Chapter 1 - A Leap of Faith

The shadowy city of Canterlot was quieter than usual. The royal guards performed practiced drills in the gardens of Canterlot Castle wearing dark armor. Unicorns and the occasional earth pony archer took practice shots at dummies made to look like griffons with snarling bucket heads and feather filled sacks for torsos. Earth pony soldiers performed exercise routines, practiced hoof to hoof combat and used swords in sparring matches.

Other ponies, civilians who had yet to be drafted, were making the most of their free time, shopping, going out to clubs and bars or just spending time with their loved ones. In an alleyway running parallel to main street, two ponies went unnoticed. The first was a stallion wearing a deep blue cloak that covered his body. The second was a younger mare who wore a simpler, grey cloak.

"Tick-tock, my dear. The night moves forward. Tonight you practice what we showed you in the catacomb." Said the stallion as he lined himself up, facing the back wall of a restaurant. The lowest window was a respectable distance above the stallion's head.

The mare's saviors had been drilling it into her head for the past week the ways in which an insurmountable surface could be overcome. How she could use momentum and her own body to scale surfaces only a spider had any hopes of climbing.

Tick Tock charged forward. Just before he ran head first into the wall, his hind-legs scrunched up and with a swift buck to the ground, he leapt up the wall. He latched onto the window sill and looked down to watch his apprentice. Her first jump was clumsy but she recovered quickly and made for a second which was met with success. She scrabbled up the old brick walls, her hooves finding the small gaps she needed to keep pulling herself up. She clambered up to the window beside her master as he demonstrated the long jump.

Tick Tock swung his whole body in an arc as he performed the long jump and allowed a small smile to creep on his face as his apprentice mimicked him almost simultaneously. The trainee had begun to move more confidently, this was much easier than climbing cliff faces, admittedly. And safer too, the fall would still hurt but it would be shorter and they had a unicorn standing by to assist medically.

Once they reached the rooftop, Tick Tock picked the next exercise for his apprentice. "Tick-tock, my dear. We're on time it seems. I worried for a tick, when you fumbled your first climb." His apprentice scuffed the rooftop nervously. "Heh heh. Nopony is perfect, but I'm afraid you'll have to be for this next task..., or I'll make you do it again."

Tick Tock galloped towards the edge of the rooftop and leapt, easily passing over the ignorant masses below. He stood and waited, his apprentice readied herself and began running forward, her steps muffled by the velvet shoes she was given to avoid unwanted attention. She jumped and managed to make it past the gap, but only by a few inches. She curled up into a ball, rolling forward and, after doing a full loop, quickly stretched her legs out landing upon her hooves.

"Good. You're doing well for your first run in a city. Now that you know the basics of climbing and jumping, do keep up. We're on a schedule. Tick-tock, time to work, my dear."

The two assassins galloped together, leaping from roof to roof, scaling walls and buildings, making they're way toward Canterlot Castle. They sped past chimney sweeps unnoticed as they reached the residential districts and used clothing lines strung up between buildings to cross gaps that were too big to leap. Tick Tock was subtlety teaching his apprentice to notice when a gap was too big to make a jump and how to spot an escape route if pursued. They ran along the top of thin boards and shaky scaffolding, the master pointing out how to notice unsafe running surfaces, like damp roof tiles or guard ponies monitoring the roofs near the old palace training grounds.

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Tick Tock and his apprentice arrived atop the tall palace spires. Below them, the shapes of training soldiers could be seen. The pegasi were gathered at the other side of the palace, investigating a fiery crescent moon burned into the hedge maze. From their view point it looked marvelous, the glowing embers seemed to highlight hidden details like small fiery stars burning within the Moon.

Tick Tock looked at his apprentice with a grim expression on his face as he led her to the edge of one of the spires. The sloping surface made it difficult for her to maintain a firm grip, so she settled for a loose one instead. Tick Tock held her from the edge with one hoof and used the other to maintain his own balance.

"Tick-tock, my dear apprentice. It's decision time." He looked up admiring the moon before he continued. "Trust is the most important thing you need to have in your fellow assassins." He looked her in the eyes, his cool greys boring into her own deep indigo. "Do you trust me?" She hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Really now?" A small grin spread on his face. "Jump off this roof and I promise you'll be safe."

She looked down, the ground seeming to rush up at her and then retract, and her sense of balance abandoned her. She looked back up to Tick Tock, fear in her eyes as he gave her a deadpan expression. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, realizing she couldn't back out now.

And she took a leap of faith.

The air whipped at the mare's face as she fell and opened her eyes. She saw the ground fast approaching, her breath came out in quick gasps as she began to hyperventilate, the ground rushing to meet her. She was two stories from her death when she felt herself slow down and stop, bouncing back up. The mare looked back up and saw a cable wrapped around one of her legs. A bungee wire like the one they used for practice held her as Tick Tock descended on a zip line.

He leapt forward, grabbing his apprentice, and freed her from the rope before he used his zip line to lower them both to the ground. A scarlet glow enveloped the zip line and bungee cord as the unicorn she'd met before teleported their equipment to their feet folded neatly.

"Tick-tock, time to move my dear. You did well on your first free run too, I might add." Tick Tock gave her an encouraging smile. She shied away but nodded.

"You've earned your name, initiate. You can inform us when you have chosen." The unicorn said, his voice was stern and professional.

"Oh, lighten up, Crow. My young apprentice is progressing rather nicely, I'd say. She even passed her leap of faith on her first try as well. I reckon she'll be as quick as me with some practice." The unicorn shrugged at this and teleported them all to their rendezvous point and together they made their way to their local safe house.

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Editor's Notes: Fun, fun, fun. Now, I need sleep. It's been two days since I last had a nap. Hope you all enjoyed it.