Everything is quiet. Nothing is stirring in Ponyville at this late hour, probably because of the curfew the guards had enforced at some point before my arrival. The only sounds I can hear are the soft chirp of the crickets, and the conversation between the three guards standing outside a house across the street.

"How long do you reckon he'll be in there?"

"I dunno, but I've heard rumours that this one's a tough nut to crack,” one of them replies. Peaking over, I can see him shivering slightly in the chilly night air. “He'll probably be a while. We’d best settle in, I think."

He's referring to Thunderlane. I know him as just another buck on my weather team, and a fellow cadet at the Wonderbolts Academy, but here it seems like he's another of Applejack's rebels. Or assassins. Or... well, whatever they truly are. Either way, he’s a rebel that was busy being interrogated, if their conversation was anything to go by. I don't want to think about what kind of methods of "interrogation" they're using down there, given how the rest of the guards have been behaving. I have a sneaking suspicion that, whatever it is, it isn't pleasant.

I need to get inside, but I can't go anywhere without the guards out front noticing me. Even if I try to fly over and get in from the roof, they'd see me take off and alert their buddies. I need to drop down quickly and take them out quietly. My eyes drift down towards the bracer on my forehoof. I give it a flick, and the hidden blade pops out. Despite what I had said to Applejack earlier, I don't think I'm ready to take the life of another pony so easily.

I sigh. I've wasted too much time already. Like it or not, I have to move. Silently, I hop off the rooftop and onto the street below. As I predicted, they take note of me almost instantly. I hear one of them murmur "What's with the hood?" before he steps forward and calls out to me.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

I give him no time to react as I close the distance between us. I rear up, planting one forehoof on his shoulder while driving the other into his stomach. Winded, he can do nothing as I throw him onto the ground and stomp on his face, knocking him out cold.

The other two are rushing towards me now; one on the left, and the other on the right, both with spears raised. Without stopping to think, I grab one's spear mid-thrust and push it upwards into his face. He's disorientated, and helpless as I manipulate the spear in his hooves, impaling the other guard charging towards us. Pulling the spear out of his chest, I yank it from the stunned guard's hooves whilst simultaneously kicking him to the ground, before swinging it across both of their heads, knocking them over. Dead or unconscious, it doesn't matter right now, but that doesn't stop me from feeling momentarily shocked.

Both of them are bleeding kind of heavily now, with small pools of blood forming underneath each of their bodies. I have to take a second to catch my breath and avoid vomiting. Now I realise this whole assassin stuff is going to be harder than I thought.

Trying my best to focus, I turn my head to the door of Thunderlane's house. Perking my ears up, I can hear the faint sound of voices coming from inside, and they didn't sound particularly friendly. I pray to Celestia that, even in this wacky alternate universe, Thunderlane's little brother still lives with his parents, and not with Thunderlane himself. I don't think I could handle it if these guards got to Rumble too. A part of me wanted to believe that they wouldn't be capable of that, but, at this point, it was probably wishful thinking.

I creep up to the door and give it a gentle push. Thankfully, it isn't locked. I cringe as it creaks, but, thankfully, it looks like nopony hears it. Breathing a sigh of relief, I sneak inside.

Peering into the main room, I see two soldiers standing over Thunderlane, who was bound to a chair. As they talk, I move slowly towards them.

"For the last time, I don't know anything about the rebels!" Thunderlane protests. He's lying, of course, and the soldiers 'interrogating' him seem to think so too.

"It seems that this course of action is getting us nowhere," one of them says, turning to the other. "Perhaps you can persuade our dear friend to tell us what we want to know, Cutter."

The other stallion, a dirty, evil-looking unicorn, smirks uncomfortably. "I reckon I’m gonna have to," he says in a deep, rough accent, floating a knife towards Thunderlane with his magic. At this point, I'm only a few hoof steps behind them both. Thunderlane has noticed me, but is smart enough not to react to me else I be detected.

"Maybe I take his wings," the soldier continues, floating the knife closer. "Put an end to his flyin'. Maybe I take his ears, put an end to his-" He's cut short as I jam the hidden blade into the back of his neck, not wanting to hear another word. The other guard tries to react, but I've already spun around and stabbed him with the other blade. They both fall to the ground, unmoving. In one swift movement, I've taken two lives. I feel sick, even when I think about how vile those two could have been.

“Rainbow Dash!” Thunderlane calls out to me, sighing in relief. “Thank goodness you’ve come. I don’t want to think about what that bastard would have done to me.”

I barely hear him. I stare down at the bodies of the two stallions beneath me. The one called Cutter looks up at me and coughs painfully, before the life drains from him completely. I look away, heaving slightly. By Celestia, what have I done?

“Dash!” Thunderlane’s voice, more desperate this time, snaps me out of it. I shake my head quickly and hurry over to him, using the blood-stained hidden blade to cut him free of his binds.

"Thanks," he tells me, getting to his hooves slowly. I notice a large gash on his cheek bleeding, and look around for something to help, like a piece of cloth. Unfortunately, there isn't one at hoof. Truth be told, I'm not really looking properly anyway. I'm still trying to get the shock out of my system.

"We have to get out of here," he mutters, peeking through a window to look outside. I stare at him blankly, still not feeling well. He looks back at me. "Hello? You still with me?" he calls out.

I shake my head rapidly, bringing me back to my senses. "Uh, yeah, right. We gotta go."

Looking at me grimly, he says. “That was your first time, wasn’t it?” I look away, not giving him an answer. He sighs and looks out of the window again. "Yeah, thought so. Trust me, it doesn’t get any easier. Just gotta suck it up and get over it.”

‘Suck it up and deal with it’ wasn’t exactly great advice, but I don’t feel like making any snide remarks right now. Instead, I just stay silent.

“We should be alright if we make it back to Sweet Apple Acres,” he finally speaks up, looking away from the window and back to me. “Is AJ okay?"

I smile slightly and nod. If there was anything I could count on, it was the fact that Applejack knew how to keep herself, her family and her friends safe, even in the toughest of times.

He breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank Celestia. I thought that if they got to me, they would have gotten to her and you, too." He trots over to the front door. "Guess you proved me wrong, cap."

I smirk at the nickname. Somehow, it's reassuring to know that, even here, I'm captain of the weather team. Or, at least, I was. I walk up behind him, peeking over as he opens the door to check outside. Thankfully, there are no guards around. Doing our best not to break the silence in the street beyond, we step outside and take to the sky.

"Where's Rumble?" I ask as we fly silently over the seemingly-deserted town, keeping a keen eye out for any patrolling guards. I notice a few, but they are on the ground, and far enough away that they weren’t likely to notice two pegasi flying silently above them.

"At my parents, where else?" he answers, and I inwardly breath a sigh of relief I didn’t realise I was holding. "Why do you ask? You weren't worried, were you?"

"I dunno," I reply, evading the question. "Don't think he should have seen his big brother all beat up like this, that's all." Truth is, I think the poor kid’s terrified. No one should have to be living in fear all day, every day, and especially not a foal. What did they ever do to deserve this? What did anypony?

Thunderlane thinks about that for a second, then nods. "They did do a number on me. I guess you're right." Now that I've overcome my earlier shock, I notice that, besides the gash on his cheek, his whole body is covered with small cuts, and one of his eyes is swollen. I feel slightly less bad about doing what I did to Cutter now.

"I'm sure AJ will let you lay low for a while," I tell him as we fly closer towards Sweet Apple Acres. Like the rest of town, there isn’t a pony in sight. "It probably won't be safe at your place anymore."

He frowns and curses under his breath. "Damn, you're right." We start to bank sharply to the right, approaching our destination. "I hope we can sort all this crap out, but for now, I think I need to rest."

"I hear you there." In the midst of everything that's happened, I've hardly noticed how tired I am until now that it's all caught up with me. If I could, I would just crash onto AJ's sofa the moment we touched down, but I had a feeling I wasn't going to be that lucky.

The moment my hooves touch the ground I hurry over to the door and knock twice, wary of anypony who might have followed us. I glance over my shoulder almost every moment, paranoid that somepony was going to leap out from somewhere to ambush us both. After an agonising wait, Applejack opens the door and lets us inside.

"Oh my," she says as she lays eyes on Thunderlane. "You look like you've been dragged through Tartarus and back." She helps me prop him up, since he's having trouble walking, and we move inside quickly. “What happened?” she asks as we lay him down gently on a sofa in her front room.

“What the hay do you think happened?” Thunderlane snaps, before coughing slightly. “Bastards ambushed me. In my own home, no less!”

“You didn’t say anything, did ya?” Applejack’s tone becomes more severe as she moves towards him.

“No, of course I didn’t.” He looks over at me. “Thankfully, RD showed up when she did.” He tries to sit up, but groans in pain and lies back down.

“Darn, you’re hurt real bad,” Applejack says to him softly. “Dash, I think I have some bandages somewhere in the kitchen. Could ya get ‘em for me? We need to patch up some of his wounds.”

I nod, pulling back the hood on my robe now that I no longer have any need for it. “I got it, AJ.” I look over towards Thunderlane, in his bloodied, broken state, and give him a smile. “Don’t worry pal, we’ll get you fixed up.”

“Heh. Thanks, cap,” I hear him say weakly as I trot into the kitchen, throwing back my mane now that it’s no longer confined by the hood. If I remember properly from all the times I crash landed on Applejack’s farm, she keeps her medicine and bandages in a cupboard above the stove. The one with the annoying, squeaky door. Sure enough, when I look in there, I see what I’m searching for. Satisfied, I start to turn around and return to the two of them when a familiar young voice pipes up from across the room.

“Rainbow Dash? I didn’t know ya were stayin’ the night.”

I turn to face the source of the voice, and, sure enough, Apple Bloom is sitting at the table, glass of milk in hoof. I silently curse myself for not paying attention, like always. “Oh, hey, Apple Bloom,” I greet her awkwardly. “What are you doing up so late?”

“I couldn’t sleep, and I was thirsty,” she explains, taking a gulp of her milk. “Anyway, what are you doin’ here, Dash?” She pauses, and gives me a weird look. “And what in tarnation are y’all wearin’?”

Oh boy, was this awkward. “Oh, this?” I chuckle nervously, looking down at my outfit, which, come to think of it, made me look pretty ridiculous right now. “I’m just... uh, testing out a new project of Rarity’s! She wanted me to test run some of her new outfits for a while.”

I cringe as she raises an eyebrow, but sigh inwardly with relief when she smiles again. “Oh, I see. That’s mighty kind of you to do, RD, seein’ as we both know you’re not the kinda pony into all that frou-frou stuff.”

“Well, what else are friends for, huh?” I tuck the bandages, which the filly thankfully hasn’t noticed, under my wings and trot back towards the front room. “You better get on up to bed, kid,” I tell her. “Your sister won’t be too happy if she finds out you’ve been up this late.”

Apple Bloom grimaces. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Well, g’night, Dash!”

“Heh, goodnight,” I call back as she trots out of the kitchen and upstairs. Well, that went a lot better than expected. I half expected the filly to ask a ton of awkward questions that I didn’t have decent answers to. Questions like “why do you have blood on you, Rainbow Dash?”

Wow, did it take me that long to notice? I pause, and look down at the front of my robes. Sure enough, they’re spattered with dried blood, as are the bracers on my hooves. I shudder, and try to focus on the task at hand. Getting these bandages back to Thunderlane. C’mon, pull yourself together, Dash!

I trot back into the front room, where Applejack is still tending to Thunderlane. He’s conscious, but barely, by the look of it. I walk over to him and sit down, giving the bandages to AJ in the process. She wastes no time in getting straight to work, quickly but effectively wrapping up some of his more serious wounds.

“Were ya talkin’ to somepony in there, RD?” she asks, still focused on her work. “I heard voices.”

“Yeah, your little sister.”

She smirks and rolls her eyes. “Yeah, I coulda guessed. Apple Bloom’s a curious little filly, but, then again, I guess we both were once too.”

“Does she know anything about what we’re doing right now?” I ask her. “This whole rebel, or assassin, or whatever business?”

“Nah,” she replies, tying off the end of one bandage and moving on to the next. “Though I think she knows something’s up. She’s not stupid.”

“Are you gonna tell her the whole story someday?” I wonder.

She ponders this for a second. “I dunno. Do you think she’d understand it all?”

“You said it yourself, AJ: she’s not stupid.”

She shrugs, tipping back the trademark hat on her head. “You got a point, I suppose. Still, I don’t know. All she knows right now is that her big brother was killed for being ‘a danger to all of Equestria.’” She finishes wrapping up the last of Thunderlane’s cuts and wounds, and turns back to me, a frown on her face. “This tyranny has been going on for far too long, Dash,” she says grimly. “It’s time that we stepped up, do something proper about it.”

“Well, I guess I’m here for a reason,” I tell her, though not feeling exactly enthusiastic. “What would you have me do?”

She thinks for a second, no doubt going over some carefully laid plans in her head. I look over towards Thunderlane. He’s dozed off, no doubt as tired as I am, and now he’s snoring like a little colt. I can’t help but smirk a bit.

“Two things.” Applejack suddenly speaks up, bringing me back to attention. “We need to cut off their supply lines. Namely, the trains from Canterlot. There are garrisons of royal guards stationed in almost every town from here to Appleloosa,” she explains. “We destroy the rail lines, and they lose their main source of supplies, and lose easy access in and out of the capital.”

“Sounds tricky,” I think aloud. There was no way I was going to be able to do all that by myself.

“It is tricky, but I know somepony like you could just about handle it,” she says confidently. “I still have some things I need to set up before we can get down to doing that, though, and there’s something a little more urgent that requires our attention.”

My ears perk up. “Oh? What’s that?”

Applejack pulls out a map from a nearby table drawer and sets in down, planting a hoof on the east coast of Equestria. “In two day’s time,” she explains, “a diplomat from the Griffon Kingdom is arriving in Horseshoe Bay. He’ll stay there for one night, before catching a train to Canterlot to discuss sending griffon soldiers to help Queen Twilight’s troops take over the dragon lands in the south.”

“Wait a minute, she’s trying to invade the home of the dragons?” I can’t even begin to think about how she could have thought that was a good idea.

“Yes. Doing a half-decent job at it too, last I heard. Most of the soldiers down there are elite troops.” She looks up at me. “That’s not the real problem though. There’s no doubt that Twilight will use some of the griffon soldiers to beef up security around towns like Ponyville. Naturally, that can’t happen. Which brings me back to this diplomat.” She points a hoof at me. “I need you to make sure that he never gets on that train.”

“You want me to kill him?”

She sighs and looks away. “We are assassins, remember?” She looks up at me again, a softer look in her eyes this time. “Look, I know it ain’t nice or easy, but it’s a reality here. Best get used to it.”

“Yeah, okay,” I say to her, looking away. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience, having to kill somepony. I certainly didn’t want to do it again.

There’s a brief silence for a few minutes, before Applejack speaks up again. “It’s been a long night, I know. Your train to Horseshoe Bay leaves tomorrow morning, so I recommend that you get some shut-eye. I’m gonna go hit the hay myself.” She yawns and gets up onto her hooves. “I can set up the guest room, if you like.”

I shake my head, yawning as well. “Nah, I’ll take the couch,” I tell her, moving over to wear she was sitting and lying down. “Guess I’ll keep an eye on Thunderlane here, just in case.”

AJ smiles and puts a hoof on my shoulder. “If that’s what you want.” Looking me in the eye, she says, “We’ll get through this, and find a way to get you home. I promise.”

I smile as well, watching her as she leaves me and trots upstairs. “Thanks, AJ,” I murmur quietly as she goes, before laying my head back and finally falling into the embrace of sleep.