S A GO!” just before running towards the E.R.

The other doctors and nurses quickly pursued Mareio.

“MUSHROOM!” a shout came from the emergency room’s closed doors.

A few moments later and applause erupted from the room as the doors swung open with Mareio and the patient being held high in the air by the hospital staff.

“You cured me doctor!” the patient said in a healthy voice.

“MAREIO! MAREIO! MAREIO!” the staff chanted in unison.

That was when Dr. Mareio had remembered all the times he has helped somepony or treated someone nicely, or just put a smile on somepony’s face, he took a deep breath in and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“YAHOO!!”

-------Shadow’s POV--------------

“I’m sure whatever he’s doing won’t bring us any trouble,” Applejack reassured me.

“I hope you’re right AJ,” I replied as I took a step on a slab of concrete.

Ahead of us the bustling city of Manehatten roared at our arrival. Carriages of ponies swarmed the streets as every corner was filled with their contraptions.
I focused my view upward and saw the tall high-rise buildings and skyscrapers covering the sky from view.

Pinkie Pie was so entrapped by the sights and sounds of this big city that she didn’t notice herself stepping off the sidewalk and into the carriage lane.

“PINKIE!” I shouted as I grabbed her from the lane before she got hit with a carriage.

“HEY! MOVE IT BUDDY!” the angry driver shouted back at us while I helped Pinkie recover.

“YOU WATCH IT!” shouted Rainbow with an angry hoof shaking in the air.

This city sucks; I remember the last time I went here…
Almost got run over by a truck and nearly mugged those two times.
Also can’t forget that these buildings are SO FRIGGAN TALL!

I got the group together and we carefully crossed the street and walked into the city of Manehatten.

-----A few minutes of walking later-----------

“Wow… this place is so… huge,” Fluttershy said just as a rather loud bus honked past her and she jumped up and landed on Rarity’s back from fright.

“Darling, you can’t be scared of every little noise. That’s what Manehatten is based upon,” Rarity said to Fluttershy has she helped her off her back.

Applejack said aloud, “This city is huge; I remember the time I went here when I was a filly. I must’ve gotten lost a whole bunch of times.”

“Say Pinkie how’s your radar?” I asked her as she was leading the way down the street.

“It’s OKIE DOKIE… lokie?”

Immediately her body started to spaz out as she made fluttering, twitching and jumping movements with all her body parts.

After she finished her pupils dilated and she jumped towards us shouting, “WATCH OUT!”

*CRASH*

A window smashed right where we were standing, it would have crushed us if we didn’t get saved by Pinkie.

“Thanks Pinkie,” I sighed with relief.

“Uh-oh…” she said just as her body started to jump up and down.

She expanded into a balloon and her knee’s started to shake as she then experienced body movements that I couldn’t even explain.

“Trash can, mugging, car moving, window-cleaners, pigeon poop, WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GOING ON RIGHT NOW!?” Pinkie shouted in despair as she laid her head down to the ground and began to weep.

Pinkie was in dire pain and we rushed over to her side, “Pinkie you need to turn off your sense! Manehatten has too much crap going on!” I tried to reason with her but she shook her head.

“I CAN’T TURN IT OFF! MAKE IT STOP!” she shouted out in pain as she slapped me in the face.

“OW! Twilight! Cast a spell or something!” I asked her rubbing my cheek from the impact.

Twilight’s horn grew purple and a small light enveloped Pinkie’s body, her movements dulled and eventually she stopped moving altogether and stood firmly on the ground with a smile.
Many passersby stared in awe by our presence and Pinkie’s body spasms.

“Ok, so now we can’t use Pinkie Sense or fly over the city.” Rainbow grumbled.

Still feeling the pain in my cheek I asked Pinkie quietly, “Why did you slap me?”

“Car Chase!” she said happily.

A car chase?

Just then police sirens were heard around the corner of the street as a brown convertible rode down the street with two ponies riding in the front.
A second later, five police cars showed up and pursued the car down the street.

The passenger of the convertible who was wearing a plaid shirt shouted to the driver,
“SHIT NICKEL! IT’S THE COPS!”

The driver who was wearing a brown vest and had a thuggish appearance shouted back to the passenger, “SHUT UP NORMAN! WE’LL GET TO THE DAMN BOWLING ALLEY!”

The car passed us as well as the police cars, while the pedestrians were distracted I motioned the group to slip away into a nearby alley.

When I was sure we weren’t followed I sat down on a small stony stairway with a hoof in my cheek as I tried to think how we were going to find WingBlade.

We can’t use Pinkie Sense anymore and Rainbow Dash can’t scout over the city, and I couldn’t bear to see Fluttershy go up over the city alone. These buildings are too tall to climb and we’ll take too long going over each one. We can’t split up or else we’ll get lost or worse if WingBlade picks us off one by one.

A magic search might work but over the size of this city would be impossible to do, and the police wouldn’t help us anyhow and the longer I stay here and think the more time WingBlade has to escape.

What am I going to do!?

“SHADOW!” Applejack shouted in my face and broke me from my trance.

“Eh… sorry Applejack, I was trying to figure out how we can catch her, so far I’ve got nothing,” I shook my head and stood up from the stairway

“Come on Shadow, there has to be a way,” Applejack tried to encourage me.

Well Le Duck did say the best information is from the people and your observations, and maybe seeing all of Manehatten from one roof can help… THAT’S IT!

“Twilight!” I shouted over to her as she was just helping Rarity get a discarded banana peel off her back hoof.

“Do you know the highest building in Manehatten?” I asked her.

“Yes, it’s the Pony State Building I think.”

“Can you and Rarity teleport all of us there?”

A purple and blue light enveloped all of us as in an instant we appeared on the roof of a staggering tall skyscraper overlooking the entire city.

I stood at the edge and closed my eyes.

“Uh… Shadow?” everpony asked but I shushed them.

“I’m listening for the changes in air pressure, WingBlade is probably flying above ground and I might be able to hear her air current,” I returned my attention on the city.

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

A few minutes passed until my ears picked up on a small abnormal breeze coming from near the skyscraper.

“THERE!” I shouted and alerted everypony as I jumped off the roof and opened my grey wings.

I glided while focusing on the anomaly with my hearing as I got closer and closer to the source. I looked down below me and saw WingBlade casually flying beneath me by some distance.

I folded my wings and dived straight down towards WingBlade.

“GAH!” she shouted as I plunged onto her back and grabbed her tight as we both fell towards the ground.

“WingBlade… you’re not getting away from us…” I coldly said to her while keeping a tight grip on her wings so she couldn’t open them.

“Assassin… I’m surprised you have found me, this all makes my day that more interesting…” she hissed at me as she tried to pull her wings open and cut into my flesh.

With a devious look she tore open a wing from my grasp and tried to slice me with it, but I countered it with my hidden blade.

As we continued to fall through the sky, my strength in my right hoof was getting weaker from her wing’s strength; I had to level the playing field.

I tried stabbing the wing but the steel was too strong and WingBlade just laughed sadisticly.

“OH THAT’S IT!” I shouted back at her as I got my head ready.

*HEAD-SMASH*

She recoiled in pain and didn’t notice how close we were to the ground. We slammed into the concrete surface on an angle as we both rolled from the impact and landed in a back alley. We both immediately stood up to our hooves as we both unsheathed our weapons.

My blades vs her wings.

“You’ll pay for that you little brat!” she shouted as she charged me with her wings.

I held my blades in a defensive stance as the first impact of her wing hit my blades. She kept slashing and hammering her wings at me and I countered and blocked all of them.

“WHY AREN’T YOU DYING!?” she shouted with rage has her barrage increased.

“Easy… these blades are made of PLATIRON!”

I saw a gap in her attack and stabbed her left wing with my blade which only appeared to bounce off and do absolutely nothing. WingBlade laughed and as she continued her barrage of wing attacks upon me.

That’s it… just a little more….

Then she did something I didn’t expect her to do, she stopped.

She took a step back and Rainbow Dash appeared from the air with her blade out and missed her air assassination.
The rest of the assassins appeared from around the corners and walls of the alley regrouped behind me.

“So… you have brought the rest of your pathetic squabble. It’s not my job to fight you, it’s my job to ruin your lives and all the lives that reside in Ponyville,” she said with a sinister grin as she turned around and started to run while flapping her wings.

“NO YOU DON’T!” I said as I threw a throwing knife at her left wing and the knife pierced through her wing.

“ARG!” she shouted in dismay and confusion as she noticed her beautiful wing had blood coming out from the knife wound.

She ripped the knife out with her teeth and shouted at us, “My wing… you’ll all pay for this! I will make you all SUFFER!” She ran around the corner and we gave chase.

Good thing Rarity made those gem-encrusted knives and also how she didn’t notice my blades making a crack in her wing plating.

We went around the corner and saw her enter a subway train. I ran as fast as I could to the door, but it closed. I slammed my hoof against the door and on the other side she stuck out her tongue as the train started to leave.

“Shadow, we can’t catch her and teleporting into a moving train would be suicide,” Twilight explained to me.

“SCREW THAT!” I shouted with adventure in my voice as I got ready for what I was about to do next.

“Shadow what are you…” Fluttershy started to speak but was cut off.

I leapt from the subway platform and onto the back of the train’s railing while it was still moving. I climbed to the roof of the train and crawled my way over to an escape hatch. I opened it and as I hauled myself down I saw a tunnel that the train was going into.

“SHIT!” I said as I dived into the hatch.

I landed in the subway car and heads turned and gasps were heard as I fell onto the floor.
I got to my hooves and saw the green clothed pony at the other end of the car; she noticed me and began to run towards the end of the train.

I sprinted over as fast as I could while shoving other ponies out of the way. When I entered the next train car WingBlade was holding a small filly by the throat of her neck and brought her sharp edged wing towards her neck. The rest of the passengers were in shock by what they were seeing.

I took a cautious step forward to WingBlade and reached for another throwing knife and she raised a hoof, “Uh uh uh Assassin… you don’t want this precious filly to not she her next birthday won’t you?”

“Please….help….” the filly croaked.

What can I do…? Come on Shadow! THINK!

*CLANG*

A lead pipe appeared out of nowhere and slammed right into WingBlade’s skull. She released the filly and she slumped over a pole. I looked over to see who had aided me and saw a familiar brown vested pony.

“Thanks dude,” I tried to speak in a Manehatten accent.

“Neit problem—GACK!”

WingBlade recovered from the pipe smack and stabbed her wing through the chest of the brown-vested pony. She pulled her wing out with a sickening sound as the pony fell to the floor and started to bleed heavily.

With rage I charged at her but she slashed her wings up at the ceiling and made a hole leading to the top of the train. I jumped outside with her and we stood a few hooves from each other as the train continued to move.
\

(Cue Chase Music)

I jumped towards her with my hidden blade and she took a side-step as my blade pierced into the train car. She tried to slash me with her wing but I blocked it with my right hoof and pulled my blade from the train hull.

She spun her wings in an arc as I dodged and gave her a roundhouse kick in the side. She slightly budged and punched me in my face. I fell over to the edge of the train car and held onto its side skirt with dear life.

“Oh… look who can’t get up…” she said just before striking her wings next to my hooves gripping the train.

I hauled myself over to the roof of the train without getting hit by the steel wings and started to charge.

“Wait… what are you,” she said but she didn’t finish as I rammed my body into hers, we both flew off the train and landed in a small park.

We both grunted in pain as we got to our hooves, I was faster and managed to strike her damaged wing again at the same spot causing a larger hole to form on her wing.

She winced in pain and began to run away from me.

I sprinted after her, even though she had those heavy wings she was still pretty fast. We ran into the middle of the street as cars and carriages sped to a halt and crashed into one another. I jumped off the roof of a taxi and landed on a sidewalk.

WingBlade tossed garbage cans, newspaper stands and even a pedestrian in front of me to slow my pursuit. I simply jumped over each obstacle and gained precious distance as she turned around a corner.

I came around to the corner to where a crane was in the middle of the street and stood there in confusion, there was no sign of WingBlade anywhere.
I looked at the building next to me and saw the company logo.

Purifier Industries of course…

As it was still a chase I burst through the glass window and saw a group of security guards armed with assault rifles aiming down at me. I took cover behind a desk before they opened fire.

Crap, I really wish I had something with me I could use!

*POOF*

“ARG MY EYES!”

“THE COLOURS”

“BLARG!”

Wait…. Was that a…

I glanced over from the desk and saw the guards were incapacitated, vomit covered the ground and they were all pale green and unconscious a small blue grenade lay open on the floor. A pink figure bounced over to me and shouted, “SURPRISE!”

“Pinkie?”

“Who else silly? Come on! The rest of us got your back get WingBlade!” Pinkie shouted at me as another wave of guards appeared from a door.

“Thank you,” I said to her just before running towards the stairs.

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

I dashed down an empty hallway chasing WingBlade’s trail, that was until a guard showed up at the end pointing at me with his gun.

*Zing*

An arrow flew straight into his head and he fell to the ground, I looked behind me and saw Fluttershy aiming with her bow, I gave her a wave and continued running through the building.

The next room I entered had Twilight and Rarity making a magical square box around the guards who were then trapped within. I went past them to see Rainbow taking on 5 guards at the same time.

“COME ON BRING IT!” she shouted at them.

The moment one moved she kicked him in the chest and shouted with a confident laugh, “TASTE THE RAINBOW!”

She proceeded to beat the crap out of them as I noticed Applejack running quickly up a few stairs, I chased her to the top letting the other assassins take care of themselves. As I reached the top of the plight of stairs I see her and WingBlade hoof to hoof trying to push each other away.

WingBlade reflected a ray of light from her wing into Applejack’s eye, distracting her as WingBlade kicked her and jumped through a window and landed on the crane outside.

I rushed over to Applejack’s side to help her out but she just shook her head and pointed to WingBlade who was escaping. I jumped out from the broken window and landed on the construction crane.

WingBlade was running towards the edge of the crane while trying to flap her wings.

She’s going to fly!? Not on my watch!

I sprinted as fast as I could just as she clumsily took flight over the crane, I jumped from the edge of the platform high above the ground and reached for her.

I grabbed her bottom hoof and we began to fall.

“You fool we’ll BOTH fall!” she shouted over to me as she tried to kick me off.

“The only one falling is YOU!” I stabbed my blade into her damaged wing.

She screamed out in agony as every time I struck her wing she began to descend faster and faster with more and more blood being lost.
With one final push I thrust my blade into her wing, pierced it and sliced it all the way across.

*SNAP*

Her wing snapped in half as she screamed out in blistering pain as her and her wing fell towards an alley, I opened my wings and glided down after.

(End music)

Her body lay slumped in the middle of the alley as her cut off wing landed next to her in a pool of blood. I trotted over to her to see if she was alive.

*Cough*

I pull out my hidden blade and advanced towards her.

I reached over to her other wing and impaled my blade into her steel flesh, she screamed out in pain as her wing was punctured. I stabbed more times into her wing, the blood splattered across my robes.

“You bitch…. You treat us and everypony you meet like a piece of meat. Toying around with them and cutting them up for your own sick sport. I’ll make sure you never slay another pony as long as you live.”

“SHADOW STOP!”

I turned around and saw the rest of the assassins, my friends, they were in shock at what lay before them, a tired blood-covered pony sticking a blade out towards a pony with barely no wings left and was crying out in pain.

“Shadow this isn’t you, you aren’t her!” Applejack shouted at me.

I looked over to the no-winged WingBlade who was suffering on the ground and had fear in her eyes as I observed her.

No… I’m not a monster; I won’t stoop down to her or Balthazar’s level.

I leaned over to her and interrogated her, “Where… is…Dave?”

She slapped me and tried to stand up but was tackled by Rainbow Dash.

“Please Shadow, allow me,” she said to me before turning her attention on WingBlade.

“WHERE *SLAP* IS *SLAP* DAVE!?”

“That traitorous swine? *cough* I don’t know where he is *cough* for most of the time. What makes you think…”

*Clap*

*Clap*

*Clap*

An accountant appeared from a dark corner clapping his hoofs in a mocking rhythm, his glasses gleamed through the dark alley lighting and his icy pelt did the same.

“Oh very good Shadow, now that was an enjoyable performance if I do so say myself,” the pony laughed, still clapping.

“Dave…” I grunted at him.

“Come now Shadow, don’t let me believe you don’t enjoy my presence? After all isn’t that why you chased after my traitorous assassin?” he said as he walked over to us.

“I’m a traitor? YOU’RE THE TRAITOR DAVE!” WingBlade shouted at Dave, but he merely shook his head in disappointment.

“Oh WingBlade, you do realise that it was you who went against my order in the first place...”

“But I was trying to find the assassins I was trying to help Balthazar,” WingBlade choked on her pain.

“The irony of all this…. WingBlade, I already knew the location of the assassins.” Dave chuckled, and we all got surprised looks.

“What you mean you knew!?” Twilight shouted out in confused rage.

“Well of course…Twilight,” she gasped as her name was mentioned by Dave.

“I know all about you and everyone here, after all isn’t that what an accountant must do? Find information and use it efficiently and effectively to acquire a balanced statement?” Dave said while straightening his business tie.

“But you Dave… why didn’t *GACK*,” WingBlade choked on her words as she levitated slightly into the air surrounded by a black aura coming from Dave’s horn.

He ran his hoof through his black mane, “Unlike you WingBlade I think 10 steps ahead. I have no longer use for you…”

*SNAP*

WingBlade fell to the ground, dead.

“You horrible pony! How could you have done that to her!?” Rarity said enraged at Dave.

“Well Rarity you see: she called me a traitor, ignored my orders, had complete incompetence, and come on! She doesn’t have her wings left; I felt that she was too ironic and too useless to continue in our endeavor,” Dave slowly walked over to her and she backed away.

He shrugs, “Shadow I really don’t know how you get the ladies.”

“Dave… what is your game?” I coldly asked him.

“Game? Oh, no game,” he started to pace around us. “You know my goals; I just want to have absolute balance throughout the whole world. If you want to know more just ask Le Duck.”

“He’ll tell you all about it, or maybe he even wrote a book! I just don’t like his choice in literature, it’s a bit too… subliminal,” he joked.

Le Duck? Why would Le Duck know any of this?

“What you call balance is chaos!” Twilight shouted at Dave who continued to pace back and forth.

“No not chaos… that would be Discord’s thing, not mine. Though I did meet him countless times, he really is an enjoyable fellow once you get to know him, “ he smiled at her with his dark purple-blue eyes and a look of disgust went across her face.

Discord? Might have to ask Twilight later…
But really is all that Dave wants is balance? Is he fighting for what we’re fighting for?
His methods are different that's for sure.

“Now sorry to be a downer but you really must excuse me… I have to do some… accounting…” he said menacingly while snapping his hoof in the air.

*CRACK* A dark swirling vortex formed behind him and casually he began to walk towards the portal.

“YOU’RE NOT GETTING AWAY!” Rainbow shouted as she ran towards him, but a transparent black cube appeared in front of her and she slammed into it.

“Don’t worry… we will meet again, very soon…” He took a step into the portal and stopped he then said, “Oh! And don’t worry about your secrets, it’s not part of my plan to tell Balthazar where Ponyville is,” he chuckled as he stepped into the swirling black void.

*WHOOSH* It vanished from existence.

We were all left in shock with a decaying Pegasus lying next to us and an accountant that knew who were were, where we lived and who had extrordinary power.

Dave… just what are you?