Interlude: That History
As the sun began to peek out from the horizon and rise into the sky, a group of ponies in Canterlot were already hard at work. Two dozen royal guards were paired off and were practicing their sparring techniques while an intimidating stallion walked the perimeter around the guards, shouting out orders on how to correct their flaws and even stepping in at times to show the less experienced ponies their many flaws and mistakes. Unfortunately, one of the more arrogant guards in the group spat on the training ground and challenged his instructor to a one on one fight.
The duel was over before it began. The arrogant guard found himself disarmed in less than two seconds, and by the third second he had a sword of pure magic being pressed into his throat. The guard gulped and immediately surrendered, suffering a crushed ego and a savage buck to the chest by his superior before the training was called to an early stop.
Fed up with so many young, arrogant, and inexperienced ponies, Polaris returned home, heading straight for his study and slamming the door shut once he was inside his sanctuary. Levitating his swords off his back and back to their stand, he took a seat at his desk and began reading over the paperwork that had once again accumulated on it. Halfway through reading the first paper he spoke without looking up. "Are you just going to stand there trying to hide all day, or do you have something to report?" Polaris asked impatiently.
Specter emerged from the shadow of one of the bookshelves and bowed. "My apologies, sir. I thought it best to wait until you were comfortable."
"I don't pay you your exorbitant fees to have you think of timing issues, I pay you to find information for me." Polaris snapped. "Do you have anything to report?"
"Yes, I do." Specter said, a newspaper and a flyer levitated in front of him and landed on Polaris's desk.
Polaris picked up the flyer first and looked it over briefly before glaring at the black pony standing in front of him. "What in Tartarus is this?" he asked him. In his hoof he held a flyer for a small night club in some small town he had never heard of. "What use do I have of this?"
"Sir, read the list of names at the bottom." Specter said. Polaris huffed and did so, looking over the names of ponies who would be playing at the club that month. His eyes stopped as he saw what Specter had seen, and he looked up at his informant with renewed energy.
"You're sure this is her?" he asked. Specter nodded, pushing the newspaper over to his employer next. Polaris looked down and saw his long lost daughter kissing some other mare on stage at what appeared to be a night club. His blood began to boil and his horn glowed, the newspaper bursting into flames a split second later.
Specter wisely backed away, knowing that there was no stopping his rage once it started. Surprisingly, Polaris calmed himself down and sat back down, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself. "Where is this... Ponyville?" he asked Specter.
"It's a small town southeast of here." Specter said. "I've never been there and don't know much about it."
"Well, you're going there now." Polaris said. He thought for a moment and then scribbled three names onto a piece of paper and gave it to Specter. "These three ponies will meet you at Canterlot Station this afternoon at five. Bring them to this town and find her. Once you find her they know what to do. Help bring her back and you'll earn a bonus."
Specter wasn't usually into the fillynapping business. Information gathering? Sure. Sabotage? Why not. Assassinations? If the price was right. But fillynapping left a bad taste in his mouth for some reason. In any case, it was considerably more difficult to pull off without complications, and he knew that Polaris knew this. "How much of a bonus?" the black pony asked.
Polaris had to admire Specter's guts to ask that question. He wrote down two numbers on another piece of paper and pushed it towards him. "The top number is if you just help find her. The bottom one is if you help and make sure that she is returned to me alive and unharmed. There is no reward should something happen to her."
Specter eyed the first number and saw it was just a little bit more than his usual pay. But when he looked at the second number he almost choked in disbelief. The number written was more than enough to send him into retirement immediately after the mission was over, and there was no way he could refuse that kind of pay. He regained his composure and looked back at Polaris. "I'll deliver her to you myself." he said before bowing to leave, needing to prepare for his final mission.
Polaris leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "You've evaded me long enough, Starshadow. You'll no longer pose as an embarrassment to this family once you're back here. In fact, you'll help this family become even stronger, whether it's the destiny in the tome or not." he said to himself.
Specter returned to his hideout just outside of Canterlot. He still had about ten hours left until he was due to meet the three ponies Polaris had mentioned, and there was no need to pack any of his belongings as he never had need of material possessions. Most of his belongings he had somewhere on his body; a small pouch of poison here, a lock picking set in another pocket, but the one item he never parted with was a single twin dagger that was his primary defensive weapon. Though he only had one, Specter was positive that there was another dagger that went along with it as the number '2/2' was etched into the blade by the hilt. He didn't know what exactly that number meant or if somepony else had the supposed matching blade, but he knew that if he ever found the second dagger then maybe his past would finally be revealed to him. There was another strange symbol on the other side of the blade, but it meant absolutely nothing to him.
With nothing else to do until five o'clock, Specter sat down on the floor and closed his eyes to meditate. When not at work for Polaris or his other less frequent clients he spent his days meditating by himself, trying to figure out his past and where he came from.
Taking a deep, calming breath, Specter let his mind wander back in time. His mind quickly shifted through the memories of working for mostly Polaris as a gatherer of information on one of his own daughters, but there were a few times where his skills as an assassin had been utilized. One paparazzi pony had the bleak misfortune of overhearing Polaris speaking to his wife about their missing daughter. While Specter didn't know what exactly it was that the pony overheard, it was sensitive enough that Polaris immediately summoned him to his study and ordered Specter to eliminate the paparazzi. The pony's death had been quick and painless, and the surprise Changeling attack on the royal wedding had proven to be the perfect distraction to quietly dispose of his target and make sure that he wasn't missed.
'Yes... yes, that's it. That's how I came to serve Polaris.' Specter thought as his memories went back further...
He had been paid by some of Polaris's rivals to sneak in to the Star family estate and kill the unicorn, the only helpful piece of information given to him being that the easiest way to sneak into the house was through the study. A quick walk of the perimeter confirmed that sneaking in through the study would be the easiest way to slip inside undetected, and once he made sure the coast was clear he tried teleporting the short distance inside. However, he found himself standing on the roof above the study, and it took only a few seconds for him to realize that there was a protective spell in place around the entire house.
The spell protecting the house wasn't the generic bubble that most unicorns used; no, this spell took the exact shape of the house. Specter now knew that his employer had obviously left out some critical information, most importantly that Polaris was no easy prey. Having to resort to more basic techniques, Specter fished out his lock picking set and used it to unlock one of the windows and silently slipped into the study. His magic was severely dampened by the spell around the house, but the experienced assassin was confidant he was more than capable of making due without it.
Once inside Specter looked around the room and saw that nopony else was present, though there were some clues that somepony was just here. Paperwork still littered the desk and the ink on some of the pages were still not fully dried, and the chair still had some warmth left to it. The signatures on the pages on the desk confirmed that this was where Polaris just was, and he would most likely be returning sometime soon. Seeing that the study was a nice secluded place, the assassin took up a position on top of one of the book shelves to wait for his target.
As expected, Polaris eventually returned to his study and Specter prepared himself to leap down and sink his dagger into his target's throat once he sat down. However, Polaris didn't take his seat and instead he walked to the middle of the room and looked straight up at where Specter was hiding. "You may as well come down, I've know where you were from the moment you entered the estate." he said.
Specter wasn't used to being caught so easily like he was some sort of amateur and opted to remain still, hoping that Polaris was bluffing. To prove he wasn't bluffing, Polaris shot a blast of magic at Specter's hiding spot, catching the black pony off guard. He was able to dodge the attack, barely, but in doing so he awkwardly leapt from the bookshelf and tumbled gracelessly to the ground. Specter cursed his carelessness as he quickly discarded his jet black cloak and stood to face Polaris head on; an extremely dangerous move against the unknown and clearly powerful foe but he was left with little choice.
Polaris unsheathed the two swords that were strapped to his back and he put on a complex display of his sword mastery to intimidate Specter. The black pony wasn't intimidated by the show of force and unsheathed his own blade, quickly coating the dagger in poison to try to gain an advantage. Polaris chuckled as he saw the desperate move. "You have to resort to poison? Well, so be it." he mocked his assailant. Specter charged, trying to recall a technique to surprise his opponent he had been taught by his old master; he charged at Polaris but at the last second he disappeared in a cloud of smoke and reappeared behind him, poised to strike with his poisoned blade.
Polaris didn't have time to turn around, but he didn't need to. One of his swords quickly flew to protect his back and Specter had to break off to one side to avoid being impaled by the other. Specter breaking away gave Polaris the opening he was waiting for and with absolute precision he summoned his third sword made of magic and used it to sever Specter's magic "grip" on his dagger before the assassin could recover and attack again. Now without his primary weapon, Specter was on the defensive and quickly found himself flanked on both sides by the two twin swords and the sword made of magical energy was aimed at his throat. With his back to the wall, there was nowhere for him to run, and as he attempted to teleport out of the room he found that he was unable to. Polaris seemed to read his mind and explained why. "Don't bother, the protective spell around the house bars teleporting from inside as well as outside."
With no other way to escape, Specter shot off an attack right at Polaris, and once the stallion raised his magical sword Specter took advantage of the distraction and dove towards his dagger, managing to pick it back up before Polaris could stop him. Once again, though, Polaris didn't look troubled at all and instead laughed. "Very well, let's see how handy you are with that blade." Polaris said.
Specter once again went on the offensive, but each of his attacks were parried by the more experienced swordspony. Specter felt like he was being deliberately toyed with and decided to go for one last final attack. Taking his pouch of powdered poison, he flung the deadly contents slightly to one side to make Polaris dodge to the right. It worked; Polaris was too preoccupied avoiding the deadly cloud of dust to notice that Specter had already dashed forward to intercept him, bypassing the two physical swords and thrusting at Polaris' unprotected neck.
Specter felt the dagger resist going any further forward, and he thought that he had finally won. There was no way that anypony could survive being directly exposed to the poison that he used for his hits. However, Specter saw in horror that the fight was not over and that Polaris was still very much alive and unscathed. Specter's dagger had hit something; it had hit Polaris' third sword of magic and had somehow embedded itself into the magical blade. Specter tried to use his magic to pull his weapon free but due to the dampening effects of the barrier Polaris had stronger control over his own blade and pulled both blades out of reach, sending Specter's dagger flying into the far wall.
Polaris didn't want to admit it but intercepting the poisoned dagger and trapping it with his sword of magical energy was nothing more than pure luck. He hadn't anticipated that Specter would go to such lengths to kill him, so Polaris decided to end the fight before the assassin could think of another sneak attack. Taking his two metal swords, Polaris used them to herd Specter back into a corner and then paralyzed him with a stun spell. Unable to defend himself anymore, Specter could only look on as Polaris approached him with his two swords now poised to deal the final blow. "You fought admirably, but you were foolish to take me on in my home. Is there anything you'd like to say before I kill you?"
Specter wanted to spit at his assailant but was unable to due to the spell, and instead just glared up at Polaris. "I have nothing to say to some scum that must resort to stealing my Empress's secret techniques." he said in anger.
Polaris immediately lowered his weapons in astonishment. Something was very, very off about what Specter had just said. "What did you just say?" he asked the assassin. Specter remained silent in defiance, waiting for his death, but executing the intruder was now the last thing on Polaris' mind. "You said 'Empress', did you mean Empress Luna? And you identified where I got my technique from... Who are you? How can you know about this?" Polaris asked.
It had taken him years of research to discover the complex technique of wielding three swords at once, with one of the swords being pure energy. He had found the book deep in the Canterlot library, buried under a mountain of obsolete and mostly illegible scrolls in the storage chambers, and he couldn't help but sneak it out and keep it for himself. Inside the book he found a treasure trove of information from back when Princess Luna was first beginning to transform into Nightmare Moon, though she referred to herself as "Empress Luna", but most importantly he found evidence of a secret group known as the Blackguard.
From what he was able to find, the Blackguard was a group organized by both princesses back before Nightmare Moon came about, though Princess Celestia had some obvious reservations on using the group of assassins and saboteurs to carry out the dark deeds needing to be done to protect her citizens. Princess Luna, however, loved the small group of stealthy unicorns and used them more often than she should, and once she became Nightmare Moon she whisked away the entire group and began planning on how to use them to overthrow her sister. Before she could unleash the Blackguard against Celestia, Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon. All but a small group of the Blackguard were tracked down and eliminated by Celestia, but the strongest among the group were placed in some sort of stasis to preserve them should Nightmare Moon ever require their services. The book indicated that Celestia was able to track down those ponies also, but the assassin frozen in front of him showed that she had missed at least one...
Specter snapped out of his meditation and came back to the reality around him. Recalling his one failed mission still hurt his pride, but by failing he had in turn found a new extremely wealthy employer. Polaris had asked what he had been paid to kill him, and then immediately offered three times the amount to kill whoever had paid for the hit. He couldn't resist an offer of that many bits, particularly after having been sent on the mission with such drastically inadequate intelligence, and by that morning he had killed off his old employer with no trouble. Polaris kept him well paid in the next few months, interrogating him on as much information about the Blackguard as possible; their fighting techniques, their unique magic, their infiltration strategies, everything he could think of.
Shaking his head of the thoughts of working for Polaris, Specter went back into his meditative state, trying to think back before he worked for Polaris. Thoughts of his less frequent employers flew in his head and he pushed his memories farther until he reached the point he always hit before his memories stopped;
Specter awoke to darkness. The tiniest amount of light was penetrating the area he was in, and groggily he tried to stretch his limbs. His hooves immediately hit something, and it took a few moments for him to realize that he was inside some sort of cocoon. Whatever he was in wasn't very thick, and with a few kicks he was able to break the material surrounding him and freed himself from what appeared to be some sort of strange pod.
Across from him was another pod with another pony smashing their way out of it. Specter waited and watched as a jet black pony like himself freed herself from her confinement, her striking green eyes seeming to cut right through him. He felt that he knew her from somewhere, that she held some significant role in his life, but before he could try speaking to her the mare dropped into a defensive stance, drawing a dagger out and levitating it between her and him. Specter immediately did the same, drawing his own dagger in defense.
A few tense moments ticked by second by second, both ponies waiting for the other to make a move, but none were made. The mare finally began to back away, headed towards the one source of light in the dark cavern. Seeing that the entrance to the cave had been blocked by rubble and debris, the mare quickly turned her attention to the rubble and blasted it away with a powerful spell. Light burst into the cave and Specter had to shield his eyes from the overwhelming brightness, and by the time his eyes had adjusted to the level of light he saw that the mare had disappeared.
Somewhat relieved, he sheathed his weapon and decided to search the cave for any clues to answer the many questions swarming his head. Unfortunately, he didn't find any answers and was forced to wander off to search for the answers on his own. But the dagger that mare held... it looked very familiar... almost like... like...
The sound of an alarm clock broke Specter's concentration just as he was beginning to picture the dagger the mysterious mare had. Cursing at his timing, he smashed the alarm clock with his hoof in a rare show of emotion before putting his cloak back on and stormed towards Canterlot Station. On his walk his mind was fuming from his luck; every time he was about to make a breakthrough in his memories something or somepony interrupted him, causing him to have to start all over. However, once he reached the train station he cleared his mind of his personal problems and refocused on the task he now had to take; find the daughter of his employer and bring her back to him.
Making his way to the train headed for Ponyville, Specter came up on three tough looking red earth stallions waiting by the train. When they saw him approaching they stopped talking and motioned him to come over to them. "You Specter?" one of them asked. The black pony nodded and the stallion continued. "I'm Darkstalker, my team and I will be assisting you on this job, bosses orders. He also told me to give you this. Read it in private."
The stallion held out a sealed envelope for him. Specter accepted the note and nodded, following the three ponies onto the train. They managed to find an empty car near the back and settled in, the three stallions sitting together on one end while Specter remained secluded on the other end. Once the train began moving, Specter opened up the letter and read what Polaris had written;
'Specter, I'm sending eight of my other agents to Ponyville to assist you. They have been tasked with finding my daughter long before you were called in and may be able to assist you in your mission. However, they have also outlived their usefulness to me. Incompetence within my ranks cannot be tolerated and they must be made to pay the price. You may dispose of them as and when you see fit, I only require that you do so before you return to Canterlot with my daughter.'
Specter reread the letter once more to make sure he hadn't missed anything before quickly burning it. He glanced over at his three current helpers and looked them over. All three appeared to be strong, but as none of them were unicorns or pegasi Specter had little need for them. He got up and approached them and motioned for them to follow him. Darkstalker nodded and the three earth ponies got up and followed Specter to the end of the train, thinking he wanted to inform them of his plan in private. As they made their way to the back of the train, Specter prepared a spell; as there was no telltale glow coming from his horn, the three stallions followed him, none the wiser of their impending doom...
Once they were all outside on the rear deck of the caboose, a blinding flash of light caught the three earth stallions by surprise. With his quarry now disoriented, Specter drew out his poisoned dagger with his magic and with a single arcing slash slit each of their throats. What would have been surprised shouts were reduced to gurgled whimpers as the poison quickly worked its way through their systems. The trio was dead within seconds.
A few magically-assisted shoves was all it took to clear the train of the bodies, and Specter watched as they rolled down the embankment and disappeared into the brush, almost impossible to be found. Turning his attention to the blood that had fallen to the floor, he cast another spell to lift the blood up. Droplets of blood began to float in the air, seemingly on their own, and began to form into a small orb which Specter then flung off into the woods. Once he was satisfied that there was no evidence left for anypony to find, he returned to his seat and settled in for the remaining few hours of the train ride.
With nothing else to do, Specter closed his eyes and went to sleep, hoping that maybe his dreams would hold the answers. He just hoped that he would finally remember his dreams for once...
"Get back here you thieves!"
Specter ran as fast as he could away from the pony now chasing him, the coin bag he had pick pocketed securely in his mouth. The young thief raced through the streets, weaving in between shop stalls and ponies to evade his pursuer, but the owner of the coins was not one to give up so easily. Specter continued to run, headed to the rendezvous point he had set up with his partner in crime, and thankfully he saw her waiting for him atop the roof of a nearby building.
"Nightshade, catch!" Specter shouted as he threw the small bag up to her with his magic. The mare caught the bag with ease and ran off on back to their hideout, leaving Specter with only having to now ditch his pursuer. With practiced ease, Specter continued to run and finally ducked into a small alleyway where his dark brown coat helped him blend in with the dirt and shadows. He heard his pursuer run past him and shortly come to a stop. The pony cursed as he had lost the trail and had no choice but to head back home, and once he had left the area Specter emerged from his hiding spot and carefully made his way back to meet up with the rest of his group.
Walking to an old decrepit building, Specter knocked on the door in code and waited while the pony inside unlocked it to let him in. Once inside, Specter saw that Nightshade had already made it back and had finished counting the bits they had stolen. She looked up at him and waved at him, a big smile on her face. "Nice job, 217 bits!" she said excitedly. "This should make things a lot easier for everypony for the next few weeks." Making sure the few other ponies around them weren't looking, Nightshade quickly gave Specter a quick but passionate kiss on the lips.
As the day progressed a few more young ponies returned to the hideout, most of them successful with stealing bits or other items they needed to survive. Though they all came from different places and families, all the young ponies gathered here shared similar stories; they all had to leave home and were now orphans, left to fend for themselves.
Equestria had just been freed from the tyranny of Discord, and the two sisters who had defeated the God of Chaos were trying their best to build a better, more stable society. However, they could only work so fast, and many places in Equestria were still in poor condition. Many of the fillies and colts that had lost family during the reign of Chaos found themselves homeless and forced to fend for themselves. Specter and Nightshade shared in their situation, though the two had run away from their home. Together with other abandoned youths, they had formed a 'family' of their own.
They all had to resort to stealing what they needed to survive, and for the most part each pony went their separate ways and returned before dark to pool together what they had managed to get. However, Specter and Nightshade always worked together as a team, never going out alone or with any other pony. Part of it was because they were among the oldest in their group, but what really set them apart was that they were siblings, the two of them working in tandem were able to take much larger targets than any of the others combined. Their 'brothers' and 'sisters' were happy to have the two siblings as they always took on the harder tasks, mainly stealing bits from business ponies. As a team, Specter and Nightshade were possibly the best thieves in the entire town.
Though there was no declared leader of the band of young thieves, the rest of their group greatly admired and respected the two siblings and always sought out their advice should they have any questions, and they were one of the few to have their own room together. All the other foals thought Specter and Nighshade wanted privacy but were okay rooming together since they had depended on each other for so long, but the two siblings could never actually reveal what went on behind their closed door at night.
One fateful day, Specter and Nightshade were out scouting for an easy target when Nightshade spotted a pony with a large coin purse hanging loosely off of his belt. Confident that he would be an easy target, she pointed out the target to Specter and told him she would meet him at the usual spot. Specter nodded and ran off to wait on the roof of their meeting place, ready to catch whatever she managed to steal and run off back to their hideout.
It took Specter only five minutes to ready himself, and he scanned the streets and alleys below him to try to see where Nightshade was and if she had any pursuers. However, he saw no sign of Nightshade, and after an hour he began to worry that something had gone wrong with her heist. None of their thefts had ever taken longer than thirty minutes to complete once they settled on a target, but another hour went by before Specter jumped back down to street level and began looking for Nightshade.
He made his way back to where they had seen their target but of course neither the unknown pony nor his sister was anywhere to be seen. He wandered around the market in desperation, hoping that Nightshade was still tailing her prey still for some reason or perhaps she found a better target to steal. Sadly, he found no trace of his sister. As the sky began to darken he began to worry that she had somehow been captured.
As he was making his way back to their rendezvous point, one of the fillies from his group ran up to him and told him that she had seen Nightshade being dragged towards the docks by three members of the local militia. Not waiting to even reply, Specter took off towards the edge of the town, not caring that he, a small colt, was supposed to somehow take on three armed full grown stallions by himself. He made quick time to the deserted docks and headed straight for the old boat shed that now sat empty and was frequently used by the corrupt militia members. Approaching the one door accessible by land, Specter found it locked from the inside and was unable to get in. Spotting a few crates under a window, he jumped up onto the wooden box and peered inside and felt his stomach twist painfully by what he saw.
Nightshade was inside but so were the three stallions who had supposedly captured her. His sister was tied down to a rickety chair and was unconscious, multiple bruises clearly visible all over her body. The chair had been knocked over from the beating and her head lay still against the damp wooden floor as the three stallions stood over her, taking a few more shots at the defenseless filly before they grew bored and stopped.
Specter saw through the glass that some of the ceiling windows were propped open, and as fast as he could he ran around to the other side of the building in hopes of finding something to climb up to gain access to the roof but found nothing. He thought about trying to teleport himself but he never managed to travel more than a few feet successfully. Shutting his eyes, he pictured the roof of the shed above him and concentrated as hard as he could, and a loud 'poof' entered his ears. However, he only managed to teleport himself three feet into the air, and with the grace of a sack of bricks he fell flat on his face onto the hard dock. The pain he felt was substantial but he didn't have time to feel sorry for himself, and with only a few seconds to make sure he didn't severely injure himself Specter tried the teleportation spell again. He fell again, but this time he didn't feel the rough wooden dock beneath his body; instead, he felt the warm metal roof beneath him and heard a dull 'thud'. He couldn't believe his luck but had no time to celebrate his first completely successful teleport, and once he was back on his hooves he made his way over to the open windows he saw earlier as quietly as possible.
Finally by the windows, Specter was able to hear what the three stallions were saying to each other. They were laughing as they recounted how they had finally caught one of the filly thieves plaguing the town by having one of them pose as a civilian with a large bit bag, but instead of being filled with coins the bag was filled with a powdered tranquilizer. As soon as the bag was ripped away from the 'victim' the bag exploded, covering Nightshade in the powder and leaving her defenseless. The three stallions had obviously released their pent up anger on her, and now they began talking about what to do next.
"I guess we should lock her up and wait until the next patrol comes around. They can take this thief back with them to that new city they built on the mountain." one of them said.
"They won't be back until tomorrow afternoon though. I'm not guarding this filly all night in that sad, smelly excuse for a prison we have." another one said.
"Well, she's not going anywhere tied up like that, and as long as we don't wash the powder out of her fur she can't move or use her magic, so why don't we keep her here?" the last pony asked.
"Pfft, like this place is any better. Besides, what are we supposed to do all night?" the first one said impatiently.
The third pony looked down at the unconscious prisoner. "Well, we could... um... you know, with her."
It took the other two stallions a few seconds to realize what he meant. "What? No! She's just a filly!" one of them said in disgust. The other pony looked unsure of what to think, but the first pony quickly pulled him to the exit and shoved him out the door. "Just bring her to the jail when you're done... sick fuck." he said before leaving, shutting the door with a loud bang.
Not too worried that one of his small secrets had just been revealed, the last militia pony turned his attention to the still unconscious filly. He licked his lips as he looked down at her small frame and began fantasizing on how tight this filly would be, and he hoped that he would be the first stallion to break her in. Careful not to get the powder on himself, the stallion untied Nightshade from the chair and re-secured her so she was bent over the back of the chair with her flank exposed. He then took a bucket of water and doused her with it, washing away the paralyzing powder from her body. He wanted her to feel everything he was about to do to her and he had more nearby should she become a problem for him, but in her current battered state she didn't have the strength to even cast a simple illumination spell.
Nightshade groaned softly as feeling came back to her body, but she still couldn't move any of her limbs due to being tied down. She tried turning her head to look around but received a sharp blow to the back of her head, her captor barking at her not to move. Not wasting any time, the stallion mounted her, his large frame dwarfing her body as his adult sized cock began poking at her underaged sex. Nightshade whimpered in fear but was unable to stop him, but Specter was already taking action.
Though he had no weapons and knew very limited attack magic, he flung himself down towards the pony trying to rape his sister, ignoring the fact that he was two stories up in the air. His aim was on target and Specter collided with the stallion, hitting him in his lower neck and sending everypony tumbling to the floor. Specter's right foreleg exploded in pain and he thought he either sprained or broke it, but he ignored the pain and quickly got up to free Nightshade. Hobbling over to her, he quickly untied the ropes binding Nightshade and tried to help her up.
Before she could stand up, Specter felt a hard blow land on his back, causing him to crumple to the ground. The militia pony kicked out at Specter again, sending him flying and hitting one of the walls hard. Specter's body was in immense pain, and more than likely a few ribs were broken from the savage attack. He looked up and saw that the stallion now had a broken boat hook in his hoof, the rusty metal hook poised to strike the young colt. "You dumb little foal! You're going to pay for that! Let's see how you like dangling from this hook through your neck!"
Specter closed his eyes as he awaited the agonizing strike, but instead he heard his attacker suddenly cry out. Daring to take a peek, Specter's eyes went wide as he saw a plank embedded in the stallion's own throat, blood seeping out around the rusty piece of metal as a sickening gurgle came from his mouth. Specter looked past the wounded pony and saw his sister standing up on her own, her horn lit up and her eyes glaring angrily as she picked up a forgotten fishing hook and sent it straight at the stallion's unprotected eye. A mix of a scream and gurgle managed to escape his throat as he stumbled back, now blind in one eye but he didn't get far as a nearby coil of rope came to life and quickly wrapped itself around his legs, immobilizing him and causing him to fall.
Specter watched as Nightshade walked up to her victim, her face contorted with pure rage rivaling the demons of legend, a wide array of improvised weapons hovering in the air around her. The young colt wanted to cry out for her to stop but he couldn't find his voice, and with horror in his eyes he sat transfixed upon the scene as Nightshade exacted her revenge on the quickly dying pony in front of her.
By the time Nightshade finally stopped she was covered horn to tail in blood. The floor was also soaked in blood, so much that the wood planks couldn't absorb any more. Nightshade stood over the horrifically dismembered body of the militia pony, panting hard as she dropped the last bloodied tool at her disposal onto the floor with a dull thud. Specter finally managed to pull himself up and slowly approached his sister, carefully stepping over a dismembered leg but was unable to avoid stepping in the blood. "Nightshade?" he hesitantly called out to her, unsure if she had ample time do calm down.
Nightshade looked over at him and flung herself into his hooves once he was next to her, finally breaking down after the traumatic day. Specter held his older sister, trying his best to push the horror of the last several minutes out of his mind as he tried to calm her down as quickly as possible. Finally he led her out of the shed and the two ran away from the grisly scene as fast as they could. They stopped at a nearby stream to wash the off the blood from their bodies and found a quiet alcove in the town's outer walls to sleep for the night, the two siblings cuddling together closer than usual.
The next morning they woke up and talked over what they had to do now. It was only a matter of time before the body of the militia pony was found and the newly formed Royal Guard was called down to investigate. The other orphans would have to tread lightly during the investigation but the possibility of remaining here was gone for Specter and Nightshade; they were wanted ponies and would only endanger their friends if they stayed. Unable to even chance going back into town to say goodbye to their crew, the two siblings left town and made their way to the new city being built, a place that would hopefully offer them a new start and a better life; Canterlot.
The soon-to-be new capital of Equestria proved to be a wealthy source of easy targets. As the city was still under construction there were many places to hide and a lot of items left out in the open to take. Specter and Nightshade created a small hideout behind one of the waterfalls just outside the city gates and they were able to take enough to live comfortably together. They also didn't have to worry about being caught by the guards as most of them had been deployed to every corner of Equestria to help reunite the many smaller villages after many ponies broke off from Discord's shadow of tyranny and founded villages of their own.
Ten years went by, and construction of Canterlot had finally finished. The new capital of Equestria was quite the sight to behold, and both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna moved in to their new home. Quite a few rich ponies moved in to the new city and they proved to be easy targets for pick pocketing, but the presence of guards also increased significantly since the city was now home to the new rulers of Equestria. The siblings had a few close calls with the local guards but every time they managed to slip away into the darkness. Specter and Nightshade talked about possibly leaving the city and finding a new home, but they came to the conclusion that as long as they were careful they could continue living here and continue taking advantage of the weak yet rich ponies who lived here.
Their luck ran out one day, though; as they were running out from a house with jewelry and a bag of bits one night they found themselves being pursued by a strange group of ponies. It wasn't the normal guards or even the strange new guards some ponies had seen patrolling the skies at night. Instead, the ponies pursuing Specter and Nightshade were dressed in black cloaks and hoods, and their coats and manes all seemed to be pitch black also. The two siblings used every trick they had at their disposal, but they were unable to shake their pursuers.
Nightshade finally lost her temper and despite Specter's protest she attacked one of the cloaked ponies who was blocking their escape across a set of rooftops. Catching the black pony completely off guard, Nightshade violently attacked him, grabbing her victim with her hooves and then blasting the pony with a powerful point blank attack. The two tumbled off the roof into the alleyway below. Specter teleported to his sister's side as Nightshade finally slowly got off of the black cloaked unicorn; they both saw that the fallen pony was dead. They turned to run away, but they found themselves surrounded by a dozen more black ponies clad in cloaks and suddenly things went completely black.
Specter and Nightshade awoke separated in some sort of prison, four of the black ponies standing guard outside their cells. Specter began quietly looking for a way out but Nightshade was more vocal and began shouting and swearing at their captors, demanding to be let out or they would suffer the same fate as their one fallen comrade had. The black ponies remained silent and motionless the entire time she was yelling, only moving aside when the hallway door opened and an unusually tall pony entered and walked up to the cells holding the two thieves. Both Specter and Nightshade gasped in surprise as they saw that Princess Luna was staring down at them with her cold eyes. "So, thou art the thieves that plague our city." she said in her assertive voice. "We would have given thee a sentencing of prison for your thievery, but killing one of our elite guards carries the penalty of death. However, we have decided to grant thee a chance of repentance by serving as one of the Blackguard for the rest of your lives."
Specter had no idea what the Blackguard was, but before he could ask Nightshade reared back and spat right in Luna's face. "Fuck you and fuck your little black cloak club." she snapped.
Luna's expression didn't change, but everypony in the room could see that she was furious. Wiping the spit from her face, she glared directly at Nightshade. "You foal! We have tried offering you a way out of death, but now thou shalt suffer a worse fate!" she shouted as her horn began to glow. The two Blackguard ponies watching over Nightshade held her in place with their magic as an orb of energy began to form in front of Nightshade's head. "You will still serve as a Blackguard, but heed my warning, thou shalt not find this experience pleasant."
Luna's eyes began to glow white and the ball began to force its way into Nightshade's head. Specter winced as he heard his sister scream as her head felt like it was on fire, and one by one her memories were painfully erased from her head. Her eyes rolled backwards and her voice began to give out, and once the ball of light finally completely entered her head her body crumbled into a heap on the floor.
Luna turned to Specter and stared down at him. "Thou hath been wise to remain silent. The transformation shall be less painful for thee." Luna said before she cast a spell to knock him out.
Specter's eyes snapped open as the train whistle blasted, signaling that the train was minutes away from arriving in Ponyville. He frantically tried to recall the dream he had, desperate to remember even just a sliver of his past, but once again the past slipped away and left him with no answers.
Ignoring the pain of failure and disappointment that he felt Specter cleared his mind and looked out the window, looking out at the small town that he would be working in until he managed to find and abduct his target. His mind also thought to his additional task that he had to complete, and though it was far more dangerous than his primary mission he felt more at ease killing off the five remaining ponies than kidnapping one mare. The bits he was being paid would allow him to retire and dedicate more time to tracking down his past and maybe finally answer why he felt incomplete. Shaking his head, he finally pushed his own personal feelings aside and focused his mind back on his job. Polaris had given him a very detailed description of his daughter, but there was only one trait that Specter needed to know; look for the mare with the scarred cutie mark.