> With Blood and Swords
>  by FALG
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue - Time of Waltz
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two colts were in their room, preparing themselves for the Gala they were attending.
"So you're finally going to wear the vest made for you." the older one pointed to the younger.
"Yeah, it's actually pretty cool. You were right, it was worth it." the younger replied.
"Told ya'."
"But I'm still wearing that bow."
"Oh absolutely! I never was against about you using that bow, I was against about you using ONLY that bow. Well not really, SHE was against that, I only suggested that you could get something else."

"You on the other hoof, got a full suit. Got anything in mind for tonight?" the younger asked.
"What? No! And even if I was, why do you even care about?" the older asked back.
"Well you are my brother, and I do worry about you, even if I don't seem like that kind of brother." the younger answered with awkward pauses.
"Well thanks, but if I have any plans for today, doesn't mean an actual 'problem' per se."
"Good point."

The older grabbed two pieces of paper that were left on a nearby shelf.
"Are you going to take that stupid thing again?" the younger asked.
"Yeah, what about it?" the older said.
"You never used them in any gala we attended, why do you think tonight will be different?"
"I never thought that it would be different anytime we attended to this gala. And I am not thinking tonight will be different either! I do it because I always hope of finding somepony worth to dance with me at the sound of this."

The older was about to leave the room when the younger called.
"Is it that you have ANY hope to find her tonight? Because if you love her, you secretly hope so."
There was a silence for a while.
"I ALWAYS hope to find her, there isn't a time when it doesn't happen."
> Idea
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Half a year has passed since my moving to Ponyville, and I couldn't be happier for that.

I've been thrown a party, met some friends, get my second cutie mark, fall in love, all that made my moods rise up high!

Nothing could mess that up, nothing.

But...

"What's wrong?" Fluttershy asked me.

We were sitting below the same tree where she found me that day in the rain 5 months ago, cuddling for a while:
"Nothing. It's just that, I'm afraid I may lose it all in a blink, it's just too wonderful to be true." I replied.
"You're just exaggerating Flare."
"Maybe, but I don't care to lose everything as long as I can still have you."
"F-flare" she blushed and hugged me stronger "you don't have to say that, there is nothing to worry about."
"I guess you are right, in the end you always are." I told her smiling, and I kissed her forehead.



It was another beautiful day in Ponyville, it was becoming colder because fall was approaching, but it was still nice.

After becoming Fluttershy's good friend (around the time we almost got mugged) I was included in her group of friends, of course, they hanged out on their own, sometimes I was invited because the other five insisted. And now that I'm her coltfriend, I was practically one more of them.

Once, when I was invited in their reunions every now and then, I tried to avoid being such a lovebird to Fluttershy; like I said before, I was a little uncomfortable around big groups of mares sometimes.

They practically asked about our relationship, mostly they asked Fluttershy how she felt around me before we were colfriends. They asked me the same too:
"When I'm with her, I feel great, and I don't need nothing else."
"And when you are not around her?" Twilight asked.
"I can't tell you, not because it's a secret, but because I don't know."
"How comes you don't know when you are not with her?" Rainbow asked.
"Because she is always with me, here..." I pointed my head "and here." I pointed my chest.
A little d'aww escaped from Applejack, Twilight and Pinkie's mouth; Rarity seemed astonished, though Rainbow wasn't amused, and instead pointed a hoof to her open mouth.

Back to today, I was again going for a walk through Ponyville, I decided to go to Twilight's library, look for another book.
"Oh hello Flare, nice to see you here." Twilight's voice welcomed me.
"Thanks, I was looking for a book."
"Sure, what's in your mind?"
"Do you got something about history?"
"Can you be more specific?"
"Anything about assassins?"
"Wha-... how do you know about assassins?" she asked me nervously.
"My father had a high rank in the army, he got permission to check the castle's archives and library. And as his son I was able to look some books too."
"Oh yeah, I always forget about your father's time in the army. It will take a while to find the books about assassins, so wait here."
She then looked the shelves, scanning patiently every book.
"Say, why do you want a book on this topic anyway?" she asked me while still searching.
"Well, I managed to copy half of their combat skills, I might as well look about their history, right?"

After that she handed me a big book, almost as tall as my head and a width matching my hoof.
"Wow, looks like they had some history." I joked
"Indeed, they were quite a big guild back in the day." she told me.
"Wait. You're talking in past verse. Something happened to them?"
"Well, they got eradicated."
"What? That's ridiculous!" I was incredulous at the new information.
"Ridiculous or not, it's the truth, assassins are no more, nothing of them exists now." she assured.
"Absolutely nothing?"
She looked away a little.
"Well, just some bad memories."
I didn't ask further, afraid of any answer.



I went back home with the book to read peacefully, this was some heavy reading. Good thing I brought my bag too, otherwise I wouldn't make a big trip with that heavy book.

On the way I ran into Applejack:
"Howdy Applejack, how's it going?" I greeted.
"Flare! Howdy to ya' too, ah'm great how 'bout ya'?" she asked.
"Fine thanks, I was just returning home to read I got from Twilight's library."
"You never do somethin' else than readin' do ya'?" she joked.
"Well, I always like a good book, but otherwise I almost always take a stroll around, it's pretty difficult not to do it with a town like this."
"I hear ya', you're darn right. What'cha reading now anyway?"
"A bit of history this time, about an ancient brotherhood."
"Let me guess, something medieval right? It wouldn't surprise me."
"You could say, but these guys were active until last year, or so Twilight told me." I explained.
"Oh.. well if Twilight says so, then it's pretty much the truth."
"No argument here."

"Well, I'll see you around Applejack." I was dismissing from her.
"Likewise Flare."
I only took a few steps before Applejack stopped me.
"What's the matter?" I asked
"Well first lemme ask: y'are pretty good at fighting an' stuff right?"
"Um, yea, what about it?"
"Well, Fluttershy told me, an' ah thought... well, that, maybe you could teach a bit of your stuff to mah sister."
"Oh, Applebloom? Why is that?"
"Well, she likes that 'kung-fu' things and well, since you know about fighting, ah thought you could teach her, just so she can have something to do in her freetime."

I thought for a while, an apprentice? It would be great to have somepony to teach.
"Let me think about that, it's actually a great idea, but I have to check if I can make a consistent schedule to teach your sister."
"Oh yeah sure, I was just mentionin' though, ya' can say no if ya' don feel like it."
"No seriously, it's quite a good idea, but if you don't mind I'll give you the answer tomorrow."
"Okay no prob. Thanks!" she said, and left.
Then I headed again to my house.



"So now you'll have somepony to waste time with, teaching how to handle a stick?" Plaid joked.
"If that's how you call it, then yes." I answered.
"Ugh" he facehoofed "what will come next? That you teach her to use telekinesis?"
"Hey I can't do that."
"It was figuratively, you dumb-flank."
He then went back to his work.
"Whatever..." I simply said.
> Testing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I went to the Apple family farm the next day to tell Applejack my decision. To be honest, I would have accepted right away, but I didn't want to seem too available.

"Have you talked to Applebloom about this?" I asked the earth pony.
"Ah wanted it to be a secret, besides she brags about her skills; I'd like her to do that when she truly knows what she says she knows." Applejack replied.
"I see your point. Well let's tell her then."

We headed upstairs to the filly's room. Applejack knocked the door, and Applebloom's voice told us we could enter.
"Applebloom, do ya' remember Flare?" the mare asked her sister pointing towards me.
"Oh yeah, nice to see ya' again mister Flare!" the filly greeted me shaking my hoof.
"Likewise Applebloom." I greeted back.
"I wanted to tell ya', he'll be teaching you about that kung-fu stuff you always do." said Applejack.
"What? I don' need anypony teach me anything, I'm pretty good at kung-fu!"
"Why don't you show me then? If I see that you are actually good, I won't bother you again." I suggested.
"Because ya' could just say I'm not good enough, ya'd just watch." Applebloom said.
"And how about you fight me then?" I suggested again.
Both of the sisters shut up.
"What are ya' sayin'?!" Applejack whispered angrily to me.
"Don't worry, I won't do anything that'll hurt her, I promise. You'll see how she'll give up in a few minutes."
Applejack thought for a while.
"If ah find out ya' hurt her or somethin'..."
"Do you want me to make a Pinkie Pie promise?" I told her knowing of the responsibility of the promise. "Because you know I would."
Applejack kept silent for another while:
"Well okay then. You may go near the tree house is to practise." she suggested.
"Fine by me, what do you say Applebloom?" I asked the filly.
"Yeah! Let's do this!" she said running out of the room. I followed her.



Once we arrived to the place, we agreed on what we would do once we finished.
"If I win, you'll let me teach you." I said.
"And if I win, you won't. But I think we both know what the result will be." she mocked.
"Okay then, it's settled."

She then took a leaping stance, waiting for me to make a move. I simply taunted her to come waving a hoof.
We were a few meters of distance from each other, she started running and jumped with a flying kick. She fell short, burying her leg in the ground right in front of me.
I gently pushed her forehead with my hoof, and made her tumble.
"Lemme give you a tip, if you're going to give a flying kick, make sure you land it."
From the ground she tried to kick me, I stepped back to prevent another attack from below.

Now she ran towards me, and stopped in front of me, and threw a few punches, but she only spinned while trying to do so.
I just walked back step by step, and suddenly crouched to grab her by the legs and made her trip, landing face first on the ground.
"Another tip, if you throw punches trying to emulate a hurricane, you can be sure that won't work. Punches must go straight."
"Argh, shaddup!" Applebloom shouted.
She took the advice though, and now started throwing jabs left and right, I dodged some, and blocked others.

I made it seem that she was defeating me, lowering my body to the floor, until I was on my back. Applebloom kept punching but I just had my guard up.
Once she looked confident of winning, I grabbed one of her front legs as she threw a punch, unabling her to keep jabbing with it; then she used the another leg and I did the same as before.
I took impulse and threw her away as I stood up.

We kept fighting for a big while, and Applebloom was tiring up.
"If you can't go on, you might as well give up." I suggested.
"Ah won' stop until YA' give up!" she said.
I tapped my hoof on the ground impatiently, "she is running out of breath, but that doesn't stop her" I thought.

She confronted me again, and tried to perform a mule kick, but her forelegs gave up before she could even rise. I walked towards her:
"You are too tired now Applebloom, take a rest. You can't keep going." I told her.
"Of course I can!" she said between pants, and tried to get up, only to land on her chin.
"Nonsense, you can't even get up. Let me carry you to your house." I said.
She groaned, but allowed me to carry her on my back, and take her to her home.
"Ah want a rematch." she said on the way.
"Sure, you'll have your rematch. But until then, you'll be my apprentice."
She groaned again.

When we arrived to her house, Applebloom fell asleep; Applejack received us, and got alarmed at the sight of her sister on my back.
"What in the hay happened?!" she asked.
"She is just tired, nothing else; please show me her room again, so I can put her in the bed." I pleaded.
Applejack nodded, and directed me upstairs to Applebloom's room.
"So how did it go?" the mare asked.
"Well, she is pretty good actually, she does know a bit of martial arts, but she doesn't know how to apply them." I explained while placing Applebloom on the bed.
"So ya're gonna teach her do that?"
"Pretty much, and a few other things, she'll definitely know about combat after many trainings."
"How long will it take?"
"That, I can't tell you, because it depends on the learning capacity of everypony. This was just a test, but I think she'll do okay after a week or so."

I went downstairs to leave.
"It's getting late, if you don't mind, I'll go now." I told Applejack.
"Of course, when will ya' come back to train mah sister?" she asked.
"Tomorrow at the same time. If that's okay."
"Oh yeah, absolutely."
I waved Applejack goodbye as I left Sweet Apple Acres.



"You wouldn't believe the determination of this filly!" I told Fluttershy back at her house.
"I don't think it's determination, I think it's stubbornness." she said.
"Yeah, that too."

Since I became Fluttershy's coltfriend, she invited me to her house to chat a little, have dinner and stuff; she sometimes asked if I wanted to crash in her house too.

"I don't know, I'm thinking that maybe I won't be a good teacher for Applebloom." I said worried.
"Don't worry Flare, you'll do it well. I know that." she told me while bringing dinner.
> Training!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day I went back to the farm, around the same hour as before.

I went with Applebloom to the same place to start practicing:
"Let's get tis over with, okay?" she said.
"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure you'd like to do this after some time." I said.

"Let's start with something easy, how much time can you stand on your hind legs?" I asked.
"Ah don' really know..." she replied.
"Well, let's do this: you stand on your hind legs for as long as you can; when you stand on all fours again, try again and stand for longer, understood?"
She nodded, and stood up, she was able to maintain herself for almost ten seconds.
"How will this help me anyway?" she asked after trying a few more times.
"Standing on your hind legs can make a valuable asset on a fight when mastered, you can use your front hooves easier when punching, and will be easier to block. Though you'll still have some disadvantages like needing extra focus on your balance, care to venture why?" I explained.
"Because the balance is reduced by half?" she guessed
"Exactly. Everyday I practice this, to strenghten my balance on two hooves; you could do the same. When we are not practicing, try doing what you're doing now, soon you will be able to stand as much time as me."
She shrugged, and kept trying.

I didn't teach her anything this day, we just practiced a few things to help Applebloom learn faster. I trained her to stand on two hooves for a long period of time, I trained her to dodge effectively, and we runned for a while to raise stamina.

"When will ya' teach me somethin' cool? Like a kick or a flip or somethin'?" she asked when we finished the training.
"Soon, but first you have to train your strength, so then you will be able to use those moves properly. It's of no use to know everything, when you don't know how to; I don't know if you got that." I explained.
"Yeah" she said not fully convinced "that makes sense."
"C'mon, let me accompany you home."



"So how is your apprentice, you finally got her into the dark side?" my brother welcomed me home.
"Mock what you want, but you could have an apprentice yourself, I'm sure anypony would like to paint patches like you do."
"You make a point, but I'm not having a student anyway, I don't feel like I'd be a good teacher."
"I thought the same, but it's not that hard once you start. You might at least try."
"Oh yeah absolutely! Find me somepony interested in this and then we'll talk!" Plaid gave me a sarcastic smile "Give me a bucking break dude." he turned back to his work.



"Try to stand on one leg this time." I ordered.
"Wha...? Ah can't stand on one leg! Nopony can!" Applebloom protested.

Showing her the opposite, I stood on my right leg (the dominant one), folding the left one to cover the lower part of my torso pointing upwards, and making a crossguard with my front legs.
Author's note: If you played the game "Yakuza (Ryu ga Gotoku)", the stance I describe should look like Lau Ka Long's blocking stance.

"Oh of course that nopony can! Silly me! That's just stupid!" I mocked.
"How do ya' do it?!" she asked.
"Girl, anypony can stand on one leg, maybe even you do it without noticing." I said while standing on fours again.

I don't really remember how many days we have trained until that time, but they were only a few. Applebloom was training hard and it wouldn't be long before I taught her something of combat.

"Well, now you try." I invited.
"Well, okay."
She stood on two legs, and then raised one, but was barely able to maintain balance for a few seconds before having to stand back on two.
"Let me help you with that." I said.
Now I helped her to maintain herself on one leg, while grabbing her by the hooves. And suddenly released her saying "don't fall!" encouragingly.
She was able to maintain herself for around ten seconds before falling.
"You did great in that one."
"Ah did?"
"Yeah! It was harder for me when I self-taught me this. Let's take a rest and then we continue."

We sat in a table nearby to recover energies.
"Say, how will this stance halp me if it will be harder to maintain mah balance?" she asked.
"Remember about the 'easier to block' thing I told you when standing on two?"
She nodded.
"Well, this will actually will make it a bit harder to block and stand, but will cover more areas of your body. So this will exchange balance for defense."
"Do ah have ta' know this?" she asked, a bit overwhelmed.
"Well, not that you have to, but you could; when you are learning something, you can't aim to know everything, so instead you stick in what you can make the most profit from." I explained.
"Then why are ya' teaching me everything if I won't be able to learn all of it?"
"For the same reason, I teach you everything and you catch part of it. What you catch, we try to improve to mastery."
"Ah wish school would be like that sometimes." she said.



After a week, I finally started teaching Applebloom about strikes, kicks and stuff. Though I also told her to fight her own way.
"What do ya' mean by that?" she asked
"You learn what I teach you, and do it as I say. But I also have to teach you to be creative when fighting."
"Creative?" she repeated.
"Yes, if you will do exactly like I do, you'll just copy me, and that doesn't mean you learned anything."
"Ah don't really understand that."
"You'll figure that out in time, it's not something you can actually learn."

I taught Applebloom the differences between each strike (like a jab, a cross, a hook, and others), and taught her some acrobatic stuff, we had a hard time with the latter, but she seemed to enjoy it.
Every now and then she asked me why is something different to other if they seem the same, like a hook and a haymaker. And I was always glad to explain the difference.

It was becoming something fun to be a teacher.
> Let's change things up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

One day I went to the farm with something different in mind to train Applebloom, something to help her be creative.

I took her to the town and told her to look carefully at the whole area, and the places where we were walking around.
"Why are we doin' dis?" she asked after a while.
"I'll tell you once we get where we're heading." I simply replied.
She then kept looking carefully around.

We arrived at an alley, a few dumpsters around.
"Where are we?" Applebloom asked.
"Nowhere special, just some old alley, but I brought you here to train something else."
I looked up, to the edges of the two houses that were at our sides.
"What would you do to reach the top of those houses?" I asked.
The filly looked confused.
"Well, ah'd try tah find a ladder to get up there, but why?"
"If you can't find a ladder, nor anything similar, how would you get up there?" I pointed up.
"Nopony can reach a roof without something to help themselves." she said.
"Exactly." I replied.
Then I jumped on top of one of the dumpsters, then jumped again to a wall and grasped a wood board that kept the ceiling of the house in it's place; then I moved slowly to a side to get to the lower part of the roof, and climbed up.

The filly was now confused and surprised.
"How did ya' do it?"
"It's like you said, nopony can reach a roof without something to help themselves; so I helped myself with the environment, not with ladders." I told her from above.
"That's really cool! But ah can't get up there, ah'm not that fast."
"Maybe not how I did it, so you have to find another way; try looking the front of the house, maybe there's a platform so you can jump up here." I suggested.
She nodded, and got out of the alley to search the front. In a few minutes she was in the roof with me.

"What kind o' training is this anyway?" she said a little tired.
"Remember I told you to be creative? Well, this will help you do that. To be creative you need to be resourceful with the environtment and with your moves. Today I'll teach you how to be creative by freerunning."

I jumped to the roof of the other house, crossing the gap of the alley, making a roll while landing.
"I can't jump that gap it's too large!" she said from the other roof.
"You can, try to be resourceful."
"How? There's nothing up here to be resourceful about!"
"Why don't you look at your side?"
She did, and noticed that the two roofs were becoming nearer towards the other edge, making the gap smaller.
"Jump through there, you can't make the gap of here, but you can make that one over there." I pointed out.
She walked towards the smaller gap, and jumped over to the roof I was standing.
"I told you to be resourceful, look around and you will find another easier way, there's almost always another way out." I explained. "Let's jump some more roofs and then we'll move on to something else."



After some time, I took Applebloom to the park.
"We're going to do something easier now okay? I want you to look around, remember what I taught you when jumping roofs."
She nodded and looked her surroundings, carefully checking the area.
"Done, what now?" she asked.
"Do you know about a little name called 'the floor is lava'?"
"Are ya' kiddin'? I love that game!"
"Well good! Try to apply freerunning with that game, using what you can find here in the park."
"But everything here is too afar from the others ta' make a simple jump!"
"Let's pretend you have a little resistance to lava, what do you think?"
"Awesome!"
She then ran towards an empty bench and jumped to it, then jumped towards another; she kept doing it for a while.

While Applebloom was trying to climb up a tree, Fluttershy appeared and came to say hi.
"How's it going?" I greeted
"I'm fine, how about you, how's the training?" the pegasus asked.
"Pretty good actually, she's quite a quick learner, but she still has some difficulties."
"Give her time, she's just a little filly."
"Oh I know that, I don't teach her expecting to learn everything the first time. Though I gotta say she learns about freerunning at a slightly faster pace."
"Well, she is kind of a fretful pony, she can't keep in the same place too much time."
"Tell me about it! Look at her jumping the benches!" I pointed with my hoof where Applebloom was running and jumping.

"Say, do you want to go out again someday?" I asked Fluttershy.

It's been a while since we have gone out for the last time; besides, we were still trying to get used to the idea fo being coltfriends too. It sounds silly, I know, but I haven't kissed her for a few months; we just hang around, but then again, sometimes we are too shy to behave like actual coltfriends.

As expected, Flutteshy's response started with a blush.
"Well, I'd love to." she smiled looking away "When do you want to meet?"
"Are you free tomorrow?"
She nodded.
"Let's meet tomorrow at Sugarcube Corner then, around 2 PM sounds good for you?"
She nodded again quickly.
"Awesome then, I'll see you tomorrow, well, unless you want to stay here a little longer." I said nudging her.
"Well, I can't say no to that." she said nudging back.

I told Applebloom to take a rest; freerunning costs a big bunch of stamina, and despite that earth ponies are popular for their breath capacity, even one can run out of breath.
Applebloom went to talk to Fluttershy a little, while I looked around the park for other places that Applebloom could use.
When Fluttershy left, Applebloom came back to me.
"What do ah have ta' do now?"
"Let's review quickly what I taught you just now, then we'll call it a day."



When I left Applebloom it was becoming darker, so I headed right home.
"Hey." I greeted my brother.
"Hey." he greeted back.
"How's everything, anything new?"
"Actually no. How about you? Your apprentice?"
"Oh, great! I taught her to do parkour."
He looked at me with a blank face.
"You are teaching a FILLY TO JUMP ON ROOFS?! DA FLANK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
"Hey chill, it's not a big deal."
"Not a big deal?! She's just a filly! A FILLY!"
"You have to teach them from youth."
"But you have to consider the risks! What if she fell from a roof?"
"I supervised her every step, and helped her when needed, it was under control."
"How do you know it was under control?"
"Because THESE prove it." I pointed the scars filling my body "Because of these, I know what's right and what's wrong in freerunning. So that's how I know it was under control."
"Ohhh so some scars do TELL you when she's doing something wrong?"
"Hey I didn't say that."
"Oh yeah? Then what did you say? You know, I actually don't care, I'm sure someday she'll fall down and all the blame will be on you. Don't say I didn't warn you."
"All responsibility of her safety during our classes is upon me, I promised her sister that she'll be fine, and I keep my promises intact."
"Not ALL of them at least."
"This one will be."
Plaid left out a long sigh.
"I'll repeat it, don't say I didn't warn you dude."
> She's late
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day I went to Sugarcube Corner to meet Fluttershy. I was greeted by Pinkie's high-pitched voice when I arrived.
"Hi Flare! Can I get you anything?" asked the earth pony.
"Not yet, I agreed with Fluttershy to meet here, so if you don't mind, I'll get a table and wait."
"Oh sure, go ahead!"
I sat in a table right next to a wall, and waited for the pegasus to arrive; I couldn't help but let out a smile.

A half hour passed and Fluttershy didn't arrive yet, "she must be late" I thought.

Another half hour passed and she still didn't appear, I was becoming worried. "What if something happened to her?" I began to think "Oh c'mon Flaring, nothing can happen in this place, it's just too peaceful."

Some time after, a cyan pegasus entered the bakery, and asked something to Pinkie, the latter just shrugged and replied while pointing towards me, making the pegasus fly towards me.
"Hey there Rainbow, nice to see you here." I greeted.
"You too Flare, so you're waiting for Fluttershy?" she asked.
"I agreed to meet her here, but she's running very late. Have you seen her?"
"Actually I was looking for her too, she's nowhere to be found."
"Isn't she home either?" I asked.
"Huh, I missed that, she must be there!"
"Let's go both, maybe she forgot about our date."
With that said, we parted off of Sugarcube Corner and went to Fluttershy's cottage.



Something was wrong the moment I set my sight upon the cottage, I felt something strange.
"I have a bad feeling about this." I said to Rainbow.
"Huh? Why's that?"
"I can't actually tell, but I think something's not right."
We approached and noticed that the door was ajar. We entered.

The lights were on, but there was no sign of Fluttershy, we called her a few times, but there was no response.
"I'll go upstairs, maybe she's there." she said while dashing upstairs.
"I'll check down here." I told her while she was doing so.
Some furniture was tumbled down, the main carpet in the center of the living room was tousled. What was happening here?

Then I noticed them, some yellow lines were scattered through the floor, I went closer to them and looked carefully.
"Feathers?"

Some minutes later Rainbow came down.
"Everything up there is okay, seems like all the mess is down here." she pointed.
"Hey, look at this." I showed her the feathers.
"Feathers! Something bad happened here."
"How do you know if it's bad? Maybe she left in a hurry." I suggested.
"If she left the house, I should have found her before, don't you think?" she said.
"Oh yeah, I forgot."
"Let me see that." she ordered.
I hoofed her a feather, and she looked at it closely.
"Found something yet?" I asked.
"This feathers didn't fall normally, she didn't molt them; they fell at an early time."
"How do you know?"
"I'm a pegasus too, I know the difference between a molted feather and one that fell early." she said impatiently.
"What does this tell you?"
Rainbow thought for a while.
"Well, if she actually left in a hurry, the furniture wouldn't be in this conditions, and I would have found her before."
"Well, you got that right. Something is definitely wrong here."
"Let's check outside, maybe there's something else we can find."

Looking outside, we noticed that the path leading to the door was marked, dirt was spread around. We looked a bit closer and there was a bit of yellow fur where the dirt was marked.
"Now, this is strange, feathers AND fur?" Rainbow pointed.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Something happened to her! Let's go see Twilight, maybe she knows what to do!" she said.
We then parted to the library.



We told Twilight everything we saw in Fluttershy's cottage, the feathers, the fur, the fallen furniture:
"Anything else?" the unicorn asked.
"Well, I actually haven't seen any of her animals either." I remembered.
Twilight brought a hoof to her chin, and started to think.
"And you didn't find her before either, right Rainbow?"
The pegasus nodded.
"Fur and feathers, tumbled furniture, no animals." the unicorn recalled while walking "This is really bad."
"What do you think we should do?" I asked.
"We have to wait for another clue, we can't do nothing right now."
"But we have to find her!" I yelled.
"Do you know where she is?" the unicorn said.
"Well no, but..."
"If you don't have any little clue of her whereabaouts, how will you search? Ponyville and Canterlot are not the only cities in Equestria you know."
"But he's right Twilight!" Rainbow jumped in "We can't just sit around and do nothing."
"What do you suggest we do then?" the unicorn defied the pegasus.
"Search every last corner in Equestria. I can't stay calm if a friend of mine is in danger!"
"Fluttershy is a friend of mine too, but there is nothing we can do!"
Rainbow paid little attention to that last thing, as she already dashed off to the door and left.

"Such an impulsive pony." Twilight said out loud.
"Do you think that waiting is the only thing we can do?" I asked.
"Do you have any other ideas besides searching all Equestria?"
I shuffled my head, denying.
"Then it's the only thing we can do."
I bit my lip at that.
"What do you think happened to her, Twilight?"
"I don't know what to tell you Flare, let's just hope that she is alright."
> Confusion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She was filly-napped.

Filly-napping was one of the worst crimes known to ponykind, and even though that Equestria was officially a safe and peaceful place, there are still ponies willing to take it's peace away.
During his youth, my dad dealt with many of these problems, and always managed to solve them, and to give the filly-nappers what they deserved.

He would know what to do, but I couldn't reach him right then.

I realised that Fluttershy was fillynapped when I found a note on the door of my house, nailed with a dagger that had a blood red coloured hilt, which seemed familiar somehow.
I ran to Golden Oaks Library to tell Twilight:
"She was filly-napped?!" she asked.
"I asked myself the same question, it filled my head yesterday!" I told her.
"Do you know who it was?"
"I kind of have an idea, but you have to see these to understand why."
I hoofed her the dagger and the note, and she read out loud.

"Good try dear assassin, but you couldn't hide for long!
It is time so settle things now, and this time we won't make the same mistake again!

You know where to find us."

Then she looked at the hilt of the dagger.
"They think you are an assassin." she said.
"I wouldn't expect less, after all my way of combat resembles that of the assassins." I pointed.
"But you aren't one, aren't you?"
"If the assassins were eradicated, how could I be one?"
"Dunno, maybe you left the brotherhood before."
It was true, after all, the assassins were defeated not too long ago.
"I'm not an assassin, I just emulate their way to fight." I assured.

After a while, the other four mares appeared, to discuss the matter.
"Do you have any news?" Rainbow asked.
"We are pretty sure of who did this" Twilight started "it's not the first time they did this to one of us."
"What are you saying? They did it before?" Rarity asked.
"Don't you remember when Rainbow was filly-napped? Who was here that brought upon us his past?" Twilight asked to all of them.
"Hey that wasn't his fault Twilight! He just tried to hide from them!" Rainbow yelled.
"And yet they took you, to finish what they started, and now they think that Flare was with them too."
"Wait, they think that Flare is an assassin?" Applejack asked.

"Hold on a second everypony!" I intervened "What is this all about? Did you all knew about the assassins?"
The five looked at each other, worried faces was all I saw in them.
"I think... you have to know what happened last year." Twilight said.



(Author's note: If you haven't read "Reminisce: Swift Slash's shadow" by Neon, now it's the time to read it. As from this point, things might be a little confusing otherwise. Read it here.

"The Guardians. Of course! They are the sworn enemies of the assassins, they would do anything to annihilate them!" I yelled.
"They did it with Rainbow, it was a tragedy that that pegasus was killed while rescuing her." Pinkie said.
Rainbow meanwhile, she retreated to a corner, she didn't want to remember.
"And with him, the assassins were finally finished. Now I understand why you told me that the assassins left to all of you 'bad memories' Twilight." I said.
"Don't we have a way ta' find those guys?" Applejack asked.
"Not really, when they took Rainbow, they took her to the assassins' headquarters, we don't know where the Guardians are located." Twilight replied.
"Don't we have a clue either?" I asked.
All of them shuffled their heads.

After some seconds of silence, a voice was heard.
"I know where they are."
We turned around and we noticed that Rainbow spoke.
"Swift told me where they are located, it's in the same city where the assassins were. Both of the factions controlled the place, out of Celestia's rule." she explained.
"Which is the city?" I asked.

Rainbow looked away, not sure to say it. But she looked again at us confident.
"Anvil."



Once home, I prepared my weapons, and a long cloak to hide them.
"Are you seriously thinking in going there yourself?" Plaid asked.
"I'm not going alone, two of them will come with me." I responded.
"Flare, think what are you going to do. Why don't you call the army and leave them deal with this?"
"Because they called me to go and find them."
"But you're not an assassin!"
"But they don't know that, this is all a misunderstanding. I'll try to reason with them."
"Then why are you carrying weapons if you want to talk?"
I paused a little.
"Guardians aren't known for listening."

I prepared a black hood, that a relative made for me. It covered my face nicely, perfect to maintain anonymity.
"How do you know they won't think of you as an assassin if you have that hood covering your face?" my brother asked.
"Assassins wore white suits, and I'm covered in black, they won't notice it at first glance." I answered.
"Are you seriously thinking of doing this? You're gonna get killed."
I let out a long sigh.
"Listen Plaid, I am not sure if I'll come out alive. But what do you want me to do? They would kill her if I tell the army about this. If I go, they will have a reason to let her live."
"But if YOU die, what will she do?"
"I don't know, but I won't let that happen. I made a plan with Twilight to rescue Fluttershy, and with that we have a bit more chances of getting out of there alive."
He kept silent a while.
"I don't like this dude, I don't like this at all."
"Neither do I, but I have to. She means the world to me."

He approached me and gave me a strong hug.
"You are something to admire Flare, but what will we admire if you are dead?"
"My legacy, that's everything I'll leave if I die. But I'm not planning in dying anytime soon."
"And what if you die?"
"Know that if that happens... I never stopped to fight."



I went back to the library, Twilight and I decided to bring Rainbow as well. The unicorn said that we are bringing her not only because she knew where the Guardians were, but we could also need some backup.
"If things get serious, only us both won't be capable to deal with them all." Twilight explained.
"You are right. But she should come hooded too, they could recognize her even after a year of not seeing her." I said.
"Sure. We'll leave by midnight, so we can get to Anvil by midday. I recommend you to go to sleep until then."
"I'll see you then, here in the library?"
"Yes, I have to tell the others about our plan."

With that, I left towards my house, to rest until midnight.
> Forging a rescue - Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up around ten to twelve. Quickly, I grabbed a pouch full of bits I had prepared.
I put my sword at my hip, my retractable blades concealed by metal gauntlets, and a hoof-made armor for my torso (it had flat broken pieces of other ruined devices, all sewed at the front covered with cloth, to make some kind of plate armor).
I put on my greaves, and waited some time to think.

I looked at my night table, to a little sachet of leather, and opened it. There was the feather that Fluttershy gave me that day at the Gala.
I stroked the fragile little feather and put it back in the sachet, I added it a string so I could wear it as a collar.
"Hold on Fluttershy, we're coming for you." I whispered while putting the little bag on my neck.

I grabbed my hood, and fastened it to completely cover my face.

And with all resolve, I left the house.



I went to the library, all five of the ponies of the group were up, I could feel something different in the air.
"I'm here." I made notice of my presence.
"Good, let's overview the plan, Flare." Twilight said.

The plan was this: Twilight, Rainbow and I would go to Anvil, anonymous, to find the Guardians headquarters and rescue Fluttershy.
Twilight and I would sneak in, while Rainbow would remain outside, only to appear when called.
Once we found at least two ponies with Guardian clothes or armor, we'd deal with them and dispose them of their clothing, to remain unsuspected.
"But Twilight would be easily recognized, she's a mare!" Rarity said.
"I already though that, once Flare takes out his primitive armor..."
"Hey! It took me quite a while to find the right plates for this!" I said.
"Anyway, once you take it off, you'll give it to me so I wear it under the Guardian's clothes, that way they won't suspect that much."
"But the guardians aren't stupid." Rainbow said.
"But they're not smart either, they rely on quantity rather than quality. They can't remember all of the faces they see everyday, so we'll try to blend with low ranked soldiers." Twilight explained.
"That's right! And once we got a cover we can sneak to other rooms to find Fluttershy." I said.
"Exactly. But we'll have to act like them, we can't force their soldiers or officers for information, they might rise an alert."
"Wait, what's my part in this again?" Rainbow came in.
"You'll wait until I command you to enter. With your speed you'll find us easily, I'll call you when we need backup, or when we find Fluttershy and need some transport to get out as quickly as possible. And once we are safe, I'll use a transportation spell back here to Ponyville." said the unicorn.
"But whay don't cha' use that spell to get ther' in da' first place?" Applejack asked.
"I have to explore the place to do that, I don't know where Anvil is; and even if I guessed, I could end up anywhere but there. The spell will have to be charged longer than normal to get us back here though."

"Wait, what are we going to do while you go to Anvil?" Pinkie asked.
"You'll wait here, in case something happens, or that you find some new information. Be sure to write me a letter and tell Spike to send it to me." Twilight ordered.
"As you wish dear." Rarity said.
"Any other questions anypony?"
We looked at each other and shuffled our heads in denial.
"Okay then, let's go!"
The three of us left the library, off to Anvil.



Twelve hours later:

I was exhausted, we walked for quite a long while. At least Twilight brought some supplies to help us cope with the tire.
We arrived at the town, it was bustling with activity.
"Now, pay attention to any Guardian guard; after defeating the assassins they surely took control over all Anvil." Twilight whispered to us.

After walking around for some minutes, I saw a couple of Guardians talking to each other. An idea came to me.
"Hey, you keep going, I'll eavesdrop those two Guardians, maybe I can find something interesting." I said.
"We'll go with you." Rainbow suggested.
"No. They'll notice, I'll go alone, you two keep searching the town." I ordered.
They nodded and kept walking.

I fastened my hood and put it over my head to cover my face. Then I reached at a nearby bench and heard the conversation between the two.
"I can't believe assassins are still active." one of them said.
"They're not, our lord missed killing this last one. He was sure that that guy... what was his name again?" the other said.
"Um, Swift? Something like that?"
"Yeah, he was sure that Swift was the last one; guess he missed one more."
"He should have desserted before the attack, we killed them all in that place."
"Maybe, I can't find another reason."
"Hey did you check the mare they brought to lure the guy here?"
"Oh yeah, what a shame, she's gorgeous."
"But they don't have anything on her right? They will let her go after they kill this dude?"
"Maybe, I really don't know what they do with the prisoners."
"It would be a total waste to kill her, she's just beautiful."
"I am in luck actually, today I was assigned to guard the room where she is."
That caught my attention above everything else.
"You got one hell of a luck you know that?"
"Oh I do know man. Well I have to keep patrolling this streets, I'll see you around."
Then both ponies separated and went their way.

I followed the one that was in charge of guarding Fluttershy, and after some time Twilight and Rainbow catched up with me.
"Found anything?" Rainbow asked.
"See that Guardian there? He's assigned with guarding the room where Fluttershy is being held, we can't lose him." I said.
"I'll follow him, you two find two guards to dispose them of their clothing." Twilight ordered.
The pegasus nodded, and went to another direction, with me following suit.
"Let's see some rooftops, maybe we can take some guards by surprise and knock them out." I suggested.
"Sure, you go there, I'll go the other way." Rainbow said.
Then she trotted away.

I found a dead end alley and searched around to find some platforms to stand on. After some minutes I managed to get to the roofs.
I moved quietly, trying not to make much noise. Until I found a guard.
I looked around, and once I made sure there was nopony else in sight, I hit the guard in the middle of the head.
"Ow! What the..." was his only response, as I quickly punched him right in the snout.
He stumbled, and would have fallen off the edge if I didn't grab him by the red doublet. I pulled him up and punched him again a few times in the face, until I knew he was unconscious.
I disposed him from his clothes (the doublet and a metal capeline), and hid him somewhere hard to be found.

Once dressed as a Guardian, I came down from the rooftops as carefully as I could, and got out from the alley of before.
I walked around until I found Rainbow with a bag on her back.
"Let's give these to Twilight quick." Rainbow ventured.
> Forging a rescue - Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After some minutes, we found Twilight still following the Guardian. We gave her the red robes and my personal armor, and then she retreated to change her clothes.

Meanwhile I continued following him. I made sure to emulate his way of acting, looking around, looking if there was any trouble; and also kept me in a safe distance from him.

Twlight eventually catched up with me, now dressed as a Guardian. Below those robes she was wearing my armor, to mislead the guards about her smaller body. Somehow she and Rainbow managed to find a flat top helm with faceguard to cover her face too.
"Will we keep following him until he retreats to the fortress? We can't follow him forever, other guards might suspect something." I told her.
"Maybe we can try to convince him that he was called to immediately guard the room, to save us time." Twilight said.
"You think that would work?"
"Maybe if I use some mind tricks on him, but only if he won't cooperate. It's risky, but I don't think of anything else to do."
I looked at the sky to check the time, we could come back to Ponyvilly by dusk if we made our move now.
"Okay, I'll talk to him. If I need your mind tricks I'll give you a justle." I said.
She nodded and we approached the Guardian. I grabbed him by the shoulder confidently.
"Yes?" he asked.
"You are required in the headquarters." I quickly told him.
"For what reason?"
"The mare from Ponyville. Security must be incremented. The assassin was spotted nearby the city." I fakely explained.
"Were you both assigned to join me?" he asked.
"Yes." I said.
The pony looked cautiously at Twilight, or at least her helmet.
"Okay, I can't stop to think right now, if the assassin is near I should go back. C'mon!" he ordered.
We followed him to headquarters.

Inside, the fortress had a medieval look, but it also had some kind of modern touch to it.
After walking through a few corridors, we finally stopped in front of a door, with a guard at its side.
"Open the door please." the pony asked the guard.
"On whose authority?" the guard asked back.
"Lord Francis' ordered me to guard inside this room."
The guard stepped aside and let us in.

The room barely had lights, just a few candles illuminated the place, and there were no windows.

Right in the middle of the room, there she was.

Tied to a chair,  Fluttershy was there, I couldn't see her face to face, but I could notice the pink long mane anywhere.
I looked at Twilight, I could sense the joy she had of seeing her again. I felt it too, but we had to remain calm or we would have lost our cover.
The pony we were following, started to untie Fluttershy, much to our surprise.
"Why are you untying her?" I asked.
"I'm taking her to the Lord's personal room. I was asked to take her there once I came here."

Strange, some minutes ago he said that he would just be guarding the room.

"You two come with me, it's hard to carry this pony on my own, specially since she can't move." the pony explained.
I looked to Fluttershy and I saw her eyes had lost the light that they once had, she had her face lost in sight.

I helped the other pony to carry her to his lord's room, and with every step I felt that something was not right.



After going up some stairs, we finally arrived to said room.

It had a very different look than the rest of the place. It was brighter, relics were all around the room, and the place looked antique, rather than old.
"Lord Francis, I brought the prisoner as you required me." the pony bowed to the other one looking out of a window, flautantly placed right behind the desk.
"I see." Francis replied "So I guess the assassin has been spotted."
"Have no doubt sir."
The Lord then walked around the room, he looked at Fluttershy for some time and approached her.

Fluttershy looked broken, she was sitting on her haunches with her face downwards; her eyes looked opaque.
Francis lowered his height and grabbed her face, to make sure she looked at him.
"Looks like they're coming for you girl. You are very lucky." he said, but she just looked away "But not for long."
He walked back to his desk.
"Make the officers come here." he ordered to the pony we were accompanying.
The other nodded and went to open the door of the room. Quickly a bunch of ponies with red clothes filled the place where we were standing.
"Gentlecolts, the assassin is near; in fact he is very near. Maybe he is in the building right now! But don't worry, we'll catch him before he can even reach his goal!"

Really, something wasn't right at that moment.

"So, I command you to gather our troops, and finish this threat once and for all! You are all dismissed." Francis ordered.
With that, Twilight and me headed for the exit to "join" the hunt.

The problem was, nopony else moved, we were the only ones that turned to the door.
"Fooled ya' there, right assassin?" Francis mocked.



Before I could resist, many hooves forced me to the ground to keep me still. They did the same to Twilight.
"Make sure the assassin can't move one single bit!" the Lord yelled.
"Wait! Mister, this is a misunderstanding!" I screamed.
"Oh yeah? And why, pray tell, is that?" he asked with all sarcasm.
"I'm not an assassin! You have to believe me!" I said.
"Why should I believe you? Because you sneaked in our fortress, you brawled with two guards, and pretended to be one of us. Why should I believe in somepony that does that?" he explained.

He had a point, if I wasn't an assassin at all, I could just have given in and explained the situation without any harm.

Why did I make all this plan to rescue Fluttershy furtively, if I could just free her by surrendering and explaining?

"Allow me to speak my Lord." Twilight spoke, and all the ponies around were surprised at the voice.
"Who are you? What is a mare doing here?!"
"Please mister." Twilight pleaded while taking her helm off. "This was all my idea."
"What? Speak! What do you mean by 'your idea'?" the lord asked.
"The thing is: when you filly-napped our friend, we discussed on what to do." she said.
"And sneaking in was the best idea?"
"We didn't have another choice!"
"Oh but HE did." Francis pointed at me. "He could have just given in and explained everything."
"It's not that simple. You Guardians have estrict orders to kill any assassin when spotted, it must be killed at sight."
"But he could have just..."
"Just what?" Twilight interrupted "Come here and say 'Hey, I'm the assassin!' and be killed by the first idiot crossing the room?"
"Watch your words filly! Remember who are you talking to!" Francis barked.
"You don't scare us! We are under the protection of Princess Celestia herself!" Twilight defied.
"Ohh, Celestia, I'm so scared!" he mocked "Don't be so foalish girl! We are more powerful than we look!"
"But you're no smarter either!" Twilight backfired, struggling to escape from the grasp of the other ponies.
"That's it! Officers! Take this mare to the dungeons!" Francis ordered.
"What about the assassin?" one of them asked.
"I'm not an assassin for crying out loud!" I yelled.
The lord thought for a while.
"Kill him, assassin or not, we won't have to deal with this anymore." he said.

With that, the pony Twilight and I accompanied, came to face me.
"It's funny to now see you die." he said with a familiar tone.
"Why funny? Do I know you from somewhere?" I asked confused.
"Yes, me an two other friends of mine, well, my trusty soldiers actually."
"But I don't recall your face, and I don't even know your friends either."
"Oh you do know them and me. You just didn't see us..." he came closer and whispered to my ear "...or our faces, it was dark back then."

Then it hit me, but I didn't believe it.
"No way." I said.
"Yes way, though it was kind of your friend to offer help. Too bad she won't see this." he said while pulling out his sword with magic.

As the blade went closer and closer to my throat, a flashback came upon my mind. From when I was dating Fluttershy:
“Stay calm, I don’t want to hurt you” the shadow said.

Then another one came:
"You are a unicorn" I said.
"What gave you the hint?" he mocked.

I snapped back to reality.
"It was you all along, all along." I realised.

Then I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable to happen. I dropped my head to my chest, defeated. "All of this, for nothing" were my last thoughts.


And then the blade thrusted into my throat.
> Forging a rescue - Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have to ask myself, if I actually died, how am I writing this? Did I go into the future and see all this happen? Or did I get a premonition, or a revelation, or something else?

Truth be told, neither of the above mentioned are true. In fact, not even my death is true.

"Speak sense" you must all be saying as of now, very well.

The blade didn't actually even reach me. But I felt like it did.
Have you ever felt those times where you feel something very hurtful coming, and you become hurt, but it never happened? This was the case.

Back to reality, I felt the blade coming through my throat, but when I opened my eyes, I saw that the blade wasn't even moving.
The other pony then tried to slash me a few times, but somehow the attacks were getting blocked, and I wasn't even moving!

I looked back, and the other ponies holding me weren't weren't even near me.
I looked around and saw that Twilight's horn was glowing, she was free too.

Right then, I noticed that there was a shield formed right around us and Fluttershy.
"Let's go! I can't handle this shield for too long!" she told me.
"Call Rainbow! We need to get out as quickly as possible!"

At the sound of that, the window was crashed, confusing the Guardians and making a rampage of the place, followed by a rainbow trail.
"I already did that." she said with a smile.
"C'mon! Let's go!" Rainbow yelled.
Twilight vanished the shield making it explode, making the place even more messy.

"Get the assassin!" Francis yelled.

Twilight grabbed Rainbow's hoof, and lent me the other to grab it. I put Fluttershy on my back, and then we dashed off.

Just then, a rain of bolts was fired upon us, and one of them scratched one of Rainbow's wings. Making us lose altitude while she yelped.
"I'm okay, it's just a scratch!" she said.
"Drop us Rainbow! You won't be able to carry us until I finish to charge the spell!" Twilight said.
"Are you insane?! We'll splat to the ground!" I said.
"I'll teleport us to the ground before we gain enough momentum for that to happen." she told me "We'll meet you at the city's entrance!" she directed to Rainbow.
The latter nodded, and dropped us. Quickly Twilight used her spell and we weren't in the air anymore.

I felt like a hook grappled me from below my tummy and quickly slammed me to the ground. I raised up and followed Twilight through the city's streets.

Many Guardians appeared in our way, we tried to avoid them, and some others were confronted for a split second.
We ran and ran, I was running out of breath, and that wasn't good. Besides, many Guardians were on our tail now. I ran faster to be next to Twilight:
"Twilight! They won't stop! You take Fluttershy, I'll distract them!" I said.
"Are you nuts? They'll kill you!" she protested.
"We don't have time to dicuss! Take her! I'll be okay!" I assured.
Then she levitated Fluttershy from my back, and put her on hers.
"Don't you die on us!" she yelled while I went through another way.

As I expected, the Guardians were only following me, only a few kept following Twilight, but they turned and followed their allies.
Desperately I looked on a place to start the freerunning. And when I found one I didn't think twice.
I jumped up again and again, until I was on the roof. The Guardians bursted inside the building and were coming up from inside.

I jumped to another roof, and kept like that for a while, they almost lost track of me. Now that I had some more time, I disposed myself from the clothes I had, and kept running.
I jumped down and when I saw a little stand selling clothes, I snatched a beige cloak. It hurt me to steal, but I couldn't stop to think of that.

Seeing that none of my pursuers was in sight, I quickly put on the cloak and sat peacefully on a nearby bench. I made sure to put the hood over me.
After some minutes, a little group appeared, they were only trotting now.
"They lost track of me. Great!" I whispered to myself.
I sat up and quickly (but with caution) trotted to the city's entrance.

Once there, I saw Rainbow patting the ground impatient. I made myself notice to her.
"Why is she taking so long? I hope nothing happened." she said.
Right then, Twilight appeared running towards us. With a bunch of Guardians following her.
"Close the gates!" one of the officers in the group shouted.
"Quick! Cross the gate! I'll be fine!" Twilight yelled.

Rainbow and I crossed, but Twilight was too far.
"She won't make it!" I said.
"C'mon Twilight!" Rainbow encouraged.
Twilight then pressed her pace.

Right when her haunches passed the gate, it closed. And with that, a crack was heard. The group had slammed to the gate.
"Let's move quick! Before the archers are deployed!" I said.
We ran to the opposite direction of the city, while Twilight charged the spell.

Right when the archers appeared, she cast it and we were off to Ponyville again.
> Defensive measures
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I slammed to the ground and landed on my side.

I raised up and noticed we teleported right at the door of Twilight's house.

Rainbow was on the floor too, she landed next to me. Twilight was the only one that didn't experience any problem with the teleport (I couldn't expect less of her anyway, but it calmed me since Fluttershy was with her).

The unicorn quickly opened the door, the other ponies we left behind were still there.
"Fluttershy!" they all screamed in unison.

I don't remember what they asked after because I was still recovering from the smash to the ground, I helped Rainbow up and we entered the library.
"Girls, I have to take Fluttershy to recover, I'd be grateful if you don't make too much noise." Twilight said while going up.
They all agreed.

As quick as she went up, Twilight went down and directed herself to a desk and started writing a letter with all haste.
"What are ya' doing Twilight?" Applejack asked.
"I'm writing a letter to the Princess, she has to know about all this."
"We already saved Fluttershy! Why does she have to know she was filly-napped in the first place?" Rainbow asked.
"Because of the Guardians." I answered.
"Exactly, they will retaliate, and Ponyville will be their target. We have to tell Celestia so she can help us!" Twilight explained.
"But aren't those guys miles away from here?" Rarity asked.
"Yes, but they can accelerate the pace, just to kill Flare." Twilight said "I'm definitely sure that Ponyville must be evacuated. To prevent any casualties."

I couldn't believe all of this happened just because of the way I fight, I could have stopped this if I haven't plotted any plan and gone to apologize and explain!
"Why must we stop them from killing me?"
Everypony looked at me.
"Seriously! My life is not that worthy, and besides, I could have gone there and simply confess. But we took the hard way. I kept in the wrong way, and we sneaked in to help Fluttershy. We managed that, but now they're pissed! And now they could kill innocent people here!" I said.
I paused a little.
"I'm leaving, I'll confront those guys and let them do with my life what they desire." I said while walking out.
A hoof stopped me, and then punched me.
"Rainbow!" the ponies shouted.

The punch made me to lose notion of sight for a bit, and then I looked to the pegasus that hit me.
"I dare you to say that again in front of Fluttershy, moron." she said.
"How? Fluttershy it's not even herself anymore. Have you seen her eyes?" I said.
"Just because her face implies that she can't sense anything, it doesn't mean that she actually can't!"
I sighed.
"Look, what do you want me to do? I can't risk Ponyville just for some stupid misunderstanding!" I pointed.
"But you can't leave Fluttershy alone either! You mean the world to her!" Rainbow protested.
I looked away.
"What will she do when you are gone?! She never loved anypony as much as she loves you!" she continued.
A silence took over the place.
"If you think your life is not worth a single bit, go ahead, confront those ponies. But know that Fluttershy won't have anything to live for." a tear came down from Rainbow's eye. "Everything would have been in vain."
I looked to the cyan mare eye to eye.
"I just... can't see her like this. This is my fault, I'm the reason why Fluttershy it's like this now." I said.
Another silence.
"I promised her I'd protect her, by my own life if need be." I looked at my flank, where my cutie mark was "I couldn't protect her! I love her and I couldn't protect her! I have no right to have this cutie mark if I can't accomplish it's meaning!"
I went to a wall and hit my head to it, several times.
"I failed!" a hit "I failed her!" another hit "I FAILED FLUTTERSHY!" one last hit that made me collapse to the floor.
I wrapped my arms on my head and started crying.

Suddenly I noticed a hoof on my shoulder, I looked at it, and followed all the way up to the face.

Fluttershy still had her beauty, despite the opaque eyes, and the blackened mane, coat and tail.
"Fluttershy!" I whispered in surprise.
She didn't say anything; her mouth that was just a straight line, slowly curved up to form a smile. I could only stare at her eyes, as empty as they were.
She slowly came in and hugged me, I could only hug her back and dig my face in her mane, and cry.
"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry Fluttershy." I mumbled between sobs.
I don't know if she paid attention, or anything, but the moment she closed in to hug me, I felt that Fluttershy was regaining her... well, "being" (so to speak) that she had from before this whole thing.

I separated from her, and noticed that she fell asleep. And with all care I went upstairs and gently put her in the bed. I stayed with her for a while.

Meanwhile, Twilight finished the letter to the Princess and asked Spike to send it with a "matter of urgency".
"I'll go to the Town Hall and warn the mayor about this! The city must be evacuated with all haste." Twilight said, and ran off from the library.
"Wait! What 'bout us?" Applejack asked.
"All of you go home and warn your families about this!" Twilight said from outside.
Everypony looked at each other.
"Flare, are ya' goin' to take care of Fluttershy?" Applejack asked.
"Yes, I'm going to take her home too, so she can warn her animals."

And with that, we all left the library.

> Silence
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was around 3 PM when I left the library, Twilight calculated that the Guardians could be near Ponyville around midnight.

I took Fluttershy to her cottage, it was imperative (at least for her) to warn the animals about the impending attack.
Much to my worries, Fluttershy didn't regain full conciousness. She was still asleep on my back.

When we were arriving to her home, I tried to wake her up carefully, but she was still asleep.
I entered the house, and there was the same disorder of before. I picked up a sofa and put it correctly, so I could lay Fluttershy there.

I looked around again, and picked up the other stuff laying around. I put the furniture back in place. And suddenly, a few critters started to roam the room. I could see some curiosity in their faces.
When they noticed Fluttershy, they instantly directed their attention to her.

At that same instant, almost a hundred of other animals appeared and surrounded her.

After flattening carefully the main carpet, I joined the circle of animals. A bunny hopped onto the sofa and started to stroke the pegasus' mane.
"I'm sorry I didn't bring her in a better state, Angel." I adressed the bunny
He didn't reply, but gave me a forgiving look.
"I have to go now, I'll be back. Would you all please take care of her?" I pleaded the group of animals. It was rather needless to say that.

So I just left.



Back to my house, my brother was worried to death after I went to Anvil. So he was more than happy when I entered:
"I thought I'd never see you again dude!" he said.
"Listen, we have to get out of here. Well, YOU have to get out of here." I quickly replied.
"What? Why?"
"The Guardians, I'm pretty sure they will retaliate after we sneaked in their headquarters." I explained.
"Wait a minute. You've been seen!?"
"They tricked us. They had a plan for when we arrived at the city, and we fell right into it."
"But why is it that I'm the only one that must leave? What about you?"
"I'll stay here to protect the village."
"WHAT?! Nonononono I almost lose you in that little 'rescue' of yours, I'm not gonna let you risk your life again!" he protested.
"Stop me if you must, but I'm not gonna desert the village now that it needs help!"
"The army will come and protect the village! Why do you have to stay? They can do this without you!"
"IT'S NOT THAT THE ARMY CAN'T DEAL WITH THEM WITHOUT ME! IT'S BECAUSE ALL OF THIS IS MY FAULT!"
Plaid stepped back.
"I'm the responsible for this! I sneaked in and proved the red idiots that I'm an assassin!" I insisted.
"But you're not!"
"But I can't reason with them now! Instead of sneaking in their fortress, I could have explained the situation that I'm not an assassin! But noooo, I HAD TO SNEAK IN!"
At this point, my throat started hurting after shouting and screaming.
"I can't believe I haven't thought of confessing everything to them, we could have saved us the problem of a comeback." I said sadly.
A moment of silence.
"And now Ponyville must be evacuated." I continued.

Right then, a bell started sounding.
"It's from the Town Hall. Seems like the news had reached the mayor." said Plaid.
"Twilight went there to tell her of the situation." I explained.
"Let's go, we need to hear what they have to say."
"Yeah, you go ahead. I have something to do first." I said while going to my wardrobe.
My brother then left the house, to Town Hall.

I opened my wardrobe and glanced at it's contents: clothes, the suit I wore in the Gala, there was also an empty clothes hanger, where my hoof-made armor should be.

I looked at the last hanger, there it was.
A grey plate armor, lighter and more maneuverable than the standards but quite as resistant. I noticed I was still wearing the beige cloak, so I took it off and threw it on my bed.
Then I put the armor on, adjusted it tightly, with the sachet which had Fluttershy's feather inside the chest plate.

Then I hurried out, I took too much time putting this armor on.



Just as I arrived, the mayor started her speech.
"Fillies and gentlecolts! We are gathered here on such short notice because there is an announcement I have to make!" she  said "There is a threat coming to Ponyville today, and we must leave the town!"
Whispers and exclamations of astonishment were heard throughout the crowd.
"I have somepony right here that will explain the situation better than I can, miss Sparkle, you may come." the mayor called.
I saw Twilight walk over the stand where the mayor was.
"Ponyville! As the mayor just announced, there is a threat coming to this town and it must be evacuated!" she addressed to the crowd "I warned Princess Celestia already and she is taking instant action in defending the village!"
"What's this threat you speak of?" somepony in the crowd asked.
"An ancient guild is coming to attack, and all of you must be evacuated to Canterlot. The princess is already sending a group of soldiers to defend here, but we can't take any chances." Twilight answered.
"Why are they attacking us?! We didn't do nothing to anypony!" a mare in the crowd pointed.
"Yeah! Why are we being attacked?! We want answers!" a colt demanded.
The place now was filled with talk, screams, and demands.
"Everypony please! We can't talk of this right now!" Twilight tried to maintain the calm to the crowd "We need to evacuate the village and let the army take care of this!"
The mayor now took over the stand:
"Please everypony! Keep quiet!"
The crowd then calmed down a little.
"Once the army arrives, I want you all to leave for the train station to Canterlot! This meeting is over! Pay attention!" she ordered.
With that, the crowed dispersed. I noticed my brother among the crowd. So I walked to him.

"Hey there." I greeted.
"You finally have the opportunity to wear that." he pointed at my armor.
"And you thought I was never going to be able to use it, huh?" I joked.
"Oh shut up."
I laughed a little.
"So, what are we supposed to do now?" Plaid asked.
"Well, when the army arrives, they'll escort everypony to the train station. Although maybe dad will come and pick you up personally, but you'll know soon enough." I answered.
Then I noticed a familiar pegasus exiting the crowd.
"Uhh, er..." I stammered, and left my brother alone "I have to talk to somepony, you go home until the army shows up!" I ordered from behind my shoulder.

I ran to the pegasus, I was nervous, but it was very recomforting to see her.
"Fluttershy!" I called.
She turned around, and when she saw me, she gasped and ran towards me. I hugged her as soon as she was at reach, sinking my face in her neck.
"How wonderful to see you're alright." I said.
She didn't say anything. And I separated from her.
"I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you when they took you, I'm deeply..." I was saying but Fluttershy cut me off putting a hoof on my mouth.
And she shuffled her head.
"Well I'm glad to know you are alright. I was so afraid I could lose you thanks to those idiots." I said while caressing her cheek.
She responded by leaning her face to my hoof. And then coming closer to me for another hug.
"Thanks Celestia you're alright." I started "Listen, we can't stay here for long, the army will come soon and you will need to go to the train station."
She nodded and waved a hoof, implying that she already knew what to do.
"I'm staying here to defend the town."
She opened her eyes in surprise.
"Well? What do you want me to do? I brought this conflict upon us! The least I can do is help!"
She looked at me with a worried face.
"I have to. Well, not really... but I can't let the army fight those people while I'm deserting. Even if I don't help at all, I can't leave."
She tried to protest, but no words came from her mouth, so now it was me that shushed her with a hoof.
"Don't say anything, because I made my decision. I'm staying here and I will help the army defend Ponyville." I assured.
Fluttershy was in the verge of tears, she bit her lip in frustration and planted me a fierce kiss. We kept like that for some time, until we separated.
"Let's go, let me take you home until the army arrives." I said.
She simply nodded.



When we arrived at her house, the critters received her at the door, most likely worried to see how she was.

I entered too, and Fluttershy sat on the couch where I laid her when unconscious. There, she patted a side of the couch so I could sit with her. I obliged.
"What will you do with your animals? They can't stay here during the attack." I pointed out after a while.
She looked at them, and sighed.
"Well?" I insisted.
Fluttershy looked at me, and tried to say something again, but nothing came out. She tried a few more times before finally giving up.
"What's the problem? Tell me." I said.
She put her hooves on her cheeks and pressed, hoping that something would come out, but nothing.
"If you don't tell me your problem, I can't help you."
After saying that, the white bunny hopped in and landed in front of me to give me a slap.

"Hey! What was that for?!" I asked angrily.
He then made a few motions, trying to say something. First he signaled her, then he shoved his paw in a "no" signal, and then he made a few more with his mouth, like he was talking.
Trying to guess what he was showing me, I attempted to make up a phrase, it took me several chances to finally put up the next guess:
"Wait, 'she'... 'no'... 'speak'? She... doesn't speak?"
He shuffled his head. And tried again.
"She doesn't? She mustn't? She can't?" I guessed.
He pointed at me with the last one, trying to make a point.
"Oh! She can't talk! Is that so?" I said, and then it hit me "Wait... you can't talk?" I looked at Fluttershy.
She gave me an apologizing smile.
"How did this happen? Are those Guardians responsible for this?!"
She made a grimace and shuffled her hoof, implying that they were "kinda responsible".
"Did they do something to you?"
She denied.
"So why can't you talk? If they didn't do anything to you?"
She thought a little, and finally shrugged.

Somehow, the sight of her opaque eyes came to my mind. Some flashbacks appeared to me, the first one showed me her eyes while in the room, the next showed me her during the trap, and the last one showed her hugging me at Twilight's library.

I remembered something I read in a book, and tried to see if Fluttershy's muteness had something to do with it.
"Do you remember anything from what happened to you? During this last few days?" I asked.
She started thinking, and I could notice in her face that she didn't like what she was remembering. To the extent that she started crying after some minutes.

She was shocked.

They say that if somepony is shocked (as in, very scared) in any way, that shock might lead to some consecuences. I read a story once that a pony received such a shock that after the event, the pony went mute.
There is no actual way to cure it, because it isn't an illness. One way to solve it could be to help the pony to talk again.

But they also say that, the only way to solve the consecuence of a shock, is by giving her another stronger one.

"You're just shocked. That's the reason why you have gone mute." I explained to the pegasus.
She looked at me, still crying.
"I'm sorry Fluttershy, I wanted to rescue you without mourning any kind of casualty. Now I made you lose your voice." I said looking down.
She put a hoof on my shoulder and shuffled her head again. Even muted I could know what she was trying to say.

At that moment, the door of the cottage opened and an unicorn appeared.
"Oh, sorry, am I interrupting something?" Twilight asked.
"It's okay, don't worry. What is it?" I asked coming down from the sofa.
"The army is here. They are taking everypony to the station." she said.
"Sure, okay." I said, and then looked to Fluttershy "I'll take you to the station myself, if you don't mind."
She nodded, leaving the sofa, and then she went to Angel.
"Let's leave them alone Twilight." I addressed the unicorn.
"Okay." she simply said.

We left the house. A few hours had passed since we came back from rescuing Fluttershy, so it was now around 5 PM.
"If you want to wait for her, don't worry, I'll go help with the evacuation." Twilight said.
"Is anypony else besides me staying here to protect the village?" I asked.
"Well, the hospital staff has to stay, to tend the fallen. And the families that have a farm have to stay to provide the army with food."
"Wait a minute, that means Applebloom will stay here!"
"No, Applebloom is just a filly, she will be evacuated along with her grandmother. Only Applejack and Bic Macintosh will be staying here." she explained.
"Do they have any escape route? Just in case... well, we aren't able to hold the line."
"Don't worry, we will. But in any case, Celestia put to our disposition the use of a few carts pulled by guards. Once the Guardians arrive, we'll raise an alarm so they can leave safely." she explained.
"Well that's good to know." I said.
"I have to get going, I'll meet you at the library later okay?"
"Sure."

I waited for Fluttershy for another while, until she came out with the animals behind her.
"Will they follow you?" I asked.
She denied.
"Oh so they will leave to someplace safe until this whole thing ends, right?"
She nodded.
"Well, let's go to the station, let's just hope the train didn't leave yet."



We arrived at the station some minutes later, we accelerated the pace a little just to be sure we weren't late.
The place was holding a few soldiers to help the evacuation.

"Well, here we are. " I said to Fluttershy "Get in there, try to find your friends." I said.
At that same moment, Rarity came out of the train, which was half full by now.
"Oh thanks Celestia you both came, I was getting worried!" the unicorn said.
"Don't worry, I brought her to make sure nothing else happened." I answered.
"C'mon Fluttershy, come in." Rarity started to pull her friend to the train, but Fluttershy resisted.
"Fluttershy, please get in there." I pleaded.
She shuffled her head and sank her face in my neck, hugging me.
"It seems she doesn't want to let you go." said Rarity.
"Please Fluttershy, if you don't get in the train, all the work I did with Twilight and Rainbow would be in vain." I tried to reason to her, but to no avail.
She just kept sinking her head into me.
"Leave us alone a few minutes Rarity, okay?"
"Don't take too long, the train will leave anytime soon." she said while getting back into the train.

"Fluttershy, look at me." I grabbed her by the face and forced her to look at me. "I know you don't want me to stay, I don't want to either! But I can't leave, I started this conflict, and even if I don't finish it, I will help in the process of it."
She then started to cry again, I closed in for another hug.
"Is there something I can do, to help you leave? Anything, just... um, try to tell me." I suggested.
She separated and dried her tears with her hoof. She tried her voice another time, trying to make sure of something. Once she was ready, she waved a hoof to make me go closer, and whispered something to my ear. I didn't get it the first time.
"What was that?" I asked, she tried again "I don't understand, can't you whisper a little louder?"
With that, Fluttershy took a deep breath, and closed in more to my ear.
"S---paaaa---niishhh" she mumbled with a raspy voice.
"Spanish?" I asked rather confused. But then I remembered.

I think I already told you my memory wasn't very good. If I didn't, well, now you know.

I couldn't believe I totally forgot about that, right when I met her:
"Oh gosh!" I gasped "I totally forgot! You want to hear something in spanish!" I realised.
She smiled, I haven't seen that smile since a few days ago, but that time felt like an eternity.
"Okaaay, what can I tell you?" it was funny, because I never thought of anything interesting to tell Fluttershy in spanish. And I had to be quick, the train was about to leave soon.
"Oh yeah!" I came out with something, and chuckled.

I closed in to Fluttershy's ear, and whispered:
"Tiempo de vals, es el tiempo hacia atrás
donde hacer lo de siempre es volver a empezar
donde el mundo se para y te observa girar
es tiempo para amar

Bésame en tiempo de vals
un dos tres, un dos tres
sin parar de bailar
Haz que este tiempo de vals
un dos tres un dos tres
no termine jamas"

Unconsciously, I was also swinging from side to side along with Fluttershy to the song's rhythm. It was a shame, I had to shorten that up, but at least I could say something.

She looked at me with disbelief.
"I translated the song myself." I explained.
She mumbled something inaudible, not able to believe what she just heard.
"Tell ya' what, I promise you to tell you the rest of the song, when you come back. Okay?"
I don't know if she paid attention or not, but the next thing I remember was that she kissed me again, quite vigorously.

Suddenly, the train whistled.
"Fluttershy dear! Get in already!" Rarity called her friend.
"It's time Shy. Go! Don't fall behind!"
Fluttershy left out in even more tears, but followed the train and hopped in. And she waved a hoof to me. I did the same to her.

"Farewell Fluttershy."

I grabbed the sachet inside my chestplate and looked at it's content sadly.

I stroked the yellow feather a little, and then put everything back in place.

And adjusting my armor again, I left for the library.
> Putting up a fight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I entered the library, I saw my father and Shining discussing something at the table in the middle of the room. I went to greet them.
"Hey there both." I said
"Flare?!" my father was surprised "What in the world are you doing here?! Why aren't you on the way to Canterlot?!"
"I decided to stay and help defend Ponyville."
"WHAT?! Are you nuts?! No, just no, I'm going to take you to Canterlot myself if need be." my dad said.
"I. Am. Not. Leaving! And nothing you can say will change my mind!" I protested.
"Hold on." Shining intervened "Let me talk to him, master."
"Okay, but don't take too long, we still have to create a plan." my dad reminded.
Then Shining took me outside.

"Flare, you have to listen to your father. He worries about you." he said.
"I know he does, but he should respect my choices too." I replied.
"True. But this is something you can't have an opinion on."
"But why not?"
"An skirmish is nothing to be excited for. This is serious business."
"You think I don't know that?"
"I'm just telling you. You won't be able to bear with the guilt of slaying anypony."
"Oh and you can kill anypony and not feel guilty for that?"
"I've learnt to live with it."
"Okay Shining, I had enough, now you listen to me." I said, grabbing the white stallion by the edge of his armor "I am in no mood to kill anypony, in fact, I don't want to."
"Then why are you here?" he asked.
"For the same reason the army was brought here. Because I HAVE to."
Shining looked confused.
"I brought the Reds here, it is my fault, and as such, I have to make it up."
"Wait, the 'Reds'? I thought that the Guardians were coming to attack Ponyville."
"The Guardians were usually named 'Reds' for their attire. Haven't you ever read any assassin related book?"
He shook his head.
"Anyway. I'm staying here because it's what I must do." I kept on.
"But dude, what will happen to your father if you die in this conflict?" he asked.
"If that will happen, it will happen. But I'm not planning on dying tonight."
Shining sighed, bothered.
"Fine, but don't think we'll put you in the first line of defense." he said.
"I wasn't planning to be in it anyway."

We entered the library again, and Shining took my father away to discuss in secret.
At that moment, Twilight entered the library.
"Hey there." I greeted.
"Oh good, you're here. I thought you'd take quite longer. Have you told them about your decision?" she asked.
"I did, and Shining is talking to my father about that. Well, I assume."
"Wait. Is that your father? And how do you know Shining?"
"I know him since I was a little colt. Pretty much when he entered the army. Why? And how do you know him anyway?"
"Well... he is my brother."

Exactly, Shining never mentioned he had a sister. He was a friend of mine, sure, but our relationship was rather more of a sparring partners than an actual friend.
Though I'm kind of glad he didn't tell me. Because maybe I wouldn't be with Fluttershy (though I could still know Twilight and end up with Fluttershy anyway, that was just a probability).

"What?! Are you kidding me?!" I said.
"Why? He never mentioned me?" she asked.
"No, never. I wonder why."

After hearing this, both Shining and my father approached me.
"Son, I talked to Shining about your choice." said dad.
"Look, don't try to persuade me to do otherwise. I made up my mind." I said.
"It's not that. I want to tell you that if you really wish to, you can help us defend."
"Huh?! Can I?!"
"Don't get too excited. This is nothing awesome to be excited about." Shining said.
"I know I know. Stop saying that." I clarified.
"Okay, now that that is dealt with, can we come to the table and discuss our plan?" my dad suggested
"But the scout is not here yet." Shining said.
"You sent a scout?" I asked.
"Yes, we need to be sure how many Guardians are coming here." Twilight said.

"Hey wait another minute. Why are you here anyway?" I asked Twilight changing the subject.
"Just like you, it's my fault that the Guardians are coming to attack." she answered.
"Plus, she can attack on the distance, and can teleport back to safety. So she won't run any risk." Shining pointed.
"Oh okay, that's a good reason." I said.

Just then, a hooded pegasus with white robes and red details came through the door.
"Oh Rainbow! Good that you are here, have you got anything that might concern us?" Twilight asked.
"Oh quite a bit." Rainbow said taking her hood off.
I looked at the clothes that Rainbow was wearing.
"What are you doing with assassin clothes?! And why aren't you in the train to Canterlot either?!" I asked.
"Haven't it crossed through your mind that you're not the only one trying to make things right?" Rainbow asked back.
"Uh, sorry."
"Everypony c'mon! We don't have all day!" my dad called and we headed to the round table in the room.



According to Rainbow, almost a hundred of Reds were coming to Ponyville. She saw that only a few of them had a good equipment to put up a battle, but they were outnumbering us anyway.
"How much soldiers do we have at our disposition?" my dad asked.
"Barely more than fifty. But they are well equipped master, they can take care of them."
"Celestia wasn't able to rally more troops?" I asked.
"Not for the moment." Twilight explained "But if Ponyville holds the line for tonight, she'll send another party to reinforce."
"We'll have to lead the defense ourselves Shining." said my dad.
"Okay." Shining accepted "Um, where did you say the Guardians are coming from?" he directed to Rainbow.
"They are coming from the East." she said.
"Should we reinforce only the East part of the Village?" Shining asked my father.
"No, we should retract some of the troops to the North and South, just in case some of them try to surround the perimeter, but focusing the most part of the soldiers on the East." my dad answered.
"So we'll assign most of the soldiers to the East, and some others will protect the other two sides?" Shining repeated "What about the West side?"
"Guardians are not smart. They will try to make a full impact on the front." Rainbow intervened "They did it with the assassins."
"Still, we shouldn't leave that side completely uncovered." Twilight said.
"I agree." my dad said "Shining, how about you cast that Shield Spell of yours and cover that side? That way we can protect the other three without a problem."
"As you wish." Shining replied.
"Well, let's figure out how we'll position ourselves in the defense." my dad suggested.

Twilight would be on top of her house, with a shield of her own, for extra caution. Rainbow would support any side she decides to go and fly off to safety, after all, she was wearing assassin garments and shouldn't stay in the same place for long. Shining would cover the main point of the battle alongside my dad, while I would go cover the South.
"The North will be left without a lead?" I asked.
"I'm sure they won't have much trouble." my dad replied "Besides, if there are Guardians surrounding the village, I'll dispatch a few of our soldiers to chase them."
"And if they can't deal with them, Rainbow can take care of them quickly and safely." Twilight added.
"Okay. What do we do now?" I asked.
"Now that everypony has their orders, we'll wait until they attack." Shining said.
> Assassins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was still some time until midnight would come upon us, signaling the attack of the Guardians. So I tried to keep busy training and sparring with Shining.
"You have gotten pretty good at this pal." he complimented.
"Thanks, I hope to be of use when they attack." I said.
"You will, but it shouldn't happen; I'm making extra plans with your father to make sure nopony trespasses our defense."
"Yeah, that's what must happen, that they don't even get to enter."
"Exactly."
"But if they enter, shouldn't a group stay in the center of Ponyville?"
"Huh, now that you mention it. You're right." Shining said, taking a hoof to his chin.
"But we haven't got any more soldiers left to assign there." I remembered.
"I can cast the shield in the South too, so that you take the group to the center." he suggested.
"You think that would work?"
"Maybe, I should ask your father if he thinks that it is a good idea."
"Wait, why is he here anyway? Shouldn't YOU be the one leading the army?"
"I AM leading the army, he is just here to help me plan everything."
"But didn't you plan yourself the defense for Canterlot when you were getting married?"
"Yeah, but I didn't know the threat then, so asking his advice wouldn't have helped too much."
"Good point."

We kept sparring for another while, until he called off the session, to rest a little until the attack.
"I'm going to warm up the soldiers, you can rest now if you wish, but don't take too long. You have to warm up too." said Shining.
"Yea yea, I know." I told him walking away.



I walked around the now empty Ponyville. There were a few soldiers patrolling the place, and some others were practising on their own.
All the time I checked if my retractable blades were working, and occassionally tested them giving some stabs to the air.

Suddenly, I had the feeling somepony was following me, but when I looked back, I saw nopony near. So I just kept walking and eventually heard some rustling noice.
I moved a bit faster and so the rustling did, I stopped in the middle of the street and the rustling stopped too.

Instead of keep walking, I just leaned to a wall and rested a little. The noice was becoming nearer, and it suddenly stopped.

And like it stopped, it sounded instantly higher.
"Got'cha." I whispered and calmly moved to a side.
And the next thing I saw, was a white blur splat to the ground.
"You shouldn't try to be silent when there is complete silence around." I told to the pony that crashed.
"Urgh, is that how you noticed me?" the pony said.
"That, and also your big noises."
The stranger got up, and I saw that a hood was covering the face. The pony took the hood away revealing herself to be Rainbow Dash.

"How do you know all that much about assassins? You aren't one." she asked me.
"Just because I'm not an assassin, it doesn't mean I don't know about them. They are quite an inspiration for me." I explained. "By the way, how come you got assassin robes?"
"Oh, well, remember we told you about Swift?"
"Yeah, what about him?"
"Well, Rarity loved his clothes, and I asked her if she could make me a replica of them."
"Why not use his own robes instead?"
"He... was buried with them." she said sadly.
"Oh, sorry."
"It's okay. Besides, I knew that Rarity would love to replicate those clothes."
"Well, they are kinda cool."
"I know, right?" she laughed.

"Hey, talking about something else. Do you actually know how an assassin fights?" I asked Rainbow.
"Um, Swift taught me a little, which I was eager to learn." she answered.
"I see, care to spar a little?" I suggested.
She looked at me curious.
"Oh you're on, partner!" she said excitedly while fastening her hood again on place.

She barely knew anything about combat. She swung her sword from the same sides, so I made her see that mistake with a parry. I told her to not be repetitive.
She didn't listen and kept doing the same swings as before. So I ducked on one and threw her with a full hip throw, and pulled out one of my retractable blades and placed it near her neck.
"That's one point for me." I joked.
"Since when are we keeping score?" she asked while I let her go.
"Dunno, it adds some challenge doesn't it?"
She looked at me defiant.
"Okay, want to do this interesting? We'll do this interesting!" she yelled excitedly.

We kept practising for some more time, I pointed Rainbow's mistakes everytime I saw one (yes, I know I'm like a know-it-all many times, but only when it comes to combat). It was a relief that Rainbow would help in this battle with a "hit & run" strategies, she really couldn't last in a sword battle for more than half a minute with any kind of Guardian.
"Thanks for the confidence." she said sarcastically.
"Oh, you're quite welcome!" I joked back.
> Blood and swords - Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was time. Eventually midnight came upon us.

Everypony gathered at the East entrance of Ponyville, to listen the speech Shining Armor prepared to lift the spirits up. And when he finished, we quickly retreated to our positions.
"Good luck." Rainbow whispered to me before flying off.

My father decided it was a good idea for Shining to cast a second shield, so that left me to retreat to the center of the village, following the group I was assigned to.

We were six soldiers, and my rank among them was neither higher nor lower, but they still treated me like a superior, being my father a former Captain. I told them to let that aside, and treat me like they treat each other.
We decided to make some patrols inspecting the nearby streets, while I would go up and search from the roofs.
They split in two groups of two and three respectively, and started the vigilance while I would look from up.



Around half an hour later, it started. The sound of steel clashing could be heard in the distance. It's something really frightening to hear it in real life, the screeching sound of swords.
It is something it sends shivers down my spine. But I had to focus, I couldn't let that sound distract me. So I acted quickly and searched for the other soldiers in my group, to gather to the center again.

But on the process I found one Red that sneaked in.
"Already? This guys are faster than they look." I told myself.
I moved silently through the rooftops, and analized every opportunity to pin him down. I finally found one and let myself fall over him.
I made sure to grab his head to slam his face to the ground. He was instantly knocked out.
"We can use him for interrogation, I don't want to kill when there's not need to." I thought.
I disposed him of his clothes, and with them I tied him to a nearby pole, and continued to search for the other five soldiers of the group.

We gathered back to where we were firstly assigned, and made sure to protect every corner.
"Hey, why don't you look from above? You can warn us when one of them comes." one of them told me.
"I don't know guys, I could, but that means that you're left with one less soldier." I told them.
"So? There's still five of us." another said.
"Yeah, and when one is missing, we fight for him, so we don't lose power." the first one explained.
There wasn't time to argue, so I left them again and went up to the roofs.

I watched carefully the two main sides where the Guardians should show up. And a few were already coming from the East.
"Watch out! East side is being overrun!" I warned to my group.
They quickly looked at that side, and unsheated their swords.

Half a dozen of Reds penetrated the East side, it shouldn't be a problem for my group, they can take on at least two enemies each. They took care of the invaders.
Then almost ten more Reds appeared, and it was harder for the party to deal with them.
"Need some help?" I asked the team over the yelling and hollery of the fight.
"We can hold them off! But it would be nice!" one of them answered.
I looked around for any Red separated from his group, to attack on surprise, so the enemy doesn't know of my presence.

Another dozen arrived, it was time I helped with something. So I searched for the last ponies on the wave and attacked them. I jumped off from the roof and stabbed two of them in their necks with my two hidden blades, blood was splattered on my hooves. I ran to a dark corner, and waited.

I finally killed, not one, but two ponies at once! I had a disturbing feeling, and seeing the blood on my hooves made me feel another shiver through my back. But I couldn't stay there, I had to keep helping.

I got out from the corner and slained two more Guardians from behind. There was that feeling again, but I was somehow getting used to it.
I reunited with my group again.
"I thought you were going to attack with surprise!" one of them told me when I arrived.
"I can't attack on surprise with so many Reds! I would never finish!" I answered.
Three invaders faced me, I unsheated my sword quickly, and waited for them to attack.

One of them slashed at me, I dodged and counter-attacked, I managed to make him a cut on his shoulder. He was replaced by another that attacked downwards, which I parried with my gauntlets and with my right hidden blade stabbed his left forearm, incapacitating him to stand up normally.
He attacked again horizontally, I blocked with my sword and with my left hidden blade stabbed him through the throat. He fell down inert, and as fast as he fell, I leapt at the third one and stabbed his chest with my sword, and kicked him in the stomach forcing my weapon out.

This was the third time that that feeling came back, I was not only getting used to it.

I was starting to like it.



Three more times I killed three more soldiers, with my sword, my blades, my martial arts techniques, all combined. I was putting all my combat knowledge to the real test.

I used the environtment to my advantage, I leapt to walls and bounced back, I climbed to roofs and let myself fall on the Reds, I even used their own equipment against them, be it counter-attacking with their own swords, or launching said weapons to another of their brethren (if the first guy was already dead).
Everytime I killed one of them, I remembered what they were responsible of.

The assassins, they eradicated them, my inspiration. I never wanted to join them anyway, but still they were like heroes to me.

They killed Swift Slash, one of the most talented assassins, and quite a great friend of Rainbow.

They filly-napped Fluttershy. The pegasus I love. And thanks to that, she lost her voice.

She lost her voice.

I left out a yell, and killed one Red that was right in front of me.
"It's not enough." I said with clenched teeth.

And so I ran to the East side.
> Blood and swords - Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The way to the East side of Ponyville was crowded with Guardians, I tried to stand little fight with them, but making sure I did enough damage for my group to take care of them easily.
"One sword won't cut it." I thought, so when I killed another Red, I stole his sword and wielded it in the other side of my mouth.
Now I could simply run between a couple of Reds and just pass next to them, killing them in the process.

Of course, I had to put a fight a few times. It was very hard to wield two swords, and I barely practised it, but it was very effective nonetheless.
I swung around, spun a little, I had little care at first because there were more enemies than friends, though I corrected that just before arriving at the East of the village.

It was like all hell broke loose. There were ponies fighting here and there. To my right, to my left, they were everywhere! We were really outnumbered, and some of our soldiers were down, both dead and badly injured.

There was that feeling again, I was starting to figure out what it was.
"These Guardians, are responsible for many crimes and corruptions." I remembered the speech that Shining Armor gave us before the fight. "Now that they eradicated their sworn enemy, it's up to us to stop them from conquering and corrupting the rest of Equestria!"

A Guardian in front of me suddenly rushed at me, aiming for an impale. I blocked downwards making him stuck his sword to the ground. I punched him in the face and he let go of his weapon. I hit him with an uppercut and made him stand on two legs, which I took to my advantage and stabbed his torso with my two hidden blades. But I didn't settle for just two stabs, I kept stabbing him several more times until his legs gave up and fell dead to the ground.

There was that strange feeling again. I was starting to like it. Everytime I killed a Guardian, it made me feel more powerful, more... alive.

So I grinned, and kept on with my killing.



I helped other soldiers that were being outnumbered, and made sure to look cool while doing so (yes, feeling powerful can make you do such things, I wasn't feeling like myself back then).

I leapt at one Red, pinned and stabbed him with one of my hidden blades. Another one came towards me, to which I killed by simply stabbing him with my sword. Another one came from the other side and killed him with the sword I stole.
I spun around again, making a killing streak, at least five of them Reds fell dead in each second. Another came to me with a downwards slash, I blocked with one sword and swiped back with the other, doing him a huge cut through his torso.
I killed another with an uppercut to the chin while unfolding my hidden blade, piercing his skull.

At one point, my killing streak was made obvious, and one high ranking soldier came to stop me. A big stallion, carrying a war hammer between his teeth.
He swung one way, I jumped. He swung back, I ducked. He swung diagonally upwards, and I rolled to a side, and tried to stab him with my hidden blades, but his armor was very thick, so he took this mistake for his advantage and shoved me away with one of his big arms.
He came back with his hammer, straight downwards, I was still stunned a little so I could barely dodge the smash. I punched him at the face, but I forgot he also had a helm protecting him; though it seemed to make him some damage anyway.
So with my gauntlets I kept hitting him in the head, he started to back up until he fell on his side. He tried to stand up again but couldn't, due to the huge weight of the armor. I seized the opportunity to kill him sliding my sword right below the helm.

Two more Reds stepped in my way, one of them attacked and I killed him with my stolen sword, I grabbed the now fallen soldier's one and threw it at the other Red.
I kept killing with such a fury, that it made me lose my ability to recognize friend from foe, I hoped that I didn't kill any ally.

But then I saw him.

My father, clashing with another Guardian, he modishly calculated every move the other would do, and he quickly acted as he thought best. After finishing his enemy, he turned and looked at me.

As I looked him, somehow my rage started to vanish, despite the way he was looking me, surprised at my sight, I assumed I had my whole body covered in enemies' blood.
I approached him, slowly, and he seemed to calm down. I threw away the stolen sword I had.

And suddenly, his face wasn't normal anymore, he had a horrified expression. His pupils shrinked and his mouth went agape, dropping his weapon.

I looked at his side and saw that a familiar unicorn was controlling a sword with magic, which stabbed my dad on his left side.
The Red then lifted his sword, with my dad still stabbed in it. A big cry of terror escaped from my mouth, making me drop my sword.

And then my dad was tossed away.



Steel Calmness has fallen in battle, it had to happen one day. But I hoped that I didn't actually witness his defeat.

The unicorn came to me, moving his sword from side to side playfully.
"C'mon, unless you're afraid." he taunted.

I lost my cool and attacked him without thinking. I grabbed my sword, but I couldn't reach him, he controlled his sword far from him, so he could defend without any risk from his front.
He attacked back, I avoided his attacks but it was hard, he could take full advantage of the sword's usage if it is controlled with magic.

He took a chance were I was left open, and he made me a cut in my left arm, near the shoulder.
"Oh my, looks like I already made you an injury. I thought that it would take me more time to do so." he mocked.
"Keep mocking dude, you won't be joking anymore once I'm done with you." I replied.
"How will you even get done with me, if you can't even touch me?"
"If I managed to kill that big pile of armor back there, I can defeat you too."
"Oh, you mean the Brute?" he said and laughed "Some of them are just stupid."
"And yet you send them on a battle."
"True, but they are just meat shields. If they manage to kill somepony, well good! Better for us."
"They won't stand a chance against all of us."
"Maybe, but you are all being defeated, we got you all outnumbered."
"Numbers don't win battles." I challenged.
"Why don't you look around a bit more?"
I don't know why, but I did so, dropping my sword again.

He was right, many of our soldiers have fallen down, my dad was killed or mortally wounded, and Shining was nowhere to be seen.
It was a lost battle, I just realized that.

I fell down to my haunches at the sight of this battle.
"It's all my fault, I tried to rescue Fluttershy instead of dealing with her freedom, I sneaked in the Headquarters, and for getting out alive all of these soldiers serving Canterlot have suffered death." I remembered.
"For such crimes, you have to be killed." he said behind me.

Suddenly I heard a collision of steel behind me, and I turned back.

The unicorn tried to kill me, I didn't move because I truly believed that if I died, all of this would have ended. Rainbow Dash blocked the coming slash, saving me.
She shoved the guy away and looked at me.
"What in the hay were you thinking?! Do you seriously believe this guy?!" she shouted at me.
"But--"
"Don't you care about my friend anymore?!"
"What?"
"How do you think she'll feel when she knows you're dead huh?! TELL ME!"
"Fluttershy..." I whispered to myself.

"No way, you're the assassin!" the unicorn pointed at Rainbow.
"No, you doofus! One pegasus I really cared about was one. And I'll kill everypony of your guild in his name!" Rainbow yelled and charged flying to the other pony.

Whenever Rainbow attacked, she got blocked. She bounced everytime to charge from other angle quickly.
"Stop blocking!" she said.
"Oh yeah, like I'll do that." the unicorn joked.

I finally spotted a weak point in the unicorn's defense. He can't block from his back if he puts all his concentration in the sword in front of him.

I grabbed my sword from the floor, and when Rainbow changed her angle as to make him face his back to me, I charged him.
He suddenly looked back at me, but it was too late. I have impaled him from his left side. He looked at me, filled with horror, and looked at his wound.

I raised him from the ground, making sure that I impaled him, just like he did to my father.
"Rainbow! Finish him off!" I yelled.
As the cyan pegasus flew towards this Red, I threw him in the air (helping me with my front hooves) just as Rainbow catched him and stabbed his neck with her own hidden blade as soon as they reached the ground.

She took off her blade from his neck, and came back to me.
"Is he dead?" I asked.
"Yeah." she replied.
"Good, now that he died, the morale of their troops will go down, and will be killed easier."
Right at that moment, an arrow bolt got nailed in my right forearm.

Crossbow Guardians were arriving at the battlefield. And they shot a wave, injuring and killing both enemies and allies alike.
"Take down those crossbow colts! We will make too much damage if they're not stopped!" I ordered Rainbow.
"Got it!" she said and flew up "When you see me fall down, take cover!" she yelled from above.
Meanwhile, I grabbed my sword from the dead unicorn, and retreated to the battlefield, to help the other soldiers.

Another wave was shot, I ran up to a Red, and covered myself from the upcoming shots. He was about to put up a fight but stopped right when the arrow bolts fell down on him.
"Everypony scatter! Crossbow colts have arrived!" I shouted to my allies.
Then they retreated to the city for cover, leaving behind the Reds.

Another wave was shot, and one bolt plunged in my right ankle.
"What are you doing Rainbow?!" I whispered with clenched teeth "I told you to take care of them, where the flank are you?!"
Then I heard a roar in the sky. And a rainbow trail was seen coming from above.
"Oh sh--"
Just then, the rainbow crashed to the floor and a huge explosion occured, sending a wave of wind so hard that it sent me flying up to a wall of a house, I fell at the next moment.

I got up, and I saw that the Reds were retreating, they were leaving from the sides, I guess they were too horrified to walk right were the explosion happened.

I walked dizzy, at the place where the explosion occured, but I wasn't heading there.

I was going to see my dad.

With every step, I weakened more and more, I lost too much blood already, with just two bolts and a cut near my shoulder. I saw my dad a few steps away from me, but I fell to the ground before reaching him. I crawled to him, as hard as I could.

I lost conciousness before grabbing his hoof one last time.
> Heart and swords?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"How is he?" a female voice asked worried.
"He is fine, the doctor said he'll be unconscious for a few days." a male voice replied.
"How much?"
"I don't know, he didn't specify when, but it can't be more than a week."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm just telling you what the doctor told me. I know nothing about the subject."
"Well, okay. And what about Steel, his dad?"
Silence.
"He didn't make it."
The female voice gasped.
"Whaaat?!"
"His heart got pierced with the stab on his side."
"Those... damn sons of...!"
The male voice shushed.
"You're in a hospital! Moderate your words!"
"What do you want me to do?! I hoped that we could eradicate them without any important casualties."
"These things happen Rainbow, it's inevitable when it comes to war."
"I know. At least we won't be bothered anymore by those Reds right?"
"True, but there are still Guardians in Anvil. If we want this threat to be dealt with, we must tear it from the source."
"Are you going to attack the city?!"
"Not yet. If they attack again, then we'll have to finish this ourselves. Celestia sent us another wave of soldiers, now we won't have problems defending the village."
"How much will you wait their attack?"
"They shouldn't take too much time. Guardians are known for retaliating almost instantly, unless they can't rally enough troops."
"However they do have a lot of soldiers."
"I know, they went full power against the assassins. But they shouldn't mess with us, we are under protection of Celestia and Luna."
"Why aren't any of the princesses coming here to help in the first place? They can help you big time! They aren't mortals!"
"They are more busy taking care of things in Canterlot."
"Is there any time they're not busy?"
"It's the price of being monarchs, Rainbow. But I can lead this army myself, the princesses have faith in me."
"Will he go with you?"
"I don't think he'll be able to join us. Besides, he's done more than enough yesterday."
"Well, can I come instead of him?"
"I don't think that's a good idea Rainbow, those robes will betray you."
"I can hide!"
"Sorry. But you better stay here, I have it under control, you have my word."



I woke up around noon, I saw the sun shining outside.

I tried to get up, but I could barely move. I looked at my left and noticed that I had my shoulder wrapped up. I looked under the sheets and noticed another bandage in my right ankle and forearm. I tried to move my right leg, but it didn't move, I guessed it should be asleep.
With extreme effort, I tried to stay in a sitting position, now that I was awake, I couldn't stay laying down.
I tried to remember the events of the battle.

The sound of clashing swords, my first kill, the "brute", that Guardian unicorn...

My dad...

It sounds repetitive, but I could have avoided this if I recurred to diplomacy. But what's done it's done, Reds were gone for now, I just hoped they didn't come again soon.
And Fluttershy? Where was she? Was she fine? Was she still mute or something else? Those questions were kept unanswered for now.

After what seemed to be an eternity, a nurse came to check on me:
"Oh good! You're finally awake!" she said.
"For how long was I asleep?" was the first question that came to me then.
"Let me see your date of entrance." she said while grabbing a chart from the other side of my bed "You've been here for 4 days now." she finally answered.
"Oh good, looks like everytime I enter in a coma it takes less time for me from getting out of it." I joked.
"Well this was not a coma per se. You just were fainted these days."

The door opened again, a white unicorn entered.
"Hey! Good to see you're awake!"
"Hi Shining." I replied without much emotion.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"I could be better, but I'm fine, how about you? You got any injuries from the battle?"
"Just a few scratches, nothing worrying."

"What about the Reds? What happened?" I asked.
"Well, after we managed to repel them the first time, they retaliated again with even more forces. But with the reinforcements that Celestia and Luna sent, we were able to hold them off easier."
"They attacked again when I was unconscious?!"
"Don't worry dude! You wouldn't be alive if we didn't repel them."
"That's true. Well, good thing Ponyville is still standing." I pointed "They won't bother us again now, will they?"
"Oh don't worry about that, I planned to attack their headquarters if they attacked a second time. We finally got rid of them."
"You eradicated them?!"
"Yes. We do have some of them alive for interrogation, specially the master of the guild."
"What are you expecting for them to say? I don't think they have more Reds undercover."
"Well, better safe than sorry."
"True."

"Is Ponyville still evacuated? Or it is being poblated again?" I asked.
"Right now the train from Canterlot is bringing back the ponies here, they should arrive at midnight." Shining explained.
"Ugh, I can't wait that much."
"What's wrong?"
"Uh, nothing you have to know."
"Tell me."
I groaned.
"I just want to see Fluttershy again, I want to know if she's okay."
"She'll be fine, there are guards in the train for good measure. But why are you asking about her specifically?"
"For the same reason you got married, isn't it obvious?"
"Oh I see. The cheesy ol' Flare is still up isn't he?" he joked.
"Oh shut up."

"Hey I have to go, I have some other things to do." Shining said.
"Oh sure, go ahead."
As Shining was about to leave, I stopped him:
"Why didn't you tell me?"
He turned around, confused.
"Excuse me?" he said.
"Why didn't you tell me you have a sister?" I asked again.
"Oh, well. The truth is, I didn't tell you because..."
"Because...?"
"Because I uh..." he stammered a little "didn't want you to hit on her or something."
"You were afraid of that?"
"Put yourself in my horseshoes, if you had a sister, wouldn't you want to protect her from any arm?"
"Well yea, but you know me for years. You know I'm not a bad guy."
"I know that, but still, I couldn't tell you because if you both were to become coltfriends, how would I comfort her if you two break up?"
"Well, you got a point there. But you could have told me and I still wouldn't hit on her anyway."
"But that's a possibility, I really want Twilie to find love on her own. She's my LSBFF after all."
I lost track at that.
"Um, what's that?"
"Little Sister Best Friend Forever." he explained.
"Oh right, she mentioned something similar when she told me of her life in Canterlot. Should you be that-so-called BBBFF?"
"Yes, exactly."
"Well, seems like everything is being connected."
"I'm sorry I didn't say it before."
"Hey don't worry! In fact, I'm thankful. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have met Fluttershy and fell in love with her."
"Oh so you DO love her huh?"
"Didn't I make that clear already? Stop joking and go do your stuff already!"
He left the room laughing.

I was surprised I didn't ask him about my dad, but it hurt me to do so. Besides, he already left, and I couldn't get down from my bed to reach him, I'd have to wait until another friend would come to talk.



Some more time passed, until a pegasus showed up.
"Flare! Awesome, you're awake!" Rainbow Dash was happy to see me okay.
"Hey there Rainbow, how are you?" I asked.
"I'm fine thanks. Looks like the 'hit & run' strategy works really good for me."
"Tell me something I don't know. It really suits you."
"Hehe, thanks." she giggled "How are you holding up?"
"Well, kinda better than I expected. I had the feeling I'd be totally wrapped in bandages."
"Well you should be, I gotta say all those scars you got aren't normal." she joked.
"I think they add up personality."
"Are you telling me you did that on purpose?"
"Hey I'm not that stupid."
"Whatever you say."

"Did you get any scars or wounds from the battle?" I asked Rainbow.
"Not really, I do have a sprained fetlock from the diving bomb though." she showed me her left foreleg carrying a bandage near the hoof.
"Ouch. It must hurt a lot."
"Not as much as having two arrow bolts nailed in the foreleg and ankle I assume." she said.
I looked at my limbs where that happened.
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"How long will you be here?" she asked.
"I dunno, doesn't that chart over there say something?"
She looked at the other side of my bed, looking the board.
"Nothing." she said after inspecting it.
"I guess I'll have to ask a nurse or a doctor then."

We stayed quiet for some time, until she broke the silence :
"You look sad, anything wrong?"
I nodded.
"Care to tell me?"
"I think you already know." I said.
"Maybe, but it's good for you to release it anyway."
I sighed.
"I mean, why did everything happen like it happened? Why didn't we search for another route?"
"Are you still thinking about that?"
"I can't get it off my mind, Rainbow..."
"I understand, but it's done, okay? Everything is alright now."
"Yeah, now. But why did it have to be wrong in the first place?"
"We didn't have other choice."
"Oh didn't we?"
"No! Don't you remember what you said? Those guys weren't known for listening."
"But it would have been better to only kill me and leave Fluttershy be!"
"And she'd have to live without you!"
"Many lives were lost due to this Rainbow, many families are now one or two members short due to this skirmish!"
"These guys decided to give their lifes for the ponies of Equestria, they didn't die in vain."
"But it could have been avoided if we recurred to talking!"
"Listen to me." she came flying to me and stayed at a hoof of distance "Try to get it through your thick skull. What's done it's done, you can't mourn the past now! Be glad that we managed to rescue her after all this."

I looked at her sadly, and looked down.
"It's just... I'm starting to believe my cutie mark is wrong."
She flyed back a little.
"All of this mourning, and all you think about is your cutie mark?!"
"It means a lot to me, specially after getting the second part of it revealed. But after Fluttershy got filly-napped, and my dad got seriously wounded, I'm starting to doubt its qualities."
Rainbow stopped flying and landed softly next to the bed.
"I don't know if what I say now will be of any use. But there are times that things are beyond this marks."
"But these things represent our talents; and in my case, my purpose too."
"Okay, but there are times were these talents (or purposes) can't be fulfilled at some time or another."
I kept looking down.
"You didn't know Fluttershy would be filly-napped. You didn't know that just because of something you like to do, a big misunderstanding can occur. There are things which are beyond anypony, and everything." she continued.
I sobbed a little, and looked at the pegasus.
"So stop mourning about that. It was not your fault, nor anypony's else." she assured me again.
I kept quiet a little.
"You're right. Everything came out okay in the end."

"Wait... MY DAD! How is he?!"
"Uh.. he..." she stuttered
"TELL ME!" I demanded grabbing her by the shoulders.
She released herself calmly from my grip, and in exchange she grabbed me by the shoulders.
"He didn't make it." she bit her lip.
My mind went blank at that, and just as slowly Rainbow released from my grasp, I did too. I had a lost gaze, as Rainbow tried to talk to me again, I didn't pay her attention.

There were important casualties in the end.
> Time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't know how much time I stayed the same since Rainbow told me about my dad, but it passed some time; and when I returned back to Earth, Rainbow wasn't in the room anymore.

I leaned to the head of the bed, and looked the ceiling, not thinking anything. Next, I turned at a table on the side of the bed, and something caught my attention.
There, on the little table, was the leather sachet containing Fluttershy's first molted feather.

I hastily tried to reach the little bag but my wounds retained me, so I tried again slowly. I opened it, and looked the feather for some time, caressing it.

I wanted to hug Fluttershy so bad right then, kiss her, tell her I love her. But it was still bright outside, so I had to deal with the wait; meanwhile, I'd observe the feather.



It was a real pain in the flank to wait, so I took a nap, even if I'd woken up just about an hour. I woke up again, and tried to sleep, but I couldn't.

Lucky that Twilight visited to spend time:
"Hey there, how are you hangin'?" she asked.
"I could be better, but I'm fine, thanks."
"I'm glad. Hey what's that?" she signaled the sachet I left at the table.
"Do you know about pegasi custom, when they acknowledge their special somepony?"
"Umm... molted feathers, am I right? But what does it have to do with that?"
"That's Fluttershy's feather."
Her mouth went agape.
"That's her feather?!"
"Whoa, it's not like you've never seen it before, didn't you?"
"Well I did see you wear it at the Gala, but I didn't know you'd wear it in a skirmish too!" she said, and groaned "Ugh, I'm really jealous of you two."
"Really? Well I feel flattered, but why? There's not much to be jealous about us."
"Oh come on, you're not seriously asking, right?"
I just looked at her, not really knowing what she was referring.
"Maybe I just envy the fact that you have each other, I never had a coltfriend before." she clarified.

Silence took over for full 5 seconds before I spoke:
"Well, I can only tell you to wait, your time to have a coltfriend will surely come."
"You think?" she asked.
"Absolutely, you are a nice pony and you're pretty too. You just have to be a little patient to find somepony you can share most moments and feel good around him, or her, I don't know where you aim." I snickered.
"Don't worry, I get it." she replied.
"I mean, there are more females in here than..."
"I GET IT." she cut me off.
"Hehe, sorry."

We talked the rest of the day, it was good to have Twilight, she is pretty conversationalist.



We talked about the events recently occured, the rescue and chase in Anvil, the battle of Ponyville:
"So you fell unconscious after the explosion?" she asked.
"I lost quite an amount of blood." I explained.
"You didn't lose that much."
"But I have a low blood pressure. So I couldn't keep with the blood loss."
"That's funny, because you seem to practise a lot, I thought you were healthy."
"Oh no, on the contrary, I also have low stamina."
"What? You're an earth pony! Your race is the one with most stamina among us!"
"I'll give you that, maybe I have more stamina than most unicorns or pegasi, but I have very low stamina compared to earth ponies."
"Wow, that's something you don't hear everyday." she pointed.

"Hey, I asked Shining why he didn't tell me about you." I said.
"Oh really? What did he say?" she asked intrigued.
I explained Twilight the situation. How his brother didn't want her to know me because of romantic issues.
"Is that so?"
"At least that's what he told me, but you better ask him yourself, he'll explain better."
"Yeah, besides it's getting late out there."
"Is it?" I looked at the window, it was indeed becoming darker outside.
"Haven't you noticed?" she asked.
"Well, when I'm entertained I can lose sense of time." I said.
"You and me both." she laughed "It's nice to talk to you." she said and winked at me while going to the door "Take care."
"Yea, you too Twilight."
And she left.

It was, indeed, nice to talk to Twilight, besides she is kinda polite sometimes. She'd definitely have a coltfriend if it weren't for the alarming number of mares in this town.



Fluttershy came some time after Twilight left, and she was accompanied by Rainbow. 

As soon as she saw me, she quickly wrapped her arms around me, I did the same to her.
"Don't worry Shy, I'm fine." I told her over and over as she hugged me stronger.
She didn't say anything, only whines and sobs. It took her some time to calm down.

A question crashed into my mind. What will happen now?
> Epilogue - Plans
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I left the hospital accompanied by Fluttershy, I told her what I had planned to do.

As my father died, I thought of checking his house if any will was left, or at least take care of the property. When my brother visited me at the hospital, I told him about that. He didn't like the idea of already remembering one of our parents lost, why add another one? He asked me. But he accepted, he thought it was the right idea anyway.

I told Fluttershy, and she quickly went in a sorrowful state, I think she felt coming what I was about to tell her now.
"I'm sorry, but I think we'll have to pause our relationship for some time."
Instantly a tear formed in her eye, I wiped it off.
"Forgive me, but I have to deal with this first. I promise I'll come back when everything settles down in Canterlot."
She calmed down a little, but she was still crying. She tried to speak, but failed.
"Don't worry, we won't be totally out of reach, I'll write to you from there. Or you write me! I'll give you the address later, okay?"
She nodded, and wiped her tears with her arm.
"C'mon, let me walk you home, I'll tell you when I leave tomorrow, so you can come to say goodbye."

I dropped her at her cottage and headed back home.



"When do you think we should go?" I asked my brother.
"I dunno, you tell me, I'm fine anytime." he answered.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, but don't take too long, I'll just have to warn everypony that I'll be taking some vacations for this."
"I should do the same too. Well, how about in two days at most?"
"Sounds good to me."
"Done, two days from now, the day after tomorrow."
"Wait! How are we gonna enter dad's house? We don't have his key"
"I got a copy from that key, and besides, we have to ask Shining Armor about that."
"That's true."

"Well it's decided, in two days, we'll be leaving for Canterlot." I concluded.

The hardest decision was made, and now it was time to think of the future.