Silver and Blackout picked up the now-sleeping Celestia, paid her tab, and headed out. Cricket followed close behind. ***************************************************************************** Miles away, Nightshade's train finally reached Yakyakistan. It had been an eventful trip, with the shadow ponies attacking the train out of nowhere, but Nightshade and a few other passengers had fought them off.
Asmo stayed behind to take Raven to bed. He hefted her up to his back and began carrying her upstairs. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (Mind if a couple horses come bother Nightshade?)
Windsor began closing up, attempting to shoo the stragglers out. ******************************* (S'fine. I was expecting the week to be nearly over by this point.)
At the train station, the Assassin, Navaja, was waiting patiently, leaned back on a bench. He was playing with his hidden blade, extending and retracting it. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Asmo set Raven in a bed, where she quickly passed out.
"Nightshade. Yes?" He stood up and stretched, popping his back. "Somepony is offering us a few Bits to... well, keep you not dead. So I intend to do just that."
"Because if you don't I'm going to [Nightshade proceeded to, in graphic detail, describe an extremely unsettling scenario which would result in one part of of Navaja's body being forcibly inserted into another part of Navaja's body.]. And then, you'll tell me anyway. Wouldn't you like to do this the easy way?"
Navaja cringed. "By the Princesses, you're one violent chica." Azrael appeared behind her with a chuckle. "You are a smart mare. Who would most readily pay an Assassin to protect you, Nightshade?"
I'd love to take her home, excluding the fact that I am no where near capable of crossing Worlds yet. Unfortunately. I do wonder. (Writes Midnight's injuries away, healing her horn. Then writing a note addressed to Edmond, after signing it the note vanishes with a chime)
Midnight snorted from under the blanket and blinked at the backstage pass, she decided she would go there. Though after a proper sleep, she glanced at Silver and climbed ontop of him, she then used her Shadow Magic to contact Architect, "Going to stay with Silver for awhile, also going to some sort of concert later" she told him, she then climbed ontop of Silver's head still under her blanket "Lets go, I'm staying with you for awhile" she told him.
Silver shrugged. "We are going to the castle first. The princess needs to be taken home." *************************************************************** Nightshade thought for a minute. "Mom or Dad. Maybe Raven." ******************************************************* Back in Canterlot, Marquee Lights moved some money from his personal account to cover what he had pulled from the studio account to hire Navaja.
Azrael nodded. "It was the last one, primarily. And he gave me half to stop you from killing him." Navaja sighed. "Dead Pony. Are you serious?"
"Why the hell would she she think I need protection? And where did she even get the money? She hasn't started touring, and the concert album just came out a few days ago."
"Well, she borrowed a few grand from me," Azrael explained. "So a chunk of that just went in a circle, back to me. She also somehow got Marquee to help."
"Marq. Of course. He must see some way to make money from this." She shrugged. "Fine. Just don't get in my way, and don't expect a cut. I imagine there'll plenty of loot, though, so you'll do fine there. Now let's go. I'm meeting the team at the airship."
The airship was a mid-sized, sturdy craft, clearly military surplus. It was large enough to carry the team, their weapon and supplies, and had enough space in the cargo hold for nearly ten tons of treasure from the Old Country... enough to make everypony involved very, very rich.
(Thinking back to when he was rebuilding the Timelines, and seeing that were a few highly probable outcomes for the Timeline, wonders about his Zeppelin, before reentering the Timelines, and piloting his Zeppelin through Time, explaining why it suddenly vanished before.) *Outside a flare rocketed from orbit down to hover about 2000 feet above the surface of the planet, visible from Ponyville, and the Crystal Empire. This was a Temporal Beacon Flare, launched to guide Architect and his Zeppelin to the present, as Edmond had guessed what Architect was going to do based on the note he had received.*
