Blaze of Glory

Sharp was tired, for the last half hour she had been trying in vain to remove the multitude of spikes from Shadows body but she just didn't have the skill. She had freed only three successfully but, she feared that if she removed even one more she would kill Shadow from blood loss. Looking over the battered mare anyone with half a brain could tell that the damage to her should have been mortally wounding, and that wasn’t taking into account the fresh coating of red she had painted the floor of her forge.

Sighing in disgust “Cressent I need you!” she shouted as if it was to the empty air.

Within seconds the stallion was through the door and by Sharps side “Yes miss Sharp? how may I assist you?” honestly this time the butler had been standing close by in case she required anything to save shadow.

She shook her head “I need something to cut and then blunt these spikes, I’ll kill her if i remove them and they will only further impale her if I left them as they are” it was an ingenious bit of insurance the assassin had used, the body in its attempt to heal and expel the foreign material would naturally pull the spikes further inward and inadvertently cause far more damage in the process, likely finishing the assassins work.

Crescent looked concerned “But if you blunt them won't you still be causing more irreparable damage to her?” he had some experience with battlefield medicine to draw on.

She growled “Maybe if I was a doctor I could manage something else but if you don’t want a DEAD smith on your hands this is the only thing I can do!!!” she lifted her hooves in disgust.

Crescent nodded before turning away “Yes miss, I see your point” he went to fetch some metal working tools from Shadow’s forge.

Blaze paced before his most recent surprise guest and studied her as she was  The mare was obviously a well trained assassin but she seemed inexperienced in the actual performing of her tasks. That was a good thing for him as she was more likely to be broken and in a shorter time. He paused then, many of his normal rivals and fellow nobles knew better than to send a rookie after any of his house, so who would?

He stopped to face the assassin, all this introspection would have to wait, he needed to get answers "So, let's start simple what is your name?"

She chuckled "Seriously? No." She replied flatly before regaling hold of the laughter and resuming her glare at him.

He shook his head sadly "That is no way to speak to your host" he said as he reached into a jacket pocket, producing a corked vial of strange iridescent liquid "now, if you be civil and have a decent conversation with me I won't be forced to use this" he held the vial up for her to see "this is a poison, not just any poison besides eating away at your blood and body it disrupts your mind, first it will feel like you had too much to drink then as it progresses you will lose the ability to lie. Lastly if you don't develop an immunity or get the antidote your mind and body will waste away until the husk that use to be you, finally passes to the next life" he personally preferred a more lighthoofed approach but that didn't mean he wouldn't destroy her and everything she was in the pursuit of what he needed from her.

She stared at him in disbelief "Are you joking? There is no such poison" despite her declaration she continued to eye the vial in concern.

He started toward her "Looks like you're going to find out..."

A sea of red... Of shiny molten red...

Soon the churning sea changed to frost and snow...

From beneath the frozen waves a pair of crazed soulless turquoise eyes appeared "Yes you will do..."

It trailed off as the eyes rushed at the layer of ice and cracked it

Shadow awoke with a start, her eyes shooting open as she quickly jumped to her feet. She was forced to fight a loose net she seemed to be trapped in and thrashed even harder to free herself to free herself from its hold.

It took her a minute before she calmed down enough to look around the room she was in and to see that she was now standing on a bed and had valiantly fought against a blanket. I looked like some sort of hastily assembled infirmary, from her bed to the chars to the cabinet full of... She didn't know what.

She shook her head "where, in Celestia's name, did that dream come from?" She numbers as she struggled to get her bearings.

It was at this point that memory started seeping back, she felt her new eye and the metal cover that maintained it, she also could easily manipulate her new chain tail with relative ease, though it was disconcerting feeling the thing move from where it was connected above her real tail just like any of her natural appendages "Oh Celestia... What have I done to myself..." She said to the air nearly breaking to tears as she spoke.

Once she had collected herself and calmed down she grabbed the single hand mirror she could see in the room and brought it in front of herself. Most of the right side of her face was mithril now, scribed with eery off white runes that had a purple glow if one were to look close or, she supposed, if it were dark. Her spectral eye and Mechanical eyelids still worked fine, in fact the eye seemed to glow much brighter and steadier than before. The mithril was definitely a wise choice as were the shadow metal runes, she mused, it seemed the combination had kept the full strength of the original spell without sacrificing much stamina over time on her part. Then she had a look at her second tail, it had been attached near the Base of her old tail and much if it was just lying next to her on the bed and the magical pathways and runes that were carved into it seemed to pulse with the beat of her heart. She put down the mirror with a sigh, she had to do something with this excessively long tail. After some thought she decided to braid it into her tail, still easy to untangle and use but out of the way for everyday life.

As she carefully breaded the tail she, finally noticed the metal craters that now dotted her body, she poked one with a hoof sending a wave of debilitating pain through her entire  nervous system. When the pain passed she had to wrack her still muddled brain to remember the spikes she'd been impaled with. After she checked herself over once more before getting down from the cot "I'm going to need some protection over those..." Once more muttering to herself as she thought over some ideas to adapt the armor design she had started on.

Blaze came in a bit after she had finished getting carefully redressed in her work outfit, which she had dug out of one of the bigger drawers "Thank Nightmare you're awake, we were all worried that you might just stay that way!" he said in visible relief.

She looked at him like he had two heads "Was I sleeping long... Master?" As much as it stung her wounded pride to use that tittle, that forcibly obedient part of her mind just would not let her call him anything other than that. She would just have to once more make peace with her permanent role as a slave, how odd for a point she had been content with since birth.

Blaze nodded "You have been out for a day and a half, you lost so much blood and had so many wounds we weren't sure your body would have enough left in it to fix itself. And those spikes would still be killing you if sharp hand cut and blunted them" he did look truly concerned.

She looked him straight into his eyes "Please tell me one more time Master, just one more, that this was leaving that assassin alive truly worth it" she said it with a cross between pleading and raw anger.

Blaze, to his credit, was able to hold his eyes with hers "Yes it was worth it, we have already begun extracting information from her that will lead to the payback we all want and need. And besides that you are officially one of us now, a full member of our family. And that means no more secrets no more half truths and full participation in our core business like I told you before" normally he would have waited till more tests were arranged and completed before bringing a new member into his family but with what she had been through on just the one unintentional ordeal, he would let her pass on the others.

She finally broke eye contact "Thank you Master. So where there any orders while I was out? Or anything else I can help with?" She wanted to put that unfortunate night behind her as quick as possible and get back to her real passion.

He smiled, she would recover fast it seemed "Five nobles want your eternal dials, another one wanted something special" he pulled out a order slip the nobles commonly used in Baltimare "He wants a sword, made of shadow metal of your own formula." He put the paper away "Obviously he was actually listening to our conversation at the Galla, still it is a good excuse to experiment with new alloys, lucky for you I got the metals you had requested while you were out and before you ask no I couldn't get any mithril, it is a hard task trying to prove you can use it and then to get the praetorian smiths to allow their nye "sacred" metal to pass beyond their hands" he full on ranted, he had never liked that pretentious bunch and this did not serve to help his opinion "But before you do any work get to the kitchen and get spice to make you something, you must be starving."

That sounded just fine to her "Yes master, I'll head down" she started to walk away, almost stumbling as her body adjusted to its many sudden alterations.

Blaze stopped her with a hoof "From now on you will attend our practice sessions which we hold twice a week. Crescent will fetch you when the time comes." He let his hoof drop off of her.

"Sounds good, I look forward to it and..." She struggled but finally said "Thank you Master" she then bowed and headed off, silently wondering if she had meant it or had been forced to say the last words.

The third floor was a odd one, despite being made mostly of cloud the floor was wood, she guessed it was for the sake of the non-pegasi in the house, as she slowly made her way to where she thought the stairs whorls be. She stayed to the center of the wood halls and avoided the walls as if they would burn her should she even get too close.

She eventually found the stairs and Got back down to the first floor, she quickly made her way to the kitchen, thankful to get off that strange additional floor. Spice was behind his stove making... Whatever meal was next "Hello spice, I'm sorry to ask but do you have anything ready to eat?"

Spice looked up before the he quickly went around to her, actually hugging her "I'm so glad your ok Sis! I... I mean all of us were so worried!" he was quite sincere about his relief, that much was excessively clear.

She was shocked by the sudden and exceedingly random outburst "Sis!?!" She managed to ask perplexed.

He kept a hold of her "Blaze told you right? You're officially part of our ragtag dysfunctional family now!" He finally started to let her go "And by the looks of how your fight with the assassin went, you'll fit right in!" He pulled off his helm showing her a rather disfigured and highly scared face, that she had to force herself not to openly gape at, before replacing the helm "Admittedly mine was from my childhood and yours is a hell of alot better looking, oh before I forget I'm Poison Spice" he held out a hoof to her.

Well now she could understand how Crescent got so mad at him for doping into his private stash, she took his hoof and shook it with her own "I'm Shadow Amalgam, nice to finally be introduced." She looked uncomfortable for a moment as she contemplated the fact that he had poison in his name and was the cook.

He nodded knowingly "Bet you wondering why a poison expert is working as the chef right? Well good old Blaze puts all of us in positions we can use our skills and still be happy doing day to day. And in my case cooking is really close to poison craft therefore I have a lot of fun at this job even if our big bro disapproves of my methods" he scoured at the mention of Crescent but then passed over a plate of hey fries and fresh bread to her.

Shadow quickly took the plate and went to the single table meant for the chefs own meals and sat down before she started eating happily "So wait, I guess that means that the maid I meet would be a talented infiltrator and sweeper right?” She vaguely remembered how the mare had switched from her first practical fighting outfit directly into a maid outfit.

He nodded “That's Fen alright, her full name is Fenrir Duster, and you have guessed the rest with her” he smiled behind the helm.

“And you are a poison master, so what is everyone else's actual talents?" She managed to say between bites of her food.

He smiled as he returned to his cooking "Well for starters our big bro, Crescent Blade, is a classically trained royal guard, hoof taught by his parent who where royal guards themselves!".

Shadow looked a bit concerned about that "So why isn't he one them if that is the case?".

Spice chuckled "Far as he has ever said, was that he valued his freedom too much and ran off. Now I know you have meet Needle Sharp our resident seamstress and field medic....".

Shadow cut him off "I have and she hates both of those professions with a passion" which had constantly been a source of confusion her.

He nodded "Well of course she hates them! Her specialty is combat, with a slew of needles attached to her by string, not any of that other stuff. But Blaze couldn't find anything she could do as a cover profession besides her being a seamstress and she is the closest thing to a medic we have right now, so that's why she is the miserable wreck she is" he always found it fun to run over the list of his "siblings" talents "Have you meet our messenger or coachmen yet?" he already knew the answer to one of the two, restraining a chuckle at the inside joke.

Shadow was about to say that she had met the coachmen but she couldn't picture him for the life of her "I could have sworn I met the coachmen but I guess not" why couldn't she even picture the pony?

Spice started to chuckle in amusement "I'm not surprised, while we do higher out for the ponies who pull the carriage but, Chariot Specter is always at the reigns. He is the best coachmen you could want especially without those willful tagalongs pulling our coach. He is a grey unicorn with a grey mane, grey eyes, and he wears a slightly darker grey coat. unless you really concentrate you'll never remember him and if he really wants to get that coach moving he knows how to magically summon specters of ponies long dead to pull for him without hesitation or objection." Making him the creepiest member of the family by far spice thought, it had taken many, many jobs for him to grow even remotely comfortable with the undead things that Specter summoned.

Shadow made a mental note so she would concentrate on seeing their mysterious coachmen the next time she happened to run across him "So what about our messenger, I know I haven't seen him" he was away the whole time she had been there and that was all she had heard of him so far.

Spice nodded "Right, that would be Griff, or rather Griffin’s Eye. He is actually our scout and reconnaissance pegasus. You might be able to find him now, he came home with Fen after all. Anyway he is brown and gold and his coat pattern does look a heck of a lot like a Griffin at a distance but its those eyes of his that really make him special, he can see clearly for miles and… focus in on anything in a mile and a half radius!" Spice sounded like he continued to be impressed with Griff "And Blaze is our leader, idea man, and convenient merchant cover. If you haven't guessed his cutie mark signifies his willingness to go up in a “blaze of flaming glory” for what he believes in, making him driven and unpredictable" which made Blaze perfect for the work he loved to do, treasure hunting and generally reappropriating artifacts.

She had finished her meal by this point and started taking her plate to the scullery once he finished "Wow, there are a lot of interesting and talented ponies in our... Family" she hesitated on that last word as she was not sure exactly how she felt having new "siblings", she hoped she would be able to get used that idea because it seemed like it could be nice "Thank you for the meal. I wish I could stay and chat longer Spice but I have a half dozen new orders to fill, and I'd like time to work on a pet protect or two after they are done." She said as she headed to the door.

"Don't fret, we all know how that is" Spice smiled mischievously "Just don't go losing your other eye, I find that asymmetric look quite fetching on you" eying her over as he spoke, he did think her new look suited her a lot better that her previous untouched one.

Shadow shook her head in amused exasperation as she left Spice and headed back to her home. As she climbed down her stairs, Shadow noticed a new addition to the wall opposite the bottom of her stairs, a framed board with six receipts pinned to it "Ah my own assignment board, how nice of them" she said gratefully, a grin spreading on her face as she reached the landing and double checked her orders. It was indeed five eternal dials and one shadow metal sword as her master had said "This is going to be fun!" She stated before heading off to fill the orders, a viable joy and giddiness in her steps.

By the time she finally decided to break for her first meal the next morning she had not only finished all the dials but had gotten them to the point where she could easily  hammer threw one in two hours time, making future orders for her debut item significantly less time consuming and now that her breakfast was out of the way she could move on to the order that truly interested her, the shadow metal sword.

Drawing some inspiration from her own knife tail, which she had reforged with a new alloy without even realizing it as she haf reshaped it and created it's chain, she first tried folding steel and gold with a pinch of silver until it alloyed, but that was a flop as it crumbled before it fully mixed. the next alloy she tried was a combination of raw iron, steel, and copper, and was rewarded with an alloy that both held a blade exceptionally well and helped channel and magically embody pegasus magic. She found that last part out the hard way as she handed the finished blade over to her Master and the blade spontaneously ignited in his mouth.

Blaze stood there wide eyed at the flaming thing he was holding "I am really, really glad you went with a traditional hilt and guard on this one, I like my face unburnt" he commented dryly as he found the scabbard she had made for the sword “I’ll be sure the buyer gets a warning upon its delivery...”

Still Shadow smiled like a filly despite nearly scorching her masters face "Now that's a shadow metal worth writing down" beaming proudly at her first success at making her own original alloy formula.

He placed the sword with the rest of the dials she had brought up for him to deliver "Glad you're happy about that, now I'll need the estimates on all the materials and time you used" he needed some way to create a suitable bill for the lousy nobles who had ordered these items.

She quickly reached into her apron pocket and pulled them out "Here they are, fully itemized and accounted, for each item" the primary reason she had been taught how to read and write was so she could handle paperwork such as this.

Blaze skimmed the list quickly "Wow that sword alone is going to keep the whole family feed for over a month, and the dials aren't so far behind it! I can't wait till word starts getting out about your work!" His eyes almost visibly changed into celests as she watched, while he calculated a suitable and profitable markup for the sales.

She smiled proudly "Thank you master, but I am wondering when will our next big assignment as a family be?" She wanted to see what it was all about as well as how well everyone worked together on one out on one of thous jobs.

Blaze thought for a moment after shadow asked "First I want you to make that armor and sword you were designing for yourself before our unwanted guest interrupted" to silence the glare she was giving him at that statement "I'm sorry your journal was left open on the page with them and I looked them over when we were cleaning up after your fight" he had a distinct, and unwittingly unnecessary, don't hurt me look.

She sighed in pretend disgust "Oh fine, I'll let you off this time Master" she smiled playfully, she had found that being able to joke with her Master was rather fun, but she would still only be able to follow his lead with things like that "Besides I have some armor and a sword to forge".

Back in her forge, she was once more scribbling away at her journal, not only recording the mixtures she had tried so far and the properties of the alloys she had discovered but finishing her first full designs, she had altered them a tad from her first idea to include a more refined approach and the actual enchantments she wanted for both. She also put plenty of subtle reinforcement and padding where her armor would meet the spikes embedded into her body

"Well now that the designs are finished I just need to figure out what metal I'll be using for them" maybe she was starting to go a tad nuts but she liked thinking out loud like that, it seemed to help her air ideas and work them through a little better.

She wasn't as lucky with her experiments this time round. She managed to get through about 50 different combinations and ratios before she found something that didn't crumble and had properties she was actually looking for. Her armor plates were made with silver, copper and, of all things, refined and ground leather. For whatever reason when she finally enchanted them part of the energy she imbued into it used caused the alloy to become harder and stronger than her best steel. She was also thanking the empresses that her master had given her a supply of small gems to use in her work, as each of the piecemeal plates now had a ruby set as part of the enchantments she had used to further harden and lighten the brown metal, that she now wore under her clothes. She even had made a compartment into one of her back plates so she could keep her journal on her at all times, a touch of craftspony’s paranoia had lead to that addition.

As cool as it had been, she was no pegasis and thus the first formula she had pulled together would be pointless for her and her weapons. Looking back through her journal she retried an alloy she had rejected for making her armor a mix of steel, bronze, magnesium and ground up gems, it wasn't as good as mithril but it did hold a blade and enchantment well and she had a burst of inspiration as she had been collecting the materials; she had a vision as to how she could put a few gears into parts of the blade once it was forged and divided and make it  into a folding sword without sacrificing too much integrity in the final blade.

The red bladed sword she ended up with was so light and convent that she threw together a second, this one ended up with a blue blade, she could only guess that whatever gem made up the majority of the gem mix decided the color of the resulting metal.

Holding her new concealable swords she headed back upstairs, she needed Sharp for the sheaths. Sure she could make metal ones but she wanted quiet and stealth which meant leather.

Sharp was in her sewing room, as always, she hated that she never could keep up with this blasted stack of orders! She really needed a nice long break and a good fight.

Shadow entered with a smile "Hello Sharp, could I ask a favor?" Her swords hovered behind her as she entered.

One look and Sharp could see what she wanted "Are you kidding me? You of course want something to stick those tasteless hunks of metal in, should have know it was only a matter of time before even you would started hounding me!" She practically shouted before deflating "Special sheaths correct? Looks like you would want them extra quiet even with the odd shape of the things or you'd just make it yourself, right?".

Shadow just nodded, a tad surprised over how quickly Sharp had figured her plan out, but still not really wanting to set Sharp off any more than she already had by expressing it.

Sharp quickly looked over the swords before shuffling through her leather pile and putting the pieces she chose from that pile through her sewing machine.

Within an hour Shadow was looking at a set of side sheaths with their harness "Thank you sharp they are everything I had hoped they would be" she slipped the whole thing under her dress then carefully interwove it into her armor before putting the swords in their place.

Sharp was already back to her ceaseless work "Yea, you're welcome, now get out!" Her wings actually flapping in raw frustration.

Shadow booked it out of there almost comically out of the room and down the hall before heading up to the third floor in search of her Master.

Blaze was in his private study going over some numbers for the month when Shadow knocked on his door "Doors open Shadow" it was so sad how polite she was, that he could tell it was her just from the distinct way she knocked.

Shadow opened the door and slipped into the room "Thank you Master, I finished my weapons and armor" she said cheerfully.

He paused for a moment before turning around "Really? You are a tad creepy with that you know, no one should be that fast on a forge. Could I see them?" He was genuinely curious as to what she had finally come up with.

She showed him what she could if her armor without removing her clothes and then pulled out her swords and unfolded them magically as they levitated beside her "Do you like them?" She asked a little nervously showing how self conscious she was about the work.

He nodded as he looked the set over "I trust that little trick with your swords won't cause them to break on you?" he had seen some trick swords that were similar to those brake with just the slightest impact or perry.

Shadow shook her head and smiled with a touch of pride "Shadow metal I formulated specifically for them along with further enhancement for strength and toughness, Master" she was rather proud of how they had turned out, which was one of the key reasons for why she was being self conscious about it.

And with that he was back to his normal warm smile "Then I absolutely love them, and can't wait to see how well you use them. Lucky for you we do have a job in three days time, that I believed you wouldn't be ready for, in the works." He was actually very happy at this development "I even have an idea for how we can integrate you into our plan, I just have to go over it with Crescent and Sharp" he jumped up and flew out the door leaving Shadow to stand there and wonder at what the heck was going to happen.