My eyes hazily open revealing the world around me. I stare up at the ceiling from a bed; the view was slightly obstructed by clock gears and mechanisms but the ceiling was higher than what any normal building would have.

This place feels so familiar… but it can’t be…
Dave stabbed me… I should be lying dead in Canterlot…

I can move my hoofs but I stay within the confides of these white sheets, still wondering if all of this was a dream, that it was a flashback or a hallucination. Yet, I could feel it in my gut all of this is real.

I…. I’m alive?

Sudden realization hit me as I quickly yanked myself forward on the bed causing great pain to flow into my chest where I was stabbed.

“Crap, that hurts,” I say to myself as I glance down and see that my abdomen is completely covered in bandages; a small red blood stain almost made its way past the barriers. I wince as another pulse of pain went through my chest.

I am not dead.

For now anyways…

“Whoa, easy there lad,” a pony clad in orange robes who was sitting on a stool next to where I was laying in this bed. I immediately recognized who he was.

“Uncle?”

“That was some bit of a mess you’ve gotten yourself into, just like always Shadow. Uncle’s going to have to save your flank over and over again,” he joked.

“Uncle’s going to get a blade up his ass if he doesn’t stop telling me things I already know,” I joked back as I laid back down.

We both laughed, with me having to stop early and clutch my chest in pain again. My breathing came as rapid gasps of air but eventually all was well again.

“Would you like to know how you lived Shadow?” Le Duck said pulling something rectangular from a table counter. It was a horribly charred barren book covered in bloodstains and overall looked like a real mess; something told me that it would have been unreadable.

“No way, are you telling me I’ve had that blasted subliminal piece of inferno literature since Dave threw that Griefer at us!?”

“Ha ha yes…. Wait what?”

“Ah, long story, but I’m more interested how I even got back to the hideout. Actually I’m more interested about how you got here Uncle, and how you got me back from Canterlot, and-” I asked him with a curious eye before he cut me off.

“And, we all have questions of our own we’d like to know,” Le Duck said with a smile.

Immediately Dr. Mareio came out from under my bed…….. and noticed I was wake before hollering at the top of his lungs, “SHADOW IS AWAKE! YAAAAAHOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Argh my head, damn it Mareio WHY!?

My whole bedside was soon covered with the rest of the team all with excited looks of relief on their faces. Before I could say anything from my startled expression, Applejack came over and gave me a hug. It felt nice.

Then Pinkie gave me a hug. I nearly passed out within her pink iron grip of pure friendship.

Then followed by everyone else, all saying how do I feel, what happened, are you okay, do you need more hugs, etc, I have a stab wound for crying out loud!

“Thank you my friends, but really I am fine.”

My lungs went into a coughing fit and I spat out a wad of crimson blood on the ground receiving some horrid looks, “See? Fine. Usually stab wounds would do worse, like kill me.”

“Fluttershy and Dr. Mareio helped fix you up as soon as they could, you should thank them,” Le Duck said.

“Thank you Fluttershy, your medical talents are marvelous beyond belief,” I said with a smile causing her to blush with shyness. “As for you Mareio…”

“Yeeeeeeeeeessssss?”

My hoof launched out from my covers and poked him in the eye making him yell out in pain and me recoil back in pain from the strain.

“THAT, was for that mushroom that made everything think I went crazy,” I then turned my head to the others who didn’t look so sure. “Fine, crazier than my regular semi-lunatic assassin self.”

As soon as things went back to normal I was bombarded with yet even more questions.

“What were you thinking!?”
“How did you break out of the dungeons?”
“PLEASE tell me you didn’t eat oatmeal there!”

“ENOUGH!” Le Duck raised his voice as everyone quieted down. “Shadow needs his rest; though you have your questions I’m sure he has his own.”

They nodded and began to perk up their ears and listen.

All of that joking and happiness vigor for some reason suddenly left me as my thoughts were poisoned and bombarded with my recent failure, from all these events. First the captain, then the dungeons, then the party….. and the Apple………

“How… how did you all find me? Why would you want to even look for me in the first place? I killed Captain Thunderhoof for crying out loud! He didn’t deserve to die! I DIDN’T KNOW!” I grew more restless and a pain in my lung made me choke on my words.

“Easy Shadow, take a breath, there is no need for anger now,” Le Duck said with a comforting yet stern voice. I did what he said and felt slightly better, even if I was still burning with internal anger about everything that happened recently.

“How best to start this? Maybe from the part before I arrived in Ponyville to make it sound more in depth?” he said looking at the others.

“That sounds like a good idea, I’ll start,” Twilight said readying herself to tell the story from the beginning.

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

The midnight colored force field around Shadow Mark dissipates as the restraining shocks fully lull him into unconsciousness. The alicorn, Princess Luna cautiously steps forward and checks to see if he was indeed unconscious and not a trick, she gives a sigh of relief and levitates him with her magic.

Her eyes turn to Captain Thunderhoof lying in a pool of drying blood on the ground,
“Never before has this happened in what was supposed to be a joyous celebration. Instead tonight is filled with murder and the death of a Captain… along with 5 of my Royal Night Guard being bested,” she looked at the groaning lumps on the ground holding their broken areas.

“Did you say you knew this pony?” Princess Luna turned her head towards Twilight and the rest of the group.

They all nod.

“I see.”

“Princess if I may suggest,” Commander Beard started to say. “Would you talk to your sister about this incident? I’m sure she would want to know the events that transpired.”

“I think she should know. Thank you Commander… I’m sorry for the loss of your ally,” she said both to Beard and Garrus.

Enough time has passed since the fighting took place and any pony that ran or watched from the sidelines began to circle around the area looking at the knocked out guards, the dead one lying in a pool of blood, and the one covered in white robes that murdered the captain being held by Luna. Some gasped, some fainted, and some were just disgusted at how this could happen.

The Mayor walked up closer than the others and shouts aloud, “Ha! I knew it! I knew there was something off with that pony! He will now be forever out of causing any pony harm!”

“Justice has been served!”

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

I gave a low growl and my left eye twitched.

“Um Twi? I think you might have described that part a bit too much,” Applejack said placing a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder before she continued.

“Oh….oops, sorry!” she gave a sheepish smile.

“Hey everyone! Why don’t we start ALL the way at the beginning?” Pinkie said excitingly, “When dinosaurs roamed Equestria, rainbows shoot out of volcanos, and when Celestia gave all of us cognitive thinking when she was a filly! Wouldn’t that be so super wonderfully fantastical!?”

“Oh Pinkie…. come on this is serious. I understand you’re trying to keep the balance of serious and random but I need to know what happened,” I said to her before turning my head back to Twilight. “Anyways, continue past the Mayor’s…. constructive comment.”

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

“What will happen to him?” Applejack said with concern to the Princess.

“We will take him to Canterlot where he will be sent to the dungeons and kept under close surveillance. We know he is dangerous hence by tonight’s events but there is no need to feel fear anymore.”

Luna then turned her volume higher so the crowd can hear, “Do not be afraid everypony, the threat is gone! You may now continue your festivities if you want but it is fine if you wish to cancel it as my moon will continue the tradition of providing light in the middle of dark.”

Her horn glowed brighter encasing the guards, Shadow, the deceased Captain Thunderhoof and herself within a midnight blue aura before a flash of expanding light and a snap teleported all of them away.

“What a night this has been, we’ll patrol the perimeter and get back to everyone in the morning, I’m sure you all need time to think,” Garrus said with a more remorseful tone. Commander Beard and Garrus then began dispersing the curious crowd from the scene.

“Come on girls; let’s get back to the tower. We can talk about everything there,” Twilight said with a saddened pain.

The ponies kneelt their heads down as they slowly trudged through town and back to the hideout.

------At the Hideout------------------------------------------

Everypony was gathered around the lounge area of the hideout, each were depressed by what happened. Shadow, taken away to prison for murdering Captain Thunderhoof. That either meant a life sentence or worse.

“I just can’t believe it,” Pinkie said with her pink hair straightened down with a dull shade of gray.

“I know what you mean dear,” Rarity said comforting her from a couch she was laying on. “It just doesn’t seem like the Ponitalian Shadow Mark we knew…. to go off and kill that poor Captain Thunderhoof… we might do that now but there was no reason he should have done that.”

“But… he was acting a bit… strange recently,” Fluttershy said feeling a bit guilty for giving a likely answer.

“Argh! I just want to know what the hay happened!?” Rainbow Dash said chucking a cushion across the room.

“We lost a friend Rainbow,” Twilight said solemnly.

This made everypony’s ears droop.

Twilight noticed Applejack staring out a small side window, “Applejack you’ve been awfully quiet, I know you have something on your mind. Sharing it will help Applejack.” Applejack gave a loud sigh and sat down on a couch with the others.

“Something just doesn’t seem right. I don’t know what it is but I feel something in my gut. I… I just… I don’t know… we weren’t there to help him. I don’t even know…. I can’t believe it, I just can’t….”
Applejack broke down into a soft sob before wiping away the tears with a stubborn hoof, the group of mares comforted her with their own weeps of tears from the loss of their friend they were sure would never see again outside bars.

The door opened and Dr. Mareio came in with Ace squawking madly into his ear (ruining the sad moment). “ACE I DON’T A UNDERTAND YOU! I’MMA DOCTOR NOT A TRANSLATOR!”

Mareio and Ace stopped bickering when they noticed the teary group of Assassins recovering from their sorrow, “What a happened to make you all of a sad?”

The ponies had their throats tightened with emotion but Twilight managed to clear her throat, “Shadow’s been sent to the Canterlot dungeons after killing… Captain Thunderhoof.”

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

Mareio flung himself onto the lounge area and gave everypony a large hug as he bawled out his tears and sobs.

*SQUACK*

Everyone immediately stopped and looked at Ace who was flapping his wings madly and screeching in his eagle speak.

“What’s wrong with him?” Rainbow asked.

“He just wouldn’t stop when I found him flying around just a few minutes ago, IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SAY, SAY IT!” Mareio shouted directly at Ace in the face.

This only gave a few more angry screeches from Ace as Fluttershy tried to get him to calm down to no avail, “I’m sorry, he’s speaking too fast I can’t understand his Eagle sounds to figure out what he’s saying.”

“SHADOW’S GONE AND ALL YOU CAN DO IS SQUACK, HOW DO YOU LIKE IT!? SQUACK!!” Mareio shouted face-first at Ace which is surprising as his normal doctor-like personality consisted of him being neurotic but calm enough to not get angry.

*SCREE*

“SCREE!”

*SQUACK*

“SQUACK!”

Both sides had enough so that’s when Mareio would do the only thing he would have done in that situation. He took out a green mushroom from his coat pocket and offered a small piece to Ace who gladly accepted and calmed down.

“Ah finally, I’m glad that’s done-” Fluttershy gave a sigh of relief.

Suddenly the front door slammed wide open, everyone tensed up and leaped into battle stances at this intruder as Mareio chucked his mushroom as a projectile towards it. The intruder clad in dusty slightly torn orange robes with his head covered in a hood, grabbed it with chestnut coloured hoof midair and chuckled, “I think I already had dinner Mareio but thanks anyways.”

The familiar voice from Gerpony immediately made everypony remember as he stepped inside and into more light revealing his friendly uncle-like look.

Le Duck.

“Wow it’s been a while my little ponies!” he gave everyone a welcoming hug.

“Le Duck, Shadow said he sent a letter to you weeks ago yet you didn’t respond,” Applejack said.

“That was because I was in the Poniadric Sea trying to defuse a Templar nuclear bomb, it was pretty nasty. Almost all of my ponies didn’t make it,” he said with his head slightly bowed in remorse.

“Most of the strategic attacks were too involved and planned out. I believe it was Dave behind those attacks, they were definitely his style. That’s why after blowing that thing up and trying to swim back 20 miles using nothing but debris from our boats I needed to get here as fast as I could.”

“But I see Shadow isn’t here?”

Again everyone’s ears dropped except for Le Duck’s who had a look of confusion on his face.

“Hmmmm…. I would inquire more but the hour is late and I can see you all are upset. Let’s talk in the morning when you’re all feeling up to it.”

“No! We need to say it now, we need to-” Rainbow Dash began to argue against it but a slight pat on her shoulder by Applejack’s hoof made her stop.

“We should all get some sleep. We’ll be able to tell what happened better.”

Rainbow gave a sigh and nodded.

As everyone left (with Dr. Mareio going into his room, Ace being knocked out since that mushroom expired about 10 minutes ago and turned into a powerful sleep agent, and Le Duck resided inside a guest room) he placed a hoof on his chin and pondered the situation that would be later answered in the morning.

“What in Equestria could have happened….”

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

Everypony stood around Shadow’s desk, with Le Duck sitting on the chair hoofs crossed as Ace slept soundly on the edge.

“So now with everyone feeling emotionally better this morning, who can tell me the story of why my nephew isn’t here?”

“Well you see Le Duck….” Applejack started scrapping her hoof along the floor.

“Shadow is sort of...” Rainbow tried to continue.

“Sort of what?” Le Duck asked inquisitively.

“Shadow chased down and killed Captain Thunderhoof of the Royal guard for no reason then knocked out 5 of Princess Luna’s night guard before she used her magic to subdue Shadow where he was teleported into the Canterlot dungeons to be jailed FOREVER!” Fluttershy let out a continuous stream of words that fazed the rest of the ponies.

“FOREVER!” Pinkie added in for emphasis.

“Well that certainly must have been much for him to experience. I never knew the Captain was a Templar.”

“Maybe because he wasn’t?” Twilight implied.

“Something feels missing in this picture…. Tell me, did you noticed anything different about Shadow at all since you last seen him?” Le Duck said to them as he started to rummage through my desk.

“There was that time when Mareio here gave him a mushroom that made him all crazy-like, asides from that he was really riled up to find Dave, it must have been roughly two-thirds of everyday for weeks that he was trying to find something,” Applejack said as Le Duck pulled abnormally large piles of paperwork from my desk and placed onto the surface with a crashing force.

*THUMP*

Everypony had their mouths open and were stunned by how much work Shadow had done, even Le Duck was impressed. In fact, the force of the papers hitting the desk woke up Ace causing him to fall to the ground.

“We Assassins are known for doing paperwork…. I just didn’t expect Shadow to have done this much so soon.”

“EVEN I DON’T DO THAT MUCH WRITING! I NEED TO WRITE MORE!” Twilight said with astonishment before regaining her composure and blushing slightly at her outburst.

Ace quickly recovered himself and noticed that everyone was awake and began again to do what he did the night before: screech as loud as possible in everypony’s ear.

“ACE! CALM DOWN!” Le Duck’s voice echoed around the room making Ace actually go quiet for once.

“Tell me what the fuss is all about, slowly.”

Ace began to speak to Le Duck in his bird language at a slower pace with Le Duck nodding his head, “Alright. Uh huh. Oh! No kidding? That really was the case? My my my, by Celestia. What a predicament we have here.”

“Le Duck tell us what he’s saying, please!”

He stood up from the chair and cleared his throat, “Well first off, Ace says you’re all incompetent imbeciles with no culture of learning a language besides your own.” This made some ponies facehoof while others leered. “Asides from that it seems our avian friend here seen the whole thing that transpired.”

“Really? Why didn’t you a say something sooner?” Dr. Mareio said with annoyance, receiving even more facehoofs and a facewing from Ace himself in response.

“Well apparently Shadow WAS chasing after the Captain, but at that time he believed it to be Dave as he was wearing the same robes that Shadow was.”

“But that’s impossible, I only made one set in all of Equestria, there’s no way anyone other than Shadow could have been wearing it,” Rarity exclaimed.

“It seems Shadow thought this too, I wouldn’t have been surprised that Dave used his magic to make a mirror copy of the outfit you’ve designed Rarity.” This statement made her squint in pain. “Then after killing the captain and discovering his identity, Dave showed up himself to taunt Shadow before leaving when all of you and Princess Luna showed up.”

“Meaning we would believe that Shadow murdered the captain…. Even though he did but it was an accident right?” Fluttershy asked with a timid voice.

“It was. Shadow would have never killed an innocent, it is one of the main rules of our creed,” Le Duck said before stepping towards a window and looking outside to see the party decorations being packed away. “Was there a festival or something last night?”

“It was supposed to be the Lunar Festival, but it got cancelled because…” Rainbow started to say but stopped as they all remembered.

Le Duck’s face was first calm, but then changed to one of pure shock and terror, “Wait, did you say this was the Lunar Festival and that Shadow was sent to Canterlot?”

“Both yes. Why?” Applejack said.

“Oh no. This is worse than I’ve imagined. So much worse than we could have possibly thought. We’ve all fallen for that Accountant’s trap. Damn you Dave!” Le Duck said with rising anger though gritted teeth.

“What is it!? I hate all these questions when I’m not answering them myself!” Twilight vented.

“There’s a party… in 3 days including today. I’ve learned about it through the intel of my associates. It’s happening in Canterlot and it’s likely the reason Dave went through all of this just to get Shadow an express trip to there. Knowing Shadow he wouldn’t be able to refuse this…”

“STOP TALKING TO YOURSELF AND TELL US!” Everyone shouted.

“Balthazar.”

That name sent shivers down their spines.

“He’s hosting that party, a party that’s going to be filled with Templars from all around the world. Dave knows that Shadow could break out of jail, if he peronally made him get sent to Canterlot, he’s planned all of this beforehoof and now Shadow’s in even more danger than ever!”

“We need to stop him before he gets there!” Rainbow Dash ready to fly as fast as she can said getting everyone else pumped up.

“Agreed, there’s not much time left to waste, we must go now!”

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

“And then what happened?” I asked from my bed as they continued to recount the story.

“Well first Twilight needed to send a letter to Princess Celestia explaining all this and maybe get Luna to see reason. Though she left Spike specific instructions to send it on the morning of the third day because that’s when I think you would have decided to break out. Any other day you’d be running from the law and be caught again,” Le Duck described.

“You do know me as well as ever uncle. Most of it was by luck however so there’s no need to treat this as anything unique,” I said with a sour tone in my voice.

“Continuing on, we were going to take the train to Canterlot but apparently the track was out due to a ‘dragon’ that escaped from the same dungeons you were in. Instead we had to hike our way up to Canterlot therefore costing us a day and a half which was enough time to get the train tracks fixed by the way. After speaking with an…. associate in the city who knew where you were heading we quickly ran as fast as we could, luckily we were in time to get you out of there and back to Ponyville but not in time to prevent Dave from stabbing you and anything else that happpened. I noticed the burns Shadow. I’m sorry.”

The silence dragged on across the room; obviously they didn’t realize just how painful it was to be blasted with a Piece of Harmony for a second time. Balthazar is still alive and so is Dave, they have the Apple and once again I’ve failed. They might have their own perspective but I still have mine.

Doing something unexpected I pull myself out from my bed collapsing halfway before standing up on my hoofs once more gripping my bandaged chest.

“Shadow what are you doing!? You need to rest!” Applejack protested trying to pull me back to my bed with her hoof. I fling her hoof off me with a grunt as I weakly made my way towards the exit door.

Everyone gave their own protests and reasons but I’ve ignored them, Le Duck still had his head down in the same position with Ace on his shoulder, Dr. Mareio was also one that didn’t protest either.

I placed my gray hoof on the door only for Fluttershy to swoop in front of me to give me a stern look from her face, “Shadow, you need to rest. Your wounds aren’t healed. You get back right to bed right now or else they could become worse!”

“Stand down Fluttershy, I will not say it again,” I said firmly noticing that the other mares are closing in behind me attempting to talk me out of this.

“No. I will not,” she said assertively.

“Why are you being so darn stubborn and angry Shadow? We’ll get Dave next time, right now you need to rest,” Applejack tried to calm me down but no matter what nothing could have helped other than me getting away from here and on my own.

“DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND!?” I shouted behind myself, startling them with my outburst. Before turning my head back and giving a soft whisper.

“I failed."

“Balthazar is still alive…”

Rainbow was about to say something but I quickly cut her off, “And as long as he is, more innocent lives that don’t deserve to die, WILL!”

I open the door wide open as it wasn’t being barricaded by Fluttershy anymore and slammed it hard behind me leaving an echo in its wake, followed by silence.

“What has gotten into him!? I thought he would have been more thankful knowing we saved his life!” Rainbow Dash broke the silence unable to believe that I had just stomped out of here with a stab wound and an anger to match it.

“Argh…. Poor kid,” Le Duck said shaking his head back and forth. “There is a reason why he is so angry.” “Balthazar.”

“We know. He practically killed everypony that lived in Ponitaly, destroyed the assassins and those sorts of horrid monstrosities,” Rarity said making the expression on Le Duck’s face darken.

“Sadly it gets more personal than that,” Le Duck breathed a long sigh along with Dr. Mareio.
“It would be better for him to tell you his personal story but I’ll just give a brief summery. Not only was Balthazar responsible for the Siege of Ponitaly and the downfall of the assassins considering his forces actively hunted us down, he took away something from Shadow that would never be reclaimed.”

“His family, his life. Balthazar personally murdered all of them.”

“Oh dear Celestia,” Twilight gasped and put a hoof to her mouth in shock.

“There was also… somepony that was… ‘important’ to him, but I think it’s better for him to talk about Ponitaly with you all when he’s ready. Moving on to the Assassin Brotherhood, or Bortherhoof whatever you’d like to call it these days, was the first to get sieged. We put up a strong resistance but one of our own betrayed us and killed our leader, The Observer who held the Apple that actually Shadow himself found. Balthazar stole it and once he had his prize he ordered his elites to execute all of us.”

“Shadow and I fled inside the headquarters but that’s when Dave appeared with a squad of elites and stopped us, I had to stay behind to fight him and let Shadow get away in time. That’s how I got his blind eye,” he pointed to the large scratch over his left pale white eye.

“Obviously he thought I was dead too meaning Balthazar had technically taken everything that meant something in Shadow’s life and he had to endure that pain for many, many long years.”

“Somehow he managed to get aboard Balthazar’s flagship zeppelin to get back the Apple and probably kill him too. That’s when Balthazar took away another thing from him. His flight. I’m surprised he can even glide now to be truthful. Yet he would always find a way.... always.”

“Then he met all of you and he considers you all to be his family, the three of us Ponitalians along with Shadow and Mareio’s brother Ponigi are the remnants are what’s left of our past lives.”

“So when Shadow got stabbed by Dave-” Applejack began to say.

“As he said, he failed to kill Balthazar once again. No doubt this must be hurting him deep down in ways we cannot imagine.”

“We… we never knew,” Twilight stuttered, everypony had felt the mood just go completely downhill.

“I guess the only thing we can do is give Shadow time to think, at least now we all can understand a bit of what the poor lad is going through. Might be a good time later to send somepony to check up on him as he’s still recovering.”

“But for now… maybe do a bit of thinking for our own then make breakfast afterwards?”

Everyone began to reflect, they each pondered just how much Shadow Mark the Assassin has been through, what he has lost, and what he is trying to fight for. With one last sigh they got up and resumed their duties.

They may never understand this pain I endure, but they will know that it’s there and that it makes me stronger each time I remember.