The Assassin's Song

by Productive faffer

The life of an assassin: questions, the constant threat of death and the fact that you work until your dying breath. However, one refuses to be intimidated by death, refuses to live by the rule of 'killer 'till killed' and above all, he refuses to be denied his answers. His question is as follows: who, or what, is behind his final contract? And just where will it lead him?

25. And preparation lies in knowledge

Chapter twenty five: And preparation lies in knowledge

Ember felt warmth around her. It was weird, because she was used to waking up under her covers when she fell asleep in the hideout, but somehow the warmth here felt different, like it was focused on certain parts of her body: the top of her head, over her shoulder and on her flank. She squeezed her eyes together a little, as her sleep escaped her, the assassin grumbling a little as she felt her brain turn to mush in her sleepy state. Her eyes opened and she found a black blob in her view.

'Oh, yeah.'

She grinned as she remembered last night, what had happened yesterday, and snuggled into Blood Moon. That had been him, the strange warmth, his legs cuddling her and her head rested beneath his, his tail draped over her flank. She put her own fore-leg over him and pulled herself further into his body, feeling him stir slightly himself. When their stomachs pressed together, their nether regions precariously close together, he stirred again, his eyes starting to open. She grinned a naughty grin. Ember Spark moved in and kissed his eye, keeping it closed, and nuzzled him a little.

"Morning" he murmured. She kissed around his face a little.

"Morning Moon" she returned. She felt his muscles tense as he got up, but she held him down. "Stay in bed a while, we'll need as much rest as we can get" she told him. Blood Moon, normally, wouldn't have agreed but at the moment he was comfy, warm and in no mood to wake up. He nodded wordlessly and relaxed against her again. Ember grinned. She moved her hoof slowly, grabbing the pillow her head had been rested on for the night and gripped it gently. With a stealth that could only come from years of experience, she slowly squirmed out of Blood Moon's sleepy hold, replacing where she had once been with the pillow.

After fifteen minutes of substituting herself with the cushion, Ember was free from her partner's embrace, and she stood from the bed, looking over him fondly. The look of fondness was soon replaced with the naughty look of mischief as she turned around and left his dark room.

A while later, Blood Moon's eyes opened again when he noticed that Ember seemed a little too soft; his horn sparked to life as he let the glow build up, illuminating the room in his grey glow. She was gone, a pillow in her place; he took a deep breath and shrugged, assuming she wouldn't leave unless she had a good reason to, and resumed his sleep, glad at the prospect of a lie-in. He staked the cushion on the one his head lay upon, and relaxed his muscles; he relished the sensation of being able to sleep in his own bed, in his own quarters, but couldn't help but miss the sensation of company. He pushed the thoughts of Twilight and Rising from his head as he killed the glow in his horn, willing himself back to sleep to avoid the memories. Maybe catch Luna before she went to bed.

These thoughts were killed when a deep, dark, fire red lit up the room. He looked over his body, back at the room, and found Ember stoo-

'Starswirl's beard...'

He swallowed once as he turned himself over, finding her grin spread further over her face as she leaned against the wall in a…slightly, questionable manner. The red glow her horn produced could only complement her striking attire and smouldering expression. Her raven black mane shimmered glamorously, clinging tightly to her body as though she'd just washed it, and her tail did the same. Her eye shadow was a little more abundant behind her eyes, drawing more attention to the fiery irises, creating the illusion of her eyes literally smoking. Her fur, like her mane, looked recently washed as it clung to her skin and, most importantly, her curves. But it was the nighty over her that really got the blood rushing. The thin, pink material, which could easily have been designed by Rarity, wasn't exactly see-through, but it was translucent enough to draw the eye and tease the mind, forcing the Hunter to use some of his imagination while getting treated, not to mention distracted, by the rest of her. It daintily covered her back, draping over her sides and slightly over her flank; her muscled chest was revealed to the stallion, the nightdress parting in a V, tied at the top with a cute bow.

She gave him a heart melting wink as she sparked some of the candles to life, killing her red glow, leaving the room illuminated but still appealingly dim. She blew him a kiss which made a lump run down his throat as he swallowed and appear in the bed sheets as the all-knowing one assumed direct control.

"So, Blood Moon" she started as she approached agonisingly slowly, her flank swaying in ways that made the Celestia-damned wall track her plot as the assassin's hidden-blade continued to extend. And he wanted stab only one mare with it. "You like" Ember finished seductively as she swung around. Blood Moon pretty much came then and there. It was only now that he realised she had a G-string over her flank; it was the same design as the negligée, pink, so agonisingly almost see-through, tight to her body and finished with another cute bow at the base of her tail. Her smooth, round, ash grey, butt-cheeks sucked in the middle string slightly, the outer two staying tight to her flank. She grinned a grin that almost killed the dark stallion as she flicked her tail slightly, revealing the sumptuous spot of debauchery given form that was that was the mare's ass, crossing one leg over the other to push the cheeks further together. Blood Moon couldn't speak, the attention his brain was giving to his body had been diverted to his eyes and mainmast, his voice box rendered obsolete, and all he could offer in return was a single nod of his head. Ember grinned again, truly living up to her name, and giggled slightly, her fore-hoof reaching back and running down her flank teasingly; she began at the base of her tail, rubbing herself down towards her not-so-secret spot, where she slipped her hoof beneath the single strand of string that comprised the only thing blocking Blood Moon view of her marehood, lifting it out of the way slightly, letting the dark stallion have too brief a glance at her slit before it was hidden away again, her hoof riding up her plot again, the G-string raised with it, until she drew it away and let it snap down to her plot again. Her blush only complemented her steamy face as she kept the grin on her face, spinning gracefully back to Blood Moon and sauntering up to him. "I'm glad" she told him, coming to a stop next to his desk (now mysteriously cleared of papers) and leaned against it. "I've been keeping this little item under ice for a while y'know. Just waiting for a certain somepony to turn up" she spun again, leaning against the side of the desk with her fore-legs as she spread her hind-legs enticingly. "I wanted your…professional, opinion" she told him, her tail flicking to the side once more. Blood Moon just swallowed again, feeling like a young colt facing his V-card getting punched. Ember took note of his silence and giggled at him once more; she leaned her head on one of her hooves and let the other stray back to her plot and caress herself a little. "I picked it up a while back" she told him, running her hoof up her flank and lifting her tail, letting it linger in the air for a second before she let it fall again "got it from a mare in Ponyville, in fact" she revealed, slipping her hoof beneath the string and running it down her flank. She let her hoof stray around her plot until it met her leg, sliding it under and letting it keep going until she let it stray close to her pussy…and pulled back again. "Fell in love with it the second I saw it" she told him, running her hoof between her flank cheeks "but she wanted a hoof and a leg for it" she said sadly, making flirtatious circles in her fur. She giggled naughtily as she made a rough line through her fur, pushing her flank in before letting it bounce back into shape like jello. Really…tasty…jello. "But we managed to work out a…compromise" she said with a smirk on her face as she watched him twitch a little beneath the sheets, teasing him more by running her hoof down her leg. She let it glide down slowly, over every sumptuous curve and alluring muscle, arching her back seductively, letting her juicy plot hang low, as she reached her hind-hoof before letting it come back up again, just as agonisingly slowly as before, until she met her plot. She grinned as she gripped it, held it and squeezed it for a second before letting go again. "Let's just say I…helped put out a fire" she teased, letting her hoof go beneath the G-string once more, sliding it over her pussy before she let it snap back against the sensitive skin. A little moisture flew out as the pink material met the pink skin, sending feint ripples over her butt. She bit her lip lightly as her blush deepened. "Originally, I got it for that love hotel contract" she told him, swaying her plot to and fro. "I was ready for you that night Moon. Ready and willing to spread my legs for you" she said, waving it up and down for him. "I was waiting for you to turn around; I was perfumed up, dressed down and horny" she told him, jiggling her ass in perfect rhythm, making it bounce and shake and ripple and… sweet Celestia, how he wanted to buck her now. "But you didn't turn, did you" she told him, stopping the jiggling. His eyes went sad and he made noises like a disappointed dog. "No, you didn't" she said, agreeing with something he hadn't said "so you couldn't scratch my itch." She put one hind-leg up on the desk and slid her fore-hoof to her crotch. "Now, however" she trailed off, moving the string and one of her lips to the side with her hoof.

Blood Moon swallowed again, his eyes locked on what must have been an agonisingly, blissfully tight cunt. He felt something in his head bitch-slap him back to his senses, likely one of his voices, and he blinked once. And grinned.

"So, it's my professional opinion you want, eh?" He asked his question as he stood from the bed, the sheets falling off of him, his erect stallionhood swinging proudly to attention between his hind-legs. Ember Spark, seeing that he had come around, nodded her head with a deviously sexy grin on her face. He cocked his head slightly as he approached, the fact that his cock was at full mast making it a little awkward, and gazed over the mare before him.

"Let's see" he said slowly as he got up close to her; he advanced until her flank was squashed against his chest and ran his own hoof up her leg. "You're sure" he asked as his hoof rose slowly up her leg "I can be quite-" he spanked her "-thorough, when I want to be." The warmth of her flank still against his chest, she turned her head back slightly and grinned her answer. The stallion grinned back. "Alright then" he said quietly. The dark stallion moved his head down to her backside with deliberate slowness, taking his time, feeling her flank grind against his body until his face met it; her pushed her tail out of the way with his head, and gazed at her dripping pussy. He wasted no time.

Blood Moon crammed his muzzle into her slit, getting a fine breath of her slightly musty aroma. He grinned again as he pushed his muzzle into her opening, hearing her moan quietly in response. Spurred by her reaction, he teased her marehood up and down with the tip of his nose, making sure not to touch her clit but coming dangerously close to it. Feint mews and whimpers were his reward, the sounds and sensation of having this usually so strong and independent mare bent over before him turning him on further. He pulled back suddenly and eyed her over.

"Well" he said in an official tone "firstly, this G-string leaves very little to the imagination" he started. Ember looked back with an innocent look in her eye.

"Is that bad" she asked, her playfully young tone sparking a dominating fire within the stallion.

"Quite the opposite" he said in a low rumble. He moved in, his oral-muscle finding her fur as he slapped his tongue against her ass. Apparently taken by surprise, Ember gave a small, suggestive, 'ooh' when she felt the moist contact. "It's dirty back here" he told her. Ember tensed when he went over her cutie mark.

"Oh, yes it is! Please clean me off; I'm a very dirty filly!" Blood Moon couldn't hold back the eye roll; he knew Ember knew he disliked sexual clichés, thanks to one of their many weird conversations on the job, and apparently found it funny in antagonising him. He wouldn't let that slide. "Ouch" was all Ember said when he bit into her soft ass, not enough to draw blood or leave any marks, but still enough to hurt. "A little gentler next time Mooooahhhh!" Blood Moon bit her again, on another spot this time, and made sure it hurt her. He'd make it feel better afterwards. She took a few deep breaths as the pain subsided and threw back a glare mixed with a sultry grin. "Y'know, we still haven't gotten to the blowjob yet" she reminded him. He shrugged.

"I'm better with pain than you" he answered. Then he spanked her again. She groaned in more pleasure than pain. He spanked her again, harder this time, leaving a red mark. Ember responded by throwing her head back in bliss. He spanked her again, an audible 'slap' echoing through the small room.

"Oh, yeah" she breathed. Again, harder. "Mooooon" she groaned. He assumed stance, leaning on her hind quarters and raising his hoof; he brought it down again, hard, and he saw the ripples run through her flesh. "Sweet Celestia" she gasped.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you" he said, making a circular pattern with his hoof along her fur. She nodded her head. He smirked and spanked her again. "I knew you got through torture training too easily" he said. She whipped her head back.

"What's that supposed to meeeaaahhhhaaa, oh-oh…haaa…" Her head slumped onto the table as he twisted his hoof into her pussy through the G-string some more.

"That you're a dirty." He pushed it in again, not letting the string slip past his hoof as he hoofed her. "Horny." He pulled it out and spanked her again, much harder than before, right across her cunt. "Sex-crazed." He used Ember's natural lube as he put his hoof to the perky little rosebud that was her asshole, pushing it in a little. "Cock addicted." He pulled his hoof out of her ass again and spanked her across the little hole. "Little." He rubbed around her marehood again, leaning up her body until he came face-to-face with Ember. "Slut." She turned her head to his and clamped her lips to his, making out with him in the sloppiest, noisiest, most daring way she knew possible as they shuffled up the table together, his hooves holding her tight waist as hers wrapped around his neck as they pulled one another together.

"Blood Moon" she said between sloppy kisses. He answered with a small 'hmm' as their tongues took up sword and axe, fighting for dominance. "You. Are a mean." She grabbed his flank as he lifted her hind-leg and teased her pussy. "Insulting." She grabbed his cock, hard, and made him grunt in pain. "Evil." She bit his tongue lightly as they kissed, making him growl in pain. "Little stallion, and I love you. I've loved you since the day we met. And I want you to buck me, buck me like there's no tomorrow; I want you to have to postpone the contract for a week because I can't trot straight, I want your cum to drip out of me for a month, I wanna be so sensitive after I'll orgasm just from you looking at me, I want your cock to shape my slutty little pussy into your own personal buck-tunnel, I wanna taste your cum on my tongue every time I take a breath, I want you to turn my fur and mane white with your jizz. Blood Moon, show me what this assassin can do with his hidden blade."

The phrases, 'turned on' and 'aroused' did not do the current state of Blood Moon's sex-drive any justice. His dick was harder than diamond, his balls were locked and loaded and each and every one of his sperm had just cracked their neck left and right in preparation for the long-haul.

"You're a dirty little whorse, aren't you" he grinned. Ember held his face in her hooves as she grinned back.

"Maybe, but I'm your dirty little whorse" she told him, pulling his face to hers as she kissed him; for a second, all the dirtiness and perverted behavior vanished, and was replaced by nothing but passion, romance. Ember's tongue no longer wrestled with Blood Moon's but they danced, rolling over each other lovingly, pressing their faces and bodies together with just as much affection, as the assassins truly expressed their feelings; no sex, no slutty language, no perversion, just two ponies, two ponies of the land of love and harmony, showing a love Princess Cadence herself would envy. Then, Blood Moon raised his hoof and spanked Ember right on her cunt. The mare blushed and screamed into his maw as he tickled her clit; she screamed and groaned into his maw, her tongue licking his as they pulled back slightly. She crossed her powerful legs and kept his hoof in place. She reengaged their kiss in proper, peppering little smooches all over his face as she pulled back. "Don't think I'm gonna let you get on topa me all the time" she grinned, wrapping her hind-legs around his barrel and fore-legs around his neck. "Foreplay, I'm in charge" she told him seductively; Blood Moon grinned.

"Alri-Huu!" he was cut off when Ember tightened her grip around him with her legs and forced her tongue down his maw, making low, suggestive groans as she tongue-bucked his face.

"Uh-uh" she said, her tongue still down the stallion's throat "no talking without my say-so" she told him after she'd pulled her tongue back into her own mouth. Blood Moon just smirked. Ember rolled onto her back, smirking back at him, and let him slide down her body; she relished the feeling of the dark stallion's body grinding down her own, his lips peppering kissed down her chest, belly, pelvis and eventually-"I don't think so" Ember sang from above, gripping his mane harshly as she held him away from her cunt "don't you know how to treat a lady?" Blood Moon raised an eyebrow in dry, visual sarcasm, Ember returning it with a little giggle. "Woo me, Moon" she half ordered half begged as she lay down on the table, her legs spread wide.

The assassin struck like a playful puppy; he nuzzled her nether regions, running his tongue up the inside of her thigh, before he gripped both her hind-legs in his fore-legs. He took a look at the panties she was wearing-

'Yep, they're panties.'

-And yanked them off of her with his teeth; he made sure he went at it slowly, taking the time to appreciate her taste on the material as he gazed down at her opening. She was a petit and tight mare, the lips already puffy and ready for a cock to spread them, the smooth, grey skin surrounding the pink inner walls decorated with feint, black hairs. He grinned again. She'd shaved them into a little love heart; he looked up her body, the underwear still in his maw, and caught her looking down at him, her face flushed and her lips smiling.

"Thought you'd like that" she cooed, her hoof brushing past and around the cute tuff as she poked at her clit slightly. He flashed a devilish grin, only punctuated by the wolfish teeth that held her panties; he looked back at the heart, figuring a master of the blade wouldn't have much of a problem with something like that, and got back to undressing her. He moved back, down her slender legs, his hoof running down her muscles. He flicked them off teasingly, whipping his head to the side, and tossed them away. She held her legs up, pressed together, propping herself up by holding her plot in her fore-hooves. Blood Moon worked his way back down, slowly spreading her legs, running his tongue down her again and kissing his way down both legs until he found his way to her crotch again. He leaned in, inhaling deeply as he took in her lustful aroma, until he found his muzzle pushed against her marehood.

He kissed her lips, putting force behind it, pressing his maw to her sensitive nerves as he pecked and smooched all over her slit. He heard her take sharp breaths every time his lips made contact with hers, small shifts of her lower body pushing her mound further into his face as he kissed and teased her pussy, but never actually ate her out. It was too soon for that. He ran his tongue up one side of her crotch, deliberately avoiding her marehood, and kissed around the grey skin until he felt a hoof on the back of his head.

"Alright Moon, enough teasing" Ember told him, a truly stunning grin on her lips as she looked down at him, her head cocked suggestively to the side. She nodded her head back in her own direction. "Let's get to it." She didn't give him a chance to argue; instead, she just forced his muzzle into her pussy, where he quickly got to work.

Blood Moon's slick tongue showed itself capable than more than just disarming speech as he worked his way into Ember's cunt, tasting her tight, velvety walls, the love juices seeping out in response to his teasing and her fore-foreplay and the tonguing she was now receiving; as Blood Moon ran his oral muscles around her sexual muscles, his hooves worked their way around her legs, searching for her flanks. He grinned around her cunt when he felt her push down on his head when he tried to concentrate on looking for her cutie marks. He gripped the image, pinching her lightly as he went back to work on the mare's eager marehood. She groaned and wiggled a little as his tongue ran right up her slit; she tensed a little when he pushed her lips to the side.

"Uuhhhhh, yeaaaah" she drawled, her speech broken by lust "scratch that itch" she breathed, sitting up slightly more as she pushed his head even further into her cunny. She giggled lightly when his tongue went way down and hit her rose bud slightly, tickling her before he pulled it sharply up and pushed all of the breath out of her lungs. He grinned at his cue to go to work.

He stabbed his tongue in and out, hitting every little bit of her cute little cunt as he pleased her, stimulated her, fired off as many pleasure receptors at once as he could. Up top, she squirmed and twisted, pushing his head down, all the while she tried and failed to regain her breath as he continued to force it out of her with strategically placed tongue strikes across her pussy. He kept the tight grip on her flanks, spanking her lightly when he could, and made no attempt to go easy on her as she started to take small, shallow breaths, begging for mercy but urging him to keep up his efforts at the same time as she writhed in his grip. He felt she was having too easy a time of it when he heard her gasp, and decided to do something about that pesky breathing; he flicked his tongue rapidly over her cunny before it struck out at her weak spot. Ember's eyes snapped open, her maw falling open as her tongue fell out in ecstasy and noiseless scream rising from her throat that came out in a few smalls 'eep's. The Hunter was relentless in his attack on her clit, stabbing it with his tongue incisively to push the air out of her as she took breaths too shallow to fill her lungs. Ember's lungs were on fire, almost as hot as her loins, and she needed to breath, needed air, but the pain in her chest only intensified the pleasure in her pussy. She needed to take a breath, but not now, not when she was so close. She pushed the stallion's head into her crotch again, feeling her end coming. She'd never had good stamina for this sort of thing and it soon shone through in her burning desire to breath, her ability to take a breath stalled by her stallion's continued attempts to both please and pain her, but she'd literally die before she stopped him eating her out. Not when she was so close…so close…just…a little…more…

"Oh, Moon…ahhhh~ oh, babheee…oh, sweet Celestiaahh…Blood Moon, baby, I'm gonna…gonna…I'm gonna…CUUUUMMMM" she exploded, clamping his head down to her crotch with her fore-legs, locking her hooves down with her hind-legs as she shook, shook hard enough to vibrate the table she was atop of. She screamed, or at least she did the best she could with her empty lungs, her back arched in spasms of pleasure, jolts of ecstasy firing up her spin as she almost fell back, one of her fore-hooves holding herself up as her other remained on Blood Moon's mane, her hind-legs draped around his neck, as she took deep, heavy breaths, coming down form her orgasmic high slowly as she deflated slightly, leaning on the stallion still licking her cum up after gulping down as much of the squirting mare's fluid as he could, letting her continue to ride out her orgasm in the pleasant after-glow. She released the tight grip that remained on his head and looked down at him fondly, his mane slightly spikier than usual after her continued grip on it, and hers in need of another wash after the amount of fluid she'd sweated into it during their sexual escapades. "That was…" she took a few more panting breaths "…amazing" she finished between more slightly ragged breaths.

Blood Moon rose from his sitting position, gently sliding Ember off the table as he stood; they both ended up on their hind-legs, Ember leaning on the table and Blood Moon on Ember. Ember felt herself go slightly light-headed, finding Blood Moon's face so close to hers. His grinning face; it was mangled and ugly, but by Celestia did that grin stoke her flames. Their position was arguably romantic, standing close together, just basking in the after-glow with each other, and nothing more; no kissing, no fore-play, no sex. Just smiles and eyes she desperately wanted to just dive into. There was something about his slightly superior height though, something about the way he had to look down at her that made him superior to her, made him so pleasingly intimidating. It pointed out the fact that she could be easily overpowered and raped by the stallion before her but no, he just made love to her and made her feel good. There was something heart-warming about that that made her feel that weird tingling feeling in her chest again.

Blood Moon's hooves slowly crept up her fore-legs, over her shoulders and towards her face, cupping it lightly as he pulled her face into his, pressing their lips together again. Ember smiled into their kiss, relishing the feeling of bliss that was kissing with Blood Moon. She wondered if he knew how good a kisser he was. Probably. Subtlety and tack was quickly thrown out of the window when Ember threw her fore-legs around his neck and forced him to the bed, propelling him back by falling onto him and dropping on his body when they landed.

"You've got three options. All of which are holes" she told him. He grinned, finding it pointless to waste time talking. He rose his hoof and slapped it against her flank, wrapped his hind-legs around her barrel to keep her in place and pushed their lips together again. Ember soon got the message as to what he was after. After he'd kissed her in ways that quickly got her wet again, his hoof constantly fondling her plot, she pulled back and lapped at his nose a little and moved down his body, kissing and grinding his body the whole way down.

She quickly came across his stallionhood, giggling as she rested her head on one hoof as the other playfully batted it side to side.

"I gotta admit it Moon, I was expecting something more…substantial" she said with a playfully teasing tint to her voice. Blood Moon grinned; throughout his sexual career, never once had a mare screamed out: 'IT'S SO BIG'. And never once had he been really bothered by it.

"Ember, what are we." Ember opened her eyes and looked up at him in a way that was cuter than it should have been. She gave a small 'hmm' in response as she suckled his ball softly before she released him.

"Assassins" she answered before she went back to giving his testis some tender loving care and attention with her sumptuous lips and tongue. Blood Moon nodded as he rested his head on his fore-hooves, enjoying the sensation of a mare sucking his balls and being able to relax while it happened.

"Exactly. We favour the well-placed small blade over the clumsy Warhammer." He looked down his body to find her looking past his cock, balls still in her mouth, her eyes still so gosh-darn adorably wide as they met. "I can do things an overly well-hung stallion could never do" he told her with a grin on his face death herself would flush under. And if rumours were to be believed, she once had. Ember grinned around his balls as she released them, letting them bounce a little as she let them go.

"Is that so" she said as she raised herself, running her tongue up his length before she grinded her chest up it after. "Well, if that's the case…" she didn't finish, instead she chose to busy her tongue with more important matters; the head of the assassin's dick was soon treated to Ember's skilled tongue, the wet muscle dancing around it in slow, long movements which drew a steady stream of pre-cum from him to mix with the saliva she was spreading all over his stallion hood.

"Been practicing Ember" he asked in quiet bliss, the grin on his face making his pleasure well- known. Ember lapped up some more of his pre tantalizingly slowly, her wide, well-practised tongue quickly replacing it with more of her slick oral-lube before she smacked her lips teasingly, licking her saliva and his pre off her lips.

"Lots" she answered at length, massaging his dick in both her hooves, getting her chest nice and dirty as she rubbed it against her front with slow, deliberate movements. She gazed over his relaxed body, his loose muscles and warm smile as he rested his head on his hooves, his eyes closed in total relaxation. She gave a fond chuckle and grin before her mind returned to debauchery; she looked down at his throbbing cock, deciding it was too clean. She opened her maw and let her tongue out again, her spittle slowly drenching his pole, her hooves that were still massaging him and her chest, his cock rubbing it into her. She leaned down again, opening her mouth and engulfing him before going all the way down to the base. He loosed a badly held-down groan and thrust into her maw a little, matching her slow and teasing speeds with his own relaxed movements. Ember's eyes opened as she held him down, their gazes meeting in the middle, and smirked around his cock; she went up, her lips running all around his width while her tongue worked up and down his length, the smooth and moist muscle tempting out even more pre than before. One hoof went to his balls, fondling, teasing and gently squeezing them while her other went down her body to her own genitals, slowly rubbing around her marehood and clit. She liked it slow; it drew sex out and made it feel more intimate.

She bobbed her head up and down in tandem with her hoof poking her clit and stroking around her inner walls and lips. What she did to herself had effects on Blood Moon; when she flicked her clit, she squeezed down on his dick more with her lips; when she poked it, her fondling of his balls got more aggressive; slowly tracing around her lips prompted groans from her, vibrating her partner; while when she pushed her hoof in she'd squeal lightly around him, sending a rush up his spine. After a while of hoofing and blowing herself and him respectively, she released him and worked her way up with little kisses.

"Gonna blow your load yet" she asked, her head cocked to the side, her left eye winking at him while her hooves continued to jerk him off. He shook his head.

"Not even close" he answered, still grinning. Ember's grin became worryingly mischievous.

"Good" she whispered, punctuating her word with a puff of breath aimed at the head of the cock before her. Her warm breath prompts a shudder and a sigh from the stallionhood's owner, making her grin in satisfaction. She moved in again, her lips wrapping around his mainmast and sucking him up and down again; the difference here? Her horn was aglow, and all's the stallion could feel was the warm confines of her maw on the outside of his dick and a weird, tingling sensation from the inside. He shuffled and squirmed slightly, Ember Spark's fore-hooves keeping his cock in place, writhing around slightly in her mouth as his face tensed and twitched slightly in response to both the mare's spell and her lips. He was beginning to get used to it before Ember's red glow flared slightly and the tingling sensation felt like one of the strangest feelings Blood Moon had ever felt. Strange, but by Discord's antlers did it feel good. It was almost like getting a blowjob from inside as well as out, as weird and slightly disturbing as that may sound, it was really the only way to explain it.

"Cheat" he groaned. Ember looked up and over the dick she was still sucking and smiled, letting it pop out of her maw.

"We're assassins. We don't play fair" she reminded him.

"Touché" he answered. Ember giggled, whipped her mane away from her face and got back to his dick with a small 'om' as she enclosed it. Her movements were no longer slow; she moved her head up and down as quickly as she could, dividing her mental efforts between sucking him off and maintaining her spell. Her tongue went to the tip of his cock, wrapping around it and jerking him off as her lips went up and down him in tandem with the pulses of the spell. Before long, she'd perfected her rhythm and every half-second he was pleasured by the feeling of her lips going down his dick, her tongue massaging his tip and the spell pulsing throughout him. He grunted as his grin dropped, only to be replaced by a look of pure animalistic bliss as his mind broke slightly, reaching the tip of his orgasm. "E-Ember…g-gonna cum soon" he warned. Ember responded with a simple 'mm-hm' as she kept up her luxurious sucking. Blood Moon felt his balls tighten as he got ready to let loose inside Ember's mouth; his right hoof reached down and took her by the back of her head, feeling the silky, moist mane there, and pushed her down and brought her up faster than before, Ember's efforts reduced to keeping her lips clamped over his cock and her tongue moving, Blood Moon's efforts to further stimulate himself breaking her concentration on the spell. "Aaaahhhh, Starswirl's beard, Celestia-dammit" he growled as he picked up his pace, Ember's head forced to bob up and down faster than she was used to, small groans coming from the both of them. The dark stallion's neck twitched slightly as he felt his pleasure spill over, holding Ember's head in place. "Breakfast" he growled. Cum shot into the mare's mouth, the substantial load flowing past her tongue and into her awaiting stomach, the mare swallowing it all down greedily until it became more than she could handle; the lock around his cock she'd formed with her lips gave when the cum overflowed her maw, the cum spilling out and over the rest of her body. His orgasm kept up, Blood Moon riding it out with a long-winded growl as his hips twitched and thrust slightly, a new smile forming over his drooling lips as his muscles relaxed and his balls emptied themselves all over Ember. Once he was done, Blood Moon's breaths had been reduced to simple panting, his chest and stomach rising and falling with each deep lungful of air.

He looked up and over his body to find Ember, covered in cum, some dripping from her mouth and onto her hoof, looking adorably bewildered. She looked up and found him watching her, the mare swallowing what was lingering in her maw and grinning back as she climbed onto him, grinding her body, his cum slickening the process, until they came face to face.

"Enjoy that" she asked with a grin. Blood Moon answered by kissing her, tasting himself on her, and groping her behind. They stayed connected for a while, the both of them groaning into each other's maws. The grinded their bodies together, rubbing the assassin's cum into the both of them, until the friction along his shlong had re-hardened Blood Moon and the same hard stallionhood poking around Ember's cunny prompted moisture from Ember. "Blood Moon, baby?"

"Hmm?"

"I want more" she told him "you may have turned my fur white but I can still trot straight, I can't taste your cum on my tongue and my mane still feels clean" she listed off. Blood Moon responded by pushing them both off the bed and onto the floor.

"Alright then" he said from atop her, grinding his cock along her stomach "you've got three options, all of which are holes" he mimicked. Ember giggled as she lifted him off of her and trotted to the wall next to the stallion's bed; she planted her hooves against said black-bricked wall and spread her hind legs; her horn flared up and her lips gained a red glow as they spread.

"Dose that answer your question?" The twitching in the stallion's cock was all Ember needed to get her answer; Blood Moon trotted over to her, nuzzling her ass upon arrival before he nudged her tail out of the way with his horn, running his tongue up her crotch, southern-hairs, up her pussy, over her ass and around her tail muscles, tickling her a little before he hopped up a little and mounted her. He leaned over her slowly, his tip teasing her entrance, and wrapped his left fore-leg around her barrel while his right turned her head to him. When he'd turned her slightly timid looking expression back to himself, they made eye contact for a second before Blood asked back:

"Dose this" and thrust his hips forward; Ember was rammed forwards from the force of his thrust, the tongue lolling out of her maw making brief contact with the wall before he pulled back and thrust back in, his balls slapping against her crotch. Her eyes had opened wide and her pupils were pinpricks as her hind legs quivered and shook, her blush raging across her face like a fire had been ignited inside her cheeks.

"Moon" she breathed out in bliss, agony and pure love. Blood Moon grinned above her, leaning his weight on her flank as he kneaded his hoof into her flank. He felt her cunt clamp down on his dick, milking him for cum that wasn't ready to show itself yet. He'd made her cum with one thrust. Then he frowned, felt something strange seeping around his stallionhood, too thick and much too warm to be cum, Ember's silence confusing him a little too. He angled himself and looked around their united bodies before his eyes widened; blood.

"E-Ember…are-were you a…" She turned her pained, pleasured and altogether, too stimulated gaze back to him.

"Virgin? Yeah, I was." The stallion's mouth suddenly went dry.

"Ember, sweet Celestia, I'm sorry, I-"

"Blood Moon, honey, don't worry about it" she cut in "don't ruin it." The stallion shot her a small half-grin to signify his shutupance.

"Yeah but…had I had known…" she clenched his dick in her walls.

"I know, I know" she said, the pain in her expression subsiding "you'd have been gentle, slow, would have done everything in your power to keep the pain away but, really, I don't mind" she clenched her vaginal muscles again "it feels…really good" she revealed. Blood Moon grinned again and lifted her with his magic, dick still inside her, and carried her awkwardly over to the bed, where he laid her down and flipped her over until they were both facing each other.

"I knew you got a little too into that torture training" he mumbled. He looked over the suddenly very vulnerable mare, finding his heart melting at the sight of her slightly nervus expression, deep red blush, big beautiful but slightly frightened eyes and the cute little bow beneath her head, finishing the adorable image with a grand flourish. He felt his grin come back when Ember looked him in the eye. "Ember Spark…you really know how to live up to your name, don't you" he said. Ember grinned and nodded once. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, her fore-hooves wrapping around him, and made a few shallow thrusts before he leaned up again and frowned. "Ember, it's hot, it's adorable but it's gotta go" he told her, taking the negligée's bow in his teeth and untying it before he slipped it from her back and shoulders, up her slender fore-legs and whipped it away. Now butt-naked (which felt much more revealing when somepony's dick was inside you than when you were just trotting around) Ember Spark's lust ignited again, all inclinations of innocence washed away as she wrapped her hind-legs around the stallion's waist.

"Alright hon, quit stalling. Fuck me." Blood Moon grinned. He moved his hips back as far as Ember's legs would allow him before he slammed back inside her; Ember threw her head back, a small groan slipping from her throat. Blood Moon thrust again, prompting more groans from the mare. The stallion planted both his fore-hooves either side of her head to brace himself, his head hanging over Ember's, and steadied his hind-legs against the bed; he resumed his thrusts with much greater speed and power, Ember's occasional sharp breath and groan taken to a whole new level of arousal as moans and screams ripped from her throat. She tried to match his thrusts by returning the favour, awkwardly slapping her hips into his as he stabbed into her time and time again, each jab prompting more groans from the pair of them as their cock and pussy rubbed together, the friction flaring a heat inside her that had nothing to do with physics.

After a few more failed attempts at matching their motions, Ember and Blood Moon had finally found a perfect pace for the pair of them, made obvious by the way the two of them groaned and took as deep and as ragged a breath as they could in between thrusts. The wet 'slap' of their crotches meeting was the music of the day, the pair singing along with breathless complements, tiny groans and sighs, sharp breaths and grunts and small screams, sometimes not all so small.

"Oh, ahhh, Bloooohaaa…Blood-hah yes, th-THERE, right there-Blood Moon, baby, I'm-AHHH, yes that's the spot, hit tha-AHHH, AHHH, AHHH!" Blood Moon never did find out what Ember was going to say when he apparently found her G-spot, Ember's speech patterns reduced to aforementioned screams of ecstasy. Her back arched with every thrust, her fore-legs pulling her body into his as she hugged his neck close to her body, her hind-leg muscles contracting and tensing, her slender hooves going into the air, her perfectly curvy legs following. "BLOOD MOON, BLOOD MOON, BLOOD MOON, I'm-I'M-I'M G-GONNA-GONNA…"

"CUM" the mare and stallion screamed and roared respectively, Blood Moon giving her one, long, deep, powerful thrust as he shot his load into her awaiting pussy and womb, her own cum dripping out in big droplets, her back arched, her legs thrown into the air again, pulling her stallion into her chest and her screaming maw wearing a big smile as she climaxed hard around his cock. They rode out their orgasms together, Blood pumping a few times while Ember squeezed her pussy around his cock a little to carry their pleasure for as long as they could; Blood Moon's cum had filled Ember's cunt to the brim, his white, thick, sticky essence dripping from her grey pussy, her womb having expanded slightly to hold as much as it could before it was forced out around the pussy-plug that was the assassin's stallionhood.

Eventually, their bodies couldn't take the pleasurable strain and the blissful agony of an overly prolonged orgasm ended, their muscles relaxing in perfect unison as Ember fell back onto the bed, Blood Moon following after her, laying on top of her as they took heavy breaths, their eyes unable to open after they'd spent all their energy fucking just now.

Both with sore throats after they'd screamed and shouted throughout their orgasms, Blood Moon fell off of Ember and rolled to her side. The fore-legs they normally kept rested on top of their bodies were laying above their heads in fatigue, both still panting after their sexcapades. Blood Moon rolled his head to the side and looked at Ember, who soon turned her head to him and looked back, and both started laughing and giggling respectively until they wrapped each other in their fore-hooves.

"Have fun" Blood Moon asked quietly. He felt her nod drowsily.

"Perfect" she answered. They were silent for a while. "Blood Moon?"

"Ember Spark?"

"I can still trot straight."

…

There was only one conceivable answer to such a statement.

"You…slut" he mumbled. Ember giggled slightly.

"Hey, you did promise me" she told him. He frowned.

"I did no such thing" he answered. Ember gripped his gooey cock and wiped off some of the cum, bringing it to eye-level.

"Really" she answers "this says differently" she says, motioning at the cum. She soon lapped the cum off her hoof like a hungry foal after a few licks of the ice-cream.

"Why? Whhhhhhhhyyyyyyy?"

'I. Don't. Know…'

"Well, only one thing to do then" he answered, electing against the respiting spell in favour of a more natural fuck. Ember grinned in pleasure as she rolled on top of Blood Moon, holding herself up as she kissed him heartily, her hoof between her legs as she jerked his little assassin back to life. She released his lips for a second to look back, aiming his stallionhood at her marehood. Blood Moon grinned and took her flank in his hooves, deciding to take matters into the same said hooves. "Hey, Ember, when was the least time you ate?" Ember, inevitably, frowned a confused frown as she raised an eyebrow.

"About a day ago, with all the excitement I haven't had the chance. Why?" Blood Moon grinned and let his action speak for him; he thrust his stallionhood up, feeling the tight resistance for a second before it gave way to his dick. As did Ember. Her scream was that of raw pain, her blush an inferno under her cheeks, her eyes wider then seemed possible and her pupils dilated to the literal size of a pinprick, tears welling and falling from the corners of her eyes as her tongue lolled out again. Her scream ripped out of her throat with agony following in its wake soon after, her fore-hooves falling to her sides as she died a little. Her breaths were ragged and uneasy as the tears continued to fall from her eyes. "Ember, you okay" Blood Moon asked from beneath her. Ember looked down at him vacantly, her tongue still lolling out, her eyes still slightly empty. She managed to drag her tongue into her mouth and respond.

"You. Are. A. Total. Mother. Bucking. Bastard" she told him in-between ragged breaths. Blood Moon chuckled, glad to see her sense of humour wasn't damaged. She looked down herself,

trying to find his cock; it wasn't in her cunt, which could only mean… "Blood Moon?"

"Aye?"

"Your dick…it's…it's up my ass…isn't it." He nodded once. She gazed down at him for a second, the assassin beginning to fear he may have taken things a little too far a little too fast. Then she grinned, rotating her hips, placing on hoof on her ass cheek, the other going down to his stomach to steady herself.

"And here's me without my Stetson" she sighed, her pussy dripping onto his crotch. "Enjoying yourself down there?" He nodded. She grinned. "Good." She spun on his cock until his eyes met her sumptuous, round ass, watching it jiggle a little. After a quick 'how'd you do' nod, he spanked his hoof across her plump, bouncy hill and took her in his fore-hooves, lifting her up the length of his cock before he dropped he again, feeling the whole of her (dare I?) hole riding down his dick. They groaned as one, the pressure and stretch of both their current fun spots sending them back down the road to becoming little more than quivering mounds of moans and pleasure. Ember's groans were less frequent than before, thanks to the pain added to her pleasure, and found herself weakening thanks to her sensitivity; she fell back, into Blood Moon's grasp, and felt his fore-legs wrap around her barrel as he thrust into her ass. They grunted and groaned together, Ember's fore-legs reaching around and holding Blood's head; turning their gazes to each other, their lips met again as Blood Moon pounded into her tiny rosebud relentlessly, prompting squeals of pleasure and pain from the mare as the stallion could only grunt and shudder from the sensation of fucking a mare up the ass.

Admittedly, he leaned toward vaginal more than than anal but he still took the chance whenever her could, he just tended not to really ask for it.

Preferences aside, Blood Moon's efforts to fuck Ember silly were making waves throughout both their bodies; the tightness of her virgin ass squeezed him like nothing else could have a hope of matching; the intensity of his thrusts was burning Ember's insides like an furnace, the friction between his dick and her asshole sending ripples of pleasure through her body; Ember could feel a blissful soreness developing in her flank and hind-legs, specifically in her bud, and her legs were getting increasingly numb. Ember Spark could feel her anus tearing slightly, pulling away from Blood Moon's kiss to grunt in slight pain. The stallion paused in his movements and Ember glared.

"Did I say stop" she demanded. Blood Moon raised an eyebrow with a smirk; holding her chest with his right hoof, Ember wrapping her own around it to keep her grip on reality, his left went down their bodies and took her leg. He lifted it to give himself more leverage and room to move and resumed his fucking her; Ember's pleasure swept through her like a wave, her back arching and her teeth biting down on the stallion's hoof, none too lightly either. She groaned and breathed out small screams, tensed and twitched, contracted and relaxed uncontrollably as her insides were very likely messed up rather badly. And she couldn't give a damn.

The floodgates broke without warning, the pressure in her ass that was almost tearing her apart ripped a scream of ecstasy from her as she abruptly hit her climax with an intensity she normally reserved for intimidating targets; now though, her mind was as far from work as it could get, her thoughts torn between the pleasure in her pussy and the ripping pleasure and pain in her ass as Blood Moon continued to thrust. It all went away suddenly when he pulled out. Her brain was lashed with disappointment for a second before she felt her stallion lift her off of him and get from beneath her. She was lost in the void of pleasure and confusion for a second before she noticed a cock hanging before her, its owner standing on his hind-legs before her, a fore-leg on her head.

"You said you wanted to taste it" came his voice from above, reminded her of her original desires. She blinked once; yes she had. With a small shrug that only reached her left fore-leg, she took his cock in hoof. It was, thankfully, clean of any…turn-offs, despite its last location, and in her sex-hazed mind, she didn't think twice about taking it into her maw and running her tongue and lips over every inch, bobbing her head back and forth with lustful and slutty determination to get him off; she heard him grunt from above and felt him tense in her maw. She released him and took him in both fore-hooves, running them up and down with speed and intensity rarely seen outside the bedroom. Her mouth was opened as wide as she could get it, her tongue lolling out in anticipation for the- "Ember!" There it was. His load shot out of her with force, splattering over her face, mane, eyes, hooves and, most importantly, her open mouth; her tongue was covered in at least three layers of the stuff, more white, sticky sperm going down her throat and into her awaiting tummy. She jerked him off continuously, letting him ride out his orgasm for as long as she could keep it going before his long flow of cum was reduced to his Moby Dick spitting a few small shots of seamen onto her face and chest.

Blood Moon had a goofy smile on his sex-drunk face, his normally impeccable balance failing him as he wobbled a few times; he felt hooves on his crotch helping him down as he sat in a graceless lump before another, much whiter, graceless lump. He looked up to find Ember, her mind just as broken as his, looking down her cummy fore-legs and chest.

"Satisfied?" Ember looked up at her partner, finding his smouldering grin looking back. She tensed and shuddered for a brief second.

"I…I think I just came from looking at you" she drawled before she fell back, head landing on the pillows they'd abandoned a while back; her hind-legs were spread wide, his cum pouring from her "I can't feel my hind-legs…my face, a lot of my body and mane are covered in your cum…all's I can taste is cum…my pussy hasn't returned to its normal slit yet…you're still pouring from me… so…yeah, you could say that" she said finished with a small laugh, wiping the cum from her face and lapping off her hoof before she looked up at him, grinning again. "C'mere" she said, holding her fore-legs open for him. He gladly obliged, falling into her embrace and returning it with one of his own.

They basked in the silence of post-fucking for a while, letting their breathing return to normal, and just lay together, neither really caring about the cum, sweat and love juice covering them pretty much everywhere. After a long while, Blood looked up at his partner.

"So…how was it?" She opened her eyes and grinned at him.

"Perfect" she answered, nuzzling his chest fondly. "I couldn't have asked for a better first time" she answered. Blood Moon smiled as he pulled the now sprawled and chaotic covers over them with a tired spell. They lay together for a long while longer, their breaths synchronised, and held each other closely.

"Ember?"

"Hmm" she answered, nuzzling him again as she wrapped her legs around him tighter.

"That was your first time?" She nodded without looking up, her weary smile still on her face as she snuggled her cum-covered face into his chest.

"Yeah… I may work with seduction a lot, but not sex. Their throats are always opened before they can get to me like that" she said sleepily before she yawned. "I was…I was saving myself for somepony special…you" she told him. He smiled down at her fondly, kissing one of the few none-cummy spots on her fore-head as they fell to sleep together.

---

"Blood Moon?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you thinking about?"

The stallion looked up at Ember, finding her soapy and damp form at the other end of the bathtub. When they'd woken up together, only one thing had been apparent: the smell. I don't know if you've ever been victim to the scent of such amounts of dry cum, but lemme tell you, it ain't nice. The pair of assassins had apparently gotten the same idea, as they were now sat in Blood Moon's personal bathroom (he refused to call it 'suite', because you don't eat toilets), soaking in his bathtub together. The stallion and the mare were at opposite ends of the tub, occasionally rubbing the other up and down with their hind-hooves in after-play, and cleaning their cum off themselves. Though, true to promise, no amount of mouth wash seemed to be getting the stallion's taste out of Ember's mouth, not to mention, no matter how much she cleaned out her secret place, there always seemed to be a little more lingering in there. Not that she cared.

"Lots of clever little things" he answered, scrubbing under his fore-leg. Ember smirked, caressing his semi a little with her hind-hoof.

"What in specific" she replied, running shampoo through her mane, trying to get out all of his cum, despite already having a well-lathered head.

"Well, my current relationship with Twilight, my current relationship with you, my current relationship with Scootaloo, how mine and Luna's relationship may go, what I'm gonna do when I finish this contract, what I'm gonna do about Celestia, wondering about the order's current cash flow and if there's any to divert to this job, why the Changelings attacked Ponyville, why the Goldhooves thought it was a good idea to go after the Elements of Harmony, I'm running a mentally simulated chess game between me and Starswirl in my head, trying to figure out how to kill myself once and for all, beginning to miss that contact on my stallionhood" he waited a second "no longer missing that contact on my stallionhood, considering the promotions to doll out after this contract when it's all done, whether or not to stick around here with you or ask you to accompany me in my travels and figuring out what to ask Loaded when my blade's against his throat." Ember blinked a few times.

"Whoa" she said at length, feeling a little dwarfed in mental capability. Blood Moon just chuckled as he returned to scrubbing his soaped up hoof up and down his under-leg, trying to get rid of the insistent smell under there. She leaned back in in the tub, grateful for the fact that the taps were in the middle of the tub, and cocked her head at hm. "How can you have so much going through your head at one time" she asked. The stallion shrugged.

"When you get to be my age, that tends to happen. I've got you, Luna, Celestia, Twilight, the other Elements of Harmony, hay, the whole of Ponyville to worry about, all on top of my duties as Chapter Leader here. Not to mention all the memories rattling around in my head" he answered. Ember's gaze went slightly concerned.

"And you're always trying to figure out how to die?" Blood Moon faltered when he went to scrub the grease and dandruff out of his mane, tensing slightly.

"Well…yeah" he said quietly. He heard Ember sigh from across the tub.

"I know it's selfish but…I really wish you didn't have to think like that" she said. Blood Moon gave another shrug.

"Sometimes, I do too. But I have very little to live for now."

Blood Moon had told Ember about his peculiar qualities a while back, her along with few others in the order. She was one of the few he trusted with such a secret, what with the fact that he'd trained her as an apprentice, practically raising her throughout the time he was present in the hideout; Ember always seemed happy to see him turn up, no matter how her day had gone. He glanced up to catch Ember fixing him a troubled look, likely thinking of a way to turn his thoughts away from suicide. Her anxious gaze turned to a grin as she leant back in the bath, raising her soaked, shiny, bubbly hind-leg and started running her fore-hooves up and down it slowly, seductively, as she washed her perfect legs in the slowest, most sultry way know to pony, the water dripping from and down her leg. Blood Moon grinned; had it not been for their antics earlier, that would have sent the blood rushing.

"You always know how to brighten a stallion's day, don't you Ember." She grinned cutely, her small blush only perfecting the closed-eye smile as she lowered her leg. "How are your legs doin', anyhow?" She grunted slightly.

"Well…I can sorta feel them now" she muttered, trying to get the blood flowing through her legs again by massaging the veins inside. They were quiet for a while, the only sound in the room being the flowing of water and scrubbing of sponges.

"Ember?"

"Yeah?"

"…Why?" She frowned as she looked up, pausing in the process of scrubbing the cum from her chest.

"Why what?" Blood Moon watched her with a curious look in his eye.

"Why did you start coming onto me so suddenly? I mean, I've never seen you so…eager before. Were you in heat?" Ember smirked at the notion of it being her time of the month before her mood dropped a little.

"Moon…it's because I'm scared" she told him. That took him off guard.

"What. Why would you be scared?" She took a long breath.

"Because of the contract. Haven't you even heard the stories about the Goldhooves?" Blood

Moon shook his head.

"No. I only even heard of them when Mayor Mare told me about them. They seem to have gotten the picture that I wouldn't just kill anypony they wanted me to, so I guess they kept their distance. I've only really heard rumours and stories, like the basement Candle mentioned for example. I've only really been able to put pony to tail in the last few days" he told her before he raised an eyebrow. "Why?" She took another breath.

"Well…it's because I have. They're the kind of stories that rival yours for brutality and scare tactics. I mean…" she shuddered. Blood Moon gave her a concerned look of his own, opening his fore-legs to offer an embrace she gladly accepted. He wasn't used to seeing her so scared, she was normally so fearless, so fearsome. "I had sex with you…in case I…well, I died. I didn't want to leave this world without you knowing" she said. Blood Moon squeezed her a little.

"Ember, listen to me; you're not going to die this day. Nor the next. Nor the day after. The day you die, is the day your hair grows thin and grey, you have children and grandchildren who love you very much standing around you and you're ready to let death take you. Not a day before, and not a day after." Ember smiled slightly and snuggled into him, Blood Moon electing to restrain from telling her that her soapy hair was getting into his eye a little.

"Thanks Moon" she whispered. They lay together a while, the stallion beginning to notice a pattern developing here. "Moon."

"Yeah?"

"I really don't wanna wrinkle in here" she told him. Blood Moon laughed a little as he helped Ember off of him, Ember stepping out of the bath and helping him out. They each took up a fluffy white towel he kept in here and dried themselves off, Ember's efforts to get the water out of her fur a little more conservative than Blood Moon's simple frantic rubbing, his mane coming out looking like a hedgehog. Ember giggled lightly at his spiky head, pointing at the mirror to, prompting him to look around and find his reflection. He gave a bemused grunt and turned back to her, finding her own mane a little out of sorts.

"You may wanna comb that or something" he said, levitating a brush out for her. She took it in her own magic as she stood besides him, the pair of them brushing some order back into their manes. As the stallion ran the comb through his mane, he spoke up again. "Hey, Ember."

"Yeah?"

"What's the difference between oral and anal?" She paused in her brushing and looked at him with a cautious and amused look on her face.

"I don't know" she said at quiet length.

"One makes your day, the other makes your hole weak." Ember gave a dry laugh before she shoved him.

"What is it with you and your bad jokes" she asked as she resumed her brushing.

"A good joke makes you laugh, a bad joke brings everypony together in hatred towards it." She shook her head again, bumping her flank into his. Once they'd straightened out their manes, they turned away from the mirror and trotted out of the room. Blood Moon came to a stop before the G-string Ember had worn; with a small grin, he picked it up and twirled it around his hoof a little.

"Where did you say you got this?" Ember gave a small smile as she lifted the nighty with her magic.

"Carousal Boutique" she answered "one of Miss Rarity's" she said the name in a sarcastically upper-class tone "finest works, apparently." Blood Moon looked down at the panties again.

"I can tell" he answered. Ember giggled as she trotted over and took the underwear in her magic.

"So can I" she answered, caressing the feint line in his fur where his stallionhood was sheathed, prompting it to poke out slightly to investigate the fuss. She tossed them into the laundry-chute on the wall, before turning back to Blood Moon.

"They'll be brought back here y'know" he reminded her. She held his face in her hoof as she held his grinning face close.

"I know…I think they'll be more useful here anyway" she answered, kissing him lightly. During their brief contact, Blood Moon felt her wobbling.

"Still can't feel your legs, huh?" Ember huffed mirthlessly. "Ember?"

"Is…is it normal, for me to be so scared" she asked suddenly. Blood Moon's confused frown turned to a concerned one.

"Ember… Fear is our sharpest blade, but it's also our strongest shield. It's what helps us recognise when we've met our match, when we can go no further. It takes a different type of courage to stand down than it takes to stand up. Different, but by no means less important. Swallowing your pride, especially for somepony like you or me, is nearly impossible, because we know we can do things no normal pony, no normal unicorn, can do with relative ease." He turned her face up to his. "Ember, I'm not going to force you into this contract, if you don't think you can do it, or if you just don't want to, that's your opinion and your judgment. I won't disagree with that, but what I will do is tell you that, even though it may be selfish, I truly hope you'd reconsider because there is nopony in Equestria I'd rather have by my side than you. I'd take you over Luna or Celestia herself, because I'd trust you with everything and everypony deer to me in a heartbeat, because I know I can trust you. Just like you know I'll always be there for you, at the drop of a hat, I'd be there to catch it for you. Because we're partners." Ember nodded into his chest, nuzzling him lightly.

"Because we're partners" she repeated. They stayed together for a long time, their mutual embrace slowly pulling them into one another. "Blood Moon?" He nodded from above. "When I said I love you, that wasn't just my lust talking. I really do" she told him. The assassin smiled slightly.

"I love you too Ember" he replied as they kissed each other passionately.

He just wasn't sure how.

Only after a few minutes of kissing and hugging were they prepared to let go of each other. The dark stallion grabbed the blueprints from one of the draws in his desk, presumably where Ember had put them to protect them from their earlier activities, and stashed them in his mane. They made their way down the corridor between Blood Moon's quarters and the main stairwell, Ember with a glow in her cheeks, spring in her step and precariously happy tail while Blood Moon's grin never left his face as he watched his favourite assassin get to act like the foal she'd never had the chance to really be. That said, that flickering tail made him feel a little wrong about that mental image.

They made their way to the mess hall, a level below the floor Blood Moon's office was on, and a level that only really had the mess hall and kitchens on. The Hunter had spared no expense when it came to the food he served the assassins under his banner; he'd always thought the phrase 'an army marches on its stomach' was a little extreme, but there was some trust to it.

The meals served to an army, or band of assassins as it were, was one of the best ways of assessing the condition of said army; admittedly, the field rations were another matter, having gourmet meals in the middle of battle just wasn't practical, but he saw nothing wrong with them being able to relax at home. Right now, breakfast was being served by the small group of mare and stallion that made up the waiters and waitresses for the assassins. There was no exuberant dress code except the name tag and basic, white serving outfit. It wasn't lost on Blood Moon that every now and then when it came time to take an inventory one or two of the waitress outfits were gone for a few days before miraculously reappearing, a little too clean. He didn't really care; if the mares wanted to make a little extra scratch, or just had a fetish, who was he to argue?

A few of said waiters and waitresses were milling around right now, wiping down tables and waiting for assassins to serve; the stallions wore a white shirt and black apron over it, while the mares wore a white shirt, reaching down their backs until it made an overly short mini-skirt and a black apron of their own. The stallion didn't objectify mares, they just seemed to like the attention. He wasn't complaining, neither were any of the stallions. Or mares, considering the waiter's shirt were normally unbuttoned at the top to reveal a hard chest.

Service aside, Blood and Ember quickly scanned the hall. The only ponies in here, besides the staff, were two stallions, one in a wine-red leather coat and the other in an oak-brown coat. They both had their hoods down and masks off, an empty food-tray pushed to the side while a glass pitcher of apple juice rested besides them, their glasses both half empty/full, as the assassin wasn't about to get into another argument with Ember over that. Leaf spotted them first, glancing their way and looking back to Candle before he looked back over at them with a stern look on his face.

"Where the hay have you been" he demanded "we've been looking for you two for three hours" he told them.

"We're you sleeping all this time" Candle asked.

"Or just in bed" Leaf muttered as he looked down at his juice before taking a swig. In doing so, he missed Ember's blush and Blood's grin.

"More or less" the dark stallion answered "how's things? Candle?" The young stallion looked down.

"Candle Light" Ember prompted gently.

"Nopony wanted to help" he answered. Blood Moon deflated slightly.

"Damn" he said in a quiet voice. He'd hoped that the prospect of finally being able to kill the Goldhooves would have tempted at least a few of the less sane assassins, or maybe some of the more ambitious ones. The Goldhooves reputation was beginning to annoy him; Ember scared and now this?

"So it's just us then" Ember concluded as one of the waitresses working the dining hall approached and set down today's breakfast; fried eggs on toast, apple juice, high-carb energy bar and assorted fruit. She'd given Ember a plate and Blood Moon another, a pot of coffee accompanying it. Being Chapter Leader had its perks.

"I'm sorry sir, but everypony I told all had the same reaction; their eyes would light up for a second but then they'd just…"

"Crap themselves" Ember suggested, mouth full of egg and hot bread. Candle gave a small shrug.

"Pretty much, yeah…some more literal than others" he added quietly. Blood Moon swallowed down a toasted egg sandwich, taking a few chugs from his juice before he spoke again.

"Leaf, get anything out of our guest?" He was silent for a few seconds. Blood Moon was suddenly worried about the prospect of this contract. "Leaf?"

"Yeah" he said reluctantly. Ember frowned at him.

"Well, why are so-" she gasped suddenly. "Oh my gosh…d-did you…"

"I questioned her Ember, nothing more" he cut in. Little good it did when Ember was already laughing into her hoof.

"What, what's so funny" Candle asked a bemused Blood Moon, giggling Ember and a grumbling Falling Leaf.

"Let's just say, our own little Leaf got more than just answers out of Scarlet Blade" she smirked, looking back to her food.

"Oh" Candle said obliviously, dropping it anyway. The three senior assassins waited a single second. "OH" he said louder, sitting straighter, a small blush on his face. "Y-you mean he-he, y'know-"

"Yes, Candle, my young protégé; I had sex with my ex-marefriend and prisoner" he grumbled. The floodgates opened for Ember, laughing so hard she almost fell off her seat, even Blood Moon was chuckling quietly to himself. Deciding to prolong the limited mirth that was available to the Shadow Weavers, he took the opportunity to poke fun at him.

"So, how'd that happen" he asked. Leaf, clearly unimpressed, rolled his eyes.

"I was using our time together to get more detailed information out of her. I had her scared, not truly malleable. I needed full control to get useful information out of her. So, I decided to use the time we'd dated to my advantage, bringing up past memories she probably didn't want to remember. Before I knew it, we were just talking about old times and I'd forgotten about the interrogation. Then, I realised how late it was and took her back to her cell…I'm fairly sure she started to come onto me to try and escape, but…" Ember laughed again, Candle joining in now.

"And here's me thinking it was weird you having a marefriend, but actually capable of pleasing her? Never in a million years" she laughed. Blood Moon just smirked as he shook the thoughts away.

"So anyway, what did you find out?"

"Yeah, how was the pillow talk" Ember added, prompting more laughs from Candle. Blood Moon and Leaf clouted their apprentices around the back of the head at once, Ember and Candle's laughs cut off at once, both grumbling quietly in pain, rubbing the backs of their heads.

"Yes, anyway. As you might have guessed, security is tight; the building is guarded 24/7, shifts organised so there's never a gap in patrols. They only hire mercs with prior combat experience and military training, making sure that they're disciplined. The estate itself is built around defence too; there're skylights built into every celling so there's always light inside; it's a centre-square design, balconies overlooking a main hall in the middle of the house. There are three levels; the lowest is the common area for the family, the second the more personal areas where business is conducted and kept track of, while the top floor belongs to the family's bedrooms. The basement is where the staff and live-in guards live, while the subbasement is where the supplies are kept."

"Do we have any idea as to the layout of the rooms" Ember asked "the blueprints didn't seem to name each room." Leaf nodded.

"Yeah. Scarlet tells me the ground floor is divided into three major room, bathrooms not included; the kitchen, to the left of the main door, the family living room adjacent to it and the library to the right. On the first floor, Loaded's offices are above the living room, the trophy room above the kitchen and the smoking room above the library. On the second, the master bedroom is above Loaded's office and other rooms belonging to other family members are to the left and right. But behind the master bedroom is a safe room" he revealed. Ember frowned.

"That wasn't on the plans" she said.

"It wouldn't be. It's apparently their secret room; the only reason Scarlet knew about it was in case they were attack so she would know where they were attacked. According to her, she was the only guard to know of its existence." The three assassins nodded a few times. Silence overtook them as they thought about the information, but after only five seconds of said thought, the doors to the mess hall flung open and a frantic looking assassin cantered through.

The four of them turned their heads to the door, the cooks and waitresses doing the same, and saw the pony to have slammed the doors open look around the canteen for a second before he spotted Blood Moon and his comrades sat at the table. Relief washed over his face for a second as he made his way over to them.

"Blood Moon, thank Celestia I found you" he panted, signalling he may have been galloping around looking for them. Blood Moon nodded at him.

"Hey, it's, uhhh… Redwave, right?"

Redwave nodded. He was one of the assassins to have been born into the order, rather than adopted like most were; his parents were successful assassins, one a Master who travelled a lot, and the other the Chapter Leader of the Manehatten chapter of the Shadow Weavers. True to his name, Redwave was a born navy-stallion, known for taking contracts overseas and Captioning his own ship. Though because of his love for the sea, he'd had to divide his time between his passion for the sea and his passion for the kill, as such, he was only a Cutthroat. His fur was sunset red, his mane a black Mohawk, his tail shaved short. He wore his rank's dark blue coat, though his katana was replaced with a gently-curving cutlass. He had grey stubble on his chin, a scar over his left eye, an eye-patch over the same red orb, though he only wore this so he didn't have to waste time letting his eyes adjust to darkness.

"Aren't you tied to the Manehatten chapter" Ember asked. He nodded.

"Yeah, but I heard what was going on over here. Are you really going after the Goldhooves?" They nodded.

"Yes, the four of us" Leaf answered. Red nodded a few times in understanding before he spotted Candle's red coat.

"You're taking an Assassin along" he asked. Before anypony could defend him, Candle spoke up.

"Yeah, they are. You have a problem with that Cutthroat" he shot back, his eyes narrowed slightly. Red shook his head, knowing he was practically an Apprentice outside his chapter.

"No, just taking note" He assured hastily. Blood Moon decided to get the conversation back on track.

"Why do you ask Redwave? Are you interested" he asked. Red nodded.

"Yeah, sure as hay I am" he replied with gusto. Ember raised an eyebrow.

"Not many ponies were so enthusiastic to get in on this around here. What makes you so keen?" Redwave was quiet for a second.

"Red" Candle prompted, their young age building a small, unstable bridge between them.

"We've got history" was all Redwave said.

"What kind of history" Blood prompted, offering him a seat. When Redwave sat down, a waitress gave him his breakfast for today, winking at him flirtatiously; Red simply shot her a roguish grin that made Blood Moon proud. When the mare had gone, Red's mood dipped again.

"Forty days ago, me and my crew were sailing just off the Feathered Lake, (the name of the piece of ocean between Equestria and the Griffon kingdom, as named by the griffons) transporting goods from the Shadow Weavers in the Griffon capital to other assassin on the field, on the outskirts of the country, beyond the great hunting forests, at least a four hundred leagues away. We were attacked by what looked like privateers. At first I thought they were under the employment of the griffons, but I noticed they were all ponies. We sunk, but we managed to take them with us. Me and one of theirs washed up on an island, and I beat some information out of him." Blood Moon could suddenly see where this was going. "The Goldhooves sunk my ship and killed my crew. I want revenge" he told them, his voice having darkened significantly. Blood Moon nodded a few times.

"That's all the CV I need" he said, clasping Red's back in his hoof in a way that said 'welcome aboard.' The dark stallion looked between the assassins, who were now gazing at him, and looked between them, judging their skills, weaknesses and preferred partners. "Alright ponies, we have our information, we have our equipment, we have our numbers-"

"Wait, you mean it's just the five of us" Redwave asked. Candle shrugged.

"I did a little recruitment drive yesterday, told everypony in the chapter what we were up to, and nopony wanted to join us." Red nodded his understanding, looking a little less enthusiastic than before.

"Anyway" Blood Moon restarted "all's we need now is a good plan to get ourselves in and out of there. Ember?" The mare nodded as Blood Moon pulled the blueprints from his mane and splayed them on the table, watching Ember clear her throat and mind.

"Alright. Yesterday I was going over these things, the maps of the surrounding buildings and cross-referencing that with our recon information. Now, with the information Leaf has provided us with, we have two options, as far as I can see.

The first option is loud and proud: three of us go in from different sides, attacking from three different angles, splitting up the guards inside and outside, while two of us slip inside. Now, once the attack starts, the Goldhooves are gonna go straight for their safe room, right? That's where the key part of this strategy comes into play; we'll know exactly where they are, but that's also where the main downside comes from; the Goldhooves will be inside their safe room and we'll need a way to get them out, us in or a way to kill them from outside, gas or something."

"I can cast seals onto surfaces, in theory, I should be able to cast an explosive seal onto the door or wall strong enough to blow through" Blood Moon supplied. Ember nodded.

"Alright good. Anyway, that's one option, the loud one, here's the other:

The five of us will go over the rooftops and take out a guard on the wall to the east side, one each and all at once. We'll have only one shot at that before things devolve into an all-out war. If, however, it works we'll have a way in and out. We pick the bodies up and prop them up, but we can't take their gear because one of the other guards will notice as there are sconces and fires on the walls." Candle frowned.

"If that's the case, who's to say nopony notices us killing them and moving the bodies." Ember grinned.

"That's the hard part. From what I saw yesterday, there are six guards on the wall, around five paces between them. So that makes twelve targets between us, the guards and the sconces."

"And how do you suggest we put out the fires from across the street?" Blood Moon smirked.

"Clever" he mumbled. "Yesterday, me and Ember paid Tinker a visit. He's made come highly compact and powerful bows, not to mention a selection of arrows. I think what Ember is getting at, is the water barrels I spotted. Small casks of water used to put out fires and torches." Ember nodded as everypony got where this was going.

"Yes" she confirmed as everypony suddenly recognised what they had to do "we have to fire at least two arrows at once, in perfect timing to make it look like a gust has taken out the flames while the guards drop with the lights. All from across the street on a dark night. Then, we've gotta get across said street fast enough to lift the bodies to make it look like they're alive, and reignite the flames, all quickly enough to make it look like it was the guards who did so." Candle gulped, Redwave took a breath, Leaf ran a hoof over his face and Blood Moon grinned.

"And this is all just getting inside" Redwave asked. Ember nodded with a grin.

"Yeah, after all that, we gotta remain undetected to keep the alarms quiet. We'll have to move in a line, taking out every guard we come across to make sure they don't recognise anypony else dead, hiding the bodies as we go. Once we get to the building, we pick open a window or door and slip inside. Then, we split up. We each take a floor, me and Blood Moon going to the top floor, Candle and Redwave taking the second while Leaf takes the bottom. When we find Loaded, Prosperous, Quillrunner or anypony else, you kill them, no time wasted." Redwave snarled lightly.

"Something up Red" Blood Moon asked.

"I want Prosperous to myself. She was the one who hired those privateers, pirates, whatever to sink my ship and kill me." He looked up in a way only somepony who had been truly wronged could. "She's mine" he told them. Blood Moon nodded.

"Aye, and Loaded's mine. He set his son after the Elements of Harmony. I want to know why." Ember blinked.

"Alright then" she said at length. "Here's another idea; instead of taking different floors, we each look for somepony different. Me and Blood will take Loaded-"

"Me and Candle will go after Prosperous" Redwave interjected.

"And I'll take any stranglers" Leaf said, his head nodding in agreement with the plan "I have a few scores to settle of my own." Everypony seemed to have inadvertently taken the quiet plan as they imagined ripping apart the family they all hated most with silent rage and vengeance.

"I'd like to point out though" Blood Moon said after a minute of fearsome silence "if we pull this off, we'll be making history. This won't be forgotten easily" he reminded them. "And we'll make sure that the whole of Equestria knows who made such a dark mark on her history" he told them. The other four assassins raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" Blood Moon's grin was the most menacing thing they'd ever seen.

"We're gonna burn down their home and carve our symbol into their throats" he told them. Everypony, even Candle Light, gained a grin to match the dark stallion's. Blood Moon looked at the clock on the wall of the mess hall; it had just gone one o'clock. "Alright ponies; get ready, rest up, say your goodbyes, get your equipment from Tinker, make sure your weapons and armour are in pristine condition, mentally prepare yourselves and meet up at seven tonight at the entrance common" he ordered. (The entrance common being the first hall you stepped into in the hideout, a mixture of an entrance hall and one of the common rooms where a lot of the assassin hung out before and after contracts.)

The assassins all nodded as they stood and followed Blood Moon to Tinker's lab. Nothing much was said, they were all still imagining what they'd do to their respective targets when they finally got their hooves on them. They'd arrived at the scientist's home before they realised it, Candle bumping into Ember's flank. He blushed, swallowed and apologised, but Ember, had just looked back and winked at him. He'd blushed even more. The five assassins stood at the door, Ember and Blood Moon having entered, and watched him and his marefriend, a pink mane and tailed, cream furred mare with Pegasus wings, her face pretty and a little dirty, her brain as crammed with information as Tinker's and only a little more sense than the stallion she was dancing the Salsa with at the moment. She wore a lab coat similar to Tinker's, a shirt on her chest that matched her eyes and mane, and a red piece of silk in her mane to keep it out of her eyes. Tinker glanced up for a second upon hearing the door open over the sound of the music and grinned his greetings.

"Hey boss" he said, spinning his partner.

"Hey Tinker, Tamper" the dark stallion returned, greeting the stallion and the mare. Tinker dipped Tamper deeply, and she looked back at them, her head upside down, and smiled a sweet smile.

'Remind me to never introduce her and Pinkie.'

"Got it."

"Hey Boss" she said, excitement and laughter in her slightly breathless tone. Blood Moon smirked and nodded her way. They soon finished their dance, spinning and twirling and stepping around each other in ways that even impressed Blood Moon until the ended with another deep dip, Tamper's hind leg reaching up past his torso in ways that made Blood Moon glance at Ember, who had glance at him, and smirk. Tinker raised his lady and set her on her hooves, both bowing and stepping back. Tinker pulled the needle off the record, kissing Tamper on the cheek as he did, prompting her to blush and giggle like a filly.

"Having fun" Ember asked as the approach. Tinker glanced at his mare and winked at her.

"Not as much as I would be if you weren't here" he grinned. Tamper laughed and slapped the back of his head.

"We can come back if you want" Blood Moon suggested. Tinker shrugged.

"Nah, I can hold it in. For now." Blood Moon shook his head as he pushed that particular image from his head.

"Good. Anyway, I can only hope you-" Tinker pointed at one of the metal walls with hooks poking out, a large manner of weapons and armour hanging from them.

"Yep, all done. I love my lady, but I always keep my word" he assured. Blood grinned.

"Good job Tinker, you too Tamper, I'm sure you helped" he thanked.

"Astute as always boss" Tinker said as Blood Moon and Ember joined the others at the small armoury. "I expected more of you though, I was prepared to make a bunch more" he pointed out, nodding at the four sets of equipment. Blood Moon sighed slightly as he piled his stuff on his back.

"Yeah, recruitment drive wasn't so good. Turns out the more you know about the Goldhooves, the scarier they are" he answered. Tamper giggled slightly as she hopped on the table and sat on it, her right-fore hoof tussling Tinker's mane.

"Now who does that remind me of" she asked Blood Moon, who just chuckled.

"Yes, well. Thanks again Tinker. I'll be sure to tell you how it goes" he assured as he trotted out with Ember.

"I expect souvenirs" Tinker called after them. Blood Moon chuckled again, accompanied by Ember's giggle, and trotted back to his quarters. The pair made idle conversation on the way, but there was only one thing on their minds.

'Don't fuck when we get back, don't fuck when we get back, don't fuck when we get back. Need to conserve energy.'

Okay, two things. They both recognised the danger of what they were about to do, and both felt like they needed to do something to ease the tension, but couldn't think of anything. Blood Moon's eyes kept jumping to Ember as they trotted, her lack of juvenility not lost to him, and Ember couldn't help but notice his small glances.

"Blood Moon-"

"Ember-"

They cut each other off and offered the stage to one another at the same time, Blood taking it after some insistence.

"Ember…are you alright. Whenever we're alone you go quiet." Ember smiled slightly.

"I guess I'm still…you know, basking in the after-glow. I think you may have gotten me a little addicted to you after all we did together." Blood Moon's tension was eased a little as he leaned in and whispered into her ear.

"I'm not above a quickie" he told her. Ember giggled and kissed him, adding a little tongue.

"Now, what's up with you" he asked in return. Ember was uneasy again.

"I-it's just that I'm still a little anxious" she told him. Blood Moon understood, nuzzling and embracing her with his head at once.

"I think they all are, Candle, Redwave and Leaf I mean. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Truth be told, I'm worried for you too, hay, of course I am; you're my student and partner. I love you Ember, you mean a lot to me. Believe me when I say, if it comes down to it, I will die for you" he told her. In reality, that didn't mean much, but Ember still deeply appreciated the sentiment.

"Thanks Moon" she said quietly as she returned his embrace. They made it back to Blood Moon quarters soon after that, both letting their armour and equipment slid off of them.

The new coats covered the whole of their bodies in thick leather, black for Blood Moon and midnight-blue for Ember. The leather was at least two inches thick, but was lighter than it should have been. The leather covered every bit of fur and skin over the pair of them, the collar reaching up and around the neck, a stylised metal plate clasping the two pieces of leather together. The leather ran down all four legs, the leather splitting at the knees to reveal red for Blood Moon and smoke-grey for Ember, small metal clasps went up and down the coloured leather. The hooves were covered with soft-sole leather boots, silver buckles strapping them to the assassin's legs. The belly of the coat had smooth, flowing designs, the same red and grey as the knees, the soft curves and flickers reminded Blood Moon of the flames 'battle' produced. Up the chest were three belts and buckles, used to tighten the coats to their chest and maybe hold a few other oddments. Around the waist was a belt, similar to the standard issue belt given to all Shadow Weavers, only there were more pouches to hold darts for the blow-pipe, smoke bombs and a small set of gear used for infiltrating. The back of the coat was simple leather, though across the back would sit holsters for the recurve bow, the quiver of arrows for said bow and the blow-pipe, though the leather straps were yet to be buckled over them. The hind-legs of the coat were covered in leather of similar designs to that of the fore-legs, well-placed spots of colour adding a level of style and 'I can kill you and look good doing it' to the armour. Over the covered cutie marks was the Shadow Weaver's symbol, the blood-red outline of a dagger, the simple outline of a loom inside the blade, a line going down the width of the blade, another coming off the bottom at a forty five degree angle, forming another line going down, which would form another angled line going up and so forth, until the hilt of the blade was reached, the guard consisting of a thicker line, the grip holding the same pattern as the blade to represent the leather wrapping around it. The red symbol was set against a black background, a smoke-like circle on Ember's gear. The symbols on either side were covered slightly by the snake-tail end of the coat, accented by the colours on the knees. Their tails were let out of a small hole in the hind-quarters, the coat-tail draping over them. The hoods had the same hole and accents about the trim, their steel-grey masks changed little, besides the iron rim about the right eye, the telescopic sight.

Both donned their armour, taking their time, as they'd suddenly realised they hadn't a clue how to actually put this stuff on. They slipped into the coats first, hind-legs going in first as the other would pull their partner's tail through; they slipped their fore-hooves into the sleeves before they buckled the chest up, each helping the other with the slightly awkward straps. The hind-boots went on next, Ember giving Blood a show as she lay on her back on the bed, lifted her bare leg up and slowly pulled the boot down her slender leg. It only made the stallion's armour a little tighter, but he still felt it against the leather. He'd have to get Tinker to install a well-hidden zipper for just such an occasion. Not to mention it'd make peeing easier, as it were, he'd just have to live with it. They both put the fore-boots on next, slipping their hooves into the lithe leather until they met the ends, buckling the straps tight. They both took up their hidden blades, tying them down against the left fore-leg, flexing their muscles and watching the blade release to make sure they worked. Then, the bandolier went about them, the main strap going across their chests, under the left fore-leg and over their backs, the secondary strap for the blow-pipe going under the right fore-leg and buckling to the front of the bandolier.

Then came the scabbards to their blades, simple black wood tied to the belts with a black, silk sash. Finally, they strapped the Shadow Weaver's signature hoof-bow to their right hoof.

Then they went about their arms; the quiver to the recurve bow was strapped to their backs, beside the compacted bow which sat between aforementioned quiver and the blow-pipe, strapped to the smaller bandolier strap. They filled the pouches on the right side with throwing knives, smoke bombs, ammo for the blow-pipe (steel darts, sleep poison, adrenalin churning darts or 'berserkers', leather darts, paralysing darts and explosive rune-etched darts), ammo for the hoof bow and a basic field medical kit.

It would probably be wise to explain to the more astute reader, who has probably noticed that the presence of the hoof-bow makes the blow-pipe obsolete, and visa-versa, but actually since the blow-pipe is completely silent and the projectiles invisible in the air, not to mention, much more versatile given the lack of machinery around them it makes up in stealth what it lack in power, while the hoof-bow has a faster draw, more power over shorter range and better stopping power. Not to mention, more weapons opens up more murder variety.

Once down with the ammunition, they looked to their blades, their primary weapons; both Blood Moon and Ember had the same weapons, a katana and a wakizashi, a shorter version of the same weapon. Tinker had apparently changed the weapon's weave, or, the way the metal had been smelted together and forged; according to Tinker, this different weave of metal made the balance of the weapon better while decreasing the weight but not sacrificing the damage they were capable of dealing with a lack of strength or blade width. Also, explained as an added bonus by Tinker, they were constructed in the Soshu Kitae method, or the seven layer forging style. Blood Moon was fairly sure Ember didn't have a clue what that meant, but he was forever amazed at either Tinker's skills around a forge or his list of contacts. Both had a black metal tsuba, identical to the sword Blood Moon had first used when he'd arrived in Ponyville, while the gips were wrapped in black leather, the pommel grey. Done with admiring their weapons, they slipped them into their respective sheaths, the wakizashi below the katana.

Done with arming and armouring themselves, they turned to the mirror and both smirked; despite the thick armour, almost excessive arsenal and ammunition, they looked good. Ember gave a small giggled at their situation; about to go on the hunt for corrupt aristocrats, and here they were admiring each other.

"How in the hay dose Tinker do it, Moon" Ember asked as she leaned her head on Blood Moon. The stallion grunted amusedly as he held Ember's head in his hoof and lent his head on hers. Though his mind was on their position, his eyes on hers in the mirror, he couldn't help but notice and appreciate the flexibility of their armour.

"I haven't a clue, but I'll be damned if he doesn't earn his pay check" he replied. Ember giggled again as they turned to each other and let their lips meet; they were quite the pair, stood armed to the teeth in the kind of gear only an assassin would wear, and they were doing nothing but showing affection for each other. Once they had pulled back, nuzzling each other a little, they turned back to the room and picked up their masks, sliding them under the bandolier.

Once they were done with their equipment, feeling a little too light for everything they were carrying, but weren't complaining either way, they made for the meeting point. They got a few looks from the other assassins they passed, all of them recognising the hard looks on their faces and stepped out of their way as they passed them by. Upon arriving in the entrance common, they found the other assassin to come with them. Candle's armour was wine-red, accented with black; Leaf's was oak-brown, accented with dark green; while Redwave's armour was dark blue, accented with a very dark purple.

When Blood Moon and Ember had approached them, the both of them slipped their masks over their faces and lifted their hoods, their manes ponytailed and peeking through the small hole in the hood. Blood Moon gazed at the assassins before him before he spoke.

"Ponies" he began, his gaze still passing over each and every one of them; Leaf, so cold and stoic, here because of his duties as an assassin; Candle, so innocent and brave, here for his first taste of a real assassination; Redwave, so aggressive and dark, here for simple vengeance; Ember, so deadly and beautiful, here for him; and then there was Blood Moon himself, so brutal and silent, here for answers. Quiet the team they made. Quiet the legend they'd make. "Let's move."