1. Shadow's colt and the boorish man
Atop a hill overlooking the Kicker's clan hold, the old man sits and watches and waits and remembers days past. Below him in the hold, the mans fellows train and formation and spar, their clothing and armor and brick buidings makin a sea of red. None pay the old man mind these days, and the clan mater instructs all to leave him be. She calls him a hero, her brother.., most regard him as a layabout and wastrel. None know of the service the Assassin Amal had done in their name, how many of the clan he saved... and none knew the pain of its cost.
Soon, the man became a faded memory in many minds. None paid him call, and he saw none. No post or parcel graced his doorstep, and any who attempted to speak to him where merely scowled at and walked past.
And now, for the first time in memory, someone new would come... though one decidedly less then thrilled at the prospect.
............
Ash Kicker, son of no less then Lady Protector herself, stood at attention before his mothers desk, ears perked and eyes forward as Shadow looked over her tomes, a small smile in place as her heart warmed with pride at the reports. She loved Gale, and respected her as a soldier and her second, and trusted her with her life... but Gale was Gale. She had always minded and acted in all ways proper with her clan leader, but off duty, her teasing and jabs had a few times bit a little too close or too familiar with Shadow. There was something to be said for a child of yours who held you as more then a parent, but as an ideal, and sons... she had never guessed she could take such joy in a son before Ash. Loyal, mentally sound and responsible, and in his green youth had managed to behave himself as opposed to his sister. He was now ready for his right of passage and a bright career in the Guard.
Shadow sighed, and closing the book, regarded the colt
"Thou duties are elsewhere. I've denied thy request to join thy platoon on the Patrol."
Shadow winced inwardly as the dismay on her childs face pierced her heart, and steeling herself, she made ready her response to the youthful whines of a denied pubescent.
"I see..."
Shadow barely halted her breath of relief at the words, and eyerolled in her mind. Another perk to colts... unlike fillies in their green spring the hormones did little to them but turn their brains to mush when some pretty thing came along. Of course... Shadow thoughtfully rubbed under her muzzle as a few of Gale's less then stellar tantrums came forth, that made Gale who she was.
"Mother... you allowed Gale on her Patrol, and since my foalhood, regaled me to sleep with tales of your exploits there. This... Mother, I need to go."
Shadow sighed. She knew it was too good to last. Seeing the distress on her colts face, Shadow bit her lip. The boy looked ready to bawl now... and it hurt she had to hurt her child. While both her children had been instilled with the knowledge and strength of the clan, both had their moment where their pride made her children willful... and where Gale would sometimes whine and give her mother the could shoulder, when her colts pride was at stake... yep, his ichor is risen shadow lamented. He had his old dams temper it seemed.
"You... you can't treat me like this! I deserve this mother! I've earned my passage and place amongst my comrades! I'm not you're little colt anymore!"
The top of of Shadows desk sounded the slam of her hoof against it, sending a quill stand acropper. As the ink spilt across the oak, Shadow glared at the object of her current fury, eyes furious, and oddly, pained.
"Don't you ever say that to me whelp. Don't you ever hurt me as such again lest I cast you from my house. You're my son, and I love you, but to say such things to me..."
Raising his hoof, Ash mouth opened, then with a sigh, he lowered it, eyes cast downward.
"Mother... I... I cry your pardon. I meant none of it, but... I worked and bled and trained to follow your hoof prints. I want to serve our clan, and that path begins on the Long Patrol. Other colts come back, bragging how it made them into real stallions..."
At this Shadow snorted, and standing, walked to the young stallion.
"No Ash. We train none to become stallions or mares, we make them into Guard. We take them, teach and hone them, then point them at our foes. We break things and slay people, child. We are hunters, killers... and it takes much more to be a stallion, an adult, then wing blades and rutting."
Sighing, Shadow drew the youth to her in a wing hug, resting her chin on his head.
"Oh child... I seek not your punishment, or think you've failed me. Indeed, where Gale is my pride as my second, you are the only one I can trust now. I seek not to deny your right, but to open a new one. To give you means to truly honor us and our clan. Where Gale and I will be merely Kickers... I shall assign you a quest where you will be more then we could ever dream."
Eyes hopeful, Ash pulled from the mare, regarding her doubtfully.
"But... what could be better then the Patrol, the Guard... what could bring honor and glory more then being a Kicker..."
Smiling, Shadow put a hoof on the colts head.
"I shall send you to learn to be a stallion, ,to be a Man, as the two legs say. And in all of Equestria, I can only trust your training to one who is the greatest of stallions in our hold..."
....................................
Ash wing blades clinked against his barding as he trotted down the cobblestone path to the holds outskirts, fuming inwardly at being shunted off to the side and sent off to his Mother's friend. Spending his next leg of training under some old long fang like his Uncle was not how the pony had planned his rite. Looking up at the sky, the colt frowned as he watched pegasi soar across the expanse, his expression mournful.
That's where he belonged... off into the unknown, battling beasts and trolls in the surrounding glen and dale, using his true eye... Smirking, Ash closed his eyes, centering himself, and opening them, regarded the world only and his family knew he saw. Gale had told him of it, had taught him as Arron had taught her, and while neither were as her friend had been, both had taken pride in what only a few ponies could ever do. Even his own mother lacked his true eye, and over his youth he had learned to discern the hues and tones of those around him. Slowing his pace, Ash regarded the Kickers moving through the hold, the gentle blue of their aura overlapping the red of their centers, the color indicating his clan fellow simmering anger and readiness to defend honor and Crown from any who would do either harm.
It was of note that the red of the Guards ichor grew and lessened as the ponies about went on and off their rounds. Snorting in amusement as the aura first matched the clashed the shifting color of the armor, Ash closed his eyes again a moment, then opening them, regarded the re colored world he occupied when he tired of his gift. His sister often spoke of strange glyphs and obelisks from her journeys, but Ash often though she merely jested with him. What silly billies would leave dozens of keys across the lands when just one or three would serve all the better. And who left arms and barding locked away and gathering dust when one should bear it with pride and put it to use, or pass it down to their foals through the years?
While ponies seemed straight forward in such things, Ash had heard humans mind we that of a maze, labyrinths of schemes and riddles and locks and wheels. Always plotting and planning and building, he'd heard. Snorting Ash continued up the path to Amal's home, regarding the two story home with disdain. If his Uncle were testimony to it, humans doings were mere boasting. His uncle had almost never left the brick building he lurked in most of the year, only visiting on holiday of in the early morning. The few times he had seen the human, Ash had been uneasy with how he regarded him... as though he saw right through the colt.
Brushing a hoof through his mane, Ash stood at attention before the door of Amal's, and raised his hoof... and jumped slightly as the door opened with a jerk, the irate occupant glaring at the colt.
"Yes?" Ash smiled politely as he held the hoof to the human out, remembering how they greeted each other. The human merely glared, then growled out "Well boy, out with it."
Lowering his hoof, and smile fixed to hide his annoyance, Ash asked "Amal Bashir Kicker? My Mother... your sister, has sent me here to be your apprentice. She asks you train me."
"No."
Ash jumped again, scowling now at the now shut door, ears flat against his skull as his teeth ground. Slamming a hoof against the door, he managed to hold himself in place as the door was yanked open again, its owner himself scowling.
"Art thou addled whelp? I heard thy request, and said no. Go back to the old cunts teat and suckle so thou can grow big and strong."
Fluffing up indigantly, Ash voice cracked in an adolescent yelp of indignation "Old cu... Bastard man, thou dare to speak of my mater and mother, your clan head, as such! I'll see you flogged for this brute!"
"Piss off colt. She's my sister, my family, and is a great big salty mean spirited pain in my dock cunt. And I told her before, no more."
"I have the sight Amal."
The human paused in his regards, brows raised. Taking a breath and soothing his wrath, Ash narrowed eyes locked with the humans, and continuing evenly "Its like.. I've seen the shades Amal. Glowing like moonlight in the day. I have since I was a foal. It's like using every sense at once, this sights? To see sounds and hear shapes. Something not even the magus can do. The Assassin's gift, correct."
Amal stepped back into his home, and merely shook his head.
"Go home son. Be a Guard, a clan pony... leave me alone, I beg you."
The door closed gently, and the latch sounded. Rolling his eyes, Ash slammed his hoof against the door, shouting "Open this door creature! I will not abandon my mothers quest, will not shirk my duties! Open this door now!"
A window opened on the second floor, the irate mans face poking out.
"I apologize my good sir if I was unable to truly convey myself properly and my speech muddled. I shall amed such a deed by these words: get off my bloody porch!"
The window slid shut, and leaping into the air, Ash circled around the house, teeth bared as he lighted on a balcony. Hearing the door into the building latch, Ash let out a howl of fury, and began hammering a hoof on the door.
"Open now you old fuck! I will not fail mother, you will train me! What cause thou troubled heart, what do you fear?
"Fear?"
Before Ash could move, he fell to the ground with a sharp umph of his wind being knocked from his lungs as the human lept from the awning onto the pony, knocking him flat onto the floor. Pinning his wings and their blades to his side with his legs, Amal took a fistful of mane and yanked the colts head up, pressing his thumb to the ponies jugular.
"Right there..." the human snarled, pressing his thumb harder into Ash's neck, "A sweet spot. Thou blades do naught if your caught unawares and are pinned, and no magi can bring you back from a knife when its shoved right there. Or here..." the human pushed the ponies head down hard, then pressed the thumb to the back of his neck.
"One quick jerk, and thats all. Or your lungs, kidneys, upwards through the ribs and into your hears, tendons, veins... and all learning this will do is make you a prize to be had. You'll face armies and legions on this path boy... all being my student will do is get you killed... or worse."
As the human lifted off his prey, the colt rolled out from under him, rubbing his throat, and gazed at the human in awe.
"Worse..."
"You'll have to kill others."
With that, the human walked back into his home, and Ash regarded the wood, saying softly "I'll never surrender you boorish thing."
"YOU HEAR ME! I'm never leaving!"
And with that, Ash sat down and stuck his tongue out at the door.
