Shadow Mark

Returning to the hospital, he lay down in bed and waited for sleep to come. Thoughts filled his mind once again. He couldn’t let go of consciousness. Not of Luna, not of the battle, not of his friends. He thought to himself for a moment and then spoke aloud holding his hooves in front of his weary tattered face. “Who am I? Shadow Mark the General whose life goes extremely well? Or am I the tormented soul who no one knows or truly hears because they think I am Shadow Mark the General? Why am I thinking of this now anyway? This is nothing to sleep thinking about.”

He laid his head on the pillow and turned to one side. He heard a faint creaking. Knowing exactly what it was he waited until it was just behind him. Then he swiftly turned to the other side and punched Swift Hoof dead in the muzzle.

“OW WHAT THE HAY WAS THAT FOR!?” Swift shouted a little too loudly.

Shadow heard complaining in the other rooms. Sighing he said “Quiet, ponies are going to hate more than they already do for having ‘visitors’ at this hour. Now where’s Cerebrum. And what prank were you planning this time.”

“Umm no prank why would you think that?”

Shadow’s eyes narrowed “Because I had a guard placed outside and told him not to let you or Cerebrum out. Now what did you do to him?”

“Oh about that PLAN B DO IT NOW!”

Cerebrum threw a bucket of water at Shadow but it was facing the wrong way for the bucket to splash him. So he just punched it towards Swift, who it did splash.

“Fine I get it. You and your lack of humor.” Swift said as they both exited the room

Shadow snickered as he saw the spear lying on the ground that the guard was holding. Lifting it with his magic he lifted it up turned it sideways and slammed it into the two ponies walking down the dark corridor.

He had to let go of the spear because it was risky holding stuff you couldn’t see. Then with a sigh of relief that all the business of the night was over and he could sleep.

“Wait I can’t see the night from in here.” Getting up and walking around he moved his bed to face the open window which faced the moon rising in the sky.

“Much better.”

On awaking he noticed a sharp stinging feeling in many directions. Then looking around he noticed many doctors in the room and he was being injected by many needles.

“What’s going on? What are you doing?”

“We want to find the source of your powers that protect you so well.” A voice said

“Celestia. This isn’t revenge for the battle is it.”

The white alicorn walked up to him, her mane flowing behind and kindly said “No of course not Shadow. This is to protect our own soldiers.”

Shadow relaxed hearing this, bad mistake. Celestia then brought her hoof up and slammed it down with a huge amount of force on his gut. And being that the bed was already lowered the punch had a lot of time to gain force. Gasping for breath Shadow wheezed in pain.

“That, was for the battle. I suppose we’re even now.”

“Can’t…breath.” He said through gasping breaths recovering from the wind being knocked out of him.

“Princess you broke our needle that went into his stomach and that had chemicals we didn’t want to release unless EXTREMELY necessary. And will make him un conscious and in rare cases put him into a coma. Yet also making the brain and heart overwork at the same time. We need him conscious and aware for our experiments so please refrain from abuse of the test subject.”

Just regaining his breath he realized he was getting sleepy. “Did you speak to Luna about doing this?”

“Why, are you worried?”

“Not at all but she would be. She worries for me. And more pain then death would be for her to worry.”

Celestia’s eyes saddened “You really love my sister don’t you. Ok I’ll stop the experiments until I get her approval. But don’t tell her. Please.”

Shadow nodded and slipped unconscious against his efforts. Luna watched over him constantly and when she wasn’t her guards were. When Luna asked around to get information about what happened no pony knew. So she went to her sister. Celestia explained and Luna was at first quite shocked and appalled so she quickly declined the idea.

After some thought though she nearly gave in. Then went to her advisors and Shadow’s friends. When Shadow finally woke up out of his coma, after two weeks, the issue was decided. There would be no further testing into the subject seeing that it might not be worth it anyway, inability to die for unimaginable pain, a convincing trade but many not willing to take it.

Luna went to check on Shadow for the first time that day. She noticed he had awakened from his coma and appeared to be well. “Hello Luna, it’s nice to see you.”

Luna sighed in relief and walked over to him and kissed his forehead.

“Likewise.” She said smiling

“How long was I out?” he rubbed his temple weary from being out so long

“Two weeks.” She sat in the doctors chair and pulled it up next to him.

“Wow that’s along time. What’s been going on while I was out?”

“Nothing of note. Although we’ve decided that war shall not be waged on the griffins. But our borders will be on high alert.”

“Well that’s good. And my wounds are healed so I can actually move.” He then hopped out of bed and then fell on the ground.

One of the doctors heard the thud and paced in quickly. “It’s ok he stood up to quickly and so much blood went out of his brain he passed out. Just give him a minute.”

“Should we get him off the ground?”

“Yes please do help me up. Ergh my head feels like its been smashed by a hammer. And I do know how that feels.”

“See he’s awake already.” The doctor said and she reached down to help him up.

Standing fully upright Shadow felt dizzy “Whoa my legs feel like jelly. Scratch that I cant feel them at all.” He said stumbling around like a drunk

“Take it easy your bodies getting used to moving again.”

“Got it doc.” Leaning against the bed he recovered his strength. Shaking his mane trying to get blood flow back. Once satisfied he let go of the bed and walked out of the room with Luna behind.

“Shadow the doctor said to take it slowly.”

“Yes and I am.”

“Your cantering down the corridor like you always do when you get an injury. And every time you injure yourself again.” She said worried

“Well then I’ll once again ignore the injure until it becomes critical and life threaten…” Luna paused seeing Shadows body slumped and Red Talon standing over it.

With surprise and fear Luna shouted at him “What did you do that for he’s just recovered?”

“Cerebrums after him and Shadow couldn’t out run him in this state. So I knocked him out to keep him safe.”

“Why are you even here?”

“Because Cerebrum and Swift take the pranks too seriously as well as Shadow’s tough pony act. He acts as if he can take on the world and could take the pain of the result no sweat. But that’s just a shield he developed in his youth to hide his emotions. So nopony would ever worry or insult him because of his pain. He couldn’t have that. Not when he was trying to protect everypony. He felt that if he died saving somepony else, it was worth it. He still does. Even if he only openly says it about you.” He said with minimal emotion like he always did. Always calm

“How would you know?”

Red Talon flew off without another word. Luna saw Cerebrum ran past looking for Shadow. He was yelling something about revenge of the night before. She was tempted to order Cerebrum to stop. But she decided to let Red Talon deal with it.

She wondered where he came from, what was his backstory. He said he was in the Stalliongrad rebellion. There hasn’t been a rebellion there in two  hundred years. He must be older than he looks, though it’s no surprise alicorns don’t age much. But he seems familiar. No time for this.

Red Talon sat atop the roof of the castle and set the sleeping Shadow down upon the shingles, and laid down upon them himself. Sighing to himself then saying aloud. “How do you manage you to get yourself into so much trouble? If you realized how important you were. Would you get beat up so often?”

“No I doubt anything should change, you’ll always risk everything to protect others.”

Shadow began to stir. “Why this time Red?”

“Cerebrum was chasing you.”

“So I can deal with him. Why’s he so mad?”

“That spear last night, when you pushed him away. It stabbed him in the umm rectum and the head broke off. And is stuck there still. They can’t do surgery unless they cut through bones.”

“Then I’ll deal with him right away.”

“No you won’t.”

“Are you defying me?”

“Yes.” Then Red hit him upside the head knocking him unconscious.

Although the force of it sent the body rolling and due to the slanted roof, and fell off the top of the castle onto the ground below.

“Oops.”

  Looking over the side he noticed Shadow was still breathing.

“He can do what he wants now.”

3 weeks later

Shadow sighed sheathing his blade after wiping the blood on his tunic. How many more jobs must I do before this country is safe. That was the third this month. Though now Luna finally convinced him to try to be safe instead of having fun. He was slightly surprised when she figured out that he never used full strength. Then she was surprised when he told her that none of the six used their powers.

Now most of his time was spent in meetings, searching for recruits, or doing jobs. He planned on just relaxing for a while. He had nothing to do that was of note till his promotion.

When it came time for his promotion six months later he was surprised by the setting and arrangement  of it all. It was planned in the main hall. Luna convinced him to wear some fancy clothes as long as Shadow got to pick them. He decided on black and blue mottled cloak made of leather, complete with dark metal armor like that of her personal guard. But more polished. He wore his mane down covering his left eye to hide the hideous scars there.

He was right on time. He opened the door and walked in briskly. Even though he was surprised to see the entire room packed, he wore a face of subtle emotion. It was surprisingly quiet. Only the faint gasp or whisper could be heard. Standing up on the pedestal he looked down upon the room. He noticed with surprise that the entire dominion was there.

The surprise was evident in his expression. And the faces of the crowd noticed. The princesses took side beside Shadow. The ceremony went well. He earned many glances and caused a great stir. All were astonished by how silent and calm he was. Most had a nervous breakdown during their ceremony.

Things were looking to go perfectly well for once. He was going to take it easy just continue guarding Luna.