//------------------------------// // Nothing in Vain // Story: Can't Look Past // by Freed_Writer //------------------------------// Shadow was pissed at me and I began to believe him when he said that I abandoned my son. As we walked down the halls to the front gates he stopped me. “If we find your son you are arresting him. He was your responsibility and you dropped the ball now it’s time to pick it back up.” “I don’t know how to arrest anyone.” “You catch him, you cuff him, and you don’t lose him that’s how!” “I never meant to make you mad, Shadow.” “I’ll be less mad when you fix things with your son.” “Where are you guys headed off to?” A white pony asked. Shadow turned to face them and their happy curious demeanor changed to worried. “We’re going to search the slums for his son. You can come if you’d like.” “Ok give me just a second.” He ran off back down the hall. “Who is he?” I asked. “That’s Shield the son of Shining Armor.” “Wait… he’s royalty?” “Yeah why?” “I didn’t expect royalty to be a guard.” “The hell do you think Shining is then?” “Well… royalty who’s job is to protect and work with the citizens.” “Key word there is protect.” “Well they would have the job of building an army to protect the citizens.”’ “You just have an answer for damn everything don’t you?” “What’s wrong?” Shield asked. “Know it all over here.” Shadow said.  “Just drop it Shadow, let's get a move on.'' We left the castle and took flight north. I began to question Shadows' definition of a slum but not too long after flying did the great big multi-story houses turn to really old sad looking huts. “These are the slums! It doesn't look like it can get worse than this but it does!” Shadow yelled to me. Even though he was yelling it was hard to hear him. “What are you guys doing about this?” I asked.   “We’ve got a team trying to find the root of the problem while we go and build better living spaces and more job opportunities!” Shield yelled. Shadow started to descend so I followed when we made it to the ground. Those who were around us made room. “Stay behind me and watch your back, sometimes these guys can get rough. The place we're going is where we last got a report of him.” Shadow said. As we walked through the street there were a few who gave us dirty looks but nothing more. It wasn’t until we turned the corner to the housing that two ponies got in our way. “You shouldn’t be here.” The blue one said. “If you keep standing there you won’t be here.” Shadow replied. “Is that a threat?” the blue one asked “No…” he said with a smile crossing his face. “It’s a promise.” “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.” The black one said. “I can keep that promise better than you can keep your footing… watch.” Shadow said, sending a pressure blast right to them. They lost their footing, falling over. This did not make them happy. “If I were you I'd stay down. I don't really want to make you a wall ornament.” they stayed down and we walked into the housing. “Are you guys alright? I heard the commotion out there.” The mare behind the counter asked. “Yeah we’re fine. Can you tell us where this guy has gone?” Shadow held up the Photo of Iron Wing. The mare reached below the counter and pulled out a set of keys. “Room 12 he just made it in.” “Thank you.” Shadow turned to me and gave me the keys. “This is all you, we'll wait at the next closest door in case something happens.” I walked to the door and knocked on it. No answer so I tried again and again.  “When can I just kick this door in?” I asked Shadow. “I would have started with that.” He replied. I then proceeded to full force buck this door in. The sound of the door hitting the wall on the other side of the room caused what was very clearly my son to come running out of another room. “Dad?” “Call me whatever you want but you can do it in prison.” he turned around and ran straight for the window jumping through it. “He’s running.” I yelled following him. He was very observant of his surroundings as I tried to hit him with just about anything I could get my magic on and nothing hit him.  “Shield!” Shadow yelled. “On it!” He replied. A light blue wall popped up directly in front of Iron Wing and he slammed into it at full speed. I made no hesitation putting him in cuffs. I may have done bad but I told him from the beginning to always obey the laws. It sounded hypocritical but I didn't want him to become like me because once you do one bad thing the law is always looking for you and you're always on the run. “I’m your son!” “You may be my son but I tried to keep you from this. I didn't want you to become like me and now you know first hand why.” “This didn’t have to happen! You didn’t have to rob the bank!” “I didn’t rob it, I stopped it before it could finish.” “You still suffered the consequences.” “We all do, if not when we're alive then when we're dead but we all will.” “You’re a hypocrite!” “Am I? I told you not to do what I did and you saw why when I ‘robbed’ the bank but I turned it around and did what I told you to do which was to obey the laws.” “You still told me to do right while you blatantly disregarded it.” “And I'm sorry for that. I’m turning things around now.” “As much as I love to see the family reunion, we need to get a move on.” Shield said. “Let's get moving then.” We made it back to the Crystal Empire and Iron Wing was taken to holding. “What happens to him now?” I asked Shield. “He’ll go before Shining Armor and Cadance for trial.” “What do you think the verdict might be?” He looked down and shook his head. “Well… we’ve never really had anything like this so…” he looked back up at me. “It’ll be anywhere from life in prison to death.” Death… it replayed in my head over and over again. Dead, gone forever, erased… at 17.