300 Years Ago

I wake up to the smell of smoke, lots of smoke. I open my eyes more and look around, that's when it hits me. The house is on fire. For a 16 year old pony this is a pretty scary situation. My father breaks my bedroom door down, "WE ARE LEAVING!" He yells at me. I leap out of bed and grab the emergency pack that he made me pack. I follow as he gallops out of the flaming house in a rush. *THOCK* A knife lodges itself inches from my face. My dad quickly ducks down behind a box and pulls out his own weapon, a katana. More knives rain down on us as I cower behind my dad. He leaps out from behind the box with a yell and charges towards the unseen attacker. I hear a softer, wetter sound and instantly know what happened. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" I scream as I see my father's lifeless corpse fall to the ground with a knife past his right shoulder blade, straight into his heart. That's when it happened. I leapt from the box tearing out knives with magic as I charge towards the attacker. I start throwing the knives blindly, my attacker throws a knife in his panic before leaping to cover. I move to the left to avoid the knife, not fast enough though. The knife catches my face as it passes and slices me. A deep cut is made as the blade curves, from my left eyebrow down to about my chin in a gentle semicircle. I feel blood rush over my face as I continue to throw knives using both magic and hoof work. My attacker peeks out from behind the box and throws a knife at the only part of my body he can see, my back left hoof. The knife slices through my hoof as the razor sharp blade is covered in my blood. This does not faze me though. All I can think of is avenging the murder of my father. I pick a knife from the floor and teleport in behind this evil pony. I bring my hoof with the knife in it down on his neck, slicing all of the tendons and nerves that are necessary for survival. I awake in Canterlot hospital to find that I finally have my cutie mark.

I toss and turn in my sleep.

273 Years Ago

I groan as I stretch my hoof up to my face to rub the sleep out of my eyes. It's my third day sleeping up a tree with no shelter at all. I actually don't mind that much. When I fully awake I look around at the camp and notice that the griffins are starting to pack up. I leap out of the tree 16 metres above ground and teleport mid-air. I reappear in the designated safe zone inside of our camp, right next to Celestia's tent. I rip the tent door open with magic and storm in to see Celestia staring at a map of the battle field. "Your Majesty," I begin while kneeling down, "the enemy is moving west as we speak!" Celestia looks up from the map at me and nods her thanks. I see her horn light up as she dons her armour. She doesn't fight but it raises the troop's moral to see her in armour. I open the tent door with magic once again, this time with care. She strides out and begins a speech to get the ponies ready to fight. After 3 minutes or so of her talking, I sorta blacked out, she walks towards me and whispers in my ear to meet with my new squad at 'Location Zulu'. I nod and walk towards my squad tent. My squad was out training so I quickly donned my cloak and knife belt. I glance at the map to make sure I know where to go to meet my squad. As always I already knew where it is. I step out of the tent, stretch, check my belt and cloak are secured and then, in a puff of purple smoke for effect, teleport the location. When I appear I am surprised to see my squad already waiting for me. I glance at the sun and see that I am still 5 minutes early. "Humph," Delta 5 says, "and here I thought you went on in front of us." I glare at him. We don't know each other's names, just delta designation. Lower number, more power. I glance at the team. Everypony from Delta 2 to Delta 8 is here. "O.K Delta 1, you ready?" Delta 2 my second in command asks. I drop my cloak to reveal my knives. "Let's go!" I set off at a fast trot towards the enemy camp. I keep thinking how surprised the Earth Pony Grunts are going to be when the griffons, instead of heading west to attack our camp, turn tail and runs east. I teleport far in front of the others and they all break into a full speed gallop to try and catch up. I laugh to myself as I appear behind my first victim. I place a hoof on his chin and one on the other side of his head and twist. A crack tells me I'm done with this one. I teleport away a small distance and at the same time create a magical explosion to attract attention. I sit down atop a tent and wait. Soon a group of low ranking griffons come to investigate. Delta 3 is the first to speak "Hey One, what now?" She said in a whisper. I look over at her, "Now we wait." I smiled. It's fun confusing the other Deltas. I create more magical explosions and a few fires in the general area. Griffons start coming to investigate, first a few grunts, then a small aerial squad and finally the ones I had been waiting for, the generals. I tap my team on their shoulders. "Watch." I throw a knife into a flier then leap down off then tent. I easily kill a few of the grunts then continue to pick off a few magic wielders. A massive force comes to stop me, they march in fully armed and surround me. I go to my knees as they close in and surrender. Just before they cuff me I teleport away in a puff of poison gasses. I reappear next to my fellow Delta squad. "O.K I'm bored" I say to them. "You ponies want to finish up for me?" The rest of my team smile. They all throw back cloaks to reveal weapons galore. I relax into the roof of the tent as I watch my team massacre the enemy. I return to base seconds before my team, Celestia thanks us in private and then sends us away on vacation for a week. We finish packing and walk to the train together. "Well, we can't learn each other's names here but let's make a promise," Delta 7 is a dramatic pony. "If we see each other while on vacation let's get to know each other. Deal?" The rest of the team chorus in approval.

Many other missions like this pass. Each as secretive as the next, each with the same team. We continue and as we do we age, but age does not weary us. Every ten years Celestia herself cast an anti-aging spell on the 8 of us. The Delta Squad continues to kill the enemies of Equestria for 223 years. After a while ponies begin to notice our killings. Celestia is beseeched to help end the 'murders.'

My hooves lash out as if I'm kicking somepony.

50 Years Ago

I relax into my hammock next to the pool, I hear little foals playing in the water. For once in my life I'm happy. "Ahem!" I look up. Next to me is an imperial guard. "Well hello sir. Do you want anything?" I smile while giving my response. I recently got my entire coat dyed and a nice holiday suit. "You wouldn't happen to know a certain Sendar Shadowhoof? He is a unicorn with a black coat. Usually hides his mane, although his tail is a very dark grey with red highlights. Have you seen anypony by that description?" The guard asks. "He is wanted by the Princess Celestia." I look at him puzzled. Why would the princess want me? "No I don't know anypony by that name. I'm sorry." The guard moves on and asks a few other ponies. I teleport up to my hotel room and throw on my cloak and knife belt. I then teleport back to the hammock and conceal my face. When I teleported I forgot to make sure I didn't get rid of the dye. Magic is confusing. Too late now though. I shadow the guard as he searches the hotel. As he searches I see imperial unicorns and pegasus also looking for me. I am forced to duck in and out of pillars and climb up the buildings to avoid the patrols. As I hide and duck around I overhear snippets of conversation about me. Mainly in the form of bets. "Betcha 5 bits he ain't gonna come peaceful like when we tell him he is under arrest for treason." Was the bet that I heard the most of. Treason? Why in Equestria would Princess Celestia want me arrested for treason? A pegasus rounds the building going a lot faster than the other ones and rams into me. As I fall I look at the uniform and realize that that pony is a Wonderbolt, one of the best fliers in all of Equestria. He spots me as I fall and instantly calls out and then makes a dive for me. I decide to have a bit of fun before I'm executed for treason. Just before he grabs me I replace my body with a lump of pony shaped stone. The Wonderbolt grabs the stone and tries to pull up, only to realize that he has been tricked. Only one problem with this Wonderbolt, he isn't the sharpest of nails. Instead of letting go and pulling up he instead decides not to let go and pull up. One problem, the rock won't let him. He plummets towards the ground, the rock flips him so now my dummy is pushing him down. He tries with all his might to get out of the way and he finally does. After he is squished into a pancake by the rock, I start to laugh at this unfortunate death. As soon as I uttered that sound I was surrounded by ponies of all kinds. All wearing the imperial armour. I decide to give in, killing a world famous flier is too much fun for one day. The guards hoof cuff me and drag me towards a pegasus drawn carriage. I continue to giggle as I think about how stupid the Wonderbolt was, he practically committed suicide.

I am escorted into the court room with Celestia sitting at the head of a semicircular table. The guards escorted me to a spot in front of the eight seats on the table. I glance to the left and right. Everyone seated there is a head of one of the 4 pony types. There are 2 unicorns seated either side of Celestia, then 2 pegasus and finally 2 earth ponies. As I look I realize there is a missing pony, there is a seat to the left of Celestia that is empty. Luna, being trapped on the moon and all, hasn't showed. The rest of my squad is seated next to me as I check the different ponies seated. The earth ponies are ready to chase us down if we run, as are the pegasus. The unicorns though keep on casting a spell, I quickly run a scan of the area to find that no one but an Alicorn can teleport. Celestia started talking "We are here today to blah blah blah blah blah blaaaaah…" I sorta dozed off a tiny bit. When I woke we were in a closed carriage. "Morning everypony, so what was our sentence?" I look around to see my entire squad dead. In the air of the carriage I smell the familiar scent of cyanide in its gaseous form. Luckily for me I am immune to all poisons. As for my team it's a different story. That was the first time I had ever cried. After I had dried my tears I broke a side in the cage and looked out. I was past the Equestrian border, waaaay past the Equestrian border. I start the long trek back to civilization.

I begin to weep, the tears are a welcome luxury to my life.

25 Years Ago

I have been living outside of the border for what seems like an eternity. In the 25 years I have been in the wilderness I have been training my magic skill. I have been running through my life and remembering every spell I have ever seen. I keep on remembering one spell, cast every ten years or so. One spell cast by Celestia, one spell that has kept me alive for 291 years. One spell, one anti-aging spell that I have just learnt. With 25 years to practice the one spell that I needed was one to keep me alive. With my training and pure instinct I can find water with ease. Food is so much easier to find when you don't care about bad grass and hay. If I got particularly hungry I would eat the grass on the floor, it didn't always agree with me though.

My stomach turns with remembrance.

22 Years Ago

I can't teleport into Equestria because of a magical barrier that Celestia and Luna set up before I was born, but I can teleport closer to the border and then sneak in. After the 28 years in the wilderness that is exactly what I decided to do. The first thing I do is pack up my tent and belongings and strap them to my back. I don't know how close I can teleport and I want to make sure that I don't get stranded outside of the border with no food or shelter. I eat and drink everything I can't carry. I wait a bit for the food to go down then start making some knives. I cut down a tree using my magic I then carve a large portion out of it and check for strength and imperfections. Once that is done and I have a decent amount of strong wood to make my knives out of I begin to work. I pick up a sharp stick in my mouth and carve a quick template some bad wood. After prying it loose I place it against the good wood and trace it. After doing that about 10 times I cut deep and pry them loose. Finally to finish them off I carve the sides down and sharpen the points so that they can actually puncture the skin of anypony I decide to stab. I teleport as close to the border at around midday and it wore me out so much that I decided to instantly set up a shelter and sleep.

My heads tingles as I release a bit of magic unknowingly.

I wake up and groan, I reach up and rub the sleep out of my eyes with my hoof. It's been a while since I've done anything so magic intensive, except for the anti-aging spell but that I have practised that so much that it's practically second nature. After a good day's sleep I continue towards Equestria.

I spend 3 days trekking towards the border. As I trot I hone my knife skills once more as I will most likely need to fight my way through the border. Lucky for me when your cutie mark basically means that you're an assassin, throwing a knife isn't something you forget easily. I slowly get to perfect my once godlike skill in knife throwing. By the end of the third day I feel as if I could hit any target blindfolded without using magic at all. I reach the first set of border guards just as the sun sets and I thank Celestia for the first time in many a year. As I continue through the border patrols I realize how little Celestia knows of the land outside of her domain, the only ponies manning the outposts were earth pony recruits. It took all of my ability just to stay alive out there but the way in is guarded by the weakest ponies that were ever allowed to join the imperial guard. I had half a mind to teach the old hag Celestia a lesson. I had half a mind to kill everypony manning that forsaken outpost. I stopped myself though, even though they were under manned and in no position that mattered they would still give a monthly report. If no report came in Celestia may grow suspicious of my whereabouts and I cannot risk that. I sneak through the first couple of encampments then come across an opportunity I can't let pass by. In the 4th outpost lies a weapon storage area. One that is filled with armour and swords and spears. I don't care about those things though, what I do care about is the fact there is one of the Delta Squad's old weapon stashes there. I get to work on finding the spot in the cliff face that we hid the equipment. To avoid being caught I steal some unicorn grunt armour and start learning patrol routes, names and timetables. After I have all of those memorized I set out scouring the cliff face with a combination of magic and hoof work. I finally find the spot and stock up on knives, rope, cloaks, food rations, and, most importantly, make up. I put on a disguise and sneak out of the camp. I begin another trek towards Equestria and, ultimately, Canterlot Castle.