The Nightblade

by There Is Nothing Here

Exile

Midnight closed his eyes, preparing for the blow of Varkil's axe. He was done resisting, the guards were dead, and yet he stood chained to the floor before the greatest tyrant any world had ever seen, and her mindless executioner.

Midnight waited, but never felt the hit. He opened his eyes and looked at Varkil, who still had his axe raised. He looked at Varkil, who's eyes were no longer growing red. He winked at Midnight, and from under his hoof, slid Midnight the key to his bindings. Varkil must have had the will to resist Celestia's spell.

"No warrior would go down without a fight." Midnight thought to himself.

Varkil lowered his axe. Celestia turned her head around.

"Varkil! Why is he still standing!"

"I was born a warrior, not a puppet."

"What?"

Varkil launched his axe at Celestia. Midnight grabbed the key and set himself free from the two final chains. Celestia ducked under the axe. But as the blade flew over her head, Varkil grabbed it and held the handle around her throat.

"Midnight now! Finish her!"

Celestia strained, attempting to shake Varkil off of her. The sheer force crushing her throat was too much, she couldn't focus her power to cast a spell. Midnight grabbed his blade from off of the floor.

"Thus ends the reign of a tyrant."

Midnight approached Celestia, who was still squirming to get free of Varkil's grip. The assassin lunged at the princess with his blade extended. Celestia's eyes widened as she saw the sharp edge of Midnight's knife. She struggled with all her might, and flipped Varkil over, in front of her.

The assassin's eyes widened. Time appeared to be in slow motion as he lunged towards Varkil with his blade extended. Varkil gazed into Midnight eyes, knowing that this was the end. The look in his eyes made Midnight cringe. He attempted to retract his knife, but it was too late.

The edge of the blade pierced through Varkil's armor and became lodged in between his shoulder and his neck. Varkil screeched in pain as the blade penetrated his skin. He and Celestia both fell to the floor. Midnight landed only inches away from the petrified warrior.

Blood sprayed from Varkil's body as he attempted to remove the dagger from his shoulder.

"Varkil don't!"

The warrior didn't listened, he pulled harder and harder. Finally he tore the blade out, nearly severing his own arm. He howled in pain as he slid the bloody weapon towards Midnight.

"Go... now. Before she gets up! Run, run Midnight."

Varkil's voice died down. His body became limp as a pool of blood surrounded his body.

"Varkil..."

Midnight extended his hoof towards the warrior, but pulled it back. Celestia's legs began trembling as she began to stand. The assassin bolted out of the castle. As he ran he heard Celestia's voice echoing throughout the halls.

"The darkness rules over this land Midnight! Do not resist it!"

The assassin ran. As he reached the exit of the castle, his path was blocked by a row of Celestia's guards.

"You're not going anywhere Midnight."

"Are you all so blind! Can you not see what that bitch has done to our homes! Your families now suffer from the conditions they are now forced to live under, yet you continue to serve a tyrant!"

"We are sworn to Celestia. Let this land burn and rot if that is the will of our lord."

Just like all the rest, they had gone mad. Blindly obeying Celestia's every command no matter what the task.

"Let me pass. And I shall spare your lives. Do you not value your own life!?"

"Our lives are of no value, only the security and commands of our lord matter."

Midnight sheathed his blade.

"So be it."

The guards charged at Midnight. Every one of them mindlessly swinging their weapons, each of them with the intent to kill.

"Stop."

The guards halted as Celestia's voice boomed.

"Stand down. You cannot win against him, besides, I may have use for you later. Can't have you all getting killed for no reason can I."

Celestia didn't care for the safety of her guards, she just wanted them to live so that they could kill Midnight using different tactics, as a direct approach had already failed, and he was chained up.

"Yes my liege."

The guards lowered their weapons.

"Midnight."

The assassin turned around and look at Celestia. But this was no longer Celestia. Her coat had faded from a bright white to a dark grayish color. Her mane had turned a dark red and blood dripped from it. Her hair no longer flowed instead, it fell straight down, covering her left eye.

"I can't finish you today. After what you've done today, I won't even attempt to kill you. But this won't end, until one of us falls to the ground, never to rise again. And I can assure you, it won't be me."

Midnight was silent.

"I'm looking forward to it."

Midnight left the castle, and walked out of the front gates of Canterlot.

"We'll meet again soon."

---

"Midnight!"

The assassin stopped and turned his head. There he saw a teal mare running towards him.

"Midnight!"

It was Thalma. Midnight turned around and the former adviser stopped cold in her tracks.

"What do you want Thalma?"

"You can't leave! Celestia will crush Canterlot without some form of resistance."

The two stood silent. Thalma looking at Midnight with a helpless look while he stared at the cold hard ground. She put her hoof on his shoulder. He jerked himself away and spoke.

"So what Thalma!? Am I just a pawn on a chessboard to you?

The unicorn jumped back as the assassin's tone changed.

"So what, you want me to exhaust my energy fighting Celestia and then what? You step in and kick me to the side and assume command? Just like you've always wanted."

"No Midnight! I know I've done some terrible things in the past, but this is still my home, and I'll fight to my last breath to save it."

Midnight was silent. His cloak blew in the wind, covering most of his face. He turned around and spoke silently, his voice muffled beneath the wind.

"Our home is no longer."

The assassin began to walk towards the forest away from Canterlot.

Thalma began to follow him.

"No. Don't follow me."

The teal unicorn paused.

"Go back to Canterlot. If Celestia finds out you're talking to me she'll kill you."

"And why exactly would you care?"

Midnight stopped, and turned around. He looked Thalma in her eye and spoke.

"Because with all the hell that has broken loose here, any pony with a brain or heart, should be left alive. And I don't know why, but I suspect that you still have a speck of sanity left within you. Now go back to Canterlot. Now."

Thalma whirled around and dashed back to Canterlot. Midnight continued onward away from Canterlot, and into exile.

---

The assassin grew tired of walking. He knew his way around Equestria, he knew the only place that would keep him safe was the depths of the Everfree Forest. Yea it was predictable no doubt, but not even the top of Celestia's guard would brave the depths. The only ones capable of going that far were Midnight and Varkil, and he was dead. The black stallion figured he could hide out their long enough to come up with some sort of plan. Or just wait until Celestia's army became weak enough to finish off. But then what? Even if Celestia was brought down, who would rule? Midnight knew that in his heart, he couldn't lead this world into greatness, he was an assassin. A pony of shadows and stealth, not a leader. Maybe Thalma? But could she even be trusted? Tons of questions flew through Midnight's head as he traveled to the Everfree Forest.

He picked his head up and looked far into the distance. A midst the fog and darkness of the night, he could see the edge of the damned forest. He spotted a small town not far from the edge of the forest. A nameless town, that many years later, would be given the name Ponyville. He decided to stop for a quick rest, surely word had not spread this far from Canterlot already. As he approached the town, he covered his head with his cloak. Surely other ponies would recognize him and the last thing he needed was to draw attention to himself.

He slowly walked through the town, it was in no better shape than anywhere else in Equestria. Windows were shattered, roofs had caved in. The grass in the yards were dead and trees stood bare, their dead leaves lining the streets. Most buildings looked like they had been abandoned for years, but it had only been a few months. There was absolutely no law, criminals ruled and any kind of disaster was neglected. If it didn't affect some pony, they wouldn't help. Everyone was only in it for themselves now, no pony helped each other.

As Midnight approached the inn, he noticed a shadow in the corner of his eye. The shadow lunged at him and knocked him to the ground. In shock Midnight rubbed his head with his hoof, trying to recover from the sudden attack. He opened his eyes, and was staring at a silver short sword, pointed at his throat. He looked up at his attacker, a light gray mare, with soft pink eyes staring at him menacingly. Midnight could sense the weakness in this pony, whatever she was trying to accomplish, she wasn't happy with these methods.

"Hand over the bits." the mare said.

She trembled lightly as she spoke.

Midnight attempted to stand up.

"Don't get up! I'll, I'll slash you if I have to!"

"Easy now."

Midnight spoke softly as he stood up.

"Get down!"

The mares tone became angry, but Midnight still sensed fear in her. She was only doing this because she had to, while it was terrible, it's what most ponies were reduced to these days. Jobs were a scarce and most ponies had become thieves or assassin's as a way of surviving. Equestria's residents were in all out war, with each other.

"Think about what you're doing. Are you any better than the rest of the thieves in this wasteland? Killing and stealing from others only to further your own end? You shouldn't be fighting us, you should be fighting the problem."

"Shut up! Just be quiet!"

The gray mare still continued to ignore Midnight's word, and only shouted and threatened him as a response.

"Look, I'm going to give you one chance to put your sword away, and walk away."

"Oh yeah? And who's going to make me?"

Almost instantly, Midnight spun around and kicked the mares sword out of her grip. She turned her head to look at her blade, when the black stallion finished his spin, and delivered a swift blow to the right side of her face.

She fell to the ground, cracking her jaw on the hard stone street. Blood began to pour out of the left side of her mouth where Midnight had struck her. The assassin knelt down and put his hoof on the mares neck.

"Shit."

He muttered as he pulled his arm away from the mare. She was dead, she must have cracked her jaw open on the stone street. The assassin dragged the mare away from the street. He found a bush behind one of the houses and moved towards it. He laid the mares body in between the house and the shrub.

As he walked away towards the inn he thought to himself,

"Why. Why did I have to kill her? She's a victim, just like every pony else around here, it's not her fault. I mean just think, when they find her body, who's going to care? They'll probably be happy that they get to keep whatever was left on her and then walk away like nothing happened. No pony's going to care that she's dead, it's just free stuff to them. At least now it is."

Hundreds of thoughts went through the assassin's mind. He didn't even know who that mare was, and yet he felt so sorry for her. That all she wanted to do was live her life, until Equestria turned into the biggest hellhole on the planet. In order to survive she turned to thievery, and now paid with her life. It really was terrible.

You'd think an assassin would feel no pity for the dead, but Midnight was no mindless murderer. Every time he was ordered to kill someone as a rookie, when he had no say in anything, he would think.

"Does this pony deserve to die? Was what they did really a crime that should be punished by the end of their life?"

If he didn't care about life, he wouldn't be exiled from Canterlot. He would be happily serving a corrupt rule, I mean, what assassin wouldn't love carrying out a tyrants dirty work? Midnight.

He was always given a bad reputation around Equestria because of his label. When you think assassin, you think murderer, cruel, relentless, kill, cold-hearted, and yet none of these apply to the assassin of Celestia's council. But every pony failed to realize that. And with that thought, he entered the inn.