The Iron Hearts

Chapters

01- Fifteen years later
02- Family and Friends
04- Back in the game
05- A small patch up
06- Shadows of the Past
07- Mayday!
08- The Island
00- The glory days
03- Out with the old, in with the new

01- Fifteen years later

It started off as something small, but then it began to grow rapidly. Various civilians began sueing the supers who saved them, using the injuries they've sustained and public property that was destroyed by the supers ‘saving' their lives. The first one involved the stallion who was originally saved by Iron Steed from an attempted suicide off of the Equestrian Bank company building, but in reality, he did not want to be saved at all. This was the first ever case brought against a super in the public eye, but it was sure to not be the last.

After the first case was settled against Iron Steed, a second one soon emerged regarding the passengers of the Ramtrak shuttle that the hero had stopped from plummeting off the edge when the tracks that it was on exploded. Even though it was a heroic act, the amount of damages that needed to be paid for both the passengers and the infrastructure ended up costing the government millions.

Soon, the floodgates of similar cases followed. About every super’s flaw was exploited, making the public believe they were dangerous criminals who did more harm to the civilians than good. It soon turned that when a super did anything heroic, for every one person that thanked them, a hundred more would condemn them. Meetings of supers were met with protests and riots, with some of them attempting to vandalize the headquarters of other hero teams.

What started as a local issue in Maretropolis soon began to spread… becoming an issue on the national stage. And with the public outcry, the politicians on the Canterlot courts held a meeting to discuss the issue. But one thing from that meeting would soon set the scale of what was to come next.

“I believe that all of in this room can simultaneously agree… that it is time for heroes to have their secret identity become their only identity. To either join the rest of the public and become civilians or go away.”

With the overwhelming amount of pressure from the public and the growing financial trouble from the numerous different lawsuits, Princess Celestia and her sister, Luna, both silently authorized the Superhero Relocation Plan. Supers were forced to hang up their costumes for good in return for being pardoned for past actions. To become civilians like everyone else, ensuring peace would follow without them.

So… Where are they now? These former champions of justice now live among us. Average citizens, average heroes. Quietly and anonymously living in order to make the world a better place for all creatures around the world.

The ringing of phones were heard, followed by the murmurs of every creature around, all waiting to be called to address an issue about their vehicle. Sitting behind one of the kiosks was Shining Armor, who had a 5 o'clock shadow growing, trying his best to stay awake. Ever since he had to hang up his suit, he had been working at different jobs… and with this one, he was working at the maretropolis location for the DMT. The department of motorized transports. With no real need for him to do anything physical, among other things, he had gained a lot of weight. Thankfully, part of it was hidden under his desk as he was trying to look over the paperwork in one of the files on his desk.

He looked up to the clock in the center, seeing an hour had barely past. A groan of anguish escaped from him. When he said he wanted to settle down all those years ago, he did not mean it like this, sitting behind a desk and hearing people complain about their vehicle problems. Back in his prime, he was one for trying to help the public… now though, helping the public was seen as just doing community service.

Though, it was just as he was thinking about this that the phone that was at his desk began to ring. Sluggishly, he picked it up using his left hand while having the right one reorganize the papers he was looking through. “You’ve reached the Department of Motorized Transports. Where would you like for me to-?”

“Hey there dear,” A rather familiar voice could be heard over the phone. The voice of his wife, Cadance, was speaking to him as Shining scanned the room to make sure nopony was coming towards him as he continued to listen. “I’m calling to celebrate a rather special occasion. We are now… officially moved in.”

As she was saying that, Shining could hear the sounds of what sounded like their baby daughter, Skyla, playing with something. Perhaps her toys maybe? Who knows. “That’s great to hear, honey… and the last two years don’t count because…”

“Because I finally opened up the last box… which was full of your nerdy games and collectibles, so now, it’s official!” Cadance said, alongside a fake laugh. Which caused her husband to sigh deeply as he tried to rub his eyes.

“It's not nerdy, it's authentic.”

“So Ogres & Oubliettes is authentic to you? I kind of see why…” His wife chuckled. “Even found your collectible puzzles and had to make sure I put them away before Skyla could play around with the pieces.” Around the time that he was listening to her speak though, he noticed a couple of his fellow co-workers passing by. One of them looking rather suspicious at him for a moment before wandering off.

“We’ll talk later about this. I gotta get back to work. Love ya, honey.”

“Love you too. It’s around that time for me to pick up the kids anyway,” He heard Cadance say to him. “Go save the world. See you later.”

And with that, the call ended. Leading the stallion to place his phone back on the ringer as he let out a deep sigh. However, he couldn’t exactly catch a break as the next person that came up to him was the last pony that he wanted to see right now.

His boss… and he wasn’t happy. “Armor…”

“Uh… my wife says hi.” Shining spoke.

“I’m not here to talk about that…” The stallion told him, looming over his desk. “I’m here to talk about the fact that you’ve been helping ponies contest their parking tickets and violations. Something that is not part of your job description, matter of fact your department. What? Do you think that what you’re supposed to be doing is optional to you?!”

“Well, someone needs to help them, isn't that what I’m doing?”

“Yes, but you’re supposed to be helping us by helping them! Do you have any idea as to what goes through my head in terms of how exactly I can keep this department branch open when you treating this facility like it’s some kind of charity case!?!” And like that, his boss stormed off, slamming the door at the back of the room with enough force to cause the papers that Shining had neatly put away to spill out and scatter everywhere. Leaving a disgruntled stallion to have to clean it up all over again.

Cadance opened the door to the principal’s office, having received a call about her son, Valiant Heart, just before she left home. Inside was not only the principal and her son, but what appeared to be her son’s science teacher. And from the looks of it, he wasn’t exactly happy right now.

“Welcome, Mrs. Heart,” The principal said, motioning his hand towards an empty seat. “Please, have a seat.” Her son cowered at the sight of his mom, looking nervous.

Valiant Heart was an Earth Pony, Cadance and Shining’s second born child, and their son. He was covered in a blue tinted, grey coat, with a dark blue and yellow striped mane and tail. Despite being an earth pony, he was rather flimsy looking, nowhere near looking towards the ideal strong or athletic type that most ponies would think of. He wore a simple green, button up shirt, with cargo shorts.

“Mr. Teach,” Cadance spoke, addressing the principal by his name. “Did Valiant do something wrong?”

“He's a disruptive student in my class, pulling off various pranks on me.” Valiant’s teacher answered in a professional tone that was holding back his anger.

“Mr. Beaker,” The principal now addressed the teacher, turning towards him. “Do you have any sizable proof to your claims that this student is being ‘disruptive’.”

“No!... I mean, yes!... I think.”

“I think you're getting too old for this.” Valiant spoke up. Causing his mother to roll her eyes for a moment.

“Oh yeah!? Guess what!? I hid a camera! And I’ve got you in the act!” That had the colt gasp for a moment and caused Cadance to shoot a glare at her son as Mr. Beaker walked over to the TV in the back of the room. Yet, as he was trying to get it to work… most of the tape came out as static and the only time that it seemed to work… was when he looked to have accidentally dropped a packet of pentos into a container of cola. Which had the students hide under the desk so they would not get caught in the explosion. Mr. Beaker smacked the TV and rewinded the footage, which showed the same thing.

“Mr. Beaker… I don’t think your ‘evidence’ here proves anything.” The principal then told him.

“It was working just a few minutes ago!” He turned and pointed at Valiant accusingly “What did you do!? What did you do to the TV and tape!?”

“Me? I’m just sitting here!” The colt said in response.

“... I’m sorry for wasting your time, Mrs. Heart.” The principal apologized before motioning them to exit. “I’ll need to have a chat with Mr. Beaker.”

“You're letting him go away again!?” Mr. Beaker yelled in frustration as Cadance and Valiant walked out. “That colt is guilty I say!! Guilty! Guilty!! GUILTY!!”

By the time that they had walked out of the door and made their way over to the car, Cadance noticed that her son looked… a bit different. Almost as if he either got away with something or that he thought he was let off the hook.

And around the time that they were driving over to go pick up his older sister, Cadance thought that the drive over would be the proper time to talk about it.

“... Val, this is the third time this year you've been sent to the principal's office.” Cadance spoke, using the nickname she had for him ever since he was a baby. But her comment just lead to Val letting out a sigh and not really saying anything in response. “You need to find a better outlet, a constructive one.”

“Maybe I could…” Valiant grumbled, before saying something that lead to Cadance immediately replying back. “If you would let me be part of the computer club.”

“Val, you know we can't do that.” Cadance replied back.

“But I promise not to make the computers run faster rate! I’ll not put any input into the mainframe! Pleeease!?” Her son pleaded, even going as far as to be looking directly at her instead of looking out the window.

“For the last time, Valiant, we know you have a knack for anything technological, but you need to be more social and interact with your fellow peers. You remember what the psychologist said about your… condition.” When she meant ‘condition’, she was referring to what would be her son’s powers. He could release a small electrical field around him that was invisible to the naked eye, and with it, be able to use any form of technology to his liking. Even going as far as to either ‘modify’ something to work better or combine more than one thing to make something new out of it.

“But there's other people in that club, and I’m not gonna mix the computers together to form a supercomputer.” Valiant pleaded again.

“Well, to make sure that doesn't happen, you just need to fit in, like what your father and I have done. We just need to be like everyone else.” Cadance insisted, pushing on the brake pedal as they approached a red light.

“But dad says our powers shouldn't be ashamed of! Our powers is what makes us all special.” Her son told her, almost like it was his last chance to try and convince Cadance to think otherwise.

“Everyone is special, Val.”

“Special, my flank.” The earth pony grumbled, before staring outside to watch everything go by. Sounding defeated in his efforts.

The last bell rang all around the campus of Maretropolis High as students began to leave their classrooms and make their way towards the exit. Sitting outside and drawing a flower in great detail was a pink unicorn with a swirly magenta and light blue mane & tail. Despite it being springtime, she wore a really thick, blue jacket, in combination with matching pants.

As she was putting the last details on her drawing, that was when she heard a voice above her that surprised her. “Hey, that looks pretty good.”

“EEP!!!” She jumped, quickly putting her stuff away. “Uh, y-you weren't meant to see that! That was for-” She stopped as she got a good look at the pony who complimented her drawing. It was Pound Cake, the new student from a town called Ponyville. He was a pegasus, covered in a creme coat and had a wavy brown mane & tail, wearing a black turtleneck.

“What? I was just telling you how nice it is,” He replied, before saying something as a look of realization was on his face now. “Hey… you’re that one girl in my art class… Flurry, right?”

“Uh… y-yeah, that's me. The lone, silent girl that sits in the corner… y-you're from Ponyville, right?” She asked, sounding nervous.

“Yep. Both of my parents run their own bakery called Sugarcube Corner over there. They had me come here to live with my Aunt Pinkie, who runs an extension bakery, believing it'll be better for me to learn responsibility.” Around that time though was when the pegasus noticed something as he looked back at her. “Hey, aren’t you warm in that jacket? It’s rather bright out.”

“Oh… it's for… fashion! Yep! Those popular girls won't know what will hit them they see me and everyone else wearing a jacket like this!”

“... But they wear jackets as well.” Pound told Flurry, who was left stuttering after hearing that and was having trouble trying to form a proper reply.

“Uh…” Like a living Deus Ex Machina, some honking was heard, with Valiant yelling.

“Come on, Flurry!”

“Oh, sorry, I gotta go! It was nice meeting you!” She quickly ran to the family's car, leaving Pound Cake alone.

“... She seems lovely.” He spoke to himself, waving goodbye as the car that Flurry got in drove away from the school and around the block.

Out of all the things that he missed from his life as being a hero, the second thing that he missed the most was the ironmobile. He had to give it up to the government as part of the Super Relocation Plan and now he had a car that was… well, rather small for somepony of his nature. His head was flat on the roof of the car, with his horn making a noticeable dent.

Then there was the fact that rush hour traffic out of the city was a complete nightmare. Every car was driving at a snail’s pace, with constant honking and everyone yelling at each other to move. If Shining had his old car, he would find some shortcut he could use to get around this blockade… but his daydream came to a halt by sompony honking behind him, despite Shining having nowhere to move. He needed to find a better job as soon as possible.

With what felt like an eternity, Shining made it home, his rust bucket of a car letting out a sputter as it came to a parking stop in his driveway. He let out a sigh of relief, getting out of his car… tripping on a skateboard, making him react and grab the car for dear life. A grumble escaped from him as he kicked the skateboard away from under his left hoof.

“Freaking kids.” He regained his balance and turned to see that, as he grabbed the roof of his car, he gripped too hard and left what looked like the grip of his hand on it. “Oh great!”

He closed the door, only for it to not close properly. Blocked by the dent, but it was something he did not notice as he tried closing it again… and again… and again. A growl escaped from him as he slammed the door shut… only for the door to fall off its hinges. Rage took over the stallion as he turned into his metal form, grabbed the door and tried to shove it back into place. His anger came to a stop as he saw a brown colt, wearing a spinning hat, sitting on a tricycle, watched him in shock. Silence fell as Shining went back to normal, awkwardly chuckled, and pushed the door back into place before walking into his house. Hopefully, he’d get the chance to try and relieve some stress that he had after a long day at work.

Again… Hopefully.

Author's Note

Now, we are in the present. And with it, we meet Shining and Cadance's children. Flurry Heart, the oldest of the three, who is a unicorn attending Maretropolis High and excelling at school despite social anxiety. Valiant Heart, the mischievous earth pony who is in the forth grade and who's habits sometimes get him in trouble. And lastly we have Skyla, the little pegasus who Cadance always has to keep an eye on.

We'll be seeing more of them in the next chapter... as well as going more in detail about the special... gifts that both Flurry and Valiant have. While also bringing back an old friend.
-Frost

02- Family and Friends

“Honey, dinner’s ready!” Cadance called out to him as the kids were beginning to sit at the table. Tonight was leftover night, meaning that whatever had not been finished up in the fridge over the last two days was up for grabs. The whole family sat around the table, though Cadance was feeding Skyla her baby food. For each of the family members, Shining had a sliced pineapple souffle, Valiant the same, but not cut properly, Flurry had a caesar salad in front of her, and Cadance had alfredo pasta. There were also having spinach quiche tonight, but from the looks of it, it mostly remained untouched.

Mostly… because Cadance was currently trying to feed some of it to Skyla, who was on her high rise chair right next to her. And when she was doing it, her children were noticing the rather expressive faces she was making.

“Mom, you're making weird faces again.” Valiant spoke.

“Oh no, I’m not.” Cadance replied, still making her funny faces, focused on Skyla.

“Yes you are. Everypony can see them.” Valiant said again, even though it didn’t really stop her as he tried to bite into the side of his souffle.

“He’s right honey. Everypony can see them.” Shining then said, half focused on his food and half focused on the paper he was trying to read. Which had Cadance look up from the table and directly at him.

“Do you really have to read the paper during dinnertime?” Cadance asked, a bit annoyed.

“Yep.” Cadance rolled her eyes before turning her attention to Valiant. Just as he was trying to take huge bites from his souffle without even trying to cut it first.

“Smaller bites, Val! Yikes! Shining? A little help please?” Shining Armor sighed as he leaned over and began to cut Valiant's souffle. As he was cutting it though, that was when the pegasus decided to bring something else up. “So Val… are you going to tell your father what happened at school earlier today?”

“Uh… we learned about chemical compounds.” Valiant replied nervously. Causing Cadance rolled her eyes.

“Val got sent to the principal's office today… again.”

“Good… good…” Shining murmured, too focused on his mind.

“No, Shining! That's bad!” Cadance corrected him, which snapped Shining out of his trance.

“Wait, what!?” He asked, looking back at his son and his wife to try and understand what was going on as he was still cutting the souffle.

“Val got sent to the principal's today!”

“What!? What for!?”

“Nothing!” Valiant haphazardly lied.

“He decided to pull on of his ‘pranks' on his teacher, most likely during class.” Cadance inspected his son’s face in response. “And then, when his teacher tried showing us the video of the incident, he used his powers to make the footage all static… in the principal’s office.”

“It's not my fault they can't detect electromagnetic pulses at a whim like me.”

“Wait a minute,” Shining put the puzzle pieces in his head. “You ruined a tape used against you!? Why, I didn't know you can do that! Did you do anything creative?”

“Shining! We’re not supposed to be encouraging this behavior!” Cadance told him, before looking down towards the table.

“I’m not encouraging, I’m just asking if-”

“Shining!”

CRACK!!!

Valiant's plate broke, with some wood from table now sticking out as a chunk of the souffle was separated along with the plate itself. Something that Shining saw as even more frustrating as he backed up to his side of the table. “Well, that’s just perfect. First the car, now-!”

“Hold on, what happened to the car?” Cadance then asked, confused upon hearing her husband’s remarks just now. He just got up and gave Valiant his plate, taking the paper with him.

“Here, I’m getting myself a new plate.” As he left the table and Valiant was looking back at Cadance, the pegasus decided to try and change the topic of the conversation by looking to the other side of the table.

Though, before she could ask about her daughter’s day, she noticed something. “Flurry, are you alright? You haven’t eaten anything off your plate.”

“I’m not feeling the mood for salad, mom.” She answered.

“You don’t have to have salad if you don’t want to, honey,” Cadance told her daughter. “It’s leftover night. We got pasta, quiche, souffle… what would you like?”

“Pound Cake, perhaps?” Valiant teased. Which caused Flurry to glare daggers directly at her brother.

“Don’t even start-” She growled briefly, before being cut off by her mother.

“Well, you are…” The colt said, a cocky grin on his face as his sister glared even more. But what they also noticed was the pair of crystals that were rising over her shoulders.

“I said don’t even start, you little twerp!” Flurry snapped at her brother, going as far as to point one of her utensils as if she was wanting to stab him with it.

“Hey, no yelling at the table!” Cadance told both of her kids as she tried to get both of them to calm down and not fight each other. “Honey, a little help here?”

Yet… the only kind of thing that she got from her husband was something not really helpful. “Kids… listen to your mother, please.” That just had the pegasus give off a deadpan expression, but it did calm tensions a little bit for the moment so everyone could have the chance to eat.

Unfortunately… Valiant had one last remark that drove her sister to her breaking point. “If Pound Cake were over for dinner, she would eat anything-”

“Alright, that’s it!”

Immediately after her brother said that, two crystal shards zoomed past Valiant’s head. Impaling themselves to the wall as her brother tried to duck for cover underneath the table. However, that plan didn’t get him far as his sister proceeded to tackle him to the floor and try to beat him up under there. However, her sister’s movements have had something fall down to the ground, and Valiant realized that it was his father’s cell phone.

Extending his hand, he grabbed it and used his powers to have the camera flash stun her sister. Giving him the opportunity in order to break free. He kicked his sister off, and levitated both the toaster and blender, ripping both contraptions into multiple pieces and reassembling the parts to create a gun that, as soon as he pulled the trigger, fired burning coils like an SMG. Flurry growled and raised a shield of crystals, blocking the burning projectiles.

“KIDS!!! STOP!!!” Cadance yelled, taking the contraption out of Valiant’s hand and throwing it away, and kicked down Flurry’s crystal wall. All that did was have both kids tackle each other and throw multiple punches to each other. Their mom tried to grab both and pull them away from each other. “SHINING!!!”

Meanwhile, Shining Armor sat in his office with the paper, reading the various articles, but stopped upon one that got his full attention. “Hunh? Flash Sentry… long time advocate of superhero rights and member of the canterlot royal guard… is missing?” After looking at the article and the picture of the stallion that was on there, he soon realized who exactly was the pony in the photo. It was someone that was a hero during the glory days. “Centurion…”

“SHINING!!!” Cadance’s voice broke out, taking Shining Armor out of his trance. He walked out to see his family in a fight that made the dining room look like a warzone, with Skyla on the side, laughing at the sight like it was somehow funny.”Shining! It’s time to intervene!”

“You want me to intervene!?” Shining asked, all his anger finally coming out. “Alright! I’ll intervene!” He turned into his medal for and grabbed Flurry, who was firing crystal shards wildly. “Stop right this instant, Flurry!”

“Valiant started this!” Flurry yelled.

“You need to take a joke!!!” Valiant yelled back.

“You’re all out of control!” Cadance yelled.

The struggle came to a halt as the doorbell rang. Shining and Cadance released their kids, as Flurry quickly picked up her crystal shards and Valiant brought back the toaster and blender back into their original forms. Everything seemingly went back to the way it was, albeit, some holes and burn marks were still around.

Which lead to Valiant then getting up out of his seat. “I guess I’ll get the door then,” He said, getting out of his chair and walking over, opening the door a mere inch… and recognizing the stallion on the other side. “Hey, it’s Spearhead!”

“Hey, whiz kid,” Spearhead chuckled, while looking at the rest of the family. “Hey Cadance… I didn’t come at the wrong time now, did I?”

“Oh no, not at all!” Cadance greeted with an authentic, welcoming tone.

“You didn’t have to brush on over here so quickly now…” Shining chuckled, while his friend let out a fake laugh and a deadpan face.

“Haha… like I haven’t heard that one before.”

“Hey, Spearhead!” Valiant gurgled from his glass of water before spitting it out.

“WOAH!!!” Spearhead pulled out a spray can and made a bucket of water appear from a quick spray, leaving no mess behind. The family applauded at the scene, though Valiant mumbled to himself.

“I liked it when your clothes wash off.”

“I’ll be back later!” Shining Armor said as he got up, excitedly.

“Where are you going?” Cadance asked him, surprised at how quickly he got up from the table after that.

“It’s Wednesday!”

“Wednesday… Oh right,” The pegasus realized what her husband meant, before saying it out loud. “Board game night.”

“More like bored game night.” Valiant snickered.

“Val…” Cadance gave her son the evil eye before turning to the two stallions leaving. “Tell Honey I said hi, Spearhead.”

“Will do, Cadance!” Spearhead yelled as Shining pushed him out of the house. “‘Night Cadance! ‘Night kids!” With that, the door closed behind them. Leaving the three kids with their mother at the table as they tried to have what was left of dinner.

And also leaving Cadance to look back at her son, who was trying to smile a bit despite the situation he found himself in. “Don’t think you’re off the hook just yet for your trip to the principal’s office, Val. Your father and I are definitely going to be discussing about this later.”

“I’m not the only kid sent to the principal’s office, you know.” Valliant replied, going back to eating his souffle.

“Other kids don’t have powers,” Cadance retorted. “Now look, it’s perfectly normal to-”

That small statement though… did not sit really well with Flurry as she looked back at the rest of her family. “Hold on… Normal? What exactly do you know, matter of fact, anypony in this family know about normal?!”

“Now Flurry-”

“Mom, look at me! I wanna feel normal, I wanna be normal around other ponies,” Flurry continued to speak. “The only normal one around here is Skyla, and she doesn’t even understand how much of a nerd dad is!” Skyla let out a laughing fit in response as what Flurry said began to sink in a little to Valiant.

“Lucky.” He muttered to himself. Cadence turned to Valiant, looking at him the same way that Flurry was looking at them now as his facial expression changed in a heartbeat. “I mean on being normal.”

Some time had passed since Shining had left the house with his friend Spearhead and right now, they were sitting in their car, listening to the police scanner that was in his friend’s car as the pegasus was recalling an old story. “So… there I was, like in some real deep trouble. One more snarky remark from this guy and I’m ending up as an elegy… Fortunately, I was able to create some cover and what does Baron Von Merciless do?”

Shining knew the answer to that one right off the top of his horn. “He starts monologuing…”

“Exactly! He starts monologuing!” Spearhead said as he rolled his eyes. “He starts reading like this declaration of victory and goes on about how fragile I am compared to him and how my defeat was foretold, and how everypony in the world would bow before him… Blah blah blah…” Both Shining and Spearhead were laughing at that, before the earth pony said something else. “I mean, the guy has me cornered and unable to do anything, but he won’t shut up…”

At that moment, came a new transmission on the radio “10-4, we have a PC-211 past first street…”

“PC-211…” Shining repeated to himself, trying to raise the volume on the radio in order to hear the rest of the report. “That’s an armed robbery…”

“Oh dear Celestia, this is just beyond sad…” Spearhead rolled his eyes, even though what the unicorn was hearing on the radio was getting him excited.

“Yeah, it’s a robbery…” said the unicorn, a smile of confidence on his face as he turned to look at his friend. “Wanna go catch a robber? Could be fun.”

“No,” His friend stated bluntly, before turning to face his friend directly. “To tell you the honest truth, I wanted to go get some friends and actually play Ogres and Oubliettes for once. Hell, if we aren’t doing that every wednesday evening, then what exactly are we doing then, Shining?”

“What? We’re protecting the public.” Shining replied back before taking a drink of water from a cup that was in the front cupholder between them.

That was when Spearhead sighed and placed a hand on his forehead before leaning in on the driving wheel of the car. “Yet, nopony asked us too.”

“What?” The unicorn raised an eyebrow as he set the cup he had back in the cupholder. “Did you need a royal summons from the princess like when we were in the guard?”

“I’d like one, yes,” Spearhead then retorted, before leaning back in his chair and looking back at his friend. “Shining, we been sneaking on out every night since you first had Flurry in order to do this and…” For a moment, a new thought entered his head as he looked back at the unicorn. “You remember Centurion… Orange fur? Pegasus that could shoot lasers from his wings?”

“Of course I remember him. The three of us were in the same platoon of the royal guard before we each decided to take on hero work,” Shining replied, while also mentioning something else. “He was also mentioned in the paper.”

“Well, he had trouble adjusting to civilian life as well… From what I know, he first came back to the guard, but the stress of it didn’t really help him try to settle down.”

Then came a completely random question from Shining. “When was the last time you’ve seen him?”

“I don’t see anypony from the old days at all, Shining. Just you and Cadance,” The earth pony clarified for him. “And come on, we’re pushing our luck as it is right now. Can’t we just get some coffee or something at Starbuckers?”

“Oh come on, come on… You can’t say that you don’t have fun when we do this.”

“Look,” Spearhead told towards Shining, “I’ll admit that it was entertaining the first few times, but if we keep doing this, somepony’s going to-” Yet, before he could be able to finish his sentence, that was when they both heard something on the police scanner that caught their attention.

“All officers, be on the lookout for a group of ponies going through Watercolor and Easel. There’s been reports of break in’s and vandalism over the last few hours and it’s likely that they’re still on the loose.”

That, had Spearhead blink for a moment. “Wait… Watercolor and Easel? Did I hear that right?”

That had Shining realize what he’s talking about a few moments after hearing that himself. “Isn’t that where your studio is?” When Spearhead had to retire from being the Canvas and relocate, he decided to actually pursue a career path with that of what fit his powers best. But, he did more than just become an artist. He not only got his own studio, but it also served as a recreational center and had afterschool programs for ponies. Flurry herself even went there and that was where she learned how to draw.

“It may not be a robber, but at least we’ll probably be able to catch somepony tonight.” His friend said, which caused Shining to cheer out loud as he pulled out of the small alley in between the two buildings and took off.

As they were leaving though, there was somepony that looked to be in a unicorn in the back of a silver car… and was currently speaking on the phone. “I think my hunch was correct… the big one is the Iron Steed.” Some robotic beeps came through the phone, sending a code through. “He has put on a few pounds, but isn't out of his hero days… I take it you want to be able to see him in action?”

“Come on man, seriously? I think we’ve hit enough places for one evening…” Out of the group of four ponies, each one was dressed rather similarly. They all had some form of dark clothing on and wore a hood over their face. Three of them had backpacks on in order to carry a series of paint cans inside while two of the ponies with bags carried a baseball bat. Just in case if the pony that was in charge of the group could not exactly get into the building without tripping any alarms.

But there was one of them. A unicorn who’s horn was sticking out from underneath his hood, that was having some doubts as to whether or not they should keep doing this. “If we keep on doing this, the cops will catch us.”

“You said that the last three times and look what happened,” The earth pony who did not have a backpack on said to them. “Besides, we already scoped the place out earlier and there’s nopony here this late. Now, are you going to do this with us or not, Inkwell?”

The unicorn, who just looked back at the earth pony, glared back at them. “You know what… Forget this. I’m going home… I didn’t want to even be part of this and yet, you say that it was the only way I get to be friends with you. Well, forget it… I rather not be friends with someone who thinks doing this is fun, Rocky-”

Of course, when the unicorn tried to leave, both of the other ponies with the bats blocked his path as knocked him down to the ground as the earth pony began to speak to him. Unknowingly though… from around the corner, Shining and Spearhead were hiding in the shadows.

“What the heck?” Spearhead spoke up. “Shining, are you seeing this?”

“Yeah.” Shining answered. “By the looks of it, this was an initiative, but that guy backed out. Seems this break in just got better.”

“No, that’s not what I mean, you idiot…” Spearhead said, before looking back at him. “That unicorn… I know that kid. He just moved here and signed up for the same after school program Flurry’s in… What exactly is you plan here, Shining? I can’t have him think that his own teacher by day is some kind of vigilante by night.”

Shining pulled out two ski masks from his pocket. “I took this off of the last guys who tried to break in that house a few weeks ago. Put yours on, and speak in a low voice.”

“Always like you to be prepared…” Spearhead whispered, before putting his on. Shortly after, he began to use his spraycan to make what looked like a slingshot as he looked back at him. “You got a rock I can use? If I take out the streetlight, it would be harder for them to see us.”

“Let me do this.” Shining grabbed the slingshot and threw it at the streetlight, shattering it, making everything dark.

“What the-?!” One of the ponies said out loud, getting their bats up as if they were holding an actual weapon. “What the buck was that just now?!”

In that moment, both Spearhead and Shining watched as the young unicorn used the chance to trip one of the stallions and make a break for it. “Hey, where do you think you’re going, punk!?”

“Go, now!” Spearhead told Shining.

“WHOO!!!” Shining cheered, running into the trio.

“What the-!?” One of them yelled before receiving a hard punch across the face. Shining turned into his metal form, as one of the stallions swung at him with their baseball bat, only for the sports equipment to shatter and break upon impact.

Despite his friend being impervious to anything these punks can throw at him, Spearhead himself had to use other means in order to try and defend himself. Back in the royal guard, the officials that were training the cadets that would work specifically for the princess a form of hand to hand combat that would be used when it came to disarming targets. In Spearhead’s case, while his opponent was swinging wildly, he quickly went for his attacker’s hands, forcing pressure onto the joints of his wrist and making them drop their weapon.

Right after that, Spearhead threw another punch to knock out the target as he turned to Shining. Who seemed to be holding up rather well from the looks of things. Well, until after one last punch to knock the last person out, did he wince in pain.

“Ahh! Oh my back!”

Spearhead just rolled his eyes before looking back at him. “Looks like you overdid it… How about you go back to the car and take a breather,” The earth pony suggested, before spraying his paint can to create what looked like a series of ropes. “I’ll go tie these guys up for when the cops get here.”

“Yeah… I need to lay off the cake.” Shining Groaned as he waddled his way back to the car while Spearhead began to tie up the crooks and empty their bags so the police would see the evidence. All without accidentally leaving any form of evidence behind. Though, to him… the thought of Shining passing up on cake, matter of fact any kind of treat, was something that he saw as unlikely.

By the time that he had gotten back home, Shining’s back did feel a bit better as he was able to walk slowly to the door without any real pain. Quietly, he opened the door and entered the dimly lit home as he made his way through the kitchen to try and go to bed. On his way over, he happened to notice something that was left out on the counter.

It wasn’t cake, but some cookies from the new bakery that he had heard about called Sugarcube Corner. There were a few crumbs on the plate already, leading him to think that Cadance had them out for the kids earlier in the evening. And in his mind, one cookie would not be as big of a treat as a whole piece of cake.

Yet, as he took the cookie and began to walk towards the bedroom, he stopped. Looking towards the living room, he heard a light switch flick on… and in one of the living room chairs was Cadance. In her evening gown, arms folded and looking directly at him. “I thought you would be back before midnight…”

“I said I’d be back.” Shining replied. But as he tried to turn away, he heard hoofsteps as Cadance began to walk over to him. Pinching around his shoulders for a moment.

And as he turned around, that’s when he noticed that what she was holding… was a splinter of wood from earlier. “Is this… debris?”

“Uh… no, it's just an accident I made.”

“I highly doubt accidents when playing a board game would lead to pieces of wood in your clothing…” Cadance told him.

“Well it did. We got excited, I jumped for joy, and broke the chair I sat on.”

“Really? And when were chairs autographed by Benny Bones?” Cadence questioned, before looking back at him. “You were trying to get a ‘workout’ in… were you?”

The look of guilt on Shining’s face was all that Cadence needed to see before she facepalmed herself. “You know how I feel about that, Shining. Darn you, we can not blow cover again!”

“Well tonight was different! I stopped a potential murder!”

“You did what?!” Cadance asked, gasping at the sound of that. Before realizing something. “Dear Celestia, please don’t tell me you’ve been listening to the police scanner again.”

“I can't handle it! It was a potential break in to Spearhead's studio, and the victim was one of Flurry’s classmates! He's just a kid who realized what he did was wrong and was going to die. Do you want a dead kid on your conscious!?”

“Okay, I get that… but if that were not the case, would you still have done what you did?” Cadance then asked, which lead to a rather long pause from the stallion as his wife let out a deep sigh. “Shining, I know you want to be able to help ponies like what we did in the glory days, but uprooting our family again in order to relive those days is not a good thing-”

“Oh!? And I suppose forgetting about that is better?”

“No… The glory days did happen, but our family is what’s happening right now and you are missing it,” Cadance then said, before bringing up a subject that Shining was not expecting. “Not to mention the fact that I still can’t get over the fact that you actually want to miss your own son’s graduation. He looks up to you as his idol. You should be there for him!”

“Ok, first off, I wanted to, but I have work. And second, it's not a graduation, it's him moving from the fourth grade to fifth grade!”

“It’s a ceremony for Luna’s sake,” Cadance told him. “How would it look on us if we’re not there to support him?”

“That is not a ceremony! It's just a way for them celebrate mediocrity for something that is mandatory, and not for anything like graduating high school!”

“This is not about you, Shining… This is about Val. We need to have him do something productive for him. We can’t just have him be pulling pranks every day he’s in school-”

“Is that what this is about!? Then let him join the computer club! Let him do the stuff neither of us know a thing about! Let him do what he does best!”

Now Cadance was beyond annoyed with Shining. It’s almost as if he forgot the reasons as to why they were trying to live here in the first place. “Don’t even try to make me the bad guy here, Shining. You and I both know exactly the reason why we can’t do that!”

“Why not!? Are we really going to have our kids be afraid of using their powers!? You want them to be hurt instead of being able to protect themselves!?”

“No! And for the last time, this is not… ABOUT… YOU!!!” That last shout caused one of the lights in the corner to flicker as both Shining and Cadance turned around.

It was in that moment that they realized… they weren’t exactly alone right now. “Kids… you can come out now.” Valiant stuck his head from the corner, followed by Flurry, both looking a bit worried by the sight of their parents arguing. “Everythings okay… we were just having a talk.”

“A pretty loud talk…” Flurry replied back.

“Yes,” Shining replied “and we’re sorry for that. Your mother and I still love each other, it's just… well…”

“We don't exactly agree on everything.” Cadence added.

“Yes… but that’s not what’s important,” Shining tried to redirect the conversation. “Because your mother and I are always a team. We’re always united… against…… uh… against…”

“Bad influences?” Valiant asked.

“I was going to say bad guys, but yeah… bad influences.”

Cadance sighed as she looked back at the kids now. “We’re sorry that we woke you two up… It won’t happen again. Now, I think all of us should get some sleep.” With that, both Val and Flurry got up from their spots in the living room and went back to their room, while Cadance went back to hers so she and Shining could get some much needed sleep.

Author's Note

And with that, we see how Shining is finding it difficult to try and be 'normal'. From when it comes to being with his family to even when he's out with friends. Poor guy can't catch a break.

Oh and we get the chance to look at Flurry's powers as well as the powers of his friend, Spearhead. Flurry's power is the ability to be able to conjure and create crystals that surround her body. However, there are two crystals that are on her back that take on the form of wings. In order for anypony not to notice them at school, she wears jackets on at all times so they remain covered and therefore cannot be seen by anypony.

As for Spearhead, his power is the ability to be able to have whatever he paints with his spraycan come to life. Whether they be objects, props or creatures, if he can create it, he can bring it to life. Only thing is, there is a limit to how many of his creations he can have come to life and it also depends on how much paint is left in the can.
-Frost

04- Back in the game

By the time that Shining had reached the airport, a special security detail had escorted him to a jet that was waiting on the tarmac, ready for take off. On the outside, it looked to be a standard class plane that was designed so most ponies who did not have the luxury of wings or flight based magic could easily be able to travel from coast to coast without any difficulties. But once Shining was inside, he realized that this was definitely not the case. He was allowed to change in a private bathroom that looked to be straight out of a five star hotel, hold the briefcase that had his suit in a specialized compartment and when he made his way towards first class, the entire cabin looked to be one large room with a table in the center and a door that lead to the captain’s cabin.

And around ten minutes after takeoff… the doors to the cabin opened and the pony he was anticipating to meet soon emerged. Fleur De Lis. “Good morning, Iron Steed,” She replied, sitting across from him on the other side of the cabin. “It’s an honor to be able to meet you in person rather than just send you a message.”

“It's a pleasure as well, Ms. Fleur,” Shining replied, extending his hand to her. “I can call you that, right?”

“Fleur is fine with me,” The unicorn insisted as she moved her mane back with her right hand, before having what appeared to be a keyboard prop up right in front of her and also what looked like a holographic screen in between them. “Since this will be a bit of a long flight, how about we discuss the details of the assignment that we need for you to take on.”

“Anything's better than nothing. What's the situation?”

“Well…” Fleur soon typed in a few keys and soon, some images began to appear on the screen. Something that almost looked like a dragon… but with no wings. “My department has been working on a top secret project in the field of robotics in order to see if we could create a construct capable of self thought… We called it Project Salamander.”

“Salamander? … Take it you were too focused on the science to think of a better name?”

Fleur shook his head. “Actually… we named it for a pretty particular reason… Long ago, there was a dragon that was called by the same name. He was incapable of being able to fly like most other dragons, but he was a brilliant tactician when it came to many different fields, into military strategy and guerilla warfare. He’s also been known for outsmarting Starswirl the Bearded in a game of chess…” Those fact were a lot to process at first, but it was around that time that she began to get back on track. “So, the idea was that it could be able to independently be able to come up with the same strategies and tactics in the hope that we could have it replace the need for Equine soldiers in times of war… and that’s where we had our problem…”

“It became self aware and is attacking everyone on the island?”

“Indeed… It broke loose and it’s rampaging across the island. We’ve already evacuated all the personnel off the island and tracked it down to where it’s on the southwest portion of the island,” Around that point in what Fleur was saying, a map of the location was seen so that way Shining had a visual reference as to where he was going to be going. “We’ve quarantined that section of the island so it would not escape, but it’s up to you to use whatever you can to stop it.”

That… was followed another tidbit. “Oh… and one more thing. This project, despite being rampant, is a rather high valued asset…”

“Stop this robot and not try to break it too much. Got it.”

“You are Iron Steed after all.”

After what was a rather long wait, with most of that time being Shining getting into suit, he was ready. It had been a long time, and to say the costume was snug was a total understatement. Just the fact he had to suck up his gut to put on his belt told the stallion the he REALLY needed to get back in shape.

But that was not the only embarrassing thing that told him that. Because that was saved for when they had to put him in the ejection pod. He had already strapped himself in and told the operator at the controls that he was good to go… but as he was trying to go into the pod, his gut was preventing him from going any further. The stallion at the controls tried pushing him in five times, before having to resort to alternate measures as Shining felt like he was getting sucked in like a vacuum.

As the cover of the pod was preparing to go over his head, Fleur had one last piece of advice for him. “Remember… this is a thinking robot. The longer you fight it, the more that it figures out how to beat you and in some cases, use the environment that you are in as a weapon.”

“Yeah, beat the robot as quickly as possible and don't destroy it too much.”

“And don’t die.” The unicorn outside the pod added, just as the pony at the controls put in the coordinates for the drop.

“I don't plan to.” That had Fleur smile for a moment as she stepped away from the pod. Immediately afterwards, Shining was shot out of the jet as he began to plummet towards the southwest side of the island that he was approaching. To ensure he would make it out, he turned into his metal form and braced for impact.

Of course, upon landing, he found out that the pod itself was still intact… now the only challenge he would have to overcome was getting out of it. The top half of his body was able to stick out, but thanks to his gut, he couldn’t exactly climb out. A grumble escaped as he went back into his pod, and with some hard kicks, he busted the pod open from the inside. Shining took the time to take a deep breath, his gut showing past his shirt while doing so, finally feeling free, back in suit, ready for action.

“It’s showtime!” He announced proudly to no one in particular, quickly running into the jungle ahead. Most of the time that he was in the jungle, he was trying to look for any potential clues as to the Salamander’s whereabouts, but over the course of twenty minutes (give or take a bit a rest in between), he did not have much luck in finding anything. But he wasn’t the type to give up so easily, even if he was tired and thirsty already.

His investigation started to show itself as he noticed several of the trees were sliced and pushed out of the way, as if something was making its way through. Next to the destroyed trees was various scorches, both on the floor, and on several of the trees, with some flames still lit. The Salamander was here not too long ago, maybe about half an hour or so.

In fact… it was only when Shining looked at the reflection of a small puddle did he realize… it was directly behind him. And he had only seconds to react as the mechanical beast swung it’s razor sharp claws at him. Cutting through the trunk of a palm tree as Shining tried to stand on his feet. The robot did indeed look like a dragon, albeit, it was metalic with literal knives for its teeth, and had a flamethrower in it’s mouth that was ignited. It reared its head back and blew some fire, making Shining jump of out the way quickly and over it. He turned into his metal form and grabbed the robot’s tail, using his strength to pick up the robotic beast and swing it around, making its head slam against the trees before throwing it.

However, mid flight, the robot flipped itself around and it landed on all fours when Shining was throwing it at what looked like the side of a steep hill. After a few seconds, Shining saw what looked like ignition boosters on it’s back legs as it locked onto his position. Because it was heading much faster than he anticipated… and directly at him. He jumped over the robot again, but in the robot’s computer, it quickly calculated that Shining was going to grab its tail again, prompting the machine to smack Shining to the side with its tail. Throwing the hero into a wall as the impact in his metal form caused a rather big crater to form.

The smack from the Salamander’s tail gave a cut in Shining’s right arm, tearing a bit of his costume. Salamander came to a grinding halt, facing Shining and blasted towards him. Shining turned around and made a mad dash, seeing light just at the end of the jungle. If he had to guess, it was a cliff, he could lose the robot, catch his breath, and come up with a better plan. However, that was when the dragon did what looked like a forward somersault… and was now rolling like a spinning buzzsaw towards Shining. Adrenaline kicked into the stallion as he ran even faster, and jumped into the opening… only to suddenly crash through a wall, seeing that he was in a laboratory of sorts.

There looked to be all sorts of equipment in there, from what looked like testing rooms to a full on computer room that would like the stuff of his son’s dreams. But one thing that did stand out a little was that the main monitor looked to have something on screen that resembled a menu. One on ‘Project Salamander’. Which, made the stallion think this could potentially be some kind of lead as to how to shut the whole thing down. His thoughts came to a stop as the robot bursted in, letting out a mechanical roar.

“Oh come on, really?!” Shining grit his teeth, before noticing something on the screen behind him. For a moment, it showed what appeared to be what the robot was seeing. Him on some kind of scanner… but the computer behind him was labeled as ‘Mental Mainframe… DO NOT DAMAGE’. With that in mind, Shining turned to the computers and began to smash it… or, at least, tried. The materials used on the computers was a lot stronger than he had anticipated… or being out of the hero business made him weaker.

The robot slapped Shining out of the way, making the hero crash alongside the wall. But the edge of the claw had hit the side of the console and when Shining got back up, he noticed that the robot was staggering a little because of that small mistake. ‘Warning. Mental Mainframe at 63% durability. Further damage may lead to disruption of mental processing unit’. Now, he was thinking of a plan: make the robot attack it's own computer, and any openings will have him rip out any loose wires. Because if he could cause the computer itself to shut down… it would have the robot shut down with it. He ran to the robot, tripping it's legs, and stood in front of the computer.

“Right here, you waste of scraps!” He taunted. Which caused the robot to roar again as it dived right towards him with its claws stretched out. Like the last time this scenario played out, he jumped up and expected for the beast to try and smack him with its tail. But when it hit the computer again, it staggered in place. Unable to move or make a reaction as the computer screen had a new message.

‘Warning. Critical Failure imminent!! Extensive damage sustained. Further damage would lead to complete shutdown…’

Shining used it's frozen position to rip it's front claw right out of its wrist, and proceeded to stab the computer multiple times with it. Each stab made the robot twitch uncontrollably, up until the last few beeps and it stopped, deactivated. The hero triumphantly laughed, pointing at the fallen machine, but stopped as his back cracked.

“Ahh! Not again…” He groaned, trying to fix what happened and straighten out his back. Of course, as he stood above the carnage, the hero did not notice that one of the creatures that was in the distance was watching him…

As Fleur was watching the footage from one of the small mechanical drones that resembled that of a macaw parrot, the image of the Iron Steed standing victorious over the ‘test’ that they had set up for him proved to be quite a sight. Especially for the pony that was standing next to her, who was just as impressed by the hero’s feat of strength.

“Impressive… he’s still got it after all these years,” She heard him say, before he told her something else. “We must bring him back.”

Fleur nodded in response, before she heard him say something else. “Send the all clear and… invite him to dinner. It might give us the chance to know about him a little more.”

Several hours had passed since the battle against the Salamander robot. The staff were able to return and began to fix everything, going back to what it was before the incident. Shining was taken to a private dinner area via the island's own railway, in suit, to look nice, though he kept his mask on.

As he arrived, he noticed that the entire left wall looked exactly like the lava of a volcano… and as he was beginning to enter, the wall split up down the middle. Out of caution, he backed up. Only to watch as he saw Fleur step out of the wall… but he noticed somepony else talking to her. Of course, he could only see the shadow of who this person was, but he decided not to risk it.

Closing the door, he backed up all the way to when he got out of the railway car. Entering and exiting it again to make it look like he just arrived as Fleur opened the door. “Do I… look too formal?”

“Actually, you look rather marvelous this evening.” She complimented him, before letting him follow her all the way to the table that they were to be dining at. A variety of fresh and tropical fruits were already spread out, along with a few appetizers for the two of them to have while they waited for the main course to be brought out. But, it did allow for the opportunity to conversate.

And there was one rather… specific question that Shining had regarding the wall that was along the side of the room. “So… I gotta ask this. Out of all the places you wanted to try and rest easy, why did you decide to live-?”

“With a volcano?” Fleur interjected, finishing his question for him. “Well, you could say it was my… supervisor’s idea. He’s attracted to power and potential… It’s a bit of a weakness the two of happen to share.”

“That… seems pretty unstable. The volcano could easily blow up at any time.” He replied back to her.

“I prefer to think of it as… misinterpreted,” Fleur explained to her. “In fact, some of the researchers on this island have been able to grow the fruits that you see in front of you on this very table. And the power that many supers had back in the day were able to save hundreds of lives.”

That was true, Shining had to admit. “Yeah… it’s a shame that things aren’t like that nowadays.”

“Everypony also has one other weakness too… and that’s fear. I’m not referring to fear in the general sense of course,” The unicorn mentioned. “But fear in the sense that ponies are sometimes afraid of things that they don’t entirely understand. They would see something as alien or a monster, but in reality, it’s just somepony who’s… misunderstood.”

“Heh… Aren’t we all?” He asked, raising a glass of cider as Fleur did the same. It might be a while before he would be possibly be called again… but right now, Shining was feeling much better about himself than he had in a long long time. He felt as if the good times were back and he could only think about one thing.

His family back home.

Author's Note

And just like the title says, Shining... or Iron Steed for that matter, finds himself getting back into the game of hero work after being absent for some time. Now... cue the montage.

Happy fourth of July everyone. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as you would probably enjoy the fireworks.
-Frost

05- A small patch up

Author's Note

So... where to begin with this one? Well, to start, when MrAquino and I were beginning to think of how we would do our interpretation of Edna Mode, we decided to try something different. Instead of one pony doing all the work in the shop, how about leaving it to two ponies instead. That's how we were able to come up with the combination of Photo Finish and her heir/apprentice Coco Pommel. Both of whom have skills in design as well as making suits.

Next chapter though, that's when things are really going to kick off. So be prepared for what we got in store for you.
-Frost

05- A small patch up

In the days after he finished his assignment, Shining was able to spend as much time with his wife and children as he possibly could. With the shackles of his new job gone, he was free to both spend some quality time with his family and getting back into shape. His exercise mostly consisted of him going to the train station and using the various parked trains and chains to make his gym equipment. Besides the occasional passing train, it was all but abandoned. Leaving him free to do his training so that way he could get back into physical shape, while also having less issues with his back like the last two times he was ‘working out’.

While his wife still wasn't supportive of her kids using their powers, Shining was more than willing to let his kids use theirs for fun. This allowed Flurry to make various sculptures that, looked choppy at first, but was refined with his help. And with Valiant, it turned into a friendly hero vs villain bout where Valiant made various weapons to use against his father, all of which the hero can take easily. As for Skyla… Shining did his best to take care of the baby, but he tried to encourage his baby daughter to use any secret power she may have had… with no result but dirty diapers.

However, there was one thing that he couldn’t exactly avoid forever… and that was the condition of his suit. The fight with the Salamander caused parts of the outer exterior to become damaged to the point that he could not just easily fix it up with a sewing kit. Meaning… he had to visit some a somepony in particular-

“Honey, are you ready? You’re going to be late for work!!” Cadence called out.

“Just packing my stuff!” Shining replied, putting his suit in his briefcase. He walked out, delivering a quick kiss to his wife before getting into his car.

“I am so glad this is happening to us.”

“I couldn't agree more.” He started the car ignition and backed up.

“Have a good day!”

“I will!” He called out. But as the garage door closed and he was pulling out of the parking lot and turned in the completely opposite direction.

Shining pulled in front of a high security gate that consisted of lasers around the perimeter. Inside was a rather large, modern looking mansion with exotic plants around it. As he pulled next to the security booth, a security guard in a suit appeared on screen.

“Do you have an appointment, sir?”

“I’m an old friend of-” Shining spoke, but was interrupted.

“Sir, every visitor is required to make an appointment before-”

“Get OUT!!” The voice of somepony who was all too familiar to Shining was the next thing that was heard as it looked like the guard was being harassed by somepony holding a rolled up newspaper. “Go do something useful and check on the electric fence or something!”

And that was before that person directed their attention to Shining. “Who is it? What are you doing here? What do you want?!” All that the stallion needed to do was lower the sunglasses that were over his eyes as the pony on the other end changed their tone… sort of. “Dear Celestia, you have gotten fat! Come in, come in!! I’ll unlock the gate right now.”

With that, the laser gate began to open up down the middle, allowing for Shining to drive his car through the gate and up the hill to the front of the mansion.

Shining walked next to the owner of the mansion herself, Photo Finish. Under her white, bowl haircut, she wore purple lensed glasses, and a horizontal black and white dress over her blue furred body. Next to her was a younger mare with a similar shaped, turquoise mane, though she was in a simpler purple dress over her cream colored fur.

“Ach! It has been too long, Shining!” Photo began to express herself through her… eccentric personality and accent. “So much has happened in the last 15 years, I have to get an heir to pass on my work. Please, introduce yourself, Ms. Pommel.”

“Uh… hi.” The mare meekly introduced herself.

“Hello to you as well,” Shining replied back. “And you seem to be doing well, Photo.”

“Well!?” Photo replied as if she was offended. “Nothing is well designing for… Common folks! I used to design for gods!”

“Riiiight,” The unicorn told her as the three of them walked towards the center of the mansion. What would be considered as the ‘living room’ as they walked towards the seats in the room. Water could be seen falling off a statue that looked like a soldier carrying a spear as Shining thought of something to speak on. “Were you part of some big fashion show in… Prance or something?”

“Neighland dear, neighland… It was one of the most dreaded places I have been too. Supermodels… HA! There’s nothing even ‘super’ about their poofy manes or their ridiculous dresses,” Photo said in a mocking like tone as she looked to her statue for a moment, before slowly turning towards Shining. “I have to admit, I was a bit surprised when I got your call… but perhaps you can provide my heir and I a challenge, hmm?”

All that did was cause the stallion to let out a sigh as he held his suit out to her. “Photo… all I need is just a small patch up.”

Photo, upon hearing this, took the suit and began to examine it herself. Holding her glasses with her left hand as she examined the whole thing. “Hmm, this is supposed to be made out of mega-thread and supposed to be sturdy, yet you cut RIGHT THROUGH it,” At that moment, Ms. Pommel looked to be kind of surprised while Photo herself was focusing her attention towards Shining. “What have you been up too, Shine? You coming out of retirement and going back to hero work?”

The unicorn took a bit in order to come up with a solid answer, before thinking of the first thing that was on his mind. “It… must’ve happened a long time ago.”

“Hmm… I see,” She replied back with a low tone in her voice. Before throwing it in a compartment that was right next to one of the seats as if it was a trash bit. “This is just a horrendous suit!! You can’t be seen in this, I won’t allow it! Fifteen years ago I would, but now?! Eeegh!!” Shining grabbed his old suit.

“But it's your suit, Photo. You designed it; it's a classic!”

“Classic does not mean great, Armor. I never look back, only forward.” She insisted, before sitting down in one of the chairs in the center of the room. “Hmm… You’ll need a new suit… something modernized for the now.”

“Hold on… are you asking to make me a new suit?”

“Not just me! Pommel! Sketchbook!” Coco quickly ran away and returned with a sketchbook and some pencils, but also had measuring tape. She handed Photo the sketchbook and pencils before turning to Shining, taking his measurements.

“Uh… is this necessary?”

“It's always necessary.” Photo Finish began to sketch away. “Yes, it shall be bold, HEROIC!!!”

It was while she was sketching that Coco herself decided to mention something to Shining. “Just… go with it, she doesn’t really take no for an answer… usually.”

“Heh, if that's the case,” Shining spoke up. “If you want to change, it should be something like… Rocketeer! That guy had it all! The cape and the boots-”

Unfortunately, it was in that moment when Photo Finish crumpled up the piece of paper that she was using and threw it at Shining’s head. All while Ms. Pommel did a small facepalm. “No capes!” Shining looked a bit confused.

“Is there something wrong?”

“Here we go.” Coco groaned, finishing the last of her measurements and writing it all down while Photo began to speak.

“Do you remember Thunderstruck? Tall, earth pony, had electrical and storm powers?” She asked Shining, who seemed a bit unprepared for that.

“Thunder wasn't exactly the brightest out of-” Photo Finish jumped right at Shining, pointing at him accusingly.

“November 15th on the 58! All was fine, Maretropolis was saved from an attempted missile launch from Michael Neigh, when his cape was snagged during it's liftoff!”

Shining blinked for a moment. He remember Thunderstruck being at the wedding ceremony between him and Cadence, but had no idea that he actually had that happen to him. “Photo, I don’t think-”

“Slipstream!! April 27th, her cape got caught in the turbine of a passenger jet!” Again, Slipstream was another hero at their wedding ceremony… and a rather young one at that. But Shining really thought that Photo was just presuming too much.

“Photo, you can't generalize a-”

“Megamare! Express Elevator! Rocketeer! Snagged during takeoff! Public Servant! Sucked into a hurricane! NO CAPES!!!” Photo took a deep breath, regaining her calm exterior. “No, go on, your new suit will be completed before your next mission.”

Before she left though, that was when her heir actually suggested something. “Photo… if we are doing the suit, could it be possible that we can add some of the things that we currently have been testing?”

“Oh of course, darling! Fashion and safety go so well together when done properly.”

To Shining though, despite liking the idea of getting the new suit, he still needed one thing though. “Will you still do the patch job though?”

“Excuse me?”

“I just need a patch job.” Photo gave a disgusted look.

“Fine! I’ll fix this hobo suit.”

“You’re a lifesaver, fi!” Shining told the earth pony as she went up the staircase and towards her workshop.

“Yes, I know, darling. I know.”

One week later…

It was late in the afternoon as the sun was beginning to set over the suburb that Cadance and her family were living in and she was just finishing up with reorganizing some of the items that were left lying around in the living room when the phone began to ring.

Just as as she was about to pick it up though, she heard her husband yell across the hallway.

“I got it! Hold up!” He yelled. Which had the mare stop in her tracks for a brief moment. Why would her husband be so desperate in order to answer the phone? Normally, he would be the one to ask for someone else to get it...

“Hello?”

“We have a new task for you…”

After a small bit of hesitation, Cadance decided to actually pick up the phone and press a particular button. Only to hear a brief exchange.

“Can you be able to make it tomorrow?”

“Certainly. I’ll be there.”

Cadance gasped for a short moment. She couldn’t recognize the first voice that she heard, but that was definitely Shining’s voice just now… Was… there something about all of this that he was not telling her? Was it possible that he was having an affair behind her back?

Immediately, she shook her head, dispersing those thoughts as she kept herself composed. Walking over to the door to his office, just as he opened it. “So who was that honey?”

“Oh, that's just… Jasmine, I believe.” He answered.

“And why was she calling?” Cadance then asked, folding her arms briefly. “Was she part of that visit to the higher offices you had a few weeks ago?”

That had Shining immediately nodding his head. “Yeah, she wanted for me to come back for a… well, she was asking if I had time tomorrow to come back because they would like to interview me for a promotion.”

That had Cadance look at her with a rather joyful expression as he hugged her. “Oh, you have been quite the busy bee, haven't you?”

“Yeah, but it's necessary.” Shining told her. “How else do you think I get the money to support us?”

“I don't know, just thought it was something else.” Cadance smirked, letting her husband go prepare his suitcase. Though, in the back of her mind… she thought that her husband was hiding something from her.

The following morning, Cadance was beginning to vacuum the floor as her husband was gone for the day and her kids were already at school. She moved the vacuum cleaner across the room, but everytime that she moved it, there was still a lot more trash and debris that the vacuum cleaner was sucking up. Leading her to groan as she opened the door to her husbands room and began to clean the rest of the floor.

Though, as she was looking around… she noticed something that seemed out of the ordinary. The left side of her husband’s suit seemed to have been patched up recently. And there was only one pony she knew who could’ve done something like that. “… Photo.”

06- Shadows of the Past

Author's Note

For this chapter, MrAquino and I had a lot of ground to cover for this. And by the time this is over... Shining would realize how big his choices in the glory days... lead to consequences in the present.

Also, if you notice the easter egg that's in this, you get a cookie
-Frost

06- Shadows of the Past

The first time that Shining had been asked in order to be able to go out on one of these ‘assignments’ that was given to him by Fleur, he was meeting her on a private plane that was decked up with fancy military grade equipment as they had him be dropped in by air towards his destination. This time though, he was flying on a comfortable aircraft that was codenamed ‘The Manta’ since it’s design was that of a Manta Ray. But one of the main differences in this one was that he was actually able to openly relax on this flight. Going as far as wearing his new suit as the onboard computer navigated the hero to his destination… as well as provided him complimentary refreshments. The new suit was blue, a bit similar to his mane, albeit, it was between being dark and light, and right over the left side of his chest was the shape of a heart, made out metallic fibers. Photo and Coco had some new little features added, but Shining didn't pay any attention, too focused on how good he looked, especially with an easy to apply, simple black mask over his eyes.

“Good morning, Iron Steed. This is you on-board captain speaking. How are you enjoying your trip so far?”

“Very much, indeed.” Shining replied, leaning back. “I bet Fleur and her boss will be excited to see me in this new suit as I am.”

“Would you care for some more light apple cider?” The AI asked him, since the current glass he had was nearly empty.

“Don't mind if I do.” The glass that was originally on the left side disappeared, followed by a new one that was freshly filled for him as Shining could now see the island that was in sight. If he was able to, he’d have his family move with him here when he officially retired, and not forced.

“Current temperature is 72 degrees with no rain in the forecast. Perfect weather for flying…” He heard the computer say before adding one more thing as they rounded around the island. “We will now be beginning our descent. Please fasten your seatbelt.”

What Shining realized was that when the captain meant descent, it literally meant descent. The aircraft began to take a forward dive into the water as Shining placed his seatbelt on, going towards what looked like a hidden cave with some kind of pipe as the ship began to line up. Once connected, the water began to lower itself as the doors to the right opened.

“Welcome back, Iron Steed,” He heard a familiar voice greet him as he turned to see Fleur in what looked like a small mini transport. “It’s good to have you back.” Shining walked to her.

“It's great to be back. Like the suit?”

“Well, you look rather dashing,” Fleur complimented him, dawning what looked like a lavender jacket over her normal clothes. “But I believe we’re not here to talk about supersuits. Come on in. This will take you to your next destination.” Shining let out an annoyed huff, but followed. The transport they were on moved along a thin track, but as the unicorn realized, the track itself was wide to the point where they actually hid one of the big connectors for it inside a huge waterfall and through some of the big environments that were present too.

Eventually though, the transport stopped and Fleur began to walk them towards an elevator. Pressing a button for the top floor as she began to speak with him. “We have provided you a place to set your belongings, so do make yourself comfortable.”

When the doors opened, Shining found himself staring at what looked like a room, straight out of a five star hotel looking outward towards the bay. And while he was looking around and taking in the view, Fleur mentioned something else. “Your next assignment will begin in the conference room at three o’clock this afternoon. B wing, room A-113.”

“Three o’clock, got it.” Shining replied, too amazed by the sight. He could only imagine it's something small, like maybe get some exotic birds out of a generator, or something along the lines of that. Or perhaps if one day, he took his family out for a vacation on an exotic place like this.

Around now, Cadance had finished cleaning the house with the vacuum and reorganizing some of the things that were on the table. But there was still one other thing that she needed to do. Earlier, she had noticed something strange in her husband’s office. A sewn in stitch to his old super suit. So… there was only possibility that was on her mind. And she was calling her right now.

“Hello, I’d like to speak to Ms. Photo Finish.” Cadance spoke through the family telephone in the kitchen.

“... This is Photo.” The fashion mare’s voice spoke through the other side.

“Hello, this is Cadance.”

“Cadance who?” That had the pegasus try to say her full name, but that didn’t even work out at first.

“Cadance Heart… you know…” Now to try the hero name. “Amorous-.”

“DARLING!!!” Photo’s excited voice made Cadance drop the phone from the sudden change of tone. “It has been such a long time since I’ve heard your voice!”

“Uh, yes, it has been a while. I’m calling because there's only one pony Shining would trust in patching his super suit and that's you.”

“Yes yes yes yes. Much more majestic and marvelous than those overworn pajama’s he used to wear.” Cadance, at that point, had no exact idea what she was talking about.

“Wait, what?”

It didn’t help the pegasus at all when Photo soon threw her another curveball. “I finished all of them. Are you wanting to come and see for yourself?”

“Wait! Slow down! What are you even-”

“Don't make me beg, darling. I won't do it, you know.”

“Photo! No, I’m calling about my suit-I mean Shining’s suit! Shining’s suit!” She exclaimed, stuttering in order to try and get to the point. However, Photo got to her first.

“You come in one hour darling, Ms. Pommel’s on her way, ok? Goodbye for now, everything will be prepared.” Photo hung up, leaving Cadance frozen and confused. She was trying to process what exactly did she just hear… or for that matter, what exactly just happened.

Shining Armor whistled to himself as he walked through the, admittedly strange, empty hallways to the conference room. He stopped his whistling and looked a bit confused as the room was empty. A clock hung overhead, saying he was there on time, but either the clock was off, he arrived early, or the employees were running late. In any case, he took a seat and waited.

After a few seconds though, something did open. It was just the entire panel behind him as he turned and stared directly at the robot that he thought that he had deactivated already. But before he could even get into his metal form, the dragon bot grabbed him and threw him into a palm tree.

“It’s massive!!”

As Shining got back on his hooves, the Salamander bot grabbed him by the tail and threw him into the ground as he tried to get into his metallic form.

“It’s vicious!!!” Then, the dragon bot grabbed the stallion with one claw as it’s other one began to heat up as the edges of the claws turned bright orange. Shining could literally see the steam coming off of it as he heard the voice once more. “Oh no! Could it be too much for the Iron Steed?!”

Then… someone new appeared on the dragon bot’s shoulder. It was another stallion with a grey coat and a black mane that moved similar to fire. He wore what looked like royal armor, before pressing a jewel that was on his bracer as it had the dragon bot lower it’s claw.

“Oh yes… It’s finally ready! I mean, I had to get this bad dragon here to fight several supers before it can fight you, but man…” He said, before he put his face rather close to Shining. “It wasn’t good enough! I had to make several modifications to this, but personally, it’s worth it… after all…”

The next few lines… hit Shining like a ton of bricks. “I’m your number one fan.”

“Sombra?”

That had the stallion glare directly at Shining. “My name is NOT SOMBRA!!” In an instant, Shining was thrown down to the ground, landing as Sombra himself appeared from a cloud of shadow. “And it’s NOT Iron Colt, either. That ship is long gone… All I wanted to do was help you… For you to give me one chance… But what did you say to me?!! You told me to go home. And that… that broke my heart. But… it taught me the most valuable lesson: You can't count on anybody, ESPECIALLY your heroes!”

“L-look, It's been a long time,” Shining began, walking to the side a bit. “I’m sorry for what I’ve done.”

“Oh now, you want to try to be nice to me… because I’m a threat. All I wanted was respect… and it turns out a lot of ponies do around the world. They would do whatever they could to get it,” Sombra continued to speak, mimicking what Shining was doing. “How exactly did you think I got this far? I honed my powers and invented my own weapons. And now I have something that only I can defeat. And when I-”

Of course, the reason why Shining was moving to the side was because he saw a mid sized boulder that he could throw at Sombra and wanted to use the villains monologue to do it. However, when he did, a shadow like whip emerged from Sombra’s side to shatter the boulder into pieces. But that wasn’t the creepiest part.

The creepiest part was when the turned to see that his own shadow was grabbing onto him… and preventing him from moving a single muscle. All while Sombra was laughing to himself. “You sly fox! You got me monologuing!! Oh, I can’t believe this!”

One of his whips soon reached out to grab hold of Shining, spinning around until he was thrown into the ground. “I happened to learn a few things here and there… including being able to control other ponies shadows when mine comes into contact with them…”

The shadows threw Shining up into the air again, before grabbing him and slamming him back down. “Who’s super now, hunh!?” As the stallion tried to get up, he was grabbed by a dark colossal hand before being dragged across the ground. “Look at you! You barely can be able to handle anything I throw at you!! Am I good enough now for you?!”

That was when he pointed a finger towards Shining as the shadows grabbed hold of him. “I’m Bloodstone!! And I will be the bane of your-” When he swung his hand upward and opened his palm, the shadow hand catapulted Shining off into the distance behind him. Only realizing the blunder a few moments later as he rolled his eyes. “Oh, just perfect…”

The stallion that was thrown had landed in a flowing riverbed that was really deep. Doing his best to try and stay afloat as he looked for something to get him out of the river. However, the stallion realized that he was being pursued as several trees were falling over and he saw Sombra guiding the Salamander towards him.

Pulling himself up onto a small embankment, the only way that he could get himself out of the current scenario right now was to jump… off of a waterfall and into the lake below. With both Sombra and the dragon bot on his trail and with them firing a burning energy blast, Shining leaped into the waters below. Making a splash as he attempted to try and stay under.

Though, Bloodstone had an alternative plan. One that he was actually wanting to do for some time. “Alright now,” He said, taking what looked like a dark orange crystal off of one of his gauntlets. “Let’s see if you can handle this…”

Within seconds, the crystal began to flicker and glow as Sombra dropped it into the waters below. To the stallion hiding under the water, he immediately had to swim far away from it once he realized what Sombra was trying to do.

That wasn’t any ordinary crystal… it was an explosive. And as it touched the bed of the lake, a powerful explosion went off. The blast wave pushing Shining through an underwater tunnel that he was trying to escape through. Forcing him out as he landed in what looked like an abandoned underwater cave.

Looking up though… that’s when he realized that he wasn’t quite alone. Because the first thing that he came across was a pony skeleton directly in front of him. “Wha-!? Ahh!!” At first, the sight of it shocked him. But… he realized something. The skeleton was of a pegasus… and it was wearing remnants of what looked like a hero costume. One that was rather familiar to him.

As he moved his hand around the head of the skeleton, he soon realized who it was. “C-centurion…” The stallion was shocked to see the skeleton of his lifeless friend just sitting there. In his mind, he always knew that Centurion would fight to the bitter end… but as he looked around, he noticed what looked like scorch marks on the wall of the cave. And when Shining moved a little to see what his friend would be seeing, he could make out one word that was on the wall. “Umbra?”

He looked towards the skeleton again, trying to understand what exactly could the word ‘Umbra’ mean, but it was something that he did not have time for. Because he saw what looked like a blue crystal rise from the water around him as it began to scan the surrounding area. Instinct kicked in for the stallion, realizing that the gem could be trying to detect his presence and report back to Sombra as he hid behind the skeleton of his friend while the crystal scanned the area he was hiding at.

Beeping two times, the gem floated back into the water… going all the way back to the stallion up on the waterfall ledge as it had one thing to say. “Life form reading… negative. Iron Steed, terminated.”

Elsewhere…

At the mansion that belonged to Photo Finish, she was walking down the stairs with her assistant Coco Pommel and with Cadance right next to her. “When you all went underground, it felt as they completely confiscated my life dear,” The earth pony said to the pegasus as she was fiddling around with what looked like a small pointer stick. “Deplete me as only hero work can, I must admit that my best work was simple, delicate, refined but… ancient. You will die…”

“Fi, I just-”

“I did Shining’s suit and it turned out to be so tremendous that I could not stop myself! It was so marevelous that I had to persist. I could not just stop at just one-!” The earth pony told her as the three of them continued to walk through the hallway where numerous super suit were on mannequins along the wall.

It was around when they reached the end of the hallway that the pegasus decided to speak up and interrupt what Photo was trying to tell her. “Fi, it’s great to see you again, but I honestly don’t have any idea what you are trying to tell me. I just-”

“Yes, all this chatter is pointless!! Blah blah blah blah, too much darling, too much!!” Photo Finish declared immediately as she looked back at the pegasus. “Let me present to you my work! That is why you are here!!”

“Oh boy…” Coco sighed to herself as Photo Finish walked over to a panel and inputted a secret pin number using the stick she was holding onto. Next, she placed her hand on a scanner to read her handprint and then took off her glasses in order to have the iris scan be done.

Next, she spoke into what looked like a microphone. “Photo Finish…” That was followed by two magically powered laser cannons dropping down from the ceiling. Aiming directly at Coco and Cadance… before Photo finished her statement “… heir and guest.”

The laser cannons retracted back from the ceiling as the doors to Photo Finish’s lab soon opened up. All three of them stepped inside, walking around a few of the tables and mannequins of different chest sizes as everything was put away. They walked to what looked like a table that had three chairs along with a teapot in the center as they all took a seat.

“Would you like some cream and sugar?” Photo offered as she poured a cup of tea for Cadance.

“Yes please.” She replied back as Coco poured the cream in the cup and also added the sugar. However, it wasn’t until she started to drink it that Photo said something that almost made her spit it out of her mouth.

“I started off with the youngest of your children, the baby.”

“Wait, what? Started-?” Cadance tried to ask, before being shushed by Photo.

“When doing multiple suits, she always does it from youngest to oldest.” Coco commented, just as the door from the left side of the demonstration panel opened up to show a super suit that looked to be Skyla’s size. It was mostly blue, but with a few darker shades around the wrists and feet.

“I made it a bit roomy and cozy, it would cover a good percentage for sensitive fur,” Instantly, fire erupted inside the test chamber, startling Cadance. Though, the suit itself was not suffering any damage. “And made it to where it can withstand temperatures over a thousand degrees!!!”

The flames subsided as well, but not until ice began to form on the windows and all around the chamber. “It can keep her warm from temperatures that drop below absolute zero… sturdy enough to protect the wearer from all forms of ballistic projectiles,” Out of nowhere, an armada of weapons began to open fire on the suit, but like with the flames, nothing happened to it. “And it’s also machine washable. That’s always good.”

All of that… just left Cadance with one question. “What… in the world do you think Skyla would be doing?!”

“Well, I’m not really sure at all, darling. Luck favors those who are prepared…” Photo told Cadance… leaving Coco to finish up the sentence as Photo took another sip of tea.

“The two of us did not know what your daughter was capable of, so we just took the necessary precautions on what may come.”

“Skyla doesn't have any powers.”

“Oh? Well, she'll still look fabulous.” Photo concluded, pressing a button that fired all three back to the start, with Cadence caught off guard and Coco losing her footing a bit. Then, shortly after that, another suit appeared. One that was around the size of Valiant. “Your boy's suit I’ve aided in making his electromagnetic fields far more reaching and stronger to use heavy machinery, and under his mask is a state of the art supercomputer that will help him make new equipment along with showing the effects, so he won't make a thermonuclear device.”

Again, the table went back to the beginning as the next suit emerged. This time, around Flurry Heart’s size. “Your daughter's suit was tricky to design, as I can't afford to make a new suit every time she uses her powers, but my assistant and I have made a self repairing fabric that fixes itself in mere seconds, and will allow her to glide with her wings.”

Then, there was what Photo would consider as the ‘grand finale’. The suit that was designed for Cadance. It was similar to the others, but there was a built in hood to the back of it. “Your suit has more protection around the most important areas of the body, including the wings… You also have a built in crossbow in each of your gauntlets that allows for you to fire over twenty different arrow types, completely indestructible…” and for the last part, the hood on the suit went over the head and turned completely invisible, while also putting what looked like a holographic screen used in most standard scanning equipment. “And when you put on the hood, it makes you completely untraceable, whether it’s thermal, radar, electrical, or pulse. As an addition, each suit has a built in tracking device, so you can know where everyone is at in the moment.”

That… lead to one last question from Photo, shortly after showing the tracker to Cadance. “So darling… what do you think?”

And Cadance’s response… was one to be expected from somepony in her position. “W-what do I think?! Shining and I are retired!! Our family is underground and trying to be like everypony else! And you’re making me believe that my husband is doing secret hero work behind my back?!!”

That had both Coco and Photo look towards one another for a brief moment, before Coco then said something. “W-we assumed that you knew already. I mean, why would your husband keep secrets from you.

That had Cadance blink for a moment in disbelief as she looked back at them. “N-no, he w-wouldn’t… Shining’s not like that at all! He wouldn’t… didn’t… doesn’t.”

“Stallions at Shining’s age are a bit unstable.” Photo spoke. “Prone to weakness.”

“... What are you saying?”

“Do you know where he is?”

“... Of course, he's-”

“Do you KNOW where he is!?” Photo asked again, as Cadance thought about it, before asking a question.

“Do you have a phone that I can use?”

Ten Minutes Earlier…

It took Shining almost a few hours in order to crawl out of the cave and reach a rocky overpass that was looking over the island. Easily seeing the monorail system that Bloodstone’s militia was using as he watched the same kind of transport that he rode in earlier today with Fleur be used by some of the soldiers that were there. Every time they passed by, it was always in sets of two and it only went one direction.

If he could be able to hitch a ride to wherever their base was, then he could find out what Bloodstone had been doing here on this island and learn more about their operations. And with the next transport pod coming, he only had one brief window of opportunity to make this work.

As the next pod zoomed around the corner, Shining backed himself up from the ledge. Running towards it and leaping off as he used his metal form on his legs to soften the landing a bit. Inside the pod, when the roof came down, it knocked out the two soldiers that were inside as Shining pulled the door open and tossed them out before coming back inside and closing the door. While also punching the roof to make sure that the dent wasn’t noticeable.

Traveling in the pod made things for Shining a little bit easier. Especially with the fact that he would be able to reach Bloodstone’s base of operations much faster than on hoof. However, there was a slight problem with his plans as he noticed what appeared to be a security checkpoint up ahead. There weren’t any camera’s, but there were some more of the armed soldiers from before. And he needed to think of a plan in order to get past them.

Letting out a sigh, Shining looked at his hooves before looking back at the gate as it made its approach. “Well… I guess it’s time to test that feature then.”

Sliding the side door open, he got back on top of the pod and stomped on the top of it as he rolled off to the side of the plateau where the gate was. Hidden in the shadows as the busted up car approached the gateway and the guards began to look at it. One of them even leaving their post at a side gate that looked to be used when they changed out the guards at the end of one’s shift.

And in the process, Shining slipped by as he heard one of the soldiers speak on the radio. “Hey, can I get a technician out here? One of the railcars is damaged… Uh hunh, the roof is crushed… No no, nopony’s inside. A boulder must’ve fallen on it or something.”

Normally, if anypony else were trying to do what Shining did just now, the guards would likely hear the sound of Shining’s hooves against the ground. But with the new suit that he had, one of the features that Photo put into it was that it muffled the sound of his hoofsteps. Meaning nopony could hear him as he was passing by. And it proved to be helpful as he was hiding behind some palm trees and looking for a possible way inside.

He saw one particular point of entry, but two more guards were protecting it. Another was circling the perimeter around the outside of the floor and another was doing the same thing on the next floor up. In Shining’s mind, he needed some form of distraction that would have all the guards head towards it so he could just sneak through the door. Luckily for him, there was something that was by his feet that could work out perfectly.

A coconut. One that was big enough to fit in the palm of Shining’s hands as the unicorn picked it up. He could just throw it towards a place and have the sound catch somepony’s attention… but then thought that doing so would not have all of the guards be distracted by that.

When he was thinking it through though, he noticed that the guard on the second floor had stopped moving. Looking as if he was checking his watch for a moment. Shining himself saw this as his time to take action, preparing to throw it like if he were throwing a baseball as it hit dead on with the guards helmet and caused him to drop to the ground… and on top of his colleague.

This, also got the attention of the guards as both of them rushed towards their colleagues and left the door unguarded. Allowing for Shining to reach the entryway and slip on inside when a medic ran outside and the door was open.

As he reached the inner sanctum of the facility, there was one room that he did recognize out of all of them. That being the one where he and Fleur De Lis had dinner the first time he was here. If he remembered correctly, the wall was supposed to open… but how it was to do that was something he honestly did not know. “Come on… think… What could I use to crack that thing open?”

Looking to his left, he remembered that there was what looked like a prop for a stone pillar that appeared to have originated from the coastal city of Preece. That gave him the idea of using the pillar like a battering ram in order to get it to open as he took on his metal form and picked it up. Preparing himself to slam the pillar into it in order to try to wedge it open.

That was… until as he was about to charge, the wall began to open. Forcing him to backtrack into a corner and place the pillar down. The hero watched as he saw what appeared to be Fleur walking out of the wall, holding some documents in her hands as the wall began to close behind her.

Shining saw this as his only chance to find out what’s behind there, turning back to normal as he began to make a break for it. The walls beginning to close in on him as he tried to hurry and reach to the other side. They were about to squeeze him into the molten magma that was radiating off the walls, but the stallion managed to escape just barely.

Only to find himself in a pitch black room. Small crystalline lights began to light up the floor, serving as a walkway to what looked like an rather huge desk, with a chair in front of it. Slowly, the stallion approached it, unsure about whether or not this was some kind of trap. Once he got closer though, he began to realize that the desk was actually a big keyboard and by pressing the ENTER key, the screen that was in front of him came to life with one word across the center of it.

PASSWORD

This… was troubling. But there was only one word that came into his mind as he began to look for the right keys to type it.

UMBRA

Seconds after being typed, Shining was in… and now, he was looking at four different options.

ISLAND OPERATIONS AND PROTOCOLS

FINANCES

SALAMANDER META-TRAINING

SUPERS

The stallion grinned. He was getting somewhere

“Hello, this is the Department of Motorized Transports. How can I help you?”

“Hi, uh… This is Cadance Heart, Shining Armor is my husband,” Cadance spoke through a phone that was built into a wall in Photo’s workshop. “I was wondering if you could give me the phone number of the hotel he’s staying at? The number I have isn’t working.”

The answer that she got though… was not what she was expecting. “I’m sorry, miss, but Mr. Armor no longer works for the DMT.”

“W-what?” The pegasus asked, dumbfounded by that statement. “What do you mean? He was on a business trip? Some kind of meet and greet with senior members?”

“Well, our employee records indicate that your husband’s employment was terminated almost two months ago.”

Clicking the down arrow key three times, Shining selected the fourth option on the list. But what he discovered… shocked him.

BLAST OFF; Powers- Explosive blast manipulation [Terminated by Salamander V1]

TERRA-MARE; Powers- Earth and Tectonic Manipulation [Terminated by Salamander V1]

BLACKSUN; Powers- Solar Magic [Defeated Salamander V1, Terminated by Salamander V2]

FORESIGHT; Powers- Telepathy, Psychokinesis [Terminated by Salamander V2]

RADAR; Powers- Sonic Wave Manipulation [Terminated by Salamander V2]

Shining could not believe what he was seeing. All of the ponies that he was seeing. All of the heroes that were on here… He knew them. He fought alongside them in the glory days, they were friends who attended his wedding with Cadance, they were ponies that he would see as comrades… all of them were gone. His feelings of sadness and anger were mixed together as the list kept on going. But soon, one name stood out to him

CENTURION; Powers- Laser Wings [Terminated by Salamander V6]

FLASH FREEZE; Powers- Ice [Defeated Salamander V6, Terminated by Salamander V7]

TORNADO; Powers- Wind Manipulation [Terminated by Salamander V7]

Now a new feeling began to set in as the list of names kept on rolling. Regret. Shining now began to realize how much of a fool he was for coming here. All he wanted to do was relive the glory days and help his family in the process, but now he was trapped here and what he discovered here just was too much for him to think right now.

“So you don’t know where he might be…” Photo spoke up as Cadance stepped away from the phone. At first, she was trying to process everything, but as she turned around, the pegasus saw that Coco was holding out the handheld tracker to her. “Would you like to find out?”

Once the list was over, Shining found himself at a search bar. Something that he thought would be necessary because he wanted to make sure that he knew if Bloodstone knew about those who were close to her.

First, he typed in the super identity of his wife.

AMOROUS
Abilities/Powers- Uses flight and weather magic while also wielding a bow and arrow. Crafty, resourceful and knows multiple forms of hand-to-hand combat. Has arrows for almost every situation.
Threat rating- 5.9
Location- UNKNOWN

After seeing that, Shining let out a personal sigh of relief. What came next though… was inputting the super identity of his best friend.

CANVAS
Abilities/Powers- Artistic Creation. Canvas carries a series of tools, such as a spray can or a enchanted brush with a vial of ink. Anything that is created with these tools can take on a physical form, such as weapons, objects or living creatures. It’s also highly likely that he can use his own fingers to make these creations too.
Threat Rating- 6.4
Location- FOUND

That was not good. Not good at all. But now… Shining wondered something and proceeded to type in his own hero name.

IRON STEED
Abilities/Powers- Organic Metal Transformation, Enhanced Strength, Stamina and Durability. Can be able to lift over one hundred tons, can survive extreme weather conditions and can survive from most direct hits when in his metallic form. Can shift between normal and metallic forms at will, but it is unknown as to how long this form can last at any given time. When engaging, proceed with EXTREME caution.
Threat Rating- 9.5
Status- Terminated by Salamander V9

Now came the main question. Why was Bloodstone doing all of this? What exactly was his plan? With a few keystrokes, the stallion found himself back at the main menu… but that was when something new showed up. Something titled ‘Operation Umbra’. Where the dragon bot that he fought before was loaded into an aircraft, before being dropped on… Maretropolis.

“Oh dear Celestia…” He muttered under his breath. If the monster that he just faced was unleashed on a civilian population, the destruction would reach catastrophic levels.

All of this was followed by a timer. One that said that, at the current moment he was seeing this, it had under nine hours and counting before the aircraft would be launched into the sky. Instinct kicked in and the only thing that was going on in his mind was that he needed to get out of her and stop that launch.

In Cadance’s mind… she wished that her husband was heading home. But… a part of her wanted to know where he truly was. So, with hesitation, she pressed the button on the tracker. Showing that Shining’s location was on an island in the Celestial Sea. Out in the middle of the ocean and nowhere near Equestria.

Halfway across the walkway, Shining heard a beeping noise come from the center of his suit. Just above the heart as he looked down at it. “What the buck?”

INTRUDER ALERT!! INTRUDER ALERT!! INTRUDER ALERT!!

Immediately, light flooded the room and an armada of cannons began to emerge from the walls. Locking onto him and firing what looked almost like a black crystalline substance that stuck onto his suit. Shining tried to get it off, but all it did was just stick to his hands as he tried to race towards the exit.

Unfortunately for him, as it began to expand, the cannons were now aiming towards his legs, causing him to trip halfway across the walkway as he struggled in order to get up. Then, the surface began to harden, locking his legs in place. He transformed into his metallic form to try and go for it again, but the cannons continued firing. Much faster than before as it forced him to turn back to normal.

As the substance began to drain him of his stamina… and Shining fell to the ground, the only thing he could see was a mare wearing a lavender jacket.

07- Mayday!

Author's Note

Now that Cadance knows of where exactly her husband is, it's time to suit up and go find him... yet, if only something like that were so simple...
-Frost

07- Mayday!

After finding out the truth about where her husband was, Cadance’s first reaction… was not one that Photo Finish saw as ‘productive’ or uplifting. She had spent the last ten minutes crying her eyes out and using up close to two tissue boxes as she heard the pegasus try to speak through her sadness. “I-i felt like I was the one who let this happen, you know… The new car, getting in shape…” She weeped, taking another tissue as Coco pushed the tissues that were already used into the built in incinerator. “The blonde mane hair, the lies… And now I’m losing him!”

“Yes, it is quite difficult.” Photo Finish replied.

“Sensitivity.” Coco spoke.

Yet, despite all attempts in order to try and sound sensitive and helpful… One sentence from the crying pegasus did not settle right with the suit designer. “Oh, w-what am I going to do?”

“What are you talking about!?” Photo spoke, taking her glasses off, showing her twitching left eye.

It was in that moment that two things happened. One, Cadance looked back at her with a confused expression. Two, Coco placed what appeared to be a magazine that she had finished reading on the table next to where Photo was at. “What are you going to do!?! YOU ARE AMOROUS!!” Grabbing the magazine and rolling it up, she now began to smack the upside of Cadance’s head. “My goddess, PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!!!”

“Oww! Oww!! Oww!!” Cadance said, putting her hands up in self defense. “Photo, what are you doing?”

“What am I doing? I’m knocking some SENSE into you!!! That’s WHAT I am doing!!” Photo snapped, going as far as to stand up on the table and tower over Cadance as she began to explain what Cadance should actually be doing. “You know where he is, so GO!! Show him that he is Iron Steed and remind him of who exactly YOU ARE!! GO!! CONFRONT THE PROBLEM HEAD ON! FIGHT!! TRIUMPH!!!”

Afterwards, she gave the magazine back to Coco for her to put away as she stepped off the table and looked back towards the pegasus. “And make sure to call me when you come back home, dear. I enjoy our visits.”

Not long after coming home, Cadance looked towards Flurry as she pulled down what looked like a duffel bag from her closet as she was explaining a series of specific instructions to her daughter. “We have a lot of food that you can reheat in the microwave, make sure that Val does his homework and remember. Both of you need to get to bed on time… I’ll be back this evening. Late. You think you can be in charge for that long, Flurry?”

In response, a rather confused Flurry looked back at her mother as the crystals on her back began to move up to her shoulders. “Yeah but… why exactly am I in charge of the house again?”

“Nothing… just some trouble with your dad-”

“By that, do you mean he’s in trouble… or he literally is the trouble?” The unicorn then asked as Cadance was about to step out of the room and head back towards her bedroom.

“What I mean…” The pegasus began to clarify as she turned back around to look at her daughter directly. “Either he is already in trouble… or he’s going to be once I find him.”

It was shortly after saying those words that the pegasus began to pack her travel bag. The three suits that Photo gave her were neatly folded and spread out on the bed. But just as she was adjusting one of arm gauntlets on her wrist to see how it would fit her, she began to realize one small mistake.

Leaving the door open for Valiant to see.

“WOAH!!! WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE COSTUMES, MOM!?” He yelled in excitement, running and grabbing the one that would fit him. Yet, before he could leave, Cadance’s gauntlet fired a small bolt that slammed the door closed as he tried to make his escape.

“Val, give that back right now-.” Unfortunately, the moment that she heard the phone ring, the pegasus was distracted and provided Val just enough time to grab one of the other suits and escape through the door. “Bronze? Hi! Thanks for getting back! I know this seems short notice but I was hoping that-”

Unfortunately, around that point was when both Flurry and Valiant came into the room. Valiant with his suit on while Flurry had… some questions.

“Uh, mom, what is this about?” The eldest daughter asked.

The pegasus stopped speaking for a moment as she looked back at her daughter, before asking the pony on the other end a simple question. “Bronze, could you please hold for a moment?” She asked, just as she saw Valiant trying to do heroic poses next to a mirror. “Val, take that off before somepony see you!!”

“But you have one just like this…” Flurry pointed out as Cadance tried to hide it from her. “Are you not telling us something?”

“Aw please, sweetie. I’m on the phone and-” As she was trying to talk, that’s when Valiant snatched the suit out of his mom’s hand and gave it to Flurry Heart. “Val!! What did I just say-?!”

“Check it out! Mom's got one for you as well!” Valiant spoke.

Now was when Cadance was getting irritated. Using her wings and pegasi weather magic, she conjured up a light wind to blow the two of them out the door to her room. “You’re not coming with me! You’re staying right here and that’s final!!” Before they could go for the door, Cadance shot two bolts from her wrist. One was to shut the door closed. The other was a polyester bolt that sealed the door so the two of them could not barge in again. All that before she finally was able to get back on the phone.

The pony she was calling was Bronze Wing. An earth pony that was not only an excellent mechanic, but also a master at flying aircraft. She was Cadance’s teacher in how to pilot an airship for when on long trips because of the possibility that her wings might tire out on her. One time though, she gave him a hand at helping him with something important All in exchange for a favor.

And now, she was cashing that favor in. “Sorry about that… Bronze, remember that favor you owed me. Well, it looks like I need to cash that in.”

“Wow… and just when I thought you had forgotten about me,” The stallion chuckled. “So, what do you need Cadance?”

“I need an airship. One that's quick and fast… Got something?”

“Let me see…”

Around the same time that Cadance was on the phone, both Flurry and Valiant were looking at each other for a moment as the mare looked down at the suit that she was holding. “So… why do you think mom had something like this for us?”

“I don't know. Maybe it's for something neat?”

“Really? What, you think she’s going to make us attend one of those convention things whenever she comes home with dad?” Flurry asked him, only leading to Valiant shrugging as he looked back at her.

“Don’t look at me… Why do you think mom tried to hide it from us?” Her brother then asked her. Which, had Flurry look back at the suit before placing an arm in one of the sleeves. Conjuring some crystals as they punctured holes in the fabric.

Only for the suit to repair itself the moment that Flurry call the crystal shards back. Causing her to gasp out of sheer shock. “W-what the?”

“Whoah! Cool!... What can my suit do!?”

“Don’t look at me! How am I supposed to know how yours works?!” Flurry replied back, before she noticed Valiant trying to snap his fingers and use his powers with the suit on. Only to watch as she saw what appeared to be small electrical fields come from his hands. “Val… what do you think mom’s actually doing?”

“Oh yeah… you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“What exactly are you thinking?” Flurry then asked her brother. Anytime that Valiant was thinking of something, it meant that he was going to do something that got him… or in this case, them, in trouble.

And the grin that was on his face was not helping.

After getting her bag ready and proceeding to the airport, Cadance realized that the only thing that Bronze had available for her was a standard passenger airship. Though, there were some added modifications just in case that she got herself in trouble, but it seemed highly unlikely that she would ever need to use those features.

While she was in the air though, she attempted to try and message the radio tower that was on the island that she found when using the tracker that she got from Photo. “Island approach, this is the E.S.S Neighagra Falls, checking in VFR on top, over?”

All that she got back was what sounded like static. Which, did not entirely sound good to Cadance’s ears as she tried again. “Island tower, this is the E.S.S Neighagra Falls requesting vectors to the initial… over?”

Again, more static. But around now, she thought that she could put the ship on Auto Pilot and change into her suit. Though, as she unzipped the bag, she refrained herself. “Easy now… Easy Cadance. Everything’s just fine. They’re just… all getting lunch… Together.” After having that thought process for a few moments, she let out a deep sigh. Giving in as she activated the auto-pilot controls for the airship and proceeded to the bathroom behind the captain’s cabin.

Meanwhile…

Shining Armor was slowly beginning to open his eyes as he felt something clamp down on his hands and feet. His vision adjusting as he looked to find himself encased in what looked like black crystals as he found it hard to move. Getting an idea, he tried to turn into his metal form… but a few moments afterward, he felt himself being pulled apart.

Only one thing could come into mind when he looked back at the restraints and turned back to normal. Ferro Magnetic energy. It was coursing through the crystals… and if he tried to transform now, they would end up tearing him apart. So his only real choice here was to stay where he was and wait until somepony else happened to show up.

Of course, that somepony happened to be Bloodstone. And when the doors opened, that was when Shining saw two desks to the left and right of where he was being held. And at the controls… was none other than Fleur de Lis.

But before he could say a thing, that was when Bloodstone spoke up. “You there! You are definitely the Iron Steed for sure,” He proclaimed, holding his arms behind him as the villain approached the captured hero. “I must admit, back then, I was right to see you as my idol… I mean, I always knew that you were strong and tough… but tricking my inquiry stone by hiding behind the skeleton of another super?! I still find that as both surprising and hard to believe!!”

However, there was a brief pause… and then the tone in his voice began to change. “But then you had to mess it all up… I mean, I thought your motto was that you always flew solo! But you last night were all like ‘help me! Help me! SOS!!! SOS!!’,” The villain went as far as to imitate Shining and the words he was saying to make it sound more like a damsel in distress… before raising his voice. “That is just straight up PATHETIC!!! Alright, WHO DID YOU REACH OUT TOO?!”

“Reach out? I don't know what you're talking about.” Shining replied in pure confusion. All that had Bloodstone do was snap his fingers as one of the guards pressed a button at their desk. Seconds later, hundreds of gigawatts of electricity began to course through Shining Armor briefly, forcing him to cry out in pain.

“What I am talking about was about what you were doing last night, around midnight. While you were sneaking around and trying to find out more information on what was going on,” Bloodstone said, before pointing a finger at him as he spoke. “YOU send out an emergency signal!!”

“I… don't know… how that happened.”

Again, another snap and another surge of electricity. This time it was much higher than normal and considered to be lethally dangerous to the normal pony. “You don’t know?! Well, maybe you can give us context of how A ROYAL PARLIAMENT AIRSHIP knows where we are and why it is now requesting to dock here!! WHO DID YOU REACH OUT TOO!?!”

“I don't know… who contacted me…” Shining could only wheeze. Leaving a disgruntled Sombra to look back towards where Fleur de Lis was sitting at.

“Play the transmission! Maybe hearing it will jog his tired memory…” Fleur’s only response was a small nod as she pressed the center of the keyboard. And shortly afterwards, the intercepted transmission that they received echoed throughout the entire room.“Island tower, this is the E.S.S Neighagra Falls requesting vectors to the initial… over?” Shining gasped as he heard the voice.

“Cadance.”

Bloodstone, upon hearing that, could only smirk as he walked over to the desk where Fleur de Lis was at. “So… It looks like you know who they are after all… Well,” He now moved his hand to what looked like a ruby colored button on the dashboard as his finger pressed down on it. “I guess I’ll just send them a proper greeting.”

After Cadance had gotten herself suited up, all that she had left to put on was her mask and return back to the cockpit of the ship to put it off of auto pilot. Seeing as that her bag just contained the clothes that she was wearing earlier, the mare just tossed it aside towards one of the seats behind her.

Little did she know that it didn’t just land on something… but somepony. “Oww!! What the hay?!”

Cadance gasped at that upon realizing who exactly was on board… and the fact that a crystal was now pierced through the bag that had her clothes. “Flurry!!”

“It's not my fault!” Flurry stood up, taking her mom’s now ripped clothing off of her shards. “Valiant ran away and I had to-”

“That's not how it went!” Valiant shouted, popping right out from behind one of the back seats. Both kids began to yell and talk over each other, making Cadance stop them when she realized one thing.

“Wait a minute… you left Skyla alone!?”

Both children looked at one another, before looking back to Cadance as Flurry began to speak. “What are we, crazy? Of course we got her a sitter!”

“Yeah, that’s right. We got her a sitter before both of us followed you!” Valiant then added on. Oddly enough, that subject was the one thing that the two of them could seem to agree on… but it left Cadance with one new question.

“Okay… Well, who did you get?” That question… left Flurry with a look of embarrassment on her face, all while Valiant just smirked.

“Remember that boy in Flurry’s class? Pound Cake?” He said, getting a small glance from his sister. “Well, his sister works as a baby sitter…” He then went on to explain a bit about them making sure to pay her for her work, how she got here really quickly and even gave Cadance one of her home made business cards. Which, prompted the pegasus to use the on board phone to call the babysitter. Pumpkin Cake.

Of course, the moment that Cadance called, Pumpkin could not stop trying to assure her that she had things all under control. “You don’t need to worry about a single thing, Misses Heart! I got this whole baby sitting thing figured out. I’ve taken numerous classes, CPR lessons and even all the optional items in order to make sure I can be prepared for anything…”

“Pumpkin…”

“I mean, I even have Moztrot on me to play when she sleeps, and according to recent studies from Canterlot University, playing Moztrot while they sleep makes babies smarter!”

“Pumpkin…”

“I mean, I wish I had my parents or our babysitter play Moztrot in the Cafe while they were raising my brother and I because now half the time I try to listen to Pinkie Pie, I barely even know what she’s talking about nowadays!”

Now though, Cadance was able to get her to listen as she was able to properly speak a full sentence. “Pumpkin, I don’t really feel so… comfortable with this. If you would like, I can pay you for your trouble when I get back, but I would really like to call a service-”

“Come on now, you don’t need to worry about me! I got this babysitting thing handled! Once you’re back, I’ll surprise with you with how well taken care of Skyla here is,” She proclaimed, before saying something else over the phone. Which sounded like her talking with Skyla. “Who’s a good baby? You’re a good baby! Yes you are!! Yes you are!!”

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Upon hearing the noise from the cockpit, Cadance rushed over to the cabin and realized what was going on. A pair of projectiles were being picked up on the radar and now we're headed straight towards them. Immediately, she jumped for the controls and flipped off the auto-pilot setting and flicked another switch. “E.S.S. Neighagra Falls, relaying to the Blind Garden. Disengage! I repeat, disengage!”

Now a sign lit up in the cabin where Flurry and Valiant were at. Telling them to fasten their seatbelts. But before they could even get buckled in, Cadance had to make a sharp right turn to launch out a series of chaff flares. Throwing the two of them around the cabin like they were loose luggage. Cadance herself, since the flares she fired only stopped one of the incoming projectiles, proceeded to take the ship into a deep nose dive and heading straight towards the ocean. Before pulling up just as they were close to the surface.

The other missile collided with the water, but it was as Cadance used the ships thrusters to pull back up, two more of them appeared on her radar. “Disengage, repeat DISENGAGE!!”

From where he was being held, Shining was horrified to hear what was going on. Sombra’s ‘greeting’ for Cadance was an all out attempt to shoot her and the ship that she was on out of the sky! It was something that he couldn’t bear to let happen. “NO!! Please, stop this! I’ll do anything!!”

“Sorry, but… too late!” Sombra said, before glaring directly at him with a venomous look on his face. “Fifteen years too late.”

“Friendlies at 3-0 miles south-southeast of your position! Eagles ten, track east! Disengage, over!” She said, before thinking of an idea as she grabbed something that was on the seat and looking back towards Valiant. “Val, put this on!! I need both of you to help me out right now!!”

That something happened to be Valiant’s mask as he looked back at her. “A mask!? What's that going to do, mom!?”

“It’s not any ordinary one-!” Cadance said, before hearing something crash with the side of the hull. “Just put it on! I need both you and your sister to use your powers to help protect the ship!!” Valiant hastily put his mask on. But it was Flurry that soon had doubts.

“But you said we weren’t supposed to use our powers-!”

“I know what I said!! Listen to what I’m saying right now! Val’s mask is supposed to help him with his powers, so help him find a way to keep this ship stable-!” Cadance shouted back, before getting back on the radio and having the ship perform evasive maneuvers. “Disengage, repeat disengage!!”

Scanning area. A robotic voice was heard through Valiant’s mask, making the colt jump.

“What th-?” Valiant yelled in surprise.

“Language!!!” Cadance shouted.

Updating now.

“Come on, Val! Hurry up!!” Flurry told him before proceeding to the stairs and onto the top deck of the airship. Her crystals growing much longer now as if she was preparing for a fight.

“It's updating!” Valiant screamed. “What's up with this-!?” He stopped as Cadance pulled up. Almost causing them to slip and fall as Flurry tried to shoot some of her crystals to send the missiles crashing down. However, with the speed they were going at, she kept on missing as they got closer.

“Abort! Abort! Abort!” Cadance repeated herself, trying to get their attention. “Mayday! Mayday! E.S.S. Neighagra falls has been shadow spiked! There are children aboard!! I repeat-”

“-There are children aboard!! I repeat, there are children aboard!!” At her desk, Fleur de Lis’ eyes widened immensely at the alarming new details. However, Bloodstone remained unfazed.

“NO!!! STOP!!!” Shining screamed in both pain and terror. “I'LL DO ANYTHING!!! ANYTHING!!!”

“Like I already said before… too late!” Bloodstone replied. “Fifteen years too late.”

“Both of you, get back inside!!” Amorous shouted, leaving the ship on auto pilot and ditching the controls. But it was just as she left the cabin and got back up with Valiant and Flurry that the rockets converged on the front of the ship. Blowing the entire front hall to pieces as it left all three of them plummeting into the ocean below. With debris falling all around them as they were in free fall.

Though… there was one thing that did happen. Update completed. Projecting creation choices now.

Valiant’s eyes widened as blueprints and schematics flashed right before his eyes, with a targeting ridicule that highlighted objects, quickly revealing the context it. Looking around, he noticed both Flurry and Cadance were unconscious, unable to react.

“Mom! Flurry! Wake up!” He screamed.

Device for waking. Pieces found. Valiant’s mask highlighted various small pieces. With only a few moments to spare, he used his powers to get the pieces, feeling both stronger and faster doing so, and easily followed the instructions to piece it together. What came about was a small, pipe bomb looking device, which let out an ear piercing sound. Cadance woke up, seeing they were just a few feet from colliding with the ocean.

“W-wha-?” She said, before realizing what was going on and using her wings to fly above the ocean. Going as far as to catch Flurry and hold onto her before looking towards Valiant. “Val, you-”

Pieces found for watercraft vehicle. Stand by.

Valiant slowed down his descent, as though the plane came crashing down onto them, various pieces started to fly over and around them, quickly assembling into a watercraft.

Attachment possible. Propellor fan. As Valiant looked to his left, he saw one of the fans that was once on the back of the airship had broken off and was slowly beginning to sink in the water. Cadance landed on the craft, a bit surprised at how Photo and Coco’s designs actually worked. She placed Flurry down, who woke up screaming.

“WE'RE GONNA DIE!!! GAME OVER!!!”

“Flurry, calm down, we’re okay…” Cadance told her, placing her hands on her shoulders for a moment as she turned her head to watch Valiant use his powers to lift up the propellor that was in the water and attach it to the back to the boat alongside what looked like some kind of motor. “Your brother saved us.”

Flurry looked at her mom, then to Valiant, and back. “... This is all a dream. I’m home, asleep, ready for a test tomorrow and-” Valiant pinched her. “OW!!!”

“You're welcome.” Valiant replied sarcastically.

“Both of you quit it, this isn’t the time to be messing with each other,” Amorous sternly told the two of them, while also noticing the lines of smoke that were in the sky. Pointing a finger at them as she realized what it was. “Hmm… Those were homing missiles. Long range. That’s where we’re going.”

“Hold on… you want us to go straight for the ponies that tried to blast us out of the sky?” Valiant then asked. “Aren’t we supposed to go away from them?”

“Well, if it means land… and if it leads to where your father is, then yes.” The pegasus replied back, before looking towards Flurry. “Remember when I told you that your father was in trouble?”

The pegasus nodded her head for a small moment, before realizing something. “Wait… you meant that literally?”

All that did was cause Cadance to nod her head as Valiant now looked towards her. “So, are you expecting for us to row oars all the way over there?”

That just had Cadance look back at her for a moment, before thinking of an idea as she looked towards Flurry and back towards where Valiant had the propellor. “I expect for the two of you… to trust me. I have an idea… Flurry, how much magic can you put into one of your crystals.”

“Um… maybe enough to last for a couple hours… why?”

That was when Amorous explained what exactly she had in mind so they could be able to reach landfall. “Have your brother make a small engine that runs on crystals and attach it to the fan. It’s going to get us there faster so we don’t need to row oars.”

08- The Island

In the moments that have transpired since Bloodstone’s ‘greeting’ on the E.S.S. Neighagra Falls, Shining Armor himself was horrified to hear about how he was willing to attack the vessel that his wife and kids were aboard. But in the moments afterwards, things got even worse for him as he heard a rather… dismayed Fleur De Lis speak to him in a rather saddened tone. “The engines and hull of the ship took a direct hit over the southeast coast. Reports say that the target was destroyed completely.”

Bloodstone himself smirked at the news. But he did not want to overlook any details. “Have a team sent out to inspect the wreckage. I want confirmation that those who were on board were taken out.”

“B-but there isn’t the possibility of any survivors,” Fleur told him in response, trying to get the red horned unicorn to change his mind. “Wouldn’t that just be a waste of-”

Before she could speak any further, that was when Bloodstone took one one of his gauntlets and smacked Fleur across the face. Sending her toppling to the floor as he looked back at the unicorn. “Anything to make this hero feel like he’s lost everything is never a waste! Do I… make myself clear?!”

All that did was cause Fleur to nod her head in shock as she looked back at him. All before Bloodstone just grinned as he looked back at Shining now. “Who’s helpless now?” He mocked, all before heading out the door as his maniacal laugh echoed throughout the hallway.

Meanwhile…

By the time that they had reached the shoreline of the island, Cadance and her children were worn out from not just everything they’ve been through. But everything they had to do to make it here safely, and once they found something that could serve as shelter, then they could get some of the much needed rest that they wanted.

Well, at least Flurry and Valiant could rest. Cadance herself still had a job to do and a husband to find. But first, she had to make sure that both of her kids knew what was going on. “Kids… I think your father is in trouble.”

“Um, not to sound rude mom… but we aren’t exactly doing so well either all things considered.” Flurry replied back as both her and Valiant were trying to keep themselves warm and placing their hands close to the campfire that Cadance had made.

“I understand that… and I’m going to look for him. Which means your in charge again until I get back.”

“Oh come on, seriously!?” Valiant protested upon hearing that.

“You heard her, Val.” Flurry told him, before the two of them notice Cadance place her mask on over her face and hand one of them that looked just like hers to Flurry. “Uh mom… why are you giving these to us? You just said that you were going to look for dad.”

“I want for you to put it on,” Cadance replied calmly. “Your identity is your most important possession right now, so protect it. And… if anything goes wrong, use your powers.”

“But you told us-”

“I know what I told you!” Cadance quickly shot back at Flurry, trying to restrain her emotions as she looked back at both of them. “Remember the ponies that were seen as the bad guys on those cartoons that you watched on Saturday mornings?” The response was a nod from both of them as the pegasus soon told them something else that made their expressions change instantly. “Well these guys… are not like them. They won’t restrain themselves just because the two of you are children. They will harm you and even go as far as to kill you… if you give them that opportunity. Do not let it happen, no matter what.”

She then turned to Val, before picking up where she left off. “Val… If anything goes wrong, I want you to create anything that your brain could possibly think of.”

That had the pegasus get rather excited as he looked back at his mother. “Anything!?!”

“Anything. Both of you need to be strong. I’m counting on you two to look out for one another, stay hidden and keep each other safe,” She said, hugging both of them before getting up and heading to the exit of the cave. “I’ll try to be back by morning. If I’m not back…”

“Look out for each other, stay hidden and protect each other?” Flurry asked as if she was asked with repeating her mother’s instructions, which caused her mom to smile as Cadance nodded her head. “Sounds simple… though, I’m not holding my breath on it.”

“That’s my girl…” Cadance told her, shortly before taking off and leaving both of her kids behind in the safety of the cave. But before she could stretch out her wings, she then heard Flurry’s voice again. But this time, it was for a different reason.

“Mom, I… I’m sorry, I couldn’t help Val when-”

“Shh… Flurry, it’s okay… None of this was-,” her mother insisted, trying to calm her as she looked back at her daughter.

“B-but I…”

“Hey… what happened to the composed self that was you just a few moments ago?” Cadance then asked, leading to a small bit of silence from her daughter as the pegasus placed a hand on her shoulder. “Just be brave… I don’t see anything that happened on the airship earlier as your fault. So don’t blame yourself for it, okay?” All that had Flurry do was nod her head, holding back tears as she gave her mother a hug. One that Cadance was caught off guard by, but returned to her daughter as she looked back at her. “Be brave, Flurry.”

After saying that, it was then that the pegasus spread her wings and took off, leaving her daughter to look back at the mask that her mother gave her. Putting it on as she turned around to join back up with her brother.

“Now… If I were my husband, where would I be?” Cadance, who now was Amorous asked herself as she perched herself over what she believed was a railway system that connected different parts of the island together. She was still trying to get used to the mechanics of her newfound suit, but one thing that she was able to understand rather quickly was her newfound wrist crossbows. The pegasus changed out the ammo that was in the gauntlet as she heard the sound of an oncoming railcar approach her.

Thinking quickly, she aimed her left wrist crossbow at the car and just when it was under her, fired a small bolt that turned into a dot that was blinking on the top of it as it sped along. The point for her firing it was to not slow the cart down… but to instead track it. Map out the path that the railcars took so she could find a potential point of entry as she watched the path of the car on a screen that was built into her gauntlet.

And by the time a majority of the island was mapped out, she heard the sound of another car approaching. Pressing the sides of her hooves, the boots that she wore began to glow as she readied herself. Jumping off and landing just right on the top of the car. However, to the guards inside, they didn’t hear anything.

That was one of the features that Photo had put on her husband’s suit that she added to hers. A noise muffler. Something that would block out the sounds of her hoofsteps as she moved through the night. Looking back at her gauntlet, Amorous pressed a button that was on the wristbone that was along her hand and pulled the hood of her suit over her head. As the car approached a security checkpoint, her suit went invisible. Masking her from the security sensors.

“Alright, welcome back Rook-5. Go ahead and head on in,” The guard at the checkpoint replied, shortly before the railcar went forward. Going through an estranged tunnel as she lowered her head to squeeze in. However, it was at one point where she saw something that caught her off guard.

“A… rocket?”

It definitely was a rocket. But the only question on her mind was what such a thing was doing here. When she originally saw the volcano, she thought it was actually an active volcano. But seeing this made her suspicious as to what was really going on.

If only she could find the right place to disembark at.

For the last few minutes, all that Flurry had been doing was try to come up with different forms of creations using her powers. Conjuring crystalling figures before having them split up into dust after a few moments. Yet… unfortunately for her, this wasn’t exactly enough to keep her little brother entertained as he got up from off the floor of the cave and looked back at Flurry.

“Well… as fun as this is,” Val said, getting up. “I'd rather see if there's something that's actually interesting.”

Before he could take two steps though, that was when Flurry spoke up. “Val, what do you think is going on? Are you treating this like we’re on a vacation or something?” She asked, before adding something else shortly afterwards. “Mom and dad’s lives could be in jeopardy right now… or worse…” She stopped for a moment, before whispering the final part. “Their marriage.”

“Their marriage?” Val showed obvious confusion. “These bad guys want to get to… mom and dad's marriage? But why?”

“No, not like that-” She said, before rolling her eyes and facepalming herself. “Dear Celestia, you can be so immature at times.”

“Yeah, yeah, and you're always a stick up.” He turned around with a torch and walked into the cave.

“Hey, did you forget that mom told us to stay hidden?” She snapped the moment that she noticed Valiant walking away from her.

“I’m still going to be inside the cave!! Sheesh, talk about being overprotective…” Valiant rolled his eyes as he began to proceed further inside.

In the control room, several guards were working overtime. Manually going through the controls as they watched the rocket. Preparing it for what was to come next as a dark crimson ball was being loaded into the rocket.

“Rook 1 to control, Salamander is now in position. Awaiting further instructions before we can proceed to launch.”

“Rook 1, this is control. All systems are go. Engage launch protocol. T-minus thirty seconds until launch.”

Valiant stopped as the rocky interior of the cave was drastically split into a smooth, metal interior of sorts. Curious as to what it could mean, he tossed a small rock further down. Only for the sound to echo as he looked back towards it.

“Cool!” He shouted, making a distinct echo. His childish mind prompted him to shout it louder. “COOL!!!”

“Control, we are engaging thrusters. Counting down in 10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1. All engines running. We have confirmed liftoff. I repeat, we have confirmed liftoff.”

The cave shook, with loose rubble and rocks falling from the roof and walls. Valiant hesitantly turned around before sprinting away, unsure if he caused it or not. Either way, he wasn't going to find out, and nor should Flurry.

Yet… at the end of the tunnel was some kind of orange light. And it was rapidly heading towards him as it turned the rock that Valiant threw into dust. Leading him to realize that they needed to get out of there… right now!

“FLURRY!!! RUN!!!” He screamed.

“What? Bats?” Flurry rolled her eyes, before seeing the Orange light quickly following her brother as her eyes widened. “What the HAY DID YOU DO!?!” Valiant grabbed her arm, the two getting out of the cave and jumping out of the way, with the end of their tails getting burnt in the process. They both batted the flames off their tails, but looked up, seeing a rocket heading into space.

“Well, so much for staying hidden…” Flurry said, before looking at her brother. “You alright?” Valiant finished batting the flames off of his tail.

“Yeah, I am… hope no one sees this at school.”

“I really doubt anypony would be paying attention to that.” Flurry said, before motioning her hand as a sign for him to come over to her. Placing her hand on the ground, she had a dome of crystalline glass form around them so that they could be safe and inside. “Not a cave, but it can keep us hidden until morning.”

“Right… a Crystal ball won't stick out.” Val deadpanned. Just as his sister let out a deep sigh and looked back at him.

“It’ll mask our presence… so if we can see someone outside, they can’t see us.” She pointed out to her brother. “Now let's get some rest… something tells me we might need it for tomorrow.”

Meanwhile…

It took awhile for Amorous to find a way for her to get into the base while drawing as little attention to her as possible. Especially since it was almost nearly impossible to find a simple vent for her to slip on in… or for that matter, one that was big enough for her to hide inside. Most of the spaces that would’ve been easy for her to crawl through back in the glory days had now shrinked in size. Meaning that unless you were the size of a breezie or a spider, then you would need to think of an alternative place to sneak through.

Luckily though, Photo must’ve thought of that when she designed the suit. Because after reaching a particular section in the ceiling that was hanging over the security surveillance room, Amorous changed the ammo type to the thirteenth model that was given to her. One that was referred to as ‘the all seeing eye’. It was fired off as a small ball, but when attached to a wall, it turned into a camera that she could see from her equipment.

And right now, what she was looking at some of the monitors in the room. One was projecting the flight path of a ‘Project Salamander’ and it’s ETA to Maretropolis. The other… was a grid that tracked the amount of power that was going through the building.

And the highest amount of power was going through Block A1… in Cell 13. Which could mean only one thing. “Shining…”

“Hunh? What? Who said that?” She heard a security guard asked as Amorous backed away from the opening in the vent before a fellow guard reassured them that they didn’t hear anything. But there was only one other thought that was going through Amorous’ mind right now.

She needed to find her husband… and fast.

Author's Note

This... took WAY longer than it needed to be. Still, I do hope that you guys enjoy it and look forward to other things later on.
-Frost

00- The glory days

Start of recording: Iron Steed

In a simple, dark blue room, a stallion in a bright costume adjusted a small microphone on his chest. The stallion was rather muscular looking, being covered in white fur across his body, but had a striped mane of light blue and sky blue. He wore a red costume that had a shield logo on the center of his chest, which was connected to a golden breastplate. On his hands blue gloves, with a red mask over his eyes, keeping his identity a secret. Confused, he poked the poke microphone he was putting on, making some loud feedback.

“Excuse me, is this thing on?” He asked

“Yes, Iron Steed.” A mare answered from behind the camera.rom behind the camera as the hero let out a sigh of relief. Even though he was having trouble trying to attach it to his suit and finally was able to place his microphone on his chest. “So… Iron Steed, if I may ask, do you happen to have some form of secret identity?”

The stallion himself himself looked around for a moment, before letting out a small chuckle as he began to respond to the reporter he was talking too. “Every superhero that I know of has a secret identity. I mean, I don’t know of anypony who doesn’t right now. I mean… think about it. Who would want that amount of pressure of just being ‘super’ all the time? If you push yourself too much, even those who are super can tire themselves out.”

Start of recording: Amorous

In another simple colored room that had lavender run along the walls, a pegasus that was covered in pink fur was standing in the middle of the room. She looked rather slender herself, her mane consisting of purple, magenta and a light yellow as it ran alongside the back of her suit. One that had a neckline that consisted of what looked like a yellow and white trim to blend in with her bright azure colored suit and the small sapphire around her chest level.

Her response to the reporter’s first question… was much different then that of the stallion in front of her. “Of course I have a secret identity,” The mare chuckled, rolling her eyes for a moment before looking back towards the camera. “I mean, can you really see me in this while I’m… I’m… while I’m out shopping for groceries or something? It wouldn’t make sense for me to try and go out shopping at Amorous if you know what I mean.”

Start of recording: Canvas

Now the room was a simple shade of red as the focus was on the stallion that was in the center of the room. His fur was that of a brick like orange with his mane being a rather cerulean shade of blue, but his eyes were blocked by that of a pair of goggles, a mask over his mouth and what looked like a full body suit. The top half of it consisting of a painters smock and also a scarf around his neck.

“Secret identities? Oh I have one of those,” The stallion replied back to the reporter. “But when it comes to some of those super mares… they’re always trying to tell you their secret identity. But me, I’m one of those guys who rather not know about others secrets like who their parents are, what your alter ego is or anything like that. Because if you tell me that you’re some… extreme super mega ultra powerful mare? That’s alright with me… I’m fine. I’m fine with that.”

Back to Iron Steed

“So, Iron Steed… what do you like the most about being a hero?” The reporter now asked Iron Steed as the focus was now back on him. “Do you enjoy saving the world from villains on a daily basis?”

“Ah. See, now that’s a tricky one. I do enjoy saving the world from villains, both the ultra ones that I need to stop to some wannabe, but if there’s one thing that gets on my nerves, it’s when they do something on my off time! I’m not gonna say who I am, but even a guy like me needs a day off, and it’s just impossible when you’re at the grocery store, and the next thing you know, BAM!!! A villain enters, and I have to stop whatever it is I’m doing to save the day again! And don’t get me started on dates.”

“You’ve had a villain interrupt you on a date?” The reporter asked, finding that a little hard to believe at first.

“What? I mean… I just want to settle down, you know… have a wife, a child… three at most… but it’s near impossible when… oh, I don’t know, Mr. Cryo enters and starts freezing everyone, you know?”

“You sound like you want to have the world… well.. You want it to ‘stay saved’ for a little bit. Like enough for you to catch your breath and rest, right?” The mare asked him.

“Yeah. I feel like a maid here. You know, I just cleaned the place, can we keep it clean for 10 minutes!? Please?” That had the reporter and him laugh for a moment, before accidentally getting up and almost knocking the camera over.

Back to Amorous

“Stop right now? Settle down!?” Amorous asked in shock. “Why would I do that? If it was possible, I would never sleep with these evil doers around.”

“Don’t all heroes need a chance to rest from time to time though, Ms. Amorous?” The reporter then asked her.

“Only after some hard defeat, really. But you see me, don’t you? I don’t lose, only have close calls. And trust me, big guys like Iron Steed can complain all they want, but there’s no way I’m gonna quit this near thankless job! Ladies, you think we should let these guys do everything for us when they whine more than us? Heh, I don’t think so.”

“I’m sure that the public thanks you and every other hero all the time for your deeds, Ms. Amorous,” The reporter then told her. “I’m always grateful for what you and other heroes do everyday to keep the ponies of Maretropolis safe.”

“And I thank you in return, to all of you who thanked us. Some folks may not like us, but we try our best to keep you all safe.”

“I wish you and your fellow heroes the best of luck wherever duty calls.” The reporter complimented the pegasus. “And show them that mares can definitely kick some serious flank.”

“Please, I may be a mare, but I can kick more flanks than the stallions I work with.” Amorous said with a cocky grin.

‘All units, we have a downtown pursuit in progress. I repeat, a downtown pursuit in progress. Suspects are said to be armed and extremely dangerous and they already have hurt several bystanders…’

As he was hearing this over his car radio’s police scanner, Shining Armor was on the way to a very important event. Though, it was as he was hearing this that he recalled that he was already a couple hours early and he was already dressed. Leaving him with two options. Option A, stay the course… or Option B, take a quick detour.

It only took him close to a second to make his decision. And he chose the latter of the two.

“I got time to spare.” He said to himself, turning a knob inside his car. A couple of beeps were heard, making the vehicle he was in take over in driving. His seat leaned back, leaving him lying on his back, though he raised his arms as metal arcs went over him, making him go into his costume, AKA, The Iron Steed. To the outside, civilians saw what looked like an older truck turn into the sleek and stylistic Ironmobile, complete with an open roof, where they saw the Iron Steed behind wheels, ready for action.

Of course, he didn’t really quite get that far as he had to stop just as he was beginning to pass the Maretropolis Park when what looked like a filly almost stepped out into the road.

“Iron Steed! Iron Steed!” The voice of an elderly mare yelled, waving towards him. Reacting, Iron Steed slammed on the breaks, turning a bit to not hit her.

“What is it, ma’am?” He asked.

“My granddaughter’s kite is stuck in a tree and won’t come down. Can you help get it down for her?” The elderly mare pointed to a kite that was stuck in the tree as the same filly that almost jumped out in front of the ironmobile was now right next to the elderly mare with a really sad look on her face.

Iron Steed himself, took a moment to look back at the dashboard screen that was tracking the pursuit that the police were in, noticing that they were coming back around and slowly circling the park.

“Uh… y-yeah, I got time.” He replied, jumping out of the car and, with his strength, ripped the tree straight out of the ground, roots intact. The filly stood under the tree’s leaves, extending her arms out to retrieve her kite as Iron Steed shook the tree. “Come on, come on, get out of there.” Some beeping was heard from his car’s computer, followed the sound of sirens and gunfire. He looked to the right, seeing the crime in the distance, making him shake the tree harder. “Come on! Get out of there!”

“Ooh! It’s getting loose, Mr. Steed!” The filly spoke with a slight lisp. Causing him to shake a little harder as the kite was slowly beginning to slip off of the tree branch. Landing right in front of the filly after a few more shakes. The police sirens and gunfire were just close. Iron Steed threw the tree to the side, using it as a makeshift barrier, causing the criminals’ car to crash, ending the chase. All the Iron Steed could do was take a deep breath, lifting the tree and planting it back where it came from, even if it had a noticeable dent in its side.

As a pair of officers cuffed the two criminals in the car, that was when one of the other police officers from another squad car stepped out and thanked him personally. “Thank you very much now, Iron Steed. If you didn’t help us out, who knows what would’ve happened.”

“Please, if it weren’t for you, then they would’ve got away.” Iron Steed replied, giving the officers a sense of pride.

“Why thank you, sir.” Another one of the officers said, before noticing something. “Hey, it looks like you have a fan.” When Iron Steed turned around, he noticed that the filly that he got the kite for was back… and this time she had a marker with her.

“Mr. Steed, can you please sign my kite?” She asked him, holding out the kite and the marker for him. He rolled his eyes with a chuckle, taking the kite and marker.

“And what’s your name, sweetie?”

“S-starlight,” She told him nervously. “Starlight Glimmer.” He began to write on the kite.

“To… Starlight… be good… Iron Steed.” He returned the stuff to the filly, ruffling her mane. “Stay in school.” The filly, overjoyed by his compassion, thanked him and even went as far as to hug him before running off in order to join her grandmother.

“Would you look at that, you got yourself a fan… You definitely made her day, Iron Steed.” The officer that pointed out the filly to her told him with a smile. Before the hero could say anything though, that was when he heard something come up from the scanner in the officer’s patrol car.

“All units, please be advised. We have reports of an armed robbery around Solaria Avenue…” The first thing that the hero did was pull up his left glove so he could look at the watch that was on his wrist

“Armed robbery? … I still got time.” He spoke to himself, turning his attention to everyone. “It’s alright, I got this. Officers, ladies, stay safe.” Iron Steed jumped into his car, ready to head to Solaria Avenue… until a voice spoke.

“Two ready for take off! All systems go!!” A cheery sounding voice announced. Which immediately had Iron steed turn to his right to see that a unicorn colt with a dark fur coat in his teens, sat in his passenger seat, wearing a more makeshift costume to his own.

“What the-!? Who the hay are you!?” Iron Steed demanded.

“Well, I’m Iron Colt!”

Around the time that he began to hear the voice again, things soon began to click in his mind. More specifically, on where he knew this kid from. “Wait wait… Hold on a moment… you’re that one colt from the… from the fan club! Sombra! Sombra right?”

“My name is Iron Colt!” The colt glared back at the hero with a stern look.

“Look. I’ve been nice for you. I signed every autograph piece you’ve given me, took photos with you, and even-”

“Nonono! You don’t have to train me at all!”

That part had Iron Steed raise an eyebrow under his mask. “Uh, what?”

“I’ve know all your adventures, moves, catchphrases, everything! I’m your number one fan!”

That had Iron Steed let out a sigh, before looking back at him. “I’m sorry, kid, but I can’t,” As he said that, he pressed a button on the dashboard that ejected the colt from his seat onto the grass. “You can really get hurt out here… besides, right now,” He looked back at his watch again, realizing that he was losing time that he thought he had as he looked back at the colt. “I have no need for a sidekick.” He stepped on the gas and drove off.

And in doing so, leaving the colt behind as he was just getting back up on his hooves. “Wait! I have powers too! Just give me a chance, please!”

On one of the apartment complex buildings that was overlooking Maretropolis, a rugged looking stallion in his mid thirties was sifting through a purse that he just stole from a mare off the street. Rummaging through everything as pictures, makeup, gum, and other items were now being scattered all over the rooftop.

The stallion himself was trying to be aware of his surroundings in front of him. But the one thing that he did not happen to pay attention too… was what was behind him.

“You know, you can tell a lot about mares by the contents of their purse,” The Iron Steed spoke, making the thief jump in fear. “But judging by what I’m seeing, you don’t have intentions of it.”

The stallion himself tried to pull out what looked like a knife from his back pocket. But before he… or Iron Steed could do anything about it, it was shot out of his hand as a small arrow was bolted to the ground. Shortly before a blunt arrow hit the stallion in the head… and a rather familiar heroine soon stepped out from behind a greenhouse on the roof. “Iron Steed…”

“Well, hello, Amorous.” Iron Steed replied, a bit surprised by her arrival. Amorous grabbed the thief by his shirt’s collar. “Oh no, it’s alright, I got him.”

“Sure you got him. I just took him out for you.” Amorous replied as she went to go pick up the arrows that she had used.

“Sure you took him out, but his attention was on me.” The hero told her

“The fact I exploited to do my job.” The heroine countered.

“MY job, you mean.”

“A simple ‘Thank you’ would work.”

“Thanks, but I don’t need any help.”

“... Whatever happened to ‘Ladies First’?” Amorous then decided to ask the stallion.

“Well, whatever happened to equal treatment?”

“Hey, look, the lady got me first.” the thief spoke through a mumble, right before being bonked on the head by Iron Steed.

“And now we’re even.” Iron Steed spoke.

“Or we can say we both did it and share it.” Amorous replied.

“I work alone.”

“And I think you need to-” She leaned forward and grabbed his head, making him look into her lovely eyes. “See the picture.” All Iron Steed could do was blush.

“Are… you doing anything tonight?”

“You know what we’re both doing tonight… honey.” Amorous turned around, flared her wings, and took to the sky, leaving Iron Steed to have a goofy grin across his face.

“I’m the luckiest stallion on earth.”

“... Can I go?” The thief asked, right before receiving another bonk to the head. All before the stallion realized that he did not exactly have any handcuffs to hold the guy for when he woke up. Leading him to have to get creative by taking the thief’s belt and tightening his hands around a pipe. All before cleaning up the mess that was made and looking for some kind of identification on who the purse belonged to.

“Hey! Iron!” The voice of Canvas yelled, past flying a helicopter that was dripping with paint. Iron Steed turned to see Canvas piloting the vehicle, in what looked like an aerial dogfight against some alien invaders.

“Hey, Canvas!” He waved back.

“Shouldn’t you be getting ready!?” His friend asked, swishing his tail as a ramp made out of paint was formed as he continued to pursue the helicopter.

“I still got time!”

“Don’t be late!!” He heard his friend shout again, before leaping through the open door of the helicopter and beginning to fight those that were inside. At first, Iron Steed thought that he should return the purse that he just found to its rightful owner… but something else changed that as he heard somepony scream and noticed that a set of strobe lights were focused on the skyscraper across the street… and what looked like a pony standing on the edge of the building.

“Oh dear Celestia, he’s gonna jump!!” Everyone below screamed as the pony jumped off of the roof, attempting to end his life. Not wanting to see anyone dying, Iron Steed figured that he could interfere, taking a few steps back then go in a full on sprint, jumping and catching the pony in the air, with both of them crashing into the building. The pony, which was an earth pony stallion in his mid forties, groaned in pain.

“I think you broke something.”

“Well, after some therapy, you’ll thank me for this.” Iron Steed replied with an optimistic tone as he noticed the seal of the Maretropolis Bank in the room where they landed. But, it was as he was beginning to get up that he soon… heard something. Almost like a beeping noise. “Wait a minute…” He dragged the stallion, putting him in a corner to sit down at. While today seemed a bit relaxing, he had the feeling that he needed to use his real power instead of his strength alone. With a flex of his arms, his skin and hair turned into metal, making his steps make a loud clunk with each step. It may not be the most stealthiest ability, but if he suspected what he thought it was, stealth was out of the window.

Following the beeping, Iron Steed placed his ear against one of the walls. The beeps got louder and louder as he followed the sound… but they were also coming off faster and faster. Almost as if something was… about to go off. “Oh no…”

BOOM!!!

An explosion went off, throwing him against the wall with rubble of what was the wall and also the steel lid to a bank vault. Walking out and past the explosions was a minotaur with two straps across his chest. Each one carrying enough dynamite and explosives to level an entire skyscraper. And he was carrying a sizable amount of money in a duffle bag with his spare hand. Of course, he was smiling at first… before he watched Iron Steed push the seal to the vault off of him as he stood back on both feet and stared him down.

“Countdown…” Iron spoke in his serious tone.

“Eisen Steed!” The minotaur spoke in germane, the language from his home country.

“And Iron Colt!” The voice of Sombra broke. Both turned to see Sombra standing near the window, but also with what looked like a twin next to him.

“Eiserner Colt?” Countdown asked in confusion. All while Iron Steed just let out a deep sigh as he turned himself around to face his fan, who ran to his side.

“Heyhey, wanna hear how I got here so fast!? See, I can use my shadow as an extension to me and go through wormholes and-”

“That’s cute.” Iron Steed replied, before looking at the colt with a serious expression on his face. “Now go home.”

“Kleiner Dummkopf…” Countdown grumbled, which translated to ‘little oaf’.

“Can we talk?” Sombra asked, holding Iron Steed’s hand and dragging him a few feet away from the villain. “You always, ALWAYS say ‘Stay true to yourself’, but you never said who to be true to yourself to! Well I finally figured out who I am. I am your ward. Iron Colt!”

“And you have officially gone too far there, kiddo.” Iron Steed replied, quickly grabbing Countdown by one of his straps as he tried to sneak away.

“It’s all because I’m not as strong as you, is it!? I can control my shadow just fine, and we can do things twice as great together! Can you do two things at once!?”

“I can beat this explosive minotaur and take you home, if that answers your question.”

“Auch dein outfit ist absolut lächerlich!” Countdown shouted. Meaning ‘also, your outfit is completely ridiculous!’

“Oh come on, give me a chance!” Iron Colt pleaded “L-look! I can go get the police!” He turned and ran away, only for Countdown to place a stick of dynamite in his pocket without the colt realizing it.

“Wait! Don’t!” Iron Steed demanded.

“It’ll just take a second, I swear!”

“No! Stop! There’s dynamite!” He tossed Countdown and jumped to Sombra, who began to enter through a portal. The sudden tackle caused Sombra’s destination to go way off kilter, where instead of going behind the crowd below, they were in Downtown Maretropolis’ railway. Iron Steed tossed the dynamite to the side as Sombra fell down a convenient flight of stairs that employees used for maintenance.

Unfortunately, the stick of dynamite Countdown lit was a highly combustible one, resulting in a huge explosion that blew off a a few meters of the train tracks. And to make matters worse, there was a train coming straight for the opening in the tracks.

“Oh, give me a break!” Iron Steed yelled, jumping over the hole and took a stance in front of the train. He winced, ready for the sudden impact that was going to happen.

CRASH!!!

All the passengers in the train were abruptly launched forwards, as Iron Steed was pushed back by the force, but was luckily slowing down the train. With a lot of pain searing through his body, he wanted to scream loudly, but kept it in from being out of breath. In seconds, the front of the train dangled over the hole, completely stopped, with an in pain Iron Steed in front, letting out a painful wheeze.

“... Nailed it.”

It was only minutes after the explosion that occurred on the railway and police were already spread out and investigating the area. Calling in paramedics to tend to all of the passengers that were on the train that Iron Steed had to stop so it would not plummet off of the rails and cause any casualties.

Though, there was one pony that the police had to put in the back of a patrol car. And unfortunately, it wasn’t a criminal or a villain. “Wait!! It’s a rookie mistake! I can be better! Believe me, please!” Sombra pleaded, before he was placed in the back of the car. Causing Iron Steed to let out a big sigh before looking towards both of the officers in front of him.

“Please, make sure that he’s back at his home and that his mom knows about this…” Iron Steed told both of the officers. “There’s already been enough trouble for one night. Did you make sure to call paramedics?”

“Yes, Iron Steed. They’re making their way here, post haste,” One of the officers said to him. “We also dispatched a medical team for the stallion you saved earlier.”

“Good.” He looked to his watch, realizing that he was extremely late. “Oh great. Can you guys put a note down that Countdown robbed the bank?”

“Hold on… he got away?” The other officer then asked him.

“Only because my ‘sidekick’ interfered.” He called his car over to his location, before taking one last look at Sombra inside the car.

“And is the robbery by Countdown connected with the explosion on the railway-?” They tried asking him, just before they saw Iron Steed’s transport arrive a few seconds later.

“Ask the kid. It was originally in his back pocket,” The stallion replied, just as he quickly hopped into the drivers seat and locked himself in. “I’m sorry officers, but I gotta go! We’ll catch Countdown tomorrow!” He stepped on the gas and booked it.. Taking off and leaving the police behind in order to continue their investigation.

Eventually though, Iron Steed was able to reach his intended destination. The maretropolis cathedral. Having his car transform back into its standard form, he stepped out of the truck. Dressed in a suit and tie as he walked through the door.

Yet, there was one thing that he forgot to remove. And that was something that he did not notice until his friend pointed it out to him. “You’re late…” Spearhead, a dark orange coat pegasus stallion with an unkempt blue & cyan mane, spoke. “Thirty minutes late… What was the holdup this time around?”

“Countdown, and an annoying wannabe sidekick making it worse.” Shining answered, adjusting his suit. “How do I look?”

“Good,” he said, before walking over and taking off what was Iron Steed’s mask as he looked back at his friend. “But I think your bride wants to see you as Shining Armor. Not Iron Steed.”

“Thanks, buddy.” He stood by the doors, taking a deep breath. “It’s showtime.” He opened the doors and walked in. Sitting in the seats were other various heroes, still in costume, with his soon to be wife, Cadance up front, with the priest, both looking a bit annoyed, but glad to see Shining had arrived.

As the priest was beginning to speak, that was when the pegasus began to whisper at the unicorn that was going to be her husband. “You’re late… when I asked you earlier if you were doing anything, I didn’t think that you had actually forgotten. I thought you were just doing playful chitchat.”

“Well, I got occupied, you know?” Shining replied. “The city can’t keep itself safe, you know?”

“Yeah, but you do realize that you’re not the only hero in this city,” The pegasus replied. “I mean, there are many other heroes that are not here right now that could be patrolling the streets. I’m sure one of them can cover you.”

“I didn’t see any around at the time. And you went off to do your thing.”

“I thought you hated sharing.” She asked him.

“Not if it means it can get me the day off.”

“Yeah, but you were kind of cutting it close there.” Cadance then pointed out to him.

“And you didn’t cut it close enough.” He told her, just as she turned towards him.

“Look… I love you,” The bride said to the groom with a smile. “But if the two of us are going to make this work, we need to be more than just who we are under the mask. You know that… don’t you?”

Yet, before Iron Steed could answer, both of them heard the priest say the most important part. “... Shining Armor. Will you take this mare to be your beloved wife? To care for her and provide for her for as long as you both shall live?”

“I do.” Shining answered both questions

“Mi Amore Cadenza. Will you take this stallion to be your beloved husband? To care for him and provide for him as long as you both shall live?”

“I do.”

“I now pronounce you, husband and wife.” Both Shining and Cadance gave each other a passionate kiss, with the other heroes applauding for their marriage.

“For as long as we both shall live…” The pegasus told him, repeating the same words that the pastor just said as she gave him a smile. “No matter what happens.”

“Hey, we’re superheros. What’s the worst that can happen?”

Author's Note

Welcome to the prologue... a few things that I do want to mention right away (because I know that some of you might have questions about this) is that with this world, there are major differences between it and the standard world of Equestria that everypony is familiar with. First, the only alicorns that exist in this world are both Celestia and Luna... which explains why Cadance is a pegasus in this story. It will also be a common theme in the next chapter when we transition to the present day. Second, since this is based on the power ponies, modern technology like cars, computers, camera's and other items such as weapons and firearms are also present here.

Now that we've covered the glory days... it's time to jump ahead. Fifteen years later.
-Frost

03- Out with the old, in with the new

Another day, another reason for Shining Armor to try and act like he actually enjoyed working at the DMT. Even though, inside, he dreaded every single moment of it. From the complaining customers to the crying children that were in the waiting room to even the long lines that wrapped around the building, Shining did not like anything about it. However, to him, he couldn’t just pack up his things and leave. With Cadance looking after the kids, it was on him in order to try and provide for them-

RING! RING!!

The unicorn’s train of thought came to a halt when he heard the phone on his desk begin to ring. When he picked it up, he could hear his boss, Mr. Hoofh, yelling at the other end of the line… and also hear his secretary. “Mr. Hoofh would like to have a talk with you in his office… Now.”

“Oh no.” Shining muttered to himself. He got up and began to make his way to Hoofh’s office… but not until a beautiful looking mare walked into his stand, looking quite new to the DMT.

Inside the office of Mr. Hoofh, there was a recurring theme no matter where you looked in the room. In certain parts of the room, there were three of everything. Three clocks on the wall that had different time zone changes that were three hours apart, a calendar on the wall that showed three months at a time, and right now… three pens pointed directly to a chair in front of his chair as Shining Armor came in.

“Sit down, Armor… we need to talk.” Mr. Hoofh spoke in a stern tone. Shining followed, his action of sitting making the place shake a bit, knocking the two pens on each side out of alignment as he used both of his hands in order to straighten them. “Armor… I’m not thrilled at all. Not… Thrilled.” The last two words were with a tone that was raised up a bit. Not to the point that he was furious, but to where he can still display his anger while also keeping composed. “Do you know why, Armor?”

“... Why?” Shining asked.

“Ah-ah! Specifically, Armor.”

“... Why are you not thrilled, Mr. Hoofh?”

“Well… I recall hiring you for one specific purpose…” He said as he raised the index finger of his right hand. “Your position here at the DMT is that you were to help anypony with paying any particular tickets that they might’ve gotten… However, what I have been finding with you is that you aren’t exactly having customers pay their dues. It was their fault for the tickets and yet, you want to make it like they’re… non-existent to you. Like they never even happened.”

“Is that a problem? Am I not supposed to help customers pay their tickets?”

“You are, but that’s not the problem… There’s another entire department that’s focused towards trying to dispute or challenge tickets and instead of referring your customers to them, you are taking it on yourself,” His boss sternly told him, before taking out something from a drawer and presenting it to him. “My secretary even found applications for such matters stowed away on the filing cabinet under your desk...”

To Shining… this was not good. He thought that he had those forms hidden carefully, but if this was the case, then he was really in trouble now. Until he thought of something quickly. “Why was your secretary digging through my stuff?”

“She wasn’t… she passed by your desk to drop something off and they slipped out,” He explained to him. “And after that, she reported it to me… I’m not thrilled… but I believe this could be a valuable teaching moment…”

In Shining’s mind, he knew what this meant. Mr. Hoofh favorite analogy of comparing the roles of the DMT to the engine of a car. “For you see, Shining… the DMT…”

“Is like an engine in a car.”

“Is like an engine- Yes! Precisely!” He said, before beginning to fiddle with his hands. “The only way for it to work, and in turn for the car to work, is to have all the numerous pieces work simultaneously. No part is trying to do everything by itself because each one helps the other do their parts too. Now…”

As his boss continued to go on with the analogy, Shining began to look out the window and see everything outside. But it was one particular thing that caught his immediate attention. A stallion was approaching a mare that was getting out of her car, pointing a gun at her and telling her to get out.

And watching this unfold had Shining not even pay attention to his boss. “Armor? Armor…” Five seconds later, Shining felt a magical grip around his face as he was forcefully pulled to look at his boss directly in the eye. “Armor, don’t you dare look away while I’m trying to talk to you-!!”

“That mare outside needs help!”

Mr. Hoofh looked outside for a moment, before turning his attention back to him. “Well, somepony will call the cops-”

“I have to help.” Shining got up and began to walk out of the office. But his boss was not having it as he made one last threat to him to make the unicorn think otherwise.

“ARMOR!!! If you dare attempt to leave this room, then you’re FIRED!!!”

The moment that he heard those last three words, Shining stopped dead in his tracks. His hand was already on the door handle when his boss made the threat. But he stopped because he remembered that if he lost this job, he wouldn’t be able to provide for Cadance… for his kids. “Close… the door.” Shining growled as he followed suit, closing the door, but the doorknob was all but crushed. “Come back over here, now. We aren’t done with our discussion yet.” Shining let out a low growl as he walked back to his boss. “I’m not thrilled, Armor. Not thrilled.”

Shining looked out of the window to see that the stallion had thrown the mare out of her car and drove off. “He got away.”

What his boss told him next though… was seen as the last straw for Shining. “Good for them,” Anger began to rush through him at that point, not even looking at his boss as Mr. Hoofh was still speaking. “It’s not like they’re going to get really far- URK!!”

Many ponies who were working at the DMT’s back offices that morning did not know of what was going that lead up to this. But in an instant, many ponies were shocked when they saw the head of the DMT barreling through a wall and colliding with the back of a copy machine like it was the backstop at a baseball field. But it was when they turned to see where it originally came from, all they saw was a unicorn that was standing in place as a metal like glint was shining off of him as they stared at him.

And he only had two words to say upon realizing what he had done.

“Uh oh.”

Mr. Hoofh laid in the emergency room in a full body cast from head to hoof. His horn has also been bruised severely from the injury that he received as Shining just stared from outside the room in the middle of the hallway from the chair he was sitting in.

A few moments after that happened, an elderly stallion wearing a faded brown suit stepped out of the room. He had a grey mane and tail and the pin on his jacket that resembled a spear was based on his Cutie Mark.

As he turned to walk away and waved off the security guards that were in the hallway, Shining proceeded to follow him. For this stallion was somepony he knew long before being a hero. In fact, he was originally his commanding officer for the royal guard before becoming the head of the ESA (Equestrian Supers Agency). But Shining was not wanting to talk about old times… he instead had a different question.

“How is he?”

The stallion only let out a brief answer for him. “He’ll live, that’s for certain.”

“Let me guess… I’m fired, aren’t I?” Shining then asked.

“Oh, you think? I thought it was kind of obvious.”

“What can I really tell you, Halberd?” The unicorn said, addressing the elderly pony by his name.

“Nothing that you have told me before, Rook…” Halberd told him, now addressing Shining by one of the names that he called him during basic training as they were approaching the elevator.

“Somepony was in trouble, Halberd. Their car was getting stolen in the middle of the parking lot. I had to do something-”

“Somepony is always in trouble, no matter where you look,” The former commander told him in response, pressing the down arrow for the elevator as he looked back at Shining. “And everytime you say those five words, it means almost two months of trouble for me. It means hundreds of thousands of taxpayers bits…”

“I know…” Shining said, sounding a little defeated while Halberd was still talking to him.

“We got to pay to keep the company quiet, we got to pay to fix the damages, erase memories,” The stallion told Shining, but the last part was one that hit him personally. “Relocate your family… Everytime it gets harder and harder to do it and more money is being consumed to do all of those things. We can’t keep doing this, Rook… I can’t be helping you everytime this happens.”

The doors of the elevator opened up, just as Halberd stepped in and turned to face him. “Look, we appreciate everything that you did for society in the old days, but from now on, you’re on your own,” As the doors closed though, the stallion actually extended his hand. Preventing the door from closing all the way as he parted it open and let out a deep sigh. “Look… maybe I can help you and your family be able to relocate. You know… for old times sake.”

That lead to Shining Armor looking back at him and shaking his head from side to side. “No, no… Sorry Halberd, but I can’t do that. We just got all settled there and my son’s graduating soon.”

“He’s graduating elementary already?”

“They’re… moving him from the fourth grade to the fifth grade,” Shining told him in response. “I know… it sounds like celebrating mediocrity, but Cadance says it’s important.”

With that, Halberd said one last thing, just before he let the doors to the elevator close. “Shining… Any important moment in a child’s life is only better when their parents are there to celebrate with them… I’ve learned that myself with my own kids. They always look up to their parents, so it falls on you to be a good example… Take care of yourself now.”

Throughout the whole car ride back home, what Halberd told him before he left the hospital still remained fresh in his mind. Even as he was pulling up into the driveway and trying to think about how exactly he was going to explain what happened to Cadance, it was still there.

Just like someone else that was still there in the driveway as he got out. “Well…? What are you waiting for?” He asked the same colt with the pinwheel hat as the earth pony just stared for a few seconds.

“I don’t know… something awesome, I guess…?”

Shining sighed, only thinking of one reply off the top of his head in that moment. “Yeah… me too, kiddo…” Closing the door to his car, he proceeded to go through the door of his home and head straight to his office. Flipping the lightswitch, the room soon lit up and revealed all sorts of newspaper articles, merchandise and other trinkets from back during the glory days. His suit was in the far left corner of the room in a display case and an old replica model of his ironmobile was sitting next to his desk lamp as Shining placed his briefcase on the desk and cracked it open. Inside was various job applications, and also the employee guide for the DMT. Which lead to him tearing it into pieces as he dumped it in the trash.

The same was done for every other paper after that to the point that he just decided to throw everything away. It wasn’t like he was going to find something that would turn his life around at the end of it-

KLUNK!

“Huh?” Shining looked back at the trash bin he had, grabbing a small screen he was sure that he didn't pack in his briefcase earlier. It turned on, follow by extremely small blue text that was beginning to rapidly blink in the center. “Hold still?”

Immediately, a violet light began to spread outward, before he heard a robotic voice from the device. “ID Matched. Iron Steed.” Hearing that made the stallion fall backwards and dropped the device onto the floor… but the device itself remained unfazed. In fact, the part of it that Shining thought was some kind of stylus proceeded to stand upright and began scanning the entire room. “Location secure… Beginning message…” The device now began to show a pre-recorded video, with what was the most beautiful white unicorn mare with a very pale pink mane, in an elegant dress. Everything screamed class about her.

“Hello, Iron Steed,” The mare in the recording began to speak as Shining tried getting back up on his hooves and picked the tablet off of the floor. “Yes, we know who you are. But do not worry, your secret's safe with us… I am Fleur De Lis… and according to the government, you and I have something in common… Right now, the two of us don’t even exist.”

At the moment he heard that, Shining had multiple different thoughts running through his head, but he wasn’t even able to say anything before Fleur said something rather important. “Do bear in mind that the information that I am about to present to you in this message is seen as Confidential material and it will not be repeated under any circumstance.”

As she began to speak, Shining Armor immediately scrambled over to his desk to try and write down whatever he could. Fleur De Lis was explaining to him about how she was part of a top secret wing in the Royal Parliament that tests experimental technology, but as she was stating the first part of her message, the stallion was having trouble with trying to find something to write with. One of his pens was out of ink and the tip from one of his pencils broke as he tried to hurry and jot down what he could.

However, there was another complication that soon came up… and that was outside his door. “Honey,” He heard Cadance, who knocked on his door. “Dinner’s on the table.”

“O-okay, I’ll be right there!” He stuttered, listening to Fleur’s message and seeing what looked like some kind of mechanical beast on the screen. However, it was not just him that was hearing this.

“Is somepony in there?”

“U-uhh…” Shining replied back, trying to think of something and quickly. “I-it’s the radio! I’m trying to listen in…”

“Well, could you please hurry? Your soup’s getting cold-” Cadance then spoke up from the other side of the door.

“I’ll be there in just a minute!!” The stallion declared, just as he heard the last few footnotes of Fleur’s message to him.

“… If you choose to participate in this endeavor, you will be rewarded with a large sum of bits that is five times that of your current payroll with the DMT… The supers have not faded away into society, Iron Steed. You are living proof of that…” Fleur’s words made Shining feel a sense of pride in him as the rest of the message played out for him. “You can be able to do remarkable things…… or… you can spend your evenings listening to police scanners. Your choice… If you do wish to take part in this assignment, call the number on the card that this message will leave for you. We have voice recognition software that can match your voice for security purposes. You have twenty four hours to respond… Take some time to think it over.”

With that, the screen went to black as Shining Armor tried to process everything that he had just heard… thinking about the possibility of being the Iron Steed again. And with the money he would make from it, he would be able to support his family much more than whatever the DMT would give him. The whole thing was making him feel rather excited.

In his mind, something like this was an opportunity he would be crazy to pass up.

When he looked back towards his suit though, he noticed that what looked like a business card was ejected from the bottom of the device… before it said one last thing. “This message will now self destruct… Have a nice day.”

“Oh no…”

BOOM!!

It was only for a moment, but in that moment, the entire heart household began to shake. The sounds of coughing from Shining’s office was soon heard as the unicorn stepped out, smoke behind him as he tried to get some fresh air. Unfortunately, the smoke that followed him out triggered the fire alarm in the house.

And with it, the fire sprinklers that were installed in the roof immediately sprang to life and began to pour down on everypony in the household.

“What the-!?”

“Aww, what the hay just happened?!!”

And if hearing his kids speak up over what just happened isn’t bad enough, there was still one other pony who had something to say. “Shining!!!”

An hour after the accidental downpour with the sprinkler system earlier, Shining was now using a light fire spell that he learned from back in the royal guard in order to try and dry off some of the books and other things that Cadance had out in the middle of the kitchen. All while his wife was trying to rearrange some of the other things that were knocked over and dry off anything that was wet.

At one point though, she did approach her husband from behind. Placing a hand on the counter as she tried to get his attention. “You… are just… one distracted stallion.”

That had Shining stop his spell as he turned towards Cadance. “Huh, wha-?” He looked back to his wife. “Oh, sorry. Today’s been a long day.”

Then, he felt his wife’s hand along his back as she looked back at him now. “Look, Shiny. I know you miss the times when you were a hero… and your job is just… bothersome. But I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you doing it… so just stay at it anyways.” With that, he felt a kiss on his cheek as she went to go fold the tablecloth… and in Shining’s mind, there was something that he needed to say.

“Cadence… something happened at work today.”

For a moment, Cadance stopped. Before looking back at him. “What…?”

“The… department is sending me to the higher offices tomorrow.” The pegasus turned back to her husband as she looked back at him.

“Higher… offices?” She asked, “You mean like a promotion?”

“Well… they wanted me to attend a meet and greet so I can meet some of the ponies there. Maybe even learn a few things. It would be for a couple of days…” Shining then said, hoping Cadance would buy that.

“I’ve never seen you being invited to something like this before…” He heard his wife say with a bit of skepticism in her voice. Though, it was the next thing she said that made Shining feel relieved. “This is good, isn’t it?”

“Uh… yeah! It should be.”

“Aww, you see?” Cadance replied back, moving alongside her husband and running up one of her hands along the side of her face. “They’re finally seeing you for your skills! You’re moving up! Shiny, this is wonderful!”

“Heh, yeah, wonderful…” He replied back. As his wife was hugging him though, he then pulled out the card that came from Fleur’s message and remembered something. “Can you excuse me for a moment, dear? I just remembered I need to RSVP for tomorrow.”

“Sure thing, honey.” His wife told him, which was a sign for Shining to go back into his office and get on the phone. Dialing the number, he soon heard a familiar voice speak on the other line.

“Hello?”

“It’s Iron Steed. I’m in.”

“Wonderful… Meet us at the airport around 7:30am tomorrow. We’ll provide you travel arrangements and bring you up to speed once you’re here.” Fleur told him over the phone. “Get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Author's Note

As this chapter shows to us... sometimes life knocks you down... but it also has a very strange way of getting you back up on your hooves. Only question now... is if Shining is sure that he is completely prepared for this.

First, I wanted to be able to thank everyone who's had the chance to look at what we're doing here and the world that we are trying to build. Both MrAquino and I are already thinking of ideas for much farther into this story and I am personally excited to see how everything goes. Thank you very much for tuning in with us so far and I hope you have a great day!
-Frost