"Must hurry!"
Octavia hooked into a wall and climbed up to the roofs. Her heart felt like it was about to explode as her veins bulged with fear. Her eyes stayed mostly focused on the burning fires across the city. Of course they chose to attack us! Why were we so stupid to not see this? Vinyl? Twilight? Rarity? Whiplash? Were they are dead now? The worries pushed her own as she traversed over the whitewashed buildings in the gloomy moonlight.
In her mind, she could hear the flames inside the Den and hear her Brothers and Sisters burning alive, if they weren't dead already. Stupid! Stupid! Tears began to fly from her eyes as she ran on. Her haste made her scrape her hands on the uneven surfaces, gathering dirt and pebbles in the fresh cuts. The muscles in her legs began to ache without the rest the severely needed.
The real frightened gasps from people grew louder as she sprinted towards the attacked Den. The city was so vast, she wondered if she could ever reach her destination in time. No, I must get there! I must reach Vinyl! Dead or alive, I must know! She swung on a beam to the other side of a street to press on with tremendous speed.
She leaped to a building, latching her hook deep in a gutter. Instantly, the gutter gave way, making her fall down on a wooden crate before tumbling to the cobblestone. She slowly got up, her head whirling in pain. I shall not stop! As the stars faded in her vision, she spotted a man casually riding a fine horse. She knew right away what she should do. She whipped out a pistol and ran over to him.
"Good sir, I need your horse," she asked more politely than the gun did.
"Take her! Spare me, woman!" he begged and jumped off the steed.
"Thank you! I shall put her to good use. I hope to return her as soon as possible," Octavia told him before getting on the horse and snapping the reigns.
The man yelled some obscenities at her for being a horse thief, but she blocked him out quickly. "Eyah!" she yelled at the horse to get the mare to gallop faster than through the streets. She hated to admit it, but she was traveling much faster than she could ever run along the rooftops.
The wandering people that were still about jumped out of Octavia's way to save their own lives. The hooves clicked on the cobblestone, the beast huffed with the pace, and the Assassin could watch the flames soar higher in the south. She cursed loudly. "By the time I make it there, they would be all gone. Dead, escaped, forgotten!"
"The city is under attack!"
"This is the end!"
"Where are we safe?"
The people's quick words as she passed displayed only fear and anxiety. This could not have been an attack solely on the Brotherhood, Octavia reasoned, it was too open and too extreme. This had to be a display of strength to strike fear and terror into the Two Sisters. Octavia's horse went the exact opposite direction of all the Canterlotians around here. They fled with their children for their safety while she rushed onward towards the Chaos.
"Out of the way!" she barked. "Out of the way!"
She turned into one of the main streets that led directly to the Den. Having no buildings in her way now, she saw the true destruction the Templar wrought. The fires were now spreading to all the nearby structures, burning everything that was not made of pure stone. The top tower that loomed over the Den had fallen onto one of the roads, blocking it off. The entire front of the Den was gone, rid of in some giant explosion. The smoke that rose from it was higher than any minaret of the Capital.
"Vinyl, oh please be alright," Octavia pleaded.
She urged the horse onward. There were several signs that the attackers were still present. Horses stood around the destruction in complete calmness and there were two wagons sitting nearby. Octavia took note of these when she slowed her horse down right before the front door, or at least, where the door used to be located.
"I must go now, return to your master," Octavia told the horse.
She expected the horse to flee, but the mare stood there much like the Templar horses. With no time to spare, Octavia ran into the burning Den. The intense flames were all around her, burning the corpses of fallen Assassins. One Assassin, she saw, had half a wagon wheel jabbed inside his gut. It only displayed the power and suddenness of such an attack. She walked over fallen beams and pushed aside rubble to head deeper inside. When she reached the lounge room, she turned towards the barracks.
"Vinyl? Vinyl!" she called into the inferno.
"Octavia?" a weak voice answered from behind.
The Assassin turned to see Den Master Whiplash underneath a flaming beam and his leg crushed underneath a fallen stone. His flesh was mostly gone already. Black and pits remained where there was once healthy skin. He looked up at her with pathetic eyes. Octavia reacted by instantly trying to free him from his entrapment, but he waved his only free hand at her.
"Forget me, I'm dead already. Octavia, you must destroy the Map. It will not burn with the wood. Lass, you cannot let the Artifact be in the hands of the Order. Destroy it!"
"Den Master, I can't simply-"
"Follow my orders, damn it!"
Those were his final words. His hand fell back to the burning floor and his face fell into a mess of embers. Octavia watched him die in horror. Her heart never felt so much pain. Destroy it. She wiped some sweat away and turned to the hallway that led to the Bearers Quarters. It appeared to be a tight approach. With the fires closing in, she put her hood on and tucked her loose way in the back.
Octavia had to slide between burning wood and Assassin bodies to slowly make her way down the short hallway. Embers and sparks flew and touched painfully on her arms and face. She had to push one body out of her way. The Assassin's body possessed a small mace on the waist. It was just the tool she needed to destroy the Map. She first tested if the leather handle was hot before grabbing it. She beat through some of the rubble before she finally reached the room.
There it was in its shiny blue aura. Octavia looked around the quarters to see if the Bearers were there. There was no sign of Rarity or Twilight or even Spike. It seemed that they had escaped the attack or had been captured. Octavia took no hesitation in striking the Map squarely with the mace, making it visibly shake at the force. She slammed the mace again and again into it, every time ruining it so that the world became more and more distorted. She smashed it enough to break the center, revealing a small blue crystal. Octavia pulled the crystal out. It hummed with a presence she never sensed before. This was the true artifact, not the table itself. This was the item the Templar sought after and willing spilled blood for: a little crystal. Octavia put it on the ground to smash, but stopped. It was small enough for her to carry in her sash. Perhaps the Brotherhood could make a new Map? With this she picked it up and put it in her sash before leaving the room. I hope I made the right choice.
"Vinyl!" she called again as she made her way back to the center steps. Once again, there was no answer from her friend. "I can't stay in here, I'll die just like Whiplash." She forced her way out of the rubble and ran up the stairs to the surface. Being out of the fires, she patted down the small flames on her robes. It was only now she felt the burns she acquired on her arms.
"We've got a live one!" a voice called out.
Octavia looked to see a squad of Templar soldiers before her. They had been inspecting her stolen horse before they noticed her. Octavia glared at them with pure hatred. These were the faces of the attackers. These were the cowards that ambushed the Brotherhood with bomb carriages. These were the men that brutally killed Whiplash.
"She must've not been here when the explosion went off. She looks unscathed!" a Templar said.
"Doesn't matter," the most armored one spoke. "She'll be dead like the rest of them."
They drew their swords and spread themselves out to block off her escape routes. There was only four of them, but it was apparent they were trained soldiers. Octavia could easily tell they did not share Royal Guard training as they already muddled up the techniques of Celestia's elite soldiers. She drew her sword out as well and held it up defensively.
"Ya sure ya want this?" one soldier mocked. "We Templars are pretty civilized. If you surrender, we are honorable enough to not kill you."
"Even if I wasn't Assassin I would kill you right here," Octavia returned. "I will not stand by why you terrorize this city in the name of your bloody Order."
The head Templar chuckled. "You brought this on yourself. The Assassins are but wild dogs. It astonishes me that someone like you would be found in their robes. I know a woman from royalty when I see one."
"And you shall see that I fight like one as well."
"Prove it!"
One Templar took a swing at her. She stepped away and then retaliated with a slice at his sword arm. He grunted in pain as she cut him deeply. He took a step out to let his fellow Templars take his place on the offensive. Octavia stepped back to keep distance from the soldiers. They took quick, protected jabs at her, but nothing came close to harming her. One Templar stepped further than the rest. He swiped at her with his blade. She ducked under his sword and jabbed him in the armpit quickly with her hook blade. She followed up by stabbing her sword into a unarmored part of his lower back. Ripping her weapons back out of him, he rolled over onto the ground.
She reached into her sash and pulled out a couple of smoke pellets. Throwing them into the ground, a puff of thick gray smoke covered the area. The Templars coughed on the smoke and swung their swords wildly about. Octavia crouched down and silently walked around them. They continued to confusedly search for her, gagging and cursing at each other.
Octavia sneaked behind one and dug her hook into his neck before throwing him forcefully to the ground. Another Templar met his end when she stabbed him up into his chest from underneath his armor. The last Templar looked around and saw his companions dead. With a frightful yell, he turned and ran to save his life. Octavia made no attempt to chase after him, but remained in the fading smoke.
Suddenly, an armored hand flew out of the blinding smoke and took a great hold of the young Assassin's face. With immense strength, the hand tossed her aside and out of the smoke. Octavia hit the ground and tumbled over before taking to her feet. She growled at the attacker who slowly came out of the smoke. It was the Templar Sunset Shimmer, fully decked out in armor, including her well-engraved red and golden helmet. The curls of her yellow and red hair came out at the sides of the steel face mask. A true sight to behold.
"You look familiar," the Templar spoke.
"I stole your bomb carriage," Octavia answered smugly.
"Ah yes, the untrained Assassin. Surely Twilight gave you an undeserved promotion for having your face beaten in and surviving only by luck. She does that sort of thing."
"In fact, she did," Octavia rose to a standing position. "She also told me about you, Sunset Shimmer."
"Hopefully she didn't specify everything," the Templar chuckled.
Sunset Shimmer drew her sword, but made no move to attack. The light from the fires allowed Octavia to see the eyes behind the helmet. Turquoise and full of anger. Her other hand was located at her waist where a pistol was holstered. She was ready for anything Octavia could throw at her. So the Assassin strafed around the Templar Mistress, who simply watched her intently.
"Your Brotherhood tricks won't work on me like it did those idiots," Sunset said. "I know everything there is about Assassin techniques."
"There is only one way to test that," Octavia tried to say confidently.
"Run away and I'll shoot you in the back; fight me and I'll skin you alive."
Octavia paused. Her eyes looked at the Templar's pistol. It was single-shot and it could misfire at any given time. There was no such thing as a reliable firearm, at least, not in pistol form. The sword was much reliable. There was no chance of it becoming useless or it being used only one time. The Templar gave two choices and to Octavia, she knew which was the better. She took a step back and another one after that. The Templar readied to pull the pistol out. Octavia then bolted away and awaited the sound of the pistol being drawn. The scrape of wood with the metal was heard and she rolled to side to dodge the incoming bullet. The lead ball whizzed by her ankles while she dodged it. Sunset cursed and began run after the Assassin with her sword.
Octavia once again threw smoke pellets down, filling the area with the dense screen. However, unlike last time, Sunset simply ran right threw it, ignoring all its blinding effects, and swung ferociously. Their swords met with a collision too strong for Octavia, knocking her own sword right from her grasp. Sunset swiftly took hold of Octavia, threw her down onto the cobblestone, and went for the kill. The Assassin extended her hook and caught the sword in time before twisting it out of the Templar's hands. Sunset was thrown off balance by the counter and stumbled a few feet away.
"A hidden hook?" she asked Octavia in shock. "Well, I've never seen one of those before. Interesting and ingenious I say. Hmph, that may be a worthy prize for killing you."
"Tough words for someone unarmed," Octavia noted.
"Ha!" Sunset raised her fists. "You wouldn't be the first one I've killed with my hands."
The Templar took a wild left hook at Octavia, who skillfully ducked it but was unable to counter. Sunset was quick and agile despite the heavy armor she wore. Octavia kept her hook out and readied to attack. She tried to bait the Templar into reacting, but any moves on the Assassin's part seemed to warrant no reaction.
"Wah!"
Octavia swiped with the hook. Sunset was more than ready for it as she not only deflected the attack, but grabbed Octavia's arm and flipped her over onto the ground. The shock of the attack left Octavia gasping for air, but she had no time to spare as Sunset grabbed her robes and roughly lifted her up. The Assassin squirmed to get free, but the Templar woman held onto her and with effort, lifting up over her head. Octavia knew what was next and braced for it. Sunset then slammed Octavia's body straight into the cobblestone, making her bounce slightly. An intense ringing filled the Assassin's ears and her vision blurred tremendously.
"So weak and pathetic," Sunset panted. "You Assassins hide and fight from the shadows, keeping your nasty faces covered by darkness. The Order has to set the world on fire just to see you in the light. Only through the flames can we even perceive you. And when we finally see it, it's nothing to us but disappointment." The Templar took Octavia's robes and held up just for a moment before punching her back down. "You are a dying breed, Assassin. This Den is just one of many to follow. Your Bearers of Harmony are displaced and cowardly hiding behind every pawn in their system. All that you've done for Equestria is turn it into a cesspool of misery and separation. You promoted Freedom and Harmony and keep the Two Sisters in high regard, the hypocrisy! You try to keep every voice safe and yet slice any throat that questions your self-righteous authority. You truly push me to believe that Chaos is better and maybe even more practical than Harmony. Only the Brotherhood could ever do such a thing."
Octavia coughed up blood that was filling her mouth. She desperately reached for a throwing knife in her sash and threw it into the armor of the Templar Mistress. Sunset paused and looked down at the knife that was now embedded in her steel. With a chuckle, she pulled it out to show that not even the tip of the knife had pierced skin. Octavia spat out more blood and cursed under her breath.
"Go ahead! Stand up," Sunset taunted. "Be the blind sheep you are! Get up and fight for a cause that doesn't need you. Fight for a life that you only think is benefiting you. You're a low level Assassin that thinks she needs to save the world from foes like me. If you had any real idea of the Templar's plans, you would be with us. Hmph, but of course you won't believe me. You love wallowing in ignorance too much for that."
"Why would I fight for someone who blows up buildings like that?" Octavia pointed at the Den. "You sick bloody bastards. By Tartarus, you're the very reason I became an Assassin. I didn't need Twilight or any Bearer to tell me about you. I knew you long before."
"Keep telling yourself that."
"For years to come," Octavia gave a bloodied grin.
Sunset shook her head. "Ha! You're not living past the next few moments."
The Templar raised her fists once more and charged Octavia. The Assassin dodged the right arm and took hold of it. Sunset reacted by swinging her other arm, but it was no use. Octavia tried to pin the arm on the Templar's back, but not only did the armor not allow such contortion, Sunset's strength made it terribly difficult. Have I ever faced a woman so strong? Sunset let out a roar and simply forced herself out of the grip. Before Octavia knew it, she had taken an armored face right to the cheek, sending her once again onto her hands and knees in a daze.
Must not give up. She forced herself to recover. She rolled away from a sudden attack by Sunset that would have been a knock out blown or worse. She crawled away from her foe. She was still dazed enough that she could not make out the carvings in Sunset's armor anymore and all the flames appeared like one reddish-yellow haze. Think. Think. The Templar beat her in skill and brutality. Think damn it! Without a real plan, she extended her hook and dove for Sunset's ankles. The sharp hook slid into the Templar's right tendon, making her yell in pain. Octavia then forcibly pulled forward, making the Templar fall backwards. The armor hitting the cobblestone was hurtful to the ears.
"I'll give you that one..." Sunset said with gritted teeth as she saw blood come from her boot.
Octavia stood up, but her head ached and she could no longer focus. As her mind started to recover, she saw Sunset scooting over to her sword. Octavia looked for her own sword, which was luckily not far from her. She awkwardly ran over to it and picked it up. There was no thought of continuing the fight with the Templar Mistress. She turned and ran clumsily right into a horse.
"It's you?" she asked.
The horse neighed in response. It was the one she had stolen, still there this whole time. With a smile she jumped onto the back of the mare and snapped the reigns. The horse took a moment to get started, but once she did, Octavia was quick to leave the area.
"Yeah you flee like any Assassin would!" Sunset barked after her. "Go tell any sods about this! You hear me? The whole Brotherhood must know what happened this night. You're no longer invincible in your little city. Your reign is done!"
Octavia ignored her and kept riding away. Where was she going? She did not know in the slightest. The Thieves Guild? Another Den? The Grand Royal Palace? She could only rub her head in pain and wonder if she'll ever be the alright again.
"The Brotherhood gone so soon?" she worried. "But I've just got here. It was going so well. Oh, please let Vinyl be alright. Wait. Sunset said the Bearers were displaced. Does that mean they are still alive and not captured? Oh, that would be good news." She reached into her sash and took out the blue crystal from the Map. "Maybe this will tell me."
She kept riding, pushing her steed to the limits. Canterlot was no longer an Assassin city but a city under the power of the Order. She gulped to think of how the city would change and how hostile it would be to her. The Royal Guards, the soldiers, the underground, it could all turn against her for wearing a hood and hidden blades.
The horse began to tire after a long ride into the dark corners of the Capital. Octavia had no choice but to rest the horse and take shelter under a balcony. The night never felt colder in the summer times. Sitting down with her arms wrapped around her bent legs, she hid her face from the world. Not a cloud was in the night sky, but it still rained in her eyes. She could not relax, she could not sleep. All her emotions tore at each other, leaving her in utter misery.
The sun could not come any faster.
~