Blaze of Glory

After biding their respective goodbys, and passing out contact information for those interested, Blaze and Shadow left the gala to return to the estate. Both were in a much better mood than when they had left, especially Shadow; after all it's not everyday a blank flank earns their mark through raw luck and coincidence. In fact if she looked back she bet she would never have found her specialty if she had not been taken out of the Storm Palace, they never allowed such levels of experimentation amongst the apprentice ranks, nor did they bring in such wondrous devices as the eternal dial which she was now holding.

Once the carriage ride back was over the coachman helped each of them out with a small smile and they started toward the estate. As she thought toward her future and specifically the next few days, one problem occurred to her that would put a hamper on her work "Master, if I'm going to start filling outside orders I'm going to need a larger supply of metals" it was a simple statement of fact, she only had enough right now to account for the everyday repairs. It amazed her how no matter how much headway she made on restoring the estates metal work their always seemed to be just as much waiting for her after each task.

Blaze had already accounted for that before they had gone to the galla but he did think he would need to up her supply further with the wondrous display she had put on. So in reply he nodded "I will take care of that" he said as he waved her concern off before change in the subject "I have to say, I am proud of how you performed today" he patted her on the back. As he turned to look straight at her "Not only are you going to be a wonderful addition to our normal day to day work but I truly think you will be a fine addition to our:.. More active endeavors" he said cryptically before he started to walk again.

She nodded slowly "Yes Master" still curious as to what he was keeping from her as she continued to walk beside him.

Blaze cut her off "Like I said at the party, just call me Blaze while we are at home or at least not in public, I can't stand having another Crescent in the house, he's polite enough for all of us combined" he shuddered "Oh something I want you to work on between orders" he pulled out a list of metal fixtures for the cloud floor "I'm allowing you up there now so now you get to fix the stuff up there as well" he liked to wait before letting new staff onto his floor, couldn't be too careful with thieves running about.

She smiled a bit at that bit of added freedom "Yes Master, I'll get on that once I get caught up with the second floor" she was actually glad that she could see the third floor finally, before now she had just been bought stuff from up there to fix and had it taken away as soon as Cresent was available. She hadn't even noticed that she had once again called him master as her thoughts were elsewhere.

He took on a more serious look as they approached her door "Also, as you knock out your work load and experiment with your new found specialty, I want you to think on your own self defense" it was a subject he was all too familiar with "The last thing I would want is to find you dead one day".

That heavily confused her as was apparent from the look she have Blaze "But Master, I'm a smith not a fighter, why would I need to defend myself?" she had always been taught to banish hostility from her mind before this and it was extremely foreign to her.

He nodded, expecting her resistance from what he knew of her temperament and training "That may be so, but the Blaze house is far from a high noble house, they are able to have the power and funding to higher dedicated guards for their estates, we don't have enough of ether. Because of that all of us need to not only be able to defend ourselves but defend the rest of our dysfunctional family" he turned and looked straight into her eyes "You in particular have a lot to be concerned about. Those "high" nobles will have no problem trying to kidnap you so they can use you, or even kill you to protect their own earnings, just remember that and again..." He paused dramatically "Call me Blaze when we are at home!" He then walked off leaving her as he headed toward his chambers on the third floor.

She actually face hoofed at his parting statement, before she opened her door and started down the stairs to her forge. How was she supposed to do something like defend herself and others in the house? "I guess I should start with what I know, some simple armor and a sword" she thought as she shrugged and began thinking about her next task.

She wouldn't be expected to start up the maintenance items till tomorrow, her Master had mentioned as much during the ride back, so she had a bit of time before she slept to plan out her ideas. But to do that she first needed something to plan in, her forge lacked both writing utensils and anything to write on "Where is Crescent when you need him?" She wondered out loud as she was about to give up for the night.

A voice came from behind her "I'm always where I need to be" Crescent said practically appearing behind Shadow and causing her to jump several feet and squeak in surprise.

She spun to look at him almost falling down the last steps in the process "How in Equestria do you keep doing that!?!" as she caught her breath from the shock of her life.

He looked at her quizzically as they stepped down to the landing "Why whatever do you mean miss Shadow?" There was an ever so slight smile, one she was beginning to pick up on more as she spent time with him.

She deadpaned before sighing "Never mind, I was hoping I could get a notebook, pen and, ink from you. If I'm going to start experimenting as Master Blaze wishes, and to do that I will need to keep track of my own progress and ideas" that was going to be it before she had another thought and added "Also a book on runes and enchanting, I'm rustier at those than I'd like to admit" she knew most runes by heart but she needed the full range if she where to start enchanting again and some sort of base she could use to teach herself the finer points of the craft.

He nodded as he went through his mental inventory "I believe we have all of that in the estates main stores, allow me a little time and I'll deliver it to you you directly" he smiled as he headed off to the west wing stores, where they kept the estates general goods.

There was something she had hoped to do with this odd second vision she had gained during her experience at the Galla. She made her way to her own store rooms after Cresent had left, picking the first empty one on the left and stepped in so she could looked around. She was pleased to see that the room was filled with tiny metal reserves of all sorts, mostly metal dust. Using her magic she grabbed every spec of metal and sorted it in front of her "lets see, an ingots worth of iron, a quarter ingot of copper, a half ingot of gold, and a sixtieth ingot of mithril... This place is older than I had thought..." as she said each she fused the dust and chunks of the different metals into their different sized ingots by pure pressure, except the mithril which would have to wait for the furnace "Oh yes" she chuckled merely "This makes everything so much easier!" She grinned as she continued onto the next store room.

By the time Crescent arrived with the items she had requested she had already placed her new dial in the middle of her living area and set it upon a stand of its own, had sorted out all the new metal from her store rooms, and she even removed that layer of rust from all the old tools by separating it with magic, making them all useable once more to make weapons and armor.

He surveyed the refurbished tools and metal she had laid out "You certainly have been busy" he commented as he got to the landing and started over to her.

She looked up from her seat, she had been brainstorming "Yes, and I have a list of what I was able to find in those storerooms, just need that paper to write it down for you" she stood from her chair before heading for him.

He shook his head as he looked over the treasure she had found "That won't be necessary, I can see them just fine." He had an exceptionally good memory, he'd be a rather poor butler if he had not "Here are the materials you requested." He handed the journal, pens, inkwells and the book on enchanting over to her.

"Thank you sir, these will be incredibly helpful" Shadow said as she took the offered things and set them in her work area by the forge.

Crescent looked around once more "I'll be doing my rounds if you need anything further miss Shadow, good luck on whatever project you have in mind" he then turned and left her to her work.

The first thing she did once he had left was to skim over the runes section of the book, before she did anything with them she wanted to be absolutely certain she knew the meanings of each and every single one. She of course knew that knowing the precise meaning of the standard runes was not necessary as the enchanter was the one who ultimately decided the meaning during the imbuing process but she was a stickler for the standards, it also proved useful when deciphering the work of others.

It was a dull review session but once she finished she was confident she really could write in runes. She then started sketching her first armor and sword ideas, she just went with a normal light plate design that could be worn under her clothing, she'd make it more complicated later. She decided her sword would follow the same philosophy, and she wanted to try enchanting on something less important first before trying to make a higher quality piece.

As she was designing her first set of custom armaments someone else quietly opened her door and crept down into Shadow’s rooms, if she had looked she would have seen an earth pony dressed all in black, including a hood and mask which completely hid the pony’s identity and markings, holding a long knife that was razor sharp and cruelly serrated on it’s back side, in its teeth. Swiftly and silently the figure crept up to her, waiting till it was inches away before deftly striking at Shadow’s shoulder.

Shadow screamed in pain as the knife hit home plunging into her all the way to the hilt and dislocating her forehoof in the process. As her opponent pulled the knife free, further ripping into her as the serrations removed whole chunks of flesh, and readied for a second strike she rolled and twisted onto her good shoulder, as she overcompensated for her now limp and useless limb, collapsing onto her back several feet away and looked up to get the first glimpse of her attacker her attacker.

With a swish of parting wind the attackers knife found only the air that Shadow had formerly been occupying, it then turned and leapt at Shadow, not aiming to just incapacitate this time as it put the full weight of it’s body behind the strike.

She saw the blow coming and tried to stop the blow her with magic, but it only slowed the descending blade and it still managed to cut a ragged gash into her chest even as it was deflected from causing a mortal blow. She screamed and lost her hold on her foe as more blood poured forth from the wounds, staining her stone floor red.

The attacker flipped back "This is pathetic, easiest mark I've ever collected on!" She laughed, Shadow could tell it was a mare now from her voice, as she wiped her blade clean on her sleeve. Then the mare suddenly charged forward knife ready to further dyslectic and kill Shadow as her victim attempted to recover and stand once more. But with only three working limbs she couldn't manage, if that wasn't enough she was fighting just to stay conscious as the she continued to pump blood onto the floor as her body tried valiantly to clot the flow. instead she opted to use her magic and pulled on every piece of loose metal behind her assailant she could see.

The first few pieces managed to strike the mare but they were poorly aimed and the little flesh wounds barely left scratches in the fabric of her outfit and after that she was able to turn and dodge the rest of the improvised projectiles.

Shadow let go of the metals and then pushed herself further away from the mare, sliding painfully across the ground until she thudded against the wall across from the stairs.

The assassin finished her acrobatic dodging before turning to find her prey in a new location “You think these stupid parlor tricks are going to save you? You are even sadder than I had thought” this time she drew a set of long spikes from a fold in her outfit and flung them before rushing after them toward Shadow.

The spikes were far from deadly but they all struck home, and once they were in they were designed to not come out without ripping more flesh, and this time shadows scream was horse and ragged. Her exposed side now sported a dozen of the spikes, it was nothing short of a miracle from the empresses themselves, and raw adrenalin, that she was still fighting as her vision faded away.

Shadow groaned "I... Won't be... That easy!" Using a final burst of magic she lunged sideways away from the oncoming blade and onto her feet in hopes to finally recover and fight back.

Sadly she had taken far too long to dodge and the blade caught and bisected her right eye as she tried to quickly upright herself. She screamed in agony once more as her right eye was rendered useless by the blow but as things got wavy and she was no longer able to fight the oncoming darkness, something finally clicked in her head "You will not kill me!" She screeched, her voice ragged from the repeated screaming, as her horn and eyes started glowing purple with mixed swirls of grey like smoke. She locked her regained vision upon her foe and focused on the knife, this time ripping it from her assailants grip with freighting ease "Metal is my element, My very soul, and now by it’s grace your weapon shall become your death!" she quietly spoke, her tone enraged and deadly, as she turned to face the mare. Her right eye had become just an empty socket now, her own magic had burned away the useless dead flesh and in its place was a simple ball of purple energy that flowed and shifted as she moved. Even as her flesh eye focused and changed direction the energy eye seemed to just hover in the socket, allowing some of the old muscle and fried nerves to show behind it.

Her assassin was too busy drawing a new, smaller, dagger from another fold of her outfit to realize the change and once more went in for the kill.

Silently Shadow stopped the oncoming weapon causing the mare to buck back like she hit a wall before the enraged smith struck forth with her new blade rending a bloody gash across her foes right flank then a mirrored one on her left flank as the knife flew back to it’s new mistress.

Finally the mare looked at Shadows face and into the ghoulish ball of purple flame that was boring into her soul. In that horrible visage she could see untold torment, a underworld brought forth with but one mission, her slow and painful death.

The mare was retreating now, as if death itself was before her "I did not get paid enough for this!" Screeching as she tried to turn from Shadow and run to the freedom of the stairs.

Shadow had stopped staring at her and she was instead focusing on the knife she had taken, as well as a couple of her spare iron ingots the lay scattered by her, and she reshaped them all making them into a knife that was leaner, stronger, sharper and even more cruelly serrated on the back. Using yet another ingot she also shaped a exceptionally long chain and fused it it to her back, directly to her pelvis above where it connected to her tail. When she did the whole weapon started glowing purple as her magic permeated it. Slowly the magic etched magical paths like veins and distinct runes into her new appendage, magically wiring it into her very nerves. When the act was done she could feel the entire bladed tail just like her real one only this could be controlled by magic far more precisely than her natural one. She finally turned to refocus her gaze upon the fleeing assassin "Where do you think you are going, SCUM!" She shouted as she launched her new metallic appendage straight at the mare with a speed greater than her normal telekinesis could hope to achieve.

Seeing the flash of incoming death the mare back flipped once more, landing several stairs down, but the knife twisted it’s path and followed her every move and as she landed it cut into her opening several wounds in her side "Wow found your teeth fast" she commented as she continued to dodge but unlike before she was beginning to slow down as she gained more and more cuts from the living blade. Eventually she made the mistake of slowing as she once more flung a dozen spikes at Shadow.

She didn't even register the incoming spikes as she finally cut into the mare’s neck, she may not have been able to dodge them with her limp fore leg but she could have at least deflected them before they hit home. The pain was slow to register as her rage and her adrenalin continued to burn but some part of her registered that her body would soon fail her.

Blaze slammed the door open and a second black figure raced past him toward the assassin. the newcomer blocked Shadows attempts to finish the mare off with a pair of blades before Blaze was able to speak "ENOUGH!!! Do not kill her Shadow!” his voice held a commanding tone that she had not heard before now.

Shadow screamed as she was forced to stop, even now on an instinctive level she had to obey him, and she despised him for it "MASTER!!!” Her rage permeated the single word “Why can't I kill this assassin? She took my eye and nearly killed me!!!" she literally pulsed with contained hate, as her mind tried in vain to resist his command, her tail hovering feet away from the downed assassin.

That caused Blaze a moment of pause as he not only reconsidered the assassin but also his enraged smith “I am sorry for that, we had to find out why she was here” he hinted to a painful truth, they had let the mare get to her and could have stopped or even helped fight her a lot earlier than they had.

Fen shrugged "Hey battle is a messy business, even for a sweeper like myself, it’s good she gets an e" she pulled on her black outfit and it unfolded into a normal maids uniform. She was a cream colored earth pony with black hair and amber, predatory eyes that were looking her over critically "She was far too stiff, and what should have been a flesh wound or a miss turned into that, not to mention all the other hits she took" she continued to assess Shadow’s wound especially her new ghostly eye.

"MASTER, WHY DID YOU LET HER ATTACK ME!?!" Shadow screamed at Blaze wishing she could cut his neck open, so much so that her knife flew over and started hovering and circling just feet from him "WHY DID YOU SAVE THAT PIECE OF PONY TRASH!!! AND WHY CAN’T I HARM YOU!?!" She was trying with all her might but all she could manage was it hovering.

He looked her over, a bit confused not only that she wanted to harm him but seemed utterly incapable of doing it despite the obvious effort she was putting into the attempt “I don’t know, but could you please stop. We need to get you fixed up, and I want to have a chat with this lady before she finds her way into an early grave”

Shadow deflated as she slowly reeled in her tail “Fine” she huffed as she continued to automatically obey his order, before the reason for her involuntary obedience finally hit her "I always thought it was my choice to obey, that I was doing what was right, not that it was some inbred compulsion" she muttered barely audible and fell to her knees, and she started crying, not only for the emotional blow that was just dealt to her but as the adrenaline wore off her multiple injures were once more delivering their full force of pain.

Blaze called back toward the door "Sharp, see to shadow first then fix up our new guest" sharp moved quickly past him down to where Shadow lay "I'm sorry about this, I tried to warn you . Our survival as a family depends on all of us being able to defend ourselves and each other. This is far from the first or last assassin you will see with us" Sharp was applying vary odd herbs to her wounds before she quickly stitched each up, pausing as she carefully put her dislocated, and mercifully numb, foreleg back into place. The spike she left for now, she could remove them once Shadow was more stable.

Shadow turned back so she was looking directly at him "What is it you really do, Master? If you were a simple merchant or even a gambling one I doubt you would take an attack like this so casually" she was doing her best to find answers and the truth, hoping that if she could understand it then maybe it would make everything alright.

Blaze kept eye contact with shadow, despite how unnerving her spectral eye was "I am a merchant, we have never lied to you. But until this moment we could not trust you with the full breadth of what we do, ultimately we needed some measure of proof we could not only trust you but that you could handle being a part of it, and truth be told this was a better test than anything we could have done..." he paused for a second and continued to study her "We obtain rare and magical items some have been lost for centuries, some have yet to be made, and others like the one Fen and Flash just acquired on their errand, are held by the high nobility and would be forever wasted in their hands" he pulled out an amulet, it was a horn shaped knife on a chain "This one for example was forged centuries ago by a forgotten unicorn mage and lets a non-unicorn to perform some minor bits of unicorn magic" he levitated a noctim to show her "Personally I dislike this one, I believe it unnatural and too easily abused , so I'm giving it to you" he tossed the amulet to Shadow who caught it with her magic.

She looked a touch confused "Why are you giving this to me Master? I can already use magic" He simply smiled at her expectantly. She started turning it over and over to examine it, then another idea hit her, a truly odd idea. She ripped the chain free and started working the amulet with her magic directly reshaping it to be much sharper, even as she hollowed a very exact amount out of it. She wasn't even sure how she was doing this feat of magic without breaking it or its enchantment and to top it all when she finally finished it’s shaping she carefully fused the artifact with her own horn and surrounding skull. The runes on the horn shifted and rearranged slightly under her magic’s influence and when she was finished she had a new longer silver horn with a crown like base where it met her skull "Some added battery and a horn sharp enough and strong enough to punch through anything, well probably not mithril but most other things" she stated absentmindedly as she finished her oddly pain free grafting.

Sharp had been working on the prisoner and had patched her up to the point she would survive for a bit "I still can't believe you haven't found an actual medic yet, you idiot" she had detected the scathing comment at Blaze.

He sighed "I'm still looking for someone suitable, I haven't forgotten! you'd be surprised how how hard they are to convince!" He replied defensively to Sharp before turning back to shadow "What you just did was the very reason I gave that amulet to you, you were able to reshape and adapt an artifact that would normally had zero effect on you and make it far more useful. And just look at that chain tail you crafted in the heat of battle! It may be a permanent addition but it will never be taken from you, we'll short of death anyway" he chuckled emptily.

Realizing it was still hovering behind her she pulled the chain tail back and coiled it on her right side for the time being "I guess I have a lot of self-fixing to do, at least I need something protecting this stupid eye socket before it gets infected or worse" She so wanted to itch that burning new orifice that had opened in the absence of a real eye, it was causing her face to twitch as she resisted the urge.

He looked over at the aforementioned socket "How well are you able to see with that?" He couldn't even tell if she could see with it as didn't seem to shift with her other eye just when she moved the rest of her head.

Shadow reached up and touched a hoof to her new right eye, and started shaking as all she could feel was the hole and a strange heat, worse still the vision on her right side was beginning to fade as she started to panic.

Blaze and Sharp ran over to her as she was about to collapse again "It's ok calm down and keep focused, I have no idea what you did but I'd wager that you also have no idea what you did from that reaction" Blaze said firmly as he helped to support her.

Shadow did as she was told and calmed down and began to think "No... I don't know what this is... but I know what I must do to keep it" she stood shakily as her fading eye flared back to life "If it is ok Master I need to use up most of the metal I just found, including all the mithril" the pain was beginning to get to her, especially the spikes that were still suck in her.

Blaze nodded "Use anything you need; Is there anything we can do to help?" Both looked ready to help she sighed realizing she was in no shape to do everything as she normally would, and even Fen looked ready to help, she just needed to finish binding the currently silent assassin "Fine I could use the extra hands, Sharp please make sure I don't pass out, Fen take care of the bellows I need this furnace as hot as you can get it, Master I'll need you to assist me" she really wished she could pull out another magical forging like she had with the knife, horn, and even the dial, but she not only lacked the power right now but she honestly wasn't sure how she had done it those three times, they had all been done on pure instinct.

Working the mithril and remaining gold and silver took far longer than she liked, even with all their help it was a few hours before she could get to scribing the runes into the freshly forged metal, not to mention all the gears she was trying out were still new to her. On a hunch she wrote the runes on the surface with an alloy of iron, magnesium and silver to the proportions her dial used for its power source "This part is going to hurt a lot, could all of you hold me still" she chuckled nervously, with the horn and the tail she had adrenalin and pain throughout her body to stop the pain of grafting but she knew she had neither point now and the eye socket would be far more sensitive.

All three looked troubled as they held her in position "We're ready" Blaze said, trying his best to sound confident.

Holding very still in anticipation of the coming pain and to ensure her aim "One... Two... Three!" She slowly counted before forcefully slamming the metal cover over her empty eye socket and forcing the needed magic into the enchantment.

Blaze and the others had trouble holding onto Shadow’s screaming, thrashing body as she suffered incredible levels of pain from the device she had just attached to herself. They could literally see the runes glow as the enchantment fused the metal to her flesh, bone and even nerves.

After a solid hour of mind numbing agony Shadow finally stopped screaming and writhing. Before she passed out she could feel her new attachment working just as she wanted, she could even blink with a mechanical set of eyelids she had come up with, causing her to smile in triumph and relief even as everything faded out to black.