Rising Shadows

Shadow had a restful night sleep and was enjoying the comfort of his bed when his alarm went off, he quickly got up, shut his alarm off, and went about his daily routine to get ready.

He went downstairs and gathered up his finished project, placing them inside the carrying case he had created a week earlier, he placed the carrying case on his back and adjusted the strap until it was comfortable and wouldn't slip off.

He left his house locking the door behind him like he always did, he went to Sugarcube Corner first.

"Hey Pinkie you here," he asked as he walked in.

"Yeah, whatcha need," she said as she bounced from behind the counter.

"Can you go get Twilight, Vinyl, and the others and come meet me at my training field just outside Ponyville," he said.

"Sure thing, but why do you want us to meet you there for," she asked.

"Its a surprise," is all he needed to say before Pinkie shot past him to gather up their friends.

Shadow let out a little giggle and then left to go to the meeting spot.

After setting up a bunch of practice dummies and waiting for about fifteen minutes Pinkie finally arrived with the others behind her.

"So why did you want us to meet you here Shadow," Twilight asked, "Does it have anything to do with what the Princess said yesterday?"

Shadow shook his head, "Nope, I finished my project and wanted the seven of you to be the first to see them."

Twilight and the others eagerly watched as he removed the carrying case and removed eight slender pen looking objects, to say they were dissappointed would be an understatement.

Almost as if he had read their minds he let out a small giggle before speaking, "No, thats not all."

He used his magic to press a button on all eight of the pens, while holding them away from the him and his friends, the pen like objects quickly started transforming and after a few seconds the pens had become eight swords.

"The devices that a Pinkie and Vinyl gave me along with the some of the magical gems from Rarity allow the swords to super compress then into the pens like before, I also installed a gem in each of them and placed a messaging spell on them that I found in the advanced spell book Twilight gave me, I also made these," he said pulling out a small sphere from the case and pressing the button on it as he did.

It quickly transformed into a pyramid with a magical gem at the top.

"I call it a Beacon, you can use this to send messages to other Beacons and to my swords," he pressed another button returning it to its sphere form, and tossed it to Twilight.

"Keep it safe just incase what Celestia said was true," he said as he turned back to the swords, "Each set of swords have a unique attribute assigned to them, blue for speed, red for power, gold for magic, and silver for elemental," he said this as he pointed to each set, showing the colored ring on the hilt of each sword.

"Besides that they can also be combined together," he said.

He then picked up the set of speed swords and placed them together, the swords quickly combined from a set of dual wieldable swords into a two handed sword, he then moved to the other and did the same.

"On top of that, well just watch this," he said as he took the four swords and turned them into two swords.

"Now here's the best part," he said as he looked at the group of his awe struck friends with a wide grin on his face, he look back at the two swords before combining them.

The sword that was produced was huge and looked heavy and was letting off a blue aura.

"I think I should also mentioned that they're powered by dubstep like Vinyl's inventions are, I tried a few other power sources but nothing else worked like dubstep did," he said looking back at his friends.

They just sat there with wide eyes and dropped jaws.

After a few moments Shadow decided he need to snap them out of it, and was glad he carried an air horn in his vest pocket for such cases.

After pulling it out he used his magic to sound it, the sound immediately snapped his friends out of their daze and made them jump.

He quickly put the horn back in his pocket before speaking, "Sorry but I had to get your attention somehow," he gave a nervous laugh, "So what do you think," he asked.

Vinyl stood next to Pinkie with her sunglasses barely hanging on.

Twilight was about to speak when Rainbow Dash cut her off.

"That was so AWESOME," she said, "How did you get them to become so small?"

Shadow laughed for a second, "Like I said, the devices that Pinkie gave me as a gift from her and Vinyl combined with some of the magical gems Rarity gave me, allow the swords to super compress into their pen forms."

Twilight spoke up next, "You placed a gem with a messaging spell inside each of the swords and Beacons," she asked.

"Yeah, here I'll show you," he said walking over to the sword pointing a hoof at the the gem inside the blade guard before pressing it with his hoof.

"Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3," he said before removing his hoof.

After a few seconds the Beacon Twilight was holding in her magic started to vibrate, she looked it over and press the button on it causing it to once again transform into a pyramid, the gem at the top was glowing this time.

Twilight looked at it for a moment before touching the gem with her hoof causing the message to play.

"Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3," the message said in Shadow's voice.

"This is an amazing invention Shadow," Twilight said praisingly.

Twilight then pressed the button returning it to its sphere form before putting it away.

"So what's with the practice dummies," Twilight asked.

"I haven't had a chance to try out my swords yet and I've also gotta come up with a name for them," he said picking up the huge sword in his hooves.

"Let's see how well this thing performs in its strongest form," he said as he lunged toward the practice dummies.

As soon as he got in range pf the first dummy he swung the sword.

To both his and his friends' surprise, the sword let out a large flash of blue energy, completely enveloping all the practice dummies.

After a few seconds the blue energy disappeared revealing that all the practice dummies were destroyed.

Shadow swung the sword a second time to see if it would happen again, however, nothing happened.

"Well, that was unexpected," Shadow said completely stunned by what happened

He focused his magic on the gem in the sword causing it to split back into eight swords, and then again on the gems in each of the swords, returning them into their pen forms.

He then put them back into his carrying case before placing the case back on his back.

He looked at his friends to see that they were once again shocked by what happened.

"Oh, come on, do I have to use the air horn again," he said teasingly as he reached into his vest pocket with his magic.

Just by having mentioned using the air horn again snapped them out of their daze.

"I think it'll be best to keep practicing here where its safe until you've mastered those swords, Shadow," Twilight said.

Shadow nodded in agreement.

"Now to just come up with a name, hmm, ooh I know, I'll call them Treble Makers," he said while moving his hooves through the air as if to make the name sound cooler.

"Treble Makers," Rainbow Dash repeated, "Sounds good, but are you naming all of them that together or what?"

Shadow thought for a moment.

"I'll call them all Treble Makers except for that last form, I'll leave that unnamed for now," he said said turning back to the group, "As for the wave of blue energy, that can come out of the sword, I'll call that the Bass Wave."

Fluttershy peeked out from behind the group where she had been hiding since the wave of blue energy shot out of the sword.

"So, uh, i-is there anything else y-you wanted to show us," she asked still shaking from being scared by the Bass Wave, "I-if you don't mind me asking that is."

Shadow nodded, "Yeah, just one last thing, and sorry for scaring you, Fluttershy, I didn't know that was going to happen," he said with a sheepish grin on his face.

"I-it's okay, it's not your fault, so what is the other thing you wanted to show us," she asked now sitting next to Twilight.

"I apologize in advance if this scares any of you," he said taking of his sunglasses revealing his deep blue eyes and placed the sunglasses on the ground.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breathe, after a few seconds he opened his eyes revealing they were now red.

After a few seconds his blue mane and tail also turned red and moved as though it was fire.

He had entered Rage Shift, a state in which a unicorn enters after their rage has flowed and mixed with there magic, causing them to take on a terrifying appearance.

"Why are you so angry that it would make you Rage Shift in front of us," Twilight said starting to get nervous.

Shadow giggled, "I'm not angry, I'm completely calm, this is what I wanted to show you, I can now enter Rage Shift at will," he said giggling again.

Twilight looked at him stunned, "How did you do that," she asked.

"I've been out here practicing since I first Rage Shifted last year, I perfected it after a couple of months but I also went a little further with it and that's something else you need to see," he said.

He once again closed his eyes and strained his muscles and focused, after a few moments his mane and tail extended and became more like a raging fire than a simple flame, and his muscle mass also increased slightly.

He finally opened his eyes revealing that they were still red.

"What just happened," Twilight asked as she looked over Shadow's new form.

"I don't know, it just happened one day when I thought about what would happen if I got even more angrier than what was required for a normal Rage Shift while I was already in Rage Shift, and it just happened," he explained.

He took in and let out a deep breathe completely exiting Rage Shift.

"Although going into that part of Rage Shift really tires me out," he said breathing heavily.

"Are you ready to head back into town," he asked finally catching his breathe.

"Yeah, lets head back, its almost lunch time," Twilight said as they all started to head back into town.

"So what does it feel like to enter Rage Shift at will," Twilight asked walking next to Shadow.

"It feels incredible, like I can do anything, and since I enter it at will and not out of anger I can stay in that form for as long as I like without any negative side effects like entering normally would cause," he said as he walked.

"What about that second form, what does it feel like," Twilight asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

"It feels, well, like I'm unstoppable, however, due to the fact it still takes a large effort on my part to not only enter the state but also maintain it, it leaves me exhausted when I do leave it, however, this time I wasn't exhaust but merely out of breathe, I think I may be getting used to it," he said with confidence.

Twilight giggled, "Well as long as you don't strain yourself too much and get yourself hurt."

As they got into town they all waved goodbye to each other before they heading home, everypony except Twilight that is, she waited until the others where out of sight before she spoke.

"Have you thought about what Princess Celestia said," she asked looking at Shadow concerned.

"Yeah, I don't know what she meant about me being the first to know of Strife's return though," he said looking up at the sky.

"Maybe she meant that you'll be able to sense it or something, like how Pinkie has her Pinkie sense," she said.

Shadow thought for a moment before he started to giggle.

"Me with a Pinkie sense for my eternal enemy," he continued to giggle only to have Twilight roll her eyes.

"You really hate being serious, especially when there's a chance to fight against someone strong, huh," she asked.

Shadow looked back down at her and smiled, "Pretty much."

Saying that caused Twilight to burst out in laughter.

"Well," he continued, "Except when I'm in the actual fight, that's when I get serious."

Twilight finally managed to stop laughing.

"Only you can take something as big as a being of pure evil and immense power that even the Elements of Harmony are useless against and make them seem like they're no big deal," she sighed, "I just hope that if Strife does return, that you won't take him likely and won't make any foolish decisions that could lead to you getting hurt or killed."

Shadow looked at her like he had been injured by what she said.

"I'm hurt, Twilight, you know I would never endanger anypony by making foolish decisions," he paused.

"Okay I made one bad choice one time and somepony got a bruised nose, it's not like I'm going to hold my sword like I did that bokuto and let it slip out of my hooves when I swing it causing it to fly hilt first into somepony's face, I'm sorry already okay," he said before finally taking a breathe.

"That somepony has a name you know," she said.

"Yeah, I know, I still can't believe Shining Armor would duck behind cover everytime I went to pick up my bokuto, I'm glad he stopped when he realized that it was a one time slip up and that I've mastered most sword arts," he said causing Twilight to giggle a bit.

"Well he did get a flying bokuto to the nose," she giggled some more.

Shadow looked back up at the sky looking at the clouds once more.

"Yeah, it's good to see that him and Cadence finally got married," he said looking back down at Twilight.

"Oh yeah, I was wondering why you weren't there, did they not send an invitation to you," she asked while making a mental note to give Shining Armor a lecture if he hadn't given Shadow an invitation to his wedding.

"No, I got one, I was busy with work though, being a DJ kept me pretty busy, I'm just glad to be home and not have to do anything but what I enjoy doing," he said with a sigh of relief.

"At least now I can be a DJ without getting overworked, don't get me wrong, its fun but when you barely get any sleep or any time to work on new songs, it just becomes too stressful," he said.

Twilight nodded her head in agreement.

"Yeah, even though I don't personally know how it felt, well I'm gonna set this Beacon up in the Treebrary and I want you to send me a message on it as soon as you even think you sense that Strife has returned, got that," she said while giving him a serious look.

"Got it, I'll report any ominous feelings to you immediately," he said while giving a salute which only earned him a punch in the shoulder, "Hey I was being serious that time."

Twilight rolled her eyes and let out a small giggle.

"Well I'm gonna head home and set up one of my Beacons just incase then eat lunch," he said turning to head home.

Twilight nodded and waved goodbye as she also went home.

Shadow did just as he said he would when he got home, he decided to eat some Zap apple jam and lettuce sandwiches for lunch.