My booted hooves treaded lightly on the grass, a small sound of scraping escaped but asides from that I was silent and invisible. My body presses up against a wooden wall and it quivers with anticipation knowing that my first target was in sight. A simple guard from Balthazar’s army, one of the many that must be taken down for today. His outfit was the same as the other low-ranking guards: a blood-red cap that fit between his ears but stuck out forward to give that presence of authority, a uniform that matched the hat and had vertical lines of black colour which also extended down to his ragged cloth boots, and to complete the piece, the triangle shaped logo made of white trapezoids signified that the pony wearing this outfit was associated with Purifier Industries or better yet for the ponies who wouldn’t know, the Templars.

It has been a while since I did this, even though I was stabbed as early as two days ago, it honestly felt like weeks since I’ve done something productive. It’s strange isn’t it? But now back to the guard.

This guard did what most other meager guards would do, stand in front of a wall while harassing any civilians passing through and complain about how underpaid his job was but never realized that all his profits would go into alcoholic consumption, and would just up forgetting it until another 5 hours have passed.
The more you know!

Maybe when he wakes up covered in other unconscious guards in a random warehouse or forest, he would resign and look for something better.

I scanned the area back and forth, this path of Ponyville was used but it was not one of the main ones to have that much traffic. My scan completed, and there were no ponies except for him.

It was time to strike.

Like a shadow, my hoofsteps trotted past my position behind the house wall and slowly step by step made their way over to the guard, who was now whistling a tune and oblivious to what was going to happen. I was close to him, close enough I could smell the stench of alcohol commonly associated with underpaid grunts emanating from him.

In a flash my hoofs shoot out and grab his muzzle with a firm hold. The guard panics but can’t see whose trying to suffocate him. While he’s still struggling I step slightly with him back into an alley. My hoofs grasp his nose and mouth harder and eventually he passes out. I’m able to leave his body within the alley without the threat of anypony stumbling across an unconscious guard.

If one did, they wouldn’t care. It’s a guard! They get drunk all the time and pass out! It's a common wonder of the world!

I look up towards the sky and look up to see Ace gliding overhead in circles to signal Mareio where to pick up the guard.

“Well, that was easy….”

….WAIT A MOMENT! That took me roughly 20 seconds to do and I spent about ten minutes examining what a guard looks like and their personality traits! Urgh, I really need to get my internal timing schedule reshuffled.

It should be simple! You see a pony, you take him out, BAM! You’re done! Argh, Shadow how can you be so stupid?

I made my way out of the alley and proceeded to walk down the streets of Ponyville looking for more guards to take down. Now not only do I have a blazing fireball pain inside my chest but I’m now questioning my methods of effectively taking down a pony that was half-drunk and facing a wall.

“I wonder how the others are doing…..”

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

Fluttershy was determined to prove herself that she was in fact an Assassin. Still, it didn’t feel right for her to kill somepony, even if it was one that needed too. She couldn’t even figure out how she was going to make the guards get knocked out.

She didn’t want to hurt them and make them angry towards her.

If only there was some way she could just do it! Fluttershy only got guards using her arrows from a long distance; she would never have been able to have heard their cries of pain or wails as they fell to the ground dead. If she did, she may have reconsidered joining the Brotherhoof. Fluttershy and killing? How could anypony put those two ideas together? A monster that’s who. But Fluttershy made an oath and while she may not be a traditional assassin (it seems nopony is these days) deep down she knew that if she didn’t do something then the Templars would make living just horrible.

This thought always sent a shiver down her spine.

“Hey? Um… excuse me?”

A voice from behind her interrupted her conflicting internal struggle. Her head turned back and she had a red ting to her embarrassment.

“Oh I’m so sorry-”

Fluttershy stopped and looked closer at who was behind her. It was one of the guards from earlier today, the same type she was trying to ‘hunt down’ for now. He was impatiently waiting for her to move out of the way as he had a large cart of supplies and other assortments within.
He didn’t want to pull this cart but either it was this or getting flayed by the guard captain. He wiped a bead of sweat from his brow from his eyebrows after pulling the cart for so long, only to have been stopped by this yellow pink-haired road obstacle.

She wasn’t getting out of the way, instead she stared at him with a blank expression. He really wanted to go, this was getting awkward.

Before he could finish rolling his eyes and just shove the road hazard out of his way by two inches she speaks, “Um… those look very heavy.”

“Well they are. So please can you move out of the wa-”

“I think you’re going to lose something…” Fluttershy said, cringing her eyes as a metallic stepladder fell onto the head of the guard who gave a grunt of pain. “Oh let me get that for you. It’s the least I could do for being in the way.” Fluttershy picked up the step ladder and was able to fly with it back to the top of the cart pile.

“Thanks?” the guard said awkwardly.

“I think you’re wagon wheel might also be bro-”

The front wheel snapped in two from the weight of the objects and the whole pile landed upon the guard. He was completely covered in stuff and so he rubbed his head in pain from the collapse.

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! Don’t worry, we’ll put it all in a nice pile back into the cart and we will get your wheel fixed!” Fluttershy said with some worry as she began to fill the cart repeatedly with the objects that fell.

“Look, thanks kid but could you just beat it? I’m trying to get this stuff to the capta- YOWCH!” Fluttershy had stepped on his hoof sticking out from the debris. She was too preoccupied with having to put everything back the way it was to have even realized what she had done.

Each and every single time she went back and forth for an object, her hoof stepped twice right onto the guard’s. The pain was unbearable for him, he thought to himself, “Why did I have to put so much supplies into that cart? Why WHY!?”

The pain continued until at last, Fluttershy finished the pileup with the metallic stepladder.

“There all done.”

The guard got up wearily, he wasn’t able to stand on his front hoof from the amount of times Fluttershy had stepped over it, and it was glowing incredibly bright red. The guard was relieved that all his pained troubles were over, now he wanted to instill some hard-core angry underpaid guard vengeance upon this bright yellow fiend. The moment he was about to leap onto her the second front wheel of the cart broke and all the stuff that was piled on came crashing down onto him, again.

Fluttershy was horrified at what happened, obviously the guard must’ve been in pain from all of that, but then again, this is what she was meant to do right now. Honestly, it didn’t feel as bad as she thought. Non-lethal takedowns had given her the view that she really can be an Assassin and not have to live day and night knowing that she murdered somepony in cold blood.

Her smile quickly turned to one of surprise as a hoof came out from underneath the pile of stuff followed by the head of the guard. He raised one hoof and then another to try to crawl towards this enemy. His hoof almost made contact with Fluttershy’s but was stopped short when the metallic stepladder fell down onto his head. His tongue hung out and his movements stopped.

“Are you unconscious yet?” Fluttershy asked the guard while gently prodding his out-cold body and receiving no answer in return. Fluttershy had successfully contributed to the mission and had increased her knocked out body count from one to two! (The first one was when she commandeered that taxi from that pony one time when she was learning to be more assertive, he’s fine by the way.)

“Yay.”

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

Now Pinkie Pie wanted to be ‘creative’ during these sort of things. Ever since she came up with the idea of becoming like a ghost and wanting to scare all these guards, she really wanted to try something that would REALLY give a jump, to even the most mentally prepared guard. So what could she do? Well she could do anything she set her mind to, but why not make it party-like for the guards she’s about to surprise unexpectedly?

So that’s what she’s doing, lying in wait inside the cover of the rough yellowish hay leaves. Her eyes darted out from the haystack as she noticed a guard casually patrolling the area. Her mind began to work in ways not even she could comprehend. But how to get him over here? He wouldn’t be able to get his surprise if he didn’t know where to look for it.

“Owie!” Pinkie whispered quietly from the sudden pain coming from her backside, she reached around and pulled out a small grey stone. He thought for a moment, taking in the texture of this stone and after a few seconds a smile spread across her face.

“Perfect!”

She hurls the stone out in front of her hiding place and it lands in front of the guard. The guard recoiled from the sound and quickly turned to where the pony who thrown it might be.

“Who threw that? Show yourself!”

*achoo*

The sneeze came from the hay and rustled the top layers, the guard put on a sinister smile and confidently walked over to the haystack, whoever this was wasn’t going to get away from him.

Pinkie who was lying in wait, had giggled at the very thought of how surprised the guard would be when he finds her. A chuckle escaped from the guard above Pinkie as he placed both his hoofs onto the pile of hay.

“Come out, come out wherever you are….”

Pinkie Pie immediately shot out from the stack, carrying with her a simple cake. Before the guard could even get rid of the shock on his face, the cake was shoved into his face and his whole head was covered in icing and chocolate.

“SURPRISE!”

She immediately grabbed the guard and they both fell into the cover of the hay.

“Hey, what is this!? IS THIS CAKE!?”

“Yep but don’t worry this is not the end of the surprise!” Pinkie ecstatically said as she pulled out a small bright blue oval object and pulled the pin on it with a smile.

“IS THAT A GRENADE!”

“It sure is! I made it myself!”

What was a simple haystack in a desolate part of Ponyville became a spectacular lightshow of rainbow colours and flashing lights. Screams came from the confinements of the hay but soon died out minutes before the rays of light ended. Pinkie happily came out from the hay and hmm’d a tune to herself.

“Works every time!”

Her gaze then laid upon another guard who was also casually doing his patrols.

“Ooh a two for one special!” Pinkie exclaimed to herself. “HEY GUARD PONY! OVER HERE!” her loud shouting got the guard’s attention. “Do you want to see something cool in this haystack? There will be cake!”

“Hmmm…. enlighten me then,” the guard said as he made his way over to this overly eager pink earth pony. He thought to himself, “Who knows, perhaps somepony actually remembered my birthday today!”

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

Twilight didn’t just want to take down a guard. She wanted to see if she could take a whole bunch down effectively and as efficient as possible. That would get work done much faster and help move the plan along. She had an idea but in order for her to achieve it she needed a distraction, and not one of those ‘oh, how about a smoke bomb or something?’ this needed to be big, but big enough to not attract any attention. That is where Rainbow Dash comes in.

The two stood in the streets of Ponyville tailing a group of guards in formation, there was easily about half that of the guards that initially showed up. This was taking a long time and Rainbow was flapping her wings impatiently.

“When are we going to do this?”

Twilight raised a hoof, “Just be patient Rainbow, timing is crucial to getting this right.”

“But all you want me to do is distract them and lead them into a back alley or something where you can do that sleep spell you mentioned. It IS going to work right?” Rainbow asked with a questionable glare.

“Of course it will! I’ve been practicing it for some time and if I just expand my range it should get an entire group of ponies to fall asleep,” Twilight defended her role and skills.

“Fine… but when are we starting?”

“Now Rainbow Dash! Fly, FLY!” Twilight began to flail her hoofs out forcing Rainbow to shake her head in annoyance and make her fly towards the guards.

“HEY! You bullies!” Rainbow’s voice was overheard by the group who turned their necks back to see only a rainbow blur pass over their heads. Their neck angled back from the confusion and are shocked to see the blue Pegasus that was imprisoned early today was free.

“You’re all a bunch of mean smelly bullies who can’t get a date because of how much you smell like rancid turnips and cheap beer! BOO! You guys suck and you should feel bad about it!” After her rude remark she gave them all a wink and flew like a lightning bolt away from them.

“After her!”

The guards gave chase and Twilight was able to follow using her teleportation. Rainbow lead them to an alley where they were all boxed in perfectly. The guards were shocked yet again once a purple mist appeared in front of the cerulean vigilante and now had a purple unicorn beside her.
It didn’t take long for the guards to realize this was a trap, so from their straps they each pulled out a sword, ready to charge and cut down these ponies to size.

“I suggest you all take a nice long break from such a wonderful long day of work,” the purple unicorn said sarcastically said as her unicorn horn glowed a fierce purple. A large hemisphere of purple overlapped the guards caught within and a few bits of magic dust fell from the roof of the sphere making them all drowsy and quickly asleep.

Twilight was about to give a high-hoof to Rainbow but before they could they noticed that one figure still stood within the sleep sphere.

“I HAD INSOMNIA FOR 4 DAYS! I HAVE AN IMMUNITY TO UNICORN SLEEP MAGIC! I AM AWAKE AND POWERFUL!”

Rainbow flew up next to him and said with a smirk, “Then why not get some Pegasus sleep magic?” And then she bucked him right in the jaw and he was out cold.

Rainbow came towards Twilight and they each exchanged a welcoming high-hoof of accomplishment. Now all they had to wait for was for Mareio to collect these bodies. Twilight mentally recorded that his simple act of combing unicorn magic with Pegasus speed would truly lead to new developments of ideas all across Equestria. A smile came to her face when she knew what new letter she could send to the Princess later in the evening.

Rainbow mentally recorded the most important thing she learned from this teamwork experience with Twilight. Just like a rainbow, Rainbow Dash’s awesomeness can spread anywhere and everywhere, and it was awesome.

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

“I wonder how I can get this guard out of the streets…”, Rarity thought to herself as she observed the position of a guard. This guard, unlike the others, was actually trying to figure out what he had been assigned to do. Without any guidance from his commander on who was the target they were meant to be searching, he had to take initiative. That is why much to the dismay that Rarity was experiencing trying to figure out a solution to this problem, the guard was standing right in the middle of a busy intersection asking if anypony had seen anything suspicious recently.

Despite all the head shakes he received the guard was a stubborn stallion and he continued to stand there and question any who pass. Rarity slapped a hoof against her forehead and uttered an annoyed grunt. “I’ve had it! Waiting this long for him to do something else other than just stand there, urgh!” Rarity was really starting to get impatient, the moment she thinks she has a chance the guard turns his neck around and Rarity quickly ducks behind a newspaper from her hiding spot, a bench.

She figured if she was going to wait this long then she might as well enjoy what was written on this paper. She didn’t want to waste any more time but it was in her nature to act with swift beautiful precision on not just targets but on most aspects of her everyday life. Quality work shouldn’t be rushed.

Her hoofs flipped through the pages wondering what she could do. A distraction was what that guard needed and not just a regular distraction, but something that is guaranteed to work.

Rarity gasped and dropped the newspaper on the ground in a heartbeat; her eyes were wide with inspiration sparkling brightly from her irises.

“IDEA!”

She ran towards the guard. The paper was left lying open in the street on the section where the previous alabaster unicorn had stopped reading was entitled, “Actors”.

Rarity came in range to the guard and wrapped her hoofs around his leg. The guard was shocked and became more shocked to see that the unicorn holding him had the most saddest and grim pair of eyes he had ever seen. Before he could ask her to let go from wrinkling his uniform the unicorn burst into tears.

“Please! You need to help me! Please sir, she’s going to die! I didn’t mean to leave her but he was going to attack me too, help me please!” Rarity pleaded to the guard as she burrowed her face into his hoof and sobbed.

“What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

“It’s… it’s my sister! We split up when we were out for shopping and then- and then SHE WAS GONE!” Rarity sobbed even harder, the guard’s uniform sleeve was now soaked through in Rarity’s tears. “He… there was a pony. I never seen him before but… but he… he...”

“Wait a moment miss! Did you say you’ve never seen this pony before?” the guard asked with question, when Rarity nodded a smirk grew on his face. “Alright then, take me to where your sister was. I shouldn’t need to warn you that this pony is the one we are all searching for, but we will go save your sister and make him pay.”

“Oh thank you, THANK YOU! I’m sure such a big brave stallion of the guard will have no trouble rescuing my sister.”

“I do expect there will be some kind of… ‘reward’ later?” The guard said with a coy smirk.

“Eugh,” Rarity broke out of character for a second but quickly went back to being a mare in distress. “Sure, but we must hurry or else who know what has happened to my sister!” She grabbed the guard’s hoof and quickly led him deep into a dark alleyway.

“Alright, where is he?” the guard said with a heroic stance as he pulled out his sword, he had been waiting for this all day. Rarity was behind him and without any further time wasted she slapped her hoof hard against the back of the stallion’s head, and knocked him out.

Satisfied with her work she wiped a fake tear from her eye from her earlier play and with grace she stepped out from the alley and into the light of Celestia’s sun.

“Too easy, a little bit of feminine charm was all I needed.” Rarity looked down at the hoof she slapped the guard with and shuddered before bursting into quick anger, “DO THESE GUARDS EVEN WASH THEIR CLOTHES!?”

Rarity then proceeded to gallop as fast as she could to the nearest washroom, repeatedly saying ‘ew’ over and over in disgust.

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

Limping around the town wasn’t what I imagined having to do for most of the day. With my hood drawn up past my ears and mane I was invisible in the streets of Ponyville, except for my noticeable limp and the fact I was clutching my chest in pain for most of the time. Work was slow but I was determined to leave a dent as I noticed my new guard talking to the mayor.
The same pony that I might have a problem with for maintaining my identity a secret. But still, for old time’s sake I just had to do what I was thinking in my head and with a mischievous smirk I went slowly over to the two who were deep in conversation.

“- I don’t care who you are, you guards don’t look anything sent over from the Princesses. And even if you were I would still want you to finish this and leave, I don’t want to be rude but all of you are upsetting the townsfolk,” the light tan mayoral pony said to the guard who merely shook his head in response.

“As much as we like to leave from this dirt field you call a town, we can’t until we find who we’re looking for.”

“And who might that be?” The mayor said with a stern gaze. Sweat glazed down from the guard’s forehead as he tried to hide his embarrassment.

“I… uh…. I don’t know.”

“You… don’t… KNOW!?”

The guard tried to calm the mayor from her small fit of rage. “Look, all we know was that this pony is an escaped fugitive from Canterlot and we need him found NOW.”

“A fugitive from Canterlot?” The mayor placed a hoof on her jaw and began to think. A starling realization came to her weary eyes, “No I don’t…. No No… I don’t know anypony. No there’s no possible way.”

Before the guard could even give a reply my hoof reached out from behind him and I covered his face with a headlock. As they were talking none of them realized I had enough time to sneak up behind them. The mayor gasped but I turned to her attention and gave her a sly wink.

“Mi dispacie Mayor. The garbage will be dealed with shortly. Please, do enjoy your day.”

And without another moment I brought the guard, now unconscious, into an alleyway and left the mayor with an uneasy mix of confusion.

“No… no that wasn’t him that can’t have been him… Don’t worry he’s still in Canterlot! Everything’s fine, he wasn’t the fugitive. I… I need to lie down.” With now a green ting to her face the mayor nervously trotted slowly back to her office building and reassuring herself over and over that what she just seen didn’t happen and that Shadow Mark was definitely not back in town.

Back in the alleyway, I had dumped the body successfully and with a smile I admired my handiwork.

She wouldn’t even want to know how I escaped…. Perfect!

Suddenly a thought came to my head, if these guards were patrolling everywhere then there should at least be one on a rooftop somewhere. In an effort to find out I placed both of my hoofs up against a window frame of a building then lifted up one backhoof and then the other….. and then I fell from the pain in my chest.
I gripped my chest tightly and grunted in anger; it was the first time in a long time that I truly felt grounded.

I’m not going to let this stop me. In Assassin logic, there is always another way… ALWAYS!

I turned my head a short distance from where I tried to climb up and noticed that there was a perfectly elegant wooden ladder two hoofs away. I shrugged and then decided to grab hold of it and climb up, surprisingly the climb was stable and very quick as I made it to the roof of the building in seconds without any pain in my part.

Looking back at the ladder behind me I chuckled.

Never in all my life did I ever think I would have used one of these.

My ears perked up and immediately my body’s centre shifted down. It seemed to be my lucky day. First a ladder and now an easy to pick off roof guard. Without any hesitation I charged up behind him, he heard my footsteps against the roof tiling and turned to face the trespasser.

The moment he did I already leaped onto him and we were sent flying over the edge.

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

Now Applejack had the same problem Rarity did. Except in this case she’s been stalking this guard for a long time. The trouble was that he decided to have walked where the pony street traffic population is staggeringly high. With a small tip forward in her brown stetson hat every so often, she was able to be unrecognizable within the large crowds.

After some time of tailing from behind, the guard went to a bench for a break and sat down. This made Applejack quickly duck into an alleyway to formulate a plan to get him over here.
She threw a few rocks in his direction to try to coax him out silently but the guard was completely aloof and didn’t notice any of those sharp rocks slam near his skull.

“Darn it-"

Before Applejack could even finish her thought a loud wham echoed behind her, she spun around in a defensive stance to prepare her from the possibility that she’d fallen into a trap of some kind. She was more surprised to see Shadow Mark suddenly there in the alley with her lying on top of an unconscious guard.

“I still consider that an air assassination,” the grey robed Pegasus chuckled from under his breath as he rose his body from the guard’s.

Applejack was plentifully confused, “Uh…. Shadow? Where did…?” The stallion pointed his hoof upwards towards the rooftop. “Right.”

“Well Applejack, now with that awkward greeting gone do you care for any assistance?”

“No. I don’t need any help from nopony,” she stubbornly interjected, “I’ve got this guard wrapped around my hoof.”

“The same one over there who’s taking a nap?” Shadow pointed to the now asleep guard, his body was sprawled out halfway on the bench and the street.

Applejack slammed her hoof against her head, “I really don’t need this now.”

“It’s alright Applejack, we’ll get him together. Did you… throw things at him yet?”

“Rocks, tons and tons of rocks.”

Shadow put a hoof to his chin, “Hmm… did you try name-calling?”

“What!?” Applejack thought with confusion. “How does making childish names get him to come on over here?” she poked a hoof at Shadow’s chest, expecting an answer from him.

“Observe,” Shadow smiled to her, this always sent a rush of heat through to her cheeks and she didn’t know why. Something about his personality was just… interesting. His smile was reassuring somehow, even in the bleakest situations.

Shadow moved to the corner of the alley wall and took in a large breath to shout out his insults. But instead he fell into a coughing fit and clutched at his chest.

“Shadow!” Applejack ran over to him to try to help but he beckoned her away until his coughs stopped. “Are you alright?”

Shadow vomited on the ground and then wiped his mouth clean with his robe sleeve.

“Never better,” he lied.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “He’s always so brash. Got the willpower of Big Mac but he doesn’t look out for himself. He’s such a stubborn pony to deal with.”

First Shadow Mark did a few bird call whistles to wake up the guard from his slumber and then he went with his first insult.

“Your father was an ass!”

Applejack couldn’t believe that he was actually trying to get this guard over with name calling, she couldn’t believe what the guard had said in reply to it.

“That’s true, my mother married a donkey, a donkey’s an ass, so my father was an ass! Seems logical!” The guard said as he continued to sit on the bench not giving a damn.

“Wow, this guy wants to play hardball, alright then,” Shadow quickly said under his breath before going in for an even worse insult.

“YOU’RE THE WORST PESSO DI MERDA EVER!”

“I don’t know what that is… but thank you mysterious voice wherever you may be!”

Shadow facehoofed and grunted in annoyance. Applejack shoved him away from the alley entrance and looked directly into his eyes, “If you want something done then I just got to do it myself!” She stormed off leaving Shadow in bewilderment as he quietly watched her advance towards the guard.

“Aye, miss. How can Mr. Soldier Guard Rank 23rd help you toda-”

Applejack turned and bucked him in the face with enough force to shatter brick, needless to say he was knocked out and with a sigh of relief Applejack simply just hoisted his body onto her back and without a care trotted back to where Shadow was waiting.

“Impressive.”

“Now that is how stealth Applejack works, Shadow,” she beamed as she dropped the body into the alley. Applejack had to admit, she didn’t like it when Shadow had to steal, cheat, or lie for the guild but being an Assassin had its share of fun from time to time. He was a good pony in heart.

The both of them laughed and laughed at this while Shadow leaned on her for support as they both exited the alleyway.

“Thank you Applejack.”

“Y’er welcome!”

Being an Assassin also never left a boring day.

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

“Alright students!” Ms. Cheerilee said to her class as she stood at the front desk to get their attention. “So for today’s lesson we will learn about Quantum…. Mech…” Her eyes trailed off from the smiling students towards the window.

“Um Miss Cheerilee?” a student raised her hoof but received no answer.

Cheerilee just couldn’t look away from what was happening outside. Two guards were standing a few metres from the window when all of a sudden an orange robed/hooded pony showed up and started to beat the living daylights out of them.

He wrestled with the two as they both fought back from their attacker. He dodged a hoof swipe from one guard and kicked the other in the head. Just who was this pony? He looked similar somehow but she just couldn’t remember. Her eyes cringed when the orange robed pony extended his chestnut coloured hoof to a guard’s neck and threw him down on the ground. The other jumped up on his back to bring him down.

“Um… Miss Cheerilee? Is there something happening outsi-”

“NO THERE IS NOTHING HAPPENING OUTSIDE! NOW ALL OF YOU WRITE 3000 WORDS ON WHY YOU SHOULD BE WRITING 3000 WORDS DOWN!”

“Awww do we have to…”

“YES, NOW WRITE!” Cheerilee was completely flabbergasted, in all her life she had never seen this much brutality to ponies this close to her school before. She shuddered at what might happen if the fight was in her classroom and not outside. Right now all she could do was pretend nothing was wrong and keep the students calm.

Outside, Le Duck broke a guard’s leg with a hoof stomping flat on it then punched him repeatedly in the face. The other guard jumped once again onto his backside and he countered with a roll to get the guard off from his body. He slammed his hoof on the guard’s exposed underbelly causing a tear-jerking gasp to escape through the guard’s moans of pain before his eyes rolled back and he fell unconscious.
The guard that was still fighting had a fearful wobble in his hooves as Le Duck approached him with a sinister grin while rubbing his hoofs together.

Cheerilee had watched a show just now, the magenta colour in her face was pale and she had to sit in her chair trying not to pass out. The pony outside brought the two unconscious (and badly bruised) guards onto his back. Before he left however he approached the window to the classroom and gave a friendly wave before leaving.

Cheerilee’s eyes were bloodshot and she felt that she was either going to die right now or explode.

“Ms. Cheerilee! I am finished! You know how a picture is worth a thousand words? That’s why I drawn three!” The small colt ran up to her and showed her his paper with glee. The paper drawing were stick figures of the ponies fighting outside.

It seemed Cheerilee failed at her job to keep them distracted long enough and her head slammed down on the table, scaring half the students.

“Recess time….” she muttered under her breath. The children were excited and they stormed out the door in a blitz.

The teacher still held her head down and mentally impacted her mind to all the ‘what’ she was currently feeling right now.

“Shadow was right…. There really are dangerous ponies out there…” she said under her breath as her body relaxed and she gave a long-winded sigh.

“Those guards were trouble to begin with; at least everything is back to normal again.”

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

The Captain of the platoon that are searching this town top and bottom came out to a large water fountain. His gaze went back and forth, trying to find any guards from the unit he was commanding. None of them were there. Something was amiss, something sinister. The captain pulled out his sword in paranoia and shouted into the distance with anger.

“Where are all of you!? What happened to my soldiers!?”

The world circulated all around him, his gaze passed the same building the fourth time and everywhere he looked there was a void of life through the streets. He was really scared now, “How much time has it been?” He looked up to see Celestia’s sun resting and Luna’s just rising. “Too long, too long for a report to come in.”

The Assassin. It had to be him, there was nothing else the captain could think about that could have done all of this. Or maybe he was imagining that he was alone, perhaps there was a guard out there or maybe they all went back to the bar to settle down for a few drinks.
He stopped looking at the buildings and turned around; he hastened his body as fear petrified through his veins.

A grey robed pony wearing a hood appeared seemingly out of thin air behind him.

“You…. wh-where’s the rest of my platoon!?” the Captain feverishly pointed his steel sharp sword forward at the robed figure. His hoof shook with nervousness.

“They won’t save you,” my figure ominously said as I just stood there.

“You’ll pay for this!” the captain said as he bared his sword within an iron-hoofhold and charged towards the Assassin.

I angled my body to the side then raised a hoof. A short moment later a magical spark crackled across the sky and collided with the captain. He shouted out in pain as electricity coursed through his body.

Without a moment to spare I ran up to him as fast as I could. I grabbed his hoof in which held his sword and arched it around, with a push the sword pierced through his torso splattering crimson upon the ground. His body fell onto his back where I quickly unsheathe my hidden blade and stab him in the neck for the killing blow.

The feeling was almost surreal, time moved unhurriedly as I removed the steel blade from his wound.Twilight and the rest of my party showed up soon after he’s lying in the dirt, choking on his blood and from the lack of air as his life starts to ebb away in mere seconds.

“How did you know where I was?” I interrogated him.

“Orders were to lock down this village… trying to find… find an Assassin they said.” He coughed in pain. “We… we didn’t even have a name to go by… how were we supposed to do our job?”

“And who gave you those orders?” I asked with suspicion.

"Ponies from higher up. I couldn't reject those orders. I know how... secretive... we all were but without anything to go by... I thought it was a cruel joke-- that we were expendable. But in the end you found us instead, they were right. But... it was still... still cruel...”

His eyes gazed heavily into mine as he uttered one last regard, “Did the… the rest of my squad suffer… my same fate?” I shook my head and he smiled with a tearful sense of compassion in his eye. “Thank you… Assassin…”

“I am sorry for misjudging you in the beginning. You meant the best for your soldiers and were only following orders from leaders who don't care about anypony minus their own ambitions. I am sorry. Requiestcat in Pace.”

The last light of life left his eyes as his body went still. My hoof gently went over his eyelids and closed them before standing up to face my team. Taking a life was never easy, and it always felt I had a weight placed on me whenever I did. Fortunately, looking at these ponies lifted that weight and filled me with pride instead.

“We’re done. Good work everypony, you’ve all shown how capable you all are when presented an obstacle.” Their faces beamed and I couldn’t help but give a smile. “I’m proud of you all. Now- let’s get some sleep. We’ve all got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

They cheered, yet I still had this lingering sensation at the back of my mind.

Gilt.

I assumed that captain to be the worst. Look who’s more arrogant and foolish now Shadow? You’ve done good things for ponies sure, but… was this my mindset all this time? I feel less of an assassin than I do a monster. Argh, get these thoughts out of your head Shadow, they’re poison to you! I really need some time to just sleep.

I looked towards the dead and bleeding body of the captain (‘trash’ now to the Templars) being lifted by Mareio into a cart. My thoughts turned to grim hatred.

Dave will pay. Along with Balthazar and the rest.