Nightmare Moon survives the Elements' power and takes Twilight as her prisoner. Now, the alicorn queen must establish her monarchy and defend her rightful place as queen against those that oppose her.
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Looks like staying up and praying this would update was worth it.
I love this story.
I looked earlier today and I was sad that it wasn't updated.. I ended up reading 60 chapters of another fic and just before I went to bed noticed this was up! Again, lovin' this fic! Moonie is just so cute! Can't wait to see what NMM is going to do with the dragon bones
KS
Wow now i got to wait yet again for more awesomeness!
I was debating whether or not to save reading this update till later on but I'm glad that I didn't. The scene with Moon Beam taking revenge for Twilight was just, it might seem wrong to say this, extremely adorable! Speaking of which did you mean to write there naja or naga? Other than that, great story and another great chapter. Keep up the good work but don't forget to take care of yourself.
145046 Meant to be naja. A najanaja is the type of snake common misconstrued with a cobra. Najanaja are the ones that can flatten their necks to make the crest. Cobras cannot.
145041 Major distractions keeping me busy. Hard to focus when you got so much win going on around ya
145003 Yap! Pays out in the end!
145045 Hehe. Waiting always socks
glad Twilight Sparkle is feeling better ^^
and especially glad that Twilight Sparkle's feelings for Nightmare Moon are further developing and long overgrew "i-just-want-somebody-anybody-so-i-am-not-alone"
and i have this feeling Twilight Sparkle is about to ask Nightmare Moon to teach her magic so she can be of help
Dammit Nightmare! Just give the formerly purple pony a friggin hug!
I love Twi's Nightmare stare.
^
fixed it
Always have trouble with those two.
Oh yeah. I'll be starting on proofing the chapters soon.
145107 At first I was like Why would you like the stairs? And then I was like Duh. You meant stare. Yeah, Twilight hasn't realized it yet, but she has the same debilitating abilities that Nightmare does when she uses her eyes.
145087 Can't do that yet! Soon enough, but not yet.
145069 Can't say she's feeling better. It's still the same day she's just learned to dull the pain through concentration.
oooo, I see that you used one of my tib-bit from my vector, with red eye glowing thing. This chapter is like long-awaited crack take to a addict, haha keep it up!
I had to wait a while, before I could post a comment on this excellent chapter. It gave me more time to think.
Time for a ~Wall-O-Text~
So first off I want to praise you for making Nightmare admit to herself that she is behind the times, especially when it comes to war. This is no doubt frustrating if not infuriating for her as she has to acknowledge a weakness and work to fix it. Probably more frustrating since she seems to have mellowed out just a little bit, she still spiteful, and demands respect, but if she was the same Mare she was a couple of weeks ago, I doubt she'd have had the patience to put Blueblood to work or let Cloudy recruit a Griffon. In fact a few weeks ago, Nightmare Moon would probably have struck down Gilda where she stood for being too bold.
I also like Nightmare Moon's growing obsession/infatuation with Twilight Sparkle. It's definitely signs of a growing love/affection for Twilight, if she can't stop thinking about her. Keep the pace you've got going with this romance, it's steady, slow and believable, everything I love in a good romance plot. Also taking Gilda into her personal guard for training might be a small way for Nightmare to vent her frustration, I can see Queen Moon making it tougher than it probably has to be. I also like how she's being more cautious about who she recruits, personally interviewing them might seem paranoid or overly cautious but after Brook's betrayal it makes perfect sense.
Also I see you finally put my suggestion to use regarding the armour and dragon corpses. And you unintentionally made Nightmare Moon a bit like Vlad the Impaler. It's been almost a week after the battle with the Royal Guard and the corpses are still out there . I imagine it makes quite the impression the first time someone arrives. Fancy Pants probably saw it and had a good idea what type of ruler he was dealing with and how to get in her good graces. By contrast Blueblood was tactless he saw a ocean of bodies but acted like his good looks and title would get him where he wanted to be... that or he came from a different direction .
As to what Nightmare plans for the bones I can only guess. Enchanted armour and blades would be my first guess, but you're full of surprises Peppy so I'll wait and see. I mentioned earlier about Nightmare's frustration regarding modern warfare, perhaps Twilight will have more dreams of how War was once fought. Perhaps seeing unicorns using staffs which float by them magically, like in Pony Age: origins will inspire Twilight to try and re-introduce them as Celestia had them banned and their knowledge suppressed since they raised the spellpower of your average Unicorn.
I see a pretty good opportunity to make use of airships in battle. Perhaps Nightmare Moon's personal Airship is built like a sky fortress which can be used to relay orders on the move.
end of Wall
Also be posting another Assassin side-story tonight.
Current, can't wait for more. ;)
What would she do with dragon bones? Maybe dragon armor as a reference to Skyrim or something like that?
Anyway, another great chapter. Keep up the good writing!
145237 We'll make a lurker out of you yet!
145187 Speculations!
It's always nice to wake up to a new chapter!
I'd love to crank out the next part of my story, but as my name states, I'm at work, and not logged in.
145064 No worries! Sometimes it can be important to not neglect that thing known as real life!
Ooh this was a great chapter! NMM is finally starting to show that she gives a damn, Twilight seems to be moving onto recovery while also maintaining a lot of the most important aspects of her personality, and we got Cloudy stuck with Gilda, who honestly wasn't my favorite character, but is now seeing use in a really neat way that makes me like her more.
Pretty sure that was a run-on.
:| WTF is with my name
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Blossom
Ahh, I love the smell of updates in the morning it smells like WIN! Anyhow great work as always Peppy and I lookforword to the next chapter. Now down buisness you updated witch means I have a reason to geekout and prattle on endlessly because I think I've got something to say. Though really I feel like Tonto's beating me at my own game anymore.
Wall-O-Text
Well The griffons are playing smart I'll give them that. While they may not know the full scope of thier new opponets abilities they are marking the right choice by not only attacking before she can build a new army up but also by activly sabotoging her effort to build said force. This war hasn't "Officaly" begun and already there are roughly Sixty causalties on the Equestrian side as opposed to the much smaller numbers on the Griffon side. I'm counting Twilight amung the causlities not only because she died but also because she was so horribly wounded. Meanwhile the griffons lost thier assissn and I'm betting a few fell durring thier strikes on the troop carirvans as well.
As Tonto has pointed out it's a good thing that Nightymare has realized that she needs to update her thinking on matter of war. While gunpowder seems to be non-existent in this world that doesn't mean that the art or war will remain stagnet here. I actualy figure just the oppoest, really just imagin the kinds of tactics that are open to either side when you can creat and controll your own weather. As was shown in "Swram of the Century" the more dangous weather can be created and controlled by the pegisus ponies, and I'm just gussesing here but probibly the griffons too seing as they can cloud walk. Also Good on Twilight for that little brainwave of hers that may have helped out more then she knows. Now where's Cid when we need him? he needs to start pimping out the Equestrian airfleet into a full born airforce!
I knew that something like this would happen when Gilda was brought before Nightmare. Granted I thought it would be the queen herself having a bit of fun but Moon Beam makes sense too. I love how she's grown so attached to Twilight that her first instinkt upon seeing a griffon after the assisnation was literly "Crush, Kill, Destroy" Also I note that Twilight asking Moonbeam to spare someone's life didn't earn her one hell of a beating this time. Nightmare truely feels more for Twilight then she knows she does at present. I wonder who else will end up in the reagal van guard? Back to Gilda I wonder how she'll get along with Twilight, I mean she isn't stupid enough to do anything to her given how important she is to Nightmare and Moon Beam, but that doesn't mean she's obligated to like her. I can only guess at how she'll react if and when she finds out how Twilight met Dash, and Why they probibly arn't friends anymore. Also I still wonder how Gilda will view Twilight's taking a blade for Nightmare given how much she seems to view imega and all that.
Hmm now what DOES Nightmare intend to do with those dragon bones? While enchanted weapons and armor are indeed a good guess I wouldn't be surprised if she got creative with them. Like say using them as componets in a ritual of some kind, making them into some kind of magic power booters or focuses, or if she's really gutsy Bone golems or the like. Nothing says don't BUCK with me like reanimating your dead enemies and having them obay your orders. Though that last one is VERY recless as if the dragons anr't after her hide right now they WILL be if she played necromancer with dead dragons like that.
From the sounds of things life at Castle New Mareland will be kicking into overdrive very soon. I can only guess at what happens next, and really with this story that's half the fun!
Well I'm all out of geek points for now so it's time to end this pratteling for the moment. See you all around.
Wall-O-Text.
Very interesting chapter. So, the Griffons are attacking already, the only apparent large-scale metalworks is in Stalliongrad, and we have Gilda joining NMM's army, meaning RD is going to get a second dose of feelings of betrayal. Fun. Seeing Equestria "Tech Up" with regards to chariots versus full-blown airships is very neat, and I look forward to seeing what the airships are described like.
NMM's character development is really something to see. She's gone from being rather dislikable to quite a sympathetic character with a great deal of depth, one who at the very least appreciates the sacrifices Twilight has made for her well-being, and at the most is starting to genuinely care for Twilight, seeing as she can't stop thinking about her. It's not the same as Moon Beam, who appears to hold a more mother-daughter relationship with NMM, but one that has lasted from since before NMM's initial banishment.
I didn't notice many errors in this, but one did pop out at me:
"...Commander Stick-in-her-Flank..." "Command what?"
I would have expected "Commander what?" there, instead of "Command what?".
Oh, so in the Gilda episode Twilight wasn't there? Can't quite remember...
145681
For the purpose of this story, the events in that episode never happened.
stop making me like gilda
Alright, back from work, (yes that really was me up there) now to fully state my enjoyment of this chapter:
Twilight: "You will come play with Moon Beam. YOU WILL HAVE FUN."
Gilda: "uhm, yeah, of course!"
Getting off early is nice, it means you all get the adventures of 12 drummers drumming and their search for a partridge in a pear tree!
~
"Ooh, hi! My name is Moon Beam! I don't get to see many ponies my own age here! Who are you? Where are you from? Is that your dad?" Moon Beam asked all at once. After such a sudden outburst, however, she had to stop and catch her breath.
Rebelfire stood up as he answered, "My name's Rebelfire and I-" He broke off suddenly as he leaped at Moonbeam, forelegs outstretched. Moon Beam deftly dodged the unexpected assault, and plopped on top of him, pinning him to the ground.
"Now why did you do that?" she asked. "Because you went and did it to Peppy there, and it looked like fun! All he ever wants to do for fun is write stuff. He won't even let me make spaghetti again!" This caused Moon Beam to start laughing.
Peppy finally stood up at this point and said, "You know full well why we'll never let you make any kind of food product EVER again. Janus spent 3 days in the Hospital because of that incident! We're just lucky that unicorn knew how to make his fur grow back." This only made Moon Beam laugh harder.
"See? I told you it was funny." Rebelfire said. This only caused Peppy to glare at him. Turning away from Peppy he said, "Eh heh, anyway, you know what would be good right now?" Moon Beam shook her head and he answered, "Pancakes!"
This was greeted with an enthusiastic shout from Moon Beam and she replied, "Yeah! Lets go!" and she shot off down a hallway, with Rebelfire on her heels laughing. the last thing Peppy heard before they turned a corner and were lost to sight was "Ha ha, I have no idea where I'm going!"
Hoof firmly planted in his face, Peppy shook his head. Now he was on his own. He sighed, and approached the Obsidian doors that lead to the throne room. "Lets just hope they get back soon." he said to himself.
Twilight with changing eye color? Did I miss that earlier or was it the first time that happened?
145533 I Agree Janus, Nightmare Moon or Cloudy Horizon need to appoint someone to run the Air Force, Not take it out of the hands of the High Commander Cloudy, but someone who will work alongside her and help her run it more efficiently. Someone who understands Airships like an Earth Pony mechanic or unicorn inventor responsible for the technology.
He even has his own artificial wing mechanism, which he could offer to cloudy and give her a steam punk, arcane tech wing . Also I don't think Nightmare Moon is making Bone Golems or Dragon Lich's. She'd have used necromancy already, if she could, what's more showy than sending your foes corpses to kill them. Besides crushing them with the moon.
I figure it's Dragonbone Armour and weapons like in Skyrim or Dragon Age.
Rebelfire, that was intresting and fun as always. It sounds like the spaghetti was either flung at me or exploded on me, witch would be kinda cool. Besides you seem to be a better cook then Sweetie Bell I doubt you'd burn juice or need to serve toast in a bowl.
Tonto, Yes Steampun and magic baised tech is always cool. I mean what's better a castle, or a castle that can act like a subermien in the desert sands? How about a suite of armour or a magic powered mech? The Neo Equestrian Air Force does indeed need an awsome commanding officer of sorts be it a techhead Earth Pony, a magicaly masterfull uniicorn, or a Pegisus with brillent ideas for new formations.
Also I forgot to bring it up in my last post but giving Unicorns staffs or wands to enhance thier casting abilities would be awsome. Just because we know that Unicorns and Zebras can use magic doesn't mean that they're the only ones. Bewere the spellcraft of the Griffon shawmen/preistecess who knows what kinds of tricks they got up thier sleeves?
The reason i thought that she didn't use necromancey mid fight is because I always thought that magic like that would be slower acting a first, and take way more consentration then your tipical battle magic of flinging around fire and lightning. Though i guess she could have done low evel stuff like draining heath from the Royal guard and feeding it to her troops. WOW now that's a scary thought it doesn't matter how good your army is if Nightmare can just steal it's streingth and feed it to her army to keep them healthy and strong.
145607 Woops. I actually misspelled it the first time, deleted it, then misspelled it again
145767 sfw.chanarchive.org/content/63_x/6840546/1295856848042.jpg
145783 Ha ha! I don't even!
145816 Her eyes are still purple, but they shift when she glares at others. She's unintentionally drawing on Nightmare's skill with intimidation.
145866 he he, the best way to describe it is to say that it is a noodle incident. literally!
145969 I know! I might the whole story!
And don't worry, Tonto, your part isn't done yet, either!
Rebelfire, Oh a fellow troper! Aw now I'll have to wonder just what went wrong that day noodle incoidents are only funny if you don't find out what happened. Because of this I'm claiming the pasta came to life as an unholy abomination of noodle, flame, and marenara sausce and that it took the three of use to put down said beast somehow a good chunk of my fur and possibly mane got burnt off in the process! I claim the noodle demon because it sounds like the kind of weirdness that would happen if the FiM crew wanted to write a script that would feel at home on late night TV.
146569 Only you would bring the FSM to Equestria
Oh this is nothing you should how odd my trians of though got befour I gave up soda about four years ago. I had rather bad addiction to the stuff and it got my brain going into overdrive, I got weird ideas and ran with them and I mean trying to get Outlaw Star and Star Trek TNG to work in the same reality kind of wierd. Though the real winner had to be the Spiderman TAS and Legend of Legaia crossover I tried to puzzle out a few times. Hell you should see how obseevis i get with video games, first day I got Civ IV working I played for nine hours straight Then we get into Final Fantasy Tactics yeash I have spent far too much time on that thing stufpid Chapter Three closing battles!
Getting back on the topic of the fic, is it me or is Nightmare starting to become more casule with Twilight? I'm not sure if it started in the chapter or the last but she's beging to addressing Twilight with a bit less formality for example she's just using "Twilight" as oppossed to "Twilight Sparkle."
Now we return to our Assassin's tale...
~Night on the town~
The city of Wintertrot, the furthest city of the kingdom of Equestria lay in the shadow of the white cap mountain range. The mountain range aptly named for it's ever present cap of snow was an unwelcoming, bleak landscape. Wintertrot by contrast was warm and always busy. Nopony would be out here if not for the vast mineral wealth of mountains.
Mines churned out mine carts full of essential materials, Iron ore, Gold, Silver, Copper and gems made Wintertrot one of the wealthiest settlements in all Equestria. Food was mostly imported as the near constant snowfall made it impossible to grow food outside of greenhouses. The refineries sent a steady stream of smoke up into the sky, keeping the city warm as if churned out the necessary refined bars of Gold, Metal and polished gemstones. The supplies were sent out like clockwork coinciding with the delivery of food supplies.
Three barrels of Sweet apple acres, apple Cider were set out by the loading bay of the distribution centre's warehouse. When the workers delivering the cider left, a blade from within the largest barrel pierced the wax seal from inside and carefully cut it open. The lid was popped off as a Earth Pony mare, and a disgruntled unicorn emerged.
"You wield your weapon well initiate, get snowball so we can be on our way"
The Earth Pony nodded curtly, and rapped one barrel, no response, she wandered over to the second and rapped it. A brief pause, before the reply rap came. Wordlessly the initiate broke the wax seal on the barrel, and tipped it over gently , allowing a tall, slender snow white mare wearing a white robe to emerge.
"Was a barrel the only way to get in Crow?" The White mare whined, inspecting her hoofs for damage.
"It was the safest way, Pegasi patrol the borders, and their are Unicorns adept at picking up strong surges of magic, like teleportation spells. Our mission is too important to risk being discovered Snowball." The unicorn stallion spoke with an annoyed tone
"Let us proceed" Crow, led the group out of the warehouse, Tick Tock's description of the Warehouse's layout was accurate as always. Their window of opportunity was small, they had 2 days to find their target and make it back to Everfree. Tick Tock had said they would be needed there, a major event was about to take place.
They approached a side door to the warehouse. It was rigged to an alarm, system. Calmly Snowball opened a small set of tools and levitated them using her magic and manipulating them with her forehooves as she carefully disabled the alarm. The initiate watched, observing as she had been told to do, her Master was specific that she watch and learn.
She wouldn't be able to do as many things simultaneously as Snowball could with her magic. But she could pick a simple lock. She waited for snowball to finish and flicked out a pin and screwdriver. Carefully feeling for the pins and unlocking the door, with a satisfyingly soft click. Pushing open the door the initiate carefully scoped out the area and let Crow and Snowball take the lead.
*****
The biting cold and constant snowfall made Snowball practically invisible. The semi-permanent slush on the streets made them all grateful they had taken Tick Tock's orders to heart and worn a pair of fur lined boots. Their cloaks were thin and unsuitable for this weather. Only Snowball had any winter protection, a white scarf that matched her coat and cloak perfectly was wrapped around her her face and neck. Leaving her sapphire blue eyes the only part of her head visible.
The initiate shivered, doing her best to hide her discomfort, Crow had a fire gem locked into a slot in his armour, generating enough warmth for him. Her shivering caught Snowballs eye, who immediately looked her over. Concern written in her eyes. She reached into her saddlebag and extracted a fur trimmed jacket.
"Darling you must be absolutely frigid."
The initiate didn't respond, instead looking away.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of dear, not everyone can think as long term as myself."
She levitated the jacket forward and with a small flash the initiate was wearing the comfortable and cozy garment. The initiate managed a weak smile as Crow pressed on impatiently, forcing Snowball and the initiate to trot after him quickly.
They arrived at a tavern named the caged stallion. A puppet stallion was locked inside an old iron cage and suspended by a chain from the overhanging roof. They entered and paid for a single room, ascending the stairs they entered the small but warm room, a small fire was burning by a chimney and two cots lay in the room, with a chair set in front of the fire for what could be assumed as night-time reading.
Unfolding a scroll, Crow cast a silencing spell, making the room soundproof. The scroll had the image of a Royal Guard Stallion, his face was young and his fur was white, like most of Celestia's Royal Guards, he was a Pegasus. All three examined his features committing them to memory, the initiate remembered her first lesson on memory. She focused on the little details that distinguished the stallion from the other Pegasi guards. Most notably the cutie-mark which was a bulwark shield, not commonly used in modern equestrian army due to the heavy weight off-balancing most stallions, with Unicorns being the most effective users, of such shields.
"Our target is Captain Headstrong, he was spied on his way to Wintertrot by one of our informants." Crow, telekinetically opened a flask he was carrying and took a sip before continuing.
" He seeks to rally this city's guard regiment and march them off to die in a fruitless assault against our queen. These guard ponies would better serve the queen alive, protecting this fair city."
"Indeed Crow? Why not let them die? Surely Queen Moon would be better off without a guard regiment waiting to stab her in the back?"
"The greatest victory Snowball, is making your enemies realize they were wrong to oppose you. When word reaches Wintertrot of our Queen's inevitable victory, all spirit of rebellion will be crushed. And Queen Moon will have a city's guard regiment at her beck and call should she need it."
Snowball nodded in agreement, the initiate watching the two discuss some of the finer details, she stood there, quietly as ever. Making mental notes on how they acted towards one another, Crow was all business, whilst Snowball always seemed to be making an effort to get Crow to let her scout out the Captain's location.
*****
Cold Moonlight pierced the cloud cover over Wintertrot. The intensity of the light indicated it was the new day cycle, casting the city in a ghostly white light. Snow fell lightly, dissolving in puddles or adding to the piles of snowdrift that were carted out of the city each day. Captain Headstrong was sleeping in the attic of an old mare, who'd been willing to let him rent it out. The attic was a little chilly, but thick insulation in the walls and floor kept the worst of the chill at bay. He slept in a bed, made for a single pony and awoke as he always did at precisely 06:30am.
The Captain stretched out, and suited up. It had taken him a day to learn the location of the guard house. And now he was well rested he would make his way there. He trotted downstairs, being careful to stay quiet not wanting to wake the old mare and quietly left out the front door, pushing her house key back in through the letter box. The chill wind bit into him, but he did his best to ignore it, confident he could reach the guard house undisturbed.
The trek through the dark city was rather depressing. He'd expected to see Ponies in fear of the night or staying in doors. Instead he found an industrious City continuing to work diligently as ever. He spotted a Guard Pony regulating traffic at an intersection, Ponies pulling carts of various good came and went. And it seemed impossible to approach the guard Pony short of flying. Unfurling his wings he prepared to do so, and flew over to ask for directions.
*****
The initiate stood by as Snowball paid a colt wrapped in a heavy hoodie. They had managed to find a network of runners that delivered messages between various refineries and warehouses, and bribed a few runners to keep an eye out for the Captain. The fruits of two days searching were paying off as he'd been sighted on the way to the local guard house.
Snowball led the initiate through the alleyways, steam rose out of various vents as buildings exuded the excess heat to prevent pressure building up. The alleyways were mildly warmer than the streets and were quieter too, fewer ponies were back here besides the one's doing their jobs, unloading crates or pulling supply carriages.
Snowball wordlessly began sprinting, her longer legs keeping her further ahead of the initiate as she leapt and used her hooves to do a small trot along a wall, before leaping off and pulling herself onto the fire escape. The initiate rather than waiting for the ladder imitated her and almost fell short, her shorter legs would've caused her to fall if not for the hidden blade presented to her for passing her leap of faith. Using the blade she levered herself up and followed Snowball who had continued up the fire escape.
They arrived atop the rooftops, the winds were biting into their coats as they trudged along the rooftops. Snowball creating temporary bridges of magic that allowed them to cross the larger gaps such as across the busy streets. The wind only made the journey more treacherous as it tried to tease them close to the edge of the magical bridges they had to cross.
Ultimately they made it to their destination, the initiate spotted a Stallion wearing the royal armour and pointed him out to Snowball. Snowball grinned and lay down on her stomach, extracting a queer piece of finely engraved metal, detailed with small flowers and which stretched out into a full longbow. She passed the initiate a spyglass.
"Make sure it's him while I line up the shot."
Nodding the initiate followed the Stallion, looking at his flank. She could make out the bulwark shield against the snowfall, and nodded letting Snowball take the shot. The bow fired an arrow which curved in the air. Snowball had lined her shot up with the wind patterns allowing it to fly in a near straight pattern. The arrow exploded in a small puff of black smoke as it hit the captain on the left wing.
He fell, but not far enough. Managing to land on a rooftop two blocks away. Snowball groaned in frustration.
"Of all the rotten luck, he's close to one of the patrol routes, Crow warned us about."
She folded her bow and packed it away.
"I guess we'll have to do this the old fashioned way."
*****
Captain headstrong felt the arrow pierce his left wing, his flight pattern fumbled, but wasn't irrecoverable. Until the magical explosive went off. Pain shot through his wing as feathers and flesh fell away. He started to descend, the feeling of butterflies was terrible as the wind began batting him around. Using his now mismatched wings, Headstrong steered himself towards a low, solid rooftop. The snow softened the blow, but he was still winded, his wing ached and his body was chilled by the snow.
Struggling onto his hooves, he began making his way over to the first door he saw. It was locked tight on the other side, a key was needed to get inside, which only left the fire escape. He started to walk over when the sound of snow crunching caught his attention. He ducked low as a thin blade knocked his helmet off and set him off balance.
He turned and saw an elegant Unicorn wielding the weapon, wrapped in her invisible white aura. The blade lunged forward, headstrong back stepped and pulled out his own sword parrying the blow. He placed the sword in his mouth and extracted a bulwark shield clipped to his right side and placed it on his right hoof.
The elegant blade rained down quick successive blows as Headstrong blocked them with his hefty shield. And began to slowly advance. He focused solely on getting close to the unicorn who kept a cheeky smile on her face as she fought. Headstrong was finally within striking distance of the White unicorn he raised his sword, but felt the unicorn exert more force on his blade, dislodging it from his grip, along with her own blade. Some will say a shield is solely to defend, Headstrong knew that wasn't the case and slammed his shield at the unicorn who erected a small barrier. She was dangerously close to the edge of the rooftops now, and Headstrong saw it would only take one more push.
He attempted to do just that but she was as agile as her thin frame suggested and avoided the shield sidestepping and dancing around him. Headstrong felt the arrow hit the back of his head. He looked up and saw a magnificent metal bow, the Assassin had been leading him the whole fight. He fell over the edge but did not hit the ground.
The initiate waited just below the edge on the firm scaffolding being used to replace several broken windows. She watched the fight take place and ducked down once Snowball dodged to the side, or else she would've been seen by the captain. Captain Headstrong fell but the initiate caught him before he could slip away to the streets below. She hoisted him onto her back and made it onto the roof. Snowball was waiting packing away her weapons and examining the Captain's shield.
"It's a fine piece really, family emblem engraved here and a stamp certifying it's place of origin as Stalliongrad, 200 years ago. Quite marvellous really, I'm sure Tick Tock would love to discuss it's history."
Snowball rambled on whilst the initiate closed Headstrong's eyes and plucked a bloody feather from his damaged wing. Pocketing it as Tick Tock instructed her to always do. They carried the body in a burlap sack as they made their way out back to the tavern. It was cleverly concealed by Snowball to look like the initiate was carrying a sack of laundry.
*****
"You were successful I take it?" Crow was sitting in front of the fire, reading an old worn leather bound book.
The initiate extracted the feather, which Crow brought over to himself.
"Very good, pack your things, we leave tonight."
Snowball walked over to her bed and began packing her saddlebags, the initiate stood still. She'd brought nothing worth packing and merely waited attentively so they could leave.
-------------------------
And that is part three of the Assassin chronicles. Tune in next time for the initiate's first kill (I promise it will be Epic)
What the buck? Comments thing at tops says 855. Comments thing at bottom says 820. WHERE ARE THE OTHER 35!?!?!
147350 The bit at the top says 822 on my PC. Also the latest Assassin chapter took FOR-E-VER to write . Hope you all Like it .
Did it for ya Jekyll. Or maybe not.
147357 Yeah, it fixed itself now. Don't know what was going on The newest installment of the assassins was pretty badass. Snowball reminds me of Rarity
So, while I'm thinking about it, does ANYPONY know what the referrals thing is? I've got no clue.
147372 YES! you got what I was going for with Snowball. A generous, stylish Assassin. Who's fashionable and efficient. Also Crow is the unnamed Stallion Unicorn that's been on stand by during Tick Tock's missions.
Also sorry, dunno anything about referrals I'm afraid.
Oh and if you could, would you mind mentioning Wintertrot in your next chapter or a future chapter. As I explained in the Assassin story it's an industrious Mining city. Such a cold climate breeds tough, hard-working Ponies so if you get the chance to show that off in your story I'd appreciate it .
147372
147412
The referrals thing refers to all the ways readers have come to your story.
Google, EQD, etc.etc.
147441 That's pretty badflank that fimfiction keeps track of that.
147412 Sure! Nightmare needs more places for recruits to come in from anyhooves.
Tonto, great work on this installment, we get to learn a bit more about Tick Tock values by seing the kinds of ponies he works with. We also see that he knows enough to assign the right pony to the right job, I'm not sure how much of a time sip there is between this install ment and the second but we see that he has fiath enough in the initiate to send her on a job like this and trust nowball and Crow enough to not only get the job done but also trian her properly. He sound's like he'd be a rather good leader.
Oh brainwave, what happens when the Ponyvill recruits arrive at new Mareland Castle? Unless Peppy throws one hell of a curve ball and none of the EoH get drafted at least two of them will show up at said castle and well it'll be intresting to see how they react to said situation. Aside from Twilight, Nightmare and Moon Beam Gilda and Cloudy will be about and that could provoke some intresting interactions.
147924 Yeah, one of Tick Tock's many talents is seeing talent and potential where no-one else does. Part 3 is set about 3 days after the last instalment and ends 5 days after it. Currently the Assassin Story is about to catch up to the events of the failed Royal Guard assault at New Mareland. I assure you Tick Tock and his companions played a vital role in that battle and you will read about it in the next instalment. In fact I will try to get the next part up tonight. I'm in the right mind set and I will include a prologue explaining what Tick Tock was up to the last two days.
Hmm, this sound intresting, if I'm reading you right it sounds like Tick Tock had some better insitght on matter the Nightmare if he was able to isolate a division or two of troops from the battle at New Mareland castle. Speaking of that though I wonder if he would have approoved of Brooks methods for trying to off the Queen?
148051 He would've been impressed at Brook's skill with Espionage Janus, but he could never trust Silent Brook because of it. He wouldn't have approved of her reasons for killing Queen Moon. He is devoted to Nightmare Moon for his own reasons, but he could appreciate the patience and acting Silent Brook employed during her time at the Palace. And when he learns about how close Brook got to killing the Queen, I can assure you he'll be taking steps to protect the queen in future.
Indirectly of course, he isn't ready to reveal himself or the small cabal of Assassin's he's assembled. He'll want to do it properly, with a decent number of assassin's in his organisation. Currently it stands at around 5 members he feels are trustworthy and 4 skilled enough to be considered Assassin's. As for Tick Tock's past, I may devote a chapter or two to it, when Peppy's taking awhile getting the next update out so you can all look forward to that as well.
As for what part of the battle he'll be involved in, in the next part of the tale. Give me an hour and you'll see
Tonto,I can understand that it's a feild very close to his own so while he wouldn't approver of her reasons for targeting the Queen he can still see and appreacate the skill that went into her work.
So I take it that he'd be keeping an eye on Twilight? While we know that she will never turn on her Queen Tick Tock wouldn't and given Twilight's status as Celestia's prized student and the recent betrayle of Brook I can see him being very wery of Twilight atleast untill the insodent with the Griffon assisn, I doubt any saboture would take thier act to that kind of extream.
148514 Oh goody!
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw2128-roflbot.jpg
148612 I aim to please
148947 Well I think its fair i get the final laugh here.... so HAHA
Edit Decided to delete this long story comment and give you a link to the story
After That Fateful Night - The Assassin's Story Link
148299 So many ideas sprung to my mind when I saw this town. It took a while for it to sink in, but I could pretty much imagine it, so this is what I came up with (WARNING! LONG!):
~
Cloudy walked through the snowy weather towards what looked like a tavern. If it weren't so damn cold here, she would have sighed with exhaustion, But she knew that she would have plenty of time for that in the warmth of the building ahead. She did grumble to herself, however, "I'll never understand why the Queen wanted me to do this alone in this frozen place. Damned if I don't freeze to death before she could even talk to the mayor of this city." By the time she finished her self lament, she had reached the tavern door. Wanting to get out of the frost as quickly as possible, she shot through the door and into the warmth.
She could immediately feel the warmth through the layers of clothing wrapped tightly around her body. She took a look around the room: there was only one pony at the bar, slouched over his ale and looking solemn, there were several other diners strewn throughout the room at various tables, and the most prominent feature: a huge blazing fire pit in the middle of the room, which was extruding the massive amount of heat in the room. She longed to sit as closely as possible to the pit, but she knew to do that she would have to take off her wrappings and that would give her position, her now dark fur and missing wing a dead giveaway.
So she settled on sitting next to the solemn looking pony at the bar, who turned his head and grunted a greeting to her. She gave a slight nod in acknowledgement as the bartender approached and asked, "What can I get for yah?" Cloudy thought on this for a moment and answered, "An ale, please." The pegasus beside her looked up and said, "Better make that a double." Turning his head and looking with dislike at a golden yellow earth pony sitting by the fire he added, "Better make that a triple. On me." The bartender nodded at this, knowing that it was going to be another long night.
Cloudy turned and said, "That was awfully generous of you." The pegasus just grunted and replied, "It looked like you needed it. Hell, you came and sat down in the darkest corner of the bar next to the gloomiest looking pony in the bar. Plus..." he trailed off as he looked towards the gold pony again and finished, "It's going to be another long night." Cloudy merely grunted in response, and looked at the gold pony by the fire with renewed interest. He appeared to be on his own, as well, but he neither had food nor drink at his table. It almost seemed as though he was preparing for something. Her train of thought was interrupted as the bartender returned with the drinks. Cloudy gave her a small smile and a nod as she wrapped her hooves around the drink.
Any thoughts she had about the pony by the fire were answered when he stood up and began to talk. "You ponies don't know just how lucky you are. You owe your houses, your clothes, your very lively hoods to Princess Celestia! And how do you repay her kindness? You sit around in a tavern all night, not giving one thought to bringing her back!" The pegasus beside her shifted and he shouted out, "Oh shut up, you've been pandering out that crap for days. We're bucking tired of it!" Any shock Cloudy felt at the treasonous pony were covered by the loud shout from directly beside her.
"Oh? Crap you call it? My loyalty to the true ruler of these lands is not 'crap' as you call it. We lived under peace and prosperity under her rule!" "What kind of ruler banishes somepony to the moon for one thousand years because they did something they didn't like? The Queen ain't done anything to change this town, and its doubtful she will." the pegasus responded. "And have you not heard of the Queens reforms on the wealthy? Surely you see how this will affect your way of life!" The pegasus gave a small chuckle and responded, "Hah, I've heard. But I'd doubt you could get away with calling anyone here wealthy, they'd probably consider it an insult! We have wealth here, yes, but nopony is wealthy. I don't know what you did where you come from, be everypony works for a living here." This was accompanied by murmurs of agreement from ponies around the bar.
The golden pony didn't stop, ignoring the fact that he wasn't making any headway on the crowd around him. "And how do you explain the recent battle at the new castle? The fact that war with the griffons looms on the horizon? These were never problems under Celestia's rule." "You mean the battle that Celestia's guard started! you can hardly call them saints. They slaughtered everypony in their way to the Queen. Everypony. My brother. His family. MY FAMILY." The pegasus was shaking now. Cloudy could see the anger practically seeping from him.
"And because your family decided to side against the Princess, that's my problem?" "MY brother joined the army to give a better life to his family. Because those rat bastards that you're defending were tearing up the countryside looking for ponies to conscript would have left that family in ruins!" The pegasus was livid now, every moment of the conversation was only fueling his rage more and more. "I can't understand why you continue to defend that dumbass of a br-"
He was cut off as the pegasus leapt to his feet and shouted, "You shut your bucking mouth before I make you! My brother was a good pony, and what did those guards do? They slaughtered his entire family, the entire town because he joined the Queen's army! The only dumbass I see here is you!" The golden pony sneered at this and responded, "I see stubbornness runs in your family, as well as idocy-"
He was cut off once again, this time by a hoof to his face. "I told you to bucking shut your mouth." The gold pony stood up, the sneer still on his face. In his arrogance, he mistook the punch and the anger as sheer stupidity. "Such foolishness. You've never earned any kind of happiness, you worthless excuse of a pony!"
The pegasus snapped. He leaped onto the earth pony and began smashing his hooves into the ponies face. Nopony in the room moved as the beating continued, the cries of agony ignored. this continued for a minute, and eventually the cries died down and stopped and finally, with a final heave with both hooves, the pegasus smashed down with a resounding crack. Panting and covered in a few droplets of blood he removed the money pouch from the dead pony and passed it to the bartender saying, "I'll be back tomorrow to pay off the rest of the damages. I'll take that... trash with me tonight, though."
He plopped down next to Cloudy again and said with a smile, "M'names Oretread. What's your story?"
~
EDIT: damn, I have some timing there, two epic long posts in a row. Curse you, Tonto!
BY CELESTIA'S BEARD! This will take a minute to read
OH! While I'm thinking about it, I added a scene to chapter 4 (the dinner scene) by request of Jekyll so don't forget to go back and check that out!