Rainbow could see general Starlight Glimmer in the next room, waiting to give her orders for tonight. Rainbow hoped tonight would be easy, maybe just hitting shipments.
The smile on the unicorn's face made her doubt it unfortunately because Starlight only wore a smile while talking to Rainbow when she had a big target she wanted the pegasus to get rid of.
Rainbow entered the room. The room held one table in the middle that had papers and maps all over it. On The back wall was Luna’s cutie mark with the words Lunar Kingdom under it. The right and left wall were made of some black stone with various papers hanging from them. Behind the table was Starlight Glimmer, a unicorn that Rainbow hated almost as much as Luna herself. The main reason being that she used the pegasus like a tool that could be easily replaced. Which she supposed she was. Having Twilight as a friend had, even after only three brief encounters, opened her eyes quite a bit.
“Nightshadow Rainbow Dash, Your assignment for tonight is to assassinate commander Clear Sky. We finally know his location. That being in Cold Stone Fortress. Which is shown on this map” Starlight telekinetically hoofed over a map with a red circle around the Fortress in question.
There was also a drawing of the stallion in the top right. He was a pegasus that had a white coat with a blue mane cut long. His cutie mark was that of a sun bursting through clouds. Starlight continued “You’re going to cause as much chaos as possible. So kill everypony you can. You leave at 10:30. Dismissed.” Starlight Pointed a hoof out the door Rainbow had entered when she finished talking.
Rainbow left the room.
Rainbow entered her room. Her room was small, it had just enough room for her bed ,a bathroom, weapons rack and armor stand. The roof of the room had Luna’s cutie mark on it and the walls were black stone and so was the floor.
As soon as she closed the door Rainbow punched the wall leaving an indent. She was to attack Cold Stone Fortress, the most guarded fort during the winter. And kill some stallion who she has never heard of before. Then kill as many ponies as possible. This was a suicide mission! But maybe that was the point, Luna had said she was going to replace her soon anyway.
Rainbow walked to her armor and gave it a once over. Her armor was colored a dark black except for the hooves which were a dark red. The armor covered most of Dash’s body except her head. She had a helmet but she couldn’t hide things in her mane like Twi’s book. The armor also didn’t cover her wings so it didn’t slow her down. It also came with built in weapons like two hoof blades on the forelegs and a mounted crossbow on her right side with ten bolts. It held Twilight’s teleport staff in the armor’s built in saddle bag. The armor over all was designed to make her look like a monster as that was her job, to be Luna’s monster.
The pegasus put the armor on then walked to the weapons rack. Looking at the selection she noticed something that made her smile slightly. Her wing daggers had been restocked.
A wing dagger was a weapon that could be stored and hidden in a pegasus’s wing, then thrown by flicking their wing in the right way.
They were by far Rainbow’s favorite weapon. The ease-of-use and the fact you could hide them in your wing made it so she didn’t have to carry anything. Were the main reasons as to why the pegasus favored them.
She always had one on her just in case. Having one on her gave her a sense of comfort. Normally she only had two to four at any time. But when they got restocked, which was rare, she ended up with ten. Ten! Few things made her happy , good food, Twilight and having ten wing blades. Rainbow stopped at the thought of Twilight, why did the alicorn make her happy? The rainbow mare shrugged, maybe it’s because Twilight was her first friend.
Anyway normally she’d return the wing dagger’s she had previously so they could be fixed. But things weren’t normal, so now she had 12 in total. Rainbow hid three in each wing then put the rest in her armor’s built it saddle bag.
Rainbow looked at the clock on the right wall. It was 10:20, she had ten minutes of free time and had nothing to do. Rainbow chose to think back to the ‘Observatory’ and what she had learned today. It still surprised her that Luna nor Celesta controlled the sun and moon. She had no clue how it was possible or how it worked but she trusted Twilight.
Then meeting Pinkie and that dragon named Clockwork. Rainbow had always been told that dragons were creatures that walked on four legs, were huge and were dumb animals. That they were unholy monsters that needed to be killed on sight. The fact that one had talked to her only made her believe Twilight’s claim more.
Rainbow looked at the time again 10:26. She still had 4 minutes. She decided that she might as well tell Twilight what she had assigned to do tonight.
She took out the message book and grabbed the quill and inkwell hidden in her bed and slowly wrote, “I hit cold ston for tonight” and closed the book sending the message. A second later Twilight wrote back “ok.” She hid the quill and inkwell back in her bed. Then put the message book back in her mane and waited.
A minute later her door was opened by some stallion she didn’t know. “You’re cleared to go.
“Understood” Was her reply.
By the time she reached the fort it was 11:00 going by the position of the moon. This normally meant most ponies in the fort would be asleep by now. However due to it being winter and Cold Stone being so close to the front lines meant it was fully awake. Ready if the ‘Goddess’ Luna or General Starlight tries a night attack.
She’d usually burst down the front doors of the Fort and make her her way to the target killing those who dared resist or get in her way. She couldn’t do that this time though there were just too many ponies in the Fortress, they’d tear her apart easily.
Rainbow couldn’t believe how four months ago she would have just mindlessly flown into the fort and start attacking, like she been told to, and most likely get killed. This time she had to do this differently. She was going have take out as many ponies as possible (besides it would make rebelling easier if Celestia’s army was weakened) and take out the target quietly and quickly. She would not be giving nightmares to ponies that night.
That’s why Rainbow had snuck her way past the outermost air patrols and landed on the west roof of the fort’s outer ring. The fort from above looked like somepony had drawn a big ring then put a smaller ring inside that, then to finish it off put a plus shaped building in the middle of the smaller ring.
She’d have to make it past the inner ring then across the keep. To the plus shaped building in the middle where Clear Sky was most likely.
Rainbow ducked down next to a box that was on the roof as two Pegasi guards in gold armor landed near by her. Rainbow peaked around the corner of the box finding that they had there backs turned facing her. The mare smiled and was about to throw two wing daggers at the pair then stopped. Where was she going to hide the bodies? If the bodies where found the alarm would raised. She had never thought about this before as she’d never needed to.
Rainbow looked around but couldn’t find anything to hide the bodies. Then she looked at her hiding spot. The box could work as a place to put the bodies. She found that the box was empty.
Smiling again she threw two wing daggers in quick succession. Hitting one in the back of the head, the other in the neck. Dropping them both to the roof. Rainbow flew over and grabbed the bodies. Taking back her wing daggers in the process and put the evidence in the box.
Rainbow moved northward along the roof for a bit constantly checking the sky for pegasi. After a bit she found a staircase that led down into the building below her. She followed it down finding it to lead to the kitchen which was running at full capacity with three ponies going back and forth. She would have been able to take the three of them out easily. But she couldn’t see behind the staircase and didn’t want to risk some unknown unicorn firing a flare spell and raising the alarm.
The staircase ran along the right wall and was completely exposed to the cooks on the left. Past the cooks was a door that must’ve led to the first keep. But a ways down about three meters from the bottom of the stairs was an opened door. Rainbow looked at the cooks and waited till they all had their backs turned to her.
When they did she darted to the open door and went in finding herself in a storage room full of food and no way out. “Shit” She whispered as she quietly closed the door. She looked around for anything to help her. Dash was hit with a wave of hunger looking at the barrels of food. There had to be at least ten of them, then an idea hit her. She took out the teleport stick thing and drew a circle around the barrels. They disappeared a few seconds later but not before she grabbed an apple from one and ate it.
Rainbow’s ears perked up at a certain sentence she heard. “Carrot I’m going to get more apples for the soup.” Then she heard hoof steps heading this way. “Shit” She quickly moved to stand flush with the door back against the wall.
The door opened and Rainbow watched as a blue earth pony mare ran into the room, past her, saying. “Where’s the food it-“ Rainbow cut her off by cutting the mare’s neck with a hoof blade. The body hit the ground with a loud thud. “Sesame you ok?” Rainbow moved the now know Sesame’s body to the corner of the room and did the same thing she did for Sesame.
This time an orange unicorn stallion entered the room. Before he even spoke she cut him down and put his body in the same place as the other. After a minute the last cook spoke up “What the hay happened to the other two?” Rainbow was not expecting to hear somepony reply “No clue I’m going to find out, I swear if you two are going- “ he died as soon as he entered the room.
“This is getting silly.” The cyan pegasus muttered to herself as she walked out of the storage room and threw a wing dagger at the last pony in the room who was a blue pegasus mare. Her body hit the ground with a thud. Dash also hide her body in the storage room.
Now that she was alone she was able to look out to the keep that separated the first ring from the second. Through the door she could see a thin layer of snow covering the ground as it was starting to snow lightly. Rainbow could see two sets of guards patrolling from her current position due to the lamps they were holding. Directly across the keep from her position was the set of doors that led into the second ring. It was a straight shot she could just zip to the other set of doors. So that's what she did.
The pegasus quickly looked left and right, the two sets of guards weren’t looking this way. She also quickly looked at the sky to see if there were any pegasi in the sky. Not seeing any, she zipped across the keep covering the distance in a second. She opened the set of doors and closed them behind her.
Rainbow took a second to look around the room. She had ended up in a mess hall going by the two rows of wooden tables on either side of her. She also realized she wasn’t the only pony in the room. To her right was an earth pony stallion with a red mane and brown coat, who just now noticed Rainbow’s entrance. Rainbow flew over to him and sliced his throat.
Instead of him falling over and dying she received a hoof to her face that sent her crashing into a row of tables. She looked at the pony that should have been dead and found out why he was not dying in a pool of blood. The pony was a Steadfast.
While unicorns had their magic spells and pegasi could fly, earth ponies had two things: their strength and their faster healing rate which was dependent on the amount of earth pony magic they had. The more magic they had the faster they healed. And sometimes earth ponies were born with a large amount of magic such that they are able to heal blows that would kill a unicorn or a pegasus. The Apple family in particular were known for the large amounts of earth pony magic they were born with make most of the Apple family Steadfasts when born. But give that pony a set of armor that amplifies that even more and you get a Steadfast. Ponies that were very hard to kill even for Rainbow.
She watched the cut on his neck heal in front of her, Great. He jumped over the table and ran towards the pegasus intending to kill the intruder. Rainbow knew she had to kill him fast before he could warn somepony else or their fighting alerted other guards. She had two options; one hit him with one big blow killing him instantly or two whittle him down till he ran out of magic.
Rainbow rolled out of the way of his charge and tried to take to the air but was stopped by him grabbing her hind leg and pulling her back down to the ground. Landing on her chest. Rainbow turned around to stop the stallion from crushing her head with a stomp by raising her armored forelegs in front of her face blocking the blow. Rainbow realized the stallion had made a mistake by placing his chest above her right wing.
Rainbow flicked her right wing twice throwing two wing daggers up at his chest. First one clanked audibly off his armor, the second one went through the weak armor stabbing his chest. He recoiled off the pegasus in pain and Rainbow pushed the advantage immediately. She leapt at the earth pony and extended out both hoof blades and sank them into his neck and sliced upwards leaving two deep gashes in his neck, but the rainbow maned pegasus didn’t stop there. She stabbed her right hoof blade where his head met his neck, He died instantly as his body slid off her blade.
“That was close.” Rainbow muttered as she collected her stuff, both of the daggers she had used during the fight were ruined bringing her total down to ten much to her annoyance. The cyan mare sat down taking a second to check for injuries. The pegasus checked her forelegs and found that her left foreleg was starting to bruise badly under her armor. “Stupid earth pony strength.” She didn’t know if he had broken the bone which could be a very real possibility.
She put a bit of weight on her left hoof checking if she could walk on it. She found that she could with minimal pain in her foreleg. There wasn’t much she could do about it now and she could feel it getting worse. Rainbow couldn’t help but wonder why it hurt so much. She had taken far worse hits before. Maybe Luna’s spell reduced the pain she felt.
The pegasus filled that away as not important right now and looked for the door way out to what she hoped was the next keep. So she could kill the target and get out of here. She found the door in question, it was directly on the other side of the room from where she entered through.
She opened the door slowly to see how many guards she was dealing with. She counted eight guards patrolling the innermost keep. After she had stumbled into a Steadfast she didn’t want to again. So the pegasus took a second to try to get a better look at the guards. But had no such luck due to the combination of it being night time and lightly snowing. Even with the lamps they were carrying.
Rainbow turned her gaze to the building that held her mark. The plus shaped building was built out of white stone like most things built in Celestia’s name. The second floor had a balcony that led into the building, but there were no ground floor doors that she could see from her current position. Making her best bet to fly in through the balcony.
An idea hit her as she noticed the balcony had a door with a window in it. And coming through that window was light. The pegasus made sure she was clear then flew up to the balcony and looked in the window. She spotted Clear Sky standing at a desk looking what she guessed were plans of some sort. He wasn’t alone; he had a blue coated and black maned unicorn mare standing in the room with him. She wore mage robes so Rainbow assumed that she was his personal guard.
She went to open the door but found it was locked. The assassin groaned at this revaluation. What was stopping her from killing her target was a door. She couldn’t just knock the door down, that would alert everypony nearby.
The pegasus took a moment to think. She was used to banging down the door and just making a mess. What happened in the kitchen crossed her mind. Rainbow figured it was worth a shot. Rainbow knocked on the door hoping for the best.
“Come in.” Rainbow watched the door get opened by a wave of blue magic.
The assassin walked in the room lazily and threw two daggers. One for each of the room’s occupants. Both died before they could even react. “That actually fucking worked.” Rainbow stood there stunned in the middle of the room still not quite believing that worked so well. She shook her head then she quickly looked around the room for any threats, she found none.
Rainbow started to look around the room for anything useful she could teleport with Twilight’s staff. She found a few things, piles of important looking papers, the commander’s and guard’s uniforms and weapons and a medical kit. Which rainbow tried to use to mend her bruising foreleg but when she opened it she didn’t recognize anything in the kit other than bandages.
Sighing at the fact she couldn’t mend her wound she added the kit to the growing pile of stuff on the commander’s desk. After a little longer Rainbow looked at the pile. Thinking she had enough stuff she reached back and took out Twilight’s staff from the armor’s built in saddle bag and drew a circle around the pile and watched it teleport to the cave. With that last act she was done here, much to her relief.
The pegasus looked outside and found it was starting to snow heavily. Which met it would be harder to see her or any pegasus in the sky, making her escape an easy one as she flew into the sky.
“There you are.” A lighting trail started to follow the the rainbow one.