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?

18. The rhyming alchemist

Chapter eighteen: The rhyming alchemist

Blood Moon and Twilight woke at once, his stirring causing her to awaken with him, Hunter and Dusk still slumbering; Twilight looked up at her coltfriend, no small hint of concern in her expression. She couldn't help but be worried, after his small…episode, yesterday, the mare was still thinking about his mental condition. She had to wonder; just how stable was he, or maybe how unstable he was, she hoped she could help him through this, as well as whatever else was going through that head of his. That scarred head of his, which held so many stories and held so much knowledge and so little sense. It was such a paradox; he was maybe one of the most down to earth pony she'd ever met, he was -to a degree- very sensible, he was clever, knew what he was doing in life, didn't let anypony harm those close to him and could get very serious when the situation called for it. But at the same time, he was rebellious, as hard-headed as Rainbowdash, he was teetering on the edge of sanity and insanity, cared little for his own safety and did very little in the way of actual relaxed thought. From what she could tell, his mind was always occupied with something, be it her, her friend's safety and well-being or something she couldn't pin down…like he was remembering something, although, that could be forgiven given the amount of memories he must have. She sighed, half in worry and half in bliss, as she relaxed against him, resting her head against his chest and running a hoof down his fur. She couldn't help but notice, she'd never felt this way before; not about actually loving a stallion before, that much she'd already established, but the idea of feeling so much worry for a pony who wasn't one of her friends, also, it wasn't like she didn't have reason to be; her coltfriend was closer to insanity than he was saneness. She grinned as she felt his hooves wrap around her.

'Well, it does make him more interesting.'

Twilight continued to look up at the stallion, who looked down at her for a while until he adjusted his position to put them at eye level. She searched his face for any signs of anything wrong, and though she couldn't see anything wrong with him, she knew he was capable of holding an emotionless expression, as well as hiding them pretty well. She caught him looking over her own face, she guessed he was looking over her for the same reason.

"What are you thinking about" she asked him quietly, casually. She watched him as his expression did nothing to acknowledge the question, imagined him thinking about what to answer with; making sure nothing's wrong, just getting a read on you, trying to figure out what you're thinking…

"Just admiring how pretty you are" he answered simply. The mare giggled as her ideas of deep and complex thoughts were dashed away by her coltfriend's simple complement. She pecked him on the nose and relaxed against him, hugging him and resting her head on the crook of his shoulder. "Twilight" he started. She leaned back and looked at him.

"Yeah?" He leaned his fore-head against hers, turning his head to avoid bumping their horns together.

"When I told you I love you yesterday…" She smiled at the memory.

"It's not like I'll easily forget it" she told him, her eyes closed as she ran the scene through her mind, a grin on her face.

"Whatever happens between us never forget that, because I mean it" he looked her in the eye "I love you." She smiled at him with her eyes still locked onto his as she turned her head slightly and pushed her lips to his for a while before she pulled back.

"Good, because I love you too" she told him "and I always will. No matter what happens between us, you're my first coltfriend and I don't think I'll be able to love anypony the same way as I love you." She snuggled closer to him. "Which is a good thing, because I have no intention of loving anypony else the same way as I love yo-" She was cut off when the assassin pushed his lips to hers in a long and rather risqué kiss that had her moaning as soon he had initiated it. He ended it before long and pulled back, kissing her on the muzzle, nose and a few times along the horn, those actions causing her to almost shout out in a pleasure that could only be brought on by stimulating her most sensitive pleasure receptors.

"Twilight, I'm pretty sure you have no idea how much that means to me" he told her as he held her tight against his body, unwilling to let go.

"Maybe not, but with that kind of reaction, I can take a pretty good guess" she told him as she pulled herself in even closer. As she moved, she unwittingly brushed her nether regions against his; normally, this wouldn't have sent the blood rushing to his organ but, with his current streak of awakenings, it was all it needed to stand to attention. "Hey, look, it's little you" the mare joked, noticing his stallionhood peeking between their stomachs, much the same way as they had yesterday. Blood Moon snorted a laugh at her gag, smirking and shaking his head before a thought popped into his head.

"And I shall name him…Mini me" he said dramatically, causing Twilight to fall into laughs.

"What reference is that" she wondered aloud. The assassin shrugged.

"I don't know, I heard it somewhere but, for the Powers of me, I can never remember where" he said as he kept chuckling with Twilight. "Anyway, I'll get rid of it" he said as he moved away, removing it from the sandwich. Once they were separated, Twilight looked up at him, an expression on her face Blood Moon had never seen before.

"You wanna hoof with that?" The question took the stallion from the left wing; he never thought he'd hear a question like that from Twilight, not so soon anyway, and the idea of them her doing anything to 'relieve' him both aroused him greatly and, for some reason, troubled him.

"You're sure? You don't have to y'know, I don't want you to think you have to do anythi-" He was silenced with the mare's purple, immaculately hooficured, hoof grabbing his stallionhood, none too gently either, prompting him to roll to the side, putting it between them, so it wasn't as obvious to anypony waking up.

"I know I don't have to" she told him, running her hoof up and down his member far too slowly for his liking. "But I want to" she said in a sultry manner that did nothing to kill the mood.

"I-I'm not arguing but…why" he asked, shuddering slightly. Twilight giggled at him, watching as the oh-so powerful assassin so easily turned to putty in the hooves of a mare.

"Because I'm in love you, and I want to show that love" she replied. Blood Moon raised an eyebrow.

"There are other ways to show love, y'know" he told her. In response, she gripped him tighter, making him grunt in both pain and pleasure.

"Maybe, but this gets the message across better" she said, running her hoof to the base and fondling his balls for a second before she moved it back up again, as slow as ever. When she hit the head again, she changed her tactic and started jerking him off faster, making him growl a little. As she used her right hoof to pleasure him, her left went back to his balls and made him tingle a little more, shuddering in response. Twilight giggled at his reaction. "Enjoying th~at" she asked as he pushed his left hind-hoof into her moist marehood.

"It wouldn't be fair if I didn't return the favour" he told her, grinning at her face as he rubbed her slit up and down as she did the same to his cock. Around the room, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were all rubbing their own marehoods while Rarity had hastily crammed the black bull inside her glistening walls, making sure not to wake up Sweetie-Belle in the process or attract the attention of her friends lying next to her, who she didn't know were masturbating anyway. Blood Moon and Twilight were still rubbing each other, grinning at one another, and getting progressively hotter under each other's touch; Blood Moon leaned closer to Twilight and pushed their lips together as he exchanged his hind-hoof for his left fore-hoof, pushing it into her cunny and felt the moisture that had built there, moving it around and twisting it into her pussy, making Twilight shudder and tighten her grip on his dick.

"That-that's good" she said as she kept pumping her hoof up and down his member. A drop of pre-cum fell from his tip; it landed on her hoof and she held it up to her face, examining it with that scientific mind the stallion loved. She then lapped it off her hoof, savouring it like a fine wine, the sight making Blood Moon's member twitch against her. Massively turned on by her small show and her increased speed on his stallionhood, his hoof worked harder, pushing deeper into her, spreading her folds and slipping inside her, making her squeal slightly into the kiss he had started again, in an effort to muffle it.

"You ever done this before" he asked. Twilight looked with a frown on his face, which was quickly killed when he pulled out his hoof and stroked her clit, making her bite her lower lip and throw her head back a little.

"M-maybe once or twice, by myself, but-but never with a stallion before" she answered. He grinned and pushed his hoof through her folds and twisted it around before he massaged her inner walls. She responded by jacking him off faster, making him groan slightly. Around the room, the mares redoubled their efforts; both Fluttershy's hooves had joined the fun between her legs, shuffling further away from Rainbow, as not to disturb her or wake her or Scootaloo up; Pinkie Pie's left hoof had strayed to Applejack's cunny, helping her pleasure herself, while Applejack's right hoof had gone to Pinkie's, seemingly of its own accord, and rubbed her back, letting Applebloom rest on her stomach, dangerously close to her personal pleasuring; and Rarity had simply turned on the vibrator on her dildo, turning it up to max, and letting it rage around inside her as she hugged her sister and forced herself to not scream.

"Hey, Twilight" Blood Moon started. She looked up at him. "Pop quiz; what happens when at least one thousand pleasure receptors are fired up at once?" Twilight raised an eyebrow at his question, but before she could answer, the stallion cut her off. "This" he told her, as he moved forwards and kissed along her horn, getting closer to the base before he moved back up with his tongue running up it; Twilight almost screamed while he did this, her pussy stopped being wet and instead turned into a small water fall, as his hoof and mouth worked together to pleasure her.

"I-I thought I was-ahhh-supposed to be making you feel good." He shrugged, not stopping with his efforts for a second before he pulled back and looked at her, a rather smug grin on his face. "What" she asked. Blood Moon looked down, prompting her to do the same, and saw his member, receiving no attention. "Oh, sorry" she said, before she put a hoof to her chin in thought with a small 'umm' of thought. She looked up at him with an expression on her face the assassin, once again, didn't recognise but looked awfully similar to the look she'd had earlier. With a sultry grin, Blood Moon absolutely loved, she shuffled down his body until she was met face to face with his dick. She looked at it with a slightly intimidated expression on her face; she had never tried anything like this before, she'd heard about it and maybe thought about it while hoofing herself from time to time but never actually doing it. She knew Blood Moon wouldn't judge her, or think any less of her, if she got it wrong at all but she wanted to get a good first impression and be off to a good start in her sex life. She frowned and blinked.

'Huh, never thought I'd think that.'

She pulled herself out of her stupor and looked at the stallionhood before her; it was big, a little veiny, throbbing slightly as her warm breath hit it and had a…funny odour to it, like it she should think it bad but was kind of nice. She leaned a little closer, holding her head to the side as she got closer, and sniffed it, getting a nose full of his scent in response. She bit her lip and looked it up and down, from balls to tip, and swallowed before she leaned in and ran her tongue up his length; it was definitely a strange taste, salty, a hint of sweat and there was also what could only be described as lust and desire given a taste. As soon as her tongue had hit his stallionhood, she found herself wanting more and was about to when a thought slipped into her head; her memory of yesterday, and what had happened between her coltfriend and Fluttershy. She thought about his and her relationship, and how far it could go between them; she knew from her extensive reading into the subject that sex was something needed to break down certain walls between partners, Blood Moon was dating her and he loved her, he'd told her so, and she loved him back. She wanted to show him that she loved him, show him as well as, if not better, than Fluttershy ever could; with that thought, she opened her maw and took him in. Every mare around the room, currently awake, paused in their efforts and looked over their sweating bodies to see the act, their eyes wide in disbelief and their hooves rubbing themselves furiously; Twilight's legs were peeking out from beneath the covers, the purple sheets themselves rising and falling as she bobbed up and down, her horn forming a pointed tent in the sheet while her coltfriend writhed around above her, holding her head and directing her movements. After yesterday, he would be lying if he'd said he hadn't at least hoped this was where it would go when Twilight had started earlier; he groaned a little as Twilight took him right to the base, gritting his teeth as his marefriend ran her tongue up and down his shaft.

"You're good at this" he said as he ran his hooves along her horn, making her groan herself and send erotic vibrations through his system. She pulled back and looked up at him from under the covers.

"I-um-I did…a little reading a little while back" she said with a deep blush on her face. It amused the assassin to no end that she was lying there, jerking him off, and she was blushing about the fact that she had done some research on it, rather than the fact that, here she was, jerking him off. She noticed his smirk and flustered a little. "I-I was curious about it, and-and the book was just sitting there, I mean, Celestia stocked the library herself so I can only assume that she put it in there for a reason" she told the stallion. That actually surprised him.

"Celestia had a book about how to properly please a stallionhood with the mouth and she thought the best place to put it would be in her student's library?" Twilight looked sheepish.

"I guess she just wanted to help, have a hoof in my relationships" she tried. Blood Moon snorted in laughter.

"I can't believe it; I thought I raised her better than that." In response Twilight swirled her tongue around his tip.

"And I can't believe you're keeping me talking when my face is down here" she told him, making a pretty astute point, as she moved her mouth to take him in again and suckled on his stallionhood's tip before going down and deep throating him, much like how Fluttershy had blown him yesterday, asides from her tongue being more agile, allowing it to dance around his member faster and with much more variation; her maw being slightly wider, giving her more room to play; and her appearing to have a bigger lung capacity, shown by her ability to hold her lips around the base of his cock for longer.

'Hmm, maybe they use the same research material.'

"Hey Twi" she murmured to herself, likely grumbling in frustration, and suckled her way up before she kissed his tip.

"Yes" she asked, in between smacks and licks.

"Don't scream." She looked up in confusion as his horn glowed and she was swiftly lifted by an invisible force, and moved around some with the covers still hanging off of her until he let her back down, his cock in her face and her pussy in his. He looked over her labia, her sweet, slightly darker outer rings leading to her pink inner flesh, begging for attention, still dripping from the hoofing he'd given it earlier and her clit glistened pleasingly, practically demanding to be pleased; he looking up at her well-maintained pussy hair, it was short and faint but well kept, the colours following her mane and tail, the outer edges being darker purple and the inner stripes being pink. He looked around her lush plot to see her glancing back at him. "First to cum" he propositioned.

"You're on" she said. They dived in at once, unawares as to the debauchery going on around their own as the licked, sucked, kissed, flicked, teased and pleasured each other's sexes. Twilight had put her fore-legs under his hind-legs, giving her some leverage, as she bobbed her head up and down rapidly, moaning the whole time as she dived in deep and pulled back up to flick the tip with her tongue, while Blood Moon had his hooves either side of her folds, spreading them invitingly as his tongue went to work on the insides. He tasted around her inner walls, lapping up the juices that flowed from her opening while he made sure his tongue flicked her clit periodically and making her shudder and groan around his dick. His lips clamped over her and he kissed her marehood before he pushed his tongue right in and used it to penetrate her, thrusting it in and out of her, lapping at her glistening walls for a while as Twilight continued to use her own lips and tongue to bring him closer to orgasm. She roughly ran her tongue up one side of his shaft, a light smack when she got to the end and kept using her tongue to pleasure him as her hoof kept moving up and down while her tongue stayed at the tip, swirling around it. Blood Moon's own tongue was working away at her snatch, teasing over her clit, while his right hoof massaged her flank and periodically poked around her ass-hole and his left held her tail out of the way, appreciating the silky texture. He pulled back when he got an idea; the stallion moved his head around as he aligned his horn with her sex and pushed it in. The mare came very close to screaming in pleasure, and even closer to cumming, but instead she threw her head back, as noiseless and breathless scream tempted to sound, a few squeaks coming out instead. "That's-that's-that's, ahhh, that's good. There, just-just right there. B-Blood Moon, ahhh, this is…what are you doing back there?" Between her hind-legs, the stallion had his horn inside Twilight's pussy but was unable to answer due to the fact he'd been almost knocked out by the sheer tidal wave of ecstasy that had just slammed into his nervus system and found himself on the fresh hold of cumming. He moved his head, thrusting his horn into her and prompting her to squeal some more as he moved around inside her, and listening to her get closer and closer to reaching her peek as she clenched and squeezed his horn with her wanting marehood. "B-Blood Moon I'm gonna-gonna…" she looked down at his still erect member "oh no, you don't" she said, managing to pull herself out of her ecstasy for a brief second to see he was about to beat her.

She dived back onto his cock and sucked on it for all she was worth, the reaction to said efforts coming out in a way that quickly pushed the assassin to his climax. For thirty more seconds, until they were both clamping down on their groans, moans and telling each other how good the felt, they came all over each other; Twilight released him to scream, doing her damndest to hold it down, and his cum coated her face with a white, gooey, sticky substance that had her breathless and panting while his seed dripped of her blushed, purple face, now turned mostly white by said seed; Blood Moon's horn, fore-head and no small amount of his mane was now caked in Twilight's fluids, some of it running down his grinning face and into his maw, where he opened his mouth and tasted some of her sweet nectar. The mare was panting and out of breath as she crawled up his body and lay on top of him, feeling more in love with him than ever. Blood Moon was helping her exhausted body climb up his own and held her against him with a content sigh, feeling more in love with her than ever. Around the room, the other mares had cum at the same time as Twi and Blood Moon, Fluttershy clamping one of her wet hooves over her mouth, Rarity arching her back and losing a noise and soundless scream in the same way as Twilight had while Pinkie had turned Applejack's head to face her and clamped their lips together as they came, screaming into each other's maws as Applejack looked at her friend's slightly darker shade of pink eyelids with her own crushed emerald eyes, held wide in aroused shock, slowly closing them as she got into it. The mares and stallion all panted a little as the basked in post-orgasmic bliss. Twilight looked over Blood Moon's face before giggling.

"You've got something on you" she said, still giggling at his matted mane, now plastered in her cum. She climbed up him and put his horn to her mouth. "Here, let me help you" she cooed as she lapped her own cum off of his horn and face, making him shiver and tempting him to harden again and her to moisten again as she started to feel incredibly hot as she tasted herself on him. When she'd cleaned him off, she moved back down him again and snuggled against him, where they rested against each other for a long while until they caught a whiff of the scent in the air.

"They're going to notice that" he said. Twilight just closed her eyes and pulled herself into him some more.

"Let them, I'm not embarrassed about it" she told him as she looked up at him, her gorgeous half lidded eyes meeting his. "I love you, why would I be embarrassed by it?" They lay in place for little while longer, just enjoying the company and awaiting the questions that would come when they noticed the smell in the air, and the cum Twilight still had on her face. After a thirty minutes, which felt like way too short a time for the both of them, Blood Moon's stomach rumbled and he felt the need to get up.

"I'm gonna get up" he told her, as he lifted himself out of bed "get this out of my mane and get something to eat" he continued "Hunter, Dusk you coming" he asked quietly, his voice still managing to wake them up. The pair of animals looked at him and made their way to their perches on him, Dusk scampering onto his head, though staying away from Twilight's cum, looking at it in confusion, and Hunter sat on his shoulder, his eyebrow raised at the smell on him. Twilight threw the covers off of her and stood up alongside him.

"Yeah, me too, I need to get all this off me" Blood Moon raised an eyebrow, in response to which Twilight nodded at the fillies around the room "I kinda forgot about the little ones" she admitted, as they both set about magically remaking the bed. The gave a synchronised 'hmm' when they saw the stains they had left on the sheets before shrugging and turning for the door, still in freaky sync, Twilight's flank swaying and bumping the assassin's own rear-end.

They entered the bathroom and went about washing themselves off, Twilight paying most attention to her face and groin as she washed the cum off and Blood Moon washing it out of his mane and cleaning his crotch, the pets watching in confusion, wondering what their master had done before they had woke up. Once done, they checked each other over, making sure they hadn't missed any spots and trotting down the stairs, Twilight putting some simple daisy-sandwiches together for herself and culinary inept coltfriend. The assassin foresaw teasing over that.

Upstairs, the other mares who had gotten involved in this morning's session of passion and debauchery were coming down from their sexual high and were waiting for the others to leave so they could recover properly. Fluttershy went first, waking up Spike as she passed him and got him out of the room before he registered the smell, floating into her bathroom and putting a soap and sponge between her legs to get rid of any evidence; Rarity went afterwards, waiting until Fluttershy had left the bathroom, and took Sweetie-Belle with her, hiding the black bull in her pillow again, into the bathroom, making use of her drowsy state and leaving Pinkie and Applejack in the room together, nopony else up yet. Applejack looked at Pinkie with an estranged expression on her face.

"P-uh-Pinkie, what was…uhh, all that about? Y'know, when we-we, you know afta we…"

"When we came together" she asked with an ever out of place smile on her face. "Well, we were gonna wake everypony up with it so I thought on my hooves and did something to keep us quiet." Applejack blinked.

"An' your solution was tah kiss me? What were ya'll thinkin'? Ya'll know ah'm straight, mah tail don't swing that way." Pinkie giggled, tapping her on the nose.

"You weren't complaining when you were kissing me back" she sung, that same smile on her face. "Come one, you telling me you've never tried experimenting?" Applejack blushed and looked down, remembering that one time she'd been left alone on the farm for a while. A LONG while.

"Well, ah, uhh, a-a little bit, a little while back, but that's not what ah'm talkin' about; whenever ah do the 'hometown shuffle' ah prefer to have a stallion's company" she told her.

"Ooo, 'prefer' huh? So you ARE open to some experiments?" Applejack blushed harder.

"Well, ah, no ah'm-ah'm not-well ah…uhh…" Pinkie Pie giggled as she moved closer to the apple bucker.

"Come on AJ, just admit it; you enjoyed it." She pressed her sweet, pink belly against the farm-hoof's, wrapping her in a hug and half lidding her eyes, turning incredibly sexy in a matter of seconds, making Applejack blush again. And it wasn't because of what she was saying.

"Ah, umm, uhh, ah don't-don't... P-Pinkie where's all o' this comin' from?" The pink pony giggled.

"I've always been a party girl" she answered, before pecking her on the nose and rolling away, getting up like nothing was amiss. "Morning Dashie" she sung as she left the room. That short wakeup call awoke both Rainbowdash and Scootaloo as well as Sand Stalker, who jolted awake and fell off his chair with a few blurted Arabian curses.

"Hey, what, where-what's going on" Rainbowdash demanded as she held Scootaloo protectively, the filly looking around in alarm until she worked out nothing was wrong and just basked in the fact that she was being held by her idol.

"Dash, calm down, you're fine" Sand Stalker told her from his position on the floor, grumbling as he rubbed the grit from his eyes. Rainbow calmed down when he said this, looking at the filly she held.

"Mornin' squirt" she said, tussling her mane, Scootaloo giggling as she did so.

"Morning Rainbowdash" she said, nuzzling her before she got up and hopped off the bed.

"Morning Applejack, hey Applebloom, you up" she asked the apple bucker's sheets, prompting the head of a yellow filly to pop from beneath the side.

"Yeah, sure ah'm awake" she told the Pegasus, before she gracelessly fell out of bed and landed on her face. Applejack looked over the side, concerned.

"Yew alright sugarcube?" 'Bloom looked up at her sister.

"Yeah, ah'm fine. Looks like all the bumps we too crusadin' finally paid off" she said as they cantered for the door. During the CMC's shenanigans, Rainbowdash had woken up properly and caught the smell in the air.

"What's that smell" she asked, sniffing the air. Applejack panicked.

"N-nothin' suspicious" she said, sounding incredibly suspicious as she said so, the irony not lost on either of the Pegasi; that said, RD didn't know what the word 'irony' meant. The orange mare cantered out of the room as gracelessly as her sister had fallen out of bed, heading downstairs for breakfast. The winged ponies looked at each other and shrugged.

"How you doin' 'Dash" Sand Stalker asked as he got up, making Applejack's bed in a way only a life in the military could teach you. The cyan mare shrugged as she made Fluttershy's, not doing quite as good a job of it as the merc.

"Fine" she answered simply. The stallion looked over at her.

"No offence Dash, but you haven't been talking all that much lately, and you've been a lot more physical with Scootaloo, hugging her more. You don't have to hide this sort of thing Rainbow, that sort of experience would traumatise most other ponies." He trotted over to her, putting his hoof on her shoulder when he got close, angling his head and neck so he could look at her lowered face. "Are you sure you're alright?" She didn't look up at him.

"I-I've let my pride get in the way of this kind of thing for too long, and I know I can't fool you uncle Sand, so I'm gonna be honest" she paused as she looked up, grief clear in her eye. "I was scared, I thought I was gonna die…and-and" she wrapped her fore-hooves around his neck "I'm glad you came… when you arrived, somehow, I knew everything was going to be ok" she told him. She released him and stepped back. "Listen, Blood Moon said it would be better for us if we tried to work this out rather than be at each other's throats" the merc chuckled "so I was wondering if you'd want to try and start again with this." The merc laughed.

"Rainbow, Blood said some things to me too; he said that when you make a promise, you should keep it, especially when it concerns a newly made orphan. And he was right. I should have kept my promise and stayed with you, no matter my own situation. Now, I'll take any chance to make it up to you, you can bet your wings on it" he told her. The mare pulled him into another hug, this one briefer than the others before she disengaged.

"Alright, good, I got my uncle Sand back" she said, trying to remain passive but doing a remarkably bad job of it "now let's stop being so sappy, I'm hungry" she told him. Sand Stalker laughed and led the way to the stairs, heading downstairs and towards…not the sound of conversation.

He entered the front room and Rainbowdash stood next to him, thinking the same thing as he was as they looked over the near silent room.

"What's goin' on" RD asked, sitting next to Fluttershy, who was looking at the small cup of tea in her hoof, a faint blush on her face. Sand Stalker and Rainbowdash looked around the room, spotting blushes on Rarity's, Applejack's and even Pinkie Pie's face, none of them looking up at each other; Twilight and Blood Moon, who were sitting close to each other, closer to each other than normal, and were looking around the room in confusion, Hunter and Dusk following their example.

"So" the assassin said at length, an eyebrow still raised. "Any plans for today" he asked the room. They all looked up, thinking about what he had asked.

"Oh, umm, all my animal friends are taken care of, asides feeding them, I don't think anything needs to be done" Fluttershy said. That pretty much set the tone; the work needed to be done at Fluttershy's home was the only work available so if nothing was needed to be done, there was nothing to do. Still awkward at the strange lack of conversation, Blood Moon looked outside.

"Well, it's a nice day, and I don't think the guards will be coming around anytime soon, so if you want to get some fresh air, now's your chance" he said. At those words the CMC all trotted out of the kitchen and made their way outside to play once more, Fluttershy went out to check up on the critters that lived outside and Blood Moon simply went to get some air.

Out there, he had to admit; he liked it out here. The treeline of the Everfree forest looked a world away, and the light sent to Equestria by Celestia's golden sun cast a happy glow over Fluttershy's cottage and its surroundings; the birds chirped in perfect tone, almost like Fluttershy had trained them herself, and any critters in the area looked to be fit and healthy, not to mention as cheerful as can be. The assassin sat on his haunches, at the edge of the small river that ran through past her home, and did nothing but watch the fish go by, letting his memories flood him. He fell onto his back and rested his head on his hooves, gazing at the clouds, looking for shapes he recognised; his eyes relaxed into a glare, his usual state of expression, and took in the abstract shapes and slow movements of the sky's mist. This was the only thing he could really do to relax, watching the clouds, and the only way to settle his thoughts, that always seemed impossibly scrambled otherwise. He was good at hiding it, he knew that, but it didn't change the fact that without something to focus on, he found it impossible to keep his thoughts in order, or even focused on one thing; it was maddening.

"Don't talk to me about maddening; I'm mad enough as it is."

'Oh, it's you. I wondered how long it would take for you to resurface properly.'

"Yeah it's me. So…"

'So…'

"Look, we both know why I'm speaking with you now."

'We do, so get on with it; you're going to scold me for how I think about Twilight. Let's get this over with.'

"You're not even going to try and argue, are you? You really have stopped caring about what I have to say."

'I have, you're a voice in my head, nothing more.'

"We both know I'm more than that, Blood Moon.'

'You WERE more than that, Black Star. Now, as I said, you're nothing more than a voice in my head and even in that respect you're pretty redundant, you quit trying to send me insane years ago.'

"There was no point in it; you're too far gone to even try anymore, your sanity and insanity are sat on a delicate set of scales. Delicate, but sturdy. You're as far gone as you're going, not me, Celestia, Luna, or even Discord himself could push you over the edge. But at the same time, nopony, not Twilight, Vinyl, me or anypony else you know can bring you back to stability. But I doubt you care."

'No, I don't. Nor will I ever. I don't care if I'm as far gone as I'm going, because if that's the case, why bother with concern?'

"That's always been your problem; you don't care about anything you don't think is worth it; yourself, your safety, your sanity, the past, the future or even somepony who used to be close to you, Ditzy for example."

'We've been over this already; I no longer, nor will I ever again, care for that mare.'

"But you do Twilight?"

'Of course, I wouldn't have told her I love her if I didn't, would I?'

"You never told Ditzy you loved her."

'No, I didn't.'

"Did you?"

'No, I don't think I did.'

"In retrospect?"

'No, at all; I never felt that…same connection.'

"Because you never had sex?"

'No, you bastard, because I never felt that way, I guess, because I didn't feel any kind of out of place feeling when I was around her. I know love when I feel it, and that wasn't it.'

"Rising Sunset?"

'Yes, Rising Sunset.'

"Blood Moon?" The voice knocked him out of his thoughts, blinking himself back to reality and Equestria as he looked around for the source of said voice, tracking it to an orange furred filly with a purple windswept mane.

"Scootaloo" he said, straightening up to look at her properly and sitting on his hind-quarters. She sat next to him, picking up a pebble and tossing it into the stream. "Something up, Scoots?"

"No" she says unconvincingly and without looking at him "I was just thinking about what happened the other day, at the school" she told him, still not looking at him.

"Oh, what about it?" The filly glanced up at him, but didn't meet his gaze.

"I was just-just thinking about how you stood up to Miss Cheerilee and Diamond Tiara for us. Nopony has ever done for that for us before." Blood Moon shrugged.

"It was just how I would look after any filly, be it my own daughter or any close to me. And I'm not altogether surprised nopony has stood up to Cheerilee or Diamond Tiara before; too many ponies are too concerned about how other ponies perceive them. Personally, I just do what needs be done, and to Tartarus with what anypony thinks of me for it; I fight when I need to fight, kill when I need to kill and protect those close to me, it's only natural half the ponies of Equestria hate me, and the other half stand beside me." He shrugged. "It makes no difference to me."

"Why" the filly asked. The assassin smirked.

"So everypony who is catering to everypony else has something to strive towards when they decide they want to start living for themselves, as well as others" he told her.

"What do you mean?" He looked at her, his head angled inquisitively.

"Tell me, Scootaloo, what would you be if you served somepony else all of the time?"

"All of the time?" He nodded.

"Every second of every minute of every hour of everyday, etcetera, etcetera." She thought about it.

"A slave, I guess" she answered. He nodded.

"Exactly, and I am no slave, nor should you be nor anypony else be. And I'm pretty sure nopony wants to be a slave" he said.

"I wouldn't" she told him, looking at the stream. Blood Moon nodded.

"Good, that kind of thinking is the first stop to properly living." The two sat in silence for a while after he said this, Scootaloo letting what he'd said sink in while Blood Moon lay on his back again, staring at the clouds once more, Scootaloo joining him before long in his relaxation. "So why did you really come here" he asked, out of the blue. The filly looked over at him, trying to look confused.

"W-what do you mean, 'why did I really come here'?" The assassin smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"Let's be honest, you can't have been thinking just about how I stood up for you; that sort of thing is natural for you, you're a fighter, like me, you're head on and blunt. You don't exactly think, you do. So, standing up for somepony would be second nature to you, if you don't believe me just think about how you reacted to Sweetie-Belle's predicament the other day." He dropped his smirk and gave her a look that spoke his curiosity "So, what exactly were you thinking about?" The filly looked sheepish, turning away from him and prompting the stallion to sit up.

"I-I was just thinking about when you said you were… my daddy" she told him. Blood Moon looked at the floor.

"Ah" he muttered. She looked over her shoulder at him and saw him looking a little down. She sat up and faced him.

"I was thinking about what it was like to have a daddy" she continued "for a little while." The way she said the latter half of her sentence was almost tear-jerking.

"Scootaloo, I'm sorry if my…ruse was a little inconsiderate but I… well, put simply, I couldn't think of anything else at the time" he told her, no longer proud of his quick thinking. Scootaloo caught his tone of voice and moved over to him, grabbing his right fore-leg.

"D-don't be like that, it was nice having a dad" she said, giving him a weak smile. Blood Moon gave a small half smile of his own, not properly looking at her.

"Scootaloo, you need family, so why don't you go to Rainbowdash with this sort of thing?" The orange filly looked down again.

"Well, Rainbowdash is awesome and all but she's more of a sister than anything else, not like a-like my mom or anything like that" she revealed. "I don't think she sees me like that" she added. Blood Moon felt for her; he'd thought Rainbowdash and Scootaloo had been close enough to fill each other's void, but it seemed that they were in need of somepony more than that, somepony who could actually look after them in a way a sister couldn't; true, sisters had a relationship no other pony could provide but at the same time a mother or a father, or a simple elder, held a relation with a daughter none could match. A pony with the correct qualities and relation to the filly, or colt, can make a suitable 'honorary family member' but finding somepony with these qualities is difficult and there is always the chance of a lonely young never coming across somepony willing to take care of them. Now, Rainbowdash had Sand Stalker for that and Scootaloo could only look on as her big sister had her uncle and she had nopony, not for that anyway. He narrowed his eyes.

'Buck, that.'

"Listen, Scootaloo, I can't stand seeing a filly or colt alone and when I can help it, I do. So, if you're okay with it, I'd-I'd stand in as your father-" Scootaloo cut him off by lunging at him, wrapping her fore-hooves around his neck, sobbing slightly into his neck.

"Yesyesyes, thank you" she cried as he chuckled and pulled her into his own hug.

"Now, this isn't anything official but for anything you need a father for, I'm there" he pulled back and looked her in her damp eyes. "For better, or for worse." She squealed and dived into his shoulder again, nuzzling him as she did so.

"Thanks…dad" she said, holding him tighter, her little wings fluttering.

"It's alright Scoots" he told her, smiling fondly. He rather liked this, having a daughter again, though he did know he may have to watch her die eventually, no matter how depressing the thought it was just the way it was, he couldn't help but think he wouldn't have to look after her for her whole life, Scootaloo was just too cute for nopony to not want to take her in. Still, he wasn't sure what move he'd just made, I mean, let's look at things so far; he was in love with Twilight, who loved him back; Fluttershy was in love with him, and he couldn't deny he certainly felt the same way for the mare; Sand Stalker was Rainbowdash's uncle, who was Scootaloo's sister; and he was now Scootaloo's dad. So, what; Him and Twilight were the mom and dad; Sand Stalker was Blood Moon's brother; Scootaloo and Rainbowdash were their kids…

'Discord's antlers, this is a confusing family.'

Blood Moon shook the thoughts from his head, and resorted to falling onto his back, Scoots still in his grip, and just lying there with her. They lay there together, as father and daughter, for hours, just enjoying each other's company and relaxing in the sun. Scootaloo had fallen asleep before long, having drifted off in the midday sun with a content smile on her face, and Blood Moon was quickly following her to the land of dreams until he heard a blood curdling scream. The filly jolted awake, Blood Moon doing the same, clutching the filly in his fore-hooves and looking around himself to find the cause of disturbance while Scootaloo had just woken up for the second time in a day in the hooves of somepony who was alarmed, the only difference here was that she'd heard what Blood Moon had and was just as alarmed as he was.

"What was that" she asked, looking back at Fluttershy's home, where the scream seemed to have originated from.

"It sounded like Rarity" Blood Moon commented as he stood on all fours, Scootaloo on his back. The filly seemed to relax when he said this, giggling as she spoke.

"Well, if that's it, she may have just stepped into some dirt" she commented. The stallion grunted.

"Y'know, if she had, I wouldn't be surprised at her reaction. But with the current situation, I'm not gonna take the chance" he told her. The assassin trotted towards the cottage, once he arrived, he made his way around the back and saw Fluttershy and Rarity, the latter of which was on her back, tears streaming down her face. Blood Moon frowned, and cantered over, glancing left and right, looking for anything that may have been the cause of this. "Rarity, what's wrong?" She kept writhing around on the floor before she managed to look up and him with her eyes still wet. Blood Moon's frown deepened; she wasn't crying, she was laughing.

"Oh, B-Blood Moon, there you are" she fell into giggles again "I wondered if you'd turn up" she told him before she started howling in un-ladylike laughter. The killer glanced back at Scootaloo, who was looking as confused as she was, before he looked at Fluttershy.

"What's going on" he asked as the rest of the elements of harmony, Spike and Sand Stalker came galloping out, wondering what was happening.

"I don't wanna talk about it" the mare said in a deep, masculine voice. Immediately, Rarity started laughing again, Spike joining her while Sand Stalker raised a bemused eyebrow and the other mares giggled into their hooves.

"Hey, Flutterguy's back" Spike joked, slapping his knee. Blood Moon trotted over to him and clouted him around the back of the head with a snarl on his face. "OW, hey, what was that for" he demanded, rubbing his head.

"Because you're laughing at somepony afflicted with Poison Joke" he almost roared. The message didn't seem to sink in for most of the other ponies, but Sand Stalker, Spike and Rainbowdash all shut up at the ferocity of his words.

"Blood Moon, what are you so worked up about" Twilight asked, still giggling. The assassin moved over and hit her on the back of her head, though not as hard as he had Spike. "Ow, what gives?"

"Don't you know what Poison Joke is, what it does?" Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Of course I do; it plays a prank on you, it's happened to us all. Rainbowdash kept crashing"

"Rainbowcrash" Spike added.

"Rarity's fur grew out"

"Hairity."

"Pinkie's tongue messed up"

"Spitty Pie."

"Applejack shrunk"

"Appleteeny."

"And my horn went all floppy and wouldn't work."

"I still haven't thought of a good name for that" he muttered.

"Twilight Short-out" the assassin suggested with a half interested shrug. "Anyway, that's not the point; if it were just a prank they played, they wouldn't be called Poison Joke, would they?" Twilight's grin faltered.

"What do you mean" she asked. The assassin approached Fluttershy and checked her over, looking for any signs of the poison going further than just its joke.

"Well" he muttered, as he circled the butter yellow mare "if left untreated for more than a week, I think, the effects become permanent." The mares gasped. "And if left untreated for…" he looked at Sand Stalker "what, a month?" The merc put a hoof to his chin in thought before he nodded. "It's fatal" he finished. At those two magic words, Fluttershy's eyes widened and she fell to tears, landing on the stallion's shoulder.

"I don't wanna die" she said in that deep voice. The assassin didn't let it faze him.

"Don't worry, you're not going to die" he soothed as he stroked her mane before he frowned.

"When did it sting you anyway" he asked. The mare leaned back, putting a hoof to her chin.

"It may have been when we were getting out of the Everfree forest the other day, I wasn't really looking where I was going. I may have trotted through it then" she said. Blood Moon nodded.

"Makes sense, you were paying attention to Hunter most of the time and letting AJ and Rarity guide you, so you never noticed when you stepped in it." He looked her over some more. "At a guess, you grazed it, that would be why it took so long to take effect, normally it only takes a day, but with less poison in you system, it would naturally take longer" he said, more for himself than anypony else. He looked at Twilight. "How did you cure it before?"

"We didn't, Zecora fixed us up with a potion she made" the magenta unicorn told him. Blood Moon raised an eyebrow.

"What's a 'Zecora'?" Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Zecora is a zebra that lives in the Everfree silly, she's an alchemist." The assassin put a hoof to his chin.

"A zebra alchemist living in the Everfree forest?" Twilight nodded. "Eh, that's cool" he shrugged as he lead the way back into the cottage. His horn glowed and his vest, hood and cloak flew onto him, vest and cloak in better repair than the hood, surrounded by a grey aura, before his twin swords, still in their sheaths, flew onto him, strapping themselves onto his side, his other weapons not following after. "I take it only she knows this cure" he said, turning to the other ponies. Twilight nodded.

"Yeah, and she only comes to Ponyville when she needs supplies and there's no way of knowing when she'll come next" she said, as the assassin trotted for the door.

"Looks like I'm heading in there then" he said as the merc, his marefriend and Scootaloo galloped after him.

"You're not going in there alone" Sand Stalker told him.

"And why not" the dark stallion asked as he turned to him.

"Because it's dangerous" Scootaloo said.

"And you don't even know where she lives" Twilight continued.

"And the last time you went in there you died" Sand Stalker added.

"And I don't wanna lose you" Twilight and Scootaloo said at once, both hugging him as they said it, Twilight going for the chest and Scoots the legs. The assassin smiled slightly and hugged them back.

"Don't worry about me, I can look after myself" he reassured them. "Listen, I don't wanna lose any time, so I've got to get moving" he said as he broke the hug.

"At least let somepony come with you" Twilight said, her choice of words prompting a few blushes. Blood Moon shook his head.

"No, I need Sand Stalker to stay here with you in case anything happens and I'll be faster alone anyway." Twilight looked a little insulted.

"But you don't even know where she lives" she exclaimed. The stallion rolled his eyes.

"There are three beaten paths in the Everfree; one leads to the Everfree palace, the other to the Mirror pond and the other is one I've never explored, simply because I can never be bothered" he explained "I can only presume that, that pathway leads to Zecora's home." Twilight looked defeated.

"Alright, just…be careful" she said. The stallion grunted.

"I'll be fine" he told her. "What could possibly go-"

"STOP, right there" Twilight ordered, cramming her hoof into his mouth. "Whenever anypony says that, something always goes wrong" she said. He was about to argue when he noticed her point, shrugging.

"Good point, anyway, I should get going now" he said, receiving a kiss and hug goodbye from Twilight and Scootaloo respectively. He turns and opens the door, throwing a parting grin the other's way as he crosses the threshold. "Relax" he tells the Elements of Harmony, fillies and Spike. "I won't be long."

---

Blood Moon had been trotting for three hours now, eyes constantly darting from left to right as he watched for any threats that were tempted to jump him. He didn't like the Everfree, well, nopony did, but he liked to think he had a special relationship with it; he'd spent at least nine years of his life here, none consecutively, and most all of the time had been spent with him being worried about one thing or another, be it some rookie adventurer on his back or his mark getting away in this seemingly endless place. Blood Moon and the Everfree forest had an accord; 'you stay away from me, and I'll stay away from you.' Both parties would love to be able to hold up that agreement, but events constantly transpire to have him blundering in here, be it on the hunt in here or just having to run errands. He wondered why he'd never run into this 'Zecora' before, he'd been in here enough times so it was only logical; maybe she'd only just moved here, though he couldn't figure out why, or maybe he had seen or met her without realising it.

Another hour's worth of trotting complete, he came across a small hut, a Shaman's hut to be precise. It seemed to be built into a great, hollowed tree, bringing back pleasant memories of his time in Twilight's library, the outside decorated with tribal masks and bottles strung up from the branches. The assassin looks over the masks, recognising them as a sign of friendship and welcome; he grunted when he remembered that time he'd mistaken masks with happy and pleasant faces for welcome, but were instead the signs for sacrifice, cannibalism and, if he remembered correctly, flossing with a pony's mane. He looked around and found that there were no creatures in the clearing, most likely warded off by the bottles hung in the trees which most likely held an Ursa's urine scent, marking its territory but was scentless to ponies. Done with admiring the Sharman's home, he approached the door and knocked upon it. From inside, he heard a clattering as though he'd just disturbed somepony. The door opened to reveal a black and white striped zebra.

Zecora looked the stallion up and down, searching her memories and not recognising him.

"Ahh, a stranger comes to my door" she started as she opened the door further, though not all the way "tell me friend, what can I do you for?" The assassin raised his eyebrow at her strange form of speech but grinned all the same as he answered.

"Forgive my fine mare, but I bring news of a friend in disrepair" he explained. Zecora smiled when she heard his rhyme, opening the door fully and looking over the stallion; she recognised the Robus -weave on his chest and spotted the weapons on his side. Her smile dropped when she registered what he'd just said.

"Oh my, it must be severe, to venture to my home in here" the zebra commented as she looked around the Everfree forest. Blood Moon nodded.

"It's my friend Fluttershy you see, she's been afflicted with Poison Joke, believe me." Zecora put a hoof to her chin as she thought.

"Fluttershy you say, come inside and we'll talk more, okay?" She stepped back and bid him enter, the assassin nodding graciously as he stepped inside and looked around the inside of Zecora's home; it was decorated with more masks and hanging bottles, much more of them sitting on shelves and they were all around the place, so many that Blood Moon could barely see the walls behind them; in the middle of the hut, a large cauldron sat, brimming with some kind of bubbling, green potion; candles around the room kept the place warmly lit, it was friendly and welcoming but wasn't so bright as to disrupt the mysterious atmosphere; a few stick of incense stood around the room, the burning ends letting off smooth and sweet fumes that filled the room comfortably. "I noticed that you are armed" she commented, nodding at his blades "though I would be lying if I said I was alarmed. It is the errand of fools, who come in here without the right tools" she said as she went about making a cup of something. Blood Moon had acknowledged her comment with a glance her way with a small grin that agreed with her, before he looked around her home some more.

"A nice place you have here, you take care of your home, it is clear" he complimented as he paid more attention to the subtle and delicate atmosphere that must have taken months to perfect.

He looked at Zecora herself; she had a kind and impossibly pretty face, a softly curving jaw bone and small muzzle, wearing a sweet smile on her lips; her black and light grey fur cast stripes over her face and body, three below her eyes, a patch on her muzzle and two on top of her head, spanning from the base of the black stripes of her black and white Mohawk mane, her tail was tied at her flank, but she let it flow freely after that, the stripes circled her legs and spanned over her back in a spike like patterns; she had a nice body, strong but shapely, giving her a more hard than soft figure apart from the plump, soft, sweet and heart shaped flank that seemed to sway more than a pony's; as with most of her kind, she didn't have a cutie mark, or at least not one a pony could identify, instead she had what the assassin could only guess was her tribe's insignia, it was a long, tightly twisting spiral with triangles surrounding it, prompting the stallion to think her of the 'eclipsed sun' tribe; over her body she wore a few pieces of ceremonial jewellery, a golden earring in each ear and five gold hoops going up her neck and four on her left fore-leg; she had bright, wide, beautiful eyes that had black rims going around them, her dark blue eyes were brought out by the makeup though, with her already pretty face, he found it a little unnecessary. Her midnight-blue orbs spoke many things to the assassin, her skills as an alchemist not least among them, but he also saw an overly out of place amount of knowledge on and in using magic, it was an eyebrow raiser but it didn't faze him; it wouldn't be the first time he'd met somepony who could use magic and wasn't a unicorn.

"Not to mention your beauty in itself, staring too long would not be good for my health." Zecora blushed and giggled in to her hoof as she sat at a circular table.

"I thank you, my good sir. Now sit, it was Fluttershy wasn't it, tell me about what ails her." Blood Moon sat at the table that was off to the side of her home, adjacent to Zecora, and refused a cup of her brew with a polite shake of his head.

"Poison Joke, as I said, I seek to cure her or the consequences I dread." Zecora grinned as she sipped at her wooden cup.

"Ahh yes, Poison Joke, aptly named by you pony folk" she commented. "My services are what you seek, and I will give you a hoof, so to speak. My skills are not reserved, but there are certain formalities to be observed. May I, if it would not be a pain, ask respectively of your name?" Blood Moon grunted and bowed his head.

"My name is known by the far between and few, and many of them know it in fear, this is true. It is known to herald doom and gloom, though I digress, I am known as Blood Moon." Zecora raised an eyebrow.

"Blood Moon, I believe I've heard of you once or twice" she narrowed her eyes at him, more questioning than threatening, but still there "those who meet you tend to pay the price." The assassin smirked.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. Only those who deserve it die tend to follow that fate, not the whole lot. Besides which, those days are in my past, my days as an assassin did not, it would seem, last." Zecora nodded.

"I see, the path of redemption is tricky to be sure, but is a worthy road for those who can endure" she said, nodding in approval. The assassin cocked his head to the side.

"I do not seek redemption. I harbour no regrets, just a simple desire for recreation." Zecora shrugged.

"Either way, I digress; you came here for my help to fix up a mess." She stood and went to her shelves, moving around and looking for something. "I know how to cure fair 'Shy, but it seems my stock of the necessary ingredients has gone dry" she told him, putting a hoof to her chin. "I know what I need to do, but I may need some help from you. Stay here and stir this pan" she said, referring to the cauldron in the middle of the room. When she was about to speak again, she noticed the incense had burned out; the small stubs that had been left from the once long sticks now had a small trail of smoke drifting up from them, quickly dispersing and dying. Her eyes expanded hugely, and she whipped her head to the assassin, who was watching with a raised eyebrow. "Uhhh, change of plan" she said as she glanced left and right, a pink blush kissing her cheeks. "I need, instead, for you to go gather what I need; you'll find everything within a few leagues." The zebra cantered over to a small sack and peered inside, holding her flank way higher than necessary, her tail lifted with it, revealing her moistened marehood to the stallion. Weather it was intentional or not was lost on Blood Moon.

"Alright" he said at length with an eyebrow raised, unable to tear his eyes away from her slit and moving to the door, eager to get out before she noticed his steadily growing stallionhood.

"Tell me what I need, and I'll be back before the night." Zecora pulled her head out of the sack, biting her lower lip in panic.

"Um, of course" she gave him a list with a bunch of plants, herbs and vegetation on it. The assassin looked it over and raised an eyebrow at some of the ingredients. "Simply look around the area about my home, and you'll soon discover their source" she explained.

"Dead tree root cutting, Imploded jasmine leafs, Nirnroot and Poison Joke extract? Discord's antlers, this is some rare stuff, but still, so be it if this is my contract" he said, frowning at the page.

"They are what they be, but I must ask you to fetch them promptly. Now please go" she lowered her voice massively "else you be treated to a show." The assassin looked up from the sheet.

"What did you say?" Zecora had already trotted out, galloped out really, and left him to himself. "Eh, what the hay" he shrugged as he trotted out of her hut, grabbing a brown, one-sided saddlebag and strapping it over his sheaths and letting it hang on the other side of his weapons, in search of the items on the list.

It was an amusing game, gathering the things needed to make the cure to Poison Joke cure; Dead tree is known by its burnt and dead-like appearance as well as its ability to kill a pony on contact, so cutting off a piece of its root was quite the challenge when he had to unearth the root without touching it, slice of a bit of it and wrap it in a few big leaves he'd found nearby. You may be thinking that this would be no challenge to a unicorn, what with their powers of levitation, but considering that this particular piece of vegetation was immune to most forms of magic, this heightened the difficulty of the task immeasurably and left him excruciatingly annoyed with the plant by the time he had put it in his saddlebag. Crossing the item off his rather unorthodox shopping list, he set out for the next ingredient; Imploded jasmine. The plant was another breed of the strange and unique vegetation that grew in the Everfree; it got its name from what it did and was capable of, that being its defence system. Cacti have spines, roses have thorns and Imploded jasmine could form a black hole when feeling threatened. The word 'overkill' didn't cut it. The trick to gathering the leaves was to sneak up on the plant and nab them before it could fire up its space/time bending defences, escaping before you are caught in the pull and it was only Blood Moon's speed that allowed him to avoid being sucked into oblivion. Next was nirnroot, the easiest so far; on the surface it was a pair of blue-green leaves sticking out of the ground, an eerie white glow surrounding it; it emitted a unique chiming sound that could be heard from afar, but warded off any who would attempt to eat it, that said, it was highly poisonous to any and all who tried it; it could be used in potions, sure, but it had to be prepared properly unless you wanted a poison instead of something to heal. Blood Moon plucked a few of the herbs from the ground and trotted on, searching for the last ingredient he needed, the poison Joke extract. He discovered the blue plant before long, and he was wary not to step into it. He took his blade and slashed the blue head from the stem, placing it carefully into the saddlebag. Done with gathering what he needed, he set on his way to return to Zecora.

Upon arriving at the Shaman's hut, he knocked on the door and waited. He got no answer. He raised his eyebrow and tested the door, finding it unlocked and pushed it open. The inside of Zecora's hut seemed deserted, the pot in the middle was still bubbling but with nopony tending to it. He also noticed that there was now a new stick of incense burning, but rather than a pleasant scent, there was a strange smell in the air.

"Ah, Blood Moon, you have come back" Zecora said from a small cupboard, she still had her tail held very high and seemed to be pushing her hind-legs together, pushing her tight, heart shaped, sweaty flank… The assassin shook the thoughts from his head and tried to ignore his hardening stallionhood as he watched the zebra turn to him. "And you have what I need in your sack" she finished as she approached. Blood Moon suddenly felt weird, lightheaded and woozy. "Something the matter, dear Blood Moon, you look as though you're about to swoon" she commented with a slight smirk on her face as she approached and unbuckled the saddlebag, brushing against his member and stroking it with her hoof as she unstrapped the satchel. The assassin, once again, didn't know if it was intentional or not. He felt his eyelids get heavy and started having trouble keeping them open.

"I'm-I'm alright, just put a cushion there" he pointed to a spot on the floor to his left, where his head would land if he fell "if you would, and we'll see how I fair" he finished as he fell to the right. Zecora watched as he fell, smiling proudly to herself as she did.

"Please forgive me Blood Moon, all will be revealed soon" she whispered to his unconscious form as she removed his cloak, vest, hood and weapons before she bound his fore-hooves behind his back and leaving his hind-legs free, letting them spread as she got an eyeful of his erect stallion hood, liking her lips as she got a whiff of his sent. She went to the incense sticks and put them out; she'd made them herself, a concoction that put out a stallion mere seconds after inhaling it. Now that she'd put it out, she'd have around four hours until he awoke. Plenty of time. She added the herbs and roots to the base mix already in her cauldron and watched as the antidote bubbled into existence; gathering a small bottle of it and throwing her cloak over her back, she set on her way to Fluttershy's home, she didn't need to take the pathway, she knew the best way to Ponyville and knew she could get there, cure Fluttershy and get back with plenty of time to spare. As she stepped over the threshold she gave a parting glance to the unconscious Blood Moon; she didn't like deceiving him and drugging him like this, but all the same…

Heat did the strangest things to the dame.

---

Blood Moon opened his eyes, not without much difficulty, and gazed around himself, taking stock of his predicament; his hooves were bound behind his back and his gear was across the room, not on him; his stallionhood was still erect and he had no idea why, he could only guess it had something to do with the drugs in the incense. He grunted; that clever zebra, hiding a sleeping drug in an incense stick. He'd have to use that one. He noticed Zecora in front of him, lying on her side, propping her head up with her hoof, with a seductive look on her face.

"Good morning my fair stallion" she said as she stood and trotted over to him. She stooped with her muzzle not an inch away from his, looking down at his member and running her hoof down his chest, getting steadily closer to his sex. "Now, are you ready for some fun?"

"Would it be okay, if I asked you 'WHAT THE HAY'?" Zecora almost flinched but didn't back down.

"Please calm down, and I'll tell all" she gripped his cock, much the same as Twilight had, and lay on her front. "After, of course, I go to town." With a grin, she lowered her muzzle and let her tongue out, running it up his length and flicking it off at the tip, making the stallion growl and wriggle about.

"Okay, for one; what have you gone and done?" Zecora was suckling on his balls as he spoke, kissing them as he finished.

"I must be honest" a drop of pre-cum dribbled from his member, she gathered it on her hoof and licked it off. "Hmm, so sweet. But as I was saying, I am in heat" she told him as she went back to licking around the shaft, short smacks and suckles sounding whenever her lips made contact with it.

"Okay, heat, fair enough. I see this is no bluff" he told her. "So that was what the incense was for, to mask the smell of a whore." Zecora glared up at him, putting her teeth to his balls. "OW, sorry, my bad; it was the only rhyme I had" he admitted. The zebra licked and kissed his maleness, over where she'd punished him for his choice of words.

"I suppose it's alright, I apologise for that little bite." Sucking, kissing and licking over his cock again, but not taking him in, she managed to prompt a few more drops of pre to fall from his tip and onto her awaiting tongue. "Please allow me to sooth your pain, else my efforts to pleasure you, will all be in vain." She raised her face from his shaft with a grin on her lips, closing her eyes and flicking her tongue over the tip and pressing it between her chin and the assassin's member, her hot breath making him shudder. She noticed his reaction and giggled. "Enjoying yourself I see" she mused, kissing him up the length of his cock before she repositioned her hooves, one grabbing his member and the other going between her hind-legs. "I can only guess Twilight would not be overcome with glee." Blood Moon narrowed his eyes, only for them to snap wide open when she took him in properly, Zecora looking up at him and giggling around his dick.

"Now that you mention Twilight, you must have told her something to keep her away, am I right?" The zebra released him and ran her hoof up and down it to keep it busy.

"Your theory is true, I told her you stayed to help me with a brew" she revealed before she started kissing his tip again.

"Bull crap, you're telling me she fell for that trap?" Zecora had opened her mouth to take him in again, closing it in frustration and rolling her eyes.

"I can be very persuasive when I want to be, now would mind if we stop with the chatter so I can get to pleasuring thee?" She didn't wait for him to answer, instead she busied herself with blowing the assassin. The stallion gritted his teeth and growled, thrusting into her maw a little, when he felt her skilled lips around his member. She bobbed her head up and down quickly, groaning whenever she hit the base, and lapping her tongue along it. She took him to the roots and lingered for a while, moving her throat around to massage him while keeping him in the hot confines of her maw "Your marefriend is a lucky mare, now that I have you laid bare" she murmured as she pulled back, gasping for breath.

"You use me for your own gains, bound and trapped in these makeshift chains" he scolded as he felt the ropes that bound him.

"Yes, alright you caught me, now sit back and enjoy before I up the ante" she cooed, speaking around his cock, sending vibrations through his system. He looked down at the zebra and watched as she closed her eyes, hiding her dark blue orbs, and concentrated on running her lips and tongue up and down his cock, feeling him throb inside her as she worked him closer to orgasm. The assassin took advantage of her distraction and worked on freeing himself. The mare opened her eyes and turned her eyes up to him, smiling with her mouth full as she saw his pleasured face before she kept up her movements for a long while before she felt him throb more and more between her lips, getting progressively faster until…

"Zecora, my horny little friend, I think I'm about to hit…my…end" he managed to growl out before he came, the zebra releasing him and holding her tongue out, catching as much of his seed as she could on it before swallowing it down, licking her lips clean of any that lingered.

"Such a nice load" she said breathlessly, still tasting his seed on her tongue "just look at the way it flowed" she commented, pointing at the small puddle of cum between them. "Now, I hope you're not spent, for now it's time for the main event" the zebra hummed as she lay on her back, legs spread and revealing herself to the assassin. "Hope you like what you see, because you're about to take me" she said with a grin. Blood Moon couldn't help but look her body up and down; her belly was muscled and toned, but not unattractively so; her marehood was dripping and she rubbed her sex along his, wetting herself and hardening the stallion; her fur down there was a cute, neat little tuff, standing out from her body by being slightly raised from her fur. She gave him a show by closing her hind-legs and raising them slowly, running her hoof over her ass and playfully winking at him, touching herself around her pussy and flicking her clit a little before she ran her hooves over her flank again, rougher this time, and gripped her beautiful plot in her hooves. The assassin couldn't deny he enjoyed the view. Zecora got up from her back, moving gracefully over to the stallion and clambered up him. Her plan was to sit on his member while he was sat on his flank and ride him while he sat. What she didn't expect was for him to push off the wall and pin her down, an unbearable grin on his muzzle.

"Well, what do we have here? My pretty little zebra, looking up at me in fear" he mused, still holding her struggling form down. He lowered his still grinning muzzle to hers, watching as she squirmed in his hold and tried to pull herself away from the assassin's sinisterly smirking face; as he got closer she quit trying to pull away and instead she turned her head left to right as his own got closer. When he was within but a single inch, she stopped moving and stared fearfully into his eyes. He then closed the distance and pushed his lips to hers, catching her in a surprise embrace that she quickly melted into and returned with gusto; the stallion released his hold on her and ran his hooves down her, touching her flank and propping himself up as Zecora wrapped her fore-hooves around his neck and pushed her tongue into his maw, wrestling with his in a small heated battle that she found herself quickly groaning into before he pulled back from, breathing heavily.

"What is this, engaging me in such a passionate kiss" she demanded, smiling with him and breathing just as hard.

"You keep me here, forcing sex from me. Now it's time to pay your fee" he told her as he spun her over and stood her on her hooves, before he leaned over her, rubbing her flank, and spoke into her ear. "My loyalty to Twilight is something I hold dear, I'm going to rut you now, let it be clear" he told her, before he nibbled on her ear a little. Zecora giggled a little rubbing her sex into his.

"If this is your threat, I will not fret" she cooed, spreading her hind-legs a little. "The reason for your being here, is because I want you in my rear." The stallion grinned, rubbing his member up her slit, teasing her as he spoke.

"You're going to enjoy this, don't misunderstand, but in a while, you're not going to be able to stand." Zecora went to turn her head to him, but was interrupted when he rammed his stallionhood into her labia, not softly at all. Zecora was thrown forwards with his powerful thrust; she groaned slightly but was starting to see what he meant about not standing properly.

"Would you mind not being so hard, else I might get sore in my backyard" she said as he pulled back and thrust in again, just as hard as before. The stallion chuckled and leaned in again, holding her waist and kissing her neck slightly.

"Ah, but you see, this is your price for forcing me to sate your vice. To pay your debt, I must make you regret" he told her between more powerful thrusts that were quickly turning her flank pink with raw pain that she didn't exactly dislike.

"What do you mean, your point I cannot glean." He grinned and spoke directly into her ear.

"Is it not plain? As well as pleasure, I'm going to cause you some pain." The zebra swallowed, understanding flooding into her. Her leaned back and thrust into her again, his movements prompting breathless grunts from her maw and the sound of him slapping against her as his thighs made contact with her ass. Zecora was having the time of her life; firstly, she'd never been taken this way by a stallion before, she was no virgin, far from it, but Blood Moon had a way of rutting her that she hadn't felt before; his efforts to both pleasure and sting her made a unique sensation, the pain enhanced the pleasure to a degree that couldn't be reached if he were being gentle with her and she was fairly sure she really wouldn't be able to walk or stand properly for about a week once they were done. Blood Moon was enjoying himself too; the zebra's bubble but was jiggling nicely whenever he slammed into her, red marks quickly developing as he thrust into her, and her walls clamped down on him like a hungry Manticore on a leg of meat, her pussy feeling like a vice on his cock; the sound of his thrusts were complemented by Zecora's groans when he pushed into her, reaching deeper into her sex and stimulating her massively between the legs and prompting a waterfall of her juices to fall from between her slit and his maleness and onto her floor.

Zecora's legs began to weaken; her hind-legs were held up by the assassin, who held her up by gripping her flank, rubbing her tribal mark and occasionally spanking her, adding to the sweet soreness developing there, but her fore-hooves were quaking and she soon fell to the floor, her lush plot still held high for Blood Moon as he continued to pound her relentlessly, causing her tongue to loll out and her eyes to roll up as her whole body shunted forth when he thrust into her, sending ripples over her ass and making sweat fling off her. The stallion chuckled at her fallen form, leaning forwards and kneading his hooves into her back and shoulders watching her bite her lip as pleasure worked its way up her spine, stimulating all her pleasure receptors at once every time he pumped into her. He leaned up and stood slightly, resting his hooves on her flank and driving into her folds, spreading her without resistance as he continued to pound into her, her pink flanks turning red, and soreness turning to pain.

"Please, though I desire more, you seem to have bucked me raw" she said breathlessly over her shoulder. Her cutely blushed cheeks and the tears welling in the corner of her eyes hit a soft spot with Blood Moon, and he decided to go easy on her. He flipped her over, spreading her hind legs to give himself room, and lay her gently on her back before he leaned in, kissing her smoothly along the neck.

"Fair Zecora my apologies, I think you're done with pain" he leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips, caressing her face gently "now I promise to please" he told her, as he thrust in gently, slowly spreading her walls. Zecora was treated to an entirely new experience, as well as an entirely new stallion; in contrast to his rough treatment of her just now, his gentle and loving embrace stimulated a whole new set of nerves, as well as a whole new set of emotions.

He held her head up with his fore-leg as he bucked her, slowing and making sure she was alright if so much as an even slightly pained sound came from her. He sat back and held one of her hind-legs, stroking it up and down, fondling her plot lightly when he hit it and thrusting in deeper when he hit the hoof, hugging it slightly as he got closer to his orgasm. The pair gradually got closer and closer to their climaxes, the assassin swiftly picking up speed but being careful not to harm her further, while Zecora was moving her own hips to complement Blood Moon's movements, causing his balls to slap against her ass hole. Zecora no longer had pain on her face, just pleasure in its purest form; a small smile was stretched over her lips, a trail of drool running from her maw, her eyes were closed in total concentration on the rutting she was receiving and her whole body was relaxed, her fore-hooves were resting on her front while her hind-legs were at the mercy of Blood Moon, who still held one in his grip and let the other rest limp, shifting slightly as he thrust into her. The pair moved in tandem, ecstasy pulsing through them as they worked, him driving into her as she bucked her hips against him, prompting groans from both of them that increased in frequency as they got closer to their climax. The zebra started groaning more, her pleasured noises becoming breathless, her back arching every time he hit deep and her smile getting wider with every shunt.

"Blood Moon, I will not lie, my end is nigh" she managed to groan out, back arching as she spoke. Blood Moon thrust harder, the two groaning in ecstasy at once, before he pushed in deep and held it there.

"Not to make a fuss, but that makes two of us" he grunted. He leaned forwards and kissed her; risqué, wet, loud and sexy before he pulled back. "Tell me honey; would you like it in your cunny?" Zecora definitely considered it, wiggling her ass around and clenching her walls around him as she thought; cumming with Blood Moon would, no doubt, be one of the most satisfying orgasms she would ever experience, if the rest of their session of passion was anything to go by, but she wasn't willing to be impregnated for it.

"The prospect of foals I'd rather pass, so please, do it in my ass" she said. The stallion nodded, leaning forwards and nipping at her neck as he started his thrusts again, prompting breathless squeals from her, getting more and more ragged until she-

"My sweet stallion, I think I'm reaching the end of our-" she didn't finish, instead she was hit by a powerful shockwave of stimulation to her pleasure receptors and came, came hard around the assassin's cock, almost sending him over the edge before he could pull out and ram into her ass, coming heavily into her not a second after he'd penetrated her. They stayed connected for a while, riding out their orgasms together until it ended, Blood Moon giving a long and stretched out growl as Zecora screamed. When their powerful orgasms had ended, they found themselves in a rather agreeable position; the stallion was rested on Zecora, his dick still in her tight ass, something he now wished had taken part in their sex, and was breathing hard onto her, as the zebra did the same, a cute blush on her cheeks and a trail of drool sticking to her fur. Cum was still dripping from Zecora's ass and slit, collecting and adding to a small puddle that was gathering beneath their sexes, a sheet of shimmering sweat coating both their bodies and both still taking heavy, ragged breaths. The stallion withdrew his member, letting a small shower of cum and juices flow from her femness, ass and leaked from his stallionhood, flowing onto her ass. Zecora cringed slightly. "Ow, my-my ass is in disrepair, please, if you would be so kind, give it some care" she begged from her position, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she spoke. Blood Moon nodded, turning her onto her front and leaning down to her red and sore flank. He pulled a cloth from across the room and wiped away his and her cum, prompting a few pained squeals from Zecora. He kissed her pained ass tenderly, caressing her gently to try and sooth her as he continued to lick, kiss and just generally love that fine, perfect, round, beautiful ass of hers that he found himself quickly falling in love with more and more as he kissed her all over it, sneaking in a few licks of her pussy while he was at it, as he softly healed her sore rear-end with his gentle touch. He got up and made to mount her, but instead he rubbed his still stiff, wet and messy member along her plot cheeks, massaging her and using their combined cum as an erotic salve that he rubbed into her flank smoothly and softly, as he took care of the pain he'd caused. Zecora put her fore-hooves under chin, smiling contently to herself as she relaxed, getting slowly turned on by him once more. "Hmm, you feel good around my ass. You make me feel better after your…rough caress." He grinned at her rhyme, lifting her and carrying her over to her bed, something he now wished he'd seen earlier, and gently laid her on it. He looked over her some more until he fell forwards, onto Zecora and took to kissing around her face, neck and lips as he rolled off her and lay beside her.

"I…I, buck, I can't think of a rhyme" he said, as she retiring to nuzzling into his neck and breathing deeply, taking in the scent of sweat and sex. The assassin picked her up with his magic, covering her with the leopard skin sheet; he went to walk away but couldn't carry himself, so resorted to falling back into the bed where Zecora giggled at him, stroking his mane and prompting him to look over at her.

"You seem tired. If you can't walk, you could rest with me, if you desired" she told him, holding one side of the sheets up for him. Too exhausted to argue, he climbs in with her and takes to holding her as she snuggled into him, getting cosy. Blood Moon stroked her mane as she kissed him tenderly while she drifted quickly fell to sleep, the stallion following soon after, falling to sleep with their tongues still in each other's mouths.

---

Blood Moon's eye fluttered open, awakening to the sight of a still sleeping Zecora, who was smiling softly, likely at their past actives, and breathing softly, noticing he was still kissing her. He grinned to himself and kissed her lightly before he pulled back, groaning as he woke up and stretching his back out, cracking his neck, spine and legs as he attempted to get up but found himself being held down by a pair of shapely, black and white striped legs around his own.

"Going so soon, my dear Blood Moon" she asked with a playful grin on her face. The assassin smirked as he looked down at the mare and her sultry expression. He ran a hoof down the side of her face, caressing her cheek.

"Zecora, please forgive me, but I must be returning presently" he told her, watching her pout cutely.

"Hmm, I suppose it's true what you tell, at least let me-" he cut her off by leaning down and pushed his lips to hers, feeling her grin into their kiss and push her tongue into his maw, the assassin returning the gesture and wrestling her own as while he explored her mouth, feeling inside her mouth and making a good time of it until he pulled back, a strand of saliva between them. "Kiss you farewell" she finished, quietly. Blood Moon tapped her on the nose.

"I'll see you around, should you need me again, you know where I may be found" he said, as he straightened up and bowed his goodbye. He pulled his garb and weapons over to him with his magic before he trotted to the door and opened it, turning to her and giving one last smile. "I bid thee goodbye, my fair ally" he said before he flashed and disappeared, leaving Zecora still grinning before she fell back onto her bed, thinking about what had just happened with a content smile on her face and a hoof drifting between her hind-legs.

Blood Moon appeared at the outskirts of Fluttershy's cottage, Celestia's setting sun casting an orange glow over her home. His small smirk quickly washed from his face when a self-hating snarl replaced it, now ashamed at what he'd done with Zecora, holding his lowered head in a hoof. He tried to argue that he was honour bound to assist a mare who was in dire need of relief of their lust through heat, it was said to get unbearable at times and although he'd never experienced it himself, judging by how frisky they got, and at times how desperate, he could only guess it was a bad need. With a shrug, he decided to tell Twilight the truth, the whole truth, in hopes of her understanding. He pushed through the door and found the CMC, Sand Stalker and Elements of harmony, minus Fluttershy and Twilight, down stairs, simply sitting in companionable silence.

"Hi darling, have fun with Zecora" Rarity asked obliviously. Blood Moon simply smirked and nodded, glancing at Scootaloo and winking at her.

"Yeah, we made a potion to try and make a pony immune to Poison Joke effects, but instead it came out as paint thinner that almost burnt through the cauldron" he lied, easily, as he pulled his garb and weapons off of him and set them on a nearby hook. Rarity chuckled before she spoke.

"Speaking of Poison Joke, Twilight and Fluttershy are upstairs in the bathroom, getting the Poison Joke out of the poor dear's system" she told him. Mentally, Blood Moon flinched; that was going to be awkward. He trotted upstairs and found the door to the bathroom, the way his last time here ended didn't help him, but either way he knocked on the door. From inside, he heard Twilight's voice.

"Who is it" she asked.

"It's me, Blood Moon" he called back. He heard Twilight say something to Fluttershy inside, but couldn't make it out. The door opened to reveal both Fluttershy and Twilight standing side by side.

"Bedroom. Now" Twilight ordered. He nodded and complied, trotting to the room everypony was sleeping in. Once there, he made his way inside and turned to watch Fluttershy and Twilight follow him in, blocking any exit through the door.

"How are you" the stallion asked Fluttershy, curious as to how the cure had worked out.

"Better" she answered in her normal voice; she was quiet but seemed more confident, as though she was prepared to start talking about something. "Blood Moon" she started, glancing at Twilight "me and Twilight have been talking." The assassin swallowed.

"About?"

"About what happened yesterday" Twilight answered. The stallion swallowed again. "Blood Moon, I'm gonna tell you now, I know what happened between you and Fluttershy." He got ready to teleport to a cliff and throw himself off of it.

"Twilight, listen, I can explain-"

"No, Blood Moon, you listen" she cut off "I'm going to put this simply, so listen good" she told him. The way she was talking was doing wonders for his guilt about sleeping with Zecora. "Blood Moon; thank you for staying loyal to me, and doing your best to keep it up, and I love you for it, but it's obvious Fluttershy feels the same way about you" she said as she approached, Fluttershy doing the same. "I want you to understand…" Blood Moon backed up to the wall and was quickly backing himself into a corner; he'd taken on dragons alone, faced alicorns, griffons, manticores and took the fight to a legion of Changelings single-hoofed before, and never had he felt so outnumbered. The pair of mares continued to advance on him until his back was against the wall; it was now he would normally shout out some kind of battle cry, 'my back's against the wall' or 'an animal is most dangerous when cornered' and fought back, but this wasn't one of those kinds of situations, he couldn't pull his blades and fight his marefriend and a mare who loved him and not want to kill himself afterwards. He swallowed a final time when he felt his flank hit the wall and couldn't back away any longer. Twilight and Fluttershy kept moving in, his instincts kicking in as his magic focused on his blades as their faces moved closer to his own. He stopped trying to kid himself and killed the telekinesis around his weapons, closing his eyes in a pre-emptive flinch, and waited his reprimand.

He was taken by surprise when he felt something hot, wet and nice on either cheek and opened his eyes to see both Fluttershy and Twilight either side of him, right and left respectively, with their faces close to his, with their eyes closed and a small blush kissing both their cheeks as they kissed his. "That I don't mind, if you and Fluttershy like each other, who am I to stand in the way?" The record scratched. Confusion practically hit the assassin in the gut, as the question took him from the left and right wing at once and made his eyebrow rise, almost of its own accord.

"W-what, I don't understand" he told them, both having leant back and had small smiles on their faces at the stallion's reaction at their advances. Twilight giggled as Fluttershy answered.

"Equestria is a place of love, harmony and friendship; who's to say that a stallion or mare doesn't fall in love with more than one stallion or mare. As long as it's true love it's not frowned upon, but somepony who sleeps around or keeps more than one wife, husband, coltfriend or marefriend without the other partner being aware or giving consent is seen as cheating on his or her first partner" she explained. The assassin just blinked.

"What" he demanded. He'd been alive for almost all of Equestria's existence; its establishment between Princess Platinum, Chancellor Puddinghead and Commander Hurricane; Discord taking over and the wars between him and the Illuminating Night uprising; as well as all of Celestia's rain and never ONCE had he heard about this fact. That actually troubled him, the fact that he was unaware about such a thing and he'd been unaware for so long. He could only guess it was because he'd never taken much interest in the whole 'facts about relationships' life lessons because he'd never been interested in the idea of dating more than one mare, never wanted to, he'd been adamant that his loyalty in a mare he dated would always trump any chance of him doing such a thing; then again, as per said, he'd never been in many proper relationships and almost all of them had been under a ruse or alias. Hmm, that got him thinking; much of his life had been under some kind of lie or falsehood or deceit that made it impossible to hold together any kind of relationship, it just wouldn't have been practical for him at the time, not under his circumstances at the time, or his occupation. Now, however, he had a chance, he had the opportunity for a proper and healthy relationship with a mare that loved him, him Blood Moon, not some lie or made up personality but him in himself.

For the assassin, that wasn't the type of thing to happen very often, and he'd taught himself the following lesson when it came to this kind of thing; 'life's a bitch, but the best thing you can do is pick it up by the collar and spit in its face, telling it that you don't care about the consequences anymore.' He looked between the two, and considered how to respond. Twilight and Fluttershy looked at each other.

"Alright Twi, I'm gonna tell you now before you both make me forget, through my mind being broke in utter awe at what you just said; when I was at Zecora's, we weren't potion mixing." Twilight cocked her head to the side, Fluttershy looking just as curious as to what he had to say. "I was helping her with a problem." Twilight frowned.

"What kind of problem" she asked. The assassin steeled himself.

"An…intimate one" he replied sceptically.

"You-you and her…bucked" she said, growing quiet at the end. He nodded once.

"Heat" he said simply. The mares, to his utter confusion, seemed to relax at that.

"Oh, she was in season?" He nodded again.

"I…I was honour bound to help her; I'm bound by the code of the Shadow Weavers to assist a mare in heat." Both Twilight and Fluttershy looked at the floor, bashfully, as they remembered their first heats. It just so happened to have happened to them both…in the very room they were standing in…together. They'd both gotten a little closer that day.

"I-I guess that's okay, if you were helping her. Me and 'Shy both know how…awkward it can get when there's a stallion around" they glanced at each other "or a mare" she finished. The assassin raised an eyebrow; he suspected but brushed it off as his horny side making him think such things. "Listen, I don't want you to think I'm okay with you sleeping around but if a mare needs that…kind of help, just know I'm…not happy about it but I'll understand, just tell us okay." The assassin's eye widened at such a motion, such understanding, and sort of froze.

"I think we broke him" Fluttershy commented, Twilight nodded silently, waving a hoof in his face.

"I-I don't really know how to respond to something like that" he told them "I'm not sure what to say." Both Twilight and Fluttershy giggled at his answer, moving in at once and kissing him between each other, the stallion kissing them back as he fell to his flank as they stood over him, each of the mares kissing him before they pulled back and let the other move in, nuzzling him as she did. The stallion's lips met Twilights but before she could pull back Fluttershy had moved in, and they found themselves all kissing one another at once; sometimes it would be Blood Moon and Twilight, sometimes him and Fluttershy and at one rather awkward, and for the assassin remarkably hot, point, it was Fluttershy and Twilight.

The two found their lips touching and their eyes snapped open and the leaned back, though they didn't disconnect. Fluttershy blinked and Twilight followed her example before they both glanced at Blood Moon and saw a small grin slowly stretching across his face; they glanced into each other's eyes and grinned into each other's maws and moved their lips around in sync as they reengaged the kiss they now shared with each other as well as Blood Moon. The mares giggled into each other's mouths and the stallion smirked when he felt the three of them share the kiss at once, tongues jumping into the mix now and then. After a while they all pulled back, breathing heavily as they looked at each other, Twilight and Fluttershy grinning and blushing bashfully at each other when they tried to look at each other, while the stallion felt his stallionhood hardening for the fourth time in a day.

"So, uhhh, that happened" the assassin observed. Twi and 'Shy nodded, still incapable of looking at each other.

"I…I guess it did" the magenta mare agreed. They sat in silence for a while longer.

"So, what are we now" the stallion asked, looking at the pair of mares in front of him. "'Cause for starters, you two seem a lot closer than before" he said, noticing how neither Fluttershy nor Twilight had moved away from each other, despite their embrace having ended. They looked at each other before they looked at Blood Moon and pushed him onto Fluttershy's bed, following him down and laying either side of him, their hooves draping over his chest and idly tracing patterns across his chest fur.

"I'm not altogether sure" Twilight told him as he took her hoof with his own "but I think I like it" she told him. Fluttershy took their hooves in her own, snuggling into the assassin's neck.

"I-I guess this means I won't have to hide the way I feel anymore" she said, speaking quietly into his ear. He grinned and turned to her.

"I guess we won't" he agreed, before he turned to Twilight "as long as my marefriend agrees to it" he said. Twilight gave him a smile, and clambered up on top of him, prompting the animal caretaker to do the same.

"Blood Moon, I just kissed one of my best friends because of how much I love you, a mare to boot, you don't seem to understand" she turned her face to Fluttershy and turned her muzzle to her own, pushing their lips together, the butter yellow mare being taken completely off guard by this before she pulled back with a small grin on her face "that I may have been turned into a filly fondler by the stallion I love" she finished. The stallion blinked.

"W-w-w-what" he demanded, completely taken off guard by this turn of events. Fluttershy's cheeks were as pink as her mane.

"Good question" she said. Twilight giggled as she turned to her.

"Fluttershy, you do understand that now that you and Blood Moon are dating as well as me and him, you and me are dating each other just as much" she explained.

"What" he repeated "so if, for instance, you were to date another stallion, I would be dating him as well as you" he said, more for himself than anypony else. Twilight put a hoof to her chin.

"Well, technically, me and Fluttershy aren't actually dating, but it's easier if we do" she replied. Blood Moon cocked his head to the side in a confusion he was about to test.

"Wait a second, what you said just now, a heat with another mare around…did either of you…" he trailed off, his point clear and made, judging by the blush that Twilight and Fluttershy now had on their faces.

"Well…well I guess we…did. It-it was just a onetime thing, we were feeling the same way and we weren't sure what was happening…one thing lead to another…" The stallion looked between them with a small grin once again growing on his face.

"So…you were a filly fondler in the first place" he observed, his grin turning into a knowing smirk "well, it explains why you were open to getting a little frisky." He frowned. "And it wasn't me who had you fooling with Fluttershy he added. Twilight shrugged bashfully.

"Well, we hadn't done anything for a year or so until you came along and…inspired us to rekindle our…" she glanced at Fluttershy, who was looking at her with wide eyes and a steadily growing blush "affection" she finished, nuzzling her yellow furred friend, who gladly nuzzled back. The assassin grinned at the scene; at both the view and the idea that he may have helped bring the two of them together, that said, he hadn't seen it coming. He watched gladly as their nuzzling tempted to more kissing until a thought popped into his head.

"But couldn't this jeopardize your friendship" he asked. Twilight looked at him.

"Why would it do that" she asked.

"If anything unfortunate were to happen between us, all of us, isn't there the possibility of it driving you apart?" The mares looked at each other, horrified at their friendship being pulled apart. Fluttershy steeled herself.

"No, we won't let that happen, if we stay together and-and" she looked between Twi and Blood Moon, before she pulled them both in and engaged them in a short three way kiss. "We make sure to be together forever, nothing can pull us apart" she said confidently. Proud of her self-confidence, Twilight wrapped her in a hug as Blood Moon wrapped them both in one and held them tight.

"So, do we tell anypony" the stallion asked. They all thought about it and came to the same conclusion.

"Let's keep it between us for now, wait until this whole thing has blown over and we have a moment to think about this while we don't have to worry about our" she gave a mocking, glamorous throw of her mane "unbridled passion to worry about" she said playfully, prompting a few laughs.

"Or the guards" Blood Moon added. They went a bit quiet at that, lying with each other for a while until they heard the sound of hooves coming up the stairs. "Alright, let's cut this short" he turned his head to Fluttershy and kissed her "Fluttershy…" she smiled and pecked him on the nose.

"I love you too" she told him. The assassin grinned and turned to Twilight.

"Twilight" he started, before he leaned in and kissed her, teleporting them both to her bed just as the CMC, Pinkie Pie and Rarity trotted in. Scootaloo spotted him and smiled, before he motioned for her to come over. She cantered over to him gladly and leapt up onto the bed before she leapt up onto him.

"Hey daddy" she said, hugging him. The stallion hugged back, the same fond smile coming back as he ran his hoof along her mane. Twilight looked on with a smile that spoke 'dawww' very clearly before she realised what Scootaloo had just said.

"Daddy" she repeated, her eyebrow raised. Blood Moon and Scootaloo looked at her.

"Yeah, when I went to pick her and the fillies up yesterday Cheerilee said I couldn't pick them up if I wasn't related, so I decided to tell her I was her dad" he told her "now, I guess you could say that I am her father" he explained, as the orange filly nuzzled him. Twilight looks surprised.

"So…you adopted her" she asked. The assassin looked at the filly.

"No, but I don't think I need to just yet." He looked at the filly in his hooves and back at Twilight, he decided he needed to talk to her in private. He built the magic in his horn and fired up the powerful spell, freezing time around him and Twilight, the others being suspended in an everlasting second. Twilight looked around herself, amazed at what he had done.

"B-Blood Moon, what did you do" she asked, awe clear in her voice.

"Froze time all over Equestria" he said with a shrug "I needed to talk to you about Scoots" he told her. Twi nodded, not quite believing that he would use such a powerful and complex spell just to talk with her in private. "I don't know if I can adopt Scootaloo" he told her. The mare looked a little disappointed.

"Why not" she asked, as the assassin looked down at the frozen filly in front of him.

"I don't think I need to" he said with a look on his face that told Twilight he wasn't sure how he knew what he did. "Scootaloo is the kind of filly anypony with a heart would want to adopt, besides which, my...lifestyle, can be somewhat strenuous on those close to me, never mind a daughter" he explained. His marefriend nodded gently.

"I understand" she told him, before a thought crossed her mind "have you ever had foals before" she asked. The stallion swallowed, he mimed his magical reserves weakening, and slowly killed the spell without answering.

"Besides, this is nothing official" he said, flawlessly moving back into his conversation before he's cast his time bend. Scootaloo nuzzled him again.

"I don't mind, I just want my daddy, I don't need anypony else to know it" she told him, still hugging him. Applebloom and Sweetie-Belle looked over at them.

"So, Blood Moon IS your pa" Applebloom asked, reminding the stallion, filly and mare that they were in the company of others. The assassin and Scootaloo glanced at each other.

"Yeah, I guess I am" he answered. The other two fillies just blinked and froze up for a second before the leapt up shouting 'awesome' at once. They bounded over to their friend and dived onto her, landing more on the assassin than the filly, Blood Moon letting out a small grunt when he felt them land on his stomach.

"This is great, you got a daddy" Sweetie-Belle said, hopping in place in excitement.

"Yeah, he can help us find our cutie marks" 'Bloom added. The stallion grinned at their excitement.

"Yeah, I'll see what I can do; I mean I already helped out Sweetie-Belle, didn't I" he said. Sweetie-Belle seemed to remember something, as well as the rest of the CMC, and her eyes widened in even more excitement.

"Oo, oo, oo, I almost forgot, the school organised a talent show and the cutie mark crusaders have entered" she practically exploded, a few green sparks of magic firing from her horn.

"That's great" Twilight exclaimed "what's your talent going to be?" The CMC looked between themselves.

"The same as we did last time, but we're gonna change the rolls around this time" she explained. Blood Moon cocked his head to the side, as Scootaloo clambered off him and sat between her friends.

"What do you mean 'same as we did last time'" he asked.

"A little while back the school put on a talent show for the foals, and we did a sort of, 'song and dance' routine" Scootaloo explained, before they looked between each other sheepishly.

"It…didn't go so well" she murmured. Blood Moon cocked his head again, a small smirk on his face.

"How do you mean 'not so well'?" The CMC looked even more sheepish.

"Scootaloo wrote the song, ah did the dancing and Sweetie-Belle made the backdrops" Applebloom told him. The stallion grunted a laugh. "After that we thought we could try comedy, but after we tried a few stand-up acts were the crowd fell asleep and one or two practical jokes that backfired, we gave it up."

"I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say that you didn't distribute the jobs properly" he ventured.

"How'd you know" 'Bloom asked.

"Simply filly psychology" he said with a shrug "you're at the age when you start to come across your talents, but at the time you weren't very confident in them so you deviated from them" he rubbed his chin while he thought "let me guess; you helped each other out without realising that you'd done the task naturally?" The fillies, and even Twilight, looked awestruck.

"How-how did you know that?" He shrugged once more.

"Like I said, simple psychology, that, and I've been around fillies and colts a lot of my life so I know a lot about how they think" he told them.

"Wow, you're good" Sweetie-Belle said, before she leaned to the right and peered at his cutie mark. "Is that what your special talent is? Psy-pys-Psyicolagy?" The assassin grunted.

"Psychology" he corrected good naturedly "and no, my cutie mark represents something very…different, as well as special, about me" he answered.

"What does it mean" Twilight, this time, asked. Blood Moon looked at his marefriend, then the fillies and then the other mares who were in the room, all of which were looking on with no small amount of interest. With a shrug, he answered.

"It's my…talent, really, pure and simple." He looked Scootaloo in the eye. "A desire for speed and danger, natural grace and a skill at dance and things that involve fast movement" he said, watching as her face grew more and more slack as he spoke.

"Wh-how-I-" she couldn't finish.

"My special talent is just that, your soul" he said "I know everything about you before I've even spoken to you, because I can see your soul." A cold and appropriately mystical wind blew through the room after he had spoken.

"The-the soul" she repeated. She looked at his cutie mark again. "A sword and ouroboros, I don't get it."

"The sword is my ability with a blade, as you could guess, and the ouroboros represents immortality, right?" She nodded. "Your soul is everlasting, so, an ouroboros only makes sense."

"I guess that… works" she murmured.

"So, you can see anypony's soul" Sweetie-Belle asked.

"Why yes I can, love for music graceful music, masterful tempo keeper and knowledge of sound as a whole" he answered.

"Do me, do me" Applebloom chanted. He gazed over to her.

"A knack for a hammer and nails, a love for creation, an untapped understanding of herbology and an unmatchable love for her family." Twilight stammered as she looked on.

"That-that's…"

"Amazing?"

"Awesome?"

"Try impossible" Twilight almost blurted "no pony can know so much about somepony without some kind of research or knowing about them before-hoof! It-it's almost like Pinkie Pie's Pinkie-sense." Blood Moon glanced at Pinkie Pie with a raised eyebrow.

"Pinkie-sense" he repeated. The pink pony nodded.

"Yeah, I get twitches and stuff when things are about to happen" she explains. Twilight points a hoof at her.

"See, completely impossible, but I guess this is another one of those things I'll just have to accept" she sighed. Blood Moon angled his head and went to talk but instead, Pinkie Pie started shuddering. "Uh-oh" Twilight murmured.

"What is it" the assassin asked.

"A shudder means that there's a doozy about to happen, somethin' you never expected to happen is about to happen" she explained. Unfazed, the stallion continued to observe Pinkie Pie as she continued her antics.

"Y'know, if I had to guess, I'd say that sort of sounded like a gut feeling, just, y'know, a highly accurate and a little eccentric gut feeling" he said with a shrug. Everypony in the room, including Pinkie Pie, stared. "What? You telling me you've never just felt something, like you just knew something was about to happen but could never explain how, or you just knew somepony had entered the room, but you hadn't seen or heard them. Y'know, just a gut instinct that you can't explain. Hay, even I get them now and then, I'm pretty sure the rest of you do too."

"I w-what" Twilight started "what do you mean, a 'gut instinct'? Did you just try to explain the Pinkie-sense?" He shrugged.

"I don't know, I might have but I don't know" he turned to Pinkie "did I?" She blinked once.

"I stopped shuddering; I think that was the doozy." He turned to Twilight looking just a little smug. One look at her face and a glance at everypony else's face told him this wasn't the type of thing to joke about.

"What" he asked again.

"N-nopony explains Pinkie Pie, nopony can, nopony wants to and you just…made it make sense" the purple mare said, gaping at him. "I tried that once with a bunch of brain analysers and stuff and you just… did it with some simple logic, you just…did it in your head?"

"I…guess so" he ventured. Twilight just lay her head on the pillow.

"I don't wanna think about this anymore" she groaned. Blood Moon grunted a laugh and fell beside her.

"Whatever, it's getting late anyway." The fillies returned to their respective beds as they lay there, Twilight mouthing thoughts to herself as she tried to make sense of how he had made sense of what had happened and how her coltfriend had managed to figure out Pinkie Pie. The rest of the elements of harmony, Sand Stalker and Spike entered the room, looking around and getting a 'you don't wanna know' when they asked what was going on.

Settling down for the night, Twilight was still trying to figure out what had happened long after everypony had fallen to sleep; with a frustrated growl she turned to Blood Moon, who opened his fore-legs and caught her in a relaxing hug.

"Make it go away, I don't like obsessing over anything to do with Pinkie Pie, it's not worth it" she muttered as she snuggled into him, getting comfy.

"What do you want me to do?" She shrugged.

"I don't know, distract me" she suggested. He couldn't help but grin.

"How?"

"Use your imagination" she said playfully. The assassin thought about it before he got an idea. He got up and trotted silently over to Fluttershy, Scootaloo and Rainbowdash's bed. He tapped on the yellow mare's shoulder and spoke into her ear.

"Fluttershy" he whispered, his quiet voice managing to awake her. She blinked awake and saw him, she quickly moved forwards and clamped her lips on his. After a second of passion, she released him.

"That's a nice way to wake up" she murmured. The assassin grinned, though in the darkness it was lost on her.

"I'll say" he muttered "anyway, Twilight's thoughts are a little…occupied with Pinkie's Pinkie-sense." Fluttershy giggled.

"That sounds like Twilight" she said, before she frowned "why did you wake me up to tell me that?"

"I need your help relaxing her" he said. Fluttershy giggled again, this one accompanied by a small blush. "Alright, I'll give you a hoof 'relaxing' her."

"Thanks." They trotted over to Twilight's bed, the stallion quieter than the mare. The purple mare noticed their approach and leaned up slightly.

"Where'd you go? I thought-" she was cut off when she felt somepony climb into bed behind her. "Blood Moon? Who is that?"

"Hey Twilight" cooed Fluttershy from behind as she put her hoof over her body and pulled her into her as Blood Moon lay in front of her and snuggled into her. Twilight, the daffodil in a pony sandwich, suddenly found her mind occupied with the mare on her back, who seemed not to care about her flank pressing against her, and the stallion on her front, who was now pressed holding both her and Fluttershy in his hooves.

"So, distracted yet" he asked, a grin in his voice. Fluttershy giggled.

"I should hope so" she said, kissing her neck lightly. Twilight was still taken a little off guard but soon got comfy with it.

"Oh yeah" she replied, snuggling into the two of them, wiggling her flank into Fluttershy and pulling Blood Moon into her. "I'm pretty occupied now" she finished.

The three of them fell asleep with grins on their faces, feeling more in love than ever.

A/N: Chapter eighteen folks, and we're at a record for pony-porn!

You're kinda horny aren't you.

It was a phase, bite me!

Productive faffer-and Pinkie-out.