• Published 6th Jan 2017
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A Long Way to Fall - Cinders of War



Morning Blade recounts the story of Frigid Night to Twilight Sparkle. The story of how he became the man he was. The story of his fall.

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Chapter 80: Hidden Ones

Frigid Night looked out at the vast expanse of desert before his eyes, directing his vision to a small little settlement by a bunch of boulders. There were three tents pitched up in a circle around a campfire along with a few men patrolling the borders, rifles in their arms.

“Okay, Frigid Night,” Keila said beside him, standing from her prone position. She seemed to strain a little on one leg, but otherwise, she was fine. “If you’re as good as your Mentor says you are, this should be a walk in the park for you.”

Frigid stayed silent. Their mission was to infiltrate this outer Templar camp and stop them from proceeding further. Their target was a man named Blue Stripes, an average Templar.

Trueshot and another Saddle Arabian Assassin called Feather Duster stood behind them on a higher elevation of rock. The Stalliongrad Assassin had his new sniper rifle in his hands while the female Assassin had gone down on her belly and pulled out a bipod from her rifle’s barrel, her eye already down the scope.

“We’ve got you covered,” she told Frigid and Keila. “I’m the best eye out here.”

Trueshot chuckled and pulled back his slide. “Sorry. I think I’ve the better eye here.”

“Well, my gun’s a lot better if you can see.” Feather Duster panned a hand down her weapon. “Sleek, camouflaged, 7.62 rounds, bolt-action. All the power I need.”

Trueshot showed her his. “Well, mine only fires 9mm shots, but it’s semi-automatic unless I feel like changing it to full automatic. Able to take down multiple targets at once.”

“Not bad. You build that yourself?”

Trueshot put a hand on his hip. “Of course! Been a sniper for most of my life. Yourself?”

“Yeah, literally grew up with this gun here. Made her myself when I was younger.”

“This is going to be fun,” Trueshot smiled. He looked at Frigid and Keila and tilted his head to the campsite. “Go on ahead. Feather Duster and I have you covered.”

Frigid nodded and hopped down the rock. He remembered Keila probably had an injury on one leg or something, so he raised a hand to help Keila down.

“Why, thank you,” she smiled and accepted his help.

Running on the sand was much harder than Frigid had anticipated. He had to make sure to keep his balance or fall flat on his face. Keila was already way ahead, jogging around on the sand like it was concrete, even with one injured leg. Before he was even halfway to the Templar site, Keila was already crouching down behind a rock right next to their camp.

Seriously? Frigid thought as he picked up his pace, only for his feet to sink deeper in the sand. Perfect.

Come on, Frigid,” Trueshot buzzed in his earpiece. “What’s taking you so long? Keila’s already there.

“Not as easy as it looks, Trueshot,” Frigid replied flatly as he continued on, careful not to make too much noise as he got closer.

“Took your time,” Keila said without turning around, watching the Templars closely. “I’ve already found our target. The one with the stripey blue hair.” She pointed at the man in a red shirt and scarf by the campfire. “Okay, the plan-”

Frigid didn’t wait. He wanted to prove that he was capable of handling any situation. He whipped out two throwing knives and took off running to the camp. Men began pouring out of the tents to see what was going on as Frigid tossed his knives, taking down two guards immediately before jumping towards a third. He extended a shoe blade and slashed another Templar across the face before plunging his hidden blade into the guard’s neck. One guard pointed a pistol at him, but suddenly fell down, a hole in the back of his head.

A few more guards around began dropping as Trueshot and Feather Duster began picking them off one by one, making sure to get the ones that were targeting the yellow-skinned Assassin.

Good shot, Feather Duster,” Frigid heard the Stalliongrad sniper on the radio. “But I took down more guys this time.”

There was laughter from the other sniper. “Alright, alright. But next time, I’ll be the one who’s shots make the most difference. Sound good?

Sure. Sounds fun, my new friend.

Frigid continued fighting, slashing at every guard on the way to Blue Stripes, who was pushing men in front of him. Keila was soon behind him, taking down guards with two silver knives. The Trottingham Assassin split his hidden blades into their trident form and cut away at two more guards. One of them fell to his knees, allowing Frigid to kick off of the man’s shoulder and leap high above Blue Stripes, raising an arm, ready to deal the finishing blow. The Templar unclasped a pistol from his belt, but he was too slow. By the time he managed to pull his gun out, Frigid had already landed on him, pushing him against the sand with both knees, sliding a few centimeters.

Still unused to fighting on the soft sand, Frigid lost his balance, falling off the man and rolling once before stopping next to the campfire. Blue Stripes took this chance to retreat into one of the tents, firing blindly behind him as more guards emerged from inside.

Frigid felt two hands grab ahold of one of his arms and pull him up before he heard Keila’s voice.

“What were you doing?” she asked. “That was reckless. We hadn’t even come up with a plan yet.”

“I almost had him.” Frigid stood up and patted sand off his coat.

“Well, almost. That can mean life and death in most situations.” Keila eyed him critically. “Is this how you normally go about with your assassinations?”

Frigid ignored her and ran off to the tent, leaving heavy prints on the sand as he dashed for the target’s hiding spot. Another few guards dropped dead around him from the two snipers, and eventually, there were no guards left.

Frigid entered the tent and immediately dodged back out as Blue Stripes shot a few bullets in his direction.

“You think it so easy to defeat us, Assassins?” he shouted frantically as he reloaded a magazine. “Grand Master Sombra will destroy you all!”

Frigid circled around the back and cut a hole right into the tent. Blue Stripes turned around with a surprised look on his face, but he was too late to stop Frigid from stabbing him in the neck with his trident blade.

“Ah…” the Templar stumbled back as he clutched his neck. “No matter... This... is only the beginning. You cannot win...”

Frigid narrowed his eyes as he approached the blue haired man, who was slowly losing his strength. “What do you hope to accomplish? What does your Grand Master want to achieve?”

Blue Stripes dropped to the sand, blood flowing from his wound. “You’re better off… finding out on your own… I’m not telling… you… anything...”

The Templar spat one last time and slumped his head to the ground, dead.

Frigid sighed and got up, returning outside. Keila walked up to him and folded her arms.

“What?” Frigid pointed to the tent. “I killed him.”

“Yeah, and good job for that, but he could have told us so much more. Why salt the enemy well instead of capturing it for our own?”

“The objective was to eliminate the Templar targets,” Frigid said simply and cleaned one of his blades with a white cloth. “And that’s exactly what I did.”

“Could have stood to share your plan with the rest of us, though.” Keila headed over and knelt down to search the target’s body for anything of use. “There’s no point sending all of us if you just do your own thing.”

“I haven’t had a partner in a while,” Frigid admitted. “But I find this way much more reliable, don’t you think? Less chance of getting stabbed in the back like this.”

Keila squinted at Frigid, like he had suddenly begun speaking a different language. “That, may be one of the worst ways to put it possible. If we work together, we can watch each other’s backs. Or do you not trust us?”

“Sorry, I don’t quite trust anyone anymore. Only the Mentor, really.”

“You have issues, Frigid Night.” Keila eyed him one last time before returning her attention to the Templar’s body. “Found a phone, but it’s encrypted. I’ll get our hackers on it or something once we get back.”

There was a short spurt of laughter on the other side of the radio before Trueshot spoke.

Too bad Pierce isn’t here, yeah? He could hack that with a hand behind his back.

I’m pretty sure our guys are better,” Feather Duster said.

Have you seen our guy? Pierce Network is really the best hacker out there. Haven’t seen anyone better. The only problem is that he has almost no personality.

“Well,” Frigid interrupted them. “It’s about time we head back. We should let the Mentors know what we found.”

Frigid turned and climbed back up in preparation to return to the other Assassins, with Keila staring at his retreating form, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“That one’s hiding something,” she muttered. “And since when did he give the orders around here?”



"Not a lot of good Frigid is doing to his reputation, huh?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "Back in Equestria, Captain Frigid isn't like this."

"Yes, well... he went through a lot, Frigid..." Morning Blade huffed and looked up at the ceiling. "I mean, I don't agree with what he did, but what's done is done, hmm? I can only what would've happened if he and Keila would've gotten along. Things might've been different now."

"Yeah. We can think a lot of what might happen. But we can't change any of it, Morning. We only regret things when we look back."

"That is true. We should look forward, huh?" Morning smiled and touched her eyepatch. "I guess you're right, Twilight. Nothing more I can do about it. I wonder what Keila is up to now? I hope she's doing okay."

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