{Picture of Dave for those wondering what he looks like, but might go and change him once I make a few changes or so}

(Dave's Theme Music)

“Dave, why are you here!?” I shouted over to him as he still typed on his laptop.

“Hmm?” he looked up from his laptop, “Some late accounting work that I needed to prep… as well as something else,” he chuckled while busily typing on his keyboard.

“But why Dave? Why drag us down to an underwater cave, and what about that seal? How could you have known about them in the first place?” I pointed over to the seal behind him.

“Oh come now Shadow, I didn’t force you to come to this cave. No, all I did was persuade you with a few ‘minor’ tricks. After all isn’t that how you assassins work nowadays?”

Applejack stepped up and stomper her hoof on the cave ground, “Minor? MINOR? You blew up our base! And now you tempt us with one of them seals? I don't know who you are but I know for certain you’re not an assassin Dave, and you never will be!”

“… Feisty mare you have there Shadow, I see why you made her your second in command. Though with that stubborn attitude of hers… I don’t know how you manage that,” Dave shrugged his shoulders.

“Dave…. What are you really after?” I asked him while preparing a throwing knife.

He stood up to his hind-hoofs and made his laptop disappear into thin air. Dave used his magic to pick up the seal onto his hoof and flashed it towards us.

“Shadow, I already told you what I want... what I need to know is, what do YOU want?” he held the seal in the palm of his hoof.

What I want? What is he talking about?

The seal in his hoof started to glow and a flash of light engulfed the room. I shielded my eyes and the rest of the assassins did the same. Once the bright light dissipated I looked over to what Dave held in his hoof.

No…. it can’t be…

It was the Apple.

How... Wait!
This is my only chance; I need to take the shot!

I whipped the throwing knife I prepped at Dave as it sailed right towards his chest.
He took his other hoof and grabbed the knife mid-flight, a few inches from his chest.

Dave shook his head disappointingly, “Tsk tsk Shadow, do you really believe you can win a fight against me? Just like that and your goals in life…” the Apple he held glowed as white light streaks surrounded it revealing the seal in it's place.

“Are an illusion at best,” he smiled evilly as the seal itself disappeared in a black light.

“RAAAH!” I shouted at him as I ran towards him with my hidden blade with the intent to end his life right there.

I stabbed to where Dave was but my blade hit nothing but air. I looked around the room trying to find Dave and he appeared a few seconds later; streaks of light dissipated around him as he sat on a boulder.

“Well Shadow if you truly want to fight me what right do I have from stopping you?” he jumped down from the boulder and readjusted his glasses.

“Don’t worry Shadow we got your back! We’ll defeat him...”

“TOGETHER!” everypony shouted.

I’m so glad I have my team with me, otherwise I’d probably die…

Instantly a white transparent box surrounded the other assassins.

“Hey what is this?” Applejack asked realising they were trapped.

"This looks like a barrier of some kind, but I've never seen anything like it," Twlight pressed a hoof against the box.

Rainbow Dash punched a wall and it didn’t budge, “We can’t break free!”

Dave merely laughed, “Of course, after all we don’t want you to interfere with our fight now? How can Shadow take down the Templars if he can’t even defend himself?”

“Don’t worry girls; I’ll buy you some time! Just get out of that box while I deal with Dave,” I shouted over to my friends not taking my eyes off Dave.

“Shadow are you crazy!? We can only do this together! You said so yourself!” Twilight shouted from the box as she helplessly watched me and Dave prepare to fight.

“Don’t worry Twilight! I’m not going to kill him; Shadow still has purpose for this world!” Dave shouted to Twilight. “Maybe I'll beat him to an inch of his life and gather my data. I just need to test him…” he said sinisterly to me.

I pulled out both my hidden blades and got into my battle stance.

“Engarde Shadow!” Dave shouted as he snapped his hooves.

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

(Battle Music)

Wait… since when can Ponies snap their hoofs?
Enough about that, its do or die time!

“Mares fist Shadow,” Dave taughted me with a slight laugh.

Without replying I rushed towards him and swiped my blade vertically but he sidestepped behind me and kicked me down. I quickly got up from the ground and turned back to Dave who did a mock yawn.

“Come on Shadow I said ‘engarde’ it means fight me, not get your ass kicked in the first 5 seconds.”

Ignoring his insult I closed the distance between us and stabbed him with my blades which only connected with air, Dave had dodged my attacks but he was still in my range. I continued to stab wildly around him in hopes to break his defense. Dave ducked down as he nearly got a horizontal swipe from my blade, I followed with a thrust and Dave jumped backwards.

“Now that’s better Shadow, you just need to work on your aim. Here let me show you…” he smiled fiendishly as he snapped his hoof.

From nowhere a group of pens appeared and floated around Dave in a large circle, he smiled at me and shot his hoof out. The pens shot straight at me at near bullet speeds; I rolled to my right as the pens missed me by inches and embedded themselves into the cave's wall. I looked at the pens which suddenly disappeared in a black light, unicorn magic obviously.

He’s completely in control of his magic, he could even rival the Princess’s magical power…

“GAH!”

While I was distracted Dave had shot an extra pen into the back of my right shoulder.

“Shadow you need to focus! Or a pen in your back will leave you dead like a tack!”

Dave snapped his hoof and even more pens appeared, he launched them towards me but I was ready this time. Using my hidden blades I deflected the pens and slashed them mid-flight. As the barrage of pens started to waver I grabbed a pen with my hoof while it was still flying spun around with all my strength and tossed it back towards Dave.

Checkmate bitch!

Dave crossed his hoofs and gave a smirk; the pen disappeared right before it could hit him.

“Better Shadow! You now have more skill than a kindergartener… whoa!” Dave started to mock me but quickly disappeared into streaks of light as my throwing knife nearly lodged into his eye instread it harmlessly got stuck in the wall.

“Behind you,” a voice whispered from behind.

I turned around to slash Dave but instead I got bitch-slapped with his tie.

“A tie!? Come on!”

“Improvisation Shadow, now…” Dave took a couple of steps back as his right hoof started to flash a black light and what appeared on his hoof was his signature pen-blade, emblazed with the Assassin’s logo and the Templar’s logo together.

Is he a Templar or an Assassin? Is this his idea of world balance…

“Ah you like my pen-blade? I do like your assassin designs and the Templar's cunning initiative. I guess you’re wondering about why I have both symbols on here, you can say it makes it more… balanced.” Dave gave a small chuckle.

“Course I won’t tell you anymore right now as you need to learn things for yourself. Plus it’ll ruin the fun!” Dave joked while calibrating his blade.

It doesn’t matter who or what he is, if I can kill him now that’ll make everyponies lives easier.

Without waiting for him to finish I charge him with my blades, he doesn't react fast enough and I managed to tear a cut on his black jeans as he jumped backwards.

“Now it gets serious,” Dave said coldly pulling out his pen-blade, his smile turned into a blank expression.

I charged him once more hoping to stab him in his chest but he deflected my blade with his. He cleared his throat and with quick speed he countered with a hoof in my chest and punched me in the face after. I fell to the ground and scampered to my hooves as Dave lunged at me with his blade. I tried to block his blade with mine but his strength was too great and his attacks were relentless.
I was losing my defense and was getting tired from this fight, which surprised me.

Come on… just hold out a little more…

*SNAP*

Dave had slashed through my left blade breaking the steel then followed with a roundhouse kick to my chest. I tumbled to the floor and tried to get up, exhaustion pulling me back every second.
My body felt like stone from the exhaustion and the best I could do was get on my knees.

Dave approached me with his blade and held his pen-blade out to one side of his body; preparing the finishing blow.

I closed my eyes and awaited my fate.

I didn’t imagine to die like this: helpless, alone and weak. If I couldn’t beat Dave now, how could I save Equestria? I failed so much in life and I'll continue to fail in my death. I'm sorry to everypony that I forced this war upon, they didn't need to get mixed up in all this.

I failed Ponitaly, I failed my family, I failed Ponyville and Equestria. Most importantly I failed my friends...

Maybe I'll be able to seek redemption, at least I’ll join my family, wherever they are…

"..."

*SMACK*

Dave slapped me across the face with his pen and I fell over to my side in both pain and shock.

“OW!?” I shouted in confused pain as my lip started to bleed.

“Shadow, like I said you still have purpose and I won’t kill you… yet,” Dave said to me though my blurred vision.

“SHADOW!”

I looked over to my side and saw that my friends escaped through the box through a large hole, they all circled around Dave with their hidden blades unsheathed, ready to attack the fiend that hurt their friend.

“Don’t… he’s too…. strong,” I weakly coughed as blood dripped down from my lip.

“Shadow, shut up. And you Dave! You’re goin down!” Applejack shouted at Dave with rage, the rest of the assassins nodded their heads in approval.

Dave mearly shrugged and with a sigh he said, "Applejack, I think this is going to be a waste of time but I guess I can spare a few more minutes to brutaly humiliate all of you." His glasses flashed and his smile came back.

"Bring it."

With a battle cry they all jumped towards Dave.

I can’t bear to watch…

(End Music)

------2 minutes later-------------------------

Everyone lay on the floor exhausted and beaten; Dave overlooked us and laughed in pity.

“You’re all weak! Especially you Shadow, this is your team so I expected a lot more but instead I got to fight the most disorganized group of ponies I’ve ever seen. Therefore you’re weak and a complete disgrace to your assassin ancestors.”

“Why…you…” I tried to stand up but failed.

“See Shadow, why don’t you come back when you’re a little more mmmmmmmm… stronger?”

He saw the pain in my eyes and sighed, “Well I’m not a cold-heartless pony like the other Templars so I might tell you a bit about myself since your whole life has been dominated by fear and guilt and I pretty much messed with your head today. Afterall it’s only fair, *Ahem*,” he cleared his throat.

“What Balthazar is planning is big, both Project Purify and the Apple will be used and let’s just say that
every... single... pony in Equestria will obey the Templars once his plan succeeds. As for me I see his plan as a way to provide balance to Equestria though I have been watching you for some time Shadow and I am interested about your methods to end Balthazar and claim the Apple.
So after some research I came up with a plan provided with the best possible balance for Equestria and for myself."

"The only variable is you."

Me?

“So you’re not aligned with the Templars?” Rarity asked through painful bruises.

“Oh… I am but it’s fun to watch you try to figure out my puzzling foreshadowing,” Dave laughed at his joke.

“Shadow before I forget…” Dave pitifully dropped the Seal he had sent away before the fight right into the ground in front of my muzzle.

“If you want to know more about these, why don’t you ask Le Duck? I bet he know all about THIS and more.” he sneered at us as he turned around and began to walk away.

Le Duck? What would he know about these Seals or even Dave for that matter?

“Plus Shadow I’d love for you and Le Duck to see my dimension, it’s quite homey if I do say so myself, after all it’s only a matter of time…” he snapped his hoof and a dark vortex appeared in front of him.

Before he stepped in he turned his head around and said to us, “Me and Balthazar are planning something soon, you should join us when we’re done. I’ll send an invite,” he cheerfully said as he stepped in the portal.

“Ta-ta assassins,” the portal closed behind him.

“DAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVEEEEEEE!” I shouted at the top of my lungs in fury but quieted down as I used up the last amount of my energy.

But he is right, we are weak… I’m weak. I just hope some retraining will reteach the girls with better assassin skills. But what about me? How would I improve? Still, I don’t understand Dave… did he go to a different dimension? How is that even possible? I need to shut up with the questions, I can’t think straight now I need to help my friends.

I turned to the exhausted assassins and shouted over to them, “Everypony alright?”

“We’re bruised and exhausted but apart from that we’re fine,” Twilight answered. "I think you have the most servere wounds out of all of us."

“Good… that’s… good…” my voice started to trail off.

“Shadow…..? Shadow?” Applejack tried to ask me but I was falling unconscious.

“Shadow! Stay with me!” she crawled over to my side despite the aches and pain.

I could see the pain and exhaustion in her eyes but I couldn’t hold myself conscious anymore, “Heh… Applejack, sorry but I… gotta write some documents…” I joked and closed my eyes.

I start to hear rushing water but before Applejack or I could say anything I passed out.