Blaze of Glory

by Shercross

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Adventure
Length: 34302

Born to a long line of highly skilled slaves, Shadow has long desired to be sold to a Master who could truly used her skills but when she gets her wish will she be able to adapt to the cost her new life entails?

Set in the Spectrum universe and starting six months before the formation of the Lunar Republic in the multilayer pegasus city of Baltimare.
Shadow Amalgam was born to a long line of expert smiths, craftsmen, and enchanters. Her entire life has been spent in training at the prestigious Storm Palace, to become the next great pony of the amalgam line. As a slave she has had little to worry about beyond her training and trying desperately to earn her cutie mark. Her dream has always been to finally be sold to a master who could use her skill to its fullest. But when Flame Blaze, a minor noble decides to acquire her for his personal smith she finds that he has plans for her that extent far beyond a mere smith. Now she faces the prospect of slowly losing herself as she becomes a monster of pony, cold mechanical metal, and even an ancient monstrosity. Can she cope with becoming the new monster of Baltimare, the Dragon Reaper?

Ok done with editing going to start fresh from chapter seven on.
Also I want to officially thank Leonofsweden for his help with proof reading and also providing a wonderful bit of coaching for a novice writer.

This is my first story and as such I know I have a long way to go, any constructive comment, PM, or otherwise would be incredibly helpful,
-Shercross

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-07-29 02:47:53 UTC

Chapter1 - Useless V2.1

The sun rose on another dreary day in lower Baltimare, Shadow Amalgam was dozing in her small straw bed her dreams ended as she felt the hints of sunlight touch her face. She knew it would be a dreary day long before she opened her eyes, it was always dreary here on the ground layer of the city thanks to the cloud mansions of the nobility that continually blocked most of the sunlight from ever reaching the ground. Sighing she quickly pulled back her coarse blanket and rolled out of her bed. She stood with a yawn, shaking the last remnants of sleep from herself before getting to remaking her bed and tidying her room. If any of her masters or teachers where to enter they would expected her little room to be tidy and clean so every morning she and every other pony who lived and trained here did these simple chores. Once her bed was made and her room cleaned, Shadow took her clothes from their resting place, folded at the foot of her bed and put them on, she wore a simple brown dress that looked old and heavily used despite being relatively new, the skirt of the dress reached down to the ground and covered the rest of her body besides her head and forehooves. it was readily apparent that the dress wasn't quite shaped right, the apprentices in the sewing wing practiced with the servants and slaves clothing long before they did anything that would see the light of day, other than that she just had her heavy smiths apron to fasten securely and a leather tool belt and she was ready.

Like every morning she spared a moment to inspect her room, it was a small stone room only as wide as the bed that was built on a shelf of stone on the far side of the door, her personal wake up call was placed right above her bed; her square window with a metal cross support. The reason all the servants and slaves had windows and were housed on the east side of the building, they were all trained early on "always wake with the blessed sun" lest they risk repercussions from their masters. She idly wished she had a more reliable wake up method, it was hard to wake with the sun when midday was barely brighter than early night, not to mention that saying like that seemed more designed to grate on a pony's nerves than it helped convey its intended message.

Seeing that her room was as clean and clutter free as she could get, she turned to the small copper mirror she had been allowed to keep on her single small shelf. The small polished mirror was one of her earliest works and despite the color she had lovingly shaped and polished it into a almost perfect mirror finish. She looked over her hair making sure it hadn't gotten too unruly in her sleep, her well kept white shoulder length hair had black streaks running through it making shifting shadows and figures as her hair moved, her tail was a shade darker but had the same effect as her mane; It was why she chose to risk it free unlike many of the mares in her profession that kept theirs tied tight out of fear that it would catch or get burned. Thankfully it wasn't messy enough were her teacher would care; Finding the time to get her hair cut and properly brushed was always a painful encroachment on her limited free time. Her coat was a silvery dark grey with the occasional lighter patch or shape, not that anyone could see most of it beyond the dress, and apron she always wore. Her face was pale and somewhat endogenous thanks to her stature and heavy muscle tone, but she had no scars or other deforming marks. She had always known that she was far from the prettiest mare ever but that didn't really matter to her, such was the cost of constant hard work at a forge. Not that she did much to counter the effects, she found the mares that would spend hours on end just to apply makeup and other silly things like that to be terribly vain she was much happier being plain and not caring about such things. Finally she checked her brown eyes, they tended to get a little bloodshot in the morning and she was glad to see this morning was an exception to that.

Satisfied that her morning routine was complete she headed down to the mess hall that all the servants and slaves used here, which considering this was the Storm Palace one of the largest and most renowned facility for training servants and slaves in Equestria, was large enough to hold and feed a full imperial legion. Also not surprising was how it was already getting packed by all the servants and slaves that had awoken at dawn like herself, she sighed as she got in line for breakfast.

Flame Blaze, he often wished wished his parents had taken that extra few seconds to come up with a better sounding or maybe less obvious first name, awoke to a morning much like Shadows. His home was also on the ground so he had long ago gotten accustomed to the near constant darkness. His room was large and was able to hold his four poster bed with little issue. With the exception of the wood flooring his room, like all his recently added third floor, was made of cloud. Scattered about the room with no particular organization were many souvenirs and items he considers to be personal trophies from his many travels as a merchant and from his other jobs. His floor was covered with an ornate carpet that a peer of his had obtained from some Monkaris village.

As he was forcing his eyes open a knock came from his door, and out stepped a particularly large earth pony stallion his coat was a light tan and his hair was red with squashes of white and pink running through it. His clothes where a typical butlers, a black well kept site, if one could see it then they would see that his cutie mark was a silver scimitar "Morning Master Blaze, I'm glad to see that you are pulling yourself out of bed for once" he spoke with an almost imperceptible smile, as he brought in a tray loaded with his masters breakfast and a few papers in the side.

Blaze shook his head "Oh Cresent, will I ever get you to drop the master nonsense?" He started right in to his late breakfast as soon as the butler put it down.

"I'm afraid not sir, but if it makes you feel better our leak inside if the Palace finally came through" he taped one of the papers on the tray.

Blaze dropped his utensils and garbed the report, still chewing on a piece of toast as he looked over the short document “Finally I thought we would never get to use our basement for anything!” it truly annoyed him that his home had a whole floor that was virtually unusable just because they lacked someone who could use it properly “While I finish my breakfast I want you to gather everything we have on Lord Golden Touch, I doubt he will allow us to acquire such a precious commodity without ample leverage”

Crescent nodded “I'll head right down Master, also I already have Fen combing our records, so it shouldn't take much time to gather it all”

Blaze nodded absentmindedly as his butler departed “Now all I'll need is to stumble across a good doctor and I'll have all the good luck I have ever asked for” he said before returning to his breakfast.

Shadow ate as fast as she could, despite the fact that even the slaves were allowed a small amount of leeway with how long their meals were, she wanted to get out of the dining hall as fast as she could. She had never been one to socialize with the other slaves she was forced to sit with, she found most of them to be depressing or angry at something. She figured the reason she wasn't was that she was not only born into this but so had her family for many, many generations. She guessed she couldn't miss something she had never had, or really needed, in the first place. Once she had finished inhaling her lunch, she got up and started to literally run to her job.

The halls of the Storm Palace where painstakingly carved out of large white marble blocks, the columns that lined the outside wall looked like a seamless spiral that stretched to the sculpted ceiling. The two story windows that alternated with the columns were stained glass depicting various scenes of Equestrian history, in particular the history of pegusopolus and the empire, and held together with pure gold. The halls also featured many statues that were evenly and tastefully placed, many actually payed homage to the greatest success stories that had once lived and trained in these vary halls. All of these details were lost on Shadow as she ran turning everything, including the other ponies she dodged around, into a blur as she sped toward the forge.

The forge, was actually a wing with numerous forges, storage rooms and everything else a smith might need to work. While it was primarily used to train smiths like herself it also provided a small amount of income to the Duchy of Baltimare and the Storm Palace as anything useable was sold or traded openly.

Sadly despite her skill she was still just an apprentice, she tended the forge, fetched water and materials, plus any other menial task her “master” wished of her and only when he was happy and finished with his own daily work, he would give her a chance at it. It always got on her nerves, it wasn't due to age nor talent simply that she was still a blank flank, if not for that technicality she would bet money she could out forge anyone in the palace. She always wished that she could just have been like her brothers and sisters. All her siblings had quickly found their specialty, be it blacksmithing like her brother Ferris or goldsmithing like her sister Amber, they had all found it within minutes of working with their predestined craft. She on the other hand had tried every metal craft and metal known to Equestria and still she hadn't found her specialty. She had even been allowed to try forging a measured amount of sacred Mithril, it wasn't a well known to the public at large but one of the reasons that all the Amalgams were so prized and expensive amongst the high nobility was that they passed down the secret of forging Mithril from generation to generation, a secret that only the Praetorian smiths knew in the current age. Currently the Palace staff had decided to try every variation and skill set they could come up with in hopes that she would stumble upon whatever obscure talent or destiny she had.

Once she reached her station she quickly rekindled the cold furnace and fetched a bucket of fresh water from the pure spring well that had been drilled and taped in the room adjoining the main room of the Forge and made sure all the tools were as her master would expect. Once everything was set she stood at her appointed spot by the forge and stood waiting for her teacher. She didn't move, nor would she, save to turn her head to observe the fire that she had built up in the furnace and occasionally restock it as it needed.

Her teacher soon made his appearance, he was a gruff earth pony only a few hairs smaller than she was. His coat was a light rust color while his hair was grey like unpolished iron his flank was adorned with a ingot of steel. He also had a standard smiths apron on his simple peasant's shirt and pants.

He walked past her like she wasn't there and inspected her work "Fires too cold" he looked towards the water "And change that water it is far too warm and I can see the impurities in it from over here!" He practically shouted at her.

She bowed "Yes Master" and set about fixing the perceived errors in her work, internally cursing that she had to call this olf her master for the sake of training. She knew of course there wasn't anything wrong with her preparations but her teacher would never give her a point of approval in the morning. When she had drawn a fresh bucket of well water, and stoked the furnace she returned to her spot and waited as was expected of her. For as long as the Palace had trained smiths they had strived for a rigid format of positions and expectations that the apprentices had to adhere to during their work, only when they graduated from the apprentice rank did the formality start to wane.

Once more he looked it over then nodded "It will have to do" he said dryly "Now fetch me some iron. And Shadow, you better be quick about it!" He ordered in an angry growl.

"Yes Master" She acknowledged before trotting off to the storehouse that the Palace kept to the rear of the forge for the more common metals such as iron. It wasn't long before she was back with a sizable ball of raw iron magically hovering beside her. She carefully placed it in the raw ore bin, before letting the ball fall apart inside it. Despite having a basic magic education telekinesis was still the only spell she used regularly; She liked being hands on when possible in her craft and most other spells simply were not practical or too difficult for a dedicated smith. The only exception she would occasionally have to that was enchantment but the smiths here knew so little of it themselves she rarely had a competent teacher to help her with the trickier parts that always seemed to hold her up.

Bar had been looking over their assignment sheet while she had been out fetching the ore "They have us with two pots and four pans for the kitchens then a set of fire pokers for trade, after which you will try your hoof at forging a simple dagger, is that understood slave?" he took some pleasure in forcing Shadow into her place, he had lost a better position to one of her uncles and secretly relished the chance to make the her even a bit more miserable in revenge.

"Yes Master" came her simple reply before the pair got to work on the stupidly simple items. they worked nonstop for hours before they took a break for lunch and by then they had finished the two pots and three pans, it hurt her to watch her teacher work for so long on such simple things. She wished that she could have just had her lunch there but she was forced to trek to the mess hall then once again rush back once that was done.

Blaze was enjoying the material that Fen and Crescent had dug up on good old lord Golden “And to think, I had put money on that lord reaching the limits of his greed but not only has he pushed his embezzling but now he is dabbling in black market slave trade, as if normal slave trade from the Palace isn't lucrative enough.” he shook his head at how easy this was going to be “How can somepony leave themselves so open?”

“Well Master Blaze he obviously has gotten far too full of himself and his connections in the army. I doubt he believes that anyone would be bold enough to outright blackmail him.” Crescent offered his personal observation on the Lord they would soon be confronting.

Nodding “I agree, it’s high time someone knocked him off that pompous high horse” it was far from a complicated plan but the one he was forming had just enough risk and adventure for him to get a touch excited at the prospect.

After they returned from lunch, the pair made quick work of the last pan and the fire pokers allowing Shadow plenty of time to make a knife "This time you will use only your own hoofs, none of that magic stuff, and then maybe we can make you less useless" that was his ever so kind way of encouraging her.

She couldn't help but smile a little at finally getting to work on the forge herself "Yes master, are there any other specifications you wish the dagger to be made to?" She asked politely; Knowing full well that he would have something ridiculous in mind.

He smirked at her question "I want a 5 inch kriss with guard and the hilt must be gilded with silver" he drew out a small silver ball he had saved for this project. He still didn't disappoint, he constantly tried to trip her up every day she had time to make anything; Which might sound like the mark of a good teacher but she knew better, he really just wanted her to fail no big reasoning or resentment she could figure out, he just seemed to want to see her truly fail.

She nodded before taking the last of their raw iron in hoof. First came the folding and purifying of the iron, sure she could have made a simple iron one but she knew that he wouldn't accept that therefore it had to be steel and she preferred true folded steel if she was to make it at all. Folding iron into steel is as simple as it sounds, get the iron red hot then flatten it and fold, with each fold the purity and strength of the steel is increased, she generally liked twenty folds on general work and up to a hundred on her higher quality pieces. Once she had a suitable ingot of folded steel she started rough shaping it, a kriss was a particularly hard knife to craft as the cruel wavy blade had to be in an exact interval otherwise it could make it lopsided or fully off balanced and render it useless for anything besides a show piece. Once she had the shape down all she needed was the details and sharpening, which didn't take her much longer to finish. The last part she worked on was the decretive hilt which she had to first shape and create a smooth handle that a pony could easily and comfortably grab by the teeth then came the intricate patterns as she guided it guard and base with the silver. She looked over the finished knife one last time before speaking "Here Master, a 5 inch, folded steel kriss, with silver gilded guard and handle, already balanced and sharpened" she handed Bar the knife and stood back waiting for his criticisms, sadly as she still lacked her cutie mark it would be marked as a failure. She just couldn't understand it, she was an amazing smith but still nothing felt right.

He looked it over, it was a fine blade and would fetch a large price, much like all of his charge's creations but she had still failed "Useless as ever, I'm beginning to think that despite all that time and money put into producing you, your just a dud that should be shipped off to some brothel. I bet you'd find your cutie mark right off the bat, be destined to lift your tail better than the average whore for the rest of your life..." his words started to fade as he started one of his normal tyraids following another of her “failures”.

She took the harsh words in stride, knowing that it was what was expected of her; Even as he continued cursing her to holy Celestia herself, she outwardly showed no emotion. The result of three centuries of breeding, she was docile and subservient by her very nature. Not that her training in early life had not reinforced such behavior to the point where a truly independent ability to make her own decisions was lost to her and all her relatives but she was content with her place or would be when she finally got sold.

As he wound down his words started to get clearer to her"... Get to bed slave, tomorrow's not going to be any easier" he said as he finished his ranting.

She bowed "Thank you, Master" rising she set off to her room, they hadn't bothered cleaning as other servants and slaves needed experience cleaning up after a smith in case they were employed or sold to one. Sometimes she wished she could do the cleaning though, it was far from time consuming and the other slaves or servants always managed to misplace their tools.

She made her way back to her humble room and striped down before folding the clothes neatly and placed them as before at the foot of her bed, only then with her last task done did she allowed herself to finally relax for a moment and glance out her window. She found it almost funny how Baltimare was extremely literal in its class system, the higher ranked the nobility the higher in the clouds they lived, after all most of the nobility in Baltimare were pegasi, so it made sense that they could afford and easily live in lofty cloud mansions, and at the heart of the city higher than all the other mansions was the Stormair estate, where the Lord of this Duchy resided. Meanwhile everyone who was not nobility lived on the ground below and they were literally in the constant shadow of their lords.

It was almost night, judging by how dim the city was getting, here and there lights sparked to life as the ponies made ready for the coming night. She sighed "Oh Celestia, what am I doing wrong?" She wondered out loud, before going to her bed sloping under the covers and falling asleep so she be ready to repeat it all over again.

Shadow’s next day started out normally for her, she woke up and got dressed without issue. Cleaned her room as normal, and then ate breakfast without a hitch she even got the forge ready as normal but that's when things changed. Instead of Bar a pegasus came for her; He had an average build but larger than average wings, his coat was light red with orange highlights at the tips and his mane was violet, his clothing from the suite and paints to the overconfident way he held himself suggested that he was a merchant, likely low nobility from what experience she had with the lower casts in the past. He walked over to her "Good morning Shadow, I am Flame Blaze, and I am interested in purchasing you but before I make my final decision I need a demonstration of your skills" even now he was looking over her morning setup and her general appearance and looking distinctly uncomfortable craning his neck up to meet her eyes.

She nodded politely "Yes sir, but I must warn you I have yet to receive my cutie mark" internally she hated pointing that fact out to sir Blaze; But orders where orders and, she had been ordered early on in her training as a smith to inform any potential buyer of her issue. A reason that helped contributed to her continued service at the Storm Palace.

He waved that off "I know that already. I'm more interested in seeing your overall skill, a specialty can come later" he looked a little annoyed at having been told a point he already knew but his smile quickly returned "Now make me a collar, using every metal you have access to and no less than five rubies" now he watched for her reaction to his slightly odd request, he hoped his request wouldn't discourage her in it’s complexity. He needed to know how well she could rise to an unusual challenge.

She had a feeling as to why he wanted that collar; It was common knowledge that many owners liked to have their slaves collared, not only to visibly show the separation between their slaves and their servants, many also believed it reinforced that station to the slaves themselves "Yes sir, right away" she then went off to collect her materials from the various store rooms.

She followed his instructions exactly, she had raw iron, tin, zinc, copper, silver, gold, mithril, a vial of mercury and five rubies. The mithril had been a particularly hard sell to the guard of the storeroom, but in the end he had relented because of how much profit this commision would bring the Palace, even if Shadow herself wasn't sold once it was done.

Blaze looked over her collection of materials staring at the vial of mercury and mithril in slight confusion before giving a quick nod of approval “Yes this will do. But I don't recognize that metal" he pointed a hoof to the mithril "what is that?".

She looked to where he was pointing "That is mithril sir, you did say every metal at my disposal"

He did a double take on the sacred metal before him "And you know how to forge that?!? I have to see that, proceed"

She bowed before starting her work. First she took most of her iron and like so many times before forged and folded it into steel, Blaze watched as she folded it and smiled not only at her expert technique but the speed at which she did it. When she was satisfied at the quality of the metal she shaped the new steel into the skeleton of the collar, a simple flat three inch wide, 1/2 inch thick circle with one opening, using her own rough neck measurements as a guide for its length. After that she combined copper and tin to make bronze followed by copper and zinc to make brass. Now she had all her metals and alloys ready to use, so she could get down to the detail work, she started with the mithril because of how hard it was to work with and forge, and started making the fastener and lock that would secure the collar. When finished it had three interlocking teeth on each side that fit together snugly, she had most of it polished to a mirror finish with the exception of a raised heart shape on the outside part which she had a rough finish with gold ivy spanning the edges down to the central keyhole. The key had used the last bit of mithril but it also included a silver and gold braided ring as well as the mercury which was alloyed into the toothed end of the key.

He raised an eyebrow at the key "What is the point of the mercury? Hasn’t that just weakened the key unnecessarily?" He finally asked as he just had to know why on earth she'd use such a weird metal especaly with such a rare metal like mithril.

She smiled lightly "It is precisely because it weakens it that the alloy is useful" she showed it to him "When alloyed with mithril it makes it easier to bend and shift when in contact with pure mithril" she sounded like some odd science teacher as she tried explaining the only abnormal alloy she knew and in some odd way it always felt better to make than the other normal ones.

He still looked confused so she went on with a demonstration "Watch" she took a stick of pure mithril she had left over and poked a spot on the teeth. The spot moved out of the way without much issue like she said it would but when she stopped putting pressure on it the key tooth went back to its original shape "It is a security measure my grandfather developed to prevent a key from being copied by impression" one of the few ways she knew about her ancestors was by their accomplishments and innovations as they were passed through the generations.

His eyes widened slightly as he watched the demonstration "Very clever" he commented neutrally though she could see a spark of approval form in his eyes before she turned back to her work.

The last thing she did with the lock was set the largest ruby on top of the heart where it came to a V. After finishing and attaching the lock to the collar she set about working the last of her metals and gems into a design of shifting multicolor streaks that followed the pattern her own hair had made for her. She set the last four rubies bordering the lock, two beside each half.

Blaze rummaged through his pocket as he spoke "Here, use this leather and fur for the lining" he finally pulled out some black leather and the softest black fur she had ever seen and handed it to her.

Shadow looked over the materials before saying "Thank you sir" as she took the offers materials. Together the leather and fur made for a exceptionally comfortable inside lining once it was riveted in place. "It is finished sir" she held over the collar and its key.

Amazing, he thought as he inspected it, to his eyes it looked like a flawless masterpiece. And it had only taken her a day to make on top of that, which was incredible given its complexity and level of detail "I am a extremely lucky stallion" he smiled "No one actually thought to see you work before me, and just because you lack a specialty" he laughed at that.

She simply stood her ground, doing her best to not look as excited as she felt inside at the compliment and slight joke at her previous prospects expense.

"By tomorrow you will be purchased and sent to my own forge" he smiled already seeing the money he would be raking in on this little gamble as well as the added advantage of having such a skilled craftsmen with his team "My very own Amalgam, never thought I'd be so lucky with how high a price your line brings" he literally looked like a kid in a candy factory with how excited he was over getting her.

She simply bowed and said "Thank you very much sir" as she tried to hide the huge grin that had begun to show on her face.

Chapter2 - Sale and Estate V2

That night Shadow just couldn't sleep. She was so excited at finally having an owner, and all those thoughts and dreams she kept going over didn't help the matter. She hadn't realized it a small part of her had actually begun thinking that she would never leave and would just spend the rest of her days as a stupid apprentice. She also thought about Flame Blaze, an interesting pegasus she wondered what had compelled him to seek her out, she hadn't been listed in the catalog the palace kept because of her blank flank so it wouldn't have been easy for him to find out she even existed. Still that mattered very little right now in the great scheme of things "All that matters now, is that I finally have a true owner and can get out of the accursed place" she said lightly with a contented sigh.

Of course she knew that she would eventually have to visit the Palace again, she would always be bound to her breeding program and when the breeders summoned her, her master would be required to bring her back here per the sales contract he would be signing. The thought was not a overly pleasant one to her but she had known that would come for as long as she knew what breeding itself was "And how else is my line supposed to continue" she muttered, once again rationalized the situation as she had many times before when thinking about such things.

In frustration she got out of her bed and looked out her small window, it had been a long time since she had looked at the ground city, as one might expect from a city built with a military mentality most buildings she could see were more like stone forts than houses or shops. The few scattered wooden buildings within the city tended to be made to house those who were too poor to afford to live in a normal stone home. Some of the servants and slaves who had actually been outside of the Storm Palace had spoke of a larger collection of poor houses and slums in a different part of the city. All she had ever seen of it was what she could through her window, which was apparently where the upper class who couldn’t live in the clouds choose to live.

When morning finally came her excitement had been tempered by heavy drowsiness, so her morning proceed as it always did. But as she was heading out for breakfast one of the many servants that actually worked at the Palace, instead of just training here, stopped her on her way to the mess hall "Our master desires your presence in his office at once" the mare then turned and headed off not once looking back to see if Shadow was indeed following her.

Shadow followed her around the many twisting turning hallways, many of which she had never seen before this point, until they came to a set of office doors. The doors where solid mahogany with gold trim and the emblem of the Palace emblazoned on the center of the door. The servant motioned for her to stay where she was as she approached the door. She knocked on the large doors "Master, I have brought the slave you requested".

From beyond the door came the reply "Send her in" it was a bit quick and dismissive for Shadows liking.

The servant bowed "Yes master" she then turned to shadow "Be quick, the master will see you now" she pulled both doors open then when Shadow was safely inside she firmly shut them and returned to her normal work.

Shadow looked around, the room was very well furnished, sofas, tables, and even a side desk with a secretary and right in front of her was her owner sitting behind his large stone desk. That was just the second time in her life she had seen him, the last was just before she started her training as a smith nine years ago, he was portly for a pegasus but she could still see plenty of muscle despite his gut. His coat was white going to gold at the tips of his wings and hooves. His hair was just a plain golden blond cut short as was expected of any pegasus nobility. She hadn't felt good around her master Golden Touch the first time she had meet him, this second time was no better.

Standing in front of the desk was Blaze, it seemed they were still hammering out the final points of the sale even as she had arrived "... Yes she is a amalgam, yes I know the history of the program but I still say she should cost a further hundred celests less because of my own expenses in taking over her training, no matter how well breed that is just for me taking a blank flank off your hoofs" Blaze reasoned; he also had carefully avoided the issue of her forging mithril, he had bet that Golden and his predecessors were not keen on that being public, and thus he wouldn't bring it up despite how much it would ultimately gouge his bottom line in the sale.

Golden Touch, quite reasonably, looked offended "Off our hoofs! We are payed by the city for her lodging and raising, also whatever her specialty finally becomes could be worth a hundred times more than you or your estate are worth!” he stopped to seethe and slow his breathing before he started again “Now take the offer before I come to my senses" he shouted.

Blaze smiled, and Shadow wondered exactly how this noble had managed to get a deal like this in the first place "Then I can't help but accept, thank you Golden". After that last exchange she suspected that Blaze had something big on her owner and had pressured him into this long before and at a far lower cost than he would have wished.

Golden then turned to Shadow, a look of barely contained rage still plastering his face at the whole proceeding "Shadow Amalgam, come here and sit" Golden pointed to one of the chairs in front of his desk.

Shadow bowed "Yes Master" she quickly passed through the room and sat where she was directed keeping her eyes low. As any slave would tell you, even the happiest and best treated, the best way to avoid becoming the target of your masters rage was simply to be as invisible as possible. Over the years she had seen many of her peers choose the wrong instance to get mouthy when an instructor had been in a foul mood, it never ended well. still on the plus side the chair she had been given was the single most comfortable thing she had ever sat on.

Golden turned back to Blaze "Here she is" he turned the papers they had been writing around so Blaze could review it "If you are satisfied with the contract and my slaves condition sign on the bottom where I marked and she is yours" he stated in visible agitation.

Not being a fool Blaze looked over every inch of that paper for anything that Golden might have added when he wasn't looking. Once that was done he went over to her and he looked over her appearance and was pleased with how well she kept herself even this close, then he looked over her teeth as that was a common problem for slaves but hers were white and clean "I have already observed her in her element; I am satisfied with her" he sighed his name at the bottom before Golden added his own signature and handed the paper to Blaze.

Blaze took the papers and rolled them up "Now that that is settled, you will follow me to our carriage" he spoke to her as he walked out of the office.

She stood "Yes, Master" she bowed to her former master before leaving after her new one. As She walked away she carefully concealed a ecstatic smile, and if she continued to fight against the joy that she felt she was sure that she would get one hell of a muzzle cramp.

    Golden watched as his untapped cash cow walked out the door, and as soon as they were out of sight he began shouting and cursing enough to shake his entire office. He had never had anyone who dared to blackmail HIM of all stallions and once he had calmed down he set his mind on how he could get his much desired revenge.

The carriage her new master owned was a elegant and surprisingly not flashy, it had been hoof carved of a dark wood that she didn't recognize. The trim was polished steel which struck her as odd as did the extra supports for the windows but this was her first time even seeing the outside world let alone a coach up close so she figured that they could all be like that. The carriage was pulled by a half dozen stallions that had the bored look of hired help. once she got inside of it she could see a set of candles ensconced for illumination at night or in the case of Baltimare the entire day on the ground. The seats where made with a dark red fabric and had, what she assumed to be, her Masters emblem embroidered into both seats; The seats were also more comfortable than she could have imagined and that was after her experience with the chair in Golden's office, she had no idea they could find such a comfortable and plush material for ponies to relax on.

Blaze was pleased with himself and even as he sat down and motioned for her to take a seat across from him he couldn't stop grinning foalishly "You are quite the catch, and once I show you off at the Galla in a week the orders will come flooding in" that was far from the actual reason he couldn't contain his excitement but before he got to that with her he wanted to know her better.

She shrugged, that was fine with her, orders she could deal with. Though that bit about the Galla did make her a touch nervous. She had never been trained in courtly behavior or courtesy so the thought of going to one was disconcerting, not only did she not like being in the spotlight but a part of her was uncomfortable with the idea she might embarrass her new master so soon after having being bought by him.

He then took on a thoughtful expression, but it ended up looking very silly as he continued to grin "But before I get too far ahead of myself, you will be my personal smith. I expect everything metal in my estate that needs repairs or mending be seen too before the weeks out so that you can be ready for outside orders by the time of the Galla. The other servants and slaves will be instructed to seek you out for any such developments" he sounded like he was giving some valiant effort at being serious, the strain was audible. He turned back to the window “We should be arriving there shortly...” Something had caught his attention out the window "Ah here it is now" he pointed to a three story estate, the first two story's were the normal stone fortress common to ground buildings and featured all the outward trappings that she had gotten used to seeing from her window back at the Palace such as the iron portcullis in front of heavy wooden doors for the entrance and the windows that had been converted from arrow slits, but the third was made from cloud, looking like a hasty addition to the old two story structure.

When they arrived the coachmen helped them down from the coach then handed Blaze a small box "I wanted to give you this since you are now mine" he held the box out for her.

When Shadow opened it she wasn't surprised to find the very collar she had forged the day before. She took it and with a little help from Blaze locked it into place "As for your clothes, you will see my seamstress and she will craft an appropriate set of working clothes and a dress for the gala" they started for the door "And Crescent here will take you to her" he pointed to the servant who had just opened the door to the estate.  Once he was sure that Shadow understood he left her and headed up a large stairway.

The servant in question was a sizable earth pony, but despite his obviously mass he still appeared the model of decorum, a sight that seemed to contradict itself as she approached. He wore a full butlers suite as usual which did a good job of covering his body so his mark wasn't visible to her, nor was his general physique. What also struck her was that she was close to eye level with him, a point she had not seen in a long time. As they reached the gap where the portcullis would sit if down, Crescent bowed "Yes sir. Come this way miss...?" he replied to their master automatically before turning to her, she guessed that despite hearing their masters plan the butler had waited till they were close enough for him to speak at a normal volume.

She could hear the question he was politely posing "I'm Shadow Amalgam, it's nice to meet you" she replied softly as if she could be offending him by speaking.

The Crescent's eyebrow raised slightly at her last name but he otherwise showed no reaction "Miss Shadow" he finished before leading her into their masters estate, part of him was secretly amazed that his Master had actually pulled off the transaction without the guards being called in or settling for a lesser slave. The layout was so much simpler than she was used to, the Storm Palace had been a massive sprawling structure that had constantly been expanded over the centuries it had been in operation, this place seemed to have a set plan for its layout and rooms even with the minor expansions that could be picked out.

They came to a room on the south side of the estate, it was filled with fabrics and other supplies for making clothing. The pegasus in the back corner of the room was a small thing, she could easily be mistaken for a young filly if it she was not so serious looking. Her coat was a pale teal with yellow highlights while her hair was a dark blue, her cutie mark was of a set of needles. As for clothes she wore a simple dress made of silk with a short skirt, she also had a silver collar around her neck signifying that she was also a slave "Miss Sharp, I have a new slave the master just acquired, this is miss Shadow" he indicated the slave following him with a hoof.

Needle Sharp looked over Shadow for a few seconds, sizing up the oddly large mare "So she needs clothes, wonderful" she sighed "Fine what is her job?" sounding like she expected misery out of this line of conversation as she gave Crescent a deadpan look, she absolutely hated adding to her list of ponies she was expected to provide clothing for.

"She is to be the master's personal smith" Crescent replied "Also besides her work clothes and a set of common ones the master requires her attendance at the upcoming Gala she will therefore need suitable evening gown" he ever so slightly braced himself as he spoke, knowing just how Sharp would react to this little addition to her work load.

Sharp barely resisted the urge to grind her teeth and she locked eyes with Crescent "I had finally caught up with my orders, finished all the mending and now our Master has the nerve to set me back again!" she visibly seethed, looking as if she would simply run over and throttle the stallion or their Master in a couple seconds.

Shadow could easily tell that the odd mare hated her workload, but that struck her as odd after all her cutie mark was of a set of needles with string, she should like her work as a seamstress. Try as she might she couldn't envision what else it could possibly stand for, it couldn't be medical, as doubtlessly Blaze would be utilizing her for that instead of a mear seamstress.

Finally she calmed enough to get back to work "Get over here so I can get your measurements" She huffed, resigning herself to the task and directed Shadow to a short raised platform before striping her of her old cloths. Shadow actually blushed as she stood there exposed but she stood stock still as was expected of her. Pulling out her measuring tape Sharp started, only stopping every couple of seconds to write down in her notebook, measuring her every dimension and making Shadow a bit dizzy as she literally flew circles around her. She even took measurements that many others would not bother with such as her horn length and base circumference.

Shadow remained still despite her discomfort at being studied and scrutinized like this at no point had anyone took such a detailed look at her like this. She hoped that this seamstress was better than the ones at the palace, they always had the novices make clothes for the slaves which meant ill fitting clothes had been a fact of life for her. That thought alone helped her, she wondered what a properly fit outfit might be like.

Crimson took a quick look at the sun's position through one of the windows in the room "I apologize for walking out on both of you but I need to attend to the Masters lunch. When she has a suitable working outfit summon me so I can aquant miss Shadow with her room and her forge".

Sharp nodded "Fine do what you must, she's fine here" before wavering the servant off as he quickly exited leaving the two mares alone.

Shadow was a bit shocked at the other slaves flippant dismissal of what was her detect superior "Was it wise to disrespect him like that?" she quietly asked.

Sharp was getting the last of her measurements as she spoke "You have a lot to learn about how our Master runs his affairs" Sharp pointed out as she gathered the fabric she needed "Lets just say that I have earned my share of leeway with such nonsense" that reply gave the pegasus an almost imperceptible smirk.

Shadow nodded in response not wanting to press the issue further, that almost smile looked unnatural. She couldn't even imagine herself ever being so disrespectful to anyone especially anyone who was in charge of her. But soon something else derailed that line of thought, HER room? HER forge? no surely she must have misheard that part, now that she was no longer at the Palace she surely would be housed in a communal set of slave quarters and be forced to share a forge with the slaves of other Masters She thought as she distractedly watched the pegasus work on a outfit for her.

Sharp might not have enjoyed her work but she was undoubtedly skilled at it. Within two hours the disgruntled pegasus had crafted a full set of working clothes for her "Come on I don't have all day, try it on" as she held up the finished set and impatiently waited for Shadow to take the bundle off her hoofs.

Shadow nodded as she took the clothes, then quickly slipped into them. The simple wool pants and shirt where both a dark copper color that complemented both her mane and her new collar. She also had a new metallic grey apron to match the rest of her new look, and unlike the ones she was used to this one actually had a metal lining that would fully keep hot embers and sparks from singing her coat "Thank you Sharp, I love it!" She said happily basking in the feel of a comfortable outfit.

The seamstress just shrugged before sitting on her chair to look over her work for any flaws "That's nothing special but, if you liked that then you'll flip at the gown I'm going to make for you. Still that's for another day, right now I need to bring you to that stuck up twit" despite her words she still gave her work another look over before standing “Well come on” as she started for the door. They headed out of the room and down the halls of the estate with Shadow following behind a few feet as Sharp lead the way.

After checking four places that Sharp expected the Stallion to have gravitated to, hey finally found Crescent in the kitchen. Much to their communal chagrin they walk in to find him exchanging glares of hate with the chief "I told you never to use your "special" spice cabinet with the masters food again!" he growled breaking the silent match the two were competing in.

The chief was an average earth pony, his coat was an off green and his hair was black, she couldn't see his mark from where she stood. He had a typical white chefs uniform except for his hat which was actual a old style city guard helm similar to a great helm except that it allowed his mane to flow out a cut in the back of it "I know my spices from my "spices" you giant olf!" the obviously insulted chef bellowed back at the enraged butler.

As she listened Shadow couldn't help but think that she had no interested in discovering whatever the chef meant by spices and “Spices”.

Crescent just continued with his verbal barrage "Tell that to the master and explain to him that two week nap he took the last time you messed up!" It was mildly frightening to see the large polite butler seemingly swell with barely contained rage as he laid into the chef.

Sharp on the other hand was used to how these two acted when they got together "HEY, Crescent" she shouted over the raging argument.

Crescent turned sharply, rage still evident on his face till he actually saw and recognized them "Oh dear, looks like Spice and I fell into one of our old arguments" his rage visibly dissipating even as he spoke. After several calming breaths he took a hoof and readjusted his lightly wrinkled and ever so slightly disheveled outfit.

Spice just shook his head "More like my big brother was sticking his nose in by business, again" Spice huffed in the background.

Crescent spared him only a moments glare before turning back to the two mares "I'm sorry ladies" he then looked over Shadow "The clothes are so much more fetching than those rags the palace provided, good job as usual miss Sharp" he tried complimenting her.

Sharp rolled her eyes at the compliment, she never knew why he bothered trying to congratulate her on something she could barely give two noctems about "Yea yea, now if you don't mind I have a recently extended backlog to get to" she didn't even wait to be dismissed before walking out the door back toward her sewing room, her grumbling could still be heard even when she was halfway back to her room.

Crescent sighed as he rubbed his temple "Let me apologize miss Shadow, the Masters collection of servants and slaves has never been a group to ever act properly but they are the best at what they do, as I have no question you will be too" returning to his normal smile as he finished speaking. He then did his best to play that the whole situation had no real effect on him, an act he had perfected admirably over the years he had trained as a youth.

She took the compliment with a small smile, internally she had always thought she would be but she liked the slight reinforcement after all she had spent the latter half of her life being told she was a useless waste of space.

Crescent then turned from her "Now come along, it's going to a long day for you I fear" he said cryptically as he took a tray of food then headed out of the kitchen. Not too far from the kitchen was a small set of stone stairs heading down to a Basement sealed off with a rather large solid oak door. Crescent fished in his pocket and pulled out his key ring which dangled with a dozen or more keys "One thing you may want to update in this house miss, the locks and door knobs are in a rather sorry state. Plus me and the Master would appreciate a more condensed set of keys" still with some fiddling with the lock he was finally able to unlock and open the door.

She nodded at his comment, this place certainly needed a lot of work, everywhere she looked she could make out piecemeal fixes to the various metal fixtures and objects that lined the halls and rooms she had seen so far. She had been keeping a mental inventory from the instant she had set hoof inside the estate, she was determined to complete her Masters request with time to spare. She followed him through the door looking around the gloomy unlit room. Past the door was another set of stairs leading to a one and a half story Basement space, from this space there were other sets of rooms, one branch looked like it was purely for storage another looked like it might be a well and the last looked like a set of quarters. Everything was stone of course and covered in a thick layer of dust "I think I just got what you meant by it being a long day" she sighed.

Crescent looked around the dusty chambers as he started to relight the long untouched candles that normally illuminated the space "Indeed, but don't fret I will be assisting in the clean up as will our maid when she is done with her normal chores" he lead her to the living space which was a set of three rooms a dining/living space that still had a table and chairs, a wash room and a small bedroom.

Her jaw dropped as the enormity of the spaces hit her and she remembered his previous statement to Sharp "This can't all be for me?!? Can it?" The living space alone was at least four times the size of her old room, this had to be some cruel joke at her expense.

Crescent turned to her "It can and is, one of the reasons our master has spent no expense procuring the best smith he could was due to this long unused forge and associated spaces, it so annoyed him to have a full floor of his estate be useless just because it lacked an occupant" he smiled "So long as his faith in you is not misplaced, this floor will be yours to do with as you please, of course if you require more finishing you will either have to make them or have the master order them"

She had every intention to make such things herself, but that begged the question "What will the supply of material be like? If its ok for me to ask that is" She quickly caught herself after that question, she had almost let her excitement get the better of her once more.

Crescent nodded "A good question actually, now we are not anywhere close to how financially stable the palace is so until you start bringing in profit of your own we have arranged for a limited supply of raw iron for each week about five ingots worth once forged I believe" He wasn't perfectly versed in how smiths measured their materials but he could still guess from what the supplier, at the mine that their Master decided to order from, had indicated.

She nodded "That will cover the estate's maintenance fine, so I'll just have to get creative with the remaining ore when that is done. But what about the store rooms? is there anything left over from before it ran into disuse?" She knew she remembered seeing some on the way down and metal was one thing that never went bad with age, well except for when rust got involved but even then she could salvage from that if enough was left.

He shook his head apologetically "Almost entirely coal, the two rooms for various metals are empty, but they are to be yours, so when you get to cleaning them any material found shall be yours, we just require you to tell us about it so we can keep account of things" he said as he finished dusting the table and two of the three chairs all of which were made of steel, likely a practical decision by the previous occupant as they were in a room connected to a forge. He then place the tray down and pulled one of the clean chairs out for her.

Shadow went over to the chair "Thank you" she gratefully and took her seat. She looked over the meal as he took his "Crescent, would it be ok for me to ask a question?" she asked nervously as she watched him.

He started serving the meal as he spoke "Yes I expect you have many, but I'll answer one if I'm able" he loved having someone who was polite to talk to for a change, all the other house staff had their own quirks and crazy points, so far this young slave had only acted like a truly refined lady. Sadly he figured, knowing the masters taste in staff, she would soon manifest some level of eccentricity.

She smiled shyly "What dose master Blaze do?" with her nervousness evident in her voice as she spoke.

Crescent took a second before he spoke "I was wondering if he had bothered to mention that to you" he sighed "Our master is heir to a name of minor almost vanished noble house, far as he knows the last of it" he motioned around indicating the estate “he had to earn all of this himself starting with just his name, which closed more doors then opened. But as for your question, he is a merchant, and one who is willing to take risk where others shy away" his pride evident in his voice as he described Blaze’s most defining point.

She nodded in understanding "Like gambling on a skilled smith who has yet to discover her mark" she said as she connected the dots.

He nodded "I see your very quick and perceptive miss, that will serve all of us well" they had kept eating as they chatted and by now she had already finished her portion "Strange, I was hopping miss Fen would be here by now so we could start but I see she is once more running behind" he shook his head "I'll dispose of this in the kitchens you'll find cleaning supplies inside your washroom I believe, I will join you when I'm done upstairs" he took the tray and headed back upstairs.

There was one thing she wanted to look at before cleaning. She walked over to her work spaces central feature, a large stone furnace that was the heart of any equestrian forge. Hers it seemed was a century old version, but despite its obvious antiquity it still had everything she needed, the previous owner of the estate must have had a guard to arm or something because the many rusted tools that were left spoke of a fully functional forge that could churn out armor and weapons on top of the more mundane items she might have expected.

The furnace itself was dead center in the room and looked like it could hold a inferno several times larger than she was. The top curved inward to the foot diameter chimney stack, which must be at least a full three and a half stories tall she realized looking up. Connected to the main furnace was a large set of bellows, that it used to fan and control the flame, would need to be replaced or at least repaired soon but other than that and some cleaning she could get this whole thing roaring once more with little effort. She smiled at the thought as she headed back to her wash room to get her cleaning supplies.

Chapter3 - Clock and Galla V2

Shadow had been cleaning her new home and work space for hours on end, and even when Crescent did show up, a few hours into her own cleaning work to help, it still was a slow process. Now they stood back and looked at the newly cleaned spaces admiring the fruits of their hard work. Her forge, it’s surrounding area and her quarters were now clean as they could get it. They agreed that they were going to leave the store rooms for now and after checking the well close Shadow thankfully found that the well’s water hadn't been contaminated by the lack of care and time "So I guess that's it for tonight, whatever happened to that maid who was supposed to chip in with us?" She asked, wiping a bit of sweet and dust off her brow before settling back down into one of her metal chairs.

Crescent quickly turned back toward the forge to hide a look of slight annoyance "The Master had her and our messenger sent out on an "important" errand. They are not expected to return for several days" he said doing his best to not reveal his annoyance at the errand his Master insisted couldn't wait, he could never wait for an appropriate time to conduct his errands.

She could read the butler well enough by this point to tell he was annoyed, but was it at the errand, their Master, or both? She guessed she would find the answer to that as she spent more time at the estate "Well with luck the store rooms won't be as messy and ill be able to handle them myself tomorrow, besides I was hoping to fix the bellows first thing in the morning" she smiled trying to cheer him up a bit, though that left her with the issue of where she was going to acquire some fresh leather for the patches.

He shook his head as he thought about the time they had already spent fixing up and cleaning the basement "As we are stopping for the night as it is, I will personally ensure that Miss Fen is down here when we do get to cleaning them out. I am fine waiting a day or two if that is what it takes" he huffed determinedly before he thought about the other task she had mentioned “Miss Shadow what do you expect it will take to fix them?” he pointed to the bellows. He was used to keeping inventory of the estate as well as sending out all orders for any new material they needed, and that included all the materials for the multiple crafts-ponies that Blaze employed.

That was a long errand if was going to take days, she raised an eyebrow but didn't ask further into that instead choosing to concentrate on his question “I will need about a hides worth of soft supple leather as well as sewing supplies so I can attach the patches" so long as she didn’t let the task bore her to tears she had enough competence with a sewing kit to pull off the tedious patch work that was needed.

That got him smiling again “Is that all Miss? Miss Sharp has an ample supply of those materials, I will bring them to you first thing in the morning” He had honestly expected to be completely removing and replacing the old bellows.

She smiled lightly in return “Ok I guess I will be seeing you in the morning then..." A thought just occurred to her as she realized her room, all her spaces in fact, was missing something important "How am I supposed to know when to wake up? There are no windows down here!" this would be heavy detrimental to her ability to sleep and wake up on anything resembling a schedule, and unless she was vastly mistaken she would only be able to tell time at all by the melting of her candles.

Crescent looked confused for a second then he got what she meant "Have no worry miss, we will figure out some sort of timepiece for you to use down here, and I will personally wake you at first light each morning, when the staff is expected to wake up" It was one of his regular duties to ensure none of the staff slept in.

She nodded slowly, she preferred waking up herself but she couldn't think of a practical alternative, even if she got an appropriate hour glass or by some miracle, a sundial they would still be unable to wake her on their own "Thank you sir" smiling slightly as she did her best to accept not only the offered help but the change in her routine.

He truly appreciated how she used formalities even if they were not strictly necessary "No thanks are necessary Miss, I’m simply doing my job. Now get some sleep, I made sure you had all the linens you would need and a fresh mattress" he smiled as he headed up to main floor, he had to perform one last check of the premise before he would settle i to bed himself. In particular he wanted to walk through the kitchen, with the numerous incidents that arose from having Spice as their chef, he just couldn't find a way to trust that stallion.

When did he sneak all of that passed her? She wondered as he left her for the night. Once he was gone she quickly went to check out her new bedroom. As expected it was a stone room but this stone had a much finer finish on it making it a lot less like a cave and more livable. The floor had a copper colored rug covering most of it, which felt wonderful underhoof “Weird, they must really like copper, or maybe they think I do...” she idly thought as she went to examine her new bed. Her bed was still built into the back wall but it was at least twice the size of her old one, the rest of the room was bare save for its one candle lamp and the metal side table next to the head of her bed.

She was amazed, she never thought she would find such a wonderfully large bed. She poked it with a fore hoof "So soft, I am going to be lucky to wake up at all in the morning" she chuckled as she got undressed. Carefully folding her clothes just like she always did back at the palace before she got into her wonderful new bed. She couldn't help taking a few minutes to reflect on how wonderful it was to finally be owned, and with that thought in mind she drifting off to dreams of her new life.

Celestia's sun rose in all it’s beautiful glory bathing the cloud mansion of the high nobility in it’s glorious glow. Down below the ever present clouds the new days light managed to dispel some of the previous nights gloom and once more provide what little light the commoners could ever expect to receive. Thankfully for the residents and staff of the Blaze estate, they were positioned at a higher point in the city so some of the rooms in the third floor managed to get some sunlight in the mornings and evenings which allowed Crescent in his third floor room to awaken on time each day.

When the faintest ray of light touched his face Crescent awoke, practically leaping out of his bed. His room was simple and functional, there was no art or trinkets just his bed rug on the wooden floor. His door was also made of wood along with it’s frame creating a freestanding effect as the rest of his room, window included, where made of cloud. His bed expectedly followed this theme and consisted of only enough wood and mattress to prop him two feet off the ground from floor to the top of the feather mattress.

With a practiced precision one might expect from such a prim and proper pony such as him he got dressed in a fresh suit and proceeded out his door to his first task of the day. With the maid out on the Masters errand he decided that he would start with Spice today, making his way down the two flights of stairs to his first floor room next to the kitchen. With a brisk knock, he barged straight into Spices room “It’s time to wake up Spice” he said matter of factly, leaving of the mister he would normally add as a subtle show of his feelings toward the unstable chef.

Spice’s room was a disorganized mess that one might expect from a colt, clothing strewn about and small collections of his personal spices scattered all over the place and unlabeled on top of it. His bed tilted toward the wall, because he had sawed off the wall side legs to achieve the angle and he was lost amidst a collection of blankets and pillows. As to complete the effect his small slit of a window was thoroughly bored off so that the sun could never have the chance to disturb his slumber.

He barely lifted his still helmeted head over the edge of his bed to look toward Crescent *mumble* was all the sound he managed to produce.

Shaking his head in general disgust “It is time to wake up and I will have your pay docked if you can’t manage to get into the kitchen and accomplish your job” his tone was that of the disappointed father talking to his child, a point he often felt when interacting with spice.

With a glare that was easily visible, despite his helm, he crawled out of his bed “Fine, I’m up. Did you really need to start the day with a threat?” he really had times when he hated the large stallion, and mornings counted as one of those times.

“Just start on breakfast, I’ll be back to ensure that it is finished on time” without waiting for a response he backed out and closed the door. The next member of staff he had the pleasure of waking was Sharp; He headed down the hall to her workroom.

Sharp had a room in the estate, she really did, but no one could remember a time when she actually used it, the popular theory was that she had completely forgotten where it was. As before he knocked and entered the room, finding it in much the same state as the previous day the only difference was that the petite pegasus was sound asleep in a pile of fabric directly behind her seat, he figured she fell asleep working again and simply fell backwards into the pile “Rise and shine miss Sharp, what have I told you about trying to work through the night?” he asked in a playful manner.

She rose with ease as she stretched to remove the stiffness from her joints but as was expected shining was not on her agenda “The same thing I tell you about finding me more work, don’t do it!” she was still angry about the additional workload he had dropped on her the previous day.

He smiled at her “Speaking on that, is miss Shadow’s attire coming along smoothly?”

She managed to yawn angrily as she got back into her seat “Yes its coming along, why do you think I pulled another all nighter, it wasn’t to admire Nightmare’s handy work! Her normal dress is done, the gown is in planning still” she pointed to a plain grey dress that was on her finished rack.

He stepped over and picked it up “Marvelous, I’ll bring it straight to her. I also require soft leather and one of your spare sewing kits, we have need of them to restore the forge”

With a quick roll of her eyes she pointed to a pile of leather “Thats what you want, and here” she tossed the extra sewing kit at him “Is the rest, now if you will be ever so kind and LEAVE, I can get started on today's orders and MAYBE have time to work on that stupid gown today” she then got back to work on the outfit she had been working on the previous night.

Grabbing the kit from the air and the leather from the pile he started for the door “Assuming Spice has actually made his way into the kitchen i will return with your breakfast soon”

As Crimson was making his way toward the door to Shadows basement, the staff coachmen appeared down the hall “Good to see someone who is already awake, did you require anything mister Specter?” he had to shift the items he was holding as they started to topple from his sudden stop. Specter was more adept at randomly appearing and disappearing than anypony he knew, himself included.

The unicorn smiled back “I don’t require anything but Blaze hopes you will join him in the meeting room, he wants to talk through another errand he is planning to attempt after the Gala" he said in his normal creepy fashion, which was somewhere between Crescent and Eygore.

That was a twist to his plans "So much for having a normal productive day” he sighed “Please tell master Blaze that I will join him as soon as I finish wakening miss Shadow...” before he had even finished Specter had disappeared once more.

Shaking his head once more he walked down past two more doors before reaching the one that lead to the basement. The darkness that greeted him posed a challenge he had not accounted for, he laced a free hoof to light the candles on the way down. After half a minute's worth of debate he decided to place his collection of items by the door and headed down to illuminate the space first, he would personally see that she had enough candles to light her rooms all day and night as soon as she started to turn a profit for the estate. Once the forge was visible he gathered up the materials and placed them on one of her work benches. With that finished he walked over to Shadows bedroom and, just as he had with the others, he knocked and entered her room “Miss Shadow, it’s time to get up”.

Dreams of metal craft floated through her head, beautiful swords and knives as well as more mundane things like the chairs and other furniture she would soon be crafting for her rooms. As she was picturing a particularly complex and beautiful braided cable she heard Crescent enter and speak. With a jolt she lept out of her bed landing neatly by her bed on all four hoofs “Good morning, I didn’t sleep in did I?” she was obviously still partially asleep, old reflexes kicked in that told her that if her masters were to wake her she was in trouble at the very least.

Crescent did his best not to snicker at the display “No miss, I have just arrived to wake you as I said I would last night. I also took the liberty of acquiring the materials you requested, you will find them on the workbench by the forge” he then turned so she could dress and get started with her own tasks “Breakfast will be ready in an hour, I will bring your dish down when it’s ready but I must apologize in advance if I’m a bit late, Master Blaze has requested my presence to discuss an errand”

That struck her as strange, this was the second time he had used errand and not elaborated on it. Normally she would suppress her curiosity, as it was unbecoming her station, but she felt slightly emboldened by how she had been treated thus far “I hope I’m not overstepping but may I ask what the errand is?” she looked particularly meek as she teed unfamiliar social waters.

Crescent shook his head “You may indeed ask miss, but I’m sorry to say that I don't know yet what his wishes are, I will find out when I talk to our Master about it” he said truthfully “Unless he feels the matter is sensitive I be sure to inform you of the details" too bad, he thought, I know it will be sensitive already.

Her smile returned a bit "I can't thank you enough. Well then, I will start on fixing the bellows. Hopefully it won't take more than a few hours too securely patch it so I can move on to the rest of the estate"

He returned the smile at her plans and headed off to have his chat with Blaze.

It took her a good four hours of intensive sewing before she managed to get the bellows safely sealed. After that she was finally able to test out her forge; Much to her dismay it took another hour after she had finished her lunch to properly kindle the aged furnace. When it was finally ready she set out to fix up the estate.

The work and even the days to follow flashed by as she started her new life. Sadly there wasn't a single order for anything new from her yet, but after seeing the estate she wasn't surprised by the laundry list of maintenance items she had to keep her occupied. She fixed doors, fences, accents and anything else that had metal in it, so far as she could tell none of it had been touched in over a decade. And contrary to expectations, she loved every minute of it, she finally felt like a true craftsmen instead of a useless assistant. Sure in those days she rarely left her spaces to venture upstarts, as true to his word Crescent had everyone bring the broken metal to her, and if she did it was because something needed to be fixed while it was still in place. As a result of that she had many days where she missed seeing either the sun or moon but that was a small cost, so far as she was concerned right now.

Finally the night of the Galla came around. In the morning Sharp actually came down to see her and, as she had promised, had an elegant and simple sliver evening gown all ready for her. As Shadow tried it on for the final fitting Sharp couldn't help but comment at what she believed was her biggest disappointment with the dress "I know the whole metal thing may be a bit too obvious but no matter what I tried I just couldn't envision you in anything non-metallic; in fact for the first two days I tried every color I had in stock and in the end I just went with the inspiration." She said slightly frustrated at settling no matter how well it suited Shadows coat and unusual mane.

As if he had materialized a bit behind Sharp Blaze had snuck in so he could see her final fitting "You shouldn't be so hard on yourself Sharp, it looks absolutely beautiful on her" Blaze said as he looked the gown over taking in every detail and admire in the craftsmanship.

She spun around and glared disapprovingly at her Master "Like you're a good judge for taste and beauty!" She accused him, after all he liked to wear the same old out of date sute all the time and never accepted her offers to help update the ratty old thing.

He just waved the insult off "Well even so I am sure most of the rich and noble snobs we are going to mingle with will be under the same impression. After all you designed the clothes many of them are going to be wearing, and no one wants to start a war on a stupid fashion insult" he continued grinning as she just looked even more upset with him. He did his best not to laugh, as much as he loved making jokes at his staffs expense, he also enjoyed his continued capacity to live on the mortal plain.

Shadow just looked between the two in horror wondering why on earth the seamstress seemed to be on equal turns with her Master, she seriously suspected that everyone here at the estate was insane. She had never seen such disrespectful behavior from a slave or servant, and it continued to utterly boggle her mind. She just had to wonder if this was the social normality in the outside world? But even with that bit of confusion, she did look her master over, he was in a standard black suit but his shirt was a dark crimson, it did look particularly good on him she thought. As she was examining Blaze Sharp had turned back around and looked at the final points she had needed to check and then finally gave Shadow the nod that everything fit her correctly, she carefully stepped down from the slightly raised platform that Sharp had brought down for the fitting.

Her Master gave her a quick grin "We'll come on my Beauty, our carriage is already outside and waiting to bring us to the Galla" he took her hoof and lead her out to the main hall. Not far behind the pair Crescent had seemingly materialized and was falling next to Blaze as they exited the estate "While we are gone I leave you in charge of the estate and its affairs as usual Crescent, I trust everything will stay safe and in order until I return" he wished he could do that little trick of Crescent's or even how the butler and coachman could pull it off in the first place.

The large stallion nodded as he continued to follow parallel to them "You have nothing to worry about master Blaze, the estate will be as you have left it upon your return. But as to the run of the estate this day Master, is there any expected affairs you may have in mind when you say that? Or perhaps you have something more unexpected in mind?" his master was known to dump important matters on him during outings such as this, or simply leave the butler at a moment when he knew perfectly well that everything would be going incredibly wrong later in the day.

Blaze thought a moment before shrugging "Hopefully it will just be the safe return of our maid and messenger, they are taking far longer to return than I am comfortable with" he looked genuinely concerned at the pairs lateness "Other than that it promises to be a quiet day and I trust your judgement and abilities should, empresses forbid, something goes wrong" he wasn't one to normally make an oath involving the diarchs like that, he had seen too much in this world to believe them anything beyond immortal and powerful certainly not gods, but in his business it was never good to simply ask for bad luck to fall upon himself or others around him.

Shadow wasn't stupid, she could tell that there was a subtext to this conversation that was intently hiding several key details from her or maybe outsiders in general, but despite her aching curiosity she bit her tongue. Try as she might She just couldn't or maybe wouldn't break her years of training and question her Master when he obviously was keeping something from her, he must have his reasons after all some part of her reasoned. So unlike the night before with Crescent she simply hid her curiosity and continued onward toward the waiting carriage.

They followed the short cobblestone path from the estate to the carriage "We'll here we are" he helped her into the waiting carriage, as befitted a gentlepony, before signaling to the coachman that they were ready to head out and with a lurch the carriage started moving as the highered ponies started pulling it "Now it won't be long till we arrive, the Gala this year is being held at the hanging garden" he moved in a little closer to her "Between you and me the non-pegasi nobles were getting tired of being unable to attended hence why they had it on the ground this year, to gently appease them and quiet them down for another few years" he said conspiratorially before pulling back and relaxing back in his seat "But enough about those old fools, how has your week been? I like my staff to be in positions that they like, except Sharp. I couldn't put her anywhere else much to her chagrin" he chuckled lightly "That has been one of my secrets to having more productive and happy house staff" and far more loyal ones he mentally added to himself.

Well that continued to explain a lot about the grumpy seamstresses, or at least it was another piece to her puzzle "My week has been wonderful, Master. From my living spaces to the forge and especially the work, it has been a dream come true. I had only hoped for such things in my wildest dreams!" she smiled and beamed toward the pony that had made all if this possible for her.

Blaze looked at her curiously inwardly dreading something he couldn't trust her with yet before inquiring further "Not missing your family or friends? That's usually the first concern I see in new arrivals. No matter how much they like it, I've had to reject numerous slaves because they couldn't reconcile their loss of family and slipped into depression" he was pleased at her happiness, he really was but he wanted to be sure it wasn't a front, he couldn't hold onto her or fully trust her if she had any lingering reservations.

She shook her head laughing sadly "I had no friends till I came here, and as for my family, I saw my siblings sold to people and jobs they love years ago and I never knew my parents very well, only as long as it took to pass on our family's secrets in fact, so no loss there. But thank you for your concern you are unlike any master I have seen or even heard of before" she smiled even as that line of thought planted a tiny seed of doubt in her mind, when in all of the history of the empire or beyond had anything stayed perfect forever?

Blaze looked rather impressed at that "That is quite the compliment, I actually can't think of any higher as it is a point I have always prided myself on. Well that and unpredictability, but you'll see more of that particular virtue in the future I'm sure" he smiled, borderline evilly, at her.

That last bit hit her with a sense of grim-forbidding, especially the underlying crepiness of his smile, like she would learn to hate or just plain dread the meaning behind that statement, but like always she buried such concerns away as pointless and trivial to one in her position. If it hadn't been so natural she might have been concerned how easily and almost automatically she did things like that around her Master.

As the coach rounded a corner draped by groups of hanging trees that had grown over a large fence made of brick and spear like iron fen wing on top of that they could finally see their destination and the other coaches dropping off the other party goers at the front gate. The hanging gardens where once an old parade ground that had long ago been repurposed into a garden but some of the statues and of course the fencing were still left when the guards moved to a more lofty location to live and train. The entirety of the plant life was night blooming to make up for the lack of use during the long dreary days and as a nod to the goddess of battle who used to lay claim to the land, even the hanging trees that gave the gardens their name had been long breed to live and grow with little light. Both Shadow and Blaze quickly noted that for this party the nobles had arranged for that theme of the night Empress to be further exaggerated by adding dark blue and black decorations, even adding some statues of nightmare moon herself and anything else they could find to put the night goddess's mark on; The main carpet that stretched from one end of the party to the other was even a dark blue with nebulae and stars much like how the missionary's had described the empress's mystical mane to be.

Their coach arrived and joined a small precession of other coaches that had arrived before them. This looked like it was actually a fairly sizable event, much as she had feared it might be. "Master, I have not been trained for this type of engagement. How am I supposed to act?" She asked nervously desperately wishing she could spend the evening hiding behind her master despite how comical that notion would be for a pony of her stature.

He smiled comfortingly at her "It won't be much, just stay with me and follow my detections. I have no fear that you will make a good impression, you're the most polite slave I have ever seen, I believe you may even start to outdo Crescent before long." It was actually a bit creepy how polite she was, he would have to find someway to fix that.

She chuckled lightly "Thank you Master" she knew she was polite by nature but she would have thought there were many that were more polite than her after all she trained as a smith not as a courier or any other job to which edict was important. With a her jerking stop the carriage finally arrived at the front gate of the gardens where a town guard in his full formal uniform opened the door and helped the two down.

After thanking the guards they quickly moved into the throngs of party goers that were amazed just past the gate. After they had comfortably pushed their way in, Blaze leaned close to her ear "Now I need you to keep your ears and eyes open, this is the largest den of cutthroats and thieves in the city, and anything said or done can be used if one only is creative enough"

She was confused by the stamens but still nodded doing her best to hear and see everything around her "Um Master I would have thought this was a place to make allies not enemies" all she could really see so far was talking and general merriment, which gave her ample opportunity to talk about the foreign concept her master had just given her.

He chuckled doing his best to stifle a full laugh around the nobles "You really weren't lying about knowing nothing about this were you?" He pondered several ways he could break this news to her but eventually settled on a shock treatment "I'll give you the crash course on who is who in the nobility and power players in our fair city. From there I believe you'll be able to the rest together yourself" first he pointed to a stubbly grey earth pony in a full white suit holding a decorative wooden cane at his side "That is lord Graze, he controls much of ground city and the city's food supplies. To relieve stress he takes pleasure in finding non traditional ways for the poor to pay off their rent . Such as torture, prostitution for the city guard and even combat practice for his own guard" she looked closer at lord Graze now, he was short had a black suit on and plenty of gold jewelry. The ponies surrounding him hung on his every word with what she thought was fear and apprehension.

As they continued further down the path Blaze pointed to an extremely over dressed unicorn mare, it actually hurt to look in her detection with how garish and brite her outfit was.She was covered in diamonds and quartz that shown with a inner magical light "That is lady Glare Stone, her family owns rights to most of the gem traffic inside Baltimare they also are well known for their highly "secret" ties to the platinum duchy. If she is told something, her friends in that duchy are as well within the week, so most of our nobles use her to send miss information to their heated rivals" she could even be seen craning her next to eavesdrop on those near her procuring just how obvious of a spy she really was.

Next was one she recognized long before her master pointed him out "You of course know lord golden touch. What you do not is this stallion diverts funds from the Storm Palace’s profits straight into his own account and has multiple ties to the black market slave industry. A point that I myself used recently to aid in my negotiations for you" she had always known that her former owner had something horrible that he was hiding, and now she not only knew that but how Blaze had managed to afford her. She guessed that was one of the reasons he wanted her to keep her ears and eyes open around the nobility.

Not too far away was another pegasus high noble “That is lord crush, despite his family's name being the overt smashing of things they are better known for their ties to the best assassins and saboteurs in the city, those who oppose them seem to disappear in a single night" the blue pegasus was dressed simply in a standard noble suit that made him blend in with the crowed and he positively exuded an air of self confidence and superiority that could be felt all the way in the next duchy

He drew her attention before pointing to the Stormair estates far above them and far off in the distance "Then there is our lord Lightningclaw Stormair, who ultimately controls the entire city with an iron fist. He is known for his hatred of the ground, which is why he is not here, it is said that he has never touched it for as long as he has lived. But he is far better known for his utter loathing of the Platinum family and by extension most unicorns; There is little he wouldn't do to undermine either of them them. A special point of note, his ancestors founded all five of the Storm Palaces renowned breeding programs." Blaze had them move on from there.

She nodded, honestly surprised at their lords possible hatred of her race "The teachers always told us we owed our lives and legacy to the Stormair family as they were the ones who decided our ancestors could become something extraordinary, far above the standard pony" she recited from memory, it was a common point of redirect amongst the breeding programs

Blaze chuckled at the obvious bit of propaganda "More like they hated dealing with outside unicorns for metal work and enchantment so in a particularly bold move, they enslaved their own. After that they had the idea that they could use selective breeding to further improve their wares and thus killing two birds with one stone. They only have to deal with subservient unicorns and they make their chunk of the empire more profitable" he pointed out losing any trace of humor.

That gave her pause, as she considered the possible ramifications should her masters version be right "That can't be true? My entire line based on a stupid rivalry that stretches back to even before the empire was formed?" She said as she finally settled on trying her best not to believe the sound logic he had just presented her with.

Blaze shrugged as if indifferent to the whole thing "That is my own personal theory on how your line was formed. I also believe the other four programs had similar reasoning behind them when they were started" as they had been speaking the pair had moved to the center of the park and by extension they had reached groups of gossiping nobles that Blaze actually had an actual interest mingling with "How about this, as I just gave you way too much to think about, how about you take a rest on that bench over there while I attempt to wade through this sea of small talk" he then pointed to a nice stone bench bordered by scores of night flowers in full bloom "I'll wave to you when I need you to come over" he then forced his way into the nearest group, a tricky and quite forceful maneuver to witness, before he started chatting up acquaintances and contacts alike for information.

She nodded as he left her and faded into the group of ponies "Yes Master..." sighing as she went over and sat like she had been directed to, on the bench. She kept an eye open for her masters signal but otherwise sat there pondering what she had just been told. It made far too much cruel sense for her to just forget it or find any logical argument to debunk it. As she continued her own internal battle her eye caught sight of something strange that was set up across from her, a large sundial that was glowing pale blue.

Shadow sat there her eyes transfixed by the sundial in front of her, she slowly stood and trotted over to it. She had never seen its like before, it had all twenty four hours around its edge and the central wedge had been replaced by a low pyramid. Around the border was a spot for every day of every year separated into their months. On top of that the background was a lightly glowing dark pale blue which she bet meant night. the shadow from the pyramid twisted and split so that it would not only fall on exactly the right time but also the correct day "It includes everything one would need for keeping time all year long in one place" she said in awe as she continued to zone out at the sight of the enchanted timepiece.

It was then that Blaze stepped into her view, he had been trying to signal her for several minutes before he finally had to just excuse himself to figure out what was wrong with her "Hello, Equestria to Shadow!" He waved a hoof in front of her face, trying to get her attention “Are you there? what is wrong?” he then tried to outright poke her.

She finally spoke after several firm pokes "Hi, Master" she said still fixated on the wondrous timepiece "What kind of sundial is that Master? I’ve never seen anything like it "She sounded distant as if in a trance.

He raised an eyebrow before looked at the clock "That is an eternal dial, most find it too gimmicky for everyday use but I guess the decorators thought it would fit with the Nightmare decor" He looked back at her questioningly "Is there something wrong with it?" He was beginning to forget he had left several nobles waiting on the two of them as he focused more and more on his slave odd behavior.

She slowly shook her head "No something is right, something is very, very right... Would it be ok if I took a look at it, a close up hoofs on look?" She practically pleaded with him, still never letting her eyes leave the dial.

He looked around a bit before finding someone of use finally finding one other the higher up servants working the party and passing some money to him "It's yours now" he said simply wondering what this would lead to.

As soon as Blaze had uttered those words she snatched it from where it placed with telekinesis pulling it close for her to see it. It twirled in front of her before she concentrated what magical muscle she had on it and the whole dial exploded in a ball of grey-black magical energy.

Blaze and several of the close by nobility took a few steps back expecting shrapnel to come flying at them in a hail of deadly rocks. But instead the parts were all intact just disconnected from one another, even stranger they were still acting as if they had been a single piece.

She could see all the parts now and the more she concentrated the more details popped up, she could see dimensions, materials even the flow of magical power that filed it. Without realizing it she had refined her telekinesis to read objects she held with it, and it only ran on her pure belief in her own innate ability to understand every portion of the device.

Blaze looked on, seeing his slave tinker with the device as her eyes were beginning to turn an energetic violet. The nobles were also taking note and gathering around this odd bit of entertainment, once the shock and panic over the unexpected explosion had died down.

Shadow finally worked her way to the central point that held the real magical source of power, a strange sphere that was originally hidden inside the central pyramid which consisted of alloyed iron, magnesium, and silver that powered the whole device "Master, I don't recognize this alloy" she pointed to the sphere she had been concentrating on "what is it? I see iron, magnesium and silver I didn't even think such a mixture could be accomplished" She continued examining it, finding the runes that powered it and slowly deciphering them as she waited. She really wished that she had been able to practice her enchanting more, she was far too rusty with her rune alphabet.

He quickly looked at it as he thought about the mix of metals she had said "It has no name, it and many other nameless alloys like it are just called dark metals. Simply because whoever made it is the only one who could tell you what it's made of" he said not sure why the name mattered to her.

Her eyes widened a bit at the term "Dark Metal?" She had never in her life thought anything besides the basic alloys was possible to make, this revelation opened up so many more incredible possibilities not to mention the magi-mechanical way this thing had been built was pure genius "I think I have a better name for it Master" as she turned her shifting violet eyes to her master.

He pondered that statement still not connecting the dots "And what name would that be" he asked finding himself deeply curious as to the climax of all of this.

As she spoke it emanated with a formerly untapped power "Shadow Metal" she then pulled loose large amounts metal from the area, mostly old iron and then rebuilt the dial. As she did she changed it, making it more precise in both timekeeping and it's magical sense of night, day and even adding sessions to it. When she was finished the dial floated to the bench where her master and the onlookers examined it, it no longer had it’s former pedestal just the simple circle that was most important to it. She had also used some of the iron to put a delicately designed touch of art to the blank stone depicting a lush forest around its circumference "It is perfect, that is a better time piece than anything we own, and just look at the precision at which the shadow glides across the surface" one of the nobles said and the rest were quick to agree with the first.

Blaze looked with pride at his slave, taking in her wonderful achievement and the self publicity she had just given herself when he noticed a detail she hadn't yet "Hey Shadow, check your flank" he pointed only barely seeing the new mark through the side of her dress.

She looked down and pulled back her dress so she could see better, it was three interlocked purple gears that faded to smoke as if being blown away at the outer edges. She couldn't help but cry as she muttered "Smithing, Magi-mechanics, and Shadow Metal" she whispered through the tears "I finally found it... after all this time" it was all she could do to not fall over in joy, not only did she have the life she had always wanted but now she was a whole pony at last.

Blaze stepped over to her "This is beyond wonderful, that is a most unique specialty. And now I don't even think I'll need to do any selling" he pointed to the group examining her refined work "you did all the advertising I could ever have wanted" he smiled and hugged her lightly.

She returned the smile and hug as she continued to sob with pure joy "Thank you Master!" Turning her now violet eyes to him. As she looked around her new power kept feeding her information as it had with the clock only now it was more passive, she wondered how long it would last before she would have to renew the new spell.

Blaze took a second to look over her newly colored eyes, thinking at how exotic and beautiful they now were "Come on, I believe we have already done all we needed and even hoped to do for this night" he offered a hand out to her "Go on grab your masterpiece and let's head home, I know you have lots to think about and soon you'll have lots to do as the outside orders flow in" he motioned to the mass of nobles examining her first public work.

She carefully exhumed her clock out of the onlookers "Yes Master" as she looked over her finished piece and took his offered hoof.

He whispered to her once she was close enough to hear "You know when we are at the house you can just call me Blaze, I swear between you and Crescent I'm drowning in prim decorum" he then raised his voice "Yes this work was by my own smith Shadow Amalgam!!! She is accepting orders via the Blaze estate, I look forward to your patronage" he gave a winning smiled before they turned and left the Galla.

Chapter4 - Odd Orders V2.1

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.

Chapter5 - Hard Wake Up Call V2

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.

Chapter6 - Shock and Fear V2

For the next two days Shadow practiced using her new weapons non-stop save to eat and sleep, luckily for her other nobles seemed to be awaiting the verdicts from the braver ones who had placed orders with her and had yet to send in their own; a point that drove her harder actually because she knew that as soon as they did her free time would quickly be eaten up.

She was getting good at using all three of her weapons in conjunction, she was beginning to feel much more confident with them. strangely she was beginning to figure out her own general form, the strange point being that she used her swords only as her last line of defence and depended on her tail for the rest.

As she was cutting down and skewering her dozenth dummy for the day, in the second floor sparing room, Fen came through the door. She had expected to work out by herself but instead she contented herself with watching as dummy number thirteen was systematically dismembered before shadow finally finished off the poor thing by slicing it’s neck in half  "You're looking a lot better than you did when we first met! I bet that worthless excuse for an assassin would be no problem for you now." She said appraisingly.

Shadow sheathed her swords and carefully rebranded her tails together as she turned to face Fen "Ah Fen, I was wondering when I'd see you again. We didn't really get the chance to talk as you defended the trash that took out my eye!" Her slightly jovial tone openly masking her contempt for the assassin. She was, obviously, still quite peeved, not just about her eye but her extra tail and embedded spikes, useful as some of them where she didn't like how they made her feel. On one hand she felt so much stronger but most of the time she just felt like some unnatural abomination or monster. She had, after many private screaming sessions in her room, come to terms with the fact that she’d likely get stuck with the enhancements and other additions for the rest of her life. But just because she wasn't going to do something harmfully or drastic like rip them off herself; didn't mean she was a hundred percent happy with them.

Fen couldn't look her in her eyes, mostly due to Shadow's spectral eye giving her the creeps every time she tried "I really am sorry about that, I prefer clean kills but Blaze was right, she did provide plenty of clues before she unfortunately passed. Hey if it makes you feel any better i'll gladly spar with you whenever I can, that way you can learn to kill faster and never have to worry about something like that happening again." She did her best to look friendly and unphased but still looked couldn't quite manage, that eye of hers was so disconcerting, it felt like it was looking into her soul whenever Shadow looked towards her. A part of her hoped Shadow wouldn't take the offer up as she dint want to be proven correct about that thing.

Shadow smiled a little evilly "It does actually. I'll take you up at that after our next job." She would look forward to a friendly chance to mop the floor with Fen. Her smile faded as she realised what she was thinking ‘Since when do I look forward to causing pain of any sort? especially that of anypony else?’ she thought with mounting concern about her mental well being as she added yet another thing into her growing internal list of how monsters she was becoming.

Fen wasn't looking forward to it on the other hand, Shadow was shaping up to become one hell of a bruiser, but maybe she would finally stop getting the creeps around her if she did spent more time around her, assuming her soul wasn't devoured or something. Fen quickly got off that lovely train of thought and went back to the original reason she had sought Shadow out "Speaking of our next job, Blaze is gathering us to go over the plan. Let me help you clean up this mess then i'll show you to our meeting room" she offered, they could take their time on the cleaning, the meeting wasn't for a bit; Nor where the others expected to be 100% punctual to such things. She quickly looked around the room and ,seeing the remains of numerous heavily dissected dummies, was thankful for the time. If nothing else, she sourly thought, she would be saving the group loads of daeum in replacement dummies.

Shadow trotted over "Sure, it's one of the rooms I have yet to find anyway" there was a surprising number of rooms in the small estate. They spent the next half hour cleaning up the training room being sure that only when the last splinter had been removed did they set out for the meeting. Shadow followed close behind expecting Fen to show her some strange secret or obscure part of the estate but to her chagrin they simply went down the hall a few doors when Fen want in one on the right "Really? I was expecting it in a back corner of the third floor or some place far out of the way" disappointment apparent in her voice.

Fen grinned and laughed "That is exactly why Blaze had it built here, to throw people off after that time some guards, belonging one of the airheaded nobles, decided it would be a good idea to get us all at once" she laughed a bit at the memory “It is surprisingly hard to get that much blood out of cloud carpeting...” She trailed off absorbed in the memory as they entered the room. The meeting room wasn't particularly large but it had enough space for everyone. In the center was a round stone table which currently had a set of maps for a mansion and its grounds. Blaze, Crescent, Spice, Griff, Sharp, and Specter were already sitting and waiting when Fen and Shadow came through the door.

Griff in particular was shocked to see what had become his newest Sibling, he had heard of the news but this was the first he had seen of it, or her for that matter. He had to fight to keep his jaw closed as he stared at her metal parts.

Specter on the other hand had seen her before but now was far more interested in her. He started to look her over taking in the alterations with an approving eye, he could see her being much more useful now than when he had first laid eyes on her exiting the Palace.

Blaze smiled as the last pair took their seats "Good everyone's here, down to business" he pulled out a well done drawing of a well dress tan pegisi noble "Now our next job is going to be liberating a set of pre-empire scrolls for the home of one Shining Skies. Lord Skies ancestors kept these scrolls safe for many generations and now this worthless descendant is putting the whole set of them up for auction tomorrow. Looking at what we know about him, he already has a long list of backstabbing, money mongering, and generally oppressive behavior towards everyone he comes across. his favorite pass time used to be going to social functions purely to belittle his peers. But as most might have suspected, this has recently come back to bite him. In a matter of months his former peers have completely undermined his former business. Now with little notable income he has slowly been auctioning his family's legacy off simply to maintain his lavish lifestyle" He then paused for others to speak and to catch his breath after that rant.

Sharp spoke as she looked over the map "How are we approaching this one? Another silent smash and grab I assume" she hated stealth, it wasn't any fun and it took far too much unnecessary effort in her biased opinion. She much preferred it when things were loud and lethal, where her talents could really shine.

Blaze had a twinkle in his eye at her comment "No, we have something far more effective and unexpected in mind this time" he pointed to the main entrance "First, Fen will take out the guards in the front of the mansion” he pointed to the points on the map where the guards normally stood watch  “Then she will work on making more of them sporadically disappear for the remainder of this plot.” He then pointed to a spot on the road up to the manor "Specter will then drive up with Sharp, Spice, and Shadow in tow. Spice I need you to ready a particularly nasty poison to coat Sharp and Shadows weapons, something thick and red like blood please".

Spice nodded as he considered his resipies. "I have just the one you want, Blood Bane, looks like blood but causes violent hallucinations and high nerve pain, kills roughly two of every five I’ve seen and with those  in roughly three to ten minutes after introduction into the victims blood stream. Those it dose not kill will be knocked out in roughly the same time span" Luckily he had restocked his lizard bile this week he’d have to use up most of it cooking up poison he thought as he went over the list of ingredients he would need to brew the poison.

Blaze liked the sound of that, he actually wanted a small number of survivors this time around "Perfect, as usual Spice.” he smiled at the helmeted stallion “Once he gets the signal from Fen Specter will park up front and Sharp will enter through the second floor and let loose killing or at least poisoning to her hearts content. I dont want you to have any unexpected witnesses coming forth, so make sure everypony is dosed and keep out of sight" it wouldn't do to have a witness spole his planed performance with an accurate memory of events.

Sharp smiled for the first time Shadow had seen since she had met the disgruntled Pegasus. ‘And the others called my eye creepy!’ she thought as she averted her eyes from her and settled back to blaze as he continued laying out the plan.

"Shadow, you have a particularly important role in all of this, sharp give her that cloak" Sharp threw over a black ragged cloak with hood that fastened neatly over her work clothes. Blaze continued "You are acting as a reaper pony, you will calmly enter the front door then do what you can to scare the remaining guards, draw them all to you and then kill or poison them. I want you to act as calm and unwavering as you move in, sometimes simply seeming uncaring and unstoppable are all you need to bring somepony to their knees with fear" he then pointed to the few small rooms on the third floor "While all of you draw the attention of every pony within the manor, Crescent and I will infiltrate the third floor through this balcony" he pointed to the balcony off of the master bedroom "Griff will bring Crescent up to the balcony".

Both Crescent and Griff simply nodded at their tasks.

Blaze continued "Griff will then wait for us to come back and keep an eye out for unexpected company. Cressent and I will then enter and find lord Skies private stash and liberate him of his failed responsibility. Hopefully by this point most if not everypony in his house will be taken care of and we can more or less just walk out" Blaze was rather pleased with this odd but detect approach.

Shadow looked everything over as Blaze had gone over the plans "Master I have two questions. Is there anyone we shouldn't kill like a wife or kids? And once we have the scrolls back here what are we going to do with them?" She wanted him to be as specific as he could on their orders, no telling how her personal disability might interpret things otherwise.

Blaze was a little surprised that Shadow would so boldly ask questions on her first job, but took it as a good sign "No wife or kids, so far as we know he is a habitual asexual rock but if any of his servants don't fight back I’d say use your best judgement if they can go unharmed, as for what we will do with the scrolls; I have a spot in our personal archive for them. Historical relics we procure are kept there so they are no longer abused" they had amassed a good assortment of books, scrolls, and other archives over the years they had been operating, he was willing to say they had one of the most extensive in Baltimare.

Shadow was happy with both answers and simply nodded in response, she would wait till later to find out more about this odd collection they were sitting on.

Blaze waited a bit longer in silence to be sure no one else had questions before concluding the meeting with "Alight everyone is to be assembled and in position ready to head out within an hour!" Everyone cheered as they broke to prepare for the upcoming mission.

Just a few short hours later, Fen quickly walked along the roof of the Skies mansion, she had spent the last fifteen minutes scouting the outside and had identified half a dozen guards she’d need to remove for Blaze's plan to work. Coming to the edge of the front roof, she looked down. The first two guards would be the ones on the second floor terrace, they where unicorn spell welders by the look of their horns and lighter armor. The one of the left was a pale grey mare from what Fen could see and the other a deep crimson. Below them on the ground two earth pony guards, one a tall orange stallion the other a much smaller looking purple stallion, standing watch by the door and she had spotted just two pegasi patrolling the area. It was a simple and not overly imaginative sentry setup, this wouldn't take her long to break up.

She waited till both unicorns were facing away from each other, as they routinely did to survey their halves of the front entry and it's surroundings,before dropping on the crimson mare. She was surprised by the sudden weight on her back but could only make a wet gurgling sound as Fen's knife opened her throat. The grey unicorn started to turn to check on that odd nose but soon found that same knife sticking out of her head having buried itself through her eye. As they fell the two bodies managed a finale few twitches as they let out their last bits of life.

With the two unicorn sentries down and their friends still non the wiser she targeted the two pegasi roamers, thankfully they were highly bored and followed the same pattern as they went around, they didn't even fly on their route removing their biggest advantage. She nimbly hopped down the side of the mansion before dashing out of sight. After some quiet sprinting she found a suitable set of flower bushes near the path of one of them should pass by. It took only a little patience and the pegasus was in front of her, a pale grey stallion this time, an easy grab and slashed throat and he was bush fertilizer. His buddy, a bright blue stallion, soon came over to see if something was wrong and he suffered a similar fate, except that he did let out the start of a shout before it died out wetly.

Now Fen just needed to take out the pair of guards standing by the front door and her part would be finished without incident. She carefully crept back to the house, and silently slid along its wall toward the guards. The guards were nearly standing watch, yawning and nearly forcing each other into keeping awake, until they noticed several warm wet drips thumping them on the head. A point Fen had not considered was the blood from the unicorns had flowed and finally fell onto the heads of the last two guards. Her eyes dilated slightly as she watched the dark red drops splatter onto the guards heads rousing the sleepy guards. She knew she would need to act fast, recklessly so to prevent them from ruining the others entry into the palace, she started moving quickly toward them abandoning much of her caution for speed. The guards were just lifting their eyes to see what had been splashing them when Fen was finally close enough to bum rush the one closest to her into the stone wall behind him. Internally breathing a sigh of relief as she had caught the large orange one before he could react, now with him su wedged all that was needed was a simple twist of her head to bring her knife across his neck and have him add to the spattering of red before the door. The purple stallion was the first of the group to truly react, he managed to get his sword out and blocked her first quick strike. But as he attempting to sound the alarm she twisted and slid under his sword causing the guard to fall forward as she continued to twist her and brought her knife straight up using his own weight to plunge the knife into his brain from under his jaw.

Specter had been watching the unfolding carnage from atop his carriage, his vantage point was far from ideal but he was able to catch glimpses and Fen's final all clear signal. He smiled evilly glad to see things working so well for the first stage of the plan. He took up his reins and sped off to the manor his ghosts pulling the carriage swiftly and quietly. It was more illusion than anything but his ghost pony spell was his pride and joy, each looked like a pony he once knew and they had enough animation to them to do the simple task of pulling his carriage under his careful direction. Not to mention they were a lot faster then any pony team he had ever worked with, making them an idea tool for the groups regular jobs.

Inside Specters carriage, Shadow and Sharp were carefully dipping their respecting weapons into the bubbling blood like substance the Spice had whipped together for this job "Remember, all this needs is a drop to get into the victim's bloodstream and it will do the rest" both mares nodded as they finished applying the poison. The thick substance held true to the paints and blades giving them a ghastly look, as if they had already been stained with the blood of many victims.

Sharp looked over her dozens of needles with an approving grin “This will do nicely, let me get in first and take out a few of the patroles then you do your bit at the front door Shadow, that will create the most panic as the main group of guards start to realize they have no backup” she was full on grinning, she loved jobs where she could truly let loose and cause maximum carnage.

Shadow nodded as the carriage came to a silent stop, she knew well her orders to cause maximum fear and panic. Sharp fluttered up and out the trap door in the roof heading to the second floor as Shadow stepped out the side. As Shadow watched Sharp let out a small volley of needles through one of the larger second floor windows, shattering it before she dove in after them.

Shadow checked her cloak and hood as the first screams could be heard coming from within the broken window. She quickly walked up to the front doors and took a breath to steady herself before opening the large ornate double doors. The doors opened with bearly a creak reveling that the inside inside was dark and barely lit by mounted candles, seems The Lord of the place was being miserly with his candle useage, and the decorations were sparce lending proff to the point Blaze had mentioned about the noble selling off everything. As she surveyed the strangely meger surroundings she cought sight of the guards starting to form up before the main staircase. She started taping the hanging blade in her tail to draw the guards attention toward her.

All the group of guards could see was a hooded pony with a single glowing purple eye staring at them  from the darkness of her hood “HALT!!!” one stallion, who by his polished and complete armor looked to be the head of the guards, yelled at her.

Shadow just started slowly walking toward them, keeping her spectral eye trained on them for effect. The unicorn guards started throwing a volley of fireballs and lightning at her, but despite getting hit numerous times she just kept moving toward them as if unphased but inside was a completely different matter. As she calmly took hit after hit mer mind was a flurry of panic and suppressed pain 'What in Celestias name is wrong with me!?!? I can't do anything but keep walking!' She screamed internally. When she finally got halfway to them the front most guards decided to charge her as the unicorns fired a final volley of spells at her, a point she was glad of as she wasn't sure how much more fire or lightning she could actually take despite her body working without her control. When they got close to her she untangled her chain tail and struck at them from the sides taking the bold guards by surprise as this seemingly demonic weapon shot out from the monster in front of them and knocked over all three charging earth ponies. All the guards were starting to lose their bearing and were openly fearful as the intense pain of the poison started kicking in, screams were still coming from the second floor but despite this the head Guard still desperately called out “WE NEED HELP IN THE LOBBY!!!!” His shout slightly muffled by two floors worth of agonized screaming.

Two very green looking guards from the third floor rushed down to answer their plea but that was it, meanwhile Shadow quickly stabbed three more downed ponies with her poison coated tail, all of them immediately started writhing in agony and shouting about the horrible apparitions they believed were assaulting them. She poised her chain tail like a scorpions before finally drawing her two blades, the effect of her slow drawing her weapons and just as slowly unfolding them was the last straw for many of the guards who just started trampling each other in an attempt to escape. Shadow simply started striking at them, she didn't even bother blocking or parrying the blows of the few who wildly tried striking at her, many managed to find her flesh but most just drew a dull harmless thud from her armor as she poisoned each and everyone of them systematically. She vaguely noted how the blows to her armor sounded more like hitting hard skin then metal plates, a point she would record later at least thats what she concentrated on in between silent screams of agony as her body was forced to endure far greater punishment than it ever had before.

Finally the screaming had stopped, and all the guards she had taken on lay still at her feet, she finally let out a scream of rage and pain before her back legs gave out. Slowly she sheathed and re-braided her weapons. She was extremely hurt, all the spells had really done a number on her bones and hide as had the blades and spears of the panicked mob at the end, in fact she grudgingly attributed her ability to perform entirely on her masters exact orders, which he had drilled into her multiple times to ensure she remembered, on how she was to perform she simply physically couldn't disobey even when she wanted to cry, or curl up in a ball and die to stop the pain that was still throbbing within her entire being. Her back legs hurt so bad she was sure at least one of them was broken, and she bet there were a bunch of other broken and bleeding things in her that she couldn't feel as a sickening numbness started setting in. But now her orders were fulfilled and that linchpin of hardwired obedience was gone she finally could collapse to the ground among the twitching, passed out, and occasional dead bodies; and pass out into comforting black oblivion.

About the time that Shadow knocked down the second set of charging guards, Griff was gliding in to drop Crescent down onto the empty unlit balcony of the master bedroom, Blaze had already touched down and had been waiting on his butlers arrival. Griff flew up to the highest point on the mansion and started his watch of the grounds.

Blaze slowly opened one of the cloudy glass doors to the bedroom “Come on lets get this over with” he whispered to Crescent, who nodded and drew his scimitar from it's large sheath on his back. The room was empty and visibly ransacked, seems the lord had left in a hurry. The pair started picking the room apart, all the intel pointed to the stash being in this room. Things started getting desperate when the screams started fading “Clever little lordling” Blaze growled in frustration before Crescent finally stumbled on a lucky break “Master Blaze, the wall on this side of the bed is far thinner than the rest” he started taping the wall, finding the shape of the thin portion.

Blaze started looking for a trigger in case it was a secret door, but Crescent had other ideas. After tracing out the rough area of the door Crescent simply Slashed at it with four depth strokes of his scimitar. After a seconds hesitation the thin portion simply fell backwards revealing the expected passage “Good job Crescent” Blaze complemented as the pair entered the passageway.

The two slowly stalked through the hall, it was barren, mostly just occupying the space between the inside and outside walls. After some time they finally ended up at another door, listening close they could hear indistinct voices coming from behind it “Want some help Blaze?” both spun around in shock only to find Fen standing behind them smiling.

Blaze shook his head in mock disgust “I really hate it when you do that Fen, but yes back up would be nice” she was supposed to have gone to guard the carnage but he supposed it wouldn't matter now.

Crescent had turned around and backed up to the door and with a nod from Blaze he bucked the door off its hinges and a foot into the room.

The room was another normal room, but they had gone through the only entrance to it. It was well furnished, Lord sky it seemed liked his panic room to be comfortable, also there were several heavy locked chests and bookcases in the room.

Lord Sky was quickly standing behind his last four guards “Kill them, fools!!! Or by the empresses I will be sure your hides will burn in their place!!!” after all that had befallen him he would not simply alow these bandits to rob and murder him.

The four pegasus guards charged the three theifts with swords drawn and the determination of those who fully knew they had nothing to lose even if they did parish. Crescent took the Center two parrying both blades with his large scimitar and effortlessly knocking them back towed their lord. With them now firmly on the defensive he started in on them used varying strikes so neither could tell when one or the other were going to get hit or even how hard the strikes would be, soon he was getting cuts in under guard and between plate as the pair was losing more and more ground and balance.

Blaze sidestepped the one on the left before bucking the pegasus in the flank, allowing a slight gash on his own side as the guard twisted in mid air and slashed him. he then caught the sword that the guard held in his mouth and yanked it free with his fore hoofs. he discarded the blade before striking at the guard where his face was exposed, knocking a few teeth to the floor. Finally he finishing with a haymaker which knocked the guard out.

Fen simply sidestepped the one on the far right kicked out his fore hooves and at the last second, anticlimactically let the guard impale himself through the chest on her knife.

Crescent was still fighting the old fashioned way he had cut down one of the two and had the last one going wildly defencive trying to just stay alive. Finally when the guard could no longer move his sword fast enough to block he was struck down by.

Fen walked over and ended the single knocked out guard’s life while Blaze calmly walked over to the oddly brave noble, who showed no signs of fear yet “Well Lord Sky, you had a good run but I won't let filth like you tarnish our history by openly selling it!” He said with the pure conviction of a crusader, even a underworld one like himself.

The tan Pegasus scoffed “I may not be a high noble, but you wouldn't dare kill me in cold blood” he was so confident in the absolute law of the Celestial Empire that he thought himself untouchable. The vary thought that these criminals would risk killing or harming him had not entered his mind even at this point.

Blaze just smirked “Hey Crescent, introduce our good lord here to your name sake. He is of no use to anyone now”.

Crescent stepped forward, scimitar at the ready, finally fear and realization was registering in the stuck up noble’s face. Sky looked around trying to find an escape from his imminent demise “I'll pay you anything you want, just spare me!!!” his voice trembled as he spoke and he tried to force himself flat against the rough stone wall.

Blaze shook his head “We will be taking what you have in this room, but beyond that I have no need of your dirty money” the thought of him trying to bribe him was at the same time funny and disgusting, he briefly considered taking him just so Spice could have a fresh test subject for his art.

With that last statement Crescent wound up and cleanly beheaded the former Lord Sky in a single cut.

Blaze looked over Sky’s body in disgust “Fools like him give nobles bad names. Now I want this room cleaned out of everything, make sure that we save the scrolls and anything else he may be hiding!” the three of them quickly stripped the room of everything. They found the scrolls easily, they also found several hundred astrum, some minor pieces of art they'd likely sell off and an old broken short sword which might be historically significant in some way.

Most of the loot was loaded onto Crescent, with the other two taking what they could and headed down to the first floor using the main staircase. So far the plan was going really well over all, it almost followed the plan Blaze had envisioned, which he knew usually meant that something was horribly wrong for them. But as they exited the mansion Blaze could only hope that this sudden sense of dread was misplaced.

The triumphant head group had soon glided down and loaded up the loot into the carrage. Sharp had found her way back after the guards went silent, and was now relaxing in her seat smiling and waiting to head off after a beautifully bloody night. On the other side Spice was snoreing away havering long finished his meger portion of this job.

As Blaze was about to get comfortable alongside the other veterans in his family he noticed they where one short "Where is Shadow?" He asked as calmly as he could. The stunned expressions of the group where more than enough answer for him "Scoure the building!" He ordered before leaping out and galumphing along the path she was supposed to have taken.

As he got to the lobby Blaze was able to survey the swath of guards that Shadow had delt with, more than he had anticipated when he gave her this. He was about to move on whe his hoof hit a familiar pice of rune enshrined weponry "Shadow!" He gasped as he followed her tail back to where she had fallen "Sharp! Get down here she's hurt badly!!!" He shouted knowing that the message would get to their medic.

As he waited for Sharp and the others to arrive he looked over his prize smith's wounds, she had obveusly taken far more damage than she sould have been able to endure. He was no expert by any means but his personal experience with burns, cuts, and broken bones told him that no pony could continue to stay awake let alone fight with the ones she had endured. It was now that he truly realized the extent of her submissive breeding "I told her to shrug off hits, to seem like she felt no pain as she took out the guards... She followed my orders, her masters orders, to the letter even when she shouldn't have when it could easily have killed her. Never before had he considerd the impact such forced obedience had upon her, and now the  crew. From this point on he would have to monitor everything he said to her especially the orders. He may have to even constantly monitor her during jobs just so he could supplement her lack of leeway and judgement... This would require some time to figure out he decided.

He looked back to her still pained face "I will figure this out, and find a way to overcome this" he promised her as the rest of the group started ariveing to recover the pair.