> Dishonored: A shadow of hope
>  by Pitch Black
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

                             Chapter 1



I was at a party. I don't mean as a birthday party, but rather as in a sort of celebration much similar to the ‘Grand galloping gala’. On any other occasion this would be perfectly fine, joyful even. Not every stallion from the lover class gets to attend this kind of celebrations, especially an earth pony scientists of the lover class, regardless of their achievements.

The room in which the celebration was held was enormous, I literary couldn't see the end of it. At the other side of the room was stretched an equally long buffet table filled with all sorts of pastries and other exotic food that I can’t name. The room itself was built in old Equestrian style: long quartz pillars, marble floor and stained glass windows depicting some important historical events.

Some ponies talked amongst each other, but I couldn't understand any of it because their voices melded in to a murmur that I couldn't understand from a distance, and I didn't want to eavesdrop on any pony’s conversation. The other ponies danced to the slow classical music that was played, I was bad at dancing so I didn't pay much attention to them.

After getting over the fact that I was attending one of the royal parties, a numerous number of questions popped in my head: how did I get here, am I dressed properly, how should I behave, why don’t any of the ponies have faces, who’s that dark blue alicorn next to Celestia?

‘‘Wait…what were the last two?’’ I thought out loud and started to observe my surroundings. I was right, the ponies didn’t have faces. That scared the hell out of me, not as much for the fact that they didn’t have faces but the fact that I could still hear mummers amongst the crowd, but when I got close to one of them, nothing. They were silent, as if the sound was coming from the air itself.

I was also right about the alicorn. She stood next to Celestia and appeared to be talking with her. I must ask who she is, later. Her coat was dark blue, but I wasn’t sure, they were at the far back of the room and even though they were tall they were just too far from me to be able to see clearly and the crowd of faceless ponies didn’t help either. I was perplexed, up until now I thought that the only alicorns were Celestia and Candace.

The other thing that I've noticed is that nothing was detailed. The clothes that the ponies wore didn’t have any complex patterns, or anything indicating that it was more than just a piece of white cloth with strange patterns painted on it. That was the case with the mares at least. The stallions had it much worse, it seemed that they didn’t wear a suit, but rather that their coat was colored to look as if they wore one, which was rather hilarious considering all the different coat coloration's.

There was only one more noteworthy thing in that enormous room. On the walls hung six portraits of six gorgeous mares, everyone beautiful in a different way. Be it class, cuteness, build or some other trait, they were perfect to put it bluntly. I have learnt not to judge a book by its cover, in a bad way so to say.

When I was first introduced to the royals I was very disappointed, but that would be putting it too gently. They treated me like trash, like I was a walking-talking nettle bush. They laughed at my inventions, sabotaged some of them and the list goes on and on. Furthermore my pay is so low that the newest recruit of the guards earns more than me, thanks to those slime balls. The only good things in the council were Candace and Celestia, they gave me hope and comfort that not every pony was such a greedy bastard.

‘‘Are you enjoying the party, Shadow Forge?’’ asked a feminine voice right behind me, startling me out of my thoughts. My heart was racing faster than a pony running from the tax collector, it took me a minute to catch my breath and ease my nerves.

I turned my head to face the owner of the voice that almost gave me a heart attack, that pony was no other that the unknown alicorn. Taking a look from up close at her I could now clearly see some more specific features, such as the fact that she HAS a FACE, or some more precise as her midnight blue coat and flowing main that looked just like the night sky, surprisingly with the stars. She wore a simple dark-almost-black-purple dress, alongside a silver nacelle with an onyx; shaped as the young moon.  Then I started to examine her face, first thing I noticed was that she was frowning.

‘‘I didn’t mean to scare you,’’ she said in a much softer tone than the one she confronted me with. I could see the guilt in her eyes; she really didn’t mean to scare me. 

I gave her a warm smile and answered: ‘‘it’s quite all right. I was just startled, that’s all.’’

‘‘Oh, well that’s a relief.’’ she said with a sigh. Her gaze was not focused on me but at something behind me.

Curiosity got the better of me and I turned my head to see what she was looking at. Behind me stud a portrait of a timid and shy looking mare, her coat was a soft shade of yellow and she had a long light pink main and tail; she wore a dress that looked like it was grown rather than sown and was surrounded by all sorts of small critters and animals.

Eh, what was so interesting about the portrait? I mean it is very well made and the mare depicted is pretty, but why would she stare at it like that? Then the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I was just a few moments ago facing that same portrait, although I wasn’t paying any attention to it, but from someone else’s perspective I must have looked like a drooling idiot.

A jolt of fear went through my spine, here I was on a high society party staring at a portrait of a pretty mare; way to leave a good impression Shadow. I mentally scolded myself for being such an idiot and doing something so embarrassing in front of a large crowd, well they didn’t have eyes so I doubt they could have seen me.

I facehooved. The only pony that I was sure could see me, and had seen me, was right behind me. Oh, and what was I doing? Well not much, just getting lost in my thoughts while standing IN FRONT of the SAME portrait.

I spun around to face the midnight blue alicorn. I was already forming an explanation in my head. I couldn’t just let her think that, what if it got out to the public, it would ruin me. I’m not a pony that is worried about his image much, ask any of my friends and they will tell you that I have a bad taste in fashion. I never worry about stuff like that, but it was different here and now, these ponies were of high class and many were a part of the council, and I have a bad relation with them as it is. 

The council was comprised entirely out of unicorns; they think that their race is superior to the others. They debate and decide how to run the country. The council, thankfully, doesn’t have full control over everything, Celestia has the last say. The council members, for the most part, just presented new ideas and vote, and always complain how hard their work is.

You must wonder why they hated me. Well that is because I challenged their power and usefulness with my inventions. You see my inventions are made for earth ponies and creatures that can’t use magic, which alone poses a threat to them. They provide raw magic fuel that powers the machines, healing magic that works faster than regular medicine, enchanted tools and weapons. 

Magic fuel is still doing well on the market; I couldn’t mimic all of the machines due to the insufficient power source. I have already found an alternative power source, but couldn’t harness the power fully. I was close to figuring out how to use it to its full potential, but I lacked the material goods and every time I asked for funding I was declined, guess they didn’t want competition.

Even though I was originally a doctor I had no chance against their magic healing, it was fast, almost painless and less scary, the only problem was that if done too many times it could tire a pony out. Zebras still earned a lot of bits for their healing potions; mostly it was bought for the army and the guards, because it’s more practical than having trained medical personnel at every station.

In the weapon manufacturing, efficiency and legality I was in the lead by far. Although weapons are probably the reason I got a job at the palace, because I was too dangerous to be left alone or because they really wanted stronger and more lethal weapons I might never know. I was never a fan of violence and war and I’m not, nor will I ever be proud of what I did, but those were desperate times and I had to earn bits one way or the other.

I‘m sure that this is the main reason that the council hates me; I changed the whole perspective of war tactics with my long range weapons and the captains and generals minds are set on the old war tactics. Only a hoof full of higher ranking ponies do accept the tactic for a few logical reasons; there are less casualties, weapons don’t dent and brake as easily and the only thing that is needed is the ammo and the gun itself.

Seeing as a scandal like this would lessen my already low funds and maybe demote me, they could get most of the council to agree with that idea and the princess couldn’t say anything against the majority.

I was facing the alicorn now, and she was smirking. I better fix this before it’s too late. I had a pretty good explanation, all I had to do is not make a bigger fool of myself than I already have and explain the situation. Ok, this shouldn’t be so hard, right? I took a deep breath and thought about what I was going to say.

‘‘Please don’t mention this to the council or the reporters’’ I blurted out. Why was I so bad at talking to mares or to any pony in a critical situation?

She burst in to a un-lady-like laughter, which lasted a few minutes and through the whole thing I just stared, dumbstruck. Maybe she wasn’t going to tell anypony after all. She was laughing in a manner that showed that she didn’t care what the ponies thought. Hm, did I over-think things? Nah couldn’t be, after all being a little paranoid is healthy.

After she calmed down a little, she brushed off the tears from her eyes and spoke in a tone that was half serious and half `are you serious’ ‘‘You still haven’t figured it out, have you?’’

‘‘Figured what out?’’ I inquired, arching a brow.

“That this is all just a dream. I did such a poor job of creating your dream that I was afraid you would catch on too quickly. Were the signs not obvious?’’ she said frowning; any sign of happiness faded away and all that was present now was sadness and worry. 

‘‘Well the no face thing does look odd and creepy, I have noticed that this room doesn’t have an end and what’s with the stallions being collared as to look that they are wearing a suit,’’ I stated ‘‘But I am not completely sure how this is my dream if you made it. Elaborate please.’’

She gave me smile that I knew oh so well, I smiled like that a lot; it meant that she is about to give me a long lecture as to how she did it. I wish I had a glace of wine. To my surprise a glace appeared in my right hoof. What more it stuck to my hoof, like two oppositely charged magnets, and I didn’t have to hold it in my mouth or with both my hooves, pretty handy actually.

She saw me inspecting the glass and started to explain ‘‘In the dream world almost anything is possible, at least to the person dreaming it, but to other `guests’ it is harder than just a thought. I for one am connected to all dreams in a way that is too complicated to explain at the moment,’’

She took a deep breath and continued: “The answer as to how I made your dream is simple. I connected our dream worlds and melded them into one. The reason why no pony has faces is because usually it would be ponies that you know or had seen their faces for a second but now that there are two minds joined together things just don’t add up, and a blank spaces are left  in their place,’’

She inhaled again. If she continued like this she would get light headed fast, but then again this is just a dream so she might not. I thought about it for a moment and came to a realization, why does she need to breathe at all? 

I looked back at her; she was still explaining why nothing was detailed. I didn’t hear the whole thing, but understood the basics. Apparently this was just one of her memories and she didn’t pay much attention at details and it got even more undetailed when mixed with my mind. That posed another question, why was she here in the first place?

‘‘… That’s it for the most part. I could go in to further detail, but that would require you to know more than the basic rules of magic…’’ She said, but still continued her lecture.

Did she really think that I would listen to all of it? First of all I was an earth pony and didn’t know a lot about magic, nor did I care to learn anything. Second, she was explaining it in painful details and has been at it for good ten minutes or so.

I took a sip of my wine; it tasted great, but I wonder I could change it to something else. I concentrated on something similar, white wine. I guessed if I could make regular red wine that white shouldn’t be a problem. The color of the wine slowly faded and in a few moments all that was left was a clear slightly yellow liquid. I brought the glace to my lips and took a cautious sip. 

Well I'll be damned, it worked; the wine tastes just like it should. Now what should I turn the drink in to now? I haven’t drank a shot of Rakia since the last time I visited my birth country, and that was four or five years ago. Perhaps I should try a glace of vodka or scotch. 

I put a hoof to my chin and started thinking about the last one. I never tried scotch before, I wonder how it tastes. I’ve heard ponies say it tastes like dirty socks, I’ll think about it.

I took another sip of my drink. It tasted weird, like… OH MY FUCKING STARS, WHAT’S IN THIS!? I quickly spat out the discounting liquid; that stuff wasn’t white wine anymore, I wasn’t sure what the hell it was, but I was sure that I would never again take a sniff of it, let alone a sip. 

I rubbed my tongue, trying to get that taste out of my mouth. After doing so for a few minutes the taste faded away enough for me to tolerate it, too bad this was just a dream and I couldn’t throw up, at least that would replace the taste a little.

‘‘That’s what happens when you don’t listen’’ I heard the blue alicorn say, with a tone that mothers use when they tell you not to do something, but you still do it and get hurt a little, then instead of scolding you they just say ‘I told you so’, or something like that. Yea, a rather detailed explanation, I had experienced it perhaps more than I should have. 

I glared at her, panting with my tongue out. She was smirking; she actually found this bloody funny. My fuse was already reaching its end and I didn’t need her laughing at me.

‘‘If you had listened to me you would have known that you shouldn’t think about too many things, drinks in this case, at once, or they will all mix and you get a wish-wash that tastes like…’’ she stopped for a moment, as if she couldn’t find the right word,”well I don’t know how to describe it, the taste is almost always different, but you know what I mean.’’

Yes I do and I don’t want to remember it ever again. I didn’t dare to speak, my mouth was numb and the taste was still present.

‘‘Anyway,’’ she started, “We don’t have time for me to explain everything again. So, do you have any questions?’’

I stared at her for a moment, and then spoke, ‘‘I have three,’’ my voice was raspy and it hurt my throat when I spoke. After this I wouldn’t drink any alcohol for a long time, perhaps never again; well it’s not like I drank a lot, only wine and Rakia, when I could afford it or when my friends treated me, sadly I didn’t have a lot of them.

‘‘First of all who are you?’’ I started asking ‘‘Second: why do you need to breathe if this is just a dream. Third: why are you here, because I doubt you wanted just to chat with me?’’ I stated.

‘‘Oh where are my manners,’’ she apologized and started introducing herself, ‘‘I am Princess Luna, the ruler of the night and all creatures nocturnal, the raiser of the moon and stars, and the co-ruler of Equestia,’’ she stated in a kind of tone that story tellers use.

I snorted at the last one, ‘‘Yea right, like any of that is true. The only ruler of Equestria is Celestia, and the last time I checked she also raised both the sun and the moon,’’ I stated, perhaps a little too roughly.

‘‘Well it has been a long time,’’ she muttered under her breath, more to herself than to anypony else.

‘‘About the second question,’’ she continued, most of her cheerfulness gone, ‘‘If you make a habit of not breathing in the dream world there is a high chance that it will reflect in the real world,’’ she said a little livelier. I rolled my eyes; I could practically feel her shifting into lecture mode. She must have noticed it and just added, ”In short it could cause breathing problems while you sleep,’’

“What about the last one?” I inquired.

She took a deep breath and started speaking, “Equestria is in danger, something horrible is about to happen’’ I wanted to ask her what did this have to do with me exactly, it’s not like I am a trained soldier or something; but she just waved a hoof dismissively and continued,, I am not yet sure what it is exactly, or how it will happen, but I know that very soon Equestria will fall--’’

“And you need me why exactly?’’ I cut her off.

“I need you to listen for once,’’ she continued, slightly irritated, “I’m going to make you an offer. I’ll give you the ability to use magic; it won’t be the same as unicorn magic, but you’ll still be able to use many useful spells,’’

“And you are just going to give me that power, for free?’’ is asked. I was sceptical about all of this. No one just gives you that kind of power, there must be a catch.

“I will not ask any thing in exchange for this power, I just hope that you will use it for the right cause’’ she said. 

She then looked at me with a serious expression, “Equestria will need heroes, someone that will give hope to the ponies and fight against the upcoming evil. Will you, Shadow Forge, be that pony; will you fight for the greater good?’’ she asked in what sounded more like motivational speech than an actual question.

“No,’’ I said simply. I held a serious and straight face and I meant what I said.

“I am glad you agreed to my offer,’’ She started. Well, it was good to know that she doesn’t listen to a bloody thing I say and that she rehearsed the speech,, The power I am about to give you is nothing to be taken lightly, use it with…’’ she stopped in mid-sentence and asked,, Wait, what did you say?’’

“No’’ I repeated, my ton sharp.

“But… but why?’’ she stammered, probably not expecting me to decline her offer, “Why don’t you want to help Equestria?’’

“Well for starters there has been peace in Equestria for the last five hundred years, so I doubt that it  will start a war soon, ’’ I said, my temper rising, “Second: I’ve just met you and you offer me power that no other Earth pony has, I’m a little worried about that. Third: of all the ponies in Equestria why did you choose me, you could have chosen some pony that knows how to fight. What makes me so special?’’

She just laughed at me. Was she insane or something? “Did you really think that you were the only one I offered the power to?’’ she asked, a few bursts of laughter still escaping her.

“Uhh,I… I… don’t know.’’ I wasn’t sure how to answer the question. 

“Well you’re not. I have offered the same power to about a dozen ponies, and they all eagerly accepted It.’’ she said matter-of-factly. 

My jaw dropped; did she just say that she gave such a dangerous power to a bunch of random ponies? I wanted to tell her that that was a horrible idea and a mistake, but she just waved her hoof dismissively, again; I was really getting tired of it. 

“Before you say anything I just want to say that I have full confidence that they will do the right thing,’’ she said a wide grin forming on her face, “Besides, Tia has taught  you ponies the importance of friendship, love and tolerance.’’

I arched a brow “Who, did what?’’

She looked at me in surprise and confusion “You know Tia… Tatiana? ’’

I just shook my head; I had no idea of who she was taking about.

She groaned in annoyance “I’m talking about my sister Tia. Her real name is Tatiana, but I call her by her nickname,’’ she explained, which didn’t do much good as it probably should have. She huffed and said in an irritated and brisk tone, “You know her as Celestia!’’

“Aha, yeah sure.” I said, skeptical.

“You don’t believe me, do you?’’

I gave a long and frustrated sigh, this was going nowhere fast. “Listen, I don't know which mental hospital you escaped from, but I will not agree to any of your deals, for the reasons I have stated previously.’’ 

She just glared at me.

A small earth quake shook the room, and howling winds blew from my right; this did nothing to stop the faceless ponies from dancing.


I looked back at Luna. Something gave me the impression that this was her doing. I didn’t do it, and there hasn’t bine any other intelligent being in this room, at least not that I knew of. Another jolt of fear ran through my spine. Great Shadow, just you anger the possible goddess, I mentally scolded myself. 


The so called ‘Princess of the night’ was faring better than I had. She didn’t seem scared or startled; she just stared distractedly at the ceiling. She then turned her head to look at… Well I’m not sure what she was looking at, but her gaze was directed toward the direction the wind was blowing from.

She stood there for a few moments, and then she turned back to me. She had a stern and serious expression.

,, It seems our time is up.’’ she said, in a calm tone.

“And what do you mean by that?”

“You’ll find out in a few seconds.” She said with a smug smile.

Gulp. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to.

Another earthquake shook the room. It was stronger this time, a lot stronger, strong enough to crack the floor and throw me of my hooves; and still the faceless ponies acted as if nothing was happening. Luna was thrown off balance, but quickly steadied herself. 

She then turned to me, still struggling a little with her balance, and said “We will speak again on a later date, once you are convinced.” Then she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.


Well she didn’t exactly disappear like one of those cheesy stage performers, but instead she herself turned in to a cloud of smoke; if that thing can be called smoke any way. The ‘not smoke’ substance was too black, too thick and wasn’t lumpy enough for me to call it smoke, or associate it with any gas-like substance I knew of. It was completely black, sleek, and it had strait and pointy edges. To be honest if I had to compare it to something it would be a shadow, but this ‘shadow’ looked tangible; a tangible shadow perhaps. To be fair this was a dream and I guess anything was possible, even something as weird as this.

A third earthquake shook the room, this one was the strongest yet. The once solid marble floor started to crack and brake, small and big parts of it crumbled and fell in, what I could only describe as Oblivion/ a vast nothingness that consumed all. The reason I associate the ‘nothingness’ with Oblivion is because after an object falls into it, after freefalling for a certain time (dependable on the objects mass and shape) it would disintegrate into nothingness or you could say it got obliterated, hence the name. I was hoping that only inanimate objects would get obliterated. Those hopes shared the same fate as the faceless ponies after seeing them falling in the void and getting obliterated all the same, while still clinging to their partners and trying to dance or act as if they were talking to somepony.

I ran as fast as I could to the left side of the room, the wind was blowing from the right so it would be easier running with the wind blowing in my back rather than having it blowing in my face and slowing me down. Besides I couldn’t run to the right even if I wanted to, the floor collapsed leaving a large gap between me and the other part of the room, and was dissolving even more at an alarming rate.

After a measly 100 meters distance from my starting point, the dissolving floor had caught up with me. I struggled, and succeeded to maintain my balance as the piece of marble floor started its descent toward the disintegration point. Not wanting to end my life just yet, I ran toward the edge of the broken-off piece of marble floor and jumped on to the other nearest falling stone. This proved to be rather difficult, given the fact that the stone I was standing on had almost turned to a 90* degree angle in comparison to its original position. While I somehow did manage to get to the edge of the rock, there was still the jump, and I had a feeling that gravity was going to interfere in my plans.

I jumped. I made the jump with little hesitation, then again if I failed I didn’t have much more to lose than if I have stayed on the other piece of broken-off marble floor. 

I succeeded in landing on the other rock, well my front hooves and a part of my torso did any way, the rest  of my body wasn’t so lucky. I held on to the surface with my front hooves for my dear life, quite literary, while my back legs trashed uselessly, trying to find some solid ground or find a hard surface to latch on to and elevate me enough to regain a little footing and climb up.  Of course I also wished to be rich and be acknowledged and held in high regards by other ponies, but accurse I knew that would never happen as well as knew that a rock was unlikely to just coincidentally float under me and float me back safely to the room. Those things only happen in cheesy novels and dreams… 

“That’s it!” I yelled out loud, to nopony in particular. I really should stop voicing my thoughts like that, only mad ponies do that and it would be really bad if I did it after seeing a nice looking mare; some rather… interesting thoughts pass my mind from time to time.

I took a deep breath. This is going to go horribly wrong or I’m going to have an amazing stroke of luck. I hoped for the latter.

I didn’t ponder over it for too long, given that my options were 1: die or 2: possibly live or die. Again I didn't have anything to lose, besides my life that would be lost either way. I let go the edge of the marble floor, fell for a second, then I felt my scull hit something hard, and then the rest of my body followed suit.

I got up, groaned and started rubbing the back of my head. While I was pretty lucky not to fall in to the ‘nothingness’, the short fall still hurt. Looking up at the crumbling room, I noticed that I was fairly far from it. I looked at the sections of floor, wall and an occasional faceless pony falling above me, and started to draw the safest, most possible and fastest rout back to the room; once there I will make further plans of my next acti--.

My thoughts were cut off as I lost footing under my left hind leg. Panicking, I scrambled as fast as I could to the edge of the stone and turned back to see what happened. The reason I lost my footing was, to my utter horror, due to the fact that I was at the disintegration point. Panicking I ran off the edge of the now disintegrating piece of marble floor, and tried to get a hold of the nearby table. Of course I was just lucky enough to miss it by a millimeter, just close enough to graze it a little.

Most ponies say that just before you die your life flashes before your eyes and that you see a bright light. I doubted this was true, because my life didn't flash before my eyes and I didn't see a bright light; just a loss of felling in the parts of my body that got disintegrated. 

Once my face had started to disappear I in fact could see a strange, blinding white light. That was strange, either the other ponies had lied about their life flashing before their eyes or… No, it couldn't be, could it? Did death its self just tell me that I need to get a life?

The light just kept getting brighter and brighter as I dissolved more and more. At some point it got so bright that it completely blinded me, then after that followed a felling… no not a felling, but the opposite, a lack of any feeling or senses; just the blinding light that seemed to consume me.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnote: Level up

New perk added: Drink mixer-- after accidentally making that wish-wash of a drink, you are now a little more experienced and a lot more cautious in the art of mixing chemicals and will not drink any alcoholic beverage for some time.
Permanent traits: +3 to chemistry, +2 to alchemy
Timed traits: Resistance to addiction cause by any alcoholic beverage for 6 months
> Chapetr 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

          My eyelids felt heavy. I couldn’t bring myself to open them or move any part of my body, especially my left hoof. For some reason it felt numb, I couldn’t feel or move it. About the rest of my body… well I was just too lazy. My head was resting on a hard, and if slightly sticky surface. There was no light on my left eyelid, and I felt considerably more pressure on the left side of my face, so I assumed that I was sleeping on my left side. Where ever I was sleeping it most certainly wasn’t in my bed, or any kind of bed for that matter. It was too hard for my taste, I was sleeping in a sitting position and my hooves dangled a little of the ground, just low enough to touch the floor a bit.

I will have one stiff neck when I get up. 

I didn’t feel as refreshed as I should have, all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. Unfortunately there were a couple of things that prevented me from doing that. Somepony was repeatedly pushing me back and forth, I wasn’t entirely sure if whoever was doing it was trying to wake me up or rock me back to sleep. I was a little scared and wasn’t sure if I was even able to or if it really was a good idea to go to sleep, considering that someone broke in to my house and was either trying to wake me up or doing something I probably didn’t want to know.

Then there was the dream I had, what scared me the most was the fact that I remembered the whole thing. I usually don’t remember my dreams at all, or, on some rare occasions, I remember some parts of the dream, but forget most of it at the end of the day. This time it was different. I remembered the whole thing like it actually happened, and it looked too real for my comfort; mostly because of the pain I felt when I hit that rock. 

After a few moments I started to sober up a little. It didn’t do much to make me get up, but I did regain my hearing, even if it was muffled a little. Right then, I gained a new respect for deaf ponies.

In addition to the constant rocking I now had to put up with someone repeating my name monotonously, like a broken record. I tried to identify the owner of the voice, but I was just too tired and it was just impossible to identify it while my hearing wasn’t top-notch, and certainly not because I couldn’t even recognize my own voice on a recording, twice. What I was sure of, however, was that it was a female voice. Either that or someone has a really high pitched voice; improbable, but still not entirely out of the question. 

After what felt like thirty minutes, but was more likely to be thirty seconds, of continuous rocking, chanting my name and utter failure and inability to ignore it all, on my part, it all just abruptly stopped. I waited for a few seconds, waiting for him/her to resume annoying me for whatever goal they were trying to accomplish. It didn’t happen, or I was just too inpatient and didn’t give them enough time to do something worse.

That last thought left me a little uneasy. Well I had mix thoughts about it all: on one hand it could be getting the equipment or planning to do something more annoying than before, or it was getting some kind of a weapon, preferably and ax, a butchers knife or any other sharp object that it could kill me with. Or worse, torture me, kill me, then cut my body to pieces and leave them at random locations over the city, to hide most of the evidence and make it hard to find all the parts, thus making the detectives work harder and discouraging him from perusing the murderer. Well it had to worry about tracking magic, but only if it left any personal items. Or it could just tie something heavy, that didn’t float, and dump my body in the sea. Dunwall does have one of the most important ports in equestrian.

Although considering how widespread the plague has become it could just incapacitate, tie me in a white cloth and pass me trough as one of the plague victims. I’ve seen some ponies that were still alive, it is possible that they were already infected and sick beyond help, or just couldn’t afford it. The guards aren’t very gentle with the corpses either, so even if you were still alive that wouldn’t last for long, no one can survive a fall from a 10 meters high bridge into an iron boat filled with dozens, if not hundreds of corpses.

And to top it all of detectives are almost extinct. No one can afford them anymore and there just isn’t a need for them. Even with all the crime that has surfaced up lately.The authorities have a different way of dealing with them: kill them, or take them to be interrogated, get them to tell where their base of operation is and then kill all of them, simple and cruel as that.

Professional detectives are usually reserved for the rich nobles, to spy at their wives or husbands to see if they are cheating on them. The worst part is that it’s actually a well-paid job, if you can get it that is. Only way to become a personal detective for a rich noble is by reputation or with good connections. Sadly reputations are, almost, always faked. The way that is achieved is by having several friends that work, preferably, at the nobles’ estate. Personally I don’t see the difference between the two, I think it’s something about being recommended by another noble, which somehow diminishes a little of your capabilities in your field of work, and the second act of building a lie that they eat up and that gets you… more praise? At least that my theory, still don’t see the point of it all.

I’ll be honest, there are a lot of ponies that dislike me, and I’ll even go as far as to say that they outright despise me, but I highly doubt that they hate me that much to kill me or send someone to do it for them. Then again these are insane and desperate times, and I did drive some ponies to poverty, mostly weapon manufacturers. Well not really, but they did lose a large percentage of their demands and earnings. I would have completely taken over weapon manufacturing, but, as it turns out, there aren’t a lot of ponies willing to mass-produce guns. Their favorite excuses are: to say that the design is too complicated, or that it is too expensive to make them, with all the little parts and what-not. 

There is still a large need for swords though, but mostly for newer recruits and for ceremonial purposes. The only problem is the practicality of that particular weapon. Sure it dangerous an powerful, but not everypony can use them, only unicorns and some skilled pegasai, the rest, manly earth ponies, have to use their mouths to hold them, which leads to a lot of injuries, infections and I’m pretty sure that they are more likely to get the plague than others.

Even if it is some crazy lunatic after his revenge, or just a harmless prankster, I wasn’t going to take my chances; they did break into my home. It’s funny how fear works just as well as a splash of ice-cold water on your face to wake you up. It wasn’t like I was going to fall asleep again after this anyway. I had work to do, actual work, and I also had to deal with this housebreaker. I just hope I can talk it into leaving, I’m really not good with fighting.

With some mild effort I opened my eyelids, not fully, just enough to see, but still little enough as to seem that they were still closed. My vision was blurry, as I should have expected considering that I did wake up 2-3 minutes ago. I think my sense of time was a little off so I’m not completely sure. It felt like a lot longer had passes, but half a hover was completely wrong, so I went by what I thought was the most probable time lapse.

My room was a blend of black, gray and brown blurry colors that only slightly resembled… anything? The blurs didn’t look anything like the things in my home. There was no red for the bare bricks, and when I think about it a little this table was tilted in an angle. That’s strange. I don’t remember having one of those in my home, just an old, long dining table. That table, even with its extensive use over the years, and my misuse and torturing of the thing, the table still held strong and was in one piece without being crooked.Either someone refurnished my home when I wasn’t looking, which shouldn’t be hard considering how small it is, or this wasn’t my home at all, which was the more likely of the two possibilities.

I looked around more, trying to see if I could find something that would help me identify the place. There, right in front of me, stood a large pink blur. My sight still wasn’t the best, but if I had to guess it was probably ten or more centimeters from my face.

I wondered. I only know two ponies that have a pink coat and there was no way that I was in either ones presence, each for different reasons. This information wasn’t as useful as I hoped it would be, it was nothing that would particularly help me in identifying this place. I looked back at the pink blur, which fusing with the background colors giving it a slightly darker shade, but then again my vision was pretty bad. No matter how much I tried it was impossible to identify anything. If I could see slightly more details perhaps I would be able to make something of this room, but then again I’m not sure if I could even spot the differences between a chair and a barrel.

I stared at the pink blur for a long time, at least by my highly inaccurate sense of time, waiting for my sight to clear a little. Luckily that was happening, but too slowly for my inpatient taste.I blinked hard a couple of times. It did help, now the blur resembled a pony shape, at least slightly. It was no more than a blurry, pink, silhouettewith an occasional, if barely visible, gold streak at its top part, where its head should be. 

I don’t know how but I think I know that pony. She seemed familiar, but I just can’t remember who she is. It’s on the top of my tongue... just… Argh, I hate it when I’m so close to figuring something out and jet I can’t. I think I should sleep on it a little, if it wanted to do something to me it would have by now, and I don’t think I could run or defend myself weary well.

I closed my eyes, positioning my head so I would be as comfortable as I could get lying on this crooked table. Sleep came easily, or at least it would have if it didn’t start nudging me with, what I presumed was its hoof. In response I fidgeted my right hoof, in a failed attempt to swat its hoof.

“Stop poking me and let me sleep for five more minutes” Is what I wanted to say, but it came out more of an incomprehensible mumble than a real sentence.

To my surprise It did stop. I, accurse, knew that it was strange and that, for some reason, nothing good could come out of it. Even with curiosity fueling my ever-growing fear of the unknown, I still didn't bother opening my eyes. Instead I reverted back to trying to fall asleep, and being thankful for the silence and the lack of the short, continuous, physical contacts. The peace and tranquility was, sadly, short lived.

No more than ten or so seconds, by my now improving sense of time, It went at it again. Although, this time, it wasn't the usual kind of annoyance. It inhaled deeply. I quickly opened my eyes, knowing in advance what it was going to do.

“WAKE UP!!!” It screamed in to my right ear, not more than a few centimeters away from me, blowing up my eardrums in to a million peaces.

“Please don’t kill me!” I screamed in response, while simultaneously jumping off of my chair, standing on my rear two hooves and supporting myself with my front hooves firmly planted on the table.

At that point I wasn’t really thinking about what I was saying, I only blurted out the first thing that came to my mind, and in that moment of panic the only thing I could think of was the revenge crazed psycho-killer theory.

I shivered slightly, clenching my eyes firmly shut, I stud there, too afraid to move or do anything else for that matter. I stood there for a time, not daring to twitch a muscle. I did, however, know that it was silly and stupid to be afraid for a number of reasons. But as scissors beat paper, and scissors are very sharp, fear dominated over reason in this case.

As for the pony, I was pretty sure it was a pony, next to me. She, now confirmed, did a lot of things in a short span of only a few seconds. First she was silent, which was right after my little panicked yell. After that she started snickering and snorting, covering her laughing and for a good reason. When she finally failed to contain herself, she started to laugh harder than I have ever heard anyone laugh, and I think she was also rolling on the floor, that I knew, despite my lack of vision, thanks to the loud ‘thumps’ coming below me.

When I finally collected enough courage to open my eyes, I wasn’t expecting to see what I did, a blue blur with faint traces of white. I turned my head to the left, then to the right, but all I could see was the same blur with the same patterns.I lifted my right hoof to rub my eyes, while still keeping my left one on the table for balance. That would have worked if only the blue thing wasn’t on my face, somehow. In turn, all this, made the pinkish mare laugh even harder.

‘That’s enough!’ I thought to myself ’I’ve been laughed at long enough’. I ripped the offending piece of paper off my face. I only spared a quick glance to see what it actually was; to my horror it was the technical sketch of my newest invention. It’s a spider like machine that is supposed to help earth ponies, and non magical beings in general, perform tasks that are otherwise impossible to them: lifting heavy objects, reaching too high places… I checked for any rips or tears to it, but was relived to find out that there were none. 

I now knew where I was, thanks to my sketch. I was in my workshop located in the south castle wing. My office was also the whole non magical research facility, and it’s pretty small considering that it is just a 3.10x3(meters) cubical. There wasn’t a lot of room, even without all the junk I piled on. Only my work table, a chair and a whole lot of spare parts were in it, there wasn’t even a carpet.

That also explained the crooked table. I looked what else was on the table, and there I found a whole collection of specialized pens attached to another one of my inventions to make their use easier for creatures without magic or digits; quite simple really, just a metal ring vide enough to fit on to a hoof, in this case, and a smaller one to hold the pen. On the top right edge of the table was small scale model of my latest invention, made out entirely of scrap metal and broken parts, because that was the best I could use that wasn’t needed later.

“Shadow?” said a voice from my right.

I turned my head toward the voice, just to find Princess Candacelying on the floor. It took me a few seconds to comprehend all of ‘that’.

“…What are you doing?” I asked slowly, not entirely sure what to make of it.

“Uh, untie Celestia told me to get you” She said and hastily got back on her feet, a faint blush was spreading over her cheeks.

“And she couldn’t order one of the staff members to do it because?” I asked.

“Because I offered to do it” Candace explained, and dusted off her gold striped purple dress.

“Oh, ok then,” I said “what does she need me for?”

Her face lit up immediately” Oh, I have great news. Shiny is coming back early from his expedition.” Shiny was her husband’s nick name, Prince Shining Armor. And he was on an expedition to find a permanent cure for the plague for the last three months. His coming could mean that he found the cure or has failed, either way it was greatly anticipated.

“That’s great,” I said with a great big smile “But that still doesn’t explain why the princess needs me.” I said shifting from a happy tone to a more serious one.

In response she rolled her eyes and said” Do you always have too ruin my fun?”

“Yes.” I said in response.

She sticked her tongue out “No wonder you have no friends”

“So, that would imply that you don’t exist?” I asked in a flat tone.

“Who said that I was your friend” Candace responded.

“Touché”

“Anyway back to topic” she said “The reasons auntie wants to see you now are because Shiny is coming in a few hours and she wants you to make the presentation in the meantime. There is going to be a party tomorrow, so that’s why your presentation was moved up.”

“WHAT!” I screamed “I’m not prepared. Sure I have everything here but I’m not sure how to present it yet. What if I mess it up?”

*slap* “Calm down, I’m sure you will do fine, you always do.” She reassured me.

“Yes, when I’m prepared!” I screamed again, ignoring the slap, it was a light one.

*slap* “Just because we are good friends doesn’t mean you can yell at me, I’m still the princess.” The “princess” explained.

I rubbed my cheek, she had one hell of a right hoof. I sight “Ok, I’ll be ready in a minute, just need to take a few things.’’ She nodded in agreement and I went to work getting my stuff. That sounds easier than it is.

My room wasn’t known for being too clean or easy to get around in. Mostly because the “spare parts” as I like to call them, but in reality they were leftover pieces that the other facilities didn’t need, and I had no material resources to get on my own. Across the table, on the other side of the room, was a medium large storage closet which held all of my equipment and other sketches I had.

The first and most important thing was my black case where I hold my sketches and some equipment, showing post, the small scale model and the sketches. After getting the most important equipment I went on to get the personal items: my old battered brown coat, which I didn’t button, and sadly nothing else because I don’t have that may things.

Candace gave me a questioning look, to which I just nodded. With that silent conversation finished we went to the throne room. As I was about to take the case into my mouth Candace lifted it with her magic and carried it for me, to which I gave a nod of thanks. Putting things in your mouth was both insanitary and tasted bad.


The walk to the throne room wasn’t a short as one would expect, the caste was huge. On the way there I continued getting sharp and dangerous looks from the ponies we passed. I knew I wasn’t popular, but being with Candace while she was carrying my case didn’t help improvethat image, and those swords looked sharp.Itried to ignore all the stares and looks to the best of my abilities.

When we finally got to the throne room, or more precisely in front of its gigantic hoof carved wooden doors. In front of it were two guards in standard Solar empire uniforms. They didn’t as much a spare a glance at me. If it wasn’t for the princes I would have been opening the door myself. Seeing as a princess was in their presence, they bowed and opened the door, closing it after us and going back to their stony positions; when you come from the opposite end you can see them go back to their position.

The even bigger room was completely empty, to my surprise. I walked inside and started looking around, trying to find somepony.

“Auntie is in the courtyard, come follow me,” I heard Candace say somewhere from the room, there was an echo.

Making my way to the courtyard, which I remembered from memory; I spent some time exploring the castle after I was hired. It was always amazing to see the expensive glass windows that led out to the gardens. And if the windows were impressive, then the gardens itself were a sight to behold. Beautiful flowers of every kind were planted everywhere, not just at random but in a pattern that I still had to understand; the art stuff was still a little confusing to me and I didn’t understand it all the time. That did not stop me from appreciating the beauty of it nonetheless.

Another interesting thing that would catch someone’s eye were the maids. It’s not that they are pretty or something, it’s the fact that they were dusting the garden. For a time I was wondering if they had some mental issues, but it turns out they didn’t and that it was a regular thing. I just ended up putting it on my list or crazy and strange things.

The gardens were decorated as much with guards as they were with flowers. It seemed that at least one stood at every corner. At the farther end from this entrance I could see one of the more pompous and a narcissist of a high captain, where he was getting his portrait done by the most famous artist in Dunwall.

I made my way to the gazebo, one of Celestias favorite places in the garden. It was fairly big, bigger than the ones you would find in a royals home. The columns, because they reminded me of that more than anything, were decorated with artistic patterns and depictions of some events long past. The inner side of the roof had a strangely beautiful picture of two alicorns, one night blue with a starry mane and tail beside which was the fool moon and Celestia beside the sun. Under the two alicorns were six ponies bowing down to them, the ponies were very colorful and every one had a jewel above its head, in the same color scheme as their coats or mains. If you looked close you will notice that the jewels are in the shape of their Odraza. Now that I thought about it the night blue alicorn reminded me of Luna.

“I see you have an eye for good art, Shadow,” Celestia said right next to me. Ok, either I need to stop daydreaming so much or Celestia is a flipin' ninja.

“Yes. I was just wondering about the blue alicorn.” I said distractedly.

Celestia raised a brow and asked “I’m more than glad to tell you about her but I must ask, why the sudden interest?”

“It’s just that it reminds me a lot of Luna,” I said, only realizing moment after what I let slip.

“What did you say?!” both Celestia and Candace said in unison. Were all alicorns ninjas or did I just need to wear binoculars?

“Where did you hear that name?” Celestia asked in a worried tone.

“It’s nothing important, quite stupid actually,” I tried to assure them” It’s just a silly dream I had, nothing important” I doubted that it would work, but in the same time I was interested as to know more about Luna and to find if her claims were true.

“Did you have this dream last night?” she asked, her voice growing stern.

“Uh, yes but I don’t see what a dream has to do with anything?” I asked, my hind legs betraying me.

“Then you better leave it just as that, a dream. You should simply forget about it.” She said in her scary stern tone. I tried to protest and ask for an explanation but was silenced before I could voice even one word, by Celestias petrifying glare; which was even scarier from the ground, given that Celestia is two times my size.

“How about we forget all about that for now and let Shadow make his presentation” Candace said with a nervous smile, trying to defuse the tension. To be honest I was very much scared of Celestia at that moment, she always appeared to be the nice motherly figure. Not a pony that could squish you with her hoof and turn you to stone with her glare.

I didn’t want anything to happen to me if I continued poking at the bee hive, so to say. I stood up and dusted myself. Looking around I found my case laid against one of the columns. Taking out the sketches, the small scale model and the rest of the equipment I started my improvised presentation.

“As you all well know, earth ponies are looked down upon by most of other races and creatures for their inability to perform any of the more special or extraordinary feats…”
“…so in conclusion, it would be beneficial for both the unicorns and earth ponies to have access to this technology. It would shorten the amount of work for unicorns and enable earth ponies to accomplish jobs that would normally require magic or wings.” I finished my presentation at long last. It felt like I was going to crack under pressure, but then again that’s how I always felt when I had to do something important in front of the Princess.

“It does seem to be an interesting idea,” Celestia mused” But, are you sure it will work, and can you assure that they could get used to that idea .Both unicorns and earth ponies?”

“Well it should work in theory, and the small scale model should provide the general idea of its design,” I started to explain” There’s no doubt that it will be off-putting and a little frightening, both the idea and the machine itself. Hopefully with time the citizens will get used to it.”

Celestia seemed to think about it or a moment, weighting the possibilities and the drawbacks before finally coming to a conclusion.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to think about it. It’s a wonderful idea, but I don’t think that ponies would appreciate something so… out of the ordinary, something that goes so far out of their norm just thrown at them,” she said, carefully picking her words, she might not have said it but I knew that she didn’t like my invention.” So I think that it’s the best for everyone that this invention be held off until later on, when most ponies get more accustomed to you and your machines.”

I nodded to her and started packing my equipment. This was a total bust, I knew that I needed more time to prepare my speech. More sleep is what I need right now and something to eat, I don’t remember the last time I ate.

“This must be the first time you didn’t like one of his inventions,” somepony said right next to me, making me jump into the air and drop most of my papers and sketches on the ground.

I growled and started picking them up, not even bothering to spare a glance, or a glare in this case. I did this for a few seconds before gold and blue magic auras helped me with the rest.

“Shiny, you shouldn’t sneak on people like that,” Candace scolded Shining Armor, but it was not a serious one, just them being playful.

“Sorry dear, I wasn’t intending on scaring anyone,” Shining Armor apologized to his wife, but not to the pony he actually inconvenienced. They shared a couple of kisses and started a conversation that I didn’t listen to, and went back to collecting my stuff off the ground.

I really don’t like him that much, he is just like every other captain in the army, full of pride. True that he never said anything bad to my face and agreed with my long-ranged weapons, but liked to pull pranks and make fun of me from time to time. Sure it wasn’t anything serious, or something that would hurt me. It was something he did with his colleges, but the point was that I wasn’t a soldier and I didn’t appreciate that kind of humor.

“What is it this time anyway?” he asked picking up one of the fallen papers.

Not saying anything, just handing him another one of the sketches, the one that explained the invention a little more in depth. I collected the rest of my things and waited with the suite case open, waiting for him to finish looking at the sketch. I turned to look at him. He was wearing the standard captain uniform, although this one was more decorated than the others. He wore his blade by the belt, alongside the custom made gu… Wait where was his gun!?

“It certainly is an interesting idea, but why do you make so many weapons?” he asked after he finished looking at the sketch, and handing it over to me.

“It’s not a weapon, it’s supposed to help earth ponies do jobs that would usually require magic,” I explained with a sigh. You make a few weapons and suddenly ponies think that your every invention is a weapon.” What happened to you gun anyway?” I asked, hoping to change the topic.

Shining Armor rubbed the back of his head and smile sheepishly. “Well you see it kind of stopped working,” he said, avoiding eye contact.

“How is that possible?!” I asked in a slightly higher tone than I should have.” I made sure it worked properly, it’s all custom made, every part. There’s no way it clogged, is there?” I asked, my voice failed to hide my surprise and horror. Had I really failed with my design? That was the best gun I had made, and it was flawed?!

“It wasn’t that… it’s just that,” he tried to explain, still not willing to look me in the eyes” Listen, its better if you have a look at it yourself.” He said and pulled some kind of distorted metal out of his saddlebags. I took me a minute to recognize it as the gun I made for him, it was melted, bended, cut and destroyed altogether.

I stood there, with my jaw hanging, I didn’t move because I would have most likely fell over. ”W-What did you do to it?” I asked my voice but a whisper.

“Listen, Shadow, I’m sorry. There were some dangerous situations that I found myself in and the gun paid the price,” he apologized” But it was a well-made one, the mass produced ones clogged and broke while this one withstood even my use.” He remarked.

”It’s ok. I’m glad you enjoyed it while it lasted,” I sighed, I should have expected this. “Because I can’t make another one.” I said with a flat look.

“Why not?” Shining and Candace asked in unison.

“Because I don’t have the parts for a new one” I said in the same flat tone.

Candace snorted “Your whole office was full of spare parts when we left. You must have more than enough for more than one messily gun?”

I turned to face her, “It’s true that my office is full of spare parts,” she smirked” but they are all donations from other departments, and most are rusted, broken or in poor condition,” her smirk faded and was replaced with a frown” I could make a gun but it would be below the standard military issue, and would most likely explode or brake within the first couple of shots.”

“Doesn’t you department have a monthly budget yet?” Shining asked.

I was about to answer his question, but Celestia beat me to it, “We tried to address this matter at the last council meeting, but the majority voted against raising their budget.” 

Shining was about to say something, but was cut off by one of his fellow captains.” Ah, Captain Shining Armor, I hope that your early return means that you expedition has been successful?”

“Oh, that’s right!” Shining exclaimed and drew a letter from his saddlebag presenting it to Celestia.”Thanks for reminding me Captain Steel Legion/Rise. May I ask for what reason have you brought the council with you?” 

So that’s what his name was. And Shining was right, behind him were more than ten ponies, not including the pair of guards. Most of them were members of the council, but some were just rich business ponies and royals. Despite this one thing was certain, they were all unicorns.

I looked back at Celestia to find her reading the letter Shining Armor had given her. The letter was fairly long, but her eyes were darting from one side to the other at an exceptional reading speed. She slowed down near the end, frowning. That part must have been pretty bad because she re-red it more than once, every time she would her frown deepened.

After thoroughly inspecting the contents of the letter she placed it back in its envelope. She sight "These are dare new indeed. You are positive that the other countries hadn't experienced these problems?"

Shining Armor nodded ”At least for those that let us through their borders, some were unwilling to let us pass so we wouldn’t spread the plague to their lands.” His words had a lot of weight to them. Other countries hadn’t had a run in with the plague, and weren’t eager to do it, or they were just hiding important information about it. Conspiracies were strange, why would they hold off the information if they could sell the cure at a high price, if they had it, or help find one rather than not having one in case the plague infected its citizens.  

Steel Rise/Legion coughed, trying to get our attention, which wasn’t that hard with the dead silence and all. “I must apologize for intruding on your conversation like this,” He apologized in a formal tone.” We have an important matter to discuss with the whole council. Now that Shining Armor is present we can also have his opinion and information concerning the other countries.” Why would they need to know anything about other countries? Last time I checked their noses were so far up their asses that they didn’t even notice others.

“I would like to know what is so important that it couldn’t wait for the next council meeting, but if the matter is so urgent let’s hear it.” A slightly annoyed Celestia said. Was she usually this scary or was she just having a bad day, like me?

“Certainly you highness,” he said with a smirk” But I will have to insist that this matter be known only by the members of the council” he said, turning to look at me.

‘Then why did you bring all the unicorns, asshole?’ I thought to myself. I wasn’t insane enough to voice it, so I satisfied with a flat look.

“Then why have you brought them?” Candace said in a curious and if slightly irritated tone, waving a hoof at the crowd of ponies; more precisely the non-council members.

“They play an important role in this matter and I would insist that they stay,” he said, giving a look to the pony next to him.

That must have been a signal of some sorts because the latter nodded and turned to a chatting pair of guards. “Oi, you two!” He yelled in a gruff and ordering voice” Belt up and escort this ‘fine gentlepony’ to his office!” If he had laid the sarcasm any thicker, we would have all drowned.

The pair of guards in question straightened up and saluted to their commander. I gave one last glare to the captain and his sarcastic friend before making my way to the exit.

Half-way to the exit I cooled off a little, but it was enough to make me take a better look at my ‘escorts’. They appeared to be pretty similar. They were both twice my size and well built, both earth ponies. They had the same brown coat, the only difference was that one had a blood-red main, while the other had a navy-blue main. They wore the lower rank uniforms, most likely that they were new recruits, because their uniforms were anyhow.

The two guards were silent, until we reached the throne room. This was rather stupid of them, because they could hear them better with the echo than outside.

“Did ja’ see da’ princess, she’s a beauty.” The red mained one said, in a more high pitched voice than his appearance suggested.
“Which one?” the blue mained one asked, his voice deep.

“Duh, the pink one. Tha’ white one is too old and strict.” The red mained one said. Were they serious or just that dumb?

“She is quite gorgeous, but she is also the princess. Oh, and they are both over five hundred years old.” The blue mained stallion sad. I noticed that he didn’t have the same accent as his friend, and seemed to be more polite than him as well.

Red main rolled his eyes” Ah know she’s tha’ princess, it’s just somethin’ for fantacizin’ about,” he said, turning to look at me” Isn’t that right… Uh, what’s yor name again?”

“My name is Shadow Forge,” I said through clenched teeth” Candace is married, and I would appreciate it if you didn’t talk about my friend like that.”

I’m guessing that they stopped following me, because I couldn’t hear their hoofsteps anymore. I didn’t bother to look back and check, not after that little chat of theirs.

“Wait, you know tha’ princess?!” the red maine one materialized in front of me and floated there. Wait what?!” Can you introduce us to them?” he asked eagerly.

“How are you doing that?” I stuttered weakly.

“Doin’ what?” He asked, seemingly unaware of the fact that he was floating in midair!

He was about to say something else, but was silenced when his jaw met the floor. His blue mained friend was the cause of his sudden and painful landing.

“You fucking idiot, I told you a thousand times not to blow your cover,” He hissed at the grounded stallion. At least he was smart enough not to yell it outloud.

He looked at me with a nervous smile on his face” You aren’t going to tell anyone about this, are you?” he asked, a beat of sweat dripping down his brow.
I decided to use this opportunity to get some more information and questions answered. “I won’t tell anyone if you answer me two questions’’

He hesitated for a moment then said” If they don’t cross certain boundaries then accurse” he said in  a serious tone, then added” When we are finished with your questions, I would like to ask one myself.”

I nodded” Fair enough. Why is his voice so high and how was he able to levitate?”

“He made me smell weird fart of…” Red main started to explain, but was silenced when his friend stuffed a hoof in his mouth.

“Before I answer your questions, I would like to introduce us first,” he said. Yea, I probably should have asked about that too.” I am Dice, and this is my twin brother Slice. About your first question, I might have tricked him into inhaling some helium.” He said with a nervous chuckle, getting a glare from his brother.

“Well you do look awfully similar, but there’s a difference in your accents and the way you behave. Oh, and Slice and Dice really?” I voiced my thoughts.

“You’re sain’ it wrong, it’s Slice n’ Dice!” Slice corrected me, but was silenced by his brother shortly after.

He shook his head” Some idiots from the orphanage started calling us that and it stuck. I was adopted into a childless noble family, while Slice stayed on a farm. We didn’t know about each other’s fate until a few years ago,” he chuckled” nopony understood our names unless they heard the together. They thought that mine meant Dice, as in gaming dice and they thought that Slices name meant a piece of something.” 

Now I felt bad for them, having no family must have been hard.” It must have been hard, being separated and all. Don’t worry. I know how some ponies in the orphanage can get.”

His eyes widened in surprise” You are an orphan too?!”

I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose” No, I’m not. I just spent a few years there. It’s a long story, ok.” I said, not wanting to talk about that right now.

“I can respect that," Dice said nodding " To answer your other question, my brother here is a pegasus. With how rare pegasi are we had to conceal his true identity, or risk him being captured and exploited in whichever way possible." he said in a grim tone." So can you please cape it a secret?"

I chuckled" You really are new here, aren't you?"

He narrowed his eyes "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"I means," I said slowly, smirking. His body shifted in to a fighting stance, ready to tackle me any moment. "That if I said he was a pegasus disguised as an earth pony, they would use it as an excuse to throw me out." I sad, awaiting his reaction.

Slice was the first to speak "Uh, dice, ya' mind getting your hoof off of my throat?"

He blinked in confusion, and then looked at his brother. His hoof was indeed on Slices throat, he must have put some pressure when I said what I did.

Dice winced and immediately removed his hoof from his brother throat “Sorry about that.” He apologized.

Slice rubbed the place where Dices hoof was moments ago before answering “Don’ worry yourself none, it was an accident an’ you didn’ hurt me anyway.” He said in his helium affected voice
Wait that shouldn’t be right, he should have breathed out all the helium by now. You know what, no, it has been a long morning and I'm too tired to think about it. I'll just answer Dice's question and go to sleep or eat, I just need a break for a while.

"So what did you want to ask me?" I inquired. I rubbed my right eye with a hoof, how long did I sleep anyway, it felt like I haven't slept for any time. But I know it must have been pretty long considering Candace had to get me, or it was just really early. If so, damn you Candace.

"Well if I was going to ask you one question, and just one," he started, what I felt would be a long speech about what he would do." I would like," ha I was right... I hate my life" to ask if I could get your autograph..."

He stopped, apparently expecting me to answer his "not question". So when all he met was my flat look, he just continued.

"...Well that's one of the things I would ask you, another would be to tell me a little about your life..." he stopped again.

When his second attempt failed his brother snickered behind his back, adding "You ain't gonna' fool him Dice!"

He glared at Slice, but nothing more. He turned back to me then with a sheepish smile."I have no idea what's he talking about."

That's when my stomach decide that I didn't need that assassin after all, if I didn't put something eatable in it soon. I said eatable because hagfish is just that, it's not food but it's eatable.

"Could you just ask one question, please? I haven't eaten in a while."

He looked utterly disappointed, but sighed in agreement nonetheless."Alright, but can you give me a minute to think of a good one first?" 

I nodded.

"Thank you, and sorry for trying to trick you like that." he apologized, to which I gave a simple courteous nod.

He stayed true to his word and in a reverently short period of time, even by my rapidly changing sense of time.

"It was hard to chose just one, but here it goes." he said with heavy heart, for some reason. I know he's a fan and all but I am hungry and he and I do work at the same castle, it's not as if he's never going to see me again." What was it that you showed to the Princess?"

Well that was a fairly easy one." I could answer you that, but I think it's better to just show it to you," I said and started looking for my case, which disappeared somehow" You wouldn't happen to see a little black case?" I asked the twins.

They shook their head in unison, which was a little creepy.

"In that case, excuse the pun, I'll have to go back and get it."I started walking to the throne room."You do know you can come and talk to me whenever you want, just come by my office." I added.
____________________________________________________________________

I hurried back to the gardens, hopping I wouldn't be intruding on their conversation. I really needed that case if I wanted to go back home, my keys were in it!

As I walked through the halls I noticed something that disturbed me deeply, they were empty. The halls were never empty, at least one guard was present at all time.

I continued my walk towards the throne room, glancing every now and then for anyone. When I finally got to the carved wooden doors I saw that there were no guards there either.  This wasn't normal at all. This was the one place where there would be guards stationed. The Princesses were in the vicinity, it was the one of the only places civilians could see so they had to uphold the image and it was their job to stand there for... for logicalities sake! 

URGH! I'm not good with Equestrian slang! The only curses I understand are the direct ones, everything else is just stupid.

I entered the throne room slowly and hesitantly, not knowing what I was going to find there. It was empty like the rest of the castle, no guards, no maids or any other member of the staff. 

I decided to go to Celestia, because two gods and a captain are much safer than standing here alone. But before I did anything I first went to check if the nobles were still there, which was reverently easy considering that the west side is a giant glass plain divided into smaller sub-sections; and not  all of it was stained glass.

I leaned towards the window, careful not to get noticed. The nobles were still there, to my dismay, and so was my case, at the threshold of the gazebo. I cursed under my breath at my bad luck, nothing can ever be simple for me can it?

They were standing and talking, standing and talking, standing and talking for the last twenty minutes. I was getting pretty bored by now, but all that gave me time to notice some interesting things. For example there were no guards or maids here either, which was disturbing. There must always be guards near Celestia, not to mention now with such a large gathering of important officials of Equestria. 

I just stood there, watching on their conversation, which from here was nothing more than watching ponies move their mouths. Why did I even put my things in that stupid case, this coat has so many pockets and so do my pants?! Banging my head on the wall seemed like the most appropriate thing to do in this situation.

I stopped before I made a dent in it and had to pay, I checked my pockets for something to pass the time. Suffice to say that the only thing I found was dust and a half a bit, and there are no half bit coins; I found a bit sliced in half. The interesting thing is that even a one bit coin is very thick copper plate, so the feat of slicing one in half and with precision, like this one, was quite a pointless time and resource wasting thing to do.

After a few minutes I got bored of the coin and all of the dust inside my pockets, so the other best thing, or most interesting, to do was watch a silent movie about ponies talking. I sighed and did just so. For the first couple of minutes nothing happened, but as I got more bored I started to observe the other buildings. 

That's when I saw them, I'm not completely sure what they were, they were too far away for me to distinguish them. All I knew is that there were black pony-ish silhouettes, running across the roof-tops as if they were some kind of ninjas. They might as well have been by the way they were dressed.

I watched them with ever-growing interest, compared to what I've been watching for the last hour or so this was the most action packed, thriller, adventure... in short it didn't make me want to invent something better than a gun to shoot myself.

The rooftop ninjas, as I came to call them, continued their little show. Starting from the port entrance and seemed to be heading this way. Their feat would have been impressive if not for the fact that they were using magic to cross some of the gaps that were too vide to for them to jump over. I knew this, even from this distance, because when they would get to these certain points they would blur out and re-appear at the other side; otherwise known as blink teleportation.

I watched them for a while longer, until they disappeared near the entrance to the royal gardens. 

''Great, just great," I sighed in disappointment " The only form of entertainment is gone now." I said to myself, which I've been doing an awful lot as of late. 

Turning to the throne room, hoping to find something mildly entertaining but failing nonetheless. I wonder if a longer barrel would contribute to a faster velocity of bullet travel, or if it would be a better idea to make it so that it fired a larger number of smaller pellets. Hmm, for the last idea to work it would mean a lot of changes though, the barrel would have to be a lot wider and...

*BOOM*

I nearly jumped out of my boots. After spending such a long period of time in silence, an explosion was a bit of an overkill for an attempt at startling a pony. Suffice to say I let a girlish scream, ducked and covered my head with my hooves.

There were more explosions, but as I noticed none were in my vicinity; so I got up and looked outside the window.

There was smoke, some smoke and oh more smoke. The whole courtyard was filled with some sort of gas, or nerve toxin for all I know. The explosions had stopped, so I couldn't hear anything that was happening outside. I know in fact that some of the bombs were gas bombs, it wasn't just a layer of dust and dirt in the air, it was pure white and very thick.

The cower didn't last for long, suddenly all the smoke got blown by some nonexistent wind. Well more accurately it was sucked into a ball by Celestias magic. Then I saw it, the rooftop ninjas were in the gazebo, swords drawn, alongside Shining Armor, Celestia and Candace.

After Celestia sent the orb of smoke into nothingness,  the royals started to advance, creating a closed circle around the gazebo. When everyone was at their supposed formations, with the rooftop ninjas keeping Celestia and the other too busy to notice this, they started to cast a spell.

I'm not a unicorns, so I didn't care to learn about magic, but even with my limited knowledge I knew that this large of a group was capable of casting a spell of great magnitudes. Perhaps a beam-ray to kill all three of them, or something of the sorts.

I was surprised to see them cast a  semitransparent dome around the gazebo, and nothing more besides maintaining it. 

Celestia looked more angry than I could have ever imagined her to be. Her once flowing spectral main was now slowly turning into a great white flame, the same thing was happening to her tail. I could see her having a conversation with the nobles, a rather verbal one by what I could tell.

Throughout this whole ordeal Candace went through a number of emotions, first came confusion, then fear, and lastly anger. As the last one started to emerge, and boil, she yelled something at the group surrounding them. It must have been something interesting, because more than a few stared at her in shock. Those that did got scolded by their accomplices, most likely for failing to maintain the spell channel or showing weakness.

Candace, more enraged for some reason, started charging her horn for a spell. The accumulated magic was a sight to behold. When she released the spell, nothing happened.

I believe the technical term is fizzle, when a unicorn fails to perform a spell. The only problem is that Candace is five hundred years old and fizzling a spell is the last thing someone would expect to happen. There had to be something more at play here.

Then I noticed that Shining Armor was having the same problem, he could not pick up his blade, however much tried his magic didn't work. Now I knew that Candace's fizzle wasn't entirely her fault, considering that she was over five hundred years old and had a lot of practice with magic during that time. The question is, what was causing it?


The only thing that I could think of was the dome, considering that Candace's magic was fine when she went to get me and after they cast it she fizzled out. Then again it's magic so it can be just a pebble that's causing the disturbance.

I was content with just watching this, there was nothing I could do. If anything I would end up doing more damage than good if I tried to intervene and I would most likely die. They wouldn't want a witness and I was expendable.

I wish there were some guards, or anyone for that matter, that I could inform or ask for help. Well, I guess that was the idea. Make all the guards and the staff in general not come here for a certain amount of time until they did... whatever they were trying to do.

I returned to watching the events in the gardens, not much had changed. Shining Armor had taken his sword in his mouth, deciding to give up to use his magic it seemed. He could really use my gun right about now, too bad he broke it - idiot.

Celestia, still in her fiery glory, started walking towards one of the ponies. To my surprise he didn't show any sort of emotion, no fear, not even flinching from the heat she was emitting; at least I think she was, not too sure.

Instead he smirked, he even started laughing of all things. Then, he proceeded to charge his horn and cast another dome around the previous one, this one was brownish and looked more solid than the other one.

Not diminishing the fierce glare from her face, Celestia, continued advancing forward. She got to domes end and tried to pass trough, but she was met with the solidity of the dome, or more accurately her horn was. Shaking off the impact the stepped back, raided her right hoof and stuck the barrier. The shattering of a magic barrier sound much like braking glass and, from what I  was told and could observe it is very painful to the caster.

Steel Rise/Legion fell to the floor, clenching his horn with his hooves and scowling in pain. I think he let out some curses too, but, again, I couldn't her him behind the glass. 

Another stallion in a silver trimmed suit barked orders to the casters and the 'ninjas'. The casters resumed their positions at maintaining the shield, the ninjas started to attack Celesta and force her away from the edge of the dome. I could see another dome forming just around the first one, this one looking more solid than the other and was a strange silver-ish gray hue.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the fiery maiden would fight back, she was considerably bigger than they were and there's a reason Equestria didn't lose the great war. And so the former leader of The Equestrian Army proceeded to inflict pain and suffering to the 'ninjas' in many ways. A peculiar thing happened that I noticed after Celestia broke the neck of one them, he dispersed into black smoke. The same happened to those Shining Armor killed. 

I got up and pressed my face to the glass, its flat surface cold on my cheek, and tried to get a better look at the phenomena from the distance. 

No, it couldn't be.

But, I think it is... Wait... As far as I can see it is!

"That conniving little wench!" I screamed and quickly shoved a hoof in my mouth.

To my horror, Steel Rise/Legion turned his head towards my direction. His eyes grew large as he started yelling. Soon after more heads turned, their eyes widened in a expression of horror. 

Steel Rise/Legion was the first to get a hold of himself, and started barking orders to the ninjas and the casters. What happened next would haunt my dreams for weeks, one of the rooftop ninjas ducked under one of Celestias punches, drew his blade and stabbed her trough the chest. 

She didn't scream, her face betrayed no other emotion besides surprise. She looked surprised that she got wounded; in other words called unicorn syndrome, when you can't do anything without your magic.

Shining Armor and Candace fared much better, they weren't the prime targets. Instead the ninjas took advantage of their foes moments of shock and pinned the Princess down, but the Captain snapped out of it in time to land a uppercut to the jaw of one of them. He picked up his sword and resumed his fighting stance; and so did the ninjas.

Their attention snapped to the sarcastic pony - whose rank I didn't know - who was yelling some kind of orders. The remaining ninjas just nodded.

What transpired next was somewhere on the top of my strange list, Shining Armor started to float at the same time as one of the ninjas raised their hooves. He stared to trash around, but to no avail. One of the ninjas delivered a powerful uppercut to his jaw that made him drop his sword, while one from the side jumped and hit his head with the butt of his sword and knocked him out.

They were a lot more gentle with Candace, instead of physically harming her all they did was tie her up. 

Then they turned their gazes towards my direction, but I wasn't there anymore. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, I did not have a set destination but I was damned if I were to stay there any longer. Fuck my suitcase, I was expendable. No one would morn my death, heck they would celebrate if anything. 

So I ran, ran and ran until I could run no longer. everything after that was a haze. 

Footnote: 99/100 XP

Tip: Try breaking a vase or something next time... or don't you might have to pay for it.

Achievement unlocked: "So close!"


> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3

I paced back and forth in the living room, uncertain of what I should do next. 

The house wasn't mine. No, the key was still in the palace. This was the owners house, the one that rented my flat. Well, I guess I should say the late owner. And I know how it sounds, but that doesn't entail that I killed him. I don't think myself capable of doing such a feat, no matter how badly I wanted it.

The owner, or the late Mr. Pennyworth, had , like the large percentage of this city, died from the plague. He had no wife or children and the few relatives he did have he hated to the core. You should have heard him curse one night when one of them asked for a lone. 

So the miser Mr. Pennyworth, and mister was part of his name and not a title, had no one to inherit his vast riches of a small rundown apartment building. The funny thing is, no one mourned his death, instead they celebrated. Well I celebrated, the others in this building didn't. That and the only ponies living here are a crazy blind grandma and a junkie at the top floor, who hadn't exited his home in a few days now. Was he even alive?

The crazy grandma, Granny Rags, claims she was some kind of  noble. She's some kind of a unicorn with a broken horn and stories that don't make any logical sense. I humored her a few times and listened to the tall tail stories, afterwards I checked the names of the families and her own in the library. Surprise, surprise they had no records of them, most of them at least.

Back to the topic. Yesterday when I started running I didn't stop until I was in front of the building entrance. I didn't remember going all the way here, but then again I was in shock and wasn't really thinking or looking where I was running.

I ended up going to my apartment door and trying to enter, finding my door locked. I contemplated asking one of my neighbors, but considering they were both nut jobs  I tried opening other flats  but they were all locked.

After I tried and failed all the other doors, except the broom closet but I think something died there. So I went to the last place available, the deceased owner residence. No one has visited the place ever since the incident, one planed by the bastard.

I descended down the stairs leading to the basement area, the room were poorly lit, only sparsely with only a few working bulbs leading to the flat. It's not as if anyone cleaned the complex, no that was too expensive and beneath Mr. Pennyworth. Even repair were out of question, which left the building to deteriorate to the point of no fixing. And should he catch you with supplies or someone to repair something, he would either steal it or make them do only the things he wanted, all in your expense of course. It never happened to me but I did hear that he got into court  trouble with someone.  It's surprising how much the staff knows about the happenings in Dunwall, yet so little of anything else.

The flat isn't empty and raided, it's too dangerous to do that. The bastard bobby trapped the place, at least six ponies died there. Three were government officials, two 'members' of his family and one poor idiot of a thief. The traps were pretty brutal to say the least, the first one was a canon aimed at the door, triggered by opening the door too widely. All that was left of the pony was the torso, the rest just a smear on the wall and floor.

I entered the hallway leisurely, I knew where all the traps were. I helped design most of them, that and I was warned beforehand about them when I came to pay the rent. As much as he disliked all of us he couldn't let his pay checks get killed. 

The place stank of dried blood and rotting organs, death in other words. I could see at least two bodies, or what was left of them, new or just left there. One was cut in half by a spring blade in the left wall and the other had its hoofs in bear-trap like devices and with an arrow in its head. The body's knees were all broken at the joints, unable to bear the weight of it for so long. I remember this one, I was the one that made the traps and the trap doors in the floor, the crossbow was a new addition thou.

I continued tiptoeing  through the hallway, barren of any decorations besides the corpses and activated traps. I wanted to leave as many traps inactivated as I could, so I would have some form of protection if someone came. There was a specific pattern in which you were supposed to walk, one wrong move and you were dead. I ended going through it without any problems, besides stepping on a pressure plate that opened a hole in the floor with spikes in the bottom. I had the reflexes to run along the edge before it opened fully, and I found mister whiskers, Mr. Pennyworth's lost pet cat, at the bottom. The thing was just as bad as the owner, it deserved that.

I got to the door at the end of the hallway and turned right, feeling out the wall for the switch. My hoof sank into a small square shaped hole and a door opened. The other fake door led to another trap that would shoot the whole doors length of poisoned darts, auto reloading courtesy of me. With all the things I did here you'd think I got a fortune, nope I got a cup of tea, half of it and it was cheap, and a pat on the back.

The living room was beautiful, he held back no expenses in decorating his home. He might have been a miser but he liked to lavish in expensive things. Everything was in pristine condition, only a small lair of dust was there, but other than that and the stale and smelly air. The stench was coming from the bedroom, I knew exactly what it was and had no intention of having a look at it myself.

I checked the cupboard and it was filled with long term rations, guess he didn't like when food spoiled. There were a lot of military rations and some herbs and things I didn't know the names of or their uses. There was a cupboard with glasses, plates and other such things. The drover was full of utensils and some strange things I didn't want to find out what they were used for.

I set water to boil and opened a few windows to let the flat air out. Later I laid down on the couch and sipped what I hoped was jasmine tea. Last time I had tea here was on the day I moved into the building. Well it wasn't tea really, look warm water without any sugar, too expensive to give out to people. So I went all out this time, and well made it undrinkable. 

There is something interesting I found out about Pennyworth, his calendar was four days ahead. I knew this because his death was estimated to be about four days from the calendars crossed out date. I don't really understand what the point of it was, we all had accurate ones, the best he could do is yell at us and be stubborn... Which would make us pay or we would get kicked out.

You would think that searching trough a ponies house would yield a positive find, say a picture of a child, dog or some sort of collection. But that was not the case here, the more I found out the more I started to hate him. So far he has nothing positive going for him, I'm starting to suspect that he really was so despicable.

I set the tea aside, I was going to boil it later to get the sugar back. It would still retain the slight taste of the tea, but better that than throwing it away. This stuff was expensive and a rare commodity, what with the trade and being almost nonexistent because of the plague. Not even other cities from the country would come to trade. Towns and villages were desperate enough to try some trade, which was still sparse and bare-boned. Not to mention that the lesser rich individuals, those that were well off but not enough to mean anything to the higher ones, were monopolizing the market and paying extra for the goods. In other words we, the poor blokes and bastards, were stuck eating hagfish and other disgusting things.

After not finding anything in the living room and the kitchen that would be of any significant worth. So I took a deep breath, tied a few rags around my snout, and decided to go into the bedroom with the rotting corpse. That was the only place left to look for bits and valuables; as much as I was against entering that place I could use the money. I slowly opened the door and quickly ran towards the bathroom, where I promptly threw up.

The smell was horrid and vile. It was strong and spreading trough the apartment now, and I couldn't muster enough strength to close the door. Instead I ran trough the house, picking up anything I could use or eat, and ran out. I decided to brake one of the doors of the, many, empty apartments and stay there until the smell dissipated or I got a real gas mask.

The room I broke into wasn't anything special at all. It was the same bare bricks, windowless balcony and the ruined furniture. It was almost the same as my room, just without all of the metal parts cluttering the floor. I set the stuff I took on the barely standing night stand and started taking stock. I emptied my pockets and started separating the things I had into groups. I had some spices, no idea how to pronounce them, sugar, dried potato crisps and tea. It wasn't that good of a haul, but considering that I was in that bad of a hurry it wasn't that bad. I could always go back in a few days and raid the place again. The window was still open and the stench would, hopefully, air out by then.

I sighed and plopped on the bed unceremoniously. I started thinking about my current predicament, again. The over paranoid thoughts I had before seemed silly, but not unjustified. So what if I even succeed in escaping Dunwall city, what was I going to do after that? I had no money to my name, no practical skills and not much in the strength department; or looks for that matter. I still had a steady job here, no matter how horrible the pay was. Even if they did kill me it would be a mercy compared to the death I would experience if I fled. A sword, bullet or a spell was much faster and less painful than starving to death; I've been to the brink of it a few times, it's not fun.

I sighed, curling in a fetal position on the bed and using my trench-coat as a blanket. Not that it helped much, there was no glass on the windows and the cold wind and rain were getting trough. I thought of what I would do tomorrow. Then of the things I wanted to do or experience. That made me cry, knowing that I was so pathetic and worthless. I fell asleep shortly afterwards, crying myself to sleep, again. I could just hope that tomorrow I wouldn't die.