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// Memory 2 
// Story: Ponies; The Life of an Assassin 
// by salchanpony 
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	As was her norm, Ruby was sitting quietly in the corner of the classroom, as none of the other young ponys would find their way to their seats until about 5 minutes before their teacher came in, about 8:55. She found herself not really paying attention to anypony in particular, simply listening in to any conversation that happened to take her attention. She moved from her current one, when the conversation went from, "Hey, Slick, lets suprise somepony." to, "Whispy... do you wanna... you know...?" Ruby had almost found another conversation to listen too when she heard a sharp "NO!" from the red-coated Whispy Flowers, followed shortly after by a dull 'thud' and a loud cry of pain from an apparently rejected Slick Summers. A smirk crossed Ruby's face as she turned toward the filly whom she considered to be her only friend. "Turned down another one? You certainly are popular, aren't you?"
"Me, popular? Oh, darling, you simply mustn't under-rate me." Whispy replied, in a very pompous voice, trying to joke with Ruby. Dropping her act, she continued in her normal voice, which was flowing and fragile, befitting her name. "no, really, though... I don't like it... that everypony likes me, I don't want the attention..." 
Ruby was at a loss for words, as normally Whispy was an attention seeker, bathing in the attention of her fellow fillies. "Is everything alright, Whispy?"
"I-" Whispy was interupted by the movements of the other fillies, who had begun to find their way to their seats. "I'll talk later..." 
Ruby stood in place for another moment, but eventually gave in to the swarm of fillies, and made her way to her seat, which was in the front of the room, much to her discomfort. If she had any say in the matter, she would be seated in the back, but beacuse their teacher made all the decisions, she was in front. 
After a couple more moments, the classroom door swung open, and the class began.

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As the teacher walked out of the class, everypony began to talk, and make their way to the door. Ruby hung back, trying to catch a glimpse of Whispy. Noticing that she wasn't still in the classroom, Ruby quickly stood on her hind legs with a desk as a brace in order to see everypony's head to try to find Whispy. Seeing her friend's red and blue mane at the front of the herd, she quickly leapt over the desk and started to trot through the group. Since she wasn't paying attention to the other fillies, she earned herself multiple dirty looks from those whom she brushed against. 
Finally clear of most of her classmates, she had a much clearer sight of her friend, and saw she was talking to one of the most outspoken ponies in the town, a young colt named Silver Hoof. Ruby smiled and began to catch up to the two of them, when suddenly Whispy shook her head and turned away from Silver, walking into an alley. Ruby became concerned when Silver began to look angry and followed Whispy. 
Now thankful that she hadn't brought attention to herself, Ruby went into what she she considered to be 'stealth mode', which involved nothing more than quietly following Silver at a distance. As Ruby reached the alley that her friend turned down, she looked around the corner just in time to see Silver's gleaming tail turn the next corner. Running as quietly as she could, she made the other corner and stopped short, as what she heard was appalling. 
"No... I don't want-"
"Quiet! Now stand there!" 
"No..." 
*Thud* *Whimper*
"Ok..." 
Ruby quickly poked her head around the corner, and saw Silver advancing on Whispy while she was turned away. The only thing Ruby could see on Whispy's face were her tears as she quietly begged Silver not to touch her. Those tears brought hatred straight into Ruby's mind, and she snapped. With a scream, she tore out of the corner and charged straight at Silver. As he turned to see the source of the scream, all he saw was Ruby's hoof as she brought it towards his face. 
Silver took a couple steps back as the punch connected. Ruby looked at Whispy's suprised face with a look that clearly said 'get away'. Whispy looked back at Ruby, then shook her head and turned toward Silver with a tortured look of hatred on her face. By this time, Silver had recovered from the suprise of the attack, and was ready to retaliate. All three ponies stood still, each ready for the other side to make a move. 
Silver, impatient pony that he was, made the first move, dashing toward some trash cans on the side of the alleyway, turned around, and bucked the lids at Ruby and Whispy. Whispy dodged the one that was heading at her, but Ruby had a different plan. She caught one on the end of her hoof, and flung it back at Silver. He ducked, and Ruby charged forward. Seeing Ruby bring her hoof up to punch him again, he brought his fore-leg up to block, then brought his other leg up to hit back. 
Ruby blocked as well, and she pushed him back so there would be at least a little space between her and the enraged young colt. 
"Why, Silver?!" Ruby cried out.
"It's not like she would have taken me any other way."
"So you do this to her? How stupid are you?"
"Smarter than you, thats for sure." 
With that, Silver smirked and tilted his head toward the opening of the alleyway. Ruby quickly turned her head toward the opening, expecting to see another filly. She was even more upset when she saw that there was nopony there. 
"Ruby! Duck!" Whispy cried out.
Even though she heard her friend's command, Ruby couldn't react quick enough. As she turned her head back toward Silver, she was greeted by Silver right up on her, back turned and prepared to buck.
"Psych." With the one word, Silver bucked as hard as he could. Both back hooves connected with the side of Ruby's chest, and she was kicked into the air. After spinning though the air for a few feet, Ruby hit the wall on the side of the alley and slid limply to the ground.
With all her efforts to stand back up proving futile, all she could do was watch as her friend was grabbed and tugged further into the alleyway. As it became harder and harder for her to draw breath, her vision became foggy. As she watched, however, she became convinced that her eyes were playing tricks on her, for what she was seeing was simply too good to be true. 
As Silver reached the end of the alley, it appeared that Whispy had blacked out. As Silver finished moving, a shadowy figure moved into view. After glancing at Ruby, the dark pony moved toward Silver. Silver apparently heard this new arrival, and glanced up, and evil smirk on his face. However, as he saw that the newcomer was much larger than him, his smirk quickly vanished, and was replaced by a look of fear. The pony stepped aside, and Silver ran past him, and left Ruby's field of view. 
After Silver left, the dark pony kneeled by Whispy. After a couple seconds, a sharp pain ran through Ruby, and she gasped, which hurt her more. The pony heard this, and quickly ran to Ruby's side and kneeled down. As this pony's horn glowed, Ruby's vision closed around her, and she passed out. 
"Hmm... I best take this one first..." As he used some more of his magic, the pony lifted Ruby up and draped her over his back. As he stood back up, he stretched, revealing a pair of sleek black wings. As he glanced back at Whispy, he whispered, "I'll be back for you."
After that, he flapped his wings, and took off, flying as fast as he could toward the Equestra Medical Center.