//------------------------------//
// Forging a rescue - Part 2 
// Story: With Blood and Swords 
// by FALG 
//------------------------------//

After some minutes, we found Twilight still following the Guardian. We gave her the red robes and my personal armor, and then she retreated to change her clothes.

Meanwhile I continued following him. I made sure to emulate his way of acting, looking around, looking if there was any trouble; and also kept me in a safe distance from him.

Twlight eventually catched up with me, now dressed as a Guardian. Below those robes she was wearing my armor, to mislead the guards about her smaller body. Somehow she and Rainbow managed to find a flat top helm with faceguard to cover her face too.
"Will we keep following him until he retreats to the fortress? We can't follow him forever, other guards might suspect something." I told her.
"Maybe we can try to convince him that he was called to immediately guard the room, to save us time." Twilight said.
"You think that would work?"
"Maybe if I use some mind tricks on him, but only if he won't cooperate. It's risky, but I don't think of anything else to do."
I looked at the sky to check the time, we could come back to Ponyvilly by dusk if we made our move now.
"Okay, I'll talk to him. If I need your mind tricks I'll give you a justle." I said.
She nodded and we approached the Guardian. I grabbed him by the shoulder confidently.
"Yes?" he asked.
"You are required in the headquarters." I quickly told him.
"For what reason?"
"The mare from Ponyville. Security must be incremented. The assassin was spotted nearby the city." I fakely explained.
"Were you both assigned to join me?" he asked.
"Yes." I said.
The pony looked cautiously at Twilight, or at least her helmet.
"Okay, I can't stop to think right now, if the assassin is near I should go back. C'mon!" he ordered.
We followed him to headquarters.

Inside, the fortress had a medieval look, but it also had some kind of modern touch to it.
After walking through a few corridors, we finally stopped in front of a door, with a guard at its side.
"Open the door please." the pony asked the guard.
"On whose authority?" the guard asked back.
"Lord Francis' ordered me to guard inside this room."
The guard stepped aside and let us in.

The room barely had lights, just a few candles illuminated the place, and there were no windows.

Right in the middle of the room, there she was.

Tied to a chair,  Fluttershy was there, I couldn't see her face to face, but I could notice the pink long mane anywhere.
I looked at Twilight, I could sense the joy she had of seeing her again. I felt it too, but we had to remain calm or we would have lost our cover.
The pony we were following, started to untie Fluttershy, much to our surprise.
"Why are you untying her?" I asked.
"I'm taking her to the Lord's personal room. I was asked to take her there once I came here."

Strange, some minutes ago he said that he would just be guarding the room.

"You two come with me, it's hard to carry this pony on my own, specially since she can't move." the pony explained.
I looked to Fluttershy and I saw her eyes had lost the light that they once had, she had her face lost in sight.

I helped the other pony to carry her to his lord's room, and with every step I felt that something was not right.



After going up some stairs, we finally arrived to said room.

It had a very different look than the rest of the place. It was brighter, relics were all around the room, and the place looked antique, rather than old.
"Lord Francis, I brought the prisoner as you required me." the pony bowed to the other one looking out of a window, flautantly placed right behind the desk.
"I see." Francis replied "So I guess the assassin has been spotted."
"Have no doubt sir."
The Lord then walked around the room, he looked at Fluttershy for some time and approached her.

Fluttershy looked broken, she was sitting on her haunches with her face downwards; her eyes looked opaque.
Francis lowered his height and grabbed her face, to make sure she looked at him.
"Looks like they're coming for you girl. You are very lucky." he said, but she just looked away "But not for long."
He walked back to his desk.
"Make the officers come here." he ordered to the pony we were accompanying.
The other nodded and went to open the door of the room. Quickly a bunch of ponies with red clothes filled the place where we were standing.
"Gentlecolts, the assassin is near; in fact he is very near. Maybe he is in the building right now! But don't worry, we'll catch him before he can even reach his goal!"

Really, something wasn't right at that moment.

"So, I command you to gather our troops, and finish this threat once and for all! You are all dismissed." Francis ordered.
With that, Twilight and me headed for the exit to "join" the hunt.

The problem was, nopony else moved, we were the only ones that turned to the door.
"Fooled ya' there, right assassin?" Francis mocked.



Before I could resist, many hooves forced me to the ground to keep me still. They did the same to Twilight.
"Make sure the assassin can't move one single bit!" the Lord yelled.
"Wait! Mister, this is a misunderstanding!" I screamed.
"Oh yeah? And why, pray tell, is that?" he asked with all sarcasm.
"I'm not an assassin! You have to believe me!" I said.
"Why should I believe you? Because you sneaked in our fortress, you brawled with two guards, and pretended to be one of us. Why should I believe in somepony that does that?" he explained.

He had a point, if I wasn't an assassin at all, I could just have given in and explained the situation without any harm.

Why did I make all this plan to rescue Fluttershy furtively, if I could just free her by surrendering and explaining?

"Allow me to speak my Lord." Twilight spoke, and all the ponies around were surprised at the voice.
"Who are you? What is a mare doing here?!"
"Please mister." Twilight pleaded while taking her helm off. "This was all my idea."
"What? Speak! What do you mean by 'your idea'?" the lord asked.
"The thing is: when you filly-napped our friend, we discussed on what to do." she said.
"And sneaking in was the best idea?"
"We didn't have another choice!"
"Oh but HE did." Francis pointed at me. "He could have just given in and explained everything."
"It's not that simple. You Guardians have estrict orders to kill any assassin when spotted, it must be killed at sight."
"But he could have just..."
"Just what?" Twilight interrupted "Come here and say 'Hey, I'm the assassin!' and be killed by the first idiot crossing the room?"
"Watch your words filly! Remember who are you talking to!" Francis barked.
"You don't scare us! We are under the protection of Princess Celestia herself!" Twilight defied.
"Ohh, Celestia, I'm so scared!" he mocked "Don't be so foalish girl! We are more powerful than we look!"
"But you're no smarter either!" Twilight backfired, struggling to escape from the grasp of the other ponies.
"That's it! Officers! Take this mare to the dungeons!" Francis ordered.
"What about the assassin?" one of them asked.
"I'm not an assassin for crying out loud!" I yelled.
The lord thought for a while.
"Kill him, assassin or not, we won't have to deal with this anymore." he said.

With that, the pony Twilight and I accompanied, came to face me.
"It's funny to now see you die." he said with a familiar tone.
"Why funny? Do I know you from somewhere?" I asked confused.
"Yes, me an two other friends of mine, well, my trusty soldiers actually."
"But I don't recall your face, and I don't even know your friends either."
"Oh you do know them and me. You just didn't see us..." he came closer and whispered to my ear "...or our faces, it was dark back then."

Then it hit me, but I didn't believe it.
"No way." I said.
"Yes way, though it was kind of your friend to offer help. Too bad she won't see this." he said while pulling out his sword with magic.

As the blade went closer and closer to my throat, a flashback came upon my mind. From when I was dating Fluttershy:
“Stay calm, I don’t want to hurt you” the shadow said.

Then another one came:
"You are a unicorn" I said.
"What gave you the hint?" he mocked.

I snapped back to reality.
"It was you all along, all along." I realised.

Then I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable to happen. I dropped my head to my chest, defeated. "All of this, for nothing" were my last thoughts.


And then the blade thrusted into my throat.