//------------------------------// // the test // Story: Corruption is inevitable // by lunaisthebest //------------------------------//         Nightshard walked out of the room where he had faced four royal guards. Was this just a trap?  Nightshard thought to himself. Nightshard wandered the hallways for what seemed like an eternity, the hallway just kept going on and on. Many statues of men with outfits that closely matched his, only they had more decor to them. THUD. Nightshard stopped dead in his tracks as a royal guard landed in front of him. “Remember me...” Nightshard looked to see a hoof by his stomach that was bleeding immensely. “I brought friends,” All at once a huge group of guards landed right behind the no longer lone-guardspony. Nightshard stood back and readied himself for a fight, if he was going to die, it was going to be with a fight. “Do not test me,” Nightshard said. “Or what? You’ll die? Hahaha! that is why we’re here you idiot,” “Then why haven’t you already attacked? I can see you are weak... i can take you down easily,” “Let’s wipe that smirk off his face boys!” Nightshard stabbed the weak guardspony right in the neck as if on cue. “Get him!” One of the guards said. With that the guards started charging towards Nightshard and Nightshard was right about to start fighting when. “The odds not in your favor?” A white Unicorn dropped down and readied himself to fight. “Name’s Ryden,” “Nightshard,” Nightshard said, grinning widely. “Shall we rid ourselves of these pests?” Ryden offered. “You think you can take on all of us? Hahaha! There is only two of you and twenty of us!” The lead pony said. “Care to shove that ego up your ass?” Nightshard replied. “Enough talk, let’s fight!” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “I’m telling you, the pony i found is not to disappoint!” One of the assassins said. “Why should we trust you? The last one didn’t even make it past the first four guards,” Another hooded assassin said. “Barren, give Remi a chance, he did after all, find Ryden,” The leader said. “Ryden isn’t our best, I gue-” “Ryden is one of our best assassins... two failed targets is not the worst thing ever,” “Grandmaster! Ryden constantly breaks the creed! he executes people that are not in our contracts!” “Has he taken the lives of innocent civilians?” “No...” Barren snorted. “Then i would expect you to remember the final part of our creed... ‘For this is our creed, our law, we are free, anything is allowed’ do you not remember this?” The grandmaster asked. “Yes, i do,” Barren replied. “Then stop talking about Ryden’s mistakes,” The Grandmaster said. “Remi, tell us, what is it about this ‘Nightshard’ that makes him worthy of our clan?” “Where do i begin? Oh yes! He notices the corruption in the government, but he is one pony, he never had the chance to handle them himself. He was willing to join us so much that i think Ryden was an emo person compared to Nightshard,” Remi replied, basically bragging. “Willingness and the ability to see corruption are both fine traits, his battle skills will be tested in the rooms on the way here,” The Grandmaster said. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------         “Phew... they were... tough,” Nightshard said while trying to catch his breathe.         “They weren’t recruits, that’s for sure,” Ryden agreed.         “How the hell can you be perfectly fine after that fight?” Nightshard asked in shock.         “Because i’ve dealt with stronger... and ten times more than that at once,” Ryden said. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------