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