A few weeks have passed since the advanced training had begun. We grew stronger as each day passed; we were determined and prepared for whatever Dave has in store for us.

At least, that’s what I thought.

I’m sitting here at my mahogany desk while the others go about their daily lives around the hideout. All I can do is work; it’s the only thing I can do. It’s been impossible to locate anything about Balthazar; and Dave, well no pony could track him and his portals. Without any leads this was making me furious exhausted and irritable over the time of training.

It doesn’t help that the nightmares came back, they’re so bad not even Dr. Mareio’s cures can fix them. Ever since that day at Applejack’s orchard I didn’t experience any vision changes but I keep on getting constant headaches and vertigo from time to time. Overall I’m just worried and stressed out because of Dave’s message/taunt back in the forest.

Seriously a party? Sounds like something Pinkie would do if she were a Crazy Templar Accountant. Luckily she’s our Crazy Assassin Pyro technician….. That’s better right?

I laid my quill back into its holder and clasped my hoofs around my head as it dropped and laid itself on the table’s surface.

All my past regrets welled up inside me with the fear of uncertainty in the future; I don’t even think my adaption or improvisation could help us out here.

I just… don’t know…

As I held my head down in torment I heard the hoof steps of a pony approaching my table, I instantly slammed my hoofs onto the desk and regained my composure as I noticed it was Twilight.

“Hello Twilight what brings you to me today?” I asked with a slightly fake smile.

“Well I know that you’ve been hard at work but I’ve come to tell you that the modification for your blade is finished!” Twilight beamed despite the off put I’ve made previous.

"My blade modification?"

I looked at the empty part of my left hoof where my blade was supposed to be.

“Oh, right. Mi dispiace, I forgot I’ve given it to you weeks ago. Well what are we waiting for? Let’s test it!”

Twilight brought my modified blade up to me and hoofed it over. I strapped it to my hoof and inspected it closely.

“As you can see, I’ve added a turning mechanism to switch from the hidden blade and the crossbolt. When you do turn it just aim it and with the same motion as using your blade the
bolt-arrow will fly out. What’s even better is that I’ve added slots for it so you can have multiple bolts at once!”

“I think it was pretty handy and the overall design took me AGES to come up with, first I had too…”

As Twilight rambled on I turned the mechanism and aimed my hoof at a training dummy. With a small zing the bolt flew across the room and hit the dummy……’s shield. It rebounded off the corner of it and went over to Rarity’s workstation.

*CRACK*

“AH! MY MIRROR!”

The bolt continued through the shattered remains of the mirror and went straight towards Applejack’s hat.

“Whoa Nellie!” she shouted as she quickly sidestepped and the arrow bounced off the wall and flew towards the middle of the room.

Ace did a corkscrew midflight avoiding the arrow and Rainbow Dash flying down with a map got a hole located where Marelantis was.

“HEY! Now we’ll never find where those sea ponies live!”

“AH MAKE IT STOP!” Fluttershy ran under a table as the arrow went right through a pile of mushrooms on Mareio’s cart.

A mushroom was skewered right through the arrow and continued to sail across the hideout.

“NEATO! IT’S SO FAST, IT’S SO COOL! I WANT TO TRY THAT!” Pinkie shouted in excitement as she propelled herself like an arrow across the room.

The arrow then got imbedded on a banner and finally stopped. Doctor Mareio was sitting in a chair next to it; he reached out and grabbed the mushroom.

“THANK YOU SHADOW!” he shouted across the room as he took a big bite.

Everyone in the room stared at me with glaring faces.

“The aim is a little off, nothing some practice can do to fix it,” I sheepishly smiled.

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

Once the whole bolt-arrow incident cleared up and I practiced with it a few times (as close to the dummy as everyone is comfortable with) the day was nearly over and everyone was lazing about.

“Alright! Who wants to do more of my Regiment Training?” I excitingly asked.

“NO!” everyone shouted at me with enough force for me to fall on my backside from my chair.

“Okay, okay, I didn’t realize my program was so detrimental to your emotional feelings,” I said standing back onto my hoofs and readjusting my comfortable seat as I made everyone feel guilty.

I'm so devious.

“Well… no… it’s not that…” Fluttershy squeaked.

“It’s because we need to get ready for--,” Twilight started to talk.

“THE LUNAR FESTIVAL!” Pinkie shouted with much more excitement than usual.

“Lunar festival? What’s that?” I asked them.

Twilight cleared her throat, “Every couple of years or so, the moon gets closer to Equestria literally engulfing a large part of the night sky. Basically we just celebrate how grateful the night is with the moon and stars lighting without the complete darkness overshadowing all of Equestria. It’s a really big deal and Celestia wanted us to oversee some preparations as her sister, Princess Luna will also be arriving here along with some of the royal guard.”

“It will be a lot of work, but then we’ll be able to enjoy the days this festival has to offer after!” Applejack exclaimed.

“How long is this going to take?” I asked once again.

“We have been slacking off a bit on the preparations which we’ll do tomorrow as the festival starts the day after and will last for 3 days I believe,” Twilight answered.

“Due tomorrow, do tomorrow!” Pinkie laughed.

“But it will be easy to set up if we all work together. Shouldn’t take less than a few hours,” Rainbow said.

“Hey! I just got a great idea! YOU should take the 3 days off too!” Pinkie pointed at me.

“I can’t,” I bluntly said. “No leads and no information means I still have to work. I still haven’t heard back from Le Duck and quite honestly I don’t think I can rest. For me being an Assassin is 24/7, got to be ready for anything.”

Everyone in the room including Ace facehoofed.

“COME ON SHADOW!” Rainbow Dash shouted in annoyance.

“You can’t be serious darling!” Rarity exclaimed.

“YES I AM! I have a ton of work to do and I can’t do any of it because I CAN’T FIND DAVE DAMMIT!” I slammed my hoof on the table to express my frustration, all combined with stress, improper rest, training and the reoccurring nightmares.

“Sorry, it’s been… stressful. Tell you girls what; if you can best me in a little “Training Oversight” then I’ll postpone my work for the time being and help with the festival and try to enjoy myself.”

“Otherwise you all stop inquiring about my overworking habits which I already know about for the next month.”

They all huddled up together and all of them nodded their heads.

“I WOULD LIKE TO A JOIN!” Mareio raised a hoof.

I shook my head in disapproval, which only made Mareio sad for about 0.15 milliseconds then he got his goofy smile back.

He grabbed Ace and shouted to him as he held him up in the air, “ACE! LET’S GO ON AN ADVENTURE!”

*SWACK* (Holy crap, NO! No no no no no no no no...

Ace desperately tried to flap his wings from Mareio’s grasp but with Mareio’s iron grip they both quickly exited through the door.

“So let’s do this then!” Rainbow Dash said feeling pumped.

“After all of you, mares’ bella donna,” I complimented them with my Ponitalian accent receiving some eye rolls and giggles from the ponies.

“Tenant 8: Understand the essence of charm.” I think I’ve got that.

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

We went up to the roof of the hideout which was renovated a long time ago to include grass for Fluttershy’s plants to grow without her having to go back to her cottage every single time. I stood at the centre as everypony else surrounded me in a circle.

“So how do you want us to start? A countdown or a word--,” Twilight asked before being shoved aside by Rainbow Dash as she flew up in the air.

“ACTION!” Rainbow shouted as she aimed a flying kick at me.

She doesn’t waste any time.

I quickly ducked so her hoof grazed down the side of my back and I gently pushed her from her landing away from me.

“What are we just standing around for? Let’s get him! PINKIE FORMATION!” Pinkie shouted as she charged at me.

Everypony else shrugged then did the same thing as Pinkie.

So now it begins…

Pinkie lunged at me which I sidestepped from only to have taken a hoof from Applejack in the side. Twilight struck a hoof out as I rapidly blocked it and counter-attacked Applejack in the shoulder. Rarity came from behind and struck my back and I fell to my knees.

Ooh… my back. Hate those late night document days….

Twilight attacked again as I was momentarily stunned by Rarity but before she could I did a leg sweep from under her and quickly slid right under Rarity so I was right behind her.

*Push*

She fell with a huff as her cushion (Twilight) grunted out from discomfort.

“OH, THAT’S IT!” I heard Rainbow Dash shouting from across the roof.

She flew right past Fluttershy who was still a pacifist party and not really fighting.

Rainbow barraged her hoofs and wings towards me at a lightning speed. I blocked as many as I could with my hoofs but some found their mark on my shoulders and torso.
Before she could do more damage I grabbed onto her wings and vaulted over her and sent her to her backside against the grass.

This is an overview no need to give any unwanted bruises or broken bones.

“EVERYONE ATTACK NOW!” Applejack shouted as the rest of the ponies recovered and charged me once more.

I braced myself and put my fore hoofs towards my face as a multitude of hoofs aimed at me.

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

“ACE! LOOK OVER THERE! SHADOW’S A GETTING HIS FLANK KICKED!”

Mareio was flying a giant triangular red hang glider over Ponyville with a white letter ‘M’ in the middle.

Ace was strapped on the front with no way of flying from the glider.

No escape.

“OOH AND ANOTHER LEAP FROM PINKIE! LOOK AT ALL THE DODGES AND BLOCKS HE’S A DOING! HO HO HO! I FEEL SO YOUNG AGAIN!” Mareio shouted as he precariously tilted the hang glider towards the ground of the clock tower.

*SQWACK*

"DON"T WORRY ACE! I DO THIS ALL THE TIME!" he shouted as the hang glider got absolutely within crashing distance to the ground.

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

I blocked a few hits from Rarity and Applejack as a minor explosion erupted from behind the clock tower on the ground. A bright red fiery mushroom cloud filled the small part of sky but I chose to ignore it for now.

As I shoved Pinkie from another leap and Rainbow from a flying drop I noticed a glint of light from the corner of my eye. I spun myself around in slow motion towards the glint coming from Ponyville, a brief shadow darted away and disappeared from my view.

What was that...

From my distraction Fluttershy finally joined the training battle, came at me, pushed me towards the ground and placed a hoof right on top of my chest, pinning me to the ground with her strength.

“Um… did I win?”

Snapping myself from my thoughts I looked up at Fluttershy and sheepishly nodded my head from the ground. Immediately Pinkie scooped up Fluttershy and threw her up into the air as everyone gathered around and cheered for her.

“HOORAY! WAY TO GO FLUTTERSHY WOOOOO!”

They all ended the celebration with a well-placed group high-hoof.

-------A Few Hours later from the Training------------------------------------------------

Everyone left for the day bidding me farewell and a remark from Applejack about showing up tomorrow to do some festival prep and NOT working at my desk.

Dr. Mareio went to his room still carrying his completely combusted hang glider still strapped to his chest.

“Are you sure you don’t want to take it off?” I inquired.

“I can fix it better from a here. DON’T JUDGE ME!” he smiled which completely didn’t fit his choice of words as he closed the door behind himself.

How does a wooden plastic hang glider even burst into a mushroom cloud?
Meh whatever, Mareio's done stranger things.

Ace waddled to the lounge couch covered in bandages and burn scars from the hang glider crash which Fluttershy immediately treated him for.

The entire time he waddled he muttered under his breath in his eagle language.

Probably cursing Dr. Mareio I bet...

Ace turned his head upwards and let out a very loud, “SQAUCK!”

“Hey mister! Watch your eagle-speak! I’ve got a pretty good idea what you’ve just said and personally I barely use that one myself,” I lectured Ace from my desk.

Ace turned his head and gave me the most disturbing death stare a burn-scarred eagle could possibly make.

“Alright, minor curses are fine…. just don’t do it excessively, okay?”

With a painful but excited flap of his wings Ace happily swore under his breath multiple times as he made it up to the couch in the lounge area and curled his wings as he sat down neatly on the fabric.

Back at my desk I’ve put all the papers in my to-do drawer so as not to be distracted by work tomorrow should the urge to keep doing so prevent me.

I just need to find Dave… if I can find him I can definitely find Balthazar.
After all… he was the one who ‘helped’ me before in finding him.

What also plagued my mind was the small glint of light I caught coming from the town during the training observation.

What was that? Was it my imagination? Could it have something to do with those sight issues I had before? All i've had were those vertigo episodes but nothing like that time at Applejack's orchard. I seriously hope I’m not going blind or anything…. don’t want to take the mushroom to cure that. Bleh!

With the sun setting and for the time of the festival with having no work to do, I got up from my chair and went over to my neatly made bed.

As I was about to get myself in I stopped my hoof from the bed sheet.

I was scared. Scared knowing that the nightmares that haunted me and intensified ever since I became an Assassin would again trouble me tonight as they have done so for the past couple of weeks. More so concerning my condition from my overworking, or whatever Fluttershy and Dr. Mareio had said to me.

With hesitation I continued until my body and robes was completely lost within the white sheets.
My eyes carefully closed and I released an exhausted sigh.

Maybe this time it won’t be so bad…
I hope so…

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“Come on brother! This way!”

I was back in Ponitaly again running on the rooftops with my brother, Free-runner.
It was a most familiar pastime we both enjoyed in our youth, I was happy to see him again. It had felt so long.

“It’s so good to see you Free-runner, I thought I would never have gotten the time to do this again,” I said to him as we leaped over a small roof arch.

Free-runner turned his head up and looked at the sun. He turned his head back to me and shouted, “Crap! We’ll be late to get to father in time. Step it up Shadow!”

We sprinted much faster and climbed down a few stacked boxes to get back onto the ground. We ran through the busy streets of Ponitaly knocking over and shoving people in our way to our villa.

I cheerfully shouted back to an old mare as I just ran through her groceries, “Your wrath doesn’t compare to our fathers’!”

Finally we arrived at the front of our villa, Free-runner turned to me and smiled.

“Looks like we made it brother… Come let’s get inside and rest after this long day has been done.”

As he smiled, a warp of light flashed across his face. I could see the pristine building that is my home suddenly turn into a pile of burning wreckage for a second then back to the villa as if nothing happened.

Oh no.... dammit to hell!

Free-runner immediately ran inside as I stuck a hoof out.

“WAIT!”

As I ran inside behind him the scene completely changed.

Crimson blood is splayed all over the floor as I step inside. As I see the sight before me I collapse to my knees onto the blood staining my clothes.

In front of me lay my dead family and an all too familiar dark blue pony with a black star cutie mark.

Free-runner who was so full of life is now an unmoving corpse with slash marks across his neck and his torso. My mother had the same marks as he did. She died protecting him.
My father, his body is lying on his back to the floor. Blood is still flowing through his wounds and I can see through my teary vision that his neck was punctured with the sword still in place to murder him and the rest of my family with. The murderer still gripping the hilt with his dark blue hoof as he yanks the blade back out and turns his attention to me.

“Assassins…. every single one will die. The dawn of the Templars are coming,” he raised his sword to the air and shouted with corruption in his voice, “A NEW RULE! WITH ME BALTHAZAR AS PONYKIND’S NEW RULER, I WILL CONTROL EVERYTHING AND EVERYPONY!”

He dropped his sword down to my level and looked straight at me with his cold black eyes, “Those who do not submit will die. Just like you assassin.”

He lunged his sword straight forward at me; I cringed at his attack and held my hoofs up to my face ready to get the blow.

It never came.

I took my hoofs away from my face and the scene changed as I now see the Assassin Headquarters being sieged by the Templars. The Observer on the roof holding the Apple of Harmony out, a second later an arrow pierces through his heart and he falls dead to the ground. The Assassin symbol at the top of the Headquarters breaks as Balthazar retrieves the Apple and laughs at his victory over us. He clenches his hoof as a signal and the Templar attackers charge and slaughter all my Assassin brothers and sisters.

I couldn't help but see how entrapped Balthazar was as he held the Apple to his eyes, basking in it's ancient power. He steps through the dark portal and is closed off by Dave. He looks at me, adjusts his glasses and gives me a smile.

He snaps his icy-white hoofs.

A migraine in my head happens as I quickly shut my eyes to the pain. The pain recceded and I am able to open my eyes once more. Upon opening, the city of Ponitaly is burning and I am at its centre. Fires are everywhere; the landscape is barren and full of debris from the ancient buildings that are destroyed. Ponies are screaming in fear and pain as falling debris crushes the survivors. A blast rips through the streets as everything in that area is reduced to rubble.

None of that mattered at the time because I was carrying someone in my hoofs as I lay down on my knees. She looks at me and smiles; she weakly wipes a tear from my face with her pure white hoof. Her eyes close and I embrace her closer to my chest. Her blood-stained pure white body went limp as her last breath of life extinguished from her body forever.

I wept.

She had died in my hoofs, my one true love. All because I was an Assassin all because everything that happened was my fault and I will never be able to change anything I had done.

She died because of me.

My tears flowed for an eternity as I stroked her light-pink mane and whispered to her over the sounds of Ponitaly getting destroyed.

“Flora, I’m sorry…”

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

My head pounding, I wake up in my bed to a still dark night. It was probably 4 o’clock in the morning. My body restricts me to the bed as my thoughts pondered on the dreams. Not moving and breathing calmly. Those dreams had felt real as the other times I’ve fallen asleep.

That was because they were.

The Balthazar pointing a sword at my face was new though…

My heart is heavy from the remembrance of the ones that suffered; the ones that died, the ones I will never see again.

I groggily force myself out of bed and onto my work desk area.

Looking over everything is neat and tidy I give a long sigh and reach for the supply drawer.

I’m not getting back to bed anytime soon. Might as well do something to keep me busy.

Grabbing a quill and a blank sheet of paper I begin to work.

As the sketch marks for the words took form I stopped, crumpled the paper and tossed it into the waste bucket.

A promise is a promise after all, still I need something to take my mind off of….
Better not think about it.

I got up from the chair and twisted my modification under my blade as I went over to a training dummy. I aimed my hoof at it and launched a bolt at the side of its chest.
I couldn’t help but think for the entire time as I continued to fire, on the one entity that I’ve been trying to find for all these years, the amount of revenge and hate I have for that corrupt stallion.

Balthazar. When I find Dave, you’re next….

The bolt flew out from my blade and the dummy got its head pierced with the metal rod.

For the next couple of hours I will continue to fire and every time I do I’ll think about Balthazar; how he killed the ponies I’ve once called family, and the ones he hasn’t killed yet. The ones we Assassins are protecting from his corruption.

Another bolt pierces through the head and I take the time to reload as I wait for the morning to arrive and for the festival preparations I was bound to do for the day.

Boom. Headshot, you cazzo.

(Authors note: Apologies for the 4 week hiatus. Honestly I didn’t want to wait this long for the next chapter but procrastination and paperwork can really lose one’s track of time. Sadly with exams looming over the horizon I might not be able to update properly for the next two weeks. Or maybe I will as the next chapter is planned out…. mostly)

(Second Author’s note: Originally this chapter was going to be longer but I’ve decided to split it down a bit. Next chapter should be a longer one unless I split it again. Are you ready for a Festival of a time?)

(Third Author's note: Thank you to everyone who has been paitent for the chapters I've been desperately trying to get to write. Truely you are all the best support I could possibly have and that's what will make this story great. Again, thank you.)