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.