//------------------------------// // Prologue: The Gathering // Story: My Little Assassins: Everything is Permitted // by Icarus //------------------------------// She clopped up and down on silver-shod hooves as she prepared herself for her speech to her followers. It would be good to have servants doing her bidding again after a thousand years of cold, angry exile, but Luna shook the thought off and focussed on the task her sister had given her six months ago. Gather the strongest, the bravest, the ones who are best at blending into the background and who are of a certain pragmatic frame of mind. She had visited each of them in turn, hooded and cloaked, and recruited those who had said yes. Those who had declined had seen a red flash from the royal alicorn's horn, and woken up the next morning with no memory of the visit. The ones who had said yes were also very aware of the importance of discretion. Save one. Luna sighed, scraping a hoof over the cobblestone and kicking up a few sparks. That one was not exactly professional, but she could get into places nopony else could. And they would never believe she was capable... The princess snickered softly and composed herself, before pushing through into the old, overgrown throneroom that had once been hers. The royal crest of the moon was still carved onto the floor, and arranged around it were four ponies, silent and hooded. "You know why I came to you," Luna began. She had wisely left her sister's influence out of their training. Let them think this was all her idea. Celestia chose to rely on the magic of friendship. Luna had her power of the shadow. "Because there is a rot amongst the nobility of Equestria. They think they can control the ponies of Manehattan, Fillydelphia, maybe even Canterlot itself for their own warped ends." She paced around the perimeter of the stone seal on the floor as she spoke, looking at each of the hooded figures in turn. "They believe that my sister and I are distant and uncaring, that we pay no attention to their schemes. That they can forge their shadow empires away from my gaze. They forget that I am the night. I have seen everything they have been planning in the shadows for the past thousand years, and it stops now." She raised her left forehoof, a slender silver blade flicking out of the guard around her ankle. The other four ponies raised their own hooves in unison with a snick of extending metal and Luna smiled inwardly at the discipline her chosen messengers were all displaying. "They think they can forbid, they think they can control, they think they can dictate, they think they can keep their subjects in their place. I say: They cannot. Nothing is true. Everything is permitted." "Nothing-is-true, Every-thing's-per-mit-ted," the first repeated in a childish, singsong voice, bouncing a little on her hooves underneath her candy-pink hood and tabard. Luna suppressed a shudder; she had trained them all in the art of the shadows, but this one scared her. "Nothin' is true. Everythin' is permitted," the second stated simply and nodded under her hood, which had been crowned with that damned hat of hers. Unobtrusive. Normal. Completely unexpected. They would never see her coming. The third simply bobbed his head once with a quiet "Ee-yup." Luna turned and narrowed her eyes at the largest of her students, who shrunk down a bit under his hood, a stalk of straw still poking out from the shadows. "Uh, I mean, nothin' is true, ma'am, and everythin' is permitted." Luna gave him a lingering look- his strength was an asset, but he wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. "Nothing is true," the final harbinger nodded cheerfully with a flutter of her wings, "Everything is muffin." "I...close enough," Luna glanced away from the grey-hooded pony, knowing that those disturbingly-mismatched golden eyes were watching her intently. "Remember this creed, my little ponies- and this is your final lesson at my hooves, before I send each of you on your journey. Our creed is not the road to power. It is the road to wisdom: Remember that there is no one true path. There is always another way." She stopped her pacing and turned to face her students across the stone seal on the floor. The way they had unconsciously arranged themselves mirrored the shape of the stone crescent. Luna paused, and smiled at the group. They are ready. The princess of the night lifted her black silk hood up over her mane, before using her magic to push aside a tangle of thorns at the shattered window and reveal a long-snapped wooden beam. The four hooded ponies all knew what was expected. The first stepped onto the wood and dove elegantly- with one hoof keeping her hat on her head- into a haystack below with a cry of 'yeehaw!'. The big one was next, waiting his turn and then diving with a surprising grace, given his size, into the haystack. Luna narrowed her eyes at him as he took a mouthful from the hay and he slunk back immediately with a guilty air. The third student performed a backflip with a shout of 'Wheeeeeeeeee!' on the way down, bouncing neatly out of the haystack and bounding in a circle around it as she waited for the fourth and final student to make her descent. Sadly, the pony's poor vision failed her and she stumbled clear off the beam, landing head-first in the hay with a muffled 'ouch'. In a moment of cruelty Luna thought to herself that it probably wasn't the first time the poor thing had landed on her head. Luna stepped out onto the beam herself, surveying the nighttime landscape of the Everfree Forest with a degree of satisfaction. In the distance, she thought she heard an owl cry out. She smiled, and tucked her wings against her sides. She could have descended using her wings, with all the grace and poise of her older sister, but she chose not to. She chose to leap. Nothing was true. Everything was permitted. Author's Note: This little bit of nonsense was intended as a one-shot to amuse myself, and was written before Season 2 started. Constructive feedback in the comments is always welcome!