The Shadow of Equestria

Chapter 7

One Happy Family

Getting the info was the easy part according to Dark Wing. The hardest part to come would be the actual jobs. I laughed at this, stuff like this came naturally and thus, he had no reason to worry. After the information was relayed to several of his men, Dark Wing's scouts found the house that matched the description, the only red brick house in the market district. According to them it was an easy find, stuck out like a sore thumb.

One of the scouts who were assigned to finding the house approached Dark Wing.

"A team has been assembled and is ready to move on your command sir." said the pegasus in a military like fashion.

"Thank you for your help Cloudy Day but a team will not be necessary." said Dark Wing with a smile on his face.

"Then who will attack Looking Glass?" asked the pegasus.

"Zhane will." said Dark Wing as he motioned one of his wings towards me.

"By himself sir?" said the pegasus with an unbelieving look on his face. "I know what he is capable of sir but don't you think more men should go? Looking Glass was an excellent fighter."

"I know that good and well Cloudy Day but I assigned Zhane this job. He has agreed to complete to the very end. Plus, I believe that he is better suited for this than some of my men. He does need a pony to guide him to the house and I believe that you would do perfectly."

Cloudy Day saluted and stood tall.

"Of course sir, send Zhane outside when he is ready, I'll be waiting." Cloudy Day took that as his time to leave and thus trotted out of the room and outside to wait for me.

I stood silent for a moment before I began to walk to the door. I was ready to go; time was the only thing in my way.

"Zhane." called out Dark Wing. "Before you leave, I would like to ask you to make this very interesting. It will only be a matter of time till the Royal Guard finds out about Looking Glass being murdered. When they find him, I want everypony on that crime scene to puke at the sight of what is about to happen. So with those words, I believe you know exactly what to do."

I smiled, it's been a long time since I've done something like what Dark Wing wants me to do but nonetheless, I'll do it anyway.

"Of course." I said as I turned back towards the door and walked out.

It was already night outside the club, the perfect time to do very unsavory things. The best time to commit a murder. I looked around for Cloudy Day and found him sitting on the ground next to the door. He looked up and noticed me.

"Ready to go?" he asked as he flapped his wings to help him up.

"Lead the way." I said as I motioned him to escort me to the target.

He nodded his head and started to fly slowly away from the club. I followed him closely as we got closer and closer to our target.

After four or five minutes of following, the red brick house was clearly seen in the distance. I was about to continue forward before Cloudy Day stopped me dead in my tracks.

"I'll wait here for thirty minutes, if you're not back by then, I'm leaving you here." he said with a serious face.

I rolled my eye then nodded as I began to walk towards the house to find a way in. Up close, the house was quite new looking despite its look from far away. There were two windows both close to each other. I approached one and looked inside, what I saw was a dark hallway with multiple doors. Those doors probably led to bedrooms or bathrooms of some sort. I pulled away from that window and approached the next one. This one was different, it had light coming from it.

I looked inside and made sure that my head wasn't showing. The last thing I needed was to be spotted. Inside, were three ponies, two average size and one small one.

'The small one must be a child.' I thought to myself as I continued to look.

I tried to find out which one was Looking Glass but I was never given a description of him.

'I might have to kill both of those ponies.' I said to myself.

'What's stopping you?' I heard as Umbra jumped into my inner thoughts.

'I don't know, I guess I was trying to plan on what to do.' I said to Umbra as I continued to watch.

'Why not jump in there and kill them all?' he asked.

'I would rather not kill children. However, if that child becomes a problem, I will kill it.'

Umbra didn't reply back and so, I continued with my work. The three ponies inside had left the room I was looking into and had moved into the hallway. I moved to the other window to catch a glimpse of the three going into separate rooms. The child went into a room at the end farthest away from the window. The two bigger ponies entered the room closest to the window. This was perfect; they just made this job a lot easier for me. All I had to do was get in the house, kill Looking Glass, and get out somehow without waking the kid.

I gave it a couple of minutes before I decided to make my move and force the window open. To my surprise, the window wasn't even locked. I laughed slightly before I entered the house through the window.

Once inside, I want straight for the room closest to the window. I turned the doorknob and slowly opened the door as I stepped inside. Inside, I saw the two bigger ponies lying in a bed across the room. I smiled as I slowly entered and closed the door behind me.

Okay, for the record, hogtying two ponies is one thing, but doing so whilst the other is watching in horror and about to act is another thing. I got to learn how hard a pony can buck, much to my dismay. Leaving two now unconscious ponies now hogtied in their beds, I walked back out of the bed rubbing my chest with a frown. One of them got me pretty good too, I'm just glad they didn't touch my face. I looked down the hallway and made my way to the kitchen area. The only reason I was there was to find something I could use to finish my job. A knife, a cleaver, a fucking spoon would work. It was a lot better than using me hands. I continued to search until I found something, an old cleaver in the back of one of the cabinets. I smiled at my find and reached for but was stopped when I heard a small gasp behind me. I knew who it was as soon as I heard it. I turned and saw the little kid standing there looking up at me.

"Who are you?" she asked.

Sweat started to fall down my forehead, killing children was messy work and usually never ended well for me. So I decided to lie to her in hopes of deceiving her tiny mind.

I walked over to her slowly and knelt down.

"My name is Zhane; I'm a friend of your dad. We used to work together." I lied as I smiled.

"You work for Uncle Dark Wing too? I thought daddy quit working for him?" she said as she tilted her head slightly.

"He has." I replied. "I'm here to give him his final payment." I pointed back towards the kitchen. "The only problem we had was no writing utensil. Your father told me that I would find one in the kitchen but I cannot find it for the life of me."

The little foal looked past me and pointed at one of the drawers with her hoof.

"We usually the quills in that drawer there." she said with a smile.

I looked back and then looked back towards the foal.

"Thank you so much, it would have taken me all night to find one." I looked towards the window and back at the foal. "Speaking of night, it's pretty late. You should probably head back to bed."

The foal nodded in agreement before yawning.

"Nice to meet you Mister Zhane. Good Night." she said as she walked towards her room and shut the door. I waited a minute before I continued my search and pulled the cleaver out of the cabinet. I also got the quill from the drawer along with some ink and paper. I was going to have some fun.

Once back inside the other room, the two ponies were now awake and trying to free themselves from their binds. Once I had entered the room, they stopped, fear in their eyes. I set the tools I was going to use aside and approached them.

"Down to business." I pointed to the pony on the left. "I'm going to ungag you. If you so much as make a loud sound to alert someone, I will go into the other room and rip your daughter's head off. Understand?"

The pony nodded fearfully as I smiled widely and pulled the crudely tied sheet out of his mouth.

"Now tell me, what is your name?"

The pony paused a moment before answering

"My name is Looking Glass."

"Excellent, just the pony I was looking for. It seems that you made a certain dark winged leader very angry in the last week. He told me that you caused some problems like ratting out his troops."

"Please, leave us alone. I'll give you anything you want. Money, I can get you a very large sum of bits. Tell me, what is Dark Wing paying you? I'll double it, triple it."

I shook my head with a frown on my face.

"I don't like being interrupted Looking Glass and what you just did was very rude. Now I would suggest that you..."

"I'll give you my wife; she's pretty good in the sack and still tight if you know what I mean."

I growled slightly as I put the gag back into Looking Glass' mouth.

"The offer for your wife is very inciting but I only see one problem Mr. Looking Glass." I quickly reached for the cleaver and brought it down on the other pony's neck. "Your wife is dead."

I looked up to see Looking Glass failing around in the bed, tears running down his checks.

"Don't feel sad Looking Glass, you'll see her soon."

He looked up at me with wide eyes.

"Weally?" He asked while his voice was muffled.

"Of course, I hear the afterlife is quite the lover's destination this time of year." I said as I brought the cleaver down on his neck. Slowly taking his life away.

With the deed down, I started to think on how to make this murder interesting. That's when I saw the paper I had brought in.

'Hey Umbra.' I called. 'Is it possible to cover a piece of paper with magic?'

'Of course. What do you have in mind?' he asked.

'You'll see.'

Dark Wing leaned back in his chair once I told him how I finished my job.

"And the daughter just went back to bed?" he asked in disbelief.

"She sure did, it's hard to believe that a child is that stupid." I said with a smile.

"I know." said Dark Wing as he looked back down at the report. "Well, you have completed your job. Your payment, since this was a risky job and since you completed it without killing the daughter or arousing suspicion, will be 50,000 bits."

I was surprising pleased with the payout of the job. Now that I had money, I could continue on what I wanted to do.

"You will receive you payment tomorrow. As for now, I think you should lay low, just in case."

I rolled my eyes, that meant another couple of days at the club.

Celestia trotted quickly down the now closed off Canterlot street named Market Road. Word of the murder spread fast and on top of the assassination threat, the day has been hectic. Close behind her was her sister, mimicking her quick steps in as much disarray as her sister.

"What kind of pony would commit such a horrendous act sister?" asked Luna as she caught up with Celestia.

"I have no idea Luna but I intend to find out." said Celestia as she stopped dead in her tracks. There before them stood the red brick house in the market district. The safe house where Celestia herself had placed Looking Glass for protection ever since Poison Spectre escaped along Zhane Black. Even thinking about that name made her frown, the very thought that a murderer like him is roaming around her kingdom only angered her. She pulled herself back to the real world and entered the house before being directed to the crime scene.

Celestia took one look inside and gagged as bile rose in her throat. There were two bodies, both horribly dismembered. Guts were spread across the wall; bones were pulled out and placed in neat piles. It had almost looked as if a wild animal had attacked the couple. Celestia walked away from the room and pushed her sister back.

"That is something you would not wish to see dear sister, trust me." said Celestia as she regained her composer. Just in time for the guard over the crime scene, Stone Cutter.

"Good to see you so up and about Stone Cutter. It warms me to know that a missing wing won't slow you down."

"I will not slow down as long as there is a job to be done." said Stone Cutter as he bowed to the two Princesses. "I assume that you saw the scene?"

"I have and I must say that it was the most gruesome thing I have seen in a long time. Do we have a culprit?"

"No ma'am but we have something you should probably see."

Stone Cutter lifted up a scroll wrapped in a red string up to Celestia who grabbed in, unrolled it, and read it aloud.

"What has this bugbear Death to frighten man,

If souls can die, as well as bodies can?

For, as before our birth we feel no pain,

When Death's arms infested land and main.

When Heaven and Hell were in confusion hurl'd

For the debated empire of the world.

Which awed with dreadful expectation lay,

Soon to be slaves, uncertain who should sway;

So, when our mortal frame shall be disjoin'd,

The lifeless lump uncoupled from the mind,

From sense of pain and grief we shall be free;

We shall not feel, because we shall not be.

-Mister Zhane

"Hmm, that's weird." said Stone Cutter. "The daughter of the couple told us about a Mister Zhane that she found in the kitchen last night. He said he was a work friend of her dad. What do you think Princess?"

Celestia didn't respond, instead she looked at the paper with a frown on her face. She knew who did this and he was going to pay for such and act. To make it worse, he covered the page in that damned dark magic. How dare he do this, how dare he. Celestia's horn grew brighter as the paper burst into flames.

"Gather a squad together, inform Shining Armor. I believe I know who our culprit is."

Here's Chapter 7 for everypony, sorry for being a little late.

If anyone was curious about that poem at the end, Lucretius wrote it (A poet from 55 B.C.). This is not the full poem and I do not take credit for this poem. If you wish to read the whole thing, the poem is called Against the Fear of Death.