The New Life of Shadow Ironsword

Chapters

Face to face
Old Memories
The meetup
You win some...
You lose some
Tactical retreat
Getting and upgrade
new understanding
Future planning
All out brawl(G)
New rivals and reunions
The kids and Emergencies
Welcomes, lessons, and planning
New goals
Face offs and Realizations
Relaxation and tough conversations
The arrival

Face to face

As I walked through the streets I noticed a very heavy lack of ponies. I looked through the nearest shop window, a place called Quills and Sofas. "Dang is it really already nine at night? I'm already late for my meeting with Twilight then." As I began to take off towards the crystal castle in the distance my coat caught on the lamp post outside the small shop. Riiiiiiip "Dammit all to Tartarus!" I shouted and the rest of my coat began to fall of my body I gave a hard flap of my over-sized dark navy-blue wings to propel myself into the night sky, hoping my dark navy-blue coat would blend in with the darkening sky. Though, the slight trail of navy-blue, brown, and red probably gave me up to somepony in town.

To my luck nopony seemed to notice my quick ascent or flight to the castle. Just as I was about to reach the castle a thought struck me. Crap what are her guards gonna think. I mean I've got the credentials she gave me in her last letter, but I don't wanna make a scene and have my arrival already be public knowlege. Just as I was about to turn tail and flee into the nearby forest, named the Everfree Forest, I noticed the distinct lack of guards at the gate of the massive crystal structure. What the heck. Does she not have guards? That's a bit weird I mean she is a princess after all. I began to slowly descend to the ground near the front of the castle, trying to keep to the shadows. Stealth was never my special talent, but I was decent at it, due to my training with my mother's wolven pack. I walked up to the front door and perked my my pointy ears, as to get a sense if anypony was near it. I heard the fast-paced clopping of pacing hooves. I lifted my front paw up to the door and gave my best attempt at knocking, given that I didn't have hooves. There was a moment's pause in the pacing before I heard the flurry of wings flapping unevenly towards the door. Heh it seems she's still having a bit of a struggle learning to use her wings. The door opened to reveal a slightly frazzled looking Twilight Sparkle.

"Oh! Shadow you made it. A bit late but that's fine!" She seemed to turn about to yell deeper into the castle before she froze. A slightly sad look overtook her features, for the briefest of moments, before she turned to me smiling and welcoming me in. "We did make a house for you out in the Everfree Forest, like you asked. But it's a bit late for us to be traveling out there anyhow, so you'll be staying at the castle tonight." She seemed to pause for a moment before tentatively adding, "If that's alright with you, at least."

I had lived enough of my life reaching out for help and friendship to recognize that Twilight was doing just that. "Is everything alright, Twilight. You seem a bit, I dunno, sad or anxious tonight." I reached out a tentative paw a look of concern on my face. Did I really make her this anxious just by being a few hours late?

"Hmm? Oh yes, just a lot running through my mind tonight. It's just been a year, to the day, since Spike left for his century long nap." Another look of sadness crossed her face, but this time it stayed there as she continued, "It's just...I miss him being here. Golden Oaks was so empty without him, and now the castle is so much worse. I don't even have any memories with him in here to keep me company."

So she wanted some company for the night? Well, who am I to refuse a princess? I began to walk into the open doorway. "I would be honored to stay for the night, Twilight. After all, how often do ponies get to say that they got to stay in a princess' castle?" She began to look at me with a very strange expression, one that almost seemed to combine somber and thankful.

"Well then, right this way. I'll show you to your room for the night." She turned and began to walk into a corridor to the left. As soon as I turned the corner she was standing in front of the first door to the left. "Here you are Shadow, a room fit enough for royalty." She opened the door and I walked through it. An auto-light enchantment kicked in and the entire room was illuminated by a large elaborate crystal chandelier hanging in the main foyer. Which in and by itself could have eaten the entirety of his apartment in Cloudsdale, with room to spare.

I stared, slightly slack-jawed, for a moment before responding with a voice laced with shock and awe, "All this for me? I...I can't believe it!" As I entered further into the room I noticed a full kitchen, to my left, with a stove, microwave, and a dishwasher! To my right I noticed a full lounge area and a balcony. Directly in front of me i saw through an open door a bedroom with a full wardrobe and separate bathroom attached! I walked onto the balcony beyond the lounge, and Twilight followed close behind, seemingly trying to gauge my reaction to the room. I couldn't help it I started to feel tears welling up in the corners of my eyes. I let out a choking sob, looked at her and said, "Thank you Twilight, no one -except for my own flesh and blood- has shown me this kind of kindness." I looked out onto the view of Ponyville and felt my jaw fall slightly gape. The entirety of Ponyville was in sight, the few remaining lights in ponies homes and on the streets painting the town in a sort of glow. It's so beautiful! How could I ever repay Twilight for showing me such a kindness as letting me live here? I looked to my right and see Twilight looking out unto the view of the town as well. "How can I repay you, you've been so kind to me already and, you haven't even started giving me real advice on friendship yet?"

I look down to the floor and let a few tears fall off the tip of my muzzle and onto the floor, wetting the floor beneath me with a specks, as I felt a reassuring hoof fall on my shoulder. I look up and see a look of understanding and compassion in her eyes. "All you have to do to repay me, Shadow, is to allow me to help you." What? How is that a fair exchange?

"Twilight, are you sure there isn't some way that I can help you? Some way that I can even come close to paying you back for the kindness you've shown me so far?" The last sentence has a bit of my desperation to repay her slip into my voice. Wow I must really seem pathetic, I can't even accept a room without begging to repay her? What happened to me? Once I was so hardened to the ways of the world that even the most scathing remark couldn't make me flinch, outwardly. And now here I am border-line begging to repay her for a room! I must seem so pathetic. "I really am pathetic, aren't I?" I muttered out as I begin to track my way into the room.

"You are NOT pathetic! You are a wonderful pony, who has been through a rough time and is struggling. But you know what?" I looked up into her eyes. "You're still standing here, reaching out for help, that says something. It's my duty as a princess of Equestria to help you. Not just that, but...I would hope you would consider me a friend by this point?"

Pure and utter shock cover my face. Is she my friend? I mean, I've already shared quite a bit with her. I pause before I responded, "I had never really thought about it. I mean I've had so few friends -most being family, or close friends of my family- that I really don't know what to consider a friend. She seemed to sink slightly. "But, if I had to hazard a guess, I would say yes. Yes, we are friends." I smile as best I could, hoping it looked natural and held out my paw for her to shake. To my utter shock She ran up and hugged me. "Heh, how many ponies get to say that they've been hugged by a princess?" I ask dryly.

"Well I, for one, can. And if you really do consider me a friend, then it's a friend's duty to help another in need. You have been through a lot in your life, you deserve at least one friend who you can depend on." We both stand there in a hug for a while, neither one of us really wanting to break the moment.

I walked into the lush bedroom I begin to make a motion to take off my coat, only to remember that it had ripped in half earlier. Well, dammit all to Tartarus! How am I gonna go out in public now? I certainly am not going to go out without something to cover up. And there's no way I'm going to be able to stay hidden for long enough to find a shop, if I try and sneak around. Even if I did, how was I going to approach the owner? I draw up a list of Twilight's friends, and remembered one in particular that was a dressmaker, Rarity. Hmm maybe I can ask to owe a favor, seeing as how I'm dead broke. I did use all my bits to move here. Speaking of which the delivery ponies should arrive tomorrow. I crawl my way over to the bed and flop down onto the covers, slide underneath, and let sleep take me. It's good to finally be somewhere, where I feel safe. I think, before I drift off into sleep.

Author's Note

I would like to point out that I am NOT Shipping my OC with Twilight. I just interpret her as the type to be there for a friend in need.
As always any constructive feed back is very appreciated. Hope y'all enjoyed it.

Old Memories

I woke the next morning to a light knocking at my door. I heard Twilight ask from the other side of the door, "Hey, Shadow, are you awake?" I managed to roll over and drop out of bed, that was, before the soreness from the previous days flying caught up to me. Ahh, note to self: don't try to fly from Cloudsdale to Ponyville in a single day's time. Even if the city had been as close as it was going to get prior for the town's annual running of the leaves, and general winter-prep time. I'd always heard the running of the leaves was a really cool event. Not only to see but, to be a part of. And I get to see it this year! A sudden gidiness overtook my step as I started making my way, slowly over to the door to the wardrobe.

Hearing an impatient tap of hooves on the other side of the room's door, I quickly yawned and responded, "Well I am now." I gave a little chuckle to myself. "I'll be right out Twilight just let me grab my-" Crap that's right my trench coat, it's in tatters in some garbage bin near Quills and Sofas. "Never mind, I'll be right out."

"Alright, the mail pony, Derpy, came by earlier this morning and told me that some stuff arrived for you."

"Wait, you told a random mail-mare who I am, and that I was here?" Fear shot through me. What if she went blabbing to the whole town about me? What if she's already-

"Oh no, no I would never do that. She'd just came by and told me that some stuff had arrived, and was addressed to somepony she didn't know. I just made an educated guess. You sounded really worried that I'd do that. You know, I'd bet that most if not all of Ponyville, would be fine with you, and what you are. As long as you were the one to tell them."

I muttered, mostly to myself, "Yea but what if I run into the one pony who's not OK with me? Then they'd probably spread rumors of how I'm a monster." After all, wolven don't have a very good reputation in Equestria. I sighed, got up and, tried to brush my mane into some semblance of tidiness. "Alright, I'm coming out now."

"Alright, well we will need to head over to- um Shadow where's the trench coat you normally wear? I mean I'm all for you being open about your appearance, but I thought you didn't want anypony knowing about you?"

"Well I don't, but my coat kinda got ripped up last night. When I noticed that I was a good two hours late to our meeting I tried to take off and rush over here. However, in the process my coat got caught on a rack outside of Quills and Sofas. It wasn't reparable from what I could see so I threw it in the nearest trash can." I sighed and continued, "That was also a dang good battle coat."

"Oh yes I was going to ask you about your special talent. You had described it briefly in one of your early letters as sword fighting, right?"

"Oh! Yeah, I'm actually one of the top ranked professional sword fighters in Equestria, number eight in fact!" I puffed my chest out with a swell in pride. "I actually just took the thirteenth slot in all of Equus." I looked up to see a little happy smile on her face. "Um Twilight? Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked inquisitively.

"Hmm? Oh nothing, it's just that I've never seen this prideful side of yourself. I like it, you should really show it more often."

"Oh, really?" I blushed a bit. Thank Celestia for my dark navy-blue fur, which I hoped covered up my blush effectively enough. "I don't know, I really don't like bragging, it doesn't seem like something I should do unprompted. I'm really not skilled at anything, other than sword dueling, and not many other ponies bring it up in conversation normally. All of the wolven in my mother's pack avoid talking about it around me, just so they can avoid talking to me." I gave a hearty chuckle. "There was actually once when I caught Silver Snap and Dawn talking about it as I walked around the corner and they immediately shut their traps. I remember asking, 'So you guys heard anything about the newest professional sword duelists match?' They both just gave me slightly irked expressions and then walked away."

"Oh, well they don't sound very nice to be hanging out with. Are they your friends?" She gave a slightly worried look.

"Hmm, oh no, no they're just some of the only ones who even acknowledge my presence in the pack." I gave a slight shrug. "I've mostly gotten used to being ignored. After my initial training by the wolven in combat, I was deemed unfit for open combat with the pack, at least in the wolven style. And wolven are all about doing things their way. But, I can still kick most of their butts in one on one combat."

"Oh, that must have been quite lonely when ever you visited your mother. I thought you said your time with your mother was more pleasant?"

"Well yea, the wolven in her pack just ignored me, when I was with my dad in Cloudsdale, outside of my tournaments, I get treated like crap when ponies discover what I am. As you know, wolven don't have the best reputation in Equestria and well...If anyone finds out they tend to be disgusted and want to punish me for what my parents did. That's my best guess anyway, as to why they treat me like they do. That's why I'm so attached to my cloak. Not just is cool to look at, it helps me hide my wolven-like appearance from ponies."

"Oh well that's quite sad, I've never met a pony who'd treat another pony like that, just because of what they are. Anyway, you said you had a pony friend, does he treat you like that?"

"Oh you mean Val? Heck no! He's actually, on more than one occasion, kicked the flank of those who try to treat me like crap. He's an awesome guy to have on your side. If Rainbow didn't hold the element of loyalty I might suggest him as it's bearer. Sometimes I wonder if I'm actually worthy of having him." I stared off to the wall, my mind wandering back to Cloudsdale when I'd first met him.

"Heh, so savage, you had enough? You finally gonna leave our town and never come back?" He rolled me over and I got a look at his sky blue coat and dark smokey gray mane. When I didn't give him a response he continued, "So I take that as a no then? Alright Butch, take him to the top floor, and throw him off, we'll see if he can still fly after one of his wings is broken."

Butch, the pony in question, who was a mountain of a pegasus looked down at me with an unsure expression clear on his broad muzzle. "I don't know Smoky...I mean I want him gone just as much as you. But, killing him probably isn't the answer. I mean we can give him another week to get out on his own."

Smoky looked over to Butch with ice in his lime green eyes. "Did I bucking stutter, Butch? Because you remember what happened to the last pony who thought they ought to go against what I said. Especially when it came to this savage." He gave one last second of unbroken eye contact before Butch buckled and walked over to me laying on the floor.

"You bucking cowards! If you hadn't jumped me you wouldn't even have the chance to do this!" I desperately struggled to move, to no avail. My wing had been broken, and then they'd placed some kind of device on my back that had sapped all the strength from my body. How could I have been so stupid as to let my guard down!? I knew this part of Cloudsdale was bad to cut through!

He fixed me with that same icy glare then began, bitterly, laughing. "And why do you think that is, Shadow? You think we don't know that you are one of the best sword duelists in all of Equestria? Now, Butch, go ahead and take him upstairs." When Butch paused for a moment Smoky turned fully towards him, leaving me open to move once again. I may be weakened, but I can still move without his weight on top of me. I quickly shambled up onto my paws as quickly as possible, and moved to support my injured wing. Then, I turned and bolted down the hall of the large building.

"Help! Somepony help!" I screamed out, normally I would have been all for a fight with a couple of asshole ponies like these, but in my current condition I wouldn't stand chance. I needed help, badly. I came up to a four-way hallway junction and ran into a medium-sized black unicorn with a cobalt blue mane, and amber eyes. "Were you the one calling for help?"

"Yes there are a couple of crazy ponies chasing me, one of them even wanted to kill me!" I turned around to see both of them chasing after me.

"Alright, I see you've got a sword there. I'm gonna need to borrow it for these punks." He glared down the hallway I had just come from with an angry glare at the two quickly approaching pegasi. I nodded, and began pulling out my sword from it's sheath.

Before I handed "You sure you know how to use it? I mean its a bit unruly even for someone of my size." I mumbled from around the grip of my sword.

"No offense, but this really isn't the best time to be asking questions is it? Also, I'm a weapon forger. Doesn't help to make a weapon if I can't tell when it's good to use, does it?" He gave me a cheeky grin and turned back down the hallway. He mumbled around the grip of my sword, "Alright you two, you really wanna start something? You just hurt somebody for, as far as I can tell, no reason. So I'll give you the option to walk away now." He glared daggers at them, before he dropped down into a defensive stance.

Both ponies looked to him, then me, and back to each other. They both apparently decided they didn't stand too much of a chance. They both turned tail and ran back the way they came. "Whew that was too damn close." The moment finally caught up with me, I felt a wave of unabating fear rise in my chest. It threatened to drown me. I broke down onto my haunches, and began to shake uncontrollably. "Sweet Celestia, they wanted to kill me! Just for being different from them!" A sudden wave of anger swelled, replacing the fear that had gripped me. I bitterly remarked, "And here I was thinking I'd finally started to make a positive name for myself, here in Cloudsdale."

I felt a tentative black hoof on my right shoulder. "Hey if it's alright with you I'll...give you a walk home, make sure they don't try the same stunt?" I looked up to see a look of worry on his face. Not worry of whether I was going to lash out and try to hurt him, but worry about my well-being. It shocked me to the very core. How is he not afraid of me? Every other pony I've ever met has been terrified of me. But he's just standing there, worrying about my well being.

"I guess it couldn't hurt right? I mean I'm in no condition to fight right now, in case they do try something." Now that the adrenaline had started to wear down I finally noticed the pain that was shooting through my left wing. "Aaahhh, damn they really did a number on my wing." I looked over my left shoulder and saw that it was bent an unnatural angle. "Damn that's gonna put me out of matches for at least a month." I looked up to the stallion who had just saved my life. I gave a halfhearted smile. "Can I at least ask the name of the pony who just saved me?"

He looked at me and smiled at me warmly. "Sure can! Name's Platinum Valor. As I said previously I'm a forger, but more specifically with rare materials. What about you? I don't recall ever meeting you, but your face definitely does ring a bell." The way he rattled off questions initially confused me into a daze.

When I finally recovered I responded, "Yeah a mug like mine is kinda hard to forget huh?" I gave a bitter chuckle. "Name's Shadow Ironsword, I'm a professional sword duelist." Instantly recognition ran across his face. He didn't seem to be even slightly afraid or unnerved by me being part wolven. Well maybe he doesn't know? I mean he could just know my name and ranking, but never seen one of my-

"Ooohh! Now I know where I know your face! I saw your last match over in Manehatten! You really do dumb down your own talent, by saying you're just a sword duelist! The match I watched was a complete shut-out. The griffon you were fighting didn't even get a single hit on you!" He seemed to pause to give a cocky smile then offered a hoof out to me. I took it and he helped me up off my haunches. Again, now that the adrenaline was almost gone I really could tell just how little energy I had. I felt a wave of exhaustion overcome me and I started to wobble back and forth. Heh, he's all wobbly! Why are there two of him? "I assume you live out at the Ironsword forge with your dad?"

"Yeah I do." I shifted most of my weight onto him, and yawned obnoxiously. His smile only grew.

"Tired huh Shadow? Don't worry I'll get you back to your home. Just stay conscious. I'm sure a med will want to take a look at whatever that thing on your back is." As we walked back to my dad's forge I began to slip into and out of unconsciousness.

When we finally arrived I heard a fuzzy conversation going on then I was moved up to my room and put on my side. As the device that was attached to my back was removed I winced in pain. Ow! That hurts like a son of a bitch! As I drifted off into sleep the last sight I saw was my father looking onto me with a worried expression.

I was brought back to reality by a firm hoof my shoulder shaking me vigorously. As I shook off the last bits of my daydream I looked up to Twilight. "Shadow are you alright?" Twilight was looking at me, heavy concern in her eyes. I felt a teardrop slide past my nose and fall to the floor.

"Damn was I crying again?" I wiped a paw across my face and looked back up to her trying my hardest to smile. "Yeah I'm alright, I just got thinking about how I met Val and well lets just say it's a bit of a bittersweet story."

"Well, if you're willing to tell me, I'm an open ear." I nodded my head. Might as well get this outta the way now. And so I told her the entire story of how I met Platinum Valor. My best, and possibly only pony friend, up until recently.

Author's Note

Alright so I hope you all enjoyed. As always if you do have any feed back please do tell me!

The meetup

I sat in my room, waiting for Twilight to come back from the post office. "Ugh it's so boring in here with nothing to do!" Hmm I wonder if Twilight minds me taking a look around the castle for a bit? It'll take her a bit to walk to the post office from what I saw on my flight here. I'll just take a look around. I left my room and went back to the main entrance hall. "Hmm where to begin?" I asked aloud. There was a large ornate door just twenty feet in front of the main entrance to the castle. I turned towards it and looked at it with mounting curiosity. "Where does that lead? Maybe a throne room?" I wandered over to the door and before I could touch it it opened up of its own accord. So it's enchanted to open when someone approaches then?

I entered the room and looked around. There was a large crystal table in the center of the room with a chandelier, seemingly, made of a tree's roots. The little gems hanging off of each end represented every color of the rainbow. I flew up to the chandelier and looked at one of the orange gems, it contained an image of Twilight and an excited looking Pinkie. I wonder what the story behind that is? Around the table sat six main chairs in a star pattern with a seventh smaller chair to the left of one of them with Twilight's cutie mark printed on the back. Probably for spike and her friends if I had to guess. Suddenly my fur started to stand on end as the table began to light up and a map of Equestria and the surrounding territories sprang to life on the table. There were two things, I could only assume as cutie marks of her friends, that floated above the Griffon territories. One was a set of three balloons -two blue and one yellow- the other was a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud. Woah! That's a bit weird. I'll have to bring it up to Twilight when she gets back. I flew down to the side of the table. I could see that their was a cutie mark at the top of each chair's back, except for the smaller one to the left of Twilight's throne. "Hmph that one must be Spike's throne."

I heard the main doors to the castle open up and heard a flurrying clop of rushing hooves on the floor of the main foyer. "Oh did you find the little-" All the words on Twilight's lips died as she saw the floating cutie marks above the holographic map. "When did that appear?" She asked, a bit of a panicked tone entering her voice.

"The map or the symbols?"

"Both." She gave me a deadpan.

"Um, well, I thought I'd do a bit of exploring around the castle since I'm gonna be here for a bit, as I understand it." She gave a small nod of understanding and recognition. "Well, I came up to these doors and they opened I stepped into this room and the map appeared and then the symbols above the griffon territories."

"Hmm well those are Rainbow's and Pinkie's cutie marks, so I'd bet that Rainbow gets here first and knocks over another one of my bookshelves." She gave a hearty laugh, one which I joined her in. Then, when she had composed herself, looked back to me. "So it looks like you brought quite a bit of stuff from Cloudsdale. What exactly is all of this?" She gestured back to my three cases of luggage floating behind her in her magic aura.

"Oh nothing much, just my stuff for living and my gear for tournaments. I should go unpack all of my things in my room. That is, if you'll still have me?" I looked over to her to see a warm expression on her face.

She gave a vigorous nod and said, "Of course I'll still have you, if you still want to stay here."

I gave a nod of my own a genuine smile on my face. I was relieved to see there was not a hint of fear or even surprise on Twilight's face. "Of course, I wouldn't be dismissing myself to my room if I didn't want to stay would I?"

She gave another happy nod, "Well I'll talk to you later. You'd better get back to your room if you don't want to get spotted. Rainbow should be here literally any second."

I turned around and went to pick up my luggage and found it surrounded by a lavender glow. "Don't worry i'll carry it there in my magic, just get to your room before Rainbow shows up."

"You keep saying that like Rainbow isn't a good friend. She is a good friend to you, right?" I gave her a serious stare. I'd experienced enough ponies who are flanks about everything under the sun.

"No, no, she's definitely a good friend, but she can be a bit of a blabber mouth when she has to keep a secret. Especially when another friend asks about it."

Hmm, sounds kinda like Val. I gave a chuckle to myself. "He sounds kinda like my friend back in Cloudsdale. The big goof's always there for me, but he's just too talkative for his own good. So if you're serious about her being a bit of a blabber mouth I'd best get back to my room." I'd almost made the trip back to my room, with bags in tow, when I heard a loud bang. I turned around to see a spectrum of colors in a strait line, supposedly following a one miss Rainbow Dash. Yup just like Val there too. I heard the beginning of a conversation when Rainbow screamed out, "Twi my flank's glowing again!" I gave another chuckle, then heard another set of doors close and heard no more conversation. Hmm must have gone into the throne room. I looked down to see that my luggage had been set down on the ground. Guess she's just as much of a handful too. I began to pick up my bags and I looked up to see Pinkie standing at the end of the hall waving to me. Funny I didn't hear the main door open. I gave a wave of my paw and said, "Hey Pinkie, whatcha doing here?"

She turned slightly and pointed to her flank where I saw nothing. I gave her a bemused look. She simply giggled and turned back down the main entryway, I assumed to head to the throne room. I heard a set of doors open and close. I shrugged and picked up my luggage, and took it into my room. The thought then struck me, I was referring to this room as my room. I guess she's got me hooked in already. Heh.

I set into unpacking my things. First I ought to look at my kit to see if It's undamaged from the move. I turned to open all of the cases and found the one that held my dueling kit. I put on the harness for my sword, and attached the sheath. I threw on my battle coat, it covered notably less of my wolven features, but it did have a hood even though I never used it in battle. Thank Celestia I asked for that. But, what it did have was silver armor plates on the shoulders and the front, unlike my normal coat. The color and pattern of the cloth was different as well, the main color was black with silver lines running along the seams. It'll have to do when I visit Rarity later today.Alright, now I need Uramasa. I opened the box that held the blade in question, and found it mostly unharmed, mostly. "Dammit all to Tartarus and it's bloody pits." I noticed a small crack on the edge near the guard, almost invisible for someone who wasn't looking for it. Damn now I'll have to take it back to Cloudsdale, and have Val work on it. Serves me right for not carrying it on me. I gave a long drawn-out sigh. "Well guess it's back to Cloudsdale for me, but first I'll have to go to Rarity's and ask for a favor." I looked back to the case that held my kit. It held both my foreleg guards and my helmet, both of them steel with wolven-style carvings. it was the last real show of kindness the pack had shown to me. At the ceremony celebrating a wolven's coming of age each is given a gift by the pack. Most times it's a simple sword or badge of the pack. But, again that was the last real show of kindness from them.

I decided to close the lid and move on to unpacking the rest of my stuff. I heard the main door to the castle open and close and heard the loud clop of hooves. I poked my head barely out of my room, and saw the rest of Twilight's friends heading towards the throne room. "Well I guess I'm gonna be here for a bit. Might as well get comfortable."

About an hour later I heard multiple sets of hooves heading down the hall towards my door. I could make out the scent of Twilight and someone I didn't recognize. Must be one of her friends she told about me. No sense in having my hood up then, it'll just put them off. I took my hood down just as the door opened. In stepped a White unicorn mare who had a fancily styled purple mane, and a cutie mark of three diamonds. She must be Rarity.

She stood there with a dumbstruck expression on her face, until she finally said cautiously, "Well you must be this Shadow I've heard so much about." She gave me a forced polite smile.

I felt the corners of my mouth tug up. "She didn't tell you that I was part wolven did she?"

"No she excluded that tidbit of information."

I held up my paw in a gesture of a hoofshake, and she took it. "Well allow me to introduce myself, I am Shadow Ironsword. I am the son of Vanguard Ironsword and Selena Moonwright. I am a professional duelist slash swordsman, and I'm here in Ponyville hoping to learn more about friendship." She seemed a bit shocked to have received so much information in a simple greeting.

She gave a slight nod to me. "Well I suppose I should return the favor. My name is Rarity. I am a professional designer slash fashionista, and I'm here in Ponyville to help Twilight, and to advance my career." We both gave a professional nod.

Twilight had been siting the corner of the room silently. "Well I'm glad to see that introductions have gone well. Now, as I understand it, Shadow you still need a travel coat right?"

I gave a slight nod, "Yes that's still true. I need one. This is my battle coat, and it's really only supposed to be worn for my dueling matches. So, I was hoping that I could ask Rarity to make me one in exchange for a favor or two."

Rarity turned back to me. "Yes that does sound fair. But I won't have you owing me anything, not this time. Any friend of Twilight's is a friend of mine." I made to argue but she cut me off. "Ah-ah, you don't seem the type to argue with a lady correct?" I gave a firm nod. "Good then, we'll begin now. So tell me Shadow how do you want it to look?"

Author's Note

Sorry this one took so long guys. You know how busy life can get and also writers block is a son of a gun to beat. But thank Celestia for music right? Really they should have one on this site XD.

You win some...

A week later...

"Wow Rarity I never would have imagined that you could make my simple request look so good!" I gave a turn for what felt like the hundredth time since I'd received the trench coat from Rarity.

As I spun in front of the full-length mirror, I took a second to admire myself in the mare’s works. She had made me a black trench coat that went down to the middle of my long, furry tail. It had silver thread along all the seams. The coat fell over my flank, covering my cutie mark of two swords clashing. The trench coat draped over my body so that I could fit my sword under the coat. Rarity had insisted that I shouldn’t, saying that a gentlestallion such as myself shouldn’t be carrying a sword, but I had pleaded with her to account for it anyway, and she had agreed.

The sword itself was a challenge to hide. It was nearly as long as I was. Although it was thin, it had intricate designs down the length of the blade with a wide guard where the blade met the hilt. I always carried it on me because it was a gift from my father, though he always said it was my great-grandfather’s. The very same one who had made the Ironsword name known in Equus as some of the best smithies.

The hood was large enough to cover most of my ears and eyes. The sleeves came up down to just above my ankle joint. Best of all it covered most of my wolven features, namely my pointy ears and wolf-like eyes. It also did a good job in covering most of my dark navy-blue coat, and my brown mane, though I still had an issue with the red fleck of hair just behind my eye occasionally falling into my vision.

I looked down to Rarity, thanks to my unusually large build from my wolven blood, I stood nearly two heads taller than her. Damn, she really did put her all into this, didn’t she?

"Well, it was a bit tricky trying to keep it as simple as you requested. But I just simply had to add a bit of artistic flair to it, I do hope you like it, Mr. Ironsword?" She gave me a hopeful, but slightly nervous smile.

"As I've said before, Rarity, I don't think anything you make could be bad. That being said… I love it! This should help me look impressive, without sticking out like a sore hoof. And, we've gone over the whole Mr. Ironsword thing, Rarity. I don't want anyone to call me that, let alone a friend. Or at least I hope that's what we are?" I gave her a hopeful smile.

"Well yes, anyone who‘s a friend of Twilight's is a friend of mine. Especially if they’re as dashing as yourself."

I don't think she meant for me to hear that last bit. "Well it's good to hear that you consider me a friend Rarity! I'll have to make it up to you one day for this coat."I gave an enthusiastic wave and a sly wink over my shoulder as I went out the door, leaving behind a flustered Rarity.

A carefree laugh escaped my lips as I jumped into the air and began to speed through the sky. Celestia how I've missed this. It had been well over a week since I was able to simply go for a flight. The air flowing over my face and wings. Watching the ground speed by, full of lush greens trees and grassy hills, they were the real reasons I flew. It just felt... amazing. There wasn't anything I could find to compare it to. Well, other than the thrill of fighting, but that was for entirely different reasons. I noticed that I had started to leave behind a trail of blue and brown behind me. Crap that's sure to attract unwanted attention! I'd better slow it down before— My thoughts were abruptly cut off when a cyan-coated mare with a rainbow mane zoomed towards me and came to a stop just ten feet away.

"You seem like a pretty fast pony, who are you exactly?" She spoke with a confidence I wish I had.

"Me? My name is Shadow Ironsword." I had learned that sharing all of the information I had with Rarity was not commonplace for most first greetings.

"How come I haven't seen you around Ponyville. If you're as fast as I think you are, I should've noticed you before now." She eyed me suspiciously. "Hope you don't claim to be the fastest around, because that title belongs to me!"

Yup, she might as well be a carbon copy of Val, but in mare form. I gave a slight chuckle at that. Rainbow hadn’t interpreted my laugh for what it was, instead she thought I was laughing at her and her previous proclamation. "What, you don't think I'm telling the truth!?" She gave me an angry glare. I responded with a blank stare of shock.

"No, I'm no—"

"Well, come on then, a race, right here, right now. Whoever wins is the fastest in Ponyville!"

"Miss Dash, I'm not trying to take your title, I was laughing at a thought of my own."

"Aw, what's the matter? Now that somepony calls you out on your crabapples you’re gonna back out? What are ya, chicken?" I felt myself become flustered, then angry. No, no stop. If she is really as similar to Val as I think, it'd be smarter to humor her than to try and argue with her. I closed my eyes, breathed and counted to three in my head. One..Two...Three.

"Alright, we'll race to see who's faster." There was no doubt in my mind she was, but I wasn't slow myself. I'm not gonna make it easy for her. I gave a grin of my own at that thought.

"Cool, we'll start in front of the steps, then go two miles south of town to Ghastly Gorge and back. Can you handle that at least?" While she had been talking we'd flown over to the town hall and landed. In response, I flared my wings to their full span, they were easily bigger than any normal pegasi’s wing span. Then again, Rainbow Dash was no normal pony, she flared her wings out as well, and had to hold back a gasp when I saw that they were nearly as long as my own. She scanned the crowd. "Hey Derpy!" She called out to a gray mare with a blonde mane and tail and a wall-eyed stare. "Can you do a countdown for our race?"

"E-yes ma'am!" She gave a mock salute and began giggling madly, half of the ponies gathered around joined in with her, including Rainbow and myself. We looked at one another, and then looked away.

"Alright Derpy, start counting down," Rainbow said with a firm voice that spoke of no more funny business.

"Okey! Three." We both dropped down into a ready stance. "Two." We flared out our wing, once again to their full length and positioned them into a running take-off position. "One." I looked to my right quickly to see Rainbow focused squarely on our mutual destination. I stared back forward as well. "Go!"

At the signal we both took of like rocks out of a sling-shot. Although I had a faster take-off she was quickly gaining on me. Like hell I'll make this easy on her! I began to really strain my wings as hard as I could. As I put a small amount of distance between us. I looked back in front of me just in time to see a gorge fly right underneath me. I saw the cyan mare flash me a grin before turning on a dime and flying back towards the town hall. Oh that tricky mare. I began to—as quickly as possible—backpedal and fly full tilt towards the town hall. Just as the building came into sight I saw Rainbow come to a stop at the same point at which we had started.

When I finally landed next to her I was winded and panting like one of my pack-mates on a hot day. "How," I huffed, "are you not even out of breath?" She was standing there as if they hadn't just raced four miles at near his top speed. "Damn, you weren't kidding when you said you were the fastest."

"Well yeah, I don't go around saying things with my mouth that I can't back up." She gave me a cock-sure smile and held out a hoof to me. "Though I’ll say you put up a pretty good fight at the start there." I took her hoof and she pulled me up.

"I was going full speed, wasn't paying attention and I lost for it. I'm pretty sure that I would've lost even if I'd made that turn, right?" She gave me an imitation of an innocent look.

"What? You shouldn't sell yourself short! You did a good job for a first race against me! That being said, yes." She struck a pose. "Anyways, I've got to get back to weather duty. See ya 'round, Shadow!" With that she took off like a bullet towards what I assumed was the rest of the weather patrol.

"Wait, why are you being nice to me? You just beat me, right?" I spoke aloud. In the shocked silence I felt a huge goofy smile form on my face. I took off and began flying towards the castle. How can today go bad? If what Twilight says is true, I might have just made two new friends.

When I arrived I noticed Twilight sitting in her library, reading, or I assume reading. She seemed to be really spaced out. "Hey Twilight, what's up?" That seemed to shake her out of her funk. She looked up at me as if surprised to see me.

"Hey Shadow. Back so soon from Rarity's?"

I gave a worried look."Twilight, I left for Rarity's almost three hours ago. Is… is everything alright?"

"Oh, just dandy," she responded sarcastically, her look turned to one of regret with her next statement. "I'm sorry, I'm just a bit upset, and I took it out on you." She looked away dejectedly. I heard her mumble something to herself that I couldn't quite catch.

I looked down at my hooves before I looked back up with a friendly smile on my face. "Well then, talk to me."

"What?" She looked up to me with a confused look on her face.

"That's what friends do, right? They confide and comfort each other."

"Heh, when did you get so good at friendships?" She gave me a genuine smile.

"Well a week around you and your friends certainly did help quite a bit. Come on, Ponyville does have a bar, right?"

"Well, not a bar, but we do have a pub."

"Oh..."

"Oh?"

"I honestly thought you might not know. You don't seem the type to go out drinking, Twilight." I felt my cheeks heat up out of embarrassment.

"Well, I can see where you would’ve gotten that impression. While I'm not one to go out and get drunk, I have had my fair share of alcohol. Come on, we'll head to the pub."

After I picked my jaw up off the floor of the library I began following Twilight.

When we were both seated in a booth in the back corner I looked over to Twilight. "Okay, so while we're waiting for our drinks, spill. What's got you so spacey and aggressive?" I gave her a concerned look.

She paused before responding. "I guess I just wanted to be sent somewhere by the map. I know it's foalish, but I just wanted to go with my friends." Hmm she does have a point, she is the Princess of Friendship. One would think that she’d go with her friends.

A thought struck me. "Hey, I don't want to sound self absorbed but, maybe you aren't being called away is because you're needed here?"

She gave me a mixture of a curious and confused look. "What? How would tha—" Her look changed instantly to one of recognition. She gave a laugh. "Well, with how much progress you're showing you won't need me for too much longer." She teased.

"Well maybe, I don't know. It seems like Rarity and I are friends. Though I'm not sure about Rainbow." I gave a moment of pause. Should I tell her we raced? She'll understand, right?

Twilight noticed my pause. "Are you alright, Shadow?"

"Hmm? Yea, I'm fine, I was thinking what you'd think if I told you me and Rainbow raced earlier today."

"What? Why’d you do that?"

Stupid, stupid, stupid. "Look, it was just a misunderstanding between me and Rainbow. She mentioned that she was the best flier in all of Equestria and I thought of how similar she was to Val, so I laughed. Well… she thought I was laughing at her statement. It was just a good old fashioned race."

"Well alright, I’m actually amazed she didn’t race you earlier. Rainbow is the type of mare that likes to test her skills out on everypony she can. I don’t think she means anything by it, she just likes to see how she stacks up. If you ask me I think she’s looking for someone faster than her so she’ll have a goal. Anyways, let's change the subject. What else did you end up doing over the past few days? I haven't seen much of you lately."

The next Two hours were spent in idle chit chat about the past three days. During this time the waiter at the bar had given us three ciders each. I noticed that Twilight was looking a bit droopy.

"Hey, Twilight, you alright? You're not lookin' so good."

"Yea I'm fine, but I think I'd better call it a night." She got up and started towards the door. When she noticed I wasn't following she stopped. "You coming?"

"Nah. I think I'm gonna hang out here for a bit. See ya back at the castle?"

"Sure, Shadow. Have a nice night."

"Yeah, I will."

When she was fully out the door I headed towards the bar itself and sat in a stool. Thank my luck, they still have one open. I looked around and noticed that the pub had filled up quite a lot since the Twilight and I had arrived.

I looked down the bar to see the bartender,a stallion with white and brown-spotted coat, brown mane and eyes, talking with another stallion with a brown coat and slicked back black mane. “Hey, want your regular, Filthy?”

“Yeah thanks, Pip.” The bartender went to pull out a glass and filled it with apple cider. The bartender looked up and noticed me, he gave me an inquisitive look. I noded and waved him down.

"Hello, what can I get you?"

"Hey, can I get an apple cider?"

"Sure thing, coming right up." While he prepared the drink he said, "So, you seem new here. At least I haven't seen you in the pub." He handed me a chilled mug of cider. I took a healthy swig before responding.

"Yea, I'm new in town, only been here about a week." I looked down the bar, every stool was filled. "Looks like you get plenty of business. I'll never know how you bartenders do it."

He gave me a puzzled look. "Do what?"

"Remember every ponies 'regular'. After a while it would seem to get hard to remember every regular customer's normal drink. By the way, my name is Shadow Ironsword." I held out my dark navy-blue paw to him for a shake.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Shadow, my name's Pipsqueak. You can call me Pip for short. And to answer your question. It's pretty easy for me. I just match a name to a face, then a drink to the name." He gave me a short, friendly shake.

"Hmm well that seems simple enough." I looked back down the bar.

A short earth pony mare, with a pink coat, lime green mane, and sea green eyes, was sitting at the bar with a unicorn stallion just behind her talking into her ear. "I told you, I don't want anything from you tonight."

The stallion responded, "Aw, come on, Daisy, don't be like that." I saw his white hoof wander down to her flank where he grabbed lightly. The mare hit his hoof away.

"What part of 'no' don't you understand!?" She said forcefully, then pushed him away.

"You bitch! You can't just tell me no! Do you know who I am? I’m the best dubstep musician in canterlot! I’m Black Marble!" The unicorn stallion’s teal eyes dilated and he raised his hoof to hit her. Before he could I jumped out of my stool and diverted his would-be punch.

"Are we gonna have a problem here?" I asked with a cool tone that spoke none of the rage I felt. Damn, I hate guys like this. Always so arrogant and pompous. They think they can get whatever they want just because of who they are.

The stallion glared at me and blew his electric blue mane out of his eyes "And who exactly are you?" If looks could kill I'd be on the floor.

"Me? I'm nopony. Just somepony who doesn't put up with a stallion pushing himself onto a mare when she's already said no. So, if you don't want trouble I'd either sit your flank down, or walk away."

"Like hell I will!" He raised his hoof to throw another punch. It never landed. Before it could I dodged to the side and landed two blows to his midsection. "Argh!" He cried out in pain and backed up a couple of feet.

"Now, if I were you, I'd walk out before your pride is damaged anymore, that is."

He gave a wicked smile. "You will be." With that he lit up his horn and launched a telekinetic blast to my midsection, sending me flying into the nearest wall with enough force to knock the air from my lungs. Ow! Dammit, that hurts like hell. I gotta be more careful.

I picked myself up off the ground and wheezed. After a long second I said, "Okay, Somepony’s just begging for an flank kicking. I hope you're happy." With that I pulled out my sword form underneath my black trench coat with my mouth. I mumble around my sword, "Still wanna fight, coward?"

"Hell yes I do! When I'm done with you the guard isn't going to be identify the body!" With that he powered up his horn and sent another blast my way. I flared my wings and dodged to the side, just to be hit with a much weaker blast. I hit the wall and crumpled to the floor. The stallion started to breath hard. He started to charge up another blast.

Okay getting real sick of that. I stood up, wheezing. Damn I think I might have sprained something there. The stallion pulled his horn down to aim another blast at me. Yeah, like hell I’m letting him do that again. I rolled to the left and ducked behind a table that had been flipped by his missed blast. After the blast hit the table I jumped back out and charged up to him.

In a last ditch effort he tried to cast another blast, only for it to strike slightly to my left, burning a gouge down my flank in the process. It was a minor pain though, I could ignore it for later. I jumped, and with a flap of my wings, landed behind him. I pulled my sword up his throat and locked his hind legs in place by wrapping my own around his. Balancing with my wings I wrapped my forelegs around his midsection, pinning his forelegs to his sides, and held him in place. With my sword still firmly held to his throat I mumbled around the handle, "Wanna repeat that?"

I felt something wet run down my left hind leg. Great he's pissed himself. "N-no I'm sorry. I'll leave, I'll leave!" he yelled out.

"I'm not the one you should be saying you're sorry to." I looked back up to the mare that he had been talking to. "It's her."

"Okay, Okay! I'm sorry."

I let him go, dropped all fours back to the ground, and sheathed my sword while the stallion scuttled away towards the door. The next moment I found multiple spears pointed at me. Great, somepony called the guard. I recalled my Dad’s advice: If you haven’t done anything wrong, then you haven’t got anything to fear from guards. I held up my paws and sat down on my flank with my hooves held up. "I have one weapon on me. It's on my left side, under my cloak. Should I lift it so you can have better access?"

The white pegasus guard directly in front of me looked surprised. Had he been expecting me to fight back? "No, I don't think that will be necessary." He looked over to Pip. "What happened here?"

Pip gave me a quick glance before answering. "Well, from what I can tell Shadow here was defending that young mare there, he pointed to the pink-coated mare, from that stallion over there." He pointed to the brown-coated stallion who was being held down by three separate unicorn guards.

"Get your hooves off of me! Don't you know who I am? I’m Black Marble! I have connections that could get you all fired!" I gave a slight step towards him, it was all it took for him to shut up. One of the guards not holding him down slipped a small ring over his horn. Probably a magic inhibitor.

"Well thank you for your cooperation, Pip." The guard looked back to me before saying, "And yours as well, was it Shadow?"

I gave a respectful nod towards the guard. "Yes my name is Shadow Ironsword. I'm here visiting Twilight." The guard's jaw dropped to the floor.

"You mean Twilight Sparkle?" He asked me incredulously.

"Well yea. There's not another Twilight in Ponyville, right?"

He attempted to regain his composure before responding. "Not to my knowledge, no." He looked back to Pip. "Okay, so Pip, do you wanna press charges against either of these stallions?"

"Not Shadow, but I think I will against Black Marble who laid his hooves on this mare here."

"I guess so." He looked back to the two cracked spots on the wall and grimaced. "Somepony's gonna have to pay for the damages, though."

“I'll pay for the damages, I technically started the fight." Pip looked at me in shock.

"But you only started it because he was being pushy."

"I did say I started the fight, not the situation." I gave slight smile to her before turning back to the guard. "I assume you’ll be taking me in too?"

The guard shook his head solemnly. " Not if Pip doesn't want to, there is no reason to. that being said, we could use your official statement down at the precinct."

"Sure, I’ll give it to you, anything that helps keep that SOB in jail is a good thing in my book."

"Alright then, let's go." The guard motioned towards the door. He turned back to the three guards surrounding the unicorn who had fought me. "Come on, we have to take them in for the night."

"Hey Shadow?" I looked back to Pip. "You come back tomorrow, alright?"

"Yeah, will do Pip." With that I headed out to the precinct with the guards.

Author's Note

A huge to Twidashforever for all the help with this chapter. I couldn't have done it without him. Go give his stories a look if you are a fan of the twidash ship.

You lose some

The next day…

An Incessant knocking woke me early the next day.. I groaned, groggily. “Coming,” I shouted. Opening the door I blinked in shock to see a very frazzled Twilight Sparkle awaiting me on the other side.

“You got into a fight!? Ten minutes after I left you? What happened?” She seemed on the verge of one of her infamous breakdowns Rarity had warned me about. Celestia, I hope this isn’t all because of me.

“I can explain?”

“Explain, explain, I leave you alone and you start fighting with ponies‽”

Yep, total breakdown.

“Look, sit down.” I walked over to the living room area and sat on the large couch, seeming to sink into it. “I’ll tell you everything, but on two conditions.”

She paused before answering, “And what are those?”

“Well, one you’ve got to sit down.” I motioned to the couch I was sitting down on. “Two you’ve got to calm down,” I said gently.

I saw Twilight draw her hoof up to her chest while she breathed in, and released the breath with an outward stretch of the same hoof. She visibly relaxed and said, “Okay I think I’m good. Now, please tell me what happened.”

“Okay, after you left I went to the bar and sat in a stool and started chatting with the bartender, Pip. I looked down the bar and noticed that a stallion named Black Marble, or something, pushing himself onto a mare. Then, when he was rejected, he attempted to hit her. I couldn’t just sit by and let that happen so I stepped in and stopped his punch. I tried to calmly tell him to walk away, but he wasn’t having it.”

“Wait, you’re telling me he not only tried to push himself onto a mare, but tried, and failed to hit the same mare? Then when asked to stop, he continued anyway!?” Twilight all but screamed.

“Yes, and yes. But that’s not all. He used his magic to blast me up against a wall… twice.” I winced from the memory of the pain, my chest still hurt a little. “I had to pin him with my sword to his throat to get him to stop. At which point the guards showed up.”

“Oh no, what did you do?”

“I recalled one of my Dad’s old sayings of wisdom: If you haven’t done anything wrong, then you haven’t got anything to fear from the guard. So, I cooperated with the guard, and because of that I got off with just having to give my official statement.”

“Okay, I thought you had started it or something.”

“Well technically I did, at least the fight between me and Black Marble.”

“Not all fights can be avoided, Shadow. I could introduce you to Tirek sometime if you don’t believe me.”

“Whatever you say Twilight.” I gave a shrug. “Come on, let’s go get some breakfast. Know any good places?”

I looked down to the fungus-like table for what seemed the millionth time since we arrived. “Are you sure these are safe to eat off of?” I gave the table a suspicious eye. Twilight giggled. “What!? I’m just trying to make sure that I’m eating off a safe surface!”

“Well I’ve been eating here for years, so I’d say I’m a shining example of how safe these tables are.” She gave another chuckle as I continued to eye the table.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a pony approach our table. He was an earth pony that had a beige coat, a slicked back blue mane, and a pair of golden-brown eyes. He carried himself with a sense of refinement, with his posture and his buttoned down collar-vest. “Hello, my name is Haut Savoir, what can I get you?”

“Ummm, give me a second, I’ve been a bit busy since I arrived.” Picking up one of the menus on the table; I noticed that Twilight hadn’t touched hers. “Aren’t you gonna look at the menu, Twilight?”

“Oh, I already know what I want. Savoir, can I get my usual?”

“Yes, Princess Sparkle.” Twilight rolled her eyes.

“Haut, I thought I told you to stop referring to me so formally!”

“And I told you Princess Sparkle that I have to, I don’t want to insult your title by being so flippant.”

Twilight huffed. “I’m not going to get you to stop calling me that, am I?”

“Not unless you order me to, Princess Sparkle.” Haut smiled and winked playfully at her, then turned to me. “What will it be… Mr...”

“Shadow, and I think I’ll take a daffodil sandwich.” I turned up to Haut and handed him both menus with a smile.

“Ooh good choice, Shadow! That’s my usual.” She smiled at me.

“Yes, that is a very good choice, Mr Shadow,” Haut said with a smile before walking off.

“Okay so, what did the guard do, exactly, to the stallion? And what about the mare?” Twilight leaned forward.

“Well, ya see…” I spent the next half hour recapping everything I remembered about what the guard said about the mare, and what he planned to do with the stallion..

I finished my daffodil sandwich in time to see Twilight about to take her last bite. Damn, this is nice. I wish I had this while I was back in Cloudsdale or when I was part of my mom’s pack. I looked back out to the town square we were in, were ponies of all types were laughing, playing and talking. These ponies are so nice. They really do treat each other well. Flashbacks of his time in cloudsdale, faux-respect, and honesty came to my mind; they made this seem fake, almost like a dream. No this is real. I don’t know how I know, but I do. That thought caused me to smile.

I began to look back to the right, scanning the crowd that was there. They were all gathered for the local market, which was already in full swing. When my eyes made contact with a similar set of lime green ones. For a moment I saw something beyond the endless icy hatred I had only seen in my prior encounter with him. No, no no no. This can’t be happening. Smokey with his sky blue coat and smoky gray mane started making his way towards, when I saw his gaze flip to my right. Crap he’s seen Twilight! No, no! I won’t let him insult Twilight, she’s the closest friend I’ve got outside of Val! I started to make a move to get up.

“Oh no, Shadow. There’s no reason to get up to greet me. After all we know each other so well.” He gave a wicked smile in my direction. One that Twilight did not catch, as she was busy wiping her mouth.

I was struck into a silence as I watched Smokey approach Twilight, a warm smile on his face. “Oh? And who are you?” She gave a little gasp. “Oh are you Platinum Valor? I’ve heard so much about you from Shadow!”

“Actually I am not Platinum, but I will be happy to visit him and let him know that he should come visit.” He gave another wicked smile in my direction. “Actually my name is —”

“That’s bucking it! You don’t get to come here and intrude on the one happy thing I’ve had in years! How dare you? How dare you think you can talk with Twilight?”

Gone was the friendly front he had put up. In it’s place was the icy cold hatred I had seen prior. “I could say the same thing to you Shadow. After all you have done things that would be seen as sinful to even the dirtiest individual.”

“What do you mean by that? I haven’t killed anypony! You tried to bucking kill me!” I felt all the rage and panic that I’d felt all those years back. I pulled my sword out and mumbled around the handle, “If it’s a fight you’ve come looking for I’ll give you one!”

“Are you so sure, Shadow?”

“Yes I’m sure I’ll give you a—”

“No that’s not what I meant. Are you sure you’ve never killed anypony before?” He gave me an icy glare, as if that was the only expression he could look at me with.

“What the hell? Yes I’m sure I’ve never killed anypony! What the hell kind of question is that?” I took a couple steps closer so we were muzzle to muzzle.

The iciness of his glare softened for a split second before hardening into a look of pure rage. “How dare you! You don’t even know who your actions, or inaction, killed!”

“What the hell are you talking about? I would never just sit by and let anyone die! Even if you were in danger I would drop everything to go and save you!” I felt a tide of rage begin to swell within me. How can he sit there and tell me that I let somepony die? I gripped my sword tighter in my mouth and pulled my head to the left to prepare for a swing.

As I started to pull my head to the right in a swing, just to feel my head come to a sudden stop. “Shadow, you can’t attack him! He hasn’t done anything illegal!”

I felt tears start to sting in the corners of my eyes. “You don’t know that! He’s the one who tried to kill me Twilight!” I fully turned towards her, momentarily forgetting about Smokey, with a pleading expression on my face. For her part she just seemed to stare off into space with a blank stare.

“What does it matter? All I did was try and avenge the one you killed!” I whipped my head back towards Smokey, only to be blinded by a dust cloud he kicked up with a strong beat of his wings. “You like that, Shadow?”

“Oof!” I received a swift kick to my gut from my right. I heard my sword clang to the ground as I gasp for air, while stumbling back away from the cloud of dust. “You’ll pay for that!”

“Really? It looks like you’ve got nowhere to run, and you’re disarmed! What are you gonna do, Shadow? What does the mighty wolven mutt have to offer?” He gave a wicked smirk as the ponies gathered all heard his jeer. “What do you not believe me? Do you think he’s a normal pony? Well then, Shadow? Are you gonna prove them right, or leave them in the dark, guessing?”

With one of my two base instincts, fight or flight, disabled I chose the only one left to me. I opened my wings wide and tried to take off into the sky. That is when I felt a strong tug on my trench coat. I turned back to see Twilight staring back up at me with pleading eyes. “Please, Shadow, they’ll understand! They won’t just throw you out for being different!”

“No! No, you don’t know what I’ve been through! I’ve been told that too many times, and had the same result come about! I’ve been shunned and ridiculed everywhere I go that I reveal what I really am! Just let me go, and I’ll leave now, before they all connect what I am to you!”

“Shadow, you don’t have to—”

“No, let him go. He deserves whatever he’s about to experience.”

Stupid, stupid Shadow. What were you thinking, allowing yourself to hope? You’ve got to be as tough as stone to survive. I flew at top speed away from the town square. I didn’t care where I was, I just wanted out of there.

Though, once I got five miles out I felt my strength give out, and my wings stop beating. As I collapsed to the ground, in a crash landing, I felt my left foreleg bend at unnatural angle. “Aahhh! Fuck!” I turned over onto my back and cradled my foreleg. Damn I need to go ba— No I can’t go back. Not now. I need to move on, or back to Cloudsdale, at least I can have my sword—. “Oh buck me! How did I leave my sword in the middle of the town!?” Crap he’s got my sword! I can’t let him keep it! I need to go back and get it. I looked down to my, currently broken, foreleg and winced. I’m not fighting anyone in this condition. My thoughts turned once again to Twilight. No, she won’t let him have it. I looked down to the ground and mumbled, “But that means I’ve got to face her.” Well, I’m not going to go back tonight. Though, there was the ‘house’ that Zecora helped build. Wait, that’s it! I’ll just go to Zecora, she’s sure to have something for my leg. I attempted to take off just to fall back to the earth before I could even get twelve feet off the ground.

Maybe I’ll just wait here for a bit, I’m certainly not walking anywhere. I sat my flank on the ground and waited till I felt like I had enough energy to reach the Everfree Forest without incident and headed off to Zecora’s hut.

Author's Note

A huge thank you goes out, once again, to Twidashforever for editing. Please, if you like Twidash as a ship, or just love good story telling, then go check this guy out!

Tactical retreat

A week later

I arrived in Cloudsdale feeling lower than I had in almost a month. I got off the lift the city officials had set up to allow non-pegasi access Cloudsdale. I was riding, not only, because of my broken leg being in a cast, and because the officials didn’t like anyone flying into the city without being checked, especially after the Canterlot changeling invasion. I brought my bags up to the terminal and set them in front of the guard at the station.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, sir, this’ll only take a second, then you can be on your way.” The guard said to me with a practiced neutral voice. He lit his horn and passed an aura over all three of my bags, then over me. As it went over me I felt a slight tingle, and the hairs on my coat raise. “You’re all clear, head on out.”

“Thank you, sir.” I gave a slight salute to the guard with my paw. Once I was beyond the terminal I threw my three bags on me with thier straps and flew over to Val’s house. Celestia, I hope he’s home. I landed in front of his house and took a deep breath. Ok, he’ll understand. He has to, he’s all I’ve got left, besides my family. No, no, It’s not gonna go well I should just leave, go to my dad’s and stay there till I’m better. I turned to leave, but the sound of a door opening behind me froze me.

“Oh, hey, Shadow. Didn’t expect to see you back here anytime soon.” I stayed where I was, completely frozen, facing the street. “Shadow! Hey, you alright?” He walked around me and jumped in my path as I started to make my way away from him. His amber eyes filled with concern as they locked with mine. “Hey, if I’m too awesome to be around I understand, but ya gotta tell me, alright?” That got a slight chuckle out of me. “But, seriously, come on inside and tell me what’s up.” He put a guiding black hoof on my shoulder and led me into his small house.

As I entered the main foyer I noticed he had changed the layout of his living room and kitchen. I gave a surprised blink. “I thought you liked the way you had the living room laid out before?”

He gave me a confused look then recognition crossed his face. “Right, forgot you’ve been gone like a month. You haven’t met my marefriend yet.” I felt my jaw hit the floor as he continued to talk. “Yea, she didn’t quite like how the place was laid out, so we came to an agreement to rearrange it a bit. After all, wouldn’t want her to be uncomfortable at home, right?” He gave me a cheeky grin.

“No, I guess not.” I looked down to the floor, downcast. Dammit I missed another important moment in my, supposed, best friends life.

“Hey, Shadow, seriously what’s up? Not getting jealous are ya?” I looked up to him and gave a small smile.

“No, no, I’m not jealous.” I gave a small chuckle. “I’m just really down. Things didn’t go well in Ponyville. Well, at least not as well as I’d hoped.” Val’s face changed to one of rage.

“What happened? Did they treat you like crap?” He noticed that he was shouting and took a second to calm down slightly, before continuing, “What exactly happened?”

“Well no, they didn’t treat me like crap. In fact,a most didn’t even know what I was. I was actually treated pretty well there. Twilight and her friends were very accepting of me, well those who knew what I was, at least.” I gave a heavy sigh, and I felt my eyes droop slightly as I continued. “Then I got into a fight at the tavern in Ponyville, after that I got off scott free. The next morning Twilight and I went to a local eatery to talk and catch up, then... then Smokey came and confronted us both.” I saw Val’s face contort in, barely contained, rage.

“What did that bastard have to say?” He threw his forelegs out in anger and hit me in the temple with the point of his hoof. I felt my vision go blurry as I started to wobble. “Shadow, are you alright? Shadow? Shadow?!” My vision went black and the floor rushed to meet me. Well this is going to hurt like hell.

I awoke on Val’s couch and groaned. Celestia, what happened? “Good, you’re awake.” The voice I heard was not that of Val. In fact, if I had to guess it was a mare. Crap, well this is a hell of a first impression to leave on Val’s new fillyfriend.

I sat up slowly, noticing the ice pack on my head. I grabbed it and held it onto the same spot, roughly, as to where it was before. “Um, hi?” My voice sounded hoarse and raspy. “Sorry about collapsing in your guy’s living room, kinda didn’t mean to, just sorta happened.”

She gave me a glare with her amber eyes. “I would assume that. You can imagine what a surprise it was to come home to my stallion's home and find him dragging his unconscious friend across the floor, freaking out about how he had killed you.” She got up from her spot in the chair a few feet away. Her turquoise coat shifting over her toned physique. She dropped down to eye level with me her copper mane bouncing a bit as she did so. Her amber eyes locked with mine, she seemed to pause before looking down to my my body. Her eyes widened slightly as she viewed my wings and legs.

I gave an amused chuckle before saying, “Like what you see?” She stopped before tossing a playful glare up at me.

“A mare can’t appreciate a view?” I sucked in a lungfull of air. “No, I’m faithful to Valor, but I was curious about what you are. I mean, it’s not every day you run into a pony like you.”

“Whew.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear. Val’s been through enough with loyalty issues as it is.” I gave a groan as I sat up and took a look around the living room. “Speaking of Val, where is he?” I looked to her with a curious expression.

She gave a huff and looked off to the front door. “After we got you situated on the couch he gasped, took off, and said he’d be back later. I assume he headed to Vanguard’s forge. By the way, my name is Amber Joy. I assume you’re Shadow?” She held out her hoof.

I reached out my paw and bumped her hoof. “Yeah, I’m Shadow. It’s nice to meet my bro’s marefriend. But, how do you know my dad?”

“Oh! Valor introduced me to him a week ago.”

“Really? What’d you think of him?”

She gave a hearty laugh. “He’s crazy, but he’s got a heart of gold.” She looked at me carefully, then smiled. “Something he seems to have passed onto his son, if your friendship with Valor is any indication.”

I felt my cheeks heat up slightly. As i rubbed at them I responded, “Well, I’m not anything special. ‘Specially when compared to my dad.” I looked down and gave a soft smile. “Though Celestia knows he’s tried his best to make a respectable stallion out of me.”

Her soft smile remained on her face. “Hey you feeling better?” I gave a solid nod. “Good ‘cause we’re gonna go see Valor and your dad.”

I felt a shiver of apprehension run through my back. My dad? What is he gonna think? I gave a shake of my head. No, he’ll understand. “Alright, let’s head over to the forge.” I got up off the couch and stretched. Well, here goes everything.

Author's Note

As always, please leave any, and all, criticisms in a comment.

Getting and upgrade

The steady, yet muffled, clop of hooves was all the noise between Amber and I as we walked towards Ironsword forge. I hope dad’s at the forge. It’ll be easier to get the whole argument over quickly. “So, why do you seem so apprehensive? Don’t you like your dad?” Amber spoke softly eying my expression.

I gave a shocked gasp, “Of course, I love my dad! I’m just not looking towards the inevitable argument that’s going to happen when I tell him why I’m back.” I sighed and looked down. “He’s a very headstrong pony, and is a strong believer in taking your problems head-on.”

“Well, I can’t disagree with you there. Though I was curious, why did you leave Ponyville early? Valor said you’d be there for at least another two months.”

I gave a heavy sigh and looked away from her, towards the Cloudsdale stadium. “Did Val ever tell you how we initially met?”

“Sort of, he gave a very short description that ponies were here looking to hurt you because of what you were. Beyond that, he hasn’t really elaborated.”

“Yeah that’s the condensed version. One of those ponies was named Smokey. While in Ponyville I saw him, and he confronted me.” I gave a bitter chuckle, “The funny thing? He didn’t strike first I did. It was out of fear and anger, but it was still inexcusable, and he made me pay for it. I got my flank kicked, hard, so I flew. I flew as fast as I could away from Ponyville. I crashed somewhere miles outside the town, where I set up camp and tried to nurse my injuries. Once I had healed enough, and had a very basic splint I headed back to Ponyville general and got a proper cast for my foreleg. Then started working my way here, to Cloudsdale.”

“Well, if you ask me, you acted like a dumbass.” She gave me a serious look. “If what Valor tells me is true you’re one of the top fighters in Equestria, right?” I gave a solemn nod. “So then, why?”

I looked up, stunned. “Why what?”

She gave me an unamused look. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.” When I still gave no sign of understanding, she continued, “Why didn’t you just kick his flank back? And for that matter, why did you run? From what I hear, they were pretty accepting of you there.”

I looked down, “Because Twilight asked me not to hurt him. Then she asked me to stay, but I’ve seen that situation too many times to not be paranoid. It’s easy to accept somepony when you don’t know what they are, or what they’ve done. I’ve been told that load of bull before, and I won’t be caught in that trap again.” We fell into a kind of awkward silence for the rest of the walk to Ironsword Forge.

I walked into the main reception area of my dad’s forge and I immediately feel a weight lifted off of my shoulders. It wasn’t anything special or extravagant, but it functioned and could hold over thirty ponies comfortably with a row of cushioned seats on the far wall from the entrance. On the wall to the right of the entrance was the reception desk, where a brown mare would normally sit. Funny, she must be on break. Behind the desk was a pair of doors, one led to the break room. The other led to the design room, where dad would personally come with a design with a customer.

On the left wall from the entrance was the training rooms, or at least that’s what I’d used them for when I was living here. In actuality they were rooms designed to test forged weapons for balance and customer appreciation. Dad’s weird that way, if the customer isn’t happy with a weapon, or armor, he’ll trash it and start again no charge to them. During my time in Cloudsdale this forge was my one refuge where I could come and be myself without worry of strange looks and whispered scathing remarks. Amber looked over to me and gave a light chuckle, “looks like somepony is happy to be here.”

“Hmm?” I looked over to her I couldn’t help a giddy grin from making its way onto my face. “Yeah, I just feel so much safer in here than I do anywhere else. I mean this is where I really started training to become a duelist. I would wake up, train, eat, then collapse in bed. Then start all over again the next day.”

“Sounds like fun for someone who’s dream it is to duel. For me personally it seems a bit pointless for ponies to be fighting for no reason, but I can respect when someone’s just built to fight, you can’t pull them away from it. To do so would be like telling them part of them is wrong. I couldn’t do that to anyone.”

I looked sideways to her. “You say that like you knew someone who was a fighter. Family, or a friend?”

She gave a little squeak. “That obvious, huh? It was an old friend from back in basic schooling. The teacher there was, well, less than receptive of her wishes in her career.” She got a sort of sad smile on her face. “Heh, she would literally fight everypony in school. It didn’t matter who the were, where they were from. What’s funny is her cutie mark wasn’t any sort you’d expect for a pony built for fighting. It was a heart with a wreath around it. I honestly couldn’t tell you it’s meaning, and she couldn’t tell you either. She got it when he was very young. She always said-”

A very loud crash came from the training room near the back. Amber and I shared a look for a moment, “looks like you’ll have to save that story for later, Amber.” I rushed to the first door leading to a long hallway, ran down to the end and opened the door on the left. The lights were out in the room. Tried flicking the switch with my wing, but it stayed off. “Damn lights. Dad? Val? You in there?”

Amber appeared behind me with a quizzical look on her face. “Um Valor? Mr. Ironsword?” She lit up her horn and a small ball of light appeared in the center of the room. I had to pull one of my forelegs up to my mouth to stop from bursting out laughing. Dad was laying in the far left corner with the bucket of water firmly stuck on his head. On top of him was Val trying desperately to disentangle himself from my dad.

Once he saw that there was a new light source he turned to us, he blanched turned his head down to the ground and spoke in a voice that would have made Fluttershy jealous, “You speak of this to anyone outside of this room, and I swear to Celestia’s holy sun I will destroy you.”

I couldn’t hold it in any longer a howl of laughter erupted from me that was so loud the receptionist from the front came back to check on us. She took one look in the room rolled her eyes and went right back out. This only served to add to my laughter and add a new voice to my own. Amber was slowly devolving to a fit of giggles, trying desperately to stop them from coming. “N-now, Shadow I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason for-”

“For my dad and Val to be tangled together in a dark room, alone?” I raised my eyebrows questioningly at her, this served to break the damn for her and she soon devolved into howling laughter. I looked back to the corner and saw that my dad was laying unconscious in the corner. “Maybe we ought to see to dad though, he’s not exactly a spring chicken anymore.”

“Hang on lemme take off the weapons he was testing for me.” Val headed over into the corner and sparked his horn to life, picking my dad up and taking off…whatever was on his wings. Val finished his task and set dad down, turned back towards me and saw that I was staring at the contraptions. “Like ‘em? They’re something I’ve been developing for almost a month now. I’d hoped to finish them before you got home, but hey That’s how life goes, right?”

“Um, they’re cool, I guess, but what are they? I mean that’s not like any blade I’ve seen before.” They were a sort of collar-looking thing that ran all the way along the wing, with a blade that extended past the wingtip. It looked like the blade could retract back into the device itself, but I wouldn’t know.

“Oh? Well, you know I’m not very creative with naming things, but I think I did a decent job here. I call them ‘Wingblades’. They’re sort of gauntlet that fits over and straps onto the wing. It has a blade hidden inside that can be brought out through flicking the wings outward, like so.” He mimicked a motion of a wing extending causing the blades to drop out and lock in place. “It would add a whole new dimension to fighting for you! You wouldn’t have to worry about unicorns being able to slip past your guard so easily when on the ground, and be able to do fly-by cuts when doing aerial combat!”

“Woah, Val, that sounds awesome! But, wouldn’t that kind of thing get really heavy and hard to fly with?”

Val’s smirk only seemed to widen, like he’d already addressed this point. Of course, it’s Val. I rolled my eyes. “Ah, it would! That is, if it wasn’t made of a super-light composite steel that, with training, will feel like nothing at all is on your wing. Best of all? The blades themselves are made of a special material, i’ll see if you can guess what it is.” He levitated the wingblades over to me with the blades extended outwards.

I touched the blade with my paw, it had a sort of unnatural feeling, like it was a void in the normal pressure of the air. A lesson my mother came back to me from my days in training there. “The atmosphere in Equus, especially in Equestria is very highly charged with magic. When that magic is taken away, like when a nearby unicorn is casting a powerful spell you will feel a drop in pressure.” I gasped, it was cold-iron. “Dude, is this cold-iron?”

He gave a muffled laugh. “Not quite, Shadow. It’s cold-steel. A lighter, and stronger version of cold-iron.”

Amber came up next to Val with a sort of frown-smirk type look on her face. “So this is what’s been keeping you so distracted for the past two weeks?”

“Um, yeah.” He looked down in thought. “Coulda sworn I told you about this when we first met.”

“Well, now you’re done. So, you can come home, right?” She looked up at him with a half-lidded expression.

Val seemed oblivious to his mare’s intentions. “Weeelll, I still need to fit Shadow for a set and-” Amber shut his mouth with her tail as she walked forward and wiggled her hips a bit. Val’s face was priceless. His face seemed to be attempting to replicate a lighthouse. With a flustered, and notably huskier voice he continued, “Or I could take a couple days to rest, then get started on that.” He started to walk forward then stopped and looked to me.

I chuckled and shook my head. “Don’t let me get in between you and your mare, imma be here for a few days Val.” I lifted my casted foreleg up. “Gotta wait for this thing to finish healing before I even think of heading back out of Cloudsdale.”

He gave a solemn nod of his head. “I’ll make it up to you Shadow.”

“Oooohhhh Vaaalooorrrr?” Amber’s voice drifted down the hall. Val gave me one last look to me.

“Don’t keep your mare waiting, Val.”

“Coming, Amber!” With that he darted out the door and down the hall.

I looked to the middle of the room, where my dad laid. “Welp, dad, let’s get you somewhere more comfortable while you’re recovering.” I leaned down and slowly shuffled under him. When I was sufficiently under him, I stood up and took him out of the forge waving to the reception pony on my way out. “Tell anybody that comes in that he got sick and had to take the rest of the day off. Thanks! I’ll see about him giving you extra for the rest of the day.” She gave an appreciative nod and went back to her work.

I was sitting in my dad’s house, reading one of his many personal books, when I heard a knock at the door. I got up and answered the door, grumbling all the way about it being too late for anybody to come visiting. I opened the door and was surprised to see Val standing on my doorstep.

“I thought you were busy with your marefriend Val?” I asked a little concern slipping into my voice.

“Oh, well happy to see you again too, Shadow.” He gave a soft chuckle. “No, Amber and I decided that we’d better take a break from-”

“Bucking like bunnies?” I interjected.

He nodded his head back and forth, in a conceding fashion. “Not how I would have put it. But hey, when you’ve got a mare like that!” He bounced his eyebrows at me a little bit. “Anyways came by to check on Vanguard. Wanted to make sure I didn’t hurt the old stallion too bad.”

“I’m not so old that I can’t take a young sprout like yourself.” My dad’s gruff voice came from the stairwell a few rooms away. He appeared from around the corner and his walk had a noticeable limp to it, but he was moving at least. “I’m fine, Valor. I’m not so old that one bad spar is gonna send me to the grave.” He gave a cheeky grin, his red coat shifting and wrinkling slightly. He looked over to me. “Oh, don’t look at me like that Shadow. You’ve still got some explaining to do as to why you’ve come back so soon.”

“Well, Vanguard-” My dad cut him off with a raised hoof.

“I said I wanted him to explain, not you Valor. While I appreciate you covering my sons flank most of the time, I would appreciate you stay out of this one.” He turned his eyes back to me. “Look, Shadow, I’m not gonna be angry with you, but I would like to know why you came home so early.” He gave me a pleading look. I sighed and became very entranced in a crack in the floor.

I told him everything that had happened in Ponyville, including the fact that I’d struck first out of fear when Smokey came up to us at the cafe. “I’m sorry dad, I know all the lessons you taught me about not starting a fight under any circumstances, only to-”

“Shadow.” That one word was all it took to shut me up. The strange thing was there was a sort of strained anger in his voice. “Look at me.” I slowly looked up and met my dad’s eyes. To my surprise there was compassion and love along with anger in his deep blue eyes. I could tell, somehow, that the anger wasn’t directed at me, though. “You did everything you could in that situation. A mind that is panicked is not one that can be expected to be rational. But, come on, Shadow. You could have at least finished the fight you started, words of a princess aside. What was the second lesson I taught you?”

“If I’m in a fight finish it, or get finished. No half ways, no backing out.” I said resignedly.

“That’s right, no son of mine is gonna go around gallivanting around and being known as a quitter.” He gave a firm nod of his head. “Now, let’s all head out and have a nice dinner, I think we all need it after today's events. Oh, and you’re welcome to invite Amber along Valor. You’re practically part of the family anyways, why not add her?” He gave a suggestive wink.

Val blanched a bit at that. “You’re not suggesting I m-m-marry her already? Vanguard, I’ve barely known her for a month!”

“And yet you two are bucking like bunnies in spring.” I threw a sideways glance at Val. “Seems she’s already got her claws pretty deep in ya buddy.” Val pushed up into my face and gave me a playful glare and raising his eyebrow, almost daring me to make the first move. I picked up my paw to poke him in the chest. “Boop.”

I promptly got a smack upside the head, same went for Val a second later. “Now stop that you two.” Dad shook his head with feigned annoyance, but couldn’t hide the smile that slipped onto his face. “Come on, we’ll stop by your place Valor, and pick up Amber.

new understanding

I walked beside Amber and my dad as we went back to Val’s house. “Well that was one hell of a night. I gotta say, Valor’s a better drinker than I thought.” My dad motioned to Val, on Amber’s back. She didn’t look too good herself - none of us did, we’d just spent the night drinking after dinner - but she was in the best shape to carry Val, besides dad, who said he wasn’t gonna carry a colt who weighed as much as Val did.

“Yea, I thought he’d give up on round ten, but man he kept going till round fifteen.” I nodded my approval, causing me to stumble a bit. “What’s the matter, Shadow? You’ve been awfully quiet since you tapped out on round seven.”

I stopped and tried to collect my thoughts before speaking in a very slurred manner, “Iiiii jus’ wanned tooo nnnoot get in the waayyyy off yer’ funnn.” I stumbled a bit to the left into Amber.

She gave a chuckle at that. “I guess I know why you don’t talk now, huh? Dang, you’re a lightweight though.” She looked down at me, still leaned up against her. “Listen, buddy, I’m already taken by the stallion on my back. If ya want me, you’re gonna have to take it up with him.”

I looked at amber funnily. She’s really not that bad looking, now that I think about it. No, no, I can’t think like that, she’s Val’s marefriend, and I’ll respect that. ‘Sides I don’t think I’m her type.

“Welp I think ya broke him Amber, I expect to be refunded a single, high-class fighter, son.” He looked down to me. “Come on, son. We’ll head home now. I know you and Val are gonna have one hell of a hangover in the morning.”

“He ain’t that broken, he’s still breathing and standing, so he’s fine! And are you saying you won’t?” She looked at my dad with a sceptical eye.

“Fair enough. And Nope! Found out night after my sixteenth birthday. Buddies took me out drinking and I went longest amongst them.” He smiled smugly, “And when I woke up, didn’t have headache to speak of.”

“Well, I’m definitely gonna be feeling tonight in a few hours.” I looked up at the sky, noticing the moon was well over half way through its path through the sky.

“Ish not thaaat lllaate.” I started to feel really tired. My eyes started to close and I felt my face starting to fall down. Welp, this is gonna hurt...again.

I awoke with a groan and a pounding in my head. I pulled my paw up to my head and groaned again. “Ya know, ya really need to stop falling down and getting knocked out when you hang out with Valor.”I put my paws down and pushed my head over the top of the couch I was on. I saw Amber there at my dad’s dinner table sipping on a cup of tea. “Don’t give me that look! I was being serious. Every time you’ve hung out with Valor to my knowledge you’ve collapsed of one thing or another.”

“Well, that isn’t normal. These past times have just been exceptions.” A thought occurred to me. “And, hey, what about the time in the forge?”

A thoughtful look crossed her face, she nodded her head in concession to my point. “Fair enough, but seriously that’s still two out of three times.” She stuck her tongue out at me.

I flopped back down grumbling. I instantly regretted the decision to do so as a stabbing pain rushed into my head. “Ow, ow, ow. Okay, bad idea to flop down with a massive headache.” I heard her chuckle from behind the couch. “Hey, how exactly aren’t you in the same place as me?”

“Because, unlike you, I know when to stop. Preferably before I collapse.” She levitated down her cup of tea. “Here drink some of this. It’s a blend meant to help with hangovers.” I took the cup into my hooves and took a tentative sip.

“Damn this tastes amazing!” I instantly felt my headache start to fade. “And my headache is starting to fade. What exactly is in this blend? I’ll have to remember it for later on down the line.”

I looked around noticing the lack of my dad and Val. “Ah, you must be wondering where they are, right?” I gave a slight nod of my head. “Well, your dad went to the forge early, because he left early yesterday. And Valor’s at home right now, still sleeping off the drinking we did last night. To answer your question though, it's a family secret!” She stuck her tongue at me again. “Anyways, I’m sure you wanna get up and help your dad, right?”

I gave a little gasp and looked at her, “How’d you know that?”

She gave me a look saying ‘really?’ “I’ve been with your best friend for almost three weeks, and from what I’ve seen you’re almost exactly the same. So I made a guess.” I conceded her point with a tiny nod. “Anyways, I won’t let you leave. Not yet, at least.”

“And why’s that?”

“Cause I need to make sure you’re good to go and work in a forge, meaning you’re running at least normally.” She motioned for me to get up, and I complied. “Now, stand still while I give you a once over with my magic. You might feel a tingling sensation, but don’t worry.” She lit up her horn and I felt a tingling sensation start in my hooves and slowly run all through my body ending in my head and wingtips. “You look good to go, not one hundred percent, but good.” I gave my thanks with a nod.

Another thought crossed my mind. “What exactly do you do? I mean I know it probably has to do with healing ponies, but what exactly?”

She paused momentarily before responding, “I help heal and rehabilitate old war veterans at the lodge they stay at.” She started to smile a bit. “They are all so nice and welcoming. It’s all I can do to help them, and it’s not nearly enough. They’ve gave their lives to Equestria, and most ponies don't even think about them or the others that don’t even have a place to stay.”

I gave a solemn nod, “Well, it’s awesome of you to care so much about them. While I’m here in Cloudsdale I’ll have to come by and give you a hand. I’m sure they’ll be happy to know there’s more than one pony out there that cares about them. And I’m sure you’d like a hand.”

“I definitely would appreciate it, and I know they would too.” She gave me a friendly smile. “Valor was right about you.”

“Hmm? What exactly was he right about involving me?”

“He said that you were a bit out there, but that you had a heart of gold, and was far more deserving a good life than anyone else he’s ever known.” I felt my face heat up, and I opened my mouth to protest that their were other ponies out there more deserving. She waggled her hoof and pulled it up to her mouth, then she gave me a light poke in the side. “Now, get going. I’m sure Vanguard is doing fine, but he definitely isn’t as young as he was years ago.”

I felt a slight twinge of guilt that I would so readily turn down a compliment like that. I turned towards the door, but paused and turned my head to see Amber heading back to the kitchen to grab her things. “Hey Amber?”

“Yea, Shadow?”

“...Thanks. Not just for the compliment, but for watching after my dad and Val while I was in Ponyville. You didn’t have to, but you did. I think you’re a far more deserving pony of a good life than I. I hope it works out between you and Val, if for no other reason that I get to see you both happy. And maybe to get to know you a bit better.” She gave a shocked gasp and turned towards me with a sad expression on her face.

“You’re welcome, Shadow. And I hope the same things.” With that I gave a wave of my paw, turned and headed out the door to head to the forge. I barely heard her whisper, “If only you knew what I’ve done, maybe you wouldn’t say that.” I didn’t draw attention to it, since she obviously didn’t for me to hear it.

As I entered the forge and came face to face with one of the only ponies outside of my family and Val I could consider a friend, my agent: Script Quill. She was a medium sized pegasus, coming up to about the bottom of my neck in height with a brown coat, orange mane, and red eyes. “Hey Script what’s up that you’d have to come and see me at the forge?”

She nodded her head to me in a professional manner. Okay, so it’s business then. “I’m sorry about the timing, but I couldn’t find you at your father’s or Platinum Valor’s house. In fact it seemed that no one was home at either. Ugh, tell me you didn’t go out drinking with them last night?”

I gave a little chuckle, “Yep, went with them, and Val’s new marefriend, Amber.” I tilted my head to the side. “Though, I don’t know why that’d be a problem, I don’t have a fight scheduled until a month from now, right?”

“Right, but the top twenty duelists in the world are getting together for a conference tomorrow here in Cloudsdale.” She gave a little squeal of excitement, “And they’re going to be lining up the next year’s fights amongst the top duelists in Equus.”

“Um, don’t the duelists normally just send their agents to these kinds of events?”

“Well, normally, yes. But, the officials of the duelist society have stated they would like it if the duelists themselves could show up and participate this year.” I gave a nod. “Also, they want to do a kind of giant everyone for themselves match with the top fifteen in the world.” She looked down to my casted foreleg. “Umm, that might be an issue though. When do you get that off?”

“I get it off tomorrow, actually, according to Amber, who is a trained nurse I found out, told me it should be fine to do some light sparring by tomorrow. So, if I’m gonna do some sparring tomorrow I’ll have to hold off showing my new gear, made by Val himself!”

She tilted her head to the side, giving me a quizzical look. “And that would be?”

I looked to either side of the main lobby to make sure it was empty before slipping up to whisper in her ear, “He calls them wingblades. They’re a sort of gauntlet-like thing that fits over the wing. It has a retractable blade inside that’s made of cold-steel, making it the perfect setup for fighting mages.” This could be good, three of the ponies who hold positions above me are multi-sword wielding mages. I wonder if the blades also disrupt a telekinetic grip on things? “This could easily bring me up a few spots in the rankings, assuming I do the proper training to get used to them.”

She nodded her head and smiled at me. “Good to see you’re thinking ahead and planning for how to climb the ranks, Shadow.” She walked up a put a reassuring hoof on my shoulder. “I know you’ll make one of the best, if not the best, duelist in the world.” She struck a silly pose, “With my help, of course!”

“Naturally. I suppose I should know where this meeting is going to take place?”

She facehoofed, “Duh, that might be kind of important, huh? It’s gonna be at Cloudsdale stadium at two O’clock tomorrow afternoon.”

I nodded, thinking about what I had going on tomorrow, which was a grand total of two things besides the meeting. “I should have my cast removed by then and I should be ready to go for that tomorrow. Do you know if we’re supposed to bring weapons or not?”

“Um, not that I know. It’s supposed to just be a friendly sparring match among Equus’ best duelists.”

“Awesome, count me in, then.” I nodded to her and her hoof slipped off my shoulder and back to the floor. “So, what’s up with you recently?”

When she spoke next it was with a remarkably more friendly tone. “Oh? I’m doing fine, you know trying to make it in life and all that.”

I frowned a bit at that. “Just fine? Come on Script you know you can’t hide much, you’re a terrible liar. Something up with your kid?”

She gave a heavy sigh, “Yeah, she’s been trying to learn to fight, but since I can’t afford a proper trainer, she’s been getting into fights at school, and the school is getting tired of dealing with her and the kids she fights being hurt and just the fighting in general.” I gave a sympathetic nod, it wasn’t easy for kids with poor parents to get proper training, and often fell to petty street fighting in order to get experience.

“You really should have told me sooner.” She looks up at me and tilts her head. “I’d be happy to teach your kid, Script. I’m gonna be in Cloudsdale for a couple weeks anyways, might as well help her get better right?”

She gasped and I saw her eyes well up with tears. “You’d do that? I thought you were busy for the next few months? I mean, I certainly won’t turn it down if you’re willing, but what changed?”

I turned my head away from her. “I’d rather not talk about it right now, but yeah my schedule just opened up for a bit.” I gestured for her to come closer. She stepped closer and I gave her a hug. “Don’t worry. When I’m done with her she won’t be starting anymore fights in school, or on the streets.”

Future planning

The light hum of magic buzzed in my ears as the doc’s magic cut off my cast. Several loud clacks sounded out as I felt a relief on my left foreleg. The air finally rushed over an area that had been stifled for so long. I gave my wrist a testing twist and tried to put weight on it. It felt fine, so I turned to the doc, a cyan coated and brown maned stallion, who turned to me with a smile and an outstretched hoof. “Let me see your leg, Mr. Ironsword. I just want to make sure everything healed properly.”

I offered my paw to him, he began running his hoof over the length of my leg, putting a fair amount of pressure, trying to see if the bone was at all out of place. “Well, everything seems normal, so I think you’re good to go. Just don’t push it too hard, and you should be fine.”

“Um, doc?”

“Yes, Mr. Ironsword?”

“I’m supposed to go in for a spar today, would that be okay, or should I say I’m not fit to do so?”

He paused and brought his hoof up to his chin, tapping it lightly. “I think a friendly spar should be fine, as long as you don’t push it too hard.”

I nodded my head and gave him a smile, “Well, thanks doc. I think I’m going to head out now.”

The gesture wasn’t returned, he turned and left the room. “Okay, make sure you sign out at the main desk.”

My face fell into a light frown. He’s just busy, I’m sure. I hopped off the table and left the room, walking down the hall to the main lobby. I signed out, and headed out the main door. Okay, I’ve gotta head over to Val’s house, make sure he’s fine and start getting fit for the wingblades.

I noticed the sidelong glances, and baleful glares as I walked through the streets of Cloudsdale, but chose to ignore them. Seems everyone knows who I am, anyway. Why am I even trying to hide myself? I scoffed and kept walking to Val’s house. The oh, so great pegasi of Cloudsdale, a bunch of racists. Who would’ve thought?

I gave a strong knock on Val’s door and stepped back, waiting for him to answer. A very bedraggled, and tired-looking Val answered the door. “Oh, hey, Shadow.” He yawns and slaps his gums together. “Whatcha doing here so early?”

I looked past him, to the clock on the wall. “Um Val? It’s almost ten O’clock. I’m not early at all.” A grin started to come to my mouth. “What were you and Amber doing last night?” A faint blush crept across his muzzle. He turned his gaze down and mumbled something incoherently. “Hmm, Val? I can’t understand mumbles.”

“I said, she was a bit cuddly last night. I couldn’t sleep.”

I tried to stifle a giggle, but a few slipped through. “Oh, okay, is that all?” I shook my head in mock resignation, “If you can’t handle some cuddling, makes me wonder what you’re like after a night where she wants more?”

The blush spread all the way to his ear tips and he scrunched up his muzzle in a look of pure embarrassment. “That's none of your business!” He huffed, rolled his eyes and looked back to me with a smile of his own. “Though, I will say she’s really rough.”

“Oh am I? I might have to dial it back if the big baby really thinks that.” Amber stepped around the corner from the kitchen sticking a piece of toast in her mouth, she continued to speak. “If you really wanted me to stop Valor, I would have.”

He looked back down to the ground, trying his very best to imitate a lighthouse beacon. “I-i never said I wanted you to stop, did I?” He looked up and gazed into her eyes, she did the same. I could tell where this was going.

I gave a light cough, bringing their attention back to me. “Well, I’d love to see my best friend and his marefriend make-out, but no I really wouldn’t.” Amber chuckled at that, while Val gave an indignant huff. “Actually, Val, I came by to see if you’d like to head down to the forge and get me fitted for a set of wingblades? But, of course, I won’t get in the way of you and your mare, if that is what you want.”

Val opened his mouth to speak, but then turned turned back to Amber, a pleading expression on his face. “Can I, Amb?” His face fell slightly. “I know I said we’d take a couple days rest, but I think Shadow’s asking cause he needs it soon right?”

I nodded. “Or, at least I will soon. There’s a convention of sorts going on today. The top twenty duelists in Equus will be there, and there’s a spar amongst the top fifteen.” I lifted my paw in order to stop Val from talking. “I don’t need them today, but I’ve got a feeling that I’m gonna need them soon.”

Val turned back to Amber. “Well you heard the stallion! Don’t need to start working on them today, just some measurements, and I can do those here in the house.” Amber gave a slight nod, took another bite of her toast and went back into the kitchen.

Once she was out of earshot I turned to Val, “‘Amb’, huh?”

“Oh shut up! It’s normal for couples to give each other pet names.” He sat on his haunches and crossed his forelegs over his chest. “With all the teasing you’ve been doing recently, you’d think things went well in Ponyville.” I felt a slight twinge in my chest at the mention of Ponyville. It must have followed to my face, because Val hastily tried to amend, “I mean, I know you probably learned a lot, even in the short time you were there. So that’s good right?” He tried to give me an awkward smile. I didn’t return the gesture.

“It’s fine, Val. I screwed up, and I’ll have to amend things with Twilight, but not yet. I’m not ready. And I did learn quite a bit from just observing Twilight and her friends for a week and a half.” Val seemed to relax quite a bit.

“Sorry, Shadow. Didn’t mean to open up fresh wounds. I know it hurt you, what happened in Ponyville. I know you’ll make everything right though.”

I gave a happy nod. “Again, it’s fine, Val. I know I’ll fix everything, but for now I’m gonna collect myself and collect my thoughts.” I gave a nod to the living room, “Now come on, I know you wanna get back to your mare. And I’d like to get some training in before the convention this evening.” Val gave me a strong nod and lead the way to his design room. Most don’t know, but Val is actually an avid inventor. He sketches up some crazy weapons, most would be impractical, but some really are ingenious. He initially got help from my dad to bring his better ideas to life when he was younger. Ever since he’s been hooked, making new sketches almost nightly.

He pulled out some measuring tape and I outstretched my massive navy-blue wings one at a time. I had to, since the room was rather small. Even then, my other side was pressed tightly against the wall. Val ran the tape over the length of my wing and then around it every four inches. Each time he’d write it down on a scrap piece of paper sitting up on his cluttered desk. “Make sure you don’t lose my measurements amongst all the other insanity on that table, Val.” He stuck his tongue out at me.

“You know this insanity is part of what helped me design the wingblades.”

I tilted my head to the side. “And the other parts?”

“Just one.” I rolled my paw, encouraging him to continue. “It was watching you duel that griffon in your match before we met. I watched it back, and a few others, over a couple times. I took note of how you tended to use your wings to unbalance opponents, especially when they were airborne.” He gave grin that nearly split his face. “I’d already wanted to make a gauntlet of sorts for pegasi, so I thought this would make a perfect opportunity to make a whole new thing. I brought it to Vanguard and he approved of the idea, saying it would really give pegasi a good advantage against unicorns.”

I brought my paw up to my mouth in shock. “I’m honored that you would use me as inspiration for such an awesome weapon.” I padded over and wrapped Val in a hug. “It really does mean the world to me.” I heard hoofsteps come up to the door and stop I turned my head and saw Amber standing there in the doorway. A thought came to my head. “Ha! You’re too late Amber, I’ve stolen your stallion, and now I’m going to whisk him away to the forge to work with me!” She shrugged and kept walking down the hall.

“Shadow?” Val said a hint of something I couldn’t identify in his voice.

“Yes, Val?”

“You are a dead wolf if you don’t get out now.” With that I got a prompt smack upside the head. Though his words were meant to be serious he couldn’t help a smile slip onto his face, or the tremble in his shoulders that was a tell-tale sign of laughter.

“Aw, why you gotta be like that Val? I could be so much better than Amber! Just give me a chance!” I threw myself at his feet in mock desperation. “I will always love you! Why can’t you see that!?” I felt a tingling sensation and a light pressure surround me and I was lifted off the ground. “Amber, how dare you! This is the proof that you know I’d be better for him!” I now could barely stop the laughter that was threatening to break free.

“I swear you get more and more ridiculous each time I see you.” She dropped me in front of the door giving me a friendly smile. “I’ll see you soon, I assume?”

I returned the gesture. “Yep, but you know what they say about assuming: It makes an ass out of you and me.” I started to burst into a fit of giggles. Amber opened her arms for a hug and I gladly accepted. “See ya soon, Amber. Take care of Val. It’s good you’re getting him out of that room of his. As much as I like his inventions, he needed to get out and live a little. Ya know?”

She gave a solid nod of her head. “I understand completely, and you’re welcome. Now, go practice before your big convention later.” She turned her head to look at the clock behind her. “What time is it again?”

“Two O’clock.”

“Well, it’s currently ten thirty O’clock, so you’ve got time. I’ll send Val down in an hour, or so. Celestia knows that he loves to spar with you.” She gave a goofy grin and a wave. I gave a friendly smile and a wave over my shoulder.

I set my paws in a solid stance, spreading them wide. I take a deep breath and launch forward, hitting the construct full on with a charge. Pulling my wings under its forelegs and push up, making it rear up on its hind legs. I pump my wings to the left, making me fly right and land on the right flank of the construct. I rear up on my hind legs striking out four times rapidly. Twice in the chest, once in the neck, and once in the head. I flick my wings back out and down, making my fly up into the air. I level out quickly, then launch down and pin the construct to the mat with paws to the neck and left foreleg. My back legs are straddling the constructs barrel. I get up and off the construct, and it disappears into dust. “You were faster that time, shaved off a whole half second to the take down.”

“It’s good, but still not good enough, the world’s number one can do a take down like that in less than two seconds.”

“Yea, he’s also a bipedal drake the size of Celestia herself! You’ll catch up eventually, but now focus of the number twelve slot, will ya?” Val said with an exasperated huff. “Really, can’t you be happy with progress at all?”

I gave a slight twinge at that. “You know it isn’t like that, Val. I’m happy, I just can’t rest with doing it in five seconds. I mean the guy just above me can do a takedown in more time than me. But he’s also strong and tough enough to take just as many hits as he gives, if not more.”

“Yea, but you’re faster than him, use your advantages, don’t focus on your disadvantages. That’s fighting 101. Come on, Shadow, let’s run it again.” Val summoned another construct, this time it was a perfect replica of Silver Lining, the pony directly above me in the world rankings. A silver coated pegasus with white mane and purple eyes. He wasn’t particularly large, but he was tough as an earth pony, and just as strong. “Come on, Silver, let’s see what an old stallion can do against a spri young one.”

I charged him dashing to his right to try and flank him. I threw a quick strike, but he turned and leaned his head into the blow, putting his entire body behind the movement. I felt my paw start to throb as I pulled it away. Silver stood up on his hind legs, drawing his right hoof back he executed the full-movement punch. His hoof smashes into my stomach with the strength of an earth pony. “Oofff.” I feel the air leave my lungs, and I go sprawling across the mat. I land with a thud, but Silver isn’t done yet. He drops down onto three of his legs using the moment from the movement to bring his hoof down onto my head. Or, it would have if I hadn’t moved my head at the last second.

I push my wings into the ground, causing me to fly up a few feet. I balance out in the air, but Silver stays on the ground. I grunt and flap my wings going through the motion for a full frontal assault. At the last second I dodge to the left and land one foreleg on the ground. Swinging my back legs around and plant the other foreleg and buck out with the full momentum of my dive. It catches Silver in the side and sends him skidding across the mat on the floor. I put all four paws down and turn to face Silver. This time he charges me, jumping into the air. He gives one strong pump of his wings, and he’s right in front of me before I can react. I duck down to avoid one punch, just to move right into another. My head flies back and is caught by his other hoof. He slams my head down into the ground, disorienting me. Then he backs off. I’m surprised that Silver would do something like that.

Then I remember that it’s just a construct, being controlled by Val. I get up and look at the construct as it fades away into dust. “Why did you do that? I could have recovered from that.”

He nodded his head back and forth, “Yeah, I suppose you could have, but you’ve got somewhere to be later today, and you just got out of a cast. I didn't think I should push it.”

I huffed, “You’re right, as usual.” I gave him a smile. “How about we go get some lunch?” I’ve still got a few hours.”

“Sounds good, Shadow.” Val smiled and turned around, heading for the door. “Come on, I know the perfect place.” I gave a chuckle and followed him out the door. As I made my way into the lobby. Though when I got to the end of the hallway I spotted that Val had stopped and was staring into the lobby.

I moved around him and looked at him, “What’s up, Val?” He didn’t look at me, just raised his hoof to point further into the lobby. I looked where he was pointing and felt the color drain from my face. Standing there at the reception desk was the world’s number one duelist, Fraener Dracone. He stood as tall as Celestia herself and had scales as Black as night itself. He had a set of yellow spikes running from the top of his head to the middle of his back, each one getting shorter. His wings were folded into his sides loosely. He seemed to freeze and then he turned around to stare directly at me. “Ah, so you’re Shadow Ironsword, yes?”

I stood there dumbfounded for a moment before Val snapped me back to reality with and nudge from his elbow. “Um, yes. My name’s Shadow, and this is-”

“I do not care for who the pony is. No offense to him, but I honestly couldn’t care less right now. I’m not here to fight you, Shadow, so you can relax.” I visibly relaxed, the tension leaving my shoulders. “Actually I was looking for your father. As I understand it, he’s the smithy here, correct?” His green, draconic eyes pierced through me with a questioning look.

“Yeah, I mean him and, my friend, Platinum Valor. He’s a specialist with weapons that are made with rare materials.” Fraener turned his head to look at Val with a look of renewed interest.

“I’m sorry for my rudeness earlier, Platinum Valor. It seems like a great many ponies in this floating city are not exactly welcoming of those who are not like them.” His eyes drifted over to me and lingered a moment before he turned around fully and faced Val.

“It’s no problem, Fraener. I understand fully how unwelcoming ponies of Cloudsdale are.” He gave a shaky smile. “So, what was it you needed done? Since you seemed to take interest in my talent, I assume that your weapon was damaged, right?”

He seemed shocked that Val could guess something like that. “Yes actually, but I’m not looking for it to be repaired. I’m looking for an entirely new weapon to be forged. Are you familiar with how to work hardened black dragon scales?”

Val seemed flabbergasted. “Um, yea, I know the theory on how to work them, and it wouldn’t take me too long to get it down with a proper scale, but they’re so rare and expensive that I’ve never had the chance to work one before. “

“Hmm, truly a shame. I’ll tell you what. If you can make me a proper length and quality Khopesh, I’ll give you a dozen black dragon scales. Sound like a fair deal?” He had a completely serious look on his face. Does he not know how much those are worth in Equestria?

I shook my head out and nudged Val in the side. “Uhhh, do you have any idea of the worth of those in Equestria?”

Fraener’s eyes narrowed, “Are you saying I am not offering enough? If so, I can take my business elsewhere.”

Val hastily corrected, “No, no, no, I’m actually saying that sounds like an incredibly good deal for me. Like the deal of a lifetime.”

Fraener’s expression softened considerably, “Oh, is that all? I’m willing to pay for the best. And, as I’ve heard, this forge has produced some of the best blades in Equus.”

“You’re damn right it has.” My dad came in from the door to the forge itself, opposite the main entrance. I noticed Fraener stiffen noticeably, almost as if stiffening to attention. “Now, what can I do for you?”

A look of confusion crossed Fraener’s face. “You’re not going to ask my name?”

Dad scoffed at that, “I already know who you are. You’re Fraener Dracone, best duelist in the world. My son is one of the best duelists in the world. You think I’m not going to scope out his competition a little?” A knowing smile crossed his face. “I’d even bet you’re here to do the same thing, aren’tcha?” Fraener’s eye flicked to me and away so quickly I thought I’d imagined it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He sounded very stiff and unconvincing. My dad picked up on this, but said nothing. He just looked to me and nodded slightly.

“Well, can’t argue with that. Anyway’s Valor’s off work for a few days, unless you want to wait for his services specifically I’ll see what I can do about getting you a new sword.”

“I think we can at least sketch up a plan for a new sword. Though, from what I hear, Platinum Valor works better with rare metals.” He turned to look at me. “I look forward to our meeting, and spar in a few hours, Shadow.”

I swallowed nervously, “Yea, same here.” I held my paw out for a shake. Fraener held out a talon to meet me halfway. When he gripped my paw I had expected it to be crushed from pressure, instead it seemed rather normal. I gave a light smile, “See you in a few hours.” With a small nod Fraener turned back to my dad and they started walking back to the forge area. I turned back to Val with a genuine smile. “So, where’d you have in mind for lunch?”

All out brawl(G)

Val and I sat in the little cafe he had chosen as our lunch spot, just having finished him zucchini sandwich he turned to me with a frown on his face. “Should I take it?”

“Uh, I don’t know, I mean the deal for desert, with a sandwich, is a really good one.”

He looked at with a scowl, “No, not that. I mean, should I take Fraener’s deal? I mean, something like that is the deal of a century. I could either sell the scales and become richer than Fancy Pants.”

I nodded my head in his direction. “But you wouldn’t do that.”

“No, I don’t think I could. I mean they’re black dragon scales! One of the hardest, and most durable, materials out there. Not just for swords, but for armor too. I could forge you an entirely new set of armor with that.”

I gave a smirk, “Val, you know I don’t wear full armor. That kind of thing would be a waste.” A thought came to my head. “Hey, Val, I do need a repair of my sword, though.”He had been drinking a glass of water, which he then decided to spit all over me. “Thanks for that.”

He gave a nervous chuckle. Then he leveled me with a glare and all but shouted, “What the hell did you do to that sword? I had it enchanted so that it was more durable!”

I gave a shrug of my shoulders. “I don’t know. When I opened the case after it was delivered it had a minor fracture near the fuller.”

He groaned and collapsed to the table. “That kind of thing can spell the end of a sword. I’m not sure it can be repaired, Shadow. I’ll have to take a look at it. If that’s the case though, I might have to take this deal.”

I tilted my head. “I really don’t understand why you’re even deliberating this deal. I mean, from what I’ve seen of your skill, you could make him a sword that meets his requirements easily enough.” He gave a grunt in response. I shook my head in resignation. “Just think on it, Val. Seems like Fraener is gonna be here for a bit anyways.” I looked up to the clock hanging on the wall. “Looks like it’s time I start heading out. I’d rather not fly there, if I can avoid it. So I’ll head out.” I noticed Val hadn’t looked up at me. “Val, you sure you’re okay? You’re acting really weirdly.”

He looked up at me and smiled, but it didn’t extend to his eyes. “Yeah, I will be, Shadow. I think I just need to take that break Amber’s been forcing on me recently.”

I started slightly. That’s not like Val at all. Normally we have to pry him away from his work. I eyed him suspiciously. “Well I’m gonna head out, talk about the deal with Amber, okay?” He gave a slight nod of his head. I turned towards the door and gave a wave over my shoulder. “See ya ‘round, Val.”

I walked up to the Cloudsdale stadium, the main attraction of the flying city. It went all the way back to the days of Commander Hurricane, he’d built it as a show of power to the other pony races at the time. Now? Now it stood as the second largest structure in all of Equestria, second only to Canterlot Castle. It was now a kind of training ground for several of Equestria’s armed forces, and sported many tournaments for the Equus Dueling Society. But, pegasi were very protective of it, of course. As I got within one hundred feet of the stadium two pegasi dropped in front of me.

The one on the left, who had a green coat, a brown mane, brown eyes, and a tornado looking cutie-mark, approached me and looked under my hood, making direct eye contact with me. I scoffed, Tidal Typhoon, number nineteen in Equus’ rankings. “Well, will you look at what we found, Blue! It looks like some kind of mutt.” He sneered in my face.

He turned back to his buddy, who had a white coat, a blue and purple striped mane, with a thunderhead cutie-mark. I shook my head in pity, Thunder Clap, number thirty two in Equestria’s rankings. He looked to me nervously, then turned his head, breaking eye contact. He mumbled, “Yeah, I guess.”

I felt for him, I really did, but I couldn’t show any weakness around Tidal. “What exactly do you want, Tidal? You’re barely within the rank limit, and I know Clap ain’t in the limit.” I gave him a flat look.

“Oh, nothing much. Just wanted to ask how much of a bitch your mom is!”Outwardly I just raised an eyebrow, inside I was fuming. How dare he! He as no right to call my mother a bitch. A thought occurred to me. “I bet she was the biggest bitch in your whole species!”

I brought my paws and clapped them together making a faint clicking noise as my claws hit each other, a mocking smile on my face. “Congrats, you guessed my mom was a female!” He gave a slight growl, obviously he hadn’t gotten the reaction he’d been hoping for. A sinister grin nearly split my face. “Though I guess it would be a little difficult, considering yours is a stallion.” I turned towards the stadium and gave him a sidelong glance. He was absolutely furious. His nostrils were flaring and he was pawing the ground with his left foreleg. “Come on, Tidal, make my day! This might be your only shot for a long time to take a shot at me. Though, I guess I’d be afraid to hit the same mutt who completely destroyed me in the last tournament I fought in.”

That was the last straw for him, He charged me with his head bent low. I laughed and unfurled my wings, with a single flap I ascended over his path. When he passed below me I gave another flap down, hard, making me rocket towards the ground. I landed right on top of him, driving my front paws into his withers. Driving my claws into his withers,I gripped them and pulled myself down, while driving my hind legs into his head. With a grunt I got off of him and walked a few paces away. I looked back at his unconscious form. Then I looked towards Clap. He backed away several paces, plopping down on his haunches and raising his forelegs to cover his face. “Please, don’t hurt me! I didn’t want to go with him, but he’s been blackmailing me!”

My face softened considerably, “I wasn’t going to hurt you, Clap. I was actually going to ask you why you’re hanging around such a douche.” I gave a shrug of my shoulders. “But I guess you already answered that, huh?” I shook my head, before looking back to him, straight in his eyes. “Please, just leave this douche. I’ve seen you fight before. You’ve got talent, but you’re not going to get anywhere around someone like this guy.” I gestured towards Tidal’s form on the ground and grimaced. “I don’t like seeing talent wasted like this. Whatever he’s got on you can’t be as bad as all this.”

He shook his head despairingly, “I guess not, but he said he just wanted some backup for when he approached you. I didn’t know what he was going to do or say. It’s not like I’m hanging around him all the time, or anything.” I rolled my eyes.

“Anyways, just stop hanging around him, he’s not gonna do you any good.” With that I turned towards the entrance of the stadium, nodding at the guards who were standing just inside the door. “You gonna take care of him, or you gonna wait for a kind stranger to?” I raised my eyebrows at them. When they didn’t move I scoffed. You guys are way too stiff. I turned back to Clap. “Make sure you get some street guards and tell them what happened.” I gave a wave to him and turned back to the doors and walked through them.

The stadium had a Romane style, tall, decorative, columns lining the hallways and marble-white clouds making up the walls and floors. I pulled the note Script had given me earlier that morning. “North-west arena, huh?” I looked up to the map hanging on the wall in front of me, memorizing the path I needed to take. I turned to the left and started walking, letting my thoughts wander a bit as I did so. Hmm, so we’re going to have a sparing match with the fifteen best in the world. I might not be able to stand against Silver’s sturdiness, but I might be able to try and take on some of the others. A shiver ran through me as I thought about Fraener. Definitely not him though, not even close to ready for that kind of a fight.

I gave a start as I bumped into someone. I looked up and was met with with the world’s best gryphon duelist, Viktor Blade. He turned to me with a look of confusion at first. Then, his expression shifted slightly, to one of familiarity. “Vell hello, Shadow. Nice to see anozer duelist from ze top fifteen managed to make it.” His thick germane accent making difficult to fully understand what he was saying. He turned to me fully, exposing his massive chest with mostly brown feathers. Except for a V shaped patch that was black. His crest feathers were white, and he stood a good head taller than me, making me look up to meet his gaze. Viktor’s the best dual wielder in the world. Most prefer to stick with one blade, even unicorns since it splits their attention each time they add another object in their magic. Though, he’s still ranked number fifteen in the world. Wonder why that is?

“It’s nice to see you again too, Viktor.” I replied with a friendly smile and held my paw out in offering of a shake, remembering it was polite in his culture to greet others with a firm shake. He took it and nearly crushed my paw when he squeezed. I showed no outward sign of pain, though. “Though, what did you mean when you said you were glad to see another top fifteen show up, did most not show up again?”

He gave a solemn nod of his head and spoke with a resigned tone, “It seems az zo most of ze ozer duelists have denied ze request for a friendly sparring match, most of zem claiming it waz a waist of zeir time.” He scoffed and turned away and started walking again.

I shook my head sadly, but turned to him. With a hint of hope in my voice I said, “Do you know who did show up, though?”

He turned to me with a knowing smirk on his face, “Hoping that Silver Lining waz going to show up, yes?” I gave an embarrassed nod, looking away from him to a painting of Commander Hurricane. He gave a light chuckle and looked back forward, “Vell, it seemz as zough you are in luck today, my friend. Silver Lining decided to show up and is currently varming up in ze North-Vest arena.” With that we continued to walk through the massive complex of arenas and stadiums.

“This place really was ahead of it’s time when it was built, wasn’t it? I mean it is still being used effectively over one thousand years after when it was first built.”

“Really stroking your pony brezren's ego, no?”

I blanched a little, “No, that’s not what I meant it to sound like. Though I can see why you’d think that. I don’t have much of any this stupid ‘pegasus pride’ that seems so popular here in Cloudsdale. I was just admiring the fact that this place.”

The large gryphon gave a nod of his brown head and then looked ahead again, a look of thought on his face. “I vill admit, zis place is very vell built. Zough my people frame Commander Hurricane as a tyrant, I’ve seen ze historiez of both our races and have formed my own opinion.”

I raised an eyebrow, “That would be?”

He stopped, looked at me and quirked a smile. “Zat he was a pony ahead of his time, but was one to looze hiz cool at times.” I snickered. That’s an understatement.

I rolled my eyes, “I think about the same as you when it comes to Hurricane. Though I think it’s a bit of an understatement to say he sometimes ‘lost his cool’, as you put it.”

Viktor gave a hearty chuckle at that, but said nothing else as we arrived at the North-West arena. We both entered the arena and were greeted with the sights of Fraener and Silver warming up in the center.

Fraener was doing wing-ups while also clapping them together at the top of his push. Silver, meanwhile, was doing practice for his full-motion punch. He was up on his hind legs and going through the motion. Then, through one of the other doors entering the arena, an earth pony came in carrying several very heavy looking punching bag. Though he barely looked tired. “Well this ‘aughta do us just fine, wouldn’t you say, Silver?” He said as he put them down. Silver gave a nod to the earth pony. Must be his manager. Don’t recognize anypony like that in the top twenty. He had a cream colored coat, brown mane and tail with two streaks of white, and caramel colored eyes.

He turned, trying to follow Silver’s gaze. His eyes fell upon us and his face split into a genuine grin. “Well, it’s about gosh darn time somepony else showed up to this shindig. Ah was beginnin’ to worry nopony else was gonna come. It’d have been awful boring to just watch the two of them go at it.” He motioned back towards Fraener and Silver. He started approaching us, moving with a slow, but steady, gait. He held out his hoof and gave another smile, “Mah name’s Brick Script, and ah’m Silver’s manager.”

I took his hoof and gave a strong shake, “My name’s Shadow, Shadow Ironsword. I’m currently number thirteen in the world rankings.” I turned to Viktor, but he seemed hesitant. He gave me a look out of the corner of his eye saying he didn’t trust this earth pony.

I gave him a comforting smile, and motioned for him to take the shake. He nodded in resignation. “My name is Viktor Blade, I am currently ranked number fifteen in ze vorld’s rankings.” Brick gave a nod to him, then turned around and started heading towards Silver again.

“It was nice meeting you two, hopefully you can add some spice to this here fight.” He turned to see Silver finishing setting up the second bag up. The first lay in a torn up mess behind him. “Silver ah told about making sure you take it easy on these bags, they ain’t ours!” Silver gave a grunt in return, but set up for his signature move again anyway. I watched closely, trying to figure what exactly he did to get that much force into one punch.

He got up on his hind legs, setting his left hind leg in place. He slid his other hind leg back, while also bringing his hoof back until his elbow was poking out from behind his back. He twisted his hips back, away from the bag. Suddenly he twisted his withers around, while simultaneously twisting his hips. Setting his hips parallel to the bag he brought his hoof around and sent the bag flying from the contact with his hoof. Huh, so that’s how he does it? No, there has to be more I’m missing, but I can’t stop and watch him, I have to warm up.

I moved to the center of the arena and started doing what my father had nicknamed ‘the gauntlet’. It was ten wing-ups followed by me pushing off and doing several low altitude aileron roll, followed by an in place sprint for twenty seconds. I did about fifteen of these before the official judge for our spar came in and started to get set up. Everyone had stopped warming up and had come over to hear the duelist rules.

What was strange was the fifteen extra unicorns that came in and started setting up some kind of magic circle with a ring of smaller ones on the outer ring. With a cough the official brought back our attention to him. He was a small pegasus who had a grey coat, black mane and tail, and brown eyes. His cutie mark was a blank piece of paper. “Look I’m your judge in this little spar, and since you are all world-class fighters I would assume you know the rules for such a thing.” We all rolled our eyes at that. He raised a hoof at us all. “But, forget everything you know about a spar right now.” We all gave a collective eyebrow raise and hum. “This magic circle being set up right now is designed to allow you to all out on eachother. No-holds-barred in this sparring match. This means kill shots are allowed. But no weapons will be allowed into the circle. When you all go in you’ll completely healed to have no imperfections. When you are killed, or ‘knocked out’ as the officials put it,” We all gave another eye roll at that, “you will be sent back into the arena. You will be checked for any kind of actual bodily damage and then, if cleared, will be given the option to head back in. Any questions?” He looked around at the four of us and when none of us asked any he nodded his head. “Head to a unicorn and get set up to go in.”

With that we all started heading for a unicorn. Mine spotted me and waved me over. “Okay, would you please step into the circle and sit down?” I followed the instructions. “Now I’m going to use a sort of sedation spell that’s connected to the center sigil. It’s going to enter you into a sort of dream like state. This spar should have no physical, nor mental damage to you or anyone else.” Should? That sounds like we’re just a bunch of guinea pigs! I felt the tell-tale tingle of magic surround my head and I started to slip from consciousness.

The next thing I knew I was back in the arena, but it seemed much bigger, like almost three times the size in reality. Just a second later I saw Fraener show up twenty feet in front of me, then Silver and Viktor came next. There was a sort of awkward silence as we stood there waiting for a signal to start. It came in the form of a loud bell noise. The officials voice came out of nowhere and announced, “Let the battle begin!” With that Fraener charged forward, straight for me. I gave a pump of my wings to bring me just out of range of his first swipe, but his second nicked my snout. Damn, he’s fast. I dropped into a fighting stance. If I can take his legs out I can get him down, then hopefully out. I charged forward only to have Silver charge into Fraener’s side and knock him off balance. “Come on, Shadow! We can get this drake, but only if we work together!” He dropped back down and backed up to be shoulder to shoulder with me.

Fraener gave a chuckle, “Two versus one? Or is the gryphon going to get over his stunned silence and get over here and help?” That was all the invitation Viktor needed, though he didn’t help us he went and stood by Fraener. “Well, well, well. I expected you to side with the two of them, but hey numbers wise this makes it more fair doesn’t it?”

Viktor gave a gruff grunt in response, but said nothing else. Okay, so I’ve got to face Viktor and Fraener, no big deal. I know how to take on Viktor, but I can’t leave Silver to take on Fraener alone. I turned to Silver and whispered, “Look I can take Viktor pretty easily, but can you take Fraener alone?”

Silver scoffed and looked to me with a glint of mischievousness in his eyes. “Why do you think Brick thought a battle between me and Fraener would be boring? I know all his go-to moves. I know how to counter them and I know how to do the same for you, so I’d watch out, Shadow.” With that he turned and took off towards Fraener. “Come on, you overgrown lizard!”

I sighed and shook my head, facing off with Viktor was not what I was hoping to do. Okay focus. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, held it for a second, then released it while opening my eyes. Okay I’m ready, Viktor. Give me everything ya got. I set my stance and charged forward. I threw my wings forward and putting them under his forelegs. I planted my forelegs and pushed up with my wings, throwing Viktor off balance and sending him up into the air. I followed up with a kick off and four strong blows to Viktor’s chest. Now for the killing blow! I pushed my wings down and twisted, sending me up and past the massive gryphon. I turned around and flew down with a mighty flap of my wings, landing on his back at high speed. I delivered two heavy blows, leaving behind gashes where my claws came in contact with his skin. Then, I slipped around him and brought my claws up to his throat and pulled them back. Can I do this, just murder in cold blood? The second's hesitation was all the time Viktor needed to recover enough to throw me off his back. Though he still landed with a sickening crack on the ground as his foreleg bent at an awkward angle.

His face contorted with pain, but he got back up, and tried to charge me while favoring his broken foreleg. I slipped past him and jumped up onto his back, causing him to lose his balance again. I slipped up and drew my right paw across his throat. He spasmed for a second but then fell still. His body seemed to shatter the shards soon fading into nothing. The sounds of fighting drew my attention to Fraener and Silver’s fight. Fraener was pushing Silver back, but Silver wasn’t retreating or even seeming scared. In fact, he seemed to be smiling like he wanted this to happen. Come on you old stallion, do something!

Suddenly when Fraener took a left swipe Silver jumped forward, grabbing onto his arm. He hooked both his forelegs around Fraener’s left arm and grappled him to the ground. Smiling all the while he started stomping his hooves down onto Fraener, just barely missing his head each time. Silver switched tactics and started pummeling the drake’s chest and making him gasp out for breath, and leaving his neck wide open. Silver stomped down with all his might and broke the drake’s windpipe. The drake’s body went through the same thing as Viktor’s, shattering into thousands of bright shards, then the shards fading into nothingness. Silver started to breath heavily and shaking a bit. Poor stallion, not used to ending the life of another I guess. Silver stopped a few moments later. He got up from where he had killed Fraener and turned towards me.

“Well, Shadow, it’s just you and me. Let’s see what you’ve got, mutt.” Silver dropped into a fighting stance. I mirrored him, dropping into my own stance. I breathed in, closed my eyes, and tried to relax my muscles. Relax, you’ve got him. You’ve practiced for this. With a newfound determination my eyes shot open and I exhaled. Silver charged forward and was upon me faster than I could fully move out of the way. I was nicked by his first strike, and met the other full-on in the chest. I stumbled backwards, trying to get some distance between us. My mind flitted back to what Silver had said about him knowing how to counter Fraener and my own moves. Well, I’ll just have to try and shake it up a bit then. I slowly started stalking around Silver, my eyes tracking every move he made, but he made no attempt to turn when I got behind him. Cocky son of bitch. I furrowed my brows together and charged forward and was met with a buck as Silver pitched his head down and brought his hind legs up into my face. How? There’s no way he saw me! I staggered back and looked up to see Silver still facing away from me, but the shaking of his shoulders was a sign that he was laughing.

“Grrr, I’d stop laughing if I were you, Silver.” At that he stopped and turned around a look of genuine scorn on his face.

“Oh? And why’s that, mutt? You’ve yet to land a blow on my yet!”

I smirked at that. “Check your cheek, Silver.” He reached up and touched his cheek, which had a gash on it. I’d landed it in our initial charge, but it was only a glancing blow. When he brought his hoof down and saw blood his face immediately changed. His face set into one of anger and concentration.

“Okay, so you got one lucky hit in? Let’s see if you can do it again.” With that he charged forwards, but I stood my ground. I didn’t make any move until he was ten feet out. I reared up onto my hind legs, setting my paws into a mimic of his full-motion punch. I went through all the motions I’d observed at the warm-up. It was sloppy and it didn’t have near the force of Silver’s, but it did have the desired effect. Silver barely had any time to react as my claws raked across his muzzle leaving four deep gashes in it. A look of shock is all that was on his face. “How? How did you do that!? I spent years trying to get that technique right, and you stand up and do it first go? Bullshit, you’ve got more tricks up your sleeves.” His eyes sharpened into a hard glare, and he charged forward trying to down me before I could do anything else. I backpedalled and tried to get away from his furious swipes and punches. I ducked out and flew up into the air, staying there and waiting for Silver to chase after me, I didn’t have to wait long. As Silver came flying up to me I gave one hard flap and charged head-on at him. At the last second I dived off to the left and locked my left wing into a rigid state. Hitting Silver’s wing and making it lock up. Silver quickly started falling to the ground head first, but managed to recover enough to land on his hooves.

Damn, I shoulda charged in there and taken advantage of that opening. I chastised myself. Silver slowly rose to my elevation and stared me dead in the eyes. My face split into a wide grin as I saw the slight twinge in his wing that I’d hit. “It’s just starting, Silver. And at the end of this I’ll come out on top.”

Author's Note

Hey guys! Sorry for the extra long chapter, but I just got going and When I looked back I had almost 5k words and I realized there was a lot more still to do, so I'm splitting it here, but there will be more of this setting in the next chapter. Also I didn't receive any feedback on the whole 'gore or no gore?' thing so Imma do it.

New rivals and reunions

Silver gave a low growl and his face devolved into a look of rage. “You think you’re going to beat me? How do you plan to do that? I’ve always been a step above of you.”

I gave a smirk. “Thing about being old, Silver, is that eventually you start to slow down. You stop improving as quickly, or entirely.” Silver set his face into a hard glare and gave a single hard flap of his wings, closing the distance between us in less than a second. We locked forelegs and began trying to kick one another with our hind legs, but that proved ineffective, because there was no room for any wind up. So any blow that did land did little to no damage. Finally Silver got tired of the grapple and reared his head back and brought it forward in a hard headbutt. Damn, no I remember why they call him the ‘iron horse’. His head’s as hard as a chunk of metal! He dashed forwards again, trying to catch me off guard, but I put my forelegs up in a sloppy block.

Silver backpedaled again trying to increase the distance between us again. Oh no you don’t! I’m not playing this game. I charged after him but once I was within distance of striking I gave one more hard flap of my wings, making me fly head-first into his stomach in a full-body headbutt. Silver gasped and tried to swing at me, but it had no power behind it. His blow glancing off of my neck and putting me inside his guard I started swiping furiously with my forelegs. Several long gashes made their presence known by the red stains starting appear in the pegasus’ fur around them. I backed up and let him slowly fall to the ground. With a thump he fell down, but when I looked in his eyes there was still determination. This pegasus isn’t giving up, he’s going to go until he physically can’t anymore. I dashed forwards trying to finish him before he could catch his breath and keep going. Before I could even fully reach him Silver started to get up and sat up on his haunches, his eyes closed and his wings fully extended. What the hell is that? That doesn’t look like any of his moves! I shook it off and kept charging I stopped and started to draw my hoof back to swipe it across his throat, but before I could even start bring it forward I was hit in the chest and gut simultaneously by Silver’s forelegs. I stumbled backward, gasping for breath, but Silver didn’t press the advantage.

I charged forward again and tried to get to his flank and hit him where he wouldn’t be able to retaliate as well. Before I could even start to draw back to strike him he jumped away from me. What, how? There’s no way he can see, his eyes are glued shut. But, he can still somehow know my location? This makes no sense! Is this what it takes to be a higher tier fighter? Or is it some magic I don’t know about? I took a deep breath and exhaled drooping my shoulders slightly. No, there has to be some trick to this that I’m missing. I slowly started to approach him and stalked around his back, where I gave a tentative flap of my wings in his direction. His wings had several feathers give a noticeable twitch, he reared up and bucked out, then went back to his starting position. Gotcha, old Silver. I started slowly walking up, making sure not to make an air current that was detectable. Then, when I was directly in front of him, I reared up onto my hind legs and prepped a full-motion punch. It almost worked, in fact it might have if Silver hadn’t squeaked one of his eyes open just as I was finishing the wind-up. He ducked down, almost laying flat to the ground as my paw went right over his head. He turned on the ground so his belly was up and kicked out with his hind legs, making me fall over onto my back. Silver hopped up and tried to press his advantage But I shifted my weight to my withers, then pushed with my forelegs and kicked out simultaneously. I caught him full in the jaw, making his head fly back and his body start falling backwards. Now’s a chance to take him out! I tried to jump up, but when I stood up my vision started to swim. Crap, too many blows to the head. No! I refuse to go out because of some stupid thing like this. I closed my eyes and tried to recenter my weight. Breath, breath and recenter yourself. This was a trick I’d learned from my time fighting, if you can close your eyes and recenter your balance, you can stop something like swimming vision. I felt my balance recenter and I opened my eyes to see Silver recover enough to drop down to all four hooves. But, he seemed to be struggling with dizziness. He was stumbling back and forth, barely staying on his hooves. Looks like I’ve still got a chance to press an advantage! I took two steps forward and planted my left foreleg onto the ground. Jumping my hips to the left slightly I planted my other foreleg. Feeling secure in the position I pushed off my hind legs off to the right, swinging them out and around my body and shifting all my weight to my left foreleg and lifting my right off and using all the momentum to hit Silver full on in the head again. His head reeled back again and his eyes began to fly around, trying to track me while his body was reeling from the massive hit.

“Alright, Silver, here’s the end move. Checkmate!” I slipped up close, raised my right foreleg and, swung my paw and claws across his neck. Silver fell back on his haunches grasping at his throat and gasping. He fell over spasming for a moment, before stopping and laying still before shattering and disappearing. I felt my body start to dissolve itself and I closed my eyes, letting myself slip into unconsciousness again.

I awoke to the sounds of gasping and wheezing. I jolted up and knocked my head against the unicorn who was looking me over. I rubbed the top of my head and swiveled my head around to see the source of gasping was Silver. Damn, that’s gotta be a scary experience dying like that. I turned to the unicorn again, who was still rubbing her chin and looking at me with a look of both wonder and anger. The later probably from me hitting her chin. “I’m sorry, miss, I didn’t mean to hit your chin like that, but when I woke up to that.” I motioned my paw to Silver, who was just starting to realize what was going on. And that he was, indeed, fine. “I kind of just reacted instinctually.”

She gave a nod of her head and went back to checking me over. Finding nothing wrong with me in any of her scans, she started to walk away to the door of the arena. I turned back to Silver who had, by now, fully recovered and was sitting there just staring at me with wide eyes. I felt a twinge of guilt run through me, and I twitched visably. Damn, what I did was kind of cold-blooded. But we were told no-holds-barred. No, that’s no excuse. They’re not used to that kind of fighting, for life and death. Neither am I, to be perfectly honest. I looked back to Silver again with sorrow in my expression. He won’t want my pity, but he will accept praise from another warrior. If I know him as well as I think.

My expression switched into a stoney one, stoic and hiding my true emotions. I started to walk towards Silver. He started to shift backwards slightly a look of fear in his eyes. I kept stepping forward, my face remaining stoic, but my heart ached each time he made a move to back away. When the unicorn stallion who was tending him stepped in between us I gave him a harsh glare. “I mean no harm to Silver; The battle’s over I’m not going to try and kill him.” He gave a slight nod of his head, stepping aside and letting me pass him. I broke eye contact with him and looked back at Silver, who had settled for trying to look me in the eye and quivering slightly. I held my paw out in a gesture for a shake. “It was a pleasure and honor to fight you, Silver. I know you’ll still be ahead of me in the rankings, but I look forward to our next fight. Hopefully they don’t continue this spell in future, official, fights.”

Silver sat there, dumbfounded for a moment, before giving a shake of his head and reaching up his hoof to meet my paw. We both gave a firm shake up and down. “Same here, Shadow. I honestly didn’t expect you to be so fierce, but I guess doubting you was my greatest downfall.” He gave a regretful shake of his head before looking back up at me with determined eyes. “It definitely won’t happen again.”

I gave a nervous swallow at that. You mean he was holding back during that? I gave a shake of my head to clear it. “Glad to hear it, Silver. Go get some rest, I’m sure we’re gonna have more than a few fights coming up soon.” With that I turned and started walking towards the official of the match. “So, what is the deal with this whole thing? Are they just testing something, or is this gonna be a regular thing now?” The grey stallion looked up at me from where he was sitting on the floor.

“Well, first of all, let me just say, that was some of the best fighting I’ve ever seen. Especially considering you’re outside of the top ten.” I gave a nod of thanks before he continued, “And, honestly? I don’t know, they don’t pay me near enough to know stuff like that. You’d have to go to the top committee to find out something like that.”

I grimaced at that, normally they’d tell the officials if something like this was going to be continued or not. Meaning they were trying to keep some secret, in hopes that no one would ask questions. “Alright, well thanks anyways.” I gave a wave over my withers and started walking towards the exit of the arena. I was stopped as a tall, black, figure stepped in front of me. I scowled and looked up at him.

Fraener looked down at me with an unreadable expression. He began to open his mouth, before closing it again and looking off to the side. He got a distant look in his eyes before shaking his head and looking back to me. “It was an honor fighting with you. I made the same mistake with Silver that he did with you. I underestimated him, and you still managed to kill him.” He gave a ghost of a smile. “By all rights and standards, if this was an official duel, you’d be taking number one in the world right now.”

I smirked a bit at him. “How does that make you feel, Fraener, that a small wolven mutt can take the spot of number one out from underneath your nose so easily?”

“It definitely makes me weary of your skill with a sword, if you can do that without weapons.” He bowed slightly to me, bending at his waist to bring his head almost at an even level with my own. “In my culture, there is a tradition that two duelists who become rivals butt heads, to signify said rivalry. I would like it if you could indulge me in this tradition of mine.”

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. The world’s top fighter wanted to become rivals with me? I wasn’t even in the top ten of the world’s rankings! I gave a hasty nod of my head, my heart pounding in my chest as I leaned forward. Fraener pointed his snout downward and pushed forward, hard enough to alarm me, at first. I pushed back with just as much force, if not more. By the time the whole exchange was done there was an audience watching us. “Heh, looks like we’ve got an audience, Fraener.” When I noticed the lack of a response I looked back up to see the exit door swinging shut. I rolled my eyes and huffed. “Jeez.” I suddenly had a shock of realization. Did I just huff at the number one duelist? I just stood there shocked for a moment with a blank expression on my face. One of the unicorns, who had set up the circle walked in front of me and pouted.

“Page! Are you sure you checked this one out properly? He seems like he’s broken!” She yelled down at the unicorn who had checked me over.

She huffed and walked over to me. “Yes I’m sure I checked him properly, Rain. You are aware that that drake he just talked to was the number one duelist, right?” Recognition crossed Rain’s face as she stared ahead. “Yeah, now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got more important things to do.” With that she turned and briskly walked away.

I blinked a few times. Wow that’s a complete one eighty from when she was taking care of me. “Oh, don’t worry about her. She’s just that way when her job runs long. She’s got two little fillies of her own, who she’s taking care of on her own.”

I looked back towards where the Page was cleaning up the last bits of the circle I had used. “What’s her name?”

“She’s Starry Page. She’s one of the nurses from Canterlot medical.”

“You mean they pulled ponies from other cities to do this little meeting?” She gave a shrug and walked away to the exit. I looked back to Starry Page. She had a midnight black coat, purple mane and tail with a single white stripe running through both, and orange eyes. I hadn’t paid her much attention before, thinking she was just another unicorn. Makes ya think how much each individual has their own story, just as important as my own. I walked over to Starry Page and sat down on my haunches. “You okay? You seem a bit stressed out.”

She gave a huff, looked away and mumbled, “What do you care? You seemed all too happy to walk out a few moments ago.”

I flinched. “I had intended to, but your friend, Rain I think you said her name was, said you always get this way when work runs late. Can I ask why?”

An angry glint came into her eyes and her lip curled upward in a sneer. She said, with angry sarcasm, “Oh look, its a knight in shining armor! Let me fall into your arms and fall for you!” She finished her clean up and got up with a flick of her mane, which hit me in the face. “Sorry, not interested.” She started walking away towards the exit.

A storm of emotions hit me all at once. Worry, fear, anger, and many more. What the hell was that? How does she have any right to just do that? I was just concerned, I wasn’t even interested in her like that! A realization hit me when I thought ‘wasn’t’. I mean she isn’t that bad looking. She’s definitely got a strong backbone. I gave another look over my shoulder at her, as the exit doors swung closed. “Screw it.” I turned and ran to the doors at a full-tilt sprint. “Hey! Wait a minute!” She turned to me with a shocked expression, which turned to one of anger just as fast. She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. “What the hell was that!? A guy shows some concern for you when you seem stressed, and you immediately think he wants some action? That’s not what I was after at all!” A kind of weird expression covered face, I couldn’t read it, then it kind of hit me that I’d just basically just insulted her. “I-I mean that’s not to say you’re not a pretty mare, but I wasn’t after that!”

She looked down to the ground, a kind of embarrassed expression on her face. She mumbled out a sorry and started turning back down the hallway. I felt a knot start forming in my stomach. Oh now you’ve done it, Shadow. “Hey, look, I’m sorry. I was just concerned about you. I heard you’ve got two fillies? Where are they?”

A flash of anger crossed her face before fading as quick as it came. “They’re here in Cloudsdale, at the hospital I was moved to for this,” She waved back at the arena doors, “event.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. That didn’t mess anything up with your stallion, did it?” She gave a bitter laugh and looked away again, a pained expression on her face. “Oh, sorry, bad topic?”

“You could say that. Look, I’m sorry about the whole blowing up at you thing, but I’ve got to get back to my fillies.” I nodded my head back and forth a couple times.

“Well at least let me tag along, then. After all, the cities not exactly the best place for a lone mare to be wondering.”

“You seem awfully eager to stay with me, you sure you didn’t approach me looking for something?”

I gave a firm shake of my head. “Like I said, you’re definitely not a bad looking mare, but I’m not after anything. And I don’t think you’d want anything to do with me, once you knew what I really was.”

She gave me a, faint, quirked smile. “You mean the fact that you’re part wolven? I have no problem with any of that.”

I immediately stopped, a look of shock on my face. I felt my eyes start to water up a bit. “Ya know, you’re one of the only ponies to actually say that out loud, outside of family, and really close friends. You have no idea what that kind of thing means to me.”

She got a sort of sad smile on her face. “Oh, I think I do. Let’s just say I’ve had experience with other species, besides ponies.” I raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t continue the point. So I let it drop.

“Okay, so my offer still stands. Would you like me to guide you back to the hospital, where your fillies are?” I offered my best confident smile and bowed my head slightly.

“I think I can handle myself just fine, thank you.” She started heading off, and I felt my face fall slightly. I started to get up and turn. She stopped and turned back to me. “Though I guess it couldn’t hurt to have a world-class fighter guide me back to the hospital.” Her face turned serious again, “Though, no further. I’m not looking to have you near my place of living.” Her expression lightened slightly, and I thought I saw her lips move. But I couldn’t quite catch what she’d said. Though the ghost of a smile that played on her lips gave me a bit of hope.

I jumped up and ran up to her side. “So, which hospital we headed to? There is more than one in Cloudsdale, after all.”

“Cloudsdale General. It’s actually pretty far, I’m glad to have some company.” I gave a smile at that.

“I haven’t got anything better to do for the rest of the day, since I wasn’t sure how long thing thing would run.”

She gave a light chuckle. “Well I’m glad to hear that, considering it’s like ten at night.”

“What? How is that possible!? That fight couldn’t have lasted more than twenty minutes, if that!” I practically shouted.

“Well, that’s how dreaming works. I mean I had explained it to you that it was going to be like going to sleep when you went in.”

“Wait, so what exactly was that giant circle in the middle? I mean I get it helped us fight each other on a whole new level, but I don’t quite understand how.” After a split second I added, “And you don’t have to go into too much detail, since it’ll probably fly right over my head.”

She gave a light laugh at that. “Well, basically, how it works is that we forced your consciousness together into a kind of shared dream. It was a spell-form that was developed by Princess Luna herself, and we’ve been trying to make it work for ourselves. Basically we’ve been trying to make it castable by normal ponies.”

“Hmm, why’s that?” I asked curiously.

“Mostly to avoid as many injuries as possible. Contrary to popular belief, we at the hospital don’t want to see anyone come back.”

I looked back to her cutie mark, it was a heart surrounded by a wreath. Hmm, that seems familiar. I looked back to Page, only to get a face full of hoof as she slapped me. “Ow, what was that for?”

“You were staring at my flank! I knew it! You were just after some action!” She began to angrily stomp away.

I quickly got up and chased after her. “Wait, no that’s not what I was doing! I was just looking at your cutie mark. It seemed familiar, which is why it might have seemed like I was staring; But I wasn’t.” She continued to stomp forward, not even casting a glance back at me. Dammit, Shadow. What the hell were you thinking? Then ,it hit me; It was the same cutie mark from the story Amber had told me earlier. “Hey, do you know a pony named Amber Joy?”

She froze on the spot and slowly turned her head around to me. “You know Amber? How, she went to Griffonia right out of med school.”

“She’s my best friend’s fillyfriend. I just met her a few days ago. Why, were you two friends? The way she talked about you, at least I think it was you, sounded like you were.”

She looked downcast. “Yeah, we were the best of friends, basically grew up on the streets together. Then our careers took us in different directions and we eventually stopped talking.”

I gave a hopeful smile, “Do you want to talk to her?”

She jolted up and looked at me with an almost terrified expression. “What? Of course I do! Why wouldn’t I?”

I sighed and shook my head. “Sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself, not me. If you don’t that’s fine, but I’m still gonna take you to the hospital to get your fillies.” With that I got up and moved to stand beside her. She made no move to stop me, though. I motioned with my head that I was ready to go, but she just stared at the ground, seemingly stuck in her own little world. She’s thinking it over. Okay, I’ll give her all the time she needs. I sat down on my haunches and waited. After about five minutes I unfurled my right wing and started looking it over, and fixing any out of place feathers.

Finally Page looked up with a set of determined orange eyes. “Do you know where she lives? I want to see her as soon as possible.”

I felt my face split into a wide smile. “I do, in fact, know where she lives. I can take you there.” She gave a determined nod and got up, starting to move in the direction of the hospital.

I heard the clank of something hollow and metal hitting the ground. A pipe, probably. I turned to the noise and turned to the noise. I spotted a large pegasus who looked oddly familiar hiding in an alleyway off of the road we were on. My face suddenly took on an expression of shock as I recognized the face of Butch. I felt my teeth clench together. And I dug my claws into the cracks of the cobble road we were on. “Page, get behind me.”

“Hmm?” She turned to see Butch and five other ponies come out of the alleyway, all carrying some sort of weapon. “What the hell, this isn’t a bad part of town is it?”

“No, but these are definitely bad ponies and they have persecuted me from a pretty young age, just for being part wolven. I’ve had enough of this.” I fully turned to the six new opponents and drew my body into a combat stance. Page walked up next to me and did the same, though her’s was noticeably sloppier than mine. “Page, run.” She turned to me with an argument on her lips. It died when she saw my face. “I’ve seen first hand what these thugs can do, I refuse to let that happen to you. Get to the hospital, stay there. I’ll be along in a bit.” I gave a bit of a cocky smile, and lifted my head slightly. “After all If I can take on the same pony who took out the world’s best in a death match I can take a few thugs right?”

She nodded hesitantly before turning and taking off down the street. I turned back to the six ponies standing in the alley entrance. “Alright you six, what do you want? Because if you just interrupted that just to try and kick my ass I’m going to give you a flank-whooping so hard you’ll be feeling it in a week.” With that they started to approach, and surround me. “Alright, looks like you’ve taken the flank-whooping option. Heh, more fun for me anyways.”

Author's Note

Five brownie points if you can find the reference I put in this chapter!

The kids and Emergencies

One of the pegasi, with a brown coat and orange mane, stepped forward. He gave a cocky grin. “That was a nice little performance for the mare. But, come on, there’s no way you’re taking on six armed opponents, especially when you don’t have one yourself.”

“Really? You think this is anything I haven’t trained against? That I didn’t see this situation happening at any point? I knew you were all cowards, so I’ve been training for something like this since that very first time I got attacked by Smokey.” My expression shifted to one of stone, giving away no emotion. The only thing that gave away were my eyes, and the pegasus that had made the mistake of making eye contact with me backed up a step and dropped his weapon.

I dashed forward and performed my wing takedown. After he was sprawled out on the ground the other five backed up a step, suddenly wary of me. They damn well should be. The mountain of a pony, named Butch, stepped forward. “The real reason we came here was to tell you of Smokey’s demand. If you aren’t out of Cloudsdale in a week he can’t guarantee the safety of your family and friends.”

I felt my anger rise to a whole new level, my face contorting to one of pure fury and a deep-throated, wolf-like, growl eminatted from the back of my throat. “Oh? I’d love to see him TRY!” I felt my upper lip curl up into a snarl, fully exposing my wolven teeth. And I took a snap in his general direction, making him back up a step with an expression of fear, for a moment.

“Even you can’t be everywhere at once, Shadow.” His expression sobered slightly. “If you want my advice-”

“Why would I want the advice of a pony who's been persecuting me since I first moved Cloudsdale? Ever since I showed up here you and Smokey have been trying to chase me out!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I felt the beginnings of tears at the corners of my eyes, and my vision was starting to haze over slightly. I heard a mumble from the giant, but I couldn’t quite make it out. I opened my mouth to speak, but I was cut off by the hardened expression I was met with when Butch raised his head.

“Smokey’s not gonna stop trying to chase you out until you leave Cloudsdale, maybe even Equestria as a whole. If it were me, I’d leave immediately. Because I care more about my family and friends than anything to do with myself.” He turned around back to the alley. “Come on, we’re leaving.”

They disappeared into the shadows of the alley, the only sound that emitted from it was the steadily quieting clop of hooves. What did that mean? I mean I know the whole thing with Smokey, but Butch… He’s got more going on than I thought. I turned back to the direction Page had run off to, and began to walk. I ran into something soft. I looked up slowly, afraid I had run into another pegasus, only to see Page standing there with a few tears in her eyes. “I knew you said you were persecuted, but I’d never imagined that.” She said quietly.

I took a deep breath and let my shoulders slump slightly. “So you saw that, huh? How much of it?”

“All of it.”

I looked back to the ground and felt my teeth grind together again. I can’t believe I didn’t check to see if she had actually left. “Well I guess this is goodbye then.” I felt a tentative hoof on my withers stop me from moving any further. “Hmm?” A hopeful sound made it into my voice.

“Where are you going? You’ve still got to finish guiding me, and taking me to Amber’s house.” She gave a ghost of a smirk. “Did you really think my opinion would change because of that? I watched the whole free-for-all in the tournament, remember?”

I felt my cheeks burn for a moment and puffed them out to stop a blush from forming. “I guess. It’s just most ponies would want nothing to do with me after seeing something like that.”

Page smiled at that, “Well I’m not most ponies, as you can tell, Shadow.” I felt my ears pin to the back of my head and nodded. I made a head motion to the road where we were headed before the encounter with Butch and his gang of ponies.

I walked with my head down, staring intently at the path ahead of me, deep in thought. How can she just disregard the fear she must have felt when she saw me snarl and snap out like that? Every other pony, besides my dad and Val who’ve seen that side of me has run screaming. A light nudge to my side shook me from my thoughts. “Well we’re here, Shadow.” She looked away and bit her lip for a second, seemingly debating with herself over something. Finally she turned to me and asked, “Do you want to come inside and meet my fillies?”

I gave an honest, happy, smile and nodded. “It would be my honor, if you’ll have me.”

We walked inside and I was met with the acrid scent of hospitals. I hate hospitals, too clean, too white, and too damned bright. I tried to put on a mask of happiness, and moved forward. Following Page through a maze of hallways that looked identical. The only difference was the occasional gurney or IV bag holder being here of there. While I was looking around the hallway the steady clop of Page’s hooves came to an abrupt stop, and I bumped into her backside. Expecting a slap and a few harsh words I flinched away. Only to not receive any. Page only turned to me and offered an apologetic smile. “Sorry I was so lost in thought I realized that this was where I left them.” She turned, opened the door and walked in.

I paused for a moment, before following her in. I walked into what appeared to be a children’s play-room. Fitting. I looked towards where Page was walking and spotted two little fillies. Well, one was a normal looking filly, the other was a hippogriff. Woah, that answers one of my questions. The hippogriff was midnight black, just like her mother, except for a few purple feathers on her chest that formed a V shape. Her crest feathers were purple as well. Her eyes were a brilliant, bright, red. When she noticed me staring she turned and tried to glare me down, staring down her beak, despite being several feet shorter than me. I gave a light chuckle at that.

The filly was far different from her mother. She was a pegasus, for one. She had a cream coat, white mane, and deep purple eyes. She was fixated on Page completely, not even noticing me.
The hippogriff seemed notice that her stare was doing nothing to stop me, and instead turned to Page. “Mom, who’s this pegasus, and why does he look weird?” She asked with no shortage of anger in her voice. She’s afraid, but of what? Me taking Page away?

Page turned away from her filly and ran up to the hippogriff, giving her a tackle hug. I heard a hushed conversation pass between the two and when they both stood up and faced me I was met with a smile from Page and a full death-glare from her daughter. “This, Nalia, is Shadow Ironsword. He’s one of the world’s best fighters, and he’s my new friend, so stop giving him that death-glare.” Nalia seemed to start for a second, before becoming fixated in the rooms tiling.The way she had said fried though, it struck a chord within me. It was good to hear that she already considered me a friend, more than good in fact, but it also saddened me somewhat.

Page turned to her other daughter, who had decided to hide behind Page. A very poor job, but the effort was there. “Come on, Ela. He’s not gonna hurt you.” When she had Page’s vote of confidence she stepped out, only to duck back behind when she saw the pure size of me. I’d gotten used to it, I was a very imposing figure to most. Page shook her head and looked down to both of her daughters. “Well this,” She waved a hoof to the hippogriff, “is Naliana. And this little scaredy pegasus behind me is Elearise.”

I gave a bit of a bow. “Both of those are very pretty names.” This caused Naliana to huff and turn her head further away from me. I tried to look past it and continued. “As Page has said, I’m Shadow Ironsword. I hope I get to know you both from now on.” I’d never really been good with foals, so it probably sounded very forced. Which it kind of was, but I honestly was kind of curious to meet them.

Page gave a nod of her head. “Alright, girls. Pack everything up, we’re headed out. But we’re not going home right away. We’re going to stop by an old friend's house and say hi, okay?”

Naliana gave a noncommittal grunt, while Elearise hopped up and gave a happy shout, before remembering who else was in the room and ducking behind her mother. That has to be one of the cutest things I’ve seen in a long time. I gave a hearty chuckle and brought my paw up to try and stifle the oncoming giggles. It took me almost thirty seconds to try and stop them, but I did. I looked back up to see Page giving me a strange look, and Naliana looking at me without trying to incinerate me with her eyes. “Well, should we head out now? I’m not sure she’ll still be up tonight, but we can try.” I gave a hesitant step towards the door and the other three started to follow me. Well, I guess this night could be going a whole lot worse so far.

We arrived at Val’s house without any further incident, and only the occasional attempt of me trying to talk to Naliana and Elearise. Page was stuck in her own thoughts, seemingly. She’s probably really nervous about this meetup. I heard the gruff mumbling of Naliana next to me, but didn’t quite catch what she’d said. I turned to her, a friendly smile on my face. “What’s up Naliana?”

She turned her head away and for a moment I thought she wouldn’t talk, so I started to look back to where we were headed. We were just down the street, afterall. But she spoke out a little louder, just loud enough for me to hear, “Thank you… for doing this for mom.” My expression changed to one of shock. Not only had Naliana spoken to me, but she’d given me thanks? From the short time I’d known her it seemed like a rare thing.

“You’re welcome, Naliana. I’m happy to reunite two old friends.”

She grimaced slightly. “That’s not what I meant, but it is awfully nice of you too. I meant thanks for giving her a friend. She’s not really had good luck with stallions in the past.” She suddenly got a very dangerous air around her. “So let me be clear, that if you hurt her I will hurt you right back. I don’t care if you’re one of the world's best fighters, I’ll find a way.” With that she went back to staring at the ground, but occasionally glancing back up at me, and Page.

“You have my word Naliana, I won’t try to hurt Page, if I can help it.” She gave a grunt of acknowledgement, but kept walking. Seems I’ve made some progress with her. I looked over to Elearise and noticed she’d been looking at me from behind her mother’s leg. But when she noticed me looking she ducked back behind again. What’s up with Elearise, though? It seems a bit weird for her to be the shy one. We got to Val’s door and stopped. “Alright, Page here we are. This is where Val and Amber live. I won’t promise anything tonight, but-” I was cut off as I heard the frantic clop of hooves down the road. I looked down it to see Val running full tilt down the street. His head was down and he was gasping for breath. He hadn’t even noticed me until he’d bowled me over. “Hey to you too, Val. What are you doing?”

He got up and shook his head out, but had a bit of a panicked look on his face. “Smokey, forge, Vanguard, hurt. Help!” My eyes went wide with shock and I felt like my paws had been frozen to the ground. My heart started to beat furiously against my chest. I got snapped back to reality as Val collapsed to the ground in a heap.

“What happened, Val? Is dad okay?”

Val gave a short nod. “He’ll live, I think. I’m sorry, Shadow! He was protecting me. Smokey came to the forge looking for trouble. When he tried to sucker punch me from behind your dad jumped in and started taking him on. At first your dad had the upper hand, but then he started slowing down and Smokey really put the hurt on him. I came straight here after chasing Smokey out of the forge and asking the receptionist to lock the doors and call the guard.” He stopped to gasp for breath. I felt my teeth clench again and I got up from the ground.

“Val, get Amber and get her to the forge.” I turned to Page. “Sorry this hasn’t gone too well tonight, but I need to take care of this, once and for all. It might be a good idea for you to stick with Val and Amber right now.”

“What are you doing, Shadow? You’re not going to try and go after him alone are you?” Page asked, concern heavy in her voice.

I grimaced. “Yeah, there’s been too much crap going on between me and Smokey.” My mind went back to our encounter in Ponyville, and more specifically what he’d said. “I need to face him down.” I saw Val start to get up, but I waved him down. “I need to this alone, Val. This apparently was all started from an event from back when we were both younger.” I grit my teeth and looked out onto the city of Cloudsdale. I will finally conquer this city, and make it my home! “I’ve lived here for years, but I’m still hated by everypony here. I’m sick of it. The pony spearheading this giant gang after me is Smokey. If I can stop him…” A few scenarios flashed through my head, even killing him. “Anyway possible, I might be able to finally live here in peace. He’s gone after my family now. He’s incited my wrath, and nothing’s gonna stop me now.”

I looked off to the side and back towards the forge. “There’s a quote my dad loves saying: ‘If you don’t stand for something, you might fall for anything.’ Now I don’t think it quite applies here, but at the same time it does. Go get ‘em, Shadow!” Val gave me a pat on the back and a cheeky grin. “I, for one, am rooting for ya.”

My grimace deepened slightly. If only you knew what I had just considered, then maybe you wouldn’t be saying that, Val. You’ve been with me, through thick and thin, but I’m not sure you’ll be okay with this. I nodded and spread my wings wide. Pushing them down and propelling myself off the ground and breakneck speeds. A determined look overcame my features as I took off and headed towards the forge. I landed and looked around. Knowing you, you’ve left a convenient little trail for me to follow straight into a trap. I don’t care, I’ll follow it and take you on. I spotted a set of hoof-print tracks. Though, they didn’t look intentional. Each print was incomplete and was made because of one hastily running on clouds. A few feet away from where they had started they ended. Two of the prints seemed to be far deeper than the rest, meaning they’d taken off.

I took off again, slowly scanning the ground in the direction the short track had pointed in. Down the street a few blocks I spotted a set of skid marks where somepony had landed and dived into the alley there. Gotcha, and it seems like you don’t have a trap ready for me. I landed outside the alley and approached slowly, still on guard, just in case. When I didn’t spot any kind of trap lying in wait I went fully into the alley and waited a few minutes, till my vision adjusted to the new level of light. I saw… nothing. There was nothing in this alley I immediately jumped around expecting to be jumped from behind, but there was nothing. Nopony was in the alley. "Smokey! Come out here and face me." I screamed out down the alley and waited for something to come out, but nothing came.

Crap he did this to distract me, right? A look of dread and shock came over my face. The only reason he’d want to distract me is so that I’d be out of the way of Val, and everyone else. I dashed out of the alley jumped into the air with every bit of force that I could. Pumping my wings, as hard as I could, I accelerated to full speed in times that would make Rainbow Dash jealous.

I won’t let him, or anyone else hurt my friends or family. That is the one thing I will not stand for! I came to a skidding stop several miles later and busted down the forge doors, casing everyone in the lobby to look at me. But they were all fine, and no sign of Smokey. A breath of relief overcame me and I collapsed to the ground, exhausted. I heard the muffled sounds of conversation and I had to suppress a bit of chuckle as I though. Well I guess I’ll add to the tally of times I’ve seen Amber and collapsed.

Welcomes, lessons, and planning

I woke up in my bed with a pounding headache. Ow, ow, what did I do? I sat up slowly and yawned loudly. The memories came flooding back to me as I started to get out of bed. “Crap, is everyone, okay?” I started to rush out of bed, only to get another wave of pain in my head. “Damn, I must have hit it when I fell.” I walked over to the door, and opened it. I was greeted by darkness. So, it’s still nighttime, eh? I sneaked out into the hallway and made my way down to the main area of my dad’s house. I two lumps under a single blanket on the couch. Probably Val, and Amber. I walked down the stairs fully and stepped into the kitchen. Quietly opening a few cabinets I started to make a pot of coffee.

The aroma doing wonders to quell the constant pounding in my head and to wake me up. I heard the soft, tentative, clop of hooves entering the kitchen from the back guest room. I turned my head to see Page standing in the entrances frame. “Sorry, I had to see if you were okay. I thought the best way of doing that was to stay with Amber and -Was it Valor?- yea. I know this is probably really uncomfortable for you to see me in your house.” She looked down and to the left in a sign of uncomfortableness.

I smiled and lifted my paw up to her chin and lifted it up to make her meet my eyes. I felt my own start to water. “It means the world to me that you would take time out of your schedule to wait and see how I’m doing.” I saw her expression shift slightly, and she gave me a hesitant smile.

I heard a yawn come from behind me and I saw Val standing in the doorway, rubbing his eyes of the sleep that had collected there. He paused and blinked, taking in the whole scene between me and Page. He waved a hoof in a circular motion and said, “Well, go on. Don’t let me stop you two.” Then he sat down and continued to stare at us. “What?” He got a wicked smile on his face. “Aren’t you two gonna kiss now, or something?”

I heard a shocked gasp come from Page and I calmly walked over to Val and stood behind him. “Val?”

“Yes, Shadow?” A hint of nervousness came into his voice.

“You have precisely ten seconds to run out of this house and get as far away, before I come chase you down and beat the everliving crap out of you.” A dark look in my eye convinced him to not try and banter back.

“Aw come on, Shadow. You wouldn’t kick your old buddy out into the cold, would ya?”

I held my paw up to my chin in mock thought before bringing it down on his shoulder. “You’re right, Val, I wouldn’t throw you out into the cold.” He breathed a sigh of relief. I smiled wickedly before continuing “Luckily enough, it’s not cold out this time of year!” I grabbed him by the ear in my mouth, being careful to not actually pierce it with my teeth. I mumbled around his ear, “We’ll jusf haf tah ffee about getting you out.” As I wandered into the living room I felt the tell tale tingle of telekinesis. And I was encompassed in an amber glow.

“And what do you think you’re doing with my stallion?” She said in a tired voice, then yawned.

“Oh, I was just gonna let him out for you, since you always should let your pet out in the morning. Like a good owner should, right?” I smiled in mock innocence. Val opened his mouth to speak, but I put a paw over it to shut him up, and leaned down to whisper. “If you tell her the truth, we’ll both be in trouble, but if you let me talk we might get out of this.”

Amber gave me an unamused look. “Ya know I can hear you, right?”

I gave a sheepish smile. “Is it too late to not get in trouble?”

She smiled openly. “NOPE!” She threw us both onto the couch and set about tying us up with the blanket. “Now, stay there and let the responsible adults talk.”

I gave mock offense in the form of a scoff. “Are you saying I’m not responsible?” Amber rolled her eyes and me and mouthed the word ‘really’. I nodded my head and continued, “Yeah, if anything happens around here, I’m usually responsible.” I heard Val start to chuckle behind me and I devolved into a fit of giggles myself.

I suddenly felt the blanket start to untie itself and saw a orange glow surround the knot. I looked up and saw Page looking at me with a glint of mischief in her eyes. I nodded in understanding and leaned back slightly, and whispered into Val’s ear. “Okay, when the blanket slacks, jump at Amber.” I nodded to Page, signaling that I was ready. The knot came fully undone, and Val and I jumped out simultaneously at Amber. Who had a look of shock on her face. Then she looked over to Page with a look of understanding and mock hurt on her face. As Val and I collapsed onto Amber she let out a shout. We heard a set of unsteady hoofsteps on the steps above us. We all looked up and saw my dad standing there looking at us with a mix of aggravation and mirth in his eyes.

“Did I miss something?” When none of us responded he huffed and rolled his eyes. “Look I’m fine! I’m not gonna keel over from a couple punches. Yeah, I’m hurting, but I’m fine.” He hobbled down the stairs and wandered into the kitchen only to see Page standing there. He blinked in confusion a couple times before getting a, small, wicked smile on his face. “Okay, who brought this mare here, and what is her relation with you?”

I looked left to Val and Amber, who both shrugged their shoulders. “I guess it was kinda me.” I said a bit apprehensively. “She’s a new friend, though, dad. Nothing funny going on here. Her name’s Starry Page.” His smile fell slightly before returning full force.

He turned back to the kitchen and walked up to Page, looking her in the eye. A serious expression came over his face. “And, what are your intentions with my son, Starry Page?” His eyes hardened and his persona became that of a drill sergeant. Or just a really protective dad. I got a small chuckle out of that. When Val and Amber gave me a curious look I waved my paw and mouthed ‘I’ll explain later’.

“Well, you see Mr. Ironsword I-”

“You can call me Vanguard, all of Shadow’s friends do.”

She gave a grateful nod before swallowing and continuing, “I just wanted to see how Shadow was doing when he collapsed on the street.”

My dad got a thoughtful expression on his face and mumbled something to himself before twisting his head slightly and looking and me. He turned back to Page and motioned his head for her to follow him. When we all got up he raised his hoof and said, “Stay here, I want to talk to Miss Page alone for a minute.” With that he turned and walked into the kitchen. Page gave me a worried look. I gave her a comforting nod of my head, encouraging her on. The door separating the kitchen and the living room closed and we were left in silence

Both Val and Amber looked at one another and shared a knowing smile. Well, Val’s was far more coltish and immature, almost as if he was teasing me with the knowledge he knew. Amber’s was far more somber, but still happy and distant, as if remembering something. “Okay, Val, I know that face. You know something you’re not telling me!”

Val gave a mock innocent look, “Who, me? I don’t know anything!” Amber snapped back to reality and slapped the back of his head with a bit of telekinesis. “Ow! What was that for?”

“For lying, you know something.” She turned to me a happy smile on her face. “I hope this turns out the way I think it will.” I gave her a questioning look. She merely drew her hoof across her lips, which had a mocking and knowing smile on them.

“Oh, so you get to tease him, but I don’t?” Val pouted from on the ground, a grumpy expression on his face. Amber leaned down and kissed him on the tip of his muzzle.

“I told you, I didn’t do that because you teased him. I did it because you lied.” She smiled and shoved at Val. “Now, come on, get up. If Vanguard comes in here and sees you on the ground he’ll start questioning me, too.” Val gave a simple smile and leaned up to nuzzle Amber. Man, sometimes I wish I had that.

A voice from the back of my head said. Well, you could, if you just reached out to Page. She seems to be warming up to you, after all.

No, I won’t do that. She’s already stated she doesn’t want anything like that.

No, she said she didn’t want to be taken advantage of. She didn’t want some idiot coming on to her after the high of a victory.

How do you know that? There’s no way you can look into anyone's mind. You’re just in mine.

A dark chuckle emanated from inside my head, but no further things were said. The door opening snapped me back to reality, and forced Val and Amber to stop their little session. Page came out, a determined look on her face. Okay, not what I expected to see after how dad had acted. I looked to dad, and saw a happy expression on his face. “Okay, she checks out, in my book.” He looked to Val and he gave a nod of approval. Then to Amber who gave a much more enthusiastic nod. Looks like she’s happy to have Page back. I gave a small, hopeful, smile. Maybe things are actually beginning to turn around for me, despite everything. “Okay, now, who wants to go out for breakfast?”

At that everyone looked at each other and shook their heads. I spoke first, “Sorry dad. Don’t think you’re up for it yet. And I’m up for some home cooking anyways.” I licked my lips and smiled.

“Yeah, I agree with Shadow!” Val said, slinging his right foreleg over my withers.”

Amber chuckled, “No surprise there, Valor.” She straightened up and looked at Page with a warm expression. “I’d be happy to let you into our circle, Page. We need to catch up anyways.”

Page smiled and looked over each one of us individually. “Thank you all, you’ve all been so nice to me.” She sat down on her haunches. “I may not be in the same boat as you all, but I haven’t had it easy either. I’d be happy to get to know all of you.” She looked at me directly in the eyes, but then broke it a second later. Okay, so what does that mean? I blinked a few times in confusion. “I, unfortunately, have to go back to Canterlot today. I was only visiting Cloudsdale for the Shadow took part in. I’ll try and get transferred to Cloudsdale, though.”

I looked down to the ground, thinking of her daughters. “Is that really the best idea?” Everyone looked at me with shock. Except Page, who looked hurt by my comment. I put my paws up in a defensive manner. “Don’t get me wrong! I’d love to have Page move here and us all really get to know each other. But, I mean, Naliana is a hippogriff. I don’t know how she’s going to be accepted by the pegasi of Cloudsdale. If my own past experiences are evidence, she won’t be.” Then there’s Elearise. Hasn’t she already got friends in Canterlot? I would assume both do.” I looked up to Page, a hopeful expression on my face. “And It’s not like Canterlot isn’t just a train ticket away. And with me being a duelist I’ve already got indefinite ticket, paid for by Equestria’s banks anyways.”

“I don’t know, Shadow, seems like you’ve already thought this through, pretty well.” Amber said with a knowing smile. I gave an indignant huff.

“At least I thought it out!” I stuck my tongue out at her, then started chuckling. I turned back to Page who had a thoughtful expression on her face. “Hey.” She looked back up at me. “It was just a suggestion. You do whatever you think is best for your foals and yourself. If you move here, I can guarantee you’ll have protection from any dumb pegasi who try to pull anything. And If you stay in Canterlot we’ll come visit often. You have my word.” I held my paw out to her and gave a friendly smile.

She tentatively lifted her hoof up and put it in my paw. I gave a firm shake and opened my forelegs in invitation for a hug. “Welcome to the family, Page. That’s what we are, we stick together here. When nopony else has got your back we’ll be there. All ya gotta do is ask.” She ran into my hug and gripped around me.

I felt my left shoulder start to dampe as she choked out, “T-thank you. You don’t know what that means to me.” I patted her shoulder and gave a slight nuzzle into her mane.

I walked into the forge the next day and started looking around. Script had come in last night, asking if I was free to train her daughter, Blade Quill. I spotted the small pegasus in the corner, staring me down, trying to intimidate me. How adorable, I don’t think she knows I’ve stared down furious drakes and lived to tell the tale. I walked calmly up to Blade. She had her mother’s brown coat, but a black mane and a set of light grey, almost silver, eyes. “Hello, I take it you’re Blade Quill?”

She huffed and looked off to the side while saying, “Yeah, though I don’t see why I’m here. I know enough about fighting as it is.” My eyes narrowed slightly. Well, we’re going to have to break that attitude first.

I raised my paw and flexed it, making the claws extend fully. “No, you know next to nothing about fighting. You know how to brawl.” She opened her mouth to respond, and I pushed my muzzle into her face. “And, no, they’re not the same thing. Similar? Yes, but not the same.” I backed up a bit and motioned for her to follow me. “I’m going to teach you the same way I was taught. Through blood, sweat, and tears.” I looked back to her and saw she hadn’t moved an inch. I narrowed my eyes into a glare. “Let me make something very clear here.” The tone of my voice made her head snap to me, a fearful expression on her face. “I’m not going to teach you this nicely. I’m not here to slowly guide you through a field of flowers. I’m here to teach you how to fight, and you will take hits. I’m not afraid to drag you to each and every exercise. But things will go a lot more smoothly and quickly for the both of us if you cooperate.”

She gave a dumb nod and got up to follow me. “Um, how long is this going to last? I’ve got a fight later today.”

I sighed and turned to face her, a hard glare on my face. “I’m not going to teach you so you can go and brawl in the streets. If you learn from me, you will stop doing that. Or I stop teaching you. Is that clear?” She nodded and mumbled something. “I said, IS THAT CLEAR!?” I yelled right in her face, baring my teeth a bit.

She snapped to and gave a sloppy salute saying, “Yes!”

I nodded and started to walk to the sparring room. I heard the muffled clop of hooves and quite grumbles behind me, signaling that Blade was following. I stepped into the sparring room and stepped aside to let her in, waving my paw to the center of the room. As she headed to the center I closed the door and waved my paw over the sigil in the center of it, activating the silence spell. “Alright I’m going to teach the same rules of fighting that my mother and father taught me.” I gave a smirk. “And even some that I’ve picked up in my time dueling.”

There was the twinkle of wonder in her eyes. “Wait, you’re a duelist?”

I blinked and then chuckled slightly. The filly in front of me huffed slightly. “Y-yes, I am. Did your mother tell you anything about me, who I am?” She shook her head firmly. I gave a nod and took a breath. “I am, Shadow Ironsword. I am a professional duelist, and I rank thirteen in the world, and number eight in Equestria.” The look of wonder grew in her eyes as I finished. I grimaced slightly. “Don’t think me infallible though, I am not the best by any means. But I will do my best to teach you what I know.”

She got a thoughtful expression on her face. “Does this make me a sort of disciple of yours?” I blinked and then snorted in an attempt to try and hold in a bout of laughter.

“Yea, I guess, if that helps you get into the swing of things.” I took in a breath and let it out. Letting my face fall into a sort of stoney mask I said, “Alright, for your first session with me your task is to get one clean blow on me.” I dropped down into a defensive stance and prepared for a charge.

Blade binked twice, then got a confused look on her face. “That’s it?” I nodded and she got a sort of bored look on her face. “That seems too easy! I have fought before, you know!” With that she started walking forward, a calculating look on her face. She’s not going to just charge in, smart. She started to stalk around me, trying to find a weak spot in my stance. Okay, so maybe she does have a bit of experience. I slowly turned to keep my eyes on her. She suddenly darted left then to the right, trying to fake me out and get me to turn away and leave my flank open. I tracked her the whole while, not moving an inch. This obviously caught her off guard, but she’d already dedicated to the charge, so she went on.

When she got within striking distance I lashed out with the backside of my left front paw, tripping her up and making her fall down. Once she was on the ground I backed up and fell into another defensive stance. “Oh, so that’s your game is it? Pick on me for hours, and constantly teasing me with almost hits? I don’t think so!” She charged forward, but dodged left at the last second, staying just out of my striking distance. Either she’s really lucky, or she has a knack for this, she picked up my striking distance almost right away! She dove in on my left side, but a deft flick of my wing sent her head back, making the little filly fly out and hit the wall just a few feet away. I flinched slightly, but remembered this was how I was trained. Some of the hardest lessons had to be taught by beating it into my thick skull. She charged forward and tried to fly up this time. I dodged to the left and kicked out with my hind legs, sending her flying backwards again.

This went on for almost two hours as she tried every possible angle. When I striked out, causing her to fall down for the umpteenth time, she finally got up and looked at me with a broken kind of stare. I rose up and walked over to her, sat down and patted her on the back. My face softened greatly and I smiled at her. I saw the beginnings of tears in her eyes as she choked out, “I give. I can’t do it! I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but I can’t get a clean hit on you.” She collapsed to the ground and started sobbing.

I reached out and patted her on the back again. “Hey, you can get up, this lessons over for today.” She slowly started to rise up to sitting on her haunches. There were streaks running down her cheeks and I had a twinge of guilt run through me. I turned away and said, “I’m sorry I had to do that. But that was one of the most important lessons I can teach you in fighting.”

“Which is!?” She practically yelled at me, her face starting to turn desperate.

“It’s that an impenetrable defense is the best offense. If the enemy can’t land a clean hit, and you can, well you’ve won right there. Luckily for you, and me, that’s one of the hardest lessons to learn.” I smiled a bit awkwardly. “To be honest I sometimes forget this lesson in the heat of battle, but it is an important one to always keep in the back of your head.” My smile turned a bit more genuine and friendly as I continued, “And hey you did an awesome job there, especially in the beginning. I don’t know if you meant to, but you picked up on my range of attack almost right away.”

“Really?” She looked up to me with hopeful eyes.

“Really. Hey, you wanna know something?”

“Mmhmm.” She said with a strong nod.

“It took me near four hours to learn what took you a little under two hours.”

She gasped, her eyes going wide. “No way! What does that mean?”

“It means you get another lesson. Though I meant it when I said no street fights, that’s not what I’m giving you these lessons for. In fact, if you want, I’m almost certain I can get you into an ameture league. I’ve got plenty of connections in the different leagues.”

She gasped again and nodded her head with a smile that threatened to split her face. “I’d love that!”

My face became slightly stoney again. “Don’t think your lessons are done, though. You’re still far from being ready to take on anyone in that league, yet.” Her face fell slightly and I nudged her head up with my paw, and my face lightened a bit. “But if you keep up the progress you’re showing me here, I might just say differently soon. Now, go on. I’m sure Script is worried sick about you.” She nodded happily and started to scamper off. A thought occurred to me. “Oh wait a second! Could you not mention the whole thing about beating you up? I didn’t really clear that with Script beforehand, and I assume you don’t want these lessons to stop now. So, if you could keep that a secret that’d be awesome.” She brought her hoof up to her chin, seemingly in thought.

“I think I can let it pass, as long as you keep teaching me.” I nodded and her grin widened again. “Alright, same time tomorrow then?” Again I nodded and she scampered over to the door and tried to tug it open, only for it to fail.

I chuckled a bit and walked over. “Here, you want a hand with that?” She turned her head and grumbled, but nodded none the less. I waved my paw over the sigil again, disabling the silence spell, and reached up to tug the door open when Val came barreling in through the door. We both collapsed in a heap on the floor. “Val, you have two seconds to explain, go.” I deadpanned.

He gave a panicked look before jumping into it. “Well, I was sitting outside the door for a couple minutes, when Fraener came by and said he needed an answer on his proposal, and I said yes, so I got to work on making his khopesh and finished it in just over an hour and a half. When he got it from me he looked surprised to see my craftsmanship. Though, I’ll admit it was a bit tough to work to start with, it was easy enough after a bit. Ya see-”

I cut him off with a paw on his lips. “You’re rambling, Val. Calm down, and breath.”

He did so and continued at a markedly slower pace. “Anyways, he was surprised with the craftsmanship and said it was one of the finest blades he’d ever seen!” He squealed a bit and dropped onto his haunches. This made Blade giggle a bit from her place by the door. Noticing her Val blushed a bit and opened his lips to ask who she was, but I put a paw up to them and rolled my other paw signaling for him to go on. He shook his head and continued, “Anyway, he was extremely impressed with it and gave me the other twelve black dragon scales.” I rolled my eyes at him and started to turn around. “Wait, Shadow. These aren’t his scales. These are full dragon scales; Each one at least as tall as Fraener himself.” I stopped and felt my jaw drop.

“You can’t be serious. How would he even get those into Equestria without getting robbed.” After a moment I realized how stupid that sounded, and brought my paw up to my face. “Right, number one duelist in Equus. Could probably fight off a few petty thieves.”

Val was doing his best not to giggle, but ultimately failed. After a full minute of his giggling I decided to walk up and put a paw on his shoulder. “So, what are you gonna do with all of those? There’s almost no way that you’re going to be able to use them all.”

Val gave a cheeky grin, “Well, first of all, I’m going to forge you a new sword, since your old one is pretty much trashed. Then I’m going to try and modify my wingblade design to incorporate the scales somewhere in the blade. Then I might just see about making you a new battle coat with the scales as the armor bits.”

“Then what will you do with the rest? It’s not like that’s gonna take you a full dozen scales. Even if it took you four or five you’d still be on par with Fancy Pants if you sold the rest.”

“Yeah, but I don’t wanna do that. I’d rather earn it all through hard work, rather than one lucky commission from a single customer, ya know?” I nodded my head and looked over to Blade who was just sitting there with a dumbfounded look on her face. Val seemed to notice this and walked up to the filly with a confused expression of his own. “So who’s this filly? You finally agree with Vanguard to start doing lessons?”

I grumbled and facepawed. “No, I’m not opening any sort of public lessons. I’m doing this mostly for Script. See Blade here needs lessons, since she was trying to get experience through street brawling. I proposed to Script the idea that I train her for a bit, since I’ll be in Cloudsdale for a bit anyways.” Val seemed to come to an understanding, and looked at the filly with a renewed interest. “Val, no. I know that look. You’re not going to make her anything, yet. Maybe when she’s done with my training, and we figure out what type of duelist she is, but not right now. She only just got through the first lesson, Val.” I nodded over to Blade and lifted my head, telling her to go on. “I’m sure Script is worried about ya. Go on, we’ll do another lesson tomorrow.”

I turned back to Val to see him looking at me excitedly. “Squueeeee.”

I gave him a curious look. “What the hell is your problem?”

“That had to be one of the most adorable exchanges I’ve ever seen.” I rolled my eyes and motioned for him to follow me out into the hallway. “Anyways, since we’re making you a new sword we should probably go over a new design sketch, right?”

I looked down in thought and grumbled. “I dunno, really liked my grandpa’s sword design, but I guess that doing something new couldn’t hurt. Could we do a mix up of old and new?” I started making my way towards the lobby and the sketch room beyond. When I got a look of confusion from Val I rolled my eyes and explained further.“I mean take the old design and add some new stuff to it, make it a bit more me.”

A look of understanding crossed his face, before dropping into a more business-like expression. “Sure, what’d you have in mind, Shadow?” Entering the sketch room, he closed the door behind him and sat down at the conference table in the center of the room.

I pulled a scrap sheet from the wall of the wall of the room and scribbled a few things out with my mouth before spitting the pen out and looking over to Val. “Something like this work?” I scooted the paper over to him with a paw and he started looking at it.

He had a thoughtful expression on his face before nodding and surrounding the paper with his magic and drawing it closer to him and smiling. “I’ll get right on it, Shadow. Should be done by weeks end.” I raised my eyebrow at him. “What? I wanna take my time and make sure that this is done absolutely right!”

“And you didn’t do that with what could have been the absolute defining commision of your career?”

“Well, that’s different. Besides I don’t wanna make your competitions stuff too good, do I?”

I chuckled and shook my head in mock exasperation, “No, I guess not, Val.” I looked back up and started walking towards the exit of the sketch room as I said, “So, ya gonna start that tonight, or go home to Amber?”

He raised a hoof to his chin and hummed. “I think I’ll head home tonight, don’t wanna send the wrong message to Amber, after all.” I shook my head. “Anyways, I think I’m gonna get out of the city for a while and go for a flight. Can’t really do it in city borders, after all.” I grimaced and so did Val.

“No, I guess not. See ya tomorrow?”

“Ya, I’ll be around.” I saw him set out and looked left to see the receptionist getting packed up for the night. “Did dad head home already?” She looked a little startled but otherwise nodded and I grimaced. “Well, at least he knows when he’s had enough. Probably wouldn’t do to have him come flying with me tonight.” I set out of the doors and started walking down the main street, lit only by the moon and street lights, towards the cable cars set up to allow non flyers the ability to leave the floating city. Once there I took a deep breath and opened my wings to catch as much wind in them as possible. “Alright, I’m at the city limit. I’m ready.” With that, I dove off the side of the massive cloud city, folded my wings and went for a straight dive for the ground. Just as I was about to reach the point of no return I felt a shadow come over my back and stay there. I looked up to see the backlit outline of a pony following within a few feet of me. Crap, what’s up with this pony?

New goals

As I pulled up, barely managing to do so with the shadow trying to ram into me, I turned over so that my back was facing the ground and kicked out, catching the shadow in the stomach and sending it flying backwards. But I also got kicked back a bit, causing me to skid along the ground for a few seconds. I pulled up, trying to get the vantage point and dive down, but when I turned around to scan the airspace below me it was gone. I shook my head and breathed a sigh of relief. What in tartarus was that? It moved almost as fast as me, but was about the size of a normal pegasus. I turned and made to take off flying again only to be blocked off by another shadow, this one a massive gryphon, at least two heads taller than me. I blinked and gulped, looking up and trying to look the gryphon in the eye, but it was seemingly made of shadow. It reached out grabbed me and threw me at least fifty feet. Spreading my wings I broke and came to a stop before hitting a tree that was directly behind me.

“What in tartarus do you want!?” I screamed. The massive figure reared its head back, seemingly in surprise. I caught the faint sign of movement in the corner of my vision, and turned towards it. There was the original shadow and two more pegasi shaped ones. One of the new arrivals was as big as me and carried what looked to be a club. The other was much smaller, at least three heads below me. It seemed to carry no weapons, but there was a glint of metal near her hooves from the moonlight coming from behind a band of clouds.

A markedly feminine voice came from the middle pegasus as she said, “Well, well, well Shadow. You’ve put up far more fight than I’d thought was possible from a mutt, but hey I’ve known other half-breeds with skill to match yours.” She laughed and threw her head up, starting to full on cackle. She stopped and centered her head back on me. Even though I couldn’t see her eyes I could feel her eyes burrowing through me, scoping me out.

The massive gryphon appeared in my peripheral and I felt a massive talon land on my wither. A thick russian accent came out as he said, “Land, now. I do not vant to hurt you, little mutt, but I vill, if I have to.” I gulped and backed off, putting some distance between me and the group of four mysterious individuals.

I felt my face harden, and my eyes sharpen into a glare. “I hate repeating myself, what in tartarus do you want? Did Smokey send you? What the hell are you gonna do?”

A much higher feminine voice came from the smaller pegasus as she said, “Look, hun, we don’t wanna hurt you. But we’ve got a contract to fulfill. I’d hate to see something happen to ya, but it comes with the job sometimes.” She had a coat of silver and a black mane. My eyes widened slightly and then I squinted and glared at the supposed ring leader. The one who was in the middle of the three pegasi.

“So, you’re just mercs then? I’ve dealt with my fair share of them before. What makes you so special? And you still didn’t answer if Smokey sent you.” I felt my hackles rise and my expression turned seething. What are you? You move like a group, so unlike the mercs i’ve run into the past.

The middle one gave two simple flaps of her wings and came into the direct moonlight, where I could see her. She wore a uniform not unlike that of the wonderbolts, except this had purple and black as the main colors, with yellow lightning bolts running throughout the fabric. Beyond that she had a yellow coat and purple mane. “We are the shadowbolts, and we haven’t been sent by anyone. We have recognized that you have skill as a fighter and have potential as a mercenary.”

I felt a cold shiver run through me as she spoke. She had a powerful sort of presence about her, as if she could take anything on and win. I gave a smirk, trying to cover the fact that this mare truly intimidated me. “So, you’re just wonderbolt wannabes? You couldn’t get in there so you go around killing and kidnapping for bits?” I sneered, lifting my lip up and exposing my teeth. “That’s despicable.”

The pegasus who was about my size spoke then, his deep gravely voice sending shivers through me. “I told you, Night. He’s not the type to do mercenary work. He’s got too much of hero complex to do our kind of work.” His dark grey coat shifted as he landed on the ground below us and sat down, seemingly waiting on my response.

The middle one, I guess named Night, sighed and said, “I guess you’re right, D.” She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head in a confused and exasperated sort of movement. “I don’t know what we’re gonna do now.”

I lifted my eyebrow and frowned slightly. “So that’s it then, was all that really necessary for just asking me to join your little group.”

The little one, who I still hadn’t caught the name of spoke up. “Oh, no, we can’t have you go around telling everyone about us, now can we? No, we’ll have to wipe your memory.” My eyes went wide with shock and I flapped my wings once to try and get away, only to hit the massive wall that was the gryphon. Two massive arms closed around me, locking me in place. “Good work Valk, ya positioned yourself just right, as always.”

I struggled in the grip of the massive gryphon, but couldn’t go anywhere. I was stuck with no way to get out. Crap, what in tartarus am I gonna do now? What are they gonna do to me? I started to panic and I opened my jaw wide and bit down on Valk’s arm in a desperate attempt to get out. All it did was piss him off and I felt the gryphon tighten his grip around my neck. My vision started to slowly fade to black and I made a weak call for help. I felt a rumbling of the gryphon’s chest, but couldn’t make out what he was saying. “Valk, let him go, wouldn’t do to kill him now. He’ll play a part in our plans, whether he wants to or not.”

I felt a thud as the gryphon hit the ground and released me. I landed with an ‘oof’ and started to gasp for air, grasping at my chest and throat. Before I could properly recover I felt the tingle of magic and felt my vision start to go again, but not from suffocation. It was almost like I was going to sleep.

I blinked a few times as I woke up. Rolling over and sitting up on my haunches I yawned, the blanket that was on me sliding off me. I blinked a few times and looked around. I was in my room? I looked around again, moving my head towards the door. I lifted my head and yawned again. That must have been a harder flight than I thought. I don’t remember a bit of it. I felt something tugging at the back of my head, like an odd loose string of fabric in a sweater. Why can’t I remember the flight? I pushed it out of my head and got up shook myself out. I jumped down and went over to the door to the hallway. I opened and headed down to the living room. I found dad sitting there on the couch, sipping a cup of coffee and reading the morning paper.

He looked up and saw me standing there. He smiled and waved at me. “Morning, Shadow. You really slept in this morning.” I yawned and made my way over to the kitchen door. “Shadow, you realize you’re already late for your training with Scripts filly?”

I gasped and looked at the clock, it read ten O’clock. I felt my eye twitch and I turned around to look at the shit eating grin my dad was wearing. “Oh, haha, very funny.” I stuck my tongue out at him and started walking backwards into the kitchen. Once in there I closed the door and heard my dad laughing his plot off and grinned myself. “He did get me, didn’t he?” I sighed and walked over to the coffee pot. Finding it still on and the liquid energy still hot I poured myself a cup. I guess I’ll just have to get back at him somehow. I looked at the clock and sighed again. He was right about one thing though. I did sleep in really late, which isn’t unusual after a night flight. But I don’t think I’ve slept this late in forever. I sipped at the now full mug and smiled. “Oh, well, I guess. I’ll just have to make due.” I made my way out of the kitchen and found dad wiping a tear from his eye. “Come on, old timer, time to head to the forge.”

“No, you get some breakfast, I’ll head down there now and open it up.” He waved a hoof at me and got up from the couch and headed to the front door. I smiled and went back into the kitchen, made up a bowl of oatmeal, and dug in. Noticing the pile of mail on the counter I brought my bowl over, and set it down. Picking up the pile, I began to leaf through it and pick out what was junk and what was important. “Trash, trash, keep, keep, keep, tra-” I felt my eyes go wide. It was a letter from Page. I set the rest down and opened the letter with a claw. Inside it read:

Dear, Shadow Ironsword,

Hey, Shadow! I was going to get together with some of my friends here in Canterlot tonight-I know it’s a bit short notice- and I was curious if you’d be willing to come and hang out with us? I’d understand if you can’t make it and would like to know if you and the others are planning anything soon.

I blinked, and felt a giddy grin starting to spread across my face, and I began to laugh. “Hay yeah, I’m coming tonight!” I quickly scribbled out a return letter and prepped it for mailing. “Alright, now I’ll just have to stop by the mail post before I head to the forge.

I walked into the forge with a giddy smile still on my face and a spring in my step.

He gave start and put down the hammer he’d had in his magic, took off his goggles and looked at me. “Hey, Shadow.” He raised one of his eyebrows at me. “Weird of you to be back here. You normally stay up in the training rooms. What’s up?”

I gave a little chuckle. “Get this, Val: I just got a letter from Page, and she basically just asked me if I’d want to go out on a night on the town with her!” I grinned excitedly. I shook my head and said, “Anyways, I was looking for dad to see if he’d need me after hours today.”

He nodded and gave a grin of his own, then clapped me on the withers and said, “Well, sounds like you’ve got a hot date!”

I exhaled loudly and blinked. “Val, I don’t think it’s like that! Even if we did kinda add to our little clique, I’m not sure I’d want to do that yet.”

Val gave me an unimpressed look, frowned and shook his head. “Whatever you say dude. Just keep it in the back of your head, okay? She starts making moves, and ya might just have a good time tonight. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. And don’t think I didn’t miss that ‘yet’, Shadow” He wagled his eyebrows and I felt my face get warm. I shook it and blew out my cheeks, trying to rid myself of the blooming blush.

I frowned and looked at the ground. “I dunno, Val. I don’t think I’m ready for that kind of thing with anyone, let alone a mare I basically just met.”

He waggled his eyebrows and laughed again, before dropping into a more normal expression. “Though seriously, Shadow, keep an open mind, will ya? And as to your dad’s whereabouts, I don’t know. Haven’t really seen him all day, in fact.” He brought his hoof up to his chin and tapped it a few times. “Now that I think about it he mentioned something about sorting stuff out at the warehouse, since it’s been a while.” He moved towards me and put his hoof on my withers. “Hey take the night, I’ll do whatever your dad thinks he needs done around here, okay?”

I felt my lips lift upward into a smile and hugged Val. “Thanks, Val. I’ll talk to ya before I head out okay?” He nodded and threw back on his goggles and picked up the hammer in his magic once again. I smiled, a bit brighter this time, and headed out into the lobby. I spotted the receptionist and waved her over. She walked up with a happy smile on her face. “Can you give my dad a note when he gets back to the forge? I’d really appreciate it.” She nodded and grabbed a pad of paper from her desk, and walked back over.

I cleared my throat. “Dad, sorry I couldn’t get this info to you on a longer notice, but I’d hoped to take tonight off to head to Canterlot. Page sent me a letter inviting me to hang out, and I’d like to go. However, if you have something for me to do, I’ll do it. Again sorry about the short notice.” I nodded and brought a paw over my throat, signaling I was done with the note. “Thanks, Rec, have a nice day.”

She nodded happily again, and went to sit at her desk, and began scribbling away at some kind of paper. I smiled again and headed for the first training room. “Okay time to get down for some training of my own.” I looked in the corner and spotted a new set of wingblades, looking much sleeker and cleaner than the previous design. There was a note that read:

Hey, Shadow, I made a new design for the wingblades, can ya give them a try and see how they feel? I tried to slim it down, so it wasn’t so hard to fly with. Thanks!

I looked at the wingblades again. They were indeed slimed down, the outer casing that surrounded the blade itself was barely as thick as an inch. I tapped the casing and found it was still just as hard as before. “Oh, you didn’t use the dragon scales on a prototype, did you, Val?” I shook my head, but got the blades on. It took quite a bit more effort than I had thought it would. “Aargh! Come on, just gotta reach for the strap!” I saw a field of amber colored magic surround the strap I was currently trying to reach and saw it snap into place and tighten.

The distinct sound of chuckling followed. “Having fun, Shadow? Seems like you were having a bit of difficulty with that strap.”

I grumbled good naturedly and said, “Yeah, yeah. I’m not used to getting these things on yet. First time I’m really putting them on.” I shook my head and looked up to Amber. “What are you doing here anyways, Amber?”

“Oh, I was just checking up on Valor. He said he’d meet me for lunch today, and I just want to make sure he doesn’t lose track of time, again.” She got a kind of annoyed expression on her face. She shook her head and tried to bring her face back to it’s usual happy smile.

I narrowed my eyes and sighed. “Val didn’t come home last night, did he?”

Her ears folded back and she shook her head. “No, he didn’t. He’d had reservations to a restaurant, but since he was working on these I guess he didn’t have time for our date.” She sighed in exasperation. “Sometimes I swear I’m second to his work.”

I winced and nodded. “Yeah, it can seem that way sometimes. Especially when he’s caught up in a big project from dad. He is a bit of a hermit, as I’m sure you’ve noticed by now.”

She looked shocked. “Wait, so he’s put you off in the past? I thought you two were like the best of friends.”

I nodded my head to the left and right and said, “Yeah, we are. But he’s got his work, and I respect that. He’s always been passionate about his work. Especially when he’s working on an invention of his, or something for someone he cares about.” I shrugged my shoulders and tugged my lips downward slightly. “I dunno if he’s got something for you, but I’ve barely seen any of him lately. He’s normally at least around to talk to.” She looked downcast. I raised a paw up to her chin. “Which means he’s got more than these two projects going on.”

She smiled sadly. “Okay, I guess I can accept that. I mean if you’ve put up with it for years I’m sure it can’t happen that often.”

I smiled and said, “Well yeah, and knowing how to get him out of his little funk usually helps too.”

She chuckled and said, “And how does one do that?”

I raised my paw and gave a cheeky grin. “Ah, my young grasshopper, I do not share my secrets so easily!”

She gave me a weird look. “Okay how do I earn the right, oh great and powerful Shadow?”

I smiled impishly and looked down. “By helping me get the rest of these straps on.” She threw back her head and laughed loudly. “I’m serious! I can’t get these last three. I raised my wing and pointed to the last three along the device. She continued chuckling and lit her horn. I felt the last three straps snap and tighten and gave an experimental flick of wings. The blade clicked out and snapped into place, making it perfectly viewable. I whistled when I saw the black edge running all the way up the blade. “Damn, he did a better job than I thought he would. He used so little of one scale for this.” I backed up a bit and began to give the wingblades experimental swings. “Hey, Amber, can you launch a spell at me. I don’t care, as long as it’s not gonna do any serious damage.” She nodded, lowered her horn and blasted a spell at me.

I crossed the blades in front of me and the spell fizzled the instant it hit the blade. I heard a whistle and saw my dad walk in behind Amber. “Looks like Valor did it. The crazy son of a gun did it.” He shook his head ruefully and said, ”I guess I owe him two hundred bits.” He turned and started to leave before snapping his head around and gently hitting his head with a hoof. “Duh, hold on, Shadow. About the whole thing of you taking off. It’s fine, anything I could ask you to do, I can ask Valor to do. Go have some fun with her. Heck, why don’t you take Amber here? I’m sure you could all have a ton of fun.”

Amber sputtered and began to wave her hooves in front of her. “I can’t go with him! I wasn’t invited, Vanguard. It would be rude to assume that I would be allowed to go, just because she invited Shadow.”

Dad gave her an annoyed look and waved his hoof towards himself. “Come over here.” Amber did so, and dad leaned down and whispered in her ear. At first her face was shocked, then turned to a sort of devious grin.

She backed up and glanced at me quickly. “I don’t know, Vanguard, do you think…?”

He nodded a calm expression on his face. “I do.”

I growled and stomped a paw. “Okay, what’s going on here? I don’t like secrets. I’m all for pranks, but this doesn’t sound like a prank.”

Dad faced me and gave a grin. “You’d be right, Shadow, It’s not a prank, but you’re not finding out. I, unfortunately for you, do like secrets. Especially those involving this specific topic.” He turned to Amber and nodded, then turned and exited the room.

I sputtered and waved my paws in front of me, my mouth wide open. “What in tartarus was that!?” I turned to Amber who was trying desperately not to giggle. “And I suppose you’re not going to share?”

She waved a hoof in front of her and said, “Nope! It’s a top secret secret.” She paused and giggled again. “Okay, kind of redundant, but no less true.”

I huffed and crossed my forelegs over my chest and pouted, my ears folding back. “You’re no fun.”

She giggled again and raised an eyebrow at me. “Well, Shadow? You told me you’d tell me how to snap Valor out of his funk.”

I huffed and looked away from her, then a thought occurred to me. “I’ll tell you if you tell me what dad told you.” A wicked grin crossed my face.

She raised her eyebrow even higher. “That wasn’t the agreement, Shadow. But, I guess I could give you a hint. It has to do with Page.” I blinked and got a blank expression on my face. “Hahahaha! That’s the best expression I could hope for.” She collapsed on the ground and started to giggle uncontrollably.

I gave a flat look and huffed. “So was that a real hint, or not?”

She took a deep breath and tried to collect herself. “Yup, that was a real hint.”

I rolled my eyes. “I kinda already guessed something along those lines, but okay. All you need to do to get Val out of his funk is to offer free food. Any kind ‘ll do, but it usually is best to take him somewhere fast food.”

She raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?” I nodded. “Okay then, I guess I’m already doing that, so that’s good.” She gave me a grin and started to walk out of the room.

“Wait, Amber!” She stopped and turned around, a curious look on her face. “Are you actually gonna be coming with me?” She nodded. “Okay, well before you go, could you make me a puppet to practice on?”

“Sure, Shadow.” She closed her eyes and her horn began to glow a bright amber color. A sigil started to form on the ground and spin slowly. She scrunched up her eyes, in concentration and a sign of effort. The sigil flashed brightly as it finished and was spinning much faster. A pegasus figure spawned out of it. Amber huffed and panted, several beads of sweat dripping from her brow. “There, that should last the rest of the day. And when you defeat one, it should break apart, then reform on the sigil.” She pointed to the sigil at two specific smaller circles near the edge. “These will change the speed and strength of the summon.”

I felt my jaw drop. “And when did you learn to do all that? That seems like weird magic for a med to know.”

She smirked and lifted her head a bit higher. “You know I originally trained to be a combat medic, right?” I blinked twice and my expression went blank. She looked left and then back to me, then brought a hoof up to the back of her neck and rubbed. “Yeah, I was trained in these kinds of spells, as well as healing spells. They help me determine whether a soldier was fit for battle.”

“Well then, I honestly didn’t know that. Is that why you’re taking care of the vets down at the center, then?”

“Yep.”

“Okay then, I guess I’ll let you get to doing whatever it was you were doing. I’m gonna try to get some training in before Script’s filly comes by later.” She nodded and headed out the door, closing it behind her. I shook my head to try and clear it. Gotta focus on this. I turned back to the sigil and set the two dials to about halfway and tapped the sigil. Immediately the summon jumped forward and tackled me, sending me to the ground. I pushed up with my wings and kicked out with my hind legs, getting it off me. In the air it twisted, making it land on it’s hooves. Huh, this might actually be a challenge. I charged forward and flicked out my wings on either side of me, making the only two possible escape routes up or back. Being a pegasus, it’ll be up. It took off and tried to make a dive onto my head. I rolled to the left and when I landed on my paws flicked out my right wing, causing the summon to lose it’s balance, and making it crash into the ground. I jumped onto it’s back and brought both blades up to it’s throat in a finishing hold. It didn’t disappear making me realize I needed to actually go through a killing motion. I slid both wingblades across the neck of the summon and pulled them back to my sides. Just as promised it shattered into a million pieces and reformed in the circle again. I looked at the sigil and spotted another circled, this one closer to the center of it. “Hmm, I wonder.” I reached out and turned, it clicked, slotting into a preset. The figure of the summon changed to that of an earth pony. Again, and it was a unicorn. Every time I turned the dial, it changed to that of another species of Equus. I finally reached the wolven setting and paused there. Why? Why do they have all of these? Some of them I understand, like the gryphons, since we are constantly on and off in war with them, but the wolven? Equestria and wolvenguard haven’t fought in almost three centuries. I scoffed and turned it back to the unicron setting. “Might as well get some practice with these things while deflecting spells.” I tapped the circle and the whole routine set over again.

Blade walked into the main lobby tentatively, sporting a black eye, and a cut above the other. I hardened my face and walked briskly up to her. I growled out, “What in tartarus did I say about brawling?” My voice was cold as ice, and fae as hard as stone.

She winced but looked at me with pleading eyes. “I didn’t! I got these from some punks that came after me when I didn’t show for the fight I was supposed to be at after our training yesterday.” She looked down and to the left. “I didn’t even fight back when they started hitting me, I just tried to fly away as fast as I could.” I sighed and let my shoulders sag.

I pulled her into a light hug. “It’s okay.” I pulled back and looked her in the eyes, a caring expression on my face. “It’s okay to fight back when someone pushes a fight onto you. And if you ever start a fight, you’d better finish it. There is no half assing a fight. You either finish it or get finished. Now, if it’s a matter of life or death, get out of there and find the nearest guard. That’s not a situation you ever want to be in.”

She continued to look away but nodded her head. “I know.” She said with a voice devoid of emotion.

My expression turned to one of shock. “You haven’t been forced into that kind of fight yet, have you?”

She shook her head and said, “No, but I was forced to watch an underground match. Those are always life or death.”

My eyes sharpened to a glare. What in tartarus? I’ve never heard of an underground in Cloudsdale before. “Blade, who runs it?”

She looked up at me with a fearful expression. “I can’t, if I do I’ll get hurt again. They’ll find out and hurt not just me, but my mom too.”

I put a paw on her withers and smiled. “Look around, Blade. There’s only friends in this place. Who ever it is isn’t going to find out you told.”

She grimaced, but nodded. “It’s somepony named Smokey. He’s the king of the Cloudsdale underground.”

I bit back a growl and scoffed. “Figures. That’s how he’s gotten so many thugs to come after me with.” I looked back to Blade and saw she was quivering. “Listen, Blade, I need you to do something for me. I need you to go talk to my dad. Tell him you and your mother need a place to stay, and that I offered. Then go find your mother and bring her here.”

She looked at me with a fearful expression. “W-w-what are you gonna do?”

“I’m going to take care of something that should have been done years ago. I’m going to knock Smokey off his pedestal and take him out.” I turned and started to walk to the rec rooms. I will finally finish this. I grabbed the wingblades and started fitting them. Once all but the last few I walked back out into the lobby. I spotted Rec at her desk. “I need you to clasp and tighten these, Rec.” She nodded solemnly and did so. Once she was done I set my face into a determined look.

I heard Val come out from the forge door. “If what I heard is right, I think you’ll need this more than I thought.” He was carrying a sword in a sheath, My new sword.

I nodded and motioned my head to put it on. Before he did he unsheathed it and swung it around a few times. It was quite a bit shorter than my last one. It’s fuller was missing, instead a section of cross beams were in the center of the blade. Along the edge of it ran a dark line, presumably the dragon scale. A bit further in and closer to the hilt was three runes on either side of the fuller space. The read strength, speed, intellect. He resheathed it and then clicked the sheath into the spot under my cloak. I nodded and a ghost of a smile appeared on my face. “Thanks, Val, expert at your craft as always.” I turned around and started to walk towards the doors of the forge.

“Good luck, Shadow. And know I’m here for you, always. I’ll always have your back.” I stopped for a moment and felt my mask of determination crack for a moment and a tear slip down my face.

“Thanks, Val.” I fixed my face into a determined look again. “Now, I’ve gotta do this. For you, for dad, for Amber, for everypony. I will kill Smokey, if that’s what it takes.” I heard Val start to walk towards me, but then stop. “I’m sorry, Val, I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but that’s the truth.” With that I opened to doors and walked out onto the streets of Cloudsdale.

Face offs and Realizations

I looked around once outside the forge and spotted a few shady looking ponies down the street eyeing the forge. When they spotted me they took off down the alley. I set my feet and took off after them, careful not to engage the wingblades. Once I was in the alley I saw the last pony duck into a pothole. I growled and set off down the alley, trying to get to catch up before I lost them down there.

I dived down the pothole and landed on top of the three ponies as they were floating down. We all splashed down into the sewer water and I rolled off of them. Flicking out my wings and opening the wingblades I said, “Where is Smokey? I know you know him, or at least of him, so don’t try that bullshit.” They all had blank expressions on their faces. I growled and pulled my lip up into a snarl, crouched down, and raised my hackles. “Where is he?” They all got up and held their hooves in front of them.

The front one, a brown pegasus with a blond mane and blue eyes, said, “We’ll take you to him, just don’t kill us!” I scoffed and lowered my hackles and lip, but continued to growl quietly. They all started to walk down the tunnel and quietly converse. Then, the one furthest to my left nodded and all but the brown one turned and charged me. I brought my wingblades up in time to block three knives held in each of their mouths. The brown one turned with a look of shock. “What are you doing?”

“Taking care of him! Go, warn Smokey!”

The brown one paused for a moment before taking off down the tunnel. I pulled my lip up into another snarl. “So, you think you’re pretty tough shit, eh? We’ll see how good you are!” I pushed my wings out towards them, overpowering them and throwing them on their haunches. One of them scrambled back in time to avoid my turn and kick, but I caught the other two square in the jaw. The last one gave a terrified look then turned and peeled down the tunnel. I took off after him and after about a mile of running he collapsed into the water, panting furiously. I slowed down a bit, trying to catch my breath, since I was lightly panting myself. “What in tartarus did you think you’d accomplish with that? Take me to Smokey, now.”

He, shakily, got up and started walking down the sewer again. After about another mile of walking I saw an entrance of sorts. “This is underground central. This is where Smokey hides.” The pegasus smiled and continued. “And this is where you disappear.” A multitude of pegasi jumped out of the entrance and surrounded me.

“Eh? What is this, fifteen against one? Seems a little unfair for you guys. I’m sure you’ve got more thugs than this, Smokey.” I stared into the entrance and Smokey walked out and stared at me. With icy lime green eyes.

“How did you find out about this place? I’ve been sure to keep it a well kept secret.”

I grimaced and crouched down. “Let’s just say a little birdie told came and told me.” His eyes flashed in recognition. “Yeah, now you’re gonna pay for doing that to a student of mine. This is for all the times you’ve put me and my family through tartarus.”

I turned to face him fully and brandished my new wingblades. “If you don’t swear on your life right now that you’ll leave my family alone, I’ll come up there and cut your damned throat.” I reached down and grabbed my new sword out of its sheath and set into a defensive stance. “Come on, then you thugs. You acted all tough a second ago, where’d the confidence go?” I waved a paw at myself. “Come on then!”

Several charged at once, but their movements were sloppy and slow. I dodged the first one and he went over my head and collided with the one behind me. The one to my left came in, and I was forced to block with my wingblade. I stepped forward and pulled my wingblade towards myself, causing her to stumble forward and leaving her neck open. I chopped the back of her neck with my paw, causing her to fall unconscious. I reset my stance as the rest came at me.

I gave a flap of my wings, causing a massive blast of wing to go out and cause some of them to stumble. I ran forward and delivered two swift blows to the head of two different thugs. Both fell to the ground. The other eleven paused, seemingly afraid to charge again. I heard the flap of a set of wings and turned just in time to duck down and avoid a dagger wielding Smokey that had charged me. He landed behind me, so I turned again. Only to have my left leg knocked out from beneath me. As I fell forward I ducked my head right, narrowly avoiding the dagger in his mouth again. When I landed I tucked and rolled, trying to put as much distance between me and him as possible.

I’ve got the advantage at a longer range, he knows that and is trying to keep it close. Meaning he’s going to charge me again. When I came up from my roll I jumped left and saw him fly past me and land in the water. I turned and saw him get up. I set my defensive stance. My wings brought up into a ready position to perform a counter. He paused before charging again. He started to circle me. As he moved out of my safe area I’d adjust my stance so I’d be facing him. After a few repetitions of this he charged again, then ducked left, just out of my safe zone. I narrowed my eyes and threw my left wing down, nearly cutting him down his side, and creating a giant splash of water. Damn if he hadn’t dodged there I would have had him. I reset my stance again. I breathed in deeply and exhaled loudly. Centering myself I charged forward and threw both my wings out and forward, making it impossible to dodge left or right. Smokey flapped his wings and took off. The blast of air hitting me in the face and causing me to blink and lose sight of him.

Several thugs chose to spring forward at me, while they thought I was distracted. I jumped straight up and rammed head-first into Smokey’s stomach. I grunted and fell back towards the ground with Smokey. With a loud splash we both landed. I rose up first, but my vision was a bit blurry. I heard the sound of a wingbeat behind me and dodged to the right, narrowly avoiding a dagger thrust from an orange pegasus. I turned my body onto my forelegs and kicked out with my hind legs, sending the pegasus into the wall, and sliding down into the water. I heard the splashes of another pony approaching and threw out my right wing, causing a deep gash to open in the pegasus’ chest. He fell to the ground, gasping and clutching at the new wound.

Smokey finally got up and started to move around me again. I dropped down into a ready stance. On my next pivot of my stance I charged forward and swung my neck to the left, causing my sword to cut him across the chest, much shallower than the one on the other pegasus, though. He winced, but kept moving. He dashed to my left and tried to charge in. I threw my left wing out, to try and block the dagger again, but he ducked below it and kicked up a splash of water in my face.

I jumped up and flapped my wings, trying to separate myself from him. When I got up into the air I opened my eyes, and spotted Smokey just as he hit me, causing me to fall into the water with a loud splash again. I shook my head out and rose to my paws shakily.

My eyes went wide when I heard a splash behind me. I jumped left and tried to turn. Unfortunately caught the edge of the blade cut into my left hind leg. The cut stung, and I felt myself flinch, but I pushed through it and stood up again. Smokey’s eyes filled with a cruel sort of mirth. “Aw, what’s the matter, Shadow. Not used to getting cut up?” I pulled my lip up into another snarl and felt my hackles rise. “Aw, look, the mutt’s mad.” I growled and gave a sort of half bark half yell, and I hardened my glare and let all my anger and determination surface in my eyes.

Smokey didn’t look the least bit unnerved, in fact, he laughed. “What in tartarus is so damned funny?” Smokey looked down at me and his own glare hardened and I saw all the hatred he had in his eyes.

“You really don’t know what you did, do you, Shadow?” I started to walk around me again, but it was more relaxed. I kept my guard up. “You don’t know why I hate you so much. I hate you because of what you put my sister through. What you did caused her and my family to fall apart. Do you think you know her name? It was your entry match into the professional league, after all.”

I felt my face soften slightly, but hardened it right away. “Of course I do. Her name was Lucky Breeze. Though I fail to see how anything that happened to her after that was my fault! I beat her fair and square by the rules of the tournament.”

His face hardened into a look of pure rage. “How could you not know? Oh right, you’ve lived with your dad, who’s paid for almost everything for you. You couldn’t possibly know what it costs to live and support another pony on your own. You can’t know what it’s like to deal with starving on the streets. Being forced to beg others for just enough food to keep living, not just for yourself but; for another, as well. You don’t know what it’s like to watch every friend you ever thought you had turn on, and leave, you alone.”

I looked down and felt my face scrunch up. When I spoke next it was with an icy tone. “No, I don’t know what that’s like. You know what I do know about living? Being forced to be an outcast my entire life, just because of how I was born. I’ve had no control over what I am, but I’ve been judged on it my entire life. I’ve been called a mutt, I’ve been called a monster, a beast. If you can think of a derogatory term to call a wolven hybrid I’ve probably been called it. It’s gotten so bad that, in recent years, I haven’t even blinked or winced when a pony called me a mutt. It’s gotten so bad, that when a kind pony offered me just a place to stay I broke down crying, something I never do. And, I know what it’s like to only have two people I could ever depend on fully. Can you say the same, Smokey? I don’t know what happened to your sister, but none of it was my fault.”

He gave a cold, humorless, laugh. “Yes, you have been, Shadow. And no, I guess, I can’t say that I’ve been through what you have. But because of you my sister was forced to enter the underground to earn money enough to support me and herself. On top of that she was forced to work another job, to keep up appearances. Because of that she was too tired to fight properly and died down here among scum and filth. Even when she reached out to you, you refused her. Why, Shadow? Why can’t you just admit that you’re to blame? You killed my sister! And I had to sit there and watch for almost a year, while she slowly died in front of me, with nothing for me to do about it.” Tears started to stream down his face and fell to his haunches..

“When she reached out to me, Smokey, it was as a fellow warrior looking for help with technique. She never asked for money, if she had I would have given it.” He looked up with a look of anger, but not pure rage like it had been.

“You couldn’t see she was struggling!?” He screamed at me.

“I could, but she didn’t say anything, so I didn’t pry. I had respect for her as a warrior. You don’t pry into the lives of those you respect, you wait for them to come to you.” I shook my head, a look of pity on my face. “I’m sorry to hear of her death, but I won’t claim responsibility for it. I will, however, claim yours, if you don’t leave my family alone.” My glare sharpened again, staring him down, daring him to say anything but yes.

He looked down and finally fully collapsed into a heap in the sewer water. I heard the soft clank of the dagger hitting the ground and him sob out. “I can’t promise anything about the other pegasi, but I will stop actively hunting you and your family.” He looked up with a broken expression, then looked around and pulled me in close. “I need a place to hide. I’m going to be hunted now, they’ve seen weakness in me, and they’ll try to take advantage of it, Shadow. I’m not asking to stay with you, but I need a place to hide.”

I felt a fresh tide of rage boil up in me. How can he dare ask me for something like this? He’s done nothing but hunt me from the first time I entered Cloudsdale to now. And he wants me to hide him? I felt a glimmer of another emotion tug at me: pity. None of this is entirely his fault. I could have tried to reach out and talk to him earlier, or his sister. I felt my face soften slightly and I lowered my lip again and growled out. “Fine, follow me. I don’t want any trouble, though.” He solemnly nodded and shakily got up. “I can’t promise Val and my dad won’t try and rough you up a bit, but you’ll live through anything they put you through. And I won’t try to stop them.” I started to sheath the short sword and noticed the movement of the other thugs in the small tunnel.

“Sorry we can’t just let you leave, kid.” A medium sized pegasus came up and stood in front of me. I leaned down and bared my teeth at him. He didn’t even flinch. I flattened my brow and brought my wings to his throat, making them cross slightly.

“My tension for bullshit has been thoroughly shattered tonight, I suggest you step aside, thug.” He gulped and nodded before moving away. Suddenly my path was once again blocked. This time by a somber looking Butch. My face hardened into a glare. “Butch, was it?”

“Yes, that’s my name.”

“Are you gonna get in my way, Butch?”

He shook his head and backed out of the way while saying, “No, I just wanted to thank you. I’m going to go with you, if that’s alright.” He leaned a bit. I reclined slightly before leaning in myself, and swiveling an ear around. “In truth, I’m probably the only one here who really cared about Smokey.” I nodded and kept walking. “The nearest exit is to the left out of here.”

I blinked and nodded again. Once we were out of the tunnel with all the thugs I heard an outbreak of shouting, cursing, and fighting. “Looks like shit just goes back to normal again. From what I understand we’re about two miles from the forge.” Butch nodded, but remained silent. Odd pegasus. I shook my head and kept walking.

As we walked into the forge I large amount of movement and saw Rec dash through the lobby and nearly bust the back door off it’s hinges. I winced and tried to call out to her, but it was too late.

Not a second later Val and dad came rushing through the door and charged right up to Butch, Smokey, and me. Val gave the harshest glare I’ve ever seen. I shivered, it just seemed unnatural on his face. “What the hell is he doing here, Shadow?”

“He needs some temporary protection for a while.” I put simply. Both dad and Val’s jaws dropped a look of absolute horror and shock on their faces. “You can take the last training rooms at the end of the hallway here.” I pointed sharply and both of them set down the hallway, silently.

I started to sit down before Val rushed forward and grabbed me by my shoulders and shook heavily. “What the hell are you thinking, Shadow? Those two are the ones who have been the main source of hell for all of us, and you bring them here?”

I sighed and fell to my haunches and winced. “Look, Val. I know you may not understand my reasons for doing what I’ve done, but I’m not going to try and explain them right now, okay?”

He started to open his mouth to protest and dad stepped forward to cut him off. “Valor, I understand you’re concerned, we all are. But, Shadow’s obviously hurt, and we need to take care of that first. Then maybe we can get him to explain why he’s brought Smokey here.”

He grimaced, but nodded and walked back to the door to the forge area. He waved a hoof over his shoulder and said, “I’m not responsible for anything that bastard does.” The door slammed shut and we were left in complete silence.

“Well, today’s been one hellhole. I think we should go home early. Get that cut looked at.” Dad started to walk out, but noticed I hadn’t responded. I was staring at the ground. “You alright, Shadow?”

“No, I’m not, dad. I just considered killing somebody because they were different from me. Doesn’t that make me the world's biggest hypocrite? I mean, while his methods were beyond extreme, but I think we wanted similar things. I just want everyone to understand I’m more than just a wolven-pony hybrid. I’m Shadow Ironsword, the son of a great pegasus, and a great wolven, and a great duelist on my own right. I’m more than my appearance. And I think he just wanted me to understand his pain. What he went through when he watched his sister slowly fade away.” I shook my head and tried to clear my head. “I’m thinking too much.”

I felt his hoof slap onto my shoulder and I looked up into the burning eyes of my father. “Don’t. Ever. compare yourself to that scum. He did things that made other ponies lives hell. You did what you should have. You reached out and sought help. He lashed out and sought to destroy.” He scrunched up his eyes and shook his head. “Don’t do yourself that injustice by comparing yourself to him. I didn’t hear his explanation, but it can’t be good enough to justify what he’s done all these years.”

I stared down at the floor and scrunched up my own eyes. “I never said that he was justified, but I can’t help but compare us. In some ways we’re very similar. I could have gone down a very similar path, at any point, as him, if it weren’t for my luck and loving family.” I looked up and wrapped him in an embrace. I felt tears start to sting at the corners of my eyes. “I don’t know what to feel besides grateful to you and Val for how long you’ve been there for me. And guilt that I just thought to take a pony's life.” I shook my head and tried to shift my features to a happy expression. “Anyways, you’re right, we probably should go home.” It didn’t fool him.

“Shadow, I’m not convinced that you’re just gonna keep going on. You might want to just see about seeing a doc, if this is really how you feel.” He looked down at the ground, his face shrouded in shame. “I really don’t want to suggest such a thing, but I don’t know what else to say. Just know that I love you.”

“I don’t blame you for saying that, dad. If our positions were reversed I might say the same thing. Though I can’t say for sure. I guess I’ll never know.” I shrugged and started walking towards the doors. “I guess I’ll just head home now. You can stay here if you want, I can head home on my own. I know there’s more work to be done, since it’s still early in the day.”

He looked up and started to reach out, but stopped. “Alright, if that’s what you want, Shadow.” He turned and walked to the forge door. It closed quietly and I was left alone again.

I felt a hoof softly tap my shoulder and I looked up into the concerned eyes of Rec. “Yes, Rec, I’m fine, or at least I will be. Let me know if Smokey or Butch causes any problems, okay?” She nodded uncertainly and started making her way back over to her desk, a look of concern still clear on her face.

I breathed deeply and started to head out of the front doors, when Amber came barrelling in from out on the street. She steamrolled right over me, causing me to roll, and try to recover from the sudden tumble. “Sorry, Shadow! I lost track of time, I’m ready to go to Canterlo-” She blinked and looked at the steady line of blood that was seeping from the cut in my hind leg. “What the hell happened to you?”

I looked down and tried to avoid eye contact. “I confronted Smokey.”

She gave a look of shock and...indignance? “Why does nopony tell me when stuff is happening? I mean when Smokey came back and attacked your dad all I get is a ‘come on, no time to explain. Vanguard needs your help’ from Valor, and now-”

I cut her off with a wave of my paw, and knitted my brow. “Look, Amber, I’m sorry that no one came to tell you. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing, ya know?”

“No, I don’t know, Shadow!” She huffed, but dropped to her haunches. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s looked at that yet, have they?” I shook my head and she huffed again. “Figures, no one else around here knows anything about first aid.” She walked around my side and looked down to my flank and grimaced. “We might need more than just a few bandages for this, it looks pretty deep. I won’t know for sure until I get a good look at it, though. Come on, we’ll head back to my place, I have more supplies there.”

She started to get up and walk to the main doors. “Amber, I don’t know if I’m going to Canterlot tonight. I don’t think I want to face Page, knowing I had just had the intention of killing somebody.” I looked down and let my vision cloud with tears. Closing my eyes I started to cry, letting the tears roll down my face.

I felt a hoof push my chin up and opened my eyes to see Amber’s kind face. “Look, Shadow, I get it. You don’t want to do that, but do you want to talk about it? It might help you come to terms with it.”

I tilted my head, then tried to avoid eye contact, and said, “Come to terms with what? It’s not like I killed anyone.” The bitterness in my tone surprised me. What am I so bitter about?

She nodded her side to side. “True, but acts of violence aren’t really a normal thing for anyone. Especially for ponies. As I told you I was involved in checking if a soldier was ready for battle, that includes certain mental aspect as well. I’m just saying, Shadow, if you need to talk I’m here. I’m not forcing you to talk.”

I sighed and turned away from her. “Dad said something to you about my mental state didn’t he?”

“No, should he?”

“I don’t think so, but I don’t know anymore. Especially after this, I’m not sure I’m stable.”

“Trust me, Shadow, you’re stable. From what I’ve seen you’re just prone to a few fits of anger, which is normal, but sometimes it goes a bit extreme for you.” She smiled kindly, sat down beside me and put her foreleg over my withers. “Come on, let’s get to my place and we can talk about this some more and get that wound looked at.” I nodded solemnly and started to move towards the doors. Some movement in the corner of my vision caught my attention. I turned my head and spotted Blade poking her head out of the Training room closest to me on the left. I waved and motioned my head for her to duck back inside.

She smiled hesitantly and nodded before ducking in. I started to turn towards the door again, but I heard the door open fully and the hurriedly clopping of hooves coming towards me. “Thank you, Shadow.” She stood back, turned and ran back to the door.

I felt a smile tug at the corners of my mouth. “See? I don’t think you’d have a filly doing that for you if you were as unstable as you think.”

I looked down again and said, “I don’t know, Amber. I don’t think normal ponies go off with the intent to kill another at random.” I got a prompt smack upside the head. “Ow! What in tartarus was that for?”

“For saying it was at random. You, Valor, and Vanguard had been threatened for years. Then you add a few more to your close-knit family and they’re all threatened. I don’t think I could have done nothing in your situtation. In fact, I might have chosen the same course of action, if I were in your position.”

I blinked and looked back up at her. “Really? Are you just saying that because it’s already done. If I hadn’t already done it I wouldn’t believe I’ve done it, even if someone already had.”

She nodded her head, a serious, but warm, expression on her face. “Yeah, Shadow. Now come on, we should really get that wound looked at.” I grimaced but followed and limped with every step. Why did it suddenly start hurting so much? Just a few minutes ago I thought I was fine.”

I started to limp more and more heavily as we went along the street to Amber’s and Val’s house. Ow, ow, ow. “Dammit all to tartarus, why does this hurt so much? I was fine on the walk back to the forge!”

She turned back to me and smirked. “That’d be because the adrenaline is wearing off. You’ve had to know about this before, right?” I shook my head.

“I’ve never really been in a life or death situation before. I mean each duel has it’s own risk, but it’s rare that someone dies in one, but I guess it does happen. I mean I’ll normally crash after a match, but I always just thought that was because of the physical tax on my body.”

“Well, you’re partially right. But the whole crashing thing is mostly due to the lack of adrenaline, and therefore energy flowing through your body. Though, you didn’t experience that after the most recent match, did you?”

I blinked and thought back. No, I don’t think I even felt a bit tired, or hyper, after I got out. I just felt normal, like I never went in. “No, I don’t think I did. What’s that about?”

She looked down and cupped her chin in a hoof. “I don’t know, I’ll have to think about it a bit later. Right now, we’ve really got to take a look at that leg. If it really is as bad as you’re saying, it may be worse than I thought.” I grimaced, but kept walking along. When we finally reached the house I felt like it would have been better to just cut the leg off than to try and keep walking on it. We finally got inside and Amber cleared the table. “Okay, get up on the table and lie on your right side, so I can get a good look at it.”

“Still just appreciating the view, huh?” I chuckled and ducked another swipe at my head.

She had a slight redness in her ears, but didn’t say anything. She shook her head and puffed her cheeks out. “Alright, this might sting, but I’ve got to clean it first.” She grabbed a white cloth and dabbed it into a white bottle that read ‘Rubbing alcohol’. Oh funnnn. I braced myself for the sting, but before she set the cloth she lit her horn and surrounded the area around my wound in her magic. I felt the area go slightly numb and I relaxed a bit. Then she pressed the rag down and into the wound. I winced and instinctively pulled away from the source of pain. “Come on, Shadow, don’t be such a foal. The sooner I get this cleaned out, the sooner I can get a proper look at it.”

“Easier said than done, Amber.” I growled out as she continued to dip the rag into my wound. “Dammit to tartarus, how much cleaning to you need to do? That hurts!”

She gave me a deadpan look. “You were in sewer water, from what I collect, yes?”

“Yeah, but how would you know that? I never told you where I confronted Smokey.” I stared on in confusion while she continued to give me a deadpan look.

She huffed and tapped her nose with a hoof. “You smell like crap, Shadow. I want to make sure it’s all clean in there before I try and wrap it all up.” She pulled the rag out and lit her horn with a lighting spell of some kind. Looking into my cut a ghost of a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “So good news is it looks like just a really deep cut. Didn’t peirce any arteries or anything major. So you should be good to sit around here for a few days, since I don’t want you up on that leg, in case it gets worse.” I groaned and tried to roll over onto my haunches, but a glow of magic stopped me. “What did I just say? Let me move you around.” She stuck her tongue out and lifted me up in her magic over to the couch. “There, anything you need, before I head out?”

Wait, you’re going to lock me up here and then just leave me alone?”

She smiled brightly. “Yup! And if you move I will know, since I’ve got a movement detection spell on that couch now.” She directed a light glare my way before heading back out the door, leaving me alone.

I groaned and rolled over onto my back, and tried to fall asleep. Celestia, this is going to be a long few days. I noticed an ink well and a piece of paper on the other end of the couch. She did this on purpose, didn’t she? I turned over onto my stomach, careful to avoid rubbing my wound. I breathed in and sighed. “Okay, what do I say? What do I need to write?” I need to reconcile with Twilight, but I don’t know if I’m ready for that. I shook my head. “If I keep saying that, and accepting it as an excuse, I’ll never do it.” I set my face into a determined look and put the quill to the paper. “Dear, Twilight,...”

Relaxation and tough conversations

I set the quill down on the cushion of the couch and nodded approvingly at the letter in front of me. I had effectively let Twilight know what had been going on, and set a timeline for when I planned on visiting her in Ponyville a month down the road. “Alright, now to set in on my apology to Page for not making it today.” I stuck my tongue out of my mouth and dabbed the quill in the inkwell.

Just as I was about to put the quill down to the paper and begin writing, Val and Amber burst through the door. Amber called out, “Hey, Shadow! I see you caught my subtle hint.” She laughed and headed into the kitchen.

Val stayed in the foyer of his house with a mildly guilty expression on his face. “Hey, Shadow. You doing any better?”

I smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I think I’ll be fine, with time. Apparently I’ll be staying with you and Amber for the next few days. So no bucking like bunnies, got it?” I tried to hold a serious expression. But the way that Val’s face lit up into a bright red color made me bust out laughing. As I wiped a tear from my eye, and I tried to compose my expression. “Anyways, I gotta ask. What was up with your little fit back there at the forge?”

He huffed and looked off to the side, the blush slowly fading from his face. “It wasn’t a fit… Okay, so maybe it was a bit of a fit. I don’t know, Shadow. I guess, in some way, I felt jealous of Smokey? I don’t know how to put it, but yea. That’s about as close as I’m going to get to explaining it.” He huffed again and looked away.

I furrowed my brows and tried to sit up, but the immediate sting that accompanied the movement stopped me. “Look, Val, I’m not going to say you’re stupid. But you’re bucking stupid. Why would you ever be jealous of Smokey?”

He grimaced and looked farther away from me, but walked over and sat down on a pillow before saying, “I don’t know. Mostly because you forgave him almost instantly, and I don’t know how to feel about that.”

I quirked a grin at him and asked, “And what in Tartarus makes you think I’ve forgiven him, Val? I don’t think I’ll ever forgive Smokey for what he’s done to us.” He continued to look away from me. Careful of my injured leg, I shuffled over to reach out and cup a paw under his chin and force his head to me. “Look, I’m not going to try and change your mind, but know that I haven’t forgiven him. Just because I’ve offered him temporary sanctuary doesn’t mean that I do okay?” I gave a small smile.

I saw the ghost of a smile flash across his face before settling into a neutral expression. “Okay.”

Amber chose this exact moment to walk in and she gawked. “What in the actual hell is going on in here?”

I grinned wickedly and Val gave me a pleading look. I ignored him and pushed on to my idea. “Oh nothing, Amber, just me completely stealing your stallion from right under your nose!” I stuck my tongue out and began laughing maniacally as Val lit up like a lighthouse again. I shuffled back, so that I was fully onto the couch.

Amber spotted this and just shook her head. “Alrighty then, have fun you two~” she said. I fell further into a fit of laughter while Val just folded his ears back and thumped his head onto the cushion he was sitting on.

“Why am I friends with you again?” he groaned, muffled by the pillow.

“Because you laugh at these moments just as much as I do, just later on.” I closed one eye and stuck my tongue out again.

“Hnnngghh.”

Amber came and walked by the living room again. “Wow you two really are having fun, aren’t you?” She began to cackle like mad as she walked back into the kitchen.

I chuckled and shook my head back and forth. “Come on, Val. You know she only means to poke fun at ya.”

Amber came out of the kitchen with a tub of ice cream and two spoons. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Shadow.” She stuck her tongue out at me and winked. I returned the gesture and went back to trying to write my letter to Page. Thinking back to her letter earlier that day, I brought my paw up to my chin, concentrating. Amber noticed my expression and stopped in her attempts to coax Val out of his makeshift turtle position. “What’s up, Shadow?”

“Hmm? Oh, nothing, I’m just thinking about what Page wrote. I think she had said if we had anything planned, she’d like to know. Thing is, I can’t think of anything we had planned anytime soon.”

She hummed and brought her hoof up to her chin as well. “No, I think you’re right, we really didn’t have anything planned. So! Maybe we should plan something, for after your leg heals up a bit and invite her along?”

I nodded, mulling the thought over. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Let’s do that!” I went over to start writing the letter, but an amber glow surrounded the quill in my mouth and tugged it out.

“Come on, first we’ve got to plan something.” She chuckled and shook her head slightly. “Any ideas?”

I tilted my head in confusion. “Well I mean, can’t we just go eat dinner, then drinking after that? I mean we usually do that anyways.”

She gave me a deadpan look and when I gave no response to that she facehoofed. “Foals, Shadow?”

My eyes went wide and I felt my cheeks heat up slightly. “Right, probably not the best example for them for the adults to go get drunk.”

Val then decided to lift his head and contribute to the conversation. “Well just cause we go drinking doesn’t mean we need to get drunk. There is a thing known as drinking socially.”

“I don’t know, I’d rather not take any chances. What did you have in mind, Amber?”

“Hmm. I really don’t know, Shadow. There’s really not much we can all do, that we’re all comfortable, or are able to do.” She brought a hoof up to her chin and scratched for a minute while I groaned and let my head hit the cushion. She tapped her chin a few times before finally saying, “Well, we’ve got some time. For now, we’ll just try and enjoy eachothers’ company, and hopefully not drive each other up the wall while you’re here. Though I have a feeling that’s going to be kind of difficult.” She started to giggle and I couldn’t help but start to chuckle myself.

Val just sat there staring blankly. Slowly his expression started to turn more and more to dread. “What kind of fresh hell have I entered myself into?”

I stuck my tongue out and tried to stifle my chuckles to respond, but Amber beat me to it. “Oh, just one where your best friend and marefriend get along great, and are immense jokers.” She also stuck her tongue out and began to devolve into another fit of giggles.

Val just groaned and threw his head back onto the pillow and put his hooves over his head. “Awwww, poor baby. You’ve gotta put up with some pranks from your friends. The horror!” I said in mock sympathy.

I heard a muffled, “You two are the worst.” Come from the pillow. Amber got a devilish grin and lit her horn. I nodded and she surrounded Val in a field of telekinesis. “Wooooaaahhh!” He was lifted up and slammed down into the couch next to me on his back. Amber quickly cut off his only route of escape, other than jumping over the back of the couch. “Now, hold on, guys. I don’t know what you’re thi-”

Amber cut him off by blowing a raspberry on his stomach, making him squirm and chuckle. “N-nooo. Not this hahaha. Nooooo!” His hind legs bucked out and missed me by a hair. I quickly secured them down to the couch and nodded to Amber for the go-ahead. “Shadow, you’re a bucking traitor! You knoooOOooo-” He devolved into nothing but laughter and chuckles for nearly fifteen minutes. “Geeze you guys have been waiting for an excuse to do that, haven’t you?” He continued to chuckle and looked up at Amber, a tender look in his eyes.

“No, no, no. Not while I’m here! I don’t want to constantly hear you two bucking!” I screamed out.

Amber chuckled and booped Val on the nose and then looked to me. “You’re right, Shadow. We’ll try to refrain from bucking.” She started to stand up, and I started to shift back to my starting position. As soon as I was out of the way Val grabbed Amber and pulled her down onto the couch with him.

“You never said anything about cuddling, Shadow!” I chuckled and nodded my head in a conceding motion. “Yeah!” He started to wrap himself around Amber fully and laughing.

I started to chuckle and scooted over to the other end of the couch, to give them space. “So, now I finally see who the real cuddle bug is.”

Val stuck his tongue out at me and snuggled deeper into Amber’s back. Amber chuckled and shimmied back to squish him into the couch. “Yeah, during the day he’s one of the biggest cuddlebugs.”

Val lifted his head and shouted, “I am not a cuddlebug! I merely like to have physical contact with my marefriend!”

I reached patted him on his withers, “Yeah, that’s called a cuddlebug, Val.” The shocked look on his face sent me into another spiral of laughter, in which Amber gladly joined. Val merely huffed got up and stomped up the stairs to his invention room. Amber and I looked towards each other and lost it again, falling back onto the couch and, laughing uncontrollably.

After three days of resting up at Val and Amber’s place I was cleared to head home. “Now, don’t start training right away. Give it maybe another two or three days, Shadow.” I nodded and turned to go out the door and head home.

“Wait, Shadow!” Val yelled from further inside the house. I heard the stomping of his hooves on the stairs. He came down with a piece of paper in his magic and handed it to me. I really couldn’t make out what it could be. I blinked, but Val continued on. “Show that to Vanguard, will ya?”

“Sure, I can do that. Though, I have no idea what it is.” It looked like some kind of mechanism, but I couldn’t be sure.

Val smirked and waved his hoof dismissively. “Oh don’t you worry about it, yet.” I sighed and shook my head in mock exaggeration. “You’ll know soon enough, Shadow. Just be patient.” I chuckled and nodded before heading out the door with the schematics tucked carefully under my wing.

Now I’ve got to go back to the forge and check in with Dad. I wonder what he’s been up to? After several minutes of walking carefully I arrived at the forge doors. I stepped in and was immediately spotted by Rec, who waved and smiled happily. “Hey, Rec. What’s up?” She nodded her head back and forth and shrugged. I chuckled. “Are the other two still here?” Her expression darkened slightly, but she nodded and motioned back to the hallway of training rooms. “Great, thanks, as always, Rec.” She smiled and nodded happily, and moved her head back down to continue whatever work she had.

I sighed and headed back towards the actual forge room door. I opened it carefully and peeked inside. Dad was sitting on a bench waiting for a piece of metal to cool. It looked like he was in the tempering process. Perfect, it’ll be easy to talk to him, since It’s a pretty easy thing to do while he’s working. I stepped into the forge room and Dad looked over as he heard the sound of the door closing behind me. He smiled warmly and waved at me before turning his attention back to the clock on the wall. I walked up and sat down next to him, before draping a large navy blue wing around him and giving him a squeeze. “Hey, Dad.”

He smiled, but didn’t look away from the clock as he responded, “Hey, son. I noticed you’ve been out of the forge for about three days. What have you been up to? Hopefully not doing anything rash...again.” He gave shake of his head and brought up a red hoof to his forehead, chuckling slightly. “Honestly the fact that I have to add that is a little disconcerting.” I chuckled along with him, letting myself relax, just by being in the presence of my father. I’ve missed this, just me and him, being able to spend time together.

“Oh, nothing much, Amber took me up to her place and looked at the gash in my leg, told me I’d have to chill at her place, so I did. I never really got much out of Val before he crashed on the couch with Amber, so I’ve been curious as to what’s been going on over here at the forge. I’m surprised that Val didn’t make mention of it. Sometimes he’d act like we made his life a living form of Tartarus”

He nodded his head back and forth, a contemplative look on his face. “Not much really, Script came by yesterday looking for ya. Told her I didn’t know where you were, but that when I saw ya next I’d let you know she was looking for you. That does sound an awful like you and Amber together.” He gave a smirk and turned back to the clock. Suddenly he sprung into action, taking the long rod of metal out of the hot bath and letting it drip dry for a second before inserting back into an oven to heat it the blade once again.

I hummed and pulled a blue paw up to my chin before saying, “Not like you to do staffs, who called in a favor?” I smirked as his expression shifted slightly.

He sighed heavily before looking over with a rueful expression. “Ya know, it’s crazy how well you know me. I mean I know I’m your father and everything, but come on.” He let out a few chuckles before looking back at the clock, and removing the rod from the oven and putting it back in the oil bath. A few tongues of flame licked up from it as he dipped it in, but they didn’t catch anything, and soon the rod was soaking in the bath once again. Dad sat down on the bench again with a little huff and began to shake his head. “Ya know, you’ll eventually have to move out. You’re twenty two, Shadow.”

I looked over with a shocked expression and felt my eyes begin to tear up a bit, my vision blurring slightly. “Is that what you want!?” I sat back slightly, shocked at the venom in my own voice, but kept my eyes on Dad. How could he? After everything that’s happened...He’s just going to do this now, and completely out of the bue?

Dad sighed slightly as he stood up and walked until he was standing directly in front of me. He placed a comforting red hoof on my shoulder and looked into my eyes, a few tears escaping his own blue eyes. Though when he spoke, he had no quiver in his voice. “Shadow, it’s not something I want but it’s inevitable. You’re a grown stallion now, you’ll have to move out and live a life of your own, outside of this forge and me.” He reached around my neck and gave me a strong hug. “I’m not saying you have to move out today, or even this year. But just keep it in the back of your mind, okay?”

I nodded and pulled back. I brought a navy blue paw up to my eyes and wiped away the few tears that had managed to drop out of my eyes. “I will, Dad, but I don’t want to move out. I’ve been so happy here at the forge with you and Val, and now even Amber. Where am I gonna go, where I’m this accepted? Tell me that, Dad. Otherwise, I don’t see much of a point of leaving.”

Surprisingly, Dad smiled. “From what I’ve heard, Ponyville took you in and didn’t turn you away just because of what you are. You took yourself out of that place out of paranoia.” I grimaced and looked down to the ground. He pushed my chin up with a gentle hoof. “Shadow, you’ve got to stop being so paranoid. If you don’t learn to open up again, you’re going to end up stuck here in a place where most of the population hates you. I honestly think you’d be happier there than here, but that decision is up to you. I’d be happy to have you here. But I can see that you aren’t truly happy here in Cloudsdale. Not even here in the forge, not truly.”

I paused for a moment before leaning forward and returning his hug. “I think I understand what you’re saying, Dad. But, I don’t know if I can just leave everything I have here.” I smirked a bit. “It’s funny, but despite everything, I’ve found ponies who are willing to accept me for who I am...what I am.” I shook my head and tightened my hold on Dad before saying, “I can’t just leave them because of what everyone else thinks. I can’t do that, it goes against everything I stand for. I stand for my friends, my family, those I care about.”

Dad put his hooves between and held me out, so that I could look him in the eyes. “Listen, just because you leave, doesn’t mean you can’t come back. You’re allowed to come back and visit. But you shouldn’t stay in a place that you’re suffering in purely because of us. Go out, live your own life. Make friends who know you, just as good as we do, who’ll stand by you.” He smiled sadly at me, then pulled me into another hug, and wrapped his wings around me, pulling me even tighter against him and encompassing me completely.

I felt tears finally start to leak out of my eyes and I pushed my muzzle into his shoulder and let them overcome me. When I was finished, Dad’s shoulder was noticeably darker in color, though he didn’t seem to care. I looked deep into his eyes and saw that he really was only doing this because he cared for me. I sighed and said, “I...I can’t promise anything yet. But I will keep it in the back of my head.” I sniffled and rubbed a paw on my muzzle, before I gasped, remembering one of the reasons I’d come looking for Dad. “Oh, and Val said he’d wanted me to give this to you.” I pulled the paper out from under my wing, and handed it to Dad.

He hummed for a moment and turned the paper around a few times before his eyes widened slightly and his jaw went slack for a second, before he schooled it back into a mask of neutrality. “This...certainly is an interesting idea. I assume he didn’t tell you what this was?” He looked up to me, his blue eyes glimmering with mischief, and a sense of knowing.

I huffed and scuffed a paw against the floor. “No...And, if I had to hazard a guess, you’re not going to either, are you?” I looked up, only to be met by a slightly smug grin on his face. “Aaaaannnnd that’s my cue to leave! I’m not gonna stay here, just to have that jingled in my face. See ya later, Dad! I’m gonna head out, and go for a fly, since it’s almost dark anyways, then I’ll head home.” He gave me a nod and walked forward to give me a quick hug and goodbye, before turning back to his work.

Author's Note

Thanks to Harm and Wing for giving me a hand editing and proofreading this chapter!

The arrival

As I landed with a soft thump I began to look around what would soon, hopefully, be my new home. I was wearing my usual affair for going out in public. My dark brown trench coat with a hood that successfully covered most of my wolven traits. If you were to pass me by on the street with a glance you might mistake me for a pony, without my coat on, but a second glance you would guess that I'm not just a dark navy-blue pegasus. My usually somewhat messy brown hair with a single red fleck behind my left eye was in complete disarray. I looked over my shoulder to find my dark navy-blue tail in the same condition. I passed a paw over both to, hopefully, tidy them up a bit. Unfortunately, I couldn't hide what usually freaked out everypony else around me so badly since I was a pup, my teeth. I had Inherited my mothers wolven teeth, sharp canine teeth for eating meat in front and pony-like flat teeth in the back. My ears twitched to the left as I detected a prancing pink pony, I immediately identified the pony . I had done my research prior to coming to Ponyville, and learned who to avoid for a while. That is until I had my name in a positive light, in someponys eyes. No need to have a repeat of Cloudsdale. I grimaced in memory of how I was treated in the floating city, full of proud pegasi.

The pony in question was Pinkemina Diane Pie, more informally known as Pinkie Pie. As quick as I could without drawing attention to myself I slipped into the nearest ally and waited for her to pass. The strangest thing happened, though. As she was about to pass me she paused and looked down the ally where I was hiding behind a couple of barrels and smiled knowingly. Trying to hide even further I fully sunk behind them, which was made no easier due to my unusually tall stature. No longer peeking over. I waited a few seconds to be sure I had hopefully lost her before I look over the barrels to see no sign of her. "Whew that was too bucking close for my tastes," I said as I slunk back down behind the barrel, closed my eyes and prayed to Celestia and Luna that I kept hidden until I met Twilight.

"What was too close?" Asked a far too cheerful voice to be anyone but the famous party planner, Pinkie Pie.

"Waaaaah!" I jump back in surprise knocking over a few barrels in the process. Looking behind me I saw that she was directly behind me standing a little less than two heads shorter than me. Dammit it all to Tartarus. I had heard of her seemingly ability to teleport, even though she was an earth pony, but hearing about it was entirely different from experiencing it in the flesh.

"Ooooh you look new, have I seen you around town before? If you're new to town then I've gotta throw a 'welcome to Ponyville ... um what was your name again?" She said with as much enthusiasm as I had expected and more, but her face fell a little at the end when she realized she didn't know my name.

Realizing that she was expecting a response I quickly got to my paws and brushed off my cloak to hide my embarrassment. Best to answer honestly. "Yes Miss Pie, I am new to Ponyville. But, I would rather keep my arrival secret and not make it a public affair. My name, by the way, is Shadow, Shadow Ironsword." I said with a bit of pride. My family name, Ironsword, was well known throughout all of Equus as the best forgers of weaponry there was.

"Oooh so you're the wolven slash pegasus that Twilight mentioned was coming!" She seemed to bounce in a circle before she continued, just as happily. "Twilight told me to keep an eye out for a wolven-pony. But I wouldn't have seen you if you hadn't tried hiding like a silly pony. And Pinkie is just fine, none of that 'Miss Pie' stuff." She made a funny face that seemed an attempt at a grimace.

I stared at her in shock, as I realized that Twilight had broken her promise to me, in our letter, to keep my arrival a secret until I was ready to make it public. But of course Pinkie was one of her best friends, why wouldn't she tell her about it?

Pinkie's seemingly perpetual smile fell slightly as she said. "Did I say something wrong? Did I offend you?"

"Hmm? Oh no Miss- I mean Pinkie. I was just thinking about something else, pay me no mind right now. Still a bit tired after flying here from Cloudsdale." So much for honesty, I chastised myself.

"Must have been something real sad, your face went all mopey dopey for a second." Her face brightened once again as she giggled.

There was something about her giggle that made it infectious. I felt myself begin to chuckle myself all the while asking, "And what may I ask is so funny?"

"Your face when I said 'mopey dopey'!" She began to burst even further into a fit of giggles of which there seemed to be no end coming any time soon. I likewise began to devolve into a hearty chuckle. Its been too long since I've laughed like this. It didn't feel forced, it felt so natural to just laugh that I couldn't help it.

Pinkie stopped laughing and gasped very audibly . "What's wrong, Miss Pie?" I asked a little worry slipping into my normally calm voice.

"Oh nothing important." She gave a forced chuckle and then glanced at my muzzle, a flash of something that resembled fear in her eyes before she moved on. "So, I assume you want to go meet Twilight, right?" She said already starting to walk to the street.

I still had a slightly confused and worried look on my face before I connected the dots. My hood had come off and when I had started laughing and she had seen my teeth. And now she's going to go and tell everyone what a monster I am. I sighed audibly and said, "Sure I guess I had better meet her." I said halfheartedly. I had been sending letters to Twilight for almost two months now, asking for advice as to how to make new friends. I had, of course, kept my identity and race secret for the first couple of letters. But, eventually, I had opened up to her, she just seemed so...honest and trustworthy. I had been to afraid sending that letter with my confession, scared that she would no longer want to speak to me purely because of what I was. My fears were, of course, unfounded and foalish. She had actually proposed that I move to Ponyville, so she could help me face to face.

Pinkie seemed to have realized that I had made the connection to her surprise. "Look, I'm sor-"

"No its fine, really. I'm used to it." I cut her off. "Lets just get to the castle, that is where she is right?"

Pinkie seemed to have deflated slightly but responded,"Yeah she's at the castle, I have to be somewhere right now. Can you find your way there?"

"Yeah I can find my way there." I gave a slight smirk, the corner of my mouth twitching upwards, in a ghost of a smile, as I continued, "Kinda hard to miss the giant crystal building among the normal buildings of Ponyville."

Pinkie seemed to brighten up a bit as she said, "Alright I'll talk to you later?"

I started, I had not been used to ponies or wolven wanting to meet with me again after our first encounter, at least unless it was necessary or they were family. I quickly recovered,"Yeah, definitely." Pinkie pranced off down the street. I pulled my hood and started towards the castle of Twilight Sparkle.

Author's Note

So I hope you guys enjoyed. Again, any and all constructive criticism is welcome. Let me know whether you want Shadow to meet all the main 6 or not.