The sun rose over the horizon caking Ponyville in its soft warming glow as it went higher over the mountains waking up all the ponies to a new day and more specifically the festival preparation everypony was eager to do that morning.

All except one who was awake hours before anyone else was.

“It’s a new day… but am I any stronger?” I pondered out loud.

After hours of practicing my new modification the training dummy was completely covered in sharp metal bolts piercing all over through its sack and straw composition. Needles in its arms, head and torso, it was literally covered in what some ponies would consider to be way too much sharp imbedded splinters of metal.

Bringing a hoof over to the dummy I yanked some bolts out and deposited them into my hidden cross bolt mod.

Now with all this waiting around done I should get down to Ponyville and work on this festival before the others chew my hide for not taking a day off.

My sigh as I climbed up the ladder to the roof expressed not by my tiredness of working straight for the past few weeks but a life full of hardships, the mistakes I’ve made that to this day I continue to endure.

Alone.

A sprinting leap off the clock tower and a few seconds later I landed squarely in the bale of hay outside from the front door to the hideout getting up from the bale I brushed the hay fibers from my robes and continued my way into town.

Each hoof step I took filled me up with a grumpy exhaustion from my tireless night but… also fear?
My head turned back behind me and I saw nothing unusual, nothing was behind me or at least what I can tell behind me was the usual scenery.

Weird…

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I went through town seeing everypony getting ready with their supplies to decorate Ponyville and prepare for the festival. More importantly was the arrival of Princess Luna that has gotten them worked up.
Looking down on my hoofs as I walked still remembering how detailed my nightmares were, a shout came from in front of me a ways away.

“SHADOW! Come join me and Garrus for some morning coffee and baked goods!” Commander Beard waved to me from a table from the usual café I’ve seen both he and Garrus visited frequently.

I made my way over to the table and pulled up a chair on the other end, “Hello my friends how have you been?” I tried to say as friendly as I could as to not draw attention to my grumpiness.

“This vacation leave was a very fun and nice time but unfortunately…” Beard started to say but then I interrupted.

“You all are leaving?” I asked.

They both nodded their heads.

“We would have left sooner but Rex still needs to get fixed up at the hospital. But what I do know is that it might be a while till then….” Garrus nonchalantly said.

“Why’s that?”

*BOOM*

A small explosion was heard coming from the hospital followed by an angry yell which I remember belonging to a certain red armored patient.

“Rex really doesn’t like doctors,” Garrus took a sip from his coffee.

Just then a doctor fell right on the ground next to us completely shaken and scared.

“THAT PONY IS A LUNATIC! HE NEARLY KILLED ME! I’M NOT GOING BACK THERE!” the doctor shouted up at the Spectrum and the War Specialist from the ground.

Garrus jerked his rifle and aimed it right at the doctor’s face whose expression grew from casual fear to absolute horrification.

“I can aim this here gun at 100 yards… without scope. Now you just run along back to the hospital and fix up our friend alright? Then we’ll leave and you won’t have to deal with him anytime soon.” Garrus did a little dismissive wave with his sniper rifle.

The doctor fearfully nodded and quickly made his way back to the hospital without a word and as much cover as he can.

“Nice. But Garrus, you can only shoot up to 80 yards without scope,” Beard grinned.

“What he doesn’t need to know won’t hurt him… speaking about that…,” he aimed his gun down the road to where the doctor was by my standards a good reasonable distance.

The doctor took a break thinking he was safe from the distance away but with a pull of the trigger a bullet ripped through the air to the ground next to him. He jumped up in fright and ran with all his might to the hospital hoping to not get hit.

“Well that should get him going for a couple of hours,” Garrus said as he reloaded his sniper and leaned it against his chair.

“Double nice,” Beard grinned.

I face hoofed and shook my head as I grinned as well.

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After talking a while about the plans for the festival and Luna’s arrival the cafe waitress came by our table to collect the plates.

“Excuse me miss, you might not know me but I come here every day. So can I give you an endorsement and you give us a discount maybe?” Beard said to her with his persuasive commander’s voice.

“We can’t do that sorry,” she said taking the dishes from our table and back inside the café.

“Dammit!” Beard gently slammed his hoof against the table but quickly got up and said to her across before she closed the door.

“We’ll bang, okay?”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Don’t worry Beard, she likes you. You’ll get that discount soon, it’s only a matter of time,” Garrus patted him on the back.

“Just make sure you don’t ‘jump’ the ‘gun’,” Garrus stopped patting him and held out his rifle.

Once again I face hoofed.

“Shadow are you okay? You’ve been awfully quiet this entire time, and I don’t think slapping your hoof across your head is a good way of communicating, I should know,” Beard said.

“Sorry, I just had a long night. Nothing for you two to get worked up about.”

“Alright but just remember to take some breaks from time to time but not too much. We both know the down-time between missions can be difficult and our jobs are hard enough to deal with. But Shadow, just make sure you don’t lose yourself in the process of working. You do have your group of assassins to look out for,” Beard said as he quietly whispered the word ‘assassins’.

“I’ll keep that in mind…”

“SHADOW!” a voice called out to me from behind.

I turned around on my chair to see Twilight and a pure white unicorn stallion with yellow lightning designs coming from his hoofs. He was also covered in royal guard armor.

Well… this will be interesting…

I said arriverderci to Beard and Garrus and went over to Twilight and the mysterious unicorn.

“Salute Twilight how are you today and who is this stallion I might ask?” I asked them.

“Shadow I would like to introduce you to Captain Thunderhoof. He’s in charge of Princess Luna’s arrival and protection.”

Thunderhoof took out his lightning-clad hoof and I accepted it with a firm shake.

“Nice to meet you Shadow Mark, I’m familiarizing myself around Ponyville and trying to make sure this festival goes off without a hitch as many ponies will be coming here to celebrate. I must stay vigilant and protect them and the Princess from any and all threats.”

Twilight gave me a wink from behind him when Thunderhoof mentioned protecting the ponies.

“Well that’s good to hear; Ponyville is a relatively nice place to be in and rarely gets any crime in the first place. But it’s always nice to see somepony wanting to absolutely make sure bad things won’t happen to the other ponies,” I replied to him.

“Ah yes, Ms. Sparkle told me about how much of a civil servant you are in protecting this town. Really, I can tell you’re a foreigner and coming into Ponyville, a town you’ve never been in and you strive to help it. Why that’s a very noble thing for you to do Shadow.”

“I try to work from behind the scenes; after all I don’t need praise for something that was meant to be done. Helping others any way I can is its own reward,” I said through the shadow of my hood.

He gave a friendly pat on my shoulder and said, “Even a nobler deed! I like you Shadow and we need more ponies like you around in today’s changing times. With that attitude you would make a great royal guard with the right training!”

“I think I might pass on that one, I’m happy where I stand so far. But tell me… what is happening in the world?”

Thunderhoof’s expression fell serious and he whispered, “ I shouldn’t say but… it’s…”

“Terrible. Governments are being corrupted, economies are falling, and strange rumors circulating that don’t seem possible. We don’t know what it is, but all I can say is that it’s big, bigger than what we all could imagine.”

I do know what it is.

Templars… and it seems they’re growing in power.

And everypony thought I should take a break… hardly.

“Anyways I’ve said too much and I need to patrol the perimeter around Ponyville, goodbye Shadow and goodbye Ms. Sparkle. I hope to see you two again during the festival,” he tipped his head in a gentlemen fashion then trotted away from us and around a building.

I turned back to Twilight and said with a smug smile, “I’m sure you didn’t tell him everything, right?”

“Of course not Shadow,” Twilight rolled her eyes, “But I have to admit your cover was flawless.”

“I try my best.”

Twilight pulled out a clipboard and checked off a few things using her magic on her quill, “With the guard situation done with I’ll bring you to the places where you can do some setup work for the festival.”

“Say where is Spike? He’s usually eager to assist you with these things,” I asked her as she stuck the clipboard back into a rucksack hanging from her side.

“Oh, Spike is sleeping for the day so he can get the rest to stay up for the Lunar Festival. Most of it is going to happen in the nighttime after all. So Shadow we should get you to do some light work around the town square and maybe then you will learn to relax.”

“Very well, lead the way then,” I ushered her forward with my hoofs.

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We trotted over to the town square where a large number of ponies where bustling about hanging streamers, banners and the likes all around the area.

This place is really starting to look like a festival would take place in.

“Okay Shadow. You can first start with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash hanging the streamers on the town hall,” Twilight pointed to the familiar large building the town workers resided in.

“Then after you can go around town and offer your support with any other pony, with Spike asleep I didn’t get enough time to pencil you in for the job overview.”

“Don’t worry Twilight, I’ll do my thing and help out everypony as best I can,” I reassured her and she gave a sigh.

“Alright, just make sure you don’t overwork yourself too hard and if you see Pinkie tell her not to blow up anything.”

“Wait a second Twilight,” I quickly grabbed her shoulder, “Two things… all these props and decorations for the town square, I’ve noticed in the other parts of town they’re not so heavily decorated”

“That is because the Princess is making her chariot arrival to here and we need to make sure everything is right and looking perfect.”

“My second question… what is Pinkie’s job in all of this?” I asked through a nervous gulp.

“She’s… in charge… of the……………….”

“…….”

“Fireworks.”

I face hoofed myself and shook my head side to side.

Arg… Pinkie…
Why did I make you the pyro? WHY!?

I recovered from my astonishment and said, “Don’t worry about it; I’ll try to handle things right.”

She nodded and headed on her way to a group of ponies hanging a sign saying “Welcome Princess Lu…”.

I seriously hope I can.

*Mental facehoof*

Recovering myself from the amount of “what did I do wrong” moments I’ve just experienced I gave a loud exhausted sigh and walked over to where Rainbow Dash was urging Fluttershy to hang a streamer up higher.

“Almost Fluttershy! Just maybe about twenty percent more higher, or maybe slightly higher than that!” Rainbow shouted from the ground.

“I can’t do it, it’s just too… high...,”Fluttershy squeaked from her rather mediocre height level.

Coming up next to Rainbow Dash I shouted upwards, “Fluttershy you can do this, easy! You’ve been through much higher challenges than this!”

Fluttershy still cowered as she now taken hold of the town hall wall and is not letting go.

“That pony is just so scared of everything, I don’t even know how she was able to do all those training and mission things we’ve been on without fear affecting her,” Rainbow said worryingly to me.

“She just needs a bit of support Dash,” I cracked my neck and aimed my voice up to Fluttershy.

“FLUTTERSHY! YOU CAN DO IT! LET THE COURAGE FLOW THROUGH YOU. YOU ARE PEGASI, YOU ARE THE MASTER OF THE SKY AND YOU CAN DO THIS! LET MY WORDS OF POSITIVE FEEDBACK GUIDE YOU UPWARDS BECAUSE YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN DO THIS FLUTTERSHY! FLY FLUTTERSHY, FLY!”

She opened her eyes and determination went across her face, “I can do this, I WILL DO THIS!”

Her wings sear up forward from the wall propelling her into the air like a jet, wind currents buffeted behind her as her blur of pink and yellow made it to the top of the town hall. Fluttershy mounts the streamer on the small top placement and lets out possibly the most epic of victory cries ever to be heard arcoss Equestria.

“Yay.”

“Alright she did it! She…” Rainbow started to jump up in joy but then stopped and facehoofed.

Fluttershy was clung to the roof of the town hall and held on for dear life with her wings glued together firmly shut.

“Um… somepony…if it`s not too much… HELP!” Fluttershy started to panic.

Mission accomplished? I guess I better get this sorted out.

Giving a sigh from my tried over-paper worked body I reached over to the side of the town hall and climbed my way up.
About halfway I rested on a window and stretched my back from the cramping pains.
My curiosity got the better of me and I peered through the window to see the Mayor reading through a newspaper, she looked over her paper at me and her eyes grew wide at the sight of me hanging outside her window.

I gave a nice friendly smile and a wave.

She immediately put the newspaper back up in front of her nose and pretended as if nothing happened.

After climbing for a few short seconds after I made it to the roof where Fluttershy was still gripping the top placement.

“Fluttershy! I’ve come to get you down!” I reassured her as my hoofs moved me closer towards her.

I’m assuming she can’t fly now and if I remember there aren’t any piles of hay to drop her in.
Besides she wouldn’t like that.
I can’t fly but maybe gliding can work?
It’s worth a shot… but I think I’m going to be in pain again…. A LOT OF IT.

“Come on Fluttershy,” I said to her as I picked her up.

“What are you doing Shadow, wait are you going to…” realizing as fear went into her eyes.

“Just close your eyes and you’ll be fine my friend.”

I grabbed her back with my hoofs and spread my wings open as much as I can. My right wing usually hurt slightly but with all the desk work I’ve been doing it’s more irritating now.
But I have to do this.

Leaping off the edge the weight of another pony caught me off-guard as we went faster than I liked towards the ground. Not wanting Fluttershy to get hurt in the process I barrel rolled halfway down so my back was towards the ground.

The impact of the ground against my back and wings hurt incredibly as my robes got scrapes and small cuts formed on my wings from the slide I took on the ground but the good news was that Fluttershy was unscathed in the fall.

“You can open your eyes Fluttershy, you’re safe… also can you get off my stomach please? That landing really hurt my breathing,” I joked to her through my panted breaths.

She opened her eyes and quickly got off me, “Oh Shadow! I’m so so sorry. You got hurt because of me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said just as Rainbow Dash quickly flew over and righted myself onto my flank at least, “I’ve grown accustomed to falling over my life.”

“Shadow… THAT WAS AWESOME!” Rainbow excitingly said, “The way you just leaped off and spun around to just take the impact was so… so…”

“Awesome?” I finished her sentence.

She smiled immensely and gave me a high hoof while Fluttershy inspected my wings.

“You should relax Shadow and let your wings heal a bit after that fall,” Fluttershy recommended.

Oh great… rest…

I fell onto my back with a *pomf* and watched the skies and their faces with an over-exasperated smile spread across my face.

Finally… nothing like a fall to get some rest. If you would call THIS resting.

I laid there for a solid 5 minutes until…

“HIYA SHADOW! I NEED YOUR HELP WITH SOMETHING!” Pinkie randomly appeared next to me and as quickly as I noticed her she put me on her back.

“Wait! Pinkie! I’m supposed to be resting!” I shouted in protest still in pain from the landing.

“You can rest later Shadow, right now it is PINKIE TIME!” she giggled and skipped down the road along with me on her back leaving behind the blue and yellow pegasi in confusion.

Oh no… this can’t be good…
Pinkie with explosives and me near them? Not good at all.